welcome to our viewer in the united states and around the world. i m christine romans. and we begin with donald trump s arrest and arraignment in the classified documents case. the washington post reports that trump rejected efforts by one of his lawyers to cut a deal with the justice department to return the documents and avoid indictment. post says chris kise wanted to negotiate with the doj back in the fall after the fbi found more than 100 class filed documents at mar-a-lago. but cnn spoke to sources close to trump s legal team and they cast doubt on whether that was a real opportunity to settle. and merrick garland is depending the special counsel behind the trump indictment, jack smith. paula reid has more. reporter: speaking for the first time since former president trump was indicted mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. reporter: attorney general merrick garland standing by special counsel jack smith who was prosecuting former president trump and ad
crimes he was arrested for? the lead starts right now. a mere few hours after he was arrested and arraigned, donald trump told donors this i hadn t had a chance to go through all the boxes. it is a long tedious job. takes a long time. which i was prepared to do, but i have a very busy life. can prosecutors use this admission against him? plus, an up close look at front lines of ukraine s counteroffensive. we had to evacuate to the shelter now because apparently the guys fear there could be aviation bombs coming in fairly soon. you can see the situation here is still very kinetic, a lot of shelling is still going on. the items ukrainian troops say are key to defeating the russians. and if inflation is supposedly easing, why does it seem every trip to the grocery store is getting more expensive? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we start with our law and justice lead. despite donald trump launching a growing number of baseless attacks on special counsel jack s
confident as they settle on a playbook for the 2024 race. in new york a grand jury just indicted the former u.s. marine who held a homeless man in a fatal chokehold on the subway. we ll tell you what we re learning about the charges. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. tonight as the federal prosecution of donald trump moves into the next phase the nation s chief law enforcement officer is breaking his silence about the case. we re following all the new developments of trump s indictment. as the former president is predictionably lashing out what is the attorney general of the as you know attorney general garland doesn t like to talk at all about ongoing cases. this is the first time since former president trump was formally charged that we ve heard garland speak. of course he appointed special counsel jack smith back in november. today he talked just a little bit about his historic role i
was prosecuting former president trump and addressing fears of a violent response from protestors. we live in a democracy. and these kind of matters are adjudicated through the judicial system. the justice department will be vigilant to ensure that there are no threats of violence or actual violence. reporter: demonstrations tuesday outside the miami federal courthouse where trump was arraigned were largely peaceful. i did everything right and they indicted me. reporter: trump gearing up for the legal and political fight of his life. as the first former u.s. president to face federal criminal charges. the result of a large scale justice department investigation into his handling of national security secrets after leaving office. many people have asked me why i had these boxes. why did you want them? reporter: trump speaking to supporters at a fundraiser held at his new jersey golf club the same day he made his first appearance in federal court.
fund-raiser at trump s golf course in bedminster, new jersey, trump admitted to having kept classified materials, just hours after he pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges in federal court related to having classified materials. cnn s paula reid starts off our coverage today with a closer look at what happens next in this historic legal saga. reporter: speaking for first time since former president trump was indicted mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. reporter: attorney general merrick garland standing by special counsel jack smith who is prosecuting trump and addressing fears of a violent response from protesters. we live in a democracy. these kind of matters are adjudicated through the judicial system. the justice department will be vigilant to ensure that there are no threats of violence or actual violence. reporter: demonstrations tuesday outside the miami federal courthouse where trump