department right after president trump fired comey and before robert mueller was named special counsel. cnn has learned deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and top fbi officials thought president trump needed to be reined in. sources say then acting fbi director andrew mccabe took the extraordinary step of opening an obstruction of justice investigation. joining us now to discuss, alley honing, a former state and federal prosecutor and michael isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news. let me start with you, elie. this reporting that there was an obstruction of justice investigation open, what does it mean and does it impact the probe? this is what the fbi does. the fbi holds the rule of law sacrosanct. i think when they were in the weird in between phase when comey had been fired and there was no special counsel, i imagine lifers were thinking
businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality. underwood is seeking 2.8 million in restitution plus penalties and wants the foundation dissolved. which, by the way, the president wanted to do months ago when he ran for office but they said they had to keep it open so they could keep the investigation open. the president now says he will not settle this case. this is his former campaign manager, good to see you cory. what do you think about this suit? i think this is politics at its very worst. what we have seen is, eric schneiderman thought he was going to make his political career going after donald trump and his family at the foundation while at the same time asking for donations when he was running for office. that s a hypocrisy of new york politics. now you look at the attorney general has said recently about this administration. battling the white house is the most important work i have ever done. that s what the attorney general of new york has said.
situation where in alabama, the virginia alabama senate, virginia governors and a bunch of special elections, democrats have seen success. what you are saying the democrats don t have a strong message except its anti-trump. for the moment, that has excited the democratic base. you see good turnout from democrats. jon: but you rarely win elections being against something. correct. that s why i think they need a better message. the senate race they had to demonize a judge to being a child molester to in essence take that seat. you can t judge anything on these unilaterally yet. jon: juan williams, kevin mccullough. thank you. melissa: the house intel committee clearing the trump campaign in russian meddling probe of collusion. the committee s top democrat wants to keep the investigation open. american people need to know whether the russians still have something they can hold over the president s head. the president of the united states. so, our work is far from done.
investigation, democrats and some republicans, would you need your own request for a warrant for surveillance? you would need much more evidence. remember that fisa is an investigative tool. it itself is not an investigation. there is already an investigation that s opened. you have to have the most serious kind of investigation open. it is called a full investigation. which means you have to have facts to base your suspicions. so it could not have opened the investigation. it could not have kept an investigation running and it wouldn t have been enough for a federal judge to give a fisa. there would have been much more. so all the others that have come to beer this particular application as well.
committee is talking about its own future, and nancy pelosi writing a letter to speaker paul ryan urging him to keep the investigation open, and there will be witness interviews in the new year, and today, poppy, one key witness is being interviewed in new york, a long-time personal assistant of president trump and seen a lot through the years as somebody presumably involved in the meetings that took place and will be questioned by the house intelligence committee members, mostly staff at the off-site hearing, and many democrats are concerned because it s off-site, and they are worried they are trying to rush it through and the republicans say that s not the case. part of it was a health issue with one of the attorneys, and