segment. i m going to tell you what else we have coming because we are tracking a separate a new criminal subpoena for trial lawyer rudy giuliani. there s also some signs of the january 6th probe is breaking through with independence and the younger tiktok crowd. michael steele will be here for a segment that we hope will be as sharp as it is viral. perhaps. tiktok reference. by the end of the hour, we will be talking bob dylan, barack obama and kurt cobain with the right icon you see. the one and only dave grown on the beat tonight for our special mavericks interview. you might say the energy is contagious. here we are now. entertain us. but it s too early in the broadcast for lyrics. even for the beat. so let s just get to this top story. judgment day for steve bannon. the prosecution resting after calling the witnesses that they say will prove this and send him to prison. we will get into this with mr. gerstein as i mentioned but there is a method to the speed of the d
reporter: i don t think they were that surprised that the prosecution had indicated that it really didn t plan more than maybe two or three witnesses total all along. they ve always been saying this is a very simple case. bannon was upset a little bit earlier in the government s case when there was discussion about this meeting his lawyer had. he seemed to feel it was dirty pool for an fbi agent to be testifying about his lawyer s meeting with prosecutors from the u.s. attorney s office and what he said and what he didn t say. but the judge allowed the testimony. i could see that bannon was shaking his head. he was turning a little red in the courtroom, but within minutes, he was out on the steps doing his thing once again. not showing he d been knocked off his stride at all. you re someone who has that front row seat. you see the difference between that brash presentation we are getting day after day in the newspapers and what have you, and what s happening in court. as i will rem
it is so hard to predict the mind of jordan. rated r. strohm i thank you so much for letting us into your home is during these extraordinary times. the beat with ari melber starts right now. strohm i thank you to you. we begin with breaking news. in a clear display of legal confidence that we can report tonight, the justice department is formally resting his criminal case against trump aid, steve bannon. this is a very deliberate legal strategy and we have it covered for you. they called only two witnesses or prosecutors laying out the case in just two days. that s fast, even for simple case. political josh gerstein with inside the courtroom. he s been covering all of this and has first and reporting from outside the court about all of this including the late- breaking news. he joins me in a moment in the
we will get into this with mr. gerstein as i mentioned but there is a method to the speed of the doj prosecutors. they are conveying to these jurors that this is a complex case the only two witnesses to prove it. one was the fbi agent who spoke out today and shredded what may have been one abandons only defense is if you re following the facts. is the claim that we reported on last night. bannon s lawyers say that benin wanted to cooperate and this was somehow a misunderstanding. well, today, this agent who i can now report is half of the entire witness block of the prosecutors, this agent said under oath that benin s lawyer was informed of the deadline for the subpoena the whole time and never even claimed or mentioned that he or his client were confused about it. so that s what the defense had to deal with. it backs up testimony that congress officially warned bannon which we know he went ahead and did. prosecutors are pushing evidence that bannon knew what
as promised, we ari melber really the perfect guest we can get. josh gerstein, legal affairs reporter for politico . he has had many scoops in a stay if you re watching the news. you have probably washed them on the news before. today we ve been covering this from inside the courtroom today. welcome to the beat, serve. reporter: hey ari, good to be back with you. tell us about resting the case this faster how did this play out in the room? reporter: it was pretty abrupt, the fbi witness stephen hart was on the stand i would say, for only 15 or 20 minutes on me. he was second prosecution witness and after a very brief examination and cross- examination, a couple of questions about a proper session. bannon s attorney made where there didn t seem to be any mention that bannon didn t know there was a deadline or was looking for an extension. they posted a couple of gutter