morning joe starts right now trump indicted the first ever criminal indictment of a former president of the united states came down yesterday when a new york city grand jury convened by the manhattan district attorney s office took the unprecedented step of voting to charge donald trump. because the indictment is under seal, the exact charges are unknown, but we do know they center around that $130,000 payment trump allegedly made to porn star stormy daniels just days before the 2016 election, to keep her silent about an affair she claims the two had a decade earlier according to the star witness in the case, trump s own former lawyer, michael cohen, the trump organization tried to cover up the payment, falsely claiming it was a legal expense. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is friday, march 31st along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of way too ea early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire the host of politics nation, presid
you can see a scenario, and hopefully we re not in this scenario, of course, mika, but where if there is violence, if there are people gathering that seems violent, the president could call for calm. maybe ask for republicans to do that with him. maybe that s wishful thinking, but there are people like senator mcconnell who has been quiet to date. maybe others will have a moment of stiffening their spine. we ll see. but that would be the moment he would go out and speak publicly. otherwise, if i were advising them, i would advise them to stick in the same frame as leader schumer and speaker pelosi, which is just reit reiterating the value and respect for the rule of law in our country. the importance of letting the legal process play itself out. that is defending and respecting that fundamental baseline of our democracy. that s where they need to really stay if they can reverend al, we would love for you to tell us more about alvin bragg, the d.a. who has been the target of death
how mature we are as a democracy that believes in liberty under law. i don t know how we re going to do. yeah. fair enough. reverend al, maybe you can provide some insight on the prosecutor alvin bragg, this is a man who, to the consternation of people who voted for him, to the consternation of his own prosecutors, refused earlier to charge trump because he didn t believe they had enough on trump. his prosecutors were so angry, they went to the times and talked about how they had trump dead to center, but he just didn t have the counsrage, the power, the strength to go after donald trump even went out a wrote a book about it yet, here we are with alvin bragg being, well, threatened,
i m so confused willie, no man is above the law, but, in this case, donald trump is above the law that s the argument they have to make no man is above the law, except for a failed reality tv show host who said, let s terminate the thing is, they re saying it about this case now then watch them say it about the georgia case then watch them say it about the documents case if indictments come there. then watch them say it about the january 6th case whichever of those cases may come, they re always going to defend the failed reality tv show host over the rule of law, over the constitution, over the military, over the intel community, over american colleges, over every institution that s made this country great
up soupporting bragg. this was the same alvin bragg that would not prosecute trump a year ago and was heavily a i t attacked by many on the left and many in the media. he is deliberate he didn t do it at that time, felt there was no case one must suspect there are factors we don t know that made alvin bragg, a year later, take this step. we will not know that until this indictment is unsealed and we go to trial but alvin is not manipulated by anybody and motivated by politics. joins us now, lecturer in law at colombia law school, caroline plese, a defense attorney. from palm beach county, florida, dave aronberg joins us, as well. good to have you both. dave, thanks so much for, first of all, being in touch with me the past couple days you ve given me the heads-up you said, look at the space with weisselberg.