Investigation by the Justice Department for very serious allegations of child sex trafficking. I swar im not going to spend more of my life than i need to in every twist of this nasating story. I feel the need to update you tonight because the sheer bizarreness of this story continued to advance in what appeared to be an accelerating pace it started off weird and is getting deepspace weird first of all, there is this guy. A local republican elected official in Seminole County, florida. Joel greenberg his own considerable criminal troubles appear to have at least dove tailed with this newlyreported investigation joel greenbrerg was elected tax col collector in 2016. He moodately sat out on a course of behavior that started off like a fire hose of scandal and ended up like a tsunami of scandal. I cant even cram all of it into another lengthy news segment here just looking at the high points. Local investigations and audits found starting basically as soon as he took office, he spent millions of tax paying dollars to personal friends and Business Partners including six different people who had all been in his wedding several months before he got elected. Six members of his Wedding Party happened to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts and deals from the local Tax Collectors Office after their buddy joel took over from that office what a coincidence a county audit found mr. Greenberg then spent taxpayers money, like over a million on guns and ammunition and body armor and drones drones like a little Tax Collector army or something he and all the people who worked in his office under his leadership all started wearing guns at work again, this is not like a department of the police it is not even like an office that goes after poachers these are literally the people to whom you pay your license fees but they all started strapping guns on their hips at work and started wearing badges. He was soon arrested for imperson nating an officer to pull over a woman. He put on flashing lights in his Tax Collector car and pulled her over because he thought she was going too fast he is the the Tax Collector. There is more and more it goes on and on. The allegation that brought federal authorities to mr. Greenbergs door and eventually got him arrested and charged which ultimately lead to the involvement of congressman gaetz. The initial allegations which became the charges against mr. Greenberg came after someone in s Seminole County ran against him. Greenberg sent nine letters to the school the guy came from of inappropriate student activity the allegations were completely made up but it ended up not being a problem for his opponent it ended up being a problem for mr. Greenberg. What happened was, federal authorities were brought in to investigate this here is how the Orlando Sentinel wrote it up. According to the june 17 indictment of greenberg, School Officials first turned over to the Sheriffs Office but investigators termed the letters werent written by students. They were written by adults. The letters were then turned over to the district attorney. Joel greenbergs dna and finger prints were ultimately found on the nine letters sent to the school where his opponent works. So nine different letters all proporting to be from students about horrible behavior. He leaves his dna and fingerprints a criminal genius at work here, obviously. He also, according to prosecutors, set up fake twitter and Facebook Accounts in the name of the same guy and other people working at that school. Those fake accounts had their own fingerprints ultimately traced back to an ip address at his own computer at greenbergs house. In which he said his opponent was a segregationist and white supremacist and a terrible person not difficult to trace those back to greenbergs house. The problem with this criminal genius at work and these alleged crimes is that because of the way these things were done, federal Law Enforcement was brought to bear here this ended up not being a local issue. This is handled by the u. S. Attorneys office. Federal charges. That leads to his first indictment it gets way worse there. They turn up to arrest him it turns out he has a whole ton of fake i. D. S in his backpack, car and wallet thats going to be more federal charges. They ultimately charge him for stealing identities and using them to make multiple fake i. D. S. What does he want to use the fake i. D. S for that is contained in the description of the next set of charges. They do a search of his electronic devises what he is using the fake i. D. S for is sex trafficking of at least one minor and other sex trafficking crimes so he faces multiple succeeding federal indictments as these charges continue to mushroom in florida in sem Seminole County that latter part where they looked at his Electronic Devices and decided what was going on with all of these fake i. D. S and sex trafficking is that he was using those fake i. D. S to facilitate criminal acts including sex trafficking of underaged persons. Those led to what are now the newly reported details of this federal criminal investigation of the congressman matt gaets who is also accused of sex trafficking of a minor mr. Greenberg and congressman gaets are reportedly close there are several social media photos of them together and they are looking at whether congressman gaets may also end up charged with sex trafficking of an underaged girl while we were absorbing that part of the detail one of these guys facing the charges, the connection of the sex trafficking charges against the Tax Collector guy to the charges of the congressman, while that was sinking in today that the investigation of gaetz may have come out, big surprise in the story it shocked me, today, the Tax Collector was hit with yet another federal indictment what timing . Since he was initially arrested and charged last summer. It all started with the stalking and Identity Theft stuff against the guy running against him. Since his initial arrest on those charges, federal prosecutors keep adding more alleged crimes theyve added three more su superceding crimes hes charged with embezzling 400,000 used to buy both cryptocurrency and autographed spor sports memorbilia. After the