There is no one i like talking to more than congressman jamie raskin. Like for us, hes here in studio and hes coming up first. Plus well ask the law firm of weissmann and cotula how all of this might impact the classified Documents Case down in florida. Also today, dueling visit to the southern border, as the former president fires up the few machine. Im gonna ask beto orourke what democrats should be doing about it. And later, Mitch Mcconnell announces he will leave his Leadership Position later this year. Well take a deep dive into his legacy and the Frankenstein Monster he helped create. So in the years since Donald TrumpsThird Supreme Court nominee was confirmed, just weeks before the 2020 election, there has been this big question hanging out there. Will they help him . And if so, when will they help them . Well, this week, the Supreme Court announced they were taking up trumps absurd claim of president ial immunity, and in turn they granted him the thing he converts the most, more time. Because when you are running for president to stay out of president , you shouldnt want to stand trial before the election day. And by taking up the case, the court has raised the real prospect that he may not. I mean, for reasons that remain completely unclear, they will not even hear Oral Arguments until a full seven weeks from now. So trumps election interference trial, that at one point, by the way, was scheduled to start tomorrow, is now being pointed months down the calendar. And yes, i know that the wheels of justice can move slowly. I made this point myself many times. But guess what, the Supreme Court can move very quickly when it wants to. Let me give you a few examples. Lets take bush v. Gore in 2000. The court decided the election in three days. We dont even need to look that far back for more examples. This very court, same members of the court, this very year, moved quickly in a separate case related to trump, when he asked these same justices to take up the colorado case regarding his ballot eligibility. They agreed, two days later, and scheduled arguments for the following month. That is downright speedy, if i do say so. And they had chances to move with similar urgency here, even more so. They couldve taken up this issue back in december, when jack smith urge them to consider his Emergency Appeal and keep the trial on schedule. But of course, they did not. They waited until this week to announce they would take up the case, and they will wait until late april to even hear the Oral Arguments. They know exactly what this means for the trial schedule. They have a calendar, and they didnt anyway. Since the spring court may not claim there in the political business, but they just knowingly put the country in a position where people may not know if they are voting for a criminal conviction thats injecting yourself into politics, im not sure what is. We dont know for certain if there will be a trial november. There could be, theres a very real chance we could still see one. And we will talk about that today. At the same time, we are also facing a harsh but important reality thats important to call out. We cannot depend on the Justice System protecting us from the day one dictator. There is no fairytales or anything. And yes its true if trump does not stand trial before this election of the crime of trend over the last one because of a court that he helped shape the help of three members, and then that would be when the great miscarriages of justice in the history of our country. But there is another extremely important thing to remember here. We all know what he did. There is no doubt about the basic facts, in any of these cases, really. Like, we talk about the insurrection unfold on television. We saw the photos of the boxes of classified documents in his bathroom. We heard the tape of him on the phone asking the georgia Secretary Of State to find him votes. Even trumps claim of president ial immunity tells us that he has no interest in disputing the facts. Thats not his argument. Its never been i didnt do it. Its always been i did it, and i was allowed to. Thats his argument. So the American People deserve trials before election, of course they do, they should not need them in any of these cases to know what he did and to know the danger he poses to democracy and to our rights. Look, there are the people who are always going to vote for him, convictions or no convictions, there is no question about that. The question now is about the rest of us. The rest of us know what happened. The rest of us know what he did. The rest of us see what the choices between these two candidates. We could still get a trial before november. But we might not. Either way, voters will have to defend our country on election day. Casting a ballot will be the most powerful anecdote to the threat of donald front. Joining me now is someone i love talking to about the rule of law, courts, everything, congressman jamie raskin. He led the second Impeachment Trial of trump, hes now the ranking democrat on the House Oversight committee. So i know you have a lot of thoughts on what transpired this week, but i just want to start with because im sure you thought about this, it takes for justices to decide to take up a case. And when they take up a case, they dont have to take up cases, of course, they decide to not take up cases plenty of time. They are sort of throwing out a notion that this is an open question. How do you think about . That this was an obvious case not to take up until just let the d. C. Circuit