melissa, good afternoon. i was inside the justice department when robert mueller spoke, and you get a slightly different sense when you re close to the principal. he was very relaxed, but also very focused on this text. in my view, not during from that prepared testimony. he didn t quit take questions at the end of the session we got the clearest indicator today that he has no plans to testify to congress either in a public or in a private session. listen. i hope and expect this to be the only time that i will speak to you in this matter. i am making that decision myself. no one has told me whether i can or should testify or speak further about this matter. i hope and expect this to be the only time that i will speak to you in this manner. i am making a decision myself he also made the two buckets
insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. melissa: but on the matter of obstruction he said it was not an option to charge president trump with a crime, citing justice department policy. president trump, just minutes ago, not surprisingly tweeting, nothing changes from the mueller report. there was insufficient evidence, and therefore in our country a person is innocent. the case is closed. thank you. but moments ago the democratic chairman of the house judiciary committee, jerry nadler, releasing a statement, writing, he did not exonerate the president of the united states of obstruction of justice. obstruction of justice is a serious crime that strikes at the core of our justice system. the constitution points to congress to take action to hold the president accountable. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge s life in washington with the latest. this does not seem to match what attorney general barr said. what are your thoughts on that?
crime was therefore not an option we could consider. first, the opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting president because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available. second, the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. he also addressed a conflict between himself and his boss, attorney general william barr, over how as special counsel report was handled and released. a 4-page letter sent by the attorney general to congress with the bottom-line findings, and how that was portrayed in the media. today robert mueller said there may have been differences but he felt his boss, attorney general barr, had acted in good faith. at one point in time i requested that certain portions of the report be released.
the attorney general preferred to make the entire report public all at once. we appreciate that the attorney general made the report largely public, and i certainly do not question the attorney general s good faith in that decision. robert mueller literally had the stage to himself today for about 10 minutes at the justice department. but i think it s important to provide some balance. what we heard from attorney general william barr during his congressional testimony is that they put the office of legal counsel opinion aside. so, the opinion that says you can t to that to a sitting president. the framework laid up a robert mueller and his investigator as well as the evidence that they gathered, along with rod rosenstein, they measured the evidence gathered by mueller and they used his framework to consider whether there was sufficient evidence for an obstruction of justice could
and interesting. i think the subject we have been seizing on, and sort of ruminating on here, is this apparent massive discrepancy canyon between what william barr testified and what mueller said today about this olc guidance piece of this. where it seems that they are at complete loggerheads on that question. i know a lot of people are wondering, was mueller coming out today and effectively accusing barr of lying about that exchange that they had in private? and that might be the case, except for the fact that mueller went out of his way to praise barr, to appreciate how he made his decisions in this, and to endorse his good faith. lisa: but barr was also not alone, as well. william barr said rod rosenstein was at that march 5th meeting. so i don t get rod rosenstein on the record of what was said? clearly bob mueller is saying something drastically different than what william barr has testified before congress. i would also say to robert mueller, if you want to slit his work st