for example it certainly makes no sense the durham investigation would exist. it was called a review by the department, not an even investigation. so we ve all been wondering, i think former doj officials and elsewhere are wondering what is this all about? this is very unusual. it seemed to place the cart before the horse, meaning to have an investigation before a referral. so if there was no ig referral, that might make some sense. but we just don t know. like, what was the difference between the administration review and the ig investigation? great question. i mean, greg said we ve all been wondering. i think grasping is the better word we ve been trying to do. the inspector general review was looking at a very narrow question. you know, whether the fisa application into carter page was appropriately handled. the thing that that bill barr launched with this review was to go outside the walls of the justice department and look at the intelligence agencies as well. it s why a l
releasing this would prove him right. aides felt confident there was no smoking gun here and now you are seeing what jeffrey read there and there will be questions about that. kaitlan, do you see the parallel i saw in the president s answer there, that he said that the democrats asking of something of favor from the ukrainian president is an impeachable offense? which is what the transcript is saying here. like jeffrey was saying, even if he doesn t explicitly say i m not giving you this military aid if you don t conduct this investigation into joe biden, the democrats are saying him saying investigate joe biden, this guy running for president against me, is enough for them to move forward with impeachment. what a development, two developments. i think people should not forget there are two significant things here, kaitlan. there are this transcript and all of the asks of the president here to the president of ukraine after discussing aid, and there is the department of just sis
i would use a baseball analogy instead of chess, he threw a bean ball at the head and rod rosenstein was able to foul it off. the ig referral is the right place for something like this. the wrong place is a criminal investigation. it was outrageous and grewsome for trump to request it. when anybody, citizen or president of the united states, says an fbi agent has acted inappropriately, that s the ig s province. so it isn t outrageous. i think it s correct. that he was able this was a temperatu makes sense. i would distinguish it with the other action that they agreed to show the confidential information to nunez and company, that s an abomination. there s some question about what they will see.
attorney general who s recused himself, rod rosenstein has overseen everything, he knows everything, is in on a position to know everything about how all of these investigative processes started, what they know, what they ve discovered. so he s sitting there tonight, it seems, knowing the answer to what the president wants answered. that s the strength, as jill said, that can form his actions. i would use a baseball analogy instead of chess, he threw a bean ball at the head and rod rosenstein was able to foul it off. the ig referral is the right place for something like this. the wrong place is a criminal investigation. it was outrageous and grewsome for trump to request it. when anybody, citizen or president of the united states, says an fbi agent has acted inappropriately, that s the ig s
so, look, i think we have to commend fbi agents, cia agents and focus on the problems and where they occur. sean: let me ask this then. maybe you agree or disagree here. look at the criminal referrals that have come down this week. you know, the congressional criminal referrals with they are citing specific laws that they believe were violated then andrew mccabe and the criminal ig referral. now we have an investigation, james comey, i said this before he went on his book tour, joe digenova, this is a bad idea. i don t think any competent lawyer would have advised him, writing that book and doing this tour in any way but now he is under an inspector general investigation here about releasing classified materials, 18 usc 793, both of you are very familiar with it. yes. well, sean, here s what s going to happen. this is now, it s all afoot. and it can t be stopped. there is going to be a