mott he said robert mueller must be able to continue his investigation without interference from the white house. this is ten minutes. >> arrives today concerned about the threats of the special counsel's critical investigation of russian interference in the election. the last several weeks a growing course of irresponsible and reckless voices have called for president trump to said tone the investigation. have first, these calls came from the fringes of our political discourse, those who would refuse to put our country and security for base political instincts. earlier many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were right to push back on these misdirected calls and urge the special counsel to his job without interference. however, in recent weeks those voices seem to be growing. just this weekend one major news organization suggested special counsel mueller could be involved in a coup against the president. one senior advisor at the white house has no alleged that it was -- against donald trump at the beginning. the statements are reckless and inappropriate and extremely worry

i asked christopher wray, did robert mueller only hire people who hate the president? every day we are firing more and more people who expressed their dislike of the president. but hillary clinton never faced a serious investigation it seems as though hillaries folks were the ones making the decisions about her outcomes. and it's still hillaries folks persecuting the president. lou: i think the american people are awaken together reality about the claims against robert mueller. not a single republican on the team anywhere at least that we could find. >> it's not like there is not enough prosecutors in our system. we have a bevy of highly qualified people. they just don't happen to be the people investigating our president. mueller was praising people who were actively defying the president of the united states. this is ludicrous. the american people cannot accept a rigged system where you have got people biased against the president. the fact that today christopher wray wouldn't tell us whether the fbi paid for the dossier against the president with taxpayer money. he

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

and robert mueller would not have given him that deal, zero to six months, likely only serving probation unless he knew he had valuable information in exchange for that. and you don't give that deal until you sit down and proffer with the attorney and debrief with the defendant to understands what they have to offer. he likely has had a lot of information. and one of those questions, those 18 days are probably critically important because we at the end of that period the request for president trump to jim comey, can't you see your way clear to letting this go, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. and that corrupt intent, that is so important, what did he know at that time? did he know that flynn had lied to the fbi at that moment because he already had, did trump know that? if he did, that means he knew he was asking comey to let a crime go when he was asking him to let that thing go against flynn. did he further know about the underlying conversations with the russian ambassador that was the basis of those false statements. and did he further know who else might be impl

it is interesting sort of how robert mueller has played this, right. certainly there was a proffer agreement in which he explains, you know, lots -- michael flynn explained lots and lots of facts. now he's pled guilty. imagine the president pardons him. mueller's team could still hold him to the agreement. if he has been pardoned he no longer has a fifth amendment right to not talk. if he pardons flynn, he could still use the sworn grand jury or proffered testimony to get him to testify against all of the facts he has already revealed. this is sort of an interesting and pretty clever position they've now put flynn in the larger trump -- >> so the president could pardon flynn but still use flynn to potentially prosecute others is what you are saying? >> right. because as part of the plea agreements, you know, you proffer very, very detailed sets of facts, you know, in order to show exactly what your cooperation might look like. >> what your value is. >> oftentimes those are offered before a grand jury, so it is actually sworn statements. >> wow. so, of

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

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 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

more clear conflict of interest in robert mueller's witch hunt. why are not republican leaders in the senate and house calling for the special counsel to be shut down. why arept they holding mueller in to account. we take that up with officials and they have a brand new book and they have a brand new book with a greatst. jude continues to advance by increasing cure rates in childhood cancer, because we have the resources, and we have the focus, and so, if st. jude doesn't do it, who will? ♪♪ my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy. retail. under pres

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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

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,

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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

and i commend to your attention these are actually the issues robert mueller is grappling with. but i made an effort to boil it down for you, particularly now that i only have 3 1/2 minutes left. if an individual, any individual including the president of the united states because in our system no person is above the law. if any individual attempts to interfere with, block, frustrate or otherwise impede a criminal investigation with corrupt intent, then that is obstruction of justice in a nutshell. the most critical question is what is corrupt intent? and the case law, it's been ruled on by all of our u.s. circuits. the case law is very interesting because it goes right to the heart of ethical, of moral questions that lay just underneath the criminal law. just underneath all those lengthy provisions in 18 united states code are a set of moral questions. obstruction of justice, corrupt intent is addressed by the courts as there's no cookie cutter. there's no simple test. it is evil or wrongful intent in taking an action. so if a president fires an fbi director because the preside

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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

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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

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

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

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

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.

that's why we have people like robert mueller, the cia. and they're going to be doing their job, and members of congress better understand they've got to back off and let our fbi, our cia find out what's been going on so this never happens again. >> richard painter, good to see you again. a former ethics lawyer for president george bush. >>> coming up president trump has denied or down-played russian hacking at every opportunity. but the problem didn't begin with with president trump. one of our next guests says we should expect more and right now the russians are winning when "the 11th hour" continues. >>> if putin likes donald trump, i consider that an asset not a liability because we have a horrible relationship with russia. if putin likes donald trump, guess what, folks? that's called an asset not a liability. now, i don't know that i'm going to get along with vladimir putin. i hope i do. yesterday i received a call from president putin of russia thanking our country for the intelligence that our cia was able to provide them concerning

