t"the apprentice" years ago. seemed like a very nice person. don't know him. >> and so it goes. and so in that way to use a tv term, it turns out 14 seasons of a television show might have been the pilot for the trump presidency. that's our broadcast for this tuesday night. you can catch us here tomorrow evening. nicolle wallace will join me the best of pressure cooking and air frying immediately after tomorrow now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, night's democratic debate has concluded. thank you for being here with us you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside tonight, and good night from our and juicy on the inside. nbc news headquarters here in new york. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. happy to have you with us. i want to say right off the bat that tomorrow night i will not be here at my usual time, not because i'm taking the day off. you know me better than that. tomorrow night i will be here an hour earlier than usual because tomorrow night at this time, we will all be watching the democratic presidential candidates debate. the debate kicks off at 9:00 p.m. eastern time tomorrow night. you can watch it right here. i am not one of the moderators

in that debate. or are the people you see on your screen right now. i will be watching the debate while the middle-class continues to struggle. alongside all of you and in the that's what happens when billionaires are able hour leading up to the debate, to control the political system. from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern our campaign is funded by the working people of this country, time tomorrow night on msnbc, i will be hosting the hour that and those are the people that i will represent. leads up to the debate. no more tax breaks for billionaires. so right off the bat, instead of we are going to guarantee health care to all people being on my usual 9:00 slot and create up to 20 million good tomorrow, that's when the debate starts. paying jobs to save this planet. so i will be on 8:00 eastern i'm bernie sanders and i approve this message instead. and, you know, tomorrow's debate because we need an economy that works for all of us, is shaping up to be interesting on a whole lot of different not just wealthy campaign contributors. levels. number one, as you have probably heard by now, this is going to be the first debate that includes the sort of black box, joining us now is michael unanswered question candidate of rothfeld, an investigative the democratic primary field, reporter for "the new york former new york city mayor michael bloomberg, who is times." pursuing a very unorthodox before joining "the times," he worked as an investigative approach to trying to win the reporter at "the wall street journal" where he and his nominati colleagues broke the story about nomination. the president's hush money tomorrow's debate is in nevada. michael bloomberg isn't going to payments to stormy daniels. be on the ballot in the nevada that story ended up putting the caucuses this weekend. president's personal lawyer, he also didn't compete in iowa michael cohen, in prison and or in new hampshire, and he's opened up what appeared to be a not going to compete in south

large federal criminal carolina. he just decided to forgo all investigation that quietly closed under mysterious four of the early states and circumstances this past summer. mr. rothfeld is also the instead start competing with the co-author of a new book called other candidates on super "the fixers: the bottom feeders, tuesday, all the dozen plus crooked lawyers, gossip hmongers states that vote on march 3rd. and porn stars who created the that's a strange approach. the only other sort of big-name 45th president." mr. rothfeld, it's really nice presidential candidate who's to see you. tried to do something like that thank you for being here. in recent years was the terrible i wanted to talk to you about what's going on in terms of the 2008 presidential campaign of a justice department and the president's interests. man named rudy giuliani, a man i feel like you have seen close who had also been mayor of new up in the cohen case, in a york city. number of these other criminal that 2008 campaign where he matters that have touched on the tried to start in florida, it president's interests how these was just an absolute debacle for things really work in practice. mayor giuliani, a complete is there -- do you see residence bonfire of cash and reputation and utter political humiliation. with this national reporting about the way william barr is so recent experience -- that's inserting himself in these cases kind of the only recent experience we've got with this with how they've played out? tactic. it would suggest that's not a >> i think a lot of it is behind very effective way to run for the scenes. we have seen barr, starting with president, even if you are a the mueller report coming out former new york city mayor. and acting differently in terms i mean that said, rudy giuliani of being more willing to protect and mike bloomberg are two very

trump's interests. but in terms of actual cases, different people, and of course the other thing that mayor it's more a situation of what bloomberg is doing to run for doesn't happen, you know, when president that nobody has ever done before is that he has spent barr is watching and you know he's weighing in. he's going to be more over $400 million already scrutinizing what you're doing. marketing himself to the nation you're going to be more careful about what you do and kind of as a presidential candidate have a higher standard for what through more tv and digital ads you do. so there are probably a lot of than anybody could have ever things that may have happened imagined. i mean if i put my head toward differently if he were not there in terms of actual -- i mean imagining the entire global english language inventory of tv cases, obviously we saw roger and digital ads, what i could imagine in my own head is stone's stnentencing. smaller than the number of tv that was a taxable impact. and digital ads that bloomberg >> the flynn sentencing as well. >> exactly. has already run. >> on the hush money case, which is not a d.c. u.s. attorney's so that makes him a black box office like flynn and stone, candidate. that makes him an open question. it's sdny, which is famously independent and you can't the way he's running for pressure them to do anything president is a very unusual they don't want to do. approach. >> right. >> you know the cohen case very we don't have anything from history that helps us predict well. when prosecutors decided to how that kind of an approach close that case without bringing might work. charges against anybody except that said, he is popping in the michael cohen, i just as an polls in fairly significant observer of that case was surprised. ways. i feel like now we've got this is npr/pbs/marist poll that came new reporting about the way barr was pressuring the office on

