PBS News Hour - Politics

A bipartisan effort from the House Judiciary Committee is pushing the Justice Department to explain why it began investigating President Trump for obstruction of justice. Judy Woodruff talks to the committee’s top Republican, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, about whether he’s satisfied with the attorney general’s summary of the Mueller report and eradicating “corruption” within the Justice Department.

Debate continues over the meaning of Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report, with Democrats arguing it’s impossible to draw conclusions about President Trump’s culpability without a first-hand examination of the report. Judy Woodruff talks to former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara about the “troublesome language” in Barr’s letter and investigating for truth vs. retaliation.

Can electoral maps go too far in favoring one political party over the other? It’s a question the Supreme Court has previously left unresolved but is considering again as it takes up challenges to congressional maps drawn by North Carolina Republicans and Maryland Democrats. Amna Nawaz talks to National Law Journal’s Marcia Coyle about the challenge of a "manageable standard" for redistricting.

Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report says the special counsel found no evidence that the president or his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. In response, the White House is claiming victory, while Democrats insist the full report be made public. Judy Woodruff talks to Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins and NPR’s Carrie Johnson for more.

In his summary of the Mueller report, Attorney General William Barr concluded there was no evidence that President Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. But what does the report itself say? Judy Woodruff speaks to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., about why it should be made public and how Barr’s pre-existing views might have come into play.

Although the full Mueller report has not been released publicly or made available to Congress, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, says “it’s not premature for the president to say he’s exonerated and vindicated.” Judy Woodruff talks to Conway about Mueller’s “full and fair investigation” and why the public has a right to know how the special counsel’s inquiry originated.

There is no doubt that Russia’s government attempted to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As William Brangham reports, once the U.S. intelligence community reached that consensus, as well as high confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the cyber and social media “disinformation” campaigns, a major investigation and dozens of indictments followed.

Republicans say the attorney general's four-page summary of the Mueller report exonerates President Trump on obstruction of justice. Democrats counter that William Barr’s analysis is not sufficient to answer that question. Judy Woodruff talks to Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general under President Obama, and Paul McNulty, former deputy attorney general under the first President Bush.

The nearly two-year investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has concluded, with Mueller's final report delivered to Attorney General William Barr for review. Now, a groundbreaking collaboration between PBS NewsHour and FRONTLINE illuminates the complex details behind the Mueller investigation and analyzes what's yet to come.

Judy Woodruff talks to Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and a personal attorney of President Trump, about why he thinks the Mueller investigation was “maliciously conceived.” Then Mary McCord, Matthew Miller, Robert Ray and C. Boyden Gray join Judy Woodruff to analyze the legal questions around Attorney General William Barr's summary of the Mueller report, and what happens next.