breaking news into cnn. the department of justice is charging three people over whaesh it says is a thregarded iranian plot to kill donald trump before the election. new details on that alleged plot and the suspectspp. plus the battle for top spots in trump's new administration is on. new reporting as the president- elect fills his post important post with a key member of his inner circle. and a setback for the biden administration. what it means for certain immigrants married to u.s. citizens months to go before trump begins his second term. and the justice department is filing federal charges in three people in connection to a thwarted iranian plat to kill donald trump before the

election. >> one of those tanked to watch and ultimately kill trump. alleged assassination plot just disclosed today. moments ago cnn evan perez is following the story and with us a senior law enforcement analyst and deputy director of the fbi. evan, first to you. what are we hearing from doj about this? >> they say that this is a years' long effort by iranians to target known dissidents, people who they believe are enemies of the iranian regime, and the primary activity according to these court papers filed in federal court in manhattan was a prominent dissident in new york who the, the people who were recruited to assassinate were essentially following, following this person for over a period of months. going to places where they were going to speak. for instance, at fairfield university in connecticut. a $100,000 promise to pay for this assassination and

one of the things you'll see in the court documents, there are pictures of firearms that according to prosecutors, two of these people had collected as part of this effort to try to perhaps carry out this assassination. farhad shakeri is the name of the irgc operative who lives in iran at large. the other two charged presented in federal court in manhattan ordered held pending trial. now what we know is this. along with trying to assassinate a known dissident, somebody who has been on the list of, targeted list of the iranians a number of years was a plot to the try to kill donald trump. this was in october, october 7th. shakeri says he was tank sked trying to find ways to kill donald trump. you remember early this summer a plot of pakistani men sent here to try to kill donald

trump. something the fbi exposed over the summer. according to the prosecutors also other people on this list. two jewish americans. we don't know their names. $500,000 the iranians planned to pay to kill these two prominent jewish americans in new york city as well as targeting israeli tourists in sri lanka. you know the iranians have been doing this for a number of years. a number of people from the trump administration that have been under protection of the secret service because of threats to their lives. we also know that over the summer they believe that there was a number of people in this administration also who were on the targeted list for the iranians. t. and what is your reaction to the news and your concerns here about what appears to be iran not letting up on this desire? >> yeah. brianna, obviously i am greatly concerned and have been for quite some time and why

i'm not entirely shocked by the fact this is still going on. i wrote a piece in 2020 after the assassination of soleimani basically warning or reminding, i should say, intelligence folks that the iranians will never let that action go unpunished. that, of course, was the targeted of sol target ed soleimani figure in iran. worshipped by's iranian people revered by the government and something that's not going away. i think the haste to do this quickly you according to the court documents, it seems that the the operative was given a short amount of time to get this done and there's clearly a desire there to try to do it before the election. i think that reflects the fact they probably thought their window of opportunity was closing, if donald trump won the election. which, of course, he has now. getting to him with assassins

or some sort of assassination attempt would become much harder. so all of this makes a lot of sense to me. it's consistent with how they've acted in the past. we know they've tried to assassinate people on u.s. soil before. 2011 tried to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states here in the u.s. so it is part and parcel of the way this terrorist regime takes care of their business. >> evan, how many details do we have related to any actual plot, any assassination plot these suspects might have put together? >> a lot of detail about the plot to try to kill the dissident. the person a critic of the iranian regime. the fbi has plenty of details and pictures that these men allegedly took of this person's front door in brooklyn. it's clear they surveilled over a period of months and reported back to shakeri, essentially their handler back in tehran. so the fbi was on to this very,

very early. you can see them looking at cloud accounts, photographs and messages exchanged back and february of 2024. there is a lot of detail on that part of it. as andy points out, they didn't seem to get very far on this idea of killing donald trump. not until october 7th that he says that he's been tasked with this. it was clear that this was something more recent that happened, and we've talked about this opinion the former president is a big target of the iranians. there were two assassination attempts on donald trump and none related to iran, but what has happened is the secret service had to beef up the president's, around the former president noup that he's president- elect his protection changes. going to be a lot harder to try to get to him. >> yet it seems, andy, that's the thing. iran, they just keep trying. i wonder what you think the threat profile to trump looks like especially considering this is a time the secret service a

