Watch Alex Wagner Tonight Highlights: Dec. 22

Barb, one of the actual congressmen, some of whom she knows, including Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan, who will be in leadership positions in the next Congress and have received ethics referrals from the January 6 committee. An ethics referral is one thing, but do you think the Justice Department is taking a closer look at your actions. I mean, can you imagine a strange Twilight Zone where those investigating the January 6 committee are being investigated by the Department of Justice? Yes, I think it is very likely that they are under investigation. I mean Jim Jordan and Kevin. McCarthy, I mean, we know that they were having direct communications with Donald Trump on January 6th.

I mean at this point I guess they consider them Witnesses, but I think they would want to know what they have to say, I'm sure they're going to get a request for an interview maybe they'll get a grand jury subpoena and the justice department will have the ability to compel his testimony. It is very sensitive to seek information from a sitting member of Congress, but they are not being attacked because "They are members of Congress and they are being attacked for their conduct and their conversations with Donald Trump on January 6. So I don't see how you can investigate this case without at least talking to them, so maybe they can.

Re Witnesses, maybe they will be charged depending on how the evidence is shown. These are all of former President Barack Obama's tax returns from 2000 to 2015. Here at MSNBC we dug them up using the rigorous research tool known as Google Tax Obama. returns and here are all the tax returns of President Joe Biden from the year 1998 to 2021. again, they are all public, they are all online, you as a citizen can examine them until your heart is content if the tax returns do to their heart's content, but in addition to the long tradition of voluntarily releasing taxes to the public, every president since 1977 has been required to submit to a mandatory IRS audit of their taxes while that president is in office this week, two Congressional committees revealed the Blockbuster news that somehow President Trump's taxes did not undergo that mandatory audit.

In fact, Trump's taxes weren't audited until Democrats in the House of Representatives started asking questions, and that was in 2019, which was considerably after Donald Trump took office. and none of the audits of former President Trump's taxes since then have been completed, it's the year 2022. So what happened here, the initial and most generous explanation for what could have happened here was that this audit process mandatory just wasn't working overall. Given the fact that every president up to Trump publicly released their tax returns, you could see how these mandatory audits could have gone unnoticed. I mean, they were already publishing them properly, but now thanks to Charlie Savage's excellent reporting in the New York Times.

We know that is simply not the case. Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden had their taxes audited by the IRS every year even though their taxes were already public, so why or rather how did the only president since Richard Nixon who didn't make Republic publicly release his taxes? how who at the IRS allowed that to happen during the first nine months of Trump's presidency was not audited the IRS commissioner was appointed by Obama a man named John Koskinen told the New York Times that his only involvement in the tax returns Trump's job was at that time was to make sure they were kept in a safe place.

Well, then there was the acting commissioner that Trump appointed, named David Cowder, who served for most of 2018. He actually held two jobs at once, being IRS commissioner and deputy treasury secretary simultaneously. So he was busy and did not respond to the New York Times' request to comment on Trump's taxes, but for most of Trump's time in office, the IRS was run by a relatively unknown tax lawyer named Charles Reddick. President Trump appointed Reddick to the position. After Reddick wrote an op-ed in Forbes magazine in 2016 defending then-candidate Trump's decision not to release his taxes, the IRS commissioner's terms are long, so Reddick literally resigned from that position in October of this year and when it comes to these supposedly mandatory presidential mandates Reddick also told the New York Times this week that he did not try to intervene in the Trump audit, so we have two of Trump's former IRS commissioners saying that he effectively did not did and a third who did not respond to requests for comment, but under all of them, Trump's taxes were not audited until House Democrats started snooping and asking questions as a reminder that we are a week away The year 2023 is literally around the corner and still none of Trump's mandatory presidential audits have been completed and on top of this while the IRS was looking the other way for President Trump or whatever the IRS is making somehow two of Trump's main enemies or at least enemies as he perceived them former FBI Director James Comey and former acting FBI Director Andy McCabe somehow both men He was chosen for a supposedly random and incredibly intensive audits by the IRS among the more than 150 million people who file taxes, only about 5,000 of them were chosen for these intensive audits. 150 million five thousand and somehow they both got elected as Inspector General of the IRS. said earlier this month that they had seen no evidence that those elections were anything more than random, but last month we learned that President Trump's briefing repeatedly told at least one of his chiefs of staff that he wanted his enemies were investigated by the IRS that cites among those gentlemen.

