so again, it it feels really political. and this is a president who would reward his friends. remember, he reduced the sentences for roger stone. made the flynn case go away. pardoned manafort. and then, would weaponize the department against his enemies. so this feels pretty on brand for donald trump. your colleague on the house judiciary committee, chairman jerry nadler, just announced a formal investigation if barr, sessions, rosenstein, are subpoenaed by the committee. is it realistic that they would testify, anytime soon? i mean, couldn t they just resist and have their lawyers try to delay things? of course. and that s right out of the donald trump legal terrorist playbook that we saw during his administration. and sor, i hope our congressionl subpoena style means something. we did get don mcgahn to testify just a couple weeks ago. but also, i hope the public pressure really comes down on these individuals to be held to account. because this isn t going away. and it s not b
there is breaking news tonight on the subpoenas issues by the former president s justice department will investigate the entire ep even as merrick garland says thil strengthen rules seeking congressional records. the inspector general has also begun an investigation. the whole affair, of course, raises a slew of questions. one member of congress targeted was california representative eric swalwell, who sit on both the house-bell jens committee and the judiciary committee and he joins me now. congressman swalwell, there is still a lot we do not know, at this point. have you gotten any more answers in the last few last few days? i mean, what more do you know, exactly? no, anderson, i have not. i would like to. i have put in a request to speak to the department. i think it s fair to say they know how to get ahold of me. at this point. but, you no he, frankly, i would like to know, you know, just how wide this investigation was.
and, you know, what s concerning to me is that, you know, presidents. they set a tone for the country. and donald trump, from the very beginning, set a tone for bullying and a phony-tough-guy image. and we see that reflected in everyday life today. whether it s people throwing bot bottles at nba players, assaulting health-care workers, the house floor and campaigns and the ultimate manifestation, of course, being the insurrection at the capitol. and donald trump went even beyond that. he treated the law as a nuisance and weaponized department of justice. so the concern is not just the targeting of his political opponents. but the trickle-down effect. are local-elected officials feeling emboldened by this? and are they targeting their political enemies, locally? and so, we need to find out just how far this went. do you buy that former attorneys general sessions and barr and former-deputy attorney general rosenstein didn t know this activity was happening within the justice department
to occur, a future-corrupt president may not be so patient to wait for a grand-jury investigation. they may just call for them to be locked up and skip any, intermediary step that would be required. the fact that the the inspector general at the department of justice is investigating. doesn t that allow the justice depa department, now, and merrick garland, the current-attorney general, just to say, look, i can t come on to any of this because it s an ongoing investigation? well, it certainly allows them to interview current officials at the department of justice who may have been involved. but barr, sessions, whittaker, rosenstein, they have left the department. and they can t be compelled to talk to the inspector general. so that s where congress does are an ability to do that. and and whether that s us, working, you know, to make sure we don t compromise the investigation. but still, diligently, doing our job. we have to do that because, again, we can t let a future, more co
and i, and mr. schiff and others, you know, were loud voices against donald trump s corruption. and so, it feels pretty damn targeted by the department and should be investigated. again, we don t know the exact reason for, you know, these particular cases. but i mean, to your point. if if it you know, if it was you, adam schiff, even don mcgahn, who, clearly, you know, the president had ire toward based on some of the decisions that mcgahn made, who was in the white house. who was the white house counsel. that seems to be the only commonality, on the face of it. that that these are you and the others are people who, you know, were you had to ire the ire of the president directed toward you all. that s right. and anderson, again, don mcgahn was a part of the mueller investigation. so maybe, there was a good reason to look at his records. except, this investigation into his records went all the way up until this may when the mueller investigation, as we all know, closed bac