we're joined live now by mighty aboot in this lawyer robert driscoll welcome to the program here on our national now you sad that you don't believe in the isn't prisons because of politics to what extent was the case politically monts of eight sets. i think it's impossible to separate from from the politics i think that there is a an underlying crime that he pled guilty to which you can make out under u.s. law but i think the notion that this would have been investigated or in the rest would have been made for a typical foreign national who wasn't russian and wasn't in the current environment where in the us i think it's almost impossible to believe that southern politics has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the case and it's one of those things where if the elements of the crime are there they were selectively enforced in this instance i think it's hard to argue otherwise now why do you not believe this would only have happened to a russian nationals surely anyone acting as an unregistered foreign agents would have faced a similar punishment. i don't believe so because the charge is

prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent her lawyer robert driscoll's spoke to the media after the sentencing. we've got an odd situation where maria could not have been prosecuted under civil farrah which is the one that everyone knows about through metaphor in other cases because she had no knowledge of the statute in order to be criminally prosecuted or fair you need to have a willful violation so because of her lack of knowledge she ended up in charge of the more serious crime the foreign agent statute i think is an area that's ripe for reform but i don't know if i'd go that far then we have a overall a good process in this country i don't think she's in jail for old because of politics but i think anyone who thinks that someone who wasn't russian would be in this situation is one so those who were in the courtroom heard maria buton and give quite an emotional speech prior to her sentence being handed down she talked about how she came to the united states not as an agent or an operative but with purely good intentions and what a nightmare her famil

let's talk about that, robert driscoll represents carl kline, with two masters from equal branches, weill follow the instructions of the one whoa employs him. there's that, and then elijah cummings say we maid hold you in contempt. if so, where does it go? >> they could also just file a civil suit. there's a question about whether the process by which they would go for the contempts which is to use the u.s. attorney in he d.c., that would rate a problem because that person is part of an executive branch. so now we're back to executive privilege before the mueller report came out. did president trump in his consultations with aides about let these security clearances should be granted over the objections being raised by the career folks, were there confidential discussions there that were worthy of -- >> except that would be a concession that the president knew about these and helped override the concerns in. >> well, that's true, but to the extent that congress is investigating this, that's what they need to get into. if they can exert those privilege privileges so the white house has

joining me now for the first time is his attorney robert driscoll. huge legal bills.ave never heard of carl klein. i don't understand what's going on here. explain. >> carl klein worked in the security office. he was 25 years in the military, 18 years civil servant, doing nothing but security clearances for all but two of those years. he's not a political appointee. the democrats were doing an investigation where they want to get in the fbi files. and so, they're alleged that somehow this career civil servant is the reason that they can get into these things. and so, they subpoenaed him personally before the house. and now he's got a compelled deposition, even though i offered in a letter on monday morning to appear voluntarily. >> laura: so, why do they go through the rigmarole of -- >> the white house has a disagreement on scope. the white house doesn't think they should have the personnel files on everybody. but it's not my client's problem. he worked for the white house. he no longer works there. and he will answer what he's allowed to answer and he won't answer w

with that we bring in her attorney, robert driscoll. appreciate you being with us.ccording to the president of russia, at least, they have nothing to charge, nothing to charge. why did she plead guilty? >> she pled guilty to acting as a torn agent. not to defend vladimir putin, i don't envy where the president is when he has to speak to president putin about this, it's difficult to explain what she did wrong. i think-- >> if she didn't do anything wrong, why is as her lawyer, did you haver had plead guilty? >> because the statute that we have, as interpreted by the doj, acting as an agent for a foreign government without registering, means you violated the law and are subject to a 10-year felony. but what exactly you have to do is kind of unclear and it's been unclear in this whole case to the sentencing. leland: you saw her be sentenced yesterday. obviously, you didn't want 18 months you wanted time serve, put her on the plane yesterday. there was some talk about that possibly happening. do you wish you'd gone to trial on this and get a jury to believe your argumen