. >> but judge aileen cannon on friday was willing to entertain them. s the one who brought up and ask the question of the government's attorney says about the 60-day rule. >> she did. and you, know judge cannon is a former appellate law in the u.s. attorney's office in miami, i assume she knew the answer before she heard it. these so-called 60-day rule at doj is a rule that says prosecutors can't take over it of investigative steps, or can't indict a case in a way that would interfere with an election. here is the thinking behind that, yasmin. what you don't want is for doj to drop news on the public that has no idea it is coming. that a candidate is under investigation. that truly could impact an election. that is not what this situation is about. these cases were indicted last year, the court now controls the schedule, this is about when the case will go to trial. that is not something that falls within doj's policy, and merrick garland made that clear about six weeks ago, he was answering questions and he also set trial settings have been whenever th

then he can appoint aileen cannon to the supreme court. although it seems like jack smith won today because she didn't boot the entire espionage act claim, she postponed her decision. she denied it without prejudice, meaning that donald trump can bring it up again in the middle of the trial and if judge cannon agrees in the middle of the trial, then double jeopardy attaches and jack smith won't be able to appeal it to the 11th circuit court of appeals and then jack smith is done on that claim. so it's a temporary victory, a victory for now. >> and exactly, and that's why i called it auditions. mr. hur and ms. cannon might see themselves as justices when clarence thomas and alito predictably resign if a republican becomes president. that's just me. let me read the letter from donald trump's lawyers to congress. they said this, we have seen absolutely no indication that president trump knowingly possessed any of the marked documents or willfully broke any laws. rather, all indications are that the presence of marked documents at mar-a-lago w

judge, aileen cannon. she didn't buy it she made that clear >> in court and then shortly after the hearing, she issued her order instead, i'm not going to to dismiss the case on this argument that you made today. >> she said that >> this could be something that could come up where trump may want to argue this to a jury or that they discuss a little bit closer to trial heading into that trial setting the parameters for how the trial will go, the presentation to the jury. but that's how that particular argument went. there was another argument today as well. it didn't go that great either for the former president, judge aileen cannon was quite skeptical about arguments his team was making. these presidential records were personal because trump said so because he wanted to take them from the white house and keep them at mar-a-lago for the presidency, judge cannon made pretty clear that she wasn't really on board with that argument and seem to articulate herself in the same view as the federal government. the

judge aileen cannon is sitting on a stack of motions that she needs to rule on. entry under seal that suggests she has ruled on at least some of the issues involving the use of classified information at trial. so, there is that piece. but, the big issue here, lawrence, what we are waiting on is to see whether she will change her trial date. it is currently set for may. no one believes she is going to trial in may. the real issue here is what sort of real estate she wants to occupy on the calendars that will call for scheduling of the various criminal trials. >> andrew, the, how does the presidential immunity case for, the argument before the supreme court affect this case ? so much the conduct here is donald trump's conduct after he left the presidency. >> yes, absolutely. so, this, you know, i have analogized this, his argument on presidential immunity to a bank robber who is charged with robbing a bank with a gun saying i can't be charged with that because i illegally possessed the gun. his argument is that i was immune and i could take the documents from the w

. >> reporter: but federal judge aileen cannon, a trump appointee tonight writing a dismissal over vagueness now would be, quote, premature. and earlier at the hearing, appearing skeptical of any argument to toss the charges based on the presidential records act, telling mr. trump's team, "it's difficult to see how this gets you to the dismissal of an indictment." no decision yet on a trial date. mr. trump's team urging her to push it until after the november election. that ruling coming after a surprising setback for manhattan's prosecutors, just 11 days before mr. trump's hush money trial was set to begin. tonight the district attorney's office saying they do not oppose waiting 30 days to start the trial in an abundance of caution. the case where prosecutors have accused the former president of burying a hush money payment to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election now mired in a fight over a significant number of documents related to michael cohen, the man who made the payment. records mr. trump's attorneys say they need to prepare their defense. according to a new court filing, tens of th

. >>> also tonight, judge aileen cannon's unusual request for jury instructions which legal experts are calling insane, bizarre, clumsy, amateurish, you get the idea. >>> plus, polls will close soon in ohio, where three republicans are competing to challenge senator sherrod brown in a race that could decide which party controls the senate. >>> but we begin tonight with the former president's crime syndicate. trump white house aide peter navarro is as of today locked in a federal prison. day one of a four-month sentence. before turning himself in, navarro held a press conference at a strip mall parking lot down the street from the facility. he was convicted for contempt of congress for refusing to comply with the january 6th committee. he even asked the supreme court to help him avoid prison time. but he failed and now he's in prison. making him the very first donald trump senior aide to serve time in connection with the coup plot. trump has to be afraid watching one of his top aides getting locked up. over the past couple years, the cells have been filling up with these guys. roger ston

>> well, no, i want to know if judge aileen cannon could say, you know what we're having caught outside today at the beach. >> it's like having class outside. >> i love those days. oh man, that really back-to-work, please? >> all right it is time for the school to pony up after the parents of the michigan school shooter were found guilty. now, families of the victims say school administrators should be held accountable. in this morning, the trump family takeover of the republican national committee is complete. we're getting our hands on a new memo that outlines the huge changes two, be a headliner on us vegas. >> that's what i want. and i do >> they had the biggest entertainers in america >> vegas is always marketed itself on it's not enough and the only way you find out what you can do is if you do it on >> anywhere else in the world, vegas, the story of sin city sunday at ten on cnn >> why always the couch? does he need to get a puppy school, get his little puppet diploma? know must have been spending all this little guy when your questions about life turned into questions about mone

fani willis gets to stay on the case in georgia but the drama heats up and trump appointed judge aileen cannon continues to slow things down in georgia. >>> plus, it is election day in russia, which means it is the perfect time to talk about brand-new reporting on the former presidents affinity for dictators. jim shooter thanks man what he discovered on trumps private comments about some of the worst actors in the world. >>> we were planning to start the show on all of the delays on the legal cases and there are a lot. we will spend time on that with legal experts in a little bit but then late yesterday afternoon, donald trump spoke at a rally in ohio and we decided we have to start here. >> we are going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line and you're not going to be able to sell those cars. if i get elected. now if i don't get elected is going to be a bloodbath for the country. that will be the least of it but they're not going to sell those cars. >> it's going to be a bloodbath for the country. that will be the least of it. the trump team quickly said last nigh

judge aileen cannon issued an order 6:27 p.m.ble jury instructions in the case charging donald trump with violations of the espionage act for his illegal possession of classified documents and other government documents owned by the united states from. in that order, judge aileen cannon reveals she is considering a possible jury instruction that would require the jury to find donald trump not guilty because that jury instruction was to say, "a president has sole authority to the presidential records act to categorize records as personal or presidential during his or her presidency. an outgoing president's decision to exclude what he or she considers to be personal records from residential records transmitted to the national archives and records administration constitutes a president categorization of those records as personal to the presidential records act. " if you think you heard an order in there to the jury to find donald trump not guilty, you are right. you did. what are prosecutor chuck smith options in preventing the judg

that is thanks to judge one aileen cannon plucked from obscurity by donald trump. she was just 39. cannon was confirmed by the senate in that brief lame duck session after trump lost the 2020 election. she is now the one presiding over the documents case. she has done her best to slow the speed of the case down to a crawl. it is worth keeping the details front of mind because they are really truly damning. that is why one key witness came forward to basically circumvent judge cannon's delay tactics and share what he knows immediately with the american people ahead of november's election. bryan butler, a multidecade employee of mar-a-lago says he unwittingly helped trump's codefendant move boxes of classified documents to the plane on the same day trump was to meet with prosecutors about the documents at mar-a-lago. >> you noticed that he had boxes? >> oh yeah, the boxes in the indictment. the white bankers boxes. that's what i remember loading. >> did you have any idea at the time there was potentially u.s. national security secrets in the boxes? >> no clue. i had no clue. we were

aileen cannon has indicated that's going to get pushed back. proposed date so far by jack smith specifically was july 8th, by donald trump's attorneys was august 12th. quite frankly they said they want this thing to happen after the election. there was some overlapse when it comes to the juror questionnaires. we want to focus on the date that may come out of this hearing today. and whether or not there's going to be any collaboration between judge aileen cannon and the other judges in the other cases and trials in which the former president is facing. we know there's collaboration between judge juanmarchand, he had a collaboration with judge chutkan in choosing that date. the d.c. trial is pushed back because of the immunity decision by the supreme court to hear that case on april 22nd or to hear the issue of immunity on april 22nd. so the question is whether or not aileen cannon is going to be speaking with other judges, a, and b, whether or not she's going to say, hey, listen, we have to wait for this decision to come from the supreme court b

