0 they are going to put down and lay down the law to. it >> not there yet. >> it's coming, don't worry. i'm in communication with their kids on. this don't worry. planning the and thanks to you at home for joining us at this hour, happy new year to you as well, good to have you back with us. in washington, d.c., they celebrated the first day after the holiday by getting a huge pile of snow dumped on the capitol cap capito capital city and shutting down most of the federal government because of it. happy new year. this is how we're starting. in addition to most federal offices being closed because of the snowstorm at the capitol today, the senate is supposed to be in session this week. they were supposed to taking at least one senate vote today. but that all got slid to tomorrow because of the storm. that said, this afternoon the capitol physician, the doctor for the house and the senate, sent a sobering, detailed letter to the democratic and republican leaders of the senate, telling them that, you know, regardless of the snow, senators really ought to be staying home now anyway. apparently at the covid testing site they've got set up at the u.s. capitol, the positivity rate, the rate at which tests at that site are coming back positive, it had been under 1% until recently, until this current omicron wave of the virus started to hit in d.c. but the capitol physician advised senators today that as of right now the test positivity rate there has gone from under 1% to over 13%. he described that the number of covid cases on capitol hill right now is, quote, unprecedented, saying, quote, dozens of individuals with coronavirus infection are identified at the capitol daily. this is not the capital city. he means specifically at the u.s. capitol building, they're getting dozens of new infections found every single day. he then reminded senator schumer and senator mcconnell who he sent this letter to, that the capitol building, which he is speaking for, that capitol testing site, which he is speaking about, they're also located in d.c., and d.c. as a city is taking it on the chin right now. quote, disease activity in the district of columbia metropolitan area has attained the highest coronavirus disease cases per population size in the entire united states, meaning d.c. right now has a higher per capita rate of coronavirus infection than any other place in the country. quote, the overall rate of hospitalizations has been less frequent than the prior delta variant coronavirus waves. however, the benefit of a reduced rate of hospitalizations has been offset with profoundly increased numbers of cases and therefore, an increasing absolute number of people requiring hospitalization, especially among the unvaccinated. the capitol physician says, quote, the situation has led to a unprecedented strain on medical centers. in our local region, again, the dc region, where hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past ten days, at least six large hospitals have declared crisis standards of care and states of emergency and large health care providers are petitioning their governors for various emergency declarations to prioritize and allocate medical services. governor larry hogan of maryland has advised maryland residents to prepare for the worst part of the pandemic during the next four to six weeks. medical centers face unprecedented pressures of relentless demand for services and illness and exhaustion depleting their staff. other essential infrastructure services are similarly impacted by coronavirus in the workplace such as air travel, childcare, schools, mass transportation, ambulance services, fire, and police. the capitol physician then tells the senate leadership in this letter today that all members of the senate, all senators and their staff, need to upgrade their masks. quote, blue surgical masks, cloth face masks, and gaiter-style masks must be replaced by the more protective k 95 or n95 masks, kn95 or n95 masks. bottom line, he's also telling the senate they should stay home right now. quote, congressional offices, committees, and agencies should immediately review their operations to adopt a maximal telework posture to reduce in-person meetings and in-office activities to the maximum extent possible. electronic means to facilitate all virtual or hybrid-type hearings or meetings should be emphasized. again, this is the letter today from the attending physician of the congress of the united states, brian monahan, who is essentially the doctor for the house and the senate, advising a maximal telework posture for congress. the senate is supposed to be in session this week. we will see how that plays out. and we'll have more a little later on this hour as to what's going on with hospitalization numbers. we have seen over the past couple of weeks as case numbers have just gone off the charts. but infectious disease experts, including dr. anthony fauci, have been telling us now that we ought to be watching the hospitalization numbers much more closely than we're watching the case numbers. if we want to get a sense of how much this thing, this new wave is really going to take us apart, we really need to watch hospitalization numbers, not just case numbers. and when you do start looking at the hospitalization numbers, what you're seeing might surprise you. it does not necessarily comport with the sort of common wisdom and common anecdotal discussion about what's going on with this wave. you're going to want to see this. we'll have a close look at that in this show in the next hour. on wednesday this week in washington, we know attorney general merrick garland is expected to give a major address to doj staff. interestingly, it is an address to the staff of the justice department about the progress the department has made in prosecuting crimes that took place at the capitol on january 6th last year when supporters of former president trump mounted that violent attack on the u.s. capitol to try to overthrow the government and stop the transfer of power to the new president. the one-year anniversary of the u.s. capitol attack is, of course, this week, is a thursday. honestly, it's starting to look like it's going to be sort of a strange day on capitol hill. the senate, as i said, is technically in session this week, but the capitol physician today did tell senators they shouldn't be doing anything in person that they don't have to do. they should be teleworking. they should be working from home as much as possible. he's calling for that maximal telework posture. so we don't know what that will mean for senators' plans and plans of senate staff this