and there's no catch. it's free. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. good morning, 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm josé diaz-balart. we begin this busy hour with what is shaping up to be a huge

day in the legal drama surrounding former president donald trump. today deadline for trump to secure a bond to pay the more than $450 million judgment in his new york civil fraud trial, as he appeals that ruling. and right now he is in a new york city courtroom for a hearing in his criminal hush money case where he is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a payment to adult film actress stormy daniels ahead of the 2016 election. the hearing focuses on why the prosecution turned over some evidence to the defense late. the judge could also set a new trial date. with us now to talk more about this msnbc national correspondent yasmin vossoughian outside the courthouse in lower manhattan, tristan snell, a former new york assistant attorney general who led the trump university investigation and david henderson a civil rights attorney and former prosecutor. so yasmin, there's a lot going on in that courtroom today. what's the latest? >> reporter: yeah, there is. there's a lot going on to say

the least. two questions need to be answered, when this trial is actually going to take place. right now tentatively scheduled for april 15th. there may be further delay, and we may not get that answer today, and then why it took so long to produce these 170,000 documents, this trove of documents to the former president's attorneys. i tell you, there's been a lot of back and forth specifically between todd blanche, the former president's attorneys and judge juan marchan. there was a witness interview given to the fbi back during the muller investigation, as witness evidence that he needs to go through, thousands of pages of documents in which marshawn is saying that doesn't pertain to this case. it does because michael cohen was an aide to the president at the time, and it was all about the timing.

much of the witness interview was about that. they also talked about how at one point todd blanche says -- and i quote -- he believed that the state or the d.a. was quote, unquote actively suppressing discovery. he made that accusation in a courtroom in front of judge juan marshawn, and at one point marshawn says you are literally accusing the manhattan d.a.'s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct. it seems as if, jose, that the judge is actually open to a delay, and he asks todd blanche e over and over again give me something to hang my hat on. tell me why it is you believe that there is more time needed to go through this trove of evidence, right? because the d.a. has said despite the fact that 170,000 pages of documents were handed

over in the last couple of weeks, really only 300 pages pertain to this particular trial, to this particular case whereas todd blanche is saying we need more time to go over all of these documents and we can't really take the word of the d.a.'s office saying that only 300 documents are pertaining to this trial, right? it doesn't seem as if marshawn has heard what he has wanted so far from todd blanche to grant, for instance, more of an extension than they have already given. this has already been delayed 30 days so far. it was supposed to start today and now we're looking at april 15th. again, we're still looking, waiting, listening to what happens inside that courtroom to see what takes place between the prosecuting attorneys and the defense attorneys as well. we might get an answer today or it might take a couple of days. >> picture she's painting is kind of an uncharacteristic

judge reacting in an uncharacteristic fashion for him. what kind of impact is this having, do you think? >> jose, this is unprecedented because everything surrounding former president trump in court is unprecedented, but at the same time this issue is actually a relatively familiar. new york like many states over the last couple of decades has enacted laws that say, look, before you're going to take someone to trial, you have to give them the evidence against them so they can assess that. if you don't give them that, there's a potential remed the state prosecutors turned over what they had. they got a lot more information from federal prosecutors. then they turned that over also and now they're in a catch 22. when you turn over this many documents, it's really hard to keep the case on track. these types of motion are not uncommon. it's also not uncommon for the judge to say okay, i'm going to give you a little bit more time to review them.

we're going to come back here and have a trial. the only question is how long he gives them for that. >> tristan, how much of an impact could this disclosure of evidence potentially have on a case? >> you know, we could be talking about a delay of more weeks. i don't think this is a delay of months. you know 170,000 pages, that sounds like a lot, but for one thing, it's very -- it's really very clear from what we already know of what's in those documents that most of it, the lion's share, we're talking probably 90% of this material, it appears pertains to the prosecution of michael cohen by the southern district of new york, the feds, the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york. they prosecuted michael cohen for tax evasion, and that's what he went to prison for. that's what most of that material pertains to. however, that's -- you know, that's something they're going to have to look at and figure out exactly what to do here.

