present its case and we don t know also whether the former president might choose to testify in his own defense. i want to start by bringing in cnn senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid who has been all over this story for many, many week, and paula, the indictment is out now. i wonder, what to you as someone following this and every single move and detail, what stands out to you as the most damning information we ve gotten? it s such a strong reminder of how little we know compared to investigators. one of the things that struck me and i think will resonate with the american people are the photographs that the indictment uses to tell the story of how some of the nation s most sensitive secrets were strewn about mar-a-lago. prosecutors in this indictment say that these secrets were in a bathroom, in a ballroom. there you see the photo of them being in a bathroom boxes stacked up there, in the ballroom. these are cardboard, pretty flimsy in a ballroom actively being
after turning himself in to the miami federal courthouse. hundreds supporters took to the streets outside the courthouse. some even prayed for trump at a cafe that he arbitrarily stopped at as he left the courthouse. seemed kind of relaxed. the justice department is alleging, in case you ve been in a cave, that the former president mishandled classified documents that included u.s. defensive weapons secrets, even an attack plan on an unnamed foreign power. fill in iran. 31 charges file the espionage act. whatever you think of donald trump s actions, let s put it into context. the espionage act is over hundred years old. president woodrow wilson signed it into law to protect the nation from foreign spies during world war i. most prosecutions involving the espionage act have been reserved for actual spies. even trump s worst critics are not alleging that he passed classified material to russia or china, or anybody else. the espionage act makes clear that espionage is defined as
bathroom, in a ballroom. there you see the photo of them being in a bathroom, boxes just stacked up there in the ballroom. i mean these are pretty flimsy cardboard boxes in a ballroom that is actively being used for events. there you see sensitive defense information, secrets that are only meant to be shared with a small handful of our closest allies, and they re strewn about the floor of a storage closet. and it s one thing to say that in an indictment, but it s another to support this with photographs. that was one of the things that really struck me in this indictment. but the breadth and the depth of the evidence that they ve gathered in this investigation, it s incredible. i mean, for example, there are two incidents where they say the former president shared classified documents in person. one is a story that we broke last week, a meeting at his bedminster golf club, where he says that he has sensitive information and appears to be urging people in a meeting to look at.
> and good evening. ii m erin burnett along with wf blitzer. aand tp and tand this is af outfront. tthe federal indictment of dod trump. tonp tonight, the former p far facipfacing this 37. apand he could face a sign amamoup amounamount of ti wp wolf and i have read th tr tthis pthis today, hs one through 31, maximum sentence, ten years in prison. count 32, conspiracy to obstruct justice. maximum sentence 20 years. count 33 withholding a document or a record, maximum sentence 20 years. count 34, corruptly concealing a document or record maximum sentence, 20 years. count 35, concealing a document in a federal investigation, maximum sentence, 20 years. count 36, five years. count 37, false statements and representations, maximum sentence, five years. wolf, it underscores how incredibly serious this is. he s potentially facing a lot of time in prison. there s a lot of damning evidence in this indictment, as you well know, erin. according to the department of justice, trump re
candidatsenatoe senator tim scos will join us . he confronted the ladies of. the view today and he exposed hg their hateful rhetoric. we have full highlights coming up. also, chairman jim jordan and chairman james comey on together. they will joinchairmanes comer . coma is now preparing to hold she fbi director , chris wray, in contempt of congress. and tonight, in a possible effort to shield president biden from a congressional investigation, director wras ty is refusing 12 to hand over that official.3 ten docu, twenty three document that purportedly describes a criminal foreign bribery sch. scheme from biding his time when he was vice president .fb now, fbi officials have been in possession of these allegations since june of 2020.f they have also been in possession of biden s laptop since december of 2019il. they have seen emails and texts from hunter biden detailingto pp possible foreign payouts to the big guy and half the money going pops and complaining about paying for