We are expecting the plan to be really ambitious. We are keeping our eye on the covid news. The biden administration announced as of today we crossed an important threshold. A majority of u. S. Seniors have been vaccinated. We hit 50 of americans 55 and up. Cdc director asking to slow down or stop reopening plans in the states for the next few weeks because the Vaccination Roll out only needs a few more weeks. We are also still watching and waiting for whether osha and the biden administration may issue a rule that requires masks in workplaces nationwide, regardless of what states have what rules. Osha rule like that for Mask Use in workplaces, an enforceable rule. That would certainly help with what the Cdc Director is asking for from the states but this is turning into a mystery. Osha was told the first week of the biden administration they needed to study this better and report back by march 15th. We are two weeks past the deadline. We think it would be a very big deal as the cdc and the president start to push hard to stop these various elements and efforts to open up in various states just for the next few weeks until the now going gang Busters Vaccination Effort gets ahead of where the epidemic is. Those are all things that we are watching tonight. New updates on the new legal challenges to the draconian Antivoting Bill and the far right big Money Effort to stop democrats in washington from passing Voting Rights protections. There is a lot going on. We have a lot to get to in the show tonight. If you asked me two hours ago if we would have to talk about the next Story Tonight at all, i would have looked at you like you were kookoo. Sometimes the News Gods throw you a weird, late curveball and you must adapt. That is what happened tonight. That is what just happened tonight thanks to a front page bizarre Breaking News Story in the New York Times. Lets start where i think the Story Starts. I will stand corrected if it starts somewhere deeper and weirder than this. But for now the Story Starts in Seminole County, florida. Orlando metro area, northeast from there out towards the space coast. For reasons unknown to man in the 2016 election voters in there infinite wisdom decided they would replace the County Tax Collector with this young man. No prior record of public service. And we now know from audits and investigations that he hit the Ground Running as soon as he won the office in 2016 and was sworn in 2017. Young man. After he won the election in November 2016 and sworn in, he hired and started to pay wiTh Public funds six people that were part of his Wedding Party the previous year. I am not sure that is how you staff up the Tax Collectors office and issued 1. 9 million in contracts to people that were his close friends and business partners. For some reason within months of taking office he started to spend public money for that office on guns, ammunition, Body Armor and drones. The Tax Collectors office in Seminole County florida needs drones . Okay. By june 2017. He proclaimed he and his employees in the County Tax Collectors office would be carrying guns. He wanted them to wear their guns at work. This is the offense that collects License Fees and not Swat Agency who are defending the streets. The new guy elected to the office after hiring all of his groomsmen to come in and run the place buys all of the guns and the Body Armor and ammo and drones and tells everybody they need to wear guns at work to go along with their badges. Why did he want that . I am not sure. He had pulled over a Woman Driving who he decided might have been speeding. Did he have a Speed Gun . I dont know. He decided that she was speeding. He pulled her over. He flashed his badge. If you look closely it was a badge identifying him as a guy working in the County Tax Collector office. There is also the part where while working full time as the elected Tax Collector for the county he set up a for profit business. He set up a private, for Profit Company running it inside the County Tax Collector office. He decided he needed 65,000 in brandnew private computer servers. When he installed the servers he billed to the taxpayers for the private company that he was going to run he installed them wrong and set the office on fire. Along the way the Orlando Sentinal reported that on his frequent antimuslim and Social Media posts and posing with far right white nationalist types. Posted things about his friendship with President Trumps long time political advisor and convicted felon, Roger Stone and the trumpiest of republican congressmens, Matt Gaetz. But where things are getting rough for the Seminole County Tax Collector, june of last year. Federal agents come to his house to arrest him for allegedly stalking a local man who was going to run against him for County Tax Collector. How dare anyone run against him when he was doing such a great job in the office. To try to derail his opponents campaign, he arranged for a false Rape Accusation to be made against the man which was sent to the school where the guy worked. Hyped and circulated. Prosecutors say that the Tax Collector created a fake Twitter Account and falsely posted things which he was claim to be the Guy Running against him and a proud segregationist and white supremacist. But it was all fake. All set up by our hero. Federal agents show up to arrest him on the stalking charges, and things get worse from there. What do they find when they come to arrest him . The day that he was indicted for stalking a political rival, Joel Greenberg had several fake ids and materials for making more in his office, evidence he was abusing his position to steal identities inside the work vehicle, agents found his Back Pack holding three licenses from canada, virginia and florida, belonging to Seminole County residents who obtained new florida licenses. Employees told agents they Saw Greenberg taking surrendered licenses from the Shred Basket prior to their destruction. Joel greenberg was stealing Customer Ids until his last day in office, feds say. He did resign the day after police showed up to arrest him. Fake Id Stuff is nuts, right. You have to hand over your own id. Federal prosecutors say the elected Tax Collector was stealing all of the old licenses out of the to be shredded bin and using them to make a ton of fake ids. He would doctor the ids so they would have his own picture and he could flash the id and it would look like him but the name and the information on the rest of the id was the people who he stole their old licenses at his office. And it was not just like he did it once. According to prosecutors he had a bunch of the ids in his car, backpack, tucked into his wallet while they were arresting them. Why do you need a bunch of fake identities . And why was he also, according to prosecutors, trying to figure out how to falsify concealed Firearms Permits as well . Do you have any idea could go wrong . Who knew what mischief could be made. But that headline allegedly stealing ids through his last day in office. That ran in july. By the following month, by august, federal officials went through the computers and devices they seized from him during the arrest. What they found would yield darker headlines. Joel greenberg facing Sex Trafficking charges. Joel greenberg is facing Sex Trafficking charges related to a girl between the ages of 1417 and illegally using a State Database. He used his access as an elected official to a State Database to look up information about the minor victim. The database is the Florida Driver and Vehicle Information Database and allegedly looked up information about the girl in the database, including her Photo And Driver id number. He also, according to the indictment, used the database to look up other people with who he was engaged in Sugar Daddy relationships. The phrase there used in the indictment. A wealthy man who dates a younger woman and gives her gifts in exchange for companionship or sex. The alleged victim is a teenage girl. So, there is this sort of Reign Of Terror at this office in florida who is linked to Donald Trump circles in florida and ends in a very, very dark place. It starts off weird and dark and ends up in a terrible place, charges of Sex Trafficking of a child. The Tax Collector Guy Quit after being arrested and pled not guilty to all of the 14 federal charges he is now facing, including the Sex Trafficking of a child charge. He was out on bail after he was charged last summer. But last month, the judge overseeing the case jailed him for violating the terms of his bail. Now he is scheduled to go on trial in florida in june. So, i know. You know, happy tuesday. Bleh. This exists, im sorry. But now tonight on the front page of the New York Times we get the national kick in the teeth that comes with the story. This is the headline. Florida congressman Matt Gaetz is said to be investigated over possible sexual relationship with a girl, 17. Matt gaetz, and a close ally of donald j. Trump is being investigated whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17yearold and paid for her to travel with him according to three people briefed on the matter. Investigators are examining whether he violated federal Sex Trafficking laws. It is illegal to induce someone under the age of 18 to travel over State Lines to engage in sex in exchange for Money Or Something of value and the u. S. Justice department regularly prosecutes such cases. It is not known how he met the Girl Investigators are scrutinizing. The investigation was opened in the final months of the Trump Administration under william barr. Given Congressman Gaetzs national profile some appointed by President Trump were notified of the investigation. Three people familiar with the probe said the examination is a part of a broader investigation into a local official in florida named Joel Greenberg, the Seminole County Tax Collector. Indicted on an array of charges including Sex Trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, one of whom was an under age girl. Mr. Greenberg resigned his post visited the White House with Congressman Gaetz in 2019. You have to learn this gross Florida Man Story in order to get to what allegedly happened here, right. The Tax Collector from the county in Florida And Congressman Matt Gaetz both are elected to office in 2016. Things go not just bad but Horror Movie bad with the Tax Collector guy, culminating in child Sex Trafficking charges and now per the New York Times, Congressman Gaetz, trolling, Protrump Member of congress in the Republican Party is himself facing investigation for the same dark, serious alleged crime. Not for nothing, you know, but the year that he and the Seminole County Tax Collector guy were sworn in, 2017, when the alleged child Sex Trafficking is supposed to have occurred. In 2017, again, these alleged crimes are said to have occurred. Congressman Matt Gaet sbrrvegs in his first year as a congressman earned himself national headlines that you might remember. It was weird at the time. Why is there a member of congress from either party or chamber. One alone that voted no. Who voted against increasing Law Enforcement Funding to combat child Sex Trafficking . This passed unanimously but for Matt Gaetz. He voted no and now is under investigation for child Sex Trafficking. That vote might just be a coincidence and a normal part of the story. Sure. Every other part of this is totally normal. Since the times published the story Congressman Gaetz has put out a statement denying the allegations and now in the last hour done an interview on the Fox News Channel saying he is not only innocent but it is part of an Extortion Plot targeting his father and trying to get money from his very wealthy Family And Something about a plot to get him a pardon from president biden. He is very upset about the charges. Denies any relationship with any under age person. The New York