rod rosenstein did not resign today. rod rosenstein did not do what most members of previous justice departments would have done if a president publically threatened the integrity of their mission. rod rosenstein did not give the president what the president has wanted so badly for so long, rod rosenstein's resignation. instead, rod rosenstein gave the president an investigation by the inspector general. the lowest level investigation that the justice department conducts, and it is an investigation to which rod rosenstein already knows all the answers. rod rosenstein knows that the inspector general is not going to find that the fbi, doj infiltrated or surveilled the trump campaign for political purposes. the president did not get rod rosenstein's resignation today. so the president will not be appointing a new deputy attorney general tomorrow who would be empowered to immediately close down robert mueller's investigation. and instead of a new deputy attorney general closing down the mueller investigation tomorrow, rod r

robert jackson looming over rod rosenstein's right shoulder, watching over what rod rosenstein does. he put that portrait up there himself. that's his guy. pride of place for rosenstein. this guy robert jackson was solicitor general under fdr which means he argued supreme court cases for the federal government when fdr was president. he's very good at it. he argued almost 40 cases before the supreme court, lost less than a handful of them. he was then attorney general in the leadup to the u.s. entering world war ii. he was attorney general in 1940, 1941. he left being attorney general in 1941 because fdr appointed him to the supreme court, became a supreme court justice. in 1941 he was on the supreme court until he died in office in the 1950s. but interestingly, while he was on the court he took some time off. you never hear of a supreme court justice taking leave. but robert jackson did. he took leave as a justice of the supreme court in 1945 so he could go to germany and be america's lead prosecutor in the nuremberg trials. so a fascinating character in american legal history and s

but a lot of those people have been fired a long time ago. >> rod rosenstein -- donald trump put rod in the justice department at a time when i think he didn't understand quite so much about how the law enforcement apparatus of the nation works and the federal law enforcement officers especially, someone like rod rosenstein who has devoted his entire professional career to this work. and i think he has been shocked again and again that mr. rosenstein is not doing his bidding. and we talk a lot about constitutional crisis. are we in a constitutional crisis, are we not? i think we can answer that however we want. rod rosenstein has been in one himself since about 5:00 p.m. on may 9th of last year, right. he has had to make countless decision, some of which we know about, like appointing robert mueller, and many of which has john has just pointed out we don't know about to keep this investigation protected and to keep donald trump at bay. and i think, you know, if trump thinks that rosenstein is going to step down over something like this, i think he is wrong and i think his staffers ar

the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, okay, he's quick to respond to president trump, demanding the department of justice get to the bottom of it all. so rosenstein is trying to make himself hard to be a hero but it's a total farce. here's why. rosenstein is doing what he alwayst does, and that is protecting all of his deep state friends. the deputy attorney general, he knows that by referring this to be inspector general, it will buy them a year to 18 months and protect all of these deep state actors. it will take michael horowitz well over a year. we don't have over a year to uncover this. we need a full fbi, doj, rank andfi file, field office investigationon into all of thi. what they are trying to do is slowly leak out this information, a slow bleed, to cover themselves. it is all a cya. remember,no they know what's out there. they know they are about to get caught. this is all about controlling the narrative, spinning the narrative, trying p to protect themselves and they probably learned a thingro or two from hillary about acid washing hard drives. we've got to be careful.

today rod rosenstein wrote back trashing congress, congress has a constitutional duty and authority ofversight. mr. rosenstein, i would think that you read that in your constitution. take a look. >> they cannot even resist leaking their own draft. [laughter] would do you care to elaborate on that? >> i saw that draft, and i don't know who wrote it, there been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time. i think that they should understand by now that the department of justice is not going to be extorted. we will do what is required by the rule of law. any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way that we do our job. >> sean: and congress is going to do their constitutional job and demand that you hand over the documents that they have subpoenaed a long time ago. congress men meadows responding that he believes doing his job as extortion and rod rosenstein should step aside and allow us to find a new attorney general, one who is interested in transparency. i will add also the law. also breaking tonight, chairman bret

