good evening to all. i m erin burnett in new york. and wolf blitzer is joining me from washington, d.c. this is a special edition of outfront. and tonight the breaking news, the former president s defiance. that is how one of donald trump s attorneys describes the former president s mood tonight after pleading not guilty to 37 felony counts in miami. we are awaiting trump s first public comment since he was formally arrested today. he is expected to head to newark airport, then to his new jersey golf club where he will address most of his loyal supporters and hold a fundraiser. he stopped at a cuban restaurant in miami before leaving. he wanted that photo op. he was greeted by cheers there, a crowd even singing happy birthday to the former president on the eve of his 77th birthday. trump s codefendant and close aide walt nauta was by his side the entire time. this just moments after the judge told them they may not communicate directly about the case going forward. t
about the fact of the classified information involved in this case, which also will draw it out. so i think there is an argument that this will take a very long time. there is a long road ahead, wolf. and anybody who thinks that it s going to be some time soon that donald trump is going to be convicted by a jury, and this whole thing is going to play out and wrap itself all up before the election, i think is wrong. given that, there also is a competing thought, though, which is that with respect to the political time line, the justice system has to be able to continue to work. and we can t just as a judicial system, and i m sure they re thinking about this in the justice department, they can t just say, well, now we re into primaries and so we re going to stand back. or now we re into the next part of the political season. they do have to continue to do their work from the justice department perspective. elliott, how much influence will judge aileen cannon have on the timing and the
least is destined to present the judicial system with a choice about whether or not donald trump can be tried, what looks to be a four to six-week trial by the government s sfestimate, and whether that can be done during an election, wouldn t be expected that the case would go to trial before 2024. so if you re talking about pulling donald trump off of the campaign trail, americans need to understand that that would mean actually putting donald trump in a courtroom without cameras to sit a trill where he would be required to be present for the length of the duration of that trial, from the opening statement until such time as a verdict is in. so, and i don t imagine, i just cannot contemplate, at least in my head as we sit here now, and i guess events will unfold as they unfold. but i can t imagine that that case can be had, truly, during
they were still going through it when i talked to them recently. and they should be landing in roughly the next half hour. now, i do want to note one thing that evan said because i think this is really important. talk about this list of potential witnesses that he can t communicate with. former president trump has kept a tight-knit group around him since he left office. and most of those people are still there. so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. of course, we ve noted the only person we know that he is not supposed to communicate about the case with is walt nauta, who was not only by his side at versailles moments after he was arraigned, but then rode in the plane home with him. and we are likely to see him tonight. the other people who could potentially be witnesses are expected to be people who are very close to him still. so we have to watch how that exactly plays out. and keep in mind, even if lawyers are telling people not to communicate about the case, it is not
of this indictment. they have to push back on trump himself and let him deal with his issues. he doesn t care about the republican party. donald trump has never cared about the republican party. he cares about donald trump. it s time for the other republicans to put the party first and make sure we have a candidate that can win in 24. i just want to be precise, governor. you think he ll be convicted? some of these charges, yes. i think it s been said by other folks out there. if just half of the evidence that we ve seen is true, it is absolutely damning. this is not like the other indictments. this is really serious stuff. and it s really almost indefensible. so he is we ll see exactly what comes out in the trial. i assume there ll be a trial. but even just half of the evidence we ve seen is really, really damning. republican senator j.d. vance plans on retaliating by holding justice department nominees as