Transcript of 'A six resignation kind of day' at DOJ following Trump's sketchy deal with NYC mayor Eric Adams

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It is one of those days. We are watching so many different stories, and there's so much to report on tonight. On the day that they swore in a new US Health Secretary who has spent his whole adult life railing against vaccines, we now have word of a new outbreak of measles in the United States, in Texas. At least 22 children infected and two adults. Measles, of course, is an illness that can be prevented if you are vaccinated against it. But the Texas Department of State Health Services says none of the 24 people infected in Texas have been vaccinated. Now, nine of them have been hospitalized, and Texas is saying that they expect this outbreak to grow. Measles, of course, can kill you. Meesles was all but eradicated in our country by the year 2000. But now in this era of rampant conspiracy theories and lies about vaccines promoted by influential people, this county in Texas, where this measles outbreak is occurring, Gaines County, Texas, it has one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates in that state. The CDC also today belatedly published new data that shows human beings, specifically, veterinarians, are getting bird flu now, apparently from contact not with birds, but with infected cattle.

A multi-species outbreak now. This was data the CDC had and had ready to publish three weeks ago. It was supposed to be published then, So among other things, people who work with cattle could start taking steps to protect themselves. But the Trump administration shut down scientific publications from the government, including the CDC. So we did not get this crucial and worrying news until today. We did, though, today, get the swearing in of new Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who said as he was getting ready to take the helm of America's health system, he said publicly that we should take an eight-year-long break as a nation from any work at all on infectious diseases? There's that. I should tell you, tomorrow, we're expecting a fairly large-scale protest starting at 8 AM Eastern at the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department in Washington as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Starts his first full day on the job. Keep an eye on that in tomorrow's headlines. Today, there were disruptive protests at the confirmation hearing for Trump's Education Secretary nominie, Linda McMayan. She does not have much of a background in education. She did run a pro-wrestling company.

Protestors at her confirmation hearing today used wrestling slogans to interrupt her testimony and shout about the Trump administration's evidence plans to get rid of the whole Department of Education. Under sharp questioning from Democratic senators today, Linda McMayan said at one point that she did not know if it should be legal or if it is legal, in her view, for a school in America to offer a class on Black history. She said today at her confirmation hearing that she was, Not quite certain whether teaching a Black history class or taking a Black history class might be illegal now in her eyes. Today at a school in Belgium that the US military operates for families of US service members serving abroad, the New York Times reports that teachers scramble to remove, Harriet Tubman posters, origami paper cranes, and depictions of rainbows in the classroom. That was ahead of an expected visit from the wife of Defense Secretary, Pete Hegset, who was traveling with her husband on his thus far disastrous first trip abroad in his new job as the head of the Pentagon. According to the Times tonight, Teachers were worried that the poster, the origami cranes, and the rainbows would be seen as signs of Black, Japanese, or gay culture.

Therefore, what? Contraband? So the teachers took them down. Pete Hegset's wife did not come visit that classroom anyway. But still, Mr. Hegset, on his first overseas leadership has been a bit of a dud. Headline, Hegset stumbles out of the gate. Headline, Hegsat softened stance. Quote, the clarification appeared designed to address the backlash in Washington and in Europe, ignited by his remarks. Russia. Pete Hegsat, having essentially told the world that Ukraine needed to give away all of its leverage in any potential peace negotiations with Russia ahead of those peace negotiations starting, not only did all of Europe freak out, but a lot of the United States freak out, too, including the Republican chairman of the Senate Arm Services Committee. So... Oops. Did I mess that up? On Fox and Friends Weekend, we just do another take. Here we go. This is like just a day that ends in Y with these guys. This is what it's going to be like from here on out. But tonight, I got to tell you, we have the governor of New York here with us live. I have to tell you that the most dramatic news in this day, a very dramatic news has definitely come out of New York today in a few different ways.

