redacted mueller report will be public tomorrow. transcript: 4/17/19. the rachel maddow show. - how to make air cooler at home

Chris Hayes, MSNBC host, is "all there":-given that the Minister of Justice has said that he will condemn four different categories.
But details of the obstruction of judicial investigation will be disclosed.
Thank you very much, Caroline.
This is "all" this evening ".
Rachel Mado's show is now on.
Good evening, Rachel.
Host Rachel Madou: Chris Hayes, thank you so much for taking me through this crazy news night today.
Hayes: Today, the attorney general of the United States issued a series of strange decisions.
MADDOW: Yes, it's like-it's a News Day and it's got a runway that's 40,000 feet long and put it there-Hayes: That's right.
MADDOW: it takes off at the end of the day and goes crazy.
Thank you for helping me with this. Thanks. HAYES: Thanks.
MADDOW: Thank you for joining us this hour.
To be honest, it's a bit crazy today, especially, it's even the way news is released.
But you know what?
You can sleep better.
Now, there are too many things to do, too many things we need to absorb and let our minds move around. But it is on.
Everything is happening now.
Contrary to the statement made earlier this week by the newly appointed general William Bar's office, it is clear that we will not get Robert Miller's report from the Justice Department tomorrow morning.
On the contrary, this will come later.
What we're going to talk more about today is that William Barr is talking about Miller, but we don't have access to Miller's actual findings.
It was the president's first bizarre announcement on a random talk radio show he interviewed.
But shortly thereafter, the Ministry of Justice issued an official press release announcing that it will be at 9: 30 tomorrow, Eastern time, there will be a press conference hosted by Attorney General William bar and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with only two of them.
Not Robert Miller.
It is worth mentioning that Robert Miller will not attend the press conference tomorrow, because it is strange.
The purpose announced at the press conference was to discuss Robert Miller and his findings.
So it was a little strange that he was not invited.
It's like a surprise birthday.
Surprisingly, you won't come even if today is your birthday.
Miller submitted his findings 26 days ago.
Since then, William Barr has released his own account of Miller's discovery.
He issued his own instant prosecution conclusion that Mueller's findings on the evidence should never be used to make any charges against the president.
After media coverage of the New York Times, The Washington Post and nbc News, members of the Mueller team were blindfolded by William Barr's statement, they were angry that he misrepresented the findings in order to downplay the seriousness of the findings to the president.
After those press reports that quoted members of the Miller team, Attorney General William Barr went out of his way in a letter he wrote to Congress and in subsequent congressional testimony, insisting that, he really wanted people to stop saying that he summed up Mueller's findings, and although he said that what he posted was a victim of Mueller's principled conclusion, he wanted people not to call it a summary. OK.
He also took pains to explain that he and Miller were working hand in hand, and that the members of the Miller team themselves were involved in any post that submitted the report editing process, this is what the bar office has been doing since Miller's report was completed and submitted.
Well, if this is true, if Bal does not summarize Miller's findings for him, if Miller's findings are allowed to speak for himself, if Miller himself is absolutely right now to lead the process, in preparation for releasing his own findings to Congress and the public, then you can see Robert Miller tomorrow.
What they say is that his findings will be released at a major press conference at the Ministry of Justice.
But Mueller was apparently not invited.
No one knows where Miller is now or where William Barr will be when he talks about Miller at a press conference in the morning.
CNN first reported tonight that neither Miller nor any member of Mueller's team will attend tomorrow's press conference on Miller's discovery, red flag.
I mean, when explaining what their job is, why don't you let anyone who does the job get involved?
I mean, it's not like a major report.
That guy is nearby.
Shortly after we learned about this press conference, we did get a hint about what might happen here, and soon after, we received a surprising announcement from the Justice Department about a press conference that did not involve Robert Mueller.
Shortly afterwards, the chairman of the justice committee of Congressman Jerry Nadler publicly confirmed that the Justice Department would hold a press conference in the morning before the Miller report would release any material.
As Chris Hayes pointed out last hour, as journalists and people involved in public affairs, the press conference is not an unusual thing, discuss with officials some kind of pressure on a newly released document.
I am not aware of any circumstances where there will be a press conference, which is a press conference designed to discuss a newly released document that will be released later and you are not allowed to see it yet.
