the 2020 campaign tomorrow on "collude to live will read fair and balanced as always. we'll have your back, even on weekends. here comes "the five." ♪ >> juan: hello, everyone, i'm juan williams along with emily, dana, jesse watters, and dr. greg gutfeld. the white house, washington, all of america, waiting on the mueller report. anticipation growing as all signs point to the russia probe results being released very soon. it's not even out yet, but everybody thinks they have an opinion on what it all means for president trump. >> there are indictments in this president's future. >> the idea that somehow robert mueller is harry potter and this

report is a wad that fixes everything, all we have to do is wait for mueller, is going to prove to be ill-advised on the part of democrats. >> i think it would be more descriptive, more active, to quit calling it the cohen report when it comes out, but it's more like a mueller dossier. >> we can put it next to the 2016 election, a little thing like barry bonds, will there be an >> the president would say it clear his helm. i think that's a safe, political expectation to make here. >> juan: here is the president on what he thinks the public will take it. >> i have a deputy to make a determination on my presidency? people will not stand for it. now, for all of that, two years we've gone with this nonsense because there is no collusion with russia and there's no obstruction for they'll say, wait, there was no collusion,

that was a hoax, but he can tell that obstructed inviting the hoax. >> juan: that's just the beginning. democrats launching their old trump related investigations. however, according to "the daily beast," trump's lawyers but preparing to tell democrats to go blank themselves. democrats will just be wasting everyone's time. jesse williams -- vehicle a continuation of the sandwich hug. they know it it's just a continuation of the same nonsense. they ought to go to work, get infrastructure.gov i get a lot of other things.instead of wasting everybody's time. >> dana: the spieler report has been delivered, but t know any details yet, whether it'll be a matter of hours, days, weeks, months, we just

don't know. jessica moore are we? jesse colin mueller took too long. kind of like the guy at the barbecue, and he burns the meat. you say, i waited two years for this! this is terrible! i honestly don't think the rest of the country outside of the swamp and the partisans really care about the mueller report. they care about the brackets for the ncaa. they care about spring vacation. they care about what's on netflix. with that said, if there was real collusion, it would be linked by now. that's for a fact for the report comes back into looks like the media is trying to set expectations for the democrats that have trump derangement syndrome, that there is no collusion, i don't know what they are going to do. is there going to be soul-searching by the democrats in the media and say what have we done the last two years with this conspiracy? i don't think they will because the media is going to cover up their mistakes.

the new conspiracy will be that whatever bar the new ag says or doesn't say, he's going to be hiding something. as you know, the rules say he doesn't have to disclose everything, so they are going to say there is collusion but barr won't tell us what it is and it'll go on and on and on. >> juan: this is a fox news alert. robert mueller has submitted his report to attorney general william barr. the special counsel has been probing alleged russian interference in 2016 election for the past 21 months. the move they'll setting up a potential showdown over how much of it will be made public. barr indicated he'll send his own summary of the findings to congress rather than mueller's actual report. while democrats have threatened to subpoena mueller to testify publicly about what he found. mueller's team has either indicted, convicted, or gotten guilty pleas from 34 people in

three companies, including six former trump advisors and/or associates. dana, we just don't know who's been indicted, who has been exonerated, but the president in talking with maria bartolotta this morning says people will not stand for it if it indicates that there is some wrongdoing because he continues to say it was a witch hunt. >> dana: i want to take a step back and say of course the media covers the angle that was their trump collusion, trump involvement, that has been with the media. frankly we've been talking about it. remember, the genesis of the report, it wasn't dealings on behalf of the trumps. it was about the russians and attempted influence and basically trying to disrupt our election. and we know from our intelligence agencies and the and the department of homeland security's, those efforts by the russians continue to this day and we are heading into an important election.

setting aside how russia try to get involved with these people if there was involvement, et cetera, i think this report could be quite instructive about what we need to do to protect our elections going forward. like how big that threat is. i think that's even more important than anything else. because we, obviously our country is surviving. we aren't in a confrontational crisis. going forward, if people do not trust the outcome of an election, it all could fall apart. >> juan: that's a great point. >> dana: thank you. >> juan: john roberts with us now. >> expecting shortly a statement from the president's lawyers, jay sekulow and rudy giuliani. earlier this morning, the president said he had no idea, he was in the dark like the rest of us with the report might come out, but he was doing his best when leaving from mar-a-lago this morning to discredit the mueller investigation yet again and whatever the contents of the report might be, saying that there was no collusion and there

was a witch hunt. we do not know what the process is going to be, the special counsel's office has delivered it as it has to by statute to the attorney general. the attorney general will now review with and decide what will be sent to congress, if anything will be sent to congress, what might be made public, if anything will be made public. barr said during his confirmation hearings he'll do his best to make as much of the report public is possibly could. there's also a potential here for the white house to get involved. if there is no material in the report that is subject to executive privilege, the white house might not ask to see it. but if there is material contained in the report that is subject to executive privilege, that's the white house counsel here at 1600 pennsylvania avenue, they may put a request in the ripped department of justice to review it to waive executive privilege of the items that might be included in an order to request

read the actions and it'll be up again to william barr and his team to make those reductions or to decide if the redactions will be read to congress and the public. it's also possible because don't forget that this is all within the same branch of government. the office of the special counsel is appointed by the department of justice, which is part of the administration. so this is all under article 2 of the constitution. it would be under the president's purview and his authorization to request to sng. i'm told that's the least likely scenario. for now, this is in the hands of the attorney general and we'll see what william barr decides to do with it. the president said this morning that he has full faith in the attorney general and that he believes he will make the right decision on what to do next. juan? >> juan: john roberts at the white house. john, thank you very much. to recap those of you just joining come of robert mueller

the board report has been submitted to the department of justice. we are joined by catherine herridge in our washington bureau. >> i'm going to head down to the justice department, but we've got some information, the tick-tock of events over the last hour. we have confirmed a letter was sent to the chairman and ranking members of the senate and house judiciary committee's notifying them to the special counsel robert mueller investigation was completed. let me just read from that text, says "special counsel robert mueller the third has concluded in the investigation of russian interference. delma." attorney general william barr says, "he may be in a position to advise you, the committee, of the special counsel's printable conclusions as soon this weekend." this is the first time that we've indication that the attorney general may be able to move very quickly in terms of releasing some information and the findings to congress with

what we've seen in the letters so far a timetable for a public release. this will process they'll make this whole process will be governed by something called 2600 cfr, it's very explicit that the notifications to congress of the findings, it's a little more vague, on whether that's a summary from the attorney general or he can include some of the raw data, if you will come up from the mueller report. the other thing that's often neglected in this discussion which is stipulated in the regulations is that there is a requirement by the justice department to notify congress of any actions that special counsel robert mueller wanted to take but was blocked from taking by the attorney general or in the acting attorney general. that's the other thing to really watch. again, to recap, things have moved very quickly in the last hour. my contact said they were notified of a short notice

meeting on capitol hill, republicans and democrats, on the house judiciary committee, that it would involve the justice department, and that we have confirmation of a letter to the ranking members and chairman of those committees that the mueller report is now complete, juan. >> emily: i have a question. it might be a timing thing. when you said that the attorney general said as soon as this weekend really something, a couple of weeks ago there were rumors that this report had been delivered to the attorney general. do you think it is possible that that is true, the attorney general has had this report and that is why they are making this is not been late on a friday night and they think they can turn on something and he was just receiving it that he could turn something around that quickly by sunday? >> dana: if you look at the regulations, it's very specific about what has to be provided to congress. it has to provide a catalog and, if you will of the prosecutions that were brought and also what

they called declinations. these are decisions not to proceed with criminal prosecutions because they feel like they don't have sufficient evidence to do so. that is not a lengthy document that goes into the underlying evidence. the reason i mention that it is the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein was very clear in a letter to senator grassley, the former head of the senate judiciary committee, when he said in effect that he didn't want to repeat the same mistakes that were made in 2016, that it's not the department's position to release information that is damaging to individuals who are never prosecuted for any crimes in the future. that was in reference, and it's cited in the letter, to the former fbi director james comey and his decision to publicly discuss the findings in the clinton email case, but to recommend against criminal prosecutions. so the long action, to your concise question, is that when you look at the regulations, it's entirely possible to

deliver bare bones of what's required in a very short time frame. the unknown and all of this is whether the attorney general william barr will in fact go further because he has some discretion to provide additional information and that do so and t the heart, if you will, or the main element of his testimony during the confirmation hearings, that he pledged to that to the extent he was able to come up dana. >> juan: we want to now go to shannon bream. our supreme court reporter. shannon, we are very interested in the future legal fight facing the president. >> no matter what happens with this report, you know there are other things that are bubbling out there that could be very problematic for the president on a legal field. you think about the cases that are pending in the southern district of new york. the investigations going on there. there are all kinds of things at the state level in new york that have come with respect to the trump organization and foundation and other things that the attorney general has said they are looking into.

regardless whether this concludes the rush of collusion part of the investigation, there are many other things the white house is still going to have to manage on the legal front. one thing to watch for here, it's possible as parts of the findings of the special counsel eventually are meted out first to top level congressional level leaders and don't forget the attorney general here, barr says he wants to get as much of it to the public as he can responsively do with any kind of classified information, it's possible that he at may some point can subpoena the special counsel or the report itself to have them come before them. so there is still a lot of potential legal pitfalls here for the administration, but the president if he feels vindicated and cleared by this report will have plenty to celebrate on that front. it just means there are other issues they are still going to have to pay attention to aside from this report. >> juan: dana, you want to

jump back in? >> dana: we know several people have been leading the mueller investigation to go back to their jobs. we know there is a possibility and this is what you mean, maybe there will be -- no more indictments from mueller, but other investigations that are underway and it could continue? about what's going on, the federal and the state level based out of new york, there are plenty of things going on that's where we saw these cases >> michael: michael with michael cohen going on, charities, different things, the trump organization. a lot of things were spun off to some of these other places. some of them were originated themselves and he in anyways. but there is a lot. >> dana: i think catherine herridge has some more. >> i want to tell you the department has communicated to the congressional committees

that have direct oversight. just a few minutes ago, we talked about how the attorney general had told them and i'm reading here, "he may also be in a position to advise you, the committee, of a special counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend." remember, we talked about whether there would be more information for the coming? i have part of that answer. the letter continues from attorney general william barr, "separately, i intend to consult with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and special counsel mueller to determine what other information from the report can be released to congress and the public consistent with the law, including the special counsel regulations and the department's long-standing practices and policies." let me just read between the lines here for you. what's been too indicated to congress is that the attorney general can tell them as soon as his weekend the kind kind of bare-bones bottom-line findings in the mueller report. the prosecutions and what we discuss minutes ago, declinations, the decision not

to prosecute because there wasn't sufficient evidence for a confection. but based on this latter part, you can see that there is going to be a follow-on discussion with the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and the special counsel robert mueller, and attorney general william barr to consider whether the underlying findings of the investigation can be further released to congress and then also to the public. the key phrase here, i emphasize this, "in keeping with department regulations" ," department regulations stipulate that you do not release damaging information about individuals who you do not recommend for criminal prosecutions bear that's where the curtain comes down and they've got to find a way to navigate that, dana. >> dana: sounds like a good policy indeed. catherine herridge, thank you. bret baier, i think we have you. bret baier, the anchor of "special report" taking over for us here. bret, we have you?

>> bret: this is a fox news alert. the long-awaited moment has happen. special counsel mueller has given over the report to the justice department, handing that over to the attorney general rosenstein who then took the report to the william barr. the white house notified 4:45 in the afternoon before congress, but then a letter from the attorney general arrived to the house and senate judiciary chairman and ranking member, saying that the mueller report had in fact been received. now we are in a wait-and-see mode to see exactly what we find out from the conclusions. special counsel robert mueller has been working all this time. there's been a lot of talk back and forth of what may be he could find, what he might not

find, but the attorney general has a decision along with the deputy attorney general speaking with, he says the special counsel, what can and should be put public to capitol hill and to the american public. there is been a vote on capitol hill for full transparency of the special counsel report. in the house, it was 420-0. it has not come up in the senate. president trump has said that he would be in favor of seeing this report come out public, not knowing what exactly is in it so far. we await word for what is next, but we can tell you that this is moving forward and that the report itself has been briefed to the attorney general. both the attorney general and the deputy attorney general have read the report. there is a statement we are just getting right now as i'm speaking from the president's attorney. john roberts is at the white house with the very latest

there. john? >> good afternoon to you. we are now finally hearing from the president's attorneys jay sekulow and rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani flew down just the other day from new york to be here because there was an indication that this report was going to get transmitted to william barr. and now a joint statement from jay sekulow and rudy giuliani saying, "we are pleased that the office of special counsel has delivered its report to the attorney general pursuant to the regulations. attorney general barr will determine the appropriate next steps." giuliani was going to go down to margo mar-a-lago, but it's more likely he'll appear on sunday morning television shows to talk about their side of the story. the president, the president's attorneys have maintained all along that there is no collusion, no culpability that the president has in anything that happened in 2016 election, and they believe that this report will exonerate the

president. now, what catherine herridge said about the letter transmitted from rod rosenstein to be then stated judiciary committee jock chuck grassley in june of last year, if it does not rise to the level of charges being filed, it may not be included in this report, but we know from what attorney general barr said in a statement from the department of justice that we may begin to hear very earliest conclusions from this report sometime this weekend if they can be transmitted to congress so that may fill in some of the blanks. again, the president's attorneys saying, "we are pleased that the office of special counsel has delivered its report to the attorney general pursuant to the regulations," and this, the most important of this, barr will determine the appropriate next steps, whatever those may be. bret? >> bret: getting statements now from capitol hill. this one from u.s. senator mark

warner from virginia, says, "congress and the american people deserve to judge the facts themselves, the special counsel's report must be provided to congress immediately and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. nothing short of that will suffice. also critical that all documents related to the special counsel's investigation be preserved and made available to the appropriate congressional committees. any attempt by the trump administration to cover up the reports of this investigation into russia's attack on our democracy would be unacceptable." that from the democratic vice chair of the senate select committee on intelligence. the president has said publicly on the south lawn just the other day that he would be in favor of putting the mueller report out to the public. he said that decision, as he is accurate to say, is up to the attorney general william barr and we saw that in barr's confirmation hearing on capitol hill peppered numerous times how he would handle this very moment, when the special

