help vladimir putin and russian cover-up of what our intelligent agencies said they did do during that election campaign. we have to leave it there. thank you both for joining us on our special coverage tonight. that is tonight's "last word." good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here in new york at msnbc headquarters. here's what's happening. after 22 months it's in. robert mueller submitting the report of a lifetime. until applications so far and what we could learn in the next 48 hours. attorney general william barr, how much of the report will he release to congress and what will the public finally learn. plus, why the legal problems for the president are far from finished. a landmark moment and historic weekend. any time now attorney general william barr could release to

congress his top conclusions from the mueller report in mounting calls from democrats that he release the entire report. here's nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: 22 months after he was appointed to find out whether anyone in the trump campaign helped the russians meddle in the election robert mueller has just turned in the highly-anticipated report of his investigation, signalling the end of his work as special counsel. the justice department notified the chairman and ranking members of the house and senate judiciary committee saying simply special counsel robert s. mueller iii concluded his investigation. the letter said congress would be notified as early as this weekend about the main points of mueller's work. under the rules governing the special counsel mueller submitted his confidential report directly to the attorney general william barr and how much will he reveal? the rules call for mueller to issue a bare bones report,

summarizing the cases he took to court and explaining which ones he declined to prosecute. barr said in his confirmation hearing he understands the interest in what mueller found. >> i'll make as much information as i can consistent with rules and regulations that are part of the special counsel regulations. >> reporter: those rules don't call for making the report public at all. they say only that the attorney general should notify congress if he blocked anything special counsel want to do. congress said they will insist to see the whole thing. >> we will use whatever compulsion we can and must to make sure that the public gets the full story. >> reporter: democrats might try to force mueller himself to testify about what his investigation concluded. though mueller brought charges against six people connected to the trump campaign none of them were accused of helping russia meddle in the election. among the big questions now did

mueller reach any conclusions about the nature of mr. trump's business connections with the russians? will the report say anything about whether the firing of james comey as fbi director amounted to obstruction of justice. president trump told lester he fired comey because of the meddling of the russian investigation. >> i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> reporter: will mueller's story say anything about mr. trump's hush money payment to two whom had affairs with him. what will reports say about investigations that will continue in, for example, whether the trump inaugural committee illegally accepted foreign contributions. all congress is going to get for now is who was prosecuted and why. we know that mueller indicted 34 people and perhaps some limited information on who else was investigated and why. barr says in his letter he'll

talk with mueller and the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to see what else from the report can be made public and even though mueller's work is done other investigations will go on. alex. >> pete williams in washington. thank you for that. joining me now nbc white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, good morning to you on this saturday. we know that the president this week backed publicly releasing this mueller report. what's going on at mar-a-lago as the president is waiting for the report's main findings? >> reporter: what's so unusual is after the president has been vocal and combative at so many times about the mueller investigation, he has been quite quiet. so it's roughly 12 hours since the public became aware that the report had been submitted. no tweets from the president. there s-of course, a family gathering at mar-a-lago. we're told he spent some time with the family on the patio at

the estate having dinner. he also made a little pop in visit to an event being held at mar-a-lago for the palm beach republican party and that was not an open press event but there were people who posted on social media about the president being there and based on their accounts they claim he didn't say anything about the mueller investigation. he was among friends in that room, including lindsey graham who was the keynote speaker, florida's attorney general and many supporters who were there to donate to the cause of the local republican party. so no outward signs from the president of any concern. now, we have heard from white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders and the president's legal team beginning with sarah huckabee sanders. she released a statement to us where she says that they are now awaiting next steps. this, of course, goes through the attorney general, the president's most recent cabinet pick william barr and that the white house has not received or been briefed on the report.

