or even complicates the ongoing mueller investigation. >> do you believe robert mueller is safe in his role as the special counsel? >> i think it's important to make it clear that there are bipartisan efforts to make sure that the independence of the department of justice, respect for rule of law is moving forward. as you know, senator until list alist -- tillis and i introduced a bill a number of months ago. we've had a hearing on the judiciary committee. we are working out the differences in language and i hope we will soon be reintroducing a consensus bipartisan bill that would strengthen some of the protections for any special counsel. >> would it -- if it were to pass, and i don't know if it would pass, even though you do have bipartisan support. but let's say it were to pass, would it guarantee that mueller could not be fired? >> no. but it would ensure that a special counsel, robert mueller or another, could only be fired for good cause. in department of justice regulations, it calls out what those are. sort of gross impropriety or a conflict of interest, dereliction of duty. it

is on recess to either undermine the investigation or fire robert mueller. he says that he wanted to make this speech today to raise concerns, put this on lawmakers' radar before they go home for recess. particularly republican lawmakers who may not be focussing on this as they've been focussing on their tax bill instead. so mark warner just moments ago, wolf, saying very clearly that he wants republicans also to speak out if president trump takes this action and fires robert mueller. this is what he said. >> i believe it is up to every member of this institution, republican or democrat, to make a clear and unambiguous statement that any attempt by this president to remove special counsel mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities. >> reporter: now, earlier this week, wolf, i did ask senate intelligence chairman richard burr if he shared concerns that robert mue

the fact is robert mueller has impeccable credentials as a man of the law. he has assembled a team that includes somebe of the nation's best investigators, and is leading the investigation with the professionalism it deserves. mr. mueller is a dedicated vietnam war veteran, and a lifelong republican. appointed to his current role by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, also republican. in fact, all of the major players to date inn this investigation, former director comey, current fbi director wray, rod rosenstein and even attorney general sessions was had to recuse himself are all republicans. the charges, the charges some have made that summer democratic political bias have crept into this investigation are baseless given the makeup of the leadership team. in recent weeks much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an fbi agent during the election last year. this argumentco conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as mr. mueller learned about these comments, he immediately removed that agent in question from the investigation. if anythi

he took to the senate floor for a preemptive strike on the white house against firing robert mueller. >> any attempt by this president to remove special counsel mueller from his position, or to pardon key witnesses and any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power, and a flagrant violation of an executive branch responsibilities and authorities. these truly are red lines and simply cannot allow them to be crossed. >> the white house says it has no intention of firing mueller. so is warner making much ado about nothing? let's discuss now. ambassador nicholas burns joins us now. ambassador, thank you for joining us. it's pretty extraordinary for senator warner to make these comments on the floor today. what do you think of what he said? >> well, i think he's right to issue the warning. president trump, after all, fired the fbi director james comey several months ago. so he's shown he's capable of this. we learned during the watergate hearings that no person in our society is above the law, including the president of the unit

if there is a firing of robert mueller or pardons, both would cross a red line. and undoubtedly lead to a fire storm, much as there was in the saturday night massacre when richard nixon tried to do the same. >> well, we know that some of the president's supporters are encouraging him to fire robert mueller, but he keeps saying that he has no such intention. why are you so concerned about this when the president says he doesn't have any plans to fire mueller? >> the president really is proceeding on two tracks. on the one hand, he's saying, as he did on sunday, or earlier this week, i have no plans to fire robert mueller. on the other hand, he has encouraged this chorus of subservient defenders in the congress, principally on the republican side, to attack the fbi, fbi agents, and the deputy fbi director to attack the investigation itself, and mueller personally and others around him. so this kind of concerted and coordinated attack on the special counsel is an indication that there is coordinated effort. and senator warner's warning today was powerful and eloquen

and robert mueller can have them. we have a congress that spent millions of dollars going through hillary clinton's e-mails. that's my taxpayer money. they are arguing that robert mueller can't take a look at e-mails from the trump transition team. that argument makes absolutely no sense. and what he is investigating is collaboration with the russians. this is critically important to our national security. robert mueller stays in place or donald trump is going to have to go. it's that simple. >> two things, then, on the issue of mueller being removed. that would be a really big problem. there are lots of rumors floating around. and then the e-mails. richard says it's not illegal and that it's not private property as the transition team alleges. you do see a problem in which it may have been obtained. >> i am critical of how the special counsel handled getting the e-mails. i think the gsa, government owns the e-mails. i don't think there is an expectation of privacy. >> the transition team says there was an understandi

major developments in special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. fired white house national security adviser michael flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his conversations with the russian ambassador and he's now cooperating with mueller. and cnn has learned that flynn discussed his conversations with the russian ambassador with senior trump transition team members jared kushner as well as kt mcfarland, the deputy to michael flynn at the time. i want to bring in cnn's senior white house correspondent jim acosta. so, jim, officials there are publicly downplaying all of this, but no doubt privately they're very worried. >> reporter: absolutely, brianna. the white house is trying to put some distance between president trump and michael flynn's guilty plea, but it's clear today that the russia investigation is creeping closer to the president. a senior white house official insisted there is no anxiety here about what michael flynn might tell investigators, but we're also told there are worries inside the white house as to where this inves

he is very good friends with robert mueller. after years of working in similar roles while some have even described the duo as brothers in arms. it is that so cute? comey also tweeting tonight, "he is meeting with his book publisher. i can't wait for that to come out. when is he going to start working for fake news cnn or conspiracy theory tv msnbc? a lot more on that later. back to mueller. his conflicts of interest did not end here. while serving as the fbini director and the obama administration, mueller stood by and did nothing while the controversial sale of uranium was approved by hillary clinton and others in 2010 to that state owned russian energy company. keep in mind, and you are in the house before, the fbi had serious evidence of russian bribery linked to the uranium one sale, and a confidential informant was providing them further proof for six years of a potentially illicit deal. 20% of america's uranium was at stake. we don't have enough uranium. another important mueller conflict. from president trump. he reporte

but the one suggesting that he might fire robert mueller, they're all democrats. and the fact that mark warner did it today, on the day that the tax bill was passed, i can see people seeing that as unusual and intentional timing. >> it feels like we're leading up to a crescendo, with people getting an audience with the president to suggest bob mueller should be fired, the president's friends, like roger stone are also publicly expressing that. you know he has a line directly to the president. you know this is in the president's ear, and hopefully it's public sentiment and even better than that, putting it legislatively, in concrete, to protect bob mueller. so i think it's to send a signal flare, a warning shot. >> republicans do seem to be slow walking any possible legislation on that. congressman swalwell, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >>> there was one person absent from the tax bill celebration at the white house today, senator susan collins, even though she voted for it. now we're learning about the promises that got her to "yes," promises made and

though, they are speculating that the president is now planning to fire robert mueller. two democrats, both on the house intelligence committee, made the case this weekend that that was the case. first, adam schiff, who was on twitter, saying that he believed that the firing of robert mueller would happen before the end of the year. the other, jackie spear, also made the case to a san francisco tv station that robert mueller's firing was eminent. cnn reached out to white house attorney ty cobb for a statement on these remarks and he gave us a statement writing, in part, quote. so you have the white house denying that there is any kind of plan to remove robert mueller as the head of the special counsel. you have some democrats that are saying that that is the case, that his firing is eminent and certain republicans saying the special counsel is tainted and that robert mueller should, indeed, resign. a complicated situation and one that likely will receive greater focus because, as early as this week, you have white house legal team meeting with robert mueller one-on-one,

robert mueller is a loyal american. he's a republican, and it's a lie being perpetrated by president trump and his supporters in congress. nobody who knows robert mueller buys into any of it. it's just fox news and the president's twitter feed. >> but it's clear what they're trying to do here, not maybe say okay, robert mueller himself, you know, has some agenda, but perhaps it's his judgment. he brings on people who donated to the democratic parties. peter strzok, who he took out of the investigation, was texting anti-trump bias texts. do you see that kind of -- do you see that play, richard? >> no, i think he took him out as soon as he found out about the texts. he got rid of him. of course, you're going to have people who contributed to the campaigns who work at the justice department and elsewhere. every u.s. attorney is going to be a supporter of president trump, and would have been active in his campaign, and the u.s. attorneys under president obama were supportive of democratic campaigns and mepamericans are inve

the next question is if jared robert mueller? indeed. the next question is ifjared kushner directed flynn, who directed jared kushner? hopefully we will learn more about that. james comey is another name we hear quite a lot during this latest news. he has been tweeting as well. tell us about that. james comey was the former director of the fbi. one of the reasons why, if you're wondering why the name michael flynn sounds most familiar, it's because whenjames comey was fired, he gave testimony to congress that president trump urged him to drop the investigation into michael flynn. the conversation that he recounted in notes he had taken straight that he recounted in notes he had ta ken straight afterwards that he recounted in notes he had taken straight afterwards was that mrtrump taken straight afterwards was that mr trump asked taken straight afterwards was that mrtrump asked him taken straight afterwards was that mr trump asked him to let the investigation go. to let michael flynn go. james comey has tweeted and has been incognito on t

and president trump says he thinks special counsel robert mueller will be fair in his investigation of russia's election meddling and ties to trump associates, and he tells "the new york times" he thinks the investigation is a witch hunt that makes the u.s. look very bad. during the course of the interview the president insists no less than 16 times there has been no collusion, and declares ominously he has a absolute right to do what he wants with the u.s. justice department. >>> the president is making new demands on democrats, saying if they want an immigration deal that would protect hundreds of thousands of young d.r.e.a.m.ers, they will need to deal with big concessions. first and foremost, a desperately needed border wall. i will speak with our correspondence and specialists standing by with full coverage. we begin with growing signs that north korea may be moving towards a new missile launch. i want to go to cnn correspondent, barbara starr. tell us what you are learning. >> the latest we have is several u.s. officials are telling me there are signs north korea could be prepari

they are saying robert mueller is a disgrace to the justice system. yesterday the head of the house freedom caucus in the republican party discussed doubts on special counsel robert mueller. >> if mueller was doing such a great job on investigating the russian collusion, why could he have not found the conflict of interest within their own agency? >> these attacks on robert mueller and fbi follow a report that a top fbi agent on the team peter struck was removed from the office after found to have exchanged politically charged texts with another former member of muller's team. well, today the director of the fbi testified in the house and in the house he was treated to republican after republican after republican just tearing into the fbi. >> did bob muller recruit people to his probe that had a bias. >> he was a key player in the clinton investigation. the same peter struck who helped -- was a key player in the russia investigation and the same peter struck who was put on muller's team, special counsel bob muller's team. >> you remember from law scho

as trump lawyers mounted a new attack this weekend on special prosecutor robert mueller, in washington speculation built to a fever pitch about the president possibly firing special prosecutor robert mueller. >> will you tell us about firing robert muler? >> no, i'm not. what else? what, are you surprised? >> only reason to be surprised fwha answer is if the president is telling the truth but behind the scenes reporting by "the new york times" and "the washington post" indicates when donald trump looks at the justice department he sees people at the top who he does not like and does not trust, all of them apointed by donald trump himself. attorney general jeff sessions, fbi director christopher wray and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. "the new york times" reports two people who have spoken to the president recently said that he was far more frustrated with the attorney general, jeff sessions and the fbi director wray than mr. mueller. mr. trump has said that mr. wray has not moved quickly enough to rid the bureau of senior officials who were biassed against mr. trump and had wo

and argued that robert mueller should resign. democrats in response have made the case that the special counsel is not partisan, that it remains politically independent, though they are speculating that the president is now planning to fire robert mueller. two democrats, both on the house intelligence committee, made the case this weekend that was the case. first adam schiff, on twitter, saying he believed the firing of robert mueller would happen before the end of the year. the other jackie speier also made the case to a san francisco tv station that robert mueller's firing was imminent. cnn reached out to white house attorney ty cobb for a statement and he gave us a statement writing, as the white house consistently said for months, there is no consideration of firing the special counsel. so you have the white house denying there is any kind of plan to remove robert mueller as the head of the special counsel, you have some democrats that are saying that that is the case, that his firing is imminent, and then certain republicans

mueller can take this wherever he wants to. robert: a new phase for robert mueller? >> it's a real shot across the bow. in this case, what's interesting about michael flynn is the documents indicate there were two tracks the special counsel was going on. one had to do with lying to the f.b.i. and the other with his business dealings. the documents suggest why michael flynn and his attorneys felt they were under such pressure. because the special counsel was suggesting this is the lightest deal you can get. the best deal on a lying to the f.b.i. and michael fliven suggested that for the good of his family, he felt that that was the best way to go. he could have gone to prison potentially under the law for five years or more. in this case, if he cooperates, hicked do zero to six months so you could see if michael flynn, at the begin, why the white house is concerned now, knowing so much about the campaign, the president, the president's family, the relationships that they had in terms of talks about the campaign why they're so worried about it now. >> that point you ma

robert mueller, the special prosecutor, he's got a lot of information. rebecca, donald trump jr., after he released those e-mails about the origin of the trump tower meeting, one of the attendees asked why trump jr. was admitting what he called collusion. what does that tell you? >> it could tell us a lot, it could tell us nothing depending on what was the intent of the e-mail and the tone and we don't know if it is sarcastic, joking, making an illusion to the coverage that has been out there about this meeting or if they were being serious, if they were actually concerned that donald trump jr. had put himself in some legal jeopardy because of what they knew about what was discussed at this meeting that followed those e-mail communications. so we really don't know but it's an interesting detail and certainly something that investigate to haves are going to want to know more about. >> i'm sure they will. mark preston, donald trump jr. has said that nothing really came out of that meeting at trump tower. there was no follow-up, he said. he wasn't on any of

do you get the sense that his opinion of robert mueller's fairness is contingent on robert mueller not finding anything damaging with him? >> well, it's hard to say. i think that he was sending a signal that okay, i'm going to quit criticizing this investigation and let the chips fall where they may. as you know, this has been going on previous to robert mueller being appointed. so after 16 months, we don't have a single thread of evidence that even suggests there was collusion. we have some people who lied to the fbi. we have some people who broke some campaign finance disclosure laws, but nothing that indicates there was collusion. i think the president at this point, he's realizing what the american people are realizing, this investigation is leading to nowhere, and it probably should be wrapped up soon. >> one of the issues here is that collusion as a criminal charge doesn't exist. there may not be proof of conspiracy yet. collusion, small c, was there collusion, was donald trump, jr. colluding with people on the basis of the promise of dirt on the hillary clinton campaign. i under

get rid of robert mueller. >> he's not. i talked to the president, he's not. >> reporter: and now when i asked the house chairman bob goodlet about the criticisms focussing on the mueller, the clinton e-mail issue, he said look, this is something we announced a couple months ago. this is the investigation we're going to do looking into fbi interference, possible fbi bias and that's why we're looking into this right now. he said it's the first of several witnesses they want to interview, wolf. >> all right, manu, thank you very much. >>> joining us now, democratic congressman eric squallwell of washington. he's a member of intelligence and judiciary committees. thanks for joining us. >> of course wolf, thanks for having me back. >> you heard your chairman and the house intelligence committee chairman devin nunez tells cnn, it's not a secret his words that we have an investigation into the justice department. you serve on that committee. so who is participating in this nunez effort? >> we don't know, wolf. but what we do know

special counsel robert mueller says they sent e-mails without proper authorization. we'll have mueller's response. >>> a man arrested for helping north korea evade economic sanctions. these stories and so much more ahead. welcome to our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. i'm cyril thanks for joining us. >>> the thomas fire made california history and not in a good way. it is their third wildfire on record. look at this. the bad news, it continues to burn northwest of los angeles. >> isn't that cloud of smoke say it all? >> you can see it from space. >> they are scrambling to get it under control. it's been burning two weeks. this video triggered thousands of evacuations. 12,000 people evacuated their homes in santa barbara. it led to the death of two people, including a firefighter who died battling the flames. the high winds are a major problem. >> miguel marquez has more on this from santa barbara. >> reporter: this thomas fire is the fire that will not quit. i want to show you what's happening in the hills. we are going turn the ligh

mounting claims of bias with special counsel robert mueller's team. we will be joined next to see what this means for the russian investigation. let us know what you would like to hear. we are looking ahead on "sunday morning futures" right now. [phone ring] hello. hi, it's anne from edward jones. i'm glad i caught you. well i'm just leaving the office so for once i've got plenty of time. what's going on? so those financial regulations being talked about? they could affect your accounts, so let's get together and talk, and make sure everything's clear. thanks. yeah. that would be great. we've grown to over $900 billion in assets under care... by being proactive, not reactive. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. when it comes to travel, i sweat the details. late checkout... ...down-alternative pillows... ...and of course, price. tripadvisor helps you book a... ...hotel without breaking a sweat. because we now instantly... ...search over 200 booking sites ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. don't sweat your booking.

robert mueller is a republican. he has been applauded by republicans on both sides of the aisle and he was appointed by president bush. those who serve in high places, the fbi director and a republican made many contributions to republican candidates. there is an effort under way to besmerch this. we are politicians. we smell rats. we smell a rat and are speaking up about it. >> the argument i heard about people plugged in is this effort by republicans and critics of the mueller investigation is that yes, besmerch them and press a charge of collusion. that's against the president raising questions about his integrity. sort of similar. i'm old enough to remember during the ken star investigation of then president clinton. he was investigating and there was a lot of efforts by supporters to besmerch ken star and go after him in case he came up with charges, they would be weakened and the political ramifications would be reduced. what's your reaction? >> that's a historical reference. we have only one independent couns

robert mueller had the goods to give many more counts. we know he was not fully forthcoming on his security clearance form. there are other things he could have had the goods to. it shows you the value of the kind of cooperation that flynn is offering here based on the number of years that mueller is not thrown on him right from the start. to take those years off the table, flynn would have to be offering something significant. >> what does mueller know that he's not saying and we don't know from these documents. >> and what is flynn giving up? who has he given up. >> and why was it worth it to mueller. >> they would have to tell him exactly what they're prepared to have flynn say. >> what special counsels do is they look for the biggest pelt they can get, the biggest trophy they can mount on their wall. flynn would theoretically be a huge one, right? but he's not taking it. >> and so the question we all are asking, obviously, is, you know, did the president know and what did he know it? during iran-contra, reagan was disengaged, didn't k

you know, i don't know that robert mueller feels the need to rattle anybody. i think he has so much power that people are adequately rattled but i think there's deliberate, strategic things he does as eugene suggests. filing the documents called statement of the offense with a lot of detail, identifying officials by title, you know, senior trump transition team official, very senior trump team transition official. those are telegraphing to the people, they know who they are and i think it's a message to say, if you want to cooperate, we know who you are, too, maybe now's the time to come in the door. >> barbara, eugene, thank you both for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, michael flynn was texting about a russian deal 11 minutes after donald trump took the oath of office and jonathan friedman will join us, a decision that even a trump friend called insane. lower back pain has met its match. aleve direct therapy. the only remote controlled tens device that's drug free, wire free for deep penetrating lower back pain relief. and now get aleve direc

robert mueller's team could be days away. the two sides could meet as early as this week to discuss the ongoing investigations. i want to bring in evan perez who helps break this story on cnn. evan, what do we expect to be discussed this week. >> this is a meeting where the president's legal team basically have the special counsel team puts their cards on the table. they want to know where this investigation is going and in particular whether or not or how much longer perhaps this maybe going or whether or not there is any interests in anybody else inside the white house. at this point there is been a lot of speculations about whether or not this investigation is going to ultimately target the president and i think one of the things that they want from this meeting is get a better sense of not only how much longer it is going to go because it is a cloud over the president and the administration for the past year but also, you know, how much longer or what avenues are left for this investigation to pursue? >> according to your

investigator robert mueller subpoena a bank to release data on accounts held by president trump over russia's influence on his election as president. also on the show the e.u. is blacklisting seventeen countries as tax havens it's supposed to be a bold move but campaigners are outraged as the list includes no e.u. members. and as brics it talks go nowhere dairy farmers in northern ireland want to know the one thing on many people's minds what good is bricks it anyway. so i'm for business on the w m how you know i guess thank you for joining us germany's biggest bank deutsche bank is being investigated over russian meddling in the us presidential election last year a number of media outlets are reporting that special counsel robert mueller who's leading the inquiry has asked to release data on accounts held by president trump and his family the information was demanded by subpoena after deutscher rejected requests from the us house democrats to share the data in june the bank lent the trump organization millions of dollars for real estate ventures in the past. it's a developing story

stop attacking robert mueller and you need to let the investigation play out. [multiple speakers] >> has there ever been an independent counsel or special counsel investigation of the president that has not had a partisan reaction? lubbock of the 1990s. the democrats were not very nice to ken starr. >> yes but this takes it to another level. was i think, people talk about colin kaepernick, black lives matter. undermining trust in the police. they have done nothing as comparable to what this president has done to the fbi at this moment! >> the fbi also hurt its own credibility bequests all right! do you i like about this panel? i did very little work! up next, our power player of the week. the remarkable woman that took these powerful pictures on the front lines. >> if you ever read the new york times or national geographic for "time magazine", chances are even seen her work. riveting photographs that bring the savagery of the front lines into your home. here is our power player of the week. >> i never considered myself brave.just consider myself very committed

