. hello, i'm erica hill in today for brooke baldwin and we begin with breaking news. wire learning of a letter from a top white house lawyer to bill barr about the mueller report, in that letter complaining he suffered from an extraordinary legal defect that the white house lawyer emmet flood that it doesn't bold well for congress in the multi-front subpoena fight to get information from the president. let's get to correspondent pamela brown. before we get to the subpoenas, the letter from emmet flood accused the mueller team of playing politics in that report. >> reporter: yeah, it was a strongly-worded letter. five pages written by top white house lawyer emmet flood on behalf of the president blasting robert mueller and his team for acting politically and veering

wildly from the stated mission rather than prosecutor strictly following the law with this letter saying the special counsel and his staff failed in their duty to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors. and it goes on to blast the special counsel team for not doing what the special counsel regulation required it to do, make a judgment on obstruction and provide a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions and instead it said the special counsel, quote, intentionally and unapologetically refused to do so and called the obstruction section of the report part truth commission report and part law school exam. now the special counsel addressed in its report why it didn't reach a prosecutorial decision on obstruction saying that one factor was the olc memo at doj saying you can't indict a sitting president. the letter also addresses the idea that mueller's report was intended as a road map for congress as we've heard

democrats on capitol hill claim. now this letter argues, erica, it is not the business of inferior officials in the executive branch to provide road maps for other branches of government so basically this paints the picture by the white house lawyer of the special counsel prosecutors going rogue and going beyond what they were supposed to do. now i did reach out to the special counsel for comment and they declined to comment, erica. >> well that letter it talked about the white house, allowing advisers to be interviewed by house democrats and the thinking on that. what more did we learn? >> reporter: that is right. the letter argues that just because the president didn't assert executive privilege before the mueller report release that doesn't mean that he won't do it in the future in congressional investigations and it draws a distinction between the white house being fully cooperative in a criminal investigation, such as the special counsel investigation by not asserting executive privilege versus a congressional investigation. so this argument laid out in the

letter really draws a battle line in this escalating fight between the white house and house democrats over current and former white house aides' testimony. the president hasn't exerted executive privilege yet but this letter makes it clear it is a possibility down the road. >> pamela brown with this reporting for us. thank you. john sale was an assistant watergate special counsel and carolyn gasy was hired by george poppa dopa lus in the dnc lawsuit against him. and john, i'll start with you, it sounds like emmet flood unhappy that the mueller report did not flat out say there would be no obstruction charges against the president, full stop. >> well, i think emmet flood is an outstanding lawyer and he's been there before. he knows how this works. under the code of federal regulations he's right. that is all the special counsel is required to do. now i've never called it a witch

hunt. i've never called it 18 angry democrats. i think it was a legitimate investigation. but they did punt on the obstruction call and under the code it was then up to the attorney general. and i think the attorney general is getting a bad rap. rather than look at what he wrote or said, look at what he did. he did not interfere with the mueller investigation and releas released -- the 400 page report and so we could all read and pour over the report does it matter how it was characterized. and one other thing in the four-page letter, the attorney general threw in the mueller comment that we're not exonerating the president. i could tell you i've had my share of successes and never got an exoneration. they don't do that. they either prosecutor they

don't prosecute. >> but it is remarkable when we look at bill barr, he misrepresented that report and that was out there for weeks. >> if he represented it, it is inexcusable. but i still think from the public's point of view the important thing is we can read the report. i read it. it speaks for itself and i'm sure most good reporters have read it or you've had analysts read it. so the report is out there. so -- but if he misrepresented or misrepresented by omission, that is just not acceptable for anybody to do. >> and let me just -- and nail you down because you said you read the full report. are you saying you don't believe that it was misrepresented in that initial summary letter that was put out by bill barr? because you say you've read now the 448 pages. >> no, i think it could be argued that he did not totally deliver the message that mr. mueller wanted. but mueller wrote him a letter and said, please release the

following, which were 19 pages, and eventually the attorney general released everything that mueller asked him to. so i'm saying that it is a tough thing to write four pages to summarize -- which he said was not a summary, 400 pages -- >> let's look at in terms of this letter that we're just seeing here from emmet flood, caroline, when you look at this, in terms of the argument created about this legal curiosity that hadn't been seen because of not making call either way on obstruction, what is your take on that? >> this is a shot across the bow at emmet flood's part, he called it prosecutorial curiosity which is meant to be derogatory but i don't think it is derogatory because we are in unchartered territory. he is correct, under the new counsel -- this is not ken starr, under the statute what

was required of brm was to supply a report on the declinations or prosecutorial decisions moving toward to prosecute to the attorney general. and so emmet flood's issue is this is much more full some -- too good and too much information. and the oitd idea being if you are not going to prosecute the obstruction of justice then why include all of the other information. that to him he is saying is political. on mueller's behalf, he said the reason i'm memorializing this, i want this to be for post ert sake in the case suppose president trump is not re-elected then a prosecutor could move to indict on obstruction of justice because the evidence is there. so, yes, i think to an except they are arguing over semantics in the language of nonexonerated but they are both entitled to their own opinions. >> these may not be the last we

hear of those opinions. thank you. stay with me. the white house isn't the only one complaining to or about william barr over the handling of the mueller investigation. democrats lashing out after he was a no-show this morning. and in his place an empty chair. and there is more fuelling the outrage, including how barr saying he had no idea how mueller felt about the four-page report about the russia probe and we know he sent a letter saying he did not capture the context, nature and substance of the mueller team and their work. barr received that letter and also spoke with mueller, we learned, before he spoke with congress and that prompted house speaker nancy pelosi to say the following -- >> what is deadly serious about it is the attorney general of the united states of america was not telling the truth to the congress of the united states. that's a crime. he lied to congress.

he lied to congress. and anybody else did that, it would be considered a crime. nobody is above the law. not the president of the united states, and not the attorney general. >> senior congressional correspondent manu raju joining us now. the justice department called the speaker's comments reckless and irresponsible and false. and what is speaker pelosi specifically accusing barr of lying about. >> reporter: well in the past testimony before house committee and senate committee, he was asked, bill barr, about whether or not the special counsel had any concerns about the four-page letter that barr sent to capitol hill outlining the top-line findings of the mueller report. and he said very clearly in one of his testimonies i'm reading it from right here, he said -- he was asked by chris van hollen, did mueller support your conclusion. i don't know if bob mueller supported my conclusion.

now we know it was a letter sent on march 27th before that congressional testimony saying very clearly that mueller was concerned about the way that this report was characterized, some of the findings, and when he was asked about this yesterday in his senate hearing, barr said, look, what i was referring to was a report in "the new york times" that said that prosecutors -- unnamed prosecutors had concerns about the mueller report and i didn't know anything about those unnamed prosecutors. nevertheless, democrats are simply not satisfied with that response. and you heard that rather serious charge from the speaker of the house accusing the attorney general of the united states of lying and committing a crime. but it all harkens back to the past testimony and the question is what do democrats do going forward and at moment it is not clear what they will do other than hold the attorney general in contempt over a separate

dispute, not over allegations that he may have lied to congress, erica. >> manu raju, thank you. john sale and caroline pleasing are back. they say the attorney general committed a crime when he lied to congress and even if that were proved to be true it is barr's own justice department in charge of charging him. so realistically what is the consequence there. >> to pet the tiger, because the justice department is not going to criminally prosecute the attorney general but the stunts like the empty chair, that does not promote the american people to have confidence in our system. i think i'd like to see mueller testify, i'd like to see the attorney general come back and the way for that to happen is they should be negotiating behind the scenes to work out an accommodation to the attorney general will come back and rather than having subpoenas and go to court and the clock run out and the american people throw up their hands and say all of the politicians are just interested in their own careers.

i don't see why the house judiciary committee -- i think two-thirds of them are lawyers. why they can't ask the appropriate questions of the attorney general. let's bring him back, let's bring mueller back and let's have all of the questions we're speculating about answered. >> and that is a question that has come up several times today, that it didn't need perhaps to get to this point, that democrats did not need to force it to this point. and caroline, whether they're in some ways shooting themselves in the foot over that, that is more of a political question because you're here in ray legal capacity but we heard from nancy pelosi today saying that what the president has said about subpoenas and not going to comply with any subpoenas when it comes to the congressional investigations, she likens that to obstruction of justice. again, as we keep going down this road of what can they do legally, how does any of that get enforced? that is the big question. >> so there are two roots -- if you are asking on a legal basis, typically history would provide

us with the answer that these things get bartered behind closed doors. however there is a criminal route and a civil route and what i would think here, they would go the civil route and hold somebody in civil contempt if you don't comply with the subpoena and that would take a long time. so really we use this word a lot, constitutional crisis. but this is really a constitutional crisis because it is one branch of government against another branch of government and they're coequal and who is going to prevail and as rightly noted, is william barr going to allow his justice department to prosecute him or the justice department going to knock down his door. here we are. >> we'll see what happens. another point of contention, the note he took during a phone call with robert mueller. richard blumenthal wants to see

those notes and bill barr refused and so could he be required to turn them over. and the economy hitting a new high and the poll reveals how the president is doing on head to head match-ups against the top candidates with van jones. and the second pick for the federal reserve board bowing out. so what was it that may have finally forced stephen moore to end his bid. her uncover her his. ...to tell a story as unique as she is. order a kit for mom (or dad) at ancestry.com hey allergy muddlers... achoo! do your sneezes turn heads? ♪ try zyrtec. zyrtec starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day.

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with a phone call between the attorney general and robert mueller. so barr testified he was the one to call mueller, to talk about that letter that mueller sent expressing concern over how barr was portraying the mueller report before the redacted version was released. so here is that exchange between bill barr and senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. >> did anyone, either you or anyone on your staff, memorialize your conversation with robert mueller? >> yes. >> who did that? >> there were notes taken of the call. >> may we have those notes? >> no. >> why not? >> why should you have them? >> cnn crime and justice reporter shimon prokupecz joining us now. can congress obtain those notes about the call between the attorney general and special counsel despite the no? >> reporter: quite a shocking response there from the attorney

general. certainly you would have thought maybe he would turn around and say let me see what i could do, let me look into it and see if i can provide those to you. especially given all of the issues that have been ongoing with the letter and the fact that he didn't reveal in a mueller had written the letter and didn't reveal until really yesterday there was this phone call. yes, can congress get their hands on it? absolutely. they could ask for it. they can subpoena it. they're still obviously this whole issue before the house, they can vote to subpoena this information. i'm sure there will be follow-up from members of congress requesting this information. ultimately i do think it is probably going to have to be handed over. they are going to have to allow members of congress to see it. and the other thing is for us in the media, we can request it, too. there could be lawsuits for this information. so eventually what is not totally clear to me is why barr is resisting when eventually he's probably going to have to turn this over.

he's probably going to have to make this public just like with the letter. at first they wouldn't say there was even this letter and he wouldn't even tell us that he had these conversations with mueller. and then ultimately it does get released. it just looks really, really bad and it seems like they're trying to consistently high information from the public instead of just saying, hey, here is the information and here is what happened and we have nothing to hide. ultimately this does become public and it could take some time but ultimately people will be able to see and read the notes that were perhaps created. and there could be memos on the mueller team. just because barr had his aides and people from the department of justice in this room on this call, which was on a speaker phone, we should probably expect that mueller did the same, he had people with him present during this phone call. so eventually, yes, i do think it will get public and people will be able to read it and we'll see how it matches up with what the attorney general said yesterday. >> it is just all about the

when, right? and perhaps which side we get to see in terms of notes first? >> reporter: right. and it doesn't make sense in the end why they wouldn't put everything out there and put everything forward and just give it all out there. eventually it's going to come out and just get ahead of it and get it out of there and that is the most puzzling and that they have not learned their lesson and they should have come forward and brought everything out and let everyone see everything that is going on. it just raises all sorts of questions, necessary questions that folks ni-- folks need to kp digging in on and eventually i think the entire thing will come out and we'll be able to see for ourselves the conversations -- it was a 15-minute phone call, erica, is what he said. that is a really long time. so you could imagine all of the things that they were talking about that we just don't know yet about. eventually it does come out, i think. >> indeed, it does. and we know you'll let us know as you hear more.

shimon, thank you. well speaking of barr and mueller, you know they were once friends? really good friends. barr took multiple jabs at mueller during that hearing on wednesday. we have a few of them to remind you. plus this just coming in, facebook has banned several high-profile users for being dangerous. we'll show you which names make the list. ok everyone! our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure, for strength and energy. we need a solution.ut their phones down.. introducing... smartdogs.

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just into cnn, facebook is purging several high-profile names from the platforms. among them, nation of islam leader lewis farrah khan and

alex joan and info wars. they're being banned for spreading, quote, dangerous ideology. oliver darcy joins me now. so what more do we know about this ban and who else is included? >> this is a very strict action from facebook, erica. basically they've deemed these individuals to be dangerous is what facebook is saying including nation of islam leader louis farrah khan and people like conspiracy theorist alex jones and then right-wing media personalities popular online like milo yanapolous and failed congressional candidate paul naggin who made anti-semitic remarks and they do say in a statement from facebook, we ban individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate regardless of ideology and it is what led us to our decision to remove these

accounts today. facebook told me the process they use is to -- to engage in a number of factors. have they promoted hate speech on facebook, have they been banned for violating the rules in the past or self-described themself as a hate movement or ideology and those are the factors that facebook is weighing and taking this strict action moments ago. >> and banning from facebook and instagram, correct? >> yes. facebook owns instagram and someone like alex jones banned from facebook last year in the summer, but still having a presence on instagram. and that had drawn a lot of scrutiny from people saying, hey, you guys banned him from one platform and why are you allowing him to have a presence on instagram. so now facebook is going to be banning alex jones and info wars from not only the main platform facebook but also from instagram. i checked in also to see if these people would be banned from what's app which is owned by facebook and a spokesperson could not say immediately because it is unclear whether some of the people have what's

app accounts. >> but you'll continue to check on it. oliver darcy, good to see you. >> thank you. this just into us, the gunman accused in the deadly shooting on unc campus in court moments ago. we'll tell you what happened as we're also hearing more stories of survival and heroism. and plus in the 2020 race, new polls showing how the top democratic candidates would match up head to head against the president. the surprises including which one has the biggest lead. van jones is here next. (ding) hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪

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a cruise ship which is reportedly owned and operated by the church of scientology like you are looking at there, under

quarentine. officials in st. lucia identified one case of measles on board and now the ship is requesting 100 doses of vaccines. due to the highly infectious nature of the disease no one is allowed to leave the ship and the church has not responded to the request for comment. the u.s. is in the middle of an outbreak. more than 700 cases reported in 22 states. it is the economy stupid. we know that phrase. it worked well for bill clinton in 1992 so could it have the same effect for donald trump in 2020. a majority of americans, 56%, think president trump is doing a good job in the economy. these are the best numbers to date. >> we hate to sound like a cliche, but are you better off than you were four years ago. it is simple. it is the economy, stupid. people will vote for somebody they don't like if they think it is good for them. >> helping mick mulvaney make their case, 20% of those who disapprove of president trump still like how he's handling the economy.

so what about the other areas. how is the president doing there? when it comes to health care policy? 38% as you could see approve. 53% disapprove. race relations in this country, those numbers similar. 39% saying they approve of how the president is handling things, 55% disapprove. and now overall the president favor ability is 45%. best since april of 2017. and what about his challengers? the one president trump seems most focused on, former vice president joe biden, getting a thumbs up from 51% of respondents. cnn political commentator van jones joins me now to dig in. this poll was done last year on the heels of the great economic information. the first quarter gdp far exceeded expectations. that is great news for the president and for his economy. >> and for the country. >> and for the country. absolutely. is it really all about the economy at the end of the day? >> it could be. but i have to tell you what, if you are donald trump, you're vulnerable in two directions. on the one hand, if there is a

downturn and you got some bad news in china and other places and there is a downturn, then that argument goes away quickly. even if there is not, you saw -- the obama economy was healing and things were doing well and economy said things are getting better and the people for whom it was not doing better are recenting the message and the question trump has to keep an eye on is in the industrial heartland where he won, are the numbers looking good there and are those obama to trump voters getting a benefit from what is happening on the stock market or whatever else. you could have a similar repeat with economic good news that actually makes other people feel left out and re -- resentful. and it is the economy and that is many things. >> and we have a little time before the election. >> just a little. >> let's play a game of what if. so as we looked at the match-ups for the top democratic contenders up against president trump and i mentioned the numbers that we saw for former

vice president biden who seems to be really say focus for the president as we see from his twitter feed and a point ahead and beto o'rourke is quiet but showing 52% in a match-up with the president. they're all holding pretty steady. the lowest numbers were elizabeth warren at 47% among the top contenders. that is still not a bad showing. but it is -- you know, it is may of 2019. >> way out. but i think you're noticing with elizabeth warren, she's probably at the bottom of where she's going to be. i think her actual floor and i think her floor is high. i think a lot of her proposals, she's been coming out with stuff that is very popular and not just populous but popular proposals and i think you'll see her climb. beto has been a mystery to people trying to figure out when -- if you got over-exposed and everybody jumped on him to me i thought were reasons unfair, some line in a magazine

article people didn't like and they went nuts and then he backed off and got more popular when he backed off. wait a minute. that is weird. campaign less and win more and elizabeth warren, has a lot of room to grow and will grow. but the numbers are fascinating. the most important thing that i would say is that the econom economic -- the message of the trump campaign is the strongest card to play but it could be misplayed and i think democrats have to keep focusing on the people who are missing out on the economic boom. the boom for whom? is it a boom for trump's friends or a boom for wall street or boom for corporations? how many real people will be able to say they really are actually better off when you have all of these costs for education and health care and other things that could be eat ago way at their progress. >> and not just focus on the people but focus on the people and have an actual plan to address their concerns and the issues that they're dealing with. >> that would be twice as nice.

>> specially for the folks who need that now. i want to get your take on hillary clinton -- speaking with rachel mad ow last night. had a lot of different things to talking to some of the candidates. i'm curious your take. is it helpful or not to have hillary clinton continuously pop up and now popping up as part of the 2020 discussion? >> i think it is inevitable and honestly it is a wash. there are people who never want to hear her name again, but the reality is however you feel about hillary clinton and we all have our frustrations, she is brilliant. she's brilliant. she's smart. she's one of the people who has been around long enough to see the good and the bad and to see the crack and weaknesses and the arguments she makes are very, very tough and good arguments. so she's one of the few people who could cut through. you don't want to -- don't say hillary clinton bee quiet. so who when they talk will we talk about? she is a democrat that is hard to ignore. and if she were saying stuff she disagree with i might tell her to shut up but she wouldn't

listen any way and reality is she's saying stuff i generally agree with. so i'm glad she's out there. >> good to see you, van. >> be sure to watch "the redemption project" with van jones when parents and those responsible for life-changing injuries confront. only here on cnn. robert mueller and bill barr have known each other's decades and their wives attend bible study together but during the contentious hearing barr took multiple jabs at robert mueller. and you thought college tuition was sky high. how about paying $6.5 million. the latest twist in the massive college admission scandal next. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock.

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just into cnn, hate crimes in new york city has jumped 70% compared to this time last yeerp. the nypd reporting hate crimed in april of this year were up a whopping 67%. there were 58 more incidents reported in 2019. most of them drawings of swastikas. as for overall crime, it is down nearly 7%. we know all may be fair in love and war but you could say the same about politics. a long time washington friendship may give us the answer. chris cillizza is digging into the long-shared history of william barr and special counsel robert mueller. easy for me to say. so they've known each other for decades. >> yep. >> but yesterday i don't know,

not really how i would imagine a friend of decades would talk about a friend. >> a little frenemy-ish. and i say bill barr and bob mueller, it really gets me a lot. robert mueller and bill barr. they have known each other for frankly quite a long time. since the 1990s. they met at the justice department and both in their 40s. high-rising justice department officials and their wives attended bible study together and evidence of some friendship or they ran in more circles and the muellers did attend weddings of william barr's daughters which makes you think they were more than just acquaintances, right? but -- but, but as you mentioned yesterday in the hearing barr didn't attack -- attack mueller, but he kind of hinted at it. let's play a little bit of that sound. >> bob mueller is the equivalent of a u.s. attorney. his work concluded when he sent his report to the attorney

general. at that point it was my baby and it was my decision how and when to make it public, not bob mueller's. i don't consider bob at this stage a career prosecutors. he was also a political apointy and he was a political appointee with me at the department of justice. i don't -- you know, the letter is a bit snitty and i think it was probably written by one of his staff people. >> and you know barr followed up and was asked what he thought about the letter and he said when i called bob mueller, i said why the letter? why couldn't you just pick up the phone. which implies some level of friendship that barr thought maybe that mueller was doing this to sort of record it in history. look, these are two people who are, again, high-rising, high-achieving parts of the justice community. they clearly know one another and they clearly ran in similar circles at one time, to describe them as best friends or friends may be a reach and the reason i

say that is because you remember, i think we have a picture of these two -- two gentlemen at some point. and remember -- there they are, james comey and -- and donald trump describes them as best friends. they are not best friends. comey said we know one another and we worked together. we were in this kind of broad circle. but we're not best friends. so the implying of friendship has been very difficult. these are people who all three of them work together at one time or another, they clearly have similar interests in and they ran in similar circles at one point. but conclusions about who is friends with whom, it gets us too much back into high school, which, by the way, gives me the chills, but it is very hard to know definitively how much each of them like each other, hang out with each other and know each other and consider one another friends now. >> and the one thing we can agree on is i'm happy to leave

high school behind too. >> the worst. >> more on our breaking news. an extraordinary development, the speaker of the house accusing the attorney general of a crime. we'll show you the moment that has democrats pouncing. plus attorney general bill barr doesn't show up at today's house hearing so why did a democrat start eating from a bucket of kfc? biopharmaceutical researchers. pursuing life-changing cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs... like a way to fight cancer by arming a patient's own t-cells... because it's not just about the next breakthrough... it's all the ones after that.