grappling withship huge vulnerabilities and how it protects its protectees? >> they've really got their hands full right now, brianna, as you mentioned. they're under, enormous demands leveed upon them. trump is an ivgt active target and same time struggling with re- energizing their own ranks and responding to all the problems evident in the first assassination attempt at butler. i think that the increased resources that have been dedicated to president- elect trump's safety and will be dedicated to him now that he is in fact the president- elect will likely make him much, much harder to , to get from the iranians perspective or anyone

else. and in addition to just the security aspects of trying to get to a president or president- elect, you've elevated greatly the stakes. you know, a rogue nation like iran taking a shot at someone running for the office is not the same as taking a shot at the person who's just been elected or who has been inaugurated president. so iran does these sort of, you know, subversive off the grid things, because they don't want a direct military conflict with the united states. it may be that they recalculate here and decide, know what? donald trump is too sensitive a target at this point and may just continue looking at all of those other folks who are here in the united states for whom they have ill- will and evil intent. we'll watch it closely. >> all right. around, thank you so much. evan thank you for the reporting. just days after an historic electoral victory

president- elect trump is rolling up his sleeves getting ready to move on his agenda. step one filling positions in the incoming administration and cnn is learning it's an all- out battle among trump loyalists descending on his mar-a- lago estate in florida vying for those top jobs. trump crossed one role off the list. his campaign manager susie wiles will serve at chief of staff. >> sources tell us trump is going through executive orders, policies he wants to implement and regulations he plans to reverse in the white house on day one. let's turn to cnn kristen holmes live in west palm beach. kristen, new reporting on when we might find out about other roles in the administration. what can you tell jus. >> reporter: yeah, boris, and brianna, told by two sources they believe announcements for white house positions as early as today. they are trying to fill as many positions as quickly as they can to try and get the administration to take shape

so they can start working on some of those bigger positions, like the cabinet positions. also, so they can start working on those executive orders. all of those various policy decisions. they can have people in place who need to implement those decisions or at least be able to funnel those decisions through those people en to get to donald trump or heads of the transition team. i'm told the way the team is structured the last several months won't change but their going through the process now are really evaluating the best way to get these names out, but also the information that is coming in. how exactly are they filters information? going directly from various teams to the co-chairs to donald trump? what vole susie wiles going to play? how is the communication department of the transition team going play out? all of that is being worked out as we speak. another big question right now, the timing of on that meeting with joe biden. we are told it could happen as early as next week, but all of this is still being filtered

out. as i said, and i can't stress the urgency enough here. his team is really trying to make this work and trying to make it work quickly so they have all the pieces in place and that this looks nothing like 2017 when donald trump steppeds into the white house. they want this to be a completely well- oiled machine by the time he actually steps foot in the oval office. >> talk to us more what's playing out behind the scenes as people jockey for the top spots? >> reporter: what we're seeing and hearing from these various loyalists, people that have been around donald trump's orbit a lot of time, in- fighting, back-stabbing going on. isn't that surprising particularly given the circumstances and it is trump's world. i spoke to one earlier today saying people are dumbing out of the -- coming out of the woodwork they've never heard of trying to get access to the president now

president-elect. interesting we learned yesterday, kaitlyn collins reporting susie wiles was chosen quickly to be a filter for some of these people. the role he serve and the campaign and the role she's going to serve now in the administration. so part of her putting in position was to kind of filter through this knife fighting pup making sure people are going to her and not directly to president- elect trump. as we know once people get in his ear things get complicated. one example of one of the things i'm hearing. several people up for secretary of state. one of them we've heard the name floated marco rubio. one person who is actively spoken out against marco rubio malt toll times saying he would stab hid das in the back is don jr. he will play a big role in the transition. that's the tip of the iceberg how some in- fighting is playing out. >> quite an update from near

