Right after midnight last night, i got the audio book and just poured it into my phone. You are very kind. I feel like i should reimburse you for this. It is so great and the audio book really moves like a great movie. And i know thats you and scott shirat, your director of this great audio book. Its a separate experience. Im advocating people get both. Did you get to the point in the book yet where there is a cameo appearance by pussy riot . Yeah. We had to move heaven and earth to make that happen. Before we go, this letter from the three chairmen in the house to secretary pompeo, this battle now is truly engaged. In terms of this is in response to pompeo saying he doesnt want to let these yeah, the three chairmen saying you absolutely have no right to block any of this testimony, and you dont have any right to have state Department Lawyers in the room during these depositions, and oh, by the way, you used those rules yourself when you were a member of the house of representatives in that little benghazi investigation that you were so obsessed with. And this is now just as hardhitting a battle as ive ever seen in situations like this. Well, and, you know, it has been one thing, and i think its been a frustration for democrats in the house to be trying to get testimony from witnesses who dont want to testify and dont want to be in the middle of this, and are trump loyalists and theyre kicking and screaming being dragged in there and they dont want to do it. That may not be the case for all the witnesses in the trump campaign. And pulling rabbits out of their hats trying to block witnesses who are part of an impeachment proceeding now, and those witnesses may not go along with their games to try to keep them out of there, and i dont think this will end well for all of them. The state department implicated itself for the president s call for which he is being impeached, hes not in a strong position. Thats what the chairmen were saying last night. Their letter was to the deputy secretary of state because theyre saying mike pompeo cant even be in the dialogue about this. Hes a witness. He cant be in the dialogue. Its a fair opinion. It involved the president repeatedly mentioning him as part of the scheme for which hes going to be impeached, bill barr should have recused and taken himself out of it because hes implicated in it. Its the same thing with mike pompeo, and i think ultimately those norms will be ratified here, and i dont think its going to i understand well for barr or pompeo. They dont have the same kind of immunity from liability that the does by virtue of the oval office. They might have a new Justice Department with a new attorney jegeneral appointed by a Democratic Party looking into what theyve been up to right now. Attorneys general have been indicted in the past, and attorney general John Mitchell went to prison for having done stuff for Richard Nixon that he knew better than to do himself. These guys saying theyll do anything for the president not necessarily will save themselves even if it will help him in the long run. We will begin tonight with the breaking news about the state departments Inspector Generals urgent request tonight to brief house and Senate Committees about documents related to the state department and ukraine. The Inspector General wants to brief several committees, including the Senate Intelligence committee. Well be joined by a member of the Senate Intelligence committee, senator Kamala Harris, who is now a candidate for president of the United States. She also serves on the Senate Judiciary committee with republican senator Chuck Grassley who picked sides today in the battle between donald trump and the whistleblower, and it will surprise you whose side senator grassley is on. But it is not so surprising for people who know senator grassley and who have worked with him in the senate. We will consider why donald trump has not yet attacked Chuck Grassley for Chuck Grassleys very Strong Defense today of the whistleblower. And at the end of the hour, we will be joined by american journalisms highest authority on impeachment. Elizabeth true is now covering her third impeachment proceeding of the president of the United States. She is a washington congresswoman for the new yorker. Elizabeth true wrote the book about that process which remains the highest standard in impeachment reporting. Washington journal reporting watergate and Richard Nixons downfall. Elizabeths reporting has always been mandatory reading for me, and i can assure you, her oped speech in the New York Times has been treated as mandatory reading by the staff of all the House Committees involved in the impeachment process and all of them members of those committees. When elizabeth true talks about impeachment, i for one listen, take notes and i learn, and i will be doing that at the end of this hour when we are joined by the voice of experience on impeachment, Elizabeth Drew. The breaking news of the hour is a letter signed by three House Committee chairmen to the deputy secretary of state responding to a letter earlier in the day by secretary of state mike pompeo in which secretary pompeo attempted to block testimony from current and former state Department Officials. The letter tonight says, dear mr. Deputy secretary, we are responding to a