Wasnt just showing up for court. Numerous january 6th cases have been heard. The judge overseeing trumps arraignment has also overseen the cases of people including dominic fox and Qanon Activist who live streamed the storming of the capitol, a jared wise, a former fbi agent charged with assaulting a Police Officer on january 6th. This is all very much a Trip Down Memory Lane for mr. Trump. Now, there were no Courtroom Cameras today, but thanks to courtroom sketch artist bill hennessy, we know what it looks like when a former president of the United States appeared in court to be formally and federally charged for trying to subvert american democracy. There were more than 110 people in the courtroom to hear this arraignment including several of the federal judges who have been presiding over other january 6th cases, judges who showed up today in plain clothes as spectators for trumps arraignment. The judge presiding over the arraignment was a New York State judge inasmuch he read the charges Aloud Ipcourt and mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four felony charges. And then the judge gave mr. Trump a warning. Quote, if you fail to comply with any of your conditions of release, a warrant may be issued for your arrest. Your conditions of release may be revoked, and you may be held pending trial in this case. She continued, your most important condition of release, sir, is that you not commit a state, federal, or local crime while on release. I want to remind it is a crime to try to influence a juror or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about your case to the prosecution or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. There has been so much discussion about whether trump will face jail time if hes found guilty in this case, but until today, until the judge said that no one had really considered the possibility trump could face jail time during this case. Mr. Trump is a man with a storied history of flagrant rule breaking, but he is now bound by the rules of the court for the duration of this trial. And if he violates those rules, prosecution can move to revoke the conditions of his release. They could argue trump should be behind bars before this trial is even finished. On that note, one of looming questions about this entire process has been when will this trial take place . Will there be a trial before this election . Will it happen before the Republican Party chooses its president ial nominee . Well, today we learned well get the answer to that very question in less than a month. The judge scheduled trumps next hearing august 28th, which is a little over three weeks from today where the date for trumps actual trial, the United States vs. Donald john trump is expected to be set. I want to turn now to nbcs chief legal analyst ari melber and nbc news senior Legal Correspondent laura jarrett. Thank you both for being here tonight. Laura, let me first get your sense of what if anything is signaled by the setting of this august 28th date, and that the judge today said the trial judge is going to actually decide on the trial date on august 28th. So a couple thing. The Magistrate Judge made it clear she had actually talked to judge chutkan, the one whos the trial judge whos actually going to be running this entire show. Me made it clear weve already chatted, so she came ready with dates. Lots of time you get a First Court Appearance and dont get a next date until later. Number two, she made it clear were going to set a trial date at that next date, so at that date well actually know at least for now when the trial will be. Its significant because it shows where judge chutkan it was head is at. It doesnt mean, again, there wont be attempts but i think it signals at least where her expectations are. It seems to be, ari, Like A Tas Utrebuke to the floated strategy of the Trump Legal Team, which is were going to try to delay this until trump is president or in a position of power with the wheels of justice. They want to run out the clock which is unusual. But here the idea is the clock will reset. We ask this question through the years why is this night different, and its an Organizing Question and you can use it in any space. Why was this arraignment different today . I thought you in your introduction reminded viewers the scale and scope of this as well as the questions that went down in the arraignment. We discuss this a bit for viewers throughout the day and you and i were sitting there covering it in realtime. Hes on trial for overthrowing the government he was in custody of today. This is different because of that reason. Second, its the only time hes been indicted for conduct as president. So those other cases while perhaps important are actually not about what he did at all. Theyre about classified documents and trying to use powers he no longer had allegedly. Third and i think its the premise of your entire opening tonight, this is the big one and Everybody Knows it. Theres a world where hes convicted in new york, alex, and hes not sent to jail or prison. And so he tells his supporters it wasnt that big a deal, its kind of like a slap on the risk, and his life goes on in a way. Im not minimizing this, but functionally this is different. He could stand trial before the election, if convicted that appeal could go to d. C. Circuit, which is a very serious court. They could give a serious what we might call nonpartisan ruling upholding the convictions, and the Supreme Court has to decide with all the problems they have, do they want to come in and overturn something or leave it. By the way, i want to be clear with viewers if they get that conviction and leave it meaning they dont take the case, he goes to prison that week. Already, the vision of the orange jumpsuit, john roberts getting involved were not there yet. This is orangeish but not a jumpsuit. Decidedly not. Im not saying that will happen. What im saying is whether you call that a 1 , a 49 everyone understand said the gravity. This was the one everybody was sort of waiting for because for a while were now at a point he was being arraigned. For a while it wasnt clear he was actually going to be charged in this case. It is so significant to even be at this point because for so long it was like, whoa exactly. It was not even clear he was the target much less wed be at a point. The other thing that makes this different is the maralago indictment which is full of information. Certainly there are bread crumbs. But theres a lot not even here. For sure. But a lot of it we do know because of the house investigation into january 6th. And i wonder how that Reality Dove Tails with the sort of line of argument from the Trump Campaign right now in court today this Discovery Process is going to be a beast. Theyre already setting the stage for trying to push this off as long as possible. The reality is of course theres going to be new information, but a lot of the stuff has already been litigated in court. Theres already been rulings on privileges both executive and attorneyclient. And i wonder whether you are optimistic about trumps defense trying to claim this is all incognito, were going to need months and months. This is the role the judge plays. Hes going to be the gatekeeper deciding which things are legit, which things are not. Its interesting to note which things are not in that indictment which are part of the january 6th report. There are a couple of big ones not in that indictment that makes me think either theres more to this, either theyre working on deals and trying to figure out whos going to cooperate, who wasnt. Its unclear there. Its worth noting there are times where his attorneys were told specifically this plan is illegal, its not legally sound. Why isnt it there . Theres interesting things like that i think to know. So i think to the extent theres more there, sure theyre going to have an argument about discovery. And she in the words of glenn kirschner, these judges have come to play. The fact theyre like were going to set the trial date in three weeks indicative of people not wasting time. Can we talk about lawyers for one moment . I dont know if you noticed the reporting Evan Corcoran was in the courtroom today apparently still affiliated somehow with donald trump and his defense team. Evan corcoran for people who have forgotten, is sort of almost like a star witness in the maralago case from which he had to recuse himself. Do you think its odd that trump is keeping Evan Corcoran in the mix, as it were, given how wouldnt you want to . Its not clear he was acting as Defense Counsel. Hes not sitting at Defense Counsel table, but hes there as sort of a quasisupporter in the same way boris epstein. You think keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer. Wouldnt you want to . I think defendant trump is playing any angle he can even people who have obviously given up negative information about him, and that goes to a theme in all this. The medicate for all of this was the january 6th committee. They were using trump aids, sometimes lawyer as witnesses and jack smith clearly has then some. The gang Versus The World it was always us, and then you wrote a statement that really messed me up. Contemporaneous notes. Contemporaneous notes. Mr. Corcoran was gang vs. The world, and he was supposed to ride and die for trump except he didnt. Because trump did things so bad, so obviously heinous against counsel that he felt a duty even as a trump lawyer to start keeping notes. Yeah, hes ipcourt today trying to tell his once on the same team gang friend, hey, were still good but theyre not good. And we know theyre not good because of the cooperation. We have other individuals and i said today we dont know exactly know yet what mr. Meadows is doing. We do know in the final pages of indictment, you have someone in the room saying what trump said, welcoming the violence late in that day. Now, you dont put that in an indictment unless you had a dead to right provable in court. And jack smith is on the book. I would expect on that small list there are people who like mr. Corcoran wrote a statement against the defense. We know mike pence, his Vice President kept contemporaneous notes. We asked did the committee have contemporaneous notes. When subpoenaed by the Justice Department, by the grand jury and then ordered to by the d. C. Circuit they couldnt turn it down. Can i ask one quick question because the judge was so clear about violating the bail conditions. If you try and pressure witnesses, if you try and tamper with this trial in any way, mr. Trump, that could change the conditions under which youre being released. I mean she sounded really serious in that, laura, and we know trump is not a master of selfrestraint in terms of this arena. Do you think thats a real threat for him . I think its going to be up to how much force the Justice Department gives to it. I think itll be clear how far theyll let him go on some of this stuff. Today they were very clear do not contact witnesses on this case. Last time they didnt bring it up, the judge did. This time around they affirmatively brought it up. Well see, i guess. Laura jarrett thank you for making time tonight. Please stay around. You got it. There is a lot to unpack this evening, and were going to get some insight as to what may be going