very dangerous, and i hope that as the nation watches that we to say we should sound the alarm across the nation we re entering dangerous territory. that was one of two democrats in tennessee that was just expelled after participating in a gun violence protest on the floor of the statehouse. we ll have much more on this partisan punishment just ahead meanwhile on capitol hill one of donald trump s most vocal allies in congress sends a subpoena to a former prosecutor in the manhattan district attorney s office we ll explain why this move may backfire on jim jordan, and we ll dig into a bombshell report exclosing years of lavish vacations taken by supreme court justice clarence thomas, all paid for by a gop mega donor all right, good morning. and welcome to way too early on this friday, april 7th. i m sam stein in for the irreplaceable jonathan lemire. republican legislators in tennessee voted yesterday to expel two black democrats from the statehouse over their protest o
very dangerous, and i hope that as the nation watches that we to say we should sound the alarm across the nation we re entering dangerous territory. that was one of two democrats in tennessee that was just expelled after participating in a gun violence protest on the floor of the statehouse. we ll have much more on this partisan punishment just ahead meanwhile on capitol hill one of donald trump s most vocal allies in congress sends a subpoena to a former prosecutor in the manhattan district attorney s office we ll explain why this move may backfire on jim jordan, and we ll dig into a bombshell report exclosing years of lavish vacations taken by supreme court justice clarence thomas, all paid for by a gop mega donor
him. putting mark pomeranz who used to lead the case in front of the american people we know what he s going to say because he wrote a book the book was unauthorized. it s just his version and there s been some controversy, but this is what he said in his book donald trump is guilty, and he should have been prosecuted long ago. he should have been prosecuted for more than what he s been prosecuted for that s going to be a very odd thing for a republican to elicit to the american people so there was a part of me like bring it on. all right joining us now to discuss this all is msnbc legal analyst danny duvalos. always appreciate your willingness to get up at these horrific hours let s start with the new subpoena for jim jordan first. i kind of want to know do you actually think this is enforceable since there is an ongoing investigation that s taking place that he s being called to discuss?
my baseline answer would be, yes, if only because congressional subpoenas are broadly, broadly authorized under the law. and the standard is as long as it s anything that congress could potentially make legislation about, and that s why you see in jim jordan s letter he lays out those foundations and their fear behind it as ewell we need to think about whether we need to enact laws to protect a president and lay out that foundation, then that s going to signal to a court reviewing it, well, it sounds like this is within congress purview because it s so broad. anything you might have legislation on, that could be virtually anything danny, i want to pick up on what andrew was saying in that clip, which is we know where pomeranz stands intellectually on this case he thinks it doesn t go far
palmerates s former role makes him, quote, uniquely situated to provide information that is relevant is necessary to the committee s probe into manhattan d.a. alvin bragg s office. bragg himself later released a statement responding to the subpoena of pomeranz writing in part this, quote, the house gop continues to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing new york criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation. repeated efforts to weaken state and local law enforcement is an abuse of power and will not deter us from our duty to uphold the law. nbc news legal analyst andrew wiseman, he weighed in on the subpoena last night on msnbc let s take a look at what he had to say when i heard that today, i was thinking jim jordan is going to have another sort of, you know, dud on his hands, but so far that s really backfired for