alvin bragg, letitia james and jack smith's cases against trump. legal analysts say they were totally unfair. jason rantz is here to the react to the breaking news. please stick with us, we have a jam-packed hour for you. we're back in two. >> well, i can just say very simply for me, overall, very simple, make america great again. that's what we're going to do. we're going to make america great again, and she's going to take crime out of the system. as much as might be can do that, she's going to do it. anybody can do that, she's going to do it. ♪ baby: liberty! mom: liberty mutual is all she talks about since we saved hundreds by bundling our home and auto insurance. biberty: it's pronounced "biberty." baby: liberty! biberty: biberty! baby: liberty! biberty: nice try, kid. only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: liberty. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel, which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. vo

jack smith was interfering the 2020 election case. 67th grammy award, most nominated artist taking home the academy's top prize. los angeles firefighters presented beyonce with album of the year for her kong "cowboy carter." >> i feel very full and honored, it's been many, many years. >> carley: that is nice. >> todd: that is conclusion i had, that is nice. sabrina carpenter took home best pop vocal album and best pop solo performance. would you like me to sing it or her to sing it? >> carley: me, then her, go. ♪ ♪ >> todd: i got the kids to sing that, they go, i'm working late. it's really cute. >> todd: kendrikrick lamar caug more. and the chiefs and eagles are playing. >> carley: super bowl is this weekend, grammy, super bowl award show season. >> todd: condolences, another year of not winning the grammy. >> carley: i should, i'm known for my singing voice. >> todd: beautiful voice. >> carley: the worst. >> todd: pete hegseth heading to arizona today, the mayor will join us next. >> carley: after last week's deadly plane crash in t

that fbi supervisors advised agents that any agents who worked on either of those two cases, the jack smith cases. fbi supervisors reportedly advised agents that they should be prepared for the trump administration to release to the public the names of the fbi agents who worked on those cases before they were then. they would then be fired on monday. so rather than just firing them, they were basically going to tell, you know, trump supporters, including those who were just let out of prison, trump tell them, hey, here's the names of fbi agents who are part of all the january 6th investigations, the ones that targeted trump. don't worry, though, they're no longer agents. we're firing them today. so go ahead and have at them. now, tonight, msnbc's ryan riley has obtained a memo sent by the acting director of the fbi to all fbi personnel. and it would seem to indicate that even beyond those things that i have just described, beyond the prosecutors who did the two trump cases, beyond fbi personnel at the senior levels of the justice of the fbi, beyond fbi personnel involved in the two trump ca

we're not talking about jack smith's prosecution team. jack smith and his prosecution team knew full well after the election. they were all going to be out of a job. you can agree with that or not agree with that. that, but that we knew that was going to happen. current and former fbi officials tell nbc news that trump administration officials have forced out all six of the fbi's most senior executives and multiple heads of various fbi field offices across the country, including the high profile leader of the washington, d.c. field office. what was his offense? he was involved in the prosecutions of president donald trump. nbc's ken dilanian reports that the purge also includes more than 20 special agents in charge, including in miami and washington, d.c. new governments come with policy shifts. we all know that. we expect that may not be the people you voted for, but you know things are going to change. this is not a policy shift. this is a purge. and we're going to have much more on that coming up, because it's not just happening at the

then almost immediately doing exactly the opposite by launching a probe of duly sworn prosecutors jack smith, alvin bragg and letitia james for the apparent crime of prosecuting the democracy was that that's hot going to apply. and we're just going to forgive them all. we'll wipe out all the agreements. we'll go around the law, circum little less awe. he's been making a blizzard of moves in these first 18 days of his second administration, meant to inspire fear and outrage, creating problems and then pretending to solve them so that he can look like a savior, keeping his promises to his base. and while it's all really bad and destructive, i think it's important to sort out the actual fires from the smoke and mirrors because, let's face it, we can't react to everything effectively all at the same time. but that's what autocrats and coup leaders want, right? while we're running from fire to fire. trump and elon's little doge gang are dismantling our federal government from within. so just for a moment, let's just take a step back and look at what he's been saying versus what he's been doing. t

