Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240704

Staff, mark meadows, and his postelection attorney, Rudy Giuliani. They are accused of engaging in a conspiracy to commit crimes intended to reverse trumps loss in georgia in 2020. The 98page indictment lists 13 State Charges against trump himself including racketeering as well as false statements. Prosecutors claim trump and his codefendants, quote, refused to accept that trump lost and knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election. District attorney fani willis wants the trial to start within six months. And unlike in Federal Court that trial could be televised. Lets begin at the courthouse in atlanta with cnns sara murray. And sara, this is a much more sprawling case both in terms of the number of defendants but also the nature and scope of the charges than what we saw in the Special Counsels case. Help lay it out for us. Reporter yeah, i think thats absolutely right. In these other federal cases we have seen donald trump largely charged alone or hes charged alongside codefendants in the maralago case who are lowerlevel folks working along with him. What the Fulton County District Attorneys lays out in this sweeping indictment is essentially this whole parade of individuals from people who were in Donald Trumps inner circle, people like Rudy Giuliani, his former attorney, like his former white house Chief Of Staff mark meadows, down to people locally here in georgia, and alleges that these people were all working together with the aim of trying to keep donald trump in power illegally. And as you pointed out, donald trump faces 13 charges in this case, but all 19 defendants face this very serious Racketeering Charge in this case. I think what we saw throughout the scope and the length of this indictment was a District Attorneys Office that wanted to be very clear that they were offering a detailed accounting of why they felt this was a compelling racketeering case. We see act after act after act listed in this indictment as in furtherance of the conspiracy, some of which happened in georgia and some of which did not because they wanted to show that this is a wide net that trump and his allies cast in their efforts to try to overturn the Election Results and keep trump in power, jim. And using rico statutes, which are something that have often been used and by the way by Rudy Giuliani himself to target Organized Crime. The defendants have until august 25th, next friday, to surrender to turn themselves in. We should add the caveat that doesnt mean theyre going to stay. Theyll turn themselves in for that day and likely leave, perhaps under bond. Can you explain what that will entail exactly, and has anyone shown up yet . Reporter well, were not aware of anyone whos turned themselves in yet. But this is something that is sort of a multistep process. The attorneys can be in touch with the Prosecutors Office before they actually show up and surrender if they want to try to negotiate terms ahead of time, terms of release, terms of bond if that is applicable. And then normally for defendants in this jurisdiction they would show up at the Fulton County jail and they would be processed there, which would include of course getting their fingerprints taken, getting a mugshot taken, and then at some point after that we do expect these defendants will be appearing in court. That will be their initial appearance, their arraignment. That doesnt necessarily happen the same time that they surrender, the way that weve seen in these federal cases. A president ial mug shot. Sara murray outside the court there in Fulton County, thanks so much. Jessica. The d. A. In the georgia case wants a trial within six months. Special counsel jack smith wants the federal election trial to start january. And further highlighting the competing Court Dockets at play here, today a different trump codefendant was arraigned in a different case. Thats the classified documents indictment in florida. Cnn senior crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz is here. Katelyn, great to see you. You have all of these parallel timelines now all starting to come together and coalesce. How does it get sorted out . What takes precedence . Well, first of all, they cant all happen at the same time. Trumps a criminal defendant. Very likely he would be expected to sit there in person in the court where hes being tried in front of a jury. So they are going to have to work things out. But what happens with a precedent is that whenever there is a situation like this its up to the judges. What the judges say, that goes. And so right now the judges are putting some things on the calendar. You have march as the manhattan d. A. s case. You have may as the case set in the maralago federal documents trial. You have potentially an early trial set in this federal case depending what judge chutkan wants to do. And so the judges will set time on the calendar. And once its entered its entered and its going to be up to the parties to either tell them we have a problem, we need to move things, or the judges could ask. And so we might start seeing some of these things being worked out as soon as this month when judge chutkan, the judge over this federal case this year, she is having a hearing in the end of this month to basically try and set a trial date. The Justice Department wants it to be in december, january, but well see. And let us all remember that this is all happening concurrent with a 2024 president ial election and a primary calendar thats going to play out through all of these court dates as well. So lets skip ahead a few jumps here, and i acknowledge that in this question. But if trump were and win and he were to become president again, the federal cases i guess could go away. He could find a way around them. But its different with the state case in georgia. Yeahi dont it boggles the mind to think about the number of things that could happen between now and a Trump Presidency with these cases, a lot of things could happen in court in a very short amount of time. But assuming that trump were to become president , say, and were to get rid of the federal case or tell the Justice Department he wants to dismiss them or pardon himself if hes already convicted, then you have the state case in georgia. Say, they were going to go to trial, maybe they dont have the trial by then or maybe they are trying to do things once hes in the presidency. Actually, there has been situations in the past where there are lawsuits and other things that arise during a presidency and a president has a lot of ability to argue im the president , thats a very demanding job, thats an important job and you cant take time out to deal with some other things. So its very likely this is another thing that could be tested in court. But its a big question of how does this all work out . We just dont know. So many tests on the Justice System right now. Katelyn polantz, thanks so much for that reporting. Excellent as always. Jim . Jessica, thanks so much. Lets take a closer look now at the Staggering Number of charges former President Trump is now facing across four criminal cases. The total is 91. How does that break down . 34 in the New York State Hush Money Case. This relates to hush money paid to the adult film star stormy daniels. 40 in the classified documents case. Four in the Special Counsel Election Subversion Case. And now 13 in the georgia case. So you can understand it all we brought in cnn legal analyst former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams to help us find some patterns in here and understand all these things. Lets begin if we can on the Hush Money Case because that number, 34, its a big number. But we should note each of those or at least many of those charges relate to a false document. The numbers a little bit inflated. Its one of those things where every time you sign a faulty document you could be charged with it. But important thing to note here is even if convicted the former president is not likely to face any prison time here. He doesnt have a criminal history. Nonviolent offender. Probably not going to jail. May get probation in this one. Thats the new york case which was the first one to be charged. Lets go to the Class Fooild Documents Case regarding the mishandling of classified information, all those pictures you saw of documents held in bathrooms and Conference Rooms and so on there. 40 charges. Tell us the seriousness of these. Yeah, the most serious single charge in the case carries a 20year maximum sentence, jim. Now, look, you can sometimes read these things where they say President Trump face z 300 years in prison. Thats not happening because that would require stacking every single thing hes charged maximum for each charge. Thats just a reflection of the fact that obstruction of justice does carry a 20year sentence. Nobody gets that sentence. The federal Sentencing Guidelines would probably mean hed get something far less than that. But the guidelines do at least for normal people involve some jail time. Its years, not months in all likelihood for a 20year max sentence. Okay. Number three in order here, this is the Election Subversion Case by the Special Counsel. These are federal charges, to be distinguished from the State Charges we just saw from fani willis in georgia. Four here. Tell us the seriousness and how they stack up. And its really important to note the difference, jim, as you said, between federal and State Charges. The state of georgia and the state of new york are prosecuting the former president , but the federal government is prosecuting him for maralago and the 2020 subversion. So this is obstruction of an official proceeding, Conspiracy To Defraud the United States, which again one of those carries that 20year maximum sentence. It could be a lot of time. And just as you note there, Conspiracy To Defraud. The Special Counsel in his version of going after the president for his attempts to overturn the election focused on that legal line of attack. When we come to georgia, you have 13 charges against the former president. Took a different legal tack here involving rico. Explain to