Things are, of course, a little bit nuts in tonights news. Weve had a whole bunch of breaking and developing stories over the course of this evening. Tonight, for example, we have new word that the Oversight Committee in congress is preparing to subpoena the white house personnel Security Director, specifically to respond to ongoing questions about how this administration has handled or mishandled security clearances. That is a question that started off as an acute one very early on in the trump administration, given the criminal charges that were brought against Trump National security adviser mike flynn. Similar concerns have continued most recently through the reports that president ial soninlaw Jared Kushner was actually blocked from receiving a top level clearance by career officials based on what they reviewed in his background checks, but for some reason those views of career officials, that determination that he shouldnt get a clearance was overridden by the white house and he was given a clearance anyway. So the white house personnel Security Director has been or is going to be subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee. And soon after we got word of that subpoena on the security clearance issue, tonight we also got word that that same Oversight Committee led by congressman elijah cummings, they are also now seeking to subpoena commerce secretary wilbur ross and the new attorney general william barr. Subpoenas for both of those cabinet officials over the huge legal controversy that has erupted over wilbur ross intervening in the census to try to add a Citizenship Question to it. This is a matter on which federal courts have repeatedly squished commerce secretary wilbur ross like a bug. Now he is being subpoenaed by congress along with the attorney general to answer to them on that issue as well. Again, both of those stories delivering tonight developing tonight. Both of them breaking, you know, late on a friday. Naturally. And i think in part this is just our life now. This is just the pace at which things happen with this new era that we are in, but, really, it does feel like its just specifically our way that we now celebrate friday nights, right . What is it about fridays . Last friday, for example, youll remember that was when we got this letter from newly appointed attorney general bill barr announcing that the special Counsel Robert Mueller had completed his work. Last friday is when bill barr told us that mueller had completed his work and submitted a written report about what his investigation has uncovered over this past year and ten months. That announcement from the attorney general a week ago tonight, friday, just confirmed that mueller had finished up. It confirmed that muellers report existed, it confirmed that mueller was closing down the special counsels office. But that notice from the attorney general last friday night didnt say anything substantive about the content of muellers findings. For that we had to wait two more days until on sunday we got another letter from attorney general bill barr, and this one announced what he called the principal conclusions of muellers report. He delivered what he said were muellers principal conclusions and also one of his own. And i think because it was very exciting to have any official characterization whatsoever of the results of muellers investigation, i think because of that excitement that there was some content being described, the press, at least for a little while, basically uncritically ran with what the attorney general asserted were muellers findings. But within a few hours for some publications, certainly within a few days for most, i think it started to dawn on everybody in the Mainstream Press and everybody consuming news on this matter that, wait a minute, we dont actually have muellers report at all. Muellers report is done and we know its done and we know it exists but we havent seen it. All weve got is what william barr said about it. And that statement from william barr on sunday was in itself an odd thing. I mean, the attorney general the way hes written these letters and notifications, they sort of sound official. They sound like he is fulfilling the duty that is expected of him as attorney general as we were all expecting him to do, but the attorney general is not supposed to provide a description of a report from a special counsel. There is nothing in the special counsel regulation that creates an expectation that an attorney general would take on the role of interpreting and summarizing a special counsels report in his own words, let alone announcing his own decision about whether or not the special counsels findings should produce any new indictments, but nevertheless, thats what barr did on sunday. We still dont know why exactly he did that. It was it was i mean, it was kind of him freestyleing, right . This was him making up his own dance moves, showing off what he could do now that he had seen muellers report and we hadnt. That unexpected performance from bill barr last weekend, that sort of ad lib riff from the attorney general as to how he thinks hes supposed to respond to muellers report, that has given us this whole weird week that we have just lived through in which the Mueller Report is in fact finished. Its being kept under wraps at the department of justice. It hasnt been given to congress. None of it. Hasnt been shown to the public. None of it. But the attorney general for reasons unknown took it upon himself to describe what he said was in it and what he thinks the president should not be charged about based on something that mueller found that were not allowed to know, that hes not even describing in detail. I mean, its been a weird week. Thats the assertion that we got from attorney general william barr, and based on that, the white house and the conservative media and a good chunk of the mainstream media, too, theyve been celebrating all week long that everythings done now and it sure is a relief