frank figliuzzi and joyce vance. >>> another break.n we come back -- new developments in that devastating series of explosions in beirut, that's next.

when you and i last spoke, 3:00 eastern time today, we heard joyce vance say that democrats would be smart to inoculate the public to the idea that indictments may be coming, really big names, late in the game before the election. it's supposed to be a hands off go silent period at doj, but why would anything else be normal in the year 2020. do you concur? >> i think we need to understand that the october surprise is coming, and it might actually be in august or september. surprise, and component will be great revelation or reveal of whatever it is attorney general barr thinks that john durham has found. i know they're hunting for anything that could be indicted. i would expect at least a mid-level manager to be under consideration for indictment within the fbi or department of justice. i'm not saying that's something that should be happening but we should prepare ourselves for that and understand something, the attorney general has told the rest of the department of justice, hands off as we approach election, no one should do anything or indict anybody that messes with election or p

joining me now is msnbc legal contributor, joyce vance. joyce, great to see you. the nra called this lawsuit baseless. they said they're going to confront it and prevail. walk us through what you see as the case here, and how likely is it the nra could be dissolved as a result of this? >> well, chris, the important thing to know here is that this is not a criminal case. attorney general james didn't take these allegations of fraud to a grand jury and seek indictments. instead, this is a proceeding under new york's code that talks about how not-for-profit corporations and entities need to be managed. and it permits the new york attorney general to seek dissolution as she did here when there's pervasive fraud. what i think you have to know is that this kind of action isn't the first strategic choice of an attorney general. the first choice might be to go to the board, go to the membership, to explain that there's been fraud by leaders of the entities. in this case, the corruption is so systematic, it's so extensive, it's so abusive of the donations sent by members a

back with us is university of alabama professor joyce vance. strict attorney. he's part of the action in the impeachment debate providing expert testimony to congress. kendrick and joyce, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> absolutely. >> good to be here. >> plenty to get to as we do sometimes the end of the week i like to start light. mix it up a little. joyce, what's on your list of fall back? >> on me list is the tourist who sat on top of a 216-year-old sculpture and broke the toes off of this ancient irreplaceable statue only being caught because the museum was keeping a register of its visitors due to covid. >> and all for a selfie. >> all for that great photo. >> there is saying, people say you can do it for the gram. you shouldn't do everything for the gram. >> we take it a little bit too far sometimes. >> i'm shurp ture the photo was. what else might be on your list? >> oh, man. i'm not sure. i think that beats mine, whatever it was. >> well, i'll throw one out there that we were looking at. we go through a bunch of these.

joining me to discuss that is joyce vance, an msnbc contributor. thank you for being with us.ointed out to my producer that senate republicans have had this information for some time. they had this same information when they voted to acquit the president in january. how troubling is all of this to you? >> i think that's one of the most troubling parts of this, ali. it's important to note that this report comes from the hands of a republican-led committee. there's eight republican senators, seven democrats. the acting chair of the committee is florida senator marco rubio. though after the report was released, the republicans tried to distance themselves a little bit, they did it by saying, well, this report this report d establish collusion. and we've all been down that path before. we know the word collusion is not precise, so it's better to focus on the content of this report, which is highly damaging showing that on the one hand the president had paul manafort, a campaign manager that they didn't fully vet before hiring him so that they could get him for free, and manafort w

and we're joined by msnbc analyst joyce vance. good evening to both of you. what does it mean in your view legally when the prosecutors in the southern district make a move like this? >> the prosecutors of the southern district only move when they've got the evidence to move. so what it means is that steve bannon is in a world of trouble. and that is something that as you point out, it is because it is an independent office and the former u.s. attorney, mr. berman, appointed by donald trump, formal law partner to rudolph giuliani, made sure that when he got pushed out, that office was led by another independent thinking attorney who would take its reins. and we have to wonder exactly what you suggest, ari, that this was an example of what mr. berman men when he said he wanted to protect the speaking wi with, to protect the integrity of investigations. one thing to add about bannon, part of his claim to fame and his rise to power in the white house is because he was a fraudster. that's essentially what he used breitbart for. to hood wink the american public by

