Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Mueller Expands Probe Into Trump's Business, While Sessions Labors On
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg p m L Podcast. I'm pim Fox.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Along with my co host Lisa Abramowitz. Each day we
- 0:11Speaker 1: bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for
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- 0:20Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com. For
- 0:32Speaker 1: more on this breaking news about the Special Counsel Robert
- 0:36Speaker 1: Mueller and his mother and his investigation, I want to
- 0:39Speaker 1: bring in a one of the authors of this story,
- 0:41Speaker 1: and congratulations to you, Christian Bertelson. Thanks very much for
- 0:45Speaker 1: being here. Much appreciate it. Why don't you just lay
- 0:47Speaker 1: out for people who all they've gotten on the headlines,
- 0:50Speaker 1: just get set, you know, set us up and and
- 0:53Speaker 1: go for it. Sure so. UH. The Special Counsel who
- 0:57Speaker 1: was appointed just a little over two months ago, Robert
- 0:59Speaker 1: Mueller UH to handle the investigation into Russian interference in
- 1:05Speaker 1: last year's presidential election, has included as part of his
- 1:09Speaker 1: probe a number of business transactions involving Russian financing of
- 1:15Speaker 1: Trump developments UH, the Trump Miss Universe pageant that was
- 1:20Speaker 1: held in Moscow in UH and as well as an
- 1:24Speaker 1: earlier investigation that was started by federal prosecutors in New
- 1:27Speaker 1: York into Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and and
- 1:33Speaker 1: Ukrainian transactions that he engaged in two thousand eight. So, Christian,
- 1:37Speaker 1: let's talk about how this differs from what we've known
- 1:41Speaker 1: so far in this scoop that just broke by yourself
- 1:44Speaker 1: and Greg Farrell talking about how the U s. Special
- 1:47Speaker 1: Council is investigating possible ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.
- 1:52Speaker 1: It including some of these financial ties that we know
- 1:55Speaker 1: to be long standing between the Trump organization and a
- 1:58Speaker 1: variety of different Russia and interest Uh. We also know
- 2:02Speaker 1: that President Trump did talk with the New York Times
- 2:05Speaker 1: in a wide ranging interviewer he said any look at
- 2:08Speaker 1: financial ties would be off limits. So it's not off limits.
- 2:13Speaker 1: In fact, it's front and center. What do we know
- 2:16Speaker 1: about how this changes the tenor of the overall investigation.
- 2:19Speaker 1: I don't know that it changes the tenor, but right,
- 2:22Speaker 1: I mean, the the initial mandate for the investigation was
- 2:26Speaker 1: to look into Russian interference in the election. Um and
- 2:29Speaker 1: that included you know the hack of the d n C. Uh,
- 2:34Speaker 1: you know whether the Trump campaign coordinated in any way
- 2:37Speaker 1: with Russia to get damaging information about Hillary Clinton, that
- 2:41Speaker 1: kind of thing. UM. So this look at the financial
- 2:45Speaker 1: transactions and the sort of you know, longstanding business ties
- 2:50Speaker 1: between Trump and Russians, UM is a bit different. You know.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I couldn't say whether it actually goes beyond the mandate
- 2:58Speaker 1: uh and the Special Council or from the DOJ, but it, uh,
- 3:03Speaker 1: it does seem to go in an area that Trump
- 3:05Speaker 1: warned in that New York Times interview that he considered
- 3:08Speaker 1: sort of beyond the bounds of our scope of the investigation.
- 3:12Speaker 1: All Right, I'm gonna try to connect two pieces of
- 3:14Speaker 1: information that you have been able to determine our true Uh.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Jeff Sessions, attorney current Attorney General, had asked for the
- 3:25Speaker 1: resignations of forty six u S attorneys. One of those
- 3:30Speaker 1: U S attorneys happened to be from the Southern District
- 3:32Speaker 1: of the County of New York. Can you tell us
- 3:37Speaker 1: about preparre his office and I believe some of his
- 3:41Speaker 1: colleagues who are now assisting in this investigation, and why
- 3:46Speaker 1: that's relevant. Uh. There there's never been any sort of
- 3:51Speaker 1: full explanation of why Barrara was fired. I mean, you know,
- 3:56Speaker 1: Barrara was fired along with all the other remaining OBA
- 4:00Speaker 1: was he considered to be an excellent prosecutor. He had
- 4:04Speaker 1: an incredible reputation and still does. Um. You know. The
- 4:09Speaker 1: the thing that is unusual about Barras firing, the firing
- 4:13Speaker 1: of U S attorneys is routine any time an administration
- 4:17Speaker 1: changed his hands, um, and all the U attorneys who
- 4:20Speaker 1: were fired were Obama administration of pointees. The thing that
- 4:24Speaker 1: makes barras firing unusual was that he met with Trump
- 4:30Speaker 1: after Trump was elected, but before the administration began, and
- 4:33Speaker 1: according to Barrara's account, he was told he was welcome
- 4:37Speaker 1: to stay. Uh So, so there's always been a question
- 4:41Speaker 1: about why Barrara was included in the mass firing with
- 4:44Speaker 1: the others after he had been given the assurance of
- 4:48Speaker 1: Trump that he would be allowed to remain in office.
- 4:51Speaker 1: So could it be a sort of prevention of justice
- 4:55Speaker 1: being done? Kind of it? Could that be sort of
- 4:57Speaker 1: part of the probe that you're hearing about, or obstruction
- 5:00Speaker 1: of justice? Or is this just sort of another sort
- 5:04Speaker 1: of whiff of smoke to to add to you can't
- 5:08Speaker 1: you can't know, you know, because Berrara himself has given
- 5:12Speaker 1: in a very detailed accounting in public of his firing,
- 5:16Speaker 1: and even Berrara doesn't know. You know, he received a
- 5:18Speaker 1: call from the White House the day before he was fired.
- 5:22Speaker 1: He did not return the call because he felt it
- 5:24Speaker 1: was inappropriate and there are existing Justice part regulations that
- 5:28Speaker 1: that prohibit contact between U. S. Attorneys and the White House,
- 5:33Speaker 1: So he he didn't have the conversation, and he didn't
- 5:35Speaker 1: know Andrew Goldstein. Sorry, just because you've got to connect
- 5:39Speaker 1: who is he and why, because Lisa knows is has
- 5:44Speaker 1: a legal mind. Andrew Goldstein was a I believe he
- 5:50Speaker 1: was a deputy chief in the U. S. Attorney's Office
- 5:53Speaker 1: and the head of the public corruption a unit in
- 5:57Speaker 1: the Southern District of New York. And he left his
- 6:00Speaker 1: position there, I want to say, two weeks ago, uh,
- 6:03Speaker 1: to move down to Washington to join Mueller's investigative team.
- 6:08Speaker 1: So I just want to note that equity markets do
- 6:11Speaker 1: seem to be down on this news. They did, uh.
- 6:13Speaker 1: The SMP five hundred did drop subsequent to this story
- 6:17Speaker 1: hitting the wire. So it does seem like this just
- 6:20Speaker 1: injects another note of uncertainty, UH, to the ongoing political intrigue.
- 6:25Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit more about the
- 6:26Speaker 1: financial ties that Muller's team is looking into. In particular,
- 6:31Speaker 1: you highlight, for example, a Trump Soho hotel condominium development,
- 6:35Speaker 1: um and where got it's ten million dollar cash and
- 6:38Speaker 1: fusion that was from somewhere in Russia or believed to be.
- 6:42Speaker 1: As well as Miss Universe pageant where a prominent Moscow
- 6:46Speaker 1: developer paid twenty million dollars to bring the beauty spectacle
- 6:50Speaker 1: to that country. How does this relate to President Trump's
- 6:55Speaker 1: rise to power in the US. I would think, well,
- 7:00Speaker 1: you know, Russian, Eastern European capital in general was a
- 7:06Speaker 1: source of development for various Trump projects, and I think
- 7:11Speaker 1: that to the extent Mueller is investigating that. Uh, he's
- 7:16Speaker 1: trying to determine the origins of the relationship between Trump
- 7:20Speaker 1: and various you know, sources of capital in Eastern Europe. Uh,
- 7:26Speaker 1: you know, as to Trump Soho. Uh, the money that
- 7:30Speaker 1: came that helped build Trump Soho came from a development
- 7:33Speaker 1: group called the bay Rock Group and according to a
- 7:37Speaker 1: lawsuit filed against bay Rock by its former finance director,
- 7:41Speaker 1: bay Rock received some of its money from Russia and Kazakhstan.
