howie: john dowd strongly denied the report. the president fired his va secretary david shulkin in favor of his doctor. what if trump has perfectly good reasons to fire him. the president declines to the hype over stormy daniels. >> he tweets about me bleeding badly from a facelift. that i show up at mar-a-lago bleeding from a facelift. he punches back object everything. but on stormy daniels, absolutely nothing. >> why isn't the president fighting back? he has had no problem doing it before. howie: the media tells us trump talks too much and tweets too many insults. roseanne makes a comeback 30 years later. now she is a big trump supporter fighting with her liberal sister. >> how could you have voted for him? >> he talks about jobs. he says he'll shake things up. >> this may come as a shock to you. we almost lost our house because of what's happening. >> have you looked at the news? things are worse. >> not on the real news. howie: how roseanne is connecting with viewers. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." we begin with

but the "new york times" based on three unnamed sources reported his former lawyer john dowd broached the subject of pardons for paul manafort and mike flynn. the white house is denying the story and dowd gave a flat discussion. as far as i know, no discussions. joining us, gail troasht. mara liasson, and jessica tarlov. so the "new york times" story would be significant if pardons were potentially being dangled in front of witnesses. how does it stack up against the

>> and john dowd said i've had enough. i've got a client that will not listen to what i am telling him. trump went out and said, yeah, i want to sit down with mueller and then dowd tried to put out a statement saying no, no, no, that's not going to happen, i will be the one doing the negotiations here. that's why he left. he couldn't control his client. >> you want to get in on this? >> no, that's -- mike's exactly right. i would just point out one thing when we're talking about cohen and whether mueller can flip him, he's a different -- >> don't you have to have some value to be flipped? what would he flipped for? just talking about the trump organization and the dirty business? >> my point is he's different than other people who are entangled in this investigation, flint, manafort. cohen has been with trump for years and years and years, he knows a lot. >> all right, when we come back, how the fate of embattled epa director scott pruitt has become a proxy war inside the west wing between donald trump's sense of loyalty a

president himself likes. >> so, just picking up where ashley left off, mike, that vanity fair reports john dowd, the last person to have this job, they write that dowd sounds baffled by how the hiring of rudy giuliani will advance trump's legal cause. i worked with him many years ago in the department of justice. i knew him a little bit when he was mayor of new york. i haven't talked to him yet. i've never done a case with him. i'm not aware of him defending a case so i don't know what he's going to do. it sounds like the baton isn't exactly being handed off with a vote of confidence. >> the problem here is that the president still really wants to go in and talks and they realize that he has to talk to bring an end to this. that if mueller is going to be done, they think the president is going to have to do this. the problem was dowd was not going to allow him to do it. he was not going to allow him to go in. he knew that it was a disaster waiting to happen. he knew the president was someone that could easily get distracted, would go on and on about different things. he was not prepared to do i

that has led to john dowd's departure from said legal team.o different schools of thought. one is there is some sense of relief that the president at least right now is not a target. that is perhaps good news. it's better than the al alternative. there's some suggestion that this is perhaps leading along the path to this cloud eventually lifting. there's also concern about some in the west wing and some outside trump allies that this is going to push the president -- this news will be dpre greeted by the president and he'll go too far, that he will take to twit toter to go after or sit down for the interview and make things much worse for himself. >> when china makes up its mind to flip sanctions on us, goods and services in this country could increase exponentially. a question i always try to ask, how did the trump agenda advance today? >> unclear. the president, when a big moment in the russia investigation comes, that's often linked to the kind of scatter shot performances like we saw today. the tariffs thing is still very much -- the reper

since then is when john dowd is gone. so who knows whether that's broken down as of this moment. >> jeremy bash, go big for me. what do we know as we send our viewers later in the hour off to their good night, what do we know tonight that we didn't know waking up today about the mueller investigation? >> that the president of the united states has engaged in conduct that is under investigation by the special counsel about his activity to potentially obstruct justice of the investigation of a conspiracy to violate federal election law to benefit the president. i think that's so huge, so enormous, unprecedented in our country. with bob here, i have to ask this important question, which is his reporting said that there would be a report about the president's conduct while in office, almost suggesting that mueller has said, while i might be able to prosecute the president for crimes committed as a private citizen and a candidate, as president i can't do that so that's going to go to congress for impeachment and removal consid

