january 6th committee bennie thompson making a plea on msnbc. >> i hope the senate works its wheel so we can keep people employed, we can continue to secure the capitol and give our opportunity of a committee review of exactly what went wrong on january 6th. we are concerned about it. >> we're also getting a brand new look at the violence that unfolded during the capitol riot as the justice department releases new video evidence. the doj making this footage public at the request of msnbc and other news organizations, and again we're warning you, it's violent and graphic. [ bleep ]. >> wow, just the relentness beatings. let's go to nbc's amanda golden joining us from capitol hill. what is the mood around the capitol as the fencing is coming down? >> reporter: alex, in stark contrast to the footage we just saw, there is a lot of relief, a lot of joy around the fencing finally coming down here at the capitol. we're seeing for the first time people being able to go up into the courtyard where you can then on the other side see the supreme court and then face the capitol on the other side.

i spoke with the chairman of that committee, congressman bennie thompson a bit earlier today. here's what he told me. >> well, the good part about this committee is the speaker determines its ultimate membership. if minuterity leader mccarthy comes with individuals who demonstrated that they are living in a false world around january 6th, it's not in anyone's interests for those individuals to serve. >> a live look at cpac in dallas, texas, where donald trumpl take the stage later on this afternoon. we go now beyond the headlines of nbc's josh letterman. he's with the president in wilmington ton, delaware, and amanda golden. good to see you. josh, with president biden heading to philadelphia tuesday, what exactly does he hope to accomplish there? >> well, the president has a tough task ahead in that speech. he has the calm the waters of growing impishs from civil rights and voting rights activists who say he is not yet doing enough to make sure that voter rights are protected ahead of next i don't remember's election. that is exactly what the president heard on thursday when h

why might the making of that and also trump's silence during the riot be significant as bennie thompson suggests? >> yeah, so as julie said, the committee is investigating a number of things, not least whether the scope of criminal referrals if trump was complicit in a crime. one of the avenues they're going down, though perhaps not most explosive is whether trump obstructed an official proceeding through action or inaction. this is where the video comes into play. we now know trump made several takes of that video before he posted it to twitter. this was the video supposedly condemning the rioters. the committee wants to know what was being said and done in the takes before the one that became public so' where trump's mind was at, what he was saying publicly and what he was doing privately. >> we also saw the committee now seek ing information from sitting congressmen. congressman jim jordan, scott perry. how significant is this shift of focus to members of congress? >> yeah, i think it's really significant. up until now the committee has been going around the bush a little bit, right?

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chairman bennie thompson telling msnbc those hearings will start either july 21st or 22nd, and telling my colleague tiffany cross what the first hearings will focus on. >> the first committee hearing will be, we'll talk to the rank and file employees who had to fight some of these people off on that day. we will talk to the custodial help who had to clean the mess up after we got the people out of the capitol. none of these people have been talked to, so we want -- >> right. >> -- to set the tone. we want to set the tone for our committee's work, that we care about the employees who work every day in the capitol. >> and overnight the first high-profile firing of the biden administration. andrew saul, the head of the social security administration and a trump-era holdover. the white house saying saul's actions ran contrary to the agency's mission. saul, however, rejecting the move, saying his term was protected and telling "the washington post" he plans to be back at work on monday morning. let's go to nbc's josh letterman standing by for us in wilmington, delaware. josh, clearly andrew

but chairman benny thompson said the committee will issue criminal referrals to witness who is refuse to obey subpoena deadlines. how do you see this playing out? are these aides more inclined to listen to their former boss or congress because could jail time be among the penalties for defying the subpoena? >> that's a good question, and i spoke to at least a handful of those men targeted in the first tranche of subpoenas this week, and by and large, they all say we're waiting for instructions from the former president and america first and from the legal team shared by those two entities, and the expectation from trump world is that these aides do not testify, and trump has made it very clear through intermediaries and through personal communications. although i understand trump has not instructed kash patel or steve bannon on matters to defy them. that's not how the president operates. there's an expectation of loyalty to him that he thinks will prevent them from come playing with the orders. but it's true, and thompson is saying as well as adam schiff, a member of the committee is

