Including the judge, herself, or potential witnesses who may testify on in a federal criminal trials, stemming from his effort to subvert the 2020 election. Now, prosecutors said, quote, the defendants past conduct, including conduct that has taken place after and as a direct result of the indictment in this case, actually demonstrates the need for this order. Adding that trumps past salvos had already resulted in harassment of potential witnesses. Of course, to no ones surprise, yeah, donald trump responded by doing what he always does. Lashing out. This, time on social media, claiming that President Biden had weaponize the doj and the fbi. Of course, there is no evidence to support that whatsoever. And its requests, the special counsels office contends that trump hosts amount to more than a mere breach of decorum, because his public vitriol has a history of unleashing harassment by his followers. Of course, the prosecution specifically cited Donald Trumps infamous attacks on his former secretary excoriated, chris krebs, and there was a Georgia Election work of ruby freemans, there is a former georgia lieutenant governor, jeff all of those, just a few examples of the figures who faced direct threats as a result of being singled out by donald trump on social media. That same day, a federal Appeals Court also unsealed records showing that the same prosecutors had fought in court to block twitter from Killing Donald Trump about a pending search warrant, worrying that informing him could precipitate violence or enable him to attack and intimidate witnesses. So, when you kind of take a step back, take it all together, the governments filings present this extraordinary picture of a fourth president as uniquely dangerous threat. Not just to the courts, but the Justice System and those who would align against him in this criminal case. Lets bring in my Saturday Night Panel For an msnbc political analyst and executive Vice President , principal at ben dixon, and amani international, and democratic pollster, former congresswoman, donna edwards. Shes also an msnbc political analyst and columnist for the washington post. Mary ady, a federal prosecutor is a Legal Affairs columnist at politico. Its an allstar panel, lots to talk about tonight. Where i will start with you, renata. The scope of this potential gag order. I specifically recall, you know, a couple weeks ago when this trial was just beginning, everybody was saying, its just a matter of time before donald trump goes out for the judge, goes after witnesses, goes after the special counsel, and we are going to find ourselves in a situation where the judge is going to have to, at some point, make a decision about how to constrain his attacks on the actual process. What do you make of former president saying, this would effectively do away with his right to speak . Well, hes putting the issue front and center and hes essentially trying to create a situation where he can not a First Amendment challenge to a gag order. Something that might, you know, be grounds for him to try to have an immediate appeal, try to delay the proceedings. I actually think judge chutkan laid out a pathway forward for how shes going to deal with him in the future, when he violates her orders. She said it at a prior hearing. When she said that if he cant keep his mouth shut and keep making statements that are going to undermine the process and potentially change the jury pool, that would be grounds to blow up the trial. And so, i actually think shes more likely to do that because its not reviewable, really, on appeal. Which is why discretion to do so and i can see her moving up the trial date as a way of sending a message to donald trump, rather than getting herself in this challenging situation where shes trying to release a speech, which is always a tricky situation for a judge, to begin with. Congressman, whats your take on that and how all of this is playing out right now . I mean, the fact is, and perhaps on this particular panel, youre uniquely poised to be able to talk about both the politics and the legality of, it as we hear about the legality of it, donald trump is exploiting his political because hes turning around and framing this to his base, to voters, theyre silencing me. Theyre silencing my free speech because they know this is the only way they can win at the ballot box. Well, you know, judge chutkan really laid out, early in august, what the parameters would be. And i think, you know, nobody can argue that from that time, until now, on his social media platform, and in his public appearances, that he continues to attack the judicial system, attack potential witnesses. He has talked about a tainted and unfair jury pool in washington, d. C. , where he thinks he cant get a fair trial. And all these things actually point to what would be rather extraordinary, but its not about silencing donald trump. He can say lots of things out on the campaign trail. He could actually talk about what he wants to do in a second term. But he cannot attack the judicial system and the