A Source Tells Cnn the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is Stepping Down Once the New Attorney General Takes Office; Donald Trump: I Have Absolute Authority to Declare National Emergency; Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, World's Richest Couple, Split
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest, there's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. When the world's richest man is heading for the world's richest divorce, Jeff Bezos breaks up with his wife. And it's two defeats in 24 hours for Theresa May, parliamentary fight against her Brexit plan pick up steam. As we continue tonight, this is Cnn, and on this network, the facts, well, that always come first. The man who appointed the special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation in the U.S. is leaving his job. A source tells Cnn the deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is stepping down once the new Attorney General takes office. That could happen within weeks. President Trump says he has absolute authority to declare a national emergency to get funding for a border wall, but he says he'll keep trying to negotiate with lawmakers to end the budget compass has triggered a government shutdown. Australian investigators are looking into suspicious packages sent to diplomatic officers. It was sent to almost 20 embassies and consulates in Canberra and Melbourne, including the U.S. and U.K. missions. Authorities say there's no threat to the general public. Jeff Bezos; the chief executive of Amazon is also the world's richest man and is now getting divorced. He and his wife Mackenzie made the announcement in a shared tweet. They said they'll continue their shared lives as friends. They've been married for 25 years, well before Bezos was even a millionaire. He's currently worth north of $130 billion. Zac Potter is a divorce attorney who has handled several billion-dollar divorces. He is in West Palm Beach, Florida, and joins me. Now, Zac, obviously here as you noted to me, made clear, money is not the issue. There's more than enough to go around and as you point out, a billion or so either way is not going to make any difference to anyone's standard of life. So what will be the issue here?</s>ZAC POTTER, DIVORCE ATTORNEY: Yes, that's correct, and thank you for having me, Richard. In cases like this, there are a couple of issues that are primary concern to the family. The first obviously is reputational. And what I suspect from this tweet is that this case has already been resolved by the parties' attorneys. Typically, with a high-profile family like this and with a publicly-traded company, you would only announce something like this to the public once the deal is already done. So for the two of them, the issues -- they're likely resolved.</s>QUEST: Right --</s>POTTER: And with respect to the money, the primary concern is likely what they're going to do with their estate after their death, their charitable contributions and how their children are going to be taken care of. But between the two of them, it's unlikely to have -- they're unlikely to have a fight over --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>POTTER: Billions of dollars --</s>QUEST: So --</s>POTTER: Here or there.</s>QUEST: The tweet this morning talks about "after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and share our shared lives as friends." So it sounds as if the China is not being thrown about, but it does beg the question, how realistic is it when couples do divorce where serious amounts of money, well, unparalleled amounts of money are involved, but they continue to try and have this idea of a shared life?</s>POTTER: It's very realistic. And candidly, when there's this much money involved, a lot of the complications that lead to conflict between the parties become a whole lot easier. And, you know, it makes little sense under ordinary circumstances, but they have private jets, yachts, whatever it takes, help. And so the disputes that can often drive families in ordinary circumstances --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>POTTER: Just don't apply in a case like this.</s>QUEST: The law, I believe, in Washington State is for you split the assets that were accrued during the period of the marriage. In that case, it is - - well, in that case, it is half and half. But most of the assets here, say $130-odd billion are in Amazon stock. Now all of a sudden, Amazon shareholders or Amazon company has a very large shareholder -- single shareholder besides Jeff Bezos. Does this make a difference in a public company?</s>POTTER: Well, it can make a difference. And you know, we saw this in the Steve Wynn divorce. But in this particular circumstance, we have no idea what the marital settlement agreement says with respect to how those assets are going to be divided and how they're going to be controlled over time. In a situation like this, there's almost an infinite number of ways that the deal can be structured in terms of control of the assets. And so we will only -- it's only likely that we'll know more information about this in the -- well, in the event that the company needs to make a public announcement or in the event of conflict.</s>QUEST: Good to see you, sir, thank you very much for giving us some understanding. I appreciate it, thank you. This is</s>QUEST MEANS BUSINESS - - POTTER: Thank you for having me.</s>QUEST: This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live from New York, in a moment.