elizabeth warren will make a formal announcement and senator amy klobuchar has her own schedule for sunday. i will be guest hosting "the last word" at 10:00 p.m. eastern tonight. "hardba "hardball" is up next. blackmail. let's play "hardball." ♪ i'm chris matthews in washington undersiege have launched new counterattacks. on capitol hill acting attorney g general matt whitaker battled with democrats refusing to say anything good about special counsel robert mueller's vez. at the white house the president refused to punish saudi arabia

for its murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. and a bomb shell story david peck against jeff bezos of the "washington post." on thursday, bezos, who also owns amazon, accuses the parent can company of "the national enquirer" of extortion and blackmail. this after the enquirer had a front-page expose including pursesinal text messages and photographs. shortly after publication, he hired a team to find out how the tabloid got hold off those text messages and photographs. onblog post yesterday, bezos writes that tabloids editor threatened to publish additional photos unless bezos called off his investigation and made specific false public statement to the press that there was no basis for claiming that ami had a political agenda.

this can be seen as yet another battle between trump ally and his critics. ami says it was merely involved in good faith negotiations. they are using the practice of catch and kill to keep two women from publicizing their claims they had affairs with the president. throughout the campaign ami acted as a pr wing, you might say, of the trump campaign, promoting the candidate and savaging his opponents. joined by former federal prosecutor and former reporter for the "daily beast" and katy feng. thank you all. this is like l.a. confidential but in the middle off a huge blitical fight. give this basis of the blackmail story. >> so we reported last week that

jeff bezos had opened and personally funding the investigation into how thesetects messages ended up in the national enquirer. so he's trying to figure out how this happened. he tasks his long-time personal consultant -- >> i know him. >> yeah, he's a storied person in this field, this personal security protection field. and he has determined with a pretty high degree of accuracy that he believes these were political motivations behind this leak and the publication of these text messages. >> what did he mean by political? the ami "national enquirer" was out to get him for political purposes. >> they have long-standing ties to president donald trump which resulted in a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors late last year.

they admitted to using their publication to try to help win donald trump the presidency. it's no secret these are high profile allies of the president. they also started looking at the brother of the actual mistress in this case. >> so he's the brother of the alleged mistress? >> that's correct. and friends with stone, kartd carter page. names that anyone following the news would know. >> everybody knows the "washington post" used to be a liberal newspaper but now they're middle of the road butted trump doesn't like them bezos. >> called jeff bezos jeff bozo. so the president is thrilled of this. and not a big fan of "washington post" and by extension not a big fan of jeff bezos.

>> all journalism is not aimed at getting the story out. some of this so-called journalism is we'll get dirt and sell you the secrecy. we'll get rid of it if you pay us. that is blackmail but they call it catch and kill. your thoughts. >> yes, to dwhoet illustrious omar little, when you come at the king, you best not miss. he's basically calling out ami in the traditional sense of how they do journalism at "the national enquirer." it's let me pay you for the rights of your life story. let me extort you for money so i don't run nasty things about you. but frankly, is it really extortion? there's a federal crime defined by basically threatening to expose somebody in eexchange for something of value.

you give me money i won't run the story. but there idea that inyou admit there was ant political angle to the story, would you basically be giving something of value. and from the southern district of new york is weighing heavily on ami tonight. >> if you blackmail someone -- this is like l.a. confidentials, the old 1920s and '30s stuff from san francisco and l.a. take a picture of a guy with his girlfriend and threaten him. if you give me 50 k, i won't give to you wife. this is classic. >> in 10 words or less the law of extortion. $1,000 or i break your thumb. it's threatening harm to obtain a thing of value. it seems to me what we have here is a threat of harm. it can be harm to one's

reputation which we vehere because they were threatening to expose these indelicate pictures and text messages in exchange for a thing of value. what value were they trying to get? they were trying to catch and kill stories that bezos and the "washington post" were trying to investigate and report. i see this as classic extortion. there are a lot of bells and whistles on the federal extortion laws. but at its core this is extortion. >> they wanted to stop bezos from investigating. what were they looking for? what was bezos looking for on ami? >> why did ami and picker sort of respond so maniacally. it seems they are desperately fearful of something. is it really just about some of their stories are politically motivated? duh. so that is the $64,000 question.

