>> lots of anger at him for that double standard. thank you for making time tonight. that's all in on this wednesday night. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. much appreciated. here is a change i did not see coming. you here is a change i did not see coming. you might remember that one of the classy things about the transition from the last president to this one -- and i mean classy with a "k" in this context -- one of the real nice things about that transition is that the transition didn't really happen. everywhere from the pentagon to the parts of the government dealing with the vaccine rollout, the outgoing trump administration just refused to do normal transition things that would have allowed the incoming administration to understand what they were walking into, you know, how the trump people were leaving things, what remained to be done and needed to be picked up immediately on day one by the new team. the trump folks just had no interest in helping keep the government going by helping the new administration hit the ground running.

and so, the transition in many ways was non-existent. and one of the consequences of that is, in the month or so since joe biden was inaugurated as president, we have repeatedly heard from the new administration that they were surprised by things they didn't find out were going wrong inside the government until they were in position to be running things, things they didn't get briefed on during the transition because the trump administration blew off the transition. like, for example, surprise, there's no national plan for administering vaccines. we all thought they were doing that. we all assumed there was some sort of plan, whatever the trump administration's plans might have looked like. but since there was no transition from the trump folks to the biden folks, nobody really knew for sure until they were gone that, actually, there was no national vaccine plan at all. the lack of a transition also became a nice backdrop for the

republican-controlled senate to refuse to move forward on starting the confirmation process for biden administration nominees. in past administrations, republican and democrat, no matter who controlled the senate, there was at least an effort to try to make sure that the main nominees in national security positions were in place for the new president on day one, because, of course, the confirmation hearings, the vetting, the confirmation hearings, the preliminary votes can all happen during the transition, provided that the senate wants to work on those things. . that all happens during the transition, then the actually confirmation votes, the final votes and swearing-in ceremonies can start to happen on inauguration day. and so, particularly for national security nominees, that was what previous senates made sure was in place for previous presidents. they would at least have their national security team, all the big ones, in place, day one. but not for biden, because, no, he was not allowed a transition. and there was, in fact, only one biden nominee who was approved

on day one of his administration. the only biden nominee approved on inauguration day was the director of national intelligence, avril haines. and now, one of the truly explosive things she agreed to during her confirmation hearing is, we think, about to happen tomorrow. during avril haines' confirmation hearing, the woman who's now director of national intelligence, avril haines, promised that, if she were confirmed as dni, she would release to the public a declassified version of the intelligence community's findings on who murdered an american journalist named jamal khashoggi, who wrote for the "washington post." khashoggi was a vocal critic of the government of saudi arabia. in october 2018, october 2nd, he was lured to a saudi consulate in turkey. turns out, a hit squad was waiting for him there.

he was killed and then reportedly dismembered. his body has never been found. a u.n. human rights investigation in 2019 found that the crown prince of saudi arabia was involved in that murder, that it was, quote, inconceivable that he, at the very least, didn't know about that murder plot. since then, the evidence has only gotten stronger that the crown prince of saudi arabia, in fact, ordered the murder. the cia reportedly concluded with high confidence that the crown prince of saudi arabia ordered the murder of mr. khashoggi. here's the thing, only the best people in the trump administration, right? jamal khashoggi was murdered, as i said, 2018, october, specifically, october 2nd, 2018. the crown prince of saudi arabia, mohammed bin salman -- he goes by mbs -- is immediately implicated in that murder. nevertheless, three weeks after the murder, still in october 2018, mbs on behalf of the saudi

government, hosts a big convention thing in saudi arabia. duvos in the desert. and khashoggi was just murdered. and immediately, the man on the right of your screen, mbs, the crown prince of saudi arabia, was implicated in that murder. he hosts this convention. everybody from, you know, jpmorgan to blackstone to steve case, the founder of aol, all these american worthies all canceled. nobody wants to go sit in this guy's lap, especially if the bonesaw in his pocket is still leaking wet blood and body parts just three weeks after that murder. so everybody cancels. the american treasury secretary, steven mnuchin -- oh, sorry, it's steven. do not call him steve. it's steven mnuchin. even he bows to the public pressure, the public revulsion over this murder of a "washington post" journalist, and mnuchin cancels his plans to

