president trump as you reported is calling on the justice department to investigate that letter in "the new york times." is there anything illegal about what the author did, and what can the justice department do here? >> reporter: there certainly doesn't seem to be any classified information in there, so it's unclear what law could possibly have been broken. we have asked the justice department if they are actually investigating. they said simply the department does not confirm or deny investigations. and "the new york times" responded with a statement, harshly worded statement saying, we are confident the department of justice understands that the first amendment protects all american citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power by launching such an investigation, david. >> jon karl with us all week long. jon, thank you. as i mentioned at the top there, former president obama who has largely stayed out of the spotlight since the election, took the very rare step today breaking precedent and taking aim at a sitting president, talking about the, quote, crazy stuff coming out of this white house. here's abc's senior national correspondent, terry moran tonight. >> reporter: it was an extraordinary break from