preet bharara and christine todd whitman, first you, mr. bharara, what would be the first thing that you want to see redressed? the most important thing? >> five second i don't want to prejudge that, we're looking at a lot of things. that's why we have the task force. to the governor. >> governor, will you lay your cards on the line? what is the most important thing right now? >> i think the independence of the judiciary and people's trust in the independence of the judiciary and law enforcement, if those two things get severely eroded, we're in real trouble. >> thank you both very much indeed for joining me, governored to whitman and preet bharara. thank you so much for being in the studio. >>> as we said, for the first time, the trump administration has agreed to slap sanctions on russian individuals today for election med ling, including all those indicted in robert mueller's investigation. it also joined with france, germany and the uk to denounce the chemical attacks and nerve agent attack onner sergei skri and his daughter julia. russ

former new jersey governor christine todd whitman joins us from arizona and the former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, preet bharara, is here with me in new york in the studio. welcome. welcome to both of you. let me start with you, mr. bharara. let's just address this new "new york times" investigation and return. what can you make of journalists being told to be very careful of this ongoing news investigation? what do you make of the latest news? >> it shows week after week after week that the mueller team means business, that they keep a tight lid on information that goes out of their office. from the reporting that i saw before coming on the show, it's clear these subpoenas were issued some time ago. we're only learning about them now for reasons they're not clear and they'll probe every corner and uncover every rock that they can. >> what does it mean? everybody wants to know what does it mean for the president? >> look, any time a special prosecutor is interviewing people who are very close to the president, that's a big deal and now if they're pro

christine todd whitman is the former governor of what i think is the greatest state in this nation, newa administrator and current president of the whitman strategy group, christine todd whitman. christine, you have worked in the bush administration. you have -- you were the governor of new jersey. what do you make, 34 staff turnovers in one year. and gary cohn is not a guy who flops around in jobs. working at goldman is the only job he's had in his adult life. >> no, it's not a good sign. it's not what you want. i understand you want people who will push back on you and you want to hear different opinions on any subject so that you can make up your own mind. but this looks more like chaos than any kind of controlled discussion, animated discussion. and it's very troubling for allies and for people around the world trying to figure out who do you listen to, who is really speaking for the president, can anybody speak for the president, because his cabinet will get out there and say something and the next minute he'll undermine that. that's just not healthy when you're running the united

. >> with me now, former governor christine todd whitman, administrator of the epa under george w. bush. as someone who had this job, does this arrangement that he was renting from the wife of energy lobbyist scan to you, is that okay? is that kosher? >> no, of course not. we did everything to make sure there was a good distance between me and anyone who had business before the agency. we were very careful. if there was certainly lobbyists, we'd never have that kind of a personal -- not relationship because maybe you know them outside of their lobbying times, but this kind of thing where you're renting an apartment and clearly getting it for less than market value. you just wouldn't put yourself in that position. i never was allowed -- i talked to my chief counsels and my counsels, the chief came from new jersey with me, and we said, look, if someone has an issue before the agency, you don't meet with them. you have to be very careful about that. you can meet with business of course when they have generalized things but if they have a specific issue before the agency, the administr