and so they are coming at it from different angles. cory booker, his stump speech is like a big pep talk and inspiration-type rally. there are other candidates who talk much more heavy lee about policy and artificial intelligence. they are all highlighting, every candidate is highlighting different parts of the progressive message. >> pat and caitlyn who are in those early states where the folks are coming through. thank you for being with me and sharing. appreciate it. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> good evening, chris. thanks to you at home for joining us. happy monday. happy presidents' day. on friday night, you may recall we got the sentencing submission from special counsel robert mueller for trump campaign chairman paul manafort and it was a stunner, right? this is friday night. the prosecutors argued for no mitigating factors that might encourage the judge to be more

lean jen lenient for manafort and argued for lots of aggravating factors that should cause the judge to be harsher and advised the judge on friday night in manafort's case in virginia they would not object to a 19.5-year to 24.5-year prison sentence for paul manafort. plus fines and restitution that ranged from millions of dollars to tens of millions of dollars. now keep in mind, though, that sentencing recommendation friday night was just for the one judge. just for the one judge whose hearing the paul fan fomanafort in virginia. that's not the on case against manafort. this week we expect them to make their case for the sentence that they believe manafort should get from the other federal judge, who is hearing the other federal criminal case against paul manafort in the neighboring jurisdiction of washington d.c. and that fairly dire

circumstance, the fact that 69.5-year-old paul manafort is now looking down the twin barrels of a sentence from this federal judge in virginia and then another sentence from this federal judge in d.c. that honestly is a crisis of his own making because it was man o manafort and his defense team that elected to not combine the two sets of felony charges against him into one single case in one jurisdiction before one judge. so manafort is now facing sentencing in two different jurisdictions by two different federal judges on two different sets of crimes and yes, he does face the prospect that the sentences in each of the jurisdictions might run consecutively. might run one after the other. rather than concurrently both at the same time. so we know as of friday night what prosecutors advised the judge in the virginia case, 19.5 to 24.5 years in prison.

that came out on friday. by the end of the week, we'll see what prosecutors advising the other squacase and up to th other two judges to decide paul ma that fon manafort's fate and the second judge that will get prosecutor sentencing, she's the judge that ruled against paul manafort in some very materially significant ways. on friday night you might remember we got the unsealed transcript of the hearing in which that judge ruled manafort had repeatedly and intentionally lied to prosecutors even after he pled guilty and agreed he would become a cooperator. in that ruling, that judge in d.c. was blunt and direct about manafort's lies, her ruling that his lies had been intentional, and what she described as the implications of his lies and you should keep in mind this isn't just what this judge said in a written ruling about the

president's campaign chairman. this is what she said to his face in a court hearing where manafort himself was present and in the room. she said quote, my concern is not with non-answers or simply denials from manafort but the times he affirmatively advanced a detailed alternative story inconsistent with the facts. quote, the record doesn't seem to reflect the confusion and the defendant didn't profess to be confused. he does appear however to be making a concerted effort to avoid saying what really took place. on the issue of konstantin kilimnik, the judge said this. quote, we've spent considerable time talking about multiple clusters of false or misleading or incomplete or needed to be prodded by counsel statements. all of which center around the defendant's relationship or communications with mr. kilimnik. she says quote, this a topic at

the undisputed core of the special counsel's investigation into any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. in terms of the way paul manafort lied about his interactions with this guy c contin teen kilimnik, not just relaying what kilimnik said but an attempt to kexonerate him. this is an attempt to shield his russian conspirator from liability and gives rise to legitimate questions where mr. manafort's loyalties lie. so that's the judge. that the the federal judge in d.c. who revoked paul manafort's bail and ordered him to await trial in jail instead of at home when prosecutors brought her new federal charges that said manafort engaged in witness

tampering. this is the same judge assigned to the gru case, the early case in which mueller and his prosecutors charged a dozen russian military intelligence officers with multiple felonies for their alleged work on the russian government's influence operation to mess with our election in 2016 to benefit donald trump. now mueller's office subsequently told the court that that gru indictment, it's technically related to the more recent indictment brought against president trump's long-time advisor roger stone and because prosecutors have linked the roger stone case and that gru case, the same judge handling the gru case, which is the same judge whose about to sentence paul manafort, which is the same judge who just ruled paul manafort lied to prosecutors, that is the same judge. it's all the same judge who is now going to hear the roger stone case when he ultimately goes up on trial. and on friday, it made a little bit of news when that judge in

d.c., she rejected roger stone's argument in which he said his case shouldn't be linked to that gru russian military intelligence case. that's what he argued to her courtroom. prosecutors provided the judge with evidence that the gru case and roger stone case are in fact linked. the judge agreed with prosecutors on that so roger stone lost that argument with the judge. that same day on friday, that same judge also placed a gag order on roger stone and his lawyers restraightiicting their comments to not taint a jury pool for the trial. this is less restrictive than you might expect in a case like this with a defendant like this. mr. stone for example while out on bond awaiting trial, he is blocked by this limited gag order from holding press conferences on the courthouse steps like he did after his initial arraignment but under the terms of the limited gag

order, he can hold press conferences elsewhere or make other public statements about his case or at least he could, it's hard to imagine that will continue now after mr. stone today posted on instagram a closeup photo of the judge whose hearing his case. that judge is involved in all of these other things. the judge about to get her first sentencing recommendation on paul manafort. she's the one that revoked manafort's bail and the one that ruled manafort lied pto prosecutors and handling the russian military gru case and assignedroger stone case. that judge posted a photo of her that included a cross hairs, like a little target in the corner next to her head and i'm not showing the image because if we don't have to, none of us need to be in the business of showing pictures of federal judges with what looks like cross hairs next to their heads but roger stone did that today and after initially posting that

image online, mr. stone later took it down and reposted it a few minutes later with a closer cut version of the same picture, one that crops out the cross hairs from next to the judge's head but still the same written attack on the judge in the caption to the image. and i don't know if roger stone wants to be jailed for threatening the federal judge who is hearing his case or if he just really wants to be subject to a full gag order or i don't know what he wants but apparently, he's going to be the latest fantastic float down this parade of geniuses that we've seen from russia scandal defendants in court thus far. really? the judge hearing your case? you sure? any judge? you sure? late tonight, just before we got on air, roger stone and his attorneys filed this document with the judge in his case. the judge whose picture he posted today with the cross hairs next to her head, i kid

you not, this is a real thing they actually filed with the real court. this is the formal looking headline they have put at the top of their submission. roger j. stone's notice of apology. and then this is the filing. under signed counsel with the attached authority of roger j. stone hear by apologizes to the court for the improper photograph and comment posted on his instagram today. instagram. mr. stone recognizes this i' impropriety and had it removed and roger stone's signature attached says quote, please inform the court that the photograph and comment today was improper and should not have been posted. i had no intention of disrespecting the court and humbly apologize, extra space to the court for the transgression.

concur renl rant with this missd and dashed off apology to the court under the headline apology, concur renl concurrent cr dropped both pictures. first he dropped the cross hairs and reposted it again and took that down, too. so we will see how this works out. this is not the thing the federal court system tends to take lightly. but with all the cases relateded to the russia scandal, a, it has been a parade of genius. but b, there is a little element of uncertainty and sustainpensi whether things will change from here on out and proceed differently in all of these court cases than what we've seen before. nobody knows quite what to expect from the new attorney general william barr starting his tenure as head of the

justice department and as the unrecused new overseer of the mueller investigation just to heighten the drama and suspension, his first few days have been dominated in the news by revelations from fbi acting director andrew mccabe. he was deputy director of the fbi and became acting fbi director once comey was fired and andrew mccabe is a long string of senior intelligence and law enforcement officials who were involved in the initial investigations of trump and the trump campaign and potential ties to russia. who have since been targeted and/or fired. in an effort to discredit them and destroy their credibility. he's one in a long string. the list is astonishing. james kcomey himself, john brennan and jeff sessions, his hand picked deputy attorney general rod rosenstein.

