Veteran Former Mueller prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, seem right there back at work Andrew Weissmann. We are teeing off his expertise and legal analysis in his msnbc podcast with mary mccord who is also with us tonight. That is right here on your screen prosecuting donald trump. Before we get in any further, i want to begin with an open question to you that i think is on a lot of peoples minds in all fairness, can defended trump get a fair trial with these primaries approaching . Great question. I would broaden that question out. I would say can the government and the defendant get a fair trial . The answer to that is yes, that is going to put a lot of pressure on the judge in the d. C. Case, in the florida case, in the manhattan case. Its remarkable that were talking about three separate criminal cases and maybe even another one. But its important to know that both sides are need her entitle to a fair trump affair trial. And ultimately what the judge needs to do make sure that a
Jail for several years for counterfeiting one vote. If they try to vote illegally once, he tried to steal the entire election. And his lawyers out there are saying that its just a matter of him expressing his First Amendment rights. And that is deranged. That is a deranged argument. Trumps lawyers also making the case that mike pence will be the defenses, quote, best witness. Today on cnn, pence contradicted lauras take on the Pressure Campaign to block the certification of president bidens election victory. What President Trump did not do is direct Vice President pence to do anything. He asked him in an aspirational way, asking is covered by the First Amendment. In the days before the president was talking about us rejecting votes. And then late in the process, his lawyers suggested that we return votes to the states. But frankly, the day before january 6th, if memory serves, they came back, his lawyers did, and said we want you to reject votes outright. They were asking me to overtur
Glimpse into the defenses lawyers will make on the stand. Here is jonna lauro on meet the press. The defense is quite simple. Donald trump, president trump, believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election. And as any american citizen, he had a right to speak out under the First Amendment. He had a right to petition governments around the country, state governments. Based on his grievances that Election Irregularities had occurred. He had every right to speak about the important issues that were taking place after the election. A technical violation of the constitution is not a violation of criminal law. That is just plain wrong. Except a technical violation of the constitution by definition is still a violation of the constitution. The constitution, in six different places, opposes insurrection and our constitution is designed to stop people from trying to overthrow elections, and trying to overthrow the government. Moments later, democratic congressman jamie raskin respo
Lawyers will make on the stand. Here is jonna lauro on meet the press. The defense is quite simple. Donald trump, president trump, believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election. And as any american citizen, he had a right to speak out under the First Amendment. He had a right to petition governments around the country, state governments. Based on his grievances that Election Irregularities had occurred. He had every right to speak about the important issues that were taking place after the election. A technical violation of the constitution is not a violation of criminal law. That is just plain wrong. Except a technical violation of the constitution by definition is still a violation of the constitution. The constitution, in six different places, opposes insurrection and our constitution is designed to stop people from trying to overthrow elections, and trying to overthrow the government. Moments later, democratic congressman jamie raskin responded to lauro by making th
thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. the beat with ari melber starts now. happy monday. thank you very much. i m ari melber and of all of the important items that begin this week, we have one our office is buzzing about that we are lighting up about, if you will, if you ll take the visual entendre. the man you see there rainn wilson from nbc s hit the office will join us live by the end of this hour and that is some office news. believe me, we think it s worth sticking around for that. the top story of the news, though, is a loss for a trump-era prosecutor who has been trying and failing to find any deep state conspiracy against donald trump after getting his special political assignment from trump attorney general bill barr. i m talking about a special counsel, you may remember, was tapped originally in that trump-barr doj before the biden administration and the project was to investigate the investigators to hash and re-li