thompson. >> we have to do better. we are a better country than this. and this commission is one of those ways to show how we can improve who we are as americans. it's a great democracy. but it's sometimes fragile. this commission, we believe, will get us back to where we need to be as americans. >> i think it's going to be fair, it should get a good number of votes, and yes, i do hope kevin mccarthy supports it. it's important to get to the truth and find out just how widespread this thing was and what can we do to make sure it never can happen again. >> reporter: alex, as you noted, this comes amid continued republican infighting, real dissent within the party, especially in the house. we saw this week obviously congresswoman liz cheney lose her leadership position, being ousted over her comments speaking out against former president trump and his lies around the election results and instigaing violence related to january 6. this commission will look at exactly those things. so a lot to watch in the coming days and w

bennie thompson and liz cheney saying -- and i am quoting again -- it is unfortunate mr. meadows has chosen to join a very small group of witnesses who believe that they are above the law, and are defying a select committee subpoena, outright. mr. meadows, mr. bannon, and others who go down this path won't prevail in stopping the select committee's efforts -- effort getting answers for the american people about january 6th. but in that same statement, there's this intriguing quote. indeed, mr. meadows has failed to answer even the most basic questions, including whether he was using a private cell phone to communicate on january 6th, and where his text messages from that day are. i am going to talk to our experts tonight about what investigators may be focusing on there. and it comes on the same day that we have stunning new audio of the former president defending the january-6th rioters who chanted hang mike pence. defending rioters who wanted to hang his vice president. john carl from abc. >> are you worried about him during that siege? were you worried about his safety

we heard from congressman benny thompson just yesterday on air, he's going to chair the committee, speaking into what the committee is hoping to do with their power. take a listen. >> the view you are showing right now is what all of america saw. but what our challenge is, is to look and see what caused this to happen, to see where the systems broke down. not to just let people walk through the united states capitol, but why we were not better prepared when this breach occurred. >> reporter: lindsay, as you heard, democrats want to get to work. it's been nearly seven months since january 6th. what this committee is hoping to do is ultimately produce a report that's a mix of both public hearings and closed-door depositions and that's going to start with a public testimony from capitol hill police officers into what they experienced during that deadly day. that could be happening very soon. but democrats are not waiting to see how and if republicans are going to fill those remaining seats on the committee. they're ready to get to work and they have a quorum to do so. >> amanda golden, thank y

. >> i'm sure you're aware that bennie thompson told "the washington post" they plan to subpoena easeman who wrote the blueprint for how the previous administration could subvert the election results. what kind of information could he provide the committee given that he wrote a blueprint for subverting results? is he being considered a mastermind behind the scenes or not at that level? >> i think the select committee has to consider him as a mastermind of some sort. over the course of our reporting we've made clear that easeman and bannon and a number of other people in the former president's orbit were involved in this legal effort to try to return trump to the oval office. trump himself appears to have thought actually that he could just subvert the election and declare martial law, but the legal effort was much more cunning and easeman was the driving force of this. he was involved in strategy meetings with bannon. he was involved in private discussions in the oval. easeman is the crux of the select committee's investigation. >> hugo lowell, thank you for joining us. >>> the realities

the committee chairman bennie thompson and also liz cheney, right, the chair, as well, they say that they're going to consider pursuing contempt charges against them. there is a good chance bannon is relishing in this but what about mark meadows and others? does this change the calculous for them? >> you know, the psychology of individuals varies from person to person in prior conversations that you and i and others have had on the question of whether or not someone will flip it depends on what their tolerance is for defending themselves, paying the money it costs to defend yourself and possibly having a prison interm in your future. some people are built a certain way like steve bannon may like the idea of being a martyr and the idea of the attention and the idea of the battle. other people may natural accomplish it so much. unclear where mark meadows is on that but probably the rest of the group is not as excited about being charged, prosecuted and potentially sent to jail for a minimum of a month as steve bannon. >> yeah. i want to read this. this is from thompson and cheney's sta

bennie thompson praising the move on msnbc earlier. >> the congressman is a welcome addition to the committee. he demonstrated that he can express his opinion despite what some of his republican colleagues might want him not to express. so an independent voice to this select committee is always welcome. >> joining me now is illinois congressman mike quickly a democratic member of the house appropriations and intelligence committees. always good to see you my friend. let's get into this. what's your reaction to adam kinzinger being added to this committee? and do you want to see more republicans appointed? >> i think it is a great pick. want to see more republicans appointed but as you know, it is a small pool that could qualify. only as -- as miss cheney said only 35 voted for an independent commission. and so many have respoken the big lie and voted against measures that would change this, like a defense supplemental. i would like to see more republicans but i think it takes more republicans willing to choose country over party and truth over power. ed isly, there is just not that big a grou

