i think they will try to do that. they ve agreed to turn over documents on the condition they would reserve the right to invoke executive privilege. i m sure they re going to take the same reaction with people who testified from the white house before the grand jury or just informally in front of the special counsel. the president has got a lot of advantages in keeping things secret when he wants to. and i certainly think he can probably block a lot until after the 2020 election, which is what he s most worried about. hey, erin, if i could just interject one quick thing, if you look at bill barr s letter one of the most important parts of it is he talks about how there was nothing here we go. he talks about how one of the responsibilities here was that any proposed action by the special counsel that was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established department practices, that it should not be
prosecutors served as subject matter experts for people nationwide while working with the f.b.i. at these strategic information and operations center. over my time as acting attorney general i have done everything in my power to continue regular order at the department of justice. the department has continued to make its law enforcement decisions based upon the facts and the law of each individual case in accordance with established department practices and independent of any outside interference. at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel s investigation or any other investigation. since becoming acting attorney general, i have run the department of justice with fidelity to the law and to the constitution. during my time as the leader of the department of justice, the department has complied with the special counsel regulations and there has been no change in how the department has worked with the special cou
able to try to shut them down. this is the first description that we had. and we get it directly from one of the top prosecutors working mueller s case. we ve got tape of it. i believe we re the first people to broadcast this nationwide. the first voice you re going to hear is one of the judges on the three-judge panel. the person who answers the questions is michael dreeben from the special counsel s office. can i just ask you a couple of detailed questions on the constitutional question and specifically about the way that supervision is exercised? so there is the provision that talks about the attorney general finding that something the special counsel wants to do is so inappropriate or unwarranted under established department practices that it should not be pursued. correct. do you understand that to mean that the if the attorney general makes that assessment, then that the special counsel can t take the step? we do. the attorney general makes that assessment, decides so
department s decision to not pursue prosecution was politically motivated. is that an accurate summary? we did not find that it was a charge of political bias. and you found the relevant decisions were paid on the prosecutor s assessment of the facts in the law as well as department practices. is that correct? as to the prosecutor s decision about whether to charge, that s correct. to be clear, did you or your staff speak to a witness allowing political considerations to affect their decisions on how to obtain evidence? as i sit here, i don t recall anybody indicates that. do you our your staff review any documents indicating a particulars investigative decision was made for political reasons? well, we had concerns about the october time period in
department practices, and could be viewed as influencing an election. joining me now to talk about this, seema meta for the los angeles times. the clinton campaign seizing on this news that coma went against the justice department. listen to what bobby mook had to say earlier this morning. take a listen. this is a very concerning situation. the more information that comes out, the more overblown this entire situation seems to be. that in turn has raised more questions about that director comey from his colleagues in law enforcement circles to take this extraordinary step 11 days out from the presidential election. i have to tell you, they re coming out aggressively on this one. what s your take? well, they are being very aggressive. and i think they have to be, because there is now there s ten days left and this leaves questions. millions of people already voted