has just happened tonight for the first time ever, former president of the united states has been indicted by a federal grand jury. donald john trump charged with seven counts in the classified documents case. this is a special edition from new york. i m anderson cooper. here in washington, i m kaitlan collins. in keeping with his reality tv roots, the former president preempted any justice department announcement of the charges against him in a series of posts on his social media network. in one just a few moments ago, he wrote, quote, i have been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in miami on tuesday at 3:00 p.m. he goes on to say he never thought it would possible that such a thing like this could happen, then drifts into boasting about how he won all the votes in the presidential election, which we know is not true. he also wrote in all caps, quote, i am an innocent man. kaitlan joining us now. our senior justice department department correspondent evan pere
the reporting is coming from the fact this investigation has been going on so long, that you have all these witnesses, all these lawyers, all these lawyers to all these witnesses who know what is going on in the investigation. and after a certain point, it pours out into the public domain, as it has over the last couple of weeks. this is obviously legal significance. we ll wait to see what the bail arrangements look like. this also just injected this into the 2024 race we had three candidates announce they re running against donald trump this week. but now this is about to be the story. look, short-term and long-term. we always have to keep that in mind. trump and his legal troubles of which there are many are often been used as both a sword and a shield for him. he uses the fact that he is a candidate in order to try to make a case that he is being treated unfairly. and that he also uses the fact that he has been charged in cases, indicted or under investigation to raise money to
with her own eyes she saw igor walk under his own power out of a federal courthouse with his lawyers, so we re pretty confident that igor was ultimately bailed on $1 million bail. we also know from the arraignment of the other two defendants yesterday in the federal distribute couct court york, have also made bail. the guy arrested in san francisco, like igor, he was released on $1 million bail. the guy at large for several days after the indictment was unsealed who was only eventually arrested just a couple of days ago after arriving on an overseas flight at jfk airport, he is out on bail to, except for a quarter million dollars. we can see from the transcript of the arraignment that the judge hearing the case, he confirms the bail arrangements for all of these defendants. the judge then in his interactions with the prosecutors gives us another piece of information about this case that we didn t previously
we can see from the transcript of the arraignment that the judge hearing the case he confirms the bail arrangements for all these defendants. the judge then in his interactions gives us a couple pieces of information about this case that we didn t previously have. first of all, the judge makes clear this might be a case that is a little bit sprawling. i mean, soon after an arraignment like this, it s incumbent upon the prosecutors basically to share with the defendants and their lawyers, to share with the other side the evidence that prosecutors are going to use to try to prove their case against these defendants a process called discovery. you get to see what the government has against you. well, in the arraignment in federal court yesterday afternoon, prosecutors told the judge that in this case the discovery is going to be a lot. so much so that it s going to take a long time for them just to hand it all over. from the transcript, the judge says, quote, before we address
for robert mueller is we learn nothing about when s going on until someone s dragged in a courtroom and pleading guilty and making a deal or pleading not guilty and trying to work out bail arrangements. and so, always have to remind ourselves that concentrating on what happened in the house intelligence committee today, that s not nearly as important as everything that happened that we don t know about in the mueller investigation. exactly. and where it s really happening is inside the mueller investigation. and, you know, he has every time he comes out and does something, he seems to telegraph or to signal to everyone, not only the substance of who he s indicted or who s pleaded guilty, but also, a little surprise. a little something that you didn t know, that nobody knew, that hadn t leaked out. and i think again, i would