'Certainly hurting Trump': Tim Miller on potential political impact of hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump's first criminal

trial

hosted by Manhattan da Alvin Bragg has been described as made for the screen Trump allies say it's a good thing Florida Congressman Matt Gates said that to NBC News quoting I love that aam brag va to call first This case, compared to Trump's other legal battles, is the most factually frivolous and the most legally tortured, with us, former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Katherine, and former US Attorney, Chuck Rosenberg, and also with us, Bullwark podcast host, Tim Miller, so Catherine, for you, you know the ins and outs and the results of the financial crimes

trial

s and the district attorney's office Alvin boasts that he campaigned with the idea that he could take on Donald Trump.

Was this the right way to go? We know that since your predecessor decided not to prosecute well, it's not a frivolous case, it's a serious CA, what prosecutors would say, particularly if you're trying a case that's not a homicide, you're treating like a robbery, I would say this case It is serious for the people of the state of New York and it is serious for the defendant. I can't say if a straight face is as serious as the January 6 election interference charge or the Filon County charge or the classified documents charge, but it's a serious case, Tim.

I wonder what you thought of what Matt Gates and others at Trump World have said. who think this is a big victory for Trump that the secret

money

case is the first to go to trial which I guess at least if the perception is correct which is the least serious

certainly

in terms of consequences possible consequences possibly it is or it Either they are trying to make the best of a terrible situation, maybe a little of both and I guess the best case scenario is if their presidential candidate has been charged in four different jurisdictions, the least serious of the four cases, the least serious of the charges come first, I suppose it's better to be on trial for this than to be on trial for an insurrection or for stealing classified documents, but it's probably better not to be on trial at all I think it is Pretty safe to say with the 34 felony charges, I think they are trying to make the best of a bad

political

situation you just had today, for example, Maggie Haberman reports that Trump seems to be falling asleep.

He continues to lower his head and his mouth goes slack as if you know the presidential candidate might be doing something else today besides falling asleep in the courtroom while he's on trial and trying to decide which jurors will decide the fate of he. So I think compared to being able to run a normal campaign, this is

certainly

hurting

President TR, former president, Trump's politics obviously seeps into everything. Tim and Donald Trump can go after the day, he can go after the judge and he can go. after them also

political

ly speaking, just because of the politics involved in being elected to a judgeship, being elected, uh, to be da, that works to your advantage.

I mean, again, this is all a little confusing, right, Katie? On the one hand, Trump is always better when he attacks correctly, so you know this allows him to make the buddy fights that many of his base like. That said, I think he's obviously harming him legally. He left it in the hands of the legal experts on that side. of things, but it's not cool to attack the judge as the son of a judge and it's also not exactly like a 2016 campaign right that you covered so closely Katy Worths where you know there were obviously some elements of Trump narcissism in that, of course , but a lot of the things I was fighting about were about how the Democratic Elites, the unity party, whatever it was, was

hurting

ordinary people and this year it's about how Trump feels, how these forces feel about him. they're hurting personally, you know, and I think he's missed the plot in a lot of ways on a message that resonated with you know, not the majority of the country since he missed the popular boat, but with enough people to win against Clinton, let me back to the document, which is again to let you know that we have people that are there on site, this is obviously not televised, we can't hear it, but they can report in real time what's happening, uh, Judge Chuck Rosenberg, Maran is back on the stand he says they told me they have 96 jurors ready to come and they're handing out copies of testimony sheets uh 200 jurors actually physically here as of today he says um anyway what's happening now it looks like it's finally where we've been waiting since recently after breakfast this morning it could happen this is the beginning of the beginning of jury selection the first group of

potential

jurors are apparently in the courtroom and will now begin to be questioned more specifically about their questionnaires their background their education where do they get their news stuff like that over time, as this group dwindles down to 12 jurors and a half dozen alternates or so, there will be a number of challenges filed against their ability to serve, both sides can challenge the jurors for a cause, which means you're just you're not qualified here you have a predisposition or you desperately want to be on this jury you're you're a Trump supporter or you're a Trump hater uh and a number will get hit for a cause and then both Parties receive 10 peremptory challenges, meaning they can dismiss a jury for any reason. that you work for MSNBC, whatever it is, the third party may be the most likely to remove you, but just a guess, can I ask a little more detail about how this works?

So how many come in at the same time? As? How many batches arrive and how long does it take to question an individual jury? How long is it like the average lawyer who goes back and forth and says hold or strike? I would ask Catherine that because we didn't ask federal individual questions. court, so this is different because there is an interrogator with 42 questions, yes, so what the judge is going to do is put 18 people that we call in the box and each one will be given this questionnaire and they will sit like this 1 2 3 4 5 and the Jud Jud will hopefully do it differently.

The way these instructions read is that the jury is supposed to read the question to themselves and then answer the questions. What I hope the judge will do is just say, "Okay,

potential

juror number one, without telling us your address, do you know where you live, why, because there are some people who can't read, who can't read well, who didn't bring his reading glasses, so now you're leaving." It's to embarrass them while they do this, so I find other judges with jury questionnaires, and that also makes the process quick and they say which judges come, yes, but the batches where they put them in the box like Catherine, every one has to answer all 42 questions, say you get to question three and the answer is no good, can you say that juror be dismissed?

Potential juror will be dismissed before 42 questions, attorneys don't answer, ask questions. until the judge passes, but can the judge decide? I don't think it's because of this if you have someone who this happens to, you know you know Al Blooding Glass or if I sit down, I say I'm Katie, I'm MSNBC and it's like goodbye, especially if it was a normal case, I would they would make you sit there, but like they did with Chris, but in this case the judge will say goodbye thank you very much because otherwise we will be here forever, so that's what the judge will do if it's so clear that someone just doesn't want to being here, as you said, anyone who identifies themselves will be dismissed and the judge has a lot of discretion to do that. the defense may be saying we want to do this appeal, we want to do it this way, the judge in the letter to the defense attorney cited all the appellate cases that allow the judge to do jury selection the way the judge wants to do it.

As long as it's legal and fair, what do they do? Can you start with a general question and again this is based on my experience. The possible trial in which he was going to participate was an assault trial. Has anyone among you been a victim of an assault or close to someone who is a victim of an assault the people who raised their hands told you so does that influence your ability to be fair and impartial against someone who is accused of assault do those questions exist? generals that clarify it? pretty quickly, yes, there will be a preliminary, he will go to all that because it was a sex case.

Does anyone have a problem with this being a sex case right away and because that person may be a victim of sexual assault or have someone there, so he? We'll do that preliminarily and then start with the granular 42 question questionnaire which has a lot of sub parts so it will take a while. Hello everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app. They will receive real-time alerts and live blog analysis. In-depth essays. Featured videos and the best coverage of the 2024 election download the new MSNBC app, here's how to do it, tap the App Store on your phone, press search in the bottom right corner, type MSNBC, click on the MSNBC app, click click get or Cloud icon and enjoy it