also, i think here from both bob mueller and from attorney general barr. >> when you were attorney general, would you ever get prosecutors providing information without a charging recommendation? >> i was attorney general for six years, third longest serving attorney general in the history of the united states. i never received anything from a prosecutor -- >> never? never once? >> not once. >> what does that mean about what barr says mueller has done so far? >> i think that what bob mueller was doing there was presenting something as best he thought he should do under the obligations that i think he faced. i think he was taking into account the justice department regulation that says you cannot indict a sitting president. and i think that really changed the way in which bob mueller conducted himself, conducted his probe. i mean, i've known bob mueller for 30 years. >> you hired him. >> i hired him in the u.s. attorney's office in washington, d.c. saw him go into one of the toughest parts of washington, d.c., make homicide cases, made him u.s. attorney in san francisco. he is the a

right here brand new. it states that that they overruled mueller and who to indict. and bob mueller's principal conclusions about those indictments and who did he not indict as soon as this weekend. as soon as this weekend. so there is a lot to get to. i have a big panel. a lot of experts. chuck and nicole are waiting. i go first to a newsmaker. the intelligence chairman in the house adam shift joins us by phone for the first reaction. good evening, sir. i'm waiting for robert schiff. >> i can hear you. >> i hear you now, chairman. our viewers can hear you. your reaction to tonight's news? >> well, we've been waiting for that puff of smoke about the justice department and finally got it today. the special counsel concluded the investigation. the key question though is will bill barr live up to the commitment he made to be as transparent as possible which would require making public the mueller report. we voted overwhelmingly in the house to do that. but for lindsey gram's stopping that bill in the senate, i think the senate would have voted overwhelmingly to make the mueller report public as we

. >> chuck, when you look at bob mueller's background, what he has done and prepared, is there a chance of how quickly this might be accomplished? bob mueller might have two versions of this report, one baked and ready to go to lawmakers? >> it's possible, david. it wouldn't be the first time we have prepared a classified version and unclassified version of a report. here is what i do know, having worked with bob mueller at the fbi. he is a model or discretion and what you saw is a highly dignified and professional investigation. it will be a comprehensive report, i'm confident of that. i don't think he is going to leave anything out. really, the hard issue, as elliott was describing now swivels to bill barr what can and cannot be released. bob mueller and his team, i am confident gave him a comprehensive rendition of what happened. >> rena, you were part of that collective breath holding in washington, d.c. that ken was describing a moment ago. speak to this as a pivot point. to my mind we had seen a change in narrative. a long period of time which this was the be all, end all, the comple

. and there's no collusion. >> bob muellerer can't be bullied. he can't be intimidated. >> this is big stuff. mueller is the guy to do it. >> all eyes are on robert swan mueller the third. >> robert mueller investigation is one of the most prolific in history. >> if evidence of conspiracy or obstruction of justice is found, mueller investigators have any proof of president trump's involvement? the secret probe has been far reaching charging more than 30 people with crimes. >> it could be a domino effect that leads to the end of the presidency. robert mueller's findings could be the first piece to fall. >> inside look at the man behind the investigation. >> he was a great leader. he was quietly effective and was a fierce opponent. >> you cannot have a more formidable adversary their bob mueller. >> he was playing three dimensional chess while trump is playing bingo. >> we may see charges relating to the president of the united states. >> all we hear about is this phony russia witch hunt. >> i would call it the witch hunt. >> a disgraceful situation. >> it's become president trumps r

, i leave that decision to bob mueller. and i have full confidence in him. i think the country owes bob mueller a debt of gratitude for conducting the investigation as professionally as he has. so i trust in his prosecutorial judgment. that doesn't mean there is not compelling and incriminating evidence that should be shared with the american people. >> you're seeing the president's allies saying this is vindication for the president. >> they have said with each indictment it's vindication that now, about six people close to the president have been indicted. that hardly looks like vindication to me. was again, let's see what the report has to say. if they're so confident hat the report is going to exonerate them, they should make that evidence public and available to congress. but i suspect that we'll find those words of transparency to prove hollow. that, in fact, they'll fight to make sure that congress doesn't get the underlying evidence. we're going to take it as far as necessary to make sure that we do. we have an independent obligation to share the facts with the american peop

advisers were indicted. we didn't know until late in the day that bob mueller was going to finish his entire probe without incident. >> we should note something here, julia, that barr makes. aside from the principal conclusions, he says this. this is sort of directed by the regulations at issues. he said they provide you with the description and explanation of instances if any in which the attorney general proposed was inappropriate and should not be pursued. there were no such instances, which is essentially barr saying what, julia? >> he's saying that no one should be worried, that this justice department sought to shut down. he's saying that robert mueller let him off the hook. that's a key question he was smart to answer right off the bat because you wouldn't want the american pub look to say tonight can we just this report because it was under the purview of the justice department. he want thad transparency. you see that throughout the letter. he also said he's going to consul with rod rosenstein and bob mueller. >> robert mueller ends his work here doesn't mean he's disappea

here on capitol hill, instead of accepting bob mueller's findings, want to set them aside now and continue their own investigation. for those folks, protect bob mueller has now become, to hell with bob mueller. fication of bob muler is becoming the villfication of bob mueller. now the republican position is unified. we need to move on. again, if 19 federal prosecutors , 40 f.b.i. agents, working 18 hours a day for the last two years, couldn't find any crimes to charge donald trump with, house chairman and a few house staffers shouldn't be wasting our time looking for them. i want to be real clear about this. the special counsel looking for how russia meddled in our election was not a witch hunt. but when it comes to investigating donald trump further for crimes, bob mueller didn't charge any crimes. bob mueller says there are no witches. so democratic efforts to continue these investigations would in fact be a political witch hunt for no other reason than for political gain. so, i want to close by anticipating your first question. the full release of the mueller report. republican

conclusions coming from bob mueller compiling the report, his conclusions, but it is at the discretion of the attorney general to say, let me craft my own. of course he has to read through the whole thing. we don't even know how many pages this report is, but we're talking about two years. >> that's right, a 22-month investigation resulting in charges against 37 entities and individuals. this has been exhaustive. the people who have gone in before bob mueller's team have said it's just an exhaustive experience. they know everything about them, they've seen every text message, and now drilling this down into a report that has really captured the nation's aengs, tt, so we don't know how long the report is, we just know it's comprehensive. this is a big deal for bill barr and rod rosenstein to work through now, and we'll get the fruits of that sometime today. >> we're all waiting. boy, are we waiting. kara scannell, thank you so much. >>> let's check in with the senior congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. they're waiting up there, too. lawmakers want to see these details in, re

. >> was it appropriate for bob mueller to essentially punt on the issue of obstruction, leave it to the president's two top police kale poi political appointments at the justice department to decide? >> as far as i'm concerned, mr. mueller's report gave the attorney general both sides of the equation. he decided, not mr. barr, to give that decision over to the attorney general. you can ask him. from my point of view, i think what mr. barr and mr. rosenstein did was very appropriate. somebody has to decide, and the attorney general is not conflicted. he was not part of the campaign. so the big thing for me, guys, has always been, did trump work with the russians? i told him to his face, almost two years ago, if you did, that's it between me and you , d and anything that follows, you deserve. i will say that about any politician of any party. here's what we know two years later. after an exhaustive examination of the facts in this case, by somebody that every american should trust, mr. mueller, the answer is no. >> sir? what about though, is there any daylight, as democrats have suggested

at the conclusion of the special counsel's work. so that means bob mueller is no longer, as of ae short t from now, the special counsel. there'll be no more indictments from the special counsel. now one question had been might he,e last minute, file indictments. likely.dn't seem but it doesn't seem now that that's going to happen. so no more indictments. and that means that during the entire course of his work, assigned to determine whether anyone in the trump campaign meddled in the election, he never found evidence to submit a criminal prosecution accusing anyone of that. so it doesn't mean that the investigating stops. because remember, robert mueller justice of the department. the special counsel's office. the work will go on j was going on before robert mueller was appointed speci counsel. it'll be carried on by the justice department, the u.s. attorns in new york and here in the district of columbia. but robert mueller's work is done and his report has been handed to william barr, now we have to find out when barr isg goo tell congress what it says. but one other point. all

from bob mueller that the full narrative of the mueller report did not exonerate trump of the potential crime of obstruction? he didn't have to include that at all tonight. >> that's absolutely right, ari. i think it shows that barr was trying to be intellectually honest. because if he goes out and misrepresents what robert mueller has found, he won't stand for that. he's a marine combat veteran who spent two years of his life doing this. i think that's absolutely the reason it was included. and it's why congress is going to continue to demand to see the actual report. because this -- as you have been pointing out it doesn't quote a full sentence from the report. the devil is in the details on this. we have known ever since they announced the end of the mueller investigation, we knew there was no conspiracy. no criminal conspiracy. what this document does not say though is okay, what explains these contacts? what judgments did mueller and his investigators render on trump, were they exploited by the russians? and these are important questions that congress now needs to answer. ari? >> k

