the russian meddling in the 2016 election is now in the hands of robert mueller. nted special counsel overseeing the probe. he has the power to investigate, question, issue subpoenas and prosecute federal crimes if any are discovered. mueller appointed to the job by rod rosenstein. >> the appointment comes after the firing of the fbi director james comey nine days ago and divulging sensitive information in the oval office and comey's memo saying the president asked him to end the investigation of michael flynn. >> and on capitol hill, news of the special counsel is greeted with relief. especially by republicans. we begin with justice reporter laura jarrett live in washington. great to have you on, laura. tell us how this all ca

who is robert mueller? guest: he is a lifelong career prosecutor, mostly here in washington and the justice department. he spent most of his career working his way up through various u.s. attorney's office, head of the criminal division for the u.s. department of justice under george h.w. bush, and then was deputy attorney general under george w. bush before becoming fbi director. as has been told over the last couple days, he was the longest-serving fbi director since j edgar hoover himself. the first since hoover to complete the 10 year term of an fbi director, and then he was so popular and so respected that he was extended for an additional two years by president obama and a bipartisan act of congress. host: what made him so popular and respected? guest: he is a ramrod straight , former marine straight shooter. in a city that seems like it gets more partisan and more politicized with every passing year, he is completely apolitical, completely nonpartisan, and very well respected on both sides of the ais

host: more of the background of robert mueller, the special counsel. timid alexander, virginia just outside of d.c., you are on with garrett graff. good morning. caller: can you hear me? i have a couple of points. i heard that the mueller investigation might overtake [indiscernible] also, it could take years. and there's no power to indict. this specialaving investigation, arguments were made that it undermines the regular order of both the house and senate. what do you think? guest: you are right that you hit on the two biggest challenges the robert mueller faces as he comes into this new role. the first is the extent to which is investigation will interact with and overlap with the pre-existing investigations by the justice department and the fbi, and by the house and senate. typically in instances like this, what we have seen is that capitol hill will take a step back when there is an active federal investigation, at least one that they have confidence in. as you say, the second challenge is the timing. federal investigations are not fast. and under

something you wrote in politico a short while ago about robert mueller and james comey. "donald trump has stumbled into taking on too experienced washington players on her home turf. these skirmishes in cap all hearings with comey as mueller slogs along which will be a quiet, tenacious and by the book investigation into the heart of trump's campaign relationship with russia." guest: i think part of what is going to be interesting to watch as this unfolds is where this investigation goes from now is very much on territory familiar to robert mueller and james comey. this is what they have done their entire careers. they are both federal prosecutors by trade. big, used to leading complicated, sprawling investigations. part of what makes the special investigation, councils, and prosecutors complicated is as much of their investigation ends up being the cover-up as the original crime, if there is a crime at the core of this, which we don't even necessarily know that right now. when you look back at history of these investigations, they can start investigation for example -- ke

president obama then chose james comey to replace robert mueller. in 2013. when james comey began what was supposed to be a ten-year term as fbi director for him. tonight robert mueller is now charged with investigating, among other things, the conversations that donald trump had with fbi director james comey, including the conversation that was revealed yesterday by "the new york times" that james comey described in a memo he wrote after that conversation, the smoking gun in that memo is the quotation of donald trump saying to the fbi director, quote, i hope you can see your way to letting this go, to letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go." if robert mueller believes that president trump was trying to get the director of the fbi to stop investigating michael flynn, president trump's fired national security adviser, then robert mueller will present evidence of a case of

two will not sit down face-to-face until july. >> bret: . >> bret: the breaking news tonight, robert mueller, former fbi director has been chosen by the deputy attorney general bob rosenstein to be the special counsel in this investigation. changes the dynamic dramatically. let's go back to john roberts. john. >> it definitely changes the dynamic. there is no question about it, bret. you look at at the statements coming from capitol hill, the universal praise of rod rosen started his decision to appoint fbi director mueller to and universal plays for robert mueller, well respected by every democrat that is ever released a statement on capitol hill. we are told at the white house was informed of this an hour before it went public, it went public at 6:00 p.m., that will probably for the timeline sometime around 5:00 p.m. we have not yet heard a reaction from the white house. they are all behind closed doors, for a moment, kellyanne conway, as we were standing outside of sean spicer's office, came in through the corridor, wheeled through the office and right back out again without making commen