First, let's start with what's just happened at SDNY, Southern district of New York, the federal prosecutor's office there. The New York Times was first to report on these developments today, and here's how they led their initial report. Manhattan's US attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey an order from a top Justice Department official to drop the corruption case against New York City's mayor, Eric Adams. Then, when DOJ officials transferred the case to the public integrity section at Maine Justice in Washington, which oversees corruption cases, the two men who led that unit at Maine Justice also resigned. Bbc News, Ryan Reilly, reports tonight that three additional National Officials in the Public Integrity Section at Maine Justice also resigned after meeting the same top Justice Department official who is Trump appointee and Trump Defense Council, acting Deputy Attorney General, Emile Bovet. If you're wondering what day it's been thus far at the US Department of Justice, it's a six-resignation day thus far. But just to get the import here, just back up for a second. The mayor of New York City is Eric Adams. He's a Democrat. He's elected in 2021. The people of New York who elected Adams largely on his tough on crime platform would soon learn that federal prosecutors at SDNY in the US Attorney's office for the Southern district of New York, federal prosecutors started investigating him in 2021, even before he took office, because they were looking into what appeared to be serious irregularities in his campaign fundraising.

Within a couple of years, the FBI was searching the homes and offices of the mayor's fundraising chief and his top staffers. This past September, Eric Adams became the first sitting mayor of New York City to ever be charged with federal crimes. He was indicted on a whole raft of charges involving allegedly fraudulent campaign contributions, also a rip-snorting alleged bribery scheme in which he allegedly took campaign funds and gifts and luxury travel from agents of the government of Turkey in exchange for doing favors for the government of Turkey. Obviously, this was a huge deal, right? First New York City mayor to get hit with federal charges. It's the mayor of the nation's largest city under indictment. But the charges themselves were pretty straightforward corruption charges. Local politician charged with accepting money he's not legally allowed to accept. In some cases, he's charged with allegedly doing official favors in exchange for that money. It's a bread and butter public corruption charge. This is the thing that US attorneys' office all over the country investigate and prosecute all the time. Prosecutors in SDNY indicted Eric Adams in September. Mayor Adams vow to stay in office, vow to fight the charges.

He was given a trial date of this spring, April of this year, to have his day in court. But then Donald Trump was sworn in as President, and this week, Donald Trump's Justice Department ordered the federal prosecutors in SDNY to drop their case against Adams to drop the charges. Not because they said they had some new evidence vindicating Adams, but because according to the new Trump appointees at Maine Justice, the mayor was the victim of a political persecution. See, the Biden administration had been out to get him. The Biden administration was out to get the Democratic mayor of the big blue city of New York because something, something, Democrats, something, something. But here is something to note about the way they ordered the charges dropped against Mayor Adams. I don't think this has gotten enough attention. In the memo from Donald Trump's personal lawyer, who's the acting Deputy Attorney General, Emile Bové, the Southern But the district prosecutors were told by him that they needed to dismiss the charges without prejudice, which is a legal term that means the charges could be brought later, could be brought back again at a later time. The charges against Eric Adams, Shall be reviewed by the confirmed US attorney in the Southern district of New York following the November 2025 mayoral election based on consideration of all relevant factors.

We're putting these charges on ice for now so Eric Adams can run his re-election campaign without technically being under indictment, and then we'll see how we feel. Maybe we'll bring the charges back based on consideration of all the relevant factors. Talk about having leverage over somebody, right? We're taking the charges away for now, but we could put them back depending on all relevant factors. It prompted this headline from Josh Marshall at his news site, TPM, quote, Donald Trump is now the mayor of New York. Think what this means. Adams isn't off the hook. He's essentially been given 10 months to perform for his freedom, to perform for Donald Trump. What might the Trump administration want from the mayor of America's largest city? Well, from the Justice Department memo ordering SD&Y to drop the charges, The pending prosecution has unduly restricted the mayor's ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration. Oh, I see. Sure enough. Got it. Sure enough, today, Eric Adams met with Donald Trump's point man on mass deportations, and Mayor Adams promptly announced that he's going to start allowing federal immigration agents into the city's biggest jail complex, even though there is a city law explicitly against that.

Interesting how much he wants to please Donald Trump right now, right? I wonder where that is. But here's why today was a sixth resignation day at the US Justice Department. Because even though the acting Deputy Attorney General, Trump's personal lawyer, Emil Pauvre, He ordered that the charges against Eric Adams had to be dropped. He ordered those charges to be dropped on Monday. We've been watching all week wondering what's going to happen because here's Thursday, and as of this morning, those charges still had not been dropped. He ordered them dropped on Monday. What's going on? Well, the reason they hadn't been dropped is because SDNY said, No, we're not going to do it. The acting US attorney in the Southern district of New York said, Talk to the hand. Now, this This is somebody specifically chosen by Trump to fill this role until they got their own nominee confirmed. She is a registered Republican. She's a prosecutor with what the New York Times calls, bulletproof conservative credentials. She's in the Federalist Society. She clerked for Euskalia. But when she was ordered by main justice to drop the charges against Mayor Adams, this acting US attorney, her name is Danielle Sassoon, she wrote this remarkable memo to Pam Bondi, Trump's newly confirmed attorney general.

She said, I deem it necessary to the faithful discharge of my duties to raise the concerns expressed in this letter with you and to request an opportunity to meet to discuss them further. The reasons advanced by the acting Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Bovay, for dismissing the indictment, are not ones I can in good faith defend as in the public interest and as consistent with the principles of impartiality and fairness that guide my decision-making. Mr. Bovay proposes dismissing the charges against Adams in return for his assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws, analogizing to the prisoner exchange in which the US freed notorious notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktor Baut, in return for an American prisoner in Russia. Such an exchange with Adams violates common sense beliefs in the Equal Administration of Justice, the Justice manual, and the Rules of Professional Conduct. Adams has argued in substance, and Mr. Bovay appears prepared to concede that that the mayor should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the administration's policy priorities. In your words, and she's quoting Pam Bondi to herself here, DOJ will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.

Danielle Sasun says then, Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams' mayoral decision making would be all three. Rather than be rewarded, Adams' advocacy should be called out for what it is, an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case. Although Mr. Bovade disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for Adams' assistance in enforcing federal law, that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in Mr. Boves' memo. That is especially so given Mr. Boves' comparison to the Victor Baut prisoner exchange, which was quite expressly a quid pro quo, but one carried out by the White House and not by the prosecutors in charge of Baut's case. Ms. Sassun notes in a footnote here, and this is actually maybe the most explosive thing in the entire thing. This is a footnote. She says, I attended a meeting on January 31st, 2025 with Mr. Bovay, Mayor Adams as counsel, and members of my office. Mayor Adams as attorneys repeatedly urgent what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities parties only if the indictment were dismissed.

Mr. Bovay admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. Finally, there's this, As you know, our office is prepared to seek a superseding indictment from a new grand jury under my leadership. We've proposed a superseding indictment that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that Mayor Adams and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI, and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in a fraudulent straw donor scheme. She's like, No, we're not dropping this. Also, you want to talk about this quid pro quo thing and check my footnote in terms of your behavior here? But also, we have another indictment of Eric Adams coming soon. It's not like just existing charges that are going to be put on ICE. You're going to have to put the upcoming charges on ICE as well. Danielle Sassun ends the letter with this, Because the law does not support a dismissal and because I'm confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he's charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations.

I understand my duty as a prosecutor to mean enforcing the law impartially, and that includes prosecuting a validly returned indictment, regardless of whether its dismissal would be politically advantageous to the defendant or to those who appointed me. In the event you are unwilling to meet or to reconsider the directive in light of the problems raised by Beauvais memo, I'm prepared to offer my resignation. It has been and continues to be my honor to serve as a prosecutor in the Southern district of New York. Very truly yours, Danielle R. Sassun, US attorney, Southern district of New York. The hero was silent, but everybody could see it there. Apparently, Pam Bondi declined to meet with Danielle Sassun because today, Emile Bovey sent a new letter to Danielle Sassun saying, Your resignation is accepted. He also says that assistant prosecutors on the case are to be put on administrative leave immediately. He says the Mayor Adams case is going to be transferred to the Justice Department in DC because of her insubordination at SDNY. But again, this did not go the way they intended. Once they transferred the case to Maine Justice, they ran into more problems when the top two officials overseeing the public integrity unit at Maine Justice also promptly resigned.

They said, We're not doing it either. They said, We also will not go to court to ask the court to drop these charges against Mayor Adams. The top two people in the department said that at Maine Justice, and then three more people in that department resigned as well. As of tonight, the Justice Department is down six prosecutors total, and the charges against Eric Adam still have not been dropped. This all happens at a time... I mean, what a day, right? But I said, New York is at the heart of all these things going on. This all happened today with SD&Y. Within 24 hours of what Pam Bondi did yesterday, on camera, live at a press event when she did something shocking and bizarre and ultimately, quite factually wrong.

We're here today because we have filed charges against the state of New York.