I mean, they had a press conference there about Mueller and no one had a chance to see anything that Miller made, and no one has had a chance to read anything from his mind, and then they should raise their questions to the attorney general of bar, regardless of the fact that he will Miller's investigation
Oh, I know what's going on.
When no one sees this report, they will hold this press conference to have William Barr talk about Miller again without Miller actually appearing, only after that, only after 9: 30 tomorrow morning what they are going to do will they release whatever they want from Miller's discovery, minus the editor of William bahrainsis.
And then we got more.
Less than an hour after they announced the press conference, even before people were allowed to see the press conference, less than an hour after the Ministry of Justice announced it, we also received a new court document on the Roger Stone case, which had another surprise for what would happen tomorrow.
It turns out that we learned in this court document today that it is not just a version of the Miller report that the Justice Department is preparing.
In this notice sent by the government to the court, the prosecutor filed this document today in the theRoger Stone caseS.
D. Law FirmC.
Quoting the judge in the case of Roger Stone, once the edited version of the mueller report is released to the public, the Department of Justice plans, without determining the action, provide a limited number of members of Congress and their staff with a copy of the report of the special adviser for their review.
Quotation, including the deletion of information edits related to this case.
This version of the report will not be available in media or public settings. Really?
It was a surprise.
What the Justice Department said in this court document is one of the materials that will be edited from the public version of the report that Miller will release tomorrow, in what will be removed from it, there is something related to Roger Stone.
However, something from Roger Stone will not be removed from the Mueller report and they will give it to Congress, but not to all Congress.
The number of members of Congress and their staff is limited.
The document goes on to say that Mueller's report is less edited, not just for a limited number of members of Congress and their staff, citing, instead, the Ministry of Justice intends to ensure the version of this report in an appropriate environment, with limited access to members and their staff.
As a result, if the number of members of Congress and their staff is unknown, Miller's report will be given a smaller version of the edit.
But they will not be allowed to take it, bring it back to their office and have a copy of it.
They can only view it in some kind of safe environment.
When they go, they have to leave it there, so this random submission in today's Roger Stone case says.
That's how we learned from the Justice Department that there will be multiple versions of Miller's report. This is news.
We don't know that there are different versions of Miller's report for the public and Congress.
This is the first time in history that the public has noticed this.
We do not know that some members of Congress will be allowed access to some of the less-edited versions of the report.
We can guess who they're referring.
Often, when the Department of Justice or other national security agencies try to make such zones, some members of parliament are allowed to see something, while others cannot, usually they are referring to the top leadership of Congress and the intelligence committee.
Sometimes, other committees related to the matter in question also have specific supervisory responsibility.
When they say that a limited number of members of Congress will get a smaller version of this edit, we don't know who exactly they are referring.
But given the usual situation, given the limited audience in Congress, when they tried to narrow down the image like this, we contacted Senator Mark Warner's office today.
He's the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, and he said, hey, as the top Democrat in the intelligence department, do you know this is coming?
Did your office ever think that Miller's report had an unaltered version that would probably be available to you, some members of Congress?
Mark Warner's office told us tonight that's their news.
They don't know.
Quote: While we have seen the filing, which means the filing of the Masons, the Justice Department has not communicated this to us.
Again, after we got this comment from Senator Warner's office, House Intelligence Office chairman Adam Shiff told us tonight that they didn't have anything other than reading what they read in today's document
Also within the last hour, Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, held an interim meeting
At a news conference in New York, he said his committee was also able to read the documents of the Roger Stone case today.
So they saw it.
They know what it says.
But in addition to the contents of the document, his commission is not aware of this 1. 1.
He added that his committee had agreed that there was no such arrangement.
So today in this randomly filed court document, this surprising statement is multiple copies of the Mueller report, with multiple edits of different levels, it's about specific members of Congress who have plans to allow them to review it in a dedicated room, but not-I mean, it's all in response to the motion brought by Roger Stone's lawyer, one of the millions of motions brought by Stone's lawyer later on Friday, asking everyone to include everything from the moon.
In the large number of documents they submitted on Friday night, counsel for Roger Stone asked themselves to provide a copy of the unedited Muellerreport.
They said they needed legal defense.
I'm not a lawyer.
I don't think this will happen.
