department of justice historically. so it's hard to imagine that was not a factor in this, although we have not heard from her or even her close associates yet. >> as you know, jeffrey, the president wants loyalty from this top justice department officials and fbi officials which is unusual. >> this is the classic definition of how this president is violating the norms, not the laws, but the norms that other presidents have followed. presidents don't interfere in criminal investigations, presidents don't direct the department of justice to investigate anyone, particularly their political enemies but in tweets and statement this is president has been railing about how hillary clinton should be thrown in jail, how james comey violated the law. h this is something outoutside the modern experience in terms of how the justice department has been managed by the white house. whether that led the rachel brand's departure i couldn't say. maybe she gopt a great job at walmart. that seems odd to me given how these jobs are treasur

the justice department has limited resources. when you're trying to decide how to deploy the resources and what places you will place emphasis. the memorandums that essentially we will let the states experiment but we will really put up guardrails. it was very explicit. we said that when it came to dealing marijuana to minors. transportation marijuana across state lines. there were eight or nine factors in the memo. inthat if you go across those 8 factors then there will be federal and government intervention.i mean we are speaking to the governors of colorado and wisconsin peer sharing with them whatever concerns were. getting reassurances from them that what they would put in place a serious regulatory system. we hink the approach that took was appropriate. when it comes to you say prison reform. i would pcall it criminal justice reform. that was an issue i think we had a rare opportunity. at a significant bipartisan reform effort. i remember having a meeting in my conference room. we had representatives from coke brothers, the

department of justice. she became the trap door underneath robert mueller's special counsel investigation of the president and his campaign. and that's because robert mueller gets to run his own team, gets to run his own investigation but he doesn't have total independence and free reign under the regulations, mueller needs permission for important advances in his investigation. so if he wants to do something big and open a line of inquiry and if he wants to bring charges against a person, he can't just do that on his own and own say so. he has to advise the person overseeing his investigation at the justice department. he has to advise them in advance of his plans to do it and basically has to get their permission. the person in the oversight rule for the investigation is trump's appointed attorney general rod rosenstein. funny, republicans who have been targeting him call him rosenstein. the same way they call the democratic party the democrat party. it's rosenstein to the extent they care. in theory, whe

department in the same way that president obama treated his justice department. president obama and i are friends, but he also understood, as i understood, that there has to be a wall between the justice department and the white house. and there were things that i did while i was attorney general, decisions that i had to make, that were not communicated to him. my guess is there were more than a couple that he probably did not agree with, and yet i never heard from him anything either privately and certainly not publicly, that was critical of any decision that i made. i would hope that the president would rethink the way in which he has attacked the career people in the fbi, the career people at the justice department, the career people in our intelligence community, and think about, you know, the ways in which he has spoken about his attorney general, who is actually our attorney general, and understand that there's long-term collateral, negative consequences to such attacks. you know, the mueller probe is going to be unaffected. bob mueller is a strong guy. the

the justice department has limited resources. and when you're trying to decide how you will deploy those resources, what places are you going to place emphasis, the memorandum that is called -- is as essentially we will let the states experiment but we will put up guardrails. and it was very explicit. he said that when it came to dealing marijuana, dealing to minors, transportation marijuana across state lines, there were eight or nine factors in the memo. if you cross those eight or nine factors then there will be federal and government intervention.i remember talking to the governors of colorado and wisconsin. sharing with them whatever concerns were. getting the assurances that they will put in place serious regulatory systems. and i think the approach that we took was appropriate. when it comes to use a prison reform. i would call criminal justice reform. that was an issue where i think we had a rare opportunity at a significant bipartisan reform effort. i remember having a meeting in my conference room. we had representative

john sullivan went up to the justice department and talked to a justice department official who said that the leak was not only unauthorized, by the was inaccurate and did not reflect mr. campbell's credibility. john was talking to the fbi agents. he couldn't figure out why the justice department people were doing this. i think it's all over. 10 days later senior justice department officials go to the hill and brief congressional staff with the same false statements that they gave to isikoff. why did that happen? i am say together attorney general and i.g. i want to know who authorized those people to go up there and provide false information. david: you have here a letter dated february 20 to mr. sessions, the attorney general, complaining about all this and suggesting that it is not only improper, it's illegal to do what they have been doing. so what happens now? what does mr. sessions do with your ever in. >> i hope he starts opening an investigation. there is such a thing called an administrative a tina. he can go to the people he thinks know about this matter, people who say the

the justice department is considered separate from politics. although the president may choose the attorney general, the attorney general is supposed to be loyal first to the constitution and to the law and secondarily affiliated with the white house. that is why these are eyebrow raising questions. you know, to a certain extent, some of this is the president not being familiar with the customs. absolutely to your question will come up when you ask these more probing questions of whether the white house is actively trying to undermine the character. they will not be flattering anecdotes to the people looking into these matters. >> tal, it is clear that nunes is trying to discredit the fbi and the mueller investigation. all of that being said, there are all of these investigations republican led investigations happening on capitol hill. does he risk muddying the waters and discrediting his own investigation in the process here because dragging politics into all of this? >> rene, i don't know how you could make the argument that the waters are no

department was and how critical the justice department was to this whole notion of criminal justice reform among other things, that i could best serve the president--uh, president there. capehart: what did you view as, uh, your priorities coming back into the building as attorney general, the first african american attorney general of the united states? holder: well, first thing was to, um, re-establish the morale and sense of direction, uh, within the--the justice department. the place had been in--especially the civil rights division had really been, um, decimated in a whole bunch of ways, both in terms of resources dedicated to the civil rights division and, um, the way in which the career people in the civil rights division had been-- had been treated, and the same thing was true in the environmental and natural resources division, to a lesser extent antitrust division, and so the first thing was to build up morale and give people a sense of, um--of purpose and then from there to focus on the things that i thought were, um, important. we had national security responsibilities, but i sa

or the intelligence community or the justice department. you can't fight fire with fire because that would be releasing more information that has not been declassified. >> exactly. i have been in touch with a lot of fbi officials this week who feel they are sitting on their hands at this point. that's why director wray tried to get out aled of this, putting out that statement saying they had grave concerns, because they know at this point, after the fact, there is so little they can do. even if there are redactions, they will not be able to correct the record because they say the real problem here is the information that we won't see in this memo. they are going to try to look like there is very flimsy, corrupt evidence for opening and getting this fisa warrant and they won't be able to go correct the record and say actually, we had a lot more because then they would be doing the same thing. they would be releasing classified information. they are in a really powerless position right now. >> oh, heavens. all right. kristen welker joins us n

department tells you all you need to know about whether he wants justice or not. we'll be right back. whether he wants justice or not. we'll be right back. all you nee whether he wants justice or not. we'll be right back. you all you whether he wants justice or not. we'll be right back. i asked my doctor. she told me about non-insulin victoza®. victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. while not for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. (announcer) victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. stop taking victoza® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or symptoms of a serious allergic reactio

>> well, it's a loss for the justice department. she served under three administrations and has really had a reputation for being committed to her job and to the principles of really advancing justice for all. so she's good person to. lose somebody like that just te tells me that it's been rough duty when you're at the justice department. because you've had all kinds of innuendos thrown at the justice department by the white house. there are issues related to trust between the president and the justice department and the fbi. it's not easy to be able to serve under those conditions. so hopefully they'll be able to find somebody who will be able to replace her. who will have the same kind of credibility and credentials. >> we you a know the president was very angry at jeff sessions for recusing herself from the investigation. the other day he was asked about rod rosenstein, the number two, and he gave a very, very, let's put it this way. no vote of confidence for the number two. he said you guys try to figure that out. this is an ext

he's sometimes called the justice department the, quote, trump justice department. and gripe why, quote, un, quote, am i guys aren't serving me, aren't being loyal to me. what's striking about this is that this memo two weeks ago president trump didn't even really understand what it was or what it meant but as soon as he started watching his allies talk about it on tv and he became convinced it would give him the political cover or the legitimate justification, depending on what you believe to potentially fire rod rosenstein, make changes at the justice department, he was absolutely convinced helped this memo released. so, yes, there was a process we all watch it go through, but today the memo being released with no reredaction was very much a foregone conclusion for a number of days. >> it bears underscoring that the president watched cable news to see how his allies were talking about it. this is a man that seems to me is more aware of what people are saying about him and the advice people are giving him on tv than he is from his own advisers, the people he puts i

