"new york times," some on mueller's team see their findings as more damaging for trump than barr revealed. one is standing by with detail. >>> plus democrats ask the irs for six years of the president's tax returns with a deadline of next wednesday. setting opbattle over some of donald trump's deepest secrets. house intel wants to interview a former confident of melania trump about it the trump inauguration. all off this on a busy wednesday night. ♪ >>> good evening once again from our nbc news head quarters in new york. i'm nicole wallace in for brian williams. day 804 of the trump administration and there's breaking news from the "new york times." stunning report the first window into how some of mueller's investigators feel about attorney barr's description of their 22-month endeavor says some of mueller's investigators claim their results are more damaging to the president than what's been revealed this far. one of the authors of tonight's piece joins us in a minute. he and his colleagues report some of the investigators quote have told asoegsziates that if attorney general

trump than barr revealed. one of the reporters on that byline is standing by with details on the times big mueller scoop. >> ever plus, democrats ask the irs for six years of the president's tax returns with a deadline of next wednesday, setting audiota setting up a battle over president trump's details. all of this as the 11th hour gets under way on a busy wednesday night. >>> good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i'm nicolle wallace in for brian williams. day 804 of the trump administration, and there is breaking news tonight from the "new york times." their stunning report, the first window into how some of mueller's investigators feel about attorney general barr's description of their 22-month endeavor says some of special counsel robert mueller's investigators are frustrated and claim their results are more damaging to the president than what's been revealed thus far. one of the authors of tonight's times piece, mike schmidt joins us in a moment. he and his colleagues report some of the investigators "have told associates that attorney general wi

. >> but you don't know? >> i don't know. >> in today's "new york times" nadler slammed barr's four-page summation of mueller's findings, write "by offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general a recent political appointee, undermines the work and integrity of his department. a senior administration official calls nadler's move political theater. on friday the attorney general pledged to release a redacted version of the mueller report he says is nearly 400 pages long by mid-april, if not sooner. donald trump is now warning that may not be enough for his critics write "no matter what information is given to the crazed democrats from the no-collusion mueller report it will never be good enough. behind closed doors, the dems are laughing. when asked publicly of the release of the report trump's been all for it. >> does the american public have a right to see the mueller report? >> i don't mind. frankly i told the house if you want let them see it. >> the attorney general, but it wouldn't bother me at all. >> the attorney general said he intends to release th

slammed barr's four-page smagz, writing quote by offering us his version of events in lieu of the report, the attorney general undermines the work and init teg rety of his department. a senior administration official calls it political theater. on friday the attorney general pledged to release a redacted version of the mueller report he says is nearly 400 pages long by mid-april if not sooner. and president trump writing quote no matter what information is given to the crazed democrats from the no collusion mueller report, it will never be good enoughf. behind closed doors, the demes are laughing. but when asked publicly about the release of the report, trump's bun all for it. >> i don't mind. frankly i told the house if you want, let them see it. >> it's up to the attorney general but it doesn't matter to me at all. if that's what he'd like the do, i have nothing to hide. >> the latest polling shows the vast majority of americans agree it the report needs to be released. and a new poll shows only 29% of americans believe the mueller report clears trump of wrong doing. 49% say it does no

trump administration. we heard from attorney general william barr for the first time since the mueller investigation wrapped up. as expected he took a pass on some questions entirely and hijd on others. but he talked about the process of removing sensitive information from the report during releasing it to the public. >> we will color code the excision from the report and we will provide explanatory snoets describing the base it for each redaction. this process is going along very well and my original timetable of being able to release this by mid april stands, within a week. i'll be in a position to release the report to the public. >> interesting. barr added he would engage the chairs of both the house and senate judiciary committees about any requests they may have. barr told lawmakers he is redacting grand jury material, information that could compromise intelligence sources, ongoing investigations and material that could violate privacy of people not charged. democrats peppered barr with questions concerning the report. >> the letter of the 24th you mr. mueller's office did not re

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 board tonight with different versions of the same big story. mueller was bothered by what he saw and hea

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. this threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the department of justice appointed the special counsel. to assure public confidence of the outcome of the investigation. mueller did not stop there. according to the post, the letter from mue

news tonight, the attorney general bill barr will hold a press conference 9:30 eastern time tomorrow morning to talk about the mueller report before anyone hat seen the mueller report.re fevered speculation tonight as we appear to be inside the 12-hour window prior to its release. >>> democrats are saying it's telling that mueller won't be alongside his long time friend the attorney general tomorrow. we may in fact hear from the president before the report is out. both sides tonight conceding it will likely contain information damaging to the president. the big question this evening how much will be blacked out, how much will we learn, and what will be talking about by this il time tomorrow night? as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a wednesday evening, the eve of the mueller report. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news ll headquarters here in new york. day 818 of this trump administration. the eve as we said of the long awaited release of at least the edited or redacted version of the mueller report, the result of 22 months worth of work, 22 months worth of

