don't think that we're not against rosenstein. don't think we might not impeach rosenstein. it's a platter of timing. the reason to impeach rosenstein is not because republicans don't like him or don't. it's because he oversees the special counsel investigation of the russia attack which is being run by former fbi director robert mueller. forcing rosenstein out of office through impeachment is the one direct way that republicans in congress could end the mueller investigation because removing rosenstein would allow him to be replaced with somebody who would shut mueller down. it's a matter of timing. again, this is what they're saying behind closed doors, not in public. if this is the way they're planning to sequence their actions this raises the possibility that congressional republicans know that are moving to end the mueller investigation by impeaching rod rosenstein, that could precipitate some kind of constitutional confrontation if not a constitutional crisis if their plan is to make sure that brett kavanaugh is on the supreme court when that happens for just such an o

comey, what did rod rosenstein do?ext day he appointed this man as special prosecutor against a man who he had failed in front of during his job interview that is the biggest conflict of interest. this is a revenge operation. bob mueller is execute ago revenge operation. >> judge, let me say something because there is a legal reason also that this is happening and it's the way rod rosenstein drafted the authority that he gave to mueller. he said anything, any link that you find between the trump campaign and the russian government he did not give an authority to mueller to go into the clinton campaign or anything to do with this -- the dnc. >> judge jeanine: go ahead, tom. >> mueller should be investigating himself. he is a witness in this case. it's an absurd and incredibly absurd to have him run this investigation given his personal involvement in the underlying facts of the case. where is the justice department? >> judge jeanine: tomorrow night in my open because we have to go guys, i am going after him for all his

comey, what did rod rosenstein do?ext day he appointed this man as special prosecutor against a man who he had failed in front of during his job interview that is the biggest conflict of interest. this is a revenge operation. bob mueller is execute ago revenge operation. >> judge, let me say something because there is a legal reason also that this is happening and it's the way rod rosenstein drafted the authority that he gave to mueller. he said anything, any link that you find between the trump campaign and the russian government he did not give an authority to mueller to go into the clinton campaign or anything to do with this -- the dnc. >> judge jeanine: go ahead, tom. >> mueller should be investigating himself. he is a witness in this case. it's an absurd and incredibly absurd to have him run this investigation given his personal involvement in the underlying facts of the case. where is the justice department? >> judge jeanine: tomorrow night in my open because we have to go guys, i am going after him for all his

don't think that we're not against rosenstein. don't think we're not going to impeach rosenstein. it is not just because they don't like him or not, it is because he oversees the special counsel investigation which is being run by robert mueller. forcing rod rosenstein out of office by meext, that's the one way republicans could end the mueller investigation. removing rod rosenstein would allow him to be replaced with somebody who would shut mueller down. it is a matter of timing. again, this is what they're saying behind closed doors. not in public. if this is the way they're manning to sequence their actions, this raises the possibility that congressional republicans know that could it represent a constitutional confrontation if not a crisis if the plan is to make sure that brett kavanaugh is on the supreme court when that happens for just such an occasion. well, that changes the meaning of the kavanaugh confirmation. right? that raises the stakes even further. it sort of changes them as to when and whether cavanagh will be confirmed. we reached out to paul brine this news parti

ci and that would be rod rosenstein?it would either be rodro rosenstein or attorney general sessions. >> judge jeanine: hold on, sessions is hiding in a closet. he ain't coming out for this >> this would be a great time to come out on this. let's talk about the biggest double standard there was. hillary clinton got a free pass. the trump administration is under a special prosecutor investigation. can you time and time again. the fbi politely asked the dnc for their server. the key piece of evidence and yet, bob mueller subpoenaed everything under the sun from the trump campaign. one double standard after. another. >> judge jeanine: you know what? i have to tell you jordan sekulow. i bet a lot of people wouldn't be concerned with the procedure like you go in with search warrants and you try to -- you drag people out of bed to get information when you have a warrant. okay. that's bad. that's horrible. but where things are ast blatant as they are right now with back channeling from a guy who was let go by the fbi. who was g

