i can't wait to squad up. i love it when you talk nerdy to me. guy, guys, guys, we're still in session. and i don't know what the heck you're talking about. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is cnn breaking news.

>> hello everyone. i'm alisyn camerota. welcome to "cnn newsroom." >> we're following breaking news. attorney merrick garland with announce a special counsel to oversee investigations into former president donald trump. this will be into key aspects of the january 6th event and the retention of national defense information at mar-a-lago. >> joining us now, we have cnn's evan perez. he's at the justice department. we have cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider, paula reid, and elie honig. they have all new reporting to share with us. evan, how did this decision come to pass? >> reporter: well, victor and allison, this was a decision that's been weeks in the making. it was clear certainly that the former president, donald trump, was going to announce that he was going to run for office once more, and that really put the pressure, frankly, on the justice department to try to figure out a way to insulate or

at least try to insulate these important investigations from the political that we know is going to be coming. what the attorney general has done is he has appointed a special counsel. we're going to hear the name of that person in the next 15 minutes or so when he comes out to speak here at the justice department. but we already know what this special counsel is going to be looking at. they're going to be overseeing both the investigation, the mar-a-lago investigation, the investigation into the retention of those classified documents that the fbi has found when they conducted a search at mar-a-lago, the former president's residence, as well as key aspects of the january 6th investigation. what that tells us is that this is not taking over all of the january 6th investigation, where, you know, you have more than 1,000 people who are facing charges related to the insurrection. what this person is going to be overseeing is the aspects of

this investigation that have to do with donald trump, people around him, and the allegation that they conspired to obstruct the transfer of power after the 2020 election. so, those are the two aspects of these two investigations that have to do with donald trump that the special counsel is going to be overseeing. victor and alisyn? zbll you're seeing a live shot at the podium, where we expect to hear this announcement in about 13 minutes from the attorney general. let me come to you, paula reid. you had a conversation with the former president's attorneys. >> let's be here, the former president has many attorneys. there are two separate investigations here. i asked for a reaction to the appointment of a special counsel. this attorney said, it's interesting, but their hair isn't exactly on fire right now. this is something that they knew was being considered. they're not sure how this really changed this dynamic. but what they're really interested to know is who is it. they noted there is a very small

group of people who could really make this investigation not appear partisan. they, of course, pointed to former special counsel robert mueller and noted that is someone with sterling republican and law enforcement credentials. and of course that investigation was highly politicized in the press and by republicans. at this point, they don't seem too upset about this. but, again, this is separate from lawyers representing him on the mar-a-lago investigation, who may feel differently, as most sources would agree that right now poses a greater legal risk to the former president. so, they may have a different reaction to that. >> absolutely. and jessica, that is one of the $64,000 questions of who is -- we'll find out, as victor said, in about 14 minutes. but who is that mythical person who in this day and age will be seen by all sides as non-partisan? >> that was probably the hardest part for the attorney general is to find somebody who wouldn't be

accused of being politically motivated. of course that has been the crux of the argument from the former president, even as recently as his announcement on tuesday night when he was running for a second term. he said he'd been the victim of politically motivated investigations on these two fronts, when it comes to january 6th and into the retention of national defense information at his home at mar-a-lago. so, the question is, who did the attorney general come up with? we should be finding out in just about ten minutes. notably, this will be the third independent prosecutor that we've seen named by the justice department since 2017, all revolving around donald trump. of course it was in may 2017 that we saw robert mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee the russia investigation. then we saw in 2020, john durham was named special counsel to oversee the fbi's role in the beginnings of the russia investigation. and now we will have this additional special counsel. john durham is still ongoing as special counsel. this will be another special

