A serious challenge in 2020 . Well look at that in just a moment. But we start with this. Washington, a waiting game that is in full swing today with all eyes on special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller could issue that report on the russia investigation to attorney general william barr, literally any moment now. The Washington Post laid out some smart key questions that lie ahead. Will the public ever see the report . What will the report say about President Trump . Will there be more high level indictments . Could it outline as the star report did back in the 90s, could it outline impeachable offenses . And what will congress do . The investigation on the mind of President Trump this morning, apparently, as he took to twitter, writing highly respected senator richard burr, head of Senate Intelligence, said after interviewing over 200 wngss and studying over 2 million pages of documents, we have found no collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. The witchhunt, so bad for our country, must end. We have assembled some of the best and brightest journalists and legal experts who have been living this investigation daytoday over the past two years. Nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter kim delaney, craig brower, mya wylie, harry litman and dana millbank, a big thanks to all of you. Ken, ill start with you because in addition to the president s tweet, we also heard from his press secretary a little more than an hour ago. The president is going to leave that decision up to the attorney general. Just because he hasnt made that call, hes following the proper process. If he did it the other way, you guys would go crazy saying i cant believe the president has done this. I think its such a double standard. Does he want to be made public . Does he think the public needs to see it in order to move on, sarah . We think the public should have moved on a long time ago. I think the public did move on a long time ago. I think the only people that are hung up on it are the democrats and the media. Those heading that investigation might dispute that conclusion, ken. What do we know about where things stand right now . That statement she made has no connection to reality. This. Investigation, 34 people indicted or accused, guilty pleas of some of the president s inner circle. But in fairness, it has not answered the big question that Robert Mueller has been hired to answer which is was any member of the Trump Campaign conspireing with that election interference . And trump is right that the Senate Intelligence committee has not found any direct evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. But Robert Mueller has access to so much more information than the senate. We have to wait and see what Robert Mueller has found on that score. Its true that he hasnt charged anyone criminally with colluding with russia, but we have no idea what hes going to say in his report with regard to the actions of trumps inner circle, meeting with russians during the campaign. There are many, many Unanswered Questions and we can only hope that Robert Mueller will answer them in this report. Harry, neal cot who helped draft the special counsel regulations, he wrote this in the new york times. Its a fascinating piece if you havent read it yet. If e the report, unlikely to be lengthy by design. The special counsel regulations envision a report that is concise, a summary of what he found. And mr. Muellers mandate limited to look into criminal activity and counterintelligence matters surrounding russia and the 2016 election as well as any obstruction of justice relating to those investigations. A brief report. Is it likely to be beneficial to the president , harry . Really, a tough and interesting question. By the way, craig, those are two different points. It could be limited in that content and still write 500 pages. Now its true that the regs envision something fairley bare bones. Its also true that barr and others have said theyll try to reveal more rather than less and there will be a lot of pressure to do so. Neal cots point is a possible mere recitation that serves it up to congress will the the worst for the president because it will pass the ball on and leave them to gallop ahead and take the baton as happened in watergate. I personally think congress doesnt seem poised to do that in the way they did in watergate and we will be better served with more detail than less. Its my best guess that we will get more detail rather than less. But this is very murky and based on the slimmest of reads for the reports. There have been some comparisons made to the starr report back in the 90s, but the mandate, obviously, was different. In that report, the special counsel at the time lead out impeachable offenses. There is no reason to think we are going to see that this go around. Do you think that the Mueller Report, when it does finally drop, do you think that is going to be the end or do you think that is going to be the beginning . Were nowhere near the end. Because we have placed so much attention, rightly, on the report itself, what we forget are the ongoing investigations that do not end with the Mueller Report. And that is both in the district of columbia, the Eastern District of virginia and most notably the Southern District of new york. And that is because part of what Robert Muellers team did is spin off investigations from the special counsels office to those u. S. Attorneys offices. And we know that theyre just from what we know in the Public Record, there is already evidence of conspiracy. The question is whether or not Robert Mueller