Indictment against Trump in classified documents investigation unsealed | full coverage

breaking news the Federal indictment against Donald Trump was just unsealed we have it right here and now for the first time we are learning the details of the charges that were brought against the former president all related to his handling of classified documents after leaving office and we've learned something new there are actually 38 counts against the president including the unlawful retention of Defense information which is an Espionage Act charge there are also charges of obstruction and conspiracy this is the first time in American history that a former president has been criminally indicted by the Department of Justice the former president posted a video last night proclaiming his innocence and there are some big changes to his legal team I want to bring in our chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and as we are just looking through this indictment one of the things that jumped out to me is that some of these classified documents that Trump took with with him to Mar-A-Lago in the words of this indictment could put at risk the National Security of the United States foreign relations and the safety of the United States military Nora we've been carefully reading this document since it was unsealed moments ago just a few minutes ago was so evident just in a few pages in is that this is the opposite of hush money payments this is a deeply serious legal document putting a former president at the United States at the center of what the special counsel is alleging is a criminal conspiracy to secretly take classified material out of the Oval Office bring it down to Mar-A-Lago and not just put it in a basement but page after page Trump is going to his age and saying I want new tops for the boxes I want to have the boxes to be reviewed personally by me Trump is at the center a former president directing people in a coordinated campaign to be evasive in terms of what he had on hand about highly sensitive military and National Security Matters from his Pres residency I want to show people this is the first page of it and we note that the United States versus America against Donald Trump and waltin NADA now this is his personal aid his body man tell us why he's included he's included because he is alleged to have made false statements to Federal investigators about his role and about what Trump did and there's a there's a real concern as you can see from the special counsel that Trump was of not only evading the answers from the investigators but Walt NADA this person who served in the U.S military was at Trump's side was effectively in the view of the special counsel his accomplice in this widespread scheme and this wasn't just something that happened overnight months and months of them holding back the documents and this indictment also shows that Trump repeatedly talked about sensitive materials documents that could have sources and methods on them that reveal how U.S intelligence is gathered this is something that's unprecedented in American history to have an American president accused of effectively going against his own country by compromising documents of this nature let's explain exactly what this is because as this indictment alleges these are documents that regard that include defense and weight weapons capabilities of the United States also information about United States nuclear programs potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack this looks like some of the most sensitive United States information classified information and as this indictment alleges that at least on two occasions in 2021 Trump showed these classified documents to others one time at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster and another time Trump showed a representative of his political action committee these documents these individuals did not have security and there's something very important also to add here this is not just about retainment of classified material it's also about an allegation of obstruction of an ongoing federal investigation very quickly from page 21 you have conversations between Trump and his lawyer normally in any case we never have a prism into what attorneys are discussing with their clients but in this case the special counsel said to a federal judge we believe a crime might have taken place in those confidential attorney-client conversations we need that material so Evan Corcoran Trump's former lawyer was forced to turn over his voice notes turn over his notebooks and here's what they found Trump told his lawyer on May 23 2022 according to this investigation and indictment I don't want anybody looking I don't want anybody looking through my boxes I really don't I don't want you looking through my boxes well what happens if we just don't respond at all or don't play ball with the federal subpoena wouldn't it be better if we just told them that we don't have anything here well look isn't it better if there are no documents this comes directly from evidence between a conversation a conversation between Trump and his own lawyer that Trump never thought would get out while it's out here in this indictment to summarize the former president Donald Trump is saying to his lawyer let's just lie and say we don't have the document effectively yes he's saying what can we do to evade a federal subpoena why is it that the attorney was forced to cooperate and turn over his notes well we're all forced to comply when a federal judge says you have to turn over your notes but this is called the crime fraud exception they believe that Criminal Intent might have taken place in the attorney-client conversation now as Catherine and Scott have been reporting this aspect of the case could be something that's crucial in the coming weeks as the Trump team as we've been told privately and from different sources tries to challenge and dismiss this indictment they'll say that maybe the federal judge and the special counsel over stretched tried too hard to get all this material but at the end of the day because of the sensitivity of these documents a special counsel we're told from our federal government sources is going to argue it was a necessity to break attorney-client privilege and get these documents I want to bring in our senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge because you have been following this 14-month long investigation from the beginning that is detailed here there's also audio recordings of some of these conversations that the president had what do we know about that well here's CBS News we you've been able to confirm to a source with direct knowledge of the transcript that there was an audio recording at his Club in Bedminster in New Jersey it was the former president and then some colleagues it was about an autobiography for former aide and in the course of that conversation you hear this ruffling of papers on the audio tape and he says oh if this record here this could exonerate me and we've been able to confirm and I was told it was Central to this indictment that he says as president I could have Declassified it now I can't you know but this is still a secret and this was a pentagon memo Nora that was about attack plans for Iran he describes it as very confidential secret but the reason this Matters from the special counsel's point of view is that it's an admission an acknowledgment that he had the power to declassify but in this particular case he understands almost a consciousness of guilt that this is a record that cannot be shared and let's just on this particular let's let's drive down on this Bedminster episode where there is that audio tape this involved a moment in time when Donald Trump was agitated angry at uh chairman of the joint Chief as a staff General milley because Millie had suggested that the president Donald Trump had wanted to attack Iran and so Donald Trump was telling these individuals who were there who were helping to write a book of Mark Meadows well no it wasn't me it was him here's the plans right here correct you nail it Nora based on our reporting we're learning today here at CBS News a lot about the motivation the why if you're just tuning into this it seems like so we had records at his house more they classified he says they were aren't they his papers why can't he have and the question as a reporter always asks is okay well why did this happen what was the motivation for Trump to have these documents two things we've learned one he was angry about the Russia investigation so he wanted to take some documents in January of 22 2021 back home to Mar-A-Lago but in the summer of 2021 he starts doing some post-presidential interviews and at that same time the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark milley is in the public profile a lot he's being portrayed as someone who is heroic in the view of some of his admirers about how he handled January 6 how he handled Trump's final days so Trump's taking these interviews with reporters talking to book authors he didn't talk to us for our book Peril but he talked to a lot of other people and in the course of these interviews some of which were recorded he starts bringing out documents and saying Millie was wrong on this Millie was wrong on that I know because some of this stuff I have is classified and I have it right in front of you and based on our conversations with sources close to Trump trump aides were looking at the recorders on the table going he's talking about classified material it's now on tape and now Trump aides will recall before the special counsel were forced to turn over audio tapes of trump discussing classified material that he knowingly had if you're a prosecutor that's Goldman I just want to make one point because as we look at this sort of through a broader prism of the kind of intelligence equities that were involved there were equities that originated this information or were impacted by this classified information so it lists seven agencies seven agencies in the U.S intelligence community had information and intelligence that was impacted by what was retained according to the special counsel at Mar-A-Lago and they include the Central Intelligence Agency so that's human spying the Department of Defense we've just mentioned the National Security Agency this is electronic intelligence I'm getting the chills the national geospatial agency is the mapping agency the national reconnaissance office is the super secret spy satellites that we rely on the department of energy and the department of state's their own Bureau of intelligence and research is it fair to say these are some of America's most important secrets well it's half of the entire intelligence Community was impacted by the retention the alleged retention of these records look at this by the former president to build on Catherine's reporting here page after page and this indictment shows foreign countries allies and perhaps adversaries their capabilities militarily in terms of intelligence possibly compromised by Don Trump having these documents in his home you have everything top secret top secret special handling foreign intelligence allies capabilities military foreign intelligence top secret annotations from foreign intelligence officials and some of them are what's called specially compartmented information these are programs that literally are on a need to know basis people are read in and read off it's that highly classified I want to bring in Scott McFarland of course and all of these documents according to the indictment it alleges that sometimes they were kept in a ballroom this is a social club Mar-A-Lago is not a residence he does stay there it is a club there are people in and out of there they say also not only in the ballroom a bathroom and a shower office space his bedroom and a storage room and granularly this charging document connects the movement and the organization of these records to Trump himself it says he was personally involved with packing the boxes he directed a storage room be cleared to move the boxes in he had made this defense earlier that it was the U.S general Services Administration that was packing up all these boxes I had nothing to do with it the charging documents made clear he did have something to do with it but to emphasize Catherine's point on the next level he's sharing according to the prosecution here these compartmentalized secure documents with people who don't have security clearances and they're not inside one of those secure compartmentalized information