john dowd is a good example. look at anyone in the washington legals firms, look at john dowd now, where he sits, that's why you have to turn to a guy like this. let's not diss him, he could have -- i know you're not. he could have had a reputable career, done important work, local law enforcement matters he probably prosecuted cases and put people behind bars that need to be behind bars so give him his due. but let's say at best he is maybe a good single a short stop who's being asked to pitch in the world series, which is not generally what you want to do in the world series. he's someone -- what we know on the basis of his resume and record -- is not suited to the job he's being compelled to take on. it's nothing. it almost more drama tiezs donald trump's difficulty hiring a legal team is more dramatic with this guy. >> now you have me rooting for him. you have an underdog, it reminds me what was said about watergate, the night law school guys in the house of representatives knocked over all those harvard law

john dowd is a good example. look at anyone in the washington legals firms, look at john dowd now, where he sits, that's why you have to turn to a guy like this. let's not diss him, he could have -- i know you're not. he could have had a reputable career, done important work, local law enforcement matters he probably prosecuted cases and put people behind bars that need to be behind bars so give him his due. but let's say at best he is maybe a good single a short stop who's being asked to pitch in the world series, which is not generally what you want to do in the world series. he's someone -- what we know on the basis of his resume and record -- is not suited to the job he's being compelled to take on. it's nothing. it almost more dramatizes donald trump's difficulty hiring a legal team is more dramatic with this guy. >> now you have me rooting for him. you have an underdog, it reminds me what was said about watergate, the night law school guys in the house of representatives knocked over all those harvard law s

why did john dowd decide to quit? >> i talked to many sources about this who are familiar with what's going on inside the legal team to the legal team. >> a former u.s. attorney who been outspoken in alleging that there is a. >>. >> he just didn't want tobacco-counsel with him. he felt he was driving from the president the. you'll recall that he tweeted over the weekend saying that the mueller investigation should end. ment that was at the urging of the president of the united states, our saifl. there is consternation inside the rest of the legal time, i'm told, at the way dowd handled thmd. now they're left with a main point. they have been in those meergts. >> it is a problem for his legal team. >> he is. i'm going to go to secretary of state now that he has been fired. that is the work of the department on behalf of the american people. ma from the mailroom, to the sernt floor and all points in between. and all of our missions abroad. our locally appointed staff and our efms, eligible family members, to our investo

. >> just so i'm clear, john dowd could -- could john dowd have raised this notion of a pardon and it not been some sort of an inducement for them to not cooperate with an investigation? >> yes. i want to make clear with respect to all these reports that come out in the "new york times" and elsewhere, there's never detail of what the conversation actually was, what the words were in fact. >> so the words are key here, what words were used? >> yeah, there's a spectrum, right. to hypothesize, at the one end of the spectrum, if john dowd said, i hope, you know, you're doing okay. you know the president has pardon power. that's not great to say because it suggests something. but i don't think that's actionable in any way. at the other end of the spectrum, you could have someone saying, in quite blunt language that usually is not used even by somebody who doesn't always have the best judgment, the president is prepared to pardon you if you agree not to cooperate. now, i'm not sure that's a fine argument anyway, just in terms of strategy because once you're pardoned, then you don't have in

the lawyer in question is john dowd. the discussions happened before michael flynn copped a plea and paul manafort was charged. our jeff zeleny joins us from the white house. explain what we know about these alleged conversations about pardons because we should point out that dowd denies it occurred. >> reporter: anderson, that's true. john dowd denies it occurred, and the white house was doing some careful answering of questions today to say that these conversations didn't happen. but what "the new york times" is reporting is that these conversations were happening indeed by lawyers last fall. you'll remember last fall as michael flynn and paul manafort were both -- the discussions were happening if they would cooperate with the special counsel or not. now, one ended up doing so. michael flynn ended up pleading guilty in december. paul manafort, the former com pain chairman ended up not. he's fighting this. that's why these conversations are important. if the white house, if the president was offering or talking about s

