good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, august 2nd. a historic morning in u.s. former president trump is due in court tomorrow after a federal grand jury indicted him on four counts. this morning, city and federal law enforcement agencies are gearing up for that appearance. also new this morning, a sense of trump's defense. his attorney tells cnn his clint is protected fully by the first amendment. he was acting on the advice of counsel. we just heard from rudy ju giuliani. new details about the judge who will preside over this case. the judge has been randomly assigned. he's overseen january 6th's defendants. the form e president trump's 2024 rivals are weighing in on the charges. their reactions ranging from condemning trump to condemning the justice department. georgia, fulton county sheriff said trump won't receive special treatment. quote, it doesn't matter your status, we'll have mug shots ready for you, all of that this hour of cnn this morning starts right now. third indictment. fourth potentially on the way. yet it feels like this one is bigger, more consequential and means a lot more for the country, however it lands and that's exactly right. it's about our democracy. that's what we heard from special counsel jack smith last night. >> multiple reactions from people across the spectrum. we have team coverage this morning. sarah murray is live in washington, d.c. here at the table, the expert, pbs newshour white house correspondent. jeff duncan. and john avalon. first, 40-plus pages, what do they say? >> well, to your point, i mean, this is the first time that the government is trying to hold donald trump accountable for what happened around the 2020 election. and around january 6th. they point out that the peaceful transfer of power went smoothly in this country for 130 years until donald trump. they say he lost the 2020 election, he knew he lost the 20 election, and he tried to stay in power anyway. special counsel jack smith criminally charging former president donald trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. and undermine the peaceful transfer of power. >> an indictment was unsealed charging donald j. trump for conspiring to defraud the united states, disenfrom shiez voters. >> reporter: federal prosecutors write, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome determine native fraud and that he won. these claims were false. this morning, we're getting our first sense of trump's defense. >> focusing on the fact that what we have now is an administration that has criminalized the free speech of a prior administration during the time the that there's a political election going on, that's unprecedent. we have never seen that in the history of the united states. >> reporter: he can see the trial lasting nine months to a year. trump also took to his truth social platform to blast this latest indictment. claiming the purpose is to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign. >> mr. smith and his team, career agents, prosecutors, follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. >> reporter: trump's six indicted co-conspirators are not named. but cnn can identify five of them based on quotes in the indictment. the indictment focuses on five tactics, they along with trump allege order to execute to overturn the 2020 election. fueling claims of election fraud to try pressure state election officials to subvert the election results. trying to use the power of the justice department to conduct sham election crime. pressuring then-vice president mike pence to falsely alter the results. finally -- >> we're going to walk down to the capitol. >> reporter: stoking tensions on january 6th. fueling the capitol riot. >> the attack on our nation's capital on january 6th 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of the american democracy. it's described in the indictment it was fueled by lies. >> reporter: investigators also obtain notes from pence and documented a conversation on january 1st where trump berated pe pence. pence told trump it was unconstitutional. trump responded, you're too honest. a conversation between trump and former white house chief of staff mark meadows where meadows said georgia election workers were, quote, conducting themselves in an exemplary fashion. one day later trump tweeted that the election workers were trying to cover up fraud. now, again, we have identified five of the six unindicted co-conspirators named in these court documents. one of them is john eastman, allegedly involved in crafting this plan where then ve president pence could overtu the election.john eastman's att th respect to questions as to whether dr. eastman is involved in plea bargaining the answer is no. if dr. eastman is indicted he'll go to trial, if convicted he'll appeal. >> another one of the unindicted co-conspirators in this indictment is rudy giuliani, he spoke last night. >> violating the right of free speech as an american citizen, never mind whether he was president or not it could be anybody, it could be a homeless person, you don't get to violate people's first amendment rights no matter who you are. this isn't the first time acted like an unethical lawyer. should be the last. >> your reaction? >> very fiery rude j giuliani, i think we're going to hear the first amendment defense from donald trump's team and also from several of these unindicted co-con co-conspirators. they're not just taking issue with the things he said, they're taking issue with his actions, pressuring officials in arizona, georgia, michigan, to go around the legal process where we certified the lek