because a lot of these names have already become public, either through the trial of ghislaine maxwell, epstein's lontime girlfriend who was convicted of helping him sex traffic meaner as well as a numbers and names given to news organizations and other information that has come out over 209 years that epstein has been atloejd have been involved in this sex trafficking operation, so we're starting to see some of these names come out. virginia giuffre has been very public accusing prominent politicians, having been forced to have sex with them as well as allegations against prince andrew. she reached a settlement where he agreed to make a sizable donation. we're going two through the documents to see if there's any new names or documents, but a lot of this information has been public and that's why the judge has agreed to unseal it. wolf? >> we'll see what happens. kara scannale. to our viewers thanks very much for wap.

i'i'm wolf blilitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. ♪ >> "outfront" next, trump appeals to the supreme court. the former president asking the nation's highest court to overturn colorado's ruling banning him from the ballot. his legal team says what happened on january 1 was not an inrex. also tonight on the drink of a global war after explosions killmore than 100 people in iran. the president there pointing the fing they are at the united states. is the war in the middle east about to get much bigger? and we are live tonight in iowa as nikki haley and ron desantis face some tough questions about days to go before the caucuses here. who has more momentum? let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. we're live from des moines, iowa, where cnn will host back-to-back town halls tomorrow night days away from the republican caucuses. we'll have much more on that in a moment, but we have breaking

news tonight at this hour. former president trump tonight asking the nation's highest court to keep him on the ballot in colorado filing that appeal. the former president appealing to the historic ruling by the heist court in colorado which deemed him an insurrectionist and held that that made him ineligible to hold public office according to the state's 14th amendment. according to the filing trump's lawyer is right. the colorado supreme court erred in how it described president trump's role in the events of jer 620, 21, it's not insurrection and in no way did donald trump engage in an insurrection. separate from the issue of being on the battle, to focus on the crucial point, they are saying it's not an insurrection. his lawyers going on to write in the days leading up to january of and on that day hisself his only explicit instrikesed call for protesting peacefully and to support our capitol police and

law enforcement and to stay peaceful and remain peaceful. here's trump leading up to january 6. >> but have you to fight hard and then you fight hard and you hit them back. we have to fight? now is the time to fight harder than ever before. if you don't fight to save your country with everything you have, you're not doing have a country left. >> on the day of the insurrection here is donald trump in his own words. >> fight. fight, fight. fighting, fight. so i'd fight. they would fight. fight, fighting. we fight. we fight like hell. fight like hell. >> trump mentioned the word fight 16 times he said the word fight in the minutes before his supporters stormed the u.s. capitol. now today's filing by trump thrust the supreme court into having to resolve an unprecedented legal issue and it's one that will affect not only the election in colorado but also entire election itself.

take a look at meat. last week the secretary of state there announced trump would be cut from the maine primary ballot. trump is appealing that decision as well and another challenge to trump's eligibility for office is now before the top court in the state of oregon. in a moment i'm going to speak to the former trump white house attorney ty cobb but i want to break with the breaking news with paula reid "outfront" live in washington. paula, this appeal coming in the colorado case which was the crucial canary in the coal mine for this, right, perhaps led to then what happened in meat. what can you tell us from your reporting about the appeal and what happens from here? >> so the way the trump team has framed this, they are asking the supreme court to return to voters the ability to choose the candidate they want. they argue that the colorado supreme court's decision to remove trump from the ballot was the first time in this country's history that the judiciary has prevented voters from selecting a party's primary candidate. now then they go on to advocate for their interpretation of the

constitution, specifically section 3 of the 14th amendment, the part that has been litigated now across multiple states and says if you engage in an insurrection you can not hold a future office. they insist that it doesn't apply to presidents because it doesn't explicitly say that it does. they argue to the high court that if you believe that this applies to presidents, have you to believe that the drafters decided to bury the most visible and prominent national office in a catch-all term. they insist that this reading defies common sense and is not correct. as you know this, question, this divided the courts even been the state of colorado so that's a question that's right for the supreme court. they also argue that the mechanism for determination eligibility it is coming and not the state and attacked the secretary of state's based on her assessment of a candidate's qualifications, so now all eyes are on the supreme court. today's appeal increase the

