house correspondent kaitlan collins and cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elie honig. elie, let me go to you first. what's your reaction to what we've been hearing so far? >> well, it's pretty orderly, all things said, donald trump seems to have gone on a little bit of a tirade, but nothing unpredictable. nothing different from what he said before. one thing that i think is interesting is there's been no talk whatsoever, except from donald trump, about the actual conduct that donald trump was tried and found guilty for. for a while, the d.a. was trying to say this, this conduct of hiding the hush money payments. is that okay? there we go. so that's the official moment of the sentence. donald trump has now been sentenced to an unconditional discharge. >> what does that mean? >> that means that it is now official that donald trump has been convicted of a felony. there's two parts of that equation the conviction. and now we have part two, the sentence. so that is a moment we now have donald trump. i guess you can technically, if you would like to call him a convicted fel

and we should also note, elie honig, you were mentioned in this hearing. yeah. >> so first public service announcement you are anyone is free to use anything i say on air or in writing, but my words have zero binding impact on any judge anywhere, so i don't recommend citing me. but you're free to do it. there was there was such a contrast here between sort of the remarkable and the unremarkable, and the judge actually noted this. on the one hand, it wasn't really that different than any of the other. the judge said 32 different trials happening in that courthouse at that time. it was orderly. we followed all the normal procedures. the jury came out with its verdict. on the other hand, of course, this guy was at that point a former president. now he is the president elect. and the fundamental divide that we just heard between the d.a. and the judge on one hand and donald trump on the other, is was this justice right? the da said many times, the judge said, no man is above the law. you should not be above the law. you're only getting this very minimal senten

joining us now, former federal prosecutor, elie honig. so here you go.to postpone his sentencing, which is currently, as i noted, scheduled to happen on friday, ÷÷could have happened by zoom. what's trump's legal argument here for the postponement? >> yeah, pam, i had a feeling he was going to try to delay this and sure enough he has. trump is arguing immunity on two different levels relating to the hush money case. first he's arguing that some of the evidence that was admitted against him at the hush money trial related to the time he was president. therefore he should have been immune from that. therefore he's entitled to a new trial. second of all, trump is arguing now that i'm president- elect, i'm immune from any criminal proceedings. now, judge marchand has already rejected both of those immunity arguments. but what trump says in the brief that he just filed a few minutes ago is i'm allowed to appeal that rejection by judge marchand. and while i'm doing that appeal, everything else has to be stayed. everything else has to be put on÷÷hold. trump's a

well, joining me now, my friend elie honig, cnn senior legal analyst and former assistant u.s. attorney for the south and s.d.n.y, was called to the sovereign district, as you often refer to it. ali, the cny instead. all right, ali, you and i predicted the idea there wasn't going to be much of a penalty, if any at all. but there's no jail time, no community service, no fines as we know it now. nothing. what do you think of this decision given you didn't think the case should have been brought in the first place? >> well, it's an unsatisfying outcome, i think, for certainly the district attorney, but i think it points up ultimately that this was a case of prosecutorial overreach. i don't think there's any real way around that at this point. i think alvin bragg would defend this case by saying he looked carefully at the facts and the law, and he believed it was necessary to impose accountability. and i should say, as i always do, alvin and i were former colleagues at the aforementioned southern district of new york. he was a colleague and a friend, but i think the vast majority o

. >> let's bring in cnn's evan perez, also our senior legal analyst, elie honig, and cnn's alayna treene somehow got the west palm beach assignment in this. i don't know how that happened. evan, you helped break this story. why is there such a backlog? backlog now? >> well, part of the problem, jake, is that the the incoming trump transition waited until december, a month after the election, before they signed these agreements, these memorandums of understanding, which allowed and paved the way for the fbi to begin doing background checks on their nominees. and so what you have is this real time crunch. you have dozens of agents around the country who are working overtime to try to get these things. they have 14 days to complete these, these, these background checks. in some cases, the republican senate is putting the on the calendar. they're putting hearings on the calendar before the fbi even gets these sf 86, the form that everybody has to fill out, which provides all of the detail, your background, biographical detail, you know, which is key for what the fbi has to do to investigate

attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig, who is here with us this morning. elie, here we are, new york. it's about to go down in terms of the sentence. we know a little bit about what he's not going to get, but walk us through, set the stage on why we're here. >> yeah. >> laura donald trump fought to the bitter end to try to prevent this from happening. >> and in a dramatic ruling that came down last night, the supreme court, by a 5 to 4 vote, said you can go ahead with this sentencing. we saw an interesting cross-ideological majority where conservatives chief justice roberts and justice amy coney barrett joined with the three liberals to say go ahead with the sentencing. now, when we last convened in court seven months ago, donald trump had just been convicted by the jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records. and just to refresh everyone's memory, what happened there, the underlying conduct was, in 2016, donald trump made hush money payments to stormy daniels. now the crime comes in. in the documentation, the allegation found by the jury is that trump

. >> let's bring in elie honig a cnn's senior legal analyst and former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. just in looking at this and hearing what you heard caitlin say is what we are seeing a typical report by a special counsel. >> so in most respects, yes, sarah, when you look at the substantive body of this report, it's what we expect to see from special counsel and from jack smith. it is a systematic, methodical laying out of the evidence and explaining how that evidence meets the laws that jack smith chose to indict donald trump on. the part that's unusual, though, is that four page introductory letter that caitlin just mentioned. it is an intense, almost emotional defense of jack smith's team. now, it's normal to see special counsel write something in a couple of sentences saying, my team was very hard working and had high integrity and was not political, but he goes on a rant. he quotes john adams, he quotes former attorneys general. he says the criticism of him was laughable, and i suppose one could look at that as an important and n

let's bring in cnn senior legal analyst elie honig ali. thanks for joining us.do trump and the other defendants in this case have the ability to delay the release and potentially run out the clock until trump is president one week from today? >> well, well, first of all, donald trump and his co-defendants have zero zero legal basis to block this report from coming out. they've spent the better part of the past week trying it, and they've failed at every turn. the law says the special counsel has to produce this report. and then the ag, the justice department has the decision whether to turn it over. the justice department has said they intend to do just that. and the ruling that we got earlier today from judge cannon in florida, who's generally been very favorable to donald trump, said he has no basis to block this, especially because he's no longer a criminal defendant. he's been dismissed from these cases. so he doesn't have the constitutional concerns about tainting the jury pool. so the arguments we've been seeing, wolf, are really hail marys. we'll see if t

elie honig laura coates to both of you. thank you very, very much. and laura, of course.ll be back later tonight. 11 p.m. eastern for laura coates live. we'll be watching. and just ahead, incredible new satellite photographs revealing the scope of the destruction in los angeles county. we'll be right back. >> the whole story with anderson cooper is a five time emmy winner for long form journalism. this week, l.a. burning the whole story with anderson cooper sunday at eight on cnn. >> the day you get your clearchoice dental implants changes, your struggle with missing teeth forever. it changes how you eat, how you feel, and how you enjoy life. clear choice network doctors have changed over 150,000 lives with dental implants, because a clear choice day changes every day. finance your new smile for as low as $148 a month per arch for qualified patients. schedule a free consultation. >> it's a smart move to get a second opinion. you do it when you're looking for a contractor you definitely do it with medical advice, so why not with your stock market investments? >> we can hel

cnn's senior legal analyst elie honig is with us now. good morning, counselor. talk to us about exactly what this final report from a special counsel is and what role it plays in special counsel investigations, and whether we're actually going to see it in a few days. so, john, if we think back a few years ago to the robert mueller report, that's essentially what this would be. >> the special counsel regulations under which jack smith is operating say that at the end of his investigation. and we're there for jack smith. he must. it's mandatory. create a written report that lays out his findings. now, at that point, the report goes to the attorney general, who then may not must but may release it to the public. now, merrick garland, so far in his term, has immediately released special counsel reports to the public. he did that with the robert her report about joe biden's classified documents. he did it with john durham's report. so donald trump is taking really an unprecedented step here of trying to block the release of that report every time. thus far in our re

and we get right to cnn's elie honig, who is joining me here, elie, you see donald trump, he is at mar-a-lagothere. that means he is going to be appealing virtually to or on the appearing virtually tomorrow. we'll get to that in a moment. but on this decision, everyone is waiting to see what it said. even people in trump world that i'd been talking to are kind of divided on whether or not the supreme court is going to take their side. were you surprised by this? >> i was surprised it was this close. caitlyn. we were one vote away from the u.s. supreme court preventing donald trump from getting sentenced by zoom to nothing. i mean, that would have damaged the supreme court's credibility beyond all recognition. and i think the opinion that came down 5 to 4, letting the sentencing go, i think it was perfectly sound. basically, the justices in the majority said two things. first of all, they said, what's the harm? you're going to get sentenced to zero. you can do it by zoom. you can roll out of bed and do it. and second of all, you do maybe have substantial issues. i think he has substantial issu

