thanks for joining us. fear not. nicolle will be back tomorrow. the beat with ari melber starts rite now. hi, ari. thanks so much. i m ari melber. after all this breaking news coverage of trump s indictment we have been at the table. all of our colleagues following this. tonight we turn from this fast fluid first draft of history to a wider view of how history may absorb this historic precedent breaking week, because tonight pulitzer prize winning journalist bob woodward who you see on the right will analyze what you see on the left. he s known for best selling books, including about now defendant donald trump. he is our exclusive guest tonight on the beat. we begin as the nation absorbs the fallout of something many thought was impossible, even recently, something donald trump said would roil the country, the former president arrested by the same government he once ran. that was yesterday. jack smith spoke out through his filing, through his team in court, and today
the. i am ari melber. i will be joining you now for the next two hours of a special holiday edition of the bee tonight on this friday december 29th. donald trump s criminal trial several looming in 24. that s where we begin tonight, and we ll do it a little different tonight here for the holidays. i have former federal prosecutor joyce vance, already with me to start the show. we are looking at this legal heat coming up. i want to get into this with the, joyce, but first show you and every something we put together to consider the historic indictments on the road that donald trump has already been on. donald trump has been indicted under seal of the new york grand jury. 34 felony counts of falsified business records. we have one set of laws in the country that we apply to everyone. this will now be months if not the next year of our lives. the former president was placed under arrest on charges brought by the government he once led. the guy running for president
developments just coming in in the last 90 minutes or so, including the huge shake-up involving trump s defense team. about 90 minutes ago we learned two of his attorneys resigned. they were part of the team that met with jack smith on monday and trusty has been defending the former president on tv nearly every day since, including this morning. he will be represented by todd blanche. we learned trump is not the only one being charged. he has learned that his former valet is facing charges. he was a military valet in the white house. appearing to confirm a report in the wall street journal and remembered that he had come under scrutiny under shifting accounts of whether or not he had moved boxes of documents at the former president s urging. in the last hour, nbc news has confirmed that judge aileen cannon will be overseeing the case. it caused months of delay for prosecutors after the mar-a-lago search. decisions that were ultimately overturned in a scathing ruling by
good evening. happy holidays. welcome to the beat. i am ari melber. i ll be joining you the next two hours for a special holiday edition of the beat. donald trump has a criminal trial problem. he has several trials looming in 2024. that s where we begin tonight. we ll do it a little different for the holidays. former federal prosecutor joyce vance with me to start the show. we re looking at this legal heat coming up. i want to get into this with you, joyce, but first show you and viewers something we put together to consider tonight, historic indictments on the road donald trump has already been on. donald trump has been indicted under seal by the new york grand jury. 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. we have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. this will now be months if not the next year of our lives. the former president was placed under arrest on charges brought by the government he once led. the guy who s running for
epstein. a second day talking to investigators. abc reporting after several hours of questions, he s back for more prosecutors looking at his conversations and interactions with trump attorneys like giuliani and john eastman, and trump himself the washington post has reported that epstein s speak to trump in the current era as many as five times a day. which means there is a lot linking him and the former president in ways that these investigators are interested in. as for the names, they re familiar, because they are part of the controversial set of advisers who were helping try to normalize, see the ground for, or execute on a coup plot. all of them, the three i just mentioned have been recommended for criminal prosecution by the january 6th committee, which was serving in the last congress abc also reports that smith personally sat in on part of epstein s interview thursday he, as the leader of this investigation, did not lob any questions, which would be typical, but he