richard donoghue is about the most credible. i don't know him personally.is a long-time federal prosecutor. he did the right thing here. he testified he is on the phone with donald trump in a conference call and takes a note. trump says, just you, doj, say the election was corrupt and me and the republican congress will do do the resist. that is one of the most incriminating pieces of evidence that we know of. the fact that jack smith is talking to him i think significant. >> hunter biden is going to walk in a courtroom in delaware. aside from the optics and the fact that this is the first in american history, the republican chair of the house ways and means committee is saying, wait, jung, don't green stamp this. take into consideration the new testimony of two irs whistleblowers. >> it's extraordinary that they are wanting to step into another domain of government to do it. look, this hunter biden, he is being -- he faced a trump-appointed prosecutor, in front of a trump-appointed judge. i don't know what amore these people want in terms of, you know, hav

richard donoghue was a high-ranking doj official and he, let's remember what he testified when he went in front of the january 6 committee. let's take a quick listen to that. >> you also noted that mr. rosen said to mr. trump, quote, doj can't and won't snap its fingers. how did the president respond to that, sir? >> very quickly and said that's not what i'm asking you to do. just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressmen. >> just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the rest of the congressmen. he has a handwritten note. that's really important to prosecutors. >> appreciate it as always. >>> rudy giuliani is conceding in a court filing that he made defameatory comments to resolve a lawsuit against him brought by ruby freeman and her daughter. former president trump and his then personal attorney giuliani says giuliani targeted them after the 2020 election by tweeting this surveillance video. giuliani also repeated the lies when he answered questions by the january 6th committee. >> ruby freeman and freeman moss and one other gentleman passin

members of the special counsel's office have spoken with former acting attorney general richard donoghuekey witness to the congressional january 6 committee, about alleged election interference in the final days of the trump white house. former new york police commissioner bernie kerik, a top giuliani associate in 2020, who was imprisoned for four years on corruption charges, has turned over thousands of pages of documents to jack smith. laura jarrett joins me now. what should we make of these developments from the special counsel's office? one week after mr. trump received that target letter. jack smith prosecutors are interviewing people. that does not rule out that they could come down with an indictment or present it to the grand jury. >> right. for folks trying to follow the twists and turns, it can seem dizzying. we know the grand jury is actively investigating, is still hearing testimony. in recent days we have at least one witness go before that grand jury. we don't know if there are others still to come. as you mentioned, the reporting confirming the former new york police commi

the other end of that december 2020 conversation former senior justice department official richard donoghue. he recently spoke to the office of special counsel jack smith although we understand he's not been called to testify before the grand jury. that is of note as the american people brace for another potential indictment of donald trump, it could come today, could come in two days. it could come in two weeks. the secretive nature of these proceedings means your guess on the time of any indictment is as good as ours. we do know for sure that while the grand jury hearing evidence and testimony in the january 6th investigation has been meeting on tuesdays and thursdays, so far they have not met today. you don't know what that means but we share it anyway. in the meantime jack smith appears to have already navigated his way through many of what could be primary witnesses in potential criminality in the lead up and on january 6th. take richard donohue who we mentioned an essential voice related to the prosecution of the aftermath of the november 2020 election. what trump told him to do is to

. >> and, so, joe, we also learned that former justice department official richard donoghue has been interviewed by the special counsel's office. we already have a bit of an idea of what donoghue would say because he spoke before the house january 6th select committee. let's listen. >> let's take a look at another one of your notes. you also noted that mr. rosen said to mr. trump, quote, doj can't and won't snap its fingers and change the outcome of the election. how did the president respond to that, sir? >> he responded very quickly and said essentially that's not what i'm asking you to do, what i'm just asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressmen. >> jill, we heard him connect the dots directly to the former president. he talked to the special counsel, but he hasn't gone before the grand jury, we're told. should he? >> it doesn't have to be. he testified under oath already. and that's enough to have what is necessary for him to testify at a trial. and, you know, you take a risk when you have someone who has already testified

jack smith has been talking to richard donoghue. when i heard that news, my spidey sense started to tingle more than usual. he's already spoken with the jan 6th committee. what does that tell you about the depth and breadth of jack smith's investigation? >> he's at the center as a witness, not a defendant himself of donald trump's efforts to use the justice department as a weapon in this case. you may recall there was that letter jeffrey clark drafted and proposed they send under the name of the acting attorney general rosen, that georgia and the other state were in play, suggesting they resubmit and get new state of electors. rosen also testified he attended a 90-minute interview with donald trump where they went through one by one all the crazy schemes -- suitcases full of ballots and dead people voting, and debunked all of those things. and that meeting was in december of 2020. and then we find trump in january of 2023, still pushing the stolen election agenda. and so that says to me that jack smith is looking for evidence donald

so, tim, i mean, you are there, of course, we all watch very closely when richard donoghue testified before the grand january six committee. it was so powerful. reporting suggests his whole jack smith's team the same thing, that he told the committee publicly. what do you make of the reporting that he's not yet been asked to testify in front of the granary? >> yeah, it makes no difference whether he's been before the grand jury or not because he's been so consistent. he testified even before the select committee got his testimony, before the senate judiciary committee told them the very same thing that he told us in an eight hour transcribed interview, that he's now indicated the same thing he told the special counsel. whether that is before the grand jury or not is of no -- because he is on record as having been one of those handful of people, jen, that told the truth. there were a handful of really courageous republicans, trump supporters, trump -- that stood up in realtime and said to the president, no, there is no basis for what you are saying publicly. we've looked at these theo

to meet with the trump administration's acting deputy attorney general richard donoghue, to repeat the allegations that he'd maderp brussels that no one had followed up on. luft showed the new york post the emails between hishis at attorney and the senior official confirming their correspondence butesponden nothing came of this meeting either. must havng came just fallen off the outlook calendar. >> joining me now is matt whitaker. joining me nr u.s. attorney and former acting attorney general under president trumrmer actp. matt, thanks for being here. why would a us attorney set up a meeting and then never follow up? yeah, it's extraordinary. and it looks like the southern district o if new york was kindn of running their own intelligence operation to find ouni thet what dr. luft knew.knw and then, you know, it's surprising to have the paid ag from main justicsing toe, then t and find and find out the same information. you know, there are a lot ofis a unverified facts lot here, petet that we're going to have to get to the bottom of and we're going to have to verifthat we y >> but reme

. >> that is richard donoghue testifying before the house january 6th committee.called to testify before the grand jury investigating the 2020 election and january 6th. that comes as the grand jury could soon vote on a second federal indictment for donald trump and his third overall. more on that in just a moment. >>> meanwhile, trump's top challenger so far in the 2024 race not gaining in the polls despite a substantial spending spree. we'll dig into new reporting on the desantis campaign. >>> we also have with us this morning senator tammy duckworth of illinois, the combat veteran calling on mitch mcconnell to do something about a months long blockade of military promotions by senator tommy tuberville. >>> the grand jury convened by special counsel jack smith will meet today in washington to continue its work on the probe into donald trump's efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election. the jury could vote today on whether to indict the former president. the panel also meets on thursday. the vote could come then as well. >>> meanwhile, a janua

we've reported richard donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general at the time when all this januaryeparate morning meetings several months ago and had discussions with them about what went on. so it's not that everybody here who could be a player in this case is appearing before the grand jury.'s a lot going on behind the scenes. one thing that's clear based on people we've spoken to, it does appear that they've developed a significant amount of new information in detail about the events leading up to january 6th than what is contained in the congressional report. in some ways, that's not surprising. they've had more time. they have law enforcement tools that congress doesn't have. on the other hand, i think it's important for us to know by the time we hear about things and we start to report things, they're typically moments in the past. i think things are much more advanced than perhaps we know. i think that's a reason why, to your point, there's definitely a feeling that something is in the wind. as garrett haake and john reported last night, there's definitely a feeling in the t