Reporter at the event tonight standing by. And after his victory lap on collusion. One official joked to a New York Times reporter, too much positive news, we needed to change the subject. The 11th hour getting underway on a tuesday night. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 796 of the Trump Administration, and as Congress Tries to get its hands on the Mueller Report, were learning more about when some version of it may be made public and its another necessary reminder. What people are reacting to this week on both sides is not the Mueller Report. But rather a fourpage letter summarizing it by the attorney general. A Justice Department official told nbc news the attorney general will make a version of the report publicly available in weeks not months. The official already said there are no plans to give a copy of the report to the white house in advance, earlier today, Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters he could talk to barr as early as tonight about a process on how to proceed with releasing the report. This as President Trump visited capitol hill today. According to senators who were in attendance and emboldened an exuberant trump took a victory lap over barrs summary before lunch. Trump was asked about his recent comments on the people who launched the russia investigation. Do you think the people who launched the investigation into your campaign of treasonous acts . Yeah. How high up do you think it went . I think it went very high up, i think what happened is a disgrace. I dont believe our country should allow this to happen again. This cannot happen again. It went very high up and it started fairly low, with instructions from the high up. The west wing of the Obama White House i dont want to say that, but i think you know the answer. George conway, who again happens to be married to Kellyanne Conway wrote an op ed about barrs summary, conway points out that mueller did not exonerate trump on obstruction and adds, mueller isnt prone to cheap shots, he plays by the rules every step of the way. If his report doesnt exonerate the president there must be something pretty damning in it about him. Even if it might not suffice to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Earlier today jeremy bash laid out his thoughts when it comes to attorney general barrs summary on conspiracy. I accept bob muellers conclusion that no federal criminal law was broken by the president s own conduct. Lets review that conduct. The president requested russian assistance, he benefited from russian assistance and he rewarded russian assistance. Maybe if you request a guy to rob a bank and then you the guy robs a bank, and you get the money. You reward that guy, and maybe thats not conspiracy. I dont know. Our next guest peter baker of the New York Times writes, muellers investigation has erased a line drawn decades ago, after watergate it was unthinkable a president would fire an fbi director who was investigating him or his associates. Or force out an attorney general for failing to protect him from an investigation. Or dangle pardons from potential witnesses against him. The end of the inquiry by Robert Mueller made clear that President Trump had successfully thrown out the unwritten rules that had bound the other chief executives in the 45 years since Richard Nixon resigned under fire, effectively expanding president ial power in a dramatic way. With that, let us bring in our lead off guest for a tuesday night. Julia ainsley, peter baker, and robert costa, a National Political reporter for the Washington Post, also happens to be moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Id like to begin with you, because of where you are, charlotte, north carolina, where tonight you attended an event james comey appeared at which also became his first reaction to what weve seen of the barr letter summation of the Mueller Report, and what was it . Well, thats right, brian, i mean, its not that james comey has ever been short on words since he left his post. Tonight was the first night hes spoken publicly since barrs summary of the Mueller Report. We had a lot of questions, i wanted to know what he made of this, considering it was under his per view that this probe was open in the first place, he spoke to a crowd of over 2,000 at an event sponsored by queens college. Only one question dealt with the news of the day, about his reaction, to barrs letter, what he said, is that he was confused, he was confused by two things, one is that Robert Mueller did not make a decision on obstruction, he said the very reason a special counsel is appointed is to take those charging decisions out of the hands of political appointees, he thought with more coming to light, if theres more transparency into muellers report, we may understand why he made that decision. Then he doesnt understand why the attorney general decided to weigh the fact that there was no underlying crime, when he decided not to pursue obstruction charges. The thing he did not say, brian, is he was not critical of the attorney general for weighing in at all, i wonder if that is in part to protect himself because as we know, comey was under criticism for perhaps weighing into an area where he shouldnt have, when he came out and talked about Hillary Clinton not being under