Jen Psaki examines the hypocrisy of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's claim to be fighting corruption when they're actually perpetuating it, explaining why nothing encapsulates the administration's embrace of corruption better than the quid pro quo with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Rep. Dan Goldman joins Jen to discuss the Justice Department's move to drop criminal charges against Mayor Adams, explaining why this can only be seen as a "politicization of the DOJ." Next, Jen explains why seven federal prosecutors resigned this week rather than file the motion to dismiss the Adams case, which was eventually signed under the threat of firing. She is joined by legal expert Andrew Weissmann to discuss how Trump's DOJ is undermining the rule of law. Then, Jen explains why the Trump administration's pandering to Vladimir Putin is a feature of his foreign policy, not a bug. She is joined by author Bill Browder to discuss the shift in relations between the U.S. and Russia, and what it means for the continued war in Ukraine. Later, Jen is joined by Rep. Greg Casar to discuss how Musk and Trump's ransacking of the federal government is negatively impacting communities across the country, including farmers and veterans. Finally, Jen shares a preview of her conversation with her former boss Rahm Emanuel from a new episode of her podcast "The Blueprint", which is out Monday.Check out our social pages below:https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsakihttps://www.instagram.com/InsideWithPsaki/https://www.tiktok.com/@insidewithpsakihttps://www.msnbc.com/jen-psaki
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Okay, if you felt like you were losing your mind this week, you are not alone. Because it's hard to wrap your head around something as brazenly corrupt as the Trump administration's mafia-style deal with the mayor of New York. Congressman Dan Goldman was a prosecutor in the office where it all unfolded, and he's coming up first.
Chapter 2: How does the Trump administration's deal with Mayor Adams illustrate corruption?
Plus, as the impacts of Elon Musk's mass layoffs come into view all across the country, I'll talk to someone who is speaking out as forcefully as anyone in Washington, the chair of the Progressive Caucus, Congressman Greg Kassar. And later, Donald Trump gives Vladimir Putin everything he wants before negotiations even begin. Putin critic Bill Browder joins me to talk about what happens next.
OK, you may have noticed this, but for the last few weeks, Donald Trump has tried really, really hard to get a certain message across about the thing he is apparently trying desperately to hunt down.
We want to weed out the corruption, tremendous fraud and corruption and waste, waste, corruption and radical left lunacy, corruption, very corrupt people, very corrupt, corrupt, corrupt, corrupt, a lot of corruption.
But here's the thing. I mean, just because you say something over and over and over doesn't make it true. And when Trump and Musk are pressed to provide any actual evidence that their grand plan is actually rooting out mass fraud and corruption in the government, they come up very short. What is becoming increasingly clear is that they're not really after corruption at all.
They're simply after stuff they just don't like for whatever reason. I mean, what is also clear is that when it comes to Donald Trump, every accusation is usually some form of a confession. I mean, let me put it this way. If they were actually hunting for the corruption, it might get a little bit uncomfortable in there because the call is kind of coming from inside the house here, guys.
I mean, I can even point you in many of the right directions. Like Trump freezing a U.S. law, banning the bribery of foreign officials, a law that has previously hit suppliers for Tesla, or Musk attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a bureau that would have cracked down on his attempts to turn X into a digital payment platform.
Or the administration planning to lay off thousands of IRS employees, a move that stands to benefit the richest taxpayers. I wonder who falls into that category. Or Trump pardoning former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat. Or Trump firing inspectors general whose literal job is to find corruption in the government.
You could also look at Musk's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi this week. You know, the one you can see there, where they sat in front of a U.S. and an Indian flag, just like a bilateral meeting. A meeting that even Trump doesn't seem to know the reason behind.
I don't know. They met, and I assume he wants to do business in India. I would imagine he met possibly because, you know, he's running a company. He's doing this as something that he's felt strongly about for a long time.
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Chapter 3: What were the consequences of the DOJ's decision to drop charges against Eric Adams?
They are labeling things they don't like as corrupt so they can go after them while they cultivate and celebrate real corruption when it serves them. I guess if they do it or their friends do it, it's not corruption. And if you don't just have to, you don't just have to take my word for it, obviously.
Take a look at this post from Trump yesterday where he said, quote, he who saves his country does not violate any law. I know that may sound like a weird fortune cookie message, but he's telling us that he gets a free pass to break the law under the guise of saving the country and his definition of it.
Just like he gets a free pass to do whatever he wants under the guise of rooting out his version of corruption. The word hypocritical doesn't even begin to cut it. But if they ever decide they want to root out actual corruption, I can think of a few places for them to start, and I bet so can my next guest. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York.
Before going to Congress, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Congressman, it's great to see you. You're the perfect person to talk to. I just mentioned you obviously previously worked in the SDNY office. You called the move to dismiss Mayor Adams' case a dark day for the DOJ. I think a lot of people share that.
Chapter 4: What does the mass resignation of federal prosecutors indicate?
I know what I think looks what I think looks like happened here. But I'm just curious, as a former prosecutor, when you saw Mayor Adams sitting side by side with Tom Homan on Fox News Friday morning, agreeing essentially to the administration's immigration demands, I felt like I was taking crazy pills. But what did you think when you were watching that?
