but then he just did an andrew weissman, which i love. >> i know.alk directly to the camera. you got to tell people what you think. and on this fbi thing, i mean, i think part of what is so scary about them having people's information, right? not people's badge numbers, not their id numbers, their actual name is that. yes. you've had a judge come in and say, hold on that. well, that assumes there's not going to be a leak. that assumes that the person who has that information is going to be careful with that. and as i said earlier, to me, this is a thread that runs through all of these stories. there's a lot of delicate information about social security, about your financial institutions that you want to believe is being protected. and right now they are clawing at all of that information. >> who's to say, even if it doesn't leak, they now have the information so they could do something with it. you know what i mean? like that is the i go ba tbeing very concerned for these individuals who still work in the federal government that don't have that feel

joining us now is andrew weissman, former fbi general counsel and former chief of the criminal division of new york. he is an msnbc legal analyst. and, andrew, this point about firing 6000 fbi agents brings us back to the first point of this hour, which is stupidity, which is donald trump's stupidity. and as david brooks in the new york times defines stupidity, it is not asking what happens next. so donald trump, you fire 6000 fbi agents. what happens next? >> so this is if your goal is not the safety of the american people, the functioning of law enforcement, if your goal is not that, but just pure retribution. these are the people i want to say that january 6th is a glorious day for america, and i want to release all of the people who did what we saw before our eyes. they get pardoned, and everybody who participated in holding them to account. so it's like the inmates go free. the people who are the good guys who are holding to account, they should be vilified. and that's what the list is. so it's like a mccarthy era list of people who are not just doing their job. they were doing wha

>> andrew weissman. >> i think. >> it's really. >> important to. not have. >> the overton window sort of move along where we don't remember. >> how crazy. >> this is. there is no legitimate reason for these. >> names to. >> ever be public. >> these people. >> whether the field. >> people, the. >> agents and. >> analysts and staff. >> who worked on the january. >> 6th cases or the senior leadership, they. >> were doing. >> righteous work. >> we have. a beauvais and now pam. >> bondi. >> the. >> official attorney general, describing the january. >> 6th. >> prosecutions as a grave national. >> injustice. >> as has donald trump. >> that is false. >> the people who worked on it. were doing something for the public. >> the names. >> of the people who worked on it, to have it ever be public. >> that that. >> they worked on it to have a target. this shouldn't be. oh. >> they. >> have 48 hours to get to court. it should never be released. so i just want to make sure people understand how nutty this is. the second part of what is at issue is not just the lis

also with us, andrew weissman, former fbi general counsel and former chief of the criminal division in. and, andrew, let's begin with you, because your old job is mentioned here. fbi general counsel advised you must turn over all of those names. >> so i disagree. >> with that. >> i think. >> it. >> depends on what the intent is. the only non nefarious intent would be if you want those names because you want to commend them. i worked on the enron case. there was a huge team. i could imagine the justice department saying, we need to know everyone there because we want to give them an award. emil bove made it clear that's not why they want the list. he said it's about possible employment action. and he has also described the january 6th cases as agreeing with donald trump that it was appropriate to describe them as a grave injustice, bringing cases involving the january 6th insurrection are current. number two in the justice department has described that way the. if the intent of this list is to make public their names and put a target on their back, that is unlawful. if the intent is to

. >> andrew weissman, your thoughts today? >> i want to make sure people understand how serious this is for the bureau. normally, frank figliuzzi, when he was at the bureau, is worried about the bad guys outside, the people committing child predators, bank robberies, fraud, fraud on the elderly, terrorism. we've talked about all of the panoply of wrongdoing that is outside the theory of these two cases that have been filed is the crime is happening inside the house, and it is coming not just from the president who is a convicted felon, but it's coming from the leadership of the justice department. and so the illegal activity that is the reason for the lists, the reason for thinking about termination, the possibility of these lists becoming public is because of people not just doing their job, and not just they didn't have a choice. what they were doing was they were trying to hold accountable what we all saw with our eyes on january 6th. this is it would have been a dereliction of duty not to take action. i mean, this isn't ju

stop the steal guy, has threatened to use the fbi, which is, according to frank figliuzzi and andrew weissmanhts of doge, which isn't a thing against people protecting the classified information at usaid. welcome to monday, folks. vaughn hillyard, teddy schleifer, and ben rhodes. thank you for starting us off. when we come back, we might all be more clear eyed about all of this. if it were happening in another country. we'll have that country. we'll have that conversation ♪♪ well would you look at that? jerry, you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! unbelievable. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. ♪ i have type 2 diabetes, but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance... ♪ ♪ ...at each day's start. ♪ ♪ as time went on, it was easy to see. ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c! ♪ and for adults with type 2 diabetes... ...and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiova