primary race this week including former vice president pence who has just now filed his paperwork all hoping to erase desantis from the poll position and challenge trump for the nomination. and the latest from ukraine as the forces attack russian troops in the east. could president zelenskyy s promised spring offensive be underway? good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in new york. the federal grand jury hearing evidence on former president trump s handling of classified documents is expected to be meeting this week as trump lawyers just departed the justice department. jack smith is believed to be closing in on a decision about whether or not to seek an indictment. if so, mr. trump would be the first ex-president to be charged with a federal crime.
subpoena, but you can respond to the subpoena and then refused to answer questions based on the traditions of the justice department, based on grand jury material, based on an ongoing investigation, based on a range of possible defenses. but he can t refuse to answer questions about the fisa application. those are the kind of questions that i think republicans will be very well prepared to ask. those are the kind of questions that are currently under investigation by theve inspector general whose report we are waiting for. but those are not in any way precluded. so i think that they will regret having called him. look, i m a liberal democrat and i m on the democrat side. laura: we didn t know that. alan: i m trying to stop them from shooting themselves in the foot. what i m also trying to do is protect the americans because as you said, laura if they can do this to the special counsel
white house counsel, obviously, so they can ask questions about that. but no, nobody can defy subpoena, but you can respond to the subpoena and then refused to answer questions based on the traditions of the justice department, based on grand jury material, based on an ongoing investigation, based on a range of possible defenses. but he can t refuse to answer questions about the fisa application. those are the kind of questions that i think republicans will be very well prepared to ask. those are the kind of questions that are currently under investigation by the inspector general whose report we are waiting for. but those are not in any way precluded that. so i think that they will regret having called him. look, i m a liberal democrat and i m on the democrat side. laura: we didn t know that. alan: i m trying to stop them from shooting themselves in the foot. what i m also trying to do is protect the americans because as you said, laura if they can do
he may have had official united states government assistance in removing him from this country. so if the report is revealed and it s made public, never mind the obvious blockbuster story, what impact does that have on grand jury reports, mueller s grand jury reports right now? well, the justice department in this case dating back six decades is taking the position that judges do not have the discretion to release that kind of information. just because historians or scholars might be interested in it or even journalists. the question is how far does that principle go. if the court, d.c. circuit, republican leaning panel that will take up this issue in a few weeks. if they rule judges don t have the authority to release that kind of information it might be difficult for mueller to walk in with a request just a couple of weeks later and ask a federal judge to bless disclosure of information that really doesn t fit within one of the established exceptions to grand
congress is a possibility. if they did that, what would that do? this would have to be officially reported out from the committee. would go before the full house. as we saw in other instances where the house of representatives, the republican house held eric holder, the obama attorney general in contempt of congress, basically said we need you to do these things. he still didn t come and testify. they did provide some documents here and there. there were some cases with the democratic house, with the bush white house, the white house chief of staff at the time, hair yesterday meyers. they worked out an agreement. it was interesting in the bush white house versus the democratic house instance where you had a federal judge basically saying, i m not getting involved in this. you have one co-equal branch of government, the executive branch fighting with the legislative branch so why should i fight? that would produce another impass. shepard: one last thing. on grand jury subpoena, he w