joining us now is the reporter who broke the story, devlin barrett, who covers national security and law enforcement for the washington post. devlin, thank you for joining us tonight. can i first ask you about the timing on all of this? do we have a sense of where in the back and forth between trump and the doj these documents first came to light? was it the first tranche, the second tranche, or the third time the fbi went into mar-a-lago? >> so, there are still blanks in the specifics of that but what i can tell you is that some of these most sensitive documents were recovered in the search on august 8th. and one of the ways in which that complicated this investigation was that the investigators who are working this case, initially were not authorized to read some of the very documents that they were investigating. and they had to get special clearances, because some of this stuff was so restricted, that only a cabinet level, or near cabinet level official could authorize anyone else in the government to review it. >> i am sort of focused on the timing here, because the doj had been,

devlin barrett. thanks for being with us.line and why are experts so concerned? >> i think the concern is that one, this is highly sensitive intelligence about two countries that, you know, occupy a great deal of u.s. intelligence efforts, particularly china. and two, you know, as described to us, the nature of these documents, if they ever got out into the wild, could cause, you know, very, very grave damage to national security because they have descriptions of u.s. intelligence gathering aimed at china. >> obviously, you can't, even if you saw the contents, which i'm sure you didn't, but you can clarify that if you want to, you can't disseminate to the public, but what other information can you give us just how sensitive we're talking about? >> right, so among other ways to measure the importance of this stuff is that very, very few people in the government were authorized to see it or know it. and in fact, the investigators doing this case, working this case, were themselves not authorized to see some of these documents w

devlin barrett, thanks so much, appreciate it. perspective now from andrew mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi, and senior legal and national security analyst kelly cor cordero, former counsel to the assistant u.s. attorney general. just to give a sense how serious this is, if the fbi executed a search warrant on any other private citizen's home and found national security documents this sensitive how much trouble would that person be in? >> anderson, i'm not sure in all of the mishandling cases that i was involved in and oversaw in my time in the fbi, i'm not sure that i ever saw one or came across a case in which an individual took documents that are at the level of sensitivity that we're talking about here. this is absolutely the most exquisitely sensitive intelligence our nation has. i can tell you i had access to some of these compartments. not all classified material is equal, right? you have different levels of classification, top secret being the highest. beyond top secret you have sci, beyond that you have this code

devlin barrett, thank you very much for the report.s going to do it for me. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. ie jackson picks coverage next. try downy light in-wash freshness boosters. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. downy light! think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no, he's seizing the moment with merrill. moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. tony, the new outlaw's got double pepper jack and juicy steak. let's get some more analysis on that, chuck. mmm. pepper jack. tender steak. very insightful, guys. the new subway series. what's your pick? ♪♪ here goes nothing. hey greg. um...hello? it's me, your heart! really? yes! recording an ekg in 30 seconds. tada! wow that was fast! good news, pal. i'm not detecting any of the six

. >> devlin barrett, from the washington post. k you. >>> 127 people now confirmed dead from hurricane ian in florida. that is the latest tally according to nbc news. southwest florida remains grief sticker and and devastated. but for one of the hardest-hit counties in the county, a temporary bridge to pine island now connects people there to the mainland. trucks and cars now driving back and forth from that devastating spit. that means more relief crews who can finally reach people there eight long days after the category four storm hit. up until this point they have been able to get supplies only by boat or by air. but as pine island communities get some much-needed help, some people in other hard-hit areas say that they feel they are being overlooked. live in the harlem heights area tonight. perry? >> reporter: shep, it has been more than a week since the storm, and people are still clearing out houses. here, the trash has not yet been picked up. it is piling high. this is a block in the harlem heights neighborhood of fort myers

that's who attorney general garland pointed to as the one supervising the case >> devlin barrett, thank you >>> 1276 people now confirmed dead from hurricane ian in florida. that is the latest tally southwest florida is devastated. for one of the hard hit areas in lee county where the storm came ashore, the sliver of much-needed good news. look at this a temporary bridge to pine island now connects people to the mainland trucks and cars driving back and forth from the devastated spit that means more relief crews, food, water and other necessities can reach people there. eight long days after the category 4 storm hit up until this point, they've been able to get supplies only by boat or by air. as the pine island communities get much-needed help, people in the other hard-hit areas feel they are overlooked. perry russom is in the fort myers area for us tonight. perry. >> reporter: shep, more than a week since the storm and people are still clearing out their houses here, the trash has not been picked up. it is piling high. this is where they drive in fort myers. a block in the harlem heig

calvin barrett joins me now, one of "the washington post" reporters who broke the story today. devlino we end up here? >> we end up here because, as that investigation proceeded, it became clear to some investigators that there was a lot to work with, in terms of hunter biden's tax returns. specifically, whether he had reported all of his income, and, we also ended up here, because in hunter biden spoke, he wrote about having used drugs quite extensively in 2018 and as it happened, in 2018, he bought a gun and as part of that process, he filled out paperwork that said that he did not have a substance abuse problem. and, that is how we end up where we are now. >> hunter biden's laptop has obviously been at the center of this case after a delaware computer shop turned it over to the fbi took what role in fact has that laptop played in this investigation? >> that is a question i still can't answer. i was not able to figure out, yet, how important the laptop is to this investigation. obviously, when you are talking about taxes, there are a lot of other places to find information and evide

just last hour we spoke with devlin barrett who broke the story. >> some of these documents we're told describe intelligence gathering activities targeting china and obviously china is one of the major u.s. adversaries in the world, and that relationship is very tense particularly on the intelligence front, and if you call back a couple of years, you'll remember that we -- our country recently lost a lot of intelligence assets in the china space, and so obviously anything that could cause further damage to our intelligence gathering capability over there is very concerning. >> all right. kaitlyn is still with us. elliott hoenig joins the conversation as well as joshua school, who served as executive assistant director for intelligence of the fbi. good to have both of you. elliott, let me start with you. the next steps here as we look to what happens -- we have been anticipating this subpoena for some time now, and the trump team as kaitlyn says, they're now deciding how to move forward. >> yeah, victor. so first, donald trump has to make a decision. does he want to comply with this? do

"washington post" reporter devlin barrett broke the story yesterday. he joins us now.den has been the subject of scrutiny on the right for a long time. bring us up to speed on why agents are looking into him and what got us to this moment. devlin: this investigation began about four years ago and it stayed under wraps for a long time, but it first into public view in a very unusual way just before the 2020 election, when republican advocates started talking about a found laptop and hunter biden emails that were on it. ever since then, it has been an intense political debate as to whether hunter biden did anything wrong. all the while, and investigation has been quietly going on. we know the federal agents who have been doing that investigation have reached the point where we -- they believe they have enough evidence to charge hunter biden with income tax crimes and a possible gun charge. laura: the tax crimes are focused solely on him not reporting all of his income? devlin: right. one of the big areas that the investigation looked at was, did he report all his income

devlin barrett shares the byline of the washington post story, joins us.ederal agents who have worked the hunter biden investigation have believed that they have a chargeable case. now, that is important, but it is not the and decision. because ultimately, this will be decided by the u.s. attorney in delaware who was pulled over from the trump administration. >> what if investigators seaver in on that they think would stand up in court? so there is a couple things, on the tax, front there is a lot of particulars that we don't know for certain. but what we are told is that one of the major issues here is did hunter biden declare all of his income? because if you will recall, the republicans have made a big talking a point from the 2020 election on about his business. so the investigators are looking, how did you declare all the income from those deals? then, as far as the gun charge goes, he bought a gun in 2018 and on that paperwork, he said that he was not using or addicted to drugs. in his autobiography, he described using drugs quite frequently during t

. >> joyce, there's news, devlin barrett reports this.he classified documents recovered from the fbi from donald trump's mar-a-lago home and private club included highly sensitive intelligence regarding iran and china according to people familiar with the matter. if shared with others, the people said, such information could expose intelligence gathering methods that the united states wants to keep hidden. nbc news has not confirmed this but from a legal standpoint, does it up the ante in any way? >> well, i do think it's important to note we don't know exactly what this information entails and whether it's precisely what's being reported. the sourcing is unclear. if it were information of this type, it would be extremely serious. you know we've had this conversation in the past that when doj is considering whether it will indict and charge someone in a case like this, they're looking for plus factors that can involve very cavalier treatment of extremely important information and so the evidence gets worse for the former president. not on

defense information and i want to keep reading from "the washington post" reporting from journalist devlin barrettost" reveal two key parts of the criminal probe that until now have been shrouded in secrecy, an account from a witness who worked for and took directions from trump and the way that security footage from mar-a-lago has played an important role in buttressing witness accounts. they have the testimony and that was clear from what was unsealed very early in the public phase of doj's investigation. they also have it on camera. >> well, nicole, that's remarkable. maybe trump didn't know the cameras were operational and it probably did so it begs the question. there's a keystone cops el not this as serious as it is. this is a guy who didn't ever think he's going to be held accountable for everything and doesn't think he should be, and so, you know, i think there's a couple of key questions we're all eager to learn. obviously there's been some suggestion about what these documents are, but what are these documents? >> and why did he want them? we know it's because he didn't want to sit in hi

. >> we'll be watching your reporting, "washington post" reporter devlin barrett, thank you very muchom the september consumer inflation report. the last one released before the november election. we're going to break down that report and what it means for the possibility of another interest rate hike. also ahead, we are hours away from the next and possibly final january 6th committee hearing. we'll dig into the new reporting that former president trump was warned numerous times of the growing violence and yet still stoked the conflict. you're watching "morning joe." >>> speaking of stoked, going to break. g to break. ♪ music (“i swear”) plays ♪ jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. [buzz] you can always spot a first timer. gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for s