Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news, and it's brought to you
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Speaker 1: r dot org. Today Bloomberg, lahst Jun Grasso, and Michael
Speaker 1: Best discussed the legality of communications between the FBI and
Speaker 1: the White House about investigations into Russian interference in the
Speaker 1: twenty six presidential election. They speak with Matt Miller, a
Speaker 1: partner at Vianovo and former director of the Office of
Speaker 1: Public Affairs at the Department of Justice under President Obama. Matt,
Speaker 1: what are the rules in the federal government about FBI
Speaker 1: contact with the White House on pending investigations? So there
Speaker 1: are a couple things that are relevant here. One is
Speaker 1: that the FBI under longstanding practice that applies not just
Speaker 1: to the White House, but anyone that they're investigating. They don't,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't form the subjects of their investigations. Uh,
Speaker 1: what is true in a news story? What's not true?
Speaker 1: So if you're a major bank that's being investigated by
Speaker 1: the FBI, and the New York Times writes a story
Speaker 1: and you call them up, they won't tell you, oh no,
Speaker 1: that that thing you read the story is not true,
Speaker 1: because they don't do that. And of course, in this case,
Speaker 1: the White House may not be a subject of investigate
Speaker 1: this investigation, but we know that the president's campaign associates are,
Speaker 1: and the president's campaign is and being potentially the President himself,
Speaker 1: and their number of people in that White House who
Speaker 1: worked on the campaign. So there's a there's a problem
Speaker 1: there with the FBI communicating with them. And then it's
Speaker 1: it's compounded by the fact that they're long standing Department
Speaker 1: of Justice guidelines that say any contact between the Justice
Speaker 1: Department and the White House are supposed to be funneled
Speaker 1: through very prescribed channels to make sure there is no
Speaker 1: communication about an investigation, because then there's the potential for
Speaker 1: the White House to tamper with that investigation, to try
Speaker 1: to influence it, to try to pressure the FBI that
Speaker 1: do we know from the FBI that the FBI actually
Speaker 1: did tell the White House things about the investigation or
Speaker 1: is that coming from the white House. It's all coming
Speaker 1: from the White House. Um, And and that is a
Speaker 1: problem here because UM, I don't think this is a
Speaker 1: partisans thing to say the White House. This White House
Speaker 1: has a credibility problem. There are a number of, you know,
Speaker 1: documented instances in which the White House has said things
Speaker 1: that turn out later to not be true. So it's
Speaker 1: been reported that that, um, the direct deputy It's been
Speaker 1: reported from the White House to reporters that the deputy
Speaker 1: director said these reports were bs those were the quotes,
Speaker 1: um they used. We don't know if that's exactly what
Speaker 1: they said. It could be that there was some minor
Speaker 1: thing that they would quibble with in that New York
Speaker 1: Times story, But that doesn't mean, uh, the entire story
Speaker 1: was wrong or the import of the story was wrong.
Speaker 1: And the FBI so far has neither commented on it
Speaker 1: on the record. Nor if you look at the reporters
Speaker 1: that are coming as closely, they're not even really getting
Speaker 1: a lot of background guidance from the Bureau. That's Matt Miller,
Speaker 1: a partner at Viennovo, speaking with Bloomberg, Laho, s jum Crasso,
Speaker 1: and Michael Best. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays
Speaker 1: at one pm a Wall Street time here on Bloomberg Radio,