president's potential involvement? >> well, politically it, puts it to his lawyer very quickly and makes a liar out of his lawyer. on the broader scale, i looked at the lift of impeachments and i found na false statements have always played a role, while they may not be criminal acts in themself, indeed they do show a state of mind and every impeachment proceeding in modern times from nixon through clinton we see them played out. >> all right. so let's, robert, you play the role of the proverbial bucket of cold water on this. >> do you think these woes qualify as false statements for the purpose of legal analysis? >> not in a criminal context. first of all, false statements to the media don't give rise to a criminal proceeding, only to statements made to government officials. it's a pr problem. it's political problem.