Trump reacting to the possibility earlier claiming in social media post the investigation is a hoax and that he is done not being joining me now, Laura Jarrett and former lead prosecutor to special Counsel Robert Mueller and former u. S. Attorney, joyce vance. Laura, take us through your latest specific reporting an the legal questions facing jack smiths team. What we know is that the grand jury is expected to meet once again after a pretty long lull. There would been so much frenetic activity at the white house, so many witnesses coming in and out then everything stopped and went dark. That was around early may. Weve now learned, sources familiar have confirmed that they are expected to meet again this week. Reporting On Grand Jury is always fraught because the process is secret but thats what were able to report at least at this moment. And andrew, give us a sense of whats going on behind the scenes. What does jack smith have to do before making a recommendation or presenting a decision to the grand jury . Is there a Charging Statement or a decision not to charge . What have they been working on do you think . Sure. Well i think the first thing for people to know is that its very typical in a case like this and frankly, it should be typical on almost any case that the defense is given an opportunity to be heard. And that would be at two levels. The defense would be able to speak with jack smith and his team about any legal, factual reasons why a case should not be brought and because ultimately even though theres a Special Counsel, it is the Attorney General who has the ultimate authority to say yay or nay. That they could potentially appeal that and i would think that here that Attorney General garland would hear an appeal. It wouldnt be typical for him to do so under Special Counsel rules. So thats what we could be seeing, the reason were seeing people coming in and out of the department of justice is for those kinds of things. Then finally to your point about what to expect is that assuming those appeals dont go in Donald Trumps favor and jack smith would make a final presentation to the grand jury present the proposed charges, make a bit of a summation reminding them of the evidence and ask them to vote on any particular charges. By all accounts, this is something that will happen in washington, d. C. Because people expect thats where the charges will be brought. And joyce vance, once that happens, these are sealed indictments if they are going to hand up an indictment. When would we know . Would there be an arraignment and would the former president show up if there were . The case will proceed like any other case. After an indictment is returned, if it is, the grand jury foreperson will appear in front of the judge who has organized this grand jury to make a return of service and then the indictment will be taken to the Clerks Office where it will be added to the docket. In this case will be initiated. That will be follow at some point by arraignment. Could be a matter of days or longer then this case will be in play. There will be a discovery process. There will be pretrial motions. Some of that will be public but much more of it will go on in private. Andrew, lets talk about the timing if there were such an indictment because theres a critical issue which is the precedent at least and for the Justice Department of not doing anything within six months of an election. Youve got the first caucuses coming in january. And february. So is there a time pressure here . Yes. I think that the prosecutors and potentially the judge who is assigned may feel that they have attention here. They want to be fair to the defendant here. Would be theres a charge. The former president , meaning that hes entitle today due process, to discovery, to make motions. By the same token, the American Public, as well as the defendant, are entitled to a decision meaning that if hes somebody thats running for office, the voters are thinking they want the vote for him, its important to have it go to trial even before any nomination would be decided so that everybody has the information about whether a jury has found proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to any particular charge and frankly, thats in the interest of the American Public as well as the defendant that he has his day in court. Of course, jack smith is also the Special Counsel investigating january 6th for trump and his involvement and others. Do you think that if there were a decision to indict that it would just be on the classified documents, which is the case that seems to be coming to as far as we know. The situation on the documents is relatively, relatively straightforward. The situation as it relates to january 6th is fairly complicated and doesnt mean that you know, we wont eventually reach a decision, but its not in the same place at the classified documents issue. And joyce, finally, we know that mr. Trump is as recently as today and yesterday, calling it a hoax, saying he had done nothing wrong and every defendant would have the right to try to plea bargain if hes indicted. Is there any notion that they would have some Negotiating Room here with the former president to try to avoid this . Its tough to imagine trump doing what hed have to do to plead guilty. Hed have to Stand Up In Open Court and say he was pleading guilty because he was in fact gft. The smart move would be for his lawyers to go to doj and to argue that dojs own precedent involving cases involving two former cia directors who retained classified or sensitive material says that there should be a Misdemeanor Plea here. Its tough to imagine trump doing that. Laura jarrett, a big week for all of our legal eagles here. Thanks for starting us off. And the Crowded House