President Trump's abrupt firing of FBI dresser James Comey has plunged the White House into another political crisis, as Democrats call for a special prosecutor to lead the continuing investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. Today, a coalition of twenty state attorneys general sent a letter to the Justice Department's Deputy A. G. Rod Rosenstein and call for the immediate appointment of an independent special counsel to continue
the investigation. At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this morning, the acting Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, testified that to date, there has been no effort to impede any FBI investigation since Comby's firing. Simply put sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people and upholding a constitution.
Joining us are Philip Bobbitt, Professor at Columbia Law School, and Sanford Levinson, professor at the University of Texas Law School. Phil As you heard, the acting FBI director said, there's been no effort to impede any investigation to date. Could that change with a new FBI director or with an order from the A G. Of course that could change and and uh, and there are many people who would say that the firing of Jim Comey was an effort
to impede such an investigation. Sandy, how reassured for those people who are concerned about the firing of Jim Comey, how reassured should they be because of the things that Andrew McCabe said. He also talked about how he talked about how there's no effort to impede the investigation. The men and women of the FBI won't be deterred. Um is that reassuring? Um? I can jump in here. Um, it is from one perspective that I actually do believe that the FBI will be diligent in seeking out evidence
wherever it leads. But the point is, and this is what got Comy into some trouble in the first place. It's not the FBI decides whether or not to prosecute. Uh. That's a subject for the Justice Department. And to put it mildly, I think there is a lot of concern about whether the Justice Department will be sufficiently independent to make the decision to prosecute or not to prosecute. Unprofessional
rather than low Ley political grounds. Phil There have been calls for an independent council, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, among others, has said that he'll introduce legislation to re establish an independent council if a special prosecutor isn't appointed one that existed, similar to the one in the wake of Watergate. Another option is an independent commission. How likely are any of the to get through? My guess is at the likeliest
parent would be a Senate Select Committee. The next likely would be an independent commission who's whose members were selected in some kind of negotiations between the White House and the Congress. That the least likely is a new statute authorizing and independent council. And the reason for that is because we've been there before. Not only are their doubts about the constitutionality of such a statute, our experience with it has not been a very wholesome one. Do you remember,
perhaps Judge starrs uh investigations of President Clinton. It's a it's an unusual constitutional animal, sort of not really in Article to or Article one or Article three. And it seems to have a sort of an inertial force to take on a scope that I think the Conress would be unelikely to reauthorize Sandy. One other thing that Andrew McCabe said today was something that seemed to contradict a White House characterization. He described the Russia probe as quote
highly significant. Um, should we take those words to to mean a whole lot? Are? Are those words themselves pretty significant? Well? I mean it seems to me that any time the acting director, who one has to assume is extraordinarily careful about words used in the public hearing, uses the term highly significant. Um, one has to take that seriously. I mean, why why wouldn't you? And Phil Something else that contradicted
what's been said by the Trump administration. Andrew McCabe said that working for Jim Comey was the greatest experience of his life and the FBI, everyone in the FBI really, you know, respected him, which is contrary with the White House. He said, So, what's the impact of that we have at thirty seconds? I think it's pretty unlikely that the acting direct the FBI will be promoted. Excuse me said that again, You're it's unlikely that I think your statement
just finished his promotion as the permanent director. He's gonna he may be the acting only for a few more hours. That's a something that enrages the White House. They were pretty upset by Jim Comeby's refusal to give public reassurance to the President and his concerns. They didn't like the idea that called me undercut the White House on the Obama wire tapping charges. Uh. I would imagine that Acting
Director McCay was already planning his upcoming vacation. We're talking with Philip Bobbitt, Professor Columbia Law School and Sanford Levinson, Professor at the University of Texas Law School about President Trump's abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey and the fallout. Phil let me ask you this question. We know today that the Deputy Attorney General Rod rosen Stein went to meet with the heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee during the hearing today. What do you make of that? Well,
it was a private meeting. I'm sure will will learn more when rosen Stein goes up there next week. I my guess is that he was asked by the by Senator Warner in Senator burr Uh, do one agree he would be able to cooperate with the investigations of the Senate Committee. I think It's unlikely that they would have expected him to say much about his private conversations with the president. What they want to know is whether or not the FBI can provide investigator assets to the committee.
