You often do not hear this Attorney General pushing back against the president. Sessions may not be the only loyalist that the president is concerned about. Nbc news has confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that federal prosecutors have granted immunity to this guy youre looking at, david pecker. The Chief Executive and chairman of American Media, which publishes the national enquirer. Hes a longtime friend of President Trump. Joining me now is nbc news investigations reporter, tom winter. Also with us by phone is msnbc contributor and vanity fair special correspondent, gabe sherman, whos out with a new piece, Trumps National enquirer allies are the latest to defect. Gabe, let me start with you. What do we know about the immunity for david pecker and what that means . Well, ali, you know, two things on an legal level, this shows that prosecutors had enough to put pressure on david pecker and American Media for their role in essentially becoming a de facto arm of
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msnbc analyst and coauthor of russian roulette and glen kirschner. let me begin with you and kick things off with trying to evaluate if you can the president s state of mind with the way he s been tweeting, the way he s been lashing out, the way he s been going after nancy pelosi, his lack of understanding how the impeachment process works, even fielding that question there from the report about vladimir putin denying something he cleary said. what do you make of his state of mind right now? you know, anger is kind of president trump s thing. i mean, i don t think we ve ever seen him pensive or contemplative or thoughtful or shy. but it seems like this is really weighing on his psyche. it does seem like nancy pelosi is playing him at this point. it seems like he s desperate not just to win an acquittal but for people to announce that he s innocent and he s exonerated. but, you know, i was reminded of when i was trying cases the more
analyst, the co author of russian roulette. and glen, let me kick things off with trying to evaluate, if you can the president s state of mind with the way he s been tweeting, lashing out, going after nancy pelosi and the understanding of how the impeachment process works and fielding the question about vladimir putin denying something he clearly said. what do you make of his state of mind right now? anger is sort of president trump s thing. i don t think we ve seen him pencive or thoughtful or shy. but it seems like this is really weighing on his psyche. it does seem like nancy pelosi is playing him at this point. seems like he s desperate, not just for an acquittal, but for people to announce that he s innocent and he s exonerated.
there are a set of laws and rules that we all know that don t get changed in the middle of trial. we know what the evidence rules are. we know what due process is. the courts have analyzed it and it s set there. the other thing of course is the jury is very different. in a trial we have voir dire. we have a system to make sure that there are fair and impartial jurors who judge the facts and the law solely on what s presented to them in the court. and that s not how our impeachment process works. well, karen on voir dire that allows you to question the jurors and get rid of ones that aren t fit to be in the trial, i think americans would have plenty of views of who they would eliminate if we had that view for the senate right now. yeah. i think that s true. that s what i meant. there is a fundamental difference in how the actual trial is meant to occur in the senate versus what a trial is in a criminal process. they re very different. the trial in the senate, we also
academics representing scholastic viewpoints to expound on the removal of a duly-elected president. i think she is talking about making this clear. you had adam schiff tying it all together at the end. here we have a bit of a diversion. we are getting to the heart of it, how the impeachment process works. but in communicating that to the american people, something is lost by phoemoving off that fac. it might take away from the case itself. i m not even sure it s a diversion. i see this very much in a linear sense. i feel like the intelligence committees were in a way a trial of donald trump. all of this came out about what he did. there was this plot for months and months. gordon sondland and everything. now they are going to the sentencing phase in a certain respect. is what he did bad enough to warrant the ultimate punishment