- 7:46Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Market time pim Fox, my colleague
- 7:50Speaker 1: and co host a Lisa Abramwitz. Our guest is a
- 7:52Speaker 1: Christian Burtleson. He is a Bloomberg reporter who, along with
- 7:57Speaker 1: Greg Farrell, have broken a story about the Special Council
- 8:03Speaker 1: Robert Mueller, who is expanding his probe into a president
- 8:08Speaker 1: Donald Trump's business transactions. UM, I wonder if you could
- 8:12Speaker 1: just reset quickly for people that there's a lot of
- 8:16Speaker 1: pieces to all of this, right, I mean, you know
- 8:18Speaker 1: you the threads. Can you just sort of condense it
- 8:21Speaker 1: for people so that they understand exactly why this is important.
- 8:26Speaker 1: The the investigation being conducted by the Special Council is
- 8:31Speaker 1: into Russian interference in the presidential election last year, but
- 8:36Speaker 1: the the investigation is also looking at Trump's longstanding business
- 8:40Speaker 1: size too various Eastern European UH sources of capital for
- 8:45Speaker 1: his developments UH. The The president told The New York
- 8:50Speaker 1: Times in an interview yesterday that he viewed any investigation
- 8:55Speaker 1: into his business dealings as being sort of beyond the
- 8:57Speaker 1: bounds of what the point was intended for. I want
- 9:02Speaker 1: to bring an Awl Hunt. He's a Bloomberg View calumnist
- 9:05Speaker 1: who's been following all of the variety of different political
- 9:09Speaker 1: intrigue that we've been experiencing over the past few months.
- 9:12Speaker 1: And al do you think that this new disclosure of
- 9:16Speaker 1: the new angle of the special prosecutors investigation changes the
- 9:21Speaker 1: tenor of the discussion at all around Russia. No, it
- 9:25Speaker 1: really doesn't, because, um the whole question all along, Mueller's
- 9:30Speaker 1: mandate was always quite broad, and it was interference with
- 9:32Speaker 1: the election and the charge that somehow Trump might be
- 9:36Speaker 1: beholden to the Russians, they might have leverage. Only he
- 9:39Speaker 1: goes back to his business dealings. So Mueller had to
- 9:42Speaker 1: investigate this, or we're special cant I mean, I'm old
- 9:45Speaker 1: 've been here when the Nixon special counsel was here.
- 9:48Speaker 1: Special counsel like this or special prosecutors as as existed before,
- 9:54Speaker 1: are given a broad mandate and they have to see
- 9:57Speaker 1: what they can they can find. When they were investigating Nixon,
- 10:00Speaker 1: they didn't start having any idea that there was illegal
- 10:03Speaker 1: use of the Internal Revenue Service, for instance, when they
- 10:05Speaker 1: were investigating Clinton, didn't have any idea that we were
- 10:07Speaker 1: talking about sex in the Oval office. I don't think
- 10:10Speaker 1: that Bob Mueller will be will go off in a
- 10:13Speaker 1: wild chase the way Kim Starr did. But central to
- 10:17Speaker 1: this investigation is Trump's relationship with the Russians, and central
- 10:21Speaker 1: to that is whether the Russians money laundered through Trump
- 10:26Speaker 1: and whether they bailed him out, and whether in any
- 10:28Speaker 1: way he is indebted to them, uh and has not
- 10:31Speaker 1: told the truth about it or has not or is
- 10:34Speaker 1: not revealed in his tax returns. That's something that a
- 10:37Speaker 1: special counsel would be Darrell looked if he didn't investigate.
