Skip to main content

tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  December 11, 2023 5:00pm-6:00pm PST

5:00 pm
i'm here to thank you. tonight, steven spielberg breaking his silence after the october 7th terror attack in israel. spielberg, who directed the oscar winning holocaust film, "schindler's list" saying, quote, i never imagined i would see such unspeakable barbarity against the jews in my lifetime. -- will now also be collecting accounts from people who survived the october 7th attacks. thank you very much for watching. watching. it's time now for "ac 360." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight on "360," breaking news on two fronts. special counsel jack smith
5:01 pm
asking the supreme court to fast track a decision on whether the former president should even face trial for january 6th and the supreme court has already responded. also in the documents case, new revelations about what the former president and his associates have been saying to a former employee and potential witness. and later, today's life changing decision by the texas woman caught between the state's strict abortion laws and a pregnancy almost certain to end in the death of her child. that and the court ruling on it just moments ago. we begin tonight with the breaking news. just hours after special counsel jack smith asked the supreme court to take up the question of whether the former president is immune from prosecution in the election subversion case, the court responded. though it's only the court's initial move, it is the speedy first step toward a historic decision, with echos of another landmark case involving the president and the law nearly 50 years ago. jack smith cited that case prominently in his filing today. more from paula reid.
5:02 pm
what exactly has the supreme court right now agreed to? >> reporter: today the special counsel asked them to take up two constitutional questions in the hope that those could be resolved and they could move ahead with their election subversion case against trump, as scheduled in march. tonight the supreme court said, we'll get back to you soon. now, they're not saying that they're going to take up these questions. they're saying, though, that their response will be prompt. and that's somewhat of a win for the special counsel because timing is everything here. former president trump is litigating these legitimate questions that have never been answered before. the first is whether he is immune from prosecution. the second is whether he is protected from double jeopardy because he was impeached, though not convicted on similar charges. well, it is his right to litigate these questions. this takes time. it could take months, potentially even over a year for this question to go from the district court, where he has lost on the immunity question, to the appeals court to potentially the full appeals court to the supreme court.
5:03 pm
so, here the special counsel is saying, look, it is a public importance that we skip that intermediary step and just go straight to the supreme court to get an answer on this. >> also jack smith cited this other case about the watergate era from nixon. how does that fit in? >> it's interesting. they're citing a similar investigation from the watergate investigation where the supreme court was asked to weigh in on specific issues. and there the supreme court scheduled oral arguments about that questions about whether nixon had to turn over tapes from the investigation, whether he was protected from executive privilege. six days later, they had a decision. that could move ahead as scheduled. there are other examples of the supreme court allowing issues to skip that middle step, the court of appeals. but this one, this is really the most on point because of course this is a question they would argue is of national importance. and of course we're dealing with, in one case, a current and now a former president. >> would a ruling from the
5:04 pm
supreme court only apply to the federal election subversion case or would it also impact the rest of the former president's other criminal proceedings? >> reporter: the one case that could really be impacted here is the georgia election subversion case. that is a state prosecution. the question before the supreme court is about federal prosecution. anderson, look, if trump wins at the supreme court here, that pretty much spells doom for fani willis' georgia-based case. if trump loses on these questions at the supreme court, i don't think that's a very good sign for any attempt to launch similar appeals in georgia. but it doesn't mean he won't do it. because at the heart of his strategy isn't necessarily the merits of these constitutional questions. right now it's about delay. their goal is to delay this case until after the election. so, even attempting something like this in georgia, even if he's lost at the supreme court could be advantageous. >> thank you very much.
