congressman bennie thompson, help me out with this. got word that there is a decision on the situation involving president trump's exercise of privilege. trump will lose this round. federal judge tanya chutkin has ruled the u.s. house select committee should have access to records from his presidency about january 6th. here's a quote from the holding. the court holds that the public interest lies in permeitting, nt enjoining the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on january 6th and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again. a 39-page opinion. that's the crux. the national archives is set to begin turning key trump white house records over to theous on friday. how big of a decision is this for you? what do you believe is to be gained from these documents? >> well, it's a big deal. we have a lot of information we have requested. we're now, based on a judge's decision, that donald trump brought the lawsuit. we fought him in court. we have the

your chairman bennie thompson says more subpoenas are coming. the committee has already heard from what, more than 150 people so far. who do you still need to hear from? >> well, actually, we've heard from close to 200 witnesses. we have received close to 25,000 documents. more than 200 tips from our -- received through our tip line. and the chairman is right. there will be more subpoenas. i have vowed not to identify who we're going to subpoena until those subpoenas are issued but we want to foond out all the information about what led up to the riot. the insurrection on the 6th so that we can determine what steps, whether it's legislative or administrative to prevent this from ever happening again. >> without mentioning names, and i certainly understand your reluctance to mention names before subpoenas are actually issued, could you at least give us an indication where these subpoenas, these individuals, where they are, what they were doing? are they from the white house? were they working elsewhere? >> we've had people from the trump administ

here's what bennie thompson said in that statement to meld does. "there is no valid legal basis for the continued resistance to the subpoena. they'll view his failure to appear as willful noncompliance, which could result in a referral to the department of justice for criminal charges." that is the issue here in this, whether they will make that move. this comes in the backdrop of meadows being at the center of the executive privilege fight where donald trump is trying to keep many documents, including three handwritten memos by meld does. the federal appeals court will hear arguments on november 30th, so we could resolution at the federal appellate level early next month. of course the former president will appeal that if he loses. >> joining me for more is paul callan and manu raju and john harwood. let's start with the legal. as kara was ending there, paul, meld does blows past this deadline. what do you think this means? >> it's a little odd his attorneys didn't co-nm and make a motion to quash the subpoena initially and then test that in the c

bennie thompson said he is wanting to wrap it up by early spring.o, they have to get cracking. all eyes are on january 6, even as they wait for the build back better vote. there is nothing really on the calendar right now. there are some suspension votes on the calendar. they kind of put those in as lease keepers to get guys into town and vote on noncontroversial things while they wait for something bigger, the build back better act. they will start in the senate kind of the same thing they will start moving on ndaa. there are a couple nominations for deputies at the treasury and the ag department, but mostly everyone is just in wait and see mode what comes out of this debate over biden's agenda. in the meantime, everyone is talking about biden's polling numbers. it's been a really, really tough couple of months for the administration and for democrats, and so there's a lot at stake here and again they want to switch the conversation from process which is dry and messy and get on to talking about benefits which they hope to get out the door very qui

. >>> january 6 committee chair bennie thompson on what the subpoenas mean and what happens next. >>> the right wing planned to use culture wars and covid to destroy public education in america. >>> as aaron rodgers attempts to end his pr nightmare -- >> i made comments that people might have felt were misleading. >> i will talk to the surgeon general about his new plan to combat vaccine misinformation when "all in" starts right now. >>> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. the house committee investigating the january 6 insurrection released another round of subpoenas today targeting a number of high profile allies of former president donald trump. this comes on the heels of the big round handed down yesterday. we will talk to the head of the committee doing all this in just a moment. today's most recent group includes some familiar folks. former press secretary kaley mcanane. now we are learning a set of shocking new details about what this trump alterego john mcentee did and how he ran the united states government. before this, he was actually -- he went viral with this vid

bennie thompson and liz cheney saying -- and i am quoting again -- it is unfortunate mr. meadows has chosen to join a very small group of witnesses who believe that they are above the law, and are defying a select committee subpoena, outright. mr. meadows, mr. bannon, and others who go down this path won't prevail in stopping the select committee's efforts -- effort getting answers for the american people about january 6th. but in that same statement, there's this intriguing quote. indeed, mr. meadows has failed to answer even the most basic questions, including whether he was using a private cell phone to communicate on january 6th, and where his text messages from that day are. i am going to talk to our experts tonight about what investigators may be focusing on there. and it comes on the same day that we have stunning new audio of the former president defending the january-6th rioters who chanted hang mike pence. defending rioters who wanted to hang his vice president. john carl from abc. >> are you worried about him during that siege? were you worried about his safety

