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tv   CNN News Central  CNN  June 9, 2023 6:00am-7:00am PDT

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night it was last night when this news broke, again, history being made. the first time ever any u.s. president has been faced with federal charges. >> i think it's also a recognition that this is a moment that isn't just a one day, 12 hour, one night. this is reality going forward. this is reality on the legal side, this is reality on the political side, this is reality for the country. >> and stunning to have this new reporting this hour from our colleague paula reid with the words of former president trump on tape about knowing how to declassify what is classified. it goes to the heart of a lot of this. we will have much more coverage throughout the day of all of this and then the president will appear in federal court on tuesday. >> tuesday. >> our special coverage of the federal indictment of donald trump continues right now. >> have a great weekend, folks. ♪
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the breaking news this morning, a cnn exclusive, our first look at what could be crucial evidence in the indictment against former president trump, a transcript of a conversation where the former president admits having national security documents that he had not declassified and seems to have wished he had. secret -- this is secret information he says. look -- look at this. really, a moment of stunning clarity, an investigation that has been swirling for months and that has brought us to this historic morning. >> and that brings us to miami where right now we are all watching this federal courthouse you see on the wall there waiting to see if the indictment is unsealed and if it is, how much detail prosecutors offer. there is a lot the public still does not know, of course, but so far here is what we have learned. we are told there are seven counts in the indictment. cnn has learned the counts include a possible charge under the espionage act as well as obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of
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records, conspiracy and making false statements. >> the former president reacting to the indictment says he is an innocent man. he lashed out on his social media site last night, he claims the charges are politically motivated and calls them election interference. his allies, rallying behind him. house speaker kevin mccarthy said it was a dark day for the united states of america. next hour we expect to hear from presidential candidate and trump's former vice president mike pence before the indictment and this new news that we're hearing he said he believed in the rule of law but did not think the president should be indicted. now let's see what he says after all this has happened. we will bring that to you live. >> our reporters, correspondents and analysts standing by to bring you the very latest information. first let's go to our senior legal affairs correspondent paula reid. paula, you are part of the team that broke this story, this transcript just stunning words in black and white. why don't you tell us what you've learned. >> reporter: that's right.
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well, last week with the powerhouse team of kaitlan collins, katelyn polantz, sara murray we broke the news of the existence of this audio reporting, something that the former president's attorneys found out a few months ago where the former president claims to be in possession of classified materials and also acknowledges the limits of his ability to declassify once he was out of office. now we have the full transcript this have audio recording where the former president acknowledges that he has a secret information. i'm going to read the transcript to you here. so it starts with him, he's at his bedminster, new jersey, golf club, he is speaking to some vis visitors, among the people in the room we know from our reporting are two people working on mark meadows' autobiography and two of his aides. at the time he was upset about a recent article about general mark milley and he says, quote, well, with milley, let me see. i will show you an example. he said that i wanted to attack iran. isn't that amazing? i have a big pile of papers and
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we're told from our sources that at this point you can hear him rustling through papers. this thing just came up. look. this was him. they presented me this. this is off the record, but they presented me this. this was him. this was the defense department and him. we looked at some -- this was him. this wasn't done by me, this was him. i'm going to stop for just a second. he says this was him at least four times in this recording. clearly trying to emphasize the fact that whatever he is pointing to was allegedly written by mark milley, we know from our reporting that that is not true. so he goes on to say all others of stuff, pages long, look, wait a minute, let's see here. i just found -- isn't that amazing. this totally wins my case. i also want to note here, here he is not referring to the pending criminal prosecution, he appears to be referring to just this dispute with him and general milley. except it is like highly confidential, secret. this is secret information. look. look at this. again, i want to stop.
