mueller. she's dressed in a lime green jacket. and she's floating face up. he actually found her. i believe he used the word "pinned" under the log and face down. >> reporter: leslie had no pulse. but golub thought there was still hope that she could be revived. fred had caught up, towering over them from the creek embankment. >> he says, "is she dead?" i tell him it's too soon to know. >> reporter: golob sent fred back down the road to look for more help. by then, a small village of first responders had assembled at the start of the trail. among them was hinsdale county sheriff's deputy justin casey. >> we had other officers responding, but we also had the e.m.s. personnel coming in ambulances, and we had fire personnel coming with the fire trucks. >> reporter: dispatch put a call into then local sheriff ron bruce. >> we had gotten a report of a drowning up on cottonwood creek. and they said they'd keep me advised. >> reporter: by then a group of medical responders made their way up to the cr

and then he lied so much that mueller's team rejected the deal.p, himself, by the way refused to cooperate with the mueller probe. not even giving an interview. if you doubt that this has anything to do with projection and that it is simply about righting a wrong, ask yourself this. why does he routinely circumvent the pardon office treating it as if it were obsolete when the pardon office is in the best position to field, identify, and resolve requests at a systemic level? but the president doesn't need your systems, your processes, your rules that are supposed to keep this country on the level. if he did, he wouldn't have fallen asleep at the wheel or upon losing take the proverbial ball and go to the house the people built. that's the great irony of president trump. he's like narcissist, singly focused on his own reflection in a pond that when he leans to kiss it, he drowns. it's only trump's projections that seem to concern him. >>> up next another new covid variant discovered in the uk. that's two now. experts say they're more dangerous and m

this is explicitly described in the mueller report.ardon in general, wherever a president pardons people, we quh commonly come on tv and says the president has an unencumbered power to pardon. it is his role, it is his right to do so, but you think there is a "but" there. it's not unlimited, you say, how? >> it's not unlimited in the sense that if a pardon is part of a crime, then most experts would agree that, in fact, the president could be criminally prosecuted for it. just imagine a president exchanged a pardon for a bribe. well, most experts agree that the president could then be prosecuted for bribery. and for accepting the bribe. and this is similar to that. the quid pro quo is the bribery in a censor senrtain sense, butt need to do bribery law, we can do the straight up obstruction of justice. and andrew wiseman in his book, "where the law ends," he said something that wasn't completely explicit in the mueller report, but he's basically saying there that this would be criminal on the part of the president for in a certain sense

and robert mueller's russia investigation. now, he admitted his crimes, and he initially agreed to cooperate with mueller. then, lied to prosecutors. manafort was serving his sentence in home confinement. roger stone, a longtime trump ally and self-described political trickster, who was convicted of lying to congress and threatening a witness. trump had, already, commuted his sentence. and keeping it in the family, trump pardons charles kushner. the father of trump's own son-in-law and white house aide, jared kushner. now, the elder kushner was convicted, in the early 2000s, of tax evasion. retaliating against a federal witness and lying to the federal-election commission. he was prosecuted, by trump's longtime friend, chris christie, who was u.s. attorney in new jersey, at the time, and said this about charles kushner's crimes, years later. >> i just think it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted that -- i mean, if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it. and then, sends the videotape to his s

only those who cooperated with mueller don't get a pass.'s not going to pardon michael cohen, for example. but the people who held out and refused to cooperate, the manaforts, the stones that lied to cover up for him, they will get a pass. so it's worse than trying to make the investigation go away. it's merely about paying back those who lied for him, those who refused to cooperate for him. it's a direct assault on the rule of law. it's also the worst form of cronyism and self-interest at work. but i have to tell you, rachel, that while i probably should be most offended by the convictions in the russia investigation, i'm most offended by the pardons in the iraq war crimes because here you have the absolute worst of america followed by the best of america, then tragically followed by the worst of america again. the worst in private contractors murdering innocent civilians in iraq. hard to imagine a worse act of any citizen of this country. then you have the best. you have hardworking people trying to bring these defendants to justice, tryi

the behavior in the mueller report makes richard nixon look like choir boy.'s no changing that. that's what the president is trying to do. >> the pardons come on the same day that attorney general bill barr stepped down, resigned. is there coincidence in this timing? >> well, i'm not sure about that. there was no way in the world that the attorney general was going to make a peep about these sleazy pardons. attorney general's time in office will be remembered as him again being just an agent of donald trump. the idea that the attorney general was going to say something i think is far fetched. again, it's all part of the same story. donald trump could have let the attorney general finish out -- what have we got, 20 days? but instead, because barr went against him on the fantasy that he won the election, he gets shown the door three weeks early. >> while i have you, we know the president vetoed the crucial defense bill, the ndaa. now the covid relief bill and government funding bill are hanging in the balance, hanging in limbo. do you know what's going on here?