investigation, and reopening the investigation shortly before the election. I thought that was an interesting piece he did not pick up on. He said he was glad that the report was done, that Robert Mueller was able to do his work, he said it should be good news for the American People. He wanted to point out that he did not have an outcome that he desired, that he wanted the work to be done. And peter baker, your piece in tonights times clearly labelled News Analysis goes into the breakage of norms. Which norms specifically, and those unforeseen by the reges that governed muellers appointment and behavior . Thats exactly right. What we already know about the question of obstruction has been out in front of us, and in our faces, you know, the president did fire jim comey after not getting the answers he wanted. He did fire attorney general Jeff Sessions because he was mad that sessions recused himself from the russia investigation and couldnt protect him. He left open the possibility of pardons even as people were being brought to testify against him. All of these acts, his defenders say are perfectly legitimate because they are within the scope of his executive power. Therefore, you cannot interpret them as obstruction of justice, hes under the constitutions article two, he cannot be questioned in the use of that authority. And in effect, Robert Mueller may or may not agree with that, the net result of not finding that there is obstruction out of these, is to say that theres not obstruction, that means that lines the other president s had observed since watergate worried they would be perceived anyway as being obstructed. Now have been moved, i think future president s will take note of that. You are notoriously well sourced, especially among republicans on the hill. I know the president had lunch among republicans on the hill, give us some flavor if youre able to, from that event, starting with, from whom did the invitation originate . The invitation in essence is always open for President Trump to visit senate republicans. It was not expected for him to visit today. They told me the president wanted to take a victory lap of sorts and visit the capitol, talk to republican colleagues. They were taken aback by the president s decision along with his administration, to pursue changes to the Affordable Care act so soon after this report finished by Robert Mueller, and the attorney general made his summary, they thought the president should not move toward maybe considering a Second Special counsel to investigate the Justice Department. As much as the president and some of hips top allies inside and outside the white house are seeking vengeance against perceived rivals, theyre telling him behind the scenes, take this victory politically, and move on. Julia ainsley, you are notoriously well sourced at the Justice Department, and have spent enough time there of late, to have your mail forwarded. What are you learning, if anything that may describe the contours of this Mueller Report when we see it . Vo luminous . Are we talking about tens of pages, hundreds, how much redactions can you shed any light on it at all . That quantity is something ive been pressing on for some time. Even before we saw the summary or even before the report was delivered. I tried to figure out what exactly were talking about, and yesterday i was talking to a department of justice official where with i said, are we talking tens, hundreds, thousands, they wouldnt get into how long the Mueller Report was, when we might see barrs version of this, weeks, months or a year. Certainly not a year. As of today, we know it will be weeks not months. So i think that gives us some idea of what theyre combing through. But i do think they should give us an outline of how much material there is, because then well know how much its filtered. The other thing that keeps being emphasized to me, its not just up to the attorney general when and how much we see, Robert Mueller is not done with his job, he needs to go through and identify whats known as 6e material. Material that is privileged because its grand jury testimony. The way our laws work, is that if you testify before a grand jury, what you say there is protected. Thats why its a closed door testimony. How much information is in the Mueller Report that is needed for other investigations. You cant give away information that is critical for other prosecutors in a different district when theyre trying to build their case. Right now, barr is working with rosenstein and Robert Mueller to come up with this, its emphasized to me a lot, we shouldnt just see this through barrs filter, because of the position he was in on the obstruction question, hes been placed there already. In a lot of peoples minds. Peter baker, equally notoriously well sourced at the white house. Does President Trump and the folks around him, do they view this as the time to make hey while the sun shines . Because this is the interim, its hard to prove or disprove anything in the Mueller Report that wasnt talked about, and all we have to go on which is a fourpage letter after all. Theyre making a lot out of what would amount to a couple sentences, quoted by attorney general barr in his letter. They are important sentences, they are the bottom line as far as we understand, which