it's dana boente. remember that dramatic night in the second week of the new administration and president trump fired the acting attorney general, sally yates. they announced a new person appointed to be the acting attorney general now that yates was fired. the new person trump appointed that night to be the new acting attorney general was dana boente. he then served as the acting attorney general until they confirmed jeff sessions and swore him in. at that point, boente was the acting deputy attorney general and held that job until rod rosenstein was confirmed and sworn in. then in march when president trump and the attorney general jeff sessions fired all the u.s. attorneys, all of a sudden with no warning, when they, surprise, demanded that all the u.s. attorneys all the federal prosecutors had to resign en masse, resign that day, leave office that day, you might remember there's an asterisk on that order. a blanket order to the u.s. attorneys but two u.s. attorneys who had their resignations demand

james comey never heard back from the acting deputy attorney general dana boente. dana boente is going to be put under oath by the special prosecutor and possibly by the congressional investigative committees and will be asked why he apparently did nothing about that phone call from james comey. the very same thing is going to happen with attorney general jeff sessions. why did he do nothing about the president's inappropriate direct communications with the fbi director. tomorrow is not the end of the james comey story. his testimony tomorrow will raise more questions than he will be able to answer. questions that must be answered under oath by the attorney general of the united states, and eventually under oath by the president of the united states. joining us now nick ackerman, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. he also served as an assistant special watergate prosecutor, is now a partner at dorsey & whitney. also with us ron klain, former chief of staff to vice presidents joe biden and al gore and a former senior aide to presid

with respect to dana boente. as i read the written testimony, i think he conveyed to boente is the president of the united states asked the fbi disclose that he is not the target of the investigation. i don't think he told boente he had concerns of the communications with the president. there is a lot of information we don't know here. >> it is still early. you are right. the idea of the trifecta of i want you to be loyal to me and i want you to drop the probe and firing him when he doesn't do it. those three steps of behavior, your concern? >> yes. i think that gives bob mueller something to look at. look at what has been revealed publicly. it appears to me he had that one conversation about michael flynn. he had multiple conversations about disclosure of the fact he was not the president and was not under investigation. it is possible that the president fired jim comey not because he wouldn't drop the investigation of michael flynn, not because of the overall russian investigation, but because he would not disc

that was dana boente, who had 33 years in the department of justice, and was even then still serving for six years and continues to serve as attorney general appointed by president obama. so he's a >>> we'll have much mf of the testimony in a few minutes. nbc 108÷u[ news at 4:00 startst now. >>> right now at 4:00, the waiting game. nbc 10 has live coverage as the jury works to decide bill cosby's case. >>> feeling the heat, schools close early on the hottest day y yet. but a big cooldown is coming. >>> plus dine ask dash payback. the social media shaming that forced a man on his bills. >>> 20 medicines minutes of nonstop news begins with verdict watch. a jury is deciding right now whether to send america's dad to jail potentially for the rest of his life. nbc 10 has your all access pass to what's happening right now both inside and outside the courtroom. we'll have live team coverage as deliberations continue and await word on the jury's decision. gompb, i'm jim rosenfield. thank you for being live from the montgomery county courthouse. right now, that jury is trying to drill down o

she wants to interview dana boente. she wants to interview dan coach, mike rogers and she would like to do that all very soon, please. and i don't know if republican senator chuck grassly will agree to that list, but she has made her list public. she's argued her case publicly for why that committee needs to hear from these people. one point here. even with that giant list of people that that investigatory committee wants to talk to, there is one name that is not on that big, long list, that puzzles me for not being there. part of the reason everyone wants to keep talking to the director, dan coats, he gave hours of testimony in open session last week. he gave three hours of testimony yesterday in classified session with the judiciary committee -- with the intelligence committee. now the judiciary committee wants to talk to him to. it has been reported by "the washington post" and the "new york times" and nbc and the "wall street journal" that robert mueller also plans to interview dan coats sometime soon. and part of t

that was dana boente, 33 years in the department of justice and was even then still serving for six years and continues to serve as attorney general. appointed by president obama. he's man of great integrity. if he had concerns i think he should have raised it to department attorney general boente, the appropriate person in any case, really, but if he had any concern that i might be recusing myself that might be a double reason to share it with him. >> thank you. >>> attorney general sessions, has the president ever expressed his decision abo-- >> i'm not any discuss. >> because you're evoking executive privilege. >> my understanding is, you took an oath, you raised your right hand here today and you said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. now you're not answering questions. you're impeding this investigation. so, my understanding of the legal standard is that you either answer the question that's the best outcome. you say this classified, can't answer it here. i'll answer it in closed session. bucket number three is to say i'm evoking ex

