Our special breaking News Coverage continues now of the third, he has a third, criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump. Im laura coates. Remember. Not the news tonight, still stunning, even though people expect an indictment to come right now it is here. We have believed it sink in. The 45th president indicted by a grand jury and jack smiths investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And its not lost on anyone that, while trump is facing charges over the last election, he is, of course, in the middle of his reelection campaign, flora. This is the third time, the third time that donald trump has been criminally indicted informants at this point . Special counsel jack smith charged him in the classified documents probe in june, and the Manhattan Grand Jury charge of the former president for Business Fraud back in march and just listen to what Special Counsel jack smith had to say tonight. The attack on our nations capital, on january six 2021, was an unprecede
former president trump indicted today for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. leading up to january 6th attack on the capitol. in the face of the new criminal charges, trump s allies on the hill are coming fast and furiously to his defense. i want to bring in our melanie zanona. capitol hill reporter. melanie, they are not taking a lot of time. they are coming in quickly with their point of view. because they are purposely saying that they do not have any reason to read this indictment because they ve already know what they think. yes, republicans have been preparing the response for weeks. even before seeing the scope of the charges. and in some cases aaron, they ve been directly coordinating with donald trump himself of how best to defend him. donald trump has spoken in recent days to some of his allies. including at least a fonda. trying to strategize a messaging plane here. i m also told he s sent talking points to capitol hill. arguing at least in part that