you spoke with john dowd. >> john dowd said to me, i love the president and wish him well, i think this is really reflective of the fact that the dowd strategy, which has been to hand everything over to mueller, deal with mueller in a very professional way, he and ty cobb said to the president, hold back, mind your manners, do not attack mueller. that shifted dramatically, i believe, after they got a list of sort of the buckets of questions that the president was going to be asked that we reported on last night. the legal team is in complete disarray. john dowd, they brought in joe digenova, who is very aggressive who believes that there is a conspiracy within the fbi and the justice department to get this president. and he is more aggressive, and i believe and i know from my own reporting and pam theela brown' reporting that he did not want to be co-counsel with joe digenova. and that his strategy is a strategy that the president no longer believes in, and so he's going back to plan a and plan a is to attack. >> so it is very much that john dowd was fed up with this. but it is also mut

news just broke about former trump attorney john dowd. "the new york times" is reporting that trump's former lead counsel on the russia probe raised the subject of pardons for paul manafortnd michael flynn last year. nbc news has not yet confirmed this story. >>> our big question about what this story is is what is donald trump's legal team worried that paul manafort and flynn, michael flynn, might reveal? a reminder, this revelation comes six days after dowd resigned from donald trump's legal team. his exit reportedly prompted -- was prompted by disagreements with the president. the white house is scheduled to hold a daily briefing any minute now. we'll bring you that live when sarah huckabee sanders begins taking reporter questions. let's go right to "the new york times" michael schmidt. he joins me now by phone. michael, great job as always. just walk me through what you and the times have learned. >> last summer has muller was building his cases against flynn and manafort, dowd went to their lawyers and broached the idea of a pardon w

what do you make of john dowd quitting? >> first, i wasn't in the room, he had outside counsel, david kendall who was actually his outside counsel during the investigation. after i left, the impeachment began, but in any case, i know exactly what's wrong in the trump white house, having been in the clinton white house. that is the respect by the lawyers by president clinton was always unwavering and a steady team remained from the very beginning to the end. loyalty and dedication in defense of president clinton, even after his public apology to the american people and his wife and family and friends regarding his personal indiscretions, he still kept the loyalty and dedication of his legal team. this particular president for reasons that are quite obvious to me is that he's abusive towards people and his lawyers won't accept the abusive treatment can't seem to keep a chief of staff much less a defense lawyer to be loyal and defend him. >> you think, lanny, this is important? you think that part of what we're seeing reflects

or john dowd's out. that's a term of art. we can bear down on what that means. john dowd is the one with attorney-client privilege. his secrets say with imhad. he can maintain donald trump's confidence even as an ex-member of the team. he and the president both saying positive things about each other, on his way out the door. number four, our colleague, julia ainslie, reporting two well places sources say donald trump is interested in bringing back marc kasowitz, a more combative lawyer known more for his criminal work than his defense work. but the writing on the wall is clear -- donald trump is moving away from a largely cooperative framework, avoiding mentioning mueller by name, having ty cobb come out every few weeks and say this thing's almost wrapping up and we are cooperating. jay sekulow's statement today says they will continue cooperating, the "c" word is in there. but they aren't staying with that cooperative vibe, if you will. they're adding people who want to attack the entire fbi and doj, a

john, what more do we know about why john dowd is leaving the president's side? >> well, i think the writing was kind of on the wall, rick, when the president announced last week that out of the blue or was it earlier this week, i mean -- what was it gary cohen resigned? last year or the year before? it was earlier this week that the president hired the noted former u.s. attorney, also believes that the f.b.i. had a conspiracy at the highest levels to frame president trump with a false crime. when he was brought in, the writing was kind of on the wall that, you know, it was starting to get very crowded in the president's legal team. i know that john dowd has been really making the case that the president should be very cautious about sitting down for an interview with robert mueller. that over the objections from some of the president's other attorneys who think that it would be a good idea to do it as long as the parameters for such an interview were very narrowly cast. in order to try to get this whole thing off the table. so it just looked like the situation f

i think john dowd may have given us the answer today when rather than continue on this legal team, john dowd resigned. >> ned, same question to you. if you're advising president trump. if you're providing legal counsel. is this a conversation that you would encourage the president to have? again, just a few moments ago, president trump saying that he would like to talk to robert mueller. >> i'm not sure we could find a responsible lawyer who would encourage the president to sit before mueller or go before a grand jury. trump has bragged that he's been in legal proceedings more than 100 time. been deposed more than 100 times. in many of those, he has admitted to lies, to exaggerating. there was a famous deposition in 2007 where more than 30 times the now president said he had lied. that's a very difficult position to be in any deposition, but very much so when the person across the table is the special counsel investigating your administration and your activities as a candidate, as president elect, and as president. i can't imagine that it would be a wise legal move for this president. b

