Thank you so much for letting us into your home during these extraordinary times. We are grateful. Beth beet with ari melber start rights now. We start with Breaking News a legal first for President Biden. Attorney general Merrick Garland Upending Washington today with an announcement, he is appointing a special counsel to hand it will probe of classified do you means found in joe bidens office at home. This is a significant legal development. No matter what happens from here. Its also the kind of twist that would have seemed like a movie plot even just a few months ago when former President Trump was clashing with the doj over his handling and alleged mishanding of classified material. Would have felt like a twist in the last couple weeks when bidens team was optimistic after the midterms and then the gops chaotic start to the congress. Garland did not preview plans at all. He announced he would deliver remarks today. Didnt deliver the topic and then said the words that tend to rattle
thank you so much for letting us into your home during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. beth beet with ari melber start rights now. we start with breaking news a legal first for president biden. attorney general merrick garland upending washington today with an announcement, he is appointing a special counsel to hand it will probe of classified do you means found in joe biden s office at home. this is a significant legal development. no matter what happens from here. it s also the kind of twist that would have seemed like a movie plot even just a few months ago when former president trump was clashing with the doj over his handling and alleged mishanding of classified material. would have felt like a twist in the last couple weeks when biden s team was optimistic after the midterms and then the gop s chaotic start to the congress. garland did not preview plans at all. he announced he would deliver remarks today. didn t deliver the topic and then said the words
All interlock because each story implicate the question of whether the president has obstructed justice and whether President Trump is still trying to obstruct justice in an ongoing way. First, bob mueller just interviewed Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, we know this because Sessions Team is confirming it to the new york times. Second, bob mueller has completed his interview of jim comey, the former fbi director, we know that because the comey interview then leaked to the same times reporter. Thats not all. The times report that the interview focused on trump and the alleged request to drop the investigation of mike flynn, a key topic because trump went on to fire comey and that flynn went on toer coopera ecooperate bob mueller. Of all the interviews today, tonights news on Jeff Sessions is the first report of a trump cabinet official getting grilled. The interviews important, but none of this means that anyone did anything wrong. Mueller could interview Jeff Sessions and clear hi
when they knew about this and the november election. you could argue if you had a partisan view of this, president biden and democrats and i m sure the special prosecutor will be thinking about the implications of the timing as he does his work. karen, what s your view of all this? i ll remind viewers you have extensive experience dong this work, often behind the scenes. what do you see here? i agree with all of the comments that were just made. politically there s timing. in terms of the criminal probe you re looking at things like and it s 18 usc, 1924 is the statute. if you re looking criminally you have to follow the facts in the law. how did the documents get there. were they on purpose? it always turn on intent. but that s very different than the points you ve made ari about what was the timing of when it was discovered.
about wherever the confidence comes from. the question of why it was announced only now after this spilled to the public and whether there are any other considerations that are going into this, well intentioned or not, is a tough question that we will put to our experts and we ll endeavor to follow as we follow a story these completely exploded a lot of expectations and premise in washington. so we bring in our experts. emily bazalon and a former federal prosecutor karen leffler. welcome to both of you. emily, i start with you. i think you know and viewers know the distinction i m drawing. everyone understands that merrick garland is at this point saying he s trying to do what we considers to be the right thing, and there hasn t been public reporting or evidence he has some other hidden agenda, and yet i wonder what you think of the timing and process here, and then in addition what legal