Accomplices ended up trying to stop the investigation. They tried to stop the criminal investigation into what had happened. When they say about watergate the coverup was worse than the crime, this is what thats about. It was spelled out in the first article of impeachment brought against nixon. Richard m. Nixon using the powers of his office engaged personally and through his close subordinates interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the department of justice, the federal bureau of investigation, the office of Watergate Special prosecution force and congressional committees. Endeavoring to interfere. That was the first article of impeachment against nixon. Obstruction of justice. In the aftermath of watergate, in the aftermath of nixons resignation, in the aftermath of that National Political disaster, there were a bunch of political reforms. And one of the reforms was a structural, basically technical fix to head off some of the sins outlined in that first article of impeachment, the issue of the president interfering in this case specifically with the fbi and the department of justice in one of their investigations. In the 1970s, in the aftermath of watergate, they started putting rules in place to stop that from happening again. To specifically limit contact between the white house and the Justice Department when it came to either ongoing or pending investigations. As these rules have evolved over the years, there have been become areas that are carved out there. Have been exceptions made for matters of National Security and things that are imminently important to the president being able to do his work as president but beyond those carveouts, they set in place these new rules, restricting communication between the white house and the department of justice on pending justice investigations. Current investigations. Its interesting the way those rules worked. Its one thing to talk about that as a principle. Its another thing to figure out how to enact it. They put the responsibility for handling those communications properly, they put the responsibility for that on a very small handful of highly trusted, highly ranked public officials. After that, they said only a very small number of people in the Justice Department could have contact with people on the white house and on the white house side there were only four people who were allowed to contact the Justice Department about some specific criminal investigation. Four specific people. One, the president s lawyer, counsel to the president , two, that counsels deputy. Three, the president. And, four, the Vice President. Thats it. Those are the specific four people who were allowed to contact the Justice Department or the fbi about some ongoing criminal investigation, nobody else could. You had to be that trusted. You had to be that big a deal to be able to make that kind of contact. After the watergate disaster, after all the ways nixon impede it had rule of law, after all the ways nixon tried to strangle the investigations that ultimately brought him down, this was an important postwatergate reform. Preserve the independent letting them do their job. Particularly when an investigation involves the white house but also in general the white house shouldnt be able to steer prosecutions, right . Shouldnt be able to steer investigations. The rule of law should be independent. The Justice Department should be independent. That rule put in place firmly and through this interesting mechanism in the aftermath of watergate. And for good reason. That said, nothing lasts forever. One of the scandals of the george w. Bush era is that they let that rule, they let that postwatergate reform slide. Do you remember there was a scandal in the george w. Bush administration about them making federal prosecutor jobs, u. S. Attorney jobs, making those jobs into political plums they handed out. Remember the phrase loyal bushys. In the george w. Bush Administration One of their big scandal was they filred perfecty competent prosecutors and replaced them with political hacks who they liked. Raising clouds of suspicion that those loyal bushy very republican favorited new federal prosecutors would pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions that were favored by the white house for some reason. Its funny. It hasnt been that many years, given what happened in the george w. Bush administration, everything from iraq to torture to everything dick cheney touched, i mean, all the rest of it over the years its been interesting to see how this one particular george w. Bush administration scandal, the u. S. Attorney scandal, it has faded from view. But it really was a big deal. It led to the resignation of an attorney general. And it was just a it was a bad issue to have a scandal on, right . This is a bad corrosive unamerican kind of scandal. It wasnt just about petty politics. It was about petty politics but it wasnt just about petty politics. It was one of these things that hurt the independence of Law Enforcement. Which is a fundamental thing in our country, we dont have politicized prosecutions, we dont have politicized criminal investigations, the rule of law is independent, nonpartisan and not directed by any elected official, right . So it was a bad scandal. One of the ways the scandal got brewing in the george w. Bush administration is they they threw out that postwatergate reform that limited the number of people that could speak to each other between the Justice Department and the white house. In george w. Bushs first tomorrow, his attorney general was John Ashcroft. John ashcroft looked at that postwatergate rule that said only four people in the white house could talk with the Justice Department about pending cases and John Ashcroft decided he would expand the number of white house officials who had permission to contact justice. He would expand that number of people who had that permission from four people to 417 people. Under John Ashcroft they went from four to 100 times that number. 417 officials could call the Justice Department, call the fbi, get information on, communicate to investigators about specific criminal investigations. Then in. With. Second term, he expanded it further. He increased the number of people from 417 to 895. Basically everybody up to and including the white house pastry chef was not cleared to get read in on ongoing criminal cases and pending criminal investigations, to get involved in those investigations, to get their mitts in there. There were a lot of bad things about the george w. Bush administration but this, i think, often overlooked scandal, this was a really, really bad thing about that. Them dropping the wall between justice between the fbi and what ended up being partisan white house meddling. That was a big mistake they made. A bad move. They paid for it. The u. S. Attorney scandal was a big deal. It led to the resignation of attorney general Alberto Gonzalez. It led to the resignation of karl rove. Thats why karl rove had to leave the bush white house. Karl rove got subpoenaed to testify about the u. S. Attorney scandal, never responded to the subpoena and instead he just quit. A lot of us thought the george w. Bush administration would collapse without karl rove, it didnt and thats the way it had to go. And its interesting. They course corrected before the end of that administration. After Alberto Gonzalez lost his job over that scandal they had to bring in a new attorney general to replace him, that was Michael Mukasey. He surveyed the wreckage that led to the previous a. G. Having to resign and Michael Mukasey decided to put back in place those old rules. Those old postwatergate rules. So starting in 2007 the white house went back to the old postwatergate rules. They reestablish it had principle in the white house cant just get in on fbi and Justice Department investigations willynilly anymore. They reinstated that old strict limitation that only those top four people, the president , the Vice President , president s counsel and that counsels deputy, those four people only can make a call to the Justice Department about an Ongoing Investigation. They made carveouts for National Security and stuff but in general they reinstated that rule because of the scandal that they had only just barely survived and that some prominent members of the george w. Bush administration did not survive. But i think its fair to say they also reinstated that rule because it was plainly the right thing to do. Its such a serious thing. Its such a fundamental thing in terms of who we are as a country that weve got a Justice Department that is independent. Weve got federal Law Enforcement that is independent, that has loyalties only to the rule of law and that operates independent of partisan meddling. They screwed that up in the george w. Bush administration but in 2007 the rules were back in effect, in 2008 we had a president ial election, in 2009 eric holder came in as the attorney general, eric holder right after he started as attorney general reiterated that that postwatergate rule would stay in place and the Obama Administration as well, they were not going to mess with it. Only the president , the Vice President , the president s counsel and that counsels deputy, only they can contact the Justice Department on a pending matter or a current investigation. As far as we know in the absence of any proclamation to the contrary from this new administration, as far as we know, thats still the rule. But cnn reports tonight and nbc news has now confirmed that maybe its not the rule. We dont know that theyve changed the rule but it seems pretty clear tonight that theyre not following that rule. Cnn reports tonight that white house chief of staff Reince Priebus earlier this month leaned on the fbi personally and specifically about contacts between the Trump Campaign and russia. Cnn was first to report this, nbc news has confirmed it. The story is a white house official, cnn says specifically its Reince Priebus, a white house official contacted the Deputy Director of the fbi and told that Deputy Director that the fbi should make public statements about their Ongoing Investigation. About this ongoing question of trump staffers communicating with russian government or intelligence officials during the president ial campaign while russia was working to influence the outcome of our president ial election campaign. The question of those contacts between the Trump Campaign and russian government, those contacts are the subject of multiple ongoing fbi investigations. According to the reporting this evening, the white house told the fbi they should publicly knock down press reports about contacts between the Trump Campaign and russia. Again, the fbi is currently investigating contacts between the Trump Campaign and russia. You want us to do what now . The fbi Deputy Director and this is confirmed by both cnn and nbc the fbi Deputy Director refused that request from the white house. Said no, were not going to do what you want on this investigation. And now, of course, unnamed officials are telling reporters at multiple news organizations about the white house leaning on the fbi with regard to this incredibly important incredibly sensitive investigation. You cant do that. I mean, one, take a civics class, as a matter of principle. When there is an ongoing Serious Investigation that affects the president , you cant have the president s chief of staff meddling in that investigation or giving directives to the people conducting that investigation. Just as a matter of basic principle. Ask a fifth grader. As a matter of the rules, though, it would appear somebody like Reince Priebus is not cleared in any circumstance to be talking to the fbi. About any of their investigations. Unless Jeff Sessions changed the rules without telling anybody. This happens in the broader context of Jeff Sessions, the new attorney general, refusing to recuse himself from overseeing these multiple investigations into the Trump Campaign and their contacts with russia even though he himself was part of the Trump Campaign when they were reportedly making contact with russia. Couple that with the white house leaning on the fbi about these investigations overtly, thats as serious as a heart attack. That said, maybe its not a heart attack, maybe its gas. Sometimes a gas pain can feel like a heart attack. You think its the most serious thing in the world but its just a little body burp. Oops, how did that happen . Okay, to extract myself from this metaphor here, what im trying to say is this could be death of the republic. This could also just be stupidity. Benefit of the doubt. You really dont know this is a problem . Is it possible the white house, including the white house chief of staff doesnt know you cant tell the fbi what to do about their Ongoing Investigation into the white house . You cant give them directives about that . You cant nudge them on their investigation. You cant tell them what Public Comment to make about that investigation. Could it be the white house, including the chief of staff doesnt get that thats a bad . Oops, my bad, sorry, didnt mean to interfere. Am i not supposed to . Thats the best Case Scenario here. Presumably that will be their defense. On matter this is serious, its unsettling to be caught between on the one hand this could be the death of the republic on the other hand, these crazy kids, they dont know what theyre doing, they dont understand the first thing about america. But those are your options. Thats where we are at with the investigations into trump and russia. But thats weirdly where were at on the handful of other big National Security matters in a way thats unsettling either way. Take this report from politico. Com which says the chief digital officer at the white house was removed from his white house job after being unable to pass an fbi background check. This is the second report from politico on this subject in the last week or so. They reported last week that not just one or two but six white house officials were dismissed all at once, all for failing to pass an fbi background check. From politicos reporting we have the name and title of two of what they say are these six people. One of them was the director of scheduling for the president. That name was reported last week. Today theyve reported the name of the white house chief digital officer. Both of them reportedly being fired for the same reason. Politico reports these two white house staffers were among six white house staffers who got marched out of the white house complex we believe on thursday, february 9, after all of them failed to pass fbi background checks. I should tell you, that that jibes with our reporting here at msnbc which we have been working to confirm. We have reporting that indicates that at least three other people, white house staffers, at least three other people in addition to this chief digital officer, we have reporting that indicates they were marched out of the white house two weeks ago on february 9 after their fbi background checks turned up unfavorable or disqualifying or troubling information. We are advised by former white house officials tonight that while its not unheard of for an individual staffer here and there to have a problem with an fbi background check six people inside the white house failing all at once . After already being on the job at the white house . And all of them getting picked up at their desks and marched out . Six of them at once . Were advised that that is unusual. We have found no press reporting to indicate anything like this has happened before. Why are all these people failing their fbi background checks already working in the white house . Why did this white house hire such an unusually large number of people who cant pass fbi back ground checks. . Is that nefarious . Is that stupid . Is this an indication of something really, really, wrong and worrying or is it an indication of incompetence and stupidity . You tell me. Which do you prefer . This follows news that before Michael Flynn was fired as National Security adviser, one of the top level staffers he hired on the National Security council, a senior director position at the National Security council, was denied his request for a security clearance. One of flynns top staffers at the nsc lost his Security Council job because he couldnt get a security clearance. Why was this administration trying to put people in the top levels of the National Security council who couldnt qualifying if qualify for a security clearance. Is that nefarious or just stupid and incompetent . Which do you prefer . Peter baker at the New York Times reports today on efforts to try to salvage the National Security council in the wake of mike flynns disastrous not even one month long tenure in the job as National Security adviser leading the nsc. Peter baker reports the very, very controversial decision by the Trump White House to reorganize the nsc, to take out the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the cia director and the director of national intelligence, to take them all off the Principals Committee at the National Security council and instead to put steve bannon on the Principals Committee, peter baker reports today that reorganization is something they might have kind of oopsed their way into. They may not have fully understood it when they did it. The president may not have understood it when he signed the order to make the change. President trump was surprised by the intensity of the blowback to the initial order and complained that Michael Flynn had not made him understand the significance of the changes. Or how they would be perceived. Trumps team did not intend to reduce the role of the intelligence director of the joint chiefs chairman. In crafting their organization order, trumps aides essentially cut and pasted language from an Old Organization chart. The trump team did not realize who they were cutting out of the nsc by doing it that way. As a practical matter, mr. Trumps aides may not have intended a substantive change. So turning the National Security council inside out, throwing out the military and the Intelligence Community in favor of steve bannon, that could be quite nefarious or might be they accidentally tied one shoe lace from the right shoe to the other shoe lace from the left shoe and when they started running how come i keep falling down . Oh, these crazy kids, we didnt realize thats what were doing. Which is it . On all of these National Security matters your choices are super scary or super dumb. Which is going to keep you up at night . And i have one more of these tonight and this is the most serious of all. This happens to be life or death. That story is next. I am totally blind. And sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. This is called non24. Learn more by calling 8448242424. Or visit your24info. Com. Mattress firmness . Fortunately theres a bed where you both get what you want every night. 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The pentagon says there was also a high civilian death not this raid including a significant number of women and children. The raid went bad from the beginning. They lost the element of surprise. The seals ended up being in a sustained fire fight. They lost an osprey, a 75 million piece of equipment, ultimately destroyed by a u. S. Air strike so it wouldnt fall into the hands on the ground of anyone in yes, maam. We previously reported that the white house appears to have lied about the process that led to that raid being o. K. d by the brand new president. White house Spokesman Sean Spicer said it was green lit specifically by the Obama Administration. He said a deputys meeting at the National Security council on january 6 when obama was still president gave the o. K. For that raid. Thats where the yes had come from to let that raid go ahead. Blame obama, it was green lit by the deputies meeting of his National Security council. Well, a person who was at that deputies meeting at the National Security council on january 6 later came forward, among other places on this program, to tell us that what the white house was saying about that was not true. He told us he was there in person, that specific day at that specific meeting and the operation was not green lit at that meeting. He says what they decided at the deputies meeting that day, at the National Security council, was that they were just going to forward information about this possible raid to the Trump Administration expecting that the new administration would hold a deliberate process to evaluate whether or not it should go ahead. Once he was sworn in in his first week in Office Rather than convene any sort of formal deliberate process with any sort of structure to evaluate the risks and benefits, to make that decision, instead the president decided to green light that operation over dinner at a dinner meeting in the white house residence that involved, among other people, steve bannon and the president s soninlaw jared. The white house since admitted that when the raid happened the president decided that he apparently didnt need to observe any of it, he did not bother going the situation room while the raid was under way. At Huffington Post they have reverse engineered the timeline of that raid and found that not only was the president admittedly not in the situation room observing anything about his First Military operation while the raid was under way but during the time of the fire fight that killed the navy seal and all those other people and sent all those other navy seals home wounded, what the president it was doing during that time was apparently tweeting. I will be interviewed by the brodie file on the Christian Broadcasting Network tonight at 11 00 p. M. Enjoy. That was about a half hour into the raid. Later on, apparently still during the raid he actually deleted that tweet because the first time he tweeted it it was wrong, that interview wasnt going to air that night, it wasnt going to air until the following night so he had to make sure he cleaned that up. Attention to detail there on the tweet about his tv interview. This kind of indifference to the life and death responsibilities of the presidency, where do you put that on the number line in terms of your concerns about this administration . Is that nefarious . Death of the republic stuff . Is it just wild reckless incompetence . Is there a difference in terms of what youre most concerned about on matters of National Security like this . On lifeanddeath matters like this . Im starting to feel on matters like this that maybe there isnt a difference between how nefarious it is and how stupid it is. Joining us now is that National Security adviser who was in that january 6 meeting about the yemen raid, his name is colin call, former Deputy Assistant to president obama and National Security adviser to Vice President biden. Hes now a professor at Georgetown University school of foreign service. Professor call recently wrote an article in Foreign Policy magazine entitled president trumps terrible one month report card. Thank you for joining us tonight, appreciate you being here. Great to be with you. So the last time you were here, you talked about what the white house was explaining about this yemen raid that went so wrong. Ka what they explained about the deliberative process, what they tried to attribute to you, to the National Security council saf at the white house under president obama. What weve learned since then makes me feel worse about the process, makes me feel worse about the loss of life and what went fwlong that raid but i wanted to get your take on it as somebody who has been so up close to these decisions. I think what that raid demonstrates is that bad process can cost lives and i know it sounds banal and bureaucratic to talk about meetings but you really do need to do your home work. President obama used to say you have to measure twice before you cut once and theres not a lot of examples of the Trump Administration doing that so r far. Now, well see whether the new National Security adviser starts to change that. I have heard good things about things hes doing but im not convinced hell corral the process yet. One of the things that was reported today about the new National Security adviser general mcmaster and the task ahead of him also made he feel worse about where we are now bauds there was a reorganization at the National Security council that sidelined people like the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the director of national intelligence, it brought on board the president s controversial and fairly radical chief counselor steve bannon, gave him a seat on the committee. The reporting now seems to indicate that when the changes were made, including an order signed by the president , they may have not have fully understood the implication of those changes, it may have been by accident. Peter baker at the New York Times reports today they didnt know they were sidelining the military and the Intelligence Community by making these changes. Is is that conceivable to you . I suppose ignorance is no defense, but ignorance in this case is their defense. Rachel, i think the opening of the show where you kind of put forward these two hypothe s hypotheses, is it incompetence or malice, i think the answer is yes. Its both incompetence and malice. And theres a lot of instances in which you have people at the very top of the white house who dont know what theyre doing. They didnt think they were going to win, they havent been in government before, they werent prepared to govern. And theyre not doing it very well. Then you have people who the things they are getting done are very bad and theyre meant to be that way, the executive order, the ban, some of the other issues. You heard Steve Bannons comments today about complaining about corporatist globalist media and everything else. They want to tear everything down. So the problem is you have an administration that combines the worst of kind of incompetence with some nefarious intentions. I hope that they can get some of the process corralled. Ill give you one example. Hr mcmaster, a highly regarding military officer, hes a normal human being. Hes smart, strategic, pragmatic, he had all hands with the National SecurityCouncil Staff today and said a lot of the right things. Including saying he doesnt believe that they should be using the term radical islamic terrorist because he believes folks theyre fighting are unislamic. The problem is, thats not what steve bannon believes, not what people like Stephen Miller believes. So are you going to run a normal process with normal respected thoughtful people or are you going to continue to kind of have the clown posse at the top of the white house . Colin kahl, former Deputy Assistant to president obama, National Security council veteran, National Security advisor to Vice President biden, thanks for helping us understand this. Appreciate you being here tonight. Thanks. Professor kahl may have made news talking about h. R. Mcmaster, we heard he was going to do this all hands meeting with the National SecurityCouncil Staff today. We just heard he told the staff today he does not think they should be using the term radical islamic terrorism. That, of course, was a campaign touchstone for this president and has been since hes been in office. Well see if that conflict emerges in public. Stay with us. Its an important question you ask, but one i think with a simple answer. We have this need to peek over our neighbors fence. And once we do, we see wonder waiting. Every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. Bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. So, the question you asked me. What is the key . Its you. 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But whether or not David Richert was in that office, and were not sure, he didnt come out, Seattle Times said today neither richert nor his staff emerged from the suburban office which was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape and guarded by police officers. Congressman dave richert of washington had refused to hold face to face meetings with his constituent this is year. He called town hall events shouting matches with no productive results. He fielded constituent questions without his constituents present today in a oneonone chat with a local journalist on facebook liv live. While some members of congress are doing all they can to dodge the crowds of the people they work for, others are taking the risk that democracy can get messy. Very, very messy day for that today in some unexpected states. Weve got more ahead on that. Stay with us. Across new york state, from long island to buffalo, from rochester to the hudson valley, from albany to utica, Creative Business incentives, infrastructure investment, university partnerships, and the lowest taxes in decades are creating a stronger economy and the right environment in new york state for business to thrive. Let us help grow your companys tomorrow today at esd. Ny. Gov with a crust made chfrom scratche and mixes crisp vegetables with all white meat chicken, and bakes it to perfection. Because making the perfect dinner isnt easy as pie but finding someone to enjoy it with sure is. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. Cmohappy birthday i survived a heart attack. Im doing all i can to keep from having another one. And im taking brilinta. For people whove been hospitalized for a heart attack. I take brilinta with a baby aspirin. No more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. Brilinta helps keep my platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. Brilinta reduced the chance of another heart attack. Or dying from one. It worked better than plavix. Dont stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. Brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. Dont take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. Tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. Talk to your doctor about brilinta. Im doing all i can. That includes brilinta. If you cant afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. This was linethe line aroun noon today in urbantown, iowa for a town hall meeting with congressman urban young. Congressman young took questions for about an hour and a quarter of a range of subjects. It was pointed. He was offered a glass of dirty water by one of his constituents who expressed her concerns about the Dakota Access pipeline. The congressman politely refused it. In fargo, north dakota, 150 people packed into a coffee shop, another 50 people were stuck outside trying to get in with a town hall with republican congressman kevin cramer. A lot of people in that crowd had strong feelings about health care. En round table yesterday with Health Care Stakeholders to talk about the repeal and replacement of obamacare no [ boos ] all the obamacare lovers in north dakota are in one room at one time. That was fargo, north dakota, today. This was a packed district courtroom in charles city, iowa today. Republican senator Chuck Grassley got hit with questions for over an hour from a big overflow crowd. I was going ask about gun control and what youre going to do about that but i think more important the first gentleman that talked, he talked about trumps lies and the attack on the press so i would like you to respond to how youre dealing with his lies and the attack on the press. Will you vow that you will protect dodd frank, all parts of it, especially the Consumer Protection agency . Please explain to us your iowa constituents, your hypocrisy and willingness to ignore the constitution. Oh. Oh. To his credit, senator grassley has not shied away from Public Meetings with his unhappy constituents. The same could be said of louisiana senator bill cassidy who held another town hall which was a little bit of a surprise given the disastrous event he had yesterday where shame on you, shame on you is what it looked like in that room at the start of that town hall. Joining us is tim morris, columnist for the timespicayune. Thank you for joining us. Glad to be here. How is senator cassidy doing dealing with unhappy crowds of his constituents . You know, he seemed to not be all that rattled and to just charge ahead. He had another one today and he has one more schedule sod you have to give him props, hes hanging in there. In terms of louisiana politics and how these things work, these angry town halls, people really shouting at him, really giving him a piece of their mind yesterday, does this is this like something new in louisiana politics or is this something where this sort of thing comes around and now its the republicans turn. Cassidy beat a threeterm incumbent democrat with 56 of the vote and donald trump won louisiana with 58 of the vote, a landslide. And so and the senator was on 2 outskirts of new orleans in a conservative area where so it was surprising he got that reception. It was tougher than i thought it was going to be in. In terms of the way youve seen louisiana politics work over the years, for the people in that state who were outvoted in the last election, for people who dont like donald trump, for people who want their republican members of congress and senators to stand up to him, what do you make of this as the town hall strategy, this meet with us strategy, going to their congressional offices, really pushing people, what do you make of this as a strategy to move their representatives into being more skeptical of this president and maybe even saying no to him on some issues . Some people are talking about they came to the meeting and it was hard to get answers and questions because it dissolved into chaos but people thought that was the point. To make the point saying were not happy with our leadership, we want to make sure, there are people who chanted stand up to him, dont be a rubber stamp. They were trying to get that message across and the anger and passion behind it was very clear. Tim morris, columnist for the timespicayune, thank you. Thank you. We have more to come tonight, do stay with us. Dont ever let anyone tell you you cant change. That is what life is. Change. Its not some magic trick. Its your will. Your thoughts become your words become your actions become your reality. Change is your destiny. Now go chase it. You may know what its like to deal with high. And low blood sugar. Januvia sitagliptin is a oncedaily pill that, along with diet and exercise, helps lower blood sugar. Januvia works when your blood sugar is high and works less when your blood sugar is low, because it works by enhancing your bodys own ability to lower blood sugar. Plus januvia, by itself, is not likely to cause weight gain or low blood sugar hypoglycemia . Januvia should not be used in patients with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Tell your doctor if you have a history of pancreatitis. 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For help lowering your blood sugar talk to your doctor about januvia. So weve been following a story on this show in the last couple of days and weeks, i guess, thats basically the definition of haste makes waste. It involves a member of the new president s cabinet, a confirmed cabinet secretary, who right now is perched uncomfortably between having this big highprofile new job as the head of a big highprofile new agency, and hes also facing the mounting detritus of mounting questions and possible scandal from the job he had before. Not the kind of predicament you want to have in your first week in a big highprofile new federal job. But they rushed this job into place and now they are paying for it. And weve got some exclusive news next on what might be about to hit the guy. Thats next. Stay with us. This is the silverado special edition. This is one gorgeous truck. Oh, did i say theres only one special edition . Because, actually theres 5. Aaaahh ooohh uh holy mackerel. Wow. Nice. 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Senate republicans could have postponed the vote when they heard about that court order. They could have decided to wait and see what was in those emails, theyd only have to wait a couple of days, but didnt want to wait even a couple of days. They forced a vote. Now Senate Republicans are starting to reap the downside of not just waiting a couple of days for this stuff to come out first before they took the plunge. Now this is no longer like, you know, Additional Information about an already controversial nominee, which they might have been able to weather or at worst, maybe theyd have to withdraw him and replace him. No, now it is newly scandalous information about a cabinet secretary, about somebody who is in place, running a highprofile agency, in the federal government. In 2014, New York TimesInvestigative Reporter eric lipton won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting that included a very juicy detail about scott pruitt in oklahoma. Turned up the fact that scott pruitt took a document from an oil company that was a donor of his and pruitt copied and pasted that document basically in its entirety on to his own letterhead as attorney general of the state of oklahoma and he sent that as a complaint to the federal government, as if it was the view of the state of oklahoma, even though it was just copied and pasted directly from this oil company that had given him money. Well, now, thanks to this court order, weve just gotten this big document dump of additional material from pruitts time