after turning himself in to the miami federal courthouse. hundreds supporters took to the streets outside the courthouse. some even prayed for trump at a cafe that he arbitrarily stopped at as he left the courthouse. seemed kind of relaxed. the justice department is alleging, in case you ve been in a cave, that the former president mishandled classified documents that included u.s. defensive weapons secrets, even an attack plan on an unnamed foreign power. fill in iran. 31 charges file the espionage act. whatever you think of donald trump s actions, let s put it into context. the espionage act is over hundred years old. president woodrow wilson signed it into law to protect the nation from foreign spies during world war i. most prosecutions involving the espionage act have been reserved for actual spies. even trump s worst critics are not alleging that he passed classified material to russia or china, or anybody else. the espionage act makes clear that espionage is defined as
live. in a moment we re going to play a short portion of it, one that gives you a look into his state of mind and how he is trying to frame his defense to his supporters. i m joined now by new york democratic congresswoman and house oversight committee member alexandria ocasio-cortez. thanks so much for being here. first of all, i just want to the little havana stop, that cafe, versailles cafe, one of the reasons we re told by his folks he was there is because the cuban american people know from political persecution. and i wondered how you might interpret that and what you think of that. well, you know, i think it s it makes it s not a surprise. during trump s remarks he was trying to somehow pin this as some great marxist conspiracy. but the fact of the matter remains that tn individual who r. tand u.s. national security secrets, nuclear weapons locations or, you know, nuclear site locations, sensitive materials, and put our nation at risk. and frankly this is beyon
story. this is now the second indictment for the former president who is criminally charged by a manhattan grand jury in march on 30 counts of his fraud and he has pleaded not guilty. now he s facing 37 federal charges relating to classified documents in his time in office uncovered by federal agents. a special counsel has been investigating this case since november of last year. what makes this situation more extraordinary, is mr. trump is currently the frontrunner in the 2024 election, and this means he could be taking on joe biden while a special counsel is working to convict him. over the next hour, pamela brown lays out everything we know about this case and takes us through the twists and turns that brought us to this moment. we will explore what this means for the former president and what implications this may have for the presidential race. i am an innocent man, i m an innocent person. donald trump is posting on his own social media site that he has been indicte
president, who was criminally charged by a manhattan grand jury in march on 30 counts of business fraud. he s pleaded not guilty. now he is facing 37 federal charges relating to classified documents from his time in office that were uncovered by federal agents. a special counsel has been investigating this case since november of last year. what makes this situation even more extraordinary, is mr. trump is currently the frontrunner in the republican party for the 2024 election. this means he could be taking on president joe biden while a special counsel appointed by the attorney general is working to convict him. trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. over the next hour cnn s pamela brown lays out everything we know about this case and takes us through the twists and turns that brought us to this moment. we ll also explore what this means for the former president as he faces his first court appearance this week and what implications this may have for the presidential race
but at least they have, like, i don t know it s nicer there generally. what a day. thank you, my friend. and thanks to you at home for joining us this evening. tonight we have new reporting which confirms something that up to this point we d only suspected. former president donald trump is officially a target of the criminal investigation of alleged mishandling of documents at mar-a-lago. that news reported first today by the guardian. multiple outlets are now reporting federal prosecutors notified trump in a letter that he is the target. now, nbc news has not independently verified those reports, but donald trump is the person who allegedly took those classified documents from the white house and then refused to comply with the justice department s order to return them. so if anyone in this case is going to be targeted for potential criminal charges, it is probably donald trump. for his part trump today posted a caps lock-heavy statement arguing being the target of an invest