Me, its case closed on the question of russian meddling. And offering the bob mueller effectively ended the debate about whether russia did indeed meddle in our democracy. Suggesting it will become awkward at best for the president to continue to call the investigation a hoax. Now that a grand jury was convinced by bob mueller and his investigators who presented this evidence to them, and to which they responded with todays indictments. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein took to the d. O. J. Podium and announced the charges. The defendants allegedly conducted what they called Information Warfare against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general. They used stolen or fictitious american identities, Fraudulent Bank accounts, and false identification documents. The defendants posed as political and socially active americans advocating for particular candidates. They established social media pages and groups
Headline making news today. That is the reporting that the president ordered the firing of Robert Mueller back in june. Nbc news, you have confirmed those details. Walk us through where it stands, and this pushback, as one would expect, from the president today. Reporter thats right. Nbc news has confirmed the New York Times reporting that President Trump ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller back in june. He ordered that of his counsel, don mcgahn, who pushed back forcefully, refused to do it. Even went so far as to threaten to fire over the issue, saying it would be politically disastrous for the president and for his presidency. Now, the broader context to this, peter, is that it underscores the fact that this is a russia probe thats escalating, getting closer to the president himself. The president has repeatedly denied considering firing mueller. By the way, he was asked in june. He was asked a number of times after that, and he consistently said he wasnt considerin
Well discuss all of that now. Joining me is jim sciutto, legal analyst Michael Zeldin and good evening to all of you. Jim, so according to this newly released transcript former british spy Christopher Steele was so concerned that then candidate trump was being blackmailed that he personally went to the fbi. What more can you tell us . Listen, don, from the beginning the republican argument and really the trump argument has been that the dossier was purely a political document. That it was democratic conceived, manufactured and delivered. But if you listen to the testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee about Christopher Steele you hear a different genesis to this. Heres Christopher Steele. Hes a former agent in the mi6, the British International intelligence services. He served in russia. He knows russias intelligence gathering methods. He begins to gather this information, and he becomes so concerned he thinks theres a National Security risk to the u. S. , a British Intelligenc
Unannounced meeting dramatic. At that moment, the Justice Department was in the middle of this ugly fight with House Republicans, a group lead by this guy, dev in noneas. He was a member of the trump attempt he has been leading the most aggressive efforts in congress to try to under cut the Mueller Investigation. To try to create alternative scandals that white house likes better. For months, nunez has issued subpoenas to the Justice Department, demanding they turn over documents relating to the ongoing Russian Investigation. The Justice Department pushing back, turning over that information would jeopardize an active Counter Intelligence investigation. Undeterred, last month, House Republicans deegan moving to hold rosenstein and ray in contempt of congress. On january 3, when they showed up at paul ryans office, they were there to ask for House Speaker paul ryans help. They were hoping that paul ryan would get nunez to back off. They didnt get paul ryans help. Instead, nunez announce
New york where people are also gathering. Jason. Looks like weve lost that signal with jason. Here in the nations capitol, this really is the nucleus, the center point of this movement that is gathering today on whats being called the march for our lives. So many families have come from across the country to ascend here right on pennsylvania avenue. Were hearing the stage right now where it is very celebratory. Theres a lot of music. Then the rally gets under way with a number of keynote addresses coming from Something Like 20 speakers, many of whom are under the age of 18. Then of course they have a starsuddstar starstudded list of performance. Our renee marsh is in the crowd there. Give me an idea of who youve been talking to. What are they saying and whats drawing them here . Reporter fred, i can tell you its warming up but it wasnt terribly warm the last couple of hours. Its their spring break, and all these young people are here in washington d. C. For something they are so passio