a.g. barr: good morning, everybody, and thanks for being here this morning. as you know, on march 22, special counsel robert mueller concluded his investigation into 's matters related to russian attempts to interfere in our 2016 presidential election. he submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to department regulations. as i said during my senate confirmation hearing and since, i am committed to ensuring the greatest degree possible of transparency concerning the special counsel's investigation, consistent with the law. at 11:00 this morning, i will transmit copies of the public version of the special counsel's report to the chairman and ranking members of the senate and house judiciary committees. the department of justice will also make the report available to the american people by posting it on the department's website after it has been delivered to congress. i would like to make a few comments today on the report. before i do that, i want to thank deputy attorney general rod rose

a.g. barr: i'd leave it to his description in his report, the special counsel's own articulation of why he did not want to make a determination as to whether or not there was an obstruction offense. but i will say that when we met with him, deputy attorney general rosenstein and i met with him, along with ed o'callaghan, who is the principal associate deputy, on march 5 and we specifically asked about the olc opinion, and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the olc opinion. and he made it very clear several times that that was not his position. he was not saying that but for the olc opinion, he would have found a crime. he made it clear that he had not made the determination that there was a crime. >> what did you disagree with him on? >> given that, why did you feel the need to take it to the next step to conclude that there was no crime, especially given doj policy? a.g. barr: the very prosecutorial function and all of our powers

a.g. barr: special counsel mueller did not indicate his purpose was to leave the decision to congress. i hope that was not his view, because we do not convene grand jury's and conduct criminal investigations for that purpose. i did not talk to him directly about the fact that we were making the decision, but i am told his reaction to that was that it was my prerogative as

a.g. barr: is there another precedent for it? >> no. a.g. barr: ok, unprecedented is an accurate description, isn't it? >> yes. what do you say to people who are concerned that you are trying to protect the president? >> there is a lot of public interest in the absence of the special counsel. why is he not here today? a.g. barr: what he did for me as the attorney general, he is required under the regulation to provide me with a confidential report. i am here to discuss my response to that report and my decision, entirely discretionary to make it public, since these reports are not supposed to be made public. that is what i am here to discuss. >> is it impropriety for you to come out and what appears to be spinning the report before the public has a chance read it? >> ok, thank you very much. >> president trump offered a brief reaction to the mueller report in his remarks during a ceremony to the participants of the wounded warrior project perry ceremony was held in the east room of the white ho

you heard the former a.g., holder, say there that a.g. barrnot the president's attorney general but he said something quite different when he was on this show back in 2013 many listen. >> are you going to stay around for all four years? >> i don't know. we'll see. >> come on, man. come on. >> we need you. >> i got to ask. come on, attorney general, please. >> well, i'm happy, i'm still enjoying what i'll doing. there's still work to be done. i'm still the president's wing man, so i'm there with my boy. heather: so okay, to be the president's wing man from 2009 to 2015, he was the attorney general under barack obama. what do you think? >> yeah, well this is nothing more than a partisan character attack against bill barr who has an incredible, i' impeccable re. the attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer of the united states and he's vested with being nonpartisan. bill barr has consistently been objective and nonpart sa nonpare handling of the entire mueller report. he's condemned if he does, condemned if he doesn't. the summary wa

i think even a.g. barr'sht have been different had those items been carried out because a.g. barr's analysis of obstruction really comes down to whether or not there was intent on the part of the president about whether he was corrupt. there there's a corrupt to what he did to obstruct the investigation that would have yielded a different outcome. now, obviously, he can't still be indicted per doj policy. but it would have been a lot different for potential impeachment proceedings and for other actions that could be taken in the future. i agree, whenever you're a prosecutor looking at the case, you look at the fact as they are, and perhaps president trump lucked out because of insubordination of all things. >> and mueller did not make a determination on obstruction. what are your thoughts about why he didn't cross that line the general framed that part of the investigation? >> well, mueller made it very clear he wasn't going to make oy criminal findings whatsoever because he couldn't indict the president. or