I don't think the lawyer for Roger Stone would get a complete copy of the unedited report, if no one else got it.
But it is the request to them that led to this response from these prosecutors today, which indicates that Bal will make different copies of the reports for different audiences, there will be a conference room somewhere in Congress, and some members of Congress may be invited to see a version with fewer edits, although it is clear that no one in Congress, including the chairman of the senior members of the relevant committee, has consulted on the plan.
In tonight's court papers, however, prosecutors from Washington, D. C. C. U. S.
In Stone's case, the prosecutor's office also warned the judges that these-a small part of the members of Congress, with a limited number of members of Congress, plan to show them versions with fewer edits, they warned in tonight's document that these members of Congress may not be happy with the arrangement.
They may not be aware of just looking at documents in SCIF somewhere in some sort of security room.
They may want to try to get a copy of the document for themselves.
If this is the case, the prosecutor warned tonight in this document before the court that if this happens, mueller's findings may be leaked to the public.
Quote, if members of Congress request to provide them with a copy of this special counsel report or part of the report, which is less edited, in order to have reason to obtain information related to this case to be accessible to the media in public, the Ministry of Justice will seek the guidance of the court before taking action in accordance with this request.
So today, this document today, this is the prosecutor in the stone case, who claims that there will be multiple versions of Miller's report.
Congress will get more than the public.
We will try to prevent the disclosure of what we show to Congress to the public.
But if there seems to be a risk that might happen, we will go back to the court to seek advice.
It's all new information today, right?
I'm Mueller eve. it's all in Washington. C. district court.
By the way, the judge in the stone case will consider this document today, and he is judge amiberman Jackson.
She is also a judge in Washington. C. who had the D. C.
The situation of Paul Manafortcase and Rick Gates.
Her Alex Vander Zwaan case is also the result of Mueller's investigation.
She now has Roger stonenese, which will continue the trial this fall, leading to today's revelation about how the Miller report has been edited.
Interestingly, however, in the same court where Amy Berman Jackson is located, the last second before anything William Barr is going to do tomorrow, there is also a curve ball that has just arrived and another curve ball is also from D. C.
Federal District Court
But not Amy Berman Jackson. This last-
In curveballalso, another judge of the court was in that districtnamed Reggie Walton.
Judge Reggie Walton is George W. Bush appointee.
He and Amy Berman Jackson are sitting in samecourthough in the same district.
Judge Walton was assigned two of the most notable cases by the First Amendment and the media to try to publish Mueller's findings to the public and the media without editing.
Now at the last minute, just before anything that Barr is trying to release tomorrow, Justice Reggie Walton has now made it clear that he thinks he has played a role in the process.
Justice Walton now says only attorney general William Barr will not be the only person to decide on Miller's findings.
According to Judge Walton, the court has a say.
He will personally have a say in what the public sees and what we don't.
The Freedom of Information Act, which requires the disclosure of certain government documents, is a fascinating area of law.
The Freedom of Information Act is clearly a fundamental tool for government accountability, journalism and research.
There is a wealth of litigation in case law that revolves around the Freedom of Information Act, as well as its requirements in terms of government disclosure, and when people want to give it more than the government wants.
In these cases of the Freedom of Information Act on Miller's report, Judge Walton is proceeding on the basis of the argument that Miller's report is exactly the type of government document publicly published under the Freedom of Information Act.
Now, if it is possible for a document to issue the Freedom of Information Act, of course, the government can still try to keep such a document confidential, or they can try to keep part of it confidential.
But the Freedom of Information Act is not just a principle.
The Freedom of Information Act is a law so a federal judge can rule on whether these government assertions are valid.
If the government wants to stop something, the judge sometimes gets involved and says whether the judge-the government is trying to control whether the bacteria that others say should be released are correct.
Well, Judge Walton is now saying that he will do so when it comes to the report of tomule.
He will weigh the editing work here.
Yesterday afternoon, Judge Walton asked the attorney general of the Justice Department in the federal court. C. U. S.
The attorney's office made it clear to answer whether this document, which Bal plans to release tomorrow, is the same as the Justice Department's plan torelock, as required by the Freedom of Information Act.
So he said, listen to me, let me know, what you're going to post on Thursday morning, is that what you will post in response to the task as well?
