"new york times" justice reporter and msnbc contributor, katie benner is here. also joining us, mary mccord, former top official in the justice department's national security division. pete strzok is back. he's the former fbi counterintelligence agent. and joist advance is here, former u.s. attorney, now law professor at the university of alabama, as well as an msnbc legal analyst, katie benner, much of what we know, we know from your reporting, take us through how this came to pass today. >> keep in mind, when merrick garland became attorney general last year, he was very loathe to appoint a special counsel. there was outside pressure to do so, of course, including from some of the panelists we see here today, but he really believed and i think does still believe that the justice department can investigate a former president. and that that is something that's well within its abilities, if they follow the rule of law. however, part of the calculation was that donald trump stopped being a former president and he became a presidential candidate who would be going

we have katie benner here. barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney and also an msnbc contributor and peterzok is back. the attorney general is bound by practices in terms of not being allowed to say much. there's the fact of this press conference today on the heels of this conviction today, what was behind the decision to come out and speak to reporters albeit briefly today? >> like you said, he can't talk about cases that are ongoing. the sedition case was completed. yes, the jury did say this was not just political speech, this was meant to interfere in the election, that, in fact, the actions did interfere in the election. one of the things that's so interesting is that they did not convict him on the charge of actually conspiring to impede congress and i think that some of our other panelists might be able to get into this a bit, too. and that does raise larger questions about whether or not the justice department will be able to prove a plot about specifically trying to coop -- conspire to stop this. he was convicted of actually interfe

katie benner, justice department reporter for the new york times. how about a round of applause for our table guests? [applause] all right, with that, it has been a long two years for the u.s. entertainment industry. with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of film and tv productions shut down. according to the 2020 report released by the motion pictures association, the u.s. market for the actual and home entertainment came to $32 billion and an 11% drop from 2019. whatever painted the studios was nothing compared to the shock felt by ordinary actors. some found remote work or were able to complete postproduction voice work from home, many found themselves unemployed for a long stretch of time. the industry appeared to bounce back in 2021, but each new wave of the coronavirus brought shutdowns for individual productions, whenever actors or crewmembers on a production tested positive. in the face of the challenges, the screen actors guild, known as sag-aftra, joined with unions representing directors and tv crewmembers to hammer out an agre

josh allen, senior national politics reporter for msnbc, katie benner, pulitzer applies -winning justice department for the new york times. and former federal prosecutor, glenn kirschner. john, all the candidates, all the surrogates, all the big guns are out this weekend. what are you watching for. >> well, i'm certainly watching for where the democrats are worried right now. you're seeing a lot of those big guns go to new york for kathy hochul, who's gonna be on the show later. democrats are worried about the governorship of new york. that gives you a sense of where the rest of the race is. joe biden, of course, throwing a lot of blue states at the end of the swing to new mexico, california, illinois, barack obama, the former president of the united states, taking on some of the heavier lifting with swing states a little bit in his last run. but obviously, democrats are very much on defense right now and of course we're all watching for former president donald trump does as he appears to be very close to making his announcement. >> but it is? he does donald trump actually want to be pre