four people prosecuted by robert mueller, pardoned.hree corrupt, former republican congressmen, pardoned. one father of the president's son-in-law, also, pardoned today. and so, it's clear the president is going to continue this. in particular, john, because what we are seeing from the president right now are efforts to exert what power he has left. he is a lame-duck president, he knows that, and he is fighting it any way he can. vetoes are one way he can do that. pardons are certainly another. >> jeremy, who is going to around him over the next few days? who is going to be whispering in his ear? >> well, i can tell you that advisers to the president are nervous anytime he comes to mar-a-lago. and that is because this is the place where so many of the president's allies, including those on the fringe of his political orbit, get the most unfettered access to him. they don't have to go through the normal white house process to be able to see the president or speak with him if they call into the white house switchboard. they can just go u

we already know, looking into the mueller report, there were ten incidents where mueller said basically. these are ten ways that he's probably obstructed justice, but i can't bring charges against him because he's president of the united states. be interested to see with all of this if there's not some way for a prosecutor, after he leaves office, to look at him dangling these pardons out to obstruct an investigation against him, and bring obstruction of justice charges against him later. he certainly deserves it. if we really believe in america, and -- i don't know -- i get that's up to you and me, people. do we still believe no man's above the law? we know the crime that -- we know he's obstructing justice repeatedly and was obstructing justice with these promises. at critical times during the investigation. so do we believe that or not? >> hmm. >> is that something we say to make us feel good inside and help us sleep at night? or do we really believe in america, no man is above the law. if no man is above the law the man you're looking at that right needs to be charged. he needs to b

also pleaded guilty to lying to mueller's team. then there are three crooked former members of the republican congress, all three of whom were put away by trump's own justice department. steve stockman of texas convicted on charges of fraud and money laundering. duncan hunter of california who pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds. and chris collins of up state new york, the first trump supporter in congress who pleaded to lying to the fbi and conspiring to commit securities fraud. he was the one who as a guest at the annual congressional picnic summer of 2017 was caught on camera phoning insider stock tips to his son from the south lawn of the white house according to the feds. also on this initial pardon list four military contractors who worked for blackwater and were all convicted of killing 14 unarmed iraqi civilians in

mueller said. and now the president has pardoned the people who did not cooperate with that investigation. that leads many people to believe that the president has been able to live above the law, a belief that not just democrats have but many legal experts, and that's really the legacy tonight that we see of the mueller investigation. >> but, joyce, the interesting thing about that is that the president gets political cover on this. i want to play for you what lindsey graham said about pardoning paul manafort on march 13th of 2019, almost two years ago. let's listen to what lindsey graham said. >> would you advise the president against pardoning paul manafort? >> yeah. i mean, the point is that pardoning manafort would be seen as a political disaster for the president. there may come a day down the road after the politics have changed that you would want to consider an application for him like everybody else, but now it would be a disaster. >> you know, my producers can tell me if we've got a stat

but talk about those who were part of the mueller case, mueller defendants tonight getting pardons. >> the president, brian, continues to do everything he can by word and by deed to undermine the mueller team, the mueller findings and the convictions of many people that were caught up in the mueller investigation. you know, it shouldn't be surprising that people convicted of crimes get pardons. i mean, after all that's who it's designed for. what we should be asking ourselves is who is getting pardons? which people are getting pardons? and again and again and again it's the president's friends and allies and his political supporters. and so it's hard for me to imagine that he cares very much about george papadopoulos or alexander vanderswan except they were caught up in the mueller investigation. it's a way for this president to try and further torment what i think were honorable and decent and noble investigators trying to hold this president accountable for his misdeeds and his attempts to obstruct justice. you know, pardons are designed for people who have paid their debt, who have

