Possibility. There is a reason why god doesnt want us to go on vacation and i get it. The reason its worth doing Something Like this is because this isnt something is over and reflect on what is happened. We still dont know what mueller found. And now starts a whole new chapter of the trump era in american life. A whole new era of the scandal. A whole new era of in fact the mueller era in which we now see how its going to be determined, not only whether Congress Gets access to this information but whether the American People get access to this information and then what becomes of it once weve learned the whole story as mueller puts it. And this is just i mean, in some way it feels like the end of something we were waiting for but feels like day one of this whole new thing we get to start covering now for who knows how long. And rachel, im staying within walking distance of a studio this weekend because the words this weekend appear in the attorney generals letter. So there could be more and significant news on this tomorrow. Thats exactly right. I am, however, going back to fishing again. Go to it, rachel. Thank you very much, rachel. All right. Well, on this day in president ial history, march 22nd, 1882, president chester a. Arthur signed the outlawing of polygamy. On march 22nd, 1933, president franklin d. Roosevelt signed the legislation the legalization, i should say, legalization of wine and beer as the first step in ending prohibition. And on march 22nd, 2019, Robert Mueller signed his report and sent it to the trump administration, attorney general william barr. Attorney general barr got the Mueller Report around 4 00 p. M. Today and at 5 00 p. M. The attorney general delivered a letter to congress saying he was in possession of the Mueller Report and alerting congress that they might have important work to do this weekend. The attorney generals letter to the republican and Democratic Leaders of the house and Senate Judiciary committees said, i may be in a position to advise you of the special counsels principal conclusions as soon as this weekend. So stand by. Stand by tomorrow. Msnbc will be covering this tomorrow. Stand by sunday. At any moment now over the course of this weekend we could be learning more. The attorney generals letter also said, i intend to consult with the Deputy Attorney general rosenstein and special counsel mueller to determine what other information from the report can be released to congress and the public consistent with the law, including the special counsel regulations and the departments longstanding practices and policies. I remain committed to as much transparency as possible and i will keep you informed as to the status of my review. The attorney generals letter was short. It was only one page. Here it is. But each paragraph has something important in it. The first paragraph contains Important Information that the attorney general is required to report to congress. It says, the special counsel regulations require that i provide you with a description and explanation with instances if any in which the attorney general or acting attorney general concluded that a proposed action by a special counsel was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental practices that it should not be pursued. There were no such instances during the special counsels investigation. The attorney generals letter repeatedly cites the Justice Department regulations on special counsels, and so there is no one better equipped to guide us through those regulations than one of the authors of the special counsel regulations, neal katyal, who will lead off our discussion here tonight. Neal katyal is a former acting u. S. Solicitor general. And he is an nbc news and msnbc legal analyst. And to take us through the minutebyminute drama as it played out in washington late this afternoon after the Mueller Report was handdelivered to the attorney general, we have julia ainsley, National Security and justice reporter for nbc news. Julia actually just left a restaurant in washington where Robert Mueller just had dinner tonight. Thats true. Well see what she has to report about that in a minute. And no one knows more about investigating a president than former assistant Watergate Special prosecutor Jill Winebanks, who was part of the Investigative Team that delivered the proof of impeachable offenses that convinced president nixon to resign the presidency instead of trying to defend himself in an impeachment trial. And finally and luckily, we are joined by the hardestworking person on this network today, ari melber, msnbcs chief Legal Correspondent and the host of his own hour, the beat at 6 00 p. M. On msnbc. Ari, let me just start with you. Youve been on this since the story broke. I stepped off an airplane in miami to look up to see julia in the frame on msnbc having just found out on my phone that the report had been delivered, and then ari melber of course joins us with his analysis of what there is and is not in this attorney generals letter as we see it at this stage. And ari, having been youve been covering this almost every hour since then. As you reflect on it at the close of this historic day of coverage and this historic night, what do you take from the attorney generals letter that guides us on what to look for next . As you were reporting, lawrence, i take number one, he says that bob mueller was never overruled. So we take that to be the assertion of the doj. And if bob mueller has a disagreement about that characterization, i bet you well find out about it. And number two, as you say, barr has now teased more news this weekend. He set that deadline himself. And everyones been waiting for this. So i would expect him to make good in some way