judge aileen cannon seem pretty skeptical of that, but now we wait to see exactly what she will do. she's been very cautious it's not to tip her hand in court that she did a bit today. she did such shed some skepticism toward trump and his lawyers for what they were arguing today but everyone here in this case it's very clear that there's a lot of work to do. there's a long road ahead of them. they've spent hours and hours in court together. trump himself in court seems to be quite comfortable for bowl chatting with his lawyers, listening. are reported some uproot producers in the room today even caught some people maybe nodding off as this hearing dragged off on. well into the afternoon. but there are many many hours ahead and many rulings to comment from judge aileen cannon before we get to a trial >> and i probably get your trial or we have guessed even a known trial date. >> katelyn polantz. thank you so much. kaitlan app that courthouse today. and i want to go now to evan perez because he is closely following the late developments i mentioned in the trump hush money case that f

judge, aileen cannon had a lot of media things to walk through. she didn't ask that many questions for a hearing that had so many details that they needed to deal with and even trumping in the room in the same place as jack smith. >> it was >> a little bit more a relaxed than in past hearings where i've sat in the courtroom and watched each of these people look at each other or glance at each other, trump appeared to be a lot more relaxing facts than in past hearings. he didn't whisper much with his attorneys as he's done previously. he instead sat there, he listened pretty passively for most of the hearing is the arguments were being made but dana at a couple of points, there were heated arguments being made, especially whenever donald trump's defense lawyer, todd blanche put out on the table what is really the thing that nobody had had wanted to talk about in this case up to that point this morning, and that was this idea. of the election. should this case go to trial before the election? judge cannon did prompt the special counsel's office even

we still don't have a calendar from judge aileen cannon. all she has done since that date really is put this hearing on the calendar and wanting it to go forward before trump's criminal case in new york city starts in two weeks from now. but there is this question up in the air. how long is it going to take, judge aileen cannon to resolve not just questions like the arguments that are being presented to her today. but how long will it even take for her to decide when this trial should take place? will it happen before the election everybody on both sides, trump's team, his co-defendants, and the justice department, they've all proposed dates for before the election whether judge cannon believes she can do it before then. that is still up in the air >> all katelyn polantz. thank you very much down reporting live from a very busy roadway in front of the courthouse there. thanks kaitlan for hanging in there for us. we appreciate joining me now, cnn chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, cnn national correspondent kristen holmes there's

aileen cannon pays to donald trump and his legal team. what about how much deference she has shown so far? how would you assess it >> it's. surprising to me. >> the >> this, this is the kind of thing i ordinarily would have expected. you have been decided on the papers instead, the judge has allocated, i believe, an entire day for arguments, so that seems a fair amount of argument there also i believe she is reserved time for this selective or malicious prosecution argument that is really a non argument that is something that i believe the 11th circuit which is the court in which this district court sets. i don't know if you want to get into that, john, but it's it's a whole separate argument is is something that the 11th circuit has never countenanced. so i believe this judge is giving a lot of deference to the former president and his legal team. and i know kaitlan will be setting by to see exactly how much weight she gives these arguments therefore, it's a lot, it's a lot more than a lot of people think is merited, or that a lot of oth

we knowjudge aileen cannon, a trump appointee, threw that out. she said that would be premature.y surprised that they took literally almost the entire day to argue two motions that, frankly, were long shots to begin with, and did not deserve as much time as they received. so the motion that was denied with respect to the constitutionality and vagueness of certain terms in the espionage act — this is an act that dates back to world war i, 1917, last amended during the korean conflict 70 years ago — and it has been used countless times against not only spies but also leakers of classified information or those who just mishandle it, national defence information, the term in this older statute. this has been decided multiple times over the years, so i am not sure why she denied it without prejudice, because these are not questions of fact that will come before the jury, but at least she acted really quickly, which has been somewhat unusual for her. i want to talk about a second point as well. you were just mentioning that trump's lawyers raising another point with regards to the pres

