we should point out nbc news has not yet verified that reporting half what we do have this afternoon is new reaction from a spokesperson for mark meadows. joining me now, luke broad january broadwater, matt miller, and joyce vance. luke, who exactly could be picking up these legal fees for at least it seems a dozen witnesses testifying before the january 6th committee? well, there are two funds that are funding witnesses lawyers. one is the save america pac which is run directly connected to donald trump. the other is the cpac first amendment fund which its director says consults with donald trump and donald trump s allies directly to decide which witnesses it will cover. so these are they offer both free legal advice to the witnesses and then also will pay for their attorneys fees if needed. this came to a head this week when cassidy hutchinson said she had to switch attorneys because she felt only with a new attorney could she be more forthright and testify publicly a
American covid deaths. Joining me now to talk about all of this, nbc White House Correspondent and weekend today cohost Peter Alexander and Washington Post White House Reporter ashley parker. Peter, and i should call you chief White House Correspondent, your title as of today, with kristen welker, so congratulations, the president refusing to follow in the footsteps of so many predecessors, still not conceding but acknowledging overnight in a video that there will be a new administration, while the pressure is mounting and theres pressure on his team not to jump ship. Now were even hearing that the without counsel cipollone is considering leaving. Can you take us through all of that . Reporter andrea, theres a lot to walk through given what weve seen in the course of the last 12 hours since the president posted that video overnight as you note, which was way different than the video earlier where he said of his supporters, many of them that turned into rioters, he said we love you, he
so that s the question we re exploring in this story. right, and we re going to get into this a little later, i ll throw that to matt miller in just a moment, because it s not necessarily uncommon for a third party to pick up legal fees as they did here. the question is do those lawyers have an interest for the party that is actually paying those legal fees. and you bring up cassidy hutchinson and the fact that she changed representation, and this idea that she may have chosen to testify publicly and deliver her testimony because of the change in her representation. yeah, absolutely. i mean, you know, we know from cassidy hutchinson and people close to her that she felt that she wanted to tell the committee more than she had in the first previous interviews. her first attorney was recommended to her by trump allies and was paid for by the trump pac. and she wanted to go back. so a friend of hers, alissa farrah, got cassidy hutchinson
republican national committee because they still have powell s lies in its social media feed. in a deposition for another related case, giuliani said he got his information about a former dominion employee having antifa ties from social media. those social media posts get all facebook, instagram, twitter social media postings or something else. i think it was facebook. he also admitted that he did not have the time, he said, to investigate the claims himself. alissa farrah was the white house communications director when all these lies were being fed to then-president trump. you saying that in november there seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment by the president that he lost, but then something changed. yeah. so something did change, and i think this was when the the more conspiracy theorist individuals started getting access to the president, the
related case, giuliani said he got his information about a former dominion employee having antifa ties from social media. those social media posts get all facebook, instagram, twitter social media postings or something else. i think it was facebook. he also admitted that he did not have the time, he said, to investigate the claims himself. alissa farrah was the white house communications director when all these lies were being fed to then-president trump. you saying that in november there seemed to be a tacit acknowledgment by the president that he lost, but then something changed. yeah. so something did change, and i think this was when the the more conspiracy theorist individuals started getting access to the president, the sydney powells, the mike lindells, michael flynns, and even steve bannon was in his ear. and it did take a turn. i think he believes it.