letter sent earlier today by secretary of state mike pompeo attempting to block testimony from current and former state Department Officials sought by our committees for depositions as part of the house of representatives impeachment inquiry. We are writing to you because secretary pompeo now appears to have an on yus conflict of interest. He appeared personally in the july 25, 2019 call. The president convinced the american president until the ukranian president tried using aggression. He should not, but a saw no effort from the state department to protect witnesses from dying, and it shall be levels of obstruction and reports of other state Department Officials being involved in or knowledgeable of the events under investigation. The committees may be including, by the president. This would be a blatant coverup and clear abuse of power. That letter to the deputy secretary of state tonight follows a report by nbc news tonight that the Inspector General of the state department has made an urgent request to brief several congressional committees tomorrow about documents related to the state department and ukraine, according to multiple congressional sources. The request from the state departments Inspector General comes on the same day that the head of the state department of state mike pompeo sent a letter to the state department saying he will not make voluntarily available five witnesses for depositions. One of them has already agreed to appear. Vol volker resigned last week. The pompeo letter says, quote, the invitations the committee sent to the five Department Officials include requests that each of them personally produced a vast amount of documents. These requests appeared to duplicate the subpoena that was previously served on the secretary of state. The requested records constitute the property of the department of state and are subject to restrictions on the unauthorized disclosure of classified information and various executive branch privileges. The pompeo letter went on to say that the committee is asking witnesses to, quote, produce materials that are not theirs to produce. The Inspector General of the state department is Steve Linnick who was appointed to that position in 2015 by barack obama. The Inspector General would like to meet with the staff of the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence committee, the House Foreign Affairs committee, the Senate Committee, as well as the Senate Appropriations committee. It includes democratic staff and republican staff. This is a request the likes of which i for one as a former staffer have never seen or been a party to. Fortunately tonight we are joined by guests who have much more experience than i do in intelligence matters. We will be joined later in the hour by a member of the Senate Intelligence committee, senator Kamala Harris, who is now candidate for president. Pompeos letter blocking the testimony says anyone should be able to attend depositions of employees. The secretary of state says, the same rule has been in place fofr over a decade on the committee for oversight and reform, and it was in place during secretary pompeos tenure on the benghazi select committee, the regulations that govern house deposition and state. They may be urging them, advising them of thifr rights, only members designated by the chair or ranking minority member. An official reporter, the witness and the witness counsel are invited to attend. Jurors are counsel for other people. The chairmans letter says, the rule is intended for exactly these circumstances, to prevent an asian head who is directly contributes to the dwis could make the the Foreign Affairs committee and Elijah Cummings of the Oversight Committee tell the deputy of state, it is a prisonable or by any threatening letter or communication to influence, obstruct or impede oren did he ever to do so, the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either house or any committee of either house. And we begin our discussion of all of this with someone who would be in that meeting with the Inspector General tomorrow if she still had her old job at the House Intelligence Committee. Meek a oyang is a former staff member of the House Intelligence Committee and now Vice President of the third way. Also executive Armed Services committee. Shes an Msnbc National Security analyst, and were joined by democratic senator mike fa las can i i sper, i should have be been. This request by the Inspector General is to meet with the Committee Staff. Surely the members would be welcomed at the meeting, but most members are not in washington. This is a request to meet with the republican staff, the democratic staff of all of these committees, house and senate combined. Its maybe the largest collection of Committee Staff that will ever be gathered in one room at one time. What is your reading of this situation tonight with the state department . Well, i think its really interesting. First of all, Steve Linnick, let me give you some context. Steve linnick is a former prosecutor. He spent a lot of times in corruption trials, which is paperintensive trials. Those are the kinds of cases that are built on documents. So he understands the importance of documents. The fact that he is bringing documents, that means that something is in those documents, that he thinks its really important that the people who are doing this impeachment inquiry see immediately. It will be very interesting to see what we find out tomorrow, but this is unusual for an. I found an Inspector General to step up like this because typically they want to go through protocols and procedures. Something else is up. You might be in your old room a. That was the Inspector General that asked for this meeting. So this would not be a followup in secretary pompeos letter where hes raising questions about the documentation of some of these documents and the imelda. Because its coming from the sena senate. Thz different from members of the committee to earlier where they point out to dhuk volker heard on the call with the president of ukraine. There have been so many things that have been happening inside the state department, its sort of hard to. But whats cleefr is. Hes bringing forward things that we may not have heard of before into this conversation. Senator mng cass skill began, so that will provoke trump world into thinking, hes bias. He is the Inspector General who sin at the sized the report that actually was highly critical of the. Net. They said she, in fact, did not comply with the federal records act. He found that vee. So that was the last big moment weve heard from 20 people. It probably pertains to the secretary of state if not the president himself. Why do i say this . I dont know if this is news or not, but the department of defense is also doing i understand there is an i. G. Investigation occurring also, a d and d, and theyre looking to what happened with the ukranian pund punds. That, Inspector General, has not taken mp it letting my personality go and speak to the independent branch of government that has a right to talk to them. If they go, the need to intimidate them main not telling congress as much as they no. Ly. State Department Experts and senior personnel. Lets all keep in mind of the sequence today fortunate state department. It was the pompeo letter to the then after that, and only after that, came the Inspector Generals urgent request. Then the other letter i was reporting on from the three chairmen, that came after the pompeo letter denied the access to the witnesses and the documents. Listen to what he said when he was asked last week. Lets listen to the way he reacted to questions about that last week. You just gave me a report, none of which ive seen. I havent had a chance to actually read the whistleblower complaint yet. I read the full ill ultimately get a chance to see it. Now you know what mike pompeo is like when hes not telling the truth. Listen to what he said today when asked about this. Mr. Secretary, do you have any comments on . Dwrufr live. Senator mccaskill, the new technique for mike pompeo is to turn and walk in the other direction. His business is not clearly going to be mark. Pay o. If he was doing what trump said to him him to do. Ez. By not admitting in that moment to martha, stonewalling and stiffening the constitutional rormt in an impeachment inquiry. First of all, this meeting is as unprecedented to you as it is to me. Youve never seen anything like this. Ive never seen anything so like this. Id like. What can you imagine the next. That only his meeting wb the foreign reettles committee. It was a complaint that came in fofr oufr new to ukraine. Then they feefr hell be digging up a initial crab rating about the prison by. In the trx of foreign ail pold back these. He may have a problem here with the ninside filing that whistleblower report with the House Committee. We saw that process. It was paper. Intentionally wrote a cover letter to a kiflly written when i say be, race over to the ho e house. I need to come in and see you right away. There is no time to happened he will this on may men this. The whistleblower is two long words here. The whistleblower knew, has documents that a sdpl of that nature. In another context were having all these. Rachel keeps really good track of them, and you do. But one of these, and the Government Holding onto critical information due to this or someone else, he might also that he turn over other documents. Ive been sitting here the wos. You know it was something that he did not know existed in the vovt until he had fwhen there for a while. A in fact mpgs at the beginning of his administration tlfrks a little kerfuffle trying to get ridor general to get their people in. Guess who raised their hand and said, no, no, you cant do that. None other than that Chuck Grassley. Because hes been strong on whistleblower issues. Always. Senator mccass kill, alice and miake yang, thank you. Stomp more questions are being asked of william barr, what did they know and when did they know it . A member of the Senate Committee and Senate Judiciary committee. She asked william barr in the Judiciary Committee one of the most important questions hes ever been asked under oath. Senator Kamala Harris joins us next. Senator Kamala Harris joins us next behind the chainsaws. Smart. Yeah. Ok. If youre in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. Its what you do. This was a good idea. Shhhh. Im being quiet. Youre breathing on me if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Lets go to the cemetery performance comes in lots of flavors. dramatic orchestra t