Eastern. Washington journal continues. Host and now, a roundtable discussion on the Robert Mueller hearings taking center stage on capitol hill tomorrow. Joining us for this discussion this morning is Morgan Chalfant on national our National Security for the held news paper, Andrew Desiderio from politico. This gets underway at 8 30 a. M. Tomorrow and the House Judiciary Committee explain what they will be covering. Guest they will focus on volume two of the report, exclusively on the idea the president was seeking to obstruct the mother investigation. A lot of democrats, even the chairman of the committee, jerry nadler, said the evidence is clear the president at least sought to obstruct the investigation. The decision was made not to charge the president with a crime in part because of the office of Legal Counsel opinion that we have been talking about that states you cannot indict a sitting president. The only way to hold a sitting president accountable would be outside of the criminal justice system. Those are the Judiciary Committee issues. The big issue that will be on everyones mind is impeachment and whether the House Judiciary Committee will move toward that immediately after the hearing. That remains to be he seen. Host take us through the formats of the hearing. Guest it will be three hours, which is a little shorter than usual. The hearing was supposed to be last week and even shorter than that. It was supposed to be two hours, but the committee was able to negotiate with special counsel mueller for more time, an extra hour, allowing, they believe, all Committee Members to ask questions. If it was two hours, the bottom rung of the committee would not be able to question mueller. Tomorrow, it will be a regular hearing, mueller will make Opening Statements, and the doj will not see the Opening Statement in advance. We dont know when he will submit the statement, but those are things we will watch for. Host explain the order of questions here and who sits on the top wrong versus the bottom rung. Guest the top wrong is the most senior members of the committee, folks who have served in committee for the longest. The bottom is mostly the freshman members and those who were just place on the committee of this congress. They were concerned they might not be able to ask questions, which is why we are having the hearing tomorrow instead of last wednesday. Essentially, it will be a regular hearing in a sense that they hope all members will be able to ask questions. As a general rule that each member gets to ask questions for five minutes. It depends of republicans or even democrats might try to filibuster that and sort of push the time back and prevent more junior members from asking questions. As currently scheduled, they should get five minutes. Host will the public be allowed in and what are the rules for the media . Guest the public will be allowed in, but it is a small room. It will be a little difficult in that sense, and the media will be allowed in. I believe they are allowing one person per outlets. It will be a really small room. The media will come in, the public will come in, i remember the last time we had a hearing like this. I think morgan and i were sitting next to each other. It was the Michael Cohen hearing. That one was such a small room, you could feel the tension in the room because everybody was on pins and needles listening to every word Michael Cohen said. I thing that feeling and since we got during that hearing will be exponentially greater when Robert Mueller enters the room. Host that is the Judiciary Committee starting at 8 30 a. M. Tomorrow. We will aerate live here on cspan and on cspan air its live here on cspan3 and on cspans radio app. New, the action turns to the house Intelligence Committee. Explain what they will be looking at and why. Guest there will be a short break and the Intel Committee will convene in the same room. They will be focused on volume one of the report, which analyzes russian attempts to interfere in the election and Trump Campaign parts contact figures,ia, primary and i expect lawmakers to drill on those contacts, and democrats , why they believe them to raise National Security risks or implications, and why they see the contacts as nefarious. Mueller did not charge anyone associated with the campaign with conspiring with russia to interfere in the election, but the democrats say many of those contacts or troubling. The Trump Campaign sought russia they welcomed the wikileaks releases of Hillary Clintons emails, so i expect them to drill down on that. Host why will they be in the same room, and does that change the format for the smaller Intelligence Committees and larger Judiciary Committee . Guest that was part of the agreement they struck when they came to Robert Mueller. As andrew mentioned, they pushed back the hearing under a new agreement, which allow the Judiciary Committee more time. The Intel Committee will get two hours, the original agreement. That will give every member to ask a chance to ask questions. Everyone will have fiveminute rounds. The Intel Committee is much smaller than judiciary, 22 members. Host the chairman of the Intel Committee, how do you think his style is different than the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Guest one thing interesting about the Intelligence Committee is that most or much of its work is conducted behind closed doors and classified sessions. Do chairman has tried to more