investigation, and the right to refuse to give those classified documents to the special master for review. the appeals court said that the district court abused its discretion. judge cannon abused her discretion, and she did it to help donald trump based on nothing that exists in american law. the appeals court said the district court made no mention in its analysis as to why or how latest trump might have and visual interest in or need for the classified documents. for our part, we cannot discern why points trump would have an individual interest in or need for any of the 100 documents with classification markings. the appeals court opinion included a history of the classification of documents beginning with world war i. and introduced elementary concepts of classification in
reaction to not just the content of this opinion, which is so clear and so powerful, but the speed, the speed other spots, the speed of the action taken by this appeals court, what does that tell you about their attitude? so, i want to answer that. but before i do so, lawrence, i just want to pick up where andrew started. because i think it s worth taking a step back and recognizing just how extraordinary this moment, this day is. because over the past months, you and i have been talking so much about trump s legal troubles. it was almost easy to forget that trump had never actually been indicted, never been sued, you know, by a state and the or anything like that. but today, things looked different. we re seeing the former president himself personally facing a major lawsuit from new york, the attorney general with real teeth, in addition to this dramatic 11th circuit ruling, which is going to likely, i think, bring about a criminal indictment. and so, with respect to your question a
by these processes. not just because there s the obvious issue of is it being put into effect, but the rest of the government has to know about it. if he is sitting there and thinking in his mind hey, i decided i m going to declassify the secrets about iran tonight, the nsa needs to know, there if it was their signals intelligence, or cia needs to know. you can just willie nearly do it. and that s his big problem. that s why there is no declaration in the civil case proving he declassified anything. because he s got nothing, zero, zippo, zilch, nada. neal katyal, andrew weissmann, riley moss, thank you very much once again. and congratulation if the appeals court agrees with all of you. really appreciate it, thank you. and up next, the trump fortune is at risk now that everyone named trump working in donald trump s company has become defended trump. that is next. at is next nt for your chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours
that does it for us tonight. we ll see you again tomorrow. now, it s time for the last word with lawrence o donnell. good evening, lawrence. i know you have a lot to get to. this is a very, very big night in donald trump s legal history. and he s got some very bad night tonight, and he has more bad nights coming, based on what we know tonight. he s in the middle of the eye of illegal hurricane with a
are, which is going to be holding trump accountable, that vigilance is going to be really called for. neal katyal, as our appeals expert, i want to get your reaction to not just the content of this opinion, which is so clear and so powerful, but the speed, the speed other spots, the speed of the action taken by this appeals court, what does that tell you about their attitude? so, i want to answer that. but before i do so, lawrence, i just want to pick up where andrew started. because i think it s worth taking a step back and recognizing just how extraordinary this moment, this day is. because over the past months, you and i have been talking so much about trump s legal troubles. it was almost easy to forget that trump had never actually been indicted, never been sued, you know, by a state and the or anything like that. but today, things looked different. we re seeing the former president himself personally facing a major