elie honig. thank you so much. stick with us. we're going to have much more after the break, including we're starting to get some congressional reaction to this as well. we're going to sort through that. we'll be right back this is what you want. >> this is what you need. this is the path to true happiness oh, man, i'm loving the sauce already delicious it's a good day at the office for me good to see you. see you this is not a drill. >> subway dropped the price on all their subs. 20% off any sub, any size. >> subway did what? >> any sub yep. >> for a limited time, you get 20% off when you order in the app. hurry and get this deal before it's gone so you're 45. >> that's the perfect age to see some old friends explore new worlds and to start screening for colon cancer. yep. with colon cancer rising in adults under 50, the american cancer society recommends starting to screen earlier at age 45. i'm cologuard a noninvasive way to screen at home on your schedule, and i find 92% of colon cancers. i'm for people 45 plus at average ris

elie honig, a former state and federal prosecutor. thank you all for being with us. elie, first, i want to go to you because you know, this courthouse extremely well. give us an idea of what it actually looks like. since cameras aren't allowed inside. >> yeah. boris has spent many, many hours and days inside this courthouse. so what's happening today? what will happen shortly is an arraignment. so before that, luigi mangione is going through some basic processing, through the court officers, through the marshals. they'll take his prints, they'll ask him some basic questions. when the court proceeding is ready, he'll be walked into what we call magistrates court. now, if you're trying to envision this, it's not the sort of soaring, ornate federal courtroom where most trials happen. this is sort of a unglamorous, dingy courtroom. the ceiling is lower, it's darker, it's smaller, and usually it's just used as a place for sort of initial processing. so mangione will sit at his table with his lawyer, karen friedman agnifilo, by his side. the prosecutors for the s.d.n.y will

elie honig and john miller, thanks to both of you. coming up, a live report from capitol hill where a trifecta of trump picks are meeting with u.s. senators including the first visits for tulsi gabbard and kash patel new year's eve live with anderson and andy. >> live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> where are you headed? >> where am i headed? >> am i just going to take what the market gives me? no. >> i can do some research. >> you know that's backed by jp morgan's leading strategists like us. >> when you want to invest with more confidence, the answer is jp morgan wealth management. >> for more than a decade, pozega has been trusted again and again and again. s. e. cupp ask your doctor about pozega swipe hope you brought coffee. the december to remember sales event. get offers on select models when you're a small business owner, your to do list can be a lot that's why progressive makes it easy to save with a commercial auto quote online, so you can take on all your other to dos. >> i already did see if you could save at progressi

cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. he's also a former federal prosecutor. elie honig do you see anything in what republicans have laid out here that is illegal? >> no, there is nothing there. >> i'm here to report. i'm going to give you the bottom line right up front. >> you know that. >> i do know that. yeah. i just i just read this report. god help me. it's long. you read? >> it's 300 pages. did you really read it? >> let me let me paraphrase. >> let me rephrase i read through it. he is a senior legal editor. >> lawyers know where to go for the good parts. i read through this thing. the part that recommends criminal charges against elizabeth cheney is remarkably unspecific and way off base. the bases that they allege is that liz cheney had secret communications, secret communications with a witness. what's she supposed to do? she's an investor. she's a part of an investigative committee. this is what you do after you're a defense lawyer? i was a prosecutor. what's the job of every fbi agent, cop, prosecutor, defense lawyer, congressional investigator on t

joining me now, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. elie, good to see you.ook, the trump team is saying in a statement that it's a direct violation of the supreme court's decision on immunity to hold this way. >> is it? >> well, we don't know, laura. i mean, it's not a surprise that judge merchan came out this way. he's really ruled against donald trump on virtually every issue of importance. but the important thing to keep in mind is the immunity decision actually came down after the whole trial was over. so what we are trying to do here, what the judge and the parties are trying to do here, is apply that supreme court ruling sort of backwards. what trump said is, well, some of the evidence introduced against me at that trial had to do with my time as president. conversations i had with hope hicks and judge merchan today said, i think at a perfectly reasonable ruling, he said, yeah, but that wasn't official actions. that was your own political business, that was your own personal business. therefore, it doesn't count under the supreme court's decision. >> s