attend this davos in the desert compound thing. but then, as i said, klassy with a "k" -- mr. mnuchin sneaks off to saudi arabia, anyway, ahead of the davos in the desert thing, because he's decided that, despite all of the public outcry, that forced him to publicly cancel his plan to attend that big, international expo, he really still wants to meet with the crown prince anyway. and so, mnuchin made a big, public showing of canceling his appearance at that conference thing, but he quietly maintained his plans to fly to saudi arabia. and the day before the whole davos in the desert conference expo thing starts in saudi arabia, steven mnuchin turns up in saudi arabia to meet with prince bonesaw one on one! the u.s. treasury department, somehow, forgot to announce that he was going. they were very happy to announce that he had canceled his plans to attend that event. they did not announce that he was still going to go to saudi arabia and still going to meet

with the crown prince. once it emerged that he was still going to saudi arabia and he was still meeting with the crown prince, the treasury department tried to not comment on that fact. it was the saudi government that went ahead and announced that mnuchin was there and that he was meeting with the crown prince, and they posted a picture of it on twitter. mnuchin was trying to get away with this without anybody knowing about it, but the saudi government was like, oh, no. oh, no, we're putting this out publicly, to brag, basically, right, that with this sucker u.s. government, the saudi crown prince can go ahead and, allegedly, murder and dismember a u.s.-based journalist, but don't worry, less than three weeks later, that same guy can still summon the u.s. treasury secretary to come sit on his lap. like i said, classy. the trump administration went on after the khashoggi murder to block from public release the intelligence community's report on the crown prince's alleged

involvement in the murder, and steven, excuse me, steven mnuchin, then kept up his frequent and regular visits to maintain his relationship with the saudi crown prince while he and the trump administration, as a matter of policy, gave them everything they wanted and more during the entire time the trump administration was in office. so, now, what's about to happen? tomorrow, according to reporting from axios tonight, we believe the biden administration is going to release to us, the public, the declassified report on the killing of jamal khashoggi and the involvement of the saudi crown prince. what i did not see coming is that in advance of that report, reportedly being prepared for release tomorrow, president biden tonight would take a call with the saudi government, and he would have this phone call specifically with the king of saudi arabia, who you see on the right side of your screen, 85 years old. president biden today speaking with the king, not the 35-year-old crown prince who has

been, you know, snapping his fingers to summon steven mnuchin and whatsapping with jared, right? getting u.s. government cabinet officials to come be photographed meeting with him, even before the american blood is dry on his hands. biden didn't call that guy in advance of this report being released to the american public tomorrow. he called that guy's dad, the king. white house spokesman jen psaki today explaining this is a leader-to-leader kind of discussion, that the equivalent leader that a u.s. president speaks to in such circumstances is the king of a foreign country. she said that our defense secretary, lloyd austin, spoke with the crown prince, spoke with mbs in recent days, because that's the level at which those discussions should happen. but biden is the president, and he'll speak with the king. so, that is happening now, tonight, apparently, in advance of the release tomorrow of the u.s. intelligence report on the murder of jamal khashoggi, the "washington post" journalist.

and meanwhile, look at what news the "washington post," itself, is now breaking. look at the headline here. trump treasury secretary steven mnuchin expected to launch investment fund seeking backing of persian gulf state funds. dude has been out of office a month. mnuchin has been out of office as trump's treasury secretary a month, and he is already turning around and forming a fund in which he will reportedly ask the persian gulf states to give him their money. so, he spent his time in office shining up the reputation of accused murderer, the saudi crown prince. now one month later, he's going into private business seeking investment from sovereign wealth funds in the persian gulf. sovereign wealth funds are state-controlled. in saudi arabia, it's the saudi crown prince who controls his country's sovereign wealth fund. seems legit, sure, right? as the "post" delicately puts

it -- quote, mnuchin's planned investment effort, soon after leaving office, raises concerns over whether trump administration policy was influenced by mnuchin's future private pursuits. yeah, you think? you think? look at this. this is priceless. this is priceless! as the "post" notes in this reporting -- quote, some of the largest investment funds in the persian gulf region are controlled by uae, the united arab emirates and qatar and saudi arabia and kuwait. two paragraphs later, the "post" notes that in the very final days of the trump administration, where did steven mnuchin take his last taxpayer-funded overseas sglunkt junket? he went off to visit, among other countries, the uae, united arab emirates, qatar, saudi arabia and kuwait. he just decided at the very last minute, while the taxpayers were still paying for his travel, he wanted to visit all of the

