this evening. >> thank you. >> i am jason johnson in for chris hayes and one quick programming note. the latest episode of my podcast, a word with jason johnson, is out now. this week i'm joined by shaun williams, founder of a national organization writing stereotypes about black fathers including a new partnership with lego. it is a great conversation to build on now, to download and stream wherever you get your podcasts. that is all this friday night. chris will be back next week. alex wagner tonight starts right now. good evening, alex. >> jason, chris may be back, but will there be lego conversation when he gets back? i'm all in on that. >> i hope so. i'm sitting on legos now. it's the only way i could get in this chair. >> that is my life, i am always sitting on legos. have a great weekend. it's great to see you. on october 1, 2017 a uniquely american tragedy unfolded on a scale never

before seen. >> reporter: in a matter of seconds a country music festival turned tragic with a storm of gunfire raining down on an innocent crowd. >> he was shooting everybody and there was dead people everywhere and i don't even know what was happening. it was just shooting, randomly. >> reporter: it began a massive loss of life and hundred injured in the worst mass shooting in modern american history. >> the 2017 las vegas shooting was the worst mass shooting in modern american history. 58 people were killed, several hundred were wounded and two victims later died from their injuries. there have been more than 3500 mass shooting since then according to the gun violence archive. the las vegas shooting remains the deadliest and there is a reason for that. the shooter used a bump stock.

america is the most unfriendly democracy in the world, yet even here it is illegal to own a fully automatic machine gun. but a bump stock essentially transforms the average semi automatic rifle into a fully automatic machine gun. that is how the shooter in las vegas and that massacre was able to murder and maim so many people in such a short amount of time. the las vegas shooting was such a shock to the nation's conscience that even the president at the time, donald trump, the nra's favorite leader, felt pressured to do something. he issued an executive order essentially banning bump stocks. it was not comprehensive gun- control nor was it banning assault rifles. it was really a simple way of making sure america's existing prohibition on machine guns could stay in place despite the existence of this relatively new technology. even president trump could not ignore the pressure to do something in the face of such absolute carnage. in the end, though, it did not matter.

today, seven years later, the conservative majority on the u.s. supreme court struck down president trump span on bump stocks. in a 6-3 decision that split the justices on ideological lines, the court has chosen to book fully automatic machine guns in the hands of any american who wants one. it is somewhat difficult to muster the energy to be shocked by that decision, because it is exactly the kind of ruling we have come to expect from a court that has been radicalized to push a conservative agenda against the public interest and against public support. in 2022 the court made it significantly easier for anyone in this country to carry a concealed weapon. that decision came in the same term that the court conservatives gave the right wing the thing they had been fighting for for 50 years. overturning roe v. wade and ending the federal right to an abortion. in the following year the court handed conservatives a victory they had again sought for decades by ending race-based

affirmative action in colleges and universities. it is fairly evident at this point that the roberts court is working almost exclusively to enact a conservative agenda. whether that is catering to the nra and the gun lobby or shrinking the federal government whenever and however possible or by enabling a conservative majority that seeks to hold onto payer power using undemocratic means. there is more of this work ahead. right now we are waiting yet another abortion ruling from the roberts court, one that could significantly hinder doctors ability to provide critical abortion care to people who need it. we are awaiting another firearms decision from the court, one that will determine whether people accused of domestic abuse can purchase a weapon. we are awaiting a set of decisions where the court could decide to significantly curtail the government ability to regulate the safety of the food we eat and safety of the water we drink.

we are awaiting a decision in a case that could see charges or convictions tossed out for hundreds of insurrectionists who stormed the u.s. capitol on january 6 and we are very much still awaiting a decision on donald trump's request for absolute presidential immunity. at best the court will have significantly delayed justice for a former president who tried to overturn a legitimate election. at worst the court will sanction a president seeking to assassinate his rivals without consequence. if it feels like this is a mountain of major decisions, that's because it is. the justices are preparing to hand down roughly 14 extraordinarily high-profile opinions, triple or quadruple the number of an ordinary term. now it should be said that even in cases where the court did not immediately hand a victory to conservatives, the justices signaled that they might do so in the near future.

yesterday the court unanimously decided not to curtail access to one of the most widely used forms of abortion in the country, but they ruled on purely procedural grounds, not on the merits of the case. that, in turn, allowed justice clarence thomas to offer his right-wing allies a pathway to try again later. to come back next term with changes to their case which might, in turn, make the conservatives more receptive to their fundamental argument. hint hint. in the end a little time as all this quarterly needs to enshrine conservative doctrine into law, despite whatever the american public has to say about it. joining me now is leah littman, professor at the university of michigan law school and cohost of the excellent podcast, strict scrutiny. also with us is michelle goldberg, msnbc political analyst. i know it is a lot to deal with on a friday night, michelle,

but i was really struck yesterday by the reaction in and around the mifepristone ruling. on first glance okay, they are not curtailing restriction to the most used abortion medication in the country, but as you read deeper you see thomas is leaving breadcrumbs to come back and dismantle the whole thing. >> i think the fact it was unanimous shows how preposterous the standing argument. a dentist saying they should be able to ban mifepristone for this really convoluted and ridiculous reason. so they ruled purely on the procedural ground, like you said, of standing. but matthew kaczmarek, the trump appointed radical christian nationalist judge who first voted to ban mifepristone and has been extremely receptive to any right-wing argument that comes before him, he has allowed three red states that are angry about people mailing

abortion pills into their states, he has allowed them to join the case. they might have a better claim to standing and it basically means this whole thing will wind its way -- >> back to the supreme court. i was struck by some of the tone even in justice kavanaugh's opinion where he writes the plaintiffs are pro-life. they oppose elective abortion and they have sincere legal, moral, ideological and policy objections to mifepristone being prescribed and used by others. it is quite clear that these conservative justices are sympathetic to the fundamental argument. am i misreading that? >> i don't think so and i think part of the concern is dismissing the case on standing grounds and finding these doctors could not bring the lawsuit, they basically didn't have to answer the questions raised in the case about whether, for example, the fda was correct to originally approved mifepristone. whether expanding access to mifepristone, allowing it to be provided via telemedicine are

lawful, nor did they address the comstock act being revived in some sort of weird, zombie, nationwide abortion ban that would not have to go through congress but some future president and attorney general could enforce. what they did is said we are not going to resolve any of those issues now, before the presidential election, and that essentially puts the issue in the hands of the voters who will decide whether to elect someone who wants to enforce the comstock act or someone who doesn't. >> not settling it before the election also helps republicans you know this is a losing issue for them. there is not a tremendous amount of smoke and mirrors when it comes to the gun lobby and i wonder what your reaction to the ruling on bump stocks is, especially in light of the ruling they're going to make about whether domestic abusers should have access to firearms. >> i would say not just that ruling, but what i find

disturbing is, first of all, on the merits it is a ridiculous, highly technical argument about what a machine gun is and whether the function, the single function of the trigger is about what your finger does or what the internal mechanics of the gun does. i think sotomayor had it right when she said something to the effect of if it looks like a duck day >> of it looks like a machine gun and behaves like a machine gun, it is a machine gun. >> not only that, but machine guns are illegal and a separate law from the 60s makes implements that converts guns into machine guns illegal. so this is, kind of, it shows the radicalism. in this particular case this is not a second amendment decision. >> it is an agency call. >> right. they also have a big ruling coming up where a lot of people expect them to basically got

the ability of not just the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, but all federal agencies to pass regulations. >> to do what they do, which is to regulate. >> right. so i think that this is an auger of a kind of more shocking remaking of basically the federal government. >> i think michelle was talking about the chevron cases. i am not a supreme court reporter, but there are two big cases that michelle is referring to here that would basically undermine the power of federal agencies to do their work. first of all the fact that clarence thomas is weighing in on the machinery of a bump stock clip in relation to machine guns. this is not what supreme court justices typically do. it is the work of the atf, alcohol tobacco and firearms. the court does not want atf

regulating bump stocks, so they basically took away their power to do so. do you think we will see a wholesale revisiting of one of the central planks of judicial deference to federal agencies? >> i think we are going to see a massive realignment and reallocation of decision-making authority in the federal government. under the current system, the chevron doctrine you were explaining allows administrative agencies to adopt policies that fill in gaps to legislation. if the court does away with the doctrine it will be assuming that power for itself. that is the people who just used six people pictures and an animation supplied by a gun advocacy group to justify unleashing bump stocks on the american people, those are the people deciding the future of health, safety, medical, food, drug, and environmental regulation if they actually do overrule chevron.

there is also the case that could limit the power of agencies. there is also a case about an additional climate regulation. ohio versus epa. this june is a catastrophic storm waiting to happen. >> can i follow up on that because it is just a staggering number of cases to begin with that they took on of huge national import and it is not july yet, it is june 14. i mean they are going to dump these opinions on the american public and the american press in a way that threatens to overwhelm anyone's ability to make sense of them. >> i think that is correct and this is in some ways the new normal. the court is taking on a smaller number of cases, but a larger number of high-profile, ideologically significant cases that could remake the american government and then loading up those decisions at the end of the term so people are, as you suggest, overwhelmed.

last term in a single week we were getting affirmative-action decisions. west virginia versus epa. the future of clean power plants. also the question of lgbtq equality and whether laws could deal with personal circumstances. before that it was the future of gun control. the court overruling roe. those decisions came back to back and the court is loading up these decisions. taking on a smaller number of cases, but also bigger, more significant cases and i think attempting to skirt the public radar. >> it also seems pretty clear that even setting aside the specific cases, the court has become the central lever by which republicans or conservatives can consolidate minority rule. this is about a tyranny of the minority and i will call everyone's attention to the writing of your calling in the times today who talks about the comments justice alito is caught

on tape making. there are irreconcilable conflicts and as justice alito said there are differences on fundamental things that can't be compromised. the most fundamental thing is the question of american democracy. will the republic stand or will we fall into a future of minority rule? a huge part of that seems to be the court. >> right and alito makes no pretext of being a neutral arbiter. he is someone who, when donald trump failed in trying to overthrow the election, you know, his wife had a flag of distress hanging outside their home. he has made it quite clear that this is a zero sum contest and he will do whatever he can to advance his side. as to the point of how many big, hugely influential cases they are taking, they are moving at a sort of breakneck speed to remake american life

and remake american government as fast as they can. they are putting their fingers already, just by taking this case about donald trump's immunity, which i think a lot of people expected to be laughed out of court, it is so preposterous. >> a lot of people did not expect them to take it up. >> right, they did not expect them to take it up, nevermind to take this much time. they have already made a decision that this case is not going to trial before the election. whatever they decide on the merits, they have already put their fingers on the scale when it comes to donald trump's future criminal accountability. and i think there is no reason that anybody should believe this is anything but partisan motives. >> at this point it is hard to believe anything otherwise. leah litman and michelle goldman, thank you for your time tonight. coming up, today donald

trump turned 78 and yet all the attention remains on president biden's age. there is an unusual strategy behind that. stay tuned. first, republicans are continuing their pursuit of merrick garland as payback for their frontrunners prosecutions. the top democrat on the intelligence committee joins me to discuss that next. they're quitting the kibble. and kicking the cans. and feeding their dogs dog food that's actually well, food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies. portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. get 50% off your first box at thefarmersdog.com/realfood when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete,

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today the department of justice announced it would not be pursuing the contempt of congress charges levied by house republicans against attorney general merrick garland. the doj explained its reasoning today saying the attorney general's actions did not constitute a crime. the republican decision to hold mister garland in contempt, that was an act of political retaliation and one that failed. tonight republicans remain unbowed. speaker johnson is vowing to continue this in court. in a letter he says i will be certifying the contempt reports. we will also move to enforce the subpoena of attorney general garland in federal court. this is precisely the type of cynical gamesmanship the attorney general himself warned about in a rare op-ed. garland cautioned that efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants and spreading

damaging conspiracy theories can spark real violence. that is already translating into real threats. yesterday a texas man was charged with threatening an fbi agent involved in the hunter biden investigation. in a menacing voicemail the man called the agent trader sn said trump will win the election or you can steal another election and then the guns will come out. joining me now is congressman jim hines, top democrat on the house intelligence committee. congressman, thanks for joining me tonight. let's start with what the speaker of the house said a few hours ago. he is going to take this fight with the attorney general to federal court. what is your reaction to that? >> first of all let's remember what this is all about. they are angry because the attorney general has not produced the actual recording of the interview with president

biden. he has produced the transcript as i think is appropriate and there is a legislative purpose, but we all know that the reason they want the recording is so they can miss around with it or clip it or take it out of context in a way to embarrass the president. that is not a legitimate purpose for a subpoena. let's not forget the peter navarro, lately of the trump administration is in jail over contempt of congress. steve bannon is on his way to jail for contempt of congress and when donald trump was president contempt of congress was a daily thing like breakfast or exercise. what this shows is that even the speaker of the house, even the speaker of the house will do whatever. anything. absolutely anything to please the dear leader, donald trump. look, donald trump came to capitol hill. look at photographs of the senators and members of the house of representatives, looking at donald trump the way a 13-year-old girl looks at taylor swift. you just have to look at those

photos to see that our government has been turned into a tool for the whims of donald trump and republicans, this is what they do now. >> the videotape of republicans singing happy birthday and clapping and applauding him are certainly embarrassing, at least on the outside. the central grievance that the republican conference has with merrick garland is, as you point out, a release of the audiotapes of the president sitdown interview with special counsel robert hur, the man tasked with investigating his retention of white house documents. my question is, as absurd and fantastical as these grievances are, they have poisoned some part of the american public against the justice department, against the fbi and certainly against the attorney general. that report out of texas where people are trying to attack or threatening to attack fbi agents, that is not a single incident. there are other ones like that in this climate and i guess do

you worry about more of that as republicans continue on this campaign? >> of course i do, alex. it is profoundly dangerous to basically vilify the federal government. i was in the chamber on january 6 when thousands of americans attacked the seat of their own democracy. they beat up police officers. they broke windows. they soiled the very center of our democracy. that happens because people like donald trump and his many acolytes in the party convince, as you put it, a substantial minority of the american population that the election was stolen. despite not a shred of evidence that that was true. now it is the weaponization of the government. the federal government is going after its political adversaries. alex, who is the one person convicted in a federal trial associated with the president? it is the current president's son. hunter biden was convicted by a federal prosecutor, but that will not stop, of course, this

very dangerous rhetoric. dangerous because of the violence it might provoke, but also because over time, i don't believe a majority, but a substantial part of the american public because they have stopped thinking about the facts will lose faith in the fbi and department of justice and government. i don't know what america looks like when half the population doesn't believe in government. that feels like anarchy to me. >> i would also wonder about implications for the basic functionality of congress and the degree to which the republican party is allegiant not to the country, but one man. i'm looking at the comments made to your committee and scott perry from pennsylvania and ronny jackson from texas, two of the most outspoken trump supporters. scott perry, involved in the effort to overthrow the 2020 election. do you worry these guys will have access to classified information? they love donald trump. donald trump is running for president. are they going to share classified information with donald trump? it does not seem beyond the

