back with us also is cnn legal analyst elliot williams.want to begin with you on that point, though. the idea of trump saying he would be a fool not to take the fifth, which is a change in tune. we're all remembering the moments about when he said what it means to take the fifth. i do wonder in this position, is he right about this? >> yes and no, right. you'd be a fool not to take the fifth because if you think you might face criminal liability at some point, yeah, you got to plead the fifth. it's your right as a citizen. the problem is these are civil cases often, and it can be used you in a civil case. if you plead the fifth, the opponents can go into court and say look, he has plead the fifth. he must have something to hide. so it cuts both ways. the other thing is there is this other case, among many going on right now with the state attorney general in new york, where he wouldn't admit to even basic facts like does the trump organization even exist? and they're seeking to have him held in contempt of court over that. it's a way of ga

cnn legal analyst elliot williams is here to help us break it all down. . i do cover politics so i have plenty of theories about why from a political perspective he wants to fight this subpoena. but from a legal perspective, is this a long shot, does pence have a case with this argument? >> it is not a long shot, kasie. believe it or not. you have to go right back to the constitution. so look, article i, section 3 of the constitution says like you said, the vice president shall be the president of the senate. the person who is in effect controlling or running the senate, sort of why kamala harris over the last two years cast so many tiebreak votes because she was in a role as president of the senate. you read a little further into the constitution, there's this speech or debate clause. article 1, section 6. it says members of congress shall not be questioned, and that's interpreted to mean in court over actions that come in their official duties. the question is does mike pence count under the law as qu quote/unquote a member of congress when he's seated a

i want to bring in our legal analyst, elliot williams. to this breaking news, elliot. >> you know, wolf, above all else, we should note that we need more information about this, the terms of this subpoena, because it's entirely possible here that the vice president and his team requested a subpoena before proceeding. i know there have been negotiations over his appearance or handing over documents, and many people who are the subject of investigations often sort of ask for a subpoena, because then that gives them more of a basis for complying, so we'll see. but certainly, this is profound, wolf, as many of the other occurrences related to this whole legal matter have played out. this is a profound moment for the american legal system. >> but you agree, elliot, the former vice president could be an absolutely key witness in these proceedings, possible proceedings, against the former president of the united states? >> he absolutely can, and you know, to jessica's point, he very well may have some claims with respect to privileges over the d

and former assistant attorney general elliot williams. kaitlan, you've been breaking stuff on this all day. what's the latest? >> essentially, we had a sense this was coming. with knew they wanted his testimony and any documents he has about this. now mike pence has been formally subpoenaed, asking for his testimony and documents. it's probably the most aggressive move yet we've seen from jack smith who is the special counsel. it's a little confusing. he is looking into two things. the documents that trump took with him, but also trump's actions on january 6th. this subpoena i'm told is related to january 6th. they want mike pence's testimony and any documents that. because he was one of the key people who was speaking one-on-one with trump a lot of the times leading up to the election, leading up to january 6th. and obviously that was when their relationship completely frayed at that time. but they think he has a lot to offer. of course, it's going to set up this clash over executive privilege. his attorney, emmet flood is very big on ex

elliot williams joins the conversation it's a gamble to put a defendant on the stand testifying in his own defense. in this case, he repeatedly said he was not at the kennels. they had the visit yoen on his son's phone he was. did they have a choice, and what did you make of the idea? i lied because i was power noud because of a drug addiction. >> let's talk about why you don't put a defendant on the stand. your putting somebody on who can't control the story. they are going to have a prosecutor in an hour or whenever the prosecution comes that will pick apart every of moment of his testimony. now what's a little different in this case is you have a murder where, number one, you don't have a murder weapon. you don't have fingerprints or dna or eyewitnesss. so the prosecution actually doesn't have a particularly strong case at the moment. maybe there's an argument to be made to putting the defendant on the stand. now you have a problem because he lied to the cops. this is south carolina. a defendant who admitted that he lied to the police. and i think that's a point that jurors likely a

. >>> and joining us legal analyst elliot williams, and always good to have you with us. we are in a holding pattern herings and as pointed out, this is key whether they can demonstrate the harm that brings them the opportunity to bring these two cases, so if the plaintiffs don't prevail here, they are going to regroup. so, this opposition, and this is not going to go away? >> i don't think so, and standing is what is called a threshold issue, and you have to be the party who was harmed by the thing if you wish to get into court, and this is how the lawsuit works. here you have a two states and borrowers, and both of them have complicated standings problems, because the borrowers, because if they win, and these are two students who borrowed money, and even if they win, they will not win, because the program will not be going to win, because the program may be done away with. >> now, with executive power in the trump executive power, and the court had a expansive view, and for instance the border and federal troops there, