laura jarrett, you continue to follow this -- sorry, laura jarrett is making phone calls. news is breaking, our colleagues are making phone calls to learn more about this. evan perez also covers the justice department. evan, what are you learning as we get ready to hear for the first time from the special counsel since the start of this investigation? >> reporter: jim, one of the things that people have been puzzled by the is fact that members of congress have been pushing for mueller to come testify and there's been sort of weeks and weeks of talks that have gone nowhere. and one of the things that i think people don't understand, perhaps, going on behind the scenes, is a reluctance by mueller himself to appear in what he believes is going to be a very partisan, very political setting. and a lot of what the democrats are asking of him, i think a lot of the questions and a lot of the answers that they're seeking are ones that he, most likely, won't be able to deliver on. hep won't be able to give them exactly what they're looking for. and that's one of the reasons why ther

. >> we have laura jarrett, just before we go, because i want to get your reaction to what the members of the judiciary committee and the broader democratic caucus seem to be threatening. how does the justice department respond? >> if i heard nadler correctly, he said we're not afraid to use our inherent contempt authority. i take that to mean using a sergeant in arms to get the attorney general. we're a long way away from that. they haven't even subpoenaed him to appear yet, but it's quite a threat to make, i think, at this stage, especially when it's really about form over

elie honig also joins us along with david chalian, laura jarrett. laura, if you could just tick through for us, i think you were in the middle of answering when we jumped back in there, what no you? you heard the democrats say we are pushing our chairman jerry nadler to proceed with contempt, you know, holding the attorney general in contempt. what would that look like if it happens? >> so assuming that they are successful with that contempt vote, they have a couple different options. some more realistic than the others. they can try to use what are their inherent contempt powers and get the sergeant-at-arms to go arrest bill barr. that seems like a long shot. they could try to get a u.s. attorney to prosecute him for criminal contempt. given that bill barr oversees all of the u.s. attorneys across the country, again, doesn't seem like that's going to happen. >> not likely. >> the third option i think is if this he want to pursue this and press it is the most likely, which is to go into court and to try to get a civil contempt order from a federal ju

right now i want to move over to laura jarrett who has more break news. ight now? >> reporter: well, phil, we're learning the justice department is trying to make a last-ditch effort to try to make sure that attorney general bill barr is not held in contempt and it's basically a fight over these documents related to the counterintelligence section of the redacted mueller report, volume i as we like to call it, and the house intell chairman adam schiff had been press for documents as we know over the last couple of weeks that had been active negotiations between the justice department and committee staff over these documents. the justice department had said come over here. look at them in a secure setting. schiff had said no, we want the documents. he had outlined categories of specific documents that schiff wanted, and now the justice department is saying, you can have those documents. we're actually already starting to pull them, but it comes with a condition, and the condition is that you take off that unspecified enforcement action that had been on the

laura jarrett joins us. what have you learned?er: anderson, we're getting more color and details on what exactly transpired in that week after barr released his four-page summary. i'm told by a source of knowledge and a letter that here's what happened. on wednesday, march 27th the attorney general received a letter from the special counsel's office essentially laying out his misgiving with that four-page summary that had come out the previous sunday. upon receiving that the deputy attorney general's office, it was a page in length, they then transmitted to attorney general bill barr. he sees it and he immediately calls mueller and he essentially says words to the effect of, bob, we've been friends a long time. let's hash this out on the phone. the call was described as polite and cordial but there was clear disagreement on the two men on what should be done next. mueller and his team clearly wanted more context to come out, more analysis to come out but barr really didn't think that should be done piecemeal. he wanted the report

so laura jarrett is the one with the scoop and our cnn justice reporter and what is team mueller saying? what is the holdup? >> reporter: the issue is whether part of the testimony should be behind closed doors or not. we're learning that the special counsel's team has been in direct negotiations with capitol hill over the last several weeks. and what they're really trying to do is protect the special counsel from the political maelstrom that he is will find himself in. of course he's been quiet for the last two years. he hasn't said a word. and so if he does speak in front of the cameras they are mindful that it could be perceived as political, no matter any way you cut it and i think there is a concern there. they've expressed that concern to capitol hill. the question is what are democrats going to do about that because chairman nadler said he wants mueller to testify. he said that he's willing to subpoena him if necessary but he hasn't taken any meaningful steps on that and we haven't seen any real urgency about bringing him in. we've seen a lot of urgency about other witnesses like

