30 minutes in the hush money trial related to stormy daniels. >> steve: the president left trump tower 20 minutes ago. we saw it live here. there he is waving to the crowd and he got in his limo and he headed down. >> brian: the court experts say this is the last thing the people want to see is the new york trial first. the alvin bragg trial. the last thing they want. the weakest case. donald trump thinks so, too. >> ainsley: the hush money case with stormy daniels. we'll follow it and keep you posted. >> steve: it is hard to keep track. >> they are out to get him. >> ainsley: all run by democrats. >> steve: lots of news out of kansas city and washington. bill and dana have that now. [gunfire]

>> bill: that's the moment shots ringing out in a parade for the kansas city chiefs super bowl victory showing that even on a day of celebration with a million people gathered for that moment can be rocked by gunfire. we're learning the identity of the victim. radio disc jockey and mother of two as we wait for more information. there hasn't been a ton so far. i'm bill hemmer. >> dana: i'm dana perino and this is "america's newsroom." we're trying to piece it all together. the story is developing by the minute. what we know so far. one person is dead, 22 others wounded, 15 of those are fighting for their lives right now and six others are doing okay. especially tragic is eight are children. >> bill: thanks to a couple of quick thinking bystanders the bloodshed soon ended. he tackled a man believed to be a gunman.

the hero of the day and speaking last hour on fox. >> someone asked if those were gunshots. i told him most likely not. looked to my left. i see a flash. i tackle that individual. this other gentleman also aids me in that. >> after we tackled the guy, i guess the gun fell out and landed at my feet. i looked down and i just immediately thought i needed to get it away. >> dana: jeff paul is live in kansas city where investigators are searching for a motive. >> good morning, bill and dana. we're standing just across the street from union station. that's the scene of that happened after the chiefs and fans were wrapping up the parade. police are here trying to figure out what happened and why.

they have detained three people. questioning them and looking at videos like this that appear to show people tackling a person to see if someone like this might have been involved. >> we tackled him. >> we tackled him, yeah. >> when we tackled him the gun flew out. >> the first shots were fired as a chiefs and fans were wrapping up a parade and rally to commemorate the super bowl. the sound of gunfire sent people running in all directions. some trying to get away and others look to hide. a total of 800 law enforcement officers were on the ground and some even on top of buildings. many running toward the sound of shots being fired. one person was killed, a local radio d.c. lisa lopez galvan, a mother of two. her station saying the senseless act has taken a beautiful person

from her family and this k.c. community. more than 20 others were hurt including nine kids. those children are expected to recover from their physical injuries. the shooting will likely impact this community forever. >> who in their right mind would do something like this? everybody in the city and those in the surrounding area -- [inaudible] >> there is still a risk to people. i think that's something that all of us who are parents, just regular people living each day have to decide what we wish to do about it. parades, rallies, schools, movies, it seems like almost nothing is safe. >> the chiefs put out a statement calling this a senseless act of violence. star quarterback patrick mahomes says that he is praying for the

community and travis kelce says he is heartbroken. >> dana: jeff paul, thank you so much. >> bill: we're waiting for a press conference. as of right now there apparently is nothing on the schedule. if and when that changes we'll cover it live. a couple videos, go through this. one from fox sports and one from tmz. roll the one from tmz first and we'll talk through it. they had more than 800 cops on patrol during this event at midday. you just imagine, when your team wins the world championship it is a moment for that community. kids take off school and parents bring everybody downtown and remember it forever. >> dana: look how great the weather was in the middle of february in kansas city. >> bill: this is the fox sports camera. let's roll this and watch together and see what we might learn or can see or try to figure out.