joining me now, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. elie, good to see you.k, the trump team is saying in a statement that it's a direct violation of the supreme court's decision on immunity to hold this way. is it? >> well, we don't know, laura. i mean, it's not a surprise that judge merchan came out this way. he's really ruled against donald trump on virtually every issue of importance. but the important thing to keep in mind is the immunity decision actually came down after the whole trial was over. so what we are trying to do here, what the judge and the parties are trying to do here, is apply that supreme court ruling sort of backwards. what trump said is, well, some of the evidence introduced against me at that trial had to do with my time as president. conversations i had with hope hicks and judge merchan today said, i think it a perfectly reasonable ruling. he said, yeah, but that wasn't official actions. that was your own political business. that was your own personal business. therefore, it doesn't count under the supreme court's decision. >> so wha

cnn senior legal analyst elie honig joins us now. do you expect the justices will grant trump's request here? >> i don't think so, pam. if i had to guess. >> and here's why. this is a bizarre request by donald trump. we've never seen anything quite like it. essentially what he says is, hey, supreme court, hang on. you don't have to make this precipitous ruling. give me a chance when i take office to try to work out a deal. now, in the non-legal world, in the business world, perfectly reasonable, logical thing to ask for. but the problem is, that's just not what the supreme court does. they don't step out of their role as judges and justices to enable parties to try to work out business deals on the side. so if i had to guess, i think the supreme court will decline donald trump's request to put this thing on hold. i think the supreme court will hear oral argument as scheduled next week, and then will issue a ruling. >> and it's interesting, too, because he's arguing, look, you know, i'm about to take office as president. let me handle

cnn's senior legal analyst elie honig is here to help us break it all down. there any chance the supreme court takes this case? >> no, pam, no chance at all. >> and here's why. first of all, the supreme court only takes a very small percentage of all cases brought to it, usually under 5%. and the mere fact that a case has the name donald trump attached does not necessarily make it supreme court worthy. what they're looking for is a major constitutional issue, or some sort of issue, where the courts are split around the country, but this is just really a garden variety civil case. the case the plaintiff, e. jean carroll, sued the defendant, donald trump. the jury found for the plaintiff, donald trump appealed. the appeals court said no. and that's that this case, this part of the case is over. >> so so you're very definitive on that? absolutely not. and after we saw the court deny trump's appeal today, do you think he has any chance of winning the appeal against the related defamation suit. >> yeah. so the case that where the appeal was rejected today is actual

let me bring in cnn, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. , what can you tell us about this case down in georgia, the fulton county case alleging election subversion against donald trump and a whole cadre of other co-defendants. katelyn polantz was saying that potentially this case is just completely dead now, is that the case? is it completely dead, or is it possible you could have another prosecutor come in and take it over? >> well, jim, for all practical purposes, it's over. this case was already in deep trouble because of the conduct of the district attorney, fani willis. and now it's all but over. so just to remind people, this is one of the four criminal indictments that had been brought against donald trump. the allegations that fani willis made here in the fulton county da's office, made here related to donald trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election. there are many other defendants beyond donald trump in this case. now, during the pretrial process, donald trump and some of his co-defendants allege that the da, fani willis, had a

a new york grand jury has indicted him on perspective now from cnn senior legal analyst elie honig, alsofense attorney danya perry. like elie, she's a former federal prosecutor. we should also note that karen friedman agnifilo, the suspect's attorney, used to be affiliated with her law firm. cnn's john miller joins us to, as does new york city judge george grasso. good to have you all on, john. i want to begin with you because you're learning new details about this tug of war to some degree, between federal and state prosecutors. >> well, that's right. and what we've been following today and really, since last night is kind of a tug of war between the united states attorney, the federal prosecutor in manhattan, the place where elie honig used to work, and the manhattan district attorney. so this morning they were set up with barricades in front of 100 center street, the state courthouse. the judge was up on the 13th floor, arranging where a camera would be to shoot the arraignment. there was a special arrangement made to book the prisoner in the district attorney's office, and by mid-mor