5:05 pm
here with me now is elie honig and chief assistant district attorney karen freedman agnifilo. do you think they'll take this up? >> i do think they will, anderson. this is what we call direct review, meaning jack smith wants skip the court of appeals and go to the supreme court. >> because it's going to go to the supreme court anyway? >> right. why take the many months it would take for the court of appeals to weigh in. we know it's headed for the supreme court. also, if you look back at recent history, this tactic of direct review was almost never done for a long time. however, the court supreme court has done it. i have to credit our supreme court expert -- 19 times since 2019. for example, joe biden's student loan program. they granted this expedited relief. and many others we have not heard of. this case is more important than any of those, and this case has more time pressure than any of those. so, i do think they will take it on this direct review. >> karen, if the court does agree to hear the case, what does the timeline look like, and
5:06 pm
when do we expect a ruling? >> hopefully it will be in time so that we can still have the trial march 4th in front of judge chutkan. because if it doesn't go march 4th, don't forget you've then got the alvin bragg manhattan d.a. case slated to start march 24th. and that will bump into the election. and at that point, it's not going to be able to go forward at trial in the middle of presidential election. and frankly, if donald trump wins the election, when he becomes president, if he becomes president, he could dismiss this case because the doj will be in his control and pardon himself. so, this case going soon and going in march is critical for this case going at all. and it's important that the american people, when they go into the election in november, have the results one way or another or at least get to hear the evidence of this case. donald trump files a lot of frivolous motions. this is not one of them. this is a very important motion.
5:07 pm
it actually has some merit. and it has to be decided by the supreme court. it's never been decided before. >> and elie, how long do you think the court could take both to hear the case and also to decide? >> so, they have to be wary of course of that critical march 4th date. they have to get it done in enough time in advance. i think if we play this out -- they're giving trump's team until next week to respond. and i think they'll decide by the new year whether they're taking it or not. i think they'll give each side two weeks or so, and i think we'll have a ruling if they take it by early to mid february if i had to ball park it. >> what happens to this case and all the other cases if the supreme court rules trump is protected by immunity? >> it just depends, right? does he have absolute immunity or does he only have immunity for things within his job description or within the outer perimeter of his job? it really depends on how they rule and how they slice and dice this. but it wouldn't make any sense because there is the united states constitution article i
5:08 pm
section 3 clause 7 that actually talks about when -- if a defendant is -- if a president is impeached and convicted, it only applies to what will happen, they'll be removed from office. it says, nevertheless, it can then -- you can go to trial or charge him otherwise. and that's what judge chutkan found was the constitution specifically provides for a criminal prosecution of a president who commits a crime, even though it's not explicit. trump is actually using that same clause to say and argue in his favor that it means that he can't be prosecuted because there's an impeachment process and therefore it's double jeopardy. so, they're each using the same clause and interpreting it differently. and it's important for the supreme court to weigh in and determine which one will dictate exactly what happens here. >> there was also, elie, this separate filing, jack smith
5:09 pm
indicating a plan to call this expert witness. i want to read this. he was, quote, extracted and processed data from the white house cell phone used by the defendant and one of the individuals determined the use of the period on and around january 6th. and number four, specifically identified the periods of time the phone was unlocked and twitter application was open on january 6th. so, basically, they don't necessarily have access to -- phone. he was -- he's not somebody who sends a lot of messages, supposedly. what would they find from the phone, and why are they doing this? >> this is so important because cell phones have now become evidentiary bonanzas. when i started as a prosecutor 20 years ago, not everyone had cell phones. now they can tell you virtually about everything a person is doing. if we look at what we know from the reporting, this data will show prosecutors where donald trump was because your cell phone is always what we call pinging, meaning it's looking for the nearest cell tower. you can tell where a person -- you can geolocate that person with some precision.
5:10 pm
even though donald trump doesn't email or texts, he used dms reportedly on twitter. you can see drafts. you can see what other apps he was using. you can see photo images. this is now standard that prosecutors do this. >> they're allowed to look at this data? >> yes, they're allowed to look at this data either with consent or a search warrant. and then you send it to the fbi lab and they do what's called dump the phone. they do a forensic dig on it. and you can come up with remarkably specific data. >> would he have had to give up his password? >> he wouldn't have a choice. either he would consent or they would get a search warrant. in order to get in this way, he would have to give up his password or unlock it for them. for breaking news tonight involving the pformer president and the law. katelyn polantz joins us now with the exclusive. what have you learned? >> anderson, this is a story
5:11 pm
about a series of communications. there's a close-knit circle of people who worked at mar-a-lago, still work at mar-a-lago, under donald trump. and in the crucial period, there was the fbi search last august. and then an employee, a longtime employee, quite close to many people at mar-a-lago, leaves mar-a-lago having been a witness to many of the things that later appeared in the indictment of the donald trump, carlos deal vera, and walt nauta. this person, this former employee, is becoming a witness. and before donald trump and these other men are charged, there's just enough things that raised his attention to make it seem a little bit different because the amount of communication he was getting from not just carlos deoel vera and walt nauta, but trump himself, was unusual for him. these are his friends and people he is working with regularly.
