Good evening from Washington, D.C., I'm Ali Velshi in for Chris Hayes.

Donald Trump's attack on democracy was death by a thousand cuts.

The ex-presidents plan to steal the election had so many components from the lies about

fraud and the pressure on state and federal officials to the fake electors scheme and

the final desperate sickening of the mob on the Capitol.

And with all of that came so many characters.

Names we now know, well, like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, as well as

Plenty who are still relative strangers to us.

Now take an individually, none of these pieces or people seem at all that important.

On their own, none of them would have succeeded in toppling American democracy.

But together, they got terrifyingly close.

And they tell the story of the case that the special counsel, Jack Smith, is building

as he moves closer to a decision on bringing a second federal indictment against Donald

Trump.

So today, here in Washington, Smith pictured here in his motorcade, leaving his office

at the Department of Justice, continued to put the puzzle pieces together.

He focused on yet another relatively unknown character who appears to have some important

information about the operation to steal the election.

This is William Russell.

He served in the Trump White House as a special assistant and the deputy director of presidential

advance operations.

Russell spent much of January 6 by Donald Trump's side.

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