it's from john dowd. this is john dowd's quote to bloomberg. quote. those transactions are in my view well beyond the mandate of the special counsel. they're unrelated to the election of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the trump campaign and russia and most importantly, he says, they are well beyond any statute of limitations impoesed by the u.s code. who said anything about statute of limitations? why are you wringi ingbringing ? the statute of limitations for prosecuting what crimes exactly? what are we talking about here? the president's lawyer brought up the prospect that the president's business activities are crimes and they're beyond the statute of limitations. he brought that up apparently unprompted. which is unusual. so it wasn't a blind quote, had a name attached to it. so we contacted john dowd today, we contacted the president's lawyer today, actually tonight, to see what that meant, to see whether or not there was some in particular about the president's past business transactions that made him look up the statute of limitations fo

now apparently leading is john dowd, a washington d.c. lawyer, who is also known for having a hot temper. now, you might remember last night on this show we had bloomberg news reporter, investigative reporter greg ferrell here. greg ferrell and a colleague yesterday reported for bloomberg. this seemingly very important story -- you see the headline there -- mueller expands probe to trump business transactions. in part it's because of the freak-out it seemed to have occasioned in the white house. that bloomberg article came out yesterday mid-morning. it was updated a couple of times during the day, but initially it came out mid-morning yesterday. by the time we were on the air last night, these were the stories that were breaking in the washington post and in the "new york times" about the president considering his pardon powers. having his legal team consider who is he is allowed to pardon, also including is he allowed to pardon himself and the white house trying to being could up ways to discredit robert mueller, the special counsel's in

i don't think what john dowd said is inconsistent with the president at all. john is addressing -- let me finish. john dowd who is a brilliant criminal defense lawyer here in washington, john is raising the scenario as it exists with regard to the special counsel's office as he sees something possibly moving forward. the president is concerned about apparent conflicts that have already kind of bubbled to the surface. and look, any lawyer that's handling a matter like this would look at those seriously and take the appropriate action. i want to awe -- assure you and assure the president that we're doing it. >> mr. dowd calls the idea of conflicts collateral nonsense. mr. trump is raising the conflict. he says the deputy attorney general is conflicted in "the new york times" piece. the acting fbi director is conflicted as well. he seems to be raising questions about everybody who is involved in this investigation. are you concerned at all that this is going to bolster the case of obstruction of justice, that the president appears to be questioning everyone involv

john dowd will not be the lead. dowd is denied reports that the president wants to highlight conflicts of interest in the special counsel. dowd will replace marc kasowitz. oil producers to meet to clear the global oil glut. there is little chance they will come up with a more aggressive schema. they are try to find a deal between major oil producer -- producers. the fund says it has approved in new loan worth as much as 1.8 billion dollars in conditioned on eurozone countries providing greece with the debt relief. in london, a judge rejected a request to file an $80 billion suit against mastercard. the group accused them of unfair charges. the judge's ruling could limit britain as the location for class-action suits. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries, i am courtney donohoe. this is bloomberg. nejra: thank you. shares of a major german automaker falling after they held the decades of talks on engine technology that breached rules. this is bloombe

jay sekulow and another washington attorney, john dowd, will take over. >> by working outside the white house, their relationship will be protected by attorney-client privilege. jay cobb will replace mark peralo. >> donald trump jr. and paul manafort may be appearing. >> we have asked for voluntary appearances. we're having hearings next wednesday. we want to hear right away. >> trump jr. and manafort are scheduled to appear before the senate judiciary committee. senator dianne feinstein also reiterating the subpoena threat. >>> we're learning jared kushner's closed door session next week will be with staff. it's not yet clear when he will meet with senators. this is now being called, miguel, an interview, not testimony. >> meantime, cnn has exclusively learned jared kushner's status as a top aide for president trump is still being used to lure chinese investors to the new jersey development. kushner's name being used online for two companies. being touted quote the celebrity of the family and mr. e perfect, jared kushner. that happens after his family apologized for using his name in a

washington attorney, john dowd, and another trump lawyer, jay sekulow will take the lead. >> sources , dowd and sekulow's relationship will be protected by the same attorney-client relationship of all u.s. citizens. cobb will replace strategist mark kuralo who resigned on thursday. >>> greg valliere is here to help us break it down. part of his job is to look at what's happening inside the beltway and global markets and figure out what each means for the other. he's deeply sourced. glad to have you here. i want you to listen to something we heard yesterday from sarah huckabee sanders. about the special counsel and the scope of the investigation in particular. >> i think that the president -- the point he's trying to make is that, um -- the clear purpose of the russia investigation is to review russia's meddling in the election. and that that should be the focus of the investigation. nothing beyond that. the president is making it clear that the special counsel should not move outside the scope of the investigation. >> i want to quote something in "the washington post." trump has been

john dowd i just quoted. also ty cobb. he's going to start at the end of the month. and jay sec lzeklow has been blanketing the air waves in recent weeks. watch for ty cobb, when he comes in. >> no stranger to tough battles in washington. his main goal is to make sure that the messaging is more disciplined coming out of the white house. can he do it? big question mark. >> the irony, looking for discipline coming out of the white house. i remind you, it was mark cass witz last week responding to multiple e-mails to an anonymous person, things like i'm going to get you, i know where you live, i believe he had in there, i'm going to move on you. might be a good idea for him to take a step back. i want to bring my panel in. nick ackerman, former assistant special watergate prosecutor, josh barro, senior editor for business insider and i like him so much because he knows economics. also with us, a man who worked overtime this week, "new york times" peter baker, who interviewed president trump on wednesday, that extraordinary "new york times" piece that i just can't get en

john dowd who is an attorney as well as jay sekulow who's been on this program several times, they wille personal side, which will mean that they will still have the traditional attorney/client privilege. and then as we reported last week, ty cobb is going to come in and be the chief guy inside the white house. but because -- the answer is because, you know, he needs it. he needs the help. and the white house staff needs the help to try to protect them and to respond to the mueller request more accurately. and, you know, it's so hard for the white house, and, again, we saw another great example of this this week, to get out from under that. the day that the president had a pretty good day on wednesday, when he had the senators down, he got them, cajoled them to get back to the senate. they worked until probably about midnight on health care. which is what he should be doing. and it is leadership he should be showing. which is important. we'll see if that has an actual ending that is good politically for the president. but it's impossible for them to escape this russia issue. >> we had m

. >> his leading attorney, mark kasowitz steps aside and john dowd taking his place. according to media reports the legal team is investigating the investigationers looking for collusion between the trump campaign and russia, and looking for conflict of interest in robert mueller's team many are democratic donors. >> it's relevant that people know the motivations. that is not an attack on the team but what is fair is fair. >> doubling down that he would cross a red line if it included trump family finances not tied to russia. >> that the special council so not move out of the scope of the investigation. >> jared kushner is expected to answer questions on monday on capitol hill and donald trump jury and paul manafort face a deadline tonight to testify. >> i'm not concerned because if they don't they will be subpoenaed. and a shakeup a new communications director, choosing wall street director. channel 6 "action news." >>> back here fmd police have identified the woman arrested for stealing a taxi cab in a bizarre move stopping to pick up a fare during the crime. identi

john dowd pushed back on the report calling it nonsense, saying his team is cooperating fully with the special council's investigation. back to you. >> thank you. >>> the reaction from the kremlin toward more u.s. sanctions is negative. claire sebastian is following it. what is the word so far? any word, given what's happening here? >> just that economical text message we got from the kremlin spokesman. i asked what he thought about the agreement in congress that could pave the way for sanctions on russia. he said he viewed it quite negatively, which is perhaps understated. russia has always been quick on sanctions saying it serves no other purpose than relations in the country that is impose them. they have the right to retaliation, not just the new sanctions, but exiting sanctions. when the obama administration brought in sanctions for alleged meddling, russia did not retaliate. now they are holding talks with the u.s. trying to get the diplomatic compoundses -- they have stepped up the rhetoric. the foreign ministry said a package of retaliatory measure has been prepared. we don't k