countries with the largest sovereign wealth funds in the middle east, all the countries with the largest sovereign wealth funds in the region, with whom he is now planning on going into personal private business. in fact, when the assault on the u.s. capitol happened on january 6th, steven mnuchin was in the middle of that shopping spree -- i mean, that trip. because of the attack on the capitol, he got all sorts of press for sort of nobly taking action to cut short his trip, and in fact, he didn't end up going to kuwait after all. he canceled the kuwait part of that trip. but even after the attack on the capitol on january 6th, he did keep stretching his middle east trip out just a little while longer, as long as he conceivably could, specifically so he could squeeze in at least one last trip to saudi arabia for what was expected to be one last visit with mbs, with crown prince bonesaw. and now he's opening his private

investment fund with what he hopes and expects will be lots and lots of money from the people he has loyally served as u.s. treasury secretary in the persian gulf states, people he has loyally served as u.s. treasury secretary, by which he does not mean, you know, us. so, joe biden is president now. he is not sitting in the lap of the bonesaw guy, nor sending members of his cabinet to do that. president biden isn't even speaking to the bonesaw guy. we believe, if this axios reporting is correct, that president biden and the director of national intelligence he appointed, avril haines, will tomorrow publicly release the u.s. intelligence community's evidence related to the murder of this u.s. journalist, in which the crown prince is reportedly implicated. but i mean, think about the context in which president biden is making these sorts of changes. i mean, he is doing this, he's releasing this report, he is

making a big change with the way we deal with saudi arabia, he is calling out the crown prince of that country. we expect in this report, in terms of his implication in the murder of a u.s. journalist, he's doing all of that as president while this is the background noise, while literally, a cabinet secretary from the previous administration is going into personal business with these guys in the gulf, a month after leaving office, having spent four years as treasury secretary, giving away the store to those countries in terms of u.s. policy, particularly to saudi arabia. incidentally, we spent a good amount of time today talking to people trying to figure out if what mnuchin is doing here is illegal. can you sell your actions as treasury secretary while you were in office for future personal financial reward? is that -- can you do that? i mean, literally in his last hours in office, the night

before the inauguration, former president trump rescinded the ethics rules that might have banned something this corrupt outright from officials who served in the trump administration, so i guess that was seen as mnuchin's free pass to do it? but if steven mnuchin did sell out u.s. policy in a quid pro quo, so the countries he sold out to would then pay him personally as soon as he was out of office, that is something that trump killing the ethics rules might not save him from. so, there's that. incidentally -- incidentally, as far as illegal goes -- we are still watching to see what's going to happen with the enforcement of the subpoena from new york state prosecutors for president trump's financial records. the former president's accounting firm is set, we think sometime this week, to hand over to state prosecutors in new york literally millions of pages, terabytes worth of financial and tax records from former president trump. those state prosecutors are

looking at former president trump, reportedly, for potential tax fraud, bank fraud, and insurance fraud, watching to see if there will be any public indication about when those documents are handed over. today -- this is interesting -- cnn is reporting that those same prosecutors in new york state have also now issued subpoenas to financial firms linked to steve bannon, former trump white house senior adviser, trump campaign chief. steve bannon was charged by federal prosecutors in a multicount felony fraud scheme before trump gave him a last-minute pardon right before he left office. state prosecutors are now reportedly looking at that same scheme, an alleged grift in which trump supporters were told to send their own money to a gofundme page in order to build a wall between the u.s. and mexico, themselves, with their own private money. bannon and his co-defendants are said by prosecutors to have pocketed a significant share of that money, hence the fraud and theft charges. bannon's co-defendants are still