the counter intelligence head counter intelligence agent at the fbi peter strzok, the top russian organized crime expert bruce orr have come under sustained attack from the president and honestly from conservative media congressional republicans. and that list of course includes andy mccabe himself who is now doing interviews over these last few days because his book is out tomorrow read it and weep. what received the most attention thus far is his contention that senior justice department and fbi officials were so disturbed and so concerned about what appeared to be the president's inappropriate relationship with russia they considered the full range of options that might be available to them to try to handle that kind of extreme threat to the country. this previously unimaginable possibility that somebody who was an agent of a foreign adversary had become president of the united states. >> what was it specifically that

caused you to launch the counter intelligence investigation? >> it's many of those same concerns that cause us to be ksh concerned about a national security threat and the idea if the president committed obstruction of justice, fired the director of the fbi to negatively impact or to shut down our investigation of russia's activity and possibly in support of his campaign as a counter intelligence investigator, you have to ask yourself why would a president of the united states do that? so all those same sorts of facts cause us to wonder is there an inappropriate relationship, a connection between this president and our most fierce enemy, the government of russia. >> are you saying that the president is in league with the russians? >> i'm saying that the fbi had reason to investigate that, but

the existence of an investigation doesn't mean someone is guilty. i would say, scott, if we failed to open investigation under those circumstances, we wouldn't be doing our jobs. >> this caused the white house and conservative media freakout over andrew mccabe's book and what he is publicly describing about his time as fbi direct toer after comey was fired. i know we've been marinating. when we hopped in, the water was cool. it's been interesting but not terribly alarming situation to feel the atmosphere get cozier and cozier and warmer and warmer and the bubbles forming rising to the surface. right? just step back for a minute. it is an amazing snapshot in american history right now to be living through this. to hear the guy who was the

acting director of the fbi, a registered republican with 20 plus years of service at the fbi, the senior official with this pedigree in international organized crime and counterterrorism and national security. now trying to speak for the record, to speak for history, to make the record as clear and as stark as possible so we all as citizens know that the fbi and the justice department at the highest levels had reason to worry with regard to this president and russia and worried enough about the threat the president was an active agent of a hostile foreign country they considered whether the vice president and half the cabinet might act to remove that president from office. without going through the impeachment process, through the shortcut process to the removal of an unfit president that is spelled out in the 25th amendment to the constitution. they considered whether the president should be surveilled

as he would have been, had this been any other investigation into a foreign agent infiltrating an investigation in the united states government. they had those discussions and ultimately decided what they could do at least was formally open a counter intelligence investigation into the president potentially being compromised by a foreign power. and the decision was made they would appoint a special counsel of unimpeachable integrity to pursue the core questions. and this forever will be the time in american history that you live through, congratulatiocongra congratulatio congratulations. what i find fascinating about what andrew mccabe is telling us now is something that is not just important trying to get the history right here and not just important of us understanding the or gigin story, what i find fascinating about what mccabe is

testifying to now is something that directly bears on what is happening now at the fbi and justice department and in our government because what mccabe is now able to describe publicly is the fact that what they set in motion in terms of the special counsel investigation and this counter intelligence investigation into whether trump was compromised, those things weren't just set in motion the way they were because of the fear of the worst-case scenario when it came to trump and national security. they didn't just do those things because of the unimaginable prospect that the president was an active foreign agent representing some other country. they specifically did those things and did them the way they did them because they were worried that one of the ways that worst-case scenario might manifest in the trump administration at this point in history would be that the intelligence and law enforcement leadership and institutions in

charge of recognizing and thwarting and exposing this disaster would somehow be dismantled, taken apart. stymied. think of it as a country going through this if that's easier. if a hostile foreign power played a role in installing somebody at the top of a government, somebody beholding to them they put in the top leadership job in another country's government, one of the ways that might manifest in terms of that foreign country getting what it wanted is if that leader then moved to shut down all the investigations. moved to shut down all the law enforcement actions, moved to shut down all the counter intelligence stuff that might blow up and expose what just happened, right? make sure that foreign country doesn't get caught. make sure that foreign country doesn't get punished. and make sure their co-conspirators and the compromised leader they installed don't get nailed for what's just happened. >> i was speaking to the man who

