Attorney general spear heads the third and latest probe of just how the russia investigation all began. But thats not all. The president also gave barr complete authority to make public any sensitive or classified intelligence that he wants. Even while refusing, ironic, to let congress see any of the underlying intel of the Mueller Report. Our ivan perez our senior justice correspondent joins me to break this down. Irony aside for the moment about the white house calling for full transparency here. Absolutely. What do these new powers mean that bill barr got overnight . Exactly. This is extraordinary, as you said, for the attorney general who is a noted vocal skeptic of the origins of the russia investigation to now have the power to essentially go to the cia, to the director of National Intelligence, to all the other intelligence agencies that were working with the fbi at the beginning of this investigation and have them declassify, have them essentially make Public Information that he believes needs to be made public as part of his investigation of the investigation. Let me read a part of what the president s order said, it says, quote, the attorney general may declassify, downgrade or direct the declassification or down grading of information or intelligence that relates to the attorney generals review. This is a review as you know, poppy, that is directing for the Justice Department to do to look at how this investigation started. By the way, this is something that Rod Rosenstein had looked at and had resisted. This is why one reason why the president is a lot more a lot happier with bill barr as attorney general because he is getting a lot of what he wanted to be done about the russia investigation. The reason, you know, the president is happy is because youve heard from bar exactly how he feels about this investigation. Take a listen to him on capitol hill just a couple weeks ago. I think there was spying did occur, yes, i think spying did occur. And, of course, poppy, you know that people a lot of people reacted they strongly to that, including the fbi, saying that thats director of fbi, chris wray, who said that is not a word he would use, spying. Here is adam schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee reacting to the news today. He said, quote, while trump stone walls the public from learning the truth about his obstruction of justice, trump and barr conspire to weaponize Law Enforcement and classified information against their political enemies. The coverup has entered a new and dangerous phase. This is unamerican. Clearly, poppy, i think we will hear a lot more about this in the coming weeks and months as this investigation at the Justice Department continues and we will see exactly what bill barr decides needs to be made public to expose what he believes were some shady, perhaps, you know, goings on at the Intelligence Agency since the beginning of this investigation. Theres already two states attorneys general looking into this in utah and connecticut as well. And the inspector general. Thats true, Michael Horowitz. Right. So this is like a fourth one. Evan, appreciate the reporting. Let me bring in former attorney for the nsa susan hennessy, good morning. So good to have your brain power on this this morning. Its not just adam schiff, the chair of the House Intel Committee who was saying that its dangerous for the attorney general to have this power, to do this. You also have the former director of National Intelligence, james clapper. Here he is. Theres already been so much information declassified already that particularly in the form of the Mueller Report and the previous indictments. I wonder what else is going to be declassified that risks jeopardizing sources and methods. Do you agree with those concerns or are they overblown . I think clapper is right that this actually is representing something quite dangerous and thats that ordinarily whenever we think about sources and methods and classified information and what information the United States government wants to protect, the concerns that were worried about are National Security concerns and not political concerns. One of the things thats so alarming is that the president has decided to shift this authority from the director of National Intelligence to the attorney general. The director of National Intelligence sits over an interagency process, he is the one who is able to see what the consequences of declassifying information might be for the National Security and intelligence equities of the United States. So the idea that the president would put this put this new authority with the attorney general, someone who is not best positioned to understand the consequences of dee classifying that decision, i think is an indication that the way the president and the attorney general are thinking about this is not about the protection of National Security, but the potential political benefits. So youre saying this should really be Authority Given to dan coats . Dan coats traditionally already has this authority. The dni sits over all of those other agencies. Right. There is a process that exists for interagency to review. The information we are talking about here is the most sensitive form of information. Reportedly the attorney general is interested in the cias human assets in russia. Thats the kind of information that if disclosed really could have life and death consequences for people. Because the Authority Given to the attorney general or the direction given to the attorney general here from the president is not only should these 16 agencis report to you on this and dig into this and make this a priority, you should feel free to dee classify this and use that power. I mentioned it with evan, youve got Michael Horowitz the igs report expected to be done potentially very soon in june, you have the u. S. Attorney in utah already looking into this, recently we saw the attorney general, bill barr, tap the u. S. Attorney in connecticut to do the same thing and now we have this, the president ordering barr to do this. Should we expect all of the supporting intel to come out at the same time, susan, here is the ironic part, that congress has no access to the supporting intel underlying the Mueller Report . Right. So its not exactly clear which investigations are going to be prioritized. Bill barr has not explained why he doesnt think that the inspector generals investigation is going to be sufficient. Theres Something Else thats really significant about this latest investigation, both the executive order allowing barr to dee classify information and this new inquiry by the u. S. Attorney in connecticut and thats that this is not a criminal investigation. I think its safe to say that if there was a criminal predicate, which is required to have a criminal investigation, bill barr would be inclined to do that. Weve seen him really be supportive of the president s position. So the mere fact that instead hes launching yet another a third and fourthsortof vague reviewed, not an actual investigation, i do think its a pretty strong indication that even after these reviews weve already seen there is no criminal predicate that would actually support continuing to investigate this further. Okay. Susan hennessy, thank you very much. Lets keep talking about this with my next guest, Patrick Healy is here with the new york times, their Political Editor and also a cnn political analyst. Good morning to you. Good morning, poppy. How did this thing get started and the man who was the former fbi general counsel at the time who signed off on this probe, james baker, took the rare step of publicly defending it when he explained it was this australian democrat who said loose lips of George Papadopoulos at a bar, talk you go about dirt on hrc, dozens of emails. Lets listen. We dont have it. He said, quote, it would have been a dereliction of our duty not to investigate this information. Is he wrong . Should the feds will looked the other way . No, the feds should not have looked the other way. What President Trump is saying is that even though the step by step process that started this investigation has been laid out over and over again, President Trump is trying to focus on this kind of broader conspiracy idea about a deep state within the government that was spying on him, that was starting him, that was treating him unfairly and now he has an attorney general who is willing to carry water on that argument, who is willing to use the language like spying, who is willing to sort of embrace some of these deeper conspiracy theories that the president is putting forward. So the original investigation has been validated over and over and over again, but right now it has become so much in President Trumps own interest, in his own mind to discredit, discredit, discredit. Now youre seeing things like this extraordinary power being given to an attorney general who he trusts so much to carry that water where he didnt with someone like jeff sessions. An attorney general who just this week in an interesting interview with the wall street journal made the claim that i am not protecting this president , says attorney general bill barr, i am protecting the presidency. I wonder, though, i just laid out the four different now investigations into the origins of the russia probe. What if they dont all have the same result . Thats a good question. At the end of the day where President Trump wants bill barr to end up is similar to what barr did with the Mueller Report when it first came out. Bob mueller submitted an executive summary that we now know he wanted or at least his team wanted to be put out there, but bill barr instead put out that letter, as we all remember, that fourpage letter that really framed the narrative in exactly the way that President Trump wanted, and now you have President Trump giving the attorney general these powers to declassify information. What the intelligence agencies are worried about is that the attorney general will selectively, will cherry pick documents. What is declassified. What is declassified to set a narrative thats a good point. To set a narrative just as he did in that first Opening Weekend when the Mueller Report came out. Even though there are these sort of four investigations that could lead to different places, whats in the interest now is that President Trump trusts this attorney general so much to set a narrative to choose declassification that might work in his interest. Let me quickly ask you before we go, flip the script here, though. Are democrats hurting their push for transparency on the Mueller Report if they fight this with barr . Does that make sense . It makes sense. I think at the end of the day the democrats are trying to find a way, its so hard not to get boxed in on impeachment, that theyre making the argument for transparency, sort of knowing that President Trump is never going to give them ultimately what they want. So they think that they have some running room there to create pressure and not look, lets say, twofaced about it. Well see. Good to have you, my friend. I appreciate it. Have a good i hope long weekend for. You long weekend. I will be here monday but i hope you wont be at work. Of course, big breaking news overnight. British Prime Minister theresa may ending days of tech lags this morning announcing she will resign after failing to deliver her trademark brexit policy. Listen to her. I have done everything i can this morning to convince mps to back that deal. Sadly, i have not been able to do so. I tried three times. I believe it was right to persevere, even when the odds against success seemed high. But it is now clear to me that it is in the best interests of country for a new Prime Minister to lead that effort. My colleague our correspondent phil black outside of 10 do you think street in london. Good morning. A lot of people thought this was coming, it has come and yet britain remains in tumult, right . Will her successor be able to figure out what she couldnt three times . Reporter indeed. It is still a great deal of uncertainty ahead, poppy, and thats the key point is that even with a new Prime Minister that new Prime Minister will inherent the same brexit chaos, the same divided parliament. He or she will have the same minority government as well. But today Prime Minister may accepted really the inevitable. She had run out of room to move. She had run out of options. She essentially today here in do you think street today and said, i always meant well, but ultimately i failed on that one key defining issue of the times which was to deliver a deal which allows britain to exit the European Union in a reasonably ordered way. So what happens now . Well, Prime Minister may will remain Prime Minister in name, if not in full authority. Certainly up until june 7th, which means she will be in control here as britain hosts President Trump on his state visit in early june. She will then essentially become something of a caretaker Prime Minister into june and perhaps july as well as the conservative party begins an internal contest to find out precisely who her successor will be. The leading candidate is former foreign secretary boris johnson, someone who has a high profile here, someone here who is known very well to President Trump who the president has said in the past that he believes would make a fine Prime Minister. Poppy . Thats right. And this as the president heads there. Phil, let me ask you before you go, i mean, this has implications far outside of just the uk or the eu. This has global implications. What will happen to economies around the world. How are other World Leaders reacting to it this morning . Well, across europe, european leaders have been responding and expressing their gratitude and their respect for the way that she has negotiated with them over the last three years or so in trying to sort out some sort of orderly brexit deal. They are deeply aware of the pressure that she has been facing domestically, aware of the pressure she has been facing within her own party, where a solid branch of that party really wanted her to take a very strong line against the European Union, perhaps walk away without achieving any sort of deal whatsoever. These same european leaders are will now be aware and a little nervous because they know that her successor is very likely to come from that hard brexiteer wing of the party so may not be quite so easy to deal with in the weeks and months ahead. Thats a great point. Phil black, thank you, outside of 10 do you think street in london this morning. Still to come, crudely edited videos doctored to make House Speaker nancy pelosi sound drunk and stammering. They are making their way across social media, some even retweeted by the president s allies. Those videos have already been viewed millions fs times. Plus President Trump announcing a 16 billion aid package for americas farmers. But do the farmers really want this and frankly does it help them in the way they need . We will speak with one ahead. And house judiciary chairman jerry nadler now says special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to testify in private to avoid a political spectacle. New details ahead. vo speed. 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