and, you know, i love a.g. barrhe's a great man, he's doing the right thing here -- lou: he certainly is. >> but, look, the doj has got to start policing itself. it's a big wake-up signal that thef. doj needs to be, have its wings clipped and controlled constitutionally. lou: i have to say he's the first attorney general i've seen in decades who i believe has the whatsesty and the talent -- the capacity and the talent and the integrity to do precisely that, which is clean up this mess that is the leadership of the fbi and the department of justice. it is, i can't tell you how optimisticic i am about what ths man can achieve and what he has already done for this president and for the country. and i am so proud of you and judicial the watch, tom, for all that you have done and contributed to seeing justice prevail. tom fitton, thanks for being with us, we appreciate it. >> you're welcome, lou. thank you for the good work. lou: up next, the rad cam dems in complete hysterical meltdown after the complete vindication of

jeremy bash among those watching and listening a.g. barr with us. your findings? >> i thought the attorney general's presentation was very weakly argued. he said the internet research agency in russia engaged in social media manipulation and there were no trump campaign officials that actually assisted them with that social media manipulation. we already knew that. that's not actually the conduct we were looking for. he further said the trump campaign didn't engage in the hacking. we already knew that. we know the trump campaign wasn't doing the hacking. it was the russians doing the hacking. the question is whether or not the trump campaign and the candidate himself knew about the russian interference, whether they welcomed it, whether they alerted the fbi, whether they benefited from it and whether they rewarded it. none of those questions were answered by the attorney general's presentation today. one thing was interesting, brian, he said with respect to wikileaks and its dissemination of the hacked emails, he said under our law, you can't be guilty of an offen

a.g. barr: the special counsel did not find any evidence that violate law. >> we already see some of the edifice built up. the attorney general starting to crumble. >> data on the upswing. >> it seems like oil indicators are pointing in the right direction now. taylor: president trump keeps supplying verbal pressure to the fed. the catastrophic fire in one of europe's most treasured landmarks. the u.k. has extra time to escape its brexit impact. chancellor philip hammond believes theresa may see brexit through. >> as far as i know, she has no intention of leaving until the deal is done. >> auto executives at the shanghai motor show discussed the road ahead for the world's largest car market. >> the energy segment is growing at a very fast clip. taylor: it is all straight ahead on "bloomberg best." ♪ taylor: hello, and welcome. i'm taylor riggs. this is "bloomberg best," your weekly review of bloomberg television around the world. let's start with a day by day look at the top headlines. u.s. ban

a.g. barr: the special counsel not find any conspiracy to violate u.s. russian linked persons and any persons associated with the trump campaign. so that is the bottom line. >> barr was hired for this moment, to bring some gravitas to the podium, or at least attempt to move on and put this behind them. pres. trump: i'm having a good day, too. it was called no collusion, no obstruction. [cheers and applause] vonnie: the report has now been handed to congress and is also on the department of justice website for public viewing. a lot redacted, but a lot does point to the fact that this isn't over. >> mueller found at least 10 , i think we have counted instances where the president 11 could have been construed to have been trying to obstruct the probe into the russian interference and his campaign's involvement. some of those instances are pretty damning for the president. >> right now, we are already seeing some of the edifice that was built up by the attorney general start to crumble. this is a very damning assessment from mueller that he didn't have the co

whether it's worth it, if a.g. barr doesn't show up, they want to see what's redacted in the report. they probably would have asked him is who saw the report outside of the department of justice and whether there were different redactions or fewer redactions. >> he's set to appear before the senate committee on thursday. can we see a different line of questions from the senate than the house? >> i think you could. the senate in general is less partisan than the house, just speaking in politics. i think democrats want to take a cue from house democrats and going after attorney general barr on this. the democrats on the hill, there is a bit of tension on how they proceed on the investigations and questioning attorney general barr. i think democrats are cognizant of the fact there is an election coming up. the majority of the electorate shows that report isn't necessarily top priority. very important for americans. and americans would like to see, and we're seeing this in polling, as i said, they would like to see attentio

we will investigate via a.g. barr what said he's going to do this. >> both the house and senate plan to grill attorney general barr about the report early next month and plan to hear from robert mueller himself before may 23rd. >>> the man accused of posing as an uber driver and murdering a college student due in court today. nathaniel roland accused of killing samantha josephson in south carolina. prosecutors said he lured her into his car and stabbed her and dumped her in the woods. >>> the search for a missing 5-year-old shifts to his own home. investigators say there's no indication andrew friend was abducted after his parents reported him missing on wednesday. their illinois home is considered a crime scene as his mother begs for answers. >> i just want my kids. that's all i -- that's my life, they're my kids. >> andrew's father said he will continue to look for his son on his own. the illinois department of children and family services has been involved with the family since andrew was born. >>> an army soldier