Times stands byes it reporting. Joining us the New York Times reporter that broke the story. Thank you so much for making time to be here tonight and i hope i have not butchered the story too much in my retelling. No. You did great. Okay. Let me ask you about Congressman Gaetz Push Back. It was quickly an update to account and making counter allegations that this is all the product of improper Extortion Plot. Can you help to understand what the Push Back is . Sure. I think to understand the statements it is important to look at the timeline. This is a serious investigation that was serious enough where the highest level of the Justice Department said that, you know, the issue continues. That is the context. The investigation has been going on for several months and if someone found out about it and used the information to get money out of had his family. I am not saying It Claims are untrue but that it came on the heels of months and months of investigation in a part of the country where the offices are small. Now Congressman Gaetz made the allegation and has named somebody. As you say, with the timeline it is important to understand that the stories may be separate. The person he named, is that a person that was involved with the Justice Department investigation . Gaetz is claiming hes are false charges trumped up against him and somebody involved in trumping up these charges tried to extort money from him. That person is not involved in the investigation. That person is in private practice and does not work at the Justice Department. I think one of the reasons why he talked publicly about the Extortion Plot is in order not to pay attention to the fact that the Trump Administration thought it was Worth Tow investigate him. Talking about the investigation or publicly talking about the Extortion Plot that he has described and publicly saying that his father wore a wire, he is destroying and blowing up an Fbi Investigation which is something you would think would be against his own interests. You would think he wanted to work with the fbi and keep it quiet. So, you have to put this all in to context and say that doing this and blowing up a Fbi Investigation into people trying to extort his family, you know, he has complicated that Investigation And Something serious enough that Attorney General barr proved it. Attorney general barr personally approved it . Yes. Saying if anybody involved in the 2020 election, they needed to be briefed. Those people would need to sign off on it and they would bring it up to the Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General. He would have known about this, yes. In terms of Congressman Gaetz and by his public remarks about the Extortion Claim, whether he is blowing up a potential Fbi Investigation into whether there was an Extortion Claim subsequent to the investigation. Thinking about his motivation there, can you tell us from the reporting whether the investigation is something that was not likely to head towards charges or something that either was heading towards charges or could still be heading towards charges and serious Criminal Liability for the congressman . I cant be in Congressman Gaetzs head and why he would disclose information that should be helping he and his family. Allegations are that he had a sexual relationship with a 17yearold girl and took her across State Lines and gave her something of value in return. We dont know whether or not it will be charged. You dont know what is going to happen. But we do know that investigators are working hard on the case and believe it is worth looking in to. You are in the middle of this. Thank you for helping us understand it tonight. Thank you. All right. We have much more ahead on the frankly bizarre News Night. Anything could happen. Stay with us. E News Night anything could happen. 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These are the things that government is there for preparing and planning and protecting against. Good governance designs resilient systems to allow us to thrive through them. Today was an emotional second day in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Standing Accused of murdering George Floyd. Six witnesses gave testimony on the stand and of the six four of them were kids or young adults witnessing the death of George Floyd May 25th last year and will live with that memory the rest of their life. Because all of them were minors, the court did not show their faces when they were giving testimony. The jury could see them but the rest watching the Video Feed could not. The court did allow us to hear the young people describing what they witnessed. That was really something. One a young woman who was 17 on the day George Floyd died. Today the prosecutor asked her about her decision to start recording what she was witnessing. What did you do when you first got there . I pulled out my phone. What were you doing . Recording and capturing what i was seeing. We have already admitted that into evidence in the case, the video which you had done. Tell the jury what you observed and what you heard when you stopped to look at what was happening at the scene. I heard George Floyd saying i cant breathe. Please get off of me. He cried for his mom. He was in pain. It seemed like he knew it was over for him. He was terrified. He was suffering. This was a cry for help. Definitely. Later in the Trial Darnell Frazier had one of the most powerful moments of the day describing how she has lived with the memory of the day all day since after seeing what she saw. Would you tell the Ladies And Gentlemen how you are viewing and experiencing what happened to George Floyd has affected your life . When i look at George Floyd, i look at my dad. I look at my brothers, cousins, uncles. They are all black. I have a black father. I have a black brother and black friends. I look at that. I look at how that could have been one of them. There were nights that i stayed