those are the counts that it goes on and on at this point. we re sifting through it. let s bring in jake gibson. he was inside the courtroom for us. run us through what it was like to be there. tell me what you know about the counts and the indictment from what you heard in there. we know it s 34 counts. we know that they have to do with fraud on business dealings in new york. and that they re upped to a felony because they said he did that in furtherance of the campaign to hide the money to stormy daniels. mr. trump said audibly not guilty when asked. he was asked by the judge how do you plead to the 34 counts. he said not guilty. how do you describe the two big motions inside? one was the gag order.
and if an essential element of the offense is that you have to prove as the prosecutor beyond a reasonable doubt that he was trying to conceal another crime, you have to tell the defendant what the other crime is that he has that he supposedly is concealing. this indictment fails to do that. this isn t like they made a minor mistake or they have like a typographical error. this is the heart hoff the case. it s not a felony unless he was trying to conceal a crime. if you don t tell him what the crime is, how do you allow him to prepare his defense? neil: you just hit on it. you re a very good lawyer. you should keep working at this. each count to me, i thought, was going to reveal a new ill legality. when in fact, a lot of it is
neil: so, john, where do we go from here? we know the president is going to find this a great miscarriage of justice, all of these counts. it is out there, it is galvanizing republicans are rallying around, his poll numbers have shot up, contributions to his campaign, i believe, since all of us came to light, is over $8 million now, so it is politically a win for him. in an environment, the democrats could boomerang on him. does this after all you ve heard today measure up to something that could affect a general election? is it up to the point, the gravitas of that, in the last 30 seconds, that you think yes or no? one is i think it helps trump s story, going back to the russia hoax, going back to the two failed impeachments, going to the special counsel investigation, he is suffering politicized justice that his liberal opponents have turned the law enforcement system
the other was about the timing of the case. let s start with the gag order. the gag order is interesting. the prosecution is saying, look, these are incendiary communications and posts that president trump has put out there. that could incite violence. and we want you to do something about it to the judge. prosecution handed over to the judge printouts of posts from former president trump. i think probably the one where he s holding the baseball bat. that did come up. they brought that up, that there s a post where he s holding a baseball bat near d.a. brag. they passed him these things. the judge said he called it he talked about the rhetoric and he said the charged nature of these posts. he said i m making a request. it s not an order at this point. i m making a request of you and your client to his defense attorneys and former. trump refrain from making comments that could incite dial lens or conduct that could
that courtroom? well, it s unprecedented. we ve never had one before. i felt lucky to be in there. thanks for talking to me. thanks. let s wait neil, do you have any questions for mr. jake gibson about what he experienced inside? neil: i do. it s maybe just more informational than anything else. if you can ask jake, was thered an understanding from the judge, even though he didn t issue a gag order that he doesn t want donald trump on truth social or to limit his statements on truth social, his preferred social media site for communication? does that extend the remarks he plans to make tonight at mar-a-largo? right. based on what you heard, did the judge say stay off of truth social? did the judge say don t make remarks, for instance, tonight at mar-a-largo? how far did the request i don t think so. the defense brought up that this