hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. >> i'm max foster joining you live from london. >> former president trump traveled to washington tuesday to watch arguments in a federal appeals court hearing over whether he should be shielded from criminal prosecution. >> i feel that as a president, you have to have immunity. >> significant new findings by investigators and airlines are putting the spotlight on the boeing 737 max 9. >> they have had over serious defects. >> on monday ecuador's president declared state of emergency, a day after the government said notorious gang leaderer escaped from prison.

live from london, this is cnn newsroom with maxs foster. >> it's january 10th. a federal appeals court is weighing arguments about whether donald trump should have im immunity from prosecution. his attorneys say he was carrying out his presidential duties when he questioned the results of the 2020 lx. >> but the justice department special counsel contends the former president was inte intentionally subverting the democratic process. trump attended the hearing in person. >>s this is the way they are going to try to win. it's not the way it goes. it will be bed lulam in the

country. it's a sad thing that's happened with this whole situation. >> we have more now from chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. >> reporter: former president trump traveled to washington tuesday to wash arguments in a federal appeals court hearing over whether he should be shielded from criminal prosecution. >> i feel that as a the president, you have to have immunity. >> reporter: trump was not required to be in attendance, but he was in court to website the three-judge panel express skepticism of his legal team's claim he cannot be prosecuted for his actions unless he's first impeached and convicted by congress. >> that's an official act in order to seal team 6. >> he would have to be and would speededly be impeached and convicted before the criminal prosecution. >> i asked a yes or no question.

>> there's a political process that would have to occur under our constitution, which would require pooemt and conviction by the senate. >> trump's lawyers argue when trying to overturn the 2020 election, trump was acting in official capacity. >> to authorize the prosecution of a president for his official acts would open a pan do are's box for which this nation may never recover. >> reporter: trump's lawyer also warned if this mere absolute immunity was not recognized, there could be a possibility of vindictive prosecutions against political rivals. >> he would authorize the tooimt of president biden in the western district of texas after he leaves office for mismanaging the border. >> reporter: the special counsel rejected these arguments noting the charges were brought in this case because of what they describe as extraordinary conduct. >> never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has with private individuals and using the levers of power sought to fundamentally subvert the democrat republic and the electoral the system.

>> reporter: and argued that po impeachment should photo be required. >> it could be scary if there within the a mechanism to reach that criminally. >> reporter: the court here is operating on an expedited schedule, so we expect a decision soon. whoever loses can then ask the entire scircuit to hear the cas, but that requires the maejty of judges to agree to hear it. there is the next step, which is appealing to the supreme court. they are weighing this question of ballot eligibility relating to president trump. the trump strategy is as much about delay as it is about the merits of the case. paula reid, cnn, washington. cnn legal analysts seem to be in agreement that trump's attorneys were facing an uphill battle with their claim of absolute immunity. here's elie honig.

>> trump's team took a surprising position that land them in the spot where they were arguing it could be that the president orders murder and c cannot be prosecuted. they invented this argument that first you have to be impeached by the house and convicted by the senate, and only then can you be prosecuted. and i want people the to understand, there's no magic to these formulations. we're in new ground here legally. it's not like there's some code had hidden in the constitution. what the judges are going to be asking is is this workable? if it does, you're out of luck. i don't think trump's lawyers are going to win this. >> the countdown is on to the iowa caucuses. now just five days away, republicans nikki haley and ron desantis will face-off at a cnn debateonight. while donald trump takes part in a fox ne town . >> a n c poll shows haley has closed the gap significantly she's now just 7 pois f the

lead. it shows desantis faing to fifth place. she's in iowa using a familiar line about her relationship with trump. >> i believe president trump was the right president at the right time. i agree with a lot of his poll the sits. but rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. you know i'm right. chaos follows him. we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and dpo through four more years of chaos. we won't survive it. you don't defeat democrat chaos with republican chaos. we also don't want to go through another nail biter of an election. we saw what happened this the midterms. >> cnn will be host ing the republican presidential debate tonight in des moines the, iowa. tune in at 9:00 p.m. eastern time here on cnn. >> amazing momentum that haley is building.

