and danny cevallos, criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. so i'm going to begin with you, aaron. talk to me about the access here and why doge would want to get into this very sensitive system. >> so this is an irs employee that we're talking about here who's been sort of attached to the doge team that's going through all the different agencies all around the federal government. and in this particular case, our understanding is that he or she is going to try to access this integrated data retrieval system, as you noted, a highly sensitive system that contains a lot of taxpayer personal information. and there are concerns about who this person is and what sorts of things that person might be able to do if they were to access that particular information, without the sort of oversight that we would typically expect and are hired in so many cases of regular government employees who work inside the irs. now, we've been told by an administration official that this person is doing the work that doge has been tasked with doing, and also has the nece

msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos is following this story for us. what's at stake in this case? danny? >> well, attorney general. >> letitia james. >> held a. >> press conference. >> just before. >> heading into court, talking a. >> little about. >> the allegations that. >> she and others. >> are bringing. >> here's what she said. >> he has. >> basically violated. >> the administrative procedure. >> act, and. >> he has violated the privacy of millions of americans. >> and it is up to us to. >> prevent him from having. >> access to that private information. and so we've come together because. >> we believe in. >> the constitution and the rule of law. >> and we believe that no one is above the law. >> the administrative procedures. >> act that letitia james was speaking about. >> there at. >> the at the conference. >> is basically a. >> law that. >> requires that agency. >> actions not be. arbitrary and capricious. so they may. >> be acting lawfully, but they essentially need to show their work. >> but the plaintiffs also. >> argue that this violates the separation of powers. in ot

joining us now, nbc news and msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. so, danny, remind us about the charges that are there in the first place and then the justice department's reasoning for dropping them, because i've seen a lot of lawyers on social media platforms questioning the rationale here. >> yeah. >> these were. >> classic corruption charges. >> in other. >> words, i'll. >> give you an example. >> they allege. >> that in exchange. >> for travel perks on a particular. airline from a particular country. >> that mayor. >> adams assisted the turkish. >> embassy building. >> in getting its fire department certificates. whatever the case may be. so it's classic corruption allegations. but why it was dismissed? ali, never has. >> there been so. >> much to read between. >> the lines. >> in a single two page memorandum. in fact, the justice department. >> would have been wiser. >> i think, to. >> just put. >> two lines in and. >> dismiss this case. nothing else without prejudice. >> it's this. >> explanation, i think. >> that will. >> garner them. >> qui

criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos and jeremy peters, new york times reporter and msnbc contributor. so, aaron, what more do we know about what's going on at social security? >> well, jose, as you mentioned, michelle king was the top official at the social security administration, and she retired after refusing to give musks team access to these sensitive government records you referenced. that's according to two sources, things like bank information, social security numbers, birth dates, in some cases medical records. and as you noted, the white house did confirm that king was no longer head of that agency. the president has nominated a new administrator for it. the white house press secretary said that the president has has directed doj to identify fraud at the social security administration. and as you noted, she said that team hasn't dug through the books there just yet. but it does suspect that there is widespread fraud happening there. and our team looked at an inspector general report, an audit last year that showed that over a seven year period, the soc

but for now, steven romo, lisa rubin, and danny cevallos, thank you for joining us.ht now in alabama city is without an operating police force. the mayor of hanceville put the entire department on administrative leave after a grand jury warned it operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency and is an ongoing threat to public safety. nbc's janelle griffith is following this for us. janelle, what's going on here and how is this city functioning without a police department? >> yes, ali. >> so just. >> last night, the mayor said that he was going to have the entire police force put on administrative leave in the wake of this grand jury's, you know, damning findings and the recommendation that the police department be abolished. and he also said that the cullman county sheriff's office was going to temporarily take over law enforcement duties for the city. this came just a day after the district attorney there revealed that five officers from this tiny department of just about eight people, as of august had been indicted. here's what the distric

danny cevallos, criminal defense attorney and msnbc legal analyst.wants to settle this issue before turning to the auction of jones media empire, which of course includes infowars, where many of the lies were spread. why was this settlement rejected, and where does it go from here? >> yeah. so, chris, this was. >> an interesting day in federal court today. no cameras allowed, but media was able to dial in and listen in on this hearing. and right. >> out of the. >> gate, there was a surprise turn because the judge. >> was essentially. >> prepared to rule even before the hearing got underway. >> so it. >> lasted just under 30 minutes. >> and ultimately, the u.s. bankruptcy court. judge rejected the. >> settlement to divvy up millions. >> of dollars in claims. >> against fss or free speech systems. >> the parent company to jones's infowars. >> the judge. >> argued free. >> speech systems bankruptcy. >> case was. >> dismissed last year, so disputes. >> with the. >> company couldn't be handled in his court today. so we heard. >> him saying. >> things like

