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new details about the letter telling donald trump he's a target in the january 6th investigation. what it signals about the special counsel's probe. right now on capitol hill, to irs whistleblowers testifying about the hunter biden investigation. this is a probe that sparked republican calls to impeach the attorney general. what we are learning as these to speak to lawmakers. a country music controversy. while why jason aldean's new video is a video was pulled from cmt. other stars speaking out against the message of his song. these major developing stories and many more, all coming into cnn news central. >> > we are getting a preview of

what a potential third indictment of former president donald trump could look like. multiple news outlets including the wall street journal, now report that the target letter sent to trump regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election sites these three federal federal statutes, conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the united states, deprivation of rights and tampering with a witness. we are also learning that federal prosecutors in the 2020 election probe have subpoenaed security video from atlanta's state farm arena. it served as a polling place in 2020 and trump and his campaign targeted election workers stationed at the arena. with us to discuss, crime and justice reporter caitlin plans. what can you tell us? >> the target letter, donald trump is the one announcing he got it on sunday and the date that he had, he wanted to go and testify in his own defense, as would be his right, would be thursday. and that would be before a grand jury in washington. we've been watching this grand jury in washington, working,

tuesdays, thursdays, for many months now, on the special counsel's investigation and now we are essentially on indictment watch. tomorrow is thursday. if donald trump does not take the justice department up on this invitation, if he wants to come in and talk to the grand jury after they've heard all this evidence apparently against him, he can. but he very likely will not. he didn't do it in florida when he got a target letter and so once that date passes, there's a lot of questions of what happens next, how much work is there still to do in this case. it does signal that the justice department feels very comfortable at the end and they believed that there may be charges that the grand jury will approve in this. >> we actually are getting information from trump's legal team that they are trying to

figure out what evidence the special counsel has that they may not be aware of. what witnesses they have heard from and new reporting about a key piece of evidence that they have subpoenaed. the surveillance tape from state farm arena, tell us about that. >> every day we are hearing more and more about what the special counsel's office has collected as evidence, and today, the new information, out of atlanta, is that, the atlanta's state farm arena, so the place that was the epicenter for counting in fulton county was one of the places that got a subpoena from the special counsel's office in june, asking them, turn over all the surveillance tape that you have of the vote counting. the vote counting there was someone that trump and his team, rudy giuliani and others were trying to spread disinformation about saying the vote counting was fraudulent but that isn't what happened there. and so the fact that we are not just, we are just learning now, that they are collecting the evidence, and also, that the special counsel really reached into all seven battleground states to collect evidence.

it gives you this portrait of how robust the amount of material the special counsel's office is working with, as they write out what this indictment may be, and how, when they bring this case, it could be quite as large, complex, national conspiracy, with conspiracy being one of the possible charges. >> one piece of an enormous puzzle that the special counsel is putting together. thanks for the details. let's talk more about this now with national security attorney bradley moss. he's in a a partner in the law office of mark's aim as the wall street journal is r letter is citing these three statutes that you just referred to, deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud, and witness tampering. is that what you would expect and is there anything in particular among these that stands out to you? >> this is more or less what a lot of us expected jack smith to do because it's the cleanest, in terms of types of charges you bring against

donald trump. it's not getting into issues about seditious conspiracy, and interaction, things that would run the line with the first amendment, or trying to prove some kind of connection to the oath keepers and probably. this is clean and direct. they stopped the media reporting that we have, and the information that came out, and the civil cases in california, we have a clear picture of how jack smith would outline the conspiracy to have false electors submit paperwork, to obstruct the certification of joe biden's victory on january 6th, reading from pretty much december 14th up to january 6th, as the main crux of the timeline. this will be a narrow but very significant indictment, if in fact there is an indictment issue. >> if in fact, there is because this is the target letter and we are awaiting of course the charging decision. assuming there is one, is this the full scope of what donald trump could be charged with? could you see more in that?

