lawrence walsh -- solid guy. not a democrat, not somebody who is going to be looking to nail reagan. they really changed their mind about walsh as things occurred, as events transpired, and as the months and the years passed and as walsh didn't give up and stayed on the case and tried to get criminal convictions of people who violated the law. but then third, of course, there's the show. the congressional hearings, the congressional investigations. special committees appointed in the house and in the senate. they combine into a single joint congressional investigating committee. it's big. it looks like some sort of roman senators looking down from their tiered tables on the poor witness. so it's theater that ends up working to the advantage of the people who were brought before it as wrongdoers. and, of course, the star witness is oliver north. but there are many others as well. these are the committees that hold the joint committee that holds the televised hearings in 1987, in spring and summer. they have -- the

but despite that outcome both former independent counsels lawrence walsh and ken starr concur that congress should not automatically defer to the criminal justice system when pursuing its own inquiry. congress must after consulting with the justice department determine for its itself what course is in the best interests of the nation. it should also be noted that in the end the iran contra committee's work led to new laws including the creation of a statutory c.i.a. inspector general. executive branch criminal investigations examine the past, congress can consider a broader set of issues, including solutions for the future. without congress, significant public policy questions about the russians' attempted interference in the 2016 elections will remain unanced. is the foreign agent registration act working? do we need to increase protections for the integrity of our elections? have there been nonkiloliter abuses of power? and has the application of justice been politicized? none of these questions will be answered by criminal prosecutions. i encourage to you continue your work with vigor an

it was archie cox, jaworski, will nixon, they brought in lawrence walsh who spent nine years going after w's father. then what's his nail? ken starr. he went from whitewater which was not anything to paula jones which was a lot of money about, a million dollars. then he goes to good old monica lewinsky and nails the president. so they don't quit. they metastasize these guys. they grow, they grow, they grow until they find some dirt and they light up and their career is made for them and they announce in a press conference, i daughter dicaught the dirty d. they don't ever say, clean as a hounds tooth. they never do that. >> the president has been looking over his shoulder. >> the mooch provides the bright shining object. that everybody he will talk about. meanwhile there are other things being laid. what is interesting is now the senate is upping its game. you heard today, senator mccain and others talk about do not touch. >> do not touch the special prosecutor and do not touch the attorney general. the president is trying to figure out which lane will get him to his ultimate goal, to rem

lawrence walsh or jaworski or ken starr. they find some crap on the guy and then they move. anyway, it has drawn significant criticism. watch these. they're mostly southern senators. they consider sessions one of their own. an old southern guy. you can almost hear dixie in their voices. >> i would fire somebody that i did not believe could serve me well. rather than trying to humiliate them in public which is a sign of weakness. he's trying to get sessions to quit. and i hope sessions doesn't quit. if the president wants to fire him, fire him. >> jeff sessions is an honorable man. did he what any ethical attorney general would do unlder the circumstances. >> he is a man of very high integrity and he is an eagle scout. jeff sessions has my confidence. >> he is a man of courage. he is a man of purpose. and he is a man of substance. >> i think his independence has been proven by his willingness to recuse himself. >> jeff has been very loyal to the president. i think he deserves loyalty back. >> i would strongly recommend against firing sessions. >> you're from illinois. figure

pardoned a number of iran-contra figures at the very end of his presidency but by that point, lawrence walsh, for whom i worked, had mostly completed his investigation and did file a report but how that would work on this, i don't -- >> there's still the congressional investigation, the senate intelligence investigation, the counterintelligence investigation, beyond the special counsel investigation. >> that is true. >> there are whistleblowers inside the government that are ensuring some of this information gets out. >> right. the "post" and "times" are doing great work. that's a great thing for american democracy. >> would that present a crisis if he did try to pardon himself? it's really interesting to me, listen, yeah, i'm guilty but i pardoned myself, therefore -- >> i think it would be the definition of a constitutional crisis. it really would because the validity of it would be up for grabs and also look at how it sounds. >> yeah. >> taking yourself off the hook. i mean, it just -- it's terrible. >> hang on, brian. >> like a judge presiding over their own trial. >> the power of pardon