whether that will progress to some kind of criminal action or other action against jack smith, i thinkbe seen right now. >> josh, there's new reporting by the washington post which says candidates for top law enforcement and intelligence positions in the trump administration are facing simple yes or no questions related to the outcome of the 2020 election. and those saying it was a free and fair election, they are not getting the jobs. have you heard similar accounts of that? >> yeah, i definitely have. and that if anybody has any kind of record on social media of making even sort of the mildest criticisms of trump, they are generally ruled out from candidacy. we saw this, alex, during the confirmation hearings, both of pam bondi and of kash patel, when they were asked about the 2020 election and who won, they got into tongue twisters, saying that, you know, president joe biden served as the president of the united states, and they couldn't quite say that trump had lost the election and joe biden had won it. and it seems to me that if you're on the record saying something, you know, li

look, the justice department has access to every memo, every email, every document that jack smith and team reviewed and produced and wrote over the years of their investigation. and if they find, as has happened in the past, you know, texts from. fbi agents saying they didn't they wanted to get donald trump, then that will be significant. but right now, we have just not seen that. usually when you investigate something, you have some evidence to lead you in that direction. here they have none. but look, they're serious about this. this is a priority of the trump administration to look at all these investigations of donald trump, both at the state and the federal level, and to determine whether there was any prosecutorial abuse. chris. >> all right. eugene robinson, don't always believe everything you read. but unless you've shaved your head. >> gotta go. right. you got to keep your eugene straight, okay? >> okay. >> bob bondi said over and over again in her confirmation hearing that politics is not going to influence her work at the doj. but what do these day one actions signal to you

with joe biden's lawyers in his department of justice from georgia to new york, letitia james, jack smithndictment and of course all the brag who not only met with joe biden and joe biden's lawyers in the white house he took one of joe biden's lawyers from the department of justice to have him bring this case. all of these people in the jurisdictions are proxies of the biden white house. maria: this is part of it i know there trying to cut out cost and they say listen here's a buyout, bye-bye, the other reason for this is because they've all been politicized and that's why they're offering and telling people to d.o.j. get up you worked for jack smith and the fake investigation, you are d done. >> ultimately trump is entitled to the executive branch this is a fast way to weed out ideologues from last admin and popular by the way reuters did a survey of 15 trump executive orders downsizing the federal government was the most popular by far and the elites are freaking out but not the people. >> drug cartels very important to ratcliffe in the new cia it's going after the drug cartel yet to be

, letitia james and manhattan da alvin bragg and attorney general bondi, listen to this, jack smith spent more than $50 million of taxpayer money to target trump? not going after -- let me back up. forgive me. there's been 50 jihad i did plats uncovered over the last four years but they're targeting trump and school board parents and catholics? >> you're exactly right. it was the fbi under merrick garland that listed parents who cared about their children not being indoctrinated as domestic terrible resistances and this is the thing that pam -- terrorists and pam bondi going after this and building confidence for the american people. it's better and full transparency. she's going to issue quarterly reports continuing this look to the weaponization to the white house released to american people and it'll expose what happened and whether it was unethical tactical practices on j6 and whether actually letitia james, fani willis or weaponization of the justice system against a person running for the presidency being used by incumbent administration. it'll go after all the different things but

mother left the statute of limitations lapse for that so there are times i want to know who work for jack smitht to a lawyer representing it is intermittent because of its case he said to that lawyer we did not know that you are a chunk i can we thought that you are interested in the federal judge position, and aminos a question i want to know i think the american people want answers to this question somewhat all that information we will work with pom-pom need kash patel going to work with all of the people the justice department to get answers to those key questions, then i think that the country people have a right to understand. trey: chairman, i think if i do much more responsive department of justice, when you mention pam bonding kash patel enemy very surprise him if you don't get the information that you are and have been looking for jim jordan from this great state of ohio chairman and judiciary thank you for joining us on sunday night. >> you bet thank you. >> c1 justin should be a politicals let's here in the other side of the aisle, ranking member on house and tell that he's been some

are you aware of any factual predicate to investigate jack smith sitting here today? yes or no?brought to you. you're not a part of the department yet. >> there's no. >> worry about divulging law enforcement sensitive information. so just tell us, are you aware. >> as a nominee. >> tell us. >> are you aware of a factual predicate to investigate jack smith, yes or no? >> senator, what i'm hearing on the news. >> are you aware of a. >> do i know. you seem reluctant. >> i have not, you seem reluctant to answer a simple question. let me ask you a different, simple question. the president also wants to jail liz cheney sitting here today. are you aware of any factual basis to investigate liz cheney, yes or no? >> senator, that's a hypothetical, and i'm not. >> going to. >> answer that. >> mark elias. >> look, i mean, this has been clear all along. >> donald trump is. >> going to have his department. >> of. >> justice and. >> his fbi engage in political. >> investigations and. >> if possible, political prosecutions. >> and there is nothing about pam bondi. >> or kash patel that. >> lea

that process, how do you think that would play inside the fbi and doj, for example, the pursuit of jack smithit's, to put it mildly, i think it's an incredible distraction. and this is what gets in the way of people doing their jobs and protecting public safety, when every time they make a decision in an investigation or a prosecution, suddenly they have to worry. how is the person in power going to think about this? that's not how we're supposed to make decisions about prosecuting crimes. >> understood? go ahead. >> the memo from the attorney general also suggested that the investigation of january 6th somehow took away from the enforcement of public safety issues in dc, and that's something else that that i would take. >> issue. >> with, if i could explain that, i think is also just completely wrong. i watched jury selection in several of these trials. i heard ordinary. dc citizens explain how even years later, the terror they felt on january 6th was not something that that they forgotten. so i think it's frankly an insult to them to suggest that the attack on the capitol didn't affect publ

now, when it. >> comes to the two. >> federal cases, the jack smith. >> prosecutions of donald. >> trump. >> doj can look at whatever. >> they want. >> that's their stuff that's in-house, that's their files. it's going to get dicier if they if and when they try to delve into the state cases. the alvin bragg hush money case, the letitia. >> james lawsuit. >> because doj, i believe in the next several months will say we need your files. and i think alvin bragg is going to say, no way. and we could end up in a showdown in court over this. but look, this is politicization. i mean, there's no reason to reopen these cases. i've been critical of these cases. you know, i think that there there have been prosecutorial missteps. but to go into this and to try to declare that these were politically driven, i think is in itself political, political. >> and there's this question of what happened to states rights. i mean, you know, donald trump and the republicans have always been talking about states rights. and in this case, i don't know if that's something that's going to come up. but i do want to

it was over because of what she believed was an illegitimate appointment of jack smith. and the issue always comes before an attorney general on the appointment of special counsels. what are your thoughts on that? >> well, special counsel's from here on out in our country will be legally appointed and they won't be done constantly like they've been done in the past. and yeah, judge cannon is a brilliant judge. she followed the law that will be upheld. and the weaponization of government will end. no more special counsels out there targeting anyone. >> yeah, well, i mean, when we talk about weaponization, i would say we didn't have equal justice or application of our laws with president trump. i would argue that, okay, if top secret classified information is something worth raiding mar-a-lago about, why didn't they raid the four locations where joe biden had top secret classified information? why didn't they raid hillary clinton's home? she deleted 33,000 subpoenaed emails. she had top secret classified information on it. that, to me, is not equal justice under the law or

they brought in jack smith, they raided mar-a-lago. i mean, i can go on.you cannot allow our system of justice to be degraded to such a degree, basically, for politics. and then. >> i hear you. >> so it's not a chilling effect. let me just real quick, and i want to at this point, i would add for the rank and file fbi agents who do their job every single day. they were shaking their heads to saying, what the hell is going on? we need this place to be cleaned up. so i would say for those agents. >> just so. >> you know, this. >> just so you know, i myself have been plenty critical of merrick garland and jack smith and this whole process over several years. i'm not thinking about them. i'm thinking about a woman, a man in the dc field office who played no policy role, was given an assignment to go out and conduct an investigation whose name now shows up on a list. it sounds awfully mccarthy like, and they might lose their job. but i want to ask you about something else. the president now is going to impose tariffs on mexico and on canada and on china. the wal

if so, which justice department fbi officials other than jack smith later added him for prosecution. i expect the production of all records on this matter to better understand the fact pattern and whether other records exist, notably approval of those documents was also given. this committee has written about pilcher under my justice department's efforts during the 2020 election for partisan purpose. these emails and documents substantiate my july 2022 letter which the fbi ignored. and i hope when you get there you won't ignore my letter. partisan fbi agent's and doj officials tried and ultimately succeeded in launching a full field criminal investigation and prosecution of the president of the united states. justice department and the fbi leadership acted in concert to further a political scheme to take down trump. just like they did with crossfire hurricane. they have yet to learn a lesson. i hope you will learn that lesson for them, or teach them that lesson. their conduct yet again seriously eroded the integrity of this once historic institution. as i said before, if a politicall

and then jack smith, jack smith was brought in, who was notorious among earlegal circle for overcharging, was brought in specifically to take out president trump. and it was only the supreme court ultimately that prevented that. but this was all a scheme devised by the biden administration to make sure president trump never got back into office. well, guess what? he stared it all down, and he won. and we have a real opportunity now to have a level-set. i don't think it's right that we have people pursued because of their politics from a criminal perspective. nothing was out of bounds in the last four years by the biden administration and merrick garland. so pam bondi is just the kind of person to come in to restore integrity, to make sure that our department of justice is fighting on behalf of the american people and not in an attempt ironically to undermine our republic, the accusation, the very accusation that was leveled at joe biden's political opponent. with that, mr. president, i look forward to voting yes on pam bondi and having a real leader, somebody that we can look up to, lead

jack smith's lawfare efforts should be with this committee investigates. thank you for your testimony today, your family and friends here. you've got to be proud of him under these tough conditions. he got tough questions. i think you did well. your reputation leading up to and during this hearing proves you can stand heat including a president telling you how to do your job. if confirmed, you will be in charge of one of the world's best law enforcement agencies at the time when it desperately needs strong changes. everyone's information, written questions can be submitted for the record until 5 p.m. tomorrow. when you receive them it's important you get back to us as fast as you can so we can set up the meetings we have to go through to get you to the floor of the senate. return them to the committee as soon as possible. you are excused in the hearing is adjourned. mr. patel: thank you. [applause]

but jack smith was not the only department who tried to influence these past elections.he washington post reported just last august about previously undisclosed mueller investigation into trump that was closed for lack of evidence. and it being quote unquote fishing expedition. that news reporting was based on sealed court records, government records and potentially classified information roughly 90 days before the last presidential election. the justice department leak that information to the press to impact the election against president trump and they did it while stiff arming congressional requests for information that would prove embarrassing to the biden/harris administration. so, let us not forget other flagrant abuses of power that we have seen from that d.o.j. and the fbi over the last four years. i do not have the time to spend on these that i spent on two or three others would just list them, the department of justice use the might of the federal government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying from traditional catholics terrorism threats claiming these

well kick the case out of court because of what she believed was an illegitimate appointment of jack smith the issue always comes before and attorney general on the issue of appointment and special counsel so what is your thought on the equity. >> special council from here in our country will be legally appointed and won't be done constantly like they were did in the past and the judges a brilliant judge she followed the law that will be upheld and the weaponization of government will end. no more special counsel's targeting anybody we talk about weaponization we didn't have equal application with president trump i would argue that with top-secret classified information is something worth reading there about what about the locations where joe biden had top-secret classified information why didn't they read hillary's home she deleted so many emails with top-secret classified information that's not equal justice on the law are equal application of the law so what do you make of the justice system that only targeted somebody because of their political beliefs it's a two-tiered system of justi

leadership would argue jack smith and others were appointed legally by attorney general garland. a judge is set to hear day two of argument between the d.o.j. and f.b.i. keeping identities who worked january 6th cases out of the public. the risk is horrendous if the list gets out. that hearing comes after a tense back and forth between the f.b.i.'s acting leadership and acting deputy attorney general bove who instructed the f.b.i. leaders to compile a list and send out a questionnaire of 4,000 employees filled it out and want to make sure their identities are not released and hear from a judge today at 11:00. back to you. >> dana: thank you so much. joining us now is "fox news sunday" anchor shannon bream, also in her red. one more thing from pam bondi. this is about the crackdown against sanctuary cities. >> what they are doing is they are choosing illegal aliens over the safety and security of their own citizens and the men and women of law enforcement who are out there trying to protect their citizens. not only did we sue today the city of chicago, we sued the state of illinoi

