let's bring this nyu law professor melissa murray and nick ackerman doing the toughest kind of analysisi'll again reset by reading this to you and let you give us your thoughts but according to this unsealed filing, you have references to what sounds like hard evidence, email communications indicating criminal activity and a lobbying scheme redacted blank and blank acted as lobbiest to senior white house officials without compiling with lobbying rules to secure a pardon or reprieve for a sentence redacted and a related bribery conspiracy scheme for that contribution i mentioned. your views of just what a sudden unsealed filing like this means based on what we do know. >> these are the action packed waning days of the trump administration. nothing surprises me after four years but if these involve individuals far up in the trump administration, they are serious if they don't involve members of the white house staff. this is clearly if these allegations are proven, this would be, i think, far beyond the contemplated use of the pardon power and it were the case that the president had pardo

and brian, i'm just the messenger on this one, but the man who took those photos, josh ackerman, tweeted out that he even watched someone lick it. so he said a prayer for them. >> that's the least he can do. juliette, thanks very much. >>> coming up a christmas nightmare for the dubs. their blowout loss. >>> and a story you'll see only here on 5. local musicians turning a driveway into a stage. >> this has been the one consistent source of joy i've had since may, really. >>> and the spirit of giving on full display. the bay area getting together to lend a helping hand. christmas eve... everybody spends the night at the house. i love christmas, i always did. it's loud, it's family being together. a lot of food, music, people, hugs. that's a perfect christmas. ♪ >>> the warriors finding it hard to stay jolly after they let it snow bricks today in their loss. the warriors gifted the milwaukee bucks a 39-point win. the score 99-138, making this this second most lopsided score of any christmas game in all 74 years of the nba. the warriors are now 0 for 2 and winless to start the season. >>> a

and he's head of foreign trade for germany's d.v.m. a mechanical engineering association well mr ackerman thank you for joining us and all i wanted to ask you. how are your members approaching this moment right now as the negotiations near. yeah they the member companies have to adapt to heartbreaks it ought to move back said that means they have to adapt their international archie processes they have to prepare the relevant custom document and if outback sit com see if to pay customs duties but what is open now is how real the impact of the border controls speed on the delivery times for example and what is the availability of trucks and contain us on both sides so we have a lot of questions open now we're going to cost are you seeing put on your members as they just prepare for either outcome. i have recently had a. conversation with me a medium sized mechanical engineering company and they explained to me that only the customs declarations cost $4.00 of them as a medium size companies is around $280000.00 euro and also this company has to increase its stocks in the u.k. for finished pr

nick ackerman, jason johnson, thank you for joining us. >> ahead, trump's attack on his party from a primary challenge to torching the relief bill on the way out and bill barr is out as attorney general leaving a wave of pardons and a controversial legacy. is the new attorney general jeffrey rosen ready to stand up to trump at this critical and very dangerous period? we have the perfect guest. neal is back with us on "the beat" next. is back with us on e beat" next every year, we set out to do one thing help the world believe in holiday magic. and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. santa, santa, you're on mute! just wanted to say thanks. thanks for believing. >>> bill barr is out as attorney general resigning with a farewell letter to colleagues saying it was a great honor to serve and enforce the rule of law and adding he has deep respect for them but many inside the doj won't be shedding any tears. prosecutors quit in protest after barr meddled in the flynn and sto

nick ackerman, good to have you here. >> thank you. >>> you heard the phrase do as i say, not as i dos giving covid advice but not applying it to themselves. that's next live in the cnn newsroom ften unseen. because the pain you're feeling could be a sign of irreversible joint damage. every day you live with pain, swelling, and stiffness... you risk not being able to do the things you love. especially in these times, it's important to keep up with your rheumatologist. schedule an appointment today. . >>> despite the awful coronavirus numbers and the repeated warnings from medical experts, some high-ranking officials are ignoring their own advice for keeping safe. cnn's brian todd is keeping track of who's been caught. >> reporter: it was a couple of weeks before thanksgiving in a video posted on facebook, steve adler, the mayor of austin, texas, begged residents to take precautions. >> we need to stay home if you can. do everything you can to try to keep the numbers down. this is not the time to relax. >> reporter: but adler posted that video while he was in cabo san lucas, mexico, wi

. >> nick ackerman, paul smith, i thank both of you. i have an update on developing news. panel of experts formally approving massive use of the pfizer covid vaccine. this is an important hurdle we've been tracking that would help execute massive distribution for a campaign across the united states. once the fda signs off on this panel's recommendation, that then clears the way for vaccinations as soon as within days. an important update and we have more on this pandemic ahead including rudy giuliani explaining why he thinks he got celebrity covid treatment and later, we're joined by top chef's tom colicchio on how small businesses are in a fight for survival. w small businesses are in a fight for survival quitting smoking is. like, quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so try making it smaller, and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even insp

