appointed director of the fbi, responds to threats against asians in the aftermath of the search. d-against agents in the aftermath of the search. good morning to all of you, welcome to way too early , that is the show on this thursday, august 11, it is not just the time on your clock. i m alex witt for jonathan lemire. we begin with the latest legal fallout from donald trump s deposition from the ag s office and the former president pleaded the fitchth amendment, his right against self incrimination for 450 times in four hours. it is all part of the new york a. g. s probe into the trump business practices with the former president s attorney saying the only question he answered wa about his name. the attorney said trump took the fifth on questions about evaluations of items, and golf clubs, signing documents, mortgages, loans and the size of his apartment. the former president said in a statement that he did it because his family, company, and all the people in his orbit
that the messages were missing back in february the ig didn t push the department on why the texts were deleted nor did he try to retrieve those messages. these missing records are just a part of a mountain of missing pieces of the puzzle related to january 6th that pose a challenge for the january 6th select committee as well as the justice department s probe into the insurrection. that poses a to investigate the actions of the inner circle. a spokesperson for the select committee telling nbc news that the panel is sharing 20 witness interview transcripts with the department of justice. that news was first reported by politico which adds this, quote, the committee did not indicate which transcripts would be part of the initial tranche provided to the justice department, however prosecutors recently deposed two top aides to former vp mike pence, mark short and greg jacob who both had previously interviewed with the committee and it would be of high interest to investigators
the idea of mike pence, as his staff, gets into cars, pence says we re not leaving here, we are going to stay, and i m going to do my constitutional duty as vice president of the united states. get out of the cars, get back into the capitol. i mean, that s a very moving scene. and good for mike pence. and to see those pictures of him at this loading dock, wherever that was. you mean, this was a moment in american history that could have gone either way. i think that s, you know, so reinforced. i mean, there could have been a lot more deaths. there could have been a constitutional crisis. it was bad enough as it was. but it could have been worse. and mike pence deserves a lot of credit for the resolution was as good, if that s the word, as it turned out to be. i was a little surprised. i think it was the first hearing that the evidence came out from members of the committee that i think it was liz cheney said that when this question of hang mike pence got back to trump
a case of amnesia there. trump s eldest children were also deposed in this investigation, eric trump pleaded the fifth more than 500 times when he testified in october, 2020. and don jr. and ivz did not plead the fifth at all. joining us now, that lady up early with us, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc contributor barbara mcquade. let s get into this. certainly everybody has a right to protect themselves from self incrimination and he has said himself, that he basically has done it just for spite. so how can that impact this investigation? and the justice department s probe? well, one thing that s interesting, alex about, the fifth amendment is of course, it protects our right against self-incrimination, if we re in a criminal case, we can decline to answer any questions, you can even make that declaration in a civil cation, because your statements could be used against you in a criminal case, so that s why it extends here. but unlike a criminal case where a jury can t know about
the public to wonder what is the justice department degree then? betsy, i want to put up a time line on what we know. which the is the time line of what we know and it has it there nearly the bottom, outreach of the justice department in late june, early july with cassidy hutchinson and her testimony was a sorry prize to them and they found it horrific that they weren t aware of the substance to what she testifies to. she ties trump directly to every prong of the insurrection including the violence. what do you make about where doj is making? i think one example, perhaps the single biggest example of the impact that the committee is having on the justice