Comey, he can do that. If he wants to interview the president himself, he can, he can ask for the president s tax returns. Details on all of it on the Program Starting with chief National Security correspondent jim sciuto. What exactly does this mean . Hes in charge now . This is the fbi investigation were talking about . In one fell swoop, the Deputy Attorney generation has removed politics from the russia investigation, at least from the attorney Generals Office, the enormous concern had been, first of all on the hill, politics getting in the way, partisanship, but from the Justice Department, led by Jeff Sessions, an appointee of the president , is still involved, even though hes been recused, could they without bias pursue this investigation, so you bring somebody from outside who has enormous respect from both sides and broad powers, that takes away concern that republicans in private were starting to express. So does that mean that the fbi investigation now reports to mueller . Look at others who have filled thfill ed in this kind of role in the past, that led to a conviction of scoot a different rule that has now expired. A similar rule, starting with white water, led to impeachment hearings, regarding monica lewinsky. When this has happened in the past, they have enormous powers and it often leads to very consequential events. A special counsel can calm whoever he wants right up to and including the president , can demand documents that he wants. I can confirm this because i spoke to smart people like jeff toobin but can also define the bounds of this investigation. And officially by rosensteins letter, an investigation of russias interference into the u. S. Election and other matters. Its up to muellers discretion what those matters are. Up to the firing of michael flynn, the meeting between the president and jim comey in the white house. Just to be clear, the fbi investigation thats been going on, that was under director comey, that continues and that is what mueller is overseeing . He has oversight over the entire probe as it were. Youre not going to stop any activity in the fbi anymore, youve got a whole team there, and thats something youve heard from the acting fbi director, as they search for a new director, that theyre continuing their work. I have spoke to people inside the bureau, but this is a very independentminded mueller. I have been talking to people around washington in reaction to this, yes, comeys out, if you want to replace comey with somebody whos comey like, its Robert Mueller. These two were at arms in 2004, that led to that famous standoff at John Ashcrofts bed. They both threatened to resign over this, the two tremendous ties going back and similar reputations. So who the new fbi director is, will they report to mueller on the russia investigation . Thats a good we, im not sure how the reporting goes, im sure toobin and dana bash will know, but it strikes me that the most important overseer of this is the special counsel. Theres commitment there, but they dont have the power that a special counsel, a special cone sell can indict. Just two days ago, White House Press secretary sepicer says frankly theres no need for a special prosecutor. So whats the late word from the white house . Reporter its hard to imagine a worse 72 hours in President Trumps life. And what youre seeing tonight, anderson, is a very different President Trump, a very restrained President Trump, hes not talking got socalled judges as he did after the travel ban, hes not threatening the former fbi director james comey as he did last weekend, when he talked about tapes on twitter. Consider this very restrained statement coming from the president of the United States tonight on the tapping of bob mueller and special prosecutor, it says as i have stated many times a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know, there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. I look forward to this matter con clutding quickly. In the meantime, i will never stop fighting for the people and issues that matter most to the future of our country. Remember the white house put out a same that essentially laid some of the responsibility for the firing of comey on Rod Rosenstein and you see rod ro n rosenstein tapping bob mueller. Did rosenstein give a heads up to attorney general sessions . From what we understand, there was not much of a heads up before this announcement came down, from what i understand that an administration official, Rod Rosenstein signed this order naming bob mueller as a special prosecutor and thin White House Counsel Don Mcgahn was notified and very soon after that informed the president of the United States that there was a special prosecutor looking into this, and this also happened with attorney general Jeff Sessions, that is almost more interesting than the white house not getting much advanced notice. But apparently after that order was signed and when this was all announced to the world was less than an hour, according to Administration Officials so that is why the statement from the white house came fairly long after this rosenstein announcement bombshell. They only had less than an hours heads up . They had less than an hours heads up. Also with us, someone whos worked with director mueller, hill mudd. How important is this . Its enormously important, but its also i think a rare moment of unanimity and relief. Because there is literally no more well respected Law Enforcement in the United States, when you look at his experience, 12 years as fbi director, head of the criminal division, u. S. Attorney in boston, u. S. Attorney in san francisco, appointed mostly by republicans, but occasionally by democrats, someone who has a reputation for integrity, for intelligence, for fairness. This is someone that both sides can trust. However it does mean