this was during the open mueller probe in our reporting on the beat. >> in your fbi interview with mueller's team, you were asking about payments to women? >> they were asking if i knew anything about it. >> they were asking if you knew anything about payments to women. >> but i think it's pretty obvious they're looking into this. you have now this $130,000 payment that was made after the election from campaign to trump org. >> that turned out to be quite relevant because mueller team -- mueller's team, they thought there actually was enough evidence there to pursue and what he and others were talking about. they also, carefully, as a legal matter, decided it appeared beyond their jurisdiction, so they handed it to new york investigators who ultimately secured cohen's cooperation. and that's why we have these public facts from that probe, which could be very relevant when trump leaves office. this was, of course, overseen by the trump d.o.j., finding cohen made payments to women who claimed to have an affair with individual one and they found cohen's intent was to influence the election. tha

mueller did not list any crimes.ed kushner failed to disclose contact with foreigners including russians on his security clearance forms, not once but several times to the point where intelligence agencies say he should not have top secret clearance but the president overrode them. for the president recall robert mueller said more than once prosecutors could not prosecute a sitting president. ken buck asked mueller twice in these hearings could you charge the president after he leaves office? yes, mueller answered, twice he said yes. the president said so many times the mueller investigation cleared him, exonerated him, that mueller had to come back and hold a special press conference and say no it didn't. a bribery for pardon scheme involving a person who made an offer of a political donation in exchange for a presidential pardon. the names of the individuals are not apparent and president trump is not named. christopher krebs was on the "today" show yesterday morning, a day after a member of president trump's legal

but the most important one are the pardons for the two figures in the mueller investigation.r, the arc of donald trump's presidency and political career is russia was his financial benefactor before he was a candidate, then they helped him get elected. the president has helped russia as president by weakening nato. we are ending his administration with a massive hack by russia of u.s. business and u.s. government which he is defending russia on and suggesting it's china. what the president has been trying to do throughout his term is avoid accountability politically and legally for that alliance with russia. so he's trying to wipe out the effects of the mueller investigation, very good chance having pardoned mike flynn, commuted the sentence of roger stone they will pardon paul manafort who knows things about him that he didn't tell robert mueller, he may even try to pardon himself and this fits in that pattern. >> right. i mean, one of the things you see in his pardons for those involved in the russia investigation who were charged is loyalty, really rewarding them for their

it's not unlike the gap between barr's leader that offered a mueller book report and the actual mueller report, which is one of the many misleading and political acts that led so many doj veterans across both parties demand barr resign long before he did this week and in addition to that meddling in the mueller probe, you had meddling regarding trump allies and bar's resignation letter doubles down on this problem. he falsely describing the trump doj's russia probe as an effort to cripple or oust the trump administration with frenzy and baseless accusations of collusion. he adds his solute to trump's quote unprecedented achievements for the american people. i'm joined by a former federal prosecutor who has been a keen observer of the barr justice department johnflannery. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> we have the resent effect. in trial, you want to leave the jury with that last thought in their mind and it's probably going to be more e meffective t what you talked about in the first day. he's an effective lawyer. he leaves pointing and sources pointing to his clashes with dona

to wrong the rights inflicted by mueller, i think that was closer to what the white house said.one last month and he said that he had not spoken to the white house for quite some time but there is a lot of outcry by people who feel like this was an attempt to undo the russia investigation. as you say, every president has their shot to make their pardons. trump has actually made fewer than others, so how different are his choices, compared to his predecessors — like president nixon for example? that's right. as of the numbers today i believe president trump on thejustice department website said he had only done 28 pardons, that might be excluding the numbers that we saw this week, but previous president have done in the hundreds, the past couple of presidents, especially towards the end of the term. so where the difference is, that we saw president ford pardon richard nixon before nixon went to trial for the watergate scandal. we saw president george hw bush pardon officials from the iran—contra scandal before they went to trial. in both of those cases, while they were white hous

for refusing to cooperate with mueller's investigation. for thought there. >>> "outfront" now, former assistant special watergate prosecutor nick ackerman and nely honig, a u.s. assistant attorney for the southern district of new york. ellie, you think these pardons actually do make trump even more skpees exposed to prosecutors once he leaves office. why so? >> i do, kate. even after a year ago shortly after the mueller report came out i was over 1,000 career nonpolitical former federal prosecutors who signed a letter saying we believe the evidence even as laid out in robert mueller's report was enough to charge obstruction of justice. the relevant part here is the fact the president went out in public, went out on twitter and constantly dangled, offered out there the possibility of a pardon in exchange for people remaining silent. he didn't say it quite that clearly but i think anyone with common sense was easily able to read between the lines. what's changed since then? he's now delivered on that potential promise. over the last couple d

but senior mueller prosecutor andrew weissmann says biden's attorney general should investigate trump and if warranted, prosecute him for his obstruction of justice in their investigation and potential crimes before and after taking the oath of office. weissmann writes in "the new york times", quote, because some of the activities predated his presidency, it would be untenable to let mr. trump sweep under the rug his federal obstruction. being president should mean you are more accountable, not less, to the rule of law. i spoke with andrew weissmann and former acting solicitor general neal katyal and began by asking andrew whether the new justice department's criminal division should reopen the two-volume mueller report. >> i think that is going to be a decision for the new attorney general, as to whether to do that. and the way i look at this, sort of the big picture, nicolle, is -- and this piggybacks on your last segment, is the rule of law is a crown jewel of our democracy. and the president abusing the pardon power is just another nail in the coffin of rule of law. to be a countr

robert uhler already outlined in the mueller -- robert mueller already outlined in the beaulah report president trump obstructed justice by dangling pardons. this is not new news. phil: did you think there were any notable absences from the president's christmas list? >> there are a great many americans who have been convicted of drug crimes and other nonviolent crimes and served many years in prison, many african-americans and other minorities who deserve mercy. we certainly want to have presidential pardons. it is a good system, but it is not used for what it is intended to be used for, and that is to show mercy to those who have been convicted of crimes, but have been given jail sentences that are too long that are not commensurate with the crimes, and furthermore, we ought to be commuting death sentences at the united states. the united states is one of the few industrialized countries that continues to use the death penalty. it is widely regarded as immoral around the world. so there are plenty of places that we aren't using pardons. phil: maybe the fault lies less with this pres

and his latest book is called "where law ends: inside the mueller investigation."y we have that first-person account of the initial shock what barr tried to do with that investigation. it's really nice to see you tonight. thanks for making time. >> nice to see you, rachel. >> what is your reaction to attorney general barr's resignation tonight? >> what i think about when i heard that he was resigning is i thought about the enormous number of career prosecutors who have had to resign under attorney general barr's watch. and, rachel, as you know, that does not happen under normal attorney generals, whether republican or democratic. as you recounted, when attorney general barr filed a motion to dismiss the flynn case, prosecutors resigned. when he filed a motion to reduce the sentence recommended for roger stone, another friend of the president, prosecutors resigned. when he appointed john durham to do an investigation of the investigators, the number two to john durham resigned. and then most recently when you had attorney general barr touting that mail-in voting wou

papadopoulos pleaded guilty in the mueller probe for lying to federal agents.dons including two republican members of congress, a man called alexander swan, a dutch national also charged by the mueller investigation for making false statements. will have more more on the fullest and its applications later. ♪ eric to want is the ceo of zoom. he was just named businessperson of the year by "time" magazine, not that anyone cares, but the business press appears to. they love yuan and want you to believe he is a good person. >> do you believe you have a duty to do something greater for society? >> we've got to think about, what is your social responsibility. if every company -- hope to make the community and society a better place. >> thank you so much for joining me, congratulations on the year you've had. >> tucker: do you have flecks of slobber on your screen? check carefully. that is not out of character, that is how the business press "press" in this country treat most ceos. tell us why you are so wonderful. why shouldn't your stock price be even higher? that i

yes, mueller answered, twice.resident said so many times that mueller's report exonerated him that mueller actually had to come back with a special news conference to say, no, it didn't. as for the bribery investigation, the department of justice investigating a bribery for pardon scheme involving a person who made an offer of a political donation in exchange for a presidential pardon for somebody. the documents published by the doj are heavily redacted and do not name the individuals involved or president trump. >>> christopher krebs was on the "today" show yesterday morning, a day after a member of president trump's legal team said krebs should be taken out and shot. krebs was fired from his post at homeland security after he said the 2020 election was the most secure in american history. krebs told the "today" show he may take legal action. >>> republican officials in georgia who are in charge of the election there say they're getting death threats after certifying the vote for joe biden. a trump supporter appe

you know, i read the mueller report.t this guy was hired off linkedin with only a three or four day vetting period, you've got somebody that was not there with any type of bona fides to do the job and he was there for the grip. you talked about what was going on and john i was listening to you very closely. i think what he's surrounding himself with is they're making a lot of money, there's a grift going on here. that's what worries me. when you see the pardons, when you see the grift that's going on and the behavior that's happening, all this comes together and when you talk about conspiracy theories, you talk about a sickness and that's overtaken the white house right now. >> looking through this, john, it does come full circle to our conversation. some of the members of congress that were at the white house last night plotting with the president for this last stand to disrupt the electoral college announcement, they're some of the people who are on the endorsements of these pardons and that's who the president is list