that is notable because there are concerns expressed by democrats about the white house getting what democrats have characterized as a sneak peek of the report. rudy giuliani has told me they are not seeking that and any decisions must be made by the department of justice. giuliani and jay sekulow, the president's outside legal team have also released a statement. they say they welcome the release of the report to the department of justice, robert mueller closing his business, turning over the report to william barr and they say the next steps will be determined by the attorney general. so that's where these things stand. what stands out about that, no calls for witch-hunt. no demands of no collusion. none of the typical rhetoric we've seen from the president in this earlest phase. a bit of calm. we don't yet know what next steps will be. as pete has explained, william barr may be able to brief certain members of congress on the most initial phase this

weekend and then from there we don't know when the white house will know more or say more but it's notable what they have not said so far. >> as you correctly state calm, perhaps sobering as well. so as kelly is reporting the president may not have publicly commented yet on the mueller report but democratic leaders wasted no time last night sounding off on the release. >> the president himself has called without qualification for the report to be made public. there is no reason on god's green earth why attorney general barr should do any less. >> if the justice department doesn't release the whole report or tries to keep parts of it secret, we will certainly subpoena the report. >> i do think congress and the american people should hear from bob mueller directly on the investigation, how he went about it and so forth. >> congress will need the underlying evidence because some

of that evidence may go to the compromise of the president or people around him that poses a real threat to our national security. >> i think there's a strong possibility of additional indictments, including president trump's family. joining me now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos and former federal prosecutors doug burns and kate. good morning on this saturday. danny, as we heard, no further indictments or charges in the mueller report. so does that also mean that it's unlikely we see any sealed indictments? when we wait for the release here, was mueller completely done done. >> the mueller investigation is done. . but that doesn't mean that there will be -- there will not be other indictments that are farmed out to places like the southern district of new york or elsewhere and that is very important for us to keep in mind that just because mueller himself has closed up shop we know already he has handed off investigations to, for example,

the southern district of new york and those investigations may continue. there may be indictments still that flow from the original mueller investigation, just not prosecuted by the special counsel's office. >> okay. so, kate, the fact that there weren't any new charges do you interpret that to mean there was enough to indict but they won't do that because there's not enough to convict? >> well, i think it's really been a slow burn with the mueller report. we've seen the indictments that have come out of that probe so i think what came out today has been all but expected on the front of any sort of collusion type stuff and any real additional indictments that could be prosecuted by special counsel's office. so it's hard to say that there wasn't enough evidence but i think that mueller did what he could with the information that he had on his end and then, of course, there will be continuing investigations in other arenas at this point. >> so, doug, i want to take what

i just asked kate and put it to you. one of the big names left out was don jr. what does it tell you about the trump tower and why mueller couldn't convict on that? >> you made a good distinction that's worth repeating. the distinction real simple is three different categories. did somebody do a crime? is there evidence of it? even if there is evidence of it is it sufficient to go forward? those are three things to be separated out. to an your question, the fact of the matter is we don't know until we look at this report. in the report real quick, before you get to this political discussion about how much should be released and i find it odd politicians are strenuously vigorously calling for the release of something they don't know the contend of. we don't know if it's a bare bones report simply listing who is indicted or fuller.

>> do you think it would be something -- >> i don't think it would be bare bones but the regulations only call for that. everybody has to get back behind the ski tips to use the cliche and let's see what's in the report. >> curiously, danny, this investigation concluded without interviewing the president under oath before a jury. will others read that as a compromise of that report? >> yes. maybe more importantly it's read as a massive victory for trump's team and his attorneys that they were able to prevent the president from sitting down with mueller's investigators or testifying before a grand jury, which would have been an unmitigated disaster for the president. also shows when you are the chief executive you have slightly different bargaining power with special counsel, with the united states attorneys, with the u.s. government than normal defendants or targets of

an investigation. truly a victory for the trump team that they avoid the president sitting down and maybe that was purely negotiation. on the other hand, it may have been that mueller decided that he had enough information to make his determineiation without having the president sit down and that was a battle he didn't need to fight. >> but, you know, doug in terms of the special circumstances that would be afford a president, is it possible mueller and his team found the president did commit an indictable offense but because of department guidelines in the doj against it for a sitting president, they could not indict him? >> that's a huge point in this discussion because what you'll be hearing, you know, again the typical caveat law and politics are two different discussions. politically you'll hear two things. one you already covered. one the only reason the president is not being indicted is because of the two doj members. that's political rhetoric. the second rhetoric is it's