do you think it's a possibility that someone like john dowd could become a subject and need a lawyer himself, joyce? >> so, i don't think that we can rule that out. the timing of his departure on the heels of the news that he had dangled those pardons is certainly one piece of evidence from which you could conclude he had been told that there were problems coming down the road. the origin of that problem is that the pardon process is something -- and, nicolle, i'm sure you know this. you expect to see that process initiated someplace along the spectrum between the justice department and the counsel's office issuing pardons. you don't expect to see that happening with a lawyer in private practice who represents the president. it looks like the quintessential bribe. and i'm sure that mueller's team will take a good hard look at dowd, whether or not he becomes a subject in the investigation, it's really not even possible to speculate. >> frank figliuzzi, our viewers can't see you nodding, but i can. go ahead. >> there is some irony developing here which is that mueller is going to key i

john dowd, it was like what month did that happen? i think the story my colleagues broke about the dangling of a pardon is important because the white house has consistently said we're not talking about pardons. it's not on the table. and manafort and flynn, these guys don't have anything to give that's harmful to the president. and so the very fact that the president's lawyer is dangling this even if he was just doing this on his own shows there's at least some consideration going on, or there was some consideration going on about -- about what is our exposure here and what do these former senior advisers have to tell bob mueller, and is there a way to get ahead of that? and whether that's illegal, part of an obstruction case, who knows at this point? but it certainly goes to the consideration that's going on inside the trump team. >> tamara, we're led to believe they're still looking for lawyers. imagine what it would be, say nothing of the client, but this is a mature apparently leading to the final stages case. there's so much cat

you about this notion that people aligned with the president are saying publicly and privately, john dowd who was the president's lawyer reportedly left in part over a disagreement about this, that no one even on the president's side thinks that the president can be trusted to survive an interview with bob mueller. >> well, nicole, he can be -- he can survive it if he tells the truth. i mean, at least -- >> i guess the point is nobody thinks he's capable of telling the truth. >> well -- he seems to have struggled with that in the past. this is not a place where you walk in and make stuff up. for a whole bunch of reasons. including the fact that if you happen to be under oath, it can be perjury. and even if you're not under oath, nicole, you could be guilty of a different felony, making false statements to the fbi in the course of their investigation. so i could understand why some people wouldn't want their client going in under those circumstances, and frankly, this is a hard call for good attorneys when they have clients who are cooperative and listening. and that does not seem to be th

essentially that the president's lead lawyer, the main contact with the special counsel's office, john dowd, who resigned last month, actually resigned in a dispute over this interview which the president wants to do, and john dowd didn't want him to do and thought it would be legal jeopardy that he didn't need to create. >> was john dowd concerned the president would become a target of the investigation after he sat down with robert mueller's team? >> so my understanding from talking to multiple sources who talked to the president and talked to the president's lawyers is that dowd's concern was simple he did not believe the case was important or valuable or strong, and that he believed the president had no legal jeopardy. he believed the president could have if he misspoke under oath. and he reminded the presidentf all the people that have now pled guilty in the muellerbe to charges of making false statements. michael flynn, his formal national security adviser, george papadopoulos, rick gates, all of them have said now on the on the record that they engaged in the crime. >> natasha, what

but then john dowd, the president's recently departed russia attorney, he's also a veteran washington lawyer. he has worked and interacted with robert mueller for a long time. he has been telling the president do not put yourself at legal risk. you are a subject. remain a subject. if mueller wants to move forward, it's his decision not for you to have to answer questions sitting down in a room. >> lawyers like dowd and others have seen subjects move to targets as a result of doing these kinds of interviews. and that could be part of his advice perspective. but also, robert, i really want to emphasize the written report that you're talking about in your reporting tonight. and it indicates that the first report that the special prosecutor wants to issue is a report about donald trump's conduct in the presidency concerning the possibility of obstruction of justice. >> that is correct. it was difficult as reporter, lawrence, to really figure out how to balance all the news we have discovered over the past week. because this report is a major piece of news. yes, the way mueller is phrasing

maybe a reason john dowd is no longer the president's lawyer because john dowd -- he said i wrote thatweet. the tweet said, i had to fire flynn. >> because he lied to the fbi. >> because he lied to the fbi. now, that is not what trump ever claimed before, but it is -- he said he lied to the vice president. that's what was the claim. it's not a crime to lie to the vice president, but it is a crime to lie to the fbi. when the tweet says he lied to the fbi and that's why i fired him, it means that trump knew at least as evidence from this tweet. now, so did trump -- did comey with his notes, he says and go back to his published testimony before the senate. on the bottom of page 5 and the top of page 6, comey says from that february 14th conversation where trump said let flynn go, he says i spoke to the deputy attorney general who was at that time the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of virginia. >> dana boente. >> dana boente. so we don't -- i don't know that we've seen these notes from boente, but this -- what you've broken tonight suggests that boente was keeping these notes all a

no wonder his lawyer, john dowd, quit.uld not allow the present, if he were my client, to testify under these circumstances but then i wouldn't take the president for a client. >> evan, back over to you. on "the washington post" reporting, mueller is filing a report about the president's actions while in office. what more do you know about these reports? >> the first part of that would be some kind of report that looks at the obstruction picture. the question is, where would that report end up? he still reports to rod rosenstein, acting attorney general for the purposes of this investigation. the report would end up in his hands and then he would have to decide whether or not there's something to go forward on and whether to turn this over to congress. i think as the ambassador pointed out, a lot of -- the justice department regulations right now say that a sitting president cannot be indicted for a crime. therefore, the way this would be resolved is for congress to decide whether or not this is an impeachable offense. and

>> well, we know that he is being tasked as john dowd was before john dowd left earlier this month. he was being tasked as being the liaison between president trump and the special counsel investigation. i imagine that he will probably also have some involvement in whatever happens in the cohen investigation. we found out yesterday that rod rosenstein said the president is not a target. michael cohen is the sole target in that particular case. but guliani will be talking with mueller. one of the things they'll talk about is whether the president will have an interview with mueller. the president said rudy is great and he wants to get this matter resolved for the good of the country. guliani said yesterday in "the washington post," he has a lot of respect for robert mueller and he wants to resolve this quickly as well. so that's why guliani is being brought in. very powerful guy to bring in. a former adviser to president trump, former mayor of new york, form former attorney for the southern district of new york. >> jon: and he held the same job as the southern district attorney that

what's interesting about the news that came out this week about the subject and the fact that john dowd is no longer on the team is trump is -- needs a very experienced and qualified white collar defense lawyer to parse what that means. the land of subject is vast. you can be a subject much closer to a witness. you could be a subject much closer to a target. i think the president really needs someone who can understand that and parse that. >> are you saying he doesn't have that? five top notch legal firms have turned him down. >> i don't think now given this john dowd has left and ty cobb is representing the white house interest. my understanding is he does not have someone with a lot of white collar chops. >> let's talk a bit about paul manafort. we're continuing to hear news about paul manafort yet another search warrant for paul manafort. why is he still such major focus for this investigation? >> julie, i'm sorry. i'm looking at the camera. sdp >> i work a lot with carol. that's a compliment. paul manafort continues to be a focus. thinking back to the fall, we saw paul manafort the

. >> that would have been john dowd. >> right, that would have been john dowd's lawyer, the lawyer who been working on the russia indication for the president outside of the white house who has now left, so really the question is, is bob mueller looking at some of these actions that the president and his then lawyer took as he constructs an obstruction of justice case if that's where he's going to go. >> margaret, as part of the discussion everybody's having about russia, one of the crit sims of this president and the administration is that they haven't been tough enough on russia. we did see this week expelling 60 russians. do you see this as marking a different path in terms of trump's relationship and rhetoric on putin? >> i think you have to look at the rhetoric and the actions separately which is weird, but it's true, because the congress forced the president to go forward with these other sanctions last year. he was angry about it but it happened and they have begun to follow through on those. under h.r. mcmasters leadership and jim mattis at the pentagon, this administration has

there's been fluctuation, john dowd leaving and another lawyer or two coming on board to represent the president and that didn't work out. do we know if the president has had a meeting of the minds with his current russia legal team as to whether or not he should sit for an interview or is there still disagreements there? >> so what we learned in our reporting and that is shared for the first time in this story tonight is that there was some fairly significant and sharp disagreement. john dowd, according to close friends of the president, was counseling the president that he should absolutely not do the interview all caps. do not do the interview with bob mueller's team. however, we're told that white house attorney ty cobb and co-council jay seculo, the president's personal legal team, believe the president should do this interview and now, my understanding is that they are leaning in that direction. dowd resigned as a result of feeling the president was not listening to him. >> bringing the two elements of your reporting tonight together, there always is the possibility even if someb

donald trump has lost all of his balances, his guardrails, hope hicks is not there, john dowd is not there, all of the quote, unquote adults are leaving, he's firing people he doesn't like, he's replacing them. john kelly doesn't have influence any longer. it feels like it's always been chaotic in this white house, but this has got to be the most chaotic yet. >> reporter: it's certainly chaotic and we also learned that tom bossert is out today, this is someone widely regarded as being effective in his job, just one more person, one more indication that the president's inner circle is narrowing. important to point out, john bolton, the incoming national skirt advisor is bringing in his own team, which is why we're seeing tom bossert leaving. as well as the search of michael cohen's hotel room. he called this a witch hunt, so the question becomes is he going to fire his deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and move to try to get robert mueller ousted. i've been speaking to officials here at the white house, sarah sanders says, look, the president's comments stand on their own. not in

the president's own lawyer john dowd now stands possibly accused of that very same thing saying to somesses in the investigation against trump, hey, you know, would you like that get out of jail free card from the president? again, these aren't facts, just news reports at this point, but if true, mueller has a serious and strong case. >> i also have to ask you about rod rosenstein, a top doj official, just like you were. reportedly telling more than one person that he's prepared to be fired. that he would be at peace with that and stands by his role. if he goes any time soon, do you view that as potentially part of a saturday night massacre event? >> i do, but i think he can't go for a couple of weeks. the justice department supreme court today announced mr. rosenstein will be arguing a u.s. supreme court case in about two weeks. and i think it would be the height of impropriety to try and remove him before that case is argued. now, you know, mr. trump hasn't exactly shown solicitude toward the justice department so lord knows he could do anything. but, boy, i think that would be a horr

that's kind of the question that napatlatono and john dowd. you heard the clip. he'll go in there and get himself in trouble answering the questions. the only way he gets in trouble is if he lies. basically this is an admission that the man cannot answer honestly. that meter means he's a congenital liar, we know that's true. >> it's almost the insanity defense. >> let me take josh -- >> he can't tell the difference between reality and fantasy. that may come in handy later on. >> josh, i want to take you back to your experience with the presidency. and that is the president brings his whole life into the presidency. whether he likes it or not, there are going to be some uncomfortable associations that may come up s. and to sit here tonight with the special prosecutor zeroing in on michael cohen, for you in a general shape of things way, may not be that surprising. someone the president has been associated with for years and years and years coming into the focus of the special prosecutor who is studying everything about donald trump. >> lawrence, this is i think, a

at the same time, they know that john dowd, the resigned lawyer from the legal team, is very sensitive behind the scenes of being seen as someone who is even dangling pardons. the idea of dangling pardons is legally troublesome for many of these attorneys, to be messing with the criminal justice process. and so conversations, there are more allusions than conversations at time. >> robert costa, thank you so much. >>> when we come back, the dominos are falling. that's how a new piece in the washington post today describes the news that play boy play mate karen mcdougal is now free to tell her story about an alleged romantic relationship with donald trump, the man who may have had a hand in knocking over that first domino, michael avenatti, attorney for stormy daniels joins me next live. ♪ ♪ ♪ no matter when you retire, your income doesn't have to. see how lincoln can help ensure you still have income every month of your retirement, guaranteed, at lincolnfinancial.com. no one thought much of itm at all.l people said it just made a mess until exxonmobil scientists put it to the test. they

