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Transcript: The Rachel Maddow Show, 6/20/22

Guests: Adam Schiff

Summary

Tomorrow`s January 6 hearing is going to focus on Trump`s pressure on state official to overturn the election. Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Transcript

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC HOST, "ALL IN": That is "ALL IN" on this Monday night.

THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW starts right now.

Good evening, Rachel.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Chris. Thanks, my friend. Much appreciated.

HAYES: You bet.

MADDOW: And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Happy to have you here. Happy Monday. Happy, happy Juneteenth observance. I hope you got the day off.

If you are planning your week ahead this week, there`s two things you should drop into your calendar. First of all, the next hearing of the January 6 investigation is going to be tomorrow, Tuesday. It starts at 1:00 Eastern.

Whether or not you are available at 1:00 Eastern, whether or not you are available to watch that live, you should know that we`re going to have a primetime recap tomorrow night after the hearing. We will wake up all the most important stuff from the hearing and what it means, tomorrow night, in primetime, starting at 8:00 Eastern.

And that is true both for tomorrow`s hearing and for the second hearing this week, which happens on Thursday. Two January 6th hearings this week: Tuesday, 1:00 Eastern, Thursday, 3:00 Eastern. And again, whether or not you can watch those live, you will have primetime recaps of each of those, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Now, in terms of what we are expecting tomorrow, this is kind of the one that I`ve been waiting for. It`s at least the stuff that we have covered most intensively on this show, as these stories, as this part of the plot has started to come into focus.

The hearing tomorrow is about how Trump and his cohort, coconspirators, what do you call them? Team Trump, tried to get into individual states to overthrow the election results from those states. And these were states that voted for Biden, obviously, but where Republicans were in charge of at least some part of the state government.

Now, the idea on the Trump side is that they thought, if they could lean hard enough on Republicans state level officials, those officials would do what Trump wanted. They would throw out the real results.

So, the first witnesses tomorrow, we believe, will be some of that Republican officials that Trump leaned on to try to get them to throw out the election results from those states. That will include the House speaker, Republican House speaker from the state of Arizona, his name is Rusty Bowers. And you`ll hear from him live tomorrow, I have no idea what kind of a witness he will be. I have no idea what he`ll be asked. You`ll be able to make up your own mind when you see it live, or when we recap it tomorrow night.

But, I will just say, heading into that expected testimony tomorrow, I think it`s worth knowing that Rusty Bowers, again, a witness you`ll hear from live tomorrow, he is in one particular and important way, he is everything that Bill Barr and Mike Pence, and all these other supposed heroes of the story, are not.

However, much people like Attorney General Bill Barr, Vice President Pence, have been lauded, over the course of this investigation, because at the very, very end, when it came down to it in the final, final, final accounting, they didn`t ultimately go along with the last worst thing that Trump asked them to do.

However, much they`re being lauded for not being as bad as Trump, and not being willing to do everything he wanted, one thing that neither of those wanted in the moment, not Bill Barr, not Vice President Pence, not Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann, not Pence lawyer Greg Jacob, not the Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, not any of these guys we`ve heard from this far. They are all taking their bows now for not putting on a Viking hat and smashing windows with the rest of the mob on January 6th, and good for them. But one thing that none of them did in the moment, was tell us, tell the public what was happening in the White House that they were so disturbed about, none of them was willing to sound the alarm in the moment, to say, hey, the president is trying to get people to do something illegal here, and we`re worried it`s going to get people killed on January 6.

None of them went to the public with their concerns in real-time. But you know who to do that in real-time? The Arizona, very conservative Republican speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers, who is going to testify tomorrow. Again, I have no idea he`ll be able as a witness, or what he will testify to, but the historical record will show that he actually got this part of it right, when almost nobody else did.

As he was getting calls from President Trump himself, and from Rudy Giuliani, from all these other people in the presidents orbit, Rusty Bowers, not only didn`t go along with their demands that he should throw out Arizona`s election results, he kind of alone I`m among all these other guys, is the one who put out a press release, telling everybody that actually, that`s what they are pressuring him to do. They were pressuring him to overturn the states election results, and that`s wrong, and he needed everybody to know it in the moment.

Look at this document. This is what you show sent Peter at the pearly gates. This is your hall pass for a bear, at the end of your life as a public official, if your name is Rusty Bowers.

[21:05:04]

See the date on it? It`s a very important date, December 4th, 2020, for immediate release.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers today made the following statement, quote, this week, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and others, representing Donald Trump came to Arizona with a breathtaking request, that the Arizona legislature overturn the certified results of last month`s election, and deliver the state`s Electoral College votes to President Trump. The rule of law forbids us to do that. Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Ellis make their case here at least twice, on Monday, and then unofficial public gathering hosted by a small group of legislatures, and again on Tuesday, during a closed-door meeting at the state Capitol, with Republican leaders from both chambers of the legislature.

Both times, the Trump team made claims that the election was tainted by fraud, but presented only theories, not proof.

Again, keep in mind what`s going on here, right? This is the one dog barked. He is alerting the public to the fact that there`s been an unofficial gathering between Republican legislatures and people from the Trump campaign. And then, following that, a closed-door meeting, between Republican leaders and the state legislature and people from the Trump campaign, and this guy, the Republican House Speaker, says hey, this might be happening behind closed doors, but the public needs to know about this. I`m going public. I`m going to tell the public what`s going on here, and also, that I`m not going to stand for it, I`m not going to go along with it.

He says, quote, even if such evidence existed, the Arizona legislature simply couldn`t do what`s being asked. Under Arizona law, the presidential electors must vote for the winners of the popular vote, nothing in the U.S. Constitution or the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, even suggests that the Arizona legislature could retroactively appoint different electors who could cast their ballots for different candidates. The law does not authorize the legislature to reverse the results of the election, as a conservative Republican, I don`t like the results of the presidential election.

I voted for Trump, and I worked hard to reelect him, but I cannot and will not entertain the suggestion that we violate the law to change the outcome of the certified election. I and my fellow legislators swore an oath to support the U.S. Constitution, and the laws of the state of Arizona. It would violate that oath, the basic principles of Republican government, and the rule of law, if we attempt to nullify the people`s vote based on unsupported theories of fraud. Arizona voters choose who wins, and our system requires that their choice to be respected.

He then concludes with this: 40 years ago, next month, Ronald Reagan reminded us that while the orderly transfer of authority is a commonplace occurrence for Americans, quote, in the eyes of many in the world, this every four years ceremony except as normal, is nothing less than a miracle.

Rusty Bowers concludes, quote, and how Americans are being reminded once again never to take for granted, what President Reagan correctly described as the continuity, which is the bulwark of our republic.

Again, look at the date on that, December 4th, 2020. That`s more than a month before the January 6th attack, the Republican House speaker in Arizona, saying, yeah, I wanted Trump to win. I voted for Trump. But here he is, sounding the alarm, telling the public, that when the Trump campaign with asking for behind closed doors was blatantly illegal.

He went to the public. He said this is breathtaking, that`s the word he used. A breathtaking request, telling the public, knowing what to do it, and correctly, saying, that Trump was asking for, and the fact that he was asking for it would be the end of the peaceful transition of power in our country.

Rusty Bowers was right. And almost no one else in Republican politics was willing to tell that truth to the public about it at, that point. All these people who are sort of getting it right in retrospect, he got it right in the moment. And he will be tomorrow`s first witness.

There will also be to Republican state officials from Georgia, you probably know the Georgia story better. That is, you know, Trump calling up the secretary of state in Georgia, and demanding, basically, threatening the secretary of state that he needed to throw out just enough Biden votes, or somehow, mysteriously find just enough Trump votes for the secretary of state`s office to be able to say, oh, actually, the results here in Georgia has flipped. And the secretary of state and his office wouldn`t go along with it, and then, Trump sicced his supporters on those Georgia officials.

And then, the deputy in secretary of state`s office, and then named Gabriel Sterling, you see there in front of the microphones, he gave his own public press conference in December, where he said not only where the fraud claims about Georgia falls. He said President Trump`s attack on the election and the people who administer it was going to get people killed. Gabriel Sterling again, went to the public without warning. He said that, in December 2020, just before the January 6th attack.

And just as Rusty Bowers was right in that press release earlier that month, Gabriel Sterling also was right.

[21:10:02]

And he will be another one of the live witnesses tomorrow.

