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this morning dramatic new video of the moment a delta plane crashed and then flipped over in toronto. this video, taken from the cockpit of another plane, shows the delta flight coming in for a landing as it touches down. as you see right here, the wing appears to hit the ground before the plane catches fire and flips on the runway in a plume of black smoke. this hour, we'll hear from airport officials with an update on the crash scene as jason carroll picks up the story from here. >> come on. >> dramatic moments captured on the runway at toronto's pearson airport as passengers escaped from a delta commuter jet, which had just crashed and flipped upside down. one by one, passengers ran for their safety. one says all seemed normal as the aircraft was on final approach yesterday afternoon. then suddenly a hard landing. >> when we hit, it was just a super hard, like hit the ground and the plane went sideways. and i believe we skidded like on our

side and then flipped over on our back. where we ended up, there was like a big fireball. >> we didn't really know anything was the matter. or at least i didn't until like the second we hit the ground. um, there was no, like, real indication of anything. and then, yeah, we hit the ground and we were sideways, and then we were upside down, hanging like bats. >> flight 4819 was inbound from minneapolis carrying 80 people on board. >> clear to land. two three 4819. >> air traffic control cleared the crj 900 to land. already questions if weather could have played a role in the crash. wind gusts at the time reached almost 40mph. over the past week, toronto hit with nearly two feet of snow. >> this is an active investigation. it's very early on. it's really important that we do not speculate. what we can say is the runway was dry and there was no crosswind

conditions. >> canadian officials say 18 people on board were injured. the incident comes as the aviation industry, still reeling from recent accidents involving an american airlines commuter jet and a military chopper near washington, dc. a medevac jet in philadelphia and a bering air flight near nome, alaska. passengers on board flight 4819 say it is remarkable everyone survived. >> just feeling lucky and happy. i got to give the person i didn't know sitting next to me a big hug, that we were okay, and see my friends who were here to pick me up from the airport and give them a big hug. and yeah, get home. who knows when, but get home and give my family a big hug. >> investigators have several factors working in their favor. the plane is intact. they will have access to the flight data recorder as well as the cockpit voice recorder. they're also going to be able to interview the pilot and copilot to get

their input. in terms of what happened in the final moments on approach. but even with all of that, it could be some time before we have a concrete answer as to exactly what caused the crash. pamela. >> all right. jason carroll, thanks for that. joining us now is billy nolan. he is a former acting faa administrator. so the plane appears to pitch to the right. its wing hits the ground. we saw that in the video. we just heard one passenger call it a hard landing. what do you think? as you saw the video and what could have happened here? >> yeah. so, you know, i think you've already sort of expressed. right. a couple of things happen here. when we think about landing and winter operations, certainly as a long time captain, as a training captain myself, you think about whether or not the runway is slippery. what are the conditions? what are the latest tower winds that you would have received just prior to landing? does appear to be a hard landing, but we will have to wait and see. you know, the report coming out of the transportation safety bureau of canada? of course, they will be

assisted by the u.s. ntsb as well as the faa. you know, sort of get that final, but to the point already made, right. you've got the fuselage intact. and i really want to take a moment to just express appreciation. they sometimes they don't get it nearly enough. or the cabin crew for the flight attendants who safely and expeditiously got all, you know, the passengers off the plane and away from that. right. so that is just fantastic, right? so now is an opportunity. they'll be, as you said, be able to interview the crew, understand, you know, what they were thinking at the moment just prior to landing and then what led to this? it is, i would say, almost miraculous that, you know, you have this fireball that is behind the aircraft as it's sliding. uh, i think, again, a contribution to not having any more serious injuries than what we saw. >> so why do you think there were no fatalities in such a dramatic crash? and how do you think that reflects how aviation safety has evolved over the

years? >> yeah, it's an excellent question, pam. uh, you know, having been in aviation, you know, 45 years now and started out, i can tell you that from the manufacturers, the oems, as we call them, they are producing the aircraft are stronger, the ability to withstand higher g forces. the seats themselves are stronger and ability to withstand higher g forces. as you know, we sort of call in the business. so all of this contributes to creating a safer cabin right now. and this case where this happened so close is not like you're at 1000ft and you're doing sort of a dead fall, if you will. so i think all of those things contribute to the safety that we enjoy. and, you know, modern commercial aviation. >> and how critical was it that the plane, the wing of the plane detached after it hit? >> yeah, it's, you know, all things. you will have to look at the data, right. once you see the flight data recorder will be able to understand what was the final speed just prior to

touchdown, sort of what some of the. deceleration forces after touchdown, the fact that the wing detached. and then you have what we call a post-crash fire. uh, but that ability as the airplane is sliding away from that, uh, i think will is just, you know, sometimes it's good to have that sort of call it luck or whatever you will on your side. so and now comes the harder part of just sifting through all of this and getting to, you know, what the root cause of and seeing it from what the pilots had and how they, how they interacted with the information they were given and what they were thinking about on this landing. >> you know, i think for a lot of viewers, there's this fear now because of the recent plane crashes there was here in washington, where i am, that the collision recently, this other near misses and incidents. but i think, you know, there's the the issue of availability bias. right. it's we are focusing on these incidents. but if you look at all the planes that take off

and land every day, air travel is still overwhelmingly safe, right? >> yeah. you nailed it, right? >> i mean, this is to your point. it happens. this is what you like to think of as recency bias. something that happened just in the immediate past. we we it tends to consume our attention of course. and the fact that we get we get all of this information very, very rapidly then we may have done in the past. right. so but to your point, uh, us alone, you've got about 45,000 flights that are per day globally. that's 100,000 flights a day with, you know, 99.999. you just do the numbers and do the math that are taking off from reaching their destination safely every single day. that being said, you know, safety in commercial, in any form of aviation, we can never rest on our our record or our laurels. right? so you take every day as another opportunity to improve, to be better. we've seen the technological advances in modern aviation just shows what the aviation industry has

spent updating their airplanes, providing better guidance to crews. uh, so so these are the things that have made us, uh, ultra safe in this day and time, but still, let's never, uh, never lose sight that, you know, aviation can be terribly unforgiving of mistakes. >> that is very true. and again, we saw that here in washington with that collision. billy nolan, thank you so much. when we come back, russian and u.s. officials seem to have a lot of positive things to say. after hours of talks today about the ukraine war. but ukraine's president has a completely different take as russia lays out what it wants. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. but it's also kind of not the news. >> all the information on this show so terrible. >> have i got news for you. new saturday on cnn. >> planning to move? join the 6 million families who discovered a smarter, more flexible way to move with pods. save up to 20% now for a limited time. whether you're moving across town or

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800) 500-1400. >> super man the christopher reeve story saturday at seven on cnn. >> three years of war in ukraine. one day of talks in saudi arabia this morning. the u.s. has wrapped up its most high profile talks with russia since moscow's illegal invasion of ukraine three years ago. the u.s. sought to lay the groundwork for ending the war, while russia said it was looking to restore relations with the u.s. and russia also has sent the clear message that ukraine becoming a nato member is a nonstarter. >> we we explained to our colleagues today what president putin has repeatedly stressed that the expansion of nato, the absorption of ukraine by the north atlantic alliance is a direct threat to the interests of the russian federation, a direct threat to our sovereignty. >> national sovereignty. >> cnn's clare sebastian is in london and nick paton walsh is in kyiv. nick, you have some new

reporting. ukraine's president has really lashed out about his country not being represented at the meeting. what more can you tell us about that? >> yeah, i. >> mean, look. >> ukraine was never expected to be an initial presence in this us-russia summit. but i think the tone of the conclusion we've heard from both moscow and washington was much more about improving their direct relationship. they seemed much more about trying to wipe away years of that deteriorating than it was about what many thought were the initial reasons for them meeting, which was, as president trump has suggested, trying to find a swift end to the war in ukraine. clearly, that was something they discussed. but they deferred further detailed negotiations to separate teams. and they did agree indeed, to increase their diplomatic presence in each other's embassies in washington and moscow, essentially removing some of the isolation around russia after the poisoning of a former russian spy in the united kingdom with a weapons grade nerve agent that could have killed hundreds. so that rehabilitation of the putin administration gathering pace.

and that may be why we heard from ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy such stark words. i don't think he expected to be at that table, but he had said he would be tomorrow in riyadh. some may have interpreted that preplanned trip as maybe him hoping he might catch the entrails. the sort of the jet stream of that previous us-russian summit, and collect some kind of diplomatic progress from it. but he said they don't want to be part of anything that any deals made about ukraine without ukraine. i paraphrase here, and essentially that they didn't really care if their allies had unnecessary opinions about them. he would delay his trip to march the 10th. now i think that is him again, reminding washington that they had continually promised to keep ukraine involved in this and reiterated those promises today, but that hasn't yet translated into a seat at that particular table in riyadh. we will now see the ukraine and russia envoy for the trump administration, general keith kellogg, arriving here tomorrow, thursday, friday, for the first real substantive talks he'll have with ukrainian officials

that may yield details about a potential peace plan. but there is a lot of frustration in kyiv about how much has happened between moscow and washington without them being in the room, and how that us-russia relationship and its improvement seems to be at the core of what is happening in riyadh clair. >> to bring you in on this, the u.s. delegation headed by secretary of state marco rubio, has offered positive remarks on the talks. tell us more about that. >> yeah, i think we got certainly some positive words out of the three members of the u.s. delegation. i would say out of the three, rubio was perhaps the most sober, the most measured of them. he seemed to suggest that after the breakneck pace of the diplomatic moves it took to get to this point, less than a month into the start of the trump administration, things might move in a slightly more measured fashion going forward. take a listen to that portion. >> now we know what we don't know. >> but we have to understand that it's been three and a half years since there's been any sort of regularized contact between the united states and

russia, and in some cases between any of the participants in this conflict and russia. so the goal of today's meeting was to follow up on the phone call the president had a week ago and begin to establish those lines of communication. the work remains today as the first step of a long and difficult journey. >> a long and difficult journey. i will say he was somewhat contradicted by mike waltz, who said that things would continue with the same pace that you've seen so far from the trump administration that they were really keen to get this done. and obviously, as nick pointed out, the bulk of this was about opening these lines of communications, restoring the diplomatic missions, moving then to technical talks involving a different set of people on ukraine. but rubio did also offer some reassurance, perhaps to two european nations. he said no one is being sidelined. that perhaps also directed at ukraine, though it doesn't seem to have been particularly effective. mike waltz also backed that up, saying look, trump is clearly engaging with europe. we've had seven cabinet ministers in europe at the same

time this week, so they are going down that road as well. but i think the real problem here, certainly for ukraine, is that russia hasn't had to give up anything to get to this point. they haven't even moderated their pace of attacks. we saw almost a daily record number of drones fired at ukraine today, and certainly lavrov didn't signal anything in his briefing that suggests any concessions are coming. pamela. >> that's an important point. clare sebastian nick paton walsh, thank you. i want to continue this conversation with retired army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. he was director for european affairs at the national security council. he was also a whistleblower on the trump call with zelenskyy back in 2019. colonel, thank you so much for joining us. so, um, first of all, what do you think about this and the fact that zelenskyy has postponed his trip to saudi arabia? how significant do you think that that is? >> i'm not sure if. >> it's really all that significant. i think part of the issue here is that this meeting in saudi arabia was billed as, um, ukraine peace talks. it wasn't it was more of a standard affair reset. uh, in

u.s. russia relations. it was an effort to normalize. and this is exactly the consequence of trump's call with putin, where they said that they need a they need to kind of start talking again. uh, that direction was was fulfilled here in these meetings in saudi arabia. but it wasn't really a dive into the peace talks. now, whether this was a good idea in the first place, you know, we we have had this pattern of resets only to learn the lessons the hard way that russia is not going to compromise on the things that it believes are it's in its national security interests and its vital interests. we saw that under the obama administration, under trump, to a certain extent, and those all kind of floundered. i think this is a pattern, frankly, that i cover in my book that's coming out next tuesday, six administrations doubling down on a russia first policy. and it doesn't really go anywhere. so i think that's if we take that perspective, zelenskyy not

showing up to this one, uh, is not that important. there's a lot of groundwork to be done. there is no eminent, um, you know, effort to move this towards, uh, peace anytime soon. i think if anything, maybe even a bit of a setback because russia got something for free and normalization and relations with the u.s. without any additional pressure. >> yeah. i mean, that is how russia is framing the meeting, too. um, that it was positive for u.s. russia relations. i'm just wondering, though, when you look at the different tags from the administrations with biden, he basically iced out putin and russia. trump is clearly trying a different tack. i mean, what would you say to someone who was like, well, why not try? i mean, clearly when biden was president, this war is ongoing. there were no, um, substantive peace talks. now you're actually seeing potential movement in the right direction. what do you say to that? >> i think there is if you don't care for history, if you're operating in the vacuum

and everything is transactional, uh, then this seems like a, you know, a good move. it seems like, well, it's better to talk and have a conversation with the russians and then maybe move forward. trump is a relationship kind of person. he's he thinks that he could, based on his own charisma, his own, uh, engagement with putin. he might be able to move, um, peace talks forward. the fact is that history actually says something completely different. uh, russia will bank this as a way to normalize relationships, ease the pressure. it's going to play for lifting sanctions. it's taking a morale boost from these engagements that will translate to maybe some additional activities on the battlefield. ukraine is taking a hit. so i think from a standpoint of whether this actually moves the ball forward on peace talks, whether we could end russia's, uh, approach to using military to achieve its aims. it doesn't get us anywhere. i think the thing that, uh, i've in my study and what i learned is that it's clear resolve, it's clear

lines. it's it's additional pressure on russia that could get it to be compromising. ukraine doesn't need additional pressure. it's maximally compromising. so i don't think this is going to really advance that much. but, uh, trump will have to learn this lesson potentially the hard way over the course of the next months. and then we'll see maybe a rebalance of the relationship and additional support coming into ukraine once it's clear that russia is not going to to deliver this, this win that trump is achieving to get. >> you had russians for russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov giving these positive remarks, saying both the u.s. and russian negotiators, quote, heard each other. what do you make of that, do you think? i mean, do you think putin is playing trump right now? and how do you think ukraine is taking this? >> yeah, well, to me, it's absolutely clear that that putin is playing trump. uh, i've sat across the table in some of these, um, principal level engagements, high level meetings. and it's it's good

to go down that agenda of the different issues, mainly of, of, uh, challenges, you know, very few issues that we could agree on with the russians and maybe share some of those grievances. but does it really move things forward? no. um, so again, from that standpoint, for, for the objective of, of peace talks, it doesn't get anywhere. uh, it puts additional pressure on ukraine. it probably puts additional pressure on europe. there are some discussions of a major, major investment in ukraine going forward with this idea of the europeans are going to have to go it alone in support of, of ukraine. so from that standpoint, it might be helpful and healthy for europe to balance, uh, rebalance its own investments in defense. but again, if this was billed as a effort to really advance peace talks, we're far from it. i think both sides want to spin it in a way that things are moving forward. trump so like this, he could deliver on a promise. the russians that they're normalizing relationships that are now back at the big boy

table. uh, but it really doesn't move things forward. uh. we will this is going to be a many months long process before we come back around to the fact that there's little to, to agree on with russia and more that we could achieve if we support the europeans. and, uh, ukraine. >> but but it's interesting that the u.s. didn't include the europeans in this, in these latest talks. and the u.s. at the same time wants europe to come to the table with more in terms of paying, you know, as a member of nato and being responsible for its own security. what do you think about that strategy? >> yeah, i think actually it's probably not as big a deal as, um, maybe some analysts think it is. again, if this was a peace talks, uh, type of conversation, you'd want the europeans there, you'd want the ukrainians there. they're absolutely essential. the u.s. has not been party to the previous rounds of conversations, really in the opening phase of this war. but if this is all about normalizing

relationships between russia and and the u.s., this is standard fare. we had these things. they're called either stability talks when they're conducted by defense and state department or other kind of high level, you know, pre-summit type of activities. um, we do these pretty regularly. and for the europeans and the ukrainians to not be there for this broader set of conversations, it's one thing, but we should recognize that in the context of trying to end this war, putting pressure on russia, it probably, you know, in that regard, it doesn't it's not helpful. we want it to maintain cohesion, unity. uh, but again, if we relabel it back to just us or. russia talks, it's it's, you know, normal historical pattern. >> i just want to ask you something on a personal level, as we wrap up, we have seen president trump take steps, um, to seemingly exact vengeance against people he perceives as enemies. uh, taking away security for certain people like

