mueller investigation. i mean, for all of the kinetic activity that we can see, for all the different headlines that we are seeing generated every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week right now, that is it. that is the blunt force collision that is happening here. all of this crazy stuff and historic stuff that is happening so rapidly right now, and all these political and legislative and legal fights, it is all about that one simple confrontation. this is trump versus the mueller investigation. that's the whole thing. and i mean, honestly, big picture, it's roughly six weeks since mueller turned in his report about the findings of his investigation. at this point, there is still lots of uncertainty as to how and why mueller's investigation came to an end when it did and how it did. since mueller turned in that report, william barr has been publicly suggesting that in his view, mueller had no right to continue his investigation once he notified bill barr and the justice department that he didn't intend to declare one way or the other whether president trump should be charged

headquarters here in new york. >>> breaking news tonight about the conflict between mueller and attorney general barr about how barr has misrepresented mueller's findings and mueller has apparently confronted him about it. we are going to be all over that story tonight as well. we've got "the washington post" reporter who initially broke that story coming up with us actually in just a second. but i have to tell you before we go to that reporter this is another one of those days where we had a whole show planned and everything has gone out the window as we have followed stuff that come out we didn't expect. we are now tonight following two very dramatic and still-developing stories that we really had no idea that we should be expecting. in one case, 24 hours ago, and in the other case, as recently as two hours ago. it's just another one of those days. but i'll tell you, the first story we are keeping an eye on tonight broke open with a shock at dawn this morning, when venezuelan opposition leader juan guaido appeared in this video message at a venezuelan air force base just outsi

protecting his president. that's not his job. and for mr. mueller, by all accounts, to write a letter like this, don, this is not something he does lightly, it's not something he believed because he had a nuanced disagreement, that it was a style point, or just wanted to trade notes. as phil munn said, this was a baseball bat to the head. >> if you don't take umbrage with the president of the united states misleading you, the attorney general of the united states misleading you, lying, both of them, then what are you going to take issue with? what are you going to have a problem with? when you're supposed to be the party of the rule of law. when you have a president and the attorney general who are not fighting for the rule of law but who are carrying the water for indecent and inappropriate and possibly even unlawful behavior? what is going to upset you? what are you going to take issue with? is there anything? >> do you know when you get your answer? tomorrow. that's why we all got to head to the hot zone because republican senators are more on the spot than the a.g. tomorrow. we know he

criticizing robert mueller's investigation. president trump claims that mueller would have brought charges against him if he thought he committed a crime, but mueller said explicitly the opposite yesterday. mueller did not even consider charging president trump because of justice department guidelines. mueller said that responsibility falls on congress, which of course begs the question this morning, what will congress do now? >> a growing number of house democrats and 2020 presidential candidates, including one right here on our show, are calling for impeachment proceedings, but continues to resist, though she says nothing is off the table. the spotlight is also now back on the attorney general, william barr. a lot of people are accusing him of misleading lawmakers and the public about the mueller report. mueller's version clearly different than the attorney general's. joining me discuss congressman mike quigley. thank you for being with us. before yesterday you were not on the list that nancy pelosi and others are keeping of democrats calling for impeachment proceedings to begin.

all eyes will be on that department of justice press conference and the one and only robert mueller will be speaking. that wraps it up for me in this exciting news hour. i am now turning over to my friend, chris jansing who picks up coverage. >> 10:00 on the east coast i'm chris jansing in for hallie jackson. what a huge breaking news story we're following for you at the top of the hour. robert mueller the special counsel in charge of the investigation is coming out at the department of justice. he is scheduled to make a statement on his investigation at the top of the next hour. his first public comments on the probe since he started as special counsel more than two years ago. a full team of reporters and experts who have been following this investigation throughout. let me start with ken delaney in our washington bureau. ken, this is someone throughout the investigation did a remarkable job of keeping things under wrap and stopping any leaks from coming out. we have not seen him. he is someone who has very specifically stayed a political, it stands to reason if he's coming out and