counsel's report arrives at his desk. joining us now, chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge with what she's hearing. catherine? >> i have a copy of the letter that was transmitted earlier this afternoon from the attorney general william barr to the two congressional committees with direct oversight. house judiciary and senate judiciary. i just want to note a couple of things in the letter because we've hit most of the headlines already, that he's in receipt of the report and he thinks he may be able to provide to these committees a principal conclusion from the report about prosecutions and decisions not to prosecute as early as this weekend. and that he would then consider with consultation from robert mueller, as well as his deputy attorney general rod rosenstein how much further to go in this process in this exercise, if you will come up in transparency. but when you look at william barr's letter, what jumps out at me is that it's really buy the

book. everything is cited to the code of federal regulations, 28 cfr 600. everything. even the public release of this letter which is the official notification from the attorney general to congress that the report has been received. so that tells me that barr is very new in this job but also sending a very clear message in this letter that this is going to be a by the book kind of guy according to the code of federal regulations. specifically when you look at the letter, how much additional information can be provided in the principal players here have released, staked out the vision on that, which is not go beyond department guidelines. again, we said this repeatedly, of the guidelines are very specific about not providing information or evidence that's damaging to an individual when the prosecution is not pursued.

folks at home can see this letter now. it's public. it's all in line. the attorney general, it's by the book. it's 28 cfr 600 and the different parts that apply, specifically at the bottom he's elected to release this letter because it can be released, believes it's in the public interest and that's what he states here. just a final point if i could, there's been a lot of talk this week there's been motivation process especially for the president's lawyers. and what we've learned from john roberts reporting is that they were given a very short timeline, short heads up. i know from previous discussions, those quotes had anticipated a lengthier heads up, be several hours to prepare for the ultimate confrontation, the report provided to the attorney general, but for whatever reason that was not the case here, bret. >> bret: see if we can get more information but we'll head

back when we do. sarah sanders, white house press secretary, tweeting moments ago that the next steps are up to attorney general barr and we look forward to the white house has not been briefed, making it clear that they have not been briefed on the details within, but they were told at 4:45 this afternoon that in fact the special counsel had delivered the report to the department of justice. joining is now our chief justice correspondent and also the anger of fox news at "fox news @ night" shannon bream. to hear the buy the book language sent to the judiciary chairman ranking chairman, we saw rod rosenstein were he said essentially that. opposite of what we saw with james comey when he came out and talk about hillary clinton's email situation that she wasn't getting indicted but yet here's what happened and did wrong, rosenstein saying by the book, the fbi, any special counsel is

not supposed to do that. >> i think that was a case study for what happened with james comey, than fbi director was a case study for this time around that this justice department is not going to play any games where there probably won't be a big public about who is not going to be indicted, but spelling out the facts, getting to that place. and sarah sanders tweeted that there have not felt like they have not been given an advance copy, the white has not been briefed by this. there had been discussion by rudy giuliani about them wanting to see any final report before it was released and he may have been referring to what barr will eventually release, they may want to exert some sort of executive privilege or other, you know, means for crafting or putting a in some way on one of these reports before it goes public. patrick leahy he has seen many of things before reportedly asked attorney general barr at

the president's legal team would have a chance alter any kind of report and his quote was that will not happen. it looks like this department will do everything it can to salvage the public reputation of this investigation and the department itself. they know a lot is on the line, they have taken a beating in public. all of those involved with this investigation, it's being called a witch hunt, fishing exhibition, all these other things. barr you on the job was to restore the integrity of the institutions so americans can feel like the justice department is something apolitical and about investigating facts and nothing more, nothing less. it seems like this rolled out today certainly indicates that, bret. >> bret: we'll head back with more details. the special counsel barr rights has submitted me down next to me today a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions he has reached as required of the special counsel's principal conclusions

as soon as this weekend, according to barr in this letter, they separately intend to consult rod rosenstein and special collar meal or and the public consistent with the law including the special counsel regulations. sticking to it, he says the department's long-standing practices and policies. joining us now from new york, who usually see this hour, one williams and dana perino. first to you, dana. we should step back and say that this special counsel, robert mueller and his team, were tenderest with a narrow task. to investigate russia's, into their moves into the election and if there was a tide of the trump campaign. we will know sooner rather than later what the fallout from this is. >> when we first found out at the beginning of this hour, the news that the report has been

