Tries to clean up trumps tweet, saying he knew general flynn lied to the fbi when he urged thenfbi director jim comey to drop the investigation into flynn. The president s tweet raising serious questions about whether the president obstructed justice. Heres Sarah Sanders late today. Look, the president knew that he lied to the Vice President. That was the reason for his firing. The problem is, that is not at all what the president tweeted four days ago when he fired off this tweet. Quote, i had to Fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi. The white house has made it very clear, President Trumps tweets are, quote, official statements by the president of the United States. No matter who might draft, tweak, or actually type them. In this case, lawyer john dowd, the first person ever to take the blame for a president ial tweet. Trumps tweet and Sarah Sanders explanation simply are not the same. They contradict each other. They also dont match cnns reporting. A source telling cnn that whiteHouse Counsel don mcgahn told the president in february that flynn lied to the fbi and misled pence. Pence ran the president ial Transition Team. We know pence was aware that flynn had contacted russia. But for a year now, pence has insisted that he Didnt Know Flynn and the Russian Ambassador discussed u. S. Sanctions against russia. Court filings unsealed last week indicate a wide circle of trump advisers were aware of that. So how is it possible that the Vice President , pence, the man in charge of the Transition Team, was one of the few who remained in the dark . Sara murray is out front at the white house to begin our coverage. Sara, obviously, these new charges coming. Were going to talk about that more in a moment with jim sciutto, but i want to ask you about the situation with the Vice President. It seems like a lot of people knew pence was lied to. Well, thats right, erin. As you point out, its a little
mike pence, marc lotter. Thank you for being with me tonight. Thank you for having me, erin. The circle of people who knew about flynns contacts with the Russian Ambassador about sanctions specifically seems to be growing. Right . According to the Court Filings we now have, flynn spoke with senior members, plural, of the president ial Transition Team about those conversations with kislyak about u. S. Sanctions. So hes saying senior members of the Transition Team. Pence was the head of the Transition Team. Was he really kept in the dark for nearly a year about what these conversations were about . As we have been saying when this story first broke in the Washington Post back in february, that was when the Vice President first found out that he had been lied to by general flynn. Remember, he spoke to general flynn that weekend before he went on those two sunday shows in midjanuary before the inauguration, and asked him directly if he had those conversations about sanctions. The general told him he did not. Thats why the Vice President went out and said those things
problematic content. I think its entirely appropriate for the Incoming National security adviser to reach out around the world to our allies and to other countries to find their position on various issues as theyre relating to world affairs. Youre not saying its a lie. Youre saying its an admission. Three weeks away from the administration taking office, and i dont think anyone could think that we would arrive in office on january 20th at 12 01 p. M. And ask Whats Going On in the world. So how can you say it doesnt matter if he didnt know and say he was so upset when he was lied to that he wanted him to be fired. What im saying is he waw lied today. Also, in the transition, you had the National Security team working through National Security issues. You had a Domestic Policy Team working through domestic policy issues. The Vice President at that time with a lot of the leadership were working on staffing the key senate confirmable positions that were to be filled when we took office or the president took office two and a half to
three weeks later. Tay with me. I want to bring in Gloria Burger and richard painter. Ethics lawyer under george w. Bush. Richard, how significant do you think this is, that flynn was told about the calls but not what they were about. He was angry enough, he felt he was lied to, but you hear marc saying, you know, didnt necessarily wasnt in a position to know everything about everything. Well, there are a lot of questions surrounding Vice President pence that have to be answered. And i think were going to have to get to that point at some time. And it may be sooner rather than later because its becoming increasingly obvious that President Trump is incapable of carrying forth the responsibilities of this office psychologically and that he also may very well have obstructed justice. So there could be grounds for his removal, impeachment or removal under the 25th amendment. At that point, we do have to get to a serious inquiry as to whatVice President knew and when he knew it. It is possible that he was shut out by a number of people in the white house, steve bannon and others, and general flynn, and just flat out lied to and shut out of the process. Its also possible that he knew more than hes letting on that he knew. Thats something we have to find out at some point in this investigation. But its very clear that the president himself was aware of this lie at the time that he fired director comey from the fbi. And thus its a very strong case that the president is guilty of Obstruction Of Justice. Thats going to be our first matter of importance. Gloria, to this point, a person in pences orbit is telling cnn theyre prepared and theyre preparing right now for the Vice President to have to be interviewed by bob muellers team. Sure. This is obviously a crucial moment for the Vice President. Because it is now right in the cross hairs. What did he know, when did he know it . Exactly, and i think the
question of that goes directly also to, you know, to the question of the president. If the president knew, as we reported, you know, somewhere in late january where his white House Counsel had been briefed by sally yates, and the president knew, and then don mcgahn goes in and tells the president what sally yates told him, which was that flynn had misled the fbi, it took it took a long time, more than a couple weeks, i believe, to fire him, only after it was discovered that in fact he had lied. He had lied when the Vice President called him up, as marc is saying, and said tell me what you talked about. Did you talk about sanctions . Flynn lied to the Vice President. And that was the reason they gave. The question i think is, would they have fired him if that story had not come out in the Washington Post . You know, you had a National Security adviser at that point
who probably would not be able to get clearance, think about that, so they have an issue on their hands. I think there is a question. Did they bring mike pence into that fold or not. Was he doing the Human Resources part of the transition . Yes, he was. So you know, those questions need to be answered. You heard marcs, you know, marcs reasons for why the Vice President wouldnt know. Im sure mueller wants to, you know, hear the explanations himself. I would also point out real quickly that there is reporting right now on cnn. Com where one of your a group of your reporters talked to seven different Transition Officials that were all saying that the Vice President did not know he was lied to by general flynn. And that was where this was headed. So let me ask you, marc. The Atlantic Magazine today reporting that pence sent trump a letter. And he sent him a letter after the access Hollywood Tape, and in that letter, he said he
needed time to decide whether he could remain on the ticket. Again, this is a report in the Atlantic Magazine. To your knowledge, is that true . Its 100 false. I was with the Vice President at that time on the campaign. The Vice President put out a statement the day after the access Hollywood Tapes came out, but what was not reported is he also went to newport, rhode island, that Saturday Night for a major fundraiser. He wished the president well on his on the debate on sunday. He was back on the Campaign Trail on monday, as scheduled. And actually, he spoke to chris and allison on cnns new day on october 10th and denied any kind of speculation that he even considered leevan the ticket. This has been a story thats been shopped around for a very long time and is absolutely untrue. Thank you very much. I appreciate all of your time tonight. Next, the breaking news. More charges could be coming in the Special Counsels russia probe. New details from federal prosecutors breaking this hour. Plus, steve bannon about to speak at a roy moore rally. This is republicans get back on
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age agent. Jim sciutto has been reporting on this, and the possibility of more charges. And now i want to go to democratic congressman ted lieu of california, who is a member of the house judiciary committee. Congressman, i appreciate your time. Rick gates attorney is saying it is possible new charges could be coming in the russia investigation related to his client. Whats your reaction . Thank you, erin, for that question. Im a former prosecutor, and its not unusual to add additional charges if you get additional evidence of misconduct. But i think what may be happening is Special Counsel mueller may be trying to send a message by saying, look, if you cooperate with me, im going to give you the same treatment i gave George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn. Just do one count. If you dont cooperate with me, im going to charge everything i can against you. So what happens from here then . I guess this depends on what rick gates would be able to give up on others. So well know soon whether there is additional new charges brought against rick gates. And he has a choice. He can continue to plead not guilty or he can say i want to cooperate in exchange for a lighter series of charges. So the president s good friend, ceo chris ruddy, spoke to cnn. He says that right now, bob mueller is overstepping. He is overstepping his authority. Heres what he said. I think theres a lot of evidence that they have been moving beyond the original jurisdiction, which was looking at collusion. Is mueller going beyond his jurisdiction . No, not at all. If you look at the actual indictments and actual guilty pleas, even those on the far right cannot challenge the integrity of those indictments. Robert mueller, i think, is being professional. Keep in mind hes a vietnam veteran, bronze star. Served in republican and democratic administrations. Hes as solid as they can get, and i think hes doing
everything correctly. The president s lawyer, john dowd, as you know, obviously, has been commenting in recent days due to the president s tweet about what he knew about general flynn. He says that the president Cannot Obstruct justice because he is the president. Because he is the ultimate Law Enforcement officer in the United States of america. Whats your response to that . The central lesson of watergate is that no one is above the law, not even the president. Thats what the American People believe. Thats what we have always believed. And keep in mind, there are no words in the constitution that says the president cannot be found guilty of Obstruction Of Justice. Richard nixon tried a line that if a president does it, its not illegal. That did not work out well for him. Are you clear at this point that thats where we are . Do you think we are over that line . Any nuance left to you . Lets just take a step back and think how shocking it is now that the white house has to go to this line of saying the president is above the law. Because for a very long time, they were denying anything bad was happening. And now given all the facts, i think they realize theyre in serious hot water. Keep in mind, john dowd also, i think, has to be removed because by saying that he wrote that tweet for donald trump, which im not sure that thats true, but if hes sticking to that story, he now becomes a witness in any Obstruction Of Justice case, so he needs to leave the legal team. Obviously, part of this, at least that tweet, comes down to when the president knew general flynn lied, and to whom, right . To Vice President pence, to the fbi, obviously in the past, he said it was because flynn lied to mike pence about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador. Over the weekend, of course, that tweet said he also knew about lying to the fbi. I want to play a question today that was asked of press secretary Sarah Sanders specifically about what the president knew when he knew it. Im asking when did he find out . When it when the announcement
was made friday, prior to that . Im not aware of the specifics. I would refer you to john dowd