- 10:39Speaker 1: You know, I have to say, this raises a real
- 10:41Speaker 1: fuzzy ground, which is, yes, we know that President Trump
- 10:45Speaker 1: has been involved with a variety of different Russians and
- 10:49Speaker 1: his financial dealings. At what point does that mean he's
- 10:52Speaker 1: beholden to them versus just has a very good relationship.
- 10:56Speaker 1: That's not That's not fuzzy. That's what the Special count
- 11:00Speaker 1: to investigates. If it's just a normal business transaction, then
- 11:03Speaker 1: there's no problem with it. Uh. If in fact, you
- 11:06Speaker 1: know there's there's something deeper than that, than that's what
- 11:09Speaker 1: Bob Mueller will fund. I don't think at all what's
- 11:11Speaker 1: the difference between a normal financial relationship and an abnormal
- 11:14Speaker 1: one if you're basically cloaking it. I mean, like, I
- 11:17Speaker 1: just don't understand the distinction that there's a Special Council
- 11:21Speaker 1: will even draw there, you know what I mean? Well, no,
- 11:24Speaker 1: I don't, because I think the distinction is going to
- 11:26Speaker 1: be did the Russians somehow? And I don't know the
- 11:29Speaker 1: answer this least, but I think this is quite clear
- 11:31Speaker 1: and quite obvious that the Special Council has to look
- 11:34Speaker 1: in this. The question is in some way with the
- 11:36Speaker 1: Russians giving aid to Trump's organization and the Trump bailing
- 11:40Speaker 1: him out in a way that he is indebted to them.
- 11:42Speaker 1: They have leverage over him, they have knowledge about him
- 11:45Speaker 1: that he doesn't want out. I don't know that's the case,
- 11:47Speaker 1: but that's the charge, and that's a charge that has
- 11:50Speaker 1: been suggested by serious people. Bob Muller will find out
- 11:53Speaker 1: if it's true or not. If it's just a normal
- 11:55Speaker 1: business transaction, then then there's then there's no problem. There's
- 11:59Speaker 1: all kinds of reasons to wonder, however, among them being
- 12:03Speaker 1: that Trump and his people continue to lie about this.
- 12:06Speaker 1: So if you're lying about it, what are you trying
- 12:08Speaker 1: to hide? I don't know. That's what Bob Muller will
- 12:10Speaker 1: find out. Al Hunt, I gotta love you because you
- 12:14Speaker 1: know you're you're so last century. You actually believe you
- 12:18Speaker 1: know you you you know, until proven you are, Uh,
- 12:21Speaker 1: you need the detail correct? Well do you want? No?
- 12:25Speaker 1: But this is where I'm going with this, and I
- 12:27Speaker 1: want I want Christian to come in on this because
- 12:31Speaker 1: the cycle and information, the gathering that has been included
- 12:34Speaker 1: in all of this includes online revelations, emails about the
- 12:39Speaker 1: president's son, emails from the President's son, um, conversations about
- 12:46Speaker 1: Jeff Sessions, the attorney general to the New York Times.