john dowd is out. when one big name goes, you see other shifts as well. >>> when we come back, the house will be voting soon on a massive spending bill to keep the government open on the floor of the house. we'll come back to that. we're also monitoring the dow jones. dropping. we see the president announcing new tariffs against china. they appear out of nowhere. my secret visitors. hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. copdso to breathe better,athe. there are treatment options that can help. i go with anoro. ♪go your own way copd tries to say, "go this way." i say, "i'll go my own way" with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anor

we understand john dowd representing his client. but this goes into the larger fabric of what jay was just talking about with you, and that is the attempt by the administration to politicize all of these investigations. we don't know what andrew mccabe is alleged to have done. career officials have compiled a report, accused him of wrongdoing. we do know the president's personal involvement has tainted that process with politics. >> we'll have to see what the ig report says. that's a wrap for me, thanks so much. coming up, "velshi & ruhle." wait until you see ali velshi in a cowboy hat. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world. sometimes in ways we never imagined. (avo) get 0% apr financing on all-new 2018 subaru outback models. now through april 2nd. which is breast cancer metastatthat has spreadr, to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone rece

that's what john dowd said on the record. he's calling for this in response to what jeff sessions did late last night. >> to go back to betsy for a moment, did you take this statement, i pray that -- betsy woodruff from the daily beast. i pray that acting attorney general rod rosenstein will follow the courageous and brave example of attorney general jeff sessions and bring an end to the alleged russian collusion investigation based on the corrupt dossier. did you take that, as a reporter, as a message to rosenstein or simply a comment upon what the president, i guess, hopes rosenstein will do? >> that's a good question. you know, if the white house wants to communicate their wishes to rosenstein, they can. the deputy attorney general is one of the only officials in the justice department who, in my understanding, actually has the authorization to speak with the white how. usually there's a lot of very thick walls and procedures in place for communications between the white house and the justice department. and i know ari wil

john dowd quitting. the same john dowd that was strongly advising that president not sit down with bob mueller. second up, tariffs. try more than $50 billion worth of them. china the target. let's say today china not happy. and third up, a $1.3 trillion spending plan that passes in the house but is anyone's guess in

not on the dowd, as in john dowd, but on the dow, as in dow jones industrials. walk us through what is pushing this because there is a lot of products that say "made in china." we've seen a letter from 49 of the largest retailers who wrote to trump saying, please, focus on what these tar rif tariffs a to do because at the end of the day it will cost americans more money to buy products they need to keep their families fed and clothed. >> you just showed the graphic about the retailers who are coming out against any kind of protectionist trade policy. if you look at that graphic and names that are still on that list, you might recognize them because it was just last year when there was a proposed border-adjusted tax that was going to levy some kind of tax with regard to inputs and how much go into the products that americans actually buy. that plan was ultimately kind of killed off and instead what you have right now is more of these companies, retailers specifically, who are going to tell lawmakers about the perils of trying to raise costs on consumers. because

president trump's personal attorney, john dowd, has resigned. he was the lead outside counsel representing the commander in chief in robert mueller's ongoing russia investigation and in a statement dowd sells the president has a terrific case and he wishes him well. let's bring in the power panel. back from "outnumbered" lisa boothe, republican strategist, fox news analyst of "the five" juan williams. we have had a lot going on the last couple of hours. let's start with the fresh reaction now, this new starment, lisa, from -- new statement, lisa, from john dowd. >> for president trump it seems like a change in tactics or where president trump wants to go. he's been killing have calling this a sham, witch hunt, you see joe digenova who shared that opinion. i think president trump is growing increasingly frustrated it hant ended, doesn't seem to be any evidence of collusion, wants to fight back. >> harris: juan? >> the statement from john dowd is very clear that, he wants it to be apparent to everyone that he is not condemning the president, he do

i'm sure john dowd is a clever lawyer. if this happened the way the times and post described it, has a means of speaking suggests certain things and perhaps keeps him on the legal side of the line. there seems to be from the reporting little question that he dangled these pardons and it is part of a larger cover-up directed by the president of the united states. >> and i want to remind everyone that in the case of manafort and the case of flynn, the president's attorneys were out there public say saying this has nothing to do with the president. these are separate issues. and flynn has nothing to do with the president. manafort's business had nothing to do with the president. so at the same time, this may have been they were distancing themselves publicly. >> the question is, whether dowd acted on behalf of the president. it is very clear he would not act without the president's blessing. very clear. >> i got to -- >> we'll come back. >> thank you 57. next, two legal heavyweights join us. also later tonight, with protests

his lead lawyer, john dowd, has just quit. this is a possible signal of a change of strategy on how the president will deal with special counsel bob mueller, who has been talking to do wd and the other trump lawyers about conducting an interview with the president. moments ago the president repeated that, yes, he would, indeed, like to still talk to the special counsel. listen closely, because it happens fast. >> would you like to testify to special counsel robert mueller? >> thank you. >> i would like to, i would like to, he says, as he's walking out the door. dowd's departure comes 11 days after this tweet from the president, complimentary tweet. failing "new york times" falsely wrote a story saying i'm unhappy with my legal team on the russia case and i'm going to add another lawyer to help out. wrong, he says. i'm very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb and jay sekulow. they are doing a great job and dot dot d dot, dot, dot. >> it comes at a crucial moment. i'm told by sources inside the white house the president si

john dowd has a long career in major cases. so many lawyers like ted olson who have the experience that the president is i'm told he really wants. he's been telling his aides, how can i get olson? can i convince him? but they're just not coming in. so in that situation, he's turning to the people he sees on television. >> mr. crowley, i want to see you something mr. bannon said today. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> john dowd's a good man. i think that's why essentially more aggressive attorneys got brought in that are now -- i think president trump is going to war. i think it's very obvious he's going to war on this. >> viewed another way, just think about the first part of what he said there, in effect john dowd's a good man. in effect, that's why he's leaving. >> yeah. he wasn't a vicious enough fighter. it's a little confusing, because john dowd did not want donald trump to sit down for an extended, open-ended interview with special counsel robert mueller, fearing that it could become a perjury trap, feeling there

president -- >> he was wrong, john dowd. he told him that. >> but, remember, he was, i think, i'm double thinking here, that he was pleasing his client, that the client wanted to know that this was coming to an end, and everything was going to be okay. and dowd was trying to reassure him so that he wouldn't get panicky. apparently the president, emotionally, is at point where he feels i'm sick of this. it's not endingnd i want out, i feel i'm being unfairly targeted. >> you could hear the president, what am i paying you for, right? [laughing] you're paying this new legal team -- >> there you go. >> -- for their advice. the point i was trying to make in terms of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators, should make clear, those would be two separate things, lying under oath, perjury. this was the setout of the special counsel investigation was russia collusion to look into the trump campaign. but at the end of the day they will try and nail you on anything. and there's a lot of pressure from hardcore democrats from t

john dowd was president trump's top lawyer. primary mueller's investigative team, with dowd on the way out, does it look like the president will fire the special counsel rather than negotiate and interview with him? >> concerned that may happen in the coming weeks. look at the pattern here, the president abruptly firing the secretary of state, rex tillerson, by tweet, and the president now moves to, by name, challenge robert mueller in saying his investigation, his status as special counsel never should have started, and now john dowd, chief counsel for his defense team, who had been encouraging the president to cooperate with robert mueller abruptly resigns. i think all of this points, this is not a hint. this is a clear sign that the president is more and more likely to take the unacceptable step of abruptly firing robert mueller without cause. >> despite his direct attacks on robert mueller over the weekend, the president said today he still wants to testify before the special counsel. do you think that's likely? >> well, i

presumably if john dowd did move forward with this, there was some decision by the president

we of course heard from john dowd. but the mood in the west wing this past week has really been marked by talk of staff shake-ups. of course we ended the day yesterday with the thinking that something might happen with h.r. mcmaster, given all the talk about his fate. of course we come to find out it was actually andy mccabe who d ended up being on the chopping block. >> thank you, geoff and pete. >>> betsy woodruff joins me, politics reporter for the daily beast, and johnathan lamere, an msnbc political analyst. both of your entities have pretty big breaking news including you specifically, betsy, you were the first to break this story. so walk us through your own reporting and what did john dowd tell you. >> i reached out to john dowd as soon as the news broke involving andy mccabe being fired from the fbi. dowd responded over e-mail and told me -- he basically gave me two pieces of information. first he told me that he believed the decision that the attorney general had made to fire andy mccabe was brilliant and cou

