Skip to main content

tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  July 20, 2019 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

6:00 pm
very happy to have you with us. happy friday. a lot to get to this hour in a heterogeneous news day. a lot going on. we will start with george nader. this is george nader. 1985. he was indicted in washington, d.c. on child pornography charges. he ultimately beat the charges in court because he and his legal team got the charges dismissed on the evidence in the case being improperly seized from his washington, d.c. apartment.
6:01 pm
that was not the end of it. not by a long shot. five years later, george nader was indicted again on similar charges after he was caught with child pornography. this time not in his apartment, but in his luggage in dulles airport in the d.c. area. he was convicted in that case and served time on the child porn charges, but that was also not the end of it. five years after that, prosecutors -- excuse me, 10 years after that in 2000, george nader trafficked a child for sex into the united states. he brought a 14-year-old boy to the united states from europe for the purpose of sexually abusing the boy here. prosecutors said nader did that in the year 2000 and they have evidence to prove it. we will have more on that in a moment. three years after in 2003, he was convicted in the czech republic of abusing multiple boys. it is unclear what his sentence might have been in conjunction with that conviction in 2003,
6:02 pm
but the conviction itself is a matter of public record. then after that career, in 2016, the same george nader turns up in the trump campaign. in what is an astonishingly scandal-ridden presidency with a cast of characters, he remains one of the most unsettling figures in all of trump world. again, to be clear, we are not talking about jeffrey epstein, seen here with the president who is also now in custody awaiting child sex trafficking charges. this is a whole different guy who you can see in this picture with the president who is now in federal custody awaiting a different set of sex trafficking charges as well as serious child porn charges and not for the first time. george nader's role in the trump campaign and the transition and even in the trump administration
6:03 pm
is not a glancing thing. he's not just a guy who showed up at a fund-raiser once. in august of 2016, the peak or height of the campaign that year, he turned up at trump tower in a meeting with donald trump, jr. and eric prince and joel zamel and the purpose was to offer help in beating hillary clinton from foreign sources. the united arab emirates were offering material assistance in the campaign of a social media effort designed to turn off clinton voters and activate trump's voters. nobody quite knows what happened to that pitch for that foreign assistance for uae in saudi arabia, but that was by george nader in trump tower and nader ended up paying a couple of million dollars as soon as the election was over. what was he paying for? we know from the "new york
6:04 pm
times," after that august 2016 meeting as election day got closer and closer and people were more and more phonetic, he was a welcome presence in trump world. "new york times" describes multiple meetings taken in the final weeks of the campaign between george nader and trump's national security adviser, mike flynn and his campaign manager, steve bannon and his son-in-law, jared kushner. in the final weeks of the campaign when guys like that should have had time to meet with no one, they were taking multiple meetings with george nader. after trump won and before he was sworn in december of 2016, there is george nader again meeting at the four seasons hotel with the ruler of the united arab emirates who went out of his way to not inform the obama administration that he was making that visit despite the
6:05 pm
fact that he was the ruler of a foreign country and that's what you are supposed to make the foreign country know about if you are visiting the united states. he did not tell them he was here in that meeting in 2016 during the transition. the cast of characters involved george nader, the crown prince of the united arab emirates and steve bannon and jared kushner. also rick gerson because of his in funneling a putin-approved document that he obtained from the head of a russian investment fund connected to the kremlin and he delivered that document to the trump transition with direct approval from vladimir putin. that happened in december of 2017. in january of 2017, there is george nader again at a meeting so that eric prince could meet the guy there as an emissary of the kremlin and he was supposed to be there for the trump administration and they mead in
6:06 pm
a meeting described in detail and again right there in the middle of that meeting, the same guy. the child porn guy, george nader. once the trump administration took office, he is described as a frequency presence in the white house, making frequent visits to spend time with steve bannon in his white house office just off the oval. he reportedly was part of multiple pitches made to the trump administration involving elliott broidy under federal investigation for his role in the inaugural and influence peddling in part through his great connections with this guy george nader who had so many ins with the trump campaign and the
6:07 pm
transition and the trump white house. he was a perfect conduit for a guy like broidy. last month as george nader was flying in from dubai into new york city, he was arrested yet again on yet another round of child pornography charges and today in federal court in the eastern district of virginia, he was formally indicted on the charges. he had a tentative trial date set for september. prosecutors have added that charge of child sex trafficking dating back to the year 2000. that allegation of nader bringing a 14-year-old boy to the country to abuse him that year. in today's court hearing, nader's defense team signalled they would challenge that charge, the sex trafficking
6:08 pm
charge on the grounds that the statute of limitations expired. it was in the year 2000 and to go for him to be charged with that crime. the prosecution signaled they believe they have a work around to charge george nader even though it happened so long ago. the prosecution incidentally signaled in court that one of the witnesses that they will call to provide evidence is somebody who speaks czech, the czech language. presumably that means there may be a nexus to the still mysterious child abuse charges for which nader was convicted in 2003 and about which no u.s. reporters have been able to figure out very much. so bottom line, if you are wondering, no, all is not well. none of this is normal. even if you ignore everything the president of the united states has ever said, including all of the atrocious deliberately outrageous racist things he has been saying just over the past week, even if you have never heard him speak, nothing about this presidency is normal. this is not normal what you are seeing on the screen here.
6:09 pm
none of the scandals surrounding this president including this one are anything like what we have seen from other presidents. from even the worst presidents. part of the reason george nader, convicted child porn aficionado, george nader, part of the reason he is in trump's world is his name appears in the mueller investigation more than 100 times. he gave multiple interviews working with mueller's team. that's how we know what mueller reported about the somewhat mysterious meetings happening with the trump campaign and the transition and the trump administration and various foreign entities that nader was involved with. a lot of the stuff in the mueller report that surrounds george nader and that might explain his role is blacked out as grand jury material or protective techniques. i think this is page 148. tons of stuff gets to the full narrative and it's blacked out
6:10 pm
as grand jury material. if we get a judge to allow mueller's report to be released to congress and the public, a lot of what we will see is flushing out of what nader was able to provide to fbi agents and the mueller investigation before he had to go back to jail to face more child porn charges and sex trafficking charges as well. as of right now he is in custody awaiting both sets of charges in virginia and the judge cut off his defense when they tried to raise the prospect that he might get out on jail. the judge said given the nature of the charges and the extensive overseas access he has, the
6:11 pm
decision have him detained is appropriate. they said we are asking the court reconsider that issue. we filed a motion when the case was under seal earlier today. the judge said i will have a look at it and the defense lawyer thank you, your honor, but the judge said i looked at the pretrial services report and when i saw the amount of time that your client is outside the us and carrying enough of an exposure that the incentive to flee would be quite high. i will read your motion to let him out, but really? there is george nader whose presence spreads like a food stain through the pages of the mueller report. newly charged as of today not just with additional child porn changes that he face and done time for in the past, but also charged with international child sex trafficking. that indictment unsealed today has bail denied. this happens of course just as washington braces itself for the
6:12 pm
expected testimony of robert mueller on wednesday of next week. there has been a ton of back and forth about the exact details and the logistics. he is going to do three hours with the judiciary committee first and then two hours after that with the comparatively smaller intelligence committee. the first round with the judiciary will focus on alleged obstruction of justice by the president. the second setting with the intelligence committee will likely focus on russia's attack on our election and the trump campaign's involvement in and awareness of that attack. his team will be allowed to testify as well.
