did rod rosenstein question that? did he question if he was being used here, whether he was being set up to be the reason or the pretext for why he was fired? i think the reporting from sara is very important because it gets to that very question. was he being used, and it sounds like he then came forward and said you're not going to use me to say this was the pretext. and it goes to what the reporting indicates, that, in fact, what really made the president mad was comey was not towing the line, that he was his on guy, that the russia investigation was accelerating. he was mad at certain things he was saying and you know how the president thinks. he thinks this guy is not investigating all the leaks from the national security apparatus of the country. he's only pursuing the russia investigation. he probably feels bad about how he handled hillary clinton. he's going to come at me really hard. this is how you raise the spector of abusive power. if the president is taking on an fbi director in just such a way. i don't b

i assume you're praising the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for this appointment. >> thanks for putting those words into my mouth. that's absolutely true. mueller is highly competent. rosenstein made the decision. they've got a great leader and it's going to be independent. that's why. that's exactly what should have happened and it did. now we have to look at the rest of the story which is how do we protect our democracy from interference by russia or anybody else. >> when someone said this whole thing is a hoax to help the democrats have an excuse why they lost the election, he can't be happy about mueller taking charge. >> he certainly can't be happy and he can't blame the press. his speech at the coast guard graduation was a pretty good example of oh, woe is me. i'm so picked on. wait, man. u you are picked on because you totally screwed up. he's made some terrible decisions. there's not only smoke, but there's fire going on here. that's why we have a competent special prosecutor looking at the issues of criminal justice. good. we have the issue of how do we protect american

hear what they're saying now and as we're learning more about what rod rosenstein reveal. ht back. i count on my dell small business advisor for tech advice. with one phone call, i get products that suit my needs and i get back to business. rod rosenste ♪ nobody does underwater stunts, sylvia. except me, of course. this is my stop. adios! ♪ if you're a stuntman, you cheat death. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. número uno! . >>> this week's cnn hero put his life on the line for his men in some of the toughest battles. after he got home he struggled for years with alcohol, drugs, and pts. >> i began to see veterans on the street. marines do not leave anyone behind. we take our dead and our wounded with us. or we don't go. and that pledge means the world to any one of us. and so to see that code being broken shocked me into action. >> to find out more about his story, go to cnn heroes.com. >>> moments from now president trump will depart on his first overseas trip of his presidency and it is

he can order rod rosenstein to fire mueller anytime. trump can fire rosenstein. dave, they already started hiring up. several associates at the law firm. they all resigned and getting -- starting to hire. he has to get space. make sure they can get that information and hire clerks and make sure people have the right classified status and begin investigation. >> a lot of questions. will we hear from james comey next wednesday when they want him to testify in front of congress in a public hearing. >>> a senior gop source telling cnn mueller's appointment for the special counsel over the investigation makes it unlikely comey will testify before congress publicly. the committees were trying to get comey to appear as early as next week. the source now saying quote this shuts the whole thing down. >> lawmakers want comey to testify about the investigation into russia election immediamem. they are pressing the director on his memo asking him to shutdown the michael flynn pr p probe. the source described rod rosenstein angry and exasperated with the white house. believes

rod rosenstein is the acting attorney general because sessions recused himself. mueller is really on his own. it's his investigation. he's leaving his law firm to prevent any possible conflict of interest. he can bring in a team of people, as you mentioned he's bringing chief of staff. he can bring in other people and most likely will keep the fbi investigators doing the work. most of us who have covered him over the years know he is very serious. he won't leak. there won't be leaks out of this investigation. he is not required, at the end, to present a public report. he is required to present a confidential report to rod rosenstein, who rosenstein at that point can make it public. you are not going to see bob mueller going out before the cameras, like comey did, doing a press conference on his own, releasing his own report. that will not be what happens. he will be working with people he brings in or the fbi investigators. >> in terms of the resource question, you made very clear he will be making those requests to rod rosenstein. >> my sense talking to people a