john dowd may have to be answering questions about this. is this something to your knowledge that the special counsel has been sniffing around? >> what we have seen time and time again as special counsel is interested in, you know, obstruction cases, whether air force one issue, where they wrote a statement that appear fod mislead the press, the firing of james comey what folks knew about michael flynn, to the attempts to oust jeff sessions, a number of incidents where we have seen subpoenas, questions, about potential obstruction. and from what the folks we talked to yesterday, they indicated that this could also be another issue. again, no one has been accused of wrongdoing here and we don't know where this is going. but it fits in a pattern of behavior where the president and those around him seem to obstruct the investigation or to at least impede what folks were doing. >> josh dawsey, go nowhere. a carefully worded statement from the white house, not considering pardons now, but how about then? and losing their edge. new polls show shr

you have john dowd out. you have conspiracy theorist joseph digenova in. esteemed member of the washington bar declined a role. mark, the president's personal lawyer, once shunned from the team now may be making a reentry. when you take a look at the slightly bigger picture of the state of the president's legal team as we move to this new intense phase in the investigation, what do we make of it? >> it's a struggle inside of the white house right now. my colleagues and i have been reporting today that so many white-shoe law firms in washington have conflicts with regard to joining the mueller legal team for the president trump. people like ted olson are not joining. they're finding it hard to bring lawyers in because lawyers say we have conflicts. we're not going to be able to do it. it's too much of a political risk for the law firm. he's turning to pundits, people on television being allies. this is leaving the white house in a precarious position. who is the president's lead lawyer on his outside legal team? >> i'm turning to pundits. i know how dangero

help us understand the role here that john dowd played in it. when you look at that mechanism and it has gotten smaller over the last few weeks. what role is he playing. >> dowd has the lead as the trump lawyer in the middle of last summer. then he relied on mark kasowitz for the first few months and then dowd came in to take over. dowd was the lead person. but he's working outside of the white house as the president's personal lawyer. he took the lead in dealing with kelner who is flynn's lawyer and reg brown who was paul manafort's lawyer and dealing with the special counsel office, mueller's office on the interview and negotiating the interview. dowd was very concerned about the president sitting down with mueller for an interview. and he thought that very little to come out of it. he knew the president would often not tell the truth and that would be a very, very legally difficult situation for the president to go into. >> last question, let me go back to what peter alexander was saying about the questions this raises about how worried the w

. >> look, john dowd resigned abruptly as one of the lead attorneys in the russia investigation. publicly and abruptly. a lot of lawyers who worked with him are upset about it because they obviously think it didn't do the president any good. but the reason he resigned was because he had a bad client, and the client wasn't taking his advice. the client wanted to bring in joe digenova. so they are searching for attorneys. they have been turned down by many. you know, i was just told, we're in rush, we don't necessarily need somebody from a huge law firm or whatever. we're taking our time. we are still in discussions with the special counsel about trump testifying. those have not gone off the rails because another presidential attorney has been involved in them and will continue to be involved in them. so they're down playing it. but it's kind of astonishing to me that in washington, d.c., of all places. >> and as many great things as people can say about a constitutional lawyer who has argued multiple times in front of the supreme court, sure, there's a constitutional element to th

stuart: did john dowd favor that? >> no, john dowd opposeed it from which we can only conclude that the rest of the team favored it. stuart: so where are we left? i mean, we're trying to work this out. >> these things will come to a head very soon because bob mueller has not only asked for the interview, they've been negotiating subject matters for the interview. >> ultimately, the decision >> i know his character. ashley: he will state his case. >> he will accept their advice or reject it. stuart: i sum this up. fast-breaking news day with a lot of moving parts. number one this market is sharply lower. the dow industrials are down 447 points. best part of 2%. similar losses for s&p and nasdaq. across the board stocks are down, why? issue number one, china trade tariffs. they will be imposed by the president. he will do this live around 12:30 eastern time. that is not sitting well with our exporters, boeing and caterpillar because they may be retaliated by the chinese. downside issue for the market number one china, t

is gone, and with it goes dowd himself. >> in quitting, john dowd wrote an e-mail to "the washington post" saying this, i love the president and i wish him well. what about the other lawyers in the team? where does that leave ty cobb or don megan? >> i think ty is critical now. i certainly don't think he was mr. softy, but be that as it may, i think that ty cobb is really key here. i think that ty with all the experience he brings to bear on this would understand that the president's options for noncooperation are limited and have enormously negative consequences should he go down that road. so we'll have to see how this plays out. i can't, you know, say much more about mr. dowd's leaving other than it might have been difficult for him to, you know, in his view work with joe dej digenova. i have to say with his conspiracy theories it's going to make it even more difficult than it appears for the white house to bring in more experienced people to help them in their defense here. >> cnn is learning that at least four high profile attorneys have been approached to join trump's legal tea

the president's lawyer, john dowd, comes with a stunning statement taking on the special counsel in a way that is really a marked departure from the strategy they had applied so far. >> that's right. the strategy all along had been not to antagonize mueller. you notice president trump never mentioned mueller by name in his tweets about the russia matter. that seems to have shifted. it started with john dowd, the president's personal attorney issuing a statement saying the mueller investigation should come to a close. he initially told "the daily beast" he was speaking for the president. he quickly backtracked, no, no, i'm speaking for myself, not for the president. donald trump has done this before where he'll have surrogates, his spokespeople, his advisors to float bold ideas to test them in the market place. i have no doubt that trump had something to do with that statement. >> i can't imagine he would put the statement out trump wasn't okay with it. >> it's what trump believes. i've talked to a number of senior white house officials over the weekend who said the president for a whi

john dowd said he loves the president, wishes him well. the president would not answer our questions about john dowd. but wolf, this is the latest sign of the reinvolving door, also extending to the legal team as well as many other parts of this administration. >> jeff, the white house also announced that today, new tariffs on china and the markets clearly tanked more than 700 points down. the white house says the move will help the u.s. economy, but there's a lot of concern there could be a trade war, which could result in prices for average americans for consumer goods going way up. >> wolf, this is certainly something that, you know, a major, you know, the most aggressive stance yet the president has taken against china. and that's where the president was, when we were asking him those questions. he was in the diplomatic reception room, signing that proclamation there. and he said, look, this is something that the u.s. should have done a long time ago. he talked about the billions of dollars. he said this would be a $60 billion deal. bu

the obvious leader previously was john dowd, who as you noted, resigned. and as you mentioned earlier, the president was tweeting about fake news. he was responding to reports from cnn and other outlets that the white house has reached out toll several prominent washington, d.c. defense attorneys for potential representation. all of them, though, at least the one that cnn has confirmed wi with, have turned the white house down. so the president trying to change the narrative there, with saying that this is fake news, that there are plenty of attorneys that are, you know, dying to work for the white house. we should probably take that tweet with a grain of salt, though, considering that last week, as you know, ana, the president also tweeted that he was happy with his legal team up and down, specifically naming john dowd, saying that there would be no shake ups. that stories about that were fake news. and as you noted, days later, john dowd resigned. >> boris sanchez in west palm beach, thank you. so who is left on the president's legal team when it comes t

john dowd. john dowd is the lead lawyer handling president trump's response to the russia investigation, quitting today after the president just last week tweeted "the failing "new york times" purposely wrote a false story stating that i am unhappy with my legal team on the russia case, and i am going to add another lawyer to help out. wrong. i'm very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb and jay sekulow. they are doing a great job." well, dowd wanted the president to cooperate with mueller's team and resist the urge to attack the special counsel publicly. dowd is out today as part of a shake-up of the president's legal team. sources tell cnn at least three defense attorneys from major firms recently turned down the chance to join trump's legal team. a fourth is still being considered, but would have to leave his firm if he took the job. that comes as the former white house flame thrower steve bannon weighs in on the white house chaos, saying if john kelly leaves the trump administration, he

if you had, for instance, john dowd promising to pardon either paul manafort or michael flynn if they agreed not to testify, sure, there might be something for robert mueller to look in there in terms of obstruction of justice. but right now, the reporting doesn't seem to suggest that. and again, the president is free to pardon whomever he chooses. >> you're also learning some more about these indications of a possible connection between the former trump camp, deputy campaign chairman, rick gates, and a person with ties to russian intelligence. tell our viewers what you're learning about this, potentially could be very significant. >> it's an interesting development. we're learning that prosecutors in the special counsel's office says that rick gates was in touch in september and october of 2016 with someone who is not named in these filings, with ties to russian intelligence. and they say that gates actually knew they were aware that this person had some kind of ties to russian intelligence. the filings say that this person is pertinent to the investigation. now, the only reason we k