that this is going to be a very serious and almost certainly lengthy investigation which cannot be good news to the white house. The president saying hes looking forward to this getting done quickly. Best of luck with that. Dana you have new reporting on how this special counsel came about. Rod rosenstein, and i think this is quite obvious based on the decision, and the bombshell we have tonight, the special prosecutor, was more and more agitated with the white houses actions and being put in the position that he had been put in, to the point where he was so angry, according to the source who was in contact with rosenstein, that he was ready to, quote, pack his bags, last week. With this decision, particularly on the heels of yesterday and the comey memo becoming public, and more importantly the content allegedly of the comey memo, this is basically the perspective of this republican source, throwing donald trump overboard. Now were talking about politically, and maybe even legally depending on how this goes, want to be separate himself obviously from this and say, look, you guys are on your own and youre going to have this guy who has an impeccable reputation and impeccable experience and so forth obviously in a bipartisan way to do this investigation. The one other thing that this source says and well see if this source comes to bear, that the next big move on capitol hill and the next big public event was supposed to be james comey going to capitol hill testifying publicly. Is that going to happen. It doesnt look like it. But this source says probably what bob mueller will do is shut it down, meaning he will take stock of everything, including james comeys memos, including what james comey has to say, and perhaps prevent him or ask him, his good friend james comey, not to go testify. Hes a private citizen now so he can kind of do what he wants. Evan perez, who obviously is very steeped in these things, also notes if that happens, if james comey says huhuh, im not going to do it. Thats another bad news sign for the white house which means that bob mueller is going to incorporate the comey memo and the comey conversation with the president into his investigation. If i could just add one point to that. Comey almost certainly, when receiving a request to testify in front of congress, will go to his friend bob mueller and say look, what do you want me to do . What can i do that will jeopardize your investigation the least . And mueller, starting from scratch is almost certainly going to say, hold on, dont do anything, let me get my hands around this problem and then maybe well see if its okay to testify. Gloria, what do you make of this development . Well, i think that it gives a lot of people some breathing room on capitol hill, the democrats have been calling for a special counsel, now they have a special counsel whom they respect and who is respected on both sides of the aisle. I was talking to a senior senator democratic aid who said to me, its amazing to watch republicans on the special counsel go from we dont need one to hes amazing. So the republicans are applauding this so a great degree because now they can go home to their constituents, they can say they are not ducking an investigation. They can say the special counsel is going to handle this and we need to get back to the peoples business. I think mueller is an impeccable choice. I think people on the hill believe that he is. I think they are going to want to conduct their own investigations and jeffrey knows a lot about this because he was involved in iran con ttra and theyre not going to be happy if comey doesnt want to testify, to be honest, because theyre going to want to continue their investigation, the democrats, that is, and theyre going to want to continue to go out on their own so you maze sy see a of conflict there. First of all its another selfinflicted wound, when the president blamed Rod Rosenstein for james comeys firing, rosenstein made himself unfireable. I would say this is a mixed blessing. For the american public, its not such a good thing, we probably wont learn anything from this investigation, its going to be secret, we will never hear from a witness, we in the end we will either hear no indictment or an indictment. To the extent that we want to know what really went on, an independent Investigation Commission of the kind of 9 11 or the challenger, would have been better better for the american public. And i think President Trump could have avoided a special prosecutor if he had pressed for an independent commission earlier. Some people still want an independent commission. As gloria was saying earlier, the fact that you have a congressional investigation and a Law Enforcement investigation at the same time can generate controversy and conflict. The most dramatic example being the issue of immunity. Congressional committees want to get people to testify, so they want to give out immunity. Law enforcement, they dont want to give immunity, and the most dramatic example of this conflict came involved in the investigation i was involved in in iran contra, where john poindexter, and the white house aides were giveren immunity. And we prosecuted them anyway. They were conflicted buzz the conviction was overturned. That sort of conflict is very much possible. David axelrod, can you envision any scenario in which democrats criticize this, bob mueller being very well respected . Having embraced rosenstein on the decision to fire the fbi director, hes boxed. One interesting thing about this, if the president truly believes in his statement that his campaign and his associates and he will be cleared by such an investigation. Then he should welcome this, because if it had been the Just Department that issued that statement, i think there would be broad skepticism about it. Bob mueller, if he were to conclude that there were no laws broken, that there was no such involvement, carries much greater credibility. But on this question of the commission, on professor d dershowi dershowitzs fact, as he said, this process is going to be comfortab conducted in secret. And if this is a way of blocking the investigation, the public will never get the full picture of what happened. Theres another important reason too, its very likely no crime occurred. If there was contact between the russian angd the administration it might be a terrible, terrible thing, but it wouldnt be a crime. So mueller wouldnt have jurisdiction to look into that. He cant look into thing that are politically bad or morally bad. Hes looking at that white whale, he east if gets the whale or he doesnt get the whale, but he looks at the entire seascape. Whats going for the country as an independent commission could possibly be, as David Axelrod is saying, they want it to happen. Republicans right now are Running Congress and they are breathing the biggest sigh of relief, i think we can hear it all the way up here in new york, because they feel that this is a big out for them. Because theyre going to take it out of the public eye . Out of the public eye, and what it means is that now that they all go home and get beaten up about whats going on, they can say, you know what . Its in the hands of a very well respected prosecutor, bob mueller and i dont know anything about it, i cant talk about it. The investigations arent over, so they are going to continue to investigate and hold hearings, so its not going to go completely under ground. It wont go under ground, but it wont be broadened. Youve got on the house side, seven parttime staff, working parttime on this issue, i think its the same on the senate side. The special counsel will be fully resourced to pursue this investigation and thats one reason why there was a lot of interest in seeing a special counsel appointed. You know Robert Mueller, what do you make of his appointment . Boy, on a personal and professional level, this is profound for me, i had an office, director mueller was down the hall, i must have been involved in 1,000, 2,000 the decisions, for every american who feels turbulence, they can sleep tonight. 30 years around public service, i never saw anything like him, for any american who looks for integrity judgment, i saw him do personnel, political investigations that involved corruption, i watched him make decisions in thousands of cases, i went to him in war zones in places like iraq. I dont know what to say, i never saw anything like it. July, character, integrity, humility. If you have a kid and youve decemb despaired that theres not a hero in washington, bob mueller is it. A lot of republicans have been focusing on its not likely that there would be a tremendous amount of leaks coming out of this office. In spite of our best efforts. We will try, and the fbi will still be involved and the fbi is a bit leakier than mueller has encountsered himself. You can see whos walking into a jury room, and whos walking out. You can see whos testifying, defense lawyers whose clients are subpoenaed can talk about it, and they often do. There will be an fbi director, how do they Work Together, who oversees who and can the special counsel direct fbii inagents to do things . The way it works, mueller will be charged in the investigation. He will go to the fbi and say i need the following resources, i need 10 agents, and the fbi will give you what you want, mueller will be in charge of the investigation, but he can draw on the resources of the fbi and pretty freely. The fbi should work for bob mueller, lets be clear skies once j. Edgar hoover was expose as the thug that he was, the fbi works for the Justice Department. Yes, he has an independent statue 10year term. Theyre not supposed to do investigations generally of potential criminal conduct. Except under the investigation of u. S. Attorneys or Justice Department attorneys and the special counsel is no different from any other prosecutor in the Justice Department, except hes not in the line of authority, hes been appointed specially, but he uses the same kinds of resources. So i think we can expect the same from him. Now remember that ten years ago, if they asked everybody about his predecessor, comey, we would have heard the same praise, he is a boy scout, he was fantastic, he was the great herseest at this. But he succumbed to power. And i think that the new director has learned a lesson, hes not going to do what the old director did, although the temptations are there to do it. He will hire lawyer who is will be special prosecutors. Heres a question that i have, which is that the congressional committees have a different job. They want to present this to the American People who are really concerned about whether there was collusion, the russia hack and all the things that we have been writing about and talking about for these past months. The special counsel wants to figure out whether any crimes were committed. He wants to prosecute, and again, to jeffrey, this is what happened with Lawrence Walsh and the congressional committees on iran contra. So you have people with kind of different cogoals, because i thk what you see, particularly from the democrats in the congress is they want to shine the light on this, one way or another, and a prosecutor really just wants to prosecute and doesnt want to shine the light unless it will help him in his prosecution. Hes focussing on the legality, instead of moral or whats politically appropriate or whatever. The leak about the israeli spy is almost certainly not a crime. Now there is a crime, the people who leaked that information to the Washington Post committed a serious felony. And by the way, theyre the ones who told isis that israel has a spy in