joe digenova must familiarize himself with all of those documents. i know joe, he has to look at the documents and say, what the heck did you surrender this for? it's too late, we gave it. what does this mean, what does that mean. only the president means it. i need the president to explain this. he's on the phone with vladimir putin. this is not a normal lawyer-client relationship. but that guy, joe digenova, attack dog that donald trump needs, has to learn everything about the case in a short period of time. >> harris: talk about everything that's going around this, not the only thing the president is legally dealing with. does it help to have a team on your side? i mean, if you have to lean it down and pull people on on the same page with you and the rest of the team doesn't that help you? >> the president has many teams of lawyers. a team led by don mcgann. don mcgann in my view is quite correct to argue let's not give the special counsel anything. he has a team headed by john dowd, mark kasowitz, now joe digenova. he has three pieces of litigatio

he's the one who wanted joe digenova. think this was not welcomed warmly by john dowd, who is leading the interactions with -- >> the president said last week it was fake news, the idea he was going to bring on another lawyer. >> i think this affects the president's feeling that the strategy, which was the dowd strategy and the ty cobb strategy, which was kind of, mr. president, hold on here. mind your matters. don't tweet about mueller. this is going to be over. just hold on. and suddenly the president looks at the subpoena for the trump organization. he looks at these questions that pamela and i are reporting, and he says, whoa. you guys are wrong, and i need to start pushing back and discrediting mueller right now. >> michael, if the president's attorneys told him this was going to be wrapped up at thanksgiving or new year's, it's understanding he would be annoyed by that. >> certainly. let's not forget the terrible end game i guess south of pittsburgh in that congressional special election last week. it doesn't look g

john dowd believes the same thing joe digenova believes. difference is this is a media strategy. john dowd has always said go dark on the media. the media is irrelevant. the president believes the media is not irrelevant. the president watches the media. he's a consumer. he plays in that arena, and he wants somebody who says, no, you know what? we got to turn them around, and the media is not irrelevant. so i think dowd and digenova are on the same page that way. >> we've got to take a quick break. one of the most understated men in washington, a former cia director weighs in with an outspoken attack tweet on the president of the united states. also tonight, why stormy daniels' attorney believes it's strange the president has stayed silent about their legal fight and what we know about the judge who will take up the federal lawsuit when "360" continues. the fastest samsung ever demands t-mobile, the fastest network ever. right now get the new samsung galaxy s9 for half off. ♪ going somewhere? whoooo. here's some advice. tripadvisor now sear

he brought in joe digenova. >> after all the hubbub he may not be in? >> he has already been announced. we've been told that victoria tensing is in discussions to join the legal team, joe digenova's wife. they have a very small law firm. she has gone to steps to get waivers from some of her clients to allow this because of potential conflicts. again, like a big tv production, he brings these people in. they do their song and dance and then he's like, wait a minute. >> you laugh on the casting call line, but is he wrong? >> no. of course he's not wrong . it's a casting call. it's not an accident that joe digenova and his wife, to a lesser extent, is a tv personality. he has a lot of experience in law, you know this better than i, and has experience with investigations from the other side. but, yeah, that's how -- >> here is what's going on also. behind the scenes, all this is pointing to a new direction from trump. going to be fine and wrapped up. that is not going to work. if he wants to go to war, joe digenova is supposed to be part of that, making the

joe digenova won praise for looking at the facts. while the dirt diggingas sloppy, it was not illegal and not worth the time that expense of such a big investigation. joe digenova joins an outside team of lawyers, including jay sekulow and john dowd. john dowd left summer in public and scratching their heads when he said this weekend that the friday night ouster of former deputy director of the fbi andrew mccabe for leaking and lying, shows the probe of the president is a should end. joe digenova told tucker carlson mccabe and fbi officials like peter strzok and lisa page were part of a plot working to get hillary clinton off the hook and framing the president. >> all mueller is looking at his collusion, if you have an innocent client, act like it. >> a group of fbi and de og pe. >> democrats continue to try to fan the flames and claim the president will fire mueller, the white house lawyer denied it though the president mentioned mueller in a tweet over the weekend, declaring why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, som