as the field of republican candidates grow. More Trump Challengers take on the former president. Thats next. This is Andrea Mitchell reports in new york today. Well be back in just 60 seconds. Dont go away. Youre watching msnbc. Conds. Dont go away. Youre watching msnbc. He does. Mom were having triplets. No, what does that mean . It means youre gonna need more tide. See . Baby ah. More likes . More tide. The more adorable . More tide. Everyones gonna need more tide. Youre gonna need more tide. Its a mess out there. Thats why theres 85 more tide in every power pod. We really dont want people to think of feeding food like ours is spoiling their dogs. Good, real food is simple. It looks like food, it smells like food, its what dogs are supposed to be eating. Power e trades awardwinning trading app makes trading easier. With its customizable options chain, easytouse tools and Paper Trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. E trade from morgan stanley. And we have Breaking News this hour. Former Vice President , mike pence, has officially filed his paperwork to run for the republican president ial nomination. Two more republicans are going to join the growing list of president ial hopefuls this week. Former governor Chris Christie and north dakota governor also expected to jump into the race in the coming days. Pence joined several of the already declared candidates in iowa on saturday. Senator ernts roast and ride event in des moines. Pence riding in his harley leading the parade of bikers while trying to separate themselves from the pack and chasing the frontrunner, donald trump. Trumps former u. N. Ambassador, nikki haley, took him on about the january 6th attack on the capitol. He thinks it was a beautiful day. I think it was a terrible day. Ill always stand by that. Haley and others slamming donald trump for the congratulations to kim jongun, putting kim in a leading role along with nine other countries. I think one, kim jongun is a murderous dictator. Joaning that, we need to be getting out of that. And rejecting the w. H. O. Lockdown treaty and not congratulating. Whether its my former running mate or anyone else, no one should be praising the dictator in north korea or praising the leader of russia. Joining us now to talk about the campaign and some big personal news for her and nbc news, kristen welker, nbc news chief white house correspondent, host of Weekend Today and now newly named to be the next moderator of Meet The Press in the fall, succeeding her mentor and close friend, chuck todd, who has filled that historic seat for nearly a decade and is going to become the chief political analyst for nbc news happily. The Republican National committee has Debate Criteria for the first debate in milwaukee. What can you tell us . First of all, thanks to you for that congratulations. Thank you for also being a mentor to me and frankly, a path finder for women in journalism. I would not be here without you and of course, huge, huge thanks to chuck, who is also a huge mentor. Look, the republican candidates are really starting to sharpen their attacks here, andrea. That is what we are seeing. Thats what were going to see in the debates in the fall. Theres no doubt about that. And were starting to see these candidates sort of inch closer to that. Chris christie announcing hes going to enter the race tomorrow. Hell be in manchester, New Hampshire. Mike pence on wednesday in des moines, iowa. That is also his birthday, by the way. And we just got Breaking News. The governor of New Hampshire saying he is not going to get into the race. So youre starting to see the contours of the republican field come into sharper focus and the question is to what extent are these candidates going to go after President Trump. They dont want to alienate his base. They want to continue to walk that very fine line and to hold on to his supporters to try to win them over. We know that thats a big challenge. But he continues to be the top frontrunner even given the legal challenges you were just talking about. And you think all these others, at least as many as have jumped in, theres also talk of the Virginia Governor glenn youngkin. Even some talk about brian kemp in georgia because he was critical of donald trump. This past weekend. Do you think this is because they see that perhaps desantis is not going to stay in that Poll Position for long . I think you hit the nail on the head, andrea. Ron desantis is mr. Trumps closest rival and hes still trailing him by double digits. You mentioned youngkin. Hes someone who republicans looked at and thought he really figured out the playbook. He was able to walk the fine line, accept and endorsement from former President Trump while not wholly endorsing him. He wasnt seen with him on the campaign trail, for example. So i think youre starting to see some of these other candidates really, potential candidates i should say, reassess whether theyre going to get in the race. But look, 2016 looms large i think over all of their decisions because that was a moment when there were so many candidates in the race, andrea. I dont have to tell you this. You covered this as well. That the thinking was that really helped to pave the way for mr. Trump to win the nomination. So i think theres real concern about repeating those same actions. Flashing back to 2016 when we were partners during Democratic Campaign at the time then you went on to cover the Trump White House and now the biden white house. So you are perfectly prepared and having done that incredible moderating job on the general election debate. One of the debates under so much pressure and come through with flying colors. Thank you. We are all so proud and so, so happy about this change. One great friend to another great