out had michael bloomberg in that case, it feels suspicious and worrying to me that they second place nationwide behind closed the case without charging bernie sanders. the nbc/"wall street journal" anybody other than michael cohen. how did you see that at the poll that came out tonight also time, and do you see it any has sanders in first, but it had differently now? >> well, i mean i think at the bloomberg in third, just one time we thought that that point behind joe biden and tied obstruction case would have been with elizabeth warren. probably a difficult case to joe biden in that debate is well bring because in one respect, behind bernie sanders. but, look, there's bloomberg and you had michael cohen, who was warren and biden all bunched talking about others, the cfo at together with buttigieg as well. the trump organization, who he and bloomberg hasn't even said was involved with the competed in the first two stormy daniels deal, although it states, and he's not competing was his word and cohen's this weekend in nevada. i mean with bernie sanders tying credibility was very poor because he had lied about a number of things. buttigieg effectively in iowa so it could have been a he and winning narrowly in new said/she said, a tough hampshire and doing great in the national polls and doing great prosecution. now in hindsight, so we have in nevada polls and with a another layer. history of doing great in we have barr coming in and nevada, senator bernie sanders questioning the legal theory is the clear and overwhelming that the justice department had favorite heading into the signed off on when they charged michael cohen in the first place saturday nevada caucuses. and saying, maybe this should but heading into tomorrow's have been a civil case instead of a criminal case. nevada debate, all eyes are so, you know, that's undermining going to be on the new guy, on of the case that was brought. bloomberg, because it will be >> yeah. >> we don't have any knowledge the first time outside his that he or anyone else at main

gazillion ads that we, the country, will actually have a justice said, you know, close chance to assess him live and in the case. >> mm-hmm. the flesh as a candidate who is >> but it certainly sends a in fact running against the message. it's like when your boss says, other democratic candidates to try to get this nomination. hmm, maybe you should have done so tomorrow night as a debate should be fascinating. something this way, it sends a we're going to have more coming message. it's a more subtle way of up this hour on that as well as handling something. is that why they closed the some news about one of the case? i mean like i said, i think that candidates who is still in the race, who it looks like is not going to be on the debate stage probably would have been a tough tomorrow, but there's something you should know about that case to bring. >> to me, it's worrying to see candidate heading into the the investigative tactics that caucuses this weekend as well. they were using drop off without explanation at the time he was democratic primaries entering making those interventions. into a fascinating phase. >> yeah, that's a reasonable if you haven't been playing close attention to the question, and i don't know why democratic race yet or you they stopped investigating it. haven't been yet trying to make >> one last quick question for up your own mind about who you you on this. because of the reputation of might vote for when the primaries or the caucuses in sdny, because it is hard fought your state roll around, this would be a good time to start that they're independent and can't be pushed around, do you tuning in. it is getting super interesting, think if they are being improperly politically pressured super unpredictable. to do things to help the president, do you think they'd honestly you don't want to wait until after super tuesday to squawk? do you think there would be some start paying attention and start sort of public indication? thinking about your own equities do you think it would be a quiet in this race. a lot of these candidates are thing they'd try to resist or going to have their goose cooked let us know in some loud way? by then. this is the time to watch. >> i think that if that happened and it was overt and black and

and simultaneously the stage white, you would probably see that all these democratic people leaving because they take candidates are trying to earn their way onto for the general great pride over there in being election is also something that independent and being one of the appears to be spinning and strongest prosecutor's office in the country. changing pretty rapidly. but in terms of how you manage democratic voters tell pollsters your boss, like if this were a in state after state after state leg job situation, you know, that the thing they're most when somebody sends you coded looking for from a democratic messages or you know they're candidate is somebody who can watching or they're asking for beat the incumbent, somebody who more briefings than they can turn donald trump into a normally would, you kind of try to handle that internally and kind of get to your end goals one-term president. but our understanding of what it that you would normally get. might take to run against trump is evolving at the same time so i would think that's how they would do it. >> and thus hangs the fate of that this democratic primary is getting so interesting. the republic. it's dramatic stuff. michael rothfeld, investigate because, i mean, ask yourself. everybody reporter at "the new york times." thank you for being here. at this point, at this point in lots more to come. the trump presidency, at this stay with us. i like liberty mutual. point in the news, what do you really think the odds are that president trump and attorney general william barr won't open up some kind of federal criminal investigation into whichever democrat trump ends up running against in the general election? what do you think the odds are they won't do that? or if they can't wait that long,

if they're too impatient, what do you think the odds are the president and the attorney general will do something in the primary, open up some kind of federal criminal investigation they get that no two people are alike and customize your car or some find other way to use the federal law enforcement apparatus against whichever insurance so you only pay for what you need. democrat trump least wants to run against in the general? what do you think? so they'll figure out a way to i don't see it. use the justice department to only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ disadvantage a particular democratic candidate in the primary, or maybe to disadvantage a few of the democratic candidates in the primary so that the president can have more of his favorite nyquifor your worst cold andrful relieflu symptoms, choice as to what he wants to on sunday night and every night. run against in the general. nyquil severe. i mean i realize that scenario the nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. is crazy in the sort of longtime if you have moderate to severe psoriasis... arc of american history and certainly since we supposedly or psoriatic arthritis, learned our lesson in watergate, little things, can become your big moment. right? the president using american law that's why there's otezla. enforcement and the justice otezla is not an injection or a cream... department with the help of his ...it's a pill that treats differently. attorney general to target his political opponents, to choose for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable... his opponent for the general election, to undermine his opponent in that election, i ...with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. mean that is dystopian, over the

top, road to tyranny stuff, i for psoriatic arthritis, ...otezla is proven.... to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. know. but it kind of feels like that's and the otezla prescribing information pretty much what it's come to has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. just in terms of what we've learned and how they've behaved don't use if you're allergic to otezla. just since the end of the it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. president's impeachment trial, right? roughly since iowa, what we've otezla is associated with an... increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history learned. and i mean i'm aware that there of depression or suicidal thoughts.... are rules that are supposed to ...or if these feelings develop. prevent this sort of thing. for a long time now, at the some people taking otezla reported weight loss. justice department, every four your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. years, whoever the attorney general is circulates rules upper respiratory tract infection reminding justice department and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines officials that politically sensitive investigations and and if you're pregnant or planning to be. other law enforcement actions shouldn't happen too close to an otezla. election, or they need to reach show more of you. a really high -- they need to cross a really high threshold to if that was the last time ti was going to do that thing. be able to happen close to an election time. and it feels a little bit weird in principle for prosecutors to coming to cancer treatment centers of america, they treat the whole person. overtly be taking the political calendar into effect in terms of everything is here. law enforcement decisions, but imaging, infusion. i don't have to go anywhere else. it is appropriate, right? i mean it's been the practice of they cared about me as a person beyond democratic and republican-led just being a cancer patient.

administrations going back years, and the basic principle they're my second family. is sound, right? the basic idea is that law get care like no other. call us at cancer treatment centers of america. enforcement should take care that it is not perceived to be taking any actions that are designed to influence elections. and so by long-standing policy and principle within the justice department in the modern era, there's public corruption, there is overt advice that some and then there's public things that could have a big corruption in -- belts being political impact should be used to carry hundreds of delayed until after an election season so nobody in the public thousands of dollars in cash is tempted to see the justice across state lines. department as working for one >> the past owner of the san francisco 49ers said he met with candidate or another, and no candidate is ever tempted to try former governor edwin edwards in this diner and gave him a to use the law enforcement $400,000 payoff in cash to help apparatus of the u.s. as a tool get a gambling permit in to affect political outcomes. so the principle is sound, and louisiana. prosecutors accuse edwards and we don't always live up to that principle. there was a little problem, you others of shaking down companies might remember, with that one when it came to the 2016 that wanted to run riverboat election, right, and democratic casinos, demanding more than presidential candidate hillary $2.5 million to help them get clinton. and the repeated statements by state licenses. the fbi during the political the former football team owner eddie debartolo says the former campaign about that hair governor demanded the 400,000 brained, ultimately fruitless,

