Kash Patel surging FBI resources into REVIVAL of Trump's BOGUS 2020 election fraud claims

[0:00] it sounds like somebody's still got georgia on his mind stunning new reporting from our ms now [0:05] colleague ken delanian shines a light on an fbi that is seemingly more concerned with pleasing [0:11] donald trump's fragile ego than following the truth or centering the world's premier law [0:15] enforcement agency around the gravest threats facing our country because the objective and [0:21] verifiable truth is that donald trump lost the state of georgia in the 2020 presidential election [0:27] he lost it by 11 779 votes we all heard him ask beg secretary of state brad raffensperger to find [0:36] just enough votes to undo that result that defeat but brad raffensperger stood firm against trump's [0:43] pressure and it's something that trump's current director of the fbi either can't do or won't do [0:48] even if it damages the credibility and effectiveness of the fbi donald trump's efforts in georgia are [0:55] just one of the flashpoints that were investigated by former special counsel jack smith smith would go [1:00] on to indict donald trump for what was shorthanded the election case but included allegations that [1:06] donald trump and his co-conspirators knowingly spread lies about election fraud as part of and in [1:12] furtherance of a criminal conspiracy to remain in power it matters today as much as it did then [1:18] because those very same lies undergird actions being taken today and frankly most days by the [1:25] federal government that's what ken's reporting today highlights it also matters today because we have our [1:31] first chance to speak to former special counsel jack smith about the cases he was prepared to bring [1:37] against donald trump cases he believed he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt this is his first [1:43] interview he'll join us live right here coming up in the next hour jack smith's investigations into [1:49] trump represent the last rigorous forensic examinations of trump's attempt to criminally overturn the 2020 [1:56] election outcome but unfortunately that does not mean that trump isn't still directing activities [2:03] that in a healthier democracy might warrant scrutiny and accountability today and it doesn't mean those [2:09] activities will never be scrutinized but it does mean that for now all that we have is ken delaney [2:16] is intrepid reporting that reporting found that fbi director cash patel is surging resources into a quote [2:22] priority investigation related to the 2020 election in georgia that's according to two u.s officials familiar [2:29] with the matter ordering personnel from all field offices to participate when asked what those analysts [2:35] would be looking for one of the officials said quote looking for derogatory information is the short [2:41] answer the idea is to build a case look at associations between people look into their social media their [2:49] business activity travel contact with other investigative subjects as ken writes quote it's an extraordinary [2:56] effort by the nation's most prominent law enforcement agency to find evidence supporting donald trump's [3:02] darkest election fraud conspiracy theories when contacted by ms now the fbi declined to comment [3:09] that is where we start today with justice and intelligence reporter ken delanian also joining [3:14] us former top doj official and general counsel for the fbi our legal analyst andrew weisman is with us as [3:20] well ken take us through what you're reporting well nicole it's important to stress and thank you by [3:26] the way for having me to talk about this it's important to stress that these documents that i've obtained and [3:30] the sources i talked to it's a partial window onto this investigation a lot of which we don't [3:36] understand but because this this these documents speak to a surge of resources from the fbi's analytical [3:44] division which is separate from the special agents who are the principal investigators in criminal cases [3:49] but it's they play an important role they sift through documents they do analysis behind the scenes [3:54] they look at data and in this case they've been tasked with doing records checks so uh essentially [4:00] cash patel is ordering analysts from every field office in america uh proportional to how large they [4:07] are that that's how many analysts they're supposed to contribute to this and he's authorizing them to [4:11] work overtime including on weekends and holidays and he wants this done in the next couple of weeks [4:16] he wants each one of them to make 708 so-called records checks and when i asked uh one of my sources [4:22] what this could entail as you as you mentioned he said this is them looking for derogatory information [4:28] trying to make connections between subjects of investigation they may be looking at social media [4:32] they may be looking at phone records all kinds of data uh in support of the special agents who are [4:39] leading this investigation remember we learned about this investigation when the fbi swooped into fulton [4:43] county in january again conducted a court-ordered search a raid really of of fulton county election [4:50] facilities and seized 600 boxes of ballots and other election related material and then when we saw [4:57] when we finally saw the affidavit that supported that search warrant that convinced the federal [5:01] magistrate to grant that search warrant we saw that it was based largely on debunked uh allegations [5:06] things that had already been investigated by georgia republicans and then did not add up to [5:12] meaningful fraud that changed the result in georgia in 2020 and yet here you have the fbi in this [5:18] massive diversion of resources and here one reason the american public should care about this even if [5:22] they're not so concerned about the fbi hunting for uh baseless allegations of fraud is that every hour [5:29] that every fbi analyst spends on this is an hour they're not spending analyzing uh for example terrorism [5:36] cases or you know drug cartels or white collar fraud or all the other things we hope and expect that [5:41] the fbi is going to investigate that state state and local police generally don't investigate [5:46] uh and so it's a huge diversion of resources uh in the in the service of essentially a donald trump [5:52] passion project an obsession whatever you want to call it uh that we have not seen any evidence to [5:58] suggest that there's any basis here for a criminal investigation nicole just correct me if i have these [6:05] dots not aligned properly but what is public facing on this story is that the fbi seized ballots in [6:15] fulton county and tulsi gabbard was there in her official capacity as the director of national [6:20] intelligence and she got on the phone with donald trump as part of that and now intelligence um agents [6:28] from the fbi um will do 708 records checks a day is that of those ballots i mean what is the connection [6:38] between these 708 records checks looking for quote derogatory information and the seizure of all of the [6:44] ballots so if that's not 100 clear but what my sources tell me is based on their understanding of [6:53] this investigation and how other investigations work the analysts are doing record checks in support [6:58] of the agent's investigation and so it could be a lot of different things that they generally look for [7:05] again connections between subjects of investigations they may be hunting through social media and phone [7:10] records and other kinds of data that the fbi has obtained through subpoenas as part of this [7:15] investigation it's it's research it's kind of back office stuff the agents are going out and [7:21] interviewing witnesses uh and they're serving subpoenas and they're gathering up the investigative [7:26] material the analysts are trying to make connections in support of the investigation and we [7:30] don't know again to what what is the theory of this case we don't understand it because all we have [7:35] seen is the affidavit that again detailed uh essentially the same sorts of conspiracy theories [7:41] that have long been debunked and you can the new york times did a a graphic analysis of this where they [7:47] went paragraph by paragraph through that affidavit and highlighted the things that had already been [7:51] investigated by georgia republicans and and ruled out as meaningful fraud and so again you know big [7:57] questions here but one thing we do know is that this is a very unusual um allocation of resources it's not [8:03] often that the fbi approves this kind of overtime for its analysts they even had to lift the annual [8:08] pay caps in some cases i have another document showing that uh to allow these analysts to be paid [8:14] for all this overtime so it's really remarkable i mean andrew the other remarkable piece again we [8:20] we only know what has burst into public view but the first thing that burst into public view [8:25] was donald trump not with any knowledge of any fraud but with a number in mind he told brad [8:31] rappensperger not to root out the fraud but to find 11 880 votes which was the exact margin by which [8:39] he lost so even donald trump didn't have evidence that there were 11 880 fraudulent votes he just knew [8:45] what he needed to make up to flip a defeat into a win absolutely and you're going to be able to speak [8:53] to jack smith about why he believed that he had proof beyond reasonable doubt that this was [9:01] a big lie um i should note that not only do we have all of the evidence um from his indictment all [9:10] the evidence from the report um but let's add in that all of the claims of election fraud have been [9:19] rejected by the courts and donald trump has said publicly that he has irrefutable proof of fraud he [9:29] actually said he was going to have a press conference and reveal that that day has yet to come um i find [9:36] it remarkable that we have the fbi director um as ken so aptly put it wasting resources that could go to [9:45] actually protecting this country from crime um as serious as terrorism um murder all sorts of of [9:55] really true terrible things um on something that the president has said he has actual proof already of [10:03] but has not revealed it um i mean it is it is remarkable that to to use your phrase nicole that [10:11] you know here we are on earth one um trying to get people on earth two to understand there is no evidence [10:20] here and it is it's not just that the fbi could be doing something more serious it's that by continuing [10:27] this big lie we are undermining faith in democracy the latest polling is about two-thirds of republicans [10:36] um believe that there was material fraud in the 2020 election and there's and that is based on no [10:44] zero proof um of having been induced of that