County georgia. A grand jury bused in as prosecutors lay out their evidence that donald trump tried to steal the states electoral votes. Witness testimony moved up from tomorrow to today, the trump attacks on a key witness, and Text Messages that directly link the former president s legal team to a Voting System breach. And hawaii wildfire aftermath with the death toll close to 100, were hearing about government failures, failed fire hydrants, Warning Sirens that didnt go off, plus a claim that live power lines were not cut off. The raid on a small kansas newspaper, the editor targeted in the raid joins me this hour. Welcome to the lead. Im jack tapper. We start with our Law And Justice lead. Right now a grand jury is deciding whether to indict donald trump. It was expected to take at least two days for Fulton CountyDistrict Attorney fani willis to produce her evidence. A number of key witnesses who had been told to show up tomorrow and testify have now been called in to testify. Those include former Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan. Cnn learning that Lieutenant Governor duncan just walked into the grand jury room to testify. Trump posted on social media earlier, im reading reports failed Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan, misspelling geoff, is called in to testify. He shouldnt. Cnns sara murray starts us off from Fulton County georgia with a closer look at what these witnesses are telling them behind closed doors. Reporter an atlanta jury arriving to hear the case on Donald Trumps attempts to overturn the election in 2020. Fulton County District attorney fani willis expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals. Security already ramped up around the local courthouse as the former president faces down a likely fourth indictment. Is there any chance you take a plea deal . No plea deal. We did nothing wrong. We dont take plea deals. Its a wise guy question. Reporter trump lashing out at former Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan. Im going to answer the questions presented to me much like i did in the special grand jury, whatever the questions are, to the best of my ability ill answer the questions. Reporter duncan declining to say whether he felt intimidated after trump posted today, im reading reports that failed Lieutenant Governor of georgia jeff duncan will testify before the grand jury. He wouldnt. Followed by a number of insults. Witness tampering blatantly. Hes sending a message to duncan to withhold. Trump doesnt seem to be able to help himself. Reporter this weeks grand jury presentation, the culmination of a sprawling 2. 5 year criminal investigation covering trumps call to georgia Secretary Of State fred raffensperger. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. Reporter to the Fake Electors who convened to cast illegitimate votes for trump, and a Voting Systems breach in rural coffee county. Witnesses including representative bee nguyen and jen jordan testifying about Conspiracy Theory ridden App Allegations in december of 2020. They had all their witnesses that purportedly were telling the State Legislators that they could basically choose the electors and could throw out the votes of millions and millions of georgians. I was sitting there. I thought this cant be real. Reporter while gabriel sterling, an official from the georgia secretary of States Office was also spotted at the courthouse. He was a leading voice in rebutting trumps election lies in realtime back in 2020. Theres no evidence of a Conspiracy Theory, no evidence of some cabal over the top of this, trying to switch the election. Reporter jake, we are on high alert for any potential indictment that could be announced today. As you pointed out, the grand jury is moving much more swiftly than expected. Former Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan was supposed to testify yesterday. Hes in the courthouse today. George chidi was supposed to testify tomorrow, hes in the courthouse today. Things seem to be moving more swiftly than the District Attorneys team initially planned. Were on the watch for any potential indictment. All right. Sara murray in atlanta, Fulton County, thanks so much. Turning to a different investigation of donald trump and a cnn exclusive. Today a group of former republican legal officials endorsed the speedy trial date imposed by special counsel jack smith in his case to overturn the Election Results nationwide. Jamie gangel is joining me. This is the brief. 12 legal luminaries, all republicans. What theyre saying is its not only in Donald Trumps interest and his right as we know to have a speedy trial, but that its also in the American Publics interest because of the nature of what happened on january 6th. Here is part of what the brief says. This is really pushing back on trumps team and trump himself trying to delay the trial. Quote, the former president is entitled to this speedy trial as a matter of law. He is not entitled to an unjust delay in his trial to serve his purely personal and political interests in the delay of the trial. Bottom line, jake. They say the facts of the trial are straightforward. The time it would take. But that the stakes could not be higher. The view is democracy, the future of the country and, again, the American Public has the right to have a prompt, expeditious, speedy trial. Jamie gangel, thank you so much. Lets discuss all this with former federal prosecutor and cnn senior legal analyst, ellie honig. How realistic is this start date . Jake, its a powerful statement by a group of deeply respected former officials. I think judge chutkan has made it clear she intends to decide this case without regard to what anyone on the outside is saying. Her goal to decide the case without regard to politics or outside influence. With respect to how realistic a january 2nd trial date is, i think judge chutkan has made it clear she will schedule this trial before the 2024 election, but january 2nd is just five months before the indictment is returned. That would be remarkably fast. The group jamie is talking about, its correct that the American Public has a right to a speedy trial. Donald trump has a Sixth Amendment right to fully prepare his defense. I look for judge chutkan to find some mid ground here. Lets say she does push the start date further back. Shell be running into the Hush Money Trial in new york set to start at the end of march. Do you think prosecutors in new york might move their case to allow jack smith to bring his first. Alvin braggs case is considered the least credible and the least important of them all, i think its fair to say, among legal experts. I certainly agree with that. I think theres a game of dominos that will happen here. Alvin bragg has made a point of hinting, maybe a bit more than that, in his public interviews that he would be willing to consider moving off that date. Its not solely up to the prosecutor. If he did want to move, he would have to go to his state judge in new york and ask to move that trial. I think if judge chutkan and jack smiths team needed that time, theres a compelling argument to go into the court on the hush money case and say lets put this off. Let me ask you about the social media post from trump about geoff duncan, he was reading reports that duncan was going to testify before the grand jury. And trump writes, quote, he shouldnt, unquote. Is that Witness Intimidation or tampering . Absolutely yes, in my opinion. I dont see any gray area. If you look at the law, it says any attempt to influence or intimidate someone in order to try