let's go to jessica schneider and our legal analyst laura coates. jessica, why did this judge deny the justice department's request to switch its legal team in the census case? >> wolf, this is a biting order from this new york federal judge, jesse fuhrman. in his three-page order, he goes into detail, really slamming the justice department for making this request to withdraw certain attorneys that have been representing them in this census case up until this point and asking to substitute these lawyers. this judge saying that the department of justice did not give any satisfactory reasons for changing these attorneys and, in fact, gave no reason at all for changing these attorneys and that's why the judge in this case has denied this request to change these attorneys. and, wolf, this is a big procedural setback for the department of justice. their plan has been multi-fasciated. they're attacking this census case to put this citizenship question on the 2020 census on multiple levels. they are fighting this in courts across the country. federal courts

some new details coming out thenk from my colleague jessica schneider. she reports that robert mueller has, indeed, prepared an opening statement. and that opening statement according to mueller's spokesman has not been seen by anyone at the department of justice nor has it needed to be cleared ahead of time. that's significant as the big question mark is what will his opening statement be going into that important hearing on wednesday. now, mueller has been preparing with a small group of his staff that work with him in the special counsel's office. and a spokesman says his testimony will be in line with the public statement that he made way back in late may. and that certainly he's expected to stick to what is in his report, but is spokesman also at the same time emphasizing that

first let's go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. stunning details about the hush money scheme in those unsealed warrants. >> that's absolutely right, wolf. this flurry of documents do reveal this flurry of communication in those frantic days leading up to the 2016 election. also the fact that fbi agents in reviewing these texts and calls, they now believe that the president played a direct role in trying to keep at least one woman quiet about this alleged affair. and the man at the center of it all, this middle man, michael cohen, he of course is now serving three years in prison for his role in this cover-up. tonight newly disclosed details in a search warrant show the fbi believe president trump was directly involved in the decision right before the election to pay off stormy daniels, who alleged having a sexual relationship with him. >> when you're a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. >> whatever you want. >> grab them -- >> reporter: after the release of the "access hollywood" tape trump's team was fearful more alleg

for more on why, jessica schneider, our justice correspondent is in dc.ter the supreme court ruled against them, the administration sees it as important that they're putting a new team of attorneys. >> that's right, this will be a new team that will now have to push a completely different set of arguments to try to get the citizenship question on the 2020 census. and we've learned that the political appointee who led the initial team of lawyers did in fact think that it made sense to get a new team of lawyers on board, because they're really doing an about-face here and it's a flip-flop that seems to have been forced by the president. remember, it was less than a week ago that this fight seemed to be over. lawyers from the doj's federal programs branch told the challengers to the citizenship question that the census was going to print without the controversial question. and then those lawyers told a judge that the division was final, but then of course we saw that flurry of tweets from the president and he insisted that he would push his administration to

jessica schneider, cnn, washington. >>> now one of the big names who will be grilling robert muellerpeared on fox news today to discuss wednesday's planned hearing. here's house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler. >> we think it's very important for the american people to hear directly what the facts are because this is a president who has violated the law six ways from sunday. if anyone else had been accused of what the report finds the president had done, they would have been indicted. it's important that we not have a lawless administration and a lawless president. >> now, mueller has been clear he doesn't intend to talk about any juicy investigative details that are not mentioned in his 448-page report. i want to bring in kim whaley, former associate independent counsel for the whitewater investigation. and author of the book, "how to le read the constitution" and why. kim, good to have you with us. what type of questioning strategies would you recommend to get the most out of hum testimony? >> sounds like democrats are thinking this through in a way that makes sense in te

joining me now is our justice correspondent, jessica schneider. molly ball is also here. just lay out for us here how significant it will be if the president does this. >> very significant. this will mount challenges on a new legal front. the president saying he'll announce his plan in the rose garden this afternoon. we expect it will be some form of executive action to include that citizenship question on the 2020 census. of course the attorney general said monday this would happen this week, but there are really significant road blocks, both logistically and legally to any executive action. the census has already gone to print without the question, so the question is would the census bureau have to reprint the forms? that would incur substantial cost. or maybe just print out a supplemental page that would be included. then you've got the legal challenges that have already been mounted across the country. we have challenges in new york and maryland and california on that underlying question and including it, and the judges in those cases have so far ruled against the adm