Tax Collector guy was arrested and out on bond, he committed a whole new crime. While he was out on bond, after being arrested and charged with the first slew of crimes, he decided that would be the perfect time to start a whole new chapter of his alleged criminal behavior and bribe someone who worked at the Small Business administration so that person would process fake loan applications so he could use fake businesses to apply for fraudulent covid relief funds. So they charged him with that today too. The fraud stuff and the bribery of Public Officials to get it done seems like a gem, right . You add it all up and the four federal indictments this guy has faced. Hes now facing 33 federal felony charges thus far, mr. Greenberg has pled not guilty to the charges hes had a chance to plea to. His attorney has not commented on the latest ones other than to say he wasnt surprised by them. This case appears to dove tail to what is going on with trump arific republican congressman matt gaetz nbc is reporting part of the investigation of greenberg that lead to sex trafficking charges against him is the same investigation that led to the sex trafficking investigation of mr. Gaetz. We dont know if greenberg is cooperating against mr. Gaetz. Politico flushed out details about trump attorney william barr who was reportedly briefed multiple times on the federal sex trafficking investigation into mr. Gaetz part of the reason he was briefed on it a lot is because he was very concerned for himself. He didnt want to scaccidentally end up at an event where mr. Gaetz might be reporting today at least one publicly announced meeting between then attorney bill barr got called off he pulled out after he said publicly that he would go do it. The reason is because congressman gaetz rsvpd he would attend and so mr. Barr decided not to attend. As for the scope of the investigation, abc news is reporting today that investigation includes allegations that he had a sexual relationship with, quote, at least one minor, at least one underaged person but maybe more than one abc is also reporting the investigation is looking at not just the congressmans alleged conduct in florida and his alleged conduct in other states as well. Congressman matt gaetz has denied any sexual relationship with anyone underage and has continued to the claim that his rich family in florida was part of an extortion effort by someone claiming it would help congressman gaetz survive the skand is al if his father would help with the effort to find an ex fbi officer who had been missing in iran. The idea is that you would fund the effort and maybe congressman gaetz would look like a National Hero because his family funded it and so then he wouldnt be prosecuted for child sex trafficking. The fbi is looking into that bizarre alleged scheme as well as the child sex allegations these are separate matters whether or not someone was trying to extort it does appear the congressman is under Serious Investigation of sex tlaficing of at least one child in at least one state. That investigation started and was approved of and released to the highest levels of trumps department including his highest attorney bill barr one last point on this this is something to watch, because im sure this has to change im sure this is a mistake the republican leader in the house of representatives is congressman Kevin Mccarthy he was asked about this reported investigation. He said he didnt know anything about it and hadnt been able to talk to the congressman yet. Asked if gaetz does get indicted, would that be cause to remove him from his Committee Assignments . If he gets charged with child sex trafficking, would republicans take him off his committees mccarthy said he would only remove him if convicted. An indictment would not be that big a deal and they would leave all his committees in place. Really i think that might have been a mistake. I wouldnt be surprised if mccarthy cleans that up in coming days. We do have previous experience of congressmen continuing while being indicted because trump pardoned them all before he left office as president. Because we have a lot of recent experience of this, the standard within the Republican Party used to be that once you got indicted, you get taken off your committees and responsibilities even if they dont at that moment expel you from the congress that is how theyve dealt with other republicans. According to mccarthy, thats not the plan if matt gaetz gets indicted for child sex trafficking. Just have to wait and see if he gets convicted i cant imagine that he meant to say that well see. We will cross that bridge when we hopefully never come to it. So, like i said, i feel responsibility to update you on how that story has evolved from last night i didnt think it could get weirded. It is a truly bizarre story evolving with accelerating weirdness. If it gets weirder, during the course of this hour, i will try to ignore it unless i have to. Also today, the New York Times broke the news that state prosecutors in new york have subpoenaed the personal bank reports of the man underintense pressure to tell them what he knows about allegations of tax fraud, Insurance Fraud that they are pursuing state prosecutors are still looking at the hush money payment scandal and Campaign Finance felonies for which Michael Cohen went to prison and described as individual number one. State prosecutors in new york are reportedly investigating how those payments were laundered through the Trump Organization books and how any of those such laundering may be itself a prosecutable crime the New York Times adding to the increasingly tall pile of legal worries faced by the former president reported here last night, former President Trump is fashion not one, not two but three federal lawsuits for inciting the riots. Within the last day, a new York State Court led a Defamation Case brought against him by a former contestant on the apprentice, because that case is going forward, the former president may have to be defoesed under oath. That case was stalled for a long while and is now moving once again. The former president lost a highprofile bid to enforce nondisclosor agreements he made all his Campaign Staff sign in 