and the failure to clear him and announce publicly he wasn t a suspect is the reason comey was fired. all of these things are hurtful to the president s case, and no with standing damage control, this is a very unpromising strategy. i want to move to the news that president trump was aware of the hush money paid to stormy daniels by michael comey. the president s lawyer rudy giuliani told the new york times on friday that this might be a political problem for president trump but it was not a legal problem. you re a former federal prosecutor. is there a legal issue here? well, there is a legal issue if the president, his credibility has thrown this much into question. then any statements he might make in the future about what he knew or when he knew it or the purpose of these payments are not going to be believed by a trier of facts. more broadly, jake, this gets to the point you were making with
coming is james comey s testimony and we know what that s going to do to the news that day. he s in negotiations, apparently, with the special prosecutor discussions, discussions with the special prosecutor about public testimony and what he may or may not be able to do by way of public testimony. how do you expect that to be resolved. well, look, i think that sooner or later he ll reach with bob mueller and we ll hear from director comey. i think the question will be whether or not president trump tries to exert some kind of executive privilege to silence director comey. it s worth going back to michael comey on this point. we talked about the phrase attorney-client privilege the client has the privilege. in the end, donald trump will decide what michael cohen shares or doesn t share with the senate committee. that s a decision that will rest on donald trump s desk. so, you know, all roads lead back to the president and whether or not he s doing to cooperate with these information
he s in negotiations, apparently, with the special prosecutor discussions, discussions with the special prosecutor about public testimony and what he may or may not be able to do by way of public testimony. how do you expect that to be resolved. well, look, i think that sooner or later he ll reach with bob mueller and we ll hear from director comey. i think the question will be whether or not president trump tries to exert some kind of executive privilege to silence director comey. it s worth going back to michael comey on this point. we talked about the phrase attorney-client privilege the client has the privilege. in the end, donald trump will decide what michael cohen shares or doesn t share with the senate committee. that s a decision that will rest on donald trump s desk. so, you know, all roads lead back to the president and whether or not he s doing to cooperate with these informations or ultimately going to stonewall them. and, ron, what is the nature of the negotiation w
replace michael comey but spicer would not say whether they are finalists. the president is the decision maker. when he makes his decision as to who is the best to lead the fbi, he will let us know. tonight the decisions are stacking up, quite frankly. bi director is one. the decision whether to stay in the stay or go in the paris climate accord is another as well as the decision whether to send more troops to afghanistan. all of those stacking up on this president s desk as well as his legislative agenda. the president and white house consumed by grievances. allegations of fake news with the russia investigation they acknowledge is very, very real. certainly is. jeff zeleny reporting for us from the white house. thanks. let s get to more of this. brian schatts of hawaii is a member of the ethics committee. thanks so much for joining us, senator. thanks for having me, wolf. let s begin with our new reporting. russian officials claiming that during the campaign they had
more investigation into government. i think that any time there s smoke, it should be looked into. and in this case there are a couple things. one thing weighs in favor of the inspector general s action and one against. they are not just investigating michael comey who i think did the right thing. i think he was in an impossible position, having told congress under oath the investigation was over. i think it was incumbent upon him to deviate from the typical rule and tell congress, you know what? i told you under oath it was over. it s not over. however, they are not just investigating comey. they are also investigating peter can a zig high ranking member of the department of justice who apparently leaked nonpublic information to the clinton campaign. so it seems at least appearance wise it seems like it s a balanced investigation into whether anything went wrong. it does, however, beg the question. why aren t they looking into loretta lynch s actions because that really was a flaming