plus former federal prosecutor paul butler joins us from washington. >>> let me start with this mike flynn ruling. mike flynn i think a lot of people stopped paying attention to, he pleaded guilty to lying in the early days of the trump administration. he's still on our radar because he hasn't been sentenced yet. a judge putting out an order saying by the end of may, i understand that could get pushed, we'll have access to possibly a transcript and maybe even a recording of a call between the president's lawyer, john dowd and mike flynn, where a phone call might have been discussed and some of that underlying collusion-y evidence between sergey kislyak and mike flynn. >> this is the video version of the mueller report. most people haven't read those 400 pages that outline those those ten episodes of obstruction of justice. but people will tune in to a congressional hearing or listen to a recording of a telephone call, especially an incriminating one like this. just like if mueller testifies, people will get to see on tv the guy that looks like the head prosecutor from law & order and

>>cl let's talk about that paul butler. one of the places where people on both sides of the aisle from formerof prosecutors' offices tt say the president has a lot of exposure is around the investigations that may be housed out of the southern district of new york, there may be someri in the eastern distri of asvirginia. the idea that the mueller probe has ended and the president's legal exposure ended, is a misnomer. he has a democratic control house of representatives and their investigations and all of theat exposure. if he continues to commit crimes, i imagine new cases can be referred but talk about what that bigger picture looks like paul butler. >> the president's legal troubles are just beginning. he's like steph curry in the nba playoffs, hehe's being double a triple guarded -- le >> he's no steph curry. i'm a steph curry fan. >> he doesn't have the skills, you're right. he does not have curry's skills. so urhe's caught. again, i think he has exposure in all of these. the only thing he's being transparent about is

former federal prosecutor paul butler and heidi prezbella. >>> take me inside the aggressive posture emmet flood has taken against robert mueller. i imagine the two men know each other. i imagine don mcghan who's the star witness in the obstruction volume of the mueller report, work closely together. now emmet flood in another memo to file making clear today that he does not approve and finds himself at odds with the conduct and conclusion of robert s. mueller's investigation. >> remember who emmet flood is, he was brought into the white house by don mcghan. don mcghan believes in asserting executive privilege, even though he cooperated with the mueller investigation. he and emmet flood come out of the same legal school. they believe in protecting execty power. even with don mcghan on the outside he has an ally, someone who sees it the same way, being the point person in negotiating with congress as they make their request. and emmet flood, more than anyone is drawing the line for president trump and how this is going to move forward. that's what the attorney general, william barr, w

paul butler, and paul rosenswite. thank you for helping us drill down on that complicated discussion. appreciate it. >>> at this hour, the dow dropping over the president's threats to hit china with more tariffs as early as friday. it comes as donald trump is about to meet with republican senator s at the white house. we're going to go live there for a preview, when we come back. stay with us, the dow down more than 500 points. than 500 points. than 500 points. or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. and you never know how your skin will look. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it, and patients saw a significant reduction in itch. do not use if you are allergic to dupixent. serious al

your thoughts, paul butler? >> first of all, why wasn't president trump told more about michael flynn? remember the punch line of the chris rock joke you didn't know stuff because you were doing stuff. you were being compromised or maybe even being a double agent. of course they're not going to tell them -- tell the president everything about their investigation on michael flynn because they think, the fbi thinks, that flynn and trump might be working together on behalf of the russians. >> we don't even know if that is still ongoing, paul. we don't know if there is still an count every intelligence investigation. >> the only thing that mueller found is there was not enough evidence of conspiracy for the united states, there was not enough smoking gun evidence that they actively worked with the russians to steel e-mail or the election, but mueller found there was 251 contacts between the trump campaign and russians, this judge, can william bar somehow top that? >> he cannot stop a judge from ordering it, can he s

and paul butler, a former federal prosecutor in georgetown law school professor. thanks to all of you for being with us. barbara, let me start with you on this news about the president through intermediaries twice in the last month making this request to don mcgahn, the former white house counsel, that he come out and publicly say he did not consider the president's actions at least as they related directly to him, to appointment to obstruction of justice. obviously mcgahn's account is critical to any claim of obstruction, to any discussion of whether obstruction occurred here. "the times" tells us these requests came after the mueller report was completed and handed in and we should add mcgahn's lawyer tells the times he didn't consider the request to be a threat. is there a question of the propriety of this, though, in terms of the white house reaching out like this? >> absolutely. and i think it just helps make the case for why congress and america need to hear firsthand from don mcgahn. i think you could make an argument that asking mcgahn to deny that obstruc