judge aileen cannon responded a few hours later saying while trump's legal team had some arguments warrantingus consideration, she would not dismiss the charges in question. cannon did, however, leave the door open for trump to raise the issue again in connection with jury instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions. in other words, the proverbial can has been kicked down the proverbial road. back with me now is andrew weissmann. andrew, am i reading that right this is aileen cannon just punting on this call, and what does that practically mean? >> i think you have it absolutely right. and i think it's really important people not read this is as, oh, she ruled for the government. this is the worst possible decision for the government that she made today, and you're going to be like why. this is why. so if she had said to the government, you know, you win, obviously that's great for the government. she thinks it's right, and then what would happen is trump were convicted, he could appeal that legal issue. if she had said to the government you lose, the government gets to appeal that

andrew, we are seeing -- judge aileen cannon in florida and the supreme court are slow walking thingsith note trial date in georgia and the manhattan case delayed. none of these cases are working the way they should in your book , you write about other countries that are able to bring the former leaders to justice, in france, italy, argentina, when we think of our judicial system, as the best, why are we not able to do this? >> we have a former president who is facing 88 felony counts. he is now attacking the judicial system the way that he has attacked the media, prosecutors, people in congress. this is the next check and balance that he is attacking. as you pointed out in the first segment, he is now saying i am all for criminals and we should release them. and that is what i will do. he is running very much as an outlaw. you have the strange position where you have a republican running, not as back the blue, but back the orange. the country, so far, is not doing very well in comparison to have -- how other countries have held political leaders to account. we think of american excep

even aileen cannon has limits as to the absurdity of trump arguments. a favorite argument president's act ex-ex-call ex-call pa tats him. this is where you're argument, mr. blanch, seems to falter, because not only is it absurd on its face the analogy drawing to for example what we all shorthand the clinton socks case is not even remotely comparable. bill clinton kept audiotapes in a sock draw with -- audiotapes of his conversations with taylor branch the historian and the pra says that diaries, judge jackson said, these were equivalent to are expressly excluded as presidential. we are far afield from that. diaries and talking about nuclear secrets are far different. >> trump knows it. the tape released waving around the military strategy for iran, hey, hey, can we declassify this? it's so ridiculous even donald trump knows it's not true. >> that's exactly right. i think it's helpful i think, nichole, about the two buckets of charges donald trump faces from mar-a-lago. one is that mishandling of classified information, and leaving it on the floor as he

and judge aileen cannon it seems is considering a possible hearing on this.usly, all of discovery between the prosecuting attorneys and the fbi and intelligence agencies. what do you make of this? >> i think what you see is a twofold exercise but trump's attorney. one, it is a stolen tactic. it is a desire to play out the proceedings and get trump past the election. which i firmly believe is going to have been. and the other thing is to turn this into a talking point for fighting. i have supervised hundreds of mishandling of classified documents investigations. every one of those investigations, the fbi and the department of justice work closely with a number of members of the united states government. from the department of defense to see a two state department, whoever's information was impacted. this is not unusual. what is unusual is you have a trial in front of a court who has very little expertise to begin with. and certainly no experience with handling classified litigation. i think, for many reasons, probably you have seen a lot of difference being ex

were there any that judge aileen cannon seemed to be a little softer on? >> well, at one point during the hearing today according to our nbc news colleagues in the courtroom she essentially asked why the lack of demand from the national archives for the records as of the time that trump left the white house? wasn't it self-determinative? that's not the way the presidential records act works. presidential records act essentially says when you leave your term of office everything that belongs to your presidency, all of those records, they are in the legal custody of the national archives even if it takes some time to transfer them to their custody. so cannon is betraying sort of a lack of understanding of how the law works. i think special counsel's office definitely took an opportunity to remind her that that's the way that it works, and also that the national archives were diligent in pursuit of those records. by end of the hearing, according to nbc news colleagues that pra argument is not one that will lead to a dismissal. >> so many classified documents