i think rod rosenstein was thinking what his reputation will be. people care deeply about their reputation. >> calling the witch-hunt, consistent how the blasted the russian investigation in the past. the irony the decision was made by his own deputy attorney general rod rosenstein somebody when himself appointed and his administration has been praising in the days after comey was fired. >> let's cut to the chase. rod rosenstein threw a monkey wrench into a cover-up the white house has been engaged in. exactly what the cover-up has been about, what it is the president of the united states does not want us to know, what it is the president of the united states thought that he needed to impede an investigation to undermine it, to dismiss it, treat it with disdain. we don't know yet the specifics. what we know he feels very threatened by this investigation. what rod rosenstein did was said enough already we're going to have a special prosecutor. this president tried to use me and manipulate me. i have no choice now but to make sure the rule of law pre

to fire comey and rod rosenstein responded the way dana said he did. he made himself unfireable and became the most powerful person in the justice department. i would say this is a mixed blessing. for the american public, it's not such a good thing, we probably won't learn anything from this investigation, it's going to be secret, we will never hear from a witness, in the end we will either hear no indictment or an indictment. to the extent that we want to know what really went on, an independent investigation commission of the kind of 9/11 or the challenger, would have been better for the american public. and i think president trump could have avoided a special prosecutor if he had pressed for an independent commission earlier. >> some democrats still want an independent commission. is that possible? >> absolutely. as gloria was saying earlier, the fact that you have a congressional investigation and a law enforcement investigation at the same time can generate controversy and conflict. the most dramatic example being the issue of immunity. congressio

that rod rosenstein was so clear last week, this source believes that rosenstein is being thrown overboard with this special counsel. >> when you think about it, the president made a series of unforced errors that led him right to this point. you said before in your conversation with jeff zeleny, this is not where he wanted to be. they have a house investigation right now that really is beyond their control, now with the special counsel, not quite the same powers that the special prosecutor has, but certainly bob mueller is considered to be a very serious player. they've got an element there they condition control. and the third element is what all the press is doing. it's not as if cnn and the "new york times" and "the washington post" are going to stop investigating this story. and all of these feed on each other. the revelation of the comey memo yesterday i think really forced the hand of the justice department to go for the special counsel. >> what is the president going to do, right? we have this statement that clear was produced by those around him which says that there was no collus

we have that memo from rod rosenstein. two and a half page letter. it really goes into the details of how fbi director comey in the justice department's view mishandled this investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail server. then, of course, there's the additional letter from attorney general jeff sessions to president trump talking about his recommendation that yes, in fact, fbi director comey should be terminated and then the president's letter, the president's letter is very short. directly to director comey and it does, in fact, merely reference the fact that donald trump in his view was not under investigation, he said he was told that multiple times by director comey. a bit of a disconnect in those letters. we know how it all unfolded yesterday beginning at 5:00 p.m. sort of under the darkness of night even though it was only the early evening. the director of value office operations arrived at the fbi headquarters in washington, d.c. with that manila envelope that contained that letter from president trump. fbi director comey was not at fbi h

. >>> still to come, rod rosenstein, the man behind the memo that detailed the case against jim comey. what we're learning about his decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate team trump's ties to are russia. >>> also looking for the exits. republicans begin their slow crawl away from president trump. >>> and up next, he wanted immunity. now michael flynn takes the fifth. so why would he do that? >> there are five people taking the fifth amendment. like you see on the mob, right? you see the mob takes the fifth. if you're innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? got it. rumor confirmed. they're playing. -what? -we gotta go. -where? -san francisco. -when? -friday. we gotta go. [ tires screech ] any airline. any hotel. any time. go where you want, when you want with no blackout dates. [ muffled music coming from club. "blue monday" by new order. cheers. ] [ music and cheers get louder ] the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. it's travel, better connected. the travel rewards credit card from bank of america. ♪ pressure. i feel it everyday. but at night, i

twhoo what happened to jim comey and what was the justification and what was rod rosenstein's role in all of this. comeso fruition today. the briefing will start in about 30 minutes in aecure roomn the visitor center of the senate just below the senate chamber. but rosenstein is going to be coming in and speaking to all senators. remember, democrats were going to hold up the fbi nomination to succeed jim comey unless they got that special down on sell. items been diffused now to some degree because that is what the surprise announcement was last night. rob mueller take over as special counsel almost universally accepted here by members of both part advertise and both sides of the capitol. >> and we got an update from the senate intelligence committee on their investigation. what did we learn? >> reporter: richard burr is running that committee. michael flynn had asked last week, there was a deadline for him to submit documents part of their investigation into russian meddling in the lelelection. they subpoenaed him. initially it was a bit confusing that flynn republican had missed the

