Lemon controversy to a big and Important Supreme Court case. Thats coming up. Stay with me for that. While our top story right now are the new developments in the first criminal trial of a former president. This is now under two weeks away and a Judge Toughening the gag order for defendant trump and rebuking his efforts to as they put it, inject fear into the trial while attacking family members. They discuss the threats to the case. This is a response in part to the d. A. Prosecuting trump and has raised concerns about how the defendant is already acting. Trump has continued to attack the judges daughter in this case circulating pictures of her online. Trump using his platform to push the pictures as well as the coverage of this very storm recreated. He responds now to the Gag Order By Sharing A Fox Segment that also goes after the judges daughter and that is a topic thats only in the news or at least on fox news because of trumps earlier smears. The judge also dismissing exaggeration from trumps attorneys as they fail their arguments to delay this case. Trumps team is today asking about the judge recusing himself. D. A. Bragg is opposed that. We are on track for a trial within two weeks and those are the tensions in that criminal trial that looms. While last night, trump took a very different approach and i want to explain this contrast here, where he complied with the laws in his civil fraud case. The contrast is telling because trump is testing and defying all these criminal rules on the one hand where he clearly doubts this judge will jail him before trial regardless of what he does or even if he clearly violates the gag order. Common defendants might commonly face that kind of pretrial incarceration. Yet at the same time, trump is fully complying in the civil case and thats because he doesnt have a lot of good choices. Trump owing roughly half A Billion Dollars in the civil fraud case. He wants to appeal it to see if he can get that number reduced. The law requires a bond in new york to be able to appeal, so he is complying. Indeed, you may have heard about the struggle to get the money but last night, trump found a company to post bond for 175 million. A trump donor runs the firm thats involved in this. Billionaire don hanky. Trump likely paid a fee and pledged collateral to get a bond of this size, the New York Times reports. And even if its a friendly Business Partner who invested in the bank on two other properties in the past, it still took all of this haggling for trump to get this far. In Criminal Court, trump still pushing this chaos. Daring the judge to treat him like a common criminal. It may be this trump who is wily and strategic may want the judge to get involved in a back and forth kind of tit for tat or outburst with him. While on the civil side, the cost is so high that trumps lawyers admitted he didnt have the cash for the full penalty and trump is complying with the law. Even before the deadline. So it is kind of a mixed picture tonight but ill tell you one observation here in new york would be the law is real. Donald trump facing these real deadlines set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if he blew it. So with a little back and forth, he still met the deadline and this comes at a time when his campaign is bleeding money on lawyers and small donors who have been bailing and new Tech Venture Trump is pushing. That stock is crashing. There just isnt a lot of money to go around. If you follow the law, people say jails worse than a fine, right . Prison sentence is worse than a parking ticket. Thats generally true and i think you dont need to go to law school to understand that, yet here we have someone who at this point, he hasnt been convicted of anything, seems to be moved a lot more by the tile of Parking Tickets that have turned into an empire threatening half A Billion Dollar fine and that has him complying at least part of the time. We have two great prosecutors here to break it down. Were back in just 90 seconds. E. Were back in just 90 seconds. F about our honeymoon. What about africa . Safari . Hot air balloon ride . Swim with elephants . Wait, can we afford a safari . Great question. Like everything, it takes a little planning. Or, put the money towards a downpayment. On a ranch. In montana. With horses lets take a look at those scenarios. J. P. Morgan Wealth Management has advisors in Chase Branches and tools, like wealth plan to keep you on track. When youre planning for it all. The answer is j. P. Morgan Wealth Management. Always dry scoop before you run. Listen to me, the hot dog diet got me shredded. Its time we listen to science. One a day is formulated with key nutrients to support whole body health. One a day. Science that matters. Missing out on the things you love because of asthma . Get back to better breathing with fasenra, an addon treatment for Eosinophilic Asthma that is taken once every 8 weeks. Fasenra is not for sudden Breathing Problems or other eosinophilic conditions. Allergic reactions may occur. Dont stop your Asthma Treatments without talking with your doctor. Tell your doctor if your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Step back out there with fasenra. Ask your doctor if its right for you. Im the only one that has to put up a bond, you know. I didnt do anything wrong. I had to put up a bond this morning for 175 million. I did nothing wrong. Well, he did something wrong according to the courts, which was fraud, which is why he put up the bond. Were joined by prosecutors with experience in the Southern District of new york. David also my former boss. Welcome to both of you. David, i dont want to get too highbrow for you