. it's barr's first congressional appearance since he released most of the mueller report and overnight the tensions, the suspici suspicions, the resentments that already surrounded barr's handling of the special counsel probe and conclusions, they exploded. cnn has confirmed that mueller himself was displeased by the attorney general's initial four-page letter to congress on march 24th. in a letter to barr dated march 27th and first revealed by the "washington post," mueller said that barr's summary and i'm quoting now, did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions. he went on and i'm quoting again, there is now public conclusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. as you may know, barr has steadfastly highlighted mueller's findings that the president's campaign did not conspire or coordinate with russians who meddled in the election. and where mueller cited at least ten examples of apparent presidential obstruction of his investigation, barr decided the evidence simply wouldn't support a criminal charge.

after this moment. and so robert mueller knew what the life of this letter was going to be. robert mueller knew it was going to be a night like this that was about this letter. but most importantly, william barr knew and he still went out there and said all of the things that he said and actually gave these answers in house and senate testimony about, i don't know if mueller's okay. i don't know what mueller thinks. >> yeah. >> you know? >> he knew exactly what mueller thinks. and i will say, i mean, this is coming out ahead of that testimony tomorrow before the lindsey graham-led senate judiciary committee. who knows what that's going to be like. barr is very capable at spinning stuff. >> mmm-hmm. >> i would not be surprised if he wanted this out ahead of that testimony and that friendly environment so he can spin his testimony, particularly under republican questioning, spinning out his own yarn about how this is all some an dine thing. one of the most important things may be the late breaking story from the daily beast that the justice department won't allow mueller to set a dat

starts right now. >>> outfront next robert mueller breaks his silence saying president trump has not been cleared of committing a crime. the next move is up to congress. >>> plus robert mueller says he will not testify. so what will democrats do? and growing pressure on nancy pelosi to move forward toward impeachment. can she stop the momentum? let's go outfront. >> and good evening. i'm erin burnett. outfront mueller speaks out for the first time on his last day as special counsel. and here is what bob mueller wanted every single american to know. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. >> the power of the spoken word. that was the bottom line. if mueller had confidence president trump did not commit a crime, he'd say so, but he couldn't say so. hearing mueller say that was a moment in history and makes us wonder what president trump and his administration heard. because just listen to them. >> we consider this very much to be case closed. >> he said the case is done. >> and president tweeting those same words. the operat

mueller sent a letter to attorney general william barr expressing misgivings about how barr characterized his findings and saying the attorney general didn't fully capture the substance and conclusions of mueller's 448-page report. and tonight barr has released his written statement pour the record for the senate judiciary committee hearing, a hearing that is set to begin in a matter of hours. a statement that reads in part. when i appeared before the committee just a few months ago for my confirmation hearings, senators asked for two commitments concerning the special counsel's investigation. first, that i would allow the special counsel to finish his investigation without interference, and second, that i would release his report to congress and to the american public. i believe that the record speaks for itself. the special counsel completed his investigation as he saw fit. as i informed congress on march 22, 2019, at no point did i or anyone at the department of justice overrule the special counsel on any proposed action. in addition, immediately upon receiving his confid

day that bob mueller broke his silence and resigned his office as the most consequential special counsel in a generation. mueller speaking publicly for the first time today in more than two years after 37 indictments, guilty pleas from five trump aides, a 448 page report all against the backdrop of intense obstruction of his probe and wider attacks on the justice department. some of that obstruction was charged by mueller himself. some was referred out to other prosecutors in case that's we know are still open. and tonight i can tell you some of the potential obstruction was not charge at all because as bob mueller underscored in breaking the silence today, the justice department rules prevented him in ever indicting a sitting president. mueller delivering that pivotal point that the legal wall barricading mueller from ever doing anything with his evidence on president trump other than writing it down for congress, he delivered that today in his signature understated manner. noting in his first remarks to the country here that he would base he cannily not be able to give donald t