the u.s. government is fearing a partial shutdown and sources say house republicans are not yet ready to commit to a stopgap spending bill. congressional leaders agreed to funding levels this week. now negotiations will have to hammer out individual bills that fund different parts of the government. >> the number two senate republican say he's look ing ata march frame. john thune also says he will be able to reach a deal with border security policy to allow them to approve aid funding for ukraine and israel. they disclosed defense secretary lloyd austin had surgery to treat prostate cancer back in december. his prognosis is good. >> questions remin about why it took so long to notify the white house. oren liebermann reports. >> there were major questions about the hospitalization of secretary of defense lloyd austin and who knew what, when,

based on the notification that should have happened. part of those questions were about the medical condition itself. what was it that austin went through and what were the complications. those questions were answered. we'll get to that in a second. the other question were about the notification process that seems to have failed. why is it that president biden didn't know for three days after austin himself was hospitalized. those questions remain open. so what we learn today in a statement from walter reid where austin still is at this point, is that austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early december. he then went on december 22nd for a minimally invasive surgery to deal with the prostate k cancer. it was caught early. he was under general anesthesia and released the next day. it's unclear if anyone knew at this point that he was under general anesthesia, and that's significant because austin is the zsecretary of defense. even if his powers were delegated, his spoblts delegated to his deputy secretary of

defense, it's a significant statement, a significant happening that austin was under general anesthesia. he goes home to recover, and on january 1st, he felt significant discomfort. he had ab nominal fluids that had to be drained. he was moved into the icu on january 2nd. and that is where he began to recover. although he was still in quite a bit of discomfort. he was given medications. there was an infection there. that's since been cleared. he remains a the hospital now. doctors saud his cancers was detected early and prognosis is excellent. so that the good news for austin ask for his recovery. he'll assume full speedometers responsibilities on friday. then there's the notification of how that failed to notify biden himself and other senior

national security officials, including those in the pentagon and jake sullivan, the national security adviser. the pentagon says primary responsibility fell the to usa tun's chief of staff, but she was sick with the flu. what's unclear here is why no one else notified and carryied n the responsibility of notifying the president and others. one also came out today was how few people knew that uaustin himself had been diagnosed with cancer. even though biden knew three days after austin was admitted to the hospital that he was there, he didn't know until earlier on tuesday that austin had been diagnosed with cancer. so that was held very tightly, even from the pentagon and others who are at the top levels of the u.s. government. even the national security council acknowledging this shouldn't have been handled this way. now the pentagon promises to put out daily health updates. oren liebermann, cnn, at the

pentagon. conditions across much of the u.s. east coast are improving after being battered by powerful winter weather and storms. more than 40 million americans were under severe storm threats on tuesday with more than 300 storms reported in affected areas since monday. more than 1,400 flights were cancelled across the united states on tuesday. more than 600 have been cancelled today. that's according to flight aware. >> about 30 centimeters or a foot of snow and are set to receive more. weath high winds and tornadoes were this the southern states. and up the eastern coast on tuesday. and the national weather service says more than millions of people are affected by high winds. boeing's ceo is pledging complete transparency as they

work with federal investigators to determine what caused the alaska airlines plug to snap off mid-flight. >> he told staff the a the company act knowledging the mistake. pete muntean has the latest on the investigation. >> boeing's ceo says the company is acknowledging its mistake. that in a just released excerpt from tuesday. here's the issue. calhoun did not say exactly what the mistake is, if anything. now investigators are scrambling to get to the bottom of it. after friday's dramatic in-flight bleeout, significant findings by investigators and airlines are putting the spotlight on bolts in the boeing 737 max 9 designed to hohold th part that ripped off in place. known n as door plug, the natiol transportation safety board says it blew out and up triggering what investigators call a chaotic and loud explosive

decompression. in prepping their planes for faa mandated emergency inspections, alaska airlines and united airlines both report issues with door plugs on an undies closed number of grounded max 9s mechanics found some lose hardware was visible. united says it found possible door plug installation issues and bolts that need ed additionl tightening. investigators are searching for the door plug bolts from friday's incident, potentially key evidence. >> we have not yet recovered the four bolts that restrain it from its vertical movement, and we have not yet determined if they existed there. >> reporter: a max 9 door plug is secured by high air pressure inside the plane pushing 12 tabs on thehe door against matching tabs on the plane's frame. a total of four bolts at the top and bottom of the door can be

removed for maintenance, but without them, the door could slide out of place. >> by design if the bolts are there, it prevents the door from disengamg from the fittings and flying off the plane. >> early reads from 1282 flight data recorder detailed that cockpit alarm sound following the blowout a minute later. >> this was a really significant event. it was terrifying. >> the ntsb reached out to spirit aerosystem, the boeing contractor that builds the max 9 m fuselage lodge. airlines are waiting on inspection details from the faa. the faa says it's waiting on details from boeing. pete muntean, cnn, washington. up next, another day of high-stakes talks for america's secretary of state. the latest on his trip to the middle east. a surge of gang violence

sent ecuador spiraling into crisis. and why the nfl's most famous conspiracy theorist is refusing to apologize after suggesting he had ties to a convicted pedophile. a closer look at t that spat..

just into cnn, volodymyr zelenskyy is on a surprise visit to itlithuania. he will discuss the war in ukraine and nato. >> think will also hold a joint news conference a couple the hours from now. volodymyr zelenskyy says he will also visit astonia on this visit. secretary of state antony blinken has kicked off more high stakes talks today and is currently meeting with palestinian president. this comes a ta after he sat down with top officials including prime minister benjamin netanyahu. >> during his meetings, blinken stressed the importance of avoiding further harm to civilians. >> blinken says israel has now agreed on a plan to let the united nations conduct an a assessment mission to determine

what needs to be done to allow displaced pal sestinians to mov back home. he med clear the israeli government must move toward a two-state solution if it wants the help of arab partners to enep sure lasting security. >> paula hancocks is following developments for us. the meetings in israel, talks with palestinian authority, even though there's control outside gaza. >> that's right. the secretary of state will be speaking to the palestinian authority leader, and what we are hearing from blinken himself and u.s. officials is that one of the topics of conversation will be governance reform. so pushing the palestinian authority to change the way it operates potentially change those at the top.

what we know at this point is the u.s. would like them to play a role in the day after the war in gaza ends. to be able to govern the people of gaza, but israel said that's not going to happen. they don't believe the authority has the credibility or the power to be able to prevent a resurgence of hamas or other militant groups within gaza itself. so the problem for the u.s. secretary of state is he has been very clear to israel that a two-state solution is the only way forward to secure the support of arab countries around the region. but at this point, he need to figure out and so do those in the region away exactly the governance of gaza will be once israeli military and israeli soldiers pull out. we do know that he's 88 years

old. he's been in power for many years of the palestinian authority, which governs the west bank, not gaza. and he hasn't been taken part in an election since 2005. it is believed that he does not have the support of many palestinian people. so he has specified there does need to be governance reform and the government needs to look at itself and reform in order to gain back that credibility, that power in order to be able to put them forward to be able to govern in gaza. another issue that will likely come up is the violence that we have seen in the west bank. according to the ministry of health, at least 340 pale palestinians have been killed by israeli settlers since october 7th. >> thank you so much. now we turn to the red sea, where houthi fighters have launched a new bar religion of missiles ask drones.

american officials say the navy shot down 24 of them on tuesday. according to initial asse assessments, there were no injuries. >> the iran-backed houthis said attacks target commercial vessels with any link to israel. many of the ships attacked have no connection to israel whatsoever. ecuador's president declared a state of armed conflict and to neutralize drug gangs. >> this is a remarkable story. two police officers were killed tuesday in the city and at least eight people were killed in ecuador's largest city. >> more than a dozen stormed a tv station during a live broadcast. gunfire can be heard. >> police arrested all 13 of the gunmen is and said all hostages and staff at the network were alive. one of the tv anchors described the attack as extremely violent.

>> we heard something. we thought it was a fight going on outside the studio. but that wasn't the case. the producer told us be careful. they are getting in. they are robbing us. the studio doors are thick. they wanted to enter the studio so we could say when they wanted. i guess their message. then we settled this a safe place. when they entered, they asked for us to go live. they insulted us but we managed to get in a safe place. >> the head of the joint command of the armed forces says the future of the country is at stake. >> as a result of the violence in ecuador, neighboring peru announced on tuesday night it will declare an emergency along its northern border region. >> as cameras broadcast live, armed gunmen take employees of a tv station in ecuador hostage. the journalists are threatened and forced to the floor at gunpoint while viewers watch. the latest scenes of out of

control gang violence plaguing the south american nation. they are in shock. >> translator: all citizens are afraid. >> reporter: on monday ecuador's president declared a state of emergency a day after the government said notorious gang leader escaped from prison before his transfer to a maximum security facility. >> translator: the time is oaf for when those convicted of drug trafficking and murder tell the government what to do. >> reporter: the government implemented a curfew and mobilized a manhunt of 3,000 police officers and members of the armed forces to search for the escaped gang leader. the gangs struck back on tuesday raiding the tv station, taking police hostage, setting off bombs and attacking a

university. ecuador had long been spared the epidemic of violence carried out by drug cartels. but as the country has become a key shipment point for illegal drugs heading to europe and the u.s., local gangs partnered with cartels have battled each other and the government for control. in 2023, presidential candidate was assassinated after naming individuals he said were involved in the drug trade. ask then the hitmen arrested for his killing were murdered in prison as well. his running mate on tuesday called on the country to unite to defeat the gangs. >> translator: thts moment that ecuador stands and leaves behind political terrorism. >> reporter: the country's president declared several of the gangs terrorist organizations in order the armed forces to neutralize the

violence. police had arrested 13 gunmen and rescued the hostages. as the government declares war, there's no sign the gangs are backing down. more documents have been unsealed about sex offender jeffrey epstein and his relationship with former president bill clinton. details after the break.

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with storm ready wifi from xfinity. and see migration in theaters now. welcome back to cnn newsroom. >> i'm max foster. let me bring you up-to-date with the the top stories. attorneys for donald trump face tough questions from a federal appeals court as they claim the former president can't be prosecuted for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election. secretary of state antony blinken is meeting with palestinian authorities a day after meeting with israel's prime minister. an unseemed deposition of the late accused sex trafficker jeffrey epstein shows he refused to answer questions about his relationship with former president clinton. it was part of hundreds of documents from a lawsuit connected to epstein released on tuesday. cnn's jean casarez has more on

his rise in the financial world and his spectacular fall from grace. >> reporter: much of convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein's life remains a mystery from how he accumulated his fortune to how he developed ties to incredibly influential people. >> could you please give us your name. >> from former presidents bill clinton and donald trump, bill gates, david copperfield, and even the saudi crown prince, epstein associated with an elite circle. he owned lavish properties in manhattan, palm beach, florida, new mexico, paris, and a private island in the caribbean, according to court filings. he also owned at least 15 vehicles and had access to two private jets. born in brooklyn to working class parents, he never received a college degree, but that didn't stop him from getting a

job teaching mathematics at the dalton school in new york city. it was there he tutored the daughter of a chairman and got a job at the investment bank. he met a billionaire, who ran victoria's secret. epstein not in the '80s, he ban operating his own money management firms. in the early '90s, a british socialite would become epstein's lifelong companion. they woulds host billionaires and celebrities, but in 2005, epstein was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex and was criminally charged in 2006. epstein was charged with florida state prostitution crimes. he pleaded guilty in 2008, served 13 months in a work res lease program, and registered as

a sex offender. despite his criminal conviction, epstein and maxwell continued to mingle with the rich and famous and continued to recruit young girls for massages, a code word for sexual services, according to court documents. 11 years later, his legal troubles caught up with him again. epstein misappropriated vast sums of money from the family more than a decade ago. over $46 million, according to "the wall street journal." in july 2019, a federal indictment charged epstein with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. >> epstein is alleged to have abused dozens of victims by causing them to engage in sex acts with him at his mansion in new york and at his estate in palm beach, florida. >> reporter: while await ing trial in new york, epstein tied by suicide is denying justice for his victims and leaving so

many questions forever unanswered. jean casarez, cnn, new york. some of the bipgest tech companies are unveiling their newest innovations and gadgets at this year's consumer electronic show going on in vegas. >> around 60% of the fortune 500 companies will be there. setting the stage for deal making and the biggest tech trends of the year. >> reporter: it's one of the biggest trade shows in the world. 130,000 attendees are expected to come here. they may only see the inside of the conference, but that's okay because thanks to you can see the vegas sphere. now there have been so many big announcements from invidia, to enable better capability, from honda the launch of a new series

of electric vehicles, ultralightweight, will be available from 2026. and perhaps the most entertaining moment from a sony executive who managed to drive a pr prototype car on to a stage using a play station console. plenty of gimmicks, i hope that's not the future of driving. sony unveiled a mixed reality head set that's expected to be available laurt this year. no price tag on that, which brings me to one of the biggest it can announcements of the week by a company that isn't even here. apple is expected to go on sale february 2nd in the u.s. retailing at $3,000. aside from all the big announcements, plenty of gadgets and robotics, wearable tech, everything has a bit of ai. we'll be playing with all of that. check in with us.

come ing up, why a convicte january 6th rioter believes donald trump will pardon her if he's elected. hear from the so-called pink hat lady about what she does and does not regret about that day.

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it's been three years since the violence in washington and the people that stormed the capitol are facing hefty prison sentence. >> one woman is leaving behind children and grandchildren, but her sorrow about that doesn't translate into full remorse about the vie rite yacht. she spoke to cnn before heading to prison. >> how do you feel when you watch this? >> i'm more numb when i look at this stuff. it's surreal to me. look how angry i look. >> you admit this is a bad look.

>> teltly. you know how dumb i feel when i look at this picture? >> rachel powell, also known as the pink hat lady, is about to begin a five-year prison sentence for her role in the january 6th attack opt the cap capitol. she's a mom of 8 and grandchildren of 6 and spent most of the last three years under home detention. >> is this what you expected from a terrorist? how did i have time to plan an insurrection when my life is busy like this, making pie, raising ebay byes. >> why did you decide to go to d.c. on january 6th? >> how often does a president ask you to come to ratlly? it did you want happen. >> this goes from peaceful protest to you having an ice ax in your hand, breaking a window, trying to get into the capitol. how did that happen? >> it got violent. it was violent for awhile. i'm completely in pain.

and. >> because you had been hit? >> i was hit with a baton. i was grabbed and thrown. i had been sprayed. my whole body was on fire. i don't think there was rational thinking in my head at that point. i didn't have an ice ax. somebody put it in my hands. it was only the in my hands long enough to take out that window pane. yet i have opinion charged with a deadly weapon. >> somebody gave it you? >> i don't know who they were. i don't know where it came from. i don't know where it went. >> i grew up -- you probably did to of being told a police officer tellhouse to do something, you should probably do it. that didn't happen that day. police were telling you to go away. >> thithink never told us go aw. i never had an officer look at me and say you need to leave or i'm going to arrest you. >> footage of rachel seen here in the fur coat pushing against the police line and messages she

posted on social media condoning violence ahead of january 6th were used by prosecutors to argue that rachel wasn't just a peaceful protester who got caught up in the chaos of the day. >> do you regret that day? >> i regret -- i have a lot of remorse for ruining my family's life. i mean, in one day, i destroyed everything. really for nothing. i don't have remorse for attending protest. i don't have remorse for speaking out and saying that i believe the election is stolen. i do have remorse for break a window and destroying my whole family's life and for thinking irrationally and not realizing why toept you just sit down at this protest. >> a the federal judge convicted her on nine counts including destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding and engaging in physical violence in a reare

stricted building or grounds. >> zyme oir. it's my last weekend before i go in. i love my children so much. it feels like the last thing they can take from me, that will be the hard part. i don't deserve this. my kids don't deserve it. have we not been through enough? it's the last thing we have to lose is each other. >> prosecutors said rachel showed nothing but contempt for the court and legal system. >> you said that you feel dumb, set up, duped. >> yeah. >> why do you feel duped? >> with january 6th, i can cannot prove it was a set isup, but i feel like what if it was. >> she isn't alone. a quarter of americans believe the conspiracy theory that january 6th attacks was instigated by the fbi.