here. Were just a couple of lawyers talking about the news. Best of time, worst of times, but it does seem like the best of compliance last night on the bond side and the worst possible on the threatening of the judges family. And im wondering what you think with your experience about that gap as ive told you. Its obvious he was so worried about losing money that he did fully comply on that side. Plus, hes pushing the envelope. I think hes pushed it as far as he can on the civil side. Hes got two appeals. One for the e. Jean carroll case and one for the fraud case. Hes taken that as far as he can get it. He got a little bit of gift with a lowered bond. On the criminal side, hes still, this is something new and fresh. Hes seen how far he can push this judge. I think any litigator will tell you this does not work for and you know getting favorable rulings and so forth once the trial gets underway. Number one. Number two, i think its incredibly despicable and irresponsible to do what hes doing. I would like to see what his reaction is going to be if something horrible has happened, which has in the past. Judges have been killed. Family members have been killed and hes essentially implicitly inviting that to happen. Yeah. We saw a version of that on january 6th. Some of his closest, longest serving aides. We know this from the private text messages, the emotional interactions. They said this is horrible. We have gone too far. They looked up and saw him taking in the violence. Seeing how long it could last. Even the most cynical, hardened political people around him, some of them were shocked. But no one can claim to be shocked now. If god forbid something were to happen to any innocent person, no one would be surprised with what weve lived through. I dont know how thoughtful this is. As i mentioned, the judge isnt going to be looking to do him any favorites in the courtroom and he may be, if he keeps it up, hes going to be forgoing his opportunity to really participate effectively in Jury Selection was theyre going to keep the identity of the jurors away from him. Shouldnt they at this point . Yeah, i think they should. But the judge has left that issue out there. For another day. For another day. And so hes really kind of hampered himself from a strategic perspective. If he gets convicted here, its a big deal. Its a Felony Conviction that he cannot set aside and so again, from a strategic perspective, i think hes making some gross errors here and i can only think his lawyers are cringing. Christie, take a listen to some of the experienced judges who have spoken out on this. It is very troubling because i think it is an attack on the rule of law when judges are threatened and particularly when their family is threatened and its something thats wrong and should not happen. His attacks, vicious attacks on the federal courts an the state courts and their individual judges. His objective was to delegitimize those courts. Christie . Its so important that you have both a former judge and a sitting judge speaking out on this issue. Because theyre absolutely right. What hes trying to do, his strategy at least in the shortterm is really to cast doubt and delegitimize the rule of law. Right now, alvin bragg is less than two weeks out from trial and he is meeting with witnesses looking to prep witnesses and if those witnesses are coming to him saying hey, how will you protect me and my family if i testify against this guy . The judge cant even protect his own daughter. Those are real questions and braggs briefing, he lays that out. That hes getting these kinds of Safety Concerns from the witnesses hes meeting with. Thats the last thing you want to have to deal with as a prosecutor less than two weeks out. You want to be shoring up your case, dotting your is and crossing your ts. Not dealing with whether or not the witness is going to show up and if theyre going to say what you expect them to say in response to your questions. He is trying for a maximum disruption. As a longterm strategy, i agree with david. Its not a good strategy, if you are convicted, this is the judge who would sentence you eventually. But in the shortterm, its a good shortterm strategy. That along with distracting the prosecutors rather than working on witness prep, theyre responding to all this briefing. Theyre laying out the record of all of his statements. All things you dont want to be doing two weeks out from trial. Hes trying for chaos and at least at the moment, it was important that the judge bat that away and say youre not going to hold this process hostage. We are going to make sure that youre treated the way that any other defendant would be treated in this case. Even though you have a platform that other defendants dont have and i need to recognize that in crafting the order im going to craft. You paraphrased the point in dark night rises where they want the accountant to testify and he says to the nypd in gotham, which is new york, you cant even protect yourself. How are you going to protect me . That is the very real chaos of it. We associate that with stories of actual criminal violent Enterprises Like the mafia or gangs. Thats one of the groups depicted in that film and yet here we are talking about someone whos a current candidate for president. I give you a bite of the apple as well before i go back to david on the civil side. How do you make sense of what we mentioned . Maximum defiance in Criminal Court and civil court . Well, he did get what he wanted. He did get the bond amount reduced and we still dont know why. This is a defendant whos whole defense at that trial was i am too rich to defraud anyone. Banks love me. They want a relationship with me. Ive got 10 million. I have 500 million in cash. Some of that he said under oath. Others he said just days before the court reduced his bond. So theres still not visibility as to why this was reduced but he had asked for 10 omillion. It seems clear he would be able to find somebody who would pay that, put that guarantee up for him. I think the question is to the collateral. Where did he get the cash to put up for this . Where did that come from . Thats not transparency were going to get from the courts but it is a real question i think the Intelligence Community could ask when hes asking for these Intelligence Briefings that he would normally be entitled to as the republican candidate for president. You know, where are you getting this cash from . Are you compromised in some way . Those seem to be fair questions to ask as to whether or not this president should, this president ial candidate should be entitled to those briefings. David, your final thoughts. I agree with Everything Christie said but i think the prosecutors have probably girded for this possibility and have locked the testimony. Let me make a quick comment on the civil judgment and we talk about this several weeks ago. I think viscerally, thats a high fine the judge imposed and i think we may expect in the appeal by lowering the appeals bond that the Appeals Court may be going in that direction. Upholding the verdict, the judgment, lowering the fine. Yeah, i think that makes sense. Again, people who arent used to this say is this a miscarriage of justice . This wasnt a very high fraud cost penalty for him. On the other hand, some of the lies went beyond the standards of new york real estate. Brokers will tell you one thing. Just wild lies. My thanks to david and christie. Coming up, ron desantis and elon musk. They are lying. They know theyre lying and im going to show you how we know and why it matters with a big case barrelling towards the Supreme Court. Next. Barrelling towards the Supreme Court. Next theyre two of ten lobster creations. Plus, cheddar bays for days. Lobsterfest is ending soon, so hurry in. You know whats brilliant . Boring. Think about it. Boring is the unsung catalyst for bold. What straps bold to a rocket and hurtles it into space . Boring does. Boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible, and startups start up. Because its smart, dependable, and steady. All words you want from your bank. For nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring so you can be happily fulfilled. Which is pretty unboring if you think about it. But st. Jude has gotten us through it. St. Jude is hope for every child diagnosed with cancer because the research is being shared all over the world. Power e trades easy touse tools make complex trading less complicated. Custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an Earnings Tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. E trade from morgan stanley. 3, 4 and stay on top of the market. Hey are you ready for me are you ready are you ready business. Its not a ninetofive proposition. Its all day and into the night. Its all the things that keep this world turning. The gotos that keep us going. The places we cheer. And check in. They all choose the advanced Network Solutions and round the Clock Partnership from comcast business. See why Comcast Business Powers more Small Businesses than anyone else. Get started for 49. 99 a month plus ask how to get up to an 800 prepaid card. Dont wait call today. Now to our Special Report on freedom. Accountability in these tense times and about this. The president subjected shooting migrants in the legs. Seriously, mr. President . What is the matter with you . The words of the president , the words, we will return to that and to don lemon but we begin with why elon musk and ron desantis have been caught cracking down on free speech. A concept that famously dates to the late 1700s when the First Amendment to the constitution stated quote, Congress Shall make no law abridging the Freedom Of Speech or of the press. Today, some of the most prominent people attacking Freedom Of Speech are Government Officials and very rich people. Who cannot handle free speech or criticism. And theres nothing new about that. Its exactly why the founders made this the very First Amendment to combat the expected and understandable, familiar censorship that occurs by the powerful when they can get away with it. What is new and different today is that free speech has over the years become such a popular tradition, such a good brand as they say, that now even its opponents pretend to be for it as they crack down on free speech. Let me show you how. Its pretty simple. Like i mentioned, the First Amendment prohibits laws abridging Freedom Of Speech. And a republican governor comes out here and passes a law abridging Freedom Of Speech while also loudly claiming hes protecting speech. Ron desantis claim is false, down right orwelian, but for people who only hear the sound bites, it can be confusing. He helped pass this new florida law that restricts First Amendment rights as a nonpartisan First AmendmentOrganization Fire summarizes it. The law tries to limit digital companys Speech Rights and choices and its so extreme its now pending review before a pretty skeptical Supreme Court. Well come back to that as well. But first, it is vital to see how this playbook stretches from conservative politicians who know better, desantis went to harvard, all the way out to the right leaning billionaires who use their immense power to attack and control free speech and they spend money to sue and punish people for free speech. Sometimes they even buy