This is a reason to stop fishing and go to work. Our job tonight as a country sort of or what everybody in the country is going to be doing tonight is trying to figure out what it means that the report of special Counsel Robert Mueller has finally been submitted. Weve heard it said so many times that it was imminent, that it was done and maybe done and we didnt know about it. Finally its happened. In terms of what that means and what mueller found, we know only the smallest little bits. This is the start of something apparently, not the end of something. The logistics of today we know something about. At 4 30 p. M. Eastern time the staff of the House Judiciary Committee got a call somebody would be bringing a letter from the attorney general. Im sure they all immediately guessed what that letter was. A Justice Department staffer or messenger of some kind, all we know she was wearing a north face jacket, she brought, in fact, two letters to the committee in two separate manila env envelopes because that was one letter for the democratic chairman and republican Ranking Member of the committee. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee was at his new york office, not in d. C. So the Committee Staff quickly made a digital copy and got the letter to him that way. We know those details thanks to a Judiciary Committee spokesperson laying out that process. We know that is how the House Judiciary Committee was notified special Counsel Robert Mueller completed his investigation. We are assuming that a similar process or at least a process with the same effect also unfolded at the senate Judiciary Committee around the same time today but we dont have the same readout about that process. So we know the logistics of how we got the notification that it ended and obviously, right now we have mostly a ton of questions as to what muellers report says, how complete it is, who gets to see it, who gets to decide who gets to see it and when. But after two years of almost entirely just questions about what mueller is doing, some answers will start to emerge now. We get actually quite a bit from the letter that attorney general bill barr did send to the chair of those committees, to jerry nadler in the house and republican senator Lindsey Graham in the senate, those are the two judiciary chairs. The letter was addressed to the Ranking Members, to doug collins, the Top Republican and diane feinstein. Its addressed to those four people. The letter is one page and gives us kind of a lot. Here is how it starts. Dear chairman graham and nadler, i write to notify you pursuant to the special counsel regulations that special counsel robert s. Mueller, iii concluded the investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters. Under the special counsel regulations, the attorney general is required to notify the specific people, the regulations spell out that the attorney general has to notify the chair and Ranking Members of the Judiciary Committees in the house and the senate, and those are the people that need to be notified and need to be notified of three things. Number one, the appointment of the special counsel. That happened back in 2017. The removal of the special counsel, that never happened. And number three, the conclusion of a special counsels investigation. So this is bill barr telling congress as he is required to do, okay, here is the third thing. The investigation is complete. Thats the part of this special counsel experience that happened on my watch. I am notifying you. He then says quote, in addition to this note tification they require i provide you with quote a description and explanation of 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 department mental practices that it should not be pursued. There were no such instances during the special counsels investigation. So this alone is really important. This is a big deal. This has been the subject of lots and lots of speculation and lots of fighting, honestly. This is the attorney general informing congress. The attorney general has to inform congress if there is anything the special counsel wanted to do that the attorney general blocked him from doing. There is worry and speculation the confirmation of bill barr as attorney general nominated and confirmed in the middle of the special counsels investigation, he was nominated and confirmed after he had volunteered a big long sharply worded memorandum that criticized the special counsel because of the circumstances under which bill barr was brought on. Right . Predecessor Jeff Sessions was fired as attorney general. The president said openly because sessions recused himself from overseeing the Mueller Investigation. Well, here comes bill barr who volunteered to the white house in private practice, hey, i got tons of, you know, i got tons of criticism of the special counsel and i think hes doing tons of things wrong then bill barr gets nominated and confirmed as a. G. There is worries and speculation that the reason bill barr got that job, the reason he was seen by President Trump as a suitable replacement for Jeff Sessions and therefore what might be expected of bill barr in that job is that once he got confirmed as attorney general, hed stick his foot out and trip the special counsel, right . Hed use his power as attorney general to block mueller from something that mueller was otherwise going to do. Something that mueller was otherwise going to pursue barr was going to block him. At least as far as this letter goes, from the attorney general bill barr tonight, barr says he never excised that power. Hes notifying congress formally. There is never anything the special counsel sought to do that bill barr stopped mueller from doing. And thats fascinating. Of course, everybody would like to hear that from Robert Mueller as well as from bill barr speaking on muellers behalf and Robert Mueller is still at this point publicly silent. As he has been from the very beginning although well have more on that later. Here is more from the letter, though. The special counsel has submitted to me today a quote confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decision. Im reviewing the report that i may be in a position to advice you of the principle conclusions as soon as this weekend. So this is the attorney general telling us he has muellers report and he is not handing the report over to congress. Right . This letter from bill bar is not a cover letter with muellers findings attached. But he plans to give them i guess bullet points and advice Ranking Members of the special counsel of the principle conclusions. I should qualify it. I am presuming that when he says he can advice themed a soon as this weekend of the special counsels principle conclusions, im presuming that means hes planning on advising the people to whom this letter is addressed. Just the Top Democrats and Top Republicans on the Judiciary Committees in the house and senate. Once they are advised by bill barr as soon as this weekend of the principle conclusions of Robert Muellers report, will those chairs and Ranking Members of the judiciary commit is tell the public what bill barr told them . And what counts as muellers principle conclusions anyway . How much detail is that . How much is the attorney general going to tell those two house members and those two senators as soon as this weekend . We do not know. Not yet. But then here is the last substantive part of the letter and i think its probably the most important part of the letter while also being the most frustratingly vague. Again, this is bill barrs letter. I intend to consult with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller to determine what 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. Quote, i remain committed to as much transparency as possible and keep you informed to the status of my review. So couple of important things here. Number one, obviously, barr is saying i did not block Robert Mueller from doing anything that he wanted to do. There wasnt anything he was trying to