because pat cipollone as one example was rebuffing the committee since april to come in and actually give a deposition. once cassidy hutchinson testified about cipollone s central role all of of a sudden he came right in. now that we ve had these powerful hearings and donald trump is on his heels, all those people who were so close to him are starting to wonder whether they re going to be on the wrong side of history if they rebuff this committee and now they seem much more interested in coming in. so we cannot underestimate the power of the congressional investigation and if did well, it can move people and it can move the public and it can have a significant impact. you know, mike, it also brings sort of back into focus the big pieces that they don t yet have in their sights and i m thinking of people like mike pence and they seem to have a
reputation in the trump years. garland never considered on trump from the outset as they had done with trump and mrs. clinton during her email investigation people close to him say. as a result, his investigators have taken a more methodical approach, carefully climbing up the chain of personnel behind the 2020 plan to name fake slates of battleground electors that had been won by joe biden that has led them to trump and his innermost circle. brand-new reporting on the thoughtful approach of investigating the twice-impeached president is where we start this hour. in s nbc contributor betsy woodruff swann is back and mike schmit, washington correspondent and msnbc national security contributor and dan goldman is here to keep us honest, former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and the
barreling ahead against donald trump and his associates in questions where doj is doing is where we start todd with some of our favorite reporters and friends. mike schmit is here, washington correspondent, and claire mccaskill and andrew weissmann and former senior member of the mueller probe. all of them, lucky for us, msnbc contributors. mike, take us through your fantastic reporting that puts it on the shelf next to each other in a really striking way. look, the question that has e merged from the hearings is what is the justice department going to do and the reason those questions have come out is because the committee has done such an effective job at telling their story, and that has put this pressure on garland, but as we as i pointed out in the piece, the gears of justice at the department always move the slowest and that pace has forced garland to have to respond as he
that is no. i do think there is a certain amount that would be secret and we wouldn t know about and once you have grand jury subpoenas and you start putting relatively senior people in the grand jury that gets out and just remember the recipients of grand jury subpoena do not have to keep that secret and we re very aware from people like jeffrey clark and john eastman, that s gone on and from others. so i think that we re not seeing any sign that senior people used to be in the white house under president trump are being interviewed and being put in the grand jury. so, claire, let s keep this forward looking and let s keep this productive and the best case scenario is that they weren t and now they are. mike s colleagues have also reported that the twice-impeached ex-president may be contemplating a second run for the presidency and may announce, does that make it
of the justice department, but not by the fbi. that s very unusual, and i had thought that the inspector general would work with the fbi. when i was in the department i frequently would have an investigation with the fbi and the inspector general s office because you want those added resources and that expertise of the fbi. it s worth remembering that the fbi would report to the deputy attorney general and the attorney general. so if merrick garland wants the fbi involved he has the power to make that happen. just a little phone call or a little walk. mike schmit, andrew weissmann. thank you. claire sticks around. former investigator john wood is our guest on the committee s work and his contribution to the long hours of testimony that we ve seen and what likely is ahead for the next phase of the january 6 committee.