wednesday night. alex wagner tonight's starting now. good evening alex. >> yeah. definitely -- the fact that we were talking about who is alone. 150,000 florida republicans i believe have signed on to that ballot. it is just an epically appalling move to try to do this to people across the u.s.. it is a disastrous political decision. they will pay, and pay, and pay as long as they can keep trying to do this. thank you chris. thank you jessica as always. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. anks to you at home the criminat donald trump, the one that was most likely to be completed before the 2024 election, the special counsel jack smith's federal election interference case today, it effectively came to a standstill. it was frozen, or in legal terminology, its deadlines were stayed. two weeks ago the judge in that case, judge tanya chutkan, denied the claim that the entire case would be null and void because of quote, presidential immunity. trump's lawyers immediately appealed that decision and asked judge chutkan to stay the case until the appeals court can rule on the question of immuni. today, judge chutkan granted that request and she clarified exactly what that means for the future of this case. if jurisdiction is returned to this court, the court will consistent with its duty to ensure both a speedy trial and fairness for all parties, consider at that time whether to retain or continue the dates of any still future deadlines in proceedings. including the trial. scheduled for march 4th, 2024. so this case is on hold until the immunity question makes its way through the appeals process. once that is done, judge chutkan will see whether the trial schedule still works, or if it has to be delayed. that means that the final decision on this appeal, and how quickly that decision is made, is very much a live issue. it could potentially delay or even destroy the special counsel's case altogether. but jack smith is not just rolling over here. earlier this week, smith asked the supreme court to take up the issue directly. and as soon as possible to try to head this whole thing off the past. trump's lawyers have another week to respond to that request. but even if going straight to the highest court in the land does not expedite the process here, mr. smith is working on the lower level courts as well. on monday, smith asked the d.c. circuit court of appeals to fast-track its appeals process on this immunity question. and today, trump's legal team filed their response. now he would think that trump's lawyers might want their own appeal heard and decided on as soon as possible. if they thought they would win it. and apparently they do not. they want a delay. because that is their main strategy in all of this. let me read you one of the actual arguments in court today in their formal filing to the d.c. circuit court of appeals. this proposed schedule what and support staff, and evidently disrupting family and travel plans. it is if the special counsel corralled with his cringe fingers, nervously drumming and must find some way to keep christmas from coming. it is one of the most spectacularly and serious legal arguments i've ever heard. and one of the most serious cases of this country has over grappled with. they literally called jack smith the grinch. and the whole thing is extra comical, when you think about how this entire case is about trump's actions in the lead up to january 6th. when trump and his lawyers worked around the clock, through the holidays to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. for example, on the last night of hanukkah, in 2020, december 18th, sydney powell, michael flynn, rudy giuliani, they all pitched trump conspiracy theory after trump conspiracy theory in a quote unhinged west wing media. the same night, the last night of hanukkah, trump asked his followers to come to d.c. on january 6th saying be, there it will be wild. on christmas eve, trump lawyer, john eastman, wrote his infamous memo explaining how vice president pence could stop the certification of the vote on january 6th. on the first night of christmas, the federal indictment alleges that trump asked pence to overturn the 2020 election on christmas day. on the third night of christmas, december 27th, trump implored top justice department officials to just say the election was corrupt. and leave the rest of the other republican nominees. on the day after new years, trump was on the phone, georgia secretary of state, brad raffensperger asking him to find trump nearly 12,000 votes. how did they find time? what about the stockings? was there no christmas him that year? apparently in trump world it is fine to work over the holidays if the work is trying to overthrow american democracy. but when the workers he most important legal case in modern american history, suddenly, jack smith is the literal grinch. attorneys need eggnog as well, you know? special counsel is amazingly already ahead of this argument. within hours of the trump grinch filing. the special counsel's office immediately filed their response. and they asked the appeals court to respond tonight. and the d.c. circuit court did just that. the trump team legal work will now be due on december 23rd two days before christmas and eight days after the last night of hanukkah, and three days before kwanzaa. plenty of time for gingerbread houses. and if trump's legal team still has grapes with the 23rd of december, i would like to remind them that on december 23rd of 2020, not only did trump have time to pardon 26 people, including roger stone, and charles kushner, they also have time to call the lead investigator in georgia secretary of state's office -- and tell her