♪♪ good day everyone. this is "andrea mitchell reports in washington," where the fbi and department of homeland security are sounding alarms over a new spike in threats to federal law enforcement following the search of former president trump's mar-a-lago home one week ago. mr. trump is attacking the fbi on social media, slamming the agency as corrupt as officials monitor new threats and rhetoric from online far-right extremists.

on the political front, our correspondents have the latest on tomorrow's two big primaries for prominent republicans on opposing sides of the trump divide. january 6th vice chair liz cheney and former vice presidential nominee sarah palin. we begin with the fallout from the fbi's search of former president trump's home in mar-a-lago. joining me, nbc justice and intelligence correspondent ken delanian. ken, the latest on the investigation, the increased security, the concern about threats to the fbi and to law enforcement, the criticism of

merrick garland, all of it. >> the most disturbing part is the fbi and dhs issued a joint intelligence bulletin yesterday saying they had seen a massive uptick in specific and credible threats to federal law enforcement. this was reflecting reporting we did last week and open source intelligence firms are also seeing this in message boards and chat rooms online. we're not just talking rhetoric here. we're talking specific threats. they're even naming fbi agents and family members. they're saying these threats could increase if more action is taken. it's a really disturbing time. >> this is partly because we believe the agents who served the search warrant, who were part of that search warrant were named publicly by people on truth social. >> that's right. a copy of that search warrant

was named with the names exposed. the fbi officials i spoke to are very disturbed about that. >> what kinds of precautions does the fbi have to take? we see increased security around some buildings here in washington. >> the fbi is facing what they call unprecedented levels of threats to their facilities and their agents. they have protocols and processes in place to protect those individuals. however, there is a standing all nationwide alert for federal law enforcement to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity, particularly online threats or suspicious individuals who may be approaching the buildings that they occupy. particularly concerning after the cincinnati attack last week. that individual also was posting threats online and truth social. it's a very, very tense

environment right now for federal law enforcement. they're still trying to find their way through the current threat environment that precipitated the search at mar-a-lago last week. >> carol lee, you and your team have some incredible reporting, the scramble to pack documents from the white house for donald trump on his way to mar-a-lago, the fact that until after january 6th he wasn't preparing to leave, he wasn't acknowledged and still hasn't acknowledged that he lost in november. what are the implications for that along with his claims of having declassified documents before he left without leaving, as far as we know, any paper trail? >> that's right. president's exit from the white house was very chaotic in those final hours, people just throwing things into boxes just trying to get him out of there.

he was described by people who worked for him as a pack rat. what we gathered was this portrait of a president. we know that president trump was sloppy. he didn't really have regard to documents and storing and processes and the presidential records act, but his mindset about these things were similar to how we saw his mindset be toward staff, whether cabinet officials or others that they worked for him, not the u.s. government. he had a very similar attitude toward documents, that they were his to keep. you had aides constantly trying to get things back from him and store them properly and keep certain things for him. sometimes he would ask for things that were classified and they would give him a copy and he didn't like the photocopies. he wanted the original.

generally speaking, his mindset was that these were his and he could do what he wanted with them. former national security advisor john bolton said that trump was constantly just grabbing classified documents. the president now saying, well, i declassified them, john bolton saying that is not something he was briefed on. he would be familiar with process like that. the president saying he can just declassify something at will doesn't really work like that. also that doesn't speak to the fact that the laws being cited here for the reason why the fbi went in and did this search, it didn't matter whether those documents were classified. but generally this is a president who left hastily and

was surrounded by people who were constantly trying to put some sort of process in place and follow the law. >> you've been in the white house at those levels as deputy national security advisor and during the obama transition. you know what presidents can take and what they can declassify and what belongs in the national archives. tell us what's wrong with this picture? >> just about everything is wrong with this picture. first of all, there's no reason for him to take any classified material whatsoever. frankly, there's a process for the archives to take custody of that material. the reality is if he's going to claim he declassified that, there's no record of that. there's no record he told the intelligence community that. the fact they are continuing to treat these documents as classified shows they are not

declassified. otherwise we'd be talking about what's in the documents. these would be documented marked top secret, or top secret sci. the reason they're marked that way is the documents don't just describe assessments of the intelligence community. they would be describing methods of collection or u.s. military movements. declassification has to extend not just to what's in the document, but to all the intelligence derived and how that's acquired. there's no way donald trump went through the process of notifying the intelligence community down to the level of the people who might be involved in that collection. this has no basis in reality. once those documents leave the white house compound, they are not secure. it's one thing to be sloppy with documents in the white house, which is a secure facility. once those documents leave the white house, they are incredibly vulnerable to any foreign

adversary who wants to get their hands on them and try to exploit them. we still don't know what the purpose was for him taking these documents. if they were just casually taken by mistake, presumably he would have returned those documents when he was ordered to weeks ago. nothing adds up. it feels like he's just flailing around with excuse after excuse. the excuses themselves are contradictory. >> senator klobuchar's reaction yesterday on "meet the press". >> my first reaction is to stand with the men and women of the fbi who are simply doing their jobs. what was found at mar-a-lago, we don't know exactly what's in those documents, but we do know it rose to the level of a search

warrant that a federal judge approved. it is so important that these documents remain in safe locations. mar-a-lago, where you can check tennis rackets and golf clubs is not one of them. >> there's no evidence he declassified anything and those papers don't show any indication of that. let me ask you, ken delanian, about the potential charges outlined in this search warrant, which is obstruction. what does that mean in terms of what potentially could have happened to those documents either on their way to mar-a-lago or there? could they have been destroyed, could they have been altered?

or is it just the fact they're out of government custody? >> no. the latter would be the first charge, which is theft of government records. this obstruction charge makes it illegal to mutilate, conceal or withhold to obstruct a government investigation. it suggests at least the fbi has suspicions something like that happened. we know the president had a habit of ripping up documents. the way that's described it doesn't appear to have been malicious, more like negligence. in this case, it suggests they suspect an overt act to try to cover something up, very serious charge. >> we have reporting that there was outreach to various agencies when they didn't get what they thought they would have gotten on june 3rd when they went in person, a top official from the justice department, people from

the fbi going to mar-a-lago. they had a subpoena. they even saw the former president at one point. so his lawyers were there. that was a conversation, that was the so-called cooperation they were seeking. then the "new york times" reports there was, in fact, after june 3rd, there was a letter from a trump lawyer saying everything had been turned over. then we've confirmed there was an informant, someone from inside trump world in some context telling the government that they didn't have everything, which of course now they know they didn't because of what they found. can you break that down and what that implies? >> i wish i could. it seems to be a complete mess. just by the fact that they didn't know what documents they had means they weren't propely stored and categorized.

i've worked with those documents in secure spaces. you can't leave these spaces with those documents. if you do, you have to have certain courier credentials, you have to have it carried in a special case in a special vehicle. most of the time you have to shred those things in a specific shredder. a specific vendor will pick those up and properly dispose of them. these are very protected. there's controls of these things. the fact that they're in some boxes in the basement of mar-a-lago, who knows what else? it just points to the fact they weren't properly maintained and no one was keeping an eye on them. in every opportunity that you have to protect those documents, it was previously mentioned our foreign adversaries are very, very sophisticated when it comes to their intelligence and counter intelligence. we do know mar-a-lago has been a

very alluring attractive target for foreign adversaries to try to get in there and listen to conversations and do whatever they can. that's not the optimal place to store top secret documendocumen. >> we know the senate intelligence committee has now said in a bipartisan approach they want to see what these documents were, they want a damage assessment, which the house intelligence committee is also asking for. there's more action from capitol hill on that, as well as the round of criticism from a lot of people in trump world from the former president himself. all of that still in play, carol. >> that's right. look, the pressure is going to continue to be there and really mount as long as this continues to go on. it's coming from bipartisan lawmakers on capitol hill. it's coming from trump world.