on some sort of update by sunday night given that he knows what he has and he chose to announce that. And number three, perhaps most interestingly, what he did not have to do but what he chose to do. Barr says he will continue to consult with bob mueller, who now as of tonight is no longer the special counsel, who has ended the probe, but he will continue to consult with him on revealing things that go beyond this weekend, go beyond just the list of people who may have been indicted or investigated but not indicted. And thats where the fight is. Thats where the information is. And its very, very striking that barr is doing that, either because he really does want to finish this out the right way and believes bob mueller can help him do that with integrity, or perhaps because alternatively he knows that bob mueller has a huge ace in the hole where he can always go testify to the democrats in the house side if theres any issues that he thinks still should be publicly aired and barr, the smart attorney general and litigator that he is, wants to keep mueller in the fold. And neal, i want to go to these regulations, Justice Department regulations as well as special counsel regulations. And to that first paragraph in the attorney generals letter where it says the special counsel did not propose anything that was so inappropriate or unwarranted under established departmental progress practices that it should not be pursued. There were no such instances during the special counsels investigation. Now, there are many possibilities i think with that line. Isnt it possible that the special prosecutor, one of the things the special prosecutor did not propose was indicting the president even though evidence existed for indicting the president , for example, in the Southern District of new york in the Michael Cohen case and he did not propose that because it would be so inappropriate and unwarranted under the established department practices. Its certainly possible, lawrence, that thats what happened. But we dont know. All we know is this onepage letter. Well obviously find more out in the weeks to come. But that is just not something we know right now. Now, i do think we should take some heart from that letter in the barr line in the barr letter because that does really show kind of the central concern we had when we were writing the special counsel regulations, was fear of a government coverup. Because in our constitutional system the president controls the prosecution power 100 . And the special counsel regulations were written to say okay, we get that, the president and the attorney general might be able to interfere with an investigation in some way. But if they do so, gosh darn, it youve got to report it to congress. And here the barr letter says you know, that there was no interference by either himself or by his predecessors as acting attorney general. That is a remarkably important thing and something we should celebrate in our democracy. In many other countries such a thing wouldnt have been possible. And neal, i read your tweet after this, the news broke today, that you were racing to an msnbc studio. And when i read that, i was hoping youd be able to stay around till at least 10 00 because like ari youre one of our mvps on this. And i want to go to the last paragraph, neal, on the attorney generals letter where hes talking about the letter itself. The notification to congress. The letter itself and how that is governed by certain regulations. And he says, the special counsel regulations provide that the attorney general may determine that public release of this notification would be in the Public Interest. I have so determined. I will disclose this letter to the public after delivering it to you. That seems to be a very positive element of this letter too, neal. Heres the attorney generals first decision about Public Disclosure, and he fully discloses the letter. Absolutely. Im heartened by that. Im heartened by what the attorney general said at his confirmation hearing about transparency. Im even, lawrence, heartened by what donald trump said this week about how the Mueller Report should be public. And let me say that if its not public, if this really important document which goes to one of the central core questions we face as americans, whether our leader is compromised in some way, if thats not public because barr or President Trump changes their mind and tries to hide that from the American People, that does seem to me really tantamount to a declaration of war on our american democracy because we cannot function as a society if we do not know whether our leaders are compromised. That is a report our taxpayers have paid for and gosh darn it, they should see it. And julia, you were there at the Justice Department today as all of this was unfolding. Give us the ticktock, what you know about what happened, when, and where it happened. For me i was in the dark until right up until 5 00 when this news came out, ran to the camera. But now i have the behind the scenes of what was going on while the reporters were in the dark. We know that the attorney general william barr got this report handdelivered to him from the special counsels office sometime early afternoon before 4 00. And then at 4 30 his chief of staff called over actually sorry, the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein called mueller, thanked him for his service, and then barrs chief of staff called emmett flood at the white house to go ahead and give the white house a headsup. That was something we were wondering about. They had about a half hour notice before congress before the public to know what was in this letter. And as we understand, the letter was read to the white house. They knew