teaching a class on curiosity. who better, my friend? and on that note, i wish you a very good night. an remember to catch my show every weekend starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc.

from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. see you this weekend. we start tonight with big news in the pillow world out of shockapee, minnesota. >> my pillow is evicted. a judge made the ruling after the landlord said the company owes more than $200,000 in rent. >> that's right. my pillow owned by the far right election denier mike lydell has been evicted for not paying rent. he is currently trying to spin this like it is no big deal. he says that the company wasn't using the warehouse because my pillow is direct to consumer these days but the reason it is

direct to consumer is because it was dropped by all the biggest retailers many the country. and the reason for that is because his role in pushing the big lie. that the 2020 election was stolen. and as much as mr. lyndell is claiming his company is doing fine, this is part of the plan. this is what he had to say about his finances a few months back in october. so for those who pushed the big lie, those people are now being held accountable. on wednesday, a judge in california ruled that john eastman, the architect of trump's fake elector scheme should be disbarred for his role in pushing the big lie. trump lawyers have all pleaded

guilty in the ongoing criminal case in georgia for their roles in that scheme. 'sman along with trump legals jeffrey clark and rudy giuliani is still awaiting trial in that case. meanwhile, jeffrey clark is facing discipline from the dc bar. rudy giuliani has had his law license suspended and giuliani is also on the hook for $148 million in damages that he owes two georgia poll workers he defamed. rudy giuliani and sydney powell are facing defamation lawsuits from the voting machine companies dominion and smartmatic. so it is seemingly taking forever but the people involved in this are being held accountable for pushing the big lie. recent polling from the washington post shows that more americans now believe the 2020 election was rigged than they did in 2021. i should stop to say here, as

clearly as possible, there is absolutely no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 22 election. but even if you look at the very few instances where people illegal lie cast ballots, you would not see them voting for joe biden. this is barry morefew. he was accused of murdering his wife. the charges have since been dropped. but in 2020 while his wife was missing, he cast a ballot on her behalf. he told the fbi i wanted trump to win. i just thought give him another vote. i figured all these other guys are cheating. so he did that in colorado. a different registered republican, a man named i kid you not, francis presto, voted under his dead wife's name in pennsylvania. don't confuse that with the other registered republican in pennsylvania, ralph thurman who

after casting his own ballot, returned in sunglassessened a cast a ballot pretending to be his own zone. don't confuse him with the other other registered republican in pennsylvania. robert lynn. who tried to sign up his dead mother for mail-in voting. an don't confuse him with the other other other registered republican in pennsylvania, bruce bartman who voted for trump in his dead mother's name. not to be confused with yet again, i kid you not, on the name, edward snodgrass, a republican official in ohio who forged his dead father's signature to cast a second ballot. the vice chairman of the georgia republican party who pushed the big lie himself was fined for voting illegally nine

times in different elections including the one in 2020. i could go on and on and on. but you get the point. where actual intentional voter fraud was found, it was primarily individual examples of republicans acting on their own. not some sort of systemic democratic conspiracy. honestly, the closest we got to anything systemic was that four different residents of the trump loving florida retirement community, the villages, admitted to voting twice in the 2020 election. but fraud was never really the problem here. the problem was the big lie. and even though donald trump was no longer in office, other republicans who were very much still in power weaponnized the big lie in a way that had real consequences. in six different states republican leaders created or greatly expanded election integrity forces to hunt for voter fraud. and while the people who voted twice in the villages were

ordered to take civics classes and that republican party official in georgia was only fined $5,000, the primarily black and brown individuals, the ones republican election integrity forces went after, they were not treated nearly as kindly. >> we have a warrant for your arrest. >> for what? i ain't commit no fraud! >> that's the thing. i don't know exactly what happened with it. but, you do have a warrant and that's what it's for. >> voter fraud? what is voter fraud? >> voting when you are not supposed to, sir. >> why would y'all let me vote if i'm not able to vote? >> i'm not sure, buddy. i don't know. >> and then why now? that happened years ago. why now? why me? >> both of those individuals,

ramono oliver and tony patterson were arrested by the voting security force. it allowed most former felons to vote if they had completed all the terms of their sentence. both oliver and patterson believed they qualified so they voted. that was their alleged crime. and their cases are emblematic of what this extension of the big lie really represents. in all six republican led states that had the election integrity forces, they overwhelmingly targeted minorities and democrats for prosecution. an analysis by the washington post showed black and hispanic individuals made up 75% of the defendants these republican led efforts chose to prosecute. the point of these election integrity forces is not actually in election integrity. it is intimidation. black and brown americans and americans who have any hint of

a question about whether or not they are allowed to vote, this is all about keeping those people away from the ballot box. people who let's be honest here tend to be democrats. the republicans behind these efforts aren't shy about the fact they are trying to prosecute black people for technicalities and mistakes. that's the point. and for years now, the clearest most damning example of all of this has been the story of crystal mason. back in 2016, she tried to vote in the general election. the volunteer at her polling place couldn't find her name in the system so they gave her a provisional ballot. it turns out ms. mason could not vote because she was still on supervised release after serving time for a prior conviction. but she didn't know that. it was really an honest mistake. because the ballot was provisional, her vote was never even counted. but, the republicans texas state attorney general's office

went after crystal mason anyway. and convicted her of voting illegally. she was sentenced to five years in prison. five years in prison for trying to vote. and since then, republicans have loved the crystal mason story because it is a threat that hangs over americans showing what could happen to them if they even make a mistake while trying to vote. that is until today. today, a texas appeals court acquitted crystal mason. today, after years of fighting this, crystal mason won. >> it has been overwhelming. i cried and hollered when i got the news. seven years. i have been out six years on an appeal bond. one foot in and one foot out. not knowing if i was going to

go to prison. so i'm really humblely grateful right now on the outcome. i lost good jobs. lost insurance. just, every night, crying, praying, asking when is the end. i knew victory would be the outcome. it has been really rough. when i got the news yesterday, i was just overwhelmed with joy. it has been a long journey. >> joining me now is crystal mason who is now acquitted of voting illegally in 2016 along with her attorney kim t. cole. thank you both for talking about this tonight. it is really an important story. i'm sorry it had to be yours. crystal, let me start with you and how you are feeling. do you feel free? >> it is setting in on me right now. you know. again. like i said earlier.

i'm overwhelmed with joy. and, it is setting in on me as we speak now, that i'm actually free. i'm no longer facing going to prison. >> can you tell my, crystal, what the last several years have been like? i know at one point, you were having to check in every week to see if you were going to be locked up. can you talk to us a little bit what the experience has been like for you? >> it was very difficult. once i was convicted, i was sentenced back on a federal level. my supervised release was revoked. i had to go in and do ten months in prison and another 24 months on supervised release so i had to leave a good job. leave my kids, family to go back to prison over a crime i didn't commit. >> i do wonder. i'm outraged and i'm not your

child. i'm not a friend of yours. maybe we'll be friends one day. but you know, for the people that know you and know what you did and see just the disproportionate punishment you have had to bear, what has it been like for your community of loved ones this period and how did they react as you went back to prison? >> it destroyed them. it really, it really affected them a lot. and i think the reason why i was able to get through it was my children personally. it was like mom. i was ashamed. like i was leaving you guys again. like, i would never do this to hurt you guys. and they kept telling me, mom, you did the right thing and we were proud of you. and that's what made me feel a lot better when i had to self- surrender and turn myself in. they were there to support me.

but my mom. she had a lot of things going on. she is the one that told me to go vote. so she buried a lot of pain on this. because she felt like it was her fault. but it wasn't. she was doing what any mother would do. >> yeah, of course. and any good citizen wants people to be part of the representative democracy. let me ask your lawyer kim, you know, it's been remarkable to see republicans keep going back to this. they could have dropped this at any point. this could be a subject of national attention. this is not the first time crystal has been on this channel talking about this case. why do you think they kept pressing ahead with it? do you think it is over? why do you think it has taken so long? >> first of all, i hope that it is over. and then i trust that it is

over. because the facts of the case hasn't changed since crystal's conviction in 2018. the facts are still the same. there is no new evidence presented. there were no new arguments presented. everything was the same. i believe this went on so long because it could. as you indicated earlier, there was a movement to disenfranchise voters. especially voters that look like crystal and i. here in tarrant county, this was i would say ground zero for that movement. this entire prosecution and conviction and sentencing was orchestrated and it was done at the request of the district

attorney to send a message to voters. and i believe it continued on because it could. as long as it did. because it could. texas law is not equivocal. it is very clear that a person commits the offense of illegal voting if they vote in an election for which they know they are not eligible to vote. >> yeah. >> that was the law at the time crystal was convicted. they doubled down on it since then and said, you know, add an additional knowing clause in there to make it clear that the individual has to know that they are not eligible to vote. crystal never knew the facts are still the same. and fortunately, the court of criminal appeals sent it back

down to the second court of appeals to have another look at the case. i believe their language was to apply the correct interpretation of the law to the facts of crystal's case. >> crystal, it seems like the goal here was to terrorize you in a way. to keep this going as long as possible. to mete out the harshest punishment imaginable. all for a mistake. and that seems to be the point to send a message as your lawyer kim says. communities of color. former felons. people who have made mistakes in the past, what is your message to all those people watching you suffer here but are terrified of the same thing happening to them if they choose to exercise their right to vote? >> my message is know your rights. i started an organization in a fight against voter

suppression. when i was locked up, during the ten months i started writing things down. i started journaling the whole time. i came out and at that time, i reached out to kim and told her this is what i wanted to do. and she helped me, walked me through it and i started going to neighborhoods knocking on doors telling people how important it is to vote. share my story with them. and letting them know people are confused. ex-felons are confused. they don't know if they are eligible or not. so in turn get that information, go back to my attorneys and we get the right information to them. if they are eligible, i register them. if not, i tell them when they are. i want people to know, don't let my story discourage you, but encourage you to go to the poll. >> that's such an important message. i'm sorry you have to be the

one to carry the banner but it is a service to everyone, to the american public. crystal mason and her attorney kim t. cole. thanks for sharing your stories tonight, ladies. i really appreciate your time. >> thank you. coming up, what kind of defendant would repeatedly attack a judge's daughter and do so just two weeks before they were set to go to trial in front of that same judge? who? brand new legal filings tonight detail the former president's threatening behavior. but first, in the aftermath of january 6th, many of trump's billionaire donors said never again. but surprise surprise, many of those same people are now returning to the fold. that's next. turning to the fol. that's next. breathing claritin clear is like... is he? claritin clear? yeah. fast relief of your worst allergy symptoms, like nasal congestion. live claritin clear® ♪(voya)♪ there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits

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in wake of the january 6th attack, many of donald trump's high profile billionaire donors turned their backs on the ex-

president saying they were shocked by his attempts to overthrow democracy. but today, the washington post reports that many of those same donors are now either cutting checks to trump or actively considering doing so. nelson, the billionaire investor and chairman of the board at wendy's said this on cnbc the day after the capitol attack. >> what happened yesterday is a disgrace. as an american, i'm embarrassed. i didn't vote for trump in 16. i voted for him in this past election, november. today, i am sorry i did that. >> i'm sorry i did that. three years later, nelson peltz is no longer sorry. according to the washington post, peltz recently hosted trump and other billionaires including elon musk at his palm

beach mansion. he told the financial times he now plans to vote for trump. billionaire real estate developer robert bigalow said trump had lost him as a supporter and he showed he was no commander. now according to reuters, he has already given $1 million to pay trump's mountain of legal bills and pledged to give 20 million more to a pro trump campaign group. eric levine has also reversed course. due to a dramatic change in circumstances i have decided i will vote for trump in november. joining me now is the president and cceo of the championship conference. and michael schmidt with the new york times. just wow is all i have to say. michael schmidt, what is the import here and the sort of grander scheme of things of

these millionaires? making a u-turn? >> i was fascinated by this. who are these people but how did they get to this point? how do you go from the per spect perspectives on january 6th. i called the smartest most thoughtful person i know in the business world. just explay this to me. and what this person said was january 6, they were done with trump. the same thought the people at the white house had. the same thought people at the justice department had. mitch mcconnell had and such. the next few years lived under biden. thinking that trump wasn't going to be president. and came to you know, view biden as business people. as someone that was going to tax them. someone they thought was captive to the far left of the

party. when the republican primary comes along, these people see trump and don't like him. they like nikki haley. nikki haley was going to be the person for them. but when nikki haley falls out and you are just left with trump, these people have basically said, well, we have become convinced that joe biden is not up to it. they don't like the vice president. biden says the state of the union, around the state of the union, that he is going to raise taxes and these people pivot back to trump. and what they would probably argue is thelesser of two evils. who are they and how did that happen? >> it seems clear. they may use the language, biden may not be up to it but it comes down to the trump tax cut. that's the thing that's a windfall for corporate moguls. the washington post reports in

the same article, the billionaire class is really threatened by biden. these guys are about creating a dynasty of wealth for themselves and hoarding it at the expense of everyone else in society. sounds right to me, maya? >> if the rest of us are paying an average of 25% of our income over to uncle sam to take care of things like schools, roads, bridges in baltimore. seems reasonable to say if you are a millionaire, billionaire, you should pay 25%, too. which is essentially what president biden said. and what will he use it for? he will use it for extending money for families with children to support their children. things we saw for example in covid that pulled 40% of children who have been living in poverty out of poverty. i don't know. if you are fighting about

disney, maybe you want to make sure families can afford to go there. maybe if you are the ceo and chairman of wendy's, there is a self-interest in a general economy. but at the end of the day, this is the point that it comes down to a pocketbook. which for them, is quite full. a simple question of are you willing to invest in the future of the nation or not? the future of the nation, remember, donald trump was happy to use anti-semitism to go after another billionaire because he saw him as an enemy. so your money does not actually protect you from his retribution which is the very word he used to describe what he will be.

i am your retribution. so what is at stake for everyone including the billionaire class, including whether or not families are able to take care of themselves which ultimately about having a market economy that works. >> you mentioned something that is worth exploring, which is a lot of these people thought nikki haley was their person. when she didn't turn out to be, they abandoned her which goes to the point of what is the nikki haley support? biden will be going after the haley supporters. i do wonder whether or not that sort of republican support for nikki haley is real. how much, strong was the ardor? how much were they looking for an alternative or are they coming home at the end of the

day. >> i don't know. a lot of people in the republican party wanted an alternative and it just wasn't large enough to ultimately mean anything. but, sort of along the lines of the hailey question is that i think a lot of these wealthy wall street folks, they don't think that the question of democracy, of the country's democracy is as serious as you know, democrats and you know, a lot of people have said that it is in this election. and how consequential it is. it made me think how much that question will define the election. if these people think the left is crying wolf and that the country is fine and the democracy will be fine, we don't really like them. and you can't really do a three- point turn. so who knows if he is really going to cause that much

trouble if he becomes president. that is a very, very different view than the democratic party and lots of people watching everything plays out. what direction is the country going to really go no, not on tax policy, but the democracy. >> it is surprising to me. there is very tangible evidence of what the shredding of democracy looks like. it means you can police bodily autonomy in ways that are unimagined in the 21st century and the late 20th century. that are very real world applications and those in power insulated by money and wealth, and by that i mean the jamie diamonds and steve schwartzmans of the world, they wouldn't recognize the stakes that are relevant for them and their lives and families and daughters.

>> and i think we have to remember that not like, just like any group of people, there is not a monolith. right? so we do have patriotic millionaires including abigail disney who has said no. tax us. we want to invest in the country. we want there to be the reduction of poverty. we want public schools to be better. we want people to have their needs met. we want a country that is prosperous. so there really is a distinction of people. whether they are willing to say we do think there is something at risk for this country and we will make choices about what we invest in. so i do think that is important to recognize. in this case, remember, nelson in that ledup said he voted for trump in november. huh? i'm sorry. like, sorry, crystal mason, you had at the top of the hour, that is exactly what is

happening to people. the weaponnization of division based on race. based on lgbtq, being told that people who are arab american are somehow not american and are dangerous. we are seeing the racism. we are seeing the tropes. we are seeing the sexism. at the end of the day, this democracy about whether or not we will come together. figure out how to solve our problems. because we all share them. that's what billionaires need to do right now. >> we all live in the same country. even though at sometimes, it does not seem like that. michael, great to see you on this friday night. maya, have a few more questions for you. please hang around for a little longer. we have a lot more to get to including donald trump's legal drama after he repeatedly threatened the daughter of one of his judges. but first --

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today, america finally got the genre bending musical release it was waiting for. >> talking to that little girl, riding on the pegasus, tell her everything's going to be all right. >> not beyonce's cowboy carter. the new single from trump's daughter-in-law lara trump. for those of you who managed to unfollow her recording career, this is actually her second single. she covered tom petty. that stirred controversy since his family had sent trump a cease and desist letter for using the song won't back down in the rallies.

an ai generated lara trump dis track. >> lara trump, what's going on. you are running the rnc, but it's a sad song. fund raising's low, can't meet the mark. republicans losing it's getting dark. oh, lara, what have you done? the party is falling down, it's no longer fun. >> all of this would just be a weird side show were it not for the fact lara trump is running the rnc. the cochair of the republican national committee thanks to a trump backed purge and her tenure has seen some problems that could not be auto tuned away. she told garrett haake she wants to put trump's stolen election claims in the past. but just hours after that

interview went public. multiple news outlets reported the rnc was asking all of its potential new hires and they believe the election was stolen. there is the fact that at a time when the rnc is lagging the dnc in fund raising, donald trump is using rnc donations to pay for his legal bills. bill that's are mounting as trump continues to create new headaches. i'll talk to joyce vance about the latest legal drama and if the former president can make the president change his tune. sorry. i had to. >> dawn. darkest before the dawn. see what i did? inside inside while losing weight. with golo, i don't need a cheat day because i get to eat the foods i like any day of the week.

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in two weeks, donald trump will find himself on trial for the new york hush money case. not many defendants spend the weeks before the case attacking the judge, but trump didn't dial it up, he ramped up the attacks. in at least four social media posts, trump went after the judge and the judge's daughter who is a democratic political consultant. judge marshawn's gag order restricts trump from making public statements about witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, and court staff in the upcoming

trial. but tonight, we saw dueling motions in this case from trump's team and the manhattan da. he says the true social posts do not run afoul of the gag order. the manhattan da's office asked whether the daughter was covered by the gag order and if not, to expand its scope. joining me now is joyce vance, professor at the university of alabama school of law. joyce, thanks for being here tonight. do you have a position here on whether judge marshawn actually should expand this and will expand this gag order? >> so, look. it is dicey, judges typically don't protect themselves simply because they don't need the protection. most good lawyers will insist that their clients behave, that they don't threaten the judge or a member of the judge's

family. so this is a unique situation. but the reality is the judge will have to take action whether he wants to or not and it is more than act protecting his daughter. people who don't have abundant protection for their family. and when they see donald trump doing this to the judge's daughter, you know, i think we have to accept the fact they will be frightened for themselves. frightened for their families and it will have serious spillover effects if the judge doesn't put an end to it now. >> joyce, i absolutely concur if you will on the idea that this impacts witnesses. but judges have found themselves in the cross hairs in a way they haven't been in a very long time and i think for people who don't know, your own father-in-law was a judge on the 11th circuit and was killed by a serial killer who sent a pipe bomb to his house.

the threat of physical violence is one that is chilling in a way that you understand more than most. can you talk about the effect this kind of thing has on the families of judges? >> it is obviously something you wouldn't wish on anyone. but judges and public servants, property cuters, there is a risk that someone who is filled with hate or in the grips of the mental health crisis will harm them or will harm their family. what you don't expect is that it will be the former commander- in-chief of the united states. who will direct that sort of hate at you. donald trump is out of excuses. he understands that his mob stood outside of the capitol and said hang mike pence. at this point in time for trump not to direct his followers they must never use violence or to not dial back his rhetoric

is tantamount to saying that he intends for people to go ahead and follow through when he targets someone. so yes, it is terrible when we have these incidents of violence. what is worse in this situation is that it is someone who shouldn't be doing this. who is undercutting tweeting saying donald trump is destroying the rule of law in front of us. destroying the integrity of our criminal justice system. someone needs to put a stop to it. it's long past time. >> those are words with deep residence. joyce vance, thank you for joining me tonight. it's great to see you. still ahead this evening, while south carolina waits for the supreme court to decide if the state's congressional map is unconstitutional, something a lower court ruled last year, voters are stuck with the racially gerrymandered map in

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illegally gerrymandered to dilute your votes. you probably expect by the next election cycle that unconstitutional map would be thrown out. that is not the case in south carolina. the state will continue to use an unconstitutional congressional map for the foreseeable future though a panel of judges concluded the

state's conservative legislature exiled 30,000 black voters from the state's first congressional district to make it safer for the white. the supreme court has yet to rule on whether or not the map needs to be redrawn, allowing south carolina to use the old constitutional map. the one that exiles 30,000 black voters this election cycle. back with me is maya wily. thank you for sticking around to be incensed with me here. >> thank you for allowing me to be incensed with you. >> this is the real election fraud. here it is. right? that's it. you can't get an election back, maya, how is this happening?

>> it starts with them saying we will get election free cards. it started saying things like oh, you know, we will decide a year takes too long to organize a new election. new maps. that is before this case. for those trying to vindicate black people in south carolina who the district court said had been bleached. the district had been bleached. that's a quote. okay? that is what is happening here because if you can take black people and dilute their vote, you can essentially muffle our votes. our voices. our ability to say who leads. to say no, you don't get to steal elections. it is actually fundamentally not what we allow, particularly when you are doing it to take elections away from people who

are black. that is not what we will allow and this is why we need to fight for voting rights legislation. because otherwise, we keep having our elections stolen from our democratic process from our people. >> why the slowdown at the supreme court? they were asked to expedite this. they know, presumably, full well, that this is happening. and yet, no ruling. >> not only full well, they are the very ones who start to say okay, we will let that gerrymander district move forward. we didn't have enough time. this case was january 23. they have had time to decide this. i can't say what is going on. but i will say this. what is going on ain't right. >> there is a pattern here. louisiana, alabama, you know. states of the confederate south, south carolina, they are the ones that keep having these problems. and we live in a world where the justices on the same

supreme court say we are in a post racial america where racism is no longer a problem. the shadow of the confederacy still looms large. >> refusing to address injustice is not good for democracy. >> maya, i will say we are ending on an up note because the fight goes on. the warriors in the fight continue on this friday night. >> and it is a big coalition. and we are majority of this country and we are not letting it go. >> maya, thank you for being here and sharing your thoughts with me tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> that's our show for tonight. a special edition of the last word defendant trump cohosted by andrew weissman and melissa murray starts right now. rray s.