5:12 pm
the things i have learned through multiple sources, as well as materials that i've gotten, have been able to have a bit of a insight into, is that this former employee at mar-a-lago, he was friends with carl carlos -- you should come to a golf tournament after he leaves working at the club. trump would like to see you. i think trump would really like to see you. he also talks to carlos and carlos says something about, perhaps you want to come back to your job. you could come back to your job at mar-a-lago if you wanted to. there's also some discussions between the two about the attorneys. they want to use attorneys that are within the trump circles, as carlos did. this former employee chose to use an attorney outside the trump circles. there's also an instance where he interacts with walt nauta, somebody he has a less close relationship to. and walt nauta did tell him, you could come back to work at
5:13 pm
mar-a-lago if you wanted, that walt nauta was also showing up at a gym with this man as well as carlos deoel vera, which was unusual. as this former employee left his job a couple of months after that fbi search before he becomes a crucial witness to investigators, donald trump gets his cell phone number, hadn't called him in quite some time, rarely called an employee like this, and calls him and asks him, why are you leaving? why are you leaving working for me? very possibly at that time knowing that this man could be a witness against him in this investigation. now, all of this may just be how people are exchanging conversations, how people have conversations, how their friends have conversations, what trump is doing when people are leaving. but it all is happening at such an interesting time that the special counsel's office did pick up on this pattern of
5:14 pm
interaction. they did look into it at one point in time. they were told about several of these instances. >> so, they knew about this? this was previously known to jack smith? >> this was previously known to jack smith. through the reporting i did for this story, it did become apparent that the special counsel's office did several interviews with this former employee. and that former employee did give them this information. and it clearly was something that they were keeping tabs on not just before the indictment of donald trump and others. but it is something that the prosecutors very likely would be looking for now at a time where everything that donald trump and these two other men are doing after their criminal indictment, now that they are defendants awaiting trial, there are many restrictions placed around them. it is the sort of thing that they can't do now. >> katelyn polantz, thanks. it's fascinating. more breaking news, what the texas supreme court just decided about a pregnant woman's appeal on an emergency abortion, hours after she left the state to get
5:15 pm
one. rudy giuliani in court how much he's to pay for falsehoods he spread about 2020 election workers. that and what he said after court when we continue.
5:16 pm
5:17 pm
5:18 pm
more breaking news. shortly before air time, the texas supreme court overturned a lower court and ruled that kate cox cannot get an emergency
5:19 pm
abortion. it came just hours after she left the state. her effort to end her pregnancy with a fetus with an almost-always fatal genetic defect and the state's effort to block it have already drawn national attention. ed la ed lavandera joins us now from dallas. what more do we know about her efforts to get an abortion outside of texas. >> reporter: remember everything came to a screeching halt on friday after republican attorney general ken paxton appealed the lower court's ruling of this temporary injunction that granted kate cox the legal right to get an abortion. that case was taken to the supreme court. because kate cox was waiting in legal limbo for much of the weekend, it is a hellish weekend. she remained laid up in bed most of the weekend. it was after that she decided today to leave the state, to go elsewhere to get the abortion. as you mentioned, just hours later, after that announcement was made, the texas supreme
5:20 pm
court issued that ruling. and essentially it was siding with ken paxton here in texas. so, the bottom line, anderson, if kate cox wanted this abortion, she had no other choice but to leave the state. >> ed lavandera, thanks very much. the man once known as america's major, rudy giuliani, today said he does not regret what he said about two 2020 georgia election workers. quoting, everything i said is true. a judge ruled what he said was false and defamatory. giuliani said what he said at the end of the first day of part two, the part in which a jury will decide how much to pay in damages for those falsehoods. >> it's disgraceful what happened. >> reporter: rudy giuliani spent the days after the 2020 election traveling state to state, falsely insisting the results were rigged. >> i don't have to be a genius to figure out those votes are not legitimate votes. >> reporter: in georgia, he focused his fire on two
5:21 pm
unsuspecting election workers in fulton county. >> a tape earlier in the day of ruby -- and one other gentleman. they should have been questioned already. their places of work, their homes, should have been searched for evidence of ballots, for evidence of u.s. deports, voter fraud. >> reporter: shay moss told the january 6th committee her life changed forever the dejany publicly spread conspiracy theories about her. angry election deniers showed up at her home, and ruby freeman was forced into hiding. >> i've lost my name and i've lost my reputation. i've lost my sense of security all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally, rudy giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, shay, to push their own lies
5:22 pm
about how the presidential election was stolen. >> i second guess everything that i do. it's affect my life in a major way, in every way. all because of lies. >> reporter: giuliani claimed moss and freeman plotted to kick ballot watchers out of state farm arena, the spot in fulton county hosting the ballot counting. he also pushed the false narrative they had brought in suitcases filled with fake ballots for biden and scanned them into the system multiple times. and giuliani described surveillance video from that day he claimed showed ruby and her daughter exchanging usv memory sticks containing a fraudulent vote count. >> when you look at what you saw on the video, which, to me, was a smoking gun, powerful smoking gun. quite obviously surreptitiously passing around usb ports as if they're viles of heroin.
