as special counsel regulations. and to that first paragraph in the attorney general s letter where it says the special counsel did not propose anything that was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental progress practices that it should not be pursued. there were no such instances during the special counsel s investigation. now, there are many possibilities i think with that line. isn t it possible that the special prosecutor, one of the things the special prosecutor did not propose was indicting the president even though evidence existed for indicting the president, for example, in the southern district of new york in the michael cohen case and he did not propose that because it would be so inappropriate and unwarranted under the established department practices. it s certainly possible, lawrence, that that s what happened.
good evening, catherine. good evening. earlier today, special counsel mueller delivered the final russian report to attorney general barr here at the justice department. attorney general barr sent a formal letter. he also told the committees that there s a possibility he will be able to provide them a fuller explanation as early as this week. what we expect is that that would include the decisions to prosecute and then also what s called the declination. those are cases they did not pursue in the criminal courts. now barr will meet with mueller and rosenstein to further consider, based on the regulations and justice department practices, what can further be released to congress and perhaps the public. perhaps one of the most
evidence existed for indicting the president, for example, in the southern district of new york in the michael cohen case and he did not propose that because it would be so inappropriate and unwarranted under the established department practices. it s certainly possible, lawrence, that that s what happened. but we don t know. all we know is this one-page letter. we ll obviously find more out in the weeks to come. but that is just not something we know right now. now, i do think we should take some heart from that letter in the barr line in the barr letter because that does really show kind of the central concern we had when we were writing the special counsel regulations, was fear of a government cover-up. because in our constitutional system the president controls the prosecution power 100%. and the special counsel regulations were written to say okay, we get that, the president and the attorney general might be able to interfere with an
were no instances where either deputy attorney general rod rosenstein or acting attorney general at the time matt whitaker or even attorney general barr, there were no instances where they put the kibosh on anything that mueller s team wanted to do. that was spelled out quite explicitly in this letter to congress afternoon. it says the special counsel regulations require that i provide you with instances if any in which the attorney general or acting attorney general concluded that a proposed action by the special counsel was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established department practices that it should not be pursued, and the attorney general here telling congress there were no such instances. so there was nothing that robert mueller s team came to the department of justice with that was actually declined. so that s pretty pertinent, pretty important as well. fredricka, the attorney general working hard here. this could be a swift
earlier today robert mueller delivered the final russian report to attorney general william barr at the justice department. the attorney general sent a formal letter of notification to the congressional committees which direct oversight, house judiciary and senate judiciary. he told the committee s there s a possibility he will be able to provide a full explanation as early as this weekend. what we expect is that would include the decision to prosecute and the declination. those are cases they did not pursue in the criminal courts. now william barr will meet with robert mueller and rod rosenstein to further consider based on regulations and justice department practices what can further be released to congress and the public. what was shared today with reporters was from a senior justice department official who confirmed special counsel robert