counsel. crucially here, this will be an independent prosecutor. however, ultimately, it will -- whatever decisions this special counsel makes, it will have to be approved as to potentially whether to charge the former president or any of his associates. it will have to be given the green light ultimately by the attorney general and top officials at the justice department. so, whereas this will be operating independently, there is still some involvement in the end from the attorney general here. that's also what we saw in those other two special counsels that we saw in the past five years as well. so, we'll see what the attorney general says. he is going to make a brief statement. we understand he's not going to take questions. so, he may just come out with a few lines about who will be taking over this difficult post, perhaps. >> el li, to you. as jessica just reminded us, we've seen the appointment of two special counsels in just a couple years ago -- five years ago. remind us what a special counsel can do, what makes this different from what is already

happening at doj. >> yeah, victor, the most important thing here, special counsel has all the powers that any federal prosecutor, that any u.s. attorney would have. he can investigate. he can use grand jury subpoenas. he can get wiretaps, search warrants. he can ultimately indict, take pleas, try a case, go to sentencing, all the things that a normal prosecutor would do. there are some differences, however. as jessica was saying, a special counsel has a bit more insulation politically and practically. the regulations say special counsel is not subject to the day-to-day supervision of the attorney general. and the special counsel really gets to make all the big decisions himself. however, it is important to note that ultimately the buck does still stop at the attorney general. the attorney general can overrule the special counsel. if so, the attorney general then has to actually explain that in a written report to congress. so, there's a bit of protection here. i think the main idea is merrick garland is looking to outsource at least the initial decision about whether to bring charges

relating to mar-a-lago or january 6 against donald trump. and the reason -- legally the reason why you appoint special counsel is to avoid a potential conflict of interest. and i think the thinking here is, well, now we have donald trump, an official candidate for 2024. there could be at least an appearance of a conflict if you have joe biden's doj, joe biden's selected attorney general, leading the investigation of somebody who could be running against joe biden in 2024. so, it's going to be crucial to see, as we've said, who this person is. does this person have bipartisan or better yet non-partisan credentials? there are plenty of long-time prosecutors out there, people who have served under both administrations. it's important to know one more thing. the special counsel has to come from outside of government. so, it is supposed to be somebody who's not currently serving in the u.s. government. that said, i expect it to be a former prosecutor, perhaps a former judge. >> really interesting. evan, just tell us the nuts and bolts of how this will work. once this person is named in

less than ten minutes, what will they have access to? how long will this process take? because we all remember that the robert mueller investigation, at times, felt intermable. >> it felt intermenable to those of us having to do it every day, but one of the interesting things about mueller's investigation is that he was very mindful about the need to try to wrap it up very quickly, as quickly as possible, given the fact that, you know, you had a sitting president with a investigation hanging over his head. so, one of the challenges, alisyn and victor, is going to be, how does this person put some guardrails around what they're doing? because one of the criticisms of this, and certainly one of the criticisms that was going on upstairs in this building, as they debated this, was the question of, you know, how do we make sure that this person's not going to come in -- they basically have unending budget. they can go on and on. look at john durham.

he's still going after being appointed by bill barr during the trump administration. so, the question is, how do you limit that? and the answer is, there's no really good way. the law -- as elli just described, the law really makes it clear that the pouspecial counsel is kind of his own boss. he or she is going to be in charge of this investigation. what they're going to do is they're going to take over the investigation that's already ongoing. the mar-a-lago investigation is being run out of this building by national security investigators upstairs in the national security division. they're looking at the classified information and the potential damage and potential crimes that may have happened there. and secondly, the january 6th investigation is being handled i be a prosecutor down the street at the u.s. attorney in the district of columbia. so, both of those investigations, which are already well underway, are now going to be handed over to this

person, this new prosecutor, who is going to be in charge of it. and the idea being that these are already pretty far along, and this person is simply going to take them over. it's not going to start from scratch. that's the theory. but in practice, what alisyn just said is absolutely true. they have -- special counsels have a way of just going on and on, and so that's going to be the challenge for this person. >> all right. evan, jessica, paula, elli, stand by. we're going to take a quick break but we continue to follow the breaking news on the other side. attorney general merrick garland set to announce a special counsel into the investigations into former president trump. we will bring that announcement to you live, scheduled for about four minutes from now. we'll be right back. steaeak and crispy bacon. but what aboutut the new boss? it looks so good it makes me hangry! settle down therere, big guy the new subway series. what's your pick? i'd like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance,