after listening to road rosenstein -- rod rosenstein that this is going in the right direction and conducted but the most dignity, rodmost law-abiding -- rosenstein has taken his oath of office extremely seriously. host: got your point. guest: for many americans this was the first time they saw him speak. he is a familiar figure in the justice department. he has been working there almost 30 years. he is a career guy. he is by the book. that is why his remarks were remarkable in terms of a self-defense. against what he views as improper incursions. host: he was generally tightlipped but did get questions on it from reporters and members of the public yesterday. here is one of those interactions. >> i am wondering what your mindset is on whether a sitting president can be indicted. if not, why not? >> that was to questions. this is not a press conference. i'm not going to answer this in the context of current matters. you should not draw any inference. the department of justice has opined that a sitting president cannot be indicted. i don't have anything more to say about it. somebody in the d

if rod rosenstein said i'm not going to do it, he has the constitution ability to fire rosenstein. it's wednesday. bob mueller -- the investigation could be over by today he had he gone the other way. i don't know that necessarily means he made the right decision. you have to play out the consequence of what the all tern it have path might have been. >> part of what the president is doing and his gaggle of defenders right now is gaining control of a narrative because there's a lot of empty space there because bob mueller as a prosecutor, he cannot actually speak publicly. so, as long as these guys are out there gaining control of the narrative, regardless of what bob mueller comes up with, there is going to be a portion of the american people that are either so confused or so indoctrinated with all of this nonsense that the question is will they actually believe bob mueller. >> paul, let me bring you in on some developments today around jared kushner. his attorney, abby lowell out with a statement today about his cooperation with bob mueller saying a year ago jared was one of the f

lou: you would think there would be a minor conflict between rod rosenstein and mueller since muellereports to rosenstein and rosenstein recommended the firing of james comey. it's just extraordinary. as i said, it's farcical, it's infuriating. >> but it's real. lou: jason chaffetz, good to see you. mitt romney is running for office again. so he's doing what just about he republican should do. he's linking up with president trump. wow! we'll take that up with ed rollins next. former secretary of state condoleezza rice joins us? the studio. stay with us. your brain changes as you get older. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. yes or no? do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? do you want $4.95 commissions for stocks, $0.50 options contracts? $1.50 futures contracts? what about a dedicated service team of trading specialists? did you say yes? good, then it's time for power e*trade. the platform, pr

lou: you would think there would be a minor conflict between rod rosenstein and mueller since mueller reports to rosenstein and rosenstein recommended the firing of james comey. it's just extraordinary. as i said, it's farcical, it's infuriating. >> but it's real. lou: jason chaffetz, good to see you. mitt romney is running for office again. so he's doing what just about he republican should do. he's linking up with president trump. wow! we'll take that up with ed rollins next. former secretary of state condoleezza rice joins us? the studio. stay with us. racing isn't the only thing on my mind. and with godaddy, i'm making my ideas real. when i created my businesses, i needed a way to showcase it. ♪ with godaddy you can get a website to sell online. and it will look good. i made my own way. now it's time to make yours. get started at godaddy.com ♪ everything is working, working just like it should ♪ lou: senator marco rubio sounding a lot like among other things, a democrat. telling the economist left-wing magazine, there is no evidence the money has been massively poured back into th

that of course is because rod rosenstein has purview over bob mueller. so when he sees this going into places he doesn't like, he reacts and takes it out on rosenstein, someone he had call into his office. he cannot call mueller into the oval office and yell at him. one thing he also might be angry about is what you were just talking about, the news over the weekend about the emirates meeting with donald trump jr. during the campaign. this could almost be a distraction for that and he wants to focus on the issue of this informant. one thing that we reported in december, katy, at nbc news is that trump knew that the fbi was interested in foreign influence in his campaign. not just from russians, but from other countries, as well. he was briefed and warned, is what we were told. so it couldn't be a huge surprise to him that the fbi would be taking measures to make sure that his campaign was free of foreign influence. there's really a way to even see this as a protective measure, that they wanted to make sure that it was not trump himself and that people ar

lou: you would think there would be a minor conflict between rod rosenstein and mueller since mueller reports to rosenstein and rosenstein recommended the firing of james comey. it's just extraordinary. as i said, it's farcical, it's infuriating. >> but it's real. lou: jason chaffetz, good to see you. mitt romney is running for office again. so he's doing what just about he republican should do. he's linking up with president trump. wow! we'll take that up with ed rollins next. former secretary of state condoleezza rice joins us? the studio. stay with us. coppertone sport. proven to protect street skaters and freestylers. stops up to 97% uv. lasts through heat. through sweat. coppertone. proven to protect. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one place. ♪ retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, w