Yeah, well, when you think of a conspiracy, right, you think about a predetermined agreement to do something. Now, for a conspiracy, you don't actually have to complete the objective of the conspiracy to charge it.
But what we saw on Friday morning was the completion, was the confirmation of the agreement that Eric Adams would provide assistance to Donald Trump's immigration policies in return for having his case dropped. And lest
you think that Adams is free not to follow Trump's orders, this extraordinary agreement allows the DOJ to recharge Eric Adams in November based in part on whether or not he cooperates with Trump. It is an outright extortion.
And what's even more extraordinary to me, Jen, as a ten-year veteran of the Department of Justice, was the original memo that Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote directing the dismissal of this case in something that I don't think you will ever see in any other official document from the Department of Justice.
He said that the charging decision that he was directing was specifically not based on the evidence and not based on the law. So therefore, It can only be improper because those are the only things that the Department of Justice should be relying on. And then as you read it on, it's all about policy agreement and immigrant implementing immigration policy.
It is it's so out of bounds that you saw seven prosecutors resign because they knew Republicans, Federalist Society members, Scalia clerks, Roberts clerks. because they know that this is way, way, way outside the bounds of the Department of Justice. It's, I think, the most significant event since the Saturday Night Massacre in the Department of Justice.
It was indeed a Valentine's Day massacre of sorts on Friday. And there's so much more I think we're waiting to happen here. There's obviously a lot of legal questions. There are political questions. And I want to ask you about some of those because Governor Hochul can invoke, as far as I think we all understand it, her authority to remove Mayor Adams from office. So far, she has not done that.
She told my colleague, Rachel Maddow, she needed time to figure out the right approach. That was a couple of days ago. One of your colleagues in the New York delegation, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, says she should remove him. What do you think Governor Hochul should do? Should she remove Adams from office?
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Chapter 5: How does Eric Adams' cooperation with Trump relate to his corruption charges?
But if he does not do that, then he cannot serve as the mayor of New York City while he is beholden to Donald Trump. His allegiances would be more to Donald Trump than it would be to New York City. And that's just an impossible situation for any mayor to be in.
Undoubtedly. I mean, as you said, it's a version of blackmail. That's not a legal term, but that's how I kind of heard what you described previously. But if he doesn't do that, I think we'd all be surprised if he does what you just said. We'll see.
Should the governor take her power to remove him from office so that New York City is not in a position where they have somebody who is a version of a hostage to the to the president sitting in the mayor's office?
Look, I hope we don't get there, Jen. I really do. I think that that would be an even sadder day than what we're dealing with right now. I expect that there will be a resolution among the leaders of our political establishment in New York that hopefully would avoid something like that, which would be a tremendous distraction.
But it is it is very clear that if you are beholden to a president whose immigration policies also violate New York City law, then you cannot serve as mayor.
You know, you previously worked, as we mentioned a couple of times, in the SDNY office. I know you're still in touch with people there. As you also mentioned, a lot of them clerked for conservative justices. They're not exactly card-holding Democrats. What is the feeling of people in that office right now?
Well, that's sad in some sense, because Emil Bove also came out of that office and what he has been doing at the Department of Justice for the first three weeks is an absolute travesty and does not reflect sort of the values and lessons and the finest traditions of that office.
In some ways, I think there are many of us who are relieved to see that Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotton, who was the line assistant who wrote such a terrific, blistering resignation statement that it was one page, everyone should read it, as what true patriotism is and true apolitical prosecution is, which is the exact opposite of what's happening at the Department of Justice.
And I would just add one thing, Jen, that we should focus on. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, testified very specifically and explicitly that she would not politicize the Department of Justice. This agreement can only only be viewed as the politicization of the Department of Justice because charging decisions hinge on political actions.
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Chapter 6: What is the potential political fallout for Governor Hochul regarding Mayor Adams?
Our resident legal eagle, Andrew Weissman, is standing by. He joins me after a very quick break. So I was just discussing with Congressman Dan Goldman, of course, the decision by Trump's DOJ to drop the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and how it prompted this massive wave of resignations. It, of course, started Thursday with the acting U.S.
attorney for the Southern District of New York who suggested that the decision to dismiss the charges amounted to a quid pro quo. Now, in response, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emile Beauvais absurdly accused her of insubordination, of all things, and he made clear he'd find somebody to do the job that she wouldn't do.
But that proved to be very difficult because when it was passed along, at least five other prosecutors decided that they, too, would rather resign than dismiss the case. And by Friday afternoon, Emile Beauvais still did not have his guy when yet another prosecutor resigned. Hagan Scotton, who the congressman just mentioned, the assistant U.S.
attorney in New York, handling the Adams case, abruptly quit in protest, bringing the total number of resignations to seven. And in his letter to Bovey, he said, quote, I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion. But it was never going to be me. Of course, Bovey was never going to stop until he found this guy.