this is not that much material and lawyers are capable of going through this much material very quickly. i don't see this being something that's going to knock the case completely off the rails and say, oh, now, we're not going forward until this summer. if that were to happen, that would be a real miscarriage of justice. this is something that they need maybe a week or two to look at. this is not something that should require months of delay. >> tristan, who decides that? does the judge decide that in the case? because as we were hearing, i mean, there's the possibility of dismissal or of a delay. who decides that, and what are the options? >> dismissal is not warranted here, and i don't think that's what we're going to see. it may be that todd blanche is accusing the d.a.'s office of suppressing material, but we now know that that material wasn't even received by the feds until this past december. the manhattan d.a.'s office handed it over as soon as it had a chance to look at everything.

the defense is going to have ample time to be able to review everything and, yes, this is in the hands of judge merchan to basically weigh the different factors here, make sure we're weighing the defense's need to be able to prepare its defense with the public and the prosecutor and everybody's interest constitutionally in a speedy trial. >> yeah, i mean, yasmin, merchan wants -- and you just read that part there from our producer inside the courtroom. he's going back to that issue right now. >> reporter: yeah, two things i want to mention here, jose. one is what tristan was just speaking to and kind of the breakdown of some of these documents that was brought up inside the courtroom today. there was kind of trove of two major banking documents that were handed over to the former president's attorneys, many of which were pertaining to the initial investigation into michael cohen, which he subsequently then served time for. there was trove of say 56,000 or so documents that were handed over to trump's attorneys, 170

of which, and they talked about this in the courtroom today pertained to this particular trial. there was another trove of a couple of thousand documents that were handed over as well, only two of which pertained to the shell company that was set up to pay off stormy daniels back in 2016. both of those were given as examples from the manhattan d.a.'s office as to how little of this kind of hundreds of thousands of documents of pages of documents i should say actually pertained to this ongoing trial. the other kind of back and forth that we've been hearing in the courtroom is with regards to the contact that todd blanche made with the u.s. attorney's office in seeking out some of these documents and why it was, for instance, todd blanche had a conversation with the u.s. attorney's office last night just before midnight seeking out more documents. some of those documents as i mentioned earlier, pertaining to the russia investigation back in

2018 and judge juan merchan saying why are you waiting until the last minute to do all of this stuff when you know it's just delaying the trial. well, we know, right, the ultimate objective of what todd blanche is doing in that courtroom right now and what trump's attorneys are continuously doing with all four criminal cases is delay, delay, delay, and that's exactly what's happening inside that courtroom right now as well, jose. >> and david, delay, delay, delay has been very successful for trump's different legal teams, and all of the very different cases that he is facing. the trump team is asking for a 90-day period to review these new documents in the hush money case. the prosecution says 30-day delay would be okay. how much time, david, would this normally take? >> you know, i agree with tristan, normally this would only take weeks. i don't know if you would even get 30 days if this were a typical case. what i've seen over the course of my career, when the cameras are watching what's going on inside the courtroom, the courtroom tends to be very conservative in terms of granting additional time. keep in mind, i think both sides already have everything they need to try this case, but to

your point, this isn't a delay tactic. and this case, more than any other case exemplifies how delay tactics have benefitted the former president because everyone seems to have forgotten why this case was so important because of the amount of time that has passed. as a prosecutor, that's always a challenge that you face in court when time has passed between the alleged crime and the actual trial, it's always a challenge getting the jury to go back and understand why this was so important, and so that's why most defendants delay and that's why you're seeing it in this case. >> tristan, what do you see as the prosecution's biggest hurdle going forward at this time? >> david just highlighted a big one, which is that people have forgotten about why this was such a big deal in october of 2016. why was trump so eager to cover this up that he actually falsified business records by making phony legal payments to michael cohen, which were actually payments to stormy

daniels, because he wanted to win the 2016 election and he was on his last leg after the access hollywood tape dropped, and we're going to have to go back and remind the jury of that. i think that's really the prosecution's biggest change here, otherwise this is actually a relatively compact case. there's not a lot of facts to deal with. it's a relatively simple fact pattern. it's a relatively simple story to tell. honestly the prosecution's biggest hurdle overall with this has just been trying to stop trump from continuing to throw more sand in the gears. trump doesn't really have a lot to go on on the merits here. he's trying to win dirty. that's ultimately what he's trying to do when he's losing in court. it's probably about half of what my book is about is about how to beat trump when he tries to fight dirty. >> yasmin vossoughian, thank you. tristan and david, you're sticking around, and yasmin, i'm sure we'll be checking in with you throughout the remainder of

this hour. appreciate that. coming up, more on donald trump's big legal day as time runs out for him to post a multimillion dollar bond before the new york a.g. comes to collect. what it means for trump's business empire in new york. plus, crews are still searching under the rubble after a massacre many moscow, who putin says is to blame for the nation's deadliest attack in years. we're back in 60 seconds, you're watching josé diaz-balart reports on msnbc. you're watching josé diaz-balart reports on msnbc zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec. liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. that's great. i know, i've bee telling everyone. baby: liberty. oh! baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need.

jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: ♪ liberty. ♪ -remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer? -was that after i texted the age to screen was now 45? [both] because i said cologuard®! -hey there! -where did he come from? -yup, with me you can screen at home. just talk to your provider. [both] we'll screen with cologuard and do it my way. cologuard is a one-of-a-kind way to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive. it's for people 45+ at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider for me, cologuard. 14 past the hour, so right now in that new york city courtroom, donald trump is on -- as a matter of fact, he and his legal team are just now starting to leave. there's a 45 minute recess in his criminal hush money case. now, meanwhile, it is also a big

day for the judgment he has to pay in the new york civil fraud case. these are live pictures from manhattan, you see some of the team just leaving now. there is, as i say, a 45-minute break. the former president has until today meanwhile to put up a bond of nearly a half billion dollars, if he wants to stop new york attorney general letitia james from collecting on that judgment while he appeals the ruling. if he fails to put up the bond today, james is expected to begin claiming his assets. you've got buildings, houses, golf courses, even bank accounts. with us now to talk more about this, nbc news correspondent garrett haake who covers the trump campaign and tristan snell and david henderson are back with us. what are donald trump's options at this point in this case? >> reporter: yeah, jose, his options are few and they're unsatisfactory for the former president. he could put up this money himself. he said on friday he has close to a half a billion dollars in

cash, although that contradicts his lawyer's statements that he lacks that money and that they're not able to follow option 2, which we get a bond provider and insurer to put up the money on his behalf. that would typically be a bank or a financial institution, someone who specializes in this kind of thing. option three is basically to wait and either hope that his appeal that he filed last week to either delay this judgment or to have it reduced gets taken up by the judge in this case, by an appeals court that might step in on his behalf or in delay home that he can essentially call letitia james' bluff and that she might choose for political or legal reasons to not try to seize his properties in the short-term and perhaps let this draw out a little further. as i stand here this morning, it's not clear what strategy donald trump has taken, but i will say both his son eric trump and he this morning on social media have continued to attack letitia james and continue to sort of complain about this entire process in a way that suggests they have not put up the money or found someone else to do it on their behalf.

>> and so garrett, as we all together look at these images from that new york city courthouse, you see people just filing out. there is, as i say, that 45-minute recess that's just started. so garrett, could this proposed merger involving his truth social media website that was announced friday, that could potentially net trump nearly $3 billion, given what he needs to get a bond now? >> it could get him what he needs, jose, but not know. that's the problem here, the agreement trump is involved in as relates to this truth social project going public says that he cannot sell his shares for six months. so on the time line, even if he could turn them around right now for the couple billion dollars they appear to be worth on paper, he can't turn that money now. he could perhaps try to borrow against those shares. that's money he can't realize until later. there's a number of complex factors here about determining

exactly how much, what stock he has in that company is worth, when he's actually able to sell it, so a bit of a mess in terms of, you know, money that is sort of tantalizingly close, jose, but not something he could use to solve this immediate cash problem he has today. >> garrett haake in new york city, thank you so very much. tristan, here's what some of trump's son eric told fox news yesterday about his father's efforts to find a bond in this case. >> no one's ever seen a bond this size. every single person when i came to them saying, hey, can i get a half billion dollars bond, maria they were laughing. they were laughing, top executives of the largest surety companies had never seen anything of this size. and what, they're going to start seizing assets. if he can't put up something that's not available in the united states? >> so tristan, in this kind of case, what are the implications for trump when he looks for collateral for that half billion dollars bond? >> you know, part of why eric