process, and all of the people involved in that, as a way to get his way and try to influence that pool. And i think that judge chutkan is going to come up with a scope of what donald trump can and cannot do, and then he will be in the position to either violate another order, and then being forced to come back in front of her. I dont think it looks pretty for donald trump because he can hardly keep his mouth shut. So, renata, real quick. If chuck and grants this gag order, if trump violates it, what do you think happens next . Just simply move up the court, the beginning of the trial . I think thats what, i think she is likely to do that. If she does grant smiths request, at least in part, what i think she would be doing there is essentially, you know, having an additional order that tries to limit his social media posts. I imagine there will be some Motion Practice after that, in which trumps arguing that hes being silenced, hes a president ial candidate, and so on. She just has been so savvy until now. Shes very experienced litigator. I think that shes going to try to use the immense power that she has over this trial, the schedule, rerollings, to try to make some downside for donald trump and make it so that, you know, he has an incentive to obey with her orders. And right now, he doesnt have any incentive. He basically sees it in his advantage. To thumb his nose at the judge and try to rile up his base, and get campaign donations, and help himself. Fernand, if you look at the unsealing of the documents, theres a Significant Development there and that was, and we learned this, you know, this week, that twitter had turned over 32 direct messages from the former president s account to the special counsel. Then we actually got our hands on a court filing that shows that federal prosecutors had secretly argued in april that if donald trump learned of their efforts to access his dms, his direct messages on twitter, his Public Disclosure of that development could precipitate violence. It seems like a pretty Significant Development, just because it shows, to the extent jack smith is worried about what donald trump can do on social media, but also what may have been said in those direct messages. Amen, it is a Significant Development and i think theres a dimension to this special counsels request for the gag order that we havent really gotten into in this discussion yet, and it is not just the specter of what trump is trying to do to shake Public Opinion, to rally his base and potentially influence the jury pool. But its the specter not just of violence, but potential harm and death, even, to one of the participants in the trial. Remember, the maga base, as weve seen for the actions of january 6th and other incidents before and after, has proven to be a base that response to the calls of the leader of the personality cult, in this case, donald trump. And i dont think special counsel smith is playing here or playing games, or trying to do this as a tactical maneuver. I think theres an element here of real danger, given what weve seen has been a Weaponize Base that trump has used. On occasion and in the past, and in fact, has been charged with some of these federal crimes for. So, i dont think we can discount the fact that violence is on the table. I think that is really what judge chutkan needs to take into consideration. Not just the threat of moving up the trial which, of course, would not be to trumps legal advantage, but to the protection of herself and all of the participants, the jurors, special counsels themselves. Weve seen donald trump stoke and engage people to act in his wishes and interests of violence, and i dont see what would stop him from doing it again. Renata, this moving up the trial jeopardize the fairness of the trial that donald trump could exploit, if hes convicted . To say, i was not given due process because i was not given a fair amount of time to prepare for this . I mean, on appeal, which i suspect if he is convicted, it would certainly do an appeal. Would he be able to argue, look, she moved up the trial, claiming that it was because of my violation of these gag orders . But i get a right to appeal. Yeah, theres no question that hes going to make that argument, but the constitutional floor, in terms of how much time you need to prepare for trial, is very, very low. It would really take a very significant shift for the Court Of Appeals and the United StatesSupreme Court to say that, actually, the defendants are entitled to gamble amount of time, most of time to prepare for trial. Its a practical matter and i will say this since ive been a prosecutor, whos defended a lot of substantial cases, yes, it does take a lot of time to prepare. But as a practical matter, in terms of where the law is, courts of appeals give judges, like judge chutkan, very, very Broad Authority to manage their calendar. The First Amendment, however, courts take very seriously. They have very strong First Amendment. And so, i can just see her taking a position where she doesnt want to touch that as much. Shes so experienced, i can see her using her levers of power, in a number of different levers, the trial counter being one of them, to try to give some downside to donald trump. Because i agree, about her safety and i know what its like. Ive been in that circumstance where i had serious threats. Its a very significant situation. Congresswoman, the question of the gag order comes after trump and his lawyers on monday demanded that shotgun recuse herself from the federal election obstruction case, saying, she has prejudice or she has prejudged, i should say, his guilt or she has prejudice towards him. What is your take on that . Well, i mean, just as weve learned in terms of the trial judges ability and latitude to manage her calendar, she also has the power to make a decision about whether she should recuse or not. And i fully expect, i mean, shes not going to recuse herself from this trial. There is no reason for her to do that. And again, i think that the Trump Lawyers are just trying to money muddy the waters and cause multiple delays. And i think that judge chutkan is savvy enough to know whats going on here, and that shes going to manage that process really well. Yeah, i was going to say, is pretty rich from trump and it seemed to ask that of judge chutkan, recuse herself while at the same time, not saying anything about the judge he appointed in the maralago case. Buchanan from doing any measures are taking any measures. Just the perception that he thinks shes the disfavor will alone speaks for itself. Panel, please stick around. Weve got a lot more to discuss after the break. We are going to talk about the other big legal story of the week, this guy, Kevin Mccarthys pathetic Impeachment Inquiry Announcement and his balance pressure of neon under than the extreme maga House Republicans. E maga House Republicans e maga House Republicans for a surprise. Meet arexvy. the first fdaapproved rsv vaccine. 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When you stream on the xfinity 10g network. This week, after nine months of baseless investigations and producing no evidence or any reports, House Republicans announced their long awaited Impeachment Inquiry in the President Biden. Not so fearless leader speaker Kevin Mccarthy has now tasked three committees, the oversight, judiciary, and ways and means, with carrying out the probe into the president and his familys Business Dealings over gop allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption. Now, these are allegations that House Republicans have been chasing, as i mentioned, for months. And so far, to no avail. So, im sure you are asking, what raise this conspiracy driven wild goose chase to the level of a full blown Impeachment Inquiry now . Well, it seems mccarthy appears to be appeasing his farright members, who have repeatedly threatened to oust. This was speaker amaretto Nancy Pelosis response, when asked if mccarthys concessions have impacted the worth of the office that she and others once held. I call it the shrinking speakership. At some point, you have to say, why do i want to be speaker . But mccarthys Appeasement Operation already looks like a total failure. In fact, heres one of his top critics, florida congressman matt gaetz, openly mocking the speaker on this very network. I couldnt tell if you cut away to Kevin Mccarthy or a commercial for low t, because yesterdays impeachment is somehow todays not impeachment. Good gracious, if we actually had to go make that can joe biden, lets hope we have affective people like jim jordan and james cohen making the case, and maybe turn of Kevin Mccarthys microphone for a while. I can peel back the curtain here. Kevin mccarthy is going to advance and impeachment, and actual impeachment on joe biden, a lot like he was going to advance on impeachment of ali mayorkas. Once kevin got power, all of that just went by the wayside. And i think youre witnessing the same gaslighting and the same illusion, and the same mirage, right . He doesnt really mean it. And then there is the shadow thats been lurking over his speakership in the form of donald trump. This week, both the and Politico Reporting On Trump Working Behind The Scenes to urge gop lawmakers to, in fact, impeach President Biden. It is clear whos actually pulling the strings here. There is no doubt about it and unfortunately for Kevin Mccarthy, there is nothing more motivating than revenge. For trump, you know, this Impeachment Mission against joe biden is not just about playing politics or distracting from his own multiple indictments. It is personal. Since democrats first impeached him back in 2021, he has been desperate to repay the favor. If you dont believe me, all you got to do is just listen to him. He admitted as much in a recent interview with meghan kelly, saying, in part, quote, i think, had they not done it to me, perhaps you wouldnt have it being done to them. Lets bring back my panel this evening. Congresswoman, i will start with you and i want you to listen to what congressman adam schiff who led the second i