That i would be very happy. Absolutely. Lets not forget i know we have said it. But this investigation is over. The president never sat down for an interview with Robert Mueller. Thats huge. That was always the big question and something the lawyers never wanted to happen. They were able to prevent that and a subpoena fight. Robb eert mueller never put in request that was rejected. Thats very significant. Stay with me. This is cnn breaking news. Were following breaking news. Very Important News here in washington. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. We want to update our viewers here in the United States and around the world on all of the dramatic developments unfolding right now. Pamela brown, tell our viewers what we know right now. Theres really significant historic information coming from the Justice Department. This is a momentum occasion, wolf. This nearly twoyear investigation by Special CounselRobert Mueller has now ended. The Attorney General has notified congress that it is over. He told congress that he could let them know, the judicial committees, let them know as soon as this weekend about the conclusions that Robert Mueller reached in the investigation. This is an investigation as we know that has swirled around President Trump since day one of his presidency, nearly two years. Now we are finding out its ended today. No noteworthy in the letter that bill barr provided to congress, he says there were no instances during the Special Counsels investigation where any requests were denied. That had been a big question. Had Robert Mueller wanted to interview the president , subpoena the president for an interview and was denied . Were learning there were no requests he made that were turned down. This is going very fast. Its a surprise to the reporters covering this that shortly after the Attorney General receives
the report that he is going to be telling Congress Members of congress what the conclusions were. This is a very fast turnaround. I think the Attorney General knows how much interest there is. We are getting a glimpse of what one of the first fights is. That is over how much the white house is involved. You saw the letters from Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi saying, we do not want you to give the president or his staff a Sneak Preview of what is in this report. The white house lawyers are with the president at maralago. They are expecting to be able to be brought into this process to weigh in on Executive Privilege. We will see how that plays out. This is a win for the president. Laura is reporting there are no more indictments. The president can now say, look, i told you it was a witch hunt. I told you there was no collusion. There are no charges relating to collusion, no charges related to Obstruction Of Justice. He never had to sit down for an interview. We have been reporting this. Rudy giuliani, the president s lawyer texted me. Wants to make sure we have the statement that the counselors for the president have released. Were pleased the office has released its report. A couple of vehicictories he. A different tone sg. The president did not have to sit down for an interview. He would get caught up in lies. Thats now over. No more people being indicted. Sealed, unsealed, no more indictments. Mueller is done. Huge victory for the president. We have a report of what mueller has done publically. We can see it from the court filings, from the charges that he has filed. 37 defendants, including six Trump Associates. Theres a lot of work that has gone into the investigation by any measure, under normal
circumstances, any normal investigation, this has been a fruitful investigation. 675 days long. This is not a normal investigation. This is an investigation that involves the president and his campaign. Thats the big thats the way were going to judge this. The judgment will be based on the idea that they were looking for collusion. They were looking for whether or not there was any conspiracy between people in the Trump Campaign and the russians. Robert mueller did not charge that. According to lauras information, none is coming. That really i think gives the president a sense of vindication. We will hear that. The conclusions, this weekend. The idea they will put out conclusions, thats very striking. It is. It occurs to me when we talk about scrubbing it, that its been prescrubbed. The question of privilege, which the white house was worried about they wanted that sneak peek so they could say this
conversation that you are reporting, you cant really report, maybe barr believes that there are no Privilege Issues here in the report. I think we dont know. The fact that he is going to report that quickly over the weekend may give us a hint that mueller knows that mueller in doing this took all of that into account. He has prepared a report. Knows its going to be public. From our reporting, we were aware that certainly by the end of february, Robert Mueller informed the Justice Department he was nearing a conclusion, he was ready to deliver a report. Bill barr took office in mid february. We knew that this was coming. So the question has been, why the delay . Everybody who was involved here had been briefed and was told they could they would see a report. What has happened in the three or four weeks . It appears that theres been b scrubbing, work to make sure the report that came to bill barr
was ready for prime time. Was ready could withstand scrutiny. Let me get jeffrey to react to that. Theres a big distinction between here conclusions and the underlying evidence in the report. Conclusions cannot be privilege. They cannot be classified. A conclusion is, there was Obstruction Of Justice, there was not Obstruction Of Justice, there was was or was not a relationship between the Trump Campaign and russian interests. I cant imagine there would be any sort of privilege or Classified Information issue. The underlying evidence is where things get complicated. Thats where you may you may see the white house asking for and probably receiving permission for a first look. I do think the one thing that
is a 100 certainty is that the president is going to claim victory. Because the president always proclaims victory, regardless of the facts. The way this is coming out without the underlying facts first, that there will be conclusions first, the president is certainly going to be in a position to declare victory, probably it looks like this weekend. Speaking of the president , lets go over to the white house. Jim acosta is our chief white house correspondent. I know you are getting reaction over there as well. Reporter thats right. The president is down at maralago for the weekend. Sarah sanders, she did put out a statement. It emphasizes how they are looking at all of this. It says the next steps are up to the Attorney General. We look forward to the process taking its course. The white house has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsels report. I spoke to a white house official a short while ago who said they havent sorted out the timetable in terms of when they
will be reviewing this, how they will review this. They are at the early stage of this like the rest of us, waiting for the details to come down. A couple of things i want to point out. I talked to a Legal Team Source familiar with the president s legal team strategy. This is something we should be looking forward to hearing from the president s team in the coming days is that they feel like they pursued a strategy of cooperation throughout this. Yes, the president , Rudy Giuliani had a strategy of undermining the credibility of the mueller probe. Behind the scenes, the way the lawyers feel is that they were highly cooperative with the Special Counsels office. They were providing all sorts of documents and so on. This is the kind of stuff you will hear from the president s lawyers and supporters in the coming days. One other thing, this goes to the conversation you were having a few moments ago, i talked to a Trump Campaign adviser recently who said that they felt inside the Trump Campaign, inside the president s Political Team that
this Mueller Report at the very end of all of this, that this Mueller Report was going to clear the decks for them, heading into the 2020 campaign. Just as the clouds are parting here in washington, theres a bit of rain this afternoon, there is an expectation inside trump world that this Mueller Report really clears away a lot of the clouds that were hanging over the president s head, almost every day we were talking about this russia investigation and the anticipation inside trump world, president s sporterspor supporters is they will charge into the 2020 campaign without this hanging over their heads. Thats a huge and significant victory for the president. One other thing, wolf, is talking to this Trump Campaign adviser, their sense is that the democrats up on capitol hill are not going to let this go. They will want to continue this pace of investigations all the way into the 2020 campaign. They feel like inside the Trump Campaign thats not good political strategy. That is going to backfire on the democrats. They like being in the position of saying, we want to move forward. Havent you had enough . The democrats may not want to do that. All of those things, wolf, all of those taulking points we wil hear in coming days. I think its remarkable hearing from the adviser describing Robert Mueller as a boy scout. That was one way the Special Counsel was described. Thats just a 180degree turn from the kind of rhetoric we have been hearing from the president , his supporters up until now. If we start hearing the president and his folks praise Robert Mueller, i think you will know exactly how they feel inside trump world as this report and the details are coming forward. Over the past two years we heard the word witch hunt, hoax, so many times from the president. We will see if that continues right now. The witch may be leaving town. Stand by. I want to bring in the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, adam schiff. He is joining us on the phone. You heard Robert Mueller wont be handing down any additional
indictments according to a Justice Department official. Does that suggest to you that this report will vindicate the president . I think what the report will do will set out the Prosecut Prosecutorial decisions, which cases he felt he had proved beyond a reasonable doubt and took them to indictment and which cases he felt the evidence may have been clear or convincing or preponderance or the evidence was not sufficient to take to a jury. Its important for people to realize that those are the criminal issues. The counterintelligence issues are separate and fully independent and important. This began as a Counterintelligence Investigation, an investigation into whether the president or others around him were acting as agents of a foreign power. Its going to be very important that that evidence be shared with the congress. Theres a statutory obligation
for the Justice Department to do so so we can make sure the country is protected whether it amounts to anything beyond a reasonable doubt. Be specific. Tell us what you are going to be looking for when you get this report. Well, first of all, we want to make sure the report is made public in its entirety. The house voted do it. The Attorney General said that he would be as transparent as possible consistent with policy. That means making the whole report public. We will insist on that. Second, we want to see the underlying evidence. There may be conduct that was criminal but not sufficiently provable or there may be a broader body of conduct that is deeply compromising to National Security but not a criminal matter. To give you an illustration, the president during the campaign and quite at odds with his public pronouncement of having no Business Dealings with the russians, was trying to make the biggest deal of his life and get the kremlins help to build this
tower in moscow. That is deeply compromising. When that project was discovered, that negotiations went on well after the president said they were, the kremlin tried to participate in the coverup along with the president. If theres other compromising information like that, Congress Needs to know so it can protect the country. How should lawmakers, congressman schiff, respond if bill barr decides to withhold what you would call significant information from congress . First of all, we need to point out to the department that it would be establishing a w horrendous double standard. During the last congress when republicans were in charge, the Justice Department provided over 880,000 pages of discovery to the congress in an investigation in which no one was indicted. That is the Hillary Clinton email investigation. It did so because it felt there was a significant Public Interest and because the congress insisted. We are insisting now the Public Interest is even great are because t because its more serious than Hillary Clinton. I would argue the department cannot adopt a double standard and should cooperate willingly. If it doesnt, we will subpoena. If theres evidence of a compromise, whether it arises to criminal conduct or not, it needs to be exposed. As you mentioned, you and so many other democrats, you want to see the underlying evidence, everything that was discovered over the past two years, not just what we call the top line conclusions. Are you confident you can win that fight if you have to if it has to wind up in court . I am confident we would win that fight. The Department Has demonstrated over the last two years its policy is consistent with that