pursue where i said no as attorney general im stepping in and blocking that. Interesting. I would like to know more about that but thats the blunt assertion tonight from attorney general william barr. Also, barr is going to maybe as soon as this weekend brief muellers principle conclusions to the leadership of the Judiciary Committees. We dont know what principle conclusions are and dont know for sure it will be this weekend and dont know how constrained the leadership of those committees will be from sharing with other people including us the public. Three separate and apart from that, barr is thinking about what beyond those principle conclusions can go to the congress and to the public and you get the sense from the way he wrote this that he thinks of that as one consideration, not two. Right . You get the sense the way he wrote this that he thinks anything that goes to congress will almost instantly end up given to the public because members of congress, at least one member of congress will decide to leak it or release it properly but hes thinking about that now. Hes thinking whablt cabout wha congress can see and the public and hes consulting on that matter with mueller himself and with Rod Rosenstein who is still there. Remember Rod Rosenstein appointed mueller and hes reportedly been the principle supervisor overseer for the entire 22month duration of the special counsels time. The decision about releasing stuff to the congress and releasing stuff to the public, barr says that will be consistent with the law, consistent with the regulations governing the special counsel and longstanding practices and policies of the Justice Department. What does that mean . Weve never had a special counsel i mean, weve had special prosecutors in the past and other kinds of people convene to do this type of work but under the special counsel regulation, we never had this type of report at this type of stage. We dont know what longstanding practices and policies of the Justice Department are when it comes to sharing with congress and the public the findings of a special counsel. There isnt anything longstanding because they never dealt with this before. But when barr says hell decide what can go to the rest of congress and what can go to the public consistent with the law, consistent with the special counsel regulations and Justice Department policies and practices, that is the part that is going to determine whether we figure this thing out as a country. Whether we the country are ever fully told what Robert Mueller really figured out about russia messing with our election to elect donald trump president and whether trump and his campaign were in on that. There has never before been a president i pamean, not sinc the 1700s has there been a highranking Government Official who was investigated for potentially being in the foreign power. It certainly never happened to a president. Are we going to find out what Robert Mueller found out what he investigated that core issue . Well, depends on what william barr thinks about longstanding practices and policies and how those can be applied to this question but i think its also worth noting that bill barr says there is some other information in the Mueller Report. Remember all that the special counsel regulations require is that mueller provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions. In theory that could mean muellers final report would be as bare bones as i prosecuted this list of people. Here are the indictments that i brought because there was enough evidence to prosecute them and i did not prosecute anybody else because there was not enough evidence to prosecute anybody else. He could have just done that, you know. One sentence and a list of the indictments he filed. Boom. Done. A lot of people thought that is what mueller would do in terms of filing his final report. I mean, if he had done that, the bullet points briefing that bill barr says hell provide as soon as this weekend would more or less be the whole report. He said he prosecuted these people. Thats it. Apparently, mueller didnt do something that bones, that bare bones. The report is apparently more comprehensive than just that sort of list. And now the attorney general is saying hes reviewing it. He needs to go through it to figure out what first of all to figure out how and when he can release the principle conclusions and then beyond that, what further can be released and what cannot. So i mean, just the fact that information exists to be decided upon, that is something we now know about the Mueller Report tonight that we didnt know before he turned it in. Attorney general barr saying hes committed to as much transparency as possible. Again, that is a subjective thing but he says hell try. On that point for what its worth, ill note that bill barr has made his first decision on transparency with the Mueller Report with this letter tonight. The special counsel regulations require that the attorney general make this notification, this notification to the Judiciary Committee, to the chairs and Ranking Members of the Judiciary Committees and attorney general was not required to release this letter publicly. Thats a choice left up to him by the regulations but he writes in this letter to the Judiciary Committee chairs and Ranking Members, the special counsel regulations provide that the attorney general will determine public release of the notification would be in the Public Interest i have so determined. He says i will disclose this letter to the public after delivering it to you. So that was bill barrs first judgment call on whether to make something public, he decided yes, he would make it public. But its early days yet, early hours even i should tell you that multiple news outlets including nbc news reporting tonight that according to senior Justice Department officials there will be no further mueller indictments. We dont know if there are any sealed indictments in other jurisdictions. There is no indication there are or one way or the other about whether other Justice Department prosecutors for instance, u. S. Attorneys offices like the Southern District of new york or the Eastern District of virginia or anybody else, we dont know if any u. S. Attorneys offices or prosecutors in justice might bring further indictments based on material the special counsels office passed on to them but nbc reports that no new indictments will come from muellers team itself that makes sense we seen the team disband and prosecutors take other gigs elsewhere in the government or outside of government. Ill also tell you that although this notification means the special counsel investigation, the special counsels office is closing its part of the investigation, according to the Justice Department, Robert Mueller for now remains the special counsel. Hes not gone. He and a small staff are remaining in place to close up the office and handle any dangling threads and they have been there almost two years. Somebody has to tighty that place up, right . One Watchdog Group announced already that they have already filed freedom of information aboact requests to obtain the full version of muellers report. The chairman of the Intelligence Committee adam schiff says tonight and this is an interesting curveball tonight. Hes saying separate and apart from any mindinfindings from th special counsel, hes saying if there are Counter Intelligence findings from muellers investigation, Counter Intelligence findings about, say, foreign intelligence operations, targeting or compromising u. S. Persons in politics and government, those Counter Intelligence findings by law according to adam schiff must be briefed in the house even if barr doesnt want to release the rest of the stuff to the rest of the congress. Here is the statement tonight from adam schiff. Quote, today the attorney general informed the congress and public that the special counsel concluded the investigation and submitted a report of findings. That report needs to be released to the public. Quote,