involving the former and future

president donald trump as the manhattan district attorney decides how to proceed with trump's new york conviction. state supreme court judge marshawn is set to proceed on that guilty verdict. the trump transition moving full steam ahead with the attorney general pick matt gaetz on capitol hill and we will get into that. fema administrator is facing lawmakers frustrated over the response to hurricane helene. good day. i'm peter alexander in for my friend andrea mitchell. we will learn if donald trump is the first president-elect to be sentenced on a felony conviction and we are waiting on from the judge in the election interference case there. the deadline expired a couple of hours ago for the manhattan district attorney alvin bragg to present how prosecutors want the

case to move forward just weeks before trump is set to be sworn in as this country's 47th president. there are few options for bragg. he could proceed with next week' sentencing that is currently on hold. he could ask to uphold the conviction but postpone sentencing until after trump leaves office in 2029, or he could ask the judge to set aside trump's conviction on 34 felony counts because of his new status as president-elect. our let me team say the least likely option. everything about this trial clearly has been unprecedented. we are also awaiting for the judge to rule on trump's request to invalidate the entire case in light of the supreme court's presidential immunity decision and that came down a little more than a month after the new york verdict. we want to begin right now with nbc news correspondent garrett haake and nbc legal correspondent lisa reuben joins us as well and former manhattan

assistant d.a. katherine christian. lisa, the deadline was supposed to be 10:00 a.m. today. why the delay and what are the typically reasons that a judge would set aside any jury verdict? >> reporter: let's start why is there a d.a. the understanding that the d.a. office had them file what they were to file by the judge at 10:00 a.m. this morning. judge in the trial itself and afterwards has typically had a delay in the release of filings by either side because he wants to see if any redactions to complications are necessary and likely what the uphold is here. we are waiting for the court to authorize the release to the public of that filing by the new york d.a.'s office this morning. in terms of why courts might overturn a verdict agreed to by a jury, oftentimes, it's because the wait of the evidence is

simply insufficient for the jury to reach that decision, but as you noted earlier, those decisions are few and far between. and, here, the d.a. office argued in its paper even if you put side all of the evidence that donald trump's team argues, is arguably protected and insulated from admission because of that presidential immunity decision, they still had more than enough to offer this jury to allow them to convict and have significant confidence in that verdict. >> garrett, pull back the curtain for us for a second. the trump world views this and trump said it's up to the american voters how these cases should effectively be resolved. what is their view and expectation here? >> reporter: their few all along is these are nuisance cases and especially this one, a political prosecution is the term that trump most often uses to describe and they expect to put it behind him one way or another very quickly. i think he is so unbothered by

the results and so satisfied where they have gotten right now, part of the reason you've seen one of his key defense lawyers here todd blanche is tapped to be the upcoming attorney general in his administration. they feel this is a problem behind him whether the case is thrown out or some kind of sentencing decision gets made that, obviously, will not involve trump, the president-elect, going to jail or having anything like a significant sentence in this case. they are ready to turn the page and frankly have done so to move ahead on his transition efforts. >> katherine, we are in this position because trump and his legal team delayed his sentencing for months and this was supposed to happen, what was it? i think july. does this risk allowing him as soon to be president to be, in effect, above the law? >> yes, it does. and, quite frankly, in september, judge merchan could

have sentenced president-elect trump but the d.a.'s office didn't meaning they consented. the problem now he is president-elect trump. i think some people were hoping he won't be president-elect trump and be sentenced but now here we are. it is true that during the trial, judge merchan tried his best to treat him like any other defendant but any other defendant would have been sentenced by now. >> doesn't the president-elect have a point, right? there is no president who is going to serve in my opinion time here. how do you propose this should. effectively resolved? >> exactly. he is now president-elect trump. that is the problem. he can't get probation. you can't have a president of the united states reporting to probation. he can't get a jail prison sentence because he is president-elect. so, really, there is a conundrum. i believe he could be sentenced to basically no time, meaning no probation, no jail, he gets what

