Wednesday, may 22nd. Im yasmin vossoughian. Geoff bennett who has been helping us out is himself on investigation. And on the Virginia Governor Northam Medical School yearbook. Hes going to have that tonight on nbc and nightly news. Were going to start with a draft reviewing that President Trumps tax returns must be given to Congress Unless he asserts executive privilege. The memo contradicts the Justice Departments justification for denying House Democrats requests for the president s tax returns. Trump has refused to turn over six years of returns but not invoked executive privilege yet, and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has denied the request, arguing that legislators have no legislative purpose for demanding them. However, according to the tenpage irs memo, the disclosure of it returns to the committee, quote is mandatory, requiring the secretary to disclose returns and return information requested by the taxwriting chairs. It also rejects the reasons mnuchin cites for holding
constitutional right to abortion which would if passed be up for ratification vote this fall. as democrat governor john bell edwards signalled his support for a six-week abortion ban currently working its way to the state house. and the man dubbed the american taliban captured during the envision of afghanistan is scheduled to leave prison. john walker lindt was captured in the aftermath of a 2001 prison uprising that claimed the first u.s. casualty of that war. lindh on probation has stirred up controversy on lawmakers who are still skeptical of his extremist past. last week, alabama senator and democrat maggie hassan wrote a letter what tens will be take place to make sure he s integrated into society.
including americans who may be involved in terrorist activities abroad. i think they have kept gitmo open, they have taken a pretty, pretty strong position, they ve had a lot of criticism on the left about it. well, i made the statement yeah? go ahead, jason. i would just say that, again, you know, republicans overwhelmingly in the senate and former bush administration officials had the support of megyn: let him respond. go ahead. you made this statement about gitmo. that s interesting. the president ran on that he was going to close gitmo, but then he started getting the 7:00 in the morning briefings that presidents get when you re in the war on terror, we are still engaged in and all of the sudden gitmo is not closing and we re paying $750,000 for a soccer field when we can t balance our own budget and the guy that s going to head up review and set policy is the lawyer who represented john walker lindt. to me it doesn t make political sense. forgetting the legal issues
holder well, it s a completely different position, so the fact that he was approved to be the head of the civil division is one thing, but making him the number three in the justice department, that now is the policy setting position for the department of justice, is something else. and it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction he gets. i m not questioning his ethics or legal skills. i m sure he s a good lawyer. and with competent skills. but i question the fact that we re will to go put in place an air and eric holder puts to me a controversial nominee and how come if they re so proud of all the accomplishments they don t put in there was the defense lawyer for john walker lindt who julien rightly said no one is defending because he turned on his own country, the united states? does the attorney general have the trieght make the appointment, sure, is it subject to the advice and consent of the senate, absolutely. this is a different position and is going to raise diffe
look, lawyers represent controversial clients, i get that, that doesn t mean you ve got to put them in charge of the division of justice that oversees policy and how we handle terrorist, those taken on the field. the concern i have here is to me it s interesting, the attorney general of the united states, in introducing the new number three spot, the man that s got the job, fails to mention that he was of all his accolades and i m sure he s a good lawyer, fails to mention he was the attorney for john walker lindt, and a law firm including him represented some of the most notorious individuals accused of terrorism against the united states captured on the the battlefield that our country has ever seen. that was omitted from his introduction as the number three in the defendant of justice. megyn: julian, is this defensible? well, i would say probably the vast majority of the republicans in the senate have defended it, and i would disagree with jay, they voted for him by an overwhelming