Across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late. Well see you at the end of tomorrow. Tomorrow thank you all for joining us at this hour. We have breaking news tonight, as i just mentioned. If your calendar was marked for this coming monday, when President Trump was set to hold a Press Conference that he promised would exonerate him from the allegations laid out in that Fulton County indictment, if that was a date that was reserved on your eye calla, well im sorry to inform you, that it has been called off. Trump says tonight that his legal team is instead putting all of the overwhelming evidence informal legal filings. He adds, therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary. That news comes right after trumps legal team and another case finally gave its answer as to when they believe the former president should go to trial. Trumps team is arguing tonight that the federal 2020 election case brought by special counsel jack smith should go to trial in April Of 2026. That is a whopping two years, seven months, and 16 days from now. It notably comes well after the point in which trump could be back in office, and able to pardon himself, or just make this case disappear altogether. His legal teams justification for this date is it is classically trumpy. Remember, if you will, when President Trump first took office and had to prove to everyone that he had disentangled himself from his business interests, and he stood next to this giant pile of folders. There they are. And claimed that they contain the evidence he unsigned everything over to his sons. Now, trump refused to let anyone actually look at the contents of those folders, but, hey it was a lot of paper, it was a lot of folders. Today, the argument from his defense team felt a bit like that. In their formal legal filing, the defense included this graph, showing the height in feet of all the evidence jock smith will turn over to the defense, and comparing that height to the Statue Of Liberty and the washington monument. You will see the Discovery Evidence is a lot taller than both the Statue Of Liberty and the washington monument. Trumps counsel compared getting through all that evidence to having to read the entirety of tolstoys War And Peace 78 times a day from now until december, which honestly sounds like the Homework Assignment from hell. They do have a point, it is quite a bit of reading. One piece 70 times a day. That said, we have no idea how much of the evidence provided here will be duplicate information or how much of it includes things trump has always had access to, like for example the contents of his own twitter account. Moreover, typically its not just one person doing all that reading. Its why people retain entire legal teams to help them in cases like this. Nonetheless, trump and his lawyers argue that they will not be ready to go to trial until april of the year 2026. This is a decidedly different date than the one proposed by jack smiths team, which would like a trial date set for january 2nd of the year 2024 which is well before the president ial election. Ultimately, both these dates are just suggestions. The trial date in this case is the judges decision. At a hearing last friday, the judge presiding over this case made it very clear that a key deciding factor here as far as the date was going to be how trump conducted himself outside of the courtroom. This is what she said. Quote, even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel, if they could reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or prejudice potential jurors can threaten the process. The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case, which could taint the jury pool or intimidate potential witnesses, the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial quickly. There are a lot of reasons to think trumps April Of 2026 is unrealistic, but this, the one outlined by the judge might be number one. Look at what happened today, for example. Today, trump and his former attorney general bill barr. Trump was on business, barr was on fox news. Both of them were happening at four pm remember, bill barr announced his resignation as attorney general on the day that the trumps fake electors met all over the country, december 14th 2020. Trump had asked barr to use the department to name special counsel to investigate voter fraud, and a Huge Department of justice to seize voting machines. So, barr is a potentially key witness here. And barr has said, he will appear as a witness if called to do so. So, in the hours before trump and barrs dueling interviews, trump posted this online. Why does fox news constantly put on slow thinking and lethargic bill barr, who didnt have the courage or stamina to fight Election Fraud after the interview Trump RepostedMarjorie Taylor greenes remarks that bill barr is a traitor. Also today, trump has retreated or posted arguably ambiguous potential threatening things about including mike pence, as well as georgias governor, its former lieutenant governor, and its secretary of state. Also today, again, he posted a bunch of videos like this. How dare lowlife prosecutor, deranged jack smith, thats right, he is deranged. Deranged jack smith and the doj, the fake