The committee is a small staff. They can't possibly do this investigation themselves, and that, by the way, is another good reason for a select committee. Imagine that rot Stone would reassure them. Sandy Levinson, there's been some talk that Director former Director Comy might testify in the coming weeks. If he did testify before Congress, what would he be able to say about this investigation and the circumstances of
his firing? The honest answers, I really don't know that that is say, I don't know how much he would believe that, say, his conversations with the President of privileged UM. Though inasmuch as the President in fact opened up the inquiry by saying that he had been assured three times said he wasn't a target, it would seem to me that at the very least, uh former Director Comy could
say whether that's true or not without going to further details. UM. But I would certainly expect him to be scrupulous, if for no other reason than given this administration and this Justice Department, including Jeff Sessions. Let's not forget the Jeff Sessions is the attorney in general. Not Rosenstein um that I would not put it past the Trump administration to try to prosecute Comy if they believed that he was leaking confidential information that was protected, and so Senate Majority
Leader go ahead. The presidents just just within the last few minutes at least on CNN has come out and said that call Me requested a meeting with him, they had dinner together, that Camy asked to be reappointed, and that in that context he assured the President that he
was not under investigation. President further said that they had two subs telephone calls, one initiated by Comy, one initiated by the President, but at least one of those, the President asked him directly whether or not the President was subject to investigation, and they Calmy said no. So I think it's Sandy suggesting if there was a problem with the privilege of these conversations, as I think they probably
would have been, that's out the window. The President has totally waived his privilege now by making these claims about about Callmey's statements, and let's go to a Senate Majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who we know wields a lot of power. He said that a new investigation by a special prosecutor would impede the current work being done by the FBI and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Do you find phil any uh any uh, let's say veracity in that. Do you
think there's anything to that? Yeah, I don't think that's that's uh, I don't think that's crazy. Uh. You've immediately run into special counsel questioning witnesses, and you have a set staff or uh, selective staff doing the same thing. We had problems like this with the Iran Contra investigation. Now, whether or not that's the real basis for his decision maybe uh more controversial, but as a reason that I think there's something to that, Sandy. Senator Mike Lee made
an interesting suggestion today. He suggested the possibility of Merrick Garland as the new FBI director, and apparently Senator Klobuchar uh suggested a Democrat suggested she thought that was a good idea. I confess I'm I don't see that as very likely, but I'm wondering if you think it might have more merit as an idea than than I do. Oh sure, you know. I think that once we've entered
into this era of truly surrealistic politics, why not Merritt Garland. Uh. He would certainly be reassuring that everybody, at least prior to his nomination agreed that he was a person of unimpeachable integrity. He's a former prosecutor, um, so I would have great trust in Merrick Garland. I find it very hard to believe that Donald Trump would find Garland to
be an attractive nominee. But who knows, well, Phil would Merrick Garland, who is the chief judge of the court that is considered just below the Supreme Court, I want to do that kind of a job. I don't know what he'd want to do it, but I agree with Santa help be a a superb choice. And my experience with Judge Garland is that he is above all a public servant, a very patriotic, a total of person totally
devoted to the public interest. So if he were asked, I think he might welcome up the chief judy ship if he felt it would contribute to the welfare of the country. Well, that's something that we will see in the future to two different uh uh positions, certainly, Um, thank you both for being on Bloomberg Law. That's Sanford Levinson, he's a professor at the University of Texas Law School. And Philip Bobb and he's a professor at Columbia Law School.
Coming up on Bloomberg Law. A win for environmentalist. The Senate unexpectedly keeps an Obama error rule to regulate methane emissions from drilling, and it was a very close vote. That's coming up on Bloomberg Law. I'm June Grosser with Greg Store. This is Bloomberg