justice. plus, joe biden s primetime punch. the president tonight will use a national address to warn republicans are actively working in his view to undermine american democracy. and sarah palin loses in her alaska comeback attempt. a democrat won the special house election. so did advocates of what is called rank choice vote. a first for us, though. a court showdown next hour over the fbi s search of donald trump s mar-a-lago. the justice department says it did everything by the book and that its investigation should continue full speed ahead. team trump, though, is objecting and asking a judge to name a special master. that s an independent third party to review the materials taken from the former president s hotel, home and office. the hearing is before a trump-appointed judge who is already on record leaning in favor of a special master. team trump last night responded to a detailed government filing asserting that trump had no standing to ask for a special master and as
trump lawyer jim trusty described the battle over whether the documents were kept as comparable to a dispute over to an overdue lie b. the judge indicating if she appoints a special master, she may still allow the intelligence community to review the seized documents as part of a damage assessment. prosecutors, meantime, arguing the special master was unnecessary and saying trump s team has offered no evidence there was any disregard for the former president s rights. as the judge asks, what s the harm in appointing a special master. beyond the courtroom, trump it s not like this was some sinister plot. reporter: insisting whatever happened at mar-a-lago was the result of hastily packing up to leave the white house. you accumulate a lot of stuff over a term and all of a sudden you re leaving and stuff gets packed up and sent. reporter: trump s team down played the documents found in his home and club, without denying they were classified. saying, simply put, the n
the fbi s search of mar-a-lago. the department has until noon today to release it. the affidavit lays out why investigators believe there was probable cause that crimes had been committed. in his order judge bruce reinhart said the justice department made a good argument for why portions of this document behind this search should remain shielded saying, quote, disclosure would reveal the identities of witnesses, law enforcement officers. the investigation s strategy, scope, methods and grand jury information. the judge agreeing with the justice department s decision to cut as we learn new details about trump s strategy or lack thereof and the legal advice he is getting from a conservative activist. privately the president and some of his allies have become concerned about the legal fallout. joining us now former federal prosecutor ellie honing. bring us up to speed on what documents we have seen and haven t seen and the one today. john, by the time this is all over ever
him. so if you watched garland carefully, his press conference the other day, you may have noticed that he appeared highly annoyed by the idea of having to stoop to explain himself to mere citizens. he found a solution. being a liberal, merrick garland s first instinct was to seize the role of victim, because when you re a victim you ve already won the argument. you don t have to explain yourself. you don t have to change your behavior. you re by definition the good guy. the victim always is. being oppressed means never having to say you re sorry. so as garland explained in the press conference, the fbi was the victim. mean old fox news was asking unfair questions, and that s wrong. the real problem isn t that america s most powerful law enforcement agency is corrupt, no, the real problem is the people have dared to complain about it, and they must stop immediately or else they re domestic terrorists. as gary put it with genuine outrage, i will not silently stand by as the in
trump that the classified materials found at malignancy s found at malignancy h . at had been declassified. the fbi is on high alert following an attack at a field office and a wave of violent threats online from trump supporters. two republicans who have been critical of the former president face serious challenges from candidates who support him in tomorrow s gop primaries. good morning. and welcome to way too early. on this monday, august 15th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your week with us. one week after fbi agents desend on the home of former president donald trump, threats against federal law enforcement officials remain high. three senior officials tell nbc news that the fbi and department of homeland security issued a joint bulletin on friday, warning of the increase in violent rhetoric. the five-page document reportedly advised officials to remain cautious and vigilant facing threats. last week an alleged trump supporter was killed in a confron