. >> is it jeff sessions job to protect the president? >> i think it is jeff sessions job to be the attorney general. >> you keep giving me the same answer. >> and it went out. what is your sense of the job of the attorney general is? we heard him invoke loyalty in the context of talking about eric holder and the relationship that he had with president obama. to whom is the attorney general accountable? >> the attorney general's client is the country, not the president. there is always political loyalty, the attorney general and the president presumably are broadly on the same page as a matter of policy. but we as a country since watergate especially have developed the idea that you protect the law best when there is some independence on the part of the attorney general especially when the matter comes to whether the president is investigated or not. under bill clinton where i worked, janet reno agreed with bill clinton's policy, but she appointed special prosecutors to the great unhappiness of a lot of people in the white house because s

ultimately jeff sessions does decide to recuse. you know, there is sort of this tidbit in there that is not hugely developed about sessions trying to dig up dirt on comey. that's certainly a story a lot of reporters in washington, d.c. right now are picking up the phone to talk to their sources because it seems that's the kind of things that is a red flag for other really, really inappropriate conduct that might have significant ramifications for attorney general sessions. >> a lot of questions about don mcgahn, whether as white house counsel as opposed to being the president's personal attorney was authorized to go to sessions and try to convince sessions on behalf of the president not to recuse himself. >> and what about keeping information from the president? which was also in this piece about the legality of firing comey. you know, don mcgahn and the president have had a very rocky relationship going back months. i don't think this is going to endear mcgahn to the president anymore if, in fact, and he's the only one in the hier

jeff sessions did the right thing. it would be impossible for him to look into the trump campaign activities with the russians. mr. mueller had to be appointed as special counsel. but we need a second special counsel to look at the way the department of justice conducted themselves. >> all right. before i get to that i want to ask you, does the president's behavior towards russia and vladimir putin throughout his first year in office at all raise any suspicions with you? >> i've always -- i've always said he had a blind spot to russia but things are changing for the better. he finally allowed the ukraine to be given defensive weapons. but when it comes to russia, i've said on your show a million times he has an attitude toward putin that i think is counterproductive. the president does believe his intel agencies. he is firmly telling the world he didn't collude with the russians, and we're not going to let him be the final authority on that. we're going to let mr. mueller tell us whether or not this campaign colluded w

and he says, yes, i do support jeff sessions. how important is it perhaps for the president to make that statement at this juncture? >> well, certainly it is important to try to show he has no animus to sessions and that he wasn't trying to undercut him, even though in other statements and tweets we've had hints of that as well. so this is a case where he's saying two things at once, just at different times. but i do think he's trying to push back against some of the pieces of the obstruction puzzle that is being investigated. the irony is if he is innocent of everything, the best bet for him to be to let the investigation go through and see a report that says just that. nothing would be more powerful to resurrect the standing of the presidency than that. but from the sessions story to other parts of this, his efforts to undermine it in public, whether it's the individuals or the whole thing will limit his ability just to wait for the report to actually clear him. >> all right. thank you so much. see you in a bit. thank you, gent

attorney general jeff sessions the first member of president trump's cabinet known to be interviewed by muller's team. last month, sessions recused himself of the russia investigation and eventually his deputy rod rosenstein appointed mueller to oversee the probe. chief house correspondent john roberts joins us with more. >> good news hour to everybody out there. this is the highest ranking member of the trump administration who has been interviewed by the special counsel's office so far for the most part, it's all been staff current and former but this now takes it up to the cabinet level. we are told of the interview took place sometime within the last week to ten days. lasted several hours. among the topics that he would've been interested in investigating clearly whether or not there was collusion between the trump campaign in russia during the election. your member jeff sessions was one of then candidate donald trump's closest advisors and the other thing that he is looking into is whether or not there was obstruction of justice and the firing of the former fbi director james co

pressuring jeff sessions. we've seen the pressure on jeff sessions. i've never seen, i don't think any of us have ever seen a president openly humiliate his attorney general on twitter. if he's openly humiliating his attorney general twitter and calling him weak, i would like to know what he's saying behind closed doors. so yes. i think that conversation with attorney general sessions where he is forced to be honest, and not to put spin on things, could be very, very instructive before the the kinds of pressure which are inappropriate from moment one but could rise to the standard of obstruction, that this white house, this president has put on the department of justice. i'll tell you what i do see. i see the house intelligence ongoing effort, and in particular, chairman nunes' effort to damage the credibility of the fbi. most recently with this memo, this constant drum beat of allegations that the fbi has not been straight up. so not just the white house but the house intelligence committee. that they've been doing everything they can to discredit th

jeff sessions has been interviewed as a special counsel to the russia probe, the first known time that they have interviewed apart the men's member of the president's cabinet. this comes as robert mueller is investigating contacts between the presidential campaign and the kremlin and whether the actions constituted any obstruction of justice. the white house says it is nothing to hide. >> the administration continues to cooperate with the special counsel, we have been transparent during this process and as we know there is no evidence of collusion or wrongdoing from the administration. attorney general sessions is continuing in his work, the president has confidence in attorney general sessions and the work he's doing. >> catherine herridge joins us now from washington. catherine? >> the attorney general was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel's office with a focus on his russian contacts during the election. the sessions interview matters because it takes the special counsel investigation into the interviews inside the president's cabinet and goes to the issu

jeff sessions did the right thing. it would be impossible for him to look into the trump campaign activities with the russians. mr. mueller had to be appointed as special counsel. but we need a second special counsel to look at the way the department of justice conducted themselves. >> all right. before i get to that i want to ask you, does the president's behavior towards russia and vladimir putin throughout his first year in office at all raise any suspicions with you? >> i've always -- i've always said he had a blind spot to russia but things are changing for the better. he finally allowed the ukraine to be given defensive weapons. but when it comes to russia, i've said on your show a million times he has an attitude toward putin that i think is counterproductive. the president does believe his intel agencies. he is firmly telling the world he didn't collude with the russians, and we n on that. we're going to let mr. mueller tell us whether or not this campaign colluded with the russians. i will do everything i can

would you want to now talk to jeff sessions? >> yeah, there's no question. i think we're looking at not only the president and the vice president, but now the attorney general being interviewed by this special counsel team. yes, i do think the evidence has mounted for obstruction of justice. and let's not forget, based on what we've learned today, there's even a stronger case now against jared kushner and ivanka trump also for obstruction of justice in the roles they played in helping author letters firing comey and/or the letter explaining, falsely explaining the don jr. trump tower meeting. >> on that case, and we've been talking about this book, the book one more time, i know the white house is not happy that we have a copy of this book and we're talking about it. in the book some of the claims that are made, jill, about jared kushner and ivanka trump, that they were themselves concerned and worried that their finances would come to the attention of bob mueller and also as frank just mentioned their roles in pushing donald trump to fire jim comey, if you

because jeff sessions did play a role in the trump campaign. he recused himself from the russia investigation because he did have contacts with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak that hadn't been zploesed and also played a role in the firing of james comey, the former fbi director. investigators want to learn more about that in terms of the russia probe. it's a strong indication, brooke, that this russia probe is ongoing, that the white house came out a while back and said that the investigators had wrapped up interviews with witnesses at the white house, but clearly, they are still interested in talking to other people around the president, brooke. >> let's underscore that last point, the fact that this did not require a subpoena. this was last thursday, mueller's team interviewing the attorney general jeff sessions. he is key not just because, as you pointed out, him having a front row seat to any kind of russian contacts during the campaign but also during the firing of james comey during the first couple of months of this administration

gave instructions to stop attorney jeff sessions from recusing himself in the russia probe. >>> plus the white house is waging war against the new book, fire and furry, gives inside look at the administration. attorney for the president is demanding it not be accomplished. >> a massive and deadly winter storm hits the northeast with snow, ice and floodwaters. this morning millions of americans with waking up to freezing temperatures. >>> good morning, everyone. 350 days into the trump administration and the pace continues to accelerate. with a report from the "new york times" that describes the president's expectation that senior law enforcement officials should protect him against investigation. one of multiple accounts their sources say that special counsel robert mueller's is examining in obstruction inquiry. according to two people with knowledge of the episode. times reports that in early march, trump instructed white house counsel don mcgahn to stop attorney general jeff sessions from recusing himself in the justice department probe. mcgahn carried out that order, but backed of

is jeff sessions interviewed by the fbi last week. jeff, thank you for joining us. i want to talk about the shut down and what is next. first let's start with attorney general sessions is apparently the first and maybe the only one in mueller's investigation. what do you think happened behind closed doors? >> first of all let's start with the breaking news. the president moments ago in the oval office talking to the press pool about an event with u.s. trade representative. said was asked about the sessions interview. he said he's not worried about what sessions told the special council. he has responded to a story the fbi director threatened to resign under pressure from the president and attorney general sessions to fire the deputy mccabe. the president saying ray didn't threaten to resign. to get that breaking news out you will see momentarily. as far as sessions testifying we are told it could of been four to five hours with the special council. talking to someone who knows a lot about this, on capitol hill, said that's a long time. he obviously sin tr is intrica

don mcgahn wasn't able to persuade jeff sessions but reportedly he tried. also, "the new york times" further reports tonight that his, the president's intention to fire james comey was so unnerving to some members of the white house staff, to people inside the white house counsel's office, his intention to fire comey according to the "new york times" led one of mr. mcgahn's deputies to mislead the president about his authority to fire the fbi director. this is quite remarkable. the lawyer, somebody named dillon, don't know how you pronounce the first name, u-t-t-i-m, a deputy to don mcgahn in the white house counsel's office was convinced if comey was fired, it could be imperilled because it would force the justice department to open an investigation. long-standing analysis of presidential power says the president does not need grounds to fire the fbi director, mr. dillon is a veteran lawyer and had been so before joining the trump white house and assigned a junior lawyer to examine this issue. they determined the fbi director was no different than any empl

why don't you fire jeff sessions? >> one thing president trump is getting credit for is the war on isis. are they still a threat in 2018? i'll talk to graeme wood, author the provocative essay which explained what isis really wants. >>> and it's the first major awards ceremony of the "me too" era. besides the actresses all dressing in black, how else will tomorrow night's golden globes cope? i'll ask red carpet expert melissa rivers. >>> one of the most talked aspect about michael wolff's book on president trump is calling into question president trump's fitness for office not just in terms of his knowledge, temperament and experience but also his mental fitness, and the last one treads into territory that troubles me. let me explain. in 1964, a magazine called "fact" polled mental health professionals on u.s. senator and presidential candidate barry goldwater's fitness to serve as commander in chief. the magazine published a cover story claiming that many found him unfit. after the election, goldwater sued the editor

i want to start with your call for jeff sessions to resign. because one of the things that you cite is his inability to control leaks. i have to say, for members of congress to complain about others leaking to me is laughable. no offense. are you going to tell me you've never liked or nobody from your staff ever leaked or nobody from the judiciary ever leaked things to the reporters? >> but this issen fbi supposedly in an ongoing investigation. there's a standard -- >> you guys are the u.s. congress. how intelligence committee. devin nunes caught leaking things. it's not new. >> they tell us, can't answer your questions. wouldn't answer fundamental questions like, did the fbi pay christopher steele author of the dossier? wouldn't answer the question. saying there's an ongoing investigation, but then leak to the "new york times" four unnamed sources? forget about the last year on the dossier. it's really papadopolos in a bar in great britain shooting off are his mouth. the catalyst for the russian investigation. come on. if attorney general ses

sessions to resign, do you see a legitimate case for jeff sessions to step aside? >> well, i think that, he may find himself in an impossible situation and dislike and by the president in private and republicans pushing on it. he may feel comfortable just stepping aside or if he wants or his party is calling him out to step aside, he may do it. this is entirely unpredictable. what i do think is it goes way beyond of boundaries of traditional independence of the justice department and the traditionally we had is you don't criminalize political differences and you don't go after your opponents and try to put them away in jail. these crimes, that we heard long time ago, that's what we are now seeing, the new ripples of that. that goes way beyond what's acceptable in the past. criminalizes, the people that do law enforcement is what authoritarian do and not the united states. >> i want to point out some of wolff's reporting is corrobor e corroborated and some errors have been identified. >> i want the ask you if president trump is hurting himself. >> which is it? did i

sessions not to recuse himself, can you dismiss it as innocent and thinking that jeff sessions is doing a good job or does it prove a pattern or an intent? >> i think it shows consciousness of guilt on the part of donald trump. why does he need a protector in the attorney general's seat? if he has as he claims done nothing wrong, why wouldn't the investigation go forward? why would he need any protection? it's clear that he knows that he's guilty and that's why he wanted to keep him. and i would further suggest that he knows that the attorney general had lied to congress about his meetings, that he had had meetings and may have thought that he would also be personally involved in wanting to stop the investigation. not just on behalf of donald trump but on behalf of himself. so that he could be relied upon. >> jill, the legally speaking, do you think you could actually present a concrete case to say what you just said, that you think it's clear that he wanted to fire or, excuse me, wanted jeff sessions to protect him because he needed protecting, legally can you make that argument soundl

