Well. Jon meacham, always such a pleasure to have him as part of our broadcast, especially on a consequential friday night. That is our broadcast indeed for this friday and for this week. Thank you for being here with us. Have a good weekend. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. A couple of hours ago, maybe even less than that, i was standing knee deep in a trout stream in tennessee. But now its mueller time and so im in a studio in the great state of tennessee. The trout are basically just as safe as they were when i was flailing away at them ineffectually this afternoon. But now it is listen, its this is history. This is a reason to stop fishing and go to work. Our job tonight as a country sort of or at least 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, maybe it was already 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 from the Justice Department that 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 envelopes, that was just before 5 00 eastern time. Our assumption is there were two
separate envelopes because that was one letter for the democratic chairman of the committee and one for the republican Ranking Member of the committee. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, democratic congressman jerry nadler, was at his new york office. He was 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 this evening that special Counsel Robert Mueller had 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 kind of 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 just 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 chairs of those committees, to democratic congressman 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 dianne feinstein, whos the top democrat on the committee in the senate. Its addressed to those four people. The letter is just one page. And it does actually give us kind of a lot. Heres how it starts. Dear chairman graham, chairman nadler, Ranking Member feinstein and Ranking Member collins, i write to notify you pursuant to the Special Counsel Regulation thats Special Counsel robert s. Mueller iii has concluded his investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters. Under the Special Counsel Regulations, the Attorney General is required to notify these 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 notification the Special Counsel Regulations also 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 Departmental 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 had been worries and speculation that the confirmation of bill barr as Attorney General, he was 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 to the Trump White House that criticized the Special Counsel because of the circumstances under which bill barr was brought on. Right . His 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 has volunteered to the white house when he was 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. So there have been all these 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 GeneralTo 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 was never anything theSpecial 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 but at this point its only bill barr who is speaking on muellers behalf. Robert mueller is still at this point publicly silent, as he has been from the very beginning, although well have more on that in a moment. Here is more from the letter, though. The Special Counsel has submitted to me today a quote confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions he has reached, as required by the regulations. I am reviewing the report and anticipate i may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsels Principal 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 barr is not a cover letter with
muellers findings attached. But he says he plans to give them i guess Bullet Points, something this weekend. He said he will advise Ranking Members of the Special Counsels Principal Conclusions. I should qualify it. I am presuming that when he says he can advise them as soon as this weekend of the Special Counsels Principal Conclusions, i am presuming that means hes planning on advising specifically the people to whom this letter is addressed. Just the Top Democrats and Top Republicans on the Judiciary Committees in the house and the senate. Once they are advised by bill barr as soon as this weekend of the Principal Conclusions of Robert Muellers report, will those chairs and Ranking Members of the Judiciary Committees then tell the public what bill barr has told them . And what counts as muellers Principal 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. Separately i intend to consult with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein and special Counsel Robert 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. Quote, i remain committed to as much transparency as possible and will keep you informed to the status of my review. Sincerely, william p. Barr, Attorney General. So a couple of important things here. Number one, obviously, barr is saying explicitly 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 you from doing 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 Principal Conclusions to the leadership of the Judiciary Committees. We dont know what Principal 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. But three, separate and apart from that, barr is thinking about what beyond those Principal 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 about what congress can see. Hes thinking about what the public can see. He says hes consulting on that matter with mueller himself and with Rod Rosenstein, who is still there as Deputy Attorney general. Remember Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller in the first place and Rod Rosenstein has reportedly been muellers Principal Supervisor Overseer for the entire 22month duration of the Special Counsels tenure. 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 consistent with 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, weve 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 really 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 try to elect donald trump president and whether trump and his campaign were in on that. There has never before been a president i mean, not since the 1700s has there been a highranking Government Official who was investigated for
potentially being in the thrall of a foreign power. It certainly never happened to a president. Are we going to find out what Robert Mueller found out when he investigated that core issue . Well, depends on what william barr thinks about longstanding practices and policies in the Justice Department 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 reached by the special kun counsel. So in theo