Washington Braces For Release Of Redacted Mueller Report; Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) Says She Has Experienced Increase In Death Threats
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: He seems like a changed guy and he's once again a champion.</s>ANA CABRERA, CNN NEWSROOM: It's a story of redemption that everyone can cheer. Thank you, Andy Scholes. Good to see you. Top of the hour on this Monday, I'm Ana Cabrera in today for Jim and Poppy. Thanks for being here. It's more than they have but less than they want and it is ready to drop. The Mueller report is set to be released to Congress and everybody else any time now minus material the Attorney General considers off limits. Now, those redactions guarantee a continued fight with House Democrats. But democrats weren't alone in voting last month to make the full Special Counsel report public. Every house republican joined them. The White House calls the Mueller probe case closed. And just this morning, the President repeated the false claim that he had already been cleared of collusion and obstruction. CNN's Laura Jarrett joins us now from the Justice Department. Laura, what do you expect and when do we expect it?</s>LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Ana, Washington is on pins and needles waiting for this report, color coded redacted report, I should say, any day now. Meanwhile, as you mentioned, the President leaning in heavily on this narrative of the idea that he has been vindicated completely, while at the same time his Attorney, Rudy Giuliani, telling our Dana Bash over the weekend that the legal team is reworking their rebuttal report to the Mueller report, query what needs to be rebutted if the President has already been cleared. But we know that the Mueller team, according to that four-page summary from the Attorney General, Bill Barr, has concluded that the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russian government. And so the real focus is going to be on the question of obstruction of justice. And on that front, we really are going to zone in on two main questions, why did the Special Counsel punt in finding that he could not exonerate the President because of evidence on both sides and what exactly did the Attorney General, Bill Barr, mean when he said that there was much evidence which was already publicly reported, much conduct that was already in the public. So, in other words, what don't we already know about the President's conduct that was behind closed doors? But for now, we wait. Ana?</s>CABRERA: Okay. Laura Jarrett, thank you very much. I want to discuss now with former Republican Congressman Ryan Costello. Ryan, let me ask you, what do you make of the fact that Trump is still going after the Mueller probe on one hand, at the same time, saying, case closed?</s>RYAN COSTELLO (R-PA), FORMER REPRESENTATIVE: It's a fair question. You're going to have to repeat that question because my five-year-old just walked right behind me.</s>CABRERA: And I know we asked you to be ready faster than you were expecting because as we had a quick change of plans. So let me repeat the question. You're a former republican congressman, here, we have the President, you know, going after he Mueller report on one hand, at the same time, this White House is saying this is case closed and the President has been vindicated.</s>COSTELLO: There's going to be dueling, if not, four or five or six different interpretations on the Mueller report once it ultimately gets released. I think even when it gets released, you're going to have the democrats suggesting that whatever is redacted needs to be released at that point in time. Clearly, what the one or two sentences that were disclosed in the four-page Barr memorandum did indicate that there were difficult issues of fact and law and that it did not, in his opinion, give rise to an appropriate charging of the President. But, look, the President is going to say what the President is going to say and democrats, I think, will likely take issue with it.</s>CABRERA: Do you think the President has anything to be worried about?</s>COSTELLO: I'm sure that there's going to be some facts set forth in there that are not going to paint the President in a favorable light, I think, or actually I think it's more fair to say that some surrounding the President, some campaign operatives, whether they were on payroll or somehow loosely affiliated with the President probably will not be painted favorably. But it remains to be seen really what level of involvement, I shouldn't even use that direct of a term, that the President had. I mean, my gut tells me that the President's statements in public rallies is probably where he had said things about WikiLeaks that will be read into.</s>CABRERA: Let me bring in former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa into the conversation, and, Ryan, please stay with us. Asha, my understanding is Barr hasn't consulted with the White House Counsel's Office, at least that's what Rudy Giuliani is saying. So the White House hasn't weighed in on executive privilege. Are you surprised by this?</s>ASHA RANGAPPA, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm not surprised. I think that because -- remember that executive privilege covers conversations that the President has with his close advisers about policy decisions, things relating to national security, stuff like that and to protect the executive branch. And in this case, we know that Don McGahn was allowed to talk to Mueller by Trump's lawyers, in other words, Trump actually waived his executive privilege to someone who arguably had some of the most extensive conversations with the President. I'm not really sure if what other context he'd be able to assert that privilege, things that happened during the campaign, for example, wouldn't be covered by it. So I think that it might be a harder privilege to assert in the context of this investigation given that Don McGahn, the former White House Counsel, was allowed to speak so freely.</s>CABRERA: Asha, I'm struck by a couple words in Trump's prebuttal endorsement of the Mueller report. He says, great intelligence. When is the last time this President had a good word for the intel community?</s>RANGAPPA: I don't know. He's called the intelligence community in shambles and he's compared them to Nazis. So, you know, the President tends to, as you know, Ana, when things are favorable to him, he has a lot of great things to say, whether it's the intelligence community or The New York Times. And when things do not reflect him favorably, he wants to discredit them. Ultimately, this report will speak for itself if people are able to actually read it. And I think the question is going to be how much of this is going to be redacted and how much will the intelligence committees in particular be able to obtain with regard to the counterintelligence investigation, which I like to emphasize is very different from the question of criminal charges which until now is what Barr has been looking at in terms of the Mueller report.</s>CABRERA: Ryan, or I should say, Congressman, what's the biggest question you want the report to answer?</s>COSTELLO: I think that that reporting right there is directly on point in terms of where we are at the moment. I think that the real -- the question moving forward is going to be what do democrats do with the report? And so to answer your question directly, are democrats going to seek to supplant their determination on whether there was wrongdoing that gives rise to criminality or, dare I say, impeachment, or are they going to seek to illicit further facts but not pursue the impeachment path. Barr has already made his determination which he has the right. And frankly, he should have made that determination, that's why it was presented to him. And so the question moving forward is will democrats look at the report and say, this gives rise to criminality, it should be further prosecuted, or we should open up impeachment hearings. And that's why I think that the President has been so offering prebuttals and actually has really put this out and shined a light on the investigation even more than one might expect. I think he's already daring democrats to go down that road. That's what I would expect to happen moving forward in the coming days.</s>CABRERA: Congressman Ryan Costello and Asha Rangappa, thank you both for being here. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she has received an increase in death threats since President Trump tweeted a video of her giving a speech along with images of the 9/11 attacks. And now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking no chances. She is asking authorities on Capitol Hill to make sure Omar and her family are protected. And just moments ago, President Trump weighed in yet again. Joining us now is CNN Congressional Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. So what's the President saying, Sunlen?</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, well, he is clearly digging in here, really standing by as criticism of Ilhan Omar and singling her out again in a Tweet that's just posted in the last few minutes, in part, President Trump Tweeting that she in reference to Ilhan Omar is out of control except for her control of Nancy, that in reference to Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. And Ilhan Omar over the weekend was very clear that she believes the President's singling out of her, the President's rhetoric and that video he posted really has put her life at risk. She says that there has been a sharp increase in death threats against her since the President posted that video on Friday night and those threats specifically mention the video of the President. Now, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, she says she has talked to the House Sergeant-at-Arms and that she has ordered a security assessment to be done not only to protect the Congresswoman here in Washington but also her family as well. And Pelosi is calling on President Trump to take down the video. She says in part in a statement, quote, the President's words weigh a ton and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger. President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video. Ana, back to you.</s>CABRERA: Sunlen Serfaty on Capitol Hill for us, thank you. Still ahead, the White House with a stinging attack on the democrats trying to look at President Trump's tax returns, why Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says they are not smart enough to see them. Plus, Pete Buttigieg officially running for president now. Could he be the democrat to take on Trump in 2020? And a rare bird with dagger-like talons kills its owner. This is just how dangerous this cassowary is. And what's going to happen to this bird now that has killed its owner?