what to expect. Then we all start to get into our positions and at 5 00 the Justice Department and their congressional Liaisons Office went out and basically dispersed a team on the hill so the appropriate committees all got this letter handed to them at the exact same time. At that point we ran out, we had this letter, we reported it, and as of 7 00 p. M. Tonight the attorney general was just finishing up his day and leaving and he had been reading and reviewing that. So the next ticktock will be what happens this weekend because our jobs are not done tonight. Okay, julia. Now quickly, to the small town that you live in called washington, d. C. Somehow you found yourself in the same restaurant that Robert Mueller chose on the day when his burden was lightened rather dramatically. Tell us about that. Yeah. I think theres something cosmic going on tonight, lawrence. I cant explain it. Its also the same seat. I think that was really strange to me. Okay. Wait. You ended up taking the same table that Robert Mueller had and literally the same seat . Literally. I was just walking toward the back of the restaurant, i guess. I like a booth and maybe Robert Mueller likes a booth to sit in too, you can have a more private conversation. Seeing my husband for the first time in about three days, an hour of catching up with him. And we sit down and the waiter said oh, do you know who just left this exact seat . That would be Robert Mueller. I Wont Disclose the restaurant because i think its a place he likes to frequent and we should absolutely respect his privacy. But it was amazing. And the feedback on twitter was great. People asking me if maybe he had dropped a document or taped a thumb drive somewhere. Well, julia, another point here, is Robert Mueller known to do friday night restaurants or is this do we know whether this is unusual for him given the job hes had for the last almost two years and that this might have been one of those moments where he finally gets to relax . Thats a good question. What we know about Robert Mueller is he has a pretty strong wall between his private life and his professional life. I do know that he has gone to this restaurant before and i think he goes with people who would put him in the friend group, not people he works with, other prosecutors. I think hes someone who has routine. And so this is part of that routine. I dont think he was letting it loose tonight like everything is over. But you know, certainly it must be a relief for him. And he was eating dinner. So he was finished with his day long before we were finished with ours, lawrence. I think there must be some relief for him and his wife tonight. Jill winebanks, on days like this as soon as news breaks im always wondering what is jill thinking, what is jill thinking. Youre the person on this panel who has been through Something Like this, been through it on the inside. Major investigation of the president , the only investigation of a president that has driven the president from office in the Richard Nixon case. Your reaction to where you think we stand tonight, what you read in the attorney generals letter today about where we will be next week and the weeks to come. Well, i focused in the letter on the paragraph that said that there was other information that the attorney general would consult with mueller on. So that means that there is much more than just some tight conclusions, that there may be some very big information. We dont know of course whether this report says that the president is guilty but we cant indict him because of office of Legal Counsel policy. We know that its likely he did not ask for permission to indict because that would have no doubt been refused and so there would have been a disagreement that would have had to be reportable. But the report could also say we found no evidence either because witnesses were so uncooperative that we just ran up against a stonewall much like we ran up against in the watergate case until basically the American Public rose in total disregard of the president and said you have to cooperate. And thats what led to the release of the first tapes, which were the beginning of the end for the president. And so its hard to say whether the stonewalling of witnesses has had an impact that has led to no final conclusion. But i think the most important thing i thought about was the role of the congress and the role of a prosecutor. As prosecutors we were looking at was there a violation with proof beyond a reasonable doubt of elements of a crime that existed, of a statute that spelled out what it is. What congress is looking at and should be looking at is, number one, is the president doing something that is impeachable, which is not necessarily a crime but which threatens democracy, which threatens National Security, but also they should be looking at are there laws that should exist that dont. Is there a gap in the coverage of our laws that needs to be filled by this congress. And they should also be looking at the known crime of interference in our election by the russians and what steps congress can take to protect the next election. And i dont think theyve done that, either of those things. Julia, you have teed it up for congress and congress is with us tonight in the person of democratic congressman steve cohen of tennessee. Congressman cohen is a member of the house Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the impeachment process. And congressman cohen, to what Jill Winebanks just said, what do you see as the distinction between your obligations on the Judiciary Committee and Robert Muellers obligations as a federal prosecutor . Well, jill was exactly right. Robert mueller was limited to russian involvement in our el