william barr has a tell. he has a tell when he's cornered. he has a give away, a signal when he is in trouble. it's not in his manner which is always very steady and seemingly calm. as the in the way he perrys the question that is loadeding with danger for him. the very first thing he always does, you can watch this, the very first thing he does when he's in trouble is he asks for the question to be reapeted. he does that every time. he needs that time to think about what to say and then after the question is repeated, he always latches on to one word in the question. and then plays with that word to run away from answering the question. it happened a few times today. let's watch william barr's tell in action when he is asked a very important question that he obviously does not want to answer by senator kamala harris. >> attorney general barr, has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? >> um, i wouldn't -- i wouldn't -- >> yes or no. >> could you -- could you repeat that qu

spacious, 121 cubic feet of cargo space ford expedition. >>> many who watched attorney general william barr'ste judiciary committee which followed the revelation that the special counsel robert mueller had expressed miss givings about mr. barr's characterization of his report are despairing about the rule of law. i'm not among them. i think the system is working and inching however slowly toward justice. those are not my words. they are far too elegant obviously. everything i just said appears in neal katyal's piece tonight in the "new york times" entitled "why barr can't whitewash account mueller report." joining us now is neal katyal, former acting attorney general and msnbc contributor. i want to focus your response to certain things. i have al idea what you've been saying about there. i want to show you something william barr said today about the president's ability to fire the special counsel not just for conflict of interest. this is now the false accusations theory. i want to get your response to all of these theories of legitimate firing that were offered today. let's watch there. >>

he just felt william barr should have released more information.d about that letter or the conversations when lawmakers asked him about mueller's opinion on his conclusion? >> he was candid. he was honest about it. it was made clear the real problem mueller had was not with what he said. he said the letter was not inadequate. he was upset the way the media was portraying the report but he got the report out as quickly as he could. the only reason they are sniping at william barr is to set him up and i think the appropriate way to proceed would be to have mueller come forward and testify about his report. >> releasing 19 pages, william barr didn't do it. of all the smoke, that is a fair point. >> he was going to release the entire report, why release the 19 page summary done strictly for the media, and looking at mueller, and his team for criminal leaks they involve. and the letter you are talking about. and allusion to the senate. and there were leaks by the mueller team that -- that has got to be reviewed. we have people on the mueller team contin

they found william barr for this gig? >> they googled "cover-up general." >> exactly. who is famous for cover-up as attorney general? right. >> okay, rachel. go home and don't sleep. >> i will do. >> thank you, rachel. >> thanks. >>> senator elizabeth warren is going to join us later in this hour, and it's on a day when she's enjoyed a significant bump in the polls, including one poll where she comes in second behind joe biden, just ahead of bernie sanders in third place. we will get her reaction to what joe biden said today about impeachment. at the end of the hour, we will take a look at what the outlaw trump white house got away with today in the white house driveway. kellyanne conway actually broke the law in the white house driveway, on video in front of a group of reporters who didn't seem to notice that she broke the law, and that might be because there is so much other seemingly bigger potential law breaking going on in and around this president of the united states. first tonight we go to the breaking news about

resignation. 10 mentions of william barr to resign. got 16 minutes and 0 mentions. that is a big topic the attorney general should resign. >> he did nothing for him to have to resign. calling for him to re-sign based on lying, he hasn't lied. that is something the speaker of the house nancy pelosi brought up yesterday. a lot of interesting stunts at the hearing, at the house. congress bringing in a bucket of fried chicken, you had them putting a chicken as a prop in front of it. calling him the chicken when he spent 6 hours testifying the day before. is kind of funny and also if democrats wanted to point to something, they do have a case, asking robert mueller why he didn't decide to move forward with any indictment against the president when it comes to obstruction of justice. even the attorney general said he was surprised robert mueller didn't move forward with some clear decision on that. democrats want to point to anything i think they can look to mueller and ask why he didn't make a decision on that front. carley: every can agree

william barr is the head of those affirmative justice.the head of the terms of good manners. he's not there to determine whether the president is a nice guy were behaved appropriately. he is there to determine whether there was a conspiracy with the russians in order to interfere with the 2016 election and whether or not the president of the united states attempted to obstruct the investigation. at the end of the day he said this is a binary choice for prosecutors to make after examining the facts and that is what he was there to do, not talk about whether the president on occasion acted in a petulant manner. shannon: what did you think of his mannerisms? >> is a pretty unflappable guy. he has been to this rodeo once before having been attorney general and served in some high-level positions. i would have had a difficult time listening to the haranguing he received from senator hirono of hawaii but william barr is aware, he is a professional and he handled himself quite well. >> he was aware there would be a lot of grandstanding going on

if mueller, as "the washington post" is reporting tonight, has told william barr that barr has misrepresented his findings, mishandled the findings of this investigation, given congress and the public an inaccurate summary, an inaccurate characterization of what it is that mueller found and the results of that inquiry, should barr really be overseeing all of the prosecutions that derive from that inquiry, that are still open criminal matters? and if this is, in fact, what happened, if mueller called barr and wrote barr a letter right after barr put out his supposed summary of what mueller found and said, hey, you are getting it wrong, that is not what we found at all. if we can't trust you to accurately summarize our materials, then put out our own materials. here's the summary. they're redacted for public view. send these out. if that conversation happened, both in writing and then on the phone between mueller and barr, on or about the 27th of march, why is it that a few weeks later, april 10th, barr testified under oath in the u.s. senate that he had no idea whether or not mueller had any p

well, william barr and the justice department say that they learned that that was mueller's position at a meeting between barr and mueller on march 5th. march 5th of this year. that's the first time the two of these guys met after william barr was sworn in as attorney general, after he was cleared by the justice department ethics office to take over oversight of mueller's work. well, how did william barr respond to that news flash from mueller when mueller told barr on march 5th that he believed he couldn't make a traditional prosecutive decision about the president? how did barr take that? how did he respond? well, now we know in his own words. >> i think that if he felt that he shouldn't go down the path of making a traditional prosecutive decision, then he shouldn't have investigated. that was the time to pull up. >> so that was the time to pull up. if you're not making a charging decision and you say you're not then the way william barr thinks about it means you can't be investigating. you can't be using grand juries. you can't be using subpoenas. you can't be using all of the too

william barr in contempt of congress for not handing over the documents. griff jenkins live as nancy pelosi threatens impeachment. good morning. >> reporter: nancy pelosi shot down talk of impeachment until now. the president weighed in. >> instead of wasting time, energy, taxpayer dollars on partisan stunts and hoaxes and witchhunts, democrats should be focused on building up our country. did you see what just happened? know collusion, no obstruction. know anything. >> this after the house judiciary committee took a step towards holding william barr in contempt sending it to the full house for a vote and prompting the white house executive privilege for the first time, jerry never declaring it a constitutional crisis. >> this is an attack on the essence of our democracy and we must oppose this with every fiber of our being. we talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis. we are now in it. we are now in a constitutional crisis. >> republicans on the committee blasted the move driven by politics. >> i think it is all about trying to des

it's clear that attorney general william barr is the last person you should talking to. we've got mueller on the record saying barr has been mischaracterizing his work and mishandling hiss work, right? so, the whole idea that barr is the one you go to if you want to know anything about this investigation or about mueller himself, that's over now. barr himself elected not to turn up in front of the house judiciary committee. that will take some time to resolve as a conflict. barr had volunteered today. he backed out. now they will likely subpoena him to testify. if he refuses to testify in response to the subpoena, they'll have to fight that. ultimately they may decide to hold him in contempt of congress. that will be a lengthy process. by the time barr agrees to sit down in front of the house judiciary committee, we will be some distance further down the road in this ongoing scandal. one side benefit of that delay is that by that point, william barr will hopefully no longer be seen as the guy you're supposed to ask questions of about robert mueller. by that point whenever

he wrote a letter to william barr to express his frustration .ter, we are just learning about it, he accused william barr of creating public confusion that threatened to undermine the purpose of this special counsel. let's go to earlier, 7:00 is when this committee hearing started, now you see the picture, william barr just started speaking about 2 to 3 minutes ago. this hearing started right at 7:00, but first we heard from lindsey graham, his words range from appraising special counsel, robert mueller to being an outstanding attorney, but in his words, he said this report should be over. then we heard from the ranking democrat in the committee, she had obviously a very different take on it and was asking and mentioning this letter. we don't know what william barr is saying, we are going to check on that pretty shortly here, but all of this to give you some background. william barr released the summary before the full report was released to the public. and, in that summary, he said that the president did not collude with russian operatives to in

