♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forrd. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ >> i hope he's scared. he should be scared. but his mind is constantly focused on one thing. how do i benefit donald trump? >> while there may be somerable rousers -- some rabblerousers thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple. control yourselves. >> this is a really murky incident. it's not immediately clear exactly who was behind this explosion. >> many experts believe it must be ukrainian intelligence behind

this attack. russian investigative committee thinks that russian opposition was also involved. >> this particular part of the bridge used to be packed with addicts. they're often huddled together, high and shooting up. >> their rehab it pretty inhumane. it's to lock them up and make them sweat it out and, again, it doesn't have lasting effects. not lasting beneficial effects. >> hello. welcome to the context. brand new program tonight. from now on we'll be with you at the early time of 8:00. and for two hours rather than one. which gives us plenty of room then to focus on our top stories tonight. we'll be getting the view from ukraine and russia on the information war that's being fought over the death of the russian blogger. we'll bring you up to date with the battle in bakhmut.

we'll have an exclusive investigation on drugs in afghanistan. and the supply roots that end here in europe -- routes that end here in europe. but tonight we'll start in man manhattan where donald trump will soon be arriving. ahead of his court hearing tomorrow. with the secret service in tow. this is his plane that was leaving the airport in florida just two hours ago. he'll be spending the night at his home in trump tower on fifth avenue, befor surrendering around lunch time tomorrow to the manhattan district attorney. and even by new york standards this promises to be quite the spectacle. let's go then to new york. our correspondent is outside trump tower. and security, very tight. 's going to be an enormous security operation. reporter: that's absolutely right. you have new york security officials working directly with federal law enforcement. of course the secret service given president trump, former president.

so this is a large operation to make sure that every moment of this historic jou journey from p arriving in new york and then later tomorrow to that courthouse and the district attorney's office, that every moment is secure. there was a press conference to talk about the security operations and they wned there would be intermittent street closures but said they had no signs of any major threat. that so far they are confident that they can keep this city safe, that they can keep new yorkers going about their daily business. you might be able to see behind me there are some barricades and kind of limited blockages around trump tower itself. but for the most part it is very much orderly chaos here. as the city prepares and embraces for president trump to arrive. christian: and all those people in time square in new york

tonight, will be watching the picture in the box there, laguardia airport, we're expecting to see the plane with the trump livery landing there any minute now. how do people feel about the circus that's been around this journey today? reporter: well, i have to tell you that between tourists and everyd new yorkers, they are really soakin this spectacle. it has grabbed their attention just because of, again, just how unprecedented this is. and donald trump, whriel he for a long time -- while he for a long time faded from the public view, he firmly has the public's attention in his grip once more. we've actually seen wall to wall coverage tracking every step of his journey from when his private boeing 757 aircraft took off there, waving to his supporters at the airport. you have tens of thousands of people tracking his flight according to one website, waiting for when he will arrive

here in new york. and what i can tell you is even though his politics has made him swla of a pariah in this city, there have been a few supporters here and down at the courthuse. we haven't seen anything like the large protests that donald trump was hoping for. but a few people expressing thr support for the president, former president. having signs that say trump 2024. on the flip side of the coin, though, we've also seen people very vocal saying that trump had this coming, that he deserves to be held accountable. that no one else is above the law. so we've seen both sides. but clearly tomorrow will be something else altogether, when the actual arrest and arraignment take place. we already know one congresswoman, marjorie taylor greene, is planning to come here and protest. but as i say, new york is bracing itself and says it's ready for any eventuality. christian: quickly on that point. the -- all the preparations around tomorrow, whether there will be a perp walk or mug shot,

all of that is being hammered out today between the district attorney's office and the secret service. do we know anything about the detail? reporter: it really is quite something that less than 24 hours away and these details are still being hammered out. for example, we still don't know if he will have to take a mug shot when he arrives at the district attorney's office and th courthouse. there is still the issue of whether cameras will be allowed to capture this moment. that's something that t judge will be ruling on today after several media outlets wrote a letter say, given the -- saying, given the gravity of this proceeding and the fact that it has broad interest to the public, that they can't understate the importance of having video cameras, photographers, radio reporters inside the courtroom which normally doesn't happen, to be able to capture that moment when

