than from jay sekulow. does not seem to be engaging in any improper conduct. >> elliott, in one of the transcripts that was released cohen testified that, quote, virtually all my conversations were referred back to the client. jay wasn't going to speak on behalf of the president. he was relaying messages back and forth. so if sekulow isn't giving counsel but instead acting as a mouthpiece, i assume he's still protected by attorney-client privilege? >> he is. now the question is attorney-client privilege can't be a total shield for criminality if in fact he is concealing criminal conduct. the question is, what did he know? this is what we're talking about. was he aware he was directing an individual to tell an untruth on behalf of the president of the united states. this piggybacks on what jeffrey said. there's a lot of speaking in generalities that we've seen in the mueller report but also in a pattern of behavior from the president of the united states. so the generalities and the winks and the nods that s

because jay sekulow was one of the president's attorneys. >> right. exactly.hat in particular jay sekulow had a lot of these conversations with him and one of the accusations that he makes is that jay sekulow suggested to him that he give false testimony in particular about the trump tower moscow project. you remember that michael cohen falsely testified that all of those discussions ended in january of 2016 as a way to essentially get away from the presidential campaign. it turns out those discussions happened way into the year, much longer than michael cohen had first testified, so according to his newer testimony he says that jay sekulow helped coordinate that false testimony. now if you believe sekulow and the white house, they say that of course michael cohen cannot be believed and the reason why they gave the january 2016 date, anderson, is because that's all of the documentation they had. from looking at the documents, that's the last they ever saw any mention of the trump tower project in moscow. >> i mean, these are pretty explosive allegations obviou

what does that mean for sekulow?t of all, michael cohen has to be regarded as only a starting point in an investigation. looking at this from a prosecutor's lens michael cohen has serious credibility issues. his story hasn't always been exactly consistent. the key here is corroboration and there's two questions about, did two people know? one, did jay sekulow know that the testimony was false as to how far into 2016 the trump tower moscow went and then two is, did the client, meaning donald trump know? now, look if it's just michael cohen saying so, i don't think that's enough to get anyone really anywhere. the big question is going to be, is there something backing up michael cohen, are there emails or drafts that sekulow may have red lined or edited? that will tell the ultimate story here. >> interesting. so sara, the issue of pardons,let talk about, cohen told lawmakers they were to shut the investigations down. what else did he say under oath about that? >> that's right. again, michael cohen, grain of salt, he's

sekulow? 15 times. there was no question that sekulow was in fact aware of, and framing the testimony. >> what about sekulow teasing, apparently through implication the possibility that cohen could stay, if he stayed on the trump team, he did not give up anything big. he was just pardoned. >> so there is a lot of code in the way they talk and they would say things like, the president really loves you. stay on message. stay on message. he really loves what you're doing. so this was all code for keep lying and you will be pardoned. that's how you would interpret all of that. >> let me go to peter baker on this. given your news, how does this fit into the ongoing story? the president says the case is closed. that's the language of mitch mcconnell. the president says this is all over. he won't let anybody testify. what does this do? >> it is a great question. you do presume robert mueller knew this. he did not pursue any criminal charges against any of president trump's lawyers for trying to influence or sh

sekulow denies the allegation. so much news. so many developments. let's begin with lauren fox live on capitol hill. lauren? >> reporter: well, john, in a couple of hours, an empty chair before the house judiciary committee, as this fight between congress and the executive branch over documents and witnesses heats up. the white house blocking former white house counsel don mcgahn from testifying in front of the judiciary committee today. the latest effort to stone wall investigations into the trump administration. mcgahn's lawyer telling judiciary chairman jerry nadler, mr. mcgahn finds himself facing contradictory instructions from two co-equal branches of government. nadler threatening to use, quote, all enforcement mek schisms at the committee's disposal, including holding him in contempt. >> you're dealing with a lawless president who is willing to go to any lengths to prevent testimony that might implement him. >> reporter: white house saying he is immune to testify. sarah sanders adding, this action is taken to ensure future presidents can effe