how do we know whether rod rosenstein is doing the right thing? is there something about the way he and the justice department are acting that can tell us whether they're being smart and strategically flexible to protect the mueller investigation, to insulate law enforcement from the worst of what the president and his allies have in mind, or are they just giving away the store, giving in, cave, and leaving us with a new world, right, from here on out, where the justice department is expected, evermore, to hand over fisa warrant applications, to hand over live evidence from ongoing investigations, to brief members of congress on their confidential sources and the evidence those sources turned up in highly sensitive investigations that have not yet come to their natural end? i mean, that's the precedent that is already created forever more by the behavior of this justice department under this president, during this investigation. was that all given away for nothing? has this all been pointless appeasement, or is there some genius at work here? how

trump and you try to appease them as rod rosenstein is trying to do, it just doesn't work. you can't compromise with a bully. on sunday rod immediately responded to the president's tweet by giving him a little bit. saying we're going to do that investigation that you wanted to do. again, rod rosenstein has got to know better than that. we started out together as public corruption prosecutors. you just don't get that kind of guidance from the president. that's not how the rule of law works. now we see even if he was trying to kind of tread water to make the president feel okay, it's not working because yesterday the president refused to answer the question about whether he had confidence in his own deputy attorney general. >> his own appointee. >> maybe he's laying the ground work to get rid of mr. rosenstein, get rid of mr. sessions. we really need rod rosenstein to do the right thing to uphold the values of the rule of law in our democratic process. it's not going to work if he tries to make the president like him. rod went too far. >> it's great to have you here. thanks. >

well from the post, i believe there were actually a draft of an impeachment procedure against rod rosenstein. rosenstein is in charge of the parameters of the mueller probe since jeff sessions is recused. pete williams, the significance of all of this and the possibility of a subpoena for the president. >> well, the possibility of a subpoena for the president, of course, this would take us into legal territory where we've not been before. presidents jefferson and nixon were subpoenaed for documents and tapes. president clinton was subpoenaed for his testimony but he decided to do it voluntarily. if they do subpoena the president and he says no, i'm not going to do it. i'm going to assert my fifth amendment impressive leprivileg us into a territory where the courts have not been before and the white house has to make a political calculation where they plead the fifth which is often associated with organized crime figures. do they want to go there or will they assert the president has executive privilege and doesn't have to answer these questions. we don't know the answer ultimately. the court

in rod rosenstein? >> what's your next question, please? excuse me, i have the president of south korea here. okay. he doesn't want to hear these questions, if you don't mind. >> wow. the president's refusal to say whether he has confidence in his deputy attorney general comes at a point in time when the doj is walking a tight rope. politico writing, quote, under pressure from president trump top justice department officials have agreed to review highly classified information with congressional leaders connected to the fbi's investigation of russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders confirming today that no democrats will be invited to review that classified information in a meeting set now for thursday. rudy giuliani, who's leading negotiations with special counsel bob mueller, may have revealed the real goal of trump's demand, getting access to evidence in the russia investigation. quote, the requested documents should be made available

it is very dangerous. >> sean: sara, let me go to the attack by rod rosenstein as it relates to mark adows and the freedom caucus. let me add one other thing, rosenstein actually said that there are serious consequences if, in fact, the fisa courts were lied to and if it was found that they were false, didn't he sign off on one of those renewal applications? and didn't he implicate himself right now? >> he implicated himself and comey. that is a very important question, sean, this is something they will take a look at. we know that the inspector general, part of the reports are going to be looking directly at it. the fisa application, what was in that application on carter page? and the people that signed it, they should know better. they should have thoroughly read through the fisa application. they should know exactly what they are signing off on. and it should not just be ignorance.liey >> sean: who do we know signed off on those applications? we had the original application? then we had the three subsequent applications, that is a year. and comey still says he has no idea what was

>> you know, i wouldn't read too much into rod rosenstein. i mean, i spoke with one of his friends the other day who said, if you scratch the surface, you still get the surface. and so i think he's kind of one of these people who answers the exact question he was asked. so i really -- >> which is nice. >> -- really wouldn't read too much into it. >> garrett, what do you think, though? is he talking about the president? >> i think -- i don't know whether he's talking about the president specifically. he's certainly talking about the echo chamber of the president's allies who are, as rod rosenstein himself said today, sort of attacking him publicly and privately. >> mmm-hmm. >> i mean, the level of attack that he has come under from congress for sort of trying to do his job as best he can is sort of unprecedented from a partisan perspective at this point. >> all right. thank you all. i got to run. see you next time. >>> when we come back, more on our breaking news. a showdown looking very likely, possibly, between the trump legal team and the s