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secret and confidential are two levels of classification. he seems a little bit confused as to which one it is, but he also appears to be showing it to whoever else is in the room in front of him. now, then he says, as president i could have declassified, but now i can't. and that's really the key quote here. he is acknowledging that not only are these materials not -- so they are still classified, but that once he left the white house he no longer has the power to declassify them and that undercuts so many of the claims made by the former president, his allies and his attorneys publicly. they have argued that he had a standing declassification order so anything he left with from the oval office was automatically declassified. he said he could do it with his mind. his lawyers have alternatively argued that he had no idea he had classified information, it was all just packed up in the chaos at the end of the administration but this recording undercuts all of those arguments. but arguably the most damning thing from the transcript today is the fact that he is saying that he has secret information,
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that he knowingly, willing lee, intentionally kept it and appears according to this full transcript to be trying to show it to other people. we know from our reporting no one else in that room had a secret clearance. >> secret, secret, look at this, he says. it's right there in the transcript. and those words could have profound implications. paula reid, we will come back to you in a while. thank you so much for laying the groundwork what really moves the ball forward in all of this reporting today. >> now, former president trump is expected to turn himself in and appear in a miami federal court at 3:00 p.m. on tuesday according to his attorney. so far the indictment has not been released with all those charges that we are hearing about. cnn's senior justice reporter evan perez is live for us now on this part of the case. the indictment remains sealed. is there any chance we are going to see it before the tuesday court appearance? >> reporter: there is that chance. there is a chance that the justice department could go to a judge and ask the judge to
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unseal this document. they could do it this morning. they should have done t frankly, yesterday when they notified the former president, knowing that he was going to go immediately to his social media platform and start telling the story of what the -- of what this investigation led by jack smith, the special counsel, has done. we know that they got a notification by email that this summons had been delivered and that this indictment had been handed up and they started working the mechanics of when the former president is going to show up to miami to make his first appearance before a magistrate. we know that jim trusty, one of his attorneys who received this information, says that he doesn't know much more beyond just the outlines of the charges that he was told. so it's possible it might be more than seven counts that the former president is facing. here is trusty talking last night on our air about what he
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knows. >> they basically break out from an espionage act charge, which is ludicrous under the facts of this case, and i can certainly explain it, and several obstruction-based-type charges and then false statement charges, which are actually, again, kind of a crazy stretch just from the facts as we know it. so there's a lot to pick at eventually from the defense side, but that appears to be the charges and it appears to be something that will get off the ground on tuesday. >> reporter: and what you hear there is the beginnings of how they're going to defend this. the 793 charge, the espionage act, that has to do with the willful retention of national defense information. that is the sort of central place where this investigation began, that's where we saw -- that's the statute, the law, that the justice department told the former president he was being investigated for when they conducted that search, extraordinary search last august in mar-a-lago, guys. >> all right. evan perez, thank you so much for all of that reporting.
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>> joining us now for more on all of this is cnn's senior legal analyst elie honig and dan horowitz. great to have you guys here. let's start with the new reporting coming from paula reid and the whole team about the transcript from this conversation 2021 from donald trump. let's take it apart in pieces. first, let's talk, elie, when you see this statement in the transcript, as president i could have declassified, but now i can't. as a prosecutor, unclear what charge, if the charges are related to anything involving this document, this conversation with that caveat, you hear that statement, you hear that from a transcript and as a prosecutor you do what with it? >> this is just remarkable. i mean, look, i have a policy here at cnn against calling something a smoking gun because there's always a response, always a defense. not going to violate that policy her, but this reporting, these tapes are a big damn deal. this is golden evidence for
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prosecutors. starting with that quote, saying, i could have declassified when i was president but i didn't that is the exact opposite of what donald trump has been saying repeatedly in public. first of all, i think it ends the whole issue did he, in fact, declassify. second of all, prosecutors are going to say, folks, he's been lying to the public for months, why do you think that is? a hugely important piece of evidence. >> i have to say as interesting as the declassification conversation is, it's this statement that may be the most legally perilous. secret, this is secret information. look. look at this. so, dan, what potential laws may have been broken with those ten words? >> i mean, there are seven counts, probably every single one of those seven counts. let me tell you just to pick up on what we were just talking about, you have to ask yourself if this plays out and goes to a trial, right, because that's what we're talking about, charges, evidence, what happens at a trial.