but if sekulow did do that, help him lie essentially to congress is that illegal? >> i think the important point to realize here is that jay sekulow was dealing with information that his client gave him. so the issue isn't so much was jay sekulow lying, the issue was was he lied to by his client and trying to align cohen with trump? i really don't think there is any likely misconduct here by jay sekulow. >> okay. >> i think the real question here is was donald trump trying to get a false narrative out there about the trump tower moscow meeting. >> we know the president has lied repeatedly about issues in this investigation, one of the most explicit is about the stormy daniels payments. i know the white house strategy here is to say, well, michael cohen is a liar. >> right. >> that said we know, for instance, in court proceedings here in new york regarding his campaign finance law violation, prosecutors here took cohen's testimony in that case implicating the president seriously. >> very seriously. >> when they can corroborate it. >> and in the mueller report. >> ye

michael cohen says sekulow and him came up with that together. on the other hand, even michael cohen's own version is that jay sekulow might have known that this was false or might have known that this was an untrue time line. so even michael cohen is not definitive on whether or not sekulow knew or not. but that january 2016 time line, we know that that's how they arrived at that date, it was bookended by tech messages that michael cohen supposedly sent. >> this is relative to whom? as it relates to potential impeachment proceedings? you are talking about what a jury believes? there is no jury here? >> no, not at all. impeachment doesn't require a crime. it is conduct that is abuse of official power. it's helpful if it is a crime. it need not be a crime. it can be a corruption of the electoral process that reaches conduct before a person is even elected. so these are the things that congress looks out for when it comes to an impeachment inquiry. >> that's the day when the sentence is helpful if it's a crime. >> all right. danny savales. >>> righ

what potentially would that mean for jay sekulow if michael cohen is telling the truth?a good idea to tell someone to lie to congress. the thing that i'm a little bit curious about here this was not matter of mueller's report. cohen has already gone to federal prison and if this was credible and enough evidence to verify it you probably would have seen an indictment out of the mueller prosecution or out of new york already, but maybe some of the things that are still being looked at by the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york, that i'm not sure of. but the fact that mueller did not go down that road leads me to think that this might sort of blow over. >> neil, let's stick with mueller for one second. we were talking about the fact that there was a possibility that mueller was going to testify on the 23rd, which is thursday, i believe. doesn't seem that's going to happen as of now. so what information if any do you have as to when we could feasibly see robert mueller testifying? >> there seems to be no new estimate as to when that testimony might happen. it'

and sekulow knew it was false. if cohen is right is sekulow in legal hot water. is he in trouble? >> i mean potentially. it's an explosive allegation. the problem is cohen had credibility issues. we're not talking about sekulow being charged with the crime. the problem is whether there's a crime or fraud that gives you exception to the attorney/client privilege. under that rubric i think you have enough to proceed. and get that information. but we're a long way from perjury charge. >> a little more about michael cohen. he knew what he was say he said why s, kulow knew, ending unjanuary 2016. why is it a lie. did mr. sekulow know that it was june that was the right month, not january? and mr. cohen responded by saying i believe if he took it to his client, which he stated to me that he did, that he spoke to the client, that he would know it would by false. sekulow's client is the president. is cohen implicating the president? >> this is where it gets wishy washy. if he did, then he would. i believe he would have. these aren't strong and defin itative statements on michael cohen's p

jay sekulow, of course, the one who apparently gave him this direction. how significant is it that jay sekulow, the president's personal attorney is implicated in this now? >> well, look, it's a big deal for the president's former personal lawyer to be essentially accusing the president's current personal attorney of wrongdoing here. and the question is whose word are you going to believe? according to michael cohen's testimony he says that sekulow knew that that information was false but that he was directed to essentially at the direction of the president, by the way, to essentially make those false statements. now, if you talk to the white house they say that the reason why everybody, you know, coalesced around the idea everything ended in january of 2016 is because all of the e-mails, all of the documentation ended there. we did get a statement from sekulow's attorney and it says in part michael cohen's alleged statements are more of the same from him. essentially they're saying this guy's a liar, don't believe anything he says. >> evan, thank you ver