mar-a-lago. thank you. following a legal case against the president-elect. special count jack smith is assessing how to move forward with the january 6th criminal case against trump. >> and with us now on this what can you tell us about the new court filing and where this case stands? >> reporter: court filing at high noon today. the death nail of the january 6 case from the special counsel's office against donald trump. the moment we see the first indication from jack smith that this xas going to be winding down at least while donald trump is the sitting president incoming and potentially even before that while he's president-elect. smith asked the court to remove all deadlines in the case set up to progress the case towards trial. about 30 minutes later, after noon, judge tanya chutkan, the trial court judge in the case agreed saying, vacate it. no more work to be done here at this time. no moving forward on this case.

the justice department said because of the unprecedented circumstance of trump coming in as the president- elect, they want to have some discussions within the justice department about what to do that would be consistent with their policy. we know their policy is they're not going to prosecute a sitting president. it very well may extend to the president- elect as well. how exactly this case unravels with trump we're going to get an update from the justice department beginning of december. so procedurally it could work in a couple different ways. lp it be dismissed entirely or something else in court. this is winding down, jack smith's case against trump for his accesses after the 2020 election. >> thank you so much for the update. so as president- elect trump's transition works to fill white house positions democrats also have their work cut out for them and that is figuring outside the path ahead after some significant losses. i want to talk more about all

of this with democratic kildee of michigan. thank you for being with us. when you joined us a few days before the election you talked about encountering women voters in split- ticket households whose husbands were voting for trump but they were supporting vice president harris. yet harris did worse among women than both joe biden and hillary clinton. why do you think that is? >> yeah. first of all, of course, it's a big disappointment, and it's a question that we're going to have to spend time answering. i think ultimately we've got to do a much better job communicating what we've done and what we plan to do and that i think the, the particularly difficult challenge in this election is to not get drawn into what may very well have been donald trump's intentional distractions from the sort of core economic messages that we were trying to break through. i mean, every time we talked about cats and dogs in

springfield, ohio, or his madison square garden rally we weren't talking about what democrats stand for when it ÷÷comes to the economy kitchen- table message that really was front and center. while there were women breaking from their husbands on an issue of reproductive rights, as it turnsous, the central issue was not reproductive rights, as, to the extent it wases in 2022. we've got to the do a bert a better job communicating economics. having said that, a mixed set of results. may gain seats in the house of representatives and a narrow majority. not all loss. we failed to break through on the core economic messages and just got to do a better job of that. >> on that question of breaking through with the economic message, it strikes me that harris lost your state of

michigan and specifically counties where working- class union voters once reliably broke for democrats when you talk about changing the messaging, how much of that what do with, perhaps, a level of dissidence and asymmetry between message of achievements of the biden administration versus the pain a lot of voters felt when it comes to the price of everyday goods? because it's easy to point to numberance saying the economy is doing really well. whether people actually feel that is different. >> yeah. boyers, you put the finger on the challenge that we had. while we could have had, i guess, an economics session and talked about how the u.s. is faring much better when it comes to inflation than other industrialize nations, that doesn't really sell the point. we need to do a better job helping people understand that we feel the pain that they're facing.

we get it. not try to talk them out of that pain. but point out that we're betel off with the policies the democrats have put in place, dealing with this challenge. that's a harder message to sell. i think that's one aspect of it. i think when we look back on this period of time we're also going to see, i think, there's a general anxiety in our society right now. some of it comes out of covid. some of it is sort of the fractured nature of the way people consume information. and it is very clear that donald trump just persona is muchmuch capable than we would like to think in connecting with people's anxieties. maybe fueling them to a certain extent, and that was a source of motivation for some voters who felt like they just wanted a change, because they feel this general anxiety, economic anxiety, personal anxiety, whatever it might be. i know that seems like a bit of a psychoanalysis but i