we still from former director and russia special counsel robert mueller. late today, senate intelligence committee mike warner said it would trigger a constitutional crisis. we heard a lot, including from the the president's eldest son. >> reporter: call it another chores for the conspiracy choir. this time led by donald trump jr., who is once again suggesting there is a secret plot to take the president down. >> my father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign. what are you talking about? but it is. and you're seeing it. >> reporter: this is about the impeachment of the president. >> reporter: the idea pushed by the president's supporters that the probe into possible collusion with russian meddling in the election is actually just an effort to delegitimize the results of that vote. >> there is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america. >> reporter: for a former cia director michael hayden. >> that is scary. challenging the patriotism of those folks who work in the united states governm

but in front of robert mueller i don't think he's going to be satisfied with that response. he will challenge that assertion of privilege and if donald trump jr. continues to assert it, robert mueller has the recourse of going to the court and arguing to a judge and asking the judge to direct donald trump jr. to answer the question if he is relying on some affirmativus privilege and the judge would direct him to answer the question, assert his fifth amendment privilege against testimony or being held in contempt of court. >> we'll have to wait and see if, in fact, he does get called in front of the mueller investigation. thank you both for joining us this evening. >> thank you. >>> the president goes all in for roy moore. recording a robo-call less than 48 hours ahead of election day. >> i guess you could say that al franken is on santa's naughty list this year? >> and what about roy moore? which list is he on? >> it's not a list, it's more of a registry. >> is president trump on the naughty list? >> well, you know santa tries to stay out of political matters. our president

he says he believes robert mueller will treat him fairly. so what are the president's closest advisers saying about that interview? they'd have to know about it first. "washington post" reporter josh dossey reached out to an aide for reaction and dawsey replied this. asked fairly senior trump adviser for thoughts on "the new york times" interview a few minutes ago. person responded, what interview? today? we've got a team of reporters and analysts here with us to debrief. garrett haake is in west palm beach, not far from where the president is spending the holidays. also julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter, and jonathan lemire with the associated press and msnbc political be analyst. garrett, this interview was not pla planned. michael schmidt was at the links, at the golf course in the grill room. how did it come together? >> not planned, but not entirely accidental. michael schmidt has said he was at the trump international golf course grill room as a guest of one of president trump's friends. we know that president trump

are you confident in robert mueller's investigation? caller: every confident, more so than i am with the president and his tweets. he is getting too close to the truth, i think and they are trying to stop them in any way they can. i agree with the republican from texas. believablemuch more than the president that gets up at 5:00 in the morning with all of the tweets. he is worried he is trying to get rid of him. --t: is there a concern robert mueller was tasked with looking into russian meddling and it seems like he is looking into other things, the president's financial records and other things. do you think the probe is getting too broad? caller: that is the problem. we do not know any of donald trump's financial records except for one year somebody got in the 1990's. that is the main problem. russia has been backing donald trump 420, 30 years. -- for 2, 30 years0. host: newsweek has a piece on the poll we just talked about, headlines -- americans think robert mueller and james comey our friends, they are not. it says that a majority

another one of the dream team of robert mueller. the doj is reviewing 10,000 text messages that strzok said to his fbi official girlfriend lisa paige. she also worked for mueller. what for? to determine which specific messages where strzok was attacking president trump. they need to be turned over to the house intelligence committee. so, at this hour, it's unclear how many of the 10,000 messages have to do with president trump or mueller's investigation. it should be an interesting read. now, the doj says this could take weeks or even months. could we move a little faster? it's not that hard. we are also learning tonight that strzok's dirty and biased fingerprints get what they are all over the fake news, anti-trump, russian propaganda dossier bought and paid for by hillary and the dnc that she was running. according to a report, strzok and his team, they were tasked with handling the dossier when it was given to the fbi. and, according to other reports, information that that fake news dossier was used to get a fisa warrant to surve

all of those things i think make him a person of great interest for robert mueller. no doubt they're looking at him. maybe he's done nothing wrong and no doubt he's somebody when's a subject of this investigation. >> let's listen what house democrat jackie spear said about this feeling, this rumor out there about the special prosecutor being fired. obviously, this is part of what pushed mark warner to go to the senate floor to make that statement today. let's listen to this. >> so, it was rumor i had heard last week and i was troubled by it because it all sort of fit in to pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. it sort of made sense to me in that we would probably be out of session. it would be the kind of thing that was very similar to what happened when then president nixon had the saturday night massacre. >> david, you can understand why the democrats are concerned. >> you can certainly understand it. you can see the affect of this on republican opinion. just over the past four months, bob mueller's negatives driven up, nearly doubled among republicans in the country but do

steps to get rid of robert mueller? >> he's not. i talked to the president. he's not. >> reporter: so some confidence there he's not going to take steps to fire robert mueller even as democrats are sounding the alarms that he very much could. but clearly though, brooke, interesting that this hearing today focusing on the clinton email investigation, the republicans concerns that it was not handled properly by the fbi, and we are told that this is probably the beginning of this new investigation looking into the clinton email inquiry. the first witness andy mccabe behind closed doors. there will be others as republicans look to go down this route come 2018. brooke? >> manu, thank you. more on that warning, senate intelligence committee, senator mark warren, he is calling on congress to draw a line in the sand in the president even attempts to oust robert mueller. >> i believe it is up to every member of this institution, republican or democrat, to make a clear and unambiguous statement that any attempt by this president

what happens when robert mueller comes out and makes his announcement? >> well, let's see what he has to say. but there is no worry he could attack the credibility of robert mueller -- >> but they are, richard, they are, and there are people in this country, lots of people in this country who want to believe it and are willing to believe it. >> yeah, they want to believe it. but he is really a traditional republican -- many of us in the republican party have admired robert mueller for years, even though we say he is nonpartisan, he has impeccable credentials, he was in the marines, impeccable credentials under president bush and obama, and there is no way you can attack the credibility and professionalism of robert mueller. and anybody who tries doing that, it's going to be very transparent what their motives are. of course people being prosecuted or being investigated don't like the investigators or the prosecutors. the mafia doesn't like prosecutors either. but for fox news to be weighing in that way and making up a bunch of stories and the latest stor

robert: plus, is the president on a collision course with robert mueller's russia probe, as more republicans accuse the special counsel of corruption. a top democrat issues a warning to the white house. >> any attempt by this president to remove special counsel mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses, would be a gross abuse of power. robert: we discuss it all with yamiche alcindor of "the new york times," dan balls of "the washington post," andrea mitchell of nbc news and eli stokeles of the "wall street journal." >> celebrating 50 years, this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by -- newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. koo and patricia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communit

and allegations of political bias within robert mueller's team. let's bring in our justice correspondent jessica snyder. the man who appointed mueller faced a lot of questions up on capitol hill today. >> he did. he faced hours of grilling criticism about the special counsel's probe from republicans. but rosenstein was unwavering in his support of robert mueller and his team throughout that contentious hearing. deputy attorney general rob rosenstein found himself taking incoming fire from members of the president's party today defending the russia investigation in special counsel robert mueller who he appointed on charges of bias. >> director mueller has throughout his lifetime been a dedicated and respected and heroic public servant. i believe he was an ideal choice for this task. >> this is unbelievable, and i'm here to tell you, mr. rosenstein, i think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. >> under relentless questioning rosenstein repeatedly said he sees no reason to remove mueller. and he suggested to democrats on the committee that t

mueller. that disputes a rumor that has been flying around. whether there is collusion between the russian and officials. mueller had gained access to e-mails sent and received by trump. before his took office. mule ers spoarks man says the e-mails were obtained in an appropriate manner. >> let's talk a little bit about the president. apparently he has been boosting behind the scenes. he says mueller is going to clear him. where is this coming from? it wasn't that long ago where he was pretty concerned about his position in this i think that trump is trying to project an air of confidence, whether that's real or not i would be surprised if he actually knew that this was going to wrap up. i'm not saying it is or isn't about to wrap up, but i would be very surprised. prosecutors and agents don't usually give people a heads up as to exactly, you know, when or where the investigation is headed or going to end. there have been big developments in the past, you know, couple of months as we know, the

president, please don't say anything controversy about robert mueller. he was just sitting at his golf club and managed to refrain from saying what could get him in hot water, and he took an opportunity, no staff or handlers around him, and still -- >> and he talked to a reporter. >> and the positivity towards mueller made me think he must have shot well on the golf course. >> he also potentially, you know, kind of dismantled this case that republicans on talk radio, on another cable network, on capitol hill have been making to try and chip away at the credibility of robert mueller. >> i think we are giving him way too much credit. i don't think he was a bad guy because he didn't have to be the bad guy. you are right, fox news is doing it and republicans are doing it and he can take the high road on this case and wait it out. >> i want to show aquo quote he gave about relationships with republicans on the hill. i have great relationships with 97% of the republican congressmen, and first of all, i love the 97% stat, and i am interested who he considers th

do you think president trump understands what would happen if, indeed, he would fire robert mueller. >> i certainly hope he does, but remember, it's very hard for the american public, and certainly, members of congress, as well to take a lot -- with what one member of the administration says, there's been inconsistency with what happens in the long run, when the president feels different than his sage counsel. there is need for that red line in the sand to be drawn. the rumors are one thing. if there is any intention by the president to actually fire mueller or take action against rod rosenstein, who would be the more effective path to undermining the investigation, remember, robert mueller has to report and get the advice and consent of someone like rod rosenstein throughout his investigation. and so, rod rosenstein, up to this date, has been particularly, i guess, you know, facilitating and helping out the investigation by allowing the grand jury to go forward, to allow the indictments to go forward and everything else. so, he maybe saying, i'm not going to fire mueller, but that d

he won't fire robert mueller. he knows, many in his administration and his political advisers know that would be a death nail. he can't do that. he won't do that. so they're trying to control and spin the narrative as much as they can. >> and highlight perceived potential bias among the fbi. donald trump jr. criticizing the fbi over these messages that trashed candidate trump during the investigation. let's listen. >> there is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america. >> all right. so the idea is that -- basically they're saying that the fbi officials can't leave their political opinions at the door. does donald trump jr. even have a point here, jonathan? does it cast a shadow on the mueller investigation at all? >> no. not to put too fine a point on it. everybody has their own political opinions. if they seem to be causing a problem, then you have what bob mueller did last summer. you get rid of some of the people who may have caused a problem or perceptio

obviously, robert mueller didn't get hold of those. i have never seen such arguments with executive privilege or the rest of it. i want to emphasize, the members of congress are going to be in serious trouble in the 2018 election if they keep behaving this way. i have been a republican 30 years, but we could lose both houses of congress very quickly. right now, they look like they are fronting for vladimir putin and whoever collaborated with the russians. >> in terms of delegitimizing robert mueller and his future, i want to listen to what jackie spears said on friday. >> the rumor on the hill, when i left yesterday, was the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. on december 22nd, when we are out of d.c., he was going to fire robert mueller. >> that is certainly out there in the either, maya. you have white house special counsel, ty cobb telling us there is no consideration of replacing the special counsel and mark short speaking with chuck todd earlier. do you think the president will fire him before

why isn't that suddenly the interest of robert mueller? why isn't that suddenly the interest of both parties? not a partisan divide. >> i understand. in fairness, the mandate of robert mueller is something we ought to explore. lou: let's do. >> it's indefinite, and i think that was set up in a way that was not consistent with the regulations that provide for. but he was told to investigate connections between the trump campaign and the russians. now, there's nothing criminal about their having had connections, if there were connections or links or collusion, if you look at the criminal code, you will look in vane for the word collusion, so that he was never being asked to investigate a crime. he was told to pursue, according to the letter that appointed him, to pursue the investigation that james comey referred to in his testimony in front of the house intelligence committee. that was not a criminal investigation, it was a national security investigation. lou: and we have been saying just that from almost day one on this broadcast. so let

mounting claims of bias with special counsel robert mueller's team. we will be joined next to see what this means for the russian investigation. let us know what you would like to hear. we are looking ahead on "sunday morning futures" right now. the real gift isn't what's inside the box. it's what's inside the person who opens it. give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions. save 30% for the holidays at ancestrydna.com. and her new mobile wedding business.tte at first, getting paid was tough... until she got quickbooks. now she sends invoices, sees when they've been viewed and-ta-dah-paid twice as fast for free. visit quickbooks-dot-com. pepsoriasis does that. it was tough getting out there on stage. i wanted to be clear. i wanted it to last. so i kept on fighting. i found something that worked. and keeps on working. now? they see me. see me. see if cosentyx could make a difference for you- cosentyx is proven to help people with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...find clear skin that can last. don'

we get an insider's assessment tonight from an attorney who has worked alongside robert mueller and james comey. plus, steve bannon back on the trail tonight for roy moore. and there's breaking and controversial news on trump and the middle east. and chris matthews, among our guests this evening as "the 11th hour" gets under way or on a tuesday night. >> and good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 320 of the trump administration. a day in which the administration wrestled with what seems to be a new turn in the mueller investigation. multiple news organizations fwha we mean bloomberg, the financial times, reuters, "wall street journal" report that the special council has suspected deutsche bank for information about donald trump's financial dealings. the bank is trump's biggest lender, traditionally have supplied over $300 million for a number of real estate ventures over the years. over the past two decades, in fact, the bank has played a major role in the president's businesses and has been one of the only big financial institutions willing to deal w