least we know mike pence is by this inaugural snub and, of course, william barr even though he says he never did anything. he certainly is one of the people named in the complaint. hey, pete williams, very quickly, should we be will we do you expect the inspector general at least investigations into barr s behavior and pompeo s behavior just given that there s really almost no other choice that sometimes an agency has to do when thrown into this situation? well, only if they get a complaint and only if they consider it credible. the justice department s position is that barr had no involvement with this call or any of the follow-up or the decision not to prosecute. it may be an inspector general that decides whether barr, whether that is an i would be surprised if there was. kelly, jeff, andrea, pete. our nbc news team kicking it off. thank you very much. big day here. up ahead, we got a lot more on the whistle-blower complaint. that s at the center of this growing sc
presidency, a powerful executive, whether barr sees this as his time in history to promote that. but the reality, we can t discuss the removal of a president without wondering whether we should be removing this attorney general. he has been disingenuous to the american public and i m being polite saying that. he s lied to us. i don t understand why but he has. today mueller said look when the attorney general said i ve been operating under a principle i could have charged and i didn t, he s been wrong. where the attorney general has been saying i found no collusion, he s been wrong. i did focus only on criminal conspiracy, and when it comes to obstruction and the attorney general saying that it was his job to make a prosecutive call of no obstruction, he s wrong. i said, this should go to congress. so we ve got a disingenuous attorney general, he s not been an honest broker to the american people. i don t know how he ever again
now that donald trump sorry. special counsel robert mueller has officially submitted his report it all comes down to trump s attorney general william barr who will decide how much will be made public. a real question of whether barr, who is a clear ally of the president, and on the record opponent of this investigation, has a duty to share mueller s findings with us, the american people, or if he will bury the report and if he does bury the report what does that mean for constitutional republic or at least in theory the people have a right to check on their government and a right not to be ruled by a president who can use flunkies and political allies to bury investigations against himself. joining me is msnbc contributor malcolm nance, nick ackerman, legal analyst, elie mystal, editor of above the law.com, natasha bear, staff writer at the atlantic, and pollster fernand amandi. i want you to answer that question, fernand, we talk about this a lot, is this a constitutional republic i
i have been one of the people on campus who says all of the talk about an imminent report starting months ago was premature. and maybe even a strategy out of the white house to try and create a false expectation and say mueller s way overdue for a report. i think we re close but there s still so much to be done here. one of the things we need to look for is not only manafort sentencing and, of course, what happens with gates and flynn as indicators, but then signaling between barr and mueller and whether barr is issuing statements that indicate something is coming imminently. my focus is going to be clearly on flynn and gates and whether or not mueller said they re fully cooperating, we re done with them, or whether he says i need more time with them. if he says i need more time with him, this report is not coming imminently. what indicators are you looking for? let s hypothetically say we
sentencing and, of course, what happens with gates and flynn as indicators, but then signaling between barr and mueller and whether barr is issuing statements that indicate something is coming imminently. my focus is going to be clearly on flynn and gates and whether or not mueller said they re fully cooperating, we re done with them, or whether he says i need more time with them. if he says i need more time with him, this report is not coming imminently. what indicators are you looking for? let s hypothetically say we actually get a look at it, which is obviously clearly a big question already, but what are you looking for that might not be in there? we re all talking about what will be in there, whether or not it s grand jury information or how you classify it. what we may not see is references to the trump families or other players that obviously are exposed, to me knowing how