daily briefing." been a wild one, fun one. i'll see you on "the five" today. next up, a real treat. ed henry is in for shepard smith. have a good weekend. jussy smoll from chicago. jussy smoll but the actor's lawyers say that the city owes him an apology. and y. while we may owe an apology to the guy who used to have a perfect march madness practice. the news starts right now. >> president trump threatening to shut down the southern border if the mexican government doesn't stop illegal crossings immediately, calling on weak imdwrags laws.

he didn't say how he plans to seal off the border. analysts say it would affect travel and trade. the nation's top bore dish lawyer warned america's immigration system is at its breaking point. the president declared a national emergency last month to pay for a wall along the southern border. you are a cheefer white house correspondent john roberts is live on the front lawn. >> good afternoon to you. the president has threatened to close down the border before, back on november 19, the department of homeland security did for a period of three hours close down the border crossing at san ysidro after the caravan of central americaning my grants showed signs it was trying to break through the border from mexico into the united states. the president is threatening the new government that if mexico dogs not do something to stop migrant car vans traveling through mexico the president will take drastic action, tweeting a short time ago, if

mexico doesn't immediate are you stop all illegal immigration coming into the united states, through our southern border, i will be closing the border, or large sections of the border, next week. and then just a little i89 while ago, just west of palm bech where the president is spending the weekend, he made the same point in american. person. listen here. >> president trump: we have right now two big caravans coming up from guatemala, massive caravans, walking right through mexico. mexico, they can stop them but they chose not to. now they're going on stop 'em f they don't stop 'em, we're closing the border. close it. and we'll long time, i'm not playing games. mexico has to stop it. >> he's not playing games the president says. now the president has said that the situation at the border has eclipsed customs and border protection ability to deal with it. they worry detaining migrants, now they have to start releasing them into the united states,

department of home land security secretary kiersten nielsen saying earlier today in a statement that the system is in free fall and warning folks, americans may feel the effects from this emergency, personnel, realloca reallocated, there may be commercial delays, higher vehicle wait times at the border and longer pedestrian lines. the president, again, calling on congress to do something to fix america's immigration laws. >> absolutely. that could have a big impact on the economy. another big issue is healthcare, what's the president saying today? >> the president repeating his call, says obamacare has to go. and of course earlier this week, the white house, department of justice, influence his support behind the phoenix district court ruling, found obamacare was unconstitutional, expected that will make its way through the courts all the way to the supreme court. the problem is, the moment, republicans do not have anything to replace obamacare with. and the president promised, again today, that if the supreme court were to ultimately find

obamacare unconstitutional, by that time republicans will have something. >> president trump: obamacare is a disaster. right now it's losing in court. right now, in the texas court as you know, probably ends up in the supreme court. but we're doing something that is going to be much less expensive than obamacare for the people. i'm not saying government, i'm saying for the people. and we'll have pre-existing conditions, and we will have a much lower deductible. so, i've been saying this for republicans, going to end up being the party of healthcare. >> there's no appetite among democrats to do anything in the neighborhood of repealing obamacare. and chuck schumer, the senate minority leader, said if the president wants to fight a fight on obamacare, bring it. >> on the republican side the senate majority leader put out that statement, seeming to not want to take the political hot potato, saying we're looking for

a plan from the president. but he went after what he called medicare for none instead of the democratic plan of medicare for all. it seems like mcconnell and other republicans thinking to 2020, let the socialist plans hang out there and beat up on them instead much maybe putting the republican plan on the table. >> certainly, there are a lot of people questioning the president's wisdom of trying to refight the battle over obamacare again. i mean, kevin mccarthy, in a phone call to the president, was explaining that he didn't understand it. but you know, the president often gets what the president wants. and he's pushing this hard. and a lot have republicans are beginning to fall into line. you have lindsay graham, rick scott, john borasso, and others. i think the president, mitch mcconnell may be caught in between an immovable force and irresistible object, or immove an object and irresistible force. but, again, a lot of republicans questioning the wisdom of

refighting a battle that they already lost once. going back to that well may not be a good idea. >> john roberts covering it all for us, and if we have breaking news we'll come back to you. to fox news sunday anchor chris wallace, good afternoon. >> how are you. >> fantastic. let's start on healthcare, a lot to cover. what are your thoughts about the president sort of jumping all in. >> there was an editorial in the "wall street journal," not a very liberal newspaper, saying this. apparently can't stand good fortune. he has had one of the best weeks of his presidency with the largely clean bill of health coming from the mueller report, the attorney general. insfeld he wades right into this battle on obamacare. and as john roberts pointed out, it's not just democrats who think this is a bad idea, it's republicans who think it's an especially bad idea. mitch mcconnell said, look, ichb ee looked forward to seeing the president and nancy pelosi work