. >> so joining us right now to talk more about this is cnn senior legal analyst elie honig and cnn's senior law enforcement analyst andrew mccabe. thanks, guys, for being here. elie, let's just first work through the extradition piece. he's not going to fight it legally, procedurally. what does this then kick off? well, this speeds things up significantly. >> what extradition means, by the way, is if a person is wanted in one state here in new york but captured in another state, pennsylvania, it's just the process of handing that person over back to the state that wants him. he's actually charged in both states, pennsylvania and new york. but the murder charge is in new york. if in fact, he waives meaning, gives up his right to fight extradition, then he becomes the property, so to speak, of the new york authorities. and they can theoretically today take him out of that courthouse and drive him from altoona to new york city. he could be here in manhattan within takes five hours to get here. he could certainly be here by the end of the business day today. if things go as we expect and

my source tonight is cnn's senior legal analyst, elie honig. and elie, it's great to have you here, because even if trump were convinced during this meeting with the ceo of tiktok, this is a ban that takes effect the day before he is sworn in as president. he would not be able to just singularly overturn it outright. what options would he have as president? >> exactly. so the president can't just undo this law that was passed by congress earlier this year. the only way to undo the law is if congress decides to undo it. >> that's not happening. they passed it by a good margin. the only things that donald trump can do. first of all, he can order his justice department to switch sides. at this point, the biden doj is defending the law you referenced. trump could say, no, we're switching positions. we're now going to attack the law. it's not going to necessarily make a difference, but you'd rather have doj with you than against you. the other thing that trump might choose to do is decline or refuse to enforce this law. the executive branch does have

joining us now is cnn senior legal analyst elie honig ali. always good to have you. >> hey, rachel. >> good to see you. >> yeah. so do you think on the federal murder charge that prosecutors actually seek it? and how does that play out? what are the factors that they consider? >> yeah. >> so it's important to understand here the charge that's been lodged against luigi mangione federally carries a maximum penalty of potential death sentence. >> however, it's not clear whether doj will actually seek it. there's a whole long internal process at doj. the prosecutors have done this, have to fill out this long packet of paperwork. you send it down to the attorney general. the ag has people review it, and then ultimately doj comes to a decision whether to seek the death penalty. more often than not, that determination is actually no. we're going to seek a life sentence, but not a death sentence. if you do seek a death sentence, then you have your trial. and if you get a conviction, then you have essentially a second mini trial after that where the j

cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller and cnn senior legal analyst elie honig ali. i do wonder about how this state case will run in parallel, as d.a. alvin bragg put it, with a federal case. how is that going to work? >> well, that's exactly the right way to describe it. in parallel, they will be proceeding through the pretrial processes, more or less at the same time frame. but of course, i think the big question is which one gets tried first. and the answer is we do not know. that will depend to some extent on the court calendars and how they shake out. that will depend to some extent on negotiations sometimes between the da who heads the state level office, and the u.s. attorney who heads the federal office. those are the charges that we're seeing addressed now. often, the da will get on the phone with the u.s. attorney, and they'll work out an agreement. who's going to go to trial first? who's going to go second? will we work together? will we work separately? but there is no hard and fast rule here. we've seen plenty of examples over the years where feder

i know i need a cold shower elie honig, thank you very much kate. >> i'm going to quickly jump ahead now are your employers is your employer trying to get you back in the office, back to work, in the office, full time? it may not be because they miss you. i know i'm not speaking to you and you and you, it's the other person your employer loves you out there. i'm just going to say in a wall street journal op ed, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy wrote this requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome. vanessa yurkevich is looking into this. what is going on here? >> this is a little reverse psychology. >> i know i'm trying to reverse and understand it. >> it's trying to get companies are trying to get people to quit for various reasons. a couple reasons are that one, maybe companies have overhired and they need to let some people go, but they don't want to fire you. they don't want to lay you off. so instead they're trying to get you to quit. and ultimately if they do fire or lay you off, they have to p

cnn's senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor elie honig, joining us now. when you look at the state charges and then the addition of the federal charges, which have which have come out in your mind, is this a push to get a plea agreement? >> i don't think that's the purpose that prosecutors have here, but it certainly puts luigi mangione in a far different, far worse position. first of all, as you noted, 24 hours ago, mangione was not eligible for the death penalty when he was only charged in the state. but then when the federal charges dropped, he's now death eligible. we'll see whether doj actually seeks that or not. but obviously that's that's a circumstance changing addition to the case. beyond that, the chances of a plea deal, i think are much lower. now. first of all, it's really hard to plead out a federal murder case because the federal laws don't really have a fallback or a middle ground in the state. you can go from a first degree to a second degree to a manslaughter in the feds. it's just murder or no murder. and if he wants a plea deal, if i'm

