and then friday night, late friday night, just days before this upcoming hearing about bill barr intervening in the course of justice to try to benefit the president, late friday night, classic friday night news dump, attorney general barr rolls out this absolutely botched effort to try to fire the head of the other most important federal prosecutor's office in the country. he succeeded in decapitating the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. and getting rid of its independence, taking it over, installing all his own people, making that office do the president's favors. that's the d.c. u.s. attorney's office. barr won there. the other prosecutor's office that most touches the president's interests is obviously the prosecutor's office that named president trump individual one in the michael cohen case, the prosecutor's office that described the president as the person who directed the commission of those felonies that put the president's personal lawyer in federal prison for those illegal hush money payments he made during the 2016 campaign. it's the same prosecutor's office that recently brought c

which makes it all the more notable tonight that david rohde sees signs that donald trump and bill barr's attempts to turn the justice department on its head so that it does the president's bidding, those efforts may be encountering resistance. quote, in a sign of how quickly trump and barr's political standing is shifting, one of trump's most fawning backers in the senate, lindsey graham, indicated this weekend that he would not support trump's pick to replace geoff berman at sdny. after other senate republicans declined to support trump's pick, barr agreed to appoint berman's deputy, following standard practice. support for barr among career justice department officials appears to be eroding. over the past several weeks, three senior officials have announced their departures. as i mentioned, the head of the civil division, criminal division and solicitor general, all just resigned in very quick succession. things feel very uncertain at the u.s. justice department right now. it kind of feels like just about anything could happen next. joining us now with what has been a pretty clear crys

barr to testify in late july. we are back with dan henninger, kim strassel and bill mcgurn. kim, one at a time. e that barr raised by whistleblower somehow meddled in the sentencing of roger stone, fair or not? >> kim: no, not fair. i look at what democrats accuse republicans of and know they are the ones who are actually doing that. [laughter] >> kim: the roger stone case, there's no question, look, the mueller prosecutors in that had recommended excessive, excessive sentence that many people within the department of justice simply could not get behind. what was recommended was more in line with what had happened in similar and other cases and roger stone is still serving, going to serve 3 years so it strikes me he is certainly being punished for said crimes. paul: okay, this was made, this accusation was made by a prosecutor who worked for robert mueller who, of course, had disagreed with bill barr on some of the interpretations. bill, let's go to firing of geoffrey berman, last weekend, the u.s. attorney in new york. issued a statement i will not step down and the president fired him and he d

attorney, the president, i think bill barr explaining. were trained to work out a deal to keep them in the justice department it wasn't from opposition. and another fake storm that was resolved in one day because there was a question that bill barr could fire him because he's been appointed by court but the president certainly could in bar asked the president the president responded by firing. this is all part ofk, an efforto discredit bill barr, it started when the mueller report was released in the attorney general gave the summary, they need to discredit bill barr because he's the one man in washington who is insisting on accountability and their particular afraid of what the durham investigation is going to find about the fbi and justice department role in the 2016 election, they really want to discredit this man before that comes out. paul: one of the things that i respect about bar, he doesn't chirp from hard decisions, he says i'm going to do this, i recommended this, i take the heat, to contrast that with loretta lynch at the end

they expect bill barr will be able to deliver a report from john durham some time before the election, and they believe this is one thing they can use to his advantage. >> barr did not respond to our request for an interview. coming up, barr intervened in the case of a trump ally, and ignited a firestorm. >> whams next is a revolt by the prosecutors. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime. sorry i'm late, everybody, and apologies for my appearance. you look fine. we were just talking about -- yeah, right. i look like a wanted poster. i didn't have time to get my beard routine in this morning, so... what beard routine? ah. well, the key is maple nectar. gives it that sheen. is there something wrong with my screen? -mnh-mnh. -jamie, what are talking about? you're right, alan. we should be talking about bundling home and auto with progressive, not this luscious mane of mine. [ laughs ] jamie, do you know

monday morning, but when attorney general bill barr arrived in lafayette square, the plan had not yet been executed. the official claims a protester through a water bottle at the attorney general, and that's when bill barr gave the order to push protesters back before president trump walked out. speak with the police did not respond other than moving the protesters back. but i thought what the president did and the church was not only appropriate, it was needed. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer calls it unconstitutional, and abuse of presidential power and possibly illegal. >> the president of the united states ordered troops to attack peaceful american citizens, exercising their constitutional rights by tear gassing them at a public park while military helicopters through

