Watch The Beat with Ari Melber Highlights: Aug. 10

we are airing this prior footage for the first time on the beat and I want you here as part of our special report to really take this in take a look at Jack Smith's detailed explanation we don't want to live in a society where someone is convicted based on what's in the newspapers I can tell you very often we have cases that we investigate where there are allegations uh in the new newspapers which if those allegations were true and if those allegations were the complete story uh I could see why the average American would think that is corrupt but we don't want to live in a society of a form of mob rule where we just get a few allegations without any process convict somebody but I think that's the role the prosecutors to take allegations like that when they're public and investigate and see if the facts actually back up uh what's there is the allegation and the source of it credible let the facts lead make sure it's credible and don't do a lot of public hype through the media or otherwise in advance now he was saying all that before taking on the special counsel role it's just interesting tonight to see that well it seems he's been consistent that's how he described it then and that's how he's been acting and living through this role defendant Trump not the first head of state that Smith has put on trial either that's experience you may have heard about the attorney general knew of it when he recruited Jack Smith for this post after his past prosecution of a sitting head of state here's some background on that but now his past has caught up with him the president of Kosovo Hashim thachi is in The Hague for an interview with prosecutors who have indicted him on war crimes charges he's been charged with 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity Jack Smith LED that high stakes case and we actually have some of this rare footage of Smith making the case in court leading the prosecution and before I show it to you as part of this report let me remind you this is something we have not even seen yet in any of the Trump hearings thus far Smith overseeing other experienced prosecutors to do this but how did he get to oversee them how did he get to this post by doing this many times in the past here we're going to see how he does it Jack Smith striking a pretty calm and persistent posture sober in the courtroom Prosecuting alleged war crimes the truth will be laid before this court in the coming weeks my office will be unrelenting and unstopping fair administration of justice requires building and fostering institutions that can protect those who seek Justice Mr Mustafa use their power to victimize and to brutalize fellow kosovar albanians no justification whatsoever for the inhumane conditions under which they were held or for the manner in which they were brutalized and tortured during their detainment watch this trial and watch those that follow watch how this chord functions and then judge there can never be an expiration date on accountability you will hear from victims who have waited two decades two decades to be heard the charges here do not directly concern the events of the war in Kosovo occurring over 20 years ago they concern attempts to intimidate people into not telling this court what happened to them 20 years ago and attempts to obstruct the work of this institution at any cost it's pretty striking facing those documented Horrors that horror that people were put through to live through and that Quest For What Justice might look like you see Jack Smith's approach he could have been more dramatic there was obviously pathos drama and sadness in what happened he could have been louder but he took that measured path that was his approach he also argued in that same trial that the authoritarian tried to use lies and exploited propaganda and the media as part of his criminal plots now that might sound familiar here on the home front it's a point that actually echoes in Jack Smith's coup indictment of trump and while the U.S Constitution does value a free press which makes up its own minds with its freedom in that very case as prosecutor Smith was careful to note something quite important at least in the view of the law that while the journalists would make up their own minds many journalists there rejected fraudulent and propaganda documents from the accused take a listen here is Smith in this rare chord footage the accused and committing their crimes tried to amplify the damage they caused by exhorting the media in Kosovo to publish ethical journalists of Kosovo who refused to publish the documents that the accused attempted to provide them Jack Smith couldn't have known no one could have necessarily known how big a deal fraudulent documents furnished in various intermediaries and through the press and through politicians and hacks and lawyers and ultimately well in America ultimately pushed all the way up trying to get it into vice president Pence's hands on January 6 he couldn't have known the parallels here but there they are at the justice department I can tell you jack Smith's last big job before this one was leading the unit the prosecutes corrupt politicians the public Integrity Department it's supposed to be actually prepared for with prior prosecutions of abusive government regardless of whether they were controversial or unpopular in the public realm like a Victorious prosecution and trial of a police officer who abused Abner luima garnering a 30-year prison sentence which at the time was unheard of for officers and unpopular among some prosecutors who worked so closely with police and FBI but Smith went right at it just like he's taking on top figures in both parties consider someone who was once the Democratic party's National rising star before a rapid fall you may remember Senator and Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards Jack Smith LED that prosecution in 2011. John and I are honest and realistic with the American people the story that's sending shockwaves through the presidential campaign after months of denials former candidate John Edwards admitted today that he had an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer the Fall From Grace for Democrat John Edwards was just as stunning and tonight a new low after a Federal grand jury in North Carolina charged him with six felonies a new low takes you back to Grand Jury proceedings there that we're moving a pace against at the time someone had another party Democratic then now where we followed a lot of those against Republican Donald Trump Smith oversaw the case and later in the context of these types of cases in general not just Edwards but the tricky balancing issues and lines when you deal with politicians and Corruption he explained that a fair prosecution for corruption does require intent we've heard a lot about Criminal Intent in his current coup case and that proving that can be hard he recounted how government and officials though can be in denial about their methods their intent and the problems they have what was that person's intent um did they do uh this for that did they uh act corruptly oftentimes when I go to speak to folks about uh their corruption programs and and what sort of cases they're doing uh oftentimes I go places and the first thing I hear is no we don't have a corruption problem here Jack and my immediate reaction is you definitely have a corruption problem some legal guffaws there because what Smith is getting at is every place where there's power and money and any kind of Temptation will have at least the possibility of those problems or corruption so if you don't think you're even susceptible to it or anyone in your entire department is then you're probably more susceptible than usual and the Edwards case that theory was using a legal campaign donations to conceal a mistress from