>> there's always the possibility for there to be super citing indictments if more information comes out but i don't anticipate that with respect to january 6th matters unless there's something new, someone flips and provides testimony that they haven't already provided, i think jack smith more or less, has the story he needs, has the evidence he needs, and this target letter and the three statutes that are referenced, they appear to be what he's going to try to bring charges on against the former president. it would be a rather straightforward case except for the fact that there will be all kinds of constitutional challenges tied to the fact that trump was president at the time. >> this is a sign that we could see an indictment soon. you have a sense of the timeline of when we could see that? >> as caitlin was mentioning,

you know, the grand jury reconvenes tomorrow, thursday, i believe. it could in theory be as early as tomorrow. it could be friday, it may not be until next week, depending on the extent to which the team needs to bring in more witnesses or needs to make an extensive presentation. we will see. but i think by and large, we are in almost late july at this point, i think more than likely we will see it before the end of the month. >> great to have you, thank you so much. the other big news we are following today, right now on capitol hill, we are watching live, the first public testimony from two irs whistleblowers. they are accusing the justice department of interfering with a years long investigation of hunter biden. they said the president son received preferential treatment before his plea deal last month onto tax related charges and a gun charge. an agreement that republicans have dismissed as a sweetheart deal. zachary: joins us, he's been watching this closely.

what are the political stakes of this hearing? >> we are only a few minutes in, six hours, over six hours, these witnesses are going to field a lot of questions from republicans and democrats were trying to grapple with this idea that these claims that the justice department politicized and gave preferential treatment to hunter biden in this investigation and so far we've heard these witnesses reiterate what they've told lawmakers already, look, feir vantage point, the justice department slow walked this investigation. that they were recom felony charges and those did not ultimately g brought, so we are seeing a lot the same claims come up but t q portion will be interesting because democrats will really get to press these witnesses on details, especially one core argument that they've made, listen to what gary shapley said in his opening statement and then what democrats will say after. >> i watch the united states attorney weiss tell a room full

of senior leaders on october 7th, 2022 that he was not the deciding person on whether charges were filed. that was my redline. i had already seen a pattern of preferential treatment and obstruction. >> shapley is claiming that look, this u.s. attorney was hamstrung by the leadership in the justice department. that something that the attorney general has denied that democrats have a different message at the top of the hearing. they said, despite all the allegations about hunter biden, republicans have failed to connect any of the allegations to the president himself and they have insisted that this -- >> listen to jamie raskin. >> one thing you will not here today, is any evidence of wrongdoing by president joe biden or his administration. like every other try by our colleagues to concoct a scandal about president biden, this one is a complete and total bust. >> we are gearing up for about

5.5 more hours of q&a, so a lot more to come but already an interesting start. >> thanks so much. with the possibility that former president trump could be indicted a third time, what are his fellow republican saying about it? how some are defending the former president, next. later, how your genetic makeup might affect your health if you contract covid-19. and recalibrated our car's advanced safety system. they focus on our safety... so we can focus on this little guy. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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there are few american citizens facing the kind of legal threat surrounding former trump, but that hasn't stopped his republican allies speaking out against the case. it hasn't stopped trump himself from fundraising off of the most recent letter from the special counsel informing him he could soon be indicted a third time. melanie, republicans have at 24 hours to wrestle with this news and what are they saying today? >> republicans are still

rallying around former president trump, without knowing what evidence the special counsel might have. they have largely avoided talking about trump's behavior on january 6th and are focusing on the optics of doj going after one of joe biden's top political opponents. i'm told that speaker mccarthy and house conference chair alisa both spoke to trump yesterday on the phone to talk about ways they can help defend him and go on offense against these potential charges. she serves on a committee focus on the so-called weaponization of the federal government and she confirmed she did have a conversation with trump yesterday, take a listen. >> i have spoken with president trump. i spoke with him yesterday, i speak with him on a weekly basis , give or take, and this is yet another example of the illegal weaponization of the department of justice to go after joe biden's top political opponent. we will continue to work out the rot in these agencies.

