> do you think donald trump abused his authority in asking bill barr to investigate people like adam schiff? >> well, i don't know if he did that. certainly he's within his rights to do so if there's evidence of crimes. you know, asking the justice department to do its job, and i think schiff should have been criminally investigated as it relates to the mishandling and the leaking of classified information in a -- for a variety of reasons. you know, there's this idea that the justice department thinks its independent of the president. to a degree it thinks that that's unconstitutional. the president has the right and frankly should pursue it more vigorously to get the justice department to do its job, to investigate -- especially very public issues of public corruption. the caller previous, where hillary clinton's emails, for instance, the justice department refuses to do anything about it, refused to even look at it again under president trump. they just think they answer in many ways to no one with regard to their decision making on prosecutions or even whether to ask questions. forget ab

the media coverage has been, how dare anyone investigate adam schiff? don't believe it can be the case that a congressman or journalist get to be immune from ranger investigations and lawful subpoenas. whether i trust the justice department to investigate jaywalking, that is another matter. i think the justice department has proven itself incapable of fairly investigating anyone, but certainly adam schiff is not immune from the investigations. that is what the rule of law is about. host: has it become too politicized on both sides as a new administration comes in. why do you suppose it has become that way? guest: we could talk a long time about that, but typically when you are talking about politicians caught up in the investigations by the justice department, almost nothing normal happens. it really kind of distorts what ought to be a fair investigative and prosecutorial process. and that is true for both democrats and republicans. usually the republicans have been most recently on the wrong end of that. host: what was the issue that led you to where y

seizing apple's records, of adam schiff and others. the trump administration waged a months-long secret court battle to get records from my colleagues, cnn's barbara starr. mark meadows sent five emails to the then-acting attorney general trying to pressure him to investigate ridiculous claims of election fraud. we heard new audio of rudy giuliani pressuring ukraine to investigate joe biden. this is all recent. this is all just within the last couple of days, weeks. it's shocking. we thought it was bad. but we didn't even know the half of it. we have a lot more ahead tonight on the story. we will dig in more. and this story is coming as we are also getting some stunning revelations about the january 6th insurrection. that's when those -- look at your screen -- violent trump-supporting rioters stormed the united states capitol trying to stop the certification of the vote. the fbi director christopher wray says virtually none of those rioters were on their radar before the attack. >> as far as individuals under investigation, now that we

committee chair adam schiff and member eric swalwell.oo.

jim comey, adam mccabe, adam schiff. we see they were repeatedly questioned by the justice department and had their records subpoenaed. obviously in political corruption cases where members are targets of the investigation, they have their information turned over. there was a case where a senate intelligence committee staffer pled guilty to a leak three years ago and had had records seized by the justice department. it is not inherently wrong. but for the justice department to target a member -- the chairman of the senate intelligence committee and to go after people's family members. and when you overlay a couple of things, number one, the fact there is no information yet that they targeted, republicans of the intelligence committee. you look at all the people who might have had information and disclosed it. obviously the republicans would have had information and there's no indication they had their records subpoenaed. when he comes up dry and they have nothing to go forward and he moves a new prosecutor in, that tells

adam schiff, putting out that statement, tonight. and was just on chris's show, moments ago.t said, in february, 2020. accusing adam schiff of leaking information about russia's election interference. >>> and frankly, i think it's disgraceful. i think it was leaked from the intelligence committee, house. house version. and i think that they leaked it. i think, probably, schiff leaked it. but people within that -- schiff leaked it, in my opinion. and he shouldn't be leaking things like that. they ought to stop the leaking from intelligence committee. and if they don't stop it, i -- i can't imagine that people are not going to go after them and find out what's happening. >> wow. projection. every time, he said something about someone else, was true about him. still is. so in just the past-few days, we have learned this. we have learned about donald trump, the doj seizing apple's records, of adam schiff and others. we learned the trump administration waged a months-long, secret court battle to get records from my colleague. cnn's barbara starr. we learned that mark meadows sent

>> it's very difficult for adam schiff and eric swalwell in their personal cases.secutors have very broad coverage for things they do in terms of personal liability that are related to the job itself. so, in other words, it's going to be very difficult to sue doj. howevering that does not mean there can be no accountability. doj's merrick garland has serious work to do. he has to find out, are there more gag orders in place. if there are, he needs to seriously think about going to the court and say, we need to have the gag orders lifted and come clean on this. he needs to empower the doj inspector general to do a full report, and congress has to dig in. congress needs to ask, where did the impetus for this come from? the white house, bill barr? who authorized it? what was the factual pred indication or basis for this. so there's a lot of accountability to be had here. >> thank you both so much. >>> so as president biden prepares for meetings with world leaders, jill bind getting ready for a wild rendezvous with kate, the dutchess of cambridge. >>> and criticism of

they're going to investigate adam schiff. famous for projecting.aking news tonight among the details we are learning from this new york times reporting on these secret subpoenas of congressional records by the trump doj, quote, prosecutors under the beleaguered attorney general jeff sessions, i'm convinced as part of his title, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between trump associates and russia. the paper goes on to say one sessions left, bill barr revived the investigation. a lot to talk about. we've got the guys to do. it back with us, james carville, veteran democratic strategist who rose to fame with the clinton presidential effort, cohost of the politics war room podcast and the famous man in st. louis, mississippi. michael steele back with, us former chairman of the republican national committee, former lieutenant governor of the great state of maryland, also the host of the michael steele podcast. james, your reaction to tonight's lead story? >> i was watching a basketball game, so i turned on your progr

this is not about adam schiff and myself. it's about a president rewarding his friends corruptly, through the department of justice, as he did with michael flynn and roger stone. and punishing his perceived enemies. my fear is that he may not have been successful this time in looking up his perceived enemies. but the more corrupt donald trump in the white house, again may not be as patient, and just get the department of justice. and it's processes and just order his lieutenants to lock up his political opponents. >> that's the crux of it. right? we hear this news and this idea that he went through the proper channels. that's both at some level, i guess, there's some check there. but also, disturbing that there were people inside the justice department that went along with this operation. >> that's why support adam schiff's call for inspector general reports. an investigation to understand, not only was this bill barr, jeff sessions and that whitaker? whoever was charged at the time. but rank and file prosecutors went along w

jim comey, andy mccabe, adam schiff. after disclosure after disclosure, we see each of them repeatedly has been investigated by the justice department, have had their record subpoenaed. we look, it's not like there's never a case when the justice department can subpoena information from a member of congress. in political corruption cases, were members are targets of investigation, they have information turned over. there is a case when a senate intelligence committee staffer pled guilty to a leak three years ago, and had records seized by the justice department. it's not inherently wrong. for them to target a member, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, and they go after people's family members, and when you overlay a couple of, things number on the fact there is no information yet that they targeted, we publican members of the house intelligence committee. when you conduct leak investigation, you look at all the people who might have had information, and when it disclosed it. obviously, the republicans wou

you can't tell adam schiff about this. you can't tell eric swalwell about this until a certain time in the future. what that does is it makes this a completely one-sided fight. it doesn't allow adam schiff or eric swalwell to contest the subpoenas to try to stand up for their own rights. and by the time we're learning about this in june of 2021, donald trump is long gone. bill barr is long gone. that doesn't mean they're out of harm's way. congress has a job. they need to subpoena these people and bring them in and get answers from them. >> so apple had to comply, right? because of the court order? >> yes. >> they had to comply. >> yes, correct. >> another question. so the executive branch was trying to investigate the legislative branch, multiple members of congress, and now we need to know a lot more, correct? ely? >> yes. look. there is a couple entities. doj has an inspector general. that inspector general needs to do an investigation and congress needs to do an investigation, as i'm sure laura is familiar with. they n

they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> so they were investigating adam schiff. does your reporting cast any light on whether the president might have been aware this was happening? and those comments alone pressure to doj to start investigations? >> i don't know what trump knew about the investigation that involved schiff or whether he knew about that. we do not know anything in that area. what this underlines is the norm that trump busted when he behaved and spoke the way he did. for decades and especially in the postwar era, presidents were not supposed to talk about investigations, because if any action were to be taken, whatever it was, people would say, well, the person at the top of the executive branch, the person that picks the folks that run the justice department, this is what he wants. back in 2017 and 2018 the president was very, very, very upset about the mueller investigations, but who jeff sessions had recused himself from that. rod rosenstein was under fire from people who wanted to impeach him. it was during that period of time as they were star

comcast business powering possibilities. >>> i think adam schiff is the biggest leaker in washington.now that. i know that. we all know that. they would leak selectively with the sick, corrupt politician named schiff. corrupt politician. now schiff is a big leaker. you know? he leaks to crazy cnn. adam schiff and the group leaked it to the papers. as usual they ought to investigate adam schiff for leaking that information. he should not be leaking information out of intelligence. they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> they say trump was famous for projecting. more on the breaking news among the details to learn from "the new york times" reporting on the secret subpoenas of congressional records by the trump doj, prosecutors under the beleaguered attorney general jeff sessions were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between trump associates and russia. paper goes on to say by the way when sessions left barr revived the investigation. we have the guys to talk about it. back with us james carville veteran strat just to rose to national fame with the clint

adam schiff, the watermelon head, right? >> he is not a long-ball hitter. >> call him shifty schiff. we don't call him shifty schiff for nothing. he is a shifty, dishonest guy. and when you see little adam schiff go out and lie and lie and stand at the mic. smart guy, by the way. >> you, little pencil neck. >> now, you can chock that up to a childish man behaving childishly but he was the president. and he is still is, right now, the unquestioned lead of of his party. so even as the doj's inspector general, today, began investigating the matter. republican lawmakers were downplaying it. senator charles grassley saying in a statement, today, quote, investigations into members of congress and staff are nothing new. congressman chris stuart, who sits on the house-intelligence committee saying quote, i support investigating leaks of classified information. which, of course, glides right past the evidence that this was no-ordinary leak investigation. everything we are learning about it suggests, not to us, but to intelligence and

adam schiff, one of the members who was targeted here, talks about that scale. listen. >> i can't go into who received these subpoenas or whose records were sought. i can't say that it was extraordinarily broad. people having nothing to do with the intelligence matters that are at least being reported on. it just shows what a broad phishing expedition it was. >> and, jim, just to button this up. it begins in february 2018. the gag order is renewed three times and curiously enough, this all comes to an end just days before joe biden becomes president. that's when it appears, according to the records and according to our sources that the justice department just loses interest in this. >> evan perez, thank you. christine, the role of apple here notable. apple has this metadata and they also had to abide by this gag order. does a company like apple have a choice? >> well, look, it was a grand jury subpoena apple in 2018 and apple says it abides by the law. this happens all the time, by the way. you look at the numbers. in the first half of 2020, every six months, ap

i hate adam schiff. subpoena his records. have the justice department go after him and investigate him and all of his staff and their families, right? but then there's also just like, i want the u.s. government and lots of foreign governments to pay me. i've decided we're going to do that stuff at my hotel. the president said he wanted the g-7 at his hotel. white house personnel went along with it. whoever the poored so was who was operating the white house twitter account had to tweet this out as a big announcement. the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney announced it to the press from the white house briefing room. this was not a lark, they really tried to do it. and yeah, sure, it is actually written in the constitution that u.s. officials can't take money from any foreign governments, but who cares, right? who's going to enforce it? can't prosecute the president. and no prosecutor after he's gone will be interested. the way they did this, any foreign government that wanted to participate in a 2020 g-7 summit would ha

committee chair adam schiff and member eric swalwell. their aides and family members including a minor were targeted, too. the records were sought as part of an investigation into leaks of classified information. let's just say trump was never shy about who he thought was spilling his business. >> schiff is a big leaker. >> we'll have a committee meeting and he'll leak all sorts of information. you know, he's a bad guy. i think adam schiff is the biggest leaker in washington. you know that. i know that. we all know that. i've watched adam schiff leak. he is a corrupt politician. he's a leaker like nobody has ever seen before. they ought to stop the leaking from intelligence committee. if they don't stop it i can't imagine people aren't going to go after them and find out what's happening. >> this isn't the first time trump shredded our institutions in an attempt to hunt down his enemies and snuff them out. this was a thing with him as it is with all autocrats real and wanna-be. this is a big deal. unprecedented in this country and arguab

adam schiff is not above the law. to me, knowing certainly, i've never leaked classified information and there was no reason to believe i would have. to do this, it seems punitive but it seems as part of a pattern of donald trump abusing the department of justice to go after his enemies. >> it appears there will be an inspector general report. but i want to read this to you. i hesitate to tell other chamber how to conduct its business but since we are in a 50-50 senate and can't issue subpoenas without republicans, i respectfully ask the house to not have investigations but rather do it themselves. >> i like senator schatz. i know chairman schiff and chairman nadler and the speaker, we're not helpless anymore, certainly not in the house of representatives. i think we've shown through two impeachments a willingness to hold donald trump accountable. i want the public to understand, this is not a 500-year flood. donald trump thinks he will be reinstated in august. he is running for re-election in 2024. you have a number

i've watched adam schiff leak. he's a corrupt politician.t to investigate adam schiff for leaking that information. he should not be leaking information out of intelligence. they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> he would repeatedly attack our committee, attack me personally, call for investigations of our committee while we were doing an investigation of him, and apparently, those pleas were met with a receptive audience at the very top level in the justice department. among sessions and bill barr, even though there was no evidence to support a leak coming from our committee. >> hi again, everyone, it's 5:00 in the east. trump asked, and his doj answered. alarming new reporting from the "new york times" shows that president trump, who was obsessed with his critics in the democratic party and repeatedly, as you saw there, called for investigations into them, just might have succeeded in turning the justice department into more of a personal police force. the "times" citing house intelligence committee officials and two other people briefe

among them, two democrats, adam schiff and eric swalwell including their staff and family members, including a minor. there wug a gage order that expired three times after trump left office. >> this was all part f an effort by president trump to find out who was behind the reports of contacts between trump associates and russia. >> i can't go into who received these subpoenas or whose records were sought. i can't say that it was extraordinarily broad, people having nothing to do with, you know, the intelligence matters that are at least being reported on. it just shows what a broad fishing expedition it was. >> okay. so two top democrats are now calling on president trump's former a.g.s bill barr and jeff sessions to testify about this. cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez has been digging into this story. what do we know at this point, evan. >> part of what we know happened is the inspector general here just announced a few minutes ago they have launched an investigation into these subpoenas that targeted the lawmakers, but also to look into the seizure of phone records and email r

yesterday i was talking about this story just referring to adam schiff and eric swalwell.bout how apple turned over don mcgahn's data to then trump justice department. what do you make of that new bombshell revelation? how does it change the conversation? >> it really doesn't, because the heart of the attack in the subpoena on mcgone, his own counsel, and on adam schiff and eric swalwell, members of congress in a separate and equal branch of government, is all about the rampant, reckless, unrestrained abuse of authority by president trump. so the heart of the abuse was directed against his own lawyer, and that gives you a picture into the mind of the man who was president for four years. that is pretty bizarre to be subpoenaing documents from your own attorney. but it's understandable, given the way trump attacked congress that he would use his abuse of power to go after some of his political adversaries, but he went after his own lawyer as well. it comes from the same willingness on his part to abuse the justice department. and it's very important about barr, barr in my v

like adam schiff. >> i think adam schiff is the biggest leaker in washington. this total maniac, shifty schiff, he's a total maniac. little adam schiff, what a crooked politician. he's a corrupt politician. >> trump also has lashed out repeatedly at swalwell, calling the congressman his insult, a loser. news of the secret record seizure also comes after we're learning the trump justice department had collected data of reporters here at cnn, "the new york times," and "the washington post." those organizations like schiff and swalwell have of course been at the receiving end of trump's personal attacks. >> the media is on the opposition's party's side. and i actually said to myself, i say they treat me so unfairly. >> it appears, this is very hard to see this in any other way, trump was using the power of the government to investigate his so-called enemies. that is completely unamerican, a president, the executive branch, is not allowed to use the government to go after personal enemies. it's not how this country works it is not how the system is set up, no presi

