Good evening. Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melbert and two top DOJ officials who are also

former Trump defense attorneys grilled under oath by lawmakers on Capitol Hill today. This is a big

story in any era because you have top people under oath. It's a bigger story right now because,

according to whistleblowers and critics, the DOJ under Trump is already facing Watergate-level scandals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, well known, at a Senate budget hearing.

And then an individual who has become increasingly controversial, including after that FU whistleblower complaint that came out yesterday,

O'Mill Bovi, who will get into that, faced a nomination here,

because Trump is trying to promote his former criminal defense attorney here to become a powerful

appeals court judge who would oversee and rule on what Trump does. This comes on the heels of that

whistleblower complaint that a Justice Department leader, this very person up for the nomination here,

being grilled today, was, as the Times put it, blatantly suggesting the DOJ do the opposite

of its entire government role, that it violate court orders, or, as the individual put it,

that it say, FU to the courts. Indeed, the whistleblower, who is a very experienced

long-term official, who bears mentioning, as I leave this quote on the screen for you, is someone

who served in the entire First Trump administration defending all sorts of Trump policies,

including the so-called Muslim ban or Middle Eastern ban.

But this person, an insider, says they broke the rules and crossed the line when Bovet stated that the DOJ would need to consider telling the courts this year, quote, F you, ignoring any orders.

Now, let's take that in. F you to the courts, F you to the judges, FU to our entire constitutional system. This dropped like a bombshell yesterday. You could see that in the New York Times. You could see it across our air. You could see it. It was Lawrence O'Donnell's lead story. It was our lead story because it is a huge deal.

Now, this individual is credible and is putting this forward in writing at great risk.

And they're doing it through the whistleblower process, which you might remember from the Trump impeachment or all the way back to Vietnam scandals.

Whistleblowers have certain legal protections, but they also face great risk.

This individual, Mr. Ravenny, put this all in writing with emails contemporaneous over 25 pages.

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