But to do that, he basically had to hold an entire department hostage. He brought prosecutors into a room and ordered them to figure out who would file the dismissal motion, making clear that their jobs would depend on it, according to The Washington Post. So on Friday evening, the motion to dismiss finally emerged, signed under the threat of firing by two DOJ prosecutors.
So obviously one of the stories here is this flagrantly corrupt deal between the Trump Justice Department and Eric Adams played out in plain view, which is crazy. But another story is the U.S. Justice Department that is now at war with itself.
NBC's Ryan Reilly reported that one federal law enforcement official told him that the response from DOJ officials to both these actions can be summed up as, quote, go F yourself, traitor. There's quite a quote. Joining me now is our friend Andrew Weissman. He's the former general counsel at the FBI and former chief of the criminal division in the Eastern District of New York.
Andrew, the circumstances around this motion to dismiss have been completely insane, but it's not over yet. You have a new post actually out on Substack where you kind of talk about what could happen from here. One of them relies on the judge, but what are kind of some of the options of what could happen next to stop this?
Sure. So I think the one thing that I'm keeping my eye out for is what D.A. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, does, because if this case is dismissed federally, this could be the second time that we see D.A. Bragg bringing a case where the feds have essentially faltered because they did so in connection, obviously, with the Trump case and they did so successfully.
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Chapter 7: Why is the role of the Department of Justice crucial in this situation?
And I could see Judge Ho being very concerned about that. And essentially, if he thinks that they've done nothing wrong, really kind of having their back and saying, I want a hearing where I'm going to make decisions about what happened here. And people can take an oath and put their right hand up and swear to the truth. Final point on that.
Remember that at the meeting that Danielle Sassoon said she had with Eric Adams and Beauvais in Washington, she drops this footnote that says, guess what? When my people were taking notes, Emil Beauvais ended the meeting by saying, don't take notes and I want them back. Who does that? Who does that? So the judge can say, bring the notes with you.
There's so many things to watch on this crazy case. I mean, one of the things that's also been striking to me, and I know to you because I've already talked about it, is that he still left the possibility open that these charges could still be filed again in the future. And it's important to remind people, because it feels like three weeks has been a year, that Trump had pardoned a lot of people.
He could have pardoned Eric Adams, right? But he chose not to. How have you thought about that? Yeah.
Well, there's only one explanation. I mean, you know, Bove has his story about how the case is brought too close to the primary. That's just an absurd argument. And Judge Hogue can hear from him. What's really going on is they don't want Eric Adams just on a tight leash. They want him on a choke collar. And you saw on TV it working.
And not only did Eric Adams say, I'm sort of conceding and giving New York City over to ICE agents to do these kinds of arrests in the city. But I want to make sure people understand that is against local law. So you have a mayor of the city of New York who is under indictment. He is out on bail saying that I am going to permit the ICE agents, and with my blessing, violate local law.
He has no authority to do that. So the whole thing really stinks to high heaven, to put a fine point on it.
No question about it. A choke, a choke collar or however you described it is quite, quite something to remember. Andrew Weissman, thank you so much. Always love talking to you. I know you've been explaining this all week. Still ahead, the Trump administration tries to unfire people who oversee our nuclear stockpile, but they can't even seem to find all of their contact information. How awkward.
We're back after a very quick break. This week, during his first overseas trip as the newly confirmed secretary of defense, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth made his debut on the international stage at the NATO conference in Brussels. Now, in that debut, he proceeded to contradict decades of U.S. foreign policy around Russia and Ukraine.
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Chapter 8: How do Trump's foreign policy actions reflect his administration's approach?
It is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written. And Carlson is a fool. Don't disagree there. Pete Hegseth did sound a lot like his former Fox News colleague who has spent years excusing Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But if Senator Wicker is disturbed about Hegseth's comments, I mean, somebody should probably let him know that Trump himself backed up every single thing that he said.
What was NATO membership for Ukraine? I don't think it's practical to have it personally. I know that a new secretary of defense who's excellent, Pete, made a statement today saying that he thinks it's unlikely or impractical. I think probably that's true.
Do you see any future in which Ukraine returns to its pre-2014 borders?
Well, I think Pete said today that that's unlikely, right? It certainly would seem to be unlikely. They took a lot of land and they fought for that land and they lost a lot of soldiers.
Were you aware of what Secretary Hegseth was going to say in his speech at NATO?
Generally speaking, yeah.
Trump and Hegseth are on the same page. They are being very clear about where they stand. Even before the negotiations start, they are singling, they will give Putin basically everything that he wants. I actually don't think in defense of Pete Hegseth, dare I say, that this was a rookie mistake at all. He was simply stating the administration's position.
I mean, they probably discussed it in the sit room. That really is definitely not the only thing that Vladimir Putin is happy about right now. And that's the more important point. I mean, this is an abbreviated list, but Donald Trump and Elon Musk have gutted USAID, which the Kremlin has celebrated.
Trump now has Tulsi Gabbard as his intelligence chief, the same Tulsi Gabbard who for years has been parroting Russian propaganda. And just as a drone strike hit the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, we learned that the Trump administration fired people who oversee our nuclear stockpile before scrambling to bring them back because they couldn't find all of their contact information.
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