let me tell you about william barr. last week i went to rod rosenstein's farewell in the department of justice. that was held in the great hall. they don't usually hold a farewell ceremony for the deputy ag in the great hall. christopher ray was there, william barr was there, rob rosenstein was there, jeff sessions was there. that sound like somebody who is sliming his own department? a complete lie. william barr has not said one thing since he became attorney general to slime his own department. thanks for the promotion. i was not independent counsel. i was deputy independent counsel. shannon: rarely in washington do people demote themselves. they like extra credit where they can get it but we want to keep it accurate here. we hear from brad, the president's 2020 campaign manager, he things all of this will help them. here is what he said. >> is the russia investigation has fallen apart we are investigating the people who made the lies at the table has turned. the president has seen an increase of democrats supporting

he was talking about william barr's summary. >> correct. what barr is saying is no.ated -- i have to say the moment that barr came out, i thought there was a conflict between mueller and barr as to what to do. i think it is now entirely clear that there is a conflict between barr and mueller that has to be assessed. >> it raises the stakes to get robert mueller up on capitol hill. >> suabsolutely. >> it's being said that mueller wants to. this is another moment with william barr. he said when the special counsel turned over the mueller report we thought the grand jury testimony would have been redacted. he said what was handed to us was not prepared in that fashion. i thought it was a dig to mueller's team. >> it was. their response was that's why we created summaries. we created summaries so you could release those to the public. it sounds like that's what mueller wanted. he wanted the summaries to be released because he felt they could more accurately characterize what was in the report. barr said i said to him no. i don't want to release summaries. i want to relea

our plans to consider holding william barr accountable for failure to comply with the subpoena stilltand. my hope is we make concrete progress at tomorrow's meeting toward resolving this dispute. the doj have taken steps to accommodate the request. we will see what comes up today's meeting, senator john kennedy is blasting both sides. >> i think it is juvenile, you can only be young once but you can always be immature. both sides in this are doubling down on stupid. both sides need to sit down and negotiate what the administration can provide and what the house actually needs. >> the house judiciary committee at the center of another massive fight, getting robert mueller to testify himself, donald trump reversed course of the weekend saying mueller should not testify but republicans say they want a chance to question it in public and in private. that wasn't enough. this was the deadline for don mcgann to provide documents the committee-related to jeff sessions's firing, michael flynn, the now famous trump tower meeting. mcgann has been subpoenaed to testify later this month. coming b

counsel to the president and it flood towards robert mueller and his investigators in a letter to william barrccusing the special counsel's team of political statements saying they failed to act as traditional prosecutors. as for the, quote, hearing which barr refused to appear at over demanded staff counsel be able to question him democrats using the no-show as an opportunity to attack the president and the ag. >> system of not having a president as a dictator is at stake. >> he lied to congress. if anybody else did that it would be considered a crime. >> reporter: a visit from the kernel, congressman steve cohen's attempt at humor. >> chicken bar should have shown up today and answered questions. he was afraid of mary burke, attorney general who picked for his illegal acumen and abilities would not be fearful of any other attorneys questioning him for 30 minutes. >> reporter: jerry never for the contempt citation against william barr if he does not meet democrats demands. it is a shame for democracy when you bring the kernel into it. heather: i didn't find it very funny but theatrical is a g

in fact, mueller wrote a letter to william barr to express his frustration back in march. in that letter, he accused the attorney general of creating public confusion that threatened to undermine the purpose of the special counsel. his summary was that the president did not collude with operatives to influence the election, and there was not enough evidence to charge the president with obstruction of justice. mueller said that characterization was oversimplified and lacked context. william barr said his motivation in releasing that summary was to provide a broad verdict on conclusions of the report. here is what he said.>> announcing after an extended trial with the verdict of the trial, it is pending release of the full transcript, that is what we were trying to do, notify the people as to the bottom line conclusion. we were not trying to summarize the 410 page report. >> the questioning has been predictably partisan, which republicans are more sympathetic, democratics are more combative. they are taking a quick break for lunch but they will resume this afternoon and the

william barr did face questions. this was after the summary was released after william barr received the letter from mueller and had the phone conversation. let's make sure we play both exchanges here. you can see barr being far less than truthful, we think, in his answers. >> did bob mueller support your conclusion? >> i don't know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. >> reports have emerged that members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findings. do you know what they are referencing with that? >> no, i don't. >> at this point he had already read the letter from robert mueller and had a phone conversation with robert mueller. so his answer there does not seem true. >> it's the second exchange there that's so crucial. of course he had already received that letter over about a week before from robert mueller detailing his issues with how barr portr

to step down nancy pelosi and adam schiff are among those calling for william barr the u.s. attorney general to leave his post out of outrage about his behavior surrounding the moeller report so it seems like even after the report of special counsel robert mueller saying there was no collusion the trump russia story continues to persist now with democrats determined that they want further answers and that they are unsatisfied with the results of that investigation. artie's killer martin live in new york thanks very much for the updates on the it's ok we now return to our top story the wiki leaks founder julian assange being sentenced in britain to fifty weeks in prison for skipping below in twenty well i'm very pleased to say we can bring in naomi called the director of the courage fund ation which raises legal defense for whistleblowers thanks for holding on the line there naomi some supporters say the sentence is excessive why do you think the judge saw fit to near the maximum punishment. well i think it was quite clear actually from that first hearing julian had after bei

>> i'm with william barr.uld have reached a conclusion in this investigation and chose not to. that was left up to him as was stated many times. the attorney general was not going to intercede with the investigation. he was going to let it go. everything was given, all the resources to either conclude there needed to be an indictment to robert mueller and the fact that nothing came from the states this is a giant nothing burger for democrats continuing to pursue this and mischaracterize attorney general william barr. rob: william barr said that mueller wouldn't have charged obstruction even if he could but mueller hasn't said that. that is democrats point. >> you have to look back at what william barr said. he could have reached a conclusion. he had the ability to reach a conclusion and chose not to. there is not enough evidence to charge them with obstruction. 19 after the hour. robert they niro, no friend of the president. >> this idiot is the president. the guy is a [bleep] fool. of course i want to punch h

in the united states, the head of the justice department, attorney general william barr, is defended his handling of the mueller report into russian interference to the 2016 presidential election. speaking at a hearing of the senate judiciary committee, barr rejected accusations that he misrepresented its conclusions when he declared in a summary that the report did not support criminal charges against trump. that prompted trump to tweet that the report quote, totally exonerated him. before the senate hearing today it emerged that special counsel robert mueller had complained to barr at the way that barr had characacterized the reporting's findings saying that the summary did not fully capture the context of a nature, or the substance of the report. reporter: page after page after page. the mueller report unveils unflattering material about president trump's conduct. trump himself has his own summary. >> we have no collusion, no collusion, no no obstruction. reporter: however democrats and the house of representatives still believe the president obstructed justice and are demanding th

and william barr, and a whole host of things.akes news on the hill. we want to get to this. trump impersonator alec baldwin is actually going after the president, saying he fooled "flyover americans." is he helping or hurting the liberal because with such talk? the debate on the couch, next. >> everybody that has a job, this has changed them. except trump. he is the only man in american history that the presidency of the united states has had no effect whatsoever. ♪ you this brita. dad... i just got a zerowater. but we've always used brita. it's two stage-filter... doesn't compare to zerowater's 5-stage. this meter shows how much stuff, or dissolved solids, gets left behind. our tap water is 220. brita? 110... seriously? but zerowater- let me guess. zero? yup, that's how i know it is the purest-tasting water. i need to find the receipt for that. oh yeah, you do. our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and min

and the coverage surrounding william barr continues. white house and nbc news peter alexander on the president's league team reacting on the reservation oaf mueller expressing concerns to barr. and justice correspondent pete williams has his latest reporting. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you are watching "morning joe. we'll be right back. the matters.ar... introducing the all-new 2019 ford ranger, it's the right gear. with a terrain management system for... this. a bash plate for... that. an electronic locking rear differential for... yeah... this. heading to the supermarket? get any truck. heading out here? get the ford ranger. the only adventure gear built ford tough. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel sites - even our competitors - so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. ka