. >> catherine, i want to talk about what happened in florida with judge aileen cannon. she brought up the so-called 60- day rule. i know it's not called that she brought up and asked about the 60-day rule. i want to read for you what the new york times is reporting about jack smith. she asked about when smith was going to present the prosecution list. the new york times wrote this -- smith in particular seems shocked by the question and sat up stiff lee in the well of the courtroom, his eyes gone wide in apparent incredulity. there has been a lot of talk specifically in judge aileen cannon's courtroom about -- and other pretrial motions as well in which they talk about the potential harassment of prosecution witnesses. i am wondering if you feel like that is what was playing into this report from the new york times about jack smith's incredulity. >> it sounds like so. they have already requested that some names be withheld from the fence until absolutely necessary. we know that donald trump just has a history of attacking witnesses and prosecutors and judges and juries,

it seems like aileen cannon is tipping the scales for him every chance she possibly can get. most people out there think there is no chance of a trial before the election. what do you think? >> that's pretty wise. it's uncanny to consider how much outside truck help donald trump has had on all of his criminal court cases. >> there is a two tiered justice system and he's in the good tear. >> he is, he's at the top of the good tear. there's no question that this is not a complicated litigation. the mar-a-lago documents case is probably the most straightforward of all of his criminal indictments that he's facing, and so the fact that it has been as low, and we haven't seen much movement, is clearly an indication that, beyond what he's been saying in the public, beyond the maneuvers that his attorneys have been doing, and even beyond what aileen cannon has said, you are now seeing how this justice system actually works. the one thing i will point out is i do think that aileen cannon has gotten a bit gun shy because of how she's been treated by the 11th circuit, so she's not as qu

for trump's team today. >> yeah, another five hours in court today for donald trump before judge aileen cannon with no ruling, but judge cannon did see to show where she was leaning on these two arguments that his team was trying to make. >> they were trying to say and convince her that the law around national security records is to vague trump wouldn't have known that he was doing something wrong because he was president when he took those documents out of the white house and took them tomorrow lago, they were officers his personal records, and thus under the presidential records act, he could have kept them, but judge cannon, she said at one point that dismissing the case on one of these arguments that would be an extraordinary step if she were to take it and she also said that it was difficult to see the one of these arguments would result in her dismissing the charges against him. that is not a great sign for the defense team on at least these two arguments that they were making, and that presidential records act argument is one that trump has touted as a major piece of what his defenses t

and two, aileen cannon's first ruling, back when she appointed that special master, which seemed to show her to be so transparently in the bag for trump, that people suspect that she will slow walk it. do we get any clarity at all today out of the hearing? >> now. not much clarity. and chris, i agree with what you said to a point. look, i used to be a national security adviser of justice department, where i handle these kind of cases. and sure there's some complexities about classified information procedures act and the like. but nothing that should take this amount of time in this amount of delay. frankly this case should be on a pretty straightforward and easy trajectory. unfortunately it's not. it's on a long and winding path. and judge cannon has given me no faith that it's going to move any more quickly than it has been. and it really should be because the american people deserve to know what donald trump did when he stole these documents, why he stole it, and the like. and you know, i think there's a reason why donald trump attacks every judge who sits on his cases, except one, ail

but judge aileen cannon seemed skeptical and denied one of the requests. here is laura jarrett with more. >> reporter: a judge denying former president trump's request to toss out criminal charges alleging he hoarded classified documents at mar-a- lago. the presumptive gop nominee seen arriving this morning greeting supporters gathered outside the florida courthouse. his attorneys arguing the law on national security secrets is too vague. and mr. trump believed he was allowed today keep the documents as his personal records according to the presidential records act. saying last night. >> i took them very legally. i wasn't hiding them. >> reporter: judge aileen cannon, a trump appointee said a dismissal over vagueness would be premature. and told mr. trump's team it is difficult to see how this gets you to the dismissal of an indictment. no decision on a trial date. mr. trump's team urging her to push it until after the november election. >>> and there are developments in trump's other trials. we are still waiting on a decision whether the fulton county da