i want to bring in senior legal analyst elie honig into the conversation as well. elie, you know, we have been watching and waiting to see when this would happen. there had been arguments that the trump legal counsel tried to raise to suggest that this could not come out because he was an illegitimate special counsel to, for lack of a better phrase, that anything that he learned as special counsel should also not be coming in almost like a fruit of the poison tree sort of argument. but here we have, at the stroke of midnight, the stagecoach turning into the pumpkin reality that they can release it to congress. at least one of the volumes. what do you expect to see in terms of the thought process and the work product that will be contained in this report? >> well, laura, first of all, as you said, donald trump spent much of the day making really meritless arguments to try to block this release. he was rejected twice today by judge cannon, including once, about an hour ago. and now here we are. we have this post-midnight release. now the report is going to be in two m

attorney for the southern district of new york, elie honig to discuss some of this. paula, i'm going to start with you. just give us some sense of what you're expecting today, what you are focusing in on, and what you think will be focused in, on, on the hill. >> well, bondi has kept a remarkably low profile given the job that she is interviewing for today. this is not just a cabinet position. this is the cabinet position because president elect trump has made it clear that he wants to leverage this agency to pursue his political enemies. now, sources tell me that bondi has been preparing for weeks for tough questions from this committee. she's met with lawmakers from both parties. and look, she's coming into today with three decades of law enforcement experience. for eight years, she was the attorney general of the state of florida. in her opening statement, she says she, quote, wants to make america safe again. i'm sure that she would prefer that much of today's hearing focus on the bread and butter work of the justice department, recent terrorist attacks remind us

i want to bring in cnn's senior legal analyst, elie honig. i mean, what do you think about cannon's ruling? surprise. not a surprise. >> well, it's important to understand. first of all, pam, we just saw donald trump sort of trumpeting this ruling as some sort of substantive victory. >> he was criticizing jack smith. >> judge cannon's ruling has nothing to do with any sort of judgment about the case itself. all that she has said, as katelyn polantz just pointed out, is everything is on hold until the court of appeals can rule on this. now, it is a surprise that there's even a challenge to the issuance of this special counsel report, because previously it's been undisputed. the special counsel regulations. we saw it with robert mueller. we saw it with robert. her say unambiguously that at the end of the special counsel's investigation, he has to issue a report. now these lawyers are making really an unprecedented argument that that special counsel report should be blocked, should be held back because, as caitlin just laid out, two of the defen

and we had it right to cnn's elie honig who is joining me here.ellie, you see donald trump, he is at mar-a-lago there. that means he is going to be appealing virtually to or on the appearing virtually tomorrow. we'll get to that in a moment. but on this decision, everyone is waiting to see what it said. even people in trump world that i'd been talking to were kind of divided on whether or not the supreme court was going to take their side. were you surprised by this? >> i was surprised it was this close. caitlyn we were one vote away from the u.s. supreme court preventing donald trump from getting sentenced by zoom to nothing. i mean, that would have damaged the supreme court's credibility beyond all recognition. and i think the opinion that came down 5 to 4, letting the sentencing go, i think it was perfectly sound. basically, the justices in the majority said two things. first of all, they said, what's the harm? you're going to get sentenced to zero. you can do it by zoom. you can roll out of bed and do it. and second of all, you do maybe have s

let's bring in cnn crime and justice correspondent and cnn senior legal analyst, elie honig. >> giuliani sanctioned, held in contempt of court. the federal judge said he was being willfully uncooperative so he gets punished. the punishment is that he's not going to be able to argue things he wanted to argue at an upcoming trial. all of this is about a condo he says he's living in now primarily as his residence in florida, palm beach. worth about $3. 5 million. they want access to that condo. they want to take it from him and sell it. he's trying to convince the judge, he should be able to keep it. so, he's getting dinged on that. but there's other things. he was on the stand, a person in manhattan before this judge on friday, and then again over video conference today, and he was telling the judge, you know, there were things he hasn't handed over to these women still that he has been told he must under a court order. he's just getting them now. the title to his mercedes- benz, a classic car convertible that he was driving around on election day. he's just now finding a watch that his gr

joining me now is cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elie honig. elie, what do you make of this response by jack smith? essentially, they're telling judge cannon down in florida to butt out of this january 6th case. what do you make of all this? >> well, jim, i think this is a perfectly fair and reasonable proposed solution by the justice department. first of all, with respect to the january 6th report in washington, dc, the justice department has the absolute right under law if they so choose to turn that over to congress to make it public. they should do that. and they've said that's what we intend to do. the legal dispute here really shouldn't have anything to do with the january 6th report. now, separately, we've got the report on the classified documents case in florida. and what the justice department has said is, okay, we understand there's two other defendants here other than trump. that's walt nauta and mr. de oliveira. they still have potentially live cases. and so recognizing that they have a right as defendants, we're not going to blast

