i m stephanie ruhle. we continue our breaking news coverage on this historic night. nbc news has confirmed, donald trump, the nation s 45th president, has been indicted on seven charges in connection with his mishandling of classified documents. let that sink in for a moment. we ve been talking about it for months but here it is. for the first time in u.s. history,, a former president federal charges trump has received a summons to appear in u.s. district court on june 13th. that is this coming tuesday. the indictment remains under seal. sources tell nbc news. the charges include conspiracy to obstruct. and the new york times reports, the charges also include, quote, willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the espionage act. according to people familiar with the matter. the charges, of course, come after a lengthy investigation, led by justice department special counsel, jack smith. tonight, donald trump responded on his social media platform. watch this.
i think we will see him released on his own recognizance recognizance, probably with an appropriate back bond. he may be asked to wear an ankle monitor or some other form of monitoring. but donald trump, like anyone else who has been indicted in our criminal justice system will be a defendant. he will not be able to make his own decisions about how this proceeds. it will be up to a federal magistrate judge. he will have to talk with probation officers and begin to do a work up on him. it will be a position that trump is not used to being in, one where he is not in control in any way at all. given that, charles, what kind of defense can he mount? because the witch hunt, the hoax, that s not her that s the court of public opinion. as far as the court of law, as we talked about, in terms of this case, we have two main elements. you have the actual act itself, and you have the intent behind the act. that s what you need in order to secure a conviction.
indictment. just a little bit of color, there is a big training that happened in the press room on the seventh floor of the justice department. it s been going on for days. and yesterday all the prosecutors were told they might have to vacate because he might or might not need that room. and people are saying what else would need the garland would need this room, for that we would have to leave on a moments notice? clearly the anticipation was that greg jack smith was going to, or one of his prosecutors would appear before the grand jury, present the indictment, and get their vote. it s a really straightforward process. they have heard the evidence. the prosecutor gives the document to the jury, and they can ask any questions. now in this case, what was anticipated, again, inside the building, we don t know, him only the people i ve spoken with do not know, what is anticipated and expected is that we will see when we will finally see the indictment, is a speaking indictment, basically
lead off panel this. evening peter baker, zyrtec white house correspondent for the new york times. katie, benner pulitzer prize -winning justice reporter for the new york times, former u.s. attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as federal prosecutor, charles corman, former so rights attorney, and under attorney general merrick garden and former director for counter intelligence. as i look at you all, here we, are on a very serious and sober night, a night where we see the justice system, the rule of law, working. it worked slowly, but it works. joyce, what s your reaction? i think this is actually the point that we ve been trying to make all along, staff, we don t know doj is going to indict in any particular case until it happens. it s a log path, it s a frustrating path. what americans take away tonight is that the current
if this case proceeds along that path. charles, how might this impact the january 6th investigation? or even the georgia interference investigation? let s talk about that. now we re seeing what prosecutors can do, and what jack smith can show us is that prosecutors can also walk and chew gum at the same time. i talked earlier this week about the fact that this case, because it s so straightforward. is possibly a test case for doj in terms of learning how to move forward. and i said that because it s important to understand. as you ve already alluded to. the fact that we haven t heard about january six doesn t mean that it is dead in the water. so now that jack smith has this indictment going, and this moving, and this investigation has been concluded. he has an opportunity to turn his resources and his attention to january 6th. and we may see movement there. it does not guarantee that jack smith is going to bring charges. a put down in front of a grand jury. we simply do not know.