interestingly, the response from sekulow's lawyers was that cohen is a liar, not that sekulow didn'tese conversations. >> that's been sort of the automatic response for anything with michael cohen. you mention those two names and get a response from trump world that he's a liar and an unreliable narrator. they're going to continue to make that case. >> we know, donny, that congress is pursuing all sorts of lines of investigation. robert mueller didn't just take -- if anyone knew he was a liar, it was the federal prosecutors at sdny and mueller. i think he lied to congress and was charged with lying to congress. but they have gone through and corroborated some of his testimony to the point where they found donald trump to be basically an unindicted coconspirator. >> they have given a lot of credibility to a lot of things. tha they weren't just taking it on face value, and they're not done with him. mueller is, but as these investigations go on, obviously, he's in prison now, but michael cohen is still very active in his cooperation. >> does jay sekulow have any exposure here? >> he do

lawyers for jay sekulow responded in a statement, quote, that this or any committee would rely on the word of michael cohen for any purpose much less to try to pierce the attorney-client privilege and discover confidential communications of four respected lawyers defies logic and well-established law and common sense. during that day of live public testimony in february cohen did mention sekulow when he was asked about his 2017 testimony. >> which specific lawyers reviewed and edited your statement to congress on the moskow tower negotiations, and did they make any changes to your statement? >> there were changes made, additions. jay sekulow for one. >> here for our lead off discussion on a monday night as we start a new week philip rucker, pulitzer prizewinning bureau chief for "the washington post." barbara mcquade, veteran federal prosecutor and former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. and michael schmidt, pulitzer prizewinning washington correspondent for "the new york times." a note to our viewers, if you see anything weird on television, we're having a technica

he said it was sekulow. >> he said that jay sekulow submitted a draft and went to the group of lawyers and the trump family in the draft. jay said to him, let's change this from junish to january. >> that's a huge deal. that's the president's order. if michael cohen is correct and telling the truth, jay sekulow, the president's lawyer telling him to change the dates to lie to congress in the way he ended up being charged for. >> it's hinting at a really bigger issue. it's clear that the mueller team could not crack this attorney-client privilege. michael it doesn't seem to me cared much about this and was willing to speak openly with congressional investigators. that is very small gaps between the president and mr. cohen. >> another story is that a federal judge said there was a media works trying to get the search warrant released and un redacted. the federal judge declared it's part of an ongoing investigation tied to michael cohen cases ongoing. that's interesting because it's not ongoing. >> it's certainly appearing to be part of a campaign finance investigation. we don't know the

questioning of michael cohen in which he asserts that jay sekulow, the president's attorney, told himump tower moscow. is that a big deal to your mind? >> i think all of these instances where the president tells people to lie, that should be a big deal to everybody. >> it's the president's attorney right now who is being accused of that. we don't know if the president was behind it. >> yeah. this is why we wanted to get all the underlying information so we could look at exactly what was said, how it was said. but of course if this turns out to be true, if there's other evidence that comes out that shows that the president actually directed jay sekulow to do this, then that would be a big problem. i think the reason you asked me earlier about don mcgahn, that's why this is so compelling. don mcgahn directly said the president told him to lie and he would not do it, and that is huge, i think. that's information that the american people need to see. >> all right, congresswoman, thank you for making time for me tonight. >> thank you, chris. >>> if congress ultimately begins impeachment pr

michael cohen told the house intelligence committee that jay sekulow knew that was not true. michael cohen now admits the discussions about the possible trump tower in moscow continued into the summer of 2016 after the republican primaries were completed. the president's criminal defense lawyer now has criminal defense lawyers who issued a statement today in response to the newly revealed michael cohen testimony and they did not deny the accusation of criminal witness tampering against jay sekulow made by michael cohen in that testimony. here is the lawyers' entire response which does not actually include one word of denial of michael cohen's accusation. listen to this carefully. michael cohen's alleged statements are more of the same from him and confirm the observations of prosecutors in the southern district of new york that cohen's instinct to blame others is strong. that this or any committee would rely on the word of michael cohen for any purpose much less to try and pierce the attorney/client privilege and discover confidential communications of four respected lawyers