court ruling stand. Its a completely exhaustive and totally compelling decision, saying that the claim that the president can escape criminal prosecution for criminal acts that he commits in office is utterly antithetical to everything we know about our constitution. We dont have a king here, we had a revolution against a king. And the constitution was written that the president s main job is to take care of the flaws or faithfully execute it, not fitfully violated in his own interest. And history tells us as well. Ive been trying to figure this out. I dont know if you have an answer for us, but they couldve decided back in september, when jack smith asked them to decide if they want to take up this case, they couldve decided then to do it or not. Why did you think they didnt . If they really wanted to pronounce on this complete banality, this totally obvious point, they couldve taken it up in december and sent it back a day or two later. And at this point, i dont want to be crying over spilled milk, but they are going to hear it on april 22nd. I hope that we will get a decision from the court april 23rd or 24th. Because as we saw in bush versus gore, they can move it, Josh Hawley Type speed when they want to get something done. And in bush versus gore, i think they render their opinion the day after oral argument. And thats what america should expect here. Now, there is one theory here that the reason its been so delayed is that there is a dissent, that someone thinks that president s are immune, or more than one person. Do you think that on this court . What they did is they open up the question to something much larger than what needs to be decided. The very specific question is if a president engages in insurrectionary activity in order to overthrow an election, one that hes lost by more than 7 million votes, 306 to 232 in the electoral college, is he immune from criminal prosecution for criminal acts undertaken in pursuit of that plan . Well, thats a very specific and clean question. This court has always insisted that it is a minimal court. It wants to look at the most specific question. But, here they open it up to the far broader question of the president engages in some actions that lead to criminal prosecution. Is he subject to them, depending on the definition of what his unofficial act and what is not . These justices know their powers are. They know the court scheduled, they know the calendar. Do you look at this court and thinks some of these justices may want to delay these trials . Yeah, i think if you dont believe that, you are too innocent to be let out of the house by yourself at this point. This is a court driven by both Trump Nominees and bush nominees and neither of those guys president s and they have been driving very hard to overturn a whole series of precedents that americans have come to take for granted, like roe v. Wade. And we are still dealing with the tremendous aftershock of the dobbs decision, as america weeks up to the fact that its right wing State Legislatures in a lot of states right now that are deciding the destiny of women. Yeah, activism has influence, theres no question about that. They are not free from influence. So i want to repeat this, because its so important, i will talk about this later in the show, too, the Department Of Justice 60 date rule does not prevent a trial from moving forward in september in october. Because hes already been indicted. Weve been watching judge chutkan, shes going to be under tremendous pressure to decide if it should move forward. One, would you be accountable with the trial moving forward in september and october if we get . There it is close to the election. And what do you think she will . Look, i think that the rule of law should proceed. If trials had been set, if there is a trial set for monday, for tomorrow, they should proceed without totally unusual, indeed, extraordinary intervention by the Supreme Court. Having said that, i dont want to build up the trial in d. C. To be the be all and and all of this process. Donald trump already owes more than 500 million because hes been cooking the books and lying about the value of his properties in new york. He has already been found to be responsible by unanimous jury of his peers for sexually assaulting, raping and then defaming someone. And then defending the woman he raped, repeatedly defaming her. So i dont want to build it up like, well, if we get this decision, none america will be able to do the right thing. But without it, the american electorate will have to disregard everything we know about donald trump, who is a vicious Self Promoter and narcissist and somebody who is constantly in spectacular disrespect of the rule of law. And he is no program for the country other than to get him and his family back into office so they can revive there this is also true and so important for people to hear what you just said, that we know a lot about him already. Hes done these things in broad daylight, and he is already being convicted in some cases that really should make people question. And ive got to say, i have Friends On The Hill who say they dont want to see him on trial six weeks or eight weeks before the election, because he loves Nothing Better than to strike the pose of the murder. Hes in all these prosecutions because of the offenses he committed, but he would love to say look what happened in the right before the election. Do you worry about that, or do you think just let us see where it, is and they should have the ability to move forward if they are at that point . Its hard to remember what it was like. But it would be nice to think about the rule of law as something be separate from the campaign process. And of course, donald trump has merged them in his in amicable way simply because hes a one man crime wave. And theres so many crimes in so many civil torts and wrongful actions out there that his past is coming back to haunt him. Yeah, no question. Part of trumps desire to delay here, as you and i have talked about many times, is he wants to get into office so he can and the trials or and the legal challenges against him by using any means possible. Do you worry that if these trials are delayed to the point where he gets into office it will incentivize him to stay in office even longer . Oh, sure. Public officer him is just a get out of jail free card, and bankruptcy protection. Its all about what is going to benefit him. Yeah, so to personally avoid jail, to avoid paying money, he could avoid that. I do want to turn to another topic here, theres plenty going, on you must be very tired because youve been doing a lot. But your colleagues on the oversight committee, you know the ones im talking about, they brought in hunter biden this week for a closeddoor deposition, after he said he would do it publicly. Now they want him to go back and do it publicly, its all completely ludicrous. But this is just a week after we found out that their key witness has been receiving information from russian sources. Does this surprise Alexander Smirnov started the whole thing with the socalled 1023 form. So he said hunter and joe biden got 10 million between them from burisma in ukraine. Now, david weiss, the u. S. Attorney appointed by donald trump in delaware, whos now the special counsel in the hunter biden case, he is prosecuting and has indicted smirnov smirnov for lying to the fbi and conducting a false documentary record, and he is up to his neck with russian intelligence. And the whole thing now has a very strong with of a russian active measure intelligence op. Your colleagues are barreling forward. At a certain point, they are becoming russian, unwittingly, becoming russian assets. After heralding this guy as their key star witness, now they are saying, oh, he did not have much to do with, it weve got a lot of other evidence. But right now, weve got a potential russian asset or agent in jail for making up lies and telling them to the u. S. Government. Weve got another of their Star Witnesses who is an accused accomplished to chinese intelligence, whos on the lamb, that the u. S. Government is looking for. And every one of their Star Witnesses turns out to either be deeply suspect and in entrenched in russian or chinese intelligence are just a buffoon, like tony bubble lynskey. You cannot make it up, its a movie. Congressman jamie raskin, thank you so much for coming, and great talking with you. And coming up, judge Aileen Cannon said something in court that leads Andrew Weissmann to believe she is biased or naive or both. The law firm of weissmann and Katyal Is Standing by to discuss the big news of the classified Documents Case when we come back. Okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Yay woo hoo ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. And ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. watch your step thats why visionworksgrams makes it simple protein. To schedule an eye exam that works for you. Even if you have a big trip to plan around. Thanks i mean, i can see you right now if thats. Convenient. 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Of course, thats the case overseen by judge Aileen Cannon, who is why they viewed as a Trump Loyalist and has been rebuked twice by the 11th circuit for rulings that were overly sympathetic to the former president. And while cannon didnt circle a date on the calendar for fridays hearing, she did drop some serious hints that she plans to delay trumps trial. More proactively, she brought up the dojs 60day rule, which prohibits the Department Of Justice from taking action that could affect upcoming elections. Now, to be clear, that is an internal guidelines that applies to criminal investigations and charging decisions, not trials. But i suspect you will be hearing that argument from Trump Loyalists over and over again in the coming months. Judge cannon should know its a moot point. But smiths team still had explained to her they are in full compliance with her own departments policies. Basically, thats not a thing. Joining me now is our inhouse law firm, neal katyal as the former acting u. S. Solicitor general, Andrew Weissmann is the former General Counsel at the fbi and Senior Member of special counsel Robert Muellers team, and they are with us for two blocks today, which i am thrilled that i. Andrew, i will start with you. Lets just start by establishing the 60day rule in this trial is not a thing. Can you explain what the doj rule actually is and also your level of concern that judge cannon, who should know better, would ask about it and raise it . Sure, there are two issues with judge cannon raising it. First of all, its an internal rule. It is not a law. It is not something that gives any rights to any defendant. And judge cannon had been at the Justice Department, she knows that. So the idea that she raised it is issue number one, that sort of red flag number one as to why is she even raising something that is just internal department guidance. That guidance could be changed by Merrick Garland any day of the week. Sec