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you've got defendant trump saying in his own words i know what the law is and i'm breaking it and for a jury -- what is a jury going to be thinking about? why do we care about this? why do i care if the president had these classified documents? does it really matter? this tape tells you it absolutely matters. this implicates the national defense. you've got the ex-president talking about the head of the joint chiefs of staff and a classified highly secret defense document and he knows he's not supposed to talk about it and he puts the law and takes it in his own hands and disregards it. that's very compelling evidence in front of a jury. >> when you look at that, there is another point in here where he talks about what's in the pages and he's pointing to something and he's saying, here is what i found, isn't that amazing. this totally wins my argument. he is not talking about his
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argument in this case, he is talking about something else, but he's saying, look at this information. so, dan, he's talking to people and we just heard from paula reid that they do not have the status that would be required to reveal this information. so does that speak some to the espionage charge or what could be an espionage charge? >> of course. of course it does. it speaks to, again, for every one of these seven crimes they have to prove -- the government has to prove knowledge, intent and it sort of goes beyond that. are you taking the law into your own hands? i know what the law is, i'm going to disregard it only am is highly secret confidential defense department document that apparently is talking about iran, and i'm going to talk to who? some reporters, some people who don't have national clearance, security clearance. and he acknowledges that. he acknowledges that. why? because he says i'm off the
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record. he wants to make sure it never comes out and you could be sure at a trial prosecutors are going to play that up. i don't want this to get out. please, keep it off the record. don't tell anybody that i just told you that i know that i'm not supposed to have this document, that it implicates the national defense and that, by the way, it helps me in a political fight with the head of the joint chiefs of staff. >> elie, we don't know -- we don't know if this is part of the indictment or what is all in the indictment. i think it's important we continue to just say that because we don't and we will learn much more when we do see the indictment. but knowing this detail and this element, knowing it's in the hands of prosecutors, is there any way that this transcript, this conversation, isn't part of this? >> so when we get the indictment i expect it to be what we call a speaking indictment meaning this is not just going to be a bare recitation of the elements of the crime and knowing the way doj and defense work we tend to lay out narrative detail.
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it would not shock me if there are quotes from this tape in the indictment but if there are not you do not have to put all of your evidence in the indictment, that would make indictments in some instances i'm possibly long. whether it's stated in the indictment or not, it appears to me that this will be a central piece of the case. another beautiful thing for prosecutors, donald trump's voice on tape. how do you get -- >> it's not notes -- >> it's not an eyewitness. let the jury hear it in his own words. >> how do you defend against that? how do you defend against look at this, if, in fact he was holding national security documents what do you say? >> it's a great question. the only thing i can think of now -- look, donald trump has a very good defense team and they will come up with context and defenses. the only thing i can think of now is essentially he was full of bluster, he was exaggerating. by the way, people do make that defense at trial. defense lawyers sometimes stand up and say, look, folks, he tends to blow things up for people, but what he was saying
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wasn't actually true. he's referring to papers and documents and look here, look here. so we will see if there's an eyewitness to that meeting, it's going to be crucial. >> other witnesses there, people there who can testify to what happened at that meeting. >> what they saw. exactly. >> if there were reporters there they were working on a book about mark meadows, that's why it was reported. >> dan, elie, thank you very much. we could learn any minute whether the indictment against donald trump will be unsealed, as you heard from evan perez, and we could hear from president biden very shortly on this also. we will hear from someone who was inside the trump white house. our special coverage continues right here on cnn "news central." el influencer... hey, i thought you were on vacation? it's too expensive. use priceline, they've got deals no one else has. what about w work? i got you. looking great t you guys! ♪ go to your happy price ♪ ♪ priceceline ♪ annikaka. i found the bomb. ok johann. there should be a blue wire and a yellow wire. cut the blue one.