trump was probably getting laughed at was not just the size of the bond but the idea that a lot of these insurance companies would do business with the trumps. that's probably a lot of why they were laughing, if they were indeed laughing at him. we have to remember something, which is part of how trump ended up in all of this mess and lying on his financial statements with deutsche bank going to a bank outside the u.s. to go get all of this money that he then used to live his lavish lifestyle and run for president and so forth and so on, now effectively that bill is coming due. he's got to pay back all of the cash that he got from these banks, you know, in an unwarranted fashion. that was because no bank in america will do business with him. that's been true since the '90s because of the fact that he's a credit risk from all of his bankruptc bankruptcies. that's a lot of why he's in this

bind is because u.s. financial institutions, banks and insurance companies know that he is a terrible credit risk. he does not pay his debt, so they don't want to do business with him. that's a lot of the problem here for him. >> but tristan, i mean, just correct me if i'm wrong. he did in the case that was brought up here, did pay those loans back, right? >> he has been servicing these loans. he didn't pay them back entirely. he's been paying the interest payments that have been due on them which is very different from let's just say if those loans were then suddenly called for some reason and they could be now that some of these problems are mounting for him, if these loans were called where it's like, okay, you've got to actually pay back the entire loan right now, would he be able to? that's a different question as opposed to can he make the payments on them on a go-forward basis, which at the time right now he has been able to. but effectively, what he's done

here is he's constantly kind of robbing peter to pay paul. he pulls debts together on other things to pay off other payments that he's got to make on other things. if he loses some of these properties, he's going to lose his ability to continue playing shell games with his debt. >> yeah, i mean, david, let's talk about that. if trump can't post the bond, so what happens to his assets? >>. >> analogy i can give you, is years ago my dad took my brothers and i fishing, we were still kids. and sure enough we hook a really big fish but it happens as he walks away to go to the bathroom. we're thinking we hooked it, how do we actually reel it in though. i say that because anytime you start getting verdicts in court, there's a world of difference between getting the verdict and actually collecting. the route towards collecting here is not completely clear if you look at the assets they would be going after to try to collect this money.

you also have another huge factor here, although this is unprecedented, the idea of people having their backs up against a wall financially in a courtroom is not unprecedented. when people have their backs up against the wall, they'll look at making really bad decisions, and that's a dangerous proposition for someone who is running to be president of the united states, when there's someone in the world who could cut him a check in exchange far little consideration down the road. >> and david, let's talk about the issue of, for example, bankruptcy. there's reporting that donald trump is not considering declaring bankruptcy in this case, but if he does, what are the benefits and the bit falls of doing that? >> well, jose, i'm going to take you back to that fishing analogy because it's not completely clear what the picture would look like here because you've got to remember, this is not a private person coming to collect money. this is the government coming to collect money and the most simple example i can think of is if i declare bankruptcy but then i get a ticket for jaywalking, i can't say to the court, i can't pay it because i'm in bankruptcy. i'm not completely clear on

whether or not that alleviates his responsibility to paying this money back. i also think there's a possibility a.g. james continues to come after these assets f. it came to it he'd make some very bad decisions that could impact all of us to prevent that from occurring. >> david, meanwhile the situation in georgia where fulton county district attorney fani willis is speaking out for the first time since the judge's decision earlier this month to keep her on the election interference case there, trump and several of his co-defendants want to appeal. here's what she told cnn about the decision and where things stand with the case. take a listen. >> i don't feel like my reputation needs to be reclaimed. let's say for the record, i'm not embarrassed by anything i've done. you know, i guess my greatest crime is i had a relationship with a man, but that's not something that i find embarrassing in any way, and i know that i have not done anything that is illegal.

all while that was going on, we were writing responsive briefs. we were still doing the case in the way it kneaded to be done. i don't feel like we've been slowed down at all. i do think there are efforts to slow down this train, but the train is coming. >> so tristan and david, i just want to very quickly and we'll talk about the fani willis sound and more in just a minute, but i'm being told right now that the -- that bond, that half a billion dollars bond that had been set and that the former president had to deal with today has now been reduced to $175 million. so that 465 million plus bond that he was looking at or has now been reduced as of right now, we're getting this breaking news. this appeals court allowing the former president to post a smaller bond of $175 million within ten days. david, what does that tell you? >> jose, it tells me something

that you and i have talked about before, and that is the playbook is different for former president trump. we were literally talking about this the last time you and i discussed this case. i expect for them to do something for him that's different than what you see for everybody else when they go to court. so here he's given more time to pay less money. that's what it comes down to. >> and tristan, so what does that process look like in the courtroom there? >> do we even need to ask? honestly, this is so infuriating i don't even know what to do. i don't even know if i care what the process is that these judges are arriving at. whatever it is, it's flawed. i can tell you that much. david put it well. this is a different process for this person. we have decided that he gets his own private court of justice. he has a private plane. he has private clubs that he lives in. he basically has fashioned himself his own private militia to try to take over the capitol.