disclosure, that it gave those Hundreds Of Thousands of pages of discovery in the clinton investigation to the congress because there was a Public Interest and need to know. That need is far greater here. In the case of Hillary Clinton, who did not become president , there was little risk of a coverup. In the present case where the president has daily, including today, sought to discredit the Mueller Investigation, has made false statements about his dealings with the russians, that of his family and campaign, there is all too much reason to fear a coverup. For that reason, the Department Needs to be transparent. Ultimately, were going to prevail. I would hate to be the lawyers arguing that somehow a policy that allowed them to provide discovery in the last congress prevents them from providing answering to congress now. What are the outstanding questions your committee, the house Intelligence Committee, for example, will continue to
investigate regardless of what the Mueller Report reveals . There are any number of examples that i could give you of information that we have obtained in our investigation, information thats become clear from the Special Counsel investigation that may not be summed up in a decision or disclosure that we decided to indict a but not b. To give you an illustration, we know that Paul Manafort was providing polling data to someone linked to russian intelligence. That may not have shown up in an indictment. But it raises profound questions about why the president ial campaign of donald trump was providing polling data, apparently detailed polling data, to someone linked to russian intelligence. Thats just one of the great many unanswered questions. If theyre not answered, then we are going to have to answer them. We have to find the truth. I would say this in terms of the administration, which professes
the desire for congress to work expeditiously, the degree to which they are transparent and provide this information from the Justice Department will greatly facilitate our ability to work swiftly. We have to reinvent the wheel, it will be far more time consuming and difficult. Will you call Robert Mueller to testify before your committee, mr. Chairman . If you do, will it be Behind Closed Doors or public . If necessary, we will call bob mueller or others before our committee. I would imagine that the Judiciary Committee may call the Attorney General before its committee if necessary. The department is under a statutory obligation to provide our committee with any information regarding significant intelligence activities, including counterintelligence. Its hard to imagine anything more significant than what bob mueller has been investigating. This began as a Counterintelligence Investigation by the fbi. It began as the same in our committee. We have a right to be informed. We will demand to be informed about it. As you know, very Sensitive Information is sometimes passed on to what they call the Gang Of Eight, the democratic and Republican Leadership of the Intelligence Committees, the leaders of the house and senate on a very confidential basis. Usually, its the most sensitive Classified Information. Would that be adequate as far as you are concerned, some of the most sensitive counterintelligence, intelligencerelated information that Robert Mueller may have collected, would that be okay if its passed on to the socalled Gang Of Eight . You are a member. I am a member. No, it would not suffice for the heads of the agency to come in and tell eight members of congress what happened. There may be a select subset of information that they feel they can only share because of the very sensitive sources which derive the information. But the volumes of information that the Special Counsel has
found, that needs to be shared with the whole committee. So we can evaluate what steps have to be taken to protect the country if theres compromise. This is not something that can come in in an afternoon and brief the Gang Of Eight and be done. We need the same discovery we saw during the last congress. It may be more extensive than that. To make sure that u. S. Policy is driven by u. S. Interests and not because the president or Anyone Around him is looking to make money from the kremlin on a tower or anything else. Congressman adam schiff, you are going to be very busy beginning this weekend when presumably you are going to be getting this report, or the conclusions from the Attorney General. Thanks so much for join uing us thank you. I want to bring in manu raju. You heard the chairman of the Intelligence Committee say congress will have to subpoena
the evidence if necessary, even subpoena Robert Mueller if necessary. Do you know that if that process is already underway . Reporter they have been talking about that for some time. Now that this report is complete, expect it to intensify in the coming days. Adam schiff has been trying to make the case that the underlying evidence underpinning the decisions by bob mueller, that needs to be turned over to congress. What he is citing in particular is what happened in the last congress with republicans controlling the house. There was still investigations what happened in 2016 with the fbi, its decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton. They turned over Tens Of Thousands of emails to capitol hill as part of the justice to show why the Justice Department did not pursue prosecution for Hillary Clinton. He says that precedent should apply to this situation right now involving bob mueller, that should be turned over to
congress. We are hearing some members saying that evidence should also be made public in addition to the report being made public. This process is going to begin to take shapes. What else is interesting is when schiff told you that bob mueller, he wants to bring him before the house Intelligence Committee. The question is, will schiff allow that to happen in a public setting . Schiff has been saying this needs to be transparent. Will the public see bob mueller testify . He seemed to suggest that bill barr would testify but before the house Judiciary Committee, set the lanes between what the house Intelligence Committee will do and the house judiciary will do Going Forward. Schiff suggesting that perhaps even if there was no more indictments, there could be compromising information involving the president. We will see that argument from democrats Going Forward, on though there was no indictment for the president or anyone else, there could be troubling information. Will they see any of that