very, very possible that the evidence simply wasn't such enbut that doesn't mean that a crime wasn't committed. again those are all political sound bites. to your point it's virtually impossible for us to know until we see sort of concrete explanations from the special counsel in his report as to which of these categories i'm laying out. you know was there evidence? is it insuch en? is it because of the two doj memos. it's worth repeating that the dorj skbloems are internal policy memos only. they don't prevent special counsel from trying to indict. i always felt robert mueller special counsel wouldn't push that envelope and go against the office of special counsel -- in the doj office of legal counsel. wouldn't go against it. again, i don't think it's a situation only because of those memos. >> kate here we have news that the investigation has come to a close. we have not learned who the senior trump campaign official was who directed to contact

roger stone about any other additional releases and what other damaging information wikileaks had. this was in stone's indictment. why is that? does it appear that this could have just been passed on elsewhere to another district? >> well, it absolutely could have been any sort of information regarding obstruction of justice. still something that's a very open question, i believe. with the stone indictment we have to remember that as much as people wanted to find that connection to russia, this really just turned into a matter of roger stone having lied in the course of the investigation. that really all he was charged with, not actually having any of these connections. so there's a lot of open questions that are still out there about what maybe even president trump knew about certain conversations that took place. but that all falls into the realm of the process crimes ideas. >> i want to ask this next question of all three of you.

what do you believe is the biggest information that a. g. barr need to address. >> a. g. barr has to start addressing the questions everybody is thirsting for. what were the specific conclusions by the special counsel on the question of whether there was collusion between the trump 2016 campaign and the russians. then in fairness also viable to say as my colleague just pointed out what if any evidence was developed about obstruction of justice going through the statute and specific corrupt intent. and then a little bit about offshoots and these process crimes and people who were untruthful and lied. as my colleagues said in many of those instance it was the process crime not the underlying crimes. the main point is a specific explanation as to what was found with respect to the question of collusion, alex.

>> yep. danny, your thoughts? >> did the president commit a crime? and if there was evidence that the president committed a crime, what are the reasons for declining to institute -- excuse me. what are the reasons for declining to prosecute? and are they because the chief executive cannot be prosecuted while in office or as barr has suggested that when the president fires someone like james comey, it's not obstruction. those are the main questions i think that everybody wants answers to. >> last word to you, kate. >> i completely agree. everybody wants to know was there collusion with russia. what did president trump know. did he mitt any crimes? that's the bottom line with this. that's what the american people want to know. i think that's a fair question to be asked at this point. >> okay. guys, thank you so much. the congressional investigation and the one house judiciary member who said

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gig-fueled apps that exceed expectations. comcast business. beyond fast. congress is going to need the underlying evidence because he some of that evidence may go the compromise of the president or people around him that poses a real threat to our national security. >> if the justice department doesn't release the whole report or tries to keep parts of it secret, we will certainly

subpoena the parts of the report and we'll reserve the right to call mueller to testify before the committee or to subpoena him. >> the mueller report may to be done but you heard it there. the chairs of the house judiciary and intelligence committee are demanding to see the report. we welcome you both on this saturday morning. i'll go to you first, collin. are there any expectations we would learn anything today? is there a chance william barr will provide anything and how would that look? what do we know about that what he would give to congress? >> that's a great question. i think we're still -- we'll learn over the course of the weekend how much congress will be notified early on. i think it's probably going to be more top level, but we'll see. i think anybody who says with a

high degree of certainty right now how this will play out over the course of the weekend is just kind of speculating and we'll actually see by sunday how much comes out. >> what about some in any sense how the mueller report information can or may fit into all of the congressional investigations? are there key aspects to look for that specifically are the underlying evidence that adam schiff is looking for? >> right. so i think the reason that people like adam schiff and jerry nadler are asking for the underlying evidence is because there's concerns if barr, if a.g. barr felt like there was some information in the mueller report that should not be made public because of current doj policy he may very well choose to sit on that information because he doesn't feel he would be permitted to release it to congress and the public. that's why we're seeing lawmakers asking for this underlying evidence. it's important to remember that