bob mueller in the first place was because he fired jim comey and that looked like obstruction and he said he had russia on the mind when he fired jim comey. i've been dodging your question for 20 seconds now. i think it looks like that he found it to be a very tough and close question. on the one happened he probably saw there was a number of things that suggested there was obstructive intent and evidence of obstruction which is a very serious matter. and maybe he found things on the other side of the coin that mitigated that. and he decided, and this is speculation, that given the takes, how serious and how close a question it was, this is not for the special counsel to decide, it's something for congress to decide. and congress can hold the president accountable in a particular way. so he sort of punted to congress and then you had bill barr running on to the field grabbing the football and running in for a touchdown for trump because it did not seem to me that it was necessary for bill barr in the absence of bob mueller making a determination for bill barr who is a direct apoin

that bob mueller was never overruled. so we take that to be the assertion of the doj. and if bob mueller has a disagreement about that characterization, i bet you we'll find out about it. and number two, as you say, barr has now teased more news this weekend. he set that deadline himself. and everyone's been waiting for this. so i would expect him to make good in some way on some sort of update by sunday night given that he knows what he has and he chose to announce that. and number three, perhaps most interestingly, what he did not have to do but what he chose to do. barr says he will continue to consult with bob mueller, who now as of tonight is no longer the special counsel, who has ended the probe, but he will continue to consult with him on revealing things that go beyond this weekend, go beyond just the list of people who may have been indicted or investigated but not indicted. and that's where the fight is. that's where the information is. and it's very, very striking that barr is doing that, either because he really does want to finish this out the right way and believes

papadopoulos on "the beat." >>> big news on obamacare. >>> we begin with what is known about what bob mueller found. for all the talk about mueller's findings, no one outside of the doj as of this hour has seen them yet, instead we have attorney general bill barr's now famous letter, some democrats are calling it basically a press release. it states, mr. barr's view of things and as attorney general we report on his view, it's important. but democrats are now dialing up the pressure in a big way and demanding the public report within the week, one week and there's new signs as i mentioned the doj is responding saying tonight it will come out within weeks but not by that deadline in that big letter that you see on your screen. dems say they have leverage because they will issue a subpoena if needed and speaker pelosi now taking a pointed shot at mr. barr, donald trump's newly installed attorney general. >> let us see the report. we don't need an interpretation by an attorney general appointed by the president. we need to see the report. >> what you heard there is the sitting speaker making a serious

take number one, he says that bob mueller was never overruled. so we take that to be the assertion of the doj. and if bob mueller has a disagreement about that characterization, i bet you we'll find out about it. and number two, as you say, barr has now teased more news this weekend. he set that deadline himself. and everyone's been waiting for this. so i would expect him to make good in some way on some sort of update by sunday night given that he knows what he has and he chose to announce that. and number three, perhaps most interestingly, what he did not have to do but what he chose to do. barr says he will continue to consult with bob mueller, who now as of tonight is no longer the special counsel, who has ended the probe, but he will continue to consult with him on revealing things that go beyond this weekend, go beyond just the list of people who may have been indicted or investigated but not indicted. and that's where the fight is. that's where the information is. and it's very, very striking that barr is doing that, either because he really does want to finish this out the rig

bob mueller as to whether or not it is enough evidence to meet the legal standard of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. >> on that point let's bring in our lead-off panel on a wednesday night. mimi rocah, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the pace university school of law. michael schmidt, pulitzer prize-winning washington correspondent for the "new york times." and sam steinbach with us, political editor for the daily beast. good evening and welcome to you all. mimi, i'd like to begin with you and with this question. we've had a string of guests come in here and describe bob mueller as almost an egoless figure, though he is clearly not without pride. what is the chance that mueller is watching some of this, feeling that his work has been misportrayed and his decisions have perhaps been misreported? >> so look, i would never presume to speak for bob mueller. i will say like everybody we've all watched him closely over the past 18 months. and he's obviously a patient man. he didn't react ever

