there's also one that greg jacob described in his testimony to the january 6 committee. he said that on january 5 he had another conversation with eastman in which he said, look, we're going to lose 9-0 in the supreme court if we take up this idea of yours. and so these are key conversations that prosecutors would be interested in because we know, again, we know from the attorney general this is the most important investigation in the history of the justice department and it is looking directly at the issue of the effort to overturn the election, to discard the results and to keep the former president in power. this is the closest, as you pointed out, the closest we've heard of criminal prosecutors of the justice department, getting into the trump white house. and it directly, at least indicates they would have been talking to people who had direct conversations with the former president. a very big deal. >> a very big deal indeed. evan perez, appreciate the reporting to continue the conversation to share the reporting and insights, jeff zeleny, 'the former federal prose

if not greg jacobs as well. we are getting at the stage now where you have adversarial witnesses who made talks and we will learn more about with the investigation is doing and its direction. >> very significant to chat with the cnn reporter, where he was talking with aaron burnett or he made significant comments. susan, we've seen so much movement with the 1-6 committee and the investigation in georgia. does it seem like the federal investigation is picking it up? >> you, know the punditry about grand juries is a dangerous game, don. i would say it's clearly significant to be interviewing marc short and greg jacobs, because there are very important witnesses who directly saw the pressure campaign that donald trump mounted on his own vice president, mike pence, and by some accounts, when we ultimately find out which marc short testified, but he has told others that pence dozens of times made clear to his advisers he was not going to go along with trump's, frankly, scheme, this idea and notion that was being pres

greg jacob, martin short testifying for the federal grand jury, how significant? >> it's a big deal, especially in the big picture. remember, main criticism of the justice department so far has been that they are unduly focused are even exclusively focused on the small fish. the people that are inside the capitol, you know who trespass commit acts of violence, and not focused at all on something and larger offenses, the people closest to trump. this shows that this -- at the white house. plus, are part of at least three of the most important areas of inquiry. once the pressure on mike pence to violate his oath and stop the certification of the election. the fake electors scheme and the effort to corrupt the justice department. they know about all of that, the fact that the justice department is now, has those people in the grand jury suggest that that's what they're investigating. >> this is no question, the justice department, do they need to re-interview before a grand jury everybody who testified before the january six committee, or the main players? will they

if not, greg jacobs as well. so they're getting at the stage where you had adversarial witnesses who may talk. and we will learn a lot more about what the investigation is doing in this direction. >> we have some very significant to chat with the cnn supporter, we're talking to erin burnett, real talk about that later remain some significant comments. susan, we have seen so much movement with the 16 committee and the committee in georgia. that's a scene with the federal investigation is picking up? >> you know, punditry about the grand jury is a dangerous game, don. i would say that it is clearly the significant to be interviewing marc short and greg jacobs, because they are very important witnesses who directly sought the pressure campaign that donald trump mounted on his own vice president, mike pence. by some accounts, it is interesting to see when we ultimately find out what marc short testified, that he has told others that pence dozens of times made clear on his advisers that he was not going to go along wi

cnn reported earlier today that marc short, greg jacobs testimony shows how the investigation inside the trump white house. but the post tonight going even further with that, ryan, give me some details on conversations with trump. how does this all fit together, sir? >> well, you know, don, for a long time there has been at least some criticism of merrick garland and the attorney generals office that they have not done enough to specifically linked the events of january six to donald trump. but their actions over the past two weeks or so show that garland's investigation is getting increasingly closer to trump itself. and the post reporting tonight, coupled with what we have reported about the grand jury testimony and the different people who have come before and answered questions about this investigation showed that garland and his team are not just satisfied with this band of advisers around trump, who were influencing him and basically telling him what he wanted to hear as related to the election and the role mike pence could play. but that they are specifically interested in tru

both marc short and greg jacob are two key players. when they began their cooperation with the january 6 select committee, it opened the door to a whole line of pressure that was put on vice president mike pence during that period of time. it provided insight into the push to have pence stand in the way of the certification of the election results on january 6th. efforts to get him to accept a false slate of electors. there are so many different connections that pence's office has to the attempts to stand in the way of the election e being certified for joe biden. and the fact that jacob and marc short, who were both very cooperative with the committee and told them a lot about what they knew during that period of time, it also would indicate that they would show the same level of cooperation with the department of justice as well. so, this is absolutely significant. it shows just how serious the department of justice is taking things, as their investigation speeds up in a major way. >> do we know why congresswoman laurie released this

that would be greg jacob, pence's legal counsel.h men, of course, had a front row seat to the extraordinary pressure campaign on mike pence by trump and his allies, people like john eastman, to get pence to stop the certification of president joe biden's election victory on january 6th. wall street journal reports these stunning details about their testimony. quote, one area of interest to prosecutors was a january 4th, 2021, oval office meeting where conservative lawyer john eastman pushed pence in trump's presence to either reject the electoral votes outright or suspend the proceedings and asked several state legislatures to re-examine the results. greg jacob testified to the january 6th select committee about that meeting as well. when he did so, he said that john eastman knew that his plan was a violation of federal law. watch. >> so during that meeting on the 4th, i think i raised the problem that both of mr. eastman's proposals would violate several provisions of the electoral count act is. mr. eastman acknowledged that that w

but given the fact that your investigation has made public the role of greg jacob in resisting the eastmany, which would've essentially 100 american democracy. are you encouraged by the fact that short and jacob, high-ranking officials, have now given sworn testimony before a grand jury, through the doj? >> well, like you said, as the committee and select committee and congress, we have no direct knowledge or involvement in the investigations that are being carried out by the department of justice. but this goes much closer to the top than what we have previously seen, with you know, defendants who are accused of trespassing and violence and seditious conspiracy. i look at it like concentric circles. the department just feels like it's starting to be outside, and working their way in. just how far they worked their way in? we don't know, but this is certainly an indicator, they are ratcheting up the level of their investigation, and that is, you know, encroaching from outside perspective, of course, the committee continues on a separate track, as a congressional committee. >> to that separ

greg jacob and marc short testimony fits into that mosaic perfectly.y themselves it would be harder to plot the trajectory, but when you connect all the dots it really points to liability. that is not a guarantee of charges or conviction. and you have to put it together with something else we've discussed a lot, the georgia investigation where there is an even faster acceleration. so you see a pincer's movement on donald trump and perhaps this will be the occasion in which he cannot dodge criminal liability. >> yeah, look, i mean, people obviously -- we do want to pump the brakes before making any assumptions but people point out that an indictment of an ex-president is unprecedented, so is what he is credibly accused of which is interfering, trying to overturn an election. i think folks who have had an interest in the outcome of an indicted president which isn't good for the country i think have been frustrated but have not appreciated the fact that the doj can and should be operating at its own pace beneath the surface of things. there are folks -- l

we also learned greg jacob testified before the grand jury in that criminal investigation. according to the chairman of the january 6th committee, garland's investigators at the doj are focusing on trump lec ele electors. the breadth of that scheme is being laid out. there are newly disclosed emails obtained by "the new york times." this is an email send to trump adviser boris epstein from a phoenix-based lawyer. the phoenix lawyer writes, quote, we would be sending in fact electoral votes to pence so that someone in congress can make an objection when they start counting votes and argue the fake votes should be counted. team trump saying the quiet part out loud, admitting their plot was fake. in a follow up email, the lawyer follows up, pps alternative votes is probably a better term that fake votes, smiley face. now the january 6th committee is showing how wide ranging the plot was involving fake electors from 12 states. even the president was aware of the fact elector scheme. today the former president returning to washington to distract that his plan to cling on to powe

greg jacob, who was his counsel, mark short, who was his chief of staff. importantly, they were in some meetings, including january 4th. there was a meeting at the white house, where former president trump and john eastman, his lawyer, were trying to persuade mike pence he had the power to set aside the election results, and to find a way to seat these fake electors that could keep the former president in office. obviously, mike pence decided that he didn't have that power, he didn't do that. but what these two men were a part of were some of these conversations were the former vice president was being pressured not only by these lawyers who were working for him, but by the president himself. so what we have here is, you know, inside the justice department there had to have been conversations. before you take this momentous step, you had to have a conversation about the implications of this criminal investigation for the former president. a huge, huge development for the criminal investigation at the justice department, bianna. >> the development, as you r

olivia troye worked with marc short, and greg jacob on mike pence's staff.n wu is a prosecutor, and miles taylor was the chief of staff of the homeland secretary under trump. glad to have you all here today. merrick garland probably gonna get tired of having to answer that very question. remember he if you days ago was like, listen, i said when i said, i will say it louder again. which is weird for him to have that tone. but one displays that he keeps getting the same question. do you intend to hold trump accountable? when these questions are coming, what goes through your mind? is it to singular and myopic a focus? will it harm, politically speaking other aspects of? it what is your thought? >> i think that he really needs to decide if you want to say something more specific. or really just say nothing at all. because the usual reasons for giving nothing about the investigation don't really apply here, everyone knows the issues here. he's not tipping off everybody. he certainly doesn't have to say we have to indict him. but he certainly could've said, what

and both marc short and greg jacobs have given testimony before the january six committee.it. it was live, a lot of that testimony, about just how crazy this plot was, and trump's aiding and abetting and encouragement of it. so all that is now being tied up, presumably, to the grand jury. it's a very big deal, you know, in ordinary times, the idea that a white house official would be brought before a grand jury's big, huge news. we are learning of it a little bit, just because we are hearing so much of trump's wrongdoing, and so much. but this is a very substantial step. >> yamiche, you've covered the former guy for quite some time. and we've seen it, time and again, when someone speaks out against him who was part of his circle, he always says, they are our coffee boy -- i don't know them. they were irrelevant. short and jacobs, how significant are they? how senior were they, at least in mike pence world? >> they were incredibly significant, and incredibly senior in the trump white house. of course mark short was chief of staff to vice president mike pence. before, that wa

also testifying, pence's former white house counsel greg jacob. both were subpoenaed by the justice department, but nbc news camera set up for steve bannon's trial recorded short and his attorney leaving the federal courthouse last friday. just showing up. and short and jacob are the highest ranking trump administration officials known to have cooperated with the doj probe. both gave testimony to the january 6 committee and jacob, you will recall, was a live witness during a key hearing last month. meanwhile, member of the january 6 select committee congresswoman elaine luria revealed new testimony showing how former president trump edited a speech that was meant to condemn the insurrection. she tweeted this. it took more than 24 hours for president trump to address the nation again after his rose garden video on january 6 in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace. there were more things he was unwilling to say. here is some of the video testimony. >> i'm not sure when those conversations began because they could have start

so it goes right into the inner circle and the "wall street journal" is also reporting that greg jacob, the chief counsel to vice president pence and the prosecutors had a line of questioning which was about the january 4th meeting in the oval office that's going right to the heart of it, that's very legally significant because it's the moment, as evan said, where eastman is confronted and says in front of trump, i admit, it's not legal what i'm advocating. >> and you know what's amazing, this meeting, obviously, mark short was there. he was there every step of the way, right? you know how important he was. how important could his testimony be just in terms of his proximity and presence in every meeting? >> i have emphasized this when there's this push that vice president pence himself should testify whether it's january 6th or the grand jury. mark short is his eyes and ears. and him being green lit by the former vice president is them cooperating. it's pence world cooperating. he would have been there. this to me indicates they're looking into the doj pressure campaign, the eastman ef

beyond mark short and greg j jacob. >> and reached out to by the doj. i don't know about the extent of their cooperation. the grand jury investigation, the doj investigation is very different than the january 6th one which is all in the public eye. we kind of see it play out in realtime, and i think there's been a bit of a false sense that doj is moving too slowly and hasn't been working behind the scenes. from what i understand, that isn't the case, and as evidenced frankly by the fact that mark short is probably the most senior official they're going to get without having to really compel someone like a mark meadows or a pat cipollone to testify. i know they have made outreach to at least one individual who was in the broader trump orbit. >> and you had told us before about you're friends with cassidy hutchinson, is that who it is? >> it was not cassidy. i have not spoken to her about if she's been reached out to by doj, or cooperating. that would be a question for her. it was someone else in the broader network who i would consider mid level, that co

it and and more sort of aspirationally could this inspire the kind of bipartisanship that that greg jacob was talking about there were sort of lacking right now, and of course it would have implications for future vacancies. so i i contacted the birch by archives at the university of indiana and and try to reach senator by who unfortunately at that stage of his life was was not in a position to to remember that that part of his life and and had been suffering from some illnesses, but they did very nicely recommend that i speak to jay berman who i think is on this panel on the zoom today and he was a senator bias cheapest staff and he very graciously had lunch with me at the century club in new york. city and we talked about this phrase party opposite. he said, you know, it sounds like senator by and and and then i found some more information that albert didn't want to take a partisan advantage and become president and and he did not know about this plan to resign but jay told me that he recall the possible ted sorensen memo advising carl albert about this that and the other and and he sai

we've seen some of his closest aids and advisers, like mike shore, greg jacob, a former counsel of his testify before the committee. how far will they go with mike pence? adam kissinger says there's discussion about whether to seek a written interview, a subpoena for him. betty thompson, the chairman of the committee indicated to reporters that thursday would be a day this issue would be discussed and jake, also, what will they do to get the former president himself to testify. almost certainly he would fight that if there is a subpoena to him. is the committee willing to go that far and drag things out or move on without his testimony? those are the key questions as they move into next week. the last hearing in this phase before they finalize the report language they hope to issue later this fall. >> manu, tell us about the group of senators working on a deal to overhaul the electoral count act. the first official legislative response to donald trump's attempt to overturn the legal and legitimate win. >> reporter: this is the law that governs how that happens on the day of congression

pence's chief counsel, greg jacob, also appeared before the grand jury. making those two officials the most prominent witnesses that we know of that off testified as part of the department of justice's criminal investigation before a criminal grand jury they were both present for key meetings when donald trump tried to allied to pressure pans into halting the electoral votes for january six. today we got the stunning report from the new york times publishing previously undisclosed emails that shed new light on the ex presidents scheme. this is really something else. quote, the dozens of emails among people connected to the trump campaign outside advisers, close associates to mr. trump, show a particular focus on assembling lists of people who would claim,, -- with no basis -- to be electoral college electors on his behalf in battleground states that he had lost. he authored some of those emails and an arizona lawyer repeatedly called those very repeatedly called those electors fake, that is the word he used. he fully understood what they were up to. writi

the january 6 landscape includes tonight -- former vice president mike pence's general counsel greg jacob testified last week before federal grand jury. jacobin former pence chief of staff -- to highest ranking officials in the former ministration will have no known to have talked. one more piece in the larger picture dominated by the fact that more than 70 million viewers what should have been billed as this january 6 committee season finale, an interest have been high throughout. the question now is whether any of it has changed any minds, and more specifically, weather could change any votes in the midterms this fall in 2024. there is some answers. our one and only harry anton joins me. are you seeing any change in the former president now that the hearings concluded? >> one of the things i've learned covering president trump, and his electoral history, is the more he's in the news, the worse it is for him. take a look at his net favor billet-y -- look at it since essentially march. when we see? in march of 25, 4 months ago, it was minus 6 points. then it's minus 7 points april 25th. m

and we know that marc short, former pence chief of staff along with his colleague greg jacobs, have no short of criticism for the former president and for mark meadows and their refusal to accept that having pence do what trump asked him to do would have been a violation of federal law. marc short and greg jacob were in the room when trump lawyer john eastman acknowledged in front of trump and them that to have vice president pence overturn the election would have been a violation of federal law. so, it's important to see that as trump aides break with him, that group of lawyers, their break is particularly momentous, i think. >> kyle, the doj's federal inquiries is one of the probes edging closer to the former president. you note a lot of investigations are under way. grand jury investigation by a local prosecutor in fulton county, a civil inquiry by the new york attorney general. what dangers do those investigations pose to the former president? >> sure. well, the fulton county investigation in particular has been surging forward and, you know, there's been subpoenas issued for some

and what short and greg jacobs allow is for them to pierce that cone of silence from the vantage point of mike pence. to get to what was being told in these personal conversations. this pressure campaign on pence. and importantly, they are not loyal to donald trump. they are not one of these people that are going to lie on his behalf. with the hopes of some pardoned down the line if he becomes president again or something. and so, you know, they are able to get to actual one-on-one conversations. and the pressure campaign on pence's key, because it gets to both the fake elector plot, this whole conspiracy to defraud. and it gets to also the incitement plot. because he tweets to his followers that pence is on board, knowing that he isn't. creating the powder keg that will later be used to send the mob to the capitol. so i think that is a significant shift in where this investigation is headed. >> chuck, your thoughts? >> look, i generally agree with asha. i've a few things to add. i'm not surprised that the department of justice is looking at mr. trump's conduct. i would be surprised cr

. >> marc short and greg jacob, both appearing in front of a federal grand jury testifying as part ofminal investigation that has expanded to examine attempts to prevent the certification of the 2020 election. >> i can confirm i did receive a subpoena for the federal grand jury and i complied. under advice of counsel, i can't say much more than that. >> short was mike pence's chief of staff, jacob his chief counsel. both were key witnesses to the house january 6th select committee. jacobs testifying publicly about the pressure campaign on pence and the buildup to the capitol riot. >> mr. eastman was opine that there were two legally viable arguments as to authorities that the vice president could exercise two days later on january 6th. >> the attorney general himself making it clear that no one, including donald trump, is beyond the reach of their prosecution, and they are specifically concerned about attempts to overturn the 2020 election. >> we will hold accountable anyone who was criminal responsible for attempting to interfere with the legitimate, lawful, transfer of power from on

highest person in the criminal probe january 6, we should also note that pence's former counsel greg jacobsas also testified there. how significant is it, mike? >> it's potentially very significant. i've always believed that donald trump will be the republican nominee in 2024, so long as he's healthy, so long as he's solvent and unindicted. okay. now, we're in that third realm. john, for a long time, we thought he faced the greatest legal peril from the southern district. all of a sudden, the southern district was really not pursuing criminal charges against donald trump. then the manhattan district attorney's office, anybody remember cy vance jr. and what's he going to do before he leaves office? fulton county all of a sudden out of nowhere posing real peril to donald trump. all the why because the house committee can't bring charges. all the while it fathers that the feds were the tail on the dog. well, maybe the fed were underestimating because as you point out this was a grand jury seemingly looking at january 6, but also the preceding event which is would include january 4th, that oval

that end, i would be looking at cassidy hutchinson, at greg jacob, at mark short, at sarah matthews, matthew pottinger. i would be looking for people inside the white house, the deputies, the staffers. not the low-level people who stormed the capitol. they won't have any connection to the real power sources. but those people, those honest civil servants as far as we can tell who were inside the white house who saw key meetings. that's where i would be looking. >> thank you both very much. elie, paul. >>> next, a cnn investigation into hunter biden. just how much trouble is the president's son in? >>> plus, an offer that might send russia's merchant of death, imprisoned in the united states, back to russia a free man. could that bring brittney griner and paul whelan back to the u.s.? time. it''s life's most precious commodity, especially when you have metastatic breast cancer. when your time is threatened, it's hard to invest in your future. until now. kisqali helping women live longer than ever before when taken with an aromatase inhibitor fulvestrant... in hr+, her2- metastatic brea

within the last 24 hours we learned that two of mike pence's senior advisers, marc short and greg jacobsw testified before a federal grand jury part of the justice department's investigation into january 6th. as mike pence tries to rehabilitate himself among the denson's of maga land, his former aides actively cooperated with the federal investigation into 1/6. what does that mean for mike pence himself? joining us now is politics reporter at yahoo news who covered mike pence since his time at governor of indiana and author of "piety and power." thank you for being here, tom. you know more about mike pence and his inner circle than any other reporter. do you think those two aides got mike pence's blessing before testifying for the justice department grand jury? >> definitely. that's a tight knit circle. one of the tightest operations i have ever covered. nothing happens without the boss's approval. my guess is absolutely. nobody confirmed that, but if you're seeing marc short testify, he's the only person closer to pence than marc short is karen pence. >> we all know how mike feels about

perez, cnn, washington. >> this is not the first time investigators have heard from marc short and greg jacob. they spoke previously with the house committee. ryan nobles has more from capitol hill. >> reporter: both jacobs and marc short were really kind of the first big witnesses that the january 6 select committee were able to cooperate that were inside that orbit of the white house, the oval office, the west wing and days leading up to january 6. and what their testimony revealed to the committee at that time was the intense pressure campaign that was put on vice president mike pence during that period of time and the steps that pence stood to resist that. it also really shed a light on things like the fake elector plot that was going on around the country. these were all things that we didn't previously know until the committee was able to really crack the core of mike pence and his inner circle. and it shows that they are very much interested in the plot to subvert the will of the american people beyond just the violence that took place here on january 6. >> cnn's ryan nobles there on c

they did get information out of greg jacob and marc short in the grand jury. because this fight would be gearing up, those two witnesses may need to come back later. that there would be things to learn, to help the justice department decide if donald trump would become a target. >> clearly the justice department is moving ahead quickly. ryan, you're up on capitol hill. you have some new reporting about the house select committee's investigation. they seem to be zeroing in on former trump cabinet official as well. tell us what you're learning. >> that's right. just today they met with nick mulvany. he was an envoy in europe on january 6th. they're focusing on a number of other cabinet officials. we're told they're engaging with the former secretary of state mike pompeo and they've also attempted to set up something with the former director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe. this goes in addition to the other cabinet secretaries they've talked to. the former acting defense secretary, chris miller, jeff rosen and others. and i'm told that part of this is t

first to report that vice president mike pence's chief of staff mark short and white's counsel greg jacob testified to a grand jury in washington on friday. that testimony came six weeks after their public testimony to the january 6th committee. tonight, carol leonnig's reporting in the washington post has more about that grand jury testimony. prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury including two top aides to vice president mike pence have asked in recent days about conversations with trump, his lawyers and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute trump allies for certified electors from some states that joe biden won. that's according to two people familiar with the matter. the prosecutors asked these hours of detailed questions about meetings that trump lead in december 2020 and january 2021. his pressure campaign on pence to overturn the election, and one instructions trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states. some of the questions focused directly on the extent of trump's involvement in the fake ele

. >> and how significant is it in your view, that to penn state, marc short and greg jacob had recently testified to a grand jury, to a high is how white house officials to do so? >> i think it's incredibly significant. it means the investigators are going straight into the white house. calling to the wall street journal's reporting and cooberated now with the washington post, the questions the prosecutors are asking and asked specifically jacob and short, it's about for example, the january 4th meeting with president trump, that is the meeting with trump's only lawyer to tell him that the plan was legal. in the meeting, concedes that it is illegal for pence to carry out the scheme. and that is what the prosecutors are asking these two very senior white house officials, about. that is really means that this, the prosecution and the exact the investigation is very far along and as peered all the way through into the white house and some of the most important meetings. >> quick last question, 30 seconds left, merrick garland spoke to lester holt earlier this today. we are gonna pasco ever

but what this does tell us, as where things stand right now, is that marc short and greg jacob going into the grand jury not answering all the questions, clearly the prosecutors don't have all the answers here and don't have everything they want out of this piece of investigation. so, there would be a ways to go to figure this out and to potentially get more information. we are also learning about a lot of investigative work that the justice department is doing, that they're obtaining the cell phone of john eastman. now, as of july 12th, they're getting to look the contents of that. we're reporting tonight someone working with jeffrey clark, who was working with trump at the justice department, he was searched. and the justice department is nailing down what cassidy hutchinson, that key witness in the house select committee investigation, what she had to say, that she's now also in touch with justice department investigators sochl, ice all coming together, but we don't really know where it's going or how long it will take. >> finally on the executive privilege things, i'm not sure an

this issue came up recently in the grand jury testimony of greg jacob and mark short, and these are the aides of the former vice president pence who appeared before the grand jury, and they sat for hours answering questions about the pressure campaign that the former vice president was under. what they did not answer, and what they could not answer was questions about their direct interaction with the former president, former president trump, because of the claim of the executive privilege. now, as i pointed out, this is something that, you know, the justice department has not tested before, and this is not even by the way tested in the mueller investigation which you and i covered if you remember, and this is a big deal for the justice department to even broes broach this and to find out what was happening with trump in late 2020 and early 2021. >> so, evan, do stand by, and we are getting new details about the georgia's criminal investigations of trump's efforts to overturn that state's elections, and the president of the republican party david schaffer has appeared before a special g

january 6th landscape lately, including reporting that former vice president mike pence's counsel greg jacob testified last week before a federal grand jury. before jacob and marc short, who also testified last week, they're the two highest ranking officials in the former administration, who are now known to have talked. one more piece in the larger picture, which of course dominated by the fact that more than 17 million viewers watched what's been billed as the january 6th committee's season finale. and interest has certainly been high throughout. the question is whether any of it's changed any minds and whether it could change any votes in the midterms this fall and perhaps 2024. the one and only harry enton. are you seeing any change in the perception of the former president now that the hearings have concluded for now? >> one of the things i've learned covering president trump throughout his history is that the more he is in the news, the worse it is for him. so, take a look at his net favorability rating. that's his favorable minus unfavorable and look at it since essentially march. we

cnndoj has reached out to more former officials in the trump white house, beyond just mark short and greg jacobtwo top aides to former vice president mike pence. >> i think you could piece it together based on who has testified before the january 6th committee. again, these are related but separate track investigations. and i think doj is keeping an eye on who is coming before january 6th and who may have helpful information. >> the news come at the same time sources tell "the washington post" and "new york times" that federal investigators have asked questions specifically about donald trump's actions, suggesting their probe is getting closer to the former president himself. all while a separate state level investigation is looking at trump and election interference in georgia. >> you see a pincers movement on donald trump. and perhaps this will be the occasion in which he cannot dodge criminal liability. >> the public posture of the doj is welcome news to members of the january 6th select committee who have been publicly pleading with federal prosecutors to take action. >> that encourages me

this is the kind of questions you would be asking of the people you would be asking, marc short, greg jacobwhat were your conversations with the president, what did he say, what did he do. also the fact that they pulled phone records of mark meadows, that's also what you would do at doj if you were focused on the white house. merrick garland's mantra is ground up. he said we start from the ground and we build from there. it's no longer a question of can we flip one of these oath keepers and hope to reach donald trump, now they're going at people that actually will have information about donald trump. >> how do you see it? >> indeed, we're getting closer and closer physically. if you look at the offices of the people they're talking to, the phone records they are seizing you're getting closer and closer to the oval office. there's only one person that they can logically be trying to get information about. whether or not it results in an indictment, where this all goes is a separate question, but they are certainly building an important case. the polling suggesting that, some of this is getti

and "the new york times" and "wall street journal" report a second top former pence aide greg jacob also was subpoenaed and appeared before the committee. >> it shows trump edited a speech considerably that was supposed to strongly condemn the capitol rioters. trump was reluctant to give that speech, he crossed out several lines and phrases, a line that says those who broke the law belong in jail replaced instead, handwritten with will pay. ivanka trump was asked about it by the committee. >> as you can see throughout the document there are lines crossed out, there are some -- there are some words added in. do you recognize the handwriting? >> it looks like my father's handwriting. >> joining us now is one of the two republicans on the january 6th committee, congressman adam kinzinger. sir, thank you so much for being with us this morning. and i do want to start with this news that we have heard about marc short, that he's testified in the doj's probe. what does that signal to you about where the investigation stands? >> well, i mean, i look at it and it says obviously there is some inte

the vice president's counsel who was greg jacob answering questions. these are people who were in a meeting, for instance, on january 4th where the former president was pushing mike pence to accept this legal theory from john eastman, his lawyer, that he had the power to block the certification of the election results and to help pave the way for these fake electors to keep the former president in power. we know, for instance, that back in january we heard from lisa monaco who told me in an interview that they were looking into these fake electors, and then we saw these subpoenas that went out to dozens of these people, and again, all of these things tell us that they've been circling around the former president to try to get a better picture of exactly what he knew, how central he was to all of this and to potentially launch an investigation, formal investigation of the former president. >> yeah, and renato, of course the question is does this circling around the former president lead to an indictment? does it lead to charges? listen to the attorney g

like this, but what does this tell us and where we stand right now, is that with marc short, and greg jacob going to the grand jury, not answering all the questions, clearly prosecutors don't have all the answers here. everything they want out of this. there would be ways to go to figure this out, and then potentially get more information. we are also learning about a lot of other investigative work that the justices do. they're obtaining the cell phone of john eastman. they're getting to look into the contents of july 12th. we also reported tonight that someone working with jeffrey clark who is helping trump at the justice department that he was searched the same as klukowski, he's become a co-operator. and then there's also the. -- with cassidy hutchinson, the key witness in the committee investigation in which he had to say, that she is now also in touch with the justice department vested gaiters. it's coming together, but we don't really know where it's going. >> finally, on the executive privilege thing, i'm not sure anybody knows this, but if it's marc short's claims of executive priv

confirming to abc news that marc short, the former chief of staff to vice president mike live pence and greg jacob, pence's former chief counsel appeared before a federal grand jury investigating january 6th. short confirming he was subpoenaed by the grand jury in an interview with abc newslive. >> if the mob had gotten closer to the vice president, i do think there would have been a massacre in the capitol that day. >> reporter: short now the highest ranking trump white house known to have cooperated in that department of justice investigation. all of this as the january 6th committee hearings are putting new pressure on attorney general merrick garland to bring criminal charges against trump or his allies for their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. garland has said, quote, no person is above the law. andrew, mona. >> all right, jay, thank you. >>> and breaking overnight in uvalde, texas, the school district has suspended the principal of robb elementary school where 19 children and 2 teachers were gunned down. mandy gutierrez was placed on leave with pay after an investigation found that s

greg jacob and michael let it a former federal appeal judge were the witnesses. on june 21 two current and one former georgia election official. secretary of state brad raffensperger and shea moss testified along with russell wesley bowers, a republican member of arizona state house. the fifth hearing featured three former justice department officials. the june 28 hearing had testimony from cassidy hutchinson, a former aide to president trump chief of staff mark meadows. stephen errors who pled nolte to charges of -- pled guilty to charges of reaching the capital. sarah matthews a former white house press aide. both resigned on january 6 following the events of the capital. this is the cannon house office elting caucus room where all hearings have been held. we will watch as the committee gets settled for two nights hearing. first, a quick reminder that the january 6 committee hearings and all c-span programming is brought to you as a public service by these television companies including comcast, charter and talks. c-span is the only place for gavel to gavel cov

for example, in the case of mark short and greg jacob, the questions hovered repeatedly around what did trump ask his lawyer to do? what did you hear trump say? then what was trump's reaction when you or the vice president said that's not legal? these kinds of questions, over and over again like a water drill, and the amount of time focused on that would be, you know, no big deal if a reporter was asking a ton of questions about what did trump say? what did he do? it would be a bigger deal if an fbi agent kept asking a witness those kinds of questions. mr. short, mr. jacob, please tell me about the president, but when a prosecutor asks those questions in a grand jury andal almost up to 75% of the questions are like that, this is a prosecutor preparing for prosecution, who is preparing for trial. this is not a fishing expedition when you ask questions on the record in a grand jury and what you are seeking to do most typically is get information on the record that's going to be valuable to you in bringing an indictment. i'm not saying that the former president is going to be indicted. i'm

already interviewed former vice president mike pence's chief of staff marc short, and top counsel greg jacob who publicly testified pence refused to participate in trump's scheme. >> no vice president in 230 years of history had ever claimed to have that kind of authority. >> reporter: and federal prosecutors have subpoenaed a number of so-called fake electors and seized the phone of trump's private attorney john eastman. a number of witnesses have testified that eastman repeatedly pushed outlandish strategies to overturn the vote. >> i said to him, "are you out of your mind?" i said, "i only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on. orderly transition." >> reporter: doj wants to know if president trump, what he did to put these efforts in motion, and whether he understood these strategies might be illegal. david? >> all right, pierre thomas with us. pierre, thank you. >>> overseas tonight, a powerful earthquake in the philippines killing at least five people, injuring dozens more. toppling buildings and triggering landslides there. the epicenter was in a mountainous area

marc short, and greg jacobs just did not pop up. somebody talk to them, knew what they were going to talk about in front of the grand jury, and then process them just last friday, had them up here. now, we're getting a story of much more depth about the nature of this investigation. it hasn't said that trump is the target, but it is hard to believe he is not. >> okay, those two players that you meant in there, jacobs and short, how is this close now to the former president with these key players talking? john? >> it is right in the oval office. it is right in the oval office, don. they were present for the key meetings when the president was trying to bend his vice president into doing an illegal act. and they were, they were helping him support the vice president to do the right thing. so, they are not part of the conspiracy, but they certainly witnessed and experienced the attorneys that reach out to them to try and bend the vice president and all the others. so, they are key witnesses and big witnesses. >> how long has this been

that came it a head with the appearances of mark short and greg jacob, and i suspect there are othere not aware of, so stay tuned on that, but those -- the grand jury phase appears to have started in earnest this month, and the investigation of team trump really began in the early spring of this year or i should say it swung into the more forceful posture in early spring of this year. the questions that individuals are receiving are overwhelmingly again and again about what did donald trump say, what did donald trump do? then what did donald trump say to the vice president then? what did donald trump ask his lawyers to do for him? those kinds of questions, if they were asked in an fbi investigation could be a phishing expedition and could be a search for basic information, but when asked in a grand jury they indicate the prosecutors are asking for the potentiality of bringing charges and going to trial and they are more serious. it's not fishing, it's trying to get people on the record in a formal way that can be usable at trial. >> hey, carol, it's jonathan. congrats on the story. i

he was helping make sure that greg jacob was coming up with a legal rationale that pence could rely on coordinating with conservative lawyers outside the administration who were trying to help pence. he was at the center of all of these things and dealing directly with pence as pence had to confront eastman and trump as they came up with this -- this bogus legal scheme to where they essentially said that pence could pick the president when he went for the certification. so it's not just that short is in the capitol on january 6th and witnesses what is going on with pence and pence's reluctance to leave and the violence there. he was directly -- a direct witness to everything that was going on in terms of the internal pressure campaign on pence. >> andrew weissmann, i want your thoughts on everything mike is reporting, but he's also an important witness in the knowledge 24 hours ahead of time that there would be violence and the violence would be directed at mike pence. he calls in the secret service who have now become the flashing yellow light in all of the questions about who knew wh