matthew and john dean. always love having all of you on together or individually. john beard i'm going to standard with you. your reaction to this, flynn may have misled officials on this security clearance form about two middle east trips during the campaign, one that involved russia and that $100 billion nuclear deal i just mentioned. what do you think? >> well, forms are hard to fill out, it's laborious but there are very high stakes and they're very important. and security clearance personnel position clearance form is something that someone like general flynn knows to take seriously. it's a problem. >> okay, so here's the thing. everyone -- and listen i don't know -- but i have a bunch of friends in the military and they say -- john and matthew, and john dean, they say that it take the s f-86 very seriously as members of the military because they can be prosecuted if they get it wrong. so as a general, someone who's a general in the armed services, would general flynn not take it as seriously as the ranking file members who come in? >> i think he'd take it more

. >> and the next logical man to hear from would appear to be john dean. >> john dean.ixon. and that changed everything about watergate. >> people were riveted by this young man they'd never heard of before. >> i sincerely wish i could say it's my pleasure to be here today, but i think you can understand why it's not. >> good-looking guy, very conservative, well-dressed. he had a beautiful wife. >> maureen dean with her blond hair. she was sitting behind him and she was looking perfect every day. >> my wife had initially typed my handwritten notes. they told me i was going to have to read it, i would never have done 60,000 words. >> i began by telling the president there was a cancer growing on the presidency. >> he was reading this text about the president of the united states. >> and if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. >> and the details were surprising. >> i subsequently met with mr. erlich man. i remember well his instructions. he told me to shred the documents and deep-six the brief case. >> and the picture was disturbing. >>

i've got to get your response to what john dean said. you know he was a nixon white house special counsel and he said what jeff sessions what he did today was a definition of stonewalling. how do you respond? >> i'm not sure i agree exactly. i think he was trying to be as forthcoming as he could. there's a couple constraints. one is with the classified setting. that's a frustration with some of our witnesses. but also this executive privilege. i'm not an attorney. i don't sit in the executive. but i do believe there's some merit to that and he probably wasn't being improper in how he handled those private conversations with the president. >> do you think he could have been more forthcoming? more than anything he said i don't know if it's appropriate to answer rather than saying i'm not comfortable answering something classified and other thing he said the most was i don't recall. >> you know i think if he would have answered one question in that fashion, there would have been demands for him to be forthcoming. i think he was probably as

former nixon white house counsel, john dean. a cnn contributor and author of "conservatives without conscience." he said the last part, by the way, gentlemen, welcome to the program, didn't he say he fired comey because of his mishandling of hillary clinton? that's interesting. is he laying the groundwork for something here? what's going on? >> excuse me. >> he may be trying to start discrediting the special counsel. that would be a sort of a standard procedure for him. he's certainly throwing out suggestions here he's not going to get a fair shake. i don't think there's any conflict of interest. this man is above reproach in his dealing with the law and his whole background shows he's very careful about these things. i'm sure he cleared it with his firm before he departed and took the assignment. >> matt, do you think he's hinting that mueller may find himself out of a job? >> i don't, but i think it's very interesting, you know, i've been on your show several nights and i have usually been the only one that says there is no ev

he saw john dean as disloyal. >> and dean, i think, rightly suspected that he was gonna be the fall guyhere was a coverup and it worked until it didn't. >> judge sirica was not a dumb dumb. he saw. he read the papers. he knew something really bad was going on here. >> far more is involved here than the guilt or innocence of the seven defendants. if they are guilty, why did they do it and who put them up to it. the judge and jury will want to know. >> he did not believe that there weren't higher ups involved. he just had a good sniffer for corruption and for lying. >> these five burglars and the two other people involved as the masterminds came before him in court. he threatened them through their lawyers. "if they don't come clean," said john j. sirica, "i'm gonna throw the book at them. and i can give them sentences of 40 years." >> and sirica, having a very good idea that somebody might crack. and -- they did. >> james mccord, wrote a letter to the judge. in it he charged that perjury was committed during the trial. >> mccord in his letter to judge sirica he said, "this thing is getti

. >> and the next logical man to hear from would appear to be john dean. >> john dean.eted by this young man they'd never heard of before. >> i sincerely wish i could say it's my pleasure to be here today, but i think you can understand why it's not. >> good-looking guy, very conservative, well-dressed. he had a beautiful wife. >> maureen dean with her blond hair. she was sitting behind him and she was looking perfect every day. >> my wife had initially typed my handwritten notes. they told me i was going to have to read it, i would never have done 60,000 words. >> i began by telling the president there was a cancer growing on the presidency. >> he was reading this text about the president of the united states. >> and if the cancer was not removed, the president himself would be killed by it. >> and the details were surprising. >> i subsequently met with mr. erlich man. i remember well his instructions. he told me to shred the documents and deep-six the brief case. >> and the picture was disturbing. >> the money was laundered so it could not be traced, and then there we

we got problems. >> on march 21 john dean walked into the oval office to give nixon an investment ofesidency. >> he had his feet on the desk. as he often did was walking around his shoes at me. >> i had the impression that you don't know everything i know. and after that remark hit feeze were solidly on the floor. he slid his chair up. i knew at that point he knew something. >> i'm warning him. he has problems. this was not good news i was about to share if there was a cancer on his presidency. >> we have a cancer within close to the presidency that is growing. it's growing daily. >> he kind of just absorbs that. as the conversation goes on and i say mr. president i don't know where this will end. it is just going to keep going up. >> the senate investigation was closing in on the president. to distance himself from the cover up nixon needed scapegoats. >> one of the most difficult decisions of my presidency i accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the white house. two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know. >> when he gets rid of haldema

just to continue the watergate analogy it's almost as though, you know, when john dean testified the president's tapes had not yet been public. in fact we didn't even know they existed. but they later got released and then corroborated john dean's account as opposed to the white house's account. >> that was my question, will comey's testimony be reminiscent of john dean's testimony during watergate? >> yes, very much. i agreed with every word michael just said, i do think, don, there is speculation about whether president trump will invoke executive privilege and try to prevent comey from testifying. i think it would be a terrible mistake. but there is the argument that would be in his power. i think it would give the impression he is trying to hide something and ultimately it's going to come out in the testimony in front of the fbi. but the critical thing here, and michael was certainly pointing in this direction, is that if there is ever going to be an impeachment effort, it may start with a question, was there obstruction? and this testimony is going to either build that case or d

. >> john dean's testimony was on for four days. it was mesmerizinmesmerizing. people were missing airplanes. people were standing around furniture stores that sold tv sets watching in the windows. >> i told him the cash that had been at the white house had been funneled back for the purpose of paying the seven individuals to remain silent. >> and dean wasn't pulling any punches. >> a recipient of wire tap information and also received information. >> i said to myself wow everything john dean is saying in that committee i hope they know it is true. >> the counsel was retained at that time. >> what date was that? >> that was on the 25th, as i recall. >> we absolutely believed what he was saying and the more evidence we got the more it confirmed what he was saying. >> meeting of march 21. as i have indicated my purpose in questing this meeting particularly with the president was that i felt it necessary that i give him a full report of all the facts that i knew and explained to him what i believed to be the implications of those facts. >> we had white house logs o

john dean. first of all our lawyers are saying they believe this was obstruction of justice. what john's referring to is the -- >> john has an advantage because john was convicted of obstruction of justice, so he knows. >> there is that. which i know you say without bias. >> no. it's true. >> i mean, yes, yes. david, what john is referring to is how compelled, how pressured jim comey felt from the second he met the president. the he writes i feld compelled to document my first conversation with a memo. i began to type on a laptop in an fbi vehicle outside trump tower the moment i walked out of the meeting. creating one-on-one conversations from mr. trump was my practice forward. this has not been my practice in the past. nine meetings with the president-elect in a few months. just two with president obama in three and a half years. how significant is the fact that he went down after that first meeting and did that in the fbi vehicle? >> it's highly significant because it's contemporaneously done. he went to sessions and said never leave me in a room alone with the president an

i'm going to talk about it with john dean who was the white house counsel to president rich experience the lexus rx with advanced safety standard. experience amazing. where are mom and dad? 'saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico! goin' up the country. love mom and dad' i'm takin' a nap. dude, you just woke up! ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ ♪ i'm goin' up the country, baby don't you wanna go? ♪ geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. is to always keep track of your employees.r micromanage them. make sure they're producing. woo! employee of the month! you really shouldn't leave their side. vita coco coconut water, hydration comes naturally. >>> our breaking news, a major development regarding the russia investigation and president trump. i want to bring in john dean, former white house counsel to president nixon, also the author of "conservatives without conscience." it's good to have you on, sir. "the washington post" reporting that the justice department special counsel robert mueller is investigating president trump for obstruction of justice

john dean rightly points out that he's in trouble and the trouble seems to be growing.t's be very clear. to mislead or to lie on your national security clearance form is a very serious crime. it is punishable by up to five years in prison and in his case, you know, to have this multiple number of omissions which are clearly misleading does make his very vulnerable. now, the president -- this puts all the more -- raises even a bigger question about why has president trump been trying so hard to keep flynn out of the investigation. it's clear he's wanted the special counsel to stop investigating flynn. and so it's a question that grows ever larger. why? why has he put so much into this and the answers are not very encouraging for the white house and so i understand why people in the white house are now so fearful. they're anxious and the president himself is frustrated. >> anna, there is no good answer to that question and when they said that the president was under investigation which started after he fired jim comey, he then came out and tweeted saying why he was under

host: john dean, who served as white house counsel until he was fired in april of 1973. if you go to cnn.com, some of the watergate fast facts have been posted on the cnn web sited. you can check it out at cnn.com. by the way, john dean is our guest on c-span's "the sidebar," our weekly podcast, and he reflects on exactly where he was 45 years ago, returning from the philippines, expected to stay in san francisco, but rushing back to washington when he got word about the break-in. his immediate words were, what did chuck get us into? the full podcast on our website at c-span.org. brian is first up, utah, independent line. good morning. caller: hey. is that you guys? host: yes, good morning, brian. caller: ok. i'm scared for our country. there's no water great crap going on right now. but the media, you know, you go throw a lie out, and then everybody runs with it, and it just -- it's just ridiculous that everybody hates trump. trump's trying to fix this mess we're in. the democrats, republicans, it's like the blood and the crips. let's just fight each other. and it just

i'll ask john dean what he thinks is next. you won't see these folks they have businesses to run. they have passions to pursue. how do they avoid trips to the post office? stamps.com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. get a 4 week trial, plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >>> source rs telling cnn that jeff sessions threatened to resign. i want to bring in john dean, former white house counsel to president nixon, author of "conservatives without conscience." i want to get to the breaking news. i think you can relate to this probably more than anyone because you had to deal with watergate. so at this point in time, when you were about to testify, correct, what were you -- you were two days away, a day and a half away. what were you doing? what were you thinking? >> i was taking the last minute run through my prepared statement, because i had a lengthy statement. i thought i was going to have to summarize for the senate and was trying to make sure

i'll punt this one to john, john dean, who knows this area cold. >> in your answer, what do you expect comey to say and what damage could be done, john? >> i think -- first of all going to be a great witness. he's skilled. he's well trained. he's got a lot of experience on the hill. he knows where he can and cannot safely walk as far as the special investigation, special counsel's investigation and he probably won't go there if he thinks he could damage the prosecution. so i think what he'll do is lay out exactly what he did with the president, what will be most interesting, don and most telling quickly does he have a prepared statement. if he does then he'll have careful thought out what he's going to say and how he's going to say it and that's not the usual comey format. so that'll be the first sign, is there a prepared statement. >> it's interesting, it's the first i've ever heard of that. because at the other hearing he took part in, he was just sort of giving his own recollection, recalling what had happened and how he saw this investigation or influence or what have you. but if h

i'll punt this one to john, john dean who knows this area cold. >> in your answer, what do you expecty and what damage could be done, john? >> i think -- first of all going to be a great witness. he's skilled. he's well trained. he's got a lot of experience on the hill. he knows where he can and cannot safely walk as far as the special investigation, special counsel's investigation and he probably won't go there if he thinks he could damage the prosecution. so i think what he'll do is lay out exactly what he did with the president, what will be most interesting, don and most telling quickly does he have a prepared statement. if he does then he'll have careful thought out what he's going to say and how he's going to say it and that's not the usual comey format. so that'll be the first sign, is there a prepared statement. >> it's interesting, it's the first i've ever heard of that. at other hearing he took part in he was giving his own recollection and recalling what he what happened and what he saw this investigation or influence or what have you. if he has reading from a prepared text

the leaks. >> and that's what "the post" is reporting again because as i read the segment before john deanivate assurances from director comey stating that in january he was not personally under investigation but officials say that changed shortly after comey's firing. so douglas, maybe he wasn't then but he apparently is now? is that a results of his own actions, if so? >> absolutely. he wasn't then and is now and it's because of the comey affair that we've all been talking about. you know, this is a very big moment tonight. it's been a very subdued day because of the alexandria shooting. donald trump's been perfect. going to the hospital there this evening and the rest but this is a -- this means this cloud is not clearing up for donald trump and it gives the mueller report more credence to keep that investigation going. he's being really investigated now in three different fronts. "the washington post" had quite a scoop this evening. >> yeah. jack, a spokesman for president trump's attorney marc kasowitz said in response to the "washington post" report, and he pointed out that there's p

networks, mike rabino and dan phifer, former senior advisor to president boy john dean, let me start with you. president trump says a hump, he is 100% willing to speak under oath. how significant is that? >> well, if it becomes one-on-one, it really is going to weigh in favor of comey for this reason. he made contemporaneous notes of his conversation. those actually have evidentiary value. a good prosecutor or a good -- lawyer just depending on the circumstances, can bring that into evidence and that will tilt most juries, if not the american public, in their opinion and if they're looking at it without any -- just coldly without any partisan viewship of it, it favors comey clearly. le. >> comey says trump is lying under oath. ok. and trump is willing to say comey's lying under oaths. so who is lying? >> this case goes no place on that efrds. because you have one person's word against another person's word. >> but you saw the memos. >> well, yes. john dean points out that that may be evidence that -- jurors will convict on the word of one person against the other. the corroboration i

. >> he could become your john dean? >> no. he could become the jim accord. jim accord was the guy who was given 30 years in prison by the judge. and as a result, he didn't want to spend 30 years in jail for richard nixon. >> right. ron klain, your reaction to wh we now know to bdirector comey's opening remarks tomorrow. >> yeah, picking up on that, john dean had the famous phrase in watergate, "the cancer on the presidency." and now it comes out of donald trump's mouth, the cloud over his presidency, the cloud over his presidency. and that's what we're talking about here. a cloud that hangs over his presidency of questions about what he was doing to try to pressure the fbi director, pressure the director of national intelligence, pressure the cia director. and then he took it one step further than richard nixon ever did. he fired the fbi director in an effort presumably to try to cut off this investigation. that's at least what he admitted on lester holt. i think the testimony tomorrow will be very dramatic. as you said, lawrence, the written statement from

so there's a real ability to corroborate and sort this out. >> yeah i love our conversations john dean for coming on. see you soon. >> thanks don. >> up next u.s. investigators believe russian hackers story that blew up into a mid-east diplomatic crisis. we'll talk about that with senator john tesla next. ♪ dynamic performance, so you can own the road. track-tuned handling, so you can conquer corners. aggressive-styling, so you can break away from everyone else. experience the exhilaration of the bold lexus is. experience amazing. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: engine revving ♪ (silence) ♪ this is a story about mail and packages. and it's also a story about people. people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪ >>> breaking new, uncovering new investigation cyber attack in qatar. here to discuss with senators from homeland security. you hea

check out the podcast with john dean that we taped late last week. he walked through the events immediately after june 17, 1972, how he reacted in the white house reacted. some good insight into the first couple of months after the watergate reagan. that's also -- watergate break-in. that's also on c-span.org. inside of google," being number two is his number one priority. a look at mike pence as president of the united states? next up is bert on the independent line. hello, thank you for c-span. this is news network commentary where you can let one person talking of time. the anxiety that being swelled eventh this political that we are watching his traumatizing to the country. mood -- newt, i talked to him as a democrat and i hung up and he actually answered my question. host: what was your question? caller: about bringing the country back. anda machine tool trade guy we are really way, way, way behind. he was talking about bringing --ital investment back and we haven't done that yet. , kind of like that about trump but now i'm a republican, go and

