katie benner, i have to start with the reporting.through what was found in these documents and do you expect the docket for the times' reporters to be released as well by the biden justice department? >> we're still waiting to see whether or not the biden justice department will release information from that docket but we know from the documents so far that the request for information for email records from "the washington post" and from "the new york times" both occurred on december 22nd, bill barr's last day in office was december 23rd. this was literally one of his final acts as attorney general. and of course keep in mind he would have needed to know about this. he would have needed to be briefed and he would have needed to okay the kind of request that was made. typically if you're going to go after the media, the attorney general has to sign off. so this is literally the thing that he did going out the door. they were looking for emails for stories that had been published -- excuse me, they were looking for email communications

katie benner.ning me now is congressman raja krishnamoorthi he's a democratic member of the house oversight committee and just receive those notes from donald trump's call. he's also a member of the house on intelligence where he is also doing work on investigating work into what donald trump has been up to. congressman, good to see you this evening. there is a trove of information here. >> same here. >> starting with the point that the president, the attorney general is not the president's a lawyer, it's not someone who's there to do the bidding of the president. there are all sorts of inappropriate things about what is going on here. but it goes so much further than that. this threat that katie is talking about of replacing someone, if you don't do my bidding, the fact that you don't actually have to find wrongdoing, you just have to say you did. called the election of fraud and i'll handle the rest. this is mind-blowing after a four years that you didn't think you could get your mind blown anymo

katie benner is "the new york times" justice department reporter. joining me now, is democratic member of the house oversight committee which just received those notes from donald trump's call with the attorney general. he is also member of the house permanent select committee on intelligence where he is, also, done work investigative work into what donald trump has been up to. congressman, good to see you, this evening. there is a trove of information here. >> same here. >> starting with the point that the president -- the attorney general's not the president's lawyer. there -- it's not someone who is there to do the bidding of the president. so there is all sorts of inappropriateness about everything that's going on. but it goes so much further than that. this threat that katie is talking about of replacing someone if you don't do my bidding. the fact that you don't actually have to find wrongdoing. you just have to say you did. call the election a fraud, and i'll handle the rest. this is mind blowing, after a four years that you didn't think you

look at what katie benner, the "new york times" justice reporter, justice department reporter i thinketed in part about what she calls a national security crisis. laying bear the narrative and agenda of the kangaroo court unfolding in the house. this dilemma was unresolved by the russia probe and two people impeachments in other words one last chance for democrats to take a swing at donald trump hoping against hope that their efforts keep him far away from the 2024 election. this agenda is dangerous. it's diabolical and destructive and all staring us right in the face. joining us now for reaction senator john kerry -- john kennedy, excuse of louisiana. thank you, sir, for joining me. clearly today was -- it was an assault on 57 million americans i think it was meant to be and last swing at donald trump. what's your take away from all of this? >> tammy, i don't -- i don't hate anybody. and i try to look for grace wherever i can find it as to speaker pelosi's january 6th commission, i guess it comes down to would you buy a used car from speaker pelosi? i mean, that's what this is all ab

katie benner is here, "new york times" justice department reporter and msnbc contributor. that was her reporting we read at the top. harry lipton joins us, former deputy assistant attorney general and katie benner, i will read more from the piece. first, your reaction to seeing these contemporaneous notes from these officials you covered and wrote about at the time to now see in their own words what they were writing down as trump gave them direction. your thoughts? >> i had two immediate responses. one i was really struck by how similar this conversation was to the conversation that trump had with the president of ukraine when he was asking him to announce an investigation to hundredor biden to undermine biden's campaign. he didn't necessarily want the investigations conducted. he just wanted them announced. very similarly he understood that an official statement from any entity with any sort of gravitas would carry with it a message so disruptive and, two, i was struck by how much insight we have into conversations between a president and his cabinet. the justice departm

. >> harris: katie benner is facing backlash after calling trump supporters to be enemies of the stateanuary 6 committee on capitol hill. benner that covers the doj for "the new york times," in order to combat national security threats, the solution was to target the voters of the former vice president. tweeting "today's select committee underscores americas national security dilemma. work to come bat legit it in national security threats now entails calling a politician's supporters enemy of the state. benner took down the tweets claiming they were unclearly worded. i think i understood it, j.d. >> j.d.: absolutely. look, this is disgusting. what she's saying is that your a domestic terrorist if you voted for donald trump. are me and my family domestic terrorists because we voted for donald trump in the last election? this is preposterous. the other thing i can't stand, it totally misses what the real threats are. the biggest national security threat in this country right now is what is going on at the southern border. it's not your fellow citizens that voted for donald trump. wake up

with me now is katie benner, she covers the justice department for the "new york times." she was the first to get her hands on these explosive handwritten notes detailing the pressure that trump was putting on his department of justice as he tried to overturn the election results. good to see you again. thanks for being with us. this puts a lot of flesh on bones that we thought existed. the notes of that phone call are reminiscent of the phone call that -- around the same time of year, president trump made to the secretary of state in georgia. they're also reminiscent of the phone call he made to the president of ukraine leading to his first impeachment. it's the idea that i need you to do something for me. i need you to put something out in the ether that sheds doubt on the election that will allow me to then do something with that. >> absolutely. the former president understood the power of raising questions, of sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of voters so they would not feel comfortable or confident that democracy worked. they would think the election was a failure.

reporting on law and order of course there is no statement, not just people but who were there, and katie bennerately, we come to a place where there is a partisan commission where nancy pelosi picked partisan and that's unfortunate because, that needs to cash that leads to creating an environment where one side is deemed an enemy of the state. and that's not what she's stating. she stated matter-of-factly to a series of other tweets that followed in that thread, because one side of the aisle is the enemy of the state what do we do about that? how do we handle that as a country? and unresolved to impeachments, one over the ukrainian phone call. this should have been resolved already unfortunately this committee will not resolved, and why can't we just say that? it was there anything unclear about what she had tweeted? >> to me there is -- it could be anything more clear than designating on one side of the aisle, enemies of the state. of course that's what donald trump was to the deep state on the left during his entire presidency, he was an enemy of the state. hence the witch hunt on russia, and