plus, january six committee chair, benny thompson, on what these subpoenas mean and what happens next. then the right-wing plan to use culture wars and covid to destroy public education in america. and as aaron rodgers attempt to npr nightmare over vaccine nonsense. >> i made some comments that people might have felt were misleading. >> tonight i'll talk to surgeon general, about his new plan to combat misinformation. when all in starts right now. >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, the biden partisan house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection released another round of subpoenas today. targeting a number of high-profile or allies, the former president donald trump has. this comes on the heels of that big run of subpoenas handed down yesterday. we are going to talk to the head of the committee doing all of this in just a moment. today's most recent group includes some familiar folks. press secretary kayleigh mcenany. trump senior advisor stephen miller. and also a guy named johnny mcentee. he may not be as familiar to you, it is possible that the name rings

benny thompson. benny thompson is the chair of the special house select committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol. donald trump's lawsuit claims executive privilege to prevent the house committee from obtaining written records of the trump white house that are kept at the national archives. president biden has ordered the archives to comply with the committee's subpoena for those records. today the judge invited donald trump's lawyer to speak first, and he did not get off to a good start. in a rambling, rhetorical opening speech, which has no place in a court hearing like this, had nothing to do with the facts of the case. the lawyer, justin clark, found himself saying "it's not only just an important argument and a monumental argument, but it also is one that is going to have consequences down the line for generations potentially." the judge interrupted by saying, "thank you for reminding me of that" sarcastically, and then forced mr. clark into a discussion of the actual legal q

bennie thompson said he wants to wrap that up by early spring. to do so they'll have to really get cracking. all eyes on january 6 even as they wait for the build back better vote. there's nothing really on the calendar right now. there's some suspension votes. house comes in today and there are some suspension votes on the calendar which just means they're bipartisan, noncontroversial bills that everybody's going to vote for. they kind of put those in as place keepers, as ways to get guys into town and vote on some noncontroversial things while they wait for something bigger, in this case, it's the build back better act. and in the senate, kind of the same thing. they'll start moving on ndaa. there are a couple nominations for some deputies at the treasury and the ag department. but mostly everyone is just in wait and see mode to see what comes out of this debate over biden's agenda. in the meantime, you know, everyone's talking about biden's polling numbers. it's been a very, very tough couple months for the administration and for democrats. so

bennie thompson was the lone democrat in the house to vote against hr 1, the package of voting reforms democrats wanted to pass earlier this year that would have included gerrymandering reform. i spoke with congressman thompson about this for his no vote. he is very suspicious of redistricting commission's over the process. -- commission taking over the process. it would be possible for there to be two black majority districts in the state, but republicans in charge of the legislature and governorship would not draw that map. it would require federal or court intervention to do so. there is a stronger case for additional black majority districts in states like louisiana, mississippi -- i'm sorry, alabama and potentially south carolina. host: mark from fort lauderdale, democratic caller. caller: hello and good morning to both of you. thanks for c-span. i sure hope he is wrong. i regard these upcoming votes as watershed event. she called a while back and said she was never going to vote again because of the things that were going on in the way they were trying to block her vote. i wanted

the committee putting out a statement, both bennie thompson, the chair, and represent liz cheney the vice chair and republican on the committee saying mr. meadows' actions today choosing to defy the law will force the committee to consider pursuing contempts or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena. it is unfortunate that mr. meadows has chose tony join a very small group of witnesses who believe they are above the law and are defying a select committee subpoena outright. fred, as you know, while these criminal cases could take years in the case of bannon, they are hoping at least this is some incentive, some motivation for mark meadows to rethink his position. >> all right. we'll see. thank you so much. >>> joining me right now to talk more about all of this, cnn presidential historian, tim neftali. we have seen slow rolling in the trump administration, we have seen stonewalling. it seemed like it was going that way in terms of those who were being dualled testify for this select committee. but now with this indictment, do you see that those who have been resistant will now test

