Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election are what got him
in the legal trouble in Georgia,
but it's not stopping him from repeating it all over again.
A grand jury in Fulton County has now voted to indict him and 18
others on state criminal charges across 41 counts all of it
stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn Trump's loss there.
CNN's Daniel Dale is with us now.
And Daniel, Trump
has fired off a barrage of false claims about what happened in Georgia
since election night in 2020 but
give us the truth give us give us a fact check.
It's been two and a half years of lies continuing into this morning
when he repeated his vague false claim that the election was rigged.
We know that's false.
There also been a bunch of thoroughly debunked specific conspiracy theories.
I listed ten in an article
Ten Lies about Georgia, an article on CNN Econ two of them stand out to me.
One of them is this claim about thousands of dead voters in Georgia.
At one point he said it was 5000 and he made it 10,000.
And so when reporter said, okay, give us a name, the Trump campaign provided names.
This was in 20, 20. We looked into them.
These were the living people.
For example, they claim that a dead person named Deborah Jeane Christianson
had somehow cast a ballot.
Well, we knocked on the door of the living Deborah Jeane
Christianson, just a woman who happened to have the same name.
So it's an example of just how half baked many of these lies are.
Another one that stands out is this claim that Trump keeps repeating
thoroughly discredited, thoroughly debunked
about two Fulton County election workers supposedly having been caught on
camera, stuffing the ballot box, taking ballots out of suitcases.
They were completely exonerated by the state investigation.
It stands out to me because two senior officials
in Trump's own Justice Department, people he appointed himself, have testified.
They told him directly in 2020 that there was nothing to this.
They were not even suitcases.
These people did not scan the ballots over and over.
It was all wrong.
And yet, two and a half years later, the former president keeps saying it.
And yet here we are still hearing it.
I also want to ask you about these repeated attacks
on Ronnie Willis is that he, the Fulton County D.A.
in this case, in a speech last week.
He even claimed that she was having an affair with a gang member
What did you find out about that?
This stuff is honestly so bananas.
I'm like hesitant to discuss it on television.
Right.
Let me take people through it because it's the baseless no
evidence is a complete distortion.
So there is a rapper named YSL Mondo, who is part of a hip hop collective
that finally Willis
is also prosecuting
members of alleging that their hip hop group is also a criminal street gang.
Now, YSL Mondo
did an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in January saying, hey, fun fact,
when Fanny Willis was a defense lawyer in 2019, she actually represented me.
And we had a cool relationship. She was a great lawyer.
He said we had like auntie to nephew, mother to son type talks.
And I'm surprised that she's now basically prosecuting my buddies.
Well, the Trump campaign made an attack ad out of that, saying that Fanny Willis
concealed a relationship with a member of a gang.
She was prosecuted even though she didn't.
She told Rolling Stone I used to represent the guy when I was a defense lawyer.
Somehow Trump took that further and took Heidi relationship to to make it.
You know, she was having an affair, some sort of illicit
romantic sexual relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting
that is completely out of thin air, no basis for whatsoever.
But he said it in a speech and then said it again on social media.
And you've said it I'll say it completely untrue.
But thank you so much for going through all of that step by step.
The truth.
Obviously so important here.
Daniel Bell, thanks so much. Thank you, Jim.
CNN's Zachary Cohen, he's been covering this from outside
the courthouse in Fulton County.
Zach, makes sense of us.
Four of the latest for us the latest charges coming out of that
courthouse there behind you.
Yeah, Jim, a
busy legal calendar stacking up here for the former president.
We know that the D.A.
Fani Willis in Georgia in Fulton
County here has given the former president ten days to voluntarily surrender.
She also issued
what is effectively an arrest warrant if he does not choose to do so.
We do expect Trump to in person to surrender to authorities here in Georgia.
The logistics and the details of that are still being worked out.
But you got to keep in mind as well
that there are 18 other co-defendants that were named in this indictment
who will also have to turn themselves in to authorities here in Fulton County.
So, you know, if we're going to really see how that plays out in terms of you know,
because Bonnie Willis herself has said that she expects and wants to try all 19
individuals, including Trump together.
And it really does sort of underscore what the message of this indictment was.
The sprawling alleged conspiracy case that Bonnie Willis laid out
in these charging documents with everything
from organizing fake electors to pressuring state officials
to breaching voting machines in Coffey County.
It does paint this narrative of a really broad,
broad conspiracy case that
she now is going to try to charge and charge in the near term
She did not comment when asked on whether she had spoken
to the special counsel to coordinate, given there going to be presumably
some competing court appearances, trial dates, going forward,
would that be expected in these circumstances?
Well, Joe, I think we're kind of in uncharted waters
overall here right now, where the former president, who's now been indicted
four separate times and is facing, you know, potential court
challenges going forward, a court calendar going forward with four separate cases.
But, you know, a federal court,
a federal case in a state case like this that do seem to overlap at times.
They're all going have to work out the logistics.
It was interesting that finally what was previously was asked about any contact
she had with Jackson.
This time, she said she didn't effectively didn't even know who Jackson it was.
We'll see how that plays out going forward.
And if that does change.