public hearings. I think we have had a couple, including a few, focused on the mother investigation and russian interference mother investigation and russian erterference muell investigation and russian interference. It is proceeding second. I think we will get a lot of tower from the first hearing. Even in that switchover, though it is in the same room, will they change out the members of the public allowed in and what does that mean for Media Coverage . Guest im not sure about the public. The Media Coverage will stay the same. I believe the public will get their seats clutched to them as the hearing proceeds. The media, as andrew said, one chair per outlet. I think it was first come first serve, so some outlets might have been left short if they did not rsvp. Host some information on the two committees where these hearings will be taking place tomorrow morning, starting with the House Judiciary Committee. 41 members, 21 democrats, 17 republicans. 33 members hold law degrees. 18 democrats do and 15 republicans do. Three members of the committee sit on the Intelligence Committee. John radcliffe is a republican. There are 11 freshmen, seven democrats and four republicans. The oldest member is 76 years old, republican from wisconsin. Er is 35 years youngest member is 35 years old. Member, and the oldest member on that committee is peter welch. A democrat fro vermont. The youngest member is 35 years old. We are previewing those hearings in this hour of the washington journal and we want to hear your questions and comments to the reporters covering the ins and outs of the mother of or Mueller Report. ,epublicans are 202 7488000 democrats are 202 7488001, independents are 202 7488002. Take us through the story that you are part of, andrew. The Justice Department telling mueller to limit his report. Guest we knew even before yesterday Robert Mueller was not comfortable testifying beyond the four corners of his report. He stated that publicly on may 29. He even resisted the idea of testifying in the first place, which is why he had to be subpoenaed. The doj has communicated to mueller that when you testify on wednesday, your testimony must remain within the bounds of your report. You cant talk about the deliberative process, why you reached certain legal conclusions, the evidence you gather, how you gathered it. A lot of that is classified, and would have been shield in any way, but democrats are trying to get at specific questions for special counsel mueller, including the main overarching question which is this idea of whether mueller would have charged the president with obstruction of justice if donald trump was not sitting in the oval office. That goes to what i mentioned, the office of Legal Counsel opinion, things you cannot indict a sitting president. This is a directive from the doj to Robert Mueller that reaffirms his personal, previous bowel which says i would not vow which says i would not go beyond the previous report. Host isnt rubber mold of the isnt Robert Mueller the former special counter . Guest mueller is a private citizen now, so he doesnt have to abide by the doj. This is in line with what he has already said, he said his report is his testimony. He will not engage in hypotheticals about the president , so that is why you dont expect them to answer any version of that question, would trump have been indicted if you want president. Its consistent with what mueller has said, but im sure democrats will be angry at the doj because the doj is seen as trying to limit muellers testimony, even if he wants to go outside of the confines of the report. , if hendrew desiderio does do that, is there a way the department of justice can enforce the objective. Guest they are relying on mueller to self police. It is a public hearing, so there is nothing stopping a member of the department of justice, a lawyer from the doj, from going into the hearing and being there, but this individual will not be sitting at the table with mueller, lodging objections to certain questions. We have seen the administration do that with other witnesses testifying before the Judiciary Committee as part of the obstruction investigation. They will, as far as we know, not have recourse or means to prevent mueller from answering questions. It looks like they will rely on him to self police remarks. Host you both mentioned about what Robert Mueller said he what said what he would and would not do. That is the moment from the may press conference in which he talked about this. I expect this to be the only time i will speak to you in this manner. Myselfking that decision , no one has told me whether i can or should testify cant or should testify or speak further about this matter. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. Findings andur analysis, and the reasons for the decisions. We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself. The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. In addition, access to the underlying work product is being decided in a process that does not involve our office. Beyond what ive said here today, and what is contained in our written work, i do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation, or to comment on the actions of the Justice Department or congress. For that reason, i will not be taking questions today as well. Host thats Robert Mueller taking questions tomorrow starting at 8 30 in the House Judiciary Committee. You can watch it on cspan3 and here on cspan live coverage starting at 8 30 in the morning tomorrow. This morning, we are chatting about that hearing, previewing it here and taking your phone calls. We are chatting with Morgan Chalfant with the hill newspaper and Andrew Desiderio from politico. This is jeffrey out of auburn, new york. A democrat. Jeffrey, go ahead. Jeffrey, are you with us this morning . Caller yes i am. I have two comments. The first is a comment on the profitability of the Mueller Investigation. I believe there is about a 10 return on what we spend on this investigation, which was in the neighborhood of 180 million. I believe the last stat i heard was forfeitures and fines equal 210 million, which is a 10 return on investment, a pretty good return if you ask me. The second comment is, a joke, and i believe it is totally clean. What is the difference between arguing a point with a republican and banging your head against a brick wall . Host dont make me regret it. What is your answer . Caller at least, when you quit banging your head against a brick wall, one mind was changed. Host that is a democrat in new york. Andrew desiderio on the cost of the molar investigation. Guest i think he is referring of hispresident , one criticisms is a waste of taxpayer funds. If you look at what was seized as part of the investigation, the prosecution, Paul Manafort and the fines levied against individuals, it has made money for the u. S. That cuts across the president s main criticism. I think it was Paul Manaforts trump tower apartment which the government now owns. He had suits that costed thousands and thousands of dollars. Not sure who is going to get them, but that is another example of how this investigation has made money. Host to make sure we have the numbers right, i think the viewer was talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, and i think the cost is more in the tens of millions of dollars. In september of last year, the number that sticks out is 25 million. Guest and of course that was last september. The investigation stretched into march. I expected was more than that, 25 somewhere in the range of million to 35 million. Host walter is a republican. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call and i appreciate the guests they guest and the information they will provide. I heard that three years, after the mother report is out ler reportrt muel is out, trump would get impeached. You had the wolves against trump. Person, every single this evidence, wait until you see it. The day comes and they are ready to go with collusion, collusion, and then you heard a big poof. Everything was quiet, they looked around at each other like, wait a minute, what did they say . They were jumping up and down, and now we are doing these rounds again. To me, the only collusion, the way i seen it, was when hillary delsea paid for a fake fake dossier. And the pfizer court never said it was a dossier eight up by foreign intelligence agents, and hillary used it. It is comical and will be a dog and pony show. They will say we got him again been nobody has again, lets nobody has n i wish these knuckleheads on the democrats side would get together and work with the president for the good of the country. Host i got your point, walter. This is volume one of the molar report Mueller Report about conspiracy. The investigation establish multiple links between the Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the russian government. Those legs included russian offers of assistance to the campaign in some instances. The campaign was receptive to the offer, and in other instances, the campaign shied away. They did not establish the campaign coordinated or conspired with the russian government in its election interference activities. Guest i will say the term collusion, muellers report said evaluateot did not conclusion. He evaluated conspiracy. Theefines coordination, and investigation did not charge anyone associated with the Trump Campaign with conspiring with russia to interfere in the elections. Mueller notes that members of the Campaign Welcomed wikileaks ils, your mail releases email releases, and sought more information about them. It is more than a blackandwhite issue of whether the campaigns compared come or colludedd with russia. What he found in terms of the contacts and how congress is focused on how you make it so this sort of thing doesnt happen again, in terms of a Foreign Government interfering in the election, and how we bolster our laws so people report any efforts that could be part of that foreign interference. Host this was President Trump from the oval office yesterday, asked about his thoughts about tomorrows molar hearings mueller hearings. Pres. Trump , no i wont be watching. I wont be watching mueller, because you cant take all of those bites out of the apple. We had no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. We had a total no collusion finding. The democrats were devastated by it. They went crazy and got off of the deep end. They are not doing health care or anything, not doing infrastructure, not lowering drug prices. Im lowering drug prices. The first time in 53 years at drug prices went down last year. 53 years, and im doing it without the help of congress, which makes it tougher to do, because if they worked with us, i could get drug prices down to half, but the democrats dont care about drug prices. All they care about is a phony investigation where the report was wri