Lying about election results, mailing personal insults at its critics. Making famously veil threats towards those who seek to hold him accountable. But none of trumps can change the cold, hard fact that the former president now faces serious criminal charges in three separate cases. In the coming days and weeks, it could even be one more. We start tonight with congressman benny thompson, democrat of mississippi. The former chairman of the january six commission. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Its always good to talk to you. Lets talk about trumps lawyer, john moreau. He did it washington and said recall the full ginsburg today. Almost a little bit about what he had to say becho and get your response on the other side. Take a listen. The defense is quite simple, donald trump, President Trump believed in his heart of hearts that he had won that election. As an american citizen, he had the right to speak out under the First Amendment. He had the right to petition governments aroun
Spewing more violence. He has asked the d. C. Giants to have trumps legal team has just over a week to respond. Starting us off this sunday Special Correspondent for that is a fair and host of the fast politics podcast. Matt dodd, county but and former chief strategist for bush cheney president ial campaign. Msnbc Political Analyst. And joyce vance, msnbc contributor and former u. S. Attorney. She is a professor at the university of Alabama School of law and the cohost of the hashtag, sisters emma podcast. It is good to see you all. Joyce, trump told nbc that he made the decision. And not his lawyers to challenge the 2020 election results. What does that mean for the special counsels case against him . Every time trump takes his television, or any other public form and begins to speak, my assumption is that someone at the Justice Department is taking notes. Because very often he says things that are contradictory or he undercuts his own defenses. Mostly importantly what is going on is
hey, everyone, it is 4:00 in new york. the question of when donald trump s rhetoric crosses the line was a subject of a bit of a lips as pivotal court hearing. prosecutors and attorneys met in front of a three-judge panel in the u.s. court of appeal for a d.c. circuit for oral arguments. the substance was the validity of a gag order imposed on the ex-president that limits what donald trump can say in public about prosecutors, witnesses, and court staff. the heart of arguments, how do you balance the first amendment rights of a defendant who was also a former president and front runner with the need to protect prosecutors, witnesses, and prevent the railing of the justice system? trump s attorney was grilled by the judges for more than an hour, judges pushed back, that they had no right to step in with a gag order. essentially what they are finding is we have a past pattern when the defendant speaks on this subject, threats follow. now he s making similar statements again
swayed or intimidated by political ties or high profile defendants like the defendant. lastly, it shows the governments readiness to show sensitive material, like the grand jury proceedings. like the witness testimonies. it shows the readiness to prosecute the case. as you are talking about with representative thompson, if it critiques his ability to deal with case details. this protective order is important to be ready and to go. especially, as you pointed out, as we enter the 2024 gop primary. trump speech is going to get very complicated. but the significance of this five pm deadline is really that the court seems really determined to keep this case on the fast-track to conduct affair trial and they want to be ready to try this case. in addition we have our eyes on georgia fulton county fani
free speech rights than he had already? he does have the right in the initial appearance that he has the first amendment rights. you don t have the right to interfere with the government s right to affair trial as well as his own. it is skom sort of threat which is far more serious than violating the gag order? it could get you locked up. what makes this situation more par police is this is the same judge who locked up manafort and pulled his bail when he was found to have contacted witnesses in this case. she takes it very seriously. the question is does this