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Brian Williams examines the day's top political stories and current political-campaign news.

So it usually takes place outside the courtroom where the jurors can't catch a glimpse of it. >> but no ostrich coat, right? >> no. a pretty standard business suit. probably more expensive handle the my suit but i doubt it is one of the special $10,000 or $15,000 numbers that he was wearing in new york. >> lucky for us, a brand new msnbc contributor. thank you. we're lucky to have you. joining me, joyce vance, thank you for being here. i'm struck by what josh was talking about. the entire manafort case is blame that guy. that doesn't seem like solid legal strategy to me. >> just from the evide...

Joining us former u.s. attorney joyce vance. thank you for being with me, joyce. take me through what stuck out for you. i'm struck by some of what josh was talking about, that the entire manafort defense is blame that guy, my deputy. that doesn't seem like a solid legal strategy to me. >> just from the evidence that we've seen publicly it looks like the government has a very good case here. as you noted, it's a paper case. that means the government will largely rely on paperwork, many pieces of paper that manafort has either touched or signed to prove its case. and they'll jazz it up a little...

Fact that they're going to go after the star witness. >> well, yes, they are. because what else are they going to do? in prosecutorial circles all around the country, this would be referred to as the sodi defense. some other dude did it. that's sort of the shorthand. they don't have much to do. and the problem for them is it's a paper case. and manafort's signature is all over things, and it's not -- probably not going to work. it doesn't usually work, and i would doubt it works in this case. >> sam, i want to read you a quote from frank bruni's column entitled paul manafort's trial is donald ...

To find people that haven't heard about the case, that haven't already formed some strong opinions about this case, so this may take a few days. it may take into the second week. i think we could expect to see this jury selection may go on for a little while. >> isn't it kind of true that until the u.s. presents its case and we're under way, that's not really -- that's the time when we'll know how this is going to progress, what do they have, how do they plan to lay it out. >> absolutely. i think the minute we hear the prosecutors give their opening statements, that will give us a great road m...