president would sit down with robert mueller, i'm told that while that and the abrupt departure of john dowdhis lead outside counsel slowed things down a little bit. in no way did it halt the idea of the president sitting down with mueller. and those discussions are still underway. among many of the president's supporters, that cohen raid said to them do not, whatever you do sit down with mueller. but i'm told this afternoon, neil, that those conversations are still ongoing. >> neil: now, just to be very clear, john, is it your sense now that whatever happens in both of these investigations either mueller where the cohen thing is going have eased up the pressure on people like mitch mcconnell who have ignored it and tried to bat it back from some fellow republicans to protect rosenstein and mueller from firings? these developments might make it a moot point. >> yeah. well, you know, congress got some indications clearly last week that the president wasn't thinking of firing rosenstein or mueller which is why they didn't see any need to pursue that legislation. if i were a betting man, neil,

so far, five top notch legal firms have turned him down. >> i don't think right now after john dowd hashat ty cobb is really representing the white house's interests in this investigation, my understanding is he does not have a very -- jay sekulow is more of a constitutional lawyer and my understanding is he does not have someone with a lot of white collar chops. >> let's talk a little bit about paul manafort. we're continuing, carol, to hear news about paul manafort. yet another search warrant for paul manafort. why is he still such a major focus or seem to be such a major focus for this investigation? julia? i'm sorry. i'm looking at the camera. >> i work a lot with carol. that's a compliment. paul manafort, of course continues to be a focus. it's funny, katy, thinking back to the fall, we saw paul manafort as the first person to be charged in this along with his partner rick gates. it's been a really long time where we tried to figure out why manafort hasn't agreed to cooperate in the same way rick gates has. we're assuming rick gates is cooperating because of his guilty plea, but it

chief counsel in the russia probe john dowd is out, and va secretary shulkin. let's watch more of the interview. the tv president does enjoy the optics of one of his people that serve him dancing for their life. let's watch a little more. >> have you made mistakes? >> i think this is something that needs to be corrected. >> it was a mistake? >> it was a mistake by my team. >> do you take responsibility? >> i'm fixing it. >> do you take responsibility? >> i'm fixing the problem. >> do you think that's going to do it? >> the president is not to rabt of these scandals. he tends to not like when the spotlight is taken off of him and his staffers messing up. it is important to know this is fox news. we've often given fox a hard time on this show, but that was henry. >> the idea of dancing for his life, the white house didn't want to do any interviews. their strategy, this is something you and i in politics, this is something we tell people to do. he wanted to hunker down and see if it would pass. that seems to be a political consolidate strategy that really has work

. >> right, and he's had -- he's had trouble finding a replacement for john dowd, you know, essentially alan dershowitz seems to be working as pro bono volunteer legal counsel for donald trump, you know, through the medium of cable television. so trump is already, you know, down to a pretty thin bench when it comes to lawyers. but bannon going back to his time in the white house, they've done a lot of battle with some of these folks. so, as always, has his own axe to grind. >> it's also interesting that bannon has been interviewed by mueller. and as you said, was previously arguing the opposite position, essentially. >> yeah, i think that's right. i mean, bannon's hope, as i think this is also john dowd's hope, was that, you know, if trump was cooperative and didn't fight mueller's investigation, that that would hasten the investigation. it would wrap up, and it would exonerate or absolve trump of any kind of collusion with russia or at least any kind of a legal problem. now, there seems to be a case building toward obstruction of justice or maybe something in the financial area. for ba

you get the sense that that strained things beyond repair with the president's former lawyer now, john dowd? >> based on our reporting it was certainly a factor in mr. dowd's departure from the legal team. his dagreement with the president about whether to pursue a sit-down with the mueller investigation. at the same time, we're told by white house officials and friends of the president that he at times seems to almost vent about the probe and growls about it to his allies. he also seems to relish the fact that he is a subject, but of course some of his lawyers say being a subject is not the perfect position to be in. and so he seems torn privately, we are told, about what his status is, about what it all means for him. >> joyce, let me bring you in on this line of questioning. this idea that there was relief expressed and shared with members of the media, this was what i heard from two or three outside allies of the president's today. at least he wasn't a target. it seems like being a target is the very last thing that happens before one is indicted and once you are a target, you almost ne

his main lawyer on the russia case, john dowd, resigned left the team a couple of weeks ago, and thepresident has not replaced him. the president has been agitated, angry, fuming. especially about that comey book, the excerpteds of which came out on thursday. >> phil, i want to ask about one particular part. he is talking about that infamous dossier and one detail in particular. let's take a listen. >> we started talking about investigating that. i said, sir is, that's up to you. but you want to be careful about that because it might create a narrative that we are investigating you personally. second, it is very difficult to prove something didn't happen. i don't know about prostitutes being on each other. >> i saw the tweet with the capitals and exclamation points. how much is this book bothering, preoccupying the president? >> a lot. especially the personal nature of what comey writes about in the interview with george stephanopoulos. it was the first briefing he had with president trump at trump tower. he told them about the dossier of donald trump engaging. those are unconfirmed.