plus, january six committee chair, benny thompson, on what these subpoenas mean and what happens next the right-wing plan to use culture wars and covid to destroy public education in america. and as aaron rodgers attempt to npr nightmare over vaccine nonsense. >> i made some comments that people might have felt were misleading. >> tonight i'll talk to surgeon general, about his new plan to combat misinformation. when all in starts right now. >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, the biden partisan house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection released another round of subpoenas today. targeting a number of high-profile or allies, the former president donald trump has. this comes on the heels of that big run of subpoenas handed down yesterday. we are goi t

the committee chairman bennie thompson and also liz cheney, right, the chair, as well, they say thaty're going to consider pursuing contempt charges against them. there is a good chance bannon is relishing in this but what about mark meadows and others? does this change the calculous for them? >> you know, the psychology of individuals varies from person to person in prior conversations that you and i and others have had on the question of whether or not someone will flip it depends on what their tolerance is for defending themselves, paying the money it costs to defend yourself and possibly having a prison interm in your future. some people are built a certain way like steve bannon may like the idea of being a martyr and the idea of the attention and the idea of the battle. other people may natural accomplish it so much. unclear where mark meadows is on that but probably the rest of the group is not as excited about being charged, prosecuted and potentially sent to jail for a minimum of a month as steve bannon. >> yeah. i want to read this. this is from thompson and cheney's stateme

bennie thompson says he's signed at least 20 subpoenas, soon to be served. six members of former president trump's inner circle were targeted yesterday, which gives us some insight into who lawmakers want to speak to next. >> but for investigators to actually get any cooperation or testimony from these witnesses, they may need attorney general merrick garland to take action against another trump ally, steve bannon, as the former ally has been held in contempt of congress but more than two weeks later, the doj has not yet taken action. cnn's ryan nobles is on capitol hill. where do these potential forthcoming subpoenas stand and what's the committee expect when it comes to compliance of the six we just highlighted? >> reporter: yeah, so, victor and alisyn, at any moment, we could get news of a new round of subpoenas that have been issued by the select committee, the committee not being specific as to when we'll hear about the subpoenas but bennie thompson saying there's potential of as many as 20 names and we saw just 6 names issued yesterday. so, we're waiti

but we did hear from house committee chairman bennie thompson who went on the record and said that somed some yes and some no. but clearly, wolf, the committee wants to talk to these people and for the first time we're hearing that some pence aides are engaging with the committee. >> it's really interesting because there are some people out there who were very close, very close to the vice president. and their information potentially could be very, very critical, right? >> so let's talk about these three. these are the inner circle. they have critical information. they were firsthand witnesses in the days leading up to january 6th and january 6th about how former president trump and his allies were trying to pressure pence to overturn the results of the election. just take a look. mark short, chief of staff, pence's closest aides with him in the days leading up to january 6th. the meetings actually with him on january 6th. up at the capitol. i'm told there's a lot of interest in him. second, greg jacob, former chief counsel. he was critical in pushing back on one of trump's lawyers we n

bennie thompson is weighing criminal context charges for the ex-trump era man jeffrey clark. it may seem like progress is moving at a snail's pace for the committee's investigation, there's actually fresh evidence indicating that things are moving faster than we might think. the ranking republican member on the committee, liz cheney, says, quote, members of the house panel investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol have interviewed more than 150 people so far. joining me now is betsy woodrough swan. good morning. what are you hearing about what's happening next on this committee? >> what we are keeping an eye out for is whether or not thompson issues a subpoena of john eastman, who you described earlier, who is a key figure here. of course, one other key plot that we saw unfold last week was jeff clark, who you showed on screen, saying that he would refuse to cooperate. clark showed up for an interview. but according to thompson wouldn't answer any questions. in fact, i obtained a letter that clark and his lawyer have delivered to the committee trying to make a bit o

congress shifted the focus to passing president biden's agenda late last week, the committee chair bennie thompson revealed he had signed about 20 subpoenas that that could go out soon. a retiring republican congressman is warning of the toxic culture and america should not let its guard down because january 6th could happen again. republican congressman anthony gonzales said it looks like donald trump evaluated what went wrong on january 6th. why was it he wasn't able to steal the election? who stood in his way? he is going state by state from state senate races down to county commissioner races trying to get the republicans the rhinos in his words who stopped him from stealing the election. rhinos are what republicans call republicans in name only, not real republicans. now as i mentioned yesterday, at least seven republicans that attended the january 6th rally in d.c. were elected to public office this past election day on tuesday and there are more set to run reelection next year because at least 21 other current state lawmakers attended the stop the steal rally on january 6th that turned into

last week, committee chairman bennie thompson told nbc news he signed about 20 subpoenas that, whichhat there are more to come in the days ahead. joining me now is "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt and former acting solicitor general. gentlemen, thank you for coming back to "the reidout." michael, could you talk about the significance of john being subpoenaed by the select committee? >> john mcentee was at the bottom of the campaign with not a lot of political experience but really thrived in a trump white house that did not have a lot of order and found himself in the final days of the administration as someone with an enormous amount of power, the power over personnel, someone that trump was listening to. you have to remember what those final weeks of the trump administration were like. the john kellys of the world were long gone and don mcgahns of the world were long gone and bill barrs of the world had been pushed aside and that allowed people like rudy giuliani, mike flynn and mcentee to have direct access to the president at a time trump was looking for

bennie thompson, just told reporters today he's freshly signed 20 new subpoenas he says are being sent out, quote, soon, possibly as soon as tomorrow. things are moving fast now and with quite a lot of volume in terms of the flow-through. watch this space. that's going to do it for us tonight. "way too early" is up next. >>> after months of negotiations, lawmakers are expected to hold a vote today on president biden's sweeping infrastructure plan and bipartisan bill. the question is are we finally going to see democrats get something done? >>> plus in georgia a murder trial gets under way for the three men who killed ahmaud arbery, but there's controversy. only one person on the jury deciding the case is blachlkt. >>> and lesson learned. i'll speak with a pair of political gurus, one on the left, one on the right, with their take on each of the parties. was this a teachable vote? it's "way too early" for this. ♪♪ >>> good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show that always learns its lessons the hard way. i'm jonathan lemire on this friday, november 5th. we'll start with the n

the chairman of that committee bennie thompson signing a letter tonight recapping the committee's demands and sending a message to the former president's chief of staff, we're giving you one more chance is basically what the letter says. but busy indicted on contempt of congress charges hasn't made steve bannon any more cooperative. he won't talk to the committee. but he sure has a lotto say, and he is saying it on his podcast reported not incidentally at the willard hotel in washington. you know the hotel where team trump set up their so-called war room before the insurrection at the capitol. >> they don't know how to handle when maga is punching back, and maga is punching back. okay, we're not going to sit here and take it anymore at the months and months and months and months and months of the rhetoric and trying to weaponize the law and weaponize doj. we're not going to take it, okay? we're going on offense. >> going on offense? wow. by defying a subpoena? as if he is above the law. by refusing to tell the committee what he knows about the brutal attack on our nation's capitol? look,

. >> look, the timing to have the committee chair on, bennie thompson of the january 6 committee was impeccable. it happened as chris was interviewing him. i want to play part of what he said and get your response. >> we have a lot of information we requested. we're now based on a judge's decision that donald trump brought the lawsuit. we fought him in court. we have the law on our side, and you know, we are a nation of laws. so if you take your issue to court and lose, then you need to man up and deal with it and not be a spoiled brat. >> so listen, i think you answered this in your last, but to clarify here, to be clear, the bottom line is the january 6 committee will probably ultimately get these documents. >> yeah, and i think they're going to get the first round of them by friday. now remember, they're being produced on a rolling basis. so there are future groups of documents. more in the future that are going to be produced on varying dates. so even if the court of appeals doesn't act between now and friday, it could act later. but i think it's the case that everyone understand

bennie thompson told reporters he signed 20 new subpoenas that could go out as early as tomorrow.ely, a federal judge in washington heard arguments in the former president's effort to keep documents away from the committee. in addition, she threw cold water on the request that the court review each document one by one, which the judge said could take years. hasn't ruled yet. joining us now and together again, cnn political analyst carl bernstein and bob woodward, coauthor with robert costa with "peril." also famously wrote with carl "all the president's men" and "in the final days." so, if the judge in this dispute allows access to the committee, how important is it, how damaging do you think it could be for him and his allies? >> well, that may happen, but it will, of course, be appealed and i think if you look at the nixon tapes case, going back to 1974, the ruling was that a prosecutor can get, in the case of nixon, his tapes, but the senate watergate committee could not. so, i'm not sure the january 6th commission has really got a strong hand. but this is very important, if yo

