In a signed letter, the former federal prosecutors and other top ranking doj officials write that no one should be, quote, given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are close political ally of the president. And warning governments that use their power to punish enemies or reward their allies are autocracies. Growing increasingly worried about all this, the New York Times reporting that many wonder whether trump was undermining the departments treasured reputation for upholding the law, and whether barr was able or willing to protect it. Now as House Democrats grapple with whether to launch new investigations into trump over his alleged abuse of power, the white house is playing defense. I dont think that its impossible to do this job. I think that attorney general barr is doing a great job. I think he has a lot of confidence inside the white house. The president of the United States has not asked or directed his attorney general privately to do anything at any criminal matter, including roger stone. Policy is different than criminal cases. Now meanwhile, other trump defenders are trying to say the problem isnt with the substance of trumps actions, its just his use of social media. Does the president have a right to tweet about a case . Of course. Just because you can sing, though, doesnt mean you should sing. This is a case where tweeting less would not cause brain damage. All right. So late this afternoon former Vice President joe biden telling my colleague Nicolle Wallace that barr helped facilitate the greatest abuse of power he has ever seen. This has been the greatest abuse of power i have ever seen at the hands of this president who has no, no sense of decency or understanding of the constitution. And bar is facilitating and it is beyond my comprehension. No president has ever intimidated an attorney general into abusing power as much as this man has. Lets start with two people who signed that letter, Barbara Mcquade and former federal prosecutor John Flannery. Let me begin with you, if i can, barbara. First of all, why was it important for you the lend your name to this letter . Well, first, i wanted to show support for the four career prosecutors who were involved in this case, filed their sentencing memo recommending sentencing guidelines and were overruled the next day by the department of justice. Three withdrew from the case. One resigned from the Justice Department department. I wanted to show support for them for doing their jobs. I also just wanted to ask william barr to step up and be a leader, to lead the department. He has famously said he is not so concerned about his own reputation because everybody dies. Well, he also has a duty to represent the representation of the department of justice. And we hope that even though everybody dies, the reputation of the Justice Department will endure. And john, same question to you. Why did you feel it was important for you to sign this letter as well . Well, i think there are so many data points on how barr is not interested in justice except for mr. Trump. He is his consigliere. I am somewhat Less Charitable that we could ever hold barr to reform his ways. Im not sure it will ever have criminal justice while barr is the head of the department of justice, because he will do the bidding of the president. And in this particular case, the one that theyre concerned about is a mirror of what he was just impeached for, because the underlying charge that isnt discussed enough is the interference in our election by stone, and the second par is obstructions the investigation by the Intelligence Committee of this interference and coercing and threatening witnesses and lying such that they never got to the answers that we were able to find afterwards. So this is it seems like the president wants to learn how to do that in this case and in flynn to evaporate the allegations of his misconduct by using his power to silence and diminish and perhaps eliminate these allegations. I think that the letter was critical, not just to give courage to those in the Justice Department who must emulate the actions of these four prosecutors who resisted the effort to interfere in this sentencing procedure, but in the other ones that will come up. Whats going to happen in the flynn case . Whats going to happen in new york . Whats going happen in pittsburgh . This is a critical time. And we have i think a constitutional crisis. Who would a prosecutor go to above him to correct this . Not shea who is bars person. Not barr. Not trump. So they have no recourse except to resign and call them out on it. I think thats the problem right now. Barbara, let me get your thoughts on something right here, which as we have been reporting on this, the four prosecutors in the roger stone case essentially resigned en masse after this came out that the department of justice was withdrawing their sentence recommendation to the court. Do you get a sense, and im sure youre probably still in touch with a lot of your former colleagues but dow joao a pulse on the morale within the Justice Department. Do you think were at a Tipping Point for the department of justice and its employees under attorney general bill barr . Its hard to know. Its a huge department, 11,000 employees. Its hard to know what they all feel. But it reminds me a little bit of what was going on in the george w. Bush Administration Just before