this, he, like we, would ve come to the same conclusion, that it was completely unfounded. when you learned that he had been calling witnesses and conducting investigations on his own, did you confront him? yes. what was his reaction he got very defensive. you know, as i said, there are a series of conversations about that week. i certainly remember very specifically the conversation in the meeting on january 2nd. that got even more confrontational. he was defensive. you know, similar to his early reaction, when i said this is nothing less than the justice department meddling in an election, his reaction was, i think a lot of people of meddled in this election. so, he kind of clung to that. then, he spewed out some of these theories on which we ve heard from the president that were floating around the internet in the media, and just kept insisting that the department needed to act and needed to send those letters. the committee has also
28th and the second, when we had another in person meeting emma he clearly continued to move down this path. he began calling witnesses and apparently conducting investigations of his own he got a briefing from he and i about purported foreign intelligence interference. and we thought, perhaps, once it was explained to him that there was no basis for that part of his concern that he would retreat. but, instead he doubled down and said okay, so there is no foreign interference no foreign interference we learned that he had been calling witnesses and conducting investigations on his own, did you confront him? yes or what was his reaction? he got very defensive.
broken the law and profited from a foreign national. maria: senator johnson, this is absolutely extraordinary, and you have also documented much of this. we have the 10% for the big guy e-mail. what are your thoughts on where where this investigation stands even in the face of biden coming up with this new division in government to claim that he s going to slap down on disinformation when, in fact, all the disinformation is coming from his office? well, senator grassley and i ryed to warn the american tried to warn the american public about the vast web of foreign entanglements of the biden family and how that compromised potential pride. now we re seeing it. in terms of the investigation, it appears they re starting to investigate this. they impaneled a grand jury, they re calling witnesses. but my concern is, maria, that they ll gather the evidence and then under merrick garland s department of justice, they ll
politicians on capitol hill, especially in the house, are calling witnesses, so people close to donald trump as well as riot defendants asking them to come in, and one of the consequences for people not complying with congressional subpoenas would be being held in criminal contempt of congress. and so, this pardon conversation is something that is happening right now both about the riot defendants and people being caught on capitol hill. representative elaine lauria was on cnn yesterday and talked about the effect trump may have on some of the witnesses. here s her. someone who, you know, is sort of waiting out there, that, you know, if i m president in the future i ll pardon you, someone who could be right now thinking i need to do the right thing, i need to, you know, state the facts and the potential to plea guilty to the criminal actions that i have, if they think there s a way in the future to get off from any consequences from their actions, it could certainly color what they d
republicans the united states senate so they are fighting about this. a kemp ally is willing to make david perdue s life a living hell thoef hell over there and our colleague gabby orr is being told trump will endorse perdue sometime soon. all of this is happening. democrats in georgia, stacey abrams who just announced her candidacy last week, they are all smiling at this. the chaos can only help them, they think. it s going to be a race to watch, kate. even more so as of this morning. thanks so much, michael. good to see you. now to this. the trifle former empire actor jussie smollett just resumed in chicago a short time ago. the defense team started calling witnesses and the big question, of course, is smollett take the stand in his own defense? he s accused of staging a fake hate crime in an attempt to get media attention, if you ll remember. omar jimenez is in chicago and has been tracking this from the