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now. ♪ good morning, everyone. poppy is off this week. abby phillip is here. and we have significant news. more criminal charges against former president donald trump appear to be imminent. it's been a dramatic and consequential 24 hours since we last saw you. we'll have team coverage with the latest-breaking details all morning. first, here is what we know right now. the former president says he expects to be indicted and arrested for the third time. announcing himself the special counsel notified him he's a target of the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. a florida judge says she will decide on a trial date soon. she did signal that mid december the timeline the prosecutors requested is too soon. plus, the first criminal charges in the 2020 fake electors scheme. the michigan attorney general is charging 16 people with felonies, accusing them of signing certificates of falsely

claimed trump won the 2020 election there. trump's mounting legal troubles, defiance. election interference. and as for trump's main gop rival in the race for the white house, florida governor ron desantis says he hopes the former president does not face charges. telling cnn exclusively it would be bad for the country. a lot to talk about this hour. "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ we are getting started with full team coverage from washington to florida to michigan here in new york. we're covering all the angles, all the big developments as the former president faces a potential third criminal indictment. senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz is in washington, d.c. and maggie haberman, jeff duncan and we are standing by for expert analysis.

we'll start with paula reed in ft. pierce, florida. head spinning developments yesterday given the scale of them in both areas of jack smith's investigation. >> reporter: that's exactly right, phil. just hours before trump's lawyers were expected to appear for the first time before the federal judge who will oversee the mar-a-lago documents case, the former president announced that he is also received a target letter in the special counsel's january 6th investigation. now, look, two different investigations, but likely that the defense strategy will be the same as it has been for decades when it comes to trump. and that is to delay, delay, delay. and yesterday, in court, it was clear that the judge overseeing the mar-a-lago documents case is open to likely delaying this case until next year and possibly even until after the election. former president trump defiant and railing against special counsel jack smith during a fox

news town hall in iowa tuesday. >> i got the letter on sunday night. think of it. i don't think they've ever sent a letter on sunday night. it's interference president election. it's election interference. never been done like this in the history of our country. and it's a disgrace. >> reporter: trump, fuming after announcing he had received a letter from the special counsel informing him that he is a target in the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. trump says he was given four days to report to the grand jury and indicated he believes that means an arrest and indictment is imminent. his legal team has not formally responded. sources tell cnn that they were caught off guard because they were not anticipating charges against the former president. >> these are evil people, deranged. i call them deranged. >> reporter: cnn learned in recent months prosecutors

interviewed officials from all seven 2020 battleground states targeted by the former president and his allies in their efforts to overturn the election. trump's allies on capitol hill, rushing to his defense. >> president trump went up in the polls and was actually surpassing president biden for re-election. so what do they do now? weaponize government. >> reporter: with the threat of yet another indictment looming, trump's lawyers appeared in a south florida courtroom tuesday to discuss his indictment in the classified documents case where he is facing 37 felony counts. trump-appointed judge aileen cannon signaling the justice department's suggest to hold a trial in mid june may be too soon given the sensitive nature of the case and the evidence it's based on. she did not appear, though, willing to delay the trial indefinitely. saying she plans to rule, quote, promptly. a trial starting in 2024 could

collide with the republican presidential primary where trump is the current front-runner. his rivals in the race now facing yet another round of questions in what could be yet another indictment. >> i think the doj continues to try to find a way to weaponize its powers against the former president. >> reporter: yesterday in court, lawyers on both sides were really focussed on trump's status as a candidate. now, prosecutors insist that it doesn't matter if he's running for president again. he should be treated like, quote, any other important, busy american facing criminal charges. but his lawyers argue that it would be unphysical therapy to hold a trial before the election. interestingly, the judge wasn't interested in this at all. instead, she wanted to focus on how long it was going to take the lawyers to do the work to get ready for trial. and she insinuated once she gets