, accusing bill barr of committing a crime, lying to congress. >>> and tonight we've learned those house democrats may be dealing with robert mueller directly to schedule his testimony. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a thursday night. >>> and good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 833 of the trump administration and the president has just made the latest move in this standoff between the white house and the democrats in congress. trump now says he's inclined to just say no to his former white house counsel don mcgahn testifying before congress. the house judiciary committee has already subpoenaed mcgahn, who, of course, is a star witness in the mueller report, as he spelled out the president's efforts to undermine the russia investigation and get rid of mueller. here's what the president told fox news tonight when asked if he'd allow mcgahn to appear before congress. >> i've had him testifying already for 30 years. >> so is the answer no? >> so i don't think i can let him and then tell everybody else you can, especially him because he

conclusions at length and it raises questions about what mr. barr might have left out. our own julia ainsley suggests he provided evidence to back up his conclusions raising questions how much of that evidence the public will see. house democrats have told barr they want the report by next tuesday but barr has told the house judiciary chairman democrat, jerry nadler of new york that he is unlikely to be able to meet that deadline. kasie hunt reports that the delay could result in a major confrontation between democrats and the attorney general. earlier today nancy pelosi criticized barr's handling of the mueller report. >> no thank you, mr. attorney general. we do not need your interpretation. show us the report, and we can draw our own conclusions. we don't need you interpreting for us. it was condescending and it was arrogant and it wasn't the right thing to do. >> and again, in the meantime, in this period before we are able to see what we're allowed to see of the mueller report, republicans have launched an effort to unseat house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff, democ

report. so this really is coverage of a letter that bill barr wrote, the four-page letter from the attorney general, describing and interpreting what he read in the mueller report. barr writes, among other things, quote, "the special counsel's investigation did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 u.s. presidential campaign." it's important to note that mueller did not draw a conclusion about whether or not the president obstructed justice. barr directly quoted mueller's report that said, "while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." barr went on to say that he and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein concluded, "the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense." the president immediately seized on barr's summary of mueller's report claiming complete and total exoneration. >> there was no collusion with russia. t

comments, attorney general bill barr who looks like a man whose gone out of his way to preserve, protect and defend his boss and the trump presidency. and now the big choice before the democrats and the house while already tonight the president is back to calling it a witch hunt as "the 11th hour" gets underway on this wednesday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 860 of the trump administration and today was striking at a basic level because we haven't heard robert mueller's voice for over two years, yet we've talked about him every night for the same length of time. we don't know if he was frustrated by how his hard work has been portrayed. we don't know if he was angry at the way the attorney general got out ahead and summarized his work or how the president spun it over these interveing weeks. we're left only with his words as he spoke them on his last day at work and last day in public life. "the washington post" editorial page spoke for a lot of people tonight when they wrote he should have said this weeks ago but make no mi

the attorney general william barr. earlier today house judiciary chairman jerry nadler of new york said he spoke on the phone with the attorney general about the april 2nd deadline that democrats have set for the release of the mueller report. >> i asked him about the length and breadth of the mueller report. he told me it was a very substantial report, a very substantial report. i asked him when we would see it. and he couldn't get specific. he said weeks, not months. it is apparent that the department will not meet the april 2nd deadline that we set and i am very disturbed by that. i asked whether the -- whether he could commit that the full report, and the unredacted full report with the underlying documents, evidence would be provided to congress and to the american people. and he said -- he wouldn't commit to that. >> new polling from cnn meantime shows 57% of americans want congress to pursue hearings into the findings of the mueller report. 43% want congress to take no action and end the investigation completely. same polling showing 56% saying the president has not been exo

barr to release the mueller report. however much we're able to see of it as the president spends the weekend at home waiting like the rest of us. donald trump was able to throw out a giant distraction, his threat to use migrants as a weapon and send them to sanctuary cities as punishment. then today's story that he promised a federal official a pardon in case he got in trouble for breaking the law and closing the southern border. and he's one of the men who brought us donald trump. now steve bannon, enemy of what he calls the administrative state is aiming even higher as the 11th hour gets under way on a friday night. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 813 of the trump administration and it's a weird feeling on this friday night. we don't yet know how this story is going to change exactly in a few days. it certainly feels like this coming week will be a consequential one for this presidency. all we know is this. next week will bring the edited or redacted version of the mueller report which right now remains entirely in the control of the

