barr, bill barr saying i didn't talk to him. this lays it right at bill barr's feet right at the feet of the bill barr justice department that unlike jeff sessions, who sort of yielded to department norms, recused himself from the russia probe, william barr was happy, happy to put doj into service as donald trump's not just political shield, but political weapon. >> you know, he really has been willing to be the weapon. and i have to confess i'm a little bit confused about why the president feels the need to discredit a report that both he and his attorney general told us disprove the notion that there had been any collusion or any obstruction. and yet here they are trying to discredit that. i think for now we've seen the president mention bill barr in these two phone calls that we know of. barr released a statement staying he was angry about the first call, not angry that he has resigned and taken very serious steps to separate himself from the conduct. i suspect it won't be very long before something comes forward and we learn

barr, that will be up to bill barr to do any declassification -- he gave it to bill barr and bill barr is probably waiting for durham to finish whatever he's doing. this should all happen, this never should have happened in the first place. >> the only people who have been impugned in all of this, who have been found to be unethical, dirty and lacking utterly principal are the investigators in the department of justice. >> let me tell you one of the documents that sydney is asking for, any evidence of the videoconference were angela cade said, first we asked flynn and then we ask trump. how about that. >> that was an fbi teleconference among fbi officials. not a single fbi official in that meeting ever complained about the statements about mckay. let me say this, may cade needs to be indicted. he must be indicted. if he does not get indicted and get to pass, i will be the single most disappointed lawyer in this country because you cannot do what mueller did -- and not have mccabe be indicted. i expect him to be indicted. i cannot conceive of a situation where he would not be. lou: the

bill barr is the top lawyer for all the people of the united states. this is a completely inappropriate thing for him to be doing. second of all, why on earth is the attorney general involved in donald trump's effort to get political dirt on his opponents? it's a one-purpose call. the one purpose here is he wants dirt on joe biden and hillary clinton. bill barr should have no part of that. >> clearly the doj knows that because they put out a statement saying the president didn't actually come to barr about this issue, that barr didn't talk to ukraine about this issue or other issues. i just talked to a democratic congressman who said yeah, right, i don't believe that essentially. >> you have to imagine there are many people inside this white house who get asked to do things that they're extremely uncomfortable with. >> he says he wasn't even asked. the doj says he wasn't asked. do you believe that? >> well, i thought his very careful testimony in response to kamala harris's questioning as to whether he'd ever been asked to undergo an investigation at t

bill barr leading the justice department saying, nothing to see here. >> bill barr who pushed for this letter and transcript to be put out. >> thank you, kaitlan. great reporting. thank you for being with me. i'm poppy harlow in new york. jim and i will see you in d.c. for special coverage tomorrow morning. my colleague, indicate bolduan continues coverage now. >> hello, everyone. i'm kait bolduan. as you can see, it has been a morning of breaking news. the white house released its account of the july phone call between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. the first details we have of what led to the whistle-blower complaint against the president, the call is only part of the allegations laid out in this complaint. the rest of it we have -- we do not know. the white house account though does reveal president trump said the following to the ukrainian president. if you could look into it, it sounds horrible to me. trump there explicitly talking about former vice president joe biden. much more on this throughout the hour. remember, this is just the first step in what is now h

bill barr leading the justice department saying, nothing to see here. >> bill barr who pushed for this letter and transcript to be put out. >> thank you, kaitlan. great reporting. thank you for being with me. i'm poppy harlow in new york. jim and i will see you in d.c. for special coverage tomorrow morning. my colleague, indicate bolduan continues coverage now. >> hello, everyone. i'm kait bolduan. as you can see, it has been a morning of breaking news. the white house released its account of the july phone call between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. the first details we have of what led to the whistle-blower complaint against the president, the call is only part of the allegations laid out in this complaint. the rest of it we have -- we do not know. the white house account though does reveal president trump said the following to the ukrainian president. if you could