john dowd thought that was a mistake. in fact, when he went sort of rogue by some interpreted over the weekend should shut down and be finished, be done. that was too far. liz ann sonders, i guess about getting into the weeds your comments more uncertainty is it not for the markets and that can never be good. >> it really depends. the market doesn't like uncertainty. that's an old adage. if you look at it from an investor standpoint, one of the reasons why over the long history of being able to track partisan conflict, when it's been highest historically, the stock market has had its best performance. to the extent it helps to keep the reins in on investor sentiment get into frothy commode is one of the precipitating factors would kind of optimism, excessive optimism that kate didn't. that may not necessarily be a bad name. that's not to say any of this uncertainty is a good thing, but it is having the effect of keeping a lid on the fraud resolve in january coming back. neil: one thing i could say and i'm no market techni

dowd, depending on how these conversations went and we know john dowd what no problem going after -- earlier we reported on sentencing proceedings for one lawyer, so it's very interesting that that point you made with all due caveats, that's not where the times story was yet. >>> up ahead, the return of roseanne, how the rebooted show is now tackling the trump era. how do you chase what you love with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've bee

the stories are pinned on john dowd. john dowd had those conversations with these lawyers and the quote from john dowd who just quit recently, maybe there's an incentive there to paint his representation as being of a certain way, but john dowd says, you know, these discussions didn't happen as far as i'm aware. how do you not be aware of your own conversations is curious? i don't know what purpose its serving and that's curious. the other thing, going back to the political impeachment calculus here, obstruction. it feels obstructionee. trey gowdy who announced his resignation, if you are innocent start acting like it. this is not the behavior of someone who is acting in an innocent way. doesn't mean he's guilty but it's not behavior with someone who has -- >> i was thinking yesterday back in the iran contra days, george h.w. bush pardoned caster weinberg weinberger, brooks was trying to protect himself. bush by then was an ex-president. speaking of the special counsel in this case p i want to ask you about this other re

so you look at this statement from john dowd. he might claim now that he's free-lancing, that he wasn't speaking for the president, but he may have been trying to please the boss, to say what trump wants to say. and that is why i think the statement is so extraordinary. >> all of it is extraordinary. thank you so much to all of you. brian, michael, david, lynn. appreciate it. see you soon. >> all right, also, coming up, russia hits back at the uk after prime minister theresa may kicks nearly two dozen russian diplomats out of the country. how the poisoning of a former russian spy led to this diplomatic tit for tat next. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. hesumatra reserve told in the time it takes to brew your cup. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good q

you know john dowd? >> i do not. no. >> putting yourself in his shoes, given what gloria just laid out, can you imagine being in his situation and feeling conflicted and not wanting to be co-counsel with this guy rolling in who peddles conspiracy theories? >> i assume he's relieved today. start with that. on the other hand, the other thing the reporting shows is not only does the president want to run his own legal team but he's constantly maneuvering behind his lawyers. >> not listening to his lawyers. >> not listening and telling them he's satisfied with them while at the same time interviewing their replacements. he's creating this environment in which it's very difficult for lawyers to do their jobs. >> what about team mueller? it's dowd who was the point of contact from the trump attorney team to the mueller team. i can't imagine the mueller team is actually thrilled with this news, either. >> i assume the mueller team reads into it, i don't know what they're reading into it, but clearly, there's a step in the d

john dowd quitting. the same john dowd that was strongly advising that president not sit down with bob mueller. second up, tariffs. try more than $50 billion worth of them. china the target. let's say today china not happy. and third up, a $1.3 trillion spending plan that passes in the house but is anyone's guess in the senate. if it fails, guess what? the government shut down. as i said, it all combines to send stocks down. every single dow component in the red. the dow surrenders more than 722 points today. more on what produced those numbers. first, to the white house on how they're responding to them. that's where you'll find john roberts. >> clearly, neil, as the dow continues to go down since the president made his announcement that he sent his trade representative to come to the tariffs, taking measures to restrict investment by china in u.s. technology companies, they watched the dow tick down and tick down. now we're back to over 700 points. the president, all through the campaign and the first