>> people watching this might say you were dupe d by trump an everybody around hum. the election wasn't really stolen. you buying into this has krruin your life. do you feel mad with trump? >> no. absolutely not. i don't. i have had problems with this election process for years and years. 15 years ago, if it there would have been protests about election fraud, i i would have gone to those. our whole country and everything about our lives is determined by voting. >> surely in the last three years, you have been locked in here. have you ever had a moment where you're like, maybe i'm wrong. maybe biden won the election. maybe i'm the conspiracy theorist. >> no. not at all. >> she's due to spend the next few years behind bars, but she

believes one man could change that. >> so this hat says rachel, we love you. three of of my sons met trump. you can actually see them one of the times here. trump was very encouraging to them. he's made it clear he's going to pardon us. >> there's a lot riding on this election. >> to thely. >> for the country, but also the personally for you. >> for me, it's huge. for me, it's like life or death. it's huge. >> if trump wins, you could get out of prison. >> correct. i will get out of prison. >> what makes rachel's story all the more incredible is she didn't even vote for trump in 2016. she says it was with covid and lockdowns and restrictions on movement during 2020 that she became particularly politically engaged. of course, that journey brought

her to the capitol on january 6th, where she was found guilty on nine counts for her role in the january 6th attack. she began her prison sentence in a federal prison in west virginia on tuesday. back to you. the man at the center of a conspiracy theory about the insurrection has been sentenced to one year probation for his actions that day. james epps never entered the capitol on january 6th, but he says his goal was to get as rotunda as possible it send lawmakers a message. >> prosecutors say epps attended to deescalate conflicts between rioters and police multiple times, but he still claims antifa members were responsible for violence that day. action in the nba and the grizzlies, highlights are next.

welcome back. in the nba, the memphis grizzlies are proving they know how to take care of business without morant. they cruised to victory tuesday, 1they led with 32 points. irving scored 33 for dallas. on to one of my hometowns, orlando, the timberwolves held on to first place in the western conference. all scorers with 28 points. final score. aaron rodgers has refused to apologize to jimmy kimmel after

baselessly suggesting kimmel was an associate of jeffrey epstein. brian todd explains what led up to this dispute. >> the nfl's best known conspiracy theorist doubles down. new york jets quarterback aaron rodgers on tuesday refused to apologize to jimmy kimmel for publicly suggesting without any support that he might be named in documents identifying associates of the late accused sex is trafficker jeffrey epstein. kimmel has not been named in any documents. on tuesday on espn, rodgers not only didn't apologize, he denied implying that kimmel was in the epstein documents. >> as long as he understands what i actually said and that i'm not accusing him of being on a list, i'm not stupid enough to accuse you of with zero evidence, that's ridiculous. >> but here's what rodgers said last week about the epstein documents. >> a lot of people, including

jimmy kimmel. >> which kimmel threaten eed to sue rodgerss and secured him on his show. >> he got two a's on his report card. they were both in the word aaron. >> reporter: kimmel th felt he needed to counter his insinuation about being in the documents. >> my name wasn't on it. it won't ever be on it. i don't know jeffrey epstein. i am not on a list. i was not on a plen or island or anything ever. >> on tuesday he described the back story of a feud saying kimmel mocked him as a conspiracy theorist and antivaxer. >> he says that i'm an overly concussed wacko. the host on tuesday allowed rodgers to deliver another five minutes of vaccine denyism. this adds to a list of controversies rodgers has created for himself, not only

going off on conspiracy theories about the covid vaccine, but also once misleading the public about being vaccinated himself. >> im he later admitted he was not vaccinated and considered himself immunized by wholistic medicine. >> i realize i'm in the cross hairs of the world right now. >> one analyst says the four-time nfl most valuable player, one of the most famous aleets on the planet, has a following that makes his remarks even more consequential. >> all these things together turn aaron rodgers into somebody who is dangerous in our society. not dangerous in a cool way, but dangerous in a way that actually hurts our ability to collectively grapple with the problems that face us. >> he suggested the media is trying to cancel him saying that's the game plan of the media. a spokesperson for espn, which televises the show, declined to comment about the remarks. brian todd, cbs cnn, washington.

"early start" is up next here on cnn. we'll see you tomorrow.

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