realm of the possible to suggest such a scenario, as crazy as it may be. >> you know what i just said about the speaker and pretty much every republican being welling to do whatever donald trump asked for. the speaker himself said he put these two on the intelligence committee, by the way without telling or consulting chairman turner, who spent the last year working with me to make this committee as nonpartisan as possible. to make it as serious as possible. i am not going to open up on perry and jackson because i need to work with them, but i will observe with you that half of the republican conference was appalled that the speaker did this. because of the reasons you articulated. look, scott perry is apparently still under investigation by the fbi, which is of course one of the organizations that we on this committee oversee, so it is a bizarre thing. i will leave it there because in the service of trying to

make this important committee stays functional, i will hold my fire. >> i think we all appreciate your statesmanship, but i would say if you look for an example of a fox guarding the hen house, scott perry on the intelligence committee seems like a solid one. congressman jim himes, thanks for your time tonight, sir. coming up, reports this week make clear that the ethics scandal at the supreme court is worse than we thought and we already thought it was pretty bad. one of the journalists who first broke the story joins me onset coming up. first, why president biden faces questions about mental fitness as donald trump's rants get more and more unusual. we will talk about that coming up next. oh, hi! have you tried tide fabric rinse? it works after your detergent to fight deep odors 3 times better than detergent alone. i love that. try tide fabric rinse.

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has anyone ever seen silence of the lambs? the late great hannibal lecter is a wonderful man. he oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. >> that was republican front- runner and convicted felon donald trump last month offering his thoughts on a cool new movie that was released 33 years ago. did anyone question donald trump's mental fitness or even his basic connection to the time space continuum? no, they did not. that is perhaps because even after a decade of increasingly

unhinged commentary, the american public has become somewhat numb to donald trump's particular verbal madness. >> if you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations. your house went down 75% in value. and they say the noise causes cancer. okay. then i see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. one minute and is there a way that we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? >> by the way they never report the crowd on january 6. nikki haley, nikki haley, nikki haley is in charge of security. we offered her 10,000 people. soldiers. whatever they want. they turned it down. >> and with obama we won an election that everyone said could not be won. i like a memory question. like you go person woman man

camera tv. so, they say could you repeat that. i said yeah. so it is person, woman, man, camera, tv. it's actually not that easy, but for me it was that easy. >> though president biden receives far more press for his verbal miscues and mistakes, the reality is that donald trump is in a league of his own when it comes to strange non sequiturs and rambling antidotes that lead nowhere and fantastical scenarios that have no basis in reality. even against that backdrop, the ad-libbed hypothetical that trump presented this past weekend in nevada, it really stood out. >> what would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you are in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery and the battery is now underwater and there is a shark that is approximately 10 yards

over there. by the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, did you notice that? so there is a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards. do i get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. do i stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted or do i jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? you know what i would do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? i will take electrocution every single time. i'm not getting near the shark. so we will and that. we will and that for boats. >> just to be clear the scenario will never come to pass on planet earth in part because of laws of buoyancy and conductivity and in part because a former president will never, ever be in a sinking boat with a shark 10 yards away. it is just not going to happen. as absurd as these moments are, as surreal as the scenario is, there is weirdly a strategy at

play. trump's apparent conditioning of a large swath of the american public to collect his rambling is normal or at least is something other than addled and alarming has become one of his biggest campaign advantages. with the spotlight on president biden's age and acuity, trump has seemingly gotten a pass and there is no better day to put trump's aging but florid mind into perspective than today because today is donald trump's birthday. trump is 78 years old, only three years younger than president biden. while marking this milestone susan glasser of the new yorker offers this accept assessment. wherever one stands on the broader question of trump's mental health, the evident decline in his ability to speak clearly and coherently feel striking. if ever there were a case for age-related diminishment of a candidate, trump is it. susan glasser joins me after this quick break.

