really credibly on the inspector general and his team. there are a number of serious flaws and irregularities in the fisa process which you talked about before. those shouldn t be poo pooed or swept under the rug. the fbi is going to embrace those and commit themselves to reforms that the department of justice will support. but on the grievances of congressional republicans that asked for this investigation, that this was a witch hunt, this was an effort to foment a cue, there could not be a more utter and complete repudiation of those conspiracy theories. and the meticulousness with which the investigation was conducted is laid out in hundreds of pages for the american people to see. this is a dense report. it s 470-something pages and also single space, small type, and at times it s got so much
repudiation of those conspiracy theories and the meticulousness with which this investigation was conducted, laid out in hundreds of pages for the american people to see. i mean, this is a dense report. it s 470 something pages but also single space, small type at times, it s got so much detail, it doesn t read like a beautiful narrative, but we do actually get a compelling narrative about the initial days of the investigation, the fbi being confronted with investigation that they believed was adequate predicate to start looking at something they knew was very sensitive. when you told the inspector general s office that the initial information that you heard about why the fbi opened that investigation, this information from the australian government that somebody in the trump campaign appeared to have advanced knowledge of what russia had done, four individuals associated with the trump campaign who appeared to have links to russia that were at least worth looking at,
there s no two ways about it. what is described here is explicit of what the president wanted and what mr. taylor experienced. he wrote it down. implicitly, he wrote down everything, everything. took copious notes. and it all came out today. it s a pretty explosive letter. now, the republicans will say can t trust this guy, i think it s a weak argument. you know, he took all these notes, why? because he was nervous that he was part of something wrong and he didn t like it. maybe he s a professional. look, i m sure. but this level of meticulousness, i think mr. taylor knew this day was going to come someday, that he would be held to account for what he was a part of. i don t think you can have a good faith argument about what happened or why. the argument is, what should be the consequence? well, i ll leave that up for congress and the american people to decide. i just think everyone should read his opening statement and then you can decide for yourself. i don t think there s a
experienced. he wrote it down. implicitly, he wrote down everything, everything. took copious notes. and it all came out today. it s a pretty explosive letter. now, the republicans will say can t trust this guy, i think it s a weak argument. he took all these notes, why? because he was nervous that he was part of something wrong and he didn t like it. maybe he s a professional. this level of meticulousness, i think mr. taylor knew this day was going to come some day, that he would be held to account for what he was a part of. the argument is, what should be the consequence. well, i ll leave that up for congress and the american people to decide. i just think everyone should read his opening statement and then you can decide for yourself. i don t think there s a lot of deciding that you have to do. it s there. i m going to get to it because i got a lot to get to. you do, it s a big night.
that is still up in the air. amid donald trump s talk of hinting around of potential pardon for paul manafort, this trial does not seem to be going well for mr. manafort today. ben, one of the backdrops of all this is the meticulousness of robert mueller s prosecutors. i remember when the indictments were unsealed, all of the legal analysis was these were paper cases. on paper they looked air tight. what do you make of sort of that was a bipartisan analysis of the way mueller s prosecutors, his investigators had gone about their investigation. it was actually echoed by democrats and republicans, including on fox news when the russians were indicted a couple fridays ago, they had the key stroke evidence and it spoke to the meticulousness of mueller s investigators. what do you make of a fact that on a day like today donald trump strongly orders or suggest his attorney general fire mueller or end the probe and no one does anything? john tried to think of a