we saw this in the letter and the department of justice days before. this would be a big mistake. >> that's right. not only raising objections that what was released to the public. when the fbi puts out a statement, this is a rare public statement saying mr. president, don't do this. you don't see this happen very often. that is why you are seeing what is a constitutional clash going on inside the administration or a clash between the white house and the national security community because there are people concerned inside the fbi about sources and methods being revealed in all of this. not only is that statement something that has been put out by the fbi but the fbi director was here with rod rosenstein saying don't do this but the white house appears to be going with the political demands inside the base of their party saying they want this memo out. make no mistake, this is something that could haunt this white house in the months to come if it turns out somehow the release of this memo damages that russia investigation or if people inside the burea

fisa gets to hear one side from the justice department. the justice department has an obligation to present it fairly, making sure that the fisa court sees all of the evidence and all of the evidence that undercuts the evidence. you know, one thing i'm thrilled about, i've been fighting this fight as a liberal democrat for 50 years and thank you republicans anconservatives fors coming on board and looking critically at the fbi and the fisa court. i think that's a good thing for america. david: the fisa court is not the only one on the spot here. the fbi has a duty to trace down sources. and christopher steele, who was supposedly the main source of the trump dossier, turns out now that he may have just been a pass through and he was passing through a lot of information that was coming directly from the clinton campaign and there was no attempt by the fbi to track down where this information was coming from. >> and there should be now. it's not too late. there should be a deep inquiry into everything that went into the fisa warrant. we're al

think about all the folks in the department of justice house have done this. the point of this was to throw up lots of dust and smoke and perhaps it has succeeded. i guess the real question, i get it that republicans go along with the conservative policies but why do they feel they have to become accomplices on the russia investigation particularly when we will know the russians are attacking our democracy and that's the part i can't get past. >> that is so wildly. >> one last word to you. why did trump bring on board a campaign a guy watched by the fbi who obviously has been suspected a long time for years of involvement with the russian oligarchs and those people who obviously they thought was being used by the russians. why would trump bring that as flaky as this guy carter page, look at the guy. he's flaky. why did he bring him into the campaign. >> every presidential campaign has hangers on, people that give them selves title that show up at a meeting and say they're a integral part. everybody knows he was a nothing then and a nothing now. >> he named him

certainly this hangs over the white house and, indeed, the justice department and the fbi. in fact, all of washington, what the president's plans are for the deputy attorney general. there is no white house briefing today. so at this point we are going into a weekend here with unusual confrontation between these separate agencies here and the white house. wolf? >> we'll see if rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general, stays or goes. you can clearly see on his face, the president, that deep irritation with the deputy attorney general when he was asked do you have confidence in him, he said you figure that one out. stand by. i want to go to capitol hill right now. democrats are reacting as well. democrat reese acting and saying this republican majority report is distorted. >> reporter: that's right. in fact, i just got off a conference call with adam schiff, ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee who laid out a number of concerns with some of the allegations in this memo. i'll tick through some of them. one of the big allegations in the republican memo is what th

on issue after issue, jeff sessions' justice department has failed in its mission to promote justice for all americans. instead, sessions has taken the department in exactly the opposite direction. so, let's make a list. start with voting. in 1986, mrs. king warned us that sessions had used the awesome power of his office as an alabama prosecutor to chill the free exercise of the vote by african americans. as attorney general, he's continued that crusade targeting not only african americans but latinos, the elderly, veterans, and other marginalized groups. only weeks after sessions took the reins, the justice department abandoned its legal challenge of a texas voter i.d. law that intentionally discriminated against voters of color. later, the department argued that it should be easier -- easier for states to strike eligible voters from their voting rolls, a proven way to prevent citizens from voting. sessions has eagerly embraced president trump's make believe, fact-free conspiracy theories about voter fraud condoning the president's voter suppression commission and engaging in state

the president dmiensd the leadership of the fbi and justice department. president trump: i think it' a disgrace. a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. david: congressman jim jordan and matt gaetz joins. also gregg jearr jarett -- gregg jarrett and tom fit o fitton of judicious you watch. joining me, congressman devin nunes explaining why it was so important to release the memo. >> i have an obligation to the american people when we see fisa abuse. these are secret courts that exist to target foreigner for catching terrorists and people who might be bad actors. and the americans citizens represented before this court have to be protected. the only place that can protect them is the u.s. congress when the abuses do occur. it's not a place we wanted to go, by the where we had to go. bret: did you read the actual fisa applications? >> no, i didn't. david: house oversight chair trey gowdy who helped write the memo did. catherine: the memo makes the case the court was kept in the dark by the fbi and the justice department whe

