Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom With Bill Hemmer And Sandra Smith 20190410

Department budget. But like yesterdays hearing with house lawmakers, the conversation is expected to turn to the Mueller Report. It is extraordinary to make definitive legal conclusions in less than 48 hours. The thinking of the special counsel was not a mystery to the people at the department of justice. Would strike a serious blow to our system and yes to our democracy. That report is not fully seen. Within a week i will be in a position to release the report to the public. Will we have the complete report . The unredacted report . No. The first pass at this is going to produce a report that makes these redactions. Sandra those were the big headlines from yesterday. Catherine herridge joins us live. What should we expect from todays hearing . Sandra, good morning. The thing to watch is whether we get more information about the ongoing investigations and reviews looking at the genesis of the f. B. I. s russia probe. Weve been reporting at fox news for weeks if not months there is a parallel set of investigations being run by the Justice Departments Inspector General and yesterday for the first time the attorney general said he expects one of those reports as early as may or june of this year and confirmed he is personally reviewing the genesis of the f. B. I. Probe and he warned lawmakers that he would open additional investigations if the evidence is there. He also testified that he will review criminal referrals from the House Republican that go to conspiracy, media leaks and lying to congress. I havent seen the referrals yet from congressman nunes. But obviously if there is a predicate for an investigation it will be conducted. The genesis of one of the most important investigations was actually the Clinton Emails and Inspector General Michael Horowitz from that evidence decided to open an investigation that also looked at socalled fisa abuse. Whether the surveillance warrant system and the courts were abused in the process of the 2016 election when the f. B. I. And Justice Department obtained a surveillance warrant for a Trump Campaign aide. Here is the attorney general. The office of the Inspector General has a pending investigation of the fisa process in the russian investigation. And i expect that that will be complete in probably may or june, i am told. So hopefully well have some answers from Inspector General horowitz on the issue of the fisa warrants. Were also expecting some sort of conclusion from horowitz on two other issues. One is the leaking of classified information from senior f. B. I. Officials as well as their receipt of gifts which is in violation of the ethics code. Sandra what sort of talk is there about a grand jury material . What we learned from the attorney general yesterday is that there will be redactions. One of the categories is grand jury information and if democrats are very serious about getting that information released to them, not publicly, they need to go to the courts to do that. He also indicated that there will be redactions in the report in the next week and they will be colorcoded like a legend so the public can understand what they are and why they were withheld. Here is the attorney general. Right now the special counsel is working with us on identifying information in the reports that fall under those four categories. We will color code the excisions from the report and we will provide explanatory notes describing the basis for each redaction. This is one of those situations where we paid a lot of attention to the words the attorney general is using. He said within a week. That gives us tuesday if not sooner. Sandra thank you. Bill want to bring in Alan Dershowitz harvard law professor emeritus. In a broad sense what did you hear yesterday . He very much wants to depoliticize the department of justice and bring it back to its origins as a nonpartisan, Law Enforcement agency. He wants to have credibility. He wants to produce the report according to the law. See not going to be pressured by the president or the democrats, not going to be pressured by the republicans. He will do it the right way. Thats the projected image that he wants to convey. He is the right guy to do it. Bill he said it wasnt not a mystery was his quote as to what they would receive from mueller. He said they had an inkling as to what the special counsel was thinking. Why would that be important . Well, because you dont want to fall into the situation where you have to make an important decision within 48 hours without having some advance knowledge. So im sure that barr knew from mueller what the thrust of the report was going to be. Had time to think about it and time to talk to his aides about it and time to make the decision that attorney general is making. The special counsel works with the attorney general. It is the attorney general ultimately responsible for deciding how much of the report to release and how to act on it. It is the attorney general who has the authority to indict, prosecute or not prosecute. So i think he is doing exactly the right thing. Bill two more questions here. He said mueller declined to review his summary. Is that significant . I dont know why he would have declined to review it. He wanted to be able to have denyability. Mueller has to go back to his own staff. He has worked closely with them for a long time. A lot of people on the staff will be upset and already leaked to the New York Times some of their upset. Those who dissented from the decision not to prosecute for obstruction. I still stick to what i said a long time ago. It will be a critical report of the president when it comes to obstruction. There will be a group of people who say he obstructed justice. One key issue that nobody raised, will we know the names of the people on each side of yes, we should charge him with obstruction, no, we shouldnt charge him with obstruction . Will we know the individual names of the prosecutors on the team so we the public can assess whether its a partisan political decision or a neutral prosecutorial decision. The democrats are calling for complete transparency. I havent heard them call for the names of people on each side of lets charge him and lets charge him debate. That will be the headline. Bill would it help us sort out the political nature of the decision . Yes. For me somebody who has done criminal law for 50 years its a terrible question to ask about the partisan nature. Justice department shouldnt be partisan or divided over whether youre a protrump or antitrump person. You should apply the law to the facts. Im doing an introduction to the Mueller Report. Im dying to see what it says. I want to get into it in a detailed way and figure out who is right and who is wrong on the issue of obstruction of justice. Very difficult and complicated issue. Bill well hear more from him in an hour when he is before the Senate Committee. Sandra now some we have a fox news alert on the latest coming from the wall street journal on hush money. What were learning about new evidence gathered over the course of that time. Trumps inner circle is what the wall street journal is now reporting was questioned in the hush money investigation. The manhattan u. S. Attorneys office has gathered more evidence than was previously known in its criminal investigation of those hush payments to two women who alleged affairs with donald trump including former members of the president s inner circle. This is just coming into us now. We continue to learn more about it. Were learning federal investigators interviewed hope hicks and former security chief Keith Schiller as part of the investigation into the hush money payments. That is the news for now. More changes at the department of Homeland Security. Acting deputy secretary claire grady handing in her resignation just days after Kirstjen Nielsen stepped down. President trump insists he is not overhauling the entire department. President trump i never said i was cleaning house. We have great people over there. Kevin will do a fantastic job. Homeland security, thats what we want. No better term or name. We want Homeland Security. Thats what were going to get. Sandra doug mcelway reporting live from the white house this morning. The president says he is not cleaning house. The turnover at dhs certainly continues. Thats right, sandra. The night before her last day as secretary of dhs Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted that the acting deputy secretary claire grady is also asking for her resignation. She said in that tweet and i quote, for the last two years claire has served at the dhs with excellence and distinction and a great asset a steady and knowledgeable voice. Nielsen is going out as she will be remembered to put children in cages. The president talked that fake news. President trump the cages that were shown. They were inappropriate and built by president obamas administration, not by trump. President obama had child separation. Take a look. The press knows it, you know it. We all know it. I didnt im the one that stopped it. The president also blamed the immigration mess on decisions from the ninth Circuit Court of appeals. A separate decision where a federal judge blocked the Trump Administrations policy of returning eye Asylum Seekers to mexico and blamed democrats for not addressing loopholes. President trump they could spend 20 minutes and fix the problem. You have people coming in claiming asylum. Theyre reading exactly what the lawyer gives them. They have a piece of paper. Read what that s. Youre entitled to asylum. It has been speculated that former Kansas Attorney general kris kobach might be in line for the top job at dhs. He was asked about that last night. Thats the president s call obviously. It would be an honor to serve him. I served on his transition team. If the president decides thats the way he wants to go of course i would be honored to help him. He has been an advocate of using fema trailers that are unused to use as Processing Centers to allow immigrants to be comfortable while asylum claims are processed. Last month 103,000 people were detained at the border. Expected to go up this month. Back to you. Sandra we could hear from the president shortly as he departs the white house. Appreciate it. Bill Michael Waltz is coming up in 30 minutes. An issue we have to solve quickly. All right. Here we go. Overseas appears israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will win a fifth term. What that means for u. S. israeli relations. Governor Mike Huckabee is coming up live on that shortly. Sandra new charges in the College Admission scandal. What more than a dozen parents are now facing. Bill Bernie Sanders set to unveil his plan for medicare for all. What that means for this crowded democratic primary. Who is on board . Well ask the former education secretary dr. Bill bennett about that in moments. Were going to create a medicare for all single payer program. Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. I look forward to work with you to create that goal. When you retire will you or will you just be you, without the constraints of a full time job . You can grow your Retirement Savings with pacific life and create the future thats most meaningful to you. Which means you can retire, without retiring from life. Having the flexibility to retire on your terms. Thats the power of pacific. Ask your financial professional about pacific life today. 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Two hours from now, got it. Democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders will reveal his medical for all plan. Bill bennett, host of wise guys on fox nation. Good morning to you. Mitch mcconnell said this about that. He tweeted this. He said democrats medicare for none would slap a 32 trillion tab on americans, a rough estimate for the first decade and competing private insurance policies that the ones 180 million americans use would be banned outright. We know where the Senate Majority leader is on this. Where are you . Well, you know, as Ronald Reagan would say about Bernie Sanders view, there you go again. More movement to the left among the leaders in this democrat party. Runners for president ial nomination. Look, its a 32 trillion bill at least and i dont know if you made the connection but Bernie Sanders has not released his tax returns. Maybe he has 32 trillion in there that can cover this. I kind of doubt it. Bill a nice bonus for america. He says he will do it by april 15th. Whats interesting, i want to get your relax to the bill barr stuff. Who has announced already and on board with bernies plan and who is not . Quick comment on that. Well, you know, Harold Rosenberg said a herd of independent minds. We could say that of the liberals now. Theyll all follow him. He is the pied piper and theyll follow him. This idea has initial approval from the public about 50 when they first hear about it. When they hear that theyll lose their individual Insurance Plan it goes down in the 30s. When they hear what it will cost it will go down in the 20s. Its a nonstarter. Something donald trump can use to great advantage in a campaign. Bill i see that the numbers are higher than that. Americans who support the idea. When you dig into details well see how they react. The bill barr testimony from yesterday. He will be in front of the senate in 40 minutes. What did you think of yesterday when he said he will give a report within a week and there will be redactions . Impressive. Alan dershowitz was my professor, i was his students. He said i was the best conservative student he ever had. I said he only had four conservative students in harvard law school. Ted cruz was one of them. That aside, look, barr was very impressive. This is a real guy. And nice to see a grownup sitting there. The democrats have a growling bear with a brain in bill barr. He turned the tables on them by pointing out not only was he going to make a decision about the Mueller Report, and by the way, by law he is not required this needs to be underscored, he is not required to release that report to anybody. Not to the public and not to the congress. What he is doing is above and beyond the law. Now the people want it, donald trump wants it. Thats fine. But there is no legal requirement. A lot of the talk yesterday was as if he was holding Something Back which he was legally required to do. Not true. But i think more interesting in some ways is his plan to double down on what the Inspector General is doing, which is looking at the f. B. I. s activities in 2016 and he will do that with his own investigation. Couple that with Lindsey Grahams investigation of what happened in 2016 and as Catherine Herridge was saying it could be a very big deal. They have a real substantive guy her. Bill a growling bear with a brain on him is what you said. A growling bear with a brain. Even better. Bill thank you so much, bill bennett. Thanks for coming back here. You mentioned Bernie Sanders. Next monday, april 15th. He will talk about healthcare and his taxes. A whole lot more. It is our fox news town hall. Bret and martha your moderators at 6 30 eastern time on the fox news channel. Dont miss that. Sandra fox news alert. Any moment now President Trump set to leave the white house heading to texas for a fundraising trip. There is a good chance he will speak to reporters on his way out as we await that, well bring that to you live when it happens. With amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. And theres never been an easier way to get great advice. A place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. A place for mom. You know your family we know senior living. Together well make the right choice. Ever since daryls family started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. [sfx] sniffffff uhhh, honey . Isnt that the dogs towel . Hey, mi towel, su towel. Theres more gain scent, plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling gain. Seriously good scent. Hey, did you know gain comes in dish soap, too . Xfinity watchathon week. Television is back now through april 14, enjoy free access to the best shows and movies from hbo, showtime, epix and more. What so, you can get more into what youre into. Whether its more laughs, oops. Epic escapes, or highflying thrills, get more into what youre into. Just say watchathon into your x1 voice remote, or download the Xfinity Stream app. Xfinity watchathon week, free. Now through april 14. Bill fox news alert now. Tough news here. The pentagon has identified the three marines killed in afghanistan. 31yearold Sergeant Benjamin hines of pennsylvania, 43yearold Staff Sergeant christopher sluton of delaware. He is being hailed as a hero by the department in new york. Today we hear with heavy hearts not only for the entire country, chris was the epitome of what it means to be a new york city firefighters. He was brave, dependable and always rose to the occasion. Chris would want us to mention the other victims of this tragedy. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well. Bill ladder 27 and engine 46 putting a bunting by the firehouse where he had served. Sandra Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband facing additional charges in the College Cheating scam. Prosecutors announcing new indictments for the actress, her husband and 14 others on conspiracy to commit fraud and Money Laundering. Lets bring in carley shimkus. They face even more jail time than originally thought. Lori loughlin and her husband were slapped with an additional Money Laundering charge because she tried to hide that 500,000 bribe by making a donation to rick singers fake charity. She was making an illegal payment. She tried to pass it off as clean. Money laundering. This is so fascinating how this is all playing out. Felicity huffman pleaded guilty and released this remorseful statement saying she is so sorry she embarrassed herself and her family and her goal is to get the least amount of prison time possible. That is what will happen. She could get a couple months if that. Lori loughlin was always facing more time because she made a bigger payment, 500,000. It sounds like she may be interested in going to trial. Sandra the statement from Felicity Huffman sounding remorseful and regretful. She says im in full acceptance of my guilt and with deep regret and shame over what ive done. I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions. Fair to say were seeing a different response from Lori Loughlin . Totally different. This proves that the feds are really putting the pressure on parents to cooperate. They want to see what Felicity Huffman is doing. They dont want to see what lorely loughlin is doing saying youre rich, famous but not getting special treatment anymore. Legal experts were saying that Lori Loughlin could have been getting the one to two year range. Now fighting it she could be facing maybe 5 to 10 years. Although overall. Sandra it could be more than that with the overall charges. Overall she is facing 40 but could be getting 10. Sandra conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, 20 years, 250,000. And the other has 20 years in prison and a fine of 500,000. We have to talk about her behavior. Signing, smiling autographs. Waving with fans. Somebody has to tell her to stop doing that. If she goes to trial prosecutors will say you have never looked sorry in your life for these serious allegations. So she might be just trying to cope with this in whatever way possible but it is not a good look. Her behavior is something that sandra she was photographed coming and going from her yoga classes and other things. Carley, thank you. Well continue to follow it. Bill. Bill another alert. Waiting on bill barr. He will be before a senate panel today. Senate today after fox news confirms he has a team looking into the f. B. I. Actions in the Trump Campaign of 2016. What will that reveal . Mike huckabee with some answers coming up as we await that live testimony here. Sandra surprise move by magic johnson. What he did yesterday. Somebody will have to tell my boss. But i know i have to tell him facetoface. Applebees bigger, bolder grill combos. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. Every day, visionaries are creating the future. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States Postal Service makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Because the future only happens with people who really know how to deliver it. Because the future only happens with people not to worry about changing their minds in retirement. You may have always imagined your dream car as something fast. Then one day you decide it just needs to be safe enough to get her to college and back. Principal. We can help you plan for that. Sandra were waiting President Trumps departure for san antonio, texas. We know that he just walked out of the white house a few moments ago and he did stop to talk to reporters. That is on camera. So when he concludes there well get that tape and play it back for you. Of course there could be some news from that so well bring that to you as soon as we have it. Bill fox news alert. Middle east news, Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be headed to a historic fifth term as israels Prime Minister despite a neckandneck finish with his big challenger. Trey yengst has more from jerusalem now. Official results released this morning do indicate that israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will serve out a fifth term as the countrys leader. His Party Last Night did stay the largest beating their main competitor the blue and white party by more than 10,000 votes. Netanyahu has a large advantage in forming a Coalition Government over the next month and a half since all parties to his right would like to see him stay in that position. The Prime Minister will have 42 days to join with smaller parties here in israel to try to form a 61seat majority in the Israeli Parliament that has 120 seats. Bill what about the latest on the criminal charges amid the results on netanyahu . Well, the Prime Minister is facing charges on both bribery and corruption. Set to have a hearing later this year to see if he will be formally charged. But this election is good news for him. Seen as a large victory for the Prime Minister and his party. It was seen as a referendum for netanyahu by both his supporters and his opponents. One major netanyahu supporter we havent heard from and maybe that talk with reporters on his way to marine one the president may have stopped by but we havent seen anything official yet from the white house whether or not President Trump has called to congratulate the Prime Minister about what looks like a major election victory for him in israel. Bill trey yengst, the latest from the middle east. Sandra for more on this lets bring in Mike Huckabee. Former governor of arkansas. You travel to israel often and youve been watching this story closely. He is set to win his record fifth term as the israeli Prime Minister. Your thoughts and expectations for what is to come. All of his elections have been close. This one gave him in some ways a little better majority than some of the others but he has a clear majority in terms ever forming a government in that parliamentary system. I think its a reminder that no matter what people think of him personally. When a person has been there that long he has lots of critics. Here is an example similar to what we see in the u. S. They cant say his policies dont work, because they do. They havent been able to beat him politically, and theyve tried relentlessly. So they engaged in personal attacks and tried to smear him from every kind of charge of corruption and most of it is pretty weak if you really look at the details of it. So he has survived the onslaught. It is important not just for israel and the middle east. It is important for the rest of the world because he has extraordinarily strong relations with leaders from china, russia, europe and of course the United States. Sandra we will continue to watch that. Governor, meanwhile what were learning as the second day of hearings begins for william barr, the attorney general, we do know that he will likely get grilled again on the release of the Mueller Report. Meanwhile we now know that he is looking into the f. B. I. Actions surrounding the Trump Campaign and the launch of the investigation into the campaign. What do you expect that he will find . Well, i think if some of the evidence weve seen come forward, it looks like he will discover that people at the highest levels of our government, including the highest levels of Law Enforcement, not only conspired to meddle in the election and make sure that hillary won and trump lost but after at the election continued to conspire to stage what essentially was a coup against a duly elected president. And if he discovers that i think its critical that he look for it and discover it if its there and prosecute it if its there. Then we have one of the darkest chapters in american history. Sandra here is jim jordan on that. He said the summer of 2016. He is going to the start of this. Thats what was so important. This is when Christopher Steele starting to give the installments on the dossier. They take this dossier to the secret court and they dont tell the court who paid for it or that Christopher Steele is biased against the president. Sandra anything you want to add to that . We know lawmakers including jim jordan have been asking for this for quite some time. Now barr is doing it. I think some of the democrats who have been screaming and yelling they want transparency and full disclosure may rue the day they asked for it. I think some will be very embarrassed and major news Cable Networks that might as well turn off the lights because they will have been proven not just wrong, but maliciously wrong for about three years. Sandra meanwhile, this was Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumers response to William Barrs testimony from yesterday. Listen. Dont think barr has conducted himself in a manner that earns peoples trust. Well rate to see the report. Color me dubious that he will be fair. Sandra were awaiting barr on the hill. Interesting to say hell decide whether or not he trusts barr based on what actually comes from that report, redactions and all. The democrats behavior the last couple of days have been beyond shameful. What Chuck Schumer said is absurd. I thought that the hearing yesterday was absolutely embarrassing for the democrats. They are supposed to be talking about his budget. They ignored his budget. All they wanted to talk about is making charges against him and the department. It is really a theatric display but more like a christmas pageant. They embarrassed themselves yesterday. I think what the American Public was a confident william barr. The most outrageous moment came when they were attacking him for the Affordable Care act, obamacare. Why would you attack it . He said because the law is not constitutional. They never even got the irony that they are the lawmakers. They made a law that was unconstitutional and rather than fix it, they blame him for defending the constitution. This is really an outrageous kind of moment. I think well see it in campaign ads next year. Sandra were about to see william barr. He is testifying again on capitol hill today. We expect more of that, this time before a Senate Subcommittee. Well be watching for that and watching for the report. It is expected, as he said yesterday, to be released within a week. Governor Mike Huckabee. Always appreciate your time. Thank you. Bill thank you, governor. Stunning move now. Magic johnson is gone from the l. A. Lakers resigning last night as president of basketball operations. He told reporters about it before he told his boss. Lakers owner jeanne boss. He says he wants a simpler life in california. I had more fun on the other side than this side. Now tomorrow i would have to affect somebodys livelihood and their life. And i thought about that. Thats not fun for me. I want to go back to having fun. I want to go back being who i was before taking on this job. Bill how about that . Organization released a statement that said there is no greater l. A. Laker than magic johnson. We thank him for his work for the last two years. He will always be not only a lakers icon but our family. Sandra wants a simpler life. Bill other issues inside that organization. The magic is gone in l. A. Okay. Sandra now on to this. New york city declaring a Public Health emergency. The Measles Outbreak continues to grow. Dr. Siegel on what the city is doing now. Bill story grows by the day. Congresswoman ocasiocortez out with her theory on what is behind the border crisis. She blames it on Climate Change. Michael walsh responds. President trump they want to have open borders, they want to have crime and drugs pouring into our country. They dont want to act. Openturning 50 opens theuard. Door to a lot of new things. Like now your doctor may be talking to you about screening for colon cancer. Luckily theres me, cologuard. The noninvasive test you use at home. It all starts when your Doctor Orders me. Then its as easy as get, go, gone. You get me when im delivered. Right to your front door and in the privacy of your own home. Theres no prep or special diet needed. You just go to the bathroom, to collect your sample. 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Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace a cfp professional is trained, knowledgeable, and committed to Financial Planning in your best interest. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. Tpresident has finished speaking to reporters on his departure from the white house. He is heading to texas for a fundraising event in san antonio. He hit on a wide variety of topics. Well have that for you in a moment. He spoke extensively on the Mueller Report. He talked about the economy doing very well. He congratulated netanyahu on his victory there. He said everybody said you cant have peace in the middle east. I think we have a chance and the president talked tax returns, he talked immigration. All of that well have for you in a moment from now as the president departs for texas. Stay tuned. You know, the blame is equal here. I want to make a genuine effort to find a way to change the law, to stop the attraction from Central America, regaining control of our border. I am willing to do a deal with democrats and we need the president in the arena here. Bill Lindsey Graham saying a lot. How to deal with the crisis. Agents apprehended or turned away more than 100,000 migrants last month alone. Mike waltz, a republican from the Sunshine State. Good morning to you. What is your resolution . Well, i want to get us back to where we were just what, 18 months ago when we were talking a package for Border Security in exchange for dealing with the daca issue, the president offered 1. 8 million, a million more than president obama did, a pathway. Then to also deal with the chain migration, with the lottery system, and the meritbased system. My point continues to be until we secure the border, we cant get to Legal Immigration reform because otherwise you will find yourself even if we deal with it youll find yourself in the same problem over and over again. Senator graham is absolutely right. Bill let me be clear. He said we need to stop the attraction from Central America regaining control over our border. Explain that. Well, right now there is just a massive tractor beam. There is very little down side except for the trek, once you set foot in the United States with a child, basically you are going to be assimilated and be able to stay in the United States. The administration is damned if it does or doesnt on this one. Because of the flores agreement, the court agreement, children cant be held longer than 20 days. The administration has tried to keep children with their parents to avoid family separation, which they are getting beat up for, but if they do, then theyre in violation of the court agreement. This is a legislative fix, Congress Needs to do its job. The president has been reasonable in putting deals on the table. And if the democrats are serious about helping solve the problem theyll take him up on these offers. Bill the flores agreement has been there for 20 years. Ocasiocortez said the far right loves to drum up fear and resistance to immigrants. Have you ever noticed they never talk about what is causing people to flee their homes in the first place . Maybe because they would be forced to confront one factor, Climate Change is the conclusion she draws there. What do you make of that commentary and well get into upted by the president here. I want to get a chance for you to respond. Let me say what is causing migration. I just sat with the ambassador from columbia and the venezuelan maduro regime with aoc seems to support, the socialist regime has caused over 3 million venezuelans to flee. Lets get to that root of the cause. Bill my apologies. Well come back to that. President trump the economy is doing very, very well. We have numbers coming from companies that are beyond expectations. The tax cuts are working very, very well. So we are very proud of the economy. Job numbers are as good as weve ever had. More people are working right now than ever worked in our country before. Were doing really well. I would like to congratulate Bibi Netanyahu. It looks like that race has been won by him. It may be a little yearly but im hearing he has won it and won it in good fashion. He has been a great ally. He is a friend. I would like to congratulate him. That was a well foughtout race i can tell you. But it looks like bibi has won that race. [inaudible question] President Trump the fact that bibi won i think well see some pretty good action in terms of peace. Look, everyone said i never made it a promise but everybody said you cant have peace in the middle east with israel and the palestinians. I think we have a chance. I think we have now a better chance with bibi having won. Yes, major. [inaudible