just hours after the meeting took place. when the senate judiciary committee member asked who he had spoken with, trump junior simply said i have no idea. separately we know that cory lewandowski told the committee that donald trump senior has a blocked phone line in his primary residence. when junior was asked whether his father ever uses a blocked number, he replied i don t know. most incredibly when asked specifically if he has discussed the russia investigation with his father, as i said, trump junior said no, not that i remember. joining me is ken dilanian and mike the schmidt with the new york sometimes and msnbc contributor and jackie speier of california, a democrat on the intelligence committee. thank you all. i ve got to start with ken on this. i guess the hardest thing to believe is the son serving the father in his campaign and has got himself convinces he s got
vocally that he does not want bob mueller looking at his finances. this seems directly into that. and we know that obviously this wasn t mueller that did it. this is outside of russia and someone else did it. the department of justice essentially going past that red line that the president tried to create. mike the schmidt of the new york times, thanks for being with me. you don t get to unilaterally create red line investigations when you re not the president. everyone else who gets investigated by prosecutors finds themselves blown around in the wind. pete williams, you ve been following the justice department reaction to all of there. what is it like in that building right now? well, you know, these are stressful jobs under the best conditions. they re difficult. they re complicated. and that s when you feel that you have your bosses at your back. so that is not the situation today. many of the senior people at the justice department come to work pre morning wondering if this
of my closest business associate and lawyer, i would be bummed. yeah, look remember the president has said very openly vocally that he does not want bob mueller looking at his finances. this seems directly into that. and we know that obviously this wasn t mueller that did it. this is outside of russia and someone else did it. the department of justice essentially going past that red line that the president tried to create. mike the schmidt of the new york times, thanks for being with me. you don t get to unilaterally create red line investigations when you re not the president. everyone else who gets investigated by prosecutors finds themselves blown around in the wind. pete williams, you ve been following the justice department reaction to all of there. what is it like in that building right now? well, you know, these are stressful jobs under the best conditions. they re difficult. they re complicated. and that s when you feel that you have your bosses at your back. so that is
attorney general rosenstein. nobody asked. the president just brought him up. that was no coincidence. according to the new york times reporting the president s tirade last night copied in private at the white house as he fumed whether he should fire rosenstein before the times broke the news today it was rosenstein himself who was the one who personally signed off on the decision to raid cohen s office. mike the schmidt is one of the reporter who s broke that story as well as tonight s breaking news the president sought to fire mueller a second time in december. michael, i m trying to get a clearer sense of what exactly happened in december as your reporting indicates? into there were several reports at the time that a there was a mueller subpoena that had been sent to deutsche bank for records directly related to trump. now, if you remember, trump talked last summer about a so-called red line, an area that he said mueller should not be looking at. that s finances outside of russi
now talking about potentially getting at mueller possibly rosenstein. mike the schmidt you ve got a story running that the president tried to fire mueller in december. there was a story in december about a subpoena that had gone to deutsche bank that said that that was the initial report said it was directed at the president and his business dealings. the president did not like there idea. and this is gets at this issue of the red line, the looking into his finances and seriously considered firing mueller at that point. it didn t get to that point because they were able to figure out the president s lawyers that the story was wrong, there was some discussion with mueller s office. but it just shows how when the president thought that mueller had gone beyond that line, he was willing to do this or certainly willing to seriously consider it. now, you have to understand though, the president has talked