Judge denies Trump bid to move hush money case to federal court

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00:00Caitlyn, what does Trump's new plea mean for this case?

00:03Well, Wolf, it's only one page, it's just a couple sentences of Donald Trump saying

00:08he doesn't want to show up at a hearing that's happening on Thursday.

00:12And at that hearing, that's when he will have to be arraigned.

00:16He will have to enter his pleading to this new indictment that the special counsel's

00:20office has brought through the court system against the former president.

00:24Now, Wolf, what's important about this is that it puts things back into trial mode,

00:30right?

00:31In the federal court, you put that not guilty pleading in and then things progress toward

00:35a trial.

00:36There are all kinds of legal arguments that have to take place before a trial, before

00:40Judge Tanya Chutkin.

00:42On Thursday, she's going to be talking about the schedule and the plan moving forward.

00:48But what this piece of paper does, it means that Donald Trump doesn't have to show up

00:51in person.

00:52The first time he was indicted in federal court related to the 2020 election, he did

00:57go to court in person, raised his right hand and told the judge he pleads not guilty to

01:02the four charges he was facing.

01:04He's facing those same four charges, a new version of the indictment.

01:08But he's saying, my lawyers are going to take care of this for me.

01:11Here's the paperwork with my signature on it.

01:13I plead not guilty.

01:15So Andrew, there's this hearing coming up next week.

01:18What do you think the timeline will look like and how the election potentially could

01:24impact things?

01:27I think, Wolf, the timeline of the review of this new indictment and the process that

01:33Judge Chutkin will set out and with the lawyers to kind of make sure that the evidence that's

01:39currently required to prove the case does not go within the scope of those matters that

01:45the Supreme Court has said can't be used against President Trump because of his presidential

01:51immunity, this newly recognized presidential immunity.

01:54There's been a lot of speculation as to what that process will look like and how long it'll

01:58take.

01:59We don't really have clear answers to those questions yet.

02:01I think it's unlikely that we'll see something like a mini trial or witnesses actually testifying,

02:07providing testimony in court.

02:09I think it's much more likely that the special counsel will try to do as much of this process

02:14and the back and forth arguments on the papers.

02:16So through motion filings, it's possible they'll have some oral arguments around those things

02:21as well.

02:22But this is Judge Chutkin.

02:23And what you're going to see from her is a very streamlined, focused, no-nonsense procedure

02:29that's designed to figure out what evidence can be used in this case as it goes forward

02:33and what evidence and potentially charges need to be left behind.

02:35And we're just being told that this next hearing will actually be taking place this coming

02:40Thursday.

02:41So we'll watch that very closely.

02:42Caitlin, I know you're also following news in Trump's New York case.

02:47Give us the latest information.

02:48Well, in that case, he is convicted and he's set to be sentenced on September 18th.

02:53But Donald Trump doesn't want that to happen.

02:55And so what he has done, especially now that the Supreme Court weighed in on presidential

02:59immunity in this case, in New York, the hush money case, he went to a federal judge and

03:05said, the Constitution should prevent me from being sentenced.

03:10You should put things on hold.

03:12You should move this out of state court in New York into federal court.

03:16And the judge, the federal judge, Alvin Hellerstein, up in New York, he said, no, not this time.

03:22You asked me once before, nothing's changed, really.

03:24I'm not taking this case into federal court.

03:27This is a case with private schemes and private actors.

03:31The state judge is going to handle it.

03:34But Wolf, we are still waiting for things in this hush money case about Donald Trump

03:39and how he was making payments to Michael Cohen to reimburse Stormy Daniels.

03:45He is convicted by a jury there.

03:47The sentencing is set, but we're waiting to see if the judge moves that date until after

03:51the election.

03:52I'm anxious to hear, Andrew, what you think.

03:53Do you expect that we will see Trump sentenced in just a few weeks?

03:59I do, Wolf.

04:00I think we're going to see that.

04:01I think that the rejection by the federal court to take this case essentially out of

04:07New York was entirely predictable.

04:09That's what they did the first time he asked them to consider that.

04:12I think Judge Mershon is very well aware of his responsibilities, having had this trial

04:19in his courtroom, seen the jury convict him.

04:21The next step in this process is a sentencing.

04:24I think there's no reason that this isn't going to go forward, despite all these constitutional

04:28arguments that Trump and his lawyers have.

04:30They can raise those arguments later.

04:33But New York state courts have their own processes and procedures, and I expect to see Judge

04:37Mershon see those through.

04:38Interesting.

04:39All right.

04:40Andrew McCabe, Caitlin Polanski, both of you, thank you very much.

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