and we know he is already on trial for the likely friendly judge, judge eileen cannon, for espionage in connection with the top-secret documents that he stole when he left the white house and refreeze return. he is of course also been charged by alvin bragg, and we have seen in georgia that fake electors, now in michigan are themselves being charged. so the walls are closing in from every direction and finally it would like you will be held accountable. >> professor laurence tribe, thank you for your time. >>> to me now is political analyst and your time reporter, and a cnn political contributor and former white house medication director. caitlin collins, and the former assistant attorney, and andrew mccabe, former fbi deputy director, how worried you think the former president should be tonight? >> i think you should be very worried. a couple of things about target letters, i think we need to understand that the department is not required to serve a target letter on anyone get guided, they do in some cases they clearly done it here, it is a very clear indication that they are lookin

where we are talking about here, and so much of the focus has been on florida, and by the way, eileen cannon is holding a crucial hearing on the mar-a-lago documents case in a few hours, and this is florida. this investigation is d.c.-focused. >> yes. so all of the grand jury action has been in washington, d.c., and overwhelmingly likely, it is going to be filed in district court in washington, d.c., and this why it is really important. donald trump is very politically unpopular in washington, d.c., and he got about 5% of the vote in 2020 in d.c. so the jury pool is going to be looking different for him in d.c., if he is indicted than if he is in florida. >> comparing the two cases, if there is a delay, and will this trial last forever, and than if there is classified documents to complicate it, and as far as we know, there is no classified documents involved in the january 6th case. >> yes, it is the third in line, and they don't have to be tried in the order they are indicted, and each judge has to pick his or her schedule, but we are heading for the gridlock with the trials. when do they

based on what we know so far, all of these developments, the judge, eileen cannon, what do you think, will she try to hold this trial before the 2024 presidential election? >> i think the operative word is try, wolf. she can try. i think it's very unlikely to happen, especially if there turns out to be a second very complex case as well. i don't think she'll simply say forget it, it's off the books, but even with her trying to set a date, very unlikely it will get done in that timetable. >> we'll see how it unfolds. lots of drama. caitlin will have more on all of this later tonight on "the source." i'll get reaction from the former staff to vice president mike pence who testified before the january 6th federal grand jury. plus, the breaking news right now out of michigan. the state attorney general filing criminal charges against participants in the alleged pro-trump fake electors plot. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. (ambience of room, crickets, scrolling content on phone) they're off from school, but not really home. images and videos. social media, fine-tuned to suck them

. >> the district judge, eileen cannon, set an august 14th start date for the trial. jack smith was aiming for a december date. trump lawyers say they want it much, much later than that. with us to go through that, the cnn political director, and also former federal prosecutor. sarah, first to you. the georgia grand jury. it has been picked. how far along in the process does that put us in a decision to an indictment? >> not too long. these are regular grand jury that's sit in fulton county, georgia, that will hear over the next few weeks, murder cases, armed robbery cases, and at some point the district attorney will say, okay, today you're about to hear a different kind of case. and then they will present this trump case. and we know that there was a special grand jury before this that collected all kinds of evidence. they talked to everyone from former trump attorneys to white house aides to officials in georgia. they've scrutinized people like donald trump but also rudy giuliani, mark meadows, sydney powell. we know they're looking at a complicated case. racketeer

. >> reporter: the judge in the case, eileen cannon, issued an order last year granting trump's request for a special master that was later overruled by a three-judge appeals court. a big question mark is whether judge cannon appointed by former president trump will rule for the prosecution or the defense about when the trial should begin. >> the prosecution has said we want to go to trial in december. we want to do this quickly. the defense has said let's postpone this indefinitely. >> reporter: the former president is the current front runner for the republican presidential nomination. he wants the trial delayed until after the election. >>> a spokesman for special counsel jack smith who is leading the investigation did not comment on trump's claim. he received a target letter. >>> an american soldier facing disciplinary action flees to north korea. he's identifies as travis king. he was just released from a south korean prison where he was held on assault charges. he was on his way to a airport to be sent back to fort bliss in texas and somehow got away from his military escort and r

you will as the judge in the case, eileen cannon has announced that the trial will be held for a 2 week period. beginning on the 20th of may, now the prosecution had wanted the trial to begin. as soon as december, the defense had been arguing strongly that it should be held off until off to the election in november next year. so the judge has come somewhere in between. she's come a little bit off to what the prosecution wanted a little bit before what the defense wanted. one must remember as well, but this particular judge is under intense scrutiny. given an appeal, quote, verdict in terms of previous documents she made which the appeals quote said, was a wellness and gave her the equivalent of a traditional rep on the knuckles. so here she is attempting to split the difference. it seems, but this is not the only legal issue facing donald trump. it's a long list of cases that he's going to be fighting during the campaign season. let's just look in may this year he was convicted of factory and defamation in one trial. now there's going to be another case involving back to the trial on th