is that the best choice for rod rosenstein at this point? >> you know, i've known rod for 25 years.were baby prosecutors together doing public corruption cases in the justice department. and when you do those cases, you're taught you have to prosecute just like you would any common criminal. you don't treat them differently because they are a politician. in fact, you set the politics aside. so did rosenstein know that trump would take what he said and use it to his political sflang yes, he did. at the same time, it was his honestly brokered opinion. i do think that means, though, now there is an impetus for rosenstein to appoint a special prosecutor. the appearance of justice is as important as justice itself. i actually think that rosenstein, he is leading this investigation now. remember the investigation does not end with comey's departure. it goes on now under rosenstein's leadership. i do think in terms of the appearance of fairness that he needs to step aside. he alone can appoint a special prosecutor. he's got more power in this matter than the president, than the attorney ge

it was his decision to fire james comey and he made that decision before he got the memo from rod rosenstein i think you're seeing a little bit of the anger from the president come to the surface there. he certainly is not happy with rosenstein's decision to name a special counsel. he did not hide his feelings on that yesterday. when the president called the russia investigation a witch hunt. and when i was talking to an ally of the president's yesterday, this person was telling me look, this is why the president did not want jeff sessions to recuse himself from the russia investigation in the first place. he dridn't want it to get to ths point where a special counsel was being named to oversee the investigation. so i think what you are seeing is a little bit of the president's frustration boiling to the surface there. >> yes. sara murray, sunlen serfaty, thanks very much. let's discuss a bit more on the timeline of comey's firing. here with me is crystal. you wrote several important articles on cnn.com. cnn politics and the last few days. you say the firing of comey in your words was politi

rod rosenstein is where i think we begin reporting.a deputy attorney general, the direct report from the fbi director. he made the recommendation. i trust he's not part of a coverup of the russian collusion. >> do you believe that three-page leter? >> very much. in fact, i know many of the people mentioned in that letter. it's the deputy attorney general's club referencing. and i think we might see mark phillip, former deputy attorney general, be the new fbi director. but i believe every argument in there because they've been made to me by former prosecutors since last july. the fbi does not make decisions about prosecuting. he overstepped, and in that memo there is a rebuke to him, you ought to have admitted it by now. >> professor, you heard the man. it doesn't appear this is about the russian investigation, but he was mean to hillary clinton. do you buy it? >> absolutely not. if this was really the rational for firing comey, it seems like it should have happened earlier. i think we need to be very careful in terms of how democrats a

original account, saying he fired comey on the recommendation of his deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. rosenstein contradicted that yesterday, telling senators he knew the president wanted comey gone before he wrote his memo. so let's bring in our panel, chris is deputy online editor for the weekly standard. betsy woodruff is the political reporter for "the daily beast." let's follow the bouncing ball here. what led to the firing of the fbi director? was it because the president lost confidence in him or because the deputy attorney general had? >> your guess is as good as mine. that kind of depends on the trail of information here. what i found interesting from that information from that rosenstein memo or comments that he gave to the committee behind closed doors was that, look, the president said he had already decided that he was going to make this decision. so rosenstein comes back and says, i'm going to give you guys this information, not to be taken as a recommendation for any course of action that you might make. that seems to be a pretty big piece of information for this. the

i oppose rod rosenstein nomination. in fact, i was the only member of the judiciary committee to vote against it and one of six on the floor to oppose it for exactly the same reason. i say this to him publicly and n privately: the only way to preserve his own reputation, the departmen , and the trust and confidence in the department of justice was to appoint an independent prosecutor and so f far regrettably, he has failed to do so. that question will be first, my priority when the full senate meets with him tomorrow and we will demand to know from him firing of director comey who said what to whom, why hishe memorandum was written, and whether he will now commit after these most recent startlingrday revelations, just yesterday that the president of the united states suggested, indeed expressly demanded, the director comey stop his investigation involving potential ties to michael flynn of russian interference in our election. chilling effect raised in the last several days now raised serious questions about obstruction

