georgia's secretary of state set to speak to federal investigators today. rudy giuliani we're now learning has just done the same. what these men mean to donald

trump now as a special counsel's probe heats up into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. and russian missiles striking a busy ukrainian restaurant at dinnertime. this morning at least ten people are dead and several others have been injured, including two teenage twin girls. we have a live report from ukraine. and travel trouble ahead of a big holiday weekend. severe weather leading to multiple ground stops at some of the country's busiest airports. what you need to know if you are planning to travel for the fourth. i'm john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner, and this is cnn "news central." ♪ so will donald trump face more federal charges? after today special counsel jack smith he could be a big step closer to answering that and here is the reason, well, two reasons, these two men, former trump lawyer rudy giuliani and

georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger, both central characters in the trump saga to overturn the 2020 election results. both now speaking to federal investigators about those efforts, and cnn has now exclusively learned federal investigators interviewed giuliani in recent weeks and today raffensperger is now expected to face questions himself. you will recall he was one of the republicans to stand up and stop trump from finding the 11,000 plus votes that he said that he needed to change the outcome in georgia. and there's more. a new lawsuit just filed. donald trump is now suing e. jean carroll for defamation. this comes after, of course, the jury in new york found trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her. let's get started. cnn's katelyn polantz is polling all of this. katelyn, first let's talk about the reporting about rudy giuliani. what more are you learning? >> reporter: well, kate, rudy giuliani is a really interesting

figure in this investigation at a moment where the investigation has been very busy. so sara murray and paula reid last night exclusively reported that rudy giuliani has been in for an interview with the special counsel's office as they investigate donald trump and others around january 6th and the 2020 election. and that raises a ton of questions. why and why now is rudy giuliani sitting for a voluntary interview? we previously knew that he had been the subject of a subpoena, he had received a subpoena from early on in this -- or several months ago in this investigation and he's also the subject of other people's subpoenas, where the special counsel's office has been seeking a lot of communications he had with others around the election, being one of those central figures helping donald trump try to sow doubt in the election. talking to state legislatures, working with fake electors, and that plan also going to courts and submitting false information

in court about election fraud. so all of that put together makes a very interesting moment for them to want to talk to giuliani and him to agree to do it voluntarily, at the same time the special counsel's office is in this intense push to lock down information about the fake electors and what was happening in various states on behalf of donald trump, and that includes this interview set for today that the special counsel's office, investigators are going to be doing with georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger. if you need a reminder on who that is, this is the call that donald trump made to him, specifically, in january of 2021 after the election. >> so, look, all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. >> reporter: now, kate, remember

raffensperger wrote in his book after that call that i felt then and still believe today that this was a threat. something he very well may be relaying to federal prosecutors looking at donald trump and others as well. >> absolutely. katelyn, thank you for putting all that reporting together. really appreciate it. john, this is about the investigation by the special counsel into efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and yet there's more. >> yeah, that's like door number one, behind door number two or maybe this is door number three or four -- >> whichever one you prefer. >> a new response this morning from donald trump to the audio recording first obtained by cnn where he seems to be discussing a secret document in his hands after leaving the white house. trump claims he, quote, did nothing wrong, despite the statements in his voice repeatedly referring to something he described as secret and not declassified. trump's comments came on the campaign trail in new hampshire. cnn's alayna treene joins us

now. he is talk about this out there in public. >> reporter: he is, john, and he's repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but i think what's really interesting about his response to the audio that cnn obtained is that even though he's denying any wrongdoing at first he didn't even mention the document in question and that does stand in a bit of a contrast with what we know he told fox news' bret baer where he denied even having any classified documents. his response was muddled and a little confusing. let's listen to what exactly he had to say, john. >> the voice was fine. what did i say wrong in those recordings? i didn't even see the recording. all i know is i did nothing wrong. we had a lot of papers, a lot of papers, stacked up, in fact, you could hear the rustle of the paper and nobody said i did anything wrong other than the fake news, which of course is fox, too. >> reporter: now, i want to note, john, that we have reached out to the trump campaign and

