rod blagojevich is serving a 14-year-term in prison.ecame newly relevant today. patrick fitzgerald, u.s. attorney for the northern district of illinois, his office ran the blagojevich investigation, but the person in his office who was the lead prosecutor in both of those trials, the person who eventually led the successful prosecution of rod blagojevich and put him in prison for more than a decade was the assistant u.s. attorney for the northern district of illinois, a man named reid schar and now as of today, that same reid schar is the special counsel leading the chris christie investigation for the assembly of the state of new jersey. yes. that happened today. reid schar was patrick fitzgerald's deputy u.s. attorney for an unusually long amount of time. he also led the prosecution of one of blagojevich's former fund-raisers and that was him standing right there behind patrick fitzgerald in the big unbelievable rod blagojevich has been arrested press conference. he was there in the u.s. attorney's office with patrick fitzgerald for 1

of these four, the most recent is governor rod blagojevich.sted in december of 2008 on an astounding array of corruption charges. corruption charges that became public when it was revealed the fbi was wiretapping his home and office phones. he was promising state funding for a children's hospital, only if a top executive at that hospital donated $50,000 to his campaign also extorting the media, by promising favorable business deals to newspaper companies, only if those companies fired specific journalists. and, of course, most famously, trying to sell a united states senate seat. specifically the one that had been vacated by the one named barack obama when he had to go be president. the charges against rod blagojevich were enough to make a hardened fbi agent, an agent from the chicago office of the fbi marvel at the new low for illinois. >> i can tell you one thing. if it isn't the most state, it's certainly one hell of a competitor, this wiretap i can tell you, from the fbi agents that participated in this wiretap investigation were thoroughl

blagojevich. mr. blagojevich, meet mr. mcdonnell. the claim that the bribery prosecution of bob mcdonnell is novel, it has never been done before. that claim itself is pretty novel, right? there are going to be two interesting things to watch. most of the charges in the bob mcdonnell case are chaired by the governor and his wife. the two of them worked together to exchange official acts by the governor for material things and money that they took for themselves the governor alone is charged with lying to a bank about the money that he took from the downer in question, a man named johnny williams. tales the governor's wife alone who is charged with obstructingage official proceeding for concocting a fake story about all the clones she was bought by that donor. most of the charges are for both the governor and his wife. they do have two separate legal teams defending them, though. does the prosecution and the defense proceed against them as a couple. because the two of them do face different lists of charges. remember when bob mcdonnel

blagojevich was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. rob blagojevich is a democrat. after the trial ended attorney shaw said he hunts for justice regardless of the politics. >> i think it is fair to say that the u.s. attorney's office is an equal opportunity prosecutor of public corruption. 99% of public officials and government employees across various levels of the city, county or state and federally are honest. there have been a number of high profile cases. for those individuals we can say they didn't get the message. >> this honest public official didn't get a message for over a decade. it was reed shaw's job to make sure they did. now it is his job again. late today the new jersey assembly announced members of their new special investigation committee. tomorrow they will get right to work likely putting [ inaudible ] and campaign manager bill stepien. this investigation is just beginning. with the new special counsel on board we might be close to getting some answers. >>> joining me new jersey congressman frank pallone. congressman pallone this is a seasoned pr

each to the case of rod blagojevich the jury was deadlocked on most issues despite blagojevich caughtvideo trying to sell barack obama's senate seat. we talked about this yesterday and the day before the story broke. they seem to have a lot on the former virginia governor, joe, and it certainly looks bad, all of the gifts and the shopping trips, the watch. >> yeah. >> having said that, is there still a question as to whether or not the law was broken? >> there is no doubt. there is no doubt. is there a huge question there. "the washington post" story is a must read this morning because they paint what i was saying the other day and what i've been saying for some time that the feds reaching out to go after this guy given the virginia law and given the lack of payoff for star scientific, at least as far as legislation goes or appointments go, is paper thin, very little there. sam stein, that said, you read the 43-count indictment which i did last night, it is shocking. i must say the behavior especially of his wife, the sense of entitlement, the demands, the requests are absolutely shoc