it's coming from the trump supporters. it's what ken was talking about with all of these threats. this is something that could potentially get worse before it gets better in the sense of that type of pressure. we'll wait to see whether or not there's any movement there, particularly on that congressional piece. >> i just want to point out, as we've been reporting in realtime, the former president was very casual about classification when he was president from the very beginning when he had a national security gathering on the patio of mar-a-lago after a north korean missile was fired off with the then prime minister of japan, when he met with lavrov and the russian ambassador in the oval office, exposing an asset, and when he tweeted a secret satellite image of an iranian blast site, all of that while he was president of the

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republican supporters of donald trump and his leading republican critic are on the ballot. in wyoming liz cheney is polling 28 points behind her trumped backed opponent. if she loses as expected, her closing ad struck a national theme, reenforcing speculation that she might end up running for president.

>> millions of americans across our nation, republicans, democrats, independents stand united in the cause of freedom. we are stronger, more dedicated and more determined than those trying to destroy our republic. this is our great task and we will prevail. >> and two well-known names are on the ballot in alaska, republican senator lisa murkowski running for a fourth term and sarah palin hoping to snag alaska's only congressional seat. imagine sarah palin in congress. joining me are vaughn hillyard in wyoming and ali vitale. it's judgment day for liz cheney day tomorrow and it is not looking good in wyoming. she's been under threat. she's not be able to campaign actively. what are you finding from all your reporting?

>> reporter: this is the moment. harriet hagueman, her trump backed opponent, she has traversed thousands of miles holding little campaign events in every small town in the state of wyoming here. i'm told that liz cheney, the case she has been making is she's doing the job wyoming voters sent her to do and that was to uphold the u.s. constitution, go to washington, d.c. and do justice as she saw fit. that meant taking the helm as the vice chair of the january 6th select committee. we you talk to republican voters around this state, you hear overwhelming display how liz cheney has spent her focus here. ultimately her impeachment vote, but also the focus of the investigations into donald trump. she is not shy in saying that is her utmost focus, whether she

wins or loses tomorrow, to continue to do the job on the january 6th committee and heading beyond. i want to hear why harriet hagueman is on the cusp of winning this primary. take a listen. why not liz cheney? >> because she's a sellout. >> yes, betrayal. anti-gun, anti-american. get out of here. she didn't back our man trump when she was supposed to. >> reporter: do you think that the january 6th insurrection did not amount to enough of a reason to have an investigation? >> they can investigate it. but why aren't they investigating the fbi agents there implanted in the crowd to try and instigate stuff? >> it's stunning. >> reporter: there's a great number of voters living in a different reality.

the question was since may would voters shift after these public hearings? frankly for the most part the answer appears to be no. >> it's stunning that voters after everything that has been said, everything that is available to them, still think that crowd was incited as a false flag by fbi, quote, agencies. it's pretty dismaying. ali vitale, alaska is following other states in trying out ranked voting. >> reporter: it's a little complicated, but it could reward a candidate like lisa murkowski because women tend to do well in these kinds of systems, but also it's a system for moderation in terms of taking positions that are all encompassing for a wide swath of people, consensus

building, making communities feel heard. it may not make murkowski popular with trump, who has campaigned against her saying she's a rino and she's among his least favorite republicans. no surprise there. she voted to convict him for impeachment, among other things. >> i think she's taken some hard stances right now. she's supporting abortion rights, which is huge, and she's been willing to vote on some of the other issues and not go with her party. >> on that gun violence prevention bill. >> exactly, which is huge. >> reporter: you heard those voters talking about things murkowski has done over the course of the last few years, not just bucking trump and speaking out against him, though certainly that's something voters are deciding on here too, but taking policy stances.

