Phone about the moment of paper theyre dealing with. Its coming up. I had an intuition that would be there. When you see stacks of paper compared to national monuments, and you at home are going to get treated to that in just a few seconds. Thank you, my friend. You bet. Thank you all for joining us this hour. We have breaking news tonight as i just mentioned. If your calender was marked for this coming monday when President Trump was set to hold a Press Conference he was promised would exonerate him from the allegations laid out in that Fulton County indictment, if that was a date reserved on your ical, im sorry to inform you it has been called off. Trump says tonight his legal team is instead putting the overwhelming evidence in formal legal filings. He adds, therefore the News Conference is no longer necessary. That news comes right after trumps legal team in 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 2020 federal election case brought by special counsel jack smith should go to trial in April Of 2026. That is a whopping two years, 7 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. And his legal teams joefgz for this date is classically trumpy. Remember, if you will, when President Trump first took office and had to prove to everyone he had disentangled himself from his business interests, and he stood next to this giant pile of folders there they are and claimed they contained the evidence he had signed everything over to his son. 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. And today the argument from his defense team felt a bit like that. In their formal, formal legal filing the defense included this graph showing the height in feet of all the evidence jack smith will turn over to the defense and comparing that height to the Statue Of Liberty and the washington monument. Youll 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 of having to read the entirety of tolstoys War And Peace 70 times from now until december. And they do have a point, it is quite a bit of reading. That said, we have no idea how much of the evidence provided here will be duplicate information and how much of it will include 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 theyll not be ready to go to trial until april of the year 2026, which is a decidedly different date than the one promised by special counsel jack smiths team. Ultimately both of these dates are just suggestions. The trial date in this is the judges decision and at the hearing last friday the judge presiding over this case made it clear a key deciding factor was going to be how trump conducted himself outside the courtroom. She said even arguably statements of counsel 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 we proceed to trial quickly. There are a lot of reasons to think trumps April Of 2026 date is unrealistic, but this, the one outlined by the judge is number one. Today trump and his former attorney general bill barr had dueling interviews. Trump was on fox business, barr was on fox news. Remember that bill barr announced his resignation as attorney general the day the trump fake electors met all over the country, december 14, 2020. Trump had asked barr to use the Department Of Justice for things like name a special counsel to investigate voter fraud and to use the Department Of Justice to seize voting machines. So barr is a potentially key witness here. And barr had said as recently as this month that he will appear as a witness if called to do so. And so in the hours before trumps 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 to fight Election Fraud . Then after the interview Trump RepostedMarjorie Taylor greenes case that bill barr is a traitor. And hes postally similarly arguably threatening things about former Vice President mike pence as well as georgias governor, its Lieutenant Governor and its secretary of state. And also today again he posted a bunch of videos like this. How dare lowlife prosecutor deranged jack smith thats right, hes deranged. Deranged jack smith at 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, and we have plenty of proof on that. Does that count of stuff count as the 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 attorney for the Eastern District of michigan, as well as mark looeb witch. 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 theyre asking for a date more than two years down the road. Its a really audacious request. Its not only the defendant that has a right to a speedy trial, it is also the public that has the right to a speedy trial. The public has an interest in a position so that a person can either be held accountable or exonerated, and theres also an interest in making sure witness memories dont fade and the evidence is Still Available when the case goes to trial. This argument about there are terrabytesf of documents is true. The way this is reviewed today it was sorted, it is searchable, the way you would go about a modern Computer Search and not the way you would read War And Peace at the time it was written. But, you know, hat tip for the tolstoy reference, mark. What is abundantly clear the day trump is trying to kick this trial to 2026 is the day hes out there making the kind of statements that could be perceived as witness intimidation, stuff that could trigger the judge to move the trial date up in time. How do you square the sort of desperation that is evident in this legal filing as it pertains to the trial date and the behavior of the client at the center of all this . Like so many things in trump world its just doesnt seem terribly well thought out. The 2026 date, the proposed date, its something of a joke. Look how people have responded to it. I would of course worry it would interfere with the Midterm Election in 2026. Nobody talked about that, alex. But theres 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, you know, behave in ways that are very close to the line if not over the line. So at some point shes going have to give a very solemn assessment of this, and itll probably come sooner. As you said and suggested this is working against his interest and in fact he wants to delay this as long as possible. Just another sort of legal note, barb, i mean to your point this evidence will be sort of digested in a way that is not like reading War And Peace. Theres also the man power concern, right . Its not just one lawyer going to be tasked with doing that, presumably. But we talked about this last night, trump does have a weirdly skeletal legal crew assisting him in all this. I think tom blanche has a law firm with two lawyers. The question is when will trump spend money to hire more lawyers . That seems like a necessity at this point, does it tot . Youll see associates or temporary associates that come onboard to do discovery review. Therell be a lawyer overseeing all of it, telling them what it is theyre looking for and the lawyers review that for the things they need. Certainly more resources can come to bear than just a lawyer reading each page of the document. I think whats going to happen is first the trial date will get set and then hell retain the lawyers he needs to meet that deadline. Mark, as we talk about how incorrigible trumps behavior is here and ever where, it is worth noting he canceled the Press Conference he was supposed to have on monday, which i know was marked on your calender in all red. You were busy all day im sure because of advice from his lawyers. Does that signal to you and i know i can answer my own question before i finish it, but does that signal to you there is some