Everyone to come i am Laura Ingraham and this is and The Ingraham Angle from watching tonight. Thank you fohaver joining us as always. Se kentucky and georgia polls have just closed. Another case against trump hangs in the balance and tonight ful Voters Decide whether to reelect Fulton County d. A. Fani willis. Take a load off. And judge mcafee. Will they be saved by the voters and get tossed to Th Thee Curve Whics H marked the results wille coming at the bottom of the screen. We will bring you major developments as they come in. But first, beyond a reasonabled doubt, that is the focus of tonights angle. Now, we will never know just how much this trump trial cost the taxpayers of new york. In it has to be in the Tens Of Thousands of dollars. For every hour spent on this was one hour less spent on prosecuting real criminals still terrorizing the city. Not that that has ever been alvin braggs priority, we knowz that. Is on the side of the criminals. Is sole focus has been to nail donald trump no matter whast it took him and no matter how he had to contort the law, no matter how much hen compromised his own credibilityp he managed to bring a case with a novel interpretation of new york penal cord 1. 5750 without ever specifying the crime that took this from routine misdemeanor to a felony. Even a former assistant d. A. In the same office he rents wasg th left there left scratching his head to. We know what Theano Ae Crimes Wathat donald trump committed to attempt to seal . Niti that is a problem we dont knowo we went on the other cable nets the best legal experts were trying to work overtime toere present a charitable view ofitab what was a fatally flawed case fromed c the outset. It it is not your most straightforward charges, like i charge you, jury, the robbery,fa fraud, or straightforward. It is complicated but tested thus far in this cou court. I dont think it Appeals Court will say this is abin illegal wi to charge a crime but there was a little bit uncertainty. Laura a bit a bit ofny uncertainty, s you think . How does the system of justice make any sense at all if a defendant doesnt have to be told what the underlying crime is that he committed . Remember, and just take a step back for a moment, falsifying t Business Records meant this case the 34 entries and the detailed General Ledger for the donald j. Trump revocable trust, that is not enough. Alvin bragg must also show the intent to commit another crime and aid in the concealment and the commission thereof, okay . That is with the indictment read. But first, there was no Documentary Evidence presented to indicate that trump himself t invoices ordulen accounting. Ha Michael Cohen, a liar, taxi vader, thief has zero credit. Second, there was no other crime. Paying hush money is not a Campaign Contribution but the jury may not know this because cleverly or advise fashion, he would not allow defense Testimony Tosome that subject by former sec chairman with finance law Bradley Smith who would havl blown up the prosecutions flim. Ha federal lawt does not sayt anything that you think mightsa help you win an election is a pl Campaign Expense but rather objective test when things like polling, paying for staff, paying for headquarters, paying for advertisements and so forth, those are Campaign Expenses. That is the problem the d. A. Has. He said thatampa these were Camc Expenses to stormy daniels. T independent of mr. Trumps campaign for president. Laura now, okay, No Wonder T Merchan Situation went down as e jdesk. He didnt want to hear how the jury hear from Beverly Smith than what hee fa just said to. No, you cant let the facts getf in the way of a guilty verdict, my friends. As for the Talking Heads on cable, how these people are called legal analysts when they dont actually cite the actualus law is beyond me. E of the jury will have to use s common sense. One of the most important points e made is, do you really think, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that Michael Cohen would have spent 130,000 of his own money if he was not darn sure he was going to be reimbursed by donald trump . Laura if a jury can find the president more President Trump, guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt with this set of facts with totally compromised witness, with Thtotally Novel Application Of H Statute is against the chief rival of the city . All bets are off. Lets not forget who Thehe W Linchpin is here. Michael cohen whe cn is the y link in the Whole Chain Here Ong The chain of liability. An if all donald trump knew was bill from stormy daniels, i want her quite because of the election, that is not a crime under the law charged in new york. To t they have to tied Donald Trumps to the accounting, to the Ofthat Falsification of the Business Records. And the only way you can directly do that is Michael Cohen through directphot conversations. Laura through conversations and a photograph. What a joke and today, it looks like judge merchan gave the defense another issuc cre to appeal. No specific crime apparently is needed to be instructed to the jury hear the Jury Instructions, again, it appears they will lean towards just pick the crime youre most most comfortable with. Merchan has ruledthat that Js Find Trump made or caused to mate fulls Business Records inl order to conceal conspiracy to promote trumps election througo unlawful means, that jurors can have different ideas about what. Those unlawful means are. It is very prosecution so it is a win for the government because it fell jurors have to agree which one of those Threeav Crimes Trump had intent to conceal or commit, that wouldaua have been a problem. Laura okay, what you just heard and what judge merchan has done here is antithetical toe understanding of justice in the United States of america. Arge the defendant has the constitutional right to have the t hecharges brought against him clearly spelled out so that hefl may pull on a proper defense. And on top of all of that, merchan issued the equivalent of what byron byron york called judicial gagpert order on key et witness. And running gag order, g of course, against the defense. Yet, hormye gave Stormy Danielso Pratt Along Making Irrelevant and highly prejudicial remarks about dealings with the all president. What merchan did was allow a case to go forward for which Felony Criminal Conduct was never specifically alleged. Courts, you may know, can strike down entire statutes on grounds they are impermissibly vague or overly broad. This entire case should have vag been avoided on Vagueness Grounds right off the bat. E ta is this finance case, text case from Election Interference case, Simple Bookkeeping Case . What merchan is instructing his eye will instruct the jury on the references to campaign violations. I think thate is coming really too late. The judge has allowed him to say Election Violations. Im quite convinced that jury believes there were Election Violations even though none have occurred in this case ruth regarding trump. Laura the only Thing Thisasn Trial has proven Beyond A Reasonable Doubt is that conflicted judges who partner with politically motivated prosecutors are ominous. They are providers of the rule rof law. So lets hope that the voters see that it weaponize criminal Justice System is no justice nspisystem at all. What has transpired and that does dusty, Manhattan Courtroomn these past four weeks has been a complete and total farce. Akin to the show trials of the most vicious soviet dictators. R and that is the angle. Joining me former ambassador to mexico and appellate litigator, chris we are of is arguing you dont need to show willfulness to commit a certain crime here. It is clear that the Jury Instructions are going to allow a lot of leeway for the jury toe just decide for themselves that some Predicate Crime in this addon felony crime exists, even though it hasnt been necessarily proven. How bizarre is this . Laura, it is totally bizarre. As you alluded to in your opening, that is the real problem here that we have this novel untested legal theory that is based on Michael Cohensga testimony. This is basically the legal trial of the leading president ial candidate . It for the Opposition Party to the government . At t i mean, it cant be that this ir allowed to go. This is a travesty. Again, the criminal law as you just alluded to, generally requires the mental state of the defendant is critical. It is not enough he know he did what he is charged with doing in a criminal law. He has to actually understand te that it is unlawful. And if the judge strips all of that out as if this were just a civil case, this is going to be a totally target Richy Environment for appellate reversal here are the problem is, that probably wont happen until after the election. So i think what we have going og here is we have a train that is just going on kind of on auto pilot towards them i think it is being driven to tried to get a conviction so there can be a campaign that says trump is a Convicte Eled Felon and after te election, 100 chance of getting overturned, but then it will booe like whoops. And i dont think you can just say, oops, never mind, my bad, when basically nothing butcrac Election Interference. This is actually a Terrifyingia Lsthreat to democracy in our country. Laura i allude d to the show trials of the old soviet union. Because i started russian in college. I remember reading about linen and soul and how they put forth political opponents where summarily run through these fakn never the goal. I never in my life thought i would see this in the United States of america and never in my life with all the p political fighting going on, i never thought i wouleod see thi where people would say, you isdont really need to know thel crime when the jury is deliberating. Ne you dont need to know the addon crime to make it a felony. You can pick 1 of 3. Well, they dont even need to know which of three andhe currently dont need to know much about things like federal Campaign Finance law. They can kind of decide for themselves whether this is a violation. This is incredibly complicated issues. I remember my former boss, Justice Scalia used to say the federal Campaign Finance laws the most complicated. Areas of the law. This is somebody who was not slouch in the legal department. Y you cant just throw this to a jury and have a situation where Michael Cohen is a pining hee thinks It Isab A Campaign Finane violation and expect them to be able to figure this out much less a jury that hasnt been really instructed on this and hasnt really been given a full airing of water of these violations. Again, without eve n discussing the question, what the heck is a new york local manhattanll d. A. Doing trying to basicallyt establish a federal Campaign Finance violation that e t even bring the whole idea, laura, is so cha insane. Laura the idea of bradley, was chairman of the fec, the fact that merchan would not let him testify to quintessentialt important of the definitions of what expenditures really mean. What does that mean under thtew rule of law, that tells you everything you need to know that he was not allowed to testify on that. Chris, great to have you on tonight of all nights, thank yoc so much. We are moving to the face of pure politics now because we are going to learn whether or not donald trump is going to run as the republican nominee as president as a convicted t criminal or not you were 12 o tell use now going t the answer to the biggest questions we have about thera state of this president ial race so far. Ssou joining me nowse missouri senator eric schmitt who attended the trial today. Men senator, what is your reaction what you witnessed in the courthouse . N thisi mean, it looks like mosf the big issues in this Jury Instruction backandforth went for the prosecution. That the judge ruled in favor of Thew Prosecution on key issues that go to the heart of this matter of what the underlying crime really is. Well, it was a surrealy experience, laura, sitting in th e front row watching the proceedings and the defense ultimately resting in that. Am this is america, the United States of america and we believe in something Calledwe American Exceptionalism Pure Ant Unexceptional to history i believing in individual rights, lady justice is blind but that is not what is going on in new york but i think what you are saying to your point iearlier, this is a sovietstye show trial and that is it, d right . These charges were brought to hi im people were running on dog this to try to interfere with the election. To get trump. It was truly unprecedented. We talk abouentet things beingdo unprecedented all the time butpe this is truly unprecedented essentially the democrat s are trying to take out theirth p political opponent who is leaving at the polls, the 45thit president and likely to be the 47th president ab. This is the stuff again the State Department would be wanting us about if happening in other countries but its, la happening in the United States of america. Thatese American People recognie this and i dont think this election is about the candidatet about the cause, america, andon what kind of country we are going to be. Laura the media, this is one of my favorite moments ofent today, are claiming that people like you, senator schmidt, andl others who are attending this trial and going out and coming on shows like the angle are hoping to backdoor a violation of the gag order for trump. Watch. In Bc Reporting The Coordination and organization E Supportersp and th have stoked questions about then remarks of custom republicans ol violation of trump gag order. There is no doubt this is a violation of gag order. B the prosecution can call witnesses on it and a sideshow want to but i have no doubt the can improve violation of the gag order. Laura senator, real quick. Is a former prosecutor with gag ordershe s to protect defendants, this is the same crowd that does not believe in the First Amendment and they try to censor speech, quell theth senateat. D and i will continue to speak on that is wh y i was there to standby President Trump and the rule of law. Enat laura new court filingd unsealed today, senator, this just in provided a Behind The Scenes look how federal agents prepared for and executed the raid on trumps maralago Residence Beckoned august 2022 including deadly force being within the Missions Guidelines senator, they were actually thinking og f y using deadly foe on the table that might be necessary at maralago . Ic really e, if you ever need more evidence about two tiers of justice, compare this authorization of deadly force with a former president versus ho essentially the kid gloves they put on for joe biden with classified materials from his senate days in a garage where hunter biden shares compromisedy by t foreign government. Li they treated these very differently. This is sort of like the exclamation point. Laura senator, they gave a heads up and theo gowhit lawyers allowed the white house lawyer Wasfi Allowedrs to go to . Garage and check out the lay of the land first. Isnt that how it went down . Deadly force, okay that really azy. Honestly, it is crazy. Laur