will say its provable, right, because theres a distinction between whether we have evidence and whether you think you would win at trial. Got it. Because Paul Manafort giving polling data to russians, the rick gates who actually has knowledge and information about that cooperating, the extension of his sentencing and then when you add the latest indictment with roger stone and the filing we saw a few days ago which made clear that they have communications from wiretaps with russians, that they are using to say roger stones case is related. So we dont know all the facts underneath that. We dont know how much it proves. But im just saying in the Public Record as a lawyer, its very hard not to say that there arent reasons to think theres collusion. The question it doesnt answer is what evidence, if any, are there of communications with donald trump about any of this. But all that is to say these things are going to continue to play out, report or no report. These are all moving forward. Greg, the special counsel regulations say at the conclusion of the special counsels work, he or she shall provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or a declination decisions reached by the special counsel. Those regulations mandate that the attorney general give congress a report. You worked in the office of Congressional Affairs at the fbi. You know what the dance between the Justice Department and the hill, you know what that dance is like. How is that going to go down . Well, as harry indicated earlier, its murky. The regulations are somewhat murky. And i would add that its going to go down in a way thats political. And by that, i dont mean that the eventual result on the merits, so to speak, will be a political one. But the process will certainly be political. As you pointed out, craig, the regs do require that the special counsel provide the ag with a report, a confidential report on the face of the regs it doesnt have to be a written report, but i think we can assume it will be. But what is murky is what the ag has to do visavis congress from the public. Neal seems to think that the regs require the ag to report to congress. Jack goldsmith, former head of the office of Legal Counsel doj has recently written that he doesnt read the regs that way at all and that the ag is not required to report to congress on anything substantive. So its all going to come down to a negotiation between doj and congress. Dana, two years in the making. What sort of anticipation or dread is building there in the capital over this report . Well, craig, theres so much anticipation building that theres a very real possibility it could be an anticlimax when the report does come out that we may not even know. Were sort of all waiting around, watching the same 2yearold file footage of mueller. Were waiting for the great oracle to speak. He may speak quietly silently behind closed doors. Theres that video we have. We have eight pictures of bob mueller na we just run on loop. Ive memorized the whole reel. Maybe hell come out and hell have a beard or he will have curled his hair or Something Like that. Were waiting for some big moment. But what this may be is the beginning of off shoots and congress may not the democrats and the house may not initially get what theyre looking for. But there should be they should be able to procure eventually a road map for various spinoff investigations in the house as has been noted they may well be occurring in the Justice Department, as well. So were waiting for this big moment for the oracle to speak, but i suspect he may be murmuring a bit longer until we actually find out what the big picture is. Harry, youre one of the few folks that knows william barr and bob mueller. You know the socalled oracle. What does bob mueller do, harry, if hes not happy with the way his report is handled by the newly installed attorney general . Yeah. I think in the first instance, he goes to the attorney general. Were assuming this bureaucratic process where somebody is dropped on barrs desk. But theres no reason that they wont be in communication even before. So and it is true there is no exact specification for what barr has to tell to congress. But i think barr will want to, i can mueller will want to, and i think theyll both realize as a political matter, one way or another, the truth is going on out here. But i think in the first instance, if mueller is not happy, he will go and speak with barr, push on barr. There is a Point Congress will subpoena him. I dont see him pulling a Michael Cohen or Andrew Mccabe and showing up on his own volition and beginning to broadcast what hasnt been revealed. That i think would be a bridge too far for the good soldier. Lets not forget a few of the other players, roger stone his trial is set to begin soon. Michael cohen set to publicly testify next week before that house committee. A good chunk of that is expected to be in open session. Some of them people very close to the president. There is that full screen, the number of folks who have been indicted or pled guilty. Some of those names, even if nothing in the investigation points directly to the president , we should note there could be more indictments to come. How badly is President Trump ainted by their actions . Is this something that is going to have any sort of effect on him politically or is it, as Sarah Sanders stated in the driveway, is this something that the media cares about and House Democrats . So any other president would have already suffered the consequences of having so many close and in this case high level in the form of Paul Manafort and michael flynn, advisers