>> the president remained sound. asked by reporters if the president was aware of the allegation. here's what he said. >> i'm not sure if he's aware of it. and year not going to get into something between jeff bezos and a tabloid magazine. >> president trump has not been shy about sharing his opinion. the president tweeted so sorry to hear the news about jeff ebozo being taken down by a competitor who's reporting i understand is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the amazon "washington post." hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better more -- he's comparing the "washington post" with the "national enquirer" and i can't stop laughing. it's insane.

who believes this crap? >> it's a long way beyond parity. he's been saying that national enquirer deserves the pulitzer prize and ragging on the "washington post." >> this is the jackcondy living quietly in poland kind of stuff. >> it's not just "post"'s coverage, it's jeff bezos being the richest man. he's always gotten under his skin and there are a lot of questions being asked. obviously the president didn't comment. he was going back and forth to the helicopter. we've seen him often answer a lot of questions. was he tired after the physical? maybe. did he want to avoid these questions? possibly. what glen is talking about is why was "the national enquirer" so sensitive about what they

might find about how they obtained those texts? >> about why they're putting out these propaganda documents without any explanation of who's paying for them. anyway, a source familiar tells them that federal prosecutors are investigating whether they violated conduct. in december ami signed the agreement in exchange for providing information in its role in a payment to play boy model who claims she had an affair with trump prior to his presidency, which trump denies. they stipulated ami should commit no crime whatsoever and should they commit any crime subsequent to this date, they should thereafter be subject to prosecution. glen, your area here. it seems at minimum it should

say you don't commit anymore krums. if they're involved in extortion and/or blackmail, i think that would vilot the agreement >> they could barely make it three weeks, let alone three years without violating another crime. this extortion crime may not have to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. all they're go having to to do to show they violated the prosecution agreement is probably by preponderance of the evidence. manafort is being proved to have lied and violated his plea agreement. so this is not going to bode well for ami. >> it's not your fault you're reporting this stuff. it seemed president trump came with all those world we wouldn't know about. we wouldn't know anybody about picker who does catch and can kill or stormy mcdaniels or

karen mcdougal. this horrible rose gallery of people. and now we're basically doing l.a. confidential in the white house. this can crapol oora story we h to cover. >> and the reality for donald trump is you surround yourself with people like that, you're obviously going to be implicated by guilt. that association by guilt. why is it that ami, which is by all accounts an e tension of donald trump and his surrogates. why would ami cordsinate legal liability with jeff bezos, which is what donald trump tweeted about. he said that shareholders of amazon should know about how bad jeff bezos a guy is. and that's what ami said interestingly when they told

bezos team it was okay to do all these stories. the deputy general counsel for ami worked at amazon for nine years. you would think the deputy general counsel would have a pretty good idea how jeff bezos operates. i think they've underestimated bezos and his reaction. >> i try to figure out why people do what they do. why would picker, own oer of the national enquirer want to get back in the good graces of the president of the united states? he's part of the states witnessing program. he's part of the trouble trump's in. because he told them stuff they wanted in exchange for freedom. he wants to get back in his good graces. so he unleashes his dauogs, photographers and perhaps the brother of bezos' girlfriend and

goes to war so he can win the graces of the president back. what other motive is there? >> that's certainly what a lot of foks in jeff bezos' orbit steam suspect. the president doesn't like snitches. he said it should be illegal for people to flip in exchange for prosecution. michael cohen -- he's not michael cohen's biggest fan. so that obviously gets under his skin and if you're david picker, that's potentially beneficial and lucrative person to have on your side and to have distance between him and the president in a good men a years, i would imagine you would want to are pair that relationship. >> have to replace this president, so here we go again. it's too bad. thank you, sir. and our buddy here. and thank you for your insight on this.

