{"id":2954,"date":"2019-04-18T13:08:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T17:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/press.nbcnews.com\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2019-04-18T13:08:42","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T17:08:42","slug":"nbc-news-special-report-on-mueller-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nbcuniversalnewsgroup.com\/nbcnews\/2019\/04\/18\/nbc-news-special-report-on-mueller-report\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC News Special Report on Mueller Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At 9:22am ET<\/strong>, NBC News was the first broadcast\nnetwork<\/strong> to cut in to regular programming for an NBC News Special Report,\nanchored by Lester Holt<\/strong> and Savannah Guthrie<\/strong>, on Attorney General\nWilliam Barr\u2019s news conference ahead of the public release of the Mueller\nreport. NBC News stayed on the air until 10:11am ET for the first special\nreport and will go up shortly again this morning for the public release of the\nreport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet the Press<\/em> moderator and NBC News Political\nDirector Chuck Todd ahead of the news conference: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolitically, let’s be frank\nhere, the way this has been rolled out has been very helpful to the President.\nRegardless — we don’t know the tone of the report. We have yet to read a\nsingle complete sentence, but in essence he’s [Pres. Trump] got a\nthree-and-half week head start between Barr’s summary of principle conclusions\u2026\nSo politically, you could argue that the president, Bill Barr, have neutered\nthe greatest potential impact of this report.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m skeptical politically this\nis going to move the needle, and I’m saddened by the fact I think the country\ncollectively has less faith in our justice institutions right now today than\nthey did before Mueller started. That in itself is a pretty damning assessment,\nfrankly, going into this thing, no matter what we find out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TODAY anchor and NBC News Chief Legal Correspondent\nSavannah Guthrie following the news conference: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems like he [AG William\nBarr] is really trying to say, this whole question of whether or not a sitting\npresident can be indicted, let’s take that off the table. I thought William\nBarr went very far in trying to establish the factual innocence under an\nobstruction statute saying essentially that the President did not possess the\nrequisite mental state and that is why he used the words, in one reporter’s\nterms, seemed so generous to the president’s frame of mind\u2026it sure comes across\nas though he’s quite sympathetic to the president.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson on the\nPresident\u2019s reaction to AG William Barr\u2019s news conference:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president clearly liked\nwhat he saw from the Attorney General. As we were watching it, I couldn’t help\nbut think that the President must be thrilled and it appears he is. He is\ntweeting now, a riff off of the popular television show Game of Thrones writing\nsimply, \u2018game over.\u2019\u2026This is the President’s pre-report release victory lap, if\nyou will. His administration is clearly trying to set what they believe is the\nnarrative for this even before anybody, as you all have noted here, has had the\nchance to see the content of the report itself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also\njoining the first Special Report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n