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he had not declassified. that is according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by cnn. he says, secret, this is secret information, look. look at this. now, before that information was released donald trump's lawyer told cnn the former president faces seven charges including one under the espionage act. cnn's sara murray is live in washington, katelyn polantz live outside the federal courthouse in miami. sara, first, again, we think seven -- you know, a seven-count indictment. what's in there? >> reporter: well, john, let's break down what we know. as you said, we don't know everything yet but we know from trump's attorney that there is a charge related to the espionage act, related to obstruction of justice, the destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements. and, again, this is coming from trump's attorney jim trusty. the trump team has received sort of a summary and that's where he
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is drawing this from, but even the trump team doesn't have a copy of this indictment yet and, again, the indictment has not been unsealed, it has not been made publicly available so there are still a lot of details here that we simply don't know. we do know that the trump team was bracing for this yesterday, they felt the indictment was likely, they were, of course, tracking the news coverage of this. they were so prepared, in fact, that they decided to have donald trump pre record a video responding to the indictment before the team had even been informed that trump was indicted. he maintained his innocence in that video. take a listen. >> it's called election interference. they're trying to destroy our reputation so they can win an election. that's just as bad as doing any of the other things that have been done over the last number of years. i'm an innocent man, i did nothing wrong. i'm innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly and hopefully very quickly.
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>> reporter: now, of course, this is donald trump making his case on social media. we will wait to see how he makes his case in court. he is the one who announced the news of this indictment on his social media page where he also said that he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in miami on tuesday afternoon. john? >> all right. sara murray, thank you so much for that. again, i keep going back to this new reporting from paula reid trying to overlay the transcript that we've now seen with the types of charges that we think might be coming. so it's really interesting to look at both of those things. terrific reporting, sara. thank you. >> one of the big things that we do not know and are waiting for is when the federal indictment could be unsealed. that will be the first real look at what exactly trump is being accused of and how the justice department has begun to build its case. cnn's katelyn polantz is outside the federal courthouse in miami where all of the action turns very quickly. what are we expect to go happen there today? >> reporter: well, we are looking for that document first
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and foremost, that indictment, will the justice department release it now that donald trump has publicly acknowledged he has been informed through his attorney that he's been charged with these seven counts. that is the thing to look for first because that is what the entire case and the every moment going forward here at this courthouse will be turning on. what is charged in that indictment. but then there is a lot of questions still about what kind of activity we might see today in the federal courthouse. are the prosecutors here, are they going to still be working on this case or working on this investment in some way where we will physically see them around the campus of the federal court, but then also there is a question of security. that is something that is now leading to a scramble, a planning -- many planning discussions that are taking place because the secret service didn't know that this indictment was coming down whenever it happened yesterday, and so now there are lots of things that have to fall into place with
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multiple federal law enforcement agencies. they have to protect the building of this federal courthouse, they have to protect the judges inside the federal courthouse and there needs to be a protection of donald trump himself. someone who still receives protection of the secret service because he is the former president of the united states. >> absolutely. katelyn polantz, thanks so much. just handed to us while we were talking, guys, donald trump told fox news in an off-camera interview that he will, quote, unquote, of course plead not guilty to charges in federal court when he does end up there on tuesday. great to see you guys. thank you. >> now to what the trump allies are saying on capitol hill swiftly rallying in his defense. ahead house speaker kevin mccarthy's reaction and his message to not president trump, but president biden. with fastsigns, create striking custom visuals that inspire pride district-wide. ♪
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our breaking news this morning, a transcript of a conversation where donald trump seemed to show others secret national security documents after he left office, secret, this is secret information, look, look at this, he says. he also says as president i could have declassified, but now i can't. stunning details, stunning clarity as we wait for new information from the indictment against donald trump itself. now, as we await word whether that indictment will be unsealed, cnn has learned that the trump team is pushing republican allies to publicly defend donald trump and these allies are. house speaker kevin mccarthy calls the indictment, quote, a