>> one of the ideas being floated by republicans is going after the special counsel's budget. congressman that gates, eight stopped trump supporter introduced legislation today that would defund the special counsel's investigation. a proposal would be dead on arrival in the democratic- controlled senate but this is all a familiar messaging playbook for the house gop which has stood by trump through two other indictments earlier this year. we should point out that in the senate, it's a slightly different story. we've seen a much more muted response from republicans, senate minority leader mcconnell cut ties with trump after january 6th and has not commented on trump's to indictment so far and yesterday, he was characteristically silent when asked about the news that trump is now a criminal target in the january 6th probe. >> quite the contrast. you know, jeff, i wonder what you think about how this timing is going to play out. i asked because eileen cannon,

the judge here, she seemed sympathetic to trump's lawyers, saying, this sort of mid- december, this timeline that the doj is talking about, it's just too soon. and she seemed to agree with that. the question is, is she going to agree with trump's lawyer that pushing it back indefinitely is okay. >> there's not much time after december, so once december happens, the iowa caucuses opened the nominating process on january 15th. the new hampshire primary is probably a week or two after that, onto south carolina, so the early part of next year, january, february, who knows how long the primary will go, it'll be very busy. it is hard to imagine that he would have time to sit in a trial during that period, we

will just have to see how this plays out. obviously the trump team, he's done this and every legal case that he's had. tried to delay, delay, delay. if it's not done by december, it's hard to imagine there being time in the early part of next year. huge conflicts in terms of time. this campaign now is about his legal case. the politics, and the illegal argument sort of are emerging as one. he says that he is being targeted because he's joe biden's opponent and of course that has nothing to do with any of this. >> no defense of saying how he should fit in his legal problems because they are his legal problems and he has them on a number of fronts. but jeff, you've covered so many campaigns. when you think about candidates and how they are struggling to fit in, even time to sleep, or to see their kids, or do normal stuff, the idea of fitting in a trial or two, or three, or four, it's an incredible challenge,

right? >> it's impossible, really. the manhattan case obviously the classified documents case, potentially a georgia case. so the question here is, you know, there's not team even if you weren't running for president. but he is running for president. and one thing we are seeing, the rest of the republican field is studying how all of this will impact the race. as for now, things are frozen into place but there's one pole that caught my eye from the university of new hampshire yesterday. he said donald trump has 37% approval in new hampshire, that sounds pretty good because the tire then everyone else but that means six in 10 republicans are looking for someone else. so there are some warning signs here, some fatigue signs but the question also, are people fatigued by all of these indictments? so this is the most unusual race that we've ever covered.

we have to be patient and see how it plays out because we simply don't know. >> if any of these judges say with all due respect to your political calendar, these things are going to proceed, he's just not going to have that time to try and turn around the 37%. new details on the moment he took off, as the us soldiers who crossed into north korea, describing what happened as he bolted into the hermit kingdom. and later a new development in a nearly 30-year-old murder investigation. who killed tupac shakukur. kingt for cyberattacks. but the same ai-p-powered security that protects all of google also defends the systems running america's infrastructure. for these services. for the 336 million of us living here. ♪

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take a look at this photo. a tourist took this, minutes before an international incident. that is the back of travis king's head moments before he ran into north korea. where it is believed the army private is now detained. king is believed to be the first to a soldier in the so- called hermit kingdom, since 1982. an army official said that king was about to be separated from the army before he crossed that line. officials say he committed several assaults last year and was in detention for 50 days in south korea as punishment and had just gotten out, days before this happened. ivan watson joins us live and a tourist, who saw king take off into north korea is now speaking out about this incident, what are they saying? >> yeah, this was a guided tour. you can go on a tour near the zone, see the joint security area, look at north korea and that's where this young army private was when he ran across

the border. take a listen to what she had to say about that moment. she thought he was trying to make a tiktok video. >> i thought is this guy doing it for a tiktok stunt or something stupid like that but he didn't stop. it was south korean nus soldiers around us. i heard one of the americans, one of the american soldiers did run and get inside. >> the joint security area, this used to be a place where the north korean and south korean soldiers would be almost face-to-face, looking at each other and kind of posturing, but ever since the covid pandemic, the north koreans have withdrawn in fact, when cnn was in this area last fall, they couldn't see any soldiers,

