Thank you so much for letting us into your home during these extraordinary times. We are grateful. Beth beet with ari melber start rights now. We start with Breaking News a legal first for President Biden. Attorney general Merrick GarlandUpending Washington today with an announcement, he is appointing a special counsel to hand it will probe of classified do you means found in joe bidens office at home. This is a significant legal development. No matter what happens from here. Its also the kind of twist that would have seemed like a movie plot even just a few months ago when former President Trump was clashing with the doj over his handling and alleged mishanding of classified material. Would have felt like a twist in the last couple weeks when bidens team was optimistic after the midterms and then the gops chaotic start to the congress. Garland did not preview plans at all. He announced he would deliver remarks today. Didnt deliver the topic and then said the words that tend to rattle any white house regardless of era or party. Based on mr. Laushs initial investigation i concluded that under the special counsel regulations, it was in the best breast the appoint a special counsel. There you have it. Came after todays ongoing review spilled into the press about how whether doj or garland responded to events. We learned some of this has already been going on, but this announcement today came after the rest of it spilled into the public view. And there are reports that also have pushed the white house to state that more documents were found in a locked garage in bidens delaware home. The president discussed that briefly with journalists today. Classified material next to your corvette . What were you thinking . Let me im going get a chance to speak on all of this, god willing, soon, but as i said this week by the way, my corvette is in a locked garage. Its not like its sit out in a street. The material was in a locked garage. Yes, as well as my corvette. Just a brief exchange there. The details come after news that bidens lawyers found the first batch back on november 2nd in a locked closet. There was no public details about any level of classification. For his part, President Biden has vowed that hes cooperating fully and completely, and we can state theres been no disagreement on that point in public from the doj, which is a contrast to some other probes. Garland authorized and appointed this new special counsel, a former prosecutor and former trump appointee, robert hur. Im here today to announce the appointment of robert hur as a special counsel pursuant to department of justice regulations governing such matters. Added that the special counsel will find out if anyone broke the law here. I signed an order appointing robert hur as special counsel for the matter ive just described. The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter. There you have it. And if you follow Merrick Garland at all, you know this is how he always talks, so dry and sober that at time you might forget hes talk the about the kind of thing that can lead to indictments and upend entire administrations. On paper, the process poses more direct legal peril for people potentially around joe biden than President Biden himself, who can in the be indicted by the doj while in office under policy. Now, many people reminded of that longstanding rule during the First Federal probe of donald trump, by then special counsel mueller, which upturned all kinds of information material and ultimately convicted crimes. But remember, that probe indicted other people, never went near trying to indict donald trump. Ended in an initially private and later released report that discussed the president s actions its not about anyone suggesting yet whether theres a crime. Theres no facts on that. The point is that theres no way to indict a president under these rules. Now, today the other thing that garland said, and he was very careful thought, is he said something within the spirit of these rules but represents something of a view or even a hope. He argued that by doing this, appointing this special counsel at this point in time based on the information he has, it will itself add Public Confidence. This Appointment Underscores for the public the departments commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters and making decisions guided only by the facts and the law. That is a perfectly fine statement and goal indisputably guided by the facts and the law. Well endeavor to continue to follow the facts here. One issue for Merrick Garland is the issue that hit james comey and others who went to washington with well intended but this era of washington were living in and i dont know if you noticed buck its a doozy. They thought the old tools can be applied under this era. Thats not always the case. What im saying to be as direct as possible, the law and facts are over here. The Public Confidence, the allowed or agreed upon respect and deference that goes to good faith efforts to do things fairly, that has blown up and changed in a world full of constant bad faith political lies. And so anything that anyone this isnt about specifically mr. Garland per se, but anything anyone does at doj that thinks will be taken at face value and will contribute to Public Confidence is making a bet beyond the facts of the law, about wherever the confidence comes from. The question of why it was announced only now after this spilled to the public and whether there are any other considerations that are going into this, Well Intentioned or not, is a tough question that we will put to our experts and well endeavor to follow as we follow a story these completely exploded a lot of expectations and premise in washington. So we bring in our experts. Emily bazalon and a former federal prosecutor karen leffler. Welcome to both of you. Emily, i start with you. I think you know and viewers know the distinction im drawing. Everyone understands that Merrick Garland is at this point saying hes trying to do what we considers to be the right thing, and there hasnt been public reporting or evidence he has some other hidden agenda, and yet i wonder what you think of the timing and process here, and then in addition what legal peril is there for anyone involved with these documents . I think what garland is doing is trying to be as scrupulous and even handed as possible. He appointed a special counsel, as you know to, investigate former President Trumps alleged mishandling of documents at maralago. President bidens situation also involves having classified documents in a place he wasnt supposed to have them. Doesnt mean the two things are the same, right . So far what we know, it appears, is biden and his Team Immediately cooperated, returned what they werent supposed to have. That is certainly not the case from the facts we know about former President Trump. I think the big question for this Special Prosecutor will be, how did the documents get there . Was this an accident . And the question of timing. When did they in fact turn them over as soon as they found out about them . And when time a lapsed between when they knew about this and the november election. You could argue if you had a partisan view of this, President Biden and democrats and im sure the Special Prosecutor will be thinking about the implications of the timing as he does his work. Karen, whats your view of all this . Ill remind viewers you have extensive experience dong this work, often behind the scenes. What do you see here . I agree with all of the comments that were just made. Politically theres timing. In terms of the criminal probe youre looking at things like and its 18 usc, 1924 is the statute. If youre looking criminally you have to follow the facts in the law. How did the documents get there. Were they on purpose . It always turn on intent. But thats very different than the points youve made ari about what was the timing of when it was discovered. I see things very different factually, but theres still the problem in the United States right now is youve got to handle both probes fair will and i got to let the public know whats going on. Whether that makes a difference to the public, well find out. Build on your point, you said about what you see factually. These type of things always turn on intent and the statute requires you to knowingly remove without authorization and retain it without authorization. You have to show, how did the documents get there . Did anybody do it on purpose . When youre leaving obviously theres some documents you can take. There should be a solid review you dont take classified documents. How did they get in there . Did anybody know what was put in there . What individuals, once they go to bidens office and residence were they looked at . Those are all questions that have to be answered by the independent counsel. I appreciate you raising all. That thats important. Karen lets take a listen to how the president publicly addressed all this. They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in Storage Areas and File Cabinets in my home and my personal library. Department of justice was immediately notified, and the lawyers arranged for the department of justice to take possession of the document. Karen, thats one of several assertions or claims, that this now special counsel will investigate. Tell us a little bit about what that entails and if they find things that for example, they want to fact check whether biden officials or some other individual or person might have had, as you said, the wrong intent. Well, you have to look into, what was the process . Seems to me if i were run an investigation what was the process to how the documents left . What was the review . When you leave the government there should be review of anything that you take. Was it open . Who oversaw it . Did anybody do it . How did the documents get discovered . Ive only looked at whats in the public arena, which said it was bidens lawyers that notified archives that they had them, which is different than the other probe were looking at. But there is a process for classified documents. Was it followed . If it was followed, was there any intent and knowledge involved in how the documents got there . We all need to clean this up. But either way, classified documents should not end up in these places. Sure. Makes sense. Here we are a few minutes into the report. We showed the facts, the statements. I tried to tell everyone how it works. Heard how it works from two experts. Emily, i want to go to the next question. Which is, can we talk turkey here for a second . Are you ready . Sure. Lets talk turkey. Youre a legal journalist. Im somewhat of a legal journalist. You have Justice Department having open special counsel probes into the current and former president , both who are slated to run for the white house again going with the months into the what will then be the traditional political calendar. If were going to talk turkey, is this not wild . For viewers who say, gosh, ari, you seem busy. Is it our imagination that there seems to be more of both legal squabbles and news in the sures you had to absorb this . I wonder, with that bigger picture, what your thoughts are, emily . I think this is pretty wild. Also means a scandal that seemed limited to former President Trump is now in some way, shape, or form, however different, also inflicting President Biden. And you said earlier, and i think youre right, nobody