lies by the defendant, targeted out obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government, the nation s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election. let s take a step back, everyone, for a moment here, and let s begin with exactly what we ve actually learned tonight from this historic indictment. correspondent evan perez is actually at the courthouse in washington, d.c.. evan, i mean, another historic indictment against the former president. walk us through exactly what is being alleged tonight. the former president obviously stands now as the first ever president to be indicted for crimes that he committed while he was in office. and that is what we have here in this 45-page indictment. these four charges stem from what the former prosecutor said, jack smith side was it was
was an unprecedented assault on the sea of american democracy. it s described in the indictment and fueled by lies. lies by the defendant, targeting and obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government, and the nations process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election. the men and women of law enforcement we defended the u. s. capitol on january six are heroes. they are patriots and the very best of us. they did not just defend a building with people sheltering in, they put their lives on the line to defend who we are a say country and a people. leading off our discussion, andrew weissmann, former fbi counsel and chief of the criminal division at the eastern part of new york. he is a practicing professor at a law school and msnbc analysts. also neal katyal, former acting
obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government, a nation s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election. all right. so what exactly is in this indictment? legal affairs correspondent paula reid is here. paula, you have been working this for so long. fabulous reporting, you and the team. and today s indictment is laying out how trump used, quote, dishonesty, fraud, and deceit in his efforts to stay in power. so what is standing out to you tonight? the biggest thing that stands out to me is that the former president is the only one being charged today. this is something that our reporting over the past several weeks had suggested to us, but we were quite surprised that he would be the only one charged, at least initially at this point because he clearly did not act alone. you look at the charges that he is facing right now. three of them involve a
raskin is going to join us right after this. you ll want to see this. the attack on our nation s capital on january 6th, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of american democracy. it is described in the indictment as fueled by lies. lives by the defendant, targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the u. s. government, and the nations process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.
take questions a few moments ago. there is four specific counts of former president donald trump is charged with in this indictment. i want to read them, the first is count one conspiracy to defraud the united states. count 2 is conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, count 3 is obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, count 4 conspiracy against rights at the at the special council an hour and a half ago, listen. described in the indictment, fueled by lies. lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the u.s. government, nation s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election. jack smith said his investigation is not over into other people that may eventually be charged, laura. meanwhile the former president donald trump bracing for a potential fourth