john bolton, for example, um, firing certain people from the government. i'm just wondering what it's like to be you right now. do you worry at all that you could be a target? >> yeah. so i have the strange misfortune of being both on the russian sanctions list and on the trump enemies list. uh, a little bit odd. um, i think the fact is that there's going to be a high degree of retribution in some of these figures that are coming, being selected, for instance. uh kash patel. who's likely to get, uh. a senate vote this week would be the, the minister of retribution and retaliation. uh, am i, uh, concerned maybe on on some level, yes. but i'm not going to shirk in my responsibilities to communicate on the areas that i think i could contribute to the policy making or the policy deliberations that are essential to secure u.s. national security interests. you know, this book coming out, um, next week is is going to be critical of six

different administrations and the trump administration of their missteps going forward. and i guess the bottom line is i take my i take my duty in uniform seriously. i take my duty as a as a public figure now with a deep expertise on this topic. seriously, also. and i will do what i think is is right. and, uh, let them pick this fight. uh, it will be ugly if they pick this fight. it'll be embarrassing for him. i have nothing to to hide. i've done nothing wrong. if they want to pick this fight, it's going to be embarrassing for them. >> colonel alexander vindman, thank you so much, and congrats on your book coming out. >> thank you. >> another court win for elon musk and doge as the lawsuits against his efforts to slash the federal government pile up. >> cooked books. >> corporate fat cats. >> swindling socialites. >> doped up cyclists, then yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states

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administration, the people at main justice, as well as the man. >> who is nominated to be the. >> u.s. attorney in. >> d.c., ed martin. >> the departure this morning is denise chung. she was leading the criminal division here in the u.s. attorney's office, and she did not want to open a grand jury investigation that she viewed to be premature. but that main justice and her boss in the u.s. attorney's office wanted. that's according to multiple sources, speaking to us about what. >> went down. >> to prompt denise chung's sudden departure today from that office. the other thing about this is the investigation. it was supposed to be over. the d.c. u.s. attorney's office looking into environmental protection agency money, something that the epa administrator appointed by trump has been talking quite a lot about and has even said he wanted to work with the justice department on looking at. but that appears to be the thing that denise chung at the u.s. attorney's office said. >> i'm not doing.

>> it, and it is not something that we should be. doing at this time with the grand jury investigation. even if the political leadership wanted that one thing, too. we heard from our sources is when. >> she. >> announced her farewell to the office in washington, d.c., of prosecutors. she noted to them that she wanted them to continue conducting themselves with utmost integrity. not saying exactly why she was leaving, but making sure to underline the integrity of the of the department and the ethics that both she and the people that she worked with there for a long time want to uphold. as there are these ongoing fights within the justice department about their belief from the trump side of weaponization, as well as clashes in other u.s. attorneys offices, like in new york, over what prosecutors are being asked to do. pamela katelyn polantz, thank you. turning now to a legal setback for a large group of university students who get financial aid. they asked a washington, d.c., court to block elon musk's doge from accessing

their personal data. but the judge declined to intervene. cnn senior legal analyst elie honig joins us now. ali, i want to get to this in a second, but i first just want to process what caitlin just laid out and just what your view of this is and the significance of these prosecutors who have been resigning from their posts at doj. >> well, pam, there's nothing normal about this wave of resignations that we've seen. of course, we saw seven career nonpolitical prosecutors all resign around the eric adams case. and now here we have another person who has been a prosecutor for a long time, not a political appointee, who has resigned over an order she was given, apparently, to open up some sort of grand jury, meaning criminal investigation of spending relating to the environment. so clearly, this person had strong, principled objections to that order. and i don't think this is going to be the last of these resignations that we see over the coming days and weeks. >> yeah, it seems very unusual. we don't typically see this. um, so bring us up to speed on this case that i introduced you with.

