DOJ Rift: Legal Restraint vs. Pursuing Trump’s Enemies (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: In reporting on the Justice Department this week, we discovered a divide within the administration that could have serious implications. On the one side, you have officials who want to pursue the president's agenda within the bounds of the law. Well, another group believes in order to truly be MAGA, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to pursue the president's enemies. Now, this all came up as we reported that U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin plans to possibly leave the Justice Department. Now, his potential move comes after the second in command at the department, Todd Blanch, removed Martin from a key job investigating Trump's political foes. We also broke the news that an internal investigation found that Martin had mishandled secret grand jury evidence related to an investigation into Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. Now, Martin still gets to keep his title as pardon attorney. And in talking to sources about this story, we discovered that both men have officials in their corner, which was a little surprising given the nature of the allegations against Martin and his history of controversial moves. In recent weeks, President Trump has made it clear that he is frustrated with the Justice Department. He thinks it should do more to prosecute people he believes have wronged him. And some officials told us they believe Martin is the true MAGA warrior because he is willing to do just that no matter what it takes. But that is the kind of thinking that has people concerned about how this administration will use the Justice Department over the next three years. These questions about how far the president's lawyers should go to execute his orders. This was, of course, a feature of the first Trump administration. But now, with this increasing pressure on the Justice Department, this is an issue we're going to be watching especially closely since sources tell us Martin could wind up at the White House.