just to remind you, here is a small sampling of sidney powell's statements about the 2020 election. >re and uncovering more, by the day, is the massive influence of communists' money through venezuela, cuba, and likely china. i think the justice department has known about this issue for a long time and turned a blind eye to it. >> the software that goes in other computerized-voting systems here, as well, not just dominion, were created in venezuela, at the direction of hugo chavez. >> as far as i know, this is the first case of abject fraud and obtaining a coup of the united states of america. >> i wonder how much the cia, actually, had a role in -- in starting this kind of program, to begin with. >> president trump won by a landslide. we are going to prove it. >> it should be that he can simply be reinstated. that a new-inauguration date is set, and biden is told to move out of the white house. and -- and -- and -- and president trump should be moved back in. >> i was trying to read the patches on her motorcycle vest. >>> joining us now, michigan's attorney general, dana nessel. atto

and, you know, i did ask him about sidney powell.ember, sidney powell has said her claims about election fraud were so outlandish that no thinking person could have actually believed her. and i -- i detail this scene in the interview in the book. and -- and he kind of went through all of the emotions there. # denied that she said it. suggested that it might be some sort of legal-boilerplate. and then, ended this long rant with me by saying to make -- making clear that she never actually represented him. so it was interesting moment in the interview, for sure. >> didn't mind her putting all those lies out there and spreading all this fog. but at the end of the day, he didn't want you to come away with the impression that she represented him. >> not after she is distancing herself from those claims absolutely. >> michael bender, great book. it's "frankly, we did win this election, the inside story of how trump lost." mike bender, great job as always and excellent hair. i -- i don't agree with trump very often but the hair -- the hair l

to tell him what he wanted to hear. >> you report those folks, including sidney powell and rudyrcle, you can see the graphic on screen, talk about your reporting now. how many people are still in his circle as he in all likelihood prepares to at least talk about running again maybe? >> yes, yes, yes. i think meadows is still an important player in there. giuliani has been, going to be on the outside looking in, as long as he faces legal trouble, trump is not going to want to associate himself with that. interesting exchange that's in the book in one of a couple of interviews i had with trump post election was after comes to sidney powell, after she raised eyebrows with some court filings saying that her claims about election fraud were not serious, that no kind of thinking person would have taken her claims seriously and when i asked trump about that, he kind of cycled through all of the emotions, and said he couldn't believe it and it must have been kind of boiler plate language from her lawyers and maybe it didn't come from her, so at the end, tells me that she never really re

so it is sidney powell, lin wood, nine pro-trump conspiracy lawyers in all in a hearing today.he federal judge in michigan is deciding whether all the lawyers should be sanctioned or punished by the court for the laugh out loud lawsuit they brought last november demanding that michigan should be forced to give its electoral votes to donald trump even though biden won the election there. this is the same federal judge who already dismissed that lawsuit several months ago in a ruling so hot it could peel the wallpaper off in any room you put it in. but after that judge tossed the lawsuit, the state of michigan went back to the judge and basically said having a lawsuit dismissed wasn't enough in this case. the behavior of the lawyers in this case was so egregious it requires something else. michigan filed a motion asking the court to sanction the pro trump lawyers who brought that case. they argued, quote, plaintiffs' claims of fraud in michigan's election were unsupported by any credible evidence and their legal claims were without merit. plaintiffs' counsel knew or should have k

sidney powell and lynn wood appeared via zoom. the two filed a lawsuit in november that was littered with lies, some of which were repeated by donald trump himself. the two now trying to distance themselves from the claims, wood saying my name was placed on there, but i had no involvement, i did not review the documents. the judge asked the attorneys how long they reviewed the sworn declarations that they told the court constituted efforts of fraud and irregular laters, this according to "the washington post." the judge stated she believed she saw election workers switching trump to biden, the judge asked if she saw anyone do this and what led her to believe votes were switched. she was greeted with silence. anyone again? i don't think i've ever seen an affidavit that made so many leaps. she also focused on a statement from a witness who swore he saw individuals placing clear plastic bags into a mail truck and believed they were ballots headed to detroit's facility. the judge called that fantastical. last week rudy giuliani had hi

