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thousand, of course during the direct examination of each witness, they'll have an opportunity to get their notes together and pull their files, so it's not devastating, but what judge merchan said is there's no rule that says they have to do that for you. they said they're not going to do it. that's their choice. >> but again, joyce, it is typical, right, that you would get the list or at least a heads-up to the defense so they can prepare for whichever witness is coming up. so does it potentially give an avenue for trump to claim the legal system is biased against him, if they don't extend that typical courtesy in this case? >> well, trump will always claim that the legal system is biased against him, no matter how fair the prosecution is. what this doesn't do is it doesn't create an issue on appeal for trump. carol's explained it perfectly. this is a courtesy practice among lawyers. the defense in this case, they know who the government's witnesses are. they have all of their discovery. they're fully capable of being
is out there saying -- and other witnesses saying things about donald trump, but the fact is there's no gag order against them. it's only against trump at this point. i think these are some of the factors that the judge has to weigh at that hearing he's going to have next week about whether donald trump has violated the gag order, and if so, how much punishment how old he be subject to. >> joyce, what do you make of how judge merchan has handled this process so far, particularly with trump's inclination to push the boundaries of what's allowed? >> there's been some concern about the lengthy period of time he permitted before the hearing will take place, but, ana, the judge isn't completely a free actor here. he's constrained by new york law. what the d.a. has asked for his criminal contempt, this is not civil contempt, and there's a provision of new york law that says that if the violation of the gag order occurs in front of the judge, then the judge can
if he were to testify, and these are some prior court determinations that are further evidence of that. >> joyce, vaughn just ticked through the long list of potential areas of questioning that the d.a. has signaled they want to discuss if trump does take the stand, everything, again, from e. jean carroll to the civil fraud trial to other legal matters. does everything on the list that we know of sound fair game to you? what do you think the judge is likely to do? >> so the judge will have to balance the evidentiary value of this material to the prosecution against the risk of undue prejudice to the defendant. and the courts in new york have said that they leave those determinations up to the judge's sound discretion. he'll only be reversed on appeal if there is a conviction, if he abuses his discretion. so we can expect to see him go carefully through each of these incidents. ana, it's important to note here, this isn't evidence that
the prosecution can introduce to claim that trump is a bad character. because he did bad things on other occasions, he did something wrong here. instead, this is the sort of evidence that the prosecution can use to impeach donald trump if he testifies during the trial to suggest to the jury that he's not an honest witness and they shouldn't believe him. >> quickly, if you will, if you were on the defense team and you're looking at the list of what the d.a. is saying, i want to talk to your client about this if he takes the stand, is there any world in which you say, yes, trump, take the stand? >> it's pretty difficult, ana, and for this reason. joyce is absolutely correct that ordinarily prior bad acts and prior conduct don't come into a criminal trial, and you are tried on the facts of this case alone. but if a defendant takes the stand, then the judge has to decide whether his prior conduct is relevant enough to the issues here and the credibility of the defendant if he testifies is a
crowd to get his take on this trial, to get his take on the judge, if he chooses to say something or on the process that's going around. we already have this hearing scheduled for next week about whether he's violated the gag order. saturday may be the first test of how far he's willing to push that. clearly he does seem to want to provoke the judge, and i think that that's -- you know, it will be interesting to see how much he can, you know, how far he can push it without getting in trouble. >> and that hearing, joyce, we told you a little bit about this before, but this will test whether or not he wants to live up to his -- what he said he wants to do, which is to get on the stand, which is dicey for any defendant, but to say that he was going to do it, well, now what we've heard from the prosecutors is they plan to bring up what happened in these previous cases, and the cases where he's lost significant judgments so that he could be cross examined on that. the judge has to make that
. back in the courthouse in lower manhattan, they still have not taken an expected lunch break as they continue to question jurors going through the voir dire process with these potential jurors. joyce vance is back with us now. also joining us is "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker. co-author of "the divider: trump in the white house." joyce, what's the latest from the courtroom? >> well, the process is back underway. jurors are in the box and they're being questioned reading from their questionnaires. so this is the process that we would expect to see taking place. i think the fact that the judge is delaying the much treasured lunch break in this courthouse means he's serious about getting this process back on track. >> and peter, "the new york times" today has a story detailing the type of juror that
back on inside the room. our team is in the overflow room where they are not able to see exactly what is taking place. because of the personal nature here of the jurors' potential past arrest in the '90s that's being discussed in the questions that are happening in a sidebar conversation, they are now inviting juror four back into the room presumably to learn the fate of juror number four. right now, we have six jurors. the question is, do we hold on to six? do we go down to five? does this process lengthen out more? >> joyce, does this indicate to you it's going to be harder to seat this jury than we thought? the judge said he thought he could get this process over with by friday and start with opening statements on monday. that may be more difficult than he imagined. tuesday is a religious holiday for people, passover. monday night, actually. starting certainly on tuesday.
won't be a strike. there will be none left. the process will speed back up. >> vaughn, joyce, thanks to both of you. we will bring you back if we get clarity on juror four and what his situation will be. thanks again for being there. minority report. a closer look at how many house democrats the speaker might need to get his foreign aid bills across the finish line. first, it has to get out of the rules committee. that's where it's being argued over right now. we will have a live report next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use 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 power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities,
matter, often they are excused from jury service. what's so unusual here is this concern from the other juror who walked in after being selected and said, i don't think i can be impartial because of all of the outside influences that are being exerted against me already, even this early in the process. the judge was correct to excuse her from service. the question is whether he will be able to protect the remaining jurors from this same sort of influence. ultimately, there may be a question reignited about whether this jury needs to be sequestered for this process to go forward. >> joyce, donald trump has repeatedly said he wants to take the stand. we will see if that changes after the hearing which is tentatively scheduled for friday afternoon. because that's when the d.a. will lay out all these things he filed that he is planning to raise about the other proceedings against him that have concluded. the judge would have to decide