on in trump world this evening when i speak with a lawyer who was until recently a Defense Attorney for donald trump. That is next. D trump. That is next [ Tires Screeching ] jordana, easy on the gas. I gotta wrap this commercial, i think im late on my payment. Its okay, the general gives you a break. Yeah, we let you pick your own due date. Good to know, because this next scene might take a while. For a great low rate, go with the general. When i first learned about my dupuytrens contracture, my physician referred me to a Hand Specialist. And im glad he did, because when i took the tabletop test, i couldnt lay my hand flat anymore. The first Hand Specialist i saw only offered surgery. So, i went to a second Hand Specialist who also offered Nonsurgical Options which felt more right for me. So, what id say to other people with dupuytrens contracture is this dont wait find a Hand Specialist trained in Nonsurgical Options, today. I found mine at findahandspecialist. Com. Five. Its happening, isnt it . Four. Three. Two. One. Okay, so the next time that jack smiths and Donald Trumps legal teams are due back in court in the 2020 election case is at the end of this month, august 28, 10 00 a. M. And at that hearing maybe the most important decision in this trial will be made. When will the trial take place, and how long will it take . Both sides have seven days from today to basically tell the court when they think the trial should take place and how long they think they need to make their case. We know jack smiths team wants a speedy trial, but as far as trumps defense team here was a preview of its stance on fox news this evening. Today in court, which was a very terribly sad day, theyre attacking other parts of the constitution because they want to take President Trump to trial in a few months. They want to deny him his Sixth Amendment Rights to counsel to give me and my cocounsel todd blanch an opportunity to prepare. They want to deny President Trump his Due Process Rights to look at documents, to get witnesses, to use our subpoena power. They want to deny all of him those rights and a Rush To Judgment for one political purpose, and thats to uphold the biden administration. Why the rush on this case . Do they feel theres a problem in the other cases that are being orchestrated and they need to bring this case to trial in a couple of months in this venue . What does that tell you . What that tell me . It tells me that team trump is shooting for a significant delay. Joining me now is Tim Parlatore, a former lawyer for donald trump. Mr. Parlatore, thanks so much for being here tonight. Let me first get your thoughts how optimistic i should say is the judge in this case going to be recept chb to the argument the Trump Legal Team is making sheer, theres going to be due process if theres a speedy trial . Well, i think a lot of what he said there was more, you know, designed for the viewing public, not necessarily for the judge. Really when you look at how federal criminal cases are scheduled, the idea its going to be a couple of months is just not practical. Essentially the defense would have to waive motions. Youd have to go waive certain defenses, and theres is a lot of significant issues in this case. In the grand jury phase related to privilege, executive privilege, things like that, and a lot of it will have to be revisited here. I think its going to be far greater than that in the maralago case obviously without classification issue. So the idea this thing would go to trial in under 15 months setting aside any election is just not practical from a standpoint of how federal criminal cases are tried. Thats interesting because theres been a lot of attempted tea leaf reading about when judge would schedule this. You believe its 15 months. How surprised, and what avenues of appeals exist if the judge decides to do this, does the trump team have any recourse if that ends up being the case . You know, the ability to go to the Appellate Court in the middle of a case is pretty limited, but really all they have to do is file motions. Once you file motions then they have to setout a motion schedule. The d. C. Local rules, you know, setout what those normal time lines are, and then you have to have oral arguments and everything and its one of those things that will naturally push the case out further. Plus obviously you dont want to ask for such a long adjournment right in the beginning. You want to get the discovery, you want to go through and start to litigate the case. That way when you go back to the judge and say, hey, we need more time you can show the judge this is how much discovery we have, these are the problems we have. The governments not just going to give you all the discovery. Theres going to be discovery issues where you want them to give over things theyve withheld. And then you can go to the judge for something solid and say we need more time because of all these things. And its very difficult for a judge to say go anyway because thats something that gets reversed. Obviously its a work in progress. The defense is obviously a work in progress. One of the main lines of Counter Argument weve heard floated in recent days by the president s Defense Attorney or one of two is this notion he was simply relying on the advice of counsel, and in this case one specific lawyer in particular, lawyer john eastman. I wonder if the trump team does use that argument to set aside its merits for one minute, does that not mean donald trump has to take the stand . No, not necessarily. A lot of this can be done through crossexamination and through presentation of other witnesses because ultimately, yes, if youre