thank you so much for joining me this saturday. this just in to the newsroom. we have now learned that ambassador phillip reeker was issued a subpoena to testify before he appeared on capitol hill this morning. this rare saturday hearing is happening right now as part of the house's impeachment inquiry into president trump. reeker is one of secretary of state mike pompeo's deputies. he has testifying now for about

an hour. and this hearing comes amid a major legal victory for democrats. a federal judge ruling the justice department must release redacted documents from robert mueller's russia investigation. the decision undercuts a key republican argument that the impeachment inquiry is invalid. meanwhile, president trump is dismissing calls from republicans to bolster his team as the inquiry unfolds and again demanding to learn the identity of the whistle-blower who actually triggered the start of this inquiry. the president tweeting this morning, where is the whistle-blower? cnn's jeremy herb is on capitol hill this morning. jeremy, lots of jeremys, i almost called you diamond. anyway, let's begin with what's happening there. phillip reeker testifying in front of the three house committees. are we learning anything more about this subpoena, the circumstances?

was he originally just invited, refused or sent a signal that he might not come and they had to then subpoena? explain the sequence of events. >> reporter: yeah, so phillip reeker received a subpoena as part of his deposition today. this is the same procedure that we have seen for all of the current administration officials who have testified so far. the committees are interested in talking to reeker because he could potentially help corroborate some of the previous testimony they've had. reeker worked with george kent and kurt volker, two of the witnesses that have already testified on ukraine policy and he was part of the effort to try to shield former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch in terms of who was fired back in april. he was trying to stop her from the campaign being led by rudy giuliani to smear her and so he's part of their emails that he was sending to kent and volker to protect her from that. i think that is one of the key things today that we're going to learn from reeker's testimony which is happening behind closed

doors. >> and then former deputy national security adviser charles cupperman has filed a lawsuit on friday asking a federal judge to decide whether he should testify as part of this impeachment inquiry. what more are you learning about that, and a very unusual approach? >> reporter: it's certainly interesting and this throws into doubt whether charles cupperman will appear on monday when he's asked to testify. he's asking a federal judge to say whether he needs to comply to a house subpoena saying that the white house inquiry is invalid and he is caught between the executive and the legislative branches. his subpoena -- whether the court rules on this and how fast it does is potentially significant when it comes to the testimony of others who may be less -- more reluctant to testify. it's also worth noting that cupperman who is a deputy to john bolton has the same attorney as mr. bolton.

so if the committees try to bring in bolton it's possible that we could see a similar legal strategy there. >> interesting. jeremy, does the filing of that lawsuit come after the the federal judge's ruling, federal house ruling that this process is valid? >> reporter: it will be interesting to see how that ruling that says the house should have access to mr. mueller's grand jury material, whether that plays into the court process for mr. cupperman. i think the biggest problem for the house is going to be time. they are trying to do this impeachment inquiry as quick as they can. that's why we're here on a saturday. these lawsuits take time and so it's not clear whether they would be able to get a ruling compelling cupperman to come in before they want to move forward on potential articles and public hearings and all of that. >> jeremy herb, thank you so much. check back with you. appreciate it. meanwhile, a defiant president trump ignoring republican calls for the administration to build a team

to handle impeachment. the president says he is his own best messenger. >> here's the thing. i don't have teams. everyone is talking about teams. i'm the team. >> cnn's kristen holmes is at the white house. republicans want the president to have a team, something similar to the format of former president bill clinton when he was being impeached. the president saying no. is he going to maintain that position? >> reporter: well, we're going to have to wait and see, fred, but here's where we stand right now. we know bill clinton had what was called a war room, a team of people not involved with the white house, they were separate just to deal with the impeachment probe. president trump for the reason that he himself just said in that clip doesn't want a war room because he believes he is his own messenger. look at those words saying i am the team, and his twitter feed would certainly show that that is how he feels. he's been ranting on twitter last night as well as today. i'm just going to read you one of the tweets just so you get a

gist of what he's saying. the ukraine investigation is just as corrupt and fake as all of the other garbage that went on before it, even shifty schiff got caught cheating when he made up what i said on the call. again, this is just one of many tweets. he attacked nancy pelosi, the media. he said where's the whistle-blower, as i heard you repeat earlier. so this is not the messaging that republicans want to send and in fact they're hoping that he would take an approach where he would just press on the system, to talk about the procedure here, to really stress that what democrats were doing in the process was wrong. but what we're seeing here is what trump believes is best for trump. it is attacking. it is on the offensive here. and it is whatever he wants to do. >> kristen holmes at the white house, thank you so much. joining me right now, michael bender, white house reporter for "the wall street journal" and cnn political analyst, and a congressional reporter for "the washington post" and cnn political analyst.

good to see you. okay, how significant is this judge's ruling, judge howell's ruling, that the redacted grand jury information from the mueller report be released to lawmakers who want it? >> reporter: we'll see how significant it is in terms of substance because they seem to be focused more on ukraine right now than the findings in the mueller report as the epicenter of the impeachment inquiry is moving forward. the fact that this ruling came, it effectively says this impeachment inquiry is legitimate and that's why they need to be provided access to that grand jury information. that's very significant right now given that you've got this full court press from the republicans saying it's not legitimate, pressure from the congressional republicans to cast a vote on the floor and the fact that there are potential witnesses that are questioning whether they have to comply with subpoenas, having that ruling that says this is an impeachment inquiry and thus we have to treat it as if it is meriting of

the information to an impeachment inquiry. it could open up doors for lawmakers investigating going forward into these next critical several weeks. >> michael, that ruling twofold, release the documents and that the impeachment inquiry is legitimate, so the president has been calling this a hoax. he continues to call it a witch hunt but you have to wonder whether that ruling now -- yes, it will further bolster the democrats but you have to wonder how influential it could be now for republicans who have been trying to defend the president by saying there's something wrong with this process but then now you've got the judge ruling here. >> yeah, definitely. this is the first time that the judiciary has weighed in on the legality of the impeachment probe so that's significant. this has always been more of a political argument for the white house and trump's allies on the hill than really a major legal strategy. they've been arguing against this impeachment probe mostly on

process grounds. they've been saying that usually in the past these impeachments have started with a full vote in the house and wanted one this time. a judge obviously has said that that's not the case. now, that decision can still be appealed but you're right, this takes away a major plank from the argument that republicans and the president have been making for the better part of a month now on the argument against this probe. >> so let's talk about the activity happening on capitol hill where you are right now. ambassador phillip reeker, the latest member of the state department to testify in this inquiry. today your reporter colleagues at the "washington post" have an article discussing how outside advisers are frustrated that the white house has not filed an injunction to stop the depositions. former 2016 trump campaign spokesperson jason miller is quoted in the piece as saying many trump allies are concerned and don't understand the strategy of not filing an

injunction. it's a head scratcher. president trump and the administration have clearly said they don't want folks participating in this sham process and stepping all over presidential privilege. but you've got this judge's ruling now saying the process is legit. congress has this oversight authority. people can be deposed. so, is it too late to try to file any kind of injunction, and is that idea even moot, period, anyway? >> reporter: well, there's the question open right now that if they filed the injunction at this point after you've had several witnesses come forward under subpoena to give this testimony if that would actually convince a judge that that injunction should be met with any sort of stop. the push and pull we're seeing with every single witness. you saw the white house put out a statement that they don't want to cooperate at all. there have been individuals orders that have come down for the current administration officials from the state

department saying don't go. the committees hear that. they issue friendly subpoenas in order to enable the witnesses to have a legal defense basically to say, no, i'm not going to flout a subpoena and maybe risk going into a court process for myself, and under that subpoena they come to testify and that has been the case for witness after witness after witness, including mr. reeker today. he's operating under the same protection of that friendly subpoena. and so i think that this is going to be -- you know, the grounds upon which the white house has to make these arguments of, well, we don't want to be doing this basically boil down to executive privilege. it's difficult for the president. you can't just claim executive privilege over the entire executive branch. because these are career employees for the most part giving this testimony, he would be hard pressed to make that argument and that may be what's stopping people from going to court and trying to make that argument right now. >> michael, we're talking about the white house at all angles then publicly now plotting about concealing and how is it then

the white house doesn't see that that is near tantamount to saying cover up. if there's nothing there, then just let it all out as opposed to now angling for how do you conceal and make sure that this process does not continue with transparency. >> it's a really good question and one that the white house -- one of many that the white house has to answer. they're really at an inflection point here. the quote you put up from jason miller, viewers should understand that jason miller has been one of the stout trump defenders for several years here. to hear him on the record questioning the white house strategy is significant. we reported at the "wall street journal" a few days ago that it was the white house freedom caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers who are the staunchest trump supporters in congress had to go to the white house and say, hey, we're not hearing enough from you, we're not having enough messaging, we don't understand the strategy, and that led to a daily phone

