House. Okay. What we are learning about what the doj was looking for on Jeffrey Clarks phone, plus the decision from trumps judge on the Special Master as the ex president threatens against potential indictment. If it happened, i think you would have problems in this country the likes of which, perhaps, we have never seen before. What kind of problems, mister president . I think he would have big problems. And 54 days to election day, new research on just how much abortion is animating and independents, when all in starts right now good evening from new york, im chris hayes. These days, it can be tough to keep track of all the people in Donald Trumps circle who have had their personal devices searched or seized in connection with one of the multiple ongoing investigations into the ex president s wrongdoing. It feels like i follow this for a living and i am reminded or learn of a new one almost every day. Recently, we have added an exceedingly colorful characters that group. You might know who i am talking about mike lindell. He is, of course, the rightwing pillow guy, whose ads run so often on fox news. Hes basically the cohost of the hour. And while mike lindell is a ridiculous figure, he is also one of the most prominent Election Deniers in the country. What he is up to is definitely not funny after. The 2020 election, lindell toward the country spreading Donald Trumps lies and helping to foment the coup. He also presented Conspiracy Theory after Conspiracy Theory to donald trump, a week after january 6th, after the blood on the capitol, and the broken windows, and the deaths of people he was spotted at the white house, holding a paper with the phrases, Insurrection Act and martial law if necessary, branded on them. Back in january of this year, at the January 6th Committee subpoenaed lindells phone records. And this week, lindell revealed that fbi agents seized his cell phone while he was in the drivethrough of a hardees in minnesota. The fbi came after me and took my phone and surrounded me at a hardees and took my phone i went on my business, everything went, they could have what they have done is weaponized the fbi. Its disgusting. I dont have a computer. Everything i do, on my phone, everything was on there and they told me not to tell anybody. There was an order, dont tell anybody. Okay, i wont. I am. So in fact, mike lindell has done the opposite of what he said the fbi asked, speaking publicly about whatever happened on every tv program that will have him. And of course, they will all have them, because theyre all hooked on those sweet ad dollars from mustache pillow. Com. Im not sure what they are going to find on your phone but they are going to find nothing. They are going to find a lot of promo codes for a lot of at my pillow. Newsmax has been great, by the way. Promo code, newsmax. Always me closing, mike. To be fair, he has been generous with the promo codes and has apparently done some of those promo codes to his defenders in trump world, like Rudy Giuliani, who tweeted, quote, breaking news, the fbi seized Mike Lindells phone. Fight back by Shopping Rudy at my pillow to support. I have to say, we have talked about this in the editorial meeting there was some debate about whether this was real. Could that possibly be real . But you know what, it is 2022. Of course it is real. Of course Rudy Giuliani is tweeting out a My Pillow Rudy promo code mike lindell also revealed what the fbi agents asked him about at that hardees drivethrough in minnesota. He told former Trump White House strategist churned podcast podcast or Sebastian Gorka they are all podcasters. Tina peters. Did the agent ever tell you why the hell they were stopping you . They and then they asked me, what is this about . Then they asked me, when i met tina peters. I said, you are the fbi, you know i met her at the Cyber Symposium A year ago. Of course you know that. Everybody knows that. Okay, so, tina peters, who is she . She was one of the speakers at that election conspiracy Cyber Symposium As he euphemistically called it. Mike lindell put that together last august. And that was where he claimed that he would reveal this definitive, demonstrative proof that the 2020 election was stolen from donald trump. And of course, you know, like all of this, there it is all nonsense, theres no evidence. Its made up. Lies lies, lies, lies. Tina peters, though, is a really important figure. Because she is not just another one of these obsessive Coup Plotting Pro insurrection cranks. She is one of the few people in that world who had actual power overseeing actual elections. And according to court filings, she abuse that power. Quote, devising and executing a deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breached Security Protocols, exceed permissible access to Voting Equipment, and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people. Prosecutors allege that in may of 2021, peters gave an unauthorized man access to the counties secure elections area, where Voting Equipment was stored. That man made copies of Voting Equipment servers, passwords from that equipment