Documents case to begin on august 12th. That is correct. Donald trump asked for that trial tosk start just three mons before the president ial election. Except that request may not exactly by what it sounds like. It could very well be a game of 3d chess. But, yeah, doesnt sound like something donald trump plays all that often. But bear with me here. Trump pitching that august date could be ahi way to block that other federal criminal case, the specialra counsels much more serious federal Election Interference case before going to trial before the election. Yesterday we got that massive news the Supreme Court has agreed to hear trumps argument that those criminal trials in the d. C. Case could should be thrown out because of president ialse immunity. The court didnt schedule to hear that case until the week of april nt22nd. Because of that delay even if the Supreme Court decides that case incredibly quickly, this Election Interference case could not start until late july. We know from forms sent to potential jurors last year that once that case starts, the court expects it will last approximately three months,l which means that the window the d. C. Election interference case could take place and conclude before the november election, that n window is very, very sma. It is basically some time between midjuly and midaugust. So donald trump asking for the judge in anotherki case, the maralagoin classified documen case, to put that trial on the calender in midaugust seems like some 3d chess. Okay, maybe just chess. Right now it really doesnt seem like theres enough room in the calender to have both of these trials take placeot and conclud before the president ial election. Jack smiths team thinks the maralago trial will last four to six w weeks. Trumps legal team thinks it will last 8 to 10 weeks. Whether its 4 weeks or 10 weeks, it could effectively block the judge in the federal Election Interference case from scheduling her trial in order to get a verdict before the november election. Or in other words it could ice her. Ice her. Hat is what a person familiar with trumps style strategy told cnn earlier this week. Nbc news has not independently verified that reporting, but earlier this week that same person told cnn as far as scheduling the maralago classified documents mtrial, T Thing Trump Isfi really thinkin about is blocking the d. C. Federallo election case. Theti idea is to make it impossible for the judge in that case, Tanyatuate Kn To Jm that trial down by using things out of control. Trumps team believes the maralago case if its moved to july could box out judge Chutkan Fromut putting the federal election subversion case on the schedule. Looks like that trumps strategy. At the endt ofum the day this classic delay strategy with a few more bells and whistles. What confused me today was Special Counsel jack smiths strategy. Smith asked for the classified documents case to start on july 8th. I dont know about you, but that feels uncomfortably close to which the small window the Special Counsels Federal Electionsp interference case cod finish before the election. What is the Special Counsel thinking here . Are there any special legal avenues to expedite any of this, something that would allow both of these cases to go to trial before november . Well, i have the perfect person to ask. Joining me now is andrew weissmann, legal analyst and general counsel. Literally several times this evening i said we just need to ask weissmann. First, i guess lets start with the Special Counsel. Im finding my heart sort of sank when i saw they were requesting a July 8th Trial date for maralago because that just seems to foreclose the summer, right . Do you read it that way . I feel like we need to have a chessboard right here. How aboutrd checkers . Thats more my speed these days. I read it as jack smith reading the tea leaves with respect to the Supreme Court what they did just yesterday, so were kind of in warp speed so he had to react. So this is like dog years, everything is moving so quickly. And i think he realized that the odds of his getting a trial date ina the d. C. Case before september, and it would take the star and the moon and the earth and everything to align for that case to start in september and theres a chance its much longer than that, its a never. I think this waser a reality of you know what lets try to grab a bird in the hand. So i think that was his thinking. Before that that is i think there are a lot of people after the news yesterday that are thinking, okay, but if can something be donebu here. But to have what feels like an admission on the part of the Special Counsel its probably not going to happen and even if it does happen lets say in september, if they think its going to happenpt in three mont, its not going to conclude before the election. I do think he has the ability to slim it down. Standard procedure you wantit t do that as a prosecutor and just put on what you need. We saw that, by the way, in the Trump Organization trial they reallytr kept it tight. Thats why i was really impressed. Its a good team, what they need in and out, got a conviction. I could see jack smith trying to do that. Just remember hes got to be thinking its the start date im concerned about, and if you just i dont do math in public, but i tried to add 88 to the various perm uitations. Its just not looking good. And thats all assuming that the Supreme Court doesnt do Things Tosu Delay The Case further andt could. Im operating best case scenario. Hes got analysis odds, not best case scenario, so hes thinking, you h know what, i ha a very strong case in the classified documentsg case. I mean hes got to be thinking this has jury appeal. Its not just the retention of the classified documents, its twoas forms of obstruction. By all accounts it looks like a incredibly strong case. Wecr still have not heard any defense from the former president that passes the straight face test. Obviously well see what happens at trial. He has to be thinking, okay, lets see if we can get that. Itse still an uphill battle because hes before judge cannon, and there are many ways that that case can be delayed, but this was an issue of his request. So in terms of what hes asking for,he this seems doable. The case has been pending for a long time. The classified documents issue is the only issue that would cause this to slow down, that has largely been resolved, and so i think hes right to do this start moving. Right, exactly. Lets talk about Donald Trumps strategy here because thep reporting is donald trump it almost sounds like he thinks he has a willing audience in judge cannon. He does. Almost. And almost because he does. Im giving you my opinion. Yoyes, i understand that. The request from trumps team sort of begins with all the reasons why judge cannon really shouldnt even schedule this before november but only if she has to, how about midaugust . Right. They give her a lot of runway to say you could say the president ial immunityw claim that weve launched in the maralago case, by dont you wait until the Supreme Court w figures tha all out and not do kwg until then . Its important to note hes saying i still dont want the trial in 2024, but she had ordered they give a trial date. This is his ace in the hole. I think its not so much sort of like i dont want it in 2024, or okay plan b is august. Hes made an immunity argument, the same argument thats made in d. C. Just one minor difference. He wasnt president. But his argument is but i took the documents while he was president. Ive said that is like a bank robber a saying, you know, i legally got the gun that i used to rob the bank. Toright, right. I was a customer of the bank when i went in and took the money. Its just such irrelevancy. The question is judge cannon will sit on that, whether shell grant itat or denies it and say its not a frivolous argument, meaning all these delays of appeal wave seen in the d. C. Case, donald trump is going to try that, of course. Same road. Itsam much harder, factual argument. But thats not the issue. I mean just remember hes sitting here ordering he can order s. E. A. L. Team 6 to kill an opponent and were going its absolutelyng laughable. Novel defense as the Supreme Court. We need to weighse in on that. Eiexactly. Ways even ifs many he were to get that august date to later move it along, push it aside. Do you given the over under on how optimistic you are about judge cannon, i mean we sit here now, and its like you know, the possibilities for Holding Trump accountable seem to Betr Sclipging by the day. Theres the Alvin Bragg Case which seems like thats full steam ahead but everything can i stop you there . Please stop me. Theres the Alvin Bragg Case. Imgg not optimistic on the d. C case in light of what happened yesterday. Ien wish i were, but i really a not. Im notll optimistic in florida even though that one, if you look at it rationally, that should be able to go before the election. Its thee biggest open issue there is judge cannon. We will have more data on this tomorrow because the parties are going b to be heard by judge cannon,d and she either will s aei date or she will get some inclination as to s what shes thinking. Thewh reality is also i mn theres so many reasons for delay here. Even if you get to the point of actually scheduling the trial, finding an impartial jury in this is not going to be without its challenges. Theres already debates over the jury questionnaire, do you believe the election was stolen. Understandably trumps team is going to fight him Tooth And Nail every step ofig the way. I have picked juries in high profile matters. Nothing as high profile as this. Yes, its a challenge but it can happen. Ng you know, youre notan looking r and the law does not require somebody whos never heard of the case. Its also completely inconsistent with our history when we had to go much smaller and peopleo knew people who we participants in the trial. So its just required that somebody is going to be able to say you know what, im going to take my Oath Of Office as a juror seriously. Im going to decide this case based on theec facts and the la. Theac Biggest Issue i see in th is the jury who wants on the jury. Usually people dont go i cant wait today to get on the jury. Most people are like how do i get off the jury . Yeah, its a good thing neither of these cases really stir public emotion. Everybodys very levelheaded about all of it. Andrew weissmann, im going to say Thenn Harbinger of not grea news but still a great guest to have on thell show and legal minded. We have a lot more ahead tonight. President biden went to the border today and so did President Trump. Well get into s those Dueling Trips and alternate realities. But first trump is trying creative and probably highly illegalro strategies to avoid paying his bills . Is any of it going to work, thats next. F it going to work, thats next. Whoa, how did you defeat them . With a little kung fu strength and by connecting my devices to the most powerful force of all. Skadoosh. Hah, huh . Cool right . Amazing. Harness the power of xfinity internet and stay connected to the things you love. Ah, theyll be