the article quoted channing phillips who had run that d.c.g the obama administration, saying that recent events under attorney general barr suggest, quote, undue meddling by higher ups at the justice department. today the biden administration announced that same channing phillips will be responsible in some ways for fixing the damage. katie benner reporting today channing phillips has been appointed to step into that u.s. attorney's office and take over starting tomorrow as acting u.s. attorney. it is an unusual move. joining us now is "new york times" justice reporter katie benner. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> at the start of a new administration we're used to a new president appointing new u.s. attorneys for all the u.s. attorneys' offices across the country, or at least most of them. this is unusual, for someone to be appointed as acting u.s. attorney immediately even before anyone has nominated on a permanent basis. >> it is indeed an unusual arrangement. the u.s. attorney's office in december has been the site of so

the article quoted channing phillips who had run the d.c.bama administration saying recent events suggest undue meddling by higher-ups at the justice department and today the biden administration announced that same channing phillips will be responsible for fixing the damage. he has been appointed to step into the u.s. attorney's office and take over starting tomorrow as acting u.s. attorney. an unusual move. joining us now is the "new york times" justice department katie benner. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> at the start of the new administration, we are used to new u.s. attorneys for all of the offices around the country or most. this does seem unusual to have somebody appointed to be an acting u.s. attorney to come in immediately before anyone has been nominated on a permanent base. >> yes, it is an unusual arrangement. the u.s. attorney's oufs in d.c. has been the site of so much controversy and the place michael sherwin was put in place under other odd circumstances where the previous attorney was ousted and her rep

the attorney general weighing n.i will say on behalf of my old of course, the current interim channing phillipsess and reliability, and they are not going to be influenced by anything except the evidence. i have complete confidence in that, pamela. >> thank you so much for coming on and sharing your analysis. appreciate your time. >> thanks for having us. >> and coming up on this monday, we're going to go live to south texas for the latest on the migrant surge and overcrowding along the border with mexico. we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop i have an idea for a trade. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. get a strategy gut check from

sherwin, his successor is channing phillips, they are not talking because they're in active investigationyou think we are going to know? well, you know i don't have a crystal ball. mayor garland was methodical. he's a terrific prosecutor in the oklahoma city bombing. he's an expert in domestic terrorism and that's certainly what this was. i don't think he's going to tip his hands. the evidence is going to be developed medthodically. sooner rather than later we'll see something but i would not hazard a prediction about exactly when. >> professor tribe, i always appreciate your time. thank you very much. i want to go matthew doud, you had the former president today and i understand that this does not surprise people but it should deeply disturb them because it just fulfill the profound truths of anything that happened that it was rigged and stolen and that he won and he continued to slam mike pence and trump slams on mcconnell. so what does it say about the republican party? >> well, erin, i think what it says about the republican party is donald trump knows who the republican party is toda

the united states attorney acting now is a guy by the name of channing phillips. he is a by-the-book united states attorney and he would never -- he was there when i was there, when i prosecuted cases in d.c., and he would never approve such a thing. and the reason why is prosecutors are not supposed to opine about cases except what happens in court. and it's a rule. and it's not something that should ever be broken. i find it offensive. at the same time, i can't help but welcome it because it need to be -- >> you're seeing that should pertain even after he leaves his job. >> he hasn't left the justice department. even so, it's an ongoing investigation. he should be quiet and let them do their job. they have somewhere between 300 and 400 people indicted. they have so sift through and figure out who really was there to just wear a scarf and maybe not do anything, didn't go inside. who was there and went inside but didn't plan it. who actually are these oath keepers and the proud boys who were involved actively in recruiting people, in raising money and putting on t

channing phillips will ultimately be responsible for the investigation. he's going to be the person signing those indictments, so it will be phillips who will be taking over. but because merrick garland is here, you'll see the really difficult cases now have leadership that can be not only briefed on them but weigh in. so things like se dishs conspiracy, something like charging somebody as high profile as roger stone, it's really important that the attorney general be in place because that's going to be a politically -- i won't say will, but that could be a very politically charged step. you need somebody in the attorney general's seat. >> we keep seeing roger stone popping up at the edges of these documents. we saw the photos, we know that you can draw those sort of connections. but he's showing up in these documents. what does your reporting indicate about where he sits in all of this? >> so we reported a few weeks ago that stone is somebody prosecutors began to look at and he's somebody they probably wouldn't have been able to look at if not for the fa