(Bloomberg) Seven of the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination spent two hours hammering each other, President Joe Biden and the absent frontrunner in a debate that often felt close to chaos.Most Read from BloombergChina Puts Evergrande’s Billionaire Founder Under Police ControlElon Musk Wins US Space Force Contract for StarshieldCitadel Is Ready to Fight With SEC Over WhatsApp ProbeLululemon Strikes Deal With Peloton for Fitness Content, Will Ax Mirror DeviceBond Selloff Grin
we ve turned this page in the indictment story. prosecutors allege trump was the rico leader, the tip of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the election. we know the defendants have surrendered along with trump for his booking and mug shot. now we don t know who s going to cooperate or turn. we just heard a lawyer talk about how that process could play out. but we do know one republican in georgia, sean still. he s not the first to pin it on the alleged rico leader. take georgia s republican party chair, david schaefer. he said the same thing. some legal experts think we are at the beginning of a process that could involve a lot more of that, whether it s accusing trump, testifying against him, or formally flipping. eyes are on the key defendants we ve been tracking, the lawyers who had direct contact with trump. it s one thing for an elector who s never met him, who s accused of elector fraud, and another thing for one of these people. remember, we ve also seen the video of clark and e
the certification of the 2020 election. trump sat in his trademark blue suit and red tie as the magistrate judge announced all four charges against him, including conspiracy to defraud the united states and obstruction of an official proceed ing. the maximum penalty on all charges is decades in prison. just 15 feet from donald trump inside the courtroom, special counsel jack smith, the man who is now charged trump with multiple counts in florida and washington. they staired at each other several times before the arraignment began. the most recent, accusing trump of conspireing to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election by spreading false claims of election fraud that trump knew were false. this is a persecution of a political opponent. reporter: trump remained defiant as he travelled in and out of washington after his 30-minute court appearance, flying back to bedminster with a slew of lawyers on board his personal jet.
still, they say, trump worked to create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and an anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election. the indictment going methodically, state-by-state, accusing trump and his unnamed co-conspirators of creating fraudulent slates of electors in seven states. of trying to compel the justice department to sham election crime investigations. of pressuring vice president mike pence to reject legitimate electoral votes on january 6th. and ultimately, sending his supporters to the capitol to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure on the vice president. we re going to walk down to the capitol and we fight. we fight like hell. and if you don t fight like hell, you re not going to have a country anymore. reporter: smith s indictment documents dozens of trump s alleged lies, and the pressure he put on republican state officials. in a phone call, trump pushing georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger to find the v