that would be the deputy attorney general rob rosenstein. is the president throwing him under the bus? >>> stepping aside. the justice department says rosenstein is prepared to step aside from the russia investigation, if necessary, since he also hired special counsel robert mueller. could that clear the way for the president to get rid of both men? >>> substantial damage. doctors are encouraged that had congressman steve scalise has improved. they say his r

he's upset with rosenstein, not only because rosenstein was one of the people who recommended, as you mentioned, that jeff sessions recuse himself which trump was very unhappy about, but he is the guy who appointed robert mueller. trump thinks that robert mueller is behind all of his problems now. i think it's obvious that donald trump himself is behind all these problems now. if he had not fired comey when he did and in the way he did and with what he said about it afterwards, he would not be facing right now possible obstruction of justice charges and an investigation. >> evan peres is reporting tensions now within the department of justice and, you know, we've outlined the players here. i wonder one specific instance, one event is being pointed to as one of the routes here, when the attorney general learned of the appointment of bob mueller, sessions was at the white house, and he learned about it when everyone else did. is that protocol even considering the recusal from the attorney general? >> i think we're well beyond normal protocol. when you look again at the u.s. attorney man

rosenstein is not really involved other than the fact he's ultimately mueller's boss. >> now rosenstein put out an interesting statement as well, it had to do with anonymous sources saying don't believe media stories. we of course heard the president say something similar before. was it surprising for you to hear this from rosenstein, what do you think this is all about? >> yes, in a word it was surprising. it also came out on an odd time thursday night where it wouldn't clear that rosenstein was responding to any one thing. "the washington post" reporting a few thing including the president was under obstruction for justice. what it is about i believe with or without unknowing, this is an educated guess, is that rosenstein is in a difficult position. he wants to keep his job as deputy attorney general. at the same time he knows trump is not happy with him for doing something i think rosenstein felt was absolutely necessary in aappointing a special counsel after jim comey's firing. so he puts out a tweets saying what trump saying, anonymous, fake news don't believe any of it. i think yo

how do you interpret that press statement tonight from rod rosenstein? >> well, you know, that is really highly unusual that he himself would make those statements. usually those statements are made by someone at the justice department who deals with the press and their direct inquiries from individuals like yourself who are inquiring to see if in fact those sources are true. for him to make the statement means that it really does disturb the department of justice, and we need to see where this trail is going the lead us. >> and ari, as we go forward here, just to go back for one second, if rosenstein has to recuse himself, who takes over and how does that change things? >> ms. brant would take over as the next person the senate confirmed. and she would then be for the purposes of this inquiry the acting attorney general. >> and she was confirmed on a real party line vote, 52-48, as i recall. >> she has a few more conservative legal links. but i don't think we know yet exactly how she would conduct herself in this. i think the larger question is what doe

the attorney general is recused so it would be up to rod rosenstein. rosenstein was asked repeatedly about this issue and said, i see no basis for firing robert mueller and i would only fire him for good cause. so i think he basically put to president trump today, if you want to fire robert mueller, i'm going to quick first. saturday night massacre style the way elliott richardson and william rucklehaus quit in 1973. so the chances of any attempt to fire mueller dropped considerably today after rosenstein's testimony. >> although, matthew, we should point out, president trump is a disruptor and does things differently. maybe two or three weeks ago if someone had said the same thing to you about firing james comey, perhaps you would have said the same thing. >> perhaps. >> who knows? >> who does know. and this president seems to use these types of situations to distract or change the narrative from whatever i guess is strengthening the workforce week, if i recall. >> apprenticeships. >> yes. but i could see this discussion play out and the department of

you know rob rosenstein right now, what do you think is weighing on him? do you think he might step aside? is this the type of decision you see him making? >> what i see going on is that he is a potential witness to the obstruction of justice case, which some of my panel think that that is a fact, but he is a witness, he wrote the memo that is the basis for firing jim comey at the time. so he is, i know wrestling with that right now, because i'm sure he doesn't have clear visibility as to whether or not director mueller is actually investigating that yet and he knows that if that happens, then he's going to have to recuse himself. and i don't think ultimately this president is going to fire rob rosenstein, who he and i served together in the bush administration, but rob is certainly under investigation right now, and quite frankly, one of the reasons this investigation is spinning out of control. the appointment of bob mueller was not appropriate under those circumstances. >> i just want to make one thing crystal clear right now, the reason he could be a w

to russia, now it's back to rosenstein. this seems to be a signal to rosenstein that he may be next. rosenstein said in a hearing on capitol hill earlier this week that the president can't reach over him to fire mueller if he's upset about the way the special counsel is handling the investigation. rosenstein as the acting attorney general for purposes of the russia investigation has to be the one to sign off on that. he said i don't see cause, i don't see a reason. he said that a day before we reported that the probe was starting to look at the president himself on issues of potential obstruction of justice. if trump is frustrated with mueller, he has to also be frustrated for mueller because -- rosenstein is the firewall for mueller. playing it out, if that happened, maybe he thinks he has a better bet in rachel brand, she did serve as head of the office of legal policy in the bush administration. she has conservative credentials that a lot of people look at and she wasn't really asked about the russia probe or didn't talk

rosenstein, the firing of mr. comey, then say why are they not investigating loretta lynch for obstruction of justice because she did give a directive to james comey and he followed it. lou: congresswoman marcia blackburn, thank you for being with us. up next. draining that swamp in washington, d.c., draining all of those swamp creatures who inhabit it. we are going to talk with steve forks and ned ryun about whether firing robert mueller might be a step in the right direction. quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. i've been blind since birth. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. learn about non-24 by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. lou: in our online poll we asked, should the department of justice appoint a special pro

now, rosenstein is under scrutiny. constitutional law professor jonathan turley says rosenstein should recuse himself because of his interactions with mr. trump. >> i can't imagine the special counsel completing this investigation without hearing the testimony of the deputy attorney general. so once you think that you may be a witness, it's time for to you remove yourself. >> reporter: and, turley notes, the president's tweet could come back to haunt him. >> well, any statement the president makes in any form can be evidence that can be used in an obstruction prosecution. >> reporter: in fact, white house press secretary sean spicer has said the president's tweets should be taken seriously. >> the president is the president of the united states. so they're considered official statements by the president of the united states. >> reporter: the justice department says rosenstein has no plans to recuse himself. scott, last night, he issued a statement echoing the president's own sentiments about press coverage of the russi

this is the statement right now that rod rosenstein issued late last night. it really warned americans not to accept as true stories based on anonymous officials. so, a bit of a head-scratcher there. it was a sharp statement, and it seemed to go to the heart of some of the complaints that the president has voiced about leaks and anonymous sources. however, rosenstein did not explain why he issued this statement, and a justice department official tells cnn the white house itself did not order the statement. so, the question is why was it issued? well, the timing is interesting here. it came right after the "washington post" released a story that the business dealings of jared kushner are being investigated by special counsel mueller as part of the russia probe, but really, you know, the details of this story aren't exactly new since cnn did report last month that kushner's business activities were of interest. so, rosenstein's sudden statement there, it seemed to lash out at media outlets about using anonymous sources but really still unclear as to what exactl

it came from rosenstein, would rosenstein put out a statement at the direction the white house or at the direct of the president? who knows? i'm -- it's rank speculation because i really have no idea what that was supposed to mean. >> i wondered if when he was talking about the country, if he is referring to not saying u.s. first in front of -- or u.s. official in frontan an anonymous source. and i think it's really interesting and this point has been made before that this administration is talking about anonymous sources and casting doubt on anonymous sources when it is a tool that they use repeatedly at the white house and elsewhere in theed a straying when speaking to reporters. >> and with a government communication, frankly, we shouldn't be forced to wonder what the reference to country is in a department of justice statement. it should be clearer, i think. indira, finally, some people kind of ascribed a last-ditch nature to the president's tweets today. they were really aggressive. and we're nowhere near that point. we are under 150 days. >> there's nothing last-ditch about thi

he seems to imply that rosenstein is investigating, and that's not true. it mueller. and secondly he made it clear in an interview with nbc that he decided to fire comey while before he ever met with rod rosenstein, take a look. >> president trump: i was going to fire him. he made a recommendation, highly respected, very smart guy, very good guy, the democrats like him, the republicans like him. regardless of recommendation. >> chris: i want to ask you a direct question, does the president think that rod rosenstein has done anything wrong? >> mr. sekulow: the president has never said anything about rod rosenstein doing anything wrong. here's what's the legal situation here. there's a constitutional issue when you have the scenario. the president made a determination based on consult of advice he decided that ultimately he gets to make maka decision with james comey had a go. that's been coming from groups right, left, and center. it was put forward in a memorandum, that's what he's referencing from the deputy attorney general and the attorney general requesting the re

multiple people have said the president has grown agitated with rosenstein over the past week... increasing speculation that he may want to fire the deputy attorney general. happening tomorrow. officials at yosemite national park say they will reopen a road that was damaged in a rockslide. since the rockslide on monday more than 100 dump trucks have hauled off rocks and debris. the rockslide blocked el portal road into yosemite...creating a commuting headache for hundreds of employees and thousands of tourists who were forced to take detours. el portal road will reopen at six a.m sunday morning. (jr stone) a wildfire down in southern california has now burned over 500 acres at least nine aircrafts are fighting a fast-moving bush fire northwest of los angeles. it broke out near a lake this afternoon the fire is still zero-percent contained. firefighters say the flames are not threatening any homes right now. no injuries have been reported (anchor) time now to check on our weather... with meterologist lawrence karnow. lawrence karnow: the last weekend of spring is turning out to be

he hired rod rosenstein. he was the best business manager, the best ceo, but he's managing sort of semi chaos right now. that message is -- >> he's also contradicting himself. remember, he told lester holt he fired comey because of the russia investigation. >> he was going to fire him regardless. >> right. and he told the foreign minister the same thing. he is going back to the original story the white house put out which they then contradicted or took back a day or two later after trump gave the interview. so it is bizarre that the president by tweeting is contradicting his own words. >> yeah. >> and it is a pattern where he's creating legal problems for himself. you know, he tweeted that this was a muslim ban. that undermines his defense of his -- >> david, can i ask you though, after a while -- and i speak to trump supporters, they will come up and talk to me and there are some, you know, who will say, nothing has happened, we're not getting the tax cuts, i have a business, i'm becoming worried about that,

but today democrats say they fear trump could fire rosenstein and mueller, too. california senator diane feinstein writing, "the message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn't apply to him." >> cecilia, you reported president trump appears to be taking aim at rosenstein. and you're hearing that rosenstein may be considering recusing himself from the russian investigation? >> reporter: that's true. and if it happens, that means the top two officials in the justice department, sessions and rosenstein, will have recused themselves. and we're also just learning that on this day where the president seemed to confirm the investigation, he's added a new high-powered lawyer to his team. john dowd, who has represented john mccain and other high-profile clients. >>> and bill cosby's trial, the judge furious. after a request from cosby's defense team. and with the jury deadlocked, they've now asked for the definition of reasonable doubt. here's linsey davis. >> you don't wait 20 to 25 years. >> reporter: late today, bill cosb

he think that rosenstein should recuse himself, and is he laying the groundwork to fire rosenstein and mueller? >> i've had no conversations and heard nothing about that at all. i think this, chris, let me tell you one thing about the constitutional theory, as you call it. it's actually calls the constitution. you know, the president has certain plenary authority -- chris: i think you called it the constitutional theory, sir. >> yeah, it is a constitutional theory based on the constitution. chris: i understand that. >> not so-called, it's part of the constitution. the president has inherent authority. here's what you're trying to do, chris -- chris: now you're reading minds again. >> no. chris, i i deal with fact and law. chris: then don't tell me what i'm trying to do, because you don't know what i'm trying to do. actually, what i'm trying to get is a straight answer out of you. >> yeah, well -- chris: let me ask you this, as a matter of law, does the president think he can be indicted under the constitution? >> the president -- i haven't had that conversation with the president, but

>> he hasn't expressed any opinion about rod rosenstein. let me say something here, you're asking me if i had a conversation, which i have not had, about robert mueller with the president of the united states, i could not and would not discuss that with you. unlike james comey, who leaks information to the press, i actually respect the attorney/client privilege. apparently, he did not. chris: well, you're speaking for

if he ordered rose' tine to fire mierl and he refused, trump could fire rosenstein. from a sconce ziewtional perspective, it's incorrect. lou: we heard james comey talking about this nonsense that the f.b.i. is totally independent. he was giving a speech in boston where he said you have got me for another 6 1/2 years where he didn't understand the president of the united states could fire hip. now we have this example of rosenstein talking big and way too big for his brichs. >> the fact of the matter is almost everyone in the executive branch serves at the president's pleasure. this prosecutor, mueller, this associate attorney general rosenstein, even sessions. if president trump asked for the resignation, you resign. if he says you are fired, you are fired. from a constitutional perspective, that's all there is to it. lou: mueller's first four big hires are democratic donors, and one significantly so, and one being a throwback to watergate, a democratic prosecutor. why should not not be the basis for someone to say this isn't going well, you are not even observing t

