pretty upsetting transcript when you see it, when it's written down, but part of it i'll read to you. i am born here and i am british she says, and this royal aide, the senior royal aide says, where did you come from? where did your people come from? when did you first come here? she keeps pointing out she's british. it's very uncomfortable and we got a pretty quick response from the palace when this was revi v -- revealed. they said this person has resigned and they were investigating. prince william has just landed here in boston and he also said there's no place for racism in society, and that this person was right to step down immediately. a big controversy blowing up in london and it's reflecting frankly on this visit on the first day. >> all right. max foster, thank you. top of the hour on "cnn

newsroom." i'm victor blackwell. >> i'm alisyn camerota. a short time from now, attorney general merrick garland will speak about the verdict in the trial of the five members in the far right oath keepers militia group. yesterday, the jury convicted the group's leader, an associate of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the january 6th capitol riot. >> garland will also talk about ensuring safe drinking water in jackson, mississippi. today the doj announced a proposal to stabilize the city's troubled water system. paula reid is with us now. what more should we expect, paula? >> reporter: this will be a chance for the reserved attorney general to do a victory lap for these two unusual and significant victories for the justice department over the past 24 hours. the first, of course, being this conviction for oath keepers leader stewart rhodes and his subordinate kelly meggs. both convicted of seditious

conspiracy, and the first of 900 cases related to the capitol attack. this was such a victory for the justice department because this was the first time a jury had heard the evidence and concluded that the violence that day was not a spontaneous disruption, but the product of an organized conspiracy. the other thing the attorney general would like to talk about is an agreement reach for the city of jackson, mississippi. they have agreed to appoint a third party, to oversee the city's handling of its drinking water after flooding this summer left many of the city's 150,000 residents, mostly black people without proper drinking water. they've also issued a complaint. they have filed a complaint against the city over its handling of drinking water. these are the two things that the attorney general wants to talk about, but there's a lot of other things to ask him about, including the newly appointed special counsel jack smith. this is the first time he's taken questions since that appointment. we saw evan perez and our other

colleagues who will have a lot of other things to try the get him to talk about. >> we'll be watching. paula reid, thank you very much. joining us now, we have cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elliot grahams. the oath keepers, they have been convicted of seditious conspiracy which rarely happens, maybe once this century. it carries a 20-year maximum sentence. how long in prison do you think these guys are going to get? >> oh, goodness. i can't tell you that, alisyn, and it's not because i'm being coy and cute here. that will be a complicated formula based on a number of factors. there's the federal sentencing guidelines that set a range for every defendant based on the crime that they have been convicted of, and the range, you know, a signing will depend on what kind of weapons were used, what's the person's criminal history. what's their personal history? have they accepted

responsibility? have they admit thated that thed it, acknowledged what they did was wrong, and so on? the judge will sentence. they're not going to get 20 years. that's highly unlikely for anybody to get the statutory maximum, but they're going to jail for aening long time. >> you've got two convictions and three acquittals. is there any lesson they can take away from these decisions? >> every prosecutor has had their heart broken by juries before. i know i certainly have on cases that they thought they would have won. i think the lesson for the public is that the jurors who heard this case took it very seriously, and they went through and did not convict every defendant of every crime, didn't acquit every defendant of every crime and some defendants were convicted of some and not of other charges. that is a sign that they were going through this and very seriously assessing the proof and facts as to each individual charge. that, frankly, is the way the system should work.

>> speaking of criminal charges, we've just learned that this week on friday, members of the january 6th committee, the house committee, will be meeting to discuss criminal referrals, if they're going to make any. from the evidence you've seen, if you were on that committee, would -- who would be, if anyone, referred for criminal charges? >> look. i think -- what's behind the question is should he refer the former president of the united states for criminal charges, and certainly they have a case for doing so at a minimum on obstruction of justice. now, you know, people are talking about charging the former president with sedition and so on, and i think that's highly unlikely, but as we've seen both in the context of the january 6th committee and the justice department investigation, obstruction of justice is a very likely possibility here. now look. if i were on the committee -- if i were on the committee, i would certainly move forward with a criminal referral here.

