MSNBC contributor Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor and currently an NYU law school professor, noted two parts of Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya’s instructions during indicted felon Donald Trump’s arraignment hearing:

“Two things stood out to me as unusual.  It is not unusual for the magistrate judge to have talked to the assigned district judge to find out what the next date is.  What is unusual… is to be so focused on the trial date, and then to have obviously from the district judge the dates by which she wants submissions on that issue and that it’s going to be settled on the 28th.  That to me, for people who have been thinking that she is not focused on whether this is going to go to trial before the general election, that is the issue.  …

“The second thing… usually the standard condition that a judge emphasizes, and I thought when I heard that it was going to be when she reiterated, ‘And the most important thing is…,’ I thought it was going to be that you have to show up at each court appearance.  That is the most important thing.  That is what bail is for, is that you have to show up in court.  When I heard that the standard condition and the most important thing is, do not commit a crime, follow up by, do not tamper with a juror, I-I-I I was li– my reaction was, I was a prosecutor for 21 years, I was a defense lawyer for five years, I have never heard that.”