the special investigator brought in after his role in the successful prosecution of rod blagojevich has about 20 subpoenas in the case. he is not going after just bridget kelly, who promises to be the star witness and bill stepien, the campaign manager, but a wide variety of figures including those at the christie reelection campaign. this says the new jersey assembly people mean business. they picked an investigator with a big notch on his belt all right, reid schar. they have given him wide latitude to get to the truth, including which of christie's cronies tried covering up this caper. supercharged his investigation of richard nixon by hiring john doar who earned his spurs in robert kennedy's department let's see where this is all taking us. heather haddon has been covering this story for "the wall street journal." heather, i'm impressed by the speed with which this special investigative committee has moved in issuing some 20 subpoenas already. >> yeah, it has moved very quickly. now they are issuing the subpoenas at some point today. we don't know exactly when. and during the press

attorney who helped convict governor blagojevich back in 2011. bear in mind the 20 subpoenas already issued to christie's circle by the new jersey legislature investigation will require a response by february 3rd. meanwhile governor christie's spokesman said the governor will travel to six states. texas, georgia, utah, connecticut, massachusetts and the home state of rod blagojevich, illinois, to campaign for candidates in his capacity as chair of the republican governors association. in everywhere he goes, he will be dogged by questions about time for traffic problems in ft. lee. about a mayor who says his administration held up federal funds for sandy relief in exchange for product development. and every other emerging example of alleged corruption were just bully politics. it's all going to trail as the press goes back to christie's record and views it with a new set of eyes. there's a good argument to be made that no one would have listened. and if you think that's crazy, ask this guy. ben barlyn is a former hunterdon county prosecutor who sa

attorney in illinois and prosecuted two corruption charges against rod blagojevich who used to be the illinois who is now in jail. now, in the hearing, some republicans on this committee were a little bit upset by that. one said there are 56,000 lawyers in new jersey. surely you could find one. the response from the democrats was the best in the country and the christie administration to conduct both their internal reviews and the mayor of new york, a cross between the christie administration and his political team and also rudy giuliani's. so a big thing to watch but obviously the scope is very national here, jake. >> erin mcpike, thanks. >>> when we come back, the list of the oscar nominees are back. >>> plus, a new warning to pregnant women living in one west virginia town. don't drink the tap water. but if it's not safe for them, why is it safe for anyone else? i'll ask the mayor of charleston, west virginia, next. coming up. of energy is so abun, it can help provide the power for all this? natural gas. ♪ more than ever before, america's electricity is generated by it. exxonmobil

i can still say blagojevich.how many times i practiced that. >>> senate intelligence committee issuing a result that the deadly assault could have been prevented. the u.s. government ignoring warnings about activity and security. katherine has been following this story since the beginning. she's live in washington. katherine, what is in this bombshell report. >> thank you, gretchen. this bipartisan report from the senate intelligence committee concludes benghazi was an al qaeda-led event putting terrorist from two official affiliates. a third group by guantanamo detainee and fourth group in egypt where leader had contact with al qaeda leadership in pakistan. the report reads in part, quote, individuals affiliated with terrorist groups culled aqym, aqip, al schahachaaharia partic the attack. based on intelligence former guantanamo detainee was wrong ring leaders, in the camp with militants trained, first reported by fox news within three weeks of the assault. >> we've not captured anybody and interrogated anybody

with rod blagojevich serving a 14-year sentence. >>> then there's the state of virginia, until yesterdayey never had a governor face charges. that's a streak of 72 governors stretching back to thomas jefferson. virginia politicos refer to something they call the virginia way. an institutional culture that gave rise, to do the work of lobbying. now that bob mcdonnell has been hit with a multiple count indictment, charged with repeatedly asking a virginia executive for loans and gifts, in exchange for helping out his company, the virginia way may be less about noble civility and more about stuff like this. maureen mcdonnell noticed a watch and asked what kind it would be, she would like to get one for her husband. after williams agrees to buy the watch, maureen mcdonald instruct ed him to have virginia governor ena graved on the back of the rolex. i guess it beats the virginia way. even if every one of the counts is true, it's unclear if the governor and his wife broke any virginia state laws. mcdonnell's request to postpone his initial court appearance was denied, which means he's schedul

the former assistant attorney was the prosecution in the trials of rod blagojevich. chief national correspondent john king has been tracking the story for us. what do we know about this new prosecutor? >> experience, wolf. that's why he was picked for this job. as you noted he was twice the prosecutor who brought rod blagojevich to trial, known as someone who is calm, persistent, and understands how governor's offices work, how political staffs organize and communicate, and someone known as a document chaser. he's also worked on some terrorism cases including in one case prosecuting two men accused of cooperating with hamas in which he convinced the israeli government to allow some of their most highly classified intelligence agents to testify in the trial. so he's known for handling sensitive information, known for being a digger. this is a serious move by the new jersey assembly. >> blagojevich is in jail as we speak. so how fast will this current investigation basically kick into high gear? >> it will kick into high gear as early as tomorrow and then the question

after getting advice from this newly hired special counsel, reed shar, who put rod blagojevich in jail, they decided to dramatically expand the scope of this subpoena list. we went from 2 to 20, and that's 17 individuals, 3 entities including campaign organizations, christie's re-election campaign is one of them. clearly an escalation. i should point out that after the committee met already we started hearing objections from republicans who are raising questions about the wording of the resolution, in particular one section that gives wisniewski, who's been outspoken in his criticism of the governor, sole custody and control over the subpoenaed documents. republicans say that's unfair. it doesn't give them equal access to the material that's coming in. and probably most significantly, minority leader brannick, who appeared in this brief conference, was asked as he was walking out, is this an appropriate investigation at this point in your mind, and he said it's not an appropriate resolution. we'll wait and see if it's an appropriate investigation. now, that's significant because as you

he put rod blagojevich in jail. that was a very political investigation. you have a lot of politics involved in the new jersey investigation. he's serious. he's also tried some terrorism cases. has a lot of experience before grand juries, wolf. he's known as someone as a good digger, a good staff builder, very thorough, also viewed as very fair. so this is a very serious move by this committee to go outside of new jersey, hire somebody that a lot of federal -- a dozen years as a u.s. assistant attorney, now in private practice, this tells you this is a very serious investigation. and that's why today he's been working with the staff, members of the assembly, on these first round of subpoenas. a lot of them will be for documents but some will be for the members of the governor's inner circle including some names that haven't shown up on e-mails or text messages about the ft. lee traffic snafus. every governor has a body guy who carries his bag, puts his stuff on the post. the committee believes when governor christie communicates with his staff he uses his

and they've also hired a former federal prosecutor who helped bring down illinois governor rod blagojevich. he will be the special counsel. >> i think reid shaw is the best person fit to lead this in a mindful direction and give us guidance, especially there may be other agencies investigating. and with his expertise, you know, we look forward to doing this properly and getting down to finding out some answers. >> now, excidespite all this st happening, polls from a nbc/marist poll shows most people have not changed their opinion of governor christie and still consider him a strong leader. >>> berrendo middle school in roswell, new mexico, reopens today as we're hearing for the first time the 911 calls from inside the school, calls describing the terrifying moments after police say a 12-year-old boy opened fire, severely wounding two classmates. >> we're at berrendo middle school! a kid just shot a gun. >> berrendo middle school? >> berrendo middle school! someone just got shot. >> who was it? >> a kid just killed a kid. i don't know, a guy just walked in -- >> where is the kid with the gu

he has previously helped former illinois governor rod blagojevich of corruption. a new poll finds 69% of the people who have not changed their minds since news of the scandal broke. only 18% say it makes them like christie less and 5% say it makes them like him more. 8% are unsure. >>> but is christie telling the truth? well, according to the polls, 44% think he is. but 33% think he is not. a large group remain unsure. >>> proof of life. the u.s. has obtained new video of army sergeant disappeared from his afghanistan base in 2009. officials describe him as frail and shaky in the new video which they believe was intermediafilm month. the taliban has offered to release bergdhal for five prison he's at guantanamo bay. the u.s. believes he is held in pakistan. bowe, if you see this, continue to remain strong through patience. your inturns will carry you to the finish line, breathe says his family. >>> the government will be staying open. late wednesday, the house overwhelmly passed 1.1 trillion dollar budget and funds the government through the end of september meani

illinois, four of the last seven governors have gone to prison including rod blagojevich who tried tos former senate seat. there's florida where legislators and may wrors can se as lobbyists and the fbi took out a newspaper ad asking citizens to record corruption by public officials. last, certainly not least, louisiana, with a particularly rich history of corruption dating back to huey long, dubbed most corrupt in the terms of the rate of corruption convictions of government officials over the last decade. it one hell of a group. joining me now to make their cases for the respective states. we start with the state of new jersey. senior political reporter for nj.com. congressman alan grayson, democrat from florida. here making the case for that state. tracy washington, president and ceo of louisiana justice institute. who will attempt to make the case for a state that has a long, rich history of corruption. since i came up as a reporter covering chicago machine politics, i will have the honor of making the case for illinois tonight. all right. darryl, i want to start with you. put the

attorney, reid schar, the man who prosecuted former illinois governor rob blagojevich on corruption charges. in a poll tonight, 44% believe governor christie is telling the truth, while 33% say he is not. 30% view him favorably, and 28% have a favorable view of the governor. >>> and tonight's story has to do with drugs found in homes, the ones prescribed for patients after surgery and injury. the pain relievers and prescription pain meds that contain acetaminophen, the active ingredient in things like tylenol. the fda is taking action to limit the amount of acetaminophen because of overdosing is the most common cause of liver failure. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman is here with more on this. >> reporter: hey, brian, the fda was very pointed on taking action on this today, because it has to do with the fact that many people don't know it is a common component in spripgz prescription pain killers like vicodin. patients may not realize they are at risk for liver damage, and that is why the agency is asking doctors to stop prescribing medication -- combination medications with mor

lastly, though, you do point to the blagojevich case in illinois.he uphill battle for these corruption cases. in the case of blago he was heard on tape and it was still a difficult one. >> yes. amazing. one of the best prosecutors in the country, patrick fitzgerald, and his team in chicago had blagojevich, you know, dead to rights. he is cursing up a blue streak and he's saying "i'm going to sell senator barack obama's seat for money." the first trial deadlocked on all but one of the charges. honestly i think having covered this a long time, it is almost a surprise sometimes when the justice department brings a public corruption case because they are so hard. and yet, it is the -- their duty when they see something that looks this untoward to sniffing it out and make a decision whether they think that corrupt bargain happened. hear they definitely think it did. >> we will be talking with you a lot more this summer. thank you. developing news now, less than two hours, and emergency hearing is scheduled in the case of a brain-dead texas woman whose bo

the committee brought in the prosecutor who tried illinois governor blagojevich. governor christie says that he will not be distracted by that bridge scandal, and told consistents nothing will get in the way of his doing his job. brian? >> kelly o'donnell in trenton covering it all. kelly, thanks. >>> and now to the west virginia chemical spill that fouled the water for hundreds of thousands of people and led to precautions down river to the city of cincinnati, among other places. now we're learning of a special risk group in all of this. our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson is just back from covering the story there for days. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. i wish i had better news. but the cdc is advising pregnant women not to drink the water in charleston because they say they simply don't have enough information on the chemical that polluted the water supply, mchm. this comes hours after the word that the water was declared safe to drink. so you can imagine the people are very upset. the cdc says there are no studie

sheer has previously helped convict former illinois governor rod blagojevich of corruption. as for potential public opinion fallout, a new nbc news/marist poll finding 69% of people have not changed their mind since news of the scandal broke. 18% say it makes them like christie less. 5% say it makes them like him more. 8% are unsure. and is christie telling the truth? well, respondents said, 44% think he is. 33% think he isn't. in a large group, they remain unsure. >>> proof of life, the u.s. obtained new video of army sergeant bowe bergdahl disappearing from his afghanistan base in 2009. officials describe him as frail and shaky in the new video, which they believe was filmed last month. the u.s. intercepted it from a thumb drive last week. the taliban offered to release bergdahl in exchange for five taliban prisoners being held at guantanamo bay. u.s. military officials say he's being held by the haqqani network in pakistan. bergdahl's family leased a statement in part saying, quote, bowe, if you see this, continue to remain strong through patience. your endurance will car

former federal prosecutor who led the case against none other than former illinois governor rod blagojevich and for most people that hasn't tainted their view of the new jersey governor. 69% say their opinions are unchanged and nearly half say their view of christie as a leader and 27% say he is acting like a bully. 44% think he is mostly telling the truth but a third of americans say they think he is likely not. >>> now we move on to business. later this morning, we are going to get a look at the week unemployment numbers and a handful of earnings reports from citigroup and goldman sacks. yesterday we talked about the stocks rallied and green arrows across the board and all three indices closing in that area. cnbc jeff is here with us from london. jeff, good morning. >> good morning to you. some perplexing pieces of information on the economy which is why we will be looking out for more news on jobs. we have the beige book, a survey of 12 districts that they cover and what it told us was that there are some firming unexpectations of job growth in industries like construction and manufactur