appropriate now what bob mueller presented in the report and the legal problems, i think those are all important considerations. but ultimately it's a policy call by the department of justice about what to do involving a president in so far allegations are concerned. >> i think i disagree with it 100%. the whole reason that mueller was appointed is because the political appointees in the department of justice have a conflict. they owe their jobs to the president. so the idea that you would take that important decision away from the special counsel seems to me precisely wrong. >> was it taken away from him or bob mueller saying i'm just going to give thup. sglz it was because of the attorney general at that time recused himself. >> if ultimately barr want ed t overrule mueller and say there shouldn't be a prosecution of the president, that would be fine. unlike the counsel, he should have been allowed to make a recommendation of i don't know. >> i don't find that bizarre at all. i think it's desirable and in the country's interest that the department speaks with one voice. one of the re

has been anticipating for weeks. special counsel bob mueller has concluded his investigation of russia and the campaign. we got word at 5:00 p.m. that mueller delivered his report to william barr, recently confirmed, for barr's review. in a letter to the bipartisan leaders of the house and senate judiciary committee barr said he's reviewing the report and may be able to provide themes to the principal cuclusion this weekend. he's committed to as mutranspar as possible. since be appointed, mueller has achieved a remarkable record. 13 russians indicted for influence. 12 russian military officers indicted for that seminal moment, the hacking of democrats and distributing the stolen material and uncovered an extraordinary ring of criminality surrounding the president of the united states. his national security advisor pleaded guilty. a campaign foreign policy aid pleaded guilty. long time advisor pleaded guilty. his deputy campaign manager gity, his campaign manager serving serving seven and a half year sentence. nonetheless a lot of questions remain about what happens next. individ

sorts of conduct, financial fraud, trump organization, inauguration, in ways that bob mueller could not, because his review was narrow, it was russian interference in the 2016 election and whether anyone on the trump campaign conspired with those. i've been saying this for a while, and occasionally i'm right, that the important work is going to be going on in manhattan from here forward. i think barit is spot on, nothing that happened with respect to the mueller investigation will undermine that work in the southern district of new york. >> your old shop, the southern district has named the president individual one at the cohen sentencing, we learned that crimes were directed by individual one. >> right. so this is often what we call either a speaking indictment or times where you can speak in court through your papers. so the southern district of new york does not have the same mandate as mueller to prepare a report they're going to submit to congress or the attorney general. this is often times how you hear them speaking, through the court papers, the filings, and labelling somebo

interpretation. >> that's right. and i think fundamentally what bob mueller was looking at, and i think what bill barr was looking at, was were federal criminal laws broken. of course, this started as a counterintelligence investigation, a national security investigation, when this moves to phase two, being, of course, congress's review of this matter, i think congress is going to take a broader lens, a broader aperture. they're going to look at was the foreign policy of the united states suborned, subjugated to russian foreign policy and why did the president of the united states appear to have done that. >> berit, i have to ask you about your old shop, the southern district of new york, which pour clarity i keep calling in effect the justice department's manhattan bureau. it is much more than that and quite sprawling as no one needs to tell you. does anything about what has just happened in the last 24 hours change or diminish potential plans the southern district might have? >> no. i actually don't think this impacts the southern district's investigation or the investigation of other

, he tried to have bob mueller fired. unlike comey, that could have been a crime had he pulled it off. another really interesting thing i'm sure you'll get to becausia have a lot of great experts tonight. isn't it interesting that barr goes beyond the requirements tonight and puts mueller's name in the process going forward? mueller finished tonight. mueller stops being special counsel in an operative way tonight.st and barr doesn't say goodbye, good riddance. he says in paragraph three, mueller's going to consult with me about what else we release. the weekend release that's prob a little bit of stuff and then -- >> he says i intend to consult with deputy attorney general rosenstein and special counsel t mueller to determine what other information can be released consistent with the law. we just got this from jerry nadler, who is the judiciary chair in the house. he said we'll see what has beent made public.wh we'll react to that. take a listen to what he has to say. let me know when you have that. that's nadler reacting to what has just come out from the o department of justice. >>

investigation. he didn't get indicted by bob mueller, and his children didn't get indicted, so this is a significant victory for him. on the other hand, we still don't know everything in the mueller report, and i think a lot of conclusions about it are going to have to await public knowledge on what is in it. i think it is significant that william barr decided there wasn't an obstruction of justice violation here even though mueller himself had not drawn that conclusion. members of congress and the public need to see more information in the document. vonnie: how much will democrats bog themselves down on the ins and outs of what is going on investigation wise, both from their point of view and the sdny ? how much will they start to pivot two issues and things that other voters care about? reporter: i don't think swing voters have cared that much about the russia issue from the beginning. i think swing voters care about jobs and the economy, and i think that trump is going to have to campaign on that as much is anything. if he campaigns on no collusion, he's going to give his opponents a

