Trumps legal Team Amping Up Efforts to get her and then potentially the whole trial thrown out as his current Hush Money Trial takes a break. Plus, a midmay primary throwing even more uncertainty into an already volatile race for president. The lights flashing red for donald trump after a shockingly strong showing by nikki haley who dropped out of the race months ago. And its a first since the october 7th hamasled attack in israel. Could the u. S. Pause an Arms Shipment, include thousands of weapons including bombs, and will israel pause plans for a major assault on rafah as a result. But we begin with the potentially big win for donald trump in Fulton County, georgia, where the state Appeals Court just granted his request to consider whether District Attorney fani willis should be disqualified from his election interference case. The decision comes nearly six weeks after donald trump and eight of his codefendants all accused of working to overturn the 2020 Election Results in georgia asked the court to reverse a previous decision leaving her in charge of the case. They claim her relationship with then special prosecutor nathan wade, who has since stepped down, was improper and disqualifying. Here she was in a dramatic moment at her Disqualification Hearing in february. Youre confused. You think im on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. Im not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial. I want to bring in nbcs Blayne Alexander who has been following this case extensively for us. Nbcs justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. Also here former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, glenn kirschner. Okay, blayne, so what happens now . Reporter chris, basically what this means is that this portion of the Georgia Election interference case that we thought was over, that we thought was already settled with the judges decision is not over. Its now just kind of moving on to part two. What this means is that its going to be going before a panel of Appeals Court judges. Now, i think its important to point out you showed that dramatic moment when fani willis testified on the stand for the better part of two hours. We heard from nathan wade. We heard all of this kind of bombshell testimony. Thats not going to be the case here. This is a much more buttoned up process before the Appeals Court. Each attorney is going to get 15 minutes or so to argue their case. Its not going to be in front of tv cameras as has Everything Else weve seen in Fulton County, though we will get audio from inside, and then the Appeals Court judges are going to go about their way, make their decision and issue their ruling. As for whos responding to this, the d. A. s office tells me theyre not planning to comment on this. Who we are hearing from is steve sadow. He said prurp looks fwart to prending arguments to the Georgia Court after appeals as to why the case should be dismissed and Fulton County d. A. Fani willis should be disqualified for her misconduct in this unjustified, unwarranted political persecution. This has been his stand all along. The other piece of this is, one, what does this do to the time line . All along d. A. Fani willis said she hoped to see this go to trial by august, by early august, sometime this summer. People have been saying from the very beginning that that is an ambitious time line. The case was really sidetracked for the better part of two and a half months because of these allegations and this further appeal makes it unlikely well see this go to trial this year. So glen, what do you make of this ruling . There are a few things going on in the background here. I dont think its shocking that the Georgia Court of appeals is interested in getting its hands on a weighty issue, perhaps unprecedented in georgia law. But when we recall when judge mcafee granted Donald Trumps motion, this was a discretionary appeal. He didnt have a right to this appeal, but judge mcafee granted Donald Trumps request to appeal this issue, judge mcafee also said, however, my trial case will not stop will not pause, will not be stayed. Hes going to continue litigating motions with an eye toward moving his case toward trial. That is of course unless the Georgia Court of appeals issues a stay. We have a comparable situation in d. C. Where the Supreme Court is dealing with the absolute immunity claim, and the Supreme Court has stopped or paused or stayed judge chutkans trial case in federal court in d. C. I read the Georgia Court of appeals order. It did not say anything about staying the proceedings. Now, donald trump in the future may make that request, but as of right now, the trial case that judge mcafee is presiding over presumably will continue resolving issues, and of course were still waiting to see that first trial date being set in georgia. As of yet, it has not been set. They both touched on it, ken, but what exactly is the thinking that youre hearing about how long this delay could be . Is it at all possible that there could be a trial that starts before the election . Anythings possible, chris, but its looking more and more remote. This is really a victory for donald trump. Theres no hard and fast rules about how quickly an Appeals