report that we may see soon, it looks like a.g. barr on a parallel track. but also the question is brought up why the trump campaign was never notified that such -- that this was actually occurring. >> you would think that that's exactly what they would do if they really cared about solving a counter intelligence investigation. i have some history in counter intelligence. i understand what goes in these types of operations. it does seem strange that we wouldn't notified our fellow americans when this goes on. >> a lot of debate over how much, if any, of the mueller report should be redacted. in your experience in these things, what is at stage if there's no redactions? >> it's hard to say. i have not read it. i don't know what is in it. there's potentially classified material, damaging material. i still urge them to relose as much as possible under the law. >> i want to switchback to the topic of immigration, particularly border security. president trump had an impromptu press conference, if you will, at a fund raiser. he wanted the public to hear some of t

so, what should be expected color coded or not and what you can expect from a.g. barrgoing to be he showed you who he is. he showed you what he is about. don't be surprised. we also have the cardinal on tonight, dolan is here to talk to people what he believes comes next after notre dame. >> all right. chris, thanks, very much. look forward it to. that's in about 13 minutes from now. >>> coming up next, new information about what happened in the first moments when the fire started at notre dame cathedral. and what we learned about the priceless relics saved and the priest that helped get them out. i got this mountain bike for only $11. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. we sold an ipad worth $505 for less than $24. a stand mixer for less than $20. a 4k television for under $2. a macbook pro for under $16. as well as a playstation 4 for under $16. and brand new cars for less than $900. dealdash.com offers hundreds of auctions every day. all auctions start at $0 and everything must go. and don't forget, we offer a full 90 day money back guarantee on your fir

and nancy pelosi says, a.g. barr has thrown out his credibility. democrats are also blasting reports that the justice department has already discussed the special counsel's findings with the white house. >> i've not seen it. the president hasn't seen it. >> reporter: it was president trump who broke the news about barr's press conference during a radio interview yesterday. >> you'll see a lot of very strong things come out. >> reporter: barr has already declared that mueller found the president and his campaign didn't collude with russia. but allegations on obstruction, barr concluded there wasn't enough evidence to prove that. "the washington post" is now reporting the mueller report will be lightly redacted and the report will reveal that mueller decided he could not come to a conclusion on obstruction because it was too difficult to determine trump's intent. again, we are told we will not see or hear from mueller today. but that could change down the road, as democrats say they have not ruled out calling on mueller to testify before congress. ke

got was the equivalent of they woke up and it was all a dream in one thousand nine hundred nine a.g. barr refused to release the department of justice legal opinion choosing to release a summary report and it was later revealed the characterized parts of the union in the summary and payers are like wait we paid thirty million dollars for that on a quest to seek out the scandal the democrats uncensored version of the report if there is juice in that report the dems are going to squeeze it out imagine what kind of sauce could be concealed under all those redacted pages but is it possible to breathe new life into a dead duck well maybe it is the director's cut of the mother report will include deleted scenes along with mothers and bars comments and under the sexed up new title and obstruction of justice. it's the same report same investigation just with some expert editing thoughtful repackaging and worrying for at least a couple of sequels before the twenty twenty alexion takeover i have called on the house to initiate impeachment proceedings this is an invitation to congress to say you can

a.g. did. barred, saying democrats failed to, quote, identify any particular person alleged to have committed a crime or to describe any particular acts alleged to constitute a crime. sound familiar? sounds a lot like what you're hearing from team trump these days, no? >> where's the crime? we haven't even named a crime. >> there is still no evidence whatsoever of russian collusion. >> there also was no crime. >> barr gamed the system at that time. he didn't break the law. not accusing him of that. he just waited for the old independent counsel regs to expire then he appointed a special examiner, a retired judge. less time, less money, less freedom to dig deeply. by keeping it in house, mr. barr was able to draw his own conclusion and made sure as little as possible was made public. and he said then he was just playing it by the book. just like he did on obstruction with mueller. not illegally, but certainly a rigged game. his warning at the time was that we cannot allow the criminal process to be u

a.g. barr: the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate u.s.ight now, we are already seeing some of the edifice built around the attorney general starting to crumble.

even you what you got the instant reaction was is that there's a cover up going on to cover up and a.g. barr must be involved in it might be involved i mean but this is a symptom of just what is wrong with the media right now because the media they want a conclusion they don't work towards a conclusion using evidence this is been a such an abrogation of responsibility this is pure malpractise and it has a price because as christopher was pointing out here the faith in the media is being destroyed and has been destroyed well basically talk about the color of started immediately we've had to rachel maddow and we've had the new york times what was there in to tory oh no collusion no exoneration so they kept saying that there was no exaggeration noise in the ration they kept at taken trump but what i'm concerned about in this whole story there are two things first you know these are not in burger continued for two we hears. it's continuing to rock and it's contended seventeen that you're rocking not in berga as we know continued for about a year in a year after the american invasion in two thous

a.g. bill barr.d him of misrepresenting the contents of the mueller report which is a bit silly considering everyone's going to be able to read the mueller report. if he were doing that, it would become pretty obvious when the report is released around noon. cheryl: it's interesting, because jerry nadler, house judiciary committee chairman from new york, he is a democrat. he is blasting barr for holding the news conference at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. you have to ask the question here, what is he going to talk about in the news conference. is he going to tout the report again before it gets to congress? william barr being accused of -- by democrats, of being one sided when it comes to defending president trump and not necessarily defending the nation. is this just noise or do you think that this is something that continues to pick up steam, this fight? >> that's the curious question, is what barr is going to talk about during the press conference. obviously, he already released the letter with his prin

a.g. -- i.g. bar barr is going -- a.g. barr is going a little bit further than that to make sure that areas outside of what the i.g. is looking at, that they're looked at as well. because the i.g. can only look at d.o.j., f.b.i. bob: was it a mistake for the attorney general to use that term spying before the i.g. has completed its report? mr. meadows: no. i don't think so at all. obviously he was asked the question, you know, we can sit here and look at it. but members of congress, in that case it was the senate asking questions. and a.g. barr responded to that in the best way -- bob: bob: doesn't that risk politicizing the entire department? mr. meadows: you'd rather him give false testimony? bob: no. that's not what i want. it's a phrase like that leads many people to think he's -- mr. meadows: so -- bob: president trump's interest or perspective. mr. meadows: so you have proof there was not spying? bob: i don't have proof about anything. all i know is there's an f.b.i. counterintelligence investigation. and there was su

democrats are calling into question a.g. barr's credibility.actions will be up to him and he will redact whatever he wants. listen to nancy pelosi. >> it isn't up to the attorney general who has said basically that the president is above the law and the rest. he is there to redact whatever he wants. let's just see what he puts forth. we can't make a judgment about something that you haven't seen yet. >> she has been consistent there and something that democrats are pleased about with nancy pelosi. there is a split within the caucus of how much you want to talk about mueller report and the russia investigation. running on issues of healthcare and economy wins elections. many of us, myself included. that want to focus on the issues until we have the report. we know that bob mueller laid out a case for obstruction of justice and a case against it and we know as well from listening to legal analysts, our own judge napolitano who has been on the program talking about it a lot. because they didn't come down saying there wasn't conspiracy of collusion

are you concerned that a.g. barr holding a news conference before the report is released? is that a concern for you? >> i don't care as long as he releases the full report. i do not want a report that's redacted. members of congress look at confidential top secret information regularly. we are given the authority to do that, and so we need to see the full report. i can understand if he needs to redact it for public release, for certain grand jury information, but he does not need to redact it for congress. and if he does we'll subpoena ourselves. >> what do you believe the next move is after this, of the full mueller report? >> do i want to hear from mueller directly? yes, i would love to have them take us through particularly in a confidential setting his entire investigation, whether we'll have the opportunity to do that or not i don't know. but i do think the american public have a right to know what's in the mueller report, what was investigated, what was found and to have full transparency and accountability. and they deserve that. even if you have to redact names or