the acting attorney general rod rosenstein has decide to appoint a special counsel to investigate any ties with the trump campaign and they call it related matters. this is big news from the department of justice. i want to read you the statement coming now from the acting attorney general rod rosenstein who is serving as the acting attorney general because jeff sessions has recused himself from all matters related to russia. here is what the acting attorney general said. in my capacity as acting attorney general i determined it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter. my decision is not that any prosecution is warranted. i have made no such determination. what i have determined is based upon the unique circumstances, the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command. a special counsel is necessary in order the american people to have full confidence in the outcome. our nation is groun

a guy like rod rosenstein is a good guy, knows his job, and he does it. they do their job step by step. same with comey. keeps notes after meetings. he probably goes home, as a regular life, plays golf and does all the normal things. trump can't understand a guy like comey any more than comey can trump. but trump is now confronted with bureaucrats in washington who are not dazzling billionaires but they get up every day and see a service performing at a moderate income for their company and they tend to do it. and trump doesn't know how to deal with guys like that because he's never met anybody like that. just a thought. >> i mean that's exactly right. one of the things that his aides and people close to him are expressing is the reason he is so angry and frustrated and raging in recent weeks is that he basically feels out of control. there are all these things he can't control. as you said, he's used to sort of trying to get through the day, you know, get through the minute, get through the hour. he's not thinking about a long-term strategy of, you know,

so rod rosenstein basically saying here that comay basically took the law into his own hands and rewrote the law here, did something that he absolutely should not have done, but the fact that this comes at the beginning of may, almost a year after it happened really has a lot of people scratching their heads as to how long was this investigation going on? how long was this bothering the president? why did it suddenly come to this? a lot of unanswered questions but the white house press office launching already a kind of preemptive strike against what's coming out of capitol hill in terms of democrats saying the president has acted in a fashion bite taking the head and literally taking off the head of the fbi director saying senator schumer said about the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein "he has developed a reputation for integrity. he has promised to give this careful consideration. " this was really his recommendation that they concurred with and saying of comey that schumer back on november the second of last year, schumer said he does not have confidence comey any longer for his

so, michael schmidt, rod rosenstein, very interesting. the fact that he knows that trump wants to fire comey, regardless. so, it's a very strange thing for rosenstein to do. but it seems to be a guy that's deciding to be a team player and go along. and, actually, undercut the inpendence othe justice department. but that was a concern that james comey had, according to your reporting in "the times" this morning. >> comey, sitting in his office in march, having lunch with a friend and the friend says to him, hey, you know, rod's coming on. you're going to have a senate confirmed deputy attorney general and comey says yeah, he's good but i've got some concerns and the friend says what do you mean? this is a long-time federal prosecutor, has been a u.s. attorney. he's respected. and he said rod's a survivor. and to be a survivor in the justice department, you have to give something up. and the thing is that it only took two weeks for comey to see what rod was really going to be like when he writes that memo. >> how interesting that rod rosens

rosenstein. listen to this. >> he had concerns about rod. and what he specifically said is rod is a survivor. >> meaning he's lived through democratic and republican administrations. >> yeah. and you don't get to survive that long without making some compromises. and, so he said i have concerns. >> what do you make of that? by the way, isn't comey a survivor, too in a sense. >> battle lines have been drawn and now they're being well defined and people are trying to move up character and take down character. we've seen that donald trump is trying to tear down comey's character and has been. now comey, who has to defend himself, has to defend himself against that memo that was written by rod rosenstein. so how do you do that? you have one of your allies go out there and question what his integrity is. >> almost like he is going down a checklist. maybe because of the ma tick ck notes the fbi director took, why is it significant? >> it is significant. the white house counsel will normally steer the president through things that will involve the

what this is, robert mueller reports up through doj's 10 of command to rod rosenstein. he had brought authority to prove his own subpoenas, that kind of thing. if rosenstein refuses to approve certain things, then he has to go to congress and tell them about it. ultimately, mueller could still be fired by donald trump. he is still technically working for donald trump. and the one of the concern i have is beyond the scope -- a key part of the scope question is whether or not mueller will be able to investigate the firing of jim comey. there is language in yesterday's --er that says he can invest investigate anyone obstructing his investigation. but if you recall, the cia leak case, which is a close parallel to what we're seeing, patrick inzgerald was appointed 2003. scooter libb he was found guilty of obstruction of justice in 2007. at each stage of a shift in that investigation, fitzgerald got -- approvedproved from jim comey. it would be awkward if mueller felt yet to get instruction investigation into the firing of comey approved by rod rosenstein because after all, ro

