>> laura jarrett, thanks so much. you always keep calm and tackle hard. >>> joining me now national security analyst susan [ inaudible ]. i want to tick off the newest ones with the greatest significance and one is the lingering discussion about obstruction of justice, this notion floated by john dowd the president's personal attorney that the president can't be charged with obstruction while white house attorney ty cobb says we're not making that case, even though we heard it with our own ears here. why is this important to hear these things from lawyers out loud? >> right. so the argument that dowd sort of had initially put forward that other white house lawyers are walking back is that the president of the united states cannot obstruct justice by virtue of sort of his constitutional position. you know, that's a pretty extreme argument. now, it might be open to question whether or not the president can be indicted for obstructing justice, held criminally accountable but this responding to the allegations, specifical

i want to bring in cnn's laura jarrett. laura, records show messages by this agent raised questions about whether or not justice was truly blind in the investigation into hillary clinton. >> well, jake, sources we have learned from tell us that the electronic records show that peter struck changed former fbi director james comey earlier draft language describing clinton's actions in handling classified materials from, quote, grossly negligent to extremely careless. now this entire drafting process was a team effort at the fbi, we're told. as we reported last month, after the news surfaced that the language had, in fact, been softened, that comey and his colleagues had been playing with the language for some time. but the identity of the person who actually made the change had not been known until now. take a listen to what comey said clearing the former secretary of state back in 2016. >> although we did not find clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of class

i want to bring in now cnn justice reporter laura jarrett. laura, good evening to you. what are you learning about the role this fbi agent played in both robert mueller's investigation and the clinton e-mail investigation? >> well, don, i'm told two weeks ago, when news of these text messages first broke, peter strzok was not a household name, but within the fbi he's actually considered one of the bureau's top intelligence experts and he played a lead role in investigating hillary clinton's use of the private e-mail server. and then he's part of the group that decided not to recommend criminal charges for her. and then finally earlier this summer he helped oversee the beginnings of the probe into the contacts between russian operatives and trump campaign associates. so the fact he then later joins mueller's team for a brief period of time is being used to say the entire russia investigation has to be tainted because he trashed the president in his text messages. don? >> what about his role in the flynn investigation? what more do we know about that? >> yeah. so earlier

cnn justice reporter laura jarrett has the story. >> this cringe-worthy exchange between republican senator john kennedy and president trump's nominee for a powerful seat on the federal bench in d.c. is raising questions about the qualifications of the people president trump is appointing. in this case, matthew peterson admits he hasn't tried a case, has no basic grasp open basic legal motions filed routinely in federal court and really no familiarity with the legal standards he'll be tasked with applying. >> have you ever tried a jury trial? >> i have not. >> civil? >> no. >> criminal? >> no. >> bench? >> no. >> state or federal court? >> i have not. >> do you know what a motion in limine is? >> i would probably not be able to give you a good definition. >> do you know what the youunge abstention doctrine is? >> i've heard of it. >> how about the pullman abstention doctrine? you'll see that a lot in federal court. okay. >> this exchange right on the heels of news earlier this week that the white house is also withdrawing the nomination of brett tally who was unanimously rated not qualified

joining us now, cnn justice reporter, laura jarrett. talk to us about the texts. >> lawmakers on capitol hill now have their hands on this thick stack of text messages between the two top fbi officials, formerly on special counsel mueller's team that show a real fear that donald trump would become president. it appears the two were regularly testing during and after presidential debates and in one fbi lawyer writes god, trump is a low some human, and strzok replies he may win. they called trump an identiiot awful, and then they say america will get what the voting public deserves. why we are talking about this, strzok helped to lead the clinton e-mail investigation, and then went on to open up the russian investigation and the trump campaign's link to russia, and then rod rosenstein is appearing before the committee this morning and you can be sure these messages will be front and center and will be asked about with the political bias claims. >> he will be asked about this guy that works in his department, this man by the name of mr. or

laura jarrett counts us down. >> from tackling violent crime to russian meddling in a presidential election to immigration, civil rights and presidential tweets and everything in between. the attorney general had his hands full this year. here are the top justice related stories in 2017. number seven, tough on crime makes a come back. once alabama senator jeff sessions was sworn in as attorney general, he set out to make his mark on the justice system. >> i new era of justice begins and begins right now. >> what a difference a year makes. elections really do have consequences. >> in may they delivered the stiffest possible charge in all criminal cases. >> this could severely change the sentencing procedures in the united states. >> up sending a push to phase out long prison sentences for long violent prison sentences. >> drugs and crime go hand in hand. they just do. the facts prove it. >> number six. immigration crack down. sessions also 0ed in on immigration laws taking aim at sanctuary cities going after undocumented immigrants nationwide and linking hotly debated policies to recent acts