committee chairman bennie thompson said clark did not answer any questions. >> my understanding is heperate. and we will look forward after our meeting this afternoon as to next steps. i have as chair the ability to rule on some of the issues that were raised. >> reporter: one of those steps could be a criminal contempt referral of congress. clark is a key figure in the january 6th probe. a trump loyalist, who peddled false claims about election fraud within the department, with the goal of getting the v agency to investigate the claims. clark had a lot to do with this plan and he was apparently making a play to become the attorney general. >> reporter: clark's efforts were rebuffed by the two men running the doj at the time. acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen and his deputy, richard donohue. both men had already sat before the committee for lengthy interviews. clark's current attorney is harry mcdougal, a georgia-based lawyer with connections to sidney powell. powell and former new york city mayor rudy giuliani were part of the public push by trump allies to spread the big lie an

this comes after the chair of the committee congressman benny thompson in mississippi, said they were issued to issue up to 20 new subpoenas. we have six of the massive today. one of them, went to a guy whose name a ring a bell. he spent some time covering him on this program back in the day. his name is bill stepien. he was involved in the new jersey bridge gates scandal, remember that? it was one governor chief of staff was fired -- and he went on to work for trump. in fact he was the campaign manager for trump's 2020 reelection. when the committee puts it, in the letter said today, to step, and he quote, he supervised the conversion of the campaign to an effort focused on stop the steal messaging. in those lies the election was going to be stolen from donald trump, or echoed, by individuals who attacked the u.s. capital on january six. the campaign led by stephen also reportedly urged state and party officials to affect the outcome of the election. like in michigan, where they asked lawmakers to overrule the results to appoint electors for trump. next subpoena went to jason miller,

. >> want to go through some other big developments here, committee chair benny thompson says they havenwilling to block the release of white house documents that trump has been trying to keep secret, some nearly 800 pages of them, including daily call logs, and notes from the and notes frf staff. you said the judge doesn't play last week. how do you see this playing out? >> i was in court on thursday. i had the pleasure of watching judge tanya take the lawyers to task. she shot down every argument they tried to make. they had little authority for the argument. she made it clear she will issue a ruling expeditiously and she understood there is a november 12th deadline for the first documents to go over from the national archives to the select committee. i suspect a ruling and an appeal. going to the other point where we heard representative bennie thompson has prepared and signed 20 subpoenas. it is not the issuance of the subpoenas which is a problem, but enforcement. we are 16 days in the bannon indictment watch. he is still footloose and fancy free and unindicted. that has the effect

bennie thompson told me last week they talked to about 150 people around the country about january 6th and the former president's attempt to overturn the election result and in addition to that, hallie, there's thousands and thousands of pages of documents that the committee has received from media and telecommunications companies as well, and you know, we are also asking when the next public hearing is going to be. we thought it was going to be before thanksgiving. representative thompson told ali vitaly he doesn't think it's before thanksgiving. there is the investigative fact-finding phase. >> leeann caldwell, kelly o'donnell, pete williams, chuck rosenberg. thank you. >>> new details about the investigation into the deadly astroworld festival, with the fbi, the feds now stepping in to help in the criminal investigation as on the civil side, you have lawsuits piling up and the county judge calls for an independent investigation. houston's fire chief is talking with nbc news about questions over the roll of travis scott, who you know was on stage at the time, suggesting he could have

we heard from bennie thompson to look at how the violence erupted and the preparation there.enas announced as well. the way that we're seeing the subpoenas issued, what can we take away from that if anything? >> i think you can take away that they know that this was not a spontaneous occurrence. this wasn't a coincidence, that everyone showed up, had some level of coordination and as we saw everything unfold. it was the idea this was premeditated in some way, there was a coordinated flurry of activity that took place long before january 6th and that was not just the beginning of the story, but perhaps the middle near the end of it. so trying to figure out who had a hand in the preparation and the planning, and this notion that somehow this is a res spontaneous event, to which nobody could have prevented, nobody could have undermind ed d no one could have stopped. >> there is not a lot of expectation that roger stone and alex jones are likely going to talk, even bernard kerrick issued a subpoena. he said he will comply, but he wants an apology and also a little more time to de

