[Ana Cabrera, Cnn Anchor:] Top of the hour, you are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Hello on this Sunday, thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. Right now, the family of former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush is thanking the nation for prayers and well wishes for Mrs. Bush with what they're calling, her failing health. Bush family sources say the former first lady is at home in Houston, being cared for there, following her wishes to stay home, instead of going to a hospital. I want to talk more about Barbara Bush with CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel. So, Jamie, Mrs. Bush is 92-year-old. She has been battling a number of health issues, what's your understanding of her condition right now?
[Jamie Gangel, Cnn Special Correspondent:] So, Ana, the family has told us that she is in failing health. She has been suffering for the last year or two from COPD, and from congestive heart failure. If you have seen her in person, she's frequently on oxygen almost all the time. And I think what a lot of people don't know is people have been very aware that her husband, former President Bush suffers from Parkinson's, and we have seen him in a wheelchair for quite some time. But what people don't know is that her health has been so frail, she's been in and out of hospitals quite a few times in the last year, most recently on Good Friday, she went in, she was having some trouble breathing. So I think that what we're seeing now is the family really wanting to let everybody know the state of her health. There's one thing, Ana, Barbara Bush doesn't like people to make a fuss about her. She likes her privacy. If she was here right now, she would be saying, Jamie, why are you talking about this on T.V. But they wanted to let everybody know, and really to say thank you to everyone for all their prayers, and their support, Ana.
[Cabrera:] I know you have spent quite a lot of time with Mrs. Bush. She has spoken to it at length. How do you think this decision of here in near the end of her life to stay home instead of the hospital speaks to the kind of woman she is?
[Gangel:] So, I think it's classic Barbara Bush. You know, her family has a nickname for her. They call her the enforcer. And I'm told that after her last hospital stay, which was about 10 days, she was very anxious to get home, in fact she got all dressed, and was ready to go, and the doctor said not yet. And she was not happy about that. So I think that she has been dealing with these health issues for quite some time. And this is the way she wants to handle it at this time. And no one's going to say no to Barbara Bush, Ana.
[Cabrera:] Tell me a little bit about your experiences with the larger Bush family, how they handle adversity, how they handle loss, how they are likely handling this period when their matriarch is not at her strongest.
[Gangel:] Right. So, they are a remarkable family in handling this. I will say this, three of her children, Doro, Marvin, and neil are with her now, her two other sons, former President George W. Bush, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have been visiting this past week, and have been in and out. So they're all around her, and of course her husband, former President Bush is there with her. And I am told it is a very challenging time. You know, they have been married for 73 years. And he wrote in his book, we are two people, but we are one. They are very, very close. But I can't imagine, it is not an easy time for them.
[Cabrera:] Well, we know you will continue to keep us updated on former first lady Barbara Bush's health. Thank you so much, Jamie Gangel.
[Gangel:] Thank you.
[Cabrera:] We'll continue to keep Mrs. Bush in our thoughts and prayers. Now let's head to Washington, where President Trump spent some time this morning, again, fuming over the FBI director he fired last year taking to Twitter, and referring to James Comey by a new nickname, slippery. He writes that Comey, quote, always ends up badly, and out of whack, and that the former head of the nation's top law enforcement agency is in the President's words, not smart. Let's go to CNN's White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez now. Boris, the President's hammering of James Comey seemed to go into overdrive with this upcoming release of Comey's book, and all of its criticisms, and unflattering personal observations to say the least, the President clearly not taking those criticisms lightly.
[Boris Sanchez, Cnn White House Correspondent:] That's right, Ana. Well, the White House likely, rather be talking about other stories, whether the healthy economy, or these successful airstrikes in Syria over the weekend, the President is on the defensive, going after the former FBI director, on the eve of the release of James Comey's new book. One of which he refers to the President of the United States as being untethered from truth, the President using his preferred method, Twitter, to launch an array of attacks on Comey. At one point, suggesting that Comey should be imprisoned for a different number of acts. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was asked about that suggestion this morning on one of the Sunday morning talk shows, she wouldn't go so far as President Trump did in one of those tweets. Though she did say that she believe that the Department of Justice should investigate any wrong doing if they feel that James Comey acted inappropriately. I do want to single out another of the President's tweets, because it is drawing increase scrutiny, and one of them he writes in part, that Comey, quote, was making decisions based on the fact that he though, she was going to win, referring to Hillary Clinton. And that he, Comey, wanted a job, slime ball. Now, that tweet is questionable to say the least, when you consider that what's talking about is the announcement from James Comey that Hillary Clinton's emails were being investigated, yet again, on just a few days away from the 2016 election. Something that Clinton has acknowledged hurt her chances of winning the presidency. So it's unclear how Comey announcing something that ultimately heard Clinton politically, might help him carry something favor with her for, in the President's words, a job a job in which he already had. He was in his fourth year of a tenured term as FBI director. Plenty of questions for the White House, specifically about that tweet, also I did ask a number of White House officials on a completely unrelated note, if they were monitoring the health of former first lady Barbara Bush. But I have yet to hear back, Ana.