information . Will the public see any of that . Will they see any of the underlying evidence . Thats the big question Going Forward and what the democrats are gearing up to fight in the days and weeks ahead. Those are important issues. Jeffrey toobin, i want your reaction to what we hear from the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee. Well, the Intelligence Committee is going full speed ahead. Regardless of what mueller finds. The counterintelligence issues here are different but they are they are in many respects as significant as the criminal issues. One thing adam schiff has talked about extensively he mentioned it with you is the issue of what was going on between Candidate Trump and russia during the campaign. That is not that is a counterintelligence issue. Its not necessarily a criminal issue. The issue of whether the
president was the Candidate Trump was doing russias bidding during the campaign because he wanted that big payday with trump tower moscow, that is something schiff and his committee will continue to investigate. That was true regardless of what mueller concludes. One of the great lessons it seems to me of the Trump Presidency is that no one ever changes their mind about anything. The fact is, regardless of what mueller finds or found, the same 40 were going to support the president , the same 55 were going to be opposed. We are in a political Trench Warfare here. I think those of us who would like to know the facts, who would like to know the underlying conclusions of this investigation, were the ones who should be paying attention and seeing what actual facts come out of this investigation. I think what we are seeing is kind of a slow political turning. We obviously havent seen the summary. In listening to chairman schiff, we have heard chairman schiff for two years say im going to wait for bob mueller. Bob mueller is going to tell us everything. Now he is saying, well, you know, maybe we need to bring him in before the committee. Obviously, he talked about trump tower and what the president was telling the American Public versus what he was doing in private. I wouldnt be surprised if the tables turn and you heard the president say, im vindicated and bob mueller becomes his hero. I wouldnt go that far. Suddenly, he trusts the Justice Department again. Its kind of its a flip. Its slow motion right now because were just getting these indicators. But i do think that you are going to see democrats not complaining about mueller per se. Schiff did not. But say, we need to see the underlying documents because they are thinking of the political issues here and more than the legal issues at this point. Mueller has said the Justice Department has said no more indictments. Look for white house officials to Pay Attention to what people like adam schiff are saying. They built up the Mueller Report. White house officials theyre going to latch onto that. They talked about that. Im told from people i have spoken with in the last hour, they were surprised that the Attorney General bill barr said he could reveal some information to lawmakers as soon as this weekend. They were not expecting that. They think it signals something good. Maybe the report is not that long. It doesnt have as many bombshells as some democrats have alluded it could. They are looking for that. They are watching this closely. The president is at his maralago resort. He has a big staff presence than normal. Pam noted the two big legal heavyweights are down there. Several other members of the
legal team were told, both of the Press Secretaries and several other west wing officials. Usually, the president Doesnt Travel with that many people to palm beach. He has his legal team. I want to bring in a congressman who serves on the committees investigating the president. Congressman, thanks for joining us. What questions do you hope this report will answer . Thanks for having me on, wolf. First of all, i agree with chairman schiff, not only the report needs to be made public but all the underlying documents supporting it. The types of questions that i will be asking myself right now and that i hope get answered are, whats the scope of the investigation, what were the matters he decided not to pursue . Because he might have thought it was beyond his scope. What are the underlying facts and what are whats the reasoning supporting the
decisions that he made. Special counsel is not recommending any additional indictments, according to a Justice Department official. Does that surprise you . Not necessarily. I mean, just one question that arose as you were saying that was, you know, Justice Guidelines say you cannot indict the president. So what are the facts or what are the allegations that have been made against the president that he thought there was evidence to support but he Couldnt Go The Ultimate Step . Then, what are some of the things outside of the scope that might require other u. S. Attorneys offices or other investigative agencies to potentially pursue and prosecute . Do you have confidence in bill barr that he will handle the release of this report
adequately . Well, i have confidence that he is looking at the report now. I dont have full confidence he is going to make it transparent to the American Public. 80 or 90 of the American Public want this report to be made public. They paid for it. They should deserve to see it. They should be able to see the underlying documents and materials spo s supporting the. The Attorney General says the conclusions will be presented to congress, perhaps as early as this weekend. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Lets get reaction. Or legal analyst is joining us. Whats your reaction to these truly historic, dramatic developments . One of the most significant things is we have seen information that we know that we know and accept as true because we have seine it presented in indictments out of the Special Counsels office. Then theres an enormous body of
reported information, information about the president s conduct, about the conduct of individuals close to him. One of the most significant things about the actual substance of this report is the extent to which it is going to close the gap between information thats been credibly reported and information that is submitted as accurate in a legaling slegal i setting. We have seen congress holding off. They want to see whats in the Mueller Report. I think all of those facts, even if they are not technically new information, could be really significant if they end up being included in the report. Those are the facts that congress is going to accept as its baseline of reality and known information in Making Decisions forward, including potentially decisions regarding impeachment. Joey jackson, you have beend you think . Here is the with why the underlying reports are relevant. We can look at similar information and we could draw
