pretended as if they somehow had the legitimacy of state and federal law behind them when none of them did. and, you know i am just glad to see that with 741 criminal convictions already wrapped up by the department of justice, they are finally getting to the very center of the entire conspiracy because it was donald trump who changed the dates of all of these protests that have been called for january 20th, essentially those were statements that the maga people will continue to protest against biden and his presidency. but he shifted it from the 20th to the sixth, saying no, this is the date of the peaceful transfer of power. this is the last day we are able to stop this. all of it really floats out of his brainstorm that there could be an inside political coup and a violent insurrection taking place at the same time. a viol i mean, given the gravf what is alleged to have occurred here under trump s direction, and the fact that trump is running for the presidency again, the fact that
mike pence. smith s team, in just eight short months, has interviewed all of the key players in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, not simply those who would come forward themselves, but reluctant witnesses who had everything to lose by testifying against a former president who aims to be president once again. and now, nbc news reports that donald trump himself is officially a target of the special counsel s investigation. trump today confirmed that he received a target letter from the special counsel s office, which almost certainly means that jack smith will bring federal charges against the 45th president for his efforts to overturn an american election. joining us now is a former member of that january 6th committee, someone who helped usher in this moment. congressman jamie raskin of maryland. congressman raskin, thank you for being here. it s impossible to look at where we are today without remembering all of the work you and the committee did. what is your feeling, as we
the. defense pointed to the 1.1 million pages of evidence produced by smith s team, including 1545 pages of classified evidence. and they pointed to the more than three years worth of surveillance footage that has been submitted as evidence. jack smith s team, the prosecution, counter that it has already pointed trump s lawyers to the specific evidence that actually matters here. in other words, the defense doesn t really need to watch three years of security camera footage. trump s defense team also argue that trump could not be tried fairly while he was running for president. unless they are arguing the trial should be pushed to next november. jack smith s team, on the other hand, once the trial to start this december. now, it s not exactly a secret that trump is likely to pardon himself if he wins the presidency again, and he s in office once the trial begins. so, the timing here is deeply consequential. but the hearing today ended without a decision from judge cannon, who said she
investigations integrity. and i also believe that in appointing a special counsel at this time, it is the right thing to do. the extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. and that brings us to the work of that special counsel today. we know that since jack smith s appointment, a grand jury has heard testimony about everything from trump s efforts to get mike pence to overturn the election, to the scheme to send a slate of fake trump electors to washington, d.c., to trump s intent, and whether or not he really thought the election was stolen, to whether trump was defrauding his donors with fake claims of election fraud, just to haul in cash. and that grand jury has heard from just an extraordinary number of witnesses. they heard from trump aides, like mitt luna and john mcentee. they heard from trump s closest advisers, including stephen miller, and dance camino. they heard from several of others trump s white house lawyers, like pat cipollone and pat philbin. and they hea
and you know, and ari is exactly right, this guy trump is saying, i m innocent, i did nothing wrong, if you so much believe that, then go prove it up in a court of law. you are getting a chance now. i mean, speaking of this sincerity of the defense, ari, is there anything to the amount of material that the defense has to sift through, right? they are citing 1.1 million pages of search warrants and info, and evidence, and witnesses, and a grand jury transcripts. and three and a half years of security camera footage. is there any credence to that as reason for a delay? i mean, there is a version, proportionate credence that you said, you re not gonna do this in a week. this is a misdemeanor trial miss demeanor proceeding. other than that, no, as neal said, while the case does have some complexity and government rules that have to be adhered to, i don t think it would take nearly as long as i would say. and as i emphasize, they kind