so here this, now for more on this breaking news, former us attorney harry litman now, harry, thanks for jumping on with us. we don't yet know officially what this ruling will be on by the supreme court. but why does it make sense to you that this is what the justices could rule on tomorrow? >> you know, omar, it's a cloistered and very traditional institutions. so when they do things a little different, it really stands out here. there are two things they've done different. first, they've made an abrupt announcement. we're going to release opinions monday. typically, they would have said the last time they were on the bench that this is the next time we'll announce opinions second, they are not going to be there. it's not one of their scheduled hearing date. and that too, is quite unusual for the release of opinions. so those are pretty glaring facts and departures from normal practice and you add to that that march 5 is not super tuesday as well as the date and colorado and their desire perhaps to clear up any uncertainty before voters go to the polls. and it all states a very stro

harry litman is now a senior legal affairs columnist for the los angeles times. tremely procedurally complicated just to throw that out there in terms of what the status of the law is. talk us through what the court did today. >> right, look it is and it isn't. what the court did was say we're going to let texas have its way even as we determine if their law is constitutional, and as you say, chris, it's flatly against the supreme court ruling, the arizona case. nevertheless, the procedural nicety you're talking about is two justices said well, this is an administrative stay which means basically a stay to consider whether to grant a stay that the 5th circuit entered without any kind of reasoning, and we don't normally review those. it's questionable whether they don't normally review, but the bigger answer is so what! this is the supreme court of the united states, they've left the situation on the ground that texas can violate current constitutional law, and that means possible, um, chaos in the field between federal and state agents. it means possible aggregati

i'm going to bring in our national political correspondent, mara lieson, and harry litman and joyce vanceyce, first to you. the bond reduction today, how does the court justify that? and why did letitia james say donald trump still owes nearly a billion dollars? >> right. so here's the problem. when we think about these sorts of appeals bonds, the numbers are sky high and we don't always stop to account for what they're supposed to do. this bond is donald trump's promise that he'll be able to pay the judgment is he loses on appeal. in essence, the people of new york say, you have a right to take an appeal. you can do that. but we are entitled to collect our judgment. this is trump's way of saying, no, all's good. i believe i might win my appeal, but i'm willing to pay this money to show i'm willing to comply with the rule of law. that's the problem here. donald trump is not willing to comply with the rule of law. in my judgment, it was a mistake for the court to reduce this amount of money because even if he pays $175 million in cash into the court fund, it won't secure the entire judgmen

attorney harry litman. so lisa, what exactly is this hearing about today?se, we have a number of motions regarding the indictment that still haven't been dealt with by judge scott mcafee. that's in large part because for over two months, judge mcafee was dealing with the motion to disqualify d.a. fani willis. the motions today go to president trump's assertion of his first amendment rights, and in particular saying that the allegations in the indictment go to his right to have core political speech that they are trying to criminalize, his right to say that the election was stolen from him, but are not themselves emblematic of criminal conduct on his behalf. >> and lisa, where does the case stand now? i mean, we were unsure if this was going to continue some time ago. >> we were, and jose, we were also unsure if it continued who it would continue with. now that we know that d.a. willis remains in control of the case, we will get to a point where she will ask judge scott mcafee to set a trial date. so far she has insisted that one trial should happen of all d

i want to bring in harry litman, former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general during the clinton administration. matthew dowd is senior msnbc political analyst. nbc's vaughn hillyard has been following this case for us. and lisa rubin is an msnbc legal correspondent. both vaughn and lisa are here with me on set. okay, harry, please explain in more detail about why the judge said these charges had to go, because in legalese, i'm going to read it again, he said, "the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is fatal." what happened here? >> okay. the essential legal element is how exactly they violated their oath of office. so in these six counts it says that defendants tried to push them to violate their oaths of office. mcafee says look, their oaths of office say one thing only, i'll follow the u.s. and georgia constitution. that's a really big document, and there could be hundreds of ways that you could violate it, and if they're not sure they can't prepare their defense. in the federal system a

. >> let's bring in harry litman and reporter susan craig and host of politics nation here on msnbc andal sharpton. he's walking back this idea that he would spent some of the $500 million in cash on this saying this doesn't mean i'm going to a rogue and incompetent judge, meaning the judge engoran an they can't take away your property because -- before you have a chance to appeal. what is he talking about? >> he could try to fight it legally, but guess what, it is not up to him. if the -- the judgment was entered 30 days ago, tish james automatically has a piece of paper to go after his properties unless the court enters an if order before monday. so that is just the way it is. so it is not his call. but i do think that it redoubled his resolve to do anything, anything rather than let tish james put the metaphoric lock on 40 wall street and that is something that we need to be concerned about. because there are possible scenes why a billionaire here or there steps up. we know he's trying to make that happen in the truth social ipo. but billionaires don't step up for free and it would r

attorney and former deputy assistant attorney harry litman, and former republican congressman and msnbclyst, david jolly, and with me at the table, senior executive editor at bloomberg, and msnbc political analyst, tim o'brien is here. bankruptcy, it would be the seventh time, i think, trump declared bankruptcy, an option he doesn't want right now, though the post reporting a bankruptcy filing could delay for months or years the requirement that he pay the judgment. a federal judge could be charged with the time consuming task of determining how and when each of his creditors, including the state would be paid. that sound like a win for trump, given his desire for delay. >> it's a win for the old trump. i don't think for the current candidate trump, he's done it, as you say, half a dozen times in the past. it freezes the line backers, more like for years, while everything is sifted through. it gets all the pressure off. he runs the campaign. i think there's a political close to imperative not to do it. the other thing he doesn't want to do is having tish james decide what she's going to

joining us now, harry litman.ork ag look at first to seize? what are you hearing? >> she will probably start with the easier to get assets. start with things like brokerage accounts,accounts, cash or stocks. if she moves to seize physical property, that's more complicated. but she may start with trump's share in a large office building on sixth avenue in new york city. some other things where you wouldn't have to physically roust him from the building or his employees. you could just take over his share. she could look at trump tower, office buildings that are valuable that he owns all or a share of in new york city. >> there's a report on bloomberg that she might look at some of his westchester properties, a golf course, a mansion. >> that would be fitting. that golf course played a big role in the lawsuit, the fraud allegations that led to this judgment. >> donald trump's attorneys are now taking issue with a filing from james yesterday in which she said that he should turn over his real estate if he cannot secu

they have to prove to this, judge >> but we also have former deputy assistant attorney general, harry litman with us. it appears that proceedings are soon to get underway, so we'll cut to what harry quickly your impressions of these arguments from the defense >> yeah. they are just very long on accusations of romantic activity, but very short on what they need, either financial conflict of interests. it's interesting point that we're just raised about this 100 dollars, but that's not the same as what you need to say. there's a bona fide financial conflict of interest and that's why they're doing it. i think laura's discussion just just showed why that's so tenuous. and then otherwise in some way, what if you don't have confidence in her, judge, or maybe you don't credit everything she said. that also is not the standard. so i think bag basically, they've they've been very salacious and tough on fani willis, but haven't presented anything to really give mcafee or reason to actually disqualifier, which is a very extreme move obviously. >> all right, harry, stick with us, laura, stay with us. l

harry litman and andrew weissmann who is the co-author of "the trump indictments, the historic charginguments with commentary." ken, you have been reading the lines we are getting from inside the court. the hearing is expected to last most of the day. what are the highlights so far? it's a requirement that donald trump show up. i think it's significant. is any ruling expected from judge cannon? >> reporter: not clear whether she will rule. the most significant thing about today is that judge aileen cannon decided to hold a day-long hearing on these 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 arg

and harry litman, former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general.r let's start with you. willis stays on the case. what are your big takeaways? >> that's the number one take away. but the number two take away is she really absorbed some real haymakers from mcafee and that's not going to go away. mcafee and she together have given trump and company, but georgia republicans in general, it's a real mixed brew of politics down there. a club to beat her with and they will continue to do so. nt you may have the feel from the opinion that kind of puts this n to rest. i don't think it does and i think we are going to continue to hear trump and others shouting from the rooftops about the soundbites that mcafee has supplied.db the owner is not afraid of it as much as it would appear. >> you agree with andrew wiseman? even though she can stay on she can voluntarily recuse herself to get all of this noise out of the case. >> did he say that? he is one smart guy. the truth is, i do. when you think about it f

. >> harry litman, thank you very much. >> thanks, chris. >>> that's all in on this tuesday night. alex wagner starts now. >>> thanks at home for joining us this hour. staff sergeant gonel was one of many capitol police officers brutally beaten by rioters during the insurrection on january the 6th. months afterwards he testified to the january 6th committee quote, my fellow officers and i were punched, pushed, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants, and even blinded with eye damaging lasers by a violent mob who apparently saw us law enforcement officers dedicated to, ironically, protecting them as u.s. citizens, as an impediment in their attempted insurrection. i vividly heard officers screaming in agony and pain just an arm's length from me. i too was crushed by the rioters. i could feel myself losing oxygen, and recall thinking to myself this is how i'm going to die. trampled defending this entrance, end quote. because of the injuries he sustained on january 6th, the star sergeant had to retire from the force. but in some ways, he's still reliving that day. just yesterda

joining us harry litman. john and basil are still here. harry, what does this mean?>> not a whole lot, nicolle. it's at the margins. there's six counts in which the defendants have alleged to have the georgia, photo, violate their oath of office. and mcafee says look at the oath of office, it basically says i'll comply with the constitution. it's hard to know what aspect of that, there could be a thousand ways to violate it. in the federal system it would be a nothing berger, where you could give a list of particulars, here's the clause, there's the provision. but in georgia, it doesn't have the option, owe his only option was to throw it out. in terms of what she does now, i think it's probably a good ruling that will hold up on appeal. and would she go into a grand jury and do it all over again? big time implications, my best guess, she'll just swallow and it and take the clause of those six counts and as you say, doesn't really change anything else essential about the case, especially the rico count. and even the conduct, the call to raffenspergerraffensperger, s

. >> claire, harry litman called this case, quote, a body blow to trump. titans of commerce don't tend to cough up huge judgments or ask anyone's permission to write a check. the extent to which the trump brand has been propped up by lies has always been up to question. now it's propped up by even less. claire, putting the money piece aside, could you see this as something that's a bit embarrassing? just a little bit embarrassing? because it flying into the face of this mogul image. how is that. >> it doesn't take a professional psychologist or psychiatrist to say with some uncertainly this is a deeply insecure man. he's spent his whole life trying to prove to everyone he is better. whether it's gold on his toilets, or ostentacious. this is interesting, because the emperor wears no clothes. he doesn't have enough cash assets to secure an appeal on bond. he's had more businesses fail than most people would ever dream of even starting in his lifetime. so many ventures that have gone under and people left in his wake with no money, but now he's in a court fil

attorney and deputy assistant attorney general harry litman, basil's back with us. we're all so -- not conditioned to the line, but we've seen it before. i think 35,000 lies told by trump, according to "the washington post" lie tracker, by the end of his first term. talk about how lying to the government is different, harry. >> yeah. look, for his whole presidency he woke up lying and lied all day. but this is not about lying. the -- the indictment as smith actually points out in another case, you can tell falsehoods, that's not what he's being prosecuted for. it's obstruction and conspiracy and the rico count. you know, when they badger pence to -- with false -- with lies about his powers, it's not that they're false, it's that they're trying to get him to obstruct the election. when they badger election officials with false claims, it's not that it's false, it's that they're trying to obstruct and keep george -- get georgia to overturn the rival results. so it's a very routine, old argument, and judge chutkan in particular sort of word for word including the main

joining our conversation, former deputy assistant attorney general harry litman is here and former actingnd msnbc legal analyst mary mccord is here. rick is still with me at the table. mary, let me ask you, jack smith's paper tells us most of what we know and from his paper and filings, he seems to be calling bs on all of trump's moves and arguments. is that a fair read? >> i think in legal terms that's what he's doing but using different verbiage and it had to be said. i mean, some of these motions, the motion to dismiss based on presidential immunity is based on an argument that mr. trump while he was president designated all of these classified documents as personal and, therefore, that was within the scope of his official acts that he should have immunity for. so you don't even have to get to the question, says jack smith, of whether a president, a former president is ever immune from criminal prosecution for official acts because it's ludicrous to think that what he's charged with here was part of his official act. he's charged with retaining classified information, not classified in

harris is in minnesota today. you could be in a blue state with democrats controlling the state, have all the protectionious think you need, but it matters who's sitting in the white house. leah litmanor this chariot ride into darkness. i appreciate your time. >>> still ahead tonight, would you be interested in purchasing a donald trump nft? how about some gold sneakers? what about a brand new smile? donald trump and christie noem sure hope you're interested. i'll discuss governor noem's contributions to the great maga grift next. s to the great mag grift next liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. that's great. i know, i've bee telling everyone. baby: liberty. oh! baby: liberty. how many people did you tell? only pay for what you need. jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ baby: ♪ liberty. ♪ shop etsy until april 15th and get up to jingle: ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 30% off thoughtful pieces made by real people to brighten your home. save on lighting, furniture, gifts and more. when you need 'just the thing' to make your space feel like new... etsy has it. (psst! psst!) ahhh! with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily gives