someone on their worst day to to rise to that occasion, that that's an honor, you know, and, um, and that program offered that to us. we're very fortunate. we're fortunate to have our fires in our state, but we're very fortunate to have the opportunity for that. and, um, you know, so i loved it. i my first call. yeah, my first medical call was cpr on a baby. my first fire was a bowling alley fire. you know, so like that, those are the kind of things that, you know, it'll build you up fast. so when you come home to do it professionally, you have that experience. you know, you're forced to have that real quick. and you excel at it. >> but you you certainly made a difference then and are making a difference now in the work that you're doing. and we see what's happening in california. the difference, >> thank you so much for joining us. i look forward to

watching that movie too. thank you. >> yeah. thank you. >> thank you all tonight for watching. anderson cooper 360 is next. >> and good evening. thanks for joining us. we're coming to you from a staging ground in the pacific palisades, where fire crews, law enforcement and personnel have been using as a base of operations for the the battle that is underway, the race against the clock and against the the potential wind that is expected to pick up tomorrow. we have been seeing we've been out there in the hills or in the pacific palisades today, seeing about 5300 fire crews, firefighters up and down these mountainsides, putting as much water, putting as much fire retardant down as they possibly can, clearing as much brush as they possibly can in anticipation of these winds tomorrow. i want to show you the map. the wind map. the

weather service has said the potential is about as bad as it gets. the areas in purple, um, which stretch now from east of pasadena, all the way west and north through the san fernando valley into neighboring ventura county, nearly as far north as the resort town of ojai. the purple on the map, they say, could experience wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour. now, if that is the case, if that actually happens and we'll see how long those wind gusts, if they do happen, may be, but that would make it very difficult to get aircraft in the air to put water down. and that wind could pick up these hidden, uh, hidden hotspots, hotspots, uh, underneath the ground just below the surface of the ground. and i want to show you exactly what we are talking about with these hidden hotspots. i spent the day just driving around in in this area here in the pacific palisades. and this is what we came upon. i want to show you in

particular one one area that we were in watching about 30 firefighters go up and down these mountainsides looking for these hidden hotspots. take a look. the battle to save homes in mandeville canyon in brentwood heights has been intense. on saturday, one home in mandeville was consumed by flames, but firefighters fought back hard on the ground and from the air. they poured thousands of gallons of water and fire retardant to stop the fire from spreading. brentwood heights, with its homes perched on a ridge overlooking mandeville canyon, was also saved. but two days later, the danger remains. around 11 a.m. monday, we found a strike team assembled. some 30 firefighters armed with hand tools, chainsaws and gas cans to run them. they're working 24 hour shifts, and there's still so much to be done. >> we're going to push in and we're going to we call it mopping up. we're going to mop up the fire. 300ft off the line

to make sure this section of the line today is contained. >> so is there already a line around the entire palisades fire? >> no there's not. there's still crews are still actively working on getting that in. this is pretty steep country. so the hand crews are putting in a lot of work where the dozers can't push push that containment line in. >> the strike team, made up of two hand crews, fanned out. they carefully walked down the mountainside toward mandeville canyon, searching the ground as they went. >> they're going down right now, and they're going to stir the dirt a little bit and look for anything that's hot down there. and then if somebody finds it, they'll hold line until it's taken care of, and then they'll move forward. >> it's crazy to me that you have to go over every inch of ground in this entire. >> i mean, we're talking within our containment lines. >> yes. we check everything, make sure it's all out from the house on the ridge. >> a spotter watched for smoke. a sudden shift of wind. a new fire could endanger the firefighters below. so there's, you know, there's some shrubbery here which is burnt

on the top of it. there could still be embers there. >> that's right, that's right. and a good indicator is when you see around the base is all white really ashy. when it's black like this, you can tell, you know it's cold or someone's already been here and put water on it, but you'll see a lot of white, ashy spots along the hillside. those are the key targets we want to focus on. that's that's the hidden heat that we're looking for. >> the palisades fire is anywhere from 14 to 16% contained right now. can you just explain what that means? because i think a lot of people think, well, does that mean there's more than 80% of this place still on fire? >> it does sound a little misleading. like where's the other 85% burning? it's not that i've driven around this fire for the last two days, and it's hard to find any smoke anywhere. this is the most active fire. what you're seeing behind me. and as you can see, there's no smoke, no flames. we just don't call it contained yet because we haven't had crews come in and mop it up thoroughly for this strike team. >> working down to the canyon took much of the day. given all the devastation you see, it must feel good to look over

