millions and was able to inherit that through tax fraud and we built that story, we had an incredible database of financial records, we had general ledgers, but then we also went out and we did public records requests and we matched it all up to come to that conclusion and i think we now are looking at what the grand jury is seeing and what they have been going through, you know, they re having to hear testimony. we had witnesses and then you go back and you try and find supporting evidence to bolster that to come to that conclusion in this case, you know, we found that he engaged in tax fraud. they re going to have to come to a conclusion of whether or not they should return a bill of indictment and think that all of all of the pieces are going to come together as they look at that. well, susanne, you re comparing your process. the other thing about that, you had to make that clear to readers, however intelligent and interested in the news, they re not accountants and if this case
the newest one came out today. we ll break it down for you. we haven t done that yet. that s new coming up and have a new development in the dominion billion dollar case against fox news and this hour coming up as rick stays with us, how are trump s calls for protests playing out, what can we do as a nation to protect each other? we ll get into it next.
that the special grand jury recommends whether fani willis should pursue charges. now it s up to her to decide whether or not to pursue those charges. so even if they recommend 65 people on that list, it s still up to fani willis, the d.a., to decide whether to move forward with those charges. but look, you know, there s what, six different special grand jurors who ve spoken, one on the record, five anonymously to the atlanta journal-constitution. but i can tell you this, the fulton county judge, superior court judge robert mcburny, talked to all the grand jurors about what they could and could not say. so he set specific guidelines for what they could say and couldn t say. it seems to me it seems to legal experts i should say more importantly than me that they ve been following those guidelines. yeah, i ll push you a little bit on that. i think that might be the case, the judge s public views certainly seem protective or helpful to those individuals but this is not just a case.
he just said. i ve got to tell you, this was another extraordinary turn in what is an extraordinary case in new york. mr. costello detailing what he described as mr. cohen s state of mind, a frenzied and panicked state. he directly referred to, quote, suicidal thoughts, end quote, that mr. cohen shared with him at the time when he was facing legal pressure. how any of that is relevant to the hard evident would be a matter of debate. mr. costello as a legal matter talked more about mood and atmospherics than hard evidence. but nonetheless it s striking. the other thing we should tell viewers in context as we are covering this for new real time, mr. costello is on the trump allied side of things. we definitely want to hear and weigh what he s saying but he s not a random or independent witness he has turned on mr. cohen much the way others have turned. he currently represents mr. giuliani, who of course is on the other side of so many trump legal problems. and he s previously represented
there may never be one. those are powerful gop leaders doing it as a political message. they don t through congress have authority over a local criminal probe. they don t fund it or oversee it. at the same time, this weekend s earthquake from trump is also opening a fissure within the republican party. take speaker mccarthy. he echos trump s argument any charges are politically motivated. he s saying lawyers think this is a weak case against trump but the speaker breaking with trump s call for protests on saturday saying clearly people should not protest if trump is indicted, mccarthy also telling reporters, quote, i don t think people should protest this, no, nobody should harm one another, we want calmness out there. a sign that mccarthy knows exactly what it means when donald trump talks about protests. they re not automatically peaceful. now, this is a split among republicans. you have house member, powerful chairs siding with trump s attack on the rule of law and loud allies like