Gaetz again this time issuing new threats to mccarthys speakership. The senators working together to have a backup plan. And mccarthy saying there is a plan, but they wont vote on it until friday. The Government Shutdown happens at 11 59 p. M. This saturday if theyre unable to avert it. And there is a heartbreaking story that is near and dear to my heart. A Young Black Girl ignored as all of the white girls around her were given medals at a competition in ireland. What if it were your daughter, or mine, who is now a gymnast. Even simone biles says that it broke her heart. I want to begin now with major legal trouble for the former president tonight, this time in the new York Attorney general tonight, this time in the new York Attorney generals civil case against donald trump and his family business. A Judge Finding that trump and his adult sons are liable for fraud. Also, canceling the business certifications of the trump organization. That move alone deals a major blow to the former president and of course his businesses. Here to discuss norm eisen and former white house account council may mehlman. Glad to have both of you here. I want to begin with you, norm. This is so significant. This was a Summary Judgment motion. Taking a step back. Tell us what that means and why its significant . Laura, when you do a civil case, there are various offramps that can benefit the plaintiff, whoever is bringing the civil case, or the defendant, whoever is being sued. In this case, you have the state of new york represented by the very tough Attorney General tish james. The state of new york is the plaintiff. Donald trump, and a variety of his Family Members and the businesses are the defendant. The allegation very similar to the allegations that weve seen from special counsel jack smith, or from d. A. Fani willis in georgia. Not election fraud, alleged. Here the allegation was Business Fraud that trump over and over again, he said his apartment was three times as large as it was to get loans and insurance. His residents seven springs, his maralago estate allegedly exaggerated. All Overinflating Assets . That is the allegation. And both the Attorney General and donald trump tried for Summary Judgment before the judge in new york, and the judge granted Summary Judgment to the Attorney General and said there is no question donald trump inflated these properties. There is nothing what it means, there is nothing for us to argue about at trial. This is settled. Also, denied Donald Trumps effort to get Summary Judgment. So were going to have a number of other charges that will be tried, and various damages, disgorgement, how much money trump has to give up that is going to be tried as well. So important, may. We think about the Summary Judgment. Essentially a judge saying listen, you only have to go before a fact finder, the jury. If there is some factual dispute, in this case he said the facts were so strong, there was no need to go to a jury on these specific assets of it. But i cant help but wonder how this is going to play politically, because, of course, it was led by tish james who was criticized by the trump family specifically on having campaigned to bring them down. How you see it . I almost feel bad for the new York Attorney general because she did want to make a name for herself for being the aggressive trump prosecutor only to be outshone by like a local Fulton County d. A. So this was going to be her moment. And maybe not. Politically, its tough to say, because were dealing with trump. So you really never know. Also, Summary Judgment motions are appealable. And i expect that to be appealed. I think in trump world, the thing that people are going to take away, is that this judge was so trump unfriendly, it was really hard for him to mask. The opinion, he fined the lawyers for bringing legal arguments say ive already considered these legal arguments. Yeah you did. At a motion to dismiss stage, they are different under a different standard of review. So just the anger and the animosity i think really shines through this opinion. And i think that is going to speak a lot to trump world and sort of get Trump Witch Hunt aspect that he really likes to play up. And he does play that up, norm. But of course judges are not always known to be the most pleasant when they have had to resolve an issue more than once. This is a playbook that says the judiciary is the person who comes out on the losing side. To mays point, this is appealable, and there are issues they can in fact appeal. What do you see with regard to these elements . The arguments about the sanctions on the lawyers are not going to succeed on appeal, because these lawyers were repeatedly arguing that you can describe an 11,000squarefoot apartment as a 30,000squarefoot apartment as if they said, well, a Square Footage is not objective. If there is anything objective in the world, laura, you got a ruler, okay . That is the definition of objective. Its the same way with the crazy valuations they were pushing. Seven springs. The maximum valuation, usually 30 million. One year 56 million. They argued that it was legit to have a 292 million valuation. That is a 400 increase. So these kinds of arguments the judge warned him, he told them he was going to come after them. I think theyre lucky the sanctions were light, a little over 7,000 per lawyer. In some of the other trump cases the sanctions against trumps lawyers have been much greater. In terms of appeal, the judge applied the quasi corporate Death Penalty here. He is yanking those certificates that you need to do business in new york. So its done . They cannot operate at all . If there is no stay pending appeal. And if it with stands. Its not as simple as that. He says were going to point a receiver. Like a Chapter Seven bankruptcy. Somebody is going to be put in charge of these businesses and figure out how to liquidate them. Theyre going to sell the properties. Theyre going to collect the rents. Theyre going to manage the businesses. So it was a very, very broad decertification, taking the certifications away. Not just the companies at issue here, but any other entity controlled by donald j. Trump and the Family Members lose their certificate of Doing Business, i think that will withstand appeal, but thats going to be an attack. May, to that point, when people first learned about this or most people know donald trump, it really is the brand before it is the president of the United States and before it is who he is now, seeking reelection. You were in the white houses council. He has been taking to truth social. And he is responding to what he sees. And one post saying, quote, they didnt even at my most valuable. They didnt even include my houston valuable asset, my brand. But did that really come into play in the fraud being discussed here . So i think it should. I think a couple of things. I think the lawyers were trying to make a couple of arguments. It was not saying 3,000 means 3,000. Their arguments were, one, the new York Attorney general has power on behalf of this state, and here the state was not defrauded. In fact, there werent really parties defrauded. The banks werent defrauded. They set the interest rates. They made money. And two was the value of the assets a couple of things there was a disclaimer saying this is what im saying. You the bank do your homework. You value them however you want. But also, yes. I am a very famous person, and people would like to buy my properties. They value my properties. They trust my brand. And is true. That is something that happens in business, maybe to the extent that trump said . Probably not. But that sort of inflation is not foreign to the corporate real estate world. Yet the judge on that point about the displamer, the judge was very, very not impressed at all with the idea of having a disclaimer suggest hey, dont take my word for it, do your own homework. The judges mind something that was worthless as a way to include in the valuation of things, think about the brand politically, norm. As may is alluded to, when youre talking about the brand, his campaign was about being a successful, savvy of course he has walked away from it now. He said he wasnt a resident of new york any longer. Thats impacting how we might want to present himselves. Tell us why its only the sons here. That is because at that relevant time period, the case was worried for statute of limitations agreements and reasons. There is a Tolling Agreement that affects the time period. The court found on appeal that in the relevant time period, ivanka was not yet an officer of the companies. She was not responsible at that time. I think in terms of trumps brand, that is not an excuse for some of these arguments that were made. His brand is besides the point here. You are not to raise questions about the socalled worthless klaus, the disclaimers that were included in these financial statements. I have it here. You can read it up and down. It doesnt say i will lie to you. I will double or triple the value of these. My statements in here are outright lies. And the judge says that the no worthless clause is just that, wtoless to donald trump. And it didnt hurt the lenders or insurance companies. Thats not the way the law works. You know in well. You were a prosecutor here in d. C. If i shoot at somebody and i happen to miss, you still get prosecuted even though you missed. Its dangerous to lie. And the judge makes that point. New york law doesnt care about the loss or the gain in the end. What they care about is people who do business in new york have to be truthful. They cant have a persistent. They cant have a persistent pattern of major frauds. And that is what the judge found today in ruling for d. A. , for the a. G. In new york. Real quick, may, there is there is supposed to be a civil trial beginning on monday, of course. This is all done at this point now . Or there is more to come . Well, so they dont even know whether the trial is actually going the start on monday. It still could get pushed back. And then like i said, i think youre going to see appeal after appeal. But, yeah, and its a little bit unclear what the effect is of pulling his business certificates. Does he have to cease Doing Business . What happens next . So there are a lot of Unanswered Questions right now. But i do think your lead is correct in that it was not a good day for donald trump. Well, thank you, may. My leads are always correct. Thank you so much for join us tonight. Norm eisen, may mailman, nice to see you both. Tonight, everyone, more than a third of democrats in the u. S. Senate are calling on look at this. Theyre calling on Senator Menendez to resign. Remember yesterday . This list was not even a full column. Now look at it. Of course the floodgates open when senator corey booker, the junior senator stepped in. Theyre calling on him to resign now. Menendez and his wife neighborhood den are expected to appear in court in the morning for the bribery charges. And of course he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Cnns chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst says john miller says this case raises questions for u. S. Intelligence. And john miller joins me now. John, im glad youre with me tonight. Weve been talking a lot about the gold bars and the amount of money that was found, and all of the allegations contained in this indictment. But there is a big Elephant In The Room that is not really being addressed. I know youve had a lot to say about this. It all centers around a new jerseyborn egyptian businessman. And the question you have is did the Egyptian Government, the government itself target an influential u. S. Senator to be a kind of mark . Connect these dots. Its interesting. You cant find the connects for the indictment. Youve got wael wael hanna, br together Egyptian Military officer, government officials, and getting deals done to unfreeze aid to egypt that had been put on hold by the State Department and release weapons that was destined to be delivered that was also on hold. So he is doing these things in the interest of the Egyptian Government, as is alleged in the indictment. He is innocent until proven guilty. But then one has to ask why is he just somebody that is just doing this out of the goodness of his heart . Is it because he got a monopoly to be the clearer for halal beef being shipped to that country at a great profit . Or is it something more . The question on the table, l laura, is it possible that they could have actually been using the chairman of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee as an egyptian asset in return for Bribe Money Being funneled by a businessman without the Egyptian Intelligence Services who attended some of these meetings, not knowing about it . It sounds unlikely. Answer that question for us, though. The idea, i know its rhetorical in part, but youre intimating something pretty significant about the unlikelihood that the Egyptian Government would have no idea this was happening, as well as the fact it really does put a huge spotlight on Senator Menendez as particularly susceptible and amenable to this. Well, if you think about it, and im speaking as someone who worked in the fbi who was familiar with counterintelligence operations, as someone who worked in the director of national intelligence, and nypds intelligence bureau, what youre looking for as an Intelligence Officer is what asset, what source can you recruit . How can you compromise that person. Do they have propensity towards corruption . Can you fulfill a need or exploit a weakness . And where you have a u. S. Senator who has received a lot of publicity for being charged in a corruption case, it was a hung jury. The rest of the charges were dropped. He surfaced in another investigation before that one. It does introduce the kind of vulnerabilities that could be attractive to a foreign intelligence service, especially if they have a way in. Consider this, laura. Wael hana, the new jersey businessman was friends for years with nadine before she suddenly started dating senator menz, then became his wife. And during that period of years, 2018, 2019, all the way up through recent times, according to the indictment, she was the middle person, the broker who put together the meetings between the businessmen and the egyptian officials. So thats a lot of coincidences. One other thing, there is a case involving a businessman, Vice President of a bank. Name is pierre gerges, charged last year, an Egyptian American who was allegedly trying to infiltrate u. S. Law enforcement including nypd officers to get information on egyptian dissidents on u. S. Soil. He was charged with being an unregistered agent of the Egyptian Government. And something very interesting buried in those court papers was an assertion that there are nine egyptian operatives aimed at cultivating unwitting assets and recruiting them to carry out the interests of the Egyptian Government. So its interesting that someone who was trying to recruit Law Enforcement to get confidential information is charged as an agent of the government, and an individual who was allegedly funneling half a Million Dollars gold and convertibles to a United States senator is being described in the case that so far is only bribery, and on the senators part, bribery and extortion. So there is more to this story that may come out in court, or may not, depending on how this goes. Well, its so important to think about all those different iterations and an assessment of the key players and the codefendants now. You and i both know you got a codefendant case, suddenly you start to see cracks that otherwise you would not expect to be there. So if there are those coincidences, if the jury eventually, if they ever see this case in the trial are trying to look and connect those dots, its going to be a lot of head scratching, and the prosecution has their work cut out for them. Of course unless they have somebody willing to flip. John miller . John miller, nice to see you, everyone thank you so much. Listen, when we come back, can anything stop the runaway train that is hurtling towards a Government Shutdown at 11 59 p. M. On saturday, otherwise known as a minute from midnight . Well, michigan democrat Debbie Dingell is going to weigh in next. Well, tonight, speaker Kevin Mccarthy said the house will consider a conservative stopgap bill with Border Provisions likely on friday, regardless whether leadership is confident the vot