Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Senate POSTPONES Todd Blanche AG vote amid GOP REVOLT

Transcript

Senate POSTPONES Todd Blanche AG vote amid GOP REVOLT · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Very busy day of back and forth yesterday, ultimately leading
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to the Senate Judiciary Committee postponing the scheduled vote to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: advance the nomination of Todd Blanche as US Attorney General.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Came after two Republicans on the panel said they were
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: not ready to support him yet. The decision to delay
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the committee vote, which has been set for today, had
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: been set for today, comes after Senators John Cornyn and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Tom Tillis demanded Blanche and the DOJ put in writing
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a commitment never to pursue the controversial settlement of President.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Trump's lawsuit against the IRS.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: As acting Attorney General, Blanche oversaw that settlement, which created
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a now canceled he says nearly one point eight billion
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: dollar fund that could have benefited Trump's allies, as well
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: as blocked the IRS from auditing or taking other enforcement
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: actions related to tax returns filed by Trump, his family,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: or his business entities. Cornyn said it offered immunity unavailable
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to any other American taxpayer. Blanche has said the fund
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: has been eliminated, but declined to formally commit to that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in writing. With Republicans holding a narrow man majority on
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the committee, a single GOP vote could block his nomination.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It's there where I want to start with MS NOW
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Senior Legal reporter Lisa Rubin, Lisa, you and I were
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: following this back and forth yesterday wondering, Okay, are they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: going to do the vote today or not? It sounds
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: like they're not, even though what I see in what
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: these senators are saying is we want to get to yes.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: DOJ.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Todd Bledge please help us get there? And so what
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: is the thing that they are asking for here that
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: would actually get them to yes?
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: I think, Ellie, they're asking for some sort of commitment
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: in writing or a legislative fix to the Anti Weaponization
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Fund and that breath of that tax community that Todd
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Blanche issued to the President, not necessarily through the settlement itself,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: but through this addendum or memorandum that he signed as
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: the Attorney General. I'm not sure that the senators are
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: particularly fixated on how they get there, whether it's some
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: form of amendment to the settlement agreement itself or a
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: rescinding of that memo by Todd Blanche and some other commitment.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's even a piece of legislation that prevents Congress
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: from appropriating funds for anything aligned with or akin to
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: that anti weaponization fund. But whatever the solution is, you
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: heard it from Senator Cornyn himself. The Department of Justice
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: doesn't seem to have been as cooperative with him and
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: working toward that fix as he would want them to be.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: And you and I.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Both well know hell haf no scrutiny like a senator
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: scorned n John Cornyn having been primaried out by Ken
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Paxton with the support of the President, isn't particularly in
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: a mood to grant him any favors right now.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: The way that I've been thinking about the Cornins and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the Tillises, sometimes the Bill Cassidy's, the folks who are
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: not coming back to Congress for whatever Trump influenced reason,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: is that, yes, they might be more willing to speak
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: out against the party create hey, in moments like this,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: but ultimately they are still Republicans, And so I think
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: we've seen up to this point these people vote that way.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: This is I think the first true moment of watching
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a tangible impact of their dissonance or disagreements with the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: administration actually manifest in this case in a postponement. But
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: we'll see ultimately where the votes fall I think the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six fund is one piece of it, and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the ag has repeatedly tried to say it's moot, it's moot.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: My understanding now, if you listen to Corny and Tillis,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: is that they are actually more focused on the irs
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: tax piece of this, the one that would allow the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: president basically to be easy breezy with the irs for
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the rest of his life, as well as his sons
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and his companies. What is the fix to that, because
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: that feels a little bit more difficult than just saying
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the seventeen seventy six fund is dead and I promise
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: we'll never let people apply for funds.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Out of it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: You know what's so funny about that is that's the
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: easier thing to fix, because that is the immunity that
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: has been granted to him. Again from this side, memoranda,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: a one page agreements, not even an agreement because it's
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: not countersigned, a one page memo from the acting Attorney General.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: The breadth of that, the scope of that agreement. Todd
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Blanche has been insistent that it's within his paw as
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: the Attorney General to sign that. There are some folks
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: who question legally whether he could have done that because
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: it was not a matter that was referred to the
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Department of Justice for their enforcement. In any event, that's
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: something that Todd Blanche uniquely has the power to fix.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Why it is that his Department of Justice right now
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: isn't able to fix that to the Senator's satisfaction is
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: really one of the big question mark looming over my.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Head, looming over and yet I think there is an
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: explanation of the man in the Oval office might highly disagree.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And this has always been the box that Blanche has
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: been in. In order to get the job, He's going
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to need to make assurances to people who will give
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: him that job, the Senators, that could then alienate him
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: with the person who put him in that job in
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the first place, the President. There's another big story yesterday from.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: The Hill that I want to get you on.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Doctor Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than one
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: hundred times during a Senate hearing on the COVID nineteen pandemic.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: He was subpoena to testify by Republican Senator Rand Paul,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: who has had a year's long feud with Fauci, which
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the doctor addressed in his opening statem.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: reason he is calling me before this committee is to
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: repeated public pledges that I end up in his words
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: quote behind bars.
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: The questions are very pertinent to your decision making as
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: head of AID as well as as a chief advisor
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: to the President. Do you still refuse to answer the questions.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: On the Advisive Council? I respectfully decline to answer, based
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: The decline to answer, decline to answer, decline to answer.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: The Committee.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: We'll have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: should be taken against you for the failure to testify
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: after being directed to do so. It's against the law
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: to your refusal to testify today, Lisa.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I think people see doctor Anthony Fauci, first they question
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: what year am I in? But second they say, why
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: is there a legal reporter talking to me about a
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: public health officials testimony? And that's because this wasn't really
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: a hearing about public health. There were a lot of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: potential legal ramifications looming over it, including the idea that
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: some of these senators were saying the p word perjury.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Can you talk about the strategy of pleading the fifth
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and if it was the right one in your estimation.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Look, Ellie, I don't practice law anymore, but as a
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: former lawyer and someone who sometimes worked with criminal defendants
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: or people caught up in investigations, I do think it
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: was a legally smart thing to do. Ran Paul has
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: made no secret of his desire to see Anthony Fauci
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: held criminally liable for the actions that he took during
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the COVID nineteen crisis. And let me just introduce a
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: couple of variables that make it a smart thing to do.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: First of all, the pardon that he was given by
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: President Biden on January nineteenth of twenty twenty five only
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: were relates to his conduct in as a public health official.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: But looking backwards and so anything that he says or
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: does from that point forward is fair game for criminal prosecution,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: including possibly lying to Congress. There's also the possibility of
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: state investigations or prosecutions, as our colleague Jordan Rubin explored
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: in a column yesterday. You and I both know that
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: federal pardons have nothing to do with what states can do.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: That's what allowed a number of states to go after
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: President Trump and others in his circle with respect to
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: the twenty twenty federal election interference issues. And then there's
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: the final question about the validity of that pardon it all.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: This is the one that I think is legally on
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: the shakiest ground that you and I both know that
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: the President himself and others in his circle have repeatedly
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: emphasized their belief that the pardon that Joe Biden gave
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: to Anthony Fauci and others isn't valid, both because of
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: their perception of President Biden's mental state, as well as
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the fact that he used what's called an autopen and
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: didn't sign it by his own hand, but that a
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: machine did it on his behalf.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Which other presidents, including President Trump, have done over their tenures.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: We're going to keep watching that thread on the Hill.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: You don't practice law anymore because you do such great
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: reporting for US here at MS NOW, and you have
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a new report out that reveals Secret Service agents were
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: pressured to covertly surveil former FBI director James Comy. The
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: request came after Comy posted this Instagram photo last year
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: seashells arranged to read eighty six forty seven. President Trump
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: at his allies, claimed the post was a threat on
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the president's life. Of course, Comy has denied that. Internal
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: documents made public through court filings from Comy's legal team
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: revealed the Secret Service quote knowingly conducted illegal electronic surveillance
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of Komy at the request of a high level DOJ official.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Ms NOW has learned some Secret Service agents were concerned
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: about that request to secretly access Comy's phone and monitor him,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: arguing they didn't have the legal authority to track his
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: phone without a warrant.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Record show a top.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: DOJ official had agents track Comy despite those reservations. In
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a statement to ms NOW, a spokesperson for the Secret
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Service declined to comment, writing quote, we have great respect
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: for the judicial process. Because this matter is currently pending
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: before a federal court, any comments will be made.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Through our official court filings.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: The new documents, though, were released as part of Comey's
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: push to have the federal indictment.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Against him dismissed.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Talk to us more about this because on its face
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like they had what they needed to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: do this kind of surveillance.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: No, they didn't have what they needed to do this surveillance.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: So instead of going out to get a search warrant
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: from a court, what they did was apply to Verizon,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: which was Jim Comey's phone service provider, for what's called
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: an exigency exception that allowed them to literally ping his
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: cell phone as he and his wife Patrice were driving
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: back from North Carolina where they saw that shelf formation
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: to the Washington, d C.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Area.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: When they went to Verizon, they had to sign a
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: certification saying that this was the kind of emergency that
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: puts somebody's life or limb at risk. And yet the
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: internal documents that we've seen the Jim Comy attached to
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: his motion show that was very much in doubt within
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: the Secret Service, that there was an agent who memorialized
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: calls that he had with other people, where he and
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: others advised that this was legally questionable, it was legally
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: a bad idea. Our reporting and our sources at the
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Secret Service, and this is reporting I did with our
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: colleagues Carolinik and Val Gallagher illustrate that the concerns that
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: we see on paper attached to Comee's filings were you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: if those were at a four on paper, they were
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: at a ten within the agency, with people really really
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: struggling to understand why they would accommodate the president's wish
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: to investigate Jim Comey. And that directive from what somebody
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: says on paper was the top the number three guy
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: at the Department of Justice.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: We don't know who they were referring to.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: The number three guy at DJ is usually the Associate
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Attorney General. That's a civil position, So again we don't
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: know who they were referring to, but it was the
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: perception of those within the Secret Service they were being told,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: despite your misgivings, you go out, you do this. Don't
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: go to a court, don't you go straight to Hoverizon.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: You tell them this is an emergency. And that's what
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: led to Jim Comy's phone literally being pinged as he
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: drives back up the coast back to him Helm in
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Washington to have a voluntary interview with the Secret Service.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to have We have so many more
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: questions now in light of this reporting and the documents
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: that Comy's team is filing and is now senior legal
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: reporter Lisa Rubin, catching us up to date at least
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: on this latest chapter.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you,