the only way to do this is do what janet reno did many times in president clinton's tenure, that is toside of the department of justice, hire special counsel, special counsel who has not been hired by the president and can't be fired by the president. it is only that type of special counsel who can restore public confidence in the justice system. >> you say you want this investigation to happen without partisanship. what do you make of the relative silence from republicans both in washington and attorneys general like yourself across the country? >> well, the democrats have spoken, there's no doubt about that. my colleague ward heely from massachusetts led the charge, got 19 of us to sign on the letter. the silence from republicans on the hill and colleagues in the ag world speaks of a level of partisanship, the kind of partisanship that will not get down to the facts and will not reach a full some conclusion. janet reno in president clinton's tenure appointed 8 independent and special counsel to ensure the public could be confident in the result of an investigation. and one more point

i asked janet reno to assess the director's tenure and the proper response to the turmoil now in the bureau. of mr. thorough review sessions leadership of the fbi, she has reported to me and no uncertain terms that he can no longer effectively lead the bureau and law enforcement community. this matter could be resolved within the justice department. withttorney general met judge sessions and ask him to resign, but he refused. in accordance with the recommendations of the attorney general, i called director moments agoew months and informed him i was dismissing him immediately as the director of the fbi. we cannot have a leadership vacuum in an agency as important as the fbi. the fbi is the premier investigative and enforcement agency. law-abiding citizens rely on the fbi to handle complex and sensitive matters, protect our shores against terrorism, our neighborhood against guns and drugs. the agency's brilliant detective work in the wake of the world trade center bombing has shown even at a time of difficulty that the men and women on the street and in the labs have continued to give

. >> reporter: janet reno made a report about fbi director and he decided to change the fib. >>> and this comes whether mr. trufmr. mr. trump's associates colluded with russia. kamala harris we cannot wait any longer to have a special investigation. >>> the committees are in the senate, the house. this doesn't effect anything about it. >> reporter: mr. comey has been invited to testify before the senate intelligence committee in front of closed session. well, nbc news has learned there's a man with strong connections on the left. graduated from san francisco state, got a law degree in pleasant hill, even worked for the d.a.'s office, a possibility. >> terry, thank you. this is a pivotal time for the trump administration. president trump's former national security advisor has been subpoenaed. this is a live look at the capitol where they demanded michael flynn turn over documents related to the russian medaling in last year's election and they also requested these same documents. president trump fired flynn within a month of appointing him as national security advisor. this is the nin

he was fired from the president personally after refusing request from attorney general janet reno to step aside. more on this from pete williams. >> reporter: with attorney general janet reno at his side, president clinton went before reporters to say session's leadership left the fbi in turmoil. >> after thorough review of mr. session's leadership at the fbi, she reported to me in no uncertain terms he can no longer effectively lead the bureau and law enforcement community. >> meanwhile, cnn reporting over the past few weeks federal prosecutors seeked subpoenas seeking business records from people that worked with michael flynn when he was a private citizen, citing people familiar with the matter, cnn reports they targeted people that worked with flynn on contracts after he was removed as director of defense intelligence agency back in 2014. the subpoenas come as part of the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. the fbi, justice department, and attorney for flip declined comment. nbc news hasn't independently confirmed this reporting. >>> meanwhile, shawn sup

under janet reno and eric holder's leadership at the justice department in 1999 after the independent counsel statute went away and the idea was excised from american law, they had to put something in its place. so in 1999, under the leadership of reno and holder the justice department promulgated its new regulations how to handle that enduring problem about presidential scandals and who can rightfully investigate them. they wrote those regulations in 1999 and those are the regulations today allow us as a country to finally be sure the investigation into the russian attack on our election and the prospect the trump campaign was in on it is an investigation that will not be carried out by trump appointees. that origin story is important. i will admit the part about my mom and me being 6 weeks old is not important. that origin story in terms of how we got the power to do this thing that happened today. it's important that it came from the justice department regulation. they have the power to do this on their own. this special counsel appointed today happened by the newly appointed depar

sessions voluntarily stepped down under attorney general janet reno.appoint louis freeh and the two were well known enemies who said he was disgusted by clinton's scandals. >> shepard: and fbi headquarters is named for a man that got his start at bureau before it was named the fbi. that happened on this day in history. your insurance company raises your rates... maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. liberty mutual insurance. due to your first accident. buttrust angie's list to help., [ barks ] visit angieslist.com today. come close, come close. fun in art class. i like that. [ music stops suddenly ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve can stop painups with just one pill. thank you. ♪ come on everybody. you can't quit, neither should your pain reliever. stay all day strong with 12 hour aleve. >> shepard: on this day in 1924, j. edgar hoover became the acting d

independent counsel and one special counsel, all courageously appointed by the then attorney general janet renoe did the right thing because she needed to make sure those investigations were run and managed by the people that the president could not fire. >> douglas, the group is led by massachusetts attorney general and she called president trump's firing of fbi director james comey, she said it was a violation of public trust. how does this violate public trust? >> well, you know, i think the number one thing that people expect is they expect that the people who are in law enforcement are going to be fair and impartial. look, i've been a prosecutor for more than 15 years and the number one rule in any sort of investigation that is successful is for people to feel like whatever is the result of that came about from -- from an investigation that was fair and impartial. and i think that's the reason why we're asking for an independent counsel and really expecting that because i think the public expects that. look, we just had so many different stories that we've just heard in the last 48 hours h

the first time was john danforth when janet reno asked him to investigate what went wrong in waco that ended in a however fire, and he hired a staff of 74 people, but he was in essence investigating the atf and the fbi's ro fbi's role in that. mueller's task is different here. he can simply decide how toun this, does he just plug himself into the role that rod ros rosenstein was playing one guy gets up and the other sits down. he brought two people over from the law firm here in washington. one is his former chief of staff, and one is john quarrels that worked on the watergate team that has a lot of experience. those are the decisions he has to make. >> peter alexander, you had exclusive reporting out of the white house on michael flynn and what we call the blind spot. tell me how he could have been hired by this white house after notifying them he was already under fbi investigation. >> so the bottom line is you refer to that language. a course familiar with the conversation that took place two days after president trump run where he went into a room, the source tells me that flynn sa

i remember when he was appointed by janet reno, he made a point of publicly saying what his mission was, and he says that is something that mueller ought to do as well, say publicly what he is going to do. i have heard of no plans so far by bob mueller to do any such thing. >> pete williams, and peter alexander, thank you for starting us off. republican senator susan collins is a member of the senate intelligence committee joining me from capitol hill. you heard yesterday from rod rosenstein and what is the mandate now? >> i raised that exact question with the deputy attorney general. i read his order appointing bob mueller who is universally regarded as the right choice. it seems clear to me from my conversation with the deputy attorney general that mr. moo mueller is going to focus primarily on whether or not criminal charges should be brought in this very complexion cas -- complex case. that means there is a very important role for the senate intelligence to play in displaying the counter intelligence aspects of this case. after all, while the special council can decide whether or no

president clinton fired william sessions and said janet reno leadership and concluded he could no longeread the bureau. nancy, magnolia, delaware, republican. caller: i want to know why donald trump took so long to fire comey. i think he should have fired all these people immediately upon his election. host: why do you think he took so long, and does it concern you that it took about 110 days? caller: i think he was trying to be fair, in all honesty. i think he was trying to be a fair person and so he dragged his heels. unfortunately, i don't think that was a great idea. host: fair in what way, fair to? caller: comey. host: in what way, do you think he was trying to review this over the course of the last 110 days? caller: i think he is trying to make sure there is a reason if comey should stay or go. when you go into corporate america, they don't fire the whole staff the first day, although they probably should. i think that he was trying to chance touy his best prove himself, and it didn't work out well for him. host: let's go to paul in apple valley, california, independent. caller: g

stymie a special counsel but the regulations were drafted with a lot of input from erica holder, janet renond say sunlight is the best way to avoid a president who's going to try to endear. all those options you mentioned like firing muller or ordering the deputy attorney general to fire muller, all those those are things this would have to be forced into the sunlight and the president would have to justify what he's doing. that's the idea behind the special counsel regulations. >> just trying to be able to to imagine things before they happen but i've failed at all year long. if the president directed the deputy attorney general to do something related to this investigation and he said no, the president responded by firing him, would those responsibilities of the deputy attorney general fall to somebody else below him in the hierarchy or would the senate need to confirm a new deputy attorney general for robert muller to report to essentially as special counsel? >> they uldn't need to confirm. it would go to the associate attoey general and then to the solicitor general. there's rules for s

all courageously appointed by the then attorney general janet reno.uite uncomfortable for us in the white house. but she did the right thing. because she needed to make sure that those investigations were run and managed by people that the president could not fire. >> douglas, the group is led -- this group is led by massachusetts attorney general mauera healy. she said it was a violation of public trust. trust?es this violate public >> well, you know, i think the number one thing that people expect is they expect that the people who are in law enforcement are going to be fair and impartial. look, i've been a prosecutor for more than 15 years. and the number one rule in any sort of investigation that is successful is for people to feel like whatever is the result of that, came about from an investigation that was fair and impartial. and i think that's the reason why we're asking for an independent counsel. and really, expecting that. because i think the public expects that. look, we just had so many different stories that we've just heard in the last

i asked the attorney general, janet reno, to assess the director's tenure and the proper response to the turmoil now in the bureau. after a thorough review by the attorney general of mr. sessions' leadership at the fbi, she has reported to me in no uncertain terms that he could no longer effectively lead the bureau and law enforcement community. i called director sessions a few moments ago and informed him that i was dismissing him effective immediately as the director of the fbi. >> director william sessions was appointed under president reagan but it was in the final year of president george h.w. bush's term that the justice department launched an internal ethics investigation into director sessions. the report found he avoided paying taxes and billed the department for personal expenses and travel. and despite that, there were still questions about the precedent that might be set and our own andrea mitchell was the first to ask. >> mr. president, do you think this will in any way create the impression that the fbi is being politicized and hurt the longstanding tradition that the f

the only way we can do this is to do what janet reno did many times during president clinton's tenure outside the department of justice, hire a special counsel, a special counsel not hired by the president or fired by fortunate. it's only that type of special counsel who can restore the public confidence in the justice system. >> so you say you want this investigation to happen without partisanship. what do you make of the relative silence from republicans and attorney generals like yourself. >> republicans have spoken. my colleague from massachusetts led the charge and got 19 of us to join in a letter. i think the silence on the part of most republicans, both on the hill and certainly from my colleagues in the state ag world speaks of a level of partisanship, the kind of partisanship that will not get down to the facts and will not reach a full conclusion. that's why geena net reno during president clinton's tenure appointed eight independent and special counsel in order to ensure that the public could be confident in the result of an investigation. one more points, victor. jeff sess

janet reno when she was attorney general appointed john danforth who was a former u.s.or at the time to look into the whole thing of what happened in waco with fire at the branch davidian compound. so we have used these special counsel before in high profile moments when it would be a conflict. >> pete williams, nbc news. thank you, as always. appreciate it. >> you bet. >> joining me now leo tadeo, a former special agent in charge at the fbi of special operations and cyber. also back with me malcolm nance, author of "the plot to hack america." it's not flattery to say that both you have gentlemen are perfect to give us some insights given everything today. leo, you heard pete break down how this works. the fbi line agents work in this case aren't going to change either way. but in your view, are there potential benefits to them to having more potentially independent oversight prosecutor? >> right. so my concern as a former fbi official is to restore the credibility of the institution. i think i would urge the li leadership there to step out of the impact zone. right now

the administration that i served in, the clinton administration, that was certainly -- you know, janet reno was very much independent from bill clinton. and when we dealt with a special prosecutor, i can tell you, it is that drip, drip, drip of information that can be very damaging. but here's the problem that the trump administration has. it's one thing when everybody gets together and you're all on the same page and you've got a strategy, for the most part, and you have a sense of what's going to be coming. but the problem that the trump administration has is that the main perpetrator of the drip, drip, drip is president trump himself. time and again, one story is being told by his communications operation or, you know, other officials, then he starts to tweet something different. then the story evolves a little bit differently. then he's two days later saying something completely differently. and now he's saying it's a witch hunt and whining and complaining. so, i think the problem is going to be controlling mr. trump. but as information may come out, these things always happen, certainl