different conclusions. I dont know by the fact that the conclusions will be releases that thats the be all and end all. Perhaps you look at the facts and documents and you draw alternate conclusions to what the Special Counsel has. I think as this moves forward, thats going to be relevant. The report in and of itself is not going to satisfy the appetite, i dont believe, of those who are evaluating it. I think congress has made clear and certainly as to your interview with adam schiff that theres more here. Lets remember were talking about this historic day, of course, but there are other things. When you lock at tok at the isso indictment, the president cant be indicted. Does it address the issue of who we are looking to see is the king pin, so to speak. Does that satisfy us that the president was not involved in the event there was information here against the president they couldnt do anything anyway . Lets see what the Southern District is going to do as it relates how much can they mention him
since he is the president . They cant indict him. Jeffrey was saying before and i agree, you cant write a report like this without somehow talking about the president s role or nonrole or unwitting role. I dont think you can dance around that. The fact is this is very much about the president. Its about the president people connected to the president. I just think theres no way not to disclose the relevant information that points to the president to say, we need to protect the president. Thats not going to happen. Thats why the white house is girding for a fight. This is one chapter ending. This opens up a new chapter. Thats this fight over the report, a subpoena fight. You heard the president say, let the people see the report. Behind the scenes, there has been a lot of strategizing to fight any subpoena from the democrats. Sources i speak with expect this to be decided by a federal judge. Its interesting. The Senate Majority leader mitch
mcconnell issued a statement. Will read the sentence. The Attorney General intends to provide as much information as possible. I sincerely hope he will do so as soon as he can and with as much openness and transparency as possible. Thats what they are going to say. The white house is also saying, we hope to see transparency. We hope to let bill barr do whatever he thinks is the best. We know what the president has been saying not only Behind The Scenes to his allies and his aides but publically to reporters in front of cameras on twitter about what he thinks about this investigation. Essentially, he framed it as its two ways. If it looks good for me, i trust the report and i trust Robert Mueller did a good job. If it reflects poorly, i think this is a hoax and they are after me. The president has set up how he is going to react. We know without even knowing whats in the report what the president is going to say. I do think not only the president s role will obviously be of interest, but what other roles of senior officials, including potentially jared
kushner, ivanka trump, other people around the president during these times that have had speculation on them by the Special Counsel, what does the report say about them . Jared kushner is one of the people, he works in the white house. He has top secret security clearance. It will be interesting not only what does did say about the president but the people around him. However, on that issue, i mean i think that issue is answered. It may be embarrassing what they did. It is questionable. Theres no indictment. Thats the question as to whether their conduct crossed the line. Im hearing from a source who was involved with the president s legal defense. He is not surprised that there are not other indictments. He is saying what we have been talking about which is that he likely wrote the report in a way that did not include any Executive Privilege stuff. Mueller and barr are professional and he wanted to spare, he believes, wanted to
spare barr a nightmare in giving it to him that way. When we have been talking about having this prescrubbed, thats his supposition because mueller knew that if he handed all of that over to barr, it would be terrible and it would leak. So he did it in advance so that barr can release this quickly. Maybe. Maybe. Remember, lets talk about some specifics, something we know that was of interest to mueller, which was the conversation on Air Force One after the New York Times reported the meeting at trump tower in june of 2016, that was designed to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Its quite clear that mueller was investigating whether the president engaged in putting out a false narrative. Thats just something that this
report, if its at all of value, has to address. That whole issue. If the president s lawyers want to take a hard line on Executive Privilege, they could assert that any discussion of the president with his advisors about the Trump Tower Meeting is covered by Executive Privilege. The idea that you could somehow just dodge Executive Privilege as an issue, i just dont see how its possible. I think that everyone involved, starting with the white house, is going to have to ask hard questions about whether they want this information to come out or theyre going to fight it. I dont think its a simple calculati calculation. You point out that since this Justice Department official says there will be no further indictments, donald trump junior, jared kushner, both of whom participated in that trump
towerrussians, they can breathe easily . Exactly. Its very important to be fair here. A lot of people have said the democratic equivalent of lock her up. They have been saying, lock up donald trump junior, lock up jared kushner. Jerome corsi had a Draft Indictment presented to him, the conservative writer. We now know that Robert Mueller is not indicting these people. I think its just its the only fair thing to do is to point out that that is a very Significant Development and it is very good news for the people who are not being indicted. Jeffrey is right about that. That is Something Big that the white house officials and people surrounding the president werent sure what the answerept we find out, what it could lead to other investigations. Loeld on. Chuck schumer is speaking. Now that Special Counsel mueller has submitted his report, its imperative for mr. Barr to make the full report and provide its underlying documentation to congress. Sorry. I didnt say that right. I left out a word. Is this better . Now that Special Counsel mueller has submitted his report to the Attorney General, its imperative for mr. Barr to make the full report public and provide its under dlying documentation to congress. Attorney general barr must not give President Trump, his lawyers or his staff any Sneak Preview of Special Counsel muellers findings or evidence. The white house must not be allowed to interfere in decisions about what parts of those findings or evidence should be made public. The Special Counsels
