How fast the judge wants to move the case, how Mike Pence may be involved going forward. Plus, a huge shock inside a different courtroom. Hunter bidens Tax Trial stopped in its tracks today. The president s Son Set to change his plea. What the reversal might mean for the case when it picks up in about an hour. And on their radar. The fbi reveals the 14yearold suspected Georgia School shooter was questioned before online threats just last year. So how did this still happen . A lot to get to. But we begin here with just 61 days until the election. Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing Donald Trumps election interference case, making it clear that, quote, this court is not concerned with the electoral schedule. Jack Smiths Case was up ended by the landmark supreme Court Ruling on immunity, and there are lots of questions still to be answered. When will this trial over actions involving the January 6th insurrection actually start . No Trial Date was set today. What role will Mike Pence play . His name came up at least 12 times. And will Jack Smith be allowed to see it through as Special Prosecutor . So much to talk about. Lets bring in msnbc legal correspondent Lisa Rubin who is inside court for this hearing. Nbcs Vaughn Hillyard covers the Trump Campaign for us. Former gop Communications Director and ceo of the seneca project. Also with us, former Assistant District Attorney In Manhattan and legal Analyst Catherine christian. Great to have you all here. Lisa, you were inside the courtroom. As i said, very high stakes here. Give us a sense of the tone and your big takeaway. Judge Tanya Chutkan is prepared and incredibly professional. She knew exactly what she needed to accomplish today and went through where weve been in this case, what was left on the table when it was stayed for the former president s immunity appeal, and what needs to be schedules now. She was primarily concerned with two things, Scheduling Briefing on president ial immunity, and then other motions that would be pretrial motions. Recognizing that this case will likely go to the Supreme Court and back again before its tried before her. Thats why she did not even attempt to set a Trial Date today. Later today, we should get a Scheduling Order from her about the immunity issue, though, particularly. Former president trumps lawyers have one objective today. That was To Push that Immunity Briefing sometime after the election. Because if Jack Smith has his way, that Immunity Briefing is going to include laying out a bunch of the evidence that supports their indictment, including things that arent ever mentioned in the indictment itself. They detailed for the court how they might attach things like grand Jury Interview transcripts, fbi 302 memos. They reflect memos they conduct with witnesses early in the investigation, and other evidence, most of which, at this point, according to trumps lawyers, remains under seal. So what Judge Chutkan needs to decide now is who is going to brief the issue first . On that, it appears that Jack Smith and his team are likely to win. As soon as three weeks from today, they could be submitting a brief that defends their Superseding Indictment as compliant with the Supreme Courts immunity decision and also tells Judge Chutkan all of the evidence that theyre relying upon, both for the indictment itself and perhaps that theyd rely upon at trial or did rely upon at the grand jury. They are willing to do that at this point, lay all their cards on the table, because their number one objective, as compared to the trump people, is to have only one appeal of these issues before a Trial Date can be set, chris. All right. This is a lot of complicated legal stuff, right . This is not guilty or innocent. This is not the details of the case. Lets make sure we understand what Judge Chutkan is talking about here. She knows this is going to end up probably before the Supreme Court. This trial is not going to start in the next two months before the election. Lets start there. But she wants to figure out first and foremost, correct me if im wrong, with this Scheduling Order. How does this Immunity Ruling by the Supreme Court apply, not apply, and what that means for the trial . Exactly. Thats the threshold question. If Donald Trump is immune, like, lets stop now. Yeah, it goes away. She has to see if the Superseding Indictment conforms with the Supreme Court decision. Thats first. Like lisa said, She Knows it is going to the district of Columbia Court of appeals and then the Supreme Court, so theres not a trial anytime soon. If he is elected, there wont ever be a trial. But if there is, itll be next year. Lets go back to reminding viewers about the charges against trump that were talking about in this case. They are all related to his actions on and around January 6th. Its Conspiracy To Defraud the united states. Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. And conspiracy against rights. With all of that, Mike Pences role on January 6th is a major part of what prosecutors hope to present. How do they see his role here . What are they likely to argue . What theyre likely to argue is that the parts of the indictment that remain as they pertain to Mike Pence arent really about him acting as Vice President , per se. As Vice President , he would be, as the Supreme Court noted in its opinion, one of Donald Trumps closest advisors. But they are arguing that Mike Pence, at least with respect to the allegations in the indictment, wasnt behaving in that capacity. He was either behaving as Donald Trumps cocandidate or he was behaving as president of the senate. A conversation between the president of the senate and the former President Of The United States is not one where there would be immunity. The president of the senate isnt an executive branch official. Thats the argument theyre going to be making. Now, trumps lawyers want Judge Chutkan to believe the allegations are such a substantial portion of the indictment, that if she gets rid of those, the entire indictment has to fall. That is unlikely to be true. Judge chutkan called them on that today. The special counsels office was more reserved, but you can see that before we get to the pence allegations in the indictment, there are pages and pages pertaining to other conduct, including the effort to convince State Officials that they should overthrow the certified slates of electors and replace them with Trump Electors. Then, of course, the fake Electors Scheme by which Trump Electors met of their own Va Volition and tried to submit their papers, chris. They want Jack Smith all this case all together. Whats going to be key as She K considers that decision . Judge chutkan is not judge cannon. She didnt say, of course im going to deny it. She has said, rightly so, that the precedent in her District Court of appeals and the united states Supreme Court is against them on argument. Judge cannon did not, and shes wrong, i would say. Theyll appeal it to the same district. Delay, delay. She didnt buy the argument before, and she certainly isnt going to agree with Justice Cannon on this issue. Donald trump was not in court today, vaughn. He was in new york here at a campaign event, right . But its, again, this split screen, right, between his legal life and his political life. Have we heard from him today . Have we heard anything about this Court Proceeding from him or his team . Right. Were actually a couple blocks from 30 Rock right now, chris. For the last hour, hes been speaking to the Economic Club Of New York here. Top ceos, former Cabinet And Administration officials. For the better part of the hour, hes been talking about economic and tangential issues. Classic Donald Trump form, didnt go without noting, of course, the prosecutions that he continues to face. I want to let you hear directly from him. He did directly to this crowd here of executives reference the federal indictments hes facing. And then, as youll hear, a direct shot as to how he could potentially use the Department Of Justice in his second term beginning next year. Take a listen. She and her party are censoring speech, weaponizing the justice system, and trying to throw their political opponents, me, in jail. This hasnt happened. I didnt do that to crooked hillary. I said, that would be a terrible thing, wouldnt it . Putting the wife of the President Of The United States in jail. But they view it differently, i guess, nowadays, but thats okay. And they always have to remember that two can play the game. Two can play the game. Those are the words of Donald Trump two months before the election. Of course, this comes after the social Media Post here over the last week in which he posted the suggestion that potentially some of his perceived rivals, from Barack Obama to Joe Biden to Kamala Harris to Bill Gates to Liz Cheney could be imprisoned. Of course, the Department Of Justice with Donald Trump there a second term could very well look differently. He could direct his acting Attorney General or Attorney Generals to seek indictments against some of these top democratic officials, chris. Thank you so much for that, vaughn. Tara, two can play the game. That is the kind of statement some might say is a threat and Donald Trumps base likes. They like that, in their view, he is tough. They like that he goes after his perceived enemies. In fact, trump has raised a lot of money, as you know, around these cases. He sold murch with his mugshot and the Word Felon on it after he was convicted in a different case in new york. But as you look to the dwindling number of days between now and the election and the fact that people are going to start voting within a matter of days, ballots are going into the mail, does this help him . No. It doesnt. Hes got to realize that hes running in a general election. His base is not enough to elect him to the presidency again. His campaign knows this, but they cant control him. Weve seen the reports over the last few weeks of how undisciplined and how out of control he is, that trump knows better than everyone else. Thats always how he portrays himself, including even with his own legal strategy. He doesnt listen. He is in intransigent. So these types of menacing, threatening, calm events, the disgusting display of misogyny that hes been putting on his social media, and same thing with his Vice President ial partner there, jd vance, this does not help him with moderate voters in the battleground states. Thats where this election is going to be won. Its not going to be won with Trump Maga Base people in texas or idaho. This is going to be won in four to seven states where people are not they dont respond to this. He has a ceiling, and it looks as though hes reached that ceiling. Thats why Kamala Harris