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Speaker 1: Three weeks ago, former FBI Director James Comy testified in

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Speaker 1: the Senate about his conversations with President Trump while he

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Speaker 1: was still with the FBI, and he said he had

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Speaker 1: asked a friend to describe memos he had written about

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Speaker 1: those discussions to the press. The President tweeted that Quomy

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Speaker 1: was a leaker, Comey was a leaker, and his private

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Speaker 1: attorney said he would be filing a formal complaint about

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Speaker 1: Comey's actions with the Justice Departments Inspector General. But yesterday

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg News reported that the filing of the complaint has

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Speaker 1: been postponed. Here to talk with us about the President's

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Speaker 1: threat to make a complaint in the postponement of it

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Speaker 1: is Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota

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Speaker 1: Law School who is the former White House ethics lawyer

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Speaker 1: under President George W. Bush. Richard, good to have you

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Speaker 1: here again. Um. The source who talked to Bloomberg said

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Speaker 1: that the President was postponing his complaint as a professional

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Speaker 1: courtesy to Independent Council Robert Mueller to give Mueller time

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Speaker 1: to and breathing space to do his investigation. Uh and

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Speaker 1: get things going. I suppose what do you make of

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Speaker 1: that explanation for postponing the filing of this complaint. Well, um,

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Speaker 1: I don't know why they postponed it. But uh, they're

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Speaker 1: two problems with this idea of a complaint. First, UH,

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Speaker 1: there is nothing to complain about. Uh Caledy did nothing wrong,

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Speaker 1: um needed, nothing illegal, nothing that would be appropriate to investigate.

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Speaker 1: Could a president uh summarily fired FBI director or someone

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Speaker 1: else for taking notes of the conversation and with the

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Speaker 1: president giving them somebody else, Well maybe because the president

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Speaker 1: could fire the FBI director, But um, uh you know,

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Speaker 1: I think that there would be no complaint here as

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Speaker 1: conduct on the part of Callmy. There's nothing illegal about

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Speaker 1: being a leaker unless you lead classified information. And this

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Speaker 1: administration is consistently failed to distinguish between illegal leagues which

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Speaker 1: are classified information, and other uh disclosures of what's going

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Speaker 1: on in government to the press, which are that's part

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Speaker 1: of the democratic process. So that's the press problem. There's

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Speaker 1: actually no complaint that could be made against Komy. The

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Speaker 1: second problem is that to file a complaint, particularly a

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Speaker 1: specious complaint that has no grounds against Comy at this juncture,

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Speaker 1: when Komy is a potential witness almost certainly to be

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Speaker 1: a witness in the Russia investigation, would itself be an

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Speaker 1: act that could be viewed as obstruction of justice? And

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Speaker 1: then that would bring the president of lawyers into the

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Speaker 1: orbit of the obstruction of justice UH investigation, where the

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Speaker 1: lawyers themselves with the investigated for abstructing justice UH. And

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Speaker 1: that would make things much much worse. So I never

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Speaker 1: expected President Trump lawyers to file a complaint against Comy.

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Speaker 1: It would have very much undermined the President's plate. Hey.

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Speaker 1: Once again, this type of bluster, for example, this reference

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Speaker 1: hate tape recording of the comic conversations. As this bluster

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Speaker 1: on the part of the President's lawyers, it seems to intimidate.

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Speaker 1: And I certainly don't think they would have followed it

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Speaker 1: up with a formal complaint, which would have ratcheted up

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Speaker 1: the intimidation of the witness, which espially once again, it

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Speaker 1: stuff could be a crime. Richard Comey has already been fired.

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Speaker 1: Even if the Justice Department did investigate and found out

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Speaker 1: that he followed the rules besides putting a note in

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Speaker 1: his file, What could the Justice Department do? What kind

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Speaker 1: of jurisdiction doesn't have over former employees? Well, not very much.

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Speaker 1: I don't see that he debuted many proofs, so I

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Speaker 1: don't under staying with the complate would all be about um,

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Speaker 1: so there would be no finding wrongdoing. I think that

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Speaker 1: when there is serious wrongdoing by lawyers in the Justice Department,

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Speaker 1: for example, the torture memos is certain, it was appropriate

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Speaker 1: to investigate what happened, whether or not you have your addiction,

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Speaker 1: and try and correct what happened to make sure it

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Speaker 1: doesn't happen again. So I wouldn't want to say the

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Speaker 1: Justice Department, of the question responsibility, should never investigate the

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Speaker 1: conduct of path employees where there's a serious misconduct, but

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Speaker 1: there is of course not much they can do about

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Speaker 1: it with respect of that employee. But I get back

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Speaker 1: to my main point, which is I don't see any

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Speaker 1: evidence of this conduct from part of Director of Format

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Speaker 1: coming to begin with keeping notes of a conversation with

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Speaker 1: a president, disclosing those notes. He's not the president's lawyer,

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Speaker 1: he doesn't have an attorney client privilege with the president UH,

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Speaker 1: and disclosing those notes UH in a context where his

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Speaker 1: own credibility is being brought into questions by the president.

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Speaker 1: There is no classified information in these communications. I just

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Speaker 1: don't see the evidence that he did anything wrong. Richard,

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Speaker 1: we only have about a minute left, but many people's

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Speaker 1: you know, the president has it's been rumored he was

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Speaker 1: thinking about firing Mueller, the special investment, the special prosecutor.

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Speaker 1: Uh now it's he's saying that. You know, the sources

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Speaker 1: are saying that he's not going to follow his complaint

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Speaker 1: order to give Muller room to operate. Do you think

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Speaker 1: this kind of decision or announcement is going to have

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Speaker 1: any impact on what Mueller does it all? I don't

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Speaker 1: think so. I don't think there's any uh realistic possibility

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Speaker 1: that a rational president what fire Muller. Firing Mueller would itself,

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Speaker 1: I think be an act of obstruction of justice would

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Speaker 1: probably lead to the removal of the president. I think

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Speaker 1: that would be the straw that breaks the cabal side.

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Speaker 1: We've already had the firing up calming, and that itself

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Speaker 1: could very well be instructored of justice. Firing Mueller would

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Speaker 1: be a bridge duke by and I think the tin

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Speaker 1: Trump team knows that. I don't think the President is

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Speaker 1: going to do that. Well. Our thanks to Richard Painter,

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Speaker 1: professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and former

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Speaker 1: White House ethics lawyer, for being here with us today

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Law