principal. for all it s worth. tonight the white house weighing in on the news that former president trump s justice department subpoenaed apple and also microsoft for data for members of congress and staff and family members. let me be absolutely clear. the behavior, these actions, the president finds them absolutely appalling. he ran for president in part because of the abuse of power by the last president and by the last attorney general. so just how much of trump s bidding did bill barr do? paula reid is outfront.
demanding that barr and jeff sessions come back and testify about those subpoenas and leak investigations. if they refuse, democratic lawmakers say they will issue subpoenas but that will require the support of at least one republican on the panel. paula, thank you very much. i want to go to john dean, white house counsel for former president richard nixon. also the author of authoritarian nightmare, the ongoing threat of trump s followers. john, from jeff sessions to rod rosenstein and bill barr, one thing was consistent across all of them. donald trump did everything he could to use the justice department for his personal aims, to fight his own political wars. it certainly was. and i must say that a lot of people are comparing that with nixon. nixon didn t have that kind of department of justice. i was just thinking as you were doing the setup piece that
reporter: william barr was one of former president trump s most loyal advisers. we have a great attorney general, and he s working very hard. reporter: but lawmakers, judges and former justice officials have all accused the former attorney general of wielding his power to help his former boss. amplifying political talking points. i guess you could i think there s spying did occur. i think what he said is absolutely true, there was absolutely spying into my campaign. reporter: and spinning the results of the mueller investigation. no evidence of the trump campaign collusion with the russian government s hacking. reporter: even robert mueller himself wrote to barr complaining that he failed to fully capture the context, nature and substance of the investigation. barr s predecessor, jeff sessions, was repeatedly attacked for not protecting the president s interests in the russia probe. he took the job and then he said i m going to recuse myself.
us that this man was never going to concede and he wasn t ready to go there. but i think bill barr has to testify. i m surprised the department of justice hasn t come out with a statement, been a little more transparent on this. i hope they re getting their act together, because this is going to be very troublesome. my twitter feed is just blazing with people disappointed with justice and their response to this so far. all right, thank you very much. i appreciate your time, john. thank you. next, breaking news. russian president vladimir putin speaking out right now, fawning over trump, just days before his meeting with biden. i believe that former u.s. president, mr. trump, is an extraordinary individual. talented individual. and the wife of georgia s secretary of state revealing the threats she and her family have received because of trump s big lie. threats like we plan for the death of you and your family. secretary brad raffensperger is my guest. advil plus acetaminophen