>> let's talk about rosenstein. why was trump, or was he in that tweet, publicly calling out his deputy attorney general? has he lost confidence in him? >> i think he's furious. i think trump sits there and says, let me get this straight. i know i didn't do anything with the russians. comey has said three times i didn't do anything with the russians. nobody on capitol hill has any proof that i did anything with the russians. and now i get an independent counsel. who will mess up the next year at a minimum. and who is now planning to expand the charge. now they're talking about obstruction. going and looking at financial files. i said yesterday, you have two more leaks like this, rosenstein is going to have to appoint a essential counsel to investigate a special counsel. >> should rosenstein recuse himself? >> no. i think this whole game of recusal is a nightmare. and i don't think people realize this. you have this legalistic nightmare. trying to block the trump presidency on behalf of a department in which 97% of t

then does rod rosenstein resign? with a president who is motived by the norms of political cost benefit analysis, we might be able to predict for you what might happen here. with any other attorney general, we might be able to predict what the attorney general would do. if the president wanted the special prosecutor fired. what we do know is that from the start, president trump has behaved not like a politician who is concerned with how things look and how they will look in the next election, he has behaved as senator franken said like he has something to hide, something big. and we know a lot about jeff sessions, but not enough to predict what he will do if the president orders the firing of the special prosecutor. and so tonight the investigation of the president and his associates has hit another stunning suspense point. will the special prosecutor be fired? it was a question that rod rosenstein thought he could ignore last week. and most of the media thought it could be ignored last week when kamala harris asked

rosenstein, assuring lawmakers that robert mueller will be allowed to do his job. president trump has not talked with them about the probe. more and all of this ahead. another fox news alert, also on the hot seat will be rosenstein's boss, attorney general jeff sessions was such not to testify this afternoon in front of the senate intelligence committee. sessions is expect it to be over his role in james comey's firing and about his undeclared meetings with russian officials. all of this is the white house won't rule out sessions citing executive privilege when it comes to certain questions. buckle up, this is outnumbered. i'm sandra smith. here today, host of kennedy on fox business, kennedy. also, melissa francis, fox news legal analyst and host of justice with judge jeanine. judge jeanine pirro, and our #oneluckyguy is richard fowler fowler. so much going on, let's begin. attorney general jeff sessions will be the highest ranking government official to testify in the russian probe. his testimony, coming after fired fbi director james comey dropped hints during h

. >> rosenstein is a highest official overseeing the probe. he wrote the memo used by president trump to fire james comey. james comey's firing is expected to be the investigation where the president tried the interfere with or tried to obstruct the investigation. if rosenstein becomes a witness from this investigation, he may have to recuse himself from the probe now being led by robert mueller. tensions are building inside the justice department over rosenstein handling of the russia investigation. it comes back to rosenstein decision to hire mueller to run the investigation. that move took rosenstein's boss, jeff sessions, by surprise. it caused frictions between the white house and the russians. the official on the president on down blame rosenstein for making the controversy of russia only getting worse. >> back to you. >> thank you so much, evan perez, lets talk more about this now and what this could mean of the overall investigation. joining me now our political reporter of the political blog. also, at yale law school and an an -- anal

if he ordered rose' tine to fire mierl and he refused, trump could fire rosenstein. from a sconce ziewtional perspective, it's incorrect. lou: we heard james comey talking about this nonsense that the f.b.i. is totally independent. he was giving a speech in boston where he said you have got me for another 6 1/2 years where he didn't understand the president of the united states could fire hip. now we have this example of rosenstein talking big and way too big for his brichs. >> the fact of the matter is almost everyone in the executive branch serves at the president's pleasure. this prosecutor, mueller, this associate attorney general rosenstein, even sessions. if president trump asked for the resignation, you resign. if he says you are fired, you are fired. from a constitutional perspective, that's all there is to it. lou: mueller's first four big hires are democratic donors, and one significantly so, and one being a throwback to watergate, a democratic prosecutor. why should not not be the basis for someone to say this isn't going well, you are not even observing t

