the acting attorney general and then it became so much that during a key meeting in september, pat cipolloneawyers told the president they would resign with a number of other justice department officials and essentially if he had put jeffrey clark in this group would be a suicide pact. strong words and it gives you a sense of what was happening. republicans said after this rap that in the end he listened to his advisers, yes, he listened to them but the extraordinary pressure they were under is because of the them standing up to him. and this report was done by the senate january committee and there's still a problem with the select committee in the house. what is the stat tus today for anyone. we're in a holding pattern. the time looinch here is impo important. the committee wanted a week to assess the documents that were supplied to them and then start these depositions. the idea, of course, is that you want to ask informed questions before you start bringing in these key players because they know they might not get very many opportunities to actually interview them so the fact that we don

that's why people like bill bar and pat cipollone who i expect will testify in congress to talk abouthey suggested, but they'll not have good lawyers to be able to pull off -- i trust in the american people i think probably more than bill marr does. >> real quick, you think pat cipollone and bill barr will be talking to the january 6th committee? >> they'll be subpoenaed to talk. >> you think they will. >> and they'll tell the truth and it will not be flattering for donald trump. >> okay. i want to ask you, paul, i'm going to bring you in on this conversation. there's question about whether democrats should be doing more to sound the alarm. i want to ask you about this new quinnipiac poll showing biden with his lowest job approval rating so far including a 12-point drop among independents since the end of august. what do you attribute that to? >> to the fact we're in the middle of the sausage making and it's ugly and vicious. how mcconnell is gumming things up, he gums things up and joe gets blamed, the president gets blamed. and that's just politics. the democrats had by god better p

then white house counsel pat cipollone threatened to quit if the president replaced rosen with clark calling a letter trump and clark wanted to send to georgia officials a, quote, murder-suicide pact. and then chief of staff mark meadows made, quote, multiple, unquote requests for acting a.g. rosen to launch election fraud probes. again, he was pressuring him to do it not offering him information or sources that would lead to his own decisions. you see the difference? here is a picture put in the report of a new year's eve meeting where trump was threatening justice department leaders to overthrow democracy for him. just three days later, three days before the january 6th insurrection there was another meeting and according to the acting ag trump opened by saying, quote, one thing we know is, you, rosen, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election. unquote. and yet the defense in the rebuttal, trump did not use the justice department to overturn the election. meaning it's okay because he didn't succeed. and these people see nothing wrong with the clear proof that he tried to

talk about the interactions that involved pat cipollone and others. >> move of the report documents what it lays out. jeffrey rosen, his acting attorney general and the white house counseling, to which there was a suggestion that jeffrey rosen wouldn't -- wouldn't be smart. if you try to do that, we're going to resign. all the assistant -- all the assistant attorneys general will resign. many federal prosecutors around the country will resign and according to the senate report pat cipollone said i will resign and so will my deputy. the president finally backed down. >> thanks to all of you. appreciate it. >>> staying on the hill because at any moment we could learn a little bit more about when this senate vote might happen that would prevent the u.s. economy from dipping into a major recession. we've learned new details about the deal on the debt limit struck by senate leaders chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell. here's what we know, the nationo borrowing limit will be raised to $4800 billion. what's the latest here? do we know if we are getting a vote today, we have senators rand paul and

there along with white house counsel pat cipollone in his.rding to rosen, trump opened the meeting, and i'm gonna read this quote to you, and i want to sink, in by saying, one thing we know is you, rosen,, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election. over the course of the next few hours, the court had a wide-ranging conversation focusing on whether trump should replace doj leadership, install clark's -- there was a letter of course you want to send to georgia officials, as well as maybe other states. falsely claiming there's doj was aware of election fraud there, and basically inviting those states to reject the electors of joe biden and son thrown for trump. this came in just one day after clark revealed to the acting attorney general and his deputy, that he had spoken to a witness who testified in a georgia senate hearing, and claimed he had seen trucks moving ballots to a location where they would be shredded. now keep in mind, this is like a total utter matter not notary. from the darkest depths that the internet. this is like,

meeting at the end of december where a number of officials were threatening to resign, including pat cipollone, who was the top lawyer inside the white house counsel, who told the president that this idea of putting clark in to try to carry out his wishes was a murder/suicide pact, essentially telling the president, don't do this because everybody's going to resign, and this is all going to collapse around you. victor? >> it's just jaw-dropping, what we learned from this report. evan perez, thank you so much. let's talk about these subpoenas now. it is deadline day for the four trump loyalists. last month, the committee issued the subpoenas for mark meadows, dan scavino, steve bannon and kash patel. they're supposed to comply by the end of the day and provide documents and records. it seems they are not cooperating so far. cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles joins us live from capitol hill. so, the four are also supposed to appear before this committee for closed door depositions next week. where does all of this stand? >> reporter: well, all of it is very much in doubt, victor. as you