. >> did the deputy attorney general give the commitment that robert mueller will have the resources that he need. -- that he will need. >> he did. i said the special prosecutor ,as to have the independence the resources, and the unlimited mandate to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. >> we just completed an hour and a half session with the deputy attorney general. i think it helped inform a lot of the members that may not be on the intelligence committee. the biggest take away for most members was that the appointment of robert mueller as the special counsel, special prosecutor. that the deputy attorney general is going to give him very wide consequently did not answer specifics on virtually any question that was asked. in terms of questions about the memo or otherwise. i will just leave it at that and take one quick question. >> senator blumenthal has just told us that this has now become a criminal investigation. is that your takeaway? >> as someone on the intelligence committee and perhaps open to much more information than many of the other members, i do not want to comme

robert mueller is solid ground. i saw kings, prime ministers, secretaries of state, cia directors, former attorney general in new york said he is one of the best. he is not one of the best, robert mueller. he is the best i ever saw. leadership, judgment, decision making he would hate me to say this, the man has heart and sense of humor. there is nobody better at doggedly pursuing a target without being subjective to any pressure from congress, president, media, anybody in the fbi. attorney general, deputy attorney general. there is nobody better, wolf. i can't say it any clearer. >> rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general, who made this decision. >> you have to applaud the decision. let's point out the scenario of anyone who want to argue against mueller but against a special counsel. if the fbi walked four in three months, four months, six months and said we decided no charges are appropriate in this case who would have believed them? i didn't think they had an option because the scenario you play out over time, pa

just as fun to bring back former fbi director robert mueller to oversee the investigation of the russiane the 2016 election. mueller has been a special account of the pro-president trump looks forward to the matter ended quickly. later today, trump will likely address the russian controversy when he meets the press after he sat down with the president of colombia at the white house. colombian president ron daniel fantasies became stronger ties with the united days. in earnings news, wal-mart reports before the opening bell. last month wal-mart says it will cut hundreds of corporate jobs at its international technology businesses along the sam's club warehouse chain. they must take a look at u.s. stock market futures. there is a brief time overnight and we saw green over this last hour accelerated to the lowest point out to 84 per dow futures. nasdaq futures 1017 on the heels of selling a niche as well. boring, that's happening now. lauren: very much to do with the next story. the department of justice appointed a special counsel to take over the russian collusion investigation. chris jen

former fbi director robert mueller now in charge.ans and democrats praising the decision. but the white house blindsided. the president bracing for a battle. >> you have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight. >> stocks plunge and the market facing its biggest drop since trump took office. now as he prepares for his first trip abroad, a top republican joins us on "gma." >>> not guilty, protesters taking to the streets. >> no justice, no peace. >> after the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed manned in oklahoma. >> looks like a bad dude too. >> is acquitted in a case making national headlines.

it doesn't get any better than robert mueller.lso agree i don't think they should have appointed somebody. >> tucker: why did they? >> i think they are feeling the political heat. maybe they are watching too much television and reading too many newspapers. i have not seen any evidence of actual collusion. where is the actual crime they think they need a special prosecutor to prosecute? i haven't seen that. there's been a lot of flailing but that flailing started before january 20. >> tucker: did you expect this? >> i'm very surprised by it. no heads up. i don't think the speaker's office get got a heads up. it cost us out of the blue. >> tucker: we were supposed to have someone from the white house on site from on anr topic, and they canceled. i tried to call over there. you have seen other special prosecutor investigation go far afield from where they started and tied up an entire presidency. it happened to president reagan, president clinton. >> nobody knows what the lanes of the special counsel are going to be and my understand