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okay. we're following breaking news. attorney general merrick garland will announce the appointment of a special counsel to oversee investigations into former president donald trump. we expect that at any moment. >> let's bring in cnn's jeremy diamond at the white house, cnn national correspondent kristen holmes. kristen, you first. you have new reporting. >> reporter: that's right. what i have learned is remember we reported on those dozens of subpoenas that went out to trump's inner circle as well as those associated with the former president back in september. and i have learned that of those, some of those people were recently contacted and given new dates to appear before the grand jury in the near future. now, many of these people had hoped that the investigations had stalled or even halted because they hadn't heard from the department of justice. many of them met that document deadline, which was back in september/october. but clearly they are ramping

this up, and it has been to the surprise of many of these people, some of them who were trump's inner circle, to be getting these dates with their lawyers, working on when they are going to be appear before the grand jury. >> jeremy, what are you hearing from the white house? >> we were just in an event with president biden. a bunch of us reporters tried asking the president for his reaction on the appointment of the special counsel. but frankly it's not clear whether or not the president actually knew at that point. i'm told that the white house did not get a heads up from the department of justice, as it relates to this decision to appoint a special counsel. white house officials that i have been speaking with have been learning about this through news reports. and we're also told by a white house official that, look, the department of justice makes these decisions independent of any interference or any influence from the white house, makes these decisions independently, saying, quote, we are not involved. so, that has been the white house's position, as it relates to most matters relating to the department of justice and any criminal investigations, whether

they be into the president's political opponents, like donald trump, or his family members, like hunter biden. the response from the white house is almost always the same, which is we let the department of justice do its thing. we're not involved. and in this case, they are learning about this appointment through news reports, not getting any heads up from doj. >> back with us now, we have evan perez, jessica schneider, elie honig, and paula reid. paula, you recently spoke to president trump's attorneys about this, and kaitlan collins had some reporting that trump's lawyers had been dreading this prospect. why did they have trepidation about a special counsel? >> well, to be clear, r there two investigations here. i spoke with one of the attorneys who's working on the january 6th investigation. and that is, based on our reporting, considered to be less of an imminent legal threat to the former president than the facts, as we know them, in the mar-a-lago investigation. so, this attorney was working

january 6th said that this was an interesting choice. his two questions, though, were who would be the special counsel, right? that's the question of the hour. and then what will their mandate be, specifically when it comes to january 6th. they assume it will include any involvement or charges for their client. the former president. but what about his close associates? will that also be something the special counsel will be overseeing? is that also something the attorney general believes is too politically fraught to continue to handle? or are they just focused on the former president because he is now a candidate? knowing the mar-a-lago side of things, it sounds like the lawyers on that side have been dreading this because this suggests this investigation is not winding down, it is not winding up, that it will continue. there's a lot of outstanding questions in that investigation, including the sorting through of classified material of privilege, personal material. there are other issues, bigger issues, being litigated through the federal court systems. we knew this was going to take a while. by appointing a special counsel, they have sent a message,

particularly the mar-a-lago investigation. so, it's not great news for the president's attorneys, who will be the first ones to tell you they were kind of hoping things would wrap up soon. >> we just got the two-minute warning while paula was answering that question. let me bring you in on what this means for trump and his team, elli. >> well, i don't think it makes an indictment any more or less likely than it was otherwise. the justice department, normal prosecutors, the regular rank and file, were already well into this investigation. ultimately, they have the power to make a decision. now, what this means is they're going to bring in some outsider who makes the decision, who will have some more independents than a typical prosecutor from the attorney general. so, i don't think it makes an indictment any more or less likely. the special counsel doesn't necessarily have any special powers that an ordinary federal prosecutor wouldn't have. but the idea here is to mitigate any potential conflict of interest. and i think jeremy's reporting