week. thursday is also the day of the funeral for former republican senator johnny isakson who died last month and whose memorial is going to be in his home in georgia. he served two decades between his time in the house and his time in the senate. he was very well-known and very well-liked on capitol hill. a lot of senators will presumably be planning to attend his memorial on thursday this week, the day of the january 6th anniversary. again, so for that anniversary, it is hard to know exactly what capitol hill is going to like and who is going to be around. that day on thursday, the house is -- the house of representatives, as opposed to the senate, they're not technically in session that day or in fact at all this week. but per house speaker nancy pelosi, the house has nevertheless planned a day of remembrance on thursday, including a discussion with a historian about the implications for the country and the historical parallels to this kind of crisis. there's going to be, i think, four speeches in addition to the speech we're expecting from the president that morning from the white house. the sort of capstone to what they're planning on thursday in the house is a prayer vigil, a prayer vigil outdoors for members of congress in the early evening. now, again, that's what's planned by the house. but there is a competing event at that same time. true to form, former president trump himself has apparently planned some kind of publicity-seeking event of his own that day of all days, and he has planned his event, his press conference or whatever it is, to start at the same time that the prayer vigil is starting at the house of representatives. as always, the man is working overtime to put the "t" in classy. there is no "t" in classy. anyway. here is a snapshot for you, though, of how this is all going over in republican circles right now. here is the headline today in "the atlanta journal-constitution." quote, the cobb county homage to treason planned for january 6th. quote, the deadly events of january 6th will mostly be marked around the country this week by solemn ceremonies to remember the day that the pro-donald-trump mob attacked the u.s. capitol. but at the cobb county, georgia, republican headquarters, far-right activists will hold a two-hour-long program thursday to lionize the people who broke into the capitol. the program will continue for a call to action for cobb county, georgia republicans. it will conclude -- this is amazing -- it will conclude with a candlelight vigil for the, quote, j6 patriots. the shorthand extremists have created for the rioters who sought to overthrow the government. so on thursday, on january 6th this week, there will be a vigil for those patriotic rioters who attacked the u.s. capitol and tried to overthrow the u.s. government. the j6 patriots. they will have a candlelight vigil in their honor, a celebration of the attackers hosted by the republican party in cobb county, georgia. as we close in on that anniversary this week, i was interested, when i sort of started making notes today, kind of updating myself, kind of consolidating myself, what happened over the break, how we left things before the holiday break. i was surprised to see how many big, open questions there are right now, how many big, important things were sort of waiting to happen at any point now that we're into the new year. first of all, in terms of the criminal investigation, that speech by attorney general merrick garland on wednesday will be important in large part because there has been no indication thus far that the justice department is investigating the people who actually planned the coup, the people who tried to orchestrate that attack on the capitol, not just for fun or for free expression, but because it was part of a plan to stop the transfer of power to the new president, to overthrow the government. if the justice department is investigating the big crime there instead of just the individuals who took part in it at the lowest levels, presumably this wednesday's speech by attorney general merrick garland would be the attorney general's best opportunity to tell the country about a change in focus or at least an additional development in their investigation. so that will be a highly anticipated set of remarks from attorney general garland, as i think the questions get more and more pointed and pregnant in terms of whether or not anyone who planned the overthrow of the government is going to face any reckoning for it in criminal law. so that's wednesday. open question, potentially to be answered by the attorney general on that day. we're also right now still waiting on the department of justice to decide whether they're going to prosecute criminal contempt charges against trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows. mr. meadows, you may recall, in december refused to hand over materials and testify to the january 6th investigation. congress then referred mr. meadows to the justice department for prosecution. the justice department hasn't said anything about it since. that referral was 2 1/2 weeks ago. it was december 14th or 15th, i think. for context, when the justice department obtained an indictment against trump adviser steve bannon under similar circumstances in november, that took three weeks, three weeks in between the time they got the referral and when the indictment was handed down. it's now been 2 1/2 weeks since they got the referral relating to mark meadows. we haven't heard anything yet. but that question is becoming, again, a more pointed question as time goes by. so we'll see if we hear from the justice department on that and whether or not an indictment comes down for trump's white house chief of staff. in congress, the congressional investigation into the attack, they themselves have to decide if they're going to issue subpoenas to currently serving members of congress who are believed to have played some kind of a role in the attack or who may have key information about it. again, you may recall from before the holiday break that republican congressman scott perry and republican congressman jim jordan received requests from the investigation that they testify voluntarily, that they hand over documents and materials voluntarily. scott perry has said outright that he will not cooperate with those demands. jim jordan has suggested that he is unlikely to comply with those voluntary demands. if both refuse to comply, the investigation has to decide whether they're going to issue compulsory subpoenas in response. that's never been done before to a sitting member of congress, let alone two of them. we're not