Elections, they won by a big enough majority that not only did the democrats take, of course, the chairmanship and the numerical majority on every committee in the house. On the Intelligence Committee, it was actually a really big shift in terms of the numbers. Republicans not only lost the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee, they lost four seats for republican members. Now luckily for the republicans, that loss of four seats on that incredibly Crucial Committee thats right at the heart of the russia investigation, them losing four seats on that committee didnt entail very hard Decision Making for the republican leadership. And thats because they lost four seats but also four republican members of congress who had been on that committee either retired or lost their seats anyway. So they were gone. So it wasnt like a really difficult game of Musical Chairs there. They lost four guys and they lost four guys. Guess which seat just got emptied . Nevertheless, republican leader Kevin Mccarthy and the Republican House leadership, they waited a full two weeks before naming new members to the Intelligence Committee today, even though they basically ended up carrying over their entire membership from the last congress. There was one guy they swapped out, but that was it. Nbc news reports tonight that the delay may have had a material effect on Robert Mueller and the special counsels Office Investigation into russian interference in the president ial election. Quote, House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy formally named the nine republican members of the house Intelligence Committee today, ending a weeks long delay that may have cost special counsel Robert Mueller valuable time to act on potential leads the panel could offer. Democrats now in the majority on the Intelligence Committee had vowed that one of their first acts would be to authorize the release of more than 50 witness Interview Transcripts to special counsel mueller to aid in his investigation. Members have said they had reason to believe some witnesses lied to the committee, something that has already led mueller to bring charges against trump allies, including longtime trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen and longtime trump adviser roger stone. Now here is an interesting detail we did not have before today, before this report tonight from nbc news from ken dilanian and alex moe. According to two sources familiar with the matter speaking to nbc news, quote, it is likely that mueller and his team of investigators have had access to the committees transcripts already, meaning mueller and his prosecutors have already been able to look through these witness transcripts to consider them effectively on an informal basis, to see if there is anything in these witness transcripts that might be important to the Mueller Investigation or might potentially be the basis of further criminal charges if any of those witnesses lied to congress. So mueller has apparently been able to look at them in an nfl way. But according to congressman adam schiff who was the chairman of the committee, he tells nbc news tonight that even if muellers team has been able to view the witness transcripts thus far, they have been limited in what they can do with that information. According to schiff tonight, quote, they dont meaning mueller doesnt they dont have the use of those transcripts for perjury prosecutions until we authorize them for that use. The Intelligence Committee has been unable to hold the required vote to release those transcripts to mueller because of the delay because of the twoweeklong delay and the republicans naming any members to the committee, the Intelligence Committee hasnt been able to hold that vote. So democrats name their members two weeks ago. Ooms republicans havent. Theyve just been sitting on it until finally today. And again, whether or not mueller wants to bring any further charges on the basis of this testimony to congress, who mueller and his prosecutors want to charge anybody other than roger stone and Michael Cohen of lying to congress on the basis of what they said to the Intelligence Committee, it would appear that mueller and his prosecutors cant do that until they formally get official transcripts released to them from the committee. And the official transcripts cant go to mueller until the Committee Votes to release those transcripts to him for that purpose. And the committee cannot take that vote until they are formally constituted as a committee, and they cant formally cute themselves as a committee until they have all their members, and they only got all their members today. Having all their members as of today means they will finally be able to hold their first meeting as a committee. Three Business Days from now in magical congressional calendar days, that means the earliest possible date at which these witness transcripts can be sent to Robert Mueller, just in case he wants to use them to bring more criminal charges, the earliest date mueller can get those official transcripts is next tuesday. February 5th. More than a full month after this congress was sworn in and supposedly starting its work. The delay from the republicans at least bought them another month. So weve been covering that like logistical detail in the handover of the new congress. Weve been covering that pretty intensively for the last week or so. It looks like that issue is finally going to be resolved. That timeline you might imagine, has been causing some agita among witnesses