facing federal felony charges in that alleged scheme. bannon isn't facing those federal charges anymore because of the trump pardon, but fraud and theft are the kinds of crimes that are very easy to charge, either at the state level or the federal level. and so, he may not be facing federal charges anymore because of the pardon, but there's no reason why he can't face state charges that look almost exactly the same. with subpoenas reportedly going out now to gofundme and to another bank that was allegedly used in this scheme, it looks like mr. bannon might be looking at potential state charges in new york for that "we fund the wall" fraud scheme. and that, of course, would mean state prison time, if he is convicted. in addition, the president's eldest son, donald trump jr., was reportedly deposed today by the office of d.c.'s attorney general. that's part of the corruption probe of the 2016 trump inaugural, where prosecutors

allege the inaugural committee, which operates as a non-profit -- the allegation is that they dramatically overpaid the trump organization, the president's family business, for inauguration-related frills. if true, that, of course, would have the effect of the president and his family effectively stealing from a non-profit to funnel money to themselves and their family business. the president's eldest daughter, ivanka trump, has already been deposed in that case. now donald trump jr. has as well. the trump hangover continues, as well, at the u.s. post office, where delays we've never really seen before have persisted, and in some cases, gotten even worse since the election under the wrecking ball leadership of trump postmaster general louis dejoy. dejoy appeared quite truculently before the house oversight committee today. he basically promised that, yeah, even now, even now, he has

plans to make the mail even slower than it is right now and to make it more expensive as well. louis dejoy, basically, reveled, kind of chortled at today's hearing at the fact that president biden can't directly fire him, based on the rules of the way the postal service is governed. he can only be fired by the postal service board of governors. basically, to call that question, basically, right as that hearing was ending, president biden announced, okay, then, three new nominees to the postal service board of governors! here they are. the postal service board of governors will absolutely be able to fire louis dejoy as soon as they are in the majority, which won't be long now, now that biden has announced these nominees. in breaking news late tonight, msnbc's julia ainsley and jacob jacob soboroff are reporting that of the more than

600 kids still separated from their parents at the end of the trump administration, of those 611 kids, julia and jacob report tonight that the biden administration has already been able to find the parents of 105 of those children. now, it is -- you know, that's less than 20%, but it is something. the parents of 105 separated kids have been found since january, in the month that the biden administration has been in office. that means the parents of 506 separated migrant kids still haven't been found, but they are working on it, at least, and they have found -- they have located members of more than 100 of these families. you'll remember that one of the early biden executive orders was to set up a task force, including the secretary of homeland security, the secretary of state and other cabinet officials, to try to find those family members and get those kids reunited. while president biden still tries to get his cabinet

confirmed, including nominee neera tanden at the office of management and budget, whose nomination is effectively being blocked now by democratic senator joe manchin, who has decided that he doesn't like her tone, even though he was happy to vote for many trump nominees who all had much worse tone and much worse records on the form of partisan statements and civility than neera tanden ever got near -- with joe manchin blocking neera tanden's nomination at this point, we're now, nevertheless, getting into the nitty gritty on the biden administration's first big legislative leap, which looks like it may start to move and pass the house. it may even get close to passing the senate before the full biden cabinet is confirmed. the first big legislative effort, of course, is the covid relief bill. it is steaming ahead. it's looking more and more like it's going to get zero republican support, despite the bill's wide support by the republic -- excuse me, by the

public, by republicans and independents and democrats who support this bill by a large margin. it is republicans on capitol hill who appear uniform in their opposition to it. that means that it will likely have to pass with only democratic votes. that is possible, as long as democrats are able to pass it through a process in the senate that's called reconciliation. well, that process has some limits. there are rules within the senate as to what type of policy is allowed to be passed under that process. and tonight, we are still waiting on word as to whether or not the covid relief bill will be allowed to incorporate a rise in the minimum wage. president biden and democrats have called for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. that would give 27 million american workers a raise. the congressional progressive caucus, including its chair, congresswoman pramila jayapal, have prioritized this.

they have led the fight to keep that minimum wage hike in the relief bill, to keep that at $15 an hour. we are waiting -- we thought we would know by now. we're literally waiting tonight, expecting at any moment to find out the ruling of the senate parliamentarian as to whether or not that minimum wage rise is going to be in this bill, which the democrats can pass alone without republican support. it's a procedural thing in d.c. and its origins are both baroque and stupid, but it has incredible material consequence for americans. if you think about what kind of economic relief might make the broadest impact on americans who need it the most, how about americans at the lowest end of the wage scale, 27 million of whom would get a not just sustained, but permanent wage increase by this hike in the minimum wage? we are waiting tonight to find out if that is possible. meanwhile, we've got congressman jayapal from the congressional progressive caucus standing by. we've got richard engel standing by with his incredible and super

scary scoop that he broke tonight on "nbc nightly news." a lot to come tonight. stay with us. "nbc nightly news" a lot to come tonight. stay with us