folks at home what that means and how she plans to make that sure. When you think of rico you think of the movie goodfellas and Organized Crime and mobsters. Certainly rico can be used to prosecute folks like that. But what it is targeted after is criminal enterprises. When people act as a group and carry out criminal acts sort of in succession. And here thats the allegation, that that happened in the state of georgia. Now, it can carry a fiveyear mandatory minimum sentence. Judges in georgia have a little latitude to go below that. Understood. If you can briefly before i get to pardon, which is an important distinction here, if you were to look at all these charges as a lawyer and a former prosecutor yourself, all these cases, which is the most serious, the most threatening . Anything with a 20year maximum sentence as the two federal ones do is a big deal. Mandatory mimsndatory minimums. He might be facing mandatory minimums in georgia. Also in a state case the president Cannot Pardon nor can the governor in georgia pardon someone if convicted. Pardon me. So under the federal system the president of the United States can pardon people of federal crimes. That means wipe them off their records altogether. Or expunge their sentence in some way. In the states the abc loougs would have to come from the state. Either the government as in the case of new york or state pardon board which would be the case in georgia. Needless to say no matter whos president no, matter who it is democrat, republican, they cant touch either of those two, New York State Hush Money Case or georgia meddling. Listen, the various scenarios going into 2024 are remarkable. Were going to be covering them. Elliot williams, thanks for helping break it down. Jessica, back to you. Just ahead, trumps legal battles are adding up and the Campaign Calendar is filling up. 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Try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. Boost® high protein. Now available in cinnabon® bakeryinspired flavor. Learn more at boost. Com tv just hours after a Georgia Grand Jury indicted donald trump and 18 allies in a Sweeping Racketeering case the former president went on attack, again targeting Fulton County d. A. Fani willis and calling the new indictment, quote, politically inspired. Cnns elena treen is joining me now. These types of attacks by trump arent necessarily flu. Tell us more about what hes saying. Right. Well, theyre not new. This is clearly donald trump and his team using the same playbook that they have with the previous three indictments that weve seen, and that includes donald trump wanting to respond to this himself directly as well as directly going after the person whos charging him. In this case its Fulton County District Attorney fani willis. Now, donald trump in an early truth social post this morning wrote, so the witch hunt continues. 19 people indicated tonight. I think he meant indicted. Including the former president of the United States, me, by an Out Of Control and very corrupt District Attorney. The post went on to read why didnt they indict 2. 5 years ago . Because they wanted to do it right in the middle of my political campaign. Jessica, its unclear how the judge will ultimately in this case rule on some of his social media activities. We know that in 2020 in the federal case regarding the 2020 election and Donald Trumps attempts to overturn the results there that the judge has posted some restrictions on his Social Media Activity. But im told from my conversations with Donald Trumps advisers that he has no plans to cease posting, he views truth social and social media as his most direct way of communicating with voters and particularly his base and that he thinks its the best way to defend himself. The problems that were seeing arise in the federal case, the Special Counsels case with his Social Media Activity could also potentially be a problem in this case as well. It doesnt sound like hes going to stop that anytime soon. All right. Alayna treene for us, thanks so much. Jim . Despite Donald Trumps fourth indictment in just over four months many Top Republicans are still lining up behind the former president and defending him, though there are some notable exceptions. Cnns lauren fox is live on capitol hill. Lauren, as you know, for instance, the House Speaker, kevin mccarthy, in the immediate aftermath of january 6th said donald trump bears responsibility. He has now changed his tune. Is that a consistent reaction on the hill in the last 24 hours . Reporter yeah, youve seen this over and over again in the previous indictments as well, that House Republicans are very swift to come out and support former president donald trump. And there was no exception last night. Mere moments after this almost 100page indictment came down and it was released, you saw so many House Republicans take to twitter including the House Speaker kevin mccarthy, who said this was a radical d. A. In georgia who is following bidens lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham. You also heard from jim jordan, the