that she would be praised with the right answer. it is abundantly clear that mr. trump does not, but every who in who bill wants to quit the delay stuff a lot. joining me now is former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official who's known msnbc contributor and msnbc legal analyst, chuck and lisa. i will ask you, lisa, do you prefer the lorax or the cat in the hat? or is the grinch the go-to? >> i think that this is more like green eggs and ham when i was thinking about tonight. trump's lawyers are the semi m. of their own situation. and leslie trying to have this internally contradictory story, and yet all of the judges they encounter, unlike the character in the seuss book do not want to eat green eggs and ham even if they don't give it up. >> yes. first, i mean, i will ask you both, chuck, let me go to you here. i am not a lawyer. we say this all the time, i didn't go to law school, but setting the grinch and making the excuse that an appeals process shouldn't be expedited because people need to celebrate the christmas holidays? it seems farfetched to me. what was your reaction? >> i thought it was juvenile, and what you want to lisa first because it was obviously well prepared on the doctors references. i'm not. i will tell you this. on any holiday, military officials, federal law enforcement officials, intelligence officials, are working. that's what they do. they work. because the work is important, and the work is necessary. so the notion that the most important criminal case in the country can't be litigated by attorneys over the holidays is juvenile and nonsensical and that was my reaction. by the way, calling people names and it doesn't get you any sort of traction. jack smith and gordon -- >> i don't even think that is trump space. just the idea that jack smith is a grinch-like figure. setting it aside for the minute, i wonder what you make of the appeals decision tonight. just a few hours ago to move this thing forward. three judge panel, two of them appointed by biden. one appointed by george h. w. bush. >> i think it is very interesting that they make a decision to move this along. particularly given that the supreme has already set a deadline for trump to submit his brief, and opposition to the petition that jack smith has put before them. we've talked before and about this two track approach that jack smith is trying to pursue. now we've got a three-day window. in between trump's supreme court brief on the 20th, his brief now to the d.c. circuit, ten days from now on the 23rd, if the supreme court wants to be what we would call good colleagues they will make a decision about whether to granted in the three-day window. >> to grant, you mean saying yes we will have this immunity question? >> yes. that obviously need for any further briefing in the d.c. circuit because the supreme court's supreme. >> right. the highest court in the land. how do you read the decision here? is this the d.c. circuit court of appeals basically hedging its bets against the supreme court and what they are going to do given this sort of different makeup on these two courts? >> i am glad that it is proceeding on the parallel track. i think that's appropriate on both courts. they were asked to expedite this important question. that is what they are doing. i don't know that there are hedging their bets. i think the best solution, of course, is for the supreme court to take the case now. they are going to get it eventually in one way or another. but the case now and resolve the issue is not a frivolous issue. i think the government winds it, in fact i am reasonably confident that the government wins it. but since it is going to be litigated in front of the supreme court, let's do it now. let's resolve it as quickly as possible and go back to the trial judge and in d.c., hit the play button again and get the case moving. that seems like the most logical thing to me. >> yeah. no matter what, judge chutkan has issued a stay. the thing is frozen in time as it stands right now. and i wonder how surprising you think that is on the part of judge chutkan and how meaningful it is in terms of trump's broader goals and delay everything here. >> it is not surprising in that jack smith effectively conceded that that was the right result. that an appeal on a motion to dismiss where the questions presented are ones of constitutional import. his presidential immunity argument is effectively a constitutional one. he's saying yes, i acknowledge that that deprives the trial court of jurisdiction and things have to pause. at the same time, what is notable about judge chutkan's decision today is her carving out a room for her still to exert some authority over the gag order which she can still in force and over trump's conditions of release. those are the rules by which he has to play as a free person having been criminally indicted. and over the protective order that governs the voluminous discovery that he complained of, in his brief to the d.c. circuit today. that means as i was telling one of our colleagues today, trump can't walk into a hallway with her burn book photocopies to discover into the public domain and let everybody see that which jack smith, and the department of justice don't want us to have vantage points and two at this point. >> and it all has to stay effectively under wraps. but chuck, the jury selection in this seems like it should be a prolonged process and that has to stop all this appeals court plays out, right? i would assume that is meaningful time that the judge is losing here and at the special counsel's office is losing. >> potentially. that is a problem. i think that lucy described it correctly. there are