this out. translation, i'm going to sit back and have nothing to do with it, because i think it's a bad idea. he pointed out, kevin mccarthy, the to be republican leader in the house, saying basically the same thing. remember, that republicans have control of the house and the senate for the first two years of the trump presidency. and they were utterly unable to come up with an agreement on obamacare, repeal and replace plan that, they could all sign on to. even get 50 votes in the senate. they say we're going to do it during budget reconciliation where it doesn't take as many votes. couldn't come up with a deal. why on earth would you think can you do it now. and in the meantime, quickly, in the mid-term election these got hammered on this issue. you know, the fact they were going to do away or limit pre-existing conditions, the best selling points for democrats. the idea that you are going to

relitigate this a year before the 2020 elections, a lot of republicans scratching their heads. >> absolutely, chris. on the other hand, you have democrats who are nervous about the idea of whether it's medicare for all, how you're going to pay for it, a lot of presidential candidates on the left talking about it. pelosi and others moving a little bit away from that. they have the green new deal which would be expensive. when mitch mcconnell put on it the floor, he couldn't get any democrats to support it. i wonder is there a middle ground here ahead of 2020 to say, look, there are more moderate democrats who don't like the idea of medicare for all. republicans, who are nervous about this ripping apart of obamacare without an alternative. whh sides working on something? >> politics. i mean, you ask is there any chance for a middle ground, absolutely not before 2020. democrats really think they have the best of this issue, i completely agree with you a lot of ways you could have attacked medicare for all and see nancy

pelosi saying that's just an aspirational plan, we're not really talking about it. in fact the democratic, house democratic healthcare plan was about improving obamacare not medicare for all. but the president, again, gave them this gift by saying he wants to strike down obamacare. they don't have to defend immediate you care for all any more, all they have to do is say they're for obamacare and improved version of obamacare. gets easier for the moderates, the sentists, and the mainstream of the house democratic leadership. nancy pelosi, say we're not going to focus on medicare for all, we'll focus on saving obamacare. >> another big focus for the president, going all wait back to 2016, cracking down on illegal immigration. he had a big rally last night in michigan. let's listen in on what he said. >> president trump: another two areas, mexico could stop 'em, so easy, the caravans f they don't it's going on cost them a hell of a lot mp money.

they can do it so easy. so easy. [applause] and if they don't, and i'm telling you right now, we will close the damn border. >> what do you think about the new ultimatum, chris? >> well, it's a strong point. as we've seen in the past the president has done it, threatened to close the border, closed it for three hours last november. the problem, a lot of commerce goes back and forth, a lot of trade back and forth, a lot of mexican workers who come in and work on the u.s. side of the border. if you cut that it's going to hurt a lot of the american economy. so the real answer, and i understand the idea of mexico, the problem is that you've got this law that says that migrants from central america who come through mexico are treated differently than people who just come from mexico. they come from mexico illegally, you turn around and send them

home. if they come from the central america, you have to keep them there. and there are a lot of people who say if you change that law so that it didn't matter where they came, from you turned them around and sent them back to mexico, u.s. law, not forcing mexico to do something, might be the most effective way to deal with it. it is clearly a problem. >> it is. when you talk to border patrol officials, they had a news conference where they said in the first three months of the year, they've almost reached the number of people that they have had to apprehend and trying to cross the border that, they reached in the entire 2018. doesn't that suggest there is a crisis contrary to what democrats every said about a so-called manufactured crisis? >> yeah, certainly, sure, there absolutely is one. the question is the best, most effective way to deal with it. one of the questions is in a folks are abusing the asylum laws, maybe you have to change that. if somebody seeks asylum, they don't automatically get to stay

in the country. as i said, really you have to change the differentiation between how people coming across from mexico are different from people who come through mexico, but originating in central america. and, yeah, maybe you have to build more border walls. it's all above approach, there's a problem. but i think a lot of those laws really have to be changed. >> and yet, chris, just like on healthcare, where's the middle ground in congress. >> there's no middle ground. it's the great tragedy of our time and it's not just under the trump years, there was also, in obama, we could go on and on, whether it's healthcare or immigration, all kinds of things, the budget, $22 trillion in debt. there are all kinds of solutions that people come up with. but with our disfunctional electoral system, don't get me started here, and the fact the

