Six pm on Wall Street as we continue our special coverage Donald Trump being indicted today in Washington on federal charges over his efforts to overturn the twenty twenty presidential election. Brian, Yeah.
These charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official preceding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against the right to vote and have that vote counted. That's all according to the indictment that was filed. We go to Ed Baxter, Ed.
All right, thank you very much. Brian, Yeah, you went over the charges. He is also, we are finding out, going to be appearing or is ordered to appear before the court on Thursday the third, So that is a day after tomorrow us and whether he is asked to enter a plea at that time, we don't know, but that is where it will That's where it will go. Let's find out a little bit more. How we're joined by Bloomberg's at June Grass so of Bloomberg Law, Jill,
let's go with. Brian briefly mentioned the counts. Let's let's go through them. If we cannot know that, you're just getting them and reading them forty five pages. But let's start with with count one. This is this is basically effort to overturn the election. This is this is really the broad one.
Right, So I have to say that these counts we sort of were familiar with them because they were mentioned in that target letter that President Trump got, so we sort of have some background on them. The conspiracy to defraud the United States, this is really about the fake electors charge. You know, the schemes and the tactics that he used. And what's really interesting in this it's a speaking indictment, so there's a lot of information in there, and a lot of it people will have heard of.
So they go.
Through in this indictment five different states Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and they talk about what happened in each of those states, so people will be familiar with some of the things. For example, it mentions that phone call that we've all heard a million times probably where he's talking to Brad Rathensberger about finding eleven thousand, etc. Votes. So so you'll see a lot of things that you'll recognize.
What's also interesting is that he's the only one charged. There are six other co conspirators that are not meant that are not named. However, you can also tell who some of them are. It's pretty obvious that Rudy Giuliani is one of them, and some of the other attorneys that were involved in the efforts to change the results of the election. So that one a federal judge actually already found by a preponderance of the evidence that Trump and a co conspirait at that time it was Johnnystman.
He's also one of the co conspiderers here likely violated this conspiracy to fraud the US, which is a very broad statute.
Okay, So, and we're standing by by the way for a press conference with Jack Smith. He is going to speak, and I want to follow though, because of the second count is interfering with the process of certifying, so that that is going really to the heart of obstructing the certification of a vote which would lead to the transfer of power.
So this again section fifteen twelve of Title eighteen has been used many, many times, perhaps hundreds of times against
January sixth rider. It's the Justice departments go to count in describing the central event of that day, which was the disruption of the electoral College certification process that was taking place inside the Capitol, so that is, you know, fairly expected, and they go through, I mean every detail that you can imagine about what happened that day and what former President Trump said, including you know what we've all seen, which was his speech to the crowd there
and telling them to march on the Capitol June.
From what we've heard from Trump's lawyers, John Laura and Todd Blanche is the main line of defense political persecution. And then just a quick follow to that is what's the reason from a legal standpoint that the alleged co conspirators have not been officially named.
Well, the reason may be that the Special Council really wants to move this to trial fast. So where you have one defendant, it's much easier to move it to trial fast. I mean that doesn't mean that, in other words, since they haven't named the co conspirators, they can still file charges against them, you know, at another time. So that doesn't mean that the co conspiras are free and clear. I know that, you know, Rudy Giuliani had told reporters
that he wasn't being you know, they weren't. He didn't get a target letter. He wasn't being indicted, he should say at this time, because you never know what will happen in the future, and I think it's kind of unlikely that they're going to let these co conspirators, you know, get off just free and clear. And as far as what we've heard from former President Trump and his lawyers is this is you know, political prosecution, the witch hunt,
which we've heard since even before he became president. That's not going to fly so well in a courtroom. A judge probably won't even let them raise that. And Trump has also said that he's going to raise the that the election was stolen from him, and I'm sure a judge is not going to let him raise that either, because it's been proven in courtrooms. I forget how many time and time again that the election was fair and free and was not stolen from him. Some of the
other things he could raise. Advice of counsel is something that's been talked about, but there again, you have to have a specific counsel that advised you, and you know, you have to have there's a thing called you have to You can't just accept what's said by somebody. You can't accept something if it's reckless disregard for the truth. So, I mean, he's going to have a lot more restrictions on his defense than those that he or his attorneys
throw around. You know, when they're doing interviews. It's going to be a lot different in a courtroom.
Now, you mentioned June that just looking at Georgia and other states, this is going to parallel what is going on with a potential indictment in Georgia. Doesn't I didn't realize it was going to be this wide ranging. It is. It is very much a circle, isn't it.
Well, it is, I mean they're covering I was surprised. I mean, we had heard that, you know, they were definitely looking into Georgia, they had talked to the Georgia election officials and secretor of state, et cetera. And we knew that it was you know, Michigan. There was talk that they had talked to electors et cetera in Michigan. But it really is broad because it goes to Pennsylvania, it goes to Arizona, goes to Wisconsin, and those are states where I don't think we have heard as much
about the electors in you know, in reporting. So it's it's shows you how they really have investigated this and they really have their facts down. I mean, you could read this and it's sort of like reading a book. You know, you don't have to, and sometimes in indictments you have to like wonder and you look, what do they mean? This is so clearly set out. It's called
a speaking indictment. It's the similar to the one that we had in the classified documents case, although there are no pictures in this one, but it's very easy to read. And I think you know, last time we heard Jack Smith say that he urged Americans to read the indictment, and I think that's another thing that they'll probably be hoping that Americans do to see, you know, where this
all came from and also why Donald Trump is being charged. Also, you know, they have used that civil rights error law for deprivation excuse me, deprivation of rights section two forty one of Title eighteen. And that was a surprise when it came out in the target letter. It's been used broadly though in the modern era with cases of voting
fraud conspiracies, so that also was not a surprise. But it was a surprise when we heard the target letter, but not so much this because this follows along with what we anticipated.
Yeah, and hang in there, June, will you, Brian? Did you have something else to ask June?
Well, it's kind of a long type of question. I don't know if we can sneak it in, but it has to do whether or not this continues in the public arena, which the former president seems to love. Or you know, listening to former prosecutors and defense lawyers, Normally they say once you are facing actually doing time in prison, that you get very careful about what you say in public. Is that going to be the case this time around?
Well?
I don't think Donald Trump is prone to being careful about what he says in public. I mean, he's talking about this on the campaign trail. He continues to call the Special Council deranged. But if you'll remember, when he was in New York for his arraignment on those charges, the judge very sternly instructed him not to say anything. And I don't think he's really been talking that much about that particular proceeding. But I think that he may,
even though his lawyers will tell him not to. They'll tell him don't say anything because it could always be used against you. I think that Donald Trump being Donald Trump, He's probably going to continue to talk about it.
Hey, June, thank you and stand by for us. I know you will and of it. This will be a topic for Bloomberg Law tonight. That is Bloomberg's legal correspondent, June Grasso. We want to just switch gears a little bit and get with Jennie Shanzino, professor of Bloomberg Politics, contributor author of American Democracy and Crisis. So here it is, Jennie, this is history, this is you know.
I think it's really striking as we just take a step back and to think that this is the first former president to be charged with trying to steal an election and to impact and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power which we have had in this country since eighteen hundred when John Adams handed it over to Thomas Jefferson, somebody he detested from another party. So it is quite an indictment. And I obviously like everybody else, and I
was just listening to all of June's details. I don't know how she does it so fast, but trying to read through this and somebody described it as a screaming indictment not a speaking indictment, And I think that is an apt description because it is chock full of details of information and it is quite compelling to read what they have laid out here in these four counts against him.
So now, politically, Brian asked a really good question of June, and I want to ask the same thing of you. I mean, well, let me try to refraate. No, I won't. What's in my head? How do you tell Donald Trump to shut up when it's when it's against his legal, you know, probably responsibility to do so? How do you do that? And will he? And politically can he?
Well, he won't because we already understand he has already and not surprisingly, sent out a fundraising appeal as this has come down, saying that this is the Biden administration's attempt to try to block his campaign because the polls that we've been talking about for the last two days and last several weeks quite frankly show that he is
so far ahead. So he is not being silenced. And obviously, all of us who support the First Amendment as and I know all of you do, we don't want him to be you know, sort of quiet in that way. Or to be shut up. And it's I think one of the really interesting things in this indictment is that Jack Smith says very very clearly, he can go out and he can say on truths. He can lie to the American people, he can lie to the press, he can go on the ellipse, and he can say myths truths.
But he's not being charged with any of that. He's being charged with using the power or attempting to use the power of his office and the power of the government to steal an election and to overturn the will of the American people. And so, you know, we can have both in other words, and I think it's such
an important point that you both raise. We can have freedom of speech, freedom of press, First Amendment rights, and we can also have fair, transparent elections that are uninterrupted, and that is how it should be in a democracy like the United States. And that's why I was really, really, you know, happy in the very quick reading I've done to see Jack Smith lay that out. You can lie, but you can't steal, and that is the reality