cohen's latest testimony is that jay sekulow, one of the president's lawyers knew that the january 2016false. cohen makes a lot of explosive allegations in these hundreds of pages of testimony, but he doesn't offer much in the way of proof to back up those allegations. it's cohen's word against those he's accusing. dave, christine? >> evan, thank you. jay sekulow's attorney responding that this committee or any committee would rely on the word of michael cohen defies logic. well established law and common sense, house intelligence chairman adam schiff says he's considering whether to subpoena trump lawyers who have rejected his committee's request for documents. >>> a republican congressman justin amash holding firm on his decision that president trump engaged in impeachable. hee -- impeachable conduct. here's what the president had to say. >> he's been a loser a long time. rarely votes for republicans, and you know, personally, i think he's not much. >> amash is not flinching. >> sir, what about president trump calling you a loser? >> okay. >> a primary opponent announced the issue aft

jay sekulow and his people say, how can you trust michael cohen? a proven liar. literally in prison now because being convicted of lying to congress. that's obviously something mueller's team had taken into account because they didn't prosecute anybody for trying to perjure saying something untrue. that's not binding the house. house democrats are certainly, you know, capable and empowered to examine it themselves, and we'll see where they take it. >> and, in fact, michael cohen -- response to michael cohen not a full denial. sekulow's lawyer responded michael cohen's statements are more of the same from him and confirm observations prosecutors in the southern district of new york cohen's instinct to blame others is strong. that is, of course, not a firm denial. kristen welker, kasie hunt and others thanks to all. >>> coming up, president trump ramping up threats against iran as administration officials prepare to brief congress today on what led to this escalation with tehran. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. stay with, with or w

sekulow and mr.ren, were obstructing justice. they were clearly setting out a narrative that was false. they knew it was false. michael cohen said he talked to jay sekulow i think 10 or 15 times about his statement. he said in code, stay strong, stay on message, the president loves you. i mean, those are words that a mafia boss would say to someone who was doing their skirty work. >> i want to turn now to a much more personal matter and you shared on twitter the fact that you had an abortion and i want to read to you what you've just -- what you shared this week. you said #youknowme, i had an abortion, it was the best choice for my health and my family. while it was an immensely hard decision, i don't regret it. so many women have thanked you for sharing that, so many women have shared their own stories. i'm wondering why you felt compelled to make such a personal statement public. >> alisyn, i actually spoke on the house floor back in -- >> 2011. i knew that, sometimes twitter seems even more of an

>> jay sekulow -- from the white house? >> yes. >> jay sekulow, i believe abbe lowell as well. >> and back now to the president who today praised his attorney general william barr for opening an inquiry into how the russia investigation started. >> mr. president -- >> no, i didn't ask him to do that. i didn't know it. i didn't know it, but i think it's a great thing that he did it. i am so proud of our attorney general that he is looking into it. >> now, the attorney general has appointed this man. his name is john durham. he's a veteran u.s. attorney from connecticut. he's going to lead an investigation. he's a lawyer who has handled special tasks for republican and democratic administrations over the years. notably, "the new york times" says this will be a review for now and not a criminal inquiry. that means that that man, durham, will not have the ability to subpoena documents or compel witness testimony. however, the "a.p." reports attorney general barr will also be working with cia director gina haspel, director of na

sekulow also says that the lawyers have agreed to an expedited appeal process, however adds the court will set the final schedule. that is the critical point here, that this is ultimately going to be up to the court to set the final schedule. this is the latest in this bitter back and forth between the president and his attorneys and the white house and democrats on capitol hill who have been requesting information and documents about the president's financial records, but also of course interviews and a whole slew of other materials. of course the president has accused democrats of overreach, but democrats insist, look, they have an oversight responsibility and so this is a bitter back and forth that isn't going anywhere anytime soon. we have reached out to lawmakers on capitol hill to get their reaction. so far no response. but we'll bring that to you as soon as we get it. >> and i know we're just getting the information, but if we take a step back and where this fits in with the president and his back and forth, not only with of course the house committees involved in this, but als

what cohen is alleging here, what cohen told mueller is the president's personal counsel, jay sekulow, and other lawyers involved in the joint defense agreement, specifically shaped his statement, including taking out the stuff about his contacts with the russian government. well, michael cohen is already paying for that. he is in prison paying for that false statement. but what about the other people who were allegedly involved in crafting that false statement for him in that act of obstruction, right? well, that's why all of those lawyers working for the president and the trump organization and the president's adult children, that's why all of those lawyers may soon get subpoenas under their seats, too. >> if there were others that were participating in that act of obstruction of justice, if there were others that were knowing of that false statement, participated in the drafting of that false statement, we need to know about it, we need to expose it and we need to deter other people from coming before our committee and lying. mr. cohen's testimony was important but also the documen

here are theom reaction, to mueller's big speech is the president's attorney, jay sekulow. by the way, full disclosure, he has sadly had the horrible dishonor of working for me in the past. >> [laughs] >> sean: jay, i will throw it to you. you your analysis of the events today? >> what you had today was the investigation is over. of course we knew that when the report was issued. there was nothing that robert mueller said today that is any different than what was in that report. there was no conspiracy, no collusion, there is no obstruction, they made no determination on obstruction. the department of justice said there is no obstructive conduct. now bob mueller today closed his tape. closer's office. no one is going to forget what started this. this investigation has been corrupted since it started, from the dossier to the fisa warrant, we just went through the list. what we have to be very clear, the legal aspect of this is over. politically, okay, i'm with you. if they want to go for it, good luck. the truth of the matter is -- i think this is where everybody should be f

. >> the committee sent request for presidents lawyers jay sekulow and the attorney representing ivanka trump, they signed an agreement. anything cohen heading to prison or mueller wrapping up was the end of anything, it may have been the end of the beginning. the senate intel committee subpoenaing donald trump jr. it would seem the white house has entered the beginning of the next phase of all these congressional velinvestigations >> the koda of mueller record was now it's up to congress. what i wonder about in this story, he talks about how the mueller report gave some credibility to what michael cohen said, didn't completely accept it all completely, but then they didn't compel jay sekulow also to testify. why did so many people not have to go and talk to bob mueller and his team. it still baffles me donald trump himself did not face intense pressure to have to go and speak himself. >> he did those very cogent answers. there was a lot of pressure. there was timing also. there was a proctor there. he was under a lot of pressure. >> do you want to jump in and try to answer allialliss's

they show that cohen said jay sekulow asked had him to lie.ohen also told investigators that he had multiple conversations with sekulow about receiving a potential pardon. sekulow's team is disputing that account. >> thank you. let's talk about it with dan abrams. for more on this, let's go to the judge's ruling. the accounting firm has to turn over the records. quick and clear decision by judge saying it's not a close call. >> in any other world this would be a huge decision, the idea that the president of the united states has just lost a major court ruling. and yet for now it's going to sort of fall and people are going to wait for the next level in this and that's going to be the appellate court. no question it's a brig big loss for the president. it was a clear loss. the judge in his ruling referred to the possibility of impeachment proceedings saying congress has the oversight power including for impeachment proceedings and as a result the congress has got to be able to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing. >> the president also def

also yesterday we learned that michael cohen told lawmakers that trump's attorney, jay sekulow, encouraged to falsely claim that negotiations to build a trump tower in moscow ended in january of 2016. and more from republican justin amash, who essentially said to trump i'll see your tweet attack and raise you another twitter thread. he is doubling down on his assessment that the president engaged in impeachable behavior and is now explaining to the people who say one cannot obstruct justice without an underlying crime, why that is just not so. with all that swirling, president trump clapped along as supporters chanted for the jailing of his perceived enemies. while he touted the attorney general, who the a.p. describes as trump's champion and advocate. >> well, we have a great new attorney general who is going to give it a very fair look, a very fair look. >> so there's an awful lot to sort through here, mika. >> goodness gracious. >> willie, we can start with executive privilege. they are claiming, the white house is claiming executive privilege had there is no basis in fact for executive

. >> in fairness to sekulow you need corroboration. he said i dismissed the suggestion out of hand. out. next, how big a deal that the president pulls him back? >> it's something that we all expected. i think the president either said or hinted as much. but mcgahn is a key figure in the whole thing. much of it is based on information that he provided. >> how big of a deal is it when he says to congress he wanted me to fire. he was trying to do things to stop this investigation. his counsel said i don't think he did anything to give him criminal exposure. >> that's a great question for your next guest. let's assume that everything in the mueller report is true and it's all accurate. now the reason people are interested in having him testify it brings the story to life. the motion is that perhaps that might actually seem pretty obvious that that's not where the speaker wants to go. i don't think that's where the chairman wants to go either. >> he may not have a choice. you know that own perspective, the more the president fights the oversight, the more he is forcing them to show that

sekulow is hitting back, saying that it defies logic, to believe anything that cohen has to say. anthony? >> nancy, thank you. >>> u.s. customs and border protection confirms a 16-year-old from guatemala died in custody. an official says 16-year-old carlos gregorio vazquez was found unresponsive at a texas facility yesterday. he had been prescribed tamiflu sunday after complaining he didn't feel well. the boy had been taken into custody about a week ago. he is the fifth guatemalan child held by the u.s. to die since december. in our next half hour, only on "cbs this morning," we look at overcrowding at border facilities and the flights used to move undocumented migrants from the southern border. >>> the number of confirmed measles cases in the u.s. has jumped to 880 as the largest outbreak in 25 years continues to escalate. 24 states are now affected, with oklahoma joining the list. the cdc reported 41 new cases nationwide last week. the majority were here in new york, which is seeing the most intense outbreak, largely in orthodox jewish communities. experts say the virus has spr

now, you have got the house intel committee bringing accusations against jay sekulow and. >> sean: it'siculous. >> jared kushner's lawyer. that they conspired with michael cohen to lie to the house intel committee. what you see happening is congressional committees are now beginning to take the place of prosecutors. and that's dangerous for us all. and if i were don jr.'s lawyer, i would be reluctant to put him back in an environment where two of the people on the intel committee in the senate are running for president the united states. they want to impeach barr. they want him to resign. they want me to resign. and they think brett kavanaugh was bill cosby in high school. these people are going nuts. >> sean: they want a do-over. last time i checked, too. not only did we have a fifth amendment right. we had something called attorney-client privilege. i think that exists. >> can we play that out a bit? nadler is going to get trump reelected more than any single person on the planet. >> sean: maybe adam schiff. >> a close second. schiff is saying is he going after the president's lawyer

the president's attorney, jay sekulow, telling nbc news, in return for that, the lawyers have agreed to an expedited appe appeal. this comes after a judge in new york refused to block the subpoenas earlier this week. >>> the white house doubling down on the president's vow not to work with democrats until all of their investigations end. >> this is an effort by the democrats. it's like the russia collusion witch hunt hoax 2.0. they accused the president of colluding with a foreign power, of treason, no evidence, no proof. and now, they say he's engaged in a cover-up with no proof. and not one journalist said, hey, madam speaker, what is the evidence? if you have the evidence, why do we have investigations? >> democrats pushing for robert mueller to agree to testify in public. california representative john garamendi telling me just how crucial it is for the country. >> nearly two years of investigation, extraordinarily important moment in our nation's history. he cannot wide. we cannot allow him to hide. he must testify publicly. he needs to look right into that camera and tell the a