And by that point in tomorrow`s hearing, I think the committee will still have its unbroken record of every single witness they`ve called thus far, being a Republican and or a conservative.

But there`s one other witness they`re going to call tomorrow who I think breaks that mold. The last witness we`re going to hear from the committee tomorrow is, we have no idea what our politics are, or her political affiliation, and that`s proper, because she`s in a nonpartisan capacity. She`s there to talk about being an election worker in Georgia, a nonpartisan technocratic round level election worker. She, therefore, it will be a totally different kind of witness that we have seen thus far from the January 6th hearings.

And it in terms of why she`s there, you may not recognize her face, but you will probably remember some of the story of this witness. In part because we covered it on this show last year quite a bit, but also, because the story of this witness, this Georgia election worker, her name is Shaye Moss, is it`s terrifying and strange, and a very memorable way. It also had a celebrity cameo that you might remember. I will refresh you on this.

When Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told him that he needed to overturn the Biden win in Georgia, when Trump`s lawyer Rudy Giuliani went to that Republican-led legislature in Georgia and told them, they needed to overturn the election. That claim that these guys were making about supposed fraud in Georgia, that would justify those radical steps, all centered on a video clip that Trump and company insisted, showed the elections being stolen, right there on tape.

They said, they had video of election workers in Atlanta, Black election workers, naturally, African American election workers, they said the video showed them stuffing suitcases full of illicit ballots. And they accuse those election workers, by name, of stealing the election, committing crimes.

On that call with Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, Trump brought up one particular election worker, by name, 18 times. He used her name 18 times on that call. Trump called her a professional vote scammer, and a hustler. He kept talking about the supposed suitcases, the clip that showed all the fraud.

Trump even played that supposed incriminating videotape on a massive jumbo screen in a rally held in Georgia, saying that it showed crime. And, of course, he said that, but the video showed nothing of, but it showed Fulton county election workers, a woman named Shaye Moss, and her mother, a 62 year old retiree and grandmother. Shaye Moss had been a long-time election worker in Fulton County. For this election, Fulton looked like it was going to be short staffed because of COVID. So, Ms. Moss recruited her mom to sign up as a temp worker for election day.

That video that Trump and company got sophisticated on. All it showed was Shaye Moss and her mom, election workers, literally doing their jobs on election night, taking ballots out of the secured containers they were transporting, like they were supposed to, and running them through the ballot counting machine, like they were supposed to. But Trump and Giuliani in all the Trump folks, and friends at fox news, kept running this snippet video over and over, and saying that showed a crime, even though it actually shows just a normal election workers doing normal stuff, the normal way, with no malfeasance whatsoever.

But then, fixating on this video, Trump not only showing the video, conservative media showing the video, Giuliani showing the video, and Trump specifically naming the women in the video, as the ones who stole the election from him, and that had profound consequences.

Shaye Moss and her mom, even her teenage son, got inundated with vulgar and racist harassment and death threats. Shaye Moss`s mother called 911 multiple times, because people were showing up at your house and banging on her door, making threats in person.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, 911 CALL, COBB COUNTY, GA/DEC. 6 2020)

RUBY FREEMAN: I`ve been having terroristic threats. I`ve been having harassing phone calls and emails, and they came out, and made a police report yesterday. And last night about ten minutes after nine, somebody was bamming on the door. And now, somebody`s bombing on the door again.

Oh, they, screaming. They still bamming the door.

911 DISPATCHER: Okay.

FREEMAN: They still bamming on the door. Lord. Jesus, where is the police?

911 DISPTACHER: They are on the way, ma`am.

FREEMAN: Oh. God.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MADDOW: Lord Jesus, where is the police?

This became their lives. Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, in the midst of all those harrowing threats and intimidation, something else happen. That tape and 911 tape was from December 2020. The following month, in January, 2021, actually two days before the January 6 attack, a woman showed up on her doorstep, said she`s been sent by a high-profile individual, and she was there to help Ms. Freeman.

[21:15:15]

Now, this woman told Ruby Freeman that she was in danger. She told her that people were coming to her house in 48 hours, and she was going to be locked up. That woman who came to Ruby Freeman`s house, and made that apparent threat, it turned out in the end, that she at least, at some point, had been a publicist for a troubled Trump supporting hip-hop artists, Kanye West, which is the celebrity thing that cut although this is we are, kind of headlines about this incident.

