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Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law breef exploring

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Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. It's brought to you buy

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Speaker 1: American Arbitration Association. Business disputes are inevitable, resolve faster with

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Speaker 1: the American Arbitration Association, the global leader in alternative dispute

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Speaker 1: resolution for over ninety years. More at a dr dot org. Today,

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law host Doing Grosso and Michael Best discussed the

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Speaker 1: legal grounds for FBI Director James Comey's firing. They speak

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Speaker 1: with John Kolahane, a professor at Delaware Law School, and

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Speaker 1: Michael Vadis a partner at Steptoe and Johnson. Michael, you

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Speaker 1: have a situation where the president during the campaign praised

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Speaker 1: Comey's public statements about what was going on in the

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Speaker 1: investigation of Clinton's email server. Now he's fired it based

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Speaker 1: on a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein that says

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Speaker 1: that he Comy handled his terribly and undermined the FBI.

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Speaker 1: What do we make of this rationale for firing the

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Speaker 1: FBI director. I think it's fatally obvious that this rationale

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Speaker 1: is a complete text and has nothing to do with

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Speaker 1: the real reason that Comy was fired. Um, I think

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Speaker 1: anybody who's been following the news in recent months has

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Speaker 1: to believe that this is uh based on the Trump

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Speaker 1: Russia investigation, and it may just be that they were

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Speaker 1: getting nervous that the FBI is getting too close to

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Speaker 1: Trump and too close to the people closely associated with him.

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Speaker 1: I think there's there's no other way to explain this, John,

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Speaker 1: Do you agree with that that there's no other way

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Speaker 1: to explain this? Absolutely? I mean, if one were to

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Speaker 1: read the Rosenstein memo setting forth the justifications for the firing,

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Speaker 1: you know, in isolation, they make sense. I mean, there

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Speaker 1: was a case for firing Comy, But now you know,

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Speaker 1: many months after the fact, Uh, it makes no sense

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Speaker 1: at all except for the reasons that we've just heard.

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Speaker 1: So I completely agree with that. I think a number

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Speaker 1: of things have come to light in the last couple

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Speaker 1: of days. One is that Comy recently requested more resources

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Speaker 1: for the investigation. There had recently been subpoenas issued in

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Speaker 1: regard to Mike Flynn's conduct, and then the Senate had

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Speaker 1: just asked for information about the financial connections between Trump

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Speaker 1: people in the Russian So I think, uh, if you

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Speaker 1: look at those events and the reports that Trump was

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Speaker 1: furious about the Russian investigation. The only logical conclusion I

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Speaker 1: can draw from that is that this was really based

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Speaker 1: on that, and the word pretext I think is exactly right.

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Speaker 1: As John phil Haine a professor at Delaware Law School,

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Speaker 1: and Michael vettis a partner at Steptoe and Johnson specaing

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Speaker 1: with Bloomberg LA host Jun Grosso and Michael Best. You

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Speaker 1: can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall

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Speaker 1: Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio and among the top

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Speaker 1: legal stories from Bloomberg Law. The Senate Intelligence Committee he

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Speaker 1: is making it clear the bipartisan investigation into Russian influence

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Speaker 1: will continue full speed head. The panel has subpoena documents

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Speaker 1: from President Trump's fired national security advisor, Michael Flynn. Flynn

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Speaker 1: has refused to turn over the papers and is seeking

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Speaker 1: immunity from prosecution. That request has not been granted. A

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Speaker 1: pension fund is suing directors at United Airlines for giving

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Speaker 1: an ounsted CEO a thirty seven million dollar severance package.

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Speaker 1: Jeff Smisek was forced out in a bribery scandal of

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Speaker 1: Florida Town's firefighters. Pension fund says directors made a mistake

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Speaker 1: in signing off on what it called the lavish Golden Parachute.

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Speaker 1: United says the suit has no merit. That's this morning's

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law Brief. You can find more legal news at

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b n a dot com.

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Speaker 1: Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools

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Speaker 1: there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: b n a dot com for more information