there's a precedent here that actually republican lawmakers set when they demanded the underlying evidence for the russia investigation for the infamous nunez memo. you might see push back from republican lawmakers saying okay we have the mueller report so why are democrats taking it a step further? it's critical to remember that this whole back and forth began with people like davevon nunez. >> the special counsel did not compel the president to sit down for an interview under oath. what does that say to you and how much of a focus is that potentially for democrats in congress? >> it's certainly a focus for democrats in congress. they will be certain ly -- sorr. basically, i think there's a lot out there already that the president has said about this investigation, and i think they are probably going to drill down on that. >> like what?

except being a witch00 and grossly unfair what has the president said of substance about it? >> certainly he gave that interview about the firing of james comey to lester holt. i think that's in the public record and that certainly is something pertinent to this entire investigation. >> okay. so on that point let's take a listen to what the president has been saying recently about the mueller report. here it is, everyone. >> there won be and if there is it will only play to our advantage. now i have somebody writing a report that never got a vote? explain that. my voters don't get it. it's interesting a man out of the blue just write as report. you know why i won the race i was a better candidate than she was. had nothing to do with russia. we had a great election. we're waiting for a report by people who weren't elected. now they are trying to take you out with [ bleep ] >> okay, what does this tell you

about how the president is trying to frame the mueller report, how he's trying to spin things to his base and just generally speaking. >> i think most of washington, including the white house is kind of in the dark right now because nobody knows for sure what the mueller report will say. however, the white house is already spinning this as a win because we found out yesterday that mueller will not be recommending any more criminal charges or indictments. however, it's important to remember that just because he doesn't recommend any more criminal charges doesn't mean he didn't find evidence of wrongdoing and that kind of gets to the point of why so many lawmakers are demanding the report in its entirety instead of barr's summary of it. there's this doj policy that says if you don't bring criminal charges against someone you don't release information about them. when prosecutors decline to bring charges against someone they typically write a lengthy memo explaining exactly what they found and why they don't believe it rose to the level of criminal conduct.

so will barr release that? we'll see. either this weekend or going forward. >> okay, you guys, thank you so much for weighing in. the view from the campaign trail the first word from 2020 candidates on the release of the mueller report. e lerease of the mueller report

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more on special counsel's robert mueller report. here's what we know. the mueller team spent 674 days investigating the president's campaign ties to russia. 34 people have been charged. seven have pleaded guilty. five have been sentenced to prison time. prosecutors also looked at president trump's russian business interests. russia's overtures to assist trump. russian hacking of dnc and russians nationals waging a disinformation campaign during the 2016 election. the president however maintains there was no collusion. so just to give you now an idea of the timeline of how this report was submitted. attorney general bill barr received the report before 4:00 p.m. yesterday. at 4:30 deputy attorney general

rod rosenstein thanked special counsel robert mueller by phone. the attorney general's chief of staff informed the president's attorney. that the report had been submitted and then at 5:00 p.m. congressional committees received that letter from attorney general barr. joining me now nbc associate producer charlie giles. good morning to you. you've been covering the special counsel here very closely. you got the report that's been submitted now. is it over for mueller now? is it done? >> as a practical matter, yes, it is over, no more indictments that are going to be brought by the special counsel, sealed or otherwise. the special counsel could have referred other matters to other jurisdictions for them to prosecute, but obviously that remains to be seen. there's speculation about a sealed indictment in the eastern district of virginia against julian assange, but now that this thing has wrapped up it appear that if those charges are ever drawn up they were drawn up by another group. >> okay. so what are we still expected to