were later posted online by a leading figure in the qanon Conspiracy Theory. Tina peters has since said she was concerned that the company that makes these Voting Machines is going to delete record from the 2020 election. She apparently believed in debunked Conspiracy Theory that the company was involved in speech stealing the election from donald trump. In march, peters was indicted by a mesa county grand jury. She faced ten counts, including seven Felony Charges of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and identity theft. She pleaded not guilty to those charges. This video comes from february, of the grand jury investigation, when peters was arrested after refusing to allow police to carry out a Search Warrant for her ipad. Now tina peters has since been stripped of her duties overseeing elections as county clerk. And that ruling came as a result of a lawsuit brought by colorado Secretary Of State jena griswold, who i am going to speak to in just a few moments. And peters actually tried to Challenge Griswold for that position Secretary Of State running for a republican nomination for Secretary Of State. She lost that primary in june and accused state Election Officials, of course, of cheating. So, tina peters is an important figure here, right . She is the sort of overlap between, like, ludicrous my pillow election qanon, Cult Conspiracy World and actual Election Officials in america. She is one who had power that did by Donald Trumps election lies. She was willing to do elect his bidding and use her power to, allegedly, corruptly infiltrate the actual Voting Machines, to turn over that information. That is incredibly dangerous. I think it is pretty important that, if these charges are true, that tina peters is held to account, as a deterrent, if nothing else, a warning to any other Election Officials and remember there are thousands across this country who may be tempted to follow suit. That is especially true because there may soon be more of them. According to a new report, Election Deniers are on the ballot this november in 27 states, seeking positions that will oversee, defend or certify elections. They include, to name just one example, mark finchem, thats republican amani for arizona Secretary Of State, who says joe biden did not win in 2020. And just recently accused former Vice President mike pence of trying to steal the presidency in 2024. In michigan, the republican candidate for attorney general, Matthew Deperno not only denies the Election Results hes also under Criminal Investigation for potentially tampering with Voting Machines. Sounds familiar . Used in 2020. So, its not just my pillow guy and his goofy acolytes. These are people who, like tina peters, could pose a serious threat to democratic legitimacy, to the administration of our elections. And they are gunning for real power. Jena griswold is Secretary Of State in colorado. She also chairs the Democratic Association of secretaries of state. And she joins me now. Secretary griswold, it is good to have you. First, one thing that strikes me as i think about what happened in 2020 and i think about the number of people that signed up for this almost cult like obsession with the election, is that tina peter sticks out as a relatively rare example of an actual official who went along with it. I mean, in most cases, across the ideological spectrum, seeing in your state of colorado, it does seem like officialdom held that the people who were tasked with his very important duty across the ideological spectrum did truck with his nonsense and other job. Is that basically your sense as well . First, off chris, thank you for having me on. Especially for a spot that involves burgers and seizing phones and drivethroughs. I think you are right. In 2020, Civil Servants and elected officials rejected the lies coming out of the white house, to make sure that americans could both vote safely and securely during a pandemic and with a sitting president trying to seize the presidency. Tonight we saw Civil Servants stand up and reject trumps orders. We also saw republicans access. But there has been a major shift since then. We see the Big Lies Spreading and repeating over and over and over. So, you start to see elected officials like tina peters embrace it. In colorados experience, the first insider threat, but unfortunately, we have seen more of them across the United States and an additional one in the state of colorado. Yeah, we should note that we have covered here, Coffee County in georgia is another state we, are apparently, we have Video ShowingElection Officials allowing outsiders to come, infiltrate those machines, and take data. There is another one in another county in colorado. So, it has not moved in the right direction. Particularly important part of this, are, of course, secretaries of state. This is interesting. This is back from february and i imagine the numbers of 2020, that more and more money is going into these races, secretaries of state races. This is all back in february of 2020. But they are three times higher than they were at this point in the 2018, cycle