Alberto Gonzales resigned. You may recall that was in relation of the firing of the u. S. Attorneys. You heard a lot of grumbling within and without the department of justice. And i believe what finally caused Alberto Gonzales to resign was that he felt he could no longer lead effectively. He had lost the confidence of the people within the Justice Department. So i think that this letter and that kind of dynamic could be something that causes william barr to resign. And john, the letter calls for department of justice employees to prepared to report future abuse, to refuse to carry out directives inconsistent with their oaths of office and publicly withdraw or resign if necessary. What message are you trying to send . Do you think those employees, not necessarily all 11,000, but certainly some of the key federal prosecutors at the very highest level of it would heed that call . I would hope so. And, you know, the kind of person who becomes a prosecutor or goes to the Justice Department really does believe in the law. And there is nothing like the crises of today to understand that lesson. And the fact that these four stood up is another example of the patriots that we have in our government who are prepared to take risks and to risk the income to do the right thing. And so i think that this is a message throughout the department. I think that barr will sit there planted in his seat as long as trump wants him there and i believe their recent kabuki theater of him finding it impossible to work if trump is going to tell the world what misconduct theyre perpetratoring on the American People was just that, theater, bad theater, reality tv. But of the worst kind, because its in defiance of the rule of law and the constitution. And treating all people equally in our justice system, none of which happens with these guys when it come close to getting reelected to pursuing their power into the next administration if they can pull it off. All right, Barbara Mcquade, thank you very much. John, were going to see you again a little later in the show. Lets bring in vince warren, and Christina Greer, political professor at fordham university. Great to have you both with us. Christina, when you kind of look at this twostep dance that donald trump and william barr are doing together, on one hand william barr is saying hey, you know what . I cant be influenced. Thats what he said during his confirmation hearing. He takes a great pride in trying to be or project independence from the white house, but at the same time saying hey, the president s tweets are making it impossible to do my job. Whats the message theyre trying to send here . I think the message the president is sending is i own everyone. I own the senate, i own the doj and i own the supreme court. We have to remember two things. One, when senator kampls wkamal harris was interviewing, he did abdabbing. She asked direct questions and he couldnt give her a straight answer as to i believe he said im grappling with your word of suggesting. Missing the point completely. Exactly. Or are you missing the point. And the second is that the president pushed out Jeff Sessions because he wasnt enough of a lackey. We didnt know that the bar could go any lower, the ar, and now were seeing with this new attorney general that he is essentially pledged his loyalty to the president and he has no control over his department. But he is as jeff said, he will not leave until the president is done with him. We know that the president sort of views people and decides that he is done with him. The whole theater of i wish i could my job but the tweeting, we know that this president uses social media at his own will and everyone has to adjust to all of the legal things he likes to say. To that point about social media, do you buy this argument that people like Kellyanne Conway and senator kennedy, some of the president s defenders coming on and saying hey, he has the right to tweet. He is tweeting. And her exact words is the president didnt say anything to william barr privately, and she emphasized that word privately as to say you know what . If he is reading the tweets, thats up to him. Thats not up to the president. I dont buy it. Its a lot of baloney. Whats interesting, if you listen to how much people are talking in the administration, theyre talking about right, the president s right. He is tweeting about his rights to do whatever the heck he wants. Hes got a right to tweet. And rights are not really whats at issue here. What were talking about is what is appropriate behavior so that the system can be at least viewed pass the laugh test. Everybody knows that whether or not barr got a direct message from donald trump, he got the message just like christina said before he even got that job, that you could not take that job unless you were doing the president s bidding. And he did he has pledged fealty to the president over the United States over the department of justice, over the rule of law. That is 100 clear, and there is no tweeting or mea culpas or crying in your soup on abc. And it is extraordinary that prosecutors have now called for the current prosecutors to resist. That does not happen. I know a lot of the people that are on that list. These are people who believe in the rule of law, that they understand what makes government work, and for them to be calling for folks to if you see something, say something, if