in our law and just lead, today is the deadline for former president donald trump and his aide to suggest a trial date in that classified document prosecution. the justice department has asked for the trial to begin in mid december. let s turn to some of the most informed voices for everyone in trump legal world. we have kaitlan collins, former federal prosecutor eli hoenig and the new york times maggie haberman. caitlin, i don t know who to start with. it s like a bounty of people. we re hearing jack smith s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results could be coming to a close. what are you hearing about that timeline? it s not totally clear to anyone, especially to the
that will open up a special election in the swing district and it favors democrats which is narrowing a very tight house majority. all of that context extremely important surrounding the reaction on capitol hill. great to see you, manu. john? with us now, eli hoenig, a former federal prosecutor. you ve been in these offices and i ve read it in your book untouchable, available in bookstores now. what is it like to bring charges against members of congress? it is the exact same as to charge anybody else, but the reality is prosecutors will be more careful and doj s internal guidance says if you re going to charge someone in position of power, that will go up higher and higher levels of review than an ordinary person. prosecutors, i believe, have to be more confident in this case than they normally would be in
conservative credentials but also is an accomplished, established, veteran federal prosecutor. both of these appointments to special counsel are about independence and credibility. ultimately though whose decision is it whether or not charges are brought. both special counsels are going to go about their investigations. they re both going to come back to the attorney general. we don t know when. we don t know who will be first. but the attorney general has to give the law says great weight to what the special counsels recommend. he can overrule them. but if so, under the law, the ag has to report back to congress that i overruled the special counsel. eli hoenig and elliott williams. joining me now, cnn political commentator, david urban, who was campaign adviser to the former president. governor dean, are you satisfied with how the white house has handled this situation? well, i think they could have done better. i certainly don t think i would have exposed myself to the pr
trump s tax returns. but it s not anything the public is going to see any time soon and this committee has weeks before they wrap up to decide how to handle anything as well. we re going to talk about these one at a time starting first with the january 6th committee and possible criminal referrals. eli hoenig was a deputy attorney general. if the january 6th committee does go down the path of issuing criminal referrals, how much weight does that have with justice department? what does the justice department care here? the answer is zero. it s simply about political symbolism. it s a request from congress say, hey, d.o.j., we d like to you investigate this. you know how we know that? they re already investigating
i think it s a long shot. i think it s a modest shot. i think it might be why there s lots of sound theories. so, joan, the court doesn t have to take it up. they can sort of ignore it, issue one sentence and seer we re not going to consider this, but initially it s in the hands of justice clarence thomas, because he s assigned the eleventh circuit. did you explain to people how the court will design, and frankly from your deep knowledge of the court and this court. do you think they ll take it up? on the one hand they don t want to be viewed as getting in the political weeds, but as eli hoenig said, this is why the a court exists to determine this