justice department under william barr really doesn't care about being caught out lying about anything. right? just last night they're saying oh, no, no, no, no, you're going to report that there was some angry letter from mueller to barr? mueller wasn't mad about anything barr did. he was just mad at the media, you terrible reporters. literally, they're telling the "washington post" and the, in times that last night, knowing that the letter is going to be released today. they know they're going to be caught out in those lies. they don't care. it seems like the working -- i don't know, the working plan there is just win your tiny little blip in each news cycle. win the day. win the morning. it doesn't matter if you get exposed right afterwards for having lied about something. that's checkable. just say whatever you need to say in that moment. it will ultimately never matter when you finally get caught out. so that's how the justice department is running now. that's what's going on at the justice department. that's what's going on with the great wash, rinse, repeat cycle that is the lau

that, when barr still ignored him, i mean, this is robert mueller, we now know, banging down william barr's door with a caveman club about barr covering up mueller's findings and misrepresenting mueller's findings and refusing to release mueller's actual findings, no matter what mueller did. he's telling him on march 5th. he is telling him again on march 4th. he's telling him again on march 25th. he's telling him again on march 27th. he starts telling him this in writing. i better make sure there is some record of this. when "the washington post" and "the new york times" broke the story last night that there was this letter complaining, mueller complaining to barr about barr misrepresenting his findings, both "the post" and "the times," there were all these high-ranking anonymous justice department sources quoted as saying, no, no, mueller was perfectly happy with how this all went. he never said barr was going anything wrong. mueller was just frustrated that that dastardly news media was missing all the important context of his findings. all those statements from senior justice department

barr. i think it was pete williams or perhaps an analyst used the word that in the view of william barr, these lawyers are pip squeaks. he's the attorney general, why should he allow these lawyers to be able to question him. but on the other hand i think you saw the effectiveness of having questions from seasoned lawyers who know how to conduct this kind of pressured questioning. kamala harris was a great example. i saw her on the program earlier. she is one who used veteran techniques across examination as a former prosecutor to yield new information and put barr on the spot. so that is also kind of a potential risk for the attorney general. but either way, once yesterday they voted to allow this to happen, william barr and his people at the department said no way, we're simply not showing up. so considering how partisan the senate hearing was yesterday, today would have been frankly farther down that line. but again what you will see is posturing here at the top. jerry nadler potentially taking some action. we don't know if he will subpoena or hold in contempt, et cetera. so keep an eye out

what william barr wants to know about is the origins of the probe.the steel dossier might have been used in the fisa application and durham has several times in the past looked at sticky situations for holder, mccabe, there is already a us attorney looking for situations, doesn't mean it is committal. the big thing to understand, the finger-pointing, whether this information should have been given to trump. comey did apparently decide trump should be briefed on it. seems that was a prudent thing to do given the nature of the allegations but it is 180 ° different from the ongoing previous dispute about how it was used in the fisa warrant. shannon: as we tried to break this apart, there will be scores of people helping and getting answers from the rest of us. former house oversight committee chairman trÈs gouty has been talking about distances you need to look back to this email chain from december 2016 that talks about whether comey or brennan was part of this intelligence assessment. do you think the american people ever get a look at that? >> probab

in a letter and phone call to attorney general william barr shortly after barr released his initial four-page summary of the mueller report march 24th. this was the same memo which barr cleared president trump of obstruction, mueller expressing frustration, specifically over the lack of context and substance in that memo, saying it caused public confusion. and this new development is now shining a light on barr's back-to-back congressional testimony last month. let me jog your memory. take a look. >> reports have emerged recently, general, members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter, and it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report's findings. do you know what they're recognizing with that? >> no, i don't. i think -- i suspect they probably wanted more put out. >> did bob mueller support your conclusion? >> i don't know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. >> hmm, nbc's geoff bennett on capitol hill where attorney general barr is set to testify starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern.

william barr, senator lindsey graham and mitch mcconnell polishing donald trump's shoes.ver getting major back lash online as you imagine. if you can't beat them, kick them out. a school got booted from its own conference for winning too many games. carly shimkus with reaction up ahead. ♪ ordering custom ink t-shirts has been a really smart decision for our business. i love the custom ink design lab because it's really easy to use. they have customer service that you can reach anytime. t-shirts help us immediately get a sense of who we are as a group. from the moment clients walk in, they're able to feel like part of the family. - [spokesman] custom ink has hundreds of products for your business and free shipping. upload your logo or start your design today at customink.com. umost of us don't know how much data we use... ♪ ...but we all know we're paying too much for it. enter xfinity mobile. america's best lte with the most wifi hotspots. combined for the first time. when you're near an xfinity hotspot, you're connected to wifi, saving on data. when you're not, you pay f

growing calls from top democrats for the attorney general william barr to resign. coming as he testified before the house judiciary committee about the mueller report. barr downplayed the special counsel's findings in his obstruction of justice investigation of the president and defended his own handling of the report. this after the revelation of a bombshell letter from mueller, objecting to barr's characterization of his russia probe. we'll talk about the breaking news with a key member of the judiciary committee, senator richard blumenthal. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let's get some details on the latest truly remarkable developments our political correspondent, sara murray, is working this story for us. sara, barr strongly defended himself and president trump as he was grilled for some four hours. >> that's right, wolf. we really saw a defiant attorney general there, defending the president and also defending himself, insisting he didn't mislead congress, even though he wasn't particularly forthcoming about his conversations

william barr has been through all of this before accusations of dishonesty, accusations of being part of a cover-up, calls for his impeachment. the people who urged trump to choose barr knew he would know how to handle it once again. democrats controlled the house and senate in 1992 and were outraged as barr's handling after investigation of the administration which included an investigation of the conduct of the fbi and the justice department. so william barr was actually supervising then an investigation of himself. as i reported on this program recently, "new york times" columnist william sapphire on october 19th, 1992, called attorney general william barr the cover-up general because of the way he handled that investigation. william sapphire was a conservative republican columnist in the "new york times" in those days. he had worked as a speechwriter for richard nixon. even william sapphire was astonished by barr's conduct as attorney general. but if bill sapphire was still with us tonight, ed not be surprised to hear what the speaker of the house said today about attorney general

of having misled the public regarding the investigation however william barr said that was not the case that that sentence from the letter referred simply to the media not to his own activities i asked him if he was suggesting that the march twenty fourth letter was inaccurate and he said no but that the press reporting had been inaccurate bob mahler's report. did not reach any conclusion about whether or not trump had engaged in obstruction of justice bob mahler's report simply. illustrated sip instances in which that could potentially be the case william barr feels that donald trump did not obstruct justice so with clear disagreement on capitol hill the saga of the trump russian investigation even much as longer after its conclusion seems to be continuing the trump russia story persists with more hearings more testimony and possible contempt charges for the u.s. attorney general a congress in its capacity here is not really investigating malfeasance by the attorney general which is their job as oversight there actually having some perry mason like. miller to investigation whi

congressional democrats are gearing up for a bitter battle with attorney general william barr and jerryatum before moving forward with his threat to hold the ag in contempt. i understand from my sources he's going to try to mark up a resolution this wednesday. judge michael mukasey joins me now in an exclusive interview served as attorney general under president george w. bush and your honor it is always a pleasure to see you thanks so much for joining us this morning >> good to be here. maria: before we go into what took place this past week your reaction to what you've heard on this program so far this morning >> well, that was quite a tossed salad of facts that we got from george papadopoulos and but i think that he's only part of the story, and bill barr has said that he's going to conduct an investigation to how all of this got started and i think that george papadopoulos is only part of it. maria: okay, so when you say a salad of facts tell me how you see all of this, and what has taken place in the last two years. i mean, we know that this guy was, he had outreach from all of the

william barr, not going. what is going to happen today? >> this is the room where bill barr was supposed to be. in the chair behind me, that's where bill barr was going into sitting to be grilled by house democrats with concerns about how he handled the mueller report and its rollout. he's not attending because of a dispute with chairman jerry nadler over the format of the hearing. what nadler wanted was to allow staff lawyers on the republican and democratic side to question barr for 30 minutes each. that's not going to happen. the justice department said bill barr is not attending if that's the format. everything has been escalated. yesterday, the justice department refused to turn over the unredacted mueller report even though nadler subpoenaed it. nadler said he's going to give the justice department a day or two. then we expect him to move forward with contempt proceedings against the attorney general. here's what nadler said about the defiance he's facing when it comes to the justice department. >> he's trying to blackmail the committ

i saw a great american statesman in the attorney general william barr.those buoys and told it like it was. he did not back down. at the end of the day it is over, it is absolutely over, democrats realized they screwed up, there was nothing there, no collusion and we've got to get to the bottom of who perpetrated this horrible horrible fraud on the american people and i do believe the attorney general is serious about getting to the bottom of that. shannon: he talked to the inspector general of the doj, the fbi director christopher ray and us attorney john huber. >> i am sorry but i don't think you are watching the same hearing i was today but in addition to that the american people have been screwed by russia interfering with our election and that should be something democrats and republicans are concerned about not thinking this is a witchhunt that continues against donald trump. shannon: would you agree? it is a nonpartisan issue that there is evidence russia wants to divide and conquer this country and pit us against each other and interfere their ele

barr. i think it was pete williams or perhaps an analyst used the word that in the view of william barr, thesegeneral, why should he allow these lawyers to be able to question him. but on the other hand i think you saw the effectiveness of having questions from seasoned lawyers who know how to conduct this kind of pressured questioning. kamala harris was a great example. i saw her on the program earlier. she is one who used veteran techniques across examination as a former prosecutor to yield new information and put barr on the spot. so that is also kind of a potential risk for the attorney general. but either

the president is very pleased with william barr's testimony and pleased with his actions today. you think now we move on to the idea that the house judiciary committee is looking forward to robert mueller testifying. the letter emmet flood sent to barr after he read the mueller report. he was worried about a road map to congress. what you see is the white house even if the president is saying he was exonerated. the white house read that and was worried robert mueller was going to be able to work with the committees and try to move forward with the investigation. it's going to be interesting when robert mueller comes to congress and say here's what i was thinking. obstruction of justice volume two. muls muls is talking about the concerns he had when william barr was setting the narrative. robert mueller had issues with the media coverage. the letter speaks for himself. he did not mention cnn or any net works. they have issues with the way you are creating public confusion. >> one last question in this segment. we know the president according to the office of legal counsel, you are

william barr? if mueller meant to send a message to the american people on obstruction did he fail because he was outmaneuvered? when will we hear from mueller himself? his testimony really seems guaranteed and vital because there are serious questions about whether the attorney general lied in testimony he has already given on the report. how will barr explain his selective quotes from the mueller report that seemed to twist the special counsel's intent. some democrats are already calling for impeachment of william barr. so we have a potentially explosive day ahead and our coverage begins with lauren fox live in capitol hill. she is in the hearing room, the room where it will all happen. lauren? >> reporter: that's right, john. in just a couple of hours bill barr will come before the senate judiciary committee and have to answer questions about how he handled the mueller report, specifically that reporting from the "washington post" as a new explosive element to all of this where democrats are goi

i know you worked in washington with william barr at the department of justice.rm. i think you were fairly ok with it then. you have since read the report. have you changed your mind? when we first spoke william barr had released his letter to congress summarising what he saw in the report, that was some weeks before the full report was released. and, yes, ithink weeks before the full report was released. and, yes, i think attorney general barr didn't characterise the report completely accurately, with respect to obstruction ofjustice. i think it is important here for a fuller version of the report to be released, certainly to congress, who has a oversight rule with respect to the executive branch of the notice as government. we know too that is certainly what robert mueller wrote ina certainly what robert mueller wrote in a letter to mr barr. that is exactly right. both william barr and robert mueller have long—term connections to the united states government and the department of justice. it is an interesting juxtaposition where you have robert mueller and his

is she speaking the truth about william barr? >> she's making a ridiculous ad hominem personal attack on his integrity, which i think is deplorable. the fact is, william barr spoke to mueller after he received the letter and said, "is there anything in the letter that's an accurate?" , he said no his complaint was with the way the press was handling it. that's not a complaint against bill barr or the letter that he sent summarizing the report that he then released to the congress. >> harris: then there is where -- we know the invitation has been issued for bob mueller to come and talk about his own report. replicant senator kennedy of louisiana said he'd be front of me were testifying about it. let's watch. >> if mr. mueller wants to come over here and explain why he conducted an investigation and spent a lot of taxpayer money and then couldn't make up his mind, i would be happy to listen to him. did the mueller team recommend an indictment of donald trump for conspiracy or collusion? the answer is no. number two, did the mueller

this letter came days after william barr released his summary of the mueller report but before williamreleased the full report. in the letter from mueller to bar, mueller wrote the summary did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of his work. there is public confusion about critical aspects as a result of the investigation undermining the central purpose for which the department appointed a special counselor, in the outcome of the investigation. you can imagine republicans and democrats look at this differently. first the republican. >> this sounds like more grandstanding. democrats can't come to grips with the fact the mueller report found there was no collusion, no conspiracy, no obstruction. >> it helps the american people to know that this administration and all those lined up with the president trying to protect him have obstructed not only justice but congress of the united states of america. >> reporter: william barr's hearing at 10:00 eastern, his opening statement released overnight reads in part the special counsel completed his investigation as he saw fit. i i

about how barr's conclusions made the public more confused >> did robert mueller get played by william barr? if he meant to send a message on obstruction, did he fail because he was outmaneuvered by barr? when will we hear from robert mueller himself? his testimony seems guaranteed and crucial. did the attorney general lie in testimony he's already given on the report? how will he explain his selective quotes from the mueller report that seem to twist mueller's intent? some democrats are calling for impeachment of the attorney general. this makes for what could be an explosive day. jessica snyder is live from washington this morning. >> reporter: good morning, john. this was set to be a contentious hearing already. now even more so. democrats spent the overnight hours rewriting their questions to zero in on revelations that the special counsel objected to barr's characterizations to congress on the obstruction of justice issue in the late march letter. the criticism from robert mueller adds a new dimension to lingering criticisms but the attorney general today is planning to defend his acti

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unreleased materials from house democrats after chairman jerry nadler sought to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for refusing to hand over what they want n. a letter barr told the president in these circumstances you may properly assert executive privilege with respect to the entirety of the department of justice materials the committee has demanded. the house is all but taunting nadler to take the matter to court. >> you would think for an attorney chairman nadler would be more up on the law. i'm not and i feel i understand it better than he does. nadler is trying to violate the law. the president and the attorney general are upholding it. >> reporter: the standoff comes one day after the administration instructed former white house counsel don mcgann to refuse to cooperate with nadler's committee prompting house speaker nancy pelosi to drop the i-word. >> the president is goading us into impeachment, whether it's obstruction, obstruction, obstruction. obstruction of having people come to the table with facts, ignoring subpoenas every single day. the president is making

now it's important to note that yesterday there was testimony by william barr for roughly six hours he was before the committee and he answered a number of questions and it was quite a grilling now the focus seems to have been on a phrase in the bob butler report referring to quote public confusion about critical aspects of the investigation and how democrats argued that this showed that million bar had misled the public regarding the conclusions of the bob muller report however william barr said that it was the media that had misled the public and that he had spoken with bob mueller and bob mueller did not feel that he had misrepresented his report he said that he had worked closely with bob mueller and that donald trump was not guilty of obstruction of justice now while bob mueller was ambiguous in his report and pointed to instances where a case could possibly be made william barr was adamant that trump had not committed obstruction of justice this is some of what we heard from william barr when he did testify before the senate judiciary committee yesterday. to me she was suggesting

the bbc's legal analyst.th how damaging i split between robert mueller and the attorney general william barr: in terms of their respective legacy, it cogid be quite da. in terms of their friendship, it probably going to withstand this. bill barr made a strong case to argue a la king lrer that he is sinned against than inner. he raised a couple of new things we did not know. one things -- one of the things he said was the delay was due to the fact that robert mueller dil not do what hemueller to do, just to identify grand jury materials so they could quickly get the report to the whblic. he sai mueller did not do that, they were stuck in the slow process, that he wanted it to be done earlier. he also said critically that mueller called himnd said i do not believe your letter is misleading, i want this information released because people are talking about my not reaching a conclusion and they need to know why. most importantly, barr confirmed he felt mueller should have reached a conclusion. some of us haven't been writingo since the came out that mueller's position on this is incomprehensible