see? let's look at the specific case of paul manafort, rick gates, you mentioned roger stone. look at those. what's coming down the pike for them? >> yeah. well, obviously, paul manafort had charges brought against him almost immediately after his sentencing here in d.c. those charges were in the southern district of new york. that will be taken to trial unless he pleads. we still have michael flynn who was the first person charged by the special counsel. he's still yet to be sentenced. recently his legal team asked for an extension of time because he was still cooperating. now that special counsel robert mueller wrapped up his investigation. i would expect a sentencing date to be set soon. the same goes for rick gates who testified against paul manafort. the big thing we have left is roger stone. that case will be handled by the u.s. attorney's office and the district of columbia, but the judge recently set a november 5th trial date. we expect to see him in court

for all the pretrial hearings and for somebody who is skating very close to violating his gag order. we could see him back in occurred. >> george papadopoulos was sentenced to time behind bars. he's now. you have been on the front lines of this history making story as you reflect on all this. what's the one thing you'll never forget while covering this? >> well, i saw a tweet yesterday that said maybe the true mueller report is the friend we made along the way and in a sense it's true. there's a contingent of reporters that cover the courts and we've grown close over the last 18 months or 22 months, i guess. but truly covering the manafort trial was something i'll never forget. there are no phones allowed in the courthouse, no laptops in the eastern district of virginia so everybody had to revert to pen and pad and some reporters had to use even a pay phone.

>> but you guys compared notes? i remember hearing the same thing yesterday that you're saying the camaraderie, would you guys compare notes, competing correspondents? >> sure, yeah. oftentimes when we're trying to get a quote right, everybody just wants to be accurate. yeah, sometimes you'll compare with cbs or cnn or buzzfeed. we help each other out. >> thank you for helping us out. thank you. so among those sounding off on the mueller report were 2020 democratic candidates who were quick to comment on the special counsel as they hit the campaign trail on friday night. >> we have to know how foreign governments sought to undermine our country's democracy. we need to know if campaigns colluded with those governments. we need to understand the pursuit of justice whether it was obstructed or some tried to obstruct it. >> that report needs to be made

public. the american people have a right and a need to know. the attorney general barr should be called to testify under oath before the united states congress. and the white house should not be allowed to interfere in anyway in interpreting or presenting the information to the american people. >> it's absolutely imperative that the trump administration make that report public as soon as possible. >> and the mueller report is done but the investigations are far from over. why hope hicks could be a crucial source for what the house judiciary committee wants to know? first here's a quick programming note. here's the proof, everyone. msnbc we're live every saturday and sunday at 6:00 a.m. eastern. we'll be back in a moment. bk i. so recently my son's band was signed by a record label. while we're on the road, i can keep my parents in the loop with the whole facetime thing. i created a rockstar. (both laughing) (vo) there when it matters.

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the president himself has called without qualification for the report to be made public. there is no reason on god's green earth why attorney general barr should do any less. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer using the president's own words to retook the news that special counsel robert mueller submitted his report to bill barr. let's bring in former senior adviser to hillary clinton's campaign and conservative talk

show host. a.g. barr wrote in his letter to the senate and house judiciary leaders he may be in a position to advise them of principle conclusions as soon as this weekend. he intends to consult with the deputy a.g. rod rosenstein also robert mueller to determine what other kind of information should be released. should democrats be comforted or bracing for a fight. >> definitely be bracing for a fight. donald trump does not appoint anyone would who will not be loyal to donald trump regardless of what he may say. at the end of the day republicans and president want to play hide and go seek and democrats want transparency. we should be very clear and upfront about what we want. thank god for the mid-terms because now we have not only a democratic congress that can haul people in for investigations and flush things out but we have the southern district here in new york in which we'll, i'm sure, hear more from them in the coming days and

weeks. i'm bracing myself for a fight. the republicans have set precedent about releasing information per the devon nunez memo so i think we should buckle down. i do want democrats to be very careful about how we deal with this politically because we cannot take our eye off the ball and assume this will change the hearts and minds of people who voted for donald trump. >> we heard from trump allies. they were celebrating the conclusion of mueller's investigation yesterday, especially congressman mark meadows who said in a tweet, cheering the absence of a collusion related indictment. are they celebrating prematurely? we do not know what the report found. we do knot know if other indictments could be coming from other investigations that spun off the mueller probe? >> it's unlikely you'll see indictments coming out of the mueller probe and unlikely you'll see any type of collusion. what you'll see is president trump playing the martyr from here on out. this will be the subject of

