"You can’t get in trouble for what you don’t say.”

Sean Spicer

Said Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer commenting on the functioning of Sarah Sanders who replaced him in July last year. The comment appears in The Washington Post story on "As a willing warrior for Trump, Sarah Sanders struggles to maintain credibility."

“Sarah has done a fantastic job of keeping in line with understanding how to effectively communicate what the president’s thoughts are at any given time, recognizing that it is a very dynamic and fluid situation in many cases,” Spicer said. “What she has done is, she has realized, you can’t get in trouble for what you don’t say.”

Read the full story here.

Watch Sarah Sanders' press briefing below:

(Courtesy: PBS - a publicly funded 

American broadcaster Wikipedia)

"Lying to federal investigators is a crime, though lying on TV is not."

Source: Wikipedia

Said: Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and Professor from Practice at University of Michigan. She was commenting on Rudolph W. Giuliani’s statement that the president paid his lawyer Michael Cohen $35,000 monthly to reimburse him the costs he incurred in the widely publicised Stormy Daniels settlement for which he paid $130,000 from his personal funds. 

Giuliani is the most recent entrant to the Trump’s legal team. “I’m sure Giuliani's strategy was damage control but I’m not sure he controlled much,” said McQuade as quoted by Washington Post's Analysis: "Giuliani’s media blitz gives investigators new leads, new evidence"

According to the Washington Post's analysis, Giuliani asserted that Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director because Comey would not reveal publicly that the president was not under investigation. Commenting on this McQuade said “I think even Trump's asking Comey to publicly exonerate him does interfere with the investigation and could constitute obstruction of justice.” Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is also investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.

McQuade said investigators are also likely to explore money-laundering issues. Giuliani’s TV interviews might have been an effort to speak to Cohen and to reassure him that the White House still has his back. “Maybe the strategy there is to try to calm him down so he’s not tempted to cooperate,” she explained.

Investigators are likely to ask witnesses about the topic and compare what Giuliani said publicly about Trump’s arrangement with Cohen with what people have told them in the past, McQuade said. Lying to federal investigators is a crime, though lying on TV is not. 

Read the full story here.

I can tell you there have been people that have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.

(Courtesy: C-Span)

Said: Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein responding to a question from the CNN reporter Laura Jarrett about possible articles of impeachment by the House Freedom Caucus over his handling of document requests.

Her question was "As you think about the importance of separation of powers on the day, any reaction on the news that certain members of the House Caucus have drafted articles of impeachment?" 

Answering the question, Rosenstein said: “I saw that draft. I don't know who wrote it. It illustrates the important principle of the rule of law. We make mistakes. That is not to say we are flawless. But the way we operate is if we can accuse someone of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence, credible witnesses and be able to prove our case in court and fix our signature to the charging documents. There is a lot talk about FISA applications and many people I see talking about it seem not to recognize what a FISA application is. It is like a search warrant. In order to get a FISA search warrant, you need an affidavit signed by a career federal law enforcement agent. If it is wrong, that person is going to face consequences - you can face discipline or even prosecution. That is the way we operate. We have people who are accountable. I just don't have anything to say about documents like that nobody has the courage to put their name on an State leakage that way, but I can tell you there have been people that have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted. We are going to do what is required by the rule of law and any kind of threats will not affect the way we do our job. We have a responsibility. We take an oath. You raise your right hand and swearing of to defend the United States - swear in an oath to defend the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is your responsibility. Everybody in the department takes that oath. If they violate it, they know they will be held accountable.”

Rosenstein was speaking on the rule of law, the first amendment, and the mission of the justice department at the Newseum in Washington. 

Watch full speech of Rod J. Rosenstein here.

I can tell you there have been people that have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.

(Courtesy: C-Span)

Said: Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein responding to a question from the CNN reporter Laura Jarrett about possible articles of impeachment by the House Freedom Caucus over his handling of document requests.

Her question was "As you think about the importance of separation of powers on the day, any reaction on the news that certain members of the House Caucus have drafted articles of impeachment?" 

Answering the question, Rosenstein said: “I saw that draft. I don't know who wrote it. It illustrates the important principle of the rule of law. We make mistakes. That is not to say we are flawless. But the way we operate is if we can accuse someone of wrongdoing, we have to have admissible evidence, credible witnesses and be able to prove our case in court and fix our signature to the charging documents. There is a lot talk about FISA applications and many people I see talking about it seem not to recognize what a FISA application is. It is like a search warrant. In order to get a FISA search warrant, you need an affidavit signed by a career federal law enforcement agent. If it is wrong, that person is going to face consequences - you can face discipline or even prosecution. That is the way we operate. We have people who are accountable. I just don't have anything to say about documents like that nobody has the courage to put their name on an State leakage that way, but I can tell you there have been people that have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted. We are going to do what is required by the rule of law and any kind of threats will not affect the way we do our job. We have a responsibility. We take an oath. You raise your right hand and swearing of to defend the United States - swear in an oath to defend the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is your responsibility. Everybody in the department takes that oath. If they violate it, they know they will be held accountable.”

Rosenstein was speaking on the rule of law, the first amendment, and the mission of the justice department at the Newseum in Washington. 

Watch full speech of Rod J. Rosenstein here.