but that might change rather quickly. one of the first conversations he s going to have is with bob mueller. they ve worked together. he s going to call and ask jim comey for a briefing on the investigation. and one of the things he ll do is make a decision as to whether james comey would testify or not. apparently one of every conversation he had with the president, memos. and if bob mueller decides early on by looking at these memos and talking to jim comey that he wants to look at potential obstruction by the president or whoever else, he may not want james comey testifying because he s going to want the element of surprise or puts in a new grand jury. you ve had your hand in two explainers.
strange, a violation of norms and traditions and the way things are done and optics, that does not seem to be a particularly good guide to how things happen in 2017. and so i think the fact something is possible is something that we should not look away from as we embark on watching bob mueller try to make sense of this incredible mess. speaking of the incredible mess, am i correct that the congressional investigations i thought it would be put in a wheel barrow and brought over to where mueller rents office space. they re going to continue concurrently. so we re going to have that news and stress and leakage? they re going to continue concurrently but i think you ll see bob mueller try to deconflict the investigations, to make sure the senate and house investigations don t do anything that would possibly interfere with his ability to
since then. is there any defense for a president in front of a special counsel who didn t know the rules of the road? i don t think so. although i do think at the end of the day bob mueller will have to interview the president and that s going to be a critical moment. i think the likelihood the president would face criminal charges is low. there is justice department policy, opinions, that state you would not indict a president if you found criminal wrong doing, you would turn that over to congress and let them handle it under their article one powers. and that s a juicy question. what does this do to republicans? we re going to talk more later in the hour. so this is where the white house is right now. i know they re on the eve of this really important trip but all their eyes are on the republicans in congress. not the mccains and t grahams
i don t think so. although i do think at the end of the day bob mueller will have to interview the president and that s going to be a critical moment. i think the likelihood the president would face criminal charges is low. there is justice department policy, opinions, that state you would not indict a president if you found criminal wrong doing, you would turn that over to congress and let them handle it under their article one powers. and that s a juicy question. what does this do to republicans? we re going to talk more later in the hour. so this is where the white house is right now. i know they re on the eve of this really important trip but all their eyes are on the republicans in congress. not the mccains and the grahams who were the first to voice their concerns. but they re watching the next level under them. they re watching that next level and if they see republicans
deconflict the investigations, to make sure the senate and house investigations don t do anything that would possibly interfere with his ability to eventually bring criminal charges. if we see the justice department not turn over these memos jim comey wrote and it s at mueller s request, it s because he thinks that s something he needs to look very strongly at. one of the things he i think can be unsatisfying is at the end of this investigation, bob mueller will bring charges or he won t. what we shouldn t expect is a big public report. it won t be the kind of report you see from a committee or an inspector general or a commission and that s why it is appropriate for these committees to proceed separately so they can have public testimony, reach conclusions outside of criminal