it's not really based on -- just hoping to run out the clock. >> bennie thompson said tonight he wouldontinues to ignore that request, do you believe the committee will move to hold him in contempt of congress? how much time do you give a person? it seems pretty clear -- i mean, what his strategy is here. >> we met as a committee today to discuss next steps with meadows and other steps the committee will be taking. i don't think we actually reached resolution on those questions. um, but i think at -- to a person the committee feels that the witnesses that have refused to appear have no basis to do so. and that we need to hold them accountable and we are discussing best ways to do it. i am very pleased with the justice department moved as they did to hold steve bannon accountable. i think for four years, he and others were under the impression that they were above the law and could stonewall the congress or just ignore a subpoena. the justice department demonstrated, no, the law applies equally to everyone and we are considering that remedy, again. and -- and we don't have a decision to

chairman bennie thompson saying tonight, quote, he has a very short time to reconsider and cooperatea reid is outfront. and, paula, what more are we learning about clark's stonewalling tonight? >> good evening, erin, well this did not go according to plan sources familiar with his appearance say clark presented lawmakers with a letter from his attorney saying he will not cooperate until a court declares that his interactions with trump are not protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. now, cn n has obtained that letter where trump is asking a federal court to block lawmakers from accessing more than 700 pages of white house documents related to january 6th. now, just yesterday, a federal judge heard arguments in that case, and, erin, she appeared deeply skeptical about trump's claim that he should be able to block lawmakers from obtaining evidence that is relevant to their investigation. now, the chairman of the committee, representative bennie thompson, says he rejects clark's claim of privilege and he suggested that contempt is an option on the table. now, of c

that's relevant to you because both yourself, right, and congressman bennie thompson of mississippi have lawsuits based on the ku klux klan act. are you concerned in a country where people don't want to know what it is and get uncomfortable and quite bluntly white juries are not going to be willing to find for you as a plaintiff or bennie thompson as based on the kkk act? >> well, joy, my case will be in the district court of washington d.c. now i believe that if it goes that far the jurors there will be able to follow the law. i have all the faith in the world that will believe the case. i also think it's pretty clear cut that donald trump over about a month period incited a mob, invited them to washington, warned the country it would be wild and spent 30 million dollar over a month promoing this stop the steal rally and at the rally told people if you don't fight like hell you won't have a country anymore after other people said it's time to take names and kick some other expletives. so he knew what he was doing and told them he'd go to the capitol with them. i think he clearly incited

committee chair benny thompson said he faces possible civil and criminal proceedings if he doesn't comply they say he has no valid reason to resist the isn't. he could have the house vote to refer contempt charges to the justice department a. lawyer says he remains under the instruction of former president trump to respect the long-standing principles of executive privilege. meanwhile, president trump had a victory. they paused the release of documents from the january 6th committee while an appeals process plays out. adam kinzinger says he does not see this as a setback. >> this is not unexpected. i think we expected, frankly, there would be a stay issued by the appeals court. we see an accelerated time line to see this case it's not going to slow down our investigation. i suspect keeping the supreme court potentially aside, we'll have these documents fairly soon. >> reporter: the appeals court scheduled an oral argument november 30th in a case which, of course, could be appealed walt u all the way to the supreme court. >> asr it is a massive case, thank you a much >>> the kyle rittenhou

bennie thompson confirmed that the subpoenas were ready to go and now they have been sent out.king at my notes because we just got this in the past few minutes. >> of course, yeah. >> reporter: and we knew that john eastman would be among them, that they had planned john eastman to be subpoenaed very soon. john eastman is the one who wrote the memo outlining how vice president mike pence could overturn the election on january 6th when it was just a simple electoral college count of the congress. of course, that is not how the constitution works, and he was unable to do it, but john eastman is a conservative lawyer who is close with the president and outlined an entire plan for mike pence pence to do it. we know that mike pence didn't go ahead and do it. in addition, there's angela mccullum, an executive assistant to the former president. she reportedly participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the election and to encourage state legislators to alter the outcome of the election as well. the other person who did not mention was bernard kerik