now chairman of the house intelligence committee, congressman adam schiff. chairman, thank you for joining us, i appreciate you making the. time >> of course. >> well, mike schmidt jets told us that your records, the records of your entire staff and the child of one of your staff members were all seized secretly by the trump justice department as part of this investigation. does that concord with your understanding now that the gag order as apparently been lifted on apple and they were able to notify you at least of some of the scope of what happened here. >> i don't know whether it was the full staff or not, and we are trying to obviously observe the privacy of our staff members. so we are reliant on people who want to report what they have received. we also do not know whether it extended beyond democrats on the committee to republicans, republicans are not saying. but you know, we are obviously deeply suspicious of what the justice department was doing, more than that, this looks like a patent abuse of the department, yet another example of a president po

joining me now, democratic congressman adam schiff from california.. you know, my staff and i were noting, is vladimir putin basically got a whole bunch of cybercriminals that he has said, we're going to let you do what you want to do. you can make a bit of money but make sure your targets are all in the west. is that what's happening right now to the united states? >> yes, i think that's exactly it. there are a number of criminal groups, cybercriminals operating from russian soil. as long as they don't go after russian companies, as long as they don't hurt the regime, they can operate with a lot of impunity in terms of any reaction from the kremlin. but it's more than that, chuck. it's also that they could be tasked, and this is the same situation in china as well where other cybercriminals can act with the indulgence of the chinese government, but also they can be given instructions, we want this data, we want this trade secret, we want you to infiltrate these government agents and provide us the data. so it's a symbiotic relationship between these

the trump administration tried to spy on adam schiff using the department of justice.ly big one. we will be right back with that in a moment. don't go anywhere. anywhere. pepto bismol coats your stomach with fast and soothing relief. and try new drug free pepto herbal blends. made from 100% natural ginger and peppermint. it's time for sleep number's summer sale on the sleep number 360 smart bed! it's the most comfortable, body-sensing, automatically-responding, energy-building, dually-adjustable, dad-powering, wellness-boosting, foot-warming, temperature-balancing, recovery-assisting, effortlessly life-changing... proven quality night sleep we've ever made. and now, save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 48 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time. pain? yeah. here. aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine. works fast and lasts. keep it. you're gonna need it. kick pain in the aspercreme breaking news about the trump justice department's abuse of power to investigate its enemies. new york times reports quote prosecutor subpo

what is with adam schiff? what is he saying?e is no equivalency, it is amusing if not comical with this fit claiming, oh, this is terrible injustice and an abuse of power. this is an attack on democracy. no, it's not peer at the department of justice had evidence presented to a grand jury with probable cause. the grand jury issued subpoenas to track down crime. leaks of classified information that jeopardize national security. and there is schiff and not once does he mention, oh, by the way, i did the exact same thing. two people secretly subpoenaing on his own authority, not with a grand jury, not with the department of justice but on his own authority, seizing people's phone call records, journalist, including, by the way sean hannity. and you know, he then had the audacity to go in front of a court and his lawyers claimed that he had unfettered authority and unlimited power to do as he pleases and this court has no jurisdiction over me. what is really troubling is the media. they never challenged him here they never said "mr.

information dating back to 2017 and 2018 from apple for congressional democrats eric swalwell, adam schiff, staffers and family members, including a minor. reporters' records were subpoenaed in connection with leaked investigation. >> this is about the public. >> reporter: on monday, media executives met with attorney general merrick garland to address the growing controversy which started under his predecessors. former attorneys general investigations and william barr have denied knowing about the subpoenas. former doj acting assistant for national security mary mccord said that would be unusual. >> i would say this is something that would have had to go all

donald trump talked about adam schiff a lot.rief clip from last year, for instance. >> they ought to investigate adam schiff for leaking that information. he should not be leaking information out of intelligence. howie: well, they did investigate adam schiff and the investigation had gone dormant. bill barr revived it when he became attorney general. as with subpoenas of records from reporters from new york times and the washington post, ultimately no evidence of illegal leaks of classified or secret information were found. >> this is weaponizing the doj against political opponents. i'm sure the minor that the records were taken of and family members betters of schiff and swalwell had nothing do do with any leak. this is troubling. the questions come up again, what did they know, who knew it and when did they know it. i didn't buy that barr and sessions knew nothing about this. you had a federal grand jury assembled. huh a gag order and -- you had a gag order. that means you had to have approval that comes from the top. congress

