News has not confirmed this reporting. It is the first report of trump telling a subordinate. I will tell you right now ze zero. I have nothing to do with russia. I have nothing to do with russia. A i no deals in russia. I have no deals that could happen in russia because we have stayed away. Back in 2017 cohen testified in front of the house intelligence kmuntt. He said the dealings ended in january of 2016. That is a claim that we now know to be a lie that means all of that stuff that you heard from President Trump were lies. It is a lie the president was reportedly privy too because while he was busy denying that business interest in russia, behind the scenes he was pushing the moscow project. One that could bring his Company Profits in excess of 300 million. The two sources said that trump had at least ten, ten face to face meetings with cohen about the moscow deal during the campaign. Buzz feed sources say they learned about the directive to cohen not from cohen but interviews wit
Hes a very fine man, and he should be given a lot of thanks by our nation. Well, the reason these new details are so important according to the times is because they reveal the extent of an even more sustained more secretive assault by mr. Trump on the machinery of federal Law Enforcement. Joining us now to take a closer look at this blockbuster report is New York Times Justice Department reporter katy benner, who contributed to the article. Good to see you. Thank you for being with us. This is intriguing. Thanks for having me. Lets put this into context. The president spoke to according to the New York Times reporting spoke to his attorney general at the time, asking if somebody friendly to him at the Attorneys Office in new york could handle this case. Give me the context around this. Sure. I think this really helps us get inside of Donald Trumps head. He believes that Law Enforcement and that the Justice Department and that basically everybody in the executive branch exists to help
The persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or aseed to his request. People like don mcgahn. On more than one occasion the president called and directed mcgahn to ask rosenstein to fire mueller. Mcgahn refused. Considering the president s request to be an Inflection Point and wanted to hit the brakes. There was also cory lewandowski. The president dictated a message for him to deliver to then attorney general Jeff Sessions directing sessions to publicly announce that quote, not with standing his recusal from the russia investigation the president had done nothing wrong and to limit the investigation to future election interference only. He did not deliver that message and tried passing it off. The message was never delivered. Former staff secretary rob porter was asked to reach out to rachel brand to discuss the possibility of her replacing sessions and ending the investigation. He didnt do so because he was uncomfortable with the task. There were some in Dona
With what they believe is a strong case against the president. This will only further add to the body of evidence on a potential obstruction of congress charge against the president. We have seen a series of shifting, everchanging rationals for this campaign of obstruction. It has been the uniform position of democrats and republicans that we do not respect any fallacious claims of absolute immunity. I cant give you the time table, assume we will be moving to open hearings as well. Today, the committee released transcript of testimony from two key witnesses, Michael Mckinley and marie yovanovitch. Last month, she testified that trump had personally pressured the state department to remove her despite assurances from Department Officials that she had quote, done nothing wrong. Now, were learning new details about the administrations efforts to remove her, including advice she said she got from u. S. Ambassador to the eu, gordon sondland, to tweet out praise or support for President Trum
Version of the Robert Mueller report or face action. If the department insists with its refusal to come pligply wit validly issued subpoena, the committee will pursue contempt proceedings. Tn tensions are also ramping up between congress and the white house as the administration continues to resist all oversight requests, most notably, those about investigations into the president s misconduct. Today the president spoke with Vladimir Putin about that Mueller Report and both agreed that, quote, there was no collusion. Very briefly discussed in the context that it over and there was no collusion, which im pretty sure both leaders were very well aware of long before this call took place, something weve said for the better part of two and a half years. And now they moved on. Joining me live from the white house is hans nichols, and Danny Cevallos is right here beside me. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said there was no mention of russian interference. What do we know ab