the last time this happened was in 1999, under janet reno, when she brought in somebody from outside the government to do one of these special council investigations. there's a big difference there. that was the decision to in john danforth, former senator to look how the fbi and atf concluded the waco standoff which ended with a disastrousfire. so danforth's job was to investigate the fbi. he was looking at the fbi's performance and for that reason we're not looking at danforth now, we're looking at bob mueller. danforth brought in an entirely separate team to do this investigation. so is that what bob mueller's going to do? he certainly has the option to use the agents who have already been on this case. he can bring in his own staff if he wishes. we know he's already bringing in two people from his law firm to help out. he has a full range of options. can he say we're going to start all over again or simply jump in and take over this play that is already in basically act two now, and that's really his decision to make and i don't know that he's made that decision so that's why i c

department of justice, the first time that regulation was used was a 1999 by then attorney general janet reno who appointed former missouri senator jack danforth to investigate botched federal rate in waco, texas. in this case, attorney general jeff sessions has recused himself from the russian investigation, so, the power to appoint falls to acting attorney general rod rosenstein. it is also rosenstein who decides the initial scope of the special prosecutor, meaning whether or not former fbi director robert mueller's investigation would focus solely on russian meddling in the election or if it would also include the firing of james comey are the accusation that president trump asked then director of comey to back off the investigation of former national security advisor michael flynn. experts point out that once robert comey begins his investigation, he can pretty much take it wherever it leads. this mueller has the power to impanel a grand jury and interview the president. in other words, he becomes a great decider. when he is not subject to the quote day-to-day supervision of the departmen

. >> i remember janet reno, when bill clinton would call her up, she would say, lit me get my notebook. she wanted it all on the record. let's bring in clint watts, former fbi special agent who worked under robert mueller. clinton, thanks for joining us. you're an expert character witness tonight. tell us about robert mueller who has got maybe the biggest job short of the president's right now. >> i think everybody should remember he was asked to stay on by the obama administration because he had done such a great job through the turmoil of the counterterrorism years. he's very well respected in the bureau. everyone should realize that mccabe and the deputies that are there currently all worked for mueller for many years. so they know each other, and there's a tight relationship there. the other thing that people should remember is mueller was the fbi director when comey was also over at the doj. they know each other. these are life-long servants, and they are lawyers. they understand the legal process. and so it's going to be an interesting dynamic. you couldn't have picked a better p

and janet reno appointed nine, count them, independent counsels and nobody thought about firing her.think they're starting to wonder why they're walking the plank for a guy at 36% who's in so many ways out of control. >> john faso, that's the republican congressman from new york whose district you went into, district you had a town hall in. have you talked to him? >> i called him ahead of time and said i'm going to light you up. i want to be fair. i want to work with you on lime disease and on veterans issues and helping our farmers. i did that for years with his predecessor chris gibson and it's important we do that. i cannot sit by and watch you vote for this terrible bill which by the way is terrible for his district and terrible for new york, a rural district, lot of rural hospitals going to get hurt, medicaid expansion has been really important in our part of the world, opioid epidemic, on and on. i'm going to try to keep it on the merits but if you won't tell your own voters why you did it i'm going to do it. if at any time you want to show up and answer questions i'll go home.

the white house correspond from the wall street journal and former council under attorney general janet reno. we thank both. you for coming in this week. take a look at this list. just about everybody who might have a driver's license in the dc area right now is being under consideration for fbi. you g mccabe who's in the job because he's deputy director, we heard all kinds of names, john pistol to roy kelly who runs the nypd. when we see these lists, how much is this messaging that we want to show that we have a very table of people we're looking at >> this isn't a normal selection process, what we seen with some of those, others when there are multiple names floated out there, usually somebody from that group does end up getting the job. you're right. there's also a messaging aspect of who's me people whose miss steps, this is an unusual situation. >> i immediately thought back to the list released almost as a campaign promise to fill the supreme court roll. he's not fulfilling a promise. what do you think though, shannon to bring you in about the conversation of whether or not this person