butler author of "hoke hold." garret, let's start with you. people cloesto t people close to the president saying biden is the one candidate that have him worried. how is the biden camp responding to this? looks like they're trying to avoid taking the bait from trump? >> so far that has been the case, geoff. the biden campaign still politics stops at the water's edge. they don't want to mix it up with the president over this, even if the president wants to mix it up with them. one response in the form of a tweet from senior adviser, to watch trump take credit for the first step of many criminal reforms when, one, other folks did the work for the bill and, two, he is still on the record is exhausting and cdisingenuous. so much about the bill of 1994. the mixed messages being inuvl vaed in this, bernie sanders supported that same crime bill as mitch mcconnell. cory booker has much credit to claim there as donald trump. the whole tweet back and forth here is a bit of a wash. why i don't think anyone from biden's camp

paul butler and ron klain. jonathan let me start with you, it was your great reporting about the subpoena. what are they looking for? the subpoena? >> what's the committee looking for? the "new york times" has it right. they're trying to square his previous testimony with what michael cohen said, which was that donald trump jr.'s knowledge of the development was more extensive than he said it was. he also made public statements where he said we basically didn't know about this project. so they're trying to square that. this subpoena was issued about three weeks ago, is my understanding, and there's been some toing and froing between the two of them. and now donald trump jr.'s allies are beak building a campaign against richard burr. we've seen quite a few republican lawmakers come out firing shots at him. so this is a civil war inside the republican party in the last 24 hours. >> i wasn't going to start this. i was going to do the fact check. let me put up what you're talking about. this is the statement from d

>> there's a process involved. >> paul butler back with me. joining me now is david korn of mother jones and natasha of politico. stay with you paul, legal eagle at the table. play one more sound bite that was even more blatant than the one we just played from chris van hollen. that is from congressman charlie crist of florida. this is chiefly criarlie crist before, when he asked a specific question. >> reports emerged recently, general that members. special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findings. do you know what they're referencing with that? >> no, i don't. i think -- i think, i suspect, in they probably wanted, you know, more put out. >> okay. no, i don't. no, i don't. i don't know. charlie crist asks very specifically, does not believe his letter adequately or accurately necessarily supports the report. march 27th, the letter, when it's dated. and it says, from mueller, the summary lette

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attorney joyce vance, paul butler and michelle goldberg. this is an extraordinary series of simultaneous should haves between the executive branch and the legislative branch. the white house resisting on multiple fronts. tomorrow there will be that contempt vote. it will almost certainly pass and then head to the full house. is what we're witnessing here no less than a possible redefinition of the separation of powers? are we in the middle of a super stress test of the entire system? >> i think that's exactly right, chris. we're watching a situation where the traditional view that we have three co-equal branchs of government, that view that the foundi founding fathers used to create the constitution. that may not be how the government is configured going forward. we have an attorney general on record having a very expansive view of executive power. he now seems to be driving that truck a little bit. along with the president with autocratic tendencies. what we'll have to look for in the next days and weeks, whether the institutions are stron

and paul butler, a federal prosecutor. the law here, there is a law, you cannot commit treason against the united states. it's the most frightening charge you can make. >> article three, section three of the constitution. treason is adhering to the enemy providing aid and comfort. that's what the fbi noticed with all of these contacts with people in the trump campaign and operatives. there were 251 such contacts. is it investigating and really bizarre relationships between american campaigns and enemy of the united states, the russians? is that treasonous? >> i thought treason meant in war. >> that's what the constitution said. they are going to war against the united states or providing aid and comfort to the enemy. >> if we want to talk about treason for the fbi and national intelligence and opening investigation into something really bizarre that the trump campaign was doing with russian operatives. >> let's go back to what he said today. what do you make of the fact that you work with national security and he is saying

ben rhodes, thank you, paul butler, what a team you are. >>> up next, we are more than 500 days from the in the presidential elections. this week especially with the candidate you think is best equipped. i've been asking that all week. who can go toe to toe with trump on that stage eventually for three or four debates. they have to stand there and deal with this guy's showmanship. that often is the final round of who wins. back after this. i switched to liberty mutual, because they let me customize my insurance. and as a fitness junkie, i customize everything, like my bike, and my calves. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ with peak season berries, uniqcreamy avocado. and a dressing fit for a goddess. come taste what a salad should be. and with panera catering, there's more to go around. panera. food as it should be. itso chantix can help you quit "slow turkey." along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix redu