he was clearly involved in the rod blagojevich now spending 14 years in jail.r that's now been brought into this investigation? >> well, he's a very respected prosecutor from chicago. the u.s. attorney's office for the northern district of illinois. his boss was patrick fitzgerald, whom i'm sure a lot of people remember, a very well regarded prosecutor there. and i think what's most significant about him is he's not from new jersey, he's not even from the east coast. he comes from an entirely different political culture, legal culture, so he doesn't owe anybody anything. and he will come to this with open eyes and no loyalties and, you know, let the chips fall where they may, as i'm sure the idea behind his appointment. >> and we know the governor today named his own lawyer, an individual named randy mastro who was pretty close to rudy giuliani, the former mayor of new york city. >> and a very well regarded white collar crime lawyer in new york. someone who is also known, even though those standards, as very, very tough. there's a famous law firm in washington

assemblyman, what do you make -- you named a fellow here, reid schar has experience prosecutor blagojevich successfully in illinois. you went national. >> we wanted to get the best counsel we could get. this has become a very complicated issue. ewe started as a simple investigation into the port authority. now we have a lot of issues we have to deal with. we want to make sure that we are not crossing lines but doing it effectively. we believe having somebody like reid schar on our team will give us guidance that we need to make sure this is done well, quickly and effectively. >> i have been watching chris christie very carefully construct his defense. true or not we can assume it is true perhaps as he offers it up, he made a point to say he thought the whole bridge thing was about the traffic survey. then he said he quizzed my staff for an hour and nobody came clean and then said he had two direct reports. do you think he will try executive privilege on those two people? >> i don't know what his attack will be. i'm curious about his choice of the word appropriate. today me made apology and

he's the same attorney who investigated rob blagojevich. john king the investigative committee's first priority will be to issue subpoenas for governor chris christie's aides and documents in his office. >>> shocking new surveillance video from chinese media captures a terrible car accident. debris flies from the windows. a child is thrown from the van and run over by one of its wheels. it certainly doesn't help that the van was carrying nine passengers when it could only hold seven. the boy survived the accident. a bystander who witnessed the collision rushed over to help him. glad he's okay. >>> asiana flight 213 crashed at san francisco airport last july it was miraculously all caught on tape. it was actually on the anchor desk. unbelievable. now there's new footage. this video reveals how emergency responders may have killed a 16-year-old passenger who survived the crash but died after being run over by two fire trucks. the video shows how firefighters at the scene identified her body before show had been fatally struck. one is heard wa

one of the people helping the panel is a prosecuted who helped take down rod blagojevich. the former illinois governor. and this woman right the infamous e-mail saying, time for traffic problems in fort lee. the city where the bridge connects to new york si. the e-mail came after the mayor did not endorse governor christie's re-election campaign. there's no question it was retribution, we don't have one single tie to governor christie. people in his staff, his close aides, absolutely, but nothing to bring in governor christie. governor christie fired the staffer and said the whole ordeal blindsided hims' had nothing to do with it. today the governor appeared to put the whole thing behind him at an event for superstorm sandy, that as the feds open a separate investigation into the spending of federal money on tourism ads after the storm. tv comer shallots that gave governor christie face time during the re-election campaign. the staffers sale the ads were key to help the state recover from the storm, but don't think it's a second this is only about traffic and commercials.

. >> but they hired a prosecutor who -- >> the guy who put rod blagojevich in jail. >> we are not supposed to use him because he was once a prosecutor? >> my question is this once you start bringing in thousands of documents. let's assume some is irrelevant it will become a public document as opposed to a prosecutor who can decide which is important to see or not. and people can get hurt who have absolutely -- a collateral interest. >> is that your concern or that things are going to come out that you don't want to come out? >> and what comes out, comes out. and what you are saying is we ought not continue an investigation because unintended information may come out. -- >> they should let a federal prosecutor take over this matter -- >> what sort of information might come out? don't people have a right to know what the government is up to? >> the government, absolutely. if i send out a subpoena, let's say a report contacted someone at the port authority and that comes out. that's not a part of this investigation. if you had -- >> paul fisherman is construct conducting a grand jury investig

now they're getting expert advice from the prosecutor who put blagojevich in prison for corruption. that gentleman is assisting the assembly in its investigation. a source involved tells nbc news that it was the advice of the new special counsel that caused the assembly to lengthen its subpoena list from two, bridget ann kelly and bill stepien, to instead the 17 people and three entities who are getting served tonight. the source saying, that's what happens when you talk to somebody who knows how to do one of these investigations, end quote. so by the end of the hour tonight, by the end of the night, we may know who is on that long list of subpoenas from the assembly. as of right now we do not know and we are trying to find out. we do, however, have a different subpoena list, and it's also new. we do today have the subpoena list from the new jersey state senate. they've issued their first three subpoenas. it's a really interesting short list. number one on the list is david samson. david sampson headed up chris christie's transition team when he first became governor of new jersey.