democrats on the house judiciary committee are pushing james mchenry volume two of special counsel jack smith'sort on trump's classified documents case. trump's form are co-defendants are no longer facing prosecution after the doj dropped the case a last week and house democrats say reports should be made public. volume one of the report was released last month and focused on his investigation into trump for the 2020 election case. vice president v nd voons and other trump officials are visiting east palestine, ohio today marking the second anniversary of tragic train derailment. the then freshman senator j.d. vance arrived at the scene and subsequent controlled burn of toxic chemicals in february of 2023. while we'll be speaking with a resident of east palestine later this hour to get his reaction to what is going on there later today. back in d.c. it's a very busy week ahead for trump's cabinet picks. tomorrow the senate finance committee is voting on r.f.k. jr.'s nomination to become trump's new hhs secretary. then on thursday, fbi picked kash patel appearing before the senate judiciary pane

even on the jack smith stuff. i think one of the real untold stories is the extent to which even house republicans are concerned about jack smith popping up in public and making the case to the american people that he was not allowed necessarily to make in courtrooms. and i think i don't know if trump is necessarily cognizant of that particular danger, but i do know that there are people around him and his allies on the hill who are very aware that that is not a good look. so you hear these kind of euphemisms thrown around bondi in her confirmation hearing and in conversations with republican senators, was talking about looking forward into the future and not into the past. that's a euphemism for dealing with the thing that got him elected, which was tough on crime sort of stuff. so the question is, and i think this is writ large for the entire trump presidency, you have a you have a vengeance agenda and you have an implementation agenda. and at some point those two might come into collision. and i think if he the

colleague against colleague because they did their job, and we aren't even talking about, you know, jack smith or christopher lloyd. we're talking about agents that get an assignment and go do their job. and so the question is, does this undermine the work that other fbi agents do that would do that. they would be afraid that they have retribution. if the president doesn't. >> like it. and listen, you're talking about years and in some cases, decades of experience in highly specialized areas. are you worried, brian, about that being an unintended consequence of this? right. that that the agents, the agency takes its eye off the ball on on current threats? >> what i'm. >> worried about is accountability, right? >> i think the question becomes that voters have paid attention to and the trump administration is saying is something took place with respect to the investigation. they went too far. they've had courts come back and slap them back on the things that they've done that is that is fair for review. and if that review means that some fbi agents sort of get dismissed and reassigned because th

and in terms of trying to overturn the election, that jack smith case took a while and it went throughfirst, you know, it was investigated by the fbi who looked at all the details. they worked their way up the ladder, and eventually they got a grand jury to agree that there was probable cause, that donald trump had indeed committed these crimes. of course, when he was elected, that case all went away. but the due process that was afforded to donald trump is not being afforded in the process here involving these fbi agents. and we should say there are no credible allegations of wrongdoing against any of the fbi agents who worked any of these january 6th cases thus far. this is not about really going through the details and figuring out what was, what mistakes were made, what was being wrong. it's just this event that's putting in a tremendous chilling effect at the fbi involving anyone who touched one of these january 6th cases, which involve, of course, an attack on our democracy, an attack on the officers who were brutally assaulted that day. and, officer, you know, individuals who ma

these are agents, as you mentioned, 5 to 6000, some of them who worked with jack smith, who know of theld trump, crimes that were filed by the department of justice. these are investigators that that came across evidence that supported filing crimes against donald trump. they know of his wrongdoing. they know of the crimes committed by the leader of the oath keepers and the proud, the proud boys. so these are also agents that are attuned to the actions of donald trump and would be attuned to more criming by donald trump. and so is it removing those that he believes have a bias? is it pure retaliation? is it weakening the investigative and law enforcement capabilities of the agency, given all of the things that donald trump will be doing in the second term? i think it's all of that. it also, though, is about the constitutional crisis created by the collapse of the republican congress. if democrats were in charge, they would be having hearings right now in the open. and the irony of all this is you have not even confirmed, but on the pathway to being confirmed, while all this is being don

jack smith, letitia james and alvin bragg. this this is their that's their target.y for the district of columbia is saying he will weaponize his office on behalf of elon musk, promising an inquiry into people referred to his office by musk and saying he will investigate them and will chase them to the end of the earth. i guess, you know, one person's weaponization is another person's weaponization. i mean. >> yes, the irony is not lost on me. and there's a portion of that letter that you were just reading from. you and i are having a mind meld here, michael, because i was looking at that letter earlier today, and there's a portion of that letter that really is chilling that i want to read to you and our viewers, because before he says he's going to chase them to the end of the earth and investigate them, he says if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted unethically, we will investigate them. i don't know when it became the role of a u.s. attorney for any office in the country to prosecute people for merely unethical actions. the whole point of a