if you read the rod rosenstein letter, it's obviously pretty detail detailed. they had spent a fair amount of time on this and they had obviously been charged with coming up with these reasons. >> what do you mean by that? that to me seems the key here because it seems what the white house is communicating is that the white house was just going about its business and the attorney general is going about its business. but it's rod rosenstein, the widely respected career individual who made this determination. he passed it up to sessions would approvedf it. he passed it up to the president who approved of it. yet it seems possible that the people sent the word that they wanted to find a reason to get rid of comey. >> no, no. my understanding is that it -- you know, the idea that this sort of organically came out of the justice department i think is false. i think this had come from the top and they had to come up with a reason to do this, to get rid of him. you know, they may have known something like this had been in works for a while and was sort of sitting on a

the order signed by rod rosenstein is very interesting.ob mueller has been charged to investigate any linked between the russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of trump. but this next line, any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. that opens the door to a whole lot of things. >> well, that is extremely significant. in fact, that was my first question when i heard that there was this appointment. what was the charge for the special prosecutor? and with that would include this obstruction of justice by trump in firing comey -- >> alleged. >> alleged, of course. but certainly in terms of something comey to stop the investigation into flynn. so it really is a fairly broad charge, which i think is good. i mean, i think we absolutely needed that. i was concerned that it would just be limited to the collusion between the trump campaign and the russian government. but now i think this gives i think everybody a lot more comfort. >> look, you'll need to look at history to see the impact of that. i

now if the president had planned to fire jame comey anyway why did he ask rod rosenstein to write that recommendation memo after the white house says rosenstein came to the president with concerns about comey. so i do think there are real contradictions and two to highlight from andrew mccabe here. the rank and file question, something that sarah huckabee sanders was pressed about yesterday by somebody sitting in front of me about why they continue to say that the rank and file had concerns about james comey when frankly the reporting on the ground from members of our team and other teams did not seem to back that up. sarah huckabee sanders stood by that assertion even though that is now different from what andrew mccabe is saying and talked about the magnitude of the russia investigation and how serious it was. again, that is not something that we've heard reflected from this podium. >> and, hallie, you're standing by for the briefing. >> yes. >> while you do bring in charlie sikes, radio commentator and host of msnbc contributor, how is this playing in the heartland? you're in milwau

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. sunlen serfaty has more on that. you're getting more details on the briefing from rosenstein. what can you telus? >> reporter: that's right, anderson, many senators we spoke to leaving that briefing, that two-hour briefing today, really said there were specifically a lot of questions to rod rosenstein specifically about that memo that goes back to last tuesday that was written by rod rosenstein and released by the white house, held up then as their first justification for why fbi director james comey was fired. now according to democratic and republican senators coming down to that meeting today, they said that rosenstein today revealed an important detail about the timeline of all of this. he told senators, according to those in the room, that he knew one day before that president trump intended to fire and was going to fire james comey and importantly, this is the important detail here, that he wrote -- that that was one day before he even wrote that memo justifying the firing. of course, we know that the white hou

special counsel. >>> lreaction from republican senator john cornyn to deputy attorney general rod rosensteinriefed the full senate on the controversial firing of james comey as fbi director, and in less than an hour, rosenstein will hold a similar briefing with members of the house. joining me now is democratic senator chris van lollen. you were in -- van hollen. you were in the meeting with rod rosenstein. was he explicit that president trump had already decided to fire james comey before he wrote that memo? >> that was certainly the way i interpreted his remarks, that the president had made that decision prior to the time that rod rosenstein penned his memo to the attorney general. >> if that's the case, why did he write it? >> well, he did not get into those details, stephanie. he did not answer any questions regarding conversations he had in connection with the memo, he did not even acknowledge meeting with the president the day before, which had been reported by the press. essentially what he said was, the current -- the next special counsel bob mueller will be tentially investigation a