it's worth noting that john dowd, the trump lawyer is pushing back on the stories, saying they are nonsense. as you know in the new york times interview, donald trump said that if they started looking into the personal finances, he would consider it crossing a red line. >> caitlin at the white house. thaunlg very much. before i let you go, we are hearing, i'm just seeing reports the president is meeting with hedge fund giant, a close ally of the white house. there was news percolating that this may be to take over the white house communications lead role. anything more you can tell us as they meet? >> reporter: this is a role that's been left open since early june when mike resigned and left the white house. in is a hedge fund guy who turned campaign fund-raiser. we have heard he is under consideration for the position. this is a position sean spicer is handling. anthony was seen leaving the white house last night and now we are told he has a meeting with donald trump, right now, at 10:00 a.m. at the white house. >> something tells me that working at the white house pays a little less than

john dowd will be the lead attorney on the team dealing with special prosecutor robert mueller's russia investigation. he is denying reports the president wants to highlight potential conflict of interest on the special counsel's team. deputy foreign minister is accusing the u.s. of not living up to its side of the nuclear agreement. the u.s. announced new sanctions this week and warned tehran would face consequences for breaching the spirit of the deal. it is official. the u.s. government is banning muslims from -- americans from traveling to north korea after otto warmbier died. he was in a coma when he was flown back to the u.s. where he died. global news 24 hour the day powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am alisa parenti. this is bloomberg. "bloomberg technology" is next. ♪ ♪ emily: i am emily chang. this is "bloomberg technology." sean spicer steps down as white house press secretary just after anthony scaramucci is named president trump's communications director. we have the latest on today's big white house shakeup. plus, china's mast

. >> is being moved to the side and john dowd who is a very seasoned washington lawyer, he knows these washington cases. he's not a real estate lawyer, not a transactional lawyer, he's a very seasoned lawyer. and then mark karalow who was a crisis communicator trump liked and brought him on to handle the outside communications, he on thursday announced he was resigning. they say it was becoming too chaotic. he did not feel like he was in the know. he felt like he was being left out of the loop and he didn't need this essentially and moved on. >> peter baker, in addition to being a long-time washington journalist you are of all of us here the only former moscow bureau chief. i have to ask you a closing question. what do you think they make of all of this? they see and hear people like you and me and all of us in our coverage. >> yeah, look. this is the kind of thing that would never happen in russia. the state controls the media. the narrative that is put out to the public is pretty more controlled. they have access to the internet, they have access sometimes to foreign news sources but

john dowd is going to be the attorney out front from the outside and then ty cobb will be taking theead inside the white house and the president's team and the president himself building a case of a lot of conflict of interests around the molar probe beginning with rod rosenstein who is the deputy attorney general. the president is saying that rosenstein has a conflict of interest because he recommended that comey be replaced, and then turned around and appointed special counsel into the firing of comey and robert mueller has been hiring in avera for attorneys who have contributed to democrats, including hillary clinton. the meal or probe has also branched out to include the president's finances. in that "new york times" interview the other day, the president warned mueller against branching out beyond russia, cautioning him to limit this scope to russia which is where it looks like it is right now. kellyanne conway ring in on that on fox and friends this morning, listen here. >> this is just a witch hunt, it's all a hoax, and now they're going in all types of directions. the informa

now that statement was from john dowd. he's the lead on the president's outside counsel when it comes to the russia investigation. he's replacing trump's long time personal attorney marc kasowitz who cnn has learned is taking a more reduced role in all of this coming on the heels of the resignation of the communications strategist and spokesperson for the legal team, mike core aloe. >> all right, joining us is a former cia operative, bob baird. columnist for real clear politics ab stoddard and betsy, i want to start with what we last heard from diane gallagher that mark corallo has resigned. you have new information on that. >> i spoke to the associates, another person who's been a professional colleague for years and what they told me is that after the president gave that interview to "the new york times" which you all just showed tape of, that it made it impossible for corallo to stay on. he would have seen the pr disaster that rolled out and given everything that these folks know about corallo, as soon as the president

the operation is kind of up and running, they're handing offer, essentially, tac tagging out to john dowd, who will be leading that team to ty cobb who will be working on the inside, he has not started that position. we don't, picture that to happen for another couple weeks down the road, he is wrapping up his business before he moves into the white house. jay seculo has been the public face, like this one, i will note i will reach out to the washington post story. we will update you. remember, they are buddies, old friends as anthony scaramucci said today. so i think this will be if not the top issue he will be trying to figure out. do you handle it off to ty cobb? you will have to have a communications strategy, so far it's been put a wall ween the white house and outside counsel, refer all questions to outside counsel. i have a feeling we will continue to see that at least somewhat in these coming days. >> looking at scaramucci in that briefing room, how he is reporting the president was pleased with the performance today, the question that hovers over this appointment like all others,

. >> that's what i got for cn -- that gentleman, john dowd is one of the lawyers who president trump has brought on in a personal capacity to represent him in the trump-russia investigations in washington. that was cnbc's coverage from after dowd's client, a hedge fund billionaire received the longest prison sentence ever handed down by any court in the united states for an insider trader conviction. that's what his client got. now that hedge fund guy's lawyer is on trump's russia team. but the captain of the team is a different lawyer, a lawyer named marc kazowitz who president trump brought to washington to lead his personal representation on all things russia. marc kazowitz is a little like michael cohen in that he's represented trump for years. represented him in the trump university fraud fiasco. where trump ended up paying out $25 million. he represented trump in an effort to keep secret to proceedings of one of the trump divorces. he was the one who wrote to the "the new york times" threatening to sue the times for publishing interviews of women who said they had been sexually

scaramucci: i am close personal friends with jay sekulow, i have a relationship with john dowd, and i will work with them and other people to make sure we are on message and handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. that is the best i can say about that. [indiscernible] >> and then the follow-on was communications problems versus policy and political problems and the way you see that in the context of this president? mr. scaramucci: not long ago teddy roosevelt said the , presidency was a bully pulpit. and the president has a great gift to be able to control the news cycle and messaging, so if around hereinated with the president and go back to some of the great successes he had on the campaign and transition and even in the presidency, frankly he is , delivering that message directly to the american people. to me, i think the policies are fantastic. i think he has done a phenomenal job. i think sarah read something i totally believe, is that he is doing a phenomenal job and we need to do that and get that out there more aggressively. i have to go. >> one more, right th

and john dowd, a seasoned washington lawyer, he is not a real estate lawyer, not a transactional lawyervery seasoned lawyer now taking the lead. and then mark coralo, the crisis communicator who had been on, had a -- someone trump had a lot of respect for, was going to handle the outside communication to take the pressure off the folks inside the white house, he on thursday announced he was resigning. a person close to him says it was becoming too chaotic, he didn't feel like he was in the know, left out of the loop, and he didn't need this essentially. and moved on. >> peter baker, in addition to being a long-term washington journalist you are of all of us here the only former moscow bureau chief. i have to ask you a closing question. what do you think they make of all of this? they see and hear people like you and me and all of us in our coverage. >> yeah, look this is the kind of thing that would never happen in russia. the state controls the media there. if the narrative that is put out to the public is pretty tightly controlled for the most part. there is no freedom than in the sov

john dowd knows these washington cases. he's not a real estate lawyer. he's not a transactional lawyer. he's now taking the lead and then mark carulo on thursday announced that he was resigning. a person close to him said that it was becoming too chaotic. he felt like he was being left out of the loop and he didn't need this essentially and moved on. >> peter baker, you are the only former moscow bureau chief. what do you think they make of all of this? they see and hear people like you and me and all of us and our coverage? >> this is the kind of thing that would never happen in russia. the state controls the media there. the narrative put out to the public is pretty tightly controlled, for the most part. there is more freedom than in the soviet days. they have access to the internet and sometimes to foreign news sources but i think they look at this as a joke, that they have caused great disruption and they have managed to stir the pot and fighting with each other and investigating the president. so from that point of view, they look at this as a win.

