'Laughable': Weissmann on Trump's last-ditch effort to remove hush money judge as trial looms

Andrew Weissman is a former assistant US attorney who helped lead the Muller investigation. Lisa Rubin is a former MSNBC litigator and legal analyst. Two of my favorite Legal Eagles joined me on a Friday night. Thank you very much to both. It's great to be here with you, okay, Andrew? I'm G to start with you because you are an expert in many things, but one of your specialties is certainly following the

money

. This Trump legal brief delves into how much

money

Judge Maran's daughter's political firm makes. It's like talking continuously. about this, is this an actual legal argument, I hope not, or just some kind of desperate attempt to excite Trump's base, who loves these conspiracy arguments, is it the latest, um, you know, this was done the Friday before, you know, the

last

week before.

The

trial

begins in 10 days and there is a doctrine in the law that says you cannot exercise your rights. There's nothing new here that couldn't have been known or been known long before, so I really can't do this at the

last

minute to recuse someone and I think I've said this before and I really want people to focus. In one thing: this writing is not signed by all the lawyers on the Trump team and I continue to say that, because it is a sign for one of the lawyers, Susan Necklace is a highly respected defense lawyer in New York.

Many of us know her and think she is really excellent. You know she went to Yale and has been a defense attorney for years. and she's ethical, she didn't sign this brief um to me, that's a sign to the

judge

why she didn't. That's such an interesting point. I definitely didn't realize I was referring to Lisa, and I want to care about your reaction. That and her thoughts on the meaning of that I also want to ask her. I mean, Trump is not undermining him. I guess criticizing the

judge

's daughter on social media before his loyal lawyers filed this report.

I mean, it seems crazy to me. I'm not a lawyer, but tell me about the lawyer who was left out and that piece too. First, let's start with the lawyer who was left out. I think Andrew makes a very good point and observation, we have seen things like this before, for example, I can think of a situation a couple of years ago where a federal prosecutor signed a writing that others would not do in his office and that also made a statement. It was like that in a Trump-related case, but coming back to this, does this undermine?

He argues because they've spent a lot of time specifically defending their client's right to say whatever he wants about the daughter, you know, they say the social media posts were in service of this recusal argument. I think the tail is wagging the dog there, Jen. That is not the case, but unfortunately for them, their political and legal strategies have collapsed into one. If you read this Motion in detail, it seems to read like an Oppo investigative report and not an actual legal document, and that is too revealing because the Trump operation seems to be operating from the same playbook in every way, everyone here is part of the same operation political strategy legal strategy they can't be distinguished anymore I mean, you're right, I read it thinking it said something like she's the 17th Democratic signature in the country or something like that.

What does that have to do with anything? Let me ask you, Andrew, because it's important for people to understand what a legal argument is, what it isn't, so why am I asking everyone? These questions I mean, the Trumpers also say that Judge Meran cannot be impartial because he spoke about the case publicly. Now here are the comments they quote on the site. His honor reportedly stated that preparing for the historic

trial

is intense. Wow, that's a Humdinger, the court is there. striving to make sure I have done everything I can to be prepared and make sure we deliver justice.

I mean, scandalous again. There is no agenda here. We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done. That's all we want. None of that seems biased to me, why are they arguing that those are cases where he shows that Jen? There is one thing you left out regarding all those statements he said. I want to make it clear that I am making general comments. none of this should be taken as a reference to this case, so he was talking about what the court in general does before him, what is the role of the rule of law and the judge and the system, but he pointedly said in There's no way I'm going to I'm not going to talk about that piece nor am I going to reference this specific case, so, this is ridiculous again, as Lisa points out, this is not the hearing for this report, it's not the court, um, it's a kind of court. of public opinion and it's just a portion of that court of public opinion um, you know, I think this is one where we should still be, you know, fastening our seat belts, we're going to have a week of trial starting on the Monday, so Lisa before.

She let you go. I just have to ask one more question. I find it quite ironic that the Trump team is being so harsh on the judge, but of course they are not saying the same thing about Alien Canon. I mean, maybe it's not surprising. I understand Alien Canon is a bit biased, but it's a bit ironic. I'm wrong? It's not ironic, Jen, but I think there are ways to distinguish the two situations. If we are fair, we have no indication that Alen Canon. He has someone in his family, for example, who occupies a similar space in the Republican stratosphere who judges Michon's daughter and in fact they point this out in the writing, they say that if Alen Canon had a first-degree relative who worked at Wired or Maga Inc. ., people on the left would be screaming bloody murder and they're not wrong about that, but you know, having said what I think really distinguishes the two is that Judge Maran actually makes decisions and they don't like those decisions and Judge Canon. for the most part he is avoiding commenting on anything at all and when he does he sometimes comes out in favor of the special council although in the long run it doesn't seem that way Andrew Weisman Lisa Rubin thank you both for joining me on a Friday night, it's a pleasure to see you as always Hello everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app.

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