. >> let's break this down with paul butler, georgetown university law professor, msnbc an list and a former federal prosecutor. you heard barr say the answers were inadequate. what's your take on the attorney general's comments? >> this attorney general is the attorney general of president trump's fantasies. he takes trump's bizarre conspiracy theories and puts the power and prestige of the justice department behind it. let's remember how this started. it started would trump's lie that the obama administration was spying on the trump campaign. we know that never happened. so then it turned to focusing on carter page, who was a foreign policy advisor to the trump campaign. and we know that during the campaign, the fbi had probable cause to think that carter page was working with the russians. and not only that, they also knew that russian intelligence had identified carter page as someone who might be recruited to be a double agent. on that basis, they went to the fisa court and got a warrant that three judges had to sign off on and it had to be renewed every 90 days. had to get appro

paul butler is a former federal prosecutor and one of more than 500 who signed that statement. ian, let me start with you. how did this letter come out? >> we had several hundred prosecutors reach out to us. protect democracy was founded by former white house attorneys, doj attorneys, saying they felt in their judgement they would have indicted here and their colleagues would have as well. invited us and asked us if we could help spread the word to other prosecutors. we did that. the response was overwhelming. the message of this letter is basically if you or i or any of the viewers at home engaged in the conduct detailed in the mueller report, we would have almost certainly been indicted. in our system of government just because you're the president you don't get treated any differently. >> why did you sign the letter, paul? >> i became a prosecutor because i wanted to uphold equal justice under the law. my specialty was public corruption and the ethos of the department at that time was that no person is above the law. and when you look at the details in the mueller report, it

julia ainsley appear former federal prosecutor and msnbc analyst paul butler. this is extraordinary, julia, the cia and 15 other agencies told to cooperate with barr. what does this new authority permit the attorney general to do. >> first, chris kris the president has the ultimate authority over declassification. using it this way could be incredible dangerous especially for people informants to the cia and fbi if they can't be assured their identities stay private. they are put their lives on the line in many of the cases. this would give bar the authority to circumvent processes in place at the cia, fbi and these other intelligence agencies to be able to go through and get information and make it unclassified. declassify it. when we don't know is, yes, barr will have unlimited access to this if the president does indeed execute this authority. but then does barr have the authority to make what he finds public? that could be problematic because he could pick and choose as we know the president is exerting a lot of executive privilege trying to keep a lot of i

. >>> let's bring in paul butler, former federal prosecutor and an msnbc analyst, and harry litman, former deputy assistant attorney general during the clinton administration. he's also the creator of the podcast "talking fed." paul, the president was on the south lawn this morning and he was asked about impeachment. here's how he responded. >> i don't see how they can because they're probably allowed, although i can't imagine the courts allowing it. i've never got into it. i never thought that would be possible to be using that word. to me it's a dirty word, the word impeach. it's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. it had nothing to do with me. so i don't think so because there was no crime. >> so the president says there was no crime. but to remind folks, robert mueller said yesterday plain as day, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. so what's your reaction to president trump's defense of himself? >> you know, the politics may counsel against impeachment for speaker pelosi, but trump is running scared. he does not want mueller to

maybe our guests know, jason johnson, paul dix, paul butler and sophia nelson, counsel to the house overith committee. good evening it each of you. >> good evening. >> paul had, mr. barr would have us believe that he doesn't understand why lawyers sometimes do things in writing rather than pick up the phone, super cas when you're old buddies. can you help him and the rest of us understand? >> you do it to preserve a record. do you it because you don't trust the guy you're writing the letter to. there's no reason why mueller should have trusted barr. barr mischaracterized the report that robert mueller spent two years working on which is about our national security. >> so just fact checking that point, when he says something that i think could sound reasonable to people if i knew someone for a very long time and said why didn't they just call me in, casual parlance, that's reasonable to say. you're saying he is trying to sound reasonable while hiding the fact that this really was a blowup between them that was bad enough to be in writing? >> yeah, what bill barr did whether he had that fake

. >>> and here on set with me, paul butler, a former federal prosecutor and analyst and tom dupre, former assistant attorney general. thank you for being here. really appreciate. paul, your reaction to this back and forth that we just heard? it seems like an escalating war of words. frankly, end of actions at this point. >> on the one hand, it seems like an easy to resolve dispute. the attorney general says he only wants to answer questions from congress. not the lawyers on the congressional committee. so why can't they work that out? the reason is this is a dramatic battle about who's got the power between the congress and the executive, between trump and nancy pelosi. and on the merits, i think congress is ultimately going to win. it's going to get the documents that it's requesting and the attorney general really doesn't have a good ground for refusing to testify. but the congressman is right. it goes to the courts. and if it goes to the courts, it's going to take months so i think the trump team strategy to try to run out the clock until the election and then if people have to come in

is in paris monitoring reaction in the continent live to both after this report from paul brennan. it is in the best interests of the country for a new prime minister to lead that effort to recent days resignation announcement speech began a little hesitantly and ended reluctantly but with her close staff and her husband philip standing by for support the prime minister conceded defeat. it is and will always remain a matter of deep regret to me that i have not been able to deliver breck's it she will officially step down as party leader on june the 7th but remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen in the end though the emotional strain of recent months overcame her i will shortly leave the job that it has been the honor of my life to hold. the 2nd female prime minister but certainly not the last. i do so with no ill will but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country i love the prime minister's resignation became inevitable after a hostile reaction to have final bricks at compromise offer even senior figures within her own par