mr. atkinson, because mr. atkinson reported a whistleblower's complaint about president trump's interactions to ukraine to congress after concluding it was credible, according to four people familiar with the discussions. mr. trump first expressed his dismay about mr. atkinson around the time the whistleblower's complaint became public in september. in recent weeks, he has continued to raise with aides the possibility of firing him, one of the people said. the president has said i does not understand why mr. atkinson shared the complaint, which outlined how mr. trump asked the ukranian president to investigate mr. trump's political rivals at the same time he was withholding military aid from the country. he has said he believes mr. atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, should be let go. let me read a little more from this report. the mixture of public attacks and private discussions about a possible dismissal is a familiar way mr. trump has undermined investigators who have examined his conductor that of people

mr. atkinson has been disloyal. how? for finding the whistle-blower credible and doing what his job is, to move that complaint to people who can read it and assess it and act on it. this is the backdrop as we again the most defendant weeks for this president. you will hear for the first time from people who knew what was going on, describe what happened and why. an impeachment hangs in the balance, a permanent asteri asterisk disgrace next to the name trump if it goes that way. this is heavy. so let's look at how those loyal to this president will shape what comes next, what do they want you to weigh in his favor? matt schlapp, head of a major lobbying firm called cove strategies, welcome back to "prime time." >> good to be with you, chris. >> why would it be okay for the president to go after the inspector general for dealing with the whistle-blower? >> because he serves at the pleasure of the president. the president can get rid of them at any time. at the state department during obama's presidency, during the whole ti

mr. atkinson does not work for donald trump. he works for the yiunited state of america. he's not donald trump's lawyer. getting rid of mr. atkinson, yes, the president has the right to do that, would signal more consciousness of guilt evidence and i would say not speaking for anyone other than myself that in and of itself could be considered an article of impeachment. wolf, it's very important that whistle-blowers feel free to come forward if they see wrong doing. this is an effort to stop future whistle-blowers from doing that. >> will your committee try to call in witness who is might have knowledge of those conversations about the president possibly wanting to fire the inspector general? >> we're focused on this ukrainian shake down, this abuse of power by president trump. of course that doesn't mean we're going to neglect other investigations but we have powerful evidence from witnesses like bill taylor and george kent who will testify tomorrow but also the president's own words in the call transcript he released and the cosigning of that admission from mick mulvaney

mr. atkinson shared the complaint. he has said he believes mr. atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, has been disloyal. and there's new reporting tonight from "the washington post" about the two associates of rudy giuliani that our friends at "snl" quickly branded the two shreks. the post reports that the one on the left, lev parnas, says he and his business partner, igor fruman, told trump at a dinner that our u.s. ambassador to ukraine back then, marie yovanovich, was unfriendly to the president and should be fired. please note here this is the stuff of u.s. foreign policy. both parnas and fruman, who allegedly helped giuliani set up meetings with ukrainian officials, have been charged by federal prosecutors with campaign finance violations. today attorney general william barr, who has tried hard to give the appearance of keeping his distance from all impeachment-related issues, was asked about rudy giuliani's ties to ukraine. >> can you comment on rudy giuliani's interactions with ukraine were appropriate? >> i'm not going to talk about what's g

mr. atkinson has been disloyal. how?stleblower credible and doing what his job is, to move that complaint to people who can read it and assess it and act on it.

mr atkinson's family said they welcomed the decision to put the officers' conduct before a jury. ught him some memorable goals. this strike clinched him goal of the season in 1993. his career spanned 15 years, including four seasons with aston villa in the 1990s. but three years ago, police were called to his father's home, near telford. a taser was discharged and dalian atkinson was restrained. he died shortly afterwards, following a cardiac arrest. what happened there was investigated by the police watchdog. following that independent inquiry, two officers from the west mercia force appeared in court today. they were both charged this morning — one with the murder of dalian atkinson, and the other, a woman police officer, is accused of assault, causing actual bodily harm. their identities are currently being protected. the barrister for the two police officers argued that they should remain anonymous because they could face a risk to their lives if their identities became known. the judge said that it was virtually wholly unprecedented for a defendant not to be named, but he did