there and see those houses which you guys saved on saturday. >> it is a good feeling, but then it's you're humbled real quick when you drive these streets and you see the devastation and the unfortunate loss for those, um, it's a good feeling. but, you know, obviously everybody in the fire service wishes that devastation didn't happen. >> the work was tedious and tiring, moving up and down mountainsides, but with the chance of winds increasing, they knew there's no time to spare. and that's just one spot where we had. as i said, there are 5300 or so firefighters ana navarro, i want you to meet kenny kane. kenny, your house was just over there. yeah, about two miles from here. you have a gym in santa monica. your house was destroyed. how how is your family doing? >> our family is doing okay at

this point. i mean, the first inventory that you take is, is everybody safe? and we. it was pretty scary the day of. but once we all got together, that's the first thing that you just. >> your kids were in school when this happened, right? >> kids in school. my wife got several calls and i was working pretty far from here. and she went to go get him, picked him up in an auditorium where the kids were screaming and she could see the fire visibly moving towards marquez elementary, where our kids go to school. got him in the car, started driving and got stuck in basically a traffic jam with just as so many people did. so many people were trying to get out and, um, i think the was in her. after seeing the fire move towards the school and she started seeing the fires jumping from tree to tree, house to house as they were stuck in the traffic jam. so she pulled the car over and got the kids out, and they ran a

mile and a half back to our house. >> they ran back to the house and then and then i was coming back and one of my coaches at the gym picked. >> uh, my wife, the boys and our, our eight month old daughter up and got him to safety. >> i know you went back. you got some things from the house. you also scared off some people who were trying to loot. >> so i rendezvoused with them, and then we realized there were still some things that were missing. and so my buddy and i decided to go back into the neighborhood. and as we were driving in, we just noticed, you know, a couple of looters at one house. we drove past that. then we got onto my block. and, uh, as we drove in, we noticed that a couple guys were taping a ring doorbell across the street. and so we got out and we, you know, pretty forcefully got got them out of there. and i went into the house and it was at that

point it was 4:00, 4:30 p.m. and the smoke, the huge black plumes of smoke just coming in. and, you know, it's one of those crazy paradoxical moments in our humanity where you've got your you're married and your wife is on the phone telling you what to get. and then i'm on the inside and it's just one of those rather comedic moments, because my buddy was with me, was shouting from the outside, kenny, the house next door is on fire. sunset fire so then my wife is trying to tell me what to get and i'm like, babe, i think we need to go. and he's screaming at me like, you got to get out of here. and so we went out and put that fire out. >> your gym is okay, but you had a gym that got destroyed in the tubbs fire. yeah. years ago. and right now, your gym is kind of a hub for a lot of folks who have have lost their homes. how many people do you know who have lost their homes? >> yeah. so we've got 16 people as of now that have lost their homes from the gym. another 15 or so are not completely out of the woods, but it looks like they're going to be out of the woods. they'll

be displaced for some time. so it's 30 plus. people that are homeless for sure. and some with out any home whatsoever to know about and what you're going through. well, i think the the bottom line is this is what we're realizing in my gym community is that this the the sheer humanity and love that we have for each other is something that we we really focus on at our gym, we have this concept called vuca and that this idea is that the world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. and it's like literally something that we train from a mindset perspective. and it just in moments like this, are you prepared not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. and so what happens in a moment like this is that, you know, these little micro communities step up so much and, you know, there's some of us that have been making our way back into the gym and just starting to move

again and just it's it's pretty profound because you, you. you just, you know, you get the love of people who've been through it. and then you get the people who aren't affected just taking you in and caring for you. and, um, and, and that's this whole thing to me that, like, what i want people to know is that like that there's just so much beauty in the caretaking of human beings, and there's these micro elements of the thugs that we're trying to loot our neighborhood or whatever. and, and so there's this. coexistent thing that's in all of our humanity. there's there's so much goodness and just a touch of badness. but what i'd like everybody to know is that, like, there's there is so much goodness in all of this. and despite the devastation, there's a lot of love. >> you said there's a gofundme you've set up. is that right? >> yeah, there's a gofundme. there's two. one for the members of our gym and then one for my wife and i. >> how do people find that? >> um, they i actually don't know the one for the. they're set up by other people, so we'll try to put it on the

screen. >> yeah. um, what's the name of the gym? >> the name of the gym is oak park, los angeles. >> i wish you the best. i'm so sorry. >> thank you. i really appreciate it. thank you for your time. >> yeah. um, there's a lot more ahead. i want to check in with dirk van damme just to get a sense of this wind and what to expect for tomorrow. derek, what are you. what are you seeing? >> yeah. subtle change in the wind direction is going to bring the most extreme fire risk to new areas. starting at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning, lasting right through the day on wednesday, we have our red flag warnings that are in place. and the hardest hit areas. remember, anywhere you see this shading of pink, that is where there is a high risk of rapid fire growth. but the national weather service in los angeles has issued these two areas, called a particularly dangerous situation. to give you an idea just how rare these are, they've only issued six of these in the past five years, four of which have been issued in the past three months. last week's particularly dangerous