investigation focused on questions that go to the integrity of our democracy itself. Whether foreign powers interfered in our elections and whether unlawful means were used to hinder the investigation. The American People have a right to the truth. The watchword is transparency. In conclusion, the president himself has called without qualification for the report to be made public. Theres no reason on Gods Green Earth why Attorney General barr should do any less. Were only going to take one question or two. There are no new indictments is the word coming out. Do you think thats the case, that theres an apology to be made to the president . I think we should wait for the full report to be issued before jumping to any
conclusions. I should say that again. I think we should wait for full report to be made public before jumping to any conclusions. How confident are you were going to get the full depth of that report with a tru trumpappointed Attorney General . I think the demand of the public is overwhelming to see the report when its on such a serious matter. It will be made public. Public pressure will source it to be. Is there a time frame . No. Thank you, everybody. Last question to the yankee fan. Will you accept what it says . Im not going to draw any conclusions until we see not only the whole report but the underlying findings and documentation. Thank you, everybody. Very consistent line coming from the democratic leadership in the house and senate. They want to see everything, everything that was presented by the Special CounselRobert Mueller. Mark mazetti is joining us, he
is with the New York Times. He is a cnn analyst. What do you think . What do you think is going to happen . Its very clear from what the democrats have been saying is that this is just the beginning. They want not just a summary of findings, they want the full report and they want all of the files of mueller. Clearly, this is something they have been doing for some time, setting this up that this is a fight thats going on for a long time, that mueller some have said he had this narrow mandate that congress will look at it. This is a political issue that you can be sure is going to go right through the election. The trump side, of course, has basically set this up as collusion or bust. There is either collusion or this whole thing has been for naught. They have laid that groundwork as well. I think one thing jeffrey said earlier, which was a very interesting point, which is about the extent that the report will get into the president s
actions with his advisers as president. This is central to the Obstruction Of Justice. If the white house is going to assert Executive Privilege about any of his communications as president , well, thats really going to be the fight over what the Mueller Report found on the issue of Obstruction Of Justice, which we know has been a major part of the Mueller Investigation. Thats one thing im looking forward to, not only in the summary but in the future. Where do you think how long is it going to take, do you think the conclusions are going to be released perhaps as early as this weekend. How long is it going to take to get all of that information, assuming that the new Attorney General wants to be as transparent as possible . Right. We dont know what they are going to put out. He agreed to do a summary. He has not agreed to do the entire report. The democrats are demanding that he does so. I wouldnt necessarily read in too much into the idea that if
he presents his summary as early as tomorrow over the weekend that that means one thing or the other. People will try to spin that. I think its just something we shouldnt speculate on. Clearly, they are arguing that the battleground now moves to this idea of the entire report and the files, we immediate to know all the threads that mueller was pursuing. Mark, stand by. Pamela brown is with us. You are getting more information. The democrats are all saying they want to see everything. The Attorney General in his letter to the leadership of the house and senate Judiciary Committee says, i remain committed to as much transparency as possible and i will keep you informed as to the status of my review. Thats right. Its interesting seeing the reactions. I have been talking with people close to the white house who have a reaction of, this is good for us. We feel absolves. There arent any more indictments. There havent been on related to he conspiracy or obstruction. They feel like this is a good
day for them. Its interesting listening to the democrats. They are clear thein say, we wa the report april the undnd the documents. So that is key here. What i think is so significant in bill barrs letter is that he says as early as this weekend, which is a quick turnaround, he could provide members of congress with the conclusions. Presumably, we could learn as early as this weekend whether or not Robert Mueller actually believed, concluded that there was or Wasnt Collusion between members of the Trump Campaign and russia and Obstruction Of Justice. Again, it could be that there was conduct in the report unindictab unindictable. We will learn a lot in the next 48 hours or so. Then it becomes whether he could prosecute versus whether its political. Some democrats will want to impeach on what is in the
underlying documents. We dont know the answer to that. Bill barr has a big test, his first big test. Sending out the notification was easy that i got the report. Now theres a test of how much is he going to include . You heard Chuck Schumer say you better not give a Sneak Preview to the white house. The white house is expecting a Sneak Preview. Thats a little glimpse into whats ahead. Stand by. Jim acosta is at the white house. He he is getting more information. Reporter it sounds like the strategy for the evening for the white house is to not have the president make more comments. They called a lid over here and down at maralago where the president is. While they were creating some space in his schedule in case he felt like going out in front of the cameras, that appears to be out the window. He may tweet. We may find out later this evening when he is thinking. I did hear from one Trump Campaign adviser in the last few minutes who described this Mueller Report being turned in and this news that theres no new indictments in the mueller