barr or because of bill barr asking the australian government to investigate itself. >> reporter: yes. because we know that there is a conversation with australian official and george papadopoulous that really kicked off a lot of the -- what became the mueller investigation. and so that is true. and also we understand that no matter what bill war oig thinks of this investigation he just wants to know whether it was lawfully predicated. and it is clear that the president himself sees this very differently, as almost a settling of scores, a way to clear his name and also he believes that bill barr is kind of his guy, almost a personal lawyer as we saw in the ukraine transcript. and that is something that i think the justice department has tried to distance itself from. >> and explain that. you write that this underscores the extent to which mr. trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner to show that it had corrupt origins. does the president see bill barr as his roy kohn, is that what this reporting is indicating along with the other reporting that we've been seeing built up

barr been left in place. >> you know, carrie, if bill barr did now was going on with ukraine, if he'd heard anything and obviously, he did nothing, is that a problem? >> well, sure. i mean, he's a member of the cabinet. he took an oath of office to the constitution, so if he is knowledgeable and complicit in the president using his official position in foreign affairs to pressure ahead of a foreign head of state to do political favors then that certainly is a problem. what's clear simply based on the text of the phone call that was released from july 25th is certainly the president and we know this from just his behavior over the last three years, certainly the president views the attorney general and attorney general barr specifically, in much the same way as he views his personal lawyer. >> yeah. >> so all public indications are that the president doesn't really distinguish between his personal lawyer, somebody like rudy giuliani and bill barr who is the attorney general of the united states. so that's a problem -- that's a problem for the public because that's the president's point

barr, the attorney general of the united states. >> bill barr is the most dangerous human being walking on two legs in america right no. i'll tell you why -- right now. i'll tell you why. he has put himself in service not to the law, not to justice, not to norms and institutions, but to being donald trump's in-house personal lawyer. and he is using the power of the d.o.j. to protect this man in a way that is unprecedented since nixon. frankly, he just hasn't been caught yet is why it's not unprecedented. >> to that point, i do make the case and i know the speaker's chose an different route, why i think the house should pass an authorization of an impeachment inquiry on the floor, because i think it should articulate that the investigation includes the office of the presidency, the vice presidentsy, the attorney general, the secretary of state and the office of management and budget. and you defined the investigation that way and you move forward. >> i think it is notable that all of this happened after don mcgahn exited the white house. you have the white house counsel who you may compl

barr has to recuse himself, is this going to trigger that bill barr might actually have to appoint a special counsel? do you read the law that way? >> well, you know, i think this is all secondary. all of this talk about whether or not trump committed a campaign finance violation, whether he committed a bribe or extortion, it's not the same standard as the standard of impeachment. i think the next thing is going to be, is this an abuse of power, and that's not the same thing to ask the question is this something illegal where he could be prosecuted? that could be down the line if p r -- they decide to prosecute him. he showed no concern about corruption anywhere else in the world or about anybody else in the world. >> but it is probably something that will be a political decision, not a legal one. rick hasen, as always, sir, thank you very much, and we'll be right back. tell your doctor abouedicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. - cis choosing to nurtureild and emotionally support children in urgent need. it's not just about opening up your home;

i think that bill barr initially asked mr. durham, a u.s. attorney, to lead this investigation and now it appears that the president has commandeered it and calling on foreign leader to help and who knows what he's using as leverage in the process. >> and recently i think we all watched as the president had a meeting with the australian prime minister -- >> right. >> and just to put into context, australia is an important partner. australia clearly for the u.s. -- australia clearly wanted to stay on the right side of the u.s. >> correct. >> that was very clear from this meeting that we saw part of it on camera. so with that expectation, what kind of position do you worry that puts australia in? >> it's not as bad as ukraine. but it is on another vulnerable position. obviously the australians do reply on the u.s. as part of our five eyes arrangement with them and others. to basically have a collective defense and share intelligence with each other. but i just -- going back to what you talked about before with bill barr and president trump, ag