their midst. That didnt happen from donald trump. He told the russians, but it is the leaker whos being praised all over the place, who is a felon, a criminal and should go to jail, who is the villain of this piece. I want to bring in laura allen who was in the white house when all this came to light today. What was it like . Reporter it was a pretty fast moving turn of events, the reporters here at the Justice Department were gathered very swiftly just after 5 00, we were given about 30 minutes notice, we were given in that briefing, the sames from the attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, as well as the Staff University from the special counsel to understand a little bit of the background and the order from the Deputy Attorney general himself. I want to read to you just a little bit from his statement so you can understand the context here. He says in part, my decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination, what i have determined is that based upon the unique circumstances, the Public Interest requires me to place this skrefinvestigation u the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command and obviously it is Rod Rosenstein making this decision because the attorney general Jeff Sessions recused from anything related to the russia investigation, the Trump Campaign, the transition, back in march. So this was up to the Deputy Attorney general to make this decision, were also learning a little bit about the chain of events that went on this afternoon. Im told business a source that the Deputy AttorneyGenerals Office called the counsels office, did not give them a heads up but called them after this order was signed and attorney general Jeff Sessions was also informed of this decision after the order was signed, anderson. Fascinating, David Axelrod, one of the panelists earlier was saying this is kind of a situation of trumps making, by basically pointing to rod rosen stein as the reason why the fbi director was he seefled annoyed by that, then the white house changed their tune and now its Rod Rosenstein, lo and behold thats going for the special counsel. I dont know him. So i im not going to sit here and say that out of spite he desided that he would take this step. But he clearly has felt the brunt of this, for a week hes been consulting with, hes been talking to members of congress and hearing from others and reading and he understands the atmosphere aches, so when he became the attorney general, he was somebody who was heralded as a guy who was independent, i think he values his reputation, he understands the situation, what he did today was very much about protecting his integrity and the integrity of the Justice Department. I just, anderson, want to respond to one thing that professor dershowitz said, it struck me as i was listening to him, that had the Washington Post not disclosed the fact of sally yates meeting with the white House Counsel over general flynn, we dont know if he would have ever have been removed as National Security advisor. It was only after it became public that the president took action on it. Apparently it was only after it became public that the Vice President knew he had been lied to. So i understand the sensitivity of leaks and the administration i worked for was tough on leaks for sure. But theres no doubt that some of these leaks have shown a bright light in places where light was very much needed. I have no problem with the Washington Post publishing it or the Times Publishing it. I do have problems with the people who work for the National Security agencies leaking confidential information that may cost lives, that may make it much more difficult to detect lap tops. Remember the only way isis got this information is through the leak. And you have to be very careful when you leak, because youre taking the law into your own hands. You may not have all the information and know everything, we are still a country of laws and we have to make you cant say that family defintively what russia would have done with the information. What about iran. They have done things that are actually helpful to syria. So Bashar Al Assad is not and hes in line with iran too. We know the first Public Disclosure of it came from the leaks from within the National Security agencies and those leaks should be plugged. Can we just come back to the broader question of the president and his actions and how his actions have consequences . I am not defending the leak or anything of the sort. Im just want to point out what many people inside the white house and outside think caused this, which is the original donald trump attack of the Intelligence Community way back when, that really stuck in their craw, and he was warned, i i can tell you dont mess with the intelligence communities, because they have ways of getting back to you. It got back to intelligence committees that was then leaked to the Washington Post. Can bob mueller and the special prosecutor be fired, and the answer is yes, by President Trump. Thats different from the independent counsel law which has since expired and its a parallel situation to what happened under watergate. Which is when president reagan wound up demanding the firing of archibald cox, im sorry, nixon sorry, reagan, where when nixon demanded the firing of cox, that became the saturday night massacre. But he couldnt fire him, only the attorney general could fire him and the attorney general quit, the deputy quit and Robert Bourke came to the rescue of the president. He could be fired but that would be a catastrophic decision that would have made the firing of the fbi director look like a small event. The president benefitted nothing from the firing of comey, benefitted nothing at all. He got somebody even with more integrity and more investigative resources. So no benefit came. If youre