wants to hear theyre the target of a special counsel. Thats not good news. On the other hand i do think the hope the Biden Administration has of truly differentiating bidens conduct from trump, assume theyre telling the truth, that hope is actually furthered if the special counsel investigating biden issues a very different kind of report from the special counsel investigating trump. Right now what we have is taking President Biden and his lawyer at their word. And maybe thats true. But having an investigation that either credits or discredits them could actually be helpful politically depending on the outcome, of course, but thats how investigations roll. We dont know what theyre going to find at the outset. Im running out of time. Karen, with 30 seconds,u such a serious person. Youre an expert. I dont ask all the people the same way, but the question is, do you also think this is wild . I think its its just bizarre, absolutely. And what im hoping is i agree this could be a good thing, but whatever they do, they have to do it quickly. You know, i think the public needs to know quickly. It cant drag on and on, and to thats to me is for the benefit of the country. Yeah. Okay. All right. So its not our imagination. Karen, emily, my thanks to both of you. Right now, our shortest break. We turn to the other special counsel probe with real news about heat on Trump Officials and kevin mccarthy, seeming to want to go along with the lies of a noname rookie. Why . Were back in a minute. Were back in a minute for the first time ever, tonight we can report the Justice Department of the United States has distinct and separate empowered special counsels probing a current and former president , who are both slated to run for president in 2024. Special counsel smith is probing the possible crimes for both classified document issues and the insurrection that relate to trump and or his aides, and having report on the news on the biden front, it happens that in this story, set of stories i was discussing with our experts, we have brand new reports coming out about this probe. Take a look. Smith obtaining secret files from the January 6th Committee It Thath not released to the public, which is interesting considering the report aimed at releasing more rather than less and plenty of stuff in the addendums, including voluminous transcripts. So what they held back could be sensitive. There are many leads, one is doj seeking more information on the Voting Machine Companies trump targeted in his plot, and theyre doing that under the force of law with these new subpoenas. Ill tell you more about the subpoenas in a mink but the whole thing about the Voting Machines could include the lies and Conspiracy Theories to the actual efforts to steal or seize them illegally, which Trumps White House lawyer blasted under oath. The idea the federal government could come in and seize election machines and let i dont understand thats a terrible idea. He said terrible idea. Hes a careful lawyer. The doj is not currently looking at whether its terrible. Thats not their job. Theyre looking at whether its criminal, and thats one of the leads. Special counsel also wants more evidence across the board. Hes looking at trump lawyers, donors, fundraisers, ellipse, Voting Machines, and the elector scheme. Theyre also following the money according to the washington post. Theyre pressing people in trumps orbit to reveal if anyone other than themselves are paying were legal representation. Its legal, you can have someone else fund it, they just want to know who it is and that helps them understand. Theyre also looking at the election defense fund. They want to see if he took money from trump supporters. The doj wants more evidence on the false elector. The committee famously broke ground, and best we can tell was ahead of doj prosecutors with its early scrutiny of those plots and then gathering eyewitness testimony, not hearsay, from none other than the chair of the Republican Party who was installed by trump, as she said, donald trump himself was in on setting up that plot. What did the president say when he called you . Essentially he turned to call over the mr. Eastman who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the rnc helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed their result. That is the head of the party, picked by trump, dropping a dime on him, saying, yeah, you know that plot that was probably illegal . The elector fraud . How did i get involve . The president call med and forced me on the phone with john eastman. Theyre saying the jury is accelerating its activity, talking to witnesses both high and low level. This is the other big game in town, and as ive told you before, the facts and the potential crimes and the insurrection part of it are much more significant than the classified document part, and thats before you even goat all of the new swirl of pressure on the doj to resolve what are two different but to many people overlapping classified document cases. With this much public evidence on this many crimes, even short of the insurrection offense, the question is, will Special Counsel Smith take any action . We have a lot more coming up tonight when you look at the d. C. Chaos. We have someone whos been inside the congress, barbara boxer. And coming up, George Santos spending time with matt gaetz. As we sometimes say around here, but why . Well, it was Steve Bannons internet show. Does that clarify. Well get into it next. L get int just till they taste what weve got [ tires squeal, crash ] when owning a Small Business gets real, progressive gets you right back to living the dream. Now, where were we . [ cheering ] vo with verizon, you can now get a private 5g n