robert mueller will do a good job. i actually wanted to see an independent investigation, probably an independent commission similar to the 9/11 commission. but now that we have a special counsel, i'm -- i accept that, and i accept that robert mueller will do a good job. >> but a commission would have no legal authority to prosecute. >> i'm sorry? >> a commission would be like, you know, something out of brookings, something out of the truth and justice commission. it wouldn't indict anybody. it wouldn't carry any criminal penalty. why would you be for something that wouldn't catch the bad guys? >> well, chris, up to this point i thought we were talking about a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal investigation. but now that a special prosecutor has been appointed, it appears maybe they're moving in a different direction. >> well, an fbi investigation is a criminal investigation for spies. you're looking for spies and you put them away for life. what do you mean it's not a criminal investigation? it's catc

robert mueller knows what he's doing. >> jonathan, your thoughts on this?o you think that the russians have shared maybe with iran or someone else the information that they gleaned from the oval office, from the president of the united states, sharing classified information with them? >> you know, mr. putin comes out of the spy racket, compartmentalization is very important to them. i'm going to tell you, don, my take is a little different. first of all, maybe it's just selfish. i fly russian airlines. i want to be safer. some of the leaders of isis are people who have come from the former soviet union. they've got more to fear in moscow with isis and its success and the cadres that are getting trained in isis that could come back to haunt the russian motherland than we have. and you know, the last big story i covered for cbs news was the school crisis where they killed 188 children. they know what terrorists can do and they want to protect their people. and we have good reasons to try, no matter what's going on in this country, to beat down, in little ways

robert mueller is very thorough in his work. this will not go away. brent: they don't call him mr. ing. thank you very much. before we let you go, here is a reminder of the top stories. donald trump has lashed out at the department of justice after its decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate possible ties between his campaign and russia. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. more on russia and trump. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >>> this week on "wealthtrack," the motley fool stock adviser portfolios have beaten the market over the year but co-founder, tom gardner says for most of us indexing is the way to go, what's best for investors is next on consuelo mack "wealthtrack." >>> new york life along with mainstays family of mutual funds offers investment and retirement solutions so you can help your clients keep good going. >>> additional funding provided by thorn berg investment

it doesn't get any better than robert mueller.o agree i don't think they should have appointed somebody. >> tucker: why did they? >> i think they are feeling the political heat. maybe they are watching too much television and reading too many newspapers. i have not seen any evidence of actual collusion. where is the actual crime they think they need a special prosecutor to prosecute? i haven't seen that. there's been a lot of flailing but that flailing started before january 20. >> tucker: did you expect this? >> i'm very surprised by it. no heads up. i don't think the speaker's office get got a heads up. it cost us out of the blue. >> tucker: we were supposed to have someone from the white house on site from on anr topic, and they canceled. i tried to call over there. you have seen other special prosecutor investigation go far afield from where they started and tied up an entire presidency. it happened to president reagan, president clinton. >> nobody knows what the lanes of the special counsel are going to be and my understandin

>> democrats are praising robert mueller as a highly respected public service. chuck schumer says a special counsel was very much needed in this situation and deputy attorney general rosenstein has done the right thing. he adds former director mueller is exactly the right kind of individual for this job. a top democrat involved in the house investigation also praised the move. >> the value an independent commission adds you have a body that's truly independent of political considerations and also has all the resources it needs and a single focus on the oversight of what russia did. how we need to respond in the future and it brings political independence and staff and resources on task. >> we expect more reaction from nancy pelosi later this morning. >> bill: republicans are saying what now, mike? >> they're praising the integrity of robert mueller saying congressional investigations will continue. mitch mcconnell said the decision by the deputy attorney general to appoint former f.b.i. robert mueller as a special counsel confirms the investigation into our elect