pressure already on the high court but that coupled with the numerous appeals that we're seeing here, we really need the high court to weigh in and give clarity to all 50 states on all of these issues. it's very much expect that had they will weigh in. what they will say, erin, is anybody's guess. >> all right. thank you very much, paula, with the breaking news. now let's go as promised to ty cox the former white house trump lawyer. you've had a chance to read through trump's filing this, appeal we knew was coming. you've had a chance to see the arguments and details that they make. you know, you thought originally this could be a 9-0 ruling in his five. got whether he's an insurrectionist. it was whether he can remain on the ballot. do you think the supreme court, now you've read this appeal will keep him on the colorado ballot or not? >> yes, i do. i think -- i think the way that the court will analyze this, they will not -- i don't think they will reach the issue of was it or was it not an insurrection

sadly. i mean, as you highlighted earlier, you know, can you say fighting 16 times and peacefully twice and, you know,

the amendment as written does not mention the president. the term officer of the united states is used three times in the constitution. and the way it's used in article 3 says that anyone who is an officer of the united states who has taken an oath to support the constitution, that's -- that's an oath that comes out of article 3. the president's oath comes out of article 4 and is not an oath to support the constitution. those are the precise words used in article 3 and in -- in

article 3 of the constitution and in article 3 of the 14th amendment but the words that the president says are to protect and preserve and defend the constitution, so the oath is different and the two other times that it's mentioned in the constitution are the appointments clause and the commission clause which effectively say that the president appoints or commissions all officers of the united states, and as recently as 2010 justice roberts made the point in the free enterprise versus the public accounting oversight board that people do not vote for officers in the united states, so i'm -- i'm -- i'm sad to say on this one that i believe that the president's lawyers are correct constitutionally. other people disagree.

there was a battle of law review articles. originally bill bode at university of chicago who i know and respect, and his colleague professor paulson, upof st. thomas wrote a law review article articulating the theory that was adopted in colorado and subsequently in maine, but there's been equal scholarship on the other side and professor steven calabrese who was, know, he's -- he's -- he's no liberal defender. he founded the federalist society after being an enthusiastic supporter of the bode article and concluded reluctantly that loathesome trump was to him, he had to agree that article 3 did not apply to the president and that trump would have to be beaten at the ballot box. i think that's where the supreme court lend up. i think it should be 9-0 because

the issue is relatively straightforward. on the other hand, it could be, you know, it could be 1-2, but i don't think it will be much more split than that. >> well, you know, and i hope people will replay your answer here because did you lay it. there are many say it's circular. you scoff if you say you can't have the president as an overs but it's important for people to hear all the details as you lay them out. we do have some reporting separate from the issue of being on the ballot, the issue of immunity itself and the doj case january 6 against trump. a source tells cnn he'll be attending next week's court arguments on presidential immunity and his side is saying he can't be prosecuted for official acts as president. you were among more than a dozen attorneys and former government officials who signed on to a friend of the court brenchings an amicus brief filed in the d.c. circuit court of appeals to argue against trump's claim immunity, you think he can be prosecuted, so why do you think he's choosing to be there

himself in person? what's behind that, that we've just found out. >> i don't think it's the advice of his lawyers. i think it's, you know, his ego and his perception that, you know, and his all powerful imagination as the man behind the curtain, he wants to be in front of the curtain for this one and thinks that it may well -- may well influence the judges in connection with their questioning and determinations, but i think he's dish think he's drastically mistaken. i'm not sure why he would be there, but he has the absolute right to be there. he's -- he's the party. and i think that -- i think that those arguments are frankly so frivolous that there's a striking possibility that the d.c. circuit will rule promptly and decisively against him in connection with his claim that

unlike the principle forever honored in america in the last 250 years or so, that no man is above the law, you know, that contrary to that belief that he is, and he's wrong. >> all right. ty cobb, thank you investment we appreciate it as always. and next two bombs in iran kill more than 100 people. tonight calls for retaliation. iran blaming the united states begging the very serious question now for all of us of whether we're on brink of a much bigger global war. and 12 days until the iowa caucuses ran desantis ramping up his attacks not against the front-runner donald trump. >> i think he needs to go after trump, and i don't see him doing it. >> plus, breaking news. dozens of documents connected to accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein were just released. going through them now, possibly including the identities of some of his very well-known associates.

tonight on the brenk of an all-out war. calls for retaliation tonight are growing after more than 100 people were killed. 100 people killed today by two powerful explosions in iran and the supreme leader there is warning there will be a harsh response to the attack. it happened at a sumoni honoring

the former iranian general qasem soleimani. now he was a crucial revolutionary guard japan assassinated by the u.s. under the trump administration four years ago. the iranian president made a point to point finger at israel for the attack. do not doubt you'll pay a he have price for the crime and the crimes you have committed. this comes just a day after an explosion in beirut killed a senior hamas leader, hamas blaming israel, israel, of course, not taking direct responsibility and the levered hezbollah vowing response and punishment over the death. the foreign minister is saying they are desperately trying to hold hezbollah back from a war and the entire regson a tippeder box with fears that the war could spread there and far beyond the borders of israel and gaza and nic robertson begins our coverage outside of tel aviv. when you've got 100 people dead around the grave of a general that they revered, it was a bomb.

people showed up to help. there was another bomb, a horrific event. what more are you learning about who is behind it and what retaliation could actually occur because of it? >> yeah. and the biggest death toll in this sort of strike inside iran in years and years and years. well, the iranians have been pointing the finger at israel for and as you were saying they are vowing both from the supreme court leader and the president vowing a response, a harsh response. israel has not said anything about it at all. the united states has said that they believe it's a terror attack. they have no independent information about it and they have no reason to believe at all that israel was involved, and that's the u.s. position and that very much israel's silence says the same thing. what does that mean? how could the response come? iran, you know, calculates carefully what it can do, where it can do and how it can do it. don't forget leadership is smarting from just ten days ago,

one of their senior irgc generals was killed in an air strike in syria, and they believe that was, again, israel responsible for that strike, so they really feel that israel is digging them. they have been cautious to cope themselves away from the fight in gaza, but this perhaps if it doesn't tempt the leadership it will certainly create upward pressure from hardliners, particularly within the irgc to want to see some action. >> yeah, absolutely. when have you 100 people, dead, you know, it can change the calculus in the country. i want to go to our political and global affairs analyst. you've been warning about the potential for a much bigger war, and here we are. you've got 100 people dead, as nic was saying. many, many years since we've seen such thing in iran, so shocking that country. they are blaming israel and israel's silence, of course,

doesn't mean much. they are silent when they do something, silent when they don't so iran can level any charges it wants. how closer are we tonight to a wired war? >> good evening, airmt first about the terrible explosion in iran. at least as far as i understand from speaking to both israeli and u.s. officials this was not an israeli operation. israel had nothing do with this -- with this thing, and by the way, unlike the killing of the iranian general in damascus a couple days ago which was an israeli operation, today's explosions had nothing do with israel. still, if you look at what's going on in the region and not necessarily in iran but the two other hot spots connected to iran, first, lebanon and secondmen. those are two major hot spots that can blow up at any minute. in lebanon we're all waiting to see whether hezbollah will retaliate for the assassination

committed by are the other day and inmen we're waiting to see if the u.s. and its allies will finally do something militarily against houthi attacks on shipping lanes in the red sea. >> and it just escalates and escalates. the beirut strike that killed the hamas leader that we were talking about a moment ago, two u.s. and up israeli official so one person saying israel was behind that. israel hasn't taken responsibility and then in beirut, the foreign ministry says they are trying to retain any control over the situation and trying to hold hezbollah back which could jump in and -- and defend here and escalate this further. so where does that go? >> i think the israelis are waiting to see how hezbollah will retaliate. they think hezbollah is going to lauren long range mills at israel and then the question is what's the target?

is the target tel aviv? that's one scenario which takes you to an all-out war in puppets, but if it's another target, let's say a military base, that's a different scenario that you can somehow contain, so i think we need to see what sal yeah, the leader of hezbollah is going do. we five a speech a few hours ago. department really give any hints about where he's going other than the fact that he says that there will be a retaliation and the challenge for the biden administration will be tomorrow when president biden's envoy will be in tel aviv for talks with the israeli officials on what the biden administration says it's trying do to get some sort of a diplomatic initiative to calm down tensions between israel and lebanon. >> all right. thank you very much. appreciate your time, and i want to bring in seth jones, senior vice president at the center for strategic and international studies. seth, when you hear the reporting, look, the attacks on iran, kill more than 100 people, i mean, incredibly braisen, and

you heard the reporting that said israel was not sop, either they were or they weren't or maybe somebody wants it to look like it's them, right? it's unclear at this time. it's been four years since that general was killed and iran obviously had promised retaliation then. do you take their promises of retaliation now that have you 100 iranians dead seriously? do you think that that's real and soon? >> well, erin, what's interesting is that israel has conducted attacks in iran, but they have just generally been very precise. they have assassinated nuclear scientists. they have assassinated some al qaeda and other terrorists operating from cities like tehran. what the israelis have not done is this kind of indiscriminate attack which was -- it's what was perpetrated. >> it was a suitcase bomb in a car, right? >> yeah, and it killed indiscriminantly. anybody in the vicinity, women, children,man, whoever was there. that strikes me as unlikely very

different from what israel has done. there are other groups that have conduct an indiscriminate attacks, "moulin rouge" deep, the islamic state, they have conducted indiscriminate attacks so it's one thing for the iranians to publicly tie this attack to israel and vow revenge, but i do think that the iranians are likelying if to be very careful on the response particularly if they assess it was not an israeli assassination. >> not what they say but what they actually assess. you've got lebanon and you've gotmen and the gaza situation. you have a world increasingly divided over the war between gaza, hamas and in this you're writing a "wall street journal" op-ed because you sound the alarm on china and you say that china is on wartime to thing.

wartime footing and the united states is not. you look when the united states was on wartime finding the percentage of our gdp that the united states was spending on our military triple quadruple what it's spending now whereas china is right now investing, and you pointed out in some very sobering news. you say specifically china is preparing for a possible war with the united states. what do you see? >> well, i think that the big picture here is that we've got a very delicate international security environment. i mean, can you throw in the constant war in ukraine right now, but we have elections in -- in mid-january in taiwan. it is likely at this point that the dpp is going to win that election. it's not the party that the chinese government -- the chinese communist party wants. it's the pro-taiwan party there. will almost certainly be in the period between the elections and when the dpp leader gets inducted some kind of chinese

demonstration of force. we've seen variations along these lines. so i -- i think what -- what the u.s. has got to manage right now is it's got this spreading conflict that we've just heard in the middle east. it's got a constant barrage of russian attacks against ukrainian targets and cities with u.s. air defense systems, munitions and as taps, and now very -- we're on the verge of potential escalation with taiwan elections in -- in asia. that is a very difficult situation for any u.s. president now to be in. >> and -- and terrifying when you look at the shortages because of support in these other conflicts that the u.s. has even in munitions and supplies. seth, thank you very much. seth jones, and next we are live in iowa where republican candidates, are of course, right now hustling. every single vote matters. up state, it's the first state

it matters. some folks are wondering why haley and desantis are not taking on trump as much as each other. and hundreds of pages of documents tied to the accused sex offender jeffrey epstein just released. we're going through them. 200 names may be in them may be in there includingng some veryr well-k-known peoplple.

welcome back to a special edition of "outfront." we're live in iowa tonight, and you're looking at grandview university in demiles per gallon, the site of moy town hall tomorrow with the republican presidential candidate nikki haley. haley and ran desantis are facing tough questions today from voters. there are just 12 days to go, 12

days until the iowa caucuses and so much sat stake for the whole country and who has the momentum here. jeff zeleny is out front. >> time is running short in the race for send place. florida governor ron desantis. >> what you're table do in iowa is going to reverberate all across this country. >> and former south carolina governor nikki haley. >> they don't see the momentum we have on the ground the we've got in iowa. we've got in new hampshire. >> in the only locked in a birth fight for the republican nomination but for the right to confront donald trump head on. >> their collision course escalating for months has left trump in a front-runner's lane of his own much to the frustration of republicans like chris grars who saw desantis today in iowa. >> i think he need to go after trump, and i don't see him doing it. >> garcia asked desantis why he had gone soft on trump, a question the governor took issue with. >> i've articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail. >> when he caught up with garcia he said he wanted to see