as a former prosecutor, what i say to you, alisyn, is it doesn't matter because the justice department doesn't have to honor that referral in the first place. it's an academic exercise and an important statement for congress to make that they believe he committed a crime. they will probably go forward with that. >> it was determined that mark meadows will have to testify before the grand jury in georgia, investigating efforts to overturn the election. they determined that we have reviewed the arguments rayed and find them to be manifestly without merit, but this is the south carolina supreme court. why is it there, and what are they considering that it pacts that georgia grand jury? >> it's because mark meadows is based in south carolina, and, you know, on this one, victor, it's important to just take a step back and forget that this is mark meadows. forget the name donald trump, and just look at the simple question. you have an individual who was subpoenaed at a court in georgia. he happens to be a member of congress, and the question is,

does the constitution shield him in some way from having to come in -- or pardon me, the white house chief of staff, from having to come in and answer questions? that is a very straight forward legal question and he has to submit to the process of the courts. now look. if there are individual questions or matters that he has privileges to assert with respect to his attorneys or the president by all means he can do that on a case by case or question by question basis. it's very straight forward, and every court that's looked at it has said, look. you have to go in and testify and it looks like he's going to. >> elliot williams, and we're standing by to hear from the attorney general. thank you. >> thank you. election officials in georgia are expecting another day of record early voting turnout from raphael warnock and herschel walker. >> the polls just opened up this past weekend.

cnn's eva mckend is tracking the campaigns. let's start though with this turnout. what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, victor, it is really remarkable, and it indicates that people are engaged and really it's hard not to be in georgia. you turn on your radio and turn on the television and you hear both of these candidates making their case here. you sort of can't escape the runoff in georgia. more than 830,000 georgians have voted so far. that is between early in-person voting and absentee ballots and what's really interesting is the demographics of this. we are seeing an impressive showing among younger voters. 50 or younger account for a quarter of the votes so far. so this means that you can't count out college students, young voters, typically sometimes people do. they talk about them as unreliable, but that is not the case here. that is perhaps why we have seen senator warnock show up on so many college campuses talking to

students. >> and also, eva, herschel walker is now having to respond to questions about his residency. what is the issue? >> reporter: well, cnn discovered audio of walker at a campaign event earlier this year telling students that he was living in texas when he decided to run for senate here in georgia. this is on top of k-file discovering that he was getting these tax breaks aimed for a primary residence in texas while running for senate here, but alisyn, i think what is more troubling than this really is the inaccessibility of the candidate. herschel walker is running for high office here, right? the upper chamber of congress, and we can't even really ask him any substantive policy questions. he has not taken questions from the media in more than a month. i tried to do so this week at a campaign event with no success,

and so yes. there are these residency questions. he should answer for those, but he should also have to speak on a number of policy matters as well. for instance, my colleague dianne gallagher was able to ask senator warnock about title 42. he has taken different positions on that. maybe not a question that he would love to get, but at least we were able to ask him that question. we have not been able to do the same with herschel walker. victor, alisyn? >> so interesting, eva. if voters care about policy, they're not getting the answers from herschel walker. eva mckend, thank you very much for the reporting. america now has the first black leader of a major political party in congress. today house democrats elected new york congressman hakeem jeffries minority leader in the new congress. republicans will have the majority. jeffries ran unopposed. after the vote, he thanked past party leaders for his historic essential. >> he called for more

bipartisanship. >> we look forward to finding opportunities to partner with the other side of the aisle and work with them whenever possible, but we will also push back against extremism whenever necessary. >> representatives katherine clark and pete aguilar won the other positions. jeffries' predecessor was voted in a speaker merita last night. this vote was 290 to 137. these eight democrats voted against it. president biden said a strike would put the economy at risk. >> one analysis found it would cost the u.s. a billion dollars in the first week alone. democratic senators believe the measure has support in the senate. the house also approved the provision adding paid sick leave to the bill, but it's unclear if

that addition has support in the senate. there are new developments today in that investigation into a triple homicide at a home in california after police say a teenage girl was deceived by an online predator. today her family is pleading with other parents to use their pain as a cautionary tale. authorities believe 28-year-old austin lee edwards killed the girl's mother and grand parents , set their home on fire after he posed as a 17-year-old boy online and developed a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. >> they're processing the crime scene and digital paper trail, but we know the suspect was recently hired by a virginia sheriff's office after working as a state trooper there. he was caught getting into the home when a neighbor called to report his license plate. hours later he died in a shootout with police. josh campbell has been following this story for us. josh, it was so generous of this grieving family to try to warn

other families. what did they say? >> reporter: that's right. they are devastated. they've obviously lost three family members brutally murdered in this attack. a 15-year-old minor who survived is suffering significant mental and emotional injuries, but we heard from family members a short time ago and they say that they don't want this to happen to other family members out there. this all stemmed from this online scheme called catfishing. it's when someone pretends to be another person. that is what appears to have happened in this case according to police where this 28-year-old former police officer from virginia was in contact with this 15-year-old minor. he was pretending to be a 17-year-old male according to police. he drives from the commonwealth of virginia here to california, makes contact with this minor who was actually a neighbor that called 911 to report that this minor was being taken to a vehicle in a suspicious manner. police were able to track down that car. they engaged in an altercation. the suspect is shot and killed. the minor is rescued, but

authorities found a gruesome scene at the home of that minor. her grandparents were killed as well as her mother, and this is why the family members are saying that parents need to take a greater interest in what their kids are doing online. they need to understand what platforms they are on, to whom they're communicating because again, this appears to have been started from this online scheme. family members also having harsh words for the suspect in this case. they are baffled. they're perplexed. how someone who has sworn to enforce the law would break the law in such a brutal manner. take a listen. >> this was an adult that traveled across the country to kidnap a 15-year-old girl, my niece, our niece, our family member with the idea to kidnap her and kill and devastate our family. he took an oath to protect and yet he failed to do so.

instead, he preyed on the most vulnerable. sg. >> reporter: i talked to detectives a short time ago here at the riverside police department. they're still working the investigation. they have the physical crime scene at the residence, and they're poring over a trove of online evidence. they're calling it a digital crime scene. they're looking into how long this relationship took place, and just as important, are there other potential victims out there? other minors this now deceased shot and killed in a police encounter may have been in contact with. this is something we've seen so many times in covering these cases where you have minors who are targeted by people. this one obviously ending in horrific tragedy. guys. >> josh campbell for us there in riverside. thank you. and this just into cnn. this department of homeland security renewing its warning of threats from lone wolves. that's next. and a treatment for alzheimer's. a new experimental drug is the first to show signs of slowing

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the department of homeland security has renewed a nationwide bulletin warning that people motivated by various ideological beliefs and personal grievances posed a lethal danger to the u.s. >> the bulletin cites recent threats against members of the jewish community and the attack on the lgbtq community in colorado as examples of the ways bad actors are inclined to violence. >> incoming israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said former president trump made a mistake when he chose to die with nick fuentes. the holocaust denier along with

ye at his resort last week. trump later said he did not know who fuentes was before the meeting. >> now we have morton klein and republican strategist, also political commentator, ashley alison. she worked for biden's 2020 campaign. good to have all of you. morton, let me start with you. you told "the new york times" that this last episode with fuentes for dinner at mar-a-lago scared you, that this mainstreaming of jew haters scares you. does this mark the end of your support for donald trump? >> look. donald trump was the greatest friend to israel in the white house ever. he moved the embassy to jerusalem. he recognized jews' right to live in the west bank and he did

the accords making peace with bahrain, and sudan. he's one of the greatest friends. that doesn't change, but having dinner with kanye west who publicly called for the death to all jews, praised hitler and nick fuentes who's a holocaust denier saying, forgive me. i urinate on your jewish torah, jews are the devil. we've asked president trump to repudiate these remarks and say they are despicable in america. that's all he has to do, and to this point he has not done so because by not doing so, it legitimatizes and mainstream this is sort of extraordinary jew hatred in america, and when you have a situation of enormous rise of anti-semitism and attacks on jews, it's especially important for president trump to repudiate these remarks. >> but morton, he has had a week to do that and you say he loves jews and he loves israel.

what do you glean from his refusal to condemn nick fuentes and kanye west's comments? >> this has been his nature. he refuses to ever express regret for a mistake he makes. i don't know why he continues to do that, but let me say something interesting. when president biden publicly praised a jews hater, don't give israel money, and biden called her a passionate intellect that god thanks for being a fighter. nobody said a word about that. >> i don't know about that. >> you have to understand that, you know, both sides -- >> i hear you, mort. i understand the both sides stuff, but i think that democrats have come out and even denounced people in their own party many times and voci