are there any actual consequences bill barr can face? >> bill barr is resisting a subpoena to come and testify, he's resisting document requests. it's not clear. he's suffering reputational harm here. he was viewed before he took this job as a maybe stream cins conservative republican. with every passing day he's coming under more and more criticism as being somebody who is contributing to do things in the justice department. >> all right. i want to dig deeper into this. joining us now is chris kuhns from delaware. let's start with the police reform bill. what are you going to do? >> over the last two days we

we see bill barr. looks like he is getting ready to leave, lafayette apart. >> everybody google general patton before that happens. >> i guess he has seen enough of the military police. they are very close to the protesters on the scene. jim acosta, are you there in the rose garden? >> reporter: i am. we gathered for this statement from the president. he tweeted this will be happening at 6:30. we expect these remarks to be brief. we will see if he takes questions. we have seen stunning sights at the white house. we have seen eight military vehicles rumble through carrying troops to pennsylvania avenue to help bolster some of the forces in place for tonight's potential unrest. one of the things the president may talk about because the press secretary talked about this earlier today, said the president is considering the use of the 1807 insurrection act which allows the u.s. government to deploy u.s. military troops to help quell a disturbance. this is a very old law. there will be a lot of legal experts

attorney general bill barr is attempting to force-out the u.s. attorney in new york who has investigated several of the president's associates. coming up you'll hear from that u.s. attorney who is refusing to step down. what he sent out as a response to the ag. the sleep number 360 smart bed. can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. it's our weekend special, save 50% on sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. ends monday. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com noticks and fleas?o simplifies protection. see ya! heartworm disease? no way! simparica trio is the first chewable that delivers all this protection. and simparica trio is demonstrated safe for puppies. it's simple: go with simparica trio. this drug class has been associated with neurologic adverse reactions, including seizures; use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. protect him with all your heart. simparica trio. and right now, is a time for action. so, for a second time we're giving mem

we will see how far the investigation goes by the time that bill barr is due in that seat. meanwhile, the virological explosion continues. here is how it is going now in some of our closest allies around the world. italy in the upper left. that is germany in the upper right. spain in the left. allies of ours. they have all had a heck of a go with it. and now, here is us. that is an abject total failure that our response has been under the administration. we had an advantage. but that is how poorly managed that our epidemic has been and why did is the worst in the world. that is what it looks like when you have a failed response. we are paying the price for it. now we have the highest rice in case numbers that we have seen over the course of the epidemic. we blew through that with over 30,000 infections reported as of 6:00 p.m. today and it was inevitable we would hit this benchmark given the number of states reporting new infections on their own. california, texas and florida all just reported record new numbers of new coronavirus cases today. california had a record number

and that is people who can expose bill barr's wrongdoing, rather than just hear bill barr deny his own. so i think some of these other witnesses, they may not be as high-profile. but, in fact, they may have even more important things to say. i thought don ayers' testimony today. the former deputy attorney general under george bush, who talked about the systemic threat to the rule of law. it was among the most important testimony that we've heard. so these -- these -- all of these witnesses, i think, are going to be crucial. >> chairman schiff, appreciate your time. for a deeper look at what's going on with bill barr and the president. join jake tapper for new cnn special report "trump and the law after impeachment" this sunday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern. still ahead, tonight. breaking news in the ahmaud arbery case. the young man who was killed when he went for a jog in a georgia town. details in the grand jury's decision on charges. ♪ 1 in 3 deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease. millions of patients are treated with statins-but up to 75% persistent cardiovascular risk still rem

attorney general bill barr and a powerful u.s. attorney in new york who has investigated a number of the president's associates. moments after barr announced that jeffrey berman was stepping down, berman denied resigning, insisting he has no intention of leaving. and then cnn caught up with him just moments ago. >> i have nothing to add to that this morning. i'm just here to do my job. >> here to do his job. cnn's kara skinell joining us now. what more can you tell us about what is going on here? >> geoff berman has been doing that job since 2018. while he's been u.s. attorney for the southern district, his office has investigated multiple cases that have ties to the president. they investigated and prosecuted michael cohen, trump's former personal attorney. they also have investigated his company, the inaugural fund created for the inauguration. they also are investigating rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, and his activities that he was doing in ukraine on behalf of the president. they also indicted two of giuliani