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

and the suggestion that robert mueller should be fired. i want you to listen to congresswoman jackie spear and what she said this weekend about what she is hearing on capitol hill. >> the rumor on the hill, when i left yesterday, was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week, and on december 22nd, when we are out of d.c., he was going to fire robert mueller. >> dan, the white house is pushing back about that but we only have to look back to the firing of james comey about how sometimes the official line from the white house does not coincide with what the president believes. let's get this reminder. >> let me be very clear that the president's decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general, to remove director comey as the head of the fbi, was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the american people and to ensuring that the fbi has the trust and confidence of the people of this nation. >> i was going to fire comey. my de

the plan is to remove robert mueller. i think that the white house learns or potentially learns a really important lesson when they decided to fire the former director james comey. they really miscalculated that moment and had overwhelming push back. if they have learned anything over the past year it's that doing something dramatic like firing the special counsel might lead to the consequences that they are most afraid of. >> thanks to both of you. appreciate it. coming up, robert mueller now under attack again from president trump's lawyers and conservative media and some republican lawmakers worrying democrats about the future of the russia investigation. we will talk more about what we just talked about except this time with a congress congressman and what and who is behind the attacks and california's third largest wildfire consumes another 1500 acres as firefighters lay to rest one of their own killed battling that very fire. the latest from the frontlines, next. when you really want to save big on a hotel just go t

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

we have yet to hear from robert mueller and the team what's going on. jen, you also worked a transition. jason miller told us he had no expectation of privacy. assume you didn't have any expectation of privacy in the campaign you worked on, why make this argument if you're part of the trump transition team, is this just politics to muddy the waters? >>, of course, it's politics. i remember our lawyers saying, all of your e-mails are going to go to a dot gof server. they're neither private or privileg privileged. i would guess that's what every team has been told since there was e-mail. there was there was an orchestrated attack to firing mueller. yes, president trump said he wasn't going to do that now, one thing we've learned is not to believe what he said, what everybody should be worried about is if he takeszxr+ steps fire mueller when congress is out of session. members of congress won't be here, the judiciary won't be here. >> one thing i don't understand is the democrats saying the president is going to fire robert mueller. jackie spear and adam

but i think it's very clear that robert mueller and his team are doing very serious work. they are not, i think, anywhere near done. i think what we have to ensure is that they have the resources the they need to do this job completely and thoroughly, and that they're protected, most importantly, from my political interference or anyone attempting to impede or in any way influence the outcome of this investigation. >> your fellow democrat in congress, jackie spear said over the weekend, these are her words, on december 22nd, on friday, when we are out of d.c., he, being the president, was going to fire bob mueller. she says that. you hear this line a lot from democrats. and the president, himself, is asked, are you going to fire bob mueller yesterday, he said no. rod rosenstein was asked, have you got any indication that the president will try to fire mueller through you? he said no. you know, what about those that say this is democrats just playing politics here? >> well, look, i don't know the basis of jackie speier's assertion, but the reality is that bob mueller and th

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

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

that tells us michael flynn had something very valuable to offer robert mueller. here we see what he was offering. this is significant. it shows this was at the helm of the transition team. >> i want to bring in jeff from the washington bower owe. jeff, what does this maybe for the investigation now? >> well that obviously it's preceding and getting closer to the president's inner circle. let me set the scene here. one thing with the plea agreement is how hyper focused investigators are on flynn during the transition and into the white house. keep in mind after he became national security adviser four days after the inauguration, he was questioned by the fbi. then 18 days later he was fired or about 18 days later fired after it was revealed he was compromised. it was the acting attorney ten ral at the time, sally yates, who went to the white house and warned them that investigators felt mike flynn was compromised. he hadn't accurately described his contacts with the russian ambassador. at the time u.s. intelligent officials and law enforcement officials had access

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

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

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

according to court documents filed by special counsel robert mueller, flynn did wilfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to agents about his conversations with russian ambassador sergey kislyak in january. flynn was forced out of the trump administration in february for misleading vice president pence about those conversations. >> mueller getting discharged sort of gets a lot cler the question of potential russian inference. >>reporter: flynn is just the latest associate of president trump's to be charged in the fbi's investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, but he is the first one who has ever worked inside the trump white house. back in october prosecutors charged trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort, his deputy rick gates and campaign adviser george papadopoulos as part of the probe. the white house downplayed their indictment. >> what papadopoulos did was lie and that's on him, not on the campaign. >>reporter: just this week flynn's legal team had stopped cooperating with the white house about the investigation. w

we don't know what robert mueller has. what is the perspective from the white house that you know of? >> i would say this, this is part of the problem, i would say it about any special counsel. even with the democratic administration as its primary investigative target, it can be open-ended and can literally go on and on, no limit on its budget or time frame. that is part of the problem. this has been frustrating and a diversion from what's important for the american people. i think this is important. while mainstream media and people who live in the corridor who despise trump are obsessed with russia, regular americans are not. the economy is accelerating, our border is largely under control. neil gorsuch is on the court, amazing things are happening and a lot of people appreciate that. they don't care that general flynn committed a process crime. a process crime, not a crime in action, not anything remotely close to treasonous against the united states. i am confident that in the end, the growth agenda of donald trump is

. >> robert mueller may have other completely different ideas. >>> let's get more from david axelrod, and cnn political analyst david gergen, adviser to four presidents. the fact trump thinks melania mueller's going to write some kind of letter exxon rating him, a piece of paper he'll be able to hold up as some sort of trophy, is that how these things work? >> not ordinarily, but we're talking about a president here. if, in fact, mueller does exonerate him, i think the president would be entitle today ask for a letter, something that would clear his name. it's premature to go too far down this path. we may hear a very different story after the white house lawyers get to see mr. mueller later this week. >> maybe legally premature and is it politically problematic? does it make sense to you that people around the president, his legal team, might be setting these expectations that he'll be cleared of all wrong doing, especially given that when he gets disappointed, we know how he acts? >> yeah, i mean, one of the questions is are they managing the president or are they imparting facts to