In a special breaking News Coverage continues now. The third criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump. Im erin burnett in new york. And im laura coates in washington, d. C. This indictment is like nothing weve ever actually seen before in history of this entire country. And looking at it In Black And White is absolutely extraordinary. It begins with this, everyone. Quote, the defendant, donald j trump, was the 45th president of the United States, and a candidate for reelection in 2020. The defendant lost the 2020 president ial election. And as you say, laura, it begins that way with those simple words, he lost. That is a fact. But of course the person who had sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution, instead tonight is accused in this 45page indictment of trying to overthrow Americas Free and Fair Elections in an attempt to stay in power. It has been 1001 days since the 2021 election exactly. It has been day since the very sixth attack on the capital. It is n
justice office legal counsel, deputy counsel of the president, the counsel to the president, all of those folks kind of saying the same thing that we lost the election and we can t do this. that is good point that an indictment raises. the idea that, in any other context, he seems to rely on people that he is trusted unless they are no longer jasmyn. stand by everyone, aaron. all right, laura, next, the surprising role that mike plans played in this indictment. as you read through it it is really fascinating. plus, former d.c. officer michael fanone, more than two years after he was attacked on january 6th.
who gates new lawyers are. we will talk about that in a minute. a couple other specifics to know. in the first indictment, the one back in october, there were no charges of tax fraud against manafort and gates. that was interesting, especially those who are lay observers of these things, in that indictment in october, there was a ton of description of tax fraud, but no charges. so that led a lot of people to ask in november, if mueller has evidence about tax fraud, tax evasion, where are the tax evasion charges? they re here. they didn t charge him in october. but those tax charges are here now. they re in this one. and there s one more big question that this new indictment raises. the foreshadowing we got from the court about what was going to come in this indictment, sort of came in two stages the first was friday night. on friday night, manafort s team said they, excuse me, mueller s team, sorry, on friday night,
and gates, where are the tax evasion charges? they re here. they didn t charge him in october but those tax charges are here now. they re in this one. and one more big question this new indictment raises. the foreshadowing we got from the court about what was going to come in this indictment came in two stages. first was friday night. on friday night paul manafort s team said they excuse me, mueller s team, sorry. m-people. on friday night mueller s investigators, mueller s team said they had new evidence of new criminal conduct by manafort. they said in a filing about manafort s bail package that there was bank fraud associated with the profits that manafort offered toum the court as his guarantee he wouldn t flee the country to avoid trial. that s why he s not in jail. he s out on bail saying don t worry, i won t flee the country. part of how you know that is because i m putting up $10