Tonight, florida, Fulton County, what it all means for the election timeline. I think all of the cases should be dealt with before november. Then, how the republican front runner is effectively mulling a nationwide adorning abortion ban. Number 15, i havent agreed to any number. Im going to see. As United States of priem court so extreme there about to end a trump era Gun Safety Law . When all in starts, right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. It was a big day at the end of a hugely consequential which for the trials of 1. Trump it all began on wednesday. I was speaking to you that night. Weve got the stunning news from the Supreme Court that they will take up Donald Trumps argument that he is immune from being prosecuted for trying to steal the 2020 election. But what was stunning was that the court took more than two weeks just to issue that ruling. From perry 12th, when trump brought the appeal, to february 28th. Instead of taking it up quickly to move this incredibly important case along, they sat on it, eating up time as the clock ticks ever closer to election day. And then, of course, there was the real kicker, they will not even hear arguments until the week of april 22nd, seven weeks from the day they announced they were going to take the case. Supreme court has, frankly, given trump exactly the hail mary he was hoping for. They are continued delays have created a real possibility the American People will not know definitively as a matter of law whether one of the president ial candidates on the ballot is criminally guilty of trying to overthrow a democracy. Of course that is just one of four pending criminal trials of the ex president. The case in york about trumps Hush Money Payments to Silent Silence Adult Film Actress right before the 2016 election, says she had an affair with trump, is set to become the first to go to trial on march 25th. And today there were key hearings in both of these other two cases. The one in florida and the one in georgia. So in georgia, a Fulton County judge her Closing Arguments in an effort to disqualify District Attorney fani willis from the case about Donald Trumps attempts to steal the 2020 election in georgia. Trump and some of his 18 codefendants claim, willis has a Conflict Of Interest the should kick her off the case because of a romantic involvement with the lead prosecutor in the case. Both the willis and the prosecutor nathan wade have admitted to the. Fair this week waits for former law partner, who testified in what was bombshell testimony, the relationship began early than willis and wade say. Well this week he admitted that well actually know he had no idea. I never witnessed anything. So it was speculation. I cant tell you anything specific specific if thats what youre asking. You cant tell me anything specific about why speculated . Now. This was however many years ago, i dont recall. No. I dont. At the end of todays three hour hearing, the judge said hes gonna have a decision in the next few weeks. Were gonna wait and find out of fani willis and her officer disqualified, which is to completely up and a case against trump. Even if it goes ahead it will be a significant challenge to schedule the trial before november. That has always seem to be the case given the complexity of the multiple codefendants. We are no closer to knowing when a trial will begin in trumps fourth case about his retention of classified documents and his attempts allegedly to obstruct justice. Both the ex president and special counsel jack smith attended todays hearing in person in front of judge aileen cannon. Trump, of course, appointed can into the federal bench. Her very first ruling in this case was so transparently hackers, so utterly lawless, it was later unanimously reversed by the Appellate Court above her. She has reacted favorably to trumps obvious attempts to delay going to trial. So we had every reason to expect to go along with whatever started the ex president wants. She may prove us wrong. You want to give her some credit. But thats the way things look. Now jack smith and the government propose starting on july 8th. Trump interest laying first suggested august wealth, three whole months before election day. But you will be utterly shocked to learn that today trumps lawyers argued that, well, starting the trial this year would be, quote, unfair to him as a president ial candidate because it would take him off the campaign trail. Trumps lawyers also cited his impending trial in new york is a conflict since he expects to be tied up there from late march until may. True to form, and judge cannon also brought up, of her own volition, another issue that could help trump delay. You may remember this one from the 2016 election. The justice departments so called 60day rule that prosecutors should not take any investigative action in the month proceeding an election that could affect the outcome. Smiths team told judge Cannon The Doj has already reviewed it. The rule does not apply to charges that have already been brought. So, court adjourned. Donald trump headed right back to maralago. No new decisions made. Judge canada not even give a timeline for when she might rule on anything discussed today. As ive been telling everyone, keep your eyes on how long it takes. Every one of these judges know, everyone involved in this process knows that donald trump is attempting to delay so that, unlike any other criminal defendant literally in the entire country and in the entire countrys history, he can get rid of his cases by being elected president. An interesting take away, though, for criminal defendants across the country, is that you should try to figure out a way to appoint the judges in your case. Sure seems to be working for trump. Acting solicitor general of United States, katie phang and bissen b. C. Legal correspondent whos been following for proceedings closer than anyone, and katie, let me go to you first on georgia. What happened today and where do things stand now . We are awaiting a ruling from judge scott mcafee, the presiding judge at the close of todays Closing Arguments he indicated about two weeks and then we will see some type of ruling from him hit the docket. But do you know, chris, what happened today was something that took a long time to get to. We talk about the wheels of justice moving slowly. Sometimes they are painfully moving slowly. In a case where we thought was actually going to move pretty quickly. Why . Because the District Attorney, fani willis, has been demanding a trial date for months now. But three hours of Closing Arguments was heard, and the defense got every bite of the apple to be able to get up to convince judge mcafee that they had met The Burden Of Proof on the preponderance of evidence to show that fani willis should be disqualified as a District Attorney. However, chris, i think questioning from the judge indicated that he is some skepticism that the defense has met its burden. Number one he said the suggestion of wrongdoing does not meet a preponderance of the evidence standard. And number two, he had questions about the star witness, terrence radley, the former defense lawyer for nathan wade who took the stand twice during this evidentiary hearing the last four weeks. And Terrence Bradley, as we know, when he took the stand, said he was speculating as to whether fani willis and nathan wade had begun their relationship before he had been appointed a special prosecutor, when wade was appointed special prosecutor. Why is that important . When the judge, and i know neal will attest to this as well, when you are a lawyer and the judge is asking questions about whether you can meet the burden, and when the judge is saying well what happened to that Impeachment Machine that was supposed to be Terrence Bradley . He failed to impeach any of the other witnesses. I think you have a problem when you are the defense. All that being said, judge mcafee did indicate, chris, he was wondering, is an imperious of impropriety enough to be fani willis, in the state was clear. They said no, its a Conflict Of Interest in georgia. The evidence isnt there. The judge may not like what he has heard. He may recall his nose perhaps at the optic of it, but at the end of the day this is an evidentiary hearing and just like all of the cases that donald trump is facing, the evidence has to be there for the prosecution. And in this particular instance the evidence wasnt there for the defense. Katie the thing i keep thinking about under georgia law its not a Conflict Of Interest for a husband wife to be on opposite sides of the same case. It cant be the appearance of impropriety, because of that legit, then you actually have to show something tangible. It sounds like on a preponderance of evidence you dont think thats been met. But well see. Neal, let me ask you about the hearing today in florida. I think this case has been, again, a few reasons why it has always felt like it will move slowly. Two, really. One is that theres some real complexity and additional logistical burden around classified documents and how to deal with them in trial. And two, aileen cannons first ruling, back when she appointed that special master, which seemed to show her to be so transparently in the bag for trump, that people suspect that she will slow walk it. Do we get any clarity at all today out of the hearing . Now. Not much clarity. And chris, i agree with what you said to a point. Look, i used to be a National Security adviser of justice department, where i handle these kind of cases. And sure theres some complexities about Classified Information Procedures Act and the like. But nothing that should take this amount of time in this amount of delay. Frankly this case should be on a pretty straightforward and easy trajectory. Unfortunately its not. Its on a long and winding path. And judge cannon has given me no faith that its going to move any more quickly than it has been. And it really should be because the American People deserve to know what donald trump did when he stole these documents, why he stole it, and the like. And you know, i think theres a reason why donald trump attacks every judge who sits on his cases, except one, aileen cannon. And it is because of the rulings she has made in this case, including two rulings last year they got slapped down by the court of appeals, a very conservative court of appeals. And i am concerned here because the trial schedule is the kind of thing that trial judges generally have discretion over. Its not the kind of thing you can run to the Appeals Court and criticize. And so far use that discretion in ways that are dragging this thing out and preventing it from being tried. Thats the common theme with the discussion you are having with katie about georgia. They have these arguments about the prosecutor being biased and this and that. Its all about justice being delayed. As we know justice delayed is justice denied. I want to ask you each the same question. Ill go to you katie and then ill come back to you neal. Ive been thinking about it all week with respect to all these cases, particularly the Supreme Court. There are some people who are arguing that people like me who feel that it is imperative, in a sort of small d democratic civic sense, not the law, but as the fabric of American Democracy, we the people, we make decisions about our candidates, to have the trials happen before the elections so that we know. So that we can make an informed decision. A lot of people have said, katie, it is completely improper for that calculation to enter anyones head. It felt wrong. And they shouldnt really worry about that at all. I wonder what you think. I think that ignores reality, doesnt it . I mean, how are you supposed to make an informed decision as to the president of the United States if there is a concern that that person is feloniously conducting business. It goes beyond just the violation of a clause. Its the idea if you have someone whos not only comfortable committing crimes from the oval office but seems to have abs seeks to have immunity like their king of the United States are king of the world and they wont have any accountability. I think its a fallacy, legal, politically and otherwise, to suggest that a voting populous should go and completely blindfolded as to the criminality of a candidate. We wouldnt want that for the dog catcher. We wouldnt want it for the oval office. I think its important that we are having the gut check of realizing that we really have to address the fact that we havent had someone like don trump before. We talk about the adjective unprecedented. It has been abused, but we havent had someone like donald trump. Theres no harm no file in making sure that theres an educated decision in the voting place, in that sacred space, when it comes to Something Like the president of United States. The point about unprecedented, i saw someone wrote something defending the Supreme Court schedule and i said so far this is proceeding like a normal trial. I thought what are you talking about normal . First of, all normal criminal defendants dont get to claim president ial immunity, because it has only happened literally one time in american history. And number two, of course its not normal. None of this is normal. Theres no apples to apples comparison to make here. Yeah, and i think thats exactly right. I think you and katie have hit the nail on the head. The one thing i would add, the essence of our constitution, what its about, what we fought the American Revolution about, in the, and is about one big principle, which is that nobody is above the law, whether you are called King George The Third or whether you are called donald trump. And the common theme across all these cases that you mentioned tonight, and indeed all of trumps behavior, both before he was president , during his presidency, and after, is he is above the dot the law. So you remember trump first said, when the Mueller Report came out, he said look im a sitting president , you cant under you cant indict me under my constitution. You have to wait till i leave office. Then voters voted him out of office. He committed crimes to try to stay in office on january 6th. And he then says you cant prosecute me for those crimes because im still sitting president. So then we try and impeach him, which he says at that point you can do because you cant indict him you could only impeach a sitting president. So we do that, and he says, incenses lawyers to say oh no you cant impeach a president at the end of his term. Youve got to indict him after he leaves office. So then we do exactly that. Jack smith does that. He invites him after he leaves office. And then he says oh no, you cant indict me. You have to have impeached the first. None of this adds up in any sense to anything that is anything but soviet. And its certainly not the american constitution. And so thats the stakes. Do the American Public really want, i mean forget about whether he did it or not, just these claims he is making i think are making him constitutionally in asian ineligible to be president. He spitting on our sacred document. Neal katya, katie phang thank you. We appreciate it. Coming up, as donald trump floats what is a nationwide essentially a abortion ban. Hes gonna do a nationwide abortion ban. Republican Party Continues its unpopular assault on womens health, full spectrum. Next. Full spectrum. Next. Le app. Jen x is planning a summer in portugal with some help from j. P. Morgan wealth plan. Lets go whiskers. Jen y is working with a banker to budget for her birthday. You only turn 30 once. And jen z . Her credits golden. Hello new apartment. 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