call between lawmakers and key lawmakers on the hill and senior white house aides. the white house is stuck between trying to say that they did nothing wrong, that they don't want to participate and their allies saying you have to do more, you have to participate, you have to help us help you. >> mithanks to both of you. appreciate it. still ahead, the white house is pushing for the whistle-blower in this ukraine scandal to come forward but is that likely to happen? and john bolton could be the star witness in the impeachment probe against the president. will he give damaging information on trump to house lawmakers? t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before... with more engineers, more towers, more coverage. it's a network that gives you... with coverage from big cities, to small towns. introducing t-mobile's 600mhz signal. no signal reaches farther or is more reliable.

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welcome back. it's looking more unlikely that house democrats will get the chance to interview the whistle-blower who sparked the inquiry into president trump. lawyers for the anonymous whistle-blower are viewed that there's no need for their client to testify because they say the public now knows more than what was originally filed in the complaint. however, that's not stopping president trump from putting his own spin on things. today he tweeted the democrats don't want the whistle-blower to testify because, he says, the claims in the complaint were unfounded. joining me right now to discuss, michael zeldin. how important do you think it is for congress and the american people to hear directly the story from the whistle-blower at

this point in the investigation? >> fred, i think what is important is distinguishing the whistle-blower, the human being, from the whistle-blower, the content of the allegations. it's the latter that matters most. who said it is far less important than what was said. the irony here of course is that when the whistle-blower first came forward, the whistle-blower was attacked as having only secondhand knowledge and therefore of no utility. now they've put forth all the witnesses with firsthand knowledge and all of a sudden the same people who ridiculed this whistle-blower is having secondhand knowledge are demanding that that whistle-blower come forward. so the politics of it is pretty transparent. i think we need to focus on the content and not the communicator. >> do you agree with that person's attorney that says the information that has been brought by the various depositions and testimonies

really kind of ob vee yats the need for the whistle-blower, their identity or even their complaint to be made public? >> well, the complaint has been made public so that's good. >> but it's really the reports of the complaint. >> their identity is less important than the substance of what they have to say. and the lawyers for the whistle-blower have said if there are important issues that you need us to answer for you, we will do that under oath and in writing. so there is a mechanism in place for them to obtain the additional information that may not be forthcoming while making sure that the whistle-blower's identity is fully protected which is paramount. >> cnn is now learning more about this forthcoming book -- >> i have no volume. >> uh-oh, you can't hear me anymore? michael? no volume? i'm not going to make you read

my lips here so we're going to try to establish that and bring him back. thank you for the part that you did give us. we'll take a short break for now. we'll be right back. we call it the mother standard of care.

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welcome back. we have tried to re-establish communication so we believe our michael zeldin is back. he can hear us, i can hear him. how about if i see you just to make sure. okay, there you are. very good. let me ask you about this upcoming book called "a warning" written by the anonymous senior trump administration official. here's what the back of the book apparently looks like, and it reads, in these pages you will not just hear from me, you will hear a great deal from donald trump directly, for there are no better witness to his character than his own words and no better evidence of the danger he poses than his own conduct. so, michael, what about the timing of the release of this kind of potential tell-all book while the president is in the midst of this impeachment inquiry. could it add any fuel to the fire? >> well, depending on what's in it, sure.

i have to say, fred, as a rule i don't like books like this. i think that the president, whether you like this president or don't like this president, is beside the point of the fact that the president is entitled to confidential communications with his senior advisers and if the author of "anonymous" is a senior adviser, he's denying the president to protect those confidential communications. so i just don't like this as a rule. if the individual is still in the government or has recently left the government, that person can come forward and say here's what i think is a threat to america if we were to re-elect this person, and then we can debate the merits of it with him or her. >> so could it be the potential fallout for that individual, whether it's the same kind of concerns what the whistle-blower may have about the identity being revealed and after making that kind of information public what life will be like for that individual, is that protection

enough and motivation enough to take this kind of approach for that person, maybe even potentially protect them from any potential legal ramifications had they made themselves public? >> maybe but your question gets right to the heart of what we were talking about before the technical difficulties, which is the whistle-blower protection act is designed to protect the whistle-blower from recrimination, and the whistle-blower went forward through the official channels to ensure his or her protection. this individual here has not gone through the official channels. they are not necessarily a whistle-blower. they are more in the category of a leaker. i prefer to protect whistle-blowers and i'm not as worried about leakers, though i understand the value that they present to news-gathering organizations and for the truth. in this case, i'm on the side of the whistle-blower and less so on the side of the anonymous author. >> we did see that multi-page letter/complaint from the

whistle-blower and that's one of the references that you make. michael zeldin, thank you so much. >> thanks, fred. >> good to see you and hear you and be heard by you. >> yeah, yeah. >> take care. thank you. attorneys for a freshman congresswoman, katie hill of california, have sent a cease and desist letter to the daily mail which posted nude photos purported to be of her. the freshman democrat admitted to having a relationship with a campaign staffer and is facing a house ethics investigation into separate allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a congressional staffer. here now is cnn's ken law. >> disappointment. big disappointment. >> reporter: it's been a long week for linda and martha, volunteers for katie hill's 2018 congressional campaign. >> i'm disappointed because it puts her seat at risk i think which is to me the most

important thing. >> reporter: they're talking about the crisis unfolding around representative hill. the house ethics committee announced an investigation into claims that hill had an improper relationship with a member of her congressional staff, a violation of house rules. hill calls the charge absolutely false and said she would cooperate with the inquiry, but explicit, personal photos of the congresswoman and a campaign staffer were leaked and published online. in response, hill admitted to that relationship. however, that relationship would not violate congressional ethics rules. >> every single vote will matter. >> reporter: a turn for a rising democratic star. hill was a first-time candidate last year, a millennial -- >> hi, it's katie hill. >> reporter: and outraised the republican incumbent by millions, promising change. she flipped california's 25th congressional district. a los angeles suburb dotted by

quaint streets and planned communities, republican held since the early '90s. hill was among the record-setting 127 women elected in the 2018 midterms, part of the response to the election of donald trump. >> would we lose the seat to the republicans again? i don't know. i'm not saying we would. hopefully not, but it just doesn't help. >> some democrats in hill's district say personal issues no longer matter in the trump era. >> as long as she's doing what we put her in office to do, that's all i care about. i'd rather have someone f something than rather f our country and i feel that's what's going on now. >> reporter: but the problem for swing voters, hill is a moderate who promised normalcy. >> she looks like this all american girl, you know, and people like her. she has this appeal about her. >> do you think this district flips back to the republicans? >> i hope so, yeah.

i think so. >> reporter: not so fast say hill's volunteers who may be disappointed but not out. >> for miyself personally, i think that i could get past that, yeah. >> would you volunteer for her again? >> i think i would, yes, yes. >> reporter: you just heard from the voters who know about it. we should mention there were plenty of voters who didn't know anything about what was happening. and another point, november 2020 is more than a year away. cnn, stevenson ranch, california. next, john bolton negotiating possible testimony in the impeachment probe against president trump. could he end up being president trump's john dean? our 18-year-old was in an accident. when i called usaa, it was that voice asking me, "is your daughter ok?" that's where i felt relief. we're the rivera family and we plan to be with usaa for life. see how much you can save with usaa insurance.

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just it just takes a lothat's happeninof the burdener body, of diabetes management off my shoulders. i can see arrows trending up, trending sideways, trending down and that tells me what kind of care she'd going to need in the next few minutes. when she went to argentina last summer i didn't have to freak out but i did a tiny bit, still. it's really hard for a mom to prick her 2-year-old's finger. so having no fingerpricks makes me a very happy mama. we're starting to get a clearer picture of the pressure president trump was under to release that $400 million in critical u.s. aid money to

ukraine. president trump had withheld the funds for months, but hours after a call with ohio senator rob portman on september 11th, the president changed his mind. all of this happening as the white house was being told that accusations of a quid pro quo were mounting. here's cnn's alex marquardt. >> reporter: multiple sources telling cnn that after the funds for ukraine had been frozen all summer long, it was suddenly on september 11th that the president finally relented. the abrupt move triggered by a phone call with ohio republican senator rob portman who pressured the president to release the aid because a fiscal deadline was looming. this was a day after national security adviser john bolton was pushed out and two days after u.s. ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland told the president that concerns were being raised that his actions amount to a quid pro quo. >> there was no quid pro quo at all. >> reporter: bolton has so far remained mysteriously silent. that may soon change.