coming up another possible motivation. why the own oer of the "washington post" believes david picker's ties to the saudis hit a sensitive nerve. why is the national enquirer the best friend in this country the saudi arabia has including the crown prince and murder of khashoggi? a combative hearing by the way today. acting attorney general matt whitaker wouldn't defend the investigation mueller's leadi leading he wouldn't say one good word for what fear of what the boss man might say. >> a late breaking story out of have virginia. a second woman has now accused justin fairfax of assault saying he raped her while in college at duke 19 years ago. stay with us. stay with us

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the alliance between president trump and dave idpicker isn't the only motive jeff bezos suggestests for the alleged blackmail. he suggests picker's ties to saudi arabia could be a factor. for reasons still to be better understood, the saudi angle seem to hit a particularly sensitive nerve. he brought one of saudi crown prince's advisors to an oval office meeting all while pker quote was considering ex2357bding his media and events business to saudi arabia. he posted a propaganda spread dedicated to praising saudi arabia and crown prince mohammed bin salman. this is the same crown prince that our own cia said ordered a butchering of jamal khashoggi last year. he's guilty.

the crown prince did it. the white house remains the lone defender of the crown prince after failing to meet today's deadline by congress. i'm joined by democratic congressman who's a member of the house foreign afaurs committee and former correspondent to the "washington post." this has so many twists and turns. but the idea of the "national enquirer, its owner and having a alliance with khashoggi's crowd, the crown prince's crowd is really disturbing. and you think why would it come to this? what other purpose could it have? and every book store, hudson's or street corner kiosk has almost 100-page glossy propaganda piece saluting the new kingdom of wonderful saudi arabia. why would anybody do that for free and won't say where they got the money to do it? your thoughts.

>> follow the money. and what does saudi arabia have a lot of? money. and why does he want to do business in saudi arabia? protect money. if you look where some of the dollars are can coming from and the financial scenario and situation that picker has, you would see it may need money. just thing about the president for example. when the american banks stopped lending him money, the two places he was going to get money was russia and saudi arabia and so why wouldn't his good friend, mr. picker, who was buying up stories not go to where? saudi arabia in this instance. i dare say we need look at what took place, follow the money line and you may get your answer. >> i read "the pos" every morning. i love the paper and always have.

it does care about the fact that one of its columnists was killed and butchered pretty much in public daylight in the consulate at turkey and thaw just -- they don't seem to have to worry about it. they act like they can get away with it before hand and afterwards. they if you goiered out this president. this president will not give them any trouble. >> you're absolutely right. virtually every can country in the world, with the exception of the united states president has put the blood -- had the blood on the hands except for this president. every can country has. and so there's a big question mark as to why this president does not come out solidly with the rest of the world. because all our intelligence agencies also put the gun or the knife in the hands of mbs.

only person that doesn't, the president of the united states. >> he's been very vocal in his support of the crown prince. the a possible killer. >> i spoke with the crown prince yesterday. and he strongly said that he had nothing to do with this. this was at a lower level. >> the cia have looked at it, studied it a lot and the fact is maybe he did, maybe he didn't. >> whether he did or didn't, he denies it vemtdally. we have an ally that said they did not commit, that top level, the crown prince, the king, they did not commit this atrocity. >> we are with saudi arabia. we're staying with saudi arabia. >> you can go to any prison in the united states and ask where they committed the crime that put them in there and they'll say i didn't do it.

no reporter is going to say i talked to him and he said he didn't do it. he said he didn't do it. >> he keeps asserting his innocence. there's a process going on in the kingdom to get to the bottom of this. from the beginning i think the thing people in the u.s. who want a strong u.s.-saudi relationship have said is the saudis have to show us that something luke this can never happen again. and that's what i like the hear president trump saying. we want be clear crown prince mohammed bin salman is taking responsebability for what he's done and -- >> that wouldn't work for me. the idea i won't kill can anybody again. let me ask you about this. we ehad ami, which is basicallya sleez mag.

