The lead starts right now. Donald defiant. Back on the campaign trail this afternoon, pushing back on prosecutors who want to restrict what he can say publicly about the federal indictment. Plus, that hideous river boat drbrawl, after a man was rushed by a group of wight men. And americans in Credit Card Debt, surpassing 1 trillion as more americans pull from their own Retirement Savings for help. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. Were going to start with our Law And Justice lead. The Federal Grand Jury here in washington, d. C. , the same one that indicted donald trump last week, is back Behind Closed Doors today. For the First Time Since handing down those unprecedented charges for Donald Trumps unprecedented actions. It is a clear sign that the investigation into the efforts to over turn the 2020 election is not over. And it raises questions about six coconspirators listed in the indictment and whether they could soon also face federal charges for their actions. We also just got
Rib. Well, its your reports. I think it actually is more fitting that you read those most notably after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite you going according to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it. You may stop there. Thank you. You mentioned the indictment against mr. Trump for mishandling sensitive classified National Security information. That indictment says at the end of his presidency, mr. Trump, im looking for my indictment here. I have it here mr. Trump himself ordered that boxes containing classified materials go to maralago where he hosted Tens Of Thousands of guests. Then he kept these sensitive materials carelessly about the property as you can see here, classified documents ended up in a bathroom, a ballroom on a floor spoon about and when a grand jury s
Now in a usual case, an indictment would be returned to a Magistrate Judge in a sealed hearing. It would remain under seal until arrest. But jake, again, we dont know if there is an indictment here. But if there is, its unclear if theyre going to follow the usual script, because this case is of course completely unprecedented. We got a little preview, though, in the maralago indictment. What happened there is the former president , youll probably remember, he broke the news On Truth Social, and then there was several days before we got the details of the case. The Special Counsel got a lot of feedback on handling it that way, allowing the former president to fill the void, not giving people information and the facts in an indictment, particularly in a case of this kind of historic significance. So it will be interesting to see today if, if there is an indictment, how they handle it. If it will be unsealed immediately when the former president will be notified. As you noted, it appears
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
Determinative fraud in the election. And that he had actually won it. The indictment charges trump with four counts. Conspiracy to defraud the u. S. , conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Obstruction in an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. The indictment laying out a detailed timeline, and statebystate efforts to appoint illegal electors an influence local officials to change the outcome in their states. And it also lists six unnamed coconspirators. The indictment alleges trump attempted to enlist Vice President mike pence to obstruct the certification of the election results, and that the violent attack on the Capitol On January 6th was fueled by lies, and as you heard jack smith say right here moments ago, lies by the defendant. Special counsel jack smith making that rare appearance before the cameras, calling the attack on our nations Capitol On January 6th an unprecedented assault on the seat of american democracy. The former presid