here is how katie benner's report in "the new york times" begins. the justice department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month. one of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with president donald j. trump to oust jeffrey a. rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department's power to force georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. the unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, jeffrey clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster mr. trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on georgia politicians. because mr. rosen had refused the president's entreaties to carry out those plans, mr. trump was about to decide whether to fire mr. rosen and replace him with mr. clark. the department officials convened on a conference call, then asked each other, what will you do if mr. rosen is dismissed? the answer was unanimous. they would resign. for hours they anxiously messaged and called one another as they awaited mr. rosen's fate. and from there, the story

joining us now is katie benner, justice department reporter for "the new york times." thank you very much for joining us again tonight, katie. really appreciate it. when we left this story at this hour on friday night, you had not yet revealed -- you had the information, but in your article you had not yet revealed how jeffrey clark met donald trump. it was through a pennsylvania politician who you've now been able to reveal. tell us about that. >> congressman scott perry, he confirmed that to a local npr -- a local public radio affiliate today that he is the person who gave the president jeffrey clark's contact information. he told the radio station he did it because the president asked him do. he put blame on the president for this. it's clear, it's unlikely the president would have spoke with mr. clark otherwise. somebody at that level in the justice department very rarely rises to the attention of the president. >> that's a republican member of congress. i also want to go to the letter. the letter that jeffrey clark presented to the acting attorney general and deput

and katie benner, justice department reporter for the "new york times," fresh off her big exclusive on trump's efforts to leverage the justice department to somehow change the election results. good evening and welcome to you all. peter, i would like to start with you and your beat. here is a quote in the "new york times" from roy blunt of missouri, republican senator who became a trumper voting 90% of the time with donald trump. "anybody surprised by that vote," the test vote in effect, "wasn't paying attention before yesterday." so in light of that, peter, for this and other reasons, is what i call the plea deal gaining traction, where you would censure the guy, you would say run along, take congresswoman qanon with you, go play golf, you can't run again, we don't want to see you again. >> yeah, look, there's a good question here as to whether a party line vote on conviction a second time will be meaningful or actually just empower and embolden president trump. right now if he ends up being acquitted for a second time, he will make the argument that he was in fact exonerated even if

again, katie benner is the sole byline, the reporter behind this stunning.ing attorney general jeffrey rosen was under extreme pressure from president trump to declare that he had found something that would justify overturning the results of the election. back to her report. quote, when president trump said on december 14th that attorney general william barr was leaving the department, some officials thought he might allow jeffrey rosen a short reprieve before him about supposed voter fraud. after all, mr. barr would be around another week. instead president trump summoned mr. rosen to the oval office very next day after announced barr would leave. the president told rosen he wanted the justice department to file legal briefs supporting his allies seeking to overturn an election loss." wanting justice department to side with the president's cockamamie lawyers and lawsuits designed to overturn the election. the president urged jeffrey rosen to appoint special counsels to look for widespread voter fraud, but also dominion, the voting machines. the president re

andrew weissmann, what do you see in this report from katie benner? >> three things. first, the law. second, the facts. third, remaining investigations. so on the law, i'm going to read to you what the department of justice defines election fraud to be. election fraud is conduct intended to corrupt the process by which ballots are tabulated or election results are certified. so look at the reporting from katie today and put it in context. you have the president pressuring the georgia secretary of state. you now have evidence that the president pressured people of the department of justice to pressure georgia and to open up a fake investigation. you have pressure on the vice president not to certify the results. you have the inciting of a rebellion on january 6th. and then put this in context, lawrence, of you were saying it sounds like the president just wants an open investigation. well, that certainly sounds like exactly what we heard about a year ago in the first impeachment of the president in his so-called perfect ukraine call, which was election interference bec

trump apparently according to katie benner's reporting swayed by the argument a sat night massacre wouldall over senior leadership apartment the justice department would resign if the acting attorney general was ousted and instead installed this guy to declare jb didn't win the election. swayed that that might be enough of a kerfuffle it might prompt congressional investigations to distract what what he was trying to do again, mind-blowing reporting from the "new york times" tonight. according to the "times" jeffrey clark said this report contains inconsiste inconsistencies. now former president trump declined to comment for this report, but it is -- it is stunning stuff. particularly when we just learned about the schedule for the president's trial for him using a violent mob and illegal pressure tactics against georgia state officials to try to eng do results of the election and stay in power. just learned he's going on trial in the united states senate for those efforts to overthrow the election by illegal persuasion and by force. and now we know more of the depths of it. absolutely s

katie benner, quote, the justice department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month.their peer his devised a plan with the former president to oust jeffrey rosen as acting attorney general and force georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. because mr. rosen had refused the president's treaties to carry out those plans the former president was about to decide whether to fire mr. rosen and replace him with mr. clark. the department officials con vened on a conference call and asked each other what will you do if mr. rosen was dismissed. the answer was unanimous, they would resign. >> joining me is carol lenning and msnbc contributor and reporter with "the washington post" and coauthor of the book "a very stable genius, donald trump's testing of america" and she broke that new york times story that i just read you a quote from. good morning to both of you. katie, i was puzzled. i saw this story when it came out last night and i was thinking when the rest of us things were calming down and donald trump was out of ammunition and every stunt he

late, last night, katie benner, of the new york times, dropped this bombshell. confirmed by nbc news, revealing trump's 11th-hour quest to stay in power. quote, the justice department's top leaders listened in stunned silence, this month. one of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with president donald j. trump to oust jeffrey a. rosen as acting-attorney general. the goal. replace him with jeffrey clark. a doj lawyer, who reportedly told trump he had a plan to cast doubt on the election results, and could put pressure on politicians in georgia to overturn the election. which is something acting-attorney general rosen refused to do. as the reporting lays out, mr. trump's decision came, only after mr. rosen and mr. clark made their competing cases to him, in a bizarre, white house meeting. the two officials, compared with an episode of mr. trump's reality show, "the apprentice." albeit, one that could prompt a constitutional crisis. ultimately, trump decided to keep rosen in place. leader schumer responded just a short time ago. calling for the justice

joining me, katie benner, covers the justice department for "new york times." helped break the story which details what appears to be a near coup at the justice department during the failed former president's desperate final push to have the election overturned. good to see you. thank you for being with us again. katie, you were involved with reporting about proud boys who have been now charged with conspiracy. that's a little bit different. majority of the charges we have seen have involved people sort of trespassing or being in a federal building without permission, not leaving. conspiracy is a more serious matter. >> yes. what we're seeing now is the justice department, it started with a broad and quick investigation. what we're seeing now is more complicated, serious charges on top of misdemeanors we saw them bring in early stages of the investigation is helped by two things. tremendous number of additional tips the public brought, you can look at the videos we showed to the audience, start identifying people, so much of what we saw with far right groups wa

a great scoop by my colleague katie benner.nd it's just a reminder that even though president trump out of office now, there's much more we're going to learn in the coming days and weeks ahead about this period between the election and president biden's inauguration. and as much as this was such a tumultuous period, this is just another episode, you can think about how much worse that tumult could have been. had there been essentially mass resignations at the justice department, just think of the chaos that would have brought, what was already quite a chaotic process. >> so, i want to talk about the time line for the impeachment. we know that the articles are going to be taken to the senate, or the one article on monday. tuesday, there's the swearing in of senators, the issuance of summons. and then the two-week break for the legal briefs. and there are two notable things i think for house majority leader chuck schumer. first of all, there are republicans who believe the impeachment has been expedited. that gives them a chance

reporting on details into the attack on the nation's capitol on january 6th opinion joining me now katie benner covering the justice department for "the new york times" and a reporter from "the washington post" focusing on national security and law enforcement. he's the author of "october surprise: how the fbi tried to save et cetera and crashed an election." welcome. this is becoming a regular thing with all of your reporting on this. it is kind of remarkable we watched in real time donald trump's misdirection toward antifa and left-wing groups and away from these right-wing groups the fbi has been saying for some time, but he testified in september what the issue is. a couple days ago we heard rudy giuliani saying to steve bannon on a podcast that it was antifa that was behind the january 6th protest and attack on the capitol. the fbi saying none of this is true. >> we've spoken before about how the president normalizes certain kinds of behavior and certain kinds of beliefs including with the left it was going to take down the country. we saw that happen all summer. when the riot occurred, we

and justice department reporter at the "new york times", katie benner, thank you as well for your reportingvarious states have learned the wrong lesson from all of this. now introducing a raft of voting restrictions across the country. restrictions. politico reports that in georgia where democrats picked up two senate seats, the gop is pushing is change state election laws by proposing limits on who can vote by mail and limiting the use of dropboxs for absentee ballots. in arizona, which narrowly went for president biden, it would allow for more automatic recounts. and just before the 2022 midterms, north carolina could implement a new voter i.d. law. the chair of the republican party in texas has called to focus voting laws as a top priority. john meacham, what are they thinking? do they see the writing on the wall. donald trump is isn't president anymore. . >> no. this is all about power over principle. i don't want to sound overly grand at this hour. it's that fundamental. basically we didn't have as full and free an election in the way we would think of it in this country until 1968. th