trump attorneys jay sekulow and rudy giuliani said they never heard back. >> elm mitt sullivan the first time a judge has directed the justice department to make public any portion of the report the agency had kept secret. it could set up a conflict with attorney general bill whose teams spent weeks backing out -- blacking out, excuse me grand jury information. details of ongoing investigations and other sensitive information. meanwhile the house intel committee will be acting to enforce its subpoenas to get the unredacted report. adam schiff is scheduling a meeting to plan enforcement action for the justice department not complying with its subpoena. >> house judiciary committee jerrold nadler said democrats would probably not impeach trump but that was before the white house counsel sent nadler's committee a letter saying congress has no right to dig into special counsel mueller's findings unless it's for legislation. here's reaction from nancy pelosi followed by nadler's comments. >> last night what they were saying, unless it says ledge. ive purpose there's no reason for us to give y

he has the benefit of the law firm of giuliani, sekulow, mnuchin and barr and now he wants mcgahn to weigh in as well? began who is basically a witness to the obstruction in the first instance when the president said i want the man investigating me and my family and associates and my campaign fired. mcgahn is like i'm not going to do that. he said then i want you to lie about the fact that i just asked to you do it. now he reaches out to mcgahn again and said hey, buddy, you can vouch for me. when he won't vouch for him as mcgahn continues to be the principled person he is, he then lays into him again and said to everybody, he has been lying all along. this is theater of the ob surd. theater of the obstruction. the only thing i will disagree with mike schmidt on is there is no split of continue of whether the president obstructed justice. mueller and 700 or 800 prosec e prosecutors who said he did and barr who is the president's pr flack who said he didn't. >> i wonder if the president read somewhere in the papers and he does pick them up in the morning and realize if there was a que

an ever changing cast at times from dowd to giuliani to jay sekulow who have had exchanges and interactions with witnesses in the mueller probe. where it was michael cohen or michael flynn and others. and those conversations are not always known or really understood inside the administration. they feel like as this moves forward on capitol hill, the president's personal lawyers will be under more scrutiny by democrats. >> i want to ask but that blind spot. one of the things that comes through to me and i'm curious having talked to these folks is, there was kind of an apparent fear that trump may have actually done more than mueller found that he did. did something worse than what part one of the report says. now that we know it all. because you can see quite clearly the panic in that voicemail. lawyers don't want to generally leave a voicemail like. that they want a live call. negligent a cooperating witness and his lawyers. the question, what does flynn have? what do you know that could really hurt the boss? and i say to you, how did they get so nervous unless they didn't believe what trum

the president's legal team trying to make that distinction as well as jay sekulow said in a statement today, quote, the attorney general conclusively determined there was no obstruction by the president. in the words of attorney general barr the report identifies no actions that in our judgment constitute obstructive conduct. but democrats long felt that the attorney general has been protecting the president, had been watering down mueller's findings. i asked press secretary sarah sanders why they will trust a political appointee when it comes to determining obstruction. >> we're not asking you to. robert mueller did 400 pages. the attorney general made his decision based on mueller's information. everybody keeps forgetting that. the entire decision about obstruction was based on mueller's report. reporter: after mueller's statement today, 30 minutes later the president sent out this initial reaction saying quote, nothing changes from the mueller report. there was insufficient evidence and therefore in our country a person is innocent. the case is closed. thank you. a couple different

democrats will let jay sekulow and others press pause for now while the appeals process works its way through. in exchange to them sticking to a more fast tracked appeals process. that's the handoff there. >> hallie jackson traveling with the president covering the sumo diplomacy. always good to see you. chuck todd will have a lot of ground to cover on "meet the press" when he talks to sarah sanders. >>> a california man has died after an apparent shark attack in hawaii. the 65-year-old tourist was swimming about 60 yards off the coast of maui sat when the attack happened. officials say first responders did grab the man, gave him cpr, but were unable to save him. >>> the nb a finals are set. the toronto raptors will take on the defending champions golden state warriors. they overcame a 15-point deficit to finish off the milwaukee bucks last night, 100-94. kawhi leonard led the raptors with 27 points. it begins thursday in toronto. >>> before you head out to your barbecue or beach party, take a moment to consider the men and women who have given their lives through the years from the c