[laughter] but you know he gave it, he gave it to bill barr, and he's probably bill barr is probably wait for durham to finish whatever he's doing i know it is see this should have all happen whatted this never should have happened in the first place. the only people who have been of all of this and not impugn but unethical dirty, and lacking utterly in principle are the investigators and the want of justice. >> so let me tell you one of the documents that sidney is is asking for from the judge any evidence of the video conference where andrew mccabe said first we f flynn and then we f trump. how about that? for an unprejudices -- >> that was fbi meeting. teleconference among fbi officials and guess what, not a single fbi official in that meeting ever complained about the statements by mccabe. let me just say this about mccabe, mccabe needs to be indicted he has to be indicted he must be indicted. if he does not get indicted and gets a pass, i will be the single most disappointed lawyer many this country because you cannot do what we -- what mueller did to pap papadopoulos and lies a

bill barr may have a role in that. other main allegation that comes out of this complaint is that of a cover-up as you mention ed wh was it put in a file that was independent for the highest classification of covert action and what else might be in that file? >> he suggests that's not necessarily the first time. do you have any reason to believe there are other instances when the white house lawyers or whoever did that? >> we certainly know that at other times, the president has been deeply concerned about whether there has been a record of this conversation. what comes most to mind is conversation with putin. you can imagine what might have happened to any complete conversation between the president and putin. the short answer is that we don't know. this president has a history particularly when it involves vladimir putin as indeed denial against putin's russia involve that he is very secretive about his conversations and so we're determined to employ every tool we have to find out. >> several named and other unnamed

led by attorney bill barr who does not have that many friends on the democratic side of the aisle. so i think there's going to be a lot of questions about what was going on here in terms of the discussion and who was involved with it. how much the dni actually says about that versus sticking to the substance of the complaint as much as he can talk about it, we do not know. but i think lawmakers have questions not just about comparing the contents of the complaint to what is supposed to be the normal practice. but also what's been going on through the cabinet level officials that is the reason they didn't get to see it for so long. >> and another interesting thing to watch is going to be how you've seen the white house really dismiss this person, this whistle-blower as someone who is potentially partisan and whatnot. now we're learning that this person didn't have this information first hand but heard it from other officials who clearly saw something wrong with the way this phone call was handled. that's going to be a big question going forward. that's making people inside the west

barr never talked to the ukrainians, the president never talked to bill barr about talking to ukrainians. there's a press release from the justice department that came out the same day as the conversation that says that. it says also, by the way, that this matter and the underlying investigation of who provided information to the fbi about manafort and whether any of that was done unlawfully, that's being investigated by john durham. maria: so you're say what the president was trying to do was better understand what was going on in early 2016 when they tried the frame him and why so much information from the dossier was coming from ukraine. >> correct. his first reference in the conversation when he says i need a favor, it wasn't a reference to biden at all, it was a reference to server; i.e., the democratic national committee server and why that wasn't turned over to the fbi and so on. it had nothing whatever to do with joe biden. maria: all right. we're going to take a short break and then we're going to come back with attorney general michael knew a casey. i've got to get your take on

he's like, bill barr will call you, or you call bill barr. mentions him like five times kind of in the same breath as his own attorney rudy giuliani. my question based from what we know all things mueller an how president trump felt about jeff sessions recusing himself from all of that, a., is this not a conflict of interest and looking at you, kaitlan, how can bill barr not recuse himself? >> he hasn't and he didn't in this decision. we know that as they were going through this whether or not this criminal referral, going to open this investigation. they interviewed the white house officials who were involved in putting this transcript together. that's it. they didn't interview anyone else and made the decision not to go anywhere with this. the basis of what could be the value of an investigation into joe biden for the president politically is that actually a campaign finance violation and one of the bigger mysteries bill barr wanted the transcript released. people questioning why now, because he is mentioned throughout it even though the do

