Large interest most significant federal indictment of donald trump ever. This is in a way that well document more significantly than the legal headaches he already has. This will be tonight the first time any former president has been indicted by the Justice Department for trying to steal an election. Now, i mentioned, if you have been walking our breaking coverage, we have been going through what is a voluminous filing. Jack smith found six other coconspirators that are named in the filing. It alleges that trump spread lies, that there had been outcome determinant fraud, fraud that would have swung the election back to him, and these claims were false. And trump knew they were false. Ill put on the screen what were watching for. Want to share what were learning. S this a day we have been trying to hew closely to what we know and dont know. In the last several moments, the most heads up youll get from an agency that jack smith will approach the podium you see here. Some of the local Be
Its very significant. The weight of resources are no longer in your favor, i dont care how much money you necessarily have. What theyre doing now is likely expected a not guilty plea where he will formally tell the court he has notice of all the charges against him, and they will set some date in the future in terms of when he will have to either have discovery provided to him, there likely is not going to be a Motion Schedule for the things that you would argue about what would come into evidence, thats going to be longer down the road. But the notion of a rap sheet is so significant with these different indictments, particularly because of this reason normally if somebody has charges against them, trials in the same vicinity, youre talking about maybe if they are convicted theyre going to run concurrent sentences, meaning this one will run on top of the other and the other. Its not going to be youll serve five years for this one, then ten years for another, five for the next. It will
in the united states and around the world. i m john avlon in for kasie hunt. it is friday, december 22, yes, i m wearing a candy cane tie. stunning new revelations into just how far donald trump went to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. a new report from the detroit news alleging that then president trump pressured two election officials in wayne county, michigan to not certify the results of the vote, that is according to audio recordings they have reviewed for a phone call trump made in 2020 following the election. the newspaper reports that he told them we can t let these people take our country away from us and everybody knows detroit is crooked as hell. joining me now, joey jackson. thanks for getting up early for us. this recording seems to go to the core of the case jack smith is building against trump, namely that he actively conspired to overturn the 2020 election. and you remember of course that phone call pressuring georgia election officials to find him vote
like if i order you to murder someone, that s just my speech. but it s of course a crime. it s a crime committed through speech. and here the indictment starting at page 2 says look, we are not punishing donald trump for his speech. he can say whatever he wants. it s what he did with that speech, it s the commencement of actions, it s the fake electors plot, it s trying to interfere with the counting of votes on january 6th and the like. then as for the state of mind defense, that trump legitimate will i thought that he won the election, i think there are two big problems with that. one is the factual problem that the indictment really lays out, which is everyone who s anyone told donald trump he lost. that includes the attorney general at the time, his top lawyer at the white house, the white house counsel, the national intelligence officials, the election security officials, all sorts of people. and indeed donald trump himself according to the indictment believes he lost, that there
the screen as well as page after page of people going and saying to donald trump, you didn t win this thing. there s no way you won this thing. and the picture that s painted is you d have to be literally insane to think you won the election after everyone, including the intelligence officials, the election security officials and others are saying you didn t win. and so that s why you see both halves of this both going to bad criminal intent and going to the bad criminal act. neal katyal, thank you very much for making time for us on this breaking news tonight. we ll be hearing more from you tonight, and we re going to pick up the attorney general, i m told speaking now. engaged in what has become the largest investigation in our history. in november last, i appointed jack smith, the special counsel to take on the ongoing investigation in order to underline the department s commitment to accountability and