saying without it there's going to be a serious problem with totally overblown clinton email your license. debartolo says when he handed investigation that took up over the money three years ago residency on the front page of at this diner in suburban san "the new york times," which francisco, he asked how edwards nevertheless ultimately came to would get it on the plane. nothing. he said edwards pulled up his and despite that fact, the fbi shirt and said, quote, that's kept making public statements not going to be a problem about it all through the showing a money belt like these campaign even though it was an that could carry the ten pounds election year and, by policy, of cash. next morning, he says, edwards they weren't supposed to do called to say, you got the that, even they they apparently didn't feel at all compelled to license. >> that's not going to be a make the same kind of public problem. i've stacked up money belts statements about their chest high to take the $400,000 contemporaneous open investigations into hillary in cash you're going to give me clinton's general election opponent, donald trump, who they and squeeze it into my airplane were in fact investigating at the same time, but they were seat. louisiana governor edwin edwards keeping quiet about the ended up serving years in prison investigations into him. oh, and by the way, did i on charges related to that mention that all the hillary extortion scheme. clinton email junk turned out to eddie debartolo also ended up be nothing, no matter how many pleading guilty to a felony in times they reinvestigated it? that case. he only avoided prison himself by agreeing to testify against yes, we had a little problem governor edwards, mr. money with that general principle belt. during the 2016 election. as of today, though, eddie debartolo has a clean slate arguably that was a significant because he was one of 11 people factor in what brought us the presidency of donald j. trump. granted clemency by president trump. but this year in 2020, this and to be honest, eddie debartolo comes off looking like year, the justice department

kind of the all tar boy of the wants you to know that they have group compared to the others who learned from those mistakes of were pardoned or had their ns the past presidential election year. its commuted by the president this year they have written a brand-new iteration of those today, including former illinois every four years rules that governor rod blagojevich who was in the middle of serving a we're used to seeing from attorneys general, warning 14-year prison sentence for justice department officials -- essentially trying to sell warning them off of law president barack obama's old enforcement actions that might senate seat. be seen as influencing an election. this time in 2020, unlike the president trump commuted the rules that have been previously sentence of a woman serving a 35 circulated by other attorneys year prison sentence for orchestrating a $205 million general, this year, by orders from attorney general william medicare fraud. barr, this year investigations then there was the construction that might potentially impact company owner who was convicted the presidential campaign, this time there's a new rule for of underpaying his taxes. hundr those in this election year. this time explicitly, any such investigation has to be thousands of dollars in direct personally approved in writing contributions and in-kind air by attorney general william travel to the trump victory barr. he and he alone will make the committee. they've also made large decision as to whether or not donations to the rnc and to the justice department will donald trump for president. engage in investigations that quote, prior to the family's could impact presidential sudden significant donating campaigns and candidates in this spree to trump and the re-election year for president republicans, they were not seen trump.

so, oh, good. as big campaign spenders. there's been general rules about but they became big campaign these things in the past, but spenders and so now they've got their big fat pardon. any investigation affecting a it's weird, right? presidential campaign has to be in case after case with all cleared through bill barr these commutations and pardons personally? that's new for this year. today, the through line is that's the way we're all corruption. it's almost like the president is making a, you know, rub your supposed to be assured that all of these things will be handled face in it point that as long as he's in charge, corruption is fairly and squarely and not at all in a way that's designed to fine, and there's nothing anybody can do about it, not serve president trump's personal even the courts. and political interests. but there are people who since attorney general william understand how these things are barr changed that guidance to supposed to work who may have something to say about that, and the justice department about that's next. stay with us. election-year investigations, and ask your doctor about biktarvy. that was the first week in february where he made that biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment announcement. used for hiv in certain adults. just since then, we're only in mid-february now -- we've it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights learned a whole lot about how he's been conducting himself at hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. the helm of the justice department and how much we that's when the amount of virus is so low should trust him to make sure it can't be measured by a lab test. justice department decisions are handled in a way that's research shows people who take hiv treatment every day independent of the president's personal interests. and get to and stay undetectabe can no longer transmit hiv i mean just in the past couple of weeks we have learned that through sex. serious side effects can occur, attorney general william barr personally intervened in the including kidney problems and kidney failure. criminal case involving this man after he was convicted by a jury rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems.

of seven felony counts. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. before attorney general barr intervened personally to wipe out the sentencing tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, recommendation for roger stone, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, we'd never before known of any or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. attorney general personally getting involved at the if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy sentencing phase for a convicted felon to try to get the person without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. off. even though we had never heard about that before he did it with if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. roger stone, we would soon and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. thereafter learn he had done it before the roger stone case too. we have since learned that attorney general barr has apparently intervened to reduce the sentencing recommendation in ht flynn case. he also brought in a whole set of lawyers chosen by him personally to review the whole flynn case and apparently sort of hijack it from the prosecutors who had been handling it from the get-go, who (whistling) had already secured flynn's guilty plea. at the same time, we learned that that same team of people i felt gross. that barr had put in place to it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx.