2016 a former staffer Jessica Denson has made Sexual Harassment claims she litigated the validity of the nondisclosure agreement that she and other employees were made to sign she won that part of it. The nda is not binding on her. In terms of what that means for that particular case and other People Associated with the Trump Campaign or even the Trump White House who want to talk but feel bound by that nondisclosure agreement. If they find out that those things are toilet paper, that will open a whole new chapter of guess what in terms of the former president thats just like the last 24 hours of news from trumpville. How is the post president ial life going for the former president and his minions . I mean, man. And then for contrast, there today is the new president President Biden unveiling what he hopes and expects to be the signature legislative accomplishment of this president ial term. A huge new investment in american infrastructure. One of the most popular issues investing in the stuff we all use. What biden is proposing is a 2 trillion investment. Roads, bridges, airports, ports, School Buildings, electric grid, broadband. The Biden Administration and the president him sself calling thi the biggest investment in infrastructure since world war ii and it looks like they have a path to get it passed. And it will be even more popular than the covid relief bill it is driving 70 plus Approval Rating for this president driving record high Approval Rating for this president overall. Thats what the Biden Administration learned from the first big thing they got through congress that, a, you can get it done and, b, the American People dont care the process unless you are passing something that takes a big, bold, practical approach to something we are all facing in common what they are going back for now as they go the second legislative lift is something even more popular than the covid relief bill. It is a big ask, congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez from new york will join us on that, next stay with us it is not a plan that tinkers around the edges it is a once in a Generation Investment in america. Unlike anything weve seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago it is the largest american Jobs Investment since world war ii. It will create millions of jobs, grow the economy promote National Security and put us in the position to win the global competition with china in the upcoming years. It is big, yes it is bold, yes. And we can get it done im convinced if we act now, in 50 years, people are going to look back and say, this was the moment that america won the future historically, infrastructure had been an bipartisan undertaken, many times led by republicans. It was Abraham Lincoln who built the transcontinental railroad. I could go on. Today, i dont think you can find a republican who doesnt think we have to improve our infrastructure there is a moment well look back on this time as a fundamental choice had to be made between democracies and autocacies there are a lot of autocrats in the world who think they are going to within because democracies couldnt reach consensus. The bigger question, can democracies still deliver for their people i believe we can i believe we must. President biden speaking in pittsburgh today unveiling his proposal for nearly 2 trillion in investment in infrastructure. Most of the first day stories, talking about the price tag and politics of how it can get done and the big ticket headline items. Roads, bridges, School Buildings and sturdy electric grids and a half million electric vehicle charges across the country pieces we are finding are being celebrated who are surprised and delighted to find their needs being address. For instance, 45 million to replace 100 of all lead pipes you know more from this show about the lead poisoning in flint, michigan. This would replace 100 of the nations lead pipes and service lines. Also, 400 billion toward expanding access to quality or home or communitybased care that means like Home Health Aids or a room in a group home if you are elderly. Right now in this country, we have a giant back log. The wait list is 850,000 persons long that means elderly and disabled americans face waits of five years to get the services they need this would not only expand but increase pay and improve working conditions for the people who work in this incredibly critical, critical but underfunded and often out of sight. Big portion of the american economy. We reached out to one of the foremoat disability advocate groups, arc, their senior director there told us, quote, it is major, with major in all capps and two explanation points that group in particular, that means it is a big deal bidens Group Addresses historic inequities in basic infrastructure that means in blunt terms undoing wrongs created in creation of infrastructure which means tearing down predominantly black neighborhoods to build infrastructure instead bidens infrastructure plan is a big plan full of big ideas but a lot of the most interesting stories are in the granular details. This is just his opening game bet. What happens now is in the hands of congress. Joining us now is one of the most influential members of that body congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez. Thank you for being with us tonight. Of course thank you for having me. You saw the president s speech today weve all been reading about and learning about what the president is asking for in this american jobs plan what do you think of it . You know, i think that the vision that President Biden and the administration has laid out, you are right, has surprised a lot of us in a positive way. In the detail and the thoughts that here, the scope of it is really encouraging, except, i think the how. That 2. 2 trillion, 2. 25 over eight years, i have serious concerns that it is not enough to realize the very inspiring vision that biden has advanced so i believe those of us here, especially as progressives within the Democratic Party, we know that there is so much more opportunity here in order for us to realize this inspiring vision, we need to go way higher thats what is going to help us actually deliver on this really promising and inspiring vision that the president has laid out today. When you say that it should be bigger, do you want the numbers associated with the things that the president says he wants done just get bigger or are there whole new categories of policy youd like to see in this bill that arent there now . There are a couple areas there. One is that, first of all, this is 2. 