sure if they will do that for scott perry or jim jordan or for other potentially implicated members of congress as well. we're wait ongoing that as well. "the new york times" reports today that the january 6th investigation is also considering issuing subpoenas to trump himself and to his vice president mike pence. so we're waiting to know about that too. and, of course, if those subpoenas do come down from the investigation, it will be interesting to see how long they will be held up in court once trump and pence inevitably defy those subpoenas. and on top of all of that, of course, the supreme court of the united states is now mulling whether it's going to take up trump's appeal. trump lost successive lower court rulings and is now facing an order that he needs to hand over his white house records and documents to the january 6th investigation. he has appealed to the supreme court after losing in every lower federal court that has considered this matter. the supreme court, they take their own sweet time on matters like this. they also offer no guidance on when they will make their decision until they actually make it. so we are waiting for that too. but, again, like all of those things i just described, any of that could happen at any time. but meanwhile, surprise, happy new year, the man who worked as police commissioner in new york city under then-mayor rudy giuliani, a man named bernie kerik, who really did lead new york city police until he himself pled guilty to eight felonies and served years in federal prison, bernie kerik, who naturally is part of this whole mess on the trump side, he has not only agreed that will he testify to the january 6th investigation next week, he has produced what "politico" today describes as a, quote, trove of documents to the investigation, a trove of documents that includes this 22-page strategic communications plan that's dated december 27th. you see the subhead there in red, we have ten days to execute this plan and certify president trump. it's not really a plan. it's basically a set of talking points. but this is what they say is their talking points message targeted to, quote, everyone. you cannot let america itself be stolen by criminals. you must take a stand and you must take it today. again, that document, dated december 2020, saying that they had ten days until january 6th to sort of get president trump certified for another term even though he had lost the election. that 22-page document is one of the documents reportedly handed over to the january 6th investigation by bernie kerik. but here's the really interesting part. he also handed over what his lawyer is calling a privilege log. now, a privilege log is a real thing in court proceedings, when somebody as part of a court proceeding has to hand something over, but something can't be handed over because of the type of document it is, because it is implicated in -- it implicates the attorney/client privilege or some other privilege that should shield it from being handed over to the court. privilege logs are a real thing. privilege logs don't look like this. what bernie kerik produced as his, quote, privilege log, this is like the bazooka bubble gum wrapper cartoon version of a privilege log. but it is his explanation to the january 6th investigators what he has not handed over to them and why. he's handed them a trove of documents. he has not given them everything they've asked for. this is his privilege log that explains why they're not getting some of the things that he has, and it's not a document that overall inspires confidence. literally here's kerik's description of one of the things he's not handing over to the investigation because he says it's protected by attorney/client privileges. this is how carrick kerrick describes that document. type of document, reports prepared by volunteer third parties by the trump legal team, retained by the trump legal team in anticipation of litigation, addressees giuliani, and then the title of the document being withheld on this basis, quote, compliation of rants. that's what bernie kerik and his lawyers say is the title of the document. compliation of rants. yes, we can see how that's very sensitive, the compliations of your rants or pants or whatever. sure, i understand, very sensitive. this one is a little more worrying though. basis for withholding. documents drafted and/or edited by attorney. date, december 17, 2020. type of document, draft potus letter, meaning draft of a letter from the president of the united states. but look at the subject matter of that document, which, again, bernie kerik says he is not handing over. quote, draft letter from potus to seize evidence in the interest of national security for the 2020 elections. a draft letter to be released by then-president trump to be written for him by an attorney, a letter explaining or announcing that he is seizing evidence for the 2020 elections under some national security guise. you know, we had previously seen reference in the january 6th investigation to a draft executive order prepared for trump related to the election, related to so-called election integrity. we had previously seen trump advisers, including his former national security adviser mike flynn recommending that trump should use the military to go seize ballots, seize elections machinery, declare martial law. but now, from bernie kerik of all people, we've got this new revelation, a lawyer of some stripe, drafting a letter for trump about seizing evidence related to the election. again, this dated mid-december 2020. and bernie kerik says he has this document but doesn't want to hand it over. what do we expect will happen next? joining us now is nicholas wu, a congressional reporter for "politico." he was first to report that bernie kerik had handed over documents related to the january 6th investigation. mr. wu, thanks very much for making time tonight, it's nice to have you here. >> thank you. >> so, first of all, let me ask if i've gotten any of that wrong or if there's anything important that i've missed out in terms of what you know from your reporting, what we've learned about what mr. kerik has handed over to the committee. >> well, rachel, that draft letter that you brought up just now, the timing of that and the date on it is what is most interesting. so that's dated december 17th, 2020. and that's a day before trump held an oval office meeting with mike flynn and sidney powell and other trump world allies about ways to potentially seize election machines and other things trump saw as proof of fraud in the election. so it's unclear exactly if these two are linked.