situation. we all know what happened with the palisade fire as it exploded in size. so basically what this means is that the conditions are ripe for extreme fire behavior and extreme fire growth in new locations. so this expansion and consolidation of this purple area you see here, including the san fernando valley, into central and eastern sections of ventura county, that's new because they're seeing this subtle change in the wind direction, bringing the most extreme fire threat to those particular areas. so what has been a northeasterly wind will be more of an east to northeasterly wind. so this is going to be crucial in who experiences the most volatile extreme potential, at least in terms of fire behavior. a fire. uh, the the fire danger. they're they're not predicting where the fires will actually occur. it's showing you that the conditions there are ready for fire development and behavior. so these are the current fires. eaton fire and into the palisades fire where anderson was actually walking with the firefighters earlier today is in an area called brentwood heights. that's within this

region. and what you're noticing here is the evacuation warnings and orders with a shade of yellow and pink. those have crossed the 405. they're encroaching on the ucla campus and getting ever so close to the brentwood area here. so we'll see how the palisades fire actually unfolds here in the coming days, especially with this change in the wind direction. anderson. >> derek. derek van dam i appreciate it. thanks so much. it's so fascinating to me. i mean, you think that, you know, there are not active fires burning right now, even though it's only 16 or so percent contained here in the palisades. but it's these it's these hotspots underneath the ground that are so much concern right now. and the wind comes, it'll it'll move off some of that. that dirt, that cover and something that smoldering in the root underneath some shrubbery could become an ember that goes up into the air and starts a new fire. that's why the wind is of such concern. and it would hamper aerial assault on on any fire from aircraft. i want to check in with our nick

watt, who is in the palisades. nick, what have you been been seeing today and hearing? >> well, anderson, while you've been up there with the firefighters getting ready for the next wave, we've been down in the palisades village and it has been just eerie today. there are 200 national guard soldiers now deployed here, along with sheriffs deputies, police officers to keep out the looters. you know, end of last week into the weekend, the police were bringing people who used to live here in because these people wanted to see if there was anything left of their homes. they've had to stop that because they don't want the danger of looters coming in here and stealing what's left. so we've seen county fire officials walking around going house by house, assessing the damage and taking photographs, uploading those photographs so that people who can't come in can at least see if there's anything left. once they've inspected a house, they hang a little pink tag outside the house and move on.

i'm looking at a pink tag just over there. there is nothing left of this house to hang a pink tag on, so the tag is on the charred tree stump that is out front. um, you know, a lot of those people are now beginning this long, laborious. it's going to be a painful process trying to get insurance, trying to figure out what they do next. um, 24 dead, six people still unaccounted for as we wait for the potential next wave of this fire to hit los angeles. um, you know, along with those firefighters who you were with, um, trying to prepare, trying to make sure that they're in the best position possible to fight the next fire. they're also going to increase the fire patrols, anderson. so they've got eyes on anything. and, you know, the one thing that is giving me some optimism is, you know, when this fire broke out last week, there were like 250 firefighters here fighting it. you know, as you've said, there are now 5000 firefighters just on this one fire area. and

they are pre-positioning getting ready for the potential next wave. but, you know, i'm hearing from people down in santa monica in brentwood that they are anxious. they are worried for what's going to happen in the night when those winds pick up again. and, you know, there's still a whole lot more fuel out here in los angeles, even in the burned areas, there are pockets. but elsewhere, you know, we had this wet, wet winter last winter, no rain in the summer. i mean, all that stuff up in the hills, i mean, people are still concerned. i mean, you know, and at a friend of mine was at church here yesterday and he said that the message was very much, you know, you can destroy our homes, but you can't destroy our community. um, i mean, i hope, i hope he's right. i hope he's right. anderson. yeah. >> you know, nick watt, i appreciate it. thank you. nick's been doing extraordinary work now for a very long time. from the beginning. the first night when these when all of us watched

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sold for less than $20. go to dealdash.com and see how much you can save. >> today we are at the mall working as janitors. >> we've got to do and say what the other guys tell us. also, the garbage pail is remote controlled. we'll be testing out a number of beverages. this drink may cause a mild seasoning of external features. i'm about to propose to my girlfriend. would you mind giving me a hand? okay. >> jonah, you've always been a nasty freak. will you marry me? >> impractical jokers? all new thursdays at ten on tbs. set your dvr now. >> hey. welcome back. joining me from a staging area along the pacific coast highway near the pacific palisades. i'm here with sheriff robert luna of l.a. county sheriff's department. um, just talk a little bit about what, in terms of what your officers are doing, looking for for missing, looking for, for those who have died. >> yeah. so first of all, i'm really proud to represent all the men of the men and women of

the los angeles county sheriff's department. >> they are doing amazing work, working long hours. so we're very appreciative. so we've got several missions between evacuations, road closures, ingress and egress, humanitarian missions. and we're out there working and we're unfortunately we're doing what we call looter suppression, because when people don't want to leave their house under evacuation orders, they're afraid that people may break into their homes. so we are out there trying to ensure that people's homes are safe. so that's a primary mission. >> are you seeing a lot of i mean, how many arrests have you made for on looting? >> as of last night, we have had a total of 34 arrests. but not all of them are for either burglary or looting. there are a variety of charges in there. there is a curfew in effect. i think we're going into our third night tonight of a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., so a lot

of the arrests are for curfew violations. but interestingly enough, in these impacted areas, we tell people, don't come in here, you cannot come in here. but we have people that we stop. they have narcotics on them. we've had a couple of arrests where people with guns and they're in an area they're not supposed to be in. >> and in terms of the death toll and the missing, um. where where what what are you seeing for l.a. county, for l.a. county, which is our jurisdiction for the l.a. county sheriff's? >> unfortunately, as of this morning, we're at 21 deaths. and that's at the combination of both the palisades fire and the eaton location. but currently we have search and rescue recovery operations that are being conducted. basically, what that is, is you have a combination of l.a. county search and rescue, l.a. county fire, and the l.a. county coroner's office with cadaver dogs doing grid searches. in the last two days, they've searched over

900 residences, and unfortunately, they've come up with remains. so then the coroner's office processes them, and then the coroner's office has to identify and then notify the next of kin. very tragic. so you're essentially you divide up neighborhoods by grid and you're doing systematic grid searches block by block, house by house. >> that's in these areas. >> yes. that's exactly what we're doing. and by the way, that correlates to the frustration from some of the residents who want to get back to their houses. and we'd like to get them back into their houses. >> but that's one of the holdups, is you've got to do these searches. >> yes. one of the holdups is that we need to do these searches. we need to do them right, so we can hopefully give the families that are waiting, uh, the news that they're, you know, the unfortunate news at times. but we can't allow people going in and out. >> do you have a sense of how much more of a grid search is like? how long do you have grid searches ahead of you? yeah. >> uh, as of last night, when i got my last numbers, i want to

say we had only done maybe 10 to 15% of the areas that we still need to do. it's going to take several days to do this and do it right. right. >> well, sheriff luna, i appreciate all your efforts. and you coming out here. i know your officers have been working around the clock. thank you. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. thank you. >> sheriff luna, with the l.a. county sheriff's. um, gary tuchman today went to into the pacific palisades with an old family friend of his to to look at what this family has lost. let's take a look. >> at the real 89 year old sam buckner walking up his driveway with his daughter, jen, about to see for the first time with the palisades fire did to his home. this video shows what it looked like from the outdoor deck on sam's pacific palisades house on tuesday night. an hours later, after he evacuated this video from outside his house.

>> if anyone knows this house, just a huge house. there's embers and it looks like there's a gas line back there. we're going to tell the firefighters, just go slow. >> as sam walked in his home, he saw little damage on the right side of the house. but it turns out the fire raged through the left side. >> just check to your left. that's my office. that's where i work. >> many portions inside and outside the house. destroyed. sam and his late wife, arlene raised three daughters here. and i know this all quite personally, because sam was and is best friends with my dad. they've been friends since kindergarten. that's sam on the right, my dad on the left when they were both 16 years old in chicago in 1951. >> there are people less fortunate, more ravaged, more displaced. we have a family that stays together and sticks together, and we started supporting each other. these are material things that are not as important to anybody.

living things are most important. >> sam's three children and their families all live close to each other in mandatory evacuation areas. jen and her husband, damon, raised four children in their home. >> thank god our house is here. we're so lucky. >> damage here. and her sister lori's house. very limited. >> this is the only neighborhood i've ever known. my whole life. i've been here for 56 years. a mile apart from my sisters and my parents. it's surreal, for sure, but it's a drastically different situation for the third sister, dana and her husband, rick, who have also come to see their house for the first time since the fire started raging. >> oh my god, dad! >> dana and rick's pacific palisades home of 32 years has been destroyed. a total loss for the parents of four grandparents of six. they are here with two of their sons and their daughter in law. >> oh, give me a hug, baby. >> oh my god.

>> this is what their house looked like just a few days ago. and this is video. a neighbor sent them of the wildfires that started burning their house and taking over the neighborhood. four years ago, their son luke married brianna and the wedding party was in the house. >> careful, sweetie. so oh. >> oh my god. >> they are profoundly sad. but like sam, the patriarch of the family, dana and rick say they realize how fortunate they still are. >> we raised our four children here under this roof for 32 years, and it had magic in it. >> and they have a guiding philosophy. what do you do next?

>> do you want me to go? yeah, you go because she always says, are we going to be okay? yeah. and the answer is always yes. >> as for sam, you're grateful for what you've gotten. >> i'm grateful for what i standing here with what i got on my back right now, and being here and being able to talk to you and being able to go forward tomorrow morning, that's god's gift. >> and gary tuchman joins us now. it's so extraordinary to see what people are going through here. >> it's really sad. and right now, all three of them, sam and his daughter dana, her husband rick, they're all staying in a hotel. dana and rick have three large dogs who are staying with them. their goal is to rebuild back into their houses, but it's going to take a long time for them and so many other people here for people even figuring out what the next step is, is difficult. >> gary tuchman, thanks so much. as i said, we're at a staging area here or firefighters, law enforcement personnel and people are coming by. i want you to meet jay

leno. what, you came by to drop off some supplies? well, we're cooking for the for the crew, and. >> well, you guys, if you're hungry, we've got we've got a big barbecue going. and because, you know, they're all getting boxed lunches and we figure, let's get some hot food. so it's kind of fun. i drove a 1941 american lafrance fire truck, so the guys got it. >> you brought your own fire truck? >> am i on fire? it's good to have your own fire truck when you live in l.a. >> and it's a 1941. >> 1941? yeah, yeah. uh, so anyway, so we've got it loaded up and we cooked yesterday in pasadena at the rose bowl for the crew there. and we're here today, and we'll get to the other locations in the next 2 or 3 days. yeah. >> how, um, for you seeing this? i mean, you're a long time resident here, you know, it's it's unbelievable. >> it's the biggest natural disaster. not that 911 was a natural disaster, but it's literally on that scale. i mean, it's 10,000 buildings. i mean, you can't even if you drove all day, you couldn't see 10,000 buildings. i mean, you get on that hill and you look for miles and there's nothing.

it looks like hiroshima or just some horrible thing. but, you know, the sense of community. neighbors meeting neighbors never met before, and people all pitching in. i mean, i try to look at the bright side of things. it is true, though. >> i mean, you see that? i mean, the sheriff was just on talking about, you know, the arrest for looters, some 30 or so in l.a. county. but what you hear of more, i mean, obviously, that's an awful thing. what you hear more is neighbors helping neighbors, people who didn't even know each other before. >> right? i mean, it's a shame it has to come to that. i mean, the last time, remember, was 911. remember president bush, we all had to get together and the sense of community for 3 or 4 days. everybody put aside their political beliefs. and who's on your lawn on a sign and all that nonsense. and it's happening here today. i mean, it's a shame that's what it takes. >> but it's interesting you say that because, you know, next week there's, you know, the inauguration and everything. i don't even want to go back to the world of politics. i mean, what's happening here is so real and so pure and

so important of people connecting and loving each other and remembering that we are all part of a community. >> yeah, i think that's that's really true. i mean, it's an entire city wiped out. i mean, pacific palisades it doesn't exist and probably won't exist the next 5 or 6 years. i don't i don't know how you rebuild from this. it's a $160 billion. there's no insurance company in the world have that much money. i mean the problems will be insurmountable, but we'll get through it. we always do. >> well, i love what you're doing. it's really a pleasure to see you. >> good to see you. i'm sorry for the circumstances. yeah. >> me too. me too. god bless. nice to see someone else with some white hair. um, we're going to take a short break. we'll have more from here. pick me, me, me. >> you're still paying for that one? >> i forgot about it. >> experience shows you all your subscriptions and can cancel the ones you don't

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absolutely free. text love to 321321 today. closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. this is cnn breaking news. >> it's just after 1230 on the east coast, and we have breaking news. the doj has just

released special counsel jack smith's report on president elect donald trump's alleged efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. the report has now been transmitted to congress. it's more than 130 pages. cnn has obtained it is reading through it now to give you the very latest. moments ago, federal judge aileen cannon rejected a last ditch attempt by trump to block the release of the report. as you know, trump was the first president charged with attempting to overturn the election results. but that case essentially ended when the supreme court ruled that trump did have some immunity as a president for official acts. i want to go right now to cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez with what we know at this very minute. okay. we knew it was coming. evan, apparently, it's gone to congress. why has that been the first stop and at that time, the fire started around over there around 6:00. >> so i went outside and i began filming this fire. my

mother was actually watching the fire from her home, but there was no adam. actually, there was not even a fire in altadena. so about 9:00 my time that judge aileen cannon had put in place that prevented the release of any part of this report. >> so what we have here is volume one, which has to do with the investigation of donald trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2016 to 2020 election and and that was the case that judge chutkan handled in washington, dc. that is correct. has nothing to do with judge cannon, but somehow she had asserted to put on hold all of the report she her her whole lifted. as you know, the trump team had tried at the last minute minute to ask one more time and she rejected that. i'll read you just a part of what jack smith, in his opening letter. uh, says, you know, in explaining the scope of his work. right.

he says, as directed by the principles of the justice department. i made my decision in these cases without regard to mr. trump's political association activities or beliefs, or the possible personal or professional consequences of a prosecution for me or any member of my office. um, obviously that's those are words that i think are going to hang over all of this because smith is is among the many people that donald trump has said could face some kind of retribution. people you know around trump have also said that smith and others should be arrested or should be investigated for pursuing these cases against donald trump. so, you know, he addresses that right here saying, i didn't make any of these calls based on any of that. again, we're going through this report right now, but it just gives you a sense of of of what he does to explain the work he did here tonight. >> now, of course, he's framing the knowing very well that this has been the accusation throughout the entirety of his tenure as special counsel.

norm, what are the regs say? can they not just give it right to the public? why does it have to go through congress first? why is there this middleman? >> laura, when i was working on the first impeachment of donald trump, and we received the mueller report, it was this same process. they bring you a hard copy, a special courier comes from doj. >> this was hand delivered. you're saying tonight it is it is a recognition that congress will be very, very cross. >> if you or i or evan got a hold of this report before those who are addressed in merrick garland's letter, the chairs of the senate and house judiciary committee and the ranking members get their opportunity. and it's it it's a historic moment because of the full circle that we've traveled with. this report, these, um, uh, acts by donald

trump so heavily documented of attempting to overturn the 2020 election so he could stay in the white house. he's now going back to that white house. so this is a historic document that we are now going to review. >> and look, a lot of this letter that opens this this report, i think is directly confronting what donald trump has been accusing jack smith and his team of as recently as last week. as recently as as today, you know, he's been putting on social media calling. he calls jack. jack smith deranged. he says to all who know me well, the claim from mr. trump that my decisions on as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable. he says while we were not able to bring these cases to be charged to trial, i believe that the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters. i believe the example our team set for others

to fight for justice without regard for the personal cost matters. again, speaking. he's speaking here in this letter to merrick garland, the attorney general. this is the words these are the words of jack smith. but he's also you can tell sending this out, obviously, to donald trump again, knowing full well that that's what the consequences of what of what these two prosecutions are. >> he knows full well that everyone's going to be dissecting every single word, looking for every little kernel of indication, either to support what they believe about him or to undermine what they thought they knew about him as well. in fact, i want to do we have the table of contents, just to give the audience a little bit of a sense of just how how thorough this is going to be. it's over 130 pages. this is one of the two volumes he goes through, not only his own personal, you know, stance as to his integrity as a prosecutor. as evan was talking about. and he's trying to convey, but also about the

reasons for their decisions to go forward with cases, other considerations as well. i want to bring in senior legal analyst elie honig into the conversation as well. elie, you know, we have been watching and waiting to see when this would happen. there had been arguments that the trump legal counsel tried to raise to suggest that this could not come out because he was an illegitimate special counsel to, for lack of a better phrase, that anything that he learned as special counsel should also not be coming in almost like a fruit of the poison tree sort of argument. but here we have, at the stroke of midnight, the stagecoach turning into the pumpkin reality that they can release it to congress. at least one of the volumes. what do you expect to see in terms of the thought process and the work product that will be contained in this report? >> well, laura, first of all, as you said, donald trump spent much of the day making really

meritless arguments to try to block this release. he was rejected twice today by judge cannon, including once, about an hour ago. and now here we are. we have this post-midnight release. now the report is going to be in two main parts. the second part is not a surprise, and you just showed the viewers that with the table of contents, this is going to be essentially like a prosecution memo. this is going to be a detailed, nuanced breakdown of here's the evidence we relied on. here's the charges we brought. we know what the charges are, but here's how we justify them. and here's why. this was a just and fair prosecution, sort of the standard stuff that we've seen in other special counsel reports. what's different about this one? and you were just discussing this with evan is the introduction. >> i mean, this is far more dramatic, far more, frankly defensive by jack smith. >> he quotes john adams, he quotes, you know, highfalutin language from prior attorneys general. >> he really wraps himself in

the righteousness that he sees around this investigation. so that is something unlike what we've seen before, although i will say we got another special counsel report earlier today from the david weiss who prosecuted hunter biden, which actually has a similar introduction. so usually special counsel reports are quite dry. they're just facts in law. but the two that we got today are unique in that both of them are very defensive and really strike back at the people who've been criticizing them. jack smith strikes back aggressively at comments that donald trump has made and to a lesser extent, but still palpable. the hunter biden prosecutors strike out at joe biden for his criticisms. >> well, you know, some would say they have every right to be a little defensive after what they've been accused of doing. and yet it still is novel not to have one, but two different special counsel's really knowing that they are being viewed personally, even outside of the professional context, to try to envelop and lead with those conversations. i literally have in america, hot

off the press. it's hot in my hand right now. just one volume of the special counsel report. remember, according to the statute, they have to hand over to the attorney general, merrick garland, at the conclusion of the investigation. as you know, jack smith has resigned the investigation that he was overseeing has concluded there are two different parts, two different volumes. we've got one here before us right now. and i'll read you a portion of it, because regarding trump and pence and their conversations, remember we have the volume that deals with election interference, not the classified documents. more on that in a moment. and in it, jack smith says, i'm pointing to pages 20 and 21 for all of you following along with your little highlighters. quote. he even falsely told mr. pence that the justice department was finding major infractions when mr. pence reportedly repeatedly, repeatedly refused to act as mr. trump wanted. mr. trump

told him that hundreds of thousands of people would hate his guts and think he was stupid, and that mr. pence was too honest. just a part of what everyone's been wondering. remember just last week we did see the two men, pence and trump, shaking hands at the funeral of the 39th president of the united states. it had been a long time since we've seen anything like that. even cordial behavior between the two of them. i want to bring in new york times, justice and fbi reporter devlin barrett. devlin, how often are you and i in these middle of the night conversations, waiting to get more information about doj? well, we've got at least part of it right now. hot off the presses. this volume. one of the things that trump did not want people to see, but also something that he believes that the voters of america in reelecting him to be the 47th president cared not much about. but here we have it. what are

your thoughts? >> i mean, we're still reading and processing, but right away, my initial reaction to what we're seeing from jack smith is for a prosecutor who never got to go to trial, this is his closing argument. >> this is his final account of what he believes the evidence shows. and to the other folks point, it is defensive at times. it is very telling, really, that we're talking about this after midnight and he's defending himself in sort of his opening salvo of this document. but again, he's really making his final case for why he thinks this was a righteous prosecution and why he thinks donald trump's behavior added up to criminal acts. he talks about a pattern of conduct, a pattern of the soon to be president rejecting factual information and embracing false information. and that shows the criminal intent behind what he did. i think there's a lot to debate and think about and argue about here, but it is his closing

argument. it is his sort of last him trying to finally have the last word. >> and of course, one of the reasons we don't have a trial and a prosecution in this case is because, of course, there is a president elect and he is no longer going to be pursuing this as special counsel, given some of the guidelines in the department of justice. it seemed, though, that the judge, judge tanya chutkan, was certainly entertaining the process of prosecuting donald trump. and i just want to read for people i know we have it on the screen, and i showed it for you for a second, the table of contents. but i do want to give people as i go back to my esteemed panel here, who is reading up on as well, a little bit of information about what you should expect to see as we're combing through, you know, beside the midnight oil here about this. and he's talking about in this volume one again, this is the election interference. this is not the classified documents case. this is the election interference. there's two volumes here. this is volume one. and for those of you who can't read it here,

it's so small on the screen, the result of the investigation, they're going to talk about mr. trump's pressure on state officials. the fraudulent elector plan, the misuse, they say, of official power through the doj, the pressure on the vice president, which i just read you a portion of his discussion with vice president mike pence and his supporters attacking the united states capitol. that's the theyalk about the law, the . different statutory codes that were going to be in effect, and that they were contemplating bringing charges under, whether it be conspiracy to obstruct or conspiracy against rights or conspiracy to defraud the united states, among others. and coconspirator liability. that's what you're going to find sections about who might potentially have also faced charges. we know it was a streamlined indictment when it came to the one before the washington, dc judge tanya chutkan many wondered why was it to expedite the entire process or otherwise? we'll learn a little bit more about what the considerations were.

also, he talks about the principles of federal prosecution, including why prosecuting, they say mr. trump served multiple substantial federal interests. they included protecting the integrity of the electoral process and the peaceful transfer of power that would be served by his prosecution. another instance was the substantial federal interest in counting every citizen's vote was served by prosecuting him. they believe also the idea of protecting election officials and other government officials from violence, and also in the evenhanded administration of the law, would be served by his prosecution. they also talk about that there was no adequate, non-criminal alternative to prosecution. interesting, of course, as well, considering the latest sentencing that happened just last week about these issues. and on that point, i want to bring in, as we go through the investigative process and what they did and the challenges, even including search warrants

for twitter that became x during the duration of this investigation. and of course, his immunity considerations. i want to bring in cnn political commentator and former georgia lieutenant governor geoff duncan. glad to have you. here we are poring through the details of this, this outline giving us quite a lot to chew over in terms of all that's considered the fact. let's go right to this part. this is out number one, jeff, but also that they're going through why they believe prosecuting trump served federal interests, areas that you and i have talked about election integrity and beyond. what's your reaction? >> well, i just can't help but think the travesty that this this whole scenario is brought forward is that people will not be be given justice that that their due. i mean, people broke significant laws. they they changed the trajectory of so many things to so many

