my quibble with you is pat fitzgerald is a very independent person. i have respect for him. pat fitzgerald could have been fired by the president because he was the united states attorney. robert mueller cannot because he's protected by those special counsel regulations. although it's theoretically true but there are circumstances where he could be removed by the acting attorney general which is me, your assurance of his independence -- go >> if i may. their greater assurance is not that you and i believe and director mueller's integrity which i am no questions about his integrity. edits that you would put in writing an indication based on your authority that he has full independence in regards to the investigations that are before him. are you willing or not to give him the authority to be fully independent of your ability statutorily and legally to fire him? >> he has the full independence as authorized by those regulations -- >> are you willing to do -- >> the chair is going to exercise his right to allow the witnesses to answer the question and the committee is on notice

my quibble are you is, pat fitzgerald is a very principled very independent person. i have a lot of respect for him. pat fitzgerald could have been fired by the president because he was a united states attorney. robert mueller cannot because he's protected by those special counsel regulations. although it's theoretically true that there are circumstances where he could be remove by the acting attorney general for at this time is me, your assurance of his independence is robert be mueller's integrity and andy mccabe's integrity and my integrity. >> sir, if i may, the greater an insurance is not that you and i believe in director mueller's integrity which i have no question about his integrity. it is that you would put in writing an indication based on your authority as the acting attorney general that he has full independence in regards to the investigations that are before him. are you willing or you are not willing to give him the authority to be fully independent of your ability statue rilly and legally to fire him? yes or no sir. >> he has the full independence as

my quibble with you is that pat fitzgerald is a very principaled and individual person. he could have been fired by the president because he was the united states attorney. robert mueller cannot because he is protected by those special council regulations. although it is theoretically threw are circumstances he could be proved by the acting attorney general which at this time is me, your insurance is his integrity, robert mueller's integrity, my integrity -- >> sir, if i may, the greater assurance is not that we believe in if mr. mueller's i integrity, it is that you put in writing, an indication with your authority as acting attorney general that he has fl independence in regar to the investigations before him. aryou willing or not willing to give him the authority to be fully independent of your ability, statutorily and legally to fire him. yes or no, sir. >> he has the full independence as authorized with those -- >> will the senator suspend. >> the chair will exercise the right to allow the witness to answer the question and the committee is on notice to provide the

my quibble with you is, pat fitzgerald is a very principled, very independent person. i have a lot of respect for him. pat fitzgerald could have been fired by the president because he was the united states attorney. robert mueller cannot, because he's protected by those special counsel regulations, so although it's theoretically true there are circumstances where he could be removed by the acting attorney general, which for this case at this time is me, your assurance of his independence is robert mueller's integrity and andy mccabe's integrity and my integrity, and those regulations -- >> sir, if i may, the greater assurance is not that you and i believe in director mueller's integrity, which i have no question about mr. mueller's integrity. it is that you would put in writing an indication based on your authority as the acting attorney general that he has full independence in regards to the investigations that are before him. are you willing or are you not willing to give him the authority to be fully independent of your ability statutorily and legally to fire him? y

we saw that when pat fitzgerald was going after the valerie plame leak in the bush white house and endedstaff to vice president cheney for lying to investigators. you know, these sort of criminal cases cross over into the political sphere and shift to football instead of baseball, essentially. but, you know, it took a long time for those cases to do that. the starr case was several years in when we suddenly -- not suddenly, when it evolved to point of this amount of vitreal. bob mueller has been on the job for a couple weeks. three weeks now, i guess. and already we're at the point where the president is saying that he and his staff are, you know, bad people, conflicted people, and the surrounding media industrial complex are already trying to, you know, gather dossiers of dirt, what they consider to be dirt, that is the past campaign contributions to democrats and so forth about specific staff hires in an effort to soften up that investigation to portray it as illegitimate and biased sot that even before mueller is able to find out anything about what happened and present his conclusion

pat fitzgerald didn't find anyone intentionally leaked valerie plame's name, they found someone in answering questions about whether they leaked valerie plame's name perjured themselves. >> that was unbelievable how they were swirling around, which conservative did it. then dick armitage, oh, never mind. >> it's hard to prove intent. the way all those crimes are difficult but easy for someone like donald trump to stumble into perjury. >> jeremy peters, this is something that obviously matters to the media, to robert mueller, matter to a lot of lawyers, trying to figure out whether laws were broken or not. but i found no evidence, none, zero, that this matters at all to conservatives. most across america believe this is a political witch hunt, nothing more, just a way to bring donald trump down. i haven't found one conservative outside of commentators on twitter, one conservative outside of new york or washington that think this matters in the least. >> right. it's totally putting the man ahead of the principle. you ask conservatives today, okay, so what are your principles. often you will ge