to influence their testimony or convince them not to testify. This to me is right down the middle. Geoff collduncan is a Colleague Friend of ours here. Im sure hes in there answering the questions straight up. The question is what is the intent by the actor, by donald trump in this case. If drum texted that same message to geoff duncan, there would be no question. The fact he put it out on truth social makes no difference. I think its straight up witness tampering, Witness Intimidation. Is it possible trump might see some sort of punishment for it . If im at the prosecutors office, im thinking hard, do we need to add this into the indictment. You read truth social and say, look, its up to you to decide intent here. You previously talked on our show about how racketeering charges trump might face, carrying a mandatory Prison Sentence of at least five years. Do you think those charges are on the table . Absolutely. This would be a gamechanger for the exact reason you say. Of all the charges lodged against donald trump, none of them carry prison, racketeering would. You have a group of organized individuals who worked together to commit a series of crime. From the false electors scheme, false testimony, other false statements and Pressure Tactics donald trump exerted against raffensperger and other officials, theres a case to be made. Marc short joins me, he was Chief Of Staff to former Vice President mike pence, a current president ial candidate. Thanks for being here. Donald trump expects to be indicted for the fourth Time Since Leaving Office this week. Yet he continues to dominate all the polling out there statebystate and National Polling among Republican Voters. Do you think that a fourth indictment might have a different impact than the previous three . I dont know, jake. I think the previous action probably rallied Republican Voters to their defense. I dont think they were neutral. I think they were beneficial to him. I think the first one brought in new york was probably the most specious and one i think republicans thought was the most political. As we move on into this, i dont think anybody knows how its going to play out. As to whether it will have the same benefit to trump politically. Theres a difference between indictments and sitting there in a rcourtroom, in a trial. Former Vice President pence is facing allegations, theyre false, from trump and other republicans, that he had the ability constitutionally to overturn the Election Results. Your team came out during the january 6th hearing, it came out your team was communicating with the Senate Parliamentarian about what to do with theek Fake Electors. Here is a text message from the office of the Vice President an email. Hope youre doing well. Do you have a spreadsheet you can share for all of us . This is about these Fake Electors. What did what guidance did the Parliamentarian Offer . I know she sent you guys she sent the Vice President s office Fake Electors slates from several states. The parliamentarian met with the Vice President on the day of january 3rd. The Vice President was up in the Senate Swearing in the new members of congress. She actually gave context to say we actually get people sending in fake slates every four years. It happens all the time. And theyre meaningless. It was important for her to stipulate, unless theyre certified by the state, it doesnt really matter. In 1876 there was a very contentious election, the act followed to set forth the criteria for state electors. Knowing none had been certified by the state, they said weve already certified ours. Were not looking at this again. There was no recourse for somebody who wanted to present a false or a separate slate of electors. Its interesting. Also, we know from these emails that the parliamentarian emailed back with a spreadsheet detailing what they called deficiencies of the fake elector submissions. Hence, when he made his presentation on the floor of the senate, he said something normally Vice President s say the same thing pretty much every four years. He said something different. Im not sure if we have that sound bite. Id like to run it if we do. Are there any objections to counting the certificate of vote of the state of alabama that the teller has verified appears to be regular in form and authentic . Hearing none. This certificate from alaska, the parliamentarian has advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state that purports to be returned from the state and has annexed to it a certificate from the authority of the state to ap point and ascertain electors. The language he was using there was much more detailed and much more precise about what the parliamentarian was telling him. The parliamentarian provided our office with traditional scripts. Our General Counsel and head of legislative affairs worked with them to say can we alter it in these ways. It was very carefully articulated because the Vice President wanted the American People who were watching to understand there had only been one slate that was certified, and thats what im augt on the kating. We knew there would be a different story about, well, what about this alternate slate. Theyre meaningless unless certified by the state. Anybody can present them, but it doesnt matter. Right. The scheme allegedly is that trump and john eastman and the others who are coming up with these fake slates of electors from all over the country in michigan theyre being prosecuted now. They wanted the Vice President to act as if, oh, i dont know which one of these slates is real, ill have to send it back to the state, right . Its important to remember really the request was for the Vice President to reject them. Only in the last couple days leading up to january 6th was it really pushed upon the Vice President to say, perhaps you can delay because people thought that sounded better. Its important to say it wouldnt have had a material difference. It was the same purpose. Statutorily congress had to determine the next president. If you delayed it, the idea is this gets pushed to the house of representatives. The notion is in the house of representatives, each State Delegation gets one vote. There were 26 states with a republican delegation and 24 with a democratic delegation. None of the states were going to rethink it. They already certified. Separately the real intention was, if we force a delay this kicks a vote into the house of representatives. For people to understand how this wasnt just random organic, weird happenings, there was this conspiracy. The Fake Electors, and a bunch being prosecuted in michigan right now, this is part of what you and your staff had to deal with and were trying to figure out ways to stave off this illegal scheme. I can assure you, there are also random weird happenings at the state, too. I think the General Counsel, the Vice President carefully put together that language with the Vice President to try to educate the American People. Theres only one slate of certified electors here. Thats what im moving forward with. Marc short, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coming up next, the failures that may have sparked the flames in hawaii and contributed to the deadliest u. S. Wildfire in more than 100 years. Coordinated smashandgrabs. Eyes on the enemy, cnns exclusive look at technology helping on ukraines front lines. There were no surprises. Well, my m Monthly Payment did come out lower than expected. Financing my car with carvana was super smooth. [announcer] finance your next c car with carvana today. 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