. >> b: i nt to ask you you, with congressman bennie thompson, are suing the former president and rudyups, alleging they violated the ku klux klan act by conspiring with white supremacists to incite the violence at the capitol on january 6. as you watch what's happening in charlottesville, how do you think that that trial fit has any connection at all, will influence your case? >> understanding the act was created after the civil war had ended, and you had members of congress pursuing a course to carry out their sworn duty. and any time you have a disruption for members of congress from carrying out their sworn duty, that's a disruption and a violation of the act. and that's what we sued on. congressman thompson had to step downals the lead plaintiff. barb radio lee is now the lead plaintiff. but when you witness what took place on january 6, is falls squarely on what the framers of the act intended, that members of congress-- senate or house members -- should not be under anatfin violce, that woud ent duty.--wioheer >> banto quickly ask you about the current president. his approval ra

this is what the chairman benny thompson and liz cheney a republican said after this. they said, steve bannon's indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the committee or stone wall the investigation. no one is above the law. we will not hesitate to use tools at our disposal to get the information we need. >> not the only ones to react. we saw live reactions and more on what they told cnn. >> it sends a message to future invited witnesses. you may not like it. you may think nothing wrong was done but you are not going to be able to avoid it. this is certainly a good thing and sends a chilling message to anybody else that will follow through like this. >> another thing to keep in mind in all of this, republicans have been slamming this committee. namely house minority leader saying this investigation is a sham committee investigating the january 6 insurrection because the two appointmented republicans are of course liz cheney and add kinsinger. it is a house selected committee. it sends a really strong message to any witnesses who refus

defiance -- bannon faces if found guilty up to two years in prison as the chair of the committee bennie thompsons, this sends a message that, quote, no one is above the law. david in. >> jonathan karl leading us off. thank you. >>> we're going to turn now to major developments in the kyle rittenhouse trial. the judge indicating he'll allow the jury to consider lesser charges during deliberations which could begin as early as monday. if he allows that it would be a break for the prosecution. abc's alex perez on the trial again tonight. >> reporter: tonight, major developments that could change the course of the kyle rittenhouse trial. >> if i allow those, then the jury, if they are unable to agree that you're guilty of the charged offense, will have the opportunity to consider whether you're guilty of the less serious offense. >> reporter: the judge indicating he will likely allow the jury, who's expected to begin deliberating monday, to consider lesser charges against rittenhouse, who's accused of killing joseph rosenbaum and anthony huber and injuring gaige grosskreutz with an ar-15. that chang

benny thompson said meadows still has time to answer his subpoena, but he warns he likely won't wait indefinitely. earlier this evening, one committee member made it clear discussions about one mark meadows are at a serious stage. >> we had a very good discussion, making sure that all of the elements that would be necessary, the support of prosecution are present. we met with the committee lawyers, and i would say this discussion is very much ongoing. we are going to pursue every piece of evidence so that when we are through, we'll be able to tell the american public and our colleagues here in the congress everything there is to know so that we can take appropriate action, whether it's revising the act, revisiting the insurrection act or a number of many other things that we want to take a look at. >> more subpoenas are coming, but would not say when. the committee sites meadow having been with trump as one big reason they're hoping to hear from him. meadows is reported to play a role in sending a memo to mike pence explaining how the vice president could refuse to certify biden's 20

as a result, the committee chairman benny thompson saw this coming thursday night and moved forward with possibly referring mark meadows and over what could happen with steve bannon and might be the only witness who goes through the process. steve bannon's indictment shouldn't send a clear mess other to anyone trying to stone wall. no one is above the law. other members also reacted this is what she said in a tweet. the grand jury indicted bannon. let this send a message to all of those who would attack our democracy. the days are over we will expose those involved. no one is above the law. calling this investigation a sham. the two moderate republicans who were strong critics of former president trump. this shows a strong message to any witnesses who refuse to comply. they have the process behind them. the bottom line is this is a very strong message to those who would cooperate. >> bringing in the legal analyst for those who would join the attorney general he refused to appear. refused to hand over documents. if you were on the defense team, what would keep him from getting convicted?

bennie thompson said in a statement, we believe these groups have relevant information on the leadup to the violent attack. yesterday, roger stone and alex jones were subpoenaed. not surprisingly, today we heard from both. >> the january 6th witch hunt committee makes joe mccarthy blush from his grave. it is a complete and absolute fishing expedition, trying to demonize populist americans. i'm probably going to declare the fifth. not because i've done anything wrong. but these people are political criminals with an ax to grind. >> i'm going to make a decision between now and december 17th, but it's very dangerous to go into this forum, because they're not honest. this is a partisan witch hunt. >> it's worth noting that the subpoena to roger stone says he reportedly used members of the oath keepers as private security while in washington before january 6th. today was the deadline for several people including steven miller, kayleigh mcenany, and others to turn over documents to the committee. john eastman, who outlined plans for mike pence to deny biden the presidency, was supposed to

