simply say, thanks. david stern was 77 years old. our deepest condolences to his wonderful family and friends. may he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >> outfront next, what is trump trying to hide? the details in hundreds of redacted emails about ukraine revealed and point the finger directly at the president. plus bernie sanders emboldened after raising huge money going after joe biden like he has never before. how did a businessman about to go on trial manage to escape japan? just get out of the country? was he smuggled out in a musical instrument case? let's go outfront. and good evening. i'm erin burnout. out front tonight what president trump didn't want anyone to see, hundreds of emails now seeing

the light of day and tonight we can read what the president and his attorney, bill barr, didn't want you to ever read. the website we viewing the email which barr heavily redacted. when i say heavily, i mean heavily. look at this one, that is the two and the signature and there is the email. the entire email message is in black. it's the same with this one, some parts of some addresses the entire email itself in black, and then look at this one, same thing. it goes on and on, but now just security has seen what is behind this sea of black redactions and one of the things we are learning is that a top official emailed that the decision to withhold aid to ukraine came straight from president donald j. trump. "clear direction from potus to continue to hold." that's what was written in one of these emails. that email in fact was sent august 30th, likely after trump's own defense secretary, national security adviser and secretary of state had personally and unsuccessfully

lobbied trump to release the aid, according to the "new york times." and this hour, the two most powerful democrats, senator chuck schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi demanding to hear from witnesses after learning what's in the emails. schumer calling the revelations a "devastating blow to senator mcconnell's push to have a trial without the documents and witnesses." but as of tonight mcconnell, who was just hours from breaking his nearly two-week silence about trump's impeachment trial showing no sign that's going to budge on calling witnesses. mcconnell's standing by trump, protecting the president and his men, despite an influential member of his own party even before news of these emails broke said she is still open to the idea of witnesses. >> i am open to witnesses. >> that was susan collins. we're live on capitol hill. manu you have no reporting on mcconnell and what his plans are tonight. >> reporter: democrats are demanding documents to be produced as part of the senate

trial, mitch mcconnell is saying he will not agrow to that up front, neither documents or witnesses he has to wait and make that case. i am told he's prepared to move forward with the agenda of the republicans or pushing as the president's trial is in limbo, including pushing forward the u.s./mexico/canada trade agreement and confirming judicial nominees as the debate over how to move forward on the empeachment trial continues and nancy pelosi the house speaker withholds the articles of impeachment, the house does not send them over to the senate. i'm told he's unlikely to go to the floor to try to begin the senate trial, if those articles are not sent over, and nancy pelosi saying she won't send over those articles until she understands what the senate process is going to look like. now, the source who was familiar with the discussions that occurred behind the scenes says the moment seems doubtful there is going to be a deal cut between chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell, which means this partisan class could persist for some time.

it could ult mallien up to nancy pelosi to decide when to send over the articles of impeachment if mcconnell and schumer can't cut a deal over what that trial should look like. the push from democrats and the aftermath of the revelation today is to see those documents, and i just talked to one republican senate, joni ernst, up for re-election in iowa. i asked her whether or not she needs to see documents as part of the senate trial. she side-stepped the question and would not answer directly. she just wants to see when the trial will begin because she's planning herself a 99-county tour in iowa and she's calling on pelosi to send over the articles so they can plan the trial in the senate and she also joni ernst wouldn't say whether she wants to hear from mull vain yea and bolton, saying that was the house's job to pursue that. nevertheless a lot of uncertainty on capitol hill when that trial will take place as republicans plan to move forward

on other matters including their agenda even as the president is demanding the trial to happen immediately. >> the battle lines are drawn and this will be epic. tonight democratic congressman elliot engel joins me, and here is how they looked redacted, and now we're learning a bit about what's in some of these emails including one on august 30th from a senior administration official saying the aid was withheld, the clear direction from potus, from the president of the united states. okay, so that's in had email but there were other witnesses who said as much. is what we're learning here different? does it move the ball? >> well, it moves the ball if you're someone who wants the truth. it doesn't move the ball if you want to cover up the truth, and that's the same pulling and tugging we've been watching now for weeks and months. senator mcconnell out to want to pull up the shades and let this fresh air and sunshine blow iob

wanting to get to the truth. everything we've heard today just corroborates what we've known. >> the president of the united states, his attorney general did it, redacted, the department of justice. is there anything that would justify this kind of -- >> no and i think it's an insult to congress and insult to the american people. >> would it be all right at this point if nancy pelosi says she's never going to send over the articles of impeachment, if mitch mcconnell doesn't do what he's going to do, continue with business as usual and refuse to entertain discussion of documents or witnesses? >> well, at some point, i think what nancy has done is frankly been brilliant, because otherwise it would just be business as usual, no matter what was done or not done and that's certainly not beneficial for the american people. look, i think that senator mcconnell ought to realize that he's not a part of the defense

trial, that he is a juror, and his collusion with the white house is something that should be alarming to everyone, and particularly when we're now getting all this feedback, coming back, showing very clearly that the president knew about it. it was his decision to do it, and how much can you cover it up? >> and of course, as we've said, the "new york times" has reported you had pompeo, you had bolton. they went to convince him to change his mind and he refused to do so in bedminster in august in terms of the aid itself. you said recently chairman engel, "i don't think we want to hold it for too long" referring to the articles themselves. so this is a delicate act, right? is it possible speaker pelosi may be forced to give those articles to the senate and not get anything in terms of witnesses? >> well, i don't think we should hold it too long for holding it's sake.

we should hold it until we are convinced there could be a free and fair trial. the american people have a right to know, and these games really need to stop. i don't think holding it in itself is something that we wanted to see, but holding it in terms of trying to get a fair trial, which the american people are entitled to see, i think she's right on the money. >> so today, i don't know if you saw this, josh holley tweeted "dems said impeachment was urgent. now they don't want to have a trial because they have no evidence. in the real world if prosecution doesn't proceed with case it gets dismissed so monday i will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeach. for lack of prosecution." you could have people like mitt romney say i don't have witnesses either. do you think this is a risk it gets dismissed? >> no, i think it can go the other side as well, only four

senators on the republican side needed to join with the democrats, to continue the process. i think that's more likely to happen, because republican senator knows that he or she is vulnerable, i don't think they're going to want to voluntarily be part of a coverup. >> there have been significant international developments you look at baghdad and north carolina. the president tweeted this whole situation, the issues overseas, despite all the great success the last three years. i am having to constantly defend myself against the do nothing democrats and their bogus impeachment, scam, bad for the usa!" he had this relationship with kim jong-un who now says he wants to expand his nuclear arsenal and nuclear force, another missile test could be in the offing. is that partially the fault of

impeachment? >> oh, no. look, the president decided that kim jong-un was going to be his buddy and his friend. >> love letters. >> love letters and all we've gotten back from it is nothing. i mean, the one thing, if north korea got rid of all its nuclear weapons, it would still know how to create new ones, so even that wouldn't be good, but at least it would show some kind of good faith on their part, and we also have our allies there, japan and south korea. so the president has gotten nothing out of kim jong-un. it's been back and it's been forth and it's been in and it's been out and nothing of concrete has happened. so i just think the whole thing is an embarrassment and we ought to let kim jong-un understand that we are not going to just countenance to his nonsense. >> i appreciate your time, chairman engel. thanks so much and good to see you tonight. outfront next, president trump wining and daning with his friends at mar-a-lago. so what are his friends telling

him about the impeachment trial, because what they say matters so much to him. plus joe biden announcing his biggest fund-raising haul to date, but still trailing by millions and millions, two major competitors just weeks before those crucial iowa caucuses. and president trump spending one in five days at his golf courses last year. tonight, his allies respond. your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow's attack. if you fail, it will be a massacre. we need to keep moving! come on! [ suspenseful music playing ]

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many lines put in black. why? why? well it was redacted by the justice department and the attorney general, bill barr. kaitlan collins is outfront. democratless are seizing on the new emails. there is an incredible amount of black across all of them. that among other things that could be very important were put in black where no one could see them. is the white house concerned at all now about the reaction to what bill barr and president trump wanted no one to see? >> reporter: well, so far, erin, from the people we've been speaking with, we haven't heard a lot of concern about these redactions and what the response is going to be. we know in the past the white house has said pretty conclusively they feel they have a lot of leeway when it comes to what they're redacting in the documents but you're already hearing from not just democrats but also constitutional law experts and other experts on the matters about these redactions, about why it is the white house or the trump administration rather is redacting these

documents amid this congressional oversight, this impeachment inquiry you saw playing out over the last several months. what these documents show is that there were repeated warnings from the pentagon about the hold on this aid, made pretty clearly and repeatedly to the white house and when you read the email from michael duffy saying this aid is going to continue to be withheld, it was at the clear direction of the president and he wanted it that way, that is what your officials and democrats are going to be looking at over the next several days. what is also interesting the email the same day it was sent the president had a meeting with mark esper and mike pompeo about the hold on the aid, when it was about roughly two months into the hold and how long that had been going on. what you're seeing is despite the fact there were repeated warnings from the pentagon that didn't change the white house's mind more specifically the president's mind, even though we know based on other reporting, reporting from the "new york

times," there were times when there were meetings with the president, pompeo, several officials, trying to convince him it's in america's best interests to release this aid, yet the president held firm in his belief he did not want to release that money. it's only going to raise new questions from here, erin. >> thank you very much, kaitlan reporting from mar-a-lago, where the president still is on his break. former nixon white house counsel john dean, congressional reporter for "the washington post" rachael baig and joe lockhart, president clinton's press secretary during his impeoplement investigation. john dean, let's start with the facts here in terms of how this was handled by bill barr, any good reason for him to redact all the emails and i want to make it clear to people, because i'm showing the ones at the top of my pile, this goes on for hundreds of pages. any good reason for barr to do that? >> redaction demo speaks for itself. it's way beyond the norm, and

erin, the criteria for what can be redacted under freedom of information act request is well defined, and i hope that they'll go back in to court and try to presshe department of justice on this abuse of power that we're seeing here. >> joe, what do you think? is this what you would have tried to do or is it clear bill barr would have known that this could be abuse of power? >> no, listen, i think it shows how corrupt the justice department has become under bill barr. there's no way, you know, on this planet that janet reno would have done this to protect bill clinton or any other attorney general. this is deep corruption. again, you know, there is executive privilege, but that doesn't apply to people, you know, in omb talking to someone in dod. it applies to the president and his most senior advisers.

so you know, there is no other reason to do this except for to cover up a crime. >> i mean, rachael, you just heard chairman engel saying that he thinks this is significant. i will say, you have this omb official saying this is at the clear direction of potus. okay, that's damning. it does corroborate what we already heard from the congressional trial, right, where there was, you know, some sort of video conference and someone from omb said we're holding this up at the direction, the explicit direction of the chief of staff, mick mulvaney, which of course makes it clear it came at the behest of the president. so do these emails move the ball? does this help democrats at all from your reporting get republicans on board with meeting witnesses? >> yes, democrats i'm talking to on the hill basically feel this is going to strengthen their demand that mcconnell allow certain witnesses from the white house to come forward, to be summoned in the senate trial.

these documents show again that president trump was very much the mastermind behind the decision to hold up this aid as they were asking for these investigations of joe biden and ukraine, and not only that, the emails also show that there was a concern about the legality of what was going on. you saw a top pentagon official saying have you consulted with the lawyers on this? what's going on? what is the it was basically told by -- these people were told by top omb official, budget officials to keep quiet and traditionally congress in the constitution has the authority to appropriate money and the executive is supposed to merely carry that out. this money was appropriated. so those pentagon officials were concerned about the legality of this. i think this once again is just more evidence and more examples of a lot of further questions that democrats want to get to the bottom of in the senate trial. whether or not mitch mcconnell will let them is a whole other issue. >> john dean, there's concern

about the legality from the get go, and it is expressed among multiple people, and then you have bolton and pompeo and esper. they go to bed minister where the president is vacationing and they try to get him to release this aid. they do everything they can. the defense department has done their tests and studies and says it needs to be released. is there any doubt that the president of the united states did not know that there was a wide belief that what he was doing was illegal? >> i cannot envision him not knowing. who knows what goes on in his mind and what he listens to? but he was certainly told. he was certainly informed and it was certainly illegal. this is something that happened back during the nixon years. they established the law then that you could not withhold spending by congress. so it's well known publicly. i mean, i can't imagine a man would become president and not know that. so there's just no justification for this. >> joe.

this comes as the president has been at mar-a-lago. we just saw kaitlan, right? he's still there. he's been there for two weeks and he has been ranting about impeachment and the democrats. more than 60 tweets or re-tweets about this topic and people that have been visiting him there that he's been apparently spending a lot of time with are people who are central to this, rudy giuliani on that list and then of course, alan dershowitz who has been advising him in some sort of unofficial capacity as well as friends in the media that he has. what does this tell you about what he's going to do, this defense strategy? >> well, it tells you that there really aren't adults left or around and i'm sure john had the same experience and we worked pretty hard about making sure who got access to the president and who didn't and both rudy giuliani and alan dershowitz have big legal problems right

now. rudy is being investigated by sdny. and dershowitz has sexual assault of minors and these people wouldn't be allowed near the president and it's one of the reasons why we are where we are. the president likes to tell him how great he and he likes people who like to live in his glow and he gets really bad advice. >> what are you hearing from the bottom line in the senate. susan collins saying she's open to witnesses. you heard chairman engel say he's trying to flip the coin on this and say, look, we just need four republicans onboard and we could force witnesses, right? as opposed to saying the republicans could dismiss this. are you hearing that any republicans in the senate are willing to go out on a limb here, take on mcconnell when they come back tomorrow and say we want witnesses? >> well, erin, i think that that's still an open question and one we're probably not going to learn the answer to this 

week. you're hearing from moderate republicans susan collins and lisa murkowski who are open to witnesses and who are upset by mitch mcconnell who is coordinating with the white house and they want to be seen as objective jurors who are thinking free of white house influence, but the problem is next week, what you will see is all these republicans latching on to the notion that nancy pelosi still has the articles of impeachment and both moderate republicans who have said they're potentially open to witnesses have also expressed concern about the process that the democrats are going through. and so, in a way, democrats might be undercutting their own, you know, strongest argument for bringing witnesses forward because by holding the articles of impeachment in the house they've epiabled this republican talking point that they're playing politics and trying to keep trump from being acquitted and it's really going to be next week who can make their point loudest, but i think the question is whether for moderate republicans will join with democrats and that's not going

to come until after the opening statements are made and the opening arguments are made and at that point i think we could potentially see some. it's too early to tell. >> it's pretty fascinating and if you get to that point, and the articles have been handed over without there being a deal which is fascinating to imagine how this will play out. thanks very much to all of you. if mitt romney was ever looking for a moment if it was his moment to stand up in front of the country and be the person who the country looks to, this is it. now going after joe biden and this is personal and harsh and the multimillionaire with hundreds of millions escaping, literally escaping japan before the trial. today the mystery over how he did it and there are developments and interrogations at this hour. we'll be back. we made usaa insurance for members like martin.

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new tonight, nasty bernie sanners going after joe biden like never before. this interview was just published in "the washington post," in it sanders says, quote, it's just a lot of baggage that he takes into the campaign that will not create

energy and excitement. he brings into the campaign a record that is so weak that it cannot create the excitement and energy needed to defeat donald trump. wow. it comes after sanders, and his campaign announced today that he raised $34.5 million last quarter. it sounds hugs and. it is a record amount raised so far from donors this election. jeff zeleny is out front live. he's outside a sanders event in musketeen, iowa. jeff, it's aggressive. it's a nasty, nasty going straight at him. sanders feeling emboldened now that he is coming into the iowa caucuses with all of this money. >> there's no question he's feeling emboldened and you can see behind me here, bernie sanders' bus is on main street and we're just a couple of blocks from the mississippi river. bernie sanders is intentionally holding smaller rallies and smaller town hall events to meet these voters one-on-one, but

those words in the washington post interview are sharper than anything he's said to date publicly. we'll see if he repeats those words as he campaigns across iowa and more importantly, we'll see if he puts money behind him and makes television commercials and ads and that's why this money is so important. $34.5 million and he can go to his donors again and again and again. average contribution some $18 or so and that's different from a lot of candidates. joe biden turned a pretty impressive fund-raising number and $23 million doubling his online fund-raising and money was never going to be an issue from the candidates and it shows that this race is going to go the long haul. it is going to go the distance. bernie sanders is in this race as long as he wants to be. he certainly is emboldened by his grassroots support and erin, those words so striking. we did not hear him say that during one of the many presidential debates. he is saving that message for right now, increasingly talking about the iraq war and nafta.

other votes in joe biden's record and you can feel the intensity here and one month and one day before the iowa caucuses, things are going to start escalating here in terms of the rhetoric. so far, no comment from joe biden and we'll see if he says anything as we are with him tomorrow. >> thank you very much. i want to go to the national political reporter for "the new york times" and a political analyst for us and abdul al sayed for the governor of michigan who supports bernie sanders. okay. look, obviously huge money for bernie sanders and i mean, look, in politics, this is being nasty. he's going straight for it. he's got baggage. doesn't have energy and excitement and his record is so weak and can't create energy? >> wow. it's a direct attack from senator sanders and one, he's making that closing argument in iowa, as we see the last month approach before votes and he's going after the front-runner and trying to hit him and the areas that he sees as beneficial and particularly nafta and the iraq

war and some of the votes in joe biden's past. >> right. >> it signals what senator sanders thinks about the rest of the field. he is looking up at joe biden saying i don't have to look behind me at senator warren. i don't have to look behind me at put buttigieg, the former mayor of south bend. i think that's an interesting window into the sanders' strategy. buttigieg and sanders think they're strong in iowa. what bernie sanders is doing is trying to nationalize the race and make it between him and joe biden. >> there are many things that are fascinating about all of it, but among them, this fund-raising number coming from the same corner where bernie sanders had a heart attack which left him wondering what kind of campaign he would be able to run. here he is. >> think we're going to change the nature of the campaign a bit. make sure they have the strength to do what i have to do. >> i mean, he was visibly subdued after his heart scare, but things have completely changed now, abdul, in a

campaign where age has been a discussion for him and joe biden as well. is this age and health completely a non-issue for sanders. is this what the monies? >> anyone watching the debate knows that senator sanders is as vigorous as they come and he's been up and down all over the counterry. what i think is astounding is the $34.5 million comes from people like teachers, people in the armed forces, people who are folks that we want to come out and vote and that's what i think is so critical here. what he's shown is you don't have to go to billionaire fund raisers and ask folks to max out to you. what you can do is have a ng stro, solid message that brings people together. his message has always been not me, us, and that us comprises of the very folks who we need to come out and vote. who did not come out in donald trump 16 wand it is about what s

that you envision after trump if you want to beat trump. >> so in issuing big donors he rules out elizabeth warren and the campaign, and that's how she's run her presidential campaign. she has not put out her numbers yet. okay? >> we know she's searched in the polls. she's got it. sanders especially with his help and he'll cede to her. not only has that not happened, he's come down sharply in the polls. how big of a threat is she now? >> one of the key moments that you're talking about is the early october period where senator warren was surging in the polls and actually crossing joe biden in some national polls and it seemed for some as if she was going to be the progressive challenger and overtake senator sanders and his base and that's also around the time in which he suffered that heart attack. what we have seen since then has been a reversal of fortune and not only has the progressive root rallied around senator sanders. we've seen senator warren take

some incoming particularly on health care or on rounding out that progressive message that was that important october debate and the cnn new york times debate in october where she was getting repeated questions about whether she would be able to pay for it. she's never recovered in the polls since that point. i think there's still a month to go. we know iowa breaks late and by no means is that saying this senator warren has done and they've come out this year looking strocker and it brought us back to the point where it's biden at the top and sanders looks like the top challenge. >> abdul, it's amazing. you have what sanders is saying about biden saying he doesn't have energy and excitement and a weak record being incredibly aggressive. we do have the biden fund-raising numbers and $23 million. his biggest fund-raising quarter so far, but $10 million behind bernie sanders, but he's still at the top of the polls. how frustrating is that to you? >> he doesn't have the same

money so his money in the bank is even less, right? which is significant. is that relevant in the polls or not? >> i think voters are just now starting to really take a keen look and what we found in this race over the course of the past year, to be frank, is that folks kind of are interested in who they know about and joe biden has been vice president of the united states for eight years previous. until people know who he is and that's just an i.d. issue and that's where you'll see the spragdz. the the fact that the front-runner is raising more than $10 million less, it says something about the surge that senator sanders has left in him. i want to make a point. i thought there was a fantastic article in the times about medicare for all. i love senator warren, but to be fair, she tried to split the middle on medicare for all. a lot of people say it's a

lieuer. it's rell not. >> all right. >> i appreciate both of your time. put beat gej, huge fund-raising and who he's ruk elbows with. >> we have to bring together all of the resources that we can. >> just how did a ceo worth $120 plus million under 24-hour surveillance possibly going to go to prison slip out of japan, escape and avoid trial with no one knowing about it? did he really get in a musical case?

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tonight, mayor pete is no longer a mayor. after eight years as the mayor of south bend, indiana, he is out of office and he is not stopping his momentum when it comes to his race for the white house. abby philip is out front. >> reporter: pete buttigieg kicking off the final sprint to the iowa caucuses with a massive $24.7 million raised in the last three months. but some of his rivals are taking aim at how he raised that cash with the help of wealthy, well-connected donors. >> i'm not going to define my campaign by who we exclude or who we reject. this is a moment where we've got to bring together all of the resources that we ask. >> so far the top tier candidates say they've posted their best fund-raising numbers yet, but two of the biggest fund-raiser, senator elizabeth warren and senator bernie sanders say they don't need the rich. >> i do not sell access to my

time. i don't do call time with millionaires and billionaires. >> sanders' campaign manager taking the fight to buttigieg. >> so if you have pete buttigieg and joe biden telling you they need to cow toy at the altar of the rich, they are wrong. we are up ending those notions and totally in a grassroots way. >> warren hammering the former mayor over his fun raising including this one in a wine cave. >> billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the united states. ♪ >> some of the most well-connected celebrity donors and fund raisers that backed the campaigns of hillary clinton and barack obama in the past are now backing buttigieg. like actresses gwyneth paltrow, mandy moore, comedian ellen degeneres and dreamworks co-founder jeffrey katzenberg. actor kevin costner even campaigning recently in iowa.

>> a man of this moment. >> buttigieg arguing that every dollar available should be used to beat donald trump in 2016. >> what i'm seeing is that we can't go into this fight against donald trump with one hand tied behind our back. >> other democrats say it's time to change the way employ qcampa funded. they point to this one by a buttigieg fund-raiser. the fund-raiser h.k. park writing if you want to get on the campaign's radar's now after he's flooded with donations after winning iowa and new hampshire you can use the link below for donations. a buttigieg spokesman said the campaign did not authorized language, but called it ridiculous to read the pitch as anything more than asking potential supporters who may be interested to join our campaign before caucusing and voting begins. buttigieg firing back at his critics. >> according to forbes magazine i am literally the only person

on the stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire. >> now, erin, out here on the campaign trail we typically hear this issue of campaign done eggs and where they come from from young voters and pete buttigieg's voters are older which can explain there are no slowdown of these kinds of fun raisers, particularly as we are a few week away from the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary. >> thank you very much, abby. authorities questioning pilots in connection with carlos ghosn's escape from japan. new pictures emerging of the businessman partying on new year's eve while on the run. plus jeanne moos on amy klobuchar calling out trump for breaking a key promise. >> there won't be time to go golfing all of the time.

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detained in turkey and on french tv tonight a photo of the fugitive partying on new year's eve in beirut appeared there with his wife and friends, wine, having a grand old time after he fled. he escaped house arrest in japan. ghosn, the former head of nissan, mitsubishi and renault was under 24-hour surveillance without a passport. no passport. somehow, though he managed to escape japan. fly around the world with stops and is now flaunting his escape. it is an incredible tale and tom foreman is out front. >> this >> how can ghosn be gone? that is the mystery rocking the world as investigators dig through the house where japan supposedly had the country's most famously accused man under strict surveillance. the multimillionaire fugitive allegedly slipped out of that house and out of japan right under their eyes, flying into turkey and on the lebanon where he issued a defiant statement.

"i have not fled justice, i have escaped injustice and political persecution." ghosn was the visionary leader of nissan and mitsubishi, then he was charged with massive financial crimes, which he has denied. his three passports were taken. his use of phones and computers was heavily restricted. international travel was forbidden, and japan's immigration system is state-of-the-art. so how did he vanish? the speculation, like ghosn, is running wild. lebanese reports say he was smuggled out in a huge musical instrument case like the kind for a double bass following a private performance by an ensemble at his home. reuters and the financial times say he was whisked away by a private security firm. indeed, a flight tracking company did spot a private plane hopping along his alleged escape route. and authorities in turkey have detained airport worker, including several pilots. japanese media say he used a spare french passport to escape.