If that is the case, if the government plans to remove all the same content from Mueller's report, when they are finally required to mitigate it under the Freedom of Information Act-well, justice Walton now says he may insist on reviewing what these editors are.
Hemai insisted on personally reviewing what the Justice Department tried to remove from Miller's findings.
Judge Walton said that he may insist on his own review of the complete unedited documents so that he can see what the editors are and what reason they are justified, because according to the judge should be the person who decides whether these proceedings are valid and legitimate, or whether these edited things should also be published under the Freedom of Information Act.
Judge Walton claimed that he was in a position to do so immediately in court.
At yesterday's hearing, we got the transcript today and he wants them to come back to court by May 2, two weeks from tomorrow, he said, he plans to deal with the problem on the fast track.
So, think about what that means-put on William Barr's shoes now.
If you are the newly appointed Attorney General William bar, tonight you plan on tomorrow's abig day, and you plan to make a statement of William barrowen again about what Miller finds, you intend to do this tomorrow without allowing anyone to read muellerfind, no Miller is allowed to explain what he found, no Miller or anyone on his team can answer what they found, no, you plan to deal with all of this in your own way, and no one is able to check you against real records.
You're William Bar tonight.
You plan to release a different report for one or two or more versions, and Mueller's report will be posted to everything you want.
For the bold plan for tomorrow morning, you now know that there is at least one federal district court judge in Washington, D. C. C.
Plan to check your work soon.
The judge has expressed concerns in the open court about how you handle the matter and why he needs to correct it.
That's what Judge Walton said in a public court yesterday afternoon.
We just got our report card. Are you ready?
Quote: it is clear, the judge said, whether there will be full transparency is really worrying.
I don't want to say that, but unfortunately the attorney general has created an environment that I think will lead to a considerable number of Americans worrying about transparency, which clearly puts the court in a very difficult position.
But I 've had difficulties before, you know, and I think it's important to do some kind of investigation on behalf of me on whether or not the appropriate edits have been made.
I don't know the best way to do this.
Several times the Court had to proceed in the following circumstances
The camera checks withhelddocuments to assess whether it is appropriate to not hold this information under regulations.
This is the problem we must solve.
This is something I have to consider, and if there is a challenge to the suitability of non-shareholding, how can I best assess whether the government's position is correct.
The prosecutor of Robert Miller, the staff of the Mueller team, has expressed frustration and anger at Justice Minister William Barry who misrepresented Miller's findings, in particular, he played down the seriousness of Mueller's findings about the president.
Mueller's report, published in unedited form, presumably shows what they found without icing on sugar.
If not, they wouldn't be unhappy, would they?
If Bal tries to beautify it, or if he tries to get rid of the worst things in the world, he must know that he will be found.
Either by calling the unedited report through the judicial committee and obtaining it in this way, or by some judges ordering the release of the grand jury material 6E he has detained, ordering the release of the material to Congress, or other judges like Judge Walton say, look back at all the editors of Bal and say which ones he thinks are fake.
No matter what it is, there are multiple paths now.
In the end, the distance between the content released by William Barr tomorrow and the conclusions actually drawn by Miller will be known, and it will begin to feel that it will not be known in some historical books.
I will know next month.
I mean, although he is under pressure from what William Barr is going to release tomorrow, there are still millions of dangers as to how Barr intends to continue.
I mean, bar holding a press conference before releasing a report to anyone is itself a red flag.
Barr held a press conference on Mueller without Mueller or anyone on the Mueller team, a huge red flag.
The initial decision that Barr made within 48 hours of receiving Mueller's report was that he would post his own summary of innocence, although the Miller report prepared his own summary of his own work intended to be released publicly.
Instead of ignoring those summaries written by Miller, Barr posted his own summary, which I mean is a red flag large enough to be used as a sheet.
But most importantly, the New York Times reported this tonight.
No matter what happens tomorrow, the New York Times reports that Barr, before presenting Miller's report to Congress, or before presenting any version of the report to the public, the White House has been allowed to visit Miller's report and they have spoken to the White House.
Citing the New York Times report tonight, Justice Department officials and White House lawyers have had multiple conversations about the conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Miller in recent days, according to people familiar with the matter.
The talks helped the president's legal team prepare a rebuttal report and set out a strategy on the findings for the upcoming war.
