Spotted even if she was inside her own courthouse grabbing coffee in the cafeteria. Thats where we are today, and look, we have to extend the threat concern to of Course Witnesses who are already being targeted by trump and his cohorts, the prosecutors, of course, and the jury, of course, the many jurors, all of this in a high threat environment. Complained about her . More like railed against her. And a reminder, she was confirmed to the bench unanimously. Meanwhile, the Special Counsels office has proposed january 2nd, 2024, as a trial date in the case, though some experts think that might be a little optimistic. This is the Special Counsel right Out Of The Box saying we are ready on january 2nd, so now when the defense comes back with, well be ready on january 2nd 2025, the judge is going to balance the scale. And then come up with a more reasonable time period. Trumps team has one week to respond, then judge chutkan will set an official trial date before the end of this month. Down in the state of florida trump and his co defendant, walt nauta, pleaded not guilty today to additional charges in the classified documents case. Carlos de oliveira, the other codefendant, was unable to enter a plea. Are you ready for why . Because his lawyer didnt fill out the notice with the court. I have questions about that one. And in michigan, nine alleged fake electors were arraigned earlier today. The fake electors plot is a key part of jack smiths d. C. Indictment, the federal one, but these were state charges. All nine defendants entered not guilty pleas via zoom. With that, lets get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel this evening. Peter baker is here in a, tai chi fight as correspondent for the New York Times, luke broadwater, more casual, pulitzer prizewinning Congressional Ford for the New York Times and christie greenberg, former fdny Camilla Vision deputy chief joins me here at 30 rock. I wanna start with you, kristie. What do you expect from this protective order here tomorrow morning at 10 am sharp . Both sides have versions of the protective order that they want the judge to consider and i expect that the judge is going to lean more in the direction of the governments proposed protective order because really what donald trump and his team want to do is have more that is not protected, that can be public, and you may say to yourself whats wrong with that . The public wants to know what the evidence is in this case. But there are lots of risks involved in that. You can see him cutting and pasting and taking things out of context and having evidence that is inadmissible that would taint the jury pool. Evidence of witness transcripts, witness interviews, where you could really be seeking to intimidate witnesses. We have seen him do that on social media, particularly with his former vice president. And just ways to undermine the integrity. When you have one side trying the case in the court of Public Opinion and the other side that is playing by the rules. So for all of those reasons, protective orders are very routine. They are ordered in most Criminal Cases and one that in particular is taking into account the public statements of donald trump and his propensity to intimidate witnesses and have their safety at issue, needs to make sure that is stringent enough to deal with that circumstance. Peter, trump is trying his case in the court of Public Opinion with the hopes of never having to try it in an actual court, so the fact that d. C. Has strict rules about how defendants and their lawyers have to act, trumps just going to blow his nose with that. Hes Gonna Throw It out the window. Absolutely. He has every time before. He basically dares the system to come do something about it. He did this throughout the mueller case. He did this throughout every other prosecution we have had up until now. He has an ad on the air attacking the Fulton County prosecutor who may indict him for the fourth time this week. Imagine that. A defendant literally airing an ad attacking the prosecutor whos about to indict him. I dont know whether its wise or not, but certainly not unheard of its pretty unusual, i would say. But he hasnt played by the rules that other people do. He placed by his own rules. He dares the system to do something about it. Look, donald trump is not going to be at tomorrows hearing. Do you think his lawyers are going to keep him out of the courtroom as much as they possibly can . Yeah. I would think so. The last place any lawyer wants to see donald trump is up on a Witness Stand. So keep him as far away from the Witness Stand is probably in their interest. Tomorrow theyre going to argue that these are unprecedented times, that donald trump is a candidate for president , that he should be able to talk as much and as freely about the case as can be allowed, and theyre gonna point out that mike pence, a potential key witness in this case, is also a president ial candidate, and these things will likely be discussed on the trail. Theyre going to ask for as much leeway as possible to have as a lenient a protective order, because they know that trump, honestly, cannot be controlled and is going to act though donald trump acts. And so they will likely try to seize as much away from the judge as possible. Reminder, donald trump can behave. He chooses not to. As long as we are talking unprecedented, kristy, this judge, when she goes to get a coffee, is now flanked by u. S. Marshals. How rare is that . Extremely. And sad. Extremely rare. Sad and infuriating. I mean, at some point a line needs to be drawn here, where, look, donald trump can vigorously defend his innocence. He should vigorously defending his case. But he should not be able to threaten people. He shouldnt be able to incite violence. He shouldnt be able to just threaten it and intimidate witnesses. The judge, potential juror jurors. Theres a Chilling Effect that happens to potential jurors and witnesses. I would hope that among the things that comes up tomorrows a stern warning from the judge. Not asking nicely like judge marchand did in manhattan, but a stern warning that if you continue this behavior, threatening inciting violence, there will be consequences to that and it will be a potential gag order and penalties. Look, lets stay on infuriating. This certainly if youre yates. Me carlos de oliveira, trumps codefendant, this guys freedom is on the line in the documents case, but his lawyer apparently didnt bother to fill out the necessary paperwork. Are you freaking kidding me . On what planet could we think this is anything but a delay tactic . Yeah, i mean, i cant speak to the competency or lack of excellence displayed by the attorney to trumps current defendant there. Time and time again, donald trump and his allies attempt to delay and delay and delay. I dont know if thats the case in this situation. It could be. An honest mistake. I do not know that. But it would be in keeping with their general pattern. Peter, jack smith wants to try the election case on january 2nd, which will certainly make for an interesting maralago new years eve party. If this date actually holds, how is this going to play out in the 2024 Campaign Schedule . January 2nd, lets roll into court . Yeah, january second you roll into court but this trial lets a go six weeks, maybe eight weeks, guess what . You have a court date, a trial in new york on the Hush Money Case that alvin bragg has brought. That then rolls into may, when you have a trial with classified documents case in florida that jack smith has brought. If this general seconding were to hold in this every reason to think it might not, but if it were you could just see, month after month after month of sequential trials. Its awfully hard to campaign if youre in a courtroom. Obviously he wont be there as often as other defendants might be, if he can find a way to get out of it. But its just not what any president ial campaign has been like. One day a trial, when they a rally. It boggles the mind. Three trials enroll, and then dont forget he has a couple of other civil trials already scheduled coming up and hes got this georgia case. If that leads to an indictment that could be yet another trial scheduled as well. All right, new topic, kristy, these fake electors in michigan, what exactly was their scheme . How is it supposed to work . Theres a version of this that is not the criminal. That is not problematic. Where you have alternate electors that, in theory, if there was a litigation, where trump was successful in showing some kind of election fraud, where these electors are essentially preserving their options. But that is not what ended up happening. What ended up happening was, donald trump is losing all of these lawsuits. There was no election fraud. He knew those were baseless. And you had these fake electors, these slates, where they were looking to use that as a pretext to delay and stop the count. And that is what was going on not only in michigan but on various battleground states. That is where you get into the part of, this is a corrupt plan with a purpose to delay the certification of the count. New topic, the former president has repeated one argument a lot lately, and i want you to watch this. So this has going on for a long time, the same stuff. Why didnt they do it two and a half years ago . Why, if they were going to do, it why did they do it two and a half years ago, before the election . They waited till the election. Well, for facts sake, it takes time to investigate and gather evidence, especially when trump and his allies werent aggressively to delay and obstruct the whole thing. Plus, and this is really important, lets look at the timeline. Donald trump declared he was running after, i repeat, after the investigations began. Luke, what i just did was mid busted, walk to how donald trump is staring out into the audience and lying. Do they actually care about actual facts . Or at this point does his base just like to drank from the Misinformation Hose and send him a donation . I thought it was interesting because he was making the argument a lot of americans were saying right after january six, why dont they charge him right now . We saw what he did. But the truth is, a federal Criminal Case takes a long time to build. And the department had to go through so many defendants first. Youve got to remember, they charged 1000 rioters as they were building the case that started investigating into the political realm. Now you are seeing, and then you saw the oath keepers prosecuted, then you saw the proud boys prosecuted. So its not like the Justice Department has been sitting on their hands here. And it did take a long time to build this case. Theres hundreds of people involved in this. Youve got fake electors across seven states. Youve got dozens and dozens of people involved. And so it wasnt the easiest thing in the world to do. But now the charges are there. And it still is quite a while from the election. Its not like the election is next month or something. Weve got some time, 18 months or so, before the election. So, you know, i would respectfully say that he is oversimplifying things there. Lets stay on the fact check. Because trump also is falsely claiming here that his First Amendment rights are being infringed upon. But can you explain, remind our audience, he is not being charged with anything about speech. He is being charged for his conduct. What he did, not what he said. Hes charged with committing three conspiracies its two people entering into an agreement to commit a crime and then taking an overt act in the furtherance of the crime. Its not to people talking about something. Its about an agreement and actions in furtherance of criminal conduct. Peter, the election in the indictment said charges several people close to trump including former white house lawyer Pat Cipollone and his deputy. Do you think theyre gonna testify . I dont think theyre gonna have much choice. In if they already testified before the grand jury, im not a lawyer but i have to admit, theyve already testified for the grand jury is not gonna be much of a case to avoid testifying in front of a trial. Mike pence has already indicated that though he doesnt and i think youre gonna have to reissue these coconspirators, the six unnamed coconspirators, i think we know most of them, through the circumstances are they going to be charged with gonna be witnesses . Are they going to cooperate or not . Weve taught in this program before about mark meadows the former Chief Of Staff, so i think thats an open question who testifies and who doesnt. I think its gonna be hard to avoid testifying most of these instances. Luke, donald trump attacks mike pence regularly. Once we start hearing about more witnesses, do you see him putting something together, like nixons enemy list on social media . I wouldnt put anything past donald trump. He attacked mike pence already on social media. Mike pence is a witness in the case against him. The judge told donald trump in court not to intimidate and not to interfere with witnesses. I think hes getting a lot of leeway right now. I used to cover federal courts and state courts and city courts. If defendants mess with witnesses, they often were arrested, and so i think hes got to be very carefully if he continues to attempt to mess with witnesses, even if its on social media. Its not just going after mike pence, i saw him on social media go after pences former steve Chief Of Staff donald short. And donald trump loves his belittling nicknames. Now calling him mark long. My question is, what kind of sick burn is that . I would guess marc short would rather have the name mark long. Peter baker, luke broadwater, kristy greenberg, thank you for being here. Coming, up the perks of being in power. The new reporting on luxurious underscore, luxurious, gifts billionaires gave Supreme CourtJustice Clarence thomas, and it turns out harlan crow was just the tip of the iceberg. And later, iowa is swarming the u. S. Has sworn in the u. S. Hopefuls, but with a shiny the front runner 11th hour getting underway on a very important thursday night. Wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. And its all right here. Streaming was never this easy, you know. This is the way. You really went all out didnt you . Um, its called commitment. Could you turn down the volume . Here, you can try. Get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. Wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. Its to die for. And its all right here. Streaming was never this easy, you know. This is the way. You really went all out didnt you . Um, its called commitment. Could you turn down the volume . Here, you can try. Get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. You know we like to keep very close tabs on the intersection of money and power in politics. Tonight we are learning a whole lot more about all the benefits Supreme CourtJustice Clarence thomas has received from multiple billionaires. Propublicas extraordinary new reporting riddled of a laundry list of alter luxury vacations, private jet, Sports Tickets, and resort visits that thomas himself has enjoyed without disclosing. Them the stories based off information for more than 100 eyewitnesses, flight data and other records. Nbc news has reached out to Justice Thomas for comment this morning but has not heard back. In the past, he has said he was advised that such gifts didnt need to be disclosed. I like to know who gave him set advice. Show me now propublica reporter brett murphy one of the journalist who uncovered this information who the hell are your sources, this reporting is bananas, you do not have to answer that. But again bananas. Let me digress. Everything that you looked at is extraordinary. It is so unethical, so terrible. However, it appears that none of it is illegal. Well, i actually think it might be according to the experts we talk to about this. There is a law on the books, the ethics and government act, that was passed after watergate, it says that Government Employees including Supreme Court justices, have to disclose when they receive most gifts. There are some exceptions. Things like, private plane rides, yacht cruises, expensive Sports Tickets if they dont what is the punishment . Well, there hasnt been a ton of precedent for that. Were finding out right now that the Enforcement Mechanism around this law is a little squishy. There have been people calling for someone to actually open an investigation, the judicial conference inside of the judiciary has the power to refer it, people have asked them to refer it to the a. G. Those things havent really materialized much yet. There is a law on the books. There is something there. Tell us what were some of the most egregious things he did, he received . I would say the 737, Wayne Huizenga billionaire passed away in 2018, behind blockbuster, Waste Management empire builder, he had a fleet of aircraft, private hangar outside of Fort Lauderdale airport, and at least twice, we heard, he would send one of his 737s, he had two, to pick up Justice Thomas and deliver him to florida. We aint talking about a puddle jumper, a 737. It was just thomas in the plane, according to the Flight Attendant whos on board. It was just the two of them talking on the trip to florida. We have seen democrat speak out saying they want an investigation but the end of the day, do you see any actual will, to change the rules . We talk about congressional stock trading, are we gonna change the rules, ive yet to see anyone bring anything to a vote. D