impeaching rod rosenstein has nothing to do with rod rosenstein. what it is, is the only option, the one option the republican congress has to really force the end of the mueller investigation. if they impeach and forcibly remove from office the man who oversees the mueller investigation, that is how they could arrange the installation of somebody else put in place in that same job who would shut the investigation down. it's really the only thing congressional republicans could do to stop the mueller investigation. it's their emergency brake, an extreme crazy option and been seen that way extreme if not crazy thus far in washington, at least in public statements by house republican leadership in washington. here's evidence from this audio that the house leadership is secretly on board with this plan. but for after the election. and they want to specifically sequence it so it happens once president trump's nominee is safely installed on the supreme court. that may be just about wanting the supreme court nomination fight to take precedence over anyth

you are -- i said publicly rosenstein needs to be impeached. the question is the timing of it right before the election. >> the senate has to start -- >> the senate would have to drop everything they are doing and start with impeachment on rosenstein and then take the risk of not getting kavanaugh confirmed. it is not a matter -- it is a matter of timing. >> that sounds like they support in impeaching rod rosenstein but not doing it now. >> the plot which is to go after rod rosenstein but allow the senate to jam the supreme court justice. do that work and then return after the midterm elections to try to jam up rod rosenstein. most people can remember that the clinton impeachment took place in the aftermath of the midterm election. it appears they want to go out and do the same thing. >> it was in 1998 midterms breaking with history. a stunning rebuke of republicans who lost seats in congress and continued in that lame duck session. do you think that is what they would do? >> it wouldn't shock me. if they lose the house and well, a few months l

christopher wray was recommended by rod rosenstein. the fbi -- i'll tell you what if you took a poll in the fbi i guarantee you one thing. i do very well. there's such corruption. before i got here it's from before i got here. it's the obama administration. and you look at what happened. they surveilled my campaign. very simple. the fisa report. the phoney fake -- >> rod rosenstein signed the last fisa report. >> it bothers me. >> will you fire him? will you fire session? >> i'll tell you what, i wanted to stay uninvolved but when everybody sees what's going on in the justice department -- i put justice now with quotes. it's a very sad day. jeff sessions recused himself which he shouldn't have done or he should have told me. even my enemies say that jeff sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn't have put him in. he took the job and then he said i'm going recuse myself. i said what kind of a man is this? >> all right. elisabeth and then katty kay. elisabeth, i mean at this point this looks l

you and rosenstein figured it out.osenstein are trying to figure out what to do with a subpoena. you see, sean, giuliani was on your show the other day, or somebody's show company he said, why do they take two or three weeks. i will tell you why, because mr. mueller has to consult mr. rosenstein, his boss, to figure out what to do with the subpoena. i will tell you what happens when the issue that subpoena, the president of united states takes it all away to the supreme court and what is he do? department of justice memos. what else does he cite? constitution of the united states. so this is going to be an impeachment battle in the end. the president of the united states, if he doesn't get involved in the perjury trap -- think about that. they don't have a crime. he needs this interview to create a crime! against the president of united states! this prosecutor! well, that's pretty outrageous. in any event, i want the news media to understand, you know what took place in the southern district of new york, and i think th

no, they don't want to fire rod rosenstein. so let's go to harry litman, former u.s.who is back with us. i've got to tell you, the point in the end, harry, where you heard rudy giuliani say he did not collude. on the other hand conclusion isn't a crime. i'm getting lost or confused in all the spin. >> yeah, i think that is the country. they backed away from no conclusion, to, well, maybe conclusion isn't a crime. i think here it's a misnomer. they haven't been talking conspiracy. the bigger point is his assertion about the legal and factual defense, the notion that under article 2 the president can't violate, be guilty of obstruction of just, something the supreme court has announced. on the facts, it doesn't really matter where the investigation has -- the president when he was speaking with comey was trying to shut it down for so-called corrupt motives basically to keep it coming home to roost in the white house. so i think both it's factual and legal defenses don't really hold up. it has been a series of statements, restatements and revisions from rudy giuliani in

mueller is already interviewed his own boss rod rosenstein.about a conflict of interest. >> sean: 's there's a new book out. it's not as good as yours but peter strzok. at the guy that brought us uranium one, clinton cash. do you know that jim comey worked for martin? we will break a lot of this tomorrow. just getting a little teaser here. in one year, 2009, alone, they say in the book that james comey was paid $6.1 million just for working for them and this was on new importance by information. i'm not suggesting anything necessarily is nefarious but it's never been disclosed and that robert mueller was at the fbi and signed off on that 6.1 -- in that one year, there's five other years i don't know how much he got paid. also got $6 million of a hedge fund. that's an awful lot of money it seems to me. >> these guys were leveraging their government positions according to the book to enrich themselves and the company and the private sector they were working for. it's very much the same arguments i make in my book of how they were leveraging thei