donald trump pleads. his lawyers say he's going to plead not guilty, he's always denied any wrongdoing. don't expect him to be placed in handcuffs. but i think for the rest of it, again, so unprecedented that we just have to see how this plays out because there'so many fine details that are still being worked out. christian: don't go anywhere, we'll be back to you shortly when that plane lands in new york. thank you for the moment. trump's lawyer said yesterday he hopes this will be as painless and classy as possible. but it's clear his lawyersre already preparing a motion to dismiss as soon as the charges are unsealed. we expect that will be tomorrow when they are read out for the fit time in court. however, there may yet be some surprises. this morng an attorney representing trump's former fixer, michael cohen, said the d.a. has documentation about a payment to a second woman. that would likely be the lady on the left, the former playbook playmate of the year who also claimed to have an affair with the former president. and that suggests the case could go beyond his connections that

we all know about to the adult film star stormy daniels there on the right. this is what the attorney who represents michael cohen told me on friday night. >> there are thousands of documents, emails, text messages, other witnesses who can testify to donald trump paying the money and federal prosecutors already found that in a published document. and his motivation was fear of strvetion tormi daniels' possible affair -- stormi daniels' possible affair coming right out before the election. so you don't need donald trump attacking michael cohen, his own administration prosecutors, remember, this is 2018 whether they published the assertion, not allegation, that he directed cohen to pay the money. so you don't need cohen on that. you have the federal ace and you also have all the evidence that d the federal prosecutors to that conclusion.

christian: let me show you the tracker that we were talking about a few minutes ago. there you go. that is tracking trump's plane coming into new york. i don't know how you all feel about this, some peo think it's a bit vulgar. some people think he wants to look presidential and that's what this is all about. flying withhe trump livery on the plane. other people of course can't get enough of that. that is donald trump, isn't it? he tends to dominate the public space. let's bring in a former communications advisor to the republican national committee and a law prostlesser at the university of -- professor at the university of minnesota, served as chief white house ethics lawyer for george w. bush. welcome to you both. doug, can i start with you. what do you make of it today, the motorcade from mar-a-lago, the plane with the livery, the fact that we're all tuning i it is a historic moment, but as i say, some people not le this. >> yeah, you know, yesterday was wrestlemania and what we see today in new york city and obviously at mar-a-lago as well,

sort of represents that as well. wherever trump goes it's a big spectacle and we know that's not going to change. but there's still so much that we don't know. not just that we don't know what the charges are, but we don't know politically what the space is going to be for republicans or democrats. we don't know if there are going to be cameras, not just a mug shot of donald trump, but we don't know if there's going to be cameras, if this goes to trial. so there's a lot that we still just have to wait and see how it will unfold. we know it's going to take a lot of attention from people, though, that's for sure. christian: richard let's talk about the indictment. we still don't know very much about it. although the speculation is there will be over 30 counts. we've heard from trump's lawyer who said today this case is not even legally sufficient, factually it's a joke. what is he referring to in the way that the case has been structureed? >> i don't read the indictment to figure out exactly what's going on here. and of course t defense lawyer is going to say that. very frequently. but let's start with the legal

rules here. it's legal in the united states to have sex with a pornography star. it's probably legal to pay her $130,000 toeep her mouth shut. but if you're running for president, you do need to disclose that as a campaign expenditure on your federal election commission disclosure forms. which didn't happen and that's why the prosecutors went after michael cohen, his attorney. and cohen ended up going to jail in connection with that investigation. they never indicted donald trump, he's the president of the united states, they're not going to indict a sitting president. so the feds are now out of it but new york, the state of new york has another statute, a criminal statute that says you cannot falsify a financial record of a new york business in order to cover another crime. it doesn't matter whether the cover-up is of a crime in new york or a crime under federal law or british law, for example. we cannot have new york businesses being used to lawnlder money, you can't have new york -- launder money.

you can't have u.s. businesses falsifying their financial records in order to conceal any crime, including a federal election commission violation. and that's going to be the heart of the indictmen based on what we understand today. christian: doug, what do we know about the judge who will sit on this case tomorrow? he's called justice, he's a state supreme court justice. he's no stranger to the former president. he's already sent alan wise berg, the close confidant, the former financial executive at the trump company, to prison. he's overseen the criminal fraud case involving steve bannon, the former trump advisor. is he the kind of judge, do you think, who would allow this to become a spectacle? would he allow cameras to go into the courtroom? >> his reputation is sterling. known as by the book. high reputation from folks that i know who have appeared before him with clients. on either side of issues. this is a true professional.

we don't know what the decision yet will be on cameras. they're not required. trump right now doesn't want cameras in the courtroom. for once he doesn't want to be a complete center of attention, at least in this one regard. because it could reflect poorly on him. but what we do know is that a lot of this trial is also going to play out in public eye. we've seen thisccurring already. on some of the criticism. some of which i think are justified on the charge itself. and whether or not this would have been brought up if it was someone else. but we still need to find out what crime does donald trump -- is donald trump charged with and did he commit it or is not? that's what we'll find out in the coming months. christian: let's have a quick look, because there's been some done since he was indicted last week. this is a poll conducted by ssrs. 62% approve of the indictment, just over 60%. 52% think politics played at least some role in the decision to indict him. that is interesting.

the majority think it is political. does it matter that it is political if the law's been broken? >> the law's been broken. that needs to be investigated. and if a prosecution is called for it, a prosecution needs to followed. it doesn't matter whether it's a president you like or a former president you like or disliefnlgt the law is the law. of course there's going to be a lot of political back and forth whenever a president is subject to a criminal investigation, much less an indictment. but we need to take the law seriously. this is the least serious of the potential criminal charges that could be brought against donald trump. there is a grand jury in geoia that is investigating solicitation of election fraud which would be a much more serious offense if that could be established, that he tried to pressure the secretary of state toome up with 11,000 votes. even more serious than that is the department of justice investigation of the events after the election of 2020, the attempt to overturn the

election, the planning to use the military or the justice department and eventually what happened on january 6 of 2021. if donald trump is charged with sedition or insurrection, that would be far more serious than these pending charges in new yorkment and indeed that is the only -- new york. and indeed that is the only offense that would disqualify him from public office under the 14th amendment, section 3, no one who has sworn loyalty to the united states and was given any aid or comfort to an insurrection may ever hold public office again. so we're waiting to hear from the justice department about january 6. there are other pending matters which will feed into the public's evaluation of whether donald trump is suited for another run for the presidency. christian: the republicans have been lining up to attack the d.a. in manhattan for the indictment that hs brought in this particular case. even those who are running against donald trump in 2024, except one, and that is the former governor of aansaas oboue

problems that donald trump's now facing. >> you suggested recently that if trump were to get indicted that you'd drop out of thace. do you believe that now that he's been indicted should he drop out of the race? >> i do. for a couple of reasons. first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. and so for the sabling of the office -- sake of the office the presidency, i do think that it's too much of a side show and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence. but the second reason is, throughout my eight years as governor and as a political leader, i've always said that the people don't have to step aside from public office if they'render investigation but if it reaches the point of criminal charges that have to be answered, the office is always more importantn a person. christian: that's really interesting, isn't it? you can criticize the process, you can argue that it's done him a load of good in the polls, in

earning money from the small donors. but it will may be concluded in time in republican circles that he just does too many distractions >> yeah, that's what's going to be interesting to see what happens here in the coming weeks and months on this. republicans have been backing trump and criticizing the investigation and now the charges. but if you're ron desantis or nikki haley, at a certain point do you step up and say, you know, donald trump shouldn't have been charged with this, or other potential investigations or indictments, but he's too distracted and we need to move foard, we need a president and a candidate who can focus solely on winning, solely on beating joe biden and being president and donald trump's just not the person to do that. there's a lot of time for these candidates to do so, that they've not been critical of trump in these initial three or four days. at this point i don't think really means anything. christian: if you are just joining us you'll see on the screen there the flight of donald trump, which is just coming into laguardia airport in new york.

where of course he will be arraigned tomorrow in the court inanhattan. we're talking to doug and richard about the indictment that he's facing at the moment. richard, just talk to me about the district attorney. because we're going to see a lot of him tomorrow. what do you make of him and what do you make of the sort of pressure that he's under? >> i've seen quite a few good district attorneys. there was vance and now brag. this is a very well-run office. i supported vance, the previous district attorney, when he went to the u.s. supreme court to enforce his subpoena for the documents from the trump organization that led to this investigation. i submitted -- submitted an amicus brief on his behalf. i think he was right, the

supreme court agreed. this is the office that takes its investigations very, very seriously. now, that being said, this once again is not the most serious charge that could be brought against donald trump. i don't think this is itself disqualifying for the presidency. we'll have to see how this plays out. but what happened after the election of 2020 and the attempt to reverse the election and the violence that followed that is much, much more concerning for representative democracy. we cannot tolerate that type of thing in our government if we want to remain a democracy. and so we're waiting for the cisions about prosecution ofts anybody high up, including potentially the former president int matter. christian: we've been watching the cameraman panning across the skies trying to find the plane and he's just found i tru aircrt cominng.o t he spent the weekend playing

golf in palm beach but in between rounds he was calling friends and political allies, touting the political advantage of all this and it's certainly done him some goods in terms of -- good if terms of funding and campaigning. he's raised aroddz million in -- $5 million in 48 hours. >> yeavment it's been not -- yeah. it's been not surprising in how big some of these numbers are. we knew this was going to shore up republican support in the short-term. that means fundraising as well, which trump is very good at. but also we see a politics that are really flipped right now. which will started working on capitol hill, it was during the time of the clinton impeachment. you had republicans then instead of democrats saying, we need to follow the rule of law and we had democrats instead of republicans who said, even presidents have prite lives and what happens in their bedroom shouldn't be part of an indictment, shouldn't be part of an impeachment or anything like that. so as wve seen so much of our politics turn upside down since trump first announced his candidacy, we see that reversal happening, playing out right before our eyes right now.

christian: he had advocated for the prosecution of the last four democratic presidential nominees. every one of them since 2004. i just wondered if he ceded the moral high ground in one sense. can you sort of call for those who are running for office to be indicted and still cry foul when you're inindicted yourself? >> i think donald trump ceded the moral high ground a long time ago. the way he attacked hillary clinton, said she ought to go to prison over her email server. bunch of hogwash.nized as a so i don't think he had much credibility on that. the people believed that are going to believe him no matter what he says. whether he's indicted or not. once again, the real concernor most americans is the potential threat t our democracy. the underlying charges here, yes they're a concern, but when donald trump posts a photo of

himself on social media holding a baseball bat next to the head of the manhattan district attorney, that is the kind of threat to our democracy and to the rule of law that we associate with the events of january 6 of 2021, the attempt to overthrow the election. these are the things that americans care about. whether it's you paid off a porn star and didn't report it on your federal election commission report and someone cooked the books up in new york, ok, it's illegally and it should be criminally charged. but that's not the threat to our democracy that most of russ worried about right now -- that most of us are worried about right now. christian: we're watching the plane coming in to laguardia some people might be wondering why we're sticking on this story. but it is a historic event. the president's never been indicted before. and the bigger question for th itoeo osetse id c i bod tyheryt and to the rule of law in america. and we've seen the chairs of some very powerful committees in congress writing to the d.a., complaining about the

indictment, asking to see his evidence. what do you make of the way the republican party has reacted to this? >> republican leadership had decided long ago, and once you make the decision you can't back away from it or at least it's very hard to, that they're going to back donald trump every step the way. donald trump is not somebody who gives points. he only takes them away one at a time. if you want to play donald trump's game, you got to back him up and this is the decision they've made. it's because they want his help in the future or they don't want his harm in the future. we know that if donald trump turns on somebody, a big part of the base could turn against them in a primary or general election. and they know that. they're very aware of donald trump's power with his base. and it's also why i think it highlights of the unknowns on this. donald trump is planning to give a speech tomorrow night after he's indicted. more unprecedented theater from trump. but there's a chance he could have a gag ord put on him because whatever he does could be prejudicial in a trial. anything he says could taint a jury pool and so forth.

so trump's planning t give a speech, but at some point he could also face a gag order. christian: we talked while we watched these pictures of him coming in about the affect that this has on the race. according to the latest polling he's stretched his lead over the florida governor ron desantis to 26 points, which is the biggest it's been i think for several months now. so do we therefore presume that he is -- we have to consider him the frontrunner. is he at this moment in time the most likely candidate for 2024? and what would it mean if he's under indictment? >> that's been true since he announced his candidacy last year. he's the frontrunner, he's the most dominant figure, the alpha dog of the party really. and that's not changing until somebody takes donald trump on head-to-head. and so all of the polls we've seen to me have been essentially meaningless. we know trump's status and until somebody stands up to him or stands next to him at a debate and challenges him or tries to throw donald trump under the bus that he so often throws other

republicans under and specifically uses some of this, until we see if that has an affect or not, nothing changes. christian: but that's not happening, is it? because people can see where the base is going in the party. and for now it suits them to attack it alvin bragg and to support donald trump. >> that's exactly why i'm a political independent. i was a republican for 30 years. i served in the george w. bush white house. i still think george w. bush was a very strong president. and even if i didn't agree with him on everything. but donald trump from the very beginning pushed things way, way too far with his anti-democratic rhetoric, talking about arresting hispponents, hillary clinton, it went from bad to worse through his entire administration. he does not have respect for the rule of law. and it's not, as i said, these charges necessarily in particular that concern me the most, it's the threats to the manhattan district attorney that

he's apparently encouraged with his social media posts. we cannot run a democracy this way. we cannot have people threatening prosecutors because prosecutors indict political figures. we cannot have people who lose elections by people trying to overturn the election. christian: there is the plane coming into laguardia narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing.