Just when you think you cant be shocked, the friday night attempted firing of the attorney general of the district of new york was stunning and then his comeback, you cant fire me was even more stunning and ultimately Jeffrey Bermans win as i think you have clearly described in your hour is really its just kind of indescribely important. Who knows what donald trump and bill y william barr were up to and tried to accomplish. Exactly. What was that about . How do we get to the bottom of what that was about . Was the integrity of an individual investigation or multiple investigations at stake, and will they continue to be at stake . I think once they have i mean, they got away with doing this, with decapitating and taking control of the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. , removing the independence of that office entirely. They are clearly making a go for it in new york. I dont think this will be their one swipe at it. But boy did they botch their first shot at it. And it was so desperate with just what might be just months left in this administration. The idea that you are going to put in a new u. S. Attorney in that amount of time was ridiculous to begin with. But what were they trying to block . What were they trying to stop . What was so urgent, so immediate . What was that office up to . We may find out soon. Who knows . Nadler seemed confident that they have ways to figure this out, that this investigation is well structured and they can discern this stuff. I will say that barr didnt do himself any favors by trying to fire berman in such a way where he supposedly offered him these other bigger jobs at the Justice Department. That completely takes away any argument that Jeffrey Berman is somehow incompetent and had to beic taken out because somethi was wrong with im. It has to be about some ongoing investigations. And until they can come up with any other explanation, thats going to be the thing that investigators, congressional investigators, i think, are honed on in an almost irretrievable way. Well, my first guest tonight is a former u. S. Attorney who has investigated donald trump, congressman adam schiff is going to start us off tonight and try to figure out what was going on in that firing. Well done. Thanks, lawrence. Thank you, rachel. Slow the testing down, those unforgettable words will follow donald trump every day for the rest of his presidency, which because of those words, is on track to come to an end months from now according to every single president ial campaign poll, every one of them, which showed donald trump behind joe biden by double digits, some show donald trump as much as 14 points behind joe biden. Joe bidens lead widened significantly in the last couple of months because of voters reactions to the way donald trump has failed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and then on saturday night donald trump confessed. He turned himself in. He took full responsibility for this countrys failure to improve our Testing Capacity to meet the challenge of this pandemic. They called me. They said the job youre doing, heres the bad part, when you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people. You are going to find more cases. So i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. Slow the testing down. Tonight we will get congressman adam schiffs reaction to donald trump deciding to slow the testing down. We will get congressman schiffs response to john boltons revolutions about Donald Trumps criminal conduct as president , including asking the governor of china, as well as ukraine to help with his Reelection Campaign and Steve Schmidt will join us with what the weak turnout tells us about the Trump Campaigns prospects. You know that when Steve Schmidt speaks on tv, donald trump is listening. When donald trump tweet approval of Donald Trumps condemnation of john bolton, he replied calling him the most failed president in american history. You are incompetent and inept. You are a moral and indecent. You are losing this election. You will be defeated and repudiated. Your legacy is death, weakness and economic collapse. Donald trumps tweet did not mention that Steve Schmidt was condemning john bolton for refusing to testify to the impeachment inquiry run by adam schiff who will be our first guest tonight. We heard some of what john boltons testimony would have been if he had not denied the subpoena for his testimony. J john bolton provides an eye witness and ear witness account to exactly what the president of the United States was trying to get from the government of ukraine. He wanted a probe of joe biden in exchange for delivering the Security Assistance that was part of the congressional legislation that had been passed several years ago so that in mismind he was bargaining to get the investigation using the resources of the federal government, which i found very disturbing. He said to me directly that thats what he had in mind. Ill say again i think it was widely understood at senior levels in the government that thats exactly what his objective was. What exactly did the president say to you . He directly linked the provision of that assistance with the investigation. Last night john bolton said that the president who he served is lying. The president denied it, tweeting, i never told john bolton that the aid to ukraine was tied to investigations into democrats, including the bidens. Is the president lying . Yes, he is. And its not the first time either. That is the reason that republican senators blocked the testimony of john bolton when he finally declared his willingness to testify in the Senate Impeachment trial of President Trump after refusing to testify in the house investigation. Republican senators were afraid that john bolton would say exactly those things. Republican Senate LeaderMitch Mcconnell was obviously afraid that john bolton saying those things could lead to more republican senators than just mitt romney voting guilty in the impeachment trial. Who knows how many more . Republican senators did not cast an unprecedented vote against having any witnesses in the Senate Impeachment trial because they were confident donald trump was not guilty of the house charges. History will see the Republican Senate vote to black witnesses in the impeachment trial as an expression of Republican Senate confidence in just how guilty donald trump really was. In his masterful presentation during the senate trial, chairman adam schiff told the senate that if donald trump remained in office, he would do it again. He would violate his oath of office over and over again. He would continue to traffic in corruption, and this weekend donald trump and his attorney general william barr teamed up for what might be their single most corrupt project since the impeachment trial, the firing of the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, Jeffrey Berman. The attorney general of the United States lied to the country on friday night. That is how this story began, and it is a very important beginning. There is no other way to describe what the attorney general said. It was a lie. The attorney general put out a press release saying that President Trump intended to nominate a new u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, and the press release said, quote, i thank Jeffrey Berman, who is stepping down after two and a half years of service. And then Jeffrey Berman put out a press release saying, quote, i learned in a press release from the attorney general tonight that i was stepping down as United States attorney. I have not resigned. I have no intention of resigning my position to which i was appointed by the judges of the United StatesDistrict Court for the Southern District of new york. And with that press release, Jeffrey Berman blocked the trump barr plan to install an acting u. S. Attorney to replace Jeffrey Berman. Jeffrey bermans refusal to resir resign ruined the plan to block whatever investigation donald trump and william barr are trying to block in the manhattan u. S. Attorneys office because there is no other explanation for this move. Attorney general barr did not have the power to fire Jeffrey Berman because Jeffrey Berman was appointed by junldges. The next day after donald trump said he had absolutely nothing to do with any of this, the president then fired Jeffrey Berman. But Jeffrey Berman won the standoff in the end because Jeffrey Bermans deputy u. S. Attorney, according to standard procedure, is moving into the acting u. S. Attorney position. That is what Jeffrey Berman won in this standoff, and it is a hugely important win. The trumpbarr scheme to block the activities of the manhattan u. S. Attorney did not work because Jeffrey Berman stood up to the attorney general and the president and exposed what they were doing, and in the process, Jeffrey Berman managed to leave that important Prosecutors Office in the control of his widely respected deputy audry strauss. Our first guest tonight is a former u. S. Attorney who can help us untangle what william barr might have been trying to do this weekend. In the last hour House Judiciary Committee nadler told rachel he intends to subpoena attorney general barr to testify about the firing of Jeffrey Berman. We have begun the process, it takes a process, we have begun the process to issue that subpoena. Yes, it is very much true. We are doing that. Do you expect that attorney general barr will respect the subpoena or do you expect that he will defy it . Well, we dont know that. Subpoenas are supposed to be respected, obviously, but the corruption of the attorney general, of barr, may lead him to try to to to to to defy it. We have other we have other remedies, too, to try to force the attorney general. We can eliminate his his his office budget. There are a number of things we can do, which we will do. And chairman nadler indicated that the committee does expect to obtain testimony from now former u. S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman. Leading off our discussion tonight is congressman adam schiff of california. Hes the chairman of the house intelligence committee. Chairman schiff, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I want to begin with this u. S. Attorney situation in manmanhat. As you watched this unfold this weekend, as a former u. S. Attorney yourself, and this is a presidency that might only have months left in it, it is very strange to see any u. S. Attorney replaced in this timing on the calendar. What were you watching as this drama unfolded . Well, first, lawrence, in the interest of full disclosure, i was an assistant u. S. Attorney. I appreciate the promotion. I think youre absolutely right. This strinks to high heaven this effort to push out this independent u. S. Attorney from an office known for its independence and replace him in the last few months, the presidency, with some golfing buddy of the president s who has no prosecutorial experience. So, you know, i think whats going on is quite clear, which is theyre afraid of what this office under mr. Bermans leadership might do in terms of their criminal investigations in the months ahead. And it is part of a pattern and practice of protecting the president s friends, using the department of justice to punish his enemies. It is a political strategy, an abuse of the Justice Department that bill barr has completely complicit in. And the fact that barr would lie about this is so true to form add well. And you now have the u. S. Attorney from new jersey apparently saying that barr told him also that berman had resigned when it wasnt true and he was shocked to learn that, in fact, barr had misled him. Chairman schiff, one thing i have been wondering about is this is the u. S. Attorneys office that has the Michael Cohen prosecution, has done the Michael Cohen prosecution in which donald trump is essentially an unindicted coconspirator. Hes identified in the guilty plea as the person who directed and participated in the crimes that Michael Cohen did as a conspiracy against the United States. Donald trump is in that criminal case. Presumably donald trump could be charged as a criminal defendant in that case when he is no longer president. Is there something, a new u. S. Attorney could do in that office to somehow derail what might happen in january or next year if there is a new biden appointed u. S. Attorney in that office . Yes. I mean, there are ways that they could make it more difficult for a subsequent u. S. Attorney to bring that case by grants of some form of immunity to cooperating witnesses or other actions that could be in a subsequent case, even some grant to the president. But the reality is what they may have been more concerned about is if berman stayed through the end of this term and the new president kept him in that position, they know the position of that office in terms of the president s role in the conspiracy. They know the position of the career prosecutors in that office. And this may have been an effort to try to change that dynamic before there is a change in leadership. But frankly i think probably the greater imperative was to make sure they protected the president s people between now and the end of the year, and that may have a lot to do with Rudy Giuliani or it may just have to do with the fact that berman was not a loyal trump crony the way the way he wanted to replace him with us. Apparently he wasnt out there playing golf and paradesing d d donald trump. John bolton has now, in effect, testified. Hes done it in Television Programs in promoting his book, and thats what Steve Schmidt was condemning him for, not coming forward to your inquiry and doing his constitutional duty and telling the truth about what he knew. So when we look at the republicans in the senate blocking john bolton from testifying when he finally said he was willing to testify and from those same republicans who blocked that testimony, were not hearing a great deal of shock and surprise about what john bolton has revealed, it does seem like the republicans in the senate believed that what john bolton would say is what john bolton is how publically saying, and thats the reason they blocked his testimony. If john bolton was allowed to testify in the senate trial, do you believe it would have changed the course of history and changed the course of that senate vote . Well, i think, first of all, youre absolutely right. The senators who voted against hearing from john bolton did so because they were afraid of what he would say. They knew they lacked the courage to vote to remove donald trump. Many of them had already found the evidence to be compelling, and it would be so much more difficult for them to justify, rationalize their vote to acquit donald trump if the Country First heard from john bolton. If you look at lamar alexander, he basically said i didnt need to hear from john bolton because i already believed trump guilty. He was already proved by the house guilty. Why did we need another witness to just add on to what had already been proven . You know, even though people like alexander should not have wanted to deprive the country of hearing about the president s guilty and anything else that john bolton might have had to evaluate his fitness for office, how many other votes would have been affected, i dont know. I think the bigger risk for the president was not john boltons testimony alone but the fact that john boltons testimony may have led to other witnesses and an unraveling of the trump defense. Thats what Mitch Mcconnell was most concerned about. But you are absolutely right. These senators were not trying to shield the country of john bolton because they thought he would exonerate the president. Exactly the opposite. And chairman schiff, i want to get your reaction to john bolton basically criticizing you, criticizing nancy pelosi by saying that the impeachment inquiry in the house moved too fast and that you should have slowed down and worked through the Court Process to obtain his testimony. Well, i would say a couple of things. First of all, mr. Bolton has had a very difficult time rationalizing why he had Vital Information to share during the course of our impeachment investigation and he refused, and he decided to save it for his book. Thats a very hard thing to explain, and what he is trying to do is trying to say now the house should have worked harder to find out that which john bolton was keeping secret. In other words, we should have found people who were more courageous than john bolton who might have told us what john bolton refused to. Thats a real