as you mentioned, sidney powell was unapologetic about it.estion the election. there's not really -- there's not really much of an answer to somebody who is fabricating stuff that is not grounded in reality. >> no, it is amazing how quickly their case crumbles when confronted by a real serious-minded judge, how quickly the legal team crumbles in front of them. >>> number two, there's a new book, agency you know, john, shedding light on the origin of the big lie, and it is incredible where it comes from. so the book is called "i alone can fix it, donald j. trump's catastrophic final year." it is by "washington post" reporters. basically what they say is that on election night as the results were coming in -- >> yeah. >> -- rudy giuliani, who was described by witnesses as drunk, said what? >> creative reading here. >> okay. >> dramatic, i should say. after a while rudy giuliani started to cause a commotion. he was telling other guests that he had come up with a strategy for trump and was trying to get into the president's private quarters to te

well, today, sidney powell, lynn wood, and other lawyers who sued to get election results thrown out federal judge. by most accounts, it did not go well for them. judge linda parker asking the attorneys if some of their assertions quote should have been obviously questionable. just to remind you of some those of those assertions, here is a small sampling of sidney powell's statements about the 2020 election. >> what we are really dealing with here, and uncovering more, by the day, is the massive influence of communist money through venezuela, cuba, and likely china. >> i think the justice department has known about this issue for a long time. and turned a blind eye to it. >> the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here, as well. not just dominion. were created in venezuela, at the direction of hugo chavez. >> as far as i know, this is the first case of abject fraud and obtaining a coup of the united states of america. >> i wonder how much the cia, actually, had a role in -- in starting this kind of program, to begin with. >> president trump won by a landslide. we

lawmaers including sidney powel lin wood, sued claiming fraud.rict court judge who grilled them on whether they had even tried to verify those statements, saying this: there's a duty that counsel has that when you're smith a sworn statement, that you have reviewed it, that you have done some minimal due diligence. how do you think today's hearing went? >> it was six hours. so it certainly was -- it was a very educational experience, i think, for a lot of folks who watched it. it shows that there is a lot of due diligence happening with regards to this question before the court, should there be consequences for when attorneys who have used their privilege and access to the court to try to undermine democracy with no facts, frivolous claims, with one goal, of sowing seeds of doubt among the public about the integrity of our elections. and i think one of the things that i hope comes out of this and other efforts to seek sanctions against the attorneys who led these frivolous lawsuits, are real consequences and accountability. if we don't have that,

by giving him space was created an opening for people like rudy giuliani and sidney powell and some ofg inteling trump what he wanted to hear. >> yeah, he blew off steam and people died and people were beat up and people got badly hurt and it could have been worse. we know how close elected officials were to what could have been a much, much worse. >> john meacham, i want to ask you the moment to moment sloppiness. it has a line you can't give out instruction to make homemade illegal bombs and call it speech. like wise if i had to in theory, i can write long-term play book given the constitutional legal rule of federalism of how you would better press to overthrow an election. >> i am not going to do that. but, what about that? how lucky? are we lucky that donald trump and himself didn't have that ability and apparently didn't have people around him to do that. if he started earlier in some ways that i am not going to get into, it could have been worse. >> absolutely it could have been worse. it is not an excuse to those in the administration to child proof the oval office for his emot

linda parker, who called the claims fantastical and speculative, is considering whether to ban sidney powell wood, and other trump allies from practicing law in michigan or whether to disbar them altogether. this comes as "the washington post" reports that the republican national committee's top lawyer warned last november against continuing to push false claims that the presidential election was stolen, calling them a joke that could mislead millions of people. and in illinois, some 2500 chicago-area public employees have won a tentative contract after 10 months of negotiations and an 18 day strike. if approved by members of seiu local 73, it would offer better pay equity, hazard pay during the pandemic, and other benefits to other front line workers. the deal is the longest public sector strike in chicago's recent history. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. texas house democrats have fled the state and landed in washington, d.c. after fleeing texas to stop republican backed bill that mix of harder to vot