she's someone crossing party lines to do it. it forces me as someone who covers congress day in and day out to consider what it could look like if murkowski were not a part of it, if you had someone more hyperpartisan in her position. the way this ranked choice primary system works is they're in a top four primary. there are maybe a dozen candidates running for this republican primary moment. murkowski is expected to be in the top four. that means she then advances to november, but it does force you to think about the ways she plays a pivotal role in congress. >> let's talk about the ranked

choice voting and how it first could affect sarah palin. >> the entire vote systems are designed to reward candidates that have crossover appeal. when you look at sarah palin, she ended up getting the most votes in the top four primary system. but her challenge becomes are you going to be somebody's second or third choice as well too. there's another candidate in this field begic whose grandfather was a former united states senator, his uncle was a former democratic senator. he is a republican, but kind of start to cobble a situation on how someone like that could have crossover appeal. i think it's going to be really

interesting to see who ends up on top. but sarah palin wouldn't necessarily benefit from this kind of system. >> democrats if they're being clever about it would vote for begich to shut out republicans from getting to the final? >> right. there's a lot of strategy for democrats. there is a democratic candidate on the ballot. do they put that democratic candidate number one, or do they put nick begich number one here too? then it's going to take potentially days to count who ends up getting a majority if it goes to ranked choice voting. if one candidate ends up getting a simple majority on the first count, then we will know who the

winner is. >> i was never good at math. you've got to be here every day this week until we know what's happening in alaska. thank you. deepening divide here at home, the gop caught between loyalty to trump and being the pro law enforcement party. the pro law enforcement party. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now,

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i really attribute that to diet. get started at longlivedogs.com i'd like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! only pay for what you need. jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. republicans continue to defend donald trump after the unprecedented fbi search of mar-a-lago, but there is now a noticeable split in tone or change in tone within the party. at first there were calls to defund or destroy the fbi and doj. now some more moderate voices are suggesting they wait and see the affidavit justifying the search warrant.

>> i think it's very important long-term for the justice department now that they've done this, that they show this was not just a fishing expedition, that they had due cause to go in and to do this, that they did exhaust all other means. if they can't do that, then we've got a serious problem on our hands. >> joining me now is david jolly, former republican congressman from florida, amy stoddard and susan page. welcome all. david, senator round said he wasn't one of those people immediately attacking the fbi or the justice department. he did say it's important to take a look at the doj. he wants to make sure it's not a fishing expedition. he also didn't say what he would do if donald trump runs for office, interestingly. he kind of ducked that question. >> it is a fine line.

it's a distinction really without a difference. senator round is suggesting, well, i'm not going to question doj. we just need to see their evidence. guess what? a magistrate did. there is no world in which this warrant was issued without all of the department of justice's information being credibly presented to the magistrate. even when senator round says, well, let's take our time, the reality is it's still questioning the department of justice. i think you're seeing an interesting take by republicans. they've kind of put themselves in a corner. they immediately came out not embracing donald trump personally. they attacked the deep state, the fbi and the department of justice, which is really center lane politics for republicans now. so they did that. then they quickly realized, wait a minute, that undermines our entire credibility with our back

the blue law enforcement narrative and they painted themselves in a corner and they can't quite get themselves out of it. >> some of donald trump's loyal supporters are blasting the fbi's search of mar-a-lago. let's listen. >> the fbi raid of president trump is a complete abuse and overreach of authority. >> it's joe biden's doj. they have weaponized this fbi at every turn. >> i haven't seen any of the documents at all yet, but what they've been doing to president trump is political persecution. >> what happened to the law and order republican party? >> we haven't seen it in so long. they're not even trying to pretend to back the blue anymore. we saw it after the january 6th attempt to overthrow the government by trump supporters, attacking capitol police, injuring them, resulting in some fatalities because of all of the

force of the mob, the things they used for weapons against capitol police who never drew their guns, preventing what could have been a massacre. we did not see defense of the capitol police from the republican party. we saw defense of the president and defense of the people who came to sack the capitol. they know by speaking the way that congresswoman is speaking that there's is some conspiracy to take down the former president is reckless and dangerous. they know that the likelihood is that trump has done something terrible with the documents that he stole from the white house, but he is not keeping them just as a souvenir, that he has compromised our national security and used them for