john dowd, it was like what month did that happen? i think the story my colleagues broke about the dangling of a pardon is important because the white house has consistently said we're not talking about pardons. it's not on the table. and manafort and flynn, these guys don't have anything to give that's harmful to the president. and so the very fact that the president's lawyer is dangling this even if he was just doing this on his own shows there's at least some consideration going on, or there was some consideration going on about -- about what is our exposure here and what do these former senior advisers have to tell bob mueller, and is there a way to get ahead of that? and whether that's illegal, part of an obstruction case, who knows at this point? but it certainly goes to the consideration that's going on inside the trump team. >> tamara, we're led to believe they're still looking for lawyers. imagine what it would be, say nothing of the client, but this is a mature apparently leading to the final stages case. there's so much cat

we know that his attorney john dowd reached out to mike flynn and paul manafort through their counsel and dangled the idea of pardons in front of both of those people. if anyone in the president's inner circle knew about those conversations and knew that he was offering those pardons or raising the prospect of those pardons, to try to keep them from testifying, that could be another potential act of obstruction of justice by the president. >> so, harry, we've got the scooter libby pardon. we've got what matt miller just referenced. the dangling of pardon in front of former attorney john dowd and we have the president tweeting about pardons. if you're the mueller team and you're investigating potential obstruction of justice, do you have a team looking at pardons? >> not only do i, but mueller does. the indications are he's going to be giving a report that will have four different counts, as it were, of possible obstruction. there is the air force one incident. the firing of comey. there's the pressure on sessions. and the fourth is this dangling of pardons. as matt says, although he's

. >> brennan: referring to john dowd?> if you're looking for the truth then you go where it leads. there's no doubt that if you look at the actual evidence on both of those situations, it is clear trey gowdy was looking for the truth. one of the reasons i talk about that in the book, benghazi story is because to watch the weight of the investigation on his face and shoulders and on that hair that is now whiter than snow, it is because he did not want to be a partisan. his objective was to be a prosecutor working for the truth and present the evidence to the american people and let that jury decide. >> brennan: in reading this book, it sounds -- it's clear the affects you have for each other and congressman, you seem very supportive of the senator and him staying in washington though you say you're going back home. people are going to ask the question of whether you are going to make a run for office. i know you're not going to want to answer it, but congressman, should he run for president in 2020? >> i don't know about 2

it raised all sorts of questions about whether or not john dowd might need an attorney to protect him from any suggestion that he was engaged in witness tampering. >> it's remarkable when you look at not only the people who ended up being legally vulnerable and potentially in jeopardy just because the president continued to speak about the russia probe when he wasn't supposed to, was instructed by his legal team not to. so, he exposed, let's say, people like hope hicks and those advisors and close staff around him. >> his own white house counsel. >> but then in addition you have people willing to actually put themselves, willingly like michael cohen, into legal peril for donald trump. and in this situation we've also seen really an aggressive number of people willing to lie to the fbi, which indicates they didn't know what mueller had and they got caught for lying to the fbi. michael cohen today was raided in two locations for something we know is beyond the stormy daniels nondisclosure agreement which might be an in-kind contribution and might violate a campaign finance law. this is

trey gowdy had said to john dowd. if your client is innocent, why don't you act like it? where they are now. they have to come up with this nonsense and gowdy today, along with bob goodlet, taking a deal with the justice department where they get 400000 documents out of 1.2 million that they have been asking for for six months. what in the world are they thinking? >> they may be naive and gullible if they think they will get what they deserve the the department and justice has awe long hospital of the hiding evidence and covering up wrongdoing and there is plenty to cover up here. and i wonder how many documents they eventually will be getting is react dakted and the other documents are buried in a vault and oh, we don't know anything about it. >> these two chairman of over sight, gowdy would agree to a deal of a third and when they have a responsibility of oversight of justice in the fbi. >> they should get all of it. >> and absolutely. if let's turn to if we may, the revelation that andrew mccabe. andrew mccabe was told and call would by a high department justice offici

