mr. rosenstein: thank you. [applause] mr. meese: ladies and gentlemen, before you leave, let me mention the fact that on tuesday, the 19th of september, that's next tuesday, we will continue our preserve the constitution series by having a preview of the supreme court cases for the 2017 term. we will have with us the honorable paul clement who is a former solicitor general of the united states and a partner in the law firm of kirkland and ellis. as well as a partner in the firm of akin and others. it will be hosted by elizabeth slattery from our legal center here at heritage. we invite you all to come back there and at the same time to get further information on further meetings that we have such as this, concerning the constitution. thank you all for being with us today. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> thursday, the house debated a bill designed it to deport criminal alien gang members and reduce smuggling.

mr. rosenstein: how much time do we have? [laughter] mr. rosenstein: the attorney ineral has been very -- should emphasize, you should understand the department of justice is a large institution. we have 115,000 employees and tens of thousands of contractors. of the department goes from administration to administration. there are some significant changes but most work goes on -- and terms of highlights, the most significant change that any administration brings his what its priority is. that is additional resources, rings we are tracking on a daily basis. the attorney general has make clear we are elevating drug enforcement and crime enforcement, immigration enforcement, because there has been a lack of enforcement. in crimelack of it rates. drug enforcement is the area where it is most obvious and most devastating. the number of americans who are dying of drug overdose deaths has been skyrocketing. not enough publicity is apparent to teenagers. people need to recognize we are losing a lot of people around the country to drug overdose deaths

mr. rosenstein: it's been very frustrating. at the department of justice, we have some superb nominees for the leadership positions in the department of justice and the process has been extremely slow. the confirmation process, for reasons having nothing to do with the merit of the candidates, has been slowed down. i think that's what to me is most depressing about the current circumstances. it would be understandable if occasionally there are issues with a particular nominee. but for the most part, the just a matter of being mired down in process for people that we know are exceptionally qualified and ultimately will be confirmed. so that's not my responsibility, the legislative branch. but i do think it would be certainly better for everybody if the congress could at least identify folks who really aren't controversial nominees, who are going to be confirmed eventually, and rather than delaying their confirmation, rather than disrupting their lives, and creating difficulties not just for the department of justice, for other a

mr. rosenstein about this. and ultimately, again, it doesn't come to this but mr. s accountable to congress confirmed by the senate and accountable there. but i think again we're playing this out too far right now i see an investigation that is functioning well that seems to be protected and under rosenstein. >> do you think that the actions of grassly bring an effort to slow down effort and fbi's potential bad guy. >> senator grassly, chairman grassley has been a very proficient in department officials administrations. i describe that motive to them to the contrir arcontrary, he'so the bottom of things he cares about but in this instance he must stand down and defer to the criminal the criminal investigation being conducted by special counsel mueller. >> ron weich, i really, really appreciate your time tonight. i know you're very busy. thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much for having me. >> more to come. stay with us. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace b

mr. rosenstein about this. and ultimately, again, it doesn't come to this but mr. n is accountable to congress confirmed by the senate and accountable there. but i think again we're playing this out too far right now i see an investigation that is functioning well that seems to be protected and under deputy attorney general rosenstein. >> do you think that the actions of grassly bring an effort to slow down effort and fbi's potential bad guy. does it feel like appropriate oversight to you? >> senator grassly, chairman grassley has been a very persistent interrogator in the justice department officials administrations. i describe that motive to them to the contrary, he's getting to the bottom of things he cares about but in this instance he must stand down and defer to the criminal investigation to be conducted to the special counsel muller. i really appreciate your time tonight. i know you're busy. thank you for being here with us. [ engines revving ] when you drop a 603-horsepower v8 biturbo engine into one of mercedes-benz's finest luxury sedans, what do you get?

mr. rosenstein said i won't answer that.estion, what is the view of the intelligence committee on the server communications between alpha bank and the trump organization during the 2016 campaign? again, mr. rosenstein said we won't reply to that. we won't answer that. fellow members of the committee were being asked to chose one of the highest ranking individuals in the department of justice that will make hundreds if not more decisions on prosecutions that could involve as we know this whole question of the russian involvement in the last campaign. he comes to it having made what i think are really poor judgments as to his personal involvement with this. >> all the democrats on the judiciary committee voted against this lawyer who left the trump campaign to defend the russian bank, alpha bank. all the democrats on judiciary voted against the nomination to run the criminal division at the justice department. the senator focused on the bank issue and feinstein focused on the fact that it's strange in its own right to be appoi

mr. rosenstein was given a copy of the trump/miller letter. mr. rosenstein agreed to write his own memo about why comey should be fired. that memo was release bid the white house when comey was fired. there are several ways that the special prosecuter could have obtained the trump/miller letter, but you don't have to think about it very long to realize that the most likely way and the easiest way is the deputy general rod rosenstein simply five mueller his copy knowing it's relevant to the special probation report's investigation. joining us now, david from, and also jed sugarman professor of law, and neer a tenra. here is the confirmation that when the president made what is probably so far for him anyway, in his own future, the worst decision of his presidency firing james comey, it was on the advice of the junior most people in the white house in terms of experience who have the senior most positions, apparently. his daughter, his son-in-law, and steven miller. >> so the president has been given the lie twice today on this matter. the first is w

mr. rosenstein told investigators the president shrugged off any potential consequences, telling mr. senstein he didn't want the fbi director and wanted him out of government, the person said. also tonight donald trump's long time attorney michael cohen will be the first trump associate questioned in a public televised senate hearing investigating the trump campaign's russia connections. michael cohen was scheduled to testify privately to the committee today, but after he violated his agreement with the committee not to make public statements, the committee canceled the meeting. join us, vice president for the national security program at the third way, and tim o'brien, executive editor of bloomberg view, an msnbc contributor. i want to go to that moment where they decide to end this meeting with michael cohen. that's happening behind closed doors so we don't know exactly what was said. but it seems to me it would have to be a bipartisan agreement, the republican chairman would have to agree to end this meeting with michael cohen. >> that's right. what you see here is on a by partisan

mr. rosenstein was given a copy of the original letter and agreed to write a separate memo for mr. trump about why mr. comey should be fired. now this becomes hard to start connecting the dots. but on the face of it this seems unusual. rod rosenstein, james comey's boss head of the russia investigation for all intents and purposes because the attorney general stepped aside. cease the screed or letter whatever it is and takes it and says i'm doing something with this. >> i think it calls into question what rod rosenstein was doing here. he saw the letter, knew the letter was written. drafted a different letter. the administration put it out and said this is why we're firing james comey. the cover letter says based on this recommendation i'm firing james comey. naes a lie. we know it's a lie. we know he made the decision to fire director comey at the golf weekend. he drafted some crazy explanation for it it. rod rosenstein knew it. the question is was rod rosenstein providing political cover for president trump and how does that affect his role in this investigation on an ongoing bas

mr. rosenstein who understood that as comey usurping & the president's pow and are putting that aside for minute, the fact that comey was formulating his thoughts at this early stage before hillary clinton was interviewed is not particularly remarkable. the way prosecutors conduct investigations are pretty methodical. you have on one side the legal element you have to prove and prosecutors must able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to convict at trial, and on the other side you line up the facts and hopefully, if your prosecution is moving forward and your investigation is moving forward successfully you reach a point where you believe that you have all of the facts you need to prove all of the elements of the crime. the fact that comey drafted this statement is an indication that the facts were not lining up against the law and they were missing a piece that they believe they could never reach. that's not to say that he might have changed his mind had the interview with former secretary clinton panned out in an unexpected way, and i'm not particularly concerned or compelled by the fact

broke the story quote a different letter, written by the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein and focused on mr. comey's handling of the investigation into hillary clinton's private e-mail server was sent the day before he was fired t. multi-page letter enumerated trump's long-simmering complaints with comey, including comey was unwilling to say personally trump was not under investigation in the fbi inquiry into the russian meddleing in the 2016 election t. letter quote did not dwell on russia. also today, president trump responded to that washington post report last night that he may be on a collision course with his new chief of staff, according to "post," trump chafes at some of john kelly's moves to restrict access to him. he dubbed him the church lady because they considered him strict and morally superior. we have a lot to get to. joining me chief white house correspondent halle jackson at the white house t. washington post ashley parker, matt welch. matt, you have this story in the washington post again the "post" and the "times" reporting on this letter the letter that was not sent det

and rob rosenstein, the deputy. and they said, mr.ot say this or this is going to get you and your administration in serious trouble. the fact that muler is on it i think shows he really is on the trail of possible obstruction of justice. >> do you think the white house fears this, erin? >> you know, they should, and i think, if anything, what this particular letter does is negates anything that trump said when he tried to say that rosenstein was it is one who made the recommendation. we know he changed his story a number of timings when this came out in may. this makes clear makes clear what trump's motivations were for firing him in the first place. >> i'm curious. do you think this is more drip, drip, drip in this russia/comey investigation? >> of course. first things i want to point out. first, the president has the right to fire the fbi director. the second part of that is if he did it in some way that was vindictive or to obstruction an investigation or as we like to call it put a chilling effect, that's a problem. i think it de

mr. mueller, has a letter from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, that lays out the scope of hision. there are some areas of that that are not sharply defined, so his ability to go back that far, if indeed that's happening, and i can't confirm if that is happening, would seem to indicate that that's way away from what happened in the 2016 presidential election. >> and i do want to ask you, because exactly along that line, where the mandate begins and ends for this investigation has been a -- part of a lot of political debate, if nothing more. do you think this is in line with the mandate of bob mueller's investigation? >> well, i think that when you find criminal activity, then i think there's quite a bit of latitude to go and look at that criminal activity. but again, i can only speculate, with regard to that, last week, i, as chairman of the judiciary committee and john conyer as the ranking democrat on the committee, met with mr. mueller as a part of our oversight committees to look at what he is doing. i can't comment further, because it was a private meeting, because this is

i asked deputy attorney general rod rosenstein about this and how those regulations work. can you answer that in 30 seconds? mr. vladeck: it's the removal provision. special counsel, although his jurisdiction is controlled by the attorney general, it can only be removed for the reasons set out in in the section. i think that's the check. we're here today because the because the w do question is how do we ensure that check is more than just a paragraph on a piece of paper. senator klobuchar: ok. professor amar. mr. amar: say hi to abigail. senator klobuchar: that's on the official record. mr. amar: she wants to be a lawyer or comedian. senator klobuchar: you showed college classmates who decided to pursue comedy and didn't do well. i thought that was effective because she then went to law school. mr. amar: parents want their kids go to law school rather than comedians. [laughter] mr. amar: and i know senator franken is coming up here. i do think there is a big difference between having something in a regulation where the executive branch has chosen to limit itself. when you try to put it in a statute that reall

rosenstein saying he was going to appoint a special prosecutor. don mcgahn announces that news in the oval office. almost immediately, mr. trump lobbed a volley of insults at mr. sessions. this is from "the new york times" account telling the attorney general it was his fault they were in the current situation, mr. trump told mr. sessions that choosing him to be attorney general was one of the worst decisions he had made. called him an idiot and said that he should resign. mr. sessions told the president he would quit and sent a resignation later to the white house. according to four people, mr. sessions would later tell associates that the demeaning way the president addressed him was the most humiliating experience in decades of public life. and that's coming from a guy humiliated by the united states senate when the senate refused to confirm him as a federal judge in 1986. it was after that that jeff sessions got his revenge on the senate by running for a senate seat and winning. mr. trump ended up rejecting mr. sessions' may resignation letter after senior members of the administration team said it would only create

mr. trump himself was not under investigation. the tricky part is that letter was written before he fired the fbi director and before he got the recommendation to fire him from deputy attorney general rod rosensteinter was never sent because the white house's lawyer thought some aspects of it were problematic. the president tweeted wow, looks like james comey exonerated hillary clinton long before the investigation was over, and so much more. a rigged system. >> national security reporter ken delainian. we originally had michael schmidt booked on this, who co-authored this report, but ken, i want to talk about why this could potential i will be dr prop m problematic. he fired him after rod rosenstein said he wasn't sure about it until then. >> while the new york times report does not specify what the contents of the letter are, the fact that the white house council felt it was problematic suggest there are elements that could feed into robert mueller's obstruction of justice investigation. the michael flynn investigation could be problematic because it bears on why he fires james comey. he told lester holt it was russia but it was not about russia. >> they think it should be sent, but robert muel

summarizes it better than rod rosenstein in the memoir he wrote explaining why something should have been done to jim comey. i do think this is a big question and one that mrhasn't fully answered and one that is secretary clinton's right to raise. >> it's hard for some people to accept her being out there talking about the loss given the mistakes they clearly did make, tactical mistakes, message mistakes. still, this is her version. >> this is another example of washington democrats not grappling with why they actually lost the white house, the house and the senate. that's because they failed to offer a coherent message that appealed to middle class voters, especially on pocketbook issues. >> the republican didn't exactly vote for a republican who will work with republican leadership. >> on the tax reform, he chose to work with the democrats. it's just going to be a different presidency. >> more people relate to do hillary than donald trump, so her message resonated with a lot of people. if you read this book, it is candid, it is frank, it admits a lot of mistakes. but the data clearly showed she was on track to win this campaign until jim comey intervened

rosenstein on the importance of the constitution and the rule of law. it's part of a heritage markation seriest to constitution day on september 17. it's 40 minutes. [applause] [applause] mr. meese: thank you, ladies and gentlemen. it's a pleasure for know join jo