subpoena and show up, but there s something known at the linder letter that was named after congressman john linder issued in 2000 that talks about the department of justice s policy regarding responding to subpoenas to appear before congress. the overall default is transparency and to produce things but have are certain things they are committed to holding because because there are conflicting rules. for instance, grand jury material, classified information. things that may have been the result of deliberative privilege. some push and pull and maybe not everything is produced but i think ordinarily parties try to avoid those kinds of constitutional conflicts and resolve whatever they can to produce it. so it will be an interesting fight if he doesn t produce a report on his own and congress needs to subpoena it. greg, pick up on that point barbara said. interesting word. it will be an interesting fight. my question to you is how much of this is the congressman adam schiff in this ca
has a plan ready if the new attorney general bill barr decides to shelf the official investigation s reports and results. we will obviously subpoena the report. we will bring bob mueller in to testify before congress. we will take it could court if necessary and in the end i think the department understands they re going to have to make this public. i think barr will ultimately understand that as well. all right. so the president s former aide steve bannon, you may remember him, is saying this could be dire consequences for the nation as it heads into 2020. we ve allowed the democrats because they take control of the house to weaponize a whole bunch of investigations. they ve, they re going to be able to weaponize the mueller report. 2019 will be quite vitriolic. all comes as the former fixer michael cohen is prepared to testify before a trio of congressional committees this week, some in the open. revealing his time with trump
bill barr given his own personal testimony about this, and how much of this is political posturing to try to put that pressure on bill barr to release the report or at least make part of it public? i think mr. schiff and others are laying down a marker to make sure that the department understands exactly how they see this playing out or how it should play out, but i agree with barb in that i d like to think that this will not result in subpoenas and in a big fight between the department and congress. i think more likely we will see the new attorney general barr understand that he simply cannot get away with stonewalling congress in their frankly there s no reason for the department to do that. like everything in washington, this is political, and like everything political in washington, it is subject to negotiation. i d like to think that the department and congress will be able to work out for the most part an agreement in terms of how this information will be communicated. yes.
really one that could have been run to ground by senators back last year or the year before, if they were interested in doing so. now it seems you have investigations which not to agree with trump because it s a serious matter, but you are talking about them having to open an investigation into events now that are more than a decade old. why do you think this is gaining traction now? is it a cultural change in this country with everything that s happened with #metoo looking at powerful men in position as well as they change among the positions or something different here? i think there is definitely a change in morets. there was a report in the miami herald a serious of report back in november in which probably because of that change in moret s and the #metoo movement, girls, teenagers at the time by his abuse by jeffrey ep staen westaen epstein went on camara first time and created sympathy and
i thought that was the surest sign yet that the mueller report such as it is would be issued before that day. now it appears based on statements from doj it s not. i don t know if it will be rescheduled yet again, or if michael cohen will go forward and decline to answer some questions that are the subject of the ongoing investigation. let me pick up on that quickly. why do you think that would have been the case? that bob mueller s report would have come out this week before michael cohen? well, he s cooperating with robert mueller and so ordinarily which you re investigating something you don t want facts known to the whole world what you re talking about because it has a tendency to tip out of other people, an opportunity to coordinate stories and get their stories straight and might cause someone to destroy evidence or tamper with evidence. usually you want to keep the things you re talking about quiet until you re ready to disclose with charges or declination decisions.