that was the catalyst for the russian investigation him c'mon. >> is he blaming jeff sessions? >> jim jordan does not know who the new york time's reporters sources were. this is another attempt to distract from what really is the heart of the investigation and the is that correct that george pap tadopoulos blabed last marc. he was the one combined with the dnc hack that triggered the investigation. what that's done is really under mined the central talking point that this dossier, which is essentially an unverified collection of memos. much has been verified, was the trigger for the fbi investigation, because it was financed by democrats then they have been trying to say the whole thing is not credible and the fbi is a part of this witch hunt against the president. now they don't have that talking point to fall back on, it seems like republicans are going after the author of the dossier, itself. they've issued their first criminal referral in the investigation against christopher steele. and democrats that i have been speaking to, who are not aware that this is going to happen

jeff sessions has always been opposed to marijuana. in, sayings it to hero no good people smoke marijuana. this isn't so much of a surprise. the industry knew he was not a friend. it is the first time he has really done something where he is officially taking action. affect the this number of shops out there, that people could be more reluctant to get into the business? jenny: i think people call it. for a one of the industry, folks that i talked to so far say, the cat is out of the bag, the momentum is too strong. we are going to keep on keeping on. on the other hand, for investors it could be more frightening. there is a risk that people will slow down, but i don't think this is going to completely wipe out this multibillion-dollar industry. did we have a sense the white house knew this was coming? there is a midterm election coming november. do notks in california want something to unpopular being done. the response has been bipartisan. republicans and democrats have come back and said, this is not what we want, what the voters vote

from trump's anger, he writes "jeff sessions was a close bannon ally. sessions was a -- corrosive -- talk the president down reminding trump of the difficulties they would encounter during another attorney general confirmation. the importance of sessions to the hard conservative base, the loyalty that sessions had shown during the trump campaign, backfired. to the anti-bannon side satisfaction they resulted in another round of trump's dissing bannon. author michael wolff will be a guest on the "the today show" show tomorrow morning. and david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. gentlemen, welcome. >> good to be with you, katy. >> 20 minutes ago, the president tweeted about this book. going to make michael wolff happy with continuing book sales. i interviewed -- i never spoke to him for book, full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and sloppy steve. he's got a new nickname. we should also -- >> presidents the white house. >> even though he authorized no access, he

jeff sessions was just last week. comey was the end of last year. it's natural that the special counsel would spoke to him. comey's firing is a central focus of the investigation, at least as it relates to the possibility of obstruction of justice. sessions was attorney general at the time and while he recused himself from all aspects of the russian investigation, he said publicly, his name is on a letter recommending he fire james comey, so sessions involved in the firing of james comey, keep in mind as i said earlier, not just in questions with obstruction of justice, sessions, himself, lied or didn't disclose contacts that he had during the campaign and the transition with russians known to u.s. intelligence, including the russian ambassador to the u.s., so it keeps opened more than one line of investigation for the special counsel, that's why he would have interest in speaking to both of them. >> i want everyone to stick around. when we come back the white house says they haven't fired mueller, in part because the press would react. do they comp

the attorney general jeff sessions in the hot seat questioned by the special prosecutor robert mueller discussing russian meddling and possibly obstruction of justice by the president. let's go to our justice correspondent jessica schneider. she's here. jessica, the interview took place last week. what more can you tell us? >> wolf, the attorney general was questioned for several hours by mueller's team last week on wednesday. that's according to a source close to sessions. the spokesman for the doj, she confirmed that this interview took place but she's declining to say if the attorney general handed over any documents or communications as part of that interview. of course, this is a major development in the russia probe. this interview marks the 15th member of the trump administration known by cnn to have been interviewed as part of the russia investigation so far. so here is some of the significant names that have been questioned after robert mueller was appointed on may 17th. we have former chief of staff reince priebus, also former press secretary sean spicer. they were both quest

so i think john kelley kind of knows he's twisting a few months ago jeff sessions. jeff sessions was going to be out of there any day. there have been rumors about mcmaster. but they keep hanging on somehow. >> is that his way of saying, it's my way or the highway? >> i think that's part of it. some of them do learn, some of them -- i think kelley started out bolder and then pulled himself in. i don't know where he's going now. but the thing is on immigration, that's a place where john kelley and stephen miller really are -- they have the same point of view on immigration. they really are hardliners in that white house. so they are -- they're actually acting out of their own interests. where yals i think the president, i think he's a hard liner as well, but when he gets in there with chuck and nancy or lindsey graham, he wants people to like him. he likes the idea on a certain level of helping the daca kids. they're good kids. but then he gets back and he talks to them and he remembers, we don't even want legal immigration. we want to do away with family reunificati