6:13 pm
quietly a few days ago, the lead agent who worked on mueller's team did do nearly five hours behind closed doors with the intel committee in the house. it was a closed door hearing so therefore we do not know what happened there, but that happening without much fanfare is a bit of a coup because other mueller personnel are having a hard time getting in the door. the justice department is trying to block two prosecutors from appearing at all and neither of the deputies is a justice department employee anymore. technically the justice department doesn't get to say what they do now that they have gone back to private life. they are trying to block them from appearing in conjunction to next week. we don't know what's going to happen there. we hope to get clarity on what's going to happen with the deputies and the prosecutors before mueller starts his testimony on wednesday. it's possible we may be able to get more clarity tonight when we have a member here in person to
6:14 pm
ask. you have also know heading into what is going to be a big week next week, you should know this weekend you have the opportunity to get yourself ready for next week's big week. on sunday night, msnbc will air a special, a prep session for you and the country on mueller's investigations and mueller's report and his findings. that's hosted by ari melber at 9:00 p.m. eastern on sunday. attendance is mandatory. if you are driving somewhere for the summer weekend or if you are going to be molding the laundry or doing dishes or time to listen to something, i might also commend thee to the brand-new podcast just launched today that is aimed at explaining the mueller report, but dramatizing it and making it cool and listenable. this was dropped by the good folks at law fare. a lot of people have read the mueller report out loud including members of congress reading it out loud and project and turned into theater. the law fare folks have done a really, really good job producing this as an audio document, as a podcast to make
6:15 pm
it cool and suspenseful. >> it is 2014 in st. petersburg, russia. in the heart of the city, a small nondescript office building sits beside the river. inside, workers stare at computer screens, open to facebook and twitter, furiously typing. their task? sow discord, disinformation and doubt. their target? the united states of america. through fake social media accounts and armies of bots, they are flooding online media with disinformation. this is a troll farm. its name? the internet research agency. this is the report, an audio series from law fare, breaking down the report of special counsel robert s. mueller iii.
6:16 pm
>> can't you see yourself driving down the highway and miles slipping away as you lose yourself in that? the report. a podcast explaining and dramatizing the mueller report in time for to you listen to that. this weekend you need to get prepped for mueller's testimony next week. the sunday night special at msnbc at 9:00. do not be caught unaware. this is the time to get ready. ahead of mueller's testimony, there was a big new volley from the controlled congress to the justice department. this is to sdny, the southern district of new york. related to the hush money case and the campaign finance felony case that put michael cohen in federal prison. in a letter today, to that
6:17 pm
attorney's office, elijah cummings is demanding information from the prosecutor's office about why it is that michael cohen was the only one charged with the felonies and whether or not the president would have been charged with the felonies if he were someone other than the president and whether or not main justice and bill barr interceded to shut it down with no further charges being brought and lines of inquiry involving the president's business. cummings told sdny he wants copies of immunity deals and
6:18 pm
evidence collected in the case against michael cohen and evidence related to the president's potential involvement in the felonies. he wants answers. written answers. quote, did your office conduct an investigation into potential criminal conduct to the president of the united states? did your office collect evidence to the president's direct participation to criminal conduct. did your office not indict the involvement of the sitting president. what was the involvement in any decisions of this case and potential crimes relating to your investigation, did your office, the attorney general or any other justice department official render a prosecution judgment with respect to the president? it goes on and on. the last question is, why have no other participants in the campaign finance violations been charged with a crime? the likelihood that sdny will respond and hand over this material he is requesting is that i will hit a land speed on my crutches. it's not going to happen. the u.s. attorney's offices don't respond to inquiries from the hill. they may get something from main justice, but that will be controlled by william barr. what's he going to say? i did it? ahead of mueller's testimony, i think this volley is important.
6:19 pm
this is a direct shot at the justice department that they should have to explain their decisions and explain who made those decisions. at least and specifically when it comes to potential criminal behavior by the president of the united states and assessing what should be done about it. this is why you have to study. it's going to be a good weekend. it is going to be good but we have to do a little bit of hole work. more ahead. stay with us. ♪ limu emu & doug mmm, exactly! liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice! but uh, what's up with your partner? oh! we just spend all day telling everyone how we customize car insurance because no two people are alike, so...