that means that rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who is in charge and who overcea cs this investigation, would have had to authorize the use of a subpoena against the president of the united states. and that tells you that this evidence has been carefully reviewed. this is not a step that they would have taken lightly. they would have considered whether the evidence was available from other sources, whether it was critical to the investigation. they would have considered privilege issues. and then they would have made a very serious decision that ultimately they were entitled to subpoena the president if he declined to voluntary testify. >> wow. just to underscore that point and make sure i understand, do you think that the special counsel's office would have to ask for clearance from rod rosenstein even to raise the prospect of a subpoena with the president's legal team? or would they only need that permission, that review from him, that oversight from him, when it came to the point of actually signing off on the subpoena? >> prosecutors never threaten to take an action t

this is the same material that rod rosenstein has refused to turn over for months. now, his name, by the way, you

rod rosenstein's staff. personally but their staff can say you can come over, view the documents, no note-taking. you can only read them and we can discuss them. but there is no note-taking and you can't have copies. >> melissa: but let me challenge that. >> that solves the problem. >> melissa: they are serious people as you say but they are also political people and viewing it for a political benefit. at least at some time. that is what he is afraid of. >> you don't get to -- look, congress has oversight. constitutional oversight authority. you don't get to pick and choose. you can determine and you can fight it in court. congress can fight these things in court and have a court decide. that is one way to go. you can also have a situation where you create a system in which they get satisfied and you are satisfied at the department of justice. read them in no notes. i don't understand why there would be a problem if they are going to be transparent. >> melissa: okay. another argument is right now the investi

director andrew mccabe documented a meeting where deputy director rod rosenstein said president trumpted rosenstein to include russia in the memo used to fire f.b.i. director james comey last may. rosenstein declined. the source said rosenstein did give mccabe a copy of a draft record firing comey written by president trump. it's been passed on by special counsel mueller. writing on twitter the president said -- "not that it matters but i never fired comey because of russia. the corrupt main stream media loves to keep pushing the narrative but they know it's not true." earlier on fox, the president's spokesman went further. >> he said on national television it's because of james comey's handling of the clinton investigation. and the letter that the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein had sent him. there are also a number of reasons. he has leaked confidential information. he gave false statements under oath to congress. >> andrew mccabe testified on capitol hill earlier in year and was fired in march days before his f.b.i. retirement. after the justice department internal watchdog

he says the draft document is a last resort option and he responded to rod rosenstein saying that rod rosenstein's stone walling of this investigation has embarrassed the department of justice and the rule of law. if he believes being asked to do his job is extortion, then rod rosenstein should step aside and allow us to find a new deputy attorney general. preferably one that is interested in transparency. pete? >> and accountability. congress has an oversight function here. you hear the word "impeachment." they tried everything to do to get the fisa application documents. a lot of people are wondering if they were fully vetted and understood when they went forward. i feel like people are missing -- i got this good information from a legal friend -- how conflicted rod rosenstein is. he wrote the memo on may 9, 2017 when he said we have to restore confidence in the fbi when president trump fired comey. how can he be overseeing mueller looking into the issue of comey? it's a circular loop that feeds back. even rosenstein is compromised an conflicted in this process. i don't see why if h

rod rosenstein move. this could be his undoing. this is dangerous territory for sessions and rosenstein. they're playing games with the president of the united states. it's very ugly. it's insulting to the president. this is a potempkin investigation. it is a joke. it is an insult to the president. and if i were the president i would be very, very angry by the response from rosenstein last night. >> the timing is not a coincidence. the president seems unusually agitated by this because, as we know, it's not almost to the end, it's almost to the point in time where he will have to make some decisions here, to sit down or not. the president's mood is being guided by what he knows. he knows much more about this investigation than we do, but i was struck this morning that the president had a little shout-out to devin nunes this morning at the cia when he was giving the speech for newt director. he singled him out and him alone as -- i think the word was courageous. and i thought he might say more. he didn't. i

