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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every

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Speaker 1: day we bring you inside an analysis into the most

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Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more

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Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple podcast, SoundCloud

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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash Podcasts. On his way

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Speaker 1: to New Orleans this morning, President Donald Trump pushed back

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Speaker 1: against the New York Times report that the FBI had

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Speaker 1: opened an investigation in TV to determine if the President

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Speaker 1: had been working knowingly or unknowingly on behalf of Russia

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Speaker 1: and against American interests and never worked for Russia. Not

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Speaker 1: only did I never worked for Russia. I think it's

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Speaker 1: a disgrace that you even asked that question, because it's

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Speaker 1: a whole, big fat hoax. Joining me is Brad Moss,

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Speaker 1: a partner. Mark said. Brad, explain what it means to

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Speaker 1: have a counter intelligence investigation open and the legal implications

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Speaker 1: if any. Sure so, the FBI, in particular, is the

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Speaker 1: primary domestic counters eligience agency will open such an inquiry

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Speaker 1: when they're concerned that there's an individual who, whether wittingly

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Speaker 1: or unwittingly, is being influenced by or compromised by a

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Speaker 1: foreign entity. This can be foreign it's gonna be sorry,

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Speaker 1: that's gonna be US government officials. This could be a

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Speaker 1: constitutional officer like the president United States itself. It could

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Speaker 1: be any circumstance where it raises a concern that an

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Speaker 1: individual within the United States has been compromised in some way,

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Speaker 1: and that that compromised is adverse to the interests of

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Speaker 1: the United States government. And so what they did hear

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Speaker 1: what the concern was, and some of the leak's transcripts

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Speaker 1: from from congressional testimonies outlined this in detail, is they

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Speaker 1: were worried when they saw what the president did with

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Speaker 1: firing Comy and then having the meeting in the office

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Speaker 1: with the Russian ambassador and talking about how the pressure

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Speaker 1: was off. Now they were worried that there was something

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Speaker 1: else going on here that just wasn't just Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: being the way he is, but that there was something

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Speaker 1: more to it, that there was a concerned that he

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Speaker 1: was compromised in some way. And so they took what

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Speaker 1: is no doubt a controversial step, but one that they

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Speaker 1: were taking out of concern that there was more to

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Speaker 1: this than just him being ornerary, that there was something

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Speaker 1: else to it. We don't know what they found. We

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Speaker 1: don't know what came of it because it was consumed,

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Speaker 1: they're assumed into the Mueller probe, which is obviously still

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Speaker 1: going on. But clearly this was a controversial move that

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Speaker 1: they felt they had no other choice but to take.

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Speaker 1: So yesterday Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said about the investigation,

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Speaker 1: how could the FBI do that? What kinds of checks

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Speaker 1: and balances are there? Did the FBI have the power

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Speaker 1: to open this kind of investigation into the president. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so they certainly had the power. There's there's nothing places

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Speaker 1: the president beyond the scrutiny of the FBI or any

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Speaker 1: other law enforcement official. Obviously there are institutional checks. Um.

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Speaker 1: All the people involved were rather senior. They all knew

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Speaker 1: that if that when eventually people learned of what was

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Speaker 1: going on, that there or be how to pay, for

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Speaker 1: lack of a better phrase, that they were going to

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Speaker 1: have to explain themselves one day for this. But they

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Speaker 1: were concerned that if they chose not to take action,

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Speaker 1: it would actually be a greater bit of professional malpractice.

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Speaker 1: That they had to take this limited at least this

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Speaker 1: limited step. Mind you, they weren't bringing charges against him.

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Speaker 1: They weren't, as far as we know, seeking a fizer

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Speaker 1: warn against them, but they were running the beginning aspects

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Speaker 1: of what would be a counterintelligence probe to see if

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Speaker 1: there were something more to the president's actions beyond just

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Speaker 1: how he tends to behave and how he can't stand

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Speaker 1: people who aren't the supremely loyal to him. They had

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Speaker 1: to make sure there wasn't something a greater risk that

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Speaker 1: they would then have to notify Congress about. Also on

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Speaker 1: the weekend, a Washington Post report said that President Trump

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Speaker 1: took interpreters notes and asked her not to speak about

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Speaker 1: what he and President Putin talked about in Hamburg, Germany.

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Speaker 1: In house Democrats are reportedly discussing subpoenaing the interpreters. Would

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Speaker 1: that run square air into an executive privilege claim and

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Speaker 1: problem not necessarily because the communications that are an issue

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Speaker 1: with the interpreter had observed where communications with a foreign

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Speaker 1: government head of state, So the executive privilege isn't going

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Speaker 1: to be there. But there's a separate concern that people have,

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Speaker 1: and legitimately so, about having this individual testify before Congress,

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Speaker 1: at least publicly, And that's that if those details of

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Speaker 1: that meeting come out publicly, it would undermine the ability

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Speaker 1: of this president or any future president to have these

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Speaker 1: private discussions. If that kind of information is going to

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Speaker 1: be revealed to the public, that's you know, there's some

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Speaker 1: level of candor and lack of you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: formality that has to occur in these private meetings. And

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Speaker 1: if it's all gonna be made public, people are gonna

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Speaker 1: be far more guarded. Obviously, people know that the interpreter

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Speaker 1: was going to debrief the US government agencies, but if

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Speaker 1: it makes it, if it's provided the public forum, that's

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Speaker 1: going to harm US national scity interests going forward. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's why Congress is a little you know,

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Speaker 1: edgy about just how far they want to go with that.

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Speaker 1: We see a lot of Democrats in the House talking

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Speaker 1: about what's going to happen in the Committee's Which committee

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Speaker 1: do you believe will have the most impact on this

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Speaker 1: investigation into the president? Certainly look at Congressman Cummings with

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Speaker 1: the Oversight Committee. That's going to pretty much tear into

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Speaker 1: everything from the way the foreign policy has been conducted,

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Speaker 1: from the president's meetings with Putin to the way that

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Speaker 1: the US government interacts with the Trump private properties like

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Speaker 1: his resorts and hotels. Yeah, the way that Ivanka Trump

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Speaker 1: used private email, all those things are going to come

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Speaker 1: under Congressman Cummings jurisdiction. But you also have to keep

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Speaker 1: an eye on um sort of this ways and means

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Speaker 1: uh inquiry with respect to the Trump taxes and things

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Speaker 1: along those lines, anything that would arise with it that

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Speaker 1: would implicate the financial side of the Trump world. Those

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Speaker 1: are going to be places where they're going to be

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Speaker 1: shunning a light on stuff that the past Congress never

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Speaker 1: really wanted to dive into for political reasons, but this

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Speaker 1: one is certainly willing to do so from an oversight capacity.

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Speaker 1: And of course we know that President Trump's former lawyer

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Speaker 1: Michael Cohen is going to be testifying before Cummings Committee

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Speaker 1: in February. Let's turn to President Trump's choice for a g.

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Speaker 1: William Barr, and he's going to say in his testimony,

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Speaker 1: it's been announced that he will let Muller complete his

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Speaker 1: work and that he'd provide Congress and the public as

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Speaker 1: much of the findings in the Russia investigation as possible.

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Speaker 1: Is that enough do you think to make Democratic senators

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Speaker 1: sort of make them feel more easy with his appointment

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Speaker 1: to an extent somewhat. I mean, I certainly think that

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Speaker 1: they're going to put him through the ringer and the

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Speaker 1: confirmation hearing it, and that'd be legitimately so as you know,

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Speaker 1: a nomination to become the chief law enforcement officials, certainly

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Speaker 1: he should be put under the light and the microscope. Um.

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Speaker 1: His private writings about the legitimacy of the Mueller probe

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Speaker 1: also worthy of scrutiny. But I think what you'll get

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Speaker 1: the most out of here with these hearings, it's going

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Speaker 1: to be somewhat similar to what we had in the

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Speaker 1: Nixon era, whereas the Attorney General Elliott Richardson, where he

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Speaker 1: gave this vow to Congress in his nomination hearing that

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Speaker 1: if the president ever tried to shut down or block

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Speaker 1: the Special Council probe going on at that time in

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Speaker 1: the water Gate, he would resign. And that was what

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Speaker 1: caused the Saturday Night massacre. That's why Elliot Richardson resigned

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Speaker 1: when he was told to fire the Special Council. So

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Speaker 1: I think he'll seek demicat's trying to impose a similar

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Speaker 1: kind of rule or promise on William Barr. I don't

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Speaker 1: know how far, he'll go with it, but it's from

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Speaker 1: a qualification standpoint. He certainly has qualified and credentials. He's

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Speaker 1: served in that position before. He's not a flamethrower. I

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Speaker 1: think he's a decent choice by the President. All right,

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Brad. That's Brad mass apartmer A Mark Say.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can

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Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud,

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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso.

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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg m