the director of national intelligence and richard painter is back with us, the chief ethics lawyer for the bush 43 white house. steve, do you share that lawyerly instinct that we heard director comey talking about, about how important it was that everyone else was ushered out? yeah, brian, not only do i share that instinct, but it sounds from director comey s testimony like the attorney general jeff sessions and jared kushner also had that instinct. he made a point that they both tried to linger and stuck around and were ushered out at the president s insistence. i think that s a telling moment. i think we should be careful not to focus too much on the individual pieces as opposed to the broader point that comey was fired because of the russia investigation. i think these are all parts of the larger story about obstruction. carey, the democrats nonetheless are after that. that s what they want to be the lead story. they want to make that obstruction case.
i really significant fact to me is so why did he kick everything out of the oval office? why would you kick the attorney general, the president, the chief of staff out to talk to me if it was about something else? and so that that to me is as an investigator is a very significanfact. as a lawyer, prosecutor, investigator, james comey sat in a role he is not necessarily used to today, as a witness. and he found that detail about his interactions with the president legally significant today. i want to bring in our panel of lawyers to talk about it. steve vladdic, law professor at the university of texas, focusing on constitutional and national security law. carey cordero is back with us, former national security lawyer for the justice department, and former counsel at the office of
but the house and senate judiciary committees need to start investigating the obstruction of justice and abuse of power. i ve been a republican for 30 years. i am shocked to see what has happened here and to see members of my own party defend it. we need to have an investigation. once again, house and senate judiciary committee with respect to abuse of power and obstruction of justice. this is a very, very serious situation. our thanks to our law firm, steve vladdic, carry cordero, richard painter. thank you all. we appreciate your time after a long day. coming up a question of credibility. we ll difficult into who is telling the truth about the trump/comey conversations when the 11th hour continues.
ethics lawyer for the bush 43 white house. steve, do you share that lawyerly instinct that we heard director comey talking about, about how important it was that everyone else was ushered out? yeah, brian, not only do i share that instinct, but it sounds from director comey s testimony like the attorney general jeff sessions and jared kushner also had that instinct. he made a point that they both tried to linger and stuck around and were ushered out at the president s insistence. i think that s a telling moment. i think we should be careful not to focus too much on the individual pieces as opposed to the broader point that comey was fired because of the russia investigation. i think these are all parts of the larger story about obstruction. carey, the democrats nonetheless are after that. that s what they want to be the lead story. they want to make that obstruction case. in your view, how far away are they from that?
are you content with the state this investigation given who mueller is and your knowledge of him? i think he s going to be an excellent special counsel. and he will do well. but the house and senate judiciary committees need to start investigating the obstruction of justice and abuse of power. i ve been a republican for 30 years. i am shocked to see what has happened here and to see members of my own party defend it. we need to have an investigation. once again, house and senate judiciary committee with respect to abuse of power and obstruction of justice. this is a very, very serious situation. our thanks to our law firm, steve vladdic, carry cordero, richard painter. thank you all. we appreciate your time after a long day. coming up, who is telling the truth about the trump/comey conversations when the 11th hour continues. hi.