lawrence turner thank you and for more legal perspective, let's bring in cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. so ali, first of all, just help us understand the legal significance of this report. >> yeah, pam so this report that was issued last night is a 70 page report. it's the end of a year and a half long investigation by the justice department of the memphis police department. >> it's really important to understand, though, and the report says straight up right up front while this report was sort of sparked by the beating death of tyree nichols, it's not about that incident as the reverend just said, those cases are being litigated under criminal cases in federal and state court. >> so what this is is sort of a full body mri examination of the memphis police department and the bottom line conclusions of doj are that the police department systematically discriminates against black people, systematically violates the constitution in the way that it uses force, often uses excessive force, that it often violates the constitution in the way that it executes, stops and searches and seizures an

let's take a closer look with cnn senior legal analyst elie honig, a former state and federal prosecutor. elie, what do you make of this notebook? >> well, it's incredibly powerful evidence and a couple of respects, jim. first of all, it directly ties him to the murder. it gives him a motive. it essentially all but puts him at the scene. there's plenty of other evidence. dna, fingerprints, ballistics that do that. so it makes clear beyond any possible doubt that he was, in fact, the shooter. but more than that, jim, that notebook provided the hook that the feds needed to come in and bring federal charges because the feds and i was a federal prosecutor. you can't just charge someone with murder. you need to have some interstate element. you need to have some element of planning for some of the charges that were brought. and i think that notebook enabled the feds to say, well, he intentionally planned this out. he stalked to use the legal term there, and he crossed state lines in order to commit this murder. so that's devastating evidence. >> yeah. i mean, i mean, this is this is pretty in

elie honig. so interesting. thanks so much. also thanks to our brynn gingras. still ahead. so there's this government shutdown drama going on, and that could mean $100 billion in disaster. not going to where it should. disaster aid is hanging in the balance right now. i'm going to speak to a restaurant owner in asheville, north carolina, who is still recovering from hurricane helene. she says that money is vital to her community's survival. >> at the salvation army, a rent check isn't just a rent check. it's a hangout, a safe haven, a sanctuary, a place to grow and grow closer. a treasured past and plans for the future. with your gift, families know that wherever they go, they can always come back home. love. >> i brought in ensure max protein with 30g of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. >> here, i'll take that. >> ensure max protein 30g protein, one gram of sugar and a protein blend to feed muscles up to seven hours. bent finger appointment in 30 minutes. >> you got this one. >> remember, i don't want surgery for my dupuytren's contracture. t

i want to go now to our senior legal analyst, elie honig, who is standing by.zoom out for a minute and understand both the legal implications of this. there's the political parts of it and the legal parts of it and we've heard a little bit about both. help us understand the legal ramifications of this, and especially this idea that we've been hearing from all of our correspondents, this, this fear about potential that a trump administration might come after hunter. further, that that might have driven some of this as well. >> well, jess first of all, a bit of legal history here this is actually not the first time a president has issued a pardon to a family member. >> bill clinton pardoned his half brother, roger clinton, on his last day in office in 2001, and donald trump pardoned charles kushner, who is the father of his son in law, jared kushner so we have seen presidential uses of the pardon to familial members before now, in terms of what this does for hunter biden's, both of his cases is it puts them to an end. both of those sentences were coming up and i'

cnn legal analyst elie honig, to help us better understand the legal side of this.anny, you were in the courtroom. how did things unfold you know, frankly, pamela, if it wasn't for the massive amounts of media, the massive amounts of law enforcement, and of course, protesters and curious citizens, it was actually a pretty normal hearing today in the pennsylvania courthouse behind me, and really went as much as as it was expected to go. >> now, of course, the headline is that luigi mangione waived his extradition. but what happened first was a ten minute hearing, less than ten minutes, really, on those lesser pennsylvania charges. his attorney waived the preliminary hearing after receiving the police report, which detailed his arrest at that altoona mcdonald's not too far from here. and then we waited about an hour as all the attorneys hashed out the language of the extradition waiver back in judges chambers. and for that entire hour, we actually got a good look at mangione because he was basically sitting by himself himself, waiting at the defendant's table for that

