The legal and political fallout of Trump's indictment

AMNA NAWAZ: And diving now into the legal and political fallout, I'm joined by former federal prosecutor Elie Honig and ProPublica reporter Andrea Bernstein, who has long covered the former president.

Welcome to both of you, and thanks for joining us.

Elie, we have to point out there's a lot we don't know yet.

But let's start with what we do know.

As Geoff Bennett reported earlier, Mr. Trump is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.

There is a whole process.

Walk us through what happens and when we should expect more details on the indictment itself.

ELIE HONIG, Former Federal Prosecutor: Sure, Amna.

For all the hoopla and the circus-like atmosphere that's sure to envelop the courthouse on Tuesday, this will really be a fairly routine proceeding.

Donald Trump will be led into the building, surely under tight lock and key, not handcuffed, to be clear.

He will be fingerprinted.

He will be mug-shotted.

The mug shot, by the way, is supposed to remain not public under New York law.

Then he will come out for a court appearance.

At that point, the indictment will be unsealed, meaning it will become available to us in the general public and the media.

Donald Trump will then be advised of the charges against him.

He will enter a not guilty plea.

The judge will then release Donald Trump on bail, what we call released on his own recognizance, meaning leave him free to go.

And he just has to come back from the next court appearance.

And then we will be under way.

We will be into our court system under a case captioned People of the State of New York vs. Donald J. Trump.

AMNA NAWAZ: Andrea, a defense attorney for Mr. Trump, Joe Tacopina, said Mr. Trump was shocked by the indictment, also that he is -- quote -- "ready to fight."

What does that say to you?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN, ProPublica: Well, Trump's lawyers have been attacking a potential indictment for weeks now.

They have been saying the case is weak.

They have been saying it's unprecedented.

Of course, it's hard to tell because we haven't actually seen an indictment.

We have seen any charges.

We haven't -- we have no indication of the evidence that the DA has put forward in this case.

So, all of that is yet to be learned.

We will begin learning on Tuesday, when the indictment is unsealed.

But, of course, it'll take many months of the trial proceedings to -- and probably the trial itself to really understand the full dimensions of this case.

AMNA NAWAZ: Elie, as Geoff reported, the security preps in New York are beginning.

We have heard some of the language from Mr. Trump and his supporters in the past.

The idea of political violence in this case is not a hypothetical.

We have seen what happens when some of his supporters have followed his instruction in the past.

Can he be prevented from inciting violence in this case?

ELIE HONIG: So there is a way, at an extreme, where a judge can impose what we call a gag order, meaning issue an official court order prohibiting a participant in a trial from speaking.

That is a very high bar legally.

Now, any participant in the justice system has the right to criticize a judge or a prosecutor.

It's not a great idea, but they do have that right.

However, I believe there are lines here that already have been crossed in the way that Donald Trump has launched attacks, including racist attacks, including attacks not so subtly calling for violent resistance.

And so I do think we could get to a point fairly quickly where the prosecutor needs to go to the judge and say: Judge, it's an extreme measure.

We rarely do it.

But we need a gag order in this case.

We're not there yet, but it's something the prosecutor has to be thinking about.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Andrea, you have been following this case very, very closely.

We do not know the details of that indictment yet.

But knowing it is related to those hush money payments involving an alleged affair with Mr. Trump, what could potential charges look like in this case?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: So the discussion has centered around falsification of business records, which, in New York, can be an E felony punishable with jail time of up to four years.

Now, of course, that infrequently is applied in these kinds of white-collar cases.

But it is a felony in New York.

It is a serious charge.

And the allegation, and what the DEA has been looking at is, we know from Michael Cohen that he paid money to Stormy Daniels.

We know from records that the prosecution in that case released that they were the -- that hush money payment was reimbursed by Donald Trump, and that Trump's company referred to it as a legal retainer, which it was not.

What is being investigated is Trump's alleged role in all of this.

And by the fact that there's an indictment, it appears that the DA believes there is sufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Trump orchestrated this scheme of calling something a legal retainer that was actually, as Michael Cohen has described it, a sort of last-ditch effort, successful, as Cohen described it, to save Mr. Trump's 2016 election bid at that time.

And, of course, this all came out after the "Access Hollywood" tape, just when within weeks of that.

So that is the question that I think we will be seeing be laid out in these legal procedures is, what did Mr. Trump do to keep this testimony from coming forward?

And what kind of arrangements did he make?

So all of that remains a question, of course.

And then, before any of that happens, we certainly expect Mr. Trump's team to try to get the appeals courts in New York to throw out the indictment.

So there will certainly be legal maneuvering in this case starting very quickly, I would imagine.

AMNA NAWAZ: A lot to cover.

A lot we don't yet know, but we thank both of you for joining us today to explain all of that.

That is Elie Honig and Andrea Bernstein.

Thank you to you both.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Thank you.