>> reporter: john durham is now a special counsel, essentially the same thing that robert mueller was during president trump's presidency. what this means is that come january and joe biden takes office, john durham will continue doing his investigation. as you said, he is a u.s. attorney. traditionally what happens is all u.s. attorneys leave their positions and joe biden is able to pick a u.s. attorney in connecticut which is where john durham is based. what this means is that the durham investigation which began earlier this year is going to continue probably for another year, well into the biden presidency looking into whether or not there were any laws broken in the beginnings of the early parts of the trump russia investigation back in 2016. jake? >> can president-elect biden fire a special counsel when he becomes president? >> he can. but, of course, this is why this is a bit of a political grenade that bill barr has left behind for the incoming president. we don't -- unlike donald trump who regularly threatened to fire robert mueller, we don't expect biden will do the same thi

the president already granting clemency to others charged in connection to the mueller probe, pardoning michael flynn, his former national security adviser, george papadopoulos and an attorney charged erltly in the investigation. tonight, trump pardoning the father of his son-in-law, jared kushner. charles kushner pleaded guilty in 2005 to tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign contributions. he served 14 months of a two-year prison term. linsey, we appear to be just getting started, and the theme that's emerging is that the president wants to wipe the mueller investigation off the face of the planet. to be clear, we expect more. a lot more. linsey? >> more to come. we are standing by. pierre, thank you so much. >>> and we move on now to that major winter storm barrelling across the country this holiday week. more than 150 million under weather alerts at this hour and this is what it sounded like in steamboat springs, colorado. that is thundersnow, as an intense snow squall moved through the ski resort. whiteout conditions and dangerous driving in parts of the plains

indicted by the special counsel, robert mueller he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prisonas a result of the mueller investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election was roger stone, a long time political ally of mr trump. having refused to cooperate with the mueller inquiry both men now find themselves rewarded for their loyalty and basking in the glow of a presidential pardon. pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr. trump's senior adviser, jared kushner. a real estate developer, charles kushner was convicted of multiple crimes in 2004, including setting his brother in law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left

due to prosecutorial misconduct by special counsel mueller's team, mr.tone was treated very unfairly. he was subjected to a pre-dawn raid of his home, which the media conveniently captured on camera. mr. stone also faced potential political bias at his jury trial. pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the mueller investigation. so neal, breathtaking statements aside, can pardons equal real-time obstruction of justice, and if so, who do we see about that? >> yes, i think they can. and boy, that sounded like being written by a bad defense lawyer. and the idea that this president is a law and order president, with that language, my foot. trump is going full banana republic in his last 28 days. and, you know, i think at this point, if you want donald trump to give you a pardon, you have to be a republican, you have to be a war criminal, someone who didn't rat on trump, or a turkey. that's about it. and these people, like paul manafort and roger stone, were convicted by juries. this isn't a circumstance in which they were po

he lied to the american public about the mueller report.k in so doing, he saved trump's presidency if we had seen the truth, i think there would have been a different outcome back in 2018. he intervened in political charged cases to rescues michael flynn, roger stone. he fired the head of the sdny where i used to work and lied to the public about that. he used tear gas on protesters outside the white house to clear the way for a photo op, and then he lied to the american public about the threat for massive voters fraud. he made a bit of turn here at the end when he showed a bit of i said, when he realized it was over, about you my answer to that is good, you did the right thing, but way too little, way too late. it certainly doesn't undo two years of deep damage to the doj. >> i feel like we're getting a preview of the conclusion to your book. i hope to see you at the book party next summer in person. thank you so much. >> thanks, brooke. >>> this just into cnn, senior administration officials tell cnn that trump's national security adviser

the president has not done trying to chip away from the mueller probe. his folks said over and over again as john said that these are process crimes and these don't really count and i think the president sees it that way, you saw clearly the president putting a stamp how he uses that investigation. it remains to see how he pardons m manafort. he commuted roger stone but he can still pardon him. he'll not pardon michael cohen. that's where i see this is going. i see it going to an ongoing mixed of traditional pardons and people going through some form of a process and others coming to various mans of the west wing. >> cnn is reporting the phone is rings off the hook, and in is one of the things that the president is doing when he's not taking on coronavirus where thousand of americans die everyday. john dean, you brought a process crime here. murder is not a processed crime. these four security agents were convicted murder and the three members were in congress. security fraud is not a processed crime either. so how does it square -- republicans are going