voters and that theory fell apart at trial Edwards was found not guilty in a verdict on one charge a mistrial and the others doj did not retry that case so three quick points there one Jack Smith was nonpartisan two he was clearly aggressive so aggressive he didn't actually win over the jury on that case and three and this is so important right now especially as Trump allies and others want to make up stories or tell you narratives or outright lies about doj and FBI or Jack Smith without any look at the record and our Point here in this special report is to look factually at the record including the loss the Edwards loss but the third piece here is that Smith has a demonstrated respect for legal limits the kind of measured professional humility and again we've gone through all this and picked out the key footage for you this is something he has spoken about in these sometimes baffling legal lines that are drawn for pursuing politicians the folks who commit these crimes are sophisticated individuals and by and large uh give the money and receive the money or give and receive the benefits and all sorts of complicated forms that make it not nearly as Stark not nearly as easy to report in five lines in a newspaper article and and because of that because of how they can these crimes are committed because they're often committed by sophisticated people with great means we do need laws that are broad enough to reach conduct I mean right now under the honest Services statute as it exists we cannot charge undisclosed conflicts of interest so just imagine just to follow up on that scenario you have a mayor and he takes bribes for City contracts he takes bribes he puts the money in his pocket he gives someone a contract who shouldn't have got that contract those average American taxpayers are not getting what they paid for I can prosecute that case that's bribery I can I can prosecute that mayor and I think everyone would think that we should that same mayor says you know what I don't want the brides I want more money I'm going to start my own company and I'm going to hide my interest in it and I'm going to funnel the contracts to me I can't I can't prosecute that case and I think the average American in terms of what's wrong if you believe those facts if those facts in an objective investigation are brought to light I think that average American wants the Department of Justice really important point there that he makes I played it in full so you could really absorb it he says I can't prosecute that case he also makes it clear that he thinks it would be good policy to be able to prosecute that case and go so far as to say he thinks most Americans would agree that if the politicians are blatantly self-dealing or doing corrupt things that's what the corruption laws ought to be for that sounds rational but notice where he draws the line he cannot go beyond that he doesn't say so we look for a loophole or a trick or we threw a different charge atom to make up for it or the ends justify the means or any of the stuff that you don't want anyone in power especially the power to indict to prosecute to jail to seek any level of punishment you don't want those people playing fast and loose and so it is striking I wanted you here as we go through the footage that Jack Smith did quite the opposite he will say quite clearly you might want to go farther it might sound like corruption but I can't go beyond what the honest Services statute says full stop that's how we approach those high profile cases and he's got the highest profile case not only of his career life but as Andrew Weissman and others have said probably the most important trial in the history of the United States the development that doj seeking a January trial date for the coup case proposing to start the year with the trial just weeks out from the GOP Primary the first one a plan that may concern Trump and the Republican party now a judge will make that final call but this is the framework for our special report which begins right now the Trump coup in Insurrection were some of the greatest attacks on Democracy in U.S history yet it can be easy to forget that for all the horror reaction discussion and coverage for all the trials of people who stormed the capital and the convictions of seditionists for all of that there was no serious coup probe or indictment of the outgoing president for years indeed the man who publicly LED those election plots and of course the gn6 rally who was impeached for inciting an Insurrection that man two years after those events the person at the center of it all was not facing a serious Federal coup probe let alone charges and Reporting shows quite the opposite Not only was he not facing that but the FBI and doj were avoiding pursuing Trump for reasons ranging from Optics to caution to what they viewed as a developing evidence that we all know that that was the status quo for years so in our special report tonight let's begin with a very simple question what changed one thing it's the kind of change in law enforcement that can change everything as so memorably put in 48 hours there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Reggie Hammond a new sheriff came to town his name is Jack Smith and unlike say Bob Mueller or Bill Barr Smith is a veteran prosecutor who was actually unknown in America those other two I mentioned were known they'd run the FBI and the doj but Smith had stayed far from PR or politics or those big posts he'd even stayed far from the continental U.S lately doing human rights prosecutions at The Hague but he was known within legal circles as a non-partisan no-nonsense pit bull who worked hard and fast and then well this part we've all learned once Jack Smith went to work on this case everyone got to know him quickly Chuck is a really good prosecutor faster than a speeding bullet okay is really thorough very much like a bulldog in terms of what he gnaws on when he gets his teeth around it by all accounts and also by his name another no-nons tough as nail prosecutor who will follow the facts and won't be intimidated y'all Jack Smith 's not playing if anyone can take on trumpets probably this guy he's a serious sober-minded prosecutor who is not going to be deterred Jack Smith clearly proved to be a legal foe unlike any Trump has faced colleagues recalling how he doesn't like to sit there playing with his food certainly not Jack Smith does not play around he moves fast as we just heard and he takes action having found both the evidence and the resolve to do but no one else in American history had yet done to indict a former president and then he did it again today an indict moves unsealed charging Donald J Trump with felony violations of our national security laws today an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding are laws that protect National Defense information are critical the attack on our nation's capital on January 6 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy my office will seek a speedy trial my office will seek a speedy trial we have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability now those are Jack Smith's only remarks ever of any kind across the nine months he's been special counsel it was two minutes at the first indictment about two and a half minutes at the second indictment of Donald Trump we counted now that's on purpose and tonight right now we're going to show you some of the rare footage of Jack Smith In Action including one of the few times that he actually explained why he takes this quiet and careful approach his skepticism towards any society that would try to basically convict people through public leaking or public hype instead of in court careful evidence foreign [Music]

Channel: MSNBC

Views: 133,934

Keywords: msnbc, MSNBC, Specials

Id: lWGYJUH9Zx4

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023