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mccarthy, judge david rifkin, a wonderful man who just passed away, by the way, gregg jarrett, elie honig from cnn, of all places, cnn said that paul ingrassia, alan dershowitz, they all said this is not a case that should be brought. it's not think about it. legal expenses are down as legal expenses. and i get indicted for business records. everybody should be so accurate. it's been a political witch hunt. it was done to damage my reputation so that i would lose the election. and obviously that didn't work. and the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. they got to see this firsthand. and then they voted, and i won and got the largest number of votes by far, of any republican candidate in history and won, as you know, all seven swing states won conclusively, all seven swing states and won the popularity, the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. and they've been watching your trial,

. >> so trump and his post talked about the legal scholars, including our own elie honig, a cnn contributor who didn't think that this case really should ever have been brought and that he shouldn't have been convicted here. and there are several legal scholars who do believe that. but the bottom line is that the jury did find him guilty, right. of these 34 counts. and so, just as an extension to the point you made, do you see this as judge merchan just sort of look, he has to show some deference, right, to the fact that a jury of his peers convicted him, but also recognize the extraordinary circumstances at play here. >> i think you're absolutely right. these circumstances are extraordinary. unique is almost too weak a word here. but at the end of the day, there was a fairly obtained conviction. and unless and until an appellate court says otherwise, that will be the case. the defendant is a convicted felon. so again, i'm back to balancing where this judge had to take all of that into consideration, whether the case should have been brought in the first instance is a charging decision. tha

cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid, former federal prosecutor and cnn legal analyst elie honig, former federal prosecutor shan wu, and cnn's very own jeff zeleny. paula, i want to start with you with now that we have the details with the big picture here, because we sat at this table for months and months and months talking about not just this case, but the other cases that donald trump was being investigated on was being prosecuted for federal new york as he was running for president in the republican primary. then, of course, in the general election. and here we are, just a little more than a week before he is going to take the oath of office again. and we learned the answer to a question that we've been asking, which is what kind of impact is it going to be? and the answer is not only no politically, but legally. the answer is virtually nothing aside from today, which is not nothing. but there's no there's no penalty. >> you face a more significant punishment for speeding in manhattan than what trump got today. he faced four criminal cases, some real serious legal jeopardy,

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ahead of inauguration day, elie honig at cnn wrote a brilliant piece in new york magazine, and he laid what was wrong with all of this. first, you have the judge. this judge donated $35 to a pro-biden group. not only that, he earmarked it to resisting the republican party and donald trump's radical right wing legacy. that's the judge. move over to the da. the da ran on the fact that, quote, it is a fact that i have sued donald trump over 100 times. so you have a politically motivated da, a politically motivated judge resurrecting a zombie case. but as honig says, this isn't a zombie case. this is a frankenstein case because it turned on its creator. and that is what we saw on november 5th, 2024. it turned. >> greg, what did you think of the judge wishing the president elect godspeed in his second term? >> i don't know, trump's a convicted felon, just like nelson mandela. bill gates, justin bieber, martha stewart. >> what did bill gates do? >> driving without a license in the 70s? he was arrested twice. wow. dana perino, she killed a drifter in the 80s. and she was so adorable. we don't

elie honig ready. step. step. or mark zwonitzer a reverent moment there as president jimmy carter's casket was brought down the steps on the east side of the capitol. >> placed in that hearse. and now they will begin the motorcade procession here to where we are at the national cathedral. they will pass by the white house on the way here, as president carter leaves the capitol for the last time. and jeff is, you know, looking at this and just thinking of so much history that is in this moment that we're looking at on the screen. and as you were talking about that moment just a few years ago, where president biden and president carter were meeting to talk about the very moment that we're all going to listen to shortly, where president biden eulogizes president carter. >> it is so poignant. and neither of the two men back in 2021 could have envisioned the world that is underway right now. but for president biden, this eulogy he has delivered countless eulogies over nearly a half century in washington. but for jimmy