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so, tonight, we're still waiting on a decision that sounds like a little thing that could have a huge impact on tens of millions of americans and how much money they make. it's a decision from the senate parliamentarian. could come any time now. what we're waiting on is her determination as to whether or not the big covid relief bill that's going to pass the house and the senate, is going to be

signed into law by president biden, whether it can include an increase in the minimum wage. democrats are trying to use something called the budget reconciliation process to pass their bill so they can pass it with 51 votes, instead of needing 60 votes, because republican senators aren't going to support this bill at all. but what that process means is that only items related to the budget get to be in the bill. the person who gets to decide what is and isn't related to the budget is the senate parliamentarian, and we are waiting on her ruling. and it's sort of an almost legal-like process. last night and early this morning, senate staffers presented arguments before the parliamentarian, like they were lawyers going before a judge. democratic senate staff argued that the minimum wage could be kept in the bill. republican senate staff argued that it had to be stripped out, that it has nothing to do with the budget. we don't know what she's going to rule. even if democrats do manage to get approval from the parliamentarian, though, that they can increase the minimum wage, it's still not a done

deal. they've still got to get approval of their caucus, and that is, you know, never easy with democrats herding cats, et cetera. but so far, the forces within the democratic party that support a $15-an-hour minimum wage have really been a force to be reckoned with. i think they have been underestimated as a political force, especially given the public popularity of this position. pramila jayapal of washington is chair of the progressive caucus in the house. representative jayapal, thank you for being here tonight. it's nice of you to come back. >> it's so great to see you, rachel. >> so, what's your expectation? do you know when we're going to hear this ruling? do you have expectations about what the ruling's going to be? >> well, i don't know exactly when. we're all waiting with bated breath. but i will tell you that this reconciliation process was used to kick tens of millions of people off of health care by the republicans and the parliamentarian did allow that

to happen. now, it was done in kind of a wonky way, but when republicans have used reconciliation to kick people off of health care, to pass a $2 trillion tax cut where 85% of that went to the wealthiest, i think we feel good that it should also then be allowed for democrats to use reconciliation to pass minimum wage increase for 27 million workers across this country and lift 1 million minimum wage workers out of poverty. so, this is really, really important. i did want to make a clarification, though. the parliamentar advisory opinion. once the parliamentarian issues that advisory opinion, it is up to the chair of the senate to decide whether or not to incorporate that opinion. it's a small technicality, but i do think that we've got to use every tool in our toolbox here, whether it is reconciliation,

whether it is, you know, ultimately, reforming the filibuster. we're going to need to deliver on our promise to raise the wage for 27 million americans. >> and do you make that clarification about the parliamentarian's opinion being an advisory matter because you think that democrats in the senate should use their 50 votes, and potentially, the tie-breaking vote of vice president harris, i guess, to overrule the parliamentarian, if she says no, this can't be in reconciliation? do you think they should go that far? >> i personally do. and i'll tell you, it's because either -- i mean, democrats made a promise to people across this country that we were going to raise the minimum wage, that we were going to put money in people's pockets. it's been 12 years since we've raised the minimum wage. and if we're going to make those promises, we have to be able to deliver on them, because i'll tell you what, in two years, rachel, when people vote in the midterms, you're not going to be able to say, well, i'm sorry, we couldn't raise the minimum wage

because the parliamentarian ruled that we couldn't do it. that's not going to fly. so, whether it's overruling the parliamentarian or whether it is reforming the filibuster so we can actually pass a minimum wage bill, i think it is important that we use every tool in the toolbox. one thing, though, the house is going to pass this reconciliation bill with a $15 minimum wage raise in it, so we want to be very clear, the house is going to do our job. now the senate needs to do its job. >> one of the reasons that i think that your power and the power of people who agree with you on this is being underestimated is that i feel like what never gets factored into the beltway press treatment of these issues is how the public feels about it. the idea of raising the minimum wage, particularly, as you say, since it hasn't been raised in 12 years, and because places everywhere that puts it on the ballot, even the reddest states that put it on the ballot, it wins as a ballot measure. raising the minimum wage wins by huge margins everywhere people have a chance to have a say in

