football, housewives, football, housewives... whoops. i just want to talk! call 1-800-directv to guarantee your price for 2 years. outfront next, the rush to find out what was flying over the united states. the military right now recovering a high-flying object

shot down today as we're getting new information about what the biden administration does and does not know about the object. plus, florida governor ron desantis cracking down on election crimes. but is there really an election crime problem? guess what. we've got the numbers and you will come to your own conclusion, i hope. and congressman george santos accused of mpaying for puppies with bad checks worth more than $15,000. i'm going to talk to a reporter who spoke to the amish puppy breeders, who say they were scammed. he went and met them. let's go outfront. good evening. welcome to a special edition of outfront. i'm erin burnett. tonight president biden giving the go-ahead for the u.s. military to take down another object hovering high above the u.s., this time over alaska. that object said to be about the size of a car. they said it was a threat to commercial aviation, passenger jets. tonight our phil mattingly is reporting one of the main reasons that president biden decided to shoot the object down

was, well, it came less than a week after the chinese spy balloon was shot down. we're now learning the u.s. military is in the process of recovering that mysterious object. so let's get to phil mattingly because, phil, i know you've got some new reporting from the white house. you've been talking to your sources there. we find out about this today. it suddenly gets shot down. what happened as far as you're learning? >> reporter: erin, i think in talking to officials over the last several hours, there are two striking elements here. the first is how many unanswered questions remain. officials very candid about the fact they still don't know what the object is. they can't identify it affirmatively. they don't know what its capabilities are. they don't know its origin, whether it was state-owned or private-owned although one official told me they haven't been given any indication it was a state-owned object like that chinese spy balloon. they also don't know why it was over u.s. airspace to begin with. the other element here is just how quickly the decision was made to shoot the object down, especially when compared to what we saw with the chinese spy balloon, which traversed across

the united states over a period of several days. and the reason here, the driving reason according to officials i've spoken to, is where this balloon -- or where this object was actually flying, where it was floating, however it was trav traversing. that is at 40,000 feet. that is the top end of where commercial airliners usually fly. that in the minds of u.s. officials, who had no concept of what this actually was, created an unacceptable risk, one official told me, when it came to how the pentagon was viewing things and what their recommendations were to president biden. there were first indications of this on thursday evening. the president was briefed on thursday evening. they sent two separate efforts up of fighter jets to get a better look of what this was, to try and identify the object itself. neither was conclusive. the recommendation to the president was to shoot the object down. the president made that order earlier this morning, and it was shot down shortly before 2:00 p.m. another key element here, the

canadian leader, justin trudeau, said he was briefed on the issue. he supported the decision too shoot it down. this was in the alaska and canada border region. you could see how this process worked through and worked through very quickly. my sources on capitol hill saying they have been informed throughout this process about this object. so it appears both in the timing, how quickly decisions were made here, the tracking of this, and how they've tried to inform both international partners and partners on capitol hill, that there have been some shifts compared to how the chinese spy balloon was operated. one official told me, look, apples to oranges in terms of capabilities and what we know about these objects, not just the size, which is obviously dramatically different as well. but it is very clear they are taking a different strategy here and moved very quickly to take this out of the skies, erin. >> phil mattingly, thank you very much, from the white house. if you're thinking it's a lot smaller than the chinese spy balloon, right, that was three buses. this is a small car. still if you're flying in a

passenger jet at something the size of a small car, you can understand that would be catastrophic. my panel is with me now. it's amazing from phil's reporting. what he's saying is that they don't know what it was. they don't know what it wasn't. they're not sure what it could do and not sure who controlled it. but they shot it down really fast because it was something they didn't know anything about a few days ago, and it turns out that something was a something. and there were a whole lot of somethings like that in the past that they realize were not unidentified aerial phenomenon, but chinese spy balloons. it's a little unsettling what we don't know. >> it's a new protocol. we probably expected that first air balloon to be shot down as soon as it violated u.s. airspace. it looks like the pentagon was watching it all along. it was a different altitude and exposed this domain gap with regard to their capabilities. f this one in particular, obviously from what happened

last week, the president makes the decision that it clearly violates the airspace. we don't know what it is. we scrambled jets up to take a look at it. it was emanating signals. it wasn't necessarily collecting things. it could have been a balloon from a not for profit foundation. >> the one today? >> the one today. >> when you talk about the context here, which is what happened a few days ago, we see this one that was at 65,000 feet, and it usually is up at 100. when they track back and look at it, they go, oh, those ufos were actually i don't know how many spy balloons. and it has sparked anger at the administration from both democrats and republicans. two examples right here. >> you guys have to help me understand why this baby wasn't taken out long before. >> i think it was a huge mistake for them not to take down the balloon before it entered the continental united states. >> they're talking about that balloon specifically, right, as

opposed to the fact we found out there were others where that one had come from. this puts the administration in a tight spot. >> yeah. that's certainly the case. obviously the biden administration does not want to have a scenario this week or going into next week in which there's a balloon flying over the united states and they have to tell everyone, no, it's okay. we wanted to do that. they don't want to be in that position again. when they get up there and see this thing and make the determination there probably isn't going to be information we can glean from it, it's okay to shoot it down. it makes sense the biden administration is going to err on the thing not spending any more time over the united states than it needs to. i also think this raises the question of how many balloon-like objects are there that are approaching the united states? it's pretty clear that it happens with some regularity and now this is -- you know, to the point that was just made, there's a new protocol. >> right. >> at least for the short term, those things are not going to be flying very far. >> it's the biden administration right now. it's an embarrassment they didn't know these things were

happening. that embarrassment pre-dates them. we know there was one that happened when esper was secretary of defense. nonetheless it's an embarrassing situation. >> it's not great. i think the administration acted wisely in acting quickly for this object right here. there still are a lot of questions. when it comes to national security, i want folks to be thorough. i want them to be aggressive in getting the information. it seems like they've learned something over a short period of time from the chinese balloon to what is happening tonight. so not great for the administration, but i'm hoping our national security folks are constantly on the clip, learning new things and trying to act more aggressively when things are in our airspace. >> there is something, though, i have to say. we're sitting here talking about these objects. we can't even come up with the right word because object is the best we can do, floating around. >> you mean operation welcome to earth here. we don't know what it was. we don't know who owns it. we don't know what it was doing,

and yet we decided to shoot it down anyway. obviously it was a political decision. you called it an embarrassment. i think that's exactly right because they couldn't afford to have another one. but it does beg the question. two things in a week. i mean how many times is this happening over a period of years, over the last six months even, and maybe it's not state-owned, but what is up there, i think you have people in both parties on capitol hill right now who are legitimately unhappy with what they've been told about this. and so i think the shoot-down today was political. but probably the right answer given how they did the last one. >> the situation is unsettling. the other top story tonight, we are learning that former president donald trump's legal team turned over some more documents with classified documents and somebody had copied it on a thumb drive and it was on a laptop. this is after subpoenas and searches of mar-a-lago, all of that, right? mike pence's home today was searched by the fbi. they found one more classified document.

so, major, lyons, as a former intelligence officer, you had nuke codes. >> yeah. >> so you know the seriousness -- the true seriousness of classified information. >> mm-hmm. >> what is going on with this? politicians do not seem to take this with the level of importance that people like you do. >> that's probably right. there is an overclassification of information in the government. something like 50 million documents a year get classified. usually it's by -- >> 50 million? >> 50 million a year. on top of that, normal policy is a 25-year expiration before they can become not classified. so there's a billion or so documents running around our government that are still technically classified but it could be a weather report on an op they were going to run on something that really has nothing to do that's actually really classified. having said that, i don't know what was in the vice president's house. i don't know what they recovered. it could have been something important. but the bottom line there is an issue of overclassification. everybody knows it's a problem in the government. but there's got to clearly be more awareness on all sides.

we have a 20th century classification system in the 21st century. we have emails, texts, not a lot of focus on privacy. >> amazing, a billion. you take it with a level of seriousness that it should be. scott, apples to apples, pence has cooperated, hasn't willfully taken documents. that would be similar to what we node biden -- his situation. biden has a special counsel. so if pence gets a special counsel and he's also got to now testify in the trump criminal january 6th investigation, does this make him less likely to run? >> no, i don't. i think he's going to run for president. >> no matter what? >> yeah. look, i don't think we have any indication that mike pence has done anything dishonest on either count. >> no, we don't. >> you raise the january 6th investigation, which he was subpoenaed for yesterday apparently. what do we know about mike pence? he did his duty on january 6th by upholding the u.s. constitution. i don't have any reason to believe he's acted in in other

way than fidelity to the constitution. whatever happens to him, he's been honest and he's earned a right to run. >> stay with me. next, florida governor desantis on a new mission to crack down on election fraud in his state. except for there isn't election fraud. wait till we show you the actual numbers here. new allegations involving embattled congressman george santos, which lead us tonight to amish country and a potential scam involving puppies and thousands of dollars. a reporter went there, went to speak to the amish farmers, who say they were scammed by santos. he's going to tell you about those conversations. plus the former president of georgia, a top putin foe, remains in jail, incredibly sick and fragile. he says he's been poisoned. they've run the tests. ossibilits in the all-new lexus rx. never lose your edge.

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of the total vote. now, of those complaints, 75 of them were referred to law enforcement. so that gets you down to 0.0007% of the total vote. and ultimately that led to 20 arrests. let me get my glasses on. can you read this? 0.0002% of the total vote. then one of those cases was dismissed by a judge, and i can't do the math there but it's even smaller than 0.0002. desantis himself knows these numbers because the day after the 2020 election, he bragged about how incredible the elections are in florida. >> the way florida did it, i think inspires confidence. i think that's how elections should be run. we're now being looked at as the state that did it right and the state that these other states should emulate. >> daniel lip mapman is joining. okay, scott. he knows the numbers. you heard him. he said it. if everyone could just do

elections like florida, things would be great. so why is he going to spend taxpayer money on a salary for someone to look at election fraud that's not there. >> i think two things. one would be amazing if there were zero fraud. >> that is what he would say. >> number two, i think he's trying to obviously demonstrate to a whole group of people out there that he is serious about this particular issue, which is top of mind for republican voters around the country. i don't think it's an illegitimate thing to do in a state government. at the same time, it obviously demonstrates a political message that he wants to get out there. >> it's clearly a political message, right? okay. he's playing into the people who think that elections are fraudulent and saying, i'm going to take care of it even though he's on record saying florida elections are great and not fraudulent. >> 100%, yes. this is a play for the republican primary vote in 2024. he is trying to ensure that all -- >> wait. are you surprised? >> no, no. you were very judicious in how you described it. >> i think he's going to put a little less lipstick on his answer. >> yeah.

the wide swath of things ron desantis is doing thare things targeting these people, trump voters in particular. he's saying, i'm there. i'm fighting for you. even those 20 cases, a lot of them were people who were told by county officials, you can register to vote now because felons are allowed to vote. then they get busted because they had a certain type of felony. this happened regularly in these 20. so even within that subset of cases, these are a little dube yusz. it's a political play and the people feeling the effects of it are people arrested for crimes that involve nothing -- >> while he would say you want it to be zero, you do. but you also want a return on investment. if i'm going to pay a taxpayer salary, i want some returns. this isn't an roi decision. this is a political return on investment. >> what desantis is doing is instructly politics. it's playing into the 2020 election was stolen without

actually saying it. before the election, there were people that even law enforcement had to arrest because of so-called fraud after an election administrator had told them to register, and they were saying, this is a waste of money. this is a waste of taxpayer resources. this is just a ploy that desantis is doing. i'm not actually surprised because if you also remember after the 2020 election, a lot of times this time frame is when republicans launch these voter suppression tactics so that they set a foundation leading up not so close to the election but in the -- >> or shall we say they launch their trial balloons. >> so, daniel, in this context, this is desantis setting his stage every single day for what people think will be a presidential run. chris sununu, who is also someone who people think will run, he says the republican