6:20 pm
limu gets a little confused when he sees another bird that looks exactly like him. ya... he'll figure it out. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
6:21 pm
(rates vehicles for safety, andr hsome reach a level of top safety pick. but only a select few of the very safest vehicles are awarded a top safety pick plus. the highest level of safety possible. how many 2019 top safety pick plus-winning vehicles does your brand have? one. two. how about eight? subaru has more 2019 top safety pick plus awards than honda and toyota brands combined. there's safe, and then there's subaru safe. ♪ ♪
6:22 pm
6:23 pm
t minus five days until special counsel robert mueller testifies before congress. he will spend three hours before judiciary and two hours of open testimony before intel. last month when it was announced, at that point some of mueller's lieutenants and staffers and prosecutors who worked with him were expected to testify after mueller in private transcribed interviews. we had confirmation live on the air first from adam schiff and then from the judiciary chairman that the lieutenant interviews were at least planned.
6:24 pm
since then that plan seems to have fallen apart. nbc news reported that the interviews are definitely not a sure thing any longer. there is still ongoing discussions with the house intelligence to allow some of mueller's deputies to appear in closed classified session to discuss portions of the redacted report or underlying evidence. one democratic staffer saying this just seems to be another effort by the attorney general to limit the amount of information coming out of the special counsel's office to protect the president. even with testimony scheduled, there is still a ton of dram a. one of the people questioning mueller, whether or not the deputies of here, a member of
6:25 pm
the house judiciary. let me ask you about that deputy's issue. is that settled? it was on and then reportedly off and now it's in flux. >> i don't have the answer to that question. i'm not sure. there are a lot of moving parts. i would defer to the chairman who is doing a tremendous job. from my vantage point the focus ought to be on the special counsel himself. >> would it be valuable to hear from the fbi agents or the prosecutors? >> sure. the last two months, we are in need of the ability to hear from the fact witnesses themselves. from my vantage point questioning the counsel will be an opportunity for the american public to finally hear from the special counsel directly about the significant evidence of criminality and the conclusions he reached. it's just the beginning and not the end. we need to hear from mr. began and ms. donaldson. you had the chairman on your program many times.
6:26 pm
we authorized him to issue a number of subpoenas for additional fact witnesses, many of whom never worked for the administration and can make no argument for the supposed privileges they continually tried to invoke that have no legal basis. they can't even assert that. we expected them to appear as well. >> the wrangling over the fact witnesses is frustrating to a lot of observers and people who still want the story to be for example unravelled because it is taking a long time. you and the chairman expressed you are on strong legal footing and asserting privileges that don't exist. is the idea that this is taking a long time, but ultimately after he went into court the dam will break or is every one of the fact witnesses going to take months or years to spill out and we will all be in an old folks home by the time we get to the first volume of the report. >> i hope it's the former and not the latter. we are on strong almost footing and these witnesses will ultimately be com peopled to testify. next week's hearing ought to be
6:27 pm
where the focus is. it's an important first step. i will say part of the challenge has been the fog of confusion created by this administration's whole congress. you documented it on your program many times. the administration constantly rebuffing congress or refusing to obey congressional subpoenas that were duly issued. they created a fog ever issues and that's why the hearing is so important. the public can finally understand what he concluded. >> have you been doing like a moot court like dry run practice sessions where somebody pretends to be robert mueller? >> we have been preparing. i won't reveal the activities, but i will say this. >> who is playing robert mueller. >> we will after next wednesday. there are capable talented lawyers on this committee. many of whom you had on your program. we are unified and the stakes are very high.
6:28 pm
>> if in the moment it needs to go longer than hours, do you have the power to do that? >> i will defer to the chairman. >> a disciplined man. thank you very much for being here. great to have you here. >> definitely. >> much more to come. stay with us tonight. in a storm-devastated area. a family pulled up. it was a mom and her kids. everything they had had been washed away. the only thing that brought any kind of solace was the ability to hand her a device so she could call her family and let them know that she was okay. (vo) there for you when it matters most. and now, get a free samsung galaxy s10e when you buy one. that's verizon. when crabe stronger...strong, with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with flavor... it's the first and only coated nicotine lozenge. for an amazing taste... ...that outlasts your craving. new nicorette ice mint.