Court can move on Something Like this, but its not out of the realm of possible to see this take a few months to render a decision and assuming it doesnt go against fani willis, assuming shes allowed to remain in the case, that still deals an almost fatal blow of the prospects of seeing this case go to trial before the election. Its always important to restate that Justice Department doctrine says that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. So if donald trump is elected and this case is still pending, its going to be suspended while he serves as president , chris. So glenn, as you look at the overall picture and the impact that this could have on the other overall picture, are we well past the point that we were talking about for so many months, which is that these trials are kind of going to depend on one another. There could be a kind of domino effect. When something happens one place, it impacts the other place. It almost looks like none of that is relevant, at least as were looking towards the election. You know, it does feel less and less likely that were going to get any case other than obviously the new york case, which is underway, any of those other cases to trial before the election. I agree with ken, its not impossible that we could have at least a first rico trial down in georgia before the election. I also think its unlikely. You know, but lets also keep our eye on the fact that when these big rico cases end up going to trial, its not unusual. This was my experience when i was prosecuting rico cases, for a trial to be set with just a handful of the defendants, and there are 15 charged defendants that remain pending trial in georgia. I wouldnt rule out the possibility of perhaps a September Trial against a modest batch of defendants down in georgia, maybe three, four, five of the defendants. Of course it could include donald trump, but chris, as you say, there are cases being played one against another. There are so many moving pieces that i think it becomes harder and harder to see how one of these cases actually make it to trial other than the one in new york before the election. So let me ask you a little more about whats happening in florida and judge Aileen Cannon who is overseeing that classified documents case and who postponed that trial. The New York Times put it this way, glenn, a bare bones order that contained no factual or legal reasoning. She has faced criticism of bias before. Does this raise bias issues for you, issues of competency, or is it, frankly, within the realm of any judges right to do what they want to do and rule how they want to rule . Chris, it raises all three of those things you just cited. I would put this as additional evidence and information into the recusal bucket. Heres why i say that. Often as a prosecutor, i would have Defense Attorneys urge judges not to set a trial date. They would say, judge, we still have so much pretrial investigation we need to undertake. We need to file and litigate motions. We need those motions to be resolved well in advance of trial. Please dont set a trial date. I cant recall ever having a judge fall for that. Everybody in the system understands you have to have a set trial date, a firm trial date, and then you set all other intermediate deadlines for filing and litigating motions in place in the run up to that trial date. You need a trial date to subpoena witnesses and have enough time to prepare witnesses. So when i saw judge cannon refuse to set a trial date, mind you this is against the backdrop of when she last asked the parties, the prosecution and the defense for proposed trial dates, jack smith proposed july, donald trump and his attorneys proposed august, and she is unwilling to even set the proposed date by the defense, august, she said no trial date will be set. I think its further evidence of her determination to put this thing not just on a slow track. Its almost feels like shes trying to catch and kill this Case Apropos Of What David Pecker was doing trying to help donald trump in the 2016 election when he was catching and killing negative information about donald trump. Yes, i saw a number of the headlines, ken, they said that the case is postponed indefinitely, no matter which way you read the word indefinitely, the final conclusion is nobody knows if or when, right, this trial might actually happen. Yeah, thats right, chris, and you know, she scheduled five hearings on these various pretrial motions, some of which many legal experts would argue you dont need to have a hearing on, like defendant walt nauta arguing this is a selective and vindictive prosecution. Shes going to do a daylong hearing on that. It does feel like this is going to play out for some period of time. And even when these hearings conclude, then she has to rule on each one of these motions. She may issue written rulings. Its really looking like the chances of this going to trial before the election are remote. Its Worth Remembering and reminding viewers judge cannon was assigned to this case randomly. So that makes donald trump one of the luckiest criminal defendants in American History perhaps because he got her not once but twice, and shes had a meaningful impact on this prosecution, chris. Ken dilanian, Blayne Alexander, glenn kirschner, thank you all very much. In 90 seconds, a new warning sign for former President Trump as he gets back into Campaign Mode on his day off from court. Well explain next. Well explain next upbeat music 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. 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There was a republican primary in indiana, and today its looking like the nonexistent campaign of nikki haley is getting close to 22 , two months after she dropped out of the race and in a state that trump won by 16 points in 2020. Joining us now nbc National Politics reporter, john allen and chief strategist for the Bush Cheney 2004 campaign and a senior msnbc political contributor. How unexpected are these results for the trump campaign, and are they a warning for him . Theyve gotten used to a zombie candidate, that being nikki haley, someone whos no longer actually running taking a substantial share of the votes, but still, what youre seeing in indiana is a large number, 22 . They certainly didnt want to see that. Obviously theres no active Campaign Going on. Weve seen joe biden not get 100 or close to it in some of the states that have had primaries on the democratic side since he wrapped up the nomination, which is basically when he announced for renomination. But the 22 number youre seeing for haley is not a welcome sign in trump world. So matthew, hours before those results were called in indiana, trump claimed he wasnt concerned about winning over haley voters. I want to play that. All of those people are going to come to me because whats first of all, whats their choice . Biden, hes the worst president in the history of our country. Theyre all going to come to me. Is there anything, matthew, to suggest trump should be confident that haley voters are going to come to him . I think theres a lot of evidence that hes actually right in this circumstance. I mean, i think theres haley voters that came to independents in some states and democrats in some states that came in to vote against donald trump. He cant get those, but haley republicans, i mean, keep in mind donald trump got 94 of the republican vote in 2020. After all the republicans who came out after hillary clinton, donald trump actually did better among republicans against biden in 2020 than he did in 2016, and every single poll seems to suggest today that hes going to get 92 or 93 of republicans along what he did in 2016 or 2020. I equate it to like a rivalry, so think about like the New York Yankees and the people in new york who love new york who want the New York Yankees but are dissatisfied with the coach or dissatisfied with the team, and they play the cleveland indians, not to pick a team youre familiar with. The guardians. Sorry. My guardians who i prefer to think about much more than the yankees, but continue. And go tigers today when they play the guardians, my tigers. So when the yankees play the guardians, theres a certain amount of people that say, yeah, fine, i hate our coach right now. Well let the guardians win, but when the yankees play the red sox, any of those people thought it would be okay if the guardians won, they dont want the red sox to win. Thats the same way with these Republican Voters in indiana and other states that are expressing dissatisfaction with donald trump are, but when they play the political version of the red sox being joe biden, theyre going to come home. So do you think, john, and i know youve talked to a loft lot of them, do you think democrats are overestimating what theyre seeing in some of these states with the ongoing haley vote. And again, first time that its hit above 20 , and they think that a significant portion and by significant, a couple of percent, right, because that could swing an election, that a number of them will either vote for joe biden or stay home, which if they voted for trump four years ago, thats essentially a vote for joe biden. Yeah, some of the democrats are absolutely over estimating the effect thats going on in terms of, you know, how many of these voters will go away from trump or didnt in the last election, right, who voted for trump in the last election and will, you know, go to joe biden this time. That is right, the vast majority of Republican Voters will end up with donald trump, and then there are some democrats who are not over estimating the impact of this, but rather seeing it as an opportunity to score some political points. Its a big number that theyd like to point to as a sign of Donald Trumps weakness, and at the same time, if youre trump, you would prefer to see, you know, races where youre losing 10 than losing 20 . So matthew, while donald trump is at maralago talking to folks, President Biden is hitting two states today, this event just wrapped up, hes hitting Battleground Wisconsin among them. Last wednesday Vice President harris was in florida when its new abortion ban went into effect. Does it make sense for the Biden Campaign essentially to fill a Coverage Hole on wednesdays when trump isnt in court . I mean, absolutely. I would think donald trump who constantly complains that hes not able to campaign, but then he subsequently almost always goes back to maralago to ch