You might remember that. Where did Kanye West publicist fit into all this? The way it actually resolved, and what you should know, ahead of Ms. Moss`s testimony in tomorrow`s hearing, is that we here on this show, actually, later determines that that woman who showed on Ruby Freeman`s doorstep, had been dispatched by a campaign operative for Trump.

And that woman came to Ruby Freeman`s house. Ms. Freeman was so freaked out after months of threats and harassment, that while she said she was willing to talk with this person, she said she would only agree to do so at the local police station. That was the only place she felt safe meeting this random stranger, and, so she went and met with her at the police station.

And because it was at the police station, but of their meeting was caught on a police body cam, which "Reuters" obtained. And this is a part of that meeting, which is edited and subtitled by "Reuters".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVIAN KUTTI, CRISIS MANAGER: Thank you.

POLICE OFFICER: No problem.

RUBY FREEMAN, ELECTION WORKER: Hi.

KUTTI: Good evening, how are you?

Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with us. We didn`t want to frighten you, but we had to find you within this time frame.

We would like to let you know first and foremost, we have put in placement a way to move you, to secure you, from what may be authorized over the next 48 hours.

We have probably 48 hours in which to move you. We would do it on your schedule. I cannot say what specifically will take place. I just know that it will disrupt your freedom and (INAUDIBLE) the freedom of one or more of your family members.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: We didn`t want to frighten you, but we have to find you within this timeframe. We put in place a way to move you to secure you from what may be authorized over the next 48 hours. I can`t say specifically what will take place. I just know it will disrupt your freedom and the freedom of one or more members of your family. It`s January 4th.

The woman then says she is going to put Ruby Freeman on the phone with somebody, quote, very high-level, with the authoritative powers to get to the protection that you need. Protection from what?

Ruby Freeman told "Reuters" that once this other person, a man got on the phone with her, he and this woman who tried to come into her house to get hurt to talk to her but moving her because something terrible is going to happen to her within 48 hours. The man on the phone on that one at the police station with her tried to get her to admit to committing election fraud. Ruby Freeman said that the woman told her, quote, if you don`t tell everything and you are going to jail.

Now, what is important about this other than the bizarreness of it is that the, quote, very high level guy who Ruby Freeman got on the phone with -- this person that supposedly could get Ruby Freeman protection overall is going to happen to. Her she just confessed and otherwise she and a family member are more than one family member were all going to go to jail, it turns out that I worked for the Trump campaign.

He had been the paid executive director of a Trump campaign group called Black Voices for Trump. He told us that he was the one that sent that woman through be Freeman`s house on January. He claimed he was acting as a private citizen when he did that. He said he was no longer on the Trump payroll.

He also said that he personally never threatened Ms. Freeman. He told "Reuters" he received calls from people offering Ruby Freeman immunity if she confessed to election fraud. He wouldn`t say who those people were or on what authority they would`ve been able to offer her immunity.

An immunity from? What would she be prosecuted for? She did not actually commit election fraud.

But, again this all happened on January 4th. They keep giving her this deadline, right? By what she needs to, actually needs to confess. She`s going to get taken away, maybe they can move, or maybe they can keep are safe, 48-hour deadline.

But what was happening 48 hours from January 4th. Why was it so important they get it confessed to election fraud? And within 48 hours of January 4th?

Well, for eight hours later, of course, is January 6, when Trump was planning to pressure Mike Pence into stopping the certification of Biden`s election win.

[21:20:00]

And it would have, of course, been very handy to have a forced confession, a forced false confession of election fraud to point to that day as a reason to throw the Georgia results. At least to delay certifying the because there was some kind of great new controversy in Georgia.

But exactly where they threatening Ruby Freeman with?

Well, as far as there being some sort to ruby freeman that would materialize 48 hours from January 4th. Well, it did actually materialize. According to a lawsuit mistreatment filed against a right-wing website promoted false stories about her, 48 hours after that visit from the Trump folks on January 6th, while pro-Trump rioters were storming the Capitol in Washington, a pro-Trump crowd also stormed her house, surrounded Ruby Freeman`s house outside Atlanta, shouting at her through a bullhorn.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt and she by then had already fled her home for her safety, following the FBI`s advice to do so.

