Welcome to the beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melbert. The reason that we have special coverage tonight

with Nicole and Rachel and our whole team later is that we will be making sense of what we

live through today. A reckoning inside a crime scene, inside the nation's capital, which was famously

criminally ransacked by Donald Trump's fans after he summoned them.

This is the seat of government and democracy, which then outgoing President Trump tried to overthrow.

And this is the first time the special counsel who famously indicted Donald Trump twice.

Jack Smith gave public testimony under oath about his case. And Jack Smith's headline was clear.

Donald Trump belongs in prison. Donald Trump would have been convicted, had in Smith's view,

the wheels of justice been allowed to move forward. Now, that is his view. A fair reporting of this also includes other views,

and members of both parties, of course, were represented in the questioning. But they are questioning

an individual who has high credibility, who's prosecuted people in the public corruption unit in both

parties, and who brought this case with mountains of evidence. So what he said today

for the first time under oath in public matters. And he said Trump is guilty of serious crimes

against our democracy. And then he had the goods, the evidence, the receipts to prove it.

And what is different today, and we're going to show you not only

what Smith said, but a lot of the supporting material right now, I've got some very special guests

standing by from the top of the DOJ. But what we're going to show you right now is both some of what

Smith said, so you're caught up on the highlights. But if you watch part of this hearing today, we're going to show you more than just what he said. I'm going to give it to you

in the context of the overwhelming evidence. Because here's the thing. Every defendant is legally

presumed innocent in our system. That includes former defendant, Donald Trump. But not every case is

this strong with this much evidence that occurred in real

time. Trump tried to overturn the election he lost. And he was caught, red-handed with volumes and

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