it. i feel like the beltway press calculation about politics in these things never factors in what the american people actually have as policy preferences on this subject. but i feel like you and your colleagues have been pretty rigorous, trying to keep that back in the center of the frame, to try to make a public appeal and make sure that the public preference on this issue is factored into the capitol hill politics that would otherwise, i think, prefer to ignore that. >> that's totally right. this is not a radical idea. maybe ten years ago, when fast-food workers first went on strike calling for $15 in 2012, maybe it was considered radical back then. it is mainstream today. you know, florida voted for donald trump, and yet, passed with a two-thirds majority a minimum wage hike to $15. so, across the country, this is the policy that independents, republicans, and democrats are calling for. and it is also what we promised,

rachel. if we are going to say that democrats can make a difference when we have the house, the senate, and the white house, then we are going to have to deliver. it is not going to be sufficient for us to just say, well, we tried, sorry. we've got to go to the mat with every tool in the toolbox. >> we are going to have to deliver. i am putting in the order for the bumper sticker right now. democratic congresswoman pramila jayapal, the chair of the house progressive caucus. again, we're still waiting for that i ruling tonight and there's a lot of politicking and work to happen after that ruling comes in, but thank you so much for helping us understand it tonight. it's good to see you. >> thank you, rachel. great to see you, too. >> all right. as i mentioned, nbc's richard engel is here tonight. he had a scoop tonight on "nbc nightly news" that has skeeved me out in a way that has made me worry about my ability to sleep tonight. but it is worth seeing, worth understanding and absolutely defies an emerging revisionist history on the right on capitol

hill right now. it's important truth-telling journalism. richard engel joins us with that next. stay with us. gel joins us with t next stay with us

this is 22-year-old riley williams from pennsylvania, in the capitol on january 6th, according to the fbi. >> go! up the stairs! go! >> reporter: upstairs is speaker nancy pelosi's office. inside, a female voice the fbi believes to be williams seems excited. >> i'm in nancy -- >> reporter: on the desk is pelosi's hp laptop. the same voice tells others to treat it carefully. >> dude, put on gloves. >> reporter: according to the fbi, a witness claims williams stole the laptop and intended to send the computer device to a friend in russia to be passed to russian intelligence. williams turned herself in to authorities shortly after the capitol assault. >> nbc news' richard engel reporting tonight on the case of

riley williams, one of the most confounding cases coming from the january 6th attack on the u.s. capitol. well, tonight, richard brings us brand-new, exclusive reporting that adds a whole new layer to our understanding of this strange part of the capitol attack on january 6th, including the laptop stolen from speaker of the house nancy pelosi's office. richard has teamed up with the online investigative group bellingcat, probably best known for tracking down and unmasking russian intelligence agents involved in assassination attempts overseas. belgcat turned their investigative skills into the capitol attack, into the specific case of riley williams and the stolen laptop from pelosi's office. after someone sent them a video that they believed showed riley williams pledging allegiance to adolf hitler. i'm going to show you this video. again, this has not been seen on television before tonight. it is very short. it is not graphic in any literal

sense, but i will warn you that it is disturbing. it would stick with you. and it is definitely, definitely creepy. >> hitler was right all along, there is no political solution. all that is left is acceleration. heil hitler. >> and then the video just continues for a while like this, with this flashing image and the negative color filter and the music. like i said, very creepy. but you can see the obvious obstacles to definitively identifying the woman in this heil hitler video as the same woman who stormed the capitol on january 6th, then allegedly helped steal pelosi's laptop. was bellingcat was able to do with this video is two-fold. first, they sort of decoded it. for those of us not familiar with the neo-nazi iconography and the dark corners of the internet where this stuff thrives. for instance, when the voice in