kept hearing from the democrats over the several years, protect mueller, trust mueller, cooperate with mueller, don't obstruct mueller. if trump had nothing to fear, he had nothing to fear from mueller. well, it turned out that trump didn't do anything wrong. the whole russia conspiracy was a hoax. now if james comey did nothing and the f.b.i. did nothing wrong and it's all purely innocent john durham, a career prosecutor will find that. the american people want to get to the bottom of it. there is a poll that just came out that said americans are sick of investigations, 65% say we shouldn't impeach donald trump. 60% believe there was no obstruction and 58 say given the mueller report we should move on and turn the page on the trump investigations. the one exception is they want to get to the bottom of how this trump/russia probe began. 55% of americans believe that there was bias against donald trump that was involved in the decision to start this probe and 61% support appointing a special counsel to get to the bottom of it and that's significant because trump's approval is only 43%.

attorney general william barr's summary of the mueller report was made by none other than the special counsel himself, robert mueller. "the washington post" reporting the special counsel complained to the attorney general in a letter on march 27th regarding barr's four-page summary that had been released just three days prior. according to mueller's letter from a copy received by "the washington post," the summary letter the department sent to congress and released to the public late in the afternoon on march 24th did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions, mueller wrote. there is no public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. this threatens to undermine essential purpose for which the department appointed the special counsel to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations. mueller did not leave it at that. the special counsel requested that barr release the introductions and executive summaries that they prepared from his 448-page report and even suggested some redaction

president while seemingly trying to diminish the importance of his friend of 30 years, robert mueller. and now barr is refusing to show up tomorrow before house judiciary because the democrats in charge there want lawyers to question him and now that means it's possible the nation's top law enforcement officer could find himself in contempt. tonight, the calls for bill barr to resign are growing, and all eyes, again, turn to one robert mueller whose testimony becomes more critical by the hour as "the 11th hour" gets under way on this wednesday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 832 of the trump administration. a full day, an explosive day on capitol hill, as attorney general barr defended the man who appointed him, defended his handling of the mueller report, to members of the senate. we'll take you through the hearing in just a moment, but the latest news from today came tonight. it's about tomorrow. barr has decided he's one and done, where hearings are concerned. he turned down house judiciary tomorrow. he's not going to show. h

and potential obstruction by president trump. here he is. robert mueller stepping before the mic and the justice department for the first in what he says will be the very last time. mueller was clear to note that the words in that report were chosen carefully. you could probably say the same thing about his ten-minute statement this morning. the special counsel outlining key findings but also reiterated why his team could not formally charge the president of the united states. and why those claims of no obstruction from bill barr and the white house are, in a word, premature. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. the introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. it explains that under long-standing department policy a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. that is unconstitutional. even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. the

settled and he is finally pab expected to give his testimony to mueller as grand jury on friday morning at 9:30. mueller's grand jury is continuing to meet. mueller may have just pronounced his work done but a whole bunch of this stuff is ongoing. stay tuned. we'll see you again tomorrow. it's time for the last worded with lawrence o'donnell." >> we have a great lineup tonight to analyze what robert mueller to say today. we're starting off with adam schiff. we're going to be joined by senator blumenthal and senator hirono. neal katyal will be here with his analysis. but there's something coming up right at the end of this hour which i think we really need because i'm going to be using what robert mueller said today very similarly to the way you did, the stashed way we use in these kinds of shows. we take a piece of it, run it, get a reaction to that piece, we talk about that piece. brian williams at 181:00 p.m. is going to do us all a service at the end of this mueller surprise day and one the whole 9 1/2 minutes uncut. the 9 1/2 minutes because most people were at work. most pe

♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. special counsel robert mueller today breaking his silence and doing so in a somewhat bizarre fashion. he said his special counsel report spoke for itself. but then he spoke for almost ten minutes. during which he claimed that his role as special counsel was never to prove that the president committed a crime of collusion or obstruction, and then he claimed he could never have charged him had he found such evidence. which, by the way, he didn't. >> and under longstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. that is unconstitutional. even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited. the special counsel's office is part of the department of justice, and by regulation it was bound by that department policy. charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider. lou: mueller adding nothing to body of public knowledge about what he did for almost two years or what he did with that $35 million of taxpayer money. the only thing

>>> happening now, breakig news. not exonerated. that's robert mueller's message about his investigation to president as the special counsel speaks out for the first time in two years. is that his last word or will he testify before congress? >>> all options. top democrats are keeping the door open to impeachment as the drum beat within the party grows lou louder after hearing from mueller. did the special counsel leave new clues for congressional investigators to follow. >>> let's do it. we're told that's the president's attitude toward impeachment. mr. trump is spoiling for a fight even as he declares he's innocent and mueller's case is closed. >>> rising waters. c nrk cnn is on the scene of devastating flooding after two straight weeks of violent weather across the united states. new storms are brewing. new tornadoes are feared and nearly 40 million americans may be in danger. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."s on robert mueller ending his silence and begin impeachment reedings

he totally vindicated of no conclusion and no obstruction. robert mueller has some of those concerns as well. both major newspapers covering the story are on the board tonight with different versions of the same big story. mueller was bothered why what he saw and heard. enough to write a letter to barr objecting to how his 22-month worth of work was being portrayed. the two men spoke on the phone and the attorney general continued to verbally carried the president's water. the story first broke tonight in "the washington post," this comes out on the eve of barr's appearance before senate judiciary tomorrow. mueller laid out his concerns on march 27th was about barr's four page now famous summary for congress that had been released three days prior. the post had quotes, "this was mueller to barr." the department of justice sent to congress and released to the public late in the afternoon, march 24th did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions. there is now public confusions about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. t

hearing >> if these guys want to keep diggi digging, fine. mueller is the last word for me >> guaido escalated the tension calling for a full military uprising. >> he was ready to leave. the russians indicated he should stay >> they are trying to come to grips with what the aftermath might be. >> announcer: this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> good morning. welcome to your "new day." so has the entire prism with which we view the mueller report changed? we now know special counsel robert mueller doesn't like the spin that the attorney general put on this. overnight, we learned the special counsel sent a letter to william barr in late march telling him his four-page summary of the report, quote, didn't fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions. the two long-time friends spoke by phone with the special counsel telling barr his summary lacked mueller's nuance on obstruction of justice. >> it also appears bill barr wasn't truthful when he spoke to congress two weeks after getting mueller's letter. here's a small portion >>

lost the trust of the american people. he read all 448 pages of the mueller report but he also said something else, he said he thinks partisanship is overtaking the responsibility that congress has to oversight and separation of powers. but here's what he had to say in his own words as well. >> to me the comment was obviously impeachable, so the question is do you then move forward with impeachment proceedings? and my biggest concern, i thought about this for a long time, like i said, i spent a month reviewing, analyzing, thinking about it, and i am concerned we've gotten to the point where impeachment could never be used in any circumstance and i think that is a greater risk than the risk that it will be used too often. >> leann, that is what congressman amash had to say. i must ask, what did the people who attended the town hall have to say? >> steph, so he got a standing ovation when he walked in the room. there were about 800 people in a packed auditorium. there were a lot of democrats who came to offer their support for the congressman but this is a red district, and swechbcons

mueller report, which president trump seized on to declare himself exonerated in the russian investigation, it's another thing entirely when the person doing the objecting is robert mueller himself. it's the breaking news hitting the night before william barr is set to testify before the senate judiciary committee. for weeks all we had was the four-page summary which looked to clear the president entirely. tonight we're learning the special counsel had serious concerns about that, serious enough to write his own friend the attorney general. cnn's pamela brown has the details. explain what we've learned about the letter. >> reporter: we are learning tonight, anderson, that special counsel robert mueller sent a secret letter to the attorney general in late march, in the wake of that four-page letter that the attorney general had sent to congress about the special counsel's investigation. as you pointed out, bill barr, the attorney general, provided the principle conclusion saying that the special counsel did not find collusion and that it couldn't reach a conclusion on obstruct

mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> that he was not going to make an -- >> -- right. >> on march 24th, he sent out a letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and march 24th, you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th. and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the deputy, the principle associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that had dealings with the special counsel's office. so they had knowledge of a number of the episodes and some of the thinking of the special counsel's office. so, right after march 5th, we started discussing what the implications of this were and how we -- >> and you made the decision when? >> probably on sunday the 24th. >> that's the day the letter came out? >> yes. >> you didn't make the decision until the letter came out? >> no. >> you told somebody how to write the letter. when did you actually decide that there was no obstruction? >>

>>> robert mueller has broken his silence speaking directly to the american people for the first time since his probe began. he defended his team. he defended his investigation. he defended his findings, but perhaps most important is what he did not do. he did not clear the president. he did the opposite. essentially mueller told the country that the president is not innocent and suggested that trump is not facing criminal charges right now not because his actions don't warrant them but because d.o.j. policy does not allow it. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. the introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. it explains that under long standing department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. that is unconstitutional. even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited. the special counsel's office is part of the depar

filled with confusing, conflicting thoughts and double and triple negatives about what mueller was not allowed to do and what he didn't say about what he would do if he didn't have to, this was positively clear. russia interfered. they're going to do it again. and seeing how effectively their efforts put us at each other's throats, they have every incentive to go bigger than ever. >>> thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon right now. >> are you more interested in the welfare of the country? are you more interested in truth and facts, or are you more interested in protecting the president? i think that's a question not only for the people of this president, the people around him, but also the people supporting him, and that includes viewers and voters of this president and supporters of this president. which do you care about the most? protecting someone who has clearly misled you when it comes to what's in this report, protecting them at all costs, or protecting the country and our election process? i think that's a good question to ask people who are watching this ton

of the robert mueller final statement, at least if he has his wish. here is ari melber with our continuing coverage. >> good day to you. our special coverage is continuing right now. special counsel bob mueller's extraordinary statement, his first ever as special counsel. a public address, and this is the first time we've heard from him of course since the release not only of his report but since this entire investigation began. it comes amist growing pressure. and mueller providing his first oral summary ever as he formally resigned from his post at the department of justice. >> i have not spoken publicly during our investigation. i'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete. the attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public. we are formally closing the special counsel's office and as well, i'm resigning from the department of justice to return to private life. as alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, russian intelligence officers who were part of the russian military launched an attack on our political system. the indictment all

as to the actions he took and why he took them regarding the mueller report. and here's the good news. here's the mueller report. you can read it for yourself. 400 and something pages. i can't say i've read it all, but most of it. there is an unredacted version over in the classified section of the senate, a room where you can go look at the unredacted version. and i did that. and i found it not to change anything in terms of an outcome. but a bit about the mueller report. who is mueller? for those who may not know -- i don't know where you've been, but you may not know. bob mueller has a reputation in this town and throughout the country as being an outstanding lawyer and a man of the law who is the fbi director, who is the deputy attorney general, who is in charge of the criminal division at the department of justice. he was a united states marine. and he has served his country in a variety of circumstances long and well. for those who took time to read the report, i think it was well written, very thorough. and let me tell you what went into this report. there were 19 lawyers emplo

mueller if he wanted to review. he declined leaving the impression that he was wringing his hand. you died grand attorney general as opposed to me. in reality, he was saying to him i already invented a wheel. you want me to see if your square peg will guy up the hill. that's not what is going to happen. i wrote the executive summaries and you should have that. notice what barr did today was in demoting robert mueller, elevated the press as a problem by saying there could be no corrupt intept. he was trying to correct the record of the "new york times." and as a matter of law or executive authority he wasn't going to be able to violate that statute. he called mueller's decision prudential about the opinion meaning it was always the elephant in the room. it wasn't the idea of i never considered it. i was dismissive of it t. was the elephant in the room here is that i can't do anything about this. >> let me get your thoughts on how the first couple of hours has been going. >> well, barr sure did establish that he told the truth when he answered the question about whether mueller obj

of the mueller report. overnight we learned the special counsel robert mueller sent a letter to bill barr in late march expressing concern about the attorney general's four-page summary of his report. mueller told barr those four pages failed to fully capture his findings. the two old friends spoke by phone with mueller raising concerns about how barr's conclusions made the public more confused >> did robert mueller get played by william barr? if he meant to send a message on obstruction, did he fail because he was outmaneuvered by barr? when will we hear from robert mueller himself? his testimony seems guaranteed and crucial. did the attorney general lie in testimony he's already given on the report? how will he explain his selective quotes from the mueller report that seem to twist mueller's intent? some democrats are calling for impeachment of the attorney general. this makes for what could be an explosive day. jessica snyder is live from washington this morning. >> reporter: good morning, john. this was set to be a contentious hearing already. now even more so. democrats spent th

, some of the big news that happened today is that today we got word, i guess, that robert mueller, hence forth, shall speak for himself. at least we sort of got that word. now, this is only a single source report thus far and you should consider that. but nbc news is reporting according to one source familiar with the matter that the judiciary committee in the house led by kongman jerry nadler, that committee has begun discussions directly with robert mueller's team about mueller himself coming to testify to congress. according to nbc's reporting previously, the committee had been trying to arrange mueller's testimony and they had been discussing that matter with the justice department assuming that the justice department could speak for robert mueller and would facilitate his testimony. there have been multiple reports and some scathing allegations from democratic members of congress recently that the justice department has been blocking that, that they've been refusing to set a date for mueller's testimony, they've been slow walking the requests for mueller's testimony from mult

bob mueller walk out and we're going to be watching for is he alone, is mr. barr behind him or in the room, what are the first words that bob mueller wants to publicly utter? a man who is reticent, sometimes to a fault his supporters say. he clearly has something to say. does he in any way elude to or cite what we know to be major disagreements with mr. barr about what mueller found in his investigation and about evidence about sitting the president. >> here we have for the first time publicly in more than two years robert mueller. >> thank you for being here. two years ago the acting attorney general asked me to sv as special counsel. and he created the special counsel's office. the appointed directed the office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. this included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. now i have not spoken publicly during our investigation. i'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete. the attorney general has made the report on our

would have said so. >> robert mueller finally speaks. >> we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. >> and tells congress effectively, it's their job to deal with the criminal president. >> the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. >> tonight, what we learned from today's statement from the special counsel. >> this is stronger than the language in his report. >> what democrats plan to do about it. >> we want to do what is right and what gets results. >> how robert mueller's statement underscores bill barr's deception. >> i said, bob, what's with the letter? senator cory booker on why he is now for beginning impeachment proceedings. >> how mitch mcconnell and the white house are leaving america's elections unguarded in 2020. >> there were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our election. that allegation deserves the attention of every american. >> "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york. for the first and possibly the last time,

democrats responding to mueller's statement by pushing for impeachment. we have that story. also the man who played mueller himself, robert de niro, teaming up with prosecutors in a bid to get public attention for what to do next. the director of that very video joins me later this hour, rob reiner. >>> our top story tonight, the day after bob mueller broke his silence is something that you may have seen before. it is a pattern the trump administration has settled on when dealing with bob mueller's sometimes explosive and negative findings. let me tell you exactly what this is. i call it the mueller sandwich. like any sandwich, the title comes from the meat, in this case mueller. but team trump figured out a way to blunt what they may view as the bitter taste of mueller's meaty evidence by sandwiching him with a lot of barr. if you remember, there was a lot of barr before any of the mueller report came out. there was more barr during that unusual press conference to upstage the report on the very day it came out. and now that bob mueller has spoken for what he says he hopes to be the

now. thanks for watching. >>> happening now, breaking news. not clearing trump. robert mueller breaks his silence, declaring publicly that his investigation did not clear president trump and stressing that if the special counsel's investigators had been confident the president did not commit a crime, the final report would have stated that. >>> unable to charge. the special counsel explains why charging the president with a crime was never an option under justice department rules and contradicts statements by the attorney general. >>> ready to beach. the special counsel again seems to be passing the baton to congress and more democrats are now calling for impeachment. why are house leaders still cautious about launching an inquiry? >>> and wind and water. millions of americans are under a severe weather threat tonight as powerful tornadoes and historic flooding bring death and destruction to the heartland. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking news. in a dramatic public appearance, special counsel robert mueller sets the record straight, stressing his report d

green light from mr. mueller himself to take up obstruction for themselves? the words from "the washington post" and "the new york times" excerpted from a letter that mr. mueller wrote to the attorney general that his memo to congress did not capture the context, nature, and substance of the work done by mr. mueller and his team, especially with regard to obstruction. now that language suggests that that is not exactly what the man that made the report felt about his own findings. what does this disagreement mean? we have to get into it deeper. we have one of the reporters that broke the story and we have experts to give us an understanding of the context but the words are going to matter. you're going to hear a lot of democrats and a lot of people on the left say that this means everything. and i'm telling you, read the reports, the let's go through the analysis together. tomorrow is now a huge day. the a.g. is going before the senate judiciary committee. it was supposed to be a friendly thing, but not after this report. now mr. barr is going to have to answer for the nature of

after the attorney general called mueller's criticism of his four-page summary, quote, a bit snitty. will robert mueller come to capitol hill to answer questions? >> barr is refusing to testify today before the house judiciary committee when it convenes in two hours because he doesn't want to be questioned by the committee's staff attorneys. barr offered no apologies for his handling of the report yesterday. he admitted he didn't review mueller's underlying evidence before his summary of the report. we'll speak to senator kamala harris about that exchange in just minutes. lauren fox is live inside the hearing room. she's there. william barr, not going. what is going to happen today? >> this is the room where bill barr was supposed to be. in the chair behind me, that's where bill barr was going into sitting to be grilled by house democrats with concerns about how he handled the mueller report and its rollout. he's not attending because of a dispute with chairman jerry nadler over the format of the hearing. what nadler wanted was to allow staff lawyers on the republican and democratic

committee members on the mueller report an hour from now. it will be a long day, an interesting day. we'll see what we learn together as we say good morning live in new york city. i'm bill hemmer. happy anniversary to you and your husband. >> sandra: thank you very much, bill. i'm sandra smith. we're awaiting bill barr's arrival for an action-packed few hours inside the hearing room. both sides digging in their heels as the politics on the mueller report will be on display today. >> bill: a lot of drama kicked off late last night when a report was leaked to two different newspapers claiming mueller wrote to the a.g. in march saying his summary didn't -- >> no doubt he will take heat for it. democrats are signaling that what they intend to do. the fact is there was nothing inaccurate or misleading about it. so what do they have left to complain about? well, perhaps they didn't like the way it was characterized by the media. but they own the media for the most part and they should take it up with the media, not the attorney general. >> sandra: big day coming up. live fox team coverage

remarkable statement in the last hour fraumom the russia special counsel robert mueller after two years of public silence, mueller giving a ten minute summary of his investigation that injects new drama into the big debate over impeachment. mueller restated his core findings. the russian interference in the 2016 presidential election here in the united states was clear and systematic. two, there was not enough evidence to charge a broader conspiracy between the trump campaign and russian meddlers. and three, if the special counsel could have said no obstruction as the president claims he did, he would have said so. listen to this. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. the introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. it explains that under long standing department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. that is unconstitutional. even if the charge is kept under seal

what was a heated senate hearing today on his handling of the mueller report. it lasted nearly four hours, contentious at times, highlights of that in a moment. but first i want to go to cnn's pamela brown at the white house with breaking news about tomorrow's sudden reversal. so what happened, pamela? >> reporter: well, anderson, attorney general barr is taking this unusual step of declining an invitation to testify before the house judiciary committee tomorrow morning, raising tensions even more with house democrats. and this move follows a dispute over the proposed format for this hearing with democrats demanding that barr face questions from committees' lawyers, this was a decision formalized by a vote today. now, a justice department spokeswoman released a statement saying the committees' demands are, quote, unprecedented and unnecessary. and on the other hand, the committee's chairman, jerry nadler, says the administration is trying to dictate the terms of the hearing on the committee's turf, and he's threatening to subpoena barr and hold him in contempt. but barr's rejection

post," robert mueller is unhappy with how his report was characterized and said in as such. the timing is interesting because bill barr is hours away from appearing before senate judiciary and this may explain why he's fighting the demands of house democrats. we'll preview tomorrow's testimony tonight and look at what it means for individual one, bill barr's boss as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a consequential tuesday night. good evening once again from our nbc headquarters. day 831. this pertains to bill barr. in plain english, it sure seemed to a lot of people these past few weeks that trump's new attorney general may have shaded the truth of the mueller report from the get-go, may have cherry picked the facts in it. he certainly tailored his words to please his boss and gives donald trump air cover, plenty of it to say as trump did loudly and proudly and incorrectly that he totally had been vindicated, no conclusion and no obstruction. tonight we learned robert mueller had some of those concerns as well. both major newspapers relentlessly covering the story are on the bo

million f.b.i. agents, i appreciate very much what mr. mueller did for the country. have read most of the report. or me, it is over. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, attorney general. on march 24, you sent a letter to chairman graham and the ranking member of this committee providing your summary of the principle conclusions set out in -- principal conclusions set out in special counsel mueller's report. this was widely reported as a win for the president and characterized as confirming there was no conclusion. following this letter, the white house put out a statement declaring the special counsel, and i quote, the special counsel did not find any collusion and did not find any obstruction, end quote, and that the report, quote, was a total and complete exoneration, end quote, of the president. however, last night, the "washington post" reported that special counsel mueller sent you a let for the late march where he said your letter to congress failed to, quote, fully capture the context, nature, and substance of his office's work and conclusion. end quote. and that he spoke w

your letter, namely, that it would be in the public interest. sincerely yours, robert mueller. now, i know that after this letter from robert mueller from march 27th came out, was shown to the public for the first time this morning, i know that thereafter attorney general william barr went on to testify all day long in the senate about robert mueller and about robert mueller's supposed findings from his investigation, but after seeing this letter this morning, i mean, my god, he is the last person you would ask to tell you anything about robert mueller. i mean, this is robert mueller saying, hey, attorney general barr, stop lying about my report. and it gives us a ton of new information about how hard mueller has been fighting to try to get his report out and how many times and how many ways barr has been blocking that from happening. i mean, what we get from this letter from mueller is that on march 5th -- march 5th, that's when barr meets with mueller and mueller tells him, i'm going to have introductions and executive summaries in the report on my investigation. those introductions

counsel bob mueller stepped to the microphone and said he was stepping away from the special counsel's office to return to private life. did not take any questions -- did not take any questions but left a number of questions out there. andrea mitchell will try to answer them. i'll see you tomorrow morning. >>> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington continuing our breaking news. our coverage here in washington where after more than two years robert mueller just broke his silence announcing his resignation as special counsel. saying he hopes and expect this is will be his last spoken word onto subject, but not exonerating the president. >> as said forth in the report after that investigation, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. >> in that excerpt from the report, mueller saying for the first time that from the out set of the probe under justice department rules, his office could not indict a sitting president but indicating that now it'