have a trial at all, and then hopefully get elected and then make the case go away and try to pardon himself, et cetera. i think there s also this question, if you look at the brief, about speed and get it to go quicker. i think the d.c. circuit is going to do that. i agree that the decision is probably written already. there was a really important line, every oral argument ends essentially with a judge asking what do you want us to do? what your prayer for relief. trump s attorney says either allow immunity or allow us the time to appeal higher. in other words, chief justice roberts, get your pen ready. we know that s exactly what the trump legal team has wanted. then it becomes the question of how quickly do they move. it s a question of timing, everything we have been talking about. so much more to get tod toda and talk about. this was a hugely significant day in our courts. thank you for joining us for a wild three hours. so glad to have laura to break down the legalesese.
deal of what happened on january six, 2021. thanks for starters, to television cameras and our own eyes, then a detailed impeachment prosecution of donald trump, and then, finally, an exhaustive congressional investigation by the house january six committee. however, this new indictment by jack smith details even more incriminating information that the public did not see. i want to walk you through what we knew was happening in public, versus what we know now what s happening behind closed doors on january 6th. at the time, we knew that the stop the steal rally was happening in washington, d.c.. blocks away from the capital building. donald trump was billed as the keynote speaker. the rally began at 11 again. we now know that in the morning, as crowds of trump supporters gathered for the rally, the indictment says quote, an agent of the defendant, that s trump,
fairly. that s constitutional law. that s not an issue of criminal activity. so a lot of people look at this, errol, and say trump of trump s lawyer just said that trump ordered the code red, right? that s trump s lawyer saying, yeah, he asked mike pence to pause the whole election. the indictment says he asked mike pence to pause the election and he couldn t do that. that s what the whole case is about. yes, he basically acknowledged that what is in the indictment factually speaking is true. he s suggesting that it s okay or he s got a constitutional argument that he s going to make that somehow it was within the scope of the president s powers. that is a very risky strategy but frankly at least it lines up with the facts. it s not like this kind of speculative notion that they somehow won the election, at least now we re getting closer to the truth which is what a trial is supposed to generate. i guess so, but, nick, when you listen to what mike pence
claims. five appears to be kenneth cheeseboro. he s the attorney who mapped out the scheme to set up fake slates of electors. currently a matter of debate and somewhat unclear who number 6 is. number 6 is described as a, quote, political consultant who helped implement a plan for a fraudulent slate of electors. it is chock full of new details. according to doj donald trump offered jeffrey clark the job of acting ag and clark accepted. the indictment says this, quote, on the afternoon of january 3rd co-conspirator 4, meaning jeffrey clark, spoke with a deputy white house counsel believed to be pat philbin. the previous month the deputy white house counsel had informed the defendant, that s trump, that, quote, there is no world, there is no option in which you do not leave the white house on january 20th.
antiquity. this is such a tight case. the evidence is so overwhelming. again, that s trump s old lawyer. we are also keeping a cool s eye on special counsel jack smith s next move in the 2020 election interference. case this week his office met with trump s attorneys but so far there has been no indictment. with that, let s get smarter with our lead off friday night panel. i want to start with the next national editor of the washington post, pulitzer prize-winning journalist our friend phil rucker, glenn thrush joins us, justice department reporter from the new york times, an msnbc legal analyst, mary mccord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the doj. mary, you ve got to help us here. looking at this new indictment, what do you notice about jack smith s case there wasn t so obvious before? i think there s two main things. the first indictment recounted