really do, based on the people i talked to, the sense of uncertainty, he was able to tap into and we didn't have a strong enough answer for that. >> to that point, i've heard some democrats argue that the party is hamstrung by catering too much to the left on certain issues. i've heard some of your fellow folks on capitol hill, democrats, talking about going too far to the left on transgender rights and on immigration. do you think that that may have alienated working- class voters? from someone like independent senator bernie sanders who caucus us with democrats his feeling is democrats didn't present radical enough ideas on an economic front? i wonder where you land on that spectrum? >> well, no. i think first of all we shouldn't apologize for the fact we do support transgender rights and the people who are a part of that community. what republicans were able

to do is exploit that by using extreme examples and putting democrats in a position of having to defend the fact we actually do stand up for human rights. what they did was pretty cynical but effective. i would disagree with senator sanders in the sense that we have not only proposed but enacted, i think very progressive policies. like i think of the child tax credit. refundable child tax credit. i'm leaving congress end of this term. it's the best vote i ever cast in the 12 years i've served in congress. it's a progress uv approach to lifting children out of poverty. we shouldn't hide from that. we shouldn't pretend we didn't do it and, in fact, the reason it's not permanent is because republicans blocked it. had we focused more attention on some of those s perhaps would have been better off. we have to present our policies in a greater way and much more greater clarity any

language people use at their kitchen tables. >> congressman, you kind of answered a bit of my final question for you. seeing that you are retiring. leaving congress. i wonder, 12 years from when you first joined the institution, your reflections now? how different is congress from when you first entered, and -- what do you think given the fact that it appears ta s that republicans on on tra to potentially take the senate and the house? >> i'm distressed that the state of our democracy and distressed particularly at the state of the u.s. congress and especially under republican leadership. what i worry about is the difficulty that republicans have had in embracing the reality that there is no functional majority right now in the congress. and there's not likely to be a big majority for either party which means the only thing, way we're going to get anything done is if we can somehow set

side red versus blue paradigm, figure how to get things done and a more functional center emerge as a stronger voice rather than allowing the tail to wag the dahl dog. unfortunately what led kevin mccarthy and johnson seem to be into. i hope we can get back to some sanity and bipartisanship. if we don't we'll have a whole lot more trouble than we can handle in this country. i wish democrats had won. even if we don't we've got to figure out a way to work together and i don't see that happening quite the way i did the first few terms that i served in congress. >> congressman can kildee thank you for the time and congratulations on retirement. >> thanks, boris. when we come back a new setback for the outgoing biden administration. why a judge just struck down a policy that helped immigrants married to u.s.

citizens. why one of the conservative justices donald trump put on the supreme court could be the last hope for the corporate shrinking liberal wing. and violent attacks on israeli soccer fans in amsterdam. police calling the incidents antisemitic. we take you live to sterdam live, next.

days after the democrats election defeat of the white house is responding to another loss for the biden administration and one from the courts. a federal judge appointed by donald trump struck down president biden's plan that helped protect undocumented spouses of american citizens from being deported. >> this ruling could directly impact as many as 800,000 people according to estimates. cnn's reporter joins us. kevin, help us understand the judge's decision and what comes next? >> reporter: a big setback for president biden's immigration policy and leaves a lot of of in uncertainty pip president biden signed this back in june after congress failed to move on comprehensive immigration reform. it speeded undocumented spouses of american citizens from deportation. had to be here ten

years couldn't pose any security threat and there were hundreds of thousands of people who could have benefited from this. remember, president biden said at the time a way to keep families together. families who had been in the united states made their entire lives here able to keep them together. what texas and a number of other republican- led states argued was that this would strain their state resources and could potentially incentivize illegal immigration and the judge sided with that and saying president biden exceeded his legal authority, stretching it past its breaking point. what the white house said they sis agree evaluating next steps and a spokesman said the ruling sides with republican state officials seeking to force u.s. citizens and their families, people that lived in the united states more than ten years, to either separate or live in the shadows in constant fear of deportation. they don't say specifically whether they're going to appeal this and end of the day the trump administration is

