what is going on? let s go outfront. good evening. i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, will merrick garland indict donald trump? tonight, a major clue into what investigators are focusing on, that is the fake electors, those fake electors from contested states. bennie thompson, the chairman of the january 6th committee, saying his committee is providing the doj with witness transcripts to put up the fraj la fraudulentelectors. they ve included testimony from the chairwoman of the republican national committee, describing a call that she received from the former president and his attorney, john eastman. he turned the call over to mr. eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the rnc helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result did you receive a call from andy y biggs of arizona on the morning of january 6th? i did. he asked if i would sign on both to a letter that
well, look, i think people misunderstand president obama. they act like he s some kind of care bear, pooh bear. this guy was tough, and he had high standards for everybody on the team. and he we talk about no drama obama. that was real. he does take offense and umbrage to people who are beneath the dignity of the office. you do not play when you re on barack obama s team. i think he was pissed. i don t know that he does a lot of writing that way, but he s not a care bear, he s not a pooh bear. he had high standards. he fought from chicago to the white house and had a team of loyal people. for somebody to go off script that way and medically evaluate joe biden, who he s never medically evaluated, that is wrong. and i m not surprised that obama felt that way. so joe biden today was asked about a potential rematch between himself and donald
of the legal blog, and our justice reporter. so ryan, let me start with you, what manu is reporting. he talks to the chair of the committee today who says the justice department is only interested in the fake elector scheme right now, and the information that the committee has amassed on that. so let s just start with one simple question here is there enough that you have seen on that issue from the committee to have a criminal indictment of the former president? well, i think first is there enough to criminally investigate donald trump as the target of the investigation, around it s just beyond the line, absolutely. in fact, it would be dereliction if the justice department is not doing that right now. but there is evidence that points to an indictment. the ronniea mcdaniel testimony, and we have a judge that said eastman and trump more likely than not engaged in criminal
conspiracy and said the ultimate side was a critical objective of the conspiracy. since then, we have seen a lot of testimony from former trump officials discussing how that plan manifested. so this is crucial. you have him at the center as the target, that you certainly have enough for an investigation and potentially an indictment. kaitlan, the think what bennie thompson said is right now the doj was only interested in the fake elector scheme. however, from your reporting, does it seem that the doj will ask the panel for more? will go beyond the fake e will be f electors? that is the way this will go, but right now, we have watched the house focus on donald trump, they have interviewed more than a thousand witnesses, so more than a thousand transcripts they have of people at lots of high
their investigation and what happens in these next crucial few days? top democrats are telling me tonight that they believe that the committee has amassed enough information to get the justice department to investigate donald trump s actions. that s what adam schiff told me today, as well as the senate judiciary committee told me, as well. the committee has a process to allow the justice department to come in and view some witness transcripts. but also it could expand into more issues, as well. one issue that could come up, potential of witness tampering. that s one that liz cheney brought up, a phone call that donald trump made to a potential witness. they didn t connect, but that information was eventually relayed to the justice department. but the committee acknowledging to me today, the chairman, bennie thompson, that they don t know why donald trump made that phone call to that individual, and they have no other