. >> legal analyst danny cevallos. guys, good morning, danny. >> start with you. >> what do you. >> make of that back and forth there? >> jd vance saying, well, we don't always. >> have to listen to. >> what the courts say. >> and some other. >> senators pushing back on that idea or trying to. interpret for jd vance what they hope he. >> meant by that. >> what did you hear? >> yeah. historically. >> this has happened before. i think jd vance even referred to this situation way back. president andrew jackson refused to enforce an order. by the supreme court that resolved a clash between. the cherokee nation and the state of georgia. and history's lesson is, well, not a whole lot happens. >> to. >> a president or an administration who refuses to follow an order, because we operate on this kind of trust that the president will do that. and while it's probably. apocryphal that jackson said he has his order, meaning the supreme court, let's see them enforce it. >> it's a. >> scary quote, if. >> true. >> because it's really a

with us now, nbc news senior white house correspondent garrett hake and danny cevallos, criminal defensen msnbc legal analyst. so garrett, yesterday's executive order signing, turned into a press conference. musk and the president said they had found billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. did they back that up with anything? >> well, to an extent they did, jose. waste is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, and the musk led team feels like they've canceled millions of dollars worth of programs that shouldn't be a government priority. they're canceling contracts, they're rolling up dei programs, the kind of stuff that we've talked about. but fraud is another matter that suggests criminality. and what you've seen from doge and from the trump white house on these points is basically just posts on x or on a website. they've not yet provided the kind of receipts that could prove some kind of actual serious fraud taking place. they suspect it's there, they think they've seen it. but this is sort of the whole problem with this exercise. when you just have such a small group of people go

joining me now is danny cevallos, msnbc legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, someone that makeson to sort of strategy in all of this? >> in a way, i wasn't surprised, but we've never seen anything like this internal memo going back and forth between main justice and beauvais and danielle sassoon. and neither of them left. anything on the table. >> i mean. >> the basics are that sassoon believes that this was a quid pro quo. and by the way, emily beauvais himself acknowledged that. possibility because he denied it in. >> his original memo, demanding. >> or directing the dismissal of charges. against eric adams. so. >> yes. >> this is something i think. >> we've never. >> seen before. we've seen u.s. attorneys be fired. it's happened before 2006. george w bush administration fired eight u.s. attorneys, and a later investigation concluded that it was not so much merit based and possibly more political based. so this kind of thing has happened before the. >> saturday night. >> massacre during. >> the. >> nixon era. this is not that. >> unusual. >> but the way this went down is very,

always from msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, thank you so much.mp administration to flood the zone, throw as much as you can up against the wall. do it quickly. know that something's going to fall down in the courts, but you're able to achieve something to towards your larger goals. >> and to certainly push the optics, because you're right, jonathan, as we see huge changes to our federal government with this new trump administration, it's perhaps more important than ever that americans understand the fundamentals of how their government works here to help us understand that. joining us is george washington university professor and former congressional staffer casey burgett. he's the author of a new book titled we hold these truths how to spot the myths that are holding america back, in which case he works to debunk some prevalent misconceptions about what happens in washington. thanks for joining us. congrats on the book published yesterday. thank you, thank you. you talk about a lot of myths. it's almost like a myth busters for government. huge f

news legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, first of all, there's a large difference.take on. >> the states. yeah. let's start with the charges. >> i mean. this was mentioned several times. >> i understand maybe you're at the. >> podium, you. >> say something in the moment, but it seems like this was pretty clear that she was referring to charges. and it is true that in different jurisdictions, we have different sort of legal dialects that vary a little from here to there. but i really doubt that in florida, as here, when you say filing charges, especially as a prosecutor, that really. means criminal charges. so i am curious why. number one, she would say it several times. and then number two, i don't know that we really got an answer that the door is. closed on actual criminal charges. she really focused on the existing lawsuit. >> maybe that's. >> what. >> she meant. maybe she means. >> something else is coming down the pike. but this is a lawsuit. challenging new york's law that they say the government says prevents. >> them from. >> handing over information. >> to