up and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more. Not physically interacting and not saving his life. It is not what i should have done but what he should have done. What he should have done, the defendant. She was at the scene of George Floyds death that day because she was taking her 9yearold cousin to the store to get a snack. The nineyearold girl took to the stand as well describing what she saw. First of all, would you tell us how old you are. Nine. How old will you be by the beginning of next week . Ten. You have a tenth birthday coming up . Yes. Now, when you came out to where your cousin was and saw George Floyd, was there a policemen there . Yes. Do you remember what the policemen or the policemen were doing . Putting their knee on the neck of George Floyd. If i showed you a picture of a policemen. Why dont i just do that. Let me ask you if you recognize the policeman marked in exhibit 17. Do you recognize the policeman . Yes. Who is he . I cant remember his name. Do you remember what he was doing . How do you know him . He was putting the knee on the neck of George Floyd. Do you see him in the Courtroom Today . No. Okay. How about here. Yes. All right. So, is that the person that you saw . Yes. Not all the witnesses that testified had to do so off camera. A 27yearold Minneapolis Firefighter was at the scene when George Floyd died, imploring the officers to check George Floyds pulse. I also offered in my memory, i offered to walk them through it or i told them if he doesnt have a pulse you need to start compressions and that wasnt done either. Are these things you wanted to do . It is what i would have done for anybody. When you could not do that how did it make you feel . Totally distressed. Were you frustrated . Yes. This was day two of the trial in minneapolis for the former Minneapolis Police officer charged with the order of George Floyd. Day three is tomorrow and it is expected to take several weeks, this trial. Of course the trial is taking place right now in the Condition Text of a civil rights and a Race Crisis of a different type for the country. We saw another group of civil rights Organizations File another lawsuit. This is the third one against the State Of Georgia for georgias new restric we are still keeping an eye, i should tell you, on the criminal Felony Case brought in georgia against a state representative, africanamerican female democratic legislature arrested by State Troopers after she knocked on the door and asked to be allowed into the Signing Ceremony for the bill. Charged with two felonies and is facing years in prison, potentially. When we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. Lavender baths calmed him. So we made a plan to turn bath time into a business. Find a Northwestern Mutual advisor at nm. Com are you one of the millions of americans who experience occasional bloating, gas, or abdominal discomfort . Taking align can help. Align contains a Quality Probiotic to naturally help soothe digestive upsets 24 7. Try align, the pros in digestive health. Covid has made clear that having Health Insurance is more important than ever. At covered california, every plan is comprehensive, covering everything from preventive care to mental health. And its the only place that offers financial help for Health Insurance. Enrollment is open due to covid19. If you or someone you know isnt covered, now is the time to sign up. Covered california. This way to Health Insurance. Enroll now at coveredca. Com. This was two weekends ago in West Virginia, a small protest targeting u. S. Senator joe manchin, pressuring him to vote against the voting Rights Bill that is sitting in the senate right now. The for the people act, hr1. The rally was organized by conservative groups not from West Virginia, they are based in d. C. In order to do the rally they had to bus people in. People that do not live in West Virginia to have, what they said, was a West Virginia rally. Why do you need fake protesters bussed in to pressure joe manchin. Arent there any locals agreeing with the republican Partys Position on this . Turns out that is a problem for them on this. When presented with a neutral description of hr1 people are generally supportive. The most worrisome part mentioned at the beginning of the presentation is that conservatives were actually as supportive as the General Public was when they read the neutral description of hr 1. Audio obtained by the New Yorker from a Strategy Session to try to figure out how they can stop the bill that is sitting in the senate right now that would protect Voting Rights nationwide. In addition to peoples right to vote it would dramatically overhaul Campaign Finance Law and plug the Flowing Faucet of Dark Money, a Life Source in republican politics over the past couple of decades, paid to help republican enact billionapproved policies all over the country with billionaire derived money they never have to disclose. That was the point of the meeting that you heard the audio from. Big money Groups Message tested ways to convince republican voters that the voting Rights Bill is bad. They are hoping negative public opinion against the voting Rights Bill Will Tank the bill. What they found when they message tested it is that even conservative voters liked the bill. They liked the idea of getting secret Dark Money out of politics, no matter how you try to spin it. Hr 1 stops billionaires from buying elections. Unfortunately we found that it is a winning message for the General Public and conservatives. A very large chunk of conservatives who are supportive of these efforts. So, you know, everything that people went through about the under the Dome Type of strategies on this. We think it makes a lot of sense, simply because winning over public support is incredibly difficult. Unfortunately we found it is a winning message from the public. You capture what the guy said at the end, we are going to need to use Under The Dome strategies. They mean things that just happen in congress that dont depend on public Opinion And Stuff happening in the streets organically or people showing their dissatisfaction with the bill. Real people will not be dissatisfied with the bill. They better figure out ways to kill it in washington without engaging actual voters. Even conservative voters like Dark Money out of politics. Nonpartisan administration of elections. Instead, they need other plans. Plans that do not involve the public. Will that work . O not involve Th Public will that work i always dreamed of having kids of my own. Now im ready for someone to call me mom. At Northwestern Mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. Jane mayer has had a lot of scoops. This is her headline on the current piece at the New Yorker. The latest scoop lays bare with tapes that the fact that the right Wing Funded Groups trying to stop passing bills to protect Voting Rights and force secret funding out of politics. Those right wing groups are flummoxed by the fact they do not have any good public arguments to make against what the democrats are trying to do and cant even convince conservative voters to side with them on this thing. How else are they going to fight it . Joining us is the Staff Writer of the New Yorker, the author of Dark Money hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right. Thank you so much for making time. Great to be with you, rachel and thank you so much for playing that tape. Just listening to the audio, you dont get to be in the Back Room behind the curtains that are usually closed like this very often. It was great that you played this for people to hear. I am not going to pressure you on the sources or ask you how you got it. It is amazing that you got it. Let me just ask you if this is sort of their m. O. , if this is the type of call, the type of research that these groups generally do. The type of Message Testing they do when they set out on a new political objective. Absolutely. This is the complete playbook. You have to understand that the groups are funded by some of the wealthiest people in the country, billionaires. They have endless resources. They can do all kinds of Research And Market testing and they look for the best possible selling line. What was so extraordinary, at least to me. They tried testing an argument against themselves, basically. They tried to test against a bill where the other argument is that it will stop billionaires from buying elections. Billionaires like themselves. They couldnt find an argument that convinced the public it was a better thing to have the billionaires buying the elections. That including not just Liberal Democrats or moderates but amazingly included conservatives who also turns out do not really want billionaires buying american elections. They were so frustrated by this. They lamented. They talked about how basically you really should not engage with the argument because you cant win it. It is better to just go inside the dome. We have to put the fix in in congress. Yeah. You pity the poor researcher who has been paid by the billionaires to go and figure out what sort of messages will work here. The researcher thats go back to the billionaires and say everybody that we talked to is really against you. Really against you and what you are doing. That has to be a difficult day at the office for those guys. When they were talking about an Under The Dome strategy. You need an Under The Dome strategy. What does that mean . Does that mean essentially a technical, Obstructionist Fight in washington that you can keep away from The Public Eye . I mean it means, among other things they will use the filibuster in order to, you know, make sure that they can count on basically almost all of the democrats, possibly not manchin, but they will need to filibuster the bill if they are going to stop it in congress and they may get manchin. He said a lot of things that are very good about Campaign Finance and about trying to get rid of Dark Money in politics. The democrats may get his vote. He is a democrat. They may be talking about the filibuster. I think what they are talking about is that public be dammed. Voterings might be in one place. We can count on the people that we fund to kill this for us. We can stop the bill by calling in our chips. Jane mayer with another unbelievable scoop and this Audio File that will live for the ages in terms of exposing this stuff. Thank you, jane. Great to be with you. We will be right back. Stay with us. We will be right back stay with us neither are resilient people. Theres strength in every family story. Learn more about yours. At ancestry. And in an emergency, they need a network that puts them first. Theres strength in every family story. That connects them to technology, to each other, and to other agencies. Thats why at t built firstnet with and for first responders the Emergency Response Network authorized by congress. Firstnet. Because putting them first is our job. [sfx psst psst] allergies dont have to be scary. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. Psst psst all good one last piece of news that has just broke tonight since we got on the air. Two Capitol Former president Donald Trump. These are Police Officers who were attacked and injured in the attack on the capitol january 6th. Their Lawsuit Tonight sues former President Trump for inciting that attack, essentially, and thereby causing injuries to these two officers and others. These officers are requesting a Trial By Jury in this lawsuit. Again, this just filed tonight. We have seen members of Congress File Suit against President Trump for his alleged role in inciting that attack. Now Capitol Police officers as well. Watch this space. Thats going to do it for us for now. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Good evening, lawrence. Good evening, rachel. Ive been waiting for that kind of lawsuit out of this,