question] there is no law. As you know, i got elected last time with the same issue. And while im under audit, i wont do it. If im not under audit i would do it. Under audit i wouldnt give my taxes. There is no law whatsoever. I will say this, i would love to give them but im not going to do it while im under audit. Very simple. Remember, i got elected last time the same exact issue with the same intensity which wasnt very much. Frankly the people dont care. What i have done is approximately a 104page summary and really in great detail of assets and values and nobody wants to go over that because its so good. I built a great company, one of the best companies. I have some of the greatest assets in the world. I did a good job and now frankly i dont care about them. I only care about the United States. But i have no obligation to do that while im under audit and no lawyer would tell you to release your tax returns while youre under audit. [inaudible question] President Trump i think that the whole asylum rules, laws, and regulations have been taken advantage of by people that are very bad people in many cases. These are the people running the cartels. They are gaming the system. They have been for years. The only difference is our economy is now so strong that more people come up. We have done a great job at the border with bad laws. It is very important that the democrats in Congress Change these loopholes. If they dont change them, we are just going to be fighting. Now the other thing, we built a lot of wall, a lot of wall. And it when we rip down an old wall replace it, it is called a new wall. Thats what weve done. A lot of wall is going up. Every place we build a wall it is less and less. But the power of the economy is like a magnet. It is bringing more people than weve seen in a long time. [inaudible question] President Trump well, the Mueller Report is interesting. After 35 million with 18 angry democrats, people that truly hated donald trump, truly hated trump, they found no collusion whatsoever with russia. But i could have told you that and so could most people and so could have everybody that voted for me, which was a lot of people. So after wasting all of this money and all of this time with people were raters, people that worked on the Hillary Clinton foundation, people that were absolutely haters of trump, they found no collusion. What has been found during this period of time are the illegal acts of getting this whole phony investigation started. And hopefully that is where people are going now. Thats where people are going. And it is very interesting. It was an illegal investigation. It was an illegal investigation. It was started illegally. Everything about it was crooked. Every single thing about it. There were dirty cops. These were bad people. You look at mccabe and comey and you look at lisa and peter strzok. This was an attempted takedown of a president and we beat them. We beat them. So the Mueller Report, when they talk about obstruction, we fight back. You know why we fight back . Because i knew how illegal this whole thing was. It was a scam. What i am most interested in excuse me, what im most interested in is getting started, hopefully the attorney general, he mentioned it yesterday, he is doing a great job. Getting started on going back to the origins of exactly where this all started. Because this was an illegal witch hunt and everybody knew it. They knew it, too. And they got caught. And what they did was treason. What they did was terrible. What they did was against our constitution and everything we stand for. So hopefully that will happen. There is a hunger for that to happen in this country like i have never seen before, including all of the millions of people that voted for me. What they did was disgraceful. There has never been anything like it in the history of our country. [inaudible question] President Trump i like herman cain. Herrmann is a wonderful man. A supporter of mine for a long time. He ran a good campaign. Its up to herrmann. He already sat on one of the fed boards. He is somebody i like a lot. As to how he is doing in the process, that i dont know. You go through a process. But herrmann is a great guy and i hope he does well. [inaudible question] President Trump stephen is an excellent gie. He is a wonderful person. People dont know him. He has been with me from the beginning. He is a brilliant man. And frankly, there is only one person that is running it. You know who that is . Its me. [inaudible question] President Trump i have not seen the Mueller Report. I have not read the Mueller Report. I won. No collusion, no obstruction. I won. Everybody knows i won and the it was illegally started. I have not read the Mueller Report. I havent seen the Mueller Report. As far as im concerned, i dont care about the Mueller Report. Ive been totally exonerated. No collusion, no obstruction. And im off to dealing with china, im off to dealing with north korea, im off to dealing with venezuela and all the problems in this world. I am not worrying about something that never, ever should have taken place. [inaudible question] President Trump i did not see what happened. I did not see what happened to candace owen. I did not see what happened to candace owen. [inaudible question] President Trump i think thats a terrible thing. I think its a terrible thing that he would do that. I find her to be a i know her. I think she is a fine person, a fine young woman. I think its disgraceful they could say that. [inaudible question] President Trump i dont hear you. [inaudible question] President Trump i have no idea. I respect him. I like him and he is somebody that i have a lot of regard for. [inaudible question] President Trump my finances are very clean. I dont think there is an investigation. If you say it, i dont know. I dont think there is an investigation. My finances are very clean. [inaudible question] President Trump i like him a lot and he is doing a very good job. It could happen. Well make a determination. We have others, but right now he is the man. He is doing a great job. Thank you, see you in texas. Bill off to san antonio we go. The president about nine minutes there. A couple things here, tax returns, will not do it. He is under audit. You could make them public. A few more things here, sandra, about the attempted coup that he described. We now know based on bill barrs testimony of yesterday he is investigating what happened inside the f. B. I. In the summer of 2016 on the Trump Campaign. Stephen miller, excellent guy, wonderful person and emphasized there is only one person running it and thats me with regard to the Mueller Report, i have not seen it, i have not read it. Sandra on his tax returns i would love to release them, he said but im not going to. On Bibi Netanyahu he said it is a bit early but believes he won in good fashion. It was a wellfought race and more. Doug mcelway standing by as the president departs for the fundraiser. Doug, makes his way to san antonio. Certainly a fired up President Trump just left the white house. Grab bag of questions and a grab bag of answers as we see at this impromptu press conferences he departs. One thing that stuck out in my mind here among all the answers and questions but the reference to Stephen Miller. It become a narrative were seeing in mainstream media, he is the guy, the wizard of oz behind the curtain pulling the levers on immigration reform. It has been said that the president is cleaning house at the department of Homeland Security. And he denied that was the case yesterday in another impromptu press conference in the oval office but he is making changes there. Weve seen several changes in recent days. There was an off the record or background briefing at the white house yesterday. I did not attend it. John roberts did. Also blake berman from the fox business channel were there. Blake told me just this morning there was lots of mention of Stephen Miller at that off the record at that background briefing. Among the things that they are trying to do, im told, at the department of Homeland Security is increase the level of rulemaking within that department. They know that they are stymied by court decisions. They know they are stymied by the Democratic House and refusal to change Immigration Law in any way, shape or form but one thing mentioned there is an excessively high fear rate granted by u. S. Immigration service. It is a big problem. The threshold at which people are admitted into this country. Excessively high credible fear rate to climb asylum to get removed from their home country. An example of that, 90 of Central Americans are granted credible fear. Individuals conducting the exam are apparently part of the problem. It is the belief this administration that there are a lot of people who are conducting those examinations and those questioning of people seeking asylum who are holdovers from the Obama Administrations and asking the wrong questions or accepting at face value the answer to the questions that they are given. They want to change that. It may be a limited avenue this administration has to try to stem the tide of immigration, ilLegal Immigration in this country but one of the ways they want to do it. Back to you, sandra. Sandra a live shot of air force one about to depart there on his way to texas. Doug mcelway outside the white house for us. Thanks. Bill meanwhile day two for bill barr. He was on the hill today. Senate democrats have their chance to put him on the hot seat and begin in a matter of moments. Lawmakers, American Public eagerly awaiting the release of the Mueller Report. Yesterday he said it will happen within a week. Quote, within a week. The a. G. Facing a Senate Subcommittee for the second time. Mike emanuel is watching all that outside on capitol hill now. Mike, good morning. The republican majority should be more receptive. Top republicans continue saying they have great confidence in attorney general barrs handling of the Mueller Report. I feel very comfortable with the bottom line conclusions that he has given us and will be supported by the report. I dont think he is lying to us. I have no desire to retry the case here. It is over. Its over for me. Democrats continue pressing a. G. Barr to give them the unredacted Mueller Report with the underlying documentation with some proposing new legislation to do just that. Our legislation would require all the report would be provided to congress and then we can judge whether any of it should be redacted and it would be only very minimal portions before it is made public. Barr testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee yesterday. He said when he makes redactions to the Mueller Report he will use a colorcoded system so people will know why it was redacted. Barr said soon lawmakers will get to read the 400page Mueller Report for themselves. I think that from my standpoint, by within a week i will be in a position to release the report to the public and then i will engage with the chairmen of both Judiciary Committees about that report and any further requests that they have. Just getting underway in the senate this morning. Mid april for release of the report. Monday is april 15th. Well see if he has any further teases for us today. Sandra the table is set. Lets bring in the ateam. Leslie marshall, progressive radio host. Brad blakeman and judge Andrew Napolitano. Judge, your expectations barr back in the hot seat before a Senate Subcommittee. Your expectations for today . Similar to yesterday. He will make a very credible defense of the obligations that the law imposes upon him to keep four categories of materials that are almost certainly in the report secret. He cannot lawfully release those. Only a federal judge can authorize their release. The flip side is my colleagues are more adept at this as i. The democrats want to see what he is redacting because they would like to be in a position to secondguess bob mueller whether or not there is enough evidence to charge the president or anyone else. And second guess bill barr on the same thing. Prediction, this will end up in the courtroom of the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District Of Columbia and she will call it. It will probably happen soon. Bill to Brad Blakeman as we set the table for day two. What the hearing should be concentrated on is the budget of the Justice Department. You are talking about almost a 30 billion budget. The need for 100 more immigration judges. The crisis that is happening on our southern border. That should be the topic. Unfortunately it will no. It will be second guessing of barr. Not giving him enough time to create a report for congress. Disregarding the law. Releasing grand jury information, classified information, personal information of people caught up in their investigation, which is unlawful. Congress should know that. It will be a side show when it should be an oversight hearing, a budget hearing. And concentrating on the real problems that face america, our southern border. Sandra that didnt happen yesterday and not expected it will happen today. Senator Lindsey Graham ahead of this will be in the room saying he would not be bringing up the Mueller Report. Will they stay on topic . Theyll talk about with the exception of Lindsey Graham about the Mueller Report and i agree with the judge. I think it will be like a testimony take two but in the senate. Yesterday we had democrats saying things like why are you covering up for trump and russia . Yesterday we had republicans saying things like why are you covering up for hill tree and the red state . This is exactly what well hear in the senate. Well see the political realities which are very different on the left and right. To the judges point regarding the democrats. The democrats do want to see if there is something more with regard to obstruction of justice and they do want the attorney general to bring this to a judge and to a court. Thats where i do believe also i agree with the judge there thats where it will end. They dont want to have pages and pages of lines through information. They want to get as much information as possible that they can make their own determination on a political level with regard to obstruction of justice to determine if they go forward in the house with impeachment. Bill two things stuck out at me. One thing ken starr and one Alan Dershowitz. Starr said his summation of what bill barr said yesterday is that no surprises was his quote. Today Alan Dershowitz said will we get the names of those on muellers team who reported the way they did . I said why would that be important . He said because so much of this will be viewed in a political lens. It would be important dershowitz argues, to know who those people are so we can get a more fair assessment. Have you thought about that . I havent honestly, bill. The report i would imagine is signed by bob mueller. And it would be impossible to determine, other than by interrogating mueller under oath who contributed what parts to it. I dont think youll see the names of any of the 17 or 18 or 19 lawyers that worked for mueller or 40 or 44 depending how you count them. Some were parttime and some fulltime f. B. I. Agents who worked for him. Over the weekend, some people in this team leaked to the media their displeasure about the flavor, the color of the four pages that bill barr released. That said youll get a different flavor once you see the 445 page report depending upon what is redacted. Thats those are probably the people that professor dershowitz is talking about. There is no certain way to know who they are. Bill just to follow up on that, his point is that so much of this will be shaded in a political lens and what well see once the Mueller Report goes up there how we frame this. As for ken starrs point, come back to that. He said no surprises from barr yesterday. There will be no surprises in the Mueller Report. Do you agree with starrs assessment . I have argued for a couple of weeks that the barr summary, the fourpage attorney general summary did not say no evidence of conspiracy. It did not say no evidence of obstruction. It said not enough evidence to establish the crime. Establish is lawyer speak for prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. There must be some evidence of something in there. If there was no evidence of any criminal activity whatsoever then the attorney general would have said that in his fourpage summary and he didnt. Sandra just to give you an idea. Brad, ill bring you in what were seeing now. Some of the guidance being given. The democrat from New Hampshire the Ranking Member on this subcommittee. We saw the chairman of the subcommittee give his Opening Statement. When we get through these questions will begin. Among those on the committee senator graham says he doesnt expect to dive into the Mueller Report here. Senators on the committee who are also on the Senate Judiciary, kennedy, feinstein and kunz. They said all the democrats will bring up the report. Possible more fireworks in the room this morning, brad. How do you think today will differ from yesterday knowing there are several different characters in that room . Well, i think theyll try and pin the attorney general down and seek promises that the attorney general is not quite ready to deliver. He has told congress that his report is coming. It is coming soon. He has kept to his timetable and his promises. The attorney general is bound by law. And these folks know that. What theyre trying to do is seek something from the attorney general he just cant give or should give. So i think theyll continue to press him. I think the attorney general did a wonderful job yesterday in front of the house. He will continue that in front of the senate because the guy is a professional. He is not a politician. He is not a partisan. He will do the job the way it should be done regardless of political bent. Bill leslie, quick comment. I think the democrats are definitely going to push. Two reasons for this. One, they have to in a sense for their constituents who are expecting this. They expect the hard questions of the attorney general in the senate as was in the house yesterday. Secondly, because as the judge said, they really want to hear and they wont hear but they want to hear the attorney general say i didnt say no evidence or suspicion of collusion or obstruction of justice, i just said i didnt have enough to prosecute. Nothing there criminally that i could bring forward to prosecute. They arent going to get that. Bill panel will stand by. Want to go to the headliner democratic congressman member of the House Oversight committee roe khanna. Where do you think we are with bill barr . We need to see the report. We need to have bob mueller testify at some point before congress and need bill barr to testify before the Judiciary Committee. Lets see what the report says. He says he will release it in a week. Lets at least read it and make determinations. Bill sounds fair. Sandra thats what bill barrs point was in the room yesterday. We are here to talk about the budget. Lets wait until the report is out. Will democrats keep pressing today . I dont know. Its a week well get the report. Lets read it. If there are more things we need to get we can pursue it. I have said there can be a report that jerry nadler gets to see confidently. We can go to court to get an order to see parts that may be redacted whether its confidential or not. You know some redactions will be included in the report. He said that yesterday. I think the question then becomes whether or not you believe these redactions should be made public. Redactions that are heavily protected by the law. Well first lets get the report. And see what is redacted and how consequential the redactions are. If we believe there needs to be more evidence then jerry nadler can go to court and the Justice Department can go to court and a court can authorize, as they did during watergate, for grand jury testimony to be made public to congress. They can say that it can either be public or it can be in a closeddoor setting. Lets at first get the report and then we can see what redactions make sense. Sandra just a little bit of guidance from our reporter Catherine Herridge on the hill right now telling us that in those Opening Statements senator shaheen said to william barr that he must answer concerns to the fourpage letter glossing over damaging actions by the administration. I guess thats just a sign of whats about to happen in that hearing room. And now that weve learned, congressman, that bill barr plans to dig deeper on the actual investigation into the Trump Campaign, what do you expect well learn there and how far this will go . Well, i have no idea. He certainly has the right to have that investigation. But what we first need to understand i think this should be a concern of every american what countries have interfered in our election . Forget trumps involvement. Every american should care that the russians hacked into our emails and manipulated our election. Lets read the Mueller Report and things we can do to protect our democracy. Bill i think youre right about that. Were waiting from dhs to give us a roadmap as to what happens for 2020. Back to the question, though. Bill barr said he put a Team Together to look at what happened in the summer of 2016. Do you have a problem with that . I dont have a problem with him as long as it is done in an objective way and not a partisan way. If he wants to look at to make sure the f. B. I. Was nonpolitical and wants to examine this, i dont have a problem with that. Bill does it give you pause the fact that came to light so early . Well, i dont know we would have to see what that investigation determines. We know that the Mueller Report is 300 or 400 pages. A lot of evidence that has been accumulated. If there was serious evidence that comes to light of the poll itization of the f. B. I. , everyone would be concerned. Bill Chuck Schumer yesterday said bill barr cannot be trusted. Do you trust bill barr . Well, i dont agree with bill barrs decision to give a fourpage summary. I dont trust his conclusion and interpretation of the Mueller Report. Thats for congress to do. I try to stay away from making personal characterizations of people. Sandra to be clear he said when asked do you trust or can you trust bill barr, Chuck Schumer responded well see. Well see when the report is out. Like he will make his decision whether or not he trusts him once we see the actual report. What Mitch Mcconnell said, that is exactly what this comes down to. Whether you trust william barr, the attorney general, or you dont. Where do you stand . I dont think thats what it comes down to. People who go into Public Service is a big sacrifice and i dont like to attack people personally. What this comes down to is let people see the Mueller Report, let Congress Make a decision. We dont have to rely on bill barrs fourpage summary. We can make a decision ourselves. Thats all the democrats are asking for. Bill thanks for coming back. The democrat from california. Thank you for your time on the hill. Sandra we will keep our eye on capitol hill as this hearing is underway now. Opening statements being made. We will hear from attorney general bill barr. He is expected to face a grilling yet again on capitol hill facing questions over his release of the Mueller Report within a week bill day two on that. Also the Vice President mike pence in a moment here is expected to address the u. N. On the growing matter in venezuela. Well bring breaking news from that as soon as it happens as well. Stand by. Were watching all of this for you on americas newsroom. Id like to take a moment to address my fellow veterans, because i know so many of you have served our country honorably. One of the benefits that we as a country give you as a veteran is your eligibility for a va loan which lets you buy a home with no down payment. Now theres no reason to rent when you can own. And with automatic authority from the va, we can say yes when banks say no. Helping veterans buy homes. Thats newday usa. Amandas moms appointment hello mom. Just got rescheduled for today. Amanda needs right at home. Our customized care plans provide as much or as little help as her mom requires. Whether its a ride to the doctor or help around the house. Oh, of course bill bill barrs Opening Statement on the senate side. Rather than read a statement to you let me just say im here to talk about the departments 29. 2 billion budget request for 2020. I believe the budget request supports our priorities. Were seeking 128 million of increases for our Violent Crime prevention work. Were seeking 291 million enhancements for our drug abuse and opioid efforts. We have 131 million for our National Security and cybercrime efforts. And im seeking an additional 72 million for our immigration work. Im proud of the departments accomplishments and our workforce of more than 112,000 men and women, and im looking forward to your support for the resources we need for their important work. With that, im happy to answer any questions. Attorney general. Thank you for your brief statement and thanks for the opportunity to ask you questions. I would just reiterate and ask for an answer to the question i raised in my Opening Statement. I was uncertain as to what you were conveying yesterday during your house testimony about whether you will provide a report of the report or a redacted version of the muellers actual Mueller Report. Yes, it is my intention to provide the latter. The regulation under which were operating did not contemplate and specifically was meant to avoid these public reports. But i feel i have the discretion in these circumstances to make the report public as long as it is consistent with the law. And as i said at my hearing that i was going to try to be as transparent as possible. And thats what ive been working toward. There are four areas i intend to release the report with redactions made in four areas. They were specified in my march 29th letter. The first area is 6e material because im talking about a report that would be available to the public generally. And then ill talk a little bit about the report available to committees of congress. The report im working on now i would like to make available with redactions that would enable me to make it public generally and there are four categories. The grand jury material, which by law must be retained within the Department Absent very specific circumstances, which i do not think exist here. Second category is any material identified by the Intelligence Community that would put at risk intelligence sources and methods. The third category is information that would impair existing prosecutions and investigations that are Going Forward right now, either by affecting the ability of the department to pursue them as effectively as we would like, or being unfair to the individuals who are actually parties to that prosecution. You will recognize that special counsel mueller did spin off a number of cases, which continue in progress and are being handled in the department. And so we have to make sure that nothing in the report impinges on those ongoing cases. And the final category is information that imply indicates the privacy or reputational interests of peripheral third parties who were not charged. Now, the people who are making these redactions and implementing these four categories are the Department Working with the special Counsel Office lawyers and those are the people involved in making the redactions. So as i mentioned yesterday, we plan to identify very specifically which redactions relate to which category and try to explain why that redaction was made. I also said yesterday that when it comes to congress, once i get this done, the public and everyone has the report, im willing to work with the committees, the regulation requires that doesnt require but it has my notification go to the Judiciary Committees and i intend to take up with the house and Senate Judiciary committees, the chair and Ranking Members of each, what other areas they feel they have a need to have access to the information and if i can accommodate that. The fact that information is classified does not mean that congress cant see it. Im willing to work on some of these categories. The category i think is the most inflexible under the law right now is the grand jury material. But even there, once the redactions are completed, i intend to read the report and see if there are areas where it affects the intelligence or really has an impact on the report and im willing to work with the Judiciary Committees to see if there is a workaround that could address any concerns or needs that they have. Under the assumption your answer was of interest to my colleagues ill continue with another question beyond my time. I want to talk about Grant Funding that has been delayed due to litigation surrounding sanctuary cities. So in the past the department has tried to enforce federal Immigration Law by imposing special conditions or bonus points on recipients of federal Grant Funding. These conditions restrict Grant Funding to jurisdictions that certify theyre in compliance with federal law stating that they are not sanctuary cities or states. Thats not something that im complaining about in this question. What im concerned about is the money that has been held up as a result of that litigation because of pending litigation in regard to burn jag grant funds. Weve had success in that occurring but unfortunately that hasnt been the case in the fy18 cops hiring grants. These solicitations were pulled and applicants are still unable to apply for cops hiring grants. Sandra the hearing on capitol hill. Lets bring back in our ateam judge Andrew Napolitano is with us. I want to ask you about something we heard from william babb. As far as the redactions. Grand jury information. He went on to say that he is willing to work with judiciary on other ways around some of the other material expected to be redacted. What did you take away from that . Well, as you know we were discussing during the break, this is a novel area of the law. Ill try to state it. Can the attorney general of the United States reveal privately in an intelligence setting materials that he cant to members of Congress Materials that he cant reveal to the public . The rule is silent on that. The rule just says shall be kept secret. It doesnt say shall be kept secret from everyone but members of congress. It sounds like he is willing my colleagues agree with me. He is willing to push the envelope and at least discuss with senator Lindsey Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary committee and jerry nadler from the house Judiciary Committee the prospect of revealing some redacted material to them and them alone or to them and their colleagues alone. In one of the secret venues where you cant bring your iphone or any other writing materials in the basement of the capitol. Sandra is that a shift from where he originally stood on this needed to be redacted material . My answer to both your questions is yes, it is a surprise and it is a shift and as far as we know, possible this has happened and we dont know about it. This is a novel area of the law and it will open him up to well, we want more, we want more. How did you decide to show us whats on page 23 but not whats on page 24 . He might be opening up a can of worms if he starts this. Bill you know what happens in washington, brad. Three people can keep a secret if two are dead. A lot of the people who leak are the members of congress and their staffs. So the information that is released has to be compartmentalized that the information wont get to the public. It is because we have to protect people, sources, methods. I will also say this, i think this attorney general is siding certainly on the part of transparency. He is willing to push the envelope but not willing to break the law. Sandra before we go to a quick break, leslie. I was shocked. Did he just say what we thought he did . I have to say, he said he would release it to the public first and congress second. I hope he changes that and that he will give it to congress and provide congress with more information than the public. Bill this is his letter from march 24. The special counsel investigation did not find the Trump Campaign or anyone associated with it conspired with russia in its efforts to influence the election of 2016. That was thats rather declarative. Stand by and well come back in a moment. Sandra well get back into that as necessary. The shakeups continue at the Homeland Security department. First secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Now another highranking official heading for the exits. President trump i never said im cleaning house. I dont know who came up with that. We have a lot of great people over there. Experience the style, craftsmanship and technology that have made the rx the leading luxury suv of all time. Lease the 2019 rx 350 for 409 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentysix vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. Bill interesting exchange. Shaheen with bill barr is talking about the spying issue he mentioned yesterday that will be under investigation here. There are areas that shall be looked at. This is not launching an investigation of the f. B. I. Frankly, im to the extent there were any issues at the f. B. I. , i do not view it as a problem that is endemic to the f. B. I. I think there was probably a failure among a group of leaders there at the upper echelon. So i dont like to hear attacks about the f. B. I. Because i think the f. B. I. Is an Outstanding Organization and i think chris wray is a great partner for me and im very pleased he is there as the director. If it becomes necessary to look over some former officials activities, i expect i will be relying heavily on chris and relying on him and thats what im doing. I feel i have an obligation to make sure government power is not abused. I think thats one of the principle roles of the attorney general. I certainly agree. I think we all have on an obligation to insure government power is not abused. The question i have is what happens when the executive is potentially playing that role and thats where it doesnt seem to me there has been adequate oversight. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator collins. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome, mr. Attorney general. Last june your predecessor announced that the department would no longer defend the Affordable Care acts preexisting conditions provisions because they were inexcepterable from the aca individual mandate. Two weeks ago your department decided it would not defend any provisions of the aca. This puts at risk other important provisions in addition to protection for people with preexisting conditions. Such as the medicaid expansion, dependent coverage for young adults on page 26 and coverage for preventive services. Now, the individual mandate is a highly regressive penalty and i have long opposed it and congress repealed it. But i disagree strongly with the departments decision not to defend the rest of the aca. In a letter that i wrote to your predecessor last june and to you on april 1st, i made the point that the individual mandate can be struck down and severed from the aca while the remainder of the law can stay in place. And this isnt just my opinion. In 2010 the chief Justice Roberts said in the preenterprise fund case that under the doctrine of serverability that generally speaking when confronting a constitutional flaw we try to limit the solution to the problem severing any problematic portions while leaving the remainder intact. In 1990, when you were head of the Departments Office of Legal Counsel under president george h. W. Bush, you authored an opinion finding that the president could enforce the remainder of the statute after an unconstitutional provision had been severed. I agree wholeheartedly with your 1990 opinion. What led you to take a different approach . Thank you, senator. When i visited with you before my confirmation, i promised you that i would personally take a look at this issue and i did. And i studied it carefully and i provided my views robustly within the deliberative process that was going on within the executive branch. As i said, when the attorney general is providing legal advice, i think the first obligation is to provide the advice that you think is the right legal answer and how you would decide the case if you were a judge. Which is what was the advice i gave. But i also have said that if the other if other stakeholders in the executive branch and the people involved, the agencies and so forth end up in a different place, as litigator for the United States the attorney general should be able to advance positions that he believes are defensible and reasonable legal positions even if theyre not positions that the attorney general would adopt if the attorney general was a judge deciding the case. In this situation, the ultimate decision was to support the position of the states, including texas and the decision of the District Court judge. The rationale for that is that it is a defensible and reasonable legal position given that that was the decision of the District Court and the position of four justices on the original nfib case who felt that if the mandate goes, the rest of the statute goes. I know there is an additional point there which is the fact that congress did take out the penalty from the mandate, and therefore should that act be viewed as essentially validating the rest of the statute. And those issues were debated but at the end of the day i felt that the position was a defensible position and it was the decision of the executive branch. I would just make the final point that congress had the opportunity to strike other provisions and chose not to. Yes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Bill senator leahy. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Attorney general, thank you for being here. Over the decades weve had a chance to talk at these hearings many times. Let me go back to this discussion of your march 24th letter. You said the president did not commit obstruction of justice. You said that before any reference to congress. Of course, you have the position that no matter the evidence you dont believe a president can be indicted on an office. You say the mechanism is through the ballot or congress, not a criminal court. Did you have any conversation with the special counsel about why he did not reach a conclusion one way or the other on obstruction . Yes, i did. And he also has a fuller explanation of that in the report that ill be making available hopefully next week. Did he express any expectation and interest in leaving the obstruction decision to congress . Not he didnt say that to me, no. So he said the obstruction decision should be up to you . He didnt say that, either. But thats generally how the department of justice works. Generally grand juries are to investigate crimes and a prosecutors role at the end of the day is binary. Are there charges or no charges, or is this a crime or not a crime . I have had some experience in the field. I thought you would agree with me. I dont feel, you know, im looking forward to explaining my decision that i briefly outlined in the march 24th letter. But i dont feel i can do it until the report is out. Because i think because i think the report contains a lot of the information that would give meaning and content to the discussion and i really cant do it in the absence of getting it out. Im anxious to get it out. Thats what ive been working toward. I said i come up to the hill as soon as the hill will have me, which i guess is at the end of the month, to testify about that. I want to follow up on something senator moran asked. In determining what should be redacted. Have you overruled mr. Mueller or his team on any redaction question . No. One way or the other. No. Have you discussed any specific redactions with the white house . No. Just curious, before this came out, you were at an annual st. Patricks day event with the Prime Minister of ireland exchanging shamrocks and so on. You had a long discussion and apparently a very you both seemed very happy with the discussion you and the president. Were you discussing the report . Was i . No. It was in front of several justices of the Supreme Court and other dignitaries. I wasnt alone with the president. Okay. You are sure of that . What . Anybody thinking they heard you say anything else would be wrong . Right. Youve indicated you redact grand jury material. In both the watergate and ken starr investigations, grand jury secrecy was overcome to allow congressional access. Have you asked the District Court to release grand jury material to congress . Did you say were you citing the starr investigation . And watergate, yes. The starr investigation involved a specific statute. Rule 6e . No. The starr statute setting up the independent counsel provided for the report going to congress and overrode 6e. So i dont think the starr situation is but more specifically have you asked the District Court to release grand jury material . No. The law right now is in the District Of Columbia that the court can only waive 6e for one of the grounds specified specifically in 6e. There is no inherent power in the court to do that. If someone shows me and i think makes a persuasive argument that it is covered, im willing to listen to that. But i dont see it. The dollar amount, your budget. Were told from atf would result in could lose 370 positions under the president s budget even though it shows a slight increase because of attrition and Everything Else. Are you satisfied with atf at a time of Violent Crime and Everything Else losing these positions . Are you talking about the 377 positions that mr. Brandon mentioned . I understood 370. Whichever. We dont think he will lose those positions. There is some complicated accounting here that im sort of a little mystified by myself. But as i understand it, weve been continually investing and increasing the number of atf agents and they were worried about bringing on too many agents in excess of funds that were going to be appropriated and they had sort of the the way they quickly make up for that is to just take out head count rather than make cuts across the board. We dont think that they are. And mr. Loftus can give you more of an explanation. I really would like more. Its 370 or the administrations 46, either way it looks very much like cuts in atf. I can add to say atf has a 4 increase in the budget and i have spoken with the atf chief. I think he is an outstanding guy and worked closely with him over many years. I do know they are concerned about the resources in their budget but we have looked at the 4 increase. We dont think the 4 increase translates into a loss of hundreds of positions but were willing to work very closely with atf and make sure that we can protect their certainly their agents and again any money that atf receives i think can be put to very good use and we look forward to working with both atf and the committee on this one. We have three votes scheduled at 11 45. My intention is to go until the votes are called and dont anticipate coming back after that occurs. Senator kennedy is recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I dont intend to talk much about your budget. I think we both know that congress will make sure that you are adequately funded. I want to little bit about the Mueller Report. I think it was inevitable that some people were going to be disappointed in the result or results that mr. Mueller reached. You can only be young once, you can always be immature. There will be some who were so disappointed in the results that they will attack the process in bad faith. I would strongly encourage you to ignore that. Just call them like you see them. Follow the law. Can we agree that if you turned over the Mueller Report without grand jury material redacted to only members of congress, can we agree that there is a material risk that the grand jury information would leak . I think so. Thats been known to happen. Yes, occasionally, yes. In a sentence or two, why would that be bad . Well, because we depend on the secrecy for our system of justice. People have to be assured when they go into the grand jury that these will be confidential sessions. I got it. Can we agree that if you turned over an unredacted report for the members of the United States congress, that included material that might impair an existing investigation or investigations that there is a material risk that that information might leak . Yes, senator, there is a risk. Why is that bad . Presumably the reason people are interested in seeing the report is because they believe its important for the criminal justice process to work. Allowing this other information to come out would frustrate from the prosecutors standpoint the system from working in other cases. And from the defendants standpoint would be potentially unfair to the defendant. Lets talk about reputational risk. If you turn over a report could i just add something. In some of these cases there are gag orders from the court prohibiting this information from going out. Okay. If you were to turn over an unredacted report containing unredacted information that could raise reputational risk, can we agree there is a material risk that that would leak . Yes, senator. Why is that bad . Well, it goes back to the if someone has not committed a crime at the end of the day, and in this context if they arent Public Office holders, theyre private citizens, the government is not in a position to say they did anything wrong, it would be unfair just fundamentally unfair to put that information out. That that be especially the case if someone thought their communication was confidential . Yes. Kind of like dr. Ford. Who thought she was making a confidential communication. Until some member of the Judiciary Committee or their staffs turned her life upside down and leaked that. Im not aware of the circumstances myself. Im not, either, i wish i were. It was probably the greatest injustice ive seen in the time ive been here. Let me talk a little bit in the minute i have left. Im going to land this plane on time, mr. Chairman. I know you are taking a look at the genesis of the investigations with respect to 2016 election. Just quickly can we agree that the f. B. I. Is the premier Law Enforcement agency in all of Human History . Absolutely. Can we agree that we want f. B. I. Agents and Justice Department members to have thought about the world and thought about socioeconomic problems and thought about how to solve those problems. You dont want a dummy working for the f. B. I. Or Justice Department, correct . They arent supposed to act on those political beliefs, are they . No, senator. It appears to me. I wont ask you this question. There were a handful of men and women at the f. B. I. , possibly at the department of justice, who did act from their political beliefs in 2016. Some were for donald trump. If you dont believe me ask secretary clinton. Some of them were for secretary clinton. If you dont believe me, ask President Trump. And thats not right. And we need to stop this from ever happening again. My plane has landed. Thank you, senator kennedy, senator reid. Thank you. Let me return to your march 24th letter to the Judiciary Committee and along the lines of senator leahy. You quote the special prosecutor excuse me, director mueller, with respect to the allegations of obstruction of justice and you say while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Which raises the question in my mind did the special counsel find probable cause that a crime had been committed . Im not going to characterize his report. The report will speak for itself and thats why i want to get it out. Well then let me just follow up. But i think my letter says that he did not find a crime was committed. I understand that. But i think it is important to note that you took his language and said i did not find a crime but i cannot exonerate the president. That suggests that there is a possibility that probable cause existed for a crime. However, someone, either director mueller or yourself, made a determination that the evidence would not be beyond could not convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt or that the policies of the department was not to charge the president because of the constitutional issue of impeachment. So this is again im trying to understand why not only director mueller said this but you repeated it that the president was not exonerated from the obstruction of justice allegations. As i explained yesterday i was trying to state just the bottom line conclusions and not characterize it or try to summarize the report beyond just stating its bottom line conclusions and i thought the best way of doing that was taking that language from bobs muellers report. Let me turn the question around. If there was no evidence or probable cause, then i would presume he could have said very clearly that there was no crime committed that he could, in fact, exonerate the president , as he seems to have done with the allegations of conspiracy between the campaign and russia. I think that sentence says he is not finding there was a crime and he is not exonerating. I am not going to characterize his reasoning or his report. Thats why its important to get the whole report out instead of trying to read this probable cause is a low standard for determining when you start investigating something. A lot of things have probable cause. I i grew with you completely. It is important to get the whole report out to the American Public. There are serious questions we just go back and forth on and your response is very critical. Those questions arent going to be resolved until the American People see this report, not sections of it. Not paraphrases of it. But this entire report. Let me just quickly ask another question which is do you have any specific evidence that there was anything improper in the Counter Intelligence investigation by the f. B. I. Or anything improper in the way the investigation was carried out by the special counsel for the 2016 election . It was a compound question. A Counter Intelligence investigation by the f. B. I. With respect to the 2016 election involving primarily the Trump Campaign. There was an investigation by director mueller into the 2016 campaign and other issues. Have you any evidence that there was anything improper in those investigations . I have no specific evidence that i would cite right now. I do have questions about it. So this panel you are putting together im not putting together a panel. You have some interest in this, you dont have any evidence. I have concerns about various aspects of it. Do you believe that the investigation that director mueller undertook was a witch hunt as asserted by the president , or illegal . It depends on where youre sitting. If you are somebody who is being falsely accused of something you would tend to view the investigation. You are sitting as the attorney general of the United States with constitutional responsibility. If you could answer in that regard. Im not going to characterize. It is what it is. Mueller and his team conducted an investigation and issued a report. I will use my own adjectives. Those dont include witch hunt or illegal. Is that correct . Those would not be in your answer. I havent referred to it. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Senator mckoskie. I want to start my questions with the issue of marijuana. Senator gardner has really taken the lead on this issue over here in the senate. I have been supportive of his efforts. He is trying to move forward with the states act. Im cosponsoring that. When we visited and during your confirmation process you explained that you believe that the current conflict between federal and state marijuana laws is untenable was the words that you described. You also explained that you will not upset settled expectation or the reliance interests that have developed because of the policies from the prior administration. But you did state that you believe the Current Situation really has to be addressed. I know and understand that you dont support the wholesale legalization of marijuana. You make it clear we face a choice between the federal prohibition and a federal approach to correct the disconnect between the state and federal laws. So i think you committed to me and to others that this is something that congress has to address the right way, which is through legislation and we would agree with that. I think we think the states act is an approach that does what you have recommended. It adjusts the federal law the right way to create a federal approach to marijuana. I think the president has expressed some support for it. So can you share with me, share with the committee, where you are on this approach that has been outlined in this states act and whether or not we can work with you on this issue . Yes, senator. The situation that i think is intolerable and which im opposed to is the Current Situation were in. I would prefer one of two approaches rather than where we are. Personally, i would still favor one uniform federal rule against marijuana. But if there is not sufficient consensus to obtain that, then i think the way to go is to permit a more federal approach so states can make their own decisions within the framework of the federal law. And so were not just ignoring the enforcement of federal law. I havent studied specifically the states law but i just circulated to the department for comment. I think thats the process its in now. Once we get those comments, well be able to work with you on any concerns about the states law. But i would much rather that approach with the approach by the states act than where we currently are. I think you will have a group of folks over here that would like to work with you, would like to work with the department on that. Let me move to special Domestic Violence criminal jurisdiction. In the 2013 reauthorization of wawa we recognized tribal Domestic Violence that allowed tribes to this was for a limited class of offenses. So just last week the house passed its reauthorization vehicle that expands this jurisdiction to a broader class of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence offenses as well as crimes against children and assaults on Tribal Police officers. The vehicle there, the reauthorization vehicles also allows for a Pilot Project that is specific to alaska native villages that have 75 or greater native population to exercise this jurisdiction. I think all these provisions in the house bill are a step in the right direction. You and i have had discussion about the issues of Just Protection in general in outlying areas of very remote parts of my state where we really bill a couple of big headlines. Spying 2016 campaign. The a. G. Bill barr said probably a failure among leaders of the f. B. I. I think there was spying during the campaign. A couple questions about the mueller matter about obstruction. He says a binary decision is it a crime or is it not a crime . The democrat from rhode island asked about evidence that relates back to the spying. He said no specific evidence but i have concerns about various aspects of it. Sandra he went on to talk about his responsibility there on possible fisa abuses. I feel like i have an obligation to make sure government power is not being abused. Thats one of the principle roles of the attorney general. This hearing will continue and well continue monitoring it for you. Bill were doing a little dance there. Well take you back when barr talks when it relates to mueller stuff here. Catherine herridge, i want to check in with her now. Thank you, bill, good morning. A couple of major headlines so far in this hearing. The first is really quite extraordinary about a half hour ago we had an exchange between the attorney general bill barr and democratic senator shaheen. She had a specific line of questioning about why the attorney general was personally reviewing the genesis of the f. B. I. Counter intelligence investigation that opened in late july of 2016. And for some context the reason thats important is because that investigation is the foundation for the special counsel case and that investigation also took the extraordinary step of securing a surveillance warrant for a Trump Campaign aide carter page. So listen to this exchange and pay careful attention to the language that is being used. I think spying on a Political Campaign is a big deal. Im not suggesting that those rules were violated but i think its important to look at that. Im not talking about the f. B. I. Necessarily, but intelligence agencies more broadly. So you are not suggesting, though, that spying occurred. I dont well, i guess you could i think spying did occur, yes, i think spying did occur. The attorney general went on to say that what was important to understand is whether there was an evidentiary basis that justified that warrant during the campaign. The second thing we also learned this morning is there will be two phases to this process. The public report, which will be colorcoded in terms of the redactions and then he said he will move into a second phase with congress to find out if there is additional material that they want that he will be able to provide specifically to them. So sorry for all of this. A jumble right there. We have a key point on the spying allegation and then the second on two phases of the Mueller Report, sandra and bill. Bill to emphasize that, he is trying to say is there enough evidence to support the action of spying from 2016 . Stand by. Sandra here is martha maccallum. Revealing moments. This has been fascinating testimony this morning from the attorney general william barr. As catherine was just pointing out he was asked the crucial question whether or not spying may have been the predicate for the beginning of this investigation and i think its really worth pointing out and emphasizing something that catherine just said. He said well, i guess spying did occur. Yes, i think spying did occur. The question is whether or not it was predicated. I am not suggesting it wasnt adequately predicated but i need to explore that. I think its my obligation. He is referring to whether or not anyone was sort of dangling information in front of George Papadopoulos or carter page, whether or not its possible that he was planted in front of those individuals in order to trap, for lack of a better word, them into having an exchange that would then be the basis to begin an investigation. So that is a big piece of information but william barr is very careful. He has been attorney general before, a very wise person. He is saying i think spying occurred, but it may have been legitimate, in other words, but he said i need to know the answer to whether or not it was and thats why he has assembled this team that he announced late yesterday which was also big news that he is putting together at d. O. J. Sandra it wont be limited to the f. B. I. But includes the Intelligence Community. Another moment earlier when it boils down to how exactly the Mueller Report will ultimately be released with redactions. Democrats are in this room pressing for as much of that report to be made public as possible. Obviously there are four categories that redactions are necessary. He made news at the top of the hearing by saying that the most inflexible of the four categories is, of course, the grand jury information. When it comes down to the other categories, he says he is working with judiciary on being more flexible possibly, im paraphrasing, but it seems like he is going to make some sort of accommodation to the growing demands to see more of this report. Sandra the other three parts are the intelligence part. You know, disclosing any intelligence information. I think that will be a pretty high bar to cross. The other one is ongoing investigations. Mueller moved some of these investigations to the Southern District of new york. Anything that would affect those would be redacted. The third one i think in some ways bleeds over to the grand jury testimony as well. It has to do with the testimonies that were given by various members of the Trump Administration and anybody else related to this investigation where they talked about everything that they testified to and then were not indicted. It was discovered there would be no charges against them. It is not proper to put those peoples private stories and private testimony out into the public sphere unnecessarily. In fact, thats exactly what james comey was criticized for doing when he detailed all the things he said were egregious behavior on the part of Hillary Clinton but no one would bring the case. William barr is trying to avoid that. He is explaining his letter. I dont feel, you know, im looking forward to explaining my decision that i briefly outlined in the march 24th letter. But i dont feel i can do it until the report is out because i think because i think the report contains a lot of the information that would give meaning and content to the discussion and i really cant do it in the absence of getting it out. Im anxious to get it out. Its what ive been working toward. Sandra he is being very careful about not wanting to characterize the findings of the mueller investigation. He was pressed further and more beyond that. He just said we have to wait and thats why he wants as soon as possible to get that full report out. It is worth reminding everybody at home. The purpose of this testimony is issues at the department of justice. They can use their time however they like. As he made clear after the report is released and he expects that will happen within the week, then he is coming back for the specific purpose of answering questions about what is in the report once the report is out. It seems quite logical to say that i dont feel timely or necessary or appropriate at this point to dig into a lot of detailed q and a about the report before everyone has had a chance to see it. Sandra want to also ask you about what we heard from the president earlier. He left for the fundraiser in san antonio, texas, a short time ago. Upon his departure he talked to reporters. He spoke at length about the Mueller Report ahead of this hearing happening this morning. He said that he has not seen this report. He has not read this report. Obviously that has been a question through this process. There are questions to william barr whether or not he has had a direct conversation with the president about this today. He said no. He was asked about being at the white house over st. Patricks day, interesting back and forth there. He said the president hasnt read it or seen it. That percolated up based on a back and forth yesterday in the hearing where he was asked did you share this report or its contents with the white house. He said i dont want to go into that. Today we get more clarification on the fact that the president said this morning that he had not seen the report yet. And the attorney general clarified that today as well. So its worth also remembering the president said through william barr in his letter that he was going to leave the discretion up to william barr when it came to the release of this report and redactions and all of that and that he was relying on the attorney generals experience in order to do that. It appears based on what both men are saying today that thats the case. Sandra we all had a chance to learn more of the president ial candidates starting out with howard schultz. Your town hall was awesome. We look forward to another one with Bernie Sanders. It will be monday night in bethlehem, pennsylvania talking to Bernie Sanders, a great place to talk to any potential president ial candidate. Pennsylvania is a swing state. One of the states that swung the election to President Trump back in 2016. It is a place where these democrats are going to want to try to pick off some of the voters and convince them they arent better off than they were a couple of years ago so well ask Bernie Sanders to make that case. He is a democratic socialist. The first socialist leader in the country as the governor of vermont and now senator from vermont. Fascinating to talk to him about his arguments. Sandra looking forward to that monday, april 15th, 6 30 p. M. Bill we may have the Mueller Report by then. He said within a week. Were watching the clock on that. A few more things here. Have you spoken to the white house . No. As you ladies mentioned there. Have you overruled any redactions with the mueller team . No. Did you speak to bob mueller about obstruction . Yes. How its a binary decision. Is there a crime or is there not . Thats the duty of prosecutors and thats what theyre charged with looking for and looking at. Back inside the hearing in a moment. A quick commercial break on americas newsroom. Back after this. You see clear skin. Cosentyx can help people with moderate to Severe Plaque Psoriasis find clear skin that can last. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if youve had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. How sexy are these elbows . Ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. Ask your dermatologist visionworks can do more than the right pair of glassesat. Can make you look amazing, too. 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We really pride ourselves ton making it easyautoglass, to get your windshield fixed. Teacher lets turn in your science papers. Tech vo this teacher always puts her students first. Student i did mine on volcanoes. Teacher you did . oh, i cant wait to read it. Tech vo so when she had auto glass damage. She chose safelite. With safelite, she could see exactly when wed be there. Teacher you must be pascal. Tech yes maam. Tech vo saving her time. [honk, honk] kids bye tech vo . So she can save the science project. Kids whoa kids vo safelite repair, safelite replace can we agree if you turned over the Mueller Report without grand jury material redacted to only members of congress, can we agree that there is a material risk that the grand jury information would leak . I think so. It has been known to happen. Yes, occasionally, yes. In a sentence or two, why would that be bad . Well, because we depend on the secrecy of the grand jury for our whole system of justice. Bill that was about 20 minutes ago. Chris van holland doing questioning. I wont comment until the report is out and everyone but im not asking you for what is in the report. You sent a letter to the United States congress that included something which was a principle conclusion which was not a conclusion reached by the Mueller Report. You indicated that they did not exonerate the president. You did. And so im asking you whether you agree with mueller that there were difficult issues of law and fact in making that assessment. Thats not a question i can really answer but you looked at the report, right . And you looked at the evidence of the report and you made a decision and you said that the president is not guilty of criminal obstruction of justice. Im asking you in your review of the report did you agree with mueller there were difficult issues of law and fact . Ill give my reaction and comments about the report after the report. But you put your view of the report out there on this issue of obstruction of justice, right . Nobody asked you to do that. I didnt put my view of the report. You put your assessment on, you made a conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice that was not contained in the Mueller Report and im simply asking you when you looked at the evidence, did you agree with mueller and his team that there were difficult issues of law and fact . As i say, i am going to explain my decision and to the extent that requires any assessment of the Mueller Report, ill do that when the Mueller Report is out. Did your decision require you to look into the intent of the president of the United States with respect to obstruction of justice . Im not going to discussion my decision. I will lay it out after the report is out. You put this out there. The president tweeted the next day he was exonerated. Not based on anything in Mueller Report with obstruction of justice. That was based on your assessment on march 24th. Now you wont elaborate at all as to how you reached that conclusion. Im not asking you what is in the Mueller Report. Im asking your conclusion. Let me ask you this. It was a conclusion of a number of people including me. I am the attorney general. It was also inclusion of the Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein. And i will discuss that decision after the report is out. Did bob mueller support your conclusion . I dont know whether he supported my conclusion. In your june 2018 memo you indicated a president can commit obstruction of justice in truth finding functions. Did you see any evidence in this report about whether or not President Trump committed what you call a classic sense of obstruction of justice . Im not going to characterize or discuss the contents of the report. The report will be made public next week and i will come up and testify at that point about it. But the thing about it is, you put your conclusion out there and now you refuse to talk about any basis of your conclusion. Im not asking you whats in the report but how you reached your conclusion. Last question. Can you assure us that the key factual evidence relevant to charges of obstruction of justice will be included in the public report . Can you assure us the key factual evidence in the Mueller Report related to charges of obstruction of justice will be available in the public report . I believe its it will and i want to review it when the redaction team is done making the redactions to make sure there is nothing in there that would prevent that. And by the way, redactions can cut both ways. My understanding from your house testimony was you are allowing the mueller team to make the redactions in three of the four areas you mentioned, all of them except for intelligence, is that a correct understanding of your testimony yesterday . In other words, you are leaving the discretion to them on the three of the four criteria that you mapped out. I have stated what the categories are and the people implementing it are the justice lawyers with the special counsels lawyers. They are implementing those categories. You are not going to overrule the special counsels judgment with respect to any of those categories, right . I havent. Can you tell us you will not . If an issue comes up i dont want to prejudge it but it is not my intention. My intention is to allow the team to make the redactions and the people in the department are making those redactions. Senator bozeman. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for being here. We appreciate your service. We have talked about a lot of things that are very important. I want to talk about one that is sweeping the country as we mentioned briefly before. Thats the Opioid Epidemic. Not just that. We have an Opioid Epidemic but an addiction epidemic. Arkansas were number two prescribing. Weve had hundreds of millions of piles prescribed last year. Your team i understand youve ranked that very high or bill all the report issues. Were trying to figure out how much and how far bill barr will go on the Mueller Report. Sandra the news continues. Lets bring in ari fleischer, want to get your thoughts as this hearing on capitol hill continues and what youve heard so far. Big day, big deal, sandra. The shoe moved to the other foot. After two years of breathlessly covering every accusation against donald trump no matter how absurd or outlandish or hysterical it moves to the Obama Administration. The press already is starting to make excuses for why the Obama Administration should not be looked into. I was watching on a Different Network earlier this morning. Its a big deal what the attorney general is doing and saying. And his belief that spying took place. Sandra what an exchange that was with senator shaheen. Spying on a Political Campaign is a big deal. Shaheen said are you saying spying occurred . He paused slightly and said spying did occur. Need to know if it was properly predicated. This is something that we already knew ahead of the hearing that he will look further into. What exactly was wass happening there. Meantime on the Mueller Report itself what is your take away so far ahead of the actual release of the redacted report, ari . I think the attorney general is do it by the book guy and doing it by the book. When he says i will let the Mueller Report speak for itself, i will not categorize it, isnt that exactly appropriate for the attorney general . Attorney generals job is to decide whether or not charges get filed against people. The work of mueller is independent and should stand on its own and speak for itself. We all want to read it and well get to. I think what youve got here, sandra, frankly, are a bunch of democrats who cant give up the conspiracy theories. For two years they put the nation through misery and turmoil, divided and hurt us by alleging donald trump colluded with russia. Now they want to allege that bill barr the attorney general is doctoring the Mueller Report. Wont make the full Mueller Report public and hide parts of it. It is nothing but Conspiracy Theory democrats who dont know how to get it up. They should give it up and get back to legislating. Sandra what was your takeaway about potential changes or accommodations he might be able to make with judiciary on when talking about the colorcoded redactions and the most inflexibility he said with the grand jury information but would meet with judiciary to see if there were any further information in the report that fell under those categories that he would be able to make public ultimately. He said the exact thing yesterday about the color coding as well as meet with judiciary to help them through this. Thats called good government. Thats called the executive branch and legislator trying to cooperate to figure things out. If youre the attorney general youre bound by the law. You cannot release things no matter how politically expedient or how congress would like you to, you have to obey existing laws. For those who saying release it all regardless of the law. They are calling on the foreign general to disregard the law. He cannot do that. And so i think the process he has outlined is a respectful and proper one. The one missing ingredient here. Bob mueller owes it to the nation after it comes out for him to shine some light to reflect a little bit. I think that would assuage what the attorney general. I always respected him. He is the missing voice and he needs to be heard as well. Sandra well get back to the hearing. I want to run two sound bites for you from the hearing from the past few minutes and get your reaction to each. First is barr on obstruction. Did he express any expectation or interest in leaving the obstruction decision to congress . Not he didnt say that to me, no. So he said the obstruction decision should be up to you . He didnt say that, either. But thats generally how the department of justice works. Generally grand juries are to investigate crimes and a prosecutors role at the end of the day is binary, are there charges or no charges . Sandra he went on to say he looks forward to publicly explaining his decision. As we know, thats going to happen. He has been invited to appear may 1 and 2. Well hear more from him on that after the release of the report. Your thoughts. I think thats exactly the job of the attorney general. What the senator is getting at is can i impeach him . Based on what mueller wrote, can that be Something Congress can use to impeach . Thats the senators decision. It starts in the house. If the house wants to impeach the president , try. Bring forward the evidence you have and try to impeach him. If you think it makes your case from the Mueller Report, proceed. Thats what the senator wants to hope is in the report and why he asked that que. It is a different job he has than the attorney general. Does the Justice Department prosecute or not . He said no. Sandra senator coons is talking now on capitol hill. We want to get back into this. Information to congress about the specific justification for redactions you imagine a situation where congress under the appropriate safeguards could verify the redaction categories werent abused. Tell me something about the safeguards you have in mind. You know, i dont know how detailed the descriptions will be. Some of them may be generic. Some of them may be able to provide additional information. For example, if there is a gag order in a case that says, you know, apart from whatever we feel about impinging on the case there is a gag order that would be imme indicated by release. Are the safeguards likely to be worked out for the chairmen . The safeguards, an easy one in my view is the classified information. I would just want to make sure there were adequate safeguards and shared with a limited number of people. That kind of thing. The thing we would normally do in this situation. I was struck the District Court of the District Of Columbia reported the grand jury convened by mueller hasnt been discharged and continuing its investigation. Did anyone pressure the special counsel to conclude his investigation and submit his report before it was complete . I didnt. Did anyone else to your knowledge . Not that im aware of. There are press accounts that members of the special counsels team, his investigators prepared summaries for public release of sections of the report. Why did you summarize the principle conclusions reached by the special counsel and results of the investigation rather than releasing some of these prepared for public release summaries . Actually, Deputy Attorney general rosenstein and i were expecting a report that would make it very easy for us to determine what had to be taken out and what wasnt. And thats not how the report came to us. So i immediately recognized that there was going to be some significant lag time between our receipt of the report and when we could actually get it out. And decided that none of it was releasable as i received it. None of it had been vetted for stricken material but every page on it said it could contain 6e material. Every page had a warning and you were certain the mueller team had not vetted it. There werent summaries. Let me get to two other questions. Im just saying that i felt it was important to just advise the country as to what the bottom line conclusions were. I was not interested even if i had summaries available, which i did not on sunday that were vetted, i wouldnt have put out summaries because i think summaries no matter who is preparing them will be subject to criticism. What people have to remember that generally the department of justice does come out with binary conclusions. Just stating the bottom line on each of those i think was entirely appropriate. Who outside the Justice Department have seen portions or all of the special counsels report . Has anyone in the white house seen any of the report . Im landing the plane right now and ive been willing to discuss my letters and the process Going Forward. But the report will be out next week and im not going to get into the details of the process until the plane is on the ground. At what point will you allow congress to know whether or not the white house was given the full report, briefed on the report, shared sections of the report . It is striking the president claimed complete and total exoneration if he didnt either see the report or was briefed on the report. As i said, you know, once the report is out im happy to discuss the process. I very much look forward to that. Given your unsolicited june 8th letter to the Justice Department regarding obstruction of justice, did you ever consider recusing yourself from making a conclusion about whether a charge of obstruction of justice should have been made . Well, i consulted with the career ethics officials at the department. They concluded that your memo on the topic did not require your recusal. Thats correct. Chairman graham. Attorney general has been very faithful to his insistence he not disclose anything of significance until he is in front of your committee. Great. You cannot possibly be surprised that President Trump would claim exoneration without having read anything. I hate to talk about appropriations in an appropriations committee. But i will. If sequestration goes back into effect and is due to do that, how would it affect the f. B. I. And your ability to defend the nation . I would turn that over to my trusty side kick here. Did you pick the winning Lottery Ticket to be here with him. The hard ones. I can tell you the last time we had full sequestration in 2013. The democrats will all center their questions on the mueller matter and that is so far pretty much true to form there. The hearing itself is based on the budget for the department of justice and what Lindsey Graham is going back to. I want to bring in rick scott, the republican from the Sunshine State waiting to comment on this. I dont know how much youve been able to watch right now. What do you think of bill barr and what we have learned so far, senator . I enjoyed seeing bill barr before we had the opportunity to vote on him. He is an honest and sincere person trying to do a good job. I look forward to the report coming out. All this were talking about now is sort of doesnt do anything. Lets get the report. Lets make it as transparent as we can and make a decision how to go forward. This to me is all process. Bill there were a few questions about why you arrived at the conclusions you did. He wasnt taking the bait saying im not going to answer the question until the report is out. It will be out within a week. A moment ago he said the report will be out next week. I dont know if that was the slip of a tongue or maybe its a better clue as to next monday or tuesday when it comes out. Nice when the report is out. We can all read it and firg out what happened and figure how to go forward. All the rhetoric talking about all this now is just doesnt add anything. What we ought to focus on are some of the big problems we have. Secure the border, fix immigration problem. Control healthcare costs, lets get on to the things that the American Public wants to get done instead of talking about some report that will come out. Bill we also know now he is looking at the campaign of 2016 and will conduct an investigation is what lynndie graham is talking about now. Give our viewers a chance to listen the target of foreign influence, is that correct . Not a prosecutorial function, is it . No, unless espionage or some violation of espionage laws develop. Would it be odd that the candidate was never really briefed by the department of justice that your campaign may be targeted by a foreign entity . That is one of the questions i have is i feel normally the campaign would have been advised of this. And can you think of a good reason right now where they wouldnt have been . Im interested in getting that answer. They had two former u. S. Attorneys in Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani involved in the campaign. I dont understand why the campaign was not advised. Apparently when senator feinstein had a person on her staff that was supposedly connected to the Chinese Government she was briefed. Is that the normal way you do things with a Counter Intelligence investigation . I think she was briefed about a staff member that they thought might be connected to Chinese Government and she took action and fired the guy. Is that what you are supposed to be doing . Thats what i would if i were attorney general and that situation came up i would say yes, brief the target of the Foreign Espionage activity. So you are pledging to this committee and i guess to the country as a whole to find out what happened with a warrant application, find out about the Counter Intelligence investigation to make sure the law was followed and if there was any abuse of the law to report to the congress and the public, is that accurate thats accurate. I just want to satisfy myself there were no abuse of Law Enforcement or intelligence powers. Im glad youre doing that. When it comes to mr. Mueller, are you talking to him about the 6e material . I havent personally talked to him about the 6e. People are sitting at the same table. When it comes to ongoing criminal investigations you make sure prosecutors, they have a say about what is released because it may jeopardize their cases . Thats right. The people involved in the cases. When it comes to classified information youre talking to Intelligence Community to make sure theyre okay . Yes. Senator schatz. Thank you, mr. Chairman and mr. Attorney general for being here. I want to give you a chance to rephrase something you said because i think when the attorney general of the United States uses the word spying it is rather provocative and in my view unnecessarily inflammatory. And i know what you are getting at because you have explained yourself in terms of answering senator grahams questions and the questions of others. Do you want to rephrase what you are doing . Because i think the word spying could cause everybody in the cable news ecosystem to freak out. And i think its necessary for you to be precise with your language here. You normally are. I want to give you a chance to be especially precise here. Im not sure of all the connotations of that word that you are referring to. But unauthorized surveillance, i want to make sure there was no unauthorized surveillance. Is that more appropriate in your mind . This is your call. I wanted to give you a chance to say how you wanted to say it and didnt misspeak. You talked for a long time, you had yesterday. I want to make sure you use the word you want to use. On the mueller Team Summaries within the report i get on every page there was an admonition it may contain 6e material. The question i have relates to your desire to make sure the whole thing is intelligible. Are these reports going to be are these summaries, when the report is released, going to be intelligible . There may be some redactions or none. Are we going to get the gist of this or will it be on january of 2015 and then you have to flip 15 pages to find the next text. You will get more than the gist. Thank you. I want to ask you about the Cole Memorandum. In your confirmation hearing you said i wont go after companies that relied on the Cole Memorandum. Are you planning on restoring it, establishing your new guidance . I heard what you said about marijuana generally but those are Public Policy questions. Assuming we cant come to an agreement on a new statutory framework, what is the plan for the department of justice . Im going to have to make some difficult choices. Do you care to elaborate . Reliance suggests people who have already taken action based on the Cole Memorandum. One open question in my mind is if states continue to pass these laws will we continue to forebear in those new states . I would like to see congress address this issue. Is there any internal guidance regarding these sort of difficult questions . None that ive given. So the department of justice is operating without guidance . The department of justice is operating under my general guidance that i am accepting the Cole Memorandum for now but generally left it up to the u. S. Attorneys in each state to determine what the best approach is in that state. I havent heard any complaints from the states that have legalized marijuana. A year ago attorney general sessions said were moving forward and we will add fairly soon additional suppliers of marijuana under the controlled substances act. Ive sent two followup letters. Where are we on this . Rick scott is listening to this. The question came back from the senator from hawaii about a spying clarification. He said want to make sure there was no unauthorized surveillance. Earlier in the hearing an hour ago he said is there evidence to support the action behind the spying in 2016 . Well use that word for now. The way i look at it is you cant solve a problem if you dont do the investigation to figure out what happened. Maybe nothing happened. Maybe nobody did anything wrong. How will you find out or fix it . If there is a chance something went wrong why not investigate it and find out and make sure it doesnt happen again. Bill what he said just to take his words, i think there was spying during the 2016 campaign, senator. Thats pretty scary. I would think in my office if the f. B. I. Or justice knew of somebody that was doing something wrong, i hope they would come and tell me. I would want to fix it. Im sure that anybody running for president would want to do the same thing. And so there shouldnt be spying, they should have done what they did with dianne feinstein. Tell her somebody was in her office possibly doing wrong things. Bill a question prior to that from a different senator why the campaign wasnt advised about the surveillance. Barr went on to describe former prosecutors giuliani and christie on board the campaign. Have you ever been able to assess a fair answer on that . I would hope and hope there was not spying. I hope there was no unauthorized surveillance of a campaign. That scares you in this country if these things happened. It will be my goal is lets get as much information out and find out exactly what happened and do everything we can to make sure none of it happens again. Bill do you know if much will be settled even after the Mueller Report is delivered to the hill be it this week or next week as bill barr said with his words . I think clearly democrats are antitrump. They hate trump. Whatever they can do to disparage him to make him appear illegitimate theyll try to do it. Im hopeful. Ive been here for 90 days. I hope there are other people who said we got elected up here to get something done to deal with the big issues of the country and enough people will say lets get something done. Bill theyre back on obamacare now. Senator feinstein has the gavel. Justice roberts opinion said it can be upheld as a tax even though it couldnt otherwise be upheld. But for finding it a tax you would have had five votes against it. Once the penalty was removed, the financial penalty was removed that provision could no longer be justified as a tax which means that it would have to fall. So the mandate fell. Mandate in my opinion i dont think its a closed question, the mandate was unconstitutional because it can no longer be upheld as a tax. Then the question becomes if the mandate falls even though there was no penalty attached to it, what is its impact on the rest of the statute. Four of the justices in the nfib felt that the whole statute had to fall. So as i said before you arrived, senator, at the end of the day i felt that this was a defensible legal position to take. In my experience, which i guess ive been here 26 years, ive never seen this before that a decision like this would be made by one individual on the basis of what has been a huge decision legislatively and signed by a president based on im not sure quite what, despite what you said. Who was the one individual, me . No, no. You misunderstood what i said. It is not important. It is so you are saying despite the fact that Supreme Court of the United States upheld what has been a major law duly passed and signed by the president , that you are just not going to defend it. That does happen. It happens occasionally in our system. I think the principle over at the department of justice is that our default position, our preference, is to defend statutes even if we dont agree with the statutes and even if we think the argument is a weak argument. For example. Last time i was in the Justice Department i thought the flag statute was unconstitutional but we defended it, the no burning of the flag. We defended it and we lost. Why wouldnt you defend this . Because occasionally the administration determines that another position should be taken. Is this determined by the white house . Its determined by the process within the executive branch. There are a number of agencies, a number of different players even in the white house that get involved in these things. Well, i assume you wouldnt take this position unless this is what the president wanted. Well, that would be this is a mega law. It effects preexisting conditions and everybody in the United States. It went through a great deal of hearing and testimony and amendment and passage. It was a very controversial law. Exactly. But it is a big law. Right. And it has been operational for a period of time and people depend on it, millions of people, for their healthcare. And so all of a sudden along comes and i guess this is just my way of saying it somebody and oh, im going to take this whole thing on and there are 20 or more states that were challenging it. There was a lot of opposition to it. A lot of states have weighed in and i think the administration is on the side of those states. As i said yesterday, i think people should sort of take a deep breath. If this is such a whacky position that the administration is taking, there is nothing to fear. Right . Then the law will be upheld. In 26 years ive never seen this kind of thing. And i we mentioned doha before. It happens rarely in each administration but i would be surprised if most administrations have from time to time declined. I dont want to take the time. Maybe we can discuss this. This struck me like lightning that one person decide i assume the president wants you to made this decision and everything that was done by way proper legislative action has been taken and signature of a president , i just dont ever recall anything like this happening in the past quarter of a century. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Attorney general, were about to conclude. I have a follow up question and so does senator shaheen and well wrap up. Something you said in your testimony that youve indicated that there is the possibility that unauthorized surveillance or spying occurred. And my question is maybe twofold. My question is what is the basis for reaching that conclusion, or a belief that Something Like that occurred . And what are the consequences for those who committed unauthorized surveillance . Did you say that i said that it occurred . You indicated i think i tried to at least reflect on what your quote was. That you thought spying on a Political Campaign occurred in the course of an intelligence agencys investigation into russian interference in 2016. I thought the question was did i have any basis for saying that . Im asking what the basis is or what the facts are that lead you to that thought. Okay. I felt i am concerned about it and i was asked about whether there was any basis for it. I believe there is a basis for my concern but i wont discuss the basis. What is the potential consequences for those who violated the law . It depends what the facts prove to be. Which would be determined in a prosecution . Possibly. But, you know, there can be abuses that may not rise to the level of a crime but that people might think is bad and want to put in rules against it. I remember when there was a lot of people upset at the f. B. I. Spying on or surveilling civil Rights Groups or antiwar groups or Nuclear Freeze groups and so forth and as a result of that there were a lot of safeguards built in. There were also concerns about surveilling reporters and safeguards have been put in. It doesnt necessarily have to result in a criminal investigation or a finding of a crime. But part of my responsibility is protect the Civil Liberties of the American People and i think something that is important is that the Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies respect the limits on their powers. I share that view with you, mr. General. And of the same generations in which those things occurred or alleged to have occurred. Mr. Chairman, i remember that too and i remember when j. Edgar hoovers f. B. I. Surveilled student groups, having been in one that was surveilled. I want to ask a couple of what i hope will be very short questions. Over the past two years the subcommittee in congress have provided record levels of funding for violence against women. Thats true about the recent omnibus as well. We have not yet reauthorized the violence against women act and i want to be reassured that the Justice Department, despite this last authorization, will continue to provide the funding thats been appropriated by congress. Absolutely. I support the reauthorization of the act. Thank you. I hope you will share that with some members of your administration. I havent seen any specific vehicle for that but in concept i certainly support it and would like to see it done. Thank you. The other question i have is that the prior attorney general issued a number of memos and during his tenure that provided guidelines from everything from sentencing for u. S. Attorneys on drug offenses to immigration policy and the protective detail for secretary devos. Do you intend to review those memos and expect there might be a different outlook from that . I have a particular specific question. Sandra as the hearing continues on capitol hill as we approach the noon hour on the east coast lets bring in congressman Brad Wenstrup. Congressman, good morning to you. What do you think of what youve heard this morning . Im glad i had the opportunity to listen in with you. I think the attorney general is doing an outstanding job of answering all the questions that have come his way and doing things professionally. He has that reputation and has had that for a couple of decades really. And i think he is probably the right man for the job right now. One of the things that weve learned is when he is going to put this report out he will color code the redactions and explain why parts are redacted. I think thats huge. In the last couple years as we tried to get information and memos from the f. B. I. And department of justice we would sometimes get whole pages blacked out and no reason why. Later we would find out there was no reason for it to be redacted. I think he is doing a great job and i hope that continues. Sandra so he says he believes that spying did occur on the Trump Campaign. Assembled a team to look further into that. We await the actual report to be released with redactions. He is talking about some sort of accommodations perhaps working with judiciary to change the ability to show more information in the report. Well see. But here he is talking about releasing factual evidence. Here is william barr. Landing the plane right now and ive been willing to discuss my letters and the process Going Forward, but the report will be out next week and im not going to get into the details of the process until the plane is on the ground. Sandra he really has reiterated throughout this process he does not want to discuss the report, the findings behind the report, the evidence until the actual report is released within a week. I think thats completely appropriate. He is trying to stay within the law and is staying within the law when you talk about not releasing grand jury evidence and classified information and he is doing it methodically and appropriately. I did find it interesting in the house side yesterday when one of the Democrat Members said how she hasnt seen the report except that she hasnt sen the report and accused him of cherry picking information. How does she know . She hasnt seen the job. Let him do his job and has been as transparent as everybody has as we deal with the federal government as a member of congress. Sandra Lindsey Graham had his moment just a few moments ago. Here he is. You cannot possibly be surprised that President Trump would claim exoneration without having read anything. So sandra that was Lindsey Graham making the point that the president has said that this report exonerates him but it was made very clear through this hearing process william barr stating the white house has not seen the report. The president himself saying earlier he has not read the report. Congressman, final thoughts. Well, the president will know what he did or did not do. Thats one thing that i think he is trying to stick with. The other thing that has come forward in this and so glad it finally is, we have to look what all took place that led up to this whole investigation and were proper procedures followed. He said that today when talking about surveillance or this and that. Maybe things werent unlawful but the traditional and done appropriately. Well decide later whether something is to be prosecuted or if we need to change the way business was being done. Sandra all right. We appreciate your time and sticking with us through this congressman Brad Wenstrup from ohio. Thank you, sir. Bill the hearing continues. Feels like theyre about to wrap here. Point out a few things before we hand off to our to her colleagues at outnumbered. Yesterday he said within a week and today he said next week once, maybe even twice. Perhaps the timeline has shifted a little bit since yesterday. I think most people are going to hang on throughout the entire day, i think there was spying during the 2016 campaign. Where that goes we wait to see. Sandra that is it for us. Thank you for joining us this morning. See you back here tomorrow. Outnumbered starts right now. Melissa fox news alert, big narrative elements from attorney general william barr as he went back to capitol hill today testifying before a Senate Committee facing new questions over the pending release of the special counsel report. The attorney general raising eyebrows as he discussed concerns over the genesis of the fbis investigation into the Trump Campaign. This is outnumbered and on melissa francis. Here today, Fox Business Network anchor, dagen mcdowell. Town hall editor and fox news contributor, katie pavlich. Fox news analyst and cohost of benson harf on fox news radio, marie harf. Joining us on the couch, fox Friends Weekend cohost and fox news senior analyst, pete hegseth. And he is outnumbered. But you are bright blue and matching. Pete im starting off with a bipartisan town melissa lets keep