Watch The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Highlights: Aug. 31

well tonight the trump lawyers have filed a reply to the justice department's opposition to a judge appointing a so-called special master to examine some of the government records seized by the fbi at donald trump's florida home andrew weissmann neil katial matthew miller will give us their expert analysis of these legal filings but but the single most important thing to keep in mind the single most important thing to know about the trump lawyers filing tonight is that it does not say one word about something included in the justice department's filing last night that could get some of the trump lawyers indicted for obstruction of justice one of the very important pieces of evidence in the justice department's filing last night is a copy of an under oath affidavit written by one of the trump lawyers and signed by another of the trump lawyers on june 3rd swearing under oath on that day that at that moment they were handing over to the fbi and the federal prosecutor at donald trump's home all of the government documents that were at donald trump's home at that time everything those lawyers said under oath to the fbi in this affidavit that they conducted a search of donald trump's home after receipt of the subpoena in order to locate any and all documents that are responsive to the subpoena any and all responsive documents accompany this certification meaning they accompany this piece of paper on june 3rd the trump lawyers said to the fbi and to federal prosecutors under oath you now have all of the documents that belong to the government that have been in this home and that was a lie it is very likely tonight that someone will be convicted of obstruction of justice for that lie in writing under oath either one or more of donald trump's lawyers or possibly donald trump himself if the trump lawyers turn on donald trump and testify that they were simply passing on a lie told to them by donald trump none of that none of that is mentioned in the trump lawyers filing tonight which insults the court with the lie that those lawyers and donald trump fully cooperated with the national archives and the justice department's attempts to retrieve all of the records owned by the federal government that were at donald trump's home illegally as the fbi investigation developed they realized that they had been lied to by the trump lawyers on june 3rd so they went to a federal judge in florida and obtained a search warrant to search donald trump's home on august 8th and what did they find on august 8th in the hotel that donald trump lives in in florida when he's living in florida they found twice as many documents with classification markings on them then they were given by the trump lawyers on june 3rd when the trump lawyers lied under oath in writing twice as many in the justice department's filing in the case last night on page 13 it says that the fbi in a matter of hours recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the diligent search that the former president's council and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the june 3rd certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter that is just one of the elements of the obstruction of justice case against donald trump in and his lawyers and his staff the trump lawyers had nothing to say tonight about that dramatic and highly incriminating passage in the justice department's filing last night not a single word about that the trump lawyers on june 3rd swore under oath that they were on that day handing over everything to the fbi and when the fbi comes back with a search warrant they find twice as many classified documents as the trump lawyers handed over to them and where did they find them in his desk in his desk that's where the fbi found three classified documents when they executed the search warrant of donald trump's home in donald trump's desk in his damn desk that's where they were for well over a hundred years now going all the way back to at least sherlock holmes we have been treated to an endless array of mystery novels and short stories and plays and movies and tv shows where the brilliant detective struggles mightily to get into the mind of the brilliant criminal to try to imagine if i were the brilliant criminal where would i hide the evidence of my crime the proof of my crime on the morning of august 8th fbi agents had to imagine if i were the stupidest man in the world or or maybe just the stupidest man who ever won the electoral college where would i hide the evidence of a crime and so the fbi went straight to donald trump's desk where they found three classified documents which is exactly three more than donald trump was legally allowed to have in his desk and those are not the only documents they found in that room here's a photograph the fbi attached to last night's motion of what they found in quote a container in the 45 office more top secret documents including documents that indicate the information in them was derived from human sources which could mean informers or spies and that some of the information in the documents is signals intelligence which means it could include intercepted phone calls on page 12 of last night's filing by the justice department federal prosecutors write three classified documents that were not located in boxes but rather were located in the desks in the 45 office were also seized the 45 offices donald trump's office at the hotel where he lives in florida it says desks in the 45 office so there is more than one desk there probably two desks donald trump's big desk and maybe an assistance desk across the room three classified documents found in more than one desk in donald trump's office so maybe it was only one in donald trump's desk or two in the assistance desks or maybe one in the assistant's desk and two and donald trump's desk in in his desk the only way those documents could be closer to donald trump is if they were in his pockets but that's where donald trump keeps his tic tacs so stolen classified documents oh they go in the desk with his passport the only thing the fbi has returned to donald trump from their search is his passport which they scooped up when they were scooping up stolen government records if the passport wasn't near or with or on top of one of those stolen government records the fbi wouldn't have taken it the fbi quickly decided they weren't going to need donald trump's passport in this investigation and so they returned it to him do you know where your passport is right now you should you don't want to have to go looking for it when you really need it because then you'll never find it you'll miss the plan always keep your passport in the same place all the time as soon as you get home from a foreign land just put it right back where it was i for one have been doing that for my entire life so i can tell you my passport is in my desk in the upper right drawer that's where it's been for my entire adult life if you find something with my passport i guarantee you i knew it was there because i know exactly what's in the drawer with my passport it's the most important drawer in the office it's the drawer where the most important stuff goes in donald trump's office that means his passport and stolen classified documents the original trump story was that all of this material was moved from washington dc to florida on its way to the national archives which is in washington d.c but then donald trump didn't send any of it none of it to the national archives for a year the national archives pleaded and finally sent some people down there to get it and then that first shipment of 15 boxes to the national archives they soon realized that there were classified documents there and that they didn't get it all about six months later they worked out the second delivery when the trump lawyers swore under oath in writing in june that that's it now you've got it all and if that were true this story would have ended right there on june 3rd and we wouldn't know much about it but the fact that government documents including classified documents remained at donald trump's home after his lawyers swore under oath that they weren't there moved this story in to the criminal arena and a criminal search warrant was issued and then the question became how close to donald trump is this going to get donald trump could have said i had nothing to do with those boxes he could have tried to say i didn't know what was in those boxes but on august 8th when the fbi figured out where the mastermind would hide classified documents they went straight to donald trump's office and straight into his desk and when they opened donald trump's desk drawer donald trump donald trump's defense collapsed and so tonight donald trump's sleep struggle is going to be trying to fall asleep while he wonders if the fbi has been able to find his fingerprints on the classified documents that he was hiding in his desk josh shapiro is a champion for the rule of law as your attorney general and he's going to make one hell of a governor i really mean it [Applause] as president biden campaigning for josh shapiro in pennsylvania yesterday and now at least 17 republican officials who support democracy believe that democrat josh shapiro will make a gov the best governor of pennsylvania seven former republican officials including the former secretary of homeland security under george w bush michael chertoff announced they will support josh shapiro for governor of pennsylvania this announcement comes one month after 10 other republicans including former representative charlie dent endorsed josh shapiro in a statement michael chertoff said quote right now we all have a responsibility to support candidates of whichever party who will stand up and defend our democracy although i am a long-standing republican i am deeply troubled by doug mostriano's embrace of dangerous extremism josh shapiro on the other hand is a staunch defender of our democratic institutions and will lead pennsylvania with honor and integrity and joining us now is pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro he's the democratic nominee for governor of pennsylvania thank you very much for joining us again tonight i i have told you before that this is only the single most important governor's race in the country which i know you feel but the stakes are as high as they get these stakes are as high as they were uh when ben franklin and everyone was meeting in pennsylvania to decide the shape of this country if you are not elected it is entirely possible that the next presidential election in pennsylvania will be illegitimate uh that doug maestriano would meddle with it and hand the electoral votes to the republican candidate uh i i is is that an issue that pennsylvania voters have grasped or is this campaign being run on the usual collection of local issues that uh these campaigns are run on uh i think pennsylvanians feel it and i think pennsylvanians recognize that we have a unique responsibility to defend our democracy our democracy that was born here in pennsylvania in the city of philadelphia 246 years ago and if you look at the chapters of our democracy lawrence and there have been many uh their stories have taken a couple steps forward and they may be getting knocked back a step but each chapter ends with us making forward progress with forward momentum well we're in the midst of a chapter right now a chapter where we've just gotten knocked back where the supreme court of the united states has taken away a right from women across this country taking away a right for the first time the supreme court did and we're in the midst of a time where our politics have gotten more afraid more divided yet each chapter in our american democracy has been written by people who rise up ordinary americans and demand more demand change and demand forward progress this next chapter in our american democracy in many ways is going to depend upon the outcome of this governor's race here in pennsylvania whether we are going to allow our democracy to be compromised by someone like my opponent this dangerous chaotic extremist who has already said that he would use his power as governor to decertify voting machines in pennsylvania to pick the winner if he thwarts the will of the people here in pennsylvania that compromises the will of the people all across the united states of america in 2024. so yes lawrence we feel a certain uh humbleness in this campaign and i think the good people of pennsylvania feel a certain responsibility to be able to protect our democracy and write this next chapter as one where we again make forward progress [Music] you

Channel: MSNBC

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Length: 17min 14sec (1034 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022