Donald Trump is officially the first former president of the United States in
the United States' history to officially be criminally indicted by a grand jury.
Yes, the New York grand jury has in fact voted in favor of pressing criminal
charges against Donald Trump in connection to the hush money payments that
were paid to Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Cenk can't help himself, go ahead.
>> Ladies and gentlemen, we got, well, did we?
Hold on.
>> Ladies and gentlemen.
>> Maybe.
Okay, no, listen guys, seriously, it's just an indictment.
It doesn't mean that he's in handcuffs and
it doesn't mean that he's gonna serve time in prison.
>> Not yet.
>> But it is a bit shocking.
I mean, Alvin Bragg in New York took action, a Democrat took action,
and Trump has actually been held accountable this much.
Holy cow, back to the details.
>> So this story literally just broke.
So it is developing as we speak, and
we will continue updating you as we learn more.
But here's what we know so far, okay.
We don't know what the charges are precisely.
However, the felony indictment filed under seal by the Manhattan district attorney's
office will likely be announced in the coming days.
By then, prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin Bragg,
will have asked Trump to surrender and
to face arraignment on charges that remain unknown for now.
Now, I'm sure most of you are wondering what is the reaction from Trump.
The latest on that is that Trump is at Mar-a-Lago,
taking in the information, absorbing the information.
I'm sure we're gonna hear quite a bit from Trump.
Now, his actions surrounding the 2020 election are also the focus of
a separate federal investigation.
And also, a Georgia prosecutor is in the final stages of investigating
Trump's attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
But those are separate cases.
Now, what's likely to happen now?
According to the New York Times, Bragg and
his lawyers will likely attempt to negotiate Trump's surrender.
If he agrees, it will raise the prospect of a former president,
with the Secret Service in tow, being photographed and
fingerprinted in the bowels of a New York State courthouse.
And if he does in fact get arrested, he is likely to be fingerprinted, photographed,
read his Miranda rights,
although I highly doubt that he will take advantage of the right to remain silent.
And while it is in fact standard for
defendants arrested on felony charges to be handcuffed,
it's unclear whether they're gonna do that to a former president.
When it comes to white collar criminals, they make an exception, instead of
handcuffing them behind their backs, they get handcuffed in front of their bodies.
I don't know how much of a difference that makes, but nonetheless.
And the star witness in this case is, of course, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen,
who spent time in prison in connection to the hush money payments.
Because he was the one who gave Stormy Daniels the $130,000, and then
it was the Trump Organization that covered that cost and then attempted to hide it.
And so that is a big part of this investigation and this prosecution.
I wanna read one more thing, Cenk, cuz it's really important here.
Now, a conviction, this is the most important thing to keep in mind, and
I don't mean to be a downer, a conviction is not a sure thing,
according to the New York Times.
An attempt to combine a charge relating to the false records with
an election violation relating to the payment to Daniels would be
based on a legal theory that has yet to be evaluated by judges,
raising the possibility that a court could throw out or limit the charges.
>> Okay, so I wanna explain what that is cuz it's really important here.
And it's, of course, being misconstrued, not just by rightwing media,
but unfortunately, by almost all the pundits in mainstream media.
So there's two different charges here.
One is a state charge of fraudulent bookkeeping,
that is when the Trump Organization says,
I am giving this money to Michael Cohen for legal services.
>> Right. >> Now,
Michael Cohen has already testified that it was not for legal services,
that was for the hush money to Stormy Daniels, okay?
That is a state law violation, okay?
Now, there's statute of limitations issues here, and it's critical.
That's because Alvin Bragg and all the other prosecutors in Manhattan sat on it
forever and ever and ever, I think they were afraid to take action.
But here credit where credit is due, they have taken action now.
I wish they had taken it earlier before the statute of limitations.
Anyway, the federal charge is about campaign finance violations.
Again, Michael Cohen also got convicted of that,
because they clearly went around campaign finance law to pay Stormy Daniels because
they were trying to keep her quiet before the election.
>> And quiet about what? >> Clearly related to the campaign.
>> Right, I mean, I'm sure most people know, but
keep her quiet in regard to the affair that she had with Donald Trump.
He didn't want that getting out there.
>> Exactly, and that affair happened only months after Melania Trump had just
delivered their child.
It was among many affairs that Donald Trump had, and obviously,
they thought it would have been damaging,
especially to his evangelical Christian base, before the 2016 election.
So none of those things are unclear.
All the facts are super clear.
Donald Trump definitely did it and
his co-conspirator already spent years in prison for it, right?
That's his fixer, his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Now, the reason why they say he might get off is on a technicality.
They're saying, well, if the statute of limitations ran on one of the charges,
can you really combine the two charges to make it a state charge for
the Manhattan DA to be able to do it instead of a federal prosecutor doing
the campaign finance law violations?
So he might get off on a technicality on how they combine the charges.
But unfortunately, if you watch cable news now, not just Fox News but all of it,
you might get the impression that, he didn't do it.
And it's hard to prove, because my God, he didn't pay her hush money,
which is ridiculous, he 1,000% paid her hush money, and
that it's not a violation of campaign finance law.
No, that's ridiculous, it's 100% a violation of campaign finance law,
it's a violation of the state law, and fraudulent bookkeeping,
there's no question about it.
They should all clarify, Trump's only chance to get off is either,
A, he's a celebrity and an elite, and
people think that former presidents should be above the law.
And you might get a couple of MAGA guys on the jury, and
then next thing you know he's free to go.
Or B, he gets off on a technicality.
But he definitely did it, and that should be clear.
And thank you, not just to Alvin Bragg here but to the grand jury, that looked
at him and said, I don't care how elite he is, I don't care how rich and powerful he
is, and I don't care if you put the handcuffs on the back or the front.
He's guilty, and we'd like to see him go to trial over this.
And again, they don't adjudicate that he's guilty, the grand jury just says, yes,
there should be a trial cuz we think he did it.
>> Exactly, so that's all this means.
It means that there will be a trial.
A few other things that I wanna mention.
So for those who might think that this bars the former president
from running for president again, it does not.
The vote by a Manhattan grand jury to indict Donald Trump raises novel legal and
political questions because he is in fact running for the Republican ticket.
[LAUGH] We all know that, he's already started campaigning, but any indictment or
conviction would not bar Trump from running.
This has already been reported, but I just wanted to remind the audience of that in
case you might be under the impression that this does in fact
ban candidates from running for president, in Trump's case, again.
And the reaction from some of the rightwing pundits is already starting to
trickle in.
>> Of course.
>> So Jim Jordan kept it simple and just tweeted out the word outrageous,
which- >> Outrageous that a politician would be
held to account like one of the masses, one of the plebeian peasants.
We are Republican politicians, we should be above the law.
I know that's what you're saying.
I would love it if that were not the case.
Let's go, New York.
Let's go, jury.
>> Right, I mean, look, it's interesting because for
the longest time, I felt that I would be giddy about this moment.
I'm happy that he's gonna be held accountable as anyone should,
I don't care if you're in a position of power or not.
But it's interesting because while the rightwing seems to celebrate
anything that hurts the lives of their political opponents but
has nothing to do with materially improving their lives, they don't care.
They love it, they're so celebratory about that stuff.
But then at the end of the day, this is just someone who very likely
committed a serious crime being held to account.
Doesn't make my life better, but at least it shows that there's some justice when it
comes to people in positions of power.
>> Yes, and look, guys, I'll add these two.
So one, I think it's fun, but the serious one is, if I thought he didn't do it,
and I hate Donald Trump and I think he's a threat to democracy,
I would never want them to prosecute him, cuz that is a super dangerous precedent.
Once you start doing political prosecutions, there's, A, no end to it, B,
you're beginning to lose your democracy, and C,
they will mainly do it to progressives, okay?
Cuz the power system is set up to be conservative to keep the status quo.
Any credible challenge to it is not gonna come from the rightwing.
The rightwing is like, more tax cuts for the rich.
They're like, golly gee, don't hurt us too bad, right?
Any credible challenge is gonna come from the left,
the political prosecutions would be directed mainly at the left.
So I would hate and I don't want that.
This is not that.
He definitely broke the law, his co-conspirator definitely went to prison
for it, there's no question about it.
>> Exactly, I mean, the fact that Michael Cohen was found guilty and
served time in prison tells you everything you need to know.
And real quick, sorry to interrupt you, Cenk, but more reactions are trickling in.
And it's actually shocking how much rightwing media figures provide cover for
someone that they clearly don't respect or like, and who clearly broke the law.
So Ben Shapiro, just quote tweets the New York Times reporting on this story and
says, an act of legal absurdity.
In what way?
>> In what way?
Because we think that the prosecutors took too long to prosecute Donald Trump.
And he did break those two laws, but
hey, I don't want you to combine those two broken laws into one.
>> No, I think- >> You don't believe that.
>> No, this is- >> You're all lying.
You know he did it, you just don't want him to go to jail for
it cuz he's your dear leader.
>> Okay, but I wanna make something clear, and
I also wanna say this is speculation, but this is what I think is going on.
When it comes to people like Ben Shapiro, I don't think that he's necessarily
saying that Trump didn't do it and it's absurd to prosecute him.
I think he's thinking about the political ramifications of this, okay?
My feeling just based on what he has said about Donald Trump versus DeSantis,
he favors DeSantis.
Something like this makes Donald Trump a martyr in the eyes of the Republican
electorate.
And that does not bode well for the Republican Party because,
are the independents that they desperately need to get Trump elected gonna vote for
him knowing that he is indicted,
potentially by the time the election rolls around, maybe even convicted?
>> Yeah, look, I get it.
But the only person in the media that's gotten this right outside of us, I think,
I'm sure that there are others, but that I have seen it,
especially in mainstream media, is Jon Stewart.
Jon Stewart said the only sensible thing, which is, did he break the law or
didn't he?
You either prosecute him based on that or not.
All these political considerations of, he'd be a martyr, it might help him,
you shouldn't consider whether it would hurt him or
help him, you should only consider whether he broke the law, right?
>> 100%, 100%.
>> So even if I thought, hey, this is gonna help Donald Trump,
I would hate that politically that it helps him, you should still do it.
Because you can't say, well, people running for president or people who
are already president are above the law and they can break any damn law they like.
We can't have it.
>> Prosecutors aren't supposed to make political calculations, that's ridiculous.
>> 100%, 100%.
And by the way, all these prognosticators, I don't believe any of them.
So this will definitely help Trump.
And before they were saying that it was definitely gonna hurt Trump.
Whatever, they don't know anything.
So- >> And it doesn't matter.
>> And it doesn't matter.
Just uphold the law, period.
Now, final fun fact, this does mean there will be a Donald Trump mug shot.
>> Really, I was wondering about that.
>> That's what happens normally, whether they release it is a different question.
But they just told you they're gonna take fingerprints and take a picture,
that's called a mug shot, no ands, ifs, or buts.
Now, whether they make an exception cuz it's the former president,
they don't wanna embarrass him or help him or whatever it is,
that will be a political decision.
But that's a mug shot.
>> Yeah, and it's likely that Trump will negotiate the arrest with the prosecutors.
So- >> Yeah, and rich people get to do that.
>> Which is- >> That's normal.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> Yeah, I mean, it's hilarious, but it's normal.
He's not getting special privileges there.
Any rich person gets to say, I'll tell you when you're going to arrest me, and
I'll tell you how you can arrest me, and they have their lawyers negotiate it.
Of course, poor and middle class people have their door broken in,
[LAUGH] handcuffed, if not shot, and then brought to prison.