lawyers for bolton, according to sources involved, are in talks with three house committees leading the impeachment inquiry about bolton being deposed. >> he made some very big mistakes. >> reporter: sources tell cnn that a former top deputy of bolton's defend that bolton called the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani a hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up. >> it corroborates a lot of the information that we had previously about mayor giuliani freelancing. >> reporter: the inquiry is also expected to be ratcheted up next week with the testimony of tim morrison, the white house's senior official for ukraine, who was on the unfamiliinfamous jull between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky in which president trump asked for a favor. morrison, who is the first person on that call to testify, is expected to confirm key elements of the testimony of the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor, who said on tuesday that morrison told him that president trump did insist that

president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference. >> if you have somebody directly saying i was on the call, this is what happened, that's direct evidence that really causes problems politically and obviously legally. >> reporter: the pressure to release the money to ukraine wasn't only from senator rob portman. there was also a deadline. by the end of september the funds had to be given to ukraine or they would get nothing at all. so lawmakers from both parties were urging the president to send the aid, as was vice president mike pence. finally, on that call the president agreed but not before grumbling that the u.s. was getting a bad deal. alex marquardt, cnn, washington. >> i want to bring in former florida attorney general bill mccollum. good to see you. a recently fired national security adviser, john bolton, apparently he's in talks to possibly take part in this impeachment deposition. how significant might his

testimony be? >> hello. >> hi. bill, can you hear me okay? >> i can hear you now. i couldn't hear you before. thank you. >> let me reask that question. so, if the national security adviser, former, john bolton, who apparently is in talks -- his attorneys are in talks with lawmakers about his potential testimony if he does indeed testify, how potentially significant do you believe that might be? >> well, i think it's important for him to testify if he wants to and can do that, but i don't know how significant it would be. he certainly knows a good deal about the situation, the background of the particular matter involving the ukraine and that phone call and his opinions, he stated them publicly. listen, my view of this, fred, is that even if this is all true what taylor said the other day, what mr. taylor said, what maybe john bolton is saying, it's all speculation now, a lot of it is,

because we only know what's been leaked or the statements, but if it's all true -- >> well, i mean, if you go on their opening statements, that is what they are testifying to including bill taylor. >> right. but let's just assume -- >> if it's true meaning he would -- >> i still don't think it's impeachable, at least it shouldn't be. the reason why i say that is because what we're looking at is a corruption investigation request by the president of the ukrainian president related to the 2016 presidential election. i think that what people think is abnormal and a lot of these people do in the state department, particularly in that world where john bolton and mr. taylor are, is not abnormal for this president. 63 million americans voted for him. >> except it wasn't just about 2016. you saw the transcript in conversations between diplomts and state department and the white house and it was also in reference to 2020 elections. so, given that, does that change

your opinion or alter your opinion at all about the importance? >> i don't believe that it's all about the 2020 election but i will have to wait and see. look, what's the problem with why we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. i tell people and i've told you i'm very open-minded about this. i want to see the facts come out. i'm disappointed so much behind the scenes right now. i realize they're taking depositions. there are procedures that can be whatever they want them to be in the impeachment inquiry but from the standpoint of the public and openness and fairness and being able to see where things are, i think it's a mistake and i think that they have to -- the democrats have to come forward and be much more open about this and we need to know a lot more facts before we jump to conclusions that the president's done something wrong even if -- what i said, even if you accept mr. taylor's comments that have been released so far is factual, and i don't. they're not verified yet, but assume you did. >> how satisfying is it that the federal judge says that this is

a legitimate process and that documents from the special grand jury during the mueller probe should be provided to lawmakers? >> well, i'm not surprised at the ruling that the process is constitutional legal because it can be whatever congress wants it to be on impeachment. with regard to the grand jury materials, i'm not certain about that. that may be appealed because grand juries historically are secret and there are real valid reasons why that process is maintained. but again, this is something unusual. it is an impeachment inquiry and i wouldn't be surprised if the courts upheld the request for these even on appeal. so i'm not too worried about the legal part of this. i know the administration is. i just want to get to the facts. i want to know what the facts are and then i want us to judge -- i hope the american people and the congress will judge this on the basis of is this something we really want to take away from the electors or

is this political and it ought to be decided in the next election. that's the ultimate question, unless there are real crimes committed and so far we haven't seen that any actual crimes are committed. >> phil mccollum, we'll leave it there for now. thank you. still ahead, the state of california on fire. northern california and southern california, flames are tearing through multiple communities as millions of people prepare to be without power as well. cam newton cam newt cnn is live on the scene. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed. or... not. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing.

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millions of people across northern california will find out today if they will have to spend days without power as fires continue to rage in that state. firefighters are beating back two major fires where more than 4500 acres have been destroyed. in northern california another 25,000 acres are nothing but ash. and things could get worse as winds are supposed to pick up through tomorrow. today utility company pg&e will alert customers to whether power will be cut to prevent more fires from breaking out.

we're live in northern california, so what is the correlation between the pg&e and these fires? >> reporter: well, there have been some speculations that a faulty transmission tower by pg&e might have sparked the fire but this is just a preliminary thought. the company is investigating this. but it has been a busy morning here in the heart of wine country. we've seen truck after truck zoom by. fire crews racing to try to build containment lines. they're trying to save structures. the one behind me, it's been too late for that one but there are other buildings in this area that they're trying to protect. in fact, nearly 24,000 structures here in sonoma county are threatened. more than 25,000 acres have ben scorched. now, the worst, as you point out, is yet to come. we are expecting dire predictions of winds for this weekend, gusts up to 80 miles per hour. that could send the fire flaming out in almost any direction.

one of the firefighters we spoke to told me they don't know which way that wind is going to blow and that means the firefighters here have to be prepared to go anywhere and everywhere. they have to be ready for anything. now, pg&e's role in this fire has been to largely do shutdowns to prevent the power lines from being active in order to prevent the fire from spreading, but the governor has been quite angry with the way the company has acted. take a listen. >> years and years of greed, years and years of mismanagement, particularly with the largest investor on utility in the state of california, pg&e. that greed has precipitated in a lack of intentionality and focus on hardening their grid, undergrounding their transmission lines. they simply did not do their job. it took us decades to get here but we will get out of this mess. >> reporter: there will be a lot of questions about what started this fire, fredricka, but right

now the focus is on saving lives, saving buildings, making sure that no one gets hurt as these fires continue to spread. fredricka. >> lucy, thank you so much. we've got so much more straight ahead in the newsroom but first, a good news update for you from someone we met last year whose life has been changed by a top ten cnn hero. amanda boxtel. here's cnn's anderson cooper. >> three years ago nate white injured his spine in a kayaking accident and was told he would never walk again. >> you want to try to stack it? >> but his hard work and determination along with amanda's incredible help has paid off. >> i'm a robot. >> a year ago he did this, and now just three years after his accident, he's doing this. >> amanda always believed that i was going to be walking again. >> he's living the miracle of what we all aspire for. this is the power of technology

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whether president trump wins a second term has yet to be seen. his impact on the courts will last for years. a number of judicial nominees are headed to the bench despite being labeled not qualified by the american bar association. >> a federal judge who will up hold the laws and the constitution as they're actually written. >> reporter: another judicial confirmation, another controversy. >> very few are called not qualified. he's one of them. >> reporter: justin walker 37 years old, he's the fifth trump judicial nominee the american bar association has labeled not qualified. >> the nomination is confirmed. >> reporter: he was confirmed anyway on a party line vote backing the president's proclamation that the court

system is changing at a record pace. >> we're going to be putting in a lot more. >> reporter: george bush sat 152 judges, bill clinton 125, obama 94. trump has already put in 157. democrats are shocked that some nominees are unprepared. eight have earned the bar association label not qualified. many democrats are concerned that trump is picking judges because they're favorable to conservative views on everything from immigration, to gun control, to gay rights, to abortion laws. the president's supporters deny a political agenda. they crow about how many of his picks are in their 30s and 40s. >> the president has said on

quite a number of occasions he looks for people who are extraordinarily qualified, but who are young. judges serve for life. it's good to have someone on the bench for a long time. >> reporter: this is already settled. impeachment or not, re-elected or sent away, trump's judicial legacy will remain. >> we'll be talking about judges appointed by trump into their early 50s and 60s. >> reporter: in the coming weeks we should see more judges, some whose qualifications or lack of, will have democratic alarm bells ringing. tom forman, cnn, washington. a rare saturday deposition as democrats press forward with their impeachment inquiry. we'll take you live to capitol hill next. take in fragrance inspired by nature...

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