the effusive praise that all republicans gave to mueller when mueller first got that job.this has dragged on. fewer and fewer republicans have had nice things to say about mueller, the president is just off base here, look, it would -- it's obvious that special counsel mueller and former director comey would know each other and have communicated with each other, they have succeeded each other as fbi director. this is about how they're going to go about doing their jobs. >> i want to put up the picture from a few years ago. they were working together 30 years ago, he was a young, 41, 42-year-old attorney general of the united states. mueller was right there by his side. >> he was, and one thing that barr said, when he met with the president, he told the president that mueller is a straight shooter, he was clearly someone out there speaking to robert mueller as being well respected. how he treats mueller in his job as attorney general, we'll wait and see. >> more news we're following, more breaking news, with weeks to go. britain faces leaving the european union with no plan

anyone could criticize stone but mueller needs evidence mueller's indictment is built on evidence fromne associates, person one and person two who we can identify as the mueller witnesses jerome corsi and randy credico. mueller cites corsi, telling stone word is assange plans to more dumps, the friend in the embassy. now, was that collusion? corsi told his side right here on "the beat." >> you wrote to stone, quote, word is friend in the embassy plans two more dumps word is sounds like a reference to the word on the street or things you're hearing. >> i grant that. >> do you typically say word is before you share a thought that is your own deduction? >> well, over my entire life going -- jerry, you come up with these deductions that are often right, you're going to have trouble getting people to believe them. >> right there you have corsi helping stone's defense, arguing it was not collusion, maybe just attempted collusion, but then corsi hurt stone by backing up what mueller charged today, allegedly that roger stone did intend to obstruct and mislead congress >> and why did roger ston

, i'd bet on mueller.oined by morgan who was embedded by stone and jason johnson from theroot.com. back with us, jill winebanks. jill, what do you think when you look at the stone associates and person one and person two and how much we learned in realtime now that mueller is charging. >> i believe mueller completely. the indictment is detailed and specific. it quotes from e-mails that make a very clear and compelling case there was coordination. there was a conspiracy to get these documents. we don't know that they originally stole the documents. there's no evidence of that. there's no allegation of that. they used them. there's such a thing in the law as an accessory after the fact. that makes you part and guilty for having stolen them. >> jason, when you look at how much is spilling out in public view, at the very same time that stone was taking what mueller alleged are illegal, extreme measures with people he had history with. they started out together. i want to play something that was cited, basicall

has put -- mueller has already charged six trump associates, and according to mueller's indictment,s went very high up. is she downplaying it? do you think he has nothing? >> i don't know what mueller's got, so i can't talk about the severity of the charges that will be made. i will say this -- we've got a really strong economy right now, you've got people feeling good. people aren't talking, by the way, outside of washington, d.c., and the cnn newsroom, about the mueller investigation. people are talking about the wall and -- >> we probably talk less about the wall -- >> it's going to be about the china trade deal, immigration reform, infrastructure bill. and i think democrats -- i'm not talking about cnn and the media, but democrats in congress, if their agenda is to investigate, investigate, investigate, and they don't have a positive agenda for creating jobs and issues americans care about, controlling the border, i think they're in big trouble. >> i think that's clearly not the case. if you listened to the kamala harris town hall, she never once mentioned the word "trump." she'

in fact, he is talking about how he is friends with bob mueller and bob mueller is a straight shooter. meanwhile, you do have this new information about manafort. you know, the great thing about a redacted document is there is less to read, but what's pretty clear is there is a lot of information that we don't know that they do know. and that can't be a good feeling up at the white house. >> michael, when you hear that mueller has evidence that manafort lied about his contacts with the trump administration, and let me repeat that, his contacts with the trump administration in 2018, one thing that this tells us is this investigation isn't just about what happened in 2016, in the 2016 campaign. it's current. >> i think that's true. what we're really hearing is every time we talk about the administration and manafort and russia, those are the three common threads that seem to be running every time this suit gets together. when something quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck. what it tells me is there is much more than sort of a collateral or casual relationship between ma

how well do you know bob mueller? i told him how well i know bob mueller, and how, you know, the barrs and muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this is all over and so forth. >> and you know what the president thinks about mueller's friends? he told "the daily caller" in september, quote, i could give you 100 pictures of him and comey hugging and kissing each other. you know, he's comey's best friend. not so much. comey told congress last month he admires mueller, but they're not friends. and then there's this. in response to rudy giuliani's claim that the president should be able to correct mueller's report before it goes public. >> the president's attorney, mr. giuliani, said the president should be able to correct the mueller report before any public release. so, in other words, he could take this investigative report, put his own spin on it before its release. you commit that would not happen if you're attorney general? >> that will not happen. >> uh-oh. is the president having some buyer's re

faking mueller evidence. the special counsel is warning materials from his investigation are being doctored and used in a russian disinformation campaign. there's a russian company indicted by mueller to blame. >>> careless whispers. the white house isn't denying a new report that the president held a previously unknown chat with vladimir putin without any u.s. translator or note taker in the room. what did they discuss? why was it kept secret? >>> back to school. mr. trump insults the intelligence of his top intel chiefs after they publically contradicted his take on global threats to the united states. the president's fight against his own national security team is escalating tonight. >>> stay inside. that's the urgent warning across much of the united states as some 200 million americans are suffering through below freezing temperatures. tonight, the danger is spreading from this historic weather emergency. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you are

this effort was to try to create a misimpression that mueller had come up dry, that the mueller investigation didn't really turn up any interesting evidence. quote, the dissemination of the link to the web page via a twitter message claiming to provide access the all the files mueller had about ira and russian collusion and the fact that the web page contained numerous irrelevant files suggest that the person who created the web page used their knowledge of nonsensitive discovery to make it appear as though the nonrelevant files on the web page were the sum total evidence of ira and russian collusion gathered by law enforcement in this matter in an apparent effort to discredit the investigation. so the point of the filing is no, you cannot have access to super sensitive national security sensitive material in this case, and in particular you can't send it to russia, to your clients. and that's because even when we gay you nonsensitive material, it turned up in russia, and it turned up in russia as part of an op to appear as though the russia investigation and the whole mueller investigation i

we're learning that mueller's team is focusing in on mr.blic statements, including his tweets that could be seen as part of an effort to influence witnesses and obstruct justice. stand by for the exclusive details. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you are in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >>> we're following a

mueller. so, you know, michael cohen is just one piece. and mueller's been doing this a while. he's not going to just come in with a witness who's going to have his head taken off for credibility without having a lot of backup. >> yeah. i mean, cnn has not confirmed this, this is just the buzz feed reporting that we're attributing. so much still has to be confirmed, nia. but, if and when it is confirmed, this puts all sorts of lawmakers, particularly some of the president's supporters and republicans in a real bind because this came up during the bill barr confirmation hearing this week and lindsey graham, i think we have that sound, asked him specifically about suborning perjury. >> so if there was some reason to believe that the president tried to coach somebody not to testify or testify falsely, that could be obstruction of justice? >> yes, under that -- under an obstruction statute, yes. >> so if there's some evidence that the president tried to conceal evidence, that would be obstruction

he'll do it once mueller's work is done. and this new attorney general from trump would be confirmed. now after all the speculation about mueller, this is a clue at least rosenstein thinks the russia probe could be over soon. meanwhile, democrats sounding a wider alarm. >> it's deeply concerning, particularly when we have an acting attorney general who is so hostile toward the mueller investigation. and an incoming attorney general who has maede it clear he doesnt believe a president can obstruct justice, even when he fires an fbi director to make the russia problem go away. so the combination of those changes ought to be deeply concerning to anyone who cares deeply about the rule of law. >> that is the reaction. meanwhile, new details emerging about paul manafort leaking data developed by a private polling firm that worked for the trump campaign which was then given to ukrainian oligarchs. malcolm nance is an msnbc terror analyst and the author of "the plot to destroy america." and michael mcfaul. good evening to you both.

it's just too dangerous for mueller. >> reporter: two months ago mueller's team told corsi they wereto indict him for lying to investigators, although not about the "access hollywood" story specifically. they offered corsi a plea deal, which he rejected. as for jerome corsi so far he isn't facing any charges. >> we're going to dig into it next. give your eyes some love, honey! new age perfect hydra nutrition honey eye gel with manuka honey extract and a cooling rollerball wand to visibly de-puff and reduce bags. eyes look younger and refreshed. new age perfect hydra nutrition honey eye gel from l'oreal paris. janice, mom told me you bought a house. okay. [ buttons clicking ] [ camera shutter clicks ] so, now that you have a house, you can use homequote explorer. quiet. i'm blasting my quads. janice, look. i'm in a meeting. -janice, look. -[ chuckles ] -look, look. -i'm looking. it's easy. you just answer some simple questions online, and you get coverage options to choose from. you're ruining my workout. cycling is my passion. you're ruining my workout. one hougot it.p order? ran out

