mr. comey's may 3rd, 2017 testimony? in this senate appearance mr. comey described his handling of the clinton appearance in detail. he was fired soon after. mr. mueller's question suggests he wants to know why mr. trump soured on mr. comey. regarding the decision to fire mr. comey, when was it made? why? who played a role in that? what did you mean when you told russian diplomats on may 10th, 2017 that firing mr. comey had taken the pressure off? that was famously the president's remarks to two russian government officials who he surprise hosted in the oval office the day after he fired comey. in that meeting we know the president told those russian officials, "i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off." mueller wants to ask the president what he meant by those remarks. similarly, what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr. comey and russia? shortly after firing mr. comey even before the meeting with the russians i believe trump did that interview with

this was the moment that mr. comey breached mr. trump of allegations related to him of these so-called steele dossier. further on comey, what was the purpose of your january 27th, 2017 dinner with mr. comey and what was said at that dinner? similarly what was the purpose of your february 14th, 2017 meeting and what was said at that meeting. what did you know of the fbi investigation into mr. flynn and russia? the days leading up to the congressional testimony, what did you do in reaction to the march 20th testimony. describe your contacts with intelligence officials. what this is about is there is been reports that the president asked other intelligence officials including the director can coats and mike pompeo should pressure or intervene with the fbi to try to get the fbi to drop the investigation on the russia scandal. this is according to new york times tonight, one of the questions mueller wants to ask the president is they want him to describe his contact with intelligence officials after comey bomb shelled the congressional t

what who is your opinion of mr. comey during the transition? what did you think about mr. efing on january 6, 2017 about russian election interference? another question. what was your reaction to mr. comey's briefing that day about other intelligence matters? what was the purpose of your january 27th, 2017 dinner with mr. comey, and what was said? more questions. what was the purpose of the february 14th, 2017 motoring with mr. comey, and what was said? what did you know about the fbi's investigation to mr. flynn and russia in the days leading up to mr. comey's testimony on march 20th, 2017? they go on. what did you do in reaction to the march 20th testimony? describe your contacts with intelligence officials. what did you think and do in reaction to the news that the special counsel was speaking to mr. rogers, mr. pompeo and mr. coates? these are just some of the questions. back now with our panel, john dean, michael hayden whose new book is "the assault on intelligence." jeff zeleny, anne milgram and also legal analyst carrie cordero. i think one of the most interesting t

mr. comey's book.maybe we should engage her moment on this point about bullying because you write to identify this story which comey

mr. comey's may 3rd, 2017, testimony? regarding the decision to fire mr. comey, when was it made? why? would played a role? what did you think and do in reaction to the news that the special counsel was speaking to mr. rogers, mr. pompeo, and mr. coats? and on michael flynn, what did you know about phone calls that mr. flynn made with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak, in late december, 2016? what did you know about sally yates' meetings about mr. flynn? how was the decision made to fire mr. flynn on february 13th, 2017? after the resignations, what efforts were made to reach out to mr. flynn about seeking immunity or possible pardon? we'll cover the questions on jeff sessions just ahead in our broadcast. keep in mind that right now, it of course remains an open question as to whether the president will ever sit down with robert mueller. it's been reported that rudy giuliani, the president's newest addition to his legal team, has been trying to work out terms for that interview. well, without delay, let's get to our leadoff panel on another very busy monday night. michael schmidt,

what was the purpose of your january 27th 2017 dinner with mr. comey and what was said? the special counsel, michael, wants answers on why comey was fired. question about the dossier. the loyalty test. asking comey to let the investigation into flynn go. what's your reaction? >> that goes straight into obstruction. what was on the president's mind when he fired comey and began the process to decide to fire comey. we talked about it in russian roulette, the book i have out right now, really begins with that january 6th briefing. this is president elect trump at that point, but the intelligence chiefs are briefing him about the russian interference, examine, they all leave the room except for comey, comey tells them about the synopsis of the allegations in the dossier and after that, what comey didn't know, but which we report about in the book is, the president blows up. he believes its blackmail. he believes comey's trying to shape him down to let him know that he's got something on the president or the president elect at that point and that's where the seeds are planted

now you have the case where we know that mr. comey has been lying out there publicly. this continues to just i think -- it's bewildering, quite frankly. >> comey basically decided to override the agents. we focus on the text with lisa page. but i believe, unless i'm wrong, i believe peter was one of the agents who interviewed a mike flynn. and we heard this for some time now confirmed that flynn didn't lie, meaning poor mike flynn. they twisted the screws on him to plead guilty to a false statement in order to, like a lot of people do, save their family and whatever money they have left. and meanwhile comey is going around saying he lied. it's wild. why would he override the agents? that's my question. >> this isn't new news to us on the intelligence committee. this has been the problem of all these issues that they keep classified from the american people. we knew this very shortly after the interview took place, the interview where the fbi agents went into the white house and interviewed mr. flynn. shortly after that, mr. comey comes in and briefs us. that's on the re

laura:king about the president's dinner with mr. comey, do you think the special counsel is trying to get a potential obstruction of justice line of inquiry? jonathan: those are obstruction questions, what his intt was. those are the ones i don't think he don't need to be worried about. she ds not need to be worried about. you want to questions to be frontal assaults like that where ur armor is thickest. there the president has unassailable defenses. he can defend his firing of comey. the areas heas to worry about are coming from the side. it is things like the moscow meetings, the prosecutors going into that, of what was said, who did you meet in moscow before the election. those are the types of things that are blind spots. laura: if you are the president's lawyer, would you advise him to sit for an interview with robert mueller? jonathan: well, it depends if he is willing to be prepped. t he cead the needle. these were all predictable questions except for a coudle. he can hit. but he also has to stay on message, and he has a rather lar

another one, what was your opinion of mr. comey during the transition? your opinion? whose business is that? aren't americans allowed to have any opinion they want without being grilled by law enforcement about it? then there's this question, what is the purpose of the july 2017 criticism of mr. sessions? criticism of a government official reigned as a crime as if dissenting views aren't allowed or must be justified to a prosecutor. what country is this anyway? the president is allowed to have anyone he wants, of anyone who works for him, they get to hire or fire appointees. this is aot democracy, donald trump got elected, robert mueller didn't. voters can decide if they agree with the policies, then here two more mueller questions. what discussions did you have during the campaign regarding russian sanctions and what involvement did you have involving 2016 republican platform changes regarding arming ukraine? let's review, trump ran for office promising to improve our relationship with russia, he said it frequently in public. voters heardre it, they agreed with him a

mr. comey's abrupt firing. mr. rosenstein played a key role in the dismissal, writing a memo that rebuked mr. comey over his handling of an investigation into hillary clinton, but in the meeting at the justice department, mr. rosenstein added a new detail. he said the president had originally asked him to reference russia in his memo. to mr. mccabe that seemed like possible evidence that mr. comey's firing was actually related to the fbi's investigation into the trump campaign's ties to russia. and that mr. rosenstein helped provide a cover story by writing about the clinton investigation. trump lashed out on twitter this morning writing, quote, not that it matters, but i never fired james comey because of russia. the corrupt mainstream media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it isn't true. but it's not just the media pushing the narrative, mr. president, it's you. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to jus

and then admitting he fired mr. comey to stop the russian investigation. my point to the president is, stop stalling, stop blaming the investigation for your political troubles, and submit to the interview as indicated by the letter we as democratic members of the judiciary committee with the responsibility of oversight have asked him to do. in addition, what a sad state of toairs again for seeking undermine the process of investigation of the fbi or any other law enforcement organization. i can imagine what scotland yard is thinking now, jeopardizing the use of a confidential human source is a widely used and effective tool, undermines again the constitution. likely to cast aspersions on the special counsel. i am reminded of the exposure of a cia agent in 2003 when a the iraq war.d this may cause danger not only to the exposed informant, but to others involved in the national security of this nation. it is interesting to note a confidential human resource or source is often used to protect the american people to solve crimes and protect against terrorism.

we knew what mr. comey said, we have the condo mike transcripts. we have been fighting with the department of justice and the fbi for six weeks to release this information to the american people. we finally have that tonight, late on friday night. this is totally unacceptable, and we have the judge from this morning. this is continued ridiculous behavior. it's like they just want to keep digging and the american people are beginning to understand that the department of justice and fbi have major problems. i have no idea how they can investigate themselves but evidently they continue to believe that they can. they have so many more documents that they have to provide to us that we needed like, yesterday, and i hate to have to continue to, publicly and talk about this that we are still -- -- >> laura: lets remind everyone. a few weeks ago you were on the show, and you essentially threatened rod rosenstein with contempt of congress, or impeachment, if the underlying documents, the computer documents that authorized the probe of surveillance on carter

