for that, we are joined by walter dellinger. he served in the clinton administration as assistant attorney general and acting solicitor general. he's now in private practice. and former u.s. ambassador douglas kmiec served as legal counsel to presidents ronald reagan and george h.w. bush. he is a professor of constitutional law at pepperdine university law school. we welcome you both back to the program. walter dellinger, to you first, how significant are the president's criticisms of top officials at justice? >> well, i think they're unprecedented and they're in-- in their inappropriateness. a president should not be commenting on any particular criminal investigation, especially one that involves people close to him, potential family members, and, yet, here the president said that the attorney general should not have recused himself and should not have been appointed unless he had sort of committed himself not to recuse, even though department mental rules would call for it. he then criticized the deputy attorney general for n

joining us now is walter dellinger, former acting solicitor general under president clinton. very much for your time. >> thank you. >> i know that you are not personally involved in this lawsuit. i also know that you are an important and busy man. can i ask why you think this lawsuit is important? why you feel it's important to talk about it? >> well, you know, when you have something as unprecedented and audacious as a hostile foreign power's attempt to intrude into our election process, there are going to be lots of harm done, large ones like corrupting our democracy, but also individuals get harmed. while mr. mueller is looking at criminal offenses and congress is looking for legislative insight, there's harm to individuals. and here you have what was essentially a break-in of the democratic party's computer system that targeted members of the finance team and exposed thousands of e-mails and countless private information of people who were not prominent public citizens. they were people, two donors and a mid-level staffer who worked in the finance part of the dnc, who had

. >> walter dellinger, acting solicitor general under president clinton.ng here tonight. really appreciate your time. >> all right. we have much more ahead tonight. it's like the -- it's like the maddow show goes to law school. but with a tutor who doesn't know anything about this stuff. this is -- the stuff that's happening in the news right now is moving really fast. staying grounded in terms of what's possible within the law. it's getting increasingly difficult. we have no choice but to do it. stay with us. their experience is coveted. their leadership is instinctive. they're experts in things you haven't heard of - researchers of technologies that one day, you will. some call them the best of the best. some call them veterans. we call them our team. it's just a burst pipe, i co(laugh) it. no. with claim rateguard your rates won't go up just because of a claim. i totally could've - no! switching to allstate is worth it. juswho own them,ople every business is different. but every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. whether