so-called a conditional discharge. the condition is don't get in trouble. i think the defense will even argue that sentence would be inappropriate because he is president-elect trump. >> lisa, let me ask you, if i can. donald trump, obviously, likes to award loyalty to reward loyalty. he is seeking top doj rules as garrett noted for criminal defense attorneys and todd blanche most notably among them if confirmed. what a blanche or a.g. acting blanche mean for that department? >> that is a really interesting question, peter. it depends on who you ask. if you ask people who served with todd blanche in the u.s. attorney's office for the district attorney district of new york you'll find people who are largely comfort that todd blanche, who enjoyed a sterling reputation when he was in the office is joining a department of justice that might be headed by matt gaetz in whom they don't have confidence to say the least. on the other hand, if this matter is not resolved, you will also have a deputy attorney general who was involved in litigating not only this case,

but the federal election interference case that led to that presidential immunity decision, and a department of justice have an interest in entering this litigation for example, if the new york city's d.a.'s office want to sentence trump or uphold the conviction the department of judge has an interest as lawyers for the executive office of the president in that litigation. you can expect todd blanche to be involved in that as someone who has a very long and involved history in this litigation. that would be an unusual position for a deputy attorney general to be in having been the former personal counsel to the president. >> no doubt. katherine, with jack smith expected to step down, the only remaining case against donald trump is at the state level, it's in georgia, the 2020 election interference case there and it's currently on hold whether the d.a. willis should remain on the case. is there any chance of that

going to trial before 2029? is this sort of the end of the road for the legal efforts against donald trump? >> it probably is. the georgia court of appeals just cancelled the oral argument that was supposed to happen on that case about whether or not d.a. willis and her office should be removed. the delay for all four cases has worked in donald trump's favor. so we may not see any resolution or any of these cases ever. >> lisa, you speak to a lot of people within the department of judge community. their gut instinct. we have heard about the dismay and concern and the dangerous like of people had about the potential of matt gaetz justice department and attorney general under -- justice department under his watch as attorney general. your take about the real impact that that could have in real terms for the way our justice department governs. >> reporter: i think that if you are listening to people who

think trump the sequel should be blier and more vengeful than the original, there are few people better positioned to execute on that promise than matt gaetz, should he be confirmed. but when you talk to lawyers who are affiliated with the department or have been affiliated with the department, peter, they are still in disbelief that matt gaetz could lead the same department that merrick garr rand who prosecuted the oklahoma city bombing and went on to a legendary creeper as a judge in the federal appeals court for the district of columbia and almost a supreme court justice. the idea of the handoff between merrick garland and the careful prosecutor and judge to matt gaetz could not be more stark. you have a community of lawyers with their mouths still wide open. peter? >> the pendulum is american politics these days. thank you all, we appreciate you being with us. in 90 seconds, the president-elect keeps rolling

out his cabinet pick but a long road for 506 votes in the some some of those nominees including matt gaetz. we break down out new reporting next on msnbc. reak down out neg next on msnbc. we've got you. with verizon, anyone can trade in any phone, any condition. and get iphone 16 pro with apple intelligence, on us. and ipad and apple watch series 10, all three on us. that's up to $2,000 in value. only on verizon. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ woah, limu! we're in a parade. everyone customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. customize and sa— (balloon doug pops & deflates) and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (intercom) t minus 10... only pay for what you need. (janet) so much space! that open kitchen! (tanya) ...definitely the one! (ethan) but how can you sell your house when we're stuck on a space station for months???!!! (brian) opendoor gives you the flexibility to sell and buy on your timeline. (janet) nice! (intercom) flightdeck, see you at the house warming. ♪♪ president-elect trump's embattled pick to lead the justice department is former congressman matt gaetz is under

massive scrutiny. trump is reaching out to senators to back gaetz. matt gaetz was an attorney for two women who claimed gaetz paid them for sex. both hallie jackson interviewed and one of the girls was 17 at the time. >> she was walking outside to the pool and she observed to her right her friend who was 17 at the time having sex with representative gaetz. they were leaned up to what she described as a game table of some type. >> reporter: did your client believe that gaetz, at the time, knew that her friend was under age? >> she testified that her belief that was that representative gaetz had no knowledge that she was under 18. >> gaetz denies the allegations and the justice department declined to charge the recently departed congressman. a spokesperson for the trump transition team calls the claims baseless adding it is an attempt to, quote, derail the incoming administration. joining us now is nbc's