a standoff between attorney general bill barr and a powerful u.s.o has investigated a number of the president's associates. now, late last night the attorney general abruptly announced that the top federal prosecutor in manhattan, geoffrey berman, was stepping down and would be replaced. he said he resigned. now, berman fired back hours later saying he didn't resign and that he had just learned of his purported exit from a press release. he writes, i will step down when a presidentialally appointed nominee is confirmed by the senate. until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or sbriptiinterruption. i cherish every day i work with the men and women of this office to pursue justice without fear or favor and i tend to ensure that this office's important cases continue unimpeded. berman and his team have led the charge on corporaticorruption i. they prosecute the president's former lawyer michael cohen. and sources tell cnn the president has grown progressively more upset with the office. joining us now is democratic congressman ted

this is no different than when bill barr yanked the u.s.ney out of the district attorney office, going to the prosecutors in the roger stone case, said they needed a leaniet punishment and the we have seen this movie before. when bill barr puts a loyalist in there, trying to tank cases of the president's friends and associat associates. >> that has all been just this year. >> a quick take on something else. last week president trump's niece, mary trump, is on track to publish a book. the president is looking to get his lawyers involved. mary trump signed a nondisclosure agreement. you get a sense that would hold up? >> that is how it often plays out. if you enter into a contract with an employer, not to disclose that information, you violate it because you want to write a book and make a bunch of money. the courts won't weigh in to try to shut down the book being released. a suit it may give rise to, it can result in money damages, judged against the author of the book, it generally will not result in the courts shutting down the release of

you know, bill barr, himself, will, you know, he's denied this. acting appropriately, but lawmakers will have a chance to question barr, himself. he is scheduled to testify under oath at the end of july. ana? >> okay. kara scannell, thank you. >>> tonight cnn's jake tapper takes a closer look at president trump's actions post-impeachment in a cnn one hour special report. here's a preview. >> this is what the end result is. >> reporter: two weeks after trump was acquitted of obstruction of congress and abuse of power charges in the senate impeachment trial, the president declared -- >> i'm actually, i guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country. >> reporter: not acting as if he is above the law, as democrats repeatedly asserted during the trial, but that he is the law. >> this is president trump totally unleashed after he got out of the impeachment trial. it tells us that he thinks that he is king. that he can call all the shots at the justice department. >> reporter: and the chief law enforcement official of the land, attorney general

is bill barr trying to abuse his power to protect donald trump to serve his interests above the countryn in his senate confirmation hearing, to get this job, barr said trump had asked him at one point to be his personal attorney. the relationship evolved since then. >> he said something to the effect like, so are you envisioning some role here? i said actually, mr. president, right now, i couldn't do it. >> barr interprets the special counsel's report to the advantage of trump. >> not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. >> the attorney general was really, really solid and did a great job today. >> why did the justice department publicly change stone's sentencing recommendation after the president's very public criticism? >> i want to thank the justice department for seeing this horrible thing. >> you're saying you have a problem with the tweets. >> yes. well, i have a problem with some of the tweets. >> he's been a fantastic attorney general. he's grabbed it by the horn. >> there is a lot going on but this is an important story that we're k

bill barr said he agreed to step down and that was a lie and i believe jeff berman with bill barr for variety of reasons and the standoff over the course of 24 hours where berman was saying one thing and the attorney general of the united states was saying something else and the attorney general of the united states also was trying to put in place a bunch of things including the intent to nominate the president, the head of the security exchange commission and as an acting u.s. attorney, the sitting u.s. attorney in new jersey who he said was going to take over both the sdny part-time while also overseeing a great large and important office in new jersey, and there's some legal basis for jeff berman to say, well, i was appointed by the court so you can't get rid of me. only the court can get rid of me and when we were talking about this last night with everyone, it was unclear who had the better argument under the law. the combination of there being, a fairly good basis to say the president can fire a sitting u.s. attorney, even if he was appointed by the court, like in this case, tha

bill barr's service has been an attack on edward leiby's reforms, indeed on the very idea that no person is above the law. barr has sought to give the president nearly unlimited powers by overwriting many independent processes that operate as important checks on the executive branch. here are some things he has done. he has worked to defeat any meaningful oversight, either by congress or by review in the court through litigation and his own speeches. he has refused to show up in response to requests to appear before congress. he has worked to undermine congress' appropriation power by litigating the president's right to divert funds to pay for his border wall, which congress refused repeatedly to fund. he has regularly undermined the authority of independent decision-making processes and career professionals whose disinterested integrity he saw as a key element justifying public trust. he has done this by his own statements, such as last march when he whitewashed the mueller report's extensive findings on obstruction of justice. and last december when he publicly contradicted key conclus