you don't have to act on what rod rosenstein says. the interesting thing is if you look at the rationale that rosenstein is laying out there, it's -- this is where the politics gets so tangled on this. he's laying out a case that an awful lot of democrats have made over the last six, eight months. he can look at -- you know, he announces last summer, comey does, hillary clinton is not going to face prosecution, he's not going to be charged. he doesn't just end it there. he then essentially indicts her in the court of public opinion in this letter coming out ten days before the election october 28th with that letter. these are sorts of things democrats, harry reid himself, said comey ought to be fired for that. so the weird thing here is you have the trump administration now making theas demts had been making before, but donald trump himself made it clear he doesn't buy that case. he was talking about what a courageous man james comey was when he sent that letter just before the election, so it is hard to read the firing based on the ju

get to the bottom of whether or not there was any collusion. >> the deputy attorney general, rod rosensteinld senators today that he knew the former fbi director james comey would be removed before he wrote his recommendation. here's the question. do you still have trust in rosenstein? >> do i -- yeah. i think that -- look, let me put it this way. he's talking to a bunch of senators and he said what we know is true, because it was confirmed even by the president. everyone believes and the president himself confirmed that the original reason for giving -- for firing comey was not true, that he had known all along he wanted to fire him, it was not based on rosenstein's letter. rosenstein got upset when he heard the president saying it was based on that and he walked that back. i don't thunk it is surprising that rosenstein said that to senators. we will be hearing from him in the house and i assume he will say the same thing to us. >> you're a former federal prosecutor. are you worried that the investigations lead in congress, the house and senate, may actually wind up slowing down because th

i have rod rosenstein's letter. he is giving full authorization to not just investigate trump's possible ties to russia, but also anything that arises as a result. i think there's one important word here in this letter and it's associates. it's not trump campaign officials. it's anyone associated with the trump campaign. anyone who appeared on the campaign trail. anyone who attended a rally. it's very broad and now he has a big mandate to look into any of these things. >> criminal defense lawyers, if not they have a fool for a -- >> thank you very much. sean hennry, thank you. shelby, jonathan, much appreciated. >>> stick around, coming up one of james comey's friends is pulling back the curtain on the uncomfortable final interactions between president trump and the fbi director he fired. we have the captivating new details, next. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams i

i think we start with the rod rosenstein explanation. what was used that and then suddenly, it is not used and the president decided to own it himself. i think we're all trying to figure out, why was there, why did the white house put out one explanation at that moment versus now? i think there are a lot of theories. it seems to be a glaring gap. >> it is a glaring gap and there's no understanding of why you have a white house that wouldn't stick to the story. if you're going to fire director comey, at least stick to it. he acted definitively and kept it at that. it started to seal like they wanted to put it on the doj and distance trump from doing this and say this had nothing to do with the russian investigation. that would have kind of distanced him from that idea. now you have president trump saying after i was told that i was not under investigation, i did this. it seems like this investigation was on his mind when he was acting this way. to say he was completely divorced and he had made up his mind, it makes no sense why you would

deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. sunlen serfaty has more on that. you're getting more details on the briefing from rosenstein. what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's right, anderson, many senators we spoke to leaving that briefing, that two-hour briefinged to really said there were specifically a lot of questions to rod rosenstein specifically about that memo that goes back to last tuesday that was written by rod rosenstein and released by the white house, held up then as their first justification for why fbi director james comey was fired. now according to democratic and republican senators coming down to that meeting today, they said that rosenstein today revealed an important detail about the timeline of all of this. he told senators, according to those in the room, that he knew one day before that president trump intended to fire and was going to fire james comey and importantly, this is the important detail here, that he wrote -- that that was one day before he even wrote that memo justifying the firing. of course, we know that the white hou

it may be that rod rosenstein wants to remove the politics of this and is pushing back a little but by doing so. >> rosenstein, by the way, holds the job that when excuse me, bob mueller was named to be fbi director back in 2001, he was holding down the job that rosenstein now holds. so, that's an interesting bit of history there. i think the key here is as we look at this, i don't really know how to assess this as regards to rosenstein's efforts to get his name off, get himself off the hook is the man behind the comey firing or whatever. it seems to me that he made a goat and compelling case why comey was not the right man for the job at this time. we'll need to be later contradicted by the president, in terms of the president's own motivations. i will say this about bob mueller. he is 72 years old. he has had a very distinguished career as a prosecutor, deputy attorney general, a u.s. attorney for a time. of course, had a strong career as the fbi director himself. he doesn't have a lot left to prove. he will need to mail some big named kuna skin to the wall, in order to prove himself

