Him convicted came out of his mouth. This is a very sad day for america. Donald trump has never respected this country. He said this country was trash and garbage. The filth and the decay. And now he wants to lead it again. None of this is normal. This is our life now. After that i think we need to start tonight with a deep breath. Good evening once again, im stephanie ruhle. Americas 45th president , Donald John Trump returned to washington, d. C. Today as a criminal defendant. Trump appeared in federal court for his third arraignment since april, this time pleading not guilty to seeming to over the 2020 president ial election. This afternoon, trump traveled from his bedminster, new jersey home to the d. C. Courthouse just blocks from the capitals few blocks from the scene of the january 6th riot. Some protesters gathered inside but, they were over numbered by the media. Jack smith was there and seated just ten feet away from the former president. After trump pleaded not guilty, the judge issued what some experts say is a very unusual warning. She reminded trump that it is a crime to try to influence jurors or tampered with witnesses while out on release. Trump then flew back to new jersey right after the hearing but before he left town, he spoke out against the case. This is a very sad day for america. This is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in america, so if you cant beat him he persecuted or you prosecute them. For factss sake, for the 100th time here on the show, were repeating the truth. Of course, joe biden did beat donald trump fair and square in the last election. That is what this whole thing is about. Trumps next hearing is set for august 28th before a different judge. Hes not required to be there but that is when the judge will set a date for this trial. With that, lets get smart with the help of our Leadoff Panel tonight. Ryan riley, just a departee for nbc news, he was in the corners today. Its not a new book coming out sedition hunters how january 6th broke the justice system. Carol leonnigs here, Pulitzer PrizeInvestigative Reporter with the Washington Post. And Christie Greenberg a former federal prosecutor and sdny Division Deputy chief. Mr. Ali, you are in the room so i must start with you. This is the 1079th Doj Case Related To January 6th and its fair to say, very, very few have been acquitted. So how does donald trump fit into all of this . He is about the 100th man whos been charged in the january six. Ive covered a lot of those cases. Its very rare for the fans to be fully quoted. There have been a number of cases including the two biggest cases that involved the proud boys and the oath keepers where defendants were acquitted on individual charges. I think thats going to be a strong argument for the Justice Department to put forward from this point on, because basically its pretty inevitable youre gonna see a filing from the trump folks saying they need a change of venue. They gotta do this summer else, that d. C. s two democratic. What dojs gonna do in order to make any other arguments he made in the january six cases, point to a lot of the outcomes in this trial. They barely educated these cases, when you have jurors swear an oath and say they will follow the facts and they will do that, they can clear biases aside, even though they might not love donald trump or his political beliefs. So i think that will be a strong indicator moving forward. Its something we expect will probably be rejected but it could cause somewhat of a delay in the case. By all indications, it seems the judge really wants to move this forward, both the Magistrate Judge who was referencing what the judge will ultimately take is going to say. They coordinated very closely and we are going to have a date set at that next hearing at the end of the month. Its a pretty quick timeline and they have been very clear, the Justice Department needs to put their proposal within seven days and there needs to be another proposal seven days down the road from the defense. All signs are pointing that they really want to get something on the calendar as soon as possible. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and ted cruz were two of the many voices who are saying this particular judge cannot be fair. The trial must be moved out of d. C. Except of course when this judge was confirmed, she was confirmed unanimously, meaning crews and graham confirmed urine. Former new york prosecutors civil rights eternity irregular on the show, one of our favorite experts charles conan. Charles what is your reaction to the judge hearing the need to warn donald trump against influencing jurors and Witness Tampering . If you ever seen anything like this before . Stephanie, i have not i think thats one of the most unique things about what we are talking about with respect to this arraignment. If your ask me what jumped out of me the most, its literally that. And all of my years as a prosecutor and subsequently defending defendants, i have never heard that any explicit charge or in a diamond, referring to Witness Tampering. The judge actually warned a witness about contacting other witnesses outside of the routine warnings that he might receive from your attorney. That was something that was particularly interesting that i noticed jumped out today at the reporting coming out of the hearings. The notice that this judge would say listen, you should not be having any contact with other witnesses who may be part of this trial other than who your attorneys. I thought that was very telling and very clear that she was in touch with Donald Trumps approach, regarding how hes been trying to influence the public narrative around his various arrests and indictments. Karen, you are outside the courthouse. What we remain takeaways . How eloquently some of the people out side, the photos and the supporters were in describing why they came out that night why, they came to this arraignment. Theres no question about it, weve all said it 1 million times, this isnt an unprecedented event. A former president now charged three different times with various crimes. But this one the most serious. Supporters of his were there to say, hey this is a political attempt on the final 11th hour as he campaigns for reelection to derail his effort, to stop him from returning to the white house. Meanwhile, i spoke with several people who have a Field Democracy is on the line, that they have been essentially waiting for the state with baited breath, for donald trump to be held responsible for what he did in the weeks after basically the election, starting on november 4th, and continuing on until january 6th. He pulled every lever he could in his office to try and stay in that office, to cling to power, and those folks are looking for him to be held responsible for the way he abused that office. Kristie, earlier tonight trump lawyer john lauro took to trumps favorite place cable news, to talk about the case. Watch. This they are 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 council, to give me in my cocounsel up an opportunity to prepare. They want to deny President Trumps due process rights, to look at documents, to get witnesses, to use our subpoena power. Hes essentially arguing against the government thats asking for a speedy trial. But there is no proof or evidence that the prosecutors are not giving him anything is there . Nothing is happening. So how is he gonna do that . Hes going to get discover, hes going to have time to review the discovery, hes gonna have time to make his motions. He is trying to argue his case in the court of Public Opinion. Its just nonsense. Everything that he said there has no basis in fact for anything that happened today at this core proceeding. But in some bizarre row world charles, does not make sense . Because the court of Public Opinion is what matters the most to trumps voters. And what he needs more than anything is to get the republic nomination because his ultimate defenses i got to get elected. Youre absolutely right stephanie. There is a strategy here that is important for us to understand. When you look at judge Aileen Cannon and the way that she set him up with the may 20, 2024 day. What she basically said to him is i can get you part of the way, but you gotta do the rest yourself. You gotta make sure the year ultimately the republican nominee, because that will give you new life in terms of this Election Tampering Argument hes been trying to make. The same thing is possibly true here. If donald trump can put himself in the position more public the narrative becomes a front runner very clearly, he has a viable or possibly viable argument in front of the court to say, listen the more we continue to press this is im the republican nominee in the front runner, not just during primary season, but during the actual generally election, there may be an argument the he may appeal, after several delays his attorney already talked about the notion of a change of any and how that may be coming. I suspect there will be other legal maneuvers to try to push this thing as far out as they can, so that ultimately they can make the argument that listen, donald trump is the general election nominee for the Republican Party, and therefore they should not go forward at the time. Thats their strategy because legally thats all they have. So i suspect theyre trying to enforce the public narrative, because in a way donald trump has to do his part to try to get him a valuable defense inside the court. We are talking about Aileen Cannon and the maralago course dave ryan. The next hearing for this is august 28th. Our friend Glenn Kirschner who knows the judge, judge chutkan he was overseeing this, when he described as a serious woman who does not play around. What should we expect . Thats right well Luck Of The Draw is that ending up with a judge whose only purpose on Multiplications Granby On what the Justice Departments request on january six, there were multiple cases where the governments at Home Detention is fine, maybe some probation, she said no theres gonna be some incarceration time involved with this. Thats not to say that she hasnt gone in other cases, january six, cases she hasnt from the book at everyone, she just individually looked at these cases altogether. But she takes january 6th extremely seriously. Shes very vocal about that from the bench as our number of other judges who handle these more than 1000 cases a day work their way through the system. At this point basically 300 people have been sentenced to periods of incarceration. As i said over 1000 people have been arrested, but theres a lot more ahead in these cases as well, thats one thing its gonna be very interesting. There will be these other cases that continue to turn to the system, because ultimately the fbi could charge 3000 people. They probably wont get to that number once the statute of limitations expired, but they very well could likely get to 2000 number by 2026. And jan donald trump is another one of these generous six defendants, having their case go through the federal court system here in d. C. What number did you say . 3000 . More than 3000 people could be charged, either people who entered the Capital Building or people who assaulted Law Enforcement officers outside the building. And hundreds have already been arrested and more than 1000 have not yet been charged. They just sort of sitting there on the plate for the fbi to get around two and for prosecutors to end up prosecuting in the end. There are about 1000 who i dont actually cant identify, but the fbi has some of them in their system. Theres basically 1000 cases, double what we have right now, sitting out there. Even if its 1000, so for those of you have Friends And Family saying in a home, like to say january six was just another day, remind them of those big numbers. Carol, donald trump is still the gop front runner. Theyll be out campaigning this weekend. How closely will the prosecutors and the judge be paying attention to what he says and does . I think judge chutkan will actually be watching him very closely, moderating through clerks in other ways. Jack smith and his team will as well. Lets be clear, Donald Trumps mastery of the megaphone is well known. The way that he has convinced so many people including people i interview today outside the courthouse, the way his convince people that there was fraud in this election, that there were somehow mysterious dead people voting and they were flipping for biden instead of for trump, the way he has done is by constantly grabbing that megaphone and reminding them, heres how it really went down you guys. Youre on my side, im on your side. There was fraud. I know who you wanted. They did not give you your president. That is a risk now that he will take to the airwaves, take to his Rally Stage Intel and tell people in some way or some fashion again that they have to quote unquote fight like hell for the country and come to his rescue. In his effort to avoid what he calls a persecution. Fight like hell for our country but remember he is being charged with trying to defraud it, you and me. Kristy, i want to share with you something we heard from fani willis, because we could be seeing a fourth indictment from her out of georgia. Watch this. There are some people who say that they were already about three indictments against the former president. They argue that even if there were crimes committed here in Fulton County, a fourth indictment is not worth all the work that would come with it. To people that say that, what would you say . That i took an oath and the oath requires i follow the law, and that if someone broke the law in Fulton County georgia, that i have a duty to prosecute. Thats exactly what i plan to do. What do you think we will see in coming weeks . I think you are going to see a sprawling and i10 from fani willis. She has sent targets letters to over a dozen named individuals, not just donald trump can you remind our audience what that means . So, a Target Letter is simply her letting that individual knew that she has got the goods on them. That they have she had substantial evidence that they have committed a crime. You dont send those letters lightly, particularly to the former president of the United States and his close allies. So, she is a rico expert, she has hired a rico expert on her staff, shes been investigating this case for over two and a half years. Expect her to swing for the fences and hit home run with sprawling rico indictment of many individuals, not just donald trump. Does trumps actions in georgia played a role in jack smiths investigation . How much more can we learn from fani willis . I do think that fani willis s indictment when it does come down is going to be illuminating on a number of different aspects that we dont currently know about specifically what happened in georgia. I think theres gonna be a lot of overlap in terms of the information that weve seen what is ultimately presented, but i think theres also gonna be introduction of witnesses that we may not necessarily have heard from from jack smith s indictment as of yet. What i see expect we will see is a blending of a complete narrative that actually tells in a much more detailed story with respect to how donald trump violated the law specifically in georgia. Many of the facts will be repeated. We know about the call to Secretary Of State brad other players may have been involved in georgia that jack smith may not necessarily move forward on. We can hear a lot more on that its gonna give us a very, very robust picture on that that will paint a clear narrative about just how deep this rabbit whole goes in georgia. That, of course, is a investigation, because at this point, weve got three criminal trials and this former president is charged with 78 separate counts, ryan. Today, in the courthouse a whole group of federal judges showed up just to watch the hearing today. How unusual is that . Very strange. Actually, it was interesting, actually, just because this hearing itself took place in the chief judges courtroom, even though thats who wasnt overseeing, it was a federal Magistrate Judge who was overseeing this official proceeding. Any reason that was does, because of the Av Capabilities that they have their. They can live stream it to other parts of the courtroom. And that courtroom itself, you had several judges, he had judges go into from what i understand my colleague Glenn Kirchner individuals went into those Overflow Rooms themselves. But it was a definitely an interesting day in court. He had some of the these january hearings of the january six defendants durango, including a cop will be prosecuted next week with the sister, who uses the nword in some of his communications about that day or admitted in some of those Communications Going inside the capitol, photos of himself inside the capitol, and then ended up being identified along with his sister and the civil trial. A Status Conference or preparation for that trial went forward today. Theres another case that was put on pause, t