but for whatever reason, the justice department is losing its yoda at a time when the justice department is under a sustained, pointed aggressive partisan attack from the president of the united states and republican members of congress. so now what happens? joining us now is leon napok, a staff writer for slate. he wrote that aforementioned profile of scott schools last year, which was headlined the most important unknown person in d.c. as the russian investigation deepens, scott schools has become the conscience of the justice department. mr. nneyfakh, thank you very much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> it's the run that has -- because you figured out who he was and what he was doing. >> it's the only one. >> but you win. what's your reaction to him leaving and has anything evolved since you -- since you wrote this last year, last summer? >> has anything happened since then? >> yeah, in terms of understanding his role. >> well, i was surprised. i would assume that he came to this job in october of 2016 thinking he would stay in it for many, many years. his predecessor, davi

why is it the justice department, why isn't the defense department reacting to that's very open question why in the hell did the president of the united states permit that? ed: we found out hillary clinton was never under real investigation in those hearings. we found out today that the justice department and defense department basically are not -- the president needs to get back here and grab hold of these people and straighten them out. he's doing a great job but he's getting undercut and his story is being stepped on to some extent. lou: the white house spokesman talking like he was work for an h.r. department saying we were not accused of anything by the special counsel or department of justice. who the hell cares? it's about national security. ed: i agree totally. i have spent 50 years of my life in politics and white house politics. i'm appalled by the lack of communication. lou: what can the president do with the department of justice and the fbi? ed: he has to sit down with the attorney general and everybody else over there and say i want this straightened out. lou: do you think

but for whatever reason, the justice department is losing its yoda at a time the justice department is under a sustained pointed aggressive partisan attack from the president of the united states and republican members of congress. so now what? he wrote the profile for scott schools last year which is dlinled the most important under known person in d.c. as the russia investigation deepens. thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> i say this is the most important profile of scott schools because it was the only one. >> the only one. >> what is your reaction to him leaving? and has anything evolved since you, since you wrote this last year? last summer? >> has anything happened since then? >> in terms of his role. >> i would assume he came into this job thinking he would stay in it many, many years. his predecessor was in the job over 20 years. i speck scott schools who is being grouped for replacing him thought he had a good future. he didn't know president trump would be elected. mabel he took a different job. there are no instigating disputes, no duress that went to his exit. it see

lou: good evening everybody, top stories, department of justice, fbi have confirmed most of us pleased for the past year and more, political corruption in the highest levels of obama fbi and department of justice permitted creation of the special counsel, the endless so-called investigation of the trump campaign and administration in what has become a futile effort to prove what never existed, collusion with the russians in case you have forgotten the original idea of it all. all of what we thought we knew we now know for sure. all confirmed in hundreds of pages of documents turned over by the fbi to the watchdog group "judicial watch." tens of thousands of redactions to carter page fisa warrant, exposed truth, president obama, his justice department, his fbi, yes, his fisa courts cooperated to spy on the trump presidential campaign and administration. based solely on pretext and no evidence whatsoever. "judicial watch"'s chris farrell joins us to talk about the bombshell document that "judicial watch" brought to light. the president tonight is considering whether to lift security clea

lou: i think just this corrupt justice department and corrupt fbi. not about the entire executive branch, this specific. politicalization of the justice department, i mean corruption is replete throughout the organization, this president at some point has to clean it up. >> with last administration, the irs obstructing congress, this administration have you doj again and fbi. it is this attitude went agencie to be played with and gamed out in a way -- >> why not? they are playing for most part with fools. with inert objects that do not want to move ahead in confrontation with the executive branches, justice department. this president owns it now. this was obama corruption, his political arm, justice department and fbi. this president is only one who will be able to clean it up, tom fenton. >> thank you, lou. lou: up next, president and his staff spending another day as target of national left wing media. >> is the president delusional or lying? and i -- you know that not mutually exclusive. >> he keeps gravitating toward his real impulse, to not want

that is how the american people expect their department of justice to operate and that is how our departmentto operate. in our justice system, everyone who is charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. it should go without saying that people who are not charged with a crime also are presumed innocent. the indictment was returned today because prosecutors determined that the evidence was sufficient to present these allegations to a federal grand jury. our analysis is based solely on the facts, the law, and department of justice policies. i briefed president trump about these allegations earlier this week. the president is fully aware of the department's actions today. in my remarks i have not identified the victims. we confront foreign interference in american elections. it's important for us to avoid thinking politically, as republicans or democrats, and instead to think patriotically as americans. our response must not depend on which side was victimized. the internet allows foreign adversaries to attack america in new and unexpected ways. free and fair electi