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grave injustice and a dark day for the country. cnn's lauren fox up on capitol hill. lauren, before i ask you what you're hearing, let me just be clear, all of the statements you received were from before this stunning cnn reporting where we see the transcript where donald trump says, look, look at this, about apparently secret documents? >> reporter: yeah, exactly, john, that's important context to note, but, you know, republicans last night really wasting no time in defending the former president, donald trump. you heard immediately from people like elise stefanik who is in republican leadership, steve scalise the majority leader and the house speaker tweeting, today is a dark day for the united states of america. it is unconscionable for the president to indict the leading candidate opposing him. joe biden kept classified documents for decades. i and every american who believe in the rule of law stand with president trump against this grave injustice. house republicans will hold this
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brazen weaponization of power accountable. he didn't excess spy specifically how the house of representatives is going to respond, but jim jordan, a republican and the chairman of the house judiciary committee also came out yesterday on twitter defending the former president. obviously keep all eyes on his committee as to whether or not they take any actions whether that's to defund the fbi or justice department in upcoming weeks. the other thing to keep an important eye on is this split that we are seeing between republican leaders in the house of representatives who quickly came out to defend trump and those in the u.s. senate. we have not heard from minority leader mitch mcconnell. we have not hear from the republican whip john thune. it's important to note that during the last indictment, john, we really never got an answer from mcconnell on what his view was. instead just responding to our colleague manu raju at the time when he returned from the senate after falling that he might have hit his head but he had not hit
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it that hard, in other words, dodging the question all together, john. >> dodging the question. i'm curious to see as we move forward what the defense will be of this transcript where donald trump seems to be showing others secret classified national security documents. keep us posted as to what you hear. lauren fox up on capitol hill. sara? >> john, we just got this in. former vice president mike pence has called the u.s. attorney general, merrick garland, and demanded that he unseal the federal indictment that we have been hearing about. he has called merrick garland's office and made this demand, saying that he thinks the justice department should release this before the sun sets today. i want to clarify he called on merrick garland, didn't talk to him on the phone, he called on merrick garland to unseal the documents. that the public should be able to see and make a judgment for
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themselves what these charges are and whether they believe in all of the facts. we are witnessing a truly extraordinary moment in american history, the enormity of it cannot be overstated. donald trump is the first former president in the nearly 250-year history of the united states to face federal charges. to help us put all of this in perspective presidential historian douglas brinkley joins us now, he is a professor of history at rice university. can you just begin with the enormity of this and the history of our country this has never happened. >> yeah, i mean, violating the espionage act is not stormy daniels. this is gigantic. it is as close to a smoking gun that donald trump has ever faced. this transcript of his is on fire. i mean, he's showing and illegally showing secret documents to people in a willy-nilly braggadocios
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fashion. one just has to sit back and be staggered that the gop doesn't -- meaning leaders in the republican party -- don't immediately turn on donald trump with this release. it's been an odd week, we have had three republicans, you know, goppers joining the presidential campaign for 2024, donald trump is going to overshadow this, but i'm really alarmed by the transcript that cnn has produced. >> i do want to speak to the history of all of this and the most notable case a lot of people cite is the case of president richard nixon and wate watergate. there is a key difference which you mentioned which is that back then republicans turned on their president because of the enormity of all of the evidence that was coming out about nixon. that is not happening today. what's the difference?
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why? >> at least not at this moment. i was encouraged, sara, by your comment that mitch mcconnell and some of the senate are kind of holding back on fire. we just don't have moderate republicans like howard baker of tennessee or conservatives like barry goldwater of arizona. back then the fact that nixon broke the law was enough to make them realize that wasn't the republican party. donald trump has been able to hijack the republican party and, you know, it's a big debate in history, was gerald ford right to pardon nixon? i've always thought ford was right to heal the country pardoning nixon but in recent years i realized it was probably a mistake for the reason that it encourages the arrogance of president trump. this feeling that he's above the law, that the constitution doesn't matter. that you can have an authoritarian vent and do anything you want in the united states. so i find it encouraging that
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the justice department with all the noise going on now is focusing on this and telling donald trump he's not above the law and it's going to be a spring/summer of indictments, but we are in a strange political atmosphere right now because some republicans will claim that joe biden, the president, is trying to put his chief gop rival in jail. >> basically that's happened by the speaker mike mccarthy. thank you for your comments giving us the historic vision of this and what it looks like to the country as opposed to our whole 250-year history. i appreciate you coming on, david. douglas brinkley giving us the low down on what this means. now i'm going to go to kate. coming up on cnn "news central" we just heard mike pence now speaking out about his now rival and the indictment, calling on the justice department to unseal the indictment by the time the sun sets today. there is a lot of republican reaction coming in.
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but we also have coming up reaction from someone who worked within the trump administration, one of the deputy press secretary for donald trump, what she sees in this news and that transcript that cnn has reported on exclusively from donald trump. we will be right back. rude. who are you? i'm anan investor in a fund that helps advance innovative sports tech like this smart fitness mirroror. i'm also m mr. leg day...1989! anyone can become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq, a fund that gives you access to nasdaq-100 innovations. i go through a lot of pants. before investing carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus at invesco.com. (vo) sail through the heart of historic cities and unforgettable scenery with viking. unpack once, and get cser to iconic landmarks, local life, and cultural treasures.
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you can get in today for all your denture needs, all at an affordable price. right now, get 20% off dentures and make your smile work for you again. call or book online today. from allies to current political opponents republicans are largely coming to donald trump's defense this morning. house speaker kevin mccarthy for one calling it a dark day for the united states, saying on twitter -- release ago statement saying that he stands with donald trump against what mccarthy calls a grave injustice. also promising, quote, house republicans will hold this
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brazen weaponization of power accountable. now, campaign rival, ron desantis, he said something very similar, tweeting this, the weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. joining me now with reaction to all of this and new reporting this morning former trump white house deputy press secretary sarah matthews. we just got in more reaction and a statement from an interview of mike pence as we were just reporting on, sara was just talk being in the last block. i think we have a bit of this interview that he gave with hugh hewitt talking about what he wants to see now, calling on the attorney general to unseal the indictment. let's listen to this. >> justice department i think before the sun sets today the attorney general of the united states should be standing in front of the american people, should unseal this indictment, should provide the american people with all the facts and information here and the american people be able to judge for themselves whether this is just the latest incident of
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weaponization and politicization of the justice department or if it's something different. >> or if it's something different. what do you think of what pence is saying there? >> i do think he's correct that given the political sensitivities of this case transparency is going to be of the utmost importance for the court of public opinion because the people need to know what is in this indictment in order to make a judgment and that's why i think that the republicans like kevin mccarthy or some of the other 2024 rivals for trump that have rushed to his defense are doing it a little prematurely because we don't know what's in the indictment right now and it could be really bad for donald trump or it could be a nothing burger, but if i had to guess my money is on that this is a rock solid case, i don't think that the special counsel would have taken it to the point of an indictment if it weren't. >> look, speaking about potential premature reaction to this indictment, just this morning paula reid and the team
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have reported this transcript, quotes from a transcript of a conversation that donald trump was having back in 2021 where he says, among other things, he's got this document in hand, we talked about it so much, that he could have classified it, but now i can't, acknowledging that he still had this secret military document, military information and saying, see, see, look at this. when you hear that, sarah, what do you think? >> i think it completely undercuts all of his excuses that him and his team have been putting out there. they've kind of tried to use everything under the sun. they have said things like, well, he declassified them in his mind before he left. that's why he took them. this just goes to show in this transcript that he took these things, that he did not declassify, he knew he could have while he was president and then he showed them to people who didn't have the proper clearance. >> maybe it's two different questions. do you think -- do you think this type of information, this significant transcript, audio they have of the president in his own words, do you think that
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changes the reaction we could be hearing from republicans publicly going forward? do you see that as a game changer? do you see every republican, especially elected, have many calculation that is they are making in what they say publicly? >> i do think that there are going to be his staunch supporters who this isn't going to change anything for them, they're going to point to the fact that mike pence took classified information, that joe biden took classified information. the difference, though, between those two things, we can't conflate them, mike pence and joe biden voluntarily turned the classified documents when they discovered it. >> the justice department investigated mike pence and just cleared him -- just cleared him last week. >> exactly. and with donald trump it's clear that they asked him to return the documents, he didn't. then he turned over a couple and then said that he turned everything back in, and then after the raid it was discovered that he still had over 100
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documents in his possession. >> in terms of republican reaction, sarah, we're already seeing some republicans accusing the justice department of weaponizing this indictment, mike pence threading the needle saying let's see, release it and let's see if it is that. saying this is an executive branch, i've heard some republicans saying it is an executive branch trying to take out president biden's number one political opponent in the coming election. what do you say to them, sara, as someone who has been with donald trump through many crises during your time at the white house? >> i would say that people saying that joe biden is indicting donald trump are acting irresponsibly because the rule of law matters here and it was a grand jury that chose to indict donald trump. a grand jury made up of regular americans like you and me. so anyone saying that this is politically motivated is just doing so to try to defend trump, but we need to let the facts play out and see what's actually in this indictment before rushing to make a judgment. >> just one quick question on
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this reporting from paula reid about this transcript and what donald trump said in his own words. look, you left the white house, you separated yourself from the president over january 6th. you've testified, we've talked to you so many times since then. did you see this surprise you from what you know of the president does it surprise you hearing he said these words on tape with people who do not have clearance with a secret document in his hand and then saying off the record. does that surprise you? >> honestly it doesn't from what i witnessed during my time being in the oval office with him things like that. he was not your typical president, didn't always follow normal procedures and so to hear him kind of being reckless and showing classified information to folks who didn't have the proper security clearances doesn't surprise me. >> sarah matthews, thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> john? so that stunning new reporting, the details from a transcript of that conversation donald trump had about secret
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documents, this as we await word whether the historic indictment against donald trump will be unsealed this morning. also, we could hear from president biden at any moment. also new reporting coming out of ukraine, the latest news on the possible counteroffensive. . it would appear that it has begun moving towards us! visionworks. see the difference. what's the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodb!
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this morning, russian state media is describing fierce fighting in ukraine near zaporizhzhia, and they also describe activity in the russian-occupied towns, and in the east, the military says they are making progress near bakhmut which fell to the russians several weeks ago. meanwhile n ukraine, missiles struck this city near cherkasy with eight people injured in that attack. joining us is the u.s. bams dor to ukraine, and thank you so much for being with us this morning, and it is an honor to have you. i don't want you to reveal any secret information, obviously,
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but what is your understanding now of the state of ukrainian offensive operations. to what extent has this counter offensive begun? >> john, thank you for having me on and it is a great privilege to be hereb and i need to say that i need to leave it to the ukrainian military to characterize the counter offensive, but as president biden said yesterday, we are optimistic and following the situation very closely, and we are doing everything that we can in support of the ukrainian success on the battlefield. >> is that optimism based on what you are seeing with signs of success? >> we are optimistic based on what we are seeing with the ukrainians doing so far, and they have already been able to take back swathes of territory, and counter offensives from last fall to include in the kharkiv in the eastern part of the countries as well as in the southern part of the country, and we also know that we have
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helped to both equip and to train the troops that are a part of the counter offensive together with 50 partner countries, and so we are optimistic, because we know what they are capable of, and also optimistic, because we know what we are able to supply them with. >> how important is it for ukraine to retake this ground militarily for there to be an ultimate peaceful outcome, i guess, and we are beyond peaceful outcomes or the ultimate outcome for the peaceful outcome in this conflict? >> well, as president biden has said that our objective is to help ukraine defend itself and to deter from the future russian attack, and we are seeing the goal as ukraine's goal is to get the russians out of ukraine. our effort in equipping ukraine, and training ukraine to fight to defend themselves and to defend
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their territory is something that we are doing so that when it is coming to time to negotiate that they are going to be in the best possible position. >> we have the pictures of the flooding in kherson after the destruction of the river which is so profound and upsetting to so many people, and do you have new information about who is responsible for the destruction of the dam? >> i would say that this dam is the example of the destruction that russia has had on the devastation of ukraine, and thousands of people destroyed and also the ecological destruction that is going to be lasting for many years to come.
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so the bottom line is that it is russia that invaded ukraine, and it is russia that has occupied significant parts of ukrainian territory, and it is russia that seized control of th e dam. >> what do you see in terms of the invasion? >> in terms of the invasion of the south and the knova kakhovk dam, and there are going to be
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longer term needs because the destruction of the dam puts at risk the water supply to the entirety of the southern part of ukraine, and this is potentially going to affect thousands upon thousands of people in addition to the ecological and other dangers because the russians had mined the river banks there, and the mines are now floating and depositing themselves in different places, and so it is a very dangerous situation on multiple levels. that is an immediate crisis that we are trying very hard to help the ukrainians respond to as effective as possible. >> thank you, ambassador bridget brink. and now, with breaking news, former president trum has been indicted, and now we know some of what was caught on tape, and his own voice, and we will bring you what is now in the hands of prosecutors next.
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