now he's getting his own private system of justice. this is an absolute travesty. it would not happen for anybody else, anybody else it would be like, sorry, buddy, you lost. pay up. for him he gets his own set of rules. >> legally, tristan, how is that done? >> we just saw it. they just decided that they just -- you know, the appellate court has now just decided they're going to swoop in and just change it, and that's it, and now the a.g.'s office can now try to go up above them, i believe, you know, i don't know what the details are because you just told us. i'm guessing this is coming from the first department, appellate division fist department, that's the intermediate court here in new york that would be issuing a decision here. i don't know if there's a remedy for the a.g.'s office to go up to the court of appeals, which is our high court here in new york and try to get them to basically countermand this order, but in my view, this is

without knowing more, unless there's some sort of other extenuating circumstance that we're going to learn here, this appears to be an absolute gross miscarriage of justice. >> so let's go into it because i'm getting right now and this literally is just coming across, so this is indeed the supreme court of the state of new york, appellate division, first judicial department, and there are five present, including the presiding judge diane renwick, i'm just getting it right now. we can kind of learn it together as we see it. it says the appeals having been taken to this court from an order the supreme court new york county entered on february 16th and defendants appellants having moved to cplr 5519, the state enforcement of the order and ensuring judgment, upon reading and filing the papers with respect to the motion and deliberation it is ordered that the motion is granted the extent of staying enforcement of these

portions of the judgment ordering disgorgement to the attorney general of 464 million, posting within ten days of the date of this order an undertaking in the amount of $175 million permanently barring defendants weisselberg and mcconney from serving in the financial control, et cetera, and all of the other issues that we have learned since about weisselberg and mcconney not being able to serve for three years. barring donald j. trump and the corporate defendants from applying for loans in new york for three years, et cetera. this motion is otherwise denied including to the extent it seeks a stay of enforcement of portions of the judgment. so it was just decided right now, david, and it was just -- how do they come up with a number of 175 from 476,500 million to $175 million?

how does -- how does this happen? >> they don't give us the benefit of their calculus in their order, i was sitting here trying to process that myself. here's something i cannot stress enough, every day, every courtroom in america if we go there and we sit in that courtroom, we will find someone whose back is really up against a wall because they cannot afford to pay something that they have been ordered to pay. and they will generally plead with the court to reduce the amount they have to pay, and the court may give them some leeway, but you do not see it happen like this. let's go back to that fox news clip. they're talking about it being a lot of money. but you're also someone who has a lot of money. one of the things that we do to try to put in perspective what fines mean in a courtroom. sometimes they'll say, you take the average american household and hit them with a $1,000 fine. that might be crippling, the rent might not get paid. there may not be enough money for food. it's a huge number. and you ask what is a thousand

dollars penalty for a billionaire or someone who owns properties with tens of millions of dollars. in that context, that's the way you have to interpret what the court has chosen to do here. i agree with tristan, there's no logic that justifies it and no moral authority that justifies it. >> tristan, i'm just looking at this, this was filed at 11:06 a.m., so we're just talking about 22, 23 minutes ago that it was filed, and so tristan, is it unusual that it's just a statement of a decision taken to lower it from 464-5 to $175 million, no explanation given? tristan, no explanation normally given, tristan, no normal explanation required? >> an explanation should be required, but it isn't here, it isn't given to us here. this doesn't necessarily surprise me.

a lot of time new york courts give orders that are short and light on their -- showing their work so to speak, you know. we're not really seeing where this comes from. a lot of times you get very short summary opinions from courts in new york. the exception to this wonderfully, because i think it was very helpful for all of us to see, was what we got out of judge engoron, where he issued these long and very carefully thought out orders explaining exactly where his analysis came from and how he arrived at the conclusions he arrived at. and then to have that come from him and have this other set of judges just show up and just squish it. they just drop a bomb on this and they don't give us any explanation at all, yeah, that's enormously frustrating and i would say it's wrong. it just shouldn't have happened.