you resist and dont move forward anything that you think is inconsistent with your duty, and if you cant do any of those things, then resign. That tells you a lot about what the legal establishment thinks about what this administration is doing to the rule of law. You cant help but wondering if attorney general bill barr is a looking at Jeff Sessions and saying i dont want anything i dont want my career and reputation. Everybody has their time in the woodshed with this president. We saw how Jeff Sessions couldnt abdicate fast enough. Everyone around the president are either in prison, on prison, going to trial or something has gone awry because the president uses you and then throws you away once hes gotten what he needs. Let me throw this from 60 minutes to debunk the theory that the president and his allies have been essentially propagating for some time now. Watch this. Are there any links to your knowledge between crowdstrike and anyone in ukraine . Not to my knowledge. Did crowdstrike ever since any of the dncs computer hardware to the ukraine . No. That is insane, and that is not within the realm of reality. The russians are very good at that. Its these fake stories that they have propagated, and thats what they do. They do it pretty well. We have to be on guard against that. So those are the types of fake stories that Rudy Giuliani is trying to feed to the department of justice. And you think that the attorney general will be like hey, were not going have any of this. Were going to stick to the facts. No. Were saying we have an intake process for any information Rudy Giuliani gathers for us in the field to take on board. Why do you think william barr is even entertaining these conspiracy theories. Because the president of the United States is telling him to do so. That is his friend, and that is someone who he still thinks can get information on his adversaries. We know he is highly paranoid, and we know he doesnt trust many people. So this is something that he is telling barr to follow through. Whatever scent it, no matter how ridiculous, and we know that weve observed this president for several decades now in the media. So we know his tells, when he repeats things, some people say. We know he can make up things literally out of thin air but make himself believe it. Thats barrs charge, and the sad thing is you have as vince was saying, faithful employees who have dedicated themselves to the United States constitution and the United States public who then have to work under a man who is following the breadcrumbs of a president and his sort of paranoid fantasies. Speaking of people who are supposed to be loyal to the constitution, there are reports a top aide to the president is trying to reveal the name of the person who wrote that anonymous oped that warned against the president in the same way that many of the president s allies have tried to oust or out the whistleblower in all of the impeachment the ukraine impeachment stuff. Do you think President Trump is just going through a list of names that he considers are his enemies and going after them . Yes, i do. Its a big long list, and it changes and it evolves every day. If something happens on twitter or somebody says something the wrong way, he goes after them. Nixon did that as well. He was a little bit more stealthy about it than trump. Heres what we need to think. Number one is that any time that were in a situation where there is no protection for a whistleblower that is calling out really bad problematic illegal activity, were in trouble as a democracy. Any time that we have an attorney general in an establishment that would rather put peoples stuff on blast and prosecute them than to protect them, were in trouble. Any time we have an attorney general that now is reinvestigating a range of things that the department of justice had already done, were in enormous trouble in this country. And it does all come from President Trumps wishes. Otherwise, a person with integrity in barrs position would have never taken that job to begin with, and once confronted with these things, would publicly and ceremoniously resign and say i totally dont stand for this. Vince warren, thank you so much. Christina greer, were going talk to you again. Dont go too far. Stick around. Coming up, federal prosecutors seeking new witnesses as they investigate Rudy Giuliani. Plus Michael Bloomberg getting called out by his democratic rival for trying to hide behind his tv ads and his money, and lawmakers demanding answers over taxpayer money going straight into Donald Trumps pocket. Im Ayman Mohyeldin in for ari melber. Youre watching the beat on msnbc. As parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. vo why the aceves family chose verizon. We all use our phones very differently. These two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. And my oldest is learning to be a pilot. We need a Reliable Network because i need to know hes safe. As soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. Mama vo the network more people rely on, gives you more. Like plans your family can mix and match starting at just 35. So everyone gets the plan they need. And apple music on us. Plus, iphone 11 on us when you buy the latest iphone. Thats verizon. sensei beautiful. 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New signs of legal trouble for Rudy Giuliani because even as trumps doj admits its taking rudys dirt on biden, new reports suggest the investigation into rudy himself is now heating up with the Washington Post reporting that federal prosecutors here in new york have been contacting witnesses and looking for additional documents in the rudy probe since the impeachment trial began wrapping up, including interviewing one witness just last week. That story came as cnn reports that prosecutors are considering new charges against giulianis associate lev parnas related to a company that paid rudy half a million dollars, not sure for what exactly. All of it setting up a strange dynamic. Trumps doj looking into rudys activity, even though as his attorney general confirmed last week the doj is also evaluating tips that rudy is submitting about the bidens. The doj has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that they think is relevant. We had established an intake process in the field so that any information coming in about ukraine could be carefully scrutinized by the department that is true about all information relating to the department of the ukraine, including anything mr. Giuliani might provide. Which me now former u. S. Attorney carol lehman. Back with me former federal prosecutor John Flannery who used to work with Rudy Giuliani. Carol, let me begin with you. Do you believe there is new life to the investigation into rudy . And as that sound bite just suggested there, you had the attorney general saying were willing to take information from Rudy Giuliani though he does not comment he is also part of an ongoing investigation. I dont know thats necessarily new life to the investigation. The District Attorneys Office has been doing what they had to do. We knew in october that Rudy Giuliani had gotten 500,000 from the company that lev parnas and igor fruman ran, ironically enough, called fraud guarantee. But i think the much more interesting question to me why does bill barr have to set up this separate intake unit out of the Western District of pennsylvania in pittsburgh . Because although there are times when attorney generals will say were going use a u. S. Attorneys office to look into something because we dont want people thinking there is a conflict of interest at main justice, john durham in connecticut is looking into a lot of the fbis activity, for example, here you already have a district, the Southern District of new york that is really looking into these activities in ukraine, and parnas and fruman and giuliani and why move part of this intake information to pittsburgh . Thats a little troubling to me. And i think a question for bill barr is why dont you have faith in the Southern District of new york to take on both investigations . John, the Washington Post suggesting prosecutors took new steps as the impeachment probe was winding down, do you think they would have scaled things back during the trial at all . I dont know why theyve been comatose based on the public reports this period of time. Those of us who do trial work wonder why when rudy waved his hand and said in this telephone, i have everything that anybody could want to know about this. And he came back on or about i think december 8th. There was a new York Magazine article describing him and he had several phones with him. Why arent those phones being investigated . Why havent they been seized with a search warrant or whatever was necessary . The problem here is the Justice Department has an identity crisis. On the one hand in a battleground state, they set up a transfer of the information that perhaps is the investigatio investigation they couldnt get zelensky to do in ukraine, and theyre going do it here in pittsburgh. And at the same time the fellow theyre taking this information who not like anybody off the street is supposedly under investigation in the Southern District of new york where Rudy Giulianis partner is the current u. S. Attorney and this guy is the lawyer for the president. We have to wonder if igor and lev are not going to be the ones that end up in the cat bird seat when additional charges are brought and what will happen with rudy. And i dont know that we have any protection against the overweening ambition of the president and barr to secure reelection. So we have to watch and see. Now im a veteran of the Southern District of new york called the sovereign district of new york with a history of independence. And i dont think we know enough to know whether or not theyre under the thumb of barr and that this division isnt a calculation to credit giuliani for now disclosing what terrible things happened with the bidens and offsetting whatever prosecution or investigation there might be in new york. Let me, carol, play for you what trump had to say about giuliani just last week. Was it strange to send Rudy Giuliani to ukraine, your personal lawyer . Are you sorry you did that . Not at all. Rudy was a great crime fighter, you know that maybe better than anybody. Of course, yeah. How could prosecutors use this information that trump now admits rudy was working on his behalf . This is just another sorry, carol, go ahead. Im sorry, this is just another example of how the president doesnt understand, he just doesnt understand the lines between what people do in their capacity as Government Employees engaged in Public Service and what they do for the president personally. And cant conflate those two roles. People who are in Public Service have a duty above and beyond the president s own personal interests. That is just something that the president does not understand, but that does not excuse his conduct. And where those two conflate, there are going to be problems. So bill barr, his responsibility is to look at those two things simply. He has not persuaded people he is able to do that. All right, carol lam, John Flannery, thank you both for joining us this hour. Still ahead, Michael Bloomberg, are they scared of his surge . That when we are back in 30 seconds. Now through february 24th. Score extra savings on mattresses from tempurpedic, serta, beautyrest and sealy, starting at just 399 kick back and relax while we do all the heavy lifting. Because every single mattress ships free you dont want to snooze on these deals. Shop now through february 24th. Only at wayfair. Com. Michael bloomberg with 62 billion can buy every ad he wants, but he cant in fact wipe away his record on everything from dealing with stop and frisk to his Foreign Policy assertions and the like. That was joe biden slamming Michael Bloombergs record in an interview with Nicolle Wallace earlier today. Bloombergs democratic rivals are sharpening really their attacks as he continues to rise in national polls. 60 billion can buy a loft advertising. But it cant erase your record. Bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of millions of dollars try ting to buy an election. Anyone who defends bank discrimination and then blames the victims is someone who should be representing our party. He needs to go on shows like this, which he hasnt done. He just cant hide behind the airwaves. He has to answer questions. And now bloomberg is on the verge of qualifying for wednesdays debate. It would be his first. And he will have a lot of questions to answer for. The Washington Post reporting on several lawsuits filed over the years alleging that women were discriminated against at bloombergs company, and unearthed comments from 2016 saying he could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer. But we have never seen a spending spree like what bloob is doing with his own money, now purchase passing 400 million in ad spending alone. His latest ad, an attack on Bernie Sanders and his supporter, which is going viral today. All right. Joining me now are democratic strategist Tara Odonnell and Christina Greer is back with us. Christina, let me begin with you. Bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar, does the fact that they are going on the attack against Michael Bloomberg suggest anything to you . If so, what is that . Yes. Theyre all worried and scared. Michael bloomberg got roughly over 4600 writein votes in new hampshire. We know he is not on the ballot in South Carolina and he is not part of the caucus debates in nevada. However, they know that he surged. He is now number two among African American voters with the poll that came out last week, and he is third nationwide of just again voters. They are worried because he has an infinite amount of money to spend and those of us who were in new york for his 21, 2005, and 2009 campaigns knows he know thousand craft a message specifically for you. Right . Soso many people trying to do well in iowa, new hampshire, South Carolina, nevada so that they can raise money so that they can get to super tuesday. Michael bloombergs already been in super tuesday states. He has already been showing ads to all the different sort of specific democratic voters based on race, age, ethnicity, occupation. Unlike the president , he actually has hired some of the best people, and he has been slowly but surely getting endorsements of black elites. Whether or not that translates and trickles down to the masses we rest mains to be seen, but he has 62 million. There are a lot of the Democratic Candidates in the field who have been working very hard to raise money and get their message out, and bloomberg has a severe advantage. That doesnt mean he will win the nomination, but we will see if money can beat time in this particular instance. Let me ask you quickly about one of his more controversial policies here in new york, stop and frisk. He has been able to until now, although he has drawn criticism for it, christina was say, get a bit of a spike in the African American community, particularly in South Carolina. How do you explain that . How do you explain it from one advantage point that the African American community in South Carolina views him in one light, but certainly here in new york a different light . Well, its complicated. The African American community, the black community, has has been said by many others is not a monolith. Were very different depending what region were. In i attribute a lot of this to people who are paying attention. I dont mean that a criticism. There are people especially in the black community who are working two jobs, three jobs, people who are going to school. If you werent in new york at this time, it wasnt as acute for you. You may have heard about it, but you probably heard about it loosely, because youre not paying attention. If youre in South Carolina, any of the states, youre not paying attention to what is going on in new york. Youre paying attention to those things that are challenging to you in your own state, right . There is that dynamic of people not being as familiar with his record. But now this coming out and people will get more familiar with this part of his record. I think to that point about loosely paying attention, i think a lot of people arent watching and reading as vociferously as those of us sitting here are. I think to sort of assume that people are educated on this issue when he has blanketed the airwaves as you stated with all the positive things that he has done. Right. When he has spent so much time highlighting the good parts of the record, he is not spending all the money while highlights the negative parts that dynamic too is another issue. I think its complicated. Look, at the end of the day, all of the candidates running have some explaining to do when it comes to black voters. So i think a lot of the kids are harping on bloomberg, and rightfully. So lets be clear. Amy klobuchar has some explaining to do. Bernie sanders who voted for the 1994 crime bill has some explaining to do. Joe biden has some explaining 20 do. Pete buttigieg has some explaining to do. And i dont think any of them have effectively explain wide they made the choices they made and properly talked about how theyre going rectify that they have policies about how theyre with the courts controlled how they are, with the possibility of Mitch Mcconnell holding the senate, what are they going to do to get past those hurdles and to make things right systematically for the African American community. I think going to taras point, because the community isnt a monolith, we care about immigration, and climate and jobs, but in a piece why black voters were going towards bloomberg, it seems, though, the one single issue in 202010, for many black voter, not all, is to get donald trump out of the office. So in a headtohead matchup, when you ask people, because all of the candidates have somewhat of a problematic record with Race Relations and black americans in familiar, when you ask, okay, bloomberg over pete, people are well, i dont really know pete. Bloomberg over amy. Who is she . We just know something about her time as a prosecutor. Bloomberg over biden. Biden seems like he is failing. In head to head because he is flooding the airwaves about just positives people know about stop and frisk to a certain extent, maybe not the real travesties that happened to new yorkers, but he is able to frame himself in a way that i can beat trump. I think thats of great import. There is this question as to whether or not bloomberg resonates with an average american. He is worth 62 billion. Hes had some disparaging comments as you said there about farmers and others. There is all kinds of stuff popping up there. Is all kinds of stuff about the way women are treated. Let me play this sound bite on the way bloomberg. You put seed, in add dirt on, add water, up comes the corn. Now comes the information economy. You to have a different skill set. You to have a lot more gray matter. With everything that has happened in this country over the last couple of years, with the occupy wall street protest, with the farm bankruptcies skyrocketing, the economic levels, with the red lines, not just African Americans, disenfranchised communities, Michael Bloomberg struggling to connect at a time where voters want to feel their leaders are fighting for them and not lecturing them . I think it depends, because just as i said the African American community isnt monolithic, and neither is the democratic party. Extraordinarily heterogenous. I think thats where your seeing some of those tensions at play right now. If youre someone who is struggling, yes, Michael Bloomberg would be less relatable. If you work for a corporation and youre starting to see yourself move up the ladder, then maybe he would be a little bit more relatable. I think it really depends on where you fall within the economic spectrum. I think trump has lowered the bar so much, you can always explain away certain things. Michael bloomberg is a billionaire not because he sells widgets, but because he understands the media and he can frame it in a way that i think he can move past. This its a news cycle. If he can weather the storm and put out ads to explain it, he is fine. Well see what happens on the debate as well. Tara odowd and Christina Greer, thank you. A phone call in the roger stone case could be linked to his sentencing. And conflict emerges for President Trump on a wedding he went to and charging the secret service. And a very special guest on the new calls for attorney general barr to resign, including his former colleague. Theres a company thats talked to even more real people than me jd power. 448,134 to be exact. They answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. And when they were done, chevy earned more j. D. 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Were back with that unprecedented call for attorney general william barr to resign. More than 2,000 former doj staffers signing a letter on barr to essentially resign from his post, writing his actions in doing the president s personal bidding unfortunately speak louder than his words. Those actions require mr. Barr to resign. And now allies of the attorney general are also speaking out. Donald heir under george w. Bush writes barr must resign. Given his attacks on the rule of law, it is not too strong to suggest that bill barr is unamerican. Here is what eric said right here on the beat last week. I dont think he is fit for the office because i think what he has done is to undertake a campaign essentially to undermine the department of justice as it was reformed and weve all lived with it for the last 45 years, reform following watergate. Joining me now is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and executive editor of new yorker. Com david rohde who is writing about william barr. Trumps sword and shield with a focus on critics, now wondering if barr is paving the way for autocracy. Le me begin with asking you. Do you believe from what you have gathered as a report theyre everything william barr has done is undermining our democracy s and pushing us towards an autocracy . I fear it is. I want to think that this interview this week was sort of a cry from bill barr that the president was out of control, but its not clear yet. And bill barr needs to make a more decisive statement about which direction he is going to go. Why do you think that interview was a cry for help . To say the president s tweets are making it impossible for me to do my job. The president s tweets are making me, bill barr look personally corrupt is a brave thing for a member so you thou it was a genuine call . I know there is deeply divided opinion. I want to give bill barr the benefit of the doubt here there no i would that that interview helped him with donald trump. And weve seen how he treats people who defy him. I think there was a strategy here. Many people say it was just words and it doesnt mean much and he was essentially saying hey, President Trump, let me do these corrupt things and help your friends. Just dont make it so public by tweeting about it. It seems he is still getting involved in cases in ways that people are saying is troubling. Roger stone has confessed to the crimes he is accused of doing and now william barr is saying lets review this. Yeah, and thats whats so troubling is he is bringing in all these outside prosecutors to review these cases. It goes back to a decades old theory that barr has had, its a very extreme one that the president can be in charge of all prosecutions. He can essentially send his enemies to to jail and go easy on his friends. This is his view of an allpowerful president. There is only way 2 ways to hold a president in check. One is to impeach him and the other is election. Let me get your thoughts in terms of this letter in terms of how it is being received within the department of justice. Have you gotten any indication how it is being received, whether current members are saying we needed this . I think it puts barr on edge because its telling people to speak out and resign. Barr feels whatever he is doing is being watched very closely by people in the department. And as signatures grow, thats another troubling sign for the administration. Let me play this bite from the attorney general back in 1991. Watch what he said back then. The attorney general has very special obligation, unique obligati obligations. He holds the trust of fair and impartial justice. Its the attorney generals responsibility to enforce the law even handedly and with integrity. Its almost hard to imagine that is the same guy serving today as the attorney general. Do you think he is no longer a respected nonpartisan attorney general . I think thats whats happening, and there is tremendous damage to his personal reputation. The difference is he was attorney general under george h. W. Bush. George bush berealieved that th presidency lost power after watergate and wanted to bring it back, but he would never have done the things that bill barr has done. Is he questioning that theory working for donald trump, seeing how this president handles all this power, it is making donald barr think hang on a second, there should be some checks and balances here. With a republicancontrolled senate, people feel that our system of checks and balances probably being tested in a way that we havent seen in a long time. Its extraordinary. David rohde, thank you so much. Its always a pleasure. Thank you. Still ahead, why there is new talk tonight about profits being steered toward trumps d. C. Hotel. Plus, a new twist in the roger stone case just days before sentencing. Stay with us. 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Thats outrageous its like an eightlane highway compared to a twolane dirt road. And with the sXfinity Stream app, screen is your big screen. Which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Whether youre travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app and watch all the shows you love. For trump aides trying to please the boss, there is one surefire method, book an event at one of his properties. Last night senior Stephen Miller got married at trumps hotel in d. C. Trump himself attended. Last year bill barr scheduled a party at that very same hotel. And republicans have held multiple fundraisers at Trump Properties as well. The Washington Post recently reported that trump has been charging secret Service Agents as much as 650 a night with the agency paying at least 471,000 to trumps companies. And the total amount is likely a lot more than that. Democrats in congress are now demanding details about how much trump has charged the secret service for staying at his properties, all of this reporting contradicts erik trumps claim that government officials stay at Trump Properties practically for free. Any time the government comes into if my father travels, they stay at our properties for free. So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one his places, the government saves a fortunate because if they were to go to a hotel across the street theyding charging 5000 bucs a need where as we charge 50 bucs. We know that is not true. Joining me is zack who runs the newsletter 1100 pennsylvania who reports on the trump hotel in d. C. Great to have you with us. Let me first get your thoughts. Do Trump Supporters know that booking at his hotel is a way to curry favor . Do you think that point out there with republican circles also is known among many of his supporters . They know it cant hurt. Its debatable whether or not the president sees a list of who is going to the hotel, knows which staffers are getting married there. But theres no harm in spending some money there. The Washington Post says that the secret service charged about 17,000 a month for a cottage at a trump property. Do you know if that is standard, by any chance . Thats supposedly pretty high for that part of the that area of real estate area. You know, but he only goes to his own properties for his vacations. He goes to maralago, he goes to bedminster, here in d. C. If hes going golfing its the sterling, virginia, course. The only restaurant hes eaten at as president has been the steak house in his d. C. Hotel. So every time he does something for leisure, theres a possibility that hes profiting. Thats interesting. This is what trump said before taking office about how he would keep his businesses separate. Watch this. Signed, turning over complete and total control. My two sons, who are right here, don and eric, are going to be running the company. They are going to be running it in a very professional manner. Theyre not going to discuss it with me. Whats your take on that promise . Do you think the president has fulfilled that . And more importantly, that second bit of, theyre not going to be discussing it with me. Not at all, not at all. And theyve basically said as much. Shortly after shortly before the president was inaugurated, they changed the terms of his trust. It is revocable. It is not bind. He can withdraw money from it at any time. For all we know he may have taken 20 bu tak taken 20 bucks while were chatting. Eric said in uruguay, he doesnt talk the ins and outs of business with his dad. He might bring up the property because his dad might know a guy down there. Thats interesting. We talked about other properties as well. Trump d. C. Hotel has been supported by 32 gop senators and 31 foreign officials. The government of kuwait held a party there. Isnt this the swamp draining trump said he wanted to execute as president . Yeah. I would imagine when you talk about draining the swamp youre not setting up a vehicle to allow officials from 31 Foreign Countries to go ahead and pay you. And were not just talking like a drink here or there for some of these people. For kuwait it was actually news worthy this week that we found out the embassy was not celebrating its national day at the trump hotel. The previous three years it had celebrated its anniversary there. Members of trumps cabinet went there to celebrate it with them. Did they give a reason why this year they decided ton do it there . They didnt. Theyre just having it at the embassy this year. Zack ever son, always a pleasure. Thank you very much for joining put. Thanks. Straight ahead an unusual hearing called in the roger stone case. Breaking news, former Trump National security advisor john bolton. Stay with us. You spend less and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com i appreciate what makes each person unique. Thats 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 dont 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. You clean dishes as you cook, to save time and stay ahead of the mess. 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His first public speech since trumps impeachment at duke university. Bolton confirmed ukraine is part of his book and, quote, well have to say what comes out of the censorship. Im not testifying, he said. The white house went further with him than other officials in telling him that he could not testify. Bolton criticized trump for not being tough enough on iran and russia, on the Infamous Trump putin helsinki meeting, bolton said he was willing to put up with a lot. Asked if he was concerned about the attacks on ambassador yovanovitch and colonel vindman, bolton said, i think its legitimate to worry about it. And tomorrow a new twist in the roger stone case. The judge ordering an unusual telephone hearing after all four prosecutors withdrew from the case last week. In an apparent protest over bill barrs intervention in the case as of now, stones sentencing is set for thursday. That does interest for me. You can find me always on first look at 5 00 a. M. Eastern. Ari is back tomorrow night at 6 00 p. M. Hardball with Chris Mathews is next. Getting close. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Mathews. On president s day, the fight for the democratic president ial nomination is now come down to mantoman fighting. Bernie sanders has a lead to protect now and fears Mike Bloomberg coming on. Bloomberg knows he has to beat bernie on super tuesday or has to fight his way all the way back from that. How long will biden and warren hang on . Much as long as