julia: jeff sessions has also compared marijuana to heroin. certainly the industry cannot be that surprised by the announcement we got today. as you said, this is an established business. surely there's going to be guys. back from these ultimately whatever is going on at the federal level, they can still do what they like at the state level. >> definitely, yes. a lot of what the new memo said, what jeff sessions put out here today, or the justice department, is that it's really going to be up to the state attorney general to figure out what they want to do. california's attorney general has previously said that california's marijuana industry would be defended from any sort of federal crackdown. think there is a good chance that while there is increased risk, these companies will still be ok. joe: the republican senator from colorado tweeted his complaint i jeff sessions saying he broke some sort of promise made during the initial hearing. if isn't there a case that politicians want marijuana to be legal on the federal level, they should just

i mean, it's just basic legal ethics that jeff sessions was reflecting. and by interfering at that decision or trying to interfere with that decision through his white house counsel, don mcgahn, that suggests that the president didn't want an independent investigation of the trump campaign. he wanted to control that investigation. and that could be seen as part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. >> anderson, just as clear as it can be now that president feels there are things to be hidden. doesn't want out in the public. now the publication of this book is beginning to give us an understanding of why. >> carrie, from legal standpoint, if don mcgahn has talked to bob mueller or been asked to interview, is executive privilege something he could cite to not answer questions? >> i think he probably would because the white house seems to be -- although not really clear about doing it in the public testimonies we've seen, seem to be asserting variations of executive privilege. but i would just add even before this report tonight there is reason to think that

that is after attorney general jeff sessions changed the policy on federal enforcement of marijuana. it reversus an obama era policy that legalized weed in a number of states. it's a fight that the white house cannot afford given the slow pace of filling appointments. tracy. good morning. >> good morning, good morning, everyone. yeah, there's one threat here on capitol hill to block some of the nominees if jeff sessions, the attorney general goes through with reversing the cole memo that opened the door for states to legalize recreational use of marijuana. sessions said it's a return to the rule of law. there are eight states radio it now, and d.c. -- eight states right now, that allow recreational use of marijuana, and here on capitol hill, there's democrats and republicans that are against this move. take senator gardner, who is tweeting about it. he said that he will block these nominees from the justice department if in fact, jeff sessions doesn't, as he puts it, live up to the commitment he made prior to his confirmation. >> this is about a decision by the statute of colorado an

when jeff sessions told him that on the advice of career justice department officials jeff sessions had already decided but not yet announced that he would, indeed, recuse himself. when mcgahn reported that to the president, the times said, the president erupted in anger in front of numerous white house officials saying he needed his attorney general to protect him and asked where the roy cohn? he was the disgraced lawyer who worked for the disgraced alcoholic republican senator joseph mccarthy in the 1950s who terrorized washington with false accusations of communist activity in the government. roy cohn went on to a life of continued disgrace and dishonor in new york city as a criminal lawyer representing such clients as mafia kingpin john gotti and kingpin donald trump. roy cohn disbarred and banned from practicing law in 1968. and that, that is who donald trump wishes was still at his side tonight in the white house. "the new york times" is reporting tonight that special prosecutor robert mueller has substantiated the claims that former fbi director james comey, quote, made in a

. >> a source close to attorney general jeff sessions says president trump tried to stop sessions from recusing himself from the russia investigation. >> i think we are in a neighborhood where i hope mueller is looking at this very seriously for obstruction of justice. i believe it may be time for him to step aside. >> the attorney general is going to continue showing up to work this week. >> after months of the president clam boring for an investigation into hillary clinton, cnn has now learned that one does exist. >> i think it's very suspicious that the closer and closer we get to president trump or his inner circle we see all of these distractions. >> so glad to have you with us this morning. a scathing new tell all has threatened to overshadow a crucial weekend for president trump. good morning to you. >> top republican leaders head to camp david to plan their 2018 agenda. the president has focused instead on continued attacks against this new book and its author. the president goes after "fire and fury" as made up, really boring and untruthful and his white house is dismissing th

i think john kelly kind of knows he's twisting a few months ago it was jeff sessions. he was goij to be out any day. there had been rumors about mcmaster. they keep hanging on somehow. >> is it it's my way or the highway so you better learn? >> that's part of it. some do learn. kelly started bolder and pulled himself in. immigration, john kelly and stephen miller have the same point of view on immigration. they are hard liners in the white house. they are -- they're actually acting out of their own entrets. i think the president he's a hard liner as well. when he gets in this with chuck or nancy. or lindsey graham. he wants people to like them. he likes the idea on a level of helping the daca kids. he gets back and talks to hem and remembers we don't want legal immigration. we want to do away with the diversity the visa lottery. it's like he's really not just captive to them. he has taken on the world view we need to be a smaller, whiter country. >> thank you. both. much more on the breaking news the report trump and jeff sessions pressuring the director of fbi to fire

it's about the pressuring of jeff sessions to recuse. it's about a series of things that the president has done over the period of 11 to 12 months that have had the effect of trying to derail the russia investigation, the flynn investigation, and the related investigation. >> richard? >> well, i think this is a very serious situation for president trump and for this administration. we had a foreign power conduct criminal activity in the united states and espionage, meetings in the trump tower with representatives of the russian government. there are other contacts made with the russians. there clearly was collaboration. the question was whether the collaboration was illegal. but the president has his exposure to obstruction of just cities charge because he repeatedly tried to derail this investigation. and i would have to say that the majority of the american people take it very seriously, many people don't identify with other political party because they are sick and tired of the partisanship. but they take this very seriously. when a f

i mean, it's just basic legal ethics that jeff sessions was reflecting. and by interfering at that decision or trying to interfere with that decision through his white house counsel, don mcgahn, that suggests that the president didn't want an independent investigation of the trump campaign. he wanted to control that investigation. and that could be seen as part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. >> anderson, just as clear as it can be now that president feels there are things to be hidden. doesn't want out in the public. now the publication of this book is beginning to give us an understanding of why. >> kerry, from legal standpoint, if don mcgahn has talked to bob mueller or been asked to interview, is executive privilege something he could cite to not answer questions? >> i think he probably would because the white house seems to be -- although not really clear about doing it in the public testimonies we've seen, seem to be asserting variations of executivive privilege. but i would just add even before this report tonight there is reason to think that

jeff sessions doesn't like the idea of legalized weed. making it easier for them to go after sellers in states where it's legal. the move comes four days after california launched the biggest market. it's creating uncertainty in a growing industry. literally, a growing industry. senator corey gardener says sessions the marijuana wouldn't be a priority during the trump administration. the conversation that we had that was specifically about this issue of state's rights in colorado, until he lives up to that commitment i will be hold ing all nom nominations to the department of justice. critics have been quick to point out back in 2016 on the campaign trail president trump said shied said he believes should be left up to the states. that is regardless of what the topic is, whether it's marijuana or whether it's immigration, the president strongly believes that we should enforce federal law, the move that the department of justice has made, which my guess is what you're referencing, simply gives prosecutors the tools to take on large scale d

don mcgahn wasn't able to persuade jeff sessions to not recuse himself, but reportedly he tried. also, "the new york times" further reports tonight that his -- the president's intention to fire james comey was so unnerving to some members of the white house staff, to people inside the white house counsel's office, his intention to fire comey according to the "new york times" led one of mr. mcgahn's deputies to mislead the president about his authority to fire the fbi director. this is quite remarkable. the lawyer, somebody named uttim dillon. i don't know exactly how you pronounce it. the first name u-t-t-i-m, a deputy to don mcgahn in the white house counsel's office was convinced if james comey was fired, the trump presidency could be imperiled because it would force the justice department to open an investigation. longstanding analysis of presidential power says the president does not need grounds to fire the fbi director, mr. dillon is a veterans department lawyer and had been so before joining the trump white house and assigned a junior lawyer to examine this issue. they det

12k3w4r look at this, jeff sessions was last week. comey the end of last year. it's natural the special counsel will speak to them. comey's firing is a central focus of the investigation, at least as it relates to the possibility of obstruction of justice. sessions was attorney general at the time and while he recuse himself from all aspects of the russian investigation, he said publicly, his name is on a letter recommending he fire james comey, so sessions involved in the firing of james comey, keep in minds as i said earlier, not just in questions with obstruction of justice, sessions, himself, lied or didn't disclose contacts that he had during the campaign and the transition with russians known to u.s. intelligence, including the russian ambassador to the u.s., so it keeps opened more than one line of investigation for the special counsel, that's why he would have interest in speaking to both of them. >> i want everyone to stick around. when we come back the white house says they haven't fired mueller, in part because the press would react. do they completel

