News, analysis and interviews with politicians and observers. Back in the jury room. So how this all unfolded, just after 11 00 a. M. , the jury did send a note to the court asking the judge, judge, what do we do if we cant come to a unanimous decision on one of the 18 counts. That implies that perhaps they have reached a decision unanimously on the other 17 counts, but they havent said that definitively. What the judge had to do was he had to come up with instructions to give the jury as it pertained to them going back and deliberating yet again. That just happened. In just the past few minutes, the judge instructed the jury, go back into the jury room and continue to work on that one final count. Try to continue to work, to come to some unanimous verdict on that one remaining count. Outside of the presence of the jury, the judge indicated that he might be prepared to accept a partial verdict if they werent able to come to a conclusion on that one remaining count that they seem to hav
office needs more authority, that right now they are being kept from looking at professional misconduct by attorneys within the justice department. and that has kept them from looking at things like barr s communications with the white house. they also point to the questions over things like jeff sessions s recusal and say that was something for robert mueller to handle. that some of these things were taken out of their hands. and you ll julia, what impacu think this has on the perceptions of the report we re waiting for to come out next week? well, it certainly gives democrats something to hold onto as they prepare pofor the repor. the report has gotten more loaded because we know it could be used in the michael flynn sentencing. this is something that people who want to disagree with the outcomes of the mueller investigation and people who were indicted, this is something they want to hold on to. democrats will want to look at the ig s record and say perhaps
front of congress does suggest that, you know, he is more or less done with cohen. but he s not the only witness in this case. we don t know how broad the portfolio is, therefore, he might be done with chapter a or subject a. we have no idea and the grand jury has been extended. we still have the mystery case. the michael flynn sentencing was delayed because the judge was quite skeptical, are you sure you want to do this? so you have a new choice to be attorney general. you ve described him as a friend. you know what the united states did to the first attorney general, jeff sessions, belittling him, undermining him at every turn in the justice department. the investigation continues. you see the members coming back into the room. bill barr was asked the question, do you see any circumstances, especially as pressure came from the white house, where you would fire bob mueller? are there any circumstances
his lie to be released to the public, and he was lying to the public and influencing other witnesses. and it sounded a lot like the behavior we ve seen from the president throughout the russia investigation. lying to the public in a way that could come back to haunt him down the road. you also saw it in the michael flynn sentencing. you saw robert mueller putting together the fact that flynn had been so helpful in the investigation but that for someone who served in the u.s. military, to have served as an intelligence official, to serve as a national security adviser, lying was something they were going to take very seriously. right. and the judge in that sentencing that was then delayed made a point of looking at mike flynn and saying, did you know what you were doing when making these false statements that you were lying and that it was wrong? he made him get out there and say very publicly, yes, i did. the white house had been pushing this whole narrative that mike flynn had som
you also saw it in the michael flynn sentencing. you saw michael putting together. for someone who served as the national security adviser, lying was something they were going to take very seriously. and the judge in that sentencing that was then delayed made a point of looking at mike flynn and saying, did you know what you were doing when making these false statements that you were lying and that it was wrong? he made him get out there and say very publicly, yes, i did. the white house had been pushing this whole narrative that mike flynn had somehow been duped or tricked or ambushed into making these false statements. it s just sort of ludicrous but that s still what they are putting out there trying to portray the targets of this probe and the president himself as victims of something nefarious when, really, what the president has made it very easy with a lot of these public statements, the tweets, the reactionary things he does that he can t really control. all these things