i think the most alarming thing is that mr. comeyhat clearly he said on the record to us, like the fact that mr. flynn, the agents that interviewed mr. flynn, did not believe he lied and we want the american people to see mr. comey's statement and we can't get thatme to them until r report is actually allowed to be up for the american public to see . >> tucker: you are in charge of oversight of the intel world. what did youna make of that statement that former cia director brennan made on friday when he appeared tori threaten e president over the mueller investigation? wait until youic see what muellr has. how does a former cia director have advanced knowledge? how would he nono more than i ce as a public citizen, would know? >> if that's the case, we have another problem because they've been hiding additional information. we've interviewed almost all the people involved. 75 people have interviewed. we found no evidence whatsoever of any collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. as i set multiple times before, we did fin

during the transition, what the purpose was of the january 27th dinner with mr. comey and what was said. that was where he asked to see to it to let mike flynn -- >> the loyalty test. >> the loyalty test. what he did in reaction to the comey testimony? >> that's when he said there is a public investigation into the campaign. >> so, it's pretty ease toy see how he got to thinking comey is a rotten apple. >> comey came and talked to him about the steele dossier. that was the whole thing that triggered the whole thing, the january meeting. >> he told him of its existence. >> i don't think trump liked hearing that very much. >> steve schmidt, jump in. >> this president is besieged by investigations and all around this president from scott pruitt, the cabinet secretaries that have already resigned, received fantastic levels of corruption, type of corruption we haven't seen in this country going back 100 years. and what's increasingly clear, whether the target is james comey, whether it's director mueller, the special counsel, the reality is this president will burn everythi

i think the most alarming thing is that mr. comeynues to say that he did not tell us things that clearly he said on the record to us like the fact that mr. flynn, the agents interview that mr. flynn did not believe he lied and we want american people to see mr. comey's statement. we cannot get to them until our report is allowed to be out for the american public to see. and they unredacted it all. >> tucker: you are in charge of oversight in the internal world. what did you make of the statement that former cia director brennan made on friday where he appeared to threaten the president over the mueller investigation and basically wait until you see what mueller has on trump. how would the former cia director have advanced knowledge of that? how would he know anything more than i know as a private citizen? what is that? >> if that's the case, we'll have another problem because they been hiding additional information from us. we interviewed all the people involved in the spirits of the five we've interviewed, we found no evidence whats

of course, mr. comey has said he hopes there are tapes because he believes they would back up his investigation of what happened. >> the question of purpose seems to be going toward that intent issue that the special counsel says this is why we need to talk to the president, we have to know his intent. was his intent, for example, in that tweet, to try to intimidate james comey from telling the truth? that seems to be what's behind their use of the word purpose there. >> i agree. they use a similar phrasing in all of the tweets, what was your purpose in sending these tweets, the tweets about comey, the tweets about sessions and the other criticisms he's had for people in the justice department, including rod rosenstein, although there isn't a question about rod rosenstein that i've seen in the list. >> pete williams, thank you for joining us tonight. i appreciate it. >> you bet. >> we're back with jennifer rubin, ron klain and ruth marcus. the word purpose keeps coming up with these questions. what was yo

"what is the reason for your continued criticism of mr. comeynd his former deputy, andrew jay mccabe? do you see how the tone is different there? suddenly is ominous. it sounds more like a threat that a question. what's the point of asking that, you might wonder. since when is criticizing fbi officials a crime in his country? will apparently since robert mueller became special counsel. according to "the new york times," that's one of more than 40 questions mueller plans to ask the president under penalty of perjury. here's another one. "what would your opinion of mr. comey during the transition? whose business is that? aren't americans allowed to have any opinion they want without being grilled by law enforcement about it? and then there's this question. "what was the purpose of your july 2017 criticism of mr. sessions"? criticism of government official framed as a crime as if dissenting views aren't allowed or must be justified to a prosecutor. what country is this, anyway? in fact, the president is allowed to have any opinion he wants. of anyo

mr. comey's career and firing by president trump. this runs one hour. >> and now a discussion on james comey's book, higher loyalty, joining us to dissect what's in this book are two people very experienced inside washington in washington politics. victoria was a high profile lawyer in washington. representative jamie is the representative for marilyn. before we get into the book, what are your overall impressions of james comey and his public service? >> the start with james comey the man. i never met him and don't really know him. the book he comes off as some a very boy scout like and respect to the rules of law. the first several chapters involve hatred of bullies you can see how there'd be a coming character class inclusion between him and donald trump. that affects the style of a bully frequently. cummings key personality flaw perhaps there's a certain sanctimonious he likes to be a little bit holier than the very much by the book. back and rub you the wrong way when you see in making certain decisions that are questionable as w

what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr. comey and russia, mr. president.ho cares. he's no brian williams. as the president has discarded the constitution and rule of law as suggested by your questions, he needs a stern course correction. these would be objective violations in any other era. but wrongdoing is a dynamic and suggestive sport that is only bad when your opponent does something. mueller seems to be compromised in his choice of legal elves and his choice of james comey. and he has a legion of anti-trumpers to make sure he's unfirable. this entire process is so politicized. it's not unreasonable knot not to see scene outcome. leftists see government as the ultimate tool of will-bending force to right the wrong decisions much dumb, simple people. that's the memo. [♪] are you sick of issues like the mueller investigation riding our great nation? our next guests will argue for the opposition. >> it's time to party swap. all right. look at them. here is how it's going to work. our liberal marie harf is going to argue for the conservative side. our con

mr. comey's professor friend was a government employee. the department knew all along that comey shared his classified memos with people other than that particular friend. digging in finding out new information that has not been voluntarily given to congress, that makes us dig deeper. i support chairman nunez's , somes to get information of which i am not privy to because i'm not on the intel committee. i do not need to see it. it is his committee. is that there is nothing in statute that would suggest that the actions the department of justice is taking are appropriate. so, and you make it a counter narrative. let's make a little news here on the newsmakers. that i am really ready to come back and suggest that me and john rosenstein said together. i am so sure of the evidence we , and the manner in which we have gone about this, that there is no good excuse for the department of justice to continue the delay. >> you have spoken directly to theyttorney general and have concerns about an intelligent source of theirs that could be compromise

mr. comey says he never expected to write a book but eventually chose to do so to drive the conversation about ethical leadership and their nation's core values. he is called president trump out of step with those values comparing him to a mob boss and stresses personal loyalty over the law and has little regard for morality or truth. not surprisingly the president has had some choice words for mr. comey calling him a bleaker and a liar among other derogatory names. meanwhile sales of "a higher loyalty" keep going up. [applause] and tickets for events like this one fell -- sell out in minutes. this evening you will get a chance to see and hear mr. comey in person and form your own impression without a filter. you will be in conversation with mike allen one of washington's most prominent and tireless journalist. mike wrote for the "washington post" and a couple of other news organizations before watching the daily newsletter playbook and "politico" just over a decade ago. he left with ago and 20

one question reads, what did you mean when you told russian diplomats on may 10, 2017, that firing mr. comeyad taken the pressure off? the day after comey's firing trump met with russian officials in oval office. you remember these pictures released by the russians. the president and his lawyers have said firing comey falls within the president's powers. >>> also, questions about possible illegal contact between the trump campaign and the russians. one of those questions reads, what knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including paul manafort to russia about possible assistance to the campaign. now, manafort, famously attended a meeting with russians during the campaign to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> manafort pleaded not guilty to finance charges. paul manafort's deputy rick gates is now cooperating with the mueller investigation. trump's new lawyer rudy giuliani met last week. spokesman for the special counsel's office did not respond to our request for comment about those questions. >>> we also have a strong sign this morning the president may be turning against the

the fire mr. comeyas it made, who played a role in another rest what did you mean when you told russian diplomats on may 10, 2017 the fire in mr. comey had taken the pressure off. mueller team say he's not considered a target. white house chief of staff john kelly fleming a report that he called president trump an. releasing a statement saying is that more time with the president than anyone else and have been incredibly candid and strong relationship. he always knows where i stand and he and i both know this story is total bs. president trump hitting that the report calling a fake news. finally, comic rochelle wolf not backing down from her controversial white house correspondent. she said yesterday she wouldn't change a word. she shamed the advance of the barrage and sarah huckabee sanders among others for the white house correspondents association issued a statement criticizing wolf and that is what is happening now. cheryl: with top today to cover this morning. now postponing a decision on steel and

this evening you'll have a chance to see and hear mr. comey a person inform your own impressions without filter. you will be in conversation with mike allen, one of the most prominent journalists. mike wrote for the washington post before launching the daily newsletter, playbook at political over a decade ago. he left political in 2016 to help establish ask seo's where he is executive editor and author. please join me in welcoming james comey and mike allen. [applause] [applause] >> thank you very much. politics imposes a great growing independent bookstore and they are coming soon to union market. thank you for making this possible. mr. director, backstage he said there's something you hope to never do again in your life. >> wear a tie. >> and then one of my daughters reminded me she is getting married in july and i will have to wear a tie. >> you have your wish until then. you were saying, through all of this we were encouraged and today we have a very big stack us questions. you said you like a live audience. >> yes, because of the instant

on former fbi directorjames comey, mr mueller wants to ask, "regarding the decision to fire mr comey, followed by a question on why he said this to nbc news after sacking mr comey. and in fact, when i decided tojust do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story, it is an excuse by the democrats for having lost a n excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. there are more than a dozen questions the special counsel wants to ask on possible collusion. "when did you become aware of the trump tower meeting?" that's thejune 2016 meeting with a russian lawyer who offered dirt on the president's then opponent, hillary clinton. it was organised by donald trumer. the president's son—in—law, jared kushner, and campaign director paul manafort attended. then there's this. "what knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by paul manafort, to russia about potential assistance to the campaign?" "during the campaign, what did you know about russian hacking, use of social media or other acts aimed at the campaign?" that m

here, frank that is correct in his estimation he has done the american people a favor by dismissing mr. comeyavid, this is one of a handful of comments we've thaerd th -- heard this week that have not on not helped the president but harmed the president. so stating that he fired comey because he wouldn't say that the president wasn't a target leans towards an obstruction charge. if you're firing the head of the fbi because he won't tell the public he's not a target, sound like you're getting rid of somebody because they won't say things are okay. and whether it's saying that cohen is being repaid through installmen installments, whether it's saying that the president generally understood that, quote, cohen takes care with such things with regard to paying off women actually harms the president and exposes him to even further federal charges. >> we heard rudy giuliani refer to the new york fbi as storm troopers and that prompted a vociferous response from james comey. let's listen to what he had to say. >> that's unacceptable when the nation's leaders representatives attack the institutions of

mr. comey's intelligence briefing on january 6, 2017, about russian election interference? and regarding the decision to fire him, when was it made? why? and who played a role? he would also like to know about michael flynn, who is now cooperating with the special counsel's investigation. >> i asked for his resignation, he respectfully gave it. >> reporter: he was fired 24 days into the trump administration for lying about his contacts with the russian ambassador. robert mueller wants to know what the president knew about those phone calls and why he decided to fire flynn. he wasted no time firing back on twitter. the president said it was disgraceful that the questions were leaked to the media. in another tweet he said it would seem very hard to obstruct justice for crime that never happened. witchhunt. robert mueller's team has told them that the president is not considered a target, still, investigators have been hoping to speak with the president.>>> today sarah sanders refused to answer questions about robert mueller's investigation and referred reporters to the presid

what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr. comey and russia? he said i was going to fire comey knowing -- well, i'll let the president say it himself. here it is. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. that they should have won. >> so the question what did you mean in your interview with lester holt, that seems like an important question. what do you see, michael, when you look at these questions? >> well, we see that there are a lot of broad topics that mueller probably relayed to the white house counsel's office and said we want to talk about this and that then questions were put forth from white house counsel to the president's in a circle to say this is what we would likely talk about. the questions that you just highlighted you have the loyalty request of comey, the firing of comey, the r

great things and has to move on on the agenda in this country. >> sean: what was your opinions of mr. comeywhat is a matter? you can fire him for any reason, joe concha. >> i think we see, sean, with the behavior of james comey on the book to her, getting personal by the president, if you look at kellyanne brennan'su see a vitriolic person on there, it is hard to believe that when he was running the cia, that he actually was able to separate all of those feelings and do his job without that sort of partisan thinking. obviously, clapper, now i see contributor, same thing. i think this is very disturbing that you have all of these top officials engaging in partisan behavior and as further leaks, i mean, we keep hearing that mueller is running a straightforward, clean investigation, then how does that get into the pages of "the new york times"? i would love to know. >> sean: when you appoint andrew weissmann, who withheld exculpatory evidence twice, but four merrill executives in jail for a year, overturned by the fifth circuit, and put tens of thousands of anderson accounting workers out of w

number one, what was the purpose of your february 14, 2017, meeting with mr. comeynd what was said? that was the meeting where as comey tells it president trump said i sure hope you can let this michael flynn thing go. so, is that one of those open ended things? >> well, absolutely. and you know, that sets up a conflict between comey and trump about what happened because the president has already said that he did not tell comey that, please let michael flynn go. let this go. you know, the question for some of these is there a person to person conflict which the president, you know, you can't resolve dispositively, but are there questions that there are specific answers to that either by e-mails or tapes or something where they have the president's position locked in and they want to see whether the president contradicts that. >> that's where it can get a little tricky. also, i know there are a lot of questions here and often that makes it seem like it must be exhaustive. there's no reason to believe that, michael. the problem with your answer is that it can introduc

and yet, mr. comey didn't seem to care.isten to what he said about the fake russian dossier. >> did you tell president obama that the dossier was, who it was funded by. >> not to my correction. >> did you want to know who it was funded by? >> i want to know what i knew, it was funded by people politically opposed to donald trump. >> okay. >> which particular opponents wasn't that important to me. trish: not important to you? not important enough to tell the president who had funded it? i mean once again, kind of basic. i think about myself as a journalist. i hear things all the time. i have to double-check, triple check, quadruple check, whatever it takes, check the sources. know where that source is coming from and possibly motivating that source. in the bib' case they apparently didn't care -- fbi's case. they didn't care this was quote-unquote a dossier funded by the opposition, people who wanted to take down donald trump. don't you think that information could have been kind of useful, mr. comey, when you were briefing

>> mr. comeyding around the country very cavalierly and seemingly without a care in the world. he is contradicting hs and his public statements out on his book tour. and mr. comey is number one, known for protecting james comey, so i think it's entirely possible and we certainly should be asking the question of whether mueller has given them absolute immunity. i think that's a distinct possibility and as i've said at the end of the article in "the daily caller," inquiring minds want to know. >> laura: we never really learned, did wait, how many people got immunity in the hillary email investigation? connected we ever even learn who got what immunity or when? >> we know that the number -- >> laura: sheryl mills. >> we know that a great number of people got immunity who never should have gotten immunity but i want to get on something that sidney said that is really important. people don't realize that there are two court opinions from the fisa court in which the court outlined how illegally fisa int

mr. comey's book. aybe we should engage her moment on this point about bullying because you write to identify this story which comey himself tells, where, this is in the style of ruth owes confessions where he says i've always hated bullies and i let myself down the most when i was in college and i was part of a scene where we were basically ridiculing and harassing a kid on our floor, a kid in the dorm. he raises that himself to say this is something that i hate and i'm ashamed about that i was never part of it. i assume you don't present that as like a a revelation that soe of your puncturing his hypocrisy. he did raise that in so to say that all of us can be drawn into bullying and what we need to counter is whole political systems or bureaucracies or presidencies that are based on a bullying principle. i think that he does successfully advance that point and he strikes the somebody who really is an anti-bully. he is a bit impressed on his own moral stature, and i think -- >> more than that. >> okay.

mr. comey's career and firing by president trump. this is one hour. >> host: not one booktv a discussion on james comey's book, "a higher loyalty." joining us to dissect what's in this book are two people very experienced inside washington and washington politics, victoria toensing was an official in the reagan department of justice and she is also a high-profile lawyer here in washington,

telling the truth. >> dana: the next one is what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr. comey and russia? >> there is nothing particularly sexy about the question but it is a golden opportunity if you were going to answer the questions to tee off on comey and talk about kind of revisit an answer that hurt the president. the president blurted out something about well, i knew because of russia i was going to get rid of him. here is an opportunity to say no, i was going to get rid of him for a hundred reasons and here they are. you can talk about everything from how he looks without a tie to what he has done in his past to how he treated you. i mean there are a million things to throw out there to kind of elaborate on that answer at comey's expense. >> dana: you say the next question of yours that you think is interesting is a wolf in sheep's clothing. it's what knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by paul manafort, about potential assistance to the campaign? that gets to the question of collusion, right? >> it's the fundamental question. like the wh

so mr. comeyand he just said that it's just a trivial thing to be leaking confidential records in order to manipulate the entire system against the sitting president of the united states. i think that's actually felonous in my opinion. he needs to be prosecuted. he didn't disclose he was leaking information to his columbia professor who was an employee of the f.b.i. that's ridiculous. >> sandra: right. so giuliani is not mincing words when it comes to these interviews and talking about comey. here is how he addressed him and went as far as to point him out as being a liar. listen. >> i know james comey. i know the president. sorry, jim, you are a liar. a disgraceful liar. every f.b.i. agent in america has his head down because of you. >> sandra: your response to that. >> i actually agree totally. look, mr. comey has abused his power and his authority and he has done it in a way that shows that he is a serial liar. he is out there saying things, writing memos, he is allowing investigations to go fo

what was the purpose of your jaary 27, 2017, dinner with mr. comey and what was said? for more on this line of inquiry, i spoke to george washington university law professor jo turley. jonathan, it does sound like aoc very ius question to the president -- when did you become aware of the trump tower meeting with the russians. is it really jonathan: actually, it is the t.eeper questions that present the greatest thr the that look like housekeeping ones by the general counsel could be more than t part of the problem is the house intelligence committee released a report and part of the conflict between republicans and emocrats dealt with this phone call which was a blocked number. the democrats wanted to subpoena the records to find out if that us trump. sometimes he wou a blocked number to call his son. this call happened to fall between two critical calls about the trump tower meeting. this one is in the middle. the republicans declined to subpoena that information. if the president admits that he was the blocked caller, it willp be ablem because he said he had no knowl

mr. dowd in early march, he needed to question the president directly to determine whether or not he had criminal intent to fire comeyt mr. boyd feld if i recall. investigate sors agreed days later so share during a meeting with mr. dowd the questions they wanted to ask mr. trump. so that's how these questions came about that we have now. when mr. mueller's team relayed the question, their tone and detailed nature submitted mr. could's view that the president should not sit for an interview. mr. trump remained firm in his assistance that he meet with mr. mueller. a week and a half after receiving the questions, mr. dowd resigned, including that his client was ignoring his advice. margaret hoover? >> this is striking because it's all here in one place. a lot of this has been sort of cobbled together over some time. we know the president has said he had no problem sitting down with special counsel mueller. we all know, the american public can see the president has a very hard time sticking to any one version of the truth. and that, you know, if i were his lawyer, i certainly wouldn't -- and i'm not a lawyer. i wouldn't

these are all d, why you fire mr. comey? why did you seem to want to fire your attorney general? jeffessions? ultimately, all of those questions go t two main categories. do you know about your campaignw coordinatih the state of russia as they sought to interfere in the election? and did you, personally, try to thwart the probe or know anything about it? robert: when you talk to people close to the president, julie, do they see that list theyo "ne times" reported as too much? do they want to see it narrowed down if the president ever agrees to do it? julie: i think par of what -- i mean, like carol said, there are two categories and i think there's the collusion category and there is the obstruction category. there are a lot of questions about potential obstruction and tthink that's where they are -- they thinky may be able to draw a line beyond which they don't think it's fair for the special counsel to go. that's also true of the real tate transactions, private business transactions. there was a time when president trump was talking to us and to others about a red line if he ev

cia director john brenon and comey was not there and mr. trump fired him of course, and mr. comey declined an invitation to testify and some say that he was otherwise occupied with a booning tour. we could not confirm that and house intelligence committee found no evidence of collusion and the committee concluding it disagrees with the u.s. intelligence view that russians tried to boost trump in the presidential campaign and today, the senate judiciary committee had five hours of tell before the committee and 2000 pages of documents and still 0 evidence of collusion. our first guest tonight reportedly extensivey on the mueller witch hunt and the break throughs that he's uncovered a troubled link with the russian olag ark. and joining us is a john, who is an opinion for the hill and one of those who led the committee in to this from the beginning. it is great to have you with us. we have a russian oling on ark and a long history to work with if you will the united states government and a friend of putins, and what possible role can he have in all of this? >> we can say that th

mr. dowd in early march, he needed to question the president directly to determine whether or not he had criminal intent to fire comey. but mr. boyd feld if i recall. investigate sors agreed days later so share during a meeting with mr. dowd the questions they wanted to ask mr. trump. so that's how these questions came about that we have now. when mr. mueller's team relayed the question, their tone and detailed nature submitted mr. could's view that the president should not sit for an interview. mr. trump remained firm in his assistance that he meet with mr.