people's lives illegally. and it's documented in state by state, by state and federal cases from coast to coast. there were laws broken, and nobody's going to pay a price for it. and that is what it is. right? and the brutal realities are that an election has been won against all odds. the political comeback of all times has has happened. but it still doesn't justify the fact that laws were broken and no justice will be served because of that. >> a really important point i want to bring to evan perez and norah mizan. you're both combing through all the details of this. evan, what stands out to you? >> well, a couple of things. you know, we learn here for the first time. there's a few details of of of all the things that they looked at and they looked at whether donald trump could be charged with violating the anti-riot act, for instance, this would basically put donald trump more firmly connected to the riot and what they what they describe here in a footnote that the the office was aware that courts have

struck down and limited various prongs of the anti-riot act, so they decided it wasn't worth the fight to try to do that. they also looked at another another statute, which would have, they believe they had strong evidence. mr. trump and his coconspirators agreed to use deceit to defeat the government function of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the election to obstruct the certification and to injure the right of citizens to vote and have their votes counted again. what are one of the things that they said is that they decided they didn't need that they stuck to just the four charges that they have, right. and so what what this report now tells us a little bit about is that, you know, they did look at other things to charge. they also, by the way, at the end of this investigation, determined that they could not charge the coconspirators. you know, we've been talking about all these coconspirators that were included in the

original indictment, and they continue to investigate those people. and in the end, the office ended without charges against any of those people. that's interesting because, you know, you remember those coconspirators included rudy giuliani. there were other people who were john eastman, people who were associated with the fake electors plot. so all of those people appear because this office doesn't exist anymore, are no longer facing that that legal jeopardy. i should note, by the way, 250 people were interviewed for this as part of this investigation. according to the justice department. and, you know, that is, you know, far more than we had ever known. and 55 people were brought to the grand jury, 55 witnesses were brought to the grand jury. again, that's brand new information. we didn't know exactly the scope of what this investigation had covered. >> i want to stop for a second. also, have we have some part of what the conclusion says in this report? is this the department's view that the

constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged. the strength of the government's proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind. indeed, but for mr. trump's election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial. elie honig what's your reaction to that? >> so what jack smith is doing here is making clear why he ended this investigation, why he moved a few weeks ago to dismiss this case. he's saying it had nothing to do with any weakness in the proof. he says right there in the passage you just read, laura, i'm confident that had we gone to trial, we would have gotten a conviction. he has no way to know that. i mean, we never know what a jury is going to do, but he's saying i had enough confidence. the reason he's saying that i dismiss these charges is because of long standing internal justice department

policy. it actually goes all the way back to watergate that says we doj do not believe we can prosecute the sitting president constitutionally. and so jack smith actually said in his letters to the court when he dismissed the case, he said, i've checked with our lawyers at what we call olc, the office of legal counsel, the in-house experts, and they confirmed that that policy does apply to us. so that explains this statement here. the department's view that the constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president, jack smith, saying that policy is the only reason we ended this case, nor mizan. >> it almost has a kind of a deja vu moment when it comes to the state court proceeding last week, although albeit for very different reasons. what's your reaction and what are you seeing that sticks out to you now that we've had a chance to go through the report, the shock of the what? >> donald trump is documented as having done here, pressuring state officials, the fake electors plan, abusing the justice department, pressuring the vice president, inciting the violence. second, there's a

very extensive legal treatment that suggests the strengths of the strength of these claims. if this had ever made it to to a jury, when you look at the facts, even though they're familiar, mike pence within inches of danger, perhaps life threatening, donald trump's reaction. so what? it still jumps out at you. and finally, the addendum todd blanche soon to be, if confirmed, the number two official at the justice department packed with disinformation in a lengthy letter, begins, donald trump was completely exonerated. no, donald trump was not exonerated. the opposite legal rules stood in the way of a jury determination here. >> geoff duncan. there's a lot of information about state actors being pressured. talk to me about how you see the fact that this report is now out there. you were also recently, i understand, kicked out of

your state's gop, many angered by your continued discussions and opposition to what you believe was wrong. what's your reaction tonight? >> well, telling the truth gets you kicked out of the club. i'm fine. getting kicked out of the club, and i've been telling the truth since day one. this this ground game was really, really played at the state level for donald trump and his team as they were trying to overturn the 2020 election, state by state, by state. even granular phone calls from the president to state legislators, folks that would never, ever in the history of time be able to talk directly to a president about something as important as an election. but that's the way the game was played. i think history, when it looks back over this, this, this entire case, this entire period of time will go down as one of the the largest attempted criminal heists ever that went unprosecuted. i mean, i just cannot think of a bigger criminal scheme that's going to go unpunished. and i think as we as we write laws, as we as we try to build punishments

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