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Waiting For The Mueller Report

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Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Wednesday morning, April 17, 2019. (Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP)
Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Wednesday morning, April 17, 2019. (Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP)

With Kimberly Atkins

The Mueller will be released Thursday morning. We lay out what's at stake politically and legally.

Guests

McKay Coppins, staff writer for The Atlantic. Author of "The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House." (@mckaycoppins)

Nancy Gertner, retired Massachusetts federal judge, senior lecturer on law at Harvard Law School and WBUR legal analyst. (@ngertner)

Mark Updegrove, author, presidential historian for ABC News. President and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. Director of the LBJ Presidential Library from 2009 to 2017. Author of "The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush." (@MarkKUpdegrove)

From The Reading List

New York Times: "White House and Justice Dept. Officials Discussed Mueller Report Before Release" — "Not all of Robert S. Mueller III’s findings will be news to President Trump when they are released Thursday.

"Justice Department officials have had numerous conversations with White House lawyers about the conclusions made by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in recent days, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have aided the president’s legal team as it prepares a rebuttal to the report and strategizes for the coming public war over its findings.

"A sense of paranoia was taking hold among some of Mr. Trump’s aides, some of whom fear his backlash more than the findings themselves, the people said. The report might make clear which of Mr. Trump’s current and former advisers spoke to the special counsel, how much they said and how much damage they did to the president — providing a kind of road map for retaliation."

Politico: "‘Keep your mouth shut’: Dems erupt over Barr’s Mueller report rollout" — "House Democrats exploded in anger Wednesday over Attorney General William Barr’s plans to roll out special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, accusing the Justice Department of trying to spin the report’s contents and protect President Donald Trump.

"Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning to review the report, which will include redactions. Reports that DOJ officials have already discussed Mueller’s findings with the White House only further inflamed tensions.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Barr had 'thrown out his credibility & the DOJ’s independence with his single-minded effort to protect @realDonaldTrump above all else.'

"'The American people deserve the truth, not a sanitized version of the Mueller Report approved by the Trump Admin,' Pelosi wrote on Twitter while on an official trip in Ireland.

"Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee hastily convened a news conference for Wednesday night in Chairman Jerry Nadler‘s district in New York City to issue similar broadsides against Barr."

CNBC: "Attorney General William Barr will hold a press conference to discuss Mueller report at 9:30 am ET Thursday" — "Attorney General William Barr will discuss special counsel Robert Mueller’s report at a 9:30 a.m. ET press conference on Thursday.

"Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will accompany him, according to NBC News. There was no indication that the report would be released before the press conference.

"Mueller submitted the report to the Justice Department late last month. Barr will be releasing a redacted version of the approximately 400-page document, which details Mueller’s findings about the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election."

Brian Hardzinski and Karen Shiffman produced this hour for broadcast.

This article was originally published on April 18, 2019.

This program aired on April 18, 2019.

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