25 trillion over eight years. For context, because these huge numbers are hard to understand, we passed an almost 2 trillion covid relief package that is supposed to last us one year with some provisions lasting up to two years the 14 stimulus checks, those were deployed on a shorter time line we need to have some shorter time lines and greater urgency i think some is of these need to be greater for example, lets take Public Housing. This plan, advocates for a total National Investment of 40 billion of Public Housing nationwide sounds great, except when you consider the fact that the new york city Public Housing system needs 40 billion alone just to get up to code during the winter time, people run out of heat. They dont have Running Water owe electricity. They have holes in walls new york city needs 40 billion alone because theyve been underinvestigating and starved by frankly republican congressman for so long. For us to actually vest in national Public Housing infrastructure, we need to do way more in order to deliver on the promise in terms of a price tag there. In terms of scope, again, i really do have to commend some of these investments that are in here some of these details like exclusionary zoning are there for a long time. There is a lot of credit there on climate, we can go deeper on the approach of how we push this issue. We do commend the administration but in order for us to meet that vision, i have real concerns that 2. 2 trillion isnt going to get us there we are going to have to make deeper investments to actually renew Public Housing and repeal the fair cloth amendment, repeal the Housing Stock in the United States this, at the end of the day, is one of the greatest sources of income and equality in the country. It is rooted inhousing and real estate in terms of how this is going to move, obviously this is the Biden Administrations second great lift we have to think of them as a living, breathing oregonism that learns lessons along the way clearly with the covid19 relief bill, they are learning things they wish they had done better or different under the Obama Administration and now learning with what happened in the covid relief when he said he wanted 1. 9 trillion, everybody assumed that would get widdled way down. It didnt. It was basically a 1. 9 trillion plan sounds to me, on this one, what may happen is that President Biden may say, listen, today in pittsburgh, i want 2. 25 trillion over eight years but when it lands in the house, you and your colleagues may say this is a starting point but this needs to be a bigger bill and get larger before the senate takes a look at it is that fair to say . Absolutely. If we could wave a magic wand and progressives in the house were able to name any number, which obviously isnt the case, we are looking at ideas and what we think is the actual investment that can create tens of millions of Good Union Jobs that can shore up our health care, and infrastructure and housing and doing it in a way that drives down our carbon emissions. We are talking realistically 10 trillion over 10 years i know that may be an eyepopping figure for some people but we have to understand we are in a devastating economic moment millions of people in the United States are unemployed, we have a crippled Health Care System and a crippling environmental issue and we are the richest country in the world you have some of the most conservative members like joe manson who even signaled support for a 4 trillion infrastructure plan, which is double in the numbers. There are keys in the exchange here one is that there is a genuine built power in the progressive caucus within the Democratic Party but not only ideals in general that that power thats built very significantly we are in a fundamentally critical moment. On top of that,when you look more at what comprises more moderate views in the caucus econo economic populism is popular democrats talk about it but we actually are about it. I think that the country shift people, really, i think, are starting to understand that these issues are no longer fringe demands but they are consensus builders we need that direct investment, we need to build our housing stalk and make it an investment for corporations to gobble up our Housing Stock and an actual thing we use and live in and enjoy and dont have to fear our kids wont be able to afford a home, a place to live and make a family those kinds of investments thats what it is about. Not to mention rural broadband, roads, bridges, mass transit and a truly National System of ev vehicles and a full electric, federally electric fleet new York Democratic congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez, it is a real pleasure to have you here. Of course, thank you so much. Much more ahead tonight. Stay with us do you have a Life Insurance policy you no longer need . Now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. Call Coventry Direct to learn more. We thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. But we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. Our friends sold their policy to help pay for their medical bills and that got me thinking. Maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. Im skeptical, so i did some research and called Coventry Direct. They explained Life Insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. 