5:23 pm
>> you don't put the votes under the table and in the middle of the night count them. we would have to be fools to believe that. >> none of that was true, was it. >> none of it. >> reporter: asked giuliani if shay described what her mom was handing under the table. >> what was your mom handing you on that video? >> a ginger mint. >> ginger mint. jessica schneider joins us now. to be clear, rudy giuliani has already been found libel of defaming shay moss and ruby freeman. >> a jury in this case is going to determine just how much he actually must pay. he already ohs them $230,000. that's for failing to respond to parts of their lawsuit. this mother and daughter, they're asking the jury to award them between 15 and $43 million. they say that's from the reputational harm they've
5:24 pm
suffered from giuliani's comments and emotional distress. you said tonight, even though he's been found libel for defamation, giuliani is still insisting that he spoke the truth. he was outside the courthouse claiming once again that these were engaged in changing votes, even though we know that's false. >> formerly america's mayor continuing to defame these people. coming up, israel said today it is dismantling hamas. we'll take a look at the fight on the ground and talk with an emergency coordinated with the group doctors without borders, who is inside a key hospital serving cecentral gagaza, where fightingng has intenensified.
5:25 pm
5:26 pm
you're probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. but what if we told you it's possible that comcast business mobile can save you up to 75% a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers?
5:27 pm
did we peak your interest? you can get two unlimited lines for just $30 each a month. there are no term contracts or line activation fees. and you can bring your own device. oh, and all on the most reliable 5g mobile network nationwide. wireless that works for you. it's not just possible, it's happening.
5:28 pm
loud explosions in northern gaza today, as israel's defense minister said that hamas' last strongholds there are surrounded. he repeated a claim last week that hamas is near a breaking point. he didn't cite specific evidence to confirm these claims. to that point, the idf released these photos today, claiming these men are members of hamas and islamic jihad who surrendered. alex marquardt has more on the fighting and the humanitarian concerns. some of the images are graphic. >> reporter: israel says after two months of fighting, it is still battling hamas in two different strongholds in northern gaza, where militants have held out. but israel claims they are now on the verge of being dismantled. one area is the jabalia refugee camp, where residents said dozens of civilians were killed over the weekend. since the fragile week long pause ended, israel has pounded
5:29 pm
the gaza strip and focused on the south and khan younis, the second largest city. as israel expands its operations, the number of civilians killed and wounded grows. the entire house fell on my head, and i was pulled from underneath the rubble, this woman said, we would have been better off dead with my children rather than living in this grim reality. an urgent appeal was issued by the idf this weekend for even more civilians to evacuate parts of khan younis. but it's unclear how many would have heard the orders. it isn't a guarantee of safety or medicine, food, and water. we were displaced from the north to the south for safety, but there is no safety in the south, this woman said. it has led to deteriorating, chaotic scenes. united nations secretary general warning that public order will completely break down soon. >> the situation is very challenging, but i think that the state of israel does much
5:30 pm
beyond our obligations by the international humanitarian law. >> you call the situation in southern gaza challenging. last month, you denied that there was a humanitarian crisis in gaza. do you acknowledge now that there really is a dire humanitarian crisis? >> what i'm saying is like i've said, the situation is very, very challenging. >> but it's not a crisis, in your opinion? >> as i see it, it's a challenge, it's a huge challenge. >> alex marquardt joins us now from tel aviv in israel. israel has now confirmed another border crossing will open tomorrow, not to get humanitarian aid into gaza. what's it for? >> reporter: yeah, anderson, israel's been very strict about inspecting all of the aid going into gaza. up until now there's only been one inspection point at one place between israel and egypt. now with kerem shalom opening, there will be a second inspection point. what that does is double the number of trucks that will be allowed into gaza.
5:31 pm
so, you're going to have trucks coming from egypt, so two israeli inspection points and going back to the rafah crossing. rafah is not built to deal with a large number of trucks. you have this enormous number of people who have fled to the southern part of gaza, and very, very fierce fighting. so, even with more trucks, the concept, the question of distribution is still very, very complicated. anderson? >> alex marquardt, thank you very much. i want to show you this video of a dramatic video in central gaza, a husband and wife trapped under rubble. you see medical staff and others lifting them out. the palestinian red crescent society said the couple's 22-year-old son was killed in the bombing. after the rescue, the couple is transported to the al aqsa hospital, which is one of the only lifelines for civilians in central gaza, where fighting has intensified since the truce. it's also where my next guest
5:32 pm
works. i spoke to her before air time. connection from inside gaza is rough, but we believe it's important to hear what life is like in the hospital right now. >> marie, what's the scene like right now at the hospital? >> it's chaotic. chaotic just doesn't quite describe it anymore. it's been -- honestly today has been a very brutal day for us. for us, as health care workers, because the hospital has received a very high number of patients through the e.r. today. >> i have read some of the things that you have seen, that your team have seen and heard. and i wonder if you could just talk about that. i mean, children, 5-year-old children talking about killing themselvesau stand what they're going through. >> the first day we arrived, hearing in al aqsa hospital, 40% of the children we provided wound care for, were under the age of 15. the first time we heard such a young child telling us that they
5:33 pm
just didn't want to live anymore was in the health center, where we were providing care in khan younis. and for more than ten days now, we had to suspend our operations in that very center because it was ordered to evacuate. >> in terms of your actual supplies, are you able to replenish supplies? do you have the supplies? do you have your own supplies? >> no. it's extremely difficult. supplies now are used as a bargaining chip. we cynically count the number of trucks that are going through rafah and border every day. but whatever the number of trucks that might go through rafah every day, it will never match -- the situation now, it will never match the number of people which are injured every day. it will never match the complete lack of access to health care in general, primary, secondary. just nothing is functioning
5:34 pm
anymore. so, it's extremely difficult to get supplies, but it's also extremely difficult to operate at all. >> how long are you going to be able to operate there for? if these conditions continue? >> it's very difficult to say. we're just going to -- we're going by the day. we try and plan the next day. it's the supplies. it's also how long will we have staff here. for how long will the hospital stay? it's difficult to stay? we know now there's absolutely no safe space in gaza. so, it's very, very difficult to say. >> and are you -- i'm not sure if you can talk about this. i'm not sure if you're concerned about safety. do you see hamas or other groups firing rockets from nearby your areas continuing into israel? rockets keep being fired. is that something you see there? >> well, we're pretty much locked in the hospital. so, it's also difficult for me
5:35 pm
to comment on any of this. but we do see an incredible amount of suffering from the hospital. we do see that people don't feel safe anywhere within gaza at the moment. >> i do need to say, i have spoken to an msf worker, who worked in gaza in a number of locations, and did say -- they wouldn't say so publicly -- but did say rockets were being fired very close to a location they were staying, outgoing rockets into israel. >> i mean, we hear active fighting going all over. so, i can't say -- yeah. i can't say things that i'm not witnessing from within the hospital. but, yeah, we do hear active fighting going on for, yeah, all over at the moment now. >> is -- i know -- i mean, msf has been very critical of what they say is indiscriminate shelling by israel.