really, and the weeds on the other side of the demarcation zone had grown to waist height. travis king, he ran across this, and was detained at some point. the pentagon has tried to reach out to the north korean army. the state department is talking to south korean officials, sweetest officials who represent you with interest, we do now that he's only in the army for abo 2.5 years and barely 2 years in, he got into real trouble, court documents in south korea said he assaulted somebody in september who did not press charges in south korea and then again, in october and had real altercations with the south korean police, and was taken into a police car, damaged that car and we've spoken to the lawyer who represented him said, he seemed like many other

american gis who get in trouble in south korea, that he represents. the difference here is that when he was escorted to the airport and supposed to be put on the flight back to the u.s., to his base, at some point, after being released through the security checkpoints by u.s. personnel, he didn't get on that plane and the next day, he ended up at the dmz, and made this run to north korea. boris? >> a puzzling story. for second night in a row, russia has unleashed a barrage of missile and drone strikes on the ukrainian city of odessa. defense officials accused hooten of deliberately targeting military and fuel infrastructure associated with the black sea greendale. ministry officials say it'll take at least a year to fully restore the damaged facilities which also stored tons of food according to ukraine's president. are cnn national security respondent has a closer look at the aftermath.

>> an extraordinary display of firepower as ukrainian air defenses furiously try to fend off a major russian air assault. it was the second night in a row that ukraine's big port city, odessa, came under russian drone and cruise missile attacks. the second nights barrage, significantly larger than the first. multiple blasts echoed across the city before dawn, so violent, it made car alarms go off. it was a city, still rattled on tuesday. in an exclusive interview, she blasted russia's decision to pull out of the grain deal. >> the idea that putin would play roulette with the hungriest people in the world, at the time of the greatest food crisis in our lifetimes,

it's just deeply disturbing. >> are you still optimistic that the russians can be brought back in? >> it'll require pressure not only from the united states and united nations but from those countries in sub-saharan africa, who will suffer most from the higher grain and oil prices. >> the russian complaint has been that this has been one- sided. ukraine has been the only ones that have benefited from this. they haven't been able to export their foodstuff or fertilizer. >> sanctions have not been imposed on russian food and fertilizer. the idea that russia should benefit from a deal designed to undo the effects of russia's cruel and inhuman blockade against a sovereign country is observed. >> the u.s. would give another $250 million to help ukrainian

agriculture, and investment, she argues, will help stabilize global food prices as the russian onslaught continues. overnight, and odessa resident was trapped under a collapsed house after it was struck by a missile. he's alive, a man says, he's breathing, just one person was hurt in the more than two hour russian attack on the city. the military practiced firing would be russian targets at sea, preparing for all kinds of attacks that with or without a grain deal power says, will continue. >> you are a bully and an aggressor. it's always easier to lop missiles and syndromes at civilian infrastructure, so i think we absolutely should expect the worst from the russian federation as it continues to struggle on the battlefield.

>> the kremlin have said that tuesday's attack on odessa and elsewhere in the south was a retaliatory strike. according to vladimir putin spokesman, moscow is still looking at other ways to respond even further. ahead, how your genetic makeup could impact just how bad a case of covid you might get. we will explain. rap icon tupac shakur was shot and killed 25 years ago but there's a break in the case, the new actions police are taking in the invevestigation. cnn returns in a moment.

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we may be a step closer to understanding one of the great mysteries of the covid pandemic and that is why the virus is devastating to some while others who caught it showed no symptoms at all or hardly any symptoms. a new study is shedding light on how genetics may actually play a role. we have medical correspondent meghan terrel joining us to break all of this down. really interesting, because i think everyone looked at people around them, saw the differing levels of symptoms and outcomes people were having. what are researchers learning? >> this is really fascinating. there were two different studies that really look at the different spectrums of covid, a symptomatic covid, no symptoms at all or long covid. so if we start with a symptomatic covid, here, researchers looked at people based on what form of hla they had, this is human antigens, this is a marker on cells that's important in the immune response and they found that

folks who tended to have a symptomatic covid had one specific form of hla, one particular mutation. the prevalence is about 10 % of european descent and they found that people in this group, who have these genes, they were twice as likely if they got infected, to have an asymptomatic infection as somebody who didn't have this gene mutation. people who had two copies of the mutation were eight times more likely to have an a symptomatically infection. it doesn't explain all of a symptomatic covid but it is one factor, potentially. >> that's interesting. there's also a separate study that looked at why some people may be more likely to get long covid. >> so in this study, they compared the full genome sequences of people and they found people who got long covid were more likely to have a dna sequence around a gene called fox p 4. they found that people were 60% more likely to develop long covid who then people who

didn't have it and this is important because it could help with better development of treatments. for both of these, this could potentially improve our vaccines and help with treatments. so this is really providing insights into this virus that we've been living with for more than three years. >> a lot of us does have anecdotal experience where someone who maybe wasn't all that healthy had a fine outcome or someone who seemed quite healthy beforehand, didn't, and we sort of wondered, what is going on here? maybe this will answer at least some of those questions. it's one of the world's biggest unsolved cases. who killed tupac shakur. he was gunned down back in 1996, and no one was ever charged or even arrested. but now, there's a new movement

in the case. las vegas police say they executed a search warrant in nearby henderson, nevada. chloe, do we know what led investigators to this home ? >> boris, this is a major break in the ongoing investigation that has been opened for more than two decades. so, this is what we know. we know the las vegas metropolitan police have told cnn that yes, they executed a search warrant. they are not giving details as to what led to this, as to the location of the residence, but we do know that it is in henderson, nevada, and they had information that led to them going in there and taking things out of the residence. you know, look. we know this is something that has been the focus of not just fans in the family but other authorities over the past 26 years, since he was gunned down, in 1996. and remember, he was leaving a boxing match in vegas at the mgm hotel, when he was in the

car with suge knight, a very famous record executive, and as they were stopped at a light, a car pulled up in front of them and that's when 12 shots were fired and remember, he was raced to the hospital with serious injuries. he was alive for a few days before he succumbed to the injuries and obviously there have been so many questions as to what happened that night, and who knows what, and who might be hiding something. so, perhaps, two decades plus later, boris, we might be closer to finding out what happened on that night, and could there be an eminent arrest . we will keep you posted. >> you have to imagine, it should be a significant piece of evidence ago back, nearly 30 years later and launch this search. now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour. the federal government has launched a major crackdown on

those annoying robo calls that you get. officials say they are not only targeting telemarketers and the companies that hire them. also targeting the firms that collect and give out your phone number without your consent. federal and state authorities have tried for years to stop the unlawful practice. hopefully this new effort will do the job. also president biden is trolling congresswoman audrey taylor green, using a speech that she gave to turning point usa to tout his own legislative accomplishments. she was trying to criticize biden by comparing him to former presidents roosevelt and johnson. >> joe biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what fdr started that lbj expanded on and joe biden is attempting to complete.

>> the response from the biden campaign was to slap, i'm joe biden and i approve this message on it. and the head of fifa is pleading with fans to do the right thing amid amid poor ticket sales for the women's world cup game's. they are hosting the matches and they will be started tomorrow, and australians are set to fill their stadiums. next, a country music singer's new video, pulled from country music television. a controversy susurrounding thi song. we will explain,n, when we come back. so ask your doctor about adding preservision and fill in a missing piece of your plan. like i did with preservision. now with ocusorb better absorbing nutrients.

cmt, country music television, has just removed a new video from one of its

biggest stars. jason aldean's song, "try that in a small town," raised eyebrows months ago for lyrics that critics described as evocative of racism and retaliation. but then he dropped the new music video clip. take a look. ♪ ♪ try that in a small town see how far you make it down the road ♪ >> not only does the video include footage from police brutality protests, it was shot in front of the county courthouse. historically, that courthouse has seen a lot of racial violence, including in 1927 for lynching of a black man. cheryl crowe tweeted, "there is nothing small town or american about promoting violence."