running the show. >> yeah, yeah, the justice department has very little to do with justice right now and all about politics. it is beyond splpoliticized. there's no question and for christopher ray to sit there in aspen and answer a question as he did, he's not an artful or imaginative person. that was the worse answer given what he knows about what's going on. >> the top leadership of the fbi, comey, fired for misconduct. mr. mccabe fired for misconduct both under criminal investigation. top leaders of the fbi moved an out or demoted or fired and the very individuals behind the mueller investigation and mr. ray think it's no big deal and they're off to be no accountability for having this evidence and these now contents in the fbi that wanted to get trump and be involved in his investigation and when mueller fired or removed strok he did not say anything until exposed by congress. >> he was sent off to the hr department. when you figure out he's involved in a relationship with the deputy director's leading attorney, in violation of all the regulations of the justice department he's

yates, the former deputy attorney general of the united states, she's a career prosecutor and justice department 34r0i years service at justice before she was fired by the president in january, 2017. miss yates, i have really been looking forward to talking to you. >> thanks for having me. >> i know you don't do a ton of interviews so i realize it is an act of trust and i appreciate it. let me start by talking a little about mike flynn. he's waiting sentencing now. he has pled guilty to lying to the fbi. you've testified to the senate and you've done several public interviews and you've talked about the circumstances in which you brought the warning to the white house. right at the start of the trump administration. is there anything you can tell us now, or even just remind us now, about the urgency with which you warned the white house about him? for me, i'm asking because of this persistent mystery about why the white house waited so long, waited 18 days before they took any action in response to your warning. is there anything you can tell us that might shed light on why that happened? >> no,

what makes it worse is the justice department briefed him on this. and the other day, if you recall, he mentioned to reporters, i'm going to ask your favorite question, your favorite question, about meddling. and then he said it all again today, as if he were just dismissive, dismissive of it. and he knew this. and it just doesn't make any sense. his justice department has presented him with incontrovertible evidence here, and a grand jury indictment of key putin advisers, aides, military men, intelligence officers, who wouldn't do any of this without the permission and the encouragement of vladimir putin. and it's just stunning that he would be so dismissive of mueller's work. >> hold that thought, michael. we're going to take a quick break. there's a lot in the indictments. the shocking information about who one congressional candidate reached out to in 2016 to get dirt on their opponent. that's next. >>> plus we're going to talk with the hillary clinton campaign manager about the campaign's e-mails being targeted. stay with us. hi i'm joan lunden.

at the justice department. we've talked about this nomination a few times on the show. it is now happening. this is trump administration's nominee to run the criminal division at the justice department. a super important job. super high profile job. robert mueller is famous for having been previous director of the fbi. before he was director of the fbi, he had this job. he led the criminal division at the justice department. the current director of the justice department, christopher wray, he was running the criminal division at the justice department. it's a very senior, very important, very hands-on job. you oversee all criminal prosecutions for the u.s. department of justice. you oversee hundreds of prosecutors. and those nuts and bolts responsibilities of this very big job, those are part of why the trump administration's nominee for this job has been an odd choice all along. >> here's the question we ask. you are seeking the position of assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division with 600

clearly that's someone known to the justice department. and so we're waiting for that shoe to drop whenever the justice department chooses to drop it. and then there's the unnamed american who plays a starring, if somewhat romantically tragic role. in the maria butina case. these only russian who has been arrested and held in u.s. custody. we expect to see her back this court in a few days. since her indictment, the "washington post" has added some reporting about u.s. person one who was described as a co-conspirator with her in that indictment. she's charged in that indictment with operating as a secret agent of the russian federation in this country. u.s. person one has been identified in multiple news reports. he is paul ericson, a conservative political activist for the strongest story in republican politics. he was described in court by the defense lawyer as her boyfriend. that said, prosecutors have alleged in their court filings that it might not actually be true love. that they have documentation that at least from her perspective,

that is how the american people expect their department of justice to operate, and that is how our departmentin our justice system, everyone who's charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. it should go without saying that people who are not charged with a crime also are presumed innocent. the indictment was returned today because prosecutors determined that the evidence was sufficient to present these allegations to a federal grand jury. our analysis is based solely on the facts, the law, and department of justice policies. i briefed president trump about these allegations earlier this week. the president is fully aware of the department's actions today. in my remarks, i have not identified the victims. when we confront foreign interference in american elections, it's important for us to avoid thinking politically as republicans or democrats and instead to think patriotically as americans. our response must not depend on which side was victimized. the internet allows foreign adversaries to attack america in new and unexpected ways. free and fair elections are a

>> i think he's declaring the department of justice independence. ink he's doing it in the way the department can, which is with facts. they can't come out and defend themselves against the president's attacks by talking about what they're investigating. they can't leak things out, but they can roll out indictments when they have them. and it wasn't a coincidence that the indictment was released on friday, before this big summit. you know, i don't know that they've scheduled it for the three days before the summit, but they obviously knew it was happening and they didn't delay it. there is no reason they needed to have it on friday versus this week. >> that would have been something they could have faced criticism from the other side, right? if they delayed it to make the president look good in russia. >> they absolutely could have. one of the things rosenstein said on friday that i thought was so powerful, which is we had named the victims of the hack in the indictments. they were obviously hillary clinton and the clinton campaign because we thought

in the justice department or the fbi.t seems like the only possible conclusion that we can reach. >> at this point you don't need to show up at these hearings and take the fifth. just don't show up at all. you might be found? contempt. the justice has an awful record of enforcing contempt charges. this justice department refused to do it against loretta lynch. they refused to do it against eric holder. what congress can do and your listeners might be shocked to learn this and they don't want you to know they can do this. they can enforce contempt on their own. if the house found themes individuals in contempt they could ordinarier the sergeant-at-arms to ad they could order the agent at arms to arrest them. lou: that would screw up his access to tremendous amounts of money. he doesn't want to injure his prospects by enforcing the law and doing the right thing. >> we know the leadership of both parties don't want to do this at all. that's why the voters need to be educated about what the congress can do. lou: i know you do

department of justice, he's also basically robert mueller's boss, in charge of overseeing the specialounsel's investigation. because of that general rosenstein has been under house attack from house republicans trying to protect the president by undermining the mueller investigation however they can. the most controversal way they have approached that thus far by demanding the justice department hand over lots of secret law enforcement sensitive material from the ongoing investigation so congress can get ahold of it and so in many cases it can either be made public or presumably given to the white house for their defense or both. we've been watching that for months. now, republicans in congress have gone to a new level, pro trump republicans in congress late tonight introduced articles of impeachment against deputy general rod rosenstein accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors, both crimes, high crimes and misdemeanors. these congressional republicans are allege ing five articles of impeachment rod rosenstein has failed to respond to their demands to hand over justice department

false, according to his own justice department. the president saying the hacks weren't necessarily done by the russians. false, according to his own justice department. this tweet from two years ago, the joke in town, russia leaked the e-mails. stupid because putin likes me. that's not a joke. the president's allies suggesting all sorts of conspiracy theories of who it might have been, instead of the russians including the murdered staffman. all the theories false and, frankly, hideous. justice schneider picks up the coverage on the indictment. >> reporter: tonight, 12 russian intelligence officers charged with hacking into the e-mail servers of the democratic party and hillary clinton campaign and stealing u.s. voter data during the 2016 election. >> we know, according to the allegations, the goal was to impact the elections. >> reporter: the 20-page document shows how they were associated to the campaigns. this was the e-mail hillary clinton campaign chairman john podesta received asking him to click a link to change a pass word.

the justice department is supposed to take the case over, but if the justice department doesn't do it, congress is an independent branch of government. it can hold somebody in contempt. it can literally order the person to go into the basement jail cell and then that person would have to go to court to seek a writ of habeas corpus. it's almost never done. it was done in the 19th century but it's rarely done today. it is rare that the justice department doesn't go after somebody and enforce a subpoena. we may see a conflict between the justice department and the legislative branch, but in the end, the legislative branch must enforce its own subpoenas and the justice department must comply otherwise the separation of powers and checks and balances -- it's really in trouble. >> laura: it has been thwarted all along, this problem on the congressional side. a lot of people watching right now are thinking the name lisa page, why is she important? they forget what happened with the text messages. that sent off so many alarm bells. i want to review this. march 3, 2016. the heat of the preside

the process and the one who has to interact with congress. >> a congressional aide said the justice department provided more records and asked for more time. a spokesman for the intelligence committee went ful further sayig the department is not until compliance. david: thank you very much. joining me now, pennsylvania congressman keith rough fuss. he serves on the house committee on financial services. great to see you, congressman. thank you for being here. >> good to be here with you tonight and again very troubling that the department of justice and fbi are again dragging their feet. david: it was the last time you were here, the same thing happened. this has to stop, right? >> new memos are being reviewed. and there's a memo in between where strzok is e-mailing somebody saying vis-a-vis mccabe and having mccabe review the fie so warrant and hurry the f up. what is going on and why are they waiting forever to produce the documents. we have a legitimate oversight of the executive branch and they're dragging their feet. the inspector general who put his 500-page report, wh horowitz report pr

first, let's go to our justice department, jessica schneider. jessica, this new indictment in the mueller probe is very, very detailed. >> it is, wolf. it spells out the great lengths 12 russian intelligence officers allegedly took to hack democratic e-mail accounts and then blast out those e-mails on websites those russians created. and while those russian officers tried to conceal their identities, the justice department in this indictment is now spelling out who they were and what they allegedly did. tonight, 12 russian intelligence officers are charged with hacking into the e-mail servers of the democratic party and the hillary clinton campaign, plus stealing u.s. voter data during the 2016 election. >> we know according to the allegations in the indictment the goal of the conspirators was to have an impact in the election. >> reporter: the 29-page indictment details how the russians targeted more than 300 people associated with democratic campaign committees and the hillary clinton campaign. this was the e-mail hillary clinton campaign chai

long before -- the party was supporter of the justice department, the fbi.ere accused of being weak on that. the other thing people aren't talking about which you alluded to in a subtle way before is that as soon as the justice department hands over this document, the staff in the house committee will look at it and decide what goes immediately to the washington post, what immediately goes to "the new york times," that jeopardizes the security of people and because rosenstein knows as soon as he gives it over, it goes immediately -- >> fox news, they're worried about the disinformation campaign. they're worried about the pipeline between what they turnover to these house members and it ends up in a graphic called mueller's mob family on fox news. they're not worried -- >> that's right. >> i didn't hear any concern about what the washington post does with information that comes out through their public affairs office. i think they're concerned and i think the reason rosenstein was so assertive on the hill yesterday and the reason you see them finally sort of

the courts as well as the justice department should be an arm of the white house. just last month the justice department said it would no longer have protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions. that's an extraordinary step that goes way against what the justice department has done before but it follows the dictates of the white house. i've been here for the last 17 nominations to the supreme court, including every sitting member of the court. whether you consider roe v. wade or affordable healthcare, marriage equality, voting rights, so much more, i've never seen so much at stake with just one seat. unlike said republicans have mounted an unprecedented, shameful blockade of chief judge garland to the court. we democrats actually take our constitutional obligation seriously. i'm going to withhold my consent for this nominee or any of the nominee who seeks to reverse 45 years of settled law protecting of women's right to make her own health decisions, who intends to strip away insurance protection for millions of americans with pre-existing additions

i was chairman of the oversight committee, seeking documents from the department of justice. whether it's attorney general sessions, lynch or holder, i can't tell the difference. that department of justicely no will not and does not allow congress to see what they're allowed to see under our constitution. this is on the heels of a 550-page inspector general's report really taking to task the fbi. they're in shatters. they should be able to see this. in the case of hillary clinton's e-mail case, it's a closed case, no charges, five people with immunity, why can't they see the documents. yet rod rosenstein is the key person sitting in that position. and if the speaker and kevin mccarthy want to say no, that's too extreme. then what's their game plan to actually allow congress to do its oversight duty. lou: rosenstein it seems is both an actor and potentially the target of any information. he signed one of the four fisa warrants. he is the man who selected robert mueller. he is the guy pulling the trigger on the special counsel and yet he is involved in so many aspects and elemen

at the time, though, the reagan administration wouldn't hire anybody in the justice department who haddmitted to smoking marijuana and they never asked him that question apparently when he went to work at the reagan justice department. so, he went by the wayside, but stayed a distinguished federal judge. that left -- they really -- they needed to pick somebody and it was, you know, it was time. and justice kennedy got the nod and he was a pretty conservative guy. and they looked at all of his writings and they were concerned about his -- some footnote that he wrote about respect for privacy, but they decided to overlook it and there were people in the administration later who didn't like the fact that they had overlooked it. i mean, they thought that was a bad thing. >> and just -- i would add two things to that. number one, remember that justice kennedy we talk about today is not the one that came onto the court back in 1988. secondly, you had this sort of more moderate push. once bork got shot down, the next nominee was conservative. >> the democrats controlled the senate. >> it's no

now, the department of justice is out with a new strategy on cyber security.ut it's going to be very difficult to implement as the administration loses cyber experts left and right, and don't forget, not all the agencies and the president are on the same page. just a couple of days ago, the president said no. russia is no longer trying to meddle. yes, sir, they are. we're going to break down the new dog report. you're watching "velshi & ruhle." duncan just protected his family with a $500,000 life insurance policy. how much do you think it cost him? $100 a month? $75? $50? actually, duncan got his $500,000 for under $28 a month. less than a dollar a day. his secret? selectquote. in just minutes, a selectquote agent will comparison shop nearly a dozen highly-rated life insurance companies, and give you a choice of your five best rates. duncan's wife cassie got a $750,000 policy for under $22 a month. give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford. when did you see the sign? when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workf