a high-ranking former justice department official, matthew axelrod who spent more than 12 years in thetice department and was sally yates's deputy at the justice department at the time she was fired, he left that day too when they fired her. matthew axelrod operated at the highest levels of the justice department and through the trump transition. he was at the very upper echelons of the justice department during the transition. he was involved in the transition. and he tells the national law journal that whatever happened with them firing all the u.s. attorneys in march, that was a radical change in their own plans. he says, quote, this was an issue that was discussed during the transition. the transition team recommended to the incoming administration they not get rid of all the u.s. attorneys at one time and that recommendation was adopted. it's not clear what changed and led the administration to get rid of everyone all at once. that recommendation was adopted. it's not clear what changed. so something happened in trump world between the inauguration, january 20th, and march 10th wh

joining us for the interview is matthew axelrod. he served under sally yates.eft the justice department january 30th, 2 day his boss was fired. i know you are not in the habit of doing interews. thank you for doing this one. >> thank you for having me on. >> you were right in the middle of everything at the justice department for the last the sisters, working two years as sally yates' prince deputy? >> that's correct. >> you've seen a lot of critical, sensitive, classified matters in your time can you ask you how it felt you to today watching this hearing, watching her handle questions about this matter? >> sure. i was gratified today that the american people got to see the woman i saw up close every day for two years. sally yates is a paragon of character, integrity, judgment. she had a 27--year career at the department of justice and really exemplarilyifiesed the department of justice and the law and doing the right thing. folks got to see that in her and that's what i saw every day working with her. >> the administration, the president specifically, took a s

we started with matthew axelrod's claim after he left doj about what he saw during the transition.e found the record on this matter absolutely backs him up. three days before the inauguration, a justice department spokesperson said that the u.s. attorneys had just been told that they should expect to stay in place for the time being. senator dianne feinstein says she was told by the white house counsel in january that the transition to u.s. attorneys would be done in an orderly fashion to preserve continuity. she asked if they were going to be fired all at once and she was then told no. they were then fired all at once. u.s. attorney barbara mcquade the eastern district of michigan, she tel us she remembers a january conference call with the justice department in which the u.s. attorneys were all asked overtly to please hold over in their jobs to ensure an orderly transition. another u.s. attorney tells us that he too remembers that call. paul fishman, new jersey says the call was run by the director of the executive office of the department of justice. he says it was the week of t

begin a guest who brings some very special perspective, former federal prosecutor matthew axelrod served as counsel to sally yates and she's stenlter of this storey. in your view, what is the most important thing we learned about president trump's termination of jim comey this week? >> well, thanks, ari, i think the most important thing we've learned is that what president trump did this week is inconsistent with our democratic values and the rule of law enforcement it's a bedrock principle in law enforcement that there be a separation between politics and law enforcement at the federal level. that means a separation between the white house and the department of justice. that's important in every criminal investigation. it's all the more important in investigations that are politically charged or have political overtones. but it's at the zeen edneth whey involve the white house themselves or associates or people that work on the campaign that got the president he lektded. what we saw this week about it president's own admission is one of the reasons in the president's head leading to him