and department of justice. very ill serves the public and we hope they will stop, but nonetheless, the chairman has announced his intention to continue with other so-calledthis investigation into the fbi and department of justice and maybe other agencies. he has publicly described this memo as phase one, in fact it is phase two. phase one began with the midnight run and presentation to the white house of information he had gotten from the white house. we hope these phases of distraction will come to an end and once again, the committee will focus on what the russians did to interfere with our elections, what we know about the trump campaign's contacts and communication or collusion with the russians and what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future. so that is where we hope our investigation will get back on track. with that, i am happy to answer any questions. -- if the president does block this -- schiff:tative chef: -- i think the republicans realize that after calling for full transparency, th

none of that investigated by the justice department. i'm telling you -- i told you yesterday when i saw you on the plane, i'm not one of these people that said this is going to shake the world, this is not going to turn things upside down. >> steve king told me last night it's worse than watergate. i said if you seen the supporting information? no. have you seen the fisa application that you guys say was done wrong? no. worse than watergate? >> i'm not saying that. i'm speaking for myself and. there are two many republicans that overstate the case. i'm not doing that. i take this very seriously. i was one of two republicans that voted against bill clinton's impeachment. i've stood with your brother against the entire republican leadership as far as getting aid for new yorkers. almost got me thrown out of the party. i take this very seriously. what i've seen over the last 18 months is wrong. >> congressman, i appreciate it. that's why i come to you in these situations, why i came to you yesterday for counsel on the situation. i, however,

it is xlamd the justice department and justice department omitted the province of it. there are serious questions raised by the memo. that they should make sure it doesn't violate any american civil liberties and not be used to make counter intelligence decisions. but speaker ross caution that had members of congress not use to it impugn the integrity of justice system and the fbi though that is precisely how president trump and his supporters are using this memo as mr. trump escalates his tikes u.s. law enforcement agencies. the justice department and fbi run by the president's own appointees say that the memo is misleading. >> i think it is a disgrace, what's happening in our country. when you look at that, and you see that and so many other things, what is going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves. >> democrats and some republicans fear that president trump will try to use the nunes memo as a pretext on fire those investigating, whether anyone affiliated with the trump team collaborated in any way with the russians. issuing this blunt warning. saying

she's making this change amid frustration at the justice department because of vacancies. a number of the divisions she oversees does not have heads. and more importantly she felt she could cast in the spotlight that rod rosenstein finds himself in now where she would have to oversee the mueller probe if she was fired. and we know the president has been openly critical of rod rosenstein and his job has been in question some time. >> i know you're the reporter on the story and not the defender of the number three at justice but maybe you have knowledge on this. why not stand in the batter's box? it's a covetted job this slot at the justice department. why not stand in and take whatever comes? >> i think it's the time we're living in, brian. i've spoken to some people who say, of course, that that is a high profile position, but when you look at the pressure that the justice department is under, it's a toxic environment to work in right now and that job in particular is the most toxic. she's someone who's a conservative, but worked for george w. bush and president obama as w

and justice department republicans say it shows investigators have concluded with trump's political opponents but critics say the memo doesn't prove anything. i'm super bowl fever takes hold of minneapolis where the new england patriots and philadelphia eagles are from caring to do battle for american folk goals greatest prize. i'm going home for good to have you with us in is lee at least six people have been injured in a drive by shooting in the city of much outa a twenty eight year old man is now in custody all of the victims were foreign as heating authors used to suspect the attack may have been racially motivated. it was a bold attack in broad daylight police say a man they've identified as an italian national drove his car along this road and opened fire on passes by several wounded and at least one victim is listed as being in serious condition some of the injured was standing in front of this bakery the owner says she's shaken by the violence. a shot right through the window of my bakery i'm really not well something like this isn't easy for someone of my age i need to leave. police