guidance to the president but now the operation is off and running, they're handing off, tagging off to john dowd. to ty cobb. he has not started that upon yet. we don't expect to happen for probably another couple of weeks. at least a little down the road. he is wrapping up his business before he moves into the white house. and jay sekulow will be the public face. just like this one. we will update of course, if we hear back. remember, sekulow and scaramucci are buddies, old friends as anthony scaramucci said today. so this will be, if not the top issue that scaramucci will figure out. how do you get the messaging? you have to have some kind of communications strategy on it. so far the strategy has been to put a was the between them. and i have a feeling old see it in the coming days. >> just looking at scaramucci. in hearing how the president was pleased with the performance, the question that hovers over the appointment like all others for how long. this is a president who seems to lose patience or interest or confidence in folks he surrounds himself with fairly quickly. i'm thinking right now

john dowd will be the lead attorney on the team dealing with special prosecutor robert mueller's russiawd is denying reports the president wants to highlight potential conflict of interest on the special counsel's team. iran's deputy foreign minister a

sit down with the outside counsel very close to jay sack low, we know each other very well, i know john dowdi will understand the lines of communication, what we can say from the white house, what we can't say from the white house. and then we'll operate a strategy that i think will knock the socks off of people. what i don't like about what's going on right now is that we're -- were he get hit we are on the heels of our feet and we want the president to be on the heels of his feet? president doesn't operate like that. the president operates off the balls of his feet, he's an aggressive guy. it's the reason he won the presidency, so we're going to come up with a strategy that's going to knock people's socks off and it's going to be pro trump agenda. and when the investigation dies wn back on the show, see that was another one of those ridiculous investigations. >> dickerson: you're from the the attorney general in public in "new york times." how does that help? >> well world, what i would say about that, and from may experience with the president, the president is a pretty, wears his he a gu

. >> i'm close personal friends with jay sekulow and with john dowd. and i'm making sure that we're on message and handling ourselves in the most aprop pree eighty way possible. i haven't been briefed yet by the white house counsel about what is appropriate to talk about from this podium. therefore, i don't want to take any questions related to russia. >> a source close to kushner said while he doesn't have an exact plan for an overall russia response, he's been angry there wasn't a more robust effort from the communications team. an outside adviser says spicer has publicly griped about the demands from kushner. joining us now is matt miller and david corn is back with us. and matt miller, as a spokesperson, you know what i mean when i say, pay no attention to the man in front of the curtain because the big substantive story here does not seem to be who is giving out the talking points but rather this is a white house that is moving towards the compliance and as the president himself seems to be "the new york times" interview and potentially other acti

president trump is shaking up his legal team with attorney john dowd taking the lead on the investigationpersonal lawyer marc kasowitz taking a diminished role. and when the dust settles how will they strategize against the expanding russian investigation? joining me now two a-listers greg craig who served as white house counsel to barack obama. and jeffrey rosen, a professor of law at the george washington university. greg, i'll begin with you, "the washington post" broke this news that jeff sessions discussed campaign-related matters with the russian ambassador. but the president has said that the russian investigation is a witch hunt. is he boxed in from getting rid of sessions, because if he were to do so, that would be an admission that this is not a hoax? >> i don't know whether he's boxed in or not, michael. i do know that it puts the attorney general smack dab in the middle of the investigation. and i have no doubt that the director robert mueller will be willing to interview him about his conversations with kislyak. i have no doubt that mr. mueller has access to the transcripts o

with a lot of experience who's going to be inside the white house, ty cobb and another attorney, john dowd is going to take the lead along with jay, who will be the president's primary personal attorney for the investigation. so you see kind of a whole new legal team being set up and kasowitz kind of becomes a victim in all of this because this is not the kind of law he's used to practicing and they needed people with more washington experience, quite honestly. >> and that was said at the beginning when he hired him for this russia investigation. was he the right person for this? and the president seemed to think so. there's also been a lot of t turmoil. >> i mean, i think the president has not been happy with the way this whole investigation is going. obviously we spent a day talking about what he said to the new york times. he wasn't happy about the special counsel in the first place and internally at the white house, he's made no secret about the fact he's not been happy about the way this has been handled and kasowitz has been in new york. we need people here. and we've learned the spo

