Ruhle starts now. Tonight nikki haley falls in line and says shell vote for donald trump, but will her supporters follow . Plus, trumps dangerous lie. What hes saying about President Biden and the fbi. And another january 6th flag. The provocative symbol at Justice Alitos beach house as the 11th hour gets underway on this wednesday night. Good evening once again, im Stephanie Ruhle back in new york city, and we are now 167 days away from the election. This is the week that the former president who is now on trial in new york was also supposed to be on trial in florida in the classified documents case. Donald trump is charged with 37 counts related to mishandling sensitive material, including willful retention of National Defense information and obstruction. His codefendants are loyal aide walt and maralago employee carlos. Federal judge aileen cannon, who has been very friendly to donald trump, has put this case on hold indefinitely. But today she was on the bench for two major hearings involving requests from defense to dismiss the case and and no surprise, things got heated when the first hearing turned into a Shouting Match between a lawyer on the special prosecutor, jack mythth smiths team, and a defense attorney. He claimed the prosecution against his client is vindictive and said the case should be dismissed. The prosecutor called that claim garbage. Judge cannon has yet to issue a ruling. This all comes just one day after a key court excuse me, key Court Records were unsealed appearing to show new evidence of obstruction. And those records included new Justice Department photos showing walt gnaw to, this one who says this is vindictive, physically moving boxes of documents around the property. With that, lets get smarter with the hub of our leadoff ponl tonight. My friend is here. Special correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor. Dave joins us. State attorney for palm beach county. And the former federal prosecutor and Senior Writer for politico magazine. Dave, florida, this is your home state. Lets talk us through it. Because the documents trial was originally supposed to start this past monday and the judge is Still Holding hearings on whether it will ever happen. Talk about what happened in court today and why things got so heated so quickly. Stephanie, theres a dispute over the woodward, the lawyer for nauta, was offered a judicial position and it was tanked by the federal government because his client did not comply. This is a real personal dispute between the lawyer for nauta and the prosecution. But in the end this is stuff is exactly what the government says it is, garbage, because these are delay tactics. Most judges would have just dismissed this stuff out of hand. Prosecutors have a lot of leverage how they can compel people to testify or at least cut deals with them, but judge cannon has been slow walking this case from the beginning. Judge cannon has given into all the delay tactics, and its so frustrating because most other judges would have either dismissed this or just hold a hearing and combine all the motions into one. But she just does one hearing at a time, and she is doing something that other judges would never do. Shes all alone in this satellite courthouse, stephanie, in fort pierce. Thats part of the problem. Theres no Adult Supervision there. Shes giving in to all of trumps requests. This is paralysis by analysis. This is purge tour, and its so frustrating for all of us. Do you agree with that . Has she just figured out how to kick the can down the road without getting kicked off the case herself . You know, its sort of an enduring mystery whether shes doing this, like, deliberately in some peoples estimation, or im sort of inclined toward shes not quite experienced enough to be handling a case like this, maybe is feeling a little uncomfortable operating under the glare of the spotlight. The up shot is the same, though, this case i never really thought had much of a strong chance of going to trial before november even when it was initially brought. These are complicated cases. But you know, dave is exactly right. I mean, some of these arguments, including the one about this Potential Enticement to Stan Woodward to get his client to operate. That allegation has been in the air for a couple of years now. Its never made much sense. Ive never found it credible. Even if it were true, i dont think it would be a legal basis to dismiss the charges. I share with you that some of these arguments are getting much too much attention. Does jack smith have any recourse if cannon rules against him, ankush . I mean, he has the same sort of recourse people have been batting around for a while now. If the rulings bad enough, maybe he tries to take it up the 11th circuit. Ive never thought those tactics had much chance of success. They would most likely annoy her and the appeals court. I think for better or worse, jack smith and his team of prosecutors are largely going to be stuck dealing with her for the foreseeable future unless trump gets reelected and then just kills the case. What do you think . There is no sign of a trial date. She seems to be doing everything donald trump would love for her to do do, you think its innocent, naivety, or just a simple juror. Just a simple country girl. I think ultimately shes auditioning for the Supreme Court. She thinks that if trump gets reelected, she will be Justice Cannon and weve heard trump say as much. Look, shes totally delaying, delaying, delaying, and this is a good case. This case if it hadnt ended up on her docket, it could have been a real case. So i do think that this is not innocent. I dont know why i feel like everyone is addicted to giving these trump people the benefit of the doubt. Why . Weve seen how maga behaves can i answer that . Yes. Can i answer that . Yeah, please. There are much easier ways to kill this case if she was trying to get on the Supreme Court. She could just dismiss the charge, entertain more seriously these issues. She could grant the evidentiary hearing which would delay this longer and embarrass the prosecutor. Hold on, if she does things like that, cant the prosecution appeal, it go to the higher court, and the higher court says, no, shes completely out of line, which is what they did a year and a half ago, dave . Yes, and i think ankush brings up a good point, but i agree with you stephanie, if she goes too far and dismisses this, jack smith has the excuse to go to the 1 19 circuit and get it not only reversed but her removed from this case. Shes been repudiated already a year ago. She doesnt want to be publicly humiliated again. So shes doing just enough to delay without being able to be appealed and taken off this case. Ankush . I mean, the Supreme Court is still a 63 conservative majority, right . So if she dismissed the case and whatever the 11th circuit were to do with it, i mean, ultimately, the Supreme Court would get to weigh in. So again, theyre just mechanisms here that i think she would are readily available to her if she really did want to tank this case more aggressively. All right, lets talk about these new Court Documents that were unsealed yesterday, plus we got these new images the government says are walt nauta moving boxes around maralago not long after the subpoena was issued two years ago. Dave, why is this so important for jack smiths case if this case ever sees the light of day . This is obstruction. And they actually had the temerity today to claim, at least walt nauta did, that its elective prosecution. Why was he the only one who moved boxes thats being prosecuted for it . Well, there, you see why. Hes on tape. People lie but video does not. And he also lied under oath. So this is all really important. It goes to why its ridiculous to even have these hearings in front of judge cannon. Lets move forward with this case. As ankush says, this is a good case. This is the best case that they have against donald trump. All right ankush, new topic, lets talk about the new york case, judge merchan told lawyers hes going to get them a final version of Jury Instructions tomorrow. How crucial are these instructions to the outcome of the case, and can any of the lawyers object . Well, the time for objecting to the instructions, thats been happening, right . They had a conference earlier this week. There have been all sorts of Behind The Scenes exchanges that normally at least in federal courts is public. We havent really seen that. Its been obscured from public view. But in this case, i think instructions are extremely important actually. There are quite a few issues that are sort of novel, if you will. Theyre not improper in any way, but issues that the parties are sort of confronting for the first time. Theyve been looking at different types of Legal Authority trying to make their case. These arent sort of charge, at least on the facts here, where the lawyers can just pick a Pattern Jury Instruction from like a handbook the way they might normally do. So and particularly on this question of what trumps intent needs to be in order to be convicted on these charges, what it means to have the intent to commit, quote,unquote, another crime is something that is still, as were talking right now, its an issue the judge has not resolved yet. Its critically important for how the party structured their Closing Arguments and what the jurors ultimately do. Molly, i always want you to join our show, but tonight it was specifically to talk about this. You know what i did not see today . I did not see very many headlines that said donald trump wont take the stand after promising to do so. Right. Day after day. After his surrogates went on tv and said hes going to take the stand. He wants to take the stand. He did say this after all of this, though. Just watch this. Because he made rulings that makes it very difficult to testify. Anything i did, anything i did in the past they could bring everything up. And you know what, ive had a great past. But anything. But the other thing is and the main reason and i dont even mind that, in fact, i like talking about it, because we had rigged cases. So aside from Serving Word Salad at trump tower today, what do you make of this . Hes had a lot of different you know he said i cant i cant testify because the gag order, which is totally not true. Then the judge said, no, you can testify. The gag order has nothing to do with this. Look, hes this is what happens with trump, right . He says im going to do it, his surrogates say hes going to do it. We all knew he probably wasnt going to do it because it would probably hurt him. And now people have amnesia when it comes to donald trump. Nobodys saying he said he was going to do it. He lied about reasons he couldnt do it. And then in the end he gave this nonsensical answer. By the way, this reminds me of the bible verse, like the guilty flea where no man pursueth, right . How big of a challenge is it to get both sides ahead of these Closing Arguments. Right now we have these days where theoretically the jurys not thinking about the case, and then everybodys going to get right on the ball come tuesday . Yes, but the