[Cabrera:] All right, thank you, Boris Sanchez at the White House. Let's get straight to our panel of legal experts now joining us, White House ethics czar under President Obama, Norm Eisen who also served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. So, Ambassador Eisen, I counted a total of at least five tweets about Comey this morning from the President. Do you see any legal issues that could stand from the President's Twitter attack against Comey today?
[Norman Eisen, Cnn Contributor:] Ana, thanks for having me back. I do. One of the core questions that is being investigated by Robert Mueller is whether the President obstructed justice, that is corruptly tried to shut down an investigation to protect himself from Michael Flynn, or others. Comey is the main witness, and he keeps attacking the witness publicly. So I think that it is at a minimum unseemly for the President to do this, and it does create more of this miasma, the smell that he wants to interfere with the investigation. If I were his lawyer, and if Allan Dershowitz were his lawyer, we would tell him, Mr. President, please don't tweet.
[Cabrera:] Professor Dershowitz, we have heard from the president, and we have also heard a little bit from the President today that we're also hearing more, and more from James Comey, and I want to read an excerpt from his new book, set to come out in just a couple of day. And I quote, I have one perspective on the behavior I saw, which while disturbing and violating basic norms of ethical leadership may fall short of being illegal, Comey said. So how significant is it for the Mueller probe going forward that Comey himself here is saying he saw nothing illegal.
[Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Law School:] Well, he has said this before, when he was fired, he said that the President had complete authority to fire him, which is why if the President is really, really lucky, they will focus on obstruction of justice or collusion, not with standing my former student the ambassador's statements. He has no real risk of being successfully towards with either of those constitutionally protected activist is real risks come from New York in the Southern District of New York, and from the State Attorney General of New York. State Attorney General particularly because he wouldn't have the pardon power in terms of state charges, and the Southern District of New York, because there's very little he could do to stop that investigation from going forward. I have said for months now that he has raised vulnerability for acts that he appears to doing before he became President, because he has no constitutional protection for those acts. And more or less vulnerable for acts that he committed under the authorization of Article II of the constitution. So he ought to be focusing his attention I agree with the Ambassador, that it would be better off if he didn't tweet. But surely as a matter of law, he has the right to defend himself against charges, against leaks of information confidential communications he had in the FBI. He's entitled to defend himself without running afoul of the law, but it would probably be better from a discretionary point of view if he didn't do it.
[Cabrera:] As far as we know, this new probe or what we've just realized is a probe here in the Southern District of New York against Cohen, isn't against President Trump himself, and it is connected, or disconnected, I should say, from the Mueller investigation, so why do you see that as a bigger threat, or the President being more vulnerable in that probe?
[Dershowitz:] Well, there are two possibilities. One, they could try to flip Cohen, and turn him into a witness against his own client, that's been done before by prosecutors, or second, nobody knows what's in Cohen's files. Now, I believe that there ought to be a judge looking through that. Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District ought to be looking at the files to see if there's confidential material that the government is not entitled and keep the government from getting that, keep the team from getting that. But if there is material that's not covered by the privilege, and the government has the right to see, nobody one knows what's in that material. Cohen's been his attorney for a long, long time, and it's unclear what his vulnerability might be. But he wouldn't have any constitutional protections against activities that he may have engaged in or may not have engaged in before he became president.
[Cabrera:] I want to ask you, Eisen, about Rod Rosenstein, because his name has come up, he's come under fire more and more, especially since this FBI raid, because he had to sign off on allowing those search warrants to go forward. CNN has exclusive reporting now that Rosenstein consulted with an ethics advisor at the DOJ, regarding whether he should recuse himself from the Mueller investigation. And Ambassador, apparently he has taken their advice, and he's still on the job, what does that tell you?