. >>> and two of of donald trump's outspoken attorneys, sidney powell and linwood appeared by a zoomer six hours. the pair attempted to distance themselves from their claims yesterday with wood even saying in part, quote, my name was placed on there, but i had no involvement. i kid not review any of the documents. last week another former trump attorney rudy giuliani had his law license suspended in washington, d.c., for similar reasons. this was weeks after a new york court took the same measure. >>> still ahead, we're digging into president biden's plan for tackling a surge in crime, plus the tab ban is racing terror concern as u.s. troops with draw from the region. >>> before we go to break, we e want to know why you're awake. email us or drop me a tweet @kasie, use the #"way too early," and we'll read some of the answers coming up in our show. and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. i'm evie's best camper badge. but even i'm not as memorable as eating turkey hill chocolate chip cookie do

him every day and pestering him about whatever conspiracies he heard from rudy giuliani or from sidney powell, the lawyer, are or from mike lindell, the pillow guy, or on fox news. anything he heard that he thought could lead to evidence to overturn the election, he wanted his attorney investigating it. it reached a point at the beginning of december where barr had had enough and he told trump and said to the public, actually, that there was no evidence of enough fraud to overturn the election. barr ended up resigning from office in mid-december and jeffrey rosen succeeded him as the acting attorney general. and the new information that my colleagues at "the post" are reporting tonight is that trump continued that pressure campaign almost immediately with rosen, and it was a daily series of pressure tactics, phone calls and other outreach from trump and people in the white house up until joe biden became inaugurated as the president, to try to find the evidence to support these conspiratorial and baseless claims of election fraud. of course the evidence did not exist. >> stay tuned, a lot mor

cowed into silence, and the field was left entirely to these trump partisans like giuliani, like sidney powells allowed these arguments to fester for all of these months. >> and then also new this morning, we have learned that the trump organization has removed its cfo, allen weisselberg, of course he's been indicted but they pulled him from his leadership, at more than 40 subsidiary companies, what does this mean to you, especially considering the indictment also involves the trump organization. >> well, this strikes me as a regulatory effort, i mean, the problem for the trump organization faces is they have liquor licenses, they have gambling licenses, they have real estate matters that all involve governments. you can't have a chief financial officer of a company that is going before regulatory bodies who was under indictment. the problem the trump organization has is the company is also under indictment. so, yes, it makes sense to try to separate yourself from allen weisselberg, but they can't really because they are under indictment for the same charges. this just shows the peril to the t

again during the more than five-hour hearing she pointedly pressed the lawyers involved including sidney powelleps they had taken to ensure their court filings in the case filed last year had been accurate. she appeared astonished by many of their answers. while the supt claimed that the vote in michigan and specifically detroit's wayne county had been troubled. the affidavits filed to support the claims included obvious errors, speculation and basic misunderstandings of how elections are generally conducted in the state, parker said. the remarkable exchange from the hearing, quote, parker quizzed the lawyers about whether there's a legal basis to ask a judge to decertify an election and name a new winner and she spent hours asking the attorneys to explain how closely they reviewed and vetted information submitted in hundreds of pages of sworn declarations, that they had told the court constituted evidence of purported fraud and irregularities. the judge noted that one observer stated in an affidavit that she believed she saw election workers switching votes from trump to biden. parker, the jud

. >> reporter: but outsiders like sidney powell took over and told trump what he wanted to hear.s book, frankly we did win this election, former secretary of state mike pompeo is quoted as saying the crazies have taken over. bender's take away -- >> is how dangerous the people who are closest to trump thought he was for the country. >> reporter: bender says come pay owe tried to intervene. >> privately he sets up a call with -- daily call with the chief of staff and the nation's top general, in order to try to keep temperatures down. >> reporter: but in public, pompeo weirdly appeased trump. >> there will be a smooth transition to second trump administration. >> reporter: next week's big trump book continues the theme of aides trying to manage trump's emotions. i alone can fix it describes trump boiling over as his opponent joe biden pulls ahead. with an adviser calling gop strategist karl rove and saying, he's in a meltdown. can you call him and tell him all is not lost? >> save our country. >> reporter: months later trump is still in denial about losing and he's denying some ac

we will let you know what happens with lynwood, sidney powell and others as soon as we know.ing right now. those election lies front and center at cpac, one of the biggest conservative get-togethers of the year with the former president headlining the final day using that spotlight to resurface his greatest, falsest, conspiracy-est hits. >> the radical left democrats. >> the entire system was rigged. >> partisan persecution. it is persecution. >> the fake news media cheats. >> the silicon valley tyrants. >> the left wing cancel culture. >> the critical race theorists. >>> jenga but for culture wars. let me go to ali vitali in dallas. ali, more things that weren't from the former president there, but the reason why you go, right, and i'm curious what it was like for you this weekend is as the cpac straw poll found, very obviously unscientific but gives a poll so people at the base not surprising, overwhelmingly favor donald trump for 2024. he still has significant hold with a decent portion of the american population right now. >> yeah, a decent hold with the party in washingt

possible that you lost, and it is entirely baseless, these claims of fraud that your friends, sidney powell keep bringing to you. hugo chavez and his ghost did not invent a machine in pennsylvania and arizona and take votes away from you and give them to biden. bill barr told him in a very strong way, i have an entire team of prosecutors, i have the entire justice department, we've run down every single one of these claims from your buddies, and none of them have any basis. in fact, he called them bull-s. i won't go any further than that. the president was livid. and it actually led to barr resigning within two weeks, because trump didn't want to hear it. >> stunning, these conversations that you are reporting, that they even happened. there are the excerpts that have been published by the "washington post" that say donald trump was absolutely desperate to beat joe biden in the election, telling aides, i can't -- i'm not going to say the word, but f-ing lose to this guy. was he so desperate, phillip, was it the meade to beat joe biden specifically? can you figure that out? >> you know, alex

i'm the one who told rudy ukraine interfered in the election to hurt trump i heard it from sidney powella secret meeting that was recorded by italian satellites but also you got to remember, i'm real tired all the time because my pillow sucks. plus i sleep in the woods and i got really nervous, because of all da bears!" [ laughter ] so that's -- let's see, that's lindell, vaughn, wilson, romano. did the smithsonian ask for anything else or - we just send this up [ laughter ] i'd sell an nft of this "closer look," but i already got too much money [ laughter ] but then rudy got down to business and made it clear that what he and trump wanted was for ukraine's president to make a public statement declaring that they were opening an investigation into joe biden >> and all we need -- all we need from the president is to say, "i'm going to put an honest prosecutor in charge he's going to investigate and dig up the evidence that presently exists and if there is any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election. and then the biden thing has to be run out, i don't know if it's true or not

washington post adds the company conducting the audit was contracted to a group run by trump's loyalist sidney powelles because audits by republicans looking for any proof that the election is stolen even there is no proof of such evidence. it does not exist. thanks for spending the hour with us, "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. >> i can't keep track of everything you are doing, man. >> i don't know what's coming next but i am in for the ride. it is good. >> we love it. any time we get your insights, we love it and you did a great job, my humble opinion. thank you, michael. >> i am ari melber. speaker pelosi leading

donald trump and people who have told them this who, you know, i reported back in january that sidney powellald trump would put her on mute and mock her as crazy to people in the room. so the level of cynicism to do that and then endorse her completely unhinged theories about hacked voting machines. that's the part of this, and there are millions of people out there who are good, god fearing people who have been led to believe this. if you believe the other party stole the election, you believe that this is -- you know, it would be the biggest crime ever committed and you could see how that could inspire somebody to be furious, to, you know, want to take action. it's just so disturbing. and tim's piece, it's just the perfect lens through which to look at this. i really encourage everyone to read it. >> and i do as well. but willie, these are, in fact, so many of them good, god fearing people, raised with values and a love for their country that they've had for decades. but make no mistake of it, so many of these good, god fearing people, are choosing to be ignorant. are choosing not to do th