you imagine the cops and the investigation how many cameras might have been set up. these are broadcast cameras. these don't account for police cameras. and how they are trying to piece it together and look for the shells and where they came from and who was firing what at whom. here is the statement from the team now quote we're saddened by the senseless act of violence. our hearts go out to the victims, families and all of kansas city. think of this. that city is on an absolute high coming off an overtime victory. the largest viewed super bowl ever. that is something else in the history of television one of the most-watched events we've seen. it becomes a national moment for everybody, too. on a local level you are high in the sky and then you are brought down by this yesterday. >> dana: the woman who died was a local d.j. with popularity and adored in the community. they are hurting in kansas city

today. we will bring you a press conference, if it happens, any updates on the victims. many fighting for their lives. emergency medicine is so good thankfully that hopefully many of them will survive and go on and have good, healthy lives. >> bill: yes rick to the two kids and husband she leaves behind our prayers are with us and on ward for the days to come. we'll give you more information when we get to. former president trump now back in court today in new york city in a big way. the judge in that so-called hush money case against him expected to decide if the criminal trial will begin next month. if it does in late march, it would be the first of trump's four criminal cases to go to trial. meanwhile, 900 miles to the south, a judge overseeing trump's election interference case in georgia will hear evidence concerning the fulton county d.a. fani willis, in this alleged

affair with the special prosecutor nathan wade. a lot to go through this with steve harrigan outside the courthouse there fulton county, georgia in the city of atlanta. good morning. >> good morning. we're expecting a real fight with high stakes. jobs could be at risk and the entire case against former president trump could be at risk as well. both the district attorney and prosecutor she hired have been accused of misconduct. defense attorney says the two of them are lying about their admitted affair both when it began and how it was funded. the judge could have his hands full today with some potentially salacious questions. >> my guess is that the judge will probably want to keep a tight rein on this proceeding. i don't expect a parade of witnesses in the days ahead. >> it is not clear the d.a., fani willis, will be forced to testify. that depends on what kind of information the earlier witnesses give.

but the judge has already issued a stern warning. even if there is an appearance of the conflict of interest, it could be enough to disqualify the district attorney. bill, back to you. >> bill: steve, thank you. watching in atlanta and new york. thanks. eight minutes past. >> i think it's pretty concerning that russia will be considering violating the outer space treaty. not only this would enable them to target satellites and communications and gps capabilities but it also more importantly would be able to potentially be an emp to target the entire u.s. grid and all electronics. >> dana: potentially disturbing intelligence. the chairman of the house intel committee warning about a serious national security threat. the details are fuzzy. lawmakers from both sides not totally buying in saying we continue to take this matter seriously and discussing an appropriate response with the administration. we must be cautious about disclosing sources and methods

that may be key to preserving a range of options for u.s. action. joining us now former state department spokeswoman morgan or t tage -- he said i request president biden declassify the information so congress, administration and allies can discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat. it almost came out of nowhere yesterday. i saw you on special report and maybe you have more information today. felt like it was urgent and maybe not so much. >> it was odd because mike turner is not somebody who likes to throw bombs, right? he is very even keeled and for a long time. there are some disturbing trends we've seen in the past year. you go into the trump administration, we looked at a lot of the nuclear agreements and various agreements that we were in with the russians and decided to withdraw from some of those because they weren't

living up to them. if you look at what the russians have the capability to do. it is speculative. a lot of talk deploying a nuclear weapon from space. it would violate treaties they are in. the russians are known for violating treaties. what is more concerning if you look at the capabilities may be from space as it relates to the anti-satellites that would in many ways be more disruptive to our national security because they would have the ability not only to take out command and control from the military perspective, it would also affect our civilian communication as well. so there is an urgent diplomatic need to look at this. >> bill: mark warner, democrat from virginia and marco rubio from florida said they have the intelligence in question and tracking this issue from the start. jake sullivan suggested mike turner shouldn't have gone public on that. if the russians have capabilities that we don't, shame on us number one. number two, if you can defend

your satellites in this modern technology world, you win. >> we're in an arms race with the chinese and russians and north koreas, iranians and others, we can see what they can do with drones and their proxies. the chinese unveiled their version of the huppeer sonic. this was during the biden administration. various levels of military assessing how capable that is but still they were able to unveil it. when you look at what the chinese and russians are doing and look at their defense spending and capabilities, they are spending more, we are the nuclear arms race with them. our equipment for the most part is pretty old and outdated and needs to be done. meanwhile we have problems with our defense industrial base. in the supplemental everyone is arguing about one of the things in it that is very important is our ability to resupply our own munitions and we're looking at a great deal that the biden

administration did where we would supply submarines to the australians, for example. our own industrial base is screwed. to be quite frank. >> dana: that's the first thing peter said. you replenish your own supplies first. >> dana: the chinese migrants coming across the southern border. many coming from ecuador. that used to be -- it doesn't require you to get a visa to go to the country. many people coming into our country stop in ecuador and make the trek up. ecuador inbound tourism. check out the numbers has gone up to 22,000 in 2022 and then you see what we saw and griff jenkins showing us how many chinese migrants are coming across our southern border. they have suitcases. they are not desperate people. >> expensive brand. it is the fastest growing group of illegal migrants coming over the border. these are mostly fighting-age

males, right? so we are just asking for it, right? we know, you guys have covered this extensively, the secret police shops here that the chinese are doing. their own police stations. we know their nefarious activities on college campuses. in the trump administration we shut down the houston chinese consulate because of the immense spy operation happening there. would the chinese allow fighting age military american males to come over in droves? the largest and fastest growing group? it wouldn't happen anywhere else. not just an open border. that's a problem. the problem is we have an undefended border and allowing our enemies to come into the united states and no idea where they are going or what their plans or intentions are. >> bill: 14 past. let's get to this. >> president biden, something the special counsel said in his

report is one of the reasons you were not charged is because in his description you are a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. >> president biden: i'm well-meaning. elderly man and i know what the hell i'm doing. >> bill: new revelations from that comment the other night, right? president biden's special interview with the special counsel robert hur who brought up the president's son, beau, the context for that has been adjusted, shall we say. we'll get details. >> dana: russian president vladimir putin offering his take on this year's u.s. election. >> bill: as more people leave california a new report reveals many folks feel the golden state is not america. why is that? we'll try to figure it out next. >> the state -- 25.6% of all american jobs came from this state in april. we are on our way to be the fourth largest economy.

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>> president biden: there is some attention paid to language in the report about my recollection of events. there is even reference that i don't remember when my son died. how in the hell dare he raise that? frankly, when i was asked the question i thought to myself wasn't any of their damn business. >> dana: but president biden fa facing -- sources tell nbc news it was biden, not the special counsel, who mentioned his son. the headline reads biden attacked hur for asking him when beau died. that didn't happen sources say. that makes a lot of sense. let's bring in karl rove, former president deputy chief of staff

and fox news contributor. hur said that biden had a faulty memory. biden last week in a very angry press conference -- i understand why he was angry. he says how dare he bring that up. we find out he didn't bring it up at all. did he forget that, too? >> apparently so. this shows how big a mistake it was to have this hastily-called evening news event in the treaty room with the president ill prepared. you were there, i was there. number one rule, if you put the president in front of the press, be prepared. the biden camp had a copy of that transcript. that would have been given to his lawyers. somebody should have gone through there and if the president felt compelled to bring that up and show his anger about it, somebody should have vetted that and made certain it

was accurate and apparently at least according to these reports it's not. >> bill: dana and i were talking about this. this happened a week ago tonight. last thursday. i think the context for what his remarks were at 8:00 eastern time. he offered that comment. he was not asked that question. so i was wondering someone within the special counsel's office over the past several days is like what is he talking about? they felt compelled to go public with nbc because they broke the story late yesterday. that's not common, is it, karl? >> no. tit for at that time is not good. bad for the president to attack the special counsel's report particularly if it's in error. it is problematic they feel compelled. let's look at this on its own. how in the hell dare he raise that is what the president said. it shows anger, not good to have the president angry. but why? about what? when did your son die?

frankly, that's another thing for me. that's a tell. that's like i'll now go into something that may not be completely accurate. let me be honest with you. frankly, when i was asked the question i though tea to myself it wasn't any of their damn business. wait a minute. you wrote about it in your book. you can get the date of death on the internet. what is the big deal here? so it's like i'm offended they would ask me when my son died. come on, what is going on here? this is manufactured anger. >> dana: protesting too much. hillary vaughn asked some democrats. i listened to another one this morning on another podcast, abc news podcast, mayor pete asking him about biden's mental fitness. here are some members of congress on the democratic side and how they are answering the question to hillary. >> special counsel's report in the report it said president biden is an elderly man with a bad memory. do you think president biden is mentally fit for office? >> that was a partisan report

and president biden has been absolved in any criminal wrongdoing. >> i think president biden has proven himself to have a strong memory. >> no doubt in my mind the president is mentally fit for office. >> no, no, no, not talking. >> he is sharp, always answering questions. >> the only person's mental health that i'm concerned about is donald trump's. >> dana: so all these democrats. every democrat from here on out will be asked about this all the time and 86% of americans in the abc poll said they think the president is too old to run for office. i wonder what you think how these democrats will get through the next several months. >> well, you are right. not good. 86% in the abc poll. too old for another term. almost even more damaging is the nbc poll. 76% are concerned that he has, quote, the necessary mental and physical health to serve a second term. so look, if i were them i

wouldn't be talking about this. whenever they say oh, he is fit, oh, he is great. he is at the top of his game. that collides with depending how you phrase the question, three out of every four americans or nine out of ten americans don't agree. so this is not a helpful conversation for them. and they insured this thing will go on for more than a week. they put the president out there to stir the pot. now he may have been inaccurate in how he depicted his own interview which adds to the question what are his memory skills and we spent a week talking about whether president biden is fit for a second term and the answer is no. >> bill: we heard him. he is sharp, fit, always answering questions. i don't know. i don't know what tv he is watching. >> yeah, remember the last interview -- the last news conference is november. >> bill: i apologize. we go downtown to former

president trump. >> thank you very much. everything that i've heard and read even from legal scholars said there is absolutely no case here. not a crime. this is not a crime and when you look at what's going on outside on our streets, the violent crime is at an all-time high. i think it's very, very great double standard. the other thing this case could have been brought three years ago. there is no case. they decided not to bring it. district attorney bragg didn't want to bring it. he said he doesn't want to bring this case. it is not a crime. we're here for something that is not a crime. nobody has ever seen anything like it. it is election interference. it is being run by joe biden's white house. his top person was placed here in order to make sure everything goes right. this is a terrible time for our country. this is a real dark period for our country. his top person and some others have been placed into the d.a.'s

office to make sure they do a good job of election interference. there has never been anything like this in the history of our country. with all of this being said i looked outside and i looked at the streets, it is so different from when i left new york. it is so different. it is dirty and crime ridden. today you walk down the street and you get mugged or you get shot and if doing this where legal experts, legal scholars said they don't understand it, there is no crime. there was no crime here at all. this is just a way of hurting me in the election because i'm leading by a lot. we're leading by numbers no one has ever seen before. this is their way of cheating this time. last time they had a different way. this time they have something that is down and dirty that no country does other than a third world country, a banana republic. we'll do our process. they want to rush it because they want to get it desperately before the election.

that's what they want to do. they don't care after the election. they wouldn't have brought it except for the fact no way except for the fact i'm running for president and doing well. if i were doing poorly they wouldn't have brought it. frankly, if i didn't run they would have been extremely happy. they don't like me running and don't like the poll numbers have us beating him by a lot. so that's where we are. i'll talk to you later after we know what is going to happen. we want delays. i am running for election. how can you run for election and be sitting in a courthouse all day long. i'm supposed to be in south carolina now where other people are. again, this is where i should be. i shouldn't be in a courthouse. it is something that virtually every legal scholar says they don't understand it. there is no crime. even if he was guilty of something, there is no crime. so i will say that enjoy it, it's a sad thing, a sad day for new york. they really do -- i love this

city and i love this state. they have to focus on violent crime that is taking place outside. you have a new form of crime now. you have migrant crime. migrants are trying to beat up our police officers. they are trying to do things that we've never seen before actually. we are going to have a problem with biden migrant crime because you have millions of people came into this place, this country that has been so badly hurt. they are doing things that nobody has ever seen before. so you have violent migrant crime and they are after me for doing nothing wrong. i paid almost $3 hundred million in taxes over the period of time. $300 million. and they say let's get trump out. you have people that everything is politics in this city, including decisions and judges and everything else. it has to straighten out and they have to focus on violent crime, not made-up crime.

thank you very much. see you later. >> bill: there was a opening comment as he heads into court. jonathan turley and karl rove were riding shotgun. want to let you know what's going on. it's the case in new york that deals with the so-called hush money that then candidate trump paid to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal to the tune of $130,000 to one and $150 thousand and paid his former attorney, michael cohen, $420,000 for the work he did. people consider it to be a catch and kill, right? you write a check, you pay for silence and they get nothing in return other than the money. this is the case in fulton county, georgia. judge scott mcafee and he has a doozy on his hands. in fulton county you have fani willis and nathan wade who have this alleged secret relationship

and then she helped hire him as a special prosecutor to look at the rico charge against trump and what was it in the beginning, 19 others, i think. a few have dropped out since then pleading guilty, etc. >> dana: including sidney powell, one of the president's main lawyers in that election. >> bill: the question before the court is whether it was proper or improper. if the judge rules it was improper you have to say what happens to the case now and to whom is it assigned? >> dana: interesting. one of the defendants in the case was the one who heard a rumor that fani willis and nathan wade were having a relationship. his lawyer, from there in georgia, she said that's her right there, she said let me check this out. turns out looks like she was right. >> bill: a lot of the new york cases we've had a go in and spray the room and leave. in georgia you have cameras in the courtroom so long as the judge deems it possible. he has in this case. jonathan turley, what is more

critical today, the hush money case in new york, or the fani willis matter in atlanta, georgia? >> well, i would have to say that potentially the hush money hearing in new york is more significant because the judge is going to have to decide whether this case can go forward. quite frankly the new york case by alvin bragg is the most clearly political in my view. it has been criticized by people on both the left and the right. after all, this was a theory that even his former lead prosecutor rejected. bragg himself didn't want to move forward and then the pressure built to bring this case. and the question is how the judge will deal with that. prosecutors have the advantage in these hearings. they are given a lot of deference. many of the objections turn on facts and anything that is a fact question is likely to go to trial because the court does not

want to render fact decisions at this juncture. trump is making some important questions here. one is selective prosecution. this is clearly selective prosecution by bragg. i don't think -- i honestly don't see how you view it any other way. the problem is how you can make that case legally. judges tend to avoid selective prosecution rulings. they don't want to get into the motivations of prosecutors. as for georgia, having this split screen for trump is golden. he is conveying how this is part of his where is waldo existence that they are pulling him from state to state, keeping him running from pillar to post and you have these really questionable democratic operatives in his view who are behind these cases. >> dana: well, and talk about the new york case for a moment. wasn't that case considered really ridiculous for lack of a

better word? >> i do, yeah. >> dana: right. >> i don't think there is any other word in my view. it is ridiculous. he is trying too hard. there comes a point when you try too hard and this is that point that what bragg is doing is boot strapping of an alleged federal crime and converting it into a state prosecution. that's a crime that the department of justice did not find grounds to prosecute. but bragg -- that didn't stop bragg. he is using that claim of a federal election violation, referred to repeatedly, as part of this effort to conceal. so it's a very odd type of prosecution, even though this provision has been used in past cases, i don't know of any case like this one that bootstraps a federal offense of that kind. >> bill: so what the judge is

going to do here is try to figure out -- fani willis may be on the stand today and we may be listening. >> dana: i am here for that, believe me. >> bill: we may watch it together. as we await the first witness is karl rove still with us? karl, turley touched on something there about the new york matter. about alvin bragg bringing it. it's eight years later, right, the accusations were out there in 2016, checks were cut in 2016. we're in 2024. and the point that jonathan just made is that trump gets what he wants and that's a split screen, two courtrooms, two different jurisdictions, two different states. politically how does that play in this campaign? >> well, it depends on how it all plays out. the idea that you heard it in his remarks. this is an attack on me, election interference. i'm not a lawyer, let alone a legal scholar like jonathan turley, the bragg case in new

york strikes me as an overreach. the feds as he said looked at this issue of campaign finance violation and said no, it is not there. let's not kid ourselves. there is a reason why the former president is attempting to get on television and lay out his argument. that is he is not leading by a whole lot. if you look at the real clear politics average right now the average of the recent polls he is up 45 to 43.9. a 1.9% difference between the two candidates. he understands that the election is at stake here and if he falls behind, it will be because people say you know what? some of these cases or one of these cases or two strike me as being reasonable and true. and he is trying to do everything he can to make certain that people hear his side of the story. >> bill: karl, stand by. professor stand by. let's drop on in here and get a sense of what's happening in fulton county. >> more importantly,

representation was made to the court that miss merchant spoke to mr. bradley and mr. bradley represented that he had firsthand knowledge from speaking to several witnesses that he would be able to impeach with the statements she represented. that is the relationship prior to mr. wade being appointed special prosecutor and that there was issues of cohabitation that he would be able to directly impeach those witnesses. that is false. speaking with mr. cheap yeah those are misrepresentations not true. they are for the purpose of harassment and undue burden to the district attorney and renew our motion to quash. the only hearing we should be having is a hearing as it relates to sanctions for the defense counsel's lack of candor that is required by not only statutory law and professional rules of responsibility and case law and we ask we move into a hearing that is related to the

sanctions due to misrepresentation and flagrant falsehoods that have been spread throughout the world in an effort to affect this case and keep it from moving forward. with that, your honor, that's our request. >> small matter of housekeeping. miss merchant. >> first the witnesses haven't been sequestered. i ask that he be sequestered before we do this. that -- >> let's start there. >> i agree when testimony starts that the rules of sequestration are required but we haven't started testimony. this is argument. he has every right to be sitting at the table because he is lead counsel in the case.

>> we're here to hear sworn testimony under oath. i have made proper like all we'll get is objection after objection. -- [inaudible]. doesn't want the truth to come out before this court. this is a very important issue. and we need the witnesses. i have a good faith basis and he is not my only witness. this happens to be the proffered at the hearing when the state first tried the case. i was forced to offer certain testimony to get over the hurdle to refute their motion to quash. i did that. i used mr. bradley's testimony to do that. he is not the only witness. the first witness i want to call is robin. mr. bradley -- let's start with that. >> your honor, we have argument

on matters to be brought and we want to do it that i can stand up and what was said by mr. -- miss merchant at this point. >> i think at this point we need to take these issues one at a time. as you have joined the motion defense counsel would have the opportunity to weigh in but again at any point if i'm just hearing the same thing over and over again from each separate defense counsel i will reserve the right to say thank you. >> i appreciate that. i only asked for the opportunity important the attorney/client privilege and the burden being on the individual raising it that the privilege -- before we get to [inaudible] that's what i ask the court. >> understood. i want to put it back to you, miss merchant. the issue raised by the state this morning is that the essentially as i would summarize

it the good faith basis you did put forward on monday did not exist, right? so why wouldn't we start with mr. bradley and see where we go from there? >> the good faith basis does exist. so we both -- they think they have a good faith basis, i think i have a good faith basis. i have a huge good faith basis for everything i put in every single motion. that is going to come out. the reason i don't want to call mr. bradley first is for hearsay objections and normally we don't have to disclose how we are going to present evidence. i'm okay with doing that here but based on the rules of evidence, hearsay and privilege issues what makes the most sense and we spent a lot of time thinking about this. we need to have ms. yuri testify and i talked to her last night. she will say there was a personal relationship that began in october of 2019.

she is going to testify to that. she has personal direct knowledge of that. not hearsay and not privileged. she will take the stand. she is terrified but she will take the stand and tell the truth and then i plan on calling mr. wade. at that point i can overcome their motion to quash and bring mr. wade. then i can go through privilege issues with him and then i can have mr. bradley testify and we won't have an objection to every question i ask mr. bradley. that's how i plan on presenting the evidence because it makes the most sense. i think i'll be able to overcome any privilege objections. we can talk about that mr. when mr. wade takes the stand. >> any last words starting with miss yuri. >> my final response would be as your honor pointed out during the last hearing, miss merchant's entire representation for good faith was all totally

based on mr. bradley. i remember the court saying the star witness provided by the defense is mr. bradley and you asked the specific question, does mr. bradley have firsthand knowledge from these people, each one of them. he names the lawyers and investigators, as relate to the claims that remain and her answer was yes. i can tell you the answer is no. and miss merchant has not spoken to mr. bradley according to his counsel who is outside and can represent to the court the things that i have represented. he has maintained and represented that everything that she plans to go into her ask is protected by attorney/client privilege. the only point by this procedure as it relates to the motions filed so s to create a spectacle and harassment to the district attorney.

we ask for sanctions of counsel's duty of candor to the court and counsel. >> i think you put her on notice if that's the case. at this point i have someone saying yes and another person saying no and so i think that conflict in the evidence we noted on monday still exists and that's where we are and well oh -- we'll see how the evidence presents itself. with that miss merchant are you ready to call your first witness? >> yes, sir. >> i emailed the court and -- [inaudible] . >> bill: mr. partridge was joining us by zoom. >> he represented his client would be more comfortable if he were here in person and due to his conflict in richmond county this morning count occur until this afternoon.

i think that's a reasonable request. it's not the state's business. the witness is here. her attorney is able to join right now and perhaps that can be something that is addressed in court. i want to alert the court that was the representation. and -- >> i think the latest i had seen was that mr. partridge would join by zoom. >> i didn't know he had recognized that, mr. partridge had affirmed that this morning. >> i don't narcs either. the state seems to know that mr. urty is here. >> is mr. partridge here? >> we'll find out.

>> bill: they're trying to get a zoom link. i don't know why we're doing them in 2024 but we're doing

that. >> dana: sometimes it takes a minute to get up and that's what they are doing in georgia. >> bill: if you know it's schedule how is this possible? >> dana: i don't know who mr. partridge is. if he is busy in a pare tree. they're trying to get him up. nate foye is in new york city on the other trump case. this is the one that we were telling you about earlier. nate, do you want to give us an update what happened there? there was news in the last few minutes. >> this pre-trial hearing has only been going on for 15 minutes and we're learning from our court reporter maria that the judge has officially set the start date for the trial for march 25th as expected. so jury selection will begin then and we learned the judge denied trump's request to have this case thrown out. you heard former president trump speak on his way into the courtroom saying it's another example of election interference. he said there is no crime. this will be now officially,

unless something changes the first of the four cases -- criminal cases involve the former president to go to trial. the first criminal trial ever involving a former president. for background on the case trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide payments to michael cohen as you guys laid out with jonathan turley earlier. we will be following this and we'll let you know if he speaks while leaving the courthouse later today. >> dana: thank you for that update. let's go back to georgia now and they are talking about calling witnesses. >> bill: the judge apparently seemed none too happy, when the individual was not present. so what he decides is unclear. that empty chair, we think, we can't confirm, we think it was where nathan wade was sitting. we saw a gentleman leave the courtroom. we saw the back of his head. it could have been him. at the beginning of this it is pretty clear you are ticking off the judge because your people,

your principals are not present. >> dana: and the zoom link didn't work and he wasn't on mute. >> dana: this wasn't really a >> it's why you shouldn't watch court cases being made. this often happens. these technical problems occur. the empty chair was formerly occupied by nathan wade. he has to leave because he can't hear the testimony of these witnesses. one interesting aspect is fulton county claimed that the attorney challenging all this had misrepresented a good faith basis and they actually have said that while the initial motion said these were non-privileged discussions with -- or information with a former attorney of nathan wade's, they

said the attorney representing that attorney is -- is prepared to say that's not true. that it is privileged. this is going to get very odd. that may explain why they want to move partridge first because ms. partridge is not going to have the same confidentiality problems and so they would like her to take the lead to establish the foundation for what they filed. as for the hush money trial -- >> bill: >> this is just another witness the challengers insist can show this relationship preceded 2022. now keep in mind that willis and wade are accused of filing a false affidavit and false papers because their principal argument was there is no problem here because the relationship began after wade was hired. then the challengers filed and said we have witnesses saying it preceded 2022 and this would be one of those witnesses.

>> dana: jonathan, you wrote that willis and wade have more to fear than disqualification if they knowingly filed false statements with the court and they could look to their own case, this one, for how such filings can result in criminal charges or bar charges. >> that's why this is so curious. they are prosecuting a group of people accused of filing false things with courts and they are now being hit with the very same allegation. and the allegation is more substantial because the key fact that is being alleged as false was the key fact that they were presenting to the court as their principal defense. it comes back again to the question of why willis and wade have not removed themselves voluntarily from the case. in my view, their response to the allegations are as troubling as the allegations. they are putting themselves in -- before the case and before

the office. this is not good for their prosecution. >> bill: if that's true, then, there is no way they can stay on this matter and the case must be reassigned and the risk -- >> dana: or dropped. >> bill: or maybe dropped all together or whether or not someone else will take the case as it has been laid out. quickly on that. >> i've always been skeptical the case would be dropped all together. the most you could usually look for is that they would remove these two prosecutors. the office would continue. not easy when this is the head of the office. >> we have a lot of objections to privilege. i would much rather here mr. ury first. mr. partridge has a conflict. what i can do is call mr. bradley and bring him back. >> you can always recall him and ping-pong back and forth if we need to based on hearsay issues.

at least we can use this time until mr. partridge chooses to join us. >> is he on zoom? >> no. >> okay. just wanted to check. >> all right, so call your next witness then. >> all right, we call mr. bradley to the stand. i don't want -- >> dana: what happened if you are going to be a witness you can't be in the courtroom waiting and listening to other testimony so that's why the slight delay.

this is defense attorney and we're waiting for that person to be brought in here. jonathan, while we wait can i ask you something? you have some defendants in this case who have already pled guilty. do you think they regret that decision? >> well, there is always that buyer's remorse. keep in mind the attorneys, like sidney powell, pled to relatively minor offenses where they won't get any jail time or have to give up their licenses and they also did not plead guilty to the overall racketeering conspiracy. so one of the concerns for willis and wade is really how those witnesses will behave on the stand. they did not say they were part of this broad racketeering theory that they hope will ensnare donald trump. but we have to get through this first to see who is going to actually make that argument. they are having trouble with the readjustment of witnesses,

partridge is clearly not available so they are moving to plan b here. but the key for the challengers is to show they have a good-faith basis. they have witnesses who believe that this relationship pre-existed 2022. but this is going to get dicey. there is a lot of hearsay that comes in there. someone told me that someone told them type of evidence. but also one of these witnesses is the former lawyer to wade and his former partner. that's not very common. so the question is whether the information that person would share does not derive from any privilege relationship. >> bill: professor, stand by. bryan robinson will join our coverage right now. good morning to you. you are from georgia. you are a lawyer down there. you have been watching this transpire. just bring us up to date on whether or not they will get this plane off the ground today.

>> well, i'm not a lawyer, bill, i'm a political consultant. what i am looking at here is the politics around this and the credibility that is at stake. i agree with jonathan, it seems unlikely that fani will be taken off the case but maybe wade would be taken off the case. it isn't just about the legal merits. a lot of people could agree the legal issues are in gray areas at best. this is always a big lift for her to undertake but there is also the court of public opinion. this has really hit her and bruised her and her credibility. here is someone who ran for office as getting rid of a corrupt district attorney. she was the ethics champion and now she has been called in a conflict of interest and when faced with these charges she went to church and said they were racist even though the underlying accusations were accurate.

she was engaged in a romantic relationship with her subcontractor here. >> dana: brian, what's the buzz politically how this is playing out? >> well, when you look at folks like the electors. they are in your screen, i think this was always an overcharge of -- always anover charging of these defendants. you can see that by how they are being pleaded out. i think people see this as an over charge for many of these and this has taken the eye off the ball locally what was a massive crime problem during covid. >> bill: i apologize for the misrepresentation. did i upgrade you calling you a lawyer or did i downgrade you? >> it's a downgrade, bill. >> dana: jonathan turley, please tell us your thoughts. what should we be looking for as

we're amateurs and not lawyers as we watch this? >> i have to say this witness has the look that he is about as thrilled as walking into a root canal and i can see why. there will be a flurry of objections as to the basis of knowledge and, of course, any privilege issues if you have attorneys who are testifying. this is going to get very rough very quick. i think the judge is saying i need to establish the record. you say there is no basis. let's see if there is a basis. you just put the challengers on notice you are saying they acted on ethically by filing this. the judge said let's find out and hear from the witnesses. >> dana: let's do that. jonathan turley, thank you. >> let's see how it goes and again mr. bradley i will ask if you can give a pause in between each question to allow counsel the opportunity to object before answering. >> thank you.

the witness was sworn. >> good morning, how are you? >> good morning. >> not happy to be here, i'm assuming. >> i am not. >> i understand. thank you for being here. you were subpoenaed to come and testify in this case and you and i have spoken previously about relevant facts surrounding mr. wade and willis's relationship. >> no, we have not. >> we have not texted about those facts? >> through a third party you had given some information, you and i shared texts. our texts were more so about my health, more so about -- if i was okay with what was going on, that i would not be --th