tors and go to electoral college so this isn't just about a couple of comments that donald trump made at a rally or rudy giuliani's claims. >> thank you for that reporting. we'll see you in a little bit. let's bring back in our experts. jack smith knew that was going to be the defense counsel's argument, that's why he gets to page 2, the defendant has every right to speak publicly about the election, even to claim falsely there had been fraud. >> it's kind of rare to anticipate a defense like that. >> the first thing. >> exactly. i think it's an important thing. here's my problem with first amendment defense. we have a broad first amendment right when it comes to political speech. but here's the problem the first amend mtd doesn't cover everything that may come out of a person's mouth and one of the clear delineation is fraud. if you use words to steal something, to steal money from a bank, to rip off an investor, you do that with words, by speech, by promising things that's fraud. here the theory is that what happen the thing that was being stolen wasn't money bu the election itsel >> i want to build off of that, intent comes into play here. in this indictment if you go through it it has a lengthy list of officials who told trump that the fraud claims were untrue. mike pence, senior doj officials the director of national intelligence, i think with can pull up the list here real quick, it's a significant number. by the way, if you don't want to read the indictment they also said this. >> so, we're in the oval and there's a discussion going on and the president says, i think it could have been pompeo, he says words to the effect, we lost, we need to let that issue go to the next issue meaning president biden. >> i remember a week after the election was called i popped into the oval just to like give the president the headlines and to see how he was doing and he was looking at the tv and he said, can you believe i lost to this -- guy if. >> cathat call was crazy. he knows it's over. he knows he lost. >> i didn't agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff which i told the president was [ bleep ] and, you know, i didn't want to be a part of it. >> so, again, we see jack smith anticipating a defense i think correctly which is he was relying on other advisers. he believed what rude rey told . the argument they're going to make not only should he have known and in those clips he did know, he acknowledged it. that's crucial evidence. >> people might not know you worked for rudy giuliani back in the day when he was america's yor new york city. they'rlisted as co-conspirators, unindicted. where do you think his role in this goes from here? >> well, i think, it's very clear that rudy was directly involved in trying to overturn the election on donald trump's behalf acting in his capacity as counsel. there's month right to commit crimes and to overturn an election. the first amendment argument that rudy so forcefully articulated doesn't fit the fact matter of this case. again, this goes to the heart of democracy. this isn't a typical kind of indictment. this goes to the heart of democracy when the president of the united states is entrusted in upholding the constitution of the united states undermines it. other court dos said no reasonable person would believe their claims after the fact. so, this is a serious ast gets and whether rudy is prosecuted along with these others that's through the looking glass at the moment. the fact pattern the clear, they tried to overturn the election at any means by their disposal. we know from rudy to delay the election. >> one of jarring things about the mar-a-lago indictment was how much we didn't know until we saw the indictment including photos obviously, but i think a lot of the behind the scenes stuff tied to it, most of this indictment, people were at least general aware of because of all of the reporting. what stood out to you as new, until you read the indictment. >> a lot of it is clearly around the former vice president mike pence, he had these notes that he had from conversations with donald trump. the phone calls that happened on january 6th. trump at 6:00 p.m. called two senators on january 6th as they were still rioting going on in some parts of the capitol to talk to them again about rejecting certification to not move this forward and then at 7:00 p.m. he was called by pat cippolini. you need to call off those lawmakers, you can't be asking them to further obstruct this proceeding. conversations like that just add to that picture we had started to see already because of the january 6th committee. >> i'm not an attorney, a much more simple analysis, indictment saying donald trump is an intentional liar. he couldn't do the math. january 6th was tragic but from point of view it wasn't a surprise. you could see this feverish pitch playing out. sitting there getting pounded with crazy idea after crazy idea and had this sophisticated, you'd see somebody come up with bad idea and donald trump would tweet something about it, giuliani or meadows would stoke the fire, this will sucked the minds out of these people in georgia and across the country. >> you agree as a conservative who has stood up for the truth and the law, do you agree with judge michael ludwig, one of the conservative jurist, he's the one who had that famous tweet, mike pence does not have the authority to step in, mr. president, and overturn this thing. he said yesterday after reading the indictment these are grave offenses as president could commit. he said the former president is neither a victim nor a martyr today, america is donald