data which the people gave to them knew had no value other than to help them microtarget social media, illegal social media interventions in the american election and of korgs the trump tower meeting relating to the hacks from the dnc. this is why it is so important to protect the mueller investigation and to make sure that report that may or may not be coming out soon becomes public and is not pocketed by whitaker or barr. it s one of the things we have to make sure that that report is public so the american people know the results of the investigation and we have work to do also. we now have enough leads to do our own investigation on some of the things that mueller plaubably knows already but hasn t said.
step down on his own terms, but apparently will not leave robert mueller high and dry. this is according to nbc news reporting today. a source close to rosenstein said he intends to stay on until mueller s investigative and prosecutorial work is done. the source said once mueller s work is done special counsel s report to the justice department would follow a few weeks later and rosenstein would likely be gone by then. the timing of all of this unclear and there s reporting all over the map regarding how far along that man might be in his investigation. if confirmed and hearings start next week, the incoming a.g. william barr would oversee the russia investigation even though he wrote in a now famous and unsolicited memo that the mueller investigation was ill conceived and mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction. well, with us to talk about all of it tonight, the attorney neal katyal. he served as the government
under the special counsel regulations i had the privilege of drafting 20 years ago, put the attorney general in charge. meaning whitaker or barr in the should stop any aspect of the investigation. could say you can t indict don jr. or whom ever and can say that final report that mueller will issue can t be given to the congress in its full report or even any part of it or to the public. so all of that think congress may have mechanisms to get at but we have to worry that the investigations can be stopped and fruits of the investigations, what we ll learn about from mueller, american people may not see because an attorney general that s willful can block that. a small but powerful group of people around the attorney
that s tonight s last word. the 11th hour with brian williams starts now. tonight trump storms out of a shutdown meeting with democrats and whether it was genuine anger or a straight up political stunt, tomorrow brings his photo op visit to the southern border. in the meantime your federal government remains shut down. rod rosenstein leaving the justice department but a source close to the deputy a.g. tells abc news he won t leave the mueller investigation high and dry. and tonight new reporting on the counterassault. the white house legal team and their plan to fight back against what s about to be an exploding number of investigations. all of it as the 11th hour gets under way on a wednesday night. and good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 720 of the trump administration. day 19 of the government shutdown. and there is no sign of a way out as talks collapsed again today.
the first thing to thing about, taking a step back is what are the stakes here? the manafort revelations from yesterday, flynn, the national security advisor going to jail, or at least pleaing to a federal felony. you ve got campaign finance violations ordered by the president. all of this has come out because of the independent investigations by mueller the southern district of new york. all of that is putengszally at threat with rod rosenstein leaving. rod started out, i think, with unsure footing. but has by all accounts protected the integrity of these investigation let them proceed and now there are threats to them. what are the threats? i think that dchd depends on how one view william barr? right. so there s two different branchs of the investigation. one is the special counsel and the other are the justice department investigations and the southern district and so on. both will be controlled by the attorney general. so the mueller investigation,