Violence. Were erasing generations of traumatized americans. That concerns me as a faith leader. Good morning. Top of the hour. So glad youre with us here on cnn this morning. Another historic day, a really important day for our democracy in court today. Not just about an arraignment its much bigger than that. Down in washington. Just hours from now, former President Donald Trump set to appear in a courtroom in washington, d. C. On charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election and hold on to power. Night. Ty barriers went upover secret service has done walkthrough of the d. C. Courthouse. Trump is expected to plead not guilty to four counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States. His fingerprints will be taken digitally. A preview of trumps lawyers will argue, among those his claims of Election Fraud are protected by the first amendments free speech. He truly believed that the debunked fraud claims. Our Kaitlin Collins spoke with bill barr with these m potential legal avenu
The first one is Conspiracy To Defraud the United States. Second is the conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. And then the conspiracy against rights. Thats, of course, the Voting Rights of u. S. Citizens around the country. Now, ill read you just a part where the Special Counsel describes what theormer president is accused of dog here. It says that the defendant spread lies, that there had been outcome determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false. And the defendant knew that they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate. According to the prosecutors, wolf, the former president disregarded the advice of all of his appointed officials, people inside his own government, his experts, people from the Justice Department, people from the intelligence community, people from the Homeland Security department, all of whom were telling him that there was no s
Now in a usual case, an indictment would be returned to a Magistrate Judge in a sealed hearing. It would remain under seal until arrest. But jake, again, we dont know if there is an indictment here. But if there is, its unclear if theyre going to follow the usual script, because this case is of course completely unprecedented. We got a little preview, though, in the maralago indictment. What happened there is the former president , youll probably remember, he broke the news On Truth Social, and then there was several days before we got the details of the case. The Special Counsel got a lot of feedback on handling it that way, allowing the former president to fill the void, not giving people information and the facts in an indictment, particularly in a case of this kind of historic significance. So it will be interesting to see today if, if there is an indictment, how they handle it. If it will be unsealed immediately when the former president will be notified. As you noted, it appears
This time than what we might have otherwise been expecting. If the allegations in this indictment are proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and a jury convicts some of these crimes, history will not ask, wow, how did america get to the point where they indicted a former president . History instead is going to ask, how did america get to the point where such a person could be elected to the presidency of the United States. Were actions such as these could be carried out from the oval office directed by a person who was elected president by the American People, along with his advisers. This is a grave day and a serious one for our country. Thank you for being with us here tonight. We know you had every choice in the world. But we are happy to have you here on what will go down in u. S. History as a black letter, bold faced date, August 1st 2023 is the date on which a former president and the leading president ial candidate of the Republican Party was indicted in Federal Court, accused of lead
United states has been arraigned on fell analyst charges. This time for alleged crimes against democracy itself. After pleading not guilty, im told he was in a sour and dejected mood. This is a very sad day for america. This is the biden plolitical law fair. This is election interference at its finest. It feels like a great vindication of the rule of law. They turn. Very concerned about the charges and privately hes been really frustrated. What it means for his legacy. This is going to be a threat to public trust in the Justice System going forward. Theres no question that donald trump. Absolutely laughable. Whats the fraud . Tell me what the fraud is. Youre entitled to raise a question. Thats the uniqueness of the first amendment. Thats the uniqueness of america. Were going to have to lose another psych toll figure you we have to pick somebody else other than donald trump. This could be an inflection point. Demonstrating our commitment to the rule of law. This is a huge case. They are