he knows rod rosenstein because it's a very small club, probably knows him because they are both united states attorneys. rosenstein, a u.s. attorney before he became deputy director of the justice department. he was a u.s. attorney himself. nbc's pete williams has more. >> here with a major development in the investigation into russian influence as it may pertain to the trump white house and the trump campaign. we want to go right now to pete williams with word of the appointment of a special counsel to lead an investigation. pete? >> lester, after serving as the deputy attorney general for 22 days, the deputy rod rosenstein today took himself out of overseeing the russia investigation, turning that over to robert muller. he is the former fbi director who served 12 years in that job. he was actually held over two extra years before james comey became the fbi director. he will have the full authority to investigate that any u.s. attorney would, including the power to file criminal charges. this is exactly what congressional democrats have been pushing for for the appointment of a specia

of course, remember, the white house first claimed it was all based on a recommendation from rod rosenstein. this turns out not to be true. yesterday you say either rosenstein didn't realize he was going to get played or he did. the former makes him seem like a fool. the latter comes off much worse. explain. >> i think the real question is why does someone like deter rosenstein, someone who has been around the block, why does he write that memo if he even suspects that it is going to be appropriated the way it was. and if he does write that memo knowing it is going to be used as cover for a decision the president makes, is rosenstein then complicit in this entire matter. this this is the most important point, yes, all of this noise, all of the inconsistencies from the white house are alarming, but let's not forget what this is all about. this is about the underlying investigation into what role, if any, the russian government played in the election. president trump is not going to be able to make that go away. does the deputy attorney general pick up the threat and run with it to prove his

white house was, well, based on recommendation from the new leadership at the top of the fbi, rod rosensteinne recommending x, y and z, and later we saw the president on with lester holt, and he said, no, it's not by my recommendation but myself. why would rosenstein write the memo if he already knew that trump was going to fire comey? >> rosenstein was in a position that many attorneys find themselves in. your client wants something and you want to deliver that to him. in this case, we have to take him at his word. if the order comes from the president or the attorney general, put together a memo explaining what was wrong about comey. you do it whether you know what they're going to do with it or not, whether you know he's being fired or not, what influence you're going to have on it. there are some lawyers when put into that position will just do what the client asks. in this case rod rosenstein goes out and does that. now he's disclosed what he may have done. he's also made clear that he didn't like being put in this position, and then he further goes and makes the decision to bring in mu

as i go through all of the memoranda, the letter of the attorney general, the memorandum from rod rosenstein, it's all pertained to the handling by the director of the investigation of the clinton e-mails. why do we presume that this clears the way for a reopening of the iestigation into the hillary clinton e-mail by the fbi? >> it would be improper for me to comment on any investigations ongoing with respect to mrs. clinton in the e-mail. that's up to the fbi and the department of justice to determine. what i can tell you is the president would get to these recommendations are made a decision to accept their conclusion and to remove director comey and we begin that restoration of confidence in leadership. as deputy attorney general rosenstein laid out in a three-page memorandum there was a loss of confidence in director comey and the men and women who ably serve the fbi. lou: an extraordinary document that memorandum by the deputy attorney general and that he had obviously had his previous attorneys general directors of the fbi and deputy attorneys general and brought that into what turned

his name is rod rosenstein. are leaning hard on him to appoint a special counsel and take it out of his own purview. dick durbin released this statement. president trump admitted to firing the fbi director because of his investigation of the trump campaign's russia connections. that's dangerously close to obstruction of justice. this morning the president tweeted a thinly veiled threat to mr. comey which could be construed as threatening a witness in this investigation which is another violation of federal law. to preserve his reputation as a prosecutor, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein must appoint a special independent prosecutor to pursue possible criminal charges or he must resign. tonight we got this from senator dianne feinstein. she says, quote, i also support senator durbin's call for deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to resign. these investigations are far too important to risk disruption, delay, or interference. when rosenstein was confirmed by the senate last month for this attorney general