delivered to the attorney general, one thing i ask people to remember is that, well, of course the president wants to know what it's going to say about him and his campaign and any associates from the campaign. there is also something very instructive to america coming from this report, we imagine. that is the extent to which russia tried to interfere in america's elections. we also know from our intelligence agencies that those efforts continue. and i don't think in this report they are going to say, here's how we recommend america handle it going forward. but knowing the extent to which russia went, and remember, because there were 26 russians who were indicted in one of these mueller reports, mueller actions. of course, we don't know all the details on that. maybe this report will tell us that. i think aside from the questions of trump campaign interference with the russians and collusion, that's one thing. the other thing has to be what

russia, what links it went to to disrupt our elections and how those efforts continue to this day. if i could say about one thing about the white house and justice department relationship, i worked at both. i was a spokesperson at the justice department before going to the white house. it's super important, and i think america should feel reassured, that the attorney general is william barr. he understands the building, understands the integrity of it and how important it is to a poll that, especially at a time when everybody wants to see what this report will say. the fact that the white house is saying, we have not received their report, that received a briefing about the report, i think that allows everyone to say that they have been not interfering in the special counsel, they are going to let this report come out, and that will speak volumes going forwar forward. >> bret: juan, the house has approved a nonbinding resolution urging the speed that report be publicized. the senate has not taken that u up. there are all these coming up from capitol hill that there needs to be transparency.

your thoughts on this moment and what attorney general barr is facing? >> i don't think there's any doubt about it, bret. this is a historic moment. we've been waiting two years for this. it's in the hands of the attorney general and he has to make historic decisions about this historic document. i will say, there are so many questions on the table. the last indictment was in january, roger stone. we don't know of any indictments since, any plans for future indictments, but there are words that there are 12 field indictments still in d.c. federal court, and we are also curious as to the extent, the extent to which future prosecutions might take place. we heard some of this earlier from catherine herridge in the southern district of new york, with regard to the president's business dealings. we don't know exactly where that's going to goal. we can say is that yesterday's,

attorney general bar and rod rosenstein visited the white house. we do not know what was said in that meeting, but apparently nothing about the contents of the report. the president said this morning as he was leaving that he didn't know when the report might come out. so we are in between right now hoping there might be something said quickly because the anxiety level over the last week not only in washington, but for all federal prosecutors involved with this, specifically here, has been high with anticipation. it's going to be more accelerated now that we know the report is in bill barr's hands. barr said that the president in his opinion can't be indicted, and that's the consensus across the board according to adjustment department policy. if that's the case, what does that mean we can't be told anything until he leaves office? again, we don't know. the pressure is on for bill barr

to say something as quickly as possible because it's not just political pressure, but i think there is pressure of history on his shoulders. >> bret: we should point out, juan, doj officials telling our folks here and hinting that they may in fact tell capitol hill the conclusions of this report as soon as this weekend, and the attorney general in his letter to the judiciary committee chairs and ranking members said as much, it may come, and suggesting that in fact it may be the case. dana, at this hour, that special counsel robert mueller is still the special counsel. officially, the russian investigation is over. the president, through his lawyers, saying he's pleased that this has finally happened. but we are in this limbo state now awaiting for details. the implication of this politically, what do you think it is? >> i also want to point out, we got a note from a friend of mine familiar with the justice department and he sat on his

read that because it's not public lacked down that yet and saying that conclusion by the weekend, he thinks it could be e before everybody is fully satisfied with getting as much information as they want. even if they were able to do conclusions by this weekend, there are going to be people from trump supporters saying, we want to see the underlying fisa documents that led to carter page being surveilled. on the left, they want to say we want to know more about x, y, and z. the pressure on the department is great. politically, i think it's still -- we have to wait and se see. we are heading into a reelection effort, there is strong polarization in the country with president trump supporters stalwart in their support. the left stalwart in its resistance. i do not know if this report is going to satisfy your there are those or move the needle at all. perhaps with independent voters want to make but i think when we

get down to it, because we are in march of 2015, by the time you get to the election in 2020. >> i want to jump in here, bret, i want to say there is going to be a contest, taking upon dana perino's comments, spend in interpretation regarding to this document. you are going to hear from rudy giuliani, jay sekulow, the president's lawyers, the argument, that there is no more need for looks into the president's business dealings, that what amounts to some kind of interference in a legitimately elected president's business. i think you can anticipate that. you are going to hear that on different outlets given their political orientation, but from the left, i think, you are going to hear the contrary, that mueller, given that we don't know what was released by the attorney general barr, that congress has an obligation to continue its investigation.