i won't speak to everything pat cipollone has done in the white house. i'm not aware of it. but on that day, when the president was teetering on the precipice and whether or not he was going to remove the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen, replace him with jeffrey clark, it was scipollone who spoke up and said he thought the scenario and what they were trying to achieve was a murder/suicide pact and the president should not do it. the president was stalled for at least a moment by that resistance in the white house. and he decided to fire the u.s. attorney in georgia, b.j. pack, who had refused to cooperate as well. so it was a volatile time, and if it had gone the other way, it would have been disastrous for our country. >> you mentioned some of the sanctions that are already been levied on rudy giuliani, his ability to practice law in some places, the discussion around sydney powell, your committee is asking i think the d.c. bar to look into jeffrey clark for what he did, yes? >> yes. and we did that very carefully, taking a look at his role. but clark, who emerged in

white house council pat cipollone warned that he and other white house officials would all resign if trump fired rosen, calling it a murder/suicide pact. the former president abandoned the idea. >> this moment was spine-tinglingly, chillingly close to shredding the constitution. >> reporter: republican chuck grassley, who is expected to rally with mr. trump in iowa this weekend, defended the former president. >> he decided not to do it and it was the right decision. >> reporter: mr. trump was not relenting, declaring the real insurrection happened on november 3 raird, the president election, and not on january 6th, and former mike pence is downplaying the violence, even those some rioters wanted to hang him. >> the house committee investigating january 6th has issued new subpoenas, these to organizers of a stop the steal rally that took place here on k capitol grounds on january 6th. we've also learned that facebook whistle-blower frances haugen will meet with that committee. kris van cleave, nbc news, washington. >>> this morning, eight former nba players are facing charges in a $4

white house counsel pat cipollone said he would resign, too. and with that, trump reluctantly backed down. there is certainly more to come on this story as democrats vow to investigation. as senator durbin said today, we were so close to a constitutional crisis at that moment that it bears continued investigation and disclose sure. david? >> all right, jonathan karl tonight, thank you. >>> overseas tonight and a powerful magnitude 5.9 earthquake rocking tokyo. the shaking captured on a camera right over the city skyline. drivers slowing down. more than a dozen injuries reported so far. >>> when we come back tonight, the new headline at this hour in the manhunt for brian laundrie. n >>> when we come back tonight, the new headline at this hour in the manhunt for brian laundrie. ? (naj) because as a fiduciary, it's our responsibility to always put clients first. (other money manager) so you do it because you have to? (naj) no, we do it because it's the right thing to do. we help clients enjoy a comfortable retirement. (other money manager) sounds

white house counsel pat cipollone warned he and other top officials would all resign if mr. trump fired rosen calling it a murder-suits pact. the former president abandoned the idea. >> this moment was spine tinglingly close to shredding the constitution. >> reporter: republican chuck grassley, who is expected to really with mr. trump in iowa this weekend, defended the former president. >> he decided not to do it, and it was the right decision. >> reporter: mr. trump is not relenting, declaring the real insurrection happened on november 3, the presidential election, not on january 6. and his former vice president, mike pence, is downplaying the violence that day, even though some rioters vowld to hang him. >> the media wants to distract from the biden administration's failed agenda by focusing on one day in january. >> reporter: the former president is now demandingahis top aides refuse to cooperate with the investigation into the attack. subpoenaed documents are due by a theht. tools availaboni ates congress, up t including refer f criminalight, the committee subpoenas, the

white house counsel pat cipollone warned he and other top officials would all resign if mr. trump fired rosen, calling it a murder-suicide pact. the former president abandoned the idea. >> this moment was spine-tinglingly, chillingly close to shredding the constitution. >> reporter: republican chuck grassley, who is expected to rally with mr. trump in iowa this weekend, defended the former pren>> he a right decision. >> reporter: mr. trump is not relenting, declaring "the real insurrection happened on november 3rd, the presidential election, not on january 6th." and his former vice president mike pence is downplaying the violence that day even though some rioters vowed to hang him. >> the media wants to distract from the biden administration's failed agenda by focusing on one day in january. >> reporter: the former president is now demanding his top aides refuse to cooperate with the investigation into the attack. subpoenaed documents are due by midnight. >> we're going to use all the tools available to the united states congress, up to and including a referral for criminal

he only backed down after rosen, his deputy, even white house counsel pat cipollone, threatened mass resignations. cipollone is said to have argued that trump's proposed ban would be a murder suicide pact. senate judiciary chairman dick durbin says the reports finding the grave risk during those final weeks, of the last administration. >> we were so close to the constitutional crisis. do you think that we would allow donald trump to question the outcome, of a presidential election, and to defy all of the legal analysis, we've said there is no massive voted fraud. he looked flat out lost the election. that was a serious moment in history of the united states. shame on us if we just pass it by. >> republicans on the committee led by senator chuck grassley, are out with their own analysis, of the presidents, actions following his election laws, in addition to citing trump's concern about, what he perceived as an attack on the electoral system, this report also finds his actions were consistent, with his responsibilities as president, to faithfully execute the law. grassley by the, way t

january 3rd in the oval office in which one of the witnesses described then-white house council pat cipollone suicide attack. >> that's the one encouraging act from the whole thing. cipollone and the entire run of doj folks, remember, jeffrey clark, the rascal here, he's not first in the department, he's not second, he's not third, he's not fourth. he's an acting fifth and everyone above him would have resigned. that's an indication, victor, of just how outrageous the request was and it would have made the saturday night massacre and the resignations in watergate look like a small matter. so that is what caused the president to back down, what grassley is saying, take the advice of his counselors, it would have been a scandal that he could not have ridden out. and, fortunately, these folks from the department were ready to put him to that kind of test where he would act so lawlessly. >> yeah, it's interesting that this gop report which i'm fascinated by after what we learned from the committee. they say that trump did not use the justice department to overturn the election, but he tried to ma

only backed down after rosen, deputy and white house counsel pat cipollone threatened mass resignations. cipollone is said to have argued the proposed ban would be a quote murder/suicide pact. dick durbin says the report findings show the grave rick in the final weeks of the last administration. >> we were so close to a constitutional crisis. to think to allow donald trump to question the outcome of a presidential election and to defy all of the legal analysis saying there's no massive voter fraud. that was a serious moment in the history of the united states. shame on us if we just pass it by. >> republicans on the committee led by senator chuck grassley are out with their own analysis of the president's actions following his election loss. in addition to citing the quote concern of an attack on the electoral system the actions were consistent with the responsibilities as president to faithfully execute the law. grassley by the way the dean of the senate republicans is speaking at trump's rally in iowa this weekend. another item, there is promising news on the covid front at long last.

legal strategy, a constitutional strategy that was not embraced by those in the white house like pat cipollone, trump's legal counsel. they worked day and night to make the case against pence to take actions against him that basically suggested that pence had in his powers to block and prevent the certification of the election. eastman said this in a variety of ways publicly and privately, we reported. but this was the strategy that the advisers in the willard command center coalesced around in the days leading up to january 6th. >> the review on october 22nd reported this about john eastman, a name that most people don't know. eastman now tells the "national review" in an interview that the strategies was having pence reject electoral votes was not viable. eastman was the author of the now infamous legal memo "making the case," that pence had that very power. so there were competing legal arguments between the trump white house and the trump campaign about what was actually legal. somehow, and it could've changed the outcome of january 6th, somehow mike pence decided that one of them was more

they also recalled white house counsel pat cipollone and deputy council patrick fillben pushing back against the proposal calling clark's letter a murder-suicide pact. and the two white house lawyers indicating that they would also resign. despite being informed early on that the clark course of action would prompt mass resignations. and even though every participant in the meeting except clark advocated strongly against that course of action, trump continued for some time to entertain the idea of installing clark in rosen's plays. and so donald trump who tlaut his life has been a cowardly man, got scared. he was afraid of many or most of the 90 u.s. attorneys and hundreds of assistant u.s. attorneys and dozens of justice department lawyers as well as white house lawyers and possibly people all over his strlgz quitting because donald trump fired the acting attorney general and installed a new acting attorney general to corrupt the election process. donald trump was no doubt afraid that that action could lead to him being impeached and removed from office at a very high-speed. donald

we also learned from this report that multiple officials including pat cipollone and other lawyers at the white house threatened to resign because of what the president was trying to get the justice department to do. we know that the president was working, jeffrey clark, at the time, a low level official, nobody ever heard of, and he was essentially pushing for the justice department to tell the states that the justice department had found perhaps some irregularities in the states, which they had not. and so right now what we know is that the report is out, the republicans say that the president never actually told these people to do anything wrong. here is senator durbin talking about what they found in this report. >> our report shows in detail how relentless this president was, were it not for jeffrey rosen, richard donoghue and eight members of the department of justice who said we'll resign if you take rosen out of the picture and put clark in, jeffrey clark in, if those efforts weren't made, we could have seen a collapse of that department of justice into a political entity. >>

. >> his own counsel, pat cipollone, basically said it was a murder-suicide pact that he was considering and that there were going to be resignations all across the country if he did anything this radical. >> and the gop, well, they say hey, it didn't work so, you know, it's all good. didn't work. republican senator chuck grassley's office issuing a gop rebuttal, calling the former president's outrageous actions not unreasonable. >> the president rejected it. the president did the right thing. how does that create any sort of problem? >> oh, shocking update for you right now. not coincidentally, not at all. senator grassley is set to join the former president at a rally in iowa this saturday. yeah. like i said, not in the past, still going on right now. an attorney for the former president instructing some of his former aides not to comply with subpoenas from the january 6th committee. they have until midnight. that is according to the "washington post." the committee still looking for trump's former communicationssc serve him with a subpoena. they want to find out what he knows about vi

pat cipollone, the white house counsel, mark short, former vice president pence's chief of staff, several of the highest of highest officials in the white house on that day, that is what these documents relate to, and now the white house is saying they are not going to exert executive privilege over those documents. >> over to you on the subpoenas, and the letter from the committee, their response. walk us through what we're learning through that letter, and what the chair and vice chair are saying. >> yesterday was the deadline for a handful of these trump loyalists to hand over documents, folks including mark meadows, dan scavino, steve bannon, and it became very clear that steve bannon was not planning to comply either with a request for documents or testimony, here's a portion of the lawyer that his attorney sent yesterday. it says the kexecutive privilegs belong with president trump, we must honor his executive privilege. steve bannon, though he wasn't working at the white house in the january 6th insurrection is still trying to hide behind the privilege claim. they may not hold up w

white house counsel pat cipollone called the deal a“ murder-suicide pact.” to the committee's report, ranking member senator chuck grassley stressed trump's restraint. >> the president rejected it the president did the right thing. >> nawaz: grassley and committee republicans drafted their own report, writing: “in all known instances where president trump had the opportunity to direct d.o.j. to take steps to try and overturn the election, he chose not to do so.” but committee chair, senator dick durbin, said the report revealed a nation on the verge of a constitutional crisis. >> this president, former president donald trump, would have shredded the constitution to keep his office and the presidency. >> committee will be in order. >> nawaz: meanwhile another group, the house select committee led by representative bennie thompson, continues to probe trump's role on january 6th. today marked the deadline for four trump administration officials to submit documents subpoenaed by the committee: senior white house aid dan scavino; chief of staff mark meadows; form

lawyer who supported the election fraud lies, white house counsel pat cipollone, threatened to quit. >> it was cipollone who spoke up and said he thought this scenario and what they were trying to achieve was a murder-suicide pact, and the president should not do it. >> reporter: the committee's report is the most comprehensive account so far of trump's wide ranging plot. new revelations include accounts from inside the oval office on january 3rd when trump blamed former us attorney vijay pack to find mass election fraud in georgia and wanted him fired. that prompted acting deputy attorney general richard donohue to call park that night to tell him to preemptively resign, which he did. republicans have already issued a rebuttal to the report dismissing the idea that trump was attempting a coup, noting that ultimately no action was taken by the d.o.j. >> in fact, if he had made another decision, you would have had a problem. >> reporter: but the senate report just adds to the mountain of revelations showcasing how trump and his loyalists tried to keep the former president in power. an

with loyalists, including pat cipollone who called that plan a murder suicide pact.it just confirms what many of us have known, which was the extraordinary lengths to which donald trump was willing to go to to tank our entire democratic process, that we were on just the edge of the cliff, falling over that cliff of ending the very fabric of what makes our country great. and it needs to be really a wake-up call. like, we've got to stop giving republicans a pass here. this is the most threatening thing to happen to our democracy since the founding of our country, and the fact that to this day, republicans are in denial. republicans are pretending it didn't happen, republicans are making up an alternative version of history to give donald trump a pass. the fact that donald trump is still the leader of the republican party, it makes it cemented that the republican party is an antidemocratic force in america, that is what their entire platform is, their entire portfolio for the coming elections is that the election was rigd and stolen advancing the big lie that led to jan

the problem is then white house attorneys came in, pat cipollone came in and said no, no, no. this is a bad, bad plan and referred to it as a murder-suicide pact, the notion being that what might happen here is if you do this, all of a sudden white house attorneys, department of justice top officials, that they all walk. they very publicly step out and say no, we don't support this. no, this is wrong. this is in fact some version of a coup. that was the concern, but that's who jeffrey clark, is and that's why the committee wants to talk to him because they think he was trump's back door to try to overturn the department of justice and steal the election. >> tom foreman, thank you. >> you're welcome. >>> now you're up to speed with where this investigation stands. let's break down where it's headed with cnn legal an light elie honig and cnn chief political analyst gloria borger. elie first, defying subpoenas, steve bannon wasn't working in the white house or anywhere close to the 2020 election. trump is no longer president so it seems this executive privilege argument is moot.

the justice department warned they would resign en masse if he acted, as did white house counsel pat cipollone who called trump's plan a murder/suicide pact. a parade of former trump officials are recounting tum's obsession with overturning the election in an attempted coup. >> he was heightened, and he was so about, this was stolen from us, this was stolen from us. >> we all watched it happening. because it didn't seem to be behind the scenes clandestine in any way, it became normalized. >> but many republicans are still defending him. >> the president did the right thing. if he had made another decision, you would have had a problem. >> around the country trump allies are pushing laws that would allow republican legislators to more easily overturn the vote if it does not go their way. >> i'm alarmed, most people are alarmed that we're still facing issues of election disinformation. >> this is about going after the integrity of not only the election system in idaho, but people going after the integrity of the election system as a whole. >> this is without a doubt the biggest threat to our dem

the reporting is that the president's attorney at the white house pat cipollone turned to him and said will be mass resignations. the president didn't say oh, okay, now i get it. i'm not going to do it. president stopped only because they convinced him of the cliff they were on. chuck grassley is going to an iowa and the republican governor will be at rally and the chairman of the republican party will be at rally and one of the republican congress members will be at that real. republicans are saying we are the party of trump which means we are the party of lying, trying to steal the election and telling congress go to hell. >> and "the des moines register" came out with a poll that has trump at 53% in iowa, and that's just generally speaking, never mind among republicans and chuck grassley, even though he's one of the oldest senators, wants to be senator again for another term. that is, let's just be clear, a large part of what that is all about, why the chuck grassley that we have covered for years, decades, is not that guy, and it's because of the realities of the republican party a

loyalist jeffrey clark, a doj lawyer who supported the election fraud lies, white house counsel pat cipolloned to quit. >> it was cipollone who spoke up who said this scenario was a murder/suicide pact and the president should not do it. >> reporter: the most comprehensive account so far of the president's wide-ranging plot. new accounts from inside the office on january 3 when trump blamed b.j.pak for failing to find massive election fraud in georgia and wanted him fired that prompted acting deputy attorney general richard donoghue that night to call pak that night to tell him to preemptively resign, which he did. republicans have already issued a rebut toll the report, dismissing the idea that trump was attempting a coup, noting that ultimately no action was taken by the doj. >> in fact, if he had made another decision, you would have had a problem. >> reporter: but the senate report just adds to the mountain of revelations showcasing how trump and his loyalists tried to keep the former president in power, and the plot didn't just target the doj. this memo obtained by cnn in mid-september s

en masse if he followed through they received immediate support from another key participant, pat cipollonethe white house counsel trump's proposed plans, cipollone argued would be a murder-suicide pact pretty dramatic language woodward's going to have to up the ante on the next book even more than i thought. although murder-suicide pact probably sounded good to trump when he first heard it "so i murder you, and then, you commit suicide i think i -- i think i saw something like that once on svu svu! [ laughter ] we love svu. don't we folks a great -- a great american program. we love mr. ice lemonade and richard seltzer. a real original. detective john munch richard seltzer started as a comedian people don't know that but i remember, i saw him in 1983 in catch a rising star nice guy, good guy, hated my guts." the gop has fallen back in line behind a guy who did everything he could to overthrow democracy and absolutely will try again if given the chance a chance he apparently very much wants. the details in the senate report are damning. and there are almost certainly more to come there is e

senior doj official would resign if he went through with his plan, as well as white house counsel pat cipollone, who said trump's plan amounted to a murder/suicide pact. reluctantly, trump backed down. i spoke to three people present for that extraordinary meeting in the oval office. i am told that once trump realized that he would face mass resignations at the justice department and simply could not fire rosen that he turned over to the dejected and rejected stewart clark and he asked rosen what are you going to do to him now? and rosen said, there are no hard feelings, you are the only one who can fire him. so, george, after jeffrey clark tried and failed to engineer a coup at the justice department, he kept his job. >> jon, extraordinary reporting there. sowing pretty clearly the president is doing everything he thought he could to overturn the election going into january 6th. now he's doing everything he can to fight the investigation as well, trying to invoke executive privilege. steve bannon, one of those associates who says he's not going to comply with congressional subpoena, but it is