Media

‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ to run long Thursday for deep dive into Mueller report

by Joe Concha - 04/15/19 5:11 PM ET

“Late Night with Seth Meyers” will run for an additional half hour on Thursday to allow time for a deep dive into special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which is expected to be made public that day.

NBC announced Monday that the episode will be expanded from 60 minutes to 90 minutes “to give context to the redacted version of the Mueller report becoming public earlier in the day.”

Host Seth Meyers, a staunch critic of President Trump, will also interview South Bend, Ind., mayor and 2020 presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg (D) during the late-night program.

The Thursday edition of “Late Night” is usually reserved for “Saturday Night Live” cast member Leslie Jones and her breakdown of the latest episode of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” To avoid bumping Jones for a look at the Mueller report, Meyers said the show would simply expand by 30 minutes to allow for both.

“I simply will not stand for the Mueller report bumping Leslie Jones or vice versa, so we decided to make room for both,” Meyers, a former SNL cast member, said.

The public release of Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been hotly anticipated since Mueller turned it over to Attorney General William Barr last month, ending the nearly two-year probe. A Justice Department spokesperson said Monday that the report will be released Thursday morning.

Democratic lawmakers have pressed for a release of the full report without redactions, but Barr said during Senate testimony last week that certain information, including grand jury testimony and that of witnesses not charged, will be redacted before its release.

Barr sent a four-page summary of the report to lawmakers on March 24, saying that Mueller did not find evidence of criminal coordination between members of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Barr also said in his summary that Mueller failed to reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice in the investigation.

Barr wrote that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction. The attorney general also quoted Mueller’s report as saying that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

The president has pointed to Barr’s summary as proof that he has been “totally exonerated” in the investigation, which he repeatedly criticized as a “witch hunt.”

“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care about the Mueller report. I’ve been totally exonerated,” Trump told reporters last week.

Tags Donald Trump Robert Mueller Rod Rosenstein William Barr