attorney, joyce vance.om, we're digging into the relationship between bannon and wengui, who is also known as miles quakc. what can you tell us about those two men and what else federal investigators are looking into? >> yesterday, our colleague, andrew blank steen, out of the west coast, was able to get his hands on some information from a police report dating back a month or so ago. and in that police report, somebody had called a very small town in washington state and called their local police department saying, hey, i gave $500,000 in a wire fund transfer to this company called gtv. they were supposed to give me shares and now i can't reach anybody and the money is gone. the local police department opened an investigation, talked to the fbi, and the fbi said as a matter of fact, the guy who runs this company, the person that you just mentioned, katy, guo wengui, this is somebody who is a target of an investigation. it's been ongoing since june. so the person you're looking at on screen, he's the person

all right, joyce vance and ben wittes, thank you so much for being on this morning. a very big news morning. >>> still ahead on "morning joe," a big lineup. dr. jill biden, after her dnc speech last night. plus, former national security adviser susan rice, former acting attorney general sally yates, who also spoke last night, and senator cory booker. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. back. ♪ book two separate qualifying stays and earn a free night. the open road is open again. and wherever you're headed, choice hotels is there. book direct at choicehotels.com. i'm looking for my client.ed, chi'mi'm so sorry.nt.e. hey! hey man, you're here! you don't trust me here in vegas, do you? uh, well, i thought we had a breakthrough with the volkswagen. we did, yeah! we broke through. that's the volkswagen? that's the cross sport. wow. seatbelts! please just tell me where we're going. you power through chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, ...each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. so, if you ha

. >> joining me now, joyce vance, former u.s. attorney, law professor and msnbc kribcontrib. what does this first step tell you about the focus of it and what more do you think we could expect to see given barr said there would be more developments? >> you know, on the one hand this is very common. early in an investigation you'll see someone prosecuted. the presumption is they will be cooperating and helping prosecutors look into other activity. at the same time, this is very unfamiliar and very disturbing to see an attorney general out front, promising results in what can only be perceived as a political investigation particularly where the president has also promised results and said the attorney general can be the hero if he does the right thing here. this is not a normal case. it's not proceeding in an appropriate way. we're awfully close to that 60-day deadline that doj observes as the cut offline where political prosecution shouldn't proceed but this attorney general looks like he's going ahead full steam. >> let's listen to what the president said now that you mention

>> they're really pinging me with that one including some of your friends, joyce vance and others. we have great seafood here in rhode island and calamari is our state appetizer. i guess the party chairman thought that was a way to bring attention to our great state. it is a great state. we love our seafood and i'm proud of where i live. >> we're appropriately zoomed in on the calamari. we take all of our reporting evidence seriously. is there a link between calamari and comeback or is it just an alliteration? >> i suspect alliteration. the party chair kept that closely held. i don't think many people knew he would do that so you may want to follow up with him. >> well, as we say, you're giving us leads for other stories we can work. on a very clear explanation of why you think you'll beat trump on this case including why you have more than one door to go through. i'm glad you gave us the background, sir. >> thanks for having me on. >> thank you. we have a special look at some of president obama's devastating attacks on trump. we'll dig into our video crates. and later, i'm thrille

frank figliuzzi and joyce vance. >>> another break. when we come back -- new developments in that devastating series of explosions in beirut, that's next. hike! simon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500! coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. they're off... in the kentucky derby. rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. he scores! stanley cup champions! touchdown! only mahomes. the big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. >>> the death toll continues to rise after that massive, mushroom cloud shock wave explosion after a previous explosion yesterday in beirut. lebanon has been suffering from a severe economic crisis and this explosion left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, streets filled with glass and debris. right now, officials say the explosion killed at least 135 people including at least one american citizen. lebanese officials say the probably cause a fire that ignited a storage of am moan yum nitrate. it killed people in the streets, it injured and killed people sitt

attorney for the northern district of alabama and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance.oking into the hush payments to two women over affairs during the 2016 campaign. what we learned yesterday it seems they're also looking into bank and insurance fraud by the trump organization. >> that's right. cy vance who i'm not related to confirmed that yesterday in this pleading. it's important to know the pos cure of the case. this is vance going to the court saying there's no argument that has any merit. you need to dismiss this. and vance says go ahead and dismiss this complaint it's time for us to enforce our subpoena and get the document. and the bombshell, and it's one that the president's lawyer stepped straight into is the argument there's really no need to do this. this is an overbroad subpoena all the da is investigating is hush payments to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. and suddenly the manhattan day care -- da says that's not the case. and the judge has seen early on in camera, which means the judge reviewed this document alone without trump's lawyers entitled to s