party is moving on from donald trump. here he is. >> donald trump is not going to be the nominee, right? we're just moving on as a party, as a country. if the election were today, desantis probably wins in new hampshire. i think in other states as well. it's just not getting any better for the former president. we're going to say thank you for your service and move on. >> wishful thinking? >> we've heard this for six years state. remember in 2015, no one thought trump was going to be the nominee. in 2016, everyone kept staying in the primary race until they thought that trump would get a knockout blow. so, you know, we've heard this same rhetoric time and time again, and with sununu going at the race and tons of other republicans jumping into the race in the next few months, we could have a 2016 repeat where no one -- because politicians have egos, they want to see, oh, maybe we'll win in florida. maybe we'll win on super tuesday. maybe trump might waltz to the

primary result. >> you had a chance to speak to glenn youngkin. that was crt, parents wanting control over the schools. is he even considering it right now? >> well, he has to because usually you get only one shot of being someone who could run for the presidency. so he has to take his time in the sun. i think it's interesting how he's trying to play both sides. he's trying to be the moderate businessman from northern virginia, who can speak to parents' concerns about their role in education. but he's also trying to do the anti-woke stuff, the crt, you know, what he thinks can appeal to the republican base. that's a tough bargain to manage. >> it's very tough. meanwhile, in the republican party, you have a battle, and it's actually a battle that joe biden set up. let me just give everyone a chance to hear it. this is mitch mcconnell talking about his fellow senate republican rick scott.

>> if we were to become the majority, there were no plans to raise taxes on half the american people or sunset medicare or social security. so it's clearly the rick scott plan. it is not the republican plan. that's the view of the speaker of the house as well. >> well, you don't need to fight with them if they're going to fight with themselves like that. >> rick scott has been attacking mitch mcconnell every day for the last several months, and he's been doubling and tripling down on this plan, which literally no other republican is on television -- >> let's be clear. the plan is every five years, every federal program goes away, and you've got to repass it. >> and biden is trying to pass this like off, and then the state of the union was trying to say, this is our deal. you have to do the rick scott plan in order to get the debt ceiling, which is blatantly dishonest. mcconnell is correct in saying no other republican wants to do this. why did rick scott release a new

plan today? his new plan on social security. because finally they realized this is a losing battle. he's already dead on this hill. we're going to go fight on another hill. mcconnell is right. no republicans want to do this. they're not going to do it. if rick scott wants to go out and campaign on it, that's his business. but mcconnell's job is to defend his conference. and that's what he's doing here. >> thanks to all. appreciate it. next, the congressman who has lied incessantly about his past. once charged with theft in an alleged scam involving amish dog breeders. the george santos saga widens. >> plus exclusive new video of a top putin foe whose lawyer says he's being poisoned and slowly killed while in prison. the attorney for the former president of georgia is my guest. und in the name itself. rent - a a - car. yoyou don't want a friend. you want the friend.

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tonight george santos' bad checks. "the washington post" speaking to farmers in pennsylvania's amish country who said they received bad checks in santos' name to pay for several puppies, and those checks totaled more than $15,000. "the post" spoke with several breeders who said they handed over to santos four golden retrievers, at least three yorkshire terriers, two german shepherds and an english cream golden retriever.

santos at the time was running a charity, which he claims during the campaign rescued dogs and cats. outfront now, jonathan o'connell. he traveled to pennsylvania and spoke with these amish farmers. jonathan, obviously santos alleged that someone stole his checkbook and then these checks were all made out to breeders, breeders from which he got dogs and he says someone else did this. your article starts with a farmer who says george santos approached him looking to buy at least eight puppies. the farmer tells you, quote, something inside me said i just cannot trust him. so you went and talked to this farmer. tell me more about that interaction. >> reporter: yeah, erin. i mean obviously george santos has been caught lying a number of times, and he's admitted some of those lies. but what we really want to do here is show there's not just political consequences to what's happening here, that there are real people being hurt by some of his dishonesty. so we had learned a little while ago actually that there had been a number of people who had

allegedly received bad checks from him in pennsylvania in exchange for puppies, for dogs, purebred dogs. and we thought, let's find these people. let's tell their story. let's hear from them about what's happened to them. that actually proved to be much more difficult than we expected. anyone who's been through amish country in pennsylvania probably knows that the amish and mennonites are a very close-knit community. they avoid technology. also many of them have the same name. so we called dozens and dozens of people who breed dogs in pennsylvania, looking for the correct people. and, you know, they have phones, many of them, but their phones are not always in their homes. they keep them in a shack out separate from their barn or their home, and they might check it once a day, their voicemail. there's no way to text them any pictures to see if they actually met george santos. we mailed people -- we mailed farmers photos of him and of these checks that we thought they had received. then ultimately, yeah, we did

drive through and meet some of the farmers so that we could show them his picture, show them the checks we thought they had received, and they could actively identify for us, yes, this person did promise us money. he took the puppies that we had bred. and he cheated us. >> and they told you that? they did confirm that? >> reporter: yes. you know, this is not a normal interaction for these folks for the most part. i mean we are driving up onto their property. you know, this is -- these are farms with a lot of milk cows obviously. some of them don't use tractors because of their avoidance of technology. we are strangers to them obviously, introducing ourselves and explaining that this person that in some cases they identified as having been the person who cheated them is now in congress. and some of them had heard that, and some of them were really kind of shocked to hear that. >> it's incredible. so what did -- what stood out to you from the conversations? they obviously are confirming to

you that that's the man who said he was going to pay them and then didn't. so you were able to confirm all that. what else stood out to you? >> reporter: you know, these people really -- they trusted him. you know, he showed up two nights in 2017. he showed up later than he promised a couple times. it's dark when he arrived. one of them was the day before thanksgiving. sometimes he had promised, you know, people told us he had promised to pay by wire or pay by cash and decided at the last second or after negotiation that he wanted to pay by check. and these farmers were sometimes hesitant about deciding to accept a check but ultimately agreed to and then deeply regretted it because these checks are for $1,500, $2,000, $2,500. this is a lot of money to these people. you know, these are simple people. you know, it takes -- frankly, it takes some courage for them to say something about it because they don't typically do that. >> yeah. well, thank you so much for

sharing that reporting and bringing the personal part of this home, the individuals on the other side of this for whom this money meant so much. thank you. be sure to see jonathan's full story in "the washington post." next, exclusive new video of a longtime putin foe. ukraine's president zelenskyy alleges is being slowly killed. the former president of georgia's health is precarious and worsening tonight. his appearance has dramatically changed. one of his lawyers is next. plus, royalty sharing ahead of the super bowl. a rihanna smash hit offered up as an nft. what is an nft, you ask? you're going to see all about it in an outfront investigation tonight. ♪

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tonight an outfront exclusive. new video showing the failing health of the former georgian president and top putin critic, mikheil saakashvili. we want to warn viewers it's disturbing to look at this. the video shows what saakashvili's legal team is one of the many seizures that he has suffered in a georgian prison. you can see this from the surveillance camera. like i said, it's pretty hard to look at that. then here he is in another video. you'll see saakashvili there in

pain, falling out of his bed. then nurses in that facility rush in. he literally sort of disappears before our eyes in that video. then on the left, i'll show you something else. saakashvili this week appearing in a court hearing. it was virtual, just through the screen. you can see his ribs and how thin he is, and that's on the other side of the screen how he looked in 2020, just before he was arrested. his lawyers say he's lost about 100 pounds. they have done dna tests they say show he's been poisoned with mercury and arsenic. those dna tests have been done by doctors in the united states. the differences in these two pictures are very disturbing. it's important to see them because this is happening right now. this is a person who right now tonight is going through this. it comes just days after the ukrainian president zelenskyy said that saakashvili is being slowly killed. he urged the world to come together to secure his release. saakashvili's lawyers say this all comes back to one man alone, and that man is vladimir putin. they say saakashvili was

arrested and convicted on trumped up charges of abuse of power and that the pro-putin georgian government is doing putin's bidding. saakashvili, of course, was a loud champion for georgia on the world stage and fought against putin when putin invaded georgia. spent years warning the world about him including right here on this show. >> he likes people who he can really manipulate and intimidate. the only thing that america cannot afford to show the russians that america is weak because the only thing putin appreciates, everybody knows that, is sheer force. >> maybe then not everybody knew that. outfront now, one of saakashvili's lawyers. the seizures we saw in that video are disturbing, but you say they're becoming more and more frequent. what do doctors think is causing this and how worried are they? >> they're extremely concerned. as you can see in that progression of photographs and video you just showed, he is

rapidly declining in health. you can see him going through seizures. he's got brain damage. he's got a reduction of white matter in his prefrontal cortex. >> you were able to establish that through testing? >> yes. in some of the videos, you will see i was there with our expert neurologist, who is a congressional medal of honor award winner. we actually took hair samples and nail samples and body tissue and sent them back to labs here for testing, which concluded that he had heavy metals throughout his system, including mercury and arsenic. >> mercury and arsenic, which you're saying could be slowly being put into his system in some way while he's in prison. so when we look at how he was now compared to when he was arrested, that's incredibly jarring. that's before, right? and now. but even now, compared to late december, that's when you and i last were together talking about him. that's been seven weeks. how much has changed in just those seven weeks? >> a lot. he is continuing the rapid

decline. again, you can see the extreme loss of weight that's continuing. in fact, the polish prime minister came out today. we have also 27 european countries that came out in solidarity, seeking his release. you know, poland will take him. france will take him. the u.s. will take him. obviously president zelenskyy, you saw him with those photographs. ukraine will take him for medical treatment. he needs to be moved immediately and go through a detoxification process. even then our neurologist doesn't even know if, you know, his current brain damage will ever be reversed. >> right. you are talking about brain damage and a change in the white matter. so you're saying some of this may not be reversible. >> correct. >> so you have detailed medical analysis which you say a congressional medal of honor -- u.s. recipient administered, showing mercury and arsenic levels. you say you've got no doubt he's been poisoned. the lead investigator into the poisoning of alexei navalny says

he's now investigating this at saakashvili's request. do you have any doubt that this investigation leads back to moscow, to putin? >> we have no doubt at all. this is a story about good versus evil, about the police state versus the free state. remember, saakashvili is the father of democracy in that region. he brought democracy there. there was a nonviolent shift in power for the first time ever in the region when he gave power to the current ruling party, the georgian dream, who is led by -- the architect is an oligarch and clearly a putin proxy. so that is what we're dealing with here, and we need the assistance of the united states and its allies to come in and suspend aid. the u.s. is giving tens of millions of dollars of aid to -- >> to georgia. >> to support democratic programs, to support the court system, and there's clearly a backsliding of democracy.

and we as the united states need to stand up and be the protector and champion of democracy. >> so the u.s. ambassador to georgia spoke out about saakashvili's condition, saying, we will continue to implore the government to take the necessary steps to prevent the situation from escalating further and to provide saakashvili with the type of treatment he needs. is that enough? >> i don't think it's enough. clearly the united states and the ambassador is closely looking at the situation. but we need a real effort here. the suspension of aid, the imposition of sanctions, visa restrictions. these are the -- you know, the avenues that we need to use in order to expedite his release. >> thank you very much. i appreciate your time. next, an in-depth look the at the controversial world of nfts. crypto assets hyped by many celebrities. but at least one major company selling nfts is facing growing legal problems. so on the back of crypto, some might be nervous. could this boom go bust?

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♪ rihanna's 2015 hit single back in the news again, not only because rihanna will headline sunday's super bowl halftime show, but because the song is now being offered as an nft. nft stands for non-fungible token. a digital asset that has exploded in popularity in recent years. those who bought the rihanna nfts will receive a fraction of that song's streaming royalties. but what exactly are nfts? we hear about them so much lately. and really is this a made-up thing? is this a bubble that's about to burst? elle reeve has this outfront investigation. >> reporter: nfts, typically digital art bought and sold with cryptocurrency, really started going mainstream after these cartoon 8 pictures had their moment on late night tv. >> i love it. >> this is my. >> it's become the face of nfts,

and i think maybe not in a good way. >> why is this nft worth almost $200,000? >> a collection of 10,000 a images became some of the most prominent nfts, and they were everywhere. streetwear, billboards, a signature event called ape fest. they had an air of mystery. the founders of the company were initially anonymous. >> i walked around. no one knew i helped create this thing. >> reporter: celebs scooped them up and tweeted about it. >> justin bieber bought one. >> they were the first nft that got this much market capitalization and attention. >> reporter: and then crypto crashed, and the nft market was hit even harder. now the apes have plummeted in value, and the celebrities that promoted them are facing a lawsuit. so is the company that created them. it's also facing a potential s.e.c. violation, all while being dogged by allegations of racially offensive imagery, which the company denies. >> remember that time i bought that board ape for $750,000, and

now it's worth a gift certificate to walmart? like what the -- happened? >> reporter: what did happen? you could decline to sit down with cnn for an on-camera interview. si >> reporter: the enormous valuations, the awkward celebrity ads. >> i'm getting into crypto. >> reporter: and the big promises about the future now all look a bit absurd. while it was not the biggest phenomenon in crypto, it embodied all of those things. >> you didn't buy it for the artistic value of it. >> no. it's a monkey, man. nobody buys a monkey for $300,000. >> they were sort of compiled by computers. it's not that unique. the unique part of it is the speculative bubble. >> reporter: a lot of people bought nfts >> you need this sort of endless

supply of greater tools to be putting money into crypto in order for the crypto price to continue to go up. >> celebrities started talking about the apes. the price soared. in march 2022 a $450 million venture capital investment gave a valuation of $4 billion. now class action lawsuit claims those celebrities were secretly paid to tout the apes and got them for free. >> moon pay. >> reporter: the lawsuit filed in december talks of a vast scheme to inflate their prices. the celebrities have not

responded to request for comment. both he and his client madonna paid full price for their apes. in a twitter spaces chat last year said he rejected a deal to promote the apes. >> the craziest thing about that is a lot of celebrities going into this they don't even realize a lot of them probably don't consult their legal and that. >> reporter: a spokesman denies the claim. beyond questions who bought their nfts and why there's also questions about what the bored apes represent. some show them in hip hop

clothes, a prison jumpsuit. record enthusiast pointed out monkeys are a racisttrope. >> i'm going to get black people to love monkeys so much they're going to buy them and they're going to go to something called an ape fest and they're going to like it. wouldn't that sound funny? >> reporter: more accusations circulated online like in a video viewed over a million times but intentionally referenced memes. >> there's a video going on around youtube showing how bored ape is actually racist. and actually as i look at the sketches of bored ape, they are kind of racist. >> reporter: these claims include there's a resemblance between some of the apes and an infamous symbol. these accusations are at issue

in another lawsuit. the artist writer says he thought the apes were racist. yuga sued for trademark infringement. the company strongly condemns the spread of hate in any form and that these suggestions are the incoherent ramblings of conspiracy theorists. frederick took an interest in these claims because he used to run a similar site and had it taken down after it became a hub for extremist violence. >> i don't think so because there's too many of these. >> reporter: other apes that critics say look like a pepe meme are wearing a hand band that sed says kamikaze. >> kamikaze is used as a slur against japanese people. i speak japanese so that was the one most shopping. >> i doubt they were an outright massive troll campaign. i do think it's likely the creators of the project basically included some nods to

four chan. >> the thing is crypto has adopted a lot of the same sort of dog whistles as other sort of racist parts of the internet. >> i was hoping in my eternal optimism that people would become a lot more skeptical of tech bros, and that liberal so-called celebrities in hollywood would view these people with suspicion. apparently not. >> it's incredible. i want to watch that three more times. i've got to get my head around the psychology of people wanting to acquire things for no reason other than other people have them and then it's not even a thing. this is one of many crypto companies under scrutiny right now. >> that's right. there are several crypto companies this week who announced they're scaling back their services because of much more intense regulatory scrutiny. one of its cofounders this week published a 24-page letter

saying why he's stepping back from the company and addressing these widespread rumors that the company and its products are connected to the alt right. he said he had refute these rumors under oath. >> pretty amazing do you imagine people still want to buy this stuff or just because. >>? >> there's a catchphrase in crypto, numbers go up. >> number go up, i like that. as long as it goes up, who cares. i guess that was their attitude and now here we are. ellie, thank you so much. thank you all of us for joining us. "cnn tonight" with alisyn camerota is next.. yeah, you'll get used to it.t. this mom''s depositing money with tools on-hand. cha ching. and this mom, well, she's setting an appointment here, so her son can get set up there and start his own financial journey. that's because these moms all have chase. smart bankers. convenient tools.

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