independent attorney general. and so you ve been doing this reporting. why? why is this who he is? well, i did this reporting partly because before barr was chosen, he wrote to me this striking memo. this is july 2018. and he is talking about how, in his view, the president alone is the executive branch. and he was making that quite extraordinary statement in the context of criticizing mueller s investigation. mueller an old and really good friend of his. barr says at the beginning of his memo, i m in the dark about a lot of the facts and then he just goes after mueller. and i thought to myself, why? is this a job audition? what is behind this? and then it turns out in the reporting i did recently, when you go back to barr s record in the 80s and 90s, you see that he already had this quite quite remarkable theory of executive power. and also a deep faith in conservative values that make someone like trump who is
your leadership is vital or our country now. keep the pressure on. before he got that message, gates was on fox news, criticizing mueller and the department of justice. flynn also sent gates a message as recently as february of this year, on the same day william barr was confirmed as attorney general. flynn sent gates a picture of a bald eagle and a flag. i want to bring in attorney and cnn legal analyst areva. gates called for mueller to resign. the fact flynn was messaging him, telling him to keep it up, does it make you wonder how willing flynn was to cooperate and whether he told mueller everything he knew? i think it is very troubling, ana. if you recall, back in december of last year, when michael flynn appeared before a federal judge, a federal judge questioned whether flynn was sufficiently loyal, i would say, to, you know, the prosecutors with respect to the information he provided, and if he was sufficiently remorseful for the
of the results of the special counsel s work, end quote. however, there are at least two aspects of mr. mueller s investigation. first, russian interference in the united states election and whether any u.s. persons were involved in that interference. second, possible obstruction of justice. it is the second component that you have written on. just five months before you were nominated, i spent the weekend on your 19-page legal memo to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, criticizing mueller s investigation, specifically the investigation into potential obstruction of justice. in the memo, you conclude, i think, that special counsel mueller is, quote, grossly irresponsible for pursuing an obstruction case against the president.
memo to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, criticizing mueller s investigation, specifically the investigation into potential obstruction of justice. in the memo, you conclude, i think, that press special counsel mueller is, quote, grossly irresponsible for pursuing an obstruction case against the president. and pursuing the obstruction inquiry is fatally misconceived. i hope we can straighten that out in this hearing. but your memo shows a large sweeping view of presidential authority and determined effort, i thought, to undermine bob mueller. even though you state you are friends and are in the dark about many of the fakes facts
campaign, but there s an appearance of conflict so we think you should step aside, and he says, nah. i don t think so. both attorney generals, mr. whitaker and mr. barr, they were chosen by the president not in spite of their conflict of interest, but because of their conflict of interest. the only reason donald trump is aware mr. whitaker exists is because he was on cnn criticizing mueller. he s an undistinguished attorney. mr. barr, a very different story. a very distinguished attorney. the only reason he is attorney general is because he criticized mueller. he is a perfect example of why he should be recused, but he didn t do it. he knew that was what jeff sessions got fired of, because he recused himself. one was in the justice department, and you know what