we want to know what role bill barr had in any of this. we want to know what ukraine understood, was expected of them before they even had this july phone call with the president of the united states. so -- we know what we have to do ask we'll be guided about the evidence. >> i'm sorry? ? what potential crimes do you see? >> look, there are any number of potential krims and it is in ago dlam of evidence there could be more,s big team. when a prd is holding authed fek you are in tpg to dig up or manufacture in his pop bonent. >> if there is an effort to cover up and there are numeral potential offenses and i have no confidence that this justice department led by this attorney general will lead to anything except the president's adversaries or claims that give fodder to the conspiracy theories which the president wishes to peddle and the president was peddling with president zelensky. and so as the inspector general's appeared to not have jurisdiction for the department of justice is unwilling to look into this, this will fall within our res

or whether are or not you on the judiciary speak to bill barr. this becomes very difficult for bill barr to be at the head of anything going on with this investigation because he is a material witness. >> you said may be a material witness. he is a material witness. he is squarely implicated by the president's words alone. not to mention other points of evidence. and he will have to answer for his conduct during this period. this was not the president alone. remember, we now have a whistleblower saying that people around the president moved to cover up the actions because they felt they were implicated. we know from the iran contra favor to the nixon watergate crisis that the people were engaging in coverups engaging in potential criminal activity as well. we have a lot of work for dto d. the public needs to know what happened, they deserve to know the truth and i think that we as congress republican and democrat have to get to that truth and bring to light. >> senator cory booker, thank you for joining me. we're joined now by another 2020 presid

barr and what his duties are to the country and how he feels about bill barr, which is that bill barr is his ally and that bill barr is yet another one of his political fixers. this is going to increase scrutiny on the justice department, fairly or no. people are going to say, now, bill barr, you need to prove to us that you are not the man that president trump has portrayed you to be in this conversation with the ukranian president. >> michael crowley, we just heard from philip rucker how all of this is affecting the mood inside the white house. there is also the question of the president himself. you were at that press conference. we played a clip of it. i want to read this. i want to make sure i get the words right, but in your report watching the president today, you said you saw his mood go from feisty to self-pitying to deflated. >> that's right. there were moments this week where the president was low energy, particularly his grand address to all the foreign leaders yesterday morning where he seemed sort of half awake and incredibly bored. i think it was a sign that he was prob

barr, the attorney general of the united states. >> bill barr is the most dangerous human being walking on two legs in america right now. i'll tell you why. he has put himself in service not to the law, not to justice, not to norms and institutions, but to being donald trump's in-house personal lawyer. and he is using the power of the d.o.j. to protect this man in a way that is unprecedented since nixon. frankly, he just hasn't been caught yet is why it's not unprecedented. >> to that point, i do make the case and i know the speaker's chosen a different route why i , think the house should pass an authorization of an impeachment inquiry on the floor, because i think it should articulate that the investigation includes the office of the presidency, the vice presidency, the attorney general, the secretary of state and the office of management and budget. and you defined the investigation that way and you move forward. >> i think it is notable that all of this happened after don mcgahn exited the white house. you have the white house counsel who you may completely disagree with him, but he

barr, and what his duties are to the country and how he feels about bill barr, which is that bill barr is his ally, and bill barr is another one of his political fixers. this is going to increase scrutiny on the justice department fairly or no. people are going to say, now, bill barr, you need to prove to us that you are not the man that president trump has portrayed you to be in this conversation with the ukrainian president. >> michael crowley, we just heard from philip rucker how all of this is affecting the mood inside the white house. there's also the question of the president himself. you were at that press conference. we played a clip of it. in your report, watching the president today, you said you saw his mood go from feisty to self-pitying to deflated. >> yeah, that's right. you know, there were moments this week at the united nations where the president was remarkably low energy as he would say, particularly his grand address to all the foreign leaders yesterday morning where he seemed sort of half awake and incredibly bored. i think it was a sign he was probably very distra

i don't know bill barr. i would be glad to. i think bill barr is probably aware of what the applicable statutes would be. trey gowdy. good to see you. michael horowitz submitting his draft of his report on fisa abuse to attorney general barr. staffers at fake news cnn are speaking out, upset the network has hired the disgraced f.b.i. director mccabe who was fired for lying and leaking. gregg jarrett and pam bondi straight ahead. felicity huffman sentenced. woman 1: i had no symptoms of hepatitis c. man 1: mine... man 1: ...caused liver damage. vo: epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. vo: whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. woman 2: i had the common type. man 2: mine was rare. vo: epclusa has a 98% overall cure rate. man 3: i just found out about my hepatitis c. woman 3: i knew for years. vo: epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. vo: before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up, and could cause s

barr and what his duties are to the country and how he feels about bill barr, which is that bill barr is his ally and that bill barr is yet another one of his political fixers. this is going to increase scrutiny on the justice department, fairly or no. people are going to say, now, bill barr, you need to prove to us that you are not the man that president trump has portrayed you to be in this conversation with the ukranian president. >> michael crowley, we just heard from philip rucker how all of this is affecting the mood inside the white house. there is also the question of the president himself. i want to make sure i get the words right, but in your report watching the president today, you said you saw his mood go from feisty to self-pitying to deflated. >> that's right. there were moments this week where the president was low energy, particularly his grand address to all the foreign leaders yesterday morning where he seemed sort of half awake and incredibly bored. i think it was a sign that he was probably very distracted. definitely we saw some real anger today. he lashed out at

i think we have seen other the last couple of months that bill barr has been incredibly close to the president, has almost functioned as the quasi federal defender for the president in the mueller investigation. the fact that he's taken steps saying he's surprised and angry by the president's association with him in this event suggests that he is stepping back a little. and mike pompeo will also have to think about what this means for him going forward. this presidency looks poised to at least go through the ringer with congress, and i think there are a lot of people who are trying to get out of the way. >> your interpretation of the barr remarks, i'll read them. here they are in the associated press, acontributed to someone close to barr, but they're not his words yet, and maybe that's a very deliberate strategy on his part. it said the person close to him said, quote, barr was surprised and angry to discover he had been lumped in with giuliani. >> well, again, surprised, angry, he is making very clear through his representative or representative making clear on his behalf that he d

we don't know for sure whether bill barr did the things he said he would do. i'll have the attorney general get together with my personal attorney rudy giuliani, paraphrasing, but if he did not, he needs to be questioned. >> that's a question i have. does it matter whether or not barr ever, a, did follow up as the president said he would, or b, was even informed that he was mentioned on this call? these are all, of course, hypotheticals, more information needed. do those two factors matter? >> it does not matter in terms of recusal. either way he has a whole bunch of questions to -- you cannot be the prosecutor and a witness in the same case. if he did do some of those actions, if he did participate, then he's a witness at a whole new level. >> so the new reporting is that the justice department attorneys knew a week before the actual formal referral about the complaint. >> does that mean necessarily that the attorney general was made aware? >> no, but i think in all likelihood, a complaint of this level would make it up. >> or do they block him off? >> it cou

bill barr was mentioned in the complaint. mr. chairman, i went to the office of legal counsel in consultation with the icig. he was part of that to receive whether or not this met the criteria. vehementlyicig disagreed with the opinion of the bill barr justice department, did he not? considered it a matter of urgent concern. opinionsas you know, from the department of justice office of legal counsel are binding on all of us in the executive ranch. >> let me ask you this. do you think it's appropriate that you go to a department run by someone who is the subject of the complaint to get advice -- who is a subject of the complaint for advice as to whether you should provide that complaint to congress? did that conflict of interest concern you? >> mr. chairman, when i saw this report and complaint, immediately i knew that this was a serious matter. thoughtto me and i just it would be prudent. >> i'm just asking if the conflict of interest concerns you. >> sir, i have to work with what i've got and that is the office of legal counsel

>> it is bill barr's call but i'm glad you mentioned bill barr. i think, you know, we had a certain context that we expected this to fit into, which is that the whole idea of a quid pro quo, trump supposedly was pressing on ukraine to help his political campaign. now that you read this transcript and you also see -- think about the timing of this right after mueller's testimony, but the mentions of attorney general barr in the transcript and the president wanting zelenskiy to speak to barr. he is asking ukraine to assist the ongoing investigation by barr into the origins of the trump/russia investigation which barr as early as march or so stated that he was -- that it was underway, that he had assigned durham and that was ongoing. now, i realize that the democrats don't like that investigation and they see it as, you know, political and it is kind of a dichotomy here. we're also supposed to say the mueller investigation was totally on the up and up because it was trying to get to the bottom of whether trump was in a conspiracy with russia. whereas

just call bill barr. you can use our justice department to manufacture dirt on an opponent, that that's what democracy is. you can use foreign assistance, military assistance, vital assistance as a lever to get another country to do something unethical. the idea that a fellow democracy, struggling democracy, would hear those messages from the president of the united states, i just want to say to the people of ukraine, we support you in your fight with russia. we support you in your struggle for democracy, we support you in your efforts to root out corruption, and what you are witnessing and what you are seeing in the actions of this president is not democracy. it is the very negation of democracy. this is democracy. what you saw in this committee is democracy, as ugly as it can be, as personal as it can be, as infuriating as it can be. this is democracy. this is democracy. i thank you, director. we are adjourned. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. >>> welcome to our special coverage. i'm john king in w

what is she saying about bill barr's role in all of this? we see repeated efforts here, it appears not to follow the whistleblower law. >> that's absolutely right, jim, because what she is saying this morning is that they're not only looking at an alleged coverup by the president, but also a coverup of a coverup. that's how she is describing the role of attorney general barr here. and that of course, a great deal of interest in his role in all of this going before the house intention committee. i spoke with her, and she is very much aware of the wait of this moment. she knows that she has more than a majority of democrats on board, at least for the inquiry, but not necessarily for articles of impeachment. there is also a sense of urgency here that people want to move this forward as quickly as possible. she did not commit to a timetable, but there's been a lot of discussion, at least from the members, of potentially trying to wrap this up by the thanksgiving break. and she talked about the various levels of this impeachment investigation. ta

bill barr's justice department did not do thatto mccabe. he could have gone after his wife, who took over $700,000 when she was running for state office in virginia. while the fbi was investigating hillary. i mean, talk about a dirty cop. >> sean: one day we'll do a poll, who is your favorite of the dynamic legal duo? victoria or joe? we will do a poll. let's get back to this though joe. were all four warrants illegally obtained?with the evidence befo, it's cut and dry. >> joe: based on what we know and what we've seen, there is no doubt that all four were illegally obtained.they certain- the court was defrauded. it was denied evidence. it was given fraudulent evidence. the applications clearly did not tell the truth about carter page, about everybody involved in the process. i mean, there is just no doubt that all four were illegally obtained. >> victoria: let me add something, because you were talking about three times, five times, they were warned. they didn't have to be warned one time for them to have done something wrong, because they

does this put bill barr in some sort of legal jeopardy? does it put rudy giuliani in legal jeopardy? >> yes and yes. the barr aspect, as matt says, is a total revelation. they're running away saying they had nothing to do with it. first, by all appearances, the highest levels of foreign policy is being carried out by this unholy trio of trump, giuliani and barr. second, this is trump trying to say that it's all very official here, and that was the basis for the doj's declination. well, they're just leling out on the transcript with an official investigation. there is no official investigation. there's trump trying to arrest dirty information out of ukraine and say they better find it, that's the favor they need if they want the $400 million released. rudy giuliani needs to be subpoenaed tomorrow. he's tried to suggest it was the state department ordering him forward. i don't think that's going to hold up. if he, of course, is acting as trump's personal attorney, nothing is going to be privileged. everything he had to say with zelensky is g

