State is aiming even higher as the 11th hour gets under way on a friday night. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 813 of the Trump Administration and its a weird feeling on this friday night. We dont yet know how this story is going to change exactly in a few days. It certainly feels like this coming week will be a consequential one for this presidency. All we know is this. Next week will bring the edited or redacted version of the Mueller Report which right now remains entirely in the control of the attorney general william barr. Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein gave something of a preview of the report today during a private lunch in washington. Three people who were present told Bloomberg Rosenstein said, quote, muellers report describes russian cyber crimes during the 2016 election. And that it will clear up questions about the Russian Campaign to interfere in the election. More on that later. Last night we learned from the journal that rosenstein fresh from overseeing the mueller case has been working alongside the a. G. On those redactions of sensitive material. There are concerns about bill barr, concerns that hes already tipped the scale somehow, that he sees the president and not the American People as his client. And he tried this week to address some of that. I was going to try to be as transparent as possible. The fact that information is classified does not necessarily it doesnt mean that congress cant see it, so im willing to work on some of these categories. The category i think is the most inflexible under the law right now is the grand jury material. But then a few minutes after that, thats when barrs comments about the early investigation into trumps 2016 campaign, thats when it reignited democrats fears about what they would see in the report, perhaps, and about the attorney general himself. If i think spying on a Political Campaign is a big deal. I think theres spying that did occur. Note the s word. Spying. Trump has given barr high praise for that assessment. Today lawmakers from both sides of the aisle made clear where they stood on those spying comments. I think when he used the obviously political charge expression of spying, he lost whatever credibility he may have had. That was, again, music to President Trumps ears. Heres my advice for my friends on the democratic side. Leave bill barr alone. Let him do his job. Trump has said he doesnt care about the Mueller Report. His tweets today notwithstanding, and we quote, no matter what we do or give to the radical left, it will never be enough, and they should stop wasting time and money and get back to real legislating, especially on the border. Barrs use of the word spying was indeed a loaded term. Politico reporter kyle chaney tells us the Trump Reelection Campaign is already fundraising based on that word. Despite that not being remotely true they have written this to their supporters and we quote, a. G. Barr believes the Obama Administration illegally spied on President Trump. We need answers. Fight back. Here for our leadoff discussion, sh shannon, josh, and not one but two former federal prosecutors. Our friends paul butler and joyce vance. Welcome to you all. Ill start with the journalists tonight. Shannon, the attorney general gave trump the characterization advantage. Trump turned it into taking, you know, trump license, no collusion, no obtrustruction, a as we saw there fundraising on the word spying. That, however, could change by tuesday night. Yeah. I mean, i think that the narrative of all this is going to shift dramatically. Whether or not President Trump has gotten enough of a head start onseting the narrative on his own because he has had this window of time with barrs letter out there, we are certainly going to be getting a more nuance and a fuller version of this investigation on that 4page letter. I even think theres hints in that 4page letter that tell us theres going to be more coming out of this 400page report than a more nuanced picture than we have right now. Barr mentioned things like most of the incidents of obstruction have been publicly reported. So suggesting theres some that will be included in the report that we dont know about obstruction. He mentions multiple attempts at the russians to reach out to the Trump Campaign even though we really only know kind of about one or two of those. So i mean, i think that theres still the possibility that this moment either monday or tuesday or wednesday or sometime next week could be one of those really sort of pivotal moments in american politics and ive been going back and reading about the star report and the News Coverage around that and i think there is the potential for that to set the narrative for these next two years and how it goes into trumps reelection campaign. Josh, this is your kpachance clear your reporters notebook. Tell us everything you know about the suspected and expected timing of this. How will we come to read it . How will we come to digest it based on what you know . Well, i think that it probably is coming, if i had to guess, somewhere around tuesday of next week. I think its going to probably take officials about a day to put in process the various procedures that they want to have in place to make sure that their release goes in a smooth way. I think its officially going to be released to the public probably via special counsel Robert Muellers website which is still active. He is still in sort of a wine down phase. He has still not officially left his position and i think it will be simultaneously released and delivered to people up on the hill, although most of those representatives are going to be out on recess, so reporters will be scrambling to get reaction from lawmakers who are out in different parts of the country. So thats how i think its going to roll out. Of course, theres still a little bit of mystery