what were the students concerns and what was the legal basis for their lawsuit? >> so really important to understand up front. this case has nothing to do with whether it is wise or unwise. very specifically about whether any privacy laws were breached. and the judge has found that, no, he found no evidence that privacy laws were violated. now, this relates to a series of doge employees working within the department of education as part of their review. they had been given access to private student information. however, what the judge found is that the record establishes that those employees, those doge employees, were complying with privacy restrictions, had not disseminated this information, this private information, publicly, and were aware that if they did so, they could be punished civilly or maybe even criminally. and therefore the judge said, i don't find enough of a violation or any violation of the privacy rights, and therefore i'm not going to stop them from doing anything at this

point. >> so clearly, you know, actually that was good. that was enlightening information, right. in terms of like what they're actually doing with the information or not doing. um, and the judge found that the students did not show that they were irreparably harmed by doj's actions. so explain to us what the threshold for that would be. >> so the key thing you have to show, if you're this group of students or any plaintiff who goes to a court and says, i want you to issue an injunction, i want you to block something from happening. you then bear the burden of establishing what we call irreparable harm, that something is happening or certainly will happen, that will damage you in a serious way that you cannot recover from. and the judge and i should mention, by the way, the judge is an obama nominee, so he's not some pro-trump person sort of by disposition. but the judge said he held hearings and he did fact finding. and he said, i cannot find that your information has been publicly disseminated and you've been hurt. in fact, the judge said to the contrary, all

the evidence is that your private information has remained private, has remained within proper department of education standards, and therefore there is no irreversible harm. and therefore, you don't get the injunction that you're asking for. >> and this is the third time in recent days that courts have sided with doge and against those filing lawsuits that have focused on privacy concerns. what does that mean to you? what is the significance? what does that mean for those who hope to stop doj's activities in the future? >> well, it tells me at least that doge has some sensibility and awareness of what some of these privacy restrictions are, that while people might be uncomfortable with elon musk or others at doge, accessing information within those departments, they are aware of what the limitations are and they have not publicly distributed private information. and again, keep in mind, these lawsuits are not about they are not proxies for. do you like doge or not? do you like elon musk or not? these are always going to be decided on very narrow, specific legal bases like we see in this case.

>> all right. elie honig as always, thank you. >> thanks, pam. >> up next, finding a path forward. state and local leaders. and what could be make or break meetings about new york mayor eric adams future as the governor considers an extraordinary and rare move. >> this part changed my life. >> superman is now the winner of the bafta award for best documentary. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are. >> literally walking because of him. >> superman the christopher reeve story saturday at seven on cnn. >> one second you feel. >> safe. >> and then. >> the police are on their way. well. >> you still. >> do. >> look out. >> cause here i have. >> you always. >> had trouble with your weight. me too. >> discover the. power of. >> wegovy with wegovy. >> i lost 35 pounds and some

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future. and this comes just days after the department of justice ordered the criminal corruption charges against him to be dropped. the judge in that case has ordered a hearing tomorrow to discuss it. cnn's gloria pazmino is in new york. so, gloria, talk to us about this new hearing and what you are learning about governor hochul's meetings today. >> well. >> first. >> we should start with with governor kathy hochul. >> who is in a really difficult. >> political position here. >> she is really stuck between. >> a rock and a. >> hard place. she has. >> a several lawmakers here in new. >> york calling on. >> her to use. >> her. >> executive power to remove the mayor from office. >> this is. >> after last week. >> we learned. >> of the department. >> of justice. >> memo directing prosecutors here in new york to drop the corruption charges. against the mayor. now, where she may where she to make that choice. it would. >> not. >> come without several political consequences for the governor. so she's in a really difficult position. she has acknowledged that much, and she has said that she is looking to

meet with several key leaders, including congressman hakeem jeffries, gregory meeks, as well as the reverend al sharpton and other city lawmakers to sort of go over the possibilities and determine a next path to quote her directly. that's what's happening today at the governor's office in manhattan. >> she has said. >> that she's taking a serious look at this option, given the recent developments in the last several days. in the meantime, the mayor has said over and over that he has no plans to resign. he struck a pretty defiant tone, speaking at churches over the weekend, saying that people are, quote, dancing on his grave and that he has no intention of going anywhere. and in the meantime, we've also learned that we are going to hear directly from the judge that's been overseeing his federal corruption case. tomorrow, judge dale ho has called both parties to come into court tomorrow for