then there's a call for a.g. barr to resign. trump hired barr to bury the facts and that barr really should have recused himself from all oversight of the mueller investigation. >> whether he mischaracterized the mueller report, he is seeking to help donald trump. he should resign. we need an attorney general who has credibility with the american people. >> reporter: finally, the mueller report reigniting calls to impeach the president. democrats like alexandria ocasio-cortez vowing to sign an impeachment resolution very soon. ocasio-cortez tweeting this, many know i a take no pleasure in discussions of impeachment but the report squarely puts this on our doorstep. but some democrats think that's a big waste of time. house majority leader hoyer is trying to get dems to fix their focus to the election, just 18 months away now, saying that is when the american people will make a judgment about the president. cheryl, lauren. lauren: asia, thank you very much. we'll pick it up from there. the redacted version of the mueller report is

a.g. barr: the special counsel did not find any evidence that violate law.

there's some confusion over whether or not the judiciary committee has the ability, the right to ask a.g. barr for an unredacted version. there's some historical precedent. i've been told that those were different circumstances. under the circumstances now barr couldn't give them an unredacted version if he wanted to. one that was completely -- >> that's right. we've all talked about what the various pools of information might be subject to redaction would be. national security information. clearly the attorney general can't release that information unless there's a declassification of the president of that material. second, with regard to grand jury material, if it's going to be released and it's in the report, it's either going to be redacted or the attorney general, the department of justice has to apply to a court in order to get an order to allow it to be disclosed to congress. that is entirely within the discretion of the justice department. they can't be compelled to file an order with the district court authorizing the release of grand jury information. that's the second thing. with re

a.g. barr: that is the bottom line. after nearly two years of investigation, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of warrants and witness interviews, the special cancel confirmed that the russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the 2016 presidential election. but did not find that the trump campaign or other americans colluded in those efforts. after finding no underlying collusion with russia, the special counsel's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsel's investigation. as i addressed in my march 24 letter, the special counsel did not make additional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. instead, the report recounts 10 episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements on obstruction offense. after carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined and in consultation with the office of legal counsel and other department lawyers, the

the justice department takes issue with that, indicating to fox that a.g. barred by members of congress, not their staff members. one gop house judiciary member says this is what democrats will do if barr shows up on thursday. >> they're going to spend all their time beating up on barr and wanting to continue th the x the president was talking about. rather than hoax, it's projecting. it's what clinton made famous. >> reporter: house judiciary democrats want to be able to go into closed session with the attorney general if lawmakers want to ask him about redacted portions of mueller's report. that doesn't sit well with the justice department either. if nothing changes on the house side, according to a house judiciary committee source, the attorney general has said he will not testify on thursday. one democratic member of the senate judiciary committee and 2020 presidential candidate is going to bat for her house colleagues. >> they're going to have to work that out. but he has to come before the house. he is the attorney general of the united states. we haven't

a.g. barr has indicated he won't be providing the report for executive privilege redactions before it's provided in our otherwise redacted form before mid-april. the executive privilege has flown out the window and we won't see, allegedly, executive privilege redaction when congress gets the report mid-april. >> you mention the the relationship between president trump's team and mueller's. john dowd revealed in an interview that mueller's team would consult with trump's team and let him know when the media got stories wrong. >> the hard part about it is they don't like to be in a position to make a published statement. so, i had to go by -- i had to go by his office to drop something off and we met outside. and, you know, he said still, don't believe everything you read in the papers. i said, i got it, okay. and i could then say, you know, talked to special sxou ed ted to procedure for it. >> is that unusual to have prosecutors and media discussing media sources? >> people think it's going to b

a.g. barr knows it and mr.by the book started an investigation and gave us a conclusion without providing proof for why it was spying and not legal surveillance >> it was unbelievable for him to be imprecise, use a pejorative term and to use the motif president trump used as early as february and march of 2017 accusing a former president of bugging trump tower, trying to wiretap his phones. paul ryan, james clapper, a spokesperson for obama, everyone said there is no evidence to support that allegation that there was any such thing. there was no court order about a warrant to do so. yet two years later nearly you have the attorney general of the united states floating this out there, putting it out into the ether with no substantiation knowing full well what he was doing was trying to sideline the discussion about the results of the report. and the genesis of it is a favorite talking point of donald trump. the genesis gets us talking about the fisa warrant, carter page, roger stone, george papadopoulos >> the d