We have filed charges against Cathy Hochul. We have filed charges against LaTisha James and Mark Schroeder, who is with DMV. This is a new DOJ. It may be a new DOJ, but nothing else you said there was true. They did not file any criminal charges against New York Governor Cathy Hochul or Leticia James or any of the other people they mentioned. They did not file criminal charges. Why did she announced they were filing charges? Do you know what charges means? Here was the statement in response from Governor Hochul, quote, Earlier today, attorney general Pam Bondi marched in front of the TV cameras for a dramatic media briefing to announce she was filing charges against New York State related to our immigration laws. Hours later, when legal papers were shared with reporters, we learned this was smoke and mirrors. Doj was filing a routine civil action about a law passed in 2019 that's been upheld by the courts time and again. We expect Pam Bondi's worthless, publicity-driven lawsuit to be a total failure, just like all the others. Let me be clear, New York is not backing down. The State of New York really does appear to be girted for this fight and very confident in their position.

Attorney General, LaTisha James has already filed numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration for their actions since Trump was sworn in. She's already on some initial rulings, blocking some of the administration's most out there actions. We're seeing the announcement of charges, they didn't mean charges, and a strong pushback from the governor. We are seeing the New York State Attorney General file case after case after case against the administration to stop them from what they're doing. So far, a very good track record with those cases, at least getting initial rulings from the courts to stop the Trump administration in its tracks. There's one other thing to watch here, though, which is that the aggression toward New York and other Democratic-led states is not only coming from the federal government. It's also coming from state Republicans who I think are clearly feeling emboldened by what they're seeing in Washington from the Trump administration. You may, for example, have seen the news recently that a state grand jury in Louisiana indicted a New York doctor, indicted a New York doctor for providing abortion pills to a woman in Louisiana. This is the first time criminal charges have been filed against a doctor for sending pills into a state with an abortion ban.

Well, today, the state of Louisiana sent New York Governor Cathy Hochul an extradition request for that New York doctor, saying, You need to ship that doctor to us in Louisiana. New York has a shield law, specifically enacted to protect abortion providers from exactly this attempted prosecution by Republican-controlled states. Governor Hochul received that extradition request, and she immediately got in front of the camera to say exactly what she was going to do with it. Watch this.

Good afternoon. At 141 today, this office received an order of extradition for a New York doctor, an abortion provider who lives upstate. She has been accused of participating in a murder, and they're saying that she is to be dealt with The crime charges the crime of a criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs. Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York. Doctors take an oath to protect their patients. I took an oath of office to protect all New Yorkers, and I will uphold not only our Constitution, but the laws of our land, and I will not be signing an extradition order that came from the governor of Louisiana. Not now, not ever. On a We're very clear in that. To establish that this is known across the state, we have sent out a law enforcement notice that certain out-of-state warrants are not enforceable in the state of New York. Anyone who possibly pulls over an individual or is involved in a situation for a doctor who is protected under our laws is told you are not to cooperate and enforce this extradition. I want to be clear that we have taken all the steps we can to protect this doctor, to continue allowing her to continue practicing what we believe is reproductive health, which I believe is an essential right.

The fight right now is happening on multiple fronts in multiple places all day, every day. Few places are in the middle of this fight, as is the great state of New York. Joining us now live is Governor Kathy Hochul of New York. Governor, I really appreciate you making time to be here. Thank you. Tell us about this decision that you made when you received this extradition order from Louisiana Louisiana. How should people in this country expect this case to move forward? How do you expect the Louisiana governor to respond?

We put this in place as soon as we heard about the overturning of Roby Wade. I need to protect our doctors because telemedicine is the number one reason people can get abortion pills. Two-thirds of all abortions are now by pills, and they've been approved by the FDA for 20 years. It's safe. We have a doctor who's trying to help someone in another state who's denied the right of control over her own body, just doing what her oath requires her to do, and now she's treated like a criminal. It was not a tough decision for me, Rachel. I said, No, and hell no. I will never, ever send this person to harm's way to stand for 15 years of possible jail time for just being a doctor. That's what our country has come to. This is the ripple effect of the overturning of Roe v Wade and the stacking of the Supreme Court under the last of Trump administration. My mother's generation fought for these rights. My generation was able to take them granted, and they're not there for my daughter's generation. My God, we've got to stand up and fight and let these women know.

I'm sorry for the sisters in these states where they're being repressed, but we should not allow government-mandated pregnancies. That's what happens when women don't have control of their own body. We're always proud to stand up for women's rights here in the state of New York.