a hearing where we might finally get some information about what's going to happen next. given this doj memo directing the federal prosecutors here in new york to drop the charges, we're starting to get at least an idea of what the mayor's defense team are going to say. i want to read just a portion of the letter that was sent by the attorney, alex spiro, who has been representing the mayor in this case, responding to some briefs that have been filed in the last day or so. and part of what he says was that what we never said or suggested to anyone was that mayor adams would do x in exchange for y, and no one said or suggested to us that they would do y in exchange for x. we are prepared to confirm these points under oath in sworn declarations. now he is talking about the fact that the doj memo listed a one of the reasons for the charges to be dropped as the need for the mayor to cooperate with

federal immigration authorities. that's what people here in new york are calling evidence of a quid pro, quid pro quo, something that the mayor's attorneys will try to argue against tomorrow. >> all right, gloria pazmino, thank you so much. still to come, cnn's new reporting about a covert cia program drones used to spy on drug cartels in mexico. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you? >> new saturday on cnn. >> the tempur-pedic breeze makes sleep feel cool. so no more sweating all night or blasting the air conditioning because the breeze feels up to ten degrees cooler all night long. during our presidents day sale, save up to $500 on select adjustable mattress sets. >> i think we want. to have. >> some. >> fun today. >> we know how to make fun. >> yes. >> i hope you enjoy thailand. >> we usually go to the caribbean. >> i almost died today. no. >> you didn't.

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policy qualifies, or call one( 800) 651-0200 coventry direct redefining insurance. >> can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life has truly joyful moments. and some. >> really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. >> never too much. >> now to new cnn reporting the cia under president trump has been covertly flying surveillance drones over mexico to spy on drug cartels. that's according to officials familiar with the operation. and it's

part of the administration's dramatic shift of national security resources to the southern border. let's bring in cnn national correspondent natasha bertrand. natasha, what more are you learning? well, pam, current and former officials familiar with this program told us that the cia, under president trump, has been covertly flying mq nine reaper drones over mexico to spy on drug cartels. and as you said, it's part of this dramatic reorientation of national security assets to the u.s. southern border. cnn has previously reported that the u.s. military. >> was flying. >> spy planes in. international airspace to monitor these cartels. but these drones are actually flying over mexico and inside mexican airspace, which is a significant development here. now, these more recent flights of these drones, they were communicated to congress by the trump administration using a particular notification reserved for new or updated covert. programs that the cia intends to either to conceal or deny. and this is all part of a broader strategy to kind of shift

intelligence community resources towards combating cartels as well, which we know the administration is also preparing to designate as foreign terrorist organizations. and this planning actually started even before trump took office. we actually obtained a 30 page trump transition planning document that called for treating counter drug cartel work as a, quote, form of counterterrorism and using those authorities and resources appropriately, including by moving resources from other regions if necessary. so really kind of an all hands on deck approach here. now, these mq nine drones that are being used for these missions, they're not currently armed, but they can be equipped with payloads to carry out precision air strikes, which the u.s. pretty regularly does to target suspected terrorists in syria, iraq and somalia. now, when we asked the cia for comment. a spokesperson declined to comment specifically about these drone missions, but said that broadly, quote, countering drug cartels in mexico and regionally is a priority for cia as part of the trump

administration's broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco trafficking. director ratcliffe is determined to put cia's unique expertise to work against this multifaceted challenge. now, pam, these drone missions, they also come, of course, amid heightened tensions between the u.s. and the mexican government, especially as mexican officials are already fielding questions about why the military spy planes have flown missions near their border in recent weeks. mexican president claudia sheinbaum and other senior mexican officials. they have also emphasized in recent days the importance of sovereignty, of intelligence sharing. and they have noted that the u.s. spy plane flights are occurring in international airspace to try to kind of, you know, appease the public there. but obviously, these drone missions are taking place in mexican airspace itself. so we should also note that when we asked mexican officials for comment, they did not respond about whether they're aware of this at all. pam. all right. natasha. natasha. bertrand, thank you so much. and thank you all for joining us. i'm pamela brown. you can follow me on

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