french officials say they don't like to get involved in such matters, but also, they won't extradite him if he shows up there. bottom line -- >> armed with motivation to escape and backed by personal fortune, even the mow high profile suspect can avoid justice by paying the right people. >> reporter: there is speculation that ghosn' wife plotted his escape for months, but he says no, i alone arranged for my departure. my family had no role whatsoever. however he slipped away, for now ghosn is now believed to be in this house in lebanon where authorities say they won't extradite him either, that is if he's really there at all. this is a huge embarrassment. for japan, of course, and it could get worse. ghosn has said all along that he is not only innocent, but he is the target of a corrupt government plot to not just take his freedom, but also his money. we're probably going to hear more of that now that he no longer seems to have a trial on his agenda this year. erin? >> all right, thank you very

much, tom. i want to go to former cia operative bob baer. bob, this is an incredible story. when you're talking, as tom said, japan's immigration system is state-of-the-art. he is under 24 hours surveillance. they're monitoring every single one of his phone calls. no one can come and go without their say so. how do you think he escaped? >> oh, erin, i think it's pretty clear, he came out in a box of some sort, out of the house through osaka airport. i've done this enough, that's the only way to really get somebody out. you don't send them through immigration, through any airport. you don't risk an alias passport. this man is well-known in japan. no way. you have to conceal him, first in the car, and then a box, put him on a private plane, send him as cargo, let him get out of the box once he is in the airplane and it's in the air, and then just move him to lebanon. it's very easy to get into lebanon. i think that's the only plausible explanation. >> and it's pretty incredible. double bass case is about 6 feet. he is just shy of 5'6". so he could get in there and

have a little room. it's got a couple of holes in it. it's incredible, but i suppose you could see it happening. one question, if this is israel instead of japan that had been wronged. that would get him back, right? somebody would pose as something to get him back, right? kind of take as much time as it took to infiltrate him, get him to trust them and somehow get him back? >> yeah. the japanese are never going to do it. they can't operate in lebanon. they're not going kidnap him. they're just absolutely astounded that this even happened, that someone could get away with it. but, you know, i think going back to somebody did this, knew what they were doing, practiced, knew the japanese system, and got him out on a private plane. the cia's done it enough. so has the kgb. you can do fit you know what you're doing. >> and obviously we still need to know who arranged for it and who the ex-special forces as reported possibly were who executed it, from which country. thank you so very much, bob.

and next, jeanne moos on the attack that is sure to tee off trump. when you shop with wayfair,

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tonight amy klobuchar takes on trump for golfing, and then things got nasty. here is jeanne. >> reporter: through the waving palms, he appears, the familiar presidential silhouette glimpsed through a gap in the shrubbery. it's donald trump on vacation, or perhaps donald trump working. either way, it's par for the course that he's on his own golf course, even if as a candidate he proclaimed -- >> there won't be time to go golfing all the time. >> because i'm going to be working for you. i'm not going to have time to go play golf. >> i just want to stay in the white house and work my ass off. >> reporter: yeah, well, he is also working on his swing. remember how he used to bash president obama? >> he played more golf last year than tiger woods. >> golf, golf, golf, golf. more, more. >> reporter: but guess who does it more, more, more often? trump spent one of every five days in 2019 at a golf club, inspiring democratic presidential candidate amy klobuchar to tweet, "for the

record, i spent zero days on the golf course in 2019." trump supporters used a comb rather than a club to clobber klobuchar. for the record, i've eaten zero salads with a comb, a dig at klobuchar for getting mad at an aide who misplaced her fork on a plane, prompting her to use a comb to eat her salad. but back to the greens you golf on. pity the poor photographer whose duty it is to capture images of the president golfing. it's a cat and mouse game that the white house doesn't really want us to see. >> it's like going fishing. if you don't catch a fish, you know, it's not as exciting. >> reporter: but cnn photojournalist khalil abdalla caught the big one the other day while trump was playing at his west palm beach course. back in the early days, they even used a box truck to block the view. and once -- >> a few extra trees appeared

magically. >> reporter: new trees were planted as a barrier to a photographer capturing the number one guy through a hole is like a hole in one. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> he's not going toe like that video. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. with the impeachment trial looming, though no date set for it to actually begin, tonight evidence the trump administration does not want you to see. previously hidden contents of internal emails, including one that makes it clear the president of the united states directly ordered the central act in the central allegation against him with, withholding military aid for ukraine allegedly to extract ukrainian help in dirtying up joe biden. now, it took a lawsuit and a judge's order for the center for public integrity to first obtain these emails, and even then, as you can see, some were so heavily redacted, they were essentially meaningless. but now an online forum called just