INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former US attorney to the District of Columbia

• AG Bill Barr tells Fox News public must know if officials ‘put their thumb on the scale’ in Russia probe. In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Attorney General William Barr explained that he is trying to get to the bottom of whether or not “government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale” during the early stages of the Russia probe. “I’ve been trying to get answers to the questions and I’ve found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate and some of the explanations I’ve gotten don’t hang together, in a sense I have more questions today than when I first started,” Barr told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer in an interview set to air Friday on “America’s Newsroom.”
• MSNBC’s Wallace airs “disclaimer” before showing “potentially dangerous” Barr interview
• FACE THE NATION: Rep. Adam Schiff says impeachment proceedings against President Trump could be a “tool” to get information and evidence that the administration is blocking from Congress
• JAMES COMEY: The AG should stop sliming his own Department. If there are bad facts, show us, or search for them professionally and then tell us what you found. An AG must act like the leader of the Department of Justice, an organization based on truth. Donald Trump has enough spokespeople.
• GOWDY: FBI HAS PAPADOPOULOS TRANSCRIPTS THAT ARE POTENTIAL ‘GAME-CHANGER.’ During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Gowdy indicated he has seen FBI transcripts related to Papadopoulos that contain potentially exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. “If the bureau’s going to send in an informant in, the informant’s going to be wired, and if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there’s going to be a transcript of that,” Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo. “Some of us have been fortunate enough to know whether or not those transcripts exist. But they haven’t been made public, and I think one in particular is going — it has the potential to actually persuade people. Very little in this Russia probe I’m afraid is going to persuade people who hate Trump or love Trump. But there is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game-changer if it’s ever made public.”
• Judge orders release of transcripts of Flynn Russian contacts. (The Hill) –  The judge presiding over former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s case on Thursday ordered federal prosecutors to release transcripts of the Flynn’s conversations with Russian officials. District Judge Emmet Sullivan also ordered the release of a transcript of a voicemail left for Flynn that purportedly “could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation,” according to one court document. That voicemail apparently refers to a message left for Flynn’s attorneys by one of President Trump’s personal attorneys, reminding Flynn of the president’s “warm feelings” for him after the former administration official started cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Sullivan additionally ordered that federal prosecutors also make public parts of the redacted Mueller report that relate to Flynn. The judge, a Clinton appointee, gave the Department of Justice a May 31 deadline for all of those documents. The release of the previously hidden documents would disclose even further details into Flynn’s own contacts with Russians and what Mueller found during the course of his investigation. The judge has similarly ordered he be given the audio of the voicemail in question, as well as that of calls between Flynn and Russians, opening the door for Sullivan to publicly release them. Flynn has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about his contact with the Russian ambassador. He has not yet been sentenced and has been cooperating with federal investigators since his December 2017 plea. Sullivan’s order came shortly after prosecutors agreed to unseal some documents in Flynn’s case, revealing more details about his cooperation with the special counsel’s investigation.
• FLYNN FILING SHOWS ADMIN CONSIDERED REACHING OUT TO WIKILEAKS AFTER PUBLICATION OF CLINTON EMAILS. (Breitbart News) — According to the filing, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn told investigators that it was only after the email dump on October 7, 2016, that Trump campaign officials discussed reaching out to WikiLeaks.
• BAKER VIEWED THE DOSSIER SKEPTICALLY BUT IT WAS USED ANYWAY  (Daily Caller) — Former FBI general counsel James Baker said Friday he viewed the Steele dossier “skeptically” and was “concerned” about the veracity of the document when the bureau received it before the 2016 election. But despite those concerns, Baker was one of the FBI officials who reviewed the Carter Page surveillance warrant application, which relied heavily on information from the dossier.