May 11 – Comey’s Successor Contradicts Trump; A Former FBI Counterintelligence Special Agent on the Future of the Russia Probe; Will Scandal Fatigue Help Trump Who Is Already Off the Charts?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the testimony today by the Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe before the Senate Intelligence Committee where he contradicted claims by the White House that Comey was unpopular with the rank and file at the FBI and cast doubts on President Trump’s version of events in his letter in which Trump claimed that Comey had assured him three times that he was not under investigation. Ali Watkins, a national security correspondent for Politico joins us to discuss her latest articles at Politico “Comey Firing Threatens Senate Probe Into Trump’s Russia Ties” and “Rosenstein Meets With Senate Intel Leaders After Comey Firing”. We will assess how much the Deputy Attorney General is prepared to break with the White House given rumors that Rosenstein threatened to resign because Trump’s surrogates were pinning the blame for Comey’s firing on him and whether he could risk appointing a special prosecutor.

Part 2

Then we speak with Asha Rangappa, a former Special Agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation specializing in counterintelligence investigations. She is Associate Dean at Yale Law School and teaches National Security Law at the Jackson Institute at Yale University and joins us to discuss how the counterintelligence investigation into possible collusion between Trump and the Russians will continue. But it will take some time and if and when the investigation is referred to the FBI Criminal Division for prosecution, the case against Trump could be weakened because a lot of sensitive evidence may be prevented from being aired in open court.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the possibility of scandal fatigue helping Trump in the end since after little more than 100 days in office, his Administration with his family and businesses embedded in it, is already off the charts in generating headlines, scandal, smoking guns, shady deals and a blizzard of lies. Mark Feldstein, a Professor and Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland who has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for CNN, ABC and NBC, joins us to discuss the amazing double standard in terms of what Trump gets way with and Trump’s critique of TV anchors he disapproves of.