and we know from deputy attorney general richard donohue's contemporaneous notes released last week, trump was already pressuring acting attorney general rosen and donohue telling them -- we know trump is pressuring the georgia secretary of state telling them famously, quote, i just want to find 11,780 votes. his key ally in this, jeffrey clark, a guy no one really knows but who is effectively plotting a coup with the president. okay, so then rosen and donohue get this letter. they refuse to sign the letter. "the new york times" reports that clark meet with trump on his own and then informed mr. rosen, the acting attorney general the president intended to replace rosen with clark who could then try to stop congress from certifying the electoral college results. clark apparently convincing trump to make him the attorney general so he could sign that letter. and again, that letter that very likely would have precipitated a crisis from which the country may not have recovered. it would have put enormous pressure on the republicans in the georgia general assembly again dominated by republ

and i think the same holds true for richard donohue and a handful of other senior justice department officials who wrestled with this in realtime. and so i understand her argument here. she's a very smart lawyer, but i do think there's a lot more to the picture that needs to be understood before you can make any kind of determination about criminal activity here. >> and barbara, i'm sure that's your understanding as well, that as we start to see these pieces come into public view, it makes your argument stronger. >> yeah, of course. and i agree with devlen that i don't think they're ready to indict today, but there is enough already in the public domain to serve as what's known as medication. that is, you know, nonfrivolous facts, that there was a crime that occurred here. and so i think that would merit those additional investigative steps. and when prosecutors investigate, they can get text messages. they can get e-mails. they can put people into the grand jury and ask them what happened. i think one of the most damning things that has come out in addition to those notes you refere

pac or rosen or richard donohue are the good fis. all we know is they chose not to undertake potentially criminal activity for the sake of protecting the failed former president's ego. however the fate of our democracy smutd not solely rely on a few people we hope did do the right thing in moments like this. but it kind of does. currently there are no legislative railroad legal guard rails in place preventing a scheme like clark's from being launched in the future which is why he and the other ex-president enablers must be held to account. with now msnbc contributor eugene daniel bes, the white house skoerpt and cothorough of politico playbook and ruth marcus. a editorial editor for the washingtons. jeffreyry clark who had no business interfering in the election, a guy we never heard of -- the part i left out here is that there was an underlying promise there if jeff rossen and richard donohue did not do the president's bidding, jeffreyy clark would have been a name every american knew because he might have become the attorney genera

>> it seems between jeffrey rosen and richard donohue and b.j. pac we're getting answers.thing that they thought was either at best wrong and at worst highly illegal. what happens now? how does this unfold in your opinion? where does this go next? it feels to me this has to exist outside of the political realm and move squarely into the critical realm? >> there is stuff we know and don't know. donald trump filed a bunch of bogus lawsuits. we know donald trump as you said at the lead of the show held a prep rally on january 6th. we know trump maneuverered to throw out the election results. we know jeffrey rosen rejected this garbage. we know trump still calls the election results bogus and illegal and supported lawsuits and fundraising after his attorney general told him these lawsuits are going nowhere. he also know that about the 11,780 votes, you know, that phone call to the georgia official and we know the next day that b.j. pac resigns. we know a lot of stuff. we don't know why did pac resign? what were the contacts between trump and the justice department and most imp

. >> voluntary cooperation of people like jeffrey rosen and richard donohue is invaluable.other meeting coming up this week, another interview. we're going to keep pushing forward on this. i've been than since january. now we're getting real results. >> also happening on the hill, the senate is back in session today, hoping to push that bipartisan infrastructure bill across the finish line. this morning, one gop senator says he'll be voting no, not because of the contents of the bill, but what it means for the democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan on human infrastructure. >> pelosi has said all along she will not allow this bill to go through the house unless they get their $5.5 trillion reckless tax spending bill done at the same time. if you need help getting this done, you're helping to get the $5.5 trillion bill done. >> new reaction from congresswoman cori bush as the latest eviction moratorium faces an uphill battle in the courts. >> we have to do the work now to get this money out. we have to do the work to make sure that our states and our local governments a

talking about getting rid of bill barr when he offered the job to other people and offered it to richard donohue donohue wanted to follow the chain of command and insisted it be rosen and trump gave the acting job to rosen which shows how really close we came there. rosen is someone who sees his allegiance to the constitution not the office of the president and max mentions the chaos in georgia. i have that story in this book. by the beginning of january, lawyers were showing up in georgia saying the white house sent us, we're with the white house and that sounded very odd to the people down in georgia who had been there for several months who are actually from the white house. the first team that pat sent with the campaign, they are now mitchell and rudy giuliani 's team was coming at the end adding to the pandemonium down there. >> should the doj now be investigating the former president and what he tried to do, how he tried to co-opt his doj? we'll talk about that right after the break. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable

>> yeah, a lot of credit goes here to jeffrey rosen to richard donohue and leaders of the justice department general but here he absolutely did the right thing and it's an important reminder of the importance of the justice department as a check on the run away powers of the president and i think it's so important that we not go numb here because we've seen so much reporting on this and it's sort of started to become a drum beat. we see that the president tried to weapon nize doj to steal thi election. there is nothing normal and acceptable. it's an act of disloyalty by donald trump, rey clark. it needs to stick with them for history and there needs to be real consequences. >> jeffrey clark is the trump loyalest at the center of this and abc news has gotten a letter showing he tried to meddle in the georgia election. he was vying for the job in the hours long oval office meeting jessica describes as "apprentice" style and wants to replace him with clark and trying to overturn the election there. the on consequences of all of t could have been incredible. >> absolutely. look, this is two days

he called them -- we know from richard donohue's notes, what he told them to do was just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me, and the r republican congressman and as you just said with ambassador bolton, the chief of staff mark meadows got in on the act. he started emailing these two, giving them crazy theories about italian satellites flipping votes. donohue commented internally, pure insanity. one other interesting thing from the emails of mark meadows, he started raising this name, jeffrey clark. get jeffrey clark involved. >> we spoke with former ambassador bolton about that. he was in the civil rights division. where does he fit in this and how much pull did he have? >> so bolton was correct jeffrey clark falls below rosen and donohue in the pecking order. clark was trying to run the coupe from inside d.o.j. he was connecting with trump trying to get them to send this crazy letter to georgia which he refused to do. jeffrey clark tried to take over. we heard people talk publicly about this, meaning it happened at the white house, which people have said was like the g

committee heard quote frightening testimony from acting attorney general jeffrey rosen and his deputy richard donohue the room democrat richard blooumenthal said i was struck. >> really remarkable testimony, erica. former acting attorney general rosen who testified voluntarily told lawmakers the pressure trump put on him and his deputy after the election was real and it was very specific. while rosen testified that trump did not directly ask him to overturn the election results, he did ask him to do certain things related to states election results, which he refused to do and reportedly being asked by white house leadership to meet with people with farfetched theories why the election was not valid. both rosen and donohue placed jeffrey clark, a trump oappointd environmental law chief at the center of this extraordinary effort to help trump undermine the election results including potentially trying to oust his own bosses resisting trump. now, rosen testified about numerous interactions with clark but most of his testimony focused on multiple episodes where clark went outside the chain of command to

richard donohue took thorough notes of the entire conversation and some sentences he put in quotation. you don't have to yourselves overturn the election. all you have do is say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me" is the sentence in quotes. it was clear, startling and one of the first times we've seen that declaration in trump's own words so blatantly. >> "leave the rest to me." everybody who is outraged and disgusted were already outraged and disgusted. is anything going to happen to him, now that this has been exposed. >> i don't know, the justice department has grounds for investigation based on indicate east's reporting. saying the election was corrupt is on its face appears to violate a federal statute that makes it a crime to command a federal employee to engage in political activity. that's a three-year felony and low-hanging fruit. president trump said he knew it was false "say it was rupt." we all know this isn't true. i'm just asking you say this. this opens him to allegations of election fraud, perhaps inclined conspiracy, the charge robert mueller against th

27th, trump spoke to acting attorney general jeffrey rosen and acting deputy attorney general richard donohued in america, the president is king. that's the first thing. he has an obligation to the law of the united states. >> reporter: in a letter from the very next day obtained by abc news, an acting doj department head falsely wrote the justice department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states including the state of georgia. jeffrey clark was pushing for the justice department to step in and wanted to urge the governor of georgia to call a special session to consider this important and urgent matter. but his bosses rosen and donahue refused to sign on, denying any evidence of fraud. and just five days later on january 2nd, trump held the infamous phone call with georgia's election officials. >> so, look, all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state. >> reporter: on january 3rd, rosen met with trump for hours at the white house. rosen's chief of staff pat

because the then acting attorney general jeffrey rosen and the acting deputy attorney general richard donohue wouldn't sign off on them. but what we're learning and see if the ex-president had had one of his less scrupulous cronies installed at the department of justice this whole plot might have worked. he didn't need to overturn five states election results he only needed one state. and enough would have likely followed suit. there weren't and currently aren't any guard rails in place that would have prevented in from happening. and unless the federal government takes immediate and decisive action, the next coup attempt may not fail. weemt now is anna palmer founder and ceo of punch bowl news. msnbc contributor and best selling author of "the hill to die on, the battle for congress and future of trump's america." renae graham joining me, a associate editor for "the boston globe." thanks for being with us today. let me start with you, anna, this reporting, for those of us following closely what was happening january 6th what trump was up to and listened to the phone call with brad raffensper

then "the new york times" reported the night before pak's resignation, the deputy attorney ric richard donohuee to bring voter fraud charges. the phone call between former president trump and georgia secretary of state where trump pleaded for officials there to find him the votes. >> the people of the country are angry and there is nothing wrong with saying that, you know, uh, that you've recalculated. all i want to do is this. i just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. >> so, pak's resignation taking place two days after that phone call. today the senate judiciary committee should get more insight into any direct pressure that pak faced when he goes behind closed doors today in that virtual testimony, erica. >> oh, to be a fly on the wall in that closed door testimony. the senate judiciary chair is saying he wants to interview trump's former chief of staff mark meadows about the pressure the d.o.j. faced to overturn biden's victory. so what more do we know about that request, potential request? >> reporter: there is a big question, erica,

that's according to notes taken by then acting deputy ag richard donohue on december 2020 phone callsaid, quote, just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and our congressmen. joining us now cnn political analyst and washington correspondent for the new york city maggie haberman. doesn't leave much to the imagination. >> it's not subtle. this is very, very serious. this is the most blatant thing that we have heard so far that former president trump tried to do to influence parts of his government to undermine the election. now, we knew he was talking about fraud. we knew that he was making allegations that the election was rigged. we knew that he was making all kinds of statements, you know, or at least he was saying these things to people behind the scenes because he wasn't seeing that publicly. but this is the starkest example that we have of what he was trying to do to use the levers of his government to keep himself in power. and again, this is -- we're just hearing about this now. this is now several months after this call took place. we don't know what is