report as a, quote, great day for america. That is the words coming from one Trump Campaign adviser. Were so early on in the process, as all of you were saying, that we still havent worked out the mechanics as to how the white house, the president s legal team, his outside legal team, when they will be reviewing this and how much they will be able to review and how that is going to really line up with whats happening up on capitol hill. A lot of unanswered questions. Confidence inside the president s team, inside his Political Team that if theyre not out of the woods, perhaps they can see just the edge of the woods. Important point. Let me bring in susan hennessey. It looks like a battle is shaping up between the democrats who want to see everything, including all the underlying documentation, and the Trump Administration, the Attorney General who says he will be as transparent as possible within Justice Department guidelines. This is something that adam schiff warned the republicans
back when nunes was the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was asking for this information that doj agreed to turn over about this underlying stuff. He said, you are setting a precedent. Im going to use it when we are in power. Thats what we are seeing. One thing to note is that bill barr might not have the final word. Adam schiff has said they intend to call Robert Mueller. Executive privilege is something that a witness or government can assert to withhold information. If mueller decides that he wants to testify about something, Executive Privilege is not something that prevent him from testifying if he chooses to do so. One thing to look for Is Whether Mueller feels satisfied that the information that he thinks is important for the American People to know and for congress to know is actually getting out. If not, he will have an opportunity to testify his own story and his own conclusions in front of congress. I know you are working your sources. What else are you hearing . What additional reactions . You heard jim note they
called a lid, no more expected public appearances from the president. There could be. But the president is attending this big republican dinner in palm beach tonight. You could expect the president is going to be talking about it. This is something that has consumed the president over the last several weeks, even though white house officials have insisted he is focused on other things. The president has really focused on this and been wanting to Pay Attention. If this comes out and exonerates the president , there are no new indictments, if it says good things that he wanted to hear, expect the president to taught mueller as this person of sterling character, someone who is a fair person. Thats what you will hear from the president. I wouldnt go that far. If it exonerates him, the president could portray him that way. Officials expect the president to essentially repeat the Public Campaign that we have seen him build up for the last 670 days, which is that this is a witch hunt and they are after him. Thats hard to do. Even for donald trump we have
been talking about this. To do that flip from witch hunt, angry democrats, all the rest to, well, he did a sterling job, he was very professional. That is he could say, i told you it was a witch hunt, there were no indictments on collusion or obstruction. There you go. I think that you are going to hear people close to the white house, trump allies say that this is an embarrassment for democrats. Im getting Text Messages and emails saying, the democrats have been talking about this for two years. Its over. There are no more indictments. No indictments for collusion or obstruction. This is how they are spinning it. This is the early reaction to this. This is what we are hearing. It is no doubt a win for the president that this investigation has ended as of today and he did not have to sit down with Robert Mueller. Thats a huge win. He answered questions in writing. No question that the getting to the end of the investigation
without answering questions is a is a win for the president. He answered questions, just not in person. Orally. It is also true that there have been no indictments that charge collusion, conspiracy with russia. However, there have been multiple indictments about Obstruction Of Justice and a series of lies that mueller has told and in certain cases proved about people in the administration and russia. Starting with michael flynn. Its true they are not the core allegation of Obstruction Of Justice against the president. Because that that issue of the firing of james comey, that is sort of what precipitated this investigation. The number of people who have been established who have lied about the relationship between the Trump Campaign and the Trump Administration and russia is
already considerable. Again to go back to this Executive Privilege question, if the white house wants to take a hard line here and on Executive Privilege, they could say that the conversations between james comey and donald trump are covered by Executive Privilege. Those where he said, you know where the president supposedly said i want loyalty, go easy on michael flynn. You know, the white house is going to have a real question here about how much they want to exert Executive Privilege. And if they want to take a hard line, this could be a considerable fight. Yeah, i mean i could expect them to take a hard line, obviously theyll be looking at the issue of Executive Privilege. Were talking about the issue of how much should be released. Does he share with the white
house what hes going to do, the nature of the report, what does the summary look like . So ultimately i think there are going to be fights on multiple grounds. All of that, though, is out in the public discourse. Everybody looked at this report. Was this the smoking gun . Was this going to answer questions on the core issue of collusion . Was this a witch hunt as the president s been saying. And to this point he could argue it supports his narrative. At the end of the day the report is concluded, its done. There are no indictments, its done. No collusion says the president and it ends it. The issue of embarrassment, if theres embarrassing information, so what . Us lawyers look at one thing, is there any criminality. I mean, the Statement Today we can all agree was pretty restrained from a white house that has continually called this investigation a witch hunt. Theyre waiting to see what is
actually in this report, what barr shares, and he is really under a lot of pressure. Heres the question from democrats and im just hearing from a legal source which is this source said keep in mind 80 or so of the mueller documents are grand jury materials, and you cant disclose grand jury materials, so theyre not going to get that. Some percentage are classified. Maybe theyll get those, and the rest may be subject to Executive Privilege. So there is not just the Privilege Issue that you have to consider here. Theres grand jury testimony that youre hold on one moment. Shimon prec pez is getting more information about bob muler and the Special Counsel. A statement now from the Special Counsels office. They rarely speak as you know. Peter carr key here he says that the Special Counsel will be concluding its service in the coming days. A small number of staff will remain to assist in closing the