that it appears the biden administration, the president himself, the white house, did not know this was coming. i think that's a really important point because doj, in my view, should be operating independent of politics, independent of the white house. so, it appears doj, merrick garland, have made the decision to appoint a special counsel on their own, without consulting with the white house, without consulting with the president. if the point is to get rid of the appearance of conflict of interest, that's a smart move. >> jessica, we have learned -- evan had been talking about john durham and that special counsel investigation. and there wasn't a lot of transparency with that one. and, you know, obviously there was a lot of times we had no idea that was happening in the robert mueller investigation. i think the attorney general is marching out now. let's listen in. >> good afternoon. i'm here today to announce the appointment of a special counsel in connection with two ongoing criminal investigations that

have received significant public attention. the first, as described in court filings in the district of columbia, is the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfulfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the electoral college vote held on or about january 6, 2021. the second is the ongoing investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records as well as the possible obstruction of that investigation, referenced and described in court filings in a pending manner in the southern district of florida. i'm joined today by deputy attorney general lisa monaco, u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, matthew graves, and assistant attorney general for the criminal division. matthew olson could not be here.

he is currently in germany representing the department at the g7 home affairs and security ministerial. u.s. attorney graves has been ably leading the investigations into the events leading up to and on january 6. he and dozens of assistant u.s. attorneys and other prosecutors have taken on the monumental task of conducting over 900 prosecutions in defense of our democratic institutions. criminal division prosecutors under the able leadership of assistant attorney general -- have played a significant role in those prosecutions. assistant attorney general olson has been ably leading the investigation. all of the career prosecutors assigned to these matters are conducting their work in the best traditions of the department of justice. i also want to recognize the efforts of the many fbi agents and other law enforcement

personnel who are assigned to these matters. they are working courageously and steadfastly and are serving our nation honorably. i am grateful to them. we all are. the department of justice has long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution. based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. such an appointment underscores the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. it also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work expeditiously and to make

decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. the special counsel will conduct parts of the first investigation i just mentioned. the investigation into whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or with the certification of electoral college vote held on or about january 6. this does not include prosecutions that are currently pending in the district of columbia or future investigations and prosecutions of individuals for offenses committed while they were physically present on the capitol grounds on january 6. those investigations and prosecutions will remain under the authority of the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. the special counsel will also conduct the investigation involving classified documents and other presidential records as well as the possible obstruction of that

investigation. today, i signed an order appointing jack smith to serve as special counsel. the order authorizes him to continue the ongoing investigation into both of the matters that i have just described and to prosecute any federal crimes that may arise from those investigations. mr. smith is a veteran career prosecutor. he began his prosecutorial career in 1994 as an assistant district attorney with the new york county d.a.'s office. in 1999, he became an assistant u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york, where over the course of nine years, he prosecuted matters ranging from gang murders of police officers to civil rights violations. from 2008 to 2010, he served with the international criminal court, where he supervised war crimes investigations. in 2010, mr. smith returned to the justice department to serve as chief of the public integrity

sec section, where he lead a team of more than 30 prosecutors who handled public corruption and election crimes cases across the united states. in 2015, he agreed to serve as the first assistant u.s. attorney for the middle district of tennessee, later becoming the acting united states attorney. most recently, mr. smith served as chief prosecutor for the special court in the hague, charged with investigating and adjudicating war crimes in kosovo. mr. smith will begin his work as special counsel immediately and will be returning to the united states from the hague. throughout his career, jack smith has built a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor, who leads teams with energy and focus to follow the facts wherever they lead. as special counsel, we will exercise independent prosecutorial judgment to decide whether charges should be brought. although the special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any

official of the department, he must comply with the regulations, procedures, and policies of the department. i will ensure that the special counsel receives the resources to conduct this work quickly and completely. given the work to date and mr. smith's prosecutorial experience, i am confident that this appointment will not slow the completion of these investigations. men and women who are pursuing these investigations are u conducting themselves in accordance with the highest standards of professionalism. i could not be prouder of them. i strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity, and i also believe that appointing a special counsel at this time is the right thing to do. the extraordinary circumstances presented here demand it. mr. smith is the right choice to complete these manners in an even handed and urgent manner.

thank you all. >> okay. we've been listening there to the attorney general talking about naming a special counsel to investigate in two of the investigations into donald trump. we just learned it is jack smith, who has a very impressive biography, everything from prosecutor here in the states to investigating war crimes at the hague. >> yeah, starting his public service almost 30 years ago working in the federal government in both democratic or under democratic and republican administrations. of course we'll learn more about jack smith in the coming hours. let's go back now to our panel. >> we have evan. we have jessica schneider and elie honig. elie, your thoughts? >> so, when we talk about the career non-political prosecutor, jack smith appears to be the very model of that notion. he has worked, as you said, for decades as a state and federal prosecutor and as a war crimes

prosecutor. there's no political leaning one way or the other. this is really what the justice department typically -- the vast majority of federal prosecutors at the justice department are. they are not political actors. they are not political appointees. they are people who just come in and do the job and do the work. and jack smith, by all appearances, has done that for many, many years now. now, he is going to have the first say. he is going to have to get up to speed on this investigation. it's going to take him some time. but it is a well-developed investigation. he's not starting from square one. and he will ultimately have at least the initial call on, do we indict or do we not? he will have some level of independence, significant independence, from merrick garland and the justice department, but ultimately merrick garland will retain that power to agree or disagree. if he disagrees to override whatever recommendation mr. smith offers up. >> the attorney general said

that the extraordinary circumstances demanded this, and he said that he identified, as a catalyst for this decision, the announcement or the declaration of former president trump as a 2024 candidate and the inclination from the current president to run for re-election. your reaction to what we just heard from ag garland? >> you know, victor, there really isn't a roadmap for a circumstance like this because of how remarkable the circumstances are. as the attorney general laid out, you have a former president being investigated by the justice department. to do this by the book, to conduct these investigations in a way that the textbooks would say to do it, yes, the attorney general had to appoint a special counsel here. what you have to do is take out even the appearance of impropriety. look, we all know -- i wasn't born yesterday. and within hours, the record of jack smith is going to be picked apart, and he will probably be seen by some or criticized by

some as being a partisan political hack or tool. we saw this play out with robert mueller several years ago. the simple fact is removing it from the chain of command to some extent, to the justice department, is very valuable. the other point i would make here, the one person who was not there on the stage, and that was jack smith. that was to give at least the sense of clarity that this is a separate individual from outside the justice department who is coming to take this matter over. and it's almost the best of all worlds. at least in the justice department's perspective, because number one, as has been said, he gets all of the staff that have been working on this for quite some time. and number two, a future president cannot really fire a special counsel except some extraordinary reason to do so, like he literally shows up to work drunk or something like that. the attorney general doesn't have the same latitude he would with a senior political appointee. i know there are people who might criticize this decision, but it had to be done regardless

of what the president's actions were previously. >> evan, you were reminding us that in terms of the histories of special counsels, that actually the robert mueller investigation was wrapped up more quickly than many others, including the john durham one, which is ongoing and has been, i mean, for, you know, roughly -- well, two years now. >> going on three years. more than three years. >> is that right? it's been going on for more than three years? that's interesting. so, any way to know -- since some of this work has already been done and the department of justice has been working on it, any idea about what the timeline would look like? >> no. and i think one reason -- you guys just before the attorney general walked out reported on some of the reporting from kaitlan collins, who heard from inside the trump camp that this is something they were dreading. look, i think part of the reason why is because of the nature of

special counsels. inside this building, the idea of special counsels, it's not very popular, simply because you're out of the control of the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, the direct daily control. and they have a way of just taking a life of their own, right? and there is no easy way to shut it down once you get started. and so what you're pointing out, alisyn, you raised it very early on, is exactly right. that is the nature of them and that is the problematic thing. real quick i want to just go back to something elie had just mentioned. i'll just say real quick that the reason why jack smith was not in the room today is actually he had been injury, apparently fell during a bike accident and had some recent surgery or some kind of medical attention, which means that he could not be present today at this announcement. but we expect -- he's already now the special counsel as of

this moment. so, he is now going to be running this investigation. and back to the point that you were making, look, it does have a way of taking on a life of its own. they have kind of really unlimited budget. and that's part of the problem with them and why i think there was some hesitation upstairs about naming a special counsel. the other part of this is that, you know, they scour. they spend weeks trying to think of a former judge, a former doj official, somebody who could pass the test. and they finally landed on a war crimes prosecutor, somebody who i'm told is a political independent, somebody who's going to pass that smell test that i'm sure trump and republican partisans are going to be doing right at this moment trying to figure out whether there's anything in his past that might indicate that he is a partisan or that could obviously give them reason to have pause

about how this investigation is going to be conducted, victor and alisyn. >> i'm sure it wasn't just finding someone who could take the job but someone who would do it, all that's coming for them now that they're going to head up this investigation. jessica schneider, let me come to you on what we heard from the attorney general. he said he's confident that the appointment will not slow down the investigation. we've heard alisyn discuss that with evan. but what's the ramp-up time? he's coming into this. there is a team already established. he's got to, as we say in news, read in to get to a point where he can lead this investigation. >> yeah, two very wide-ranging investigations that have been ongoing for quite some time. the mar-a-lago one not quite as long into the investigation into january 6th here. despite these two wide raenngin investigations, the new special counsel, jack smith, he's been given fairly specific instructions, at least as it pertains to january 6th. the attorney general mentioned

it at least twice when he came out to reporters. you know, he said he'll be looking into potential interference into the transfer of power, the certification of the vote in 2020. so, that january 6th investigation that's been ongoing now for almost two years, it has many different facets. the rioters, all of those rioters who have been arrested, charged with -- we're now seeing the yooath keepers trial. that will continue to progress under the purview of the u.s. attorney here in d.c. but it's this very specific question about interference into the transfer of power, the certification. in particular our team, led my evan perez, has reported that it goes to the heart of this fake electors scheme, where these trump supporters were fake electors. they wanted to try to disrupt the electoral count here. so, that's the primary focus of that facet of the investigation. but then the mar-a-lago documents investigation, we saw that peak with the fbi search of

mar-a-lago back in august. but that has been ongoing for several months as well. so, you're right. it will take time for this new special counsel to get up to speed here. and the big question is, how quickly will he act? will this be a wide-ranging investigation or a long investigation, as we've seen with john durham? especially complicating things, the fact that the former president will be running for president again at the same time this investigation is ongoing from the special counsel. so, a lot of outstanding questions here. >> and in fact i want to make sure kristen holmes is still with us because she has the reporting on the reaction from the trump team. it is so interesting, kristen, the law of unintended consequences because president trump, many people in his orbit, felt announced so quickly for another run at the white house in order to insulate himself from any indictment when, in fact, it was announcement that the attorney general just said was the catalyst for naming the

special counsel, who may end up with an indictment. >> well, that's right. and i just got off the phone with the source that is familiar with how the campaign is operating, and they are -- they were aware of this. as kaitlan says, they believed this could be coming. and we have to continue to say that part of the reason that allies believe that former president trump was announcing so early in addition to wanting to freeze the field and get out there, was also that he wanted to, as you said, insulate himself and have these legal protections and be able to continue to campaign on the idea that he is the victim of a political witch hunt. this is something that we have heard from him since these investigations began. and we heard it on tuesday night when we were at his announcement. he referred to himself as a victim multiple times. he said that the justice department was weaponized against him. he has continued to talk about the fbi in the same way. and this clearly, as you said, this was a catalyst not serving

as what they hoped it would do, which was give him back those legal protections. however, i do not think that it seems, at least now, that trump is going to change his tactic in any way. we know that he has doubled down on this idea that he is a victim of this as all politics. to see him shift away from that seems very unlikely. >> in fact, some of the developments in this investigation, the former president has used to increase fundraising. after the search of mar-a-lago, they had a couple of million-dollar days in fundraising. that tapered off. but that's been the pattern that we've seen. elliott, let me come back to you on some of the logistics that are happening soon. there are obviously two established investigations that have been going on for some time now. how many extra hands come in? how broad does this special prosecutor now make his team beyond the people who are already doing the work? >> that just remains to be seen based on what they feed had had

to do. there are probably people at justice department headquarters here in washington working on this. some of those would be pulled in. frankly that's what happened with the mueller investigation. there were a number of folks -- for instance, the u.s. attorney's office in the eastern district of virginia, sort of out by the pentagon, were working on the matter there. some of them got transferred over to being under the purview of the special counsel. that kind of thing will happen here. i am certain that either over the last couple days or today they're figuring out those staffing questions. it will be complicated. to be clear, it will all be -- as elliott said -- it's pretty fast, the authority the special counsel will have and the kinds of staffing and budget and resources that will be available to him once he gets started. >> does the investigation now become a locked box? as reporters we were frustrated when we didn't know everything that was happening in the mueller investigation. and certainly there hasn't been a lot of transparency with the john durham investigation. is that how this will work?

>> well, there will still be plenty we will learn both through public proceedings. if people receive subpoenas, those can be made public. we'll know what's happening in court. i'm sure that evan and our reporters will continue to get us valuable and reliable information from the inside. one thing this will do, alisyn, i think inevitably, is slow the pace a bit. now you're bringing in jack smith from the outside, had no part in this case, and he's going to have to get up to speed. and these are two sprawling, complex investigations. they're not the kind of thing where you can take a memo home and read it over the weekend and be completely up to speed. so, he's going to take some time and he's going to have a monumental decision to make. another important thing here is there's going to be a new boss in charge of these investigations. jack msmith, he may want to do things a little differently. he may say, well, let's subpoena these witnesses we have not subpoenaed so far, or let's try to get up a wiretap or let's subpoena these records. it's a new quarterback and he may have a new strategy. this is going to take more time,

and time really does matter. we now have an active presidential campaign by the person who's the subject and the target of this investigation. this will invariably push it back to some extent. >> evan, expectations here. i remember the mueller investigation, we were running the same b roll of him walking down a hallway on capitol hill because there were no public statements. there were no speeches. there were no releases. what should people expect, as we start to get into this special prosecutor footing, that process tour? >> victor, they had a special spokesperson whose job it was to give no comment. so, that was certainly one of our frustrations. but i think, look, i think what elie just pointed out is there's two things that we -- first of all, especially on the january 6th investigation, and we're talking about the former president, who pethe people arod

him leak like seethes. they do nothing about hearings and subpoenas and so on and so forth. i think we'll get a lot more of a window from that side than we will from the special counsel. i think you're right. i think part of the issue here is we already saw some of these investigations -- for example, the decision to bring the charges against the oath keepers, and those charges were prepared pretty quickly, like within the first five, six months of that january 6 investigation. but it took another eight or nine months before the new attorney general was comfortable with that. so, when you have a new boss taking over an investigation, it has a way of delaying things. that is just a fact of life. i think people here in this building are trying to say, no,

it's not. but it will. and so then that really does push you up into the realm of the 2024 election, which when the justice department has to stay quiet. so, it's going to be a very, very, i think, challenging thing for the justice department to handle simply because, you know, of the nature of the person they're investigating and the people around him, right? and just the nature of the fact that there is a campaign that is going to really get going very, very quickly, victor and alisyn. >> all right. evan, jessica, elliott, elie, thank you all. we, of course, will continue to have more on this the breaking news, the appointment of this special counsel to lead these two investigations into former president trump. but of course we have other news. we do because the father of one of the university of idaho victims is speaking out and revealing new details about his daughter's death. we have that ahead.