i have a personal relationship with john dowd and i will work with them again and other people. we're on message handling ourselves in most appropriate way possible. david: new white house communications chief, former fox business host anthony scaramucci, setting boundaries between his office and president's legal team. for more details on the boundaries, we turn to jordan sekulow, center of american law and justice, son of jay sekulow. nice to hear your dad's mention. >> he is a good friend. david: what about separation of information if you will, between what the president's legal team is doing and the communications chief in at some point they have to answer certain questions about, for example, robert mueller's investigation, do they not? >> to some extent but for the most part you're going to have most of those answers as you have seen in response to this latest leak, appears out of the special counsel, this is president serious if this was actual true information to the "washington post," david, about the special counsel, expanding their investigation well beyond russia an

john dowd will be the lead attorney on the team dealing with special prosecutor robert mueller's russiaing reports the president wants to highlight potential conflict of interest on the special counsel's team. deputy foreign minister is accusing the u.s. of not living up to its side of the nuclear agreement. the u.s. announced new sanctions this week and warned tehran would face consequences for breaching the spirit of the deal. it is official. the u.s. government is banning muslims from -- americans from traveling to north korea after otto warmbier died. he was in a

i have a relationship with john dowd. i will work with don mcgann and other people to make sure we are handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. and that we're on message. that is all i can say about that. reporter: and so than to follow on, communications problems versus policy problems. the way you see that in the context of this president. mr. scaramucci: long ago, teddy roosevelt said that the presidency is a bully pulpit, and the president has a great gift in being able to control the news cycle and the messaging. if we get super coordinated around here with the president and we go back to what he did, some of the great successes he had on the campaign and the transition, and even in the presidency, frankly, it is delivering that message to the american people. i think the policies are fantastic. i think he has done a phenomenal job. i think sarah read something hat he is doing a phenomenal job and we need to get it out there a little more aggressively and we will do that. i will take one more. reporte

but john dowd and two very experienced hands in washington, d.c., and very well known. you're going to have sekulow everywhere still. you'll see him out there in the communication's role. sekulow and dowd outside. they're working this as people who have that attorney/client privilege. but a big change still. it shows you how seriously the president is taking this that he has that team of heavy hitters. >> chris jansing on the white house north lawn. we'll see you later today, this afternoon, chris, when you're on the air. >>> carol, back to you now. walk us through why there is this public push now to start to try to undercut or discredit bob mueller's investigation rather than letting this play out behind closed doors. aapparently, the white house feels this behooves them to get out there and talk about mueller. >> so, i think this is the president sort of general dna. you know, he -- this is very normal in a legal environment for a defense team to be looking at their prosecutor and looking that prosecutor's team and looking at conflicts. and as a u.s. attorney, former

i have a relationship with john dowd and i'm going to work with john mcgann and other people to make sure we're handling ourselves in the most appropriate way possible. that's the most i can say about that. >> so then the follow-on was communications problems versus policy and political problems and the way you see that in the context of this president. >> well, long ago teddy roosevelt said that the presidency is a bully pulpit and that the president has a great gift in that he's able to control the news cycle and control the messaging. so i think if we get super coordinated around here with the president and we go back to what he did, some of the great successes that he had in the campaign and the transition, and even in the presidency, frankly, is delivering that message directly to the american people. so to me i think the policies are fantastic. i think he's done a phenomenal job. i think sarah read something that i totally believe is that he's doing a phenomenal job and we just need to get it out there a little bit more aggressively and we're going to try to do that. i'll take

. >>> and that statement there from john dowd, he has taken the lead on outside counsel's team amid some of the shuffling in the past 24 hours or so. president trump's long-time personal attorney mark kasowitz who had been the lead on that up front, he's going to see his role reduced just a little bit. and yesterday, brianna, as you mentioned, the team spokesperson strategist resigned. brianna, really it's not just the communications team shake up we're seeing around the white house. >> certainly isn't. diane gallagher, thank you for that. donald trump, jr. and paul manafort are up against a deadline as senate investigators determine whether they will testify under oath next week. let's check in with cnn senior congressional reporter manu raju. so, manu, has the senate judiciary committee heard from trump junior and manafort and are they expected to make good on these subpoena threats? >> reporter: well, brianna, we are expecting an announcement soon from the senate judiciary committee. i am told to expect an announcement about what will happen with donald trump, jr. and paul manafort ne