about how much of a heads up the white house gets. Will the president or his lawyers get sort of any chance to look at this and prepare comments on it in any sort of meaningful amount of time before the public sees it . I think the answer probably will be no. But well see how that plays out in the middle of next week. On a rare visit to us in new york city, joyce vance is here in the studio. We had a former u. S. Attorney on the broadcast last night. Her guess was this could be up to 60 redaction. Thats interesting. Number two, you have a rule about the Justice Department the more we mention tuesday . I think this is how things tend to work. Just when you think everythings done and ready to be released, someone wants to go back and look it over one last time where theres a question. Typically things happen a little bit later than we expect. Maybe with Something Like the Mueller Report that wont be true. And this may call for a judgment on your part, but what the heck, lets ask anyway. What do you think rosenstein is up to . Hes still number two in doj. Hes still got at least 1 foot out the door. In the last 24 hours, weve read of his defense of barr. And then today what was supposed to be a private lunch, they never turnout to be as private as you think. Offering a tidbit or two about what might be in the report. Rosenstein surely knew that lunch was slightly less private than it was being billed at and may have even been deliberate in making those comments. No huge surprise, but we will learn more about the contours of the russian side of interference in the election from muellers report. We already knew that because it was the subject of one of his indictments. I think, though, that rosenstein is still an institutionalist. People can disagree about what hes done the right thing or not, but he is clearly down to the end trying to do what he believes is the right thing to protect the integrity of the Justice Department. Hey, paul butler, one of the words you lawyers love is declinations. Its a fancy word for the charges declined and not charged. Do you think well see any of that evidence involving, say, some of the big names that people expected to be indicted and charged long before now . How much well get to see is up to the attorney general of the United States, which is not confidence inspiring for people who would like to see transparency and accountability, because mr. Barrs acting more like a private lawyer for the president than he is like a representative of the United States. So yes, when a prosecutor declines a case, that is, he elects not to bring charges, he writes a long detailed memo explaining why. So we should be able to learn why people like don junior were not charged with perjury when apparently he told some of the same lies to the house and senate that other people who were charged with personnel re were. Why wasnt jerome corsi charged . Mueller sent a draft indictment to him and then elected not to charge him. Finally, there was that bizarre meeting in the cigar bar between the ukrainian russian operative and Paul Manafort at the heat of the campaign and manafort gives private polling data. At one Court Proceeding mueller said that goes to the heart of the investigation. Whats up with no evidence of collusion according to the attorney general . That seemed pretty incriminating to me. You asked only good questions for which there are no answers yet. Shannon, we note that the president is not in maralago this weekend. Hell be bouncing around the white house all weekend. Is there a stated plan for white house rebuttal other than rudys constant mentions that they have a counter report ready and on the skids . Right. Well, they do have a counter report and thats something theyve been working on for months. Actually, since the summer. Jane raskin, one of the lawyers down in florida has been leading that. This is something that we saw in the white water investigation where clintons lawyers quickly came out with their own i think it was a 70 something page counter report immediately after the star report came out. I think we expect for that cometocome out. Of course, they dont know everything thats going to be in muellers report. But the big concern for them all along has been this obstruction charge. I think in their counter argument, there will be a lot of their own analysis about what the law is around obstruction and what the president s Constitutional Authority is. But i think on a broader scale, the president s strategy in responding to this is going to be focused on no collusion, no collusion, no co liellusion. There are details that are going to come out but he is going to simplify it and focus on the bottom line. No one is being charged with collusion which is a word he made up and not one mueller has used. Any other details i think they are going to say put those aside to try and make this confusing and keep things simple is a binary choice been collusion and no collusion. Josh, i want you to share something even further. Using your thumb if it comes out on paper and your cursor if not. What section will you go to out of sheer urgency and interest if you have a choice and an index . I think im probably going to jump to see what the unknowns in this report are to borrow a rumsfeldian phrase. I mean, what things has mueller investigated or begun investigating and then spun off that we havent heard about . There are perhaps billions of words, bits and bites that have been spilled on News Coverage of this investigation, but i remain convinced there are probably whole branches of it that we dont know about at this point. We may not learn about all of that if its still active next week, but i think well learn about at least some of it, what the contours of this investigation were, which are still not entirely clear. And i think there could be some real nuggets in those matters that really havent been turned over by the press up to this point. Joyce, do you think we will learn why it is that mueller took a pass on obstruction . Do you think the supporting reasoning and documentation will be there . You know, i had thought we would see that in the full text of the report, but when barr testified on the hill this week, he testified that mueller had not told him he was leaving the question for congress. But also that mueller had not asked him to make a decision on obstruction. That left me wondering exactly how much well learn from the report itself. Paul, we have a lot of things still out there. Gates, flynn, stones trial, and u. S. Attorney investigations. Those will all continue to revolve like the mini hurricanes that they are . Thats right. We have people who it will be in their interest in avoiding jail to come clean to say everything they know. And so while the Mueller Investigation is over, i think its way too soon to exonerate the president and his men on obstruction or even on conspiracy, so we know from Rod Rosenstein today that the russians were active not just in trying to influence the election, but in trying to get donald trump in the oval office. There was considerable evidence that folks in the Trump Campaign knew about some of the wikileaks information in advance, so its hard to believe that all of that information is out there and theres no kconnections between the Trump Campaign and the russians, so maybe they dont amount to the level that a prosecutor would want to bring a case, but they definitely implicate National Security. Terrific front four to get us started on a friday night. Shannon, josh, paul butler, joyce vance, our thanks for being with us. Coming up, what the president reportedly offered one of his top officials if he was willing to break the law. And later one of trumps former advisers undertakes a new crusade against an establishment that dates back pretty much to the actual crusades. The 11th hour as we say just Getting Started on a friday night as abe lincoln looks on. I just saved money with geico. I saved hundreds of dollars nice that is a lot of money. The power is exhilarating hahahahahaha hah. Ha. Just got something in my throat. Yea. Marvel studios avengers endgame. In theaters april 26. Webut some of us turn outhose dreams. Into action. The bookers. The doers. The hit that confirmation button and lets go ers because bookers know that the Perfect Place to stay. Is right there for the booking. Be a booker at booking. Com the worlds 1 choice for booking accommodations. Each day justin at work. Walk. And after work. He does it all with dr. Scholls. Only dr. Scholls has massaging gel insoles that provide allday comfort. To keep him feeling more energized. Dr. Scholls. Born to move. You know reliable support when you have it, and that dependability is what we want to give our customers. At comcast, its my job to constantly monitor our network. Prevent problems, and to help provide the most Reliable Service possible. My name is tanya, i work in the Network Operations center for comcast. We are working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Welcome back and we are tracking a number of striebi striebing striking a number of headlines this friday night. Some or all could aim to a giant distraction. After seeing that just the idea of it caused outrage last night, today the president confirmed hes in fact considering strongly as he put it bussing migrants to various socalled sanctuary cities. This was first reported by the Washington Post and reported by us as well last night. Administration officials quickly said it was just a suggestion that had been floated and knocked down, rejected. Thats when the president doubled down on it to threaten democrats if they cant reach a deal on border security. Well bring the illegals. I call them oye the laws it i our studio is joyce vance. Julia, we try to keep our eye on the ball around here and we try to call stuff for what it is. Are both of these stories the using migrants as a political weapon, the offering a pardon as a get out of jail free card, are they both some radio chatter . Whr trump d ined t sar coentsa jo es one moreigra adlioday our cour kubnd julia miry c be to ild s l wis hen our studio is joyce vance julia, we try to keep our eye on the ball around here and we thinky that was a worthwhile conversation in newsrooms across washington today is should we keep giving air and lip service to these ideas that seem to be coming from the dark corners of a mine and someone inside the white house . Maybe the president , maybe stee steven miller, but theyre actually meant as scare tactics. The answer and why we came down to publishing stories like these is because this administration has been known to act on things that are not legally or logistically possible and then theyre immediately challenged by the courts, but they happened. It was the same conversation i had with my editors in february of 2017 and we heard that they were thinking about separating families at the border. Its something they went ahead with. Same thing with the idea of stopping all Asylum Seekers if they entered the country between legal ports of entry. They went ahead with that. It was enjoined by the court, but we did it. We have to put out this information thats being talked about. As courtney and i reported, there was an emergency meeting on tuesday night where they brought in officials from the Defense Department and talked about a plan to use troops not just to build tent cities, but also to run them which would be in direct violation of a law that keeps the military from enforcing domestic law. They are not supposed to interact with immigrants. Right now the plan to build the tent cities has gone further. That could end up in an agreement between dhs and dod very soon. The plan to rum them has not been operationalized yet. It hasnt been taken off the table.