-- having robert mueller? sen. cortez masto: not at all.are looking to uncover what happened and bring to light to the general public activity that was going on. they can still move forward on the same track an investigation should go forward. david: a couple of questions about the hearing, the treasury secretary talked about the white house's tax reform proposal. fre you satisfied in terms what thetours of the tax proposal plan are? sen. cortez mao: we heard a bit. and that is it. they to grow the economy. that was it. there was nothing else. i was disappointed. what i heard was someone dancing around all the questions that were asked and not focused on what they were going to do to help working families in this country. or what they were going to do to protect consumers, homeowners, seniors, service members when they are engaging and going back wall street reform. david: you look at the role nevada played. housing reform is big for you and your constituents and you asked the secretary-treasurer about that. what did he have to say about yo

do they proceed exactly as they did before but now report up to robert mueller instead of rod rosenstein the trump appointee or does mueller's special counsel role materially change how we expect those investigations to proceed? also, what about the scope of this investigation robert mueller has been charged with. you have seen the remit by now in terms of the order they published establishing this appointment. you've seen how they describe it. the special counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then fbi director james comey and congressional testimony on march 20th including, one, any links and or coordination with the russian government and any individuals associated with the campaign of donald trump. two, any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. that's what robert mueller has been assigned to do. as soon as this order was announced, i started calling people to get advice on whether this is the right remit j basically, whether this is j if you want a robust unimpeded investigation, that is narrowly targeted enough to not be out of con

lawmakers say robert mueller is a good choice. he is well respected. uchman has more. >> reporter: in the summer of 2001, president george w. bush declared -- >> it's my honor to nominate robert s. mueller of california to become the director of the federal bureau of investigation. >> reporter: it was exactly one week before the terrorist attacks of september 11th, 2001 that robert mueller began his tenure as director of the fbi. mueller, a princeton grad with a master's degree from nyu. following his military service he wept to law school and became a litigator and a federal prosecutor. the day after the 9/11 attacks he said this. >> my first objective is to determine, identify the hijackers on each of the planes. having identified the hijackers on each of the planes, we then have sought to identify any of their soassociates in the unite states. >> reporter: the nation was in chaos. weeks after the attacks, congress passed and president bush signed the patriot act which enhanced law enforcement investigative tools, including domestic surveillance and i

why there was a lot of interest in seeing a special counsel appointed. >> phil mudd, you know robert mueller. what do you make of this appointment? >> boy, on a personal and professional level, this is profound for me, i had an office, director mueller was down the hall, i must have been involved in 1,000, 2,000 meet wgs him. i never saw anybody like him, ever. for any american who looks for integrity judgment, i saw him do personnel, political investigations that involved corruption, i watched him make decisions in thousands of cases, when you had to decide whether to arrest a kid who was a potential suicide bomber or let the investigation go. anderson, i don't know what to say. i never saw anything like it. judgment, character, integrity, humility. if you have a kid and you've despaired that there's not a hero in america, robert mueller is it. >> jeff, i heard you talk about leaks and this is something the president and republicans have been focusing on. it's not likely that there would be a tremendous amount of leaks coming out of this office. >> despite our best efforts. we will try, and

we saw robert mueller come on to the scene then. he was out of government obviously after leaving that position, but we'll see him back into the time being >> there's been a lot of turmoil as you know going on within the white house. a lawmakers going back and forth overwhat we've seen in the last week or so, we know the president fired james comey for what he of the hillary clinton investigation and since then there have been calls to appoint some special count counsel to look into the possible collusion between the trump campaign and the russians as it affected the outcome of the election >> special prosecutor is different than counsel, that would be kenneth star in the white water investigation more offed into the impeachment of president clinton. it changes rapidly. we have a request in michael hop kins, and we want to point out first things first that you are a democrat. i would believe that you want to get that out of the way first things first. we had another guest back and forth you're here. i want to get your take on all of

former fbi director robert mueller will be heading up that investigation.e'll have the broad authority to subpoena records bring criminal charges against people he is also able to decide what he wants to disclose to the justice department during his probe. hm. >> so it will be interesting to see exactly what comes out. it's going to be a long process i'm sure but he has a lot of respect also on the hill to see what happens here. >> absolutely. >> democratic house minority leader nancy pelosi still calling for an independent commission to lead the russia probe. many republicans still say they don't think a special counsel should have been appointed. >> that is reason to believe that the president's pandering to russia citizens bank endangering our nationality security our economy and our democracy. >> i believe that the professionals at the justice department need to do their jobs independently objectively and thoroughly and i believe the special counsel which is robert mueller now helps them do that. >> do you think it interferes with the congressional inve

one reason why there was a lot of interest in seeing a special counsel appointed. >> you know robert mueller, what do you make of his appointment? >> boy, on a personal and professional level, this is profound for me, i had an office, director mueller was down the hall, i must have been involved in 1,000, 2,000 the decisions, for every american who feels turbulence, they can sleep tonight. 30 years around public service, i never saw anything like him, for any american who looks for integrity judgment, i saw him do personnel, political investigations that involved corruption, i watched him make decisions in thousands of cases, i went to him in war zones in places like iraq. i don't know what to say, i never saw anything like it. july, character, integrity, humility. if you have a kid and you've decemb despaired that there's not a hero in washington, bob mueller is it. >> a lot of republicans have been focusing on it's not likely that there would be a tremendous amount of leaks coming out of this office. >> in spite of our best efforts. we will try, and the fbi will still be involved and the f

listen, robert mueller's getting bipartisan praise and rightfully so. his report should be submitted to the doj but submitted to congress and threat judiciary committee do their work. ken starr did his work, submitted it to congress and you saw the judiciary committee ultimately pass articles of impeachment if you agree or not. >> i keep asking rhetorically which coal minors went back to work, which americans got better health care, which seniors got better tax plan? that is to say there's no work product and tonight there's this. washington post house majority leader kevin mccarthy made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation that trump could be the ben fishiary of payments and this would have been our lead story tonight. "there's two people i think putin pays, congressman hor balker and trump." al according to the exchange stened tand verified by the washingtoning post and a congressman who is a california republican. house speaker ryan stopping the conversation from further exploring mccarthy's assertion. he quickly added swear to

trying to alleviate uncertainty about whether or not robert mueller's appointment had involvement from the white house or president trump. the justice department saying the mueller appointment, robert mueller being assigned to special counsel, they told white house after this order was signed to make it official. this is again, reassurance you could say from the justice department, saying this is all independent of the white house. some not satisfactory to of those opposed to what is going on, that is nancy month -- nancy pelosi commenting earlier, saying it robert mueller is a man of integrity, but mueller's special appointment cannot take the place of an independent commission by congress. there is much more to this story that we will continue to roll ahead. we saw it finally hitting the markets. ahead, other stories. a record run for tencent as investment pays off. we will look at what a billion plus users can do for a company. this is bloomberg. ♪ yvonne: more on how the white house is trying to contain the fallout. this is bloomberg. ♪ yvonne: we are counting down to asia's first

he took himself out of overseeing the russia investigation and turned that over to robert mueller. move is in the public interest, so the public can have confidence in the outcome. mueller is the former fbi director. he served in that 12 years in that job. held over, in fact, two extra years before james comey became the fbi director. and next to j. edgar hoover, mueller is the longest serving in the job. he'll have the full authority to investigate the russian matter that any u.s. attorney would. that includes the power to file criminal charges if it comes to that. congressional democrats have been pushing for the appointment of a special counsel ever since rosenstein was confirmed. and ever since attorney general jeff sessions took himself out of making any decisions about the russia case. mueller is 72. he took over as fbi director just a week before 9/11. more recently, his name was in the news because the nfl chose him to review the handling of the ray rice domestic violence case. mueller is now in private practice here in washington, but he says he will resign from that firm t

analysts say robert mueller's long-standing reputation for integrity and dogginess and attention to detailld help president trump. if mueller digs and finds no collusion with the russians then mueller's will vindicate the president. >> thank you. coming up more on the breaking news. president trump calling the russia meddling investigation a witch hunt and insisting it divides the country. 471-horsepower lexus lc 500 or the multistage hybrid lc 500h. experience amazing. there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any medicare supplement insurance plan, these help pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and, these plans let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you could stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or go with someone new. you're not stuck i

anybody who knows robert mueller, as a federal judge and director of the fbi. to characterize any undertaking by him is a witch hunt and is totally unfair. >> did he shed any light on the comey memo? >> the comey -- >> effectively talking about -- >> no. no conversation about that. >> was he asked about that? >> not directly. >> thank you. >> mccain is coming, guys. >> senator durbin there giving a lot of questions about what was revealed in this secure briefing and we heard from senator claire mccaskill a few minutes ago and she said one of the big things coming out of that meeting was that the deputy attorney general knew that james comey was going to be fired before he sent that memo that was sent up by the white house really outlining why they were going to fire him. of course, that, jake, was used as original justification coming from the white house why comey was going to be fired and a few minutes ago we heard from a senator lindsey graham, who believes this has shifted to a criminal investigation. >> sunlen, thank you. >> it was a good decision to pick

talk to me about robert mueller's relationship with comey. >> they are long-time colleagues, long-time friends going back to the george w. bush administration. they were soldiers together in the post 9/11 period with general mueller at the fbi. i think it's significant. rod rosenstein is aware that you're picking a guy who is very close to jim comey, the fired fbi director. and i don't think that was unintentional. that sends a signal that he's going to essentially continue the aggressive path that comey seems to be on lately and if you're wondering whether mueller is going to find comey a credible witness or not, february 14th at the white house, i think it's pretty certain that bob mueller is going to think his own friend jim comey is credible. >> one of the stories that david axelrod mentioned, two other stories are breaking tonight. one is about michael flynn -- both are about michael flynn. they are saying that the trump transition team knew michael flynn was under investigation when they named his as trump adviser and before the inauguration, flynn made the decision on behalf of

he is former head of the fbi robert mueller.ovince of aceh has made two men suffer lashes for being homosexual. and two british men have been arrested in bangkok for allegedly selling on line access to football broadcasts. they caused $2.5 million worth of losses to rod casting companies.

he's a former head of the fbi, robert mueller. there've been big falls on us stock markets which have dragged down asian shares over fears the political controversy surrounding president trump will weaken his ability to deliver tax and regulatory reforms. the venezuelan government has reinforced its military presence in the state of tatchira, along the colombian border. the defence minister says 2,600 troops are being sent to quell looting and rioting. real madrid have edged closer to winning the spanish league title for the first time in five years. they beat celta vigo 4—1 to go top of the table with one game to go. real will playjuventus in the champions league final next month. now it's time for world business report. from trump bump to trump slump. us markets have their worst day since the presidential election as turmoil grips the white house. plus — alibaba goes west. china's $300 billion e—commerce giant looks to america — but can it take on its us rivals? welcome to world business report. i'm sally bundock. also in the pr

he's a former head of the fbi, robert mueller.ing the announcement, the us deputy attorney—general said it didn't necessarily mean crimes had been committed. and mrtrump claimed: "a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know — there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity." our correspondent in washington, laura bicker, has more. he was appointed by george w bush. his senate confirmation hearing was held a few days before the september 11 attacks. he was kept on under president obama for another two years and retired in 2013. he was the predecessor and of the now sacked director of the fbi, james comey. tonight you cannot find a single republican or democrat who will criticise this man. he seems to be well respected by both sides. so when it comes to appointing this particular prosecutor, although the name ‘prosecutor‘ is there does not necessarily mean that prosecution will follow, or crimes will be committed, but it does seem that he is well respected by all parties. is it clear why he has been