cnn jessica schneider joins us now. so the judge didn't hold back in his order against the justice department's request, he didn't say categorically it couldn't happen. what he basically said the explanation doesn't make any sense. >> that's exactly right, anderson. this federal judge out of new york jessie forman is telling the doj it can't simply switch out the team of lawyers and without explanation and that's why he's denying the dojs request to change-up lawyers until they can provide reasoning for doing so and remarkably here, anderson, the judge is really putting it on these individual lawyers at doj saying he wants sworn and signed affidavits from each of them explaining why they are withdrawing and also wants assurances that these lawyers will essentially be available as witnesses and any future proceedings dealing with sanctions because this new york judge will also be reviewing any requests to issue sanctions in this case if it's determined that administration officials weren't truthful when they gave their r

let's speak to cnn justice coordinator jessica schneider. ould work immediately. could it be challenged immediately and therefore blocked. >> it will likely be challenged. this is a regulation that goes into effect and will bar migrants that will travel to the u.s. or attempted to travel through mexico and failed to claim asylum in mexico. so they will be barred from claiming asylum in the united states. this is an interim final rule. that's what it's called. it will allow these new restrictions to go into effect immediately. we know this is something that the president has been considering for quite some time. this really will affect a large swath of migrants who leave south african countries, journey by land through mexico, and then try to apply for asylum here. under this rule, they will no longer be eligible for asylum here. there are limited exceptions. they will no longer be eligible if they did not apply for asylum first in mexico. the administration in recent months, they have previously limited some asylum seekers making them stay in

cnn's jessica schneider has been reporting on this. a, if you look at the president's tweets it's unclear exactly what the administration is doing. what is actually happening at the department of commerce with regard to the census moving forward? is it or is it not? >> it is moving forward, dana. we got that indication yesterday. it is going to print without that citizenship question. it is only the president that really continues to spark this uncertainty. he continued to tweet that this fight isn't over, that he will still push to get the citizenship question on the census but all other indications are that this battle is over, that the doj has backed down and, in fact, the census, without that citizenship question, has started the printing process. that's what a doj lawyer told the judge last night, saying essentially this fight is over. that was yesterday. there's also another hearing in the maryland case that could be provided later today. they're calling them together and saying this is final and the doj has made its final decisio

more from jessica schneider in washington. >> reporter: dave and christine, a significant setback forhe department of justice in its quest to get a citizenship question on the 2020 senscensus federal judge telling the doj it can't simply switch out its team of lawyers without added explanation. in a three-page order, this judge denied the doj's request to change its lawyers at least until they can provide some reasoning for doing so. now the doj hasn't told the courts, nor have they told the public why exactly it wants to swap its team. there's speculation that the attorneys who were previously on the case might have a credibility issue if they tried to stay on. that's because they repeatedly told this federal judge in new york as well as the supreme court that time was of the essence, and they needed to begin printing the census by july 1st. with the deadline come and gone it would possibly create a credibility problem if those same attorneys now told the judge, well, they could wait to print the census in hopes of getting that citizenship question on there. the president, though, of

reporter jessica schneider tells us they hope that his testimony will shift public perception about presidentrump's alleged criminal activity. >>tonight democrats are undergoing intense prep, flooding pointed lines of questioning for former special counsel robert mueller for the few hours they'll be able to grill him. person appearance hoping to shift public perception and hammer home, the stark conclusions of the special counsel's 448 page report that most americans haven't read. >>i would not provide information beyond that which is already public. in any appearance before congress. >>mueller has indicated he will let the report speak for itself, but democrats are deterred. we sources tell cnn congressional democrats have been holding mock hearings with senior aides playing mueller to sharpen their questions ahead of the back to back grillings lawmakers are also rereading the report. >>the attorney general's the boss absolutely i would discuss with the attorney general and staffers are studying mueller's past congressional appearances. >>the judiciary committee plans to focus on obstruction

jessica schneider is on this story. so that's astonishing, right? to something they almost always permit. then the language of this federal judge saying the defendants provide no reason, let alone satisfactory reason, for the substitution of counsel. how problematic is that for the trump administration? >> very problematic, poppy. this was really a scathing three-page order from this federal judge out of new york, blasting the department of justice and its tactics, telling the doj, look, you can't just simply switch out your team of lawyers without adequate explanation. and that's why the judge denied the doj's request to change up these lawyers, at least until they can provide some reasoning for doing so. remarkably here, the judge is also putting the onus on the individual lawyers at the doj, saying that he wants sworn and signed affidavits from each of them explaining why they're withdrawing, and he wants assurances that they'll essentially be available as witnesses in any future proceedings dealing with sanctions because this new york judge will

cnn jessica schneider joins us now.s order against the justice department's request, he didn't say categorically it couldn't happen. what he basically said the explanation doesn't make any sense. >> that's exactly right, anderson. this federal judge out of new york jessie forman is telling the doj it can't simply switch out the team of lawyers and

our justice coordinator jessica schneider live in d.c. good morning to you. they are still trying -- even though it's being printed, they are trying despite the supreme court decision to get that citizenship question on there. >> that's right, poppy. this will be a completely new team that will have to push a new set of arguments to try to get the citizenship question on the census. the change-up, it does suggest the career lawyers who had been on this case they may have legal, ethical questions on this flip-flop forced on them by the president. it was less than a week ago the fight seemed to be over. lawyers told the federal branch told challengers to this question that the census was going to print without the controversial question. then those lawyers told a judge that the decision was final. but then, of course, we saw that flurry of the president's tweets where he insisted that he would push his administration to find a way to add this question. doj lawyers last week admitted to a maryland judge in a hearing they were really blind-sided by the president'

. >> jessica schneider, thank you for the update.ppreciate it as always. >>> this just in, the democratic-led house judiciary committee ratcheting up the fight. they are making it clear they are on two different issues. >> one, on immigration, the committee is going to move on get information regarding the president's policies about zero tolerance policy at the border that resulted in the child separation, the policy for migrant families and they're going to demand records and testimony from current and former administration officials. but also the committee is moving to author size subpoenas for 12 different individuals as part of its investigation into potential obstruction of justice. now, on that obstruction probe, that includes people like the president's son-in-law, jared kushner is going to be soon hit with a subpoena. also, the president's former chief of staff, john kelly, as well as his former campaign manager, corey lewandowski, rob porter, michael flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to his conve

jessica schneider is here with me with more. what else did he say? are we surprised?before robert mueller is set to testify in these back-to-back committee hearings and the attorney general, bill barr, is sending out something of a warning shot. and he's already blasting this testimony before it even starts. so attorney general bill barr just spoke to reporters outside an event in south carolina. he said he's not only disappointed that house democrats subpoenaed the special counsel, but bill barr also said it will be nothing more than a spectacle, in his words, especially if robert mueller sticks to the promise he made the last time he spoke publicly at the end of may, saying that he would strictly stick to the conclusions that he laid out in his 400-page report. of course, those conclusions were that he came to no conclusion on obstruction of justice by president trump, seeming to leave that to coming, perhaps. and also saying there was no evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russians. the attorney general, interestingly, also seemed to give robert mu

our jessica schneider joins us now. so mueller requested this guidance from the department of justice? >> it's actually the first thing referenced in this letter to robert mueller, that mueller requested this guidance about what he can and can't say during his testimony on wednesday. really the letter lays it out in very strict terms saying any testimony must remain within the bounds of the public report that mueller cannot refer to any redacted material from the report, references like grand jury material or other ongoing investigations, and crucially, mueller must not discuss the conduct of any uncharged third parties. anderson, that right there will likely severely hinder democrats' plan to hammer home the question would donald trump be charged with obstruction if he were not the president since really by the terms of this letter, mueller will not be able to talk about any uncharged third parties here. >> and in terms of any kind of an opening statement from mueller, do we know if the department of justice gets a cop