. >> so nia, can i ask you -- he says he called the acting deputy attorney general dana boente to reportthis call. what does that tell you? the criticism is that james comey sat on the information. here he's saying that no, he went to at the time the acting ag to report this. again, they didn't say anything. this i think again echos him trying to talk to sessions and say, listen, sessions, please don't leave me alone with donald trump, and sessions essentially offering crickets to that request this thing is masterfully written, so scenic, easy to understand, it has these echos and framings, and really you so he this kind of building obsession that trump has with comey. the through line, of course is this initial obsession with michael flynn. no one knows why. we read so many stories about donald trump and he's throwing this person under the bus, throwing bannon under the bus, he's upset with sessions, and here he is going through so much to through michael flynn a lifeline, to protect him, and then there is this unknown thing where he says he has they other concerns about felony, that we

dana boente who was james comey's boss for a few months after inauguration. top prosecutor in alexandria, prosecuted former governor bob mcdonnell. comey's last boss, rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general was the top cop in maryland for 15 years. he plays a role in this as well. and comey's deputy, andy he's one of the fbi ishl ioffic who tried to investigate d.c. mayor james gray. >> we remember. and you are on the hill all the time. what was it like today? >> i gotta tell you, i've seen nothing like the crush of humanity on the hill today. the u.s. house was paralyzed. all the parking evaporated. the elevators were jammed, had to take stairs up six or seven flights. there were so many people. just look at the line. that was through the hart senate building, which is a very wide open space. to see a clutter like that, it was an indication. it was a show, not just on television. it was a unique show on capitol hill. and capitol hill getting the attention it thinks it regularly gets from the public. this was different. >> and it's not over yet. >> more to co

she wants to interview dana boente.ants to interview dan coats, mike rogers and she would like to do that all very soon, please. and i don't know if republican senator chuck grassley will agree to that list, but she has made her list public. she's argued her case publicly for why that committee needs to hear from these people. if we are ever to get to the bottom of these obstruction of justice allegations. one point here. even with that giant list of people that that investigatory committee wants to talk to, there is one name that is not on that big, long list that puzzles me for not being there. part of the reason everyone wants to keep talking to the director of national intelligence dan coats, he gave hours of testimony in open session last week. he gave three hours of testimony yesterday in classified session. three hours alone in classified session with the judiciary committee -- sorry, with the intelligence committee. now the judiciary committee wants to talk to him too. it has been reported by "the washington pos

that was dana boente, 33 years in the department of justice and was even then still serving for six years and continues to serve as attorney general. appointed by president obama. he's man of great integrity. if he had concerns i think he should have raised it to department attorney general boente, the appropriate person in any case, really, but if he had any concern that i might be recusing myself that might be a double reason to share it with him. >> thank you. >>> attorney general sessions, has the president ever expressed his decision abo-- >> i'm not any discuss. >> because you're evoking executive privilege. >> my understanding is, you took an oath, you raised your right hand here today and you said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. now you're not answering questions. you're impeding this investigation. so, my understanding of the legal standard is that you either answer the question that's the best outcome. you say this classified, can't answer it here. i'll answer it in closed session. bucket number three is to say i'm evoking ex

that was dana boente who had 33 years in the department of justice. and was even then still serving a -- for six years and continues to serve as attorney general appointed by president obama. so he's a man of great integrity and everybodyri knows it. a man of decency and judgment. if he had concerns,cy i think h should have raised it to deputy attorney general boente who would be thene appropriate pers in any case, really. but if he had any concern that i might be h recusing myself, tha would be a double reason for hm to share it with deputy attorney general boente. >> thank you. >> senator heinrich. >> has the president ever expressed frustration to you regarding your decision to recuseto yourself? >> senator, i'm not able to share with this committee private communication -- >> because you'ree invoking executive ivprivilege.au >> i'm not able to invoke executive privilege. that's theiv n president's prerogative. >> my understanding is you took an oath, you raised your right hand here today and said you wouldou solemnly swear to tell e truth, the who

that was dana boente who had 33 years in the department of justice and was even then still serving as six years and continues to serve as attorney general appointed by president obama. so he's a man of great integrity and everybody knows it. a man of decency and junlment. if he had concerns, i think he should have raised it to deputy attorney boente who would have been the appropriate person in any case really. but if he had any concern i might be recusing myself, that would be a double reason for him to share it with deputy attorney boente. >> thank you. >> senator heinrich. >> attorney general sessions, has the president ever expressed his frustration to you regarding your decision to recuse yourself? >> senator heinrich, i'm not able to share with this committee private communications. >> because you're invoking executive privilege? >> i'm not able to invoke executive privilege. that's the president's bre rogive. >> my understanding is you took an oath, raised your right hand today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. now y