I feel like I've been both anticipating this for a long time because you signed that shield law, because you knew this was coming. But I also feel very unsettled by the fact that it's on us. I really don't know how this is going to resolve. I presume that you're expecting this to end up in federal court, potentially with the United States Supreme Court, deciding the strength of your shield law versus the strength of Louisiana or potentially Texas's ability to take action against this New York doctor despite the shield. Is that where you think this is going?

I believe it is because what they've set up was by saying this goes back to the individual states, well, I have to stand up for my state laws. The law that I signed in 2022, and again, updated in 2023, says I have a legal responsibility to protect this doctor and other providers who are exercising this form of care for women, even out of state. So yes, it'll probably end up in another judicial litigation situation, but we can't just roll over and play dead here, Rachel. What are we supposed to do? Let this happen? No, we've got to fight for these rights. This is the place where the women's rights movement started in 1848. We had reproductive rights passed by a Republican governor and Republican legislature three years before Roe v Wade. Let's look at that history and have people start saying, My God, how did this happen? We cannot have this. As a governor, I will always stand up for the people of my state.

New York is also leading the way with a number of other democratic-led states in challenging some of the initial actions of the Trump administration. Day one, challenging the effort to take away birthright citizenship, challenging the access by Elon Musk and his kids to get into the treasury payment system, among a number of other lawsuits. New York is taking on, with other states, the burden of litigation to try to stop them. Do you see that as essentially the major clash in this country, the best legal footing that Democrats have in terms of trying to stop them in the courts?

It's truly all we have. As sad as that sounds, I served as a member of Congress when the House was Republicans, but we had Democratic leaders in the Senate, so there was always this firewall to stop crazy from happening. We don't have that anymore. I work so hard to elect enough Democrats to make Hakeim Jeffrey as the speaker just to be a counter surveillance. If we ended up with Donald Trump in the White House, we came as far as we could in New York. Other states didn't get there. This is what we have to focus on. 2026 is right around the corner. We, as Democratic governors, need the reinforcements to stop this in Washington. But until that time, we are it. We have a lot of bold, courageous leaders. They're great friends of mine. The message that I want to deliver, we're not going to have a hair on fire every moment. There's too much incoming. You lose your credibility with the American people if they think all you're trying to do is attack, attack, attack. Now, if the Trump administration wants to roll up their sleeves and work with me to make New York City great again, help me invest in the subway system, make the subway system up to extend the Second Avenue, we have to Harlem so communities of color can have a shorter commute to the money jobs down in Wall Street, you have my attention.

I'll work with you. That's what I'm trying to do and fight for congestion pricing, which I wasn't sure how it worked. Rachel, people are getting around the city with ease, and more of the commuters are coming in saying, My ride, I shave 20, 30 minutes, and that is worth the cost. These are areas I'm happy to work with the Trump administration, so it's not all anti-everything. But you come after any of the rights that we take for granted in our state? Now you've got a fight on your hands.

Let me ask you about this drama involving Mayor Eric Adams and the corruption charges against him. What we've just seen with the resignation of the US attorney, the Trump-appointed acting US attorney, the removal of line prosecutors on that case, the demand from Maine Justice to drop that case, the refusal from SD&Y to do it, then the resignation of Maine Justice officials who had the case dumped on them, and they wouldn't take it either. This This is just an incredible drama in terms of federal law enforcement right now. But you are in a very unusual position, a singular position with regard to this case, which is that thanks to the New York State Constitution and New York City law, you are the only person who has the power to effectively fire Mayor Eric Adams and remove him from this position, which might conceivably moot this whole fight. How are you thinking about that now? You could have done it at any point until now, but now, given this crisis that's emerged in federal law enforcement around this case, are you feeling differently about that responsibility?

Let me tell you from a couple of angles here. One is that this is unbelievably unprecedented for the Department of Justice in Washington to interfere in this way. My husband was a 30-year federal product executor. Barack Obama made him his United States attorney. You look at what happened here, this is not supposed to happen in our system of justice. The Bondi administration in that Department of Justice is already showing they're corrupt. Now, set that aside. I did see the letter that was issued by the acting United States attorney. The allegations are extremely concerning and serious. Yes. But I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now, I have to do it smart, what's right, and I'm consulting with other leaders in government at this time. Got to have one same person in the state who can cut through all the crap and say, What is my responsibility? Guide me do. Just as when the allegations came out last September, and the city was in chaos, I said, I will intercede, work with the mayor to get rid of a lot of people who are under indictment, calm it down, bring in a new police chief commissioner who's doing an outstanding job.

