That. What does the memo actually say . It turns out its not primarily about donald trump or even about the broader russia investigation. The memo is really the story of a semiobscure Trump Campaign volunteer called carter page who, back in 2016, was identified by the Obama Administration as a secret agent of the putin government. Four times fbi officials went to a federal Surveillance Court and argued they had probable cause to believe that carter page was working with russian spies. He was an agent of a Foreign Government. Three times the fbi director james comey personally signed off on this claim. Deputy director Andrew Mccabe and Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein put their names to it as well. So why were all of these officials so certain that page, who was a Naval Academy graduate who has no criminal record, was betraying his country . Because, we now know, they were relying on the trump dossier. Thats the still unverified Opposition Research dump paid for by the rnc and the
Strange, right . I mean, there will be in that hearing room, we expect, Democratic Senators asking questions of Brett Kavanagh and Christine Blasey ford. And then when its the republican senators time, they will not say anything and instead they will defer to this pinch hitter, this outside counsel who has come in. That does not happen in confirmation hearings. We think that it hasnt happened in decades, if at all, in modern times. That announcement that they were going to do that over the objections of one of the two witnesses at the hearing, and then the announcement that they had hired somebody but were not allowed to know who it is, its all so weird. You know, im ready to stand corrected by a senate historian, but i believe there has never been, never been outside counsel asking questions in a confirmation hearing. Only in the major and unusual and special investigation hearings like watergate have they done that. So its beyond unusual. I believe in confirmation hearings. Its never
She intends to say this is the opposite of something i was looking forward to, this is the opposite of where i saw my life going and i think that will go a long way. The questioners on both sides, as our counsel here in the studio have both pointed out, need to watch tone. They need to watch their aggressiveness. Theyre all veterans. The Democratic Senators have many veteran prosecutors among their ranks and, of course, the woman from Maricopa County, ms. Mitchell, has been doing this for years and years. So, that will be interesting. Theyll kind of have to ride the emotion of the moment as they encounter it. Chairman grassley has found his seat. You saw senator cruz right behind him. Cynthia, in the closing seconds before we hear the gavel, tone is going to be important today. Tone is important. Do you know what else im looking for . The little facts. The Little Things people can remember can really weigh in on credibility. We read her earlier statement. She does have interesting, lit
That does it for us tonight. Well see you again tomorrow. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, rachel. Can i have all the scripts you didnt use tonight . Yeah. Thanks. It turns out we have an hour to fill and more things are happening by the minute here. This story about Rachel Mitchell being the mystery lawyer who is emerging tonight as the person who is likely the Washington Post uses that word likely to be asking the questions for the republicans. Its so fascinating that this was a and remains a closely held secret. Mitch mcconnell announced it publicly today, and yet its a secret, hiring of a Public Employee in the United States senate is a secret . What has to be secret about that . I mean, this whole thing is strange, right . I mean, there will be in that hearing room, we expect, Democratic Senators asking questions of Brett Kavanagh and Christine Blasey ford. And then when its the republican senators time, they will not say anything and instead th
The senate in the election and keeping this Supreme Court seat vacant until 2021. Every democratic member of the Committee Said they opposed judge kavanaugh before a single thing started and not only that, this allegation, the Ranking Member of this committee had nit writing on july 309, and if that had been reported to the committee chairman, this committee has a process to investigate it and a process to investigate that is confidential and the fbi could have participated investigating starting back on july 30th that we could have had a hearing that is closed, and that is not dragging either of these individuals through the mud. That is the way this process should have worked. The testimony yesterday from dr. Ford is that the only people who had copieses of the letter were herself, her lawyers and represent e shoo eshoo and the members of the committee. And so that makes it possible that the letter was leaked by either the two democratic members of congress or their staff or to someo