mueller is bold.an play book. >> it's consistent with a lot of the information operations that we have seen. whether they're being directed by the russians or supported by the russians or simply information being put out by russians and others run with it with a political interest in doing so. it's part of the same play book before the 2016 election. we saw elements of it in the 2018 election. and we'll see it going forward. the reason is because it works. >> interesting. it seems like a real in your face move. just a day after the intelligence chief testified that russia is continuing cyber attacks and adapting along the way. does putin even care if his fingerprints are on this or gets caught? >> the russians have a different understanding of information confrontation or conflict. their belief is that this is one of many domains of conflict of warfare that the united states enjoys advantages in the conventional domains of conflict. we have more tanks and airplanes and money to spend. this is an area

mueller. >> wanted to know what i thought about mueller eintegrity and so forth and so on. i said bob is a straight shooter and should be dealt with as such. >> reporter: over hours of testimony, barr breaking from some of president trump's key talking points. >> i don't subscribe to this lock her up stuff. >> the witch-hunt, as they call it, should never have taken place. >> do you believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch-hunt against anybody? >> i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch-hunt. >> reporter: telling senators he agrees with former attorney general jeff sessions' decision from oversight from the mueller probe but calling it an abdo occasion of his own responsibility and refusing to commit to do the same. >> under what scenario would you not follow their recommendation? >> if i disagreed with it. >> reporter: now, democrats of course had tough questions but also halfway through the hearing dianne feinstein, the top democrat on the committee said she thought

he has been indicted in the mueller investigation. he is assessed by the fbi to be actively linked to russian intelligence. for years he worked alongside trump campaign chairman paul manafort, and in that interview, kilimnik is describing what he sees as sort of paul manafort's secret sauce, the thing that paul manafort was best at as a political consultant, the biggest strength he brought to all of his work in all the different countries where he did it. polling. as kilimnik said, he, quote, takes very seriously his polling. well, in that oops, we forgot to really redact it court filing yesterday, we learn that prosecutors from the special counsel's office are alleging that manafort sent his beloved polling data, the core of what he does, he sent that data to con konstantin kilimnik, who, again, is linked to russian intelligence. late last night "the new york times" added more details to the story, including detail on the timing of the data transfer and its nature. according to "the times," man for transferred the data from the trump

they're not on my mueller team. the special counsel's statement disputes the, quote, characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony. end quote. now, that seems to take direct issue with this paragraph of last night's buzzfeed report. the special counsel's office learned about trump's directive for cohen to lie to congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the trump organization and internal company e-mails, text messages and a cache of other documents. cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office. the timing and content of the buzzfeed story last night put more pressure on the special counsel's office than possibly any other news report that has come before it. senator chris murphy said, listen, if mueller does have multiple sources confirming trump directed cohen to lie to congress, then we need to know this asap. mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show congress hi

anyone can criticize stone, but mueller needs evidence mueller's indictment is build on evidence fromne associates, person one and person two they're the mueller witnesses jerome coursey and was that collusion of course he told his side here on "the beat." >> you wrote to stone that the word is friend in the embassy plans two more dumps word is sounds like a reference to the word on the street or things you're hearing. >> i grant that. >> you typically say it before you share a thought that is your own deduction. >> my entire life, my father said jerry when you come up with these deductions that are often right, you will have trouble getting people to believe them >> you have coursey helping stone's defense arguing it was not collusion, maybe just attempts collusion, then coursey hurt tone by backing up what mueller charged today. that he did intend to obstruct and mislead congress >> referee: why of did roger stone want you to do that. >> my lawyer did not want know be held for perjury. he use thad memo in his testimony that sworn testimony >> that is coursey saying that his friend w

how well do you know bob mueller? i told him how well i knew bob mueller and how the barrs and muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this is all over and so forth. and he was interested in that, wanted to know, you know, what i thought about mueller's integrity and so forth and so on. and i said, bob is a straight shooter and should be dealt with as such. >> i'd like to share with you my reaction and get yours. i was sitting on the second floor there in that room watching it. it struck me that that was a very different tone that he says he shared with the president about mueller than the memo we know that he shared, which seemed legally to be very skeptical of aspects of the mueller probe. >> well, they're not necessarily contradictory, and i didn't have the chance to watch the hearing today so i'm seeing this for the first time, but he is saying here that bob mueller personally is a decent guy and an honest man. that's not inconsistent with saying in his memo that the -- that a large part of the i

probe is headed or what you think of bob mueller. so let me show you some of this evidence, that comes from mueller, accusing russians of creating new twitter account in october. >> that then posted lies, they, these russians had hacked bob mueller's secret documents. sounds like a big deal and they were leaking them to the world. quote, enjoy the read. but today mueller's team is argue, that is, of course, a false claim. it was a part of a claim aimed at apparently discredited ongoing investigations into russia interference into the u.s. political system. mueller right here in this new filing, he is saying russians are trying to take what they learned from within here, within our legal system and then use it to discredit how our very legal system works. and in the tradition of bob mueller's speaking indictments, this new one tells the russians, basically, with see you. and mueller's team fkd out that posting i read you came from a user with a digital foot print in, yes, russia. some have argued that mueller indicting those russians

the mueller investigation.hese questions about decisions he's going to review. what is he even talking about? i mean, i think this is just a very serious matter that, you know, some grown-up is going to have to clean up soon. >> what about bill barr? is he the grown-up? >> well, yes. i mean, barr, you know, showed during his confirmation hearing that this is a serious person with serious understanding of the law. and at least for the good of the country, it seemed like he can only be confirmed, you know, sooner rather than later because this whitaker guy, i mean, i have no idea what he's doing there. >> no, i was just going to say, look, i sort of agree with jeffrey, wolf. i have been on air right here on cnn with whitaker. he's a nice guy. normally a very confident guy. but he was really hedging all over the place in that statement. as long as he's the acting attorney general, it is up to him what happens with the special counsel's report, but i think that "a," yes, the nominee, william barr, would probably be

you know, i think mueller has questions.ig focus for him, and, you know, it could mean at one extreme that he has evidence that this -- emin was involved but he has evidence that illuminated and he could be subpoenaed before a grand jury, subpoenaed before congress, and that could delay his departure. i think the bigger picture that this highlights is one thing that gets missed, this investigation is as big of a problem for many russians and for putin as it is for trump. they have an interest in this going away. and i think that that convergence of interests ought to, you know -- we need to take note of that, that there is potentially pressure or at least a desire on this other end, this country that trump wants to please to not have this investigation continue because it makes life difficult for a lot of them. >> all right. with have much more to talk about, so everybody stay right there. the president constantly criticizes hillary clinton for not testifying under oath to the fbi, even though lying to the fbi, oath or not,

reaching the end of the mueller investigation. i think there is a lot more to come. >> we're going to see in short order that roger stone is not the only one that lied to congress. >> in a very real, measurable sense, the mueller probe intensified on friday. this was mueller's first indictment of a major trump figure related to those e-mails that russia stole. and while most trump aides only connect with trump around the 2016 campaign you see there the number of years they knew him, michael cohen much higher at 13 years. but it's roger stone who comes in as the longest serving trump adviser by far. they've connected for decades. now stone is citing that deep history and loyalty in an unusual round of interviews since friday. he's been walking a line, blasting the indictment as political while keeping the door open to cooperation. >> any chance you'll cooperate with special counsel robert mueller if he asks? >> you know, that's a question i would have to -- i'd have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. if there is

mueller? >> i would say we were good friends. >> would you say that you understand him to be a fair-minded person? >> absolutely. drew hadd do you trust him to be fair to the country as a president and as a whole. when his report comes to you, will you share it with as much as possible? consistent with the regulations and the law, yes. >> do you believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt against anybody. >> i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved in a witch hunt. >> what the is circumstances that would allow a special counsel to be appointed, generally speaking? >> i appointed three, mr. chairman, as personal counsel. and something comes up, an issue comes up that needs to be investigated, and there are good reasons to have it investigated by a special counsel outside the normal chain at the department, someone usually of public statute that can provided additional insurance -- >> do you believe senator sessions had a conflict because he worked on the trump campaign? >> i'm no

he said he will protect robert mueller but will the public see mueller's report if barr is confirmed as attorney general? . in a clinical study, 4 out of 5 users felt better joint comfort. move free ultra. movement keeps us connected. >>> i will not be bullied into doing anything i think is wrong. by anybody. >> bipartisan praise for bill barr the nominee for attorney general vows to let robert mueller finish his work. will the public get to see a public report? >>> turns out it costs more to shut down the federal government than to keep it open. and now the president's economic advisers are doubling that. >>> another uk crisis. >> uk rejects the theresa may plan facing another brexit vote today. >>> hey baby. little sister. little sister. >> a little girl hears her sister's voice for the first time. what happens it's going to melt your heart. stay tuned. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs on day 26 of the longest shutdown in history. we start with the president's nominee for attorney general, delivering an unnote about un-trumpian performance, wi

i don't know what bob mueller is writing. >> you said that the mueller report is confidential pursuant the regulations are that applies to him, so i'm just trying to get as to what you're going to be transparent about. >> as the rules stand now people should be aware that the rules, i think, say that the independent -- the special counsel will prepare a summary report on any prosecutetive or declination decisions and that that shall be confidential and shall be treated as any other declination or prosecutorive material within the department. in addition, the attorney general is responsible for notifying and reporting certain information upon the conclusion of the investigation. now how these are going to fit together and what can begotten out there, i would have to wait. i'd want to talk to rod rosenstein and see what he has discussed with mueller and what's -- >> but you have testified that you'd like to make as much of the original report -- >> right. all i can say right now is, my goal and intent is to get as much information out as i can consistent with the regulations. >> thank yo

how well do you know bob mueller?him how well i know bob mueller and how the barrs and muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this is all over and so forth. and he was interested in that and wanted to know what i thought of mueller's integrity and so forth and so on. and i said bob say straight shooter and should be dealt with as such. >> does that sound like the kind of person who would endear himself that a president who has this to say about an investigation and the people running it? >> why don't i just fire mueller? well, i think it's a disgrace what's going on. >> i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt. >> it's a disgraceful situation. it's a total witch hunt. i've been saying it for a long time. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> this is the most conflicted group of people i've ever seen. >> plenty to talk about. back with the team. it is interesting he was asked during the hearing if he's concerned with the way the president has undermined institutions and he said no.

mueller? >> i would say we are good friends. >> would you say you understand him to be a fair minded person? >> absolutely. >> do you trust him to be fair to the president and the country as a whole? >> yes. >> barr disagreeing that the mueller investigation is a witch hunt. >> i don't believe mr. mueller would be involved there a witch hunt. >> he also said the former attorney general was correct recusing themselves even though it infuriated the president. when asked if he would quit. >> assuming there was no good cause i could not carry out this instruction. i'm in favor of as much transparency as there can be consistent with the rule and law. >> will you provide mueller's report to congress, not your rewrite or a summary? >> the rags do say that mueller is suppose today do a summary report of his prosecutive and his decisions and that they will be handled as a document. my objective and goal is to get as much as i can of the investigation to congress and the public. >> however he vow today

they don't control robert mueller. nobody controls robert mueller.ueller can send armed men to your home to roust you from bed at gunpoint because he feels like it and there's nothing you or anyone else can do about it. mueller has an unlimited budget and no timetable. he doesn't have to answer questions. he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to whomever he wants. he cannot be fired. mueller is the single most powerful person in america and yet nobody voted for him. he is a living rebuke to the principles of our democratic system. at the same time, our leaders tell us we need robert mueller, all-powerful unelected prosecutor accountable to no one to protect us from threats to you, yourself, here democracy. nobody in washington catches the irony of this. mueller himself is a threat to our democracy, the most powerful man elected by nobody. our media don't ask questions about any of this or even acknowledge that it is a question. they have chosen sides. here's roger stone from our show on friday night. >> it's disconcerting that cnn was aware t

now, mueller's team says that is a lie.oking at this exchange as perhaps manafort trying to have some sort of intermediary, get him in touch. we can't necessarily say too much. there's a lot we don't yet know about why it is that lawyer is so certain that manafort was lying about the nature of his as this investigation continues. >> you notice a lot of speculation that manafort was seeking some sort of presidential pardon. >> whether or not there was any kind of communication and whether or not if the president did something like dangles pardoned or offered them in exchange for him not cooperating, whether it could amount to obstructionov of justice. >> what have we learned about russian methods, russian operational methods in dealing with a presidential campaign from the late disclosures? >> clearly they weren't so structured. right? there wasn't one direct model that the russians seem to have approached. they tried multiple channels and angles to get into the election system as well. clearly we know now and as we were dis