> so another major piece of news there from senator claire mccaskill saying to reporters that rod rosenstein told these senators in these closed-door meetings that he learned that the then fbi director james comey would be removed prior to rosenstein's writing the letter to recommend the removal. all right. so carl bernstein, how does that jive with what we've heard from the white house and then later we heard from president trump in the interview with lester holt on nbc saying i didn't listen to anyone's recommendation, i wanted to do this for quite a while. >> i think it's been evident for quite some time that jeff sessions wanted to use rose sen someti rosenstein and as we now see with mueller's investigation and the decision itself to fire comey could be part of an investigation into whether the president of the united states obstructed justice. we don't know that's the case but it's certainly something that may be suggested in all of this and we know from some things that have been said by rosenstein in private to people on capitol hill, that he felt used and abused by what happened in

it just happened to come right after rod rosenstein has been in the center of controversy.er writing that memo about raising the concerns about comey's handling of the e-mail investigation and also being pointed to by white house f officials as the person who kind of led to the firing of james comey. of course now the president and white house's story has changed on that front. but we're told that at this meeting that just occurred that comey firing did not come up with great detail. at least that is according to chairman richard burr and mark warner. they said that they didn't really discuss the firing. it was not really the purpose of the meeting. i asked whether or not mr. rosenstein had any concerns at all about the way the firing happened. we know that from our reporting that may be the case. the members burr and warner side stepped that question saying that this was not actually the point of the meeting. the point being that they wanted to talk about how to make sure that their investigation, the senate intelligence committee, does not conflict with what the fbi is do

he attended that briefing with rod rosenstein this morning. congressman, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, katie. >> what did you learn from rod rosenstein, what in particular stood out to you? >> you understand this was a classified briefing. but i think what i knew and what i was made comfortable with, i think he has proceeded in a way, he clearly wants to raise the confidence level of the american people on the facts that are going to be disclosed and we'll get to the bottom of whatever the facts are. rod rosenstein we've known him in maryland for a long time. we have a great deal of confidence in him. and i think that bob mueller's appointment was an excellent appointment, which will in fact lead to a very fair, thorough investigation, and the facts will dictate the result, not politics. so i'm confident of that. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. yesterday, rod rosenstein told members of the senate that he was, according to their accounts, that he was aware that president trump was going to fire fbi director comey before he wr

that is what they continue to point on is rod rosenstein. o the department of justice they're also saying it was rod's decision to make, he was comey's boss and they point to his testimony about abdean forwarding e-mails. >> comey's testimony. >> comey's testimony and the inaccuracies that he made and those and what he has testified in the past, it's a series of events that have culminated to why this decision was making now. >> the idea that the trump white house has the least bit concern about how hillary clinton and her campaign was treated with respect to the e-mail investigation is laughable and if mr. rosenstein came in and had serious concerns about how director comey had conducted this investigation he would have been on much firmer ground on the watchdog investigation and if it came out and said they disagreed with director comey's handling of this they could have cited that and taken action against director comey. the abruptness of this smacks at the fact that it was political to put the brakes on a russian investigation that is get

rod j. rosenstein to whom comey reported directly. the white house. the president already had decided to fire comey, according to this person. but in the meeting, several white house officials said trump gave sessions and rosenstein a directive to explain in writing the case against comey. compare that to what sean spicer told reporters on tuesday that roseinstein made the decision himself to review comey and what sarah huckabee sanders told us and reporters yesterday. >> sarah, you made reference repeatedly to the report by the deputy ag rod rosenstein. who asked him to make that review? he's just arrived at the justice department. who asked him to undertake that review? >> i'm not aware it was requested. all i know is that the director reports to him, and i would imagine that's part of the process of him coming on board and taking over that position. >> sarah, you've suggested that the deputy attorney general wrote this report on his own without orders from the white house. that's direct, right? >> that's my understanding, yes. >> o

the other is rod rosenstein. and the third is michael flynn.ecause there is still the matter of -- that has not yet been publicly fleshed out, which is, was he just acting on his own in conversations with the rup russian ambassador, or was he acting with anyone's knowledge, nudging, suggestion, support, including the president? there are obviously more players, who would be interesting to hear from on a congressional panel, but i think when you look at those three, you have a good lay of the land. >> and the question now, we'll continue the conversation in a moment, they have an acting right now. then pick an interim and nominate somebody else. what will the administration say about the continuing of of that investigation and what happens to the investigations up on capitol hill? much more on the firing of the fbi director, james comey, in just just a moment. enough said. reddi-wip. (flourish spray noise) share the joy. it's my decision to make it's nbeauty last.ix. roc® retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. a