only problem if you're a republican you think you have somebody further to your right or democrats further to the left. in a primary. that makes itany kind of compro. >> limit's get beyond congress and deal with the pres ago william barr the attorney general of the united states put out thisert, summary if you will, of the mueller report. democrats still digging in and saying they want the entire report, we're likely to get some version in the middle. the president isn't shy about taking victory laps. we saw it at this rally in michigan. what do you think about how he's handling, we'll get to the democrats, how the. is handling what he sees as an exoneration? >> some people say it's premature. when you have good news to celebrate, celebrate the good news. it doesn't mean you won't get bad news, make the best much it. after a two-year cloud, you can argue more than that because it goes back into the campaign, about russia collusion,

obstruction of justice, he got a clean bill of health on collusion and a largely positive, not completely clean, bill of health on obstruction. why not celebrate it and declare a victory and hold the rallies, energize him and the millions of people who support him. you see that in the rally last night. there may be bad news that comes out when we see more of the mueller report, particularly obstruction, because mueller said it's neither con rates or convicts him. neither xoner rates or convicts tlim. him. >> less than 30 seconds, talk about what you have coming up sunday, democrats push for the full release of the report. >> we're looking for, trying to push for a democrat to go come on but kellyanne conway, the president's counselor, talking about the mueller report, and the efforts to hold people accountable, and we'll also be talking about healthcare and whether that is a smart political position for republicans once again, at least the president, to talk about

relitigating obamacare. >> chris, stand by, we have breaking news. >> the breaking news the attorney general, bill barr, sfonlded to congress about demands to release the full mueller report. let's bring in chief congressional correspondents mike emanuel. >> good afternoon. yes, just obtained a letter that bill barr has sent to the charge of the respective judiciary equipment is on capitol hill. lindsay graham in the senate and jerry nadler in the house. basically explaining where he is in the progress of getting the mueller report ready to be released to congress and umately to the public. he's talking about painstaking process, basically, going through the mueller report, nearly 400 pages long, to make sure you're not compromising other investigations that may be ongoing, not compromising intelligence matters. sources and methods and that sort of thing. saying that this is a very painstaking process, very

careful to make sure you aren't infringing on anyone's rights or giving out sensitive information to those who might want it. might use to it harm us. a detailed letter that we're just going through right now from bill barr to the chair of the respective judiciary committees on the hill. he's willing to talk publicly about the findings in this report, talk about the mueller report, but he says he probably won't be able to do that until may 1. but the senate judiciary committee, second for the house judiciary committee, a response to the attorney general in the context number of democratic chairman in the house wanted the full mueller report by tuesday of next week. a week after basically they were -- the summary from him.bl it and the public to see it. but there's a lot to go th nearly 400 pages. >> the top line, headline it seems to me, is that in this

letter the attorney general of the united states is saying that the mueller report, in some form, subject to redactions you say, will in fact be released to congress in, quote, mid-april, if not sooner. that is basically over the next two weeks or so. the report always we said, will be redacted, quote, we are well along in the process. let's get into the details, though. from what we understand in the letter the attorney general says that what will be redacted includes material subject to criminal procedure, that by law cannot be made public. we have heard about that recently. dealing with the intelligence community that could compromise sources and methods. and material that could affect ongoing matters in terms of the privacy of third parties who may have been swept up in this investigation. chuck schumer has suggested in the last 24 hours that he thought that the attorney general was delaying things, others have suggested it was coverup. this seems to kind of tamp that

down by saying look, folks, it's coming out soon. >> absolutely. you heard people say, we don't want bill barr's book report, we want robert mull mueller's report. he's making it clear they're going through it, they want the public to see it. he talked about whether the president would exert executive privilege and he says although the president would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me and there are no plans to submit the report to the white house for a privilege review. so, again, he added some meat to the bone in terms of we had heard it was 300-plus pages or so, he says it's close to 400 pages of material, that's why he's working with the special counsel team to go through it to make sure that proper information gets out, but sensitive information does not. >> mike emanuel, please stand by, chief congressional correspondent. at this breaking letter, just in

by the attorney jinl william barr to leaders on capitol hill, he's planning to release some version of the mueller report by mid-april or sooner the attorney general says. he adds this report is roughly 400 pages, sounds a little longer than the 300 pages or so we heard about. then an important point, although the president, quote, would have the right to assert executive privilege over certain parts of the report, he has stated publicly he intends to defer to me and accord lig there are no plans to submit the report to the white house for a privilege review. that's important, since democrats suggested that the white house may have time to scrub this, maybe they were going to try to cover up some details. let's bring in chief white house correspondent, john roberts, react to the privilege question and what else is standing out. >> it's a very important point, it's somewhat surprising. i was told all along as we got close to the release, barr's summary and the mueller report findings, to get the mueller

report out in any kind of form it would likely have to involve some sort reef view between attorney general barr and deputy attorney general rosenstein and pass along to the white house counsel, emmett flood, on the mueller investigation. you have a lot of materials in there that would be subject to executive privilege. not the least of which is the transcript of some 30 hours of conversations between robert mueller's investigators and conn mcgann who is the -- gon mcgann, former white house counsel. and there was transparency from the white house, suggestion of ty cobb, you have tens of thousands of documents that are in house white house communications, inner agency, personal communications. most of which would be subject to executive privilege. you would think the white house would want to check to make sure that whoever was reviewing this

would be very prudent about what is and is not related. akoshding to the attorney general the president has turned all of the reins of that over to the attorney general to make the decision and the white house counsel's office won't be involved at all. he puts a frey amount of faith in an individual that the president doesn't know that well. bill barr's reputation, he thinks he's a stellar individual. but it's not the white house counsel, puts a lot of faith in the department of justice to scrub this thing no, items subject to executive privilege that the white house doesn't warrant out there don't get out there. >> about a week ago as you know, there were reports circumstance lating that the president in private was asking people, phoning them, what do you know about barr, what do you know about this guy, he was nervous, he didn't know what was going to

say. that's come out, the president from his public xhernts, pretty positive pretty high on both the attorney general and the letter suggesting that he was cleared at least on collusion and there's debate coming on what exacty the full mueller report says about the allegations of obstruction. >> and because this has just come out, i haven't had a chance to check with rudy guiliani and jay sekulow, the outside counsel, i know they'd love to see it before it's sent out to congress, they probably won't see it, now barr says the white house won't be consulted. i suspect that rudy guiliani may be concerned the white house counsel isn't going to look at this. particularly when you consider rod rosen-style stein's involvement in steining those fisa warrants when the investigation was getting going. having rosenstein still there through the process is political insulation for the president.

again, the president is putting a lot of faith and trust in bill barr. but i would assume that because of his stellar reputation barr is going to go through this thing with a fine tooth comb to make sure nothing is released publicly that shouldn't be out there. you're talking about intimate conversations between the president and his top aids, stuff that you want to not get out in the public. >> excellent reporting from the chief white house chris wallace, fox news sunday host. we were talking a moment ago we had an ink ling this might be coming out. i appreciate you tap dancing with me a little bit, two-page letter, it's pretty brief. and what stands out for you, chris? >> well, it strikes me as imminently reasonable offer, not really an offer, a declaration by the attorney general, the fact is that the report was only given to, at what, 5:00 a week

ago, so seven days ago, to bill barr. he then summarized that on sunday the idea that he was going to be able to make the whole report public, having dealt with the issues as you pointed out, grand jury testimony, intelligence information, he would be able to do that by tuesday, in about nine days. i think it seems like a pretty reasonable position for the attorney general to take, particularly when you see jonathan talking about the white house isn't going to get a look at the report before congress does or the public does. having said that, my guess is that the democrats will say it's an offer they can't accept. and they will say, well, it's already been thought that if they don't turn it over right away, it was a coverup, there was scrubbing. yes, the white house counsel may not look at it but the president's appointee, the attorney general, is going look at it and be able to make decisions. i suspect republicans are going to say, gee, this is pretty

generous, pretty reasonable, pretty trans parent, the democrats are going to label it a coverup or a delay even though we're only talking about a matter of a couple of week. >> chris, i want to get to the details of the letter, but first of course the attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president, he was no napted by this president. when democrats ore the last few days suggested that he sort of is a pawn of the president, and words of chuck schumer yesterday, he said that bill barr is delaying the release of the mueller report, the fact that this letter does a number of things, a, as attorney general i'm going get a big chunk of this 400 page report out by mid-april. b, he's willing to testify may 1, may 2 before the senate and house, the attorney general. and, c, i'm not giving the white house a look before hand. does it make it harder for democrats to claim this is a coverup. >> it may make it harder but it doesn't make it impossible. i will predict that they're going to say, you know, we don't

want's to see bill barr's version of this report, we want to say, i'm not just telling what you i predict their action will be, we want the full report. not only want to see the full report, we want to see all of the underlying documents, the investigation, all of the interviews with with its. they're going to want, they're going to fight for transparency. regardless of the fact i think that democrats are going to try and move off this to some degree and get to other instances like healthcare, equal pay and education, they see a political advantage to continuing to hammer the president on various investigations.ore the house, nowhere in the senate, you'll see adam schiff, elijah cummings, jerry nadler continue to investigate the president. i promise you what they're not going to say, this is a great idea, thank you bill barr, we're satisfied with this, no more questions. i promise that's not the way that democrats are going to respond. >> i want to run something else

parent you, chris, going through the letter about midway through, bill barr pushes back on a letter from the democrat jerry nadler who has suggested that the letter of last weekend was a quote unquote four-page summary of the special counsel's review. heat writes to the democrats and republicans, my march 24 letter was not and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting of the special counsel's investigation or report. as my letter made clear, my notification to congress and public, provided pending release of the report a summary of its principle conclusions, that is its bottom line. he goes on to say, it's 400 pages, chris. that could be aimed at the democrats saying, look, your narrative is not true about me trying to cover it up. but, chris, it can be aimed at republicans who have been celebrating, in the sense of looks, folks, i was not saying this is done. i gave you four pages. there's a whole lot more in

here. >> you had robert mueller on the issue of collusion, he basically gave the president at least according to what we know from barr, and i can't imagine that barr mischaracterized it, i guess robert mueller would have cried foul, he basically gave him a clean bill of health on the issue have collusion, there was no cooperation, coordination, between either president trump and the campaign, and the kremlin, and russia. on that he gave him a clean bill of health. there's much more mixed bill of health when it came to obstruction. and you know, you have that quote, pretty interesting quote, that barr quoted from mueller saying, you know, not enough to charge a crime but not enough to exonerate the president. there is going to be stuff that i think is obvious, in these 400 pages, that the white house isn't going to like. that's why i think, you know, call it exoneration now, and take your victory lap, and say

we want to have accountability for all of the people who got over their skis in saying there was collusion. but they're going to have to deal with stuff no, question about it, when we see the whole report as much as we end up seeing. >> chris, one more minute. bottom line, we heard from the president, we've heard from jerry nadler, we have heard from republican leaders, we have heard from bill barr, mull tip ohmcations. one man we haven't heard from is robert mueller. democrats make the case that maybe bill barr mischaracterized the full report, didn't tell the whole story. wouldn't mueller have come out and said hang on, this is not what i said? >> oh, well, i don't know. because i've never met robert mueller, i don't know if i've heard him speak. he's the greta garbo of american politics f there had been a blatant misrepresentation of the obstruction and collusion, that either mueller or somebody else would have come out and talked. >> he had a big team of

prosecutors, communications team, buzzfeed got a story wrong, they are came out and put out a statement saying this isn't true. as you say, one would assume they would do this. chris wallace, we'll get back to you. everyone stand by for the breaking news. >> back to the chief congressional correspondent, mike emanuel, recap the breaking news, this letter that's come out, another letter from bill barr, saying a number of important things, by mid-april or sooner he will release a more full version of the mueller report than the four-page letter he released last weekend. what else is he saying? >> really important headlines, because you have democrats pressing bill barr to release the full report by next tuesday. nancy pelosi saying that his four-page letter he sent last friday was con descending. she's saying we don't need you interpreting it for us, we need the report. so the oovms report will be

redacted and attorney general barr telling top lawmakers that they are well along in the process. he said material that will be redacted is material subject to criminal procedure that by law cannot be made public. material of the intelligence community says will grow mize sources and methods. it could affect ongoing matters of privacy of third parties. another key nugget of course is the fact that the president would have the right to assert privilege over certain parts of the report, and bill barr is saying that the president stated publicly he intends to defer to the attorney general. and there are no plans to submit the report to the white house for a privilege review. so, he said he should be able to crank out the report, get to it congress mid-april. he's prefired come to capitol hill to testify about it beginning of may, making an offer, consistent with our reporting that the attorney general was saying it's a matter of weeks before i turn over the mueller report, not months. democrats on capitol hill wanted

it by tuesday. >> mike emanuel breaking this story along with our producer, the attorney general offering to testify before the senate judiciary committee, he said on may 1, wants to talk to the house judiciary commit oi may 2. another important part, the white house not getting a review of the mueller report before hand in terms of the looking at it for executive privilege. let's go to john roberts, he of course is our chief white house correspondent, i understand he has new information. good afternoon again. >> just got off the phone with the member of the president's legal team, who told me that they're fully comfortable with this decision to leave this all in the hands of the attorney general william barr. that barr has got a long and storied reputation in the department of justice and he is a person who is fully capable of fully understanding the implications of executive privilege and will no doubt make the right decisions in terms of what goes to congress.

and what does not go to congress. that said, the president's legal team said that they would be comfortable to get it all out there, every bit of it, that can be released, at least, according to the parameters and the confines of criminal law. you can't put up grand jury testimony, not supposed to say things about misconduct by individuals who were not charged. but the president's legal team is fully comfortable with getting all of this out there. they don't believe there's anything in there that they couldn't rebut. and there's also the idea, and you know, if you're going to get it all out there, get it out there now. while everything is still fresh, and everything is at the forefront of everybody's minds, anybody who's trying to rebut anything, has the arguments right out there right now, as opposed to not hearing about it. then having somebody fire it out the backdoor a year from now. then you're left trying to play catch-up and remember what happened when. if everything were to come out

now, the president would be absolutely fine with that, and they believe if there is anything in there that's negative they believe they would be able to rebut anything that that report contains. they are aware of all of the materials that went to the department of justice. and everything that robert mueller was doing. they were talking to him, and literally, like every week if not more than that. >> one other quick question on the issue of transparency, when you talk about getting it all out there nerms of the mueller report, most of the report, getting it out there, his representation of the president. how does this timing affect the push by the president supporters to get the white house, the justice department and others, to declassify intelligence, get information about fisa warrants, to get at how this whole investigation started, the other sooifld the story that rudy guiliani and others want to get out there. >> it goes together, and the president said, i tried to ask the question yesterday as he was heading to the helicopter but he figured he would be answering

that question, and turned and walked away. the president has said he wants to get those documents out "outnumbered" there that led to the fisa warrants, how that started. you have william barr going to release the mueller report and you have all of the fisa documents that devon nunes and trey gowdy are looking for. the. did say in the interview with maria bartoromo o everything is a blur, i think it wasuff out there before the mueller report was written because that could be seen as interference. that could be taken by some people to be obstruction. he mentioned it before, but it bears repeating again, the fact that barr is going to do this with rosenstein and in consultation with muler about the legalities of what can and cannot be released leaving the

white house out of this, really goes a long way to insulating the president against any claim the democrats might make that the whole thing is a whitewash through the white house. a little bit of advantage on that point. but, again, you have to have a lot of trust in the attorney general m good reporting, of course, as always from john roberts, we will get back to you as the story develops. want to bring in senior judicial analyst judge andrew know poll i tan owe, he's on the phone -- napolitano. they're trying to paint william bar as a lackive the president, he is his own man and does this letter help him assert his independent evens, i'm not going through the white house before i start releasing something. >> good afternoon. i'm quite surprised that the white house is willing to waive executive privilege. rudy guiliani had argued to john roberts and others because they surrendered documents to the

special counsel during the course of the nearly two-year investigation did not mean they would not waive executive privilege at this tail end. but now they're doing that. i free with you that the letter is brilliantly crafted and does show him to be the independent actor that he is. but i have to point out, what appears to be a very innocent, almost innocuous sounding phrase in the middle of the letter, the subject i believe of much consternation and litigation, and that is the reference to he is not going to review materials that are protected by rule 6-e of the federal rules of criminal procedure. that sounds like a big deal. well, it says if there's information in there negative to a person who was not charged, that information cannot be released. now, that's what the democrats want. so if bob mueller found some e

evidence of a conspiracy but not enough to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt or some obstruction of justice but not to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt and bill barr uses federal or criminal 6-e to keep it from being revealed then the democrats have to go to court and try to get a court order to have it revealed. can the attorney general do that? yes. under standard operating procedure, if the person was not indicted, the bad stuff that the government discovered about that person stays secret. >> are you not also suggesting which you lay that out, that the democrats seem to be in some cases anyway trying to move the goal posts. no matter what william barr does, going back to last friday, when he said i have the report, about 5:00 p.m. eastern time, and i'm going go through it over the weekend, i may have some news for you. sure enough he did. democrats said, we want to know what's in here.

