Trump indicted: What to know about the documents case and what's next

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00:00 We can now go across France 24.

00:01 Ketivan Gorgiastani standing by in Washington.

00:04 Ketivan, a good morning to you.

00:06 What more do we know about this indictment?

00:08 Well, so far we know nothing official because that indictment has not been unveiled yet.

00:16 What we know about these charges comes from what Donald Trump's attorneys have been saying

00:23 in US media, and even they don't know exactly what the charges are.

00:28 But one of his attorneys said that in the summons that Donald Trump received, which

00:33 is asking him to present himself at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, that according

00:39 to that language, they can assume that there are about seven charges that will be brought

00:45 against Donald Trump.

00:47 One emanating from the Espionage Act, that is the willful retention of those classified

00:54 documents.

00:55 The lawyer also talking about several obstruction based charges, as well as several false statement

01:01 charges and probably a very likely also a conspiracy charge.

01:07 So these are pretty significant charges.

01:10 As I said, we still don't know exactly whether these charges are right or accurate, how many

01:17 of them will be in each sort of category.

01:21 That's going to be interesting to see.

01:22 The other thing interesting to see when that indictment is unveiled, which will very likely

01:27 happen on Tuesday in Miami, is to see whether the prosecution will be mentioning at all

01:34 the motive behind that mishandling of classified documents, whether they will be questioning

01:43 or pointing to a definite motive for Donald Trump.

01:47 Why did he keep those documents?

01:49 Did he simply take them away from the White House to keep them as mementos, as sometimes

01:53 the former president has said?

01:56 Or was he using them for other means?

02:00 Was he sharing them with people?

02:02 Was he sharing them with other countries?

02:04 That will be very important to see.

02:07 The lawyer for Donald Trump also confirming that Donald Trump will indeed be showing up

02:13 in person for that summons in Miami, the way he did back in Manhattan for that hush money

02:22 payment case at the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

02:27 And Ketivan, how have Republicans, where you are, been reacting to this news?

02:32 Well, of course, this is all happening within the campaign for the Republican nomination

02:39 for 2024.

02:41 And we were expecting these candidates to react, but they are in a difficult position

02:47 because an overwhelming majority of Republican voters, even before this indictment was announced,

02:55 were basically saying that Donald Trump should not be indicted in this case, in the classified

03:01 documents case.

03:02 So the Republican candidates are treading lightly.

03:05 They want to use this as an opportunity to attack someone, Donald Trump, who is 30 points

03:12 ahead of his first challenger, but at the same time not alienate a big part of the Republican

03:19 base.

03:20 And that's what Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump's main challenger, has done.

03:24 He went after the weaponization of the federal law enforcement, saying that it represented

03:31 a mortal threat to a free society.

03:34 He didn't really support Donald Trump, but he went mostly after the Department of Justice.

03:40 Asa Hutchinson, he's one of the candidates.

03:42 He's the only one so far who has called for Donald Trump to drop out of the race, saying

03:47 that, what, legally he's still allowed to run.

03:50 This is at best a distraction and at worst a real problem for American democracy.

03:56 And finally, Chris Christie, who's been one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump,

04:02 saying no one is above the law, no matter how much they wished they were.

04:06 He did, however, say that he will have more to say once he actually sees the wording of

04:11 the indictment.

04:12 So even he is not going full force on the attack against Donald Trump.

04:17 Keir Starmer, thank you very much.

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