say, we now have two standards of justice in our country. the democrat communists who want to jail their opponents while they protect the murderers who prowl our cities day and night, and other brazen criminals. the linking, rather, his own complaint about its own prosecutions with his views on crime, in line the way the republicans written in 2022. he s also gonna say, either we have a deep state, or we have a democracy. either the deep state destroys america, or we destroy the deep state. yasmin, that goes back to 2016, the same kind of grievance about being investigated by the fbi, by robert mueller. and now by the special counsel. we ve heard from the former president since he was, in fact, the president of the united states. a speech getting underway here today, we ll see whether former president knows anger and frustration about his indictment overcomes the written words prepared in front of him by aids. and what they hope will be a speech that taps into more of the vie
a bedrock principle of the department of justice and our nation s commitment to the rule of law sets a an example for the world. we have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone. applying those laws, collecting facts, that s what determines the outcome of an investigation. nothing more, nothing less. the words of rachel math maddow, stunningly simple words in both the indictment and from behind the podium. it was the first time we as an american public have ever heard from the special counsel notably he praised the fbi and the prosecutors on his team. rachel pointed out they have already come under vicious attack by the indicted ex-president. he encouraged all of us to read the indictment itself, an endeavor we re taking seriously. it s known as a speaking indictment, meaning it is straight forward and, frankly, gripping and dramatic. it lays out the alleged crimes trump faces. 31 counts have to do with the espionage act. we re going to unpack all of them.
the breaking news of this historic and quite frankly damning indictment released to the public today. laying out the special counsel s case against donald trump and his gross mishandling of classified documents. given that this is the first time such actions are being taken against a former president, the special counsel made sure he came prepared with the receipts. and they could not be any more incriminating. in all, the special counsel is charging trump with 37 counts. 31 of them have to do with trump s willful retention of national defense information. otherwise known as the espionage act. these are charges related to false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and corruptly concealing documents, as well as scheming to conceal. included in some of the charges is one of trump s closest aides, walt nada, who was also indicted. also today, we heard for the tir time from the man leading the special counsel investigation, jack smith. our laws that protect n
president historic indictment are ranging from the expected to the more alarming, one particularly troubling response came from republican congressman clay higgins who tweeted this. quote, this is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. hold, our potus has this. buckle up, 1 to 50, 000, know your bridges. rock steady calm. the louisiana repetitive clearly invoking some sort of military style language there and i want to bring in nbc senior reporter ben collins for more on this. i want you to kind of if he will clarify some of what we heard in that tweet. i also know that higgins has tried to clarify his own tweet. just a couple of minutes ago, essentially saying this. let trump handle trump and he has got this. we use the constitution as our only weapon.
indictment. we ve seen things from republican members of congress. this is from republican congressman clay higgins of louisiana. president trump said he s been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in miami on tuesday. this is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. hold. our potus has this. our potus is what trump people use meaning real president of the united states. this is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. one over 50k, know your bridges, which means be ready when it comes to knowing about critical infrastructure. rock steady calm. that is all. this is a perimeter probe from the oppressors and then this reference in military jargon to what people should be doing in