tomorrow the house of representatives is going to try to impeach rod rosenstein for doing his job? stein has job security right now. if you talk about the low unemployment. 3.9%. the maneuvers with north korea. they have issues to talk about. but i'm telling you, george. i talked to somebody very key working on the trump political strategy for the midterms. the argument that is made is that we tried running on tax cuts and deregulation in the special elections. we got beat. the only way to really turn people out is fear and anger at what democrats are doing. >> they're going to look back at 1998 and say this was when bill clinton was getting impeached. they picked up seats. >> democrats picked up seats in the midterm election. >> and his job approval numbers were at the highest in the midst of the monica lewinsky investigation. >> it was a strong economy, as well. let me push the point. rod rosenstein. that's the logical argument there. are you certain that the president's -- um -- fortitude will last in the wake of another series of indictments from robert mueller? or a speen ma fo

thank you so much. >>> the house free com kaw causs drafted articles of impeachment against rod rosenstein and won't hesitate to use them if he continues his slow walk. it's tough talk but rosenstein doesn't sound scared. >> we make mistakes. but the way we operate in the department of justice, if we can accuse somebody of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence, incredible witnesses. there are people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and i think they should understand by now the department of justice is not going to be extorted. kennedy: we won't be extorted. such tough talk. man you have more conflicts of interest than a bass fisherman has reels. is the freedom cause kus about impeaching rosenstein on just a stunt. let's go to the panel, fox news contributor marie harp is here in a lovely shade of pink, town hall.com editor guy benson with the lovely pink tie. and wwe superstar, dolph ziegler. welcome, everyone. so much to discuss. we're going to play party swap a little later in the show. i want to go to you first. there was word

rod rosenstein called for an internal justice department investigation into the president's suspicion he was spied on during the 2016 campaign and coming out of the meeting, we should point out in the last several minutes, the white house issued a statement on what transpired in the meeting. very important, wolf. the white house said that the justice department has agreed to expand its probe in that the administration will be setting up -- and this is critical -- a classified briefing for congressional leaders to review highly classified information that they've been requested for several weeks now. wolf, depends on what kind of documents and materials they will see but this is a concession from the justice department to critics of the russia probe who seem to want the investigators under investigation. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein arrived at the white house for what officials insist was a prescheduled meeting but it is clear what is on the president's mind. while he's not answering reporters questions, the president is complaining that he was spied on before the 2016 electi

you tweeted this, perfect response from republican rod rosenstein to trump, rod rosenstein knows fbiounterintelligence agents were doing their duty and is not afraid of any inquiry. but by agreeing to have the inspector general expand his investigation is rosenstein following the president's order? >> yes, wolf rosenstein is, but i think that was a perfect response to the president's demands. i have no problem with the inspector general expanding his investigation, because it's going to show this was a counterintelligence investigation, and informants are routine and necessary part of all counterintelligence investigations. it's going to show the fbi did nothing wrong. and i think this now puts to rest any issue the president may have, which means the president has to let this investigation against him proceed to its conclusion. >> are you confident that the house judiciary committee has the proper oversight on how confidential sources gather information and how the fbi handles the investigation into the trump campaign? >> not at all. the republican controlled judiciary committee has

they don't compare favorably to rod rosenstein. >> i think rosenstein has not been the guy the white house hoped he'd be, which is to say a loyal person in the justice department. remember, he signed off personally on the raid on michael cohen's apartment, his hotel room and his office a couple of weeks ago, that infuriated the president. ratcheted up the president's attacks on rosenstein. now you're seeing more of it from house republicans. you should watch that entire, that entire event yesterday. rod rosenstein gave an incredible defense of the constitution, of the rule of law. the separation of powers. and -- it's pretty powerful. >> what stooges don't realize and they are stooges, maybe they're stupid, maybe they're just ignorant, but they don't realize that maybe they're corrupt. maybe they're trying to cover up the president's misdeeds. but what they don't, some may not understand, mike, is that rod rosenstein, yes, he approved the review of the records of michael cohen. but you talk to anybody that's worked at the southern district of new york, they will tell you -- they woul

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he is a special counsel supposedly supervised by rod rosenstein. the reason this investigation has become unruly is because rosenstein never identified a crime to be investigated at the outset, and he has not done anything to keep mueller on target. i think basically mueller tells rosenstein what to do. what we are asking for, i don't want them involved in extraneous stuff. answer the core questions and move on or hold people accountable. that is the way this should be done, and if you had someone who was supervising that, and was serious about keeping the trains on time, you can do this in a way that can be done much more expeditiously than some of these have previously. thanks. >> thank you. i too am so grateful for bringing this resolution. we need a vote on it quickly. that has to be on the floor. now back when mueller was appointed, there was nobody any more outraged than i was. i knew of the damage he had done to the fbi. he had purged the fbi of thousands of years of experience, purged fbi training materials so they could not recognize radica

taking a strong enough line when it comes to this investigation, and particularly when it comes to rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and they seem to want the take aim at him, at rosenstein as part of this deep state conspiracy that's trying to undermine the president and undermine his victory. >> so what's their role? >> the thing here is that there are a lot of the president's allies who realize he can't fire robert mueller. they're too far down this path. and a lot probably acknowledge that he shouldn't fire rod rosenstein, although they're divided on this. but they do believe they can give this guy a bloody nose. they can turn this into a political witch-hunt, and they're looking at the polling throughout. they see the president's approval ratings are inching up. they sigh robert mueller's ratings are inching down, particularly when it comes to republicans. they believe if they can turn this into a politicized fight, then even if the president doesn't fire anyone, when you get the findings out, you can undermine. >> what's the strategy? steve cortes who appears here on cnn as a com

and rod rosenstein talking about extortion with the congress when mark meadows and jim jordan and others see the scope memo. >> the people are the boss of rosenstein. rosenstein is not the boss of anyone. he works for we the people. he has no authority here over that that the people have given him. he answers to them. there is nobody that can pressure him or extort him to do anything other than the people. that's who he's talking about when he's saying this. lot * i think the question is powerfully relevant. this is a mid-term election that has gone to the party out of power. but when we are watching the republican leadership in ryan and mcconnell basically sell out to the establishment in full view, people are not going to want to elect republicans to support the president's legislation or priorities. they are sick of all of them. so what is likely to happen? >> there is an interesting narrative happening. they may try to impeach this president. i think that will only send more republicans to go vote. lou: gina? >> he doubled popularity with black voters just the past couple weeks. he m

>> he was very surprised at rod rosenstein. up in of this was telegraphed. >> do you think he knew it was going to be used by the president as the rationale publicly for firing james comey? >> i think he had to know it was going to be used in some degree. i don't think that he realized that the president was going to put greyhound bus tracks on his back with that memo. i don't think he realized it was going to be used in that way. >> my memo truthfully reflects my views. i'm not in a position to comment on anybody else so from my perspective, senator, that memo is about what it's about. i do not know what was in anybody else's mind. >> reporter: but in comey world, rosenstein is seen as a trump collaborator, not an independent actor. so what's the motive? >> i think the motive is to keep his job. >> what's rosenstein's rep now? >> there's conflict there. he's someone people are suspicious of but in these interesting times people are looking to him and thinking he might be the last best hope that we have to ensure that bob muell

you have rod rosenstein owe essentially overseeing an investigation into the president.attorney general who has recused himself but now if sessions is part of a new investigation as suggested by trump, does that give access to sessions in overlapping areas where he has recused himself but now at the same point he's answer the call by the president to investigate the russia inquiry so to speak indirectly >> you know, i don't see any way in good faith that sessions doesn't recuse himself from this because ultimately what the president is asking for is an investigation of his own investigators, so it clearly implication russia. i do think there's an easy way out if trump realizes he's gone too far. the inspector general's office of investigation is already doing an investigation of the fbi's conduct. looking at protocols, especially with respect to the wiretaps of carter page and so rod rosenstein could say refectfully, mr. president, that investigation is already going often the president at that the point might gracefully exit. if he doesn't, then i agree with matt, we're

and we believe that is exactly why rod rosenstein and the doj have been obstructing. rosenstein is trying to run out the clock. he hopes democrats will regain the house and this will all end and go away. what is now apparent is that rosenstein is aiding and abetting in what is nothing short of a cover-up of the single biggest instance of abuse of power and corruption in american history and the media's right there with them. we have famed harvard law professor alan dershowitz calling out the sunning hypocrisy surrounding this deep-state scandal. take a look -- >> this had happened to hillary clinton, the aclu would be jumping up and down the way they did when i was on the board of the aclu when undercover agents were put into the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement. they were there to listen into muslim churches, civil libertarians are generally a little bit suspicious when undercover agents go to ask questions. we as civil libertarians ought to be suspicious. >> checkmate, professor. he's right. if this ever happened to hillary clinton, the media would be dem