and remember, all of this comes after a dozen officials who worked with special counsel jack smith were fired just last monday, as in six days ago. so i think it's pretty clear what's going on here. i think you all know what's going on here. and this latest round of political retaliation against federal law enforcement is already staggering. all of that, i just said. but here's the thing. it could get much worse. and we have to pay attention to that. the acting deputy attorney general also asked for a list of all fbi employees involved in january, six cases for a, quote, review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary. one former fbi official told nbc this about this. this is a really, really big list. you'd be throwing out like three fourths of the bureau that is across the country. it's important to note they are not political appointees, though. most of these people, all of them have served democratic and republican administrations. there's only one political appointee in the fbi, the director of the fbi. these are people who work every day in your

touch with a lot of prosecutors, both from the jan six prosecutions, jack smith's investigation, who have not been let go yet. and they're worried they're there. there's a real fear of reprisal. >> and that's hanging. >> over their head. and can you imagine trying to do. >> your job. >> of delivering justice with respect to prosecutors and then investigating crimes with respect to fbi agents, when you're worried about whether you're going to be imminently terminated or if your name is going to be released publicly and you're going to be subject to doxing or a lot worse. i mean, i think other folks on the panel have said this already, but i think it could it could impact the safety and security of the entire system at this point. so i think it could have a very serious impact. and i think that it's already being felt within just the regular rank and file line. prosecutors. >> and tom, we have some breaking news now. two sources are telling cnn that president trump is expected to get the classified documents he had taken to mar-a-lago. he's going to get them back. what's your reaction

is to create this this new weaponization working group, which is not only going to look into the jack smith, but also looking into the cases that were brought against trump in new york. so alvin bragg, the district attorney in manhattan who oversaw the hush money case, as well as letitia james, who is the attorney general that oversaw the the the other case, the the fraud case against the trump organization. so all of that is going to be included in this weaponization look, which includes, by the way, the fbi agents who worked on january 6th cases. >> yeah, this is a huge story. and it would be leading our shows were it not for so many other huge stories. evan perez, thank you so much for the update. brianna. >> elon musk and his team are bulldozing a path through the federal government in their effort to cut what musk calls waste. but we've seen this playbook before. when musk took over twitter. cnn's clare duffy is with us now on this. and, clare, i know you've been talking to former twitter employees. what are they telling you? >> yeah, brianna. >> a lot of former twitter employees are h

but what it does is examine, you see, jack smith and his staff, manhattan da brag, new york ag james,ere's no effort here to put this in a larger context. it seems that the trump revenge is. the point. is that a proper approach for the doj on day one? what should be done about it? >> oh well, you mean the nation's largest law enforcer, weaponized to go after people who are abiding by the law? yeah, i think that is not its role on day one or day two or frankly, any day. but i would also say this, you know, they told us in project 2025 the blueprint from the heritage foundation, written by people like ross vought, who brought us the funding freeze before he was even confirmed, assuming he will be, hope he won't be. but you know, when you think about this, they've told us they were going to do it. they're actually doing it. so we need to stop suggesting that we don't know whether he'll do or not what he has said he will do, what he has promised, what he was actually indicted for doing to the department of justice, which is trying to make it his tool of retribution. he said it in rallies,

i mentioned these are the cases brought by individuals like jack smith, a very long time respected dojcrats like john edwards and republicans and others, alvin bragg and letitia james in new york and their staffs, who you may or may not know, a lot of their staffs are people taking public service lawyer salaries. they don't have endless funds to deal with potential legally frivolous efforts. there's a call for investigations into what bondi says were, quote, unethical prosecutions relating to january 6th, an ominous conclusion being leveled far before any of her own evidence has been reviewed or new investigation has been done. today, trump's d.c. prosecutor says they will pursue what they call inquiries by inquiries of anyone referred by elon musk, and reuters notes. the announcement of that investigation itself publicly. so just touting this as a public thing is unusual and contrary to doj rules, to which you might say, of course, and you'll notice how the friction is working. we try to follow the evidence and the quotes here. i am not freelancing, and i certainly am not trying to be