however he means to refer to rob rosenstein, the deputy ag. you may remember it was rosenstein who wrote that memo critical of fbi director james comey one day before president trump fired jim comey. president trump pointing a finger at rosenstein or anyone else is at odds with what the president told nbc news anchor lester holt just a month ago. >> he made a recommendation. he's highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. and the democrats like him, the republicans like him. he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> we have reports and analysts on both stories, cuba and russia. nbc's kelly o'donald is in miami. she's following the president. andrea mitchell is in washington. she spent much of the week in cuba, though. pete williams also standing by and gabe gutierrez in washington. what can we expect to hear from president trump any moment now? >> well, we believe the president's in the building based on the fact that some of his cabinet members are here. and so we're just minutes away from

rosenstein said both of those were incorrect. comey himself has said that the second one was not correct. so this official says he's been sort of -- his frustration has been building. more stories this week. of course, it's also correct that rod rosenstein doesn't really know for certain what bob mueller is investigating as special counsel. rosenstein himself said earlier this week during a hearing that he's only talked to mueller once, and that was when he appointed him. he doesn't particularly know, but it is not just about the special counsel thing. but if you can put the president's tweet back up for a moment -- >> about -- the one that purportedly refers to rosenstein. >> so he says the man who told me to fire the fbi director by the president's own description, and by rosenstein's description, that is not what happened, according to both of those. what trump said earlier. according to their recollection, the president had a meeting with him and said, i've decided to fire the fbi director. what do you stthink? i guess you ca

do but for now the doj saying that if rosenstein needs to recuse himself, he will. a lot swirling on the investigative front. a lot of these lawyers for not only president trump but also campaign aides, all of them lawyering up as this probe barrels forward. brooke? >> you almost need a table of contents to keep all of this straight. >> it's a lot. >> jessica schneider, thank you so much for that. i've got abby phillips standing by. she's a white house reporter for "the washington post." chris cillizza is here, editor at large. brian stelter is with me here in new york, host of "reliable sources." chris cillizza, to you first. the tweet storm, you know, the ones referring to the "washington post" report that he's under investigation, he wants to be the one to drive this and defend himself. is he the best person to deliver these messages? >> he certainly thinks so and that's all the opinion that matters, brooke. it's a form of one person making those calls. you showed that video of him coming down the escalator. >> two years ago. >> makes me feel older, number one. b

chiefly, rosenstein isn't investigating president trump. that would be robert mueller, this man here in the middle, who was appointed by rosenstein. he was a former head of the fbi. rosenstein was the one who wrote up the initial memo on fbi director james comey's performance. so what the president is insisting now is a direct contradiction to what he told my colleague, lester holt, a few weeks ago. listen. >> oh, i was going to fire regardless of recommendation -- >> so there was -- >> he made a recommendation, hays highly respected, very good guy. very smart guy. the democrats like him. the republicans like him. he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> okay. i can't do this on my own. so i'm bringing in pete williams, who i always count on for things like this to make clarity out of what appears to be nonsense. so, i was going to fire jim comey on my own. rod rosenstein's a great guy, very good guy, very smart guy. and then he tweets today that rod rosenstein is investigating him and he's t

the same is potentially true for rosenstein and mueller. and i think neither of those men are going to be eager to make it any easier for the president to impede the investigation. >> so, josh, the a.p. is reporting today trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the white house carrying coverage and insisting that he is the target of a conspiracy to diskrat acred potentially end his presidency. >> i feel like we've heard news reports of the president screaming at televisions for a while now. i'm not sure how new it is but i do believe that the president is very angry about this. one thing i find telling is how the president is also very angry with jeff sessions. he was upset he recused himself from the russia investigation in the first place. now, sessions had good reasons for that recusal. the reasons that he put out was that he was involved in the campaign. so even before getting to sessions' failure to disclose the meetings that he had with the russia