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he has been testifying for 2.5 hours at this point and cnn's laura jarrett is tracking it all for us. sparks were flying. bring us up to speed. >> the president's tweets took center stage off the top of the hearing with the ranking democrat on the house judiciary committee. he said you should do more than send a private e-mail to your employees. your job is to stand up to the president of the united states. he defended his colleagues saying while there is no shortage of opinions, they have big boys and girls keeping americans safe. the directors are facing a sharp series of questions on political bias at the fbi in light of the counter reports that they exchanged a series of e-mails with a colleague that appeared to criticize the president. he doesn't want to be the type of person to act first and ask questions later. they are looking into everything surrounding the circumstances obstructs e-mails and more. there is a moment where the congressman started listing the names of several fbi agents one by one quizzing wray on whether they are openly aligning themselves against the trump ad

. >> laura jarrett, thanks very much. joining me to talk more about this, former federal prosecutor, jeffrey toobin and criminal defense attorney alan dershowitz author of "trumped up." je jeff, does it matter to you one way or the other? >> not a bit. we do not investigate the political views of fbi agents, period. that is a bedrock principle of how law enforcement works in the united states and all this is is a transparent political attempt to disable the mueller investigation by people who want it to fail. >> professor dershowitz, do you agree? >> well, it may be a transparent attempt to do that but it really does matter. we don't want people being in charge of investigations who are perceived to be bias even if there's no actual bias and some of these e-mails show a real hatred toward donald trump and a real preference for hillary clinton. i have to tell you, this guy should have recused himself. once though e-mails were sent, he had to know that they might be seen and they would create a perception of bias and they g

laura jarrett is "outfront" tonight. >> tonight, a top justice department official coming to the des of the special counsel he appointed to lead the russia investigation amid claims muell mueller's team is biased. >> i think it would be very difficult, congressman, to find somebody better qualified. director mueller has throughout his lifetime, been a dedicated and respected and heroic public servant. based upon his reputation, his service, his patriotism and his experience with the department and with the fbi, i believe he was an ideal choice for this task. >> while president trump has call ed the investigation a with hunt, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein told house lawmakers today that no one has asked him to fire mueller. >> i am not going to be discussing my communications with the president, but i can tell you that nobody has communicated with me a desire to remove mueller. >> rosenstein batted away claims it is stacked against the president as republican lawmakers pointed to donations mueller's team members made to republicans over the years. >> how with the straight fac

. >> laura jarrett, thanks very much. joining me to talk more about this, former federal prosecutor, jeffrey toobin and criminal defense attorney alan dershowitz author of "trumped up." jeff, does it matter to you one way or the other? >> not a bit. we do not investigate the political views of fbi agents, period. that is a bedrock principle of how law enforcement works in the united states and all this is is a transparent political attempt to disable the mueller investigation by people who want it to fail. >> professor dershowitz, do you agree? >> well, it may be a transparent attempt to do that but it really does matter. we don't want people being in charge of investigations who are perceived to be bias even if there's no actual bias and some of these e-mails show a real hatred toward donald trump and a real preference for hillary clinton. i have to tell you, this guy should have recused himself. once though e-mails were sent, he had to know that they might be seen and they would create a perception of bias and they give

laura jarrett is joining me with the new details coming in. what are you picking up? >> hey, kate. the justice department has just released these figures and what it is showing over the course of five months from may to september, there's been roughly $7 million spent. now the justice department breaks those figures into two different buckets. they report 3.2, roughly $3.2 million being spent by special counsel robert mueller's team. obviously he has over two dozen officials working for him. he was appointed back in september. but there's also a separate $3.5 million that's been spent on the russia investigation also from may to september, and those are for law enforcement officials who have been helping work on the investigation writ large. think of an fbi agent, for instance, who is not directly on mueller's team but still working on the meddling question. so together, that gets to $7 million in total from may to september. we're still looking into the breakdown of the expenses. some are travel, for instance, but we also know given all of the indictments that have come down there

jarrett our justice reporter is with us. looks like they're taking the pledge of allegiance or the national anthem. we can't tell yet. this comes as the president is about to address the group on the heels of him saying they're the worst in history and tatters. >> that's right, poppy. what we've seen over the course of the last week or two, especially on fox news, is that defenders of the president in the media and on capitol hill, are saying, we need to turn inside the justice department, turn our gaze in there and look at what's happening. you've seen the president tweet about the justice department calling it the deep state at one point for refusing to turn over documents in his view to the house intelligence committee and now once again we also see a renewed interest in this draft statement for the -- from the former fbi director james comey and the change from calling her handling of classified material from, quote, grossly negligent to extremely careless. the change was a significant one that had legal ramifications be

laura jarrett is there with more details. this comes less than a week after the president said the agency he leads is in tatters? >> yeah. that's right. the fbi director gearing up for tough questions from both sides of the aisle at the routine oversight hearing driven largely by news that brek over the weekend, including first the tweet from the president saying the fbi's reputation is in, quote, tatters. top democrats on this committee i am being told are going to press wray on the bureau's independence in the wake of the president's tweets and the morale at the bureau given those harsh words from the commander in chief. but we're also told that wray is expected to face some pretty tough questions from conservatives on charges of political bias at the fbi in the wake of revelations over the weekend that a top counter intelligence official was dismissed from special counsel robert mueller's team after exchanging text messages with an fbi lawyer that were viewed as critical of the president, a top republican on the committee,