point that kid to and say if you want an american hero, i know it is pollyanna, but you want robert muelleres, when you think of the assessments of mueller and amount of power and if you look if anybody wants to google the order is from the ag, this is his bio. obviously the headline is he was appointed by bush and at the fbi during and after the 9/11 stuff for 13 years. he can look at anything he wants. a tremendous amount of power. he can pick his own staff. fuentes, why do you agree? >> i agree with phil, chris. i worked directly for him. my last 11 years in the bureau as member of executive service. my last seven under director mueller. my last five under international operations where i was down the hall and with director mueller almost every day on a number of issues. i know him to have the integrity and skill to do a great job at this. i would like to also add there is no other, i think, living human being in history, that has overseen as many cases as director mueller. 12 years as drikirector of the . probably 40,000 or 50,000 or 60,000 cases since that time. no other than j. edgar

this now means former fbi director robert mueller steps in, and people for watching at home, this question tonight, what does it mean? does he start from scratch here? >> reporter: david, it's totally at the discretion of mueller. he can replace all the agents currently working the case. he has 60 days to put together a team of lawyers to work with him on the case. a reminder about mueller, after serving ten years as fbi director he was asked by president obama to re-up for an additional two years. he was reconfirmed 100-0. >> pierre thomas leading us off. pierre, thank you. >>> i want to get to jonathan karl tonight, you were telling me that the white house was blindsided. what have you learned tonight? >> reporter: they were completely taken offguard by this, david. as a matter of fact, i'm told that the senior staff of the white house didn't get word of this until about 30 minutes before the news was shared with the news media. completely taken offguard. but it really shouldn't have taken them all that much by surprise, given the developments of the last few days. i'm starting to hear e

critics complain that robert mueller has not been given enough power.t is he investigating? it breaks down into three main areas. russian influence on the election, looking at possible hacking and leaks, russian collusion with the trump campaign, meetings with financial ties between the two, and obstruction of the russian inquiry, looking at whether donald trump tried to get the former fbi director to drop key parts of the investigation. after the president fired the last man leading the inquiry, the russia investigation can get back on track. there are many who feel that donald trump is not behaving like a man who wants that. senators were briefed by the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. many came out to speak. our reporter was on capitol hill following it all. what have we learned? reporter: the briefing, the closed door session, has lasted about an hour. there are two main takeaways. the first is what some democrat etc. does have been saying, that rod rosenstein told them that he -- he to that james comey would be fired the day before he wrote

robert mueller. the shot to the body is that it is now considered a criminal investigation and congress' conductto investigations of all things russia has been limited. i think a lot of members want the special counsel to be appointed but do not understand

robert mueller. t for the introduction, but because bob has led the bureau during incredibly challenging times. >> mueller has most recently been a partner in a private law firm and a visiting professor at stanford. he now will leave those positions to take on this new and important responsibility. gary tuchman, cnn, atlanta. >>> and the cnn analyst worked with mueller, who was his chief of staff in 2009. is he the right person for the job? >> absolutely, there is no one better suited in this country for this role at this time. >> why do you say that? >> because if you look at the authority that the deputy attorney general exercised here and what is required under the statute. the person has to be outside the department of justice, has a reputation for integrity and partial decision-making. and be guided by only doj policy, that is the department of justice policy and the law in exercising his authority. that is the person -- bob mueller is the epitome of those characteristics. >> what in terms of not

i think the appointment of robert mueller was a very good 1. but as good as that appointment is, there's a lotbetter. it does not leave the congress and the house to say, okay, our job is done. we don't have to investigate this. we do. >> does a special counsel make that independent investigation tougher going forward? >> no. we have two different things. the special counsel will do their investigation. they have tools and abilities that congress might not have. but the american public has every reason to wonder what is happening to our government. why are we being manipulated by russia, a country that does not have our best interests at heart. >> thank you, senator. >> shepard: senator cardin now. no, this is john cornyn. they are all lined up it would appear. >> your take away -- >> we just got through with a very important briefing from the deputy attorney general who has appointed robert mueller the former director of the fbi to head up the investigation into the russian issue. one of the issues i raised with him is my concern that we have

