history unfolding right now. judge juan merchan has finished giving the jury instructions. when that happens, former president trump s fate in his new york criminal trial will be in the hands of the jury. 22 days from opening statements, 22 witnesses took the stand and a marathon length closing argument yesterday particularly from the prosecution. both the defense and the prosecution taking all day long to do that. we ve been following it all together minute-by-minute. reminder on the right-hand side of your screen is the box that gives you some color from the courtroom and play-by-play. we also will wait together to see what the jury decides on the 34 felony counts brought against the former president and current presumptive republican presidential nominee. history making indeed. i m harris faulkner. closing arguments didn t wrap up until almost 8:00. i was on the air as that was happening at 7:55 last night. in total, the jury was listening to nearly eight hours of summatio
In an investigation that implicates either me or my campaign because youre my Attorney General. Its my Justice Department and whats more, you can be a hero to conservatives if youll investigate my vanquished rival. When we meet with parliamentarians from emerging democracies we always urge them when you win an election, you dote seek to jail the losing side. Here our own president of the United States is trying to do exactly that. How big a deal is it fundamentally . Well, its a big deal in this respect. Its further evidence of a corrupt intent on the president s part. Further evidence that he may have violated the law by obstructing justice in the firing of comey. But in other efforts, as well. One of the other disturbing signs we saw just today is the president s announcement that hes going to pardon someone who had violated Campaign Finance laws by surreptitiously exceeding limits. It looks a lot like a message to Michael Cohen who may also be
implicated in exceeding Campaign Limits
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. It is now under way. The director of National Intelligence said in a recent speech that the Warning Lights are blinking red and the Digital Infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack. And here we see the incursions coming. Russian hackers have now already targeted at least three candidates in this years 2018 midterms. Reports one of the targets is missouri democratic senator Claire Mccaskill. So highway donald trump doubts much of this is even occurring, his pentagon chief does say there are secret actions now underway to combat it. What is the government doing to halt russian interference in the next elections . Yeah, im not at liberty to explain what were doing in that regard. Just rest assured there are actions under way to protect our elections or to exposeness
now the question is whether trump lied about the worst possible thing, not the pr afterward, but whether donald trump took actions or
That and whether he can help prove it, thats an open question. We also know on the day that donald trump junior formally accepted that meeting, candidate trump touted the big upcoming speech about hillary clinton. I am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week, and were going to be discussing all the things that have taken place with the clintons. I think you will find it very informative and very, very interesting. Candidate trump did not make that monday speech. As trump now repeats his denials about any advance knowledge of the meeting, it is critical to note this is a meeting that team trump already lied about. His own lawyers often admitting to mueller trump dictated that misleading statement about the meeting originally. First they lied about what happened in the meeting. Then they lied about the defense of the meeting. Which he was choosing to offer,
even though he also claimed he didnt know anything about the meeting. Now the question is whether trump lied ab
A recap of the days news. Truth is a choose your own adventure kind of thing because he cant explain away the following fracts. So listen, write dedown if you have a pen, if you have your phone on record it. So the White House Counsel Don Mcgahn sat down for 30 hours of interviews with Robert Muellers team and the white house doesnt know exact lewhat he said. The fact that in a matter of days the president s former attorney and socalled fixer Michael Cohen could Face Criminal Charges related to possible fraud and Campaign Finance violations. The fact that former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort is on trial on charges that could land him behind bars for the rest of his life if convicted, and the fact that so far the special Counsel Robert Mueller has brought a total of 191 criminal charges against 35 defendants. There have been five guilty pleas. Those are the facts. That is truth. And the president cannot
distract and deflect from that. Facts matter. Now i want to bring in a man w