Full control of its territory . And go with a search for answers takes you Anderson Cooper, 360, weeknight today on cnn welcome to the whole story. Im Anderson Cooper last week, former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue of president ial immunity further delaying his federal criminal trial related to the 2020 election in the january for six attack on the capitol now the claim was already heard and rejected by a federal Appeals Court. Its now up to the highest court to decide to take the case or to let the ruling stand clear the way for this trial to begin. Now the timing is crucial because the former president is likely to become the republican nominee and he wants to delay the trial until after voters head to the polls in november charged with four counts of obstruction and conspiracy. But what exactly is he accused of doing to subvert the election . And is it his actions that matter or his intent . Over the next hour, cnn anchor and chief legal analyst laura coates, well lay out the facts. The federal indictment, most of which are undisputed by the former president and his attorneys. And examine the strengths and the weaknesses of the case against him. Today. An indictment was unsealed, charging donald j. Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States conspiring to disenfranchise voters and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding the attack on our Nations Capital on january 6, 2021 was an unprecedented assault. Ccl american democracy it was fueled by lies in august 2023, less than a year after Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland appointed jack smith as Special Counsel to investigate donald trump the former president was indicted on federal felony charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 president ial election. If you count the legal votes i easily win numerous times we found glitches and every single time that lh went 100 the biden trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges this indictment told her very cohesive story that former President Trump was responsible for the conspiracy to tell American Public that the election had been stolen. Big difference between losing winning, and having it stolen. That he used various mechanisms to push forward that big lie. And that it led to the attack on the capitol out of the gate page, one of the federal criminal indictment begins with a statement that donald trump has spent the past three years denying. The very first thing they said, donald trump lost the election. Thats the first statement and even before outlining the criminal charges, the Special Counsel chose to address trumps claim that the government has infringed on his First Amendment right to free speech the cases is a ridiculous cases. The First Amendment case, a Special Counsel makes it very clear that the words that more President Trump said he is it is allowed to save them but they can be used as evidenced to show intent. They can be used in court. Trump is charged with four felonies emanating from one set of facts established in the criminal indictment. The first one is a conspiracy to defraud the United States, essentially a conspiracy who steal the election from the United States and from the voters. The second and the third charts are obstruction and conspiracy to commit obstruction. And the just there as that Donald Trumps goal who wants to try to block or delay the counting of the electoral votes in congress then the fourth charge is a conspiracy against rights, which specifically means a conspiracy to deprive the American Voters of there, right to vote because he tried to steal flexion. That he actually had lost. We fight we fight like hell. One crime. Trump has not been charged with. We will stop the still insurrection i think jack smith wanted to keep his charges as straightforward and plain as possible. I think he realized that insurrection is harder to prove than obstruction or conspiracy to have to prove this intent to overthrow the United States government jack smiths indictment has only four counts whats behind that straight to the heart, like a cannon ball and the heart here is donald trump, not the people around him, not the people in the state state, which may explain why the indictment includes six unnamed unindicted coconspirators from trumps orbit even though the coconspirators are not named, the descriptors are specific enough to clearly reveal most, if not all, of their identities there are other reasons why Jack Smith May have declined to pursue indictments against the coconspirators. I do think one of the goals that jack smith had in charging the case, the way he did is to try to flip others like Tim Parlatore want to trumps former attorneys point to speed. Jack smith clearly wants to get this case tried before the election. Theres no way that jack smith is going to add a codefendant to this case because that will definitely push the trial out. Past the election with this trial, Time Is Of The Essence donald trump is the presumed republican nominee for president Jackson Smith for all the pushing hes done to try this case as quickly as possible. He has never and i believe well never acknowledged that he wants to try trump specifically before the election. I think he doesnt want that appearance of anything that might be interpreted as being political the 45 Page Indictment alleges in stunning detail exactly what donald trump did to remain in power much of which the American Public is familiar with from the january 6 committees investigation, President Trump relentlessly pursued multiple the Department Of Justice was able to take what we did and they had some more tools, they add some more ways to compel witnesses. And i think they have a lot more information. Everything weve been learning has been in sort of dribs and drabs and reports with the exception of when jack smith filed things Special Counsel, jack smith plans to present evidence, filings have tipped the public off to previously unknown aspects of the case, like allegations that a Trump Campaign employee sought to start a riot two boat obstruct the vote count in detroit. Is it safe to say that the indictment is the tip of an iceberg and what theyre really preparing to present at trial i think it is safe to say that the indictment is exactly that that it gives us a little bit of a vantage point. He wanted to tell a story, but i think at johns im sure after juncture, smith has earned on the side of staying sphinx like and not revealing which tracks with the Special Counsels reputation. Ive never seen a prosecutor who hates the camera as much as jack smith. And i mean that as a Compliment Tonic Ideal of the prosecutor would be somebody who has no interest in public profile, who just wants to keep his head down and do job. I think jack smith is that he certainly projecting that jack smith by reputation is a hard Driving Prosecutor to you. Ryan goodman a former Special Counsel at the department of defense, and a professor at nyu. He has gone after a political corruption on both sides of the aisle democrats and republicans, he is also somebody who served as a War Crimes Prosecutor and has indicted a sitting president in kosovo so heres that kind of an individual that moves fast and moves aggressively at the same time that also might come with some risks why is there some criticism that he overreaches . Well, if you look at jack smiths history, his three highest cases for this, all of them have failed either at the trial level or the appellate level. And so the criticism is, well, hes overeager, hes over anxious what is going to be one of the toughest hurdles for jack smiths team to overcome everything in this case will turn on what Donald TrumpsState Of Mind is and whether there was corrupt intent. All the facts they play down on National Television the speeches have been played millions of times. Here in georgia, there were Tens Of Thousands of illegal votes cast. So theres not gonna be that much in the way of District Feuded issues of fact, but its more of an interpretation. Our lecture was so corrupt that in the history of this country, weve never seen anything like it ultimately, the way that this case is going when have to be framed to a jury is the difference between trying to fraudulently overturn the will of the people verdict this is trying to do everything in your power to ensure that the will of the people was accurately counted we know hi, there was massive fraud. The prosecution alleges that trumps spread prolific lies about the election lies they say he knew were false. The Indictment Sites and exhaustive list of those surrounding the former president who told trump that his claims were untrue even mike pence, trumps loyal Vice President , told the then president he had seen no evidence of outcome determinative fraud why is that so important . Its important to lay out that the former president was told that he had lost the election because it goes back to that intent piece. Its important for the Special Counsel to establish that former President Trump knew or that are reasonable person would have known that they lost the election. Id were going to the capitol it is sent control because the fact that he knew means that all these things that happen leading up to january 6 and on january 6 had an intended goal, hadnt intended purpose, hadnt intended outcome. And that purpose was frankly the overthrow of the federal government and the invalidation of a legitimate election by the people, the United States of america thats chile coming up in the Legislature Gets to do what it wants. Had this rogue legal theory, theres overwhelming proof for fraud. The Pressure Campaign hits the swing states. 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Control of its territory and go with a search for answers takes you Anderson Cooper three, 60 weeknight today on cnn it was hello and of pressure on my colleagues on the republican side of the aisle to start in motion, something that would lead to donald trump being able to overturn the election by the time Georgia State senator elaine apparent attended a meeting at the State Capitol on december 3, 2020. Joe biden had already been declared the winner. She wondered why her peers across the aisle had hastily convened this meeting. I feared that we were going to be walking into an amplification of disinformation and Conspiracy Theories. And the De Feature Vote called the subcommittee of the judiciary to order ostensibly the meeting was called to address allegations theres a fraud in the president ial election the reality was much darker were you expecting to see members of trumps legal team at that meeting . Not at all. It was a total ambush and i was livid the election must be vacated and cannot be allowed to stand members of the president s legal team pushed wild unsubstantiated claims. Some of the most shocking were shown in a video. Trumps team falsely claimed that video was evidenced of fraud from Election Night ballot counting at the State Farm Arena in atlanta. Once everyone is gone, coaston clear they are going to pull ballots out from underneath a table and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was there supporting the claims well, i dont have to be a genius to figure out what happened as the meeting unfolded, trump tweeted about the hearing amplifying the lies to his tens of millions of followers and then another member of the Trump Legal Team pushed a theory that took the meeting into dangerous New Territory my name is john eastman. Im a Professor Of Constitutional Law and former he had this rogue legal theory that if the legislature felt odd about the results of the election, it was argued it to seize the decision on who georgias electoral votes should go to, correct me if im wrong here, your argument is that essentially we have a failed election that would require the legislature to step in and assign electors. Am i correct . Yes. And thats when the purpose of the meeting became clear they thought that they could get officials there to call a special session throughout their electors. And appoint a on alternate set of electricity or fake electors Urine Attorney . Yes. What did you make a bet legal argument i thought it was totally bogus because it was very clear under georgia law that we had no such power during the hearing. Parent tweeted about being forced to listen to the trump teams Conspiracy Theories all of a sudden, i was going viral in these rightwing segments of twitter you would bring threatened. Oh yeah. Right away. Right away. Death threats, right away . State senator parent wasnt alone defending georgias free and Fair Election other georgia officials like Governor Brian Kemp and Attorney General chris carr, fielded in treaties from the president audio from Secretary Of StateBrad Raffensperger is our long phone call with the president was leaked. I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state you got to see a window into Donald Trumps heart he was willing to just push without facts or figures in elected official to do something illegal according to the indictment, georgia wasnt the only state targeted by trump. And his allies across other crucial swing states. Similar effort to overturn the election were occurring time and time again. Trump and his cohorts were stymied by local politicians many times, fellow republicans, like former Arizona House speaker rusty bowers, who got a call from trump and julian dani. You said that there is a legal theory are illegal ability in arizona that you can remove the electors of President Biden and replace them. And i said, ive never heard of any such thing. Trump also invited michigan republicans to the white house, where he raised already debunked theories about fraud in their state. Did you make the point to the president that you were not going to do anything that violated michigan law . I believe we did. I think that the words that i would have mor