after that long investigation to know what Robert Mueller found. And what Robert Mueller found was absolutely nothing, everythings fine. And the reason we know that mueller found that is because thats what william barr told us. He summarized muellers report, right . So that must be the end. Well, now tonight, again, happy friday. Now tonight it appears that there is a little bit of a panic in the disco because now william barr has released yet another unexpected, taken it upon himself ad lib figuring it out as he goes along letter, which appears tonight to be an effort by the attorney general to try to take back some of what he said last week. Which started this whole week of, you know, trump is exonerated. Its all over news coverage. The attorney general tonight sent this letter announcing that everybody misinterpreted what he said last weekend in that letter. What he did last week is being talked about in a way that he didnt expect. Thats not at all what he meant and we should all know better. I am aware of some media reports and other publications mischaracterizing my supplemental notification as a summary of the special counsels end report. For example, chairman Jerry Nadlers march 25 letter refers to my supplemental notification as a, quote, fourpage summary of the special counsels review. My march 24th letter was not and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting of the special counsels investigation or report. As my letter made clear, my notification to congress and the public provided pending release of the report a summary of its principal conclusions, that is its bottom line. I do not believe it would be the publics interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report or to release it in serial or piecemeal fashion and therefore, yes, every few days im going to keep sending you another letter that says something about Robert Mueller and what he found without actually giving you anything from Robert Mueller, but dont say im sum rising it because im definitely just describing it and only the parts i want to describe, not actually giving you a summary. Its just bits of it that i think some people might want to hear that im going to call the bottom line, but its not a summary, its another thing, that nobody ever asked me for, but thats what i gave you and you should know thats what it is. For all the ink and breath thats been exhausted on the russia investigation, including my own, right, trying to figure out the contours of the Mueller Investigation, trying to anticipate and game out not only what he might find but how it would be handled when he ultimately submitted his findings i dont think anybody is going to win the kitty for having bet that the way this would have been handle is the attorney general would get the report and ad lib his entire response. That the attorney general would start randomly releasing his own assertions about the report and little half sentence quotes from it and he would invent an evolving series of rules and categories for choosing which pieces of the report he might want to keep to himself and not show anybody else. But he does appear to just be dancing here. Hes just been, you know, making it up as he goes along. Which is odd in particular because the regulations that the attorney general is operating under here are clear and short and easy to read. I mean, there are regulations that spell out what he is supposed to be doing here. He is supposed to notify congress upon the appointment of a special counsel. Well, he wasnt there when mueller was appointed. Secondly, hes supposed to notify congress upon removing any special counsel. Well, Robert Mueller was not removed, so he didnt need to tell them anything about that. Thirdly and lastly, he is supposed to notify congress upon conclusion of the special counsels investigation. Hes supposed to Tell Congress that the special counsels investigation has concluded and consistent with applicable law, there is one other thing hes supposed to tell them. Hes supposed to give them, a description and explanation of instances, if any, in which the 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. So thats the thats the only other thing hes supposed to formally notify congress of. Hes supposed to tell them, a, muellers done, and, b, did mueller do anything y mueller want to do anything you blocked him from doing . You have to Tell Congress. There so no provision william barr is supposed to provide a fourpage summary, dont call it a summary, about what he thinks is important about muellers findings. But nevertheless, that is what he did last week. He says you shouldnt call it a summary. He didnt mean for it to be called a summary. It was meant to be instead a summary of the reports principal conclusions. That is its bottom line. I mean, hes freelancing that, too. Nowhere in his remit is he assigned to pick out the bottom line. Nowhere is he assigned to describe the principal conclusions of anything to anyone. Theres nothing that the attorney general is supposed to give us about the report in his own words because we somehow are not able to discern the meaning of the report itself. We the public or the congress. So how and why did the attorney general decide to do what hes been doing now for a week with the Mueller Report . Hes written up these multiple documents about it now, including what appears to be half of a sentence about the president not being prosecuted for conspireing with russia. The attorney general has decided were not allowed to see the other half of that sentence. Weve also got the attorney generals own declaration that he thinks there shouldnt be any prosecutions here on obstruction of justice. Thats nothing he was asked for, nothing he is expected to provide, certainly nothing he is required to provide, but this is what hes doing, hes keeping the Mueller Report to himself and making these sequential announcements about it. And after he went out on that limb a week ago tonight, saying that there