trump's victim and donald trump has martyr ed america. >> republicans are letting americans down right now by sitting here and fanning the flames of donald trump. right, we know exactly what the right thing to do is, turn away from the lies and failed record of donald trump and to move forward. politically speaking this is a golden opportunity for republicans. there's no more statistical advantage right here to beat a sitting president but we continue to step on our toes. a pivotal moment for mike pence, nikki haley, tim scott, a pivotal moment to call donald trump out. they should turn their backs on donald trump. call for him to step down. move forward. i mentioned this yesterday, we were downgraded yesterday. that's major story on joe biden's watch that happened. but yet nobody's going to hear about it. >> because of what happened in this country on january 6th. stay with us. team trump once again trying to discredit the indictment and the latest on his strategy. how trump's many legal cases could disrupt the primary calendar. that's coming up next. this is american infrastructure. megawatts of power, rails anopen road, and essential services of every kind. all running on countless invisie networks, making it a prime target for cyrattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends the systems running america's infrastructure. for these services. for the 336 million of us living here. ♪ (♪) rsv can be a dangerous virus... 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>> among republican voters? >> among everyone. to get out of -- to understand what transpired at least as described and alleged in this indictment over the course of six, eight-week period. >> for people to understand the entire the scheme, which is what jack smith labels it as in the indictment, person waited by the former president they should read the indictment. is the american public going to read the indictment? i'm skeptical that they're going to take the time to really understand the elements that happened across these months in the leadup to january 6th and even after january 6th. and especially because i want to talk about something that alana said about the trump's campaign's argument around election interference. the heart of the matter is about democracy and protecting democracy and that this -- what trump did threatened it. him again saying that this is election interference, in 2024, is potentially leading us down a dangerous road again. >> of course it is. >> where we could see what we saw on january 6th and other violence and attacks and it also just keeps his base believing what they believe right now. >> look, not just gaslighting to your point, trump is threatening, right, part of the background music here, if this process goes forward we'll have to see what happens with the next election, not only presumed denial of a loss should that occur but him saying this process is illegitimate in a fundamental way. we're replaying the same script top to your point we couldn't retreat to partisan. read this document, because this is something that founding fathers would have feared in a fundamental way. >> that's the spot republicans need to play, there are persuadables out there. victims of gravity and donald trump is going to win the nomination. if one of these candidates other than trump running for president, i come up with strategy dumb enough to believe that donald trump will be held accountable, a convicted fellon in one of these indictments. put a campaign forward that's energetic, hold joe biden accountable for a failed record. if we're wrong as republicans, we're wrong. we'll learn from losing. >> merrick garland has given donald trump a talking point, though, because merrick garland wasted a year and half, it took him over a year and a half to appoint jack smith. i know investigations take time. they had to have everything perfect. look, i don't think there's a good reason for him to wait. it's gone now and now this is going to land right in the middle of the 2024 election because of that. >> okay, but if you play it back a year or so i hear you, you may have been in trial, right, leading up to it. you would have been in it some way shape or form. quickly timing of the trial. >> there's currently a logjam with the twocheduled innts that take us from march through july. i the judge has been very strong in her rulings relating to january 6th. she's given many memorable statements like presidents aren't kings. good draw for the prosecution. what could be donald trump's fourth indictment of the year, fulton county's district attorney said they're ready to go. next, we'll be joined by a former georgia state senator who's been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. stay with us. an all-in-one cleaning tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean inin half the time. our new cleaning pad has hundreds of scrurubbing strips- that absorb and lock dirt away, ( ♪ ) and it has a 360-degree swivel head- that goes places a regular mop just can't. so, you can clean your home faster than ever. don't mop harder, mop smarter, with the new swiffer powermop. ch day is a unique blend of going, doing, and living. glucerna protein smart with 30 grams of protein to help keep you moving. uniquely designed with carbsteady to help manage blood sugar response. glucerna, bring on the day. but with stearns & foster® that's only part of the story. we handcraft every stearns & foster® using the finest materials, like indulgent memory foam, and ultra-conforming intellicoils®, for a beautiful mattress, and indescribable comfort... every single night. stearns & foster® what comfort should be. for a limited time, bring home incredible comfort with $400 in savings on select mattresses. learn more at stearnsandfoster.com. sleepovers just aren't what they used to be. a house full of screens? basically no hiccups? you guys have no idea how good you've got it. how old are you? like, 80? back in my day, it was scary stories and flashlights. we don't get scared. oh, really? mom can see your search history. that's what i thought. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. unless someone tells me differently we're following our normal practices. it doesn't matter your status we have mug shots ready for you. >> former president trump faces a new indictment, he's also awaiting another fourth indictm indictment. the focus of the d.a.'s questions the election presentation she witnessd that was put on my trump's former attorney giuliani, now unindicted co-conspirators. do you plan to comply with the subpoena. >> absolutely. >> have you been given any guidance, generally, we have an idea, any guidance about what prosecutors want to ask you. >> no guidance. i'm assuming it has to do with what the special grand jury asked with respect to rudy giuliani's presentation before the georgia's state senate. that's what they were interested in. so i'm going to go and i'm going to tell the truth. >> can you tell people what were your impressions of giuliani and his presentation in the moment back in december of 2020? >> yeah, i have to tell you it was very surreal. being there. because the presentation itself, it was false. it was almost presented like a small mini-trial. and it clearly had been -- it felt like it was part of some kind of mock trial we were going through and, you know, they had their witnesses that purportedly were telling the state legislators they could basically choose the electors and throw out the votes of millions and millions of georgians. i was sitting thinking this can't be real. but as we're sitting there and the president of the united states is tweeting and oan and newsmax is live-streaming it became very clear that this was part of the plan. at the federal level the federal indictment last night and georgia's one of the states that they talk about, with respect to what happened on the ground here it was the implementation of the plan at the highest levels to overturn the election. >> i want to bring in jen, my colleague sarah murray has covered the district attorney's case down in georgia. >> jen, good to see you again. i'm curious in this federal indictment we see people like john eastman and rudy giuliani unnamed, unindicted co co-con co-conspirators, any concerns whether they'll be held accountleable for their actions in battleground states like georgia? >> no, i d't. it's been difficult because trump never actually came to georgia, you know, there were the phone lls, the overt actions, people who were here and made misrepresentations, who lied to people in georgia they were rudy giuliani and john eastman, and sidney powell. all the undieted co-conspirators were the folks who were actually, they were like the soldiers that were sent into the battleground states to actually implement the plan so whether or not they get named at the federal level eventually i have no doubt with respect to the indictment here on the ground they're definitely a target. >> what about that potential indictment in georgia, i mean, we're expecting some time in the next couple of weeks fani willis is going to make her charging announcements, would you have l liked to have her do this sooner. >> this isn't about politics, no matter what the former president's legal team or some of the talking heads are trying to say, it's not about politics it's about the law and about holding people responsible when they break that law, she's putting to together what i as assume is a very sweeping rico case. they're very complicated. you have to make sure you have all of the evidence and witnesses you immediate to prove your case. you don't want to take a swing at the former president of the united states and then mis. so with respect to the evidence that she's going to present before the grand jury i have no idea who has been subpoenaed or who will give testimony, i have no doubt her team has basically, you know, blackboarded, white-boarded, taken all the evidence, at the end of the day it's going to be a closely watched trial, but also, you know, it's so important because if he's not held accountle for what he's done, what does that say ultimately about our justice system? >> to that point, is there concern given the fact that this would be the fourth indictment if it comes, where people kind of tune it out. they get numb to it. >> they might. i mean, but look. most people don't pay attention to indictments on, you know, a day-to-day basis but that doesn't mean you don't proceed within people break the law, in some ways the district attorney here in georgia, hers is going to be last really i think her case is going to be the most significant and probably bring in way more people even than the federal indictment we saw released yesterday. 