mr. atkinson shared the complaint. congressman swalwell, doesn't the president accept such a thing as statutes, laws? the inspector general is supposed to report that to congress. the president considers obeying the law disloyal. this looks like part of a cover-up to me. your thoughts. >> this is consciousness of guilt. he is america's lawyer. and if the president were to fire him, we would just conclude he's doing that because he's guilty. and again, chris, innocent people do not threaten their investigators with a firing or talk about their investigators in this way. so if the president, you know, does this, you know, we will consider it for articles for either obstruction -- obstruction of congress or obstruction of justice. but there's enough evidence right now to show there was a shakedown scheme going all the way to the top, and we're going to have to answer the question as americans do we want to go there with presidents acting this way? i think most americans are going to say no, that's not who we are. >> well,

mr. atkinson shared the complaint, which outlined how mr.sked the ukrainian president to investigation mr. trump's political rival at the same time he was withholding military aid from the country. has said he believe mrs. at kinson whom he apointed in 2017 has been disloyal one of the people said. where have we the people who worked in the government, whether they were pointappointe him should be loyal to him, serving. but the fact that he believes atkinson was disloyal to him is the part that's disturbing but not unusual. the president wants everybody in their positions to be protecting him as an individual, not protecting the institutions that they preserve. >> but this is a proscribed process. this is how whistle-blowers report. you go to the inspector general. in other words, the whistle-blower did everything right. this is spelled out how to do it right and the president still wants to intervene in the proscribed process. >> the president doesn't care about the rule of law or constitutional norms in the ways that most people do. everyt

mr. atkinson is certainly one of them.hink that the ambassador that we're going to hear from tomorrow, taylor and mr. kent are all people who came forward even though they were told by the administration, you cannot talk to congress even after they were subpoenaed and we have yet to get any of the documentation from the state department. again, another example of a cover-up. so we don't have to look very far to see all of the fingerprints of a crime. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time congresswoman speier. >> thank you. s >> next pete buttigieg soaring in the state of iowa. what's behind his surge? hillary clinton's surprising new remarks about 2020. managing type 2 diabetes? audrey's on it. eating right? on it! staying active? on it. audrey thinks she's doing all she can to manage her type 2 diabetes and heart disease but is her treatment doing enough to lower her heart risk? [sfx: crash of football players colliding off-camera.] maybe not. jardiance is the number 1 prescribed pill in its class. jardiance can

mr atkinson's family said they welcomed the decision to put the officers' conduct before a jury. hed him goal of the season in 1993. his career spanned 15 years, including four seasons with aston villa in the 1990s. but three years ago, police were called to his father's home, near telford. a taser was discharged and dalian atkinson was restrained. he died shortly afterwards, following a cardiac arrest. what happened there was investigated by the police watchdog. following that independent inquiry, two officers from the west mercia force appeared in court today. they were both charged this morning — one with the murder of dalian atkinson, and the other, a woman police officer, is accused of assault, causing actual bodily harm. their identities are currently being protected. the barrister for the two police officers argued that they should remain anonymous because they could face a risk to their lives if their identities became known. the judge said that it was virtually wholly unprecedented for a defendant not to be named, but he did grant an interim order and will consider the ma

mr atkinson, who was a8, died after being tasered in shropshire in 2016.e claims but a judge has adjourned a hearing on whether or not to decide whether we can name them until next wednesday. the case itself, the charge of murder and the charge of assault has been adjourned. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. likely to see problems of flooding, particularly across northern england. the reason, this slow—moving weather front which will bring persistent outbreaks of rain, particularly over to the east of the pennines. the met office has issued an amberwarning pennines. the met office has issued an amber warning without to 100 millimetres of rain forecast across parts of yorkshire and derbyshire. these counties are likely to have the worst of the effects. indeed we are seeing flood warnings start to be issued. particularly in yorkshire, the flooding situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. the rain will still be with us through the afternoon. into this night, the same kind of areas will be affected before sl

mr macron used rather drastic words to express his views. a police officer has been charged with the murder of the former footballer dalian atkinson, who died after being tasered. the ex—aston villa striker was restrained by officers at his father's house in telford, in 2016. a second officer, also from west mercia police force, has been charged with assault causing actual bodily harm. both appeared in court on thursday, as our correspondent sian lloyd reports. dalian atkinson's talents brought him some memorable goals. this strike clinched him goal of the season in 1993. his career spanned 15 years, including four seasons with aston villa in the 1990s. but three years ago, police were called to his father's home near telford. a taser was discharged and dalian atkinson was restrained. he died shortly afterwards following a cardiac arrest. what happened there was investigated by the police watchdog. following that independent inquiry, two west mercia police officers, whose identities are being protected, appeared in court today. both were charged this morning — one with the murder of dalian atkinson and the other, a woman police officer, is