Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for being with me. At any moment now Attorney General william barr is expected to release the main conclusions from the Mueller Report to congress. We are hearing that it is coming today. Barr is at the u. S. Justice department right now with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein reviewing the report. The president , well, he just returned to maralago just moments ago after spending the day at his golf club in west palm beach, florida while he, too, awaits the brief. Cnn has a team of reporters and analysts standing by who have covered this story for nearly two years now. Lets go to cakara scannell. The Deputy Attorney general and
the Attorney General about to release the details. In what way will they be released, do you know . We do expect the report to be delivered today, thats bill barrs report from the Principal Conclusions of the mueller investigation. That is expected to happen today, but the Big Questions still loom of what will we learn in this report . Does it answer questions of Obstruction Of Justice and collusion relating to the president s actions . Do they explain why they did not interview the president and require a sitdown interview with him . Another big question here is how detailed is this summary going to be . Theyve been together now two days Behind Closed Doors, bill barr and Rod Rosenstein, so we can gather maybe theyre trying to work through some of these issues. They know there is a bipartisan call for transparency on this report and the findings. I think what decision this is bill barrs first big moment as Attorney General now this goround . This goround, and this is
a big move for him and a big decision. If we do get some information, it could quell those questions on capitol hill, but we could also be setting up for a big political and legal battle. There were conclusions coming from bob mueller compiling the report, his conclusions, but it is at the discretion of the Attorney General to say, let me craft my own. Of course he has to read through the whole thing. We dont even know how many pages this report is, but were talking about two years. Thats right, a 22month investigation resulting in charges against 37 entities and individuals. This has been exhaustive. The people who have gone in before bob muellers team have said its just an exhaustive experience. They know everything about them, theyve seen every text message, and now drilling this down into a report that has really captured the nations aengs, tt, so we dont know how long the report is, we just know its comprehensive. This is a big deal for bill barr
and Rod Rosenstein to work through now, and well get the fruits of that sometime today. Were all waiting. Boy, are we waiting. Kara scannell, thank you so much. Lets check in with the senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. Theyre waiting up there, too. Lawmakers want to see these details in, really, its entirety, and theyre threatening to subpoena if they dont . Certainly. What youre hearing from democrats right now, this building is empty, but Staff Committees and the Judiciary Committee will be the first ones sent this report. We expect it to be emailed to them and theyll get the chance to reed the conclusions. Already democrats warning they will subpoena if they dont get the full report and warning that they could even go further to push for the underlying evidence to be supplied to congress, potentially also to the American Public. Theyre gearing up for potential political and legal fight. Jerry nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he believes this could take place
not in a matter of months but sooner than that. There is a fight to get the full report if they are not there is no indication thats coming. Youre also hearing some democrats secondguess some of bob muellers decisions. Earlier today the House Intelligence Committee chairman, adam schiff, raised concerns about bob mueller not forcing the president to sit down and answer questions under oath. It was a mistake to rely on written responses by the president. Thats generally more what the lawyer has to say than what the individual has to say. I can certainly understand why the lawyers like giuliani were fighting this, because the president is someone who seems pathologically incapable of telling the truth for long periods of time. But nonetheless, if you really do want the truth, you need to put people under oath, and that should have been done. Reporter what the president did do was provide written answers to questions about russian interference in the 2016 campaign. One thing democrats and
republicans, too, will be looking for is exactly why muellers team did not force him to sit under oath. There was lengthy negotiations over that, but well also see what the president said to the Special Counsel. Will they shed any light on that . Another big question democrats here have in the days ahead. Fred . Manu raju, well check back with you. Thank you so much. Lets talk more about all this with former director of the office of government ethics, walter schaub. Senior justice correspondent ever evan perez, Political Legal analyst Gloria Borger and Michael Zeleny who is a former prosecutor. Gloria, there is a lot on the line not just for the president , not just for congress but also for doj and bob mueller. And also for the country, quite frankly. I think its been a drama thats played out for almost two years now. The American Public wants to know what bob mueller thinks and
what he found. And i think the big question that, you know, kara was talking about is did bob mueller decide not to prosecute because he cant prosecute a president or because he shouldnt prosecute this president . And i think thats one question that the American Public really wants answered. Whatever they come out with, i can guarantee you is going to be interpreted in different ways. The president may claim vindication. At the same time the democrats say, this is enough evidence to impeach. Thats the kind of country were living in. Who should be left to sbre t interpret . Because we know if bill barr does that, if he interprets, if he editorializes, that could be a problem. I think hes trying not to do that. I think hes trying to take what mueller wrote and provide the facts of what muellers conclusions were. We just got word officially now that capitol hill lawmakers have been told they can expect to receive a letter from theAttorney General, from bill barr, in the next 30 to 45 minutes. I think what this tells us is obviously this process is almost to a conclusion. One of the things that bill barr that we know has been wrestling with is how to distill a report from bob mueller, how much information to put in, especially derogatory information of people who are not charged. Obviously we know there were no charges brought against anybody with regard to conspiracy with the russians or what people in sho shorthand call collusion. So the question is how is that addressed in the report, and does bill barr in his distillation get into that . I think thats a big question we all have at this moment. Michael, as someone who has worked closely with Robert Mueller, we know that he has issued a comprehensive report. Thats been the word issued and you heard from our evan right here that in about 30 minutes we are understanding that members
of congress will be receiving this letter from Attorney General barr. What did he need to decipher through this entire report in which to come about these conclusions that he is willing to share with u. S. Congress . Fundamentally he has to remove anything that implicates Executive Privilege. He has to remove anything which is classified. He has to remove anything which is grand jury secret protected. After that he has to then write language that doesnt implicate any particular individuals who havent been charged with criminal behavior. There is a lot of privacy concerns here. So they have to write a report, it seems to me, that says on this topic these are the facts that we found and this is the conclusion that we reached with respect to those facts. And not editorialize that it could have been this or could have been that like jim comey did with Hillary Clinton, but really just a recitation of this
is what we did, this is what we found, this is what we concluded with respect to the broad topics that we have an interest in. Collusion, Obstruction Of Justice, the question of the testimony of the president and matters like that. And walter, Members Of Congress have already said theyre bracing for a few different scenarios. Theyre ready to subpoena the full report if they dont get the full report, theyre ready to subpoena bob mueller himself. Then, of course, theyre anticipating there is going to be an exertion of Executive Privilege, you know, by the white house to be able to preview this report beforehand. How do you see the next few hours playing out after the report or these conclusions are shared . You know, im hopeful that bob barr sees this as a first installment and that hell come to the conclusion to release nearly everything by the time hes done. When they talk about Executive Privilege, its important to
remember that this is intended to protect the operations of the Executive Branch. Its not intended as something analogous to diplomatic immunity. The president is not immune from scrutiny and particularly not from congress. Congress is the body with the primary constitutional responsibility for holding a president accountable. So then what are the conditions of exerting Executive Privilege in this case when the subject is the president , the Executive Branch . I personally cant imagine there is a great deal that should legitimately be subject to Executive Privilege. I think there may be litigation over this if they push the bounds too far. One troubling gain this administration has played is to not expressly exert Executive Privilege but hint thats what theyre relying on when they refuse to answer questions from congress, and it will be interesting to see if theyre willing to play some kind of game with this. The fact that bill barr is involved in this leads me to
hope that they wont do that because hes a serious attorney and not as likely as white House Attorneys to play that sort of game. Evan, hes been called a lawyers lawyer. But barr has been through this before. Hes overseen other Special Counsel investigations under, you know, president george h. W. Bush. But even during confirmation, he tried to reassure people that he would try to be as transparent as possible. Right, and look, barr has a couple different jobs. One of the things hes trying to do, having followed the turmoil of the last couple years under Jeff Sessions is to sort of rebuild the Justice Department to try to get it back to where it was. One of the jobs that he sees himself responsible for is to undo and to get back from what james comey did in july of 2016 where he stood up and sort of recited all the things that Hillary Clinton did wrong even though, again, he was usurping the power of the Justice Department to say there were no
charges. So barr wants to restore where doj was. Thats the first thing. Thats why i think there is this wrestling behind the scenes as to how much information to put out while at the same time answering the core question, being transparent, as you said. And the other thing hes wrestling with is the idea that i think in this day and age you have to assume that whatever mueller turned over could eventually see the light of day. So barr needs to sort of prepare his report with that in mind so that whatever he produces is not contradicted or seen to be contradicted by whatever comes later. Thats a tough job. Whatever he puts out, its not going to be enough for democrats who are saying we want to see the underlying evidence, we want to see everything, and i think theyre not going to be able to see everything. In all fairness to the president , frankly. The president and his team are viewing this as being cleared or Something Like that, we have to see as much of that as possible. In all fairness we ought to see more than that. If this is a level of frustration that barr has this on his shoulders after particularly comeys handling of the investigation involving Hillary Clinton, how does he keep it together, so to speak, stay focused on what his mission is and not feel like hes got to respond to any political pressure or the pressure of, you know, precedence . So comey rather, im sorry, barr is under strict regulatory constraints about what he is allowed to release. And that, you know, narrowly focuses him on a few summary points. The thing that is important to keep in mind is that the president of the United States has said he would like to see full transparency and this report released. That which ties comey i keep saying comey that which ties
barrs hands is the regulations. Those regulations are Executive Branch regulations. The president has the power to change or rescind those regulations. So if the president truly wants there to be full transparency, he can change those regulations and free barr to release the entire report. Similarly, it is the president who has the classification power. To the extent that there are things barr would like to have released but couldnt because of classification, the president can declassify or unclassify this. So there is a lot that the president can do to help barr, help the American People, help congress, avoid a fight with the Executive Branch by just changing some regulations, Declassifying Information and Authorizing Barr to act in a more transparent way. Well see if he is true to his word that he wants to do that, or whether this is just like the statements that he made about
wanting to be interviewed, but that Didnt Work Out so well. Thats why im chuckling a little bit. Which President Trump are we likely to see, the one that wants transparency hold on, we actually have Boris Sanchez who is near the president in west palm beach. Lets hear from you. Is the president also receiving some notice that this conclusion would be sent to u. S. Congress somewhere in the next 30 minutes, if not under . Reporter yeah, were still waiting to find out. You can imagine that the white house and team around the president in maralago right now are bracing themselves for information coming from the Attorney General. We know the president came down here this weekend with several of his attorneys, Including Emmett Flood and pat cipaloni, as well as two Press Secretaries to prepare to respond to the findings in the Mueller Report. I should point out our cameras just a few moments ago captured the president leaving the golf club here in florida. He was golfing yesterday with a
couple lawmakers former and current, former congressman trey gowdy and his acting Chief Of StaffMick Mulvaney also in palm beach. If the president is anxious or worried about the findings of this report, the summary coming from the Attorney General, he has not shown it at all. He remained relatively silent on twitter for some 40 hours after it was announced that mueller had wrapped up his investigation. This morning, as you saw, fred, he tweeted out good morning to everyone, so the president restrained so far. Well see if that changes once we get word that barr has delivered the summary to the White House Team and to congress, fred. Okay. Thank you so much, boris. Walter, Let Met Finish up on that question just on michaels point about discretion. The president has some discretion about, you know, how you know, what kind of content, indeed, could be conveyed. So which President Trump are we expecting to see and hear from . The one who has called for transparency, the one who has
said, wait a minute, not everything . Whats your expectation here . I think weve only seen one donald tru