corrupt purposes. republicans know this and they have still rolled the dice that they should sic their supporters on the government and they're likely to end up with egg on their face because the truth about trump will be terrible. it would be very easy for them to be quiet and say let the facts come out as they will, but they were called upon by trump to come out and publicly support them, and they will again and again, clinging to whatever garbage excuse from his mouth. they will continue to take orders from mar-a-lago and bedminster until the end. >> some house republicans from judiciary sent letters today to the attorney general, the fbi director, white house chief of staff wanting them to preserve all documents and communications relating to that search. now we have some of them also writing to chris wray and

complaining that he needs to explain the government aircraft, that he was rather on a private trip. i would just caution in director wray's regard that if he's under 24/7 security, as many of our top officials are, that he may well supposed to be using government aircraft. as you know, that is the rule for some of these people in intelligence and the fbi. we'll have to see what the response is from them. >> yes. this is an oman of what is going to happen if republicans win control of either house of congress. they have pretty good prospect of winning the house of representatives. they're going to be able to demand testimony, demand documents, to hold hearings and do inquiries on this issue, on afghanistan, on hunter biden. and that is something that will,

i think, really affect events here in washington. it's an enormous challenge to an administration to be under constant investigation. that is what is likely to be ahead. the safe position for republicans when it comes to the fbi raid is we want more information, because certainly both democrats and republicans would like more information about what happened. we've never been here before. none of us have a full understanding of what donald trump took to mar-a-lago or why. it's something all of us would like to find out. >> thanks for being with us today. and processing those pages, how federal investigators are digging through documents seized from mar-a-lago and what are the legal implications for the former president? ications for te former president

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the increase in security at federal law enforcement buildings is quite visible here in washington. nbc justice reporter ryan reilly tweeted this picture outside the hoover building as officials remain on high alert there as the justice department digs through the documents gathered by fbi agents at mar-a-lago last week. joining us is barbara mcquade and ryan reilly. how is the justice department filtering through more than 20 boxes and trying to sort out were they previously classified as the former president claims and does that even matter because classification was not acquired precondition for the three particular potential crimes outlined in that search warrant signed by a federal judge. >> that's the key fact here. it doesn't matter what the classification level was. he wasn't supposed to possess these documents in general.

he believed a lot of these were his own documents. the complicating factor is that in this instance the possession of the documents themselves is really what is at issue. it's not so much the substance of them. it's just the general material that was in them. >> isn't the complaint from senators like mike round who i interviewed yesterday, let's see what they really are, is this a fishing expedition. i'm just paraphrasing him. is this something looking for details or is this something really damaging to national security. >> that's a tough balance for doj to strike because they can't put out too much information about classified documents. it's really sort of a pickle they're in here. >> they can't say, well, this is what is at stake unless they do it in a classified setting.

there have been many cases where intelligence matters don't result in a conviction or prosecution, because the government decides we just can't disclose this, it's too secret. >> that's such a good point. job one here is to get these documents back and to do any damage assessment. are there any sources named in there who could be at risk for their lives because they're positioned somewhere in the world gathering information on behalf of the united states? are there methods of collection that have now been exposed that could cause compromise? i think that damage assessment is the first matter. the second question will be is it worth prosecuting this case? that's something they'll have to balance the equities for. when you have cases that involve classified information, you must first request declassified information from the classifying authority and, second, get use authority from the attorney general. the balance of the equities, is

the decision to prosecute outweighed by the exposure of these secrets that could result if we have a trial in open court? it is not an easy decision, because those are very real risks, especially with top secret information that disclosure will cause grave damage to the united states. >> the fbi are under attack as they've never been before. >> it's a very difficult task they're facing. they also have this unprecedented investigation into january 6th itself. that's a heavy process. you have to figure out whether or not this is something serious. sometimes it has to be sent out to a different field office.