Our subways are safer. People are feeling better around the city. More people are coming back. I don't want our reverse to be stopped by this. I have to maintain stability and the chaos and do what's right for the city of New York, because as governor, I also represent the city. These are my constituents as well. I'm going to make sure they're protected here. If this just happened, I need some time to process this and figure out the right approach.

But you are consulting with other leaders, consulting with your advisors, and looking a new at this matter,Of course I am. Given the recent development.

Of course I am.

Governor Cathy Hochul of New York, the woman very much at the center of multiple storms right now. Thank you so much for coming in and talking to us.

It's nice to get a break from the action out there. Happy to stay here.

You can stay in here. It's nice and calm in here. I think I'm safe.

No one's going to arrest me in here.

We'll close the doors, please. All right, we'll be right back. Thank you very much.

You don't get a minute to yourself when your cows start calving. It's one thing after another. There's no let up. You'll do everything you can to look after your animals and ensure they survive. But are you doing enough to survive it yourself? Always be alert around livestock to stay safe this calving season. Find out more at hsa. Ie/farmsafty. Brought to you by the government of Ireland.

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Last night, we reported on this fiscal year, 2025 procurement prospectus from the US State Department. It is dated December 2024 during the Biden administration. This is after the November election, but before Trump was sworn in. We reported on this last night because the single most expensive line item in the The whole prospectus for the State Department's prospective purchases in 2025 was a $400 million line item for, Armored Tesla production units. $400 million worth of armored Teslas. Tell me more, Edge Lord of Government Efficiency. Last night, as we and numerous other news organizations reported on Elon Musk's company Tesla being in line for what appeared to be a gigantic payout from the US State Department. During our show, in fact, that line item was changed on the State Department website so that it no longer says Tesla. They took away the part that says Tesla. They changed it, so it now says Armored Electric Vehicles. Now, the State Department prospectus did not reflect a contract to Tesla for $400 million Rather, this was a prospectus showing that the government, the State Department, was interested in making this a purchase for that a price tag. That, of course, would be a huge deal for Tesla.

That would be a really big deal if the State Department went ahead with that plan. It's an important thing to know about what Tesla had been expecting they might be in line for from the government in fiscal year 2025, particularly while the CEO of Tesla is at this very moment, Moonlighting at a weird quasi-governmental job in which he is cutting huge swaths of spending and the personnel that makes up what we call the US government. But the State Department told us today that this procurement is now on hold and that as of now, they have no plans to issue it. They did take down the reference to Tesla once we reported on it last night. The State Department also It told us that it had been a mistake that the entry in the prospectus included the brand name Tesla. As we learn more about this, we'll let you know more. But on this subject of things the government spends money on. Here's one that they're trying to ring the bell on today that you also ought to know about. In 2017, when Donald Trump was in his first term, his first year as President, the research and development part of the Pentagon, the agency DARPA, announced that they wanted to develop some new technology for the military to try to protect against an increasingly common attack.

They posted it on their website in 2017 that they were seeking to develop new technology to counter what they described as social engineering attacks, attacks that are designed to trick or manipulate humans into doing something they're not supposed to do. So think like fishing attacks that are designed to get you to click on a link because when When you click on that link, that opens up your phone or your computer to an attacker. This also includes attacks that are designed to trick people into giving up passwords or tricking or inducing members of the military to inadvertently give up sensitive information that foreign adversaries want to use against us, all these social engineering attacks. Darpa, in 2017, posted online publicly that they wanted to develop new technology to fight those kinds of attacks, to, quote, identify, disrupt, and investigate those kinds of social engineering attacks. In particular, they wanted to develop technology that could figure out the source of these attacks in order to help the US military and the US government shut them down. It's interesting, right? It's the stuff that Darpa does. One company that got a $9 million contract from Darpa to do this work is called Thomson Reuters Special Services.

They are a company that does cyber security and other data defense work. Big company, experienced company. But apparently because that is the name of that company, Thomson Reuters Special Services. Last night, the President's top campaign donor, Elon Musk, decided to announce that this was a gigantic news media scandal. Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for large-scale social deception. That is literally what it says on the purchase order. They're a total scam. Just wow. Just wow. This is like discovering that somebody's studying cancer and being like, They're giving you cancer. Look, it says right there, Cancer. Thompson Reuters Special Services and Reuters, the news agency, are owned by the same parent company, but they are totally separate legal entities, and they operate totally independently of one another. Thompson Reuters Special Services, the The firm that got this Defense Department contract, they're a cyber and data security firm. But here's Elon Musk talking about Reuters like it's the news agency that has this gig. Reuters, the news agency, I should note, yesterday posted this news article about Elon Musk. Headline, Musk's Doge cuts based more on political ideology than real cost savings so far.