desantis fight harder. >> he's going after nikki haley quite a bit in ads, what do you think about iginla? >> that fine but nikki heal isn't the leader, you know, donald trump is, so that's -- that's where it needs to be. >> 12 days before iowa opens the voting in the gop primary, trump holds a commanding lead, yet he's emerged nearly unscathed, at least in the onslaught of attack ads from his rivals. departmentis and two allied groups supporting his candidacy support $7.6 million targeting haley in iowa last year compared to less than $2100,000 for trump. haley and her leading superpac spent $10 million targeting desantis and $1.5 million at trump. it's a dizzying back and forth with allies of haley mocking desantis >> you can't beat trump by trying to be trump. >> and belittle the management of his campaign and superpac. >> in a world of chaos the last thing america needs is another dumpster fire. >> supporters of desantis casting haley as a flip-flopper.

>> don't believe a thing nikki haley says. she doesn't. >> and falsely tying her to big-name democrats. >> just like hillary clinton, nikki haley shouldn't be president. >> has trump been the beneficiary of this back and forth between haley and desantis? >> i think he's been the beneficiary at some point because obviously the former happen the has gone offer president desantis a lot. >> all year long. >> called him names and now the same thing as well. a christian leader who endorsed departmentis says it's difficult how to confront the former president who yields such support. >> healy is closing strongration $24 million in the final quarter of last year, more than double her previous quarter. >> i've decided we need a governor as a republican nominee. >> doug stout has studied all the candidates sand still torn between desantis and haley.

>> bad that it's devolved where they both seem to be fighting for second of they are not fighting for send of they are fight for president. >> that's amazing to look at the numbers, the numbers that they spent going after each other versus going after each other and you mentioned the haley fundration numbers. what do they really look like in context? >> it's extraordinary. $24 million over the october to december period when she was gaining ground in those debates, twice as much as the quarter before and three times as much as the springtime. almost impossible to imagine that she would end the year and start this year with so much more money and a stronger financial position than ran desantis. his super pac is off the air here because of the money difference so now he has a money limit coming in. all that matters is she and her allies are advertising so much, but the bottom line to all of this, they are in each other's way, and they are trying to sort of jostle with one another and so many voters we talked to even today said they are still deciding between desantis and

healy. >> desantis and haley. >> that's where you've got the split. >> that's why we talk about second. >> after spending so much time here in iowa and throughout the campaign, many of the gop hopefuls have repeatedly turned to a popular conservative radio show host and former state senator who has his finger truly on the pulse of republican iowans and here's what some have said to radio host jeff angelo to win over his listeners. >> for so many they respect what he did, thought that he was the right president at the right time, but they want to lack at some other options. they don't want just trump and biden. they want to leave the drama and status quo of the postand do agree with me. you don't have to be 80 years old to serve inform d.c. >> i would represent a big vitality of the executive that we sort of need. i'm also somebody that would be eligible to serve of two terms. donald trump would be a lame duck on day up. that's a huge liability in terms of actually being able to get all this stuff done.

make no mistake. i'm running to be the nom northeast. i want to beat president trump and my fellow competetives in -- competitors in the primary. think it takes someone from the next jen station. >> jeff angelo is host of "need to know with jeffing a low," the radio show. all of them talking to you again and again and again and you, obviously, talking to your sglurs yeah. >> and former state senator here. if this is a race for second place which it appears to be. >> i agree that. >> you agree with that. everything that you're seeing and hearing, who do you think hats edge in that number two? >> i think ron desantis has the edge right now in the number two because he got governor kim reynolds' endorsement popular in iowa and not only did she get behind a podium and say i like governor desantis and here's access to my turnout machine and, if it's going to be a cold blustery night in iowa on january 15 turnout becomes real,

real important and i do think ron desantis has access to the superior turnout machine. >> interesting to watch jeff zeleny lay out the news. all the money, like ten times the amount being spent taking on haley or desantis by the other one compared what they are doing with trump. >> right. >> and desantis rejected criticism from an iowa voter saying, come on, why don't you take on trump himself. i want to play more of that exchange. >> okay. >> in my viewpoint, you've gone pretty government. >> what -- what do you think -- you know, i've articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail. i just think there's a narrative -- the narrative is this. what the media schwantz they want republican candidates to just kind of like smear him personally and kind of do that. that's just not how i roll. >> all right. now that voter interestingly is still backing desantis so he's still backing him despite his