hijack the flynn prosecution, they've also been assigned by four years clear. real people with psoriasis william barr to work on a number look and feel better with cosentyx. of other cases at that same u.s. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. attorney's office in d.c. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. they came in from outside at the an increased risk of infections direction of attorney general and lowered ability to fight them may occur. william barr specifically to tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, take over politically sensitive cases of interest to the if your inflammatory bowel disease president, including some that symptoms develop or worsen, have not yet been made public. or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. at that u.s. attorney's office, ask your dermatologist about cosentyx. the u.s. attorney there has been ousted. she's been replaced with one of attorney general william barr's closest aides. four prosecutors have resigned how we worship, or who we love. from the stone case. one prosecutor has designed from the department of justice and the 2020 census is how that great promise is kept. altogether. the revelations have caused more than 2,000 former justice because this is the count that informs department officials to call for the resignation of william barr. where hundreds of billions in funding will go each year for things like education, donald ayer, who served as a healthcare, and programs that touch us all. deputy attorney general in the george h.w. bush administration alongside william barr, he's known william barr for 40 years, shape your future. start here. learn more at 2020census.gov he's now gone so far as to urge a, quote, public uprising to insist that attorney general barr should be removed from the

justice department. but this uproar, this ongoing uproar, is not apparently making things any better when it comes to the issue about which there is the uproar, about the use of the criminal justice system to that's why xfinity mobile lets you design your own data. do favors for the president and to go after the president's you can share 1, 3, or 10 gigs of data between lines, enemies, to protect and reward his loyalists. mix in lines of unlimited, and switch it up at any time. i mean each passing day since this scandal has broken open, all with millions of secure wifi hotspots the crisis has seemed to get a and the best lte everywhere else. little worse, not better. we'll be talking a little later it's a different kind of wireless network, designed to save you money. on this hour about today's raft switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. of pardons and commutations, and save even more when you say "bring my own phone" mostly for public corruption into your voice remote. that's simple, easy, awesome. offenses. these pardons and commutations click, call or visit a store today. the president doled out today with glee, as a sort of rub your face in it demonstration that even the most vile, famous, uncontested, fully litigated, proven beyond a reasonable doubt, plaqblack and white case public corruption, they're okay now if president trump says they're okay. and the courts are powerless to enforce the law against even the worst offenders. we'll talk about that a little

bit later on with somebody who president trump today granted pardons to seven people, knows that system very well and commuted the sentences of four knows what went wrong with it others. lots of them like former illinois governor rod today. blagojevich were public figures there's another piece of this convicted of charges like fraud and corruption. whiat the president has the right to which i'm sort of agog and which pardon people. i think could bare some sustained attention even it's within his rights everything else that's going on explicitly laid out in the constitution. but given what else is going on in the administration and the because this real catastrophe for the rule of law that we have seen in the u.s. attorney's message of these pardons as a group, i thought it might be worth it to check in with bob office in washington, d.c., where the functions of that bauer, former white house office, including in cases where counsel under president obama, a there's already been, you know, president under whom pardons and multiple unanimous jury verdicts on multiple felonies -- i mean the functions of that commutations were handled very prosecutor's office have been differently. taken over to instead serve the let me ask your -- >> it, i think is a norm president. so we're witnessing this destroying series of decisions catastrophe at the u.s. he made. it hooks up to what he said at attorney's office in d.c., but the very beginning of the we're also learning that that's administration. that is to say he has absolute not the only pressure point that president trump and attorney pardon power. he could pardon himself, he once general william barr have chosen said, if he wanted to. now freed from some of the for this operation. anxieties he experienced during impeachment, though i think the i mean in theory any federal prosecutor's office could end up outcome was foreordained, he's with a case or cases that pushing forward and making

directly impinged on the really a fundamental change president's interests. without accountability to the congress, without accountability but outside of the u.s. to the public really in the way attorney's office in d.c., which of course is the seat of our presidents normally operate. federal government, the one >> i was struck by the number of these pardons and commutations. federal u.s. attorney's office, some of the famous people and the one federal prosecutor's some not that were corruption cases, that were really about office where cases that affect the government being defrauded the president, cases that have or people who were public real national importance tend to officials taking bribes and that end up is in new york city, in the southern district of new york, largest u.s. attorney's sort of thing. what sort of damage is done to office in the country outside of anti-public corruption efforts washington, d.c. it's the office that handles to have people who have been lots of matters of national dutifully convicted of serious security, any crimes having to corruption crimes all let off do with anything financial since new york is the financial all in a group in kind of the way the president's done it? capital of the country. in the case of this president, >> in the way he's done it is i sdny is also where anything that think the critical point. will end up that has to do with there is a process. his personal home base as a not presidents all the times have followed it. lifelong new yorker who ran his for example ford's pardon of fraudulent charity and his family business here. nixon when he didn't go through the southern district of new the pardon office and the department of justice. york has long had a reputation but by and large presidents have for fierce independence, even respected a process located in ornery levels of independence, the department of justice that allows for filtering outnsered an unwillingness to subject