6:29 pm
[ text notification now that you have]
6:30 pm
new dr. scholl's massaging gel advanced insoles with softer, bouncier gel waves, you'll move over 10% more than before. dr. scholl's. born to move. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun? -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.
6:31 pm
>> bees are good. they won't harm anybody. >> it's scary! >> they won't sting you.
6:32 pm
they will be okay. >> hold on. you guys are wild things. you are not supposed to be scared of bees. >> that was a good move. you are reading more of the wild things. maybe the smartest thing to say and had absolutely no effect. if you google the two words, obama and bees, that is what pops up. like 4,000 times. don't get me wrong. that's a good piece of tape. it's worth scrolling down past the first 4,000 results until you get to the dozens of articles including scientific
6:33 pm
articles outlining president obama's near obsession with trying to do something about bees. about the declining honey bee population in this country. that plummeted over the past few decades and has profound consequences on us being able to eat. the reason the bee thing matters and president obama cared so much about this issue, bees enable the production of 75% of the food crops in the world. they exist because of the role that bees play in pollenating the crops. if bees go away, so does the food. bees are vital to the nation's economy. their pollenating efforts contribute to the economy. president obama a wonk willing to look at the science, he took the issue seriously.
6:34 pm
he formed a special task force to deal with protecting pollinators and deal with the crisis and stave off the decline of the honey bees. that work is getting thrown out the window. the trump administration announced it is suspended its bee survey due to budget constraints. just this week, the trump administration approved new usages for a pesticide that even the trump administration said is highly toxic to bees. no good. turns out that was just a curtain raiser for the big show though. that's next. don't miss your golden opportunity to experience the luxury you desire on a full line of utility vehicles. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event.
6:35 pm
lease the 2019 rx 350 for $389 a month, for 36 months, and we'll make your first month's payment. experience amazing. and my side super soft? with the sleep number 360 smart bed you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. so, can it help us fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. will it help me keep up with him? yup. so, i'll wake up ready for anything? oh, we've got your back. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise. prove. and now, save up to $600 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. only for a limited time. i come face-to-face with a lot of behinds. so i know there's a big need for new gas-x maximum strength.
6:36 pm
it relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort fast. so no one needs to know you've got gas. gas-x. ♪ corey is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+ / her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts,
6:37 pm
infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. corey calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. ask your doctor about ibrance. the #1 prescribed fda-approved oral combination treatment for hr+/her2- mbc. >> for weeks we have been covering the efforts to take apart science and telling the scientists they need to up and move to missouri right now or they will all be fired. dozens of high level scientists working as career civil servants had a grand total of one month to decide if they should move halfway across the country to keep their jobs. the government doesn't even have
6:38 pm
an office in kansas city. the trump administration said it has to happen right now. no extensions, no exceptions. two thirds affected by the decision are already known to be accepting termination rather than taking the move to avoid the forced uprooting of their lives and families by the federal government. one employee who was told to move or be fired is undergoing chemotherapy and another receiving treatment for multiple sclerosis. both asked for an extension from the government for more time to decide whether or not they could feasibly make this move without compromising the sensitive matters with their health. neither of those requests for an extension was approved by usda. democratic members of congress this week wrote to trump's agriculture secretary, sonny purdue to make sure he knew
quote quote
6:39 pm
about the hardships the employees were facing on his mandate. they face the decision of having to choose between insurance benefits or relocate to an entirely new city and attempt to find a team of physicians to provide treatment. these members are asking for more information about how many usda employees have asked for hardship extensions and not been approved. congress wants these answers by monday as in this upcoming monday. joining us is the member of congress whose signature is first. jennifer wexton. >> thank you, rachel. great to be here. >> let me ask how you and your committee came into contact with your employees who requested the hardship extensions from usda due to their health. how many people do you think
6:40 pm
might be in this circumstance? >> they have been contacting us about the issues they are facing as they try to make these incredibly difficult decisions on a short timeline. they have been contacting us. there is a total of 544 employees who will be moving and we don't know what we have. that's the reason we thought it was necessary to write to the secretary and what the grounds are for the attorney if they are going to grant the extension and what the grounds were for those. we just don't have any information at this time. >> as you say, this is more than 500 people given this ultimatum. a number of scientists who we have been in contact with, a lot of them said what they think is going on is the trump administration is torpedoing the ability of this agency to do the kind of scientific work they are renowned for. they are targeted at the core of usda. do you have insight as to why
6:41 pm
the administration is doing this or are you in agreement who suspect that might be the reason? >> they said they want to move them out to missouri to st. louis to be closer to the farming interests out there. rather than being in washington, d.c. i question the veracity of this given this administration a history of pretextual reasons. where it's located in the d.c. metro area, i'm from virginia and virginia is the number one industry is agriculture and the same for maryland. in missouri it doesn't even make the top four. i question that and i think the much more likely explanation is that these agencies have created research and scientific and economic research which directly conflicts with this administration's political goals. >> briefly, if you don't get the
6:42 pm
answer that you are looking for, if you can't get the information you are looking for, is there discretion on your committee of potential subpoenas or investigation into this decision? obviously if you are concerned this might be pretextual that they are lie being why they are doing this, is that a matter of investigation? >> absolutely. this is something over which is entirely appropriate for us to conduct oversight. we in the house of representatives also passed two appropriations bills which prohibit the department from using money in order to implement the move. i hope that makes it into the spending bill. i'm hopeful that the secretary will provide the responses we requested on monday. >> thanks for joining us tonight. i'm stuck on this issue. i'm not getting over it. i hope you will keep us apprised. >> thank you for drawing attention to it. it's a huge issue that is pervasive and problematic and will have bad ramifications for a lot of folk fist allowed to go through. >> i believe you. much more ahead tonight.
6:43 pm
stay with us. ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century.
6:44 pm
[ text notification now that you have] new dr. scholl's massaging gel advanced insoles with softer, bouncier gel waves, you'll move over 10% more than before. dr. scholl's. born to move. what do all these people have in common, limu?oug [ paper rustling ] exactly, nothing. they're completely different people, that's why they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual. they'll only pay for what they need! [ gargling ] [ coins hitting the desk ] yes, and they could save a ton. you've done it again, limu. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
6:45 pm
ok i'll admit. i didn't keep my place as clean as i would like 'cuz i'm way too busy. who's got the time to chase around down dirt, dust and hair? so now, i use heavy duty swiffer sweeper and dusters. for hard-to-reach places, duster makes it easy to clean. it captures dust in one swipe. ha! gotcha! and sweeper heavy duty cloths lock away twice as much dirt and dust. it gets stuff deep in the grooves other tools can miss. y'know what? my place... is a lot cleaner now. stop cleaning. start swiffering. hey! i live on my own now! i've got xfinity, because i like to live life in the fast lane. unlike my parents. you rambling about xfinity again? you're so cute when you get excited... anyways... i've got their app right here, i can troubleshoot.
6:46 pm
i can schedule a time for them to call me back, it's great! you have our number programmed in? ya i don't even know your phone anymore... excuse me?! what? i don't know your phone number. aw well. he doesn't know our phone number! you have our fax number, obviously... today's xfinity service. simple. easy. awesome. i'll pass. like doritos. the snack chips. january 2009, the person writing the e-mails, the guy who works at the largest manufacturer of opioid pain pills. the guy from the pain pill manufacturer is writing this e-mail and sends it to a distributor of the pain pills in
6:47 pm
ohio. the manufacturer said in his e-mail that 1200 bottles of oxycodone tablets had been shipped to that distributor and they were on their way. this is the response he gets back to the distributor. keep em coming. flying out of here. it's like people are addicted to these things or something. oh, wait. people are. the guy from the manufacturer responds "just like doritos. keep eating. we'll make more." keep eating. we'll make more. this e-mail was first made public in a new report in "the washington post" tonight. it's obviously about the opioid epidemic and why we have one. this is an epidemic that killed more than 200,000 americans and counting. the latest story exposing e-mail exchanges where the guys are
6:48 pm
excited about how many case of pills because of the people addicted to them. it's just the latest in a blistering series of stories about opioid that is the "washington post" has broken this week. since the post and their reporters at the beginning of this week got themselves a golden ticket. they got themselves a journalistic key that unlocked part of the story that has never been accessible to the public before. they got it through the court this is week and it has opened up this floodgate of stories that we didn't know what was going on. we have the story behind it coming up next. stay with us. [alarm beeping] {tires screeching} {truck honking} (avo) life doesn't give you many second chances. but a subaru can. (dad) you guys ok? you alright? wow. (avo) eyesight with pre-collision braking. standard on the subaru ascent. the three-row subaru ascent. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru.