robert mueller appointed special counsel of the probe. uestion, issue subpoenas and prosecute federal crimes if any are discovered. mueller appointed to the job by the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> the appointment comes following the series of headlines like the firing of james comey and the divulging sensitive information to russian officials. >> on capitol hill, the news of the special counsel is greeted with relief. especially by republicans. we begin with the justice reporter laura jarrett live in washington. laura. >> reporter: it came together quickly, christine. this is a really significant move here. i have to under score. this has only happened once before in history. this regulation has only been used once under attorney general reno. the deputy attorney general put out a press release in a one-page order that highlighted the unique circumstances we find. stating my decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or prosecution has warranted. i have made no determination. what i determined is based on the u

robert mueller is the right choice?ds like the right move and choice to put confidence back. someone was saying winston churchill was saying america will do everything right after they try all else. special prosecutor will do his job. we will see where it goes. we will make sure we uncover and have transparency. let the intel take you to the facts and facts will take you to the truth. >> it is good to have republicans and democrats agreeing on anything let alone something sensitive as this. if there is not consensus about the move, there is consensus of the man. the move is suggestive of reality. mandate of a special counsel as you know and the american people will learn is because there is a perceived difficulty in doing it through the normal challenge. there is a concern about conflict and interference from the normal channels. in this case, that seems to mean what we have seen with the former fbi director all the way up to the president. there have been efforts if not inclinations to affect the investigation. do you

he's a former head of the fbi, robert mueller. indonesian province of aceh has ordered two men to be given eighty—five stokes of cane in public for having gay sex. the sentence by a sharia court is expected to be carried out next week. two british men have been arrested in bangkok for allegedly selling online access to illegally streamed football broadcasts. they are accused of causing damages worth more than $2.5 million to the broadcast rights holders. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk — new measures to fund social care and curb immigration are understood to be among the pledges in the conservatives' manifesto

robert mueller, james comey's predecessor taking over the investigation into the possible collusion between russia and the trump campaign. remember, it was just days ago when president trump fired comey sending shock waves around the country. and tonight, the shock waves triggered a political tsunami, a tsunami one of the president's own making, one that he can't blame anybody but himself. so we have all the cnn reporters covering this. i want to join us now with pamela brown, pam, justice department, naming the former fbi director as the special counsel, what else can you tell us? >> rod rosenstein, the deputy, saying he has chosen bob mueller, the former fbi director to take the reins of the special probe. so essentially the department of justice is now out of the equation, and bob mueller will run the investigation, and have the same jurisdiction as the grand jury. he can interview the president, anything he deems necessary in this investigation. and what is so interesting here, don, rod rosenstein and his team did not give much advance warning to the white house or the attorney general,

your reaction to this news that the justice department has appointed robert mueller as the special counselthis case. >> well, i think it's a very positive step, and i applaud the choice of bob mueller. i think he's very widely respected by people on both sides of the aisle, immensely bright, capable person. and i think it's the right call. this is not to say that there aren't good, career people at the department of justice that could do this. but nonetheless, i think it will have that much more credibility in the public eye by appointing someone in the special counsel position that has what add degree of independence from the department. still not the full independence that you would have had under the old statute, independent counsel statute, but nonetheless, i think a very solid decision. and i think it ought to help inspire confidence in what the department is doing. >> yang: now, how will this work with the investigations on the hill? will your committee's investigation continue in parallel with mr. mueller's? >> yes, absolutely, and it's very important i think for people to understan

he is robert mueller. maybe the foremost law enforcement officer in this country today. he is the former head of the fbi, where he took over just before 9/11 and was kept on by president barack obama. bob mueller is something of a hero figure at the justice department and within the fbi, which he ran for 12 years. in all of american history, only j. edgar hoover served longer as head of the fbi. mueller was selected by rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general. the attorney general himself, remember, took himself out of this case because of past meetings with the russians. and the reason we know the name rod rosenstein is it was his three-page memo that the trump white house put out as their false cover story for why the president fired james comey as head of the fbi. tonight make no mistake. the future just got darker for president donald trump and all the people in his orbit. no administration wants to see what happened to this administration today. before we bring in our panel to start our broadcast tonigh just a little more on the life and times of robert mueller.