more breaking news tonight. the possibility of big white house departures. a source telling cnn aides have been told to decide whether to stay or go. jeff zeleny joins us with who may potentially be on the way out. reporter: anderson, there s definitely a sense here there is about to be a big if not shake-up certainly turn over before this second year begins. and two senior officials of all those mentioned here are two people potentially being mentioned as names, that s don mcgahn, the white house general council, he s of course at part of the russia investigation, how he s handled it. he s been at odds with the president on some matters. h.r. mcmaster, the national security advisor, someone else
ty cobb delivering accolades, many praise on mcgahn after the fact, saying he s helped me throughout the course. do you buy that? i think that was a little damage control, certainly. the concern among whout counsel and among the chief of staff is ty cobb was being incredibly indiscreet in having this conversation about such sensitive issues in such a public place. i would just add, peter, this was not only at this restaurant, blt steak, that is precisely 171 feet from the new york times d.c. bureau, but in the sidewalk seating area where not just any diner, but any passerby could potentially overhear these guys. cobb himself is a very recognizable guy with the big handlebar mustache. there s the photo you took. he s not inconspicuous at all. the substantive debates and the mistrust, that s what worried don mcgahn and white house
document production or other debates about what should be turned over to mueller. ty cobb, on the other hand, believes there s nothing to hide. so, the more you give to mueller, both documents and testimony, the more that he will have incentive to quickly, if not move on from the investigation, at least move on from the focus on the president. then there are the stylistic and personal issues, personal sort of trust issues. you see those manifest themselves in cobb suggesting that he thinks there may be a mcgahn spy in his midst, among stuffers he has working for him on document production. that is something that may stem from the differences over the actual legal issues and presidential privilege, but it complicates things further. that s the one that s getting the most attention. that s the one that prompted cobb getting sort of chewed out to some extent by john kelly, chief of staff. walk us through that chewing out, don mcgahn and kelly chewing out ty cobb.
describing mcgahn spy and added mcgahn has a couple documents locked in a safe. so, for simplicity here, break down this competition. what do we have on each side. one cited supporting more cooperation and one with real reservations. how does this break? yeah, peter, they re substantive issues and then stylistic and personal issues. the substantive issues have to do with the ability of the white house and the office of the president to assert prif, presidential privilege, when it comes to revealing documents or revealing considerations. and in this debate, don mcgahn, the white house counsel, is urging more caution in turning over documents because he s concerned that turning over documents erroring on the side of inclusion, will potentially compromise the white house s ability to assert privilege because some of these documents might be privilege and they turn them over to mueller, then they can t assert privilege, the thinking goes, in subsequent
that trump lawyers are clashing over how much to cooperate with the russia inquiry. this debate has pitted the white house counsel, that s don mcgahn on the right side, against ty cobb who is managing the president s response to the russia investigation. ken vogel is the new york times investigative reporter writing this piece, breaking the news. joining me is dana milbank, reporter for the washington post. ken, you overheard this revealing conversation at a popular d.c. steakhouse not far from the white house between two of the president s lawyer at dinner. update our audience. i want to put a couple key quotes from that conversation attributable to the white house lawyer ty cobb so the viewers have a better sense of what you overheard. you heard cobb saying, basically, the white house counsel s office is being very conservative with this stuff. our view is we re not hiding anything. he referenced white house lawyer don mcgahn, white house counsel,