6:49 pm
6:50 pm
pick a place anywhere in the country. all you need to know is the state to start. pick somewhere you are familiar with or where you live now where you group. start with the state. let's say south carolina. then add the county. let's say for our purposes here charleston county. put those in click submit and look this amazing tool shows you which distributors were getting pills from opioid manufacturers and distributing them in your county. it also shows you which
6:51 pm
manufacturers were also shipping pills to o those distributors in your county. but then look at the next column. pharmacies. you can also go drug store by drug store, individual drug stores. if you want to know how many pills they distribute you can literally go store by store by store, drug store which store, pharmacy by pharmacy. if you want to make sense of the number of pills distributed store by store here is easy distillation. how many highly addictive pain pills were the distributors pushing into your town threw the individual drug stores and pharmacies. from db you can tell the number of pills per person per year distributed into your your county. can you do thu arthrowebt of the "washington post". we posted the like at mad o blog.com so it's easy to find. do it for any county in the country. because there is a database of
6:52 pm
every single opioid pill legally sold in in country. every pill down to the one. it's a list main maintained by the dea tracks every pill from the drug manufacturers to the distributors, to the individual pharmacies. all across the country. and it exists so the dea can supposedly track suspicious sales. well, the big pharmaceutical companies and distributors are required to report each transaction involving an opioid pain pill to the dea that's how the database exists. who has access to the database? it has always been kept secret. it's always been kept from the public view until now. a team much intrepid reporters from the "washington post" and the gazette mail in charmts, west virginia have been trying to get itth access to this database for a couple of years. the post initially filed a freedom of information act request for the database. it was defied. the government did not want the database public. but perhaps more importantly the drug companies really really
6:53 pm
didn't want it made public. they repeatedly told the courts as people tried to pry this information loose that if in information about what pills went were was made public that might give their competitors might give the other drug companies an advantage in the marketplace. yeah the competitors might find out where the hungriest most addicted markets were. that's valuable information. you know how many pills you can sell in some little towns. we can't let that information out there. so the drug companies have to submit information that ends up in the database. but the database is kept secret. the reporters were trying to get the database made publicly available. made public to them in newspapers. they kept getting rebuffed in the courts on this. but the "washington post" and gazette mail saw a window in ohio with a federal judge who has been overseeing the single largest civil action in u.s.s history which is about opioids, a case consolidated about 2000 different cases all brought by state and local governments against the big pharmaceutical
6:54 pm
companies that make and sell the pills. that frl federal judge in ohio had previously allowed some of the plaintiffs in that case some of the cities and towns to themselves access some of the data from in big, important, mind blowing database. but it was under a protective order, even though they could see it for their purposes they couldn't tell anybody about what they could find there. in a legal proceeding that's what's known as a good place to start. and so the good folks of the "washington post" and the gazette mail tried to build and filed to intervene in the case. saying listen if you can legal the localities see the stuff under protective order we as news organizations through us the public should be able to get access to it too. and initially the federal judge told the journalists no. but the newspapers didn't accept that answer. they appealed the judge's ruling. lawyers for the post argued that this information served a public need to know it would serve the public interest and understanding and fighting the opioid crisis to actually know
6:55 pm
which manufacturers and which distributors sent how many drugs where and which drug -- which drug store sold them. ultimately it was a federal appeals court that agreed with the news organizations on this. and ruled in their favor. quote the data will aid us in understanding the fully normt of the opioid ep dem and there by aid us in in ending it. with that six years of data from in massive database tracking every opioid pill sold in america was made available to the public. and the post made this widget on their website that allows you to access it in this incredibly convenient way. that's why you can get in individual data for anyplace in the country. pop it in put state and county next it's amazing to cole around and do it. pick the county you know and click on that you will recognize the pharmacies that pop up in that third column. and now that we have access to that database for the first time
6:56 pm
thanks to those reporters and their legal intervention here. we can all now see for the first time what's been going on down to the individual pill. as the post-puts it quote the number of pills the company sold during let 7-year time frame here are staggering. far exceeding what has previously been disclosed in limited court filings and news stories. yeah, far exceeding what we knew was out there. i wonder why we never wanted anyone to see the database. turns out you might not want the country to know you are shipping out more than 12 billion highly addictive pain pills in a year. 12 billion pills to a country with only 320 million people in it. yeah, i probably want anybody downloading that data either. so what the post has been able to get their hands on is data from 2006 to 2012 that's the 7-year period. that's all the reporters were able to get from the courts for now. one of the amazing things here is that so many more billions of pills were shipped out than
6:57 pm
anybody knew about. but also it got worse and worse and worse over time. again, this is a 7-year period starting in 2006. over the 7 yeerps from 2006 to 2012 as the opioid crisis lit the country on fire, right, and the death rate started sky rocketing and the country started freaking out. over the course of the 7 years from 120 li 2006 to 2012 while 10 oh thousand americans were killed by the drugs. we can tell they kept upping the number they shipped everyier. 2006 at 78.4 billion by 2012 up more than 50% from that at 12.6 billion pills. by 2012 that meant they were shipping out an average of 36 highly addictive pain pills for every man, woman and kield and baby in the united states. and now you can check to see if your county was on par with that or maybe doing better than that good for you or maybe you are one of of the accounts where the
6:58 pm
companies wentz whole hag hog. the per person average was 36 pills for every man woman and child in the country, 36. norton, virginia, the smallest city in virginia up in the mountains a small town up there they weren't shipping 36 per person they were shipping 306 pills per person. over the course of just one year. it's astonishing. the other thing amazing about the database is that it doesn't tell us how many pills were shipping overall and to where and how they went up and up each year as the country got more and more addicted. they also tell us what the companies knew about their behavior. because this is what they knew they were doing. their own data that they plugged into the database. so they knew. so this company speck gx knew they shipped 4.7 million highly addictive pills that year into norton virginia, a town of 4,000 people. 4.7 million pills. wal-mart knew that it alone was
6:59 pm
distributing 3.4 million highly addictive pills that year into a town of 4,000 people. quote, the database raels reveals what each company knew and what they were aware of volumes year by year and town by town and case after case the companies allowed the drugs to reach the streets of communities despite persistent red flags those pills were sold in violation of federal law and deforted to the black market. the post is reporting out the details that they pried loose from the government. they've also to their credit release to do now for everybody to seen a search forioio own community. you click on your state, county, see the number of pills per person that have been unleashed on your community during this time period. it's just a remarkable tool. we've got it for 7 years. hopefully we'll get it for every year. a lot of powerful companies wanted to keep this secret. now we all have access thanks to the work of jounlists who kept fighting and didn't take no for an answer. thanks to the "washington post"
7:00 pm
and west virginia's charleston gazette mail i don't know if you love or hate your local paper or haven't read it in so long you don't remember. regardless do it anyway. subscribe to the local paper .country needs you to. that does it for us tonight. tonight on all in. if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. >> if you are the president they let you do it. >> can you say whether the aoc memo the president cannot be indicted played a role in this as well. >> tonight new reporting that suggests donald trump is li escaped criminal charges because he is the president for the second time thp then then. >> when i said the president's nightmare well you are watching it now. >> michelle goldberg on the bizarre republican defense of donald trump's bigotry. this week in oversight the trump administration. >> did you see the