phil rucker, julia ainsley. thank you, guys. after the break, federal prosecutors are set to file charges against lawyer avenatti, ranging from embezzlement to extortion. whenever we're about to get on a stage for a huge audience, i always give my dad like a facetime kinda moment. you see the crowd, you see the emotion. you know, he has that experience for the first time with me, and that's really important to me. i created a rockstar. (both laughing) (vo) there for you when it matters most. get iphone xr on us when you buy the latest iphone. and apple music on us with unlimited. only on verizon. it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ [zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ >>> michael avenatti was arrested this afternoon, he's accused of extorting $20 million from nike. avenatti is expected to be charged on los angeles on embezzlement and wire fraud. joining me now our tom winter and here in the newsroom,

julia ainsley, peter baker, and robert costa, a national political reporter for the washington post, also happens to be moderator of washington week on pbs. i'd like to begin with you, because of where you are, charlotte, north carolina, where tonight you attended an event -- james comey appeared at which also became his first reaction to what we've seen of the barr letter summation of the mueller report, and what was it? >> well, that's right, brian, i mean, it's not that james comey has ever been short on words since he left his post. tonight was the first night he's spoken publicly since barr's summary of the mueller report. we had a lot of questions, i wanted to know what he made of this, considering it was under his per view that this probe was open in the first place, he spoke to a crowd of over 2,000 at an event sponsored by queen's college. only one question dealt with the news of the day, about his reaction, to barr's letter, what he said, is that he was confused, he was confused by two things, one is that robert mueller did not make a decision on obstruction, he said the ve

julia ainsley, thank you so much. >>> and coming up, one-man army. trump continuing his assault on obamacare without the backing of his own republican congressional leaders. sion ever. i switched to geico and saved hundreds. that's a win. but it's not the only reason i switched. geico's a company i can trust, with over 75 years of great savings and service. ♪ now that's a win-win. switch to geico. it's a win-win. switch to geico. [zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ >>> we have a chance of killing obamacare. we almost did it. but somebody unfortunately surprised us with thumbs down. but we'll do it a different way. so we're going to get rid of obamacare. and i said it the other day. the republican party will become the party of great health care. >> that shot at "somebody," that was john mccain, another shot at john mccain, for voting to keep obamacare in his last vote. president trump is campaigning to get rid of obamacare b

and julia ainsley, our own nbc news national security and justice reporter. robert costa, last time you were on this broadcast we had the following conversation, that in the television age we tend to link scandals and investigations to televised hearings. heretofore this had not been a televised hearing-driven story. it's been driven otherwise by our colleagues in the news media. now we have mr. cohen appearing and making a big splash including today continuing to offer up new evidence. tell me how people are reacting and who specifically is reacting. >> it's another appearance by mr. cohen on capitol hill but entirely different than his public testimony last week. this was private, behind closed doors. before the intelligence committee talking to people familiar with that process. they say one of the main topics was that "new york times" story. i just got off the phone 30 seconds ago with mayor giuliani, myself about the issue of pardons. were pardons discussed by mr. cohen's lawyers with the trump legal team? what was the extent of those conversations? what

. >> our opinion el is standing by, first we want to get the latest from our own julia ainsley. julia, by my count you've been spending 12 hours a day at the justice department. and we keep talking about high anxiety, answer this to the extent you can. why is it we believe we're close? >> brian, something is fundamentally different in these past 72 to 48 hours around this probe. i've been down there every day, basically for the last month, when we heard it might be coming soon. now we're told that it is on a day by day basis, hour by hour, we could really get it any time, we do not expect it to come during the wee hours of the morning. we expect it to be during the central daylight business hours of washington. but when it does come, it's key to remember two things, first, attorney general william barr will have to tell congress, and he will have to send them a letter. and he will, of course, notify the public. we expect he will do that, he doesn't have to do that, it's not laid out in the memo given that explains what goes on with the special counsel's investigation, we understa

