justice department, you drive this car. crash it through the windows of the bank window and the vault. and i'll take it from here. so much damage would have happened, had the justice department carried this out. i shudder to think of what more would have happened on january 6th. a day that i lived through, as well as my colleagues and the whole nation lived through. and a lot of people remain traumatized, as a consequence. >> congressman, good to see you tonight. there will be some interesting reading for you and your fellow committee members. congressman raja krishnamoorthi. >>> much more to get to on this friday night. including a live conversation with beto o'rourke and reverend william barber. up next, we are going to be talking with an emergency room doctor from one of the states hardest hit by covid right now. stay with us. hardest hit by covid right now stay with us battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean fre

jamie gorelick served as deputy attorney general in the department of justice from 1994 to 1997. before coming to the department, jamie served as general counsel at the department of defense. she's also severed as a member of the bipartisan 9/11 commission. a graduate of harvard law school, jamie serves as a partner at the law firm wilmer hale. steven engel served as assistant attorney general in the department of justice from 2017 to 21. served as a deputy as tap the attorney general in the same office from 2006 to 2009 and previously clerked for supreme court justice anthony kennedy. a graduate of yale law school, steve serves as a partner at the decker law firm. bob bauer served as white house counsel from 2009 to 2011. before serving in the white house he was the adviser to the obama presidential campaign. he reasons entally published a book "after trump" with his co-author brad goldsmith. bob is a professor at the new york university school of law, and so i've prepared a number of questions for our panelists, but as the program moves along i hope you'll also include those of

and i i can say from first-hand experience that certainly folks at the department of justice and the white house counsel's office and the like took them very seriously. i think one thing toun a keep i mind isy the extent to which th attorney general and thent department of justice are primarily responsible for enforcing these norms, and the president's directe authority t supervise the attorney general at the end is the authority to appoint him with the advice and consent of these senate and to remove him, but that authority, while important, is not easy and as we have seen, can be politically costly. so meanwhile, the president cannot open an investigation and apart from thepe pardon power, cannot close one. so it is the attorney general who has responsibility kind of on a daily basis of making sure that the department's criminal and civil decisions are made fr the right reasons. and so y i think obviously thers been a lot of discussion about this in recent times, and some of that comes from -- on the front end, the investigation into c president trump's campai, which was sort of inh

the justice department adds that the white house agrees.it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege. senate judiciary committee chair dirk durbin tweeted today they have been pushing for that waiver for months. now that we have it we'll proceed to interview relevant witnesses asap to get to the bottom of this plot to enlist doj and donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and joining us now is former acting u.s. solicitor general and msnbc legal contributor. neal, interpret what this means for us. >> i think your viewers all recall that donald trump while president blocked a lot of testimony from executive branch officials using this doctrine called executive privilege and executive privilege has a long pedigree used for all sorts of reasons to provide secrecy around government decision making usually at the time because you don't want basically courts or congress meddling in the midst of foreign affairs decisions or military decisions and the like but executive privilege is always waiveble and what the justice dep

play this out for me, that say that he called rosen at the department of justice, and rosen had done bidding, or someone had done his bidding. or trump put his guy in place. well with the effect of that be? end of december, 2020, department of justice comes out and says why trump wants them to say, the elections were corrupt. what do you think happens in an instance like that? >> that would've been disastrous, ali. basically, what it would've done is thrown the whole election aftermath into even more chaos. and it would've been the prelude for basically going to each of the state capitals, which they already were doing, the trump folks, and basically asking them to undo the decertification -- or decertify the elections. and of course it would've provided more risks for what they were doing on january six. for me, this call -- it's almost like donald trump, if this were a bank heist, trump trump was telling people, justice department, you drive this car, crashed through the windows of the bank window, and evolved, and i'll take it from here. so much damage would've happened had the jus

justice department asking for an investigation. they say, quote, as former prosecutors we're concerned about reporting that suggests federal prosecutors had enough evidence to indict mr. barrack well before 2021 but were discouraged from doing so. as members of congress, we request that you conduct an investigation into whether barrack or any other friends of the former president were given special treatment by the u.s. justice department during the last administration and whether barrack's case was inappropriately suppressed. i mean it is one thing to have this actually quite scandalous reporting about the barrack case, right? there's serious national security implications of foreign agent prosecution being delayed for more than a year. this is a serious case about another country having high-placed agents inside and adjacent to the u.s. government in a way that is affecting u.s. policy in a sure repetitious way, right? it is a serious national security matter to delay the prosecution and allow that scheme to continue for a year w