operations of the office for a period of time. Obviously, this is over, wolf. This statement here telling us that the Special CounselRobert Mueller who weve been seeing at the office now for nearly two years will be leaving. His job done. A small staff will remain as they close up the operation in the office and thats it. This will be it for them, and now we await the report from the Attorney General. Shimon, let me go to jeffrey toobin. Because it may be over from his perspective but it may not be over from the congress perspective if they call him to testify. Well, its certainly not over from congress perspective. But, i mean the Mueller Investigation is really, really over. I mean there are no more indictments, no more grand jury proceedings, no more fbi agents being sent out to interview people. Robert mueller himself may not be finished because he may be called to testify by any number of congressional committees. And that will raise interesting
legal and political questions in and of themselves. But, you know, the Mueller Investigation, which has, you know, occupied so much interest for so long, even though its been genuinely secret is really over. And anyone whos not been charged in it is not going to get charged in it, and thats a very Significant Development. Very significant indeed. And the politics of this. Weve been talking about the legal ramifications, the substance but there will be significant political fall out especially as we all head into a president ial election. Weve been saying this is president who since there were no further indictments will probably come out at some point, you were saying this, too, will probably come out and say that he was vindicated. And the democrats will say we want to see what the underlying documents show. I mean, dont forget and so theyre kind of flipping a little bit on mueller as we were
talking about before. But dont forget according to cnns calculation there were at least 16 Trump Associates who met with russians during the campaign. Thats not something that normally happen. And so the underlying documents may give us a clue about what all of that was about. We know that donald trump was dealing on trump tower in moskow while he was lying to the American Public about it. Its not a crime to lie to the American Public when youre, you know, on a campaign. So, you know, this is what we this is what we may be able to discern. But as i was saying before a lot of these underlying documents are grand jury testimony or theyre classified, and so we may never know. And thats the thing. Heres what white house officials have been saying about this. Even for the last two weeks or so they felt pretty good about the report coming out, they were talking of course the president not being misleading about
pursuing business in russia and telling the media that is not a crime. But of course this could reveal the extent to which he lied or misled people about that. Also another thing the president s allies have been talking about is theres a chance maybe someone said something that they testified in front of congress but said Something Else in front of Robert Mueller during an interview with him. Because Robert Mueller has interviewed many people surrounding the president including those who worked in the west wing. They were saying what if theres a chance someone did not say the same thing to Robert Mueller that they said to congress. My reporting, too, is that Robert Mueller and his team has been keenly interested in the witness interviews of the president s lying to the public as part of the obstruction probe. Whether the president was intentionally misleading public so i wouldnt be surprised if this report lays out and ties these threads together. Well have to wait and see. And Dont Forget Mueller has gotten transcripts from the house Intelligence Committee, for example, so hes probably looking at his versus theirs. But hes concluded no more indictments. Politically doesnt move the needle. And thats the ultmimate question. 40 , 42 , and i think ultimately again people looking for this report would it give information as to criminality, would it answer the core question of collusion . To the extent it doesnt, i think its good news for the white house. Susan has been saying as we all know for a couple of years no collusion, will he now be able to say based on what we know right now, i told you so . One thing weve seen is Robert Mueller runs a very, veriy tight ship. He conclude this investigation
without significant leaks coming out of his office. Now that that investigation is closed one thing we can expect is sfrt and apart from the report there is going to be a flood of information, both official disclosures and also leaks. Theres going to be a lot of leaks, jeffrey toobin. And you know how this works. You and i have covered washington for a while. Yeah, therell be leaks but i dont want to be too cynical about this. Theres a lot were going to learn. And yes, it is true that one thing weve learned in the mueller in the trump era is that political opinions dont change much. People are locked in their views, and thats fine and thats just sort of the way things are. But those of us who are trying to be open minded, lets learn what the conclusions are. Lets learn what the facts are about what went on between the Trump Campaign and russia. Lets learn what facts there are about possible Obstruction Of Justice. You know, lets really look at the facts that come out. You know, if it doesnt have big
political impacts, if it does, you know, thats, you know, a serious question. But i think, you know, immediately going to the question of how its going to affect the 2020 campaign, you know, is perhaps unduly cynical, and we should embrace the opportunity to learn new facts about what went on here. Another thing thatll be interesting to watch in the aftermath of all of this theres going to be so much, but the president s relationship with his Attorney General. Not someone he knew very well beforehand. Not like Jeff Sessions who was part of the president s campaign, but someone he brought in that he has liked so far, telling him good luck with the rest of your life, but Officials Say it will be interesting to see if his relationship will change. Its going to be a drama thats unfolding in the coming days snch itll be a drama, absolutely. But in terms of the relationship, listen, you cant get better news like this that