jeff sessions and james comey are of key interest. sessions for his meetings with the russian ambassador during the campaign, and of course the fact that he was involved in the firing of james comey. and of course as for former fbi director james comey, he took many notes that he's talked about about his interactions with the president and, of course, the special counsel will be very interested in comey expanding upon those. the president weighed in on sessions' interview on tuesday. >> did the attorney general tell the special counsel -- >> not at all. not at all. >> did you talk to him? >> no, but i'm not concerned. >> reporter: jeff sessions' interview is an important part of the probe. the white house says it is cooperating. >> robert mueller's team also reportedly interested in why the president asked fbi director andrew mccabe who he voted for in the 2016 election. mccabe was the acting director at the time of the discussion according to a report first reported by the "washington post" and then "the new york times." the presiden

i don't think they can imbibe jeff sessions in this job any longer. we can't trust christopher ray, the head of the fbi, rob rosenstein to do their job and act honorably and stand up to the president. >> it's important, though, if you go to the hill today and you were talking to people, that's exactly where they're at. we don't want sessions but it's six and a half or a dozen of the other. the problem with this administration is there's no viable path for sessions at this point, he may stay. >> let me jump in really quick because we talk talking about this notion of comey dirt, who asked for it. i want to read from "the new york times." two days an aide to mr. sessions approached a capitol hill staff member asking if the staff member had any derogatory information about the fbi director. the attorney general wanted one negative article a day in the news media about mr. comey according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. now, we knew that the white house instructed rosenstein and others to find cause to fire comey, but going to dig up dirt so th

now the first cabinet member in jeff sessions being interviewed. it is likely, i think -- i totally agree -- that we're headed toward an interview with the president and how and when that happens, that is going to be a huge moment in this entire story. >> on that first cabinet member on jeff sessions who has, as we now know, been interviewed by the mueller team, let's remind everyone what he sounded like when he went before those congressional committees and his penchant for not recalling things. here you go. >> i don't recall such a conversation. i don't recall it. i don't recall. i don't recall. i don't recall. i don't recall it. i don't recall that. i don't recall how that exactly occurred. i do not recall. i did not recall this event. i don't recall. i don't recall at this moment, sitting here, any such discussion. >> in fact, he has had to return before the senate judiciary just to correct testimony. so from the "i don't recall" chelsea on capitol hill to mueller interview behind closed doors what's different about it, do you think? >> i don't

he would repeatedly asked for jeff sessions resignations. he would rage and fume about his recusal and the folks around him would try to calm him down and hoping he moved on to something else. so far jeff sessions has been able to survive because of that. it still seems he's in a delicate spot. >> the president wants this memo, nunes memo released. chris cuomo said the president has not seen the memo. >> he thinks is shows doj did improper things to the trump campaign. he's spoken with mark meadows the head of the freedom caucus and one of the republican agitators to release the memo. tray gudy's been on tv talking about the memo. and he's really frustrated with this investigation. he continues to bring up the lost text messages from the two fbi agents involved in the probe. he continues to say that mueller's being unfair to him and rosenstein isn't supervising him and he hopes this memo will make a case that the investigation was biased against him. he's hoping this memo allows him to make some changes to the doj including being able to pus

fox news confirmed that jeff sessions mel with mueller's investigators last week. the attorney general is the first cabinet member and highest ranking administration official that we know about to meet with mueller's team. the president said he's not worried about it. >> [question inaudible] >> i'm not at all. >> [question inaudible] >> no, i didn't. i'm not concerned. >> shepard: president trump has criticized the attorney general for recusing himself from the russia investigation. sessions said so because he was involved in the trump campaign. sessions made the announcement after word got out that he met with the russian ambassador twice and did not tell lawmakers about the meetings during his confirmation meeting. sessions said he had the meetings because he was a u.s. senator, not because of his role in the campaign. the special counsel robert mueller is looking into moscow's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. president trump and the russian president, vladimir putin, have asserted there was no collusion. john roberts is live on the north lawn. john? >

jeff sessions was a close bannon ally. sessions was bitterly mocked by the president who drew a corrosive portrait of physical weakness. his efforts to talk the president down reminded trump of the difficulties they would encounter during another attorney general confirmation. the importance of sessions to the hard conservative base, the loid at this that sessions had shown during the trump campaign backfired. to the antibannon side satisfaction, they resulted in another round of trump's dissing bannon. author michael wolf f will be a guest on the today show tomorrow morning. let's bring in jonathan la mere associated press, and david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. gentlemen, welcome. >> good to be with you, katie. >> about 20 minutes ago the president tweeted about this book, obviously going to make michael wolf pretty happy with the continuing book sales. i authorize zero access to white house. actually turned him down many times for author of phony book. i never spoke to him for a book. full of lies,

