Of course, thank you for joining us. Cnn prime time with laura coates starts right now. Wow, that was a really fascinating interview. Weve all been leaning in to say what bill barr had to say. A lot of wanting to see what he had to say. Thank you for joining us here in washington, d. C. Its a Capitol On High alert tonight . Why . Because the nation is bracing for the arrest and arraignment of a former president. Should i say again the third time in three months. He will appear in Court Tomorrow as expected, and now his third indictment on charges of trying to overturn an election. And we learned on cnn the Secret Service has already done a walk through of the courthouse and Law Enforcement is even monitoring any potential threats. Meantime, everyone, were getting an early look at what his potential Defense Strategy might be including whats called this is not my term but the dilution defense, that he actually believed his own lies. Plus the suggestion hes about to throw his Legal Advise
got an amazing group of legal experts standing by and dissect and walk through all of this. but first i want to begin with cnn s foreign affairs correspondent paula reid. paula, bill barr setup today s developments, so i want to know what do we now know tonight about what the plan is for trump to build a defense? we re starting to see the broad contours of a legal defense here, and they re really trying to hit on this idea of infringing on his freedom of speech and saying that here the government has allegedly criminalized political speech. but what that fails to take into consideration is the fact the indictment outlines exactly how this went so much further than just words and lays out the specific series of alleged actions the former president took. in the alternative they re also arguing this good faithful leap, that the former president really believed that the election had been stolen. but prosecutors were one step ahead of him laying out in the indictment multiple instances wh
did lose or that he had officials telling him that, in fact, there was no basis for these claims. paula, stick around. we need your insight tonight. and right now also i m joined by david aaron, a former federal prosecutor, sarah nelson, a cnn contributor and also former house republican investigative committee council. and johnson is also here. and a former federal prosecutor as well. in other words, we ve got us a panel, and i m glad you re all here because the number one question i keep getting including at the grocery store today is what s up with this whole free speech discussion, the political speech notion? is it true as long as trump was saying something about his views on the election that he s protected? what do you think? well, yes and no. the attorney general, the former attorney general said it best. you can have free speech, you can say what you think, you can
of course, thank you for joining us. cnn prime time with laura coates starts right now. wow, that was a really fascinating interview. we ve all been leaning in to say what bill barr had to say. a lot of wanting to see what he had to say. thank you for joining us here in washington, d.c. it s a capitol on high alert tonight? why? because the nation is bracing for the arrest and arraignment of a former president. should i say again the third time in three months. he will appear in court tomorrow as expected, and now his third indictment on charges of trying to overturn an election. and we learned on cnn the secret service has already done a walk through of the courthouse and law enforcement is even monitoring any potential threats. meantime, everyone, we re getting an early look at what his potential defense strategy might be including what s
to have the opportunity to watch the evidence against him, to see his defenses, to evaluate him potentially as a witness, i think that s really important. do you agree? i think so. this is the nature of the charges are fundamental to the job description. everyone, thank you so much. we ll talk about all this ahead. michael cohen joins cnn on whether he thinks the coconspirators may flip against trump. and up next my exclusive interview with the entire family of travis king, the u.s. soldier who mysteriously fled over the line, they say, into north korea and might very well be currently detained. why they noticed some strange signs before he walked across the border. huh, huh, so did their dog roger. gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest t stuff smelling fresh. (light acoustic music plays) (eagle screeches) (energetic music plays)