robert mueller plans to meet with the trump administration s top intelligence officials. meantime, the washington post reports mueller is expanding his probe to include possible obstruction of justice by president trump. mueller s investigators have already asked for information from director of national intelligence dan coats and nsa director admiral mike rogers. now mueller plans to meet face-to-face with both men. cnn has been told by law enforcement sources only that mueller is considering whether there is evidence to launch a full-scale investigation of the president for obstruction. if mueller does so, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein would have to recuse himself, since he could be a witness, given his role in the firing of james comey. at a hearing last week, dni coats and admiral rogers denied they felt pressure by the president to impede the fbi s russia probe. mueller s investigators are also seeking information from recently retired nsa deputy
historian douglas brinkley, n nia-mali nia-malika. the president under investigation for obstruction. the washington post is reporting that. let s just stop for a moment because this reporting is accurate. it s a really big deal. give me your thoughts. it is a big deal. in many ways, it s not surprising if you flashback to the testimony that we heard last week from jim comey and the testimony we heard the week before from dni coats and admiral rogers at the nsa. it isn t surprising. comey seemed to hint that he thought there was something inappropriate about his conversations with donald trump. he felt that donald trump was directing him to lay off him, possibly drop the russia investigation. he also said that there was
about these conversations because it makes it look like they could be damaging to the president. matt, if it s not executive privilege, what is it? well, i think what all the lawyers in the room believe it is, it feels a lot like attorney/client privilege but the president isn t the attorney general s client. so they re thinking we re having confidential communications when their tingly sense tells them they shouldn t talk about it. dni coats and admiral rogers. riekght. you see they ve come up with a strategy to not answer these questions. congress has a constitutional right to participate and to investigate, and a tingly sense, with all due respect, is not a legal concept. but the thing is, they don t in the absence of contempt or some sort of coercion there s nothing they can do. right. would it have made the
your refusal to answer these questions? i am protecting the right of the president to exert it assert it if he chooses. senator feinstein, that would call for a communication between the attorney general and the president and i m not able to comment on that. can you tell me, what are these long-standing d.o.j. rules that protect conversations made in the executive without invoking executive privilege? senator, i m protecting the president s constitutional right. mr. chairman, i m not able to comment on conversations with high officials within the white house. stonewalling of any kind of unacceptable, and general sessions has acknowledged that there is no legal basis for this stonewalling. i am not stonewalled. i am following the historic policies of the department of justice. it s the same thing, gloria, that we heard from dni coats,
asked me to invoke executive privilege. so the real question is has the trump administration ordered him to invoke executive privilege. or he could do what dni coats did and rogers did which was executive privilege hasn t been invoked by the president trump because i m not going to answer because i don t feel comfortable giving up details of the conversation. and there is nothing in the senate intelligence can do that process. if he is not going to answer he is not going to answer. in theory they could go to court and get him to answer. but if he is not going to answer he is not going to answer. the president is being sued over businesses the trump hotel in washington and beyond by two attorneys general who say he is violating the constitution. speak with those attorneys general next. also the cabinet meeting you ve got to see to believe. we ve been working very hard together. s. so i stepped on this machine and got my number, which matched my dr. scholl s custom fit orthotic i