friend and the great tradition of Meet The Press. Well, thank you so much, andrea. I am humbled, honored. It is an incredible responsibility and i am taking it on. Chuck leaves behind such an incredible body of work. As he said yesterday on Meet The Press, youre the right person at the right time. Right time in history, kristen welker. Thanks. Congratulations. Joining us now is former governor and republican, john kasich, boston globe columnist, Kimberly Atkins store and susan del percio. You see the governor on cnn moments ago saying hes not running. Lets watch what he had to say. Given where the polls are right now, every candidate needs to understand the responsibility of getting out and getting out quickly. So hes basically saying, governor, what you and others learned in 2016. The more candidates, the more likely it is that donald trump will dominate the field and get the nomination. It absolutely helps trump. At the same time, you know, when you run for president , if youre not doing it right, get a television show, its because you really believe you can help the country. How do you tell somebody who really believes theyre the best person to run to country to get out . I dont subscribe to that. We have to see how this goes. Two things. One is congrats to kristen welker. As the father of two women, i think its fantastic. Maybe one of my daughters one day will be at the helm. The second thing, i cannot get out of my head, the idea of mike pence coming in on a harley. Just think about that. At the end, its going to be crowded for a while. I dont know how theyll get in, what the rules of the debate will be. Theres no surprise. Desantis does not look like hes performing that great. Hes still got a lot of money. Still has the possibility of coming in second here but at this point in time, its trump still leads. And susan, Asa Hutchison said ive never supported a Party Loyalty because of the criteria they set for the upcoming debate in august. The pledge said the arkansas former governor should be that you will not run as a third party candidate. That is the kaes that 40,000 individual donors as well as their 1 in selected National Polls as well as pledge, will support the nominee if its donald trump. With fund raising, you can go online and raise a dollar and that counts towards the 40,000. I dont think its that number that has some as concerned as hutchison who does not want to make a pledge to support donald trump. Why probably besides him not thinking hes the right person to run the country, is because he knows as well as everyone on that stage, will honor the pledge if he makes it. He just wont do it. I felt thats a very interesting to twist to say i will not support a third party candidacy. That makes sense to me. He has until august 23rd. Its a few months. He could try and make a difference. He could see if he could raise some money and be on that stage but until then, he should just keep folks ahead. I cant imagine hes going to be the only one with a problem with that pledge. On Meet The Press yesterday, senator rounds was asked whether he would back the eventual nominee even if its donald trump. Right now, im hoping its going to be tim scott and if its not, then im going to have to reassess because ive always supported the republican nominee in the past. I hope tim is in the nominee. There are going to be some other good people as well. Im going to hold that back until we find out how tim does. So kimberly, is there a space for a candidate like tim scott who you know, has a great biography and is more optimistic candidate but is that, is this the party for optimism and hope in a reaganesque way . I think thats something the candidates are still trying to figure out. We saw even in iowa over the weekend where the caucus is months away. These are the most active of active political people who came out to see these candidates. And even some of them express dismay that the culture wars, even if they agree with them, that that has been so much of a focus of so many candidates including desantis and that people werent talking about prosperity. They werent talking about finding ways to improve the economy in other more traditional Kitchen Table topics. And that they wanted to see that optimistic message after the past decade that has been so depressing. So i think thats, if these folks are saying that, i think you might be feeling that a lot more in the broader gop electorate right now while people are still trying to figure out how to make their own message. I want to echo congrats to kristen. Thats wonderful news. An inspiration to a lot of us. Indeed, it is. Made everyone so proud and happy at nbc news and does and well watch her prepare as shes going to prepare for this show, you know, this new job all summer. Shes going to be working on it. Its going to be wonderful. Final question to governor kasich. What about joe biden . He is not facing any challengers so far. And right now, hes on a high coming off of a debt ceiling deal. So the i should say the speaker. Surprising a lot of people. And held everybody together and now what does joe biden do as hes facing this large field . I think its all about him projecting the best he can at his age. As long as hes able to show he said at that correspondents dinner, some say im old. I say im wise. The able the i to get people excited out of his own party is really important. At the end, you remember what reagan said. Im not going to hold your age and inexperience against you. He has to have that confidence. Finally, i was with somebody really, really smart guy and hes a trumper. This is really interesting. I said to him, is there anything that trump can do that would cause you not to support him . He thought for a second and hes a smart man, he said no,