wrote about. 8 in 10 americans want to see it. james comey's first public comments on the barr letter, a reporter at the event tonight standing by. and after his victory lap on collusion. one official joked to a new york times reporter, too much positive news, we needed to change the subject. the 11th hour getting underway on a tuesday night. >>> good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 796 of the trump administration, and as congress tries to get its hands on the mueller report, we're learning more about when some version of it may be made public and it's another necessary reminder. what people are reacting to this week on both sides is not the mueller report. but rather a four-page letter summarizing it by the attorney general. a justice department official told nbc news the attorney general will make a version of the report publicly available in weeks not months. the official already said there are no plans to give a copy of the report to the white house in advance, earlier today, senate judiciary chairman lindsey graham of south carolina told re

protect it. barr has come under scrut an for t -- scrutiny for a memo he wrote that questioned mueller's investigation into obstruction. today he stressed his support for the special counsel and the inquiry. >> i believe it is vitally important that special counsel be allowed to complete his investigation. i said his selection was good news and that knowing him i had confidence he would handle the matter properly and i still have that confidence today. >> do you believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt against anybody? >> i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. i believe the russians attempted to interfere with the elication and i think we have to get to the bottom of the. >> the issue of recusal came up today. current acting ag who was critical of the mueller investigation refused to recuse himself. here's barr's response to the committee. >> let's imagine it's a judgment call and the judgment by the ethics committee -- >> and what would the basis of that disagreement be? >> my judgment. >> and that's based on what? >> the facts. >> it appea

, pressure mounting on attorney general william barr to release the mueller report. the doj on defense, amidst leaks from the special counsel's office, is there more to what mueller found about obstruction than barr let on? the president does an about face on his border shutdown threat while battling pressure from democrats to release his tax returns next week, and joe biden today, spotted in his hometown of scranton, was he shooting his first campaign ad? the 11th hour on a thursday night starts right now. >>> good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i'm steve kornacki in for brian williams. day 805 of the trump administration. the president is now facing new challenges after a rough 36 hours, including stepped up investigations from democrats in congress and new questions about the attorney general's handling of the mueller report. house democrats have now formally demanded six years of trump's tax returns. trump's accounting firm says it plans to respond to any forthcoming subpoenas for financial records. lawmakers now want to talk to trump's top inau

, william barr, and there are questions about what he will release, what he'll show to congress and what the public will get to see. democrats have been concerned about this. they're trying to get a clearer answer from bill barr. without that happening, is this the democrats' way of getting to had the bottom of what mueller might have already seen while they can, in order to make sure the public has some idea of what's been happening? >> i think it's part of it. i think the decision will be ultimately up to not just the attorney general, but also probably to the courts. because i suspect at the end of the mueller investigation, democrats in the house are going to demand not just whatever the report looks like, but also all the underlying evidence. there has been a precedent set over the last year where doj has turned over hundreds of thousands of documents at the insistence of house republicans. they turned over lots of documents at the end of the clinton investigation. so i think you'll see democratic house chairmen insist on the same. by the way, i suspect that goes not just for t

charge, and democrats exploded in response. >>> on the mueller front, william barr said he hopes to put the report out next week, while the president describes it as an attempted coup that he defeated. >>> and the "wall street journal" reports trump insiders keith schiller and hope hicks have both spoken to the feds about hush-money payments. the person who broke the story is here as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a wednesday night. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 811 of the trump administration. fox news heard that the trump campaign was somehow spied upon by our government in a way that circumvented due process in this country. today we heard our attorney general william barr make that same charge. it came during a hearing of the senate appropriations committee. >> one of the things i want to do is pull together all the information from the various investigations that have gone on, including on the hill and in the department, and see if there are any remaining questions to be addressed. we want to make sure that during -- i thin

there. we have to now, because the special -- because barr misled the country, we have to hear from barr, which we will on may 2nd. we have to hear from mueller and ask him a lot of questions. we have to hold hearings and hear from other people. >> while there has been startlingly little from republicans about the report, which after all details the electronic warfare waged against our country by the russians, we heard from utah republican senator mitt romney today, and we quote, i am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president. he goes on to say, i am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from russia, including information that had been illegally obtained, that none of them acted to inform american law enforcement, and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting russian interests in ukraine. it is about time for our lead-off discussion on this good friday night. back with us from his new home in brussels, mat

committee, william barr, a former u.s. attorney general in the early '90s and trump's pick to be our next attorney general had his confirmation hearing begin today. a lot of the questioning dealt with the mueller investigation and the lengths he will go to protect it. barr has also come under scrutiny for a memo he wrote to the justice department sent around town in washington that no one had requested, because it questioned mueller's investigation into obstruction. well, today he stressed his support for the special counsel and the inquiry. >> i believe that it is vitally important that the special counsel be allowed to complete his investigation. when he was named special counsel, i said his selection was good news and that knowing him, i had confidence he would handle the matter properly. and i still have that confidence today. >> do you believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt against anybody? >> i don't -- i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. i believe the russians interfered or attempted to interfere with the election, and i think we have

