Developments in the Russia probe

close

Video

Developments in the Russia probe

Another figure connected to the Trump campaign team says he is in plea talks with the special counsel's team; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," November 23, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The written answer to the witch hunt that has been going on forever, no collusion, no nothing. They've been finished.

JEROME CORSI, ROGER STONE ASSOCIATE: I fully anticipate in the next few days I will be indicted by Mueller for some form or other of giving false information to the special counsel or to one of the other grand jury or however they want to do the indictment. But I'm going to be criminally charged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE EMANUEL, FOX NEWS: Then there is this from The Washington Post, quote, "Conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi is in plea negotiations with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, according to Corsi and another person with knowledge of the talks."

With that, let's bring in our panel: Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of The Washington Free Beacon; Chuck Lane, opinion writer for The Washington Post, and Tom Rogan, commentary writer for The Washington Examiner. So Jerome Corsi, big deal?

TOM ROGAN, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: We don't know, and we'll have to wait and see. But I think it is interesting that the connection point between Jerome Corsi is obviously Roger Stone, and the connection point there is WikiLeaks, and the connection point there is GRU. So potentially it takes you in a forensic sense to a very clear American connection point with the GRU perhaps the for the first time. That's a notable thing. We just have to wait and see. Of course there have been a lot of stories about the Special Counsel that have turned out not to be true, some that have. So let's see what happens. I think this week we'll get a lot more clarity.

EMANUEL: Chuck, what do you make of this?

CHARLES LANE, WASHINGTON POST: I never know quite what to make of Dr. Jerome Corsi, PhD, who is kind of a flaky loose cannon on the deck of the American political scene. He's an old Obama birther from way back. These comments he's making strangely seem that he is almost boasting as if he is going to be indicted almost to inflate his own importance in the situation.

As Tom points out, it's a very extended chain of culpability if any that leaves all the way to Russia. In the meantime, Corsi and Stone, it should be pointed out, are denying that there was any foreknowledge of what Julian Assange had in store for them. I found it amusing to read Jerome Corsi's recounting of his conversation with eh Mueller people, they just wouldn't believe me when I denied. I don't envy Robert Mueller's team having to deal with this particular witness. He is a, as I said, a bit of a loose cannon.

EMANUEL: Matthew, your assessment of the significance?

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: It's always a bad sign when the words "conspiracy theorist" are your bio whenever you're mentioned in the press, I'd say. This has always been an investigation in search of the original crime. And the original crime is supposed to be conspiracy to collude with Russia to affect the results of the 2016 election.

If this happens, if a plea deal is reached or if Dr. Corsi is indicted, I'll be looking at the actual criminal information and the indictment, because one question we have to answer is, is this actually pertains to that crime that Mueller is supposed to be investigating, or is it another one of these process crimes that emerges through the conduct of the investigation as so many of the indictments that Mueller has issued are related to.

EMANUEL: So we'll wait and see where the Mueller probe goes. Meanwhile, Congress is set to return pretty soon with a lot to do. Let's take a listen to President Trump and Senator Dick Durbin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think probably if I was ever going to do a shutdown over border security, when you look at the caravan, when you look at the mess, when you look at the people coming in, this would be a very good time to do a shutdown.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-ILL.: The American people are watching closely, and they want to make sure that justice is served. And if there is a political effort to stop that, they'll notice it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EMANUEL: Matthew, are we looking at partial government shutdown drama?

CONTINETTI: Maybe. We always go through this flurry whenever we reach one of these artificial deadlines. I'm slightly skeptical of the threat to shut down the government over the border wall. President Trump has had multiple opportunities to do exactly that, and in fact he has threatened to do exactly that, in the first two years of his presidency. So here's another opportunity. And maybe he recognizes this may be his last, best chance for the foreseeable future to actually get the funding for the wall that he needs. If that means a shutdown, with President Trump, he likes to always scatter that deck of cards and see what emerges.

EMANUEL: And to be clear, they're talking about giving him some of the money, just not all the money, right Chuck.

LANE: Yes. And even all the money isn't all of the money, because, as I understand the maximum he could get now is $5 billion. And supposedly the cost of this thing is 20, or 25. Matthew makes a very important point, which is that now that there's a Democratic House for the next two years, this megaproject of a wall across the length of the border is even more dubious than it ever was.

And I tend to think cooler heads are going to prevail on this. As before the president, for the benefit of his base will posture and insist that he wants something out of this, but at the end, rather than allow for a partial government shutdown at Christmas time, he will go along.

EMANUEL: Tom, your thoughts?

ROGAN: Look, I think the challenge for these both sides, the Democrats obviously have an interest in now trying to placate the leadership certainly coming into Congress to placate the base which will definitely want to oppose anything on the border wall. But at the same time functionally, does President Trump really want to use that political capital beyond the Twitter galvanizing on something that might not go anywhere and won't go anywhere?

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.