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we have time tonight, right? this is only if you want it. only if you want. but by any chance has anybody ever heard of the snake? >> while trump's allies appear nonplussed by snake fables mixed with xenophobia, new yorker staff writer susan glasser says this rhetorical gobbledygook shows how one foot trump is for the presidency. if there were ever a case for age-related diminishment of a candidate, trump said. the bazaar rambles and obsessions have long characterized his public performances, but in the 2024 campaign the weird has gotten decidedly weirder. joining me now is susan glasser, staff writer at the new yorker. can you talk about the dissent into ultra weird and what you have seen in particular that causes you to make this

assessment? >> well, alex, there is a lot of material here. let's be real. this evening you have already played the shark electrocution boat thing, which honestly i would not pretend to have any political strategist in me, but if i were a political strategist i might suggest running that as a campaign ad over and over again. if one were so inclined. you know it is pretty remarkable stuff. you know, trump is a tough character when trying to unpack which part is just to he is. which part has gotten worse over time. certainly you look at the vocabulary. you look at the challenges. speaking in clear sentences and communicating, that is something that has changed pretty radically over time. i would say even from 2016 to 2022 2024, the progress of a

trump rally shows pretty clearly a man on a sharp downward slope. >> it is interesting because his campaign released a statement after people's eyebrows were raised over the scenario and this is what jason miller had to say. president trump takes on numerous tough interviews every weekend delivers lengthy rally speeches while standing, demonstrating elite stamina. first of all i did not know that stamina could be elite, but secondly it is almost like what he says is beside the point. the fact he is up there standing, still talking, is enough, the trump team thinks, to placate anyone or dissuade them from thinking he has somehow addled and thus far they seem to be right. the fact of the matter is, there is way more scrutiny on president biden than there is on president trump, former president trump. given the absurd tirades and non sequiturs that are now part

of his daily routine. >> that's right and again part of the problem is the fire hose of lies problem which is to say if we already feel trump has overwhelmed us with bizarre digressions for years, then unpacking what is new and different become so hard that people throughout their hands. remember person, woman, man, camera, tv. donald trump has always graded himself on a curve, in the same way jason miller is grading trump on a curve. saying it is okay as long as he can stand up. that is pretty remarkable. also i thought trump was running against the elites and i literally never heard anyone assert the condition of elite stamina. have you? >> no, i don't think i have elite stamina for the record. i don't think i even have stamina. donald trump has elite stamina.

this is all thrown into sharp relief when the men are on stage debating and it already feels like the first debate is june 27. it already feels like the bar for biden to clear is so much more substantially higher than the one trump has, which is literally is he alive, is he standing, is the words coming out of his mouth, setting aside what the words are, i wonder if there is any way for biden to overcome what seems like a structural disadvantage in the weeks leading up to what will be an important inflection point in the campaign. >> alex, i think that is an important question. we don't know the answer yet. the challenge against running against trump for biden's it is not really a head-to-head contest in which they are judged by the same terms. it is much more akin to parallel play, not intersecting until the moment of voting. biden had that funny joke at

the white house correspondents dinner where he said yeah, i'm running against a 6-year-old. but the truth is that trump is engaging in his own game and appealing to his own followers, who don't hold him accountable to the same standards as other public officials in this country. so he quote unquote gets away with things i think anyone else would have a hard time doing. what he is looking to do is to keep his maga base faithful to him. biden has a tougher task and a much more traditional view of the presidency. it is a much tougher job the way biden has defined it and i think that is part of the challenge. when you see them together, remember the first meeting between the two of them, that was a striking moment for many americans. it probably did help joe biden put away the first campaign and defeat donald trump.

trump seemed out of control. it was truly i think the worst debate i have ever seen between any presidential candidates and largely the tone was set by trump, who was not just incoherent, but very or lend to and careening around. biden's first line was enough already, man. >> yes. and i think i am a little bit kind of worried that we will see a repeat of that. it was pretty awful to watch, frankly. >> we do know at least that trump is not intending on doing debate practice heading into one of the most important moments of his political career, so we have that to look forward to on june 27. susan glasser with the new yorker, thank you for your time this friday night. >> thank you, alex. still ahead tonight, more on all the gifts justice clarence thomas has received from his benefactor and billionaire harlan crow.