so even though this is a very historic moment, in my mind, i don't think it's an end point. >> bret: i don't think it's an and the point either based on what you see from democrats on capitol hill, but if it turns out that the president somehow is exonerated or there isn't a lot of they are there on this report, he'll clearly use that as a cudgel to stop the other investigations. mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader, has just put out a statement moment ago saying he welcomes the announcement of the final completed investigation into the 2016 elections. he says, "many republicans long believed russia opposes a significant threat to american interests. i hope the special counsel's report will help and improve our efforts to improve our democracy." those are the say, "grateful for the experience and the culpability of the attorney general bill barr and the attorney general needs time to do that," in other words to digest the special counsel's report. mitch mcconnell, moments ago, putting out a stage statement

judge napolitano, senior political analyst for fox news joins us on the phone. judge, i keep pointing out that the special counsel has a narrow focus at the beginning. judge, talked about that. >> we know he expanded the focus because of the discovery of totally unrelated evidence of criminality and succeeded as far as we can tell in the indicting in case of one of those people, paul manafort and convicting for that. my guess is that mueller did send some things, particularly the prosecution of michael cohen, up to the southern district of new york, if he has found other evidence of crimes not in any way related to either his original role or his lightly expanded role, he has done the same thing with that evidence. he can't pretend he hasn't seen it, but it might not be

appropriate for him to use. i expect that will be discussed in the report as well. he'll tell us what he found and why he didn't prosecute and what he did with it. >> bret: judge, you flatly point out there are other investigations ongoing. we mentioned the democrats up on capitol hill, but also there is the southern district of new york. for special counsel report on the rush investigation does not deal with any of that, but it does deal with the allegation that there might be some collusion between the tp campaign and russia that effected dell that affected the election. that's what this deals with. >> that's the $64,000 question that everybody wants to know the answer to. >> bret: i mean, yes or no? >> i don't know if he is going to say yes or no. the doj has three reports, three expert opinions on it, two say no, one say yes, but they all

say if there is evidence of crimes, the statute of limitations expired at the president's terms until after the president is out of office. there are also, i need to add to, bret, things that the law does not permit bill barr to reveal. if evidence to a grand jury was given, which did not result in the indictment, that evidence cannot be revealed. if classified materials were shared to a grand jury, whether they produce an indictment or not, they can't be revealed. if federal undercover officials testified, whether that produce a grand down the indictment or not, the identities cannot be revealed. bill barr and his team will know this. i imagine they are looking for things like this now less today

inadvertently violate the law themselves. >> bret: judge, standby, if you will, as we go through this step-by-step. we are getting new information. the doj not telling us much. asking how long is this report, the special counsel report, telling our producer they want tell us how many pages it is, but that it is "comprehensive." also all this talk that the president throughout these two years was going to fire special counsel mueller or he was somehow going to be blocked from investigation. catherine herridge joins us again with more from that letter and the attorney general sending to capitol hill. >> this letter is very crisp and concise with its language and every time you read it, there's something else that comes to the fore, and a line has caught my attention. it's related to cfr 600.9 letter a3. that is a section of the code of federal regulations that relates

to whether robert mueller wanted to take any actions that were inappropriate and if they were blocked by the attorney general or the acting attorney general, they have a responsibility to notify congress. and what the attorney general tells congress is that he confirms under the statute, they found nothing that indicated that robert mueller acted inappropriately or beyond his scope in the rush investigation and actions that he requested tt blocked by anyone in the department. that's another important element that robert mueller, according to the attorney general acted appropriately and investigated steps that he wanted to take in this case were not blocked by anyone in the justice department, bret. >> bret: catherine, on this other issue, the sealed indictments, there are more than 3,000 criminal indictments sealed waiting the

action. we don't even know the nature of these -- >> i haven't confirmed that that independently. i do not know what the source of that is. >> bret: this is coming from our producer william mears, bill mears. >> go ahead, read it. >> bret: i'm just reading it. 300 filed in february alone. we do not know the nature of these documents but it's a highly unusual number. while mueller's investigation is ending, d.c. and elsewhere could pursue other investigations or indictments. >> i trust bill's reporting 100% that i don't want to speculate what could be in the sealed indictments, however. >> bret: of course not. i just wanted to get your sense of that. we'll keep on digging here. we'll come back as you get nuggets throughout the afternoo afternoon. as we continue, peter doocy is up in washington with some info.

peter? >> we've now heard from the top democrats in congress, nancy pelosi who said she's not interested in pursuing impeachment proceedings at any point against president trump and chuck schumer who said, let's just wait for the mueller report. i'm going to read from you a joint statement from both pelosi and schumer. it says that now special counsel mueller has submitted to the attorney general, it's imperative for mr. barr to make the full report document and provide its underlying documents and findings to congress. attorney general barr must not give president trump, his lawyers and he sneaked preview a special counsel mueller's findings, and they must not be allowed to interfere in decisions of what parts of those findings are evidence are made public. the special counsel's investigations focused on questions that go to the integrity of our democracy itself, whether foreign powers corruptly interfered in our elections and whether unlawful means were used to hinder that

investigation. the american people have a right to the truth. the watchword is "transparency." separate from that, bret, i spoke on the phone to a key trump ally on the republican side of capitol hill who said the fact that we found out the report had been submitted but did not instantly find out about new indictments, this lawmaker thinks, is a positive step for the president. again, republicans seem pleased at least for now that the word "collusion" has not been used by anybody at the justice department, even though we do not know what's in the report, bret. >> bret: thank you. senator lindsey graham, head of the judiciary committee releasing moments ago that adding, though, importantly, the notification also indicates that there were no areas of

disagreement between the attorney general or the acting attorney general and special counsel mueller regarding courses of action. this information is specifically required to be disclosed by the regulations governing special counsel reports. he says he'll work with the ranking member feinstein to get as much transparency as possible. "i have always believed it important for mr. mueller to do his job without interference and that has been accomplished." some of the things catherine herridge was just pointing to, that none of the screen then requests or investigations were blocked in any way and that there is a consensus in ways forward, the attorney general, the special counsel, and the acting attorney general. joining us on the phone, senior political analyst brit hume. your thoughts on this moment? >> a couple of things to think of in this moment. when the original letter was written pointing robert mueller,

he was tasked originally, the first has given him was to take over the counterintelligence investigation that had been undertaken under james comey into what the russians did. as a subset of that, the possibility that there was any collaboration between the russians and trump campaign was going to be investigated as well. so it never was principally called so often collusion. first and so forth what the russians did, that was the investigation, he assumed. i think we can anticipate, bret, that while there may be no further criminal charges growing out of the mueller investigatio investigation, the report will have a lot to say about what the russians did, tried to do, how they did it, and all of that, which i think it's something we all want to know. it may give us a sense for the first time really how effective

it was and whether it could possibly have made any kind of significant difference in the outcome of the election. >> bret: you know, it's interesting to see these men who are now in charge, bill barr who you've known in washington for quite some time, the attorney general under george h.w. bush, now back in that seat. rod rosenstein in his position has been under fire for quite some time. but both by the book guys by their history and by their previous experience. >> as been pointed out by others including shannon bream, made the point that these are men who are deeply preoccupied with the task of getting the department of justice back in the nation's good graces and why for the stains that occur there because of the behavior of certain officials at the department as well as officials at the fbi.

much riding on this and you can see that, as the outlines of these men in their efforts to abide by the regulations, go by the book, of course that insulates them to some extent any political criticism. you can hear the partisanship embodiment -- if you would let me interrupt you for one moment. >> bret: let me interrupt you for real quick, brit. excuse me, brit. senior department official telling our own jacobson, "special counsel mueller is not recommending any further indictments." again, the news from "special counsel robert mueller not recommending any further indictments." >> that's significant, bret -- although when it comes to this, the question we are all waiting, finally at long last the

question of collaboration, it's been discussed at some length throughout all of this weather if there were such collaboration, it would be a crime. if mr. mueller decides that no indictments should ensue because of that, that doesn't necessarily means he didn't find anything improper hanky-panky between the trump campaign and the russians, it may just be that he found it wasn't criminal. my own sense about this is it's hard to imagine to come as far as we have with as much effort has been made to investigate this whole matter both inside and outside the government that if there had been such a thing, we wouldn't have heard about it by now. but it is worth keeping in mind that there is this legal question of whether if it had been turned up, would it have even been a crime, and therefore if there are no further indictments, it might not mean that they found nothing imprope improper. >> bret: sure. there's a lot that we don't know yet, but that sentence in it of

itself, after all the months and months of speculation of what could happen, the fact they could say that this special counsel report does not recommend any further indictments. just on its face, its right to point out that the southern district of new york is continuing its investigation, that there are more investigations on capitol hill, but if this report, brit, does not deliver the punch that perhaps critics of the president or democrats had hoped it would and it seemed like the coverage of it in recent days, there was a preparation for that fact up on capitol hill, if it doesn't, with the president then take that and say, see, i told you so, you need to stop and move on and get things done? >> he undoubtedly will say that. i would suggest this, bret, democrats on capitol hill have already been signaling that even if he doesn't find anything in the neighborhood of collaboration, that he, that

they intend to pursue that issue further. predict really adam schiff on on the house intelligence committee intends to pursue that. if mueller comes out and there is nothing suggesting improper behavior between the president and the russians before the election, i think a lot of the political wind will go out of the sales because people will look at this and say come on. you've been pursuing this all this time, now mueller, blowing away the opponents, didn't find anything for it what are you doing? my sense about that is while the investigation might drag on, they may have to drag on with a lot less media attention than they would've hoped for. >> bret: brit, as always, thank you. we'll be checking into it we've been waiting for this report, this moment, for a long, long time. it seems it was coming a week ago, two weeks ago, it was any day, then we didn't know. the official record including today, the mueller special counsel probe has lasted 675

days, or one year, ten months, and six days. it has been talked about in recent days, the president and democrats talking about what may happen once it comes out. take a listen. >> i have no idea about the mueller report. there was no collusion, it's all a big hoax. it's all a big hoax. i know that the attorney general highly respected will make a decision. >> it's an important national security investigation that we have to allowed to run its course, the house voted 420-0 to make sure when bob mueller completes his work and finishes his report, that report can be seen by the american people. >> the senate has not taken that up. shannon bream joins us again. thoughts? >> dana perino brought up a great point. she talked about the fact that both sides are going to want to

see the underlying documentation, even if some form, as we know, eventually of the report is going to be released by the attorney general. they want to see the underlying interviews, documents, everything that mueller had. the democrats want this for a number of reasons. as between a nun was talking about, they may want to pursue impeachment because there's a different standard of proof if you will pursue indictment or prosecution versus impeachment, so that may be beneficial for them. it may also force a very nasty legal standoff, the chair of the house intelligence committee adam schiff has said i'm going to be on bar like nobody's business. they are talking of the chairs those important committees, of course some of the documents, that could set up a really nasty battle. the justice department falls within the executive branch.

if it came to it and there were subpoenas, he could conceivably tell them not to comply with those subpoenas for that something i expect would take you almost immediately to the supreme court or a or in very quick fashion. a lot of very legal things that could play out for president because we know regardless of what version of the report comes on, we heard the statements leading up to it. they are consistent today from democratic leaders sing every bit has to be public. transparency, the american people have a right to know. we are getting things from the aclu and left-leaning groups with the exact same language. i would not be surprised if they try to push for full release or as much information as they can get. bret? >> bret: we should know something about that in coming days. we said earlier the attorney general and the department of justice indicating, could be as soon as this weekend, the attorney general and interesting character. obviously newly into the seat and just confirmed, but he's been there before. catherine herridge back with us

now about attorney general barr. >> the letter that has been made public by the attorney general, folks can see it at home online tells you a lot about his approach on this issue. william barr has been attorney general for a few weeks now. but he heard the job previously, the letter makes clear that he's going to go by the book and it comes to the mueller report. the letter here says 28 cfr 600, it tells congress that part of the obligation is to notify them of the prosecutions and declinations, those are the cases where the special counsel felt it was sufficient to recommend a criminal prosecution. also it notes, i think it's very important, that according to the statute the attorney general has an obligation to tell congress whether they concluded the special counsel had colored outside the lines, if you will,

overstepped their boundaries and acted in an appropriate way, and barr says there is no evidence of that. also it works both ways, that he was not blocked from taking actions that he felt were appropriate. and finally, at the very bottom of the letter here, he specifically states that he is making this letter public because he has the latitude under the regulations to do so if he feels it's in the public interest. again, the scene that comes across to me from the attorney general is that he is approaching this in a very neutral by the book trying to make as much information as possible. he has promised as early as this weekend about the principal points, and he'll have a longer conversation with rod rosenstein what may be forthcoming in the near future, bret.

>> bret: breaking details, just coming out from rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer kept telling our own john roberts, "this marks the end of the investigation. this is about the news that mueller is not recognizing , recommending any further indictments." we await a disclosure of the facts. we are confident there is no finding of collusion by the president and this underscores what the president has been saying from the beginning that he did nothing wrong. joining us now is chris wallace, host of fox news sunday. chris, your thoughts? >> rudy giuliani, unless he's seen the reports and there is no indication he has seen the report, is being awfully optimistic there when he says it's the end of the investigation. we don't know what's in the report. let's be clear about that. we don't know what mueller found. we know that mueller according to senior justice official talking to our reporters say that there is no recommendation of further indictments, but that doesn't really say very much because under the office of

legal counsel, there is a belief that the justice department's policy has been that you can't indict a sitting president. so that doesn't mean they either found or didn't find anything wrong in terms of the actions of the president. you know, we are going to get in the situation now and we obviously have to wait and see how much the attorney general barr is going to make available to members of congress, especially to the members of the judiciary committees on this. but you can assume that house democrats, particularly they are in the majority so they will have more control than the senate democrats, want a full report as possible. because if you take the argument that the president can't be indicted, then the only possible avenue under the constitution would be possible impeachment for not saying there is grounds for impeachment, but one would assume that house democrats are going to say we want to see what mueller found with regard to the president so we can make an independent determination as to

whether he's subject to high crimes and misdemeanors under the constitution. so, you know, barr may give it all up over the course of the weekend and in subsequent days to members of congress, the ranking shares of the two judiciary committees, but if he doesn't, you can be sure that house democrats in the majority in controlling the house are going to demand to see all the evidence to see whether or not it rises to that level, particularly given the fact that the justice department by its regulations has decided it can indict a sitting president. >> bret: it 6:00 in the east. it's usually the time you would see "special report." we are in the special coverage that the special counsel robert mueller has turned in its report, specifically the rod rosenstein and they'll make the attorney general who got it to the attorney general william barr. made aware of that 4: