"nbc nightly news." thank you. thank you to all of you for watching a busy hour. "deadline: white house" starts right now. ♪♪ hi there, everyone. happy monday. it was a coup in search of a legal theory. in a ruling with potentially historic consequences, a judge rules that president trump likely committed felonies trying to overturn the 2020 election result. in an order of john east mesne author of the january 6 memo described by members of both parties as the quote blueprint for a coup to hand over his ere mails to the january 6 select

committee. judge carter said that may have knowingly broken the law. quote the illegality of the plan was obvious. our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power epitomized by george washington laying down his sword. ignoring this history, president trump campaigned for the vice president to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election. based on the evidence, the court finds that it is more likely than not that president trump and draft eastman conspired to obstruct the joint session of congress on january 6, 2021. at the end of this ruling that is worth reading in the entirety the judge says this, quote, dr. eastman and president trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in american history. if their plan had worked it would have perm innocently ended

the peaceful transis of power undermining american democracy and the constitution. if the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the court fears january 6 will repeat itself. politico puts this stunning ruling this way. quote, the remarkable ruling may be the first in history in which a federal judge determined a president while in office appeared to commit a crime. the judge's fear that january 6 will repeat itself is the animating force behind all the work of the january committee exploring every avenue in the trump coup attempt despite the on strurks from several president trump allies and insiders. the committee will vote to recommend contempt of congress charges against two aides that defied the subpoenas so far. dan scavino and peter navarro.

got himself in the middle of the coup plot. in that report released last night the panel lays out the roles as insiders and the place of the plots but the oex president and allies to overturn the election. all underscoring just why their testimony is so vital to the committee's investigation. here's what the report says about scavino. quote, the select committee has reason to believe that he was with then-president trump january 5 ftd and 6th and party to conversations regarding plans to challenge, disrupt, or impede the official congressional proceedings. the select committee also has reason to believe that scavino may have had advance warping of the possibility of violence on january.

regarding navarro, the role in peddling conspiracies to members of the public and steve bannon with a plan to delay certification of the election resulting january of. what they called among themselves the green bay sweep. he cites executive privilege to avoid cooperating with the committee. he went on tv and wrote a book about it. and about how his plan for a bloodless coup to succeed if it wasn't for the violence of january 6. the committee citing navarro's appearance on this network the day after being subpoenaed as a reason why he has no excuse for the stonewalling this committee. >> my focus was simply on the green bay sweep plan which was basically to have -- it started

flawlessly. the battleground states challenge the results. that would trigger 24 hours of hearings in the house and the senate and by that we could by pass the media and get out the truth of what probably happened in the battleground states. quarterback mike pence's job to take ten days and go back and give the state legislatures who are the ones with the power to determine whether an election is fraud lentd, to give them a second look. >> a ruling on january 6 as the select committee investigating moves to hold two inside everies in contempt is where we start the how shall. luke broadwater is with us and frank figl uizzi and former senator and analyst claire mccaskill is here. luke, i believe you and your

colleagues broke the story looking at criminality and specifically the crimes this federal judge calls out in black and white in this ruling. tell me the significance of this judge's opinion to the work of the 1/6 committee and potentially doj. >> it is hugely significant because this was a risk for the january 6 committee to take these arguments in the court in front of a federal judge and say we believe we have crimes here that former president trump and the adviser john eastman committed. conspiracy to defraud the united states. and to put these in front of a judge and to have the ruling come back in such strong terms more likely than not that president trump committed the crimes, the language of the judge is eviscerating to the argument and highly damning of president trump. so this will give them more fuel as they go and consider the

criminal referrals and the potentially think the justice department. >> i want to read more from the reporting about the impact of this decision to you, frank. eastman claimed attorney-client privilege and a memo to rudy giuliani forwarded to eastman with scenarios of the january 6 session. quote this may have been the first time that members of president trump team transformed a legal interpretation into a day by day plan of action. carter noted. carter indicated the memo maps out potential supreme court suits and the impact of different judicial outcomes. carter determined that it warranted disclosure because of the crime-fraud exception to

attorney-client privilege. i'm dangerously uninformed as a lawyer. where crimes have been potentially committed there is no privilege. tell me if i have that right and what this says to you. >> oh yeah. yeah. you pass criminal procedure 201. the reason we are talking about this ruling is because if eastman had been successful saying this is an attorney-client thing or executive privilege lay off but he failed. the judge saying the privileges don't apply talking about criminality and you guys were strategizing about a crime and a step further now implicating the former president and the language is quite clear likely committed felonies, likely he knew that this was improper so this goes way beyond the eastman

ruling and a current or former federal prosecutor or agent within the sound of my voice knows what i mean when i say this. when a long time respected federal judge has a ruling like this saying mr. x has likely committed felonies it reverberates through the office. you stop what you're doing at the fbi, at the u.s. attorney's officer and you say, wow. we have a federal judge who's actually told us out loud what we have been wondering and now you have to take some action. there's no rule that says you don't go to a manual and says if a federal judge says this you do this but the impact is that you stop what you're doing and almost if you don't take action now to open a case if you haven't already, you now owe it to the judge, any u.s. attorney worth a darn and now this is the attorney general of the united

states, is going to feel compelled if he never does anything to explain himself to the judge. that is the respect, the gravity that's attached to the federal bench. if this happened anywhere else in america the local fbi, the local u.s. attorney's officer would stop and have a meeting and figure out what do we do? >> look. frank, i think you put your finger on why this landed with an explosive sort over boom in our inboxes and it can feel like part of this blur of nothingness. it is federal judge after federal judge in this sentencing of the insurrectionists themselves who pointed to donald trump's speech as the incitement and it is now a federal judge in not an unrelated case but a case related to the eastman's emails

saying that felonies are likely committed by trump and eastman. where is doj? >> it is everyone's questio. you know where i am on this. i have seen indications that something is happening. i don't see evidence of coordination and i get worried that the committee is in front of doj and doing things that they might like and then people telling me who i trust calm down. calm down. give us space. we are doing our job. so i think doj is paying close attention and further i think they have a strategy here and i still hold out hope that they're going to put the name donald j. trump in the subject line of a federal investigation. >> back to the reporting about

the 1/6 commit tee and the interest in gathering enough evidence to support potential criminal charges, they were around fraud, around sort of using the lie to raise money and around the statute that liz cheney read aloud from at a hearing with colleagues and about obstructing an official proceeding. the judge again sort of blowing the kabuki theater out of the water saying potential felonies have been committed. what's your sense of what happened today inside doj? >> listen. first there's two or three things to point out. one merrick garland was a federal judge. he understands what this federal judge with this ruling means in the criminal justice system. secondly, i think it's important to remember that the 1/6 committee has no ability to

bring criminal charges against anyone. this is all about doj. this is all about whether or not they're going to try to squiggle through an out and the out is the judge said more likely than not. he didn't say beyond a reasonable doubt. he said more likely than not. keep in mind this judge -- the third thing is the judge read the emails so he knows what's in them. he knows that this was in fact a plan, an active plan, to commit a crime and obstruct the proforma receiving of electoral votes from the states. that is essential to the peaceful transfer of power in quite of america. this is not a good day for merrick garland. i know frank always says -- we have done this before. he says i think something is happening or maybe something is happening. they are slower in molasses in

winter as my grand mother would say. this is no excuse for it. >> we know what it looks like when something is happening. we have covered an investigation where the inner circle is in and out and people like don mcgahn are asked to testify. we'll cover that. this is not that. they are not under investigation. can we assert that? >> yeah. it is really, really not the style -- i think frank will back me up on this. it is not the style of fbi or doj to outsource the investigation to congress. there is no way they say we'll sit back and wait what congress says because that's not the way they operate and i for the life of me don't understand this. this is really i think a gut check moment for garland his decision by the federal judge

which is just within the confines of blowing up the claim of privilege. >> jump in on this, luke, because in a very serious way -- i can hear chuck rosenthal's head exploding to wait for congress. tantamount to something so against the dna of doj. of course they're not waiting on the congressional investigation. but i wonder what you make of the significance to look at trump insiders and the violence itself. that seems to be what they look at with scavino, whether or not he has knowledge about the real potential for violence on january 6. >> yeah. i think the committee is making progress in those areas. not just at dan scavino but more broadly between political

actors, the rally organizers and violent extremists. they have the right wing militia groups. but yeah. particularly with dan scavino, they said he was monitoring donald which after donald put out the call for people to come to capitol january 6 exploded all sorts of threats of violence against congress and people in the tunnels, plans to bring weapons to the capitol and so their argue systematic that scavino should have known or did know that there would be violence on january 6 and yet kept promoting the rally through the white house twitter accounts, through donald trump's social media but dan scavino has yet to produce a single document

or sit for a minute of an interview and why he is up for the charge tonight because he's not cooperated despite getting six different deferrals on the deposition date. >> in the words of donald trump, people who are innocent don't take the fifth or refuse to cooperate. i want to read you from the report of what they have regarding scavino and his knowledge ahead of him about violence. from the committee's report. public reports notes that scavino and the social media team had a history of monitoring websites, an online forum frequented by individuals who openly advocated and planned violence in the weeks leading up to january 6. december 19, 2020, the same day mr. trump tweeted big protest in d.c. on january 6. be there, will be wild! users on posts on the donald.win began to share techniques,

tactics and procedures for the assault on the capitol. the weeks of communications on the side included information on how to use a flag pole as a weapon. something that came to pass. how to smuggle firearms into d.c.. measurements for a guillotine. maps of the tunnel system under the capitol. a user encouraged supporters to secure the capitol building claiming that there will be plenty of exmilitary to guide you. what do you think the commit tee is getting at, frank? >> we are headed toward criminal referrals for scavino at the least. look. at a minimum it makes him an accessory on notice because of the communications. at a maximum it puts him in the role of an insurrectionist. we talk about seditious conspiracy here. so there's -- it is coming soon that there's a criminal referral to doj for people who are

extremely close to the president of the united states. and again, we keep having this discussion. but at that point, you're going to see me saying things like, what's going on now? if a criminal referral is made public garland owes the united states an explanation. i know we keep saying things like, look, typically doj operates in secrecy. we shouldn't be told what they are planning. but you know what? we should have had an insurrection at the capitol. the erosion of the justice system and the rule of law, the credibility to continue as a democracy is happening in plain sight and therefore some point soon it is time for garland to say i have been receiving criminal referrals and we are on this, doing something about it. that's all i can tell you and that should be good enough epa

not yet there. >> it does sort of usher in a conversation about how the rule of law dies. not just when bill barr sticks the sizable thumbs on the scales of justice. it dies when there's an expectation that the removal of that thumb restores it. accountability is what restores it. i wonder what you make of the contempt votes for scavino and navarro. >> i think it's very important that navarro and scavino be held accountable. they are certainly a huge part of what happened on january 6. and i think one of the things that i get depressed about is all of these rabid followers of trump who were egged on and encouraged. they're all hundreds of them are

hiring lawyers and facing jail time and walking into a courtroom for the first time in their lives and meanwhile the powerful people, the people that pulled the strings, the people that thought they could somehow change an election for president of the united states of america, nothing happened to any of them yet. that's really depressing if you think you're going to somehow show fealty to the rule of law. >> stick around. more on the investigation into the january 6 insurrection and the growing pressure on supreme court justice thomas over the conspiracy theory loving wife who pushed the white house chief of staff to overturn president joe biden's election victory. plus the war in ukraine. the fighting continues across the country.

president zelenskyy signaling an openness to neutrality as they're set to hold a new round of talks this week. president biden this afternoon offered no apologies for saying that putin should not be ruling a country. expressing what he calls the outrage and saying that he is not seeking regime change. the very latest when we continue after a quick break. stay with us. great-great-grandfather baptiste caretto. ancestry threads all of the little facts together into a narrative so you get to feel like you're walking the same path they did. growing up in a little red house, together into a narrative so you get to feel like on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew.

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congress and then meet to take action on a controversy that has burst wide open while i was away over the last few days. nbc news is reporting to discuss whether to seek an interview with ginni thomas, an activist and wife of supreme court justice thomas. the back shell texts the mark meadows have revealed that he peddle qanon conspiracies and tried to advance the white house's claim of election fraud. it's an extraordinary pipeline during a period when trump and allies vowing to go to the supreme court in an effort to negate the election results. those text messages themselves would be alarming enough just the what of them if not the fact that justice clarence thomas has had to rule on january 6 related

cases that ended up before the supreme court and i don't know. i'm a gal that doesn't believe in coinbase enss. he was the only supreme court justice to dissent when every other supreme court justice rejected donald trump's bid to block the january 6 select committee from accessing donald trump's white house records. hmm. luke, frank and claire are back with us. we talk a lot here about this fact that -- it is maybe an inconvenient truth if you're chief justice roberts but since the supreme court had to rule on bush v. gore the united states supreme court is 20% less popular than it was in the aftermath of that. it is held in high regard by 40% of the american people. and epic, epic collapse in terms

of trust and credibility and the one guy, one justice didn't think that the bipartisan select committee should have access to trump's documents happens to be married to someone bannon-esque in the world view and the contacts with the highest levels of the trump white house. what say you? >> well, first, let's say what the law is. i want to read the law very clearly. the law says a supreme court -- any federal judge or magistrate including supreme court justices, must recuse themselves when quote impartiality might be reasonably questioned. hello? this is a woman who not only embraced the conspiracy, she was trying to shape it. she was trying to make it happen. she was an active participant at the highest levels of our

government. justice roberts, he did a big speech about how we can't have anybody else deciding if a justice should recuse themselves. excuse me? i think he said letting justices second guess the colleagues would really could turn ugly. turn ugly he said. this is ugly. this is really ugly. woef ethics committees in kochk to judge other members of congress and they have successfully run people out of congress for violations. i'm telling you the supreme court better wake up here because if there aren't people in congress with the hands in the air swearing to tell the truth about this escapade and what's going on with ginni thomas then we don't have the checks and balances in the government that we need to have.

>> luke, betsy woodruff swan reported that there's conversations whether to engage ginni thomas before these texts were made public. i want to highlight the dates and read from some of the texts. one comes on november 10th after the election is called for president biden and thomas wife of clarence thomas text this to chief of staff meadows. help this great president stand firm, mark. within to the trump school of grammar. you are the leading with him who is standing for america's constitutional governance at the press piece. the majority knows biden and the left is attempting the greatest heist of our history. that's from someone that doesn't have access to the best

information available but something entirely dimptd coming from someone with access to the truth. this one on november 19th. quote, sounds like sidney and her team are getting inundated with everyday of fraud. make a plan. release the kraken and save us from the left taking america down. now crazier than fox. january 10th after the deadly insurrection text this, quote, we are living through what feels like the end of america. most of us are disgusted with the vp. and are in listening mode to see where to fight with the teams. those that attack the capital are not representative of our great team of patriots for djt.

why does ginni thomas matter? >> right. the text have presented an issue for debate for the committee. they have had these for months. mark meadows turned them over late last year and at first the committee believed that ginni thomas was one of many sending conspiracy theorys to the white house and not everybody had seen the texts and perhaps true impact hadn't gotten out. this week once they were revealed it starts a new round of debate. it raised a bunch of questions for the committee. she has access to not only mark meadows but jared kushner. she was instrumental in pushing for certain things to happen with overturning the election. many people have gotten

subpoenaed by the committee. had more than 7 interviews. it started to look like a double standard for her and just today we learned that liz cheney and bennie thompson is discussing this matter with the committee, staff, investigator, with other members and likely to send a letter or reach out to her in another way soon to ask her to come in for an interview. >> frank, you can also hold up this debate and the conversations about the substance of what she text and the people to whom she sent the messages and must also hold up the through line of how clarence thomas ruled on every case relating to the 2020 election in a community of one. here are the cases coming before the court. around the 2020 election.

december 11, 2020, supreme court refusing to hear that texas lawsuit to overturn the results in six states. alito and thomas said the court should have taken up that case. february 22, 2021, the supreme court rejected the case by the pennsylvania gop challenging vote by mail rules. gorsuch, alito and thomas again dissent. and then here truly 1 of 1. january 19, 2022, the supreme court rejects trump's executive privilege claim over the white house documents. we don't know if he knew that -- i guess the mark meadows text have been turned over and we don't know what he tieu or didn't know about the wife's communications with the white

house. lone dissent. what do you make of that as an investigator? >> it smells badly. i think you and i have talked about the long list of things to be fixed after the trump administration and keep it on the night stand and add to that the supreme court doesn't have an ethics code. let's add that to this mix because, yes, claire is correct that there are federal laws governing judges and a low bar. a reasonable concern, recuse yourself. the american people need to know and deserve to know if clarence thomas brought the issue to the chief justice and whether they had a discussion, whether there was any decision that clarence blew off or not. we need to know that for the sake of the rule of law but for those that say hands off of clarence thomas let me say this. this isn't free speech. free speech ends when you

strategize a coup attempt and trying to overturn a legitimate election and the last name smith or gonzalez or anything else would never have gotten through to mark meadows and imagine yourself in his position thinking two and three steps ahead. i might have to testify about how i responded to the election results and the president of the united states might have to explain himself and i don't want to upset mrs. thomas. so i'm going to give her an audience and try to appease her thinking ahead about things going to the sprortd that might impact me. guess what. it did. they are going to the supreme court. and that's where we are. it was about clarence thomas from day one and the moment he decided not to recuse himself he made it all about clarence thomas. >> i think we have to pull for our own time capsule ability to understand how about donald

trump understood them at the time. he was desperate, desperate for the election to go to the supreme court. tweeting all the time take it to the supreme court. he wanted it to get to the supreme court. so great as bob woodward says the truth will emerge. thank you for starting us off. thank you all of you for spending time with us today. turning to the war in ukraine. could that country some day possibly be split into two? the leaders of both nations are set to talk again and president zelenskyy made it clear he is not willing to redraw the nation's borders. where the fighting stands this hour. live reports next. companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles.

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five weeks of war. five weeks of brutal, ferocious, compounding cruelty in ukraine and yet bruised and battered that country is still standing and strong. one major development this afternoon, you might remember our coverage of irpin, the kyiv suburb where in the early days of the war richard engle documented the destruction there as russian forces moved closer. this afternoon the mayor says they have retaken the town from the russians. nbc news nor american miltd officials can confirm that but

still it sounds like a hopeful sign and a sign that's indicative of how things are going in ukraine and russia's failure to swallow the country whole and resulting in what looks like from the vantage point a change intact for the russians. from the strategy of dominance and victory to perhaps a more focused objective if you will. domination of eastern ukraine and splitting the country in two. people have made the comparison to north and south korea. mariupol is an eastern city that's been reduced to rubble by russian bombardment. it is described as a genocide by the mayor there. thousands have died and many more are still trapped. there's an effort to provide humanitarian corridors and across ukraine. the u.n. announced an arranged

cease-fire and peace negotiations set to commence this week in turkey. ukrainian president zelenskyy suggesting the government will consider compromises including neutrality and security guarantees. tus pentagon says that it deploying more aircraft and navy personnel to germany. the budget announced today includes substantial funding having to do with the war in ukraine and the primary focus shifted to an off the cuff comment made this weekend while travelinging in europe. he insisted the personal views that putin cannot remain in power do not signify a policy regime change in russia. >> number one, i'm not walking anything back. the fact of the matter i was

experiencing the moral outrage i felt in the actions of this man. >> what made you add that at the end, mr. president? >> i was talking to the russian people. the last part of the speech was talking to the russian people and what we thought and communicating this to not only the russian people but the whole world. this is -- this is just stating a simple fact. that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. totally unacceptable and the way to deal with it is strengthen and keep nato completely united and help ukraine where we can. >> joining our live coverage nbc news correspondent ali arouzi and white house krontsd mike memory and our friend retired four star general barry mccaffrey is here. general mccaffrey, why can't we

hold the two thoughts in our head at the same time that u.s. policy did not shift to regime change in russia and in the u.s. president's opinion this man should not stay in power? >> well, that press conference was painful to watch. i respect and admire president biden but there have been a series of misstatements in public that have had the effect of dividing our nato allies and stepping on his own message but you every quite correct. at the end of the day putin clearly is a criminal, brutal violator of international law who can never be welcomed back into the international community. and who is doing terrible damage, not just to ukraine, but to his own people and may have seen the russian army suffer

25,000 or more casualties with more to come. but the president of the united states has to have a different posture and position clearly than outside critics. >> general mccaffrey, are we complicit in reframing the russian objectives saying perhaps the goal from domination to dividing the country in two? isn't that their strategic redo of what the war in ukraine and the invasion is all about? >> we're trying to read the tea leaves. you make a strong point. i don't think putin's mindset probably has changed one wit. he's publicly advocated reintegrating ukraine in mother russia. they're attacking throughout the country with cruise missiles targeting civilians to force capitulation or change the war aims by the ukrainians so i think probably right now what's

happened is a tactical disaster is forcinging the ruins to say what can we get in the short run? they desperately need to keep the land bridge from crimea up to the donbas and i think they believe they have to get odesa. it is not clear to me they can do either. so they have been forced back on the heels and will try to scavenge manpower throughout russia from the mideast and elsewhere to keep this battle going. but putin's in trouble. the russian army is in trouble. >> mike memoli, i take all the point and defer to his experience own these issues but something different. the president seemed to describe vladimir putin's tendency to do what vladimir putin do as i have heard from ambassador mcfaul and

describing terrorists attack. they terrorize people because that is the tactic. does the white house see putin as a terrorist in ukraine, terrorizing the country's civilian population? >> reporter: i think the president has been quite clear now with what he thinks of this president. he said that he's a war criminal, that he is a butcher, a dictator and got in trouble over the weekend saying that this man cannot remain in power. that is what was articulated today as the perm view of the president of the united states and the fact as president biden said so often as a candidate the words of a president matter and to washington and the global foreign policy community the president doesn't get to articulate the personal statements without being seen as official policy and interesting to see the president's

relationship with vladimir putin evolved where he thought there's value to sit down with sort of put the issues on the table, tick through where and what the u.s. view is on them and where to find potential common ground and potentially use that personal relationship to deal with the problems going forward. now you heard something striking from the president today as part of that news conference saying i don't care what vladimir putin thinks. clearly his view has changed now over course of the time in office to view the fact that vladimir putin is perhaps not a rational actor anymore, simply going to follow through on his plan results consequences be damned and proposes significant challenges for the administration moving forward and interesting given what policy has been to avoid escalation and the president saying he doesn't think it matters in escalating the situation further. >> i want to spend time and

asking you to stick around through a quick break and then dig in to what has been a very, very intense couple of days there. stay with us.

it's very difficult when children are suffering. 135 kids up to today. she's the custodian of their futures. she's remembering the ones who perished.

she can't hold back her sobs. >> they died because these people couldn't agree. she can hardly talk through her weeping. it's not right. children are not guilty of anything, she says. >> that was our sky news colleague's remarkable reporting and a conversation with the ukrainian school principal. an important reminder of the true victims of russia's brutality. i think urgency to the calls for peace. ali, tell me about what's happened there today and the last couple days? i know the russian attacks two miles from where you are shattered that psychology of security there. >> that's right. they hit a large fuel depot

storage facility. they had several long range precision missiles from the sea. they also hit a government factory of some description. and the russians said they hit these places because they were supplying fuel to the front lines and the east of the country. they wanted to hold them back in their tracks. that is also an indication of how badly they're doing in the east. they need to focus here on the west. the displaced people are coming from the east. it is seen as a safe haven. people we spoke to are wondering how much longer with lviv remain a refuge for the displaced people in this country? but it's still not a strategic target like places in the east. there would be very little for putin to gain to destroy lviv.

it is mostly made up of civilians. but in the rest of the country, ukrainians are putting up an incredible fight. they keep pushing back the russians from territories that they control in the first weeks of this war. they have taken a lot of the places back, especially in and around the suburbs of kyiv. they're putting up a tremendous fight. and then we talk about trying to divide this country. at this stage, nicole, it's going to be a very difficult thing for putin to do because to divide this country, first you need to conquer and control the east. and he hasn't been able to take any major cities. ukrainians are still holding much of their territory. and they keep pushing the russians back in the places that the russians do control. they constantly see protests from regular people from teenagers to grandparents. so, you know, they're pretty long way from dividing this country at this moment. >> just remarkable five weeks in

that it is putin's catastrophic failure that remains the headline along with the human calamity of war. we're grateful to you all. check in with our friend and his family. you've all come to know and worry about them as much as i do when the next hour starts after a quick break. please stay with us. s after a quick break. please stay with us. i've been married to my high school sweetheart for 35 years. i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things. i'd say give it a try. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. if you have copd, ask your doctor about breztri.

