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justice department independent of the president. the only problem for them is the department of justice isn't independent. can you think of an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? the president or should be? we take that up ananananan i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. i need all the breaks, that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ lou: as i said at the outset of tonight's rogers more than 2000 former justice department employees signed a petition that calls on attorney general william barr to resign for what they claim is interference in roger stone's sentencing case. the letter formed by the activist group called protect democracy is a straight out radical dem enterprise and never trump organi

justice department independent of the president. the only problem for them is the department of justice isn't independent. can you think of an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? the president or should be? we take that up ananananan i work hard and i want my money to work hard too. so i use my freedom unlimited card. even when i'm spending, i'm earning 1.5% cash back on everything i buy. earning on my favorite soup... got it. earning on that eclair. don't touch it. don't touch it yet. let me get the big one. nope. this one? nope. this one? no. let me get them all. i'm gonna get them all. it's just the basics. can you double bag this right here? earn 1.5% cash back on everything you buy with freedom unlimited. can you also tell me what it is? chase. make more of what's yours. sleep this amazing? that's a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no next-day grogginess. zzzquil pure zzzs. naturally superior sleep. lou: as i said at the outs

we have a crisis at the justice department. we have another set of documents, duncan hunter, republican forced out of office through prosecutors there attended a hillary clinton campaign party and told the court the reason they were there was to provide advice in the case of a security incident. turns out they were there because they wanted to be there. it was a fabulous body, lying to the court further suggesting another compromised investigation and prosecution of another republican/conservative. the justice department is in crisis not because donald trump is complaining about it but the misconduct of attorneys throughout the agency who are partisan and think they can do whatever they want and get away with it. >> thanks for not letting them get away with it, at least doing everything anyone can, you and judicial watch doing the lord's work, thank you. the lord's work, thank you. ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow

justice department independent to the president, the only problem for them is the department of justice isn't independent. can you think of an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we will take that up and more with america's mayor, rudy giuliani here next, stay with us. the better question would be where do i not listen to it. while i'm eating my breakfast... on the edges of cliffs... on a ski lift... everywhere. ♪ download audible and start listening today. can we go get some ice cream? alright, we gotta stop here first. ♪ ♪ from smarter atms, to after hours video tellers ♪ ♪ comcast business is connecting thousands of banks to technology that turns everyday transactions into extraordinary experiences. hi there. how are you? do you have any lollipops in there? (laughing) no, sorry. we're helping all kinds of businesses go beyond customer expectations. how can we help you? i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. doprevagen is the

>> it indicates to me the mood of the justice department is dark. we've gone through three years of constant developments that suggest the president doesn't respect the rule of law, that he thinks there should be favoritism with respect to people that are close to him and special different kind of negative treatment for people who are opposed to him. when you have an entire team of line prosecutors, career prosecutors who step away from a case after being humiliated by their bosses in washington and not only that but being blindsided in finding out there was a change in the sentence and they learned about it on fox news station, that tells you how bad things are. >> we're learning that bill barr has interviewed on other high cases to the president like the case of michael flynn. is that appropriate? >> it depends on what he said and did and if there's a pattern developing, it's problematic. the attorney general of the united states is allowed to and has a responsibility to oversee the department and oversee the people in the department and keep an e

justice department independent of the president. the only problem for them is the department of justice isn't independent. can you think of an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we take that up ananananan ♪ limu emu & doug [ siren ] give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ if your adventure... keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips. you may have overactive bladder, or oab. not again! we're seeing a doctor when we get home. myrbetriq treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. it's the first and only oab treatment in its class. myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions, like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. if experienced, stop taking and t

he's not allowed to talk about the justice department. what if he called up bob barr and said what's going on? that would have been a scandal. it needs to be reined in significantly. bill barr has fallen into a trap laid for him by these prosecutors. now they created another scandal laid for them in the coup. all this passes. it will come down to they are concerned that barr might actually do the right thing. -and they want to stop him from prosecuting the criminal gangs. >> i think it's clear, too, the radical dimms, the deep state are beginning an effort to stop this president from fulfilling his charge now. have you heard all the talk about he's vindictive, he's vengeful? how about he's bringing justice. these people were trying to destroy this man, his family, the presidency. and to do it in front of the national left-wing media which has sold out. and to be a check against such corruption. who a federal court just said publicly, we can't believe a darn thing the fbi is telling us on fisa warrants. and we have the attorney general com

the justice department the go after his political enemies. let's bring in the analysts to discuss this pressure that is blatant on the justice departme department. what does that say to you, gloria? >> well, the justice department is under assault from within, within its own administration and the attorney general himself. the president, the president of the united states who uses twitter to denounce the department of justice decision and then he is getting exactly what he wants. so you are the ask yourself a question about what does that mean to all of the people who are left serving in the department of justice. you know, sometimes mass resignations as we saw, four of them, can make a point to the outsiders and the american people that something is not right. that doesn't happen everyday and in fact, it hardly ever happens. and you have to stop, and take notice, and ask why. >> what are the consequences, david gregory of the president's actions? >> well, the immediate is a loss of confidence in the justice department. more of a confirmation

the department of justice. since the conclusion of the president impeachment trial, the president has reminded us of all the reasons why congress must start with a check on the executive. the president has dismissed members of the administration in the house impeachment inquiry. including, for no reason, the twin brother of one of the witnesses. the administration hasel reportedly withdrawn the nomination of the senior advised our colleagues about the legal implications and delaying essistance to ukraine. truth. when the president had no place in this administration and people who speak through the power are similarly dismissed. on tuesday, after prosecutors made sentencing recommendations for waterstone, who was found guilty of witness tampering and lying to congress, the president tweeted his former poly confident was being unfairly treated. it appears the attorney general of political appointees of the d.o.j. counter demands the recommendation among more lenient sentences for the presence friends. as a resul

a justice department independent of the president? the only problem with that is the department justice isn't independent. can you think an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we'll take that up and more with america's mayor. rudy giuliani. ♪ ♪ you work hard for your money. stretched days for it. ♪ ♪ juggled life for it. ♪ ♪ took charge for it. ♪ ♪ so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours. chase. make more of what's yours. she is on her way to our house. what? i got it. alexa, start roomba. the lexus es. eagerly prepared for the unexpected. lease the 2020 es 350 for $389 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. lease the 2020 es 350 for $389 a month for 36 months. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. now you can, with shipsticks.com! no

a justice department independent of the president? the only problem with that is the department justice isn't independent. can you think an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we'll take that up and more with america's mayor. rudy giuliani. lou: as i said at the outset of tonight's broadcast. over 2,000 former justice department employees signed a petition that calls on attorney general william barr to resign for what they call is interference in roger stone's sentencing case. the letter formed about it activist group called protect democracy is a straight-out radical dimm enterprise and never trump organization. it's been around since 2017. it decried the president's statements on stone as interference. yet the never trump resistance shows how deeply embedded the radical dimms are in the justice department. protesting the president's constitutional authority, how can anyone say the justice department is independent of the administration when it contains a nationality security division. who the hell wou

department and how much we should trust him to make sure justice department decisions are handled in a way that's independent of the president's personal interests. i mean, just in the past couple of weeks we have learned that attorney general william barr personally intervened in the criminal case involving this man after he was convicted by a jury on seven felony counts. before attorney barr intervened personally to wipe out the sentencing recommendation for roger stone, we've never before known an attorney general getting involved at the sentencing phase for a convicted felon to try to get the person off. but even before we never heard he did it for roger stone, we would soon thereafter learn heed done it before the roger stone case, too. we have since learned that attorney general barr has also apparently intervened to reverse the sentencing recommendation that had been filed by federal prosecutors in the michael flynn case several weeks earlier. we then learned that barr not only intervened to override the prosecutors and ask for a lenient sentence for flynn. he also brought in

a justice department independent of the president? the only problem with that is the department justice isn't independent. can you think an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we'll take that up and more with america's mayor. rudy giuliani. as a caricature artist, i appreciate what makes each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ she is on her way to our house. what? i got it. alexa, start roomba. the lexus es. eagerly prepared for the unexpected. lease the 2020 es 350 for $389 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. lease the 2020 es 350 for $389 a month for 36 months. beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies

as a result some resigned from the justice department. a clear signal they believe the revised sentencing conflicted with their ethical obligations as prosecutors. of course it was not enough for the president to just lean on the justice department to make it easy on his old pal. the president went on publicly to attack the judge who will decide mr. stone's fate, another example of the president's blatant contempt for the independence of the judiciary. in the past, chief justice roberts has spoken out in defense of the independence of the judicial branch. when the president during his campaign attacked judge kuriel, the chief justice released a statement saying we do not have obama judges, bush judges or clinton judges. we have an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right for those appearing before them. the independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for. that's what justice roberts said, chief justice roberts. well, president trump is once again attacking a federal judge, in this c

the justice department, that u.s. attorney's office particularly, does not ask for below guideline sentences in cases like this in livi. in living memory, they do not do that. but the attorney general is going to say, yeah, that was a totally normal thing for him to have done, to intervene in that case and insist on a below guideline sentence. just a totally tuesday morning, run of the mill kind of thing. and it only looks weird because coincidentally and totally and separately apart from his independent decision making on that, the president called for lien jens for that defendant. here, plainly, among us citizens, let us not abandon our powers of reasoning and common sense. i mean here, plainly, despite the official lie that was rolled out today to try to alleviate this crisis, here, plainly, the attorney general intervened personally to do this most unusual, once in a lifetime thing for the president's friend because that guy was the president's friend. and there is now broadcast on abc news an official lie about t

very clear rules on both the justice department's side and od the white house side. i itenforced these rules in bot jobs that ies had. when i was a career lawyer in the justice department, we had very clearme guidelines that although we shared a certain information with the white rmhouse, we didn't tolera any political interference. when i was the legal adviser for the national security council in the first term of the bush administration, very clear rulei and needed to know certain information from the justice j department, you know, if they're investigating a foreign tleade we needed to know that, but the president did not interfere. this is a very clear line that the president does not interfere in criminal investigations. >> if criminal charges are brought against james comey and andrew mcoccabe i guess it woul come through a form of violation of national security, ty classification, things like this. what could the l charges look le if they came up with something? >> looks like at least for james comey, investigating him for leaks so unauthorized disclosures. th

justice department over this. that this is something that appears to be a miscommunication of sorts that happened here at the justice department, wolf. >> evan, standby. i want to go to the white house, and kaitlan collins is working the story for us. the two prosecutors resigned after the president, after president trump publicly criticized the justice department's original recommended sentence for stone. what are you hearing? what is the latest? >> yeah, wolf. two of the four who signed on to the sentencing recommendation. we saw the one that the president said that he believed was disgraceful and was tweeting about just last night saying that this is a horrible and very unfair situation. he said that the real crimes were on other side as nothing happens to him, and wolf, this is the key line from the president, and he said, we cannot allow this miscarriage of justice. so the president is not saying there at the end that he is going to pardon roger stone and something that he has left the door open and not rulin

one quit the justice department expire entirely. just about 4:00 yesterday the justice department filed their new recommendation which says they believe roger stone should get some jail time, some prison time, but the memo reads a lot like a defense memorandum. it says that roger stone is an old guy, he's an old man and he's a first-time offender and that he may not have really threatened a witness, which is one of the reasons why they had called for a tough sentence. so it's sort of a surreal thing for the justice department to essentially disavow the work of its own prosecutors and then ask for leniency for someone who's been convicted. >> completely undercuts them. >> absolutely. >> evan, stay right there. let's go to our john harwood who's following the latest at the white house. john, you have a new piece talking about this this morning, right? sort of unleashed the president on so many fronts and this one just congratulating bill barr for taking charge in the case. >> reporter: poppy, he's reveling in what he is doing right no

justice department. and the city's prime minister says he will soon step dying but that it's got nothing to do with his alleged involvement in the murder of his a strange white the and the as. police in germany are treating a mass shooting in the western city of hono as an act of terrorism 9 people were killed when a gunman went on a shooting rampage on wednesday nights chancellor angela merkel has condemned the attack and says there are many signs the perpetrator acted out of racism dominic cain has the latest from berlin. this is where the shooting started one of 2 she should've asked to be targeted which were known to be frequented by members of the kurdish community the 43 year old perpetrator made his way into each place and then opened fire indiscriminately on innocent people finally fleeing the scene in a car to go home and kill his own mother before then taking his own life the shock of the local community is mirrored by that of government ministers who confirmed their primary line of inquiry it'

it was the justice department's decision, barr said. he also, though, added this rare rebuke, this criticism of president donald trump, barr telling abc news that the president's tweets, his online commentary about the justice department make his job impossible to do. fred, we got a bit of a response from the white house to those criticisms this morning. take a listen to mark short, the vice president's chief of staff, in an interview on cnn. >> i don't think it's impossible to do his job. in fact, i think attorney general barr is doing a great job. he has a lot of confidence inside the white house. i think the president's frustration is one that a lot of americans have, which feels like the scales of justice are not balanced anymore. there has been a bias that attorney general barr is trying to correct. he has said that the president has not called him directly to say please do these things. he has acted independently to initiate these reviews and i think he's doing a fantastic job of it. >> there again is marc short, the vice presiden

and department of justice. the prosecutors filed what they said they wanted with the sentencing guidelines that they backed and almost immediately the justice department said, you know, furious. attorney general barr was furious saying we are going to reverse this. they moved in to take over. it all happened in the last few days. >> what do we know about the earlier iteration of this. one thing that is so key is that it happened weeks ago with the flynn sentencing memo and everybody scratched their heads. the justice department wasn't on the level about it. it all happened. we were seeing it from outside the box. >> right. nobody resigned. there was not a public spectacle about it. this is the story that we did last night. officials outlined to us what they see as a pattern of barr moving in to exert more control over these cases that president trump is very interested in. it happened in the flynn case, things were contentious between flynn and the prosecutors. he accused them of setting him up. on january 7th,

by today, he was publicly thanking the department of justice. as for the reaction from republican senators, well, you can pretty much guess. take a look. >> are you concerned at all about political influence -- >> i'm sorry. i have a vote. >> any concern about roger stone, sir? >> so you don't have any concerns of what some say is a continuing pattern of some political intervention in a -- >> i got real concerns about overzealous prosecution. more than anything else. >> senator graham went on to say he's, quote, not losing any sleep, unquote, about the four prosecutors. senator john thune said, "it's all best to allow the legal system in this country to work the way it was intended." interpret that how you will. which are words the president has never actually shown any sign of living by whether it's speaking out repeatedly in the paul manafort case or behalf of michael flynn or calling for comey and others to be prosecuted. in fact, the only time he seems to have spoken out against presidential involvement was when someone else was president. >

the department of justice has been under fire. bill barr under fire over the moves perceived as politically and furtherance of the president's agenda. >> this is not the first time that doj lawyers withdrawn for a case in similar circumstances in this administration. >> absolutely. bill barr had trouble in the case involving whether there should be a citizenship question on the census. it went to the supreme court. supreme court ruled against the trump administration and went back to the lower court and unbelievably the justice department said they were going to put the question on there. 11 justice department lawyers asked to resign from the case just as the 4 did this week and the judge actually held their feet to the fire and he said he wanted to know the reason. two were changing jobs and the other nine he made them come in and explain why. it will be very interesting to see if judge jackson next week wants to know the reasons that the four doj career attorneys withdrew and that the justice department substituted a new recomme

justice department independent of the president. the only problem for them is the department of justice isn't independent. can you think of an executive branch that is independent of the president or should be? we take that up ananananan at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. because our way works great for us! but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? nope. we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? we don't have those. so, what's in it for you? our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. from the international fellowship of christians and jews. there is an emergency food crisis for elderly holocaust survivors in the former soviet union. - this is a fight against time. what we're dealing with is coming out, meeting someone who's 85, 90 years old

the bar is pretty high for prosecuting inside the justice department. they don't prosecute their own willingly or easily. lou: a bunch of officials who run the place, i don't think there is a high standard for anything in the justice department or the fbi. i don't think we should say every other person in the justice department or fbi is a good solid american who means well in their public service. i don't believe that at all. these people had to have enablers. they had to have people working with them. they didn't step forward,er in not going to step forward because they fear for themselves and their livelihoods such as it is. >> this is an area where the journalists can play a constructive role. we ought to look at the other cases that haven't gotten the same scrutiny. all the scriewt any by the fbi was on carter page. what about the papadopoulos case and the flynn case? i predict in the next few weeks we'll learn about potential misconduct, deception and other things that went won -- went wrn other parts of the investigation. i know the frustration y

it's supposed to be the justice department. yes, trump has to call other people corrupt because he is. the justice department is supposed to be the entity removed from that. they're now completely corrupt themselves. >> the intelligence community has been weary of two things. durham's scope and even though he was viewed as an honest broker in the investigation into the torture case, because it was shorthanded. there's been concern around two things. one, that it was around facts and two it was around something not knowable. they were seeking to open opprocess they didn't understand. >> both of those are really good points. and the gina haskell one will be a very interesting thing to watch. you've seen inside the justice department. she has not gotten to that point yet. and if there's -- if she winds up not defending the cia officials, then you could see that her having similar problem and she hasn't yet. >> i'm sure clapping didn't help. thank you both for spending some time with us. when we come back, bernie sanders live rally

there was no department of justice to go along with that position. it was just a stand alone guy who was, frankly, was pretty powerless. in the 19th century, had was powerless and in the 20th, that's when this became a play thing of the executive branch. and in the 20th century, different presidents, depending on their ethics, i guess, is what it really boils down to in some cases started to abuse the fact that the doj was under their direct control. >> i want to show you the president's tweet from monday night. where you have the president, you know, weighing in publicly, tweeting this about the prosecutor's recommendation of a seven to nine-year sentence for roger stone. some had said it's quite harsh, but if you look at the sentencing guidelines, it looks like it's in line with the federal sentencing guidelines. you have the president tweeting this is a very horrible and unfair situation. is it unusual, though, that you have a u.s. president weighing in, from modern presidents if look back? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> okay. >> so, really the hig

>>> i want to thank the justice department. they saw the horribleness of a nine-year sentence for doing nothing. >> if i thought he'd done something that would change the outcome, i'd be the first to say. >> what is more stinky than the most powerful person in the country changing the rules to benefit a crony guilty of breaking the law. >> we are taking on trump, the republican establishment, carville and the democratic establishment. >> i'm screaming about the revolution. give people an alternative. >> we need someone who is going to be able to unite this party. >> this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> good morning. and welcome to your "new day," thursday, february 13th. it's 8:00 in the east. the question this morning, who will stand up to president trump during what one senator called his retribution tour. we have an answer. his former chief of staff, john kelly, in a way is standing up. at least he did overnight. the retired marine corps general defended lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who was fire

although he stayed within the justice department. another prosecutor not only took her name off the case, she quit the justice department all together. sound familiar? those resignations happened in the fall. but today, finally, finally, after all of this, finally, they dropped the case against mccabe. they will no longer try to bring criminal charges against andrew mccabe. they will close this matter. why did they give this up today? in the movie version of this moment in american life, somebody has had an awakening of conscience and recognized that it's really wrong and really bad for this country, quite injurious to our status as a rule of law country, for a president to keep publicly demanding criminal investigations of people he's decided are his enemies. somebody realizes, somebody has a come-to-someone moment and decides it's even more wrong for an attorney general to listen to those demands from a president and try to bring about those prosecutions that the president is demanding. in the movie version of this crisis, where am

there are now resignations from the justice department in protest. three line prosecutors working on the roger stone case withdrawing from that case after barr intervenes after the president expressed his displeasure with the recommended sentence that stone had had put forth to the court by these line prosecutors. three of them resigning from the indication. a fourth not only withdrawing from the case but resigning from the department altogether. former obama white house counsel bob bauer today describing that as a "major event." and for bob bauer, the least hyperbolic man on earth, that's like a ten-alarm fire, for him to call something a major event. bob bauer saying today, "dramatically forceful responses to mr. trump's assault on rule of law norms have been all too rare. a resignation can set off an alarm bell for an institution whose failings an official maybe unable to bring to light any other way or as effectively." he says, "it upholds rule of law norms in the very act of signaling that they are failing." they are failing. so like i said, ala

the attorney general runs the department of justice. they all report to him so you make these calls. some of them from the outside appear, you know, questionable. to some of us who have looked at it from the outside, not having looked at the file, but,d you know, mccabe, it's like the talking points didn't change when the charges were dropped. they would have been the same talking points if he had been indicted.ha he actually got from his perspective what would be a fair shot and it doesn't stop him from complaining that somehow the system was unfair. they even considered bringing charges. when he admitted to lying to investigators. >> you've been watching the judicial department here. is there going to be a two tiered system or will we have justice? >> in my view, if it's an indication, comey was referred to the justice department under attorney general barr for prosecution for leaking the president's fbi files, lying about it including classified information.n. they refused to proceed. you have the significant criminal activity by the

