let me say though at this point, we have not had that conversation with mr. mueller. we ve not been waved off on any subject. the way i m hearing all of you gentlemen, is that mr. mueller has not waved you off from answering any of these questions. is that correct? i ve had no conversations with mr. mueller. i ve been out of the country for the last nine days. i haven t had an opportunity. if you ve not had questions waved off with mr. mueller, i think, frankly, and i understand your commitment to the administration, but senator king, senator heinrich and my questions deserve answers. at some point, the american public deserves full answers. i m going to ask mr. rosenstein to address that. thank you, mr. chairman. i m sensitive to your desire to keep our answers brief and my full answer would be lengthy. my brief answer, from myjustice
two attorneys of counsel for us tonight. joe wine banks is back with us, one of the special prosecutors during the watergate scandal. former general counsel to the united states army. and vie yawn wise is with us who helped turn over the decision of tom delay as well as other courtroom achievements. tom, i want to start with you. can you give us the briefest explanation for folks who haven t heard the term since the watergate era, perhaps, or are new to it of executive privilege. and is it that everyone is saying president trump has lessened his own possible executive privilege claim because of what he has said and tweeted about comey? first of all, you should never ask a lawyer for a brief answer. i know. i will try. i could hear as it came out of my mouth i knew that was
courtroom achievements. tom, i want to start with you. can you give us the briefest explanation for folks who haven t heard the term since the watergate era, perhaps, or are new to it of executive privilege. and is it that everyone is saying president trump has lessened his own possible executive privilege claim because of what he has said and tweeted about comey? first of all, you should never ask a lawyer for a brief answer. i know. i will try. i could hear as it came out of my mouth i knew that was wrong. first, what executive privilege is. it is a legitimate privilege that a president has to protect political conversations, policy discussions with his top aides. he wants to get honest and open advice, so he needs to protect that. it does not and i stress, does not include any conversations about committing
in terms of state boards of election, how are we ensuring our systems are more secure? if we could have a brief answer, i have one more question. well, obviously, our office tasks and takes the point, but there s contribution from agencies across the ic. we will might act director pompeo to address that. others might want to address that also. but each of us each of the agencies, to the extent that they can and have the capacity, whether nsa, cia or other sources, will provide information to us that we want to use as a basis to provide to our policymakers. relative to a grand strategy. i am not away right now of any i think we re still
apparently there s dragging somebody out of their car and beating them is not protesting. what i m saying is i m calling for people to be peaceful. i think protesting is a right. it is what this country was founded on. we got this country via protest but it s never okay to use violence. we can t keep calling for people we agree on that. we can t call for people to be peaceful when the rhetoric that has been used is not peaceful, when people don t feel peaceful in their homes. we have to reckon with that. i want to finish with one quick question. you have been a long-time donald trump supporter. i had an interesting conversation with randy evans this hour. did you see donald trump softening or evolving on issues? please give me a brief answer. no. i will go specifically into obamacare. you can t just dump a million people off health insurance. you have to do this humanely. ironically, obamacare was designed to not be unimplemented. you have to do it in a smart, intellige