going get rid of this anyway. they certain would not have appealed his in the courts. gives you a sense how limited the biden administration is at this point in the lame duck presidency and certainly there's a lot of certainty for these families layered on top of the additional idea of a trump presidency and he promised mass deportations for illegal immigrants. >> see how the biden administration responds given their out of office on january 20th and options are limited. thank you. so donald trump's election victory could potentially give him another chance to shape the supreme court, to further stack its conservative majority. >> trump appointed three conservative justices during his first term but his last pick justice amy coney barrett may hofer hope for the court's liberal minority. the supreme court analyst is here with more insight on this. how is justice barrett impacting the bench and creating sort of her own role on

it? >> a lot of talk about the supreme court now with the new administration coming in. donald trump had three appointments in his first term, a really big deal. it's part of the conservative dominance going on for the past 20 appointments over some 50 years. 15 of those have been by republican presidents and only 5 by democratic presidents. always been a search for the center. that's what you see going on now. the three liberals left there, justices elena kagan, ia sotomayor and ka jangy brown jackson looking for the center. amy coney barrett offered them the best chance. one, she's one member of the six justice conservative supermajority who never served in the top echelons of a republican administration. john roberts was in the reagan administration and h.w. bush

administration. brett kavanaugh in the george wrnlgts w. bush administration. she's made gestures towards the center. they have hope in her and how much despite engaging with the left wing justices she sends up more with the justices on the right 90% of the time. voting with chief justice roberts and kavanaugh. hope springs eternal. never know where someone's going to go. right now so much attention on clarence thomas, who's 76 and sam alito 74 with people thinking will they leave now that drnt is onald trump is in office? not eager to leave but might be enough pressure to go while a like- minded republican is there in office. >> and speaking of that, he may have opportunities to reshape the court even more to his liking than he already has. how could that impact the

direction that the court takes for the next generation? >> everybody talking about how it could get even more conservative. it's hard to know how much more. given they've already reversed half a century of abortion rights when they reversed roe v. wade and enhanced gun rights. they've rolled back the authority of federal regulators. there's been so much happening. that's what the sixth justice serve kiv majority. making the difference, younger conservatives will come in. if indeed donald trump has an opportunity to fill more seats. that means that his legacy would continue for decade upon decade upon decade. i used to say our children will be living with a donald trump court, back in his first term. now our grandchildren will be living with donald trump's court. and three justice in tis

his first term was amazing's get one or two more to get five? go back to history for a president fortunate to have that many vacancies on his watch. >> really san amazing number. thank you, as always. appreciate it. still to come, lawsuits revoked licences and threats of jail time. how president- elect trump could follow through on promises to go after the media in his second term. and at any moment a jury in indiana could decide the fate of a man accused of killing two young girls as deliberations resume in the highly publicized delphi double murder trial.

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right now dutch police are investigating some terrifying antisemitic attacks on israeli soccer fans. >> some incidents captured on video showing israelis chased down thstreets in amsterdam and beaten. we're there with details and warn you some image it's you're about to see are disturbing. >> help! the children -- [ bleep ]. >> reporter: for the children yelled attackers. "free palestine now. " the israeli embassy is one of

hundreds of israelis targeted in overnight after a soccer match between the israeli team and the dutch team. with the attackers violently denouncing israel's war on gaza. this man trying to escape being beaten saying he isn't jewish. >> i'm not jewish. >> reporter: before being struck hard in the face. [ screaming ] the dutch prime minister condemning the attacks as antisemitic vowing to prosecute. police launch add major investigation. it's unclear how it all started. more than 60 individuals arrested and some remain in custody, and in a press conference friday the city's mayor had this to say. >> what happened last night is not a protest. it has nothing to do with protests or demonstration. it is crime.