who have both lied, obstructed justice, he would be deeply tainted by it. The reality is its all political. But what there are two things here that i want to point out. There is polling that americans are deeply concerned about this investigation. So to suggest that its only the media and democrats misses what the polls say, but more importantly, adam schiff had a very powerful opinion piece in the Washington Post about how fully this is about our democracy and how ow democracy operates. So the idea that any party would not be openminded about concerns about the institutions of democracy is critically important and he was calling republicans to Pay Attention to patriotism to the country over party. And the thing and i just want to make this point about the regs because its a very important point. If to this point william bar has an obligation to Tell Congress if he did not agree with an indictment that Robert Mueller wanted to bring. He has that obligation . He does. If he was disagree, a decision that mueller wanted to make and he blocked it, the way i read the regs is he would have to be transparent about that to congress. Now that is not saying hes done it or therefore we would hear that. And in the absence of that, there wouldnt be anything that would say i did not. But im saying that to say i think lawyers disagree with how you read regulations. But i think Congress Based on those regulations will be in a strong position to say to william barr tell us whether or not you or whitacre before you made any decisions to bar the special counsel from bringing an indictment. Greg, also, word coming down that the president s tv lawyer at least, Rudy Giuliani indicating or saying in usa today that they havent heard from the special counsels office in a number of weeks. Theres been no more talk of the president submitting more testimony. What, if anything, can we make of that, greg . Im not sure if we can make anything of that, really. Especially because of the source. But mya is absolutely right. I think congress per the reg does have the right to know of any disagreements between the ag and the special counsel. What i would suggest that congress will also have an interest and will express the interest even in the absence of disagreements between the special counsel and the ag which would have to be provided to congress. They will demand all of the details. I just cant imagine a scenario where congress and to some extent a bipartisan way doesnt demand virtually everything that bob mueller has to potentially share with them. And thats going to put the ag in a very tough spot. As i said, thats where the negotiation comes in. Greg, thank you. Mya, thank you. Ken, thank you. Dana millbank, always a pleasure. Enjoy the weekend, guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Breaking news, up against the wall. Democrats facing a huge battle on capitol hill as they push to term ma terminati President Trumps National Emergency declaration. Larry hogan speculation. And the alabama woman who married into isis and is making a desperate plea to come back to this country with her son, speaking out for the First Time Since being denied entry into the u. S. She spoke exclusively to Richard Engle in syria. Gline syria come here, babe. Ok. Nasty nightime heartburn . Try alkaseltzer pm gummies. The only fast, powerful heartburn relief, plus melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. Oh, what a relief it is do you have a moment to chat . Weve just heard the president is apparently going to sign this legislation. Whats your reaction . Mitch mcconnell just went to the senate floor. He spoke to the president. The president is going to declare a National Emergency simultaneously. Do you think thats the right plan . No, i do not. I think declaring a National Emergency is not good for the president to do. Onal emergency is not good for the president to do. Breaking news on this friday. House democrats introduced a plan to terminate President Trumps Emergency Declaration along the southern border. Before it ever takes effect or reaches a courtroom, it is the latest challenge that pits democrats in the house against the president of the United States in the battle for power. Who holds that power, who checks that power, who has the backing of the majority of the American People . Msnbcs garrett hake is on capitol hill right now. He is following this breaking nous. Bring us up to speed on where we are right now, sir. House democrats are going to move fast here. They introduced this legislation or this resolution this morning. Theyre going to work it through the rules committee. On monday, theyre going to bring it to the floor on tuesday. They want to get this thing passed through the house and over to the senate side as quickly as possible. We know this will pass the house. Its already been introduced with enough cosponsors that if not a single other person signs on, it will pass the house. Right now, it only has one republican signed on. That will be a big thing to watch on tuesday. How many republicans come out and get on this resolution after as much republicans have talked about executive overreach in the obama presidency, how will they react now . When this thing moves over to the senate, thats the same question were seeing one more time there. There have been about half a dozen, maybe ten republican senators who have spoken out about the president s action here on this National Emergency. Will they put their votes where their mouths on and vote with democrats to say they dont think its appropriate . If this passes both houses, it goes to the president s desk where he will