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
meeting in june, and this subpoena essentially prompted this meeting where we know that the trump lawyers gave a little tour to some of the prosecutors and investigators doing this investigation, showed them where these documents were being held, and at the end of that meeting they left with classified documents, documents that were national security information. that s the reason why that meeting occurred. what it tells us is that these conversations, these discussions that were on going between trump lawyers and the justice department turned contentious much earlier, much, much earlier than the search that occurred on monday. we re also learning that part of all of this involves a witness, at least one witness. do we know, was that witness saying there s still documents you missed on june 8th? this witness told them there were definitely documents being held at mar-a-lago that the fbi needed to get, obviously wanted to get. this was information that included classified
dividing line. when police officers don t show up to work, they get fired. that s how it should be for senators, too. as chief, i showed up every day and rereduced violent crime by 40%. marco rubio is one of the worst at showing up. and when he does, he hurts florida. instead of voting to condemn radicals who want to abolish police, demings refused. that s not just wrong. it s dangerous. maybe she used to be a cop, but in washington val demings is just another radical rubber stamp. new and important reporting on the justice department s case against donald trump. cnn is now learning this: federal investigators had already served a grand jury subpoena back in june at mar-a-lago. at that meeting the fbi took away sensitive national security documents. so then why the unprecedented search warrant this week? well, cnn is told the fbi developed evidence in part through at least one witness that there were still classified documents stashed at the wall pam palm beach reso
which was, oddly, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz s office in sunrise, florida. of course she didn t send that package. the exact same return address, we should note, was used for clinton s and obamas packages. devices were also sent to democratic congresswoman maxine waters on capitol hill. they re still trying to figure out if it s tied to these other incidents, as well as one sent to liberal billionaire and philanthropist george soros and to cnn s headquarters where it was addressed to john brennan, former cia director. this is the device that was sent to the time warner center. as i said, it was addressed to president obama s cia director, john brennan, a vocal critic of president trump. now the packages are being described as rudimentary but operative explosive devices, leading investigators to fear the intent was to kill and to kill a lot of people. no, thankfully, none of the devices went off and while we don t know the suspect or his or her or their motive, law enforc
Something they raised with the justice department, that they believed it would be improper to bring this case in washington because any possible crimes, any accusations against a former president happened in the southern district of florida, which is of course where mar-a-lago is located. it appears, anderson, that justice department officials eventually got to that point. they clearly were at some point thought it would be better to do it here in washington. but then changed their mind and decided that miami is the place to bring these charges. again, we don t know the exact details of these charges, but clearly, you know, that s why this sudden change of venue. and now we expect the former president to appear on tuesday for his first appearance before a magistrate in miami. he said 3:00 p.m. evan, i ll check back in with you over the next two hours. i m joined by maggie haberman, david axelrod, former assistant eastern elie honig and david urban, one-time investigator to