sitting in the white house tonight, and you want to talk about selfsabotage and you want to think about the things that donald trump has done to himself, you can talk about the firing of comey, and you can start with that and you can talk about his tweets, where he threatened comey with the existence of socalled tapes. And reporting at cnn has said that as of last friday, rosen stein was not inclined to report a special counsel. So what happened between last friday and tonight . What happened is trump. And we have seen him be quiet on twitter, because perhaps on the advice of counsel. And im assuming now that hes getting lawyered up, if he isnt already, that after donald trump started talking about the tapes, after we learned about, you know, and then we learned about the comey memo, et cetera, i think that you read that, if youre Rod Rosenstein and you think this is getting out of control. And at a certain point, you decide there is nothing else you can do, other than the big thing that you really didnt want to do, because we know how long and wieldy these investigations can get, but he did do what he didnt want to do which is appoint a special counsel. There are a lot of people who would like to hear from director comey about the notes he was taking about President Trump, we may not hear about that unless he is willing to testify and come forward . I do think he should testify, but i think congress is going to blow this. Gloria pointed this out, people are not focusing on the criti l criticality, on what director mueller will do, did somebody commit a crime that merits indictment by the department of justice. The congress should be looking forwards, how do we protect the next elections, how do we talk about russias cyber intrusions, in implicated moscow in the previous election and how to protect ourselves in the next election. I think if he goes down with the congress, theyre going to emmesh themselves into what happened in director muellers investigation. They cant separate out we just lost the satellite link up. I want to expand on something dana talk about earlier about hearing a giant sigh of relief on capitol hill as lawmakers reacted to the timing of Robert Mueller. A lot of republicans have been saying there was no need for a special counsel or a prosecutor, what are you hearing tonight . Reporter anderson its getting harder and harder for republicans to defend President Trump after always of these relations come up, particularly the comey memo alleging that trump tied to interfere in his investigation. And a lot even the members of the leadership are raising concerns about the comey memo, and there needs to be some investigation to get to the facts. So tonight there is a bit of a sigh of relief, take a listen. Do you think the president was trying to obstruct justice in any way . Its hard for me to say anything on that, we want to gets more information, thats obviously a pretty brazen and big charge, but we deserve the answers to this and i think through an investigation, people need to understand its going to take some time to get this set up, but we need answers, i look forward to comeys testimony and any other information we can get. Are you concerned about this latest comey memo . Of course. I need to get the facts, thats what we need to do. And anderson, cornyn also praising the appointment of r L Robert Mueller as special prosecutor. Democrats are not there yet, but i am told by democratic sources tonight that its increasingly likely that theyll allow an fishfbi director nominee to go along before they agree to have the fbi director nominee. There are multiple investigations that we have been talking about in congress on russian interference, what happens to them on the special counsel, do they continue on . Because theres a number of them. Reporter they will continue on but the question is what happens, because there is a fair amount of information sharing between the Intelligence Community and these committees on capitol hill in order to move forward. How will the new special counsel deal with these investigations on capitol hill. We dont know that yet, the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Leaders issued a statement tonight saying they expect to have a back and forth with Robert Mueller, and i these well get an indication when Rod Rosenstein comes to the senate and briefings all the senators about what will happen here, and the democrats planned in a strategy session to demand that mueller name a special prosecutor and that session tomorrow could be a little less con teng shus. The appointment of former fbi direct for and respected lawyer Robert Mueller as a special counsel is a positive development and will provides some certainty for the American People. Will engage with director mueller and that he will engage with the committee as well. After last night when the president had told direct for comey, couldnt he give michael fl flynn a break in the investigation. Many American People will want to know if that in fact happened. And the only way they will know if that in fact happened, unless it is so egregious and it was obstruction of justice and theres criminality there, the only way they would know it happened would be open hearings. Thats right. And im still struggling with the word deconviction, i never heard of that word in my life. Its like the question of ho Public Information will be disclosed, i dont think is quite as settled as allen does. It is possible that at the conclusion of muellers investigation, he could file a public report. The independent counsel law, which Kenneth Starr filed a report, Lawrence Welch fired a report on iran contra. It is possible that he could file a report based on his investigation. U. S. Attorneys have been much criticized for doing that. The job is to indict or not to indict. And what im concerned about, is that mueller has so much credibility, he may actually tell some of these congressional committees, please, limit your investigation, dont mess around with our investigation. Dont people have the right to know if the president of the United States tried to stop an investigation . I think they do. And that is why even though it has the potential to really hurt a president in their own party, republicans, who run these key committees on capitol hill, particularly in the senate, were trying to get james comey and still are trying to get james comey to testify in public, and the pub thing i think we should underscore, which we mentioned a little bit, is how close james comey is to robert mum mueller, and the folks likes Lindsay Graham and the subcommittee chair were not able to set a date with james comey, and then suddenly poof, heres Robert Mueller as the special counsel, there may be a connection. This date back in 1973, was the first public hearing of the Senate Hearing on the president ial ingpresiden president ial hearings on the watergate investigation. Who years later to the day, two people who were major figures in watergate, Carl Bernstein and former white House Counsel john dean. As someone who worked in a white house who was under siege and being investigated by a special counsel. What is the mood in the west wing . I cant imagine its a happy white house now. Nixon watergate need to know white house. So it probably in the Trump White House isnt quite that smooth. Theyre still working out their staffing and its this has happened very early in their presidency, so im sure its a real ripple going through the operation. People in the white house, do they now see the special counsel as the enemy . I mean is that how he was viewed back in watergate . He wasnt to me. He probably was to some. Because while nixon didnt want a special counsel, he actually threw some names out and tried to influence it. I left before the special counsel was appointed and so i wasnt really there, casual actually covered that parol of the final days pretty well in his book. So carl, a, what about that, and also you heard the response from the white house, kind of measured although defined statement from President Trump tonight. Has this whole thing been put back on the rails for the time being. Whats happened is that this country has gotten through a moment of intense danger and pulled back from a precipice, because the president of the United States has been out of control and talking in a way of defying and demeaning the rule of law. And hes now constrained by the rule of law. So this is an immense event, and it occurred because Rod Rosenstein, who had been manipulated by the president , said enough. This cannot be. He tried to manipulate me in a statement that used me to justify the firing of comey. Perhaps the attorney general of the United States was also complicit in that, Jeff Sessions. And therefore wasnt informed until about an hour after this occurred. We have a whole new set of circumstances here and it includes, as dana has pointed out, the republican party, but the republicans especially, not only can they breathe a sigh of relief, but they have been in a position of having to defend a president who many of them believe is not fit for office. Thats what these four months have been about. The president of the United States through his tweets, through his public remarks, through his defiance of the rule of law has shown himself unfit for office and they have had to defend him and they no longer do. So theres a who new rule of law mechanic mechanism in place, and thats what happened in watergate, is that the rule of law prevailed. It will be interesting to see if President Trump resists the impulse to criticize the special counsel, late at night or early in the morning. What do you think would have happened back in the 70s if president nixon would have loved twitter . I think Richard Nixon would have had trouble operating twitter. He had trouble with his desk drawer, and those bottles that you had to push down to turn medicine bottles, he would fight those, so im not sure he would be skilled at twitter. But can i add a footnote about what was reported through independent counsel. You go all the way back to jaworski, as special counsel, same status as mueller will have, he did send a report to congress, went to the judge, got permission to provide the information to the house judiciary committee, and the house granted it, the jury information was sent us. As jeff pointed out earlier, this wont take months, this will possibly take years, just like watergate took years to finish, what effect will that have on the administration and the country in the meantime. Will the republicans be able to move forward with their agenda. The president of the United States by his own making has been unsuccess testimony in governing from the white house. This should be an opportunity for him, if hes really interested in the truth. If hes really interested in governing, let him go ahead and do what the president of the United States does. I dont think thats a very likely event here. We needs to get back to the central principle of what is occurring here, we have an Ongoing Investigation of whether or not the president of the United States haand his associas have colluded with a hostile foreign power, thats whats at the bottom of this. And the other thing is the president of the United States has failed and resisted making his finances known and his dealings with russians, ethno russians, people in the former soviet empire, hes done an awful lot of business with them. That is going to be part of this investigation, in all likelihood. His sons have said, how much russian money has poured into their family coffers . I would be amazed if this is not a road that the special counsel is not going to go down. So now the president is in a position he has tried to resist and he no longer can effectively as he has until now. Remember what a prosecutor does. He has a play thing, its called a grand jury. He can put anything in front of the grand jury. The grand jury hears only one site of the story, its secret, no lawyers are allowed into that grand jury room, it is a fundamental denial of basic due process for the prosecutor to come to any conclusion about what happened, the only thing he has the right to do is decide, what based on his evidence, there is probable cause to continue to have an indictment. Anything he does beyond that is ultravirus and every civil libertarian should be appalled at it because there is no fairness in the way the prosecutor gathers evidence. Its one sided, he doesnt gather exculpatory evidence, he doesnt hear from the defense lawyer, he doesnt have objections from the defense lawyer, it is a kangaroo court. I think thats an overstatement. But i do think there are other interests at play beside fairness and due process . Actually the publics interest in this result that are well come back to you guys in a moments. Joining us from the Senate Judiciary committee, democratic senator chris coons, Robert Mueller named special counsel, your reaction . Anderson, im encouraged. His long record of service as a senior federal prosecutor and as former fbi director, suggests that hes exactly the sort of person that 34 many of us hoped would be named for special counsel. He has previous experience stepping up to an overreach, an exercise of power by an administration and with standing them, under the bush administration, when he anded a number of other Law Enforcement officials threatened to resign if the ptz didnt respect their concerns as i think this is a positive and important step, anderson. To those americans who want to know, did the president try to get director comey to stop the investigation into general flynn, they may never get that information unless Robert Mueller determines that a law was broken. Is there any concern that the other investigations going on in the senate, going on in the house, which have public hearings will not be able to inform the American People as much as they would like . As your panel has been discussing, anderson, that is a possible path. There will be prompt conversations between special counsel mueller and the Senate Intelligence committee. I would hope that the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Hearings will move forward. The entire house has had a briefing from Rod Rosenstein and theres a number of important questions that will still be asked of him about the role that attorney general sessions played in directing him to write the memo that led to comeys firing and whether or not he exceeded the scope of his recusal, and about what the president s role was in the firing of fbi director comey. As you just heard from Carl Bernstein, theres a number of other issues that have not yet been brought in front of either the Senate Judiciary committee or the intelligence committee, that i think are also going to be of concern to us, it is my hope, anderson, that at the end of this, there will be a Public Accounting of whether or not there was collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. And its important for Public Confidence in the rule of law and in congress that that result be reached. Do you have any sense of what kind of a timeline were looking at in terms of the special counsel investigation . Its my expectation that the special counsel investigation will be fully staffed and resourced and the odds are that that will allow them to reach a conclusion sooner than they might have on the current trajectory, but it could take several months or several areas, because the intelligence investigation has a possible intelligence and criminal components. Because of former fbi director muellers senior experience, i dont think it will take him long to get up to speed and to be. Senator grassly said he doesnt matter if he thinks its the right move. Does it matter . What was striking was the number of my colleagues, republicans, who did not step forward and say we needed a special prosecutor who did not step forward particularly after last nights larmi ialarm allegations that we need to get to the bottom of this, that we need to understand whether or not our president has been inappropriately sharing highly classified information with our adversaries, russia, in the oval office. Whether he tried to intervene and pressure the fbi director to drop an investigation of his National Security adviser. I think its striking. And i think in the end, the general public wants to know whether or not senators, both republicans and democrat, are going to Work Together in a responsible and bipartisan way to get to the bottom of this. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Just ahead, more reaction to all of tonights big developments. Its our first commercial break in an hour. Well be right back. When you have allergies, it can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. Luckily theres powerful, 24hour, nondrowsy claritin. It provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. Live claritin clear. When this bell rings. It starts a chain reaction. Thats heard throughout the connected business world. At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. In the hours before the Justice Department named Robert Mueller as special prosecutor in the russia investigation, many republicans were resisting that step and urged caution over the allegations. Here is what paul ryan said earlier today. There are a lot of unanswered questions. What i told our members is now is the time to gather all the pertinent information. We cant deal with speculation and innuendo. Theres a lot of politics being played. Democrats were having none of it. Here is elijah cummings. Speaker ryan has shown he has zero zero, zero appetite for any investigation of President Trump. Two different points of view, both represented here with the panel. Whats your reaction to the naming of mueller. Many of us had full faith in the Justice Department and rod who proved himself when he did appoint a special prosecutor. He thought it was in the best interest for everyone. I think he was correct in that. This is good for the Trump Administration for two reasons. Many of us have been saying theres no evidence of collusion, no evidence. This is going to force the democratic the democratic hand when in fact you have an independent prosecutor coming out and saying theres no evidence of russian collusion. They cannot attack the messenger here. The prosecutor would just say theres evidence of illegality, not whether theres collusion. When he says theres no charges put forth, that will be a good tling for trhing for the administration. We have seen trust in american institutions demolished at the Justice Department when bill clinton meets with hloretta lynch. This will restore the American Peoples trust in institutions amid a partisan environment. Good all the way around. Wait a minute. Hasnt President Trump gone after american institutions more than any president in recent memory . The Intelligence Community, the Justice Department. He goes after it all the time. Thats what he came to washington to do. Burn it to the ground, destroy the deep state who is out there to attack him and leaking left and right. Can we cut through the crap here . Donald trump will be held accountable. What will hold the republicans accountable who enabled this man to go this far . We knew from day one what kind of person donald trump was. We knew that he had no respect for anyone let alone the rule of law. I want to know whats going to happen to people like Reince Priebus who demanded everyone pledge loyalty to this guy and now all these republicans are land cuffed to donald trump. Where has this gotten us . Where are the surrogates that barked and claps like circus seals . Investigates as far as the eye can see. Dont interrupt. Let her finish. Are you feeling good about that . How about letting her finish . I want to know. I think republicans like you who have given your loyalty to donald trump, what has he done for you . He dragged you into a terrible plate. Actually, if i look at what donald trump has done for me and middle class america, he has brought down the illegal Border Crossing by 60 . He has renegotiated trade agreements. Is it worth it . He brought unemployment down to a low level. He is restoring confidence in jobs. He pulled out of tpp. He is doing all give him credit where there has been credit. Im not giving him credit. He is dragging down okay. Hold on. Lets focus on the actual news tonight, mueller. For those can i for those americans that doesnt mean for those americans who want to know, did the president of the United States try to stop director comey from investigating michael flynn, they may never get that answer because maybe there was not enough evidence to bring a case against it in which case we wont hear anything from director mul eller. We dont flow that. Many independent councils feel a need for the Public Interest to report. Thats controversial. You are supposed to speak with an indictment. That might prompt a report. I would say, donald trump ran on a pledge of law and order and god help him he is going to get it. Mr. Mueller is a credible Law Enforcement official. He is going to get to the bottom of it. He may be pristinely innocent. Will accept that if thats what we find. He is sweating bullets now. The next big story is the president has to lawyer up. He needs to lawyer up. Right away. The white House Counsel doesnt represent donald trump. He represents they were saying he should do that now. Yesterday. By the way, he may well have. Probably already has. We dont know. He has had a lawyer in the past in new york city. He is a civil lawyer. Whether he retained a criminal lawyer, i dont know. He is representing the russian company. What a coincidence. Let me point out something. We have had independent prosecutors or special counsels going back to 1875. Grant named the first one because of the whiskey ring or something going on there. There have been 20 since 1983. This isnt something unusual. Jimmy cart her to deer had to dd reagan. Ronald reagan never had but let me say this. Let him finish. Let me say this. As somebody involved with the campaign, i do believe theyre going to show theres no collusion. Whats going to happen then is some of the partisans arent going to be as satisfied or mas kind as paul. Are they going to say the there were too many subpoenas mr. Mueller will tell us. Will you be of good faith . I believe he will let Justice Department know, maybe congress know. Senator tufranken raised about , he needs to be resourced. He wouldnt have agreed to do this knowing him. The idea that is it a done deal that this will answer everybodys questions . To the point that our panelists were making it could end with mueller determines theres no actual law that was broken. Democrats could still say, what about there are seems like theres acts of collusion. Whether they are illegal or not, its a question of are they appropriate. I think the only appropriate answer to that is i dont know at this point. I im not sure that answer is knowable at this point. Mueller is in addition to being an accomplished prosecutor, he is expressed in washington and in the world. He understands the importance of the larger questions here, independent of the criminal culpability of any individual. He will be aware of the need for some sort of Public Disclosure. Whether he files a report, how he