the video says "there is no political solution, all that is left is acceleration," bellingcat writes that is with neo-nazi ideology that calls for accelerating the collapse of society as a pathway towards establishing a genocidal white supremacist state. when she references the hammer, well, that appears to be a social media channel that promotes that same ideology. the skull mask she's wearing on the mirrored sunglasses she's wearing as well as the icon that's on the hat that she's wearing, those are all symbols adopted explicitly by adherence of that social media channel and other nazi groups. even that negative color filter used at the end of the video echoes an aesthetic that is popular in white supremacist propaganda right now. and there's other clues, too. she's got a book about the waffenss that's visible in the profile at her feet in the hail

hitler video and other things you can see. but beyond just those things you might recognize if you're familiar with this stuff, the other thing bellingcat does is go about gathering evidence that the woman in this video is, indeed, riley williams, who's been charged in the capitol attack. they discovered several of her social media accounts on which she has posted racist, anti-semitic screeds along with neo-nazi ideology and the symbolism seen in that video. they painstakingly matched photos and items of clothing and pieces of furniture that you can see across multiple social media postings in order to place riley williams in that same room, in fact, in that same dress as the woman in the heil hitler video. her lawyer tells richard engel tonight that the heil hitler video was meant as a joke. i don't think it's that funny. i don't know, maybe that's just me. interestingly, her lawyer would not confirm or deny that that was, in fact, his client in the heil hitler video. but you know, in addition to this being a very interesting piece of investigative work,

this report from bellingcat and nbc news is a jarring reminder of how much we still don't know about what went down on january 6th, particularly as the conservative media and some elected republicans in congress claim that the people who took place in that attack on the capitol weren't that bad and it really wasn't that many extremists, and there certainly weren't white supremacists. it tells you how much we have yet to have exposed about what organizations and affiliations brought folks to that attack and to what degree they were coordinated. congress held its very first hearing on the capitol attack yesterday. they're holding a second one two days from now. there's just a ton of pressing, outstanding questions we still don't know the answers to. i mean, how do we still not know how capitol police officer brian sicknick died? basic facts about what caused his death. how about the allegation that members of congress were giving reconnaissance tours to people who came back as rioters? that allegation was leveled by other members of congress. where are we on that?

why did the pentagon slow-walk the deployment of the national guard that day? the chief of the d.c. police testified to that today. why did the pentagon slow-walk the national guard deployment? did president trump have any role in personally delaying the national guard response? what was disgraced trump national security adviser mike flynn's brother doing at the pentagon taking part in that decision just days after flynn had called for trump to use martial law to overturn the election? why did the army lie about mike flynn's brother's involvement in the meetings and the decisions as to whether and when to deploy the national guard? why were six capitol police officers suspended from duty for their actions during the attack? what's the status of the more than two dozen other officers who are reportedly under investigation for somehow having behaved inappropriately in relation to that attack? how many guns and other weapons were found among rioters that day? who placed the pipe bombs that were defused outside of the dnc and the rnc the day of the attack? was that -- were those pipe bombs, those operational pipe

bombs, definitively connected to the capitol assault? the former capitol police chief testified yesterday he thinks the pipe bombs were connected with the attack, but we don't know for certain, nor do we know who did that, which means somebody capable of creating operational pipe bombs and placing them, concealing them in d.c., is still on the loose. why are we not getting any briefings on the cases the government is bringing against the capitol rioters? we have not heard squat from any senior justice department figures on the investigation in weeks. the only guy we have heard from, the acting u.s. attorney in d.c., hasn't given a briefing on capitol rioter arrests in nearly a month. and, by the way, where's nancy pelosi's laptop? riley williams has been arrested in connection with her alleged actions at the capitol on january 6th. part of the allegations against her that led to her arrest was that she took part in stealing it. she apparently claims to not have it now, but it still has not been found.

an fbi affidavit filed in conjunction to the case suggests she was going to give it to someone who was going to provide it to russian intelligence. where is it? we don't have answers yet to any of these questions. almost all of which we had the day after the attack. we still don't have them answered. fortunately, though, we are getting new information about the people who stormed the capitol that day and their affiliations, including with explicit neo-nazi groups. that's thanks to investigations like tonight's from bellingcat and richard engel. richard joins us live here next. t and richard engel. richard joins us live here next. they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the services of the post office plus ups only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

joining us now is nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel who along with the investigative group bellingcat broke the story tonight that one of the women arrested for the capitol attack, in her case for helping to steal, allegedly, nancy pelosi's laptop out of her office, is the same woman seen in this video saying hitler was right, espousing nazi ideology and giving a heil hitler nazi salute. richard, thank you for making time to be here tonight.

i will tell you, i feel like you have definitely already robbed me of at least one night's sleep. i find this to be incredibly unnerving stuff. >> reporter: it is a very disturbing video, and i think that's part of the idea behind making videos like this. they're meant to be intimidating but also fun for their own community. if you look at these alt-right websites or neo-nazi websites or chat rooms, they're full of stuff like this, where they're talking to each other, they're wearing the costume, they're play acting. but what we saw at the capitol wasn't play acting, so these people brought their fantasy nazi worlds and brought them to the capitol, and you had this explosion of a very dark mentality. and now we're trying to put the pieces together to figure out who was in the capitol, how did it get organized, and, basically, what is their back story, what brought them there?

because, still, even though we all saw this happen and even though they were clearly wearing things like, you know, camp auschwitz t-shirts or posting videos doing heil hitler, there is still this narrative out there that this was a bunch of innocent people who got swept up in the moment or that this was antifa or that it wasn't what we all think it was. so, unfortunately, we have to keep digging and digging and digging and trying to prove this as definitively as we can and piece together what happened, because we're not getting the answers. we're not getting the answers about the laptop. we're not getting the answers about why there was a tremendous breakdown of security that day, why when everybody saw this coming, the cavalry wasn't there and didn't come for a long time. >> and richard, we are getting a sort of revisionist history already from elements of the conservative media, unfortunately, from some of our prime time colleagues at fox news, advancing this idea that,

you know, nothing too bad and no one too bad was at that attack. we're hearing that from some elected republicans in congress as well, like senator ron johnson at the hearing yesterday. do you think there was more stuff like this down the road that is going to disabuse people of those revisionist histories over time? are you doing further reporting, with bellingcat and in other ways looking at some of this stuff that may make more of this emerge? >> reporter: yes, we are. this was the first of our cooperations that we brought out today, and it takes a lot of time. i mean, we had to piece together a puzzle, putting together sort of a collage of images. and a lot of these activists, which, this would, for journalists' sake, left a lot of breadcrumbs. they were very active on social media, some of it encrypted, some not encrypted, sometimes using their real name, often using false names. but when you line up all the videos together and you use the

metadata to figure out their chronology, then you can start to see parallels and similarities and clues. in this case, for example, riley wore the same glasses often in many of the videos. she wore the same clothing. she has distinctive tattoos. and once we were able to identify these tattoos and identify the clothing and identify the glasses, then you can start placing her in different locations. then, ultimately, it was a light in the room that we were able to use to pinpoint this particular video of the heil hitler. so, yes, we're going to be doing more of this. it takes time because you have to lay out all the videos and do a tremendous amount of comparing and contrasting to try and nail it down, but i think it's important because this false narrative is continuing to be pushed out there. >> nbc news chief foreign

correspondent richard engel, congratulations on this and thanks for helping us understand it tonight. it is deeply unsettling and important stuff. >> reporter: sorry if i'm going to leave that image in your mind for the night, but aside from that we'll also be watching khashoggi tomorrow. fascinating stuff. >> yeah, indeed, indeed, indeed. all right, thank you, my friend. we'll be right back. stay with us. thank you, my fri. we'll be right back. stay with us hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow.

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i feel like so much of today's busy news day was an on-ramp toward later tonight and tomorrow. we are expecting that important

ruling on the minimum wage. we are expecting, potentially, the intelligence community's declassified report on the murder of jamal khashoggi. there's a lot going on tonight and still ahead, too. but that does it for me for now. see you again tomorrow night. "way too early with kasie hunt" is up next. am i making this up, as mr. jordan apparently would have you believe, that the president of the united states last summer, donald j. trump, publicly said, voting by mail would lead to massive fraud? did he say that or am i imagining that? >> things get heated during a hearing into the u.s. postal service as lawmakers relitigate the agency's political issues that came up during the 2020 election. with the postal service still in crisis, the question is, does president biden have a plan to fix it? plus, more testimony today into