our colleagues, laura jarrett over at the justice department, laura jarrett and manu raju has discovered that the special counsel's team has been reticent to send imto capitol hill. they don't want him to appear political after saying two years saying almost nothing relating to his investigation. the investigation is ongoing and and william barr has said it's up to bob. that's a direct quote with an interview with "the wall street journal" as to whether or not he testifies. there's been some talk about having testimony in a closed-door setting. that may be a way to secure the. i've talked to democrats up here who say they want that testimony at least in part to be in public. and as of that moment, that has not been secured. >> phil mattingly up on capitol hill, thank you very much. let's go to our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta. jim, the president and his team, they're not giving an inch in this battle. and now these two new subpoenas are coming forward. any reaction, first of all, from there? >> not yet, wolf, but if past is prologue, the white house are showing no signs of

laura jarrett is still with us. what are you learning, laura, about all of this? >> barr's comments on the special counsel investigation have attracted the most attention. but it's really the attorney general's new investigation, the one that's looking back in time at the origins of the russia probe that could pack the greatest punch for the president. >> things are just not jiving. >> reporter: the attorney general offered a fresh defense of president today. >> one of the ironies today is that people are saying that it's president trump that's shredding our institutions. i really see no evidence of that. >> reporter: in an interview with cbs, bill barr provided a new gloss of sophistication for an old line of attack on the russia investigation. >> these efforts in 2016, these counterintelligence activities that were directed at the terrain were not done in the normal course and not through normal procedures, as far as i can tell you. >> reporter: where trump uses slogans -- >> no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. >> reporter: and rhetoric -- >> there was spy

>> let's go straight to laura jarrett. and so laura, let's talk about this executive privilege that the white house invoked today. blanket executive privilege over th the entire mueller report, is that correct. >> that is right. and the reason this happened as you outlined, the house democrats and the justice department have been negotiating for weeks, both sides trying to make the best record and the justice department thinks they are on solid footing because they've been saying for weeks to members of congress and leadership, come over to the justice department and look at the report and then decide what you need. and particularly they said we're going to give you everything except for grand jury material. chairman nadler did not go for that as the rest of the caucus saying that is unacceptable. we want the fully unredacted report and we'll hold the attorney general in contempt. so late last night the justice department said hold off on the contempt vote because we think and we'll ask the president to invoke executive pri

so let's go straight to cnn justice reporter, laura jarrett. and so, not legally required.s right, brooke. and the short story is, because mcgahn is being asked to testify about matters having to do with his advice to the president, the justice department considers that within the scope of his official duty. so even though he's no longer at the white house, that's what congressman really want to get to. so according to the justice department, he has absolute immunity from having to discuss anything like that. they draw on past precedent from the obama administration under the bush administration. the justice department has a long line of opinions that look just like this. and so they say for those reasons, mcgahn does not have to testify. now, we should point out, the congressmen, especially the democrats on capitol hill, have raised the argument, well, what about the fact that mcgahn already testified to the special counsel's office. doesn't that sort of wave executive privilege in some way? and so it's important to note that the absolute immunity that's being invoked toda

justice correspondent laura jarrett joins us now.t more have you learned about this extraordinary statement? >> well, there's been something of a debate going on since the report came out about whether the president would have been charged if he was any other defendant, and this bipartisan group of nearly 400 former federal prosecutors, u.s. attorneys, other doj officials are saying in our view he would have been charged if he was anybody else, and they looked to the fact that according to the report he tried to curtail special counsel robert mueller. he tried to have him fired, and he also tried to influence the testimony of other witnesses, and -- and in their letter posted on the medium today here's what else they write, alex. quote, we emphasize that these are not matters of closed professional judgments this. wasn't going to be a close call. they go on to say in our system every accused person is presumed innocent and it's always the government's burden to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt and to look at these facts and say

laura jarrett is with us at the justice department. elie honig, jackie kucinich on the political site. elie, to you on where we go from here, what do you expect? do you expect bill barr will be held in contempt? as a journalist, one of the journalists in the crowd rightly asked, isn't that just going to get tied up in the courts and drag out the clock? >> not particularly optimistic that their last-ditch effort that representative nadler talked about to negotiate will succeed. assuming it does not succeed, next step would be contempt and then we're going into the courts. yes, it will take time and yes it will get sort of complex and difficult. things move through the court at a slower pace than people often imagine. it's hard to see this case getting litigated and it's not just a one-shot deal. they'll start in the district court and whoever loses will almost certainly appeal to the court of appeals which is the intermediate and perhaps even seek to take it to the supreme court. one thing that does -- >> hold your thoughts. this is the

let's get into that with cnn's laura jarrett live at the justice department. laura, take us inside this debate. why is the special counsel wary? >> well, john, we've been wondering for weeks what the holdup was. we all remember the report, the mueller redacted report actually dropped back in april, and yet for weeks there's been sort of a stalemate going on. we knew there were direct negotiations eventually now between the special counsel's team and lawmakers on capitol hill, but you see chairman jerry nadler not pressing to schedule a date, even the ranking republican doug collins mentioning that today at that hearing on the former white house counsel don mcgahn, and sources are now telling us that the special counsel's team section pressing some reticence about having the special counsel robert mueller appear before the house judiciary committee citing the political environment that he would be coming into after being virtually silent for nearly two years, to have to go before the cameras, go before the public, and so one option that's on the table among othe

cnn's laura jarrett broke the story. and laura, what is barr specifically offering to democrats? jake, the justice department is essentially saying, look, we're willing to work with you on this, but there's going to be a hitch. and here's the issue. the house intel chair, adam schiff, wants a whole slew of documents related to the counterintelligence aspect of the special counsel mueller's report. it's a redacted report, obviously, and he wants some very sensitive documents. so the justice department is saying, we'll start pulling those categories of documents, but you have to withdraw this unspecified enforcement action that you are going to take against the attorney general bill barr tomorrow. schiff hasn't said whether it was going to be contempt or some other sort of civil fines or something else like that, but they're saying, if you take down that threat, we're willing to work with you on the documents. no word on what schiff is going to do with that, though, jake. >> and laura, there's also been this question about whether or not mueller is going to testify publicly. you've

cnn justice reporter laura jarrett joins me live from the justice department.rector chris wray was asked about this, he testified before congress that he is aware of no evidence showing illegal activity by the fbi in the early days of this investigation. what is the attorney looking into here? >> well, that's a great question, john. obviously wray has tried to distance himself a little bit from that on the controversial spying claims, but barr is taking it seriously and we are now learning that he's tapped this top federal prosecutor in connecticut, u.s. attorney john durham who has worked under both republican and democratic administrations sort of a veteran federal prosecutor and i'm told by a source familiar with this effort that he's actually been working on this for weeks. now, the precise concern that has animated this for barr still remains unclear but the fact that he has brought on this prosecutor does suggest that this is a significant effort, barr is serious about this and of course will become a welcome talking point for the president who has been s

>> laura jarrett, appreciate it. thank you. >>> margaret with bloomberg and michael bender of "wall street journal." to the point that laura jarrett just finished on. the attorney general is supposed to be the country's lawyer, the america's lawyer. set the names aside, any new attorney general would want to go back and check the boxes. was this done right? was this done by the books? listen here as laura just noted. the president, witch-hunt. remember how the president used witch-hunt. pa in the case of jeff sessions is a and bill barr says i'm fine with that. >> are you comfortable using those words? witch-hunt, hoax. >> i use what words i use and it was an investigation. i think if i was falsely accused, i would be comfortable saying it was a witch-hunt. >> very smart lawyer. very accomplished loy eed lawy. he knows if you read the back half of the mueller report, bill barr made the determination, but a lot of information about the president in there. embracing witch-hunt is he sending a signal what the president

. >> cnn justice reporter laura jarrett is in washington and director wray made a very public break with his boss. why? >> reporter: well, brooke, i think there are a couple of different dynamics going on here. first and foremost, wray seemed to want to send a message to his team, i have your back by his team i mean fbi employees. he knows the word has been weaponized by the president and his allies and so he did seem to want to distance himself from using it saying it is not a term that he would use. but then he took it a step further when he was asked if there was any evidence of improper or unauthorized surveillance of the trump campaign and he said clearly, i personally am not aware of that. now on the other hand, he also did try to not necessarily pick a fight with the attorney general trying to tread that line carefully there saying, look, we're working closely together on a review of the situation. it is his job to look into it. i'm worried about this as well. and so he's really trying to differentiate himself on the word "spying" but still saying i want to make sure surveillance

here now to discuss is laura jarrett, cnn justice correspondent, and james baker, former fbi and director national security and cybersecurity at the r street institute. and we should get to this, jim baker, a part of this drama, a character very much of the drama of the last two years. laura, first to you, an analysis of what we are now hearing from william barr. this is all his response to robert mueller's first public statement out loud. what did you hear? one of the things i did hear there. because barr chooses his words so carefully. he said many of the instances in this report would not amount to obstruction. he didn't say all. that was interesting to me. >> yeah, it's fascinating just, first of all to have him sort of talking about robert mueller in this way after the fact. this is somebody who worked for him, essentially, under the justice department special counsel guidelines. so to now have the attorney general come out criticizing him for his legal analysis, i think, is sort of just eyebrow raising, but as a separate matter, on the issue of the legal sort of fissure that you see

. >> let's get straight to laura jarrett at the justice department. we know a.g. william barr is in charge. who is he asking for help? >> well, john, we're learning that he's also working with the cia director gina haspel as well as the director of national intelligence dan coats and chris wray, someone the president attacked later on when speaking to reporters because wray tried to distance himself from the use of the term spying, something that the attorney general bill barr has to say and that's what he wants to look into whether the trump campaign was spied on, whether it was properly predicated and we want to know that the national intelligence agencies are all working together under barr as well as the u.s. attorney in connecticut john durhan. he's leading that effort, john, and we wondered exactly what's the basis of barr's concern and we're still trying to do more reporting on that, but he's described that he thinks that the public perception of this has been a little bit anemic and maybe not quite the full story. he has talked about the fact that an infor

laura jarrett, the president announced it's up to our very great attorney general to decide if muellerhould testify. that's a shift from the weekend when he said he shouldn't testify. what are you hearing? what's the latest? >> well, this certainly isn't the first time we've seen the president say something on twitter only to reverse himself a short time later. but i wondered how he was going to handle this since the attorney general had been on the record under oath telling members of congress he was happy to see bob mueller testify. didn't care at all one way or another. so it was going to put the attorney general in a bit of a tricky spot if the president made good on that threat saying he really didn't want him to testify. and perhaps, you know, he doesn't want to appear as though he's afraid of what mueller would say to lawmakers. but the real question is when is this hearing going to get scheduled? we still don't have a date yet. last night chairman nadler told don lemon he'll subpoena mueller if he has to. but it doesn't appear there's any great sense of urgency in getting this

laura jarrett, our justice correspondent, is with us. you have the letter.ve letter that the special counsel, robert mueller, wrote to bill barr a few days after bill beto o'rourke's principle conclusions were released. >> it's a short letter. i'll read it in full for the benefit of everybody. it's only a little bit over a page. i previously sn sent you -- addressed to bill barr. i previously sent you a letter dated march 2019 that enclosed an executive summary for each volume of the special counsel's report, marked with redaxs to remove any information that potentially could be protected by criminal procedure rule 60 on grand jury materials, declarations or related to a charge case. we also marked an additional two sentences for review and have now confirmed that these sentences can be released publicly. accordingly, the enclosed documents are in a form that can be released to the public, consistent with legal requirements and department policies. i am requesting that you provide these materials to congress and authorize their public release at this time. a

i want to bring in cnn justice reporter, laura jarrett.o have another hearing tomorrow on the house side. is that hearing going to happen? >> really unclear at this point, jake. barr has made it crystal clear, he does not want to testify, especially if staff members are going to be asking him questions, staff counsel. he said he's not going to do it, if that happens. he also doesn't want to talk about the unredacted version of the report behind closed doors. he says he's happy to answer members' questions, but not under that format. so he may not come at all. we may see an empty chair. but the real question after the last 24 hours and all of this reporting on the rift between mueller and barr is whether mueller is going to testify. and if that happens, how exactly will he explain his concerns? we've now seen it in the letter, we've heard about the call, but he clearly has a story to tell, jake. >> laura jarrett, thank you so much, let's chew this over with my experts here. there's no way this ends without mueller testifying. we already hav

laura jarrett at the doj, thanks so much. let's chew over this.n collins, let me start with you. how are barr's comments at fox news being received at the white house. >> comments like that, like the democrats being worried about the outcome of his probe are exactly what the president wants to see his attorney general saying. he has never been more pleased with someone than he has with bill barr. he often tells people, thank god we finally have a real attorney general. and you can see why when you watch these interviews. because bill barr goes out there and says he doesn't think the president was wrong to call it a witch hunt, because he says he was falsely accused, so he says he understands what the president says, even when that's a space where some other officials say they wouldn't use terms like that. bill barr is exactly the kind of person the president wants to see making comments like that in interviews. >> and it's why democrats also feel that he's working at the behest of the president. it's why kamala harris asked him during his testimon

laura jarrett correspondent for cnn, carrie johnson, national justice correspondent for n. p.r. and ed o'keefe, political correspondent for cbs news. laura, as someone on the d.o.j. at day in, day out, when you look at this letter from robert mueller, what's its legal significance? laura: so i don't think it's actual possible to overstate how extraordinary of a moment this is to have the special council making a written report of his concerns it's not just the language he uses which is scathing, i think in my view, especially from someone like robert mueller who everyone thinks is so by the book. we haven't heard a peep out of him for over the two-year investigation he's gone through. his one time to speak is to go to pap against his old friend bill barr, 30 years ago. he knows really well. stead he decided to make a written record. robert: why does it matter for him to go to paper as you said? lawyer ar: i think it shows how alarmed he was. remember, he had given the justice department redactedes cof his summaries. he thought if you put the summaries out the americal people wave

laura jarrett, he hasn't spoken yet, of course, and won't for an hour.your sources there as to what the function of this statement is and what he will address? >> reporter: well, as you can imagine that's what we're working on right now, jim, trying to figure out what exactly he will say after nearly two years of absolute silence. we have never seen him in court, we have never seen him at the justice department in all the times that the deputy attorney general who was sort of overseeing the investigation would come up and make statements. you remember the indictment of those 12 russian nationals, mueller was nowhere to be found. when the attorney general, the current one, bill barr, closed the investigation and he made a public statement, mueller was nowhere to be found. so this time mueller is going to get a chance to come to the microphones all by himself. you know, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is no longer here, bill barr is actually out of the country so mueller will have the stage all to himself. the big question is what exactly will h

. >> let's get over to the justice department, laura jarrett is there. laura, what else did the attorney general say this morning? >> well, kate, barr is saying he's not prejudging this review that he's undertaking on the genesis of the russia investigation, but he's also saying it wasn't business as usual, and a small ad hoc group, he's calling it, of officials who are no longer at the fbi and cia, were undertaking actions he's trying to get to the bottom of, and he's saying he's asking questions and simply not getting adequate answers. he's also revealing for the first time in a fox interview today that he's having the january 6, 2017, meeting where president trump was actually briefed on the infamous dossier having to do with trump and russia and all those connections we have heard so much about, the one that was compiled by the ex-british intelligence officer, christopher steele, he's saying the leaks coming out of the meeting is something he's looking into as part of this probe. and then he goes on to talk about how the dossier was used, rehearsing s

. >> if he pleads the fifth, laura jarrett, you're an expert in the area, or if he doesn't show up whatt from that? >> well, two different possibilities. both are messy. if he pleads the fifth, the committee could try to offer him immunity in exchange for his testimony. we've seen offers like that before that gets criqui if a prosecutor then wants to prosecute him. if he just doesn't show up then i think burr is in a tough spot. does he follow through with a contempt vote? this is the president's son. that would be a different route but equally impossible. which of the two evils -- >> i can only imagine, nia, how angry the president of the united states is right now knowing his son, his eldest son, donald trump jr., is being subpoenaed to come before the republican majority senate intelligence committee. >> that's right. because so far in this back and forth about barr coming before congress or the redacted report you had the doj on another side and here you have republicans essentially saying they want to hear from donald trump jr. he's testified before under oath. i think in 2017 abou

i want to bring in our justice reporter laura jarrett and chief legal analyst job. laura, barr seemed to blame mueller for not making a decision on whether the president obstructed justice. tell our viewers what he said. >> well, wolf, once again, the attorney general essentially accusing mueller of falling down on the job, not reaching a decision on the question of obstruction of justice. listen to his curious answer to cbs earlier today. >> he could have reached a conclusion. the opinion says you cannot indict a president while he's in office, but he could have reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity, but he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained, and i'm not going to, you know, argue about those reasons, but when he didn't make a decision, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and i felt it was necessary for us as the heads of the department to reach that decision. >> well, i mean, he seemed to suggest yesterday that there was another venue for this and that was congress. >> well, i'm not sure what he was suggesting but, you kn

our justice department reporter, laura jarrett, is with us. laura, truly a bombshell appearance by robert mueller. take us through it. >> wolf, he defended his team, he defended the investigation, he defended their findings. and after months of others characterizing his work for him, mueller appeared to want to have the last word today. the special counsel broke his silence today. >> good morning, everyone. >> reporter: going before cameras after two years to highlight the central findings of his report, specifically saying he did not exonerate president trump on the crime of obstructing justice. >> if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. >> reporter: but mueller did not say the president was innocent. in the more than 400-page report or in front of the cameras today. >> we concluded that we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime. >> reporter: instead, saying it was out of his hands from the very beginning. >> under long-standi

. >> to go back to laura jarrett's reporting, with everything you are saying, still the potential mueller testimony would not be impacted by this invoking of the executive privilege. manu raju, thank you very much. >>> back to chairman nadler. head of the house judiciary just added a new weight to a term he said is often overused. constitutional crisis. this is why jerry nadler told alisyn camerota. >> it is a constitutional crisis but i don't like to use that phrase because it is used for far less situations. it is far overused. >> i hear you. you feel we are currently in a constitutional crisis or headed for one. >> no, no we're in one. because the president is disobeying the law, is refusing all information to -- to congress. >> cnn presidential historian tim nestaly is with me and as is cnn legal analyst kerry cordero served to the assistant attorney general. and tim, saying we are in a constitutional crisis, do you think the chairman is right? >> we're definitely in a political crisis. what i think chairman nadler has to do is explain to the american people what it was exactly that h

. >> laura jarrett at the justice department, thank you. >>> just ahead, a mash-up of the president's the rails response to the new needling by the speaker, nancy pelosi. what was he thinking? >>> millions of americans bracing for violent weather tonight after a punishing series of tornadoes. a monster twister hitting at the heart of a capital city. we're going there live. after about five hours, a lot of phone calls, they sent a helicopter, picked me up to safety. (vo) the network more people rely on, gives you more. like big savings on our best phones when you switch. that's verizon. the pain and swelling.. the psoriasis. cosentyx treats more than just the joint pain of active psoriatic arthritis. it even helps stop further joint damage. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occ

first, let's get to laura jarrett for more on what barr is saying. is there any other way to interpret this talk about how well the prosecutor has to make a decision on obstruction as a shot directly at the special counsel robert mueller? >> no, i think that shot is pretty clear. he took it actually weeks ago during his congressional testimony, making it clear that you really, prosecutors are supposed to make a binary choice, thumbs up or thumbs down, and robert mueller failed in that regard. the new news is the sort of questions barr is raising once again about the genesis of the russia investigation. he told the "wall street journal" today that he's actually interested in intelligence collection that happened before the fbi formally opened their counterintelligence probe back in july of 2016. yet he went on fox and he's talking about the infamous steele dossier, the one compiled by the former british intelligence agent raising questions about whether that was used and how odd it was. take a listen. >> that's one of the questions that we're going to

but laura jarrett and jeremy hurd tell us part of what is happening, one of the holdups in getting robert mueller to do that testimony is his hesitation to appear partisan and political after having being quiet all of this time. this, as you know, brooke, has been a hyper partisan thing and so i think what they wanted was for the report to speak for itself. obviously that is not the case. because there are so many questions that are left unanswered. and so there is a lot of clamor frankly and i think a lot of pressure that is built around -- built up around the justice department and on the attorney general frankly is because we have not yet heard from robert mueller, from his team. so the question is what kind of accommodation could be arranged here, perhaps some private portion of this testimony, but it is clear that a full-on day-long hearing is not what robert mueller and his team really want to do, specially given the partisan atmosphere here that surrounded this investigation nowadays. >> so as those negotiations of will he or won't he and if he does how does he do it continues. you

i want to bring in laura jarrett along with elie honig. prosecutors are supposed to do is complete an investigation and then either ask the grand jury to return indictment or decline to charge the case. but maybe it wasn't that simple for mueller i suppose. he was operating under guidelines that he could not indict a sitting president. >> well, he clearly felt constrained not only by the long standing doj guidance on not indicting president trump, but also by principles of fairness as he explains in the report. i think that for flood, and other people obviously in the white house, and even through attorney general bill barr, the issue is you then don't put out a whole bunch of derogatory information if you are trying to be fair if you are not going to prosecute the case. for them this is a bayas is a b choice. thumbs up or thumbs down. barr has come under fire, but it is a stunning lack of communication in my view the fact that they are blaming mueller for not reaching a decision, but obviously they knew about that weeks ago and they never

i want to bring in our justice reporter, laura jarrett. what are the implications about giving him the sweeping power to declassify all of these intelligence documents? >> traditionally, the president is king when it comes to classification. he's the ultimate classification authority, but this new order from trump last night turns all of that on its head and it makes barr the master of the classification domain, if you will. now, as to the question of why do this? one possible theory is that we know the inspector general over at the justice department is looking into how the fbi monitored that former trump campaign aide, carter page. they're looking into the fisa warrants we've heard so much about. so it could be that to do this allows barr to declassify some of those documents, the president perhaps thinks are helpful to his case. we'll have to wait and see whether barr actually uses that power. but he certainly has the last call on it now. >> as you know, the attorney general has been widely criticized for the way he handled the release

a lot to talk over, cnn political analyst, david gregory, cnn justice correspondent, laura jarrett, kirsteners and back with us are carrie cordero and ken cuccinelli. kirsten, you don't have constitutional crisis -- i mean, you do hear it thrown around a lot lately, but nadler says this time, it's for real. >> i'm not sure it's a constitutional crisis at this point, but it's serious, definitely. and i feel like there is this feeling that basically congress really hasn't been able to do its job. that bill barr stepped in, made a ruling on something that democrats don't feel that he should have ruled on. and so they're trying to do the due diligence that they can do on the hill. now, don junior, being, you know, subpoenaed or, you know, called to testify, you know, that's bipartisan, actually. so that's an unusual thing that we haven't really been seeing so far that you actually have, you know, a republican, you know, actually trying to do the investigation. >> and the idea of subpoenaing one of the children of the president is also actually pretty unique. >> is there any doubt, laura, that t

laura jarrett is live in washington with more on this very revealing interview. >> the attorney general once again this morning trying to explain why he felt the need to issue that four-page memo laying out what he believed were the special counsel's principal conclusions ahead of actually releasing the report. a move that barr has taken on a lot of heat for in recent weeks. take a listen to how he described it. >> i was just trying to state the bottom line and the bottom line was that bob mueller identified some episodes, he did not reach a conclusion, he provided both sides of the issue and his conclusion was he wasn't exxon rating the president but he wasn't finding a crime, either. >> but of course mueller did explain for us earlier this week why he didn't reach that decision, why he decided he couldn't go there, and it was really fundamentally about fairness for the special counsel, he believes if you're not going to actually indict someone, then you cannot unload derogatory information about somebody when they can't essentially challenge it in court. obviously reasonable minds can

and laura jarrett, they spoke for more than an hour and the president never raised russia's interference in the 2016 election, which was a central conclusion of the mueller report. >> and yet the mueller report said that russia's interference was sweeping and systemic. and not only did he not raise that fact, they're joking about it. putin is saying, well, it was a mountain and then it turned into a mouse. they're making light of the fact that russia attacked our democracy. and it appears the president not only doesn't want to discuss that, but there's no plans for what are we going to do about going forward. >> and phil, he keeps calling it the russia hoax. still, he's talking about the russia hoax. you saw some of his tweets today. >> yeah, i think if you look at this, quickly, you look at the president has asked, or the u.s. government has asked the british to extradite someone who was involved in that election activity. that is julian assange. now we have another country that has a dozen people in its military intelligence service involved in subverting american democracy and the pre

and let me get laura jarrett into this conversation. she covers the justice department for us. we're now waiting to see if the attorney general shows up tomorrow morning before the house judiciary committee. they passed a motion today, the democrats or the majority saying he not only will have to answer questions from the representatives, the lawmakers, but also from staff counsel. >> and he's made it very clear, i am not coming if staff counsel thinks they are going to question me out in the open for 30 minutes both sides. he's happy to take members' questions but not from attorneys. so they may have an empty chair and chairman nadler said he will do that, if he doesn't come, he'll hold the hearing any way and we'll see what happens now that he's finished with his testimony today whether he will come. to the point of defending the president, he has to go on after this to be the attorney general on a whole host of issues that have nothing to do with the russia investigation. i wonder how this impacts sort of his legacy. he's on round two here at the justice department. this is

this reporting coming from cnn's laura jarrett at the justice department. please tell us, what are you learning? >> well, kate, we're learning that a far broader, more significant review is taking place. as we know, the attorney general has expressed his concerns about surveillance on the trump campaign, saying he wants to know, he wants to get to the bottom of whether spying was probable predicated. it's a controversial term, of course. democrats have lambasted him for it. republicans and the president have praised him for it. i'm now learning that actually the cia director gina haspel as well as the director of national intelligence dan coats and the fbi director are all helping barr along with a u.s. attorney in connecticut, john durham. we have been reporting on that since last night, and they're all working very collaboratively, i'm told barr has actually known coats and haspel for years. his first job was actually in the cia, so they're all working on this interagency effort together, something very serious. >> great to see you, laura. thank you very

laura jarrett, you cover the justice department for us. what are you hearing?we're still waiting to hear from the justice department formally. they're expected to notify capitol hill in a letter. but it's interesting. we had heard all week that barr had really dug in on this issue of the staff attorneys questioning. and although that had happened behind closed doors in the past, there had been precedent under attorney general janet reno and others situations, he was not willing to do the staff attorney's questions out in the open. and so really, it's a question of how quickly chairman nadler can now issue a subpoena. he has said, as manu mentioned, he wants to do that. but that's going to take a while. this is not going to be a process that is resolved this week. he's going to have to go to court. he's going to have to try to get that foerenforced. so it could be a prolonged, protracted process. at the same time, nadler is also trying to get the fully unredacted version of the mueller report. obviously, there is a copy sitting over at the justice department tha

>>cnn's laura jarrett reports. >>i have more questions today than i did when i first started.s than when he started. attorney general bill barr short on specifics long on rhetoric and a pair of interviews on how the russia probe all started. >>we should be worried about whether government officials abuse their power and put their some on the scale and and so i'm not saying that happened. but i'm saying that we have to look at that. >>as the president was tweeting that he was conclusively spied on. echoed his bosses claims to the wall street journal saying quote government power was used to spy i on american citizens refusing to delve into the basis for his concern. bart raised over more familiar talking points from trump and his allies calling into question officials use of the infamous dossier compiled by an ex british intelligence officer. it's a very. >>unusual situation to have that opposition research like that especially one that on its face. had a number of clear mistakes and a and a somewhat analysis and to and to use that to get to conduct a counterintelligence agains

notoriously reserved special counsel is said to be balking specifically testifying in public, cnn's laura jarrettas more on this from the justice department. to be clear is he saying no to any testimony or your public testimony, does that mean he's, therefore, open to private or closed door session? >> you nailed it, jim. the real negotiations appear right now according to sources telling us that there's a sticking point having to do with him testifying publicly. the special counsel's team is the one that's expressing these reservations to the house judiciary committee and so the idea is whether some of it could be in public, some of it could be in private, but having the questions be in private is proving to be a real sticking point. of course, we've seen rank and file democrats coming out left and right saying they want to hear from him publicly, they think the american public deserves to know it. at the same time chairman nadler has said that he's willing to subpoena special counsel robert mueller if necessary, but we haven't seen any real urgency in setting a date. so it's a query about wheth

laura jarrett, you've been all over it. thank you very much. >>> president trump meantime watched all of this play out like the rest of us. he of course though was at the white house watching it all unfold and now he is downplaying mueller's rare public comments saying this is nothing new. he tweeted, here he is chairman jerry nadler. >> for the service to our nation over the past two years. mr. mueller and his team of prosecutors and investigators worked tirelessly to follow the facts and pursue justice to the furthest except allowed. although department of justice policy prevented the special counsel from bringing criminal charges against the president, the special counsel has clearly demonstrated that president trump is lying. he is lying about the special counsel findings, lying about the testimony of key witnesses in the special counsel's report, and above all, lying and saying that the special counsel found no obstruction and no collusion. in a statement this morning, special counsel mueller reaffirmed his report. it

. >> he was asked directly by cnn's laura jarrett at the press conference, he said it in writing. over and over again he said olc guidance had nothing to do with -- >> office of legal counsel. >> that the fact that the mueller couldn't make a decision on whether to prosecute the president for obstruction, that's simply not true according to mueller's own words. >> all right. none of you get to go anywhere. no one gets to get breakfast. a lot more to digest. stay with us, much more on the president's 17-minute very factless rant ahead. welcome to seattle. where people are into coffee, tech, and retirement planning. the perfect retirement for me is doing the things that i want to do, not the things i have to do. unlike seattle, less than half of americans participate in their employer retirement plans. so what keeps people more engaged in their retirement? i want to have the ability to easily transact online, great selection of funds, great advice, everything in one place. helping people in their working years and beyond. that's financial wellness. talk to your employer or start a p

. >> laura jarrett, thanks very much. we're joined by cnn national security analyst james clapper.r of national intelligence during the start of this investigation into russia. now you have your replacement, as dni, dan coats, involved. the cia director, the fbi director. i should note in testimony on capitol hill last week said he had seen no evidence of spying or illegal activity at the origins of this probe. what's your reaction to this investigation? >> well, in the first place, i would have thought the logical thing to do would have been to have let the department of justice inspector general investigation complete. what i have read, it is nearing completion. it seems to me the logical thing to do before wandering off until one or two other investigations is wait until that one is done. i know the doji.g. is thorough and a critic, and you know, he will have done a thorough investigation. so to me, in the first instance, it would have been more logical to let that play out. >> are you concerned here that these administration officials and the attorney general are doing this for

. >> laura jarrett is over at the justice department. you were there inside the room, laura, when the special counsel spoke out. what were you seeing? >> reporter: well, it was interesting, wolf, he was be himself. i had wondered whether members of his team, his core deputies would be there along with him, some of the faces that we've seen in court when he hasn't been there. and today, it was really just he be himself. there were some top-level officials from the justice department in the criminal division, the national security division, the deputy attorney general's office, which has been overseeing this investigation for the better part of two years. but mueller was by himself. which was just a striking image to have him be the sole voice there. obviously, the attorney general, bill barr, not there either. and given that barr was not in the room, i wondered how much he would contradict barr in terms of, we already had known that he had some issues with how barr had laid out mueller's principle conclusions in that controversial four-pag