assemble democrats have hired the guy who put blagojevich behind bars. and today christie announced he would be hiring an entire legal team headed by a former federal prosecutor under rudy guiliani, currently representing chevron in a multibillion dollar pollution case. the flurry of lawyers, a sign of things to come. here come the subpoenas. the assembly's special committee indicated today that 20 subpoenas would be issued from the assembly for 17 individuals and three organizations. then the new jersey state senate began its investigation today. >> senator weinberg. >> state senator loretta weinberg said she planned to ask for documents from three other christie officials. but first, the man we've been asking questions about from the beginning, david sampson. >> four hours later, wildstein wrote sampson was helping us to retaliate. sampson is one of christie's closest advisers. >> he's a pillar of the new jersey political establishment. he has an enormous amount of respect, democrat and republican. >> next on weinberg's list, regina egea, christie's br

the federal prosecutor helped convict illinois governor rod blagojevich. new jersey assembly has tagged him as special counsel for the traffic jam situation. apple is refunding $35.2 million to consumers. refunds for purchases children made without their parents' permission. seemed that thousands of children buy things without on mobile devices. that's tonight's speed read. >>> this is a fox news alert. the u.s. intelligence committee just issued its report, its findings on benghazi. this is the most significant report on the murder of four americans because the report is bipartisan. both democrats and republicans agreeing, signing off on it fox news chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge joins us. catherine, you have been following this since day one. what's the most significant information coming out of this. >> i think the senate intelligence committee report really confirms our ongoing reporting here at fox news that benghazi was an al qaeda event. this report says specifically that there were militants from two official al qaeda affiliate

he successfully prosecuted rob blagojevich on the scandal.is christie's popularity in his home state. >>> and starting with struggling retailer jcpenney that announced yesterday it is cutting 2,000 jobs and close 3g 3 of its stores. that has wall street analysts wondering if the holiday sales were worse than first thought. the cuts in clothing is the latest effort to return to provability. the stocks fell in after-hours trading following the announcement. >>> good luck to parents stuck with huge bills due to their kids playing ipads or iphones. apple has to refund money. apple did not tell parents that entering a password started a clock during which kids could make unlimited purchases ranging from 99 cents to $99 bucks. the refund is worth $32 million. >>> chuck e. cheese has been sold for nearly $1 billion. the child-friendly franchise started in the '90s by bushnell. the final sale is expected to happen later today. >> l.a. dodger teammates have been tweeting congratulations to ace pitcher clayton kershaw. and rightfully so. kershaw agreed

prosecutor, who is wa the person that prosecuted rod blagojevich to be their chief investigator. like you said, there is kind of a race right now about who is going to get to what fast. the best thing to happen, for christie, is the fact that an u.s. attorney investigation he can cooperate that isn't in the papers every day. he can say, i'm cooperating and try to snuff this out. the worse case is, if they get more subpoenas, we get more documents and there is more fuel on the fire. >> we are more likely to get stuff in the legislature than the u.s. attorney's office. they did not want to say anything. they were lucky to say they were looking into this. darryl, kate, tara, thank you for joining me. >>> many could go up next -- >> we don't know if chris christie ordered the lanes closed to get back at a mayor or knew that his close friend did. if it comes out that he did, it is a 100% disqualifying for higher offices. someone willing to shut down the world's biggest bridge as payback over a petty political slight, cannot be trusted with the irs or the nsa or the nuclear codes. >> t

ask governor blagojevich about it.atements made to people that you cannot be a crook in government and expect to be not treated accordingly. >> i just keep coming back. even with blag,ojevich. mcdonald as to it will be fascinating to play out. i have to cut it for time purposes. but i hope you join us. thanks so much for being with us. >> thank you. >>> coming up, crack-smoking toronto mayor rod ford admit to go drinking in public and again caught on videotape. exactly when is it at the point when it's too serious for him to continue? honestly? we're going north of the border, next. to quote from whitman, "you are here." "that life exists and identity." "that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse." "that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse." what will your verse be? [ chainsaw whirring ] humans -- sometimes life trips us up. sometimes we trip ourselves up. and although the mistakes may seem to just keep coming at you, so do the solutions. like multi-policy discounts from libert