using my apron to wipe off that of dirt, while i -- john dean reportedly is spreading to swear that he gave both ehrlichman and haldeman progress reports on the cover up. there's more speculation about removing bob and john. boy, bob says at breakfast, as soon as the president reads all this stuff, you will want john and me to come up camp david immediately. what do you mean, i question? he will want a resignation. i thought you said -- you wanted him to take a leaf of a. -- a leave of absence. things are moving too fast and the other direction, bob says. either way i will be white ash out of the white house." hetands and walks to the kitchen window, where he looks at the reporters on the sidelk. "it's time for me to tell our families i might have to take a leave of absence, then be prepared if i have to resign. as usual, bob has covered all the bases. his decision is clear to him, he is in control. however, i feel lost and empty, as if i run out of gas. i am glad we are going to church this morning. i need to turn to a greater power to sustain me. true to his word, as soon as we get h

carl bernstein, john dean, and the director of the task force. carl, is this bigger than watergate? >> i don't question if it is bigger, i said this in some ways could be worse than watergate because it is about undermining our electoral process by a hostile foreign power. and destabilizing our most basic institutions which are free electionin elections. but also watergate itself was about undermining free elections. because the objective of the nixon conspiracy was to interfere in the democratic party's primaries and see as nixon's political opponent in 1972, to see george mcgovern be the nominee of the democratic party rather than senator edmond muskie, who was the frontrunner, and through a vast campaign of espionage, the nixon white house succeeded in helping mcgovern be the nominee. so there are the parallels, but this time it is a hostile foreign power that has intruded and undermined our election process. >> he also says it's -- it is a domestic force, which is the president of the united states undermining the institution. >> well, exactly. in both cases. >> right. >> john d

. >> john dean, do you agree? what did you hear? >> i would agree. in fact, i would add to what phillip said. trump's own words again when he was speaking with lester holt who said, well, i got rid of the director because that fbi investigation thing, it was a phony story, fake news and what have you. he just displayed in a remarkable fashion the kind of criminal intents you need and the obstruction statute is broad, so he has been playing with a very, very dangerous bit of law. >> we've been talking all morning and yesterday morning about how there is a difference between sort of the political fall-out and the legal fall-out of all of this. do you think what you heard does rise to the level of becoming a criminal case? >> i think the answer to that question is yes and as jeff mentioned a little earlier, there is still more fact gathering to be done. anyone who saw director coats and admiral rogers testifying or avoiding acknowledging during their testimony the other day had to conclude that the president had also intervened with them to ask them to

john dean, former white house counsel, is "out front." plus banding together to buck the president on his decision to pull out of the climate deal. can they do it? >> today happens to be national leave work early day. rings) with my moderate to severe crohn's disease,... ...i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i was doing okay... then it hit me... ...managing was all i was doing. when i told my doctor,... ...i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease... ...even after trying other medications. in clinical studies,... the majority of people on humira... saw significant symptom relief... ...and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability... ...to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened;... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to ar

john dean, do you think this holds up in terms of a parallel to watergate? >> it's not quite a parallel yet. if you recall, watergate for some 928 days. this is very early. but it is compressed and moving faster and there are some definite echoes of watergate. comey is one of our first public witnesses. we were about this season 45 years ago into the watergate hearing. so a summer hearing is also a parallel. >> karl, what is your take from those who say, well, it is not watergate. there was an underlying crime there. this is just about politics. what is your guidance? >> i don't think that's the important question in comparison or differences. i think what we're seeing is that comey has produced what looks on its face to be a devastating portrait of what occurred, some suggestions ofdy bus of authority. he hasn't been before a committee yet where he could be questioned and the evidence is subject to impeachment of him veracity, et cetera, et cetera. but more than that, we are very early in the process. nowhere near where we were in waterafter john dean testi

john dean was an excellent witness. he was very detailed.resident nixon. >> in the hearing, is that when the prosecutors discovered that there were tapes? >> that was the first time the prosecutors knew about the tapes. everyone was learning it at the same time. >> on that suspense point, we're going to take break here, when he come back, you're going to hear what jon stewart thought of richard nixon. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. to avoid long-term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision, or an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis. an

