and, in fact, in the new york soho property the, there are allegations and properties have been seized and forfeited because the source of funds are illegal. this is a bigger issue. i think mueller will look the a it when i was chief of the money laundering section in the justice department and mueller s special money laundering counsel, we would look at what motivates people to behave as they behave? these financial ties are motivations potentially and that s why you look at it so say, why did a person behave this way? why did they resist so much? well maybe they resist so much because they have big financial debt to these people and, therefore, they feel exposed. and so you look at that stuff because it s relevant to why they re doing what they re doing now. it s, you know, it s basic money laundering investigation 101. the lawyers that work for me in the money laundering section of the justice department, if they didn t do this, they d be disciplined. michael matt, thank you as
the fbi director does not report straight to the president. the deputy press secretary said today that the president has confidence in attorney general jeff sessions but, i mean, if you read the quotes and you read that new york times, what he told the new york times and if we do if we have the sound, i would love to be able to play it. it doesn t seem like he has confidence in the attorney general. in the job that he s doing, does he? even though the deputy press secretary said that. well, i think the thing that s so surprising is the attack he made on the attorney general was for the attorney general having recused himself from an investigation that he clearly needed to recuse himself from. he did that based on the recommendations of career ethics officials at the department of justice saying recusal was necessary. what the attorney general did in the circumstantial was perfectly in keeping with expectations and the way the department of justice operates. he s saying i wo
their own trial. the power of pardon is granted to the president in article 2 section 2 of the constitution which gives the commander in chief the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the united states, except in cases of impeachment, it says. right. so, how do the courts interpret that in that power, then i ll get you in, bli yrian. go ahead. that it is an absolute power and a pardon is even different than a commutation. a commutation is a sort of get out of jail free card. if you get a pardon, now only can t you be prosecuted, if you ve been convicted, you can write on application, i was n never convicted. says it doesn t apply to impeachment. that s right. you can t when bill clinton was under impeachment investigation in 1998, he couldn t issue himself a pardon to the house of representatives didn t impeach him. that s what that part of the article 2 means. and ford pardoned nixon preemptively. right. wasn t nixon doing it for
would not have hired him had i known he was going it recuse himself and he didn t answer the questions properly. some very simple questions. that doesn t sound like he has confidence in him. well, i that s the part of the interview i think that s so extraordinary because if you unpack that, essentially what the president is saying is i thought i m entitled to have a loyalist in that position and that the person i thought was going to be my loyalist stepped aside and now i have to deal with people who are going to do it without a thumb on the scale like i expected my loyalists to and that is not the way the system works. that has never been anyone s expectation of how their attorney general would function. the only loyalty the attorney general pledges is not to a particular person or political administration. it s to the constitution and to the rule of law. every american should be concerned about what he said to the new york times last night. thank you very much. i apprecia
right. the reality is that jeff sessions was at a level a lot higher than needed senior staff members. he recused himself from the investigation that president trump saw as so critical to discredit. so circle the wagons and have everyone oppose this investigation. instead jeff sessions gave it, from his point of view from the president s point of view, a pe tina of credibility, saying i will recuse myself and step back and let the professional lawyers do the work. i think for the rest of the staff and white house they ve been asking themselves for months, okay, is actually defending the president and sticking to a set of talking points in fact going out on a limb because the president could wake up the next morning and tweet something that completely undercuts, you know, what we said. so i think they sort of go into that job sort of everyday wondering, are they going to get the rug pulled out from under them. even today the deputy press