vociferously when there's anti-semitism. i want our viewers to know something that victor, you have been pointing out. this isn't just an anti-semite, fuentes. he's vile on many different levels. he's also a racist. he's also a misogynist. here are just some of his hits. as we know he's a holocaust denier. he's called rape, quote, not a big deal. he said segregation was better for african americans. they had to drink out of a water fountain, big effing deal. he said women should not vote for hold jobs and said they should be kept in line by being given a vicious back-handed slap across the face. given that, john, you were helpful to donald trump in the 2020 campaign. would you still support him in 2024? >> yeah,well, let me be clear on a couple of things. i was there, and i know the staff well. i worked a little bit with the president. i never once saw anything that was anti- -- racist or

anti-semitic in any way. if i had, i would have left the campaign. in looking at this latest episode, i think the big disappointment for me and a lot of republicans is, all right. let's take the president at his word that he didn't know who this individual was. why not use this as a great moment to speak into our universal belief that anybody who is anti-semitic or racist, that we are going to oppose loudly and we're going to be united in that front. >> why isn't he doing that? >> instead he uses this as an excuse he didn't know who that was. that's fine only if you are willing to come out and get on the record about what you believe. >> so has he lost your support? >> well, look. it depends, you know, what happens in the next few days, in the next few weeks. i think the president has an opportunity here. if donald trump would have been re-elected, we would have a better economy. we wouldn't have fentanyl coming up killing 70,000 americans every year. >> i guess. i mean, there was definitely a fentanyl problem before 2020.

>> i do think this has hurt him politically. >> mm-hmm. >> especially when you see how many republican leaders have come out -- >> right. >> -- and asked him to apologize and so forth. i think this has made his second chance at being re-elected at president much more difficult. >> maybe he has another week, maybe another month. it sounds like people are holding kyrie irving to a higher standard than they are a former president and a candidate for president in 2024. ashley, let me come to you. does this spaight -- this spaight of disavowal from so many people sound any different to you than it did after "access hollywood" or charlottesville or january 6th? so the long list of times we've heard republicans say, this is a bridge too far, and then come back to trump for their own political self-preservation. >> it does feel very similar, and i think unfortunately we will probably see this continue. i think you can tell a lot about someone by the company they

keep. if you don't know who someone is and you're having a conversation and then you hear, i'm sure fuentes said some really abhorrent things in that dinner. the next immediate step is not, i didn't know who they were. it is, i do not agree with that individual. i will never meet with that individual again, and i condemn the things that they said, and that's not what trump is doing, and i think anyone who is giving him a path in this moment or frankly has given him a pass many, many times before while he was president and before he was president for saying heinous things, that's unacceptable to me, and i question why they are doing it and then again, i always say, it is putting the politics over the people and what is right and just in this country, and i think people are playing both sides of the fence still because i just don't know if this is going to be the thing that gets trump to go away.

>> ashley allison, john brabender, and morton klein. thank you. attorney general merrick garland will address the oath keepers' convictions. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. stay with us. and when it does, aspen dental is here for you. ththis season, and every seaso, we offer the custom dental treatments you need, all under one roof, right nearby. so, we can bring more life to your smsmile, and more smile to your life, affordably. new patients without insurance can get a free complete exam and x-rays, and 20% off treatment plans. and i'm going to tell you about exciting medicare advantage plans that can provide broad coverage and

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so sad news from the music world. christine mcvee, the singer/song writer behind some of fleetwood mac's biggest hits has died. her family posting on instagram, she passed away peacefully in the hospital this morning. she was in the company of her family. we would like everyone to keep christine in their hearts and remember the life of an incredible human being and revered musician who was loved universally. >> fleetwood mac paid tribute to mcvie. she was truly one of a kind, special and talented. she was 79. researchers believe they have found a way to use artificial intelligence to predict a person's risk of death from heart attack or stroke. >> cnn's medical correspondent is here to explain. sounds great. how does it work?

>> this is my wheelhouse, my favorite topic, cardiology. leading cause of death in men and women in this country, so as you said, if we can find a way to add to our ability to predict someone's risk in an event, that would be huge. right now we use a risk calculator and this study looked at the use of a single chest x-ray. they took 150,000 chest x-rays and plugged them in and generated an a.i. model and applied it to those patients. they found over the next ten years, the a.i. model with the chest x-rays was accurately able to predict the outcomes of those patients. this is promising. i want to highlight this is preliminary. this has not been published or peer reviewed. definitely interesting and exciting. the holy grail is picking out the people who are high risk and getting them started on the road to prevention early. >> tell us also about the study on alzheimer's.