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i think if everyone would leave kyiv, putin will win. and i don't want to let him win.

so here the rest two million who have stayed as i did, we have been trying to do our best to support the defense of kyiv, to support territorial defense and soldiers and others. >> hi, everyone. it's 5:00 p.m. in new york. russians are finding kyiv to be a very difficult target. in fact, there could be a potential change in the strategy. one that will focus more on controlling eastern ukraine saying that the top goal for russian forces was the liberation of the region or the comments may have solely been an attempt to save face. russians continue to struggle to make any progress on the ground. overall, the story of this almost five-week-long war is one of a resilient and strong ukrainian people and very capable ukrainian military.

ukrainian president zelenskyy yesterday said he is willing to discuss his country's neutrality in order to end the war. without delay. he made the comments in an interview with a russian journalist though due to russia's media crackdown on any negative, in other words, true, about the war russian news outlets were ordered not to publish any of it. a humanitarian catastrophe in some parts of the country reach astounding and heartbreaking levels. in kharkiv, 1100 residential buildings are destroyed by russian shelling. richard engel did some reporting. >> reporter: they're protecting what they can this morning, fearing russia may again try to capture this city. volunteers encasing in sandbags a monument to ukraine's most beloved poet.

a symbol that putin says does not and should not exist. it's too late to save large parts of downtown kharkiv which russia bombed relentlessly for weeks. the military announced last week the main focus of the so-called special operation is now focused on the east. a shift after russian troops failed to encircle kyiv, push back by ukrainian resistance and plagued by overstretched supply lines. ukrainian intelligence officials say russia's new strategy may be to try and take over eastern ukraine, splitting the country in two like north and south korea. they're watching this area closely. many residents are living in the subways for more than a month now. but to day they had a surprise.

a troop of children's entertainers who normally do birthday parties are now rotating through all the subway stations. to spread a little cheer. >> it's touching the kids are doing this and getting some entertainment, some exercise. they've been here so long. no sunlight and no school. this is as good as it gets. the kids went crazy for it and burned off some energy. transported to a happier place, at least for an hour. victoria told me it was like a belated birthday for daughter maria. >> so many people have left this country. why are you staying here? >> translator: this is our land and we love it. batman says everyone in ukraine is doing his or her part. >> our children are our future. >> these are now the childhood memories for a generation of ukrainians.

memories of life hiding from russian bombs. >> let's begin the hour with igor, the former adviser to president zelenskyy. remains in the country with his family. igor, how are you? >> hi, nicole. well, good to see you. we missed you. we're fine. had a bit of a near miss yesterday. we had an explosion two minutes away from us. two minute drive away from us. so that was probably the first time in a month where my older daughter actually ran to me crying and saying can i sleep under the stairs. we have the harry potter room. so she slept there. but apart from that, i mean, everything is okay. as safe as can be. i mean, definitely better than some other places in ukraine. so i'm grateful for that. >> what are we getting wrong? i have trouble covering this shift in strategy.

are they talking about a new strategy because they failed? >> make no mistake, i don't think putin has got a new strategy. i think things aren't going his way so he's trying to stall until he can mobilize more troops and more equipment. i think, you know, the north and south korea scenario is probably his plan b plan. and, you know, what is worrying over the last few days, he's been publicly attacking fuel depots in ukraine and food storage facilities. that means it's turning into a war of attrition. and as i've been saying for months now, you know, he wants the territory. so he's doing everything he can for people to leave ukraine. and for him to kind of let his troops in. so, you know, that's where it's headed. i wouldn't be optimistic as far as negotiations are concerned. and i wouldn't, you know, read too much into the change of strategy. obviously, he is focusing on the

east now. that's where things are going better for him at the moment. but, you know, i think we'll see a second wave in kyiv. >> so you're bracing for and the fear that your older daughter felt from this blast is what you think may be a sign of what's to come? you're bracing for a second run on kyiv? >> yeah. i wouldn't say it is a second run on kyiv just yet. although, there's a bit more military activity than we've had over the last week or so. but definitely, i mean, there are ominous signs all over the place. so there might be another wave of attacks in kyiv. actually, you know, yesterday was first for us as well. normally the explosion was definitely scary. my friend made bucket lists so that's not something, you know, that i expected to happen.

there is always a positive. this made me re-evaluate myself as a father. i've been really overprotected of my daughters. and, you know, she's been asking to go away too boarding school. and yesterday late at night we made the decision come september, she's free to go anywhere she wants to. and she is actually picked a school in if florida, st. andrews. but she is leaving us. she is all grown up now. >> she made us a video. and you said it's okay to play this right? >> yeah. >> okay. let's watch. >> this is my room. there's a collage of cats. i love cats a lot and fashion. so, yeah, i want to fill this up

a little bit more. yeah. but my cat is running around my room. she's so scared. i'm going to show you my sister. you probably already saw her. say hi. hi. >> hi. and this is the room where we hide because of bombs. it's not really loud. but not to be really scared we sit here. and last night i slept here. it was really comfortable.

so, you know, it's just like a storage place. i want to just start learning again and not be scared. and wake up and go outside, not being scared also. i just want to live a normal life again. and i hope that soon it will be possible for me and my sister and my family. so, yeah. bye. >> so she just wants to stop being scared. how do you deal with that? >> well, you know, funny this is the episode where you are trying

to make me you cry. look, i'll tell you a funny story. first of all, you know, she said, look, i want to go away to a boarding school. she picked a school in florida. the first thing i asked being myself, a protective dad, i said aren't you afraid of the alligators? and she just looked at me and smiled and looked out the window and said really dad? that's what i should be afraid of, alligators? so that's the thing. but, look, i always leave you on a positive note. and, you know, after all the war anecdotes and this one, you know, russian army is doing because of poor supply, they're running low on food. so they've been looting houses. ukrainians are leaving their homes because the russian arm ji coming. you put all the food out and leave a little note saying guess

where the poison is. and apparently it wasn't positive with the russians. we see it more and more often. this is the most creative nation in the world. i really hope that our kids, our teenagers, you know, get a chance to live that normal life because we are so tired of this reality where some people want to go to mars and at the same time, you know, you have people killing kids for nothing. so hopefully that ends and our kids just can go back to being kids again. >> igor, what is your mental process of how long this can go on and what your country is willing to put on the negotiating table and your president is willing to sit down and negotiate for. can you take me through that? >> well, look, we've -- we have

an understanding that there is -- there's highlights of the conflict continuing for quite some time. we are talking months. that's a possibility. at the same time, ukraine and president zelenskyy were doing everything in our power to use diplomacy as a way to stop the killing. you know? it's the 21st century. and there is no need to kill hundreds of children in places for two countries to kind of to come to terms with certain differences. but at the same time, we kind of -- or we are not stupid. we realize who we're dealing with. and, you know, unfortunately, that diplomacy may not work. and then we just have to adopt, you know, that famous strategy of, you know, find something you're willing to die for and try to live for it. and so that's kind of our motto. but i spoke to some people to my former colleagues and, you know,

one of the funniest jokes i heard was like we miss the good old days. >> you're on that call. it is amazing here to watch, you know, from successor sort of listen to what you've been asking for, to protect the skies over ukraine. that your president called for in in a joint session of congress. i wonder your thoughts and assessment of how the ukrainian people viewed putin shouldn't stay in control of the country, created a bill political firestorm there. what did you think of it there? >> well, we do understand the difference between a personal opinion and policy. but at the same time, first of all, we share that personal opinion. and, you know, i'm not the president of the united states and say explicitly clearly and loudly.

president putin needs to go. that regime needs to change. look, it was incredible to hear president biden to say that. we're fully supportive of that. a butcher that murdered tens of thousands of innocent civilians and hundreds of children can stay in power if we can -- if we want to call this century really the 21st century, the future. not the bloody past. >> it seems they're trying to inform the people of what the war in ukraine looks like. the intentional targeting of children, the murder of

children, not just kharkiv but untold numbers of children have lost their lives and been harmed. what do you make or what can you tell us about this xrart interview? i watched it. i believe president zelenskyy conducted the interview in russian. >> first of all, president zelenskyy comes from the russian speaking part of ukraine. he got used to speaking ukrainian. but in the beginning, he was still a russian speaker. i've been saying all along that if we want this conflict to end if, we want to remove the threat, to the entire planet, if we want to see russian people want that it regime change and kind of oppose, you know, the

barbaric actions of their president, we need to be speaking to them directly. that's why i've been calling on many celebrities, it needs to be -- there needs to be a more systemic approach. so everyone who's got, you know, russian friends and fans, you know, russian acquaintances needs to do their part. for those that think nuclear war is out of question, just listen to putin. >> how are you holding up? >> i'm really tired. i mean, that's the only thing that kind of -- that i find really negative as far as the effect of this on me is concerned. bushgts you know, we'll rest when we win this.

>> after talking to you for the last five weeks, i don't doubt that either. i'm not surprised by the reports i see on the military front, russia's failures. igor, you have an open invitation every day. thank you for starting us off. please stay safe. >> thank you so much. >> with the war in ukraine entering what may be a new, maybe more dangerous phase, how president biden's comments over the weekend about putin could reshape the war. and what putin could do next. colonel alexander binman will be our guest in just a moment. later, two hours from right now, january 6th select committee investigating the deadly insurrection will meet to recommend contempt of congress charges for two trump insiders. this day, a day when a federal judge implicated the disgraced twice impeached ex-president and attorney saying they likely committed felonies in attempt to overturn america's 2020

presidential election. 0 presidential election.

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president zelenskyy after the kremlin ordered russian journalists no the to publish an interview -- lengthy interview they conducted with him. moscow continues to crack down

on freedom of speech in russia spreading disinformation and reporting truth of the russian war in ukraine. joining us, the former director for european affairs for the national security council and now a board member. and also joining us, john heilemann, my friend and the nbc news and msnbc national affairs analyst, the host and executive producer of show time's the circus and executive editor of "the recount." i start with you, colonel. you know, igor is a former adviser to president zelenskyy. he's been coming on the show since before the russian invasion commenced. he had a lot of the same clarity that you've had about exactly what russia would do about how ukraine would respond, about how capable the military is.

there is a catastrophic sense of security for all the children in ukraine. what do we do about that? >> well, i think it's frankly a generation that is going to grow up with the taste of war. they're going to understand that insecurity going forward. that's probably after this war is all said and done. going to drive them to be stronger, more resilient population, a population that's going to do more to defend their country, that's going to do more to avoid another war because they understand what it is. it's going to be one that carries the legacy of the war forward for the coming decades. and a lot of that is going to be tragedy. a lot of that is going to be

overcoming the deep challenges of having to rebuild a country. it's going to make ukraine stronger. that's how society is going to exit this war. >> colonel, i want to ask you about this. it's a 90-minute interview that president zelenskyy did in russian with four russian journalists. i don't believe any of them are living or working inside russia anymore. but i really want to try to understand what the access is to the truth about the war in ukraine from russians seeking it. i understand that just like in this country, they don't all tell the truth, right? but for those that want to understand the truth about what is happening and perhaps have sons or daughters who have not come back from their border patrol, what is their ability to access the substance of this zelenskyy interview?

>> the russian internet is permiable. it is still something that, frankly, through various means like telegram channels, there is a fair bit of access to the public that is looking for answers. through virtual private networks. they can understand what is going on. you just have to have an active engaged populous. like the arnold schwarzenegger interview, to try to knock down the message and constantly trying to as it percolated back up, they were trying to knock it down, means it's getting through. it is penetrating. frankly, i see it as a maybe insurmountable challenge for the russians to keep that information flow completely isolated.

a place like north korea that doesn't have access to the internet has internet pipes or external input information. that's one thing. but you have a country that frankly also expanded and built on an open internet that the russians are trying to tamp down on, that's a much, much more difficult challenge. they want to understand more and how to get that information. >> colonel, it is john heilemann here. i want to ask you about what joe biden said in warsaw on saturday. subject that's been much discussed by everybody. who spends any time talking about this on television. two things that are conjoined question here.

one is the related to how the experts have heard his comments at the end of the speech where he said that putin cannot stay in power. some people say that is a terrible gaffe. others think it was like reagan's tear down this wall, mr. gorbachev. and at the same time, kind of confusing things even more, you have reporting, reliable reporting coming out of the white house. the white house thought it was a gaffe itself and had to walk it back. they had people close to joe biden. he said, no, he knew exactly what he said. i am curious what you think. do you think it was a good idea to say what he said? >> i thought it was a very important thing for the president to say. i don't take it as a gaffe. i think it's the insulation of this administration, the fact they need to protect the president and walk back some of the comments.

i find it discouraging that you have staffers that are trying to unravel that orientation. it wasn't a foreign policy decision, either. it wasn't a foreign policy decision to seek regime change rather it was a declaration of the facts. something i said multiple times. this is the beginning of the end of putin. he cannot exit this catastrophic war ill conceived war based on false assumptions and remain in power. you have various factions that he managed, suppressed in certain cases that are going to start to assert various interests. it's going to be increasingly hard for him to do that with the pressures of economic sanctions, with the casualties, with the isolation. it is the beginning of the end. that is simply what the president is saying rather than saying what we're going to look to topple the russian regime. i wish this administration would

not be as sensitive as protective of the president that is fully capable of doing his job. he's the most experienced foreign policy leader that we've had in this country in a long time. and we don't need to keep treating his commentary from the heart as gaffes. >> colonel, let me follow up on that. what is your advice? is it i mean they're sort of mid -- he said what he said. you heard from former zelenskyy adviser that we understand the difference between a personal opinion and officially u.s. foreign policy. what is your advice for them? is there sort of -- they're treating it like toothpaste. president says i'm not walking anything back. this is my opinion. what is your advice to them? they sort of seem sort of -- the staff seems like deer in the headlights.