. >> and congressman bennie thompson, the top democrat who negotiated what the framework of this commission would look like, i'll bring you in a few more of the details, a bipartisan commission made up of ten lawmakers, five republicans, five democrats, chosen by democratic and republican leadership. they're going to focus, as we mention, on the facts and circumstances solely around the january 6th attack. importantly, they're going to be granted authority to subpoena, that's going to be critical, and the report that they will ultimately issue will come out by the end of this year. so, all of this the theoretical framework this week we could see them move towards a more permanent posture of getting this actually going and in action, alex. >> okay, ali, thank you so much for that, which leads us to this conversation, everyone. joining me now california congressman jackie speier, a democratic member of the house armed services intelligence and oversight committees. welcome back to the broadcast. always good to have you here. what about that agreement to form a bipartisan commission to investi

in an interview to "the washington post," bennie thompson suggested it could potentially lead to a criminal referral for the former president. there are a couple of other threats they're zeroing in on. one of them emerged in the lawsuit filed by the current trump spokesman in which he's trying to prevent the panel from obtaining his financial records. the committee wants to know whether the spokesman helped fund some of those attendees, helped spread the word about these riots, about these rallies that took place on that day. and it wasn't as organic as the administration is claiming it was. some democratic lawmakers are hoping the democratic leadership actually take action and do some legislative steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. let's listen to one of the lawmakers and what he said this morning. >> we need to treat this one-year anniversary on january 6th as a day of action, not just a day of reflection. the senate needs to pass the freedom to vote act to ensure access to the ballot box, to push back on partisan subversion of state and local elections and end gerrymandering an

. >> and having said just that, committee chair bennie thompson told cnn last week, subpoenaing donald trump, that is still not off the table. today, committee member adam kinzinger confirmed if the trump has a piece of information that they need, they will certainly subpoena him. how critical do you think it is for the committee to hear directly from donald trump? >> i think that option should not be taken off the table. as you know, the former president is going to claim executive privilege over everything that he said and all of his information related to january 6th. i would argue that executive privilege would not apply because the executive privilege only applies when national security matters might compel them. and in this case, the opposite is true, that national security would argue for him producing information to the committee, so we can prevent such an insurrection from happening again. >> and it seems the biden administration is very much in sync can that, as well. before you go, sir, on friday, i know you took part in a chicago-based oversight committee hearing regarding

our select committee chaired by bennie thompson, they are uncovering many, many, many of the facts that took place. i think it is time -- i think after this testimony from mr. rosen, it is time for the republicans to reconsider their support for donald trump in terms of just the vulnerability and the damage that he has done and continues to do to our democracy. >> congresswoman, i guess my question then is, what comes next? i mean, how useful is this testimony. >> you say that now is the time. but how do you actually think this information can and will be used moving forward? >> well, hopefully, the information in a the public will begin to understand -- because of the information and the facts that are coming out, they will begin to see who is on their side. they will begin to understand that donald trump was leading this country into a dictatorship. they will begin to understand how vulnerable our democracy is and not support those members of congress, those republicans especiallies, who try to deny on january 6th a violent coup almost took place. hopefully the facts will educate the

thompson, spoke on our air earlier today to give us a look at what the panel is going to seek to do in the coming weeks. >> the first committee hearing, we'll talk to the rank and file employees who had to fight some of these people off on that day. we'll talk to the custodial help who had to clean the mess up after we got the people out of the capitol. none of these people have been talked to. so we want to set the tone. we want to set the tone for our committee's work that we care about the employees who work every day in the capitol. >> reporter: and congressman thompson said earlier on our air yesterday that they intend to hold that first hearing as early as july 21st or 22nd, and as he noted there, really focusing on the capitol police force and those additional support workers that had that experience themselves on january 6th, alex. >> amanda golden, thank you so much. >>> let's go from there to a new court filing, this by the doj, that names donald trump, siting his false election claims in a legal argument to keep monitoring an accused capitol rioter. federal prosecutors re

the chairman of that committee bennie thompson signing a letter tonight recapping the committee's demands and sending a message to the former president's chief of staff, we're giving you one more chance is basically what the letter says. but busy indicted on contempt of congress charges hasn't made steve bannon any more cooperative. he won't talk to the committee. but he sure has a lotto say, and he is saying it on his podcast reported not incidentally at the willard hotel in washington. you know the hotel where team trump set up their so-called war room before the insurrection at the capitol. >> they don't know how to handle when maga is punching back, and maga is punching back. okay, we're not going to sit here and take it anymore at the months and months and months and months and months of the rhetoric and trying to weaponize the law and weaponize doj. we're not going to take it, okay? we're going on offense. >> going on offense? wow. by defying a subpoena? as if he is above the law. by refusing to tell the committee what he knows about the brutal attack on our nation's capitol? look,

. >> look, the timing to have the committee chair on, bennie thompson of the january 6 committee was impeccable. it happened as chris was interviewing him. i want to play part of what he said and get your response. >> we have a lot of information we requested. we're now based on a judge's decision that donald trump brought the lawsuit. we fought him in court. we have the law on our side, and you know, we are a nation of laws. so if you take your issue to court and lose, then you need to man up and deal with it and not be a spoiled brat. >> so listen, i think you answered this in your last, but to clarify here, to be clear, the bottom line is the january 6 committee will probably ultimately get these documents. >> yeah, and i think they're going to get the first round of them by friday. now remember, they're being produced on a rolling basis. so there are future groups of documents. more in the future that are going to be produced on varying dates. so even if the court of appeals doesn't act between now and friday, it could act later. but i think it's the case that everyone understand

but as we have heard previously from the chairman of this committee, that's congressman bennie thompson, he said the scope of it, no one is off limits, that they will proceed and follow the facts as requires, that no one would be off limits from a potential subpoena. that includes former administration officials, potentially former president donald trump. it was telling in your conversation just last hour with democratic congressman eric swalwell, speaking to what he hopes the select committee can really uncover here, especially as it relates to the former president's role. >> what did he know as the mob was descending on the capitol and what did he do and not do that could have saved life and saved democracy? for the first time in our country's history, we are not able to say that we had a peaceful transition of power. there was an attempted coup. hundreds of the president's supporters made their way into the capitol. i and others left the floor and stopped counting. a capitol police officer was killed. two others would take their own lives days later. hundreds were injured. officers l

thompson on whether president trump will be subpoenaed to testify. >> i am prepared to subpoena anyone who is identified based on the facts and circumstances behind january 6. >> let's go to monica alba. monica, there is a big event planned there tonight. people will be able to get much closer to the white house than they have in a long time. what can you tell us about what's different today? >> reporter: this is new, lindsey. if the crowd in front of the white house can hear the sound checks going on on the south lawn, i think way more people will be tuning in than we previously thought. and that's because the u.s. secret service has removed the fencing and the barricades that once stood right in front of that tall fence in front of the north lawn where i am here because for more than a year due to security reasons, the pandemic, and also some construction on this fence, people could not get as close as they are right now. so this is a shift sort of sending a signal, really, that we are getting back to some version of normal. of course, nothing is pre-pandemic levels yet but that is s

chairman bennie thompson is threatening to issue criminal referrals to anyone who defies those subpoenas. what do you make of all of it at this point? >> the threat to issue criminal referrals is significant. any time you start talking about members of congress accusing people of crimes is a big deal. but it's doubly important because the biden administration controls the political appointees at the justice department. if trump were president and congress were controlled by democrats, there's no way the doj would bring charges against people for defying a democratic congressional investigation. but now, if these democrats are able to put together criminal referrals that are serious, which they will be able to do if any of these witnesses defy their subpoenas, there's a very good likelihood that doj will take those referrals seriously. and that's something that is sure to be front of mind for any of these trump world witnesses who are thinking about defying those subpoenas. if the justice department had for whatever reason been controlled by republicans, then the only next step democrats

if you look at the letter from benny thompson, that looks like the route they are going it take. i think meadows may be in for a bit of a wake-up call soon. remember, he is also a white house chief of staff. if anyone has an executive privilege claim, i think it's meadows. >> interesting. also, this week as you know, we've seen more of trump's inner circle, stephen miller and kayleigh mcenany, it seems as though, hugo, that they're inching closer and closer to donald trump himself. what do you make of it? is that where they will ultimately end up, subpoenaing the former president? >> i think that is a correct read of the situation, and i think the committee has been loathe to discuss where they're going to end up ultimately and if they're going to subpoena trump himself. i've been covering the select committee for months and in our almost daily conversations with some of these members on the select committee, the indication is that at some point they will move to subpoena republicans and they will ultimately potentially move to subpoena trump himself. they are inching closer and

we won't let that happen, so i commend my good friend chairman bennie thompson and ranking member liz cheney who testified before the house rules committee seeking action on criminal contempt, as you just mentioned referral for jeffrey clark while he was assistant attorney general at the justice department, he was reportedly at the center of efforts that spread misinformation about last year's election and derailed the peaceful transfer of power. it's shameful. >> let me ask you one quick question about what comes between now and the end of the year. does bbb build back better, does it get passed in the house ultimately and get to the president's desk for signing in this calendar year? >> no, that's so important, while passing the infrastructure bill was phenomenal and great progress, we still have to pass bbb, which contains a lot of human infrastructure. we're talking about lowering the child care costs for working families, establishing free quality universal preschool, permanently authorizes the first ever national paid family and medical leave guaranteed for u.s. workers, and it