Quote: discussions between Justice Department officials and White houuselawyers have also added to the question of whether the decision was appropriate since the Attorney General William Barr received Mueller's findings last month. Yes, you think?
We can sleep next week.
Now, this is what is happening.
This is a story that is now officially launched.
Every five minutes tonight, it goes further, and that's part of what you can judge.
But they will try to get this thing down tomorrow morning.
I mean, even at such a late hour, they still don't know what punishment they can get away with, or what they're going to try, but it's starting now. This is it. Stay with us. (
Business break)
MADDOW: Tonight, we will be releasing multiple breaking news before the Justice Department plans to release some versions or versions of ofRobert Mueller's report tomorrow morning.
Most importantly, this provocative new story from The New York Times says Justice Department officials have had extensive discussions with the White House about Miller's findings before tomorrow's plan is released.
Citing the report, there have been many conversations with White House lawyer wellahead.
With respect to the report of the special counsel on the alleged criminal conduct of the president, should you do so?
Should you hand it over to the president before you show any version to others?
What's going on with this?
Now we are joined by former Obama administration Attorney General Neil cadal.
He is the author of the Justice Department regulations that define the special adviser.
Neil spoke to us about 30 seconds before boarding.
Neil, thank you for making time for us.
Former attorney general of the Obama administration, Neil Kadir (viatelephone): Thank you.
MADDOW: First of all, let me first ask you that Justice Department officials have informed the White House of this report from the times before they publish Miller's findings to others?
Is this the rule they should be doing here?
KATYAL: Oh, my God, Rachel, I mean, I think the technical term for this kind of behavior that I learned at law school is super smelly.
You know, for generations, there have been very cautious rules in managing the White House, in engaging with the Justice Department, because the founders of our country understand that the power to sue is enormous, because the president's enemies can be prosecuted, the president's friends can also be covered up for their mistakes.
So, even in an ordinary case, there is a very, very careful rule that is very rare for the president to know about any criminal case.
This is a problem with steroids.
The president is the subject of the investigation, and to be honest, I have never heard of such a thing.
This is a complete violation of precedent.
This is against common sense and, in fact, makes Trump look clearly guilty.
MADDOW: in terms of the decision made within the Department of Justice to do so, would you expect someone from the Department of Justice to play a gatekeeper role here?
I will try to say that this is inappropriate and does not conform to the principles of the Department of Justice as you describe it, is there no one in the Department of Justice who will try to stop this or will alert this?
This is what I had hoped.
But, you know, this Justice Department will clear anyone who thinks independently or frankly thinks it's in line with the department's tradition.
Look, I think I can imagine an argument, Rachel, that's what I'm saying.
This report will do so much harm to the president that we need to remind him.
But strangely, Trump himself took it off the table.
He said the report was entirely free of his responsibility.
So either that is wrong, the report is not exempt from his responsibility, or he is just willing to undermine the Justice Department's decades of precedent in vain.
It stinks to heaven anyway.
Neil, another decision made by William Barr today has received a lot of criticism, including from the United States. S.
Former lawyer and former American lawyerS.
Justice Department officials say he will describe Miller's findings again at tomorrow's press conference.
He was doing this before Mueller's discovery plan was released, and apparently he did it without Robert Mueller.
It would be Bal and Rosenstein, not Miller himself, and again, no one had access to any of Miller's accidents before the press conference.
How do you react to this?
Yes, I mean, William Barr has had enough at this point.
I mean, he has posted a summary/non
Cleared Trump within 48 hours after Mueller spent two years not doing so.
Now, it looks like he's trying to leave before Miller's report.
To be honest, I don't remember the Justice Department once doing something like this, first holding a press conference and then getting the documents and holding a press conference without investigators like Miller, of course, not in this high-profile situation.
Again, all of this added together is just a complete violation of the precedent, which reminds me of the fact that, boy, there's actually not just smoke there, there's definitely some fire.
MADDOW: Former Acting Attorney General of the United States Neil Kadir wrote the special counsel ordinance-Neil, if you missed your flight because you were on the phone with me, i'm going to buy you a big drink ticket.
I'm really sorry. KATYAL: Thanks.
Thanks, Neil. Bye.
Actually we just-when I was talking to Neal Katyal, we just got more news about this volume-
In Miller's report, when we were in the air, new news had already appeared.
As I told you, this is happening now.
The light switch is on.
So the news will continue to grow.
We got new requirements for the Minister of Justice from the people he might be supposed to hear.
After the break, we will prepare the story for you, just develop the news. Stay with us. (
Business break)
MADDOW: It's not in his plans for tonight, but we see him in place at a press conference that was hastily convened tonight with the chairman of the Justice Council, Jerry Nadler.
We saw there MP HakeemJeffries, member of the Judicial Council and chairman of the houseucus, and we argued with him to have him come to the studio tonight to talk about some breaking news.
Member Jeffries is joining us now. Thank you.
I know you're not here.
Thank you for coming, sir. REP.
Hakim Jeffries (D-NY)
Nice to be here.
MADDOW: What I would like to ask you is that we just got the breaking news and that has happened since the press conference.
The chairman of all the key committees in the House on these topics, the chairman of the Judicial Committee, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Jerrod Nadler, the supervisory committee Adam Shiff, and the chairman of financial services, Ilya camings, elliott Engel Chairman of Foreign Affairs Maxine Waters all issued a joint statement calling on onWilliam Barr to cancel his attendance at the special adviser mueller report, as the chairman noted, the meeting is scheduled to receive a report tomorrow morning.
I will read you in part, Quote: these new actions by the attorney general reinforce our concerns about his protection of President Trump.
The attorney general has previously stated that I do not believe it is in the public interest to attempt to summarize the full report or to issue it in a continuous or piecemeal action. We agree.
He should let the full report speak for himself.
The attorney general should cancel the press conference and provide the full report to the Congress as we request, the fact collection work of the special counsel is over, and it is now up to Congress to discuss the findings and evidence accordingly and proceed
This is basically the chair, including the chair of your judicial committee, telling the minister of justice not to get in the way here.
Jeffries: That's right.
Under no circumstances should the attorney general continue tomorrow's press conference.
Totally inappropriate.
Bob Miller is a good man.
Respected law enforcement professionals.
He directed 22-
Monthly Survey
He wrote a report about 400 pages long.
The Mueller report should speak for itself, full stop, full stop.
No direction, no manipulation, no from so-
General Calledattorney.
This is unacceptable.
He is more of a house lawyer than a people's lawyer, an organized crime boss.
And it's over.
MADDOW: just-I'll ask you some questions that I don't think you'll answer, but I'll ask you anyway and I'll bother you for that.
In the course of Mueller's investigation, we learned that some of the congressional committees, including the Intelligence Committee, may be the judicial committee, and sometimes have to eliminate conflicts with the Office of the special adviser, to ensure that what they pursue in congressional investigations does not disrupt the ongoing investigation by the special adviser.
This requires some form of communication with the Office of the special adviser.
Since the conclusion of the investigation by Robert Miller and since this report was handed over to the Department of Justice, is there ongoing communication between the office of the special counsel and the professional committee, this may give you an idea of what's going on between Miller and Barr in these key committees?
Jeffries: Well, as far as I know, but President Nadler said earlier today that he expected Bob Miller to testify before the House Judiciary Committee sooner or later, as well as other individuals involved in the Miller investigation.
We can't believe anything about the Justice Department.
All we want is the truth.
All we want is transparency.
All we want is disclosure so that the American people can evaluate the four corners of the customer report on their own.
MADDOW: We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, we don't know how it's being edited, if we can quantitatively say how much it's being cut.
I mean, you can't tell him how much to cut unless you have a physical black box on the line.
With this in mind, I would like to know if the prospect of Miller's testimony can alleviate your concerns about what might be cut by Barr.
If Mueller is summoned to testify, is he free to appear in court if he is asked to testify?
Can someone stop him?
If Bal improperly edited the report in mueller's seyes, can he prove what the report may have been cut down?
Jeffries: Of course he is free to show up.
He is American.
At this particular point in time, he is not an employee of the Department of Justice.
They can't stop him.
We fully expect that he will be willing to cooperate, especially if Bob Barr is involved in a campaign to try to color the results of the Miller survey in an inappropriate way.
MADDOW: If Barr is going to release a report tomorrow that worries you.
It is clear that chairman Nadler has obtained the authority from the Commission to issue the summons, what do you think?