had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the aid of the government of russia, our formidabled adversary on the world stage and that troubled me greatly. >> how long was it after that that you decided to start the obstruction of justice and counter intelligence investigations? >> i think the next day i met with the team investigating the russia cases and i asked the team to go back and conduct an assessment to determine where are we with these efforts and what steps do we need to take going forward? i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were i removed quickly or reassigned or

fired, that the case could not be closed or vanished in the night without a trace. >> you wanted a documentary record that those investigations had begun because you feared that they would be made to go away. >> that's exactly right. >> you feared that those investigations would be made to go away. we are now a year and a half down the road from that conversation andrew mccabe was describing there on "60 minutes" last night. since that conversation a year and a half ago, the president has in fact made every effort to try to make the investigations go away including trying to destroy the careers and the credibility of every senior law enforcement and intelligence official involved in any senior way in the investigation. and now today without warning from andrew mccabe ringing in our ears today, the mueller investigation is all of a sudden under new management as a brand-new attorney general takes

over and nobody knows what exactly to expect from william bar as attorney general and whether or not he's the guy who is sent in there to make the investigations go away like mccabe feared from the beginning. but we do know that william bar got the job of attorney general after sending an unsolicited 19-page memo describing the mueller investigation as fatally misconceived so at this moment, at this pivotal moment, i think sort of it's helpful for framing here that it's presidents' day. right? focus. but also at this pivotal moment there is one element of this that is the thing to watch and has just started happening and that story is next. stay with us. happening and that story is next stay with us ♪ turn up your swagger game with one a day gummies. one serving... ...once a day... ...with nutrients that support 6 vital functions...

...and one healthy you. that's the power of one a day. the follow up cat scan showed that it had gone to her liver. we needed a second opinion. that's when our journey began with cancer treatment centers of america. one of our questions was, how are we going to address my liver? so my doctor said i think we can do both surgeries together. i loved that. now my health is good. these people are saints. ha, they're saints. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. want a performance car that actually fits your life? introducing the new 2019 ford edge st. capability meets power. in the first suv from the ford performance team.

the new 2019 ford edge st (boy) got it. nooooooo... (dad) nooooooo... (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is two times more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper. what would it look like [if we listened more?] could the right voice - the right set of words -

bring us all just a little closer, get us to open up, even push us further? it could, if we took the time to listen. the most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. download audible and listen for a change. for each family member? so with xfinity mobile i can customize each line yup. and since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars a year. are you pullin' my leg?

nope. you sure you're not pullin' my leg? i think it's your dog. oh it's him. good call. get the data options you need and still save hundreds of dollars... do you guys sell other dogs? ...now that's simple, easy, awesome. customize each line by paying for data by the gig or get unlimited. and now get $200 back when you buy and eligible smartphone. click, call, or visit a store today. so this is something starting to take shape in public. december 5th, 2017, which was a tuesday and that was a moment that was a little fraught moment in the federal government because just a few days earlier, the previous friday, robert mueller got himself his first

cooperating witness when trump national security advisor mike flynn pled guilty to a felony charge and signed a plea deal which he agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's office. that happened. the first witness for mueller happens on friday and the weekend and then tuesday morning before dawn, a german publication called handelsblatt, i don't speak german, i think that's how you say it. the deutsche bank has received a subpoena from the u.s. special counsel investigating possible collusion between president donald trump and campaign and russia on dealings linked to the trumps say sources familiar with the matter. the subpoena is part of a probe by robert mueller and his team

