have been before judge ellis in the past say when the defense begins calling witnesses, judge ellis will likely crack down on paul manafort s lawyers as well. the judge fully acknowledges he is not a patient man. in fact, during his days as a high power litigator at international law firm ellis was nicknamed taz for the tazhayakov mainian devil. relentless task master. recent days the 78-year-old district judge as you routerred has repeatedly called out the government attorneys at one point telling the lead prosecutor in the manafort case to, quote, look at him and not look down. he also admonished the prosecutor to not roll his eyes and he often jumps in to question witnesses himself judge ellis has long refused to allow defendants to plead no contest. saying quote i m a caesar in my own rome adding it s a pretty small rome. judge he will lisa colombian immigrant who speaks fluent spanish.
stopping them is there? does the matter if the democrats want to keep calling witnesses? in short, it doesn t. the fact of the matter is, especially on the house side, this investigation has had so many problems, in part because of devin nunes and some of his actions. so maybe at this point it s sort of mercifully wrapping up because it s just i don t know how much it s being taken seriously at this point because of all the issues they ve had and how partisan this committee, which traditionally people don t remember actually was a non-partisan committee has become. i mean, jeff, this certainly doesn t bode well for future investigations by this committee. i mean if something as major as, you know, russian meddling in the united states electoral process and fears that it will happen again if even that ends up being this bipartisan i mean with this rift, it doesn t bode well for the future. no, it doesn t. and remember, i mean this investigation has been really a fiasco from
additionally, conaway and other republicans are now signaling the investigation could wrap up very soon. jeff toobin is back with the panel. jackie kucinich joins us as well. if the republicans on the committee want to wrap up the investigation, there s not much stopping them is there? does the matter if the democrats want to keep calling witnesses? in short, it doesn t. the fact of the matter is, especially on the house side, this investigation has had so many problems, in part because of devin nunes and some of his actions. so maybe at this point it s sort of mercifully wrapping up because it s just i don t know how much it s being taken seriously at this point because of all the issues they ve had and how partisan this committee, which traditionally people don t remember actually was a non-partisan committee has become. i mean, jeff, this certainly doesn t bode well for future investigations by this committee. i mean if something as major as, you know, russian meddling in the
capitol hill investigates trump s national security adviser flynn. according to bloomberg, joe manchin expects to begin calling witnesses end of this month. when asked specifically whether he directed flynn to discuss sanctions, he said he did not. but he went on to say he would have if flynn had not initiated call himself. did you direct mike flynn to discuss sanctions with the russia ambassador prior to inauguration. no i didn t. if you have fired if information had leaked out. no i fired him because of the what he said to mike pence. it is very simple. he was doing his job and calling countries and his counterparts. it was okay if he did it. i would have directed him to do it if i thought he didn t because that s his job.
house. here s what we learned in the briefing room. i want to go back tom last clip you played. he was smooth, glib, charming. you can tell with scaramucci, trump wanted a peer or a strategy i. things are too far gone to dismiss the russian investigation as hoax. the spounl is calling witnesses, investigating, looking for document stories that come out every night. so scaramucci has to come out with something better than name calling if he wants to steer attention away from the focus on the russian investigation or somehow diminish it. you can t pretend this is not happening. he might want to go through glass. they won t do it now. there s an investigation. there s something taking place.