really was. from this latest discovery we have one johnny mcentee to thank, trump s director of personnel by the end. we now now mcentee s testimony before the committee revealed that the twice-impeached disgraced ex-president in his final hours in office floated the idea of a blanket pardon for the breach of the united states capitol. there was a vice of dissent to that idea, white house counsel pat cipollone. he rejected the idea. our friend luke broad water of the new york times reports this, quote, mcentee recalled cipollone also rejected trump s idea that all white house staff should be pardoned, even those who have played no role in the president s push to overturn the 2020 election. quote, i remember cipollone questioning on that, well, why does anyone need a pardon, mr. mcentee recalled, adding that the president had responded, well, just so they can t go after them for any little thing. and i think cipollone said, yeah, but no one here has done anything wrong. the
states to change the outcomes of their elections. pete, barbara s analysis is correct as it always is, but corrupt intent was trump s brand. it still is. we know from witness after witness after witness that he lost and he knew he lost. we know from witness after witness after witness, at least three, that he knew the eastman plot was illegal. we know from witness after witness i think after witness that he knew the doj plot was i mean, all that we have been presented with by this committee is his knowledge of illegality and that the things he was saying were lies. how much trouble do you think he is in in this georgia investigation? well, i think he could potentially be in a lot of trouble. i think much like the federal case, the georgia case is going to rely on having people who can, one, help build that circumstantial case. there is not going to be something, some email or text or statement that trump made saying i illegally want you to do this
nothing wrong, nothing illegal, why on earth would they need a blanket pardon on the way out of door? it s where we begin today with new york times congressional reporter luke broad water who is here he shares a by line on that reporting we shared with you on pardons, robert mcquaid is back, a former u.s. soern, now law professor at the university of michigan and msnbc legal analyst. katty kay is here u.s. special correspondent for bbc studios as well as an msnbc contributor pulling a true double today. and pete struck a former fbi counterintelligence agent. luke broad water i have to start with you. it feels like this whole topic of pardons was very well-deployed by the committee but in some ways saving some of this evidence for the very end. that not only did he know he lost, he knew that he and his aides had likely committed crimes. right. well, you know, as the january 6th committee is releasing these
that we have. luke, playing the where s waldo of the criminal investigations into the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election is once again mark meadows. in the georgia probe, he want to georgia ahead of that call, he was on the call with raffensperger. what is meadows exposure and is his attorney still representing him as far as you know? into my understanding is that he still has the same attorney representing mark meadows and he was probably instrumental in convincing the justice department not to charge him with contempt of congress because he did turn over some of those documents to to the committee and did cooperate to an extent and so likely made it a contempt of congress charge not as easy as it would have been had he flatly refused to supply at all, which is what steve bannon did and ultimately
them to do the right thing and, two, if they won t then the political party will do the right thing. i believe, i firmly believe, maybe this is my hope and optimism and belief that his tenure in the u.s. house of representatives will be a short one for a variety of reasons, not because the republicans will hold them accountable, because how do they sustain this? think about this, nicolle, what committee do they put this guy on that every single day of the week they re not going to have a problem? they can t put him on foreign intelligence because this guy makes up stuff. they can t put him on education, is that bhau want teaching our children? i mean, you look at every single committee, it s another headache, but it goes to something i think you are aiming at which is we have a political party today, the republicans, whose drive to get power knows no ends, i mean, knows no means that they won t agree to. that s what this is. they agreed to all the stuff that we all know that they didn