correspondent von hillyard and susan dellperio and let's get to the ground there in west palm. why are the claims of this lawyer so critical this point. what does it mean for the house ethics committee's report on gaetz? >> reporter: it means that these witnesses are not going away or these witnesses and the alleged victims, that they are not standing on the sideline but, of course, the lawyer that they are willing to speak out. this is going to be, if matt faets continues gaetz eps his name in the reasoning for attorney general. especially if they are not commitments from the vast majority of republican senators to defend him. the allegations are damming, if they are real. this is a moment you could look potentially at some of the underlying evidence that was presented to the house ethics

committee, even if the full report is not released, making its way to the senate, judiciary committee, and then released to the senate, and then potentially you could have very well either these victims testify, the lawyers testify. there are multiple avenues in which the underlying facts of the investigation by the house ethics committee could come to light and call in to serious question whether matt gaetz is somebody who should be well positioned to be the department of justice head prosecutor. of course, this is coming at a time in which there are a number and number three that donald trump that nominated to take on the positions within the department of justice, including todd blanche and emil bovay. there are individuals who donald trump has already named to head the department of justice and it's a question of whether matt gaetz is somebody who, a majority of the senators, feel is credible enough and should be in the position, depending on

what these exact allegations are in this report, whether those are enough to block his confirmation process. >> phil, i want to dig into this further with you. nbc news learned that j.d. vance, the vice president-elect is meeting with senators tomorrow and kevin kramer and others have been reported. it is reported that gaetz may not be confirmed, but, obviously, he is full steam ahead pushing him and others. nonetheless what does that tell you about how donald trump views his mandate and his priorities heading into a second term? >> peter, it seems like trump is all in for gaetz and really wants to force this issue with the republican senators as an early test of how loyal they are going to be to him coming off of this election victory. and look. the opposition among many senators to matt gaetz is not just based on the allegations in the house ethics committee

investigation or the sexual allegations, but it also has to do with his character, his he is seen as not a he is verse figure by a t of those in the senate. interesting to see what those conversations are like an vance and others try to pressure republican senators to support gaetz. i think what republican senators would be hoping for is somehow gaetz were to withdraw before they have to actually cast their votes about whether to confirm his nomination or not because none of these republican senators is going to want to get crosswise publicly with trump even if they are opposing gaetz's nomination. >> it seems like a high profile game of d.a.r.e. here. it's hard to see any world where matt gaetz would withdraw, given the guy who picked him in donald trump trump is someone who never

backs down from a fight of any kind. trump is expected to name howard lutnick. a cantor-fitzgerald ceo that elon musk pushinging hard to be in the administration. what does this tell you? this is an effort in some form to sort of satisfy elon musk. >> it could be. it could be perhaps a thing that tipped it in to lutnick's favor because he has been a loyal soldier to donald trump. he has given a lot of money. he has overseen the transition team. he has really put in the work. and, you know, the other thing -- the other person looking at it, scott benefitton, was endorsed by lindsey graham, so maybe that killed his chance. it's not surprising to see this. just one other thing, peter. just back to gaetz and a couple of other appointments that donald trump is trying to get through. it is a long time between now

and when this vote will take place. there is a lot of things that come up in fbi investigations that do not come up necessarily in congressional hearings or investigations. i actually wouldn't be surprised if matt gaetz does withdraw his name, especially with the excrete knee under him and his family. don't forget, these background investigations check everything. no one that donald trump has put forward thus far has undergone these types of investigations. and most importantly, there will be hearings. if the senate abdicates their advise and consent authority, then they just might as well go home for the rest of the year. there has to be hearings so the senators defend the votes that they make. >> there clearly wasn't a lot of advise. the president made these picks with very little outreach to republican senators. he made the picks and now waiting for their consent or to go around them.

we will watch the way it plays out. another choice getting excrete knee is rfk junior, a vaccine skeptic and is now under fire among others, his cousin. here is whart part of what she >> i think robert ken's views on vaccines are dangerous. but i don't think that most americans share them. >> caroline kennedy's words are not likely to break through with republicans. what are the calculations behind the decisions that those republican wmakers have to make? >> probably, one, the background check, which will be tremendous. two, the hearings. how is rfk junior, who has no experience in managing anything like this or a background in health, truly, that is not quack-based, how he is going to survive the hearing and how are senators actually able to consent and vote for this