, maybe some more nuance from the sworn public testimony of barr, certainly mueller. it seems to be that 90 something percent is in front of you and nobody wants to make a decision except senator warren? >> no, it's not about making a decision. it's about making sure we make an informed process. to me, mr. mueller did a great job. now it's up to us and that committee judiciary to do our job which is to look into the report. i want to hear from mueller himself, what happened, what he found out. i want to find out from mr. barr what is it that led him to come up with that four page conclusion. you know why? the american public needs to know what actually happened, what these folks came up with. >> what would make you support -- i could ask it either way, what would make you support a resolution for impeachment to begin the proceedings, the house has to vote for a resolution to begin the proceedings, not to vote on whether he's guilty or not or to impeach him or not but to begin the proceedings, what would get you to do that, what in this story line that would develop that would say to you,

special counsel robert mueller's team are accusing attorney general bill barr of downplaying some of their findings. their frustrations were first reported in "the new york times" and then "the washington post," and today a u.s. official confirmed it to nbc news. this is how the evidence against trump was characterized in these reports, which are all based on anonymous sources, so it's unclear exactly who on mueller's team feels this way, including mueller himself. "the times"' sources claiming the mueller's team's findings were, "more damaging for the president than barr revealed." "the post" sources pointing specifically at the evidence on the question of potential obstruction, "alarming and significant." nbc news, also on the question of obstruction, "compelling." the reports also indicate some on mueller's team wanted barr to -- excuse me, include more of the material from their summaries in his four-page letter to congress on march 24th, summaries that laid out key conclusions. one u.s. official telling "the washington post," "there was immediate displeasure from the team when t

hearings start next week, the incoming a.g. william barr would oversee the russia investigation even though he wrote in a now famous and unsolicited memo that the mueller investigation was ill conceived and "mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction." well, with us to talk about all of it tonight, the attorney neal katyal. he served as the government's top lawyer before the supreme court, acting solicitor general during the obama administration in that capacity. argued 37 cases before the supreme court. perhaps most notably he's a veteran of the d.o.j., where he drafted the special counsel regulations under way mr. mueller was appointed. counselor, thank you very much for coming back on our broadcast as always. what do you make of the rosenstein departure? do you think too much has been made of it? do you think anyone's really going to harm a hair on mueller's head? >> i think it's pretty significant and worrisome. so rosenstein is the kind of key man under the special counsel regulations because the special counsel

notably remains on recess. the report will follow by three weeks, that letter by attorney general barr that said mueller found no indication anyone associated with the trump campaign conspired with russia to influence the 2016 election. barr also said mueller withheld judgment, took a pass in other words on whether trump tried to obstruct justice during the inquiry. days ago barr told congress he does believe the trump campaign was spied upon in 2016. "the washington post" puts it this way. the house judiciary committee is poised to issue a subpoena for the report's redacted portion. bloomberg news writes, the reports released, quote, may be the start of a legal clash with subpoenas from committees in the democratic controlled house that could go all the way to the supreme court. tonight trump attorney jay sekulow is revealing some of the legal team's plans to respond to mueller. he tells our colleague hallie jackson the team met today to nail down plans to respond to the report. he said the lawyers will probably each be responsible for tackling a section of it and that they are still

house of representatives is expected to vote to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress over access to the mueller full report and his investigative material. barr has come under fire of his handling of the report's release and his apparent reluctance to fulfill requests from lawmakers as well as his decision to essentially clear the president of obstruction. former acting solicitor general neal katyal is an author of a piece in the "washington post" called, barr's zealous defense of trump makes it impossible to trust his legal judgment. he wrote, barr has thrown himself into this town. his conduct in trying to clear trump is of a piece with his baseless attacks on spying by the fbi and his defiance of congress's subpoenas. barr has shown himself to be an unreliable and unsteady voice careening from one position to the next, always in favor of protecting his boss. we're pleased to welcome neal katyal back on the broadcast, and it was a conflict you noted in two statements that barr has given separated by time that we're going to play now for our audience. we'll

read it out for you in just a moment. also, today, we heard more from attorney general bill barr and his critiques of the special counsel's work. his friend of several decades. in his cbs news interview this week on a trip to alaska, barr, again, made it clear that he's standing by this president who appointed him. >> one of the ironies today is that people are saying that it's president trump that's shredding our institutions. i really see no evidence of that. from my perspective, the idea of resisting a democratically elected president and basically throwing everything at him and, you know, really changing the norms on the grounds that we have to stop this president, that's where the shredding of our norms and our institutions is occurring. my experience with the president is we have a good professional working relationship. i don't think to tweets for -- i don't look at them as directives or as official communications with the department. >> it was just days ago when mueller broke his silence. barr was asked about the outgoing special counsel's comments about not being able to