After news broke that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would be delivering his final Russia investigation report to Attorney General William Barr in the coming days, on Thursday, NBC’s Today show and CBS This Morning promised viewers that the investigation would continue regardless of Mueller’s findings.
Touting how “Several government officials say Robert Mueller is close to wrapping up” during a report for the Today show, correspondent Peter Alexander finished the segment by assuring: “....many legal experts say just because Robert Mueller is winding down does not mean the investigating stops, with federal prosecutors in Manhattan and elsewhere expected to follow up on pieces of the investigation.”
Correspondent Major Garrett echoed that sentiment on CBS This Morning: “Now, the President’s legal team fully expects Mr. Trump to be cleared in all this, though the cases related to the underlying Russia investigation quite obviously will continue.” The reporter noted that: “If congressional Democrats are dissatisfied with what Barr submits, they could choose to subpoena the Special Counsel to testify.”
Despite such assurances that the Russia investigation would continue no matter what Mueller found, in the 8:00 a.m. ET hour of This Morning, Justice Department correspondent Paula Reid actually warned the show’s hosts that it was unlikely Special Counsel Robert Mueller would be charging anyone with Russian collusion in his final investigative report.
After co-host Norah O’Donnell asked Reid what to expect in the report, Reid admitted that the Attorney General was “going to be able to read a lot about people they investigated and decided not to charge” and that the public version of report would not contain “a lot of new information.”
O’Donnell anxiously followed up, hoping for damning evidence against the President: “But we haven’t seen a narrative, essentially, for everyone, wrapping it all together and connecting the dots. Essentially outlining the criminal conspiracy or collusion, if you will. Do you expect that?”
Reid threw a wet blanket on those hopes:
I do not. At this point, I do not think that they are going to charge anyone with a conspiracy between Russia or anyone in the campaign. There have been other people who have run afoul of other laws. But at this point, it is not my expectation that anyone will be charged with conspiracy or, as people like to call it, collusion.
Co-host Bianna Golodryga tried to salvage the segment by concluding: “But as we showed, six people who are close to the President have pleaded guilty throughout this investigation.”
Even before Mueller has completed his investigation, the media are already gearing up for other investigations into the President as they prepare for the possibility that Mueller may not find Trump guilty of anything.
Here is a transcript of Reid’s February 21 report:
8:05 AM ET
(...)
NORAH O’DONNELL: Paula, 34 people have been charged as a result of this probe. And I know that you’ve read just about every word of every one of these documents. So you’re an expert on this. Tell us what you think will be in this final report.
PAULA REID: In the final report that Barr receives, he is going to be able to read a lot about people they investigated and decided not to charge. But traditionally, the Justice Department keeps that confidential information confidential, it’s not released to the public. The idea is, in this country, you may be investigated. But if you are not charged, that information about you shouldn’t be in the public hanging over your head.
So that’s gonna be a lot of what is new in this report. But because that information is not typically released to the public, I don’t think we’re going to get a lot of new information. I really do think, based on what I’ve read, the Special Counsel has been telling this story through the charging documents. That’s why so many of these charging documents are so lengthy and they’re so detailed. The Special Counsel has been trying to tell the story through the documents of people they’ve charged.
O’DONNELL: But we haven’t seen a narrative, essentially, for everyone, wrapping it all together and connecting the dots. Essentially outlining the criminal conspiracy or collusion, if you will. Do you expect that?
REID: I do not. At this point, I do not think that they are going to charge anyone with a conspiracy between Russia or anyone in the campaign. There have been other people who have run afoul of other laws. But at this point, it is not my expectation that anyone will be charged with conspiracy or, as people like to call it, collusion.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA: But as we showed, six people who are close to the President have pleaded guilty throughout this investigation.
(...)