an impeachment trial of rod rosenstein. but at republican fundraisers, republicans will probably continue to lie to their contributors who are hoping for an impeachment of rod rosenstein. joining our discussion now, jenner. i wanted to get your legal reading of the way devin nunes described what we considered criminal collusion if foreign power were to steal some e-mails and gave them directly to a campaign and the campaign were then to directly publicize those e-mails for the campaign's benefit, that would be collusion. that seems like a very narrow definition. >> it is a narrow definition. and i also want to say we aren't using the word collusion anymore. i started a #saythisnotthat. we will be calling it criminal conspiracy to defraud the united states or criminal conspiracy to violate the election laws because that's what it is. it is a much broader legal problem for the republicans than devin nunes described. what he said is true, that is criminal. it would be criminal. but it's also criminal if you accept anything of

first sally yates and then rod rosenstein.ds to be asked because he seems to be the center of the wheel and that is, what role or roles did he play in the production of this dossier? his relationship with fusion gps where his wife worked, his relationship with christopher steele, the full extent of it is what we need to know because he clearly was a back channel for opposition research in the united states department of justice. i want people to remember, the fbi director is gone. he's a leaker, he was fired. the deputy fbi director is gone, he is under criminal investigation. mr. strzok, he was fired. ever see anything like this before? in the deputy attorney general's office, you have a guy who was colluding with the former british spy, a foreigner who can affect our election, whose wife just happens to be working for the opposition research outfit funded by hillary clinton and the dnc, stick with me because it's very simple, and they are the ones that colluded with russia, so the question is not o only what was his role, wh

rod rosenstein, apparently there has been a softening in that relationship. reports are that they talked several times a week, is that significant? >> if the president has a stop trying to get rod rosenstein fired or talking about that, that's a good thing. i think that shows how transactional he is, when he does things that he likes he will praise him. when he does things that he doesn't like, not shutting down this investigation, he goes after him. just this morning he went after the witch hunt that rod rosenstein is apparently not shutting down for him. i think it's a transactional thing but if there is a slowing down of the war on rosenstein, that's a good thing. >> martha: a report that the white house is not in favor, republican leaders in the house who are trying to subpoena rod rosenstein. perhaps they are discouraging matt and they are having a better relationship as i said. >> the president has always said he wants the investigation to go forward, he's made the staff available to answer as many questions as possible and turned over millions of docum

what republican would be mad if donald trump fired rod rosenstein? orrin hatch thinks he's the -- >> you're asking me to do a memory test of all the republicans -- >> i'm asking you to think of one who has courage. i can't think of any. >> i'm not going to argue with you they have courage -- >> eli came up with one. >> i gave you orrin hatch. do you want a better one than that? >> we'll find the sound he said donald trump is the bestment ever. >> he said it would be an issue -- >> when trump -- when he grabs the third rail and he -- whatever he does, no one ever does anything. >> there is no doubt that history, that is factual. >> i want to ask you something about, john's analysis, mike's analysis they're playing this card because they think they can survive impeachment. the way they got to mike flynn is because his son had "today's special value" exposure. i'm not ascribing onto donald trump the humanity of mike flynn. there is a known unknown. do you think there is any peril for donald trump, jr., or his daughter's husband jared kushner -- >> or hi

so, it's not a matter that any of us like rosenstein. it's a matter of -- it's a matter of timing. >> a major claim for the republican's intel chairman to make. a plan to undercut a national security investigation is just a matter of timing. nunes is laying out a strategy that is one part richard nixon, one part wyclef gene. saying republicans should hold back for now and be gone until november and then they can lash out at the probe after confirming their supreme court justice hand picked by trump. nunes did not know his words were being recorded when he was serenading the gop faithful at that private event. basically assuring them i'll be gone until november. i'll be gone until november. yo, tell my donors i'll be gone till november. now, nunes has not retracted this plan. in fact today his spokesman called the remarks that were caught on tape, quote, routine observations. now that's just false. there's nothing routine about admitting that you plan to engineer a first impeachment of a doj official overseeing a special counsel in all of

now christopher wray was recommended by rosenstein. the fbi -- i will tell you what if you took a poll in the fbi i will tell you one thing i would do very well. ainsley: are you considering pardoning paul manafort? >> i have great respect for what he has done in terms of what he has gone through. you know he worked for ronald reagan for years. he worked for bob dole. i guess his firm worked for mccain. he worked for many, many people, many, many years. i would say what he did, some of the charges they threw against him, every consultants, every lobbyist in washington probably does. if you look at hillary clinton's person, you take a look at the people that work for hillary clinton, i mean, look at the crimes that clinton did. with the emails and she deletes 33,000 emails after she gets a subpoena from congress, and this justice department does nothing about it? and all of the other crimes that they have done. and they -- look at podesta. podesta was supposed to be manafort on steroids. they made him close up his firm. he was going to

and then rosenstein has this, this decision to make. he has to decide, do i make this public and fall in exact same situation that comey fell into? or do i hand it off to congress, let them decide? or do i put it in a drawer? robert: talk about the pressure of the midterms. when you think aout what bob mueller is facing right now, yes, he has the timing issue president trump have the pressure of the midterms on his shoulders. is that the reason the president hasn't actually pulled the trigger and fired mueller or fired rosenstein? cause he is hearing from his own party that it would be a political disaster for the if it actually went over the line? they're ok with his tweets to a point? >> that may bepart of it. i think he has -- he ds heed the warnings it would be a political disaster for him personally. i think he is less concerned, frankly, about the fortunes of ceher politicians. he is mostly ced about himself. and even with the midterms what we've heard from our reporting i is h concerned with republicans losing the house and senat

remember that there is a movement to try to impeach rod rosenstein. so we're also talking about a political environment in which trump himself and republicans themselves have sort of put a target on rod rosenstein's back. at the end of the day i think what we're looking at is nothing short of a huge debacle for the country. one way or the other how this plays out is so dependent on the midterms. and remember that steve bannon is actually organizing talking points that suggest that republicans need to turn out because democrats will impeach donald trump. well, the reverse is now happening as well, where folks are starting to message on the democratic side, look at what this is about, this is about whether we will have a full and thorough investigation around what happened with russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. by the way, without regard to what the outcome of that investigation is, just letting it finish so the american public knows what it needs to understand, which is what the heck happened. >> yeah. and david frum, it seems that

comey and yates and rod rosenstein. put a fraud on the court 4 times using phoney clinton bought and paid for russian lies. >> the sources i spoke to today said what they learned showed that what the fbi did and the doj was so unacceptable and inexcusable. one of the things that bruce ohr discussed was that he had not informed his superiors at the doj that he was providing this back door channel for christopher steele. another interesting point i thought. >> sean: he told fbi officials. >> that's right. >> sean: his boss james comey signed off on the first fisa warrant? >> that's correct. and he discussed this with mccabe who was fired for lying and with peter strzok and lisa page. lisa page played down her communications with bruce ohr. she was actually according to ohr part of his circle. part of the people that he was discussing this with at the fbi. that's significant. they with held all of that evidence from the secret courts. the top court in the land is absolutely inexcusable to the sources i have been talking to

so it's a -- it's not a matter of -- rosenstein. it's a matter of timing. >> now, kate, there are not the votes in the house to impeach rod rosenstein. certainly not the votes in the senate to convict him. but clearly, nunes has been pushing this line for some time, and kate also, i've asked both the speaker's office and also cathy mcmorris-rogers, a member of the house republican leadership, who nunes' fund-raiser was attending -- that fund-raiser, if they agreed with nunes on these two points, i have not heard back yet. so we'll see if they align themselves with nunes, particularly about whether or not -- they believe the house majority is necessary to protect trump from mueller, kate. >> yeah, absolutely. cathy mcmorris rodgers, you heard right there on the tape with him, really interesting to hear what she has to say on that. manu, great to see you. thank you so much. >>> coming up, refusing stepdown and still running for re-election. republican congressman, chris collins, remains defiant after being arrested for insider trading

