. >> mike schmidt of the "new york times," thank you for joining us and bringing us your great reporting on this story. donna, john, and frank are sticking around. when we return, the conspiracy case against a right-wing militia groups who stormed the capitol on january 6th is getting bigger. that story's next. is tting bigger that story's next. [laughs] ♪ hold my pouch. ♪ trust us, us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. don't think so? hold my pouch. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff,

from the conversation, "the new york times" washington correspondent mike schmidt who first broke the matt gaetz story and "new york times" and former u.s. attorney joyce, to help us understand all of the legal aspects of the story, thank you both for being here. first, tell us, this statement seemed reluctantly delivered, carefully crafted and is his client, to use the word, flip on matt gaetz, but a by-product to a more lenient sentence. is that the defense strategy. >> quee are in the midst of a dynamic federal investigation so predetecting what is going to play out is difficult. but i can say what is going on today, is that joe greenberg has hired this long time lawyer from florida named fritz sheller who represented the wife of the pulse nightclub shooter who was prosecuted on terrorism charges and beat the government in that case, and for whatever people think about fritz sheller, he would not have stood outside that courthouse today, and said that if i were matt gaetz i wouldn't feel comfortable. he's just not going to do that without knowing the impact of the message that that

joining our conversation, "new york times" washington correspondent mike schmidt, who first broke the matt gaetz story and "the new york times" as well as u.s. attorney joyce vance to help us understand all the legal aspects of the story. thank you both for being here. first tell us this statement seemed while reluctantly delivered, carefully crafted. is his client planning to -- i know we used the word to flip on matt gaetz. but it's usually the by-product of negotiating a more lenient sentence. that his defense strategy? >> so, look, we are in the midst of a very dynamic federal investigation. so predicting how it's going to play out is difficult. but what i think we can say coming out of today is that joel greenberg has hired this long-time lawyer from florida named fritz scheller. and fritz scheller represented the wife of the pulse nightclub shooter who was prosecuted on terrorism charges and beat the government in that case. and for whatever people think about fritz scheller, he would not have stood outside that courthouse today and said that "if i was matt gaetz, i wouldn't fee

mike schmidt, something about this second story that connects congressman gaetz to this other gentlemannor. tell us, is that the focus of the federal investigation? >> yes, that is a charge that is very, very problematic. one person in the investigation, joel greenberg, also faces that charge. he was indicted on that over the summer. gaetz is under investigation for having a relationship with the same woman. now, that charge, if convicted on it, comes with a ten-year minimum sentence in prison, so this gives a sense of the depth of legal problems that gaetz could face as his conduct is being scrutinized. >> mike, the other gentleman has already been charged with sex trafficking of this 17-year-old. congressman gaetz with the same 17-year-old, the same potential charge, is there any indication in your reporting of where that investigation stands from the time that greenberg was charged to where they may stand in terms of gaetz's exposure. >> well, we know that they have -- the government has sought to interview some of the women that they have talked to some of the women. the government

mike schmidt. for all of you on the breaking news thank you.at does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." i'll be part of tonight's coverage of the president's address to a joint session of congress tonight on your local nbc station. starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern. brian williams, rachel maddow, joil reid, nicole wallace, all the complete coverage right here before and after the speech as well. follow our show online on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. i'll be with chuck todd tonight. and he picks it up now with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. ♪♪ >>> welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd here in washington. and as you've just been digesting, we've got the breaking news that involves the president -- former president's former lawyer, and former new york city mayor and former u.s. attorney rudy giuliani. sources have confirmed to nbc news that giuliani's apartment was -- there was a search warrant and federal officials officially went inside his apartment and commandeered some things that they needed thank

. >> and katie benner finally to your reporting with mike schmidt and the new york times about the gates matter them, are we okay in assuming that exactly two people, maybe more, know exactly how much potential trouble gates is in and that's gates himself and his friend or former friend greenberg. remind us just for how long mr. greenberg has been sharing things with the feds in this case? >> absolutely. so joel greenberg has been sharing this to the feds since at least december. what's interesting about that is that given the fbi and justice department plenty of time to vet his claims. he has been talking to them. we don't know how truthful he's been, and we don't know how careful he's been. you have to look at joel greenberg's overall record to assume that there is a chance that he might not be entirely truthful and that's going to have a huge impact on whether or not he can mail on this cooperation deal to the middle of next month because if the department feels that he has been lying to them, they won't give him his deal. at the same time, they're still going to take any piece of inf

. >> and katie benner, to your reporting with mike schmidt in the "new york times" about the gaetz matter, are we okay in assuming that exactly two people, maybe more, know exactly how much potential trouble gaetz is in? and that's gaetz himself and his friend or former friend greenberg. remind us for how long mr. greenberg has been sharing things with the feds in this case? >> absolutely. so joel greenberg has been sharing things with the fed since at least december. what is interesting about that, given the fbi and justice department plenty of time vet his claims. he's been talking to them. we don't know how truthful he's been or how careful he's been twoeflt look at his overall record to assume there is a chance he might not have been totally truthful. that will be about whether he can lock down the cooperation deal by the middle of next week. if the justice department feels he's been lying, they won't give him his deal. they'll still take any piece of information he's given them and try to use it to make other cases. >> and finally, ashley parker, four years of covering donald trump m

mike schmidt is here. he joins us by phone. also joining us former fbi agent pete strzok is here and daniel goldman. a former u.s. assistant attorney. let's take the pieces apart. one by one. because there's a lot i want to ask you about. first the raid on rudy giuliani's home. >> so this raid is very noteworthy because of the flip flop sort to speak by the justice department. but this is really the financial side of the impeachment inquiry which was the political side. and we were aware of some of these financial shenanigans going on with giuliani and toensing and well beyond anything that we were focused on. and the southern district however has been focused on it and dovetails with the case against other just the interesting news is we heard about giuliani search warrants but this is the search warrant of victoria toensing is particularly noteworthy because there was a retainer agreement between her and corrupt ukrainian officials to pay toensing to effectively do what giuliani was trying to do related to ukraine which was t

schmidt, joyce advance. good morning to you both. mike, this is your story.his put mr. gaetz in? >> look, what we have here today in our story is sort of a deeper understanding of the conduct that was going on. as part of our reporting, we were able to look at some of the receipts. they're able to see some of the communications, the back and forth that was going on, how these women were being paid. they were being paid very -- you know, through apps on their phone, through cash apps, through appel pay. they were not taking great steps to hide these. as times gaetz or greenberg would go to the atm at the hotel they were in. these are details that help us flesh out what the -- what the scheme was that was going on here that has been uncovered in this federal investigation. the other thing that we report today is that at least one of gaetz and greenberg's associates in florida state politics, has been, you know, was linked to this behavior. we don't identify that associate. but it just gives you a sense of how wide and common and widespread this conduct was that

michael schmidt, an msnbc national security analyst. mike, good morning. bring us up to speed here on joel greenberg and this plea deal. his attorney there making it pretty clear that joel greenberg may be flipping on his buddy, matt gaetz, here. >> yeah. and you know, as you guys were pointing out, fritz sheller, the lawyer who made those statements is a longtime florida attorney. he represented the wife of the pulse nightclub shooter who was indicted on terrorism charges and actually went to trial against the government to fight them and won. and, you know, whatever folks, you know, on the left or the right think of, you know, a lawyer like that, he is not going to go out and say that and not know the message that he is sending. clearly, that is a message directly to the public and to the government and to matt gaetz about the direction of where this is headed. about, you know, what his client is willing to do. because, you have to remember, joel greenberg is someone that we, you know, certainly in the national media and the national -- anyone following