it shouldn't happen this way. we deserve, the public, the people of the state of new york deserve better that be to have this happen. this is -- and we have to remember, that's who the plaintiff is here. it's not letitia james or her office or whatever. yes, that's -- they are our public servants doing this on our behalf, but the plaintiff is the people of the state of new york, and we deserve better out of our judicial system than to have something like this happen where we're not actually even getting to find out what the wizard of oz is doing behind the damn curtain. this is ridiculous. >> i want to bring in vaughn hillyard who of course has been covering the trump campaign and so much more for us. vaughn, any reaction here, and it's a surprise to many, obviously there were some back and forth going on behind the public scenes for this to be able to be carried out today just a little past 11:00 in the morning. >> reporter: right. all of this played out literally

as donald trump, who is walking out of the courtroom, as here they go into recess over this hearing over the documents related to michael cohen in the alleged hush money scheme criminal trial case. so we'll wait to see if donald trump has a reaction when he reenters the courtroom about a half hour from now. of course over the last several weeks this has been a point of much griping from not only donald trump, but his allies. eric trump just yesterday noting that when he was going to folks looking for the initial bond of $450 million plus, he said that he was laughed at. this now $175 million bond is significantly lower. at the same time, the stakes are still high. this is still not an insignificant bond, and donald trump is either going to have to find an insurer to agree to the terms that donald trump and the type of cash liquidity that he

may personally have available to get that appeal bond or convince a major billionaire to front that cash in the form of a personal gift or loan or potentially sell off one of his properties. so the stakes are still very high for donald trump. of course these extra days provide some buffer to continue the effort that had been in the works for three weeks that came up empty here today. it also puts a stay on barring trump from serving as an executive of the trump organization here in the state of new york. for donald trump here, you know, this is all colliding simultaneously, but what this stay will allow him to do is effectively be able to post a smaller bond but also, of course, we will wait to hear the time line of the appeals court for them to actually hear his

appeal, donald trump still contends that he believes that he will win on an appeal on the decision from judge engoron. so this is high stakes not only for him financially, but also the future of the trump organization, jose. >> and with us now to talk more about this is suzanne craig, investigative reporter for "the new york times," who has spent a lot of time looking into donald trump's finances. sue, your reaction to this. it took a lot of people by surprise, that today which is d day for that 465 million plus situation to be solved now this court says it can go down to $175 million. >> right, jose, and we were all thinking last week that possibly as thursday came and went when the appeals court, they usually release opinions on tuesdays and thursdays, when that went and, you know, came and went that the appeals court may just have let this go, but today they've ruled that he can post a lower bond.

the $175 million is significant. you know, it was coming to a point where we were, you know, wondering if he didn't post the bond, if something didn't happen today and he couldn't pull it together that tish james could have moved in and started not only seizing assets but she could have gone after any available cash he has, that could have frozen his payroll, his ability to pay his vendors. this is a reprieve not just in terms of time, there's ten extra days he has, but the number just seems more manageable to him. of course we don't know how much cash he has on hand, you know, pretty much any given day it's a moving target depending on the demands of his cash with his business and other things he has going on. he's indicated in depositions a year ago he had $400 million, we don't know if that's true or not. this certainly seems more in the range of what he might have on hand, you know, give or take. so it's just a much more

manageable number for him to deal with to post this bond. >> and sue, you're so right. i mean, on the one hand legally, right, his lawyers say he doesn't have the kind of cash that was going to be required for that 464 million plus, and then publicly in a non-legal way, the former president says he has half a billion dollars in cash. hoi is it that there can be such a difference between what his lawyers say in a courtroom and what he's able to say in a campaign, you know, meeting or anywhere else. >> i think the truth may be a bit of a moving target for donald trump and that crew. we just don't know how much cash he has on hand. on friday he indicated not that he had $500 million, but that he

may be able to come up with enough from somewhere to post the bond. we didn't know that that was his or not, and in court, the lawyers have simply said that that bond was unattainable. partly -- no, not partly but fully because these companies that they had gone to wanted cash. everybody wants cash, and i think it does appear that he does not have that -- he did not have enough cash to meet the old number, the approximately 500 million. 175, it just -- it is a lower number. i think he's -- you know, he's got cash on hand because he's running a business, and i would sense, you know, again, we done know how much cash he has on hand, but that just seems like a more reasonable number that he might have on hand given that he's got to run a business, he has some cash on hand to do that and to handle other things. >> i'm just wondering with, you know, he was able to get that other bond, right. >> but another drain on his cash. >> i was thinking, does that not have -- play an impact? >> that he was able to post, and

it looks like he posted it with cash, so that's just another drain on his cash. you have to remember, you know, he is running a business. so that just daily is a drain on his cash. most of his businesses not only lose money, but some of them require capital that has, you know, that has to be put in. "the new york times" back in 2020 obtained decades of his corporate and personal tax returns and we saw in that that he's often plugging holes with capital, not insignificant amounts, and then you just don't know what else he could be writing checks for. there's just things outside of the purview of the public that money may be going to and it's a privately held company, and there just could be other draws on his cash. i think when i saw this today, this is a definite victory for him. he has to post 175 million versus the, you know, 500 plus million dollars, and he gets ten more days to pull that together.

>> yeah, ten more days to pull that together. sue craig, tristan snell, david henderson, vaughn hillyard, i thank you all so much. we're going to bring you any developments on this trump legal front throughout our hour. stay with us for breaking news, you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. >> woman: thanks. >> tech: my pleasure. have a good one. >> woman: you too. >> tech: schedule today at safelite.com. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec.

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44 past the hour. we continue to follow breaking news. an appeals court has lowered donald trump's bond to

$175 million from that 464,500,000 bond that was expected to today take effect. i want to bring in our political analyst, victoria defrancesco soto, dean of the clinton school of public service at the university of arkansas, and susan del percio, a veteran republican strategist. victoria, what's your reaction to this? i mean, in the final minutes it seems, it was today, an appeals court says you've got ten days, and we're going to lower it? >> this is great news if you are donald trump, this is how you want to start the week off. so take this good news, hold it tight, but at the same time, i keep thinking of the legal costs that are mounting. and this is the bigger picture. today it's the good news, but what's happening that needs to be spent both for the campaign and both for the legal bills, and i think we're starting to

see how the rnc is going to manage this, what the appetite for big donors is going to be in helping recover these legal costs. we know that there's a big fundraiser coming up for donald trump targeting those big fundraisers, so the question for me is the longer term today is a good day, let's dwell on that for a second, but we still have a while until the election. >> susan, tristan was saying this is a travesty. i think a lot of people can see these kind of numbers, these last minute decisions by the appeals court, and they see it one way. how do you think politically others are seeing this? >> politically, it's kind of a jump ball because his supporters will say we had a victory because the judge lowered it, and people who do not support donald trump will say, oh, i can't believe the judge did it, but it's worth noting, jose, that there were a lot of people who thought that bond was too

high and should have been probably in the $200 million range. he still has $300 million tied up in bonds, so i think that's significant, and -- but politically, it doesn't change a thing for anybody. >> it doesn't change a thing for anybody. what do you think about that, victoria? >> i think the folks who are with donald trump and who support him through and through are going to be there regardless, regardless if the original bond amount would have stayed, regardless of, you know, the decrease that we saw today. the question for me -- and i alluded to this earlier -- is how is that business chamber of commerce class of republicans who in the past have held their nose to vote for donald trump and support donald trump, how are they perceiving all of these court cases, the drama and the

trial and the courtroom, how are they responding to this? i think that is the biggest question for me because at the end of the day, campaigns need money. we've been so focused on these files and on these courtrooms, but you need canvassers. you need folks to go and knock on doors. you need folks to do the text banking and phone banking. i think how is the money going to be spent? that for me wearing my political science hat, how is the ground game and the air game going to be affected by the issues with all of this money being tied up in other things as well as attention? >> susan, it's really kind of an important piece of this whole picture is exactly where that money is and not going. for example, we recognize that the biden campaign said they raised more than $50 million. that's all money going toward the election, but the republicans don't have that

privilege. >> not only do they not have that privilege -- and victoria brings up a great point, one, donald trump personally probably doesn't have money to lend the campaign, not that he would. you've heard me say the republican kind of has to burn itself down to build itself back up. by doing what he's done with the rnc, putting it to his loyalists and most importantly the fund-raising that he's doing and giving the money first to himself and then -- or i shouldn't say that, to the rnc and his super pac, basically he's taking away money from the state who need to get other people elected. so he may have lit the match by doing that because now states can't run their local candidates. they have no get out the vote operations. they don't get funding from the rnc. it is donald trump's world out there as far as the rnc is

concerned. >> we're getting in a response from the a.g. in new york on this bond, and i'm just going to quote it to you. it says donald trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud. the court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. the $464 million judgment plus interest against donald trump and the other defendants still stands. politically, does this still stand? >> it's three out there because, because, you know, here's the other thing. this is what donald trump is talking about or what the media is talking about donald trump with. joe biden may have some issues connecting with voters and getting his message out, but when it comes to this, this is it. this is donald trump's message. he is facing a criminal trial. he's lost two major civil cases, and that's it.

like, he can't break through anything else but these court cases. i think, obviously, he is still being held accountable. the judgment does stand. but i don't think these types of things are so great for donald trump by any stretch. >> victoria and susanne, thank you, both, for being with us this morning. really appreciate it. also a break, we're following breaking news out of israel. stay with us for that and a whole lot more. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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55 past the hour. breaking news. the office of prime minister benjamin netanyahu in israel has just announced it will not send a delegation to washington. this is just coming over the last couple of minutes. this announcement after the u.s. did not veto a u.n. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the israel-hamas war. joining us now from washington, aaron gilchrist. what are we learning now? >> jose, this all seems to be unfolding in real time. the washington seemed to be learning about this cancellation of that delegation coming to the u.s. from israel as we were questioning the communications adviser for the national security council today. he, at the beginning of the conversation, indicated that he had not heard that the delegation was not going to be coming. as we were asking more questions, that seemed to become more real. the nsc seemed to understand the delegation would not be coming. the response basically from john

kirby is that it's disappointing. he said, "we are very disappointed that they won't be coming to washington to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to go in on the ground in rafah." as we understand it, the united states chose to abstain from this vote in the united nations today because, according to john kirby, the communications adviser, because the resolution, while it did call for a cease-fire and did call for the release of hostages, it did not condemn hamas for its actions in israel. for that reason, the u.s. chose to abstain, according to john kirby. at this point, what we've gotten from the white house is that they know that the israeli defense minister gallant is in the united states. he is scheduled to meet with secretary of state tony blinken this afternoon and with defense secretary lloyd austin tomorrow. john kirby expects they'll still be able to have conversations about these alternatives the

u.s. would like to put in front of israel. jose. >> aaron gilchrist in washington, thank you very much. i want to go quickly to vaughn hillyard. vaughn, i understand that the recess is over in that trial in new york city. donald trump just walked back into the courtroom, of course, while they were on this recess on this hearing unrelated to the bond that he was going to have to put up today. of course, the appellate court did order that donald trump does not have to put up a bond for more than $450 million. instead, a bond of $175 million. donald trump did just address cameras saying he appreciated the decision of the appellate court. continued to bash judge engoron, who put up the initial decision that he would owe and have to put up this initial bond here. there is a reporter in the room that asked the question of whether he'd turn to a foreign entity to help cover the $175 million bond. there's still serious questions as to how he will be able to cover that, whether in the form

of liquid cash that he may already have at his disposal or whether there is something else guaranteeing it as a personal gift or a loan to him, or whether he is going to turn to an outside entity in order to help out. of course, there's also the potential of using one of his properties. he could potentially try to sell-off a property to use as collateral to put up the $175 million bond. we know that the trumps over the course of the last three weeks had been maing calls to individuals trying to gain relief. they'd already went to 30 different insurance companies asking for the $450 million bond. the decision here in the last hour, though, from the appellate court to lower the amount that he has to pay is significant, one that is much more manageable, albeit still very high. of course, donald trump is now heading back inside of this courthouse for the second half of this hearing. related to michael cohen as a witness, or in relevant

documents that may be able to be used in what could be his first criminal trial related to the alleged hush money payment scheme, with payments to scoremy daniels around the 2016 election. we're looking at a trial start date of potentially april 15th. judge merchant is currently hearing from not only donald trump's defense team but also the district attorney alvin bragg's prosecutors as to when this trial may begin. the defense team is suggesting that this trial should be delayed, potentially months. of course, we could very well get a decision from judge merchant as early as this afternoon on the trial start date. this is a busy day here in new york city for donald trump. jose. >> it is indeed. vaughn hillyard in new york city, thank you very much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," donald trump in manhattan this hour on the hot seat, in court today awaiting a trial