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Look at this, todays printed edition includes this fullpage ad, public letter signed by dozens of prominent africanamerican Business Leaders urging the rest of Corporate America to stand up against the new antivoting law in georgia and the dozens of other laws in consideration in other republicancontrolled states maybe that fullpaged ad and threat of boycott to stop that before it passed but today was a day of big shifts we saw an abrupt change in tune of leaders of some biggest corporations ce os of Delta Airlines and cocacola called the new antivoting law, quote, unacceptable delta wrote a letter saying the company did work with the republicans to try to make the legislate your less bad but realizes the law now enacted is wrong and, quote, based on a lie about voter fraud. Georgias republican governor responded that delta never raised these objections. Todays statement by deltas ceo stands in stark contrast with our conversations. Like, oh, they are super against it now they didnt tell us about that when i talked to them before i signed it. Here is the question, with delta and cocacola now belatedly stepping up and he boo latedly acknowledging that they didnt really understand the magnitude of the problem until the georgia bill was passed. Does that mean these companies are now alerted enough to the danger of this iend of legislation that they are ashamed now about their late reaction that theyll be willing to play a role to get their voter rights passed. There is a live bill in d. C. Now including to block some of the worst provisions in that bill. That protection bill in the senate needs help in senate now. Some of the biggest corporations if they have now got religion on the issue, their help could make a difference to get it passed. Will they now work to do it . Hold that thought. This morning when dozens of the most prominent africanamerican leaders and ce os published a fullpage ad sherrily ifill responded by saying, quote, trust me, this is huge sure enough, a few hours later, huge georgia based corporations like delta and cocacola were fuelling their roots on this for the first time coming out against the georgia voters law they have now moved on the issue. Something really did shift today on this front in the battle against these Voter Suppression laws joining us now, president and director council of naacp. Ms. Ifill, thank you for being here of course why did you see that letter from black leaders and ceos and Business Leaders as huge and what impact did it make just today . A number of local advocates in georgia had been pressing georgia corporations over weeks. Black voters matter, naacp, the new georgia project are pushing local corporations to take a stand against what was clearly going to be a disastrous bill. Cocacola is sknown with georgia we felt it was important for the Business Community to speak up including the metro chamber. It is true, they were behind the scenes working to make the bill better it is true, they thought what they did was sufficient. There was some terrible provisions reof mod but the bill that passed is still terrible. Theyre failure to speak as themselves as georgia corporations, they were beginning to feel the heat when these ceos came out, these are heavy hitters. These are not people who are silly, fly by night. These are men or women that when they call, you take the call Business Leaders across the country know that. They know these names. When this came out this morning, a fullpaged ad, a7 in the New York Times and you saw these ceos on cnbc and other channels people watch in the gorng, it was clear that this was a gauge changer. With the pressure of local groups and threats of boycotts, it did make a difference do you think that this may translate, that this will remain focused on georgia but will translate to these ce os and may find themselves in the frame of mind to pass s 1, the john lewis bill as well that will afford protection that will neutralize the impact of the state bill like the ones in georgia . I know it is an explicit ask of these groups where copy cat bills are being planned. Cocacola is drank in texas too and they are trying to pass these bills as well. They are important and local groups have been making that direct request to these Companies Including companies that switched their position trood to understand the importance of seeking a federal solution we are playing whack a moel across a variety of states we are seeing these things proposed in texas and florida and states across the country. These are corporations willing to stand up against antilgbtq legislation which is vitally important. They have spoken out on climate change, on gun violence. Now we need them to speak out on this issue, this race issue and it is a democracy issue. I have really been distressed over the last few weeks, concerned that the Business Plan of Many American corporations appears to be agnostic about democracy. When you deny citizens the ability to vote and punish them for turning out in record numbers, then you are engaged in antidemocratic actions. Thats the space where corporations in my view are compelled to speak because they benefit from our democracy i think after january 6, we recognized that we need all of the segments of our society to stand together to protect democracy. President and director council of Naacp Legal Defense Fund thank you for being here it is exciting to watch this unfold thank you for helping us understand thank you, rachel well be right back. Thank you. So, i said earlier tonight that congressman Kevin Mccarthy, the House Republican leader could not have meant it when he told fox news that matt gaetz would only be removed from committees in congress if indicted it turns out late this afternoon, he did change his mind on that, as i thought he might have he gave comments this afternoon to nbc in which he made clear, that, yes, if congressman gaetz does get indicted for child sex trafficking that will be enough to remove him. I thought it sounded wrong when he said it turns out he cleaned it up late this afternoon im glad to hear it. Thats going historically, infrastructure had been a bipartisan undertaking. Many times led by republicans. It was Abraham Lincoln who built the transcontinental railroad. Dwight eisenhower, republican, interstate highway system. I could go on. And i dont think youll find a republican today in the house or senate, maybe im wrong, who doesnt think we have to improve our infrastructure they know china and other countries are eating our lunch so theres no reason why it cant be bipartisan again. The divisions of the moment shouldnt stop us from doing the right thing for the future