themselves to direction or influence from main justice in the president thene washington. they are the sovereign district trump is crashing that process. of new york. they do whatever they want. it's becoming increasingly clear but understand this what he sees on television, what administration, the pressure he hears from people, what his even on sdny has reportedly been instincts tell him he should do, pretty intense. what the best politics for him is, that is how he is going to be thinking about the pardons cnn had reporting this weekend that he grants and he's really on attorney general william barr quite open about it. attempting to, quote, so i think in this sense it's micromanage numerous cases at really quite extraordinary. as you point out, he's building sdny since he's been attorney a certain theme here, the public general. and reporting on this subject has been coming in from multiple corruption theme that you mentioned. one has to think he's laying the foundation for some other sources, has been coming in in sort of dribs and drabs. pardons that will come in the future that people have long but it's very worrying thing to wondered whether he will grant. for example, roger stone learn about even in small bits given the list of cases that eventually. paul manafort eventually. who knows who else eventually. sdny is reportedly handling that he might be too angry at michael are of concern to the president. cohen to pardon him. i mean the attorney general who knows? trying to micromanage cases at maybe he'll commute his sdny in particular is sentence. not clear. potentially a very big deal. but i think there's a foundation he's laying for a practice that i mean there's been solid public is not consistent generally with reporting from multiple sources the way presidents have on barr personally intervening approached the exercise of this to try to stop the prosecution constitutional power. >> is it more concerning to you of a turkish bank. that he's taking these actions sdny was going to bring criminal while we've got this other crisis unraveling at the justice

charges against a turkish bank, department, this incredible but barr reportedly personally intervened to try to stop those uproar at what attorney general bill barr has done there with charges from being brought after the stone sentencing and other matters? >> it is very concerning because president trump told the turkish it's a package if you will. president that he'd have bill barr fix that case for him. it's a series of interconnected events coming immediately after the acquittal in the senate sdny is also reportedly investigating potential criminal activity related to the trump after the impeachment trial. trump saying i'm going to return inaugural committee. to a vision i once had of the sdny is reportedly investigating department i want. potential criminal activity by the trump organization, the president's family business. whatever attorney general bill sdny is reportedly investigating barr's -- he has lent a very potential criminal behavior by the president's personal lawyer, damaging appearance that he is very attentive to the kind of rudy giuliani. we'll have more on that in a vision of the department that moment. the president has. sdny put the president's other >> bob bauer, white house personal attorney, michael cohen, in prison for the hush counsel under president obama. money case involving payments it's an honor to have you here. we'll be right back. made to benefit the president's stay with us. campaign just before the 2016 election. "the new york times" has reported in the last few days that among the sdny cases where william barr has personally inserted himself is that hush money case, the michael cohen case, the one that resulted in charges ultimately against no one else. quote, while mr. trump's

longtime fixer michael cohen had already pled to campaign finance violations for his role were still investigating whether the role of trump's family this commute's been pretty rough, huh? business had obstructed -- it's great actually, i've been listening to audible. it's audiobooks, news, meditations... gotta go! whether the role of executives at the trump family business had ♪ obstructed the investigation. quote, at one point during discussions about the scope of campaign finance laws, attorney general william barr questioned ♪ the legal theory behind cohen's case. he also questioned whether such hey! cases could be prosecuted you know, i do think it's weird you've started commuting civilly rather than criminally. when you work from home. according to "the new york i'll be in my office. download audible and start every day off right. times," this intervention by barr in the hush money case took place shortly after he was sworn in as attorney general last february. well, honestly that matches up saturpain happens. in the time line with how the aleve it. hush money case fell apart and aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. why it is that michael cohen ended up being the only person when pain happens, aleve it. who got in trouble for that even though he clearly wasn't the one all day strong. who dreamed it up and he wasn't even the one who benefited from the scheme. i mean with the benefit of this new reporting about what william barr has been doing in the