joining the assembly committee, reed char, reed schar the man who helped put blagojevich in prison. why they believe this scandal is so serious. >> this is not just petty political politics. that's a serious matter and strike at the heart of the governmental contract, why the citizens give power to officials. >> michael isikoff, walk us through the process. what's happening right now? >> reporter: right now we've got the assembly meeting. they are going to authorize this new special committee with subpoena power that will then be meeting at 1:00 to begin the process of issuing subpoenas. we should see those subpoenas or hear about them later today. that's the assembly committee. 13r5i9ly separately the senate is authorizing its own investigation committee headed by loretta weinberg. one significant development on that front which the senator revealed here on msnbc a little while ago, her first group of subpoenas will include subpoenas for regina, who is christie's new chief of staff. so right off the bat, we have a subpoena coming today to the top aide to the governor. that puts it

attorney who bagged rod blagojevich in chicago, who will be handling things for the legislature and theoint investigation by the legislature. there is a tremendous amount of detailed political and legal maneuvering that will be going on. in many ways it will be a more gripping story than chris christie's relationship with various townships and boroughs and hamlets in new jersey. that's the problem christie has. he can try to talk about national themes, reaching out to this person and that person. most of the attention in the months to come will be on the investigations. >> you're right and abby is right when she said there is not yet a fire but there is a lot of smoke. up next, the weather is making a mess of travel. i barely beat it here from dallas today. we'll check on delays and cancellations next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't wait for awesome... totino's pizza rolls gets you there in just 60 seconds. ♪ totino's pizza rolls gets you there in just 60 seconds. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance prote

is it a conspiracy when rod blagojevich and others get into trouble?eorist think we wouldn't notice their paranoia activities? nice try, but we got you. is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. we're open to it. peoi go to angie's listt for all kinds of reasons. to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie

. >> things like white water, clinton -- >> blagojevich. >> white water. >> kwame kilpatrick. >> i was going to say, they're in a lot of trouble. the mcdonnells are in a lot of trouble. also in virginia, there are term limits, so it's an argument, maybe, against term lumpts. if you have to run for another campaign, you're going to watch yourself, but they were in, one and done. 94 years. i think there's temptation. as much as i think we should have term limits, this might be a little too short. >> your lip is quivering. >> i think virginia is the last state with one term, and they ought to rethink that. kentucky was the last one before that. when you look at states with one terms, there's more corruption. >> agreed. >> got to get it all into four years. >> that's right. >> can we point out, this is a federal indictment, so it's kind of unusual to come from the feds rather than within the state. >> can i say something really quick? i said the governor of kentucky, why do you only have four-year terms in the state? he said, son, if you couldn't make $30 million in this state as a governo

and one of the prosecutors in the corruption trial and conviction of former illinois governor rob blagojevich members of chris christie's team their jobs. joining me now is new jersey senate democratic leader loretta weinberg, who will lead the senate's investigation and assembly majority leader lou greenwald, one of the member of the assembly's special committee. senator weinberg, i don't get why you're running two different committees at the same time investigating this. >> well, actually, i would have preferred that we join together into one committee, but we haven't been able to work that out at present time. since john and i worked together for a number of months on this issue, i'm very confident we'll be working together over the next few months. >> i want to show a clip of the press conference, which i -- i thought this was one of the most important moments in the press conference. the governor was asked what he will do if he's facing a temperature. this is after he said he will cooperate fully with all the investigations. let's listen to this. >> if you were to get a subpoena for what

and then reid schar, the prosecutor who put rod blagojevich in jail in illinois comes in, looks at this and says no, a wide net has to be cast here. and we end up with these 20 subpoenas going back, by the way, to september of 2012. more than a year before these lane closures took place. and the numbers of people who got the subpoenas, their names we're just learning today who had not surfaced publicly before who received subpoenas. we're not quite sure why. but it does look like they've got evidence that has not been made public that suggests that there was a -- at least they want to look at a much broader net than we had initially thought. >> michael isikoff, we'll be watching this. this is broad. and this going forward. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> joining me now is the man michael referred to, new jersey assemblyman democrat john wisniewski. he has been leading the assembly's investigation from the start. thank you for coming on the show tonight, assemblyman. >> thanks for having me back on. i appreciate it. >> assemblyman, 20 subpoenas for a lot of documents. w