let's turn to cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider right now standing by at the justice department. jessica, what's the latest there. >> reporter: well, jake, we just saw robert mueller walk into capitol hill accompanying him at least one member of his security team. but i have learned that accompanying him in the actual hearing and for his testimony will be at least several members of the special counsel's team, members who have worked with him throughout the past two years working on this investigation, working to issue this 448-paige report. i talked to robert mueller's spokesman this morning. he said that several members of those teams will be accompanying robert mueller. they'll likely be sitting just behind him as he begins to testify. these are the same members of his team who will be helping mueller diligently prepare for this testimony. i've learned over the past few days, past few weeks mueller has been using unoccupied space at the mueller's previous law firm to prepare for this. robert mueller's spokesperson wouldn't get into the content of it preparation but again reit

cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider joins us now live in washington here. so the doj setting out pretty hard and fast limits here, though mueller is a private citizen. >> that's exactly right. so they're laying out the bounds of his testimony in this 1 1/2 page letter here. to be fair robert mueller did ask for guidance on how exactly he should testify. so the doj saying very strictly here he needs to stay within the bounds of his public report. really this is something robert mueller was planning to do anyway. in addition to that the justice department is saying, look, you can't talk about any about redacted material from your report. that would include grand jury material, material about ongoing investigations. and interesting here and key, you can't talk about any uncharged third parties. and that will really play a role in anything robert mueller would talk about in term of the president. and we know that's going to be a big line of questioning for democrats, asking whether or not if the president were not president would he have been charged with obstr

for more let's go to our cnn justice correspondent, jessica schneider who is breaking it all in. who is in, who is out. we now have this vacancy at the department of labor, of course. we have a number of acting secretaries in the cabinets and the most senior members of the cabinet. we haven't seen anything like this in preechrecent history. >> labor secretary alex acaughta just the latest to join this list of trump administration official departures over the past two and a half years. as of the end of june eight confirmed cabinet officials have left office and that doesn't include alex acosta. if you compare that to the obama administration, there was no turnover in the cabinet agencies in the first two and a half years of obama's term. during the bush administration, one cabinet secretary left office during that same amount of time, treasury secretary paul o'neill. not only have there been a number of top officials departing the white house, but the number of vacancies within several departments is very high. all told there are 260 of 713 vacant key leadership positions. that in

jessica schneider, thank you so much. good morning, my friend. i haven't seen you in a while. pamela brown's reporting that the trump administration may use as one of its legal arguments here, well, if democrats want to provide health coverage for undocumented migrants, then we need to know the number here and that's why we need a citizenship question on the census. really? >> well, this does seem to be a hail mary from the white house because that's assuming what you're saying right there that undocumented immigrants will fill out the census, which census experts -- there is a study just a little bit ago saying this actually would depress people filling out the census, that millions of people would essentially just disappear. i think this -- and the president himself, they've changed the rationale, why this question needs to be added three times at least that i can think of. what you just said going backwards the president himself has said this has to do with congressional redistricting and how many people are out there, because if some of these undocumented immigrants fall o

justice correspondent, jessica schneider is with us. >> this was something that robert mueller actually requested and this is somewhat of a stern page and a half letter from the doj. it does lay out for robert mueller what he can and cannot testify and it comes after mueller asked for the guidance. the justice department warning mueller that his testimony must stay within the boundaries of his report and those were the parameters that mueller was planning to stick with anyway. but they're also reminding him that he can not testify about any redacted material from the report. that includes grand jury material, information about ongoing investigations. and he also can't talk about the conduct of any uncharged third parties. and that is a crucial directive, because that could really thwart the democrats' plan to repeatedly question mueller on this question of if donald trump wasn't president, would he have been charged with obstruction of justice. now, under these guidelines mueller will likely have to stay away from any comments on the president here. and all of these restrictions that th

jessica schneider, what is your read? >> i want to jump in because the president is saying effectively no obstruction and he's saying that that conclusion came from the mueller report. that incident exactly true. it was more the attorney general bill barr who, when he read mueller's report and then issued his own report to congress summarizing the conclusions, that's when the attorney general said that there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute on the obstruction issue. that was a decision that the attorney general and the deputy attorney general at the time, rod rosenstein, came to. but as far as robert mueller himself and his team, in the report it very specifically in the executive summery to volume 2, says that they could not reach a conclusion on obstruction. and the reason they couldn't come to a conclusion on obstruction is because the current guidelines with the department of justice does not allow an indictment of a sitting president. so they concluded that it wasn't even appropriate to even put out any possi

our justice correspondent jessica schneider has been working her sources. what are you learning? >> reporter: two key things i've learned tonight. first of all, the special counsel robert mueller, he has been preparing for this. he's been working with a small team from the special counsel's office. of course, these are the same people that he's been working closely with over the past two years. we've learned that this team along with robert mueller, they've actually been in unoccupied office space at robert mueller's former law firm right here in washington, d.c. and i asked specifically to mueller's spokesperson how has robert mueller been preparing for and how will he answer what will likely be a key question and often i arepeatrepeated que from democrats if donald trump were not president, would he in fact have been charged with obstruction of justice. and the spokesperson, of course, wouldn't answer that, wouldn't talk about any of the content of mueller mueller's testimony. only to say that he will stick to his report. of course, in the report, robert mueller didn't come to

>> reporter: yeah, new detail just coming out from my colleague, jessica schneider.o robert mueller's spokesman who says that, yes, indeed, mueller has prepared an opening statement to deliver up here on the hill on wednesday. and that opening statement has not been seen yet by the department of justice, nor did it need to be cleared ahead of time. mueller has been preparing with a small group of his colleagues who helped over the course of his investigation. this spokesman saying that mueller's testimony will be in line with that statement he delivered in late may and expected to really stick to what's actually in the report. but importantly, this spokesman also emphasizing that mueller is someone who comes to the table fully prepared. he will be ready on wednesday. >> all right, sun lathank you fe hill. mueller's made it clear his testimony is the report. he has no intention of going beyond it. sunland's reinforcing that with the reporting and jessica's reporting. listen as he's coming before congress, let to what sheila jackson lee, a democrat, said to our dahna b

our jessica schneider has the details from washington. >> releasing this really eye opening and stark report delving into those family separations that sparked a lot of chaos last summer. and that starkest revelation might be the fact that 18 infants and toddlers all under 2 years old were separated from their parents in the spring and summer of last year. and not only were they separated at such a young age, but they were kept apart from their parents for between 20 days and six months. now, nine of those infants were actually under 1-year-old and the report also details how a 4 month old boy from romania was the youngest child who was separated last year. the findings also show many of these children were moved around to multiple government facilities. this report, it was just released minutes ago and comes one hour before we're expecting a major face-off between house democrats and officials from dhs and the department of health and human services actually. and that's all an oversight committee hearing. and also appearing at this hearing will be democratic congresswoman alexandria

i want to go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. what are you learning? we're learning in the past few minutes the doj will be launching a formal anti-trump review of the nation's biggest tech companies. the doj not saying exactly what those companies would be, but it could encompass google, amazon, facebook. now we have known that the doj has been inquiring into google and in tandem with the beginning stages of a probe of other tech companies and now the doj is confirming that this anti-trust review is happening and explore how digital platforms compete and deal with consumer demands. that is a note because of the topic of privacy and fairness of the search engines has been a hot topic on capitol hills. lawmakers in recent days and weeks held multiple hearings grilling tech executives about their practices and in particular president trump has been lashing out repeatedly over the last several months on twitter and in interviews, going after facebook and twitter and google, calling a lot of these companies bias against conservatives. even the attorney gen

jessica schneider, thank you so much. >>> let's get more on all this with democratic congressman steve cohen of tennessee. he is a member of the judiciary committee. and i do want to ask you about this upcoming mueller testimony. first, though, iran has seized a british tanker. this is an fornt american ally. what does the u.s. need to do? >> well, what we need to do is get back in the iran nuclear agreement. we never should have left it, and now we're talking about getting back in it in the same basis that we were in, it which is trump saying i want to get out of what obama did but now i want to get in to do what obama did. trump has been very inconsistent in his policies. i'm sure the iranians aren't quite sure what he's doing either. the british and the iranians are at it. it's a difficult situation that could result in some unfortunate activities including war. but we don't have a president we can trust. we don't have a president ha we know when he tells us something it's the truth. it's difficult for me to make a statement without having some confidential hearings from people in i