. >> chairman bennie thompson said he hopes to finish up the investigation by early spring. do you think that is realistic? and if it did wrap up that early, does it run the risk of being incomplete when all is said and done? >> i mean, that's an open question, i think, for members of the committee. obviously, this spring is an expedited time line. and it makes sense. it's so that the public will be able to look at this report, and there will be a due amount of attention on that rather than on the midterms. it's a long time. but what we've seen from this committee in how it's performed so far is that they are incredibly thorough. so if they think that they can produce a satisfactory report by then, they probably can. >> okay, daniel strauss, thank you so much for the article and for coming on and chatting about it. i appreciate it. >>> after ten days of testimony and two dozen witnesses, the 11th hour request from ghislaine maxwell's defense team. we'll talk about it, next. to protect people. to help them save. with a home and auto bundle from progressive. ahh. i was born fo

and i think the fact that chairman bennie thompson mentioned this in the letter shows where the committee is going with this, and they want to know did these guys, you know, who are connected to the people -- that are connected to trump world operatives, possibly even to president trump himself, did they have advance knowledge of what might go down at the capitol and was that the reason why they didn't participate? i think this is the central question. >> yeah, i'm curious because over the holiday, trump ally steve bannon filed a motion to request that all the documents in his case be made public. what's in it for him? how is that beneficial for him? >> well, i think there's several points. there's firstly, i think the legal point. his lawyers and the rest of the his legal team are saying, well, if there are documents that arrive during discovery, that would be beneficial to our client, steve bannon. then we would like that to be public. so we can watch this in the court of public opinion as well, and we can put this on our war room podcast, and we can fund-raise off this. i think that's

>> so bennie thompson, the chairman of the select committee raised these instances of max miller and brian jack interacting with members of congress and trump in their system letters. it's not entirely clear how the committee got their information. you have to remember they've been specking to hundreds of witnesses. they've got thousands of documents from mark meadows. their making incremental progress, and they do have trove of documents now from other witnesses, testimony from other witnesses, so the way i understand and the way it's been described to me is pulling these strings from all directions, and it's informing how their investigation is progressing. whether they're going to cooperate, that has yet to be seen. >> and you mentioned the information from mark meadows that includes this 38-page powerpoint. what was in that? >> so we were reporting last night that meadows turned over a 38-page powerpoint to the select committee, and that he received this powerpoint in an email. we reviewed a second version of that powerpoint that was marked for dissemination. that was 36 pages an

benny thompson, the chair of the committee, called mr. kinzinger a fine representative and the type of person who would be good for this committee. speaker pelosi a couple of days ago joked that everyone else seems to think he would be good. the bottom line is this is a decision for the speaker and the speaker alone to make and she's not given any indication that she will add new members to the committee. the eight appointees of hers are a quorum. they will have their first hearing on tuesday. and the reason for all of this, the speaker and many democrats want to bolster the bipartisan credentials of this committee to maximize the chances that the american public trusts its finding. you recently had congressman marc veasey on. i want to play some of what he said about that. >> we want this to be something that all americans can have faith in, we want all americans to see democrats and republicans on this panel asking real questions, not being sensational or silly, like oftentimes you'll see jordan do and how you see banks, when he says, y

. >> laura interviewed benny thompson. watch this and then we'll talk. >> if former president trump thinks he can get away with what happened january 6th by being cute with his press releases, then he has another thing coming. our committee, the bipartisan committee takes our work very seriously. and we will pursue it. >> now, thompson went onto say that no one is off-limits when it comes to a subpoena including trump. do you expect that he's going to be subpoenaed? >> i think he will be subpoenaed. but remember we're talking about whether or not somebody has the ability to not respond to questions that are actually asked. that's important here because the idea of fighting a subpoena would be something that would be a universal kind of swiping and saying, look, i'm not going to be even able to appear when in reality that's about appearing and you have the ability to assert privileges with respect to particular questions. you don't get to just not show up because you were the former president of the united states. you have

think that the bipartisan commission for january 6th that, quite frankly, you know, john katko and benny thompson need to be commended on for arriving at a fair solution, is absolutely necessary because there's so many compelling questions that haven't been answered about january 6th and can't be answered in other forums. and it needs to be outside of congress, preferably by people who are not currently serving in government and won't politicize this in any way. and so what are some of the questions? for instance, why did it take hours and hours, almost four hours after the mayor of d.c., as well as the commissioner of the metropolitan police department requested urgent military assistance for any assistance to arrive? what did president trump mean when he was talking to kevin mccarthy that day and kevin mccarthy himself was demanding urgent assistance in telling kevin mccarthy, well, it sounds like you are less sympathetic to basically the big lie having happened than the rioters are. and i think kevin mccarthy said to him, what the -- who the f do you think you're talking to right now?

chairman bennie thompson said nothing is off the table. but they are deciding whether that should be something the committee spends time on, even steve bannon's testimony being held up here. adam kinzinger was asked this morning whether the investigation would even be complete without the former president's testimony. here is what he had to say. >> what we really want to do is make sure we're getting every piece of this puzzle. that's going to include people that will come in and talk to us, people who we're going to subpoena in the future whose names you probably have never heard of who have good incentives to come in to us to talk. speaking quite honestly, if we subpoena all of a sudden the former president, we know that's going to become kind of a circus so that's not necessarily something we want to do up front. but he has information we need, we certainly will. >> reporter: congressman kinzinger there very much leaving the door open for this. but what he said there about it being a circus, you can imagine how that would play out with

you know, select committee chair bennie thompson told us yesterday that, you know, we could expect to see quite a few subpoenas coming out very soon, but the select committee and all of these other investigative committees are still figuring out who exactly they will call to testify. for that matter, who might even be a cooperative witness. >> uh-huh. again, that was a list from "mother jones." let me ask you quickly a couple of names, legislators. kevin mccarthy, paul goesse earth, andy biggs, mo brooks, tommy tuberville. having lawmakers testify would be unprecedented. any sense this might happen, that any members of the gop are willing to testify before this committee? >> well, the committee could certainly try to subpoena some of these lawmakers, but, again, you know, we are getting into somewhat uncharted territory where a committee would actually regard a fellow lawmaker to be, as some of them have called, a material witness to what happened on january 6th. so, yes, certainly there's been some interest in calling people like kevin mccarthy, like jim jordan, both of whom spoke to

the chairman bennie thompson with a warning for anyone else who just might try to defy the committee. >> maybe he's willing to be a martyr to a disgraceful cause of whitewashing what happened on january 6 by demonstrating his complete loyalty to the former president. so i want our witnesses to understand something very plainly. if you're thinking of following the path mr. bannon has gone down, you are on notice that this is what you'll face. >> the vice chair liz cheney who lost her position in the gop for taking a stand against the former president is saying the privilege argument suggests that trump was personally involved in planning what happened at the capitol. >> mr. bannon's and mr. trump's privilege arguments do, however, appear to reveal one thing. they suggest that president trump was personally involved in the planning and execution of january 6, and this committee will get to the bottom of that. >> let me just say this about liz cheney. you may not agree with her politics and whatever it is, but what she's doing i think is pretty heroic. even i was watching, i've been watc

thompson revealed that meadows has previously provided text messages and emails to the committee before claiming executive privilege, right? and that includes 36 powerpoint slides, actually, i think, 38 to the committee. they were dated just a day before the capitol riot, which in part recommended a scheme that included informing lawmakers of apparent foreign interference in the election and then declaring a national emergency. you know, given all this information that meadows has publicly provided in his book, also going on television and talking about it on another network, privately to the committee as well, does his lawsuit against the committee and nancy pelosi and everybody else that he possibly can sue, does it even have a chance? >> i don't think so. i think it's ultimately going to fail. and it may very well be that this was filed more politically than it was legally. and so, if and when it fails, it will give him some political cover to say to the president, look, i did everything i could to avoid testifying or producing these documents, and now i'm forced to do it. i think it

thompson outright rejected that claim in a statement yesterday and threatened criminal contempt. the fact of the matter is, you know, he might have been dealing with the president, but just because you're speaking with the president, doesn't mean you can't answer any questions about it. it doesn't mean that you get like an executive privilege or an attorney/client privilege waiver to not discuss those conversations. so i think jeffrey clark might find himself in a very difficult position in coming weeks. >> okay, hugo lowell, thank you very much. we'll see you soon. >>> mystery surrounds the personal diary of one of president biden's daughters and a break-in at her home. it involves an fbi investigation and a conservative media company known for its controversial undercover videos. at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. whether it's ensuring food arrives as fresh as when it departs... being first on the scene when every second counts... or teaching biology without a lab. we are the leader in 5g and