justice department to influence cases that relate to the president, with the benefit of this new reporting that barr got sworn in as the new attorney general and then immediately went down to sdny to see what he could do about the michael cohen hush money case and whether or not it was also going to result in charges against the president's business, i mean look back now at the initial reporting about how that case got dropped. it was cnn who was first to report this summer, in july, >> man: what's my my truck...is my livelihood. same reporters who are reporting so when my windshield cracked... on it now. they were first to report last the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me. july that despite the fact that >> tech: hi, i'm adrian. prosecutors had indicated that >> man: thanks for coming. more charges might be coming in ...with service i could trust. right, girl? that case, despite the fact that >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ prosecutors had said this was an ongoing law enforcement matter and an ongoing investigation in july, prosecutors told the judge quietly in that case that there would be no more charges. the whole thing was over, case closed. cnn reported at that time when they were first to break that story that the case had appeared to drop off a cliff several months earlier. cnn reported that at the beginning of last year, the

beginning of 2019, prosecutors had requested interviews with executives at the trump organization. but despite the fact that they'd asked for those interviews, they, quote, never followed up on their initial request and the programming note. interviews never took place. why would prosecutors ask trump tomorrow 9:00 p.m. eastern, my usual time slot, i will not be organization executives for interviews and then never bother here. instead you will be here to follow up even when they watching the democratic didn't get an answer? presidential debate before the nevada caucuses. officials at the trump again, that's my usual time organization also told cnn that slot, 9:00 p.m. but i will be here a little bit although prosecutors had been in contact with them about that early. chris matthews is going to kick off our debate coverage with case at its outset, their "hardball" live from las vegas at 7:00. i am going to anchor our live contact with those prosecutors suddenly ended with no special coverage starting at 8:00 as we head into the debate, explanation at the time as to which again starts at 9:00 and then brian williams and company why. this was july reporting from will be here after the debate to cnn. cnn said, quote, there has been help make sense of all of it. no contact between that so it's going to be a good, big manhattan u.s. attorney's office and officials at the trump night at a very exciting time in organization in more than five months. the democratic primary. set your dvrs. well, so it kind of seems like get your popcorn. i'll see you tomorrow at 8:00. in five months before this that does it for us tonight. reporting in july is when that it's with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. case potentially involving the >> gee, rachel, i have my reading glasses on because at

9:23 p.m. when i know you were president's business, that's when it fell off a cliff. working, "the washington post" well, five months before that delivered a story saying, article was published is when william barr is telling people william barr was sworn in as attorney general of the united states, and we now know from new he's considering quitting, but i know because you and i reporting that as soon as he was sworn in as attorney general of communicate during your commercial breaks that you're the united states, he aware of this story. immediately set off to go to >> i just got it. sdny to go meet with the >> but i just want to read you prosecutors in that office to this opening. tell them that the whole hush it says attorney general william money case was based on a flawed barr has told people close to legal premise and it maybe shouldn't have even been brought as a criminal case at all. president trump inside and outside the white house he is considering quitting over and, yes, all indications are trump's tweets about justice department investigations. three administration officials that the trump family business was in the crosshairs of that criminal investigation until said foreshadowing a possible that point. but then suddenly the case went confrontation. off a cliff. the third sentence, he has his suddenly the outstanding limits, said one person, requests for trump organization familiar with barr's thinking. executives to do interviews with prosecutors, they just -- they let them go. the ongoing communication between prosecutors and the president's business, it just ended with no explanation around the time that william barr went to sdny and told them what he thought about that case. and then quietly the case got

closed. and when that case got closed, that prompted me at the time -- i remember -- and a bunch of other people to ask publicly in that moment, hey, sdny, are you okay? hey, famously independent, unpush-aroundable, un-influenceable, sovereign district of new york, hey, sdny, are you okay? could you let us know if you're not? could you let us know if you're being improperly pressured by the attorney general to make law enforcement decisions in a way that benefits the president? could you let us know? well, now today, a new revelation, a new admission from the justice department shows us exactly what's been going on there, and it is a doozy. and that's next.

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in the southern district of new york in october, these two men who were close associates of rudy giuliani, working with him on his campaign to try to dirty up joe biden in time for the 2020 presidential campaign, they were indicted at sdny. starting the day after their indictment, "the new york times" was first to report that rudy giuliani was also under federal criminal investigation for his involvement into what those guys -- in what those guys had been doing in ukraine. "the new york times" headline on october 11th, the day after the lev and igor indictment was this. giuliani is said to be under investigation for ukraine work. then three days later, "wall street journal," october 14th.

federal prosecutors scrutinize giuliani's ukraine business dealings and financing. bloomberg news, november 14th. giuliani faces u.s. probe on campaign finances and lobbying breaches. "wall street journal," november 25th. federal subpoenas seek information on giuliani's consultsing business. reuters, same day, november 25th. u.s. prosecutors seek information on payments to trump lawyer giuliani. the president's personal lawyer, who has been running this scheme in ukraine on behalf of the president, is under federal criminal investigation, we thought. all that news broke in october and november. we haven't heard much about it since november as the president's impeachment over the ukraine scandal took hold. but what happened to that potential criminal prosecution? now we may know because today the justice department released this memo. it is dated a month ago. it's dated january 17th. today is nevertheless the first we are learning of it. but what this memo spells out is

that apparently a month ago, the justice department established a whole new chain of command for all federal prosecutors anywhere in the country who might be thinking about bringing any criminal charges or doing any federal criminal investigations on anything that touched on the issue of ukraine whatsoever. this directive was sent out nationwide from main justice to all u.s. attorneys on january 17th. quote, there are currently several distinct investigations being handled by different u.s. attorneys offices and/or department components that in some way potentially relate to ukraine. but if you are a u.s. attorney who has such an investigation, congratulations. you will no longer have control over that from here on out. we'll take it from here. the memo says, quote, the department has assigned rich donoghue, the u.s. attorney in the eastern district of new york, which is brooklyn, to coordinate existing matters and to investigate and address any other matters relating to ukraine, including the opening

of any new investigations or the expansion of existing ones. quote, any and all new matters relating to ukraine should be directed exclusively to richard don ago hugh's office for investigation and appropriate handling. any widening or expansion of existing matters should require prior consultation with and approval by my office, the deputy attorney general's office, and richard don ago hugh's office in brooklyn. so in other words, hello sdny. hello manhattan prosecutor's office, which has been purchase soog an investigation of the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, related to his work in ukraine. hello sdny prosecutor who's have been working on that. you are no longer allowed to make any decisions related to that case. you are no longer allowed to make a decision to, say, bring charges against mr. giuliani if that is what you had been planning to do. instead, for everything related to that case, you now have to

run that all through us. you have to run it through main justice. you also have to run it through your rival u.s. attorney's office in brooklyn because that different prosecutor will now get to decide what work you're allowed to do on your own cases and whether or not you're allowed to charge rudy. whew. new policy. think that will be enough to protect mr. giuliani? would you like to get him some suspenders to go with that belt? over the weekend, "the washington post" and cnn both had these interesting anonymously sourced stories about the fact that the criminal investigation into rudy giuliani is real. it's active. there's subpoenas and witness interviews and stuff still going on. those reports in "the post" and cnn kind of felt like a flare to the rest of us. somebody throwing down bread crumbs, right? we'd have something in the public record that indicated that this giuliani criminal investigation exists and it's real, and there's something to it just in case anything ever happened to it or it

disappeared. well, now today, tuesday, we found out apparently what has happened to it. after the 2016 election, during the presidential transition, i spoke with a number of outgoing obama administration officials about their surprise at the result of the 2016 election and about the worst case scenario that the country should prepare for. the worst thing that they could imagine, having been in government, that the incoming president could do, particularly given the kind of things that he had promised and threatened to do while he was running as a candidate in 2016. i don't know what i expected to hear in terms of a sort of, you know, doomsday scenario for what a president could do if he had the worst possible intent and a maximalist impression of presidential power. i don't know what i expected to hear from outgoing obama administration officials, but the answer that i got surprised me. the answer that i got was that

the worst case scenario they could imagine was that the president, the incoming president, donald trump, would use the justice department as a weapon, that that is the single most dangerous thing that a president could do to the country on his own say-so. if he could figure out a way to tame the u.s. justice department and turn it into an instrument to help himself, turn it into something that helps his allies and hurts his opponents, the awesome power of federal criminal prosecution and federal criminal investigation should be seen as essentially a domestic nuclear bomb from an ill-intentioned president. that was the warning that i got from obama administration officials when they were on their way out the door. and that's apparently what we've got, and it appears to be wholesale and not even undercover when it comes to the incredibly important prosecutor's office in d.c. but if it's new york too, if

it's sdny too, then i don't know where else we're supposed to look for an entity that can stop this, that has the strength to stay independent, that can and will stand up and stop what's happening from happening. i mean there's a reason this is being called a rule of law emergency. this is exactly that. s an honoro tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> man: what's my my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me. >> tech: hi, i'm adrian. >> man: thanks for coming. ...with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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