one of the things that is being reported tonight is the justice department, the treasury department, and the house have agreed that they will not turn over these documents until tuesday to give president trump an opportunity to wage an injection. so i think we've seen this movie before. i think president trump will file something and will seek to delay the production of these documents. i think you ultimately will lose. but i think he will fight it until he can fight no more. so, doctor patel, i want to go back to questions that you are hearing from folks. let's start, if we can, with the idea of boosters. journalist and author laurie garrett wrote this in a column for foreign policy. waning vaccine efficacy, coupled with a stubborn one fifth of the adult population refusing any immunization -- you know doctor, israel has already given these boosters, when do we need to start having a serious conversation? how soon do we need guidance on this? >> oh chris, we are past the point where we need to start a serious conversation. it is not only way overdue, lori is right. this is something

there was apparently a long delay, and the justice department wouldn't allow this indictment, the justice department would allow the indictment to go forward until biden was an office. if one of the things that you're describing there is that there is a blackmail risk, there's a coercion risk from every moment that passes from when that questioning happened in 2018 when the case is unknown life case about this foreign agent when actually charges are finally brought, all of that delay, at least some of that delay, it's on the justice department and it may have been politically motivated. that increase the counter intelligence risk, the national security risk to our country and our government. >> without question. and it was part of a pattern of behavior by the past administration. you look at this, and don't look at it in isolation, think about the intelligence committee and whistleblower who had concerns about the quid pro quo conversation that trump had with the ukrainian president. that was something the doj looked at and said that this doesn't even merit investigation. but yet it was s

one of the things that's been reported tonight is that the justice department, the treasury department the house have agreed that they will not turn over these documents until tuesday to give president trump an opportunity to wage an objection. so i think we've seen this movie before. i do think president trump will file something and will seek to delay the production of these documents. i think he ultimately will lose, but i think he will fight it until he can fight no more. >> so, dr. patel, i want to go back to the questions that i know you are hearing a lot from folks about the coronavirus. let's start, if we can, with the whole idea of boosters. journalists and author laurie garrett wrote this in a column today for "foreign policy." waning vaccine efficacy coupled with a stubborn one-fifth of the adult population refusing any immunization, has opened the door for the dangerous mutant delta variant to wreak havoc among the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. that's why the united states is going to need a third dose of the mrna vaccines for the nation's older population. the triple

so richard donahue is a long-tame justice department employee. he, you know, at one time he was the u.s. attorney in brooklyn. he has been a senior aide in the justice department. at the time of these notes are taken. he has been a senior aide inside the justice department for the trump administration. he's had to run interference and sort of play internal track cop a little bit on these contentious issues involving trump in the election. so he also gets wrapped up in, if you remember, the fights between president trump and the state of georgia over the count. and he has to navigate doj's you know essentially staying out as best they can from that fight. so he keeps touching these very complicated, very tricky issues. i think you are right, the notes are taken for a reason. they were taken because he feels there need to be some kind of record that this is going on. and importantly, he needs to preserve as much what trump said, which is what we are focusing on. i think from the justice department's view, they need to preserve what they said and th

lines that are supposed to exist between the justice department and the white house. the rules that are supposed to keep justice department law enforcement decisions independent from white house and political pressure. after the trump administration sliced and diced and pureed the whole idea of justice department independence for four straight years. i mean, under the trump administration, not just the practice but even the idea that the justice department should operate independently from the president's interests, that was attacked mercilessly by the former president. well, today biden attorney general merrick garland reissued and, in fact, tightened the rules that prohibit contact from the white house and the justice department on most matters. they explicitly confine any such contact to the highest reaches of the department, so we hopefully won't have, again, he like we did in the trump era apparently, you know, a president personally calling and berating individual u.s. attorneys to bring cases that he likes and to drop others that he didn't. c but along those li

justice department?p here, success depends on the choices you make. but i know i've got this. and when it comes to controlling his type 2 diabetes, my dad's got this, too. with the right choices, you have it in you to control your a1c and once-weekly trulicity may help. most people taking trulicity reached an a1c under 7%. and it starts lowering blood sugar from the first dose, by helping your body release the insulin it's already making. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effe

