i m ari melber. we begin with breaking news. donald trump s federal trial is back on because this court is ruling against defendant trump today. they re green lighting the trial sought by special counsel jack smith. this spruling sets a precedent for holding a former president accountable. we have special coverage we ve been working on since this broke early on the east coast today. we start with the basics. you don t need to be a lawyer or constitutional scholar to understand this. the ruling rejects donald trump s very far-fetched arguments that his job history as president should mean he could never be arrested, indicted or tried for anything related to his time in office. trump s lawyers argued he should basically retain a kind of permanent immunity from the fact he used to be president. the court is rejecting that today. we re going to begin, like i said, with the clarity of this single spare sentence. quote, for the purpose of this criminal case, former president trump