when jeff sessions made the decision to recuse himself, he made the right decision. and he testified to that effect before the congress. he knows he made the right decision, and so ultimately, the president shouldn't be looking for roy cohn, he should be looking for an atticus finch to do this job, to ensure that the integrity of the legal system is protected. that is not what happened here. it's just another piece of evidence that something very wrong happened during that election cycle of 2016 in the relationship, the collusion between the russians and the trump campaign. >> well, thank you very much. na thank you, senator markey, for being with us today. >> thank you. >>> a vice chairman of the chief of staff sharing a personal connection. his tragedy about the growing opioid crisis. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those wo

jeff sessions as i mentioned is in the middle of the venn diagram. that doesn't mean he did anything wrong but it's also not where you want to be. we're looking here with sessions and papadopoulos. papadopoulos pleaded guilty just last week. i did an interview with his fiancee. he did not do these things she said. his attempt to set up meetings with russia for example, without the campaign's blessing and she told me she spoke to mueller's agents. mueller cross referencing everyone's different stories and figuring out who's telling the truth and who's not. >> when we hear ours, your first reaction especially for people who are not in the legal business is wow, but when you think about the complexity of this case and you look at that sort of organizational chart, it's really not that long necessarily. >> no, it's not that long and it doesn't mean anything bad happen. there are people who want to prejudge jeff sessions and say, gosh, he did look to use illegal -- a legal term of art he did look a little rick etty. that doesn't mean he broke a law. we do

, in a sense, is right about jeff sessions. jeff sessions should have never taken the attorney general's position because he knew that he was compromised on a pending fbi investigation into russian activities in the election. and he knew that he met with russians and he knew that he would have to recuse himself. from there everything spiralled out of control. in a spenense, if sessions has never taken the job we'd be in a whole different world. >> hold on a second. if sessions never took the job. but if president trump from the onset would have said i believe that there was russian interference in the election -- >> totally agree with all that. >> the president continued to muddy the water. jeff sessions could have thought let's move forward. >> that's a assumption, sort of the coverup, not the crime. unless the crime was indeed, and we don't know, so severe and there was -- i know collusion is not a crime, but there was deep collusion. then what the president in his own interest would be doing is successfully making us think m

jeff sessions would be a disaster if he quit for donald trump or if he got fired. so i think you are starting to see some of those key players stabilize a little bit. although, there is no love lost between sessions and trump and tillersons a needs to get more of oyou are ambassadors in place and start jump starting the state department, fought just trying to get to know his boss as he did if 2017. >> sam, real quick. your take on the impact of jeff sessions were to resign at this point. >> i think it would be another blow to the functioning of our legal system. now, leaving aside whether he's done anything improper or fought west virginia we do know from all these different threads is that the president is trying to interfere with the separation of powers and the independent judiciary is a core part of our democracy. we know that russia is trying to under mine that democracy. so every single time we see the president or a thread about the administration, trying to interfere in the investigation or gather dirt on comey, all that's doing is making the russian's job

do you want to stand up for jeff sessions? >> jeff and i were -- he's not the person i would have picked to be attorney general. he's my colleague in the senate for a number of years. known him for governor eight years of delaware and i thought governors ought to have a chance to select the team around them as long as the folks in the mainstream are smart and people of good value. mark meadows, like mark, think a lot of mark. he can say all he wants to about jeff sessions stepping down. at the end of the day jeff works for the president and if the president wants a new attorney general i think that's not so much our calling here in the house or the senate, that's more with the president. >> do you agree with them, that jeff sessions has in their words no control of the premier law enforcement agency in this country? do you agree with that assertion? >> i think -- i think we're lucky to have an fbi, we're lucky to have the leadership of the fbi we've had for years, that includes jim comey and includes bob mueller and includes t

jeff sessions is making the announcement today. with more on that, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. >> hallie, what this means is the attorney general is ending the federal government's hands off policy toward enforcing the federal law that makes marijuana illegal. senior justice department officials tell us that sessions is rescinding the policy put in place four years ago under president obama. in essence, that said federal prosecutors would turn a blind eye to the growing legalization by the states and would step in only when there was some significant federal interest, such as distribution to minors or involvement of gangs or organized crime, sales beyond a state's border or growing marijuana plants on federal land. we're told sessions is simply ending that policy but not giving any new directives. he's not telling the u.s. attorneys to be more aggressive in the enforcement. he's leaving it up to them. now, jeff sessions has long said he believes marijuana is harmful and that no benefit can come from using it. some