justice department, asking for an investigation. they say, as former prosecutors we are concerned about reporting that suggests federal prosecutors had enough evidence to indict mr. barrack well before 2021. it is one thing to have this actually quite scandalous reporting about the barrack,? right there are serious implications about this case being delayed for more than a year. this is a serious case about another country having high placed agents inside and adjacent to the u.s. government in a way that is affecting u.s. policy, in a surreptitious way, right? that's a serious national security matter, in its own right, to delay the prosecution. to allow that scheme to continue for a year while you try not to offend anybody by bringing the case. but these members of congress are right to look beyond just this one case. there is a pattern here it keeps me up at night, if i'm honest. the new york times reported earlier this year that trump's adjustment justice department blocked prosecutors from moving ahead with an investigation into

the justice department never wants to release that information. there is the spector revealing sensitive conversations that hold people up to scrutiny that no executive branch wants. the justice department has told congress and others because of circumstances, the context of the investigation and they can look at whether or not the president was trying to subvert the democratic process. this is so unusual. >> the other thing that is so remarkable, you have kevin mccarthy's caucus not just obstructing accountability for a president who put all their lives in danger and mike pence's life in danger and his family's, but they're smearing the witnesses of the select committee investigating january 6th and other than the political depravity i do sometimes wonder what's behind it. in donald trump's mind his coup accomplices as communicated to acting attorney general rosen and richard donoghue, does this put new scrutiny on them? >> it certainly does give people reason to scrutinize congress and whether or not lawmakers were working with the congress but

department of justice for him to be potentially criminally prosecuted. the office of inspector general at the commerce department says that referral to the trump justice department was made last year, january 2020.nd tmeth despite the criminal referral there, despite the findings of the investigation that led to the referral, the trump justice department once again declined to prosecute cabinet secretary, in this case trump cabinet secretary wilbur ross. that has got to be a record. i mean, honestly.igth sru i'm not sure there is a u.s. government corruption index that's comprehensive enough to look this up in some sort of comparative way. but in any other presidency, any other single term of a president, have we had five different cabinet secretaries investigated by their own noveth pr government agent is, which found sufficient evidence of potentially criminal misconduct to refer them to federal prosecutors for federal prosecution? five of them? i mean, what are there, 15 cabinet agencies? that's like a significant portion of the cabinet. and he was onl

the department of justice says the treasury department must turn over six years worth of the ex-president's tax returns to the house ways and means committee. that committee has been seeking those documents for the past two years. so it has been a busy week for the justice department. my next guest is going to help break it down for us. with me now is katie benner, she covers the justice department for the "new york times." she was the first to get her hands on these explosive handwritten notes detailing the pressure that trump was putting on his department of justice as he tried to overturn the election results. good to see you again. thanks for being with us. this puts a lot of flesh on bones that we thought existed. the notes of that phone call are reminiscent of the phone call that -- around the same time of year, president trump made to the secretary of state in georgia. they're also reminiscent of the phone call he made to the president of ukraine leading to his first impeachment. it's the idea that i need you to do something for me. i need you to put something out in the ether that s

now, according to the new notes the president wanted the justice department to make this declaration so that he and his allies could then try to go and overturn the election results. if you see in the notes where the acting top justice officials say we don't have the power to overturn the results. they had no evidence of widespread fraud. the president said that's fine. he and the allies could take their declaration and use it in the efforts to joefr turn the election. an extraordinary instance of the president trying to pressure the justice department in his long standing campaign at the end of his administration, and donna hugh, the then acting deputy attorney general, he took these notes and another thing that's interesting in the notes that i came across is the fact that the president does allude to some of who the allies are. who he believes his allies would be including jim jordan. it's another instance of the president tieing specific republicans to this effort to overturn the election. >> paula, appreciate the hustle on the breaking news. significant breaking news. let's discu

he's turning over the justice department is saying to the treasury department turnover the taxes.ve overturned the decision of the office of legal counsel that kept them secret. the lid is off. the pandora's box is open and investigations will now follow the facts where they lead. whether ultimately, the president will be indicted so it is premature to say. the committees on the hill investigating will be generating evidence, that that evidence will be admissible in court and it will be admissible before a grand jury, of course. and we're off basically to get to the bottom of the worst insurrection in this country's history since the civil war. i didn't want to prejudge what a jury might say but clearly, the idea that this president will simply get away with murder and will never be held accountable is not nearly as plausible today as it would have been a week ago. >> all right. professor tribe, appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> thank you, erin. >>> next, an atlanta school quarantining more than 100 students in the first week of school after students and teachers tested

and the justice department is now delivered its reply to the court. and it says, in essence, you are on your on, mo. it did seem like a long shot that mo birx would get the u.s. department of justice to come to us with -- spelling out their reasoning. this is an actual quote from the filing. the complaint alleges that brooks conspired with others to investigate -- to instigate a violent attack on u.s. capital and incited a riot there. instigating such an attack plainly could not be within the scope of federal employment. quote, alleged action to attack congress and disrupt its official functions is not conduct a member of congress is employed to perform. welcome to 2021, where the united states department of justice is forced to clarify in court that inciting an insurrection is not part of the official job duties of a member of congress. but here's one thing that's worth pulling out from the argument that move brooks tried to make about what he was doing at that rally on january the six. he says the reason why his speech was part of his official duties

and the trump justice department declined to prosecute her too. it was amazing that there were four of them. now today numero five-o. wilbur ross. trump's secretary of commerce, the inspector general at the commerce department, has announced that their investigation of trump commerce secretary wilbur ross turned up evidence of potentially criminal behavior. they turned up evidence that he provided false testimony, in his case about the trump administration's efforts to undermine the accuracy of the census. he falsely testified. and the findings were serious enough that the inspector general referred wilbur ross to the u.s. department of justice for him to be potentially criminally prosecuted. the office of inspector general at the commerce department says that referral to the trump justice department was made last year, january 2020. despite the criminal referral there, despite the findings of the investigation that led to the referral, the trump justice department once again declined to prosecute cabinet secretary, in this case trump cabinet secre

so the justice department has notified former justice department officials that they should respond toents and their testimony. shep >> pete, thanks. >>> the ex-president's tax returns must be turned over to congress that was the ruling today from the department of justice. the treasury department has the returns and congress has been trying to get them for two years now. in 2019, the bill barr justice department agreed with the trump administration that congress lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and was just trying to embarrass the then president today's opinion from the office of legal counsel says that finding went astray and was wrong on the facts there are still questions about whether the former president will fight that decision under the rules, his team gets 72 hours to make moves before the tax returns go to the house ways and means committee >>> we reported at the top of this news hour that the cdc director said in the last hour on fox news channel that the biden administration is looking at federally mandating covid vaccines, which directly contradicted the white house

there is as much more important thing which is was there conspiracy to weaponize the justice departmentre is some evidence about that and that's what the investigation of today and commission today, these letters make it so justice officials have to deaf or hire personal lawyers to void testimonies and ultimately this can lead to donald trump himself testifying and the formal acting attorney general and the chief of staff, mark meadows, all these people are potential folks or subject. they don't have executive privilege anymore. >> all useful information neil, thank you as always. >>> we go back into a whole different direction. there is new guidance from the cdc about masks. you want to hear what it is. the president is looking at a new way to push vaccinations and encouragement and support and rules that may make people participate more. we have an expert, next. people participate more we have an expert, next. your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps ta

at this point, the justice department is not standing in the way.jump in? >> hang on. joining us now. >> i need to ask a question. the attorney general for president biden is known and respected by some, although not by progressives, as being conservative when it comes to such things. being an institutionalist. declining to -- the personal lawsuit. against donald trump in which the biden administration sided with trump on the precedent and principle. do you think they would have done this to biden without jeffery rosen's approval? >> i think you are on to something there. i suspect you have witnesses who are willing to testify and that's a big deal during the trump years you had witnesses if they wanted, could have answered questions. they hid behind executive privilege because the white house and justice department gave it to them. if you have someone who wants to testify, it makes a difference. if rosen wants to answer the questions asked of him, i suspect you have a different outcome because of the ruling. jake, it is dependent on the witnesses.

justice department and typically don't want to look back and get second use at policy changes. what they did at the justice department was fundamentally different, fundamentally incorrect and may have been lawbreaking. i think that generalized view of what happened in the barr justice department i think is warranted, and i think that merrick garland has done is a good first step. some degree of an aggressive look back is appropriate. there will be people who will say it's political, it's inappropriate, he's politicizing the justice department, we simply can't let history think that what they did to the justice department is acceptable. that broad look back i think is correct. >> former attorney general eric holder, thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. coming, up will be joined by two civil rights leaders who were in the room today with president biden and vice president harris to discuss voting rights and how to get federal legislation through the united states senate. that's next. that's next. (realtor) the previou

and now we know that president biden's justice department sought to renew at least some of the secrecyers associated with these cases. in each of these cases the department took advantage -- of outdated policies that make secrecy the norm, not the exception to the rule. in fact, these cases appear to have targeted journalist, democratic members of the house of congress and the former white house counsel. we have no immediate way of knowing how big the problem is because each of these cases is accompanied by a doj request judge imposed gag order that prevents anybody from talking about them for years. now we asked the department to explain the extent of these troubling cases. this ring is not about that investigation. at least not directly. today the committee is going to focus on the related policy problem that has troubled members on both sides of the aisle, namely that technology is that's outpaced the law when it comes to the government demanding your data from a third-party provider, and that the gag order the company those demands have become standard practice in cases with timely

in your portfolio at the justice department sujit: -- justice department? sujit: next raven me. i served as assistant deputy and associate deputy attorney general and my portfolio focused on cyber issues, prosecutions and investigation of cyber criminals a nation state actors. the other half related to policy issues on the cyber front, data protection, cyber issues, cryptocurrency, encryption, anything dealing with digital information or immersion -- or emerging technologies. peter: how did you get into that? sujit: i started my career as a prosecutor in the district of maryland. i increasingly started working on technology and privacy issues as part of my prosecution job. as time went on, i started gravitating more toward fourth amendment issues, electronic evidence issues, national security issues, and i work for rod rosenstein, u.s. attorney in maryland for many years. he became deputy attorney general, he asked me to join him at main justice headquarters to work on the cyber portfolio. peter: now that you have left doj, what are you doing? sujit: i am a partner at a law firm

the justice department had declined to prosecute wilbur ross. that was according to reporting from the associated press and government executive. that decision not to prosecute came after the commerce department own inspector general found ross had lied to congress about a citizenship question that he wanted to add to the 2020 census. we have an important update to that story. the ap and government executive have both issued corrections clarifying that in fact it was the trump justice department that made the decision not to prosecute ross not the biden administration. which is of course a very, very big difference which is right in line with the rule of law in the trump era and what is to be done about the criminal enterprise that was the trump administration because this is an astounding fact but it's true. wilbur ross is the fifth member of donald trump's cabinet who is referred to justice department prosecutors, the fifth, all five the doj decided not to prosecute. the first was ryan zinke involved in multiple scandals getting involved in a l

to the biden-justice department. and, you know, typically, you don't want to look back and, you know, take second views at policy changes. but what they did, at the justice department, was fundamentally different. fundamentally, incorrect. and may have been lawbreaking and so i think that generalized view of what happened in the barr-justice department, i think, is warranted. and i think that what merrick garland has done is a good-first step. but i think some degree of an aggressive lookback is appropriate. now, there will be people who will, you know, say it's political, it's inappropriate, he is politicizing the justice department. but we simply cannot let history think that what they did to the justice department is acceptable. so that -- that broad lookback, i think, is correct. >> former-attorney general eric holder. thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. >>> and coming up. we'll be joined by two civil rights leaders who were in the room today with pr

i was in your portfolio when you were at the justice department? hen i start of the justice permit i started as u.s. attorney in the last three and a half years or so, i served as associate deputy attorney general. for my portfolio focus on cyber issues, about half my portfolio was active investigations, prosecutions, cyber criminals as well as nationstate actors and the other half were policy issues, particularly on the side cyber front cyber issues, crypto currency and encryption, essentially anything dealing with digital information for emerging technologies. >> how did you get angela. >> it is a long story in a way, i started my career as a prosecutor the district of mammon and i increasingly start working on technology and privacy related issues as part of my everyday prosecution job and ask time went on, i started gravitating toward amendment type issues, electronic evidence issues, national security issues and i work for brock rosenstein, u.s. attorney for many years and when he became attorney general, he asked me to join him at headquarters