this is not an indictment of the fbi, the department of justice. it does not impugn the mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general. >> reporter: the "washington post" reporting that mr. trump never had any hesitation about releasing the memo and made the decision before even reading the document on wednesday. after two conservative congressman brought it to his attention just two weeks ago. >> i have concerns about the process, about representations that may be made in court pleadings. >> it is up to the american people to judge for themselves. >> the "post" reporting president trump thinks it will help build a public argument against rod rosenstein's handling of the case. cnn has reported that president trump has recently vented about wanting to fire rosenstein. a senior administration official tells cnn the memo is like lu to be returned to congress today with no redactions. but the house intelligence committee may still make changes before releasing the memo to the public. despite this, the bureau continues to have grave concerns remar

usually the white house has a lot of confidence in the justice department. the rift between the white house and the justice department is significant and it is in my view one of the biggest stories of the trump administration. host: i want to come back to that point. a caller joins us from lawrenceville, georgia. me in onould you fill the timeline of the steele dossier. we know for a hired fuse and gps. they discontinued that relationship and the democrats got involved. there is conflicting information out there regarding that. guest: this is an important question. initially the washington free beacon, a conservative outlet, was paying for the work that fusion gps did for opposition research on the trump campaign. once the free beacon decided they no longer wanted to fund that work, democrats stepped in and picked up the fusion gps tab. my understanding is that when democrats stepped in, or after democrats stepped in to fund the project, then that money was passed on to christopher steele to put together the dossier. the dossier was not a project of the wash

david: using the full power of the fbi and the justice department to tilt the scales is not acceptable. all right two senators grassley and graham have this criminal referral to the justice department because of what mr. steele did. apparently he lied to investigators when they asked him questions about whether he talked to the press. what happens with this criminal referral? >> well i think the attorney general needs to take it very seriously, potentially act on it now there's a little bit of disagreement about whether by doing that they actually think steel was lying or they're doing that to pry open maybe more information about what the fbi actually knew and in other words yes, steele may have been meeting with the president but it doesn't mean that somehow, the fbi didn't know all of the information anyway, so whatever his representations were, maybe they were misleading but maybe the fbi knew more than they let on and that's important, david, because the representations they made in that fisa warrant. if they knew more than they let on, but then didn't disclose it to the court, th

justice department is independent of politics in the white house at least it has been until mr trump so i'm very worried about a constitutional crisis in which this country is badly divided by a man that isn't looking at the constitution in my opinion just by his own words as the supreme law of our country let me thank you always great talking with you because being on you again and again congratulations on the book thank you larry hope you have me back i love being on your show who all was lanny davis and the book is the unmaking of the president twenty sixteen how f.b.i. director james comey cost hillary clinton the presidency great read and thank you for joining me on this edition of politics remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget to use the politic the hash tag that's all for this edition of politicking. i. think. it's all to be we have a great team but we need to strengthen before the freefall world cold and you're better than a legend to keep it so it's at the back. in one thousand nine hundred two that must quali

that would be the call of the justice department overseeing them. you have the possibility of whatever is found not being shared with the public. i think where the rubber meets the road here politically is with the house because the question has been from the start, would there be any restraint, any limits on the president's willingness to delegitimize these institutions that he views as a threat to him. early in the presidency i think there was more pushback from republicans in congress. you get noises from republican senators about firing bob mueller would be a catastrophic event. but on a day-to-day basis and with a decision like this to release the memo over the objections of so many at the fbi and the intelligence community, the house republican majority in particular is sending him a very different signal, that they will be there arm in arm no matter how far he goes. that puts him out on a limb for 2018. you've got to think this issue of whether they're willing to exert any restraight or oversight by each action most closer to center stage for

. >> reporter: the memo also alleges that the fbi and justice department did not inform the fisa court that former british intelligence agent christopher steele who compiled the dossier was funded by the democratic party. adam schiff said that it is, quote, not accurate that the secret court waunss unaware of steele's political motivations, he says that the court knew of a likely political motivation behind steele. >> what it ends up delivering is criticism of a single fisa application and its renewals that cherry picks information that doesn't tell the reader the whole of the application and as the doj and fbi have said deeply misleading. >> reporter: while the memo attempts to portray the fbi as relying on outside information to launch the russia investigation, it notes that a counter intelligence investigation was actually opened months before the page application based on a stream of intelligence separate from the dossi dossier. this includes information from the australian government can which learned that another trump campaign adviser, george papadopoulous, had been offered dama