About these elections would russians go to the polls knowing there was almost no doubt president Vladimir Putin would be reelected well, history is set to repeat itself as russians are voting right now. And putin is running against no real opposition. Thank you so much for watching news night. Laura coates live starts right now. Hush. Money, classified documents in a ruling that could change everything. And Donald Trumps criminal cases tonight, and Laura Coates Live well ill, if you add march 25th on your bingo card, looks like you are out of luck. My friends, because thats when Donald Trumps first criminal trial was supposed to start. Now i say supposed to start because its so often happens in the universe of trump legal cases, its delay, delay, delay in this case, delayed all over again. He should actually put on some tshirts just a thought there, like he did when he was with his Fulton County mug shot. See, you thought i was kidding for a second. That was a real thing. Now, manhattan Da Alvin Bragg says that he is willing to delay trumps Criminal Hush Money A Trial for up to 30 days after Us Attorneys Office turned over a whole bunch of documents, 31,000 pages to be precise. And there are apparently more to come next week. Now, i probably have to remind you this is the trial of former president on charges related to the hush money payment he meant to adult film star and actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. So what exactly is in those 31,000 documents and even more to come . And what does all of that say about the criminal case that was supposed to operative words supposed to be the first one right out of the gate. The first one, but not the only one theres also all those classified documents at maralago in wondered ball rooms and bathrooms, and all of the president s for florida resort. Well, today, judge, aileen cannon tossed out team trumps motion. That was attempting to have the case thrown out. They had argued that the espionage act itself, which is too vague lets not forget, the judgment Fulton County. He says that hell rule in a matter of at this point hours from now on, whether fani willis will be disqualified or not from that sweeping rico and election subversion trial against trump. But of course, over a dozen codefendants in the State Of Georgia but that could be the most consequential case of all. Many say now mcafees says, and his decision will not be based on politics. Well, times a wasting because you got 235 days away from well, the Political Super Bowl called election day join me now, Jeremy Saland, who was a former manhattan prosecutor who also knows Da Alvin Bragg. Jeremy. Thank you so much for being here this evening. Look, its giving me flashbacks of being a litigator and associate the law firm with someone to the document dump, someones gotta go through all this stuff. But the question of course is why it took so long and i want to begin by making it very clear about who had these documents who was the one to be delayed in turning these over . Well, its not alvin braggs fall if he didnt have that, he didnt have them. That being said, he did provide some back in june, donald trump didnt challenge that or say you werent doing a diligent job to try to get it because anything remaining, he provided them back in june in june of 2023. And now, just in january, donald trump turns around having to subpoena this. So hes clearly waiting to the leg good opportunities to do so. And he didnt push the fed as i read and understand to get the documents to him, whatever they may be. So this is not something within the control of the district Attorneys Office. This is something thats in worth control of the Us Attorneys Office im glad you made that distinction. I think is lost. A lot of people i think Da Alvin Bragg and tried to get them from the Us Attorneys Office. They didnt give him over. They had the opportunity to do so over a year ago. But why is there daylight . Explain to people about why there is this is not the same entity, obviously, everyone knows that alvin bragg was prosecuting and an eye towards its very case choi, the Us Attorneys Office knew that, but these are separate entities altogether i absolutely theyre incredibly distinct in for example, if donald trump was convicted by a federal court, district court, theoretically he could turn around and get rid of the case himself and say, im all right. But he couldnt do that in this state. He couldnt be pardoned because the state case, there are two totally different systems of government, just like your Congress Person is not the same as your state senator. So its vastly different. Theres rules different and civil and criminal procedure. The statutes criminally are different. There may be some overlap and substance in crime, but theyre very distinctive he believed to understand that alvin bragg cannot tell the Southern District, give me x you can subpoena them and try or they can cooperate, but he cant really force them i wonder how much of their decision not to hand them over initially was a little bit of arrogance about how they viewed the alvin bragg case as opposed to their own assessment of whether to bring charges. I have to wonder. I know its called the sovereign district of new york at times especially as it relates to the das office. But these documents, i mean, were talking about 31,000 new documents and maybe even more are coming next week. What do you think might be in these documents . Well, first of all, when you hear that number you know, someone who doesnt know any better in a roadway, but someone may not be practicing law. 31,000 could be a lot. 31,000 could not necessarily be a lot. Its the substance that matters what the context and content what matters. So very well that could be information about witnesses who testified in the grand jury, that could be cereals that were subpoenaed by the grand jury, that could be the grand jury minutes themselves that were provided very well, could be very important information. There could be exculpatory or just shed light and relevant information on michael cohen. And was that case prosecuted . Pardon me . Why wasnt the president prosecuted on these charges in the federal government and that system so theres a lot of reasonable question donald trump should ask, but delaying and a bill, an ising is what his tactic is. It shouldnt have come to this point. Again, to your point before its not in the control donald grant ada bragg, and hes turning those materials over as quickly as you can. You know. And again, they could contain whats known as exculpatory material. What would you actually could help to prove that trump did not do anything wrong . It could include inculpatory which led tends to show his guilt and hes case as well. Its really whats in these documents is going to be the rubber meeting the road but the Us Attorneys Office back this point, unlike da greg, the Us Attorneys Office of federal office, they declined to bring charges against trump back in 2018. So to what extent do you think that this these documents could include some of the reasoning behind that . That Thought Process often ends up in these memorandums of why you declined to prosecute i think theres a certain argument to be made that they could be there, but to think that theres going to be a proverbial smoking gun for donald trump that the feds have been sitting on all this time while giving da some of it is i think i think because It Overplaying of the hand his attorneys have a responsibility to their client period and there should be no question that they have to advocate no matter the circumstance. But i do i expect its going to be something that we call brady or exculpatory that will say, you know what, this didnt happen and now we go straight. I dont expect that. I dont expect that and i dont expect the judge is going to dismiss this case either. The run on some discovery, a technicality because the prosecution in the state of new york is required to turn over that discovery if its not even in their physical control, but if its in the control of someone that they have the control over and they dont have a jaw over the fence so very important doing their job, a little watch and of course, the trial hasnt started, so its not as if theyre looking at this the Rearview Mirror and saying, my goodness, what would i couldve been able to deal with those documents . It does delay potentially from 30 day is the question is, how much longer able be Jeremy Saland . Thank you so much. My pleasure. I want to bring in a cnn legal analyst, norm eisen, who is the White House Ethics Czar Under president barack obama, also berenzweig, a trial and compliance attorney, as well. Gentlemen, so glad to have both of you here before we get to whats happening in maralago the fact that you have the feds not giving over information to alvin braggs team. And now he has to be the one in court saying, actually, your honor, i might need a little bit of a delay. Thats not where he wants to be its not and its unconscionable. Alvin bragg asked for these materials it was over a year ago to hold them back and to wait for a subpoena from donald trump and then dump so far we have an initial dump of 70,000. Then in the past leak, another 30,000 plus with more coming i really fault the federal prosecutors here, the Southern District of new york has some of the best federal prosecutors in the country, but theyre known for you bris, for arrogance. And thats what we see here alvin bragg and the administration of justice and judge martian and all of us are the victims of that. Well, we will see what this judge ultimately decides. Of course, the fact that do parties are willing to have a delay and of course, trumps team wants the delay. Now that alvin braggs seem is saying, i guess up to three days, its going to get pushed back. Undoubtedly that let me turn to maralago, though, because trump taking of delays. How about the other Diy Word Dismissal . He is trying to dismiss the case against him in maralago and he went to judge aileen cannon today. And the first argument he made is that the espionage act is unconstitutionally vague, and therefore, he cant be prosecuted under it. All she was skeptical of that and instead said, this ought to be maybe a Jury Instruction or way to clarify it. What do you think she was so skeptical . Well, i think she wanted to punt on the issue. There are a total of nine motions to dismiss and you have to credit team trump. Theyre quite good at Filing Motions and while they lose on the substance, they went on the process because theyre running the clock and theyve done it in a very effective way. What happened today was that the judge said that she was very skeptical and was likely going to dismiss the argument with regard to Unconscious Two Tional Vagueness on the statute, and also that somehow President Trump then President Trump and then former President Trump had the right to be able to retain these records under the president ial records act. None of those arguments are strong. And whats frustrating about this case is that its supposed to be one of the simplest cases this is not a complex case. This is not one of those cases that really is going to take a long time to put on. But the fact that they and yet delay, delay, delay. So its really kind of a micron for cosmetic. Whats happening in the Supreme Court right down the street from us here, where the Supreme Court is holding back judge chutkan, and i know were not getting into any depth on that tonight, but you have to hand it to team trump when it comes to filing and delays, he really has the allstar team. I mean, youre her defense attorney. So the idea of making a Prosecution Team prove their case. Part of that is the Motion Practice prior that is making sure every i is dotted and ts crossed. And if theres even like a faint ink blot, thats it. But in this case, hes talking about on the espionage act what hes trying to draw comparisons to himself and biden and saying, wait, hold on a second. Biden had notebooks. You talked about with her Special Counsel hearing this week . I had no books. Same thing. She was not buying it though no. She even judge cannon who has been so partial to donald trump that shes been reversed twice by the extremely conservative 11th circuit. Even judge cannon gave trumps lawyers are hard time today. Theres no comparison between what biden did with following along. It was wrong. What biden dead . He should not have kept those classified documents. But theres a long pattern of president s hanging onto documents. He cooperated with donald trump. You have a vast number of documents and a refusal to cooperate. Alleged obstruction, then he has this insane president ial records act argument. It was one of my jobs when i was ethics czar to make sure we all complied with those rules, hes saying that official secrets about military preparedness and nuclear weapons, that those somehow can become personal. Thats like saying, its the opposite of personal. Thats not what the law means at all and by the way, rest on that. And she threw out his vagueness argument, by the way, there was that moment there was do we have the sound of him talking . About it from bedminster, i believe it was saying that in fact, he was aware that what lets just play it. Theres play i was just saying because were talking about any of that. He said he wanted to attack or ron and what this was done by the military, given to me i think we can probably no his president. I couldnt no, i cant get out, but this is is interesting as president , i could have declassified it now, i cant, and its still a secret. Sounds like notice in terms of your notion of this being pretty clear cut . Yeah, exactly. And one of the elements that judge cannon said today is that with respect to the Vagueness Issue on some of that went to the word of intent. She said, well, we can raise this on Jury Instructions during the trial, so she kinda punted, but the thing thats interesting is that when you go through Jury Instructions, those have to be based upon and foot to the evidence. So wheres the defense going to be able to point to evidence with regard to intent that flux favorably on mr. Trump. Now, in fairness to him, we dont know exactly how the trials go into unfurl, so well see, but when you look at evidence like that, and the jury gets an instruction on intent, i think thats one of the reasons why i think this is one of the most compact cases, which is one of the reasons why its so surprising that its taking so long i think it will get tried before the election as well. The case in new york, but this is just dragging on. Its like watching paint dry. These things really ultimately have to get up on the docket, as you might have a watch pot never boils well water and timing. But tom, do you think thats true . Its gonna go before the election . I do think that there is room for two cases to take place before the election, and you have the bragg case. It may be slowed down by this document dump, but probably not for very long and then that case well finish that. It will take lets say two months that case well finish and then you have the summer and the fall with three contenders three race horses will it be the maralago documents case . Will it be the jack smiths federal Election Interference case . Or will it be fani williss georgia case . Of course, tomorrow will decide if shes disqualified. That case comes off the board and its either maralago. So do jack smith case. My money is on judge chutkan. I think that even though the Supreme Courts hearing, this president ial immunity case last possible moment in the last week of hearings shes going to be ready to go and i believe that this is going to be a trial that will happen after new york. And shes shes definitely focusing. Her approach is fundamentally different than that of judge cannon. All right. Well, weve got three race horses. Get you. Mint julep, reading, norm sas, that was the Kentucky Derby reference. You guys just kidding me right now. Okay. Im funny. Anyway, moving right on. Thank you so much. Nor been said tonight. We learned just earlier this evening that there was a verdict the Michigan School shooters father found guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter a month after the shooters mother was also convicted. Up next, im going to talk to another mother, one whose son survived the shooting no parent should go through the hell were going through. Children are dying on a daily basis in mass murder and we do very little about it the lead with jake tapper the more wood for cnn at Fisher Investments, we may look like other money managers, but were different. You cant be that different. We are we have a team of specialists, not only in investing, but also in financial and Estate Planning thank and more, your clients rely on you for all that . Yes. And as a fiduciary, we always put their interests first, but you still saw commissionbased prod