Tune in to watch the next phase on the Hill this morning.<\/b>
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Bob Mueller doesn’t seem happy with Bill Barr. (Andrew Harnik, File\/AP)
BOMBSHELL: \u201cSpecial counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump ‘did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance’ of Mueller\u2019s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post,\u201d our colleagues Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky scooped last night.
‘SHOCKED’: Mueller’s letter, sent to Barr on March 27 \u2014 just days after Barr released his preliminary four-page summary of the Mueller report that led to President Trump claiming \u201ccomplete and total exoneration\u201d in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election \u2014 «shocked\u201d senior officials at the Justice Department. In the letter, Mueller requested that Barr release his report’s introductions and executive summaries:
A DOJ spokespersondescribed the special counsel as having \u201cexpressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the Special Counsel\u2019s obstruction analysis,\u201d but that Barr \u201cultimately determined that it would not be productive to release the report in piecemeal fashion.\u201d
GAME CHANGER?: This all makes Barr’s testimony this morning at 10a.m. before the Senate Judiciary Commitee seriously must see TV.
FEAR FACTOR: Lawmakers may question Barr about a discrepancy between his answers to the Senate about communications with Mueller when he testified before them at the end of March.
On April 20th, I asked Barr, \u201cDid Bob Mueller support your conclusion?\u201d His answer was, \u201cI don\u2019t know whether Mueller supported my conclusion.\u201dWe now know Mueller stated his concerns on March 27th, and that Barr totally misled me, the Congress, and the public. He must resign. pic.twitter.com\/rod404BbYo
Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro scuffle in Caracas with a national guard soldier loyal to the president. Dozens of people were injured in clashes across the country as Maduro insisted that the military remained on his side. (Boris Vergara\/AP)
THE FINAL PHASE FLOP?: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 still lacks the military support to oust President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro after announcing \u201cthe final phase of Operation Liberty.» Maduro and his governmen remained intact by nightfall, denouncing last night in a televised address the \u201cfoolish\u201d and \u201cfailed\u201d attempt to remove him from power.
A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Maduro was just about to flee the country yesterday morning and take refuge in Havana until Russia convinced him to change his mind.
REALITY CHECK: Guaid\u00f3 has yet to receive the support he needs from Maduro’s top commanders, despite U. S. expectations of top military defections, according to our colleagues Mariana Zu\u00f1iga, Anthony Faiola and Terrence McCoy.
THE OPTICS: Earlier Tuesday, Guaid\u00f3 released a video address at dawn outside of a military base in Caracas, surrounded by armed men in military uniforms, calling for a military uprising to oust Maduro.
Maduro, after claiming the military remains loyal to him in a tweet, responded to protests that erupted around the country with violence and tear gas that left one person dead, dozens injured and 25 people detained.
GOOD NEIGHBOR?: Critics of the U. S. strategy in Venezuela were skeptical of what they viewed as the Trump administration’s attempts to double down on a strategy behind ousting Maduro that has failed to reap rewards.
BREAKING: BBC World News has been taken off the air in Venezuela pic.twitter.com\/DZ5TWjOB6t
Maduro’s grip on Venezuela’s state-run Internet, television, radio stations and electric grid, paired with a robust disinformation campaign, have also hampered Guaid\u00f3’s efforts.
The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab has been tracking Maduro’s efforts to control the media to maintain power and an advantage over the opposition.
Chuck and Nancy leave a meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, aiming for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan Tuesday (Stefani Reynolds\/Bloomberg)
INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK, PART XYZ: The world got a glimpse of a parallel universe yesterday in which the White House and congressional Democrats at least put on a facade of productivity and cooperation, agreeing to the outline for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Meanwhile, several people in Trumpland have taken note of the Playbook \u201cspotted\u201d item with Mulvaney at the Milken conference during a hectic week, as well as his messaging against the Pelosi\/Trump\/Schumer meeting.
MULVANEY SAYS USMCA IS TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT: Mulvaney was clear that the White House sees the USMCA trade deal as Trump’s major domestic policy initiative for his second year in office. And to Democrats who want to criticize the NAFTA replacement, Mulvaney said they face a binary choice, \u201cYour real two Plan Bs are either NAFTA or withdraw from NAFTA.»
THE CHINA FACTOR: Mulvaney also said we’ll know \u201cone way or the other\u201d whether the administration will sign a trade deal with China within two weeks.
However, as trade talks continue this week, it seems «increasingly unlikely that China will give ground in a crucial area that could determine which country wins the technology race,» per the New York Times’s Ana Swanson:
A cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson. #TNYcartoons
A post shared by The New Yorker Cartoons (@newyorkercartoons) on Apr 30,2019 at 2:04pm PDT
WHAT WE’RE ALSO READING:<\/p>\n