>> they're not rising to the challenge of this tremendous crisis. and those are long standing insiders that have been with the president for long time. very trusted, very loyal. they feel like they need to protect him potentially because they also need to protect their own career prospect. i think some of the folks that are not performing to standard just need to go and cycle in some folks that are going to do the job as effectively and frankly offer the president the stark counsel of the fact that he may be wrong at times and follow his lead when he chooses a path. the president gets the privilege of -- there's all sorts of debate that can occur below the public life. but once the president makes a decision and unless it's criminal and my experience was that some presidents, the former president did do something criminal, everybody else has to fall in line and follow his lead. >> thank you very much for being

here today. its wonderful to see you. switching gears for us on a big day of developments in the january 6th investigation including the federal judge in this country saying that the disgraced ex-president committed felonies in his bid to overturn election he lost. and we will discuss the texts of the wife of clarence thomas as well as contempt charges for two trump insiders. back with all of it after a quick break. stay with us. t after a quick break. stay wh itus - [female narrator] they line up by the thousands. each one with a story that breaks your heart. like ravette... every step, brought her pain. their only hope: mercy ships. the largest floating civilian hospital in the world. bringing free surgeries to people who have no other hope. $19 a month will help provide urgently needed surgery for so many still suffering. so don't wait, call the number on your screen. or donate at mercyships.org.

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it's been a major day of developments for the january 6th committee and heartst investigation. a federal judge ruled today that donald trump "more likely than not with lawyer john eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct congress on january 6th." that judge ordered eastman to turn over 101 e-mails he tried to keep secret. we're also now less than two hours away from the select committee's public vote on whether the full house will take up recommending that trump allies peter navarro face criminal contempt charges for their involvement in trying to overturn the election and their refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.

they show her pressuring over and over again and guiding then trump chief of staff mark meadows over and over again to overturn the election. sending shock waves throughout washington last week and demands that her husband recuse himself from future january 6th related cases. joining our conversation, jackie alamaney. the author of the early 202 newsletter. lucky for us an msnbc contributor. >> i want to read from this judge's opinion which really was for anyone following every development in all this, he sort of seemed to put into black and white what many have been waiting for someone to actually say out loud. he writes this, the illegal

illegalitj y was blatant. with a plan this bold, president trump knowingly tried to subvert this fundamental principle. what is the impact in terms of the earlier reporting that you and your colleague who was on the last hour of the committee seeking to gather enough evidence to pressure doj to pursue a criminal investigation? >> so the committee stated ghoel is to come up with the most authoritative account of what happened in the lead-up to january 6th on the day. but what the other goal that is not in writing is to put as much pressure on the justice department as possible. they see that as their only avenue for truly having people held accountable for what happened on january 6th. and for them, today, for the committee, it's a hublg victory.

because you have someone of authority saying, yes, indeed, we think that this was criminal. this is not the house democrats saying this. this is not, you know, commentators and, you know, people elsewhere saying it. this is a federal judge, judges who in this country we usually hold up as, you know, sort of symbolsmpartiality. it only means as much as the words do. for the committee though, messaging wise it certainly a big victory. >> and john heilemann, all due respect to pundits, federal judge after federal judge in the mostly in the cases surrounding the insurrectionists themselves have pointed to and have called out in writing and in court

donald trump is the incitor. this ruling teams so go further. what is your sense of what impact it may have? >> you'll echo what he said. in december, when liz cheney, not one of the committee's democrats, but liz cheney pointedly raised the possibility for the first time publicly that donald trump might have committed a federal crime. and she cited a statute. it's exactly what this judge is now talking about. it's an obstruction of congress charge. she said here it is. she laid out a road map for the federal indictment. that is the first time that anyone had done that. it is a really important moment. people wondered is the committee going to go after trump? is he really in the sights.

she has the credibility that she has on among conservatives not among the current bench of conservatives. i'm talking about historically. people said this is a leadership moment for her when people -- the first moment when people said she is basically now the moral political legal leader in some ways of the committee. and that now has been -- i think what the judge has done in this case is there is no legal effect whatsoever. now you have a federal judge who basically he endorsed the underlying theory of the trump is in our sights case that liz cheney and others are pursuing. they still have to get the justice department to do that case. this is a plausible claim. this judge thinks it's obvious or likely that president's

broken the law. i think in terms of building momentum for that outcome and for the case that the committee ultimately wants to make if they want to make that case against trump, i think it's a big moment. you have two branches of government now weighing in on this and saying, yeah, the president is in trouble. >> yeah. but i mean you just revealed like the one thing that is not like the others. why should a congressional committee and a federal judge in central california have to get doj to go do something? i mean when you see crimes, aren't you supposed to go investigate them? we talked about this in the last hour. we know what it looks like when the inner circle is under scrutiny. there is no indication that anyone is under criminal investigation. why should a congressional committee and federal judge in central california ruling on eastman's memos be getting doj to investigate what according to this judge are likely felonies? >> well, i think that's a question better -- would be

better put when you do your exclusive interview merrick garland. that will be the top of your interview list for the attorney general. look, i don't know the answer to that question. that is ultimately what this is about. i think, you know, you can say a couple things. one, we don't know what the justice department is or isn't doing. there are those that have great faith that merrick garland is below the radar waiting for, you know, that things are going on that we don't see, that reporters have not figured out yet, the one big public statement he gave, gave some people some confidence that they would build their cases from the bottom to the top. and that meant that trump is the last one they got to. so that didn't take him off the table. and that's how the -- very clearly signalling that. the fact they're not yet going after trump and the doj doesn't mean they won't in the future. that is one answer. another answer is there are small institutionalists in the legal profession. i think merrick garland qualifies as one of those.

