That i would be very happy. Absolutely. Lets not forget i know we have said it. But this investigation is over. The president never sat down for an interview with Robert Mueller. Thats huge. That was always the big question and something the lawyers never wanted to happen. They were able to prevent that and a subpoena fight. Robb eert mueller never put in request that was rejected. Thats very significant. Stay with me. This is cnn breaking news. Were following breaking news. Very Important News here in washington. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. We want to update our viewers here in the United States and around the world on all of the dramatic developments unfolding right now. Pamela brown, tell our viewers what we know right now. Theres really significant historic information coming from the Justice Department. This is a momentum occasion, wolf. This nearly twoyear investigation by Special CounselRobert Mueller has now ended. The Attorney General has notified congress that it is over. He told congress that he could let them know, the judicial committees, let them know as soon as this weekend about the conclusions that Robert Mueller reached in the investigation. This is an investigation as we know that has swirled around President Trump since day one of his presidency, nearly two years. Now we are finding out its ended today. No noteworthy in the letter that bill barr provided to congress, he says there were no instances during the Special Counsels investigation where any requests were denied. That had been a big question. Had Robert Mueller wanted to interview the president , subpoena the president for an interview and was denied . Were learning there were no requests he made that were turned down. This is going very fast. Its a surprise to the reporters covering this that shortly after the Attorney General receives
the report that he is going to be telling Congress Members of congress what the conclusions were. This is a very fast turnaround. I think the Attorney General knows how much interest there is. We are getting a glimpse of what one of the first fights is. That is over how much the white house is involved. You saw the letters from Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi saying, we do not want you to give the president or his staff a Sneak Preview of what is in this report. The white house lawyers are with the president at maralago. They are expecting to be able to be brought into this process to weigh in on Executive Privilege. We will see how that plays out. This is a win for the president. Laura is reporting there are no more indictments. The president can now say, look, i told you it was a witch hunt. I told you there was no collusion. There are no charges relating to collusion, no charges related to Obstruction Of Justice. He never had to sit down for an interview. We have been reporting this. Rudy giuliani, the president s lawyer texted me. Wants to make sure we have the statement that the counselors for the president have released. Were pleased the office has released its report. A couple of vehicictories he. A different tone sg. The president did not have to sit down for an interview. He would get caught up in lies. Thats now over. No more people being indicted. Sealed, unsealed, no more indictments. Mueller is done. Huge victory for the president. We have a report of what mueller has done publically. We can see it from the court filings, from the charges that he has filed. 37 defendants, including six Trump Associates. Theres a lot of work that has gone into the investigation by any measure, under normal
circumstances, any normal investigation, this has been a fruitful investigation. 675 days long. This is not a normal investigation. This is an investigation that involves the president and his campaign. Thats the big thats the way were going to judge this. The judgment will be based on the idea that they were looking for collusion. They were looking for whether or not there was any conspiracy between people in the Trump Campaign and the russians. Robert mueller did not charge that. According to lauras information, none is coming. That really i think gives the president a sense of vindication. We will hear that. The conclusions, this weekend. The idea they will put out conclusions, thats very striking. It is. It occurs to me when we talk about scrubbing it, that its been prescrubbed. The question of privilege, which the white house was worried about they wanted that sneak peek so they could say this
conversation that you are reporting, you cant really report, maybe barr believes that there are no Privilege Issues here in the report. I think we dont know. The fact that he is going to report that quickly over the weekend may give us a hint that mueller knows that mueller in doing this took all of that into account. He has prepared a report. Knows its going to be public. From our reporting, we were aware that certainly by the end of february, Robert Mueller informed the Justice Department he was nearing a conclusion, he was ready to deliver a report. Bill barr took office in mid february. We knew that this was coming. So the question has been, why the delay . Everybody who was involved here had been briefed and was told they could they would see a report. What has happened in the three or four weeks . It appears that theres been b scrubbing, work to make sure the report that came to bill barr
was ready for prime time. Was ready could withstand scrutiny. Let me get jeffrey to react to that. Theres a big distinction between here conclusions and the underlying evidence in the report. Conclusions cannot be privilege. They cannot be classified. A conclusion is, there was Obstruction Of Justice, there was not Obstruction Of Justice, there was was or was not a relationship between the Trump Campaign and russian interests. I cant imagine there would be any sort of privilege or Classified Information issue. The underlying evidence is where things get complicated. Thats where you may you may see the white house asking for and probably receiving permission for a first look. I do think the one thing that
is a 100 certainty is that the president is going to claim victory. Because the president always proclaims victory, regardless of the facts. The way this is coming out without the underlying facts first, that there will be conclusions first, the president is certainly going to be in a position to declare victory, probably it looks like this weekend. Speaking of the president , lets go over to the white house. Jim acosta is our chief white house correspondent. I know you are getting reaction over there as well. Reporter thats right. The president is down at maralago for the weekend. Sarah sanders, she did put out a statement. It emphasizes how they are looking at all of this. It says the next steps are up to the Attorney General. We look forward to the process taking its course. The white house has not received or been briefed on the Special Counsels report. I spoke to a white house official a short while ago who said they havent sorted out the timetable in terms of when they
will be reviewing this, how they will review this. They are at the early stage of this like the rest of us, waiting for the details to come down. A couple of things i want to point out. I talked to a Legal Team Source familiar with the president s legal team strategy. This is something we should be looking forward to hearing from the president s team in the coming days is that they feel like they pursued a strategy of cooperation throughout this. Yes, the president , Rudy Giuliani had a strategy of undermining the credibility of the mueller probe. Behind the scenes, the way the lawyers feel is that they were highly cooperative with the Special Counsels office. They were providing all sorts of documents and so on. This is the kind of stuff you will hear from the president s lawyers and supporters in the coming days. One other thing, this goes to the conversation you were having a few moments ago, i talked to a Trump Campaign adviser recently who said that they felt inside the Trump Campaign, inside the president s Political Team that
this Mueller Report at the very end of all of this, that this Mueller Report was going to clear the decks for them, heading into the 2020 campaign. Just as the clouds are parting here in washington, theres a bit of rain this afternoon, there is an expectation inside trump world that this Mueller Report really clears away a lot of the clouds that were hanging over the president s head, almost every day we were talking about this russia investigation and the anticipation inside trump world, president s sporterspor supporters is they will charge into the 2020 campaign without this hanging over their heads. Thats a huge and significant victory for the president. One other thing, wolf, is talking to this Trump Campaign adviser, their sense is that the democrats up on capitol hill are not going to let this go. They will want to continue this pace of investigations all the way into the 2020 campaign. They feel like inside the Trump Campaign thats not good political strategy. That is going to backfire on the democrats. They like being in the position of saying, we want to move forward. Havent you had enough . The democrats may not want to do that. All of those things, wolf, all of those taulking points we wil hear in coming days. I think its remarkable hearing from the adviser describing Robert Mueller as a boy scout. That was one way the Special Counsel was described. Thats just a 180degree turn from the kind of rhetoric we have been hearing from the president , his supporters up until now. If we start hearing the president and his folks praise Robert Mueller, i think you will know exactly how they feel inside trump world as this report and the details are coming forward. Over the past two years we heard the word witch hunt, hoax, so many times from the president. We will see if that continues right now. The witch may be leaving town. Stand by. I want to bring in the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, adam schiff. He is joining us on the phone. You heard Robert Mueller wont be handing down any additional
indictments according to a Justice Department official. Does that suggest to you that this report will vindicate the president . I think what the report will do will set out the Prosecut Prosecutorial decisions, which cases he felt he had proved beyond a reasonable doubt and took them to indictment and which cases he felt the evidence may have been clear or convincing or preponderance or the evidence was not sufficient to take to a jury. Its important for people to realize that those are the criminal issues. The counterintelligence issues are separate and fully independent and important. This began as a Counterintelligence Investigation, an investigation into whether the president or others around him were acting as agents of a foreign power. Its going to be very important that that evidence be shared with the congress. Theres a statutory obligation
for the Justice Department to do so so we can make sure the country is protected whether it amounts to anything beyond a reasonable doubt. Be specific. Tell us what you are going to be looking for when you get this report. Well, first of all, we want to make sure the report is made public in its entirety. The house voted do it. The Attorney General said that he would be as transparent as possible consistent with policy. That means making the whole report public. We will insist on that. Second, we want to see the underlying evidence. There may be conduct that was criminal but not sufficiently provable or there may be a broader body of conduct that is deeply compromising to National Security but not a criminal matter. To give you an illustration, the president during the campaign and quite at odds with his public pronouncement of having no Business Dealings with the russians, was trying to make the biggest deal of his life and get the kremlins help to build this
tower in moscow. That is deeply compromising. When that project was discovered, that negotiations went on well after the president said they were, the kremlin tried to participate in the coverup along with the president. If theres other compromising information like that, Congress Needs to know so it can protect the country. How should lawmakers, congressman schiff, respond if bill barr decides to withhold what you would call significant information from congress . First of all, we need to point out to the department that it would be establishing a w horrendous double standard. During the last congress when republicans were in charge, the Justice Department provided over 880,000 pages of discovery to the congress in an investigation in which no one was indicted. That is the Hillary Clinton email investigation. It did so because it felt there was a significant Public Interest and because the congress insisted. We are insisting now the Public Interest is even great are because t because its more serious than Hillary Clinton. I would argue the department cannot adopt a double standard and should cooperate willingly. If it doesnt, we will subpoena. If theres evidence of a compromise, whether it arises to criminal conduct or not, it needs to be exposed. As you mentioned, you and so many other democrats, you want to see the underlying evidence, everything that was discovered over the past two years, not just what we call the top line conclusions. Are you confident you can win that fight if you have to if it has to wind up in court . I am confident we would win that fight. The Department Has demonstrated over the last two years its policy is consistent with that
disclosure, that it gave those Hundreds Of Thousands of pages of discovery in the clinton investigation to the congress because there was a Public Interest and need to know. That need is far greater here. In the case of Hillary Clinton, who did not become president , there was little risk of a coverup. In the present case where the president has daily, including today, sought to discredit the Mueller Investigation, has made false statements about his dealings with the russians, that of his family and campaign, there is all too much reason to fear a coverup. For that reason, the Department Needs to be transparent. Ultimately, were going to prevail. I would hate to be the lawyers arguing that somehow a policy that allowed them to provide discovery in the last congress prevents them from providing answering to congress now. What are the outstanding questions your committee, the house Intelligence Committee, for example, will continue to
investigate regardless of what the Mueller Report reveals . There are any number of examples that i could give you of information that we have obtained in our investigation, information thats become clear from the Special Counsel investigation that may not be summed up in a decision or disclosure that we decided to indict a but not b. To give you an illustration, we know that Paul Manafort was providing polling data to someone linked to russian intelligence. That may not have shown up in an indictment. But it raises profound questions about why the president ial campaign of donald trump was providing polling data, apparently detailed polling data, to someone linked to russian intelligence. Thats just one of the great many unanswered questions. If theyre not answered, then we are going to have to answer them. We have to find the truth. I would say this in terms of the administration, which professes
the desire for congress to work expeditiously, the degree to which they are transparent and provide this information from the Justice Department will greatly facilitate our ability to work swiftly. We have to reinvent the wheel, it will be far more time consuming and difficult. Will you call Robert Mueller to testify before your committee,