now it's rod rosenstein. and he issued a statement last night in response to some of the reports that were coming out about the investigation that was a little bit bizarre in the sense that it said don't believe anonymous sources . it seemed designed saying the justice department saying it wasn't pressure from the white hou hou house. >> so perhaps he knew the president is angry. this one gets bizarre when you think about all this. >> it made sense he would be the lightning rod for the president's frustration because the president cannot reach over rosenstein to fire mueller without rosenstein's help. he has to be the one to actually sign that piece of paper, whatever the formal procedure is. he just said when he was appearing before a senate appropriations committee sub panel he's not going to do t. based on what he knows he think there is isn't cause. he said that a day before we published our report about trump himself now being under scrutiny for obstruction of justice potentially. rosenstein knew that an

rosenstein. >> people were perplexed. the president's tweet called into question the integrity of rosenstein. rosenstein is under extreme pressure. if mueller decides to investigate the president and the firing of comey, rosenstein a potential witness. he may have to make a decision to recuse himself. if he does that, you would have the attorney general and deputy attorney general of the united states recusing themselves in >> thank you, pierre. >>> i'm joined by trump ally and former house speaker newt gingrich, author of "understanding trump." good morning. >> good morning. >> we saw rod rosenstein cautioning people of anonymous officials. the president tweeted, i'm being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director. witch hunt. we know people clo ez to the president's legal team say he wasn't confirming any sort of investigation. you heard what pierre said. president trump was commenting on "the washington post" headlines. you're the man who wrote "understanding trump." how d

i guess fox, they said rosenstein. rod rosenstein did recommend a fire mueller, so rod rosenstein is the guy who -- i'm sorry, fire comey. but rod rosenstein is the guy who hired mueller, so now we are hearing -- get ready for this. rod rosenstein might recuse himself because he feels like he may be too involved in in the russia story, so that would bring on racial brand, who is the associate attorney general. -- she's the third in line at the doj, it's getting crazy. let me leave you with this thought. the stock market, the dow made all record high, 21,384 or so, and record of unclaimed, 4.3%, it's not been this low since 2001, 60 years ago. meanwhile, this special counsel, mueller said he hired 13 new lawyers either today or yesterday. 13 new lawyers, eboni k. -- >> on the low end. >> $1,000 an hour, eight hours a day, maybe a year. >> probably talking longer. >> $15 million for the lawyers, $15 million for the staff and depositions and travel. you are talking $100 million investigation at least. meanwhile, still wai

touches on rosenstein's behavior meaning rosenstein would recuse himself eerlth from that part of the investigation or conceivably from the entire investigation. once you take out sessions and number two person in the justice department rod rosenstein that would throw this matter to the number three person in the justice department, the here to foreunsung unknown person of rachel brand. rachel brand would be in charge ultimately of potentially overseeing this whole investigation including its budget and the report to congress at the end and everything. so rachel brand is going to get famous as of tomorrow. the whole country is sort of on tinder hooks waiting for the james comey testimony thursday. tomorrow's testimony is a big deal, as well. thank you again for your forebearance while i was out this last week and a half. i am delighted to be back. now i will go sleep for 16 hours. it is now time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> how was spring break? >> all about cosmetic surgery and tanning. you know me. >> i heard you say at the beginning of the show you warned your audi

said about james comey, because rosenstein, he has direct authority over the fbi director and he came on the job after being confirmed 94-6 in the u.s. senate after serving as president obama's u.s. attorney in maryland and coming on the job he went and looked at the investigation about the way mr. comey handled hillary clinton's e-mail investigation and he concluded that it really hurt the morale and the integrity of the department. go and read the letter. everyone can see it and talked about how mr. comey tried to usurp the justice department, and he didn't like the fact he held a press conference -- >> the president decided to fire him before he got that memo from rosenstein. >> he said he was thinking about that for awhile and that is true. saw that testimony a few wednesdays ago, was very unimpressed. you know how the president feels about director comey and director comey in his letter clearly said he has long believed a president has the right to fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason so that is the president's right. in addition and independent of that his deputy

rod rosenstein recommends the fires of james comey. james comey intentionally leaks his memos in order to force a special prosecutor. rod rosenstein appoints a special prosecutor, and now he's saying reportedly that he might recuse himself from the investigation that he got kickstarted. so if he was going to recuse himself, why did he appoint a special prosecutor to begin with? it wasn't like the james comey firing came out of nowhere. rod rosenstein vehemently recommended that this guy was a liability for the fbi. kelly: and now if you follow the dots and all the anonymous sources that we really shouldn't be sourcing because we don't know what those anonymous sources have in terms of their intent with regard to leaks about obstruction allegations as well as we still know there's no evidence about collusion and that the whole russia situation, we know that russia interfered and meddled with our election, but how do we move forward now with all of these balls up in the air and we don't know where they're going to land? >> i'm not sure t

