american interests. there are a lot of americans who are going to want to know whether or not in your view, sir, this constitutes grounds to open an impeachment inquiry. this is an incredibly serious allegation to be investigated at this serious level. should there at least be an inquiry into whether or not these constitute high crimes and misdemeanors? joy, again, we have to wait for the facts to emerge. we can t make judgments based on articles in the new york times. what you said is true. just the fact that what we know happened happened is beyond extraordinary. and of course, that s the world we live in right now. you know, i m expecting a declaration of a national emergency around a fake crisis that doesn t exist. you know, with emergency powers the president can do some remarkable things. we re in a very, very different world wrorb you ask about impeachment, joy. here s my fear. here s my fear. the constitution of the united states provides for impeachment for cases where the
forward. two things that donald trump himself did that the president of the united states did. talk a little bit about this first thing, which is the letter. this is the letter that donald trump actually wanted to send to jim comey, sort of an exit letter to him. could you talk more about that? so the weekend before comey fires, trump goes to his golf club in bedminster, new jersey. he s there with his kids and stephen miller, his close aide. and trump decides he s going to fire comey. and he and jared kushner and miller come up with this letter that trump is going to send to comey. trump comes back to washington, he tells his white house counsel, i m firing the fbi director. and he gives him this letter. the white house counsel, don mcgahn, looks at it and says this is not a good idea to send. trump has references to the russia investigation in it. mcgahn thinks it s problematic. what happens in the two days that follow is mcgahn has rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and
previously reported by the times, which noted that then-white house counsel don mcgahn intervened and stopped it from being sent. the second instance was this interview that the president did with lester holt two days after he fired comey in which he discussed his reasoning for doing so. i was going to fire comey. there s no good time to do it, by the way. in your letter, you said i accepted their recommendation. you already made the decision? i was going to fire regardless of recommendation. he made a recommendation. he s highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. the democrats like him. the republicans like him. he made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story.
when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. again, this bombshell report from the new york times tonight reporting that law enforcement officials were so concerned by the president s behavior after he fired comey that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of russia against american interests. the times said this was a controversial decision inside the fbi. that it s not clear if the investigation continues. but that special counsel robert mueller took it over when he was appointed in may. as the times reports, the criminal and counterintelligence elements were coupled together into one investigation. former law enforcement officials said in interviews in recent weeks. because if mr. trump had ousted the head of the fbi to impede or even end the russia investigation, that was both a possible crime and a national
there likely are additional facts unknown to the public that caused the fbi to open that counterintelligence investigation into president trump. for that reason, i think maybe the level of his jeopardy has gone up a notch. i don t think i have ever heard the words associated with the president of the united states that a major law enforcement agency, the fbi, is investigating whether the president of the united states while president had been working on behalf of russia against american interests. that s an extraordinary sentence to have associated with an american president. barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan, thank you for your time. much more to come on this breaking story tonight. in just a moment, we will talk live with one of the top members of the house intelligence committee. stay right there. we ll be right back. we ll be ri. that s why i switched to liberty mutual. they customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. and