for bob, bob mueller.an't substitute myself for that. i will tell you this, knowing bob mueller, he will not be rushing into anything nor will he be fearful of doing whatever he thinks he needs to do professionally with integrity to get to the bottom of things. that's the same thing i would say about bill barr, with whom i served. bill barr is a person of complete integrity, who does indeed have very strong views which i share about the protection of the prerogatives of the presidency in our separation of powers system. congress has powers but so does the president. the founding generation warned us about constant intrusions about congress into the prerogatives of the president. that's really what the barr memorandum was about as i read the memo. >> since he called it in that 19 page memo, fatally misconceived, the obstruction of justice. if he says, yes, he will get out of robert mueller's way and its logical conclusion it should go forward, which bill barr is to be believed? >> first, his analysis of the

just fire mueller? well, i think it's a disgrace what's going on. i think we've wasted enough time on this witch hunt. it's a disgraceful situation. it's a total witch hunt. i've been saying it for a long time. this is the most conflicted group of people i've ever seen. >> plenty to talk about. it is interesting he was asked during the hearing if he's concerned with the way the president has undermined institutions and he said no. >> he said no, and i thought barr had a great argument that undernev i had never heard before. confirm because i'm so old. i'm 68 years old. i'm not going to mess with this stuff. i'm not angling for another job. and he said if i were 45 or 50 maybe i would. which is interesting why there are people 45 and 50 working for the government. but he really seemed like a guy who was trying to be a straight shooter and do the right thing. >> david, why do you think the report should not be made public? >> no, i think the report should be made public. i think there are portions of of t

i don't know what bob mueller is writing. >> just to underscore, we don't know there will be a mueller report. we don't tend to know anything about the mueller investigation unreal time. despite barr's assurances of support for mueller, he was also asked point blank about the future of the investigation. >> are there any circumstances that would cause you to term not the investigation? or a component or significantly restrict its funding? >> under the regulations, bob mueller could only be terminated for good cause and. i don't think bob would do anything that gave rise to good cause. >> chief white house correspondent to the "new york times"s. former assistant attorney for the southern dustricate of new york. and chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, former senior fbi official. and chuck, i'd like to begin with you. did barr do enough to convince you that mueller investigation would be sealed, protected, walled off under his good care? >> yes, he did, brian. let me explain why. although i dont share his view on several matters of law that came up today and while i imagine i don't sha

we almost never hear from robert mueller's office. how do you read the statement from mueller tonight? is he saying there's no there there when it comes to this reporting? >> the one thing you're missing in that setup is not only do we have the report, but we had a feeding frenzy. maybe we need to start hearings. maybe we need impeachment hearings. the city of washington was completely ginned up. and then you have the statement from mueller's office, which is basically a good old-fashioned spanking. it's just wait a minute. he's communicate in a cryptic way that he does not agree with everything in the buzzfeed article and it is not designed for us to understand exactly what he doesn't agree with. unfortunately, where that leads us is, we're just going to have to wait. it is a good object lesson just to slow down and not be part of a feeding frenzy before we're really ready for that. there's nothing else to do but wait a little bit. >> along those lines, we were going to put this up on the screen. we were showing you earlier "the wash

pete, you said mid-february could be the windup of the mueller team and the mueller report. but now we have lindsey graham crick contradicting that. how accurate do you think that is? >> reporter: remember, matt whitaker, unlike jeff sessions, as acting attorney general is not recused. so sessions, who could not be briefed and had to plug his ears whenever the mueller investigation came up, is unlike matt whitaker who is aware of what's going on. how detailed the briefings are, we don't know, of course. certainly the 50,000 foot level on whether mueller is wrapping up. andrea, the point is he's not the only person we're hearing this from. we're hearing it from other people in the justice department as well. and lawyers who are dealing with the special counsel. the pretty consistent message is that the mueller has been in its final chapter, as i've been saying, at the bottom of the ninth. does that mean they can't do anything more? no, because last friday they brought this case. how many more weeks, how many more hours, we just don't know. but he's not the only person telling