[Eisen:] Ana, I wrote with the Bush ethics czar in USA Today this week, that the ethics rules do not require recusal under these circumstances. So I think it's a correct ethics judgment that they have made, it's proper for Rosenstein to remain where he is, to keep the supervision in tact. And since my professor and friend, Alan, was kind enough to agree with me on the tweeting, I'll agree with him on the jeopardy in New York. That's part of the reason though we need Rosenstein. Of course, he authorized the New York searches to get the Cohen information. There's an established procedure, Alan, in New York of having a filter team, they're following it under court supervision, we need to let that play out, and it is connected, Ana, because we have just seen media reports. They may or may not be true, for example, that Michael Cohen was in Prague. As you know, one of the big issues, and the question of whether the Trump campaign through Cohen and Russia colluded was a supposed Prague meeting. Cohen's always denied it.
[Cabrera:] He hasn't confirmed that either at this point. I just want to make the clear.
[Dershowitz:] Look, if he was a in...
[Eisen:] If there are possible connections possible connections that we need to investigate.
[Cabrera:] Professor.
[Dershowitz:] Look, if he was in Prague, the one thing that's clear is that the Russians have photographs of him in Prague, and they can use that as blackmail or leverage, and we'll find out. Now, I, again, agree with my distinguished former student, I don't think that he should that Rosenstein should stay on the case. Two reasons, one, I think he is required I disagree with the ethic expert on the other side. I think he is required to recuse himself because he will definitely be a witness. But if he wasn't require to do, the better discretion would be that where you're going after the President of the United States, you have to be Caesar's wife. You can't get the other side ammunition. And the idea that he would eventually turn out to be a witness in the case, after having supervised for the prosecution of the case, would raise very, very serious problems, not only of justice, but the appearance of justice. So I think if he was smart, he would have recused himself early on, and he should still recuse himself now.
[Cabrera:] Professor, a final quick question to you, because I know you met with the President recently, did he want legal advice from you?
[Dershowitz:] The President can't get legal advice from me. I only give legal advice to my clients, so I'm not going to become his lawyer. So if he wants to listen to what I say to the general American public on television, he is like any other American citizen has a right to do that. But I want to be clear, I'm not on lawyer, I'm not on his side, I'm on the side of the due process clause, and the constitution, I am doing what the ACLU should be doing. I have never heard I have been on the national board of issuing new and active member 53 years. I have never heard the ACLU issuing a statement praising the raid of a lawyer's office, defending it, without even raising problems about what happens if clients' confidences are being reviewed by taint teams that consist of FBI agents and government agency.
[Cabrera:] Right.
[Dershowitz:] Believe me if this were Hillary Clinton whose office had been raided, the ACLU would be up in arms. But they raised money from anti-Trump people. And so they will not defend our civil liberties if it means not being against Donald Trump, shame on the
[Aclu. Cabrera:] OK. But just circling back to defend, the President does reference you often in his own defense. So he seems to feel like you're on his team. Do you ever feel like you're being used to his political benefit in some way? Or that your words have been mischaracterized?
[Dershowitz:] No. If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, and they were trying to lock her up, I would be doing the same thing, I would be on television as I was for Bill Clinton, and Bill Clinton quoted me, and Hillary Clinton might have quoted me. I am on the side of civil liberties, I am not a partisan, I have defended right of Democrats, Republicans, nonpartisan people. I'm against the investigation of Senator Sanders, I'm against the investigation of Senator Bob Menendez, I will be against politization the criminalization of political differences no matter who the target is.
[Cabrera:] And I see one last thing to add, Norm. Go ahead, and then I got to wrap it up.
[Eisen:] Ana, two things very quickly, the first is, I totally disagree with the position that Alan is taking here, he should be talking about how terrible it is that the White House is considering firing Rosenstein, which would be the final nail in the coffin on obstruction. But I will tell you But I will tell you that these are the same positions he has taken for the past 25 years, the whole time I have known him, he's often been wrong, but he's consistent, and he's not schilling for anyone other than his mistaken view of the law.
[Cabrera:] All right, I have to end it there, guys.
[Dershowitz:] Thanks.
[Cabrera:] Thank you both for joining me. Professor Alan Dershowitz and Ambassador Norm Eisen, I appreciate it, guys. Just ahead, less than two weeks after the saying the U.S. was ready to get out of Syria, President Trump is firmly back in, and today, one U.S. ally is taking credit for convincing him to stay in Syria. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.