Trump said we should investigate and call the IRS. Could you guess? Former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe Barb. I have to ask you what the Department of Justice can do with any of this, first of all, this notion of the fear that was felt by Cassidy Hutchinson, it immediately made me think of a crime syndicate, which is a phrase that has been used along with the tri in the Trump White House. I want to read an excerpt from the transcript, this would be a full screen 4 for in my control room it wasn't just that I had Stefan Pasentino sitting next to me, says Hutchinson, it was almost like I had Trump looking over my shoulder because he knew that somehow he would respond if he said something. that he would find disloyal and the prospect of that really scared me, you know, I had seen this world ruin people's lives or try to ruin people's careers.

I had seen how cruel they can be, what else can you do about it? You're the Department of Justice and you're working on your own investigation into January 6th right now. Well, there's certainly a possibility for witnesses to tamper and intimidate a witness into lying, it's a crime, it's an obstruction of justice statute, so I don't know if you can read it. Face this and say, "Oh, there it is, there's the crime," but I think there are certainly enough questions to ask. I'd like to ask Cassidy Hutchinson, how did it make you feel that way? What were the things that were said? to you, who said them, what they said, how many times they said them, but some of the things that your lawyer Stefan pestentino reportedly said, according to Cassidy Hutchinson herself, is don't commit perjury, just say you don't remember it . because they don't know what you can and can't remember, even though she can remember things.

I mean, that's really coaching a witness to lie, so those are two different things: telling her to lie would be a crime and then intimidating her or promising her things, incentives, a job, other things could also be witness intimidation, so I think requires additional information if any of this is documented in his deposition testimony it sounds like there were text messages coming from some of these attorneys with some of these assurances that there would be some dynamite evidence that could support his testimony as a witness so I think There are absolutely reasons to investigate witness intimidation and I'll tell you what else if they did it to Cassidy Hutchinson.

I wonder who else they did it to. and who else didn't have the courage to say no, yes, absolutely every time you read those transcripts. I don't remember, you have to think that legal advice is in Trump's world, that Barb's pressure campaign for your end is The carrot and stick approach that seems to be employed by some members of the Trump Affiliated Council, We know what the suit is. Cassidy Hutchinson is worried that her career will be ruined, but the carrot, the incentives offered by finances, financial support, and the papers I want to read. another excerpt from the transcript, this would be the sixth quote in full screen six for the control room.

I remember Justin Clark saying something to the effect that you know and Justin Clark is affiliated with Trumpland in the sense that you know, it feels like we're not looking out for you Cass, but I promise you we're like we're on your team. We're going to get you a really great job. You don't have to worry financially about the second appointment and this interview. Everything is going to be fine. stay covered, don't worry, just keep up the good work, no one's mad at you, just keep doing what you're doing, I mean Barbara McQuaid, that looks like witness tampering on her face, yeah, so the key is to demonstrate that. the person had corrupt intent certainly lawyers train legitimately and ethically uh clients all the time clients are nervous when they testify and you might be told that you are doing very well just answer the questions that you know how to tell the truth um you are doing well That's all good, but if there is a corrupt intention, that is, I told you wonderful things to attract her to good behavior and loyalty or I threatened you or tried to intimidate you by saying that something bad would happen if you didn't go. along with the plan, um, in an effort to influence her to tell something other than the truth, that's when it's a crime and, you know, just in her face she raises an eyebrow, you'll want to ask more questions when we have to. . prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, usually prosecutors will want more than one witness here, like Cassidy Hutchinson, they will want some type of corroboration, which is why seeing it in the documentation can be so valuable.

Kyle, tell me about how. You are looking at the release of this particular set of transcripts from Cassidy Hutchinson, not her first statement to the committee. The first two and a half are basically under duress, if you believe that, if you believe her testimony that Trump was training her. The council doesn't want to be completely honest with the committee, the committee has decided to release this set of transcripts first and we know that yesterday they released 34 transcripts, mostly from people who alleged the fifth, this is actually the first one that has some honest answers. And boy, are they bombs, how do you interpret this kind of implementation on behalf of the committee, given the fact that we still don't have their full 900 page report?

Well, just a little point of note is that right at the beginning of this transcript, they point out that they make a point of saying that, by the way, we know that you've already shared this information with the Department of Justice, so they're moving toward what They know it's the next chapter and all this The Justice Department investigation is underway and it will surpass what the committee can ultimately do, but I think they recognize how important Cassidy Hutchinson was to their overall investigation and that these were some of the pending questions in which it is seen that he faced challenges. veracity after her public testimony, mostly from Anonymous, people who wanted to challenge her in ways that really haven't been scrutinized or fully substantiated, and she's taken a lot of that, that's exactly what She talked.

What worried me was that we saw those Trump World attacks that she was so worried about privately after her public testimony, so I think they wanted to show that she had a lot more to say, she had a more complete story about how term. where he did it, why he ended up in that chair at the end of June and delivering that explosive testimony that was much more complicated than we realized at the time, even from what we knew when it appeared on June 28 in his His name is Alexander Butterfield, was a deputy assistant to President Richard Nixon and, like the surprise witnessed during the Watergate hearings in 1973, changed the course of history with this moment.