i have a relationship with john dowd, and i'm going to work with john again and other people make sure we're on message, handling ourselves in most appropriate way possible. that is best i can say about that. so -- i have not met ty. >> follow up, communications problems versus policy and political problems, the way you see that in the context of this president? >> we, not long ago, teddy roosevelt said the presidency is bully pulpit. the president has a great gift he is able to control the news cycle and control messaging. so i think if we get super coordinated around here with the president, we go back to what he did, some of the great successes he had in the campaign, transition, even presidency frankly, delivering that message directly to the american people. so to me i think policies are fantastic. i think he has done a phenomenal job. sarah read something i totally believe, is is that he is doing a phenomenal job. we need to get it out there a little more aggressive and we'll try to do that i have to go. [shouting questions] >> take one more. right there. >> thank you very much y

the john dowd part of his legal team was just on another morning show and said this reporting is complete nonsense? do you want to comment on this? >> i'm going to say, we stand by our reporting on this. and what is interesting, this is a kplaecompletely unsettled iss whether the president has pardoned hupardon ed himself. it has never been done, it has never been adjudicated, it would likely go straight to the supreme court. but in our reporting, we made it very clear. where they are on this is, the president wants to know what are his powers. where can he go? who can he pardon? and the reality is, he can pardon anyone. he can potentially even pardon himself, but the pardoneniing o hu himself is the part that would essentially throw this into a legal quagmire. it was be extraordinarily controversial. and even parting other people as a part of this case would be extraordinarily controversial. it would likely prompt, we know, based on the comments from lawmakers on the hill, it would prompt, you know, the congress to take their own actions to appoint another special counsel to basically ge

today the president's outside counsel john dowd called the post reporting, quote, nonsense. he also insisted that his legal team is not trying to discredit mueller's work, but in some -- but some in the white house, at least sure seem like they are. >> a lot of conflict. look, i think that's information that the public should have, maria. they should at least know transparency, accountability, who are these folks, the money they donated, the conflicts they may. >> annually named white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said today that she has no reason to doubt that the president has confidence in mueller and his investigation -- has lost confidence, i should say. even though the president just two days ago attacked mueller's credibility in an interview with "the new york times." but here we are, once again, inel totally uncharted r waters if and yes it is a big if, but if the president is serious about threatening mueller's investigation and if he's serious about rendering mueller powerless by pardon ong anyone implicated, and if his communications chief is going

and john dowd, who is kind of more of a veteran washington hand, who is going to be more of the work behind the scenes. >> rosalind, i notice that some of your sources, unnamed sources on this within the trump world, talking about the president's inquiries about his pardon authority, and specifically pardoning himself and his staff. some suggesting this is almost an academic inquiry. it's not really about anything specific that's happening to anyone in the family or the staff or the president now. what was your sense of what they were trying to convey about the level of seriousness of this inquiry? >> yeah, i think what you just described is a fair read of our reporting. our understanding is that there is no immediate rush to try to pardon himself or any particular belief at the moment that that's going to become necessary or is necessary. that rather this is a conversation about legal options of what the law allows. under what conditions can a president pardon someone? can he pardon a member of staff? can he pardon a member of his family? can he -- does the law allow him to pardon h

. >> people in the administration, i talked to john dowd who is now the president's lead lawyer on this. it was marc kazowits. their strategy is not to pick a fight with mueller's team. he has great respect with mueller. they're not focusing on those. at the same time i was talking to dowd about that kellyanne conway was on fox talking about the conflicts, talking about the witch hunt and about how this is all a hoax and the president talking to the "new york times" specifically bringing this issue up. so while the legal team might not be trying to poke the bear in mueller and say you have all of these conflicts and poke holes in any investigations he comes up with, there's certainly a group with inside the whitehouse that includes at least as of a few days ago, the president trying to put a little cloud around mueller's investigation. >> jeff: dan, your paper had this explosive information over night about the potential of pardons. i mean, that's a big word when you hear it. >> well, it is a big word and you know i think we should take it for what it is at this point. perhaps it is sim