- 12:50Speaker 1: All of these things, people draw their own conclusions. You
- 12:53Speaker 1: know that the Twitter sphere, of the blogger sphere, they live. Uh,
- 12:57Speaker 1: this is a feeding frenzy for this and it's become
- 13:00Speaker 1: part of it in your investigation. How important will the
- 13:06Speaker 1: email trail and the money trail be in figuring this
- 13:10Speaker 1: all out? You know, I'm not a lawyer, and I
- 13:13Speaker 1: really I probably not qualified to a point on that,
- 13:17Speaker 1: but I you know, I think, uh, in a large
- 13:20Speaker 1: part it will explain, as I said, at least the
- 13:23Speaker 1: origins of the relationships um, and flowing from that, you
- 13:27Speaker 1: might get some understanding of sort of why Trump and
- 13:32Speaker 1: Russia appeared to have such sort of close interactions over
- 13:36Speaker 1: the course of his campaign. You know, I have to wonder,
- 13:39Speaker 1: given the fact that we did see markets moved down,
- 13:42Speaker 1: and that both of you are saying, this isn't really
- 13:44Speaker 1: materially change uh the narrative going forward, why our markets
- 13:49Speaker 1: reacting at all? I mean until to a large degree
- 13:51Speaker 1: that they kind of haven't reacted all that much. But
- 13:54Speaker 1: we are going to be speaking with someone up Mark Grant,
- 13:57Speaker 1: coming up from hill Top Advisors, who said that, you know,
- 14:00Speaker 1: people are losing faith that we are going to get
- 14:02Speaker 1: anything done. I mean, Christian, do you hear from people,
- 14:05Speaker 1: uh that just the ongoing tome of information that keeps
- 14:09Speaker 1: coming out is dampening any hopes, uh for for anything
- 14:13Speaker 1: else to sort of gain attention. I will say just
- 14:16Speaker 1: you know, in talks with people, I don't know about
- 14:19Speaker 1: the financial market implications of it, but I will say
- 14:23Speaker 1: that the people I've talked to do feel significant concerned
- 14:29Speaker 1: that if Mueller is not allowed to complete his work, uh,
- 14:34Speaker 1: that where we are as a country is a very
- 14:37Speaker 1: troubling place. Um. You know, there's a lot of hope
- 14:41Speaker 1: that you know, he will be allowed to complete his investigation,
- 14:45Speaker 1: that we will get some clarity on what happened in
- 14:48Speaker 1: uh and if that doesn't happen, if he's sort of
- 14:50Speaker 1: fired or stopped or something that, uh, you know, we
- 14:54Speaker 1: are in a dark place in terms of the rule
- 14:56Speaker 1: of law. Al hunt, are we already there? Oh? I
- 14:59Speaker 1: agree with every hand. Christian just said, Um, I suspect
- 15:03Speaker 1: that Trump really is thinking about firing Muller, and I
- 15:06Speaker 1: think that we then become whatever you want to call it,
- 15:10Speaker 1: Banana Republic, Russia. The rule of law doesn't matter. And
- 15:13Speaker 1: that's the case, and that then the key will be
- 15:15Speaker 1: whether whether Congression Republicans will stand up and say this
- 15:18Speaker 1: is not acceptable. That's what they did in seventy three
- 15:21Speaker 1: when Nixon fired Archie Cox. That's what we have to
- 15:24Speaker 1: do now. But I think the predicate that Trump was
- 15:26Speaker 1: trying to say yesterday but somehow he either wants to
- 15:29Speaker 1: fire Mueller or he wants, uh, somehow the four sessions
- 15:32Speaker 1: out and the point of Attorney general will do it.
- 15:35Speaker 1: I think if he gets away with that, this country
- 15:37Speaker 1: is in terrible, terrible trouble. And why does he want
- 15:39Speaker 1: to do that? You know, the Wall Street General had
- 15:42Speaker 1: a very good trip the other day. They said, look,
- 15:43Speaker 1: there's a simple answer, Mr Trump, release everything. You know,
- 15:47Speaker 1: if he would release everything, then you know we we
- 15:50Speaker 1: we won't have a problem. There's a reason perhaps he
- 15:52Speaker 1: won't release everything. Well. Al when you talk to people
- 15:56Speaker 1: on the Hill, do you get the sense that among
- 15:58Speaker 1: Republicans there's a growing and of concern about h the
- 16:02Speaker 1: US becoming up an inn a republic and holding President
- 16:04Speaker 1: Trump's feet to the fire. I think they're scared stiff
- 16:07Speaker 1: because they're caught in the terrible costs. Far least the
- 16:09Speaker 1: number one that base that Trump based now it's it's
- 16:12Speaker 1: smaller than it was. It's the ministe. She's lost support,
- 16:14Speaker 1: there's no question in that. But the fervor of that
- 16:17Speaker 1: base still is there, and that's a key part of
- 16:19Speaker 1: the Republican constituency. On the other hand, he is losing
- 16:22Speaker 1: all sorts of independent and people who were sanxious if
- 16:26Speaker 1: you will, who didn't like Hillary and held their dose
- 16:28Speaker 1: and voted for Trump. Uh. And secondly, a number there
- 16:31Speaker 1: are a number of these Republicans are oh my god,
- 16:33Speaker 1: what what what's going on? Is? Uh? Were there? Are
- 16:38Speaker 1: there really some very worrisome things. They were bothered, for instance,
- 16:42Speaker 1: by his second meeting with Putin that he didn't tell
- 16:44Speaker 1: anyone about. They were bothered by the Donnie Junior look.
- 16:48Speaker 1: Donnie Junior and Paul Manaford and Jared Kushner. I've covered
- 16:51Speaker 1: campaigns for forty years. A month before the convention, time
- 16:54Speaker 1: is precious. The Missouri state chairman, they come in, you
- 16:56Speaker 1: don't have time to meet him. I'm sorry, We're too busy.
- 16:59Speaker 1: And to spend that amount of time with with those Russians,
- 17:01Speaker 1: and the lie about it to begin with, and then
- 17:03Speaker 1: the lie about the number of people there. What are
- 17:06Speaker 1: they hiding? Least? And I think Republicans at least some
- 17:09Speaker 1: of them are asking those questions of themselves at least.
- 17:13Speaker 1: I want to keep you with us, l and Christian.
- 17:15Speaker 1: I want to bring in Larry Liebert, national Security team
- 17:18Speaker 1: editor for bloom Brook News, who is in Washington, d C. Larry,
- 17:24Speaker 1: I want to pick up on one aspect that I
- 17:26Speaker 1: was talking about, with the concerned that Republicans have expressed,
- 17:29Speaker 1: at least behind closed doors, about the second undisclosed meeting
- 17:33Speaker 1: that President Trump had with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia. UM,
- 17:38Speaker 1: is there any concern among the security the intel community, UH,
- 17:43Speaker 1: that right now there is something going on that could
- 17:46Speaker 1: potentially jeopardize the national security of our country? Or is
- 17:50Speaker 1: this mostly uh, you know the details and still having
- 17:54Speaker 1: to do with the campaign. Well in the intel community's
- 17:58Speaker 1: concern about anything they don't know about. And really, UH,
- 18:03Speaker 1: the question is what did they talk about in that meeting,
- 18:06Speaker 1: which the President said was very brief, others had said
- 18:09Speaker 1: was a full hour discussion. UH? What do they talk
- 18:12Speaker 1: about in terms of lifting sanctions and policy? What do
- 18:15Speaker 1: they talk about, perhaps in regard to the current investigations
- 18:20Speaker 1: are going on? UH? And and the fact that they
- 18:23Speaker 1: don't know is what trouble From the fact that there
- 18:24Speaker 1: were no no takers, not even Sexuary Tillerson, who was
- 18:28Speaker 1: there for the meeting earlier in the day, UH was
- 18:30Speaker 1: around to UH make any record of what was said.
- 18:34Speaker 1: So that just that worries. But this president is not
- 18:37Speaker 1: one to follow the diplomatic rules, and UH, I guess
- 18:40Speaker 1: they're trying to adjust to that. Christian, I know you've
- 18:43Speaker 1: got something to add to this, please, Well, you know
- 18:45Speaker 1: what's been interesting in the last two weeks amid you know,
- 18:48Speaker 1: first the revelations about the meeting between UH Donald Jr.
- 18:53Speaker 1: In his office with various Russian and Eastern Europeans UH
- 18:58Speaker 1: prior to the election, as well as Trump's new explanation
- 19:02Speaker 1: of his UH. You know UH side sideline meeting with
- 19:06Speaker 1: Putin at the G twenty dinner. UH. The the continued
- 19:11Speaker 1: explanation is that they were talking about this issue of
- 19:14Speaker 1: Russian adoptions, UH, which you know only partially explains what
- 19:20Speaker 1: the adoption issue is. UH. The adoption issue has to
- 19:24Speaker 1: do with something called the Magnetsky Act, which was passed
- 19:27Speaker 1: by Congress to UH punish human rights abusers in Russia
- 19:32Speaker 1: with severe financial sanctions. UH. And Putin was extremely unhappy
- 19:37Speaker 1: about the passage of the Magnetski Act, and in a
- 19:40Speaker 1: retaliatory move, he banned adoption of Russian children by Americans. UH. So, so, yes,
- 19:47Speaker 1: it's about adoptions, but actually it's about financial sanctions on
- 19:51Speaker 1: Russians UH. And and that is sort of the real
- 19:56Speaker 1: substance of what's been discussed at these meetings. So one
- 20:00Speaker 1: other aspect to the latest political news is the wide
- 20:04Speaker 1: ranging interview which you mentioned before, that President Trump had
- 20:07Speaker 1: with the New York Times, and in that he had
- 20:10Speaker 1: some scathing remarks about Jeff Sessions, his Attorney general, basically
- 20:14Speaker 1: accusing him saying if he had known that he would
- 20:16Speaker 1: have recused himself from the Russia issue, he would not
- 20:19Speaker 1: have appointed him as his Attorney general. Uh, Larry, I
- 20:22Speaker 1: would love to get your sense of this. We are
- 20:24Speaker 1: getting news this morning that Attorney General Sessions has no
- 20:27Speaker 1: intention of resigning. Um. Is there anything that President Trump
- 20:31Speaker 1: can do at this point to halt this Special Counsel's investigation,
- 20:37Speaker 1: Bob Mueller's investigation, or change his or would he have
- 20:41Speaker 1: any incentive to really fire Attorney General Sessions as a
- 20:45Speaker 1: result of some of his displeasure around this investigation. Well,
- 20:48Speaker 1: first of all, Uh, you know this is the innique
- 20:51Speaker 1: president one and one of the folks officials we talked
- 20:55Speaker 1: to said, it's normal for there to be some strikes
- 20:57Speaker 1: between a president and his Justice department. Uh, it's not
- 21:02Speaker 1: normal for the president to air at all for the nation. Uh.
- 21:05Speaker 1: And that's just what Trump does. But we we don't hear,
- 21:08Speaker 1: and I suspect the White House will tell us sometimes.
- 21:10Speaker 1: Today we don't hear that the president wants uh Sessions
- 21:13Speaker 1: to quit or is about to fire him. Uh. And
- 21:15Speaker 1: Sessions chose to take it that way, basically saying I
- 21:19Speaker 1: asked if he could serve with with the President's questions
- 21:22Speaker 1: about him. He said, he said, we are serving. We're
- 21:25Speaker 1: serving right now and uh, and we intend to continue
- 21:29Speaker 1: to and Uh, I'm not sure that the presidents and
- 21:33Speaker 1: Sessions has recused himself from the Russia investigation, would gain
- 21:38Speaker 1: much for firing Sessions. In fact, he'd uh inheritu Rosestine,
- 21:43Speaker 1: the deputy Attorney general who who Trump also despairs that,
- 21:46Speaker 1: Well he's from Baltimore, and how many Republicans are from Baltimore?
- 21:50Speaker 1: So what did he gain there? Uh? So I respected Sessions.
- 21:54Speaker 1: UH will labor on uh and uh and Trump will Uh.
- 21:57Speaker 1: We got we gotta leave it there, Larry, you back
- 22:00Speaker 1: to work. We got more work to do. We've got
- 22:02Speaker 1: more to bring you to. Larry Liebert, he's our National
- 22:04Speaker 1: Security team editor for Bloomberg Plus. I want to thank
- 22:07Speaker 1: Christian burtleson great reporting and Al Hunt, Bloomberg View contributor
- 22:13Speaker 1: and veteran d C watcher. Thanks for listening to the
- 22:19Speaker 1: Bloomberg P and L podcast. You can subscribe and listen
- 22:22Speaker 1: to interviews at Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whatever podcast platform
- 22:26Speaker 1: you prefer. I'm pim Fox. I'm on Twitter at pim Fox.
- 22:30Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Lisa abramowits one before the podcast.
- 22:34Speaker 1: You can always catch us worldwide on Bloomberg Radio