pat. >> all right, megan, fitzgerald, thank you, megan. >> new data released by the federal government details the opioid epidemic is in the state of the maryland. maryland has the nation's highest rate of hospitalizations for opioid use. the rate of hospital admissions in a state of 362 for every 100,000 residents in 2014. that far exceeds the national >> i just posted this on my facebook page with mad help. plenty of important details to consider, though, when choosing a sunscreen. it's powerful out there. >> that's right. taking the wrong sunscreen can have painful and even dangerous consequences. tonight consumer reporter susan hogan is working for you with some important advice to help you avoid getting burned. >> when you pick a sunscreen to protect your family, you always look at the spf. but it's the way you apply it that can actually put your family at risk. consumer report says, unless they are handled with care, sunscreen can put you at risk. >> using spray sunscreen, apply them properly or you may get burned. >> problem isn't the spray sunscreen themselves, it's that most people do

megan fitzgerald was live with a look at what police are saying about this. megan. >> well, pat, police tell us at this point they don't have any leads. but here is what they know. they tell us that they rolled their vehicle through this unlocked gate. they stopped the car about a couple of yards into the cemetery. toppling over as many headstones they could do before taking off. keep in mind, there are generations of families that have been buried here since the early 17 hundreds. >> we know there are multiple suspects, due to the amount of stones that are turned. >> reporter: police say the vandals arrived thursday night into early friday morning. no specific site was targeted but investigators say they worked quickly to knock over as many as they could. >> it made my heart ache. it is so horrific that in a place that's so beautiful. >> reporter: generations of the family are buried here, including her late husband who died a few years ago. headstone wasn't targeted but its mother was buried next to him was. >> the church has been here for hundreds of years and never done anyt

pat lawson muse. >> and i'm leon harrison. a funeral service was held for nabra hassanen who was killed over the weekend. meagan fitzgerald reports with the new information we've learned. >> reporter: hundreds of people from across the area were either bussed in by the buses that you see me, they walked or drove themselves. they are coming to the mosque for a prayer service to remember the life of 17-year-old nabra hassanen. many wanted to send a message to her family that the entire community sports them. nabra was murdered after she and friends were walking back to the that's when investigators seday darwin torez caught up with nabra beating her with a baseball bat and her body was found in a pond. >> prayers and condolences primarily. we decided it would be best to come out today. >> reporter: torres has been charged with murder and police are calling it a case of road rage, but the county's top prosecutor says every motive is on the table including a bias charge. now investigators tell us that they are looking into the possibility that nabra was sexually assaulted before she was murdered. meagan fitzgerald, news 4. >>

pat kol inds, thank you. >>> teachers say these were smart students with bright futures ahead. today they were supposed to graduate from high school and begin the next chapter of their lives. meagan fitzgerald continues our team coverage now. she talked to some of their classmates outside today's graduation. meagan? >> reporter: yeah, doreen, i can tell you that these students are in shock. there's certainly no doubt about it, the murder of two damper on the graduation ceremony in constitution hall behind us here. but for the families of these two slain teenagers, they tell us their lives, of course, will never be the same. >> he love his mom. we love him so much. >> reporter: ari najjar said his 17-year-old son shadi was a loving guy who wanted to become a surgeon. his dad says she had so many friends and enjoyed volunteering at the shady grove hospital. >> he's a very good boy, very smart, very intelligent. >> reporter: his dad said she and his best friend, artem ziberov, who were both honor students, went to northwest high school justiyesterday morning tk up their graduation gowns. ari said they came back to his house and left around 7:00 p.m., but this time they never returned. >> are y

patrick fitzgerald-type special counsel with very broad discretion as rod rosenstein has given bob mueller for good reason. i think bob is worthy of that trust. but if you remember, sort of pat fisher got very expansive jurisdiction from jim comey of all people and used that to eventually convict scooter libby. unrelated to what was initially the start of that prosecution. >> paul, what about the fact that according to chris ruddy here that the president had actually interviewed mueller the day before about -- before he was named special prosecutor about a possible position? >> that is such a strange coincidence. and when you consider that obviously the president had rejected the idea of naming him as fbi director and now mueller is in charge of the investigation. but you know, anderson, the federal regulation here about firing the special prosecutor is very specific. you have to demonstrate misconduct, dereliction of duty, conflict of interest -- >> that's what good cause would be. >> well, it's more than -- good cause is a separate item. but those things are also specifically listed as possibilities for firing somebody. what it amounts to is there's got to be a really spec