time when prosecutors for jack smith were really, really active in interviewing witnesses around trump s mindset, appeared to be trying to get at just that. they were trying to determine whether trump knowingly based his actions on a lie in claiming widespread fraud that impacted the outcome of the november 2020 election. now, as we understand it, kushner has insisted that it was his impression that trump genuinely believed the election was stolen, according to a person familiar with what took place. this is a line of questioning the prosecutors have asked several witnesses, who are trying to figure out as they try to figure out exactly what trump s intent was because one of the things necessary depending on the charges the prosecutors might bring would be to establish corrupt intent. maggie, how does this information fit into the larger investigation by jack smith, the special counsel, into the efforts of trump and others to overturn the free and fair 2020 election? a
the special counsel accuses trump s team of misleading people about how much discovery, how much evidence they have to go through and saying look, there s no reason to indefinitely delay this. as you know, as we ve reported, jack smith would like this case to go to trial in december. the former president and his attorneys have argued they need more time to litigate big questions. which is their right. this is a serious, complex case. december would be pretty soon. but the idea of an indefinite detention, that is something they are just ripping apart in this new filing, and this is just a preview of what we re going to see tuesday when both sides meet in court down in florida for the first time in front of the trump-appointed judge aileen cannon, who s going to see all of this. and elie, do you think judge cannon who, as paula notes, was appointed to the bench by donald trump, do you think she s going to agree with the reasoning of the special counsel or do you think she s more likely
branch. but the doj is part of the executive branch. so that argument doesn t exist anymore. and because he s openly accused trump of having recklessly endangered not only him but his wife and daughter who were present on capitol hill that day, i think he s waived the executive privilege argument as well. i don t know how he could protect himself against a legitimately issued subpoena to testify in the criminal case. okay. you don t believe he can protect himself. as paula notes, it s possible the president s legal team can assert some sort of privilege claim here. likely to win on that argument? i think they re likely not to win because publication of his book has really let the horse out of the wherever it s confined in washington. out of the barn, exactly. out of the barn. i guess there are barns in washington. in any event, it s waived i think. also, trump lawyers should have
try to move these things along as quickly as possible. deliberate strategy it seems for trump s team. paul rah reid, thanks so much. let s dig in deeper with paul callan, former new york city prosecutor. paul, happy thanksgiving to you. thanks for joining us. happy thanksgiving to you, jim. what s the likelihood he testifies here as paula notes, it s different, a subpoena from the justice department is different from a subpoena from the january 6th committee. so do you believe he does eventually give some sort of testimony? yes, i think at the very least he s going to cooperate with the justice department of justice and give them an informal, in-house interview. i think he s going to wind up in front of the grand jury as well. there s a very big difference between testifying and cooperating with the doj as opposed to a congressional committee. remember pence has said there were profound separation of powers problems that were presented initially because the legislative bran