i long said that bill barr is a serious guy. he's a no nonsense straight shooter who could give a dam about what people say or think about him. he's not looking to be famous for his next advancement. he's good with who he is. now the department of justice has refused andrew mccabe's pleas to not be indicted. the grand jury of hearing evidence against him is being recalled after an extremely long day. so what happened during that delay. calendar-wise christopher steele, so central to this coup spoke to the fbi it appears more witnesses are now willing to talk. and just as i redictd in my book, the rats are jumping ship. who will rat on whom? who will points the finger and when? mccanes giement will be the first of many in the attempted overthrow of the president and you will remember it was andrew mccabe who began the counter intelligence investigation against our president regarding that old fake russia collusion. an investigation of someone at the fbi is the kind of thing we don't hear about very often because that agency is on

that's how the house speaker is describing the attorney general after bill barr's name came up repeatedly in the whistle-blower complaint. how soon might congress call him to testify? >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following breaking news. the secretary of state mike pompeo was just slapped with a subpoena as house democrats demand documents related to the ukraine scandal. it's a new sign of just how fast the impeachment investigation is moving forward. intelligence committee chairman adam schiff says his committee could begin hearings as soon as next week. with a vote on impeachment possible, possible, by thanksgiving. democrats are seizing on a whistle-blower complaint alleging president trump abused his power by urging ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election and that the white house tried to cover it up. i'll get reaction from senator mazie hirono, a democrat on the judiciary committee. our correspondents and analysts are also standing by

bill barr knew nothing about it even though his name was broad up multiple times. do you believe that? it sounds pretty clear that the president had talked to them. >> it feels to me, there are so many instances that barr and giuliani are mentioned together. it seems to me that the president feels very comfortable to say call my team. my team will talk to you and we don't know what was said to barr. if we unpack this, the first piece is if this were legitimately about corruption, there is no reason for the personal's personal lawyer to be involved in any way. >> that say very black and white thing. >> the second point is that bill barr sat head of the department of jufis, he not also trying to abuse the rule of lieu in the united states by having the head of the chief federal law enforcement agency working on his behalf to investigate a political rival. >> we'll take a break. another crucial part of this next ask senator mitt romney was one of the few to criticize the president trump's conversation with the ukrainian president. here he is today speaking out. >> we'

you want to know what role bill barr had any of this. we want to know what ukraine understood was expected of them before they even had this a july phone call with the president of the united states. we know what we have to do, and of course, we will be guided by the evidence we find along the way. >> reporter: what potential crimes do you see? >> look, i think there are a any number of potential crimes when the president is soliciting for assistance. there can be no claim of ignorance this time. when a president is withholding authorized funding of congress to use as leverage, if the president were involved in somehow extorting a foreign nation to dig up or manufactured dirt on his opponent, if there's an effort to cover up any of this conduct, there are numeral potential offenses. but i have no confidence that this justice department led by y the attorney general will investigate anything. except the president's adversaries. or claims that give fodder to the conspiracy theories which the president -- the pedal with the president was pe

justice for an opinion, correct, that bill barr was mentioned in the complaint? >> mr. chairman, i went to the office of legal counsel in consultation with the icig. he was a part of that to receive whether or not this met the criteria -- >> yes, but that icig vehemently disagreed with the opinion of the bill barr justice department, did he not? >> he still considered it a matter of urgent concern. however, as you know, opinions from department of justice office of legal counsel are binding on all of us in the executive branch. >> well, let me ask you this, do you think it's appropriate that you go to a department run by someone who's the subject of the complaint to get advice -- or who is a subject of the complaint or implicated in the complaint for advice as to whether you should provide that complaint to congress, did that conflict of interest concern you? >> mr. chairman, when i saw this report and complaint, immediately i knew that this was a serious matter. it came to me and i just thought it would be prudent to ensure -- >> i'm just asking if the conflict