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i think rod rosenstein's words were important. i hope they're a strong message to people who don't understand their responsibility and i have tremendous confidence that he and the others responsible for this investigationing will protect it from the kind of interference we copy to see. >> congressman david cicilline, thanks for your time. next a remarkable story today. did the country of ukraine, home to so much of paul manafort's lobbying efforts stop cooperating with the mueller probe because the trump administration armed them with missiles? that story in two minutes. mr. elliot, what's your wifi password? wifi? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi. it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. >>> new reporting by "the new york times" today raises a jaw dr

i don't think that rod rosenstein -- rod rosenstein hasn't proven to be president trump's lap dog here. he appointed a special counsel and he laid out the grounds for firing james comey. i find that questionable. but he appointed a special counsel so i don't think he would ask michael horowitz to expand this in his own investigation, the inspector general investigation if there wasn't concerns on the basis that president trump laid out. >> harris: we have had breaking news confirmed for us. abc news reported this and fox news confirmed it. per senior white house official, regularly scheduled meeting is now about to happen with rod rosenstein and christopher wray meeting with the president today at 3:00 a.m. eastern. not in regard specifically to the i hereby demand tweet about the d.o.j. -- >> but i'm sure it will come up. >> harris: but i understand getting documents to congress is likely to come up. and also the d.n.i. director coats will be at the meeting as well. so this is interesting. the president laid down the gauntlet. look, i want you to look into this, if somebody infiltrate

i'm willing to come back and join deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, we will sit together. he can bring his talking points, i will bring my facts and we will be able to debated back and forth and you can moderate that. we will be glad to do that. i am so sure of the evidence we and the manner of which we've gone about this that there is no good excuse for the department of justice to continue this. you spoken directly to the deputy attorney general and we reported they have concerns about an intelligence source of theirs that could be compromised , has that objection been presented to you and what is your response? rep. meadows: i have spoken to the deputy attorney general not on that particular matter. that is a common reoccurring theme. every time, these are national security secrets. we need to make sure we protect our assets. you know what, they are right. that is exactly the reason we have an intel community. it's the whole reason why we set that committee up so that they can see those types of documents have all of congress, we given that authority to some of our coll

under my theory but a co-conspirator under your theory. >> although he gives. >> who reports to rod rosenstein gets a conflict. >> i just want to be clear, the rosenstein memo, this what's so strange. >> the may memo. >> the may memo is a manifestly and obviously pretextule as we learned from the president and rudy guiliani. >> you have to understand how all of us were pauled all of us a part of the justice department and know how comey usurped the role of the lawyer. he may have a law degree but he was an investigator as head of the fbi. we were appalled. you just need to know that. >> appalled by the fact because he was too mean to hillary clinton? >> well, yes, that's the other reason. he usurped the role of the attorney general and then he revealed information uncovered in an investigation. you're never supposed to do that. >> i watched the president and republican party, all those people in the circle quote james comey at that event all the time. no one said he shouldn't have released derogatory information. >> i did, chris. i'm saying it again today. >> i praise you actually for your con

rod rosenstein was tweeting something that the president might see as appeasing him, but in fact he's not intending or agreeing to undertake anything significant? >> look, the doj idealist in me wanted rosenstein to stand up and say, there's no -- no indication of this. no. we don't do investigations because you demand them, if there's no, no proof, no indication. but rosenstein is clearly a prag in aa -- pragmatist and walkinga tightrope. what charlie said. trying to calm the president down. let everybody another, we're putting this in the hands of an independent, neutral third party. not independent completely from the department of justice, the a.g., but that's his job, to investigate the department of justice. saying we'll put this in this bucket, let's move on. >> go ahead, e.j.? >> and don't let me interrupt. finish, mimi. >> no. i was going to say those who want to see the mueller investigation be completed, you know, that was probably a wise choice. >> yeah. i'm very much agreeing with mimi, there's a big part of me that wishes he had said, no. but i think -- and that we're no

could trust the fbi and whether or not this investigation has a pli -- a political bias and so rod rosenstein is go ago long with this but he doesn't believe this and there is a question of going on with rosenstein. he didn't give the president what he asked for but the idea that this merits an investigation -- there is nothing happening. it is not -- even this idea that trump supporters say, there is no problem and just things are happening and drip, drip, drip and have an investigation. no, that is not how it works. you don't have an investigation because the president goes out and giuliani goes out and distorts -- >> i want to get your reaction to christopher wray saying a few days ago when asked about the push to release this information as to who this confidential source was. >> and the day that we can't protect human sources is the day that the american people start becoming less safe. >> your response? >> it is better to ask phil. he's a trade craft guy. i think that is obviously problem some. that gentleman's name is in the media. that gentleman's name is in the media and if you googl