its aim to review criminal cases brought against trump by, you guessed it, former special counsel jack smith. but also manhattan da alvin bragg and the civil lawsuit brought by the new york ag, letitia james. with me now, brendan belew is a former federal prosecutor who resigned in protest over trump's decision to pardon most january 6th defendants. brendan, thank you for joining. when you hear that ag bondi is creating a weaponization working group. what do you think is the intent? >> i think it's an intent to rewrite history. the basic problem that the new attorney general has is that her boss, the president, committed a bunch of crimes, and so did a lot of rioters who were acting in his name for his legitimacy and for hers. they need to rewrite the history of january 6th. and that's what i think this working group is meant to do. >> you know, one of the prosecutors who was fired for working on january 6th cases questioned bondi's decision to even review the cases. listen. >> and i do think it's a bit of a double edged sword for this administration to keep attacking january 6th, because, w

and remember, he's now gone after individuals who worked on his jacks and the jack smith case. those individuals have been fired. he went after january 6th. prosecutors fired all of them that they were easily able to the ones who were working on probationary status. now, our latest reporting is that the fbi has been asked for the names of any employees who are on probationary status. they're now in dc, in washington. that means that they're going to send a list of all of all the probationary people and also come up with justifications for them. but it's very clear that donald trump is sort of on this, on this warpath against the fbi and other institutions that tried to hold him accountable in the interim between his last presidency. and now, here's what one of the individuals who has been targeted in that list, norm eisen, had to say. >> we and the wonderful community of litigators that we work with scored two major court successes this week. we got the very first order locking elon musk out of treasury. and then we close the week by getting an order that the trump administrati

many people the, the country has look especially the left is look for whether it was mueller or jack smithke there's so many people that the country is looking for to rise to and we've had pieces of it. i think aoc has glimpses of it at times. she's very dynamic. she's all over the culture. you and i have talked about wes moore. i think he's a powerful, positive voice that can push back, but nobody's really coalesced around leadership yet. and i think that's starting to happen, especially in the streets and in the grassroots where it always comes from. >> it can be it can be elected. it doesn't have to be elected. but yeah, i would really like to see people just stepping up and taking shots. and what's good is that with social media, like you don't have to get booked. >> on tv. >> to. >> do it. >> this is a great point, anthony. >> what do. >> you think? >> i don't think that we need somebody like a barack obama, some generational. transformative figure. but at the very least, barack obama's political rise was in opposition to something that was a big mistake, that was a disaster for the c

the classified documents case we just referenced, the election subversion case, both brought by jack smith, but also the case in manhattan, the so-called hush money case where he was convicted, as well as a civil case that he also faced. she also signed memos dealing with everything from die, something we've seen across the government change as trump has taken office. not only the internal policies, but externally. she said that the civil rights division of the justice department will be used to prosecute what she describes as illegal use of di in the private sector or educational institutes that accept federal funds. she also just laid out how the overall priorities will change and how she wants prosecutors to shift their focus to immigration, human trafficking and protecting law enforcement. another interesting change in these memos changes at the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms atf. they are going to shift their focus away from alcohol and tobacco enforcement and instead use those resources to pursue other priorities like immigration enforcement and drug smuggling. >> paula reid

the courts have replaced robert mueller and jack smith and liz cheney and the january 6th select committee save us. and i just want to sort of a reality check as to whether or not that is one accurate and two healthy. >> is it healthy? i'll do. >> the second one first. >> it's not healthy. >> there's supposed. >> to be a three legged stool, as michael says. and congress has sort of curled up in a ball in. >> a furry. >> little ball at the president's feet. >> and that's. >> the end of that. so we only have one entity. >> now that. >> can check both. >> the legislature and the. >> executive. >> and. >> that's the courts. >> is that enough? >> look, i think it's useful to remember. >> that in. >> the first. >> trump administration, right? we remember. >> what it. >> was like. >> in the first. >> few weeks with the. rollout of the muslim ban and the courts that leapt into. >> action, and not just federal courts. >> right. >> we had. >> all sorts. >> of, you know, we have to remember, this is a. federalist system, and we. >> have state. attorneys general around the country who. are leaping. >>