and pamela brown, evan perez and i are reporting just now that joe digenova who was announced earlieream. now, his role on that legal team is in question. joe digenova and his wife victoria tensing met with the president yesterday afternoon, and our sources tell us that while the president liked their message, he is now not convinced that they are right for the legal jobs. so maybe they'll join the legal team, maybe they won't. maybe they'll be in a more pr role than a legal role. but jay sekulow, one of the president's attorneys, did announce on monday that joe digenova will be joining our legal team later this week, and after this meeting yesterday, we are not so sure. >> one thing you have to appreciate about this president and his presidency is how incredibly transparent the chaos is. because he literally is sharing what he's thinking about, and we are in on every part of the process. the flow of the decision making up and down, again, i think it's no way to run a country or a government because of what the dysfunction creates and what the implications of that are. but we are real

we should note the president's last three hires, larry kudlow, joe digenova, now john bolton, are peoplehe president watched on televise. let's now get to my leadoff pam. robert, our mutual friend maggie haberman gets that all of life can be explained in some portion of "the god father." she explained what happened today as the conclusion of part i, settling the family business. to you, the question is -- how seismic was this day in all the days oh of this administration we've covered? >> it was seismic, brian. i tweeted back at maggie. it was close to the ides of march. the god father kills his enemies, the president seems to be going after his own team. but it's a volatile time for this president. he's trying to take personal control of his legal team, sources inside tell me. take control of his administration, his national security policy. everyone who works for him is on edge tonight, because they believe he's settling into this presidency, not driven by ideology, but driven by the idea that he wants to be in power, making the decisions. >> now, mr. crowley, our own nicolle wallace w

a key lawyer, john dowd, he resigned, then the announcement, another lawyer, joe digenova was joiningl, now today the president backtracking, saying actually digenova is not joining because of conflicts of interest. david, what do you make of all of this? >> well, it is hard not to see the departure of dowd and the, at least the contemplation of the arrival of joe digenova and his wife, vicky toensing, even if they're not actually coming in, as possibly representing a shift in the defense of the president from a purely legal or a more emphasizing a legal shift approach to a more political one. any investigation of the president or his close associates always involves both dimensions, both the legal and the political one, and every defense team for a president will reflect perspectives on both of those issues. dowd was apparently part of strongly legal-focused camp that advocated cooperation with mueller in hopes that mueller would then exonerate the president. that hasn't happened. and it may be that his team is thinking about what happens next, if mahler doesn't go away quietly, thin

joe digenova brings a whole different mind set to this.ts the new theory, we're going to fight, we may not submit ourselves to an interview, this is a witch-hunt, and dowd and then ty cobb are out, then there is a whole new paradigm. >> also, i want to -- we just have gotten a statement in from jay sekulow, also a lawyer on the president's team, john dowd is a friend and has been a valuable member of our legal team, we'll continue our ongoing representation of the president and our cooperation with the office of special counsel. the question is what kind of representation, right? and i wonder, for even people who are in the president's team, in his corner, but maybe worry a little bit about some of his freewheeling style when it comes to dealing with taking on robert mueller lately, we have seen him really go after the special counsel on twitter. which was something that was new. i imagine there are people even very much in the president's camp who are looking at this shift and they are worried. >> yeah, you would have to be because the pr

maybe it's joe digenova on board.you had john dowd tweeting that at the urging of the president, the mueller investigation needed to end. this is something digenova would not be doing on his own because he would be negotiating with mueller. the president was upset. they got. your strategy isn't working. they bring in a new attorney to be his co-counsel. you put all of these things together, and i think at a certain point, dowd just threw up his hands. >> he's made mistakes. remember, it was him who made the comment about michael flynn being fired because he lied to the fbi as well as the vice president, mike pence, in a tweet. later he walked back to say, wait, i didn't actually mean the president knew anything about the fbi lie at that point in time. he doesn't have the cleanest of hands, but certainly he was someone relied on in this investigation. >> stephen, i wanted you to weigh in as well because you worked with the president during the campaign. you know the president. even though you're an economic analyst, yo

the writing was on the wall when the president announced that joe digenova was going to be joining his legal team. digenova, the noted former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia also believes there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of the fbi to frame president trump for a false crime. the president as been looking to beef up his cadre of outside attorneys even further, making an outreach to ted olson, the former solicitor general. the president's lead team was told there's too many conflict of interests that ted olson has in terms of his legal firm for him to join the team. they're still reaching out. there's been some differences of opinion. this may have contributed to dowd's departure, differences of opinion among the members of the president's legal team over the strategy going forward and whether the president should sit for an interview with robert mueller. as i mentioned, dowd was advocating against it. contrary to that, jay sekula thinks he shouldn't do it. and ty cobb thinks he should do it to bring it to a close. dowd in a statement over the weekend in the wake o

joe digenova addition adds to that credence. >> we're hearing he didn't want to be co-counsel with joea, trafficking in these conspiracy theories and just now the strained relationship with president trump. now sort of four focus areas where we're learning the mueller investigation is honing in on. the trump tower meeting, the statement that mischaracterized the trump tower meeting, crafted on board air force one with the president and the firings of both of these guys. all this together, where does that tell you where this mueller investigation is going? >> none of this is a surprise, right? it's the blueprint for a very methodical, specialized team who will follow the facts wherever they lead. one, obstruction and collusion are still both very much on the table. right? each of these categories fits into one of those narratives. each of them is a storm. put together they're a hurricane and pose dangers for the administration. it doesn't surprise anyone one bit that these would be the topics. >> seen another way, might this be good news for the president? none of the above have anythin

and guess what, he adds joe digenova.>> sarah sanders said, just a week ago, that mcmaster was not leaving the white house. the president himself was on twitter talking about these topics. so it is the latest example, that we can't take the white house spokes people at their word, because sometimes they don't know what's going to happen. they don't know what's going on. this is the latest example of that. i do wonder if more cable news celebrities will be joining the white house and what that means, whether those kind of credentials actually are valuable in leadership roles. this is a test the president is doing, this is straight out of his playbook. tv producer in chief. >> thank you very much to brian stelter, and thank you for joining us. our breaking news coverage continues with the interview with karen mcdougal. >>> breaking news involving the adviser who will be at the president's elbow if it ever comes down to pushing the button. a three-star general is leaving, his replacement, a former ambassador, a tv pundit who

the white house writing, the question, the president is disappointed that conflicts prevent joe digenova and victoria from joining the president's special counsel legal team. what exactly are those conflicts? other attorneys involved in the mueller probe have been permitted by the special counsel and by their various clients to represent multiple witnesses. this is a common practice when none of the witnesses is a subject of the investigation. the answer, according to four former senior justice department officials i spoke to over the weekend who are all familiar with the investigation is that the two clients in question, mark corral owe and donald trump, likely have divergent interests. two of these former officials say mark caralo may be a witness against the president. another former official saying, quote, we know who mueller was empowered to investigate. we know why mark corallo left. that seems to be a conflict. corallo widely reported left his role as lead spokesman for the president's legal team over concerns that members of the team were potentially obstructing justice when they

just days ago hiring joe digenova. they flirted with the idea of bringing on a legal superstar, ted olson, who declined that offer. what's this say about the president's thinking and what he wants more or less of going forward? >> dowd and ty cobb have said to the president the sooner and faster you cooperation, you more likely you are to get cleared. the president told his lawyers he had done nothing wrong an they proceeded with that. they said it would be over by the end of last year. obviously it is not. obviously it is intensifying and the president is deeply frustrated by that and now considering a more aggressive posture. he has done some of that publicly on -- over the weekend, mentioning mueller's name on a tweet for the first time, going after mueller's office. he was disappointed with how dowd put ot the statement on saturday saying the investigation should be over, then backing away from it saying he was only speaking for himself. so the president looking at this situation realizing that this is one that has

so he wants to bring in joe digenova, who he knows and admires. former u.s. attorney. smart guy. dowd had a problem with that, not only because he didn't want to be co-counsel but also because he believes, i was just speaking with another source, that he was conflicted. digenova is conflicted here because he represents a former spokesperson for the trump legal team who left the legal team in a not friendly way. his wife represents sam clovis, somebody else who has been part of this. i don't think dowd felt he could find his way around these conflicts for somebody who, you know, is representing the president. i think that's another layer to this that we are finding out. >> lot of layers. you know john dowd? >> i do not. no. >> putting yourself in his shoes, given what gloria just laid out, can you imagine being in his situation and feeling conflicted and not wanting to be co-counsel with this guy rolling in who peddles conspiracy theories? >> i assume he's relieved today. start with that. on the other hand, the other thing the reporting shows is not only does the president want to

trump attorney claims that joe digenova is joining the legal team. he will actively defend the president in the russia investigation. fell republicans want -- warned the president not to fire robert mueller. >> it would be the stupidest thing the president could do. >> i think it would be upheaval in the senate. >> there is little support among republicans to pass legislation blocking the president from firing mueller. nothing but radio silence from mitch mcconnell. he did not respond this weekend when the president attacked robert mueller by name. >> we have the correspondent for "the washington examiner" joining us. good morning, sir. >> good morning. >> and framing the president for a false crime. david, what does this mean in terms of the direction the president is about to take? >> worst plot ever, by the way. i wonder if it will signal the president will stop being his own biggest offender. if they are bringing on digenova to defend the president and create counter narratives, it would be a smart thing. i don't think the issue with the presiden

joe digenova is going to make this more aggressive. the big problem here, the president's opinion that he is against the scope of this investigation, how wide it is. the business documents of trump and that's where this whole thing gets into a very explosive territory with the president. >> right. exactly. he drew the red line himself. president trump said if mueller investigates my family's finances or things of the trump organization, that's outside of the scope for mueller's probe. he obviously has done that in recent weeks. so trump not only sees this getting closer to him and his family, it's crossing the red line that he drew. that is making trump act out more explicitly. as we mentioned the new lawyer, trump loves people that go on tv and defend him. that's what he said about chris ladell, that he would represent him well on tv. now he's surrounding himself with these lawyers that are willing to play hardball with mueller, not only to trump but in public and on tv. >> trace: sure, you have ty cobb and secula and digenova. alan d

joe digenova has claimed that people inside the justice department tried to frame president trump. that's what he said as a talking head on the opinion shows. sekulow says they're disappointed the couple is not joining the legal team. he said that the conflicts don't prevent them assisting the president in other matters. everybody is playing nice here. there's no mean front. this comes after the top lawyer in the russia investigation john dowd resigned from the team. he was frustrated the president wasn't taking his advice. john dowd said all along, you don't want to talk to the special counsel and trump had been saying, i do want to talk to the special counsel. that's where they step aside publicly. sources said they disagreed whether the talking should happen. there's report that the president is finding lawyers to represent him in the russia case and the president said there's no collusion between his team and russia. catherine herridge is here in new york with us. >> right here where the action is. >> shepard: yes. so help us understand why it is that joe digenova and his wife

while olson isn't joining the team, we do know that just yesterday the president added joe digenova to his team. the former federal prosecutor and fox news regular who's pushed the idea that the president is the target of an elaborate fbi conspiracy. so clearly the president's patience, judging by his twitter feed, his patience with the russia investigation is running out. his team of lawyers advised him some time ago that the special counsel investigation would be wrapped up by the end of 2017. clearly that hasn't happened. so the president is making some adjustments here to his legal team accordingly, chris. >> all right, we're going to talk a lot more about all of this. i want to go to kacie. what are lawmakers saying about facebook and zuckerberg coming potentially to testify? does there seem to be a movement in that direction to compel him to testify? >> chris, the tide is turning for facebook. this is something they've been watching carefully, somewhat nervously. this is a company that has enjoyed the support of the public. they have been incredibly popular and incredibly powerfu

i don't know why joe digenova went along with that. apparently somebody in the white house said there was bad chemistry with joe digenova. the fact is i don't think joe digenova or victoria toensing could work for him, no lawyer is going to last when they know a client lies. one of the things i point out through six years, seven years of whitewater in the white house. there's only one lawyer who represented bill clinton and all the way through impeachment, the same lawyer and law fifrrm. people like me and other lawyers stayed loyal to president clinton. this man doesn't command loyalty from people who work in the white house. and that kind of bad chemistry between client and lawyer is impossible. it's poisonous. >> you make the fascinating historical point. viewers may think, gosh, it seems like they fire a lot of people all the time. there is turnover, but to your point, the notion of this much turnover week to week in the people who know your secrets and are there to stand between you and your aides and jail something else entirely.

you know joe digenova. >> for more than 30 years and jeff used the right word -- aggressive. joe is a fierce advocate for clients. he is also more than that though. he's a former u.s. attorney in district of columbia. he knows his way around washington. he has served as counsel on many capitol hill committees. i think senate rules committee. so he really knows how it works. >> mm-hmm. >> he also is a bulldog. he's on television a lot. i think we'll see him out there very publically doing exactly what you just saw in that sound. he'll be very aggressive pushing trump's agenda. >> speaking of the president, shall we listen in quickly? here he is before he speaks publically about opioids. tell me again, eric? no, okay. we'll take the president when he speaks officially. let's listen. >> thank you very much. i'm honored to have the president here and the first lady to kind of recognize the good work we are doing in manchester. safe station is just one of those things. >> we should see the president in 30, 35 minutes for the speech on opioid abuse. in the meantime let's continue t

in other words, like, he doesn't want lawyers, he doesn't have chemistry with joe digenova, he said.ean he's worried that joe digenova will talk to him, then get on the phone and call a reporter? >> or that joe digenova won't say what he wants him to say . >> he clearly has decided or decides at any given moment that he'd rather not have a lawyer than have a lawyer he can't tru trust. >> watch this space, guys. maybe donald trump will be representing himself. >> oh, my goodness. oh, my gosh. >> thank you very much. and ahead, we've got a beef with kosher pork. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these o

yesterday, the president felt the need to add another face to his legal team, joe digenova, a former federal prosecutor that has also said publicly he believes the president is the target of this fbi conspiracy. but what i can say is he has been described as tough, and as a pit bull and it could signal the president taking a more aggressive approach to this special counsel's investigation. we saw him attack the special counsel over the weekend, this could be the president's hostility showing because for so long his legal team has promised him that this investigation is coming to an end, but with that meeting last week with the president's legal team and the investigators, that just doesn't seem to be the case here. >> kaitlan cal loinollins, thano much. >>> tammy baldwin joins us, democrat from wisconsin, to talk about all of the news of the day. nice to see you. thank you for joining us this morning. let's start with the changes of the president's legal team. this is a flame thrower. he pushes the theory that the fbi, the doj are out to get this president, that they're framing trump

with joe digenova, he's going to let the president be unleashed to speak to mueller. which really could end up -- we're all shaking our heads, it sounds like the last thing you want. >> they're going to discover that mueller's demands are unreasonable and they're not going to speak to mueller and they're going to fire mueller. >> are they going to continue to go on the attack, the way they've gone on the attack? i should introduce you. julia ainsley. >> i'm ready to jump in. >> i appreciate it. you face is so ubiquitous now, you don't need an introduction. will we see more of the president's legal team going after mueller? why did dowd come out over the weekend and trash mueller and the investigation only to resign? >> i think the key between the trashing and the resignations is when john dowd walked it back a little bit. we saw it go further with the daily beast. then everyone said that's just my opinion. i think the president didn't like that he walked that back. he wants somebody who's going to stick to that. joe digenova has already done that on cable news. he's s

while joe digenova spouts conspiracy theories about the deep state on tv. >> there was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate hillary clinton and if she didn't win the election, to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. the fbi and senior doj officials conspired to violate the law and to deny donald trump his civil rights. >> first of all, no evidence of that. second of all, if they wanted to do that, they could have just leaked that the president's campaign was being investigated by the fbi, which they never did. that's who now has to go toe to toe with robert mueller and his team of some of the top prosecutors in the country. john dowd's departure comes as the president takes an increasingly aggressive approach against robert mueller, following a report that he subpoenaed his business, demanding documents about russia. it also comes in the midst of negotiations over a face-to-face encounter with trump and mueller. which dowd tried to limit as much as possible. the president claimed once again he's eager to face down the special counsel. >> mr. president, would you stil

listen to what joe digenova said back in january? >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and doj people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely created crime. >> so what does this hire say about the current white house legal strategy? >> well, it currently says both in the remarks we've been hearing lately from dowd and others as well as the hiring of this lawyer that they're adopting a new and aggressive attack approach to the special counsel. i have to think that as the mueller investigation has progressed and gotten closer and closer to the oval office, there's a sense of alarm going on. it's also not going to be over when the president wants it over, which was yesterday. so, you know, they have their allies in congress, they can shut down the house investigation and they did. but they can't shut down bob mueller, and not if people are living up to their constitutional duty. but bringing on yet another conspiracy theorist to the white house, i don't think serves the public very well, and ultimately, won't serve the pre

kristen, first of all, the president's legal team, joe digenova very high-profile but also accord doing our friends at "the washington post," they are in conversations with a very well known republican former solicitor general, ted olson, who also is an expert on appeals, expert on supreme court argument, famously, of course, won the case for george w. bush in 2000, bush v. gore. and then teamed up with david boyce, his former counterpart from that and helped win the defense of marriage legalizing gay marriage across the country. so this is a very high-profile add if he is able to join the team. >> reporter: let me start with the ted olson piece of this. former solicitor general under george bush and that very wide range of experience you mapped out. if he were to be added, again, this would be seen as taking a tougher stance, someone who's got a lot of experience in these kind of high-profile legal cases. i tried to drill down on whether or not this is actually going to happen. i can tell you jay not commenting on this but bottom line, he says ted olson is a great lawyer and a great pa

david, on that point, joe digenova, could you see him supporting the firing of mueller?aggressive advocate for the firing of mueller. he's as much as said in his tv appearances that he thinks there's a conspiracy driven by the fbi, by law enforcement to get the president. he's described it as an outrage. it's disgraceful is one of the sound bites we had. i absolutely can see that. watching president trump speaking in new hampshire i was thinking, real politics is a relief from office politics. he's out there on the trail talking about what he wants to do for the next seven years as opposed to firing somebody. >> that specific crises is definitely an epidemic and a serious one. susan page, could you see him telling president trump it's a good idea to fire mueller? >> yes, and that's a message that the president would like to have. you know what struck me about peter's report there. we have an opioid crises in this country. wither's about to run out of funding at the end of this month. we're supposed to meet with the north koreans this spring. yet, our politics in washingt

less than a week after declaring joe digenova on board. now he will not be joining the legal staff after all. that announcement coming minutes after the president tweeted he was having no trouble assembling a legal team. tossing in another new orleano comment. >> president trump liked the message, but convinced they were not right for the job. the two attorneys say they look forward to working with him on other matters. mr. trump's lead lawyer, john dowd, resigned last week. >>> rick santorum says students would be better off taking cpr classes and doing active shooter drills. hundreds of thousands marched on saturday, santorum dismissed what he called phony gun laws. >> how about kids do something about taking cpr classes or try to deal with situations where there is violence. >> i would ask you, they took action. >> they took action and asked someone to pass a law. they didn't take action how do ideal with this problem? -- i deal with this problem? what will i do to help respond to a shooter? those are the kinds of things where you take i

you know joe digenova. when you watched him, you can almost picture him before a jury making a hail mary pass, as it were. >> i think all the zigs and zags of his mood, he's been extremely consistent. he hates this investigation. he hated it when he was sworn. in he had jim comey at the fbi director for a one-on-one dinner. the first friday night one week after being inaugurated. he was obsessed on air force one the trump tower meeting. he fired comey and he would either like the fire mueller or discredit the investigation enough that he has support when the report comes out. i think he's very consistent. he is scared of this investigation. he hates it. he'll do everything he can to discredit, limit and it maybe end it. >> we heard some republican senators. orrin hatch said it would be the stupidest thing he could do to fire mueller. you heard about the senate's upheaval. jeff flake said it is a big red line. that's a lot of words. what do you think would happen? >> here's the problem. it is great that a fe

immediately after is if to say where he stands on this issue, we see the president hiring joe digenovawho is basically all in, he's combative, he's vocal, he's a friendly tv face. what's going on here? >> yeah, well, peter, there's a real push and pull with regards to how to approach the mueller investigation, whether to continue top racooperating and a hands-off approach, comes to criticizing mueller by name and personally the president has clearly chosen for a more combative approach. that's reflective, frankly, in what's been playing out publi y ly in his tweets and public statements. hiring of this new attorney who seems to be much more sort of a pr strategist in terms of undermining publicly the mueller probe, highlighting conspiracies and so forth to really try to show this as an unfair political witch hunt which as we know from our reporting the president believes it is. >> and given these reports of potential disarray within the president's stable, we saw disarray in the west wing with the recent shakeups, now disarray in the president's list of attorneys. here's what we heard

yesterday joe digenova and his wife said they could not represent the president. "the new york times" has reported that corallo has told investigators he was concerned that hope hicks may have been planning to obstruct justice about a meeting between a russian lawyer and don jr. during the campaign. our colleague nicolle wallace offered this reporting of her own. >> according to four senior justice department officials i spoke to over the weekend who are all familiar with the investigation is that the two clients in question, mark carollo and donald trump likely have diverging interest, two saying that corallo may be a witness against the president. the other saying we know who mark corallo was to investigate and we know why he left. that may be the conflict. >>> mr. costa, you get to go first tonight. what is the status as you know it of this president and his legal team, his protests notwithstanding? >> the status of the legal team, lonely. you have jay sekulow trying to run the outside team with regard to the russia probe, ty cobb inside working at the white ho

less than one week since announcing joe digenova was coming on board, he changes course.h have conflicts that prevent them from joining the team. the development coming three days after the president's lead attorney john dowd resigned, leaving sekulow as the only person attorney dealing with mueller. and also coming hours after he pushed back on reports that he is having difficulty finding attorneys with experience, saying most want to represent him because of the fame but it would take months for them to get up to speed. at least four were approached to join but they have turned the offer down for various reasons, including that trump doesn't listen to his legal counsel. ruddy did say the president told him there are two people whose jobs are safe for now, that is hud secretary ben carson and chief of staff john kelly, both rumored to leave as well. we will wait to see what happens today. there are no public events on the president's schedule. one thing to look out for is whether they will expel russian diplomats after the poisoning of the russian spy in britain. >> is t

. >> joe digenova has been around a long time. this quote from a wall street journal op-ed during the investigation in 1997 of bill clinton is getting a wide circulation tonight, quote, nobody should underestimate the upheaval that a prosecution of the president would cause, but we went through it once before with watergate and survived. the nation, in fact, could conceivably benefit from the indictment of a president. it would teach the valuable civics lesson that no one is above the law. president trump spent the weekend criticizing the investigation, and for the first time he went after the special counsel by name. "the mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. it was based on fraudulent activities and a fake dossier paid for by crooked hillary and the dnc and improperly used in fisa court for surveillance of my campaign. witch hunt." trump's lawyer john dowd also called for an end of the investigation, fueling new concerns about the special counsel's future. ty cobb, an

monday, jay sekulow, counsel to the president, said that joe digenova was going to join the legal team and john dowd up and quit, who was on the legal team. we're learning that the president met with joe digenova and his wife, victoria tensing, who might also join the legal team. while the president liked their message, he's not convinced that they're right for the job. not only if they're right for the legal jobs, we know that digenova was always thought of as a spokesman. one of the things that john dowd raised before he quit, they represent people who may be witnesses against the president in the russia investigation. ding, ding, ding. that could be a problem. now we're just not sure. add it to what we've been talking about here, which is the uncertainty about everything we're seeing in this white house, which is that the president is deciding everything and met with these two people yesterday and came away with, okay, i'm not so sure. what do we do? they do have the help wanted sign out for other attorneys in washington. >> as we reported yesterday said thanks but no thanks. >> it'

yesterday, washington lawyers joe digenova and his wife announced they cannot join the trump legal teamlicts of interest, but they will assist in other legal matters. shortly before the announcement, trump declared on twitter, many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the russia case. don't believe the fake news narrative that it is hard to find a lawyer who wants to take this on. fame and fortune will never be turned down by a lawyer, though some are conflicted. problem is a new lawyer or law firm will take months to get up to speed if for no other reason that they can bill more, which is unfair to our great country, and i am very happy with my existing team. maggie haberman tweeted on out, can't be stressed enough. he's a sitting president and few firms want to work for him. voters by and large want to see the mueller probe continue its work. 72% of registered voters believe the mueller investigation should be allowed to finish while only 11% believe he should be fired. breaking down those numbers by party, 83% of democrats, 57% of republicans believe mueller should be al

gloria, on the hiring of this lawyer, joe digenova, why is he now hadded to the fray. >> he's been around a long time. the president knows him from television and maybe other places. they think a lot about the department of justice and the fbi in this. set that aside. the bigger picture here is that the president, trump org got subpoenaed on friday. the legal team saw a list of topics/questions. >> it's getting closer and closer. >> that mueller might be asking. i believe the president kind of freaked out by it and he was willing to sort of stay the course, not attack mueller, be on good manners, as his lawyers wanted him to be, as long as he thought the investigation was going to be concluded in the near future. >> okay. >> i think when these events occurred, and this is from reporting not just my thinking, sources tell me that when these events occurred, the president took a look at it and said, wait a minute, this isn't going away and he went ballistic and basically now, i think what joe digenova adds to the team, john dowd is still there, jay sekulow is still there, is a voice that ca

joe digenova is expected to play a key role in discussions with mueller's office about a presidential interview. the president, mean wile, reaffirmed his willingness to meet with the special counsel yesterday. >> mr. president, would you still like to testify to special counsel robert mueller, sir? >> thank you. i would like to. >> joining us now from washington, capitol hill reporter for the hill molly hooper. molly, good to have you you with us on this friday morning. so we saw democrats voice their concern that the president might try to have mueller filed during the process. given what you just heard from steve bannon that the president is about to go to war changing up his legal teams, give us a sense of how people are viewing the threat of possibly firing special counsel robert mueller. is this gaining more traction on those watching developments at the white house, or not? >> i thinks those people watching developments at the white house shake their head a little bit when it comes to what seems to be a chaotic atmosphere among those people who are working at the white house and

his name is joe digenova, and the president asked him to join the legal defense team because he likes what he's been seeing of him on tv lately. >> what you have now unfolding inside the fbi and department of justice under obama is a brazen plot to do two things, to exonerate hillary clinton because of an donald trump and frame the incoming president for a criminal act of impeachment. comey sold his soul to the devil. they conspired to exonerate improperly and politically hillary clinton and also if she lost, to frame the incoming president of the united states with a false crime. >> make no mistake about it, a group of fbi and d.o.j. people were trying to frame donald trump of a falsely-created crime. >> it wasn't the russians who corrupted the presidential election. it was initial officials and the fbi. >> that is his wife and law partner. her name is victoria tensing. we learned tonight just as the mcmaster and john bolton news broke, the president is not just bringing on joe digenova to the legal team but he has hired on victoria, his wife. husband and wife to work for the preside

she didn't win the election, to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. >> now, joe digenova is a former federal prosecutor, who has been described to me as tough, described as a pit bull, and it clearly shows here that the president wants to take a more aggressive approach to the special counsel's investigation, especially as he sees it is not coming to an end anytime soon as his current legal team promised him time and time again. >> kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you so much. >>> coming up, pressure mounting for facebook to do more to protect its users after a massive data scandal rocks the company. lawmakers and company insiders are nouw calling out mark zuckerberg. we'll have that next. o severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom reli

thursday night joe digenova and his wife were finally invited to the white house to meet the president for the first time and the president didn't like them. according to politico.com, the couple looked disheveled which helped convince the president they weren't the right fit. "the new york times" was slightly more delicate with it saying once the president met them, the president quote did not believe he had personal chemistry with them. "the washington post" had the saddest, most unvarnished take on it. the president wanted digenova to be on his legal team even though he didn't know him because the president enjoyed his tv appearance, however, once he announced he hired him and brought him to the white house to meet him, quote, the president was less impressed with mr. digenova than he had been while watching him on television. you're kind of shorter than i thought. i don't even know if he's short. the president is not hiring joseph dooemg or his wife after all, but announces he was hiring them before he even bothered to meet them cost him the representation of his actual lead lawyer

today joe digenova has not joined the team either.t's hard to cover the white house. h.r. mcmaster, is he on the way out, not. sarah sanders said he was there to say. she said it on camera. >> general mcmaster is not going anywhere as the president said yesterday in the oval office to a number of people, he thinks he's doing a great job and glad he's here. >> there was no way he was going anywhere. she and the president have a good working relationship. but as you know mcmaster was replaced by john bolton. according to the new york times, mcmaster confirmed that his departure had been in the works for weeks. now the most generous explanation is that things are constantly changing in the trump white house, a denial one day is obsolete the next day. that's being generous. another explanation they're just lying and deflecting. >> his staff has gotten a lot of criticism for, you know, we have all written about this one went out and lied. this one went out and lied. some cases people are lying and some cases people are told a lie by him an

but when carol mentioned joe digenova's wife you were nodding your head vigorously no. why is that?because it's a textbook example of a conflict of interest. the person they're representing now is a witness against president trump. he apparently is talking to or cooperating with mueller. so mueller can't -- the lawyers can't at the seam time represent someone who may be out to get or who has incriminating information against the president and at the same time represent the president. so even if these lawyers are somehow able to coerce or persuade their first client into waiving, a judge is simply not going to allow that. it's a textbook example of a conflict. >> i think it also underscores the fact we're even having this conversation just how the president just shot from the hip on this and didn't -- this is work that would normally be done and settled before you would announce that you were bringing somebody on to your legal team, particularly in something this consequenti consequential. >> that's right. because they haven't formally been retained. >> what are you looking for for n