elie honig, thank you for breaking that all down for us.nd we'll keep track of that also tonight here in washington, paris hilton is bringing her star power here to get a bill that has been years in the making across the finish line before it's too late. the reality star turned entrepreneur was back on capitol hill, urging the house of representatives to pass a bill that would help protect children from institutional abuse. it passed unanimously through the senate last week, but now the house has less than a week to act on this. hilton has been advocating for this bill and for victims of child abuse for years now. after sharing that she physically and emotionally was abused at a boarding school for troubled teenagers i was force fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. >> i was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement. i'm here to be the voice for the children whose voices can't be heard and paris hilton is here with me now. >> she is the author of paris the memoir, along w

we also want to talk to cnn legal analyst, senior legal analyst elie honig and constitutional attorney seth berenzweig. paula, let me go to you first. we were just listening to what sounded like, by happenstance, a very critical moment in the arguments with justice alito and elizabeth prelogar, the solicitor general going over the the, you know, the risks versus the costs and the benefits of of this gender affirming care for minors. what can you tell us walk us through the case. >> that's exactly right here. the biden justice department arguing that tennessee's ban on allowing minors access to certain forms of medical care if they want to transition is unconstitutional. they argue that, look, if you are born a female, you don't have access to, for example, certain testosterone therapy. but if you're born a male, you can have access to that for other medical reasons. just not to transition. so you heard the justices really pressing the solicitor general on this. also asking about the fact that in europe they have a different perspective on this now. up next, will be a lawyer for the acl

. >> oh learn more about celebrity cruises latest offers elie honig. >> sometimes you just need a momentmy vitamins from nature made the number one pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand he is coming he is coming to us it is inevitable. chloe! hey dad. they will grow up. [cheering] silly face, ready? discover who they are. [playing music] what they want from this world. and how they will make it better. and while parenting has changed, how much you care has not. that's why instagram is introducing teen accounts. automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. ♪♪ can save. >> there are auctions going on right now, so what are you waiting for? >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> te quiero mostrar no se necesita comida cara para comer bien. >> i'm back with fabian, the guy who converted me to mole. and luckily, it's lunchtime. i'm so hungry. and no, we're not at his swanky restaurant. but we are in one of the local municipal markets la mayor parte de los vegetales compramos aqui en los compro vicky

elie honig carmel gat. >> yes. >> yes 1000. done. yeah. this is breakfast. >> nearly 19 hours into our ten hour trip and the night express to bagan lurches and bounces onward over old and poorly maintained tracks. flow back to new york for breakfast. i had time. what's in yours? charles wood i got potatoes. >> how did you make good food? pretty. look at this. >> a bouquet of fish, indeed. >> so this is it. this is the plane of bagan out the window, the modern world seems to fade away, then disappear altogether. >> like the last century never happened. or even the century before that. we're traveling across the largest mainland nation in southeast asia. but it should be pointed out that we are still within the confines of the tourist triangle areas permissible for travel. whole sectors of this country, much of it, in fact, are off limits simply put, there is going on. they do not want you to see. a low intensity conflict with the ethnic kachin tribe would be one of them. a wave of persecution and deaths in joachim state. the country may be

with cnn chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller and cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. he's a former state and federal prosecutor. john, what are we learning about these fingerprints? >> well, these are prints that were recovered from items at the scene of the murder along the pathway that the gunman fled along. and that included one print was recovered from a plastic bottle, where they also recovered dna. another print recovered from a phone that was left behind or dropped, as well as dna. but the key here is they were able to get the arrest fingerprints from the pennsylvania authorities in altoona, which is a normal part of the booking process. but then they were able to take those prints, which they didn't have access to, because, remember, prior to this, he didn't have any serious criminal activity or arrests that would have caused his prints or dna, for that matter, to be in the system. they took the booking prints. they compared them to the latents that they recovered on the evidence at the scene, and they say they have a match that is a step forward because ther

joining us, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig and cnn's chief law enforcement and intelligence analystjohn miller. elie, let me start with you. mangione attorney, karen friedman agnifilo said federal and state prosecutors have conflicting theories in their indictments. are they, in fact, inconsistent? >> they're not inconsistent, wolf. >> there are, to be sure, different federal versus state prosecution theories, but it doesn't mean they're inconsistent. the feds are alleging, essentially, that luigi mangione stalked his victim across state lines in order to murder him. the state is saying that he committed that murder in order to commit an act of terrorism, to cause fear in the community, or to affect some political change. so those are different theories, but you can readily reconcile them as follows. you just say he stalked this person in order to murder him. and his purpose in doing that was to cause fear in the community. so they're not inconsistent, i understand. she has to make this argument, but i don't think there's any traction there. >> john miller karen friedman agnifilo, h