tried to ask him exactly what he was referring to when he talked about having these copies of plans because, as we know, prosecutors have demanded that he not just turn over the original documents that he may have had in his possession, but also any copies of those. so we're still trying to get answers on what exactly donald trump was referring to, but i think it's really notable how his response has been changing. yes, he continues to deny any wrongdoing, but even immediately after he was arraigned in court in miami and he spoke to his crowd of supporters in bedminster, new jersey, i was there, and he said that he thought he was entitled to taking documents with him. he later, then, told fox news that he believed that he did not have any documents and now we're seeing he's just outright saying he did nothing wrong. we'll continue to follow this as we report out the more details from this story, john. >> and everything he says in public is admissible in the courtroom going forward. alayna treene, great to have you this morning. also, kate, interesting that he

claimed not to hear the recording but did note that he could hear the rustling of the paper in the recording which he did not hear. >> interesting. interesting, john. sorry, i was looking away from you because i'm just not allowed to look at. >> you it's hard to look away. we are going to move on now before i walk into an hr violation and now to that new lawsuit just filed by donald trump. he's countersuing e. jean carroll. this is just weeks after a jury found that he sexually abused and defamed the former magazine columnist. in this new lawsuit trump claims that carroll defamed him after that verdict when she appeared on cnn. kara scannell is here with more. tell us more of what is in this lawsuit and what donald trump is saying here. >> yeah, kate. i mean, as you say, donald trump filing this defamation lawsuit and it comes after the jury last month found that trump had sexually abused e. jean carroll and defamed her. she appeared on cnn this morning

the morning after the jury's verdict and was asked about the finding by the jury, it was a civil case, they found that he sexually abused her, but not her allegation that trump had raped her. take a listen. >> this jury found that trump did not rape you. what about that moment? >> robi can explain the legal. >> and i want you to, but i just wonder what went through your head when you heard that. >> well, i just immediately say in my own head, oh, yes, he did. oh, yes, he did. see, that's my response. >> so the issue here is that carroll had alleged that trump had raped her in a department store in the mid 1990s. the jury was given a verdict form under what she sued under which were battery which there were several options, one was rape and one was sexual abuse. they had checked the box for sexual abuse. they also found that trump defamed carroll because he denied her allegation of rape,

said he didn't know her and she wasn't his type. the judge will decide whether or not to allow this counterclaim to go forward but it is the latest round of litigation in this lawsuit. this 2018 defamation lawsuit is set to go to trial next year and the judge has allowed carroll to amend it to seek $10 million in damages after this other jury awarded her $5 million for comments that trump made on the cnn town hall after the verdict where he repeated the statements that he did not rape carroll. kate? >> great to see you, care rachlt thank you so much for that. sara? and that is just one of the many cases that donald trump is facing. with us now daniel j. horowitz, former manhattan assistant district attorney and partner at mclaughlin and stern. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> we were just talking about it just keeps coming. i mean, it's like a train that won't stop. people talk about the trump train. this is the legal problems train. how important -- we're going to go now to the special counsel and what he's doing because we have this indictment that is

already in place with the 37 charges related to the documents case. now he's looking at something different. something perhaps more important to people in some ways. how important is rudy giuliani, the former new york mayor's testimony and what do you think that the special counsel is after at this point when it comes to giuliani's testimony? >> so i think it's a really significant development because you've had this georgia investigation that's been going on now for several years into what happened with election fraud in georgia. now you've got the overlay of the department of justice doing an investigation into the events of january 6th. but as you just said, it's tracks, it's two trains that are running on the same track together, and what jack smith i think is trying to do is to draw the georgia investigation into his. he's trying to fold it into his federal investigation into what happened on january 6th. clearly rudy giuliani is a key player there, as is the secretary of state in georgia.

i think what's going to play out is that he's going to try to take that investigation, that grand jury report that the atlanta fulton county da did and he's going to try to take that evidence and fold it into what he's doing. what you're seeing with giuliani and the secretary of state is an important step. >> all right. at this point after all the shenanigans and all of the gaffes that -- is he even a credible witness at this point, though? >> it's not even a question of ability. you're -- that he's self-inflected on himself but he is a critical witness. i mean, remember, he was the u.s. attorney in the southern district. he has been an important player in law enforcement and justice policy for many years. he's at the center of this. so smith clearly has to speak to him. >> i mean, he was on stage on january 5th riling up the crowds. let me ask you about you just

mentioned georgia and fani willis is looking into what happened there and whether there was malfeasance on donald trump's part. brad raffensperger who is the person that you hear donald trump talking to, trying to convince him to find 11,000 plus votes, what do we expect his impact is going to be on this case because he's coming to testify as well? >> well, again, i think the way that jack smith is looking at this is that it's a holistic approach because what happened in georgia is not isolated from what was happening on january 6th. it's all part of the same conspiracy. so if the secretary of state thought that when trump called him he was trying to put the -- he was trying to put the arm on him, he was trying to -- trying to coerce him into finding votes, it all runs into january 6 and an effort to overturn the election. it's one big conspiracy. >> okay. so now you have this other

issue, right, we just talked about those 37 counts with the classified documents. there is audio that cnn obtained exclusively, it's been played all over the world, you hear donald trump in his own words saying these are secret documents and i could have declassified them then, but i can't now, and he's ruffling papers. he has come out and said i did nothing wrong in an interview. he also said, look, i was referring to plans on a golf course. can anyone believe that? who is he trying to play this to? because he's not in front of a jury yet, he is just in front of public opinion. >> i think this is like -- he's like the child who has taken the cookie out of the cookie jar and the cookie jar has fallen on the floor and there's broken glass and there are cookie crumbs on the kid's face and the parents come in and say, you broke into the cookie jar, and the kid is going to try to see what works with my parents? no, you didn't see me do anything. i didn't do anything wrong.

so he's floating things. maybe for his base politically, maybe he's trying to see what's going to play. but as you just said, it's just patently ridiculous. i mean, you listen to the tape, he's rustling the papers, he's talking about it's confidential, he admits that i'm not supposed to have this stuff or show it to you. it's patently uncredible. >> and i'm assuming that the people who were in the room will also be witnesses to confirm what it is that he is showing them, correct? >> oh, absolutely. there is no question. >> so that would impeach him if he said something like that if he ever took the stand or made a statement. can the prosecutors use all of these statements that trump has been saying all over the place? >> all of it. they can all borrow our friends in the manhattan da's office, they can use these statements, jack smith can use these statements. if there's another prosecution in georgia, they can use these statements. >> all right. it's a lot. there's a lot coming. there are three tracks here, you have all these cases, and you also have politics.

we won't get you involved in that i promise. >> thank you. >> daniel j. horowitz, thank you for coming on and explaining all of that to us. john? a stunning new report, did one of putin's top generals know the head of the wagner group was planning a revolt? swipe or no swiebd the two republican candidates trade verbal jabs in a key primary state giving a big preview of the swipes that are yet to come. travelers stuck in airports across the country after thousands of delays and cancellations. the tsa says we haven't even hit the busiest travel day of this holiday yet.

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vladimir putin's defense minister and the chief of russia's general staff, but he reportedly accelerated the timeline of the plot after intelligence agents in russia found out about it. cnn's nick paton walsh joins us from ukraine's capital kyiv with more on this. nick, this is explosive information if it is all correct. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, look, we're going to see a lot of speculation, that's what the kremlin has dismissed some of these reports as being, but also genuine details emerging in the days ahead about what on earth just happened over the weekend. the "wall street journal" suggests citing western officials that indeed there was a bid by prigozhin to capture shoigu and who is blee gerasimov when they were in rostov. that has plausible and we do know that shoigu was in rostov-on-don when prigozhin

headed in that direction and prigozhin said that shoigu fled like a coward from rostov late on friday just after prigozhin said was an air strike on a wagner camp that sparked his armed rebellion and move on rostov. the suggestion, too, in the "wall street journal" -- and this is backed up by public statements by the head of russia's national guard -- is that there were leaks coming from the prigozhin camp ahead of this plot, suggesting it would take place between the 22nd and the 25th of june. indeed roughly when it did. possibly beginning a little bit earlier. now that is embarrassing potentially in the -- the russian government may have been aware this was about to happen, yet the fsb, the security services responsible for keeping putin in power, weren't able, it seems, to prevent it from occurring and do appear even it seems to have let shoigu head to ross to have despite the possibility the "wall street journal" claims he might have been subject to capture by prigozhin. so a lot to unpick there

certainly and it's important to put all of this in context and for western intelligence agencies now this is a field day of putting out misinformation, confusion, trying to get russians to turn on each other, trying to spark the idea that maybe the fsb were unaware or didn't move fast enough on something like that. but it is interesting to read the journal report, some is feasible, we don't seem to have evidence at this point to suggest the plot to capture shoigu alive was credible, but it is interesting to be reminded that they knew in the russian government about this before it happened. that's kind of startling. >> it really is remarkable. nick paton walsh, thank you for your work in kyiv and for all of that reporting. john, things were much, much more precarious for putin than we knew, unless this is all psychological warfare. >> unless maybe he wants this

type of information out there. and there's more information swirling out there, too, sara. there is a report in the "new york times" this morning that one of vladimir putin's top generals knew that the wagner chief was planning this revolt. so did he help prigozhin plan it at all? here now with us is cnn's nic robertson. so, nic, what's your take on the totality of all of this? >> reporter: i think as nick absolutely rightly says this is a field day for intelligence agencies to try to sow dissent and put out little lines that can have elements of truth or basis in previous developments. i think when it comes to this general that prigozhin was supposed to have these very close ties with, it was a well-known fact just at the beginning of may prigozhin had publicly said he was the only russian general worth a staff. with he also know that he had been put last year temporarily

in charge of russia's military efforts in ukraine and that was the time when putin was convinced that his desire to continue to hold kherson was wrong and that the russians should retreat from there. here was a general apparently ready to stand up to putin. here was a general that prigozhin liked. prigozhin had had a lot of praise landed on him from senior powerful military figures like the chechen leader, had said that, you know, the wagner fighters were very important, courageous, very necessary in the front line. then he tried to mediate a month or so ago tween prigozhin and shoigu, saying we will give you better conditions, we will make everything right for you, just stay. so there was a real reason here to believe that prigozhin thought that he had perhaps more support than he did. when the chips were down or the speed the way things played out those generals stepped away it

seems. the general had the rather awkward on camera statement earlier on saturday where he said i'm standing with president putin. it underlines the fragility and divisions. big picture here if the fsb understood a problem was developing this all comes back to putin being unable or unwilling to head this problem off that had been building so publicly, never mind what the intelligence services knew going on in the background in the last couple of days. this will be building for months and putin hadn't been able to step in, get ahead of it and stop it and that begs the question why was he unable to do that? clearly he didn't feel confident enough to understand the dynamics and that's weakness. >> nic robertson, thank you very much for that. a deluge of one-line pieces of information swirling out there. could be very significant. kate? >> for sure. still coming up for us,

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the air is a mess, more than 80 million americans are under air quality alerts today due to smoke from canadian fires. we experienced it in new york a

while back, now people from the midwest and the northeast are being advised to stay indoors with their air conditioning running or wearing an n95 mask if they have to be outside. that is how bad the air s this is the scene from chicago on tuesday. look at that. that is not fog, that is smoke. you can see the skyline covered in it. take a look at another video from milwaukee, you can barely make out where the buildings are. look at that. because the smoke is so heavy. and this is a scene in minneapolis st. paul where the sky, very hazy today there. canada is enduring its worst fire season ever. across the country more than 200 fires are burning out of control today. kate? >> and there is no sign all of it letting up. also here another ground stop at another u.s. airport this morning. delays have just been stacking up already today at boston's logan airport due to storms, and so far across the country more than 700 flights have been canceled.

according to the tracking site flight aware that's almost halfway to yesterday's painful total with 2,000 flights canceled. cnn's jason carroll is at laguardia for us in new york and cnn's pete muntean is back at his home base at reagan national airport just outside washington. pete, first to you. what is going on here? yes, weather, but where are we? >> reporter: we're layer on layer of issues here, kate. here at national airport where the weather here is actually pretty clear, the cancellation board already lighting up a bit. the numbers are accelerating. we've seen about 1,385 delays so far today, that's gone up about 200 delays in the last hour. 700 plus cancellations. so really today already is only paling in comparison to yesterday. although the day is still pretty young. look at how bad things were last night at laguardia. this is an image from flight

radar 24 of all of the airplanes piling every nook and cranny of the taxiway. ground stop there. also at jfk, also at newark. and the faa said one of the reasons the ground stop was put in place at laguardia was simply because there was going to be gridlock on the ground. so far today already looking a lot like yesterday. newark, laguardia, jfk topping the list of airports for cancellations. also boston logan and chicago rounding out the top five. what we're seeing now is airlines really trying to scramble something that -- to rebuild after something that built up for days this meltdown that we're seeing right now that united airlines ceo scott kirby says really started for that carrier on saturday, and he puts the blame on the faa, saying they simply did not have enough air traffic controllers to handle all of the flights coming in and out of newark, united's

big hub. kirby says simply the faa frankly failed us. united at one point yesterday requested a ground stop in newark for flights going into there to try to catch its breath. although we've heard there were internal problems as well at united. they had issues with flight attendants simply getting on the phone to crew scheduling to try to get back to the places where they needed to be. we are looking at a holiday weekend in the face and we're only days away from the start of july 4th, 2.8 million people scheduled to go through here at check points at reagan national airport and at airports across the country. it's a big one and we're already seeing airlines melting down a bit. >> i don't want to be the bearer of bad news for folks, we are days away from like -- people are probably traveling right now for the fourth of july holiday and this is what we're seeing as we lead into it. we need more than fingers crossed. so pete is going to work on that and we're going to get over to jason carroll at one of the

airports that pete was mentioning that's feeling really the brunt of the pain. how is it going there? what are you hearing, jason? >> reporter: yeah, here at laguardia airport we've seen some flights taking off and landing out here on the runway here, so that's some good news, a little bit of movement there, but the numbers are not so good. laguardia so far 137 cancellations, at jfk, 87 at newark 142. of course there are the stories. one story in particular, one woman had eight flight delays, okay, and then she ended up dep planing, four hours in line, ended up overnighting in newark. this morning spoke to a family, they were supposed to fly to florida on spirit airlines, they said this morning they got there and were told all of a sudden their flight was canceled. their next flight not available until july 3rd. their holiday is ruined.

that's the story being heard over and over again at airports all over the country. take a listen. >> there were a lot of kids, they didn't have no pampers, like i said, long line, kids that were crying, sleeping on the floor. old people, too, sleeping on the floor. >> there were elderly companies behind me, these people with barely walk, they are standing in line for 12 hours. we're going to drive to minneapolis because they can't get us out until friday at the earliest. >> there are people sleeping on cots and openly weeping at café tables. it's a human tragedy really. >> reporter: you know, kate, you hear so much talk about, you know, the airlines blaming the faa, the faa pointing their finger at the airlines, caught in the middle are the passengers, that's what's clear here. also what's clearing up at least at the moment that's the weather, so that should help with some regards, the weather tomorrow as well as the next day supposed to be on the positive

side. so that should help some things. the question is can the airlines rectify this before this weekend when the passengers really start to load into some of these airports ahead of the holiday upcoming on july 4th? kate. >> and, jason, you travel a lot for work and, you know, and for play, and you know that it's just this feeling of hel helplessness when people are -- and everything feels -- there's no human interaction, everyone is speaking to a voice far off in no man's land and you can see that on the faces of the people we see from laguardia airport in this video we're running next year -- next to you on the wall. it's everyone knows this feeling. we all need a break. thank you, jason. thank you so much. jason will be tracking that for us. pete muntean will now live once again at reagan national airport. i really -- i really don't need another airport -- another holiday where pete muntean tells us to come back next year. we just don't need this. >> i was staring at the cars behind jason carroll there.

>> that's actually low. that's easy traffic. >> a shout out to the people who are in those cars listening to us right now. >> thank you all. thank you so much. donald trump and ron desantis taking new swipes at each other at dueling rallies in new hampshire. actor kevin spacey in court this morning on trial for sexual assault charges. we have new details ahead. t turn into scientists. tourist taking photos that are analyzed by ai. so researchers can h help life underwater flourish. ♪

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under-delivered during his time in office. cnn's steve could tern know and jeff zeleny planning by with the details. first let's go to steve in st. petersburg for the desantis view on all of this. steve? >> reporter: desantis is trying to make a case to republican voters that he would be a more effective leader than the former president basically saying that he can get the trump agenda done that trump himself couldn't get accomplished. the wall that trump promised in 2016, he said he would actually get that done. and listen to how he talked to -- talked about one of trump's main promises back in 2016, draining the swamp. here is what desantis said to new hampshire voters yesterday. >> and i think the idea of draining the swamp in some respects i think it misses it a little bit because we didn't drain it. it's worse today than it's ever been by far and that's a sad testament to the state of affairs of our country. but even if you're successful at

draining it, the next guy can just refill it. so i want to break the swamp. that's really what we need to do. >> reporter: now, trump of course has been accusing desantis of basically just running on all of the same issues that trump is running on, and he, of course, likes to needle desantis as well over their poll numbers. desantis is trailing trump, that has been the case going back to the start of this race, and yesterday he talked to new hampshire about why he continues to attack desantis in this race. >> somebody said how come you only attack him. i said because he is in second place. why don't you attack others? because they are not in second place. but soon i don't think he will be in second place so i will be attacking somebody else. >> reporter: trump also criticized desantis yesterday for -- for supporting changes to social security which is something that is going to continue to be a big part of this race going forward, john.

>> donald trump always reading the stage directions there on the campaign trail. steve, thanks to you. let's go to jeff zeleny for some of the bigger picture true view from trump world, jeff? >> reporter: john, it's interesting, i'm not sure that you can break a swamp, but the point is still clear, that governor desantis is clearly trying to remind voters that donald trump did not accomplish all he set out to. we heard it earlier this week about the wall. he said that donald trump did not build the wall. that is true. he did not drain the swamp. that also is true. but you also notice that big banner behind governor desantis, it says "restore sanity." that may be a change from the biden administration, but perhaps also a not so subtle message about how he is promising a change from the trump administration. so, john, what we are seeing here in these summer months, really week by week by week, we are seeing these candidates draw some differences between themselves and between themselves and donald trump. so, yes, governor desantis is

not out there sort of hammering the former president again and again, but there really are some very interesting messaging things going on here about what trump did not accomplish. that's one of the things that desantis is trying to do to get his sort of attention up, his poll numbers up over the summer. of course, he is struggling a bit more than he thought he would. he thought that he was the republican candidate that people were awaiting for. he's finding out it's a little more difficult. but he was in new hampshire yesterday taking questions from voters. john, as you know very well, covering campaigns, that's what you must do in new hampshire. he started out by not taking questions from voters, not explaining what he would do. now he is very much a normal candidate in that respect. increasingly taking a few shots and drawing distinctions with former president donald trump. >> what does a desantis campaign think that it needs from new hampshire? new hampshire is such a strong state for donald trump. >> reporter: it certainly s i mean, one thing would probably

just to be surviving it. i mean, of course, we are just in the month of june now, so at least seven months before the new hampshire primary. big questions about how many candidates will still be on the ballot there, how many would survive iowa. but it is an uphill climb for governor desantis, he knows that, but say, for example, he would win iowa. you go on to new hampshire, it often has a different response. so i think what he's doing now is just introducing himself to voters and he needs a strong showing sort of everywhere, but we are in the very early stages of course of the new hampshire primary campaign, but clearly i think he's just trying to show that he can be a strong presidential candidate and by doing so trying to draw some distinctions there with donald trump. >> while he lessons how fickle the voters in new hampshire can be. jeff zeleny -- >> for sure. >> -- great to see you and, steve, thanks to you as well. so can you break a swamp? >> i was trying to think about how that would look with a sledgehammer smashing it into the water. break.

break. >> or like, you know, it's like the red sea or something. i mean, yes, says the great philosophy jeff zeleny. we bring you so much here. so much. pond that are as we also look ahead to this. coming up for us on "cnn news central," daniel penny in court, the man accused and charged in the choke hold death on a new york city subway is facing a judge this morning as the charges against him are unsealed. we are live outside the court in new york. we will be back. ♪ the biggest ideas inspire new oneses. 30 years a ago, state street created an etf that inspired the world to invest differently. it still does. what can you do with spy? ♪ ♪ we planned well for retirement, but i wish we had more cash. you think those two

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very soon the man accused of choking a homeless man to death on a new york city subway is going to be appearing in court. attorneys for daniel penny said he was trying to defend himself and other passengers when jordan neely began acting erratically on a train last month. cnn's omar jimenez is outside the courthouse witness again in manhattan with the very latest. so, omar, that is what daniel penny's attorneys say, but what is going to happen in court today? >> yeah, kate. so one, daniel penny just arrived about 30 seconds ago behind me going into the courthouse here to go in front

of a judge. this will be the first time he's been in front of a judge after being officially indicted by a grand jury on second-degree manslaughter charges for the killing of jordan neely and as you alluded to, we've gotten glimpses into some of the defense here that daniel penny and his attorneys believe that penny did what he had to do in that moment to protect not just himself, but others in that subway car. his attorneys have gone so far that if this goes to a jury trial they feel very confident that his actions will come out as justified. take a listen to some of what daniel penny has said about that incident and about what he felt he needed to do in those moments. >> i knew i had to act, and i acted in a way that would protect the other passengers, protect myself and protect mr. neely. i used this hold to restrain him. i didn't want to be put in that situation, but i couldn't just sit still and let him carry out these threats.

>> now, as you can imagine, attorneys for jordan neely's family don't quite agree with that characterization. they, for one, say that this indictment was the correct result and a good first step, but they said that the grand jury's decision tells our city and our nation that no one is above the law no matter how much money they raise, no matter what affiliations they claim and no matter what distorted stories they tell in interviews. all of this, of course, goes back to may 1st when witnesses say jordan neely went into this subway car. he was acting erratically as one witness described it, that he was hungry, that he was thirsty and that he was ready to die. while that witness said he hadn't actually attacked anyone at that point, what those other passengers felt in those moments were critical in those cases as this arraignment gets under way. >> omar, thank you for being there. we'll get back to you. john? >> we have new reporting on who the special counsel is talking

to in just one of the investigations into donald trump. important new developments happening this afternoon, and then a startling new report on what might have been in the russian revolt. plans to kidnap some of russia's top generals and we just got word that president biden made brand-new comments on the situation in russia. this is "cnn news central." subway's still upping their game. show us how stephen. chuck you got to admire belgioioso fresh mozzarella on standouts like the boss. it's hard being that cheesy.

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