nominee if he can't stand up to them as a hearing? again, this is another really doubtful one for me. >> phil, president-elect trump getting intelligence briefings that began shortly after the election. how significant is this given he was charged with mishandling classified documents? >> yeah. peter, it's fairly standard procedure for any president-elect to start getting intelligence briefings of this nature, but it magnifies the strain, i think, between trump and the intelligence community. remember, as you mentioned, he was charged with criminally mishandling classified documents in the months when he left the presidency and so now be getting those briefings again when we know that so many members of the intelligence community have suspicions about trump, have legitimate concerns based on the charges in the mar-a-lago

documents case, about whether he would handle these intelligence materials and information with the care that is required for national security, but it's a reminder of the reality that trump was elected and will be taking office in january and he'll have control, not just of all of this intelligence information, but of the intelligence apparatus and the officials will be working for him come january. >> great conversation, phil, vaughn, susan. nice to see all of you and thank you for joining us on msnbc at the noon hour. next, we are following critical new developments overseas as the russia and ukraine conflict escalates once again while one in the middle east crises could be a step closer to a cease-fire. we are going to get in to that. e we are going to get in to that it's payback time. all these years, you've worked hard. you fixed it. you looked after it. maybe it's time for your home to start taking care of you.

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we are back now. this comes two days after president biden gave ukraine permission to use the u.s. weapons what are know as tack he and a major shift in the american policy and a shift in russian policy. vladimir putin lowered the threshold for his country's use of nuclear weapons. a lot of moving parts here! keir simmons joins us now with the latest on this. let's be clear. this is 1,000 days today since

russia's invasion of ukraine. what are we hearing from moscow about this strike inside russia and how significant is vladimir putin's own threatened policy change? >> reporter: well, the two are related, right? so the strike according to the russians was five missiles. the first time that they have been used. just days after the news, washington had approved their use, although still the biden administration hasn't officially said that that is the case. but i guess the proof is on the battlefield, honestly. so those five missiles, russia says it intercepted them all but that one did create a fire at a military establishment. you have a change in the doctrine and people's attention to it is that people russia's doctrine, its policy was that it would only use nuclear weapons when the state was facing an

existential threat. now, that policy says formally that it can use nuclear weapons against a nonnuclear state if that nuclear state is supported by a nuclear state and a message to the ukraine and u.s. we should be clear that president putin has been making nuclear threats basically since february 2022 in that illegal invasion of ukraine. there was a moment in october 2022 when western leaders felt a tactical nuclear weapon would be used by sia but it didn't happen. the chinese tell me they have been pressure not to use nuclear weapons. clearly, some of this will be trying to message kremlin spokesman saying russia using a nuclear weapon as something of a last resort. just, finally, i think some of this, too, is to do with the election of president-elect trump. any way that russia can ramp up

a threat, if you like, it will see as an advantage when the talks that seem inevitable come down the pipe. >> good reporting, keir simmons. another situation we are watching in the middle east is the u.s. enjoy in beirut saying an end to the conflict between israel and hezbollah is within our grasp. >> this is a moment of decision making. i'm here in beirut to facilitate that decision but it's ultimately the decision of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. >> is this a day after the lebanese government and iran-backed hezbollah agreed to the framework of a u.s. cease-fire proposal according to to an aide of the speaker to the lebanese parliament. raf sanchez joins us now from tel aviv. where dot negotiations stand and

we are talking about situation at the northern border and not the situation with gaza here. >> reporter: exactly, peter. so with gaza, very little optimism getting a deal to end the war there and finally bring the israeli hostages home after more than 400 days in captivity and no indications that hamas or prime minister benjamin netanyahu want a steel at this stage. there is momentum to end the fighting between israel and hezbollah. you played that sound from president biden's special envoy, his trouble-shooter on lebanon in beirut today and saying a potential deal is within our grasp. he is expected to come here to israel maybe the next couple of days to try to move this negotiation closer towards a

final deal. now, president biden would really like to get this done in his final weeks in office. that is why you're seeing that shuttle diplomacy but israel is conscious of the scene. benjamin netanyahu is close to donald trump. it is possible maybe the cease-fire will come the next few weeks but it's also possible netanyahu will want to wait until trump is in office to try to give him a quick diplomatic victory early in his next term. we heard the president-elect talking on the campaign trail it is his intention to end the wars in the middle east. now the broad outlines of a deal are widely known and they are based on a u.n. security council resolution that ended the last war between israel and hezbollah in 2006. you would see israeli ground forces pull back from southern lebanon and hezbollah fighters