[ chanting ] >> reporter: the violence culminated offering a buildup earlier this week with israeli fans seen here chanting pro- ibs slogans and "ef" the arabs. and others tearing down a palestinian flag from a building. >> [ bleep ] , [ bleep ]. >> reporter: while the situation is under control now, a tension may soon shift to france where a match between the israeli and french soccer teams is scheduled for next week. this is a continent felt particularly key the effects of the war in gaza with large muslim and jewish communities and a feeling about the war and the way it's prosecuted ial israeli government. the mayor said the events

had nothing do with that, anti- smoteic in nature, criminal. we see the israeli foreign minister speaking with authorities how to make sure those responsible are prosecuted and continue to work with european governments sew these kind of incidents don't happen again. boris and brianna? >> eye- opening video. thank you for that update from amsterdam. candidate donald trump vowed to jail journalists revoke broadcast licences and target media outlets with lawsuits and now as president- elect he is getting set to make his triumph fant return to the white house and experts warn he could actually follow through on those promises. >> growing fear he could do major damage to press freedoms. we have cnn media correspondent, new reporting on this. she's joining us live. what are you learning? >> reporter: trump expressed a lot of admiration in the past for strong men military leaders who

in their own countries dismantle and weakened the press. i wanted to talk to experts on this around the world and ask what did those people do and could that happen here? their answer was, it's death by 1,000 cuts. you won't see a mass event or shutdowns of organizations. it's the small obscure sometimes bureaucratic steps that whittle down freedom of the press. predictions on access. attacks on media those in pow perp direct and indirect pressure on owners who have media companies leading to self-censorship. wealthy÷÷ allies turning them into outlets. seen targeting journalists for unrelated issues like tax investigation. even if the lawsuit is thrown out just responding to a lawsuit like that can train a drain resources from news organizations and journalists.

does it sound familiar? we've seen president- elect donald trump, a lawsuit currently going on against cbs over their interview with vice president kamala harris and in terms of self- censorship some experts pointed to the "washington post" and "l.a. times" stopping from endorsing kamala harris and can be a sign of censorship. you don't need direct pressure a sort of indirect pressure that can lead to self-censorship. owners of those papers, jeff bezos, nothing to do with it. i do want to end on a note of optimism, though. and listen, the united states is a much different place than a country like hungary and say there's a big diversity of media here and they say the united states has strong laws in place to help protect the media industry. >> thank you so much for the update. we want to discuss now with chris wallace, he is anchor of "the chris wallace show" and

"who's talking with chris wallace" on max. >> thank you for that. >> a plug. >> nothing do with naming of the show. >> a great name. >> strong. >> so what do you make of these threats from trump all the way through the campaign and now that he's president- elect the likelihood he goes after media outlets that say negative things about him? >> well, he doesn't like us, and he certainly doesn't like criticism and the didn't get a lot of reporting but a number of news organizations that had written critical reports in recent days that were suddenly banned from what turned out to be his victory party on wednesday morning. down in florida. just not allowed. credentials revoked and saw what trump white house did with our jim acosta trying, luckily failing, fortunately failing, to keep him out of the white house press room. definitely there's going to be tensions. he doesn't like criticism and i don't think as years have

gone by he likes it any more and i think people will be frozen out. you know, is there going to be a full- scale war on the media or the suits, for instance, the suit against "60 minutes" is not seriously considered. i'm sure it's going to cause cbs some money, but chances are much more likely than not that it will end up getting thrown out, but it's going to be a long four years. >> i wonder what you think about how he's used the media? and really how both candidates did ultimately looking back, skewing sometimes main stream media or just going with certain outlets or in trump's case, going that podcast route with joe rogan? looking where viewers are, millions and millions of them and saying that's where i'm going to go get a big audience. what that message, i think, candidates can take away from the future looking back on what happened? >> particularly interesting what trump's strategy

was, particularly in the fall. he turned down "60 minutes. " the most watched television news program, on the air. and instead he went to a lot of podcasts. interestingly enough, it started back in june when he went on logan paul, a media , social media influencer, a wrestling. went on his podcast and apparently one of his top media advisors, trump, his 18-year- old son barron and said ask which are the cool podcasts? the ones, making a concerted effort to reach out to young men. young men of color and was taking a lot of advice from barron about the platforms to go on and not and of course, what we saw at the end of the campaign was the battle over joe rogan, was i guess the top- rated podcast in america.

and very appealing to young men and he went on it, three hours. ended up being very late for a rally later that night thinking it's more important to be on joe rogan than any with his endorse kamala harris doing it, not do it. rogen sisted come down. she said no, would have made the victory or not? no offense, it con hurt. >> quality and the caliber of questions asked by someone interviewing a potential podcast on joe rogan versus "60 minutes" is vastly different. what does it tell you for a lot of americans not going to "60 minutes" or other

venerated institutions to hear from these candidates and would rather hear from them in a format like a podcast? >> it's not only that. it's a question of you meet the voters where they are. and particularly if you're looking at young people, and young men, a lot of -- watching "60 minutes," frankly not watching a lot of the legacy media including the three cable news channels the three major networks and if you want to reach that audience, you've got do go where they are. go where they're listening, and that tends to be podcasts and social media platforms. >> maybe they want the questions asked, that they would ask themselves, when they connect on a podcast, too. yeah. >> i'm right here. go ahead. >> going to say, i i don't think those listening to the podcast care about the rigor with which the questions are asked or what's the fact checking that goes into a rogen interview? listen to the show and listen

to the people who those influencers are influencing. >> looking forward to your show and rigor of which you ask them. be sure to watch. he does also anchor "the chris wallace show airing saturdays 10:00 a.m. on cnn and cnn max i. >> i listen to you and to me. target demo. >> i should listen to me more. chris, thank you. stay with cnn. we'll be right back.

the fate of the man accused of killing two girls in delphi, ind, is now in the hands of the jury. richard allen pleaded not guilty to murder charges facing up to 130 years in prison if convicted of all charges. abby williams and libby german went missing a after going for a hike back in 2017 and prosecutors allege allen confessed to the murders dozens of times to multiple people including his wife, mother and his fellow prison inmates. >> but his defense claims

those confessions stem from allen's fragile mental state after being held in solitary confinement for months. cnn's jean casarez joins us. what are you hearing? >> reporter: deliberating since 9:00 this morning. not a peep out of them. they are really, really focused on what the facts are, applying it to the law. this is a case. there is no dna at all linking richard allen to the victims in this case. there is no dna found in his home linking him to the victims in this case. there is no murder weapon in this case. but what they have is a picture. a picture from liberty german's phone moments before being murdered and that's bridge guy. the question before the jury is, bridge guy, richard allen. is it the same person? is it not the same person?

now, there were to witnesses that took the stand. eyewitnesss out at the trails that day and both testified they saw bridge guy. on cross- examination, got murky, because one of them said originally, oh, he was wearing a beige jacket, and picture comes out. oh, no. wearing a blue jacket. the other woman was driving saw him walking and she said he was muddy. that's her first interview with police. second interview, months later, even a year later, oh, he was muddy. then finally near the end before trial, oh, no. he was muddy and bloody. she had never said bloody before, but the reality is that richard allen was out there that day. he places himself at the scene. and he went to police in 2017 saying i was out there that day and i just wanted to let you know i did see three girls, not two girls. there were three girls out there that day but he proclaimed his innocence. when the girls were

found their throats were slit, both of them. that's how they died. that's the cause of death right there. both of them. the medical examiner originally said i think it was as serrated blood and a straight blade. two different tools used creating an issue. wow, one man two girls. slits both of their throats. not sexually assaulted at all. then you get to the point richard allen went from county jail to a state prison within a month after he was arrested. nut solitary confinement for 13 months. and originally he proclaimed his innocence, but as the months went on, april 2023 when he started. confessing to everybody. his wife, his mother, jail guards, everybody, psychiatrists, and he even gave particular details, but at the saum time same time had legal documents what the prosecution's case was and this is evidence, he was eating his own feces,

spreading it on himself. he was drinking the water out of the toilet. he was in a fetal position and eyes bulging. he was diagnosed with psychotic disorders right then. this jury has a lot to decide. guilty, not? reasonable doubt? >> jean casarez, thank you. so many watching this case and we will, too. so if you are a republican political operative, the place to be in mar-a-lago. ahead, how the jockey for jobs is playing out as president- elect donald trump decides who will be in his new administration. this is "cnn news central."