part of trump and the trumpian reptilian brain hes aware of the peril hes in and at least occasionally listening to counsel . One would hope. The big question is opticwise, and i have feeling donald trump is not going to sit this one out. I dont know if hes likely to go to debate in milwaukee on wednesday, if hell have something dramatic up his sleeve there, but i wouldnt count him out of the news cycle next week by any stretch. But also just because hes standing down and saying, okay, this will be in the legal filing, which does seem to make some sound legal sense for once, there are a lot of ways he can get into the news and insiniate himself into whats going to be a very big week for the republican campaign. Yes, im sure this is not the only time were going to be hearing from donald trump about his exoneration. Barb, ive got to ask to give the defense team any sort of credit here, they raise the issue of classified material. They talk about how the government is offering its own edit of relevant documents and saying we shouldnt have to go by our accusers selection of whats 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 i dont know july . Do you see any relevant points here that are going to give the judge pause when she schedules the trial date . Sure. And i think jack smith tried to accommodate those things as well. 70 days is usually the first trial date that gets issued, but january is still, what, five months away inbut no doubt there are issues that i think could cause a judge to believe that more time is necessary than that. As you point out, the small amount of classified information is one thing that they will have to deal with. We dont know exactly what that is, but people may need clearances. They need to figure out how theyre going to handle that, so that will take some time. And then also the idea that youve got other kinds of things that need to be reviewed before then, that there is a significant volume of documents here. All of that makes sense. The judge has to decide what really is due process here, what amount of time is reasonable by balancing both a defendants need to have reasonable preparation but also the governments right to protect the Public Interest in a speedy trial. Yeah. When we talk about the trial whenever its scheduled, mark, 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 calender. You have the Iowa Caucuses on the 15th of january. You have trumps civil Defamation Case the same day, trumps civil fraud case two weeks later the Month Of March is peppered with caucuses and trials. This is what this is what election season 2024 is going to be, and it truly is like unlike anything we have ever seen in this country, the fact the presumed frontrunner is going to be bouncing back, pingponging between you know, pressing the flesh in iowa and New Hampshire and nevada and South Carolina and going on trial. This seems like the reality were barrelling towards. Yeah, you know, it does make your head explode in some ways. What im actually curious about is whether donald trump actually welcomes this. Obviously no one wants to be indicted four times on however many counts. This is not an enviable position to be in, but when youre someone as pathological as donald trump is and feeds on the attention as much as he does and someone whos been so successful in leveraging attention like this, in some cases very negative attention into political capital, you have to wonder could he be so happy hes going to be in the middle of all this, and yes, its a split screen, but hell actually be on both screens . Its true its what were looking at, and it feels kind of hellish. Certainly its fascinating, but youre right its unprecedented. I dont know if i would even use the modifier kind of. Just hellish. Barbara mcquade and mark liebovich, thank you for your time tonight. We have much more still ahead including new threats against the jurors who recommended Donald Trumps fourth indictment and what Fulton County is doing to protect those citizens, but first the republican response to their frontrunners 91 felony charges. Just take it to the ballot box. Thats the response. And thats next. Stay with us. Next. Stay with us 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. It is, frankly, impossible for republicans to ignore the onslaught of legal peril surrounding their frontrunner in the president ial primary right now, but as far as their responses to all that go, well, those responses range. Fight the allegations, deny everything, or do whatever this is. Theyre trying to send a message loud and clear, and the message is dont mess with us. And why are they going after trump . Because he messed with them. He challenged them across the board. He challenged their prowar policies, challenge them on ukraine, challenged their agenda. Senator josh holley arguing Donald Trumps legal troubles are not a result of trying to overthrow a democratically elected government, holley says donald trump is being targeted because he challenged the globalest agenda. Remember this is the same josh holley who Egged On The January 6th 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 senator holley might have identified the mob he was running from as a group of Trump Supporters trying to overthrow the government, but if you ask senator holley about that same mob today, he would tell you mob is was simply an expression of defiance against a globalist cabal. Those are some of the republican differentials that have been floated since trumps fourth indictment this week. And here is one more. January 6th i was there, i saw it, he was impeached over it. The American People can decide whether they want him to be president or not. This should be decided at the ballot box, not at a bunch of liberal jurisdictions trying to put the man in jail. This is joe biden and this is the democrats weaponizing the Justice System because theyre afraid of the voters. I understand that democrats and liberals in the media cant stand donald trump and theyll do anything to stop him, but it would be much better from their Point Of View and the point of the view of the country if they try to stop him on the Campaign Trail and that the ballot box and let theAmerican People make these choices. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and ted cruz and tom cotton are making the argument that donald trump should not be held accountable for his actions in a court of law. Instead, Donald Trumps future should be decided by the will of the voters. The thing is, though, we already tried that. And the last time trump and his allies were given the chance to obey the will of the voters in 2020, they decided they did not like what the voters had to say. They did not like the will of the voters and so then they tried to overthrow the results of the election, and that is the essence of at least two of these indictments here. And so perhaps as a back stop to that strategy there is another contingent of republicans in Congress Just trying to shut the whole thing down. Cbs news reported this week there are not one, not two, but three republicanbacked proposals in congress to defund jack smiths investigation as a way to stop his charges from ever reaching the courtroom. Joining me now is former United States senator claire mccaskill. Claire, thank you for being here. We put that josh holley sound in there just for you, but i would like you to respond to the notion that donald trump is being indicted because he is pushing back against a globalist cabal. Does that hold any water for you, claire . Well, its stupid. And these