. ♪ >>> welcome back, i am ari melber reporting on the mueller report. bob mueller did not find chargeable collusion. democrats calling for r a full releast of the report. let's get right to it our paul butler, eleanor cliff is here. a senior doj official and jean rossi. we have been doing a lot of laws here. eleanor, i turn to you on what washington thinks. what do they think of this collusion and barr who's taking a big swing with a big muscle move against the person who was the biggest muscle, affiliated with the doj, bob mueller. >> the resistance has spent the last 22 months with mueller and spending a lot of time and every jot and everything having to do with russia. the results of this have really made a lot of democrats question whether they put their faith in the wrong horse. and no one is going to bail on robert mueller. i think that's not appropriate. right now i think they're looking at barr, at the attorney general and wondering how rigged this whole thing may have been going in. >> did he work it this weekend? >> well, those hours spent pouring those many pages. if he had not

went on to offer his praise of the special counsel. >> what do you think of bob mueller? >> i think bob mueller is an american hero. i think bob mueller is a guy, even though he came from an arguably privileged background, has a backbone of steel, he walked into a fire fight in vietnam to pull out one of his injured colleagues and was appropriately honored for that. i've known him for 30 years as a prosecutor and a friend, and i think the world of bob mueller. he is a very deliberate guy, but he's also a class act. and a very justice-oriented person. >> ty cobb also spoke about current trump lawyer, rudy giuliani, and his efforts to discredit this russia investigation. >> i was there for the white house. rudy is there to represent the individual. but keep in mind that you can criticize the strategy, it wouldn't have been my strategy. i don't feel the same way about mueller. i don't feel the investigation is a witch hunt. rudy and the president have been effective in a way that, you know, would not have been preferable for me, but they have ratcheted up the public's concerns about th

to clear this up? >> bob mueller spent two years investigating this and he was unable to draw a conclusion on whether president trump broke the law or obstruction and here will byn william barr spent 48 hours. we want to see the actual evidence that mueller compiled. he wanted this to go to congress for congress to deliberate and see if any laws withere broken. >> when do you expect to hear back from attorney general barr about testifying before your committee, nbc news reported that jerry nadler has contacted the doj in order to request that. well, i can't see any reasons for well yum bailliam barr not the judicial committee and the oversight committee. he owns the american people. the bob mueller really wanted to consult william barr, don't you think they would have had those conversations and bob mueller would have put that in the report. there is a reason he did not draw the conclusion in that report. he thought it was congress's fought and we have to know bid barr talked to the president in drawing these conclusions or bob mueller confirm about this beforehand? he owes the

bob mueller was to report on and whether there was a conspiracy, whether there was aiding and abetting. and the trump tower meeting, how he deals with that, how he explains that meeting, if there's not the factors that lead up to possible indictable type offense, mueller is a team player. he is going to abide by justice department regulations that say you can't indict a sitting president, but there might be something in there saying that he would if there were not those regulations, or that there was proof but not sufficient proof to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. i look forward to how he deals with the trump tower meeting and with roger stone contacts with assange or wikileaks and how he deals with manafort passing off the poll data to the russians. there's a lot to be seen there. >> i was going to say, as you know, congressman, the white house believes lack of additional indictments and the justice department says there will be no more indictments coming from the mueller special counsel team, they believe that's a signal the report will vindicate the president of

>>> welcome back, i am ari melber reporting on the mueller report. bob mueller did not find chargeable collusion. democrats calling for r a full releast of the report. let's get right to it our paul butler, eleanor cliff is here. a senior doj official and jean rossi. we have been doing a lot of laws here. eleanor, i turn to you on what washington thinks. what do they think of this collusion and barr who's taking a big swing with a big muscle move against the person who was the biggest muscle, affiliated with the doj, bob mueller. >> the resistance has spent the last 22 months with mueller and spending a lot of time and every jot and everything vhaving to d with russia. the results of this have really made a lot of democrats question whether they put their faith in the wrong horse. and no one is going to bail on robert mueller. i think that's not appropriate. right now i think they're looking at barr , at the attorny general and wondering how rigged this whole thing may have been going in. >> did he work it this weekend? >> well, those hours spent pouring those many pages. if

sight, and that is true. and second, that is not the same thing as whether bob mueller will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the crime of conspiracy. there's a difference between there being evidence of collusion and proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime and i distinguish between the two probably dozens of times. now, either they weren't listening or more likely they would rather attack me than talk about how they're trying to take health care away from millions of people. but nonetheless, i consider it a good day when kellyanne conway is going after he. >> that makes one of us. let me ask you this. so help people understand the distinction. i know it. i'm a lawyer, i talk about the difference between collusion as a behavior and conspiracy or a crime that can be made on a regular basis. but people will hear that and they'll say it's a hedge. we both know that. they'll say, oh, you're trying to have it both ways. make your case. >> well, let's look at the evidence. we know that the russians through an intermediary offered dirt on hillary clinton as part of what was des

report or information from bob mueller, even if it might further implicate trump's team. >> does the public have a right to see the mueller report? >> i don't mind. i mean, frankly, i told the house, if you want, let them see it. let it come out. let people see it. that's up to the attorney general. we have a very good attorney general. he's a very highly respected man. and we'll see what happens. >> everyone knows good cop, bad cop. this is kind of good president, bad attorney general. donald trump now claiming he's fine with the public report, but it's the other guy who will decide and maybe he'll decide something that's unpopular. maybe that other guy, that bad attorney general, i'm saying, colloqui colloquially, like bad cop, will decide not to release mueller's findings. you'll note this is the exact same spin that president trump used whether he would sit for a mueller interview in the first place. he claimed in the rose garden that he was game, only his lawyers, bad cop, might hold him back. donald trump, as you might know, never actually stepped up to face mueller one like, s

classified briefing with the justice department officials or bob mueller. she said it needs to be unclassified. she said the underlying evidence needs only the made public and she said that these officials need come forward so they can be questioned in unclassified settings. the democrats talked about how far they're willing to go. they said if necessary, they will use the subpoena authority to obtain the full report and underlying evidence as well as briefing and testimony from the special counsel, the attorney general, deputy attorney general, and other necessary officials. the democrats reach out to the justice department and try to restate the irs virtually everybody who had some connection to the mueller investigation saying all the documents must be preserved. democrats are trying to make it very clear. they're ready to fight for all the information and they're not double investigating. they want see the what mueller investigated and see what they can look into. and the days and weeks and months ahead. but first this process is taking shame. we may see the summary of the cou

doj bob mueller. >> the focus of the media has spent the last 22 months lauding robert mueller, the integrity of his investigation, spending a lot of time on every little jot and tiddle of everything having to do with russia. and i think the results of this have really made a lot of democrats question whether they put their faith in the wrong horse. and they're not -- nobody is going to bail on robert mueller. i think that's not appropriate. right now i think they're looking at barr, at the attorney general, and wondering just how, you know, rigged this whole thing might have been going in. >> did he work it this weekend? >> well, all those hours spent poring over those many pages. if he hadn't come out with some sort of a letter or some sort of conclusion, we'd all be jumping up and down saying what is he sitting on. >> he said i hope to update by the end of next week. i'm going take a very vigorous approach. >> he said i'm going to give some top line conclusions. and basically those top line conclusions are very favor to believe the white house. >> you were on the mclaughlin repor

investigation. they're both saying it completely exonerates him. bob mueller says specifically, this does not exonerate him. that was william barr's assessment of the bob mueller report. although he committed no crime, the report does not exonerate him. they also said that mueller found no obstruction. mueller did not find no obstruction. mueller laid out the evidence on both sides of the issue and allowed bill barr and rod rosenstein to make the decision. why continue to be misleading about good news? >> well, i think they take bill barr's assessment as exoneration on obstruction, and -- >> but sarah sanders in her statement said mueller exonerated the president on obstruction. >> i'm shocked by the conflation attempts by these folks. this is -- katy, as we know, this is what donald trump does, overexaggerates everything, whatever it is. and this is the pr head start that essentially the trump administration -- the president is getting, thanks to the fact that his attorney general that made this assessment. and this is where democrats are in a huge box here. we're all taking bill ba

country. >> and we'll be talking about bill barr as much as bob mueller. he completed another tour of duty. it is time to go home. i'm sure they consult with the attorney general. there are loose threads, things to finish. i'm sure he will be asked to testify, but the pressure and the attention now switches to the attorney general and what he does with this thing. >> why don't we play what the attorney general said at his confirmation hearing. let's play that sound. i'm told we don't have that yet. our control rooms are still trying to figure it out, but he did -- okay, let me say the republican and congress will be informed of the special council's office. barr says consistent with regulations and the law, yes. he says the special council report is a report by the attorney general. he believes he will take this into his own hands, does that mean he writes his own version of this report? is that how he could be reading that? >> i think which he do it one of two ways. and that could mean taking it and redacting classified information, it could be going to congress, it could mean tak

