Good evening everyone, and welcome back to our special breaking news coverage, im laura coates on this a stunning night in american history. As the 45th u. S. President s criminally indicted now for the fourth time. Donald trump now accused of leading a criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. Im kaitlan collins, its not just trump. 18 others have been charged alongside him in this 41 count indictment tonight, including his former Chief Of Staff, mark meadows. His former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and the onetime mayor of new york. All 19 defendants are facing racketeering charges. I mean, the indictment states all, quote, refused to accept that trump lost and they knowingly, and willfully, joined the conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of trump. Joining me now here in d. C. Is cnns evan perez, also the washington correspondent of the atlanta journalconstitution, tea mitchell and is back as well. Tour former house judiciary special co
Legal experts tonight. Were discussing rico is a powerful charge because it is so broad. It is one of the broadest laws in the nation, the way georgia uses it, as the Washington Post explains, because prosecutors can weave together alleged crimes, violations of state and federal laws, activities in other states, the law as this d. A. Knows well, does not require a defendant to set foot in georgia to be charged. Why . Because rico is that broad, you do need, of course, something to happen in the state, in georgia, but you could be a person who stayed out of state. Maybe youre a busy coconspirator. Maybe youre a coward and send other people to do things for you. Under the Georgia State rico statute, a long as some people have committed these crimes of some kind inside the state, other people can be looped in. Thats one of the ways d. A. Willis came out with this strong, broad set of charges last night rounding up these 19 defendants. Theyre not all Household Names. I want to show you def
election. this week, the fulton county s special gown jury subpoenaed seven of trump s cronies. that included none other than senator lindsey graham. graham s attorneys say that they will challenge the 14 they claim this is all politics. take a listen to what they had to say about that in exclusive interview with blaine alexander. he called it a fishing expedition. he said this was nothing but politics. what do i have to gain from these politics? she almost brushed dirt off her shoulder when she said that. this might not stop there. donald trump himself might be maximalist. might we see a subpoena for the former president himself. anything is possible. anything indeed. just when things couldn t get worse for donald trump, former white house counsel pat cipollone is finally cooperate with the january six committee. he testified before the committee for eight hours. joining me now to discuss is msnbc legal analyst charles. this is a former brooklyn prosecutor. we
citizen s arrest. hearing number four the attack on the capitol marked by testimony of violence and threats against elected officials who refused to help donald trump overturn the election as well as against election workers targeted in the former president s big lie. good morning and welcome to way too early on this monday it snot monday. it is wednesday, june 22nd. i m jonathan lemire. it s been a long week. we re glad you re here. the fourth public hearing into the january 6th capitol attack examined what s described as former president s donald trump personal and direct role in pressuring state officials to help overturn the to 2020 presidential election. the committee demonstrated how trump and his team leaned on state officials to throw out biden votes, find trump votes or to replace biden electors with fake trump electors. rnc chairwoman mcconnell, mark meadows, senator ron johnson and congressman andy biggs were also mentioned with helping with this scheme.
conversation but on that point when you retrace his steps on that, you, know there are about 30 an indictment coconspirators that are listed in this indictment. and i wonder what you make of that. because, some would suggest that when you say unindicted coconspirator, that matters of the aid signal, glaring that it s a co-operator. what do you think? that is what i think except 30. that s a big number that s hard to get to. it is. 18 electors. and many of them came forward. and received it. and that s an obvious big chunk of the 30. but they re just must be other state election workers, maybe people in kaufman county who are more involved, but in a minor. way and will be more than happy to sign them up to make their case and that s why their coconspirators haven t been named.