>> we have symptomatic treatments for progression of the disease. this is really the first one that we have. phase three trial, about 1,800 patients published in "the abolish journal," who got an antibody influsion, and they showed a 27% slower decline than those who did not get the drug. on a scale of 0 to 18, this was less than a point. it's a small amount, but for those individuals with alzheimer's, for those families, even small amounts can go a long way in terms of translating from months to days of improvement where people can live independently and be part of their families' lives. exciting news. there are adverse effects associated. we want to point that out as well. you have to weigh those ben efis with the potential side effects and risks. >> a reason for optimism.

>> yes. >> thank you. >> thank you. listen to this. multiple cars used by president biden's secret service were destroyed in a fire at the nantucket airport. what we know about this coming up. my name is joshua florence, and one thing i learnened being a firefighter is plan ahead. you don't know what you're getting into, but at the end of the day, you know you have team behind you that can help you. not ving to worry about the future makes it possible to make the present best as it can be for everybody. ♪ subway's drafting 12 new subs

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honoring climate change advocates. >> and the white house press secretary just announced that when the president is in massachusetts for a georgia senate runoff rfund-raiser, he will greet the royals. the details are still being finalized. several rental cars used by the secret service for president biden's thanksgiving trip ended up in flames at the nantucket airport. >> the fire happened after secret service personnel dropped the vehicles after sunday night and after president biden left for d.c. >> the nantucket fire officials say that calls came in about a fire in the rental car area early monday morning. they say the cause is undetermined and they don't consider the fire suspicious. >> according to the secret service, there were no issues with the cars, and they were returned without incident. with us now is the senior writer at the nantucket current who's been following this story. jason, this is weird. how did the fire start? >> so we're not sure how it

started yet, and as you guys said at the top, the cause is still undetermined, but what fire officials are focused on is one of the vehicles is a ford expedition which was under a subject 2a safety recall by the manufacturer, and they're focused on a faulty battery junction box that has caused vehicle fires. >> jason, i'm so sorry to interrupt you. attorney general merrick garland is now speaking. >> five defendants associated with the oath keepers organization, and yesterday afternoon i was briefed by the attorneys and staff were involved in a major environmental justice matter addressing long standing failures in the city of jackson's public drinking water system. today i want to share more about these two significant matters of public interest. i also want to highlight several other matters that did not garner the same level of attention, but that are em

emblem emblematic of the work this department does every day. when i began my tenure as attorney general, i laid out three co-equal, core priorities for the department of justice. to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights. our work yesterday marked significant successes on each of these fronts. early yesterday evening, a jury in the district of columbia found five defendants associated with the oath keepers guilty of serious crimes related to the january 6, 2021 attack on the united states capitol. two defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the united states for conspireing to oppose by force, the peaceful transfer of presidential power. those two defendants and the three other defendants were also convicted of obstructing the certification of the electoral college vote, and various defendants were also convicted of different additional felony

counts ranging from conspireing to prevent members of congress from discharging their duties to interfering with law enforcement officers attempting to guard the capitol during the attack, to tampering with relevant evidence after the fact. these convictions were the result of tireless work by justice department agents, attorneys, analysts, and support staff beginning in january, 2021 with a methodical collection of evidence and continuing through the presentation of that evidence during the seven-week trial that began in october of 2022. their skill and dedication are in the very best tradition of the justice department, and we are all extremely grateful to them. during the trial, the government's evidence showed that almost immediately following the november, 2020 election, defendant stewart rhodes, the founder and leader of the oath keepers began planning to oppose by force the

peaceful transfer of power. with rhodes, defendants kelly meggs, kenneth harrelson, jessica watkins and thomas caldwell communicated and planned to travel to washington on or around january 6, 2021. on january 6th as the government's evidence showed, defendants meggs, harrelson, and watkins breached the u.s. capitol wearing paramilitary gear while rhodes and caldwell remained on the ground coordinating activities. last evening a jury of the defendant's peers found each of them guilty of serious felony offenses. as the verdict of this case makes clear, the department will work tirelessly to hold accountable those responsible for crimes related to the attack on our democracy on january 6, 2021. yesterday, the department also