jury has to have as a lasting impression the testimony of robert costello. Talk about an enormous blunder. Right wing media urged trump and his team to put this Guy On The Stand, and it blew up in their face. And thats the lasting impression i think the jurors are going to have over this long weekend. They are going to remember how the judge that they like, judge merchan, who they bond with, was irritated by the antics of this guy. And then this Guy On The Stand during cross examination was shown to be a shill for trump, someone like a mafia lawyer. And its going to look really bad. So any good will that todd blanche had developed with the jurors because he did score some points against Michael Cohen i think was totally undone by robert costello. Hes the best witness the prosecution could ask for. I cant let you go without asking about this new reporting today on Justice Samuel alito. The New York Times says another provocative flag was found flying outside his beach house, a flag that was also carried by a bunch of january 6th rioters. Of course, last week the times reported on an upside down American Flag at his virginia home. I mean, he lives where i live on the jersey shore, right . A quiet, sleepy he lives in a Fishing Village basically. And theyre hanging this outside their house . What is your take . I mean, when you listen to alito in oral argument, i mean the stuff he says, these guys, alito and thomas, belong on newsmax, and they are not thurgood marshalls. Im prototy sure theyre watching it. I mean, they really are. Mike johnson also had this flag outside of his office. I mean this is but mike johnson is a republican. Yeah. Right . Mike johnson is a republican far right member of congress. Were talking about a Supreme Court justice. No, its beyond the pale, and this flag symbolizes a more christian nation. Yes. I mean, has a whole bunch of things about it that are not anything you would want a judge to be excited about. No, its really and then, of course, he has a beach house. Which, you know, alito has a beach house and thomas has a rv and everyone is living it up when okay, but theres no we know nothing about he didnt get it in any inappropriate way, there were no big donors. No. But there is a second place to hang an inappropriate flag. You know, though, all Great Americans might like the jersey shore, okay . That is a good point. She just used us as a chance to dog on new jersey. I regret her joining us tonight. Dave, ankush thank you for being here tonight. Molly, im still thinking about it. How donald trump Twisted A Standard fbi policy and claimed it is proof of an assassination attempt. This is serious stuff. We have a serious guest, former fbi director james comey is here. And later with trump, nikki haley swore she would never kiss the ring, so naturally now shes saying shes going to vote for him. Our question, will her supporters fall in line too . The 11th hour just getting underway on a wednesday night. I think they will. N a wednesday night. I think they will. Hi, im chris and i lost 57 pounds on golo. Golo isnt complicated. I dont have to follow a restrictive diet, and i dont have to spend a lot of time making meals. Using golo was truly transformative. It was easy, and inexpensive. Her uncles unhappy. 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From professional certifications, to job training, to help navigating programs and services, we give veterans access to support from anywhere in the world. Donald trump is out with a dangerous new lie about the 2022 search of his maralago resort. It involves an fbi document from before the search that had a standard reminder about the rules of deadly force. Well, On Tuesday Trump blasted an email to supporters claiming that the doj was authorized to use deadly force against him and that President Biden himself was, quote, locked and loaded. Obviously, that is not what the fbi documents said. In fact, the fbi chose a night where donald trump was not even going to be there to ensure that there was no chance of confrontation. But facts, they never seem to matter in trump world. Well, james comey was fbi director until donald trump fired anymore 2017. His new crime novel westport is out now. Its hard to write a fiction navl because nonfiction is crazier than fiction these days. I want to start with this news, what makes a lie like this so dangerous . Thank you for being here. Oh sure, its great to be here. And if you tried to write some of this in a novel, your editor would say, stop, stop. What makes it so dangerous is its a lie about the fbis use of its most important authority, which is deadly force. Its a Cro Sieve Lie about an organization that has to be trusted across the political spectrum. On our show, we have been focussing a lot on project 2025. Its this road map far Trump Presidency if he win, and i want to share just one passage where it talks about what they want to do with the fbi. The director must remain politically accountable to the president in the same manner as the head of any other federal department or agency. What to you think about that . I dont know what that means. I mean, literally the director sits within the executive branch, reports to the president through the attorney general. I tried to explain this to donald trump when we had dinner together at his invitation in my first week. I remember you saying this. I tried to explain that its important for the fbi to be legally in the department but not be part of the president s Political Team so. The political accountability language makes me think were back