what are you hearing about this. this is a very significant development, bun that people may have expected but has not yet been confirmed until today. the wall street journal and nbc chasing this story. a grand jury impaneled means that director mueller thinks he has a lot of probable cause to move forward that crimes occurred. we don t know from the reporting whether that is of course focused acutely on the underlying crimes related to the election hacking or also the obstruction case to which he s taken an interest in. up until today, the grand juries that others have reported z on were not in washington and were not on zeroed in on these trump white house issues. let s talk about the difference between impaneling a grand jury and not. first of all, are they always narrowly focused or does it give mueller the same freedom he s had so far to take this investigation wherever it goes? what a grand jury is is a powerful investigative tool. we know it s at the most
powerful when exercised in this very context. when you have an independent prosecutorial power. the rules for mueller are different than those for ken starr. so the grand jury allows him to test witnesses and evidence in this secret setting, putting people under oath and putting them under the threat of essentially violating federal law if they mislead. another key part of a grand jury investigation is typically people go in there alone. so you re speaking before the grand jury, to mueller or his investigators without the accompaniment of your own lawyer. what we know right now, this is reporting from the wall street journal that we have not yet confirmed, but this is the idea that the grand jury has been impaneled. what does it allow him to do that he couldn t? right now, mueller can subpoena people but there s no act as you said to test witnesses. it allows him to bring those witnesses before a criminal proceeding. we re not going to play
statement, that grand jury matters are typically secret. he says the white house quote favors anything that ends this fully. i would say on a fact check that s accurate. the grand jury matters are quite secret. although the witnesses and those who don t interact with them aren t under a gag order. look, this is a secret, the white house said we ll cooperate. thanks. i m sure you ll have more at 6:00 eastern. including the former whitewater prosecutor for the bill clinton case will join us and will be interesting to hear his view of it. always good to have you here. this brings the hour for a close for me. i ll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with stephanie ruhle. thank you for watching. deadline: white house with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi, everyone. it s 4:00. we come on the air from breaking news from the wall street journal. bob mueller has impaneled a
big focus behind the scenes but this is a remind their this russia probe is not only not going away, but it continues to deepen, ali. thanks very much. i know you have a lot of work to do to get a little bit more on this story. i mean, i would expect that kristen and others are not remarkably successful in getting a lot of comment out of the white house because everything to do with this russia probe tends to be directed to outside counsel. who are not entirely forthcoming about the details to the media. but i guess i want to end on this point. your reporting on this sort of indicates it doesn t matter if people are not forth coming to the media on this issue because bob mueller s on the case and now there may be a grand jury. well, we care a great deal. anything that people say in public that includes references, coaching or guidance to others may ultimately be legally relevant. but it doesn t have the same automatic hook as the grand jury proceeding. we mentioned the white house,