in other words, because bill barr doesn't like pot, bill barr decided he would weaponize the antitrust the u.s. justice department to give the cannabis industry a really hard time because of his own personal feelings about their lawful business. to say the least, that's not the way the justice department is supposed to do its business. according to the opening statement that he's due to give tomorrow, john elias will also testify about the trump justice department opening an investigation into a group of carmakers for deciding to cut emissions from their cars. this investigation was mysteriously ordered from the antitrust division right after the president hate-tweeted about the deal. mr. elias' testimony for tomorrow says in part, quote, the day after the tweets, antitrust division political leadership instructed staff to initiate an investigation that day. john elias says he was so concerned about those shenanigans that he reported it to the inspector general. he called for an investigation into whether these matters constituted an abuse of authority, a gross waste of funds, and gros

barr in this headline here would of course be attorney general bill barr. this is blockbuster reporting tonight from "new york times" report reporters. it's a whole raft of newly reported details about criminal cases that touch on the president's interests that attorney general bill barr has interfered with or intervened in since basically right after he got sworn in as attorney general. now, i know there's a lot going on in the country right now, but this is remarkable new reporting. i mean the nature of prosecutors' offices is that we, the public, are not supposed to know what they're working on and what they're doing until they publicly act, until they, you know, indict someone and bring about a criminal trial. when an investigation is ongoing, when a prosecution is potentially in the works, that is by necessity secret. we, the public, don't get to know about that until a prosecutor's office acts out loud. and that secrecy about the prosecutorial process is a pillar of the rule of law. we need that. we don't need people indicted by rumor and whisper and

attorney john durham. >> bill barr did not want to be stuck with the results of the i.g. investigation. so he created his own investigation. >> around the time trump tweeted, investigate the investigators. >> and that is one of the problems with the president's tweets. is that it looks like the attorney general is following the president's instructions. >> in april, barr said this on fox. >> there's something far more troubling here and we're going to get to the bottom of it. if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted. >> while we wait for the results of the durham investigation, the fbi counter investigation and the mueller probe did turn up massive russian interference in the u.s. election and filed dozens of criminal charges. >> one of the great ironies is that after complaining for three years that the rusch investigation was overshadowing his presidency, they keep talking about it, they say there will be a report on john durham some time before the election and they believe this is one thing they can use to his advant

because the committee heard from john alias, an anti-trust attorney who said that bill barr seemed toirly target the cannabis industry because he didn't like the business. and just when you combine those charges with what we heard today from zelensky and you get this portrait of an a.g. who seems to be serving a political agenda. and just set the scene for when bill barr testifies next month in front of this committee. >> look, one of the big questions is going to be for the attorney general beyond the cannabis industry. he also tried to intervene on these auto companies that had made a deal with california on emissions that really upset the president. the president started tweeting about it and the following day the justice department opened an investigation. and one of the things that the attorney general is facing questions on is when else has the justice department intervened or got involved in things if it wasn't because of the president. the attorney general is known as a micromanager, brooke, but we know of any other cases where he's personally gotten involved, tried to change

he didn't even bother to tell bill barr. he told only the president and the white house council's office. he sent out an email to his staff saying, i've tendered my resignation to the president, and he is leaving in july. there are a lot of open spots right now in the justice department, a lot of open questions. what the justice department continues to do, though -- and we need to keep this in mind -- is have an ongoing and open investigation led by the u.s. attorney in connecticut, john durham. and just sort of a catch-all for all of the president's claims, including the idea that barack obama somehow betrayed the country. it gives them an open slate with which to work from now until the election they can throw all of these claims against and say there is an ongoing investigation. now, maybe that would have worked in 2016. maybe that would have even worked in february of 2020. but we have to think long and hard about whether or not relitigating 2016 is a message that's going to get donald trump elected when we have more tha