and you have the saudi arabian government and president trump. what ties them all together? >> one thing is saudi arabia, as you suggest. david picker, the head of ami has been trying to do business with saudi arabia, particularly close to the crown prince. you described this 97-page puff piece they produced about the new kingdom. he brought people wanting to do business with saudi arabia is. my boss, our owner, jeff bezos, said in his statement last night about all of this that he is concerned about the saudi ties to both picker and to the white house. he says this is still to be explain pd. but there's

obviously reason for concern. >> the president shows no interest in observing any kind of deadline of 120 days. he basically said i don't have to observe it. he didn't care. >> and i think what's happening is democrats are only going against the president on this issue. this is democrats, this is republican, this is the senate, the house. we eare all concerned about what has taken place and we ought to listen to what our intelligence have come up with. in fact for the house foreign affairs committee we're going to do a hearing soon bringing our intelligence agencies in so we can get some of the information they have on the record and get it out so the american people can see what did in fact take place with the killing of the "washington post" reporter. look, this president it, you

know, to me, in his state of the union speech, he rightfully talked about nicolas maduro and some of the things he's done. he should have also talked about what has been taking place there and the guy he's go having to a summit with, kim jong-un, who is another guy who's killed a lot of folks and opresses his people. he should have talked about all of them. >> thank you so much for coming on. i'm a huge fan of your wisdom. your newspaper, by the way, has been fabulous. i love the way they've stuck behind and don't walk away. >> he was our friend and colleague and the fact that the paper stuck by him and is insisting on accountability is something we're all really proud of. president trump's hand

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attorney general have you ever been asked to approve any action or request by the special counsel? >> mr. chairman, i see that your five minutes is up and so -- we -- i am here voluntarily. we have agreed to five-minute round. >> what's he? an egg timer? he's acting attorney general matt whitaker sparing there with nadler. the question on many minds of democrats has he, the ag, talked to president trump about the special counsel's prob. he insisted he hasn't talken any actions to interfere with it. >> we have followed the special counsel's regulations to a tee. there has been no eevent, no decision that has required me to take any action and i have not interfered in any way with the special counsel's investigation.

>> to discuss his interactions with the president, they grilled him on a host of issues. >> in your final week, keep your hands off the mueller investigation. >> are you over seeing a witchhunt? >> it would be inappropriate to talk about an ongoing investigation. >> i want to know if you talked to president trump lat about the southern district of new york's case involving michael cohen? >> as i've mentioned several times today i am not going to discuss my private conversations with the president of the united states. >> so yes or no -- >> no matter what the question is. >> swalwell pressed for views on the special counsel. >> can you say right now mr. president, the bob mueller is honest and not conflicted? >> i'm not a puppet. i have answered your question as to what i believe about the special counsel. >> thank you much.

swalwell joins us from the hill. did you get a sense he was afraid to say can anything good about mueller? >> i did and good evening, chris. i got the sense this was a man who very much wanted to please donald trump. the only person who he considered important in this hearing as he eknew trump would be watching. and i got the sgot the sense he afraid of him. they pressed that the michael cohen indictments came out and he was very evasive and i got the sense this guy, like somany of them, irthat they're afraid trump. i said is mueller honest? he said yes. i said is mueller conflicted and i said well, can you say for the

president to see, mr. president, mueller is honest and he's not conflicted? and you could tell that made him nervous. so i saw that pattern all day long. >> i don't hear anybody say anything against mueller. in this town that's brutal -- >> he's a saint. >> i think the president is afraid of that and good republicans are recognizing that now. >> and i watched a good bit of it today. lots of friction, some fireworks. the haring didn't seem to get anything from this guy. almost like a prevent dfs. he said i may not look good today but i'm not going to blow it. >> i saw he was willing to tell us things that made him look good and anything that could have made him look bad is where he put up the walls of we don't talk about that. i asked him why last week did he

say that the investigation was nearly complete and if that was the same way mueller would characterize it and he said no, but he promised that the investigation would follow the evidence. so the question is how would mueller characterize it and why are you saying something different? >> and what was the answer? because a lot of us jumped on that thinking this is can coming in february and now it seems like that was just his speculation? >> i think wishful thinking really, chris. but we learned just yesterday from the manafort filings in the transcript that there's a lot more work that mueller's team is doing. a lot more redactions on extremely sensitive information as the prosecutor defined it yesterday court. i don't believe this investigation is anywhere close to being done. >> what about roger stone's basement? everybed ea seems to have whole basements filled with tapes and

emails. i've never seen these libraries they have of trouble. >> we just want them to follow that evidence. and today was a damage assessment of the rule of law. because it's had a wrecking ball taken to it for the last few years. for two years he and his colleagues were protected by republican said who didn't want to ask questions like this. so many are coming to the realization they're in the minority and the reason, i believe is because they weren't willing to put these types of andhe checks and screws. >> do you think democratic house is enough to have some faith that this administration, this president and a new incoming attorney general bill barr, will let mueller release his report unscathed and unredacted? >> we're going to see that

report, hell or high water because the american people gave us the power to do so. so i'm not worried about that at all. republicans are now saying you're going to do these investigations? we also had a hearing on the voting rights act, infrastructure and a first one in eight years on background checks. so we ecan walk and chew gum and it's going to boo a new congress people are going to start to see. >> i'm going to note that with glee. i do think they've been very busy already in this short time. thank you. up next. arng a restrained decision on abortion rights find out which judge signed with the liberal side. e liberal side urance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need.

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a surprising defender of roe v wade. th blocked a law that would leave just one doctor in one clinic to perform abortions. chief justice john roberts side would four liberals to block the antiabortion law. the newest justice, as expected, voted with the other conservatives. coming up a second woman is accusing lieutenant governor fairfax of violence. her allegation that he raped her. her allegation that he raped her. (burke) parking splat. and we covered it.

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don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who've had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. ask your doctor about lyrica. welcome back to "hardball." we vebreaking news on the ongoing political crisis in virginia. tonight a second woman stepped forward accusing justin mare fax of sexual assault. the accuser says she was raped in the year 2000 while they were both students at duke university. additionally we have statements corroborating that ms. watson immediately told friends that he had raped her. and it calls on fairfax to resign. he responded to the accusation saying i deny this latest unsubstantiated allegation.

i have never forced myself on anyone ever. i demand a full investigation into these unsubstantiated and false allegations. he has repeatedly denied an earlier allegation who says fairfax sexually assaulted her during the democratic convention in boston. jeff bennet's been covering this story in richmond. jeff, i don't think you're ever going to get out of richmond. it's worse every day. what's happening, the latest on nis friday night? >> reporter: i tell you what up until an hour ago when the second accuser came forward, this spiraling political crisis hit a holding pattern. all three top democratic officials in this state because all three were politically compromised in different ways, there was less external pressure on any one of them to resign but

this a has all changed, alleging fairfax raped her in 2000. he categorically, vehemently denies that allegation. but that has done little to calm the chorus of calls from democrats asking him to step down. even the former democratic governor of this commonwealth saying he has to step aside right now. >> the conundrum for him and i don't know if he's guilty or not but it looks bad. if he quits, he's admitting guilt of a rape charge. wouldn't he be putting himself in that situation if he admits he did it. >> reporter: and that is precisely why the governor ralph northam didn't want to step down. the thinking fwrauz him to step down, that would be an admission of wrong doing. he had been telling people all along he wants more time clear his name and he may now have

that time seeing as how both of his successors are dealing with scandals of theron. >> the call fraz justin fairfax to resign are already pouring in tonight. senator of new york, and cory booker of new jersey have called on fairfax to quit. former governor wrote the allegations are serious and credible. that was a hell of a statement. credible. it is clear to me he can no longer efsktly serve the people of virginia as an effective lieutenant governor. and patrick hope tweeted on monday i will be introducing articles of impeachment for lieutenant governor justen fairfax if he has not resigned until then. rape. i mean this is a charge -- that carries life in imprisonment.

assault, now we're talking about rape >> it makes black face look like a lesser ofensz as offensive as it is. what do you look for? evidence. did the woman involved tell anyone about it. and did other women come forward? because one of the things of men hit by the #me too movement is when multiple people come forward with a story. we don't know of any connection between these two women telling consistent stories in different locations several years apart. he says it's demonstraebl untrue and if he has evidence that it's untrue, he has a right to put that forward but this looks very serious. >> terry mccallf, who is going to 41 president and mayual be a

factor next year, he wants to be clean hands on this. the speed with which other democratic front runners, they're mobbing -- they don't want to look like they've got separate standard for a democrat. >> right. >> reporter: you're right about that. democrats have enforced a zero tolerance policy when it comes to misconduct when its to the do with bigotry or sexual misconduct because they don't want to look hypocritical when they criticize president trump on his perceived shortcomings and it's true that people and women of color are a crucial part of the democratic base and because virginia a swing state and thalverb to come through to campaign. that's why it's a much easier decision for the democratic presidential candidates to make when they say fairfax has to step down.

>> in the "hardball" world of politics, i look at all of them. is the message from northam this week, if you're charged and you feel you're innocent or ifio feel like what you did is exceptional, hang in there and see what happens because he may survive. >> northam stepped down and everyone said he must step down, he would have stepped down by now and. >> we'd have is a governor under same scrutiny. >> now he's come familiar with the laws of of succession. the governor gets to a point with lieutenant governor and you could set opsituation where that person conceivably ends up succeeding him to governorship down the road if he is rnt forced out. >> like jerry ford? >> like jerry ford. >> this is getting worse and it is spiraling into worse and worse. thank you so much.

thank you, sir, thank you, susan. up next, trump is experiencinging the unpleasant coalition of divided governme government the house judiciary and he's going to see how pleasant 2019 and 2020 are going to be. pleasant 2019 and 2020 are going to be. (ala♪m goes off) wake up sweetie. ♪ doctor dave. see ya. ♪

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proved this in historic fashion. they opened up the ghumpt kind of partisan oversight that any democratic government needs f only to stay clean of corruption. it's not surprising the man at the white house isn't happy with this development. hardly a month after the democrats took can control, he's seeing the look of divided government. this week began with the house intelligence committee voting to send more than 50 unredacted transcripts to russian counsel mueller. this would have never happened if this was still chaired by devyn nunez. including notoriously going to the white house sdwroous race back the next morning with something he's gotten the night before at the white house. they call that the midnight ride of devyn nunez for a reason. while president trump was spending time attacking democrats, democrats in the house embarking on the oversight

and his policies. kicked off with a bang with elijah cummings taking republicans to task for voter suppression. next up they're finding out the trouble with jared kushner's security clearance. and then the house judiciary panel looked into how background check kz insure dangerous pro individual kz be prohibited from obtaining firearms. it's the first time they've healed hearing on gun safety in eight years. and they scrutinized the child separation policy at the border and the judiciary committee grilled acting attorney general matt whitaker on among other in thes his dealing with the robert mueller probe of the president. with democrats back at the front it isn't always going to be pretty but if they do their job right, it will be important. this country has been riding too long on one wheel. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes is on

now. rnls tonight on "all in." >> in your capacity as acting attorney general have you ever approved any requests or actions to be taken by the special counsel? >> i see that your five minutes is. >> donald trump acting attorney general finally faces the public. >> we're all trying to figure out who are you, where did you come from and how did you become the head of the department of justice? >> what we learned from matt whitaker about the mueller probe. >> would you say the special counsel's investigation is a witch hunt? are you over seeing a witch hunt? >> and family separation. do you know what kind of damage has been done? then new allegations about blackmail and the nat choir and what it means for the president.