prosecutor who tried and failed, who brought those charges and couldn't get a conviction his name was joseph di genovaorney for the district of columbia at the time. guess who just got hired as trump's new russia lawyer in the russia probe, joseph di genova the same guy. the guy who tried but ultimately failed to convict gorge nader on the charges. he's coming back into the eyes of the white house just as the public is learning all these details about george nader's criminal past. george nader, robert mueller's cooperating witness. i don't know if it's coincidence both of these things are coming to light at the same time. while the president and his lawyers make a hard turn against robert mueller and the special counsel's office, it is a little bit weird these two things are happening that joseph di genova's life is coming into -- his life is coming to light in these two different ways at the same time. but pay attention if george nader's criminal history starts to become less of a weird side store of the cooperating witness instead fuel it is white house's new offense against the special counsel inve

joseph di genova is familiar. he's been commenting on legal affairs on television more than he's handled them on television. here is his view of the president. >> there was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate hillary clinton, and if she didn't win the election, to then frame donald trump with a falsely created crime. everything we have seen from these texts and all the facts developing showing that the fbi and senior doj officials conspired to violate the law and to deny donald trump his civil rights. >> joining us now, barbara mcquade an nbc news contributor, david k. johnston, journalist, the author of the book "it's worse than you think" and michael isikoff, coauthor of the new book, "russian roulette" and michael, i'd like you to respond what you just heard from the latest member, the newest member of the trump legal team that all of this is a violation of the president's civil rights. >> seems insync with the president's tweets. no surprise. the way i interpret this, everybody looked at this is he going to f

. >> you have the dowd departure, then the rapid dismissals of joseph di genova and victoria tunsingeaves the president's legal team understaffed to say least essentially leaving ty cobb and jay sekulow running the mueller probe. what does he need to do to prepare a proper defense team here? >> he's going to need time. a lawyer that would walk into this case now would need weeks and weeks of preparation. especially when this potential testimony is coming up with mueller. mueller's team is a team of all-stars. they've been doing this for years if not decades. the idea a defense lawyer coming into that situation cold, i mean, we're all following it on the news but it's different to sit down with your client and start to have to review documents. can only imagine the amount of volume of documents and e-mails and text messages that lawyer's going to need to go through. they're going to need time to get up to speed. you know, what lawyer's willing to do that? i'm sure there are plenty of lawyers that ultimately will want to be involved in this. mr. trump obviously hasn't hit upon them yet

something we reported yesterday concerning president trump's newly hired long time washington lawyer joseph di genovahe was not a signed contributor of that net work. just a clarification. also this big story this morning, the senate majority leader and house speaker continue to say there is no need for legislation to protect the special counsel investigation. they're also sending a message to president trump to leave bob mueller alone. >> are you prepared to take any action to protect the special counsel? >> i just don't think it's necessary. i don't think bob mueller is going anywhere. i think there's widespread feeling and the present lawyers obviously agree that he ought to be allowed to finish the job. >> special counsel should be free to follow through his investigation to its completion without interference, absolutely. i am confident that he'll be able to do that. i've received assurances that his firing is not even under consideration. >> all right. meanwhile top senate republicans are warning president trump that he could be impeached if he fires mueller. senator jeff flake tweeted quote, w