rosenstein his boss to figure out what to do with the subpoena.n they issue it, the president takes it to the supreme court. what does he cite? department of justice memos. what else does he cite? the constitution of the united states. this will be an impeachment battle in the end. the president of the united states if he doesn't get involved in the perjury trap -- think about that. they don't have a crime. he needs the interview to create a crime against the president of the united states. this prosecutor. well, that is outrageous. so in any event i want the news media to understand. you know what took place in the southern district of new york? nothing that matters. zippo. there was no violation of the federal campaign laws. lanny davis blew it. davis puts out a tweet today. today, cohen stood up and testified under oath that donald trump directed him to commit a crime. you are a dummy, lanny. by making payments to two women for the purpose of influencing an election. if those payments were a crime for michael cohen then why wouldn't they be a c

rosenstein reviews it. we've seen that decisions have been made to parse out different things that mueller started looking at and then went to the southern district so that, you know, there's been a judiciousness in terms of what he can do. i don't see why you think that's a clear question. >> well, no. it is because in terms of the supervision, rod rosenstein basically does not effectively control the actions -- >> why not? >> well, because you see that there has been no limits on rosenstein's -- on mueller's jurisdiction and authority. he is now going after manafort, which is -- has nothing to do with the russian investigation. >> but in the mandate, it says that things that arise from it. >> sure. and it can go as far as you want on that. but we're still challenging whether or not he can lawfully exercise those powers under the constitution. >> what i'm saying is the judge ruled on this, and you're saying you're not satisfied with the ruling even though -- >> yes. >> -- this easily be dispensed with, and

to fire sessions and rosenstein.ng to put there? weisselberg is cooperating. cohen is going to jail. who is he going to put there? >> the most disturbing thing is he's normalizing that you can tell a prosecutor don't prosecute me because think of what he's saying. he's saying if i knew you were going to recuse yourself -- >> if i knew you were going to follow the law -- >> your job description is you can't prosecute and investigate me. he's saying that in plain site. talk about gangster. it doesn't get anymore gangster. you mean you're going to investigate me? i would never have gave you the job if i thought you were going to do the job. the first question in a confirmation hearing is have you agreed to not investigator prosecute the president? who wouldn't want that job? who self respecting attorney would want that job that you're saying i'm the president's pat si. >> the ball is in the court of senate republicans. >> don't say that. >> rosenstein is in charge until the senate confirms an attorney general. rosenstei

get rid of sessions and rosenstein. don't engage in windowdressing with a guy by the name of john huber in utah when all the witnesses and the evidence. lou: i have been calling for the special counsel for a very long time. >> is a letter of resignation from jeff sessions. it's probably in the top drawer of the president desk of the oval office and i suspect the day after the election just sessions will be standing outside the doj with a box of his tchotchkes trying to hail a cab because he will be finished and rod rosenstein will be standing next to him. lou: have got to be honest with you on this. my solutions are much more immediate and much more pointed than the fact this country has to grow up. to sit here and watch this nonsense, it is a joke. this president has put up with all that any man should ever have to put up with. >> i would agree. he is an incredibly resilient guy. he doesn't let it get him down. i think he is looking at the long game. he is not being inpatient and i think that he is leading the mueller

rod rosenstein is running this.hile folks may look and say oh, president trump is -- the paul manafort trial is under way, he's seeing the coverage, it inflames him, he sends out a tweet, that's his style. that isn't quite the right way to see it. the right way to see it is this is a president who is exerting pressure on his justice department as he is for many months but not willing to go the extra step and fire jeff sessio sessions. it creates chaos and uncertainty and where things stand but just delegitimizing or trying to delegitimize the independent counsel. >> and i think kaitlan, it goes beyond trying to delegitimize, it goes to how do you view the justice department, as working for the american people or you. is it about loyalty to you, the president, or loyalty to doing the right thing for the american people? and there's a new tweet that just came in from the president, we're working on getting it up. let me read it to you. he's talking about paul manafort, this is the first time we've heard from him on ma

rosenstein should have never made the appointment.shouldn't be involved. he approved one of the fisa warrants and more to come on that in the next few weeks, by the way, but here's the point. the president should not be interviewed by these people, his attorneys should obviously, and i know they will, do everything they can to advise him not to do an interview. this is an illegitimate investigation. it's a perjury trap even though the president cannot be indicted for anything. p the problem is this is an effort to use the grand jury process for impeachment purposes. that is an unconstitutional use of the grand jury and they should fight it.ur if the president refuses to testify and if bob mueller issues a subpoena, the president will win the supreme court. it's unacceptable to allow the president to waste his time and to play into this phony game that mueller is playing. it's outrageous. >> sean: under any circumstances -- the president has very good attorneys. we are both mutual friends of jay sekulow >> great attorney. >> sean: emme

that means a comey and yates and rod rosenstein.hey signed on -- they lied and put a fraud on the court, not once, but four times, using phony clinton bought and paid for russian lights! >> sean, the sources i spoke to the appropriate view to the testimony, said what they learned showed that what the fbi did and the doj was so unacceptable and absolutely inexcusable. one of the things that bruce ohr did discuss, some of the questions that catherine was throwing out, was that he had not informed his superiors at the doj that he was providing this backdoor channel for christopher steele. another really interesting point, i thought, was that -- >> sean: sara, he told fbi officials! didn't his boss, james comey, signing off on on the first fia warned? >> that's correct. he did discuss with deputy -- former deputy director andrew mccabe, fired for lying, peter strzok, and lisa page, which was really fascinating because lisa page played down her communications with bruce ohr. she was actually, according to ohr, part of a circle, part of t

rosenstein on his cellphone to discuss issues such as immigration. mr.sistently prepares the president's team ahead of major news and he visits the white house as often as three times a week, meeting with the president or white house chief of staff john kelly. he has regular lunch with white house general counsel don mcgahn. when asked for a quote about his rapport with rosenstein trump said, quote, it is fantastic, we have great relationship. the deputy attorney general is an integral part of the ongoing russia investigation, a source of president trump's ire. there is also a mounting effort by some gop lawmakers to impeach rosenstein. >>> one of the first republican lawmakers to back donald trump in his bid for the white house is now facing a major legal battle after being charged with insider trading. congressman chris collins of new york is vowing to fight the charges and continue his campaign for reelection. nbc news' stephanie goss has more. >> reporter: the u.s. attorney laid out timelines and phone records, proof he says that republican congressm

he wants to fire rosenstein. who is he going to put there? i mean, weisselberg has immunity and is cooperating. cohen is going to jail. i mean, who is he going to put there that would be his roy cohn? >> i think that what is the most disturbing thing is he's actually normalizing that you can tell a prosecutor, don't prosecute me, because think of what he's saying. he's saying if i knew you were going to recuse yourself -- >> if i knew you were going to follow the law -- >> your job description is you can't prosecute or investigate me. he's saying that in plain sight. you're talking about gangster, i mean it doesn't get any more gang. you mean you're going to investigate me? i would have never gave you the job if i thought you were going to do the job against me. that's what he's saying. so whoever he would put there, are you saying, first question in the confirmation hearing, have you agreed not to investigator prosecute the president? because that's what he says is among your -- who would want that job? whose self respecting prosecuting atto

rod rosenstein's name is on the fisa report. the subject of an investigation. >> the president is making it up. if we had a congress that was half as interested as you were when you were chair of the house oversight committee on who wrote the talking points, who were interested in the felonies might've happened in new york, not to mention the trump organization and the trump foundation.fo we would have investigations in congress. congress is hapless right now. when you were chair of that committee, you investigated. i think you would beld investigating right now. >> jason: you know what.. you know why congress is hapless? because this attorney general does nothing to provideis documents that congress has issued subpoenas to. matt, come on in here and give us your perspective.e this attorney general is thereis in name only. i think he's one of the most feckless, ineffective attorney generals this country has ever had. what's your read? >> jason, i understand wherere you're coming from. i am a big fan of jeff sessions but i feel l

the other way to interpret it, devin nunes should talk about the impeachment of rosenstein because it is part of their kind of scheme to undermine the special counsel's investigation, that even if they don't have any intention to ever impeach rosenstein for the reasons he outlined in those remarks, it's still -- they find it politically advantageous, as long as they can attack that investigation, they can undermine it with the republican base. that's the interpretation i take away as the more likely one. >> jeff, how about what you could call cathy mcmorris rogers factser, she is high up in house gop leadership as nunes is making these comments that elaborate what he's indicated he wants to do. >> for sure. she's a part of leadership and on the tape part we don't hear her weighing in or disagreeing with anything he's saying. it is interesting, leadership in particular, paul ryan had a much different view of this and of the russia investigation than representative nunes. >> it's politics. she was in a tough primary. we don't know -- didn't say on the tape. but also as you said in the b

but we come back to the idea that rod rosenstein should be impeached.and how seriously do you take that? >> that tells me republican leadership is putting priority on confirmation of brett kavanaugh. we may be the one to determine whether the president has to comply with the subpoena. this strategy is really the most craven and brazen kind of politics in its approach to undermining the rule of law and the second point to be made here is that the reason for retaining a republican majority is simply to protect the president against potential consequences that may involve other subpoenas uncovering other wrongdoing. this culture of corruption is so pervasive, wilbur ross, other members of the cabinet, the president himself violating the clause by taking foreign benefits and payments. we have sued the president, other members of congress have join my lawsuit. it's unparalleled in american history. >> as you look ahead at the dominos that could fall if somehow rod rosenstein were impeached is that to put somebody in place, do you believe who could then fire

to touch the rosenstein thing. they don't want to get involved. it's a small subset still, very conservative house republicans, many in the freedom caucus, that want to push this connection to the entire investigation, take down mueller, have everything go away. it's not really backed by the paul ryans and mitch mcconnells of this world. that makes a huge difference. strzok did something wrong. it's objectively difficult to defend, even though the democrats are trying to, and clearly strzok was trying to defend himself as well. it is evidence of bias, even the ig said, look, the investigation is fine, but this guy is not. that makes it much more difficult to thread that needle. as you see, the people that are beating this drum on other drums, i guess, are not necessarily going to stop that because this particular person's story has been terminated f y, you will. >> looking at this as a former criminal prosecutor and defense attorney, you see the lawyer's statement saying, listen, yes, he admitted he did something w

two of them remain rod rosenstein who signed on presumably for mr. his warrant application that rosen rosenstein signed on for was in june of 2017 so this is in the middle of the mueller operation so these compromised documents, these compromised techniques the fisa warrant, is benefiting the mueller operation this is what i want to focus on because we're talking about what went on during the obama administration into the beginning of the trump adminitration, but all of this is part of mueller's acts. he needs to be held thible and i'd like to see mr. mueller on the list of witnesses for congress. why isn't he being brought in and asked about how he was hired , the scope of his work, how he administers his office, why he can't find any republican s to hire, what was he doing with peter strzok that he let him out and then hid that information about the reason for kicking him off his team for four months. maria: right, yeah. all really good questions tom. i know you'll be covering it and we'll be following your work great to have you on the programmed

he appointed rosenstein to then make the decision. the decision was made.ould say this, most republicans supported the appointment of an independent counsel or at least many did. and so moving forward, there's not much republicans can do right now or should do right now other than say i support this investigation, let's let it proceed to whatever conclusion it reaches. if there's one thing we might consider at this point is to prevent what the freedom caucus was trying to do right before we left break and that was protect the investigation moving forward so that there cannot be a saturday night massacre. >> so how would you do that? how could you protect the investigation from your branch of government? >> we have legislation that would essentially say you cannot fire, if you do, you need to come before congress and state the reasons why. at that point in time if there is not -- if there is not a for cause reason, it would not take effect. >> now, there obviously are some constitutional questions about that separation of powers and things like that, which i

would be the acting attorney general, the president has no great love for rod rosenstein either. so if he fires him you move down that chain of command. let's talk about rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. he's trying now, he's open to the strategy of undermining mueller and the entire investigation as a witch-hunt, a rues. mueller is slightly more distrusted and trump is a little ahead of the game. does this fit into a pattern, the statements he's making are the statements the president has made of obstruction of justice? >> there is a pattern of obstruction of justice. right now there's a credible case of obstruction of justice against the president of the united states. and of course the president's implicated in wrongdoing, having nothing to do with that charge or collusion. but rudy giuliani has embarked on a pattern of trying to demean and degrade the special prosecutor, try the special prosecutor in the court of public opinion joining the president and surrogates in the united states congress. some of my colleagues on the house side who have tried also to discr