i have known bob mueller for 30 years. we worked closely together throughout my previous tenure at the department of justice. we've been friends since. and i have the utmost respect for bob and his distinguished record of public service. and when he was named special counsel, i said his selection was good news. and that knowing him i had confidence he would handle the matter properly and i still have that confidence today. given his public actions to date, i expect that the special counsel is well along in his investigation. at the same time the president has been steadfast that he was not involved in any collusion with russian attempts to interfere in the election. i believe it is in the best interest of everyone, the president, congress, and the american people, that this matter be resolved by allowing the special counsel to complete his work. the country needs a credible resolution to these issues. and if confirmed, i will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere

be a mueller report. we don't tend to know anything about the mueller investigation in realtime. despite barr's assurances of support for mueller, he was also asked point blank about the future of the investigation. >> are there any circumstances that would cause you to terminate the investigation or any component of it or significantly restrict its funding? >> under the regulations, bob mueller could only be terminated for good cause, and frankly, it's unimaginable to me that bob would ever do anything that gave rise to good cause. >> the two men are friends. more on that in a minute. let's bring in our lead-off panel for a tuesday night. peter baker, correspondent for the "new york times," myra wiley, former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, now with the new school here in new york.th and chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney, former senior fbi u. official. and chuck, i'd like to begin with you. did barr say enough? did he do enough to convince you that the mueller investigation would

indicating that he respected the mueller and he talked about his friendship with mueller, but that's not good enough with this president in particular. so i asked him, would he interfere with the investigation in any way. would he make a commitment that he would not? he would not limit who mueller would subpoena, he would not limit what witnesses were called, he would not limit what questions were asked or what areas were looked into. he would not commit to that either. so despite the fact that there were some nice words at the hearing, we do not have the kind of strong and clear commitments to the report being issued and there being no interference in the investigation that are needed, particularly now, with president trump treating the justice department as he has. i'll take questions on this subject first. this subject. >> yesterday, he also mentioned that he would not change justice department guidelines by indicting a sitting president. one, do you think he should change the guidelines? two, do you think a sitting president can be indicted? >> that's a very difficult question th

so what are the details of this new mueller filing?porter: yeah, so, exactly what you pointed out there, anderson, is that essentially, the russians were able to obtain documents from the mueller team, these were documents that were given to defense attorneys representing a russian company that has been charged by the mueller team for the troll farm, disinformation campaign, and those documents, important to point out, some of them nonsensitive documents, were then put out over the internet. and shared, and what's key here also is that not only did they use some of the real documents that the russians here had their hands on, they also then altered some of these documents, in ses sense, trying to discredit the mueller team. and obviously a lot of concern from the mueller team, from the fbi, which says they have linked this activity to the russians, they say that the website that put this information out came from russia. and so, obviously, the concern now is, for investigators to be careful, and not give anymore documents to the russia

that's mueller's own words, right.ing what cohen said about the moscow project, the lies to congress, others being involved, the fact that the mueller team has corroborating information in their possession comes right from mueller himself. i think that's what really matters here. >> so just to drill down on the importance of that, they've got information from cohen that according to the special counsel's office is corroborated by other evidence. >> that's right. >> that is what they stated in conjunction or in support of cohen's guilty plea to lying to congress about this matter. i will say one of the main questions, the most potent questions i think about this buzz feed reporting today has been -- well, if mueller has this evidence that cohen was directed to lie when he lied to congress, why wasn't that charged or otherwise indicated in court that day in november when cohen was there pleading guilty to lying to congress. would you expect if the special counsel's office did have the kind of information that buzzfeed sa

all you have to be able to do is read and read mueller's indictment in july, the gru, mueller details very carefully not just that we can prove the russians were engaged but they were so sloppy when they did it. they left traces of the urls that they used, they left traces of the cryptocurrency of the hacking and subsequent misinformation on facebook and elsewhere. it's not even disputable at this point that the russians were engaged. every one of the 17 intelligence agencies has affirmed that. for him to be playing this game now either shows we still haven't proven russian interference, shows that he's either a boob or is playing to the one-third of voters susceptible to this kind of misinformation. when you're getting into impeachment territory, when you're getting into impeachment territory, when you're playing the game, just playing to one-third of the voters when two-thirds don't believe you, you're on thin ice. >> thin ice, michael steele, and why not have the floor vote back there? how in the midst of this do you have a minority of snars say we're going to filibuster have a str