it's just a lot to chase down. a lot of these threats are going to be empty. but it's about what are you going to miss. one thing that happened last week when we had that attack on the fbi field office is that he was at the capitol and a lot were really worried that was going to be someone that was already turned into the fbi. he didn't rise to that level of prosecution, but they were concerned this is someone who's going to get stuck in the pipeline and maybe could have been cut off or prosecuted or arrested before something like this took place. doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be held pretrial because that's only a very small category of the january 6th defendants all together. >> the overall climate right now with a voter telling one of our correspondents in wyoming that the fbi incited the january 6th

investigation. that's why they didn't believe anything that liz cheney said was credible. the lack of factual understanding here. what about the fact that making a decision as to whether to prosecute now abarbara? that's a decision for the attorney general and how do you that? >> it is. and i think he has to be cautious on two fronts. one is this idea of exposing classified information that we just talked about. and i think the other is not distracting the justice department from its mission to investigate and prosecute the january 6th defendants, which in recent days, has appeared to be closing in on donald trump himself. we've seen aides of mike pence go before the grand jury. and so does one cause distraction from the other? something to think about. ryan reilly, barbara mcquade, thank you both. and lloyd austin has tested positive for covid yet again.

the secretary says he has mild symptoms and will quarantine at home for the next five days in accordance with cdc guidelines. it's been more than two weeks since he last saw the president in person, so there's no contact there. the secretary is fully vaccinated, of course, including two booster shots. he last tested positive for covid back in january. we don't know yet whether that is the same variant. meanwhile, salma rushdie's recovery improving after friday's brutal attack. what iran is now saying about it today. that's next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. next non "an reports" on msnbc. thanks, dad. that's right, robert. and it's never too early to learn you could save with america's number one motorcycle insurer. that's right, jamie. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush. your gums will thank you. -that's right, dr. gary. -jamie? sorry, i had another thought so i got back in line. what was it?

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iran is denying any involvement today in the stabbing friday of author salomon rushdie. a foreign minister saying rushdie and his supporters were themselves to blame for the attack. because of his writings. rushdie was stabbed all over his body, including neck, chest, stomach, while at a speaking engagement in up state new york with severe injuries. the "satanic verses" author has been the target of threats since 1989. there was liver damage, he may lose an eye, nerve damage in his arm. joining me now, nbc's ron allen from new york, excuse me, from 30 rock. hey, ron. do we have any information now on the attackers' motivation? we know he expressed sympathy

online sympathy for some of the radical elements in iran, but no government connection. >> right, andrea. and you have to think that there's a connection to this fatwa that goes back some 33 years. it's amazing. and i'm sure salman rushdie was probably amazed this happened, too, because in recent years, he had been not in hiding. at one point he had changed his name and was living under an assumed name, i believe somewhere in wales. and that remote part of the country there. and now he was very much out in the open. this event in western new york was very public. there was no heavy security there. it's unclear whether he had body guards or his own personal security there or not, and he had made statements that he believed that he thought that this fatwa was essentially over, but it seems to be enduring. and it's striking that this young man who's in custody, for

this attack, charged with attempted secondary murder and assault with a weapon, he's 24 years old. so he's younger than the time when this religious decree to go after salman rushdie was even issued. so this is, it's just really a very striking event that this would happen, as you recall. back many years ago, there was a lot of anger and a lot of -- about the book "satanic verses," and now that this is coming to the foreagain is very striking. >> it's all terrifying. thank you so much, ron allen. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thanks for being with us. follow us online and on twitter @"andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing reports starts right after this. g reports stars right after this ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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hello. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. today, former president trump has one explanation after another, at least three that we know of, as he tries to justify having top-secret documents at his florida home. it comes as nbc news reports the fbi and homeland security have issued a new five-pages-long intelligence document, warning about the alarming spike in threats against federal and local law enforcement since the mar-a-lago search. critics say trump himself may have fueled some of that rage, by accusing fbi agents of

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