Mr. Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office? When the President knew about the listening devices, it was Alexander Butterfield who informed the Watergate investigators and the worldabout the existence of secret White House tapes that would ultimately expose Nixon's involvement in the Watergate plot and lead to his resignation If there is a modern equivalent of what Alexander Butterfield did that day, it is this person Cassidy Hutchinson , the White House aide, who testified before the January 6 committee about what she saw happen inside the White House before, during and after January 6.

Today we learn that the similarities between Butterfield and Hutchinson are not accidental. is from the newly released transcript of Cassidy Hutchinson's closed-door testimony before the committee on January 6. Here's what she had to say about how she finally made the decision to testify before the public hearing. I started Googling I started Googling Watergate like there had to be someone involved. at Watergate who had a similar job to mine and had exposure like how they handled this. I didn't know much about Watergate, but then I met this man named Alex Butterfield and it seemed like he had a similar entitled role to what I had.

In the White House I found out that a couple of years ago he worked on this book with Bob Woodward, so I ordered two copies. I read it three times. He had talked about how he fought the moral struggle in which he felt he still had to be loyal. in the Nixon White House spoke to many of the same things that I felt I was experiencing the emphasis that Butterfield placed on the moral questions he was asking resonated with me he was someone who knew things and who was loyal and who had a position that It took an incredible amount of trust, but she ended up doing the right thing and it was after reading this that I thought: If I'm going to pass the mirror test for the rest of my life, I have to try and fix some of this.

Cassidy Hutchinson wasn't being hyperbolic. about the level of courage it took for her to testify that day today we learned from her transcript the incredible amount of pressure Trump World had put on her not to answer the committee's questions and instead risk contempt of Congress to protect Donald Trump Hutchinson told the committee that his Trump-funded lawyer, a man named Stefan Passantino, actively discouraged Hutchinson from telling the committee everything he knew; At one point Hutchinson remembers trying to organize her thoughts by asking her to look. She looks at a calendar so she can better remember what events occurred and when she says that Trump's lawyer, Mr.

Pasontino dissuaded her from trying to refresh her memory according to her testimony, he told her, I am your lawyer, I know what is best for you, the less you remember, the better. read nothing to try to refresh your memory don't try to piece together timelines that same Trump attorney also told Cassidy Hutchinson not to tell the committee about the harrowing incident in which Trump allegedly lunged at the wheel of her SUV and leader of her secret service when the agent refused to take Trump to the capital after his speech at the ellipse on January 6, while she told the committee quote, I said something to Stephen like, yeah, I had this conversation with Tony Ornado, that's from Trump.

Deputy Chief of Staff when we came back from the rally that day and Tony told me that the president tried to put his hands around the Secret Service agent's neck and choke him because he wouldn't take him to the Capitol and Stefan said no, no, no. No, no, I remember him leaning back in his chair and saying, no, no, no, no, no, we don't want to go there, we don't want to talk about that, that's the kind of legal advice that employees who trusted the company receive. network of legal advisors to the former president, that's the kind of advice they were receiving when the January 6 committee concluded its work, and as we learned today from Cassidy Hutchinson's transcript, it wasn't just pressure from Trump-approved lawyers to avoid telling the committee what she knew Hutchinson told the committee that she was also receiving offers of financial support and promises of job offers, jobs that did not actually exist and what she felt was an attempt to buy her silence, but Cassidy Hutchinson did not I agree.

Because of pressure or job offers or attempts to buy his silence, he instead says he found himself doing something that very few Trump aides have proven capable of or interested in over the years. Over the years he began to do some soul-searching, he began to think about his role in the Trump presidency. scheme and who he was becoming in the process quote I was sitting on my couch in my old apartment, overlooking the bullpen and the Navy yard near Nut Stadium. I remember sitting there reading on my phone like that, looking out the window and I kept thinking, oh my God, I became someone I never thought I would become, that self-reflection, that's how Cassidy Hutchinson found the courage to get rid of that Trump-backed lawyer and find new representation and testify before an audience of millions and tell the country and the world what she knew

tonight

, we receive even more witness transcripts from the committee, which we will get to later in this hour, and we await the release of the committee's full report on January 6, but Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony alone paints a damning picture of how Trump and his allies may have pressured the Witnesses in an attempt to obstruct the investigation, and her testimony tells us It also shows the extent to which those Witnesses may have felt that Trump himself was directing the pressure campaign when Hutchinson told investigators she was nervous. in her first interviews with the committee because I almost felt that at some moments Donald Trump was looking over my shoulder, thank you foreigner