"new york times" is now reporting that john dowd, the former head of president trump's personal legal team who stepped down a couple of days ago floated the idea of pardoning aides flynn and manafort. if he had offered the pardons to influence their pleas and negotiations. jen acosta is waiting for that briefing to begin and jeffrey toobin is ready to go. jim acosta, anything about this yet? >> we thought this was a slow week and of all things it was infrastructure week or at least it was on the agenda. we knew something was going to come up that was unrelated to that. it appears this "new york times" story will set the agenda for this briefing with sarah sanders when she comes out in a couple of moments. the briefing has already been delayed once. to some extent ty cobb essentially giving us the statement that he gave to the "new york times." he told me on the phone that he did not know about this and gave us this statement. i have only been asked about pardons by the press and routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the white

so john dowd, president's lead russia lawyer out as of today. two more conspiracy theory tv lawyers are in instead. and mr. watch your back f-bomb guy may be back in the mix, as well. four sources tonight say what set off this big shakeup in the president's legal defense is the president going through the roof about robert mueller's latest actions. robert mueller and prosecutors in the special counsel's office subpoenaing records set the president off in this new ti zrks zrz of changes. maybe he thinks this is the team he needs to fight the fight with mueller's prosecutors but if we're being honest here, let's get real. what he's putting together is not the team you put together to mount a legal defense for a president. in fact, to do any serious legal work at all. it appears that that part is over. what the president is putting together is the kind of team, a guy like him might put together to run a p.r. a p.r. operation explaining the president's actions. as hilarious as the president's d list lineup of lawyers is starting to look, i'm pretty

dowd was doing, naming john dowd, specifically. saying that there would not be any shake ups and reports about possible shake ups on his legal team were fake news and lo and behold, a few days later, we saw john dowd resign, fred. >> all right. let me check in with shimon. shimon, is there any connection between, you know, the attorney, john dowd's departure and now joseph digenova is not going to be on the legal team, even though earlier in the week, the white house said that he would. >> reporter: right. so we know that john dowd, based on some of the reporting my colleagues here have been doing, that john dowd was not happy about this move to hire this new attorney and perhaps even quit as a result of this move by the president. look, i think the bottom line is, anyone who is going to join this legal team is going to have a hard time, because the issue really is, they're dealing with a very difficult client. and we know that other laun-- l firms have been approached, other lawyers have been approached to potentially represent th

john dowd's resignation was abrupt. they had some sense, i think, that he was eventually going to take a lesser role. but his departure last week was unknown to them and a shock. and now we have reported four high-profile attorneys have all been contacted in recent weeks and have all said no. people like ted olson, people like bob bennett, dan webb. it goes on and on. and we are told that most law firms are telling the president's allies, i'm sorry, this is just too nuclear a topic, too controversial for our clients, our partners, and this is not a client we are willing to take on. >> especially stepping in now to a case that has already all but matured. jeremy bash, on the question of what did the president know, when did he know it, could the president have possibly given dowd the permission, rolled this idea out himself? we have compiled just based on public reporting things this president has reportedly asked of the people around him. asked james comey to shut down michael flynn. asked andrew mccabe who he voted for

the lawyer in question is john dowd. the discussions happened before michael flynn copped a plea and paul manafort was charged. our jeff z

was john dowd out on his own freelancing? was he simply just running his mouth, talking to other lawyers, or was he doing this at the behest of the president. people that know john dowd -- >> michael, you have the president of the united states himself talking to people asking about the possibility of the flynn pardon, asking about what he can and can't do as president of the united states pardoning others. so that does seem unlikely that dowd would be going out on his own without the president's support or advice, isn't it? >> well, people that know dowd say they find it hard to believe that he having such a high profile client with such power would go out and do such a aggressive thing. it would make -- have such aggressive discussions with that. at the same time, what you have to understand about dowd is you have a lot of undisciplined things here. he's made a lot of unforced errors throughout his time as the president's lawyer including most recently with the statement that he put out although he looks like we had been to

without a dowd, president trump's lead lawyer in the russian probe, john dowd, resigns amid growing disagreements with the president. four other attorneys reject offers to join the president's legal team. is the president taking charge of his own defense? willing to testify. the president insists he still would like to testify before the special counsel mueller as the two sides negotiate over what topics such an interview could cover. can the remaining lawyers keep the president from making a risky move? >>> tanking the dow. the dow dropped 724 points,