to stop relying on the goodwill of the department of justice. nt of justice says of orders have extraordinary measures in investigatory practices but ator the reports are true but what we have been reading about. you need to establish concrete standards that can be appealed and the critical t parties of interest can be in that room and then we also need greater transparency and how many of these things are being issued. you have a number of courts that in writing with nothing but boiler plate language from the justice department's little ability by the court to say no. >> thank you. >> we detail my written testimony the steps the committee should consider but i would emphasizee a couple of thm is really critical. the restriction on us owing art customers a restriction of first amendment right to the standard of the secrecy orders via strict scrutiny standard but that's nou being applied so that corrective legislation would be clear that strict scrutiny should be applied and there mustld be findings by the court based on compelling evidence submit

in keeping that promise, today the department of justice is suing the state of georgia. our complaint ledges that recently changes to georgia's election laws were enacted with a purpose of denying or abridging the right of black georgians to vote on account of their race or color in violation of section 2 of the voting rights act. several studies show that georgia experienced record voter turnout and participation rates in the 2020 election cycle. approximately 2/3 of eligible voters in the state cast a ballot in the november election, just over the national average. this is cause for celebration. but then in march of 2021, georgia's legislature passed s.v. 202. many of that law's provisions make it harder for people to vote. the complaint aledges that the state enacted those restrictions with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color. in a few moments, assistant attorney general clarke will talk in more detail about this case. the united states vs. georgia. i want to thank the staff of the civil rights division's voting section fo

the alleged proof handwritten notes from inside the department of justice. >> we saw someone who hadh a disdain for the rule of law, such contempt for democracy, that he was willing to destroy it. >> and crushing setback due to the delta variant, just released cdc study shows vaccinated people can spread the virus to others just as readily as those who are unvaccinated. how the white house is planning to stop the delta surge. >>> millions of americans facing eviction this weekend as last-minute efforts to extend moratorium failed to pass in congress. >>> the battle brews across the country between governors and teachers who disagree on face coverings in schools. now some parents are calling for maskless students to be taught separately from those who are masked up. as wood morning, everybody, it is saturday, july 31st. end of the month. i'm kendis gibson. >> i'm lindsey reiser. we have a live shot from tokyo we can show you as well. we have a lot of olympics headlines we'll get to in a little bit. how covid of course is impacting everything, the new headlines from simone biles we'll

this week, bringing the department of justice to heel. my heart flutters to think what might be in our next community week. maybe we'll reform fisa and continue that moment dluxt i believe the department of justice and the intelligence committee shouldn't threaten or spy on members of congress, our staff or the press for politics. president biden believes the same thing in response to questions from cnn's kate linl collins, president biden committed that he would not allow the weaponization of his government against the press. chairman nadler agrees. as a matter of fact, chairman nadler stated, and i'll quoting directly. congress must make it extraordinary difficult if not impossible for the department of to spy on the congress or the news media. we can be rely on the department alone to make these changes. when i saw the reports about members of congress's offices being targeted, mr. swal well, mr. schiff, i was the first and the only republican to say that that was improper. and more of my colleagues should join me. it was easy to believ

the justice department's own template does not even require facts justifying the need for secrecy. instead, the template merely asserts that any disclosure would seriously jeopardize the investigation for a variety of boilerplate reasons. this as a relationship with some major tech companies in law enforcement agencies in the u . s. have garnered fear scrutiny in recent weeks following news justice department, prosecutors obtained phone records belonging to not only journalists, but also members of congress and staffers as a part of leak investigation, rather than providing americans as meaningful notice that their private electronic records are being access then a criminal investigation department hides behind its ability to ask 3rd party provider directly. they deny american citizen as companies and institutions a basic day in court, and instead they gather their evidence entirely in secret. microsoft, for example, was among the companies that turned over records under a court order, and because of a gag order, had to then wait 2 more years before disclosing it. since then. brad

but today the justice department ordered the treasury department to turn over trump's tax returns toand means committee requested these documents over two years ago. and the trump justice department tried to cast doubt on whether they had a legitimate reason for requesting these documents. it is not clear whether he will go to court. i think that is very likely, but it is not clear at this point. we know a manhattan grand jury has already gotten some similar documents, tax returns. they have obviously not leaked. but we know sometimes things do leak off the hill. >> certainly do. thank you very much. paula reed reporting for us. let's get some insight from elliot williams and the state attorney for palm beach county in florida, dave aronberg. how outrageous is this? these handwritten notes we have of trump trying to pressure top justice department officials to go ahead and take steps to try to overturn the election results? >> of course they're outrageous, wolf, but weeks and months of attempting to subvert the election. the january 6th call were also egregious and brazen. we shouldn

of justice regarding the treatment of these defendants based upon concerns arising from statements made under oath. yet the departmentjustice has not speculated or has not hesitated to speculate about this investigation to their friends in the media. thank congressman gomer, a former judge no less for his commitment to the rule of law and seeking the truth even in the face of much opposition, thank you. >> i want to say one thing. first of all, to the guy that's blowing the whistle, we are not deterred. and so for anyone that is here being an activist and yelling today, here is the statement i need everyone to understand. we will not back down. we will not stop asking questions. we are looking for the truth. we believe the truth can be found by reaching out and answering and asking the right questions to the right people. listen there's another thing, the only people of this country the answers to the questions. >> they need there in wrapping the press conference we need to end up at. >> thank you for those who really care about this, thank you. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] >> sunday, c

we talk about the independence of the department of justice. rtz not talking about some act of institutional etiquette. it's vitally important that the department maintains independence from the white house so that all americans can believe in the results of the criminal justice system. so we know that the criminal justice system isn't being used for political purposes. here you have the president of the united states pushing the acting attorney general to do exactly that, to lie to the american people, to undercut a lawful election, to undermine democracy, to try to overturn the will of the people all for his own personal benefit. >> this conversation took place after bill barr had resigned from the office of attorney general. barr told "the atlantic" last month that trump was livid with him when he revealed that the justice department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. quote, my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there, it was all bull -- barr told "the atlantic." rosen and donahue had to know that this was go

that's just bad for the justice department.nd a violation of justice-department procedures. so perhaps, it's not sitting on it or suppressing it. it's just waiting until after election day. or even after months after election day for a new-justice department to come in. that's not incredibly uncommon. >> elliot williams. appreciate it. thanks. >>> tomorrow, the former president heads to arizona, ground zero for his lies about election fraud. we'll discuss his session with that state. plus, a new report that spells out just how much of the money his pac is raising, claiming it's going to the ballot recounts to fund that. how much is actually going to the fraudulent-ballot recounts, like the one in arizona? ge the . my great-great-grandmother, my great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather was that kind of person. he looked after his community. she built an empire. he protected this nation. they lived their lives in extraordinary ways. with ancestry, i learned the story of peter vaughters... william lacy... madam c.j.walker. they

on friday mayday leaders unveiled a new strategy at the department of justice. block entrances. the manual instructed units of ten to 25 people to sit down and pass the pipe and play music until arrested. ♪ ♪ ♪ as each unit was broken up, or arrested another wave took its place. ♪ ♪ ♪ the tactic was designed to test the ability of police to handle arrests of large groups, but the action failed. police utilized field arrest reports on the scene, to facilitate booking procedures. that afternoon southern christian leadership members, acting under a parade permit, authorized by the city, we're joined by more mayday demonstrators at the justice department. >> we shall not be moved. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> when the permit expired, the police commanded and asked people to disperse. from april 26 to may 30th, police arrested over 1000 lawbreakers. each was properly processed, collateral or personal bond was posted, and the demonstrators were released. many would be arrested again, in other may day demonstrations. during this period, the west potomac park, campsite, became the co

last night we were critical of the fact that justice department has, according to reporting, declined to prosecute trump secretary of commerce. that was according to reporting from both the associated press and government executive. that decision, not to prosecute, came after the commerce department own specter general found that he had lied to congress about a citizenship question that he wanted to add to the 2020 census. we have an important update to that story, the 18 government executive have both issued corrections, clarifying that in fact it was the trump justice department that made the decision not to prosecute ross, not the biden administration, which is of course a very big difference, because it is right in line with the things that we were talking about generally last night about the rule of law in the trump era, and what is to be done about the criminal enterprise that was the trump administration, because keep in mind, this isn't an sounding fact but it is true, wilbur ross is the fifth member of donald trump's cabinet who is referred to justice department prosecutors,