And, of course, Ruby freeman -- the 62-year-old election, worker grandmother from Atlanta did not confess to some invented charge of election fraud, right? Despite this implied threat, this dangle promise from people connected to the Trump campaign that it would relieve the pressure on her and only then could they keep are safe.

The harassment and the threats turned Ruby Freeman`s life upside down. It turned her daughter Shaye Moss`s life upside down. It has been a total nightmare for them. They did nothing wrong.

It is also still coming full circle. Since then, the January 6 investigation has revealed not only that the claims about fraud in Fulton County were false, but that Trump was told in detail about the number of two official at the U.S. Justice Department to the whole attack on that mother and daughter and Atlanta, the whole suitcase full of ballots claim, all these supposed fraud claims about Fulton County, Georgia, were nonsense, We know that because we have tape from Richard Donoghue, the number two official at the Justice Department after Bill Barr left. We have tape of his deposition to the January 6 investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD DONOGHUE, FORMER DOJ OFFICIAL: I said something to be effective, sir we have done nothing to the investigations hundreds of interviews, the major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed. We look at Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada. We are doing our job and much of the info you are getting is false.

I said, okay with regard to Georgia, we looked at the tape, we interviewed the witnesses and there is no suitcase. The president kept fixating on the suitcase it had ballots, the suitcases rolled out from under the table.

And I said, no sir there is no suitcase. You can watch that video over and over. There is no suitcase. There is a wheeled ban where they carried the ballots and that is just how they move ballots around that facility. There is nothing to suspicious about that at all.

I told him that there was no multiple scanning of the ballots. It was allegations that they were taking one ballot and scanning it through three, four, five times to rack up most presumably for Vice President Biden. I told him that the video did not support that.

He told them flat out that much of the information he was getting was false and/or it was just not supported by the evidence. We look at the allegations but they don`t pan out.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MADDOW: The number two official at the Justice Department told President Trump personally, and in detail, this suitcase thing. This fantasy about some nefarious thing in Fulton County, Georgia, but you have described to these women who have named, you have sicced your supporters on to the point where they`ve been driven into hiding at the advice of the FBI, this thing that you`ve been saying is not true. Nothing that you are saying about that is true. Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss did nothing wrong.

Here`s just one last thing, I think this is also important heading into this part of the investigation that we are going to see tomorrow. You know, there has been all of this talk -- I participated in some of the stop. There is been a lot of discussion and commentary and speculation about what the intersection is by this January 6 investigation that we are seeing all these hearings from, and prosecution, the possible criminal prosecution of people who tried to pull off the scheme.

That whole question just looms really large over all of these hearings, over everything the January 6 investigators have been revealing for the findings that these hearings. Well, what we are going to see tomorrow, at tomorrow`s hearing, this is the part where that is no longer a hypothetical discussion, because this Georgia stuff, the threats to the workers, the threats to the state workers they needed to make fake fraud claims, that they needed to change the election results, that is already definitely under criminal investigation. You don`t have to speculate about what might happen if any prosecutor decided to look into that. Prosecutors are looking into that.

State prosecutors in Georgia have panel the grand jury that is working and possible charges under Georgia state law.

[21:25:07]

And the matter is reportedly under criminal investigation by federal justice department -- as well, who`ve reportedly been interviewing Georgia officials.

The pressure on state election officials and election workers, also the forged fake slates of Trump electors that they arranged from Georgia and six other states, those are parts of the Trump plot we already know are actively under criminal investigation by both federal and state prosecutors working with federal and state grand juries. That whole question about whether or not the January 6 investigation is looking at possible crimes but prosecutors are going to be interested in, what we are going to get into tomorrow`s hearing is the part that is already happening.

And what that means for this next hearing that we are going to have tomorrow, we don`t yet know. It will be new. The member of the investigation is going to be leading the hearing tomorrow is going to be our guest live here tonight in just a moment.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:30:38]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): The justification which we will learn more about in our next year was that a group of Trump supporters in Arizona and other swing states decided to proclaim themselves the true electors for the state, creating two sets of electors, the official electors selected by the state and a group of fake electors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: That was Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was vice chair of the January 6 investigation. That was some talking at the last hearing, previewing some of what we are going to expect next. It`s what we are going to expect tomorrow.

And the lead up to January 6, as we have covered extensively here on the show, Trump pressured Republican officials in multiple states to throw out election results in their state. But we also know there was another part of it, the Trump campaign organized and ever to have seven states that Trump lost, nevertheless submit fake slates of electors who would vote as if Trump had won there, even though Trump had lost.

The January 6 investigators have said that Trump`s own lawyers knew the fake elector plant was illegal, even while they were pushing it. They said that they have evidence of that and writing, I`m expecting that we will see the evidence of that tomorrow.

But the January 6 investigation is not the only body that is investigating the whole fake electors` scheme. The Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Justice, also the district attorney`s office in Fulton County, Georgia, they are both investigating the fake election -- excuse me, the fake electoral scheme along with the pressure of state officials to overthrow election results in that state. The attorney general of Michigan has also said that she will criminally investigate the fake elector scheme in Michigan if federal prosecutors don`t move forward with their investigation of it.

But here`s a legal question for us non-lawyers looking at this. Tomorrow when the January 6 investigation lays out their case in public about the fake electors in about the state officials, does -- do they have to worry about how that might impact the existing criminal investigations? This isn`t a hypothetical overlap of how prosecutors might be interested. What we`re going to talk about tomorrow from this January 6 hearing in that investigation is actually the part already know that they`re active criminal investigations underway right now. Does the committee have to worry about that or how will that affect with they`re able to present?

Joining us now is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Barbara McQuade.

Barbara, it is great to see you. Thank you for being here.

BARBARA MCQUADE, MSNBC LEGAL ANALYST: Thank you, Rachel. Great to see you.

MADDOW: Is this the right question to ask? Is this a relevant consideration for the committee tomorrow?

MCQUADE: Absolutely. You know, I think the committee has decided that they are just going to do their thing. They don`t know the Justice Department is or isn`t doing. So, they see their mission more broadly and appropriately as exposing the whole story of what happened here on January 6th. Although, you`ll notice that they do conveniently often say the statutory language of criminal statutes.

Liz Cheney in particular will often bring the discussion in terms of federal statutes like corruptly obstructing a criminal proceeding. So, they`re throwing plenty of hands to the Justice Department. That is to see if they can find violations a very specific statutes that are on the books.

It isn`t enough to say that what Trump did was profoundly undemocratic, which it most certainly was. But does it fit any of the elements and these offenses? And so, that`s their job. It`s different. And I think that when you have apparel investigation is very public, it can cloud or tend to undermine your own investigation.

MADDOW: Well, that`s I think that specific that I found myself sort of working about or wondering about at least when it came to, for example, the investigation into Georgia officials being pressured by the president, to pressure an election official to mal-administer an election is, of course, a crime under state law and on federal law.

We know that Brad Raffensperger spent hours with the Fulton County grand jury that is investigation that is a potential crime. We know just a few days ago, just last week, Gabriel Sterling is also going to testify tomorrow. He also spoke with the grand jury that is investigating this in Fulton County. Now, they`re giving live January 6 investigation.

If you`re the prosecutors at Fulton County, does that worry you? Is there anything about their public life testimony on the same topic that could screw up what you`re doing in criminal court?

[21:35:04]

MCQUADE: It does worry me. It could cause problems because one thing is, one thing that prosecutors do benefit from is the element of surprise. Grand jury investigations are conducted secretly, and there`s a reason there conducted secretly.

One of the reasons is because I don`t compromise by telling the whole world what it is. It allows other witnesses down the road to get their story straight in the lineup their stories consistent with what the other person said, but not admitting too much.

It can also tip people off. Oh, this is what they`re looking into, I`m going to destroy these documents that I have.

Or it could even invite witness tampering. Somebody who didn`t previously know about Rusty Bowers are some of these other people might be inclined to do just with they did to the Georgia election workers and show up at their door and offer them protection money.

MADDOW: Wow. Barbara McQuade, former U.S. attorney, that gives us a whole new level of things to worry about. Thank you, Barb. Appreciate it.

MCQUADE: Thanks, Rachel.

MADDOW: So, as we`ve seen in the last couple of, hearings individual members have led the questioning that let us through the evidence that we saw. We saw Zoe Lofgren, the congressman from California do that. We saw Pete Aguilar do it, congresswoman from -- also from California, do that in another hearing.

We`re going to see that role tomorrow in tomorrow`s hearing, and played by Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and obviously, somebody who is no stranger to very, very high stakes, high pressure congressional investigations. Congressman Schiff will lead proceedings tomorrow and he`s going to be joining us live here next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:41:10]

MADDOW: The January 6th hearings resumed tomorrow after Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren led a hearing that revealed that former President Trump knew his election fraud claims were false and Congressman Pete Aguilar led the hearing that revealed the life-threatening pressure put on Vice President Mike Pence.

Tomorrow, it will Congressman Adam Schiff, who led the next hearing. We`re told it will focus on the pressure of individual states, that they should throw out there election results, as well as the plot to send forged sets of fake Trump electors to the Electoral College.

On the eve of that hearing tomorrow, Congressman Schiff has made some news. Congressman Schiff says investigators tomorrow will show evidence of Trump`s personal involvement in the fake electoral plot. He is also saying tomorrow`s hearing will reveal new details about the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his role in the plot in Georgia.

Congressman Schiff also says it remains a possibility that Vice President Pence could still be subpoenaed to testify. Tell me more.

Joining us now is Congressman Adam Schiff of California, member of the January 6 investigation, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Sir, I know that this is a cramming night. Thank you for making time to be here. I really appreciate it.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): You bet.

MADDOW: First, let me ask you for an on air fact-check. Am I correct in telling our audience tonight that the focus tomorrow will largely be the pressure in individual states to overthrow their election results, including that bizarre set of forgeries, those fake Trump electors?

SCHIFF: Yes. It`s exactly right and I think that you set out the sequence in its right order. We heard the pressure campaign in our last hearing directed at the vice president, how that campaign put his life in jeopardy, how it was premised on a completely unconstitutional theory and argument. And now, you will hear the pressure campaign directed at state legislators, state election officials, even at local electoral workers putting their lives very much at risk.

And this was really unprecedented in U.S. history. This brought effort to overturn an election. And you`ll see just with the weight of the presidency brought down on these officials.

MADDOW: You told "The L.A. Times" a little bit more about what to expect in terms of tomorrow. I was struck by the idea of Trump`s individual involvement in the fake electoral plot. I think as members of the public, members of the media watching these hearings one of the things that has been hard to discern is how much the president was initiating some of these ideas, how much the president was simply receptive to any idea that might allow him to hold on to power, how much the president has been critical at all in terms of what he was being told.

Was the fake electoral plot something at the president took an active role in? Or was it carried out on his behalf by others -- he knew about it, but he didn`t necessarily advanced himself?

SCHIFF: Well, tomorrow, we`ll be showing some of the evidence of the president`s role in this whole scheme of pressuring state legislators to overturn the election.

Now, this scheme was illegitimate from the beginning. Donald Trump lost these states. The whole effort to pressure the state legislatures and legislators was premised on a big lie about a massive fraud that didn`t exist. They were trying to get these legislators to go into session and decertify the win for Joe Biden and certify electors for him, or send these fake electors to Washington.

All of that was illegitimate. We will explore the role that was played by the president by his campaign, by lawyers present some of the evidence that we have accumulated to explain how that plot to pressure these legislative officials took place.

[21:45:09]

And what it did to turn their lives upside down.

MADDOW: You`re a former federal prosecutor yourself. Because we`re now venturing into the part of the committee`s investigation, part of your findings is definitely a territory that we know is a subject of criminal investigation, both at the state level at least in Georgia and at the federal level with deputy attorney general saying publicly that some of these matters are under federal investigation by Justice Department prosecutors.

Are you taking steps, do you need to take steps to make sure that both investigations, you are on the committee and that`s happening in terms of the criminal law are insulated from one another and that neither investigation does any harm to the other?

SCHIFF: We are very conscious the fact that there are many other criminal investigations going on. There are other investigations going on. We want to make sure that yes, we are very careful that what we do does not interfere with what they are doing, and also that where they have a need for information, we can help and provide it.

But, look, we have an obligation for Congress, as Barbara McQuade is pointing out, quite independent of the Justice Department rather prosecutors. That is to protect our democracy and our institutions. We couldn`t very well sit for a year and a half and not investigate an attack on the legislative branch.

So the work that we are doing is very important. We hope that it will be of great value for the American people. And we`re doing everything that we can to make sure that we are complimentary to the efforts of the Justice Department or other prosecutorial agencies and not in conflict.