aide to adam schiff continue to say that this was closed. t we do know that former president donald trump had a vendetta against representative schiff who obviously was investigating the former president for many reasons and lead an impeachment against hip and he would publicly call for investigations into adam schiff. this is the department of justice who carried that out. and perhaps on behalf of the former president, but there are, there is a lot of questions that are still needing to be answered. the aides to adam schiff say they're asking for more information from the department of justice in a timely manner. something they have not yet received. and again, like katie said, they want the inspector general to open an investigation and now on the senate side, senator ron wyden --widen who has been concerned is calling for an investigation. >> you saying the data did not tie the committee to the leaks, and at that point investigators debated whether or not they hit a dead end. but bill bar revived the leak investigations a year later. let's

adam schiff and the eric swalwell.he subpoenas first reported last night for the "new york times" were so broad they covered more than #00 accounts and sought data not only from devices used by lawmakers, but also staff, family members, even from a child. >> donald trump identified chairman schiff and members of the committee as an enemy of his and just like vladimir putin, or erdogan, or xi in china, he used the power of government corruptly to go after his perceived political opponents. >> with me in studio to share their reporting and their insights. cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider, manu raju and carrie cordero. committee members this hour getting a briefing, the democrats, some of them aren't even sure if they're subject to this and number two, reaction from top democrats in the senate to say we want to know more. >> chuck schumer and the dick durbin, the number two democrat, they are clear, they want bill barr and jeff sessions to come before the senate judiciary committee and testify, that's the first

chairman adam schiff is here later. we begin with new reporting from "the washington post" on the high-stakes investigation of this trump organization in new york. tonight is also the eve of the new york primary for d.a. a reminder that the current d.a., cy vance, leaves office in sufficient seven months which sets that time period as the likely deadline for any decisions on charging alleged criminal conduct of the trump organization. allen weisselberg has been seen dutifully going into work at trump tower. how he is balancing those job duties against huge pressure from prosecutors for evidence against trump with reports that he continues to resist cooperating. one d.a. veteran likening his approach to playing russian roulette with prison time. a serious game for a 74-year-old. "the post" reporting reinforces the picture from a recent "new york times" account about charges as near as this summer. also new "the wall street journal" reporting prosecutors are investigating whether trump's former bodyguard who was a trump e

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by name talking about adam schiff is the leaker. the far greater concern here which should shock no one that followed governmentously -- government seriously is he targeted them in an agreej us abuse of power. >> it is no accident that the targets of this record seeking here, the subpoenas but also the gag orders were people that the president deliberately targeted and viewed as enemies. swalwell and schiff. but also investigations that the president did not like and sought in many ways to end. we learn from don mcgann's testimony earlier this week that the president did try to get him to fire via the then deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the special counsel robert mueller. >> the fact it appears possibly that the entire intelligence committee may have been targeted here. we know specifically that eric swalwell's gave information to investigators. how much more of this committee and how wud ranging was this investigation? it's not just those exact adversaries but everybody who interacted with president trump's adversaries. th

eric swalwell, and adam schiff.are two of the most prominent democratic critics of the former president. and we know that the former president and his attorneys general were very obsessed with leaks over stories -- of stories -- that they believe were behind stories behind the trump/russia investigation and they wanted to bring people to justice over this. we don't know what will be the result of this investigation from the inspector general that is now ongoing. we also don't know what else is height hiding in the deep closets of the justice department. that's what the deputy is doing. finding out where other bodies are buried. the new administration, the new leader of the justice department keeps getting surprised by things that are popping up inside the justice department. >> evan, thank you very much for that reporting. for bringing it to us. obviously there is long way to go on this story. >>> tense negotiations set to happen soon over several big issues on the biden agenda. can deals be reached on notice of, vo

they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> of course, congressman adam schiff is one of the democrats whose records were subpoenaed by trump's doj. of course, the enormity of the scandal could not be any clearer. donald trump used the office of the presidency to exact political retribution against his perceived enemies. in a word, it's nixonian. let's begin tonight with a cynthia ochsner. she's an msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. thank you so much for taking the time out tonight. >> good evening. >> what exactly was the department of justice doing here? what kind of information were they going after? and it is spying the right word for what they were doing? >> they were going after what's called metadata. and they can actually do that. metadata is information -- metadata means data about data. for instance, if you are looking for metadata on an album, you would get the data was published, and maybe what were the names of the songs on it, and who was the artist. but not the music itself. they were getting the metadata about who congressman schiff and congressman swalw

i've watched adam schiff leak. he's a corrupt politician.m schiff for leaking that information. he should not be leaking information out of intelligence. they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> chairman schiff, the floor is yours to respond. >>well, look, i had to get used to that over the last four years. but the problem is when the president continually badgers the justice department to go after his political enemies, and he has people unscrupulous enough to do it, it raises serious questions about whether the justice department has been weaponized in the president's service. we know that bill barr, for example, intervened in specific cases to lower the sentencing recommendation for people who lied to cover up for the president, like roger stone. he intervened to make cases go away for people of whom lied, also, on the president's behalf like mike flynn. and certainly appears they were using the just is department to go after the president's political enemies. there's a lot we don't know, obviously, but i'm glad inspector general at the

they investigated chairman adam schiff and congressman eric swalwell. they weren't the only ones targeted. so were their staff andfamily members including staff and a child, a minor. that's right. they were hunting for data on more than 100 accounts, trying to figure out who was leaking information to the media about contacts between trump and russia. >> they issued a gag order so apple was prevented from saying anything about it until now. adam schiff is demanding an investigation, calling out the trump white house for what they call a terrible abuse of power. speaker nancy pelosi is saying trump's actions, quote, appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president. let's go right to cnn's laura jarrett to lay out exactly what we're talking about here, laura. >> yeah, john, so i was covering the justice department when all of this happened. it's important to remember how it all starts. then attorney general jeff sessions was under enormous investigation. he was recused from the investigation. trump is furious. at t

but also i don't need to remind you trump had been falsely publicly calling adam schiff a leak. are constantly calling for an investigation. how could that be used as evidence now? >> it would just be evidence that there was the complete and total politicization of the department of justice during the trump administration. there is actual supreme court precedent, alicia, concerning the federal grand jury subpoenas. because that's exactly what was used in this case as a vehicle by which the records were obtained for 73 phone numbers and at least 16 email addresses from apple. this prior supreme court precedent says that these grand jury subpoenas, although they can be readily issued, as long as they are generally relevant to an investigation, they can never be used as a fishing expedition. and they certainly cannot be used if the targets of those subpoenas are done out of malice or for some type of malevolent intent or some type of specific political intent. and that's exactly what we all need to know. if barr denies knowledge, if sessions denies knowledge, and now we know that r

the media coverage has been, how dare anyone investigate adam schiff?elieve it can be the case that a congressman or journalist get to be immune from ranger investigations and lawful subpoenas. whether i trust the justice department to investigate jaywalking, that is another matter. i think the justice department has proven itself incapable of fairly investigating anyone, but certainly adam schiff is not immune from the investigations. that is what the rule of law is about. host: has it become too politicized on both sides as a new administration comes in. why do you suppose it has become that way? guest: we could talk a long time about that, but typically when you are talking about politicians caught up in the investigations by the justice department, almost nothing normal happens. it really kind of distorts what ought to be a fair investigative and prosecutorial process. and that is true for both democrats and republicans. usually the republicans have been most recently on the wrong end of that. host: what was the issue that led you to where you are n

was conducting a public vendeta that continued to the end of his term. >> little pencil neck ee e adam schiff. he has a little pencil neck. the smallest neck i've ever seen. schi irks schiff, the most dishonest politician. wa watermelon head. we call him schiffty schifft. when you see him go out and lie and lie and stand at the mike. smart guy, by the way. you little pencil neck. >> you can chuck that up to a childish man behaving childish will you but he was the president and still is right now the unquestioned leader of his party so even as the doj's inspector general today began investigating the matter, republican lawmakers were down playing it. charles grassly saying in a statement today investigations into members of congress and staff are nothing new. congressman chris stewart who sits in the house intelligence committee says i support investigating leaks of classified information that glides right past the evidencel investigation. everything we're learning suggests not just to us but intelligence and law enforcement professionals this plain reeks. as manu raju was told the bottom line

i don't like adam schiff. if you work for trump and your goal is to please trump, there's your signal. you don't need a go after his meta data. >> i'm going to get to infrastructure in a second. since you brought up bill barr, let's play the exchange with camera harris and the attorney general because it's very revealing. >> has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? >> um, i wouldn't -- >> yes or no. >> could you repeat that question? >> i will repeat it. has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone. yes or no, please, sir. >> the president or anybody else -- >> seems you'd remember something like that and be able to tell us. >> i don't know what more there is to say about this at that point. >> he was at that hearing. if she asked him, does friday come after thursday, he was not going to answer the question. he was there not to cooperate with the democrats. the answers he g

they ought to investigate adam schiff. >> of course, congressman adam schiff is one of the democratsse records were subpoenaed by trump's doj, of course. the enormity of the scandal could not be any clearer. donald trump used the office of the presidency to exact political retribution against his perceived enemies. in a word, it's nixonian. let's begin tonight with cynthia, an msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. thank you so much for taking the time out tonight. >> good evening. >> so what exactly was the department of justice doing here? what kind of information were they going after? and is spying the right word for what they were doing? >> well, they were going after what's called meta data and they can actually do that. meta data is information -- it basically means data about data. for instance, if you were looking for meta data on an album, you would get the date it was published and maybe what were the songs on it and who was the artist but not the music itself. they were getting the meta data about who congressman schiff and congressman swalwell were communicat

and that is that it could be adam schiff today.s that are abided by whether it's a republican or a democratic president. so this is really about the members of congress having to act to protect the independence in the authority of the separate and equal branch of government. that was under attack by president trump as was the freedom of press. >> congressman welch, appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. >>> just ahead, kids 11 and younger not yet eligible for the covid-19 vaccine. but just how soon could that change and what do experts say we need to know first? as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. (announcer) carvana's had a lot of firsts. let's not keep it waiting. 100% online car buying. it's a whole new world out there. car vending machines. and now, putting you in control of your financing. at carvana, get personalized

>> so the only way this is legal, alex, is if there is evidence that adam schiff or eric swalwell ory of the other people who had their metadata, we can talk about what that is, subpoenaed, were involved in criminal activity, and thus far we have seen zero evidence of that. it's been reported that adam schiff has requested any supporting evidence from the fbi, from the department of justice that would warrant these subpoenas being issued and the reporting is he has received radio silence from the department of justice. so there will be an investigation and here we go again, another investigation. it would sure be nice, alex, if one or more of these investigations ripened into prosecutions, because, based on all the reporting, this looks less like a legitimate leaks investigation and more like bill barr, again, doing, you know, the political bidding of donald trump. and unfortunately it looks like a political vendetta. do we think it's a coincidence that donald trump would tweet dozens of times that adam schiff needs to be investigated, only to have bill barr open what may be a bogus

february 2020 he said adam schiff is out here leak.o investigate adam schiff and so on and so, you know, even though desit's incredibly uncommon and par for the course for president trump. >> bill, apple publicly shares so often the u.s. government makes requests for its data which didn't begin under trump, we should note but in the first six months of 2018 when the department of justice was going after schiff and swalwell apple had requests for 2,400 of its accounts and in apple's last report it's the meta data that the department of justice is going after which is not the content of the e-mails or the content of the phone calls or voice mails but who was talking to who and when and where. what is bart for a making such a request because i would think and i may be wrong that it could be kind of high but it sound like it isn't all that hoy. >> it should be very high. as people have been saying, the fact that they are going after the democrats isn't in and of itself a problem if there's proof of a crime, if there's some kind of leak com

so, this is not, as far as we know, targeting adam schiff or don mcgahn.eless, it's really extraordinary that the sitting-white house counsel, the now-chairman of the house intelligence committee, could have their data, so easily, swept in by federal prosecutors. and not even be told about it, for years and years. >> right. i mean, i guess, the -- you know, if it's a fairly normal or standard method of investigation. and -- and -- and to go about this sort of, like, crawling through this network. what's not normal is the people that appear to be getting these things, who are some of the most powerful-public figures. i mean, you have got, you know, minority-ranking member of the intelligence community. you got the own white house counsel. and a department of justice, again, that is like okaying all of this. right? like, at some level, both, judges and senior officials at doj. do we know like who is saying, like, yes, keep going this is fine? or do we think that there is some -- it seems to me there would be some break on this. there'd be some governor that