. >> you know, john dean was a good rat. before the times we had john dean. talk, somebody. somebody has to give him some rat food so he'll start talking. >> oliver north was given immunity and it screwed up the prosecution and they don't want that to happen here. >> there is something else the congress is trying to do. the senate just passed a sanctions bill which is hugely, hugely popular that is dying on the foot steps of the house right now because of technical problems. the question is, are there other things they can combat the threat? >> with governments with weaker konls institutions have fallen by inaction. the greeks. greek democracy wasn't working. at some point our government has to perform. thank you. you're such a grown-up and i'm ridiculously crazy. thought for putting up with me. >>> coming up, the russian investigation that favors blackmail concerns, they still briefed him on top, they came in late from the times last night. we'll get it now. why would the head of the ceo sit there and listen to everything going to flynn all the time they knew he was a bit c

associate counsel to president clinton, and watergate special prosecutor, and leon jaworski, and john deanrmer nixon white house counsel, and ambassador james woolsey, former director of the cia. >> always nice to be back together again. >> was comey within his rights, john dean, to share the contents of that memo with his friend? >> i think he was. we have no official secrets act in this country. he's a private citizen. it was a memo he made of a conversation that might have been considered a government document. might also been considered a diary document. so it's hard to tell. i don't think he broke any law. >> sadly on most counts, he said he did it. he said he did it in response to the president's tweet. here's the tweet on may 12th, james comey better hope there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. is leaking the memo the only way to get a special prosecutor? >> i think it was one of the techniques he thought he would have to use. he didn't have confidence at that point in the deputy attorney general who was then the person who seemed to have been

get to national political reporter maeve, cnn contributor john dean. good evening to all of you. timothy, fbi, former fbi director james comey testifies on capitol hill where he'll certainly be asked whether president trump pressured him to drop the russia investigation. how consequential do you think this could be for the trump administration? >> this could be huge. after all james comey could lay the basis for a charge of obstruction of justice plchlt de. -- mr. dean with part of our group tonight and when he testified in 1973 he made a case the president was involved in a coverup. if mr. comey lays out the case he was pressured by the president to stop the russia investigation, that's the beginning of real trouble for the president. >> how likely is it, john dean, that comey is going to lay the case as timothy says for obstruction of justice, for possible obstruction of justice? >> i think he's a very sophisticated witness. he's a former prosecutor. he's a former fbi director. he knows his way around hearing rooms, courtrooms. he knows what to say. he's talked to the special c

john dean was an excellent witness. he was very detailed.ally his word against president nixon. >> in the hearing, is that when the prosecutors discovered that there were tapes? >> that was the first time the prosecutors knew about the tapes. everyone was learning it at the same time. >> on that suspense point, we're going to take break here, when he come back, you're going to hear what jon stewart thought of richard nixon. i just saved a bunch of money on my car insurhuh. with geico. i should take a closer look at geico... geico can help with way more than car insurance. boats, homes, motorcycles... even umbrella coverage. this guy's gonna wish he brought his umbrella. fire at will! how'd you know the guy's name is will? yeah? it's an expression, ya know? fire at will? you never heard of that? oh, there goes will! bye, will! that's not his name! take a closer look at geico. great savings. and a whole lot more. he's happy.t's with him? your family's finally eating vegetables thanks to our birds eye voila skillet meals. and they only take 15

former white house council john dean testifies that president richard nixon knew about the plan to cover up the burglary of the democratic headquarters, which led to nixon's resignations. the iran contra hearings revealed that the u.s. sold arms to iran, and used proceeds to fund anti-communists sexually assaulted her while he was her boss. most recently, the benghazi hearings, that's when hillary clinton testified for 11 hours about her actions surrounding the deadly terrorist attack in libya while she was serving as secretary of state. >>> president trump was speaking to the faith and freedom coalition here in washington. the president said he's fighting hard for the american people and made a vague reference to today's congressional hearing. the leaking of information, and the russia investigation. >> as you know, we're under siege. you understand that. but we will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever. you watch. >>> reality winner has made her first court appearance and pled not guilty. the documents involved are russian cyber attack last year on expressways voting softw

i remember when john dean, who was not a likable guy, but just happened to tell the truth. nobody liked him in school, i'm sure. but dean came on, and it was verbatim what turned out to be in the tapes. >> right. >> he was the best possible witness and changed history. and this guy knows whether the president actually came to him and tried to get him off the case with flynn. he knows it all. >> and he has these contemporaneous notes. whether we're going to see them all or not, we don't know. >> don't you think trump hates bureaucrats? >> absolutely. >> he takes notes. >> all that efficiency, all those notes, all those ends tied up, absolutely. people who haven't seen comey testify before, i think, are going to be in for kind of a treat. he's a storyteller. >> he's a personality too. he's got charm. >> and he always brings it, right? every hearing, comey always brings it. >> sort of a jimmy stewart quality that might come -- you know, the big tall guy coming in. i didn't want to be here but i got to tell the truth now. >> that's right. look, we're going to hear from the sourc

and it was only because we had on tape all of the conversations john dean had testified to before he knew there were tapes. so he did it just from his memory. he had been denied his right to have any of the documents from the white house years that he had spent. and he testified from memory without knowing there were tapes. he learned about the tapes the same time the american public learned. and with the tapes, it was very easy to find the guilt of the president. so that would have been a very different thing. and as to executive privilege, i think this is one of the first times that i think that president trump has done the right thing. he would not have won that argument. i think the right of the criminal prosecutors or of the senate to have the testimony that may be of criminal conversations is very clear. so it would have been a foolish fight to try to stop comey from testifying. and unlike tapes that. >> couldn't be destroyed. you have a human being who is going to testify. and if the conversation was criminal in nature, executive privilege does not apply. >> david frum, but my

john dean, you just saw -- the record speaks for itself as alex is reporting.exaggerated facts about payments or how many people worked for him. he now says 100% testify under oath about his privacy conversations with james comey. do you think he'd tell the truth under oath? >> i think he's truth challenged at this point. i know an attorney in july 2015 who had done a number of depositions with donald and said that -- he could never tell the truth. he couldn't get through a deposition without distorting and misrepresenting and dissem bling and lying. so i don't think he can get through a deposition or a grand jury without it. he's at high risk because of his propensity for hyperbole. >> jonathan, do you think he should testify under oath, that he would tell the truth? >> i look at these things like a criminal defense attorney. we tend not to want our clients to go under oath unless they have to if they are potential target. the greatest danger people in washington is generally a violation of an a statute called 18 usc 1,001 and it's when you make a false statem

you know what i'm thinking of today john dean, sta tar witness of the 1973 watergate senator hearingpeople knew the substance of what he was going to say before he spoke, but the fact he cede it on television meant everything. we have been looking at this statement for almost 24 hours now. but having comey say it on television and in his own words and answer questions and give even more tail about it is going to be very different. and i suspect even more dramatic on the story we read on paper yesterday. >> you and others have been reporting for a long time now on a lot of the details that comey confirmed are part of his recollection just yesterday. so it's been out there now for quite some time. >> but i think to jeffrey's point it's one point for us to be able to report them and citing officials, but to hear it from the mouth of the man will have import and impact because as credible as we are, hearing it from our mouths versus hearing it from his mouth from the american population will be important. >> are there questions that you still have that you think comey can get to today. >

you had nixon at one point meeting with john dean saying a million dollars, we can get that, that waspenses of the watergate burglars. there's no comparison. it's an insult to watergate to say what's happening now has any comparison at all. >> are you defending donald trump? a man who doesn't even seem to care that a foreign government who is hostile to us is sabotaging not only our election process but the election processes around the world? he never criticized that once. >> i guess at the end of the day my question is, doug, is the idea of obstruction of justice not obstruction of justice? is that not what we are seeing? when we talk about a parallel, how is that different? >> i don't see the firing of jim comey, for example, as obstruction of justice. the fbi has an $8 billion a year budget, it has 35,000 agents. john mccabe, the acting director of the fbi, is a democrat whose wife ran for office in virginia and got $700,000 from the clinton machine, $500,000 of that came from terry mcauliffe, chairman of hillary clinton's 2008 presidential election. to say the firing of jim comey