. >> bob, you mentioned those 20 subpoenas by bennie thompson.ust said they had valuable information. who would it be for? >> you have to do a dragnet. doing our book "peril," we found the eastman memo which is really blueprint for a coup in a very clear way, and we found that just by calling people. in fact, we got that from sources who were trump supporters who were willing to provide it. it wasn't classified, it wasn't secret, but carl is right. there is a cover-up going on here. the question is, when you get into the courts that the president, the former president, does have some rights here. unfortunately, there is a right to conceal information. it certainly is wrong in this committee, and what i worry about is do we really have a mechanism in this committee or in the justice department to get to the bottom and explain what happened? this is where carl -- you really have to do that. this was what h-- what happened january 6 was a monumental event. it was unparalleled and there are all kinds of avenues to pursue, and quite frankly, i think t

. >> elie, bennie thompson and the vie chair released a statement -- it should sense a clear message to anyone who thinking they can ignore the select committee, no one is above the law. we will not hesitate to used tools at our disposal to get the information we need. what does that tell you? >> wolf, this is the most powerful single tool in our law. this operates on one level, a warning shot to all the other witnesses thinking about defying. it makes the choice quite stark, either testify or risk indictment. but even bigger picture than that, this is about separation of powers and the balance of powers between congress and the executive branch. i think that's what you're seeing. this is congress standing its ground, using the tools available to it under the law and the constitution to perform its key investigative and oversight functions. >> you know, andrew, the former trump chief of staff mark meadows defied a subpoena this morning, adding his name to the list. is it realistic to think the u.s. justice department will hold dozens of trump allies potential in contempt of congress?

here's bennie thompson warning about this in realtime on cnn last night. >> it's a big deal. if you take your issue to court and lose, then you need to man up and deal with it and not be a spoiled brat. >> the trump campaign trying very much to slow this down. here's their statement as it responds to this judge's order. the battle to defend executive privilege for presidents past, present and future from its outset was destined to be decided by the appellate courts. he will be seeing this process through. but as i mentioned, time is ticking. these documents supposed to be delivered by friday. >> we will be watch ing. appreciate it. thank you. >>> joining us now for more on the legal ramification, former u.s. attorney elie honig, good to have you here. so nice to do this in person. as we look at this, as whitney said, this is the most significant win for the house select committee so far. but the question is will it actually play out for that? >> first of all, this it opinion that we saw is just a judicial annihilation of donald trump's position. that's important because i thi

in addition to folks being warned never to underestimate benny thompson, what else are you reading into this latest trash of subpoenas? >> it is absolutely picking up pace. the house select committee investigating the capitol attack has doubled the number of subpoenas, that has been issued just in the last two days, they are up to at least 35 subpoenas, now and you see them targeting, not only individuals that were sort of in the white house with president trump on january six, those that could tell us what the president was, saying what he was doing, what the white house response was to january six. you also see them targeting campaign officials, like bill stepien. the campaign manager for the trump 2020 reelection campaign. you also see them going after, spokespeople who worked for president trump, former president trump, after he left office. this is the committee saying, we are very serious about this. also, i think what is interesting is that, these individuals not have to make a decision about whether or not they want to go to the steve bannon route, which is deny refuse and possi

. >> reporter: the committee is planning to issue more subpoenas according to bennie thompson.ey have issued 35 according to key trump officials like chief of staff mark meadows, press secretary kaylee mcenany. they have faced fierce resistance. former chief strategist steve bannon has been in contempt of congress for refusing to comply with his subpoena. they are considering referring mark meadows for criminal attempt after he refused to comply. the committee is being hampered here by time. members are only in d.c. until friday. that's when they'll head back to their districts for the thanksgiving holiday. examine there is really no way to play out a criminal contempt referral that fast. any decision on med owes will likely not play out until the last week of november. plus we learned the chairman of the committee is going to be sending out one more letter to meadows to give him another chance to comply. the committee also has a looming legal fight. it will go to court to argue against trump's attorneys' claims of executive privilege. that will be november 30. in fact, the att