joining me now, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig and forensic psychologist kris mohandie. ie, to you first. i mean, i guess this might be happening fairly quickly. we might see mangione back in new york. >> yeah, i think that's right. jim. according to the new reporting that the d.a. has said he might waive extradition. what that means is you have two choices. if you're arrested in another state here. mangione wanted in new york. he's arrested in pennsylvania. you can fight extradition. that will take a few weeks, maybe a month or more. and it's very easy for the prosecutor to come in and make their showing. they don't have to show you're guilty. they just have to show this person who's in court. this is the same luigi mangione who we've charged. it's a very low burden. surely prosecutors will be able to make it here if they waive that, if they say no, we don't need to challenge that, then yes, he could wind up in new york and make his first court appearance within days or weeks. >> and chris mangione has now hired a former cnn legal analyst and former chief assistant distr

also very personal and emotional, particularly for families, former federal and state prosecutor elie honig joins our conversation. thank you. you got your tie all fixed. the mic fell off. i'm good. okay check. hearing you is important. hearing is important. set the stage for us and explain why. and how this got before the supreme court. yeah so this is based on a law passed by the state of tennessee in 2023 that said medical providers cannot provide gender affirming care or hormone therapy. puberty blockers for the purpose of people who want to transition. now that law is being challenged by the biden administration and by certain families of transgender children and the fundamental debate that's happening right now in the supreme court is does this law unconstitutionall y discriminate on the basis of sex? and there was a really interesting exchange that just happened that i think shows you the argument that it does discriminate. justice ketanji brown jackson was questioning the lawyer for tennessee. and she said, well, if a boy wanted to get hormone therapy testosterone, because he wanted

enforcement and intelligence analyst john miller, former nypd chief of department ken khouri and elie honig former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. ali, let me start with you. what do you make of the fact that this defense attorney was hired, not court appointed? and also, what do you make of what we just heard from him? >> well, jake, it means that the family has enough money to pay for a private attorney, and they've elected to do that. >> regarding the extradition, it's really important to understand this is a bureaucratic headache for prosecutors, but it's not going to actually interfere with the substantive prosecution in any way. what's likely to happen now is a few weeks from now, we will have a hearing. there will be a hearing in pennsylvania state court. all the prosecutors have to show, basically, is this person sitting here in the courtroom is the same guy we've charged. it is luigi mangione. it's a very low burden of proof. it's a hurdle prosecutors have to jump over. but once they do, he will wind up back here in new york to face murder charges. >>

director alyssa farah griffin and cnn's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor himself, elie honig and ellie given that, you know, you wrote that biden is making history here, but not in a good way. and as a former prosecutor, what was your view of what biden said in that statement? they're saying that this amounted to a miscarriage of justice well, caitlin, i think that's wild, unfounded hyperbole by president biden. >> there. now, look, on the one hand, i do think there are valid criticisms that can be made of the hunter biden prosecution especially on the gun case. i think that case was overcharged. and i think the outcome was unjust. but there is a chasm. there is an enormous gulf between saying that a case was overcharged and saying that it's a miscarriage of justice, or that it's a political vendetta. there is zero evidence to support that. and if we look at the relevant players here david weiss he was nominated as u.s. attorney by donald trump with enthusiastic support of both of delaware's democratic u.s. u.s. senators. he was then kept in office by joe biden himself, joe b

elie honig, a cnn senior legal analyst. scott bond, a criminologist who is also the producer and star of serial killers with doctor scott bond and mark petrovich. he's an attorney representing the dc sniper lee boyd malvo. glad to have all of you here right now. let me begin with you here, lee. this 11 count indictment alleges that he carried out the killing in furtherance of an act of terrorism. the da makes this case that calling it the. it was intended to evoke terror. you were a prosecutor in new york. does the evidence support this new elevated charge? >> i think it does. laura, a really interesting turn today. so the safe and obvious charge in this case would have been a second degree murder under new york law. the da has charged that important to keep in mind. all you have to show there is the prosecutor is an intentional killing. what the twist was today is the da has also charged an elevated first degree murder charge. and in order to make that stick here, the da is going to have to show that mangione acted for a v