facilities one of those Skiffs it's happening right out in open space do you remember when the rate happened at Mar-A-Lago and there was the spreading of all of those documents right on the picture and former president Trump said look at the mess the FBI made but on page 14 there's an image of all the documents that were spilled onto the floor at Mar-A-Lago and this Aid well NADA takes a picture and says look at what I found and one of the documents he found I don't want to get too into the weeds but it's what's called five eyes intelligence this is intelligence that is shared with the United States by our closest allies in the reason this matters Nora is that it's probably not our information it's gathered by our friends so it's not just a compromise for intelligence that's been owned and generated by us but it's from our allies so it's the breaking or the weakening of those relationships potentially as well so and again not just of course the taking of these documents the sharing of them but then the question about obstruction of course and not uh returning them and obstructing this investigation I want to bring in our CBS News legal analyst Ricky cleeman who has been pouring through this as well and Ricky what stands out to you which really has to do with the fall because one of the things that we learn at page 40 at count 37 has to do with the fact that looks like Donald Trump caused his own lawyers to file false declaration about what documents were given and what God can were no longer remaining in the home or anywhere else so when you lift that although that is a minor count in terms of ultimate imprisonment what it does because these lawyers by virtue of what we call the crime fraud exception that if you as a lawyer have a conversation with your client that then goes into the criminal Arena it breaks during a client privilege those lawyers would have to be with Ricky it's difficult to hear you because the Wi-Fi is breaking up I want to bring in Robert Costa on that point and to build on what Ricky was just saying it has Echoes of Watergate what's that refrain about Watergate we've always heard it's not just the crime it's the cover-up and so much of this indictment is about steps Trump took in the words of the special counsel to corruptly scheme to lie about the documents he had in hand and to underscore the seriousness of what the former president of the United States is facing you only have to move to the back of this indictment where it talks about the max term of imprisonment for all of these different counts for willful retention of National Defense information 10 years a decade in prison Max term for withholding a document a record 20 years conspiracy to obstruct Justice 20 years this trial if it happens could take place during the heart of a presidential campaign next year or maybe even after the former president wins the presidency again under federal law you can technically serve in the presidency even if you've been convicted of a crime you know his lawyers have said about these uh sorry to go back to the Evan Corcoran notes that they felt that they were not that damaging to him that it was a discussion of the left and right boundaries of what was required Under The subpoena but just drilling down into page 34 what it states very specifically is that Trump suggested to attorney one to falsely represent to the FBI and the grand jury that he didn't have the documents then it says to conceal the records from this attorney then to suggest that the attorney hide or destroy the documents which would be the destruction of evidence and then also to say that he was fully cooperating with the grand jury so the the detail here which we've never heard before certainly from his attorneys today we're going to be hearing a lot about in the coming months in this country because I carry around a reporter's notebook it's small it fits in your pocket one thing we picked up in the course of this reporting is Evan Corcoran likes to write notes in large art school style sketchbooks and he has a pile of these huge sketchbooks that are blank without the lines in them and he takes meticulous notes about what Trump has said and then he goes home at night supposedly and listens records voice notes on his phone about what Trump told him behind the scenes so you have someone who was hired by Trump not to be a showman not to be a theatrical lawyer but to really be a lawyer and now the special counsel has everything including testimony from Evan Corcoran about what Trump was saying and doing when he was issued with a subpoena we are expected to hear from Jack Smith the special counsel at three o'clock today and we will share that with you Scott you've also been looking through this this case now has an official number for what it's worth this historic case is case 23 Criminal 80 101 and it has three initials at the end AMC that alludes to the judge to whom this case is assigned that is Judge Eileen Cannon whose name might ring a bell she was the same Trump appointed judge who helped navigate and oversee the challenges of the search warrant last year this case goes to her she has the courthouse or the seat in the courthouse nearest Mar-A-Lago there was likely I'm told a random wheel run a kind of a computer mechanized judge selection process but it is heavily weighted for cases in this part of Florida toward judge Cannon's courthouse and ultimately to her he appears Tuesday 3 P.M at the federal courthouse in Miami they'd have it in Miami I'm told because it's larger there's more security there it has a bigger footprint and can handle a personal appearance from the former president of the United States an initial appearance happens at 3 pm he has to be there for that there is likely to be an arraignment immediately after he'll plead guilty or not guilty they'll talk about release conditions it could take just minutes and we always underscore this you know cameras in the courthouse no booking photos released by the feds and it's possible he's brought through a private entrance this all might be invisible on Tuesday all right Catherine Harris Scott McFarland Robert Costa thank you Ricky cleeman as well Donald Trump has been charged with willful retention of classified information withholding a record conspiracy false statements and obstruction according to this 49-page indictment that was just unsealed we are talking about significant prison time if Donald Trump is convicted our coverage will continue on CBS News streaming your local news and tonight we will have a full wrap up and analysis on the CBS Evening News this has been a CBS News special report I'm Nora O'Donnell in Washington thank you welcome back I'm Lana Zack and I'm Elaine quijano and we have been watching a CBS News special report on the unsealing of the indictment into former president Trump he has been indicted on 37 felony counts related to the handling of sensitive documents found by the FBI at his Mar-A-Lago residence the president is due in court next Tuesday there is a lot to dig into here we want to bring in CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson to help us with that Jessica you've had a moment now to look at this weighty document this indictment tell us about the charges what sticks out to you what sticks out to me is how we're dealing with the most sensitive documents that potentially put us and our allies at risk I mean what sticks out to me is that these aren't quote-unquote lower level classified documents these are documents that are in some cases people are read in only on a need to know basis they contain some of the most sensitive information about our country about our military operations about our weaknesses about our nuclear capabilities I mean for anybody who thinks well this is just a paperwork crime where he took documents back from the office and he shouldn't have had them in his house this is so much more than that that's one of the big things that sticks out to me another big thing here is that there is a recording where the former president apparently says and this shows his state of mind I could have Declassified this while I was the president but I didn't isn't that interesting and it's secret of course I'm paraphrasing here but that shows his level of awareness which I think will be part of this case and then of course the other thing here is just the number of counts and how they all go to essentially the same thing which is this intent to obstruct a federal investigation to try and make it basically impossible for federal investigators to ever obtain the documents that again are our documents and should not be housed at a private club or private residence because they potentially put us at threat and Jessica what else do the facts as laid out in this indictment suggest about you mentioned a sense of awareness about intentions here of the former president there were a lot of questions before the unsealing of this document about what kind of fact pattern might be established here by the Department of Justice what is it they have had to actually work with in terms of evidence based on the interviews that they have done based on recordings that have been made what does all of this as you're having a chance to digest this along with us suggest about intentions with respect to cooperating or not cooperating with the government in its investigation it's such an important question Elaine and I think what it boils down to is there's overwhelming evidence that there was intent not to cooperate and more than that there was intent to conceal to obstruct again of course we need to be careful that there is a difference between an indictment and a conviction but let's be clear that the evidence here is quite strong and it isn't just one piece of evidence it's not just actions that the former president took it's not just actions that he apparently asked others to take and these allegations which we haven't really even talked about about the falsification of documents where there's allegations that he lied in writing saying you basically you have government you have all these documents back and they didn't it's all of it put together it's his public statements it's the statements that he thought would never come out because they involved his attorney but a federal judge found that the crime fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applied it's no single piece of evidence even though there are some really damning pieces of evidence here it's all of it together that paints a picture of willfulness of intent and again that's what you need to prove these statutory crimes all right Jessica stay right there we want to bring into the conversation though CBS News political director Finn Gomez uh Finn one of the things that we had heard from the former president leading up to this was that this was a Witch Hunt that the FBI staged this to make it look like uh like it was worse than it was but we're seeing here among other pieces of evidence in the indictment things that were texted between employees of trump and Mar-A-Lago where contents of some of these boxes had been spilled onto the floor and they and you can see in this according to the indictment allegedly that they were marked secret that these were secret documents that had been so cavalierly thrown about what are you now hearing from Trump's inner Circle about how they're responding to the release of this indictment and how it contradicts much of what the former president has used as his own defenses previously you know you're absolutely right Lana you know I have reached out to sources close to the campaign and right now I'm hearing the same to what we have been hearing already which is it's a political Witch Hunt it's sort of falling into that same uh those same uh default setting if you will of responses but the fact of the matter is that this is not uh this is significant in what it alleges here I mean United States nuclear programs potential vulnerabilities of of the United States and its allies to military attack and plans for possible retaliation response to a foreign attack I mean that that is that is significant that is not this uh to have this information to have this classified for information and boxes where as you said so cavalierly place so carelessly place um according to these documents I mean it causes it should cause some concern I I'm I'm assuming from some of the Republican in field right now also you have heard this reticence of his Rivals to really dive in and attack and criticize the former president for the the handling of this case for the handling of these uh of these docs but after now facing these 37 counts uh of real significance at least according to what I've what we've all perused here through these you know through this these multiple Pages uh you know this is significant and I think that you could be hearing more criticism you could be hearing perhaps more uh more of his Rivals lean into that space you've heard Chris Christie the former New Jersey governor and the uh and also ASA Hutchinson the former Governor of Arkansas who have been openly critical ASA Hudgens said that he should end his campaign uh Chris Christie said that he that no one is above the law and this was before the unsealing of these of this indictment so after this when you're talking about National Security and you're seeking the nomination to be president again like will this finally be the the cause for potential uh and uh more criticism from his Republican Rivals it is it is damning as as has been said yeah and ceiling some of them include Speaker of the House have said about the indictment before we had the specifics of it because uh for instance Kevin McCarthy was one of those who began to close ranks behind the former president what is it we had been hearing up until this point from elected officials Elaine yeah I mean uh you know you have heard from the speaker of the house you have heard also from uh Trump's uh Chief rival if you will Ron DeSantis the Florida governor who have talked about how this has been a weaponization of law enforcement by the abiding Administration a weaponization uh by the doj uh in just trying to Target the former president and really falling aligning themselves with the argument that you've been hearing from the Trump Camp about this case but after the unsealing of the this indictment this 49-page indictment um could that change their argument I mean could that change uh what they are saying because this is sub this is real this is significant of course you know it's it's all alleged by by the prosecution here by prosecutors here uh but this is not the Manhattan case D.A case if you will this is this is this is not a hush money payments uh these are real charges with real legal teeth if you will and I think the way you can be hearing and what would potentially you could be hearing is perhaps the changing of that rhetoric and perhaps a changing of that response but we will see so far what so far the early inclination in the fur the early indication that I've been told from sources close to the to Trump World is is that is again uh the the repeated phrases of a political Witch Hunt we'll see Joe us on this obviously this indictment is the case made by the prosecution um these are all allegations at this point um but how does it change the defense strategy what is the defense strategy at this point for the former president well it's getting narrower and narrower and let's be clear about a couple things that the far President's first defense was well I Declassified everything kind of two responses to that one we now see that he apparently admitted that he did not declassify some of the information here two there a lot of the crimes if not all of them I apologize for moving quickly do not depend on whether or not the documents were classified and so you can still for instance convict somebody for obstruction of justice for portions of the Espionage Act for conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice for making false statements regardless of whether or not the documents were classified in this case so that's one of the defenses that I think has evaporated another defense that we've talked about briefly is the idea that the former president really wasn't at the center of this that he basically AIDS packed things up he wasn't really sure that where documents were and all of the evidence in this 49-page indictment again it is the prosecution's case but it is strong evidence to indicate he's at the very center of all of this and so I know I'm not answering your question I'm really just outlining why I think his defenses are becoming much smaller he can't claim that he had the right to obtain this information he can't claim that he thought that he could keep this information um and claiming that it was Declassified he really can't go there and it really doesn't make a legal difference uh Jessica as you've been speaking I see that our CBS News White House producer Gabrielle a who is traveling with President Biden at an event in North Carolina actually asked President Biden if he had spoken yet to attorney general Merrick Garland this is the exact quote I have not spoken to him at all I'm not going to speak to him I have no comment on what happened this again President Biden talking to our CBS News White House producer um that was in North Carolina Jessica what kind of position is Merrick Garland in right now as sensitive an investigation as this is as this process continues to unfold and the 2024 presidential campaign continues to get underway um describe for me what that must uh be like for his office and those working under him especially on this case and other cases um you know when they move forward and and continue with their work there is a political element unlike any other before unlike any other before I think that's worth emphasizing and I think your question is such a smart one because it really points out why there was a special counsel there is a special counsel excuse me in this case because mayor Garland is aware that he is a political appointee he was appointed by the current president who is running for reelection and very likely will be running against the former president who is the subject of this investigation we now know the target of the investigation and has been indicted as a result of it so that is why he has said Jack Smith essentially you're it and that is why you heard President Biden say I haven't talked to Merrick Garland I don't intend to speak to Merrick Garland because what President Biden has said and what I absolutely hope that he falls through with is that the independence of the Department of Justice is important because again look at the words Department of Justice you do not want the Department of Justice to look like another arm of the White House that's why I think that we will see President Biden and Merrick Garland essentially stay as far away from each other as possible and for Merrick Garland he no everybody knows he was politically appointed but if that means that we don't trust the Attorney General then we need to think of a different way to choose the next Attorney General because in every Administration that is an appointed position and at a certain point we have to trust their judgments even if they have political implications Jessica I want to ask you a question about the other person who's named here it's United States of America versus Donald Trump and walten Nota uh Walt worked as a valet for the former president when he was in office and he is all over this in terms of moving around boxes and and being involved is there a particular legal strategy Jessica in having him named uh as the co-defendant for the former president well I think part of the strategy behind this indictment is giving the public a very full picture of what's going on and not leaving us frankly guessing with respect to a lot of the different aspects here I mean I let's be clear that I don't know and nobody except those involved in the investigation know whether or not there are discussions um with Walt Lada about potentially testifying against the former president and being granted immunity so part of this is he is now put on stage he's put in the Limelight and there may be the strategy to put more pressure on him to try and provide information that would help in the case against the former president it may be that that's not on the table that he's already provided all the information that he can because he's legally bound to do so um so the answer is this document gives us a lot of information but we still don't know the full road map to the strategy here um Finn if you're still with us I just want to get a bit of context as well with the 2024 presidential campaign essentially in in full swing or nearing that point now as we look through this indictment and one of the things that we heard in the special report a short time ago is the number of intelligence agencies that have been affected according to this indictment as a result of what took place and uh according to the indictment and by Donald Trump's actions they are the CIA the Department of Defense the National Security Agency and on and on and on traditionally Finn the Republican party has positioned itself as a party of the party of sort of strength when it comes to National Security has National Security been an issue that has come to the Forefront I know it's still early in this 2024 campaign has there been much talk of that on the campaign Trail because in previous cycles that has been a focus of Republican rhetoric and I'm wondering what we've seen so far and whether perhaps this might change some people's political equations based on what is laid out in this indictment uh that's a great question uh Elaine uh and one that I was actually just thinking of because frankly it has been to some degree a an issue a top issue in the discourse of this cycle but not necessarily at the top of the issues of this cycle I believe that this could potentially uh in it could potentially raise that issue of National Security to a top one I think it does give an Avenue uh for his uh critics and and rival uh campaigns to really see a political vulnerability when it comes to the actions the alleged actions by the former president um in dealing with National Security and and just the subject matter the subject matter here Elaine is so significant that I you know and for those um you know and there's there's there's been talk of potentially Walt hurt who's a former Texas uh Republican Congressman uh in a former CIA operative for someone like that who has that CA like intelligence background on could this be a political opening to really discuss and really focus in on National Security I think it does I think it does have the impact to to change the game if you will and bring this bring this issue to the to the Forefront all right Finn Gomez Jessica Levinson really appreciate all of your insight into this breaking news as we continue to go through these documents and try and understand and bring the very latest to all of you we are going to have much more straight ahead but for now a quick break stay with us more developments and discussion of this story when we come back you're streaming CBS News [Music] if it's important to our 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documents were found by the FBI during a search of the former president's Mar-A-Lago residents the president is expected to be in court in Miami on Tuesday we want to bring in now CBS News Congressional correspondent Scott McFarland Scott walk us through the severity of these charges the first uh the first 30 so charges are all about the individual files that the president is alleged to have knowingly retained and then there are then there are charges about false statements Espionage give us a sense of what is contained and what the former president is actually looking at in terms of this criminal indictment it's easy to get caught up in the fact that this is unprecedented that it's a former president facing federal charges potentially sitting for trial before a judge he himself appointed unprecedented it's easy to get fixating on that but these charges here in a vacuum are just so serious obstruction willful retention of National Security Secrets his co-defendant charged with making false statements to the FBI in any context this is serious stuff in the Top Line penalty would be decades in prison on some of these charges individual charges and quarter million dollar fines on each of these charges this is as high as the federal government goes with prosecutions unclassified records we don't see cases bigger than this at least not often and it is a former president so it's not happening in a vacuum it's happening in modern day America in a politically toxic environment he'll face a judge Tuesday afternoon for an initial appearance at 3 P.M in Miami the federal courthouse in the southern district of Florida the largest courthouse in the southern district of Florida there will likely be an arraignment immediately after the initial appearance he's likely to enter a not guilty plea then they'll talk about some release conditions potentially some Bond matters but in all it should happen in just a few minutes then the real work starts the months of hearings and filings toward a potential trial one this nation has never seen before and at this moment the judges assigned to this case is Eileen Cannon a trump appointee who we've heard her name before was the judge who presided over the litigation the challenges to the search warrant itself back in August 2022. she is the judge to whom this case is assigned at least for now and this begins before a magistrate or Duty judge Tuesday before heading to her and Scott you mentioned next week is the court appearance why might the Department of Justice have unsealed this indictment now and not wait until that arraignment on Tuesday yeah there are two ways to do this the Department of Justice can file a motion to unseal which they did today and here come the records 40 pages or so unsealed for America to read or they can wait for the initial appearance in the arraignment and unseal it then it was their choice they haven't explained yet why they chose option A instead of option b but I can tell you Donald Trump announced his imminent arrest and court appearance for the world on his social media channel last night and for nearly 12 hours was controlling the narrative to a degree about this case now the Department of Justice through the special counsel have given part of their side of the story by releasing these granular and allegedly damning details about what Donald Trump did with the nation's most sensitive Secrets sharing them with people who did not have security clearance sharing them in areas that were not secured for the release or dissemination or even viewing of sensitive classified information and they make a point in the charging documents to show that Donald Trump was so personally involved with what you're seeing on your screen that he oversaw the packing of boxes according to the charging document that he helped arrange for the clearing of a storage room to include these documents that he himself ordered new covers or boxes covers for the boxes for the documents the charging document is unequivocal they're saying Donald Trump not only knew about the records in the boxes but was part of organizing and planning the collection of them and within those documents we know that there were highly sensified and highly sensitive uh documents including um discussions of the US's most vulnerable uh areas of our military of our intelligence committee um plans for for potential War engagements with other nations uh Scott given all of this um one of the things that that you were discussing uh with our colleague Robert costum Catherine Herridge and Norah O'Donnell earlier was that this lays out that the problem wasn't having these documents as much as it was covering up the having of these documents and continuing to to flaunt uh the request to bring it back talk to us about how important that might be in terms of the prosecutions the prosecutions moves forward from here and also how it hurts him potentially politically and this is an obstruction case they're making it clear in their argument here in the charging documents the special counsel is that he suggested that his attorney hide or destroy documents before they got to the grand jury this is a classic cover-up case where they're accusing him of trying to mask evidence keep evidence away from the investigators so that's one of the components of this case it's also something that could be a volatile issue if his political opponents choose to wield it that you can't be trusted here accused of covering up a crime not just of committing a crime we've seen any number of statements from any number of federal political figures Republicans calling this a political weaponization of the Department of Justice by the Biden Administration trying to knock out a republican Challenger in 2024 we noted and we continue to note a lot of that reaction was coming out before the charging document was released we'll see if any of that is muted the other Republicans running for president have been critical of the prosecution and investigation itself not their rival for the primary for the nomination Donald Trump and we've heard some Republican Congressional leaders including the speaker of the house and John barrasso a senate leader from Wyoming criticized the prosecution not criticized Donald Trump the release of this indictment could change that but there's no indication this is going to be used by Republicans to criticize Donald Trump any more than had been already all right Scott if you stand by let's bring into this conversation former Federal prosecutor Joseph Moreno he served in the Justice Department in the National Security division so the first question Joseph I'm just wondering what is your reaction I assume you've had a chance to now look at the document the indictment what stands out to you based on what we've been uh you know discussing here and we've been seeing the photographs very clearly lay out a fact pattern here that seems to answer a lot of the questions we had up until this point yeah I think Scott laid it out really well when he pointed out that this is not so much about how many documents were there and what the classification was and whether they were Declassified or not it's more an obstruction case right and that becomes a fairly simple fact pattern to understand the president former president took government documents that he's not supposed to take into his personal possession when he left the White House he then spent over a year fighting with the government in the return of those documents and at some point when he's faced with a subpoena and then responds through his lawyers to say I've handed over everything well guess what when the FBI raids the compound a few months later they find over 100 more documents and so I I think we're well past any argument that this was an accident that this was a good faith mistake that he thought he Declassified these documents and therefore didn't realize lies he was doing something wrong what we're seeing in this indictment is a pretty damning set of facts to say this wasn't a good faith mistake this wasn't an accident this was a long period of months to have spent taking efforts to stymie the efforts of the grand jury which was to recover those documents documents that never should have been in Donald Trump's hands to begin with Joseph I'm just wondering as I continue to look through the indictment itself does anything in this indictment suggest why why would the former president decide to take documents of this nature and keep them in a place that was not authorized I mean is there anything that suggests not authorized we saw a picture of them in a bathroom in a bathroom among other places I mean is there anything that suggests why I'm continuing to look through this as I know you are as well it's just remarkable to take a look at the those photographs and understand that those were our nation's most sensitive secrets that there were documents in those boxes that pertain to the Department of Justice rather to the Department of Defense to the CIA to all of these uh men and women serving um in you know the armed forces and serving in the intelligence Community charged with keeping this country safe and those documents were there unsecured I mean the the first few pages of the indictment start laying out the narrative that Donald Trump was into collecting newspaper clippings and documents and kind of hoarding things in boxes as maybe mementos um you know it's really difficult to get into his mind and figure out why he did this it seems like such an unforced error I mean here's a person with Resources with with lawyers with AIDS plenty of people to tell you what you can and cannot do legally and the fact that he did this anyway and the fact when he probably could at many points have given these documents back and had a sort of no harm no foul argument like okay maybe I kind of thought I could take these but I couldn't here you go you can have them back I think this would never have come to light I think it would have been a very much negotiated return of these documents and that would have been the end of it so the fact that he not just took them but then took such efforts to keep them it just it's baffling why he would kind of walk himself into the situation and you know the first thing I thought of last night when the story broke about the indictment was my gosh Donald Trump really has no one to blame here but himself just if I want to follow up with you on that point about this being just an unforced error by the four sorry Joseph by the former president um because one of the one of the discussions is where he's talking to a fundraiser somebody who represents a political action committee for him and he's and it sounds like just bragging like look at look at this document this is related to a military operation you shouldn't be seeing it uh he he goes on to say there's the argument that you will exp that I expect to hear from the defense is that yes he shouldn't have had it but he was former president he had had access to all of these things and in all of this um it was sloppy it was messy uh and maybe there were mistakes made but is it a CR does it rise to the level of criminality um when it was really just him being proud of having been president of the United States and retaining some of these um these these little bits of of Honor that he that he felt like he was owed how does that argument fly well I think it it could I think we probably will hear that right as part of the defense I think that will be difficult to maintain when you see quotes like the one in the indictment where Donald Trump seemingly indicates he knows he shouldn't have these documents and he shouldn't be showing them to people so I think it's going to be very difficult now to make the argument that this was a good faith mistake because here's seemingly the person acknowledging his culpability and so again you don't need to be caught sending these things to a foreign country or giving them to an enemy Force just the fact that you willfully knew and retained them in a place that was not secure showing them to people that were not cleared that's culpability under the Espionage Act so even if even if there were no negative repercussions even if nobody even talked about it none of our uh none of our secrets were actually went any further than the people that he talked about it is still I mean thank you I mean it would be a lot worse I think if that were the case still criminality enough absolutely that's absolutely right uh Scott let me ask you about the political environment now where does this leave Republicans um Republicans some of whom had already uh made it clear that they intended to stand behind the former president I'm thinking of the house Speaker Kevin McCarthy even Ron DeSantis um you know 2024 presidential candidate also denouncing this indictment where does now that we have the unsealed indictment itself and we have the details as uh spelled out by the justice department here where does this leave Republicans well it's just landed but there's been no indication over the past few days and weeks as we got to this point that any of this is changing Donald Trump's political standing inside his own party he is an overwhelming favorite right now and an overwhelming leader in the polls as they chase the Republican nomination for the White House in 2024. he has loyalty to put it mildly among so many republicans in Congress especially U.S House Republicans that includes the speaker of the house and some of the chairman of the powerful committees have been powerful Trump surrogates nothing as we got to this point today despite morsels of this coming out and reporting over the past few weeks and months has changed the calculus yes there are critics inside the Republican party of Donald Trump including some who are actually you know challenging him for the nomination and there are some in Congress Mitt Romney issued a pretty scathing statement about Donald Trump today saying he brought this on himself this charge but Romney has been critical of Donald Trump for quite some time the Senate Republican leadership that's the group I watch most closely Senator Mitch McConnell the Republican leader Senator John thune also in Republican leadership and John cornyn of Texas also in Republican leadership senators thune and cornyn in interviews with me over the past few weeks have said they just don't think Donald Trump can withstand this and win a general election they just don't think he's a winner in 2024 in part because of indictments like this that were looming and the other legal problems hovering over him Mitchell McConnell has been critical of Donald Trump unbridled in his criticism of Donald Trump since January 6 2021 but that's a minority inside the Republican party in Congress right now and even the challengers seeking to Dethrone him and win this nomination have not seized upon this in unambiguous terms and said Donald Trump is no longer fit for office because of what's alleged here the the such an uh an interesting discussions Scott because being well seasoned as a political reporter you know that there is a front-facing uh bit of communications speech that is going to be going out from the GOP but then there's also these internal discussions if you are a leader in the Republican party looking to win back the White House what are what are the discussions that you are having right now well you would see an opportunity uh presumably you'd see a vulnerability you can exploit you're running a campaign especially a 10 to 12 way campaign where you have so many potential opponents you look for every opening for leverage and for the ability to gain and Galvanize support um Ron DeSantis in his statements the past few days has been critical of the prosecution Mike Pence when asked earlier this week at a town hall event whether Donald Trump should be charged equivocated for a while and then said no there's an opening not being taken the political strategy may be one that they're confident in but they're not taking this opportunity for political gain all right Scott McFarland Joseph Moreno thank you both stay right there we are going to continue digging in deeper as we have now seen the unsealed indictment against the former president and one of his aides [Music] if it's important to our nation I wonder how you think about where America is at this moment it's on Face the Nations can there be stability it's Vladimir Putin remains in power Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on CBS America decides taking you inside American democracy the most important stories on a day-to-day hour-to-hour basis you're going to hear a lot of reporting it is clearly a pivotal moment gun control the economy education both sides of the political aisle fight it out for power bringing you the analysis that you need thoughtfully with context be part of the conversation on CBS 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worldwide inspiration we need a lot of women doing sports really really well the story of Michaela shiffrin's game-changing Reign at the top of the slopes when we go person to person [Music] right we are continuing with our ongoing coverage of this breaking news the justice department has unsealed the Federal indictment against former president Donald Trump 37 felony counts related to the handling of sensitive documents those documents were found by the FBI at the former president's Mar-A-Lago residence on Tuesday the former president is expected to be in court in Miami and there you see uh at the corner of your screen the place where at three o'clock Eastern time we are expecting to see the special counsel Jack Smith make a statement to reporters we're of course going to bring that to you just as soon as it happens in the meantime let's bring back Joseph Moreno a former Federal prosecutor and CBS News Congressional correspondent Scott McFarland but Joseph let me begin with you um we're waiting right now on Jack Smith to make a statement can you help us understand why the doj might have chosen to unseal this indictment now ahead of the former president's court appearance on Tuesday you know a few hours ago I was predicting we would see we would not see the indictment until Tuesday so it's actually interesting that it came out you know the justice department has the option whether to to like Scott said make a motion to file to release it early or wait until arraignment they obviously opted for the former I think in part to address the The Narrative that was coming from the Trump Camp I think it's before a weekend I think there's tremendous public interest in this matter so I think it's fair to say that um there's a real public reason to want to to give the information to the American people and not let us stew on just headlines and speculation for the next four days so I'm actually glad that they did it I'm glad that it gives us an insight into what the case could look like and of course what a defense could look like uh and and we also know that there were several Republicans that were calling for this indictment to be unsealed as soon as possible including former presidents Trump's former vice president uh and now competitor out on the campaign Trail Mike Pence saying it needed to be released as soon as possible he actually said before the end of the day on Friday and he got his wish um I want to bring back in Scott McFarland into our conversation uh we're talking about Jack Smith the special counsel we're awaiting his comments this is one of two cases that he's in involved in for people who are just tuning in now can you help relay the land for us Scott tell us more about how this indictment fits into the greater puzzle about the legal challenges facing the former president yeah Jack Smith has just shown some of his cards but not all of his cards this investigation into the classified records of the alleged obstruction of justice in concealing classified records by the former president was just one half of what Jack Smith was assigned to lead an investigation into he's also leading the investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 election efforts to so doubt baseless claims of fraud to give rise ultimately to the January 6th attack on the U.S Capitol and potentially into what became of all the money that was raised in the name of those baseless fraud claims that's Jack Smith's portfolio too this case now that we've seen the charging documents is clearly between more narrow goal posts about records and Mar-A-Lago records in Bedminster New Jersey the sharing of records with people who didn't have clearance the sharing of records that President Trump should not have had according to the charging documents and ultimately into an obstruction into the investigation of all of that Jack Smith's work presumably continues into that other sphere that January 6th case we would like to hear him address that issue during his statement today though if he's going to keep it inside the corners of his indictment if he's going to keep his remarks limited to what's been filed publicly in court we expect them to say zero about that other half of his work Joseph why is it that we are hearing anything from or going to hear from Jack Smith the special counsel and not Merrick Garland Merrick Garland did a point uh Jack Smith a special counsel but given the circumstances and the political environment right now can you help us understand why we wouldn't be hearing from Merrick Garland himself well I the White House and the justice department have taken great pains in saying that Jack Smith is a special counsel he's not he's not a run-of-the-mill U.S attorney or assistant U.S attorney and he's been given a lot of discretion here and they want to show that the decision of whether to move forward with charges was not made by the White House or by the Attorney General but by the special counsel himself and so I think we're going to continue to see that the White House is not going to want to answer questions about this um the Attorney General will probably keep an arm's length uh distance from this whole process and they're going to put as much of the onus on Jack Smith to say what he wants to say move forward how he wants to move forward and really take the reins with this whole thing um as we're as we're trying to uh understand a little bit more about the the process particularly with the patina of allegations of of politics Scott how does the the justice department try and maintain a level of a level of trust in the American people when we are in a political environment like we are right now utilizing environment too aren't we where political rhetoric is now questioning the institutions of America that we used to hold in highest regard voting the voting booth elections officials the Department of Justice law enforcement all of that and faith in that has eroded during this toxic political moment in which you have people like the former president continuing to question the integrity and legitimacy of those systems and in a truth social post just now Donald Trump criticized Jack Smith the special counsel calling him a psycho further eroding some subset of Americans faith in this prosecution and in this special counsel himself that's where we are but ultimately as we've seen in the January 6 cases when these things get to court no matter how politically charged they are no matter how politically divisive the moment is it comes down to 12 jurors hearing arguments it comes down to the facts put in front of responsible American jurors so many of whom take their responsibility ability quite seriously and can divorce themselves of their political backgrounds and their preconceived beliefs now the Trump team may be grateful this case is in the southern district of Florida there may be a different demography a different political leaning to many of the jurors down there certainly in Washington D.C a more democratic influence City where 100 of the juries have convicted January six defendants who've gone to trial they may think there's a better complexion politically of the jury base in the southern district of Florida but those who've done this for a long time would argue that jurors when they get in the jury box take the responsibility seriously they take their civic responsibility seriously almost sacredly and are up for the task no matter where it is no matter what the case is Joseph Scott mentioned that the former president has responded to the unsealing of this indictment by going after Jack Smith the special counsel I wonder what you can tell us about him just ahead of when we're expected to hear from him he as I understand it has a career that spans not just here in the United States in the federal system here but even the international criminal court as well can you give us a sense of who Jack Smith is and why he might have been chosen for special counsel in this case well great reputation as you pointed out both as a federal prosecutor here in the U.S as well as International experience um but I think what probably made him stand out was that he really had a background where he was seen as as non-partisan and that if the White House was going to put its faith in a prosecutor who did not have a history of saying things that could be construed as as leaning in One Direction or the other or having a history of making it seem like he would have picked winners and losers based on politics I think that's why they went with him so I think it's a combination of competence but also one of Independence to say look that the White House can say with a straight face you know we put our faith in Jack Smith to decide whether to go forward when to go forward how to go forward and we have confidence that he did that in a way that looked at the facts and the law and nothing else and Joseph help us understand how it works in the Justice Department as someone who served when you see an Administration and attorney general seeking to distance themselves from a special counsel in this way and ensure Independence what does that actually look like with respect to those who are tasked with conducting the investigation does that mean there is absolutely no communication or does that mean there is some communication can you give us an idea of what that actually looks like in practice well we've seen different permutations of of the concept of a special counsel over the last few decades really because in the past we had something called an independent Council remember back in the days of Ken Starr and Bill Clinton that was different that was a construct of Congress in a with a law that was allowed to lapse because people didn't love that construct so now we don't have quite that much Independence Jack Smith is still ultimately an employee of the justice department he still reports to the attorney general so it really comes down to whatever safeguards they've put in place for this case now again because it's so politically charged I have to assume they've gone at Great length to limit or even firewall Communications about the case um and really give Jack Smith and his team a tremendous amount of latitude but really only they know in the inner workings of this justice department what construct they actually put in place Joseph given us a sense of how how long this timeline is going to take because I'm looking through this indictment at the end of it it's talking about the amount of potential prison time that the former president could uh face but he's still on the campaign Trail he's still trying to uh to make his case to the American people that he should be returned to the White House um is there any chance that this interferes just timeline wise with his with his ability to be re-elected president well I mean I would be surprised if this goes to trial before the presidential election of next year I think we're talking about a trial into 2025 and so this will certainly be a distraction there could be hearings and appearances and filings happening behind the scenes that Donald Trump will have to deal with with his attorneys but I I think there's a pretty good chance that the election if he's the nominee for the Republicans will come and go and this trial will still be hanging out there as having not begun so I think you know they say justice is fair it's not always Swift and I think it's going to be a long slog with this case a particularly one that's so politically charged and has some complications to it as well all right we are awaiting a statement from the special counsel in this case Jack Smith there you see the podium set up ready for that statement when it happens Scott um what do we know at this point is the special counsel expected to take questions or is this just a brief statement do we have any guidance at all about what we might hear there are no guarantees in life but I'd wager the mortgage he doesn't take questions from the Press Corps about something that is going to be litigated in federal court starting Tuesday on the most sensitive legal matter potentially in U.S history I expect his remarks to be brief one of the reasons they're not starting on time is he's not operating out of the justice department office suites where they have a room ready where people are pre-cleared to come in he's kind of setting this up not improvised but in a space that hasn't been used before so there's going to be some logistical hurdles getting this up and running interesting three o'clock Eastern time on a Friday seemed ambitious to me it's likely at least a few more minutes away this is necessarily metaphorically and literally kept separate from the Department of Justice they're doing this not just for Optics but to keep this you know beyond reproach for the attorney general and the Biden Administration Jack Smith will speak likely about the case he's just filed it's far from Clear if he was intending to give this speech today if the former president didn't provide some impetus for this by posting on Truth social last night he was going to appear in court on Tuesday but let's look at that Tuesday he does appear in court and I think it's always important to underscore whenever we talk about federal court cases involving former presidents or anybody else you will not get to see it there are no cameras in the courtroom in the federal system No cameras permitted not moving video cameras or still photo cameras there is no live audio to listen to of Tuesday's proceedings there are no booking photos released to the public you won't see a mug shot of former president Trump because it's federal court they don't do that there they take the booking photo but they keep the booking photo and it's quite possible if not likely at the federal court in Miami that they provide a secured secret non-public entrance for the former president he may not walk right through the front door as other defendants would if you're a confidential Witness A notorious high-profile defendant or somebody who's in pre-trial that tension in the Marshall's custody they have ways of getting you in and out of the courthouse privately so this might all be invisible to us when it plays out Tuesday the only record we may have visually of what happens is from one of those great courtroom sketch artists uh we want to bring in now our legal contributor Jessica Levinson joining us again we are hearing from the former president on social media a lot of what about ISM uh and in particular directed at the current President Joe Biden uh hold on one one moment oh we're still two minutes away from the special counsel we just wanted to uh to see when the camera was moving in there but we're going to go ahead and pause this conversation we're going to take you back over to a special report where special counsel Jack Smith will be speaking shortly [Music] thank you this is a CBS News special report I'm Norah O'Donnell here in Washington and we are coming on the air as special counsel Jack Smith is delivering remarks on the indictment of former president Donald Trump any moment from now just over an hour and a half ago the 38 count indictment was unsealed 37 of them specifically targeting Mr Trump and the accusations made in this indictment are stunning they allege that the National Archives repeatedly demanded that the former president turnover classified documents beginning in May of 2021. the charges against the former president include willful retention of National Defense information conspiracy to obstruct Justice withholding a document or record corruptly concealing a document or record and concealing a document in a federal investigation scheme to conceal and false statements and representations now these historic charges are related to Trump's mishandling of documents you see now Jack Smith and we will hear his first remarks on what has been a 14-month long investigation good afternoon today an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J Trump with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct Justice this indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the southern district of Florida and I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged the men and women of the United States intelligence community and our Armed Forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people are laws that protect National Defense information are critical to the Safety and Security of the United States and they must be enforced violations of those laws put our country at risk hearings to the rule of law is a Bedrock principle of the Department of Justice and our nation's commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world we have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone applying those laws collecting facts that's what determines the outcome of an investigation nothing more and nothing less the prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice they have investigated this case hewing to the highest ethical standards and they will continue to do so as this case proceeds it's very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt in a court of law to that end my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused we very much look forward to presenting our case to a jury of citizens in the southern district of Florida in conclusion I would like to thank the dedicated public servants of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with whom my office is conducting this investigation and who worked tirelessly every day upholding the rule of law in our country I'm deeply proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with them thank you very much and there for the first time we're hearing from the special counsel Jack Smith and this exhaustive investigation alleging the former president of the United States with a conspiracy to obstruct Justice this 49-page indictment the special counsel invited everyone to read in its full and I would also recommend that people read it and it's full it is detailed specific and it is alarming in some of the charges that are made not only against uh Donald Trump but also his personal valet John Dickerson is with us the Sphinx talks I mean we've seen Jack Smith's face but not heard him speak and there's an old expression the more you the more you talk the less you have to say he didn't talk very long because the indictment is so full of the talking that he does what did he say though when he talked he talked about the scope and gravity and he founded that on two things the men and women of law of of National Security and the danger of of having this kind of information just floating around and he talked about the rule of law as the Bedrock principle of the liberal Democratic order which America is the example of the world and then that other Bedrock principle innocent until proven guilty short and to the point yeah Robert I was struck by this in reading this too we're talking about America's most important Secrets we're talking about American intelligence that protects our men and women who serve in the military overseas protects our allies and the allegation is that there were boxes and boxes full of top secret secret classified confidential information that was left in a ballroom in a bathroom in a bedroom when at a social club Mar-A-Lago and were not secure what's notable is that the special counsel didn't get into any of the details instead he urged the country to read the document to read the evidence the word he used gravity there's gravity to this indictment gravity to the charges facing a former president of the United States you can't read this indictment and every page seems to mention intelligence potentially being compromised foreign allies foreign adversaries all this information stuffed away in bathrooms in Florida and bedrooms and the special counsel is someone who's in a long line of special counsels in the United States and past special counsels have been politicized think about Ken Starr top investigators like Robert Mueller pulled into the riptide of politics by being tersed today by keeping it just to the facts having a bit of gravity when he used that word and talking about how it's important to secure things for the military and intelligence officials he wants to avoid being politicized by Trump but good luck with that effort Trump's already on true social what's he saying Jack Jack Smith's wife is quote Trump hater just as he's a trump hater politics looms over everything here even if Jack Smith wants to keep this Bare Bones and buy the book Catherine Herridge our senior investigative correspondent is with us one of the other noteworthy things I think if you read this indictment in its full is the repeated and repeated opportunities that Donald Trump his lawyers and others had to solve this problem in May of 2021 so he's just out of the White House right you leave the White House in January 2021 the National Archives ass begins to ask him for these documents that they believe are part of the presidential records act when you are President you no longer have access to these classified documents you can request them but you're not allowed to have them and certainly Mar-A-Lago is not a secure facility so they repeatedly and repeatedly ask he doesn't turn them over it becomes an issue I mean you just I can't detail the whole document I invite people to read it but again the obstruction then not only that he instructs his lawyer to obstruct justice but also AIDS within his personal office and these are just run-of-the-mill documents based on the special counsel's indictment seven of the U.S intelligence agencies had information that was impacted by this alleged mishandling of classified information from the CIA to the spy satellite agencies also to the defense department specifically a memo that detailed attack plans on Iran this is closely held intelligence within the U.S government it was retained improperly it was not stored in a secure facility and as you mentioned I think the heart of the indictment is that there was a willfulness an alleged willfulness to refuse the return of these governments to a secure location and unlike other instances in which people might have had secure or classified documents where it was kind of a mistake or a clerical error what this indictment shows is a person at the center of the narrative and that is the former president of the United States moving the document around following them ordering the lawyers not to talk about them he has his hands on them either figuratively or literally throughout this document and that puts him at the center of this this is not just something that oh it was done by a staffer somewhere and also you mentioned nor the danger of having this information floating out there what purpose was this information being put to by the former president to exercise some vendettas to show he was right in other words that's not what this information is for this information is to protect the United States from it from its enemies and also to protect its allies it's not to be used for the personal whims of a person who happened to have been president and just one further point if I could on that especially with some of these most sensitive documents the special counsel has the benefit of using the defendant the former president's own words against him and in my experience of covering this for two decades it's the words and the testimony of the accused that can be the most powerful to a jury you're specifically referencing and they note this on page nine of the indictment for those that are falling home the repeated statements that Trump has made as candidate and as president about protecting classified information including as early as August 18 2016 where he said in my Administration I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information no one will be above the law in the words of Donald Trump I was just going to say if we kind of dial back in time remember this was the height of the 2016 election and the height of the Clinton email controversy and that she used a private server for government business and dozens of records that were classified were found on that server and this was a major campaign point for then candidate Trump who said my white house will be different and again using his own words whether it's on the campaign stump or whether it's on this audio tape about the Pentagon Iran document very powerful evidence the question now is what's next in the last hour before this press conference though he didn't take questions I've been checking in with sources close to Donald Trump's legal team they had a shake-up today he got rid while two lawyers resigned John Jim trustee and John ralley they left the legal team now it's being led by a veteran white shoe attorney named Todd Blanche and based on what CBS News has been hearing from sources with knowledge of the Trump team Trump is going to argue that he had blanket classification powers and they believe that regardless of what happens in this case should it go to trial they could appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court and make this about privileged questions about executive privilege what can a president do and not do when it comes to classified documents we're also going to see from the political side a real Reckoning this is a Crossroads for the Republican party if you're a rival or your speaker Kevin McCarthy last night maybe you came out with a supportive statement you hadn't read the indictment now you've read it what are you going to say now many Crossroads like this before in the past decade When Donald Trump has had issue user challenges the Republicans have rallied around him and they did that during the FBI search last year but now he's in the race for the presidency again people want to beat him who's going to step up already former vice president Mike Pence this week and his announcement has questioned does Trump even believe in the rule of law I was there in Iowa with Pence and I said why are you doing this now defenses reply it's time former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says Trump is not fit for the presidency so they're speaking up who else that's an important Point politically exactly and and Mike Pence and others are talking about character what kind of character does a president have to have well if all of them are speaking to the idea of character if you just read through the actions in this indictment and ask any of those candidates running is that an example of a person with character and is that the kind of character you would display in the office and that gets right to the heart of the specific behavior of a former president and whether as a party you want to restore that kind of behavior into the White House reform just a final point on the timeline I mean this all seems like it's on the Collision Course for November of 2024. social Council Jack Smith says he wants a speedy trial but you know that's relative in a complex case like this I mean it's going to bump right up against all of these critical periods like the nomination the selection I just want to take a moment because Catherine as you detailed so well from the indictment these are documents again marked top secret right those that could cause grave damage the National Security some are even higher than that that's right even higher um that those documents were in these boxes in the ballroom then they were moved from the ballroom they were in a bathroom they were in a storage room right near the bar storage room so that the bartenders and others would have access we knew a Chinese spy was able to access Mar-A-Lago the secret service is not in charge of guarding these documents they say they did not know that these documents with classified briefings were there at Mar-A-Lago and again over and over and over again through this indictment there is awareness not only by the president of the United States the former president United States Donald Trump and his attorneys that this is an issue time to return the documents get rid of them you're in a problem and he repeatedly according to this indictment seeks to conceal them to move them there are text messages there are pictures there is a lot of evidence in this indictment which undermines his claim that he had this blanket power to declassify because if he had the blanket power to classify you wouldn't be trying to stay one step ahead of anybody who was trying to find out if he had this material which based on cbs's reporting and now in the indictment he even verbally said this is secret classified and suggested he shouldn't have it so that seems to under the president's own case is undermined by the quotes from the president which some of which come from his own lawyer no I must say now while that case has laid out here and alleged here the obstruction seems pretty strong the question is well what is in these documents which I still think we don't know very much about there are two instances alleged in the indictment in which Donald Trump shared information in the documents with others with people who did not have the authority to look at classified information one of those instances involves military plans to attack Iran just how sensitive is that how could that cause grave damage to our national security our military forces our intelligence operatives well we don't have independent access to that record but I know from my experience that the US government the defense department has plans on the Shelf contingency plans if there's going to be a defensive action or or an offensive action this seems to not just in Iran we have them in North Korea and other places many other adversaries in this particular case based on the transcript that we've confirmed here at CBS News it was a document that was crafted by a very senior person within the defense department he says the chairman of the Chiefs Mark milley and he says look you know Millie thinks that I'm the one who wants to attack Iran it's actually him what's not clear from the audio tape is whether the former president is holding that document in his hand at that time or describing it but attack plans for an adversary like Iran would be in in my experience what they call sensitive compartmented information that means it's Above Top Secret it's close hold need to know people are read in and read off of these limited access programs and if you've ever been to Mar-A-Lago I've been there not to have dinner or play golf but it's always working right well hopefully not always but it's a place you can easily wander around yeah if you're there you can kind of walk into the dining room Trump has dinner outside so all these documents stocked in these different rooms it really presents a challenge for Trump but how is he going to defend having all these documents exposed and just to point out too this does not only involve well we've talked so much about Mar-A-Lago these pictures the two instances in which Donald Trump is alleged to have shown them to people happened at Bedminster that's right so um and they're recorded right and there are recordings of this and the second instance is alleged by the indictment Trump showed a representative as political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close again the suggestion that the president knew exactly what he was doing and that he shouldn't be showing such a map to this political opportunity a map like that in my experience would come from the NGA the National geospatial Intelligence Agency and the reason it's so highly classified is because the granular detail on that map or photograph is an indicator of the kind of capabilities the United States government has as well as the positioning of our satellites so this really is a sources and a methods issue as well want to note that today while in North Carolina President Biden was asked twice about the indictment against his predecessor and Mr Biden said no comment he also and noted that he has not spoken to the attorney general Merrick Garland about the case White House aides have told CBS News we should not expect that the president will comment about this today or in the coming days and that would probably be a wise decision so as not to politicize this matter that is already going to be further politicized even yeah but he's going to be tested President Biden as this unfolds because it's it's playing out during his presidency and presidencies are about living in the times you're in as a leader and even if you want to avoid it for legal and political reasons it hovers over Trump has been an open wound in the Biden presidency since day one Trump didn't even show up at the inauguration it happened days after an Insurrection and ever since he took office Trump has been there and I hear from my sources close to the president he hates discuss scene former president Trump he doesn't want to talk about him in interviews he doesn't want to talk about him in private but now this is playing out inside his own justice department now it's the federal government's justice department but he appointed the Attorney General Merrick Garland there are clear separation between the Justice very much so and the White House just to pick up on what Bob's saying in the way that bleeds into it is you have Kevin McCarthy the speaker of the house with whom the president just negotiated best as you can in today's environment a debt ceiling deal calling this the president's indictment okay that's not saying there are many things you can say as the sport of Donald Trump you could say innocent until proven guilty you can say that's not the man I know you can say well let's wait and see the facts when you jump all the way to calling this an indictment that comes from the president you're basically saying this is political I haven't seen the facts the speaker hadn't seen the facts but immediately he said I should also know but that is false yes that is I'm sorry yes that's the whole point that is what he said but it is it is a false statement yes it is a false statement and it's a highly volatile incredibly a dangerous statement that seeks to undermine the process and if that's immediately where you're going that that gives you a sense of how this has befouled the relationship between the speaker and the president one of the greatest things about America is our justice system and there is a legal process that will unfold here you are innocent until proven guilty there will be a jury in Florida that will listen to this case a speedy trial as a special counsel said that he would like but John historically this moment that we are in never before in American history has a president or former president face federal charges and certainly this grave that's right and and your caution is the right one which is that we're all stewards of this moment this is an unpredictable moment it has never happened before and it's happening in fragile times where people are apt to think the worst of their political enemies their apt to think that the protections that you describe don't exist and because they think those things don't exist they take things they take take matters into their own hands and so this is an incredibly sensitive moment and the other historical parallel I would mention is as Catherine was talking um and you look at the way the president and former president was using this material it reminds me very much of the reason Richard Nixon taped things because when presidents are in office they want to have a record so that they can say no you see I was right all along all those smarty pants is in the Press they were saying this but I have the actual official record here to show you what was really going on because they always feel in the job like they're being swamped by you know inaccurate information and that instinct to use the the this information to prove that you were right is not it's evidenced by what Donald Trump did is in this is in this indictment but it's true of many past presidents as well this was in many ways avoidable John Dickerson Catherine Herridge Robert Costa thank you so much we should note our coverage will continue on CBS News streaming your local news and we will have a full wrap up and Analysis tonight on the CBS Evening News this has been a CBS News report I'm Nora O'Donnell we continue our coverage here I am Lana Zach and I'm Elaine quijano we've been watching a CBS News special report special counsel Jack Smith just spoke about the unsealed indictment into former president Trump he said that Trump violated laws that put America at risk he did caution that everyone should be presumed innocent until found guilty and he urged everyone interested to read the indictment in full Smith also said that his office will seek a speedy trial in Florida Trump was indicted on 37 felony counts related to the handling of sensitive documents found by the FBI at his Mar-A-Lago residence the president is due in court in Miami next Tuesday here with special counsel Jack Smith earlier prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice they have investigated this case human to the highest ethical standards and they will continue to do so as this case proceeds it's very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt in a court of law to that end my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused CBS News Congressional correspondent Scott McFarland joins us now so Scott what's your take on what we heard from Jack Smith the special counsel a few things jumped out of me first of all he said in so many words the United States government the special counsel will seek a speedy trial if you like air quotes in life put air quotes around the word speedy trial because in the federal system things aren't quite as Speedy as they may seem on television when you watch courtroom dramas this is going to be measured by months if not years until a trial begins in the case of United States of America versus Donald J Trump but they're not going to seek to prolong this anymore than necessary he felt empowered and inspired to say in so many words they want a speedy trial but he also gave this three to four minute recitation of the importance of the law and the importance of everybody being held accountable and nobody being above the law but not once did he mention the name Trump a few fleeting references to the defendant and a much larger reference to the importance of integrity under the law that's my takeaway he's not going to answer questions he's not going to get into the intricacies of the charging documents are the case because that's what his team will do in court we are also joined by CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson Jessica we were talking right before we heard the special counsel's remarks about what we were hearing from the former president he was asking what about Biden uh and saying that it that this is a Witch Hunt and was pointing to the the the fact that Biden wasn't facing the same charges for people who think that that is a valid argument what is your take there's no world in which the President Biden could face the same charges because there's been no public reporting that he engaged in anything close to the behavior that is detailed in the indictment I mean there's a reason that Jack Smith said I encourage all of you to read the indictment because it truly does speak for itself let's emphasize what Jack Smith emphasized which is innocent until proven guilty but to those who think that the facts in these cases look in any way similar I think that 49 page indictment 38 counts it really undermines that again it's the difference between having something that you shouldn't have and then immediately alerting law enforcement and saying I shouldn't have had this and please come and look and see if there's anything else we're talking about not just President Biden but also vice president Pax and it's the difference between that and what we see in this indictment which is former president Trump saying to his attorneys well what if we just told them we didn't have any classified documents would that be better than basically responding partially or failing to respond at all and everything that is detailed here all of the steps along the way leading up to this moment indicate that the president the former president engaged in willful Behavior to impede to obstruct to hide to prevent law enforcement from being able to obtain this information and let's remember what the information is highly sense of national security information all right CBS News Chief National Affairs and justice department correspondent Jeff begayse joins us now uh Jeff uh let me ask you about Jack Smith the special counsel because he has another high profile probe within his portfolio what can you tell us about that yeah you know to say the least he has his hands full uh because we spent all this time talking about this case still looming out there in probably the future weeks maybe a few months is the investigation into January 6 in president Trump's actions during that period and so is as serious as this case is and it is serious because remember again we in April we were talking about the case in New York that Alvin Bragg brought and we were talking about the the seriousness of that case well this is a whole nother ball game as your guests have pointed out this is a 49 page indictment and as Bob Costa has reported you know politics is looming over everything and that's why you had the special counsel today not saying much he did not say say much for the for a reason they don't want you to focus on the messenger instead focus on the message and what is in that indictment and my sources uh in the Department of Justice there was a lot of thought is what they tell me that went into this document and laying out the argument there's a lot of information in this top document typically with the types of indictments that we see day to day we do not get this much information also there's there's been this talk about you know Equal justice under the law let's be honest here this is a former president law enforcement is I've been reporting throughout is tried to be deferential to the former president in fact when this investigation started in 2021 they didn't immediately rush into Mar-A-Lago or Bedminster there were negotiations had this been perhaps any other U.S citizen who's not a former president or vice president there would have been a raid up their property and so there was a deference paid to the former president and yet here we are today jeffigays outside of the justice department with the inside picture of the mentality of the folks who are trying to figure all of this out now we're going to bring in CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe we understand Ed that you are there at the White House Ed we have been living in strange times for a while now but this seems to take it to another level uh give us some greater picture thoughts about how you believe history will record this moment oh well uh you know this day will be remembered certainly uh as a big one because of the revelations in this uh indictment and the dozens of charges that have been laid out here against the former president what I I think uh well we can't yet account for is how much that presidency is in has affected this presidency the current one and everything that is done and said by the current President Joe Biden who today is in North Carolina for two separate events with Community College Educators and with military families twice today so far at least he's been asked by reporters about the indictment and has insisted he has no comment on the second go around he was asked specifically if he's talked to the attorney general at all ever about this case he said he has not and we've been told by AIDS not to expect the president to weigh in on the case later today either as he leaves North Carolina tonight when he gets back here to the White House now that the indictment has been unsealed that's in keeping with the president's preference to not weigh in on the details of this understanding as he has since his uh election campaign that he's trying to demonstrate respect for and adherence to the rule of law and the professionalism of the justice department because he argued during his campaign of course that Donald Trump and his administration had politicized and influenced unduly the justice department so we know here at the White House they learned about the indictment last night the way most Americans did through media reports they did not say exactly how the president learned about it but insisted it was through that that there was no heads up as there has never been they say in all of these developments related to former president Trump the other thing we should point out because there have been some questions about this are Nicole skanga who covers the Homeland Security Department the Secret Service for us says that the Secret Service is getting no special accommodations not asking for any next Tuesday when former president Trump is said to appear at that federal courthouse in Florida in other words they'll go in and do the usual inspection of a building that they would before he goes but otherwise won't be seeking any other special accommodations as the legal process plays out there in South Florida next week but obviously another big day in the ongoing saga of the Trump years uh and and these legal developments well we don't of course know Lana Elaine is how will the product Republican party react to this how will Republican primary voters react to this how will voters overall react to this in the coming days and weeks as they absorb the information read up on the details of the indictment themselves and see how next week's Court proceedings play out how voters will react how jurors potentially will react still so much of this chapter yet to be written Scott McFarland Jessica Levinson Jeff begaze and Ed O'Keefe thank you all we have a lot more news next including the closing bell from Wall Street at the top of the hour this is CBS News [Music] if it's important to 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fight It's Gonna Keep On happening and teachers taking lessons and how to fight back that's it and exercise we approach it as it's you or them it shouldn't have to be your teacher's job to protect your life but will the battle over gun control people are afraid that they're going to lose their gun rise all together be the hardest lesson of all the exercise you're having to shoot at an adult are you prepared to have to kill one of your students guns in the classroom now streaming on the free CBS News app she's the most successful Alpine skier male or female ever and a worldwide inspiration we need a lot of women doing sports really really well the story of Michaela shiffrin's game-changing Reign at the top of the slopes when we go person to person well now to the latest on the smoke from the Canadian wildfires here is a live look at the U.S Capitol building where the air quality there has improved from a code red to a code yellow cities across the East Coast have looked hazy all week causing some residents to worry about their health I'm concerned with my uh because I'm a first time father and my son had asthma and so does uh his mother not taking the long dog walk today not going to the park and we're in and out of stores taking it slow I feel like coveted again

Channel: CBS News

Views: 933,762

Keywords: cbs news, news, live news, livestream, breaking news, trump, donald trump, indictment, federal, investigation, classified documents, DOJ, department of justice, indictment unsealed

Id: x7HDjkVH0j4

Length: 112min 45sec (6765 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023