And we begin with the news on former President Trump saying his attorneys have told him that he's been indicted indicted over the document's case. At Baxter, I know this is just breaking now you're in the Bloomberg newsroom in San Francisco. Do we know anything more at this point?
Well, you know what we're going to get with an expert here in just a second. We know that it was a post Doug that his attorneys told him he's been indicted over the document's case. We know that it was moved to Florida. Let's get more now Bloomberg's a legal expert at a host of Bloomberg Law. June Grosso is with US Life. All right, June, So we know that they moved a couple of weeks ago the grand jury proceedings down to Florida. What do we know about this indictment at this point, Well.
I don't know what the indictment says. The indictment could be on several different charges. There could be an obstruction charge in there, there could be an espionage a charge in there. It could just be mishandling of classified documents. It's hard to tell at this point what they decided to charge him with, so, you know, beyond him saying he's indicted, we don't really know much.
Yeah, and he said it now, just yesterday or the day before, he had said that nobody had said anything to him about it, which may be true. He likes to break the news himself, So this this came down. I don't mean to be cynical there we left, but he.
Does you know, he said that nobody had told him he was going to get indicted. That doesn't mean no one told him he was the target of the investigation, which is what the letter. You know, what the what the prosecutors tell you. They tell you the target of the investigation, and everybody draws the conclusion that, okay, if they're telling us this, that's their requirement, and that means that you're going to get indicted. So I think he was parsing words perhaps there.
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, thank you for making that distinction. I didn't make it clear. Now we've just got another headline June up saying he's been summoned to appear in Miami court on two. What is a process do you think from here?
Well, you know, I think we'll learn more about this indictment. I assume that the Special Counsel or perhaps even the Attorney General is going to have a press conference. I mean, these indictments are sealed usually, so we find out about them when they decide to tell us. In this case, Trump decided to tell us so, but normally we'd wait for the prosecutors and he'll have to make an appearance
in court and you know, plead not guilty. Most likely it will be probably a very brief appearance, sort of like we saw in New York. What's interesting here is that after having a grand jury in Washington, d C. For so long investigating the classified documents, the Special Council decided to open a grand jury investigation in Florida. And the thought is that he wanted to be sure that there would be you know, the venue would be met,
that this was where. In other words, you have to have the case in the place where the alleged crime took place. So in this case, any obstruction or any hiding, any thing like that would have been done in Florida. And also this means that the Trump team loses a ground to try to stop the trial by saying, wait a second, this shouldn't be in Washington, D C. This
should be in Florida. But I think that, you know, the prosecutors are going to have a harder time in Florida, that the jury pool is not going to be as sympathetic to the federal government as it might have been in DC.
Yeah, but that does not stop mister Trump from trying to change the venue. But Florida is where he has indicated that he would like it. Correct.
I don't know exactly what he said about it, but one assumes that he preferred Florida. As I said, it's, you know, a venue where there would likely be a jury pool that's friendlier to him and less likely to you know, agree with the federal government on some things as opposed to you know, DC or New York. So yeah, I think that that would be the best, the preferred venue for him. And it's just I think it shows that the prosecutors want to move this along very quickly.
They want to get this to trial, and they don't want to be hung up in a lot of pre trial motions.
Yeah. And so Tuesday you say would be short. Now, let's go through the as you say, it's sealed it and it will will be opened most probably on Tuesday by the by the court. But the potential charges could be number one, that he took classified documents out of the White House. Number two that he that he obstructed justice in trying to let the FBI or DJ do its job. That those are potential Are they not right?
And I think, you know, the obstruction of justice charge is very serious. And I something that you know, as we analyze the evidence that they seemed to have, that they might have enough to make a case about obstruction of justice. I mean, we discovered that they have all kinds of evidence. For example, they have a video tape of someone moving the boxes fro in mar Lago to a storage room the day before the federal prosecutors were
scheduled to appear to collect them. There apparently is a tape, an audio tape of former President Trump bragging to a group of people that he had in his hand. No one saw it was in his hand, but he had in his hand some classified material about US intervention with Iraq, with possible with Iran. And also that he said that he knew that he shouldn't have. That's like a critical piece of information because he's admitting that he knew what
was going on. And also something that I think sort of when this happened, I thought, well, they have a case because one of his attorneys has had to go before the grand jury and testify because the judge ruled what's called a crime fraud exception, and that is that if the judge believes that the defendant in this case, so the potential defendant in this case is using the lawyer as part of the crime, it's not the lawyer's crime, it's the defendant's crime, then they allow them to pierce
the lawyer client privilege. And that's very rare that it happens, and very rare that it that it's granted. And in this case, Evan Corkran ended up not only testifying before the grand jury, but also turning over written notes and are written and an audio tape that he had about his conversations with Trump. So there seems to be a lot of evidence beyond just what we know about, you know, people coming in and testifying as to what Trump's state
of mine was. So, you know, it would be really interesting to see whether this indictment sort of walk through the evidence that they have a talking indictment rather than what happened in New York where we didn't know very much when we saw the indictment.
Yeah, and June I I. And again I'm not trying to be cynical here, but it would be very smart for mister Trump at this point to not say too much. And yet he's on truth social part of his posting blitz now is quote that corrupt Biden administration has informed my attorneys that I have been indicted seemingly over the Box's hoax. So he's not going to calm the heat going into this. But could any of what he says now be be held against him in the court of.
Law, Well, it depends on what he says. I mean, he said so much about these documents. He said that he could, you know, wave his hand and all the documents were declassified, and that just by asking for them. I mean, he said so many things that really are not grounded in fact. But what I think he's trying to do here to a certain extent is, you know, mess with the jury pool, sort of get the jury
pool in his favor. And that's difficult to do. But yet enough you hear enough of this over and over and over again, and it starts to affect some people. So I think in this case. If it's held in Florida, as we suspect, there's going to have to be a lot a really strenuous waddear of the jurors, the potential jurors, to make sure that they've not been painted by any of these things. But Trump is also running for public office for president, so he also wants to get the
electorate on his side. So he has a lot of different reasons for getting out there and making these statements, even though his attorneys may have advised him and probably did advise him not to say anything. I mean, we saw what happened with the New York case. Basically ignore them.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, the pattern is there. June. You are absolutely awesome as usual, and I know you're prepping for a Bloomberg law and this will be up on top and that follows Daybreak Asia here on Bloomberg. June Grosso, legal expert here, Thank you so much for your time, really appreciate it. Let's get some political impact now from Bloomberg's Jenny Shanze, professor of Bloomberg Politics, contributor and author of American Democracy and Crisis. Okay, Jeannie, The immediate political
impact will be a bit mixed. But it hasn't seemed to affect any of the legal problems his overall stature in the polls, does it?
It has not. I mean, he is still polling nationally in the double digits, although that is subject to change. And you know, I think this week alone, as we've seen at least three big entries into the race, it is a sign that there are Republicans out there who feel that this is an individual who may not be in this race for the long term or is going
to be vulnerable. So while he's still leading by double digits facing the indictment out of New York, the indictment at the federal level is something that really could be a game changer. And can I just say the word here is extraordinary. Never in American history have we seen something like this happen to a former president, let alone somebody who is the leading candidate for the nomination for the major party for the next election. So extraordinary by any measure, regardless of what happens.
Yeah, history after history after history. Hey, Doug is in New York. I think, Doug, you'd like to ask a couple of questions.
Yeah, Jeanie, So that the move here that Trump is playing seems to be that he wants to delegitimize this investigation, the handling of the classified material. Is that still resonating within the base or within the Republican Party. Are people beginning to break away now and say, you know, we've had enough. There may have been a violation of the law here, and you're going to have to own up to that.
Yeah, I think you know which Hunt has been sort of the way in which he has approached any criticism and certainly any move towards the legal realm in this kind of thing. And he's going to continue to make that case as you were just talking about. He's been doing that actively on truth social almost in real time. But I do think we are seeing Republicans in places like Iowa, New Hampshire where the base is really paying attention to the upcoming election and they are looking they
are open to an alternative to Trump. I don't think he will lose that thirty percent regardless of what happens who have been with him this whole time. But I do think we see like fifty sixty percent potentially of the base of the Republican Party who says we would be open to an alternative to Trump. That doesn't mean an anti Trump candidate, but an alternative to Trump. And that's why I think we see now about ten to
twelve can that it's in this race. So there is a willingness to look at other people because many Republicans you talk to, even if they like what Donald Trump did as president and they feel like he has been victimized, they do feel like this is a lot for them to handle and will make his ability to win the general very very tough.
Now, Jenny the even President Biden, I was asked today a news conference with Rishi Sunnek at the White House and asked as he was had he folded up his book and he was starting to leave. You know, if you influence the DOJ, would you respond to what Donald Trump is saying, which is what you're talking about? And he had to respond to that does this. So this is going to play politically back and forth like that with Joe Biden not saying anything in Trump all over social media.
That's right, and Joe Biden and the White House are smart. The campaign on the Biden side is smart to not say a word about this. If they were to jump into this tray, it would be a big mistake. Donald Trump is trying to goad them into saying something they should keep quiet. You know, when your opposition is faltering, let them falter is the rule. Don't jump in. And so I think he's going to continue to be quiet. I hope he is. But I do think Donald Trump
is not going to let up. He is going to continue to say that this is a witch hunt, This is something that is politically motivated, and there is an audience for that argument. But I also think there are Republicans out there, a large percentage, who say, even if he was victimized in this way, it's going to be difficult for him to win the general And for our own purposes, if we hope to beat Joe Biden, as many of them, all of them do, we've got to
look elsewhere. So while this may help Donald Trump to a certain extent, I don't think in the long term it's going to be a winning strategy for him.
So at what point, if you're a Republican candidate running for president, Jeanie, do you make the choice to kind of cross the line to not defend the president, or to remain silent and to be critical and to actually say former President Trump you're carrying too much baggage around, particularly on the legal front. You're not the ideal candidate if we want to retake the White House.
I think we're already seeing that happen. We saw Vice President Pence out in just the last couple of days, obviously, governor former Governor Chris Christie out making that case. So I do think we are hearing potential representatives and potential candidates for the Republican nomination who are making that case. Already. Ron DeSantis has made that case when he's been asked even things as basic as you need a two term
Republican he's saying, and not a one term. So I do think we're hearing that, and I think if he is in fact indicted, or when he is indicted, facing the amount of charges that he's facing, as serious as they are, we're going to hear that drum beat more and more from these opposition candidates. A few have been reticent to make that case, but I think more and more the damn is going to be broken and we are going to hear that argument made.
Timing this is going to be Jeannie going on. Now the core case doesn't come be presented immediately This is probably going to run into primary season, and even it could run toward the general. Can he be elected? Do you believe? And I know I'm asking for your opinion. Can he be elected?
I think realistically, could he be elected in the general, I do not believe. So I go with Governor Chris Sanunu, who says, you know, a vote for Donald Trump in the Republican primary at this point is a vote for Joe Biden. And that is the argument I think you're going to hear Republicans make increasingly. It's simply difficult, given the math to imagine that he could win over the Moderates and Independence and the Republicans. He needs to capture
the White House. Could he win the nomination? Yes, if there are you know, a large number of Republicans vying for this and they stay in a long time, he can hold his thirty, but he fairly difficult to win the general. But to your point about the timing, it's utterly astounding. Already we see the New York case schedule just after Super Tuesday. You couple a federal indictment with that, whatever happens at Georgia, and this is going to be astounding. This is a man who's going to be focused on
fighting for his life and yet also running for president again. Extraordinary, like nothing we've ever seen in American history.
If you're just.
Joining us here on Bloomberger Daybreak Asia, that is Genie Shechianzeno, Professor also Bloomberg Politics contributor, helping us unpack the story that we've been talking about. Former President Trump saying today a short while ago on truth Social that his attorneys have been informed that he was indicted by the Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's office, and The New York Times reporting that mister Trump is set to surrender to authorities in Miami next Tuesday.