people go and listen read to steve, host of morning show, long, thorough, really good interview with bill barr where barr explained why he did what he did, he felt that the sentence was too long compared to other people who had been convicted of the same thing and he points to the fact that the judge actually in the end did give stone a shorter sentence. so barr was able to explain himself fully, i think npr did a good job and people should read the interview. howie: all right, 40-month sentence if he's not pardoned and far less than the original 7 to 9 years which i thought was absurdly harsh. let me get a break here, next john bolton faces rocky media road and jimmy kimmel admits he's embarrassed by his old black face howie: fox news alert vice president pence about to make remarks at first baptist church in dallas, live on his event and bring you news on he is wearing a mask. john bolton has been making television rounds to promote his book, the one that president trump denounced as traitorrist and the anchors giving him a hard time and citing other officials contradicting him. >> several o

when bill barr is finally removed. congressman jerry nadler, the head of the judiciary committee talking about the prospective removal of bill barr from office. he did say to reporters today that it was possible that his committee would pursue impeachment of attorney general william barr. mr. nadler also today predicting that the whistle blowers who came forward today to name names and make serious accusations about what president trump and attorney general barr have been doing to the justice department and the rule of law -- congressman nadler predicting out loud today that they will be retaliated against by the administration for coming forward today as whistle-blowers. we shall see. johnnie lie yas did testify today about the attorney general ordering what the department were prison louse and uncalled for investigations of companies and other entities targeted by the president for political reasons. and aaron zelensky did testify today about interference if on high into the sentencing of roger stone because of roger

if you look at bill barr's actions going back to when he refused to release the report and issued hisur-page summery of it that was misleading to the firing of jeffrey berman, the u.s. attorney general in new york, today's testimony that the doj allegedly experterted pressure part of a pattern of protecting the president and there were reforms muput in place after watergate to stop this kind of thing. >> that's exactly right. from the earliest days of this presidency, donald trump has stepped on all these norms of office post watergate where the white house wasn't going to interfere in particular cases especially those that might implicate the interest of the president. but it wasn't until bill barr that he had his roy cone, he has as the speaker said his henchmen in the to president obama session -- do the president's willdo the pres will. we have an attorney general willing to mislead the country about mueller's investigation and about his own interactions with mueller, and now we see a continuation of that by the effort to force out the prosecutor, the independent u.s. attorney fro

it all comes back to one place, bill barr does not like marijuana, marijuana is seven times more likely to be enforced against young african-americans, breeding discontent with police, breeding directions with police, and barr does not care about that type of stuff, because he doesn't like marijuana, that is ok. that is one of the breeding grounds of distrust and african-americans and police and the. african american contacted problems. . very unfortunate. brought of the antitrust case with the automobile many fractures. did mercedes-benz not join in on that case later? >> that is correct. >> why did you think they did not join in on the case? i read news reports the german government discouraged that from joining because of the doj investigation. i don't have firsthand knowledge of the events. >> president trump did not like what governor newsom did, got his way, and kept mercedes-benz out of it and was able to try to change them from taking the position to be similar. let me ask you this, mr. zelensky testified that for the , it was on heard of, noe in stone's case, that time, no one

it all comes back to one place, bill barr does not like marijuana, marijuana is seven times more likely to be enforced against young african-americans, breeding discontent with police, breeding directions with police, and barr does not care about that type of stuff, because he doesn't like marijuana, that is ok. that is one of the breeding grounds of distrust and african-americans and police and the. african american contacted problems. . very unfortunate. brought of the antitrust case with the automobile many fractures. did mercedes-benz not join in on that case later? >> that is correct. >> why did you think they did not join in on the case? i read news reports the german government discouraged that from joining because of the doj investigation. i don't have firsthand knowledge of the events. >> president trump did not like what governor newsom did, got his way, and kept mercedes-benz out of it and was able to try to change them from taking the position to be similar. let me ask you this, mr. zelensky testified that for the , it was on heard of, noe in stone's case, that time, no one

attorney general bill barr says the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york is stepping down, but here's the catch. he says he's not going anywhere. >>> and 800,000 dreamers got a reprieve this week, but is the supreme court's decision really the final decision? velshi starts now. >>> good morning. it is saturday, june the 20th. i'm ali velshi. overnight the department of justice announced the replacement. united states attorney for the southern district of new york, an attorney who led prosecutions against and investigations into several trump associates. but geoffrey berman, the head of new york's southern district, fired back saying contrary to what trump and barr said, he didn't resign and he won't step down until the senate confirms his successor. quote, until then our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption. i'll have much more on that stand-off in just a bit. but we begin this morning in tulsa, oklahoma, where donald j. trump, the 45th president of the united states, finds himself on

bill barr doesn't care. he keeps doing things that shatter these norms, shatter these lines, and everybody raises an uproar and he keeps doing it. i think their mentality is we have several months during an election, we'll do whatever we can to help the president of the united states get elected, including utilizing the justice department, and the democrats' mentality has to be we're going to do everything we can to push back against that, to get maximum transparency of what is happening at the justice department. >> yeah, to your point, the big picture is you have this, you know, array of unsettling news for people who work in prosecutors offices around the country, not just the southern district. people are leaving, the head of the civil division resigned without telling barr. what does this mean for the justice department? in the meantime, stuff still has to get done, ben. >> it means there is a crisis of legitimacy of the justice department. we have seen this with people resigning because they don't want

bill barr, the attorney general, was in new york today. he met with berman and this all went down today. but the attorney general decided to skip over the deputy, which is normally, when preet was fired, they put the deputy as the acting u.s. attorney. they didn't do that in this case. they decided to bring in someone from new jersey to be the acting while they wait for the senate to act on the nomination of jay clayton, the chairman of the securities and exchange commission. that tells you a lot, they believe the justice department in washington doesn't believe that the southern district of new york can really be trusted. they wanted someone that they could trust, and that's the reason why they brought in craig, the u.s. attorney in new jersey, who will be the acting u.s. attorney in new york now. >> and to do both jobs. the extraordinary thing, sorry to jump in, but you have a person with a big, full-time job in new jersey, progresecuting at of cases, coming in to supervise in the final moments of this term of the administration, the nom

for democrats that hearing was really about bill barr and 2020. >> mr. at the department of justice has nothing to do with correcting injustice. he is the president's fixer, he shown us that there is one set of rules for the president's friends and another set of rules for the rest of us. >> republicans turned the tables on democrats. >> the obama-biden department of justice, politics and the previous administration, bill barr is i doing the lords work trying to clean it up so it doesn't happen again. >> bill barr was not at the hearing today, he's going to testify on july 28th and just tonight jerry nadler, chair of the judiciary committee said he would not rule out an effort to try to impeach him. back to you. >> up next, the panel on my interview with the fbi director randall order to dismiss charges against michael flynn plus what's happening with police reform. first, at least six people are dead following a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that rocked southern mexico tuesday, hundreds of homes damage, almost two and a half million people lost power. pakist

well, bill barr took that oath. what we are hearing from his own staff, from the people who are way down on the totem pole from where he sits at the top of that ivory tower of his, what they are saying is that he is saying that yes, indeed, donald trump is above the law. the gop has a lot to answer for from the last impeachment hearing on donald trump. that they are demonstrating that career public servants of all parties calling on them to protect the very sense of what this constitution is, that there is one law, it applies to all of us, and that they not stand up to that would be nothing short of telling donald trump not only did we not impeach you. we did mean you abuse all the power you want. go right ahead. for all those protesters in the street, you're right, too. there is no equal protection of the law. you don't get the protection that donald trump or his rich friends get. welcome to america. >> i would expand it this way. we have a law enforcement officer who is lawless. he's not above the law. he just ent

i mean, bill barr has said that the president makes it very hard for him to do his job, and i think this is one of those examples where the president has contradicted and basically thrown barr under the bus by his public statement. you know, i think there's also an issue where trump does not want to be accountable for the actions that are being taken by barr. and i think we've seen this in other areas. we know that barr is trying to get the charges against general michael flynn dropped. this is for lying about his conversation with a russian ambassador during the trump transition. and, you know, he's achieving there what trump could achieve with a pardon but probably doesn't want to do directly for political reasons. so i think that there's a little bit of a game here where barr is kind of, you know, being the shield for achieving what trump would like to do, you know, but won't do in person. >> yeah. you know, it's interesting. and you touched on this earlier it's broader than justice. you have schools of justice department, former justice department officials already calling for barr t

geoffrey berman formally fired by bill barr after refusing to resign. than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can reduce pain, swelling, and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. don't let another morning go by without asking your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz.