it's worth noting the mueller report detailed in the obstruction of justice part, how trump's democrat dangled pardons as a way to protect the president, and now we're seeing the president's plan play out with the president. charles kushner, the father of president trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering and served a 24 month sentence. jared did not advocate for his father to get the pardon because it was the unspoken word between him and trump that this would happen. this is what sources have told me and my colleague. overall, the story emerging from these pardons is that the president is using his pardon power to reward those close to him. some of whom would likely not meet the doj criteria for pardoning. back to you. >> pamela, thank you so much. to the president's sudden reversal on a $900 billion covid relief bill. house democrats are seized on the plan for fatter stimulus checks. house speaker nancy pelosi moves today to pass legislation for $2,000 payments by what's called unanimous consent. it's a

put out a summary and critical of the mueller report. but, it seems like voter fraud accusation that the president made over and over again is a bit too far for bill barr. >> it would be easy for a foreign power to print up a bunch of phony ballots and send them in and that would be undetectib undetectib undetectib undetectible. he didn't offer any evidence on that. that's the furthest he went backing up the president of mail-in voting. >> that's something that could happen hypothetically. what the president has been saying in weeks and there were tens or not hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots of the entire minion machines corrupted and foreign conspiracies and others involved and other countries. what barr said a few months ago it was contentious at the time. without evidence and by all accounts of the government and experts that they had done that and corrupted the election. those are a bit of two different things. >> josh dawsey, we appreciate it. >>> we are lucky to have them here in light of the breaking news right now. and

both were jailed as a result of the mueller inquiry into russian interference in the 2016 election.avid willis reports. paul manafort is a seasoned republican party campaign consultant and donald trump's former campaign manager. indicted by the special counsel, robert mueller, he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of multiple crimes. also convicted as a result of the mueller investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election was roger stone, a long time political ally of mr trump. having refused to cooperate with the mueller inquiry both men now find themselves rewarded for their loyalty and basking in the glow of a presidential pardon. pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr. trump's senior adviser, jared kushner. a real estate developer, charles kushner was convicted of multiple crimes in 2004, including setting his brother in law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left the white house to spend the holidays at his florida retreat, maralago, and after

also pleaded guilty to lying to mueller's team.are three crooked former members of the republican congress, all three of whom were put away by trump's

here mueller's prosecutors had inside players. this was during the open mueller probe in our reporting on the beat. in your fbi interview with mueller's team they were asking about payments to women. >> they were asking if i knew anything about it. >> if you knew anything about payments to women. >> they're looking into this. you have this $130,000 payment made after the election from campaign to trump org. >> that turned out to be relevant. mueller's team, they thought there was enough evidence there to pursue. they also carefully as a legal matter decided it appeared beyond their jurisdiction. they handed it to new york investigators who secured cohen's cooperation. that's why we have those public facts which could be relevant when trump leaves office. this was overseen by the doj. that is bad because while there can be a defense that such payments were separate from an election crime, cohen, the one who arranged them admitted it under oath and the evidence shows trump was in on it. cohen said he did it at the direction of indiv

obviously, after the mueller report, he was very rcritical o the mueller report.e's been very defensive of the president, in many ways. but it seems voter-fraud accusations the president's made over and over and over again is kind of a bridge too far for barr. >> yeah. he did make a comment. i think it was earlier, a couple months ago. saying, well, it would be very easy for foreign power to print up a bunch of phony ballots and -- and send them in. and -- and that would be undetectable. of course, he didn't offer any evidence of that. that seemed like kind of the farthest he went, backing up the president on, you know, his fraudulent claims about the dangers of mail-in voting. >> right. that was a claim that something could happen, you know, hypothetically. what the president has been saying, in recent weeks, is that, you know, there were tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of fraudulent ballots. that entire dominion machines were corrupted. that, you know, there were foreign conspiracy with hugo chavez and other countries. farfetched, even for some of trump's bi