one thing i will point out is i think aileen cannon has gotten a bit gun shy because of how she has been treated. she is not as quick to make any hasty decisions. not that she was moving at rocket speed before. >> she is not making any decisions. a gift to trump. >> of course it is. but to answer your question, i do not see this getting off the ground before the end of the year. >> different case. let's talk about the hush money case here in new york. less than 24 hours, donald trump was issued a partial gag order he is out there attacking two people tied to this case. but not mentioned in the gag order. the judge and the judge's daughter. any possible consequences for trump or is he going to keep on trucking? >> he will keep on trucking. it is a difficult space for judge marshawn to be in. there is a technical conflict of interest sayingly silence you talking about me. should he have to right to do that regarding his safety? absolutely. but we are talking a two tiered system of justice. i could not be in court for a traffic ticket and talk about the judge the way donald trump has withou

meanwhile in trump's classified documents case out of florida judge aileen cannon issued a ruling last night that some legal experts say could swing the case in favor of the ex-president. the judge issued an order to special counsel jack smith's team as well as defense attorneys requesting they submit jury instructions in anticipation of a trial. in her two-page order the judge said prosecutor and defense team must engage with the following competing scenarios. option one is to let a jury examine every record a former president retains at the end of his or her presidency and determine whether or not it's personal, or jurors must be told that, quote, a president has sole authority to categorize records as personal or presidential during his or her presidency. as "the washington post" noted that second hypothetical would appear to be one in which trump seemingly could not be convicted almost under any set of facts of improperly possessing classified documents. >>> and we've got yet another development in a separate trump legal case now. the judge overseeing his hush money case has denied

trump appointed judge aileen cannon did not rule on when the trial should start or even if it should happen before november. and in georgia, a judge heard closing arguments on whether fulton county d.a. fani willis should be disqualified from that state's election interference case, which if she is, would all but certainly delay that trial until, you guessed it, after the election. but why? why is it so hard to get donald trump to actually face accountability for these very serious alleged crimes? i mean, if you were one of the thousands of rubes who stormed the capitol on january 6th, 2021, fueled by trump's big lie which he launched because he was going to lose to joe biden, and did in fact lose to joe biden, you are probably in jail or you have spent time in prison it. you have probably lost your job and been humiliated in your local community. in short, your life was ruined by your damn near religious pleef in donald trump. if you live in a red state and seek an abortion, even if you're 10 years old, you doctor can be reprimanded for it, and maybe your uber driver if you live in

judge aileen cannon originally scheduled this trial for may, but today both sides agreed to delaying the date. our fox team at the courthouse today reports special counsel jack smith was in the courtroom and agreed to july 8th. however trump's team argued that's unfair because july would be during the thick of the presidential campaign season. trump's team said the earliest date they could be ready is august 12th but both sides estimate they'll need five weeks to present their cases which means if the trial did start in august, it can go right into election day in november. now all this comes as the supreme court has put a pause on trump's other federal criminal case in washington, dc in which he's accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election. the justices are deciding whether trump has presidential immunity. >> if you don't have immunity for a president, and i'm not talking about only me. if you don't have immunity for a president, you will not be able to function properly. you will not be able to do the right thing for the country. >> reporter: now the prosecution argues this tr

judge aileen cannon held a hearing on when this case should go to trial.graced ex-president's lawyers today turning to a brazen argument best summed up like this -- how much legal trouble is donald trump in? in so much legal trouble, in so many jurisdictions he cannot possibly be prepared to go to trial in the coming months. attorney todd blanche saying "no reason this trial can't start until late november." very conveniently, "late" makes it the day after the election. arging preparing trump for case and the hush money case ongoing is unfair. some of the most pointed language of the hearing prosecutor jay bratt criticized jump's lawyers proposed in thursday filing. if cannon does not push the trial until after the election trump's lawyers suggested could schedule to begin in august. bratt says that was a subterfuge for the former president to seek further delays and achieve his primary goal preventing a trial before the election. "what it really seems to me fake dates and bad-faith dates. we just need to bring the case to trial this summer." adding no rea

the most significant thing about today is that judge aileen cannon decided to hold a day-long hearingthese two motions to dismiss, two of seven donald trump filed in this case, which a lot of legal experts think are borderline frivolous and didn't merit a hearing. nonetheless, she's going to entertain that. we have hours of arguments ongoing right now. as you said, there are two issues. one is that the trump team is invoking the civil law known as the presidential records act, which was passed after richard nixon -- to make clear presidential records belong to the american people through the national archives. it's a civil law. donald trump is arguing that this law meant that he could deem any record in the white house a personal record of his and take it home with no repercussions. jack smith's team says that's wrong and there's a criminal law at stake that has nothing to do with the presidential records act governing classified information that donald trump had no right to these very highly classified documents that he took to mar-a-lago once he was no longer president. that's the i

