Trump indicted: What to know about the documents case and what's next
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00:00 We can now go across France 24.
00:01 Ketivan Gorgiastani standing by in Washington.
00:04 Ketivan, a good morning to you.
00:06 What more do we know about this indictment?
00:08 Well, so far we know nothing official because that indictment has not been unveiled yet.
00:16 What we know about these charges comes from what Donald Trump's attorneys have been saying
00:23 in US media, and even they don't know exactly what the charges are.
00:28 But one of his attorneys said that in the summons that Donald Trump received, which
00:33 is asking him to present himself at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, that according
00:39 to that language, they can assume that there are about seven charges that will be brought
00:45 against Donald Trump.
00:47 One emanating from the Espionage Act, that is the willful retention of those classified
00:54 documents.
00:55 The lawyer also talking about several obstruction based charges, as well as several false statement
01:01 charges and probably a very likely also a conspiracy charge.
01:07 So these are pretty significant charges.
01:10 As I said, we still don't know exactly whether these charges are right or accurate, how many
01:17 of them will be in each sort of category.
01:21 That's going to be interesting to see.
01:22 The other thing interesting to see when that indictment is unveiled, which will very likely
01:27 happen on Tuesday in Miami, is to see whether the prosecution will be mentioning at all
01:34 the motive behind that mishandling of classified documents, whether they will be questioning
01:43 or pointing to a definite motive for Donald Trump.
01:47 Why did he keep those documents?
01:49 Did he simply take them away from the White House to keep them as mementos, as sometimes
01:53 the former president has said?
01:56 Or was he using them for other means?
02:00 Was he sharing them with people?
02:02 Was he sharing them with other countries?
02:04 That will be very important to see.
02:07 The lawyer for Donald Trump also confirming that Donald Trump will indeed be showing up
02:13 in person for that summons in Miami, the way he did back in Manhattan for that hush money
02:22 payment case at the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan.
02:27 And Ketivan, how have Republicans, where you are, been reacting to this news?
02:32 Well, of course, this is all happening within the campaign for the Republican nomination
02:39 for 2024.
02:41 And we were expecting these candidates to react, but they are in a difficult position
02:47 because an overwhelming majority of Republican voters, even before this indictment was announced,
02:55 were basically saying that Donald Trump should not be indicted in this case, in the classified
03:01 documents case.
03:02 So the Republican candidates are treading lightly.
03:05 They want to use this as an opportunity to attack someone, Donald Trump, who is 30 points
03:12 ahead of his first challenger, but at the same time not alienate a big part of the Republican
03:19 base.
03:20 And that's what Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump's main challenger, has done.
03:24 He went after the weaponization of the federal law enforcement, saying that it represented
03:31 a mortal threat to a free society.
03:34 He didn't really support Donald Trump, but he went mostly after the Department of Justice.
03:40 Asa Hutchinson, he's one of the candidates.
03:42 He's the only one so far who has called for Donald Trump to drop out of the race, saying
03:47 that, what, legally he's still allowed to run.
03:50 This is at best a distraction and at worst a real problem for American democracy.
03:56 And finally, Chris Christie, who's been one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump,
04:02 saying no one is above the law, no matter how much they wished they were.
04:06 He did, however, say that he will have more to say once he actually sees the wording of
04:11 the indictment.
04:12 So even he is not going full force on the attack against Donald Trump.
04:17 Keir Starmer, thank you very much.