john dowd wanted to avoid an interview with miller. believing if your risk of criminal prosecution is low, why walk into it. ty cobb has been counseling if the president doesn't interview, he and ty cobb are confident they can have no intent to obstruct justice and mueller can complete that portion of the probe. then the cloud could perhaps be lifted. the fact that dowd resigned and cobb is still on board, gives us a clue. do an interview and it could get the trump part closed. >> shannon: white house aides seem to be clarifying exactly what the president meant today when he declared that he wanted to send the military to the border. >> democrats basically freaked out, suggesting the president is sending active duty military to the border. that is prohibited by law. they can't get involved in domestic law enforcement. tonight officials are making clr . president talking about mobilizing national guard to secure southern border, done in smaller doses by barack obama and george w. today is he may be looking at a more aggressive approach.

exaggerating to put it politely so his legal team is in something of disarray john dowd one of his lawyers recently left so what we don't know is whether trump will testify if he does and there is any issue of perjury miller can follow that up as well and that would be very serious for this administration. john hendren in washington thank you. with al-jazeera much more still to come the damn control the sea on the nile in egypt sudan in ethiopia discuss who controls the wilds longest river. and south korea has disgraced former president prepares to face to face live on television as the course is set to hand down its takes. hello we've seen some pretty heavy spring showers into central southern parts of china recently on a cloud hey united system what's the weather there across central parts pushing over towards the eastern side of the country but if i'm trying to say now seventy five millimeters of rain in twenty four hours and that lot of wet weather continues in place as we go on through friday snow over the high ground and i just don't do it around fourteen degrees celsius eighteen cel

with special counsel robert miller as investigation into possible collusion with russia lead lawyer john dowd resigned last month off to clashing with the president over the munna probe. still ahead. anger on the streets of santa golf's capital that car is possible changes to the constitution. and german police investigate an apparent anti semitic attack as concerns rise that jews are being increasingly targeted. however we're looking at some welcome sallis into eastern parts of australia over the next few days you've had a few showers here recently new south wales you can see how the the thunderheads have been erupting away because there was some wetter weather into that eastern side of victoria is one of them to see too much of that over the next hour so we can see the possibility of a few showers into the eastern areas of new south wales is generally dry across much of australia might catch your child just creeping towards adelaide thames is in perth around twenty one celsius picking up to around twenty four for sas they are going to stay strong in driving right across the country as we go

>> remember he came on board as the president's head attorney replacing john dowd. there was a meeting between mueller and giulani and seemed to indicate to mueller that the president was willing to consider that interview although we know from reporting over the last few weeks serve since the raids against michael cohen, trump has been hostile of the idea of doing the interview with mueller. let's see if he does it. it may be a game that giuliani is playing and then provide trump an explanation and excuse if it were to decide ultimately not to do it. >> joyce, as the former fed on this panel, it is clear that he has been anxious to get his side of the story out and talk about his exploits and talks on behalf of his client. if you are mueller or the mueller team, how do you react to seeing a once private meeting on a tuesday afternoon come out in the press closer to wednesday? >> you expect that it's going to happen. that's been the trajectory of this entire investigation. i think mueller like most prosecutors is happy to try his cases in the courtroom and leave it

trey gowdy had said to john dowd, if your client is something to this effect, if your client is innocent don't you act like it. and i thought that's where they are now. they've got to. >> right. lou: they've got to come up with this nonsense. and gowdy today, along with bob goodlatte, taking a deal with the justice department apparently where they get 400,000 documents out of 1.2 million that they've been asking for six months. what in the world are they thinking . >> well they may be a little naive and gullible if they think they're going to get what they deserve. because the department of justice has a long distinguished history of hiding evidence, covering up wrongdoing. and there's plenty to cover up here. so i wonder how many of these documents they eventually get will be so redacted they are unreadable or how many other comes are going tdocuments are d in a vault somewhere. o, we don't any anything about it. lou: it's stunning that these two chairman men, goodlatte and gowdy would agree to a deal where they get a third of what they ask for when nay have a responsibility. >> right.