. >>> "outfront" now, former assistant special watergate prosecutor nick ackerman and nely honig, a u.storney for the southern district of new york. ellie, you think these pardons actually do make trump even more skpees exposed to prosecutors once he leaves office. why so? >> i do, kate. even after a year ago shortly after the mueller report came out i was over 1,000 career nonpolitical former federal prosecutors who signed a letter saying we believe the evidence even as laid out in robert mueller's report was enough to charge obstruction of justice. the relevant part here is the fact the president went out in public, went out on twitter and constantly dangled, offered out there the possibility of a pardon in exchange for people remaining silent. he didn't say it quite that clearly but i think anyone with common sense was easily able to read between the lines. what's changed since then? he's now delivered on that potential promise. over the last couple days, several people who started cooperating -- remember, paul manafort was cooperating with the federal government, with robert mueller

ackerman >> well, i don't know why these men are here >> i invited them. >> you invited them?. >> there isn't any impropriety >> and now there are witnesses to that. >> seth: please welcome back to the show, one of our favorites, michael keaton how are you, michael >> hey, man. how are you doing? >> seth: i'm good. you know, it's - >> before we start, just be fair [ laughter ] >> seth: okay. you know what? i'm glad you said that you know what? because these were going to be real tough ones. [ laughter ] >> round the corner, round the corner and be fair sorry, i have this on. i just went out for a minute look at this i want to show you something >> seth: great, i can't wait >> speaking of being fair, can you see that >> seth: yeah, look at that. >> yeah, but look at you, speaking -- wait how do i do this >> seth: the other way, the other way. what are you trying to show me >> i'm trying to say look at you, speaking of being fair, you're trying to hypnotize me. look, looking at you, man. [ laughter ] some kind of a spock hand gesture. >> seth: it's been really -- i should say, i

laura coats is a former federal prosecutor and nick ackerman served as assistant prosecutor in waterw much legal trouble, obviously we're finding out about this deposition now, how much legal trouble are the president and his children, including jared kushner, his son-in-law, facing right now? >> it would depend on the conduct they're engaging in. we're not just learning about the lawsuit, that was filed back in january, but the idea that she would be enveloped into it because apparently rick gates who headed the inaugural committee, sent an e-mail, and expressed in some form or fashion concerned about the gross overpayment of funds above market rate, and apparently she had a role in deciding whether to do that. we'll have to wait and see what liability she faces in misusing nonprofit funds, but in the larger context, the trump organization, you already know in new york has been scrutiny and other places at the state level. if the president of the united states were to engage in the so called preemptive pardons, trying to anticipate what trouble somebody might be if they violate the

first, i want to get some legal analysis from nick ackerman. nick, my mouth getting ahead of myself. let me just ask you where we are here. two cases shot down in a week. you've got the electoral college on monday. is this really game over for the president? does he have any chance left? >> he's got zero chance left. this was supposed to be the culmination of his return to the white house. this is something he's been plotting for months. it started months ago when he basically got all of his supporters to stay away from absentee ballots. he got the legislatures in pennsylvania and michigan to ensure that votes from absentee ballots couldn't be counted until after the election day. and then he used them, used that in his papers before the supreme court to argue that the votes that were counted after 3 a.m. on election night somehow had to be fraud, fraudulent, phony votes from dead people because they just suddenly came in. well, everybody knew where they came in. they came in from the absentee ballots that had to be counted after the election.

but we heard from jeff ackerman sex, he was saying it -- jeff from goldman sachs, he was saying it ishe way you see it traded? mike: i wouldn't say that all. i think we will find it is correlated. people look for correlations, and it's hard to tell. but the main thing that's unique about bitcoin, it's got a level of scarcity we really don't have in any other market, even talking about precious metals. there's some endeavors to mine precious metals from asteroids. mathematically, bitcoin is pristine in its scarcity, so it's got a property no other asset class has. obviously, the global pandemic is infecting -- affecting what's going on right now. it's tragic, certainly on a number of levels, and it's forcing central banks around the planet to rent money at unprecedented levels, and this is making people rethink, how is value going to be preserved in other asset classes? and bitcoin is immune to the printing of money. matt: the story -- i think it's pretty clear -- i love the story of bitcoin, mike, and it was great following it from the very beginning. i've always been personally annoy