chairman of the house judiciary committee, who just said, this is a witch hunt, in all caps, against President Trump. He did nothing wrong. We see that echoed by the Rank And File up on capitol hill. I just spoke with morgan griffith, who was on capitol hill briefly opening the House Chamber for a pro forma session. And he said he hasnt even read the indictment, jim, because he just views this as more of the same, a kind of pileon. He said that he might get to it eventually, he might read through it. But when i pushed him on whether or not he thought that joe biden actually won the state of georgia, he said he didnt really even know. And i think that just speaks to the reality of so many House Republicans and rankandfile members as well as their base voters, that they view this moment as really just an us against them fight with democrats. They are not looking into the ni nittygritty details as we heard from morgan griffith. We should note that the republican governor of georgia, brian kemp, just a short time ago said in no Uncertain Terms the election in georgia in 2020 was not stolen. There are some republicans out there speaking the truth. Lauren fox on capitol hill, thanks so much. Jessica. I want to talk more about all of this now with cnn Political Commentator s. E. Cupp. S. E. , its great to see you. Thanks for joining us this afternoon. We know that trump is now facing 91 charges in four criminal cases over the course of four months, for everyone following along at home. Yet we know that the bulk of the 2024 gop candidates really are not going after him on this at all and in fact the ones who are polling closest to him have really taken his side in all of this. What do you make of that, and is that the right move politically and is it the right move for the Republican Party generally . Well, i did a quick search on twitter just before i came on. And youre right, its mostly been crickets. Nothing from ron desantis. Nothing from nikki haley. Nothing from mike pence. Tim scott apparently was giving an interview and he called this a weaponization of the legal system. So hes defending donald trump. Asa hutchinson put out a statement critical of condemning trump for these indictments. But yeah, i mean, this feels like all of these campaigns are pretty much vanity projects. I dont think any of these people really want to win. Because if you really wanted to become the president and youre polling at least 30 points behind the top guy, thats if youre doing well, you would definitely go out and say to voters, hey, i get it, you like donald trump, i like donald trump, but donald trump is most likely going to be facing prison t time. Thats not a great scenario for voters, for the country, for the Republican Party, lets just be realistic here. None of them are really willing to do that basic thing in any kind of fully frontal way. So that leads me to believe they dont actually want to win, they want to sell books, maybe up their name i. D. , raise money. But not actually not actually take on the guy that is currently beating them all. Yeah, youre right. Its being that explicit about saying he could face prison time. Weve seen desantis talk about it in interviews or pence talking about him putting himself over the constitution. But in those direct terms that youre talking about its rare. Now, one person that has gone after the former president pretty aggressively is former new jersey governor Chris Christie. I want to listen to a clip of him reacting to this latest indictment. Then ill come back to you. I think this was unnecessary, as did donald trump. Now, remember, as to the other defendants, jack smith chose not to charge them. So i would have less of a problem with this if she decided okay, im not going to charge donald trump here because hes been charged for essentially this conduct by jack smith. But giuliani and meadows and others have not been charged at the federal level. That would be a more defensible indictment, i think. S. E. , what do you make of that . Because he has been so aggressive about criticizing the former president. It is a bit of a departure from what weve heard from him. Yeah, i think Chris Christie the president ial candidate briefly returned to Chris Christie the attorney and he fell into a legal argument. And hes, you know, able to make that argument. Its a decent argument. But hes running for president. And he has been really willing to take on donald trump, unlike most of the others. Its kind of his thing, right . His campaign is built around taking on donald trump. This was another opportunity. Despite his legal parsing to say this person could go to prison, between the mandatory minimums, the no state pardons, the four indictments, the 90plus charges, this person could be going to prison. Thats all you have to say. It doesnt put you on either side of donald trump. Its just honest and obvious. And i dont i dont get why this isnt like the mantra of every Single Person running against donald trump. And one piece of all of this is if you look at the polling both nationally and in these early states we all know that donald trump continues to lead by double digits, that hes remained pretty consistent over the last several months, over the last several indictments. Tbd on if that changes moving forward. But the fact that he as of now has been able to successfully convince the Republican Base and his key supporters that all of this is politically motivated, that this is a weaponization of the doj, that he gets this cover from people like tim scott saying a similar thing and other candidates, ron desantis as well, so many of them. What do you think about that, that so Many American people genuinely believe this is all for politics . Well, keep in mind this is the republican primary and the base is with donald trump, theres no doubt about it. But the base is shrinking. And so i think the vast majority of americans do not believe that donald trump is a victim in all of this and think theres probably something to these indictments. But listen, this is vintage donald trump. Playing the victim, saying hes got definitive proof that hes going to reveal on monday that hes really the victim in all of this, proof hes held on to i guess for three years. This is what hes done. And it convinces just enough people, his base, to believe these lies and believe that he is indeed the victim instead of at the center of all of this corruption and abuse. All right. Well, as always, great to see you. Thanks so much for your thoughts. We appreciate it. S. E. Cupp, great to see you. Sure. Jim . Dead voters, stuffed ballot boxes, just some of the Debunked Claims donald trump has used to try to overturn his defeat in georgia, cast doubt on it. Ahead were going to factcheck some of those claims as well as their impact on the gop. Plus the judge assigned to preside over the former president s fourth criminal case of the year. What were learning about scott mcafee, just ahead. Freedom for kids. Hungry . Thank you, chef. Control for parents. Nice. One bank for b both. Chase. 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A grand jury in Fulton County has now voted to indict him and 18 others on state criminal charges across 41 counts, all of it stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn trumps loss there. Cnns daniel dale is with us now. Daniel, trump has fired off a barrage of false claims about what happened in georgia since Election Night in 2020. But give us the truth. Give us the fact check. Its been 2 1 2 years of lies continuing into this morning when he repeated his vague false claim that the election was rigged we know. Thats false. Theres also been a bunch of thoroughly debunked specific conspiracy theories. I listed ten lies in an article on cnn. Com. Two of them stand out to me. One of them is this claim about thousands of dead voters in georgia. At one point he said it was 5,000. Then he made it 10,000. And so when reporters said okay give us some names the Trump Campaign provided names. This was in 2020. We looked into them. These were living people. For example, they claimed that a dead person named debra Jean Christiansen had somehow cast a ballot. Well, we knocked on the door of the living debra Jean Christiansen, just a woman who happened to have the same name. So its an example of just how half baked many of these lies are. Another one that stands out is this claim that trump keeps repeating, thoroughly discredited, thoroughly debunked, about two Fulton County Election Workers supposedly having been caught on camera stuffing the ballot box taking ballots out of suitcases. They were completely exonerate bid aw state investigation. It stands out to me because two senior officials in trumps own Justice Department, people he appointed himself have testified they told him directly in 2020 that there was nothing to this, they were not even suitcases, these people did not scan the ballots over and over, it was all wrong, and yet 2 1 2 years later the former president keeps saying it. And yet here we are still hearing it. I also want to ask you about these repeated attacks on Fan Yil Willis whos the Fulton County d. A. In this case. In a speech last week he claimed she was having an affair with a gang member. What did you find out about that . This stuff is honestly so bananas im hesitant to discuss it on television. Right. Let me take people through it because its baseless, no evidence. Its a complete distortion. So there is a rapper named ysl mondo who is part of a hiphop collective that fani willis is also prosecuting members of alleging that their hiphop group is also a criminal street gang. Now, ysl mondo did an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in japan saying hey, fun fact, when fani willis was a Defense Lawyer in 2019 she actually represented me and we had a cool relationship. She was a great lawyer. He said we had like auntie to nephew, mother to Son Type Talks and im surprised that shes now basically prosecuting my buddies. Well, the Trump Campaign made an tack ad out of that saying that fani willis concealed a relationship with a member of a gang she was prosecuting, even show she didnt. She told Rolling Stone yeah, i used to represent the guy when i was a Defense Lawyer. Somehow trump took that further and took hiding a relationship to mean she was having an affair, some sort of illicit romantic sexual relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting. That is completely out of thin air no basis for it whatsoever. But he said it in a speech, then said it again on social media. And youve said it, ill say it, completely untrue. But thank you so much for going through all of that step by step. The truth obviously so important here. Daniel dale, thanks so much. Thank you. Jim . Lets speak now to cnn Political Commentator, former january 6th select committee member, former republican congressman adam kinzinger. Thanks so much for taking the time. Glad to be with you. You speak to republican voters. Youve won some elections yourself. Trumps support among gop primary voters has withstood the charges to date. Now hell be tried, one of the trials at least might be televised in georgia. He might be convicted. Does that soften his support over time, or solidify it . Yeah, look, jim, i think over time. So once these crimes are done, once people see all the evidence, i hold out hope that theres going to be like a moment of awakening and saying look, what have we done. Right now what you have is look, to support donald trump you have to like give a little piece of your soul because you say, well, in 2016 it was i dont like the guy but the supreme courts so important. In 2020 it was i dont like joe biden, so ill support donald trump. And then you keep having to invest more and more. Its like the sunken cost fallacy. In vietnam there was i appoint at which we had lost 10,000 troops and nobody wanted to leave because wed already invested 10,000 troops lives in vietnam, so we have to say. And thats kind of i think whats happening to a lot of people. To then turn your support against trump and admit that hes unfit for office, you have to take inventory of the fact that you supported him for so long when he was unfit for office. But i think at the moment all this evidence is laid out in court. It may not be directly as a result of that, but i think thats the beginning of the end of this base of support for him. But it may take some time. So let me ask you this because you know of the folks running against trump now for the nomination its only a minority that have directly taken him on for his actions on january 6th, not to dismiss this as a purely partisan show. Is that purely a gop primary strategy . Of course assuming anybody but trump wins the nomination. Because when youre trying to make your case to independent voters they believe these are serious charges. Yeah, itll be if any of these people besides donald trump happens to win the election, win the primary, yeah, theyre going to be trying to run to the middle a little bit. But the base is so rabidly pro trump that they cant do it. And what amazes me, jim, is like if youre going to run for president and the frontrunner is donald trump you literally have two choices. You either have to take him on and boy, you dont have to look for a lot of issues. The guy broke the law a bunch and hes now out on bail three different times, now soon to be a fourth. Thats a pretty good thing to run against him on. So you either have to do that or just drop out and endorse him. Because hes way ahead anyway. I dont understand how these folks are scared to speak out against him. Its fine. If youre scared of doing it or you dont want to do it, i get it. Then drop out of the race because it doesnt make sense for you to be there right now. Chris christies spoken loudly. Will hurd. Asa hutchinson. And mike pence to an extent. I want to see people like tim scott, who knows better, start to really speak out too. The folks whove tried to walk that ride the fence it hasnt worked out particularly well for them at least in polling so far. We do have a Republican Debate coming up in the midst of all this. You have two folks on stage to this point whove qualified who to some degree have been able to criticize the president , been willing to, pence and christie. Do you expect that debate to be centered around that interaction there . Because you can imagine how the audience might respond to pence or christie going after the current favorite for the nomination. Yeah, i think the debate has to be at least with those two i dont know if mike pence will be aggressive because hes kind of walked the line a little bit. Hes spoken out a little more recently. I mean, he could have been by the way the leader of this whole thing if hed have just stuck with that from january 7th. But Chris Christie will be. Hes realizing that hes not playing to the crowd thats there on the debate stage, hes talking to the voters that are actually watching. And there is no way i mean, hes in second place now in New Hampshire. So this is going to be all about donald trump. It will be interesting, though, to watch the second tier of folks, whether its ramaswamy and some others do their best to try to really suck up to donald trump because i think some of them are running for Vice President or running for a Cabinet Position and not actually for the presidency. And its going to be i think after this debate there will be a lot of clarity on who really wants to be president and who just wants a position in the cabinet. Well, one final question. Donald trump has certainly proven at least with gop voters to be teflon on a whole range of issues going from Access Hollywood right up to his fourth indictment last night. As a politician is this trump specific in your view, or has he fundamentally changed the survivability of, well, a whole host of personal, professional, political crimes and alleged crimes . Look, i think he has moved the window a little bit so that more people can get away with more things. Theres no doubt about it. I mean, and thats a sad thing in our government. I think he is uniquely positioned to get away with almost everything in certain peoples minds. Im not sure if its an attitude issue, if its just how long thats been going on. But he cant run away from justice. And i think thats the key. Hes going to be loud about it and say its not justice. It is justice. Look at eric hershmanns comment to job eastman shortly after january 6th or leading up to january 6th. He said hey, john, my recommendation to you is to get a good blanking lawyer because youre going to need it. They knew he was violating the law far before we even knew it on the january 6th committee. Those are hardcore republicans saying that. Adam kinzinger, thanks so much, as always. You bet. Jessica. What do former President Trump and cardi b. Have in common . Were going to tell you about that next. And the former nfl player who inspired the hit film The Blind Side says a key part of the movie was based on a lie and he was bilked out of millions of dollars. What he says is the true story. Thats ahead. Safelite came right to us, and we could see exactctly when theyd arrive with a replacementnt we could trust. Thats service the way we want it. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Was also the first time you heard of a town named dinosaur, colorado. We just got an order from dinosaur, colorado. Start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. Start for free at godaddy. Com rsv can be a dangerous virus. [sneeze]. For those 60 and older. Its not just a cold. And if youre 60 or older. You may be at increased risk of hospitalization. [coughing]. From this highly. Contagious virus. Not all dangers come with warning labels. Talk to your pharmacist or doctor. About getting vaccinated against rsv today. Gives you access to every game. But terry doesnt have directv. Come on. Work for dad here. Now, you can find the game easy. My barbecue is saved get in the redzone with sports pack. Call 1800directv my barbecue is ruined. Hes known by the hashtag billiondollar lawyer, and now hes one of the attorneys who will be representing the former president in this georgia case. Drew findling is a highprofile attorney best known for representing rappers including cardi b. , and notably hes been very outspoken about his liberal political views and his distaste for donald trump in the past. For more on trumps legal team in georgia lets bring in jessica schneider. Jessica, this is interesting. What more can you tell us about this attorney . Yeah, he has decades of experience, jessica. Hes been in georgia, hes been a Criminal Defense Attorney and Drew Findling has really run the gamut of who hes represented. Hes represented cardi b. For a Felony Assault Charge that she was charged with, brought it down to a misdemeanor. Hes also represented people in highprofile murder trials, mrs. In political corruption scandals. And one thing hes always said is that everyone deserves a fair defense. That despite the fact hes now on the former president s legal team. However, he has been very critical of former President Trump in numerous instances all over twitter. I mean, it was back in 2017 when trump had fired the u. S. Attorney in manhattan, preet barra when Drew Findling wrote this. He said the find firing was a sign of fear he would aggressively investigate the stench hovering over this president of the United States, or potus. He also tweeted about trump in 2017 after trump tweeted something about lebron james. Drew findling said this. The racist architect of Fraudulent Trump University criticizing lebron. Potus pathetic once again. So jessica, he has really criticized the former president. But at the same time when he was named to be one of trumps attorneys down in georgia he talked to the New York Times in 2022 and he said that i represent everybody, and he put it this way. He said, we have our personal lives and we have our personal politics and i dont apologize for my personal politics. So he will be a staunch defender of the former president once we get to all of the hearings and legal wranglings and eventual trial in georgia. He released this part of the statement from the entire legal team last night saying the events that have unfolded today have been shocking and absurd. He continued to say, we look forward to a detailed review of this indictment, which is undoubtably just as flawed and unconstitutional as this entire process has been. He will be a staunch defender of the former president. Theres so much more to come in all of this. Were just really at the beginning. Jessica schneider for us. Thanks so much. Jim . Blindsided. The former nfl player whose life story turned into that hit movie The Blind Side says a key part of the whole story was a lie. Well have more on cnn news central. D. You could save 700 dollars just by switchching. Ooooh, let me put a reminder on my p phone. On the top of the pile oh. Ononly pay for what you need. Libertyty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Subway refreshed everything. And now, theyre slicing their meats fresh. Thats why this pro proffers the new grand slam ham. So does this pro. I just love a grand slam. Ham. We know youll proffert too. I knew hed love that sandwich. They offer two pairs and a free, quality eye exam starting at just 79. 95. I can see from your expression that you find that shocking. Aaaaaaaand, you dont have ears. Book an exam today at americasbest. Com. Our ears connect us to the moments that matter. 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Mobile made free event. With our business internet, new and existing customers can get one year of unlimited mobile for free. Its our best internet. Powered by The Next Generation 10g network and with 99. 9 reliability. Plus one line of free mobile for an entire year. Its the mobile made free eventhappening now. Get started for just 49. 99 a month. Plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. Comcast business, powering possibilities. It was one of the biggest movies of 2009. You may remember it. The blind side. The story of An Impoverished Black teenager in tennessee taken in by a wealthy white family who then helped nurture his talent for football. Now the former nfl star michael oher, the very subject of that film, says in fact much of it was a lie. Cnn correspondent Brynn Gingras is following the story. Its shocking news really because that was a heartwarming story. Im sure many folks watching right now remember it well. He says a big part of this was lie. What exactly . And what details do we know . Yeah, i mean, it changes all those feelings you had when you watched that movie. You might remember a scene from the movie when you saw michael oher sitting at a table signing adoption papers. Well, hes saying he didnt go down that road of getting adopted by the tuohy family. In fact, he says he was tricked by that family and signed paper for conservatorship. And in the legal documents in tennessee he says this, it means they had total control over Michael Ohers ability to negotiate for or enter any contract despite the fact he was over 18 years of age and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities. Of course the word conservatorship we are very much aware now because of everything weve seen about britney spears. But essentially oher is saying he never became part of the family and yet this family is profiting from his name. Now, he didnt realize this until most recently, actually, in february of this year when hes already 37 years old that this was in fact a conservatorship. And also he learned that he has also handed over his name, image and likeness, and so hes saying even more so he has lost any chance to profit from, again, his story. Now, the tuohy family has responded to a local newspaper in tennessee saying this. Sean tuohy says this, its upset to think we would make money off of any of our children but were going to love michael at 37 just like we loved him at 16. Now, their son, if you remember from the family, whos now older, s. J. , he was on Barstool Sports and did comment about this saying that he wasnt surprised by the move from michael oher. Take a listen. I knew it was coming. It was a matter of time. I went back to my texts to look at i was curious today, randomly to go back and look at our Family Group Texts and see what things have been said. There were things back in 2020, 2021 that were like if you guys give me this much then i wont go public with things. S. J. , sean jr. , is not named in this lawsuit. Its still very unclear what went wrong between the two sides to come to this being so public. Of course this will come out im sure in the court filings. Now the tuohies are going to respond and need to account for all the money and where it went. Did they answer the specific question whether it was an adoption or a conservatorship . Or have they not addressed that in their response . They havent addressed that. To be fair, cnns reached out to them. They havent even responded to us. This was from a local newspaper. But yes, they are not addressing specifically exactly the terms of what this guardianship, what it was. Notable. Brynn gingras, thanks so much. Jessica. We are following all the latest on former president Donald Trumps fourth indictment. Be sure to stay with cnn news central. 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