I mean, what's your best guess for those of us who don't know about congressional subpoenas and grand jury subpoenas, and for those of you who do this kind of thing?
Not what you want, but the way you think it will really unfold at this point.
Jeffries: Well, I think it seems to me that first of all we have to carefully assess whether the report has been overedited.
We agreed from the beginning that sources and methods should not be disclosed.
We don't want to put any national security issues at risk because it involves the security and security of the American people, but we also have that concern, which I think makes sense, because in the last few weeks, we have seen from the attorney general that he appears to act like a spokesman for the president, rather than facilitating the disclosure of this information.
17 different intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had interfered with our elections, attacked our democracy, and artificially tried to place Trump at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This is a serious investigation.
We need to figure out what happened, why, did it happen, how do we prevent this from happening again, and we have to get the four corners of the report and the underlying documentation.
So, I think it's the first step to assess the suitability of these behaviors.
MADDOW: Last question.
Today, in the theRoger Stone case, there are courts in all places to bring a lawsuit, and it is surprising that the Justice Department said that there will be multiple versions of Miller's report ready to be released.
No matter what they are going to release to the public tomorrow, there will be some less-edited versions available to some members of Congress in a security facility within Congress.
Do you know that they plan to do so before filing court documents today?
I don't.
Jerry Nadler, who asked the question, said there was no agreement or cooperation with the Department of Justice as it involved any potential revisions that might or might not be communicated.
This is from the left field.
You know, this is just another strange example of what the Justice Department is doing.
MADDOW: It looks like they feel their way here and get it right when they go.
I think that's right.
MADDOW: Member of the House Judiciary Committee, member Hakim Jeffries, who and the rest of the committee held a press conference with their chairman tonight.
He is also the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, which means that he is-
House leader
Thank you for changing the plan.
Nice to meet you.
We appreciate it. All right.
We will be back soon. Stay with us. (
Business break)
In 1973, Richard Nixon needed a new attorney general for firing his old attorney general.
Along with the deputy attorney general, one night in October 1973, Richard Nixon was at the top of the Department of Justice, until he found a person who fired a special prosecutor investigating the water gate incident.
This, of course, is called the Saturday Night Massacre.
You can imagine who Nixon was like, it was tough.
But at least the prosecutor is gone.
The country was very angry about what happened there, and after that fire we soon found a new special prosecutor for the water gate incident, nixon, a man named Leon javaski, had to appoint a new attorney general to lead the Department of Justice.
As General newattorney, the nominee will certainly be the boss of the special prosecutor for the new water gate incident.
For this job, for. G.
Robert Nixon chose this man. S.
William sarabbe.
As you may have imagined, at the confirmation hearing by William sachebe on the investigation of the water gate incident, it is this that confirms the concern of the hearing.
William sarabbe was asked over and over again basically the same question, would you interfere with the investigation of the water gate incident, would you interfere with the investigation of the water gate incident, would you
William sarabbe said over and over again, no, no, I promise. I won`t.
I will not interfere with the investigation of the water gate incident, nor will I interfere with the special prosecutor for the water gate incident.
Then, in order to make that point right, they were actually confirming the hearing, and they personally brought the water gate incident special prosecutor, who brought Leon jevowski himself to the hearing room, assure the senators that there is nothing to worry about.
Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski secured for the new attorney general as part of his confirmation process.
Yes, we get along very well.
Did you see me sitting here?
Both of us, you are here at this hearing. Ivouch for him.
He won't provoke me.
He said he would not provoke me. I won't let him do that.
They even made a friend.
About its buddy Process meeting. (
Start Video Editing)
Reporter: Senator sarabbe, the question we are going to discuss in detail today is
Jaworski will have full authority to investigate and prosecute the water gate incident without your interference. Will he?
William sacbay, nominee of the Minister of Justice: The answer is unqualified.
Reporter: What will you do, sir?
If the new minister of justice, not the appointed Minister of Justice, tries to interfere with your investigation in any way, Jaworski?
Water Gate incident special prosecutor Leon javaski: I will take him to the congressional committee if it is not possible for me to resolve this issue with him. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: this is the case when the country is in crisis, the water gate incident investigation is in danger, and people need to be sure there is no cover --up under way.
Top officials in the Justice Department did not try to protect the president from investigations into his alleged crime.