numerous speeches that he gives going into the 2020 campaign concerning the fact that we've spent millions and millions of dollars on this investigation and that there's been no collusion found whatsoever. i think if there was collusion, for some reason my gut instinct tells me it would have leaked out. and the fact that there's no indictments is a strong signal that they didn't find anything. >> as we went from collusion, there's no collusion, to when there was panic in the republican party, collusion is not a crime. now here we are celebrating, doing toe touches of victory laps because we assume something in the report says no collusion. what we don't know is what we don't know. so we should just sit tight, put our seat belts on and enjoy the ride until we know what we know. >> no one is sitting tight. >> what about other indictments that could spin off? that was the second part of my question from the mueller probe. >> there's possibly the julian assange connection. of course, roger stone is out

there waiting to be tried. but i think everything that has spun from this investigation has already been indicted. you've had, you know, 34 people charged, including the russians, so i don't see that you're going to have any further indictments, which means likely that trump is not going indicted. even if he was indicted or if there was some suggestion he had done something wrong attorney general barr has said he doesn't believe a sitting president can be prosecuted. he can be impeached but he can't be prosecuted. >> there lies the problem. what you don't know and what none of us know is what else may come as all the other pockets of we have out here doing an investigation, like the southern district of new york, like the democratic controlled congress. so i think it's premature to give the benediction to this scenario and it's laughable that republicans are doing victory laps about it. >> no charges against donald trump jr., nor jared kushner.

>> not yet. not yet. again, there's some ongoing investigations happening still and so we just don't know what we don't know. and, again, we do not know what's in the report that could lead to further flushing out of these people possibly being indicted by another entity. >> aesthetic, i think the vulnerability for president trump lies in the hush money payments to stormy daniels. if there's going to be an indictment it will probably have something to do with campaign finance reform. >> interesting point. what about the republican leader. last night they were joining calls for as much transparency as possible. what does transparency mean to them? is it conditional on the conclusions because democrats want to see all the evidence that led mueller to reach the conclusions in this report. yet house intel chairman adam schiff floated the idea of subpoena to mueller if needed. >> transparency naens attorney

general barr releases his conclusions about the report and not necessarily the detail. the problem is when they do memos concerning the reasons why they are declining to prosecute someone they put in a lot of information which may just be rumor libellous. >> you made the point that the president will say how many millions of dollars this cost. the american people paid for it. don't they deserve, if they want, to and certainly surveys and polls have shown that the american public wants this released. don't they deserve because they paid for it to see everything? >> not necessarily. because of the fact you're dealing with individuals. you're dealing with individuals who are accused of crimes or not. and you can't go out and just put out false or defamatory information about people just because they are public figures.

you have to have some basis for doing it and if they are not indicted they shouldn't release all of the gory details. the public doesn't have to have that kind of information to find out that there was no collusion. >> you can rest assured if the roles were reversed and this was anything to do with barack obama or any other democrat, the republicans will be breaking speed limits right at political stop signs to assure this information was released to the public and i'm sure if the roles were reversed it would have been released the same time in which the report was issued. let's not fool ourselves and let's not play this whole game of hypocrisy that republicans tend to play. >> what do you read in the fact that mueller wrapped up this investigation without interviewing the president? >> i think he wants to do his job. i think that -- first of all, i think he's trustworthy and regardless the picture the republicans tried to paint i think mueller is very trustworthy. perhaps there was nothing in his

finding that would force him to interview the president. again we do not know what other entities may be involved or what they are doing. i don't want to give the premature benediction to this entire process because his report was released. >> timing wise, how doan do you think a.g. barr will release his findings or memo to congress? >> this weekend or monday. i think they will release the report to the public or at least the portions of the report they will release early next week. then get ready for a couple of years, maybe of talking about this further, and calling it a witch-hunt, discussing the enormous amount of money being used and also the fact that donald trump will definitely talk about how he's been persecuted this entire time without cause. >> i hope legislatively oversight will take this course and i hope the democratic controlled congress will do everything they can to provide