there are specific witnesses who have been accused by members of congress of having lied in their closed door testimony to the Intelligence Committee. Once mueller started charging people for lying to congress, you can imagine that those witnesses, the ones who know they lied, theyve been a little nervous as to whether mueller might act on their testimony as well. Well, we will know in fairly short order now. We will likely know within a week if that agita is warranted, because mueller is now about to get 50 plus official transcripts. If you ever are charged with a crime, first of all, im sorry. Im sure you didnt do it. I totally believe in you. But if you are ever charged with a crime in this country, you will have a bunch of wellknown black letter rights under u. S. Criminal law and the rules of american criminal procedure. You will have the right to be represented by competent counsel, even if you cant afford to pay for that counsel. You will have the right to a speedy trial. Youll have a right to have a jury of your peers evaluate the case against you, against the presumption of your innocence. Unless and until prosecutors prove their case against you beyond a reasonable doubt. And those rights, those are like the perry mason ones, right . Those are like the ones from law order. Those are the ones we know from crime dramas and after school specials, even if we havent gone to law school. But one of the less exciting things you also have a right to as a criminal defendant in this country is you have the right to see what the prosecution has against you, what theyve got on you that led them to charge you and have you arrested in the first place. You get to see the evidence. In both civil cases and in criminal cases, that part of criminal procedure, or that part of trial procedure, thats often where some of the juiciest fighting is. It almost never makes into it the tv shows about the law, but its where a lot of the fighting takes place. Its where a lot of the time gets elapsed when these things tie up courtroom time. But its also this part of the process that is also where you get the best and most interesting strategy, the most interesting strategic fights on the part of both the prosecution and the defense. And that is what we are seeing in some of the big news that broke today on the scandals swirling around this presidency and the legal cases that have derived from the russian attack on our election and the special counsels investigation into that. Once you are charged, once you are a criminal defendant, before you ever get to trial, there is this process called discovery, and the discovery process is the process by which you the defendant are entitled to get from prosecutors the material that theyve used to build their case against you, to get you charged with this crime in the first place. The reason you have a right to see that stuff before your trial, it makes sense when you think in broad terms about what it really means to have a truly fair trial. If you werent allowed to see any of this evidence beforehand, if you werent allowed to see the material that they used to build their case against you, you really wouldnt have a reasonable chance on the defense side at beating the prosecutors case, right . When the discovery process works the way its supposed to, you are supposed to be protected from being blindsided by evidence you didnt know was coming at you. So if theyre using witnesses to testify against you, you get to know about those witnesses and that witness testimony in advance. Just in case your side wants to try to show that those witnesses are unreliable, or theyre somehow unreasonably biased against you, or you can put up competing witnesses that might offer an equally or more compelling story about the same set of facts. Is it is a case that is based on documents and records ahead of your trial, you will need to see, you will get to see what those documents and records are. So you can maybe challenge the veracity of those documents and records or put them in different context, or otherwise build up your case against what prosecutors are trying to use as evidence to prove. Whatever prosecutors want to charge you with, you as a criminal defendant have the right to see the basis for their charges. I dont have you a right to see the evidence they have stacked up. Thats the discovery process. And i know its not as cinematic as you have the right to remain silent. It doesnt make it into all the movies. But it is just as important, and it really is where some of the most interesting strategy comes out in legal fight, including as i mentioned, todays news surrounding the scandals of this presidency and russia interfering in our election. Because almost a year ago, in february of last year, the Justice Department announced charges against the Internet Research agency in st. Petersburg, russia, right . You remember this. The Internet Research agency running this Online Disinformation Campaign on behalf of the kremlin as part of the russian effort to mess with the election and sway it against Hillary Clinton and toward donald trump. The defendants in that indictment were all russian. It was all individual employees of the Internet Research agency. It was the guy who owned and reportedly ran that organization, a guy named yevge yevgeny. Prosecutors also charged the corporate entity that forgprogo owns. Russia doesnt expedite its citizens to the United States to face criminal trial here. So when that indictment was unsealed, there was no real expectation that anybody charged in that indictment would ever be arrested or set foot in a u. S. Courtroom to face those charges. Same thing was true about the other indictment that was brought against Russian MilitaryIntelligence Officers from the gru, right . Those indictments against all those russians, they contained lots of information that we the public were able to see in those court filings, spelling out what russia allegedly did and how they allegedly did it. It was fascinating in terms of us understanding this scandal and what happened to our country. But there was almost no examination that any trial would ever derive from those indictments, that any subsequent legal proceeding would derive from those indictments. Theyre speaking indictments. They tell us what happened. They have spell out the allegations, but nobodys ever actually going to have a trial because these are russians who are indicted and russias not going to let them come over here to face u. S. Justice. And the one tiny little surprise exception to that dynamic around those cases that Robert Mueller brought against all those russians, the one exception to that dynamic pertains to Concord Management. So yevgeny progosian ran the Research Agency. Him and all these people who worked at the Research Agency, they were all charged as part of the Research Agency indictment. All the gru officers never bothered to respond they were indicted in federal court in the United States be. When it came to Concord Management as one oof these criminal defendants, they tried to pull off an odd little legal gambit. Concord management, this corporate entity run by that Russian Oligarch, this guy progosian, they did decide to respond. They hired u. S. Lawyers, and they did take up their part of the case as one of the defendants charged in this indictment. And the reason i say this was an interesting legal gambit, because this appears to have been effectively the kremlins effort or a kremlin adjacent effort to have them sort of have their cake and eat it too. I mean, none of their actual citizens, no actual russian citizens, including this Russian Oligarch would ever step foot in a u. S. Courtroom. None of them would ever have any actual vulnerability to u. S. Justice, but by having this corporate entity, Concord Management, this Company Actually turn up in u. S. Federal court as a criminal defendant, it appears what they hoped theyd act establish by that was that they would be able to sort of cash in on all the rights that a criminal defendant has in the u. S. Justice system, particularly they decided to cash in on discovery. By giving Concord Managements u. S. Attorneys and having by giving Concord Management u. S. Attorneys to appear in court for them, by having that corporate entity appear in u. S. Court as a defendant, they have since tried to use the discovery process in that trial to get everything they can from the u. S. Justice department about the russia investigation, about Robert Mueller, about the work of the special counsels office. Theyve been using the discovery process, the fact that theyre appearing in court as a defendant, theyve been trying to get whatever evidence they can about what allowed mueller to compile these charges, what evidence they were able to pile up against all these russian entities. So theyre thinking no actual russians need to face legal jeopardy here, but by having a Russian Corporation turn up, maybe we can use the discovery process for that corporation to get all this information about what mueller knows and how he knows it. So its a clever little gambit that they pulled, and it has already resulted in the big knockdown dragout legal fight over a whole bunch of weeks and months now. You might remember earlier this month, one of the requests for discovery materials from the lawyers for Concord Management led the federal judge in this case to dress down and humiliate the Concord Management lawyer in open courtment she singled out the Concord Management lawyer at an open hearing by name. She said to him standing there in court, he will tell you now that i found your recent filings to be unprofessional, inappropriate, and ineffective. The judge said you will prevail on your motion for the release of sensitive discovery if and only if the facts and the law are on your side. Meritless personal attacks on the special counsel, his attorneys, other members of the trial team will play no role in my decision on your motion, nor will inappropriate and what you clearly belief to be clever quotes from movies, cartoons and elsewhere which he had actually included in his filings. Quote, your strategy is ineffective. It is undermining your credibility in this courthouse. I will say it plain and simple. Knock it off. That was the juvenile, the trumpappointed judge dressing down the lawyer for Concord Management in court just a couple of weeks ago. And thats part of this whole fight over discovery. Theyre using the Concord Management case to try to get as much discovery they can about the Mueller Investigation in making their case that they ought to have access to all of the sensitive material through discovery, they so offended the judge that she caused that humiliation to rain down on that lawyer in open court. That is where we left this fight a couple of weeks ago. And now today prosecutors say the whole thing has gone haywire in a way we had no idea of before. So this is a new filing from prosecutors. Its prosecutors from the special counsels office and from the u. S. Attorneys office in d. C. And from the