We are
covering the
Trump indictment
from the nation's capital
to the campaign trail.
CNN correspondent
Jack Cohen is in Washington
with details on the charges
in the indictment.
Randi, Kaye is in Miami
with a look at security
precautions for Trump's court appearance.
And Elaina, TREENE
is covering the campaign.
Trump holds rallies
today in Georgia and North Carolina.
We'll start
first with CNN national security
and justice reporter
Zach Cohen in Washington
to break down the nuts
and bolts of the indictment.
Yeah.
Zach,
there are a lot of details
in those documents.
Stunning details.
Tell us what you're learning.
Yeah, Victor.
And prosecutors
are alleging that Donald Trump
knowingly, intentionally
retained hundreds
of classified documents.
If you look at the charges,
the 37 counts
in this indictment document.
31 of them
have to do
with the willful retention
of national defense information.
Now, that is
pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
And if you look at this one
paragraph, paragraph
three of the indictment, it spells it out
very clearly.
The kind of information
we're talking about.
We're talking about information
related to US weapons systems, US defense
programs, US
nuclear capabilities, Really,
this is these documents
did deal with some of our nation's
most sensitive secrets.
And it also
it came from a variety of different
agencies, intelligence agencies
that included the CIA,
that included the NSA.
So a large variety
of very sensitive documents
were found at Mar a Lago.
And Jack
Smith really underscored
the seriousness of that
in his remarks yesterday.
Now, the other counts
that we're looking at here
deal with obstruction and concealment.
There's even a reference there to
something Trump allegedly
said to his lawyers before
the FBI came down to search Mar a Lago.
He said something to the effect of,
wouldn't it be better
if we just told them
we didn't have anything here?
And of course, he knew full
well that they did have something there
in the form of several classified
documents, boxes of classified documents.
And this indictment
overall really lays out
the narrative
of what investigators have found
as they've looked
deeper and deeper
into former President Trump's
handling of classified documents.
And frankly, it's
a pretty damning indictment.
It sure is.
Zach Cohen, appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Let's talk more about this
damning indictment.
Joining me now is Dave
Aronberg, state attorney
for Palm Beach County, Florida.
And I've got to say,
and I was just talking about this
with Victor here,
I mean, it is really an easy read.
There's not a lot of legalese
in this indictment.
And just like the special counsel
is urging all Americans to read it,
you really should.
There are so many stunning details,
Dave, to you,
because Trump is accused
of so many things,
you know, lying
and scheming
to hold on to these documents,
showing them off
and even the way
these documents were stored.
What really stunned you?
What stuck out to the most
Good to be with you.
I think what surprised me
was just the level of involvement
that Donald Trump had in all of this.
He can't just blame this
on the coffee boy.
There are 38 counts.
37 apply to Donald Trump.
And the indictment is powerful
and damning.
It shows that Trump was involved
in every step of this process.
He packed the boxes, he stored the boxes.
He directed the movement of the boxes.
He tried to hide the boxes
not just from the government,
but from his own lawyer.
He asked people to lie about it.
He disseminated
the classified information to others.
You've got violations
of the Espionage Act,
the obstruction laws and lying.
It's really bad for Donald Trump.
And there was a lot of evidence, right?
I mean,
especially Trump's
attorney, Evan Corcoran,
his voice
memos and, of course, some audio
recordings of Trump himself.
In conversations.
Tell us about that
and how critical these this evidence was.
It is
unusual that the key evidence against
it comes from your own lawyer.
So you bring up a good point
about Evan Corcoran.
Usually attorney client
privilege is sacrosanct.
But, you know, Trump has said
that he wants his lawyers
to be like Roy Cohn,
the notoriously corrupt lawyer
friends with Richard Nixon.
You know,
as such,
Trump is free in his mind
to make these damaging comments
to his own lawyers,
whether it's Evan Corcoran
or Michael Cohen.
And you see
in the pages of the indictment
that a lot of this evidence comes
from Evan Corcoran.
So when the Department of Justice
got access to Corcoran's
personal notes, his voice notes,
and these were copious notes, these were
meticulous notes
under the legal theory of CIA
because that's what Corcoran is doing.
He wanted to cover himself up here
in case he was ever
charged with obstruction.
But these notes have come back
to haunt him.
It's a treasure trove of information
that details
Trump's involvement
from beginning to end.
Of all, it's
my favorite part
was the part where Donald Trump
wanted Corcoran to be like Hillary
Clinton's lawyer, who he believed
covered up for her,
deleted all the emails.
This was why he ran for president.
He said, I'm going to lock you up, right?
You'd be in jail.
Now, he wants his own lawyer
to be like the lawyer
who guided Hillary Clinton.
It's really ironic.
And I guess, you know,
no surprise
when it comes to the high turnover
rate of his legal team. Right.
So we saw this
sort of move happen on Friday
where Trump said
that he was removing
two of his top attorneys, Jim Trustee
and John Rowley from the case.
And he said that Todd Blanch,
a defense lawyer, that he hired in April
after being indicted in Manhattan,
he will now take the lead.
And, of course,
you had a trustee in Raleigh
saying that they were resigning
from the legal team entirely
What's the strategy here?
The strategy
just to find
a lawyer
who will take the case in Florida,
who has knowledge in this area.
The problem
is, as is respected as his new lawyer
is, apparently is not an expert
in the field of national security.
We lawyers are specialists.
And you want someone who is used
to this stuff
dealing with classified information
because you're going against, gee, Brett
who's the head of the Department
of Justice's
Counterintelligence Division,
and you're going against Jack Smith,
who's a bulldog.
You want to bring your A-game
and you don't want to bring
someone who's new to this area.
But this is what happens
with Donald Trump.
You know, lawyers are reluctant to work for him
because look at Chris Chi's
well-respected former solicitor
general, Florida
brought on to help Trump
given a $3 million retainer.
Trump didn't like his advice.
Guys wanted Trump to be cooperative
with the DOJ.
Trump rejected it.
He sidelined him.
And now he's stuck
with whatever he can get.
Also, it doesn't help
that Trump continues
to make a tax on prosecutors,
and he probably will attack
judges, too, in the future.
Not helpful
if you're representing him
when you have a former President Trump
attacking this independent
special counsel
Jack Smith, calling him
a lunatic and a Trump hater.
Do you see this backfiring in any way
Yeah, I could see that the
judge is part of Trump's
pretrial release will impose
some restrictions on what Trump can say.
And that's going to be hard
for Donald Trump.
He's out there
on the campaign
trail and grievance is his rocket fuel.
I mean, that's what Powers MAGA.
And for him to not be able to attack
those who he thinks are persecuting him,
that's going to be hard for him to do.
And that could be the easiest way
for him to end up in an orange jumpsuit
by violating a court order.
And lastly,
so the arraignment on Tuesday,
a few days from now, 3 p.m.
in Miami, where Trump will be
told about the charges against him,
he will enter a plea.
What are you hearing?
Because you're there in Palm Beach,
not far from Miami,
in terms of law enforcement.
Are they scrambling?
We know the DOJ is sending some resources
down there as well.
But what is all that going to look like,
how it's going to play out from
a security standpoint?
Oh, yeah.
They're going to be ready this time
because when Trump is out there
on social media saying,
you know,
get ready for Tuesday,
reminds you of what he said
in advance of January six.
So they're going to be ready.
And a big reason
that they're going down to Miami,
which really doesn't have a connection
to this case.
This all happened here in Palm
Beach County, Miami is 71 miles away
But they've got this big courthouse
with a lot of security,
a lot of resources.
And I think that's why
they're having it down there.
They're better equipped, apparently,
to deal with this show
than the smaller courthouses of West Palm
Beach or Fort Pierce.
So I think they will be prepared.
So from a practical standpoint,
it makes sense.
Dave Aronberg, appreciate you as always.
Thank you very much.
Let's talk more about security
now and go live to Randi Kaye in Miami
outside the federal courthouse.
So on the question of security,
what do we know about logistics so far?
Good morning, Victor.
What we know is that securing
the scene
really will start
as soon as the former president leaves
Mar a Lago
to make that
71 mile trip down here
to the federal courthouse in Miami.
I've spoken with some of my law
enforcement contacts,
and they tell me
that we can likely expect
they will
have some sort of exclusive lane
exclusive access on that Interstate
95 as the former president
makes his way down here.
They will limit
some of those lanes, perhaps
putting in some lane closures
on that highway also as far as court.
There will be some type of perimeter
set up.
They'll look to be keeping
not only protesters back,
but his supporters back as well.
And this really will be
a coordinated effort
between Secret Service,
the Miami police,
who will be in charge of detours
and any road closures in the area.
But also the FBI and U.S.
Marshals as well.
They did do a threat assessment here
at the Miami federal courthouse.
They didn't find any credible threats.
They're also monitoring social media
from what I'm told.
Looking for any actionable intelligence.
They're also looking
for any calls to action
because they certainly don't want
another January six situation here.
At the Miami federal courthouse.
So they are expecting
large crowds here, supporters,
protesters, media, etc.
There will be eyes everywhere
from law enforcement
and one other note, Victor, is
that this is a very large complex.
They are certainly going to be
looking to limit
Donald Trump's exposure
to those on the outside.
There's a lot of entrances,
a lot of doors here.
Very likely
they will take him
in one of the back doors
where most people
won't be able to see him,
probably bring him through the basement
of this courthouse,
up to the courtroom for his arraignment.
Victor,
you have been speaking
with some of the Trump supporters there.
What have you been hearing
Yeah, we spent
the last couple of days at Mar
a Lago talking to some of his supporters.
And, you know, they
they just do not believe
that the former president
had any classified documents.
In fact, I told them
what was in the indictment yesterday
and I showed them
the pictures
of these
boxes of alleged documents in the shower
in the bathroom, in the ballroom.
And they said
that those pictures were doctored
or they were fake.
They believe if he did have any documents
there, they were planted.
And they just don't believe
that he would do
anything like this Victor.
All right. Randi Kaye, thank you.