investigation. we still don t know what it was durham has found. he can bring to bill barr to make this change. the reporting we have seen from people who have been questioned in this inquiry, people who are familiar with what kind of questions have been asked, have suggested that the line of questioning here, the sort of theory of the case that durham and barr have been pursuing does hue fairly closely to the way this has been discussed in very partisan conservative media. you touch on that a little bit tonight in your reporting when you described what mr. barr may have been doing in italy. the way you say in your reporting tonight, i ll quote you. mr. barr is closely managing the durham investigation, even traveling to italy to seek help from officials there to run down an unfounded conspiracy that s at the heart of conservatives attack on the russia investigation. that the italian government helped set up meaning, helped frame the trump campaign advisor who was told in 2016 tha
stripping their security clearances, getting angry crowds to yell their names as angry villains, they have moved on to the next phase. this is a criminal inquiry into the lawence foertsment professionals with the threat of charges against them. this is the sort of thing that you don t imagine the justice department doing when it comes to their own officials. but that s where we are as of tonight. breaking news. we ll be back with a member of the house intelligence committee right after this. stay with us. is stay with us
ridiculous, right? they know that this is not true. whatever is being put on them as having been part of this obama administration plot, they re telling william barr, this is not true. but nevertheless, here s barr pursuing it. and now according to the new york times tonight, that is not only an investigation a review by the justice department, it is a criminal inquiry, one, that has the power to bring criminal charges. i mean, when the italian prime minister is talking to reporters about what this visit was like from attorney general william barr, for this bizarre investigation of the trump justice department is pursuing, he s being open with the press in his own country. he told reporters in his own country, quote, our intelligence is completely unrelated to the so-called russia gate, and that has been made clear. like, don t try to drag me into this. that s crazy what you guys are pursuing. but now according to this new school from the new york times tonight, which has in the
harry potter. david beckham s right foot. [ laughter ] david beckham s left foot, come to that. it s just a thought. aaron soar kin did the same thing for our former president martin sheen, and it worked out for him. we ll keep you updated on the u.k., but here in the u.s. tonight, that s our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. /s right out gate tonight with some breaking news that has just come in from the new york times, this is the news that honestly we ve been sort of expecting for sometime or thinking that if things got really bad, it might come to this. as of tonight, according to the new york times, it has come to this. as you can see, this is the headline just posted at the times. justice department is said to open criminal inquiry into its own russia investigation. i ll quote to you from the
opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that mr. trump is using the justice department to go after his perceived enemies. mr. trump fired james comey, the fbi director, under whose watch agents opened the russia inquiry and has long a sailed other top former law enforcement and intelligence officials involved in this investigation. i know you as a former prosecutor yourself, as somebody who takes her role on the judiciary committee very seriously, you think about these things in very stark terms. i do. in sober terms. i feel i feel worried about the prospect of the justice department being used as a tool of this president or any to accomplish political goals. and this feels like a really bad signal of that. it really does. i mean, i always looked at my job when i was a prosecutor, you convict the guilty. you protect the innocent. you are ministers of justice. you simply can t let politics get involved. you have defendants all the time that may know people,