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Speaker 1: Well, that was time for our daily Bloomberg Law REEF,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news. It is brought to

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Speaker 1: you by American Arbitration Association, International Trade or Business Dispute

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Speaker 1: Resolve Faster with the International Center for Dispute Resolution, the

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Speaker 1: leader in alternative dispute resolution around the world i c

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Speaker 1: d R dot org. Today, Bloomberg Laho student Grosso and

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Speaker 1: Greg sture discuss acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe's statements in

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Speaker 1: Congress that James Comey's expulsion has not impacted any FBI

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Speaker 1: investigations into Russian interference in the election. They speak with

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Speaker 1: Stanford Levinson, a professor at the University of Texas Law School,

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Speaker 1: and Philip Bobbitt, director of the Center for National Security

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Speaker 1: at Columbia Law School. For those people who are concerned

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Speaker 1: about the firing of Jim Comey, how reassured should they

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Speaker 1: be because of the things that Andrew McCabe said. He

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Speaker 1: also talked about how there's no effort to impede the investigation.

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Speaker 1: Is that reassuring? It is from one perspective that I

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Speaker 1: actually do believe that the e I will be diligent

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Speaker 1: in seeking out evidence wherever it leads But the point is,

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Speaker 1: and this is what got Comy into some trouble in

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Speaker 1: the first place. It's not the THEI decides whether or

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Speaker 1: not to prosecute. That's a subject for the Justice Department.

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Speaker 1: And to put it mildly, I think there is a

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Speaker 1: lot of concern about whether the Justice Department will be

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Speaker 1: sufficiently independent to make the decision to prosecute or not

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Speaker 1: to prosecute unprofessional rather than Rawley political ground phil There

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Speaker 1: have been calls for an independent council, and Senator Richard Blumenthal,

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Speaker 1: among others, has said that he'll introduce legislation to re

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Speaker 1: establish an independent council if a special prosecutor isn't appointed.

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Speaker 1: Another option is an independent commission. How likely are any

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Speaker 1: of these to get through? My guess is at the

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Speaker 1: likeliest would be a Senseley Committee. The next likely would

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Speaker 1: be an independent commission who's whose members were selected in

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Speaker 1: some kind of negotiations between the White House and the Congress.

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Speaker 1: That the least likely is a new statute authorizing and

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Speaker 1: independent council. And the reason for that is because we've

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Speaker 1: been there before. H Not only are their doubts about

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Speaker 1: the constitutionality of such a statute, our experience with it

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Speaker 1: has not been a very wholesome one. Do you remember

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Speaker 1: perhaps Judge Starr's investigations of President Clinton. It's as unusual

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Speaker 1: constitutional animal, sort of not really in Article tow or

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Speaker 1: Article one or Article three, and it seems to have

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Speaker 1: a sort of an inertial force to take on a

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Speaker 1: scope that I think the Congress would be unlikely to reauthorize.

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Speaker 1: And Stanford Levinson, a professor at the University of Texas

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Speaker 1: to Law School, and Philip Bobbitt, Director at the Center

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Speaker 1: for National Security at Columbia Lass School, speaking with Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Law host Doing Grosso and Greg's store. You can listen

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Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time

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Speaker 1: here on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among the top legal stories

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Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Law, a judge in Delaware has given signa

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Speaker 1: approval to walk away from its forty eight billion dollar

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Speaker 1: merger with Anthem that happened three months after another judge

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Speaker 1: blocked the health insure deal for at a competitive reasons.

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Speaker 1: The ruling means Anthem could end up having to pay

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Speaker 1: one point nine billion dollars in breakup fees and thirteen

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Speaker 1: billion dollars in damages to signa a federal judge plans

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Speaker 1: to get final approval to Volkswagen's one point two billion

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Speaker 1: dollars settlement and the emissions cheating scandal. The latest agreement

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Speaker 1: requires VW to compensate owners of diesel engine vehicles, fixed

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Speaker 1: about fifty eight thousand cars and buy back another twenty thousand.

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Speaker 1: All told, VW is committed to spending almost twenty five

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Speaker 1: billion dollars in North America to settle lawsuits and buy

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Speaker 1: back or repair some five hundred sixty thousand vehicles. And

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Speaker 1: that's this morning's Bloomberg Law Brief. You can find more

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Speaker 1: legal news at Bloomberg law dot com and Bloomberg b

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Speaker 1: NA dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and

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Speaker 1: business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg law dot

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Speaker 1: com and Bloomberg b NA dot com for more information