is to say that the Mueller Investigation found no conspiracy sir with russia. It chose not to make a decision on obstruction of justice. When we see this report, and we dont know when it will be, i thought weeks, not months is one thing, that also means weeks not days. Six House Committee chairman sent a letter demanding the report be delivered to them by next tuesday. Were about to have a collision at some point it seems like, between the Justice Department and the democrats in the house. Once we see it, it may be that Robert Mueller lays out a damning portrayal of actions that may be questionable or criticizable but not criminal in his mind. We do not know that, we dont know this is a clean bill of health, we know theres not going to be an indictment out of it. The white house is going to fill that vacuum and make sure thats cemented as the main takeaway from the support in advance of the text being examined by the public. Robert . When you look at the news on capitol hill today, was the president s visit the headline . Yes, it was. But there was another big headline, Speaker Pelosi urging her party to hold off on impeachment proceedings to push for a full release of the Mueller Report, and to pressure the attorney general to share more with the congress and with the public, but this is a speaker taking the lead and taking command of her party, setting the pace for her own partys president ial field as well, to talk about health care, jobs, the economy. To move away from a focus on russia and a focus even on the president s conduct. Even as they push the attorney general to do more. Help me out on something else, i need you to be the trump whisperer, very little of what he says is said by accident. Especially if its a repeated talking point, this is now 2 or 3 days weve heard him say, no president should ever have to go through this again. And it really gets your notice. Ive read that it could be a precursor of an executive privilege argument, of a pardons argument or an argument to change future prosecutor reges. It has people inside of the department of justice on edge. The president is not prepared at this moment talking to his confidants to walk away from a battle with doj, and he believes that his allies on capitol hill, such as mark meadows of north carolina, and others like that are prepared to try to investigate the origins again of the russia investigation to go back to the department of justice, to people like james comey, maybe bring them back to capitol hill. For many republicans, close to the president , this is the path to a victory in 2020. To not let this rest, to put this on the democrats again and again, and frame what has happened over the past two years in deeply partisan terms. From charlotte to washington tonight. Our thanks to julia ainsley, peter baker, robert costa, for starting off our broadcast in such fine fashion. Coming up for us, as trump enjoys his victory lap, others warn he isnt in the clear just yet. Two veteran federal prosecutors who worked for that office still investigating the president , join us next. And later, the 2020 gift the democrats say the republicans handed them today. Well see about that. The 11th hour, however, is just getting started. With signs of spring evident on a tuesday night. Allergies with sinus congestion and pressure . You wont find relief here. Go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritind. While the leading allergy spray only relieves 6 symptoms, claritind relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure. Claritind relieves more. Ahhhh were here. 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Quickbooks. Backing you. New reporting from nbc news today revealing President Trumps lawyers were worried about obstruction and not so much collusion during muellers investigation. Our own ken dilanian reports that by last april, muellers team rarely asked probing questions about russia. Instead, the special counsels office wanted to know what was in trumps head when he fired james comey and what his intent was when he denounced the russia investigation on twitter. To find that out, muellers team wanted to interview trump. Trumps legal team resisted without ever saying no. And the subpoena never materialized. Here to talk with us about it tonight. Two former assistant attorneys for the Southern District of new york. Maya and jessica. Welcome to you both. The Trump Lawyers worried more about obstruction. We learned tonight comey is confus confused, are you confused about what we know about muellers work product and the decisions or nondecisions he came to. I find the part of the barr letter summarizing the Mueller Report on the obstruction question to be the most confusing part of the letter, and i find two parts of it confusing. Muellers apparent nondecision about whether to recommend a charge of obstruction of justice. The second part is barrs decision to make a decision. Mueller having said, im not going to decide one way or the other. Both parts of that are confusing to me, the first part, because mueller was appointed to make the prosecutorial decisions in the first instance in this case. That was his mandate. He didnt do it here, and we dont know why, instead, he according to barr, laid out the evidence on one side or the other. And the legal arguments