back with us, andrew weissmann and neil katyal.inside the justice department, your experience, your reading o this article >> so, it reall -- it's not something i am lookin forward to saying. i worked in the justic department for over 20 years and it's never fun to criticiz a place where you have dee ties, and real love for th institution. but i actually thought this wa a mayday seeing reporting by the washington post, and i don't think that the answer is to say well, we are where we would have been because i don' think that's necessarily true. i think of the justice department had done its job an look at the evidence clearly when it was presented before them as outlined in th washington post we could'v been a very differen situation. so we are very much in a situation where we are racin against the clock. i'm sure if you ask jack smith that he would say that's certainly true for democrats and people tha believe in the rule of law that delay is something that i has undermined their faith i accountability, and having see somebody he

neil katyal, bradley moss, a national security and former clerk for the national security office. and andrew weissmann, the -- in the eastern division as a professor in practice that nyu law school. and an msnbc legal analyst. neil katyal, i want to begin with you on an issue that has been really capturing a lot of intention and speculation. just this week, when we began to learn that the action in this investigation was shifting, or had shifted to florida, now we know that it has shifted to florida, what does the, what are the venue issues involved? >> yes, so first of all lawrence, i, think before we get of any. with the big picture here is that these charges, to, me are very important step. not just to protect our nation security, but also to preserve the rule of law in america. because the indictment makes clear that no person, not even a former presidents could brazenly disregard the law without consequences. now ruth respective any, with the constitution says that you have to try a crime in the district in which the crime was committed, i certainly think it's possible for ja

neil katyal, bradley moss, a national security and former clerk for the national security office. and andrew weissmann, the -- in the eastern division as a professor in practice that nyu law school. and an msnbc legal analyst. neil katyal, i want to begin with you on an issue that has been really capturing a lot of intention and speculation. just this week, when we began to learn that the action in this investigation was shifting, or had shifted to florida, now we know that it has shifted to florida, what does the, what are the venue issues involved? >> yes, so first of all lawrence, i, think before we get of any. with the big picture here is that these charges, to, me are very important step. first of all, lawrence. not just to protect our nation i think the big picture is that these charges, to me are a very important step not just to protect our nation security but to preserve the rule of law in america. because the indictment makes it clear that no person, not even a former president can brazenly disregard the law without consequences. with respect to venue the constitution sa

solicitor-general neil katyal and also an msnbc legal analyst. neil, thank you for being here to help me understand the theories of the case. well, i think a sense of the theories of the case, but first your thoughts on these two grand injuries and what that signals, how you read those indicators. >> yeah, so jack smith is presenting now what looks like before two grand juries, one in florida and one in washington, d.c. i can tell you the grand jurors in florida, the prosecutors there aren't there to enjoy the weather. they could have impanelled this grand jury for any number of reasons, and it certainly doesn't mean trump is going to be charged in florida or anything like that. what they do think is there's evidence of criminal wrongdoing going on in florida as well as in washington, d.c. now, up until a few weeks ago it looked like this case was heading towards jack smith indicting in florida, but donald trump himself made d.c. seem a lot more likely when appeared on the town hall and said i made all these classification decisions in washington,

joining me now are neil katyal, and barbara mcquade. bothrb are msnbc legal analysts.arb, let me just first talk to you about judge canon's cv and whether or not -- i found it alarming in its lack of breadth and depth on these issues that she's going to be confronting presumably overseeing this case. how did you understand this reporting? what is your assessment of it? >>sm yeah, you know, her credentialsea certainly are muc thinner than most people applying to be federal judges, and 38 is quite young. not to say that a person who's 38 is incapable of doing such an important job. it's just they haven't had the kind of't experience you might like to see in a judge, someone who's been to trial, seen verdicts, seen cases go haywire, all of thees crazy things that n happen in the courtroom to be able to withstand the things lawyers try. sometimes lawyers try to push you, to bully you. and lawyers who have been around for a while i think are better suited to judgeships when they've had that experience.xp she's not the youngest in the nation'syo history. the aba deemed her t

our lead off panel, two of our favorites are here, former federal prosecutor glenn kirschner and neil katyal of justice veteran and former acting solicitor general during the obama administration. neil, what is your reaction to actually hearing this reporting that we've heard so much about and now we've heard donald trump actually saying it all? >> stuff, apart from all the obsequious behavior on the state which is astounding, it is a disgusting tape. i mean, donald trump is charged with illegally retaining 31 very sensitive national security documents. and the tape tonight does two things. first, it explains why did he do it. now, people have said donald trump monetizes everything, and maybe that is true. maybe he was doing this to please some investor or something. i have often felt, and we've talked about this before, what steph, that is something much simpler. i saw this when i was national security adviser at the doj. certain people just like to hold out themselves as being in the know, and having special documents, and stuff like that. and here, trump on the tape says it is so cool. th

visit indeed.com/hire >> we are back with andrew weissmann, bradley moss, neil katyal.some breaking news on the justice department in this case. attorney general, merrick garland, did not approve or sign off on these charges against trump. he and deputy attorney general lisa monaco have been regularly briefed on the case, but his only, role under department of justice, rules he could have blocked any move by special counsel jack smith, that is, quote, so inappropriate or unwarranted, and quote, that it should not be allowed. there is no sign that he did so, he would've had to inform congress. this is reporting from nbc news tonight, attorney general merrick garland did not approve or sign off on these criminal charges against donald trump. andrew weissmann, what's your interpretation of the? >> so, i think what this is, one, it's legally completely consistent with the special counsel rules, as neil is gonna tell us because he was participated in -- them. he's basically insulating the department of justice and the white house from the sort of onslaught that's going to be

want to bring in neil katyal who argued this case in front of the supreme court. great to talk to you. your reaction? >> well, i could not be more pleased. the decision has just come down a few minutes ago and so we're all still studying it, but it looks like a clean win and vindication for my client, common causes' position, which was that over 200 plus years, no one has read the constitution the way that the republican national committee wanted to read it here. and what they wanted to do was gut our system of checks and balances and empower state legislatures to do whatever they wanted in federal elections and, you know, as i suggested at the oral argument to the court, i can't think of something more un-american than that. and so we're really pleased to see six justices agree with our position. and the decision was written by the chief justice. i think it is a reflection of, you know, in looking at the issues and saying, yeah, can't possibly be what the challengers are saying it is here. >> i know you have confidence in the argument you presented in front of th

. >> neil, you are the host of the podcast courtside with neal katyal, and you have a new episode droppingwhere you discuss the supreme court and voting rights. tell us about that. >> basically what i want to do is bring the supreme court and make it alive to ordinary americans. each week i have discussion with a non lawyer like a john legend this week or next week it will be katie couric, in future ones it will be jeff combs the artist or john mullin is a comedian. we just go through one supreme court case in detail and tried to take it really seriously, because i think unfortunately the court has been characterized in a lot of our discourse and we want to methodically go through it, ask what the court is doing, what their moves are, and is it a right and just decision? >> that sounds like a great lineup, i cannot wait to listen. neal katyal thank you so much for being on the program tonight, your podcast courtside is available wherever podcasts are found. you can sign up for a subscription at neal katyal dot substack.com. as you can see our panel, lee carter, -- josh perot and coleman hu

neil. we will discuss that big win later. he's a former acting u. s. general and host a podcast courtside with neal katyal. that's glenn kirschner former federal prosecutor, and host of a podcast. they are msnbc legal analysts. and neal katyal, let me start with you. on the bravado defense, who knew the trump defense would be a spanish word, but here we are. so, he was bluffing,, is his defense, when we hear him say things like they presented me this, and the woman says, wow. she is apparently seeing something that they presented to him, and unless building plans for golf courses can make her say wow, the context seemed to suggest it's classified document involving iran. let's give the trump defense the airing it deserves. take us much time as you need to consider for us the bravado defense. >> okay, you heard me pause for a second. that's about as much as that defense deserves. so, first of all, just on the tape, and you can disregard, which is very deserving, obsequious behavior, the type of people trump surrounded himself but. that tape is disgusting. even if it is true that it is bravado, i was nationa