as attorney general in oklahoma, a Court Ordered the release of thousands of documents from his time in oklahoma, because he illegally withheld them from public records requests. And sips the court issued these documents, weve been going through them, a lot of news organizations have. But what seems clear, though, just from the initial scan of these thousands of pages, is that that scandal that eric lipton won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing in 2013, that may not have been a oneoff lark by scott pruitt. Its starting to look like that may have been the way he regularly did business. In that 2013 awardwinning piece, eric lipton reports on pruitt cutting and pasting language from an oil Company Called devon energy. In these new documents we just got, devon energy turns up again. Theyre not just feeding language to Scott Pruitts office on air pollution, theyre also offering to ghost write his letters to the bureau of land management. In another instance, heres a lobbyist for major Utility Companies offering language that scott pruitt should, quote, cut and paste, literally, the lobbyist says cut and paste, to complain about an epa rule. And this is a nice one. This one shows the american fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association writing to scott pruitt, sending him language on a rule about ozone limits and mileage standards. And in this lobbying group, they spell out exactly what he should say, they write it for him, and they basically tell him they want him to pretend that those are his words, not theirs, because they say, quote, this argument is more credible coming from a state. Yes, that would sound more credible if it were womaning from a state. But in this case, it was not coming from a state, it was coming from scott pruitt which meant it was coming from Oil Companies and lobbyist who is gave him money to say that. At least thats what it looks like. Now, the next step of this reporting is not only to get through these documents that the court has ordered released about Scott Pruitts time as attorney general, its also to figure out how much of what these Oil Companies wrote for him he actually passed off as if these were his own words, his own arguments, the arguments on behalf of the state. And thats going to mean digging up all of his filings and correspondents and lawsuits with t federal government to see if those Oil Companies were successful in their attempts to ghost write all of his stuff for him. If they were successful more than that one time he got nailed for in the New York Times in 2014. And this dump of emails and correspondence from pruitts office, this could be the start. The group that sued for those documents, this is the ferris of nine requests they made. We can further report tonight, though, that in addition to all of this stuff that could keep coming out in the next few days, the next few weeks, over scott pruitt and specifically, his ties to oil and Gas Companies, we have something to add to those expectations. Because we can report tonight that we are also expecting, within the next two to three weeks, we are expecting a courtordered release of information that is not about oil and Gas Companies. Its information that could shed some light on scott pruitt and another scandal that hes dragging behind him like a can on a bumper, as he moves up from oklahoma action g to cabinet official in the Trump Administration. Were expecting in the next two to three weeks documentation that could shed some light on scott pruitt and his ties to a supersketchy botched execution that happened in 2014 in oklahoma. An execution in which his office was apparently directly and possibly illegally involved in deciding the details of how that execution was carried out. And that was an execution that was carried out very, very badly. Reporting from the state of oklahoma thus far, Court Documents from the state of oklahoma thus far, indicate that Scott Pruitts office may have been directly involved in choosing the drugs that were used in an execution, with no basis in law or state protocol for doing that. The choices that they made ended up bringing about one of the most botched executions in oklahoma history. Scott pruitt, on the record, denied that his office ever had any role in picking those drugs. They never had anything to do with it. Corrections officials in oklahoma, on the record, in Court Documents, have said, actually, scott pruitt is lying about that. He was involved in it. It was his office. He has been lying publicly about his role in this botched thing. And we are about to get documentation from oklahoma about that execution that may shed light on Scott Pruitts real role in that and whether hes been lying about it all this time, too. Thats on top of all of the oil and gas stuff. And thats coming out in the next two to three weeks. So congratulations, republicans. Good thing you rushed the vote on scott pruitt. If scott pruitt does end up taking fall because of this growing scandal around him, he will be falling for a much greater height because of the way republicans rushed eed him the cabinet. That does it for us tonight. See you again tomorrow. Now its time for the last word with lawrence odonnell. Rachel, i have worked on tv dramas where we have tried to write cliff hangers at the end of a particular season or episode, but the cliff hanger you just