75 witnesses before the special grand jury, 75. they met for weeks and weeks, they know exactly who they want to bring in to present the evidence, they want to present at trial. look, i think they're going to have a case that's going to be -- i think it's going to be pretty lock tight. if people listen and have open hearts and open minds and see what was really going on behind the scenes, all we know, right, is what is public. we need to listen and we need to learn and we need to understand that it doesn't matter who you are in this country you can be the former president of the united states but you cannot break the law and you'll be held accountable. >> busy couple of weeks ahead down in washington. thank you so much. really fascinating conversation about what is ahead in georgia. another crucial story we're covering today, for the first time in an over a decade, fitch has downgraded the united states and the white house' pointed respsponse next. my blood pressure is borderline. garlique healthy blood pressure formula helps maintain healthy blood pressure with a custom blend of ingredients. i'm taking charge, with garlique. we never just see the numbers, we see the people. my dad started trek in a red barn in waterloo, wisconsin. and now it spans the globe. you wanna take what was given to you and you wanna build it. and you wanna pass it along. if i can do that, i would have done well. that's why we're here... to help make it happen. a black eye this morning for america's economy, fitch ratings downgraded the u.s.'s debt rating to aa. the first downgrade for our debt since 2011 and according to someone familiar with the manner, representatives from fitch repeatedly highlighted the january 6th insurrection as a significant concern relating to u.s. governance, erosion of governance a major fact for the debt rating downgrade. they underscored in making this decision. let's go to alette saenz. on any other day this would be the leading story, this is a big deal and the reasoning is fascinating. >> reporter: yeah, it really is, poppy, and the white house is not happy with fact that fitch decided to downgrade the u.s. credit rating, the only second time in u.s. history this decision has been made. fitch warned the administration that this was a possibility as that debt ceiling fight had played out earlier in the year but they finally made that move just yesterday and in their report they decided an e rorgs of governance that has occurred not only in this administration but over the past two decades. cnn has learned in a meeting with administration officials fitch repeatedly expressed concerns about the impact the january 6th insurrection had had on u.s. governance. the white house was quick to push back from pitch. u.s. press secretary said it defies reality to downgrade the united states at a moment when president biden has delivered the strongest recovery of any major economy in the world. treasury secretary yellen called the decision arbitrary. the american economy is fundamentally strong. what this decision really does it speaks to the impact that these political standoffs that we have seen play out in washington so often can have on these types of decisions and it also could have real-world impacts for americans at home on things like mortgages. a situation the white house is closely watching especially as those markets are set to open in a few hours. >> arlette, thanks very much. the trump indictment goes into the false claims that the former president made on different occasions. 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>> no, i don't. obviously, the department is sensitive to investigations, public announcement of investigations and prosecutions, during a campaign season. they try to avoid it if possible. sometimes it's not possible. a case of this nature you want to make sure you're going to get it right, if you're going to go after the former president you want to make sure that the evidence is there, that there are credible witnesses, that you'll be able to get the evidence into court, so, you know, the timing is unfortunate, there's no question about that, from my own perspective i think it would be great if the outcome of this case is known before the election, i think the american people are very interested in whether or not donald trump xh committed the crimes in which he's accused of in this indictment. shaped the scope of the indictment. i i believe it's important to get this resolved before the election. >> you were also white house counsel, can you explain to people the rarity of an assistant attorney general responsible for the environmental division being handed the attorney general role by the president that ended up not coming to fruition, trying to take over the department of justice's operations, according to the indictment. and pat cipollone telling the president he was wrong. >> obviously, you'd like to think as white house counsel that the advice you give to the president of the united states that advice would be heeded but of course at the end of the day from my perspective it's the department of justice and the attorney general that has the final word as to what is lawful and what is unlawful. with respect to environmental lawyer being in chain of command there are protocols within each department and agency in terms of chain of command the environmental lawyer is way, way down in the chain of command at the department of justice, it would have been extremely unusual. >> potentially illegal? >> not a question of illegal the president of the united states can consult with anyone he wants in regards to legal advice. but it would highly be irregular. you never know who the president consults in terms of legal advice. it would be unknown precedence. >> former attorney general alberto gonzalez new reporting that details how conversations between trump and his then-vice president pence, multiple conversations provided key evidence for prosecutors. >> what to expect as trump heads to federal court tomorrow. cnn's special live coverage continues ahead. 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