well, the judge eileen cannon has been hearing the argument from both sides. the prosecution wanted the trial to start as soon as december. the defense wanted the trial to start off to the elections because they argued very strongly as that to be trial could impact on donald trump's chances during those elections in november. but what she has done is actually split the difference. that's it where she's gone half way between what each side once she's decided that the trial will be set for 2 weeks beginning be the 20th. now that is bang off to the nomination period for the republican candid see it is before the election. so this is going to have potentially a major impact on the election process itself. and like, i know everyone's had to talk about it as an a number of republican candidates have spoken about the whole issue of this trial. but do we yet have a sense of how much this might really impact things for donald trump? let's okay. well it's very difficult to tell because once again, in the whole scenario, since the trunk was indicted on these 58 counts al

tuesday judge eileen cannon will hold a hearing in the case and it will be about how to handle classified information involved in the case. with all of this, i have to catch my breath. how will trump's teams handle this cruel, cruel summer? >> we'll start with cnn's senior legal analyst. we want to start with this "new york times" report of a target letter in the mar-a-lago documents case to this low level trump organization employee. the bigger picture, what does that tell you is going on here? >> it's very interesting. we should not just overlook it. prosecutors send target letters when they believe someone is likely to be a defendant. we know jack smith and his team send target letters. they sent one to donald trump before making him a defendant. this mar-a-lago employee is now a likely not deferent but likely defendant. >> low level may actually mean fruitful. >> low level can make big cases. >> all right. with all this information that we just outlined, and all the questions we now believe special counsel is asking in the elections probe, if they were to make a case against donald tr

an initial hearing, the first time they would go before judge eileen cannon in florida, that would beent in and of itself and it's also where they kick off discussing the classified issues around this case. and walt nada said we can't do it, we need more time, it took a while to get an attorney for him, i'm on trial, we need to delay this. the justice department said there's no reason there should be a delay right now. and it's in the public interest to have things move forward expeditiously here. we're also waiting today for some sort of indication of when trump and walt nada want to have that trial date to be set. the justice department is staking out december right now of this year. we're waiting to see today. they have a deadline. they got to pick a date at some point. >> there's a presidential election cycling under way. in some case this play out the clock kind of strategy is something we've seen in multiple investigations. >> and it adds up. you start early and delay the early things and then the later things, like the trial, end up being later on. >> are they concerned there i

special counsel pushed for in the classified documents case and what trump esteem wanted and judge eileen cannonpliting the difference, donald trump could be going to trial while campaigning. in january the day of the iowa caucuses his several defamation case begins. we could have a good idea by then if he's going to be the republican nominee and if his classified documents trial starts in midway there's possibility trump could have effectively clinched the nomination. that was the month he did in 2016. we are waiting to see if he will be indicted in the january 6 after he got a target letter sunday. here's what his new attorney said in that case. >> there's no need appear in front of any grand jury now and president trump did absolutely nothing wrong the he's didn't nothing criminal. when he saw all these election discrepancies, and irregularities going on he did what any president was required to do. >> john says the first thing that he will ask for are cameras in the courtroom but the odds that happening we are told are close to nil, they don't allow cameras in federal courtroom given the tru

i asked because eileen cannon, the judge here, she seemed sympathetic to trump's lawyers, saying, this timeline that the doj is talking about, it's just too soon. and she seemed to agree with that. the question is, is she going to agree with trump's lawyer that pushing it back indefinitely is okay. >> there's not much time after december, so once december happens, the iowa caucuses opened the nominating process on january 15th. the new hampshire primary is probably a week or two after that, onto south carolina, so the early part of next year, january, february, who knows how long the primary will go, it'll be very busy. it is hard to imagine that he would have time to sit in a trial during that period, we will just have to see how this plays out. obviously the trump team, he's done this and every legal case that he's had. tried to delay, delay, delay. if it's not done by december, it's hard to imagine there being time in the early part of next year. huge conflicts in terms of time. this campaign now is about his legal case. the politics, and the illegal argument sort of are emerging as

. >> and maybe we will find out next week in front of the judge eileen cannon what the start of the trial is nice to see you, renato. sara. >>> the nation is dealing with sweltering heat, and parts of europe is also dealing with dangerous conditions. we will go to rome for the very latest. hey little bear bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm gonna love you forever ♪ ♪ ♪ c'mon, bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ you don't...you don't have to worry... ♪ ♪ be by your side... i'll be there... ♪ ♪ with my arms wrapped around... ♪ trying vapes to quit smoking might feel like progress, but with 3x more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes - vapes increase cravings - trapping you in an endless craving loop. nicorette reduces cravings until they're gone for good. >>> right now, more than 90 million americans are under extreme heat warnings across the country. forecasters are saying that residents avoid the outdoors between 9:00 and 6:00, and basically all day, and forecasts could challenge the all-time high temperature of 117 degrees on sunday. in texas, zoo keepers at the el paso zoo got creative to get the animals cool by making ice pops an

judge eileen cannon will be overseeing the matter. she took some heat.e are going to be a lot of eyes on her tomorrow, at all points through this hearing, because of a prior ruling a few months ago that really got picked apart by the public and an appeals court that seemed to be sort of just a pretty gross mishandling of the law. jack smith overseeing the whole thing. >> everything is supposed to be submitted today, right? so they can proceed. after that, how long does it take for the security clearance process to wrap up and what happens if there's some kind of hiccup for one or both of the attorneys. >> the two attorneys you talked about, one is based in d.c., one is based in florida. those are walt nauta's attorneys. there were a lot of delays that slowed the thing down. now the clearance process, really what they're looking for is, are you fit to handle classified information? usually it takes a few months. but you can expedite one such thing. mine took a few months, but i was never -- >> you were low priority. >> i was low priority. even as a senior

they had a hearing with florida judge eileen cannon. update us on what happened in the courtroom regarding this national security documents case. >> judge cannon pushed back against the justice department and the very speedy timeline. the justice department said they want a trial perhaps as soon as december. they said that it could be ready to begin in december. the trump team has been pushing back. they have asked the judge to not set a trial date. see -- polymer he was in the courtroom today and seems to be of the view that there perhaps will be a trial date that she will be able to set. it could be something that gets pushed back. the trump team is really making the point that they have a lot of litigation and they want to challenge the very nature of the charges that are being brought against them down in the southern district of florida. they honestly raise the issue that the former president got a notification of yet another set of charges. they say that as complications to the preparations that they have to do for this trial that

and shifting to the classified documents case in florida, judge eileen cannon officially has set a trial and that would fall right in the middle of the 2024 primaries for the white house. what do you make of the timing and, i mean, it's obvious the trump team would want to try to delay that but they've already made those attempts to delay it successfully and now the date is in may. >> right. and i don't think that date is set in stone. there could be further delays as well. but, you know, what's interesting is if you're donald trump and you don't think you did anything wrong, why not try to go to trial prior to the election and have that out there for your electorate and your base and so forth and the trial will be in fort pierce where there are a number of people who voted for donald trump in that jurisdiction, but his team seems to want to delay it until after the election. and the evidence in the mar-a-lago case is very strong. and so you would think that his attorneys of donald trump are very concerned about the mar-a-lago case and they keep trying to delay it. >> all right. jeffrey,

still, eileen cannon, the judge, says may is enough time. march 20th is the alvin bragg trial.own show that will be taking place in new york city. so that will take place in may. then iowa done, new hampshire done. we'll be in the middle of primary season. the president will take the spotlight with him to the courtroom. i'm not sure that anybody else still in the frey at that time will be able to get any oxygen. but interesting, too, that two of his attorneys, prosecuting attorneys got berated by the judge for showing up late for a hearing about possibly bringing these charges against the president for january 6. so a little bit of tension. >> martha: never show up late. judges don't like that. guy, you know, there's such irony here, right? you have all of this information coming out about how the fbi said no comment whether or not they knew it was hunter's laptop. they didn't want to get caught up in it. how do you think the american people process this when they see the speed with which this is happening on the trump side and the foot dragging that happened in wray's fbi on t

trump has received a target letter here, we were looking forward to this hearing before judge eileen cannondirectly hearing from the attorneys on both sides of the case, and she has told them, this is the mar-a-lago documents case, to come in with arguments of whether the trial should be delayed or when it should begin, and what do you expect to happen today, and do you see any hints of one way or another of how she should rule? >> i think that she is going to be under considerable pressure given some of the criticism she has had in the past to move this case along in an expeditious fashion. of course, the trump side is going to say, look, we need more time, and this going to interfere with the election, and a number of issues associated with this. the absent some appellant issue with this, three or four months is reasonable amount of time to get ready for the case. i think that though, i talked about it in the past, the classified information procedures act. you seen the trump team saying that we want to see all of the documents, and all of them need to be made public. if the government op

judge eileen cannon rejected the special counsel's request for a faster paced timeline. >> she sure did. and jack smith, he wanted this trial to start in mid-december, much sooner, but cannon also rebuffed trump's legal team's request to delay scheduling a trial date until after the 2024 election, assuming this, of course, doesn't push until after that anyways. remember, trump is facing a total of 37 felony counts in the classified documents case. 31 of counts are for willful retention of national defense information. he's also charged along with aide waltz nauta with conspiring to obstruct justice and making false statements. with us now is cnn senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz and political reporter for axios stef kite. how did the judge settle on this tate? what we should note is yes, it's smack dab in the middle of the political calendar, but it's as primaries wrap up and we should have a sense of who the nominees are. >> judges are going to do what judges want to do. she had the two ask, the justice department wanting the end of december and trump wantiing not to pu

is this going to be the first real test that we have of eileen cannon's chops as a judge over a major criminal case? >> so, it's a really strong reply from jack smith saying that there's no basis here in the law to delay this trial and have no trial date. criminal defendants all the time, most of them have jobs, and most of them have other professional schedules and lives, and that is not a basis to delay a trial and not have a trial date. similarly, one of the arguments that he really eviscerated in his reply was the argument that, well, under the presidential records act donald trump was entitled to these documents -- this is a novel theory. it's not novel. it's baseless. when it's baseless it means it's going to be that much easier for the judge to dispose an it. the discovery, that was another issue he took apart in his reply. he said we've given you everything, the unclassified discovery. we're making available the classified discovery as soon as you fill out the forms giving you clearance, what you haven't done. it's a strong reply. i would expect if judge cannon is following th

so in just a short time we'll find out when judge eileen cannon is also on to that strategy. >> thank you both so much. >>> coming up next, we'll head to capitol hill. members of congress are reacting to the target letter. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. reports" only on msnbc e same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends these services for everyone who lives here. ♪ when the murrays discovered gain scent beads, they fell in love with the irresistible scent. ♪ ♪ huh, huh, so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh. my a1c was up here; now, it's down with rybelsus®. his a1c? gain scent beads it's down with rybelsus®. my doctor told me rybelsus® lowered a1c better than a leading branded pill and that people taking rybelsus® lost more weight. i got to my a1c goal and lost some weight too. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybe

district judge eileen cannon. now the hearing will focus on how the classified documents will be handled and presented in the case due to the highly sensitive information involved. >>> and air national guardsman accused of leaking military documents has asked a judge to be let out of jail awaiting trial. 21-year-old jack teixeira has been in custody since his arrest in april. while he awaits trial for charges under the espionage act. he allegedly shared the documents over the social media platform discord. he pled not guilty to several federal charges. >>> good news if you didn't buy a ticket. no one matched the numbers from last night's powerball drawing. tomorrow's jackpot now grows to a billion dollars. lump sum option is about $518 million. this is only the seventh time in u.s. history that's happened. fair warning though. your chance of hitting the jackpot is one in 292 million. >>> i'm feeling lucky. could be one of us. all right, live outside right now. beautiful morning here in san francisco. taking a live

district judge eileen cannon, whom he appointed to somehow or another consider the fact that he was a candidate and therefore maybe, maybe, maybe his trial should be put off until after the election, that seems to me like special treatment if i have ever heard of it before. but i'm grateful that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are taking at least tax evasion very seriously. i would welcome also a hearing on the former president's history of tax evasion and how long it took to see his tax returns covering ten years and what was the outcome of that decision. you know, the trump organization was hit with 1.7 million in manhattan state court being convicted of a tax scheme. let's be real when we talk about this. this is not just hunter biden. as long as we're saying hunter biden, we forget everything else. again, hunter biden did step forward and say i did not feel taxes in two years and yes, this gun charge i'll take responsibility for. now, i love the fact that we're so much in love with the irs. in fact, speaker mccarthy said when he was elected on the 15th vote that the f

