confirming brian benczkowsky refuses to rescue him himself. he also pushed for the firing with attorney general jeff sessions while serving on the trump transition team. those are clear conflicts of interest. what this is about is a controversial trump administration appointment to sar post at the justice department. we've talked about this nomination a few times on the show. it is now happening. this is trump administration's nominee to run the criminal division at the justice department. a super important job. robert mueller is famous for having been previous director of the fbi. before that, he had this job. he led the criminal division at the justice department. the current director of the justice department, christopher write wray, he was running the criminal division at the justice department. a very important, very hands-on job. you oversee all criminal prosecutions for the u.s. department of justice. you oversee hundreds of prosecutors. and those nuts and bolts responsibilities of this very big job, throws part of why the trump adminis

his name is brian benczkowsky. he's a former staffer to senator jeff sessions before sessions became attorney general. he was also part of the trump transition. when the trump transition was over, because trump was getting sworn in, he put in a request that he be considered for a job at the justice department. he put in that request and then he left and he went back to private practice. specifically he went to work for a russian bank called alfa bank which at the time was trying to clean up its reputation after it appeared prominently in the christopher steele dossier about ties between the trump campaign and russia. and after computers were found you to have mysterious communications with trump organization's computers over a period of several months during the 2016 presidential campaign. those electronic communications between the servers and the trump organization during the campaign, those are as yet still unexplained. he was fired by alfa bank after he work in the trump transition to come in and help alfa to c

is it not reasonable for us to ask a basic question about brian allen benczkowski of virginia? we did in the judiciary committee. and here's the question we asked. mr. wens cow i ask -- mr. benczkowski, you're seek be the position of assistant attorney with 600 prosecutors that will you direct. please tell the committee how many cases you have prosecuted as a lawyer. first, civil cases. the answer? none. oh. well, how about criminal cases? how many criminal cases have you prosecuted in your lifetime as a lawyer? none. how many motions have you filed before a federal court? none. wait a minute. you are being chosen to head up the criminal division of the department of justice and you have no experience? you have never prosecuted a case? never? never once been in a federal courtroom, not one time? that's a fact. you know, so far president trump has sent us a record number of nominees for the federal courts, and i will tell you as a member of the senate judiciary committee, all but two have been approved. i think some of them are awful choices. and some are good. but the awful cho

francisco is next, and then engel, and john demers and then brian benczkowski.feinstein tweeted out, confirming him puts it in jep. despite having worked for a russian bank. he pushed for comey's firing to ag sessions while serving on the trump transition team. those are clear conflicts of interest. can you explain, with all of that on the table, the alpha bank, the fact he pushed for comey's firing, why wouldn't he recu recuse? is there an innocent explanation for why he would not? >> what he would say, what trump officials would say, usually nominees won't say what they're going to recuse themselves before getting into the job, they want to get in the job, consult with ethics officials, maybe the argument is alpha bank isn't under investigation and then make the decision to recuse himself. here's the problem with that. the trump administration itself has set the precedent to do things differently when jeff sessions went through his confirmation and he said he would recuse himself into any investigation into hillary clinton because it was such an obvious confli

. >> ask you about something that happened today in senate, senate confirming brian benczkowski to lead criminal division for the doj. worked for alpha bank, tied to russia, putin. came under fbi scrutiny and initially failed to disclose this. do you have concern whether he should be leading the justice department criminal division? >> this does run up my temperature a bit. you have to understand how important the position is in the department of justice and how unbelievably unqualified he is for the position. never been a prosecutor, tried a case, argued a motion. having virtually never been in a courtroom. if you're trying to figure out why somebody like that would be there, the obvious answer is that as the chief of the criminal division, he will have visibility into the mueller investigation whenever that investigation needs the requisite approvals from the investigative and prosecutive - steps they must take. and he has the ability to delay or deny approvals. in a position not just to peer into the mueller investigation but also to interfere with it. when you look at efforts that t

the clerk: nomination, department of justice, brian allen benczkowski of virginia to be an assistant attorney general. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: yesterday i had an opportunity to meet with judge brett kavanaugh as we begin preparations for his confirmation process to the supreme court. it's really impossible not to come away impressed. judge kavanaugh is the real deal. he has an all-star legal resume, topflight academic credentials. his extensive judicial record is defined by fairness, thoroughness and analytical precision. i was already confident the pred had made -- the president had made an outstanding choice. now i'm even more confident that my colleagues here and americans around the country won't have to take my word for it. just look at one of judge kavanaugh's former professors at yale law school. here's what professor akhil amar wrote in "the new york times." it is hard to name anyone with judicial credentials as strong as judge kavanaugh. current faculty at yale law describe him as a, quote, true intellectual, and a

and in this environment, the senate now considers the president's controversial nomination of brian benczkowski to lead the criminal division of the united states department of justice. it has been over a year since benczkowski was first nominated, and there have been repeated calls for his nomination to be withdrawn. why this man for this job at this time? there is a very good chance that something fishy is happening here. the warning signals of something fishy should be evident to democrat and republican senators alike. the obvious question is whether president trump and his political and legal team are using this appointment to sneak a fast one by the american people and put themselves in a position to interfere from the inside with the department of justice investigation into the dealings between russia and the trump campaign. the so-called mueller investigation, though it has expanded beyond bob mueller into several other parts of the department of justice. how would this fast one work exactly? well, we'll be voting tomorrow to install a trump ally and nominee, a longtime political operati

just last week senate republicans confirmed the nomination of brian benczkowski to serve as assistantattorney general in charge of the criminal division of the department of justice. they voted for mr. benczkowski to be in charge of 600 federal prosecutors despite the fact that mr. benczkowski has never, never as a lawyer been at a trial, never. never been in a courtroom. never been in a trial. was named by president trump to head up the criminal division of the department of justice. that may not be the worst part. mr. benczkowski also chose in his private law practice in washington to represent a russian bank, the alfa bank with deep ties to vladimir putin. and despite the fact that when he was called on, he said he would not recuse himself from this russian investigation despite his involvement with this bank. furthermore, this vote occurred as president trump and house republicans had been looking for an excuse to fire attorney general -- deputy attorney general rosenstein who is overseeing the mueller investigation. should rosenstein be fired? mr. benczkowski easily could be task

the next vote we will take, a vote that will or will not confirm president trump's nominee, brian allen benczkowski to lead the criminal division of the united states department of justice to be the assistant attorney general supervising the department of criminal justice, a division of criminal justice, and to express my concern about our president's actions at the nato summit and his upcoming meeting with vladimir putin, the president of the russian federation. let me start with mr. benckowski. i come to the floor today to speak in opposition to our proceeding to his confirmation. mr. benckowski has been nominated to serve as the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division at the united states department of justice. how big a division is that? 10, 50, 100? it's actually got 900 employees and 600 career federal prosecutors. the u.s. department of justice takes up and handles, investigates, prosecutes cases of an unbelievable range and complexity of every district in the entire united states. and one would have to assume that to take on such a significant, such as important role a