. >> she was seen back at the airport at elie honig talking to a ticket agent at lax. they've obviously interviewed that ticket agent to see what her mindset was about. my feeling is she was probably trying to get a cash refund for the portion of the trip from la to new york that she didn't take, because she was going to mexico the next day. and that was on the 11th of november and the 12th of november. she was seen walking into mexico without a cell phone. so she presumably wanted cash for that trip. this is a 30 year old woman who stopped talking to her family. that's what it is. we don't have any sign of any other crime taking place other than a cryptic text message that the family say they have, but this woman for whatever reason, there's an old post of hers that said she wanted to disconnect from the modern world or whatever, so she left her cell phone behind. um, she's on a walkabout, maybe. and i know that this is very difficult for families to um, to deal with, but this is a 30 year old woman. there's no sign of a crime. lapd has a huge caseload of of cases tha

. >> and in speaking to our legal analyst, i mean, you know, both of them elie honig saying, look, this could be used by the defense because the jury pool is only so big, although new york is a big place, but he's everywhere. and and this show, you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. exactly. >> it's very clear that the, you know, law enforcement was like, this is our defendant, this is our guy. we know he did it. and we're going to show you, because this may be the last time you actually see him, since he will be now in federal custody. >> peter, we learned you and you touched on this about the details investigators say were in mangione mangione notebook. the details are finally coming together, he wrote. i'm glad in a way that i procrastinated. he he allegedly wrote, saying it gave him time to learn more about the company he was targeting, and then he allegedly wrote, the target is insurance because it checks every box. when you read through this, how significant is it to have this notebook? because without it, could he been federally charged with the things that he were c

us right now for more on this is cnn's senior legal analyst, former state and federal prosecutor elie honig ali, another former pardon attorney called this an extraordinarily broad grant. why is this so broad, more so than a typical presidential pardon? what do you think of it well, okay this is as broad as a pardon. >> can possibly be. ordinarily a pardon will specify a certain case. and that happened here. it says i hereby pardon hunter biden on the gun case in delaware and on the tax case in california. but what's different about this one is it also says this is a full and unconditional pardon for all conduct going back to january 1st of 2014, which means hunter biden cannot be federally prosecuted for anything going back to 2014. and really, before then because before then is going to be precluded by the statute of limitations. and as you said before, the only historical precedent, the best historical precedent for this is the pardon of richard nixon by gerald ford, which has similar language that says full and unconditional pardon so joe biden has pushed to the absolute outer limits of

joining us now is cnn senior legal analyst elie honig, a former federal and state prosecutor. so ellie, you saw gaetz's response to this, right? does he have any legal recourse to block this report? >> short answer is no. there's really nothing that he can do to go to court to get a judge to say, congress. you are not to release this. this is fully within the purview and the discretion of congress. however they vote is. however, this report is going to go. there's really nothing gaetz can do to stop it. >> so what could the release of the report mean for gaetz, though? does it have any legal weight? we know that doj had investigated him before and didn't press charges. could this change anything? >> well, obviously, politically, i know he's not running for office anymore, but politically and reputationally, it could be enormously damaging if we think about what the legal repercussions could be. of course, prosecutors can look at this kind of report, can say, hey, is there something new in there that we didn't have during our investigation? is there something in there worth fol

. >> ken howery elie honig. >> closed captioning brought to you by.k.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. >> 881 4000. >> welcome back to state of the union. after donald trump's convincing win in november, where does that leave the skeptics and critics of trump within his own party? among them is the outgoing republican governor of new hampshire, take over his party. so will p people like sununu be involved in helping shape the party's future? joining me now, the governor of new hampshire, at least for a few more days, chris sununu. thank you so much for being here. um, it's no secret that during the republican primary in 2024, you were pretty critical of donald trump. now you're on board and you're especially interested in his push led by elon musk and vivek to slash government spending. i want to read for our viewers something that you wrote in an op ed. trump's first term was marked by the overspending and poor debt management of a congress lef

cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. and, megan, i just want to start with you on this news that you broke overnight. lay out your reporting about this tip from the san francisco police four days prior to mangione arrest sure. >> we had been hearing some rumors about something like this for a few days now. a few days ago, we reported on the existence of a missing persons report in san francisco of luigi mangione, and then yesterday we were able to confirm exactly what san francisco police did with that. um, apparently there was somebody at sfpd that was looking into the missing persons case. and after the shooting of brian thompson recognized this person and and called in this tip or emailed this tip to the fbi called or emailed the tip to the fbi. >> so, john, i want to play what the new york police chief of detectives, joseph kenny, said earlier this week about mangione not being on their radar prior to this arrest. let's watch what's his name on your radar? >> was he someone who you had been looking into before his ar

we also have with us elie honig, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. john, now that these search warrants have been executed, what evidence do you think that investigators are going to be able to get from the backpack and the burner phone? well, the burner phone, as brian said, you know, requires them to be able to get into it, but it could tell us something really important, which is on the video of him as he approaches the site where he's allegedly about to murder brian thompson, the ceo. >> you see him walking with the hood up and the mask on with the phone up to his ear, and he appears to be talking to somebody moments before the killing, the burner phone could tell us what number that was, who might be the subscriber, who was on the other end of it, and that could be highly relevant. as far as other items, though, the search warrants that they obtained would be very likely for the laptop that he was found with that he was sitting with at that back table in mcdonald's. because you really want to know

elie honig constitutional attorney seth berenzweig and minnesota state representative lee fink, who iser member of the state's legislature. we're also going to hear from keegan miller of the trevor project, which focuses on suicide prevention among lgbtq plus youth. paula, i want to go to you first, though. set the stage for us what has been happening so far in oral arguments? >> well, pamela right now, history is being made inside the supreme court behind me as chase strangio becomes the first transgender lawyer to argue before the supreme court. he is arguing on behalf of the aclu in support of minors seeking this kind of treatment. now, he followed the solicitor general. so that's the lawyer arguing on behalf of the biden administration who advocated that this tennessee ban amounts to sex discrimination because teens can seek this kind of treatment as long as they are not seeking it to transition. now, some of the conservative justices that they'll need in support of their position appeared skeptical, including chief justice john roberts, who asked why this can't be left to the demo

attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig, and former fbi deputy director andrew mccabeiot, you first explain why you think prosecutors are saying that the suspected killer could face the death penalty. >> so under one of the charges that's been lodged federally against luigi mangione, the lead penalty. the top maximum penalty is the death penalty. now, that said, it's important to understand he's death eligible. so a few things have to happen first. doj first has to decide whether they want to seek the death penalty or not. in these cases, often doj says he is eligible for the death penalty, but were not seeking it. that's the result of an internal process. and by the way, the result could be quite different if that decision gets made between now and january 20th, when it's the biden administration, or after january 20th, when the trump administration takes over. even if doj decides to proceed and seek the death penalty, then they have to get a jury after the trial, a jury has to come in and find that he should be sentenced to death as well. so it's a long way from here

. >> elie honig with the lightning round tonight. thank you so much. it's so great to see you as always. and thanks for joining us. news night with abby phillip is up next. see you back here on thursday. >> tonight is past prolog. jimmy carter's death prompts a second look at his life and his presidency, and provokes a question about the current president. will time make american hearts grow fonder of joe biden's four years? plus, the president elect picks a side. donald trump crosses his ultra conservative base and throws down with his billionaire backer in chief on a thorny immigration issue. also, congress turns in a most unproductive year. will a republican controlled washington result in more laws or just more gridlock? and exfil the federal prosecutors who led january 6th? prosecution's plot how to get out of the crosshairs before donald trump takes office. live at the table, solomon jones, scott jennings, jordan kay colvin and doug heye. americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do. good evening. i'm abby

. >> clarke reed elie honig. >> you know the phrase don't bite the hand that feeds you? well, tech executives are breaking bread with president elect trump in what looks like a pretty naked attempt to woo the leader of the free world to be friendly. tonight it's apple ceo tim cook making the pilgrimage to mar-a-lago. and already we've watched millionaire donor donations to trump's inaugural fund from tech brethren mark zuckerberg and also jeff bezos and sam altman. joining us at the table is comedian and host of stand up with pete dominick, the podcast. it's pete dominick. yay! um, so look, here's my take, okay. these guys are running businesses. they have a fiduciary responsibility to their business. the thing to do in the moment is to do what's right for their business. and if you have to spend $1 million to the trump inaugural fund, i don't think they have a choice, to be honest. >> i think everybody always has a choice. i think that it's disgusting. the wealth concentration in this country, the fact that there are so many billionaires a and that so many of them are w