secured a significant achievement for environmental justice in jackson, mississippi. in august of this year, a water system failure caused many jackson residents to lose access to running water for over a week. this resulted in local, state, and federal emergency declarations, and the deployment of emergency responders and drinking water infrastructure experts to jackson, and as the residents of jackson know all too well, the august failure occurred after years of problems with the water system. attorneys and staff from our environment and natural resources divisions, environmental enforcement section, from the newly formed office of environmental justice, and from the united states attorney's office for the southern district of mississippi quickly went to work with our partners at epa to address the water crisis facing 160,000 residents of jackson and hines

county. yesterday on behalf of the epa, the department filed a federal complaint against the city alleging that it has failed to provide drinking water that is reliably compliant with the safe drinking water act. at the same time, we filed a proposed interim order signed and agreed to by the city of jackson, the mississippi state department of health and the epa. the proposed order is designed to stabilize the city's public drinking water system while the united states, the city, and the state department of health attempt to negotiate a traditionally enforceable con consent decree to achieve the long-term sustainability of the water system. the proposed order would appoint an interim third party manager to manage the city's drinking water system and implement a set of priority projects that are needed to remedy problems that have contributed to the city's

water crisis. yesterday evening, the court approved the interim order giving it immediate effect. much remains to be done, and the justice department and our partners at epa will continue to work closely with the community to reach a long-term agreement that can ensure the delivery of reliable, clean drinking water. in doing this work, the department's newly created office of environmental justice will continue to play a critical role engaging with the community on the ground in jackson. although environmental justice can happen anywhere -- injustice can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities, and low income communities often bear the brunt of these harms. as we work to fulfill our responsibility to keep the american people safe, to protect civil rights, we will continue to prioritize cases like this

one that will have the greatest impact on communities most burdened by environmental harm. i am very proud of the attorneys, investigators, and staff whose unwavering commit of rule of law and tireless work resulted yesterday in these two significant victories for the american people. i am also very proud of the other work that was being done at the very same time yesterday across the department, work that drew less public attention than the two matters i've just discussed, but that is no less important in fulfilling this department's mission. i'll mention only a few examples. yesterday in kentucky, we obtained an indictment alleging that an individual conspired with others to trick seniors across the country into sending cash payments under false pretenses that a grandchild or a loved one was in a car accident

or legal trouble. yesterday in michigan, an individual was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a child. yesterday in puerto rico, an individual convicted of a hate crime against a transgender woman was yesterday in virginia, the department secured a guilty plea from an individual who illegally purchase aidd a firearm used in three shootings. yesterday in washington state, an individual was sentenced for providing support to isis, a designated foreign terrorist organization. yesterday in alabama, the department charged an individual with allegedly smuggling parts used in the oil and gas industry from the united states to iran in violation of u.s. sanctions. yesterd yesterday in california, ten

defendants associated with a violent prison gang pled guilty to drug trafficking. this represents a small fraction of the work the professionals of the department did yesterday and a small fraction of the work that they do every day to uphold the rule of law, to keep this country safe and to protect civil rights of all americans. it is an honor to work alongside them. i will now take a few questions. >> what's the time line for when residents in jackson, who are desperate to have their water be better quality, what's the time line for when they might be able to see a marked improvement in the water crisis there? >> i would say this to the citizens of jackson. we realize how horrible the circumstances are there. it's hard to imagine not being able to turn on a tap and get safe drinking water. we are approaching there with the greatest possible urgency.

we believe our partners in this are doing so as well. we will bring this to conclusion as soon as we possibly can. >> if i could follow-up. why did the department want to take this dual action of an order as well as a complaint against the city? how does that connect to the environmental justice stance? >> two parts of the question, which is fine with me. the first part is we have to get something done immediately. the water is a problem right now. we can't wait until a complaint is resolved. the first thing we want to do is get an interim order, get a judge to sign, which the judge did, so we can put in an interim manager. that's the purpose of the interim order. the purpose of the complaint is to allow us to negotiate or attempt to negotiate a consent decree which will be enforceable. that's the second part of the question. as to the -- how it relates to an environmental justice, in may of this year, we issued a

comprehensive strategy for environmental justice, part of which -- the first part is to prioritize actions in cases of overburdened and underserved communities. that's what we are doing with respect to jackson. the department's founding purpose was to protect civil rights of american citizens. part of the reason that i wanted to be the attorney general was to work on those problems. this is an example of our using all the resources of the justice department and civil rights issues -- not only the civil rights division, but it's every part of this component and of the work that every employee of the department in their ordinary, everyday employed. >> have you had a chance to meet with special counsel smith? how does the process stand of getting him up to speed on

investigations he is supposed to supervise, which as we know from the trials and so forth, have been under way for more than a year? >> obviously, in the course of deciding on mr. smith as special counsel, i did meet with him. he has been meeting with the members of his team to get up to speed. you know he has signed a pleading in the 11th circuit. he promised to the american people in his own statement that there would be no pause or hiccup in his work. i understand that that is exactly what's going on now. >> attorney general, the committee on the hill that is investigating january 6 is almost finished with their work. one of the things we know that the department has been pushing for is access to some of the transcripts. our understanding is that is still a work in progress. can you give us an update on whether the department is still pushing to get access to all of the transcripts of the witnesses that that committee has met

with? >> we would like to have all the transcripts and the other evidence collected by the committee so that we can use it in the ordinary course of our investigations. >> are you satisfied that you have had the access that you need? >> we are asking for access to all of the transcripts. that's really all i can say right now. >> does the rhodes verdict yesterday, does that create momentum to pursue similar charges against others not present? i know this would be more special counsel. >> i don't want to speculate on other investigations or other parts of other investigations. this is -- this particular case is about mr. rhodes and the other four defendants. as you know, there's another set of oath keepers who start on monday. i don't want to talk more in light of the fact that there's another trial beginning on monday. >> thanks, everybody. enjoy the rest of your day.

>> some remarks from attorney general merrick garland. let's bring in paula reed, sara sidner and elliott williams. paula, let me start with you. a victory lap on the seditious conspiracy theories. there was not a consensus these were the charges to bring. >> that's right exactly right. there was reluctance on the part of the attorney general. now that they have secured these two convictions against two defendants, the attorney general taking a moment to do a victory lap here. this is really significant. here a jury weighed the evidence, and found what happened on january 6 was not spontaneous. instead, the product of an organized conspiracy. you could see what the attorney general was really trying to say here is, we do more work here at the justice department than just these high-profile political

investigations into the former president and his associates. over the past seven years or so, there has been frustration inside the justice department that so much of the attention goes to the high-profile political investigations, either into former secretary of state clinton's emails, the mueller probe, the two investigations into former president trump. they do so much more work on a day-to-day basis. here he was seizing the spotlight to celebrate the prosecutors in the oath keepers trial, in addition to other things they are working on. >> you have covered both of the stories emyies extensively. let's start with the oath keepers. how significant is this conviction? >> it's extremely significant. you will notice that mr. garland pointed out certain names. one of the names, the first one was stewart rhodes. this is a message to the leaders of groups that are extremist groups in this case a far right

militia style extremist anti-government group. this is a message to the leadership to say, if you go forward and do some of these things like trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the united states, we are coming for you. a jury is going to see all the evidence. in this case, a jury convicted two of the five members of this group, one of them an associate of the group, for seditious conspiracy. the charge is very difficult. it's a rare charge, a charge we haven't seen against an american in about a decade, more than a decade. it's not something that the justice department would take lightly or anyone would take lightly. this, i think, really sends a message, particularly to the leadership of some of these groups. it was not a slam dunk. there were a lot of charges that the jury acquit ted some of the five defendants on as well. >> elliott, on this pro-two-pro approach of getting the people

clean drinking water, what do you make of the strategy that we heard from the attorney general? >> you know, big picture, justice department is the only office in the government named after a value, securing justice for people. it's a very powerful tool of the justice department in its civil enforcement authority to seek these consent decrees. you see it in the civil rights context all the time. it's not uncommon to file a suit like this, use that as a negotiating tool to get everybody to come to the table, community, stakeholders, citizens and law enforcement, to come to some consensus. backing up paula's point, we focus on the political investigations and politicians being investigated. this is the very, very important work that the 115,000 people at the justice department do every day. they should be celebrating it. frankly, given all the criticism the attorney general took and has taken for being slow to the

punch when it comes to the victory laps, this is the kind of work that they ought to be trumpeting much more. >> your thoughts on what we heard, sarah? >> it's important. we have been to jackson. we continue to go to jackson, mississippi. my producer and i have been going there to talk to some of the residents there. i will tell you right now, here is the big problem. they need someone to make sure that the water that runs through their taps is safe or they have water at all. there's a huge trust deficit. this might help deal with that. >> thank you both for helping us parse through everything the attorney general announced. he is not somebody who often touts their work. but he made a point of doing so today. thank you. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking