steeped in the law and steeped in essentially functioning along these sort of procedures of norms and also guidelines. the president doesn t seemo function along those lines. no, and with respect to particularly to the dety attorney general, rod rosenstein and director comey, they have both spent, i think in rod rosenstein a case, all of his career and in director comey s case, nearly all of his career at the department of justice. so they will personally have a lot of loyalty to the department, and they will want to ensure its independence in situations like this. amy jeffress, thank you for making some time tonight. appreciate it. joining me now republican strategist steve schmidt and mckay coppins. a very interesting piece. what trump really fears. the president faces an open-ended investigation that may uncover their excesses. the reporting tonight about his frustration with sessions recusing himself dovetails to my theory of things which is whatever happened vis-a-vis russia t
norms and also guidelines. the president doesn t seem to function along those lines. no, and with respect to particularly to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein and director comey, they have both spent, i think in rod rosenstein a case, all of his career and in director comey s case, nearly all of his career at the department of justice. so they will personally have a lot of loyalty to the department, and they will want to ensure its independence in situations like this. amy jeffress, thank you for making some time tonight. appreciate it. joining me now republican strategist stevechmidt and mckay smith. a very interesting piece. what trump really fears. the president faces an open-ended investigation that may uncover their excesses. the reporting tonight about his frustration with sessions recusing himself dovetails to my theory of things which is
side. all right. robert costa, thank you as always. thank you. joining me, amy jeffress, former counselor to then attorney general eric holder. i want to talk first about this new york times story that just crossed in which it s reported that after the president had basically urged comey to stop the investigation of flynn, he then went to sessions and said, don t leave me alone with trump. what do you make of that as someone who has been a lawyer to the attorney general? well, assuming that report is accurate, i understand why director comey would have felt that way if he was put in situations where he thought that he was being asked questions that were inappropriate or asked questions that were awkward. then i can understand he would have wanted not to be alone in those situations but to be
joining me now, jeffrey smith, the former general counsel for the cia, and amy jeffress. amy, let me start with you since you worked at the department of justice. i want to talk law for a second, and we re in a weird area of law in which, you know, the president sits in a different kind of legal environment than normal citizens because the resource is essentially impeachment. but is this obstruction of justice on its face if what comey says is true? so i would use a different term, and to bore rrow from the military justice system i unlawful command influence. anyone that has served in the military understands it is unlawful for the commander to influence. that s because justice requires independence. the same is true for the justice system. it needs to be independent of influence from the president and from the white house generally, which is why there s specific procedures set up to protect the independence of the department and the fbi. what would have happened
sources. their denial of the new york times story today was sent out on background to the pool. so they just they have such a credibility problem. they have been wrong repeatedly, the things they said at that lectern in the briefing room. there s really very little reason to believe what the white house s official line is on anything. olivia and jason, thank you both. thank you. here s how the speaker of the house, paul ryan, responded just after the latest news on president trump broke? mr. speaker, any comment on the trump story? hey, how are you doing? good to see you. are you reading the story? i m reading about afghanistan. joining me now, jeffrey smith, the former general counsel for the cia, and amy jeffress. amy, let me start with you since you worked at the department of justice. i want to talk law for a second, and we re in a weird area of law in which, you know, the president sits in a different