Today were going to tell you about that, and if you cant win, change the rules. That is what republicans are doing to try and sway states in the 2024 election. Im ayman, lets get started. All right, mark your calendars. This week judge Tanya Chutkan set a date for trumps trial. We now know it will be monday march 4th, 2024. If that does sound familiar to you, thats probably because youre familiar with politics and it happens to be just one day before what is perhaps the most important day in any president ial primary season. Super tuesday. On march 5th, Republican Voters in over a dozen states are set to cast ballots for their 2024 pick. In total, youve got about one third of all delegates that will be up for grabs on super tuesday. Thats more than any other day on the primary calendar. Meaning the parties presumptive nominee could very well be decided right then and there, on that day. And since trumps lead over the republicans is growing, that means the disgraced ex president could officially become his partys pick, while his lawyers are in court, fighting for his freedom. Just think about that for a moment. Its quite the split screen image. And heres how the atlantics david graham summed up the impending uncharted political territory that we find ourselves in. Neither political scientists nor legal scholars have really nitpicked such a scenario. So no technical term exists to describe it. Right . A huge mess. I happen to agree with him. Chutkans decision has also put her case into direct conflict. We have three other trials that are looming over the ex president. In Fulton County, georgia District Attorney fani willis, who is investigating trumps efforts to overturn the election in her state, had previously proposed taking him to trial on march 4th as well. In manhattan, where trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies in an alleged hush money scheme, a trial has already been scheduled for march 25th. And then there is, of course, the other federal trial against the ex president. This one concerning his illegal retention of classified documents in maralago. So if trumps trial in washington lasts more than 11 weeks, it could clash with the late may date already on the books in florida. So the chaotic Courtroom Schedule has created a massive legal traffic jam. But the truth of the matter is, this is a disaster of trumps own making, and no one else. Following chutkans ruling, the ex president blasted the judge on his failed social media site, calling her a quote, Biased Trump Hating judge for setting a date that is quote, just what our corrupt government wanted. But remember, it was trumps own lawyers who proposed that ridiculous trial at the end of april, almost two years after the 2024 election. Look, i am no legal expert here. I dont pretend to be one. But if a person is truly innocent, wouldnt they want to clear their name long before it appears on a ballot . Instead, trumps usual Delay Tactics here have backfired, spectacularly. Ushering in a political mess in locking the Collision Course between his legal calendar and his 2024 primary campaign calendar. Here to break all of this down, cynthia aksne, a former federal prosecutor and an msnbc analyst. Carlos curbelo an msnbc political analyst, and hayes brown, writer and editor for msnbc daily. Theyre all friends of the program, great to have all three of you back. Cynthia, just out of the gate, i think a lot of people, certainly what the president suggested, after chutkans ruling, he vowed to challenge that march 4th date, that start date. Our Trial Calendars even subject to appeal . No. They arent. And it was ridiculous. He shouldve checked with his lawyer. And you notice his lawyer threatening a lot of motions that hes going to file. Not one of them includes the motion to appeal the trial date. Hes talking about he wants to have motions on selected prosecution, he wants to bring up hunter biden, he wants to talk about immunity, he wants to dismiss conspiracy accounts, and even his own lawyer is not saying hes going to try to appeal the trial date. So, no, he cannot. He can ask to have her reconsider, and perhaps apologize for his behavior, which was abominable and embarrassing, and ask her to reconsider. One of the things that happened in the court was she said give me another date. Were not going to give you april two years from now. Give me a date. And he refused to do it. And he refused in such a rude way, she had to say to them, take the temperature down. Let me just tell you what. When a federal judge has to tell you several times to take the temperature down and treat you like the small child on the first day of kindergarten, you have a big problem. A credibility problem. You have a problem in the courtroom that will hurt your client down the line. And he did not help trump in any way with his behavior. But the short is no, he could not appeal the trial date and unless theres some unforeseen circumstance, he is going to go to trial march 4th, or certainly within the month of march. I was going to say, looks like trumps lawyer and trumps team have basically been getting what they paid for, and that is not much. Congressman, trump has called the scheduling Election Interference, but in regards to the ruling, judge chutkan said plainly, i take seriously the defenses request that mr. Trump be treated like any other dependant that appears before this court, and i intend to do so. Trumps the first to call foul, kind of expected. He says hes being subjected to a double standard. Is he really asking for Special Treatment here, when asking for his trial to be delayed beyond what would be a normal thing two years is beyond normal, its crazy. But if he was asking for some reasonable delay, the judge wouldve taken into account his campaign calendar, wouldnt that also be playing politics . Wouldnt that be giving him a favor by saying im taking into consideration that you are running for president , so im going to accommodate your political calendar . Two things could be true. Number one, donald trump should be treated fairly. He should be afforded the opportunity to defend himself, just like anyone else would. But its also true that just because youre running for public office, thats not an excuse to not face justice. To get Special Treatment. We cannot afford in this country to allow running for office to be part of a legal strategy. The two things are separate. He has every right to run for president for the time being, but he also has to face a justice system, and not receive any Special Treatment, just like any other american. Yeah, so, hayes, its interesting. That point of being treated equally, lets remind our viewers here. The federal government wanted a january start date, and that is very well before super tuesday. It was trumps team that wanted the delay. Again, proposing a ridiculous two year after the election start. So did this kind of backfire on them by demanding this delay, but the judge and it happened to be march 4th. I think that judge chutkan was really trying to accommodate both sides here. Because in my opinion, a reasonable requests given how much of the information that they have is public information, or is already known to donald trump. Because hes the one who was involved in these schemes. I thought that the january request date was reasonable. The 2026 date clearly was not. So i think that judge chutkan was trying to make sure that reasonable accommodation couldve been made. I think that playing politics is trying to set a trial date for your candidate, when ideally should he win, he will be president again. That was the overarching reasoning behind why they filed to try to move the trial date to 2026. Its completely obvious. We dont have to be a great political mastermind to look at the calendar and see thats what they were trying to do. To the point that its Election Interference to say donald trump has to be in court for these dates, i can think of no candidate in modern history who needs to be on the Campaign Trail less than donald trump. Everyone knows who he is, everyone knows his positions, everyone has seen him in his office before as president. His base is with him still, aside from maybe fundraisers, i dont see why he would need to be out of the courtroom and on the Campaign Trail, compared to most other candidates who can make the same claim. To your point, he skipped the first debate. So clearly hes already saying to the judge, some of these normal events that a candidate would normally show up and participate in, hes just like im not going to attend it. Im going to skip it. But there is an interesting thing here that i want to ask you about, which is jack smith, whos prosecuting both of the federal government cases in florida and in washington. For the florida case, that trial date is in may because they know the discovery and the documents, the classified material, the motions, they anticipated that. But now youve got one of trumps lawyers, john lauro, telling the judge that he were to abide by the ruling that said that the date means he wouldnt be able to provide, quote, adequate representation. Give me the reaction to that. The lawyer productively saying itll be ineffective, even before a trial has begun, is not exactly what i would say a bang for your buck, if i was donald trump. Its just a hollow threat. Its just a talking point, its just an excuse to try to get the trial date move. I have two things to say about that. There is no reason to be concerned that the trial date is a problem, because the may trial date is never going to happen. That judge in florida is not going to trial in may. On the ineffective assistance of counsel, let me tell you this. Theres all kind of legal standards for what really is ineffective assistance of counsel. And thats what lauro was saying. I cant be affected if i havent spent more time to go over this. When you look at the standard for ineffective assistance of counsel, its pretty low. I mean, low. Like, theres fancy words for its about you have to have a deficient council cant have done a decent job, it has to be deficient. But it also has to be that there would be a different outcome. And when you read these accounts, your lawyer can be drunk in the courtroom and can be an effective council, according to the standard. As long as theyre outcome wouldnt have been changed. Like, you did commit the murder and there werent any other witnesses. And im sorry your lawyer was drunk. That happens in the law. So, its an ineffective assistance of counsel is a hollow a threat, and its kind of just a tv soundbyte threat. Its not a real threat. Especially for a guy whos got a big law firm, he has billions of dollars at his disposal, hes falling all these motions, he is going on tv, he is going to be cross examining these witnesses, hes going to be sober, its going to be fine. Nobody has to worry that in any way shape or form donald trump is going to get off on a case on ineffective assistance of counsel. It just isnt happening. Lets talk politics for a moment. Trump only grows his lead over the gop field with every indictment. If you are a gop candidate, and trumps he is now indicted, but his trial starts during the campaign season. What do you do . How do you campaign against him . Because if you campaign and attack him, it seems like it helps him. But at the same time if you ignore him, which is obviously whats happening now, youre not exactly a profile encouraged as a republican candidate. Well, ayman, the point you made earlier that this is just a massive mess, is the point that a lot of these other gop hopefuls have been trying to make to republican primary voters. Especially in these key early states. Telling them, donald trump is going to be important. Donald trump is going to be defending himself from any criminal charges. He is not a good candidate for a party, ayman, but that message isnt breaking through. As you said, trumps support keeps growing and a lot of these other candidates are really having trouble gaining traction. Now, i will tell you, i think a lot of them wasted a lot of time. They have tried to defeat donald trump from within the shadow of Donald Trumps lie. They have not wanted to confront donald trump. I still believe, even if its difficult, the only chance you have at defeating donald trump is to be honest with the voters, explain to them what donald trump did, why it was wrong, and why you would be a better candidate. If you just try to follow trump, if you just try to imitate trump, i really think its impossible to defeat him. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Former congressman carlos curbelo, hayes brown, i thank you to the both of you for starting us off. Cynthia, please stick around. Coming up, the democratic lawmaker leading a lawsuit against donald trump and his allies for their roles in the january 6th attack. Congresswoman barbara lee joins me live, after this break. Buknow what is . Myplan from verizon. vo Football Season is here. Get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. A 449 value. Plus, get a free Samsung Galaxy z flip5. Only on verizon. Looking for a smarter way to mop . Introducing the new swiffer powermop. An allinone Cleaning Tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean in half the time. Our new cleaning pad has hundreds of Scrubbing Strips that absorb and lock dirt away, and it has a 360degree swivel head that goes places a regular mop just cant. So, you can clean your home faster than ever. Dont mop harder, mop smarter, with the new swiffer powermop. josh allen is this your plan to watch the game today . hero fan i have to watch my neighbors nfl sunday ticket. Dont mop harder, mop smarter, josh allen its not your best plan. But you know what is . Myplan from verizon. vo Football Season is here. Get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. A 449 value. Plus, get a free Samsung Galaxy z flip5. As donald trump prepares for only on verizon. Six scheduled criminal and civil trials over just the next nine months, my next guest, democratic congresswoman barbara lee is leading a group of democratic lawmakers in a long running civil lawsuit against trump and his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, for inciting the violent january 6th insurrection. And just like the Election Interference cases in both d. C. And georgia, the suit accuses trump of conspiring against the federal government. When the lawsuit was first filed in 2021, trumps team responded with a statement saying, President Trump does not incite or conspired to incite any violence in the capitol on january 6th. Congresswoman barbara lee joins me now. Congresswoman, its great to have you back on the show. Lets talk about this lawsuit which was originally brought by the naacp on behalf of congressman benny thompson. It was followed long before these indictments and scheduled trials that weve seen play out over the last couple of months. It was even before the January 6th Committee was formed last year. When you joined this lawsuit, did you expect its sheer volume of legal trouble that trump would be in today . Thank you, ayman. Nice meeting with you. Yes, i did. And actually, chairman bennie thompson, due to a perceived Conflict Of Interest when he was appointed chair of the January 6th Committee, left the lawsuit and i was appointed as the lead plaintiff. And in february, of course, we filed this lawsuit. And we will, and the complaints say, that there should be accountability for the perpetrators and those who instigated and those who threatened the peaceful transfer of power. Also in this lawsuit, were seeking justice for those who were harmed as a result of this unfortunate, terrible, really almost a coup. And it was really thwarting the peaceful transfer of power, which is why were moving forward with this in terms of seeking justice. Its extremely important that this never happens again, so were investing in efforts to protect our democracy in the future. Because this january 6th was a threat to our democracy, it was an attempted coup, and in fact, we must hold those accountable for instigating this threat on our democracy. There is one passage from the suit that i want to bring up for a moment. It alleges that trump and his allies were in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which says defendants may not conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any Person Holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the u. S. From discharging their dues. Explain this to our viewers, why this is in violation of that law. Sure. This law in 1871 was put forth and passed during reconstruction. And basically it was to combat Violent Attacks on the Voting Rights of black americans. And attacks on black elected officials, from taking office and discharging their official duties. Here we are in 2023, and we know that well who donald trump is, and these perpetrators, who they are. This is a very appropriate citation in our complaint, and were moving forward. Finally, let me just say that donald trump tried to appeal this. Hes still trying to say he was immune. But the lower court said that hes not immune from these charges, and theyre moving forward now, waiting for the Appeals Court to make this decision. To the latest developments in the georgia indictment and jack smiths Election Interference case help bolster your lawsuit . Does it have any impact at all on your lawsuit . No, ayman. This is a civil lawsuit. The georgia case is a criminal lawsuit. Of course, personally ive always said that there was a Criminal Enterprise Being Run Out of the white house. But the lawsuit that we have filed with our ten plaintiffs is a civil lawsuit, laying for the complaints that i just stated. I do want to switch gears real quick and get your thoughts on Presiden