my guess is fani willis would say game on. we took our time indicting this case because we wanted to make sure we were ready for trial in case anybody needed a speedy trial. i imagine other defendants would be moving their trial because they want more timeth to prepar. it seems that's probably a likely possibility. she might block that saying it's more efficient to try them all together, but my guess is other defendants will want to delay their trials. >> amy copeland, the atlanta journal constitution is reporting tonight under georgia law the speedy trial demand filed by chesebro applies to all 19 defendants. how does that speedy trial law work in georgia? >> well, lawless you're in for a law lesson tonight. so georgia has speedy trials depending on the term of court. there are 49 judicial circuits in the state of georgia. there's 159 counties. each judicial circuit has its own term of court. because fulton county is so large it has a term of court that t begins every odd month. so the august indictment was returned in the ju

or, as in fani willis's case, still investigating him. and every one of donald trump's criminal defense lawyers knows that every poisoned, filthy word donald trump has said about the prosecutors, every one of those words is a pathological lie. and not one of those criminal defense lawyers has the professional dignity or human decency to disassociate himself from donald trump's vicious, hateful lies about prosecutors who those criminal defense lawyers know have all conducted themselves perfectly honorably. donald trump's criminal defense lawyers live in abject fear of donald trump, abject fear, and you can see that fear on their faces when they are confronted with donald trump's poison. >> deranged jack smith. he's a deranged human being. look at that face. you say that guy is a sick man. there's something wrong with him. >> do you believe he's deranged? >> president biden, in april 2022, said he wanted president trump prosecuted and he wanted him out of the race. he repeated that in november of 2022. >> you could see the fear on that face

in your mind, would fani willis, would d.a. willis still be looking to flip some of these 18, because it seems to me they have no reason to stick with trump? he's not going to help them. >> absolutely, joy. i think that is sort of rule number one for prosecuting organized crime. you are always looking to flip people who can get you closer to the person at the top. it is what the federal government perfected over years of prosecuting drug organizations and mafia cartels. it's getting folks at the bottom to come in and testify at the top. fani willis is no stranger to that. i would expect absolutely that there will be deals offered to folks at the bottom, probably sweetheart deals to folks at the bottom if they're willing taprovide truthful, helpful testimony to the state. i would be shocked if you did not see folks at the bottom start to flip as the heat starts to get turned up in the case. >> barb, the reality is, number one, donald trump is not paying for your defense. and we have seen with the i.t. guy who flipped to the other

fani willis and the d.a. decided to push through and hear all the witnesses they wanted to hear from and they decided to vote on the indictments tonight. that is why we are here this hour with an indictment in hand. it is 90 pages. donald trump and others including his top allies and lawyers and georgia officials have been charged in a 41-count criminal indictment. all 19 defendants are charged under the r.i.c.o. statute with furthering a criminal conspiracy, the goal of which was to overturn presidential election results in georgia in 2022 install donald trump for another term as president. we heard this evening from fani willis. just a few minutes ago she gave a statement summing up the charges and took questions where she said she wants to hold the trial in six months. as mentioned, she wants to try all 19 defendants together. barb mcquaid joins us again. barb, as we have been doing this live on television it is always dangerous, but i feel like i am finally getting a little bit of closure in this indictme

two pm, rudolph giuliani reaches a bond agreement with district attorney fani willis. 2:38 am funny willis files a brief in response to defendant jeffrey clark's emergency motion to federal judge steve jones asking the judge to infect block his arrest. 2:45 pm, district attorney willis files a brief in response to defendant mark meadows emergency motion to federal judge steve jones, asking to, any fact, block easy rest. 2:50 pm, sydney powell surrenders. 306 pm, rudolph giuliani surrenders. for 38 pm, jenna ellis surrenders. five people, judge jones denies jeffrey clark's emergency motion, 5:40 pm judge jones denies mark meadows emergency motion. 7:15 pm, just its journey willis files a brief in response to mark meadows request to remove his case to federal court in district attorney's brief opposing moving the case to federal court, she raises an issue that i for 1 am embarrassed to say i had not thought of. the hatch act. the hatch act, sitting right there, didn't think of it, just returning willis quotes mark meadows in an interview while he was white house chief of staff saying, quote,