the most interesting aspect of this development is rod rosenstein. he'd almost certainly have to cuse himself, which would mean then the person in charge, the person with the ability to fire the special counsel, is the associate attorney general, somebody who is much more ideological than rosenstein. she teaches at a law school named after justice scalia, and no prosecutorial experience. so that would be a really interesting development. >> it looks to me like if i were involved in this case, i'd be scared. it seems to me this guy is mr. aggressive. this is his capping of his career moment clearly. we all know that for mueller. this is the big one for him. this is where he will be known in history forever because he'll be the guy that dealt with this crime. he'll deal with manafort's dealings, flynn's dealings were turkey, flynn's dealing with russia, the money he took from r.t., the money that manafort got from those areas. he will go after carter page and all the characters in this drama, and every one of them will be picked apart like a chicken di

the democrats like him. >> no one can question rod rosenstein's yes dengss. he is someone as i mentioned who was confirmed 94-6. as you mentioned one of the longest serving u.s. attorneys. >> somebody like the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who everybody across the board has unequivocally said, this guy is a man of upstanding character and essentially the gold standard at the department of justice. >> in just a moment we'll go to the white house for reaction to all this. but first let's go to nbc justice correspondent pete williams who has some breaking news. pete? >> reporter: well, greta, we've learned from federal investigators that in the pocket of james hodgkinson, the man who was accused of doing the shooting on wednesday at the congressional practice for the baseball charity game last night, the shooting happened on wednesday morning. that in his pocket was a list of about half a dozen, just less than half a dozen members of congress that the list included jeff duncan of south carolina, mow brooks of bam and trent franks of arizona. that's all

rosenstein, you may proceed. dep. att. gen. rosenstein: good morning. ranking member shaheen, members of the committee. i am honored to present the 2018 budget for the department of justice. the proposed budget matches the interest of the american people by allowing the dedicated men and women of the department to continue their outstanding work. we are grateful for your strong support and we look forward to building on our successes as we work to protect the nation from the rule of law and to ensure -- to promote the rule of law and to ensure equal justice for all. the 2018 request shows a strong commitment to the justice department's top priority, it provides more funding to fight cybercrime to reduce violent , crime and tackle the illegal immigration and also gives the resources that we need to support the state, local and tribal partners and essential law enforcement work. ,t attacks central themes efficiency and focusing on prries these changes are critical and they support the executive order of the president to reorganize government agencies for

but today democrats say they fear trump could fire rosenstein and mueller, too. california senator diane feinstein writing, "the message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn't apply to him." >> cecilia, you reported president trump appears to be targeting rosenstein. and you're hearing that rosenstein may be recusing himself from the russian >> reporter: yes, and we're also just learning that on this day where the president seemed to confirmed the investigation, he's added another high-powered lawyer to his team. john dowd, who has respected john mccain and other high-profile people. >>> and bill cosby's trial, the judge furious, and with the jury deadlocked, they've now asked for the definition of reasonable doubt. here's linsey davis. >> reporter: late today, bill cosby fans rallied outside the courthouse. but inside a fiery exchange after almost a week of deliberations in the comedian's sexual assault trial. stemming from this moment last night when cosby's spokesman called on the judge to declare a mistrial. >>

rosenstein? >> i have not had any communications with the white house about invoking executive privilege today. >> director mccabe? >> i have not had any conversations with the white house about executive privilege today either. >> admiral rodgers, in january the fbi, the cia and nsa jointly issued and intelligence committee assessment on russian involvement in the presidential elections. you've testified today that the ic relied in part on 702 authorities to support it's conclusion that the russians were involved in trying to influence the 2016 elections. can you provide us with an update on nsa's further work in this area? >> in terms of the russian efforts? >> yes, ma'am. >> we continue to focus an alicic insight on what the russians are doing, u.s. processes like elections. we continue to generate insights on a regular basis, if my memory is right i testified before the open threat assessment and in that hearing which i think was the 11th of may i reiterated we continue to see the similar act