that information, then she can put a date on the calendar. >> paula, stay with us. let's bring in now senior cnn crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz, cnn political analyst, maggie haberman and katie teraski. there are three potentia statutes, it looks like, tt may be used against trum this election interference case. can you tell us about what we know now? >> reporter: yeah. so, abby, when ever a subject gets a target letter, so the justice department basically is telling them you might be indicted, typically in the sample version of this letter -- and we haven't seen it yet, but there have been some reports and some other media outlets who have said this letter does identify some of the crimes that donald trump is very likely to be charged with. that the prosecutors are clearly looking at. one of them conspiracy to

defraud the united states, that is a general conspiracy charge. but it's a pretty significant charge. it's used quite often. it essentially means that donald trump was making an agreement with other people to carry forward the acts that the justice department believes are illegal. it is a pretty significant thing to be charged with that. on top of that, the tampering with a witness charge. that's something we don't have a lot more detail exactly what crime that could be. there's a couple different ones. it may not be tampering with a witness in a classic sense. it might be the way that the justice department has known to be investigating here and has been using in these january 6th cases where they're saying -- they're accusing people of obstructing the congressional proceeding. and so that is something that we knew that they were looking at, at least related to some others. and then this third potential charge that's listed here, according to multiple news outlets, is that there is a deprivation of rights,

possibility of a charge. that's a civil rights charge. and i've talked to some defense lawyers, some former prosecutors about it. it's actually not charged that often. but it is a charge used when someone who is in a public position uses their ability in some way that is wrong. either it's outside of the bounds of what their role is, or they use their role in a way to deprive someone else of some sort of right. it doesn't have to be civil rights that are classically protected, but it is a deprivation of rights charge that could potentially carry some pretty serious penalties if it does have to do with violence. but you know, we don't know exactly what this case is going to be, how it's going to be laid out. in the justice department's own words, when ever they bring this indictment, there always could be other things that we see when ever the indictment is filed, if it is approved by the grand jury. but those three things, that is a pretty significant case that does track with what we believe

the justice department has been investigating here for some time. >> stay with us. again, we have team coverage. we're going to keep following this as it moves along throughout the morning. katie, i want to follow up with what kaitlan was describing there. you look at the three potential charges, what stands out to you? >> i think that we obviously don't know what charges are going to be laid out. the other thing we don't know is whether jack smith has evidence that has not been disclosed to the public at this point. there's been on going interviews. and so there may be other charges that are outside of what is actually known to the public at this point. but certainly i think on the facts, those are very obvious charges in terms of defrauding the government, conspiracies. there's a lot of interviews with other folks about conversations that trump had with them. so, that seems clear. i think the bigger question is really on kind of the jurisdictional side of things in terms of his status as the president at the time. that's something that will also have to be litigated if there is

an indictment in this case. but, again, these are all speculation because we don't have the indictment that's been filed at that point. >> do you think that the target letter will be the scope of it, what is contained in that letter in terms of what charges he could possibly face? >> it's possible. i mean, generally speaking in a target letter, the prosecutors are going to lay out what the allegations are. but there's no final charging decision that's made at that point. they're certainly not bound by that. >> yeah. so paula, let's go to you. this is in the context here of an incredible amount of legal issues that trump himself is facing. it's not just this. you're in florida because of that other case. the classified documents case. how is trump's legal orbit handling all of this? and are you getting any indications that he's going to need more legal fire power to go into this next phase of things? >> reporter: oh, yeah, abby. he is absolutely going to need additional lawyers especially if he is charged in washington, d.c. as well. this actually came up yesterday

in court. his lawyers talked about the burden that they're currently bearing both in new york where the former president faces criminal and civil cases. of course, they have one special counsel, criminal prosecution and they made a nod to the target letter. saying, look, another one is likely coming. they talked to the judge about how this was a lot of work not just for them but also for their client in preparing that you are client for each of these cases. they were using this in court to try to delay this trial until at least next year likely after the election. it makes it crystal clear. he absolutely needs additional lawyers. his two lawyers, they're working with some other lawyers who are in his orbit. after the recent departures of at least three of his key attorneys, he has to look for more lawyers. as we know, that's been difficult for him over the past few years. prospective lawyers told us they're worried about getting paid and also worried about the potential political blow back or alienating their current clients. so it is likely he'll find

additional lawyers, but it's taken a while here in florida and could take a while in d.c. as well. >> yeah. >> maggie, i was struck yesterday in calls and text messages with republicans outside the trump orbit. i think the frustration and concern related to a major january 6th case. major election interference case just because that issue -- in their view, resonates with the american public politically, maybe not dra mat click across the electorate or primary. my question is does trump view these things differently, view these cases differently, one as more of a threat than another? >> so trump views broadly all of these cases as a threat to him. he put them collectively together. he is facing significant jail time if convicted. particularly in the federal cases. assuming again he has not been charged yet. it's important to note a target letter does usually lead to charges. it doesn't always. but, yes, he is looking at broadly as a political threat.

the documents case upset them for a variety of reasons because it was an fbi search on his home, it was a different type of thing. in this case he is upset about it. it was basically a typical plane ride to iowa but he was not in a great mood in portions of it. i think you're going to hear that going forward he will be upset because this, as you say, a dominant issue in the country, even if it's not the thing that voters say that they are voting on. you are correct. that republicans are aware that in 2022 candidates who espoused trump's election lies ended up basically paying the price at the ballot box in november even if, as you note, this played well in republican primaries where trump's voice and vote really do matter. but, at the moment, he is seeing this broadly as a threat to his freedom. and his advisers have been in private conversations pretty blunt that they see it as he has to win the election and that how is he guarantees that he does not face jail time. now, again, it only takes one

juror in any of these cases. he has not been convicted of anything. but the fact that they're looking at an election to the highest office in the land as some kind of -- an insurance policy or an out for him really affects and i think colors the entire presidential race. >> katie, as we go into this phase where we are, as you say, needing to look at the documents, the actual indictment when it comes out a lot of this case has been tried publicly through an impeachment proceeding. that testimony has been made public. a lot of it is out there. from what you know, how much more does jack smith need to have in order to substantiate a criminal charge or criminal charges against a former president? >> well, depends really what kind of charges you're talking about. so when we're talking about, let's say, inciting a riot or insurrection charge, i think you'll need a lot more than what was in the speeches proceeding that event. for the defrauding and conspiracy-type charges, they may have enough with what they have. but again, we're talking about

the facts of the case and not necessarily about the jurisdiction and the unprecedented nature of indicting a former president for acts that occurred solely while he was in office. i think i'm a criminal defense attorney on the federal side. so we always want to look at just jurisdictionally is this case going to survive appellate scrutiny. so certainly if the indictment is issued, then the case will proceed unless and until the charges are withdrawn or dismissed or a court says that they cannot proceed. but i think these are really bigger constitutional questions that do have to be analyzed by the prosecutor and of course by the defense team. that's going to be a big push from the very beginning from trump's side. >> good reminder. there's no precedent here. we're in a different world. katelyn polantz, to that point, your my ask jeeves, what's next? maggie makes a great point, no charges have been brought. this is a target letter. generally or often ends up in charges. we obviously saw that in the documents case as well. but no charges have been brought

yet. what should we be watching for in this specific case going forward? >> yeah. well, phil, we're going to be watching the federal court. that's where the grand jury has been sitting and hearing this evidence. we don't know exactly what stage the justice department is in. clearly they're in an end stage and donald trump may very well be right that he may be arrested and indicted in very, very short order. but we know that the grand jury, they will have to meet. so it's a secret panel of people who have been listening to this evidence. they will have to sign off on the indictment. they will do that in secret. all of their proceedings will remain secret. their names will remain secret. but, once that indictment is signed off, the judge also will approve it and then it will be released hopefully to the public, hopefully not under seal. we would imagine it to be made public just like the indictment in florida was. and then we get to see what the justice department has in their case and we move forward with having an arraignment, just like

what happened in miami in the coming days after an indictment, a defendant comes in, enters their official plea of not guilty. very likely that trump would do that as well. and so we're just going to have to keep watching the grand jury in washington, but we already know there is a witness, at least one witness scheduled for tomorrow to come in there. so, unclear exactly when or how this will play out in the coming days. >> quite a lot ahead there as you just laid out. we'll be covering all of it. paula reed, katelyn polantz, thank you as well. katie and maggie, both of you stay with us. we have so much more to discuss in the coming hour. including this, michigan's attorney general bringing felony charges against 16 fake electors who signed certificates falsely claiming trump won the election. we'll break down the alleged scheme and who these electors are coming up next. we're now learning the u.s. soldier who crossed into north korea was facing disciplinary action and he was set to leave the military. what his mother is saying now. it has been a long road,

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that then president trump won michigan in 2020. the group includes current and former republican officials. joining us now is cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider. she is live in lansing, michigan, this morning. jessica, this is really an extraordinary development. what are the charges that these individuals are facing? >> reporter: yeah, abby. they are facing multiple felonies, eight counts for each of these 16 defendants. this is all stemming from when these 16 republicans allegedly tried to storm the capitol just behind me here in lansing on december 14th, 2020. armed with fake certificates, falsely proclaiming that donald trump had won the state of michigan here in 2020 despite the fact that joe biden won this state by 154,000 votes. back in 2020 they were thwarted at the capitol doors by police. now, of course, they're being charged by the attorney general in this state, dana nestle. they're facing these multiple felony counts, including election law, forgery.

these weren't just any people. these were prominent republicans in this state, included current and former gop officials, also a member of the national republican committee and sitting mayor and member of the school board here in michigan. so, many prominent republicans, all of them trump supporters. all trying to argue that trump had won the election. they were trying to storm in to replace the democratic electors that were inside. you heard there from the attorney general dana nestle just saying that this plan to undermine democracy was fraudulent and legally baseless. and abby, she notably is the first state prosecutor to actually bring criminal charges on the state level. and we've been told that these 16 alleged fake electors do just have a number of days to turn themselves in on these multiple felony counts. abby? >> and this is obviously not the only place where we have seen these fake electors popping up. what are some of the other potential investigations at the state level that could involve these kinds of schemes?

>> reporter: yeah. these fake elector plots unfolded in seven different states. so we have seen the action the first criminal action here in michigan. but we know there are also investigations unfolding in fulton county, georgia. the d.a. there is looking into it. as well as authorities in arizona. notably, abby, the special counsel, jack smith, he's also been probing these fake elector plots as part of his probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. so there could be a lot more to come here, more charges against these alleged fake electors in other states. abby? >> jessica schneider in lansing, michigan. thank you very much. we'll bring back our panel now, political analyst, maggie haberman, katie cherkowsky and jeff duncan. jeff, i'll start with you. what do you think -- extrapolate out what yesterday's state felony charges mean for the

other states here based on your understanding of where things are. >> yeah. looking at the profiles of these folks in michigan, it's very similar to what we see in georgia, right? these are teachers. these are party activists. these are retirees. just kind of broad swath of folks in georgia. this is probably indication of where fulton county is probably going to go, too. that would just be my guess. i think this is one of the biggest liabilities. these fellow electors -- this is one of the biggest areas of potential liability for donald trump and his supporting cast. this is where there was a lot of coordination, there was a lot of conversations, there was a lot of structure coming from the white house or from donald trump's campaign as to how to structure these. these folks had no idea how to set up a fellow electorate slate. these are really good people, probably, right? i don't necessarily know them personally. these are really good folks having to lose their life savings to cover their legal charges. these are folks just having completely train wreck their

profiles in the community. all because a sitting president and his supporting cast told them this was the right thing to do. they believed him. >> you don't feel like this was free will on their part. >> i think there was confusion and whole bunch of different scenarios here. some folks showed up. there are some that showed up there with maybe mall intent to think they're going to subvert democracy and try to run this fellow electorate up to the halls of congress. >> well, you raise an interesting point about who is really responsible for both the january 6th insurrection but also some of this stuff that came before it, the fake elector's plot. maggie, i want to bring you in on this because i think this is going to become a central question as we look at what jack smith is looking at here. to what extent was -- were some of these schemes, especially the fake elector's scheme directed by trump, by his attorneys, by his associates? and what is your sense of the concern in trump's orbit that