political indictment against me must be immediately withdrawn. The system is rigged and corrupt very much like the president ial election of 2020. We have plenty of proof on that. Does that kind of stuff count as a type of arguably ambiguous statements that might be perceived as threats . Joining me now to get to the bottom of all that is barbara mcquade, former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of michigan, as well as mark levovitch, staff writer for the atlantic. Barr, let me start with you. The old, but the documents are taller than the monument defense. Have you ever seen an argument similar to this one complete with a graphic showing how the Discovery Evidence would measure up to the Statue Of Liberty . No, and i have not seen a defendant so desperate to delay the trial that they are asking for a date more than two years down the road. Its really a audacious request. Its not only the defendant who has a right to a speedy trial, its also the public that has the right to a speedy trial. The public has an interest and reasonably prompt disposition so a person can either be held accountable or exonerated. There is also an interest in making sure that witness memories do not fade, and that the evidence is Still Available when the case goes to trial. This argument about the terabytes of documents here is true and not only this case but in other cases as well. No, doubt it will take some time to work through all of this. But no, longer is at the world where you sit down which each page and page through it, the way discovery is reviewed today is it is assorted, searchable, the way you would go about a modern Computer Search and not the way you would read warn piece of time was written. You know, hat tip for the reference, martha. What is so abundantly clear in the sea of all days, the day trump is trying to kick this trial to 2026 is the same that hes out there making exactly the kind of statements that could be perceived as witness intimidation, stuff that will automatically trigger the judge to move the trial dates up in time. I mean, how do you square the sort of desperation that is evident in this legal filing as it pertains to the trial dates, and the behavior of the client who is at the center of all this . It doesnt, i mean like so many other things with trump world, this doesnt seem well thought out. I think, the 2026 date, the proposed state is something of a joke. I mean, look how people have responded to it. I would of course worried that it would interfere with the midterm elections of 2026. Nobody talks about that, alex. But, there is actually going to be a very serious response to this and at some point the judge will weigh in on this probably sooner rather than later, especially as trump and many of his surrogates continue to sort of press her hand and behave in ways that are very close to the line if not over the line. At some point, shes going to have to give a solemn assessment of this and will probably come sooner. So, as you said, as you suggested, this is working against his interest if in fact he wants to delay this as much as possible. Just another sort of legal note, barb, to your point this evidence will be digested in a way that is not like reading War And Peace. There is also the manpower concern. Its not just one lawyer that is going to be tasked with doing that, presumably, but we talked about this last night. Trump does have a skeletal legal crew assisting him in all this. I think todd blanche who was representing trump in three cases is part of a law firm that has two lawyers. The question i think at some point needs to be posed, when will trump actually spend the money to hire more lawyers to deal with all this . That seems like a necessity at this point, does it not . I mean, most of the time in a big white collar case like this youll see a firm that has sufficient resources where they can call upon a number of associates, or even temporary associates that come on board to do discovery review. There will be a lawyer overseeing all of it telling them what it is there looking for, and the lawyers review that for the kinds of things they need. So, certainly more resources can come to bear than just one lawyer reading each page of the document. I think what is going to happen is first a trial date will get set, and then he will retain the lawyers he needs to meet that deadline. Mark, as we talk about how incorrigible trumps behavior is here and everywhere, it is worth noting that he canceled the Press Conference that he was supposed to have on monday, which i know was marked in your calendar in all red you were busy all day, im sure, because of the advice from his lawyers. Does that signal to you, and i think i can answer my own question before i finish, but does that signal to you that there is some part of trump and the Trumpy Reptilian Brand that is aware of the legal peril hes in and at least occasionally listening to council . One would hope, i mean, The Big Question is sort of optic wise, i have a feeling donald trump is not going to sit next week out. I dont know if this means hes more likely to go to the debate in milwaukee on sunday, if hell have something kind of dramatic up his sleeve there. But, i wouldnt count him out of the news cycle next week by any stretch. This is not something he does. Also, just the stunning nonsense can be no legal filings, does seem to make some legal sense for once, there are a lot of ways you can get into the news and could insinuate himself into whats going to be a very big week for the Republican Campaign next week. Yes, im sure this is not the only time were going to be hearing from donald trump about his exoneration. Barb, i have to ask, to give the defense team any sort of credit here they raised the issue of classified material that we now know maybe part of the discovery process. They talk about how the government is offering its own edit of relevant documents saying were not going to have to go by her accusers selection of what is relevant. Do they have a point here in any of this filing that the judge will listen to that could cause a judge to actually say, you know what, january is far too soon, im going to give you july . Do you see any relevance points here that are going to give the judge pauses she schedules to file a trial date . Sure, i think joe has tried to accommodate those things as well, 70 days is the first, usually the first charles bag that gets issued. January is still five months away. No doubt there are issues that i think could cause a judge to believe more time is necessary than that. As you point out, the small amount of classified information is one thing they will have to deal with. We dont know exactly what that is, butpeople may need clearances, they need to figure out how theyre going to handle that. So, that will take some time. Then, also, the idea that youve got other kinds of things i need to be reviewed before then, that there is a significant volume of documents here. Both of that makes sense. The judge has to decide what really is due process here, what amount of time is reasonable by balancing both the defendants need to have reasonable preparation but also the governmens right to protect the Public Interest in the speedy trial. Yeah. When we talk about the trial, whenever it scheduled market, the reality is that journalists, americans, other candidates are going to be witnessing the strangest split screen probably in american political history. Which is, do we have the calendar . We have the iowa caucus is on the 15th of january, you have trump civil Defamation Case the same day, Trump Civil Fraud Case two weeks later, the Month Of March is peppered with caucuses and trials. I mean, this is election season 2024 is going to be, and it truly is unlike anything we have ever seen in this country. The fact that the presumed front runner is going to be bouncing back, pingponging between pressing the flesh in iowa and New Hampshire and the bar and South Carolina and going on trial. This seems like the reality we are barreling towards. Yeah, no, it does make your head explode in some ways. I mean, what im actually curious about is whether donald trump actually welcomes this. Obviously nobody wants to be indicted four times and no matter how many counts, is not an enviable position to be in. But, when you are someone who is as pathological as donald trump and feeds on the attention as much as he does, and someone whos been so successful in leveraging attention like this, you know in some cases very negative attention, into political capital, i mean you have to wonder, could he just be so happy that hes going to be in the middle of all this . Yes, its a split screen but hell actually be on both screens. I, mean its a weird, weird thing but its true. Its what we are looking at, and it feels kind of hellish. Certainly its fascinating but it is also unprecedented. I dont know that id even use the modifier kinda. Maybe just hellish. Respect. Barbara mcquade and mark illegal witch, thank you guys very much for your time tonight. Thank you, alex. Have much more still ahead including new threats against jurors who recommended Donald Trumps fourth indictments and what Fulton County is doing to protect those citizens. But first, the republican response to their front runners, 91 felony charges. Just take it to the ballot box. Thats next. Stay with us. rsv can be a dangerous virus. [sneeze]. For those 60 and older. Its not just a cold. And if youre 60 or older. You may be at increased risk of hospitalization. [coughing]. From this highly. Contagious virus. Not all dangers come with warning labels. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor. About getting vaccinated against rsv today. 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Because he messed with them. He challenged them across the board. He challenged their pro or policies. He challenged them on ukraine. He challenged her globalists agenda. Republican senator josh hawley, arguing that Donald Trumps legal troubles are not a result of mishandling of misclassified information or trying to overthrow the democratic elected governments. No, hawley says donald trump is being targeted because he challenged the globalists agenda. Remember, this is the same josh hawley who egged on the january six rioters with an enthusiastic fist bump in the morning, and was later spotted running, sprinting, to safety once the insurrection began. In that moment, when he was running, senat