remove away from the israeli border and the job of the peacekeepers and lebanese army to maintain a buffer zone between the two. one israeli official tells me one of the big sticking points is israel wants to resume striking in lebanon in hezbollah violates the agreement. if it continues to move rocket beyond the lebanon border that is likely a nonstarter for hezbollah and the lebanese government so the task that hawksteen has ahead of him. while the negotiations are ongoing, the fighting remains very intense and israel is bombing daily inside of lebanon. they say 200 lebanese children killed the last two months and largely from hezbollah bombing. a number people in tel aviv were injured a few miles from here and in northern israel, a woman

was killed by a rocket. >> stay safe. we appreciate your reporting. president biden is in brazil wrapping up his last g20 summit by highlighting the importance of battling climate change saying history is watching us. senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell is traveling with the president on what is a beautiful rio de janeiro backdrop. this is president biden's swan song with foreign leaders and a number of expressed concerns about donald trump on a variety of topics, including climate change. what impact is the president trying to make ahead of the president-elect taking office and what are some of the foreign allies saying about him? >> reporter: good to be with you, peter. i can assure you it's not a beach day even thorough we fighting the winds here. it is a work day. the last foreign summit for president biden, he may do some other trips. he may have some other inner

actions but this is a large scale international summit, the g20 and his final time to meet in person many of these leaders and try to solidify the relationships he's had and the priorities he has had. he has talked about wanting to leave for our country and for his successor some strong areas of policy and especially on the approach to climate which is always a big part of g20 meetings. they talk about many different issues but climate is one of them. and the president, who, of course, is a grandfather, is someone talking about future generations and expressed a concern about how investment, which is big part of the g20, can try to protect the planet, in addition to other measures. here is what the president had to say on climate a short time ago. >> this is the single greatest existential threat to humanity if we do not deal with climate change. our children, our great grandchildren and their futures

will be determined but what we do the next four to six years. so i urge you all to reach out further. >> reporter: as you know so well, peter, at these kinds of summits, there are the formal sessions and the planned topics but a lot of what happens is the interactions between the president and other presidents and world leaders. we have seen some of that today. we know that certainly when it comes to the issues happening in ukraine and in the middle east, the president has not been addressing those in formal speeches but he has talked about the importance of trying to get a resolution to what has been happening in gaza and certainly his aides have been talking about concerns about what is happening in ukraine. peter? >> that whole conversation, of course, just days after donald trump announced his pick for energy secretary. it is chris wright who is a fracking company ceo, so very different views as it relates to this critical issue. kelly o'donnell, i know it's not a beach day but i hope you can put your feet in the sand before

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two weeks after the election, we now know who will lead the house democrats.

the minority in congress for another term, house democrats re-elected hakeem jeffries and katherine clark and ete aguilar. all ran unopposed. joining us is nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali. what does today's set of elections tell us about house democrats' priorities the next couple of years? >> reporter: it tells us despite the fact they are not in the majority come january, but still a good well of good feeling here among democrats who feel, in my conversations with top democratic sources, even though they didn't take the jority, the fact they have so many incumbents coming back to this chamber including people who were able to win depends the trump cross currents in districts that trump, himself, was able to win, that is

something i keep hearing consistently from democrats. in terms of the way, though, that jeffries is going to cut a profile in this trump era, that is one of the things that many of us are watching closely because you and i both remember in those early years of the first trump white house, the role that nancy pelosi played, first as speaker, then as a minority leader, in sort of still trying to steer the policy conversation and steer trump at various points during his tenure. jeffries cuts a different profile in the way he leads democrats. he is more of a listener, not someone who goes out and make big proclamations or try to bend the caucus to his will. that is an interesting tactic that has worked for him so far over the course of the last two years, but how does that dynamic change as you head into a trump era that is sort to bring a bit of chaos and surprise and spontaneous news cycles. the one thing i keep thinking of i talked to hakeem jeffries on

the campaign trial. he makes the point that whether in the majority or minority he would make an effort to work what he is calling traditional house republicans. i pointed out that democrats have often said trump is anything but traditional. jeffries agreed and took that point. so what does it look like now where jeffries is going to be tasked with finding ing common ground where he can but up against the republicans every turn of this year. >> the house leadership who leads the postmortem within the democratic party right now. thank you for your reporting. democrats did win highly -- voters in the 2024 election. kamala harris finished five points ahead of trump among the 76% of registered voters who follow politics closely within the margin of error.