happen at the justice department. at the same time, i think there's a lot of surprise about exactly what went on here. it seems all the stories that are going on behind the scenes, the explanations just aren't adding up. you have, of course, the idea that the president tweeting, which is not helpful. the tweet, not only the one in the middle of the night that sort of criticizes the prosecutors, but also now thanking bill barr and doubling down saying that he's done the right thing, none of that is helpful for the justice department because even though the president is the boss, there is this idea that the justice department is supposed to be run free from politics, and the president's words are not helping. look, behind the scenes, there's a lot of tension going on over not only this case but also the case of michael flynn, the former national security adviser. if you remember, you know, he is awaiting sentencing, and some prosecutors wanted to go harder on him. they essentially wanted him to go to jail, and in the en

there are mixed messages coming out of the justice department. i guess it depends whether you think bill barr is sincere when he says he is trying to keep things from being too politicized or if you take a more cynical view he was trying to calm a storm in his own building with career prosecutors. >> josh, that brings us to your beat. it was just tuesday, the four feds walked off the case, choosing to walk off the case because they can't put out statements and call press conferences. this is their form of protest and warning. then yesterday, the interview that susan was referencing, people wanting to take an attorney general at his word, becoming the first sitting cabinet member to criticize the boss. what is going on inside the department of justice based on your reporting? >> the atmosphere and uproar is something i have only seen on a couple prior occasions during president trump's term in office. one would be the atmosphere, the feeling surrounding the firing of fbi director james comey and the other would be on a couple days when it looked l

when people at the justice department talk to the white house, if you work at justice, not only do you want to avoid actual impropriety. you want to avoid even the appearance of improper contact with the white house because of what that dwus the public's ability to have faith in the justice system. if the system looks rigged, who wants to comply with it? it is a horrible, slippery slope. what we're now looking at is the specter of actual impropriety of bill barr. may be he didn't actually have a conversation with the president. in some ways, i think it is far worse if what barr is doing is looking at a sentencing recommendation and thinking to himself, this won't make the president happy. instead of doing this recommendation that comports with the law, that congress has established for sentencing, i'll going to take it upon myself to do a favor. >> and then everybody else in america gets a tough sentence unless you happen to be a donald trump friend or as roger stone convicted of, lying for donald trump. a thank you both. roger stone donald trump's longest serving adviser. someone who

hours later justice department leaders intervened. one senior justice department official tells cnn that the sentencing recommendation that prosecutors made was not communicated to leadership at the department before it was submitted. >> this seems to be a full-scale reversal in a politically charged case by the department of justice. i've never seen anything like it. >> reporter: the official said, quote, the department was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation. the department believes the recommendation is extreme and excessive and is grossly disproportionate to stone's offenses. the presiding judge will have the final say on the sentence. >> the idea that this was just adjustments on the sentence that are small routine, nonsense. this is nothing routine about this. now the one thing i would add is that i do think that the seven to nine years recommendation was very high. i was surprised by it. >> reporter: a justice department spokeswoman insists that the white house was not involved in overruling the prosecutors. >> i thoug

and heish pud to the department of justice. if you or i thought something improper happened, the letter says they couldn't even do a preliminary investigation without him personally signing off on it. so he closed off that door. then we come to this week. and mitch mcconnell will not allow the election protection bills to a vote. we put this all together. we have a process in which the president is impeached, he is acquitted. we know his intention to continue to engage in that behavior. he came right out and. china, why don't you have at it. and then you have the attorney general saying, if anyone wants to report misconduct and start an investigation, i have to personally sign off on it. he basically takes full control of the fbi. and then you have the senators who will notss these election s bills that have been sitting on mitch mcconnell's desk since last fall. from my perspective, what i'm most worried about is the protection of our election in 2020 which i think is in serious peril. every united states senator who voted aga

that is not where you want the justice department to be by the name being the justice department. you want the sincere impression that lady justice is blindfolded and that she keeps it on even when the president tweets. when you have attorney general barr, when you have u.s. attorneys quitting and resigning entirely from the department of justice, one who by the way is a former merrick garland clerk, a justice brieer clerk, people not looking to have anything other than a life of service saying hold on, if i can't walk into court tomorrow for the next person who's lied to congress, made a false statement or had an assault charge to say i think this person is appropriate to be under the guidelines, it's all lost. and we continue to lose faith in the justice system. and frankly you would think attorney general barr would hold back -- it's a scary time. >> the judge to watch right now is judge amy berman jackson who has the roger stone case. stone's lawyers today filed a motion for a mistrial because the lead juror turns out to have been a partisan democrat who was posting things on