eight times higher than 2014. That is from two years ago. I have got to imagine more current data would show that this cycle we are seeing something similar. How important are these races and how much money is going into them . These races are incredibly important. And what we are seeing, as you noted in arizona, nevada, michigan, minnesota, new mexico, Election Deniers are running to be chief election officers. And what we can expect from them is to destabilize elections and be more beholden tomorrow logo than the american people. And make no mistake, this is part of a larger effort. The big lie has been used to suppress the vote, threaten election workers, incentivize Insider Threats like in mesa county. And this is all to destabilize the country so that the next time a president ial candidate or frankly any candidate does not want to accept the results, it will be easier for them to hold on to power. The big challenge, it strikes me here, is that i think a lot of voters dont really know what secretaries of state to do or that it is that important or that you know, i think in a normal Secretary Of State election, its like, well, its kind of an administrative job, they are not setting a Secretary Of State is not going to set abortion policy in my state, right . So, you may think the stakes are not that high. You may not know what they do and you may not have an idea that you are choosing between someone who fundamentally believes in liberal democracy and Self Governance and someone who is, like, fundamentally on the record as bring being pro coup. How worried are you about how inform voters are as they go into chasing, in the states, that are 50 50 tossup states, like arizona . Well, one thing before answering your direct question i did to join the governor of colorado, governor polis, saying that colorado would not extradite for the criminalization of abortions in other states. Im very prochoice a very proud of that and will always stand with families, women and children. But when it comes to the general knowledge of these positions, secretaries of state were thrust in the forefront of American Media and thought in 2020, we did this heroic efforts to make sure that every eligible republican, democrat and unaffiliated could vote. And as a nation, we succeeded in safeguarding democracy. And right now, the top issue On Americans Minds is democracy. The very foundation the ideal that every day people get to choose their elected officials and then hold them accountable at the ballot box is at risk in many states in this country. So, i have total faith in the american people, and many of them will have candidates on their ballots this Election Cycle in november, who are big lie candidates. So, voters really need to Pay Attention to who they are voting for, whether it is local county clerk, to Secretary Of State, to attorney general and governor. And i have confidence that americans are going to reject to this extremism and save american democracy in november. Final question for you you mentioned another Colorado County where Something Like this has happened. Which county . What has happened there . We saw a second insider threat. So, we are county clerk breached Security Protocols in albert county. I will tell you, when i address the situation in mesa county this was the first insider election reach in the entire country i acted decisively. My job as Secretary Of State is to make sure that every eligible voter, republican, democrat, and unaffiliated, has access to safe and secure elections. So, we petitioned a judge to remove that county clerk from oversight. He did certified all the Voting Equipment in mesa county and then asked my 2018 republican opponent to step in. Chris, i also lead the nations first law on its own felony to compromise Voting Equipment in the state of colorado or publish private passwords to the Voting Equipment. And like you mentioned, these Insider Threats, they are spreading across the nation, and we really urge other states to take action as quickly as possible and make sure that their laws are ready to handle this evolving threat. Yeah. Yeah. This doesnt make me feel threat, that there has been more than one of those. Secretary of state jena griswold, thank you very much. Thank you. As the ex president makes threats about what could happen if he is indicted, the january 6th Committee Releases new video that shows how farright extremists were hanging on Donald Trumps every word as they invaded the capitol. Trump just tweeted, please support our capitol police, they are on our side. Do not harm them. Thats saying a lot, but what he didnt say he didnt say not to do anything to the congressman. [laughs] if there is such a prosecutor and they indict you, with that deter you from running for president again . I dont think the people of the United States would stand for it. And as you know, if nothing like that happened, i would have no prohibition against running. You know that . I do. Thats what i want people to understand. That would not take you out of the arena. It would not. But i think, if it happened, i think you would