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north korea's launch of an intercontinental missile today sparking new joint military

exercises and emergency meeting with the u.s. allies. >> this missile landed about 130 miles from the west coast of a japanese island. japan's defense minister says this type of weapon could reach the u.s. mainland. cnn's oren lieberman joins us. what have you learned? >> reporter: you've seen how far this traveled. in terms of how high it went, nearly 4,000 miles according to japan's defense ministry, and that's why if you were to take that trajectory and spread it out, they said theoretically this missile could have reached the mainland united states, and that's why the u.s. views this so severely even after all the ballistic missile tests we've seen throughout the course of the career. there have been other tests coming from north korea. one in march, and there was a similar test in 2017 that everyone is looking at to compare those tests. regardless the u.s. views this severely. vice president kamala harris making it brutally clear how the

u.s. sees this test. >> this conduct by north korea most recently is a brazen violation of multiple u.n. security resolutions. it destabilizes security in the region and unnecessarily raises tensions. >> reporter: the white house said it's still open to negotiations or some sort of dialogue with north korea while acknowledging it certainly doesn't look likely right now. in response to the test, the u.s. and south korea conducted a live fire exercise in the air and there was expected to be an exercise with the u.s. and japan. even as these missile tests continue, there is a continued effort from the u.s. and its allies to show they will continue to have a strong presence in the region even militarily. >> thank you. we're just getting a new development in the breaking news, the appointment of the special council jack smith and we're hearing from him for the

first time. the statement released from the justice department in which he says i intend to conduct the assigned investigations and any prosecutions that may result from them independently and in the best traditions of the department of justice. the pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. i will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate. that's the first statement we're getting from the newly appointed special counsel jack smith, and of course, at the top of the hour we'll have more on this breaking news. meanwhile we have new information on the shocking murders of four idaho college students. investigators now releasing a map and a timeline of what happened and where on the night of the killings. >> we're also learning that at least one of the victims had what they call defensive wounds. cnn's veronica miracle joins us now from moscow, idaho. veronica, tell us more about these details.

>> reporter: well, victor and alisyn, the map that police just released shows a taco truck, a bar, and a fraternity house, and police were hoping that by releasing some of the information around where these are located and around the times that those victims visited these locations before the murders, they're hoping it will jog people's memory. maybe a witness statement could help them. possibly surveillance video. they're hoping that the community can help them piece more clues together. we also learned this morning about how those murders may have unfolded inside the home. police told us that those victims were found on the second and third floor of the home. they were also stabbed multiple times according to the coroner by likely one weapon, possibly a medium to large knife. there was also at least one -- one of the victims had stab wounds on her hands which would show possibly defensive injuries. according to the coroner, and she wouldn't tell us which victim that was, however xana

kernodle's father said her body showed signs of a struggle. >> bruises, you know, maybe by the knife or whatever. she's a tough kid. whatever she wanted to do, she could do it. >> reporter: the coroner also told us that there was no evidence of sexual assault. they are also trying to figure out exactly what time the victims died, whether they were all killed at the same time, or whether it happened at a different time. however, we do know that all of those victims arrived back at the home at 1:45 around the same time and those murders happened sometime in the early morning hours on sunday. we also understand that the roommates were home at the time of the attacks. that's what police have told us, and when we asked them if the roommates are being considered as witnesses, victims, suspects or persons of interest, they said they are trying to figure that out now. they hope to release that information soon. victor, alisyn? >> veronica miracle with the latest there from moscow. thank you. all right. we continue to follow the

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