making and some would argue years yeah, that's a good point. >> you know, elie, the judge judge aileen cannon, she picked apart both the prosecutions and the defense's proposed schedules how do you expect she will ultimately rule? >> well, wolf, whatever she does here i think is going to be good news really for donald trump. so option a is judge chutkan may say, okay, we're postponing this trial until after the election. obviously, that would be the best-case scenario for donald trump. but given where we are now, the only other option is she says, i'm moving it to mid summer. the party please have requested july or august, and even that is a win of sorts for donald trump for two reasons. number one, as gloria just said, much better jury pool for donald trump in florida than in dc. and number two, if this florida trial gets moved to july or august, it will essentially block hate that part of the calendar and make it impossible. isabel for jack smith to try his other case, the dc case, the january 6 case. and if i'm donald trump's team, that is a win for me. >> yeah, good point. gloria. this is

we wonder if there is going to be collaboration between this judge aileen cannon and the three other judges in the other cases when the date will be set. and/or will she say today because of this immunity motion that the former president's attorneys filed last week that now stands in front of the supreme court, will they indefinitely put this trial on hold until they get a decision from the supreme court? and if she doesn't and chooses the end of the summer, could that then push any chance of a d.c. trial going forward beyond the election? because they will interact with each other or overlap with each other. those are some things we're watching for today. and the big news that comes out of this will be the date, if a date is set for this trial, jose. >> so many overlapping potentially overlapping issues in florida, in d.c., in new york. it just seems like what are the key things you're looking for from today's hearing in florida specifically? >> well, jose, i think it is tempting to talk about the jury questionnaire and the different questions that each side wants to be asked. as ya

. >> meanwhile, we are going to go back to florida, where trump appointed federal judge, aileen cannon, heard arguments yesterday in trump's classified documents case. now, while there's technically still a may trial date for now, trump attorney todd blanche winds that it would be unfair to the former president to put him on trial before the november election, saying, quote, we very much continue to believe that a trial that takes place before the election is a mistake and should not happen. special counsel jack smith's team urging judge cannon to agree to at least a july trial start, but cannon already expressing doubts. while she's yet to make an official ruling, her infamously sympathetic aired to donald trump is leading some to believe that he just might get his way. joining me now for more is paul butler, msnbc legal analyst and professor of law at georgetown law school. you know, paul, let's talk about what happened yesterday. there was zero ruling from the judge from the bench. there is still a may trial date -- paul conventional wisdom suggests we're not going to trial in may.

the judge presiding over this case, aileen cannon, flummoxed judges and lawyers this week when she gaveexplain to us why that is so peculiar and tell us -- what does it tell us about where judge aileen cannon stands right now? that's the backdrop, remember, is that she has been reversed not once, but twice by the 11th circuit for getting the lot wrong, and consistently the lot wrong in favor of donald trump. here, leaving aside that she is asking for jury instructions, but she hasn't set a new trial date, so neil can attest and i can't that that is very unusual to be asked about formulating jury instructions when you don't even have a trial date, but leaving that timing aside, her two options that she proposed were both legally wrong. and they were both requested by donald trump at the hearing, and she then said, okay, government, you have to give those two alternatives. both of them are legally wrong. he is charged with a criminal statute, and what she asked was for the government to create a civil presidential records act statute, which is a civil statute that has nothing to do with t

judge aileen cannon says i don't see how it leads to the dismissal of indictment.be a defense at trial. but there's a chance trump's hush money trial in manhattan won't start on mash 25th as planned. that's because manhattan district attorney alvin bragg says his office received thousands of pages of more records from federal prosecutors. in light of those documents, bragg says we do not oppose an adjournment in abundance of caution and ensure that the defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials. we therefore november the court notify the court wedo not opposf adjournment not to exceed 30 days. matt whitaker will be joining "fox & friends" to weigh in on all of this and what this could mean for former president trump. lawrence, steve, ainsley and brian. >> steve: thank you very much. >> lawrence: can you imagine that? >> brian: good news though. he will take the delay and it shows that alvin bragg was a thin case that nobody wanted to charge. now he got the paperwork that showed how thin the case was that they wouldn't charge him with until he got ele