district judge eileen cannon. it will focus on the highly sensitive information involved in the case. >>> and air national guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents asked a judge to be let out of jail. 21-year-old jack teixeira has been in custody since his arrest in april while awaiting trial for carjacks under the espionage act. investigators say that teixeira allegedly shared those documents over the social media platform discord. he pled not guilty to several federal charges similar to former president donald trump's. >>> some good news if you didn't buy a ticket. no one matched those numbers from last night's powerball drawing. so tomorrow's jackpot now grows to $1 billion. lump sum option, that's about $518 million. ing this only the seventh time in u.s. history a lottery jackpot passed the $1 billion mark. your chance of hitting the jackpot is one in 292 million. fair warning though. justin, you are talking more money too. >> yes, we are. >>> happening today, oakland city council wil

here judge eileen cannon split the difference, putting on the calendar a may 2024 trial date.on to the date she also laid out a schedule. all the things, all of the deadlines, all of the hearings that have to happen between now and when this goes before a jury. the trump team said they feel confident that they can get this pushed back until after the election. when you look at that schedule, it is clear how they could make that happen. a delay here, a hearing postponed for a couple of weeks, a filing where they ask for an extension, those weeks and weeks will add up pushing this closer to the election. when you get too close to the election itself it is expected that the justice department would be less likely to want to bring this to trial. historic historically the justice department has tried not to take action that could interfere with the outcome of an election. if trump's lawyers wanted to fight it it would be a constitutional question ripe for the supreme court. amara, victor. >> paula reid, thank you so much. joining me now is andrew mccabe, former director of the fbi

my counter reports is the judge in the case, eileen cannon has announced that the trial will be held for a 2 week period beginning on the 20th of may. now, the prosecution had wanted the trial to begin. as soon as december, the defense had been arguing strongly that it should be held off until off to the election in november next. yeah. so the judge has come somewhere in between. she's come a little bit off to what the prosecution wanted a little bit before what the defense wanted. one must remember as well, but this particular judge is under intense scrutiny. given an appeals quotes the verdict in terms of previous documents, she made which the appeals quote said, was a wellness and gave her the equivalent of a traditional rep on the knuckles. so here she is attempting to split the difference. it seems, but this is not the only legal issues facing donald trump. it's a long list of cases that he's going to be fighting during the campaign season. let's just look in may this year he was convicted of factory and defamation in one trial. now there's going to be another case involving bac

she is being watched very closely. indeed, the judge eileen cannon was appointed by a trumpet back in 2020. and she presided over the case concerning the initial search and seizure. all the documents from trumps, florida. it state, as she actually or the veterans independent executive be brought in to review the documents. this was seen as rather controversial at the time. and subsequently, an appeal court over ruled her judgement and actually rep to very sharply over the knuckles. so she appears to be being very careful in this particular case. what she's done essentially is the prosecution wanted the trial to start in december. the defense wanted to wait until off to the november election next year for the trial to begin. now what she's done is, but the difference, he's basically put it right in the middle. the trial is not scheduled to begin on the 20th of may for a 2 week period. so she's basically gone right between what each side once, what be a prosecution once what the defense once and has gone right down the middle. but there are many other ways in which she can impact on the

so the judge, eileen cannon appears to have split the difference between the 2 parties putting a bang in between what each party wanted. as you say, that's very close to the primary season. obviously the campaign is recreating up, but that particular stage, so this could have a major impact on donald trump's election campaign. should he end up running which all indications all that he will. but there's also a number of other cases that are going to impact on that. so he's facing the federal judge of legal actions, right? it's appears within the nomination and the campaign season. and like, as you alluded to that as he does face the host of other charges, i believe they could also be another grand jury indictment on the horizon. it was yes let's. let's just take it back. he was in may this year he was convicted of a factory and defamation by a journalist called aging carol. she has brought a 2nd defamation case which will be heard on january the 15th next year. then you have got to the city full council falsifying documents in relation to the ledge payment of how much money he has been

i wonder what you make of all the power right now as we wait with bated breath to see what eileen cannon does, the power she has over determining whether we live in a country with two systems of justice, one for trump and one for everyone else. >> i haven't seen charged individuals who are running for president. these aren't absurd arguments being made by his attorneys. there is something special about charging and bringing to trial somebody is presumptively the republican nominee for president. trump himself in 2016 said should hillary clinton be indicted, that might cause something along the lines of a constitutional crisis and she should consider dropping out of the race because it would be that damaging and severe. he's spoken about this exact issue and what he thinks somebody should do only when that person is his opponent. look, i think there is no question that if you can't charge somebody while they're president, if you can't charge someone they're running for the presidency, then what, you have a year and a half window where if there is a broad range of criminality, there is a b