that bill barr was mentioned in the complaint? >> mr. chairman, i went to the office of legal counsel in consultation with the icig. he was a part of that. to receive whether or not this met the criteria. >> yes, but that icig vehemently disagreed with the opinion of the bill barr justice department. did he not? >> he still considered it a matter of urgent concern. however, as you know, opinions from department of justice office of legal counsel are binding on all of us in the executive branch. >> well, let me ask you this. do you think it's appropriate that you go to a department run by someone who is the subject of the complaint to get advice or who is a subject of the complaint or implicated in the complaint for advice as to whether you should provide that complaint to congress? did that conflict of interest concern you? >> mr. chairman, when i saw this report and complaint, immediately i knew that this was a serious matter. it came to me and i just thought it would be prudent to ensure -- >> i'm just asking if the conflict of interes

is bill barr going to do it? >> i was on with you last week and i know we didn't get to see it because to have dreadful shooting but the bad news is i don't think so and it's because of something you just said. jim comey is very very smart. he's an awful person. he did terrible things as the fbi director. but wh he did with the memos, he outsmarted these guys. he leaked the classified memos but waited to ensure they were classified afterwards, had special access given to one f his lawyers and then later on claimed the same lawyer was his personal lawyer. he knew in advance. me planned this things out. this is an awful terrible person. but the bottom line, as a legal case, this was a loser against comey. he planned the whole thing out. judge jeanine: dan bongino, thank you so much. sarah sanders is here in the studio with me next. don't go away. . >>> live from america's news headquarters. a shakeup at the massachusetts institute of technology. the director of mit's prestigious media lab resigning over financial t

that bill barr was mentioned in the complaint? >> mr. chairman, i went to the office of legal counsel in consultation with the icig. he was a part of that to receive whether or not this met the criteria. >> yes, but that icig vehemently disagreed with the opinion of the bill barr justice department. did he not? >> he still considered it a matter of urgent concern, however, as you know, opinions from department of justice, office of legal counsel, are binding on all of us in the executive branch. >> well, let me ask you this. do you think it's appropriate that you go to a department run by someone who's the subject of the complaint to get advice, or who is a subject of the complaint or implicated in the complaint as to whether you should provide that to congress? did that conflict of interest concern you? >> mr. chairman, when i saw this report and complaint immediately i knew that this was a serious matter. it came to me and i just thought it would be prudent to ensure -- >> i'm just asking if the conflict of interest concerned you? >> w

is bill barr going to do it? >> i was on with you last week and i know we didn't get to see it because to have dreadful shooting but the bad news is i don't think so and it's because of something you just said. jim comey is very very smart. he's an awful person. he did terrible things as the fbi director. but wh he did with the memos, he outsmarted these guys. he leaked the classified memos but waited to ensure they were classified afterwards, had special access given to one f his lawyers and then later on claimed the same lawyer was his personal lawyer. he knew in advance. me planned this things out. this is an awful terrible person. but the bottom line, as a legal case, this was a loser against comey. he planned the whole thing out. judge jeanine: dan bongino, thank you so much. sarah sanders is here in the studio with me nexjustice" with judge janin jeanine. judge jeanine: you heard my open. we can't let jim comey off of the hook. earlier i talked to one of my newest colleagues here at fox to talk about that a

he went to that department headed by a man bill barr who was also implicated in the complaint and you knew that when you went to the department of justice for an opinion correct that bill barr was mentioned in the complaint mr chairman i went to the office of legal counsel in consultation with the i.c. i.g.a. he was a part of that to receive whether or not this met the criteria yes but that i.c.i. g. vehemently disagreed with the opinion of the bill barr justice department did he not he still met considered it a matter of urged concern however as you know opinions from the department of justice office of legal counsel are binding on all of us in the executive branch well let me ask you this do you think it's appropriate that you go to a department run by someone who is the subject of the complaint to get advice or who is a subject of the complaint or implicate in the complaint for advice as to whether you should provide that complaint to congress did did did that conflict of interest concern you mr chairman. when i saw this report and complaint immediately i knew that this was a serio