judge aileen cannon has devoted the entire day to hearing them. we will await her ruling in these matters. >> rebecca, what do you make of the motions at the center of today's hearing? >> i think the most important of his motions is the one that has to do with the presidential records act. and i think that's true for three reasons. first of all, it is just so bold. the idea that a former president could take boxes and boxes of classified documents legally and just do whatever he wants with them is an extreme argument. and secondly, and relatedly, it also has a lot of political implications. for him, it allows him to claim he did nothing wrong, his favorite thing always. rather than just say this was a mistake, or i didn't intend this, he says what i did was absolutely right. and for the other, you know, for democrats who are challenging his campaign, this is one of his claims, in which he is suggesting he is indeed above the law. and finally, i think it is important because there are implications for the immunity question, which the judge will dec

story today that jumped out about the into election -- election interference hearing, and judge aileen cannon'srida yesterday. and it focuses on judge cannon's experience. i'm going to read this directly to you, from the new york times. at another point, judge cannon asked the second prosecutor, david -- whether the government intended to publish its list of trial witnesses. generally in high-profile insensitive cases, witness lists are submitted under seal, and remain out of view until a trial takes place. mr. smith in particular seemed shocked by the question, and set up stiff lee in the -- courtroom. his eyes gone wide in apparent incredulity. judge luttig, how concerned should the american people be that a judge this inexperienced is at the helm of a consequential case? >> it's a valid concern, jonathan. but, and judge cannon is relatively new on the federal court. she holds the commission, she's been assigned this matter. and she will try it, and of course every ruling that she makes is subject to review, further in the court of appeals, and they are after on the supreme court of the unite

they want to interfere with the election the case is currently scheduled for may 20, but judge aileen cannon, a trump appointee, who is overseeing the case, has signaled she >> may push the trial back in court today, cannon pressed prosecutors and defense attorneys about their suggested schedules. special counsel jack smith proposed a july 8 start date, but during the proceedings, cannon suggested that aspects of smith's proposal we're unrealistic. trump's lawyers insist the trial should be pushed back a trial that takes place before the election is a mistake and should not happen trump attorney todd blanche status it saying it would be unfair to the former president and the american people for trump to be in the courtroom and not on the campaign trail. that's something that former president has claimed as well. >> all of this persecution is only happening because i am running for president and leading very substantially in the polls. >> trump's attorneys did concede if the trial has to go forward before the election, they would be okay with starting august 12. but prosecutors pushed back sa

of course, that's the case overseen by judge aileen cannon, who is why they viewed as a trump loyalistd twice by the 11th circuit for rulings that were overly sympathetic to the former president. and while cannon didn't circle a date on the calendar for friday's hearing, she did drop some serious hints that she plans to delay trump's trial. more proactively, she brought up the doj's 60-day rule, which prohibits the department of justice from taking action that could affect upcoming elections. now, to be clear, that is an internal guidelines that applies to criminal investigations and charging decisions, not trials. but i suspect you will be hearing that argument from trump loyalists over and over again in the coming months. judge cannon should know it's a moot point. but smith's team still had explained to her they are in full compliance with her own departments policies. basically, that's not a thing. joining me now is our in-house law firm, neal katyal as the former acting u.s. solicitor general, andrew weissmann is the former general counsel at the fbi and senior member of special c

. >> and >> today, the judge overseeing this case, federal judge, a trump appointee, aileen cannon, has asked both sides hi, it's to come here to court today to talk about scheduling at in the past few days, both sides have given an indication of where they might be willing to have this trial on this very crowded calendar. now, as you noted, the special counsel has said they'd like to start this in early july know interestingly, trump's lawyers insist that their client, as he is campaigning for the white house, should not be sitting inside that courtroom. they argue that that violates his first but they offered up august 12 as a date when they would like to see this start, if it must. now that's interesting because as we know the trump trial strategy has it's been to delay everything, particularly these federal trials until after the november presidential election. why? >> well, if trump is reelected, he could have as attorney general dismissed so jack smith and both of these cases. so the fact that they're asking that this trial, if it has to start start in early august is notable beca