criticism, but from what you see, is there something here, is there a point that desantis should be going harder after trump? >> yeah. iowa voters are very save, than guy is absolutely right. it's crazy that we're repeating history again. when trump was campaigning the first time around in iowa, nobody wanted to touch him. nobody wanted to say anything negative because they were afraid of upsetting his supporters. they thought somehow magically he's going to falter and then i'll pick up his supporters. that doesn't happen magically. >> sounds like deja vu. >> it's deja vu all over again. you absolutely have to go hard against him because he's the leader. he's the front-runner. he's the person -- you actually have to pull voters away from him. you have to say, look, i know you're supporting trump but here's a reason to support me instead. no, they have destroying haley and departmentis destroying each other and hope they are pick up that vote. >> and i think after the campaign is over and you're talking to departmentis people they will say to you, erin, you know what, we really made a mistake we didn't go hard against trump. if you're going to come at the

king, you better not miss. if you want to win go all in. tell us why we shouldn't vote for trump and instead you're going after the fellow second place finisher 29 points back. it makes no real sense. >> well, we'll see if they listen, and we'll see what happens when we get behind sight. great to see you and good see you here in demoist. hosting back-to-back town halls here tomorrow night. i'll be back here in demiles per gallon with nikki heal live at 10:00 and kaitlan collins will heat town hall with ron desantis at 9:00 eastern. next after this, we will be talking about republican lawmakers taking a trip to the border. a group of migrants crossing into the united states just feet away when this happened. a quarter million illegal crossings in the month of december alone. live at the border next. and break, hundreds names of documents that name jeffrey epstein's prominent network of friends, we're coming g through this and possibly hundredsds o incrcredibly welell-known nanam.

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all of our communities. the situation here and across the country is truly unconscionable. we would describe it as both heartbreaking and infuriating. >> the visit turning up the pressure on the biden and democrats to do something. i mean, after all, there were a record 225,000 border apprehensions last month alone. that's a quarter million in one much. you can do the multiplication and that number is the high nest more than two decades. ed lavandera is out front live from eagle pass, texas, which has really become the center of this current crisis. ed, can you tell us more about what you saw alongside speaker johnson and the other lawmakers at the border today? >> well, you know, you showed that moment where you had two different groups of migrants who just happened to show up on the texas side of the rio grande as these republican lawmakers were moving around here this afternoon. you know, it's really hard to kind of say what was behind all

of that, but definitely clearly like, you know, a very odd situation especially given that over the last few days and week or so the number of migrants crossing no eagle has has dramatically fallen off so there are a number of reasons for that. there are natural ebbs and flows these migration patterns and we've heard anecdotally that immigration checkpoints from the mention cap side have become much more robust so that could play a part in preventing migrants from reaching the texas bothered as well. we also heard, you know, a lot as we talked about eagle pass as being the central point in those lawmakers and more than 60 of them turning up here today trying to ratchet the pressure on the biden administration who hit back saying this visit today really is hamstringing negotiations for a border bill that republicans and democrats are trying to negotiate on the senate side. >> so ed, you know, there are

major questions about whether house republicans will accept any kind of a border deal, anything being negotiated in the senate right now. senator schumer, of course, came out and saber rattled to speaker johnson, but what did speaker johnson say about that today? >> reporter: well, he spoke with cnn's jake tapper just a few hours ago. we can may a little bit about that. it gives you a sense of where these house republicans and many of them kind of echoed similar themes what the speaker was saying to get kind of a sense of where they are right now. >> you would turn down a compromise that was not 100% of hr-2? >> jake, i'm not going to answer hypotheticals because they have not sent us any suggestion yet. this is not about sending more money down here. it's about change the policy, and the white house seems not understand that. >> reporter: so erin, we spoke with several house republican

members after the tour here this afternoon, and they all kind of said a similar thing. hr-2, what jake was referring to is the house version of a border bill, and many of the republican members are very skeptical that anything that comes out of the senate go as far as what they have passed in their own bill and many people are willing to shut down the federal government over this. erin? >> wow. all right. and, of course, that is -- that is now -- we're counting down to that, too, us a talk about the political cycle and another shutdown looming. ed lavin drag, as you see the barbed wire along the bothered to the. next, breaking news. potentially explosive documents tied to the accused sex offender jeffrey epstein. these have just been released. going through them and some. names in there, possibly some of his very famous associates and many of them. new details about what may have cause that had deadly runway crash in japan. wewe have a spspecial rereport our wiwill ripley y this hour.r.

breaking news. we've got newly unsealed documents, 40 in total. this is coming out. these are all related to the accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein, and they were released just a few moments ago. as we go through them, we understand they could reveal as many as 200 names that had previously been redacted, names of incredibly well known, influential people we did not know prior to this. i want to go straight to shimon prokupecz, who's been going through the documents. you're talking about 40 documents, hundreds and hundreds of pages. what are you finding so far? >> reporter: the team is going through this certainly. and a lot of this relate to this

lawsuit that was brought in 2015 by one of the victims against jeopardy seen's former girlfriend, ghislaine maxwell, who was convicted back in '21 for sex trafficking and essentially aiding jeffrey epstein in the sexual assaults of these women. so, this lawsuit was brought back in 2015 against ghislaine maxwell. and just now, the court is unsealing all this. and really it's because of the fight by victims and journalists, in this case, specifically "the miami herald," which has been fighting for this information. and finally today, we're first seeing these documents. and as you said, it's hundreds and hundreds of pages. and it all relates to depositions and other court actions that the victim in this case, virginia giuffre, was doing. she was doing stuff to try to get information to substantiate her allegations. so, there's a lot of documents here, and as you said, a lot of names, some names that will be

familiar to people, some that may not be. but, as you said, we are continuing to go through those names, and we should have more information here shortly. but this is a big moment, erin, for the victims in this case, for those who have followed this case for so many years, wanting transparency, and finally now it appears that we have some of that. and it's not over. this is going to go on for a couple of days. >> absolutely. as you point out, 40 documents and going to be more and more. but, you know, people have wanted this transparency, and i think we're all grateful we're finally getting it. as shimon goes through this, the team goes through this, he's going to come back on. this is a mountain of information. shimon, thank you. shimon and his team back on this looking. meantime, we have new details about that fatal runway crash in japan. and next, we're going to tell you what we learned today. our will ripley with exclusive reporting of whether there was a very specific and deadly mistake. we'll be right back.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you. tonight alarming new details. we are learning red warning lights were not working when a japan airlines jet landed and crashed into the coast guard plane. this comes as we got new transcripts, which are showing air traffic control had instructed the coast guard plane to, quote, taxi to point. a minute later, passenger plane

was cleared to land. the transcript does not show the coast guard plane was cleared for takeoff. will ripley is "out front" with new details. >> reporter: at catastrophic collision in the heart of tokyo. captured from this man's window seat, as flames engulfed his jet. "honestly, i was scared to death," he says. "at landing, i felt strong shaking. when the plane stopped, in less than a minute, the cabin was full of smoke." that black smoke billowed through the cabin. in this video, the voice of a young child. "please let us off quickly," he says, a polite plea for help. flight attendants forced to use megaphones to direct passengers. the onboard communication system broken. with just seconds to spare and some emergency exits blocked, the crew of 12 successfully

evacuated 367 people, including eight infants. everyone survived, with barely a bruise. the investigation of tuesday's harrowing crash focusing on four crucial minutes, 5:43 to 5:47 p.m. japan airlines flight jl516 making its final approach over tokyo bay, cleared for landing at haneda airport, just as a japan coast guard turbo prop was pulling onto runway c, right into the path of the much larger air bust a-350,900. the explosion and fire ball fully engulfed both aircraft in a matter of minutes. the airliner's fire resistant materials and emergency exits allowing vital time for nearly 400 people to escape the inferno. at least five coast guard members died. japan's ministry releasing the

transcript of those final four minutes, suggesting possible miscommunication between air traffic control and the planes. [ speaking in a non-english language ] cockpit audio confirms the tower telling to taxi to a holding point, giving the commercial flight clearance to land. the transcript and audio raising key questions. why was the coast guard plane in the wrong place? why did the japan airlines pilots fail to see the other aircraft and abort the landing, especially on a clear evening, with good visibility? mangled metal and melted plastic, a reminder of just how bad it could have been. and what is left of that airliner still sitting on runway c right now. just minutes ago, a team of investigators pulled up to the scene, including technicians from airbus, who are helping the japanese investigators comb throug