transparency in an environment in which republicans want to play hide and go seek. >> the only thing democrats can do that would be worse is to start impeachment process because that, again, would be an enormous waste of money and we've already spent millions of dollars on this investigation. >> all right, guys, i got to wrap it. we'll wrap it up for now. i'll see you again, no doubt. justice department regulations are followed the chances of the president coming out unscathed might be pretty good. my next guest will explain why. y actually went to law school, so i called him. he didn't call me back! if your ex-ex- ex-boyfriend isn't a lawyer, call legalzoom and we'll connect you with an attorney. legalzoom. where life meets legal. when your blanket's freshness fades before the binge-watching begins... that's when you know, it's half-washed. next time, add downy fabric conditioner for up to 7 days of downy freshness.

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just put it all out there. >> i told the house if you want, let them see it. >> don't redact anything. >> let people see it. that's up to the attorney general. >> i am going to make as much information available as i can consistent with the rules and regulations. >> so it's been 22 months and after 37 charges, new questions have reemerged about how much u.s. attorney general william barr will reveal and if he will try to bury the report. joining me is the author of that article. the staff news writer for "the

hive." you say if barr and mueller follow doj restrictions, trump might come out unblemished. how likely after the long investigation the president comes out unscathed? >> you look at doj guidelines and what they say is, you know, one, you can't indict a sitting president. also, you can't disparage publicly an individual who maybe was part of an investigation, but wasn't ultimately charged. i think one of the questions is right now is what behavior robert mueller looked at of the president's. what he found. whether we will see that, you know, despite the really massive public interest in it. the question is will we be able to see, you know, how mueller reached that conclusion? i think there is a question as to what rises to criminality over what is constitutional.

>> barr said he will announce to congress this weekend. how hard a fight would that be? >> i think one of the interesting things about what barr said during the confirmation hearings is he stressed the idea of a confidential report. the mueller report or special counsel report would be confidential. i think one of the concerns right now is whether it is top line summary as to here are the people i indicted and here is why. not delve into what he found with the other individuals. trump world characters eensnare in the investigation. >> what are members telling you about the strategy and any plans for committees to call any of the trump children to testify? >> absolutely. an interesti in bringing the trump children before congress. specifically with the batch of

81 document requests that the judiciary committee sent out. you saw eric trump on there and donald trump jr. jared kushner was among that list of names. there is an interest in ivanka in terms of the broader question of white house security clearance. those areas are certainly something where we're going to see congressional committees interested in learning more information. specifically as to whether and why the president may have overridden career professionals with the recommendations providing security clearance to ivanka and jared. >> and john kelly. what is the likelihood he gets called to testify? >> one of the things i was speaking with a number of congress folks about this. they do expect that. trying to bring john kelly before the committee will result in a subpoena fight. this idea they believe he might claim executive privilege or they really have to resort to a

subpoena to bring him forward. obviously john kelly, talking about the security clearance issue, he wrote a contemporaneous memo outlining his concerns of the process and the president's request to make sure his son-in-law and daughter received security clearance. >> all right. abigail tracy. i know you will be back soon. thank you. congress hopes and waits for the mueller report. how much of the report do lawmakers expect to receive? i'll speak with richard bl blumenthal and we will speak with chuck todd and kelly o'donnell. d kelly o' donnell. say ohd my drop donnell. ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ what is that? uh mine, why? it's just that it's... lavender. yes it is, it's for men

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good morning. from right here in msnbc headquarters in new york. it is 7:00 a.m. in the east. we welcome to "weekends with alex witt." the mueller report in the hands of the attorney general. how much will be revealed to the public? plus. the end of the beginning of the investigation not the beginning of the end. >> there are enormous number of lingering questions. >> he's now passing that baton on to other people. >> why mueller's findings may not be the final word for the president and