neither provided mueller with any meaningful cooperation. prosecutors did not get anything interesting from them. trump also pardoned two former republican members of congress who were the first to endorse him during his 2016 presidential campaign. former california congressman duncan hunter was sentenced early this year to 11 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release related to his misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses. and former new york congressman chris collins had been serving a 26-month prison sentence since october. last year collins pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of making a false statement. but those all pale in comparison to the sickening, disgusting, pardon of four convicted war criminals. donald trump pardoned four blackwater contractors who were convicted by a federal jury in 2014 after a lengthy trial that saw some 30 witnesses travel from iraq to testify against them. prosecutors accused the men of illegally unleashing, quote, powerful

the fbi investigated it, mueller investigated whether trump's campaign was in on it. barr then assigned this guy, john durham, to investigate the fbi and robert mueller for having looked into those things. well, today as he went up to the white house upon telling the associated press there was no fraud in the election, barr decided that this might be a good time to reveal that two weeks before election day, he secretly wrote a letter giving john durham the title of special counsel because he wants durham to keep his investigation of mueller and the fbi going into the biden administration even after trump's gone. according to congressman adam schiff, the head of the intelligence committee, this is going to go down as one of those nice try pr moves from william barr, but it's not going to work. schiff saying tonight on msnbc that what barr did here might be good enough pr, might pull the wool over president trump's eyes enough to maybe save bill barr's job for a few more weeks even as barr is no longer going along with the election fraud grift effort that's lining the p

who was interviewed in the mueller probe if he likes.one of that will ever erase the fact that donald trump is the only american president in history to have been elected -- >> is preet bharara still here? take up the point for me. >> you make an interesting point. are there people out there who are still hoping for a pardon who have enough power or influence or position to do something that's favorable to the president? i don't think there's that many people in that category. i do think what he's doing among other things, laying the groundwork for additional pardons that are going to be more controversial. so, these are controversial. everyone's talking about them. i think many of them are disgraceful, especially the ones you keep mentioning, the two congressmen who are convicted by the justice department under donald trump, under his own attorney general, jeff sessions for engaging in clear misconduct and lining their own pockets. but there's going to be a next wave of pardons that mugt extend to people even closer to him, maybe even f

say what you want about robert mueller. phony article, i think it was buzzfeed, bob mueller stepped out and said that article was a phony and it was proven no collusion, after two years, no collusion. bob mueller stood up and he interjected that this article was false. bill barr should have done the same thing. >> jonathan turley said he had no choice, he would have been -- it would have been like james comey again. >> all he had to do was say an investigation is going on. by the way, i don't want to say anything bad -- i don't want to see anything bad happen to hunter biden. whatever it is, the facts. i purposely stay out of it. when affect an election, bill barr frankly did the wrong thing. when they are saying things, making statements and the press is purposely not reporting it, bill barr i believe -- not believe, i know, had an obligation to set the record straight. just like robert mueller set the record straight. he set it straight. a very bad thing was sad and it was a false article, a false statement which usually

but bob mueller stood up and interjected that this article was false.l barr should have done the same thing. >> jonathan turley said he had no choice, it would have been like james comey again. >> all he had to do say an investigation is going on. by the way, i don't want to see anything bad happen to hunter biden. i purposely stay out of it but when you affect on election, bill barr frankly did the wrong thing. when they are saying things, making statements and the press is purposely not reporting it, bill barr, not believe, i know had an obligation to set the record straight just like robert mueller set the record straight. a very bad thing was said, false statement, which usually they are with the media, but this was a false statement. and robert mueller stood up and he said that's a false statement. and that was a great thing. i've got to go. brian: go get them. leland: brian kilmeade and the president, joining us now since interview leaving the white house, alyssa farah, 4 years we were going through a transition and accusations surrounding the pre

rick gates played an essential role in the mueller probe. he was caught up in it.minal of the day for a little while. he was sentenced to 45 days in jail. no one remembers exactly why. he is the author of "wicked game: an inside story about how to trump won and america lost." rick, thank you so much for coming on. we figured, someone who got swept up in this hysteria, this absurdity, you might have some sense of where -- rather where the durham probe is now. what is he going to find and when are we going to hear about it? any clue? >> tucker, it's great to be with you. of course many americans are frustrated and disappointed. that he is not released his findings. the president's disappointed. i'm externally disappointed. the special counsel has seen many lives destroyed in the process, mine included. there is a lot of information that durham has looked at, investigated. this is the last chance that americans have to uncover the political motivations that drove mueller's team and their treacherous plot to remove president trump. i believe and i am very hopeful that