In response to somebody sending him that article online, Elon Musk posted online, I wonder how much money Reuters is getting from the government. Let's find out. In response to that from Elon Musk, somebody online then posted about this whole different Reuters company that got a defense department contract from Trump in Trump's first term. Now Elon Musk is trying to sell it to his followers as an example of a news organization being paid by the government to do something terrible. This is the part where I should mention that the Reuters news agency last year won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting over Elon Musk's heated denials on the many splendid details of Elon Musk's growing business empire. Among the Reuters reporting last year on Elon Musk, Reuters' headline at When at SpaceX, worker injuries soar in Elon Musk's rush to Mars. Reuters headline, US regulators rejected Elon Musk's bid to test brain chips in humans, citing safety risks. Reuters headline, Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long who were defective. Reuters headline, Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints. Reuters headline, Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars.

Reuters headline, Tesla launched its own car insurance. These drivers say it's a lemon. I wonder why Elon Musk is very exercised about finding some way to say that Reuters is imbroiled in some scandal that he's discovered. President Trump himself this morning echoed Elon Musk's claims about the wrong Reuters company having a government contract, a government contract which is not a scandal and has never been a secret, and it's not the same company, but they're nevertheless trying to make it seem like a terrible scandal. Just keep your wits about you. Heads up about all this stuff, all this waste and abuse shouting that they're doing. Take it with all the grains of salt you can pile onto a cyber truck before it breaks down.

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I previously served at USA Agency for International- Pepper saves lives.

Restore age funding now. Pepper saves lives. Restore age funding now. Pepper saves lives. Restore age funding now. Pepper saves lives. Restore AIDS Funding Now. I guess these guys don't watch the news. They didn't realize that PEPFAR was one of the many programs that did prove to be life-saving, so the funding was restored. That was a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing today that was interrupted, as you saw, by protesters who were demanding that the Trump administration restore the critical and life-saving AIDS Treatment Program, PEPFAR. When I say life-saving, I mean like tens of millions of lives saved. They wanted the PEPFAR program restored because the PEPFAR program really has been shut down as part of the Trump administration's assault on all things USAID and foreign aid. Now, that last voice you heard there was the Republican Committee chairman, Brian Mast, who thought he really stuck it to those protesters saying, I guess these guys don't watch the news. Pepfar was one of the many programs where actually the funding has been restored. The Trump administration did claim to have exempted PEPFAR from their massive cuts to aid. They claimed to have exempted multiple programs that dispersed what they called life-saving aid.

But on the ground, those claims and 50 cents will get you 50 cents. This is what the New York Times reports as of last night, some waivers have been issued to programs that fall under the definition of life-saving aid. But the payment system that USAID relies on to disperse financial assistance has been inaccessible for weeks. That means even programs that did receive The drivers have struggled to continue, according to multiple employees of USAID and the partner organizations that rely on the funding they distribute. In reality, virtually all of the HIV prevention funding remains frozen, according to two USAID employees and several aid groups. But don't worry, Republicans say it's all okay. They say PEPFAR is fine. Pepfar is not fine. It's not just something that's happening around PEPFAR. This was the scene today outside of the Department Department of Veterans Affairs. Protesters and members of Congress and senators showed up outside VA headquarters today in Washington to fight back against the Trump administration's hiring freeze, which, again, they keep saying, isn't affecting the VA in veterans health care, but it absolutely is. Once again, the Trump administration is claiming that they made an exception to their hiring freeze for doctors and nurses who work in veterans health care.

But once again, I'll sell you that for zero dollars expect change. Here's the Washington Post reporting on that hiring freeze last night, A backlog of unfilled positions is building, even in critical agencies such as the VA, where badly needed doctors and nurses have been blocked from final approval to start work, even though they're supposed to be exempt from the hiring freeze Trump ordered. They're doing stuff that is devastating to the people they purport to care about. Then when they're called out on it, they say, Oh, Well, we won't do that then. But the distance between their claims that they have reversed these decisions and what's actually happening on the ground is a big distance and it's a distance that includes life and death consequences, not just for people around the world, but for American veterans here at home. More on this story next. Nine million veterans, they rely on the VA for Health care. When you start freezing things, and when you start scaring workers, and when you tell them you don't want them to work for you anymore, what do you think happens? You're going to hear that, Oh, we're not cutting benefits. What they're cutting are the people that process the benefits.