like this for hours. Hello dad, hello dad, hello da. Uhoh. Good bunnies. Ahh there were a lot of warning signs, plenty of reasons why getting into business with donald trump was never going to end well for them. But there was one moment where they should have walked away with their dignity intact and kept their distance from donald trump forever it was probably this one. Andy, youre just being pounded on. Youre being outdebated. I just dont want Somebody Running One of my companies thats going to get beaten up so badly. Youre fired. And i just have to do this. I have no choice. Wess, youre fired also. Contestants on season 2 of the apprentice, both were fired by trump the dramatic boardroom scenes with dramatic music and a whole lot of action shots. But they did not learn their lesson. Years later after trump became a twice impeached former president who tried to steal an election they decided to go into business with him. And, boy, do they seem to regret it. These two former apprentice contestants helped trump build his rightwing twitter knock off social Media Company truth social. But now they are suing trump claiming hes essentially trying to cheat them out of their share of that company. I mean who could have seen that coming . Your lawsuit isnt your typical where are they now story. The lawsuit from those two former apprentice stars is now getting in the way of trumps latest attempt to Escape Accountability. Right now trump is on the hook for more than half A Billion Dollars for civil fraud and defamation lawsuits. At the same time, trump is in the middle of a big deal to try and effectively sell that twitter knock off for billions of dollars. The company that Andy Letinski and wes moss helped create. That way he could avoid having to selloff his precious Real Estate Holdings and get truth socials investors to cover the costs of his misdeeds. But now the Washington Post reports that the lawsuit from those two former apprentice stars is throwing a wrench in the deal. Its delaying trumps access to those funds. Which could be a real problem for donald trump who sure seems these days like he does not have the money to pay the millions and millions in penalties that he owes. Last week trump tried to get the courts to delay his 83 million payment in the e. Jean carroll lawsuit. Today carrolls attorney responded to that request for delay saying he simply asks the court to trust me and offers the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin signed by the least trustworth ate of borrowers. Trump is also trying to delay paying his new york civil fraud payment. This week trump and his lawyers asked the judge to allow him to pay only 100 million of the 450 million he owes in that case. Yesterday the judge denied that request. In a twoline statement he told trumps attorneys you have failed to explain much less justify any basis for delaying the payment, end scene. In the course of that back and forth yesterday, though, we learned about another possible attempt by trump to avoid paying the piper. And it is a real doozy. In the legal filing yesterday new York Attorney general Letitia JamesAccused Trump of quietly trying to move his assets to florida to avoid having them seized by the state of new york. According from the new York Attorney generals office. After the court issued its Order Defendants announced for the first time various Trump Organization entities operating in new york are allegedly now located in florida. Two of the companies that were part of that lawsuit, djt holdings llc, and djt Holdings Managing member llc have already been relocated to florida. Now, as of the year 2023 both of those companies were still located in new york. So did trump move those companies to florida after the Attorney General brought a lawsuit against trump and those companies . That would be one creative way to get out of paying any penalties in the case. And it sounds like the court was concerned that trump would do something exactly like that, which is why at the very beginning of this case the judge here barred trump from moving his assets out of the state. Now, donald trump is doing everything in his power to avoid accountability in the civil and criminal trials, and yes, in some case it is working. Yesterday he managed to get the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to delay his case in the d. C. Election interference trial well into the future. Georgia Election Interference cases have been successfully stalled as well. We dont know whats happening in the maralago, but the civil cases against trump, the ones from the new York Attorney general and writer e. Jean carroll, those have been the only cases so far where trump has really had to face justice. Now hesmy making these last ditch efforts to avoid having to pay up, and the question is will trump be able to Escape Accountability here as well . Were going to talk about that coming right up. Talk about that coming right up. Okay, heres a quote from the new York Attorney generals latest filing in trumps civil fraud case. Contrary to defendants argument theres substantial Risk Defendants will attempt to evade enforcement of the judgment or make enforcement more difficult following appeal. Defendants have already during this action surreptitiously transferred 40 million from their accounts without disclosing the transfer to the monitor in violation of Supreme Courts orders. The new York Attorney general notes that donald trump secretly moved 40 million out of his accounts right in the middle of his civil fraud trial, and now shes accusing trump of secretly