attorney general bill barr was also at that meeting.ning me once again, nbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell. you have several top military leaders openly criticizing the president over his response to the nationwide protests and wanting to deploy troops possibly into the streets of this country to try to shut down these protests. what does this reveal about what is going on behind the scenes in washington? >> well, there's a huge -- there's a lot of people who are extremely uncomfortable with what's happened. a lot of these military leaders, a lot of them are formers, but then you have esper who came out publicly, you know, saying that he didn't agree with the president, which is a stunning rebuke from the secretary of defense. these former officials saying this is unprecedented as well. now, when i was on capitol hill this week republicans didn't want to talk a lot, as we mentioned earlier, but one thing that they were insistent on is that the president not get rid of esper at this time. they said he's doing a fantastic job. sena

for bill barr, antifa. whatever.my: bill barr was s supposedly the one who calleded for t the police forces s outside ththe we house to c clear lafayette park for the president to walk forward with his chair ofof the joint chiefs of staff and secretary of defense for a photo op. of course, president trump once again yesterday tweeted about the protesters being terrorist. before we end, i want to ask you about something people might not have noticed admit the mass uprising this week as there were primaries around the country, peoplele findingng extremely difficult about. her latest book "one person, no ise: how voter suppression destroying our democracy. communities of color so hard-hit by the stream pandemics of police brutality and the pandemic and the fact that the pandemic continues, people being afraid to o go out to vote, that they have to choose voting over their own health. and the assaults by the president on mail-in voting, though he does it himself. voting,ut democracy, what is going to happen i in november

committee indicated he wants to impeach bill barr. this is amazing. how about on page 10 where you said, i was explicitly told that the motivation for changing the sentencing memo was political and because the u.s. attorney was, quote, a afraid of the president, who told you that? mr. zelinsky: that was the supervisor of the fraud and public corruption section that i referenced earlier. mr. jordan: mr. kuehne? or the name you can't remember? mr. zelinsky: mr. kuehne. mr. jordan: ok. tell me about joseph -- mr. zelinsky: congressman, i apologize that it took me a moment to come up with the name. aless yo, the first assistant's name is evangelista. mr. jordan: tell me why the special counsel didn't charge joseph with lying to the f.b.i. he lied three times. you charge everybody else, you charged flynn and stone and 13 russians, no one had ever seen. we know that the flynn charge was wrong. as evidenced by what happened today. but why didn't you charge joseph who lied to you guys back in february of 2017?

subpoena for the attorney general bill barr. he is the focus of an investigation by democrats. the top republican is pushing back and said there is no reason to force him to testify. a former prosecutor joins us next. ♪ well i didn't choose metastatic breast cancer. not the exact type. not this specific mutation. but i did pick hope... ...and also clarity... ...by knowing i have a treatment that goes right at it. discover piqray, the first and only treatment that specifically targets pik3ca mutations in hr+, her2- mbc, which are common and linked to cancer growth. piqray is taken with fulvestrant after progression on hormone therapy and has been proven to help people with a pik3ca mutation live longer without disease progression. do not take piqray if you've had a severe allergic reaction to it or to any of its ingredients.

later yesterday afternoon before 4:00, bill barr sends a letter to geoffrey berman saying that instead of doing his job as public service, he was causing a public spectacle. barr asked the president to remove berman from office. he said the president has and he's effectively firing berman in this letter. it was after that, that geoffrey berman said he would resign, that was in part because the u.s. attorney general barr changed who would you can seed him. in this letter the office would be led by berman's trusted and loyal deputy audrey strauss and not the u.s. attorney from new jersey. that seems to be a key change that ended the standoff with berman agreeing to leave. now, when the president was asked about this, he deflected. here's what he said. >> attorney general barr, he's working on that. that's his department. not my department. we have a very capable attorney general. that's really up to him. i'm not involved. >> so the president there taking no responsibility for the action. but we saw in barr's letter, he asked the president to fire and we do know the president was upset wi

today in the michael flynn case, an absolutely blistering rebuke of attorney general bill barr. from retired judge john gleason. he was appointed by the court to examine barr's push to dismiss criminal charges against trump's former national security adviser michael flynn. in a 73-page brief, the former judge calling barr's move preposterous. flynn is trying to withdraw from his 2017 guilty plea in which he admitted to lying to the fbi about conversations he had with the russian ambassador about sanctions. today's brief accuses the department of justice of highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of president trump. quote, no federal prosecutor worth her salt would defend the legally unsound conclusion that barr reached. with me now, the former federal prosecuted and msnbc contributor, joyce vance. what do you make of this? >> i think you're right, this is a mic drop. it is incredibly unusual with a court with the need to give serious scrutiny to a request by prosecutors to dismiss the case. it almost comes with a good reason. and beyond that, prosecutors have a duty