there are others who have real legal exposure here? >> look, a key, abby, in terms of this investigation with jack smith has been fake electors. we know this. two tracks that jack smith has been focussed on, at least, but two we know of witnesses coming in to be interviewed by prosecutors or appear before the grand jury. one has been trump's mindset, which is obvious. we all understand why they would be looking at that, whether he actually, you know, realized that he had not lost or whether he was under the impression he had and genuinely believed that. the other is about fake electors. we know that people who were involved in the so-called fake elector's effort have been in to smith's office to talk to his investigators. i believe some have also gone before the grand jury. there were basically two camps within trump's campaign. there was the camp arguing let's move on. and there was the camp that was

arguing let's install these elector's in ways that even people who were connected to it raised questions about. now you may end up seeing that in se, arizona, where my colleague and i had reporting last year that there were internal emails within the campaign where one of the lawyers working with them literally described these elector's as fake and then corrected himself and said alternate is a better word with a smiley face in the email. kelly ward, party official out there had apparently raised questions about whether this was actually legal. so i think you're going to hear a lot more of that going forward. and there is going to be this split about who was involved with what. >> katie, you know, norm eisen, often talking publicly about these issues but also worked on some of the investigations on capitol hill, long-time attorney on these issues had a piece where he hit at an interesting element of this when i saw this all play out yesterday i was trying to figure out. he says in this op-ed, by

cussing solely on the figures undertook, ms. nestle is insulating her case she overreached exceeding r jurisdiction also leaves a clear lane for mr. jack smith if ms. nestle can move against these individuals in michigan, mr. smith can and should do against the ring leaders. what i was trying to figure out yesterday, this is all connected, right? it's easy to view these things in isolation or view them in a vacuum. all of these things are connected to some degree. do you agree that this either kind of leaves space for the special counsel but also almost kind of, puts the spurs in to bring his own cases against these same individuals across seven states. >> i think these actual charges are discreet in terms of submitting false signatures. any criminal defendant is going to look for other people to blame and say it was mitigated because they were misinformed or they were misled or given wrong

legal advice even. so certainly that will play a part in all of these defenses. but in the specific state charges, i think you're going to see that they actually signed documentation that asserted incorrect information about their location and so in materials of actually defending that by saying that you didn't know whether that was lawful or not, that will be an uphill battle for them specifically. certainly they will implicate the other people that were involved in that but those state charges are kind of a stand alone set of charges in my opinion. and it does not limit jack smith from proceeding federally against any of these same people also for that matter. >> reported these individuals in from the seven states, fake electors have clearly been a focus as maggie was discussing. secretary of defense from michigan will be with us next hour. missiles and explosions lighting up the sky in odesa, ukraine, in another night of russian strikes. we'll go there live. about the u.s. soldier who

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♪ new overgh north korea launching o more ballistic missiles. seoul reported the short-range missiles landed in the waters 2015 the korean peninsula and japan. a defiant move coming shortly after the u.s. deployed a

nuclear armed submarine to south korea on tuesday for the first time in decades. launches come just one week after pyongyang fired a new icbm supervised by kim jong-un. that demonstrated long-range capabilities. a u.s. soldier is believed to be in north korean custody for the first time in decades. he crossed willfully and without authorization. natasha bertrand has more on this very strange story. what do we know about this army private? and why did he do this? >> reporter: yeah. has a lot of officials here scratching their heads, abby. what we know is that this is someone named private travis king. he was a junior enlisted soldier assigned to u.s. forces korea. and essentially what appears to have happened here is he was on a tour of the dmz when he willfully and without authorization crossed that

demarcation line into north korea. now the back story here is interesting because our sources tell us that he was actually held in a detention facility in south korea for 50 days facing disciplinary tlax for assault charges in south korea. he was actually set to be sent back to the united states to face further disciplinary action by the military in the form of actually being separated from the army. but when he went to board his flight, he apparently did not get on the plane. the military officials that were accompanying him could not accompany him as far as the gates. they essentially lost track of him. he was then able to at some point sign up for this tour, went to the dmz and then crossed that demarcation line again, voluntarily. there's no sign here yet he was coerced to do so. the u.s. military does say it is working with its north korean counterparts to try to resolve this situation. but as we know, the u.s. has not had diplomatic communications with the north koreans really

since president biden took office. they have tried and tried to reach out to them for talks and they have simply not responded. it remains unclear whether the military to military channels are going any better here. but we did get a statement, according to abc, from travis king's mother, who said, quote, i can't see travis doing ything like that. she said she last heard from her son a few days ago when he told her he would return soon to his base in ft. bliss texas and added she just wants him to come home, abby. >> first time since 1982, i believe, that something like this h happened. natasha bertrand, thank you ver and later on this morning, we'll take you near the korean demilitarized zone. a live report from cnn's will ripley on the south korean side of that border ahead. also happening overnight, russia launching an attack on the ukrainian port city of odesa. [ gunfire ]

>> the major calls it one of the most horrible nights and the worst attack since the invasion began. no casualties were reported but a downed russian missile left several civilians injured. cnn's alex marquardt is live in odesa. i was watching your reporting last night. our photo journalist last night as well. what is the latest on a second day of retaliatory attacks? >> reporter: well, this was in the words of the mayor, a fierce battle. and you could see it right there in that clip that scotty shot. it was just the most incredible display of fire power. certainly that we ourselves have seen since the beginning of this war. it all started around 2:00 a.m. those air raid sirens going off and very quickly, phil, after that anti-aircraft guns firing into the sky. large yellow and red tracers, presumably trying to take down the drones that were attacking this city. we saw large yellow glows from blasts. and we heard enormous explosions, we believe, from these missiles that were either

being intercepted or landing. those explosions sending huge shock waves all across this city. rattling buildings across odesa, causing car alarms all along this street where we are and all across the city to go off. this attack by russia, according to ukrainian authorities, was a combination of both drones and different types of cruise missiles. more than 60 of them all together being fired from land, sea and air. there were about half a dozen people who were hurt. no one killed, as you mentioned. there was significant damage. a lot of it in and around the port of odesa. but we've also seen some of that damage to civilian buildings as well. now, russia had said that yesterday that the first night of strikes was a response to that kerch bridge attack carried out by ukraine but president zelenskyy saying they believe that this is an attack on that grain deal infrastructure. remember, phil, russia pulling out of that critical grain deal on monday. >> yeah. two major developments over the

course of this week and now seeing the aftermath of it. another development from a couple weeks ago that is still hanging over everything is the mutiny it failed with yevgeny prigozhin, the head of wagner. the head of britain's mi6 told cnn new details about his short-lived rebellion. what did it say? >> reporter: still hanging over all this and still clearly confusing to western intelligence agencies. who are still trying to figure this out. the head of mi6 the equivalent of the u.s. cia telling cnn prigozhin when he carried out this insurrection, he started the day as a traitor. he finished the day pardoned, and then he was invited to the kremlin for tea just a few days later. there was that remarkable meeting by prigozhin and some of his commanders at the kremlin on june 29th. but this shows, according to richard moore, the head of mi6 that putin surnd pressure. that he did not see this coming.

he says that putin was forced to cut what he called a humiliating deal to save his skin. you'll recall that on june 24th, phil, we heard that the mutiny was suddenly ending. that a deal had been struck, brokered by the president of belarus, saying that wagner would be going to belarus. we have seen in the past few days some of those wagner troops heading into that country. but clearly now, phil, according to the head of mi6, putin is rattled and we believe that he is trying to weaken prigozhin, while trying to keep those wagner fighters, inviting them to join the russian military because they are still a considerable fighting force. phil? >> alex marquardt and team live in odesa. great work. stay safe, my friend. and donald trump could face a third criminal indictment soon. how the former president's congressional allies and his top 2024 rivals are reacting. and 27 years later, a new development in the tupac shakur

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♪ we have a man the only way he can get elected is to weaponize the justice department, which he's gone around doing. i didn't know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this. now i am becoming an expert. i have no choice because we have to. it's a disgrace. if you say something about an election, they want to put you in jail for the rest of your life. we have prosecutors that are evil people. these are evil people. deranged. i call them deranged. >> that was former president donald trump lacking a little fire there, lashing out at a campaign stop in iowa after learning he's the target of a federal instation into efforts to overturn the 20 election. and new this morning, we're arning more about what was actually in that target letter. multiple news outlets, including source familiar with the " say a

contents of the letter cited at least three statutes including deprivation of rights, conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the united states and tampering with a witness. >> but republican lawmakers are jumping to former president trump's defense. house speaker kevin mccarthy and other members of congress accused the justice department of acting as a weapon for the biden justice department and the democrats. cnn congressional correspondent lauren fox is with us now. lauren, this is more or less what we have come to expect from republicans on capitol hill. >> reporter: yeah, abby. this news broke yesterday when house republicans were actually having a weekly conference meeting behind closed doors. meaning they may not have had all the nuances of what exactly was part of this target letter. and yet, when they emerged from that meeting, they were so quick to defend former president donald trump. meanwhile, this is just a latest split screen between house republicans and house democrats

and how they're perceiving the reality of a situation. >> there's little doubt that former president trump was very specifically and granularly involved in trying to overturn the results of the legitimate presidential election that he lost. >> this appears to be the culmination of it. and i expect donald trump to be indicted in the near future. >> yeah, it's absolute bull blaep bleep. that's my reaction. >> president trump went up in the polls and was surpassing president biden for re-election. what do they do now, weaponize government. >> one more ridiculous move from the justice department. this is as wrong as it gets. >> reporter: and republicans are vowing to use the power of the appropriations process to try to hold back some funding to the justice department, whether be for new fbi headquarters or to the special counsel's office investigating these mat sbeers former president donald trump. but we should note that there really is a split screen between

how house republican leadership is dealing with this and how senate republican leadership is dealing with this. i tried to ask mitch mcconnell yesterday in the halls, specifically about this issue. he did not respond to that question. it's not abnormal that he doesn't talk in the hallways. we should also note, he does not respond to questions about former donald trump's legal woes. you also had john thune, the republican whip acknowledging the fact that this continues to be a distraction for the republican party. abby and phil. >> you said it. if there's one thing mitch mcconnell knows how to do, it's ignore questions about donald trump. >> we've all been there in the hallways near ohio clock. just walks right by. >> lauren, valiant effort on your part. thank you very much. let's bring back now jeff duncan and maggie haberman. maggie, i want to start with you. i wonder, you have a piece today reaction from republicans "the new york times" are we naive when republicans on capitol hill or on the campaign trail will

start saying something different about these charges as they pile up against former president trump? >> well, i don't know, abby, how many indictments this is going to be tested through, but we're now on the potential third one. there could be a fourth before the end of the summer. assuming this one does go to a third. and we have not seen any difference in what we are hearing from republicans. there are very small number of trump's rivals in the presidential primary who are willing to very openly call him out. chris christie, asa hutchinson, ron desantis tying himself in knots around this. you really saw a great example of it yesterday where the mildest criticism that he issued of trump in saying trump could have done more, should have done more on january 6th and what he appeared to be referring to was to try to stop the violence that was taking place at the capitol, was then jumped on by his own campaign who criticized people amplifying it, criticized trump's advisers amplifying it saying his words are being taken

out of context. i think it reflects, abby, the dynamics in the republican primary which is that a number of republican voters don't want to hear criticism of trump, do want to hear republicans defend him, do want to echo what trump has basically instructed these republicans to say. and unless folks are willing to take him on directly, and we will see what happens on a debate stage next month, depending on whether trump shows up and depending on who makes that debate stage, but we will see what happens in terms of whether people are willing to directly take this on and say more forcefully if they disagree with these indictments. right now, it's very hard to see what the dynamic is that changes things and that only benefits trump. >> the twitter back and forth between the desantis team and trump's folks quoting, there's inception level. slightly perplexing yesterday to some degree. jeff, i want to ask you, maggie mentioned that jake tapper sat down with ron desantis yesterday. his answer on this issue

specifically demonstrates his effort to try to walk a line. take a listen. >> if jack smith has evidence of criminality, should donald trump be held accountable? >> so here is the problem, this country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. and i think that's wrong. alvin bragg stretched the statute in manhattan to be able to try to target donald trump. most people, even people on the left, acknowledge if that wasn't trump, that case would not likely been brought against a normal civilian. you have a situation where department of justice, fbi have been weaponized against people they don't like and the number one example of that happened to be against donald trump with the russia collusion that was not legitimate investigation. that was being done to try to drive trump out of office. so what i've said as president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice, to end weaponization of these agencies. we're going to have a new fbi

director on day one. we're going to have big changes at the department of justice. americans across the political spectrum need to have confidence that what is going on is based on the rule of law, not based on what political tribe you're in. then the second thing i would say is, this country needs to have a debate about the country's future. if i'm the nominee, we'll be able to focus on president biden's failures and i'll be able to articulate a positive vision for the future. i don't think it serves us good to have a presidential election focussed on what happened four years ago in january. and so, i want to focus on looking forward. i don't want to look back. i do not want to see him. i hope he doesn't get charged. i don't think it will be good for the country. but at the same time, i've got to focus on looking forward and that's what we'll do. >> just to be clear, jake's question should donald trump be held accountable, hell of an answer to that. what does it tell you? >> with all due respect, that is

the worst answer i have heard to that question. it's very simple. >> don't hold back. >> i don't care about donald trump's legal future. that's his problem. he had his chance and screwed up and lost to joe biden. if i'm ron desantis, i champion the fact i'm a conservative governor, got a strong robust economy in florida. i got covid right. i talk about the things that i can do for the country. i talk about immigration reform. i talk about opportunities to support ukraine. i talk about education and school choice and the things that helped him win, take florida from purple to bright red. that's a bad answer. and it should be a lesson to other republicans that we need to turn the page, right? we start on second base with policies. republicans, i believe in the current environment we're in and the weak nature of joe biden and his administration puts republicans on second base with policy. but yet we never hear about it. right? certainly don't hear about it from donald trump or the candidates or at least the majority of the candidates. that's our best foot forward is our policies. >> he's talking to primary voters. >> the base -- we've got to steer the base in the right

direction. they're confused. there's chaos on the battlefield. donald trump has poured battery acid in the water. there's infighting. we are now confusing loud and crazy for conservative. right? i'm a conservative because i believe in the policies. i believe it's the best way for public safety, taxation, national security, orders. that's why i'm a republican. that's why i'm a conservative. so many people are confused. i think donald trump -- i'm optimistic, my wife says i think the glass is overflowing. i'm optimistic in i think americans and republicans will wake up and realize that donald trump supports a mile wide and inch deep. they want an excuse to not vote for him. these indictments are not helping him. >> we'll find out what happens. ron desantis will probably have another opportunity to take a stab at that answer. maggie haberman and geoff, thank you both very much. we'll have much more on these latest developments and all of these investigations after a very quick break. this is american infrastructure. megawatts of power,

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♪ this was remarkable thing you may have missed yesterday. 27 years late e police in las vegas executed a search warrant in the tupac shakur murder case. the rapper was shot and killed on the las vegas strip back in 1996. he's in the car with death row ceo. authorities believe tupac was the target. police say they executed the latest search warrant at a

location in henderson, nevada, but they're not saying anything else at the moment. and here is another las vegas story for you, at least one person got sick inside of a delta plane that was stuck on the tarmac there in triple digit heat. the temperature outside was 111 degrees. and there was no air-conditioning in the cabin. a passenger tells us what happened next. >> it was just like chaos at this point. there was a woman walking in the aisle. she looked like she was about to pass out. they put an oxygen mask on her. people had thrown up. people had fainted. you know, gone to the bathroom. >> but she said she got -- many people got sick from the heat including the flight crew and the flight to atlanta was ultimately cancelled. the airline has apologized and released this statement. delta teams are looking into the circumstances that led to uncomfortable temperatures inside of that cabin. and uncomfortable is an understatement. "cnn this morning"