. >> joining the conversation, nbc news national security and justice reporter julia ainsley.t to be clear, we mentioned this once already on this show but i think it's worth mentioning again that what the president said there is not the case. just not true. >> totally the opposite is true. >> he cared very much and tried very hard and failed. >> senator tom tillis changed his vote because the white house was pressuring him so much. it's not like we have deep-seated reporting on background. the president said on camera, i'm calling people. my aides are calling people. we're lobbying congress. so it's bizarre that he would say this when we have evidence, easy evidence, not evidence we have to dig for, to show that he was at the white house absolutely pressuring republicans. >> he tweeted frantically about it to the days up to the vote. it's not just bizarre but troubling somebody could like so egregiously and publicly when all of the evidence is out there. >> it's what he always does. he tells you what he wants because he points your attention right to t that's what's remarkabl

joining us now julia ainsley, national security and kelly o'donnell, nbc news white house correspondent top ones standing out is the attorney general says it's fewer than 400 pages, it's a little more than we previously thought that special counsel robert mueller put in his report to him. he also said he's available to testify before the senate and house judiciary committees may 1 and may 2 and he expects to make this report, or his version of it, available to congress and the public by mid-april, if not sooner. these are tough lines. he's trying to get some transparency into his process here. the two things i think are worth reading into, when he lays out what information he won't be able to give, the fourth is the most important to me. information that would unduly fringe on the personal privacy and reputational interest to a peripheral third party. so that means these are people who might have damage to their reputation. would i not consider the president to be a third party in this, but there could be people who are part of whatever evidence that mueller collected either on conspira

. >> our opinion el is standing by, first we want to get the latest from our own julia ainsley. julia, by my count you've been spending 12 hours a day at the justice department. and we keep talking about high anxiety, answer this to the extent you can. why is it we believe we're close? >> brian, something is fundamentally different in these past 72 to 48 hours around this probe. i've been down there every day, basically for the last month, when we heard it might be coming soon. now we're told that it is on a day by day basis, hour by hour, we could really get it any time, we do not expect it to come during the wee hours of the morning. we expect it to be during the central daylight business hours of washington. but when it does come, it's key to remember two things, first, attorney general william barr will have to tell congress, and he will have to send them a letter. and he will, of course, notify the public. we expect he will do that, he doesn't have to do that, it's not laid out in the memo given that explains what goes on with the special counsel's investigation, we understa

julia ainsley is with us. one thing i still have a question on, julia. found any evidence of conspiracy. >> glad you asked that, katy. i just got to a footnote. what he decided to investigate was coordinated, this would be conspiracy charges. wanted to be able to define coordinated. whether or not the trump campaign coordinated with russian efforts. i'll read, it's key. it says in assessing conspiracy charges special counsel considered whether members of the campaign coordinated with russian election interference activities. special counsel, this is key, defined coordination as an agreement, tacit or expressed between the trump campaigned the russian government on election interference. in that case they did not find that coordination. said there were several attempts by the russian government to reach out to the trump campaign but it says despite multiple offers from russian affiliated individuals to assist the trump campaign, the special counsel did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the russian

joining me, julia ainsley and our political reporter ali vitali out at the rally in michigan and our ormer assistant general, harry littman, the executive producer of a new podcast. julia, what do we know of the length andxt why is the length important? >> reporter: katy, in some way we should not be surprised that it is a lengthy report. if you think of how long a lot of the indictments where they came from the special countdown ecounsel's office. >> the length matters. he explains that mueller laid out evidence on both sides. it seems there may have been a lot of evidence and reignite calls to see more of that issue. the democrats are considering subpoenaing a copy of mueller report because they want to know more of what barr saw when he wrote that four-page better. they're trying to get to the point where the attorney general -- some where north of 300 pages, that exact number we don't know. it is important when given the condition text that mueller went beyond what was asked of him. it seems that he wanted to lay out all of this evidence so it was known to the attorney general bef