things that will remain in place. the case didn't evaporate, it didn't disappear, it suddenly paused. the protective order, the gag order and other things like it remained in place. the parties cannot go back in front of judge chutkan -- so you are right. jury selection will be paused. very important in a case like this. somewhat cumbersome and that is where you begin to see the potential delay tactics taking hold and taking effect. so the quicker this gets resolved and that it gets back to a point we were discussing earlier, the quicker the supreme court hears the case and decides it. the faster judge chutkan can go back, hit the play button, and resume all of the things that you need to do before trial like picking a jury. i don't know that the march trial date is doomed, but it is certainly in danger. >> that's going to be, i, mean it's hard to hear that given the fact that this case is in many ways the best shot that the plaintiff has in determining whether or not the president, the former and potentially future president of the united states is a felon. double jeopardy is another case of trump's lawyers are making alongside the presidential immunity claim. they are saying that because trump was already impeached for actions around january 6th they cannot be held accountable again. that has been kind of waved. i feel like we waved thought of as a viable form of defense. the supreme court says it will rule on that. how -- what do you make of the double jeopardy defense? >> when chuck was saying earlier that the issues that trump is presenting here are serious, they are serious and their issues are for the supreme court. however, between the two, between his structural absolute presidential immunity argument, and double jeopardy argument, i don't think it is a serious argument to say because he was impeached but not convicted by the senate he can't be criminally prosecuted. there is nothing as judge touching can said and the structure that would demand a result and in fact there is a provision in the constitution, the impeachment judgment clause, that would lead you to the opposite conclusion based on its actual plane text. >> if anything it is the trump -- and the fact the supreme court, this is such a difficult metaphor, it's scraping all of the spaghetti potentially off of the wall at the same time by deciding to take all of it out. seems meaningful here. chuck rosenberg, i'm sorry that we sprung all of this trivia on you without adequate preparation, you passed with flying colors. lisa reuben, -- thank you for your time. we have a lot more ahead tonight, and we are back before the supreme court. with the justices are considering, and how their decision could impact women, even in states where abortion is legal. but first, the impossible logic behind house republicans newly launched impeachment against joe biden. congressman adam schiff joins me now coming up next. stay with us. g up next. stay with us stay with us i recommend sensodyne. sensodyne toothpaste goes inside the tooth and calms the nerve down. and my patients say you know doc, it really works. liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. oh. 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>> i'm wondering if the timing of this indictment on hunter biden is partly a cover-up. >> i totally agree that the timing is suspect and they are pushing hunter in front of the bus and saying okay, we've got to feed the masses a little bit to keep them off of joe. it does have a bit of a feeling of the biden folks creating bad news to cover up other venues. >> the fact that they are covering this up, sean, it's not only the crimes that biden committed it is the cover-up. >> lies that they may have invited hunter biden to protect him in the house oversight committee. >> yes. they indicted him to protect him. yes. the classic rubric. >> the republican theory of the case here is laughable. even the most generous reading makes no sense. but republicans are still hanging on to this was theory as a basis for an impeachment inquiry into joe biden. tonight, the house voted along party lines to 21 to 2:12 to open a formal impeachment inquiry into the president despite having no evidence of wrongdoing. every republican including these so-called moderates in the swing districts voted in favor of it. so how does this and? what do republicans do you know that they have opened the store with promises to expose some grand plot when there is no reason to believe that grandpa actually exists? how do democrats respond? i'll talk to congressman adam schiff who led trump's first impeachment about all of that coming up. l of tha coming up. coming up. cold. dayquil honey, the daytime, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, honey-licious, power through your day, medicine. children are the greatest joy and our best hope for a better future. friends, they are the future. but did you know that millions of kids right here in our own backyard are facing hunger every day without healthy food? it's harder to grow, to thrive, to feel their best. the impact when children don't have enough to eat is tremendous because when you're hungry and your basic needs aren't being met, you cannot learn. that's why i'm here now, asking you to join me in helping end child hunger in america. this is a problem we know how to solve, and we can do it better by supporting no kid hungry for just $0.63 a day, only $19 a month. you can help provide healthy meals like a good breakfast in class to power kids through their days. breakfast in the classroom contributes to kids being more focused, which leads to higher grades. test scores, and simply just their well-being. ensuring all kids get a good b