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one week ago today supreme court justice clarence thomas filed his annual financial disclosure form and added information he says he and edward lee omitted. included was food and lodging he accepted from billionaire benefactor harlan crow on trips to bali and a private men's club in california. we first learned about these trips from pulitzer prize- winning reporting at propublica. then yesterday it was revealed even more largess. three previously undisclosed private trips using the private jet that justice thomas himself is not seen fit to disclose. tonight richard blumenthal tells nbc news that it seems like the height of arrogance

for thomas to purport to come clean and continue to conceal, so i think we have more fact- finding to do. journey me now is the pulitzer prize-winning reporter at propublica who has been instrumental at bringing this to light. is it hard to track jet travel? is the fact that thomas is coming clean about it presumably in the hopes or expectation that no one would find out about the rest of it? >> it's not easy. my colleague spent three or four months covering the first trips, but this week it is fights we did not even know about. one of the striking things we learned this week is justice thomas was using harlan calero's crows jet to fly and fly back the same day.

to give you a scale of the money, this jet goes for something like $10,000 per flight hour, so from d.c. to california and back we're talking over $100,000 for a single flight. >> this is published in propublica on the destinations. they include a may, 2017 trip to montana, the location of glacier park international airport. then from montana to dallas two days later. thomas was scheduled to be in st. louis at the time for a speech to a local bar association. on one instance he flew on june 29, 2021 from the east coast to san jose, california and returned home later that day. in another the justice took a round-trip flight from d.c. to georgia. you could not immediately find evidence of thomas making public appearances in montana, georgia, or california on the days in question. why is that relevant? because it helps determine what he is doing or what the auspice is of this gift work?

>> frankly we don't know what these particular trips are. what we reported is that crow brings thomas for vacations around the world, but some of these seem to be different, like going to silicon valley, seemingly for a few hours for some sort of lunch meeting. we previously wrote about another private jet trip crow provided where he flew thomas to yale law school to torah room where a portrait of justice thomas was going to hang. i think the overall picture of what is so striking is you have this billionaire political donor who is making his private jet at the disposal of a supreme court justice and allowing him essentially to live the life of a billionaire or at least someone extraordinarily wealthy. >> it also gives rise to the seeming lie that these are personal hospitality exemptions. maybe, and an emphasis on maybe, one thing if you are flying to harlan crow's family reunion

trip in bali. it is another if you are using his jet to have lunches in silicon valley. >> right and there are very few ethics rules and it comes to the court and there is this law that requires them to disclose gifts. some of these fights could cost over $100,000. justice thomas is not disclosed his flights repeatedly. he maintains that he does not have to. literally every ethics lawyer we have spoken to, republican and democrat, says that is wrong. there is actually still an investigation going on by the federal judiciary of his disclosure practices and we are waiting to see what they come up with. >> are you optimistic? part of the reason we know about this is because senate democrats got to the bottom of it because harlan crow cooperated with them to an extent. is there more teeth in their work? are you optimistic given republican resistance dwell of this? >> they authorize subpoenas and

they said they have a full investigative report coming later in the summer. i have no reason to believe that what we found through our reporting, we don't have subpoena power, is the entire picture. i would not be surprised if there was more to come. >> we are looking forward to your reporting on new information as it comes. this is, i think, one of the biggest scandals i've seen at the court in my lifetime. thanks so much for all the work you are doing. >> thanks. that is our show this evening. as a reminder you can listen to every episode of alex wagner tonight as a podcast for free. scan the qr code on your screen or search for alex wagner tonight wherever you get your podcasts. now it is time for the last word. good evening, friend. >> good evening, alex. there was one part of your show i watched. >> just one part? >> no, i watched the whole thing, but there was one part i struggled with. i consider myself