jay sekulow. here he is. >> nothing of substance of in the statement.t mueller didn't offer anything outside of the report. but this is after barr spun the report. with held the report for weeks. it was important to hear from mueller. >> he made clear today he's not want to speak in public. he said in so many words this is my last public statement that my public statement is the report itself. he apparently felt the neeld to km out to correct the report to some degree. his report over two years of work, thousands of documents, depositions and etc. was spun. by the attorney general and president that was misleading. he goes this public because he felt the need to. to correct the record. >> speaking of misleading. i want to play this. from a woman at the town hall. it's about people misleading her. she cared enough to go to a town hall to listen. she didn't know there was anything negative in the report about the president. watch this. >> i was surprised to hear there was anything in the report negative about president trump. i hadn't heard that before. a

they may have been relaxed a bit since then, but we just had jay sekulow put out a statement. i think they will be prepared to make with the president says is no obstruction, no collusion. they are going to say, "listen, the attorney general's call and be a deputy attorney general, they made the call on obstruction." i think the robert mueller statement right there just makes it a lot more complicated and much more likely that they will be an impeachment process. >> katie: in terms of the justice department, for weeks now we have heard from democrats at attorney general bill barr no longer has credibility. we saw that contempt vote in the house, not in the full floor but out of the committee. they pushed the vote off. where does this go in terms of bill barr considering the discrepancy between what mueller said today about charging the president and what bill barr said under oath about not charging him? >> i bet he will be called again to clarify up on capitol hill. i think he will probably be talking to people and explaining his point of view. he has been kind of matter- of-f

jay sekulow, sent out the statement and he said "the attorney general conclusively determined there was no obstruction. from barr, there's no actions in our judgment that constitute obstructive conduct." so i asked sarah sanders on the north lawn, she took about a dozen or so questions, why the american public should trust the political appointee, the attorney general, to make a decision on obstruction. this was her response. >> we're not asking you to. robert mueller did 400 pages and laid it out. the attorney general made his decision based on mueller's information. everybody keeps forgetting that. the entire decision about -- >> shepard: and nancy pelosi is now to the matter at hand. let's listen. >> as gloria indicated, he did say that if he saw any evidence that the president was not -- was innocent, he would have let us know. if he had any evidence that the president was not guilty, he would have let us know. he didn't. he didn't. that was very, very important. while i have the deepest respect for him and thank him and his team for presenting the presentation of facts that will fu

barr did not hand a cop toe them saying it was to rudy giuliani and jay sekulow and company, the weekend they received it in redacted form attate. so this is for tenure of the office. the delay tactics used by barr as you're talking about kicked the can down the road. it did not resolve the issue. it delayed it in a way that makes people focus on it more. on the issue of privilege, i'm chuckling to myself saying we may have cooperated with someone who could have put someone in prison but we're not going to cooperate with a co-equal branch of government saying you have oversight authority. once mueller's work was done, congress should have been done as well but congress played second fiddle because they had to make sure that witnesses would come before them who would not risk having perjury or going to jail or having other legal jeopardy in front of robert mueller. they are supposed to delay it and now they are saying, we're all done here because mueller's book is closed. that's not the case. >> let -- let's just fact check this idea that it is political for mueller to say that he could n

the trump white house about bob mueller's comments today, each with a definitive conclusion, jay sekulow said it puts a period on a 2-year investigation, the trump campaign wrote that there was no case of obstruction, even vice president mike pence weighed in. the investigation is complete. all for claiming an end to the investigation that the white house officials believe should have never taken place to begin with. >> he said that it was completed. he is case closed, and shutting down his office. and going back to his private life. we think that it is great that he is doing that and we hope that everybody else does that as well. >> the sentiment echoed by the president who took to twitter to claim his innocence. there was insufficient evidence and in our country, a person is innocent. the case is closed. case closed from the president's perspective, but not to mueller whose comments today lead the white house to wonder if he was nearly setting the stage for congressional democrats to continue a impeachment drumbeat. rudy giuliani, a frequent critic of the team was bemused. >> when a pr