. >> nbc news national security justice reporter julia ainsley joins us now. ulia, you cover this closely. over 70,000 immigrants crossed the border in february. what is causing the increase? >> well, there are a number of things, ali. we've seen the numbers around 50 to 60,000 typically over the last year. that was higher compared to when trump first came in because there was a dip based on the harsh rhetoric he used on the campaign trail. now we're seeing over 70,000, 76,000. that takes us back to numbers we haven't seen since 2008. it was the highest february in 12 years. what they're saying is that it's coming from violence in central america, but it's also a result of r, if you can look at the difference in policies that have played out over time. we saw just before trump came into office, there was a spike because smugglers were telling people, get in before he builds that wall. and it could be that they are sending that same message now, as they try to manipulate the system. they want more people to be paying them to bring up more people. so in a way whe

that called into question the step that's barr took today. >> julia ainsley, to joyce's point, what do we know about how any of those decisions were made in the justice department? do we know anything along those lines? >> well, we have some bread crumbs that are just laid out in this letter here, kasie. what the attorney general is saying is because of report from mueller didn't weigh one side or the other about charging obstruction, he believes that and this leave it's to the attorney general to determine whether that conduct described is indeed a crime. so he's taking that on himself because there was no conclusion reached by robert mueller, and he said one thing we know did weigh in his decision, and that was the fact there was no underlying crime. there have been charges for obstruction of justice and other criminal cases when there is no underlying crime. mrs mrs is martha stewart comes to mind famously for that. but there's also weighed against that, is there an underlined crime, can someone have the intent of covering a crime if there is no underlying crime? intent is what lead

welker, nbc justice correspondent pete williams and nbc national security and justice correspondent julia ainsley join meese now. julia, you're at the justice department abowith more when william barr got the report from robert mueller. >> we have learned that william barr and rod rosenstein heard three weeks ago that he would not be reaching a conclusion on the obstruction question and he came to them with these difficult answers. >> and we're going to interrupt because we see right now president trump and benjamin netanyahu entering the diplomatic reception room at the white house. prime minister netanyahu was supposed to be here, as well, tomorrow and for a dinner tomorrow night he faces re-election april 9th and he is returning because of violence from gaza into israel with a number of injuries reported today. he's cutting his visit short right after this white house moment. >> this is a very important moment. it is my honor to welcome prime minister netanyahu to the white house. a very special man. he's done a great job. i want to begin by expressing our condolences to the prime minister and

late this afternoon after the mueller report was hand-delivered to the attorney general, we have julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter for nbc news. julia actually just left a restaurant in washington where robert mueller just had dinner tonight. >> that's true. >> we'll see what she has to report about that in a minute. and no one knows more about investigating a president than former assistant watergate special prosecutor jill wine-banks, who was part of the investigative team that delivered the proof of impeachable offenses that convinced president nixon to resign the presidency instead of trying to defend himself in an impeachment trial. and finally and luckily, we are joined by the hardest-working person on this network today, ari melber, msnbc's chief legal correspondent and the host of his own hour, "the beat" at 6:00 p.m. on msnbc. ari, let me just start with you. you've been on this since the story broke. i stepped off an airplane in miami to look up to see julia in the frame on msnbc having just found out on my phone that the report had been delivered, and then ari me

late this afternoon after the mueller report was hand-delivered to the attorney general, we have julia ainsley, national security and justice reporter for nbc news. julia actually just left a restaurant in washington where robert mueller just had dinner tonight. >> that's true. >> we'll see what she has to report about that in a minute. and no one knows more about investigating a president than former assistant watergate special prosecutor jill wine-banks, who was part of the investigative team that delivered the proof of impeachable offenses that convinced president nixon to resign the presidency instead of trying to defend himself in an impeachment trial. and finally and luckily, we are joined by the hardest-working person on this network today, ari melber, msnbc's chief legal correspondent and the host of his own hour, "the beat" at 6:00 p.m. on msnbc. ari, let me just start with you. you've been on this since the story broke. i stepped off an airplane in miami to look up to see julia in the frame on msnbc having just found out on my phone that the report had been delivered, and then ari me

julia ainsley and pete williams and tom winter and the white house.e day one, all the ins and outs. i am so happy that you thought it was understandable. >>. >> you were able to bring things in realtime that it happened because you were covering the campaign. this is a continuum and a narrative and it started a long time ago and it did not finish yet. >> ali velshi, we'll miss you. see you in one hour. >>> federal

julia ainsley is outside the justice department where we have been on alert the past couple of weeks to come out. julia, let's fact check this a little bit. he is kind of accusing robert mueller of out of the blue writing a report. he called comey a bad cop, said he had a bad business transaction with him. it's a good point that kristen raises about personal grievances because this did seem like an unprompted broadside from the president on the mueller report. it sort of adds to the sense that there is something about to come out. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, i think the fact this is an out of the blue report certainly needs to be fact checked. this was part of robert mueller's assignment when he got it from rod rosenstein, that he would be doing this investigation and would end with a report here to the justice department which is what we're all on high alert waiting here for, kasie. also when he is suddenly starting to slam comey's credibility, and rosenstein's credibility, and robert mueller if i could, robert mueller might have been on the short list for fbi director. and he was not

reporting from outside the department of justice, julia ainsley, nbc news and national security avufter, former deputy assistant attorney general ellio elliott williams is back. msnbc political analyst robert costa. with us on set white house reporter for "the l.a. times," eli stokols and memia roca, former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst. it's so funny how the roles swapped become a swapped back and forth. i remember rudy giuliani screaming at the top of his lungs, collusion isn't a crime! and now rudy giuliani, collusion isn't a crime! intentional conspiracy was not proven, or establish, the word of special counsel used, and all of that conduct is undeniable. all of that conduct we should expect to be detailed in devastating and anecdotal and perhaps narrative when we see it. nothing adam schiff said was something trump was cleared of. >> exactly. that's a great point about giuliani. one thing has been taken off the table by what we know so far by barr's summary of the mueller reports, and that is as adam said, as you said, it's the charging of a criminal conspiracy against trum

. >> julia ainsley, to joyce's point, what do we know about how any of the decisions were made in the justice department? do we know anything along those lines? >> we have some bread crumbs laid out in the letter here. what the attorney general is saying is because the report from mueller didn't weigh one side or the other about charging obstruction, he believes that leaves it to the attorney general to determine whether that conduct described is indeed a crime. so he's taking that on himself because there was no conclusion reached by robert mueller. and he says that one thing we know did weigh in his decision, that was the fact that there was no underlying crime. there have been charges for obstruction of justice in other criminal cases when there is no underlying crime. martha stewart is an example that comes to mind most famously for that. but there's the underlying, can someone have intent to cover a crime, and intent is what leads to obstruction. the other piece we wondered about is could they indict a sitting president and would that weigh in on robert mueller, and in this case,

julia ainsley will give us those in a second. but there's also the kellyanne conway, george conway stuff. george conway tweeting a bunch of diagnoses for personality disorder and saying how many of these do you find familiar. now the president getting involved and getting involved in the marriage between his senior adviser and george conway, calling him a total loser. >> i don't know how he has time for that. how do you have time to attack a private citizen when you're supposed to be governing the nation? so i know that we skip over the little things all the time with this president because it's so abnormal, but he should be working. perhaps not trolling a staffer's husband on twitter. now, george conway is a private citizen, so whether or not it's good judgment for him to attack personally his wife's boss, that's really a personal matter, right. but we're talking to the president of the united states, again attacking a private citizen, in a way that just lowers the office. it lowers the entire institution. in addition, everyone

julia ainsley and doug, you will stay with us. >> up next, beto o'rourke he breaks the bank, how much does money matter? >> the president is attacking john mccain again. how low can he go? it has a unique guard between the blades. that's designed to reduce irritation during the shave. because we believe all men deserve a razor just for them. the best a man can get. gillette. we really pride ourselvesglass, on making it easy to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ morhave discoveredour their irish roots. which means your smiling eyes, might be irish too. order ancestrydna, and find the surprises in you. just $59 through march 18th. get your kit today. when it comes to reducing the evsugar in your family's diet,m. coke, dr pepper and pepsi hear you. we're working together to do just that. bringing you more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all. smaller portion sizes, clear calor

national security reporter for nbc news, julia ainsley is with us and nbc news national reporter heidi prisbilla and jonathan la mere. good to have you all on board. it is thursday. sometimes i just read the prompter and that's a mistake. dammit. oh, well. >> mika, yesterday something happened here that was pretty interesting. we had mayor pete on. >> oh, my gosh, that was quite an event. >> mika and i, at least, i don't know about you, willie, got more texts, calls, e-mails just from everybody. this is where i'm at on facebook, right? no, i don't want to remember what we did in eighth grade. but we just got inundated by calls. >> i did. >> we love mayor pete. >> i think there is a hunger for somebody who seems and feels and sounds and looks completely real and connected with what we're looking for, connection to history, connection to who we are, connection to faith that is honest, up front. this is who i am and this is what i'm going to bring to the table, and he does it and he -- you know, we did rapid fire with him. tried lots of different angles and he was right there for everythi

. >> julia ainsley there, thank you. >>> take a look at this image. might not realize the poster you're looking at is actually -- it's white supremacist propaganda. it reads only we can be us. there's nothing overtly hateful about it, but it's actually propaganda from an alt right group, identity europa. the anti-defamation says propaganda efforts by white supremacy groups increased 82% last year. they say posters use subtle white supremacist language and imagery to gain followers and notoriety. maximizing attention while limiting the risk of being publicly outed. >>> the controversial surrounding remarks made by congresswoman omar causing a very public split in the democratic party. are democrats their own worst enemy? >>> r. kelly lashing out in his first interview since being arrested on sexual abuse charges. >> i didn't do this stuff. this is not me. i'm fighting for my [ bleep ] life y'all killing me with this [ bleep ]. 30 years. s bl[ eep ]. 30 years i've talked on this phone through the happiest times of my life, and through the saddest times

joining me now is nbc news justice and national security reporter from julia ainsley. or ets risk management, former counterintelligence at the fbi and msnbc frank valussi. and cynthia oxley. julia, you have been standing outside of that building it seems for many days. we know that attorney general barr and rod rosenstein are in there working. >> it seems like breakneck speed to get it on a friday afternoon and turn it around on the weekend. the time line they gave to congress that it can be done as soon as this weekend. we're not pacing for it to come out for tomorrow. thinking they're just looking for more things but when it does come out, we still expect it to be broad strokes, trying to answer the big questions on collusion. and draws the main conclusions that special counsel robert mueller clearly can get into declaration decisions. this is the part that might be more of a holdup. they're going to have to decide how much they can release in the summary that gets into why robert mueller did not prosecute some individuals in the trump campaign orbit. so that can be

let's bring in julia ainsley along the cynthia oxney and kara lamb. to see this week. we didn't mention potentially the report from robert mueller, at least notification he's handed the report over to the attorney general. >> that's right. that's why i'm here. that's why the press rumor the justice department is full today, because we have been expecting for weeks now to at least get notification that that report from robert mueller would have been delivered here to the attorney general william barr. we're hoping we'll know when it's delivered and it will be some time after that as bar and people read through that and decide what part of that they should sent to congress. that would be what we could expect to see. we would expect to see a lot of redactions. there's a lot of grand jury testimony involved. i think the public is eager to get as much transparency around this memo as possible. we don't have a commitment on that yet. it's up to barr how of this he wants to show. it's not up to mueller at all in terms of what we the public would see. >> when

our own julia ainsley suggests he provided evidence to back up his conclusions raising questions how much of that evidence the public will see. house democrats have told barr they want the report by next tuesday but barr has told the house judiciary chairman democrat, jerry nadler of new york that he is unlikely to be able to meet that deadline. kasie hunt reports that the delay could result in a major confrontation between democrats and the attorney general. earlier today nancy pelosi criticized barr's handling of the mueller report. >> no thank you, mr. attorney general. we do not need your interpretation. show us the report, and we can draw our own conclusions. we don't need you interpreting for us. it was condescending and it was arrogant and it wasn't the right thing to do. >> and again, in the meantime, in this period before we are able to see what we're allowed to see of the mueller report, republicans have launched an effort to unseat house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff, democrat of california to get him to resign. at his rally tonight, the president called schi

nbc national security and justice reporter julia ainsley and federal prosecutor with expertise in racketeering, which is what some of these charges are, barrett burger. tom, let's start with you with two notable figures in the case, the two actresses. >> both felicity huffman and lori loughlin were involved to try to get their daughters into universities. in the face of felicity huffman, in one instance with one daughter according to e-mails and the information contained in the court documents, ali, she was able to work with one of the people charged to get her daughter to take an s.a.t. for an unlimited amount of time. that can normally be done for very legitimate reasons such as a learning disability or particular medical condition. in this case huffman coordinated with this company to make sure that her daughter went to the right location for the exam to be taken with the right proctor who was then bribed, according to the court documents. in a separate instance and the government said she did not go through with this plan but there was going to be another instance where she was going to do

. >> let me bring in julia ainsley, there for comey's speech last night. with legal analyst cynthia oxney. julia, you write in your sort of summary of comey's remarks that he also pushed back on barr's logic in deciding not to pursue the obstruction charges against the president. the notion that obstruction cases are somehow undermined by the absence of proof of an underlying crime is not my experience, nor is the department of justice's decision. we can show that up on screen there. what do you think of that? how do you interpret that? >> well, he's confused i think like the rest of us are with mueller's decision. but he was critical of the attorney general in a way he wasn't critical of mueller. he's saying it shouldn't be the case that you have to prove an underlying crime in order to charge someone with obstruction. of course, if someone is successful to a point you can't charge the underlying crime, the obstruction statute is useless. he did not push back on the idea that barr weighed in at all. it's not clear that robert mueller even gave barr the ta

attorney joyce vance and nbc news national security and justice reporter julia ainsley. she's live for us outside the department of justice. and that is where i start today with you, julia. are you getting any sense, it's department of ion all week justice was not unaware of the climate in which calls for transparency and accusations of a cover-up were building? >> that's absolutely right, nicolle. they're completely aware of that. that's what this letter tries to address, try to get inside some of the discussions and debates that are going on within the building behind me and the attorney general is trying to give us a little idea what to expect and i think has managed some of those expectations. big news, we can expect his version of the mueller report to come out by mid-april f. not sooner. he's also agreed to testify in early may on capitol hill. one thing i would call your attention to is the reasons he gives out for why he won't be able to be fully transparent. some of the things we were expecting, whether it's grand jury testimony or evidence that can be used in an

julia ainsley walked into a restaurant in washington tonight sat at a both that had just been vacatedy one robert mueller. a guy who has been a kind of public ghost like figure with those of us repeating those pictures over and over again. we know he's going to be available to barr to talk him through the report he authored. is there any other work that they may have to sweep up that even though the special counsel's work is done. that could still require more hours and work from mueller as he's trying to get a foot out the door. >> there are more signs that he's feeling more relaxed. one of those things left to do, i still believe that because this started as a counter intelligence investigation. he owes the senate and house intelligence committees a briefing. >> he's waiting to do that. you don't just run to the hill with at least -- without at least a phone call. he needs to get that green light, and i think he owes them an explanation. highly classified on the counter intelligence findings that he's had. >> we just ran through everything that's still open. all the various field of

i want to bring in nbc's peter alexander at the white house and nbc's julia ainsley, who covers the justice department. julia, you know i am going to you first. what exactly do we know about the timing of the report? give me the logistics, the details, the nuts and bolts. how's this going to work? >> reporter: okay, so, all we know is we are expecting it any day now, stephanie. if i had more specifics, i would give those to you, of course. right now we have journalists packed in here. we are on higher alert, i think, than we would have been this time last week or earlier this week because we were expecting it to come soon. we also, i will say, expect the attorney general, william barr, to let us know and let the public know that he has received that report, but that's not a guarantee. he does not have to do that. all he has to do is provide a report to congress that might even just be a fraction of what he gets from robert mueller. what's important to realize is just because we get the signal that the report has been delivered here does not mean we will have any of the answers to the questi

. >> terrifying worlds, julia ainsley, thank you for spending time with us. when we come back awaiting a sentence for former campaign chairman paul manafort. that hearing under way, we could know any moment. way, we could know any moment. smile dad. i take medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol. but they might not be enough to protect my heart. adding bayer aspirin can further reduce the risk of another heart attack. because my second chance matters. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. makes you feel like a king! king for a day! well, maybe not the whole day. our 19.99 or 49.99 oil change includes a tire rotation. and i don't add trup the years.s. but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life. >>> we're back, you're looking over there on the left hand side of your screen at a shot of the courthouse where inside prosecutors for robert mueller are arguing that paul manafort

i'm joined by dave cicilline who sits on the house judiciary committee, julia ainsley, justice reporterand david corn, washington bureau chief. barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney. barbara, i want to talk about the language here. what did you read in this report? the new one, the letter, the second letter from barr? what's he up to here? >> it seemed like a bit of a do over. he doesn't like the public messaging about what's happening. here's my summary and you'll get it in a matter of weeks. it appears he's pushing to get it disclosed a little bit faster and also clarifying what he meant, that it was only a summary of the principle findings and that there is more to come. the part that stood out to me was when he talked about the things that need to be redacted. like grand jury material and other things. but he also talked about executive privilege. he said while president trump has said he's not going to assert any executive privilege, look at this, he's deferred to me, attorney general barr, to review this for executive privilege. it's a very strange thing that the investigator is a

our justice correspondents, pete williams, julia ainsley here at nbc news say that according to a senior doj official, rosenstein recently discussed his previously planned upcoming departure with bill barr, the attorney general, and it was decided that rosenstein would stay on a little bit longer. asked whether we should read into that delay as an indication the mueller report might be delayed, the official decline to comment. remember, rosenstein had previously said his departure would come up mid-march. i think he even joked about it at a speech recently, talking about how it would be one of his last big speeches in that role. but here he is, extending his tenure. what does that say to you about the potential for the mueller report, given that rosenstein oversaw that for much of his tenure? >> so i would be hesitant to assume that rosenstein's departure date is pegged too closely to the mueller report. i think that there's one other factor here that we should think about, which is that the senate confirmation proceeding for the man who will succeed him as deputy attorney general is unl

let me bring in national security and justice reporter julia ainsley.a lot of eyes on this hearing today given that this is secretary nielsen in the hot seat. >> reporter: that's right. and as usual, this is a politically polarizing issue. we have democrats who are pushing on the idea of separated children. could they see another policy like that from the trump administration? and they want to know what's happened to children who have been separated. will they be reunified. then republicans were stirred up about the latest numbers that we got yesterday to show that february was the highest february in terms of border crossings in 12 years. that's being led by families mainly from central america. we know that dhs is not set up to deal with those kinds of people. they've had a lot of humanitarian issues. republicans have asked why can't those people more of those people wait in mexico? democrats want to know is there something that's going to come and what are you not telling us about your national emergency, about your next plans, about how you're treat

as a matter of fact, my colleague, julia ainsley, we were getting whispers there was something that waspen in california but we weren't quite sure. then all of a sudden that seemed to have gone away. we didn't hear much more about it. this kind of came out of nowhere yesterday afternoon. avenatti was, like i said, already in trouble and then he started to begin this extortion scheme with nike. and they have him on tape, that meeting that you referenced earlier, they set up cameras and audio equipment in the room where the meeting occurred. so michael avenatti is on tape essentially saying, look, just give me $22.5 million and i'll just ride off into the sunset. that's what he actually said. so it no longer becomes advocating for your client, it becomes just trying to enrich yourself. we know avenatti has had financial issues and now he's got very serious legal issues. >> he got so famous so fast. he actually toyed with running for president. edward isaac dovere tweeted this. last bring michael avenatti sat in a starbucks on 16th street with me, looking forward the white house, and told

julia ainsley is at the doj building in washington. tom winter is in new york and pete, let me start with you. i understand that the prosecution is now speaking, they're talking with the judge about paul manafort, and the judge is referencing his acceptance of responsibility. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: so the critical decision that the judge has made here so far is she looks at the sentencing guidelines and how they should apply to his ultimate sentence. she takes various factors into account. what he did, of course, what he leaded guilty to, and one of the questions is did he accept responsibility? now, the government's claim has been no, he didn't, and just look at his conduct. he agreed when he pleaded guilty to cooperate with the government, but the judges found he lied to mueller's prosecutors. but the judge has just said a moment ago that the critical question of acceptance of responsibility was decided when he pleaded guilty. so he will get credit for acceptance of responsibility. at the very beginning of this hearing th

. >> julia ainsley and ari melber, thank you. want to bring in the former acting solicitor of the united states and msnbc legal analyst. your reaction in what we've seen so far in terms of the latitude that's been afforded the attorney general and how he's conducted things so far? >> what happened today is the close of the chapter, the investigation piece, and mueller is like the relay racer handing off the baton to other folks, to congress, to state attorneys general, to the southern district of new york and the prosecutor investigating various things but part of this looks like it may be closed as well. what barr did in the letter is he said he was committed to transparency and wanted to provide as much information as possible. it's something the president hinted at a couple of days ago. i think the signs are all very positive. >> let me ask you this. will it be the case they'll get to see the whole thing or in a legal sense officially does he control access to the report unilaterally? >> i think one way or the other, members o

so much to talk about i want to bring in julia ainsley, hans nichols is at the white house. julia, i have many questions about how that process will work when we find out how much of the report we see and when. but two people made a decision on obstruction, one was bill barr and you just ran into the second person, didn't you? >> that's right, i did just saw deputy attorney rod rosenstein on his way in to work this morning. he was look at his phone. i asked how he was feeling, he looked up, gave me a big smile and said no comment but the mood is different here today after this summary came out yesterday. we used to see a lot of tense stoic faces around here but the work is not over for rod rosenstein or william barr or really robert mueller because the special counsel will be consulting with the attorney general and deputy attorney general as they decide which pieces of the report they can let go to the public. the attorney general recognizes there are a lot of unanswered questions that the public needs to know and that this case is very different from a typical prosecution w

julia ainsley is at the doj building in washington. is in new york and pete, let me start with you. i understand that the prosecution is now speaking, they're talking with the judge about paul manafort, and the judge is referencing his acceptance of responsibility. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: so the critical decision that the judge has made here so far is she looks at the ci

i will bring in justice reporter julia ainsley at the justice department and kristen welker at the white house. julia, what could you tell us about the sentencing from judge ellis and will manafort get a similar reception from amy berman jackson. >> reporter: what we heard last night from judge ellis is the realization of the posturing and things we ajumed from judge ellis, watching him in the courtroom in august and he had to remind the jury before they went back, don't listen to my opinions, anything you might have construed as opinions about what i think of the special counsel, leave that aside when you go back. he often interrupted the prosecution and would roll his eyes when they would call another witness and this incredibly short sentence, when you look at guidelines, it looked at 19 to 24 years, to go down to less than four, that does say something i think about what judge ellis thinks about the special counsel and why they are involved in this overall. next week we should see something different. he'll go across the street from where i am in federal court in d.c. where judge amy

our own julia ainsley walked into a restaurant in washington tonight, sat at the booth that had justacated by one robert mueller, a guy who has been a kind of public ghost-like figure with those of us repeating those same pictures of him over and over again. so we know he's going to be available to barr to talk him through the report he authored. is there any other work that they might have to sweep up that, even though the special counsel's work is done, that could still require more hours and work from mueller as he's trying to get a foot out the door? >> yeah, i think there are -- the last couple days he's feeling more relaxed, as you said, with his activity in public. but yes, i think one of those things left to do, brian, is i still adamantly believe that because this started as a counter intelligence investigation, he owes the senate and house intelligence committees a briefing. and i think he's waiting for permission to do that, as i used to do as assistant of counter intelligence. you don't run to the hill without a phone call to d.o.j. saying i'm going to the hill for a brie

we begin with national security and justice reporter julia ainsley, outside the doj. i'll soon be joined by other perts. i'm most interested in the facts that we can understand in the letter and that obviously is your specialty. and less what other people are saying about it. walk us through what barr has done here. i would note four sentences, not a single one is a complete sentence. they may look positive and i walked through what's positive for the white house and what's more open. what do you see as what he's done and why the letter is primarily barr's views and not mueller's? >> you're right, this is barr's take on what robert mueller gave him. he tried to set up the lawyer's argument of why this is in his purview. he explains that robert mueller gave him the decision of whether or not to pursue obstruction charges because in mueller's view it did not conclude that the president had committed a crime. but it also did not exonerate him. it said there were difficult issues of law and fact concerning the president's action and intent. if you zero in on a lot of this