this particular judge hasn t just overseen the rick gates case. she has overseen more criminal prosecutions stemming from the mueller investigation than any other judge in the country. she s had a whole bunch of them. and at this sentencing for rick gates today she, you know, rips rick gates for the severity of his crimes, she praises rick gates for accepting responsibility for his crimes and pleading guilty and becoming a wholehearted cooperator with prosecutors. indeed, he has agreed to keep cooperating with prosecutors in multiple ongoing matters even after his sentencing today. the prosecutors sent information to the judge about that today under seal because those are still ongoing legal matters that gates is helping with. and in addition to doing all that the judge who again has overseen all of those mueller derived prosecutions, did this sort of remarkable thing in court today. at one point in the middle of talking about gates s case and the law that sort of directs her in terms
doctor bob, what should i take for back pain? before you take anything, i recommend applying topical relievers first. salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. patch, roll-on or cream. hisamitsu. we re back with lisa page, former fbi lawyer who has been a favorite target of president trump and his allies for two years now. ever since the justice department sort of inexplicably publicly released her text messages including messages critical of then candidate trump and other political figures as well. lisa, i m going to ask you this in part because i don t many other people i can ask this and you can tell me if i m off base. but in may 2017 the russia investigation gets taken over by mueller. that s how i came to know your
the president today sent cuckoo for cocoa puffs,ing forgive me, letter to house speaker nancy pelosi objecting to the impeachment proceedings in the most bombastic terms imaginable. i am not going to read it here. you re welcome to in your own time. it s basically six pages of performative explanation points from the president. the white house counsel s office apparently taking care to put out word tonight they didn t have anything to do with this letter, this is all him. our president is to exclamation points what a porcupine is to quills. when he feels threatened, he bristles. and exclamation points. when he calms down, they calm down. sometimes it is entertaining sort of from a distance, but sometimes it turns out that being willing to ask questions about the president or, god forbid, investigate this president, that sometimes has consequences for you the asker. president trump has gone after a whole string of people who were involved in the initial investigations into russian
the justice department publicly announced they had reviewed it, criminal prosecutor his reviewed the call and determined that the president did nothing wrong, at least when it came to campaign financial laws. that much the president did get. it is clear that the president wanted more from his attorney general. he wanted a public statement from the attorney general, perhaps a press conference, and he did not get that. it s important to also note, poppy and jim, that even if the justice department sort of tried to say this was a closed case, that there was nothing here, we now know the prosecutors in new york, the southern district of new york, are still looking at rudy giuliani s activities in ukraine, and this may not be a closed matter after all. evan, important reporting, thank you very, very much. senior political analyst ryan liza is with us, a chief
this probe. is it your sense that there s a clash here that this is the justice department sort of going after the c.i.a. or that the c.i.a. might perceive that this way? well, i mean, i think that the c.i.a. would feel under the gun because, to your point, when the president gave william barr the declassification authority in this matter, he really holds all the cards, right. so nobody from the c.i.a. is going to push back too hard when he makes his request because he could declassify things that they want kept secret. that is one of the very most important powers the c.i.a. has, is to keep things secret. so the fact bill barr can say, you know what, i m going to usurp that power, is going to sort of force their hand. they re going to be more cooperative. so, you know, putting that aside, yes, they re going to be more cooperative certainly. i don t i don t know that there will be a lot of conflict yet. one, because they are sort of because they re at this point now essentially f