This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Thursday, July 28th.

I'm Bridget Bergen from the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom, filling in for Brian Lair, who is off today. We turn to the news that

the Department of Justice is investigating former President Donald Trump's actions on the morning of

January 6th. On Wednesday, the Washington Post broke the story that the DOJ moved to bring two

top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence in front of a federal

grand jury. While the DOJ has declined to comment on the pending investigation, the two

aides called in front of the grand jury, Pence's former chief of staff, Mark Short, and lawyer

Greg Jacob, had publicly testified in front of the January 6th committee's televised hearings

previously, potentially offering clues about what the DOJ is looking at. CNN reports the move is

the most aggressive public step taken yet by prosecutors investigating the plots to subvert the

2020 election. Joining me now to discuss the latest is Devlin Barrett, a reporter focusing on national

security and law enforcement for the Washington Post. Devalin, welcome back to WNYC.

Hi, Bridget. Thanks for having me.

So, Devlin, you and your colleagues broke this huge story that the DOJ is looking at

Trump's pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election and, quote, what instructions Trump gave

his lawyers and advisors about fake electors and sending electors back to the states. We've been hearing

about this during the past eight

public January 6th committee hearings. So how big a deal is this news? Well, I think it's a big deal for

a couple of reasons. One, the simple fact that the investigation has, as we've reported, moved into

sort of Trump's inner circle and has been looking at that

activity for a period we now know of months. So that in itself is important. Two, I think it's

...