the senior music writer and chief music critic for "variety" magazine joins us live. thanks for joining us. cmt pulled this video offering no explanation. critics claim that it is a modern-day lynching song. i'm wondering what you see when you watch this video and listen to the lyrics. >> well, i don't think people noting the context, the lynching going back to the 1920s. aldean's people have said privately that they didn't know about the lynching when they shot the sid owe at that site and that a lot of videos and films shoot there and have that location, unfortunately. you know, it's hard to know whether to ascribe racism exactly to what's going on here. i see it more as kind of a general xenophobia that you see in the song and the video about

small towns, big towns. we don't want any city slickers coming in here with their demonstrations and molotov cocktails and city ways in general. but when you hear lines in the song like "see how far you get leaving town," i think that is the kind of language that historically people have heard from the south and associate with people being unfriendly to either certain races or demonstrators who had very high-minded causes. so i don't blame people for taking that leap i guess is what i would say. >> aldean points out on twitter that none of the lyrics touch upon race. he calls claims that this shows he's displeased with the protests as meritless. where do you think he's coming from on all of this? >> yeah. the song itself is a little more vague. when i first heard the song before the video, i kind of gravitated toward thinking about

the quote, unquote, second amendment advocacy that he was saying people are going to come for our guns out here, see what happens if they try that. and, you know, i think that sounds kind of vaguely threatening and paranoid. but then, you know, when the video came out, it really seemed to be about we hate protesters, we hate these demonstrators. i don't doubt that jason aldean hates white demonstrators such as he hates black demonstrators, so, you know, however much we want to read into that. i think still, you know, what climate this comes out of is back during the pandemic when the black lives matter demonstrations were happening and there were a number of country stars on the very conservative side who made it known how they felt about the demonstrations. now, you know, it's a couple years later, three years later, and jason aldean has the song where the video has all this footage of demonstrations that

makes it very clear that's what he was thinking about. and the general tone of it is that demonstrators deserve maybe a beating if they try to come in and do that in their part of the woods. >> you pointed out there's a specific portion in the song in which he references the second amendment, not directly but in sort of an allusion to it. he specifically referenced route 91 in a tweet. that was the event where he performed that turned into the deadliest mass shooting in u.s. history in las vegas. there was a gunman perched on a hotel window who shot at people that were enjoying this concert. he's pushing back against criticism that the song promotes gun violence, though. >> yeah. i think it's a legitimate point of view to look at that history he has and think that should have made him more sensitive to gun violence instead of creating a song that's not only

advocating his right to bear arms but creating this obviously kind of fantasy scenario that i think most people don't think exists in the real world where the government is going to confiscate your hunting rifles in the south and saying "just try that." it's setting up a straw man as i think people -- you know, some people on the far right may or may not classify this trying to get it out there, that politicians are going to kind of come into your home and take your guns away. i think that's one of the most disturbing portions of the song. to me, does he really believe that? does he want to foster this kind of paranoia about the government that makes people maybe more trigger happy in a pay v way if they think that, you know, their rights are going to be abridged in such a radical way. >> i have to be honest, chris, i would not have been aware of his music or his video had he not

been now taken off of cmt. but the content itself, as someone who's covered dozens and dozens of trump rallies, it doesn't seem that different from what is in those rallies and what content is put out there for that audience. >> yeah. i certainly see from the reaction that i've gotten initially to what i wrote, it was, you know, positive from people in media circles followed by a lot of backlash from trump supporters once candace owen treat 2013ed out something i had tweeted. i immediately started hearing a lot from, you know, them. i understand that there's room for a plethora of opinions in country music. krmt certainly it's not a surprise that people hold some of these views. but i think country music has strived to become a welcoming

place, a big umbrella, but this really talks about the superiority of small towns even though jason aldean has never lived in a small town. he grew up in macon. but he kind of presents as if he did. so it's not a radical shift maybe from what certain portions of country music has represented in the past. they've flilted around the area of being pro trump, and now jason aldean is saying i don't care if i'm divisive, i want to rile people up. that's a difference from what we've seen in the past where it was more subtle or people kept it out of the songs. >> chris williams, thank you so much for the time. about my life is that i did what everyone else did at the time. i hired local talent. if i knew about upworkrk, i would have hired actuallyly talented people from a all over the world. instead of talentless people from all over my house.

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