very moderate. who are weary of the notion of taking on even where the case in our eyes, our untrained, unlegally trained eyes seems clear as day, they're weary of the notion that a current executive branch would take on a current justice department would take on the former president -- a different party, retro actively in a criminal case. i think there say huge amount of caution about that around the attorney general and around a lot of the people in the justice department for reasons of kind of pure precedent and what it may do to politics and turning the legal arena into a more politicized environment than it already is now. i'm not crediting the views. i'm telling you i think they do hold sway among some in the attorney general circle. >> i want to ask you about the -- we should sort of get this context. federal judges are coming into contact with the january 6th

insurrection around cases that have arisen from the committee's aggressive pursuit of people like john eastman. this is it a case about eastman's e-mails. this is what the judge writes about the eastman memo. this is what adam kin social security kinsinger says -- al security kinsinger says -- >> so taking heilman out of this and adam shift out of this. if the country and i'm guessing

he means absent the 1/6 committee, they fear january 6th will repeat itself. how helpful is that to the 1/6 committee? >> extremely helpful. and as mike pointed out, the judges ruling doesn't mean that trump is charged for even investigated for a crime. but it increases the pressure. and it also really he could on rates the entire impetus and foundation for the committee's work and their mission. the determination that we saw today from u.s. district court judge david carter comes amid battle just to sort of set the stage here between john eastman and the committee in terms of turning over his hundreds and thousands of e-mails he sent from his personal e-mail. and the committee wanting that as a part of their investigation. ultimately, there were around 111 e-mails that eastman did not want to give over. the committee then -- that was being ultimately litigated and this judge reviews the 111

e-mails and the majority of them are going to -- this judge ruled that the majority of those are pertinent to the investigation. and that they are really key and, you know, headline grabbing sentence in carter's ruling is that based on the evidence, based on the e-mails reviewed, the court finds it more likely than not that president trump attempted to obstruct the joint session of congress. he goes on to meticulously outline how he went about that in the weeks leading up to january 6th and the interactions with the members of the pence team that have been in the record since november. but this win i think is also illustrative of the wins that the committee has been getting when it comes to the courts. at most turns they have been supported and have been able to receive the information that they've wanted other than the criminal contempt hearings which we're going to be seeing

tonight. >> there is more ahead than behind in terms of the news ahead on the 1/6 committee. a quick break for us. we'll all be right back. r us we'll all be right back. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. wayfair has everything i need so it was a happy ending... to make my home totally me. sometimes, i'm a homebody.

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from three sources that this thursday, the 1/6 committee will hear from jared cutchner, former aide to the ex-president.

"the washington post" reported a possible link between cutchner and ginny thomas. november 13th ginny thomas texted mark meadows about her outreach to jared potentially a reference to jared kushner. she wrote, quote, just forwarded to your gmail an email i sent jared this morning, sidney powell and improved coordination now will help the calvary come and fraud capitalized exposed in america, all caps, saved. back with jackie, mike, and john. the ginny thomas texts, mike, have been in the possession of the january 6th committee for a while, but we understand that they only recently and then today after this contempt we'll talk about bringing her in. what are the stakes of that for the committee? >> i am not sure that high for the committee. the stakes are higher for the

supreme court because you are drawing the court into a political fight in way that is just usually never has anything to do with sort of day-to-day politics of certainly of the partisan sort that play out in congress. so i think the stakes are higher for the court and it will continue to raise questions about whether thomas should recuse or, you know, from these different cases that may be coming up. so it's a bigger deal for the supreme court. i think it's a bigger deal for clarence thomas, who will -- this will allow for democrats and anti-trump republicans to continue to raise the issue. and it just -- it also makes january 6th an even bigger event because you are bringing such a bigger player into it, someone that was so close to someone is of such great power. >> well, didn't his wife bring the court into it? the only person that invoked the -- i mean, ginny thomas with her constant engagement with mark

meadows and trump constantly wanted all these lawsuits to arrive at the supreme court. it seems that the committee may have a plausible theory for wanting to investigate what trump's expectations were with all those tweets. >> yeah. look, litigationwise they threw a lot of things at the wall. there were almost all dismissed as meritless. they were all dismissed. they didn't go anywhere. they weren't successful at all and that's why you have january 6th. you have january 6th because everything before it failed so drastically and it's just the, you know, the essentially them trying to take the power into their hands and go right through the doors of the capitol to take it. so it's because everything failed, it's because all of sidney powell's failed, all of rudy giuliani's stuff failed that you had january 6th. >> i it's also because donald trump lost.

the ginny thomas texts are perhaps most illustrative of her dilutions. >>. >> the conspiracy theories in these 29 text messages obtained by bob cast a and bob woodward give a picture into this alternative reality that ginny thomas was living and the messages she was passing along to the white house to trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows and, you know, they ranged from dropping a lot of the other more infamous conspiracy theorists that we have heard along the way now. people like sidney powell. she was pushing to keep sidney powell as the lead of trump's outside legal team, someone who even became too fringy for rudy giuliani as she tried to have arguments to seize voting machines and said there was -- tried to argue there was foreign interference. also sort of passed along spiritual and spiritual guidance

and some religious support to mark meadows, who at times did respond to some of her text messages. described the election as the greatest heist of our history. this was someone when was seeped in false conspiracy theories and very attuned to them as they were playing on cable news and she was in the weeds trying to communicate this in a direct way to the white house. >> they are amazing. worth a read. jackie, mike, john, thank you all so much for spending time with us on these headlines. a quick break force us. we'll be right back. stay with us. us

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i want to thank my friends and colleagues, mike, chris, and alicia for sitting in this chair and helming these hours last week. and thanks to all of you for letting us into your homes touring these truly extraordinary times. we're so grateful. "the beat with ari melber" starts now. >> welcome back. a lot of work left for you here with a lot of news going on were i know. >> good to see you. i want to welcome you to the beat. this is actually an extraordinary day when it comes to investigations and accountability regarding the ongoing threats to american democracy and specifically the january 6th probe. we have special coverage on that tonight. a judge ruling that former president trump likely committed crimes. also new contempt votes for trump aides, including one you may recognize, peter navarro. and jaik will face a grilling about what he new and when this week and a