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
it s such a panoramic indictment, all of, georgia but also all around the country. and that is because of the rico law. so, yes, 30s a very big number 161 is a very big number and this thing is huge in so many ways. on that notion will prime the details. on the notion, i think it s still eludes many people. for, rico they think of the mob, you hear things like criminal enterprise or official acts or the way that it s raised in here in many chargers and statements suggesting it s an overt act, the further the conspiracy. you see the threat throughout. you mentioned coffee county, we re hearing a lot about the coffee county. and we also know that fani willis is the dea of fulton county. not coffee county. and there is mentioned in the specific indictment, nevada,
investigation of criminal attempts to interfere in the administration of georgia s 2020 presidential election. today, based on information developed by that investigation a fulton county grand jury returned a true bill of indictment. charging 19 individuals with violation to georgia law arising from a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. the indictment includes 41 felony counts and is 97 pages long.
we can t challenges, because the base supports him and the base will rise up against us and one of the reasons why trump s home on the base has been so unbreakable is because no one they trust or very few people they trust will make the case to them that his behavior is unacceptable. and, so in many ways they have less the straight jacket that they are living in and to the extent that the other republican candidates, i think mike pence has deviated from the house, getting closer to like a crusty to hutchinson. and for someone like desantis sorry scott, or, haley had echoed arguments the victim weaponize conspiracy so fast, as joe mccarthy called. it and they have made it so that the big player, in his drama, it s a deep state and all of these efforts to stop donald trump, why would you bypass them as a republican voter and go to someone that s right now. so they kind of made their bed,
former president is that the full context here is very problematic. i think this is going to be the core of trump s defense, a lot of these indicted coconspirators, coconspirator defenses is that, well, we believe the election was stolen. you have a right to say what is on your mind, first amendment, if they believe it and they all were acting in this way, not because of some conspiracy but because they all kind of agreed. i think what fani willis is trying to do with this indictment, which we know will unfurl during trial, is that they will say that they were told repeatedly that this was not the case and there are plenty of people who aren t indicted, but we re in these rooms, are mentioned and could be called to testify to say, hey, we told them the evidence wasn t there. we told them what they were doing was not legal. we told them what they were doing was not going to pass muster and they continued to forge, and quite frankly, this