5:36 pm
are you able to be critical of hamas if you saw things from hamas as well? >> i think we would be able to be critical of any -- and we are able to be critical of any civilian suffering. >> i'm not sure where else you've served, but, i mean, msf has -- i profiled msf workers around the world, in rwanda during the genocide, places, horrific conditions. how does this compare to other places maybe you have been or your colleagues have been? >> it's -- me, it's not possible to compare human suffering and human -- yeah, yeah. suffering all over. but i would say how it compares, our capacity -- rather our incapacity to operate here is quite striking. >> i appreciate your time. thank you. please be careful. >> thank you. just ahead, 117 hostages are
5:37 pm
believed to still be alive inside gaza. that's according to israeli estimates. one of them -- his cousin confronted the israeli defense minister we mentioned earlier in front of the minister's house. she e joins us n next to talalk her coususin, the hostagages, a that confrfrontation..
5:38 pm
5:39 pm
5:40 pm
the israeli defense minister
5:41 pm
yoav gallant, who said hamas is near a breaking point, was confronted by family members of two hostages on friday. it was an intense exchange outside his home captured on video. >> translator: if it doesn't happen tomorrow, they will actually die. your whole idea of pumping water into the tunnels, you'll kill them. >> translator: i am explaining something else. hamas is willing to speak to us only when we're applying force. >> translator: do you know what they eat? rice and a glass of seawater. how long can they live off that without sun and light? >> translator: we will make all efforts. >> translator: as quickly as possible so they don't return inside coffins but come back alive. >> the second woman you saw there shaking the hand of the defense minister is a woman named efat calderon. her cousin is still believed to be held in gaza. two of his kids, a 12-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl, were released two weeks ago during the truce.
5:42 pm
two more members of the family, an 80-year-old woman and her special needs granddaughter initially were believed kidnapped. but they were murdered. their remains were identified more than a week after the october 7th attack. just before air, i spoke to efat calderon. >> we just heard a little with your confrontation with defense minister galant on friday night. what did you make of his response? >> they don't want to stop bomb right now. they don't want to go back to negotiation with hamas. and they think that they need to go into gaza and continue, and i don't agree with it. >> do you think there is an inherent contradiction between the idea of neutralizing hamas and also rescuing hostages? can you do both? because it seems like you were saying there should be a pause
5:43 pm
or a ceasefire or a stop to the fighting. and the priority number one is the hostages. >> yes. i think it's the first priority, yeah. it's important to bring them back home. they're citizens that were taken from their beds in the morning of the 7 of october. they haven't done anything. the government needs to bring them back home. it's a first priority. of course. >> what do you think it would take to bring all sides back to the table to negotiate? >> other responsible person is president biden. he needs to make it happen, to bring both sides to negotiate again. i don't think they're going to do it by themselves. it's not going to happen. no way. >> there's been some reporting that one option the idf has
5:44 pm
considered is pumping seawater into the tunnels. obviously there's a lot of concern if hostages were in those tunnels. what did he -- what did gallant say to that when you pressed him on it. >> actually didn't say something about that. i told him, if you're going to do it, they're not going to survive. they're going to die. i told him, they're going to be dead. so, this is something you want? and he didn't answer. >> e ras and sa har were taken hostage with their father. they were released two weeks ago. how are they doing? >> they're not good. they're alive. they came back. we're really happy. but the picture -- father would come back. he's really loved when he's taking care of them, doing trips
5:45 pm
together. they're doing lots of things together. he's really part of their lives. for me and for them, it's not an option that he's not going to come back home alive. and they're not good. they're not good at all. there are 52 daddies in gaza hoping children at 12 years old, 16 years old. they're seeing their father in the kibbutz before they were taken to gaza. they've seen the terrorists hitting -- like he's injured right now. so, nobody knows what -- now. just, you know, we had some stuff from people that came back, and they eat, like, a
5:46 pm
piece of bread and a glass of seawater a day, something like that. how can you survive? the situation is very scary. every day crossing by is, like, i think they're asking if there has ever been a -- are we going to survive? i don't know -- the bomb can hit them there. they can be killed from our side, from the israeli side. it's really scary. >> i appreciate talking to you, and i'm sorry it's still under these circumstances. and i hope you get good news soon. >> thank you. thank you very much. coming up, the mysterious disappearance of alexei navalny and what russian officials are claimiming about it. i'i'll talk wiwith his dauaught nenext.
5:47 pm
5:48 pm
5:49 pm
5:50 pm
lawyers for jailed opposition leader alexei navalny say he's been missing for six days and didn't show up for court today. there was an electricity issue. navalny's legal team have made several attempts to reach him and they're worried about his health. in august, the 47-year-old krit ec of russia's president vladimir putin was found guilty of creating an extremist community and sentenced to 19
5:51 pm
years in prison. he was also serving 12 years in prison for other charges he denies. joining me now is his daughter, dasha. dasha, thank you so much for joining us. do you buy this idea that there were electrical issues? >> of course not. thank you so much for having me. it's very important that we keep this story on air. and i thank you for having me. i don't buy for one second that there have been any technical problems in the prison. there have been many instances where they have transferred him or just didn't want him to come out because whenever my dad has a court hearing, he uses that to speak up against the war or tell people to question the regime. and putin has actually just announced that he is going to be running for re-election in the coming presidential elections. and they don't want my father to speak up against that. >> do you know anything about his current whereabouts or even
5:52 pm
when was the last time you knew about his whereabouts? >> the concerning thing is that we have no idea where he is or what's happening or if he is even being transferred anywhere. the most recent updates that you got from his attorneys and from his spokesperson are the most recent updates that i got personally. what happened -- his most -- the most upto date on his health is that two weeks ago he fainted in his cell because they've been practically starving him. he's very malnourished. he's not been getting any medical support he needs. he's been asked to see a dentist and they're not providing him anything. he's being stripped of his basic human rights, as he's being held in prison unlawfully. he fainted in his cell two weeks ago, and they put him on an iv.
5:53 pm
but, you know, the iv can be anything. the iv can be just full of water filled with vitamin b-12. and they can -- it doesn't necessarily support his health. so, i'm very concerned for him. the last time the attorneys have been able to speak to him was six days ago. and since then, he's been m.i.a. we have no idea where he is. and the technical problems are just a front. >> how much regular contact do his attorneys or even you have with him? >> it's -- you know, when it comes to my father, there's no regular -- there's no regulations. the prison wards and the prison guards don't really follow any rules. we just take what we can get from them. i write him letters sometimes on occasion. the letters go through cens
5:54 pm
censorship, of course. sometimes it takes two weeks for him to respond. sometimes it takes a month to respond. i notice he doesn't respond to me about my certain concerns about my classes here in college, and i understand that he didn't get a certain letter that i wrote him because it didn't go through censorship. the last time i was in communication with him was a month ago personally. and the last time he was able to talk to his attorneys was a week ago. >> how do you deal with this, i mean, as a daughter? >> it's difficult. it's certainly something that i have had to work on dealing with over the past couple of years. but i know that my father is doing an incredible thing for not just -- to have -- for me, personally, his daughter, his child, my daughter, his son, to
5:55 pm
have a better country, a better life with all citizens of russia. and for all people around the world who are striving to have a better democracy. he's doing an incredibly noble thing and i'm proud to be his daughter. >> have you had any contact with u.s. authorities on your dad's behalf. >> no. >> no? if you could get a message to your father, what would you tell him? i assume he doesn't have access to any outside communication, does he? tvs or -- >> no, he doesn't have -- no. there is no such thing as tvs in prison. there is -- there are tvs in the russian prisons, but they usually just show russian propaganda 24/7, which is -- i know how much he hates watching that tv. but they're trying to really build the russian, sort of, love for country within the prisoners in the system. but if i were to get a message
5:56 pm
out to him -- i don't know. i just want -- i want the people, not just him, but i want others to know that i have hope and for other people to have hope that we can change the regime if we work together. and to talk to your friends and family and agitate them to be against putin. he is running for re-election and we need to talk about it. there is three months. the presidential elections are in march 2024. and you're in russia, vote against him and tell your friends and family to vote against him too. >> dasha navalny, appreciate it. thank you. we'll be right back. >> thank you so much.
5:57 pm
5:58 pm
5:59 pm
6:00 pm
that's it for us. the news continues. "the source" with kaitlan collins starts now. collins starts now. see you tomorrow. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight, straight from the source, the supreme court gettin