numbers have been so good. Thats why hes not been able to land a political punch on her. This doesnt resonate with the voters Donald Trump needs to get him elected. So itll be very curious to see, come tuesday and the debate, if this is the tact that he is going to take. I dont think it works. Even on the economy, hes speaking about the economy today, Goldman Sachs came out recently and said a Kamala Harris win would be the biggest boost to the u. S. Economy that weve had in recent years, better than Donald Trump if he were to get elected. That goes counter to what the donald Trump Campaign thinks that they have as an advantage on the issue of the economy. If he Cant Stay on message for them, what he thinks you know, what think think, the campaign thinks is a winning issue for him, ask he continues with the personal insults and the menacing, that does not bode well for him. The momentum is with Kamala Harris. Youll see the contrast on tuesday. Tara setmayer, Lisa Rubin, Vaughn Hillyard, Thank You. Catherine christian, youre staying with me. In 90 seconds, major news the Hunter Bidens Tax Case in l. A. What we know about the new Plea Deal, maybe, right after this. Hi, My Name is damian clark. 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Minutes before Jury Selection was set to begin in a courtroom in Los Angeles today, the trial itself was thrown into uncertainty when Bidens Lawyer said that a new plea was coming. Stunning prosecutors and, frankly, sending the court into recess. Hunter biden arrived in court earlier. You see him there holding his wife, melissa cohens hand. Instead of going actually into the courtroom, he went into a private meeting with the judge. Joining me now, Nbc News investigative correspondent tom winter. Legal Analyst Catherine christian is back with us. Tom, we were in a short commercial break. Whats going on here . Whats the strategy . Yeah, i think ill defer to catherine on the strategy. As far as what is going on here, we are in this recess. Were in this period of limbo. We heard from the federal prosecutors from the special counsels office saying, hey, we just found out about this, judge. They didnt know it was coming. They didnt know it was coming this morning. They said, look, now weve got to try to figure out on our end exactly what we want to do with this. Normally, this does move first off, theres nothing normal about this. I have never covered an alfred plea, and ive covered a lot of cases. The idea that this is a potential plea is very unusual. Two so i just want to make sure people who havent been watching earlier. Right. Youre saying, im not guilty, but ill say this is essentially i did it. To push toward to eventually push toward the sentencing. You want to avoid responsibility for the conduct thats been charged in the indictment. Thats what the attempt is here. Typically, that moves forward all as part of a package. Just to give you a sense of it, this is from the u. S. Attorneys manual. This is the handbook, if i was a federal prosecutor. They have to go to the assistant Attorney General responsible for the subject matter, so thatd be the head of the tax division. Okay. Or the associate Attorney General or the deputy Attorney General of the united states or the Attorney General himself or herself to get approval if they were to move forward on this with federal prosecutors in tow. But thats not the case here. The federal prosecutors say they didnt know about this until they got to court this morning. Now, the whole thing is in jeopardy. Well have to see, one, if they come to any sort of agreement. Thats federal prosecutors and Hunter Bidens attorneys, whether they come to any sort of agreement. Whether or not itll be accepted by the bosses at the Justice Department and the headquarters of the Justice Department. And then whether or not the judge is going to accept this. And then what is the structure in terms of a sentence . I think we have a long way to go here. Like i said, its very unusual. It is certainly a tactic. If you are trying not to admit responsibility and you dont want to go through this trial, and as you and i previously, the types of details offered by witnesses of this trial would certainly be objectively very embarrassing for the son of the President Of The United States and something that would be talked about, definitely, in less than what are we, less than 70 days, less than 60 days until an election. The fact that hes no longer the nominee may make a little difference. Clearly, Hunter Biden wants this done. Right. Having said that, catherine, what, 43 minutes, 42 minutes until theyre supposed to come back in court, and thats an awful lot of ifs. Whats likely to happen, and what has to be decided here . Well, the judge i think it is a tactic so they wouldnt start Jury Selection today. The judge could nip that in the bud and say, is there any Possibility Youd expect this . I would think theyd probably say no. The judge would say, lets move to Jury Selection. It is probably a tactic to say, a year ago, you gave me client two misdemeanors and a promise. Lets do it again. If i was the prosecution, its being sandbagged. Thats a conversation you have before you go to court. Thats what im trying to figure out here. Hunter biden has seen a Plea Deal fall apart before. We know this, right . But any reason to think that this would be a stronger move . Well, i