shouldnt be obstruction prosecutions, and heres what you get to know about the president and russia and its half a sentence and it says everythings fine, after going out on that limb sunday, now tonight weve got this letter where he basically tries to crawl back up the limb and hug the trunk. Tonight, i in no way intended to summarize what mueller has reported. My march letter was not and did not purport to be an exhaustive recounting of the special counsels investigation or report. When i told you i was going to convey hi principal conclusions, how dare you conclude that was me saying, hey, heres what mueller said. Its just weird stuff from the attorney general. This feels like a panicky communication from the attorney general tonight. I mean, all of this could be very easily cleared up if we just did know what mueller did say, if we could just see what is in his report. After a week of the president declaring that muellers report totally exonerates him. I will say my impression of whats going on here inside the Justice Department is that i as i read this, i think the attorney general william barr is trying to change public expectations about what anybody is ultimately going to see from muellers findings. I mean, last weekend he announced there would be two categories of information that would be cut out of muellers report before it would be handed even to congress, let alone the public. The first type of information he said would be cut out was information from the grand jury. Stick a pin in that. Well come back to that in a second. The second type of information he said would be cut out was any information relating to any ongoing matters, meaning investigations or open case that derived from muellers inquiry. Now, why it would take attorney general william barr weeks to cut that kind of information out of muellers report, thats a strange assertion in its own right, right . I mean, if weve seen nothing else, we have seen that as a matter of course in hundreds of Court Filings over the entire duration of the Mueller Investigation muellers team made redactions specifically for that purpose, specifically to not compromise ongoing investigations and ongoing criminal cases all the time. Almost every single document any of us in the public reviewed over the course of this whogigac investigation had stuffed blocked out or blacked out by muellers team specifically because it related to other investigations and other open cases. This is something that muellers team does in his sleep. Its hard to believe theyd leave the newly appointed 68yearold attorney general william barr to personally pick through the report to try to figure out which mentions in this 400page report might pertain to open cases. They wouldnt leave that to barr to do that. Mueller would have done that. Muellers team would have done that as part of producing anything that they handed over outside their own offices. Theyve done that with every other document they have produced in the course of this investigation. Youd assume theyd be able to do that for this document, too. William barrs saying its taken him a really long time because hes having to do that himself. Now tonight in this new surprise letter from william barr, barr is identifying two additional categories of information that he now says he also wants to cut out of the Mueller Report, even though he didnt mention them last week. He now says in addition to what he talked about last week he now also wants to cut out, material the Intelligence Community identifies as potentially compromising sensitive sources and methods and he says he wants to cut out, information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. So lets just take those in turn. On the intelligence stuff, i mean, it may be that what hes trying to say there is that he needs to cut out any classified information thats in the report. Well, yeah, you know, duh, right . But, again, you dont release classified material to the public, right . I mean, mueller and his team know how to deal with that. If there is classified material in the report, mueller and his team would have treated classified information as such. In any report that they provided to him or to anyone else. I mean, if there is classified material in what mueller has found and reported, that would presumably be, you know, sequestered in a classified an exto the report. So only people with necessary clearances could review that material in appropriate settings. Thats how you handle material like that. Again, they wouldnt leave it personally to old william barr to like put on his readers and go through it line by line and see if he could figure out what in here should be classified. Hmm. Who might need a clearance to see this stuff . I better i got to buckle down with this report. Close the door. Hold my calls. Right . And then on top of that, what is this random new category that he says has to be put out of the Mueller Report before Even Congress can see it . Information that would unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties. What . Attorney general in other words is going through this report before its released to congress to take out anything that some people might find embarrassing. I mean, where did that standard come from . Who counts as a third party . Who counts as peripheral . Why is it the attorney generals job to protect the reputational interests of people who he decides deserve that, you know, based on his own review before Congress Gets to see any of this information . Even in a classified setting. I mean, where is this in the regulations . I mean, the bottom line here is, you know, if as barr says muellers report is two parts, the russia attack and obstruction, we know very little about whats in the russia part of the report, right . According to barr, he says there is a lengthy discussion of what russia did when they attacked us, how they did it. When it comes to any americans being caught up in that attack in any way, we dont know. We have a s