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. the uncc campus has reopened now following tuesday's deadly shooting that the claimed the live of two students. the suspected gunman was supposed to make his first court appearance today but waived his right to appear in court.

his motive is unclear. cnn affiliate wbtv reports investigators say the suspect admitted he had been planning an attack for months and had researched the sandy hook massacre at lengths. the two students killed are 21-year-old riley howell and 19-year-old reed parlayer and howell charged the suspect and tackled him down before losing his own life. his family called him everybody's protector. >> everybody ran and reilly chased. >> we are just beyond proud of what he was able to do. >> he put others before himself. he always has. saved a whole room of people just to make sure some people got out alive. >> cnn national correspondent dian gallagher joins us from the

courthouse. the suspect not appearing in court today. >> reporter: no, did not appear in court today. we do know he will use a public defender and have a bond hearing on the 15th of the month and unless the grand jury indicted him and then it will be transferred to the supreme court. it was unusual. media from all over the world waiting on that. one of the rare cases where in a high profile incident the person doesn't make the initial appearance. the police still trying to work out exactly why this 22-year-old former student came into the building on the last day of class and opened fire into a corner of that classroom. again, the chief saying it had not been for riley howell, that we would likely be looking at far more victims and again the two who were killed and the four injured and still recovering, trying to get back to normal or whatever normal is now for them in charlotte on the uncc campus. erica, they are trying to figure out if they're going to -- what

to do about final exams, it is up to the individual teachers, but they've said that graduation is going to go on as scheduled next week. a week from tomorrow. it will begin the series of graduations, one of those victims even though she's in the hospital, she was shot, she still plans to walk at her graduation. >> and what more could you tell us about the other victims, the other people who were injured and who may still be hospitalized? >> reporter: so there are still -- still three of them who were in the hospital. but only one who is still in critical condition at this point. one of those, rahmy al ramadan his father should be here shortly from saudi arabia. he was an international student, a freshman. i spoke with some of the students from the uncc saudi organization and they say he was shot in the stomach, in the body area and also a bullet grazed his hand but at this point he's doing okay and his spirits are as good as you could imagine.

again, one of the other students, she is still recovering. but she's going to walk at her graduation. that is her plan. and one of them, he was released almost that night. he went in, he was treated and he got out. the sports director of the niner times, the student newspaper there, his classmates have been doing such an excellent job, erica, of covering, again, once again, students covering a shooting at their own school. those student journalists making sure they are paying tribute to him. keeping everyone updated on his progress as he continues to recover from those gunshots. >> dian gallagher, thank you. this is cnn breaking news. >> as we approach the top of the hour here, i'm erica hill in today for brooke baldwin. and breaking news on the mueller report. we're learning about a letter from a top white house lawyer to

bill bar blasting the work of robert mueller saying the mueller report suffers from an extraordinary legal deficit. emmet flood laying out other arguments that don't bode well for congress in its multi-front subpoena fight to get information from the president. cnn white house correspondent abby phillip joining us now. so this letter from emmet flood accused the robert mueller team of playing politics. what else did we learn? >> reporter: that is right. this letter memorializes the objections that the white house's lawyers have with the special counsel's report. particularly the section on obstruction. now they talk a lot about this idea that the report said that they could not exonerate the president on the idea of obstruction but flood calls that a political statement and said that the special counsel is violating the rules of -- for the existence by putting that into the report. they said that in this country you're innocent until proven guilty and if say prosecutor

wants to charge you, they'll charge you. if they don't want to charging you they decline to do so. and here is what flood said. i'm reading from the report, the special counsel instead produced a prosecutorial curiosity part truth commission report and part law school exam paper. essentially flood is accusing the special counsel of simply just transmitting evidence without making it clear that he wasn't going to charge the president with obstruction of justice. and then he goes on to say that the report is being seen now about congressional democrats, particularly house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler as a, quote, road map for continuing to investigate the president over obstruction. that, too, is something that flood is objecting to saying that is simply not the role of the special counsel at all. >> the letter also specifically addresses white house -- the white house allowing advisers to be interviewed by house democrats. what is the take on that? well this is the next step here.

so now that