You're going to hear, But we're not cutting health care. But what they're doing is they're firing the nurses and the staff that take care of you in the hospital. There is no way that their services and their benefits to go uninterrupted when they've decided to declare war on the very same workers that protect and serve our veterans. Democratic members of Congress and senators protesting outside the VA headquarters in Washington today, trying to defend the VA from what the Trump administration is doing to it. That was this morning, that protest. Now, tonight, since we have been on the air just a few minutes ago, the VA has just sent out an announcement that it is cutting more than 1,000 employees from the VA. Joining us now is Leo Shane. He's Deputy Editor at the Military Times. Leo, thanks very much for joining us. I appreciate you being here.

No, anytime.

Let me ask your reaction to this news that's just broken, that they're cutting a thousand employees out of VA.

Yeah, look, this is a small number in comparison to the entire VA workforce. Va has about 480,000 employees, so it's not necessarily something that is widespread, but we still don't really have a handle on who these folks are. Va Today's press release, as you said, says they're not mission critical folks, but I've already gotten calls from a few sources saying that at least one employee from the Veterans Crisis Line was laid off, that it's someone who was not in a position where they're answering calls of suicidal veterans, but they are providing support services. We just don't know exactly what these cuts are and who they are, how deep they'll get into veteran services.

Leo, one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was that The distance between what the administration is telling us and what reporting is telling us is actually the impact of the treatment of the VA thus far. Very early on, after Trump was sworn in, we got news that they had changed their mind on the hiring freeze as it applied to VA and people coming in to work in VA health care jobs, doctors, nurses, counselors, and others. They had previously been told the hiring freeze would apply to them, but then that they had changed their mind. We're now having open-source reporting telling us that whatever they said head about their caving and changing their mind on that, people who are new hires into the VA health system aren't able to take up their jobs. Does that comport with your understanding of what's happening?

Yeah, I think there's just a lot of confusion right now, and even some folks that should be exempt, their supervisors aren't sure if they should be processing, if they should be bringing in new folks, exactly what the problem should... How to deal with this issue. I think maybe in a few weeks, there'll be some clarity. Maybe there will be some idea that these folks are exempt and that they'll start filling these positions. But at least for now, it just feels like chaos. It feels like a lot of folks don't know, Will I be on board? Is my job gone? Is this anything we can do?

In addition to that chaos, there's also been a lot of concern in a lot of government agencies thus far about access of the Elon Musk quasi-governmental effort in which they're accessing even sensitive, and in some cases, apparently even classified records and information, not just about the functioning of agencies, but individual personnel and citizens' records as well. Obviously, the VA handles an incredible amount of very sensitive information about millions of American veterans and their health care. Have you heard any concerns or any reaction among the veterans community about the idea of Elon Musk and his guys getting access to people's sensitive medical and other veterans' records?

Yeah, look, lots of concerns. Lots of concerns about that from the veterans community. Now, VA has been clear. They have said there's one employee from the Department of Government Efficiency that is already working with VA, that they're only looking at contracts. They're not looking at sensitive veterans data. They have tried to react to that and to put out there. But you've seen what's happened with some of the allegations in other departments, other agencies. There's just a worry that anything that is being done by the Department of Government Efficiency is Is that going to be the extent? Could that very easily go into some of these, as you said, these sensitive personal medical data, benefits data, things like that? Folks just aren't sure. I think VA has tried to stamp that out, but what I'm hearing from the veterans community is we're watching closely. We're really worried about what might happen next.

Leo Shane, Deputy Editor at the Military Times. Leo, I read absolutely everything you publish. I think your work, as always, is just invaluable. Long may you wave. Stay on this forever, my friend. The country really needs you.

I appreciate it. There's a lot to write right now, so we will keep at it.

Thank you, Leo Shane. All right. Thank you for joining us tonight. I told you it was going to be a big... It's been a big day. It's been a big show. I feel like it's all still going on. But I'll see you again tomorrow, 9: 00 PM Eastern here on MSNBC. In the meantime, you can find me at Blue Sky. If you have Blue Sky, check me out there at maddo. Msnbc. Com.

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