>> running for president as an accused felon. the road ahead for trout -- trump. he goes on the attack just hours after being arrested, guil. >> these kind of matters are adjudicated through the judicial system. >> the attorney general defends the prosecution. >> this is election interference. >> despite his unprecedented status as a criminal defendant, enough republican voters appeared to be sticking with him that the former president remains the front runner. ♪ >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> consumer cellular's goal has

been providing wireless service to communicate and connect. we can find a plan that fits you. >> additional funding is provided by the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. these individuals. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening and welcome to "washington week." it has been a week for the history books. donald trump is now in a category all by himself. in a miami courtroom on tuesday, he entered a not guilty plea to

37 without a counts connected to his handling of classified documents. that makes him the first former president to face federal middle charges. he ended the historic day with a fundraiser at his new jersey golf club. he attacked to indictment and the special counsel. >> today we witnessedhe most evil and heinous abuse of power in our country. the prosecutor in the case is a thug. he is to ranged. -- deranged. >> attorney general merrick garland defended smith and his team. >> he has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecors. they share his commitment to integrity and the rule of law. >> the now twice indicted former president has been aggressively using his prosecution to raise money for his presidential campaign.

some $6 million since news of the indictment broke. he remains the front runner for the 2024 republican presidential nomination. most of his rivals are struggling with how to deal with these issues without alienating his supporters. some focused attacks on the justice departnt. others have tried taking a more neutral stance. here is mike pence during an interview with a conservative radio host. >> we either believe in our judicial process in this country or we do not. >> you are fine with him being put in prison? you were his vice president. that feels pretty disrespectful >> joining us to discuss this and more is the wall street journal justice department reported. the senior political editor and correspondent for npr. the washington post white house bureau chief.

and the washington correspondent for the new york times. this has been quite a week. we heard on tuesday night in that speech former president trump essentially saying i had the documents, but i had every right to keep them. is that what we expe the lawyers to say in court? >> we have heard him in these campaign appearances throughout a ton of stuff at the wall and see what could be used as a defense. he said we have a right to these documents. but even if he didn't, he did not know they were there. somebody else packed the boxes for him. it was a mistake. he declassified the documents. it remains to be seen how this will play in court. his lawyers could argue that he had power as president to declassify the documents. but they are up against some startling facts laid out in the indictment. namely that they have a tape of

him saying that he knew these documents were classified any should not have been or show them to people. they might be confronted by some pretty significant evidence from prosecutors. i think they will downplay the significance of the charges. play up the fact that they are coming during an election cycle. try to delay. that is something we have seen historically from his lawyers in the past. to try to push any criminal proceeding beyond the election. >> the indictment really was detailed. some people say it is a slamdunk case. bill barr said this past weekend that even if half of the things in the indictment are true, that he is toast. by the very nature of these charges, so much of the evidence is classified a web challenge does that pose to prosecutors? >> this will be a huge fight

that plays out in the coming months. the hearings will be closed. the judge will have a lot of say of what can be used. we will hear a lot about that in the coming weeks and months. basically there is a fundamental conflict when it comes to cases that involve classified evidence in charges of mishandling classified secrets. we have a constitutional right to a public trial. to see a trial that comes from the first amendment. this stuff has to play out in the open. but for classified material that the government says will damage national security, they do not want to display that in public and accentuate the damage.

this leads to a concept where the defendant will say i have not been able to have a fair trial. this law that will govern what is coming is an attempt to solve this problem by allowing in some cases, substitutions, summaries, redaction. the jury does not need to see everything. it will always lead the defense attorneys to say we need all of it. this is where that judge is going to have a huge say over what happens in the room. >> the white house is radio silent on this. what is their thinking? >> you do hear from a number of republicans who are defending donald trump that this is joe biden's administration going after their political opponent, trying to interfere in the

election. the biden administration does not want to play into that at all. they don't want to be seen as putting their thumb on the scale. going after his potential opponent. they want to be hands off and make sure they are not crossing any lines. this has never been done before. a former president de indicted and prosecuted. so the divided administration wants to show that if he is prosecuted, that they were not doing anything that was improper. the second reason is president biden has a number of challenges when it comes to classified documents. he also took some documents from the white house during his time as vice president. some trump supporters make it seem like he is being singled

out while joe biden is not. by not commenting on this, the white house can blunt some of those attacks and say we are just following the law and the protocol and there is no reason why we should be involved in any of these discussions. >> another thing republicans are talking about is hunter biden. >> the white house says they believe that republicans are making more of the facts around the cases then the current evidence indicates. hunter biden is under investigation for some tax crime allegations. and the purchase of a gun. it does not appear that some of the trumped up ideas about whistleblowers and money being paid to the president and bribes, we have not seen evidence of that play out.

while we wait for potential action from the justice department in the conclusion of that case, we are all in wait and see mode. this is all connected to what is happening with the former president. until a and seine. >> we all know that president trump likes to fight these things in the court of public opinion. but the details in the indictment go into a great amount of detail. does that play role in the court of public opinion? >> if you can get people to read it. we have seen over and over again that people who have supported trump, they are really echoing and parry adding -- parroting a lot of what he has said. they say a lot of the same

things that you will hear from the former president. just this week there was a poll that showed republicans throughout all of these proceedings have actually supported trump more. 76% of republicans have a favorable view the former president. that was 64% just a few nths ago. you are seeing this divergence where you have democrats and independents who mostly will decide these elections who are going in the opposite direction. most of them say trump did something illegal. you are seeing a huge distance between these things.

you are seeing some republican speak out and say he has an electability problem. he might be able to get through a gop primary. but the opposite is true when it comes more toxic to general election voters. >> merrick garland appointed jack smith to put some distance between himself and this case. but he did come out wednesday and defend smith against the attacks from former president trump rated what was his calculation for doing that. >> he has taken very deliberate steps. i saw him on thursday walking into the justice department around the time that the grand jury returned the indictment. he was insinuating that he was nowhere near when this came

down. i think this is by design. president biden appointed him to insulate the justice department from political attack. that is what he has tried to do. he basically is saying this is someone i appointed to uphold the independence of the justice department. someone who can help restore some confidence in this investigation. he did appoint him under special counsel regulations that require jack smith to notify the attorney general of any major decisions. he would have been privy to the decision to charge trump. he cannot take a totally hands-off approach to that. he sort of just basically said this is someone who is operating independently.

these are prosecutors with integrity. that is all i am going to say. >> earlier this week you wrote about the judge in this case. there has been so much said about her. the fact that she is a trump a ploy -- appointee. the fact that she got involved in this case earlier and was overturned by the circuit court of appeals. what do people who know her say about how they think she will handle this case? >> it is not tt hae she has absolutely little trial experience. four trials as a judge. 14 total trial days when she was an assistant u.s. attorney. she mainly did appellate work. all very basic cases like a felon having a gun.

that is the system. this was assigned randomly. normal procedures were followed. it landed on her. it seems like or althe resistance twitter talk of jack smith trying to seek her recusal , i don't see any sign that that will happen. we will see whether she continues to behave as she did last fall in a series of rulings that really shocked experts across ideological lines in defense of trump. only to be overturned by a conservative appeals court. maybe she sees this as a chance to redeem herself. as a chance to double down. she will be the judge. jack smith will have to go forward with that.

>> they said she had no basis in law to get involved in the case. as we have said, donald trump is both on trial and running for president. the day he was in court, we were in a des moines studio. we were watching a focus group of republicans who voted for trump twice here is some of what they had to say. >> why do you think he is being set up? >> it is plain as day as he broke the law. >> i will vote for him for a third time. you bet. >> what do you make of that? >> we were talking about whether or not he can get people to re the indictment and make the difference. that was the one guy who read the indictment and he said he thinks trump definitely broke the law.

he said he would vote for him again. that is the way it is going to go. elections are choices. they have to pick one or the other. right now when it comes to them, th are so unpopular that people are basically holding their nose to pick who they are going to choose. one thing i feel like i am starting to notice with this election coming up is it will really depend on the third-party boat. trump is mr. 4. that is what he got in both elections. this effort where they are trying to put a well-heeled centrist candidate on ballots in some of these key states, they

think that will hurt trump. mostly they are wrong about that. when you talk to pollsters, for the people who dislike both of them, they are breaking overwhelmingly to biden. if that is the case that is the case and you see the track record, if there is a serious third-party candidate who has good backing and can get on these ballots, it will hurt biden more. >> candidates are challenging donald trump. they're all reacting in a variety of ways. look at some of them. >> how about blame him? he did it. >> it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison. >> we will be sure that the weaponization of government will end. >> you cannot protect democrats

while hunting republicans. >> what is the calculation of each of those candidates? >> they have to walk a very fine line between the trump base and being able to win the nomination themselves. it is very difficult and not hold trump accountable for his conduct. he is basically blotting out the entire sun at this point. you have even more candidates jumping into the race. there are three primaries going on here. one is to actually get the nomination. the other is for who could be the vice presidential running mate if he wins the nomination. and they are already looking to 2028. both guys can only serve four more years. 2028 will be wide open. politicians are pretty self-confident people we can say pretty plainly. they feel like this will raise

their brand and offer a little bit of a preview of what could be their chance four years from now. >> you talked about the white house is steering clear of this. they don't want to seem close to this at all. was about his reelection campaign? why are they not cashing in on this? >> there are reports that biden himself has ordered the democratic national committee and the campaign votes to not weigh in on those. they don't want to be seen as putting their thumb on the scale or taking advantage of it. we have seen a little bit of a piercing of that strategy. the first lady wanted to draw the split screen. she said look at the chaos going on in the republican party. she was surprised republicans were still sticking with the former president. compare that to president biden who lead with the leader of nato . taking action as president. looking at the things he has done over the past year and marking the anniversary of the

bipartisan bill he signed on gun violence. they are trying to draw that split screen. they want to show it is a binary choice. not just a choice about what happened over the last four years but also what we can go back to with former president trump coming back into office. they want to make sure this is a choice election and not just a referendum on his time in office. a selection between the chaos we see on the republican side and the candidates not willing to call out behavior that is taken place under trump. >> the prosecutors will be focused on what is going on inside the courtroom. does any of this affect how the prosecutors proceed or handle this case going forward? >> i think they have made a very

deliberate decision to insulate themselves. you do not see him in public very often. he is going to speak through his court filings. there is really nothing he can do. he cannot fight fire with fire inhis political noise arena. it would only diminish him. when you wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it. that would happen if they try to interact with these criticisms coming their way. >> many people noted that the prosecution did not ask for any conditions. even the judge seemed a little taken aback by that. what is the calculation? why did they do that? >> throughout this entire investigation we have seen the justice department and the fbi

tried to take a measured, balanced approach. what can we do that will allow to proceed with our investigation in a way that does not affect the campaign? they are trying to stay out of the presidential campaign. this is a particular challenge. now it is playing out in court. weought that prosecutors did not request trump to be held in jail. they allowed him to keep his passport. they'd put no restrictions on his travel. that is to allow him to continue to campaign. to allow the politics of this to unfold. and to avoid the argument that they are taking steps to interfere with the election. something they are very sensitive to. that is different than what we see in a lot of cases.

prosecutors usually seek bond. they did not do that this time. that was very striking. >> the next phase will be pre-tile -- pretrial motions. what do you think the defense will push for? >> i think they will take any kenneth steps that will allow this to drag out as long as possible. they might raise some doubts about which type of evidence can actually be shown in public since so much of this is classified. i could take months to play out. they could try to make any sort of accusations against the prosecutors. there is a number of different steps they can take to prolong this. that is absolutely what they're going to do. the team on the other hand will try to make this a speedy trial.

the justice department can get out of the way. >> you have the last word because we have to go. thank you for joining us and bringing your reporting. and thank you to you at home for watching. join me tomorrow for a look at the changing tactics and vanities of extremist groups in america. good night from washington. >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> consumer cellular offers contracts designed to help people do more of what they like. our customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit our website. >> additional funding is provided by the yuen foundation. committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. these individuals.

the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station for viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪ >>

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