have a special guest. a man who bob mueller's campaign helped. george papadopoulos. don't go anywhere right now because "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. >>> bombshell. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. the attorney general's letter on the robert mueller report stirs the country. it says mueller cleared trump and his people, including his children, on the russian front. barr quotes from mueller's report that the investigation, quote, did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. that's the box office news of the weekend because if mueller had found evidence of a crime there, the calls for impeachment would have been resounding and could even have reached republicans but he didn't. as a consequence, republicans are even less likely to back impeachment and certainly not conviction and removal from office but now comes the big stickler, obstruction of justice. according to barr's letter released to congress late yesterday, mueller did not

, i'm completely prepared to accept the conclusions of bob mueller. but i want to read bob mueller's conclusions. what we got was a four-page distillation by a political appointee of the president. and you'll pardon me if i don't take his word directly for it. besides which i think the american public deserves to see this work product. director mueller deserves to be congratulated and thanked for his service. and let us remember that for the last two years, the administration has been engaged in a nonstop hour-by-hour attempt to discredit the reputation of bob mueller. haven't heard much of that in the last 48 hours, though, have we, erin. >> no, obviously, that's been a complete about-face. but when you say a distillation of the report by a political appointee, are you saying you don't trust the attorney general? >> no, not at all. remember, as it relates to this point in particular, i'm not making that point generally. but remember, attorney general barr on an unsolicited basis submitted a 19-page single-space memo to the department of justice last summer about why it is that they shouldn't pu

pouncing on bob mueller's report releasing video slamming democrats for all of those claims about collusion. jillian: are they helping his bid for reelection, big question there, here to weigh in republican strategists and ceo of american majority ned ryun, good morning, ned, you're getting chuckle right now 5:15 on the east coast anyway, what do you think this does to the president going forward? >> well, i think it absolutely helps him, guy, the reelection bid, even if mueller probe was continuing in 2020 and now i think he's been cleared of all collusion and i think all obstruction thing is complete joke and democrats will have a run time running against him if economy continues to be strong and policies continue to be success but the thing about it too that people aren't really i think though cussed -- focused on too much, do you think i'm so glad that we cleared misunderstanding and move on, heck no, the next 2 years would be problematic for the democrats. i would like to know where all of this started, i want to see the original memo laying out the scope of the investigation

know why bob mueller wrote the obstruction section the way he did and it's not for us to put ourselves in place of bob mueller because we don't know. what we do know is that barr has decided to release certain things very quickly and other things not. and when you look at the front first page of that letter, it tells us that there were 500 witness interviews, tells this were 2,800 subpoenas and tells us all sorts of interesting things and gets to the scope of the probe you know what it doesn't tell us? how many pages was the report that barr spent. if it was 30 pages it would look much more reasonable. if it was 300, well, that was a quick weekend with just a skeletal staff. i think barr is now taken this and made it all about the barr letter. he's clearly being selective. now, some will say -- go ahead. >> i was going to say, michael schmidt, a guy who was skeptical of this probe from the very beginning. a guy who basically was fishing for a job from donald trump from the very beginning. you don't just write those memos and go, oh, by the way, here's something you'd like very much. i

, the president reportedly told voters that the democrats hate jewish people. and bob mueller could be delivering his report to the justice department really any minute. but we begin tonight with breaking news because at a moment when everyone wants to know if bob mueller's report will include potentially impeachable offenses, speaker of the house nancy pelosi basically said that the democrats will not move to impeach the knot matter what the report finds. she says i'm not for impeachment. this is news, i'm going to give you some news right now because i have not said this to any press person before, but since you asked and i have been thinking about this, impeachment is so divisive, i don't think we should go down that path, he is not worth it. pelosi said the president is unfit for officer and seven in ten democrats that voted in the midterm said that congress should impeach the president and that was before there was any hard evidence, and now the democratic leader is all bull ruling it out. joining tonight's panel, the "new york times" political reporter and msnbc political anal

is fair to say. we've probably only seen the tip of the iceberg as to where bob mueller is at. for all of those that have been speculating or commenting, we are reaching the witching hour. it is my belief that we have seen barely the tip of the iceberg of the true evidence. now it is time to see what actually happened. on seeing very intent that and will know hopefully soon. isn't that is good is public? headlines havee been made? emily: my question is once attorney general barr notifies congress about the headlines in point,port, at that won't we see the details leaking? seth: i think that is a good question. just because the headlines have been made available to congress does not mean the details have. the devil can be in the details. the headlines are is there a recommendation to congress to impeach the president? that would be a significant headline obviously. are there recommendations as to others who engage in criminal conduct or recommendations there should be ongoing investigations are further indictments? those would be headlines. those will be the attention grabbers but u

, how what bob mueller presented in that report and the pros and cons and factual issues and the legal problems, those are all important considerations but ultimately it's a policy call by the department of justice about what to do invo e involving a president in so far as allegations involving obstruction are concerned. >> do you agree with that? >> i disagree with it 100%. the whole reason that mueller was appointed is because the political appointees in the department of justice have a conflict. they owe their jobs to the president. so the idea that you would take that important decision away from the special counsel seems wrong. >> was it taken away from him or was it bob mueller saying this -- >> if we go back for the history lesson the reason that a special counsel was appointed by the deputy attorney general was because the attorney general at that time, not bill barr recused himself. and there was never a determination that the entire department had to. >> but if ultimately barr wanted to overrule mueller and say there shouldn't be a prosecution of the president that woul

counsel robert mueller's report. first the letter makes it clear on the issue of election conspiracy bob mueller did not find chargeable conclusion. barr quotes mueller is stating members did not establish the campaign did not establish or coordinate with with the russian government in election activities. -- what barr himself writes, the report left unresolved what mueller viewed as difficult issues of law in fact concerning whether the president's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. dud not conclude the president committed a crime. barr also notes the report does not exonerate him. that is pretty important. barr's letter today tries to go further and declare donald trump who, appointed barr did not obstruct justice. quote we've concluded the evidence is not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. that's very important what you see here there and we have a special tonight that is going to tell you everything you need to know about what is real. what barr is saying mueller found and comma we know from a probe now concluded and wha

mueller's conclusions in the report once you read the whole thing? >> i assume bob mueller being a very good and thorough professional that there will be good and adequate documentation and reasoning in the report to support his conclusions in which case it will assert them. if they don't have documentation they don't do it. >> if he didn't find evidence of collusion here, does that make you temper some of your investigations? >> i don't think it tempers the investigation. we have to look at whatever loose ends there are, and we have to look at whatever we don't know. >> do you plan on calling bob mueller to testify before your committee? >> if necessary, but that's a very big if. >> why would you say you wouldn't want to hear from him. i'll be honest, as an american citizen and as a taxpayer who helped take care of this report part of me would like to hear from him directly. >> that would be very pleasant, but the fact is he gave his report, he speaks through that report. if that report answers all our questions there would be no need to call him and if that report is all public. if that re

that they can't tell us the answer to this, is what did bob mueller expect to happen? why didn't he make this decision? was he expecting the attorney general to make it, recommending someone else at the justice department make it or leaving it to congress? if the justice department had an answer to the question that didn't make it look like the attorney general had stepped in to make the decision on his own, you can bet they'd be giving it out to reporters right now. >> and the barr -- look, barr undeniably has a perception problem. the special counsel, crafted, created, inspired by the idea you take the most sensitive criminal investigations, take them out of politics and put them in the hands of an unimpeachable individual. that was robert mueller. that investigation was walled off from political influence everywhere except from the oval office from the president who tweeted and harassed and cajoled. then at the very end, they hand the fragile pure baby to a political appointee in the attorney general very aggressive views on obstruction of justice and a deputy attorney general wh

bob mueller's conclusions he said bob mueller found no evidence of conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia that would warrant criminal charges. set that aside for a moment. what was bob mueller's other conclusion if we can take barr at his word? it was that bob mueller could not clear the president for obstructing justice. when you let that sink in, that is dramatic. why? because bob mueller is the king of sir couple specircumspect. what did bill barr do? bill barr said bob mueller, then let me go ahead and clear him. and joy he tried to clear him, without any supporting evidence. without any legal analysis. without any evidentiary basis. >> bill barr poisoned the well of public opinion. just as if he were the water plant manager in flint, michigan, he poisoned the well of public opinion. but congress is going to get the report, the american people are going to get the report and bill barr's summary will mean nothing at the end of the day, because the evidence will speak for itself. >> our understanding would be, glen that the gang of eight, meaning four democrats and f