committee chairman benny thompson and vice chair liz cheney writing the move should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore or try to stonewall our investigation. no one is above the law. >> not only interested in asking him questions but we're interested in documents that we've asked him for, you know, the documents don't lie. >> the news coming just hours after former trump chief of staff mark meadows refused to appear for a deposition on capitol hill prompting the commission to consider pursuing contempt to enforce that subpoena. former president trump has directed his past aides not to cooperate citing executive privilege, though insiders like bannon were private citizens at the time of the attack. all as an appeals court weighs whether the national archives must hand over hundreds of pages of documents from trump's time in the white house to congress later this month. >> now, if convicted, mr. bannon could face up to a year behind bars and a fine of up to $100,000. the committee has already subpoenaed 16 former trump white house officials for testimony, documents,

. >> i want to talk about chairman benny thompson saying subpoenas are coming soon, laura, this is right up your ally here. liz cheney said they should be issued quickly and the justice department is saying former d.o.j. officials can testify, the department will not assert executive privilege. which top officials will be among the first called? could it be the president should be called or will be called? >> i think -- >> the former president. >> i think he should be called and jeffrey are rosen. what the dorj .o.j. would have assert, is why it's a significant thing, remember, you are saying, in order to have transparency and a full investigation, i have to premove the hurdles and people saying i don't care what uyou want to hear, i don't have to tell you. that hurdle is being over come, saying you can speak freely about what it is that you know about the es. if you know the who, what, when, where, why, the paper trail, if you know something different than what your oath of office should have been or otherwise, lets us know. it's a level of transparency that we need here. >> give me a b

i have to give credit to individuals like congressman papco who's with chairman benny thompson who worked out a bipartisan committee, bipartisan agreement as to what this commission should look like. i am hopeful that there are other individuals within the party, republican party who want to get to the truth and steadier heads will rule the day over those spending most of their time in mar-a-lago on getting their marching orders from former president trump. >> i am sure you have heard about this or maybe you have witnessed some of this stuff. republicans are spreading this big lie, marjorie taylor greene is confronting lawmakers in the capitol. matt gaetz is being investigated for alleged sex crime. how is congress supposed to get anything done with these kinds of antics and distractions? >> thankfully there are a greater majority of individuals who are working for the people that elected them than some of these clowns that are representing i don't know who in washington in the form of matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene. even those individuals on the republican side who really want to

we're learning from the committee chairman bennie thompson mark meadows provided about 6,000 emails through his lawyer. that seems significant. what do you think? that's a lot of emails. >> it is a lot, don and a good start. i'm more interested until the quality than quantity. there could be a lot of junk in the 6,000 emails. the real question look, this is a deal and is often the case, both sides get something and had something to lose here. mark meadows avoids going down the steve bannon path and getting indicted and the committee gets at least some information out of mark meadows. mark meadows is a central question but what happens when the committee asks tough questions. those 6 thousa,000 emails, that sure bet. what happens when they say what did trump do when the crowd stormed the capitol? what was his reaction? did he call the crowd off? what took so long? if meadows isn't willing and able to answer the questions, it's not much of a deal. >> the committee has shown a lot of interest whether meadows used a personal cell phone at the time of the insurrection and any text messages he mi

. >> yeah, let's talk about benny thompson the chairman. he is warning that no one, no one he says is off limits when it comes to who could be subpoenas that including the former guy. is this a race against time given the level of stone walling that they're getting? >> yeah, look, if they're going to subpoena the president they would be wise to do it soon because it's going to end up in the courts. don, two things can be true at the same time. number one, the president does have a history of running the clock out on things and sort of frivolous litigation but as a former president of the united states has privilege claims that will end up in court. this will be litigated for a long time and if they want a prayer of getting the former president's testimony, they better get in court soon. yeah, the other thing don is the moment they attempt to, this whole thing becomes a side show because you brought donald trump into and we've been there before. >> yes and then he gets to create some sort of narrative that he wants. usually the opposite of w

but the focus benny thompson has spoken about is not the same timeline above this congressional committee. it's really about to prevent this from happening again but also to understand the root causes, to refortify the security force at the capitol, to enjoy the integrity of our elections going forward and in general. the timeline is actually a little bit longer, but i do agree that the process by which you have to secure their testimony is likely to be pro tra protracted, but remember, the position is held by the executive branch. he might have a weak argument if he tries to assert some basis for privilege being able to say he is the one to hold it at this jun juncture knowing he is no longer the president of the united states. >> laura, jeffrey, thank you both. i appreciate it. i want to bring on jon avlon. he is out with a new series called "reality check by with j avlon." here's what he says about evidence by scavino, bannon and patel. >> some were in communication with him on january 5 and january 6. they are reportedly in communication about how to overturn the results of the electi

but the committee chair benny thompson -- cnn is reporting the committee plans to subpoena him at some point. what can you tell me about this new batch of tsubpoenas, sir? >> what i can tell su the chairman and vice chair liz cheney will break any news related to future activities, be that hearings or investigative activities, but we're making significant progress. that's what i can tell you. over 150 s and discussions we have had with team as we try to build the case document here and gather more information as to what happened on january 5th and 6th and the rallies and the brutal insurrection. we want to make sure we do this right and we cothat by following every lead. i want to thank the committee staff for their work and chairman thompson for his leadership to make sure we lift up every rock and look everywhere we can to find the material that's necessary to give a comprehensive review and tell the story of january 6th. >> cnn is learning your committee is expected to interview former trump doj official jeffrey clark tomorrow. he tried to help trump overturn the 2020 election. what

your colleague bennie thompson says that evidence is necessary to produce a report. how are you going to figure out what was said on that call? >> as chairman thompson said, everything is on the table. we really have to dig in deep into all of the events that happened that day. and, you know, i can't say every witness or everything that we will move forward with in the investigation, but we will examine all of the facts and where those facts take us, we will draw from that to come to the conclusions for the committee. >> okay. speaking of witnesses, are you willing to subpoena the former president or people close to him to get answers? >> don, like i said, and like chairman thompson has said, and going into this, everything is on the table. the committee is just now coming together, coming up with a plan, waiting for our additional members. i think we're all here because we took an oath as members of congress, i did, the first time when i was 17, and spent two decades in uniform. we truly think that that oath to protect the constitution against all enemies foreign an

they voted in a bipartisan bill between bennie thompson from mississippi, a democrat and a moderate republican from new york. this shows momentum going to the united states senate. i disagree with some of your analysts. i'm a midwesterner, and i'm optimistic about the country. i believe that the senate can work with this and i believe we will come up with ten votes to get this created. >> that was my next question. why do you think that? just because of everything you said or you want the go deeper? >> well, i have talked to some of the staffs, and the senators, and talked to a ton of house members and republicans. thing is a conscience there, don, that people are worried about our government being attacked. this reminds a lot of people of the terrorist attack on 9/11. we didn't have foreign terrorists this time. these were americans killing americans, attacking our law enforcement, threatening the vice president, threatening the speaker, chasing custodians and staffers around the capitol with flags and sharp objects and threatening to spray and kill them. this is a serious attack on our gover

january 6th committee chairman bennie thompson and the vice chair liz cheney are res responresponding tonight saying it's nothing more than destructing the problem. precedent and law are on our side. is trump's lawsuit a delay tactic or do you think it can work? >> i don't think it can work. i think it is a delay tactic. keep in mind that the house is currently controlled by the democrats who formed this select committee to investigate the going, the doings of january 6th. they're only going to be in office for another year and a couple of months if the house changes hands. and as we've seen in other litigations including with the respect to the former white house counsel, if you get into litigation and get this stuff into the courts, it takes time and even if you get ruled against as trump almost certainly will be. you can appeal and you can appeal again and you can ask for rehearings. so it can take some time. i think that in this matter, the law is so clear and the understanding that the information being sought is so important and the time is of the essence, you know, given what w

the chairman benny thompson who says the committee will issue subpoenas soon without resorting to writing letters asking for voluntary information says we cannot let the liars and cheaters win. >> we did not ask for this, for the house of representatives did its job to give this country its first peaceful transfer of power. and we'll do our job now to make sure the peaceful transfer of power remains a pillar of our democracy. we cannot allow ourselves to be undone by liars and cheaters. >> liz cheney one of two republicans on the committee says that we need to know the truth about every meeting, every conversation, every phone call leading up to and during the attack. >> we must know what happened here at the capitol. we must also know what happened every minute of that day in the white house. every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack. honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward. >> you will hear more from liz cheney a little bit later on in this show as well as from other republicans on the committee or the other republi