MADDOW: One last question for you, sir, I know that you`re not going to talk about individual negotiations around individual witness testimony. But should the public expect that it is a real possibility that Vice President Pence may end up in that witness chair? That, of course, would be a qualitatively different moment in terms of public accountability here. Is that a live possibility?

SCHIFF: I don`t know how to gauge the likelihood. He is someone that we have expressed interest in want to talk to. There are others, some very high-profile some not so high profile that we continue to have an interest in. Whether we`ll be able to get them before the committee, at this point I can`t say.

But we are continuing to encourage frankly anyone with relevant information to come forward. We have been the beneficiary of many great tips from the American people. And we continue to urge people to follow the greatest example of other witnesses that you see appearing before the Congress and that you`ll see tomorrow.

MADDOW: Vice President Pence, call the tip line.

Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, member of the January 6 investigation, chair of the Intelligence Committee -- sir, good luck tomorrow. We`ll be watching. Thank you.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

MADDOW: Again, tomorrow`s hearing is at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. That`s when it starts live. We will be recapping it here in primetime tomorrow starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right. We`ll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:52:51]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COUY GRIFFIN OTERO COUNTY, NM COMMISSIONER: My vote tonight is going to be "no". And my vote to remain a "no" isn`t based on any evidence. It`s not based on any facts. It`s only based on my gut and my gut feeling and my own intuition. And that is all that I need to base my vote on the elections right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: It isn`t based on the evidence. It`s not based on any facts, Who needs them?

That was a county commission meeting in Otero County, New Mexico, this past Friday. County commissioners meant to certify the results of recent elections. Elections in which there were no complaints of fraud or irregularities at all.

As we reported on the show last week, Republicans were threatening that they would not certify the election results because something, something Donald Trump, voting machines, bamboo fibers, Rudy Giuliani, something, something. Not really based on any facts, just bad feelings.

On Friday, the state Supreme Court in New Mexico ordered the county to drop the nonsense and certify the elections. They did by 2 to 1 vote. They want no vote was that disembodied voice that you heard in that meeting on Friday, saying he was still voting no, but not because of any facts.

The reason he isn`t disembodied voice at that meeting is because he had a phone into that meeting in D.C. He was in D.C. because he was being sentenced by federal judge for his part of the January 6th attack.

So, that is how it worked out in Otero County. Court ordered, begrudging agreement.

But look at this, look at what happened that same day into other counties in New Mexico, as officials in other counties certified their own primary elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATTENDEE: This is our state. This is our country. This is important for us.

You need to hear us and you may not push us out of a meeting. We need to be heard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am going -- we can continue this on our own, if you would like to leave, sir. This is your only warning.

ATTENDEE: Who elected you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m calling the vote.

Commissioner Candelaria?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

[21:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commissioner Schwebach votes yes.

Commissioner McCall?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ATTENDEE: Cowards and traitors. Cowards! Traders!

(CROSSTALK)

ATTENDEE: You should have been like Otero County.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: You should have been like Otero County.

Again, no complaints of fraud or irregularities in these. Just don`t certify election results anymore.

I mean, what happened in Otero County for all its consciousness was the first over act that we have, seen taken by Republican-dominated elections body to nullify election results just in the basis of fact-free Trumpian extremism, just a matter of Trump principle.

That happened in Otero County last week. But seeing other counties facing the same pressure, it is a clear and dark side of where things are headed, right? This is not the same as angry conservatives showing up to complain at a local school board meeting or a zoning committee. This is, don`t certify election results anymore.

This is an organized, anti-small D democratic movement in our country pushing to nullify all election results. And it is spreading, it has started.

Watch this space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MADDOW: Tomorrow, 1:00 Eastern, the January 6th investigation holds its next hearing. MSNBC`s special coverage starts at noon Eastern tomorrow. And then I will help host a primetime recap of tomorrow`s hearing at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

You should also know that we`re going to have a special edition of this show, Wednesday night, right here live at 9:00 pm. Eat your Wheaties. Big week ahead.

That does it for now, though. I`ll see you tomorrow, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Now it`s time for "THE LAST WORD" WITH LAWRENCE O`DONNELL.

Good evening, Lawrence.