These are two guys, the key people together, stand up and say don't worry, we got this.
Stick to this idea. (
Business break)(
Start Video Editing)
Reporter: What will you do, sir?
Jaworski, if the now appointed attorney general, the new attorney general is trying to interfere with your investigation in any way?
JAWORSKI: I will bring him to this committee if I can't work with him on this. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: So you can put the special prosecutor with the Minister of Justice.
You can put them together to make sure that nothing happens between everyone, ha, and the attorney general is withdrawing the work of the special prosecutor.
You can do that.
There's a precedent.
9: 30 tomorrow morningm.
In Eastern time, Attorney General William bar will hold a press conference with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the release of the edited Miller report.
Both were appointed by President Trump.
Usually, when you want to answer questions about what you're talking about there, the press conference is the type of thing you're holding, but tomorrow we know, before the press conference, no one had a chance to see Rob Miller's report.
Bal will hold a press conference before the report is released.
It's Robert Miller's report.
Miller was in charge of the investigation.
He was the one who wrote the report, buttonight, and the Justice Department confirmed that Miller would not answer questions about his findings at a press conference tomorrow and that no one was allowed to see them.
Saxbe is one thing with Jaworski.
Obviously, Barr and Mueller will never see each other in the same room.
When will we see Mueller again?
Michael besomess, president of NBC News, also joined.
Thank you for being here, Michael.
NBC News president historian Michael beszlos: I love being with you, but maybe not on such a dark night.
Does it feel like a dark night?
It is, it is.
MADDOW: What about the question of the planned press conference tomorrow? In fact, it will be Barr and Rosenstein, not Miller?
I think this is blatant.
I mean, what you're seeing is a justice minister saying that I'm not going to be the kind of independent general that Americans have been looking forward to in the last half century.
You were talking about Richard Nixon.
As you know, Richard Nixon's first attorney general was a man named John Mitchell.
Yes, his campaign manager.
His campaign manager and close friends.
What does this mean?
When Nixon planned to send thieves to different places at the White House, open people's mail and invade other civil liberties, he knew that he did not have to worry that a attorney general would hear the news, call his investigators, or resign, hold a press conference and say, the American people, this is what your president is doing.
You should know about it.
Since the water gate incident, we have begun to expect that we will have such a minister of justice.
From that four months on, we saw Williams bar.
Page's letter to his parroting DonaldTrump about spying on the whole exhibition, we'll see the White House tomorrow before we see this report and press conference again, and Barr will tell us what to think in public.
What he basically tells us is that I will not be the kind of independent attorney general you Americans expect.
I think it's really dangerous.
You mean John Mitchell.
Of course, the legendary end of John Mitchell's attorney general is that Mitchell was serving his sentence. BESCHLOSS: Yes.
Kleindienst, Nixon's second attorney general, was also involved in the water gate incident.
Another dog.
MADDOW: then he found Elliot Richardson and had to fire him in order to get rid of the water gate incident prosecutor.
Elliot Richardson seems to be a turning point for the United States to decide through hook or crookdecided that we will not endure the various things Nixon is waiting to escape.
This means that we have Elliot Richardson and Williams sacbay, who starred in the kind of behavior we 've seen since.
That's it.
Since then, every president has had to worry about the fact that if he intends to do something bad at the White House, his attorney general will cause him a lot of trouble.
What William Barr has shown us in the past month, maybe tomorrow is more important than anything else in public, he says I will be a different type
Remember something else.
Last night you were talking about how barrmake was very useful to President Bush 41 in 1989.
More importantly, at the end of 1992, he told President Bush to forgive six Reagan-era officials in Iran's counter-investigation.
Independent lawyer Lawrence Walsh said this during the massacre on Saturday night.
You just killed my investigation.
This is what Barr has done before.
MADDOW: NBC News president historian Michael besomess, I 'd rather talk to anyone on a night like this. Thank you.
Schros: Thank you.
Thank you very much.
We will be back soon. Stay with us. (
Business break)
What are you going to do tomorrow?
I don't know. What are you going to do tomorrow?
I am thinking about taking a rest in the morning and going fishing.
That's what it is for us tonight.
See you tomorrow.
I can't even say when.
But it's time for "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.
Good evening, Lawrence.
This is a report card in a hurry.
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