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
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
impeachment. i want to show a clip just posted on truth social. it s called election interference. they re trying to destroy a reputation so they can win an election. that s just as bad as doing any of the other things that have been done over the last number of years. i m an innocent man. i did nothing wrong. i m innocent. and we will prove that very, very soundly. and hopefully very quickly. i want to talk more about the possibility charges. elie honig, maggie haberman was reporting conspiracy to obstruct, false statements. a few important indicators in maggie s reporting she just gave us on air. first of all, maggie report there is a document retention charge. this is not all obstruction. there had been some question is this only going to be an obstruction case? no. according to maggie s reporting there is a document retention charges and secondly an obstruction angle.
his ability to declassify documents were, you know, by fiat. right. and so but david, that s a factor. because i m sure the discussion on monday by his lawyers with the justice department was something along the lines, elie will tell you this. you understand justice department prosecutors. you re going to have to prove that donald trump did not have inherent authority to declassify material, and that he was bound, not withstanding the fact that he is the commander in chief, to follow the procedure, and that he knew that. and by failing to follow that procedure, he violated the espionage act. let me tell you something. i think there is a lot of questions in just that little discussion there that raises some questions about whether or not the president is the commander in chief has inherent authority that congress cannot disturb relative to classified information. i think it s an open question. a and the justice department is now going to have to stand behind the position as an a
the former president. maggie, i want to start with you. what are you hearing? well, i think everyone is still in shock who is hearing the news, both people around the former president and frankly people across the political spectrum, because we have been hearing the drip, drip of this case for so long. his team was prepared for this to happen this week. didn t have information that it is going to. seven counts a s a lot. we don t know exactly what all of the charges are yet. we ll have to see what the complaint is. we won t know until it s unsealed. this is obviously not a good development, and it s one he was hoping to avoid. elie honig, from a legal perspective, what do you think the seven counts are? what do we know based on what s been presented thus far? the best indicator we have so far is the search warrant affidavit for mar-a-lago. when the justice department went to a judge, they said we have probable cause to believe that three different crimes are committed, willful re