he gives awesomery. then they say we want as much of the report, the whole report as we can get. now he says i'll get it to you by mid-april. they'll pick at what they get. >> what they really want, i agree they are going to do that, that's the political side i look at the legal side. what they really want is not just the 400-plus page report. they want the several million, we know it's that much because the documents that the white house campaign gave according to guiliani are 1.4 million, discovery on the stone case was 2.5 million, talk about pages of documents. so if they want to see the millions of pages of underlying documents, so they can second guess bob mueller and second guess bill barr. only a federal judge can give that to them. bill barr is without authority to give that. even if it exonerate the the. and even if the -- the president and even if the president wanted him to. >> what else stands out about

this for you, judge, when i hear william barr saying to recap for the viewers, the breaking news, he is going to give some version have the mueller report to congress both parties, limit the american people see it, by mid-april or sooner. it's about 400 pages or so, in length. the heart of the report. and judge he's offering to testify before the senate and the house on may 1, and may 2. that had been an issue of concern for democrats and now the attorney general is saying i'm willing to talk. >> you have an attorney general who before he was the attorney general, almost committed himself to doing this, under oath, before the senate judiciary committee. this is not some one to run from a commitment that he has made. second observation is 200 -- to underscore what chris wallace told you, whatever barr keeps secret under rule 6-e, there is still some things in there that can get out, that are not

covered by 6-e. which the president dus nont want out and which he and -- doesn't want out and he and rudy guiliani will be scrambling to explain. there are materials, this is where adam schiff is right, there are materials in there that point toward guilt, there are just not nearly enough of them to reach the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. >> there could have been contact. >> yes. >> but not necessarily rising to the level of a criminal conspiracy. >> precisely. >> okay. andrew napolitano, that was quicker than i expected. >> all of the best. >> thank you, more on the breaking news about the mueller report, breaking right here on the fox news channel, after the break. the latest innovation from xfinity

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>> we've been monitoring the breaking news this hour, attorney general of the united states, william barr, revealing to democrats and republicans on the hill he plans to release some version of the mueller report by mid-april or sooner, he did it in a letter to democratic and republican leaders of the judiciary committees. he also revealed that this report from robert mueller, former special counsel, in the neighborhood of 400 pages. and interestingly that the attorney general says amid criticism from democrats that he

may be holding back information at the white house's request. the attorney general reveals he is not going to give the white house a chance to review the full report for possible executive privilege before he releases this information to congress. finally, the attorney general also says you can see the senate judiciary chair there, lindsay graham, he's offering to come up and testify before the senate panel on may 1 and may 2 appear before the house judiciary committee. we are monitoring reaction from democrats who are reviewing the letter, we haven't heard from jerry nadler and others. we'll bring it when we have. let goes back to sunday anchor chris wallace, the judge was pointing out that this letter includes talk about holding back some materials that would be justifiably held back under federal cruel of criminal procedure 6-e, you can't make some grand jury information public. but there's the issue of national security. >> there is.

the question of intel jennings. if you remember the indictments, the two major indictments of russians, that bob mueller handed down in the course of this investigation, one against the troll farm in st. petersburg, one against 12 russian military intelligence people, gru officials. i talked about putin about that, and hadded him the indictment last july, if you remember. one assumes that in this report there might be some indication of sources and methods. how was it that the u.s. special counsel's office was able to get such extraordinary detail and insight into what was going on in st. petersburg and in russian military intelligence, the gru, and so that would certainly be something in a bill barr is going to want to excise from the report, anything that indicates he he was able to get inside the russian operates, one civilian, one military, both trying to

interfere in the election. it's interesting, i want to pick up on something that judge napolitano said, there might be some information in here that's negative on the question of collusion. going back to bill barr's original letter, four-page letter last sunday, i just thought there might be something in it and i got it and i'm reading it. it doesn't sound like there was on the one hand, on the other hand but doesn't rise to the level of prosecution. here is bill barr's summary of what mueller found in his xaus stif 2 2 2-month investigation. the special counsel did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the russian government in these efforts. he was basically saying there's not evidence on one side or the other that he just didn't find any collusion. it's different when it comes to the issue of obstruction. again, quoting from barr's letter of last sunday, it said the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and then says the special counsel

states while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime it does not exonerate him. i think it may be on the issue of obstruction that we may end up seeing some evidence that the president isn't going to like. but on the issue of collusion, it sounds like the special counsel, robert mueller, came up empty and there's not going to be two sides to that argument. >> we don't just have breaking news from the attorney general, we have from chris wallace, a new guest for fox news sunday. >> yes, well, while all of this has been going on my staff has been working and we have jim himes, the number two democrat on the house intelligence committee, and it will be a very interesting to hear from him. he will be the top house intelligence democrat to come out on sunday, what he thinks and what the view of him and adam schiff and all of the rest of the committee is about the terms that bill barr has september for what he's going to

release. i also want to point out, we're saying the white house is not going to review it for executive. doesn't mean there won't be review for executive privilege. what barr says in his letter, he's deferring to barr to make that review. so it may well be that bill barr in his position as attorney general says i believe these are issues of executive privilege, it's not going to the president, not going to go to his counsel, not going to his private lawyers, but i may decide there are elements here. >> true, but at the end of the day doesn't the president have to assert executive privilege? >> well, according to this, it says he has stated publicly that he intends to defer to me. so, i don't know how it would be done. whether he would have to invoke it or not. sure sounds like it might come to a point where he says i think this is improper, and the president has to invoke it. >> chris wallace getting ready for his sunday program, check your local listing, appreciate your insights in the meantime. >> thanks. >> and bret baier, getting ready

for his big program tonight, will join us after the break with more breaking news about the mueller report and bill barr's latest letter to congress. that's coming up. us as people. they see us as profits. we're paying the highest prescription drug prices in the world so they can make billions? americans shouldn't have to choose between buying medication and buying food for our families. it's time for someone to look out for us.

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>> we continue on the breaking news, you see pictures of the president, remember he is going in palm beach any moment now, supposed to be talking about the small business administration. but as is his wont, it was likely to comment on other matters especially this letter that william barr the attorney general has sent to democrats and republicans revealing new information about a timetable for getting some version of the mueller report up to them for review by mid-april, the attorney general says, or sooner. interesting he's also saying he will not submit, not submit the report to the white house for potential executive privilege citations before releasing it to congress and thus the public. let's bring in bret baier, he's anchor of "special report." what stands out for you about

this letter. >> a couple of things, ed. good afternoon. i think bill barr saying that he is reviewing it with special counsel robert mueller, reviewing what needs to be redacted and not redacted. alongside robert mueller. and in the report to say that this was not the four-page thing that he sent out at first, the letter he sent off, was not a summary of the 400 pages, he writes, it was the bottom line conclusion of special counsel mueller's work. now, that, i think, is direct pushback to democrats on the hill who said we don't want your interpretation of the report, we don't want your, you know, summary of the report, we want the report. and bill barr saying i gave you the bottom line conclusion, i'm working with special counsel mueller to see what we can put out and can't put out. and essentially pushing back to say, you know, he's on with me,

as far as what i typed in that four-page letter. >> you're right, underline an important point, the second graph of the letter, quote, the special counsel is assisting us in this process specifically we are well along in the process of identify and redacting the following. he goes on to talk about grand jury information, intelligence information, and other matters. seems to me the other big point among others, william barr is in charge. >> he's in charge. he is making the decisions. and i think he's going to be true to his word and put out as much as he can conceivably can of the report, with those stipulations listed in the letter. that you can't put out. and, you know, it was not going to be months, he's saying mid-april. and i think he's going to make that deadline. i also think that, the collusion part of this is kind of -- is

over. and chris wallace rightly said, democrats are going to focus on the obstruction part, but attorney general barr and the deputy attorney general rosenstein mailed the decision on that part about the obstruction. and it's not one or the other, it is definitive, that was their decision. >> brett, we have about a minute. talk, also about how the attorney general seems to be handling what have been a series of democratic attacks this week that are really now directed at him suggesting there's some sort of a coverup in the works. we saw it last weekend immediately on other chance that somehow the fact he was holding back the report, even though there are obviously reasonable redactions that need to be made, this man who serves at the pleasure of the president is covering up information by bringing in mueller, by saying i'm not going to let the white house review it first. is he going a long way toward addressing those concerns and at least he may not change democratic minds but assuring the president that this is a

fair process. >> i think that there's basically a portion of this territory, is the purpose of it, to show that robert mueller is working along side him. to determine what is going to be put out public and what is not. and also to say that the president has publicly said that he wants to put as much of it as he can, taking away the executive privilege part, leaving the decision to the attorney general. i think there's a lot of trust in the attorney general and the president here is saying you make the call. >> absolutely. brett bare, appreciate your insite as atmosphere always, don't miss "special report" 6:00 p.m. eastern. in the meantime, to summarize the wrecking news this hour we will cover through -- breaking news we will cover, william barr the attorney general saying he reece release some version of robert mueller's report to democrats and republicans on the hill and the public by mid-april or sooner. about 400 pages long and offers

to testify before the house and senate on may 1 in the senate and may 2 in the house. we will be all over this story, as i mentioned, with neil cavuto next. don't forget the president taking reporters questions moments from now. i'm ed henry in for shep. >> neil: the attorney general of the united states, william barr, saying a redacted krergs of the mueller report is going to be handed over to congress maybe in a couple of weeks. welcome, good to have you, neil cavuto. a lot of people were surprised by the timing of this, the markets enjoyed the reaction to this, mike emmanuel on capitol hill, what exactly ignited this response. >> neil, good in a afternoon. the letter is dated today and sent to lindsay