trump was 14 points ahead of the remaining voters who said they do not follow politics closely. "the new york times" reporter jeremy peters is joining us to talk about this. the poll showed that those who were less engaged voters were republican voters and less likely to have college degrees. how does that square what we saw throughout the campaign? >> i think it helps explain, peter, the way that a lot of voters seem to be able to discount the fact that trump has been impeached twice and indicted four times and investigated, god knows how many other times, for various improprieties and illegalities inside and outside of office. i think if you're not following that day in and day out, you are either, you know, the type of person who probably was likely or maybe more likely than most

to vote for him. any way. you were sick of hearing all about it, therefore you tune out that type of news altogether. or you just have a lot of other things going on in your life. there are plenty of people out there who don't follow politics as obsessively as we do and those people often get overlooked in the interviews that all of us journalists do when we are trying to find out which way the wind is blowing in these elections. >> jeremy, thanks so much. i missed the ends of your thought. i'm told breaking news out of new york. i want to get to lisa rubin, our colleague on that regarding the manhattan case, unprecedented felony criminal conviction of president-elect trump. msnbc legal correspondent lisa reuben is here with that. what have we learned? >> we have the letter that d.a. alvin bragg sent to the judge merchan. he says he will agree to stay proceedings, which would mean

staying both merchan's decision on whether the verdict should be set aside, and staying a sentencing, so that donald trump's team can file a motion to dismiss the entire indictment. not on the table but set a schedule of briefing, a motion to dismiss the entire indictment and coming from trump's team and in the interim they want judge merchan to stay all proceedings and that means we are not likely to see a decision from judge merchan whether the verdict on the preexisting trial should be set aside because they have agreed to set that aside and move on to the question of whether the indictment, itself, should be sustained. but in the interim, they are saying we want to stay all proceedings but they will not agree that to dismiss the case outright. they do not support the motion to dismiss. that will be coming from trump's team. they say they intend to oppose that.

peter? >> breaking news from lisa rubin out of manhattan. we are joined by the former manhattan assistant district attorney katherine clark. i want to get your reaction to this right now, what it means and if you can put this in the big picture, this has been unprecedented from the start but this is another sort of wrinkle in all of it. >> it's interesting because is this going to happen after inauguration day and now it will be president trump? i should also note the judge is the decider, not the manhattan d.a. the judge can say thank you for your opinion, manhattan d.a., but i'm doing this. i think judge merchan will probably go along with this but it's just, you know, a delaying the inevitable. now, it will be president trump because we are at the end of november already. so it will be interesting if judge merchan says i agree and i'm just going to go along with

both sides. >> but what is the likelihood that not just the sentencing delayed but the indictment could potentially be set aside altogether? it's understood the president-elect is soon to be president and not serving time but erase this entire conviction? >> i'm one of the few legal analysts that says if judge merchan were to set aside this verdict, it would be defensible under the supreme court decision because -- not because the hush money payment but because of testimony that came in that occurred in the oval office when donald trump was president because of a form that came in, because i believe the manhattan d.a.'s office response really was not that strong. not to be critical about these why were not official and in summation, the d.a.'s office referred to one of those testimony from hope hicks as devastating evidence.

it's hard to now say it wasn't really important evidence. but that is just my opinion. but it is very rare that a judge in new york sets aside a verdict. so if we are going by those odds, judge merchan won't set aside this verdict. >> lisa, to be clear that we understand this. what are the next steps? what should we be watching for and the time frame for anything to happen left in this case as decisions remain to be made? >> i think what we should expect will happen next is that donald trump's team will file a motion to dismiss the entirety of the case and the indictment. that is a step further than would have happened even if judge merchan vacated the verdict and would establish the grounds for a new trial and they want now to dismiss the case. in this letter i wanted to flag for you and our viewers the d.a.'s office is signaling they will oppose that motion. they are saying that no current law establishes that a

president's temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a posttrial criminal proceeding and where we are now, that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and based on unofficial conduct for which the defendant is also not i mean. they also say while they understand that there are constitutional concerns with respect to someone who is about to become the president of the united states, they say that while they deeply respect the office of the president and are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, we also deeply respect the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system. that goes back to something that i've been saying on our air earlier today and even last week when we first saw this decision to stay for at least a week. i expected that the manhattan d.a.'s office would have an interest in defending that verdict. not only because they believed in their case, but because of

the precedent that it sets with respect to their recruitment of future juries. they do jury trials each' every day here on the island of maents and manhattan and if they were to support the sniffle the case are saying that their service doesn't matter that you can blow off jury service because, look. here is case in which we asked people to come here and sit for seven weeks at a time and, yet, we are willing now to set that aside. that is not a precedent that the d.a.'s office wants to set. they deeply believe in their case. but they also believe in the democratic of jury service and setting the incentives right. peter? >> lisa and katherine, stay with us. i want to get to von hillyard covering the trump campaign and trump transition for us and in palm beach. we have now seen pictures of donald trump is preparing to head to texas to visit the spacex campus. ted cruz is among those likely

to be traveling with him today. are we hearing anything from within trump world to what happened here and what sort of expectations do you have based on your conversations there? >> reporter: i was checking within the last three minutes and we don't have any immediate response at this point in time. we will wait to hear judge merchan's decision and the response, of course, from donald trump's defense lawyers. of course, two of the three lead defense attorneys that donald trump turned to throughout that seven-week trial. he is now tapped to take the number two and number three positions at his department of judge todd blanche and emil bovay. a remarkable turn when trump was found guilty on the 34 criminal counts and he had the two federal criminal indictments on his alleged removal of classified material to his mar-a-lago estate, as well as the allegations of the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and those are the docket

awaiting him. the fulton county criminal indictment and trial was pending there. you fast forward. he has won the presidency. now ever increasingly likely potential that he will never actual face any punishment for not only this case, but also have knowing the jack smith and the department of justice have wind down their trial in the two federal criminal indictments. this is really for donald trump, really a heck of a turn in which, one, now, he is preparing to turn to his attorneys to run a department of justice and, in turn, potentially seek indictments and convene grand jurys to investigate individuals who he said should have never brought these initial charges against him in the first place. over the course of the last two years, he has been very vocal about his opposition to alvin bragg and has suggested he should be removed from official and be investigated. this is all coming to a head. we were looking at a potential

sentencing before thanksgiving but after winning this presidential election, this is a much different story that we are now following. >> von hillyard, i appreciate your reporting there. our friend, the former federal prosecutor, glenn kirschner is joining us now. there is likely not to be any punishment of any kind for the 34 felony convictions that donald trump faced in manhattan and notably comes the same day that donald trump appears to be receiving intelligence briefings in spite of the charges against him for mishandling of classified documents the course of the last several years after he left office. i want to get your reaction to what you're hearing from manhattan right now. basically, your takeaway from this, what you think this says to the american people. >> yeah. peter, maybe there will be no punishment at the end of the day for donald trump whom a jury found guilty of 34 felony crimes that, at their core, were

designed to help him cheat in the 2016 presidential election. and i think the reason we are all sort of struggling to figure out where this is headed is because there are so many moving pieces, both legally and procedurally. legally, there is no precedent, no appellate court has ever had to wrestle with. you know, well, can you proceed the sentencing against a former president of the united states who is found guilty, who is also the president-elect and will be sworn in in the not too distant future. it's not like american courts have ever had to rule on that. procedurally, i think one of the challenges is judge merchan will, first, have to rule on whether the supreme court's presidential immunity ruling means he has to throw out these 34 felony convictions. you know, i think maybe lisa and katherine would agree with me that, you know, that doesn't seem to be a supportable position but the procedural challenge right now, as i see it, is the minute judge merchan

rules that, no, donald trump is not protected by presidential immunity, that would be immediately appealable so he really couldn't proceed the sentencing any way. i think in the bottom of it all, i think is makes some sense to pause the case entirely, maybe even during the entire four years of donald trump's presidency, so he could be sentenced the moment he leaves office. but none of this is easy or intuitive. >> glenn and katherine and lisa. thank you. the manhattan d.a. has recommended that the judge hold off sentencing donald trump for the hush money convictions there. follow our show on social media. this is "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing picks up more of our breaking news after this quick break. this quick break.

good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we begin with the breaking news. the district attorney in donald