we are now waiting for both jack smith and fani willis. he is not coordinating with his office. does that surprise? >> not really. i'm sure there has been some contact between their staffs. but this is now going to be, it is hard to say which case would come first. it appears to me that both jack smith and fani willis are going to indict at around the same times for crimes actually around the election fraud. and i am sure there will be some overlapping of witnesses, so at some point, there will have to be some cooperation. there might even be other defendants coming in because clearly, fani willis has indicated she has indicting more than one person. so, and there is a number of targets letters that have gone out in georgia to people like rudy giuliani and all the other cast of clowns. so, i do think that it is possible that the federal case, the documents case that we tried first, i think it's possible, sometimes state charges can go much more quickly than federal charges. and my experience, they usually do. so, in this instance, it would

he went so far as to call fani willis a racist.harging him with 13 counts among a slew of charges he is facing, racketeering charge, which is more typically reserved for mob bosses and gangsters. donald trump and 18 codefendants must turn themselves in here in atlanta by august 25th. >> a fulton county grand jury returned a true bill of indictment. >> the 98-page indictment lists 41 felony counts against former president trump and 18 codefendants to overturn georgia's 2020 presidential election results. accusing them of, quote, unlawfully conspired and endeavor to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise. trump charged with 13 counts in the indictment. >> every individual charged in the indictment is charged with one count of violating georgia's reck tear, influenced and corrupt organizations act through participation in a criminal enterprise in fulton county, georgia, and elsewhere to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing donald j. trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on january 20th, '21. >> reporter

oh, they say this isn't about fani willis. it must not be. it isn't at all about trump, they say it isn't. it's definitely just coincidence that georgia republicans are giving themselves this particular power right now for the first time in states history. well, now, it's coming to pass. trump is now indicted. trump is facing trial. in fulton county, georgia. and now, right on cue, georgia republicans have this new power they just gave themselves, and sure enough, a republican state senator in georgia has just announced that as soon as this new remove the prosecutor law goes into effect, in five weeks, on october 1st, he is going to start proceedings in the georgia legislature to use this new, law to use this new power, to remove fani willis from her job. does returning fani willis said today, she wants the trial of trump and his codefendants to start in eight weeks. to start on october 23rd. well, if republicans in the georgia legislature go through with what they say they are planning, that will mean, we'll be looking at a republican effort

and fani willis has gone on record, she's no stranger to using this statute. she's used it aggressively, and she says she likes it because it allows her to give the jury the entire picture of the group's conduct. that's really what rico is about, instead of limiting and cabining the evidence that the government can put on in front of a jury, say to just very strictly this is the call that the former president had with brad raffensperger, where he asked for votes, this permits prosecutors to more expansively say this is the full range of conduct, and this is why this group amounted to a rico enterprise. >> so greg, there's a couple characters, sort of witnesses and people involved in what happened in 2020 with trump attempted to influence the election that i want to pay a little attention to. you have obviously brad raffensperger who was the secretary of state, who got the phone call, hey, i need you to help me find 1100 votes. you also have former lieutenant governor geoff duncan. he's very interesting because not only is he sort of involved in the case, but h

fani willis worked in the district attorney's office as a senior district attorney trying some of the most notorious cases in our county, so she knows what she's doing. i've worked with fani for many years. as young attorneys we started out together at the kendall law firm. very young attorneys, we worked together as prosecutors in the solicitors office, so she has grown into this role, and she's prepared for this. and at the point that fani sought an indictment i thought that there was struggle for the former president of the united states. >> reporter: why'd you think that? >> i knew she wouldn't pursue an indictment if she didn't think there wasn't something there. >> reporter: how do you think she endures the level of veecveitreal not just from the president who's spoken about her publicly but also his supporters. >> well, fani was built for this. fani was raised primarily by a single father. i've heard her joke that his idea of daughter-daddy time was for her to go work on files and help him with his cases. and i think that the harder they try and intimidate her, the more they tr

he was one of the people indicted last night by fani willis. this is what the indictment says about him. he solicited harrison floyd, an individual associated with the organization black voices for trump to assist with his effort to speak to ruby freeman. stephen glyphgard lee stated to floyd ms. freeman was scared to talk to lee because he was a white man. mr. floyd then tried to call ruby freeman, he tried several times but he was unsuccessful, so in turn recruited someone else, a black publicist for the trump supporting nazi apologist and artist kanye west, who now goes by the name yea. it should be said that donald trump has repeatedly used yea as a supportive plaque fice to bolster his own extreme incendiary politics. and yea has drifted further and further to the right openly embracing nazism, anti-black rhetoric or donald trump. he showed up at ruby freeman's door saying she was sent by a high profile individual and urging ms. freeman to confess to trump's baseless allegations of voter fraud or people would come to ms. freeman's home in

boy, fani willis is off to a good start. a few days ago, she posted new information, had a fundraising e-mail go out, trying to raise money, she is involved and engaged in election. she has more than 2-1/2 years to pursue this, just happens to come to tee up under her timeline to prosecute somebody and bring it to trial in the middle of the primary season. she's going after kanye west's posse, seriously? that is one of the people indicted, along with donald trump? why are they not pursuing the democrats that challenged an election? stacey abrams never admitted and went after the whole system, said it was rigged, kemp had rigged this thing and done it wrong, i did not hear anybody barking at stacey adams, she still never admitted she didn't win the election. >> you say that and the da was saying issue not verbait, but fairly close the former president did not abide by georgia process for disputing elections, he broke the law. one wonders if stacey abrams said this was wrong, did abrams abide by the go go process for disputing

when they brought this forward, we have gone to great pains to say that this is nothing to do with fani willis. here is these other terrible prosecutors, terrible people, those are the people that we want to use this against. nothing to do with phony willis whatsoever. and their best bolstering evidence for that this is has nothing to do with fani willis was that's the law that they were proposing would not go into effect, could not be used against prosecutor, until mid 2025. okay. then, before they passed, it they amended it. so now when it goes into effect the first time, you can use it against a prosecutor, it's less than eight weeks from now. october 1st. 2023. they have passed that into law, it will be in the power of republicans in the state government in georgia to remove a prosecutor, essentially just on their own say so. very soon. i can't help but believe that this is going to become the fulcrum on which donald trump decides to pivot this thing. because if republicans, again, as chris was saying, if they thought they had it wired, republican control state, hey, you guys, we are all o

you cannot disentangle that from fani willis is well. and her view that this is necessary and important to prosecute that. and in this particular scene, which is at the heart of, you know, the voting rights movement in this country. look, the prosecutors motivation matters. and i think that is part of it for her as well. >> we are at just about ten pm, eastern time, seven seconds away. with donald trump seemingly on the cusp of indictments number four, jake tapper here in washington along with anderson cooper and caitlin collins. ? >> a little more than an hour, ago grandeur in atlanta handed of ten vitamins in fulton county journey fani willis's investigation of the former presidents attempt to overturn the 2020 georgia election. >> anderson, those investments are sealed, so we don't yet know who

fani willis.at can you tell us about what is percolating with the georgia republican party with this case? >> republican leaders in georgia during the last legislative session passed this new kind of oversight entity for prosecutors in the state. now initially this was to go after progressive prosecutors that weren't charging certain crimes. that it said they weren't going to enforce the new abortion ban penalties, for example. they weren't going to charge defendant low level drug crimes and conservative lawmakers didn't like that and when a chance to rain and potentially discipline these prosecutors. but now, republicans are saying they want to use this new law, this new entity, which goes into effect in october, they want one of the first things the entity is asked to do is to investigate fani willis. again, kind of different. now they're not saying she's failing to prosecute crimes, they were saying, in this trump case, she's over prosecuting and accusing her of politicizing her office. now fan

the da fani willis said it was - eastman as well. exactly. the da fani willis said it was her. quite the feet?— going to be a logistically quite the feet? it will be, it has been — quite the feet? it will be, it has been done _ quite the feet? it will be, it has been done before. - quite the feet? it will be, it | has been done before. there quite the feet? it will be, it - has been done before. there are gang situations when you can have multiple dependence —— defendants in a courtroom and it requires some logistics to be put in place. the bigger challenge with trying them together is what i would expect the defence strategy to be, which is to try to break it up. there will be arguments to say it is prejudicial to have them all sitting there together, also the mammoth scheduling issues so there will be a lot of pumps to get over in terms of pumps to get over in terms of being able to bring all nine of being able to bring all nine of these people together at the same time. in terms of the logistics that is doable. sorry for interrupting _ logistics that is doable. sorry for int

oh, they say this isn't about fani willis. it must not be. it isn't at all about trump, they say it isn't. it's definitely just coincidence that georgia republicans are giving themselves this particular power right now for the first time in states history. well, now, it's coming to pass. trump is now indicted. trump is facing trial. in fulton county, georgia. and now, right on cue, georgia republicans have this new power they just gave themselves, and sure enough, a republican state senator in georgia has just announced that as soon as this new remove the prosecutor law goes into effect, in five weeks, on october 1st, he is going to start proceedings in the georgia legislature to use this new, law to use this new power, to remove fani willis from her job. does returning fani willis said today, she wants the trial of trump and his codefendants to start in eight weeks. to start on october 23rd. well, if republicans in the georgia legislature go through with what they say they are planning, that will mean, we'll be looking at a republican effort

but he also worked under fani willis, in the d.a.'s office. you know, he has credentials on both sides of the aisle. you know, i'll be interested to see when he holds his first hearing, you know, what his demeanor is like, and you know, how he will handle, you know, the eyes of the world with him on this trial. >> shannon, vaughn, lisa, thank you guys for starting us off. do not go far. coming up next, we're going to get more on the legal aspect of this. i am curious, an october 23rd trial date, how possible is that? we're going to ask some experts. do not go anywhere. some expert. do not go anywhere (bobby) my store and my design business? we're exploding. but my old internet, was not letting me run the show. so, we switched to verizon business internet. they have business grade internet, nationwide. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. (bobby) my store and my design business? we're exploding. but my old internet, was not letting me run the show. so, we switched to verizon business internet. they have business grade in

. >> reporter: fani willis giving donald trump, jr. and his codefendants till august 25th to turn themselves in. they say is this is the end of the one chapter and the beginning of the another. >> a fulton county returned a true bill of indictment. >> reporter: the 98 page indictment lists 41 felony counts against donald trump and 18 codefendants to overturn the 2020 election results, accusing them of unlawfully conspired to participate in a criminal enterprise. >> every individual charge in the indictment is charged with one count of violating georgia's racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act through participation in a criminal enterprise in fulton county, georgia and elsewhere, to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing donald trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on january 20th, 2021. >> reporter: it included an additional 30 unindicted conspirators in addition to the 18 codefendants. they called the grand jury presentation one sided. even the events on monday, quote, shocking and absurd. a truck alley

district attorney fani willis has talked publicly here and there.he grand jury. that is what is taking place now. the indictment or the charges that she intends to be filed, they have already been mapped out and planned. they are on paper here. and now this is part of -- the testifying of these witnesses, who have already testified to the special grand jury last year, they are now coming back as sort of the closing act to really help her make her last case to these new jurors who are part of this grand jury that this case is worth bringing against potentially donald trump and those more than potentially dozen allies. >> and because she's beyonce, of course she's half a mile away, what a remarkable moment in a remarkable period in this story. please continue to sort of wave your arms and come back. before you leave, though, i want to bring tim heaphy in as sort of our closest stand-in for how a prosecutor would be thinking and presenting to a grand jury in these final phases, these final moments or hours of a case. what is your sense of how long you

so this is a really good development if you are fani willis. but also if you are jackson, because this puts so much pressure on those people to make a deal with the government. so, that, to me, is the real sort of shot across the bow here not just because you have this, these really serious charges against donald trump, but you have so many levers to pull if you are at the state and federal level with respect to all these other people. >> and, andrew, we knew from open source reporting about how these investigations have gone forward, the kinds of witnesses they had called, the kinds of subpoenas they had issued, that jack smith and fani willis were covering some of the same ground, that there was a long detailed section in the federal indictment from special counsel jack smith that covered trump's alleged actions in georgia, as you've been pointing out, there was that list of unindicted coconspirators, which pointed some of the names we are now seeing in this georgia and augment, trump lawyers, who allegedly participated with him in those effo

fani willis. >> reporter: despite it all willis hardly seems rattled by trump's continued attacks. >>rst amendment and say what he likes. >> reporter: since investigating trump willis says she's been subjected to racist taunts. >> i've never been called the n word so much in my life. >> reporter: willis, a democrat, was elected fulton county's first female district attorney after ousting a six-term incumbent in a primary. >> the solution to this problem -- >> reporter: she built a name for herself as a leading prosecutor in the atlanta public school cheating scandal, securing convictions for 11 of the 12 defendants. in her first two years in office willis has juggled investigating trump and subpoenaing some of his top allies while also going after gangs like drug rich. she's also handed down racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations indictments to popular rappers including young thug and gunna. willis has cited the rapper's song lyrics as evidence in the indictments against them, something her critics say infringes on first amendment rights. >> i have some legal advice. don't con

for the layman, lay woman, lay person, how does fani willis get this done?know, when fani willis indicted another rico case, the atlanta educators case, a cheating scam on grading exams, she actually indicted 35 defendants. by the time she got to trial, there were only 12 of them left. and that is this sort of winnowing procedure that you are hinting at, alex, where some of these folks will decide to plead guilty, maybe without a deal. others will want to deal and they may plead and cooperate and strengthen her case. but it is likely that, by the time that williscroft trial, she would no longer have all 19 of these defendants on her hands. rico cases, and the big conspiracy case, is messy. you have got -- if you've got ten defendants, you've got ten people making opening statements and cross examining witnesses and jumping up and saying, your honor, i object. so, it is a little bit different than the normal trial. but it's nothing that a prosecutor, and particularly when like will, as you has a number of these rico cases under her belt, isn't well equipped t

fani willis' 2 1/2 year sprawling investigation. trump has denied any wrongdoing and accused willis of, quote, election interference of moving ahead with the case while he's running for president. trump has already been indicted, of course, on three other criminal cases this year. with that let's get smarter with the help of our lead off panel at this late hour, nbc national politics reporter john allen, barb mcquade still with us, greg bluestein, msnbc political contributor, andary busy reporter tonight for the atlanta journal constitution. "the new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker. and former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney. barb, thank you for staying with us tonight. i want to start with trump and 18 others. do you think all 19 are going to go to trial, or are we going to see plea deals before then? >> it seems unlikely all 19 would go to trial. in a rico case it is not uncommon to see a large number of defendants charged, but by the time you get to trial, many of them would have entered a gu

so i commend fani willis for this count.t's not gotten a ton of attention given the very explosive nature of the overall indictment, but it's going to separate what she's doing in fulton county from what's happening at the federal level with jack smith. >> it seems it's the kind of thing the jury can relate to. can you imagine picking up the phone, hello, this is rudy giuliani. >> she says the president of the united states targeted her and she asked do you know what it feels like to be targeted by the president of the united states and how it led her to live a life of fear. i want to bring your attention to act 89 on page 43. on or between the 15th day of december 2020 and fourth day of january 2021, steven lee solicited harrison floyd to assist with his effort to speak to ruby freeman. a fulton county, georgia election worker. lee states to floyd that freeman was afraid to talk to lee because he was a white man. these were overt asked in the furtherance of a conspiracy. she'll admit she tried to overturn the election or br

fani willis took office in 2021, just days before the first reporting from "the washington post" aboutmp's january call to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger, pressing him to find votes. >> we do know willis has served 19 years as a prosecutor. and her office says their conviction rate hovers around 90%. joining us now, "wall street journal" reporter cameron mcwhirter who has written by willis, interviewed her last month. cameron, thank you for taking the time. d.a. willis has not been doing a whole lot of interviews lately, but you talked to her in july. what impression did you take away? >> she is out to win. that is -- that's the main thing i got. she's a workaholic. and admittedly so. and she is hyperobsessed with preparation. so she walked -- this investigation took two and a half years. and she walked in to -- she presented almost 100 page indictment, very sprawling, very broad, involving a lot of people, a lot of actors, 19 people indicted including former president trump, but she has definitely done her homework and their staff has done their homework. it is going to

that is not that imitators for fani willis, is it? she would essentially have to say this is what we got. here we are. everybody else gets a sneak preview. >> but perhaps it's not envy pages for the former president, to, to have this all laid out. this would be televised, and if she wins a conviction, i think that is something that at least completely contemplate having severe implications for the rest of these cases. she goes into this with sort of, you know, the wind in her sails. and again, we're a long way from all of this, but if she were to actually get a conviction, yeah, she would have to put out some evidence that you know, she might not want to early. but she may object to this down the line, we'll see. that she actually got a conviction, i think that that would be something she would prefer to have rather than have the whole case go away. if she doesn't follow the speedy trial act, the reason she's doing this, the whole case goes way if she is vulvas properly. >> there is no apples to apples comparison of any of these cases

what fani willis could charge him with.s, who his co-defendants might be. >>> another big win for democracy. proposed constitutional change in ohio meant to thwart the will of the public on abortion and other major issues loses by a mile. clearly we have a lot to get to tonight as you can see. but we begin with an alarming genuinely frightening news. frightening item of news regarding violent threats against the president of the united states, joe biden. vice president kamala harris and other elected officials. threats that appear to be tied to donald trump's mounting legal peril. threats came from a utah man named craig d. robertson, who will not get to plead his case in court because he was shot and killed today by the fbi as they were attempting to execute an arrest warrant. but what he did to earn that arrest warrant is chilling. on monday, robertson posted about president biden's trip to utah which took place today. the post included a thinly veiled threat of assassination. and it was far from an isolated incident by r

but given what you know about him, given what you know about fani willis. do you think she has an airtight case here? >> i would put fani against anyone, on any given day. i have seen them when some, i've seen them lose some. i wouldn't be surprised if there is not an attempt to negotiate a plea. he represents a lot of high-profile people, obviously, but he does not have a flawless record. and fani is a darn good attorney. so if fani it is putting the escapes up. i think everyone should bring the a game to the table. >> how do you think she is watching all of this? do you think she discos about her normal business as the city is shut down for the last few hours waiting for his arrival and having him coming here? >> knowing fani willis as i do, she is matt losing an ounce of sleep over this. and you have to remember, even while all of this is going on, i mention the wildest owl trial with young tongue that is going on, there are other challenges that are happening in the fulton courthouse. other cases where her staff are preparing to try some business. it's c

you cannot disentangle that from fani willis is well. and her view that this is necessary and important to prosecute that. and in this particular scene, which is at the heart of, you know, the voting rights movement in this country. look, the prosecutors motivation matters. and i think that is part of it for her as well. >> we are at just about ten pm, eastern time, seven seconds away. with donald trump seemingly on the cusp of indictments number four, jake tapper here in washington along with anderson cooper and caitlin collins. ? >> a little more than an hour, ago grandeur in atlanta handed of ten vitamins in fulton county journey fani willis's investigation of the former presidents attempt to overturn the 2020 georgia election. >> anderson, those investments are sealed, so we don't yet know who actually it is that they name. but certainly the former presidents team has spent the day bracing for bad news. they appear to believe that this could potentially reference him. that his name could be one of those on those ten indictments that

we have seen him be decently antagonistic towards black women in particular, and here he has fani willismeans prosperous. she's the daughter of a black panther. they're going to attempt to smear someone who grew up in the movement, as part of an activist culture, who went to an hbcu for part of her scholarship and who is now on the other side of the table. and what she has shown in this indictment is not only is she more than adequate to stand toe-to-toe with any legal scholar, but she has also put together a thorough indictment, which speaks to those coupled with the intent. >> we have seen those attacks almost immediately, but it is -- they will raise questions about what she has said publicly about this, sara murray was -- before the press conference started, but when she was asked whether or not it is a political prosecution, she went out of her way to say it is not a partisan. >> look, it is what it is going to be. we are in this time period where twitter, or what does it cold now? x? whatever it is, the website we spend way too much time on. he's on truth social, people are going t

fani willis is pursuing this as a rico case. she's alleging a vast conspiracy by these 19 defendants to try to overturn the results of the election here in georgia. and to support this, she's offered up a nearly 100-page indictment that detail 61 acts that were part of this conspiracy across these 19 defendants. there were also 30 unindicted coconspirators and these allegations span 7 states and the district of columbia. while this is the fourth criminal indictment trump faces this year, this is by far the most sweeping. rico cases are challenging. they tend to get drawn out. when you have 19 defendants and their attorneys, it's easy to see how things could get drawn out for months or even years, but the district attorney said she wants to try everyone together, and she's hoping to ask for a trial in the next six months. >> so former president trump and the 18 others who have been indicted have 10 days to voluntarily surrender. how might this booking look different from the other arraignments trump has gone through? >> reporter:

fani willis, a very broad and powerful statute. like a freight train for the prosecution running through the courtroom, one of the most difficult cases to defend and here's why. you don't have to be an enterprise in the traditional sense of the word. you don't have to be a business. you don't have to be a corporation. it doesn't have to be all that organized. in georgia, the enterprise can be formed just like that. this indictment spans a few months, essentially. that is what makes it so powerful. in addition to the enterprise being so loose, there isn't the same need to show a continuity between the fronts. you have to make sure these crimes were all done in furtherance of a common purpose, to advance the purpose of the enterprise. in this purpose the purpose of the enterprises, loosely formed a group of trump supporters, was to keep donald trump in power, west to steal the georgia election. that's enough to get to indicted in georgia under our rico statute. all you have to show is that these individuals committed a series of crim

similar threats have been addressed against fani willis.ad to write a letter to her team to put special security in. can you describe the stress that you and others unwillingly dragged into this case have endured in your personal life? >> well, it was a tremendous shock because although i'm a public figure, i'm a relatively obscure one, used to be able to speak my mind. i knew going into that day that we were dealing with extremely serious matters than even our most contentious bills but nothing could really prepare me for having my name and face splashed all over the internet associated with all sorts of conspiracy theories. the most threats made against my children. that's the type of thing where as a mother, you start to think goodness. what have i gotten my family into? i was grateful for the state for stepping up to protect my family during the aftermath of the hearings with giuliani and eastman. >> we heard similar stories, testimony, from elected officials, state officials in arizona and pennsylvania and michigan and elsewhere. do yo

you see some on your screen in his latest post calling her phoney fani willis.

es un trabajo muy largo para fani willis y por eso quiere controlar. donald trump perdiÓ. gracias por acompaÑarnos. buenas noches. ♪ ♪ [mÚsica] [mÚsica] [mÚsica] [luis] todo es confuso, cuando te vi, supe que te amaría más que a nadie. pero estabas destinada a ser para él, mi propio hermano,

>> in a perfect world, i think fani willis would get her wish.l number of defendants, maybe a core group of five or six. in a perfect world, maybe you could go to trial in six months. you exchange discovery, have some routine motions and the case goes to trial. but this is anything but routine. when you have 19 defendants, all of them have the ability to have issues, to file motions. each one has to be responded to and heard by the judge. they will invariably have attorney problems. someone will have a lawyer and decide they have some sort of conflict of interest with their lawyer and want to fire their lawyer and start over. someone will get sick. there are all kinds of things that can delay this. rico cases that i've handled before have taken years, not months, to complete all defendants through trial. but fani willis can prioritize and put donald trump in the first trial group so he's in the first batch of five and then maybe some of the other people can be tried down the road. i'd be very surprised if this could be tried before the november 2

fani willis. she has, according to a source with knowledge familiar with the movements of atlanta law enforcement officers, fani willis has received additional security protection near her home. and she has, as jessica, you mentioned, recently warned officials about staying vigilant about security threats. in an email obtained by cnn, she spoke about messages, racial and sexualized messages she's received and similar vile voice mails. the man in charge of security around this local area, that is the sheriff of fulton county, he says that his team is prepared not only that, but he's been taking notes in other cities where trump has been indited and he's brought back those good security details back home here to atlanta. listen. >> we understand that the microscope and everyone is watching atlanta. but it also gave us an opportunity to go to d.c., gave us an opportunity to partner with new york and partner with miami, and understand just collectively what something of this magnitude involves. our go

i can't not put them in jail. >> that is what fani willis told us last night.t raises a whole host of questions when the lead defendant is donald trump. just a couple of other ironies to the use of rico, rudy giuliani, former u.s. attorney, before he was new york city mayor, used rico to go after the mob and people will note he is now being hoisted on his own petard. the law, a version of the law that he used in going after mobsters is now being used against him. mark meadows, white house chief of staff. when is the last time a white house chief of staff was indicted? you have to go back to the nixon era. you look at the range of defendants here. david schaeffer, the chairman of the georgia republican party. jeff clark, the justice department lawyer. donald trump wanted to install as the acting attorney general to further his goal of staying president. it is really breathtaking in a lot of ways. let's talk about coffee county, about 200 miles from atlanta. you have scott hall tied to the system breach, misty hampton tied -- the election supervisor, also sidney

fani willis.here's republicans that created a commission to remove, to discipline prosecutors, to force her from office. what do you make of the efforts happening there? is this really tailored specifically to fani willis? is there a larger issue? or is this an attempt to further the notion of a weaponized government? >> i was not part of the general assembly when they passed this law. i think it was really a cumulative law to create oversight on district attorneys statewide. it's not just specific to one individual, as i understand it. up to this point, i don't think there's much complaining about the process that fani willis has gone through. i experienced her staff's preparedness when i testified before the special grand jury and the grand jury, i was in a focused group of individuals. and i found no signs of partisanship from start to finish in that process. this continues to be a painful experience for republicans. this is part of our painful learning experience, quite honestly, in healing. w

and fani willis said tonight, she would try them together. the defendants in the indictment to plead guilty, which will narrow down the folks that will be in play when it goes to trial. this is not the biggest case that's going to go to trial in fulton county history. you got the a.p.s. trial, that had the defendants that were 12. the ysl, the young thug trial, going on right now. that has multiple defendants right now. that's something that the fulton county district attorney's office can't handle. the biggest problem that someone will have is find a courtroom that finds that many defendants and that many defense tables. you'll have less than 12 defendants that will be at the trial. the first one that takes a deal usually gets the best deal. >> juju: you're saying a half-dozen indicted may take a plea deal. many believe that if president trump wins the presidency again, he would attempt to pardon himself in the federal indictments he faces. he can't do that with the georgia state conviction. how will that play out? >> that's right. the pardo

>> they're, murphy about three minutes we expect fani willis or seven -- let's go up to. jake >> all, right anderson, we are pouring over these documents, he didn't really get a lot of time, i, mean there is 41 counts here. you have got 161 acts just in count one. pardon me, led to me, who wants to go first. jamie, laura coates, okay, laura coates. one of the things that is remarkable to me is that a lot of the stuff we knew about, and now they are being charged with it. for instance, then president trump trying to prevail on a leader in the georgia legislator, two concession to overturn election. that is solicitation of a violation of an oath of a public officer, and donald trump is charged with that as one of the counts in this 41 count indictment. >> there is so much stunning information, the sheer volume, just think about jack smith's indictment compared to the exponential indictment that we see here. not only in terms of the number of people who have been indicted, but the act that are actually charged. a couple of key points here, first of all, when it comes to rico

fani willis asserted that superintendent hall and her associates exploited the legitimate school system not, the point here though, she did not concoct this r.i.c.o. approach for donald trump. she is well known for it. and her record likely does not bode well for the former president on this, his fourth criminal indictment. in fact, general greg, president of the atlanta naacp, and one of the defense attorneys in that atlanta cheating case i told you about, told the guardian this week that trump is in for a rude awakening, saying, quote, i think it's gonna be very surprised when he is sitting across from her for months on trial. he would find out how great of a lawyer she really is, end quote. after the break, i'm joined by two people who know the ins and out of this matter better than most. democratic state representative tanya miller of georgia, a former prosecutor in fulton county who knows fani willis. and fred smith junior, a law professor specializing in constitutional law. ♪ ♪ ♪ (josh allen) is this your plan to watch the game today? (hero fan) uh, yea. i have to watch my neighbo

it's time to hold fani willis accountable, unquote.orgia law, anyone can make a complaint to the commission, which will have the power to investigate discipline and even oust the prosecutors in question, including elected district attorneys like fani willis. even before became, not democrats criticize the bill for a whole host of reasons, one state rep described the true goal of the bill as, quote, prosecutorial overthrow, and quote. meanwhile, others warn that the new commission was designed to hinder willis's investigation of trump and provide a way for republicans to get rid of her. for months, republicans denied those allegations, and vaguely argued that the law was created to deal with, quote, rogue prosecutors, and quote. but within days of trump's indictment in fulton county, at least one republican official, the state senator, clint dixon, has invoked the new commission and said that he will be making the complaint against willis as soon as the group is officially empaneled on october the 1st, quote, once the prosecutorial over

i'm ayman mohyeldin, let's get started. >> in less than 12 hours the district attorney fani willis will begin presenting her election interference case to a granary in georgia. indictments for donald trump and his allies could come down as soon as tuesday evening. breaking tonight, we are learning about one possible focus of witnesses presentation. a voting system breach in coffee, county. that is a rural heavily republican area of the state. now, text messages and emails reference in public court documents show that lawyers working for trump, coordinated a visit to coffee county's election office along with data specialists hired by ex trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist sydney powell. the big breaking siren tonight, cnn is now reporting that those text messages are indeed part of fani willis's investigations and to understand the importance of this revelation i want to give you a little bit more context about it let's go back in time for a moment here. on january 7th 2021 the date after the capital insurrection data forensics experts from atlanta, from atlanta-based firm known as sul

and here he is as a defendant in fani willis's case.emerged in these two different cases? >> i think at the federal level my suspicion is it just did not think that they had enough to charge him, at least at this point. even to name him as an unindicted coconspirator. there are those who think he may have been cooperating either fully or partially. i tend to not think that's the case. obviously for the reasons we talked about, that here in the state thinks that they have enough in the indictment is quite powerful with respect to numerous allegations, but i want to follow up on something going and tanya said. and every criminal case the government admiral gates truth and talks about the whole picture and the defense this aggregates and they want you to look at each individual please without seeing it in context and they say this piece of proof is not criminal or this doesn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt. i used it in rebuttal summation to tell the jury when i go into a home when police go into a home and they find a man with a smoking