to determine whether the president's campaign was involved in russian efforts to influence the u.s. election. quote, it remains unclear whether mueller requested information on president trump's own business dealings with deutsche bank or those with people close to him. that news broke in the predawn hours on tuesday, december 5th, 2017. german publication breaking that news. in bob woodward's book "fear" he says the day that story ran in the german publication, the president called the top russia lawyer at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. quote, he was furious. the story then spread and picked up by bloomberg and by reuters and by "the guardian" and by the "wall street journal." and the details were a little different in each of the outlets and stories but the basic idea was simple. federal prosecutors had

subpoenaed the bank that held hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to president trump. the bank that somewhat had done hundreds of millions of dollars of business with him years after he had been blackballed at every other major financial institution in the country. a bank that perhaps coincidently was also admired in a huge on going scandal over its role in a multibillion-dollar russian money laundering scheme. back in july of 2017, that summer, the president had said that any effort by prosecutors to look into his personal finances or his business finances would be a red line, a line that could not be crossed. we later learned months later in reporting from "the new york times" that that day that that german newspaper broke the story of that subpoena and news outlets then sub kwensequently their own version, december 5th, 2017, the president not only angrily phoned his russia lawyer at 7:00 p.m. that day but also according to the "new york

times" that day tried to mount an effort for the first time to fire robert mueller, to end his russia investigation. quote in early december president trump furious over news reports from the office of special counsel told advisors in no uncertain terms mueller's investigation had to be shut down. the president's anger was fueled by reports sat p s subpoenas th for fueling. eight different sources for the story. and we still don't know why exactly that subpoena, right, that investigative effort above all else would be the red line. that would be the thing that caused the president to move in and try to fire robert mueller. but by the end of the day on tuesday, december 5th, 2017, it's interesting, most of those stories about that subpoena to

deutsche bank, most of those stories had been walked back or softened. maybe there wasn't a subpoena at all or maybe the subpoena was not about trump himself, maybe the subpoena was about people just affiliated with trump. i mean, if there is a financial story to tell at the heart of this scandal for a number of reasons, deutsche bank seems like the place to start to figure it out. we never had complete clarity what happened back in december of 2017 and the president's reported freakout about that story in particular and why that story ultimately got at least partially here and there walked back a bit at least a little softened. certainly earned vehicle us veh vigorous denials. we're entering a new face of the trump russia investigation in which the president's efforts to contain the probe are failing.

information he tried to suppress about his business and political dealings is emerging with more to come a deutsche bank subpoena would be especially sensitive. trump was enraged by a december 2017 report that special counsel robert mueller subpoenaed the bank records about the dealings with trump. quote, the red line apparently held then trump lawyer jay said no deutsche subpoena had been issued or received. according to writing now, quote, one government source speculates that rod rosenstein, the department attorney general blocked any attempt to compel disclosure of the records to avoid getting himself or robert mueller fired. that's from one government source speculating. i mean, honestly, we don't know if that subpoena ever was issued or if it did get walked back somehow and if so, by whom? but the new face of the investigate that david is

talking about here saying the president's efforts to, what did he say? to contain the probe are failing, this new phase of the trump russia investigation he's talking about, it's not now, one that's happening through the justice department and therefore it's not one that could be stopped by anyone in the justice department. it's not one that would need to be over seen by the brand-new trump appointed attorney general william barr. this new phase of the trump investigation that reflects things the president really doesn't want anybody to look into aren't happening through the justice department. these are happening through congress. where democrats are in charge in the house and where democrats in the financial services committee started demanding deutsche bank records about trump last year, actually the year before that they started demanding trump records from deutsche bank without subpoena power of their own, the democrats were never able to get meaningful response from deutsche bank but now they have subpoena power and going for it. they are finally following that

money trail and it appears that they are the first ones doing it. we know that the senate intelligence committee didn't do it. the senate intelligence committee said they hope robert mueller is doing it and house democrats say they don't believe robert mueller is doing it and saw the fiasco that got walked back and everybody freaked out from december of 2017. if there is a money trail in this story, the first stepping stone down that trail is deutsche bank to at least ask questions there. nobody has done that yet. but now they are starting. the democrats and the house are starting and apparently, this may be the red line for the president. honestly, it feels more like a red flag to a bull that's already loose in a china shop but that is happening and starting now and the person that's leading the effort joins us next. n that's leading the effort joins us next. after walking six miles at an amusement park...

bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move.

♪ the new capital one savor card. earn 4% cash back on dining and 4% on entertainment. now when you go out, you cash in. what's in your wallet?

sorry, is that too loud?oud. you cash in. you don't need any more hormones in your house. that's why you chose kraft natural cheese. made with fresh milk without the added hormone rbst. it's cheese as it should be.

california -- maxine is calling for specifically whether there could be connection between his huge outstanding loans and complicated business history with deutsche bank and deutsche bank's involvement in a multi billion money laundering scream. the president called any investigation or business a red line that special counsel robert mueller should not cross but robert

mueller is not chairman maxine waters and a co-equal branch of government and has subpoena power as a committee chair along with her counter part on the house intelligence committee adam schiff, congresswoman waters is now pursuing this financial investigation that she has long called for. joining us now is congresswoman maxine waters, chair of the financial services committee. thank you so much for being here. nice to have you here. >> she's cutting out. >> oh, no. >> yes. >> can you hear me, madam chair? >> not that well. >> here is what we're going to do. i'll send it to a break and second elfs to fix this and come back. we'll be back with maxine waters and be back after this. it's live tv. sorry. r this it's live tv sorry. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance

so you only pay for what you need. great news for anyone wh- uh uh - i'm the one who delivers the news around here. ♪ liberty mutual has just announced that they can customize your car insurance so that you only pay for what you need. this is phoebe buckley, on location. uh... thanks, phoebe. ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ itin 30,000 precision parts. or it isn't. it's inspected by mercedes-benz factory-trained technicians. or it isn't. it's backed by an

unlimited mileage warranty, or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned, or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through february 28th. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. we know that when you're >> tspending time with thelass grandkids... ♪ music >> tech: ...every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why at safelite, we'll show you exactly when we'll be there. with a replacement you can trust. all done sir. >> grandpa: looks great! >> tech: thanks for choosing safelite. >> grandpa: thank you! >> child: bye! >> tech: bye! saving you time... so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. an amusement park... so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move.

our grandparents checked zero times a day. times change. eyes haven't. that's why there's ocuvite. screen light... sunlight... longer hours... eyes today are stressed. but ocuvite has vital nutrients... ...to help protect them. ocuvite. eye nutrition for today. (pirate girl) ahoy!!!!! gotcha! (girl) nooooooooooooo! (man) nooooo! (vo) quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent. bounty, the quicker picker upper. let's try again. the elfs have been dispatched.

we believe we have fixed the technical problems. can you hear me? >> barely. >> well, i'll talk loud. >> i don't know what's happening. >> oh, dear. let me try this. madam chair, you've been asking for documents from deutsche bank as it we tpertains to president trump. what are you investigating there? >> rachel, would you repeat that one more time? >> sure. we'll give it one more try. why is it that you have been asking for documents and testimony from deutsche bank basically since president trump was sworn in? do you want to investigate there? >> well, as you know, we have tried to get information from deutsche bank. we have tried to get the chair of the committee to hold investigations and tried to get information from mnuchin. >> i am going to call.

[ inaudible ] a to bring the chairman back and unfair to have her hear me and hear herself. i apologize on behalf of the technical grproblems. we'll have her back as soon as we can get this sorted. i will tell you while i was waiting for her to try to get her audio fixed, cnn and reuters reported deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is going to leave the justice department in mid march. i have that news that has broken since we've been trying to sort this out. nbc has not confirmed this reporting but deputy attorney general rod rosenstein had been expected to leave the department when the new attorney general william barr was sworn in and cnn and reuters saying that is scheduled for mid march. we'll be right back. stay with us. we'll be right back. stay with us what do you do for ? -not this. ♪

-oh, what am i into? mostly progressive's name your price tool. helps people find coverage options based on their budget. flo has it, i want it, it's a whole thing, and she's right there. -yeah, she's my ride. this date's lame. he has pics of you on his phone. -they're very tasteful. hyou might or joints.hing phone. for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials

to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. what do you look for i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i don't want any trade minimums.

yeah, i totally agree, they don't have any of those. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. do you just say yes to everything? hm. well i say no to kale. mm. yeah, they say if you blanch it it's better, but that seems like a lot of work. no hidden fees. no platform fees. no trade minimums. and yes, it's all at one low price. td ameritrade. ♪

they laid it all out in a power point presentation. they laid out in north carolina what happened to that bizarre north carolina congressional race in november that still hasn't been decided. the race that appears to have been botched by a big criminal fraud scheme. in north carolina the state elections board today announced their findings from their investigation and say they found evidence of a coordinated unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme. investigators said a contractor

named dallas who was hired by the republican candidate in the race paid people to request batches of absentee ballots in that north carolina district and then those people were paid to go door to door to collect those ballots. and that scheme is illegal in north carolina and the way it worked in this race was not just illegal as a technicality, today in their power point presentation they finally spelled out how that scheme was apparently used to invent votes in this election. certainly with the possibility they invented enough votes to swing this election to the republican candidate. one of the people who the republican contractor paid to carry out this unlawful ballot scheme gave live testimony at the hearing today. she actually happens to be the guy's former stepdaughter. she said dallas coached her even on what she should say today at today's hearing. he gave her this little fortune cookie paper it willing her what to say that tells her she should

testify she had done nothing wrong and plead the fifth. she did not follow his instructions on that little piece of paper. instead, she testified what she described as his scheme where workers would forge signatures votes. she said she improperly handled dozens of ballots in the ninth district herself and she said she was just one person on a team of people who was wrapped up in this effort. again, the guy she was working, mccrae dallas, he was there at the hearing today, but he declined to testify unless the state board granted him immunity. the board did not grant him immunity, and then that was pretty much the end of day one. the hearing will continue, but this is an election that was won by 905 votes. it's tempting just to make this about the math, right? whether the result was based on wrongfully cast ballots or rightfully cast ballots that were trashed intentionally for the benefit of one candidate. but what this north carolina board is being asked to decide is whether the election itself

was tainted by what state investigators again are calling a coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced scheme. when the hearings conclude, the appointed state board will take a vote, either to certify the votes from november, which will hand the republican the seat, or they could order a do-over, a fresh election, have voters just pick a new winner in a new election. taking any action will require at least one republican or two democrats to break party lines. if they can't do that, they can't come to one of those two conclusions, this could ultimately go to congress, where the house itself has the power to order a new election in order to figure out which new member from that district will be seated in the house. so that's question number one. how does this race get decided, when, and by whom? but i mean, here's my other question. allegations of election fraud about this one republican political operative, this guy mccrae dowless have circulated in north carolina for years. state investigators are talking

openly about the unlawful activity that this scheme represents. so why is this not being decided in a courtroom right now with prosecutors and a jury? why is this still just an election board matter? joining us now from raleigh, north carolina, is eli portillo, politics reporter for the charlotte observer. he was at the hearing today. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> so today was the long first day of hearings. as i understand it, there's going to be further proceedings as the state elections board tries to figure this out. what do you think was the most substantiative thing that we learned today? >> there were a few things that we've learned today that were rumored or reported in the media for a while, but now we know that state investigators have come to similar conclusions. for example, multiple voters have told us that people came and collected ballots from them. we've also heard from people in media reports that they were paid by mccrae dowless, the political operative, to go out and get ballots. now we know that state

investigators verified those facts, they verified those allegations, and they are saying that, yes, this did, in fact, happen. and this has been going on for a while. and this could have benefited the harris campaign. also, the state told us today that there were allegations and evidence of witness tampering after the investigation started. mccrae dowless allegedly gathered the people he'd been paying to collect ballots at his house once the investigation kicked off. and according to one witness, told them, if we all stick together, we'll be okay, because they don't have anything on us. so those allegations are new and cast doubt on how long this has been going on after the investigation started, not just before and during the election. >> what was striking to me, just watching the hearing today and reading people's live blogs of the hearing today, as y'all were covering it, what struck me was that i think from the outside and in particular looking in of this race in north carolina, a lot of this has felt like

process crimes. like, in some states, it's not necessarily illegal to collect people's ballots and bundle them and bring them. like, it all sort of seems like these are technical violations. what was striking to me was hearing one of the people who was working as part of the scheme to say, yeah, i filled in the votes. i actually cast the votes. i checked off the box or whatever it was for all the republican candidates, where people had left these things blank. is this the first direct evidence that we've had, the first direct testimony that we've had that this scheme wasn't just to sort of undermine the way things are supposed to work. it was, in fact, to throw the election to a republican candidate? >> well, it was the first time we've heard of someone say directly, yes, i filled in pa ballot that wasn't mine. i voted on a ballot that didn't belong to me. and you're right, that is in a different category than the process crime. in north carolina, it's illegal to collect ballots. as you said, in some states, that's perfectly legal. the mark harris lawyers, though, they did try to make a distinction. they asked the witness, did you

ever fill in a vote for mark harris? and the witness said, no, it was basically the down ballot and local races that were left blank, that they filled in for republicans. so the harris campaign is trying to draw a distinction and say, well, even if that happened, it still couldn't affect the outcome, because it was republicans, but in the down ballot local races. so that was a point of contention day. >> fascinating. ely portillo, charlotte observer, politics and government reporter. i know being right in the middle of this is pretty exciting. it's such a bizarre case. thanks for helping us understand tonight. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. nk you >> we'll be right back stay with us

ito take care of anyct messy situations.. and put irritation in its place. and if i can get comfortable keeping this tookus safe and protected... you can get comfortable doing the same with yours. preparation h. get comfortable with it. on average, we'll live move more in eleven homes. in the world. and every time we move, things change. apartments become houses, cars become mini vans. as we upgrade and downsize, an allstate agent will do the same for our protection. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands?

happy presidents' day. this is one of those holidays for which there isn't a generally accepted way you're supposed to celebrate. if you were in the northeast, i know this was a particularly good presidents' day to go ice fishing. however, if that's not your thing, i don't really have any other recommendations. that said, this year for presidents' day, thousands of americans did all celebrate the same way, which is that they turned out and protested the so-called national emergency that president trump declared last friday in order to try to build a wall on the southern border without money from congress. all told, there were more than 250 presidents' day protests all across the country today. and it's interesting, they were all pulled together in just the past couple of days, since the president's announcement. here's some footage from oakland, california. this is more than 200 people in formation spelling out the word

"wall" with a blue "x" through it. that is good design. cambridge, massachusetts, they had a brass band and a sing along. they also had their brand-new congresswoman, iyanna pressley cheering them on. in colorado, people were out despite balmy temperatures of 9 degrees. in detroit, michigan, they kept warm by dressing up as the statue of liberty and that big trump baby head thing. this was glenn's falls, new york, in the snow today. [ chanting: make tacos, not walls ] >> who among us would argue with make tacos, not walls? who among us? there were protests in good weather today, too, in miami, florida. this is footage from miami. also yolo county, california. i should tell you, as we head into the late-night hours tonight, there are actually still more of these still happening tonight and ongoing.

and since the emergency declaration, there's been a lot of attention and rightfully so on the dozens of lawsuits that have been piling up at the courthouse door to try to lock the emergency declaration from the president, but you can't always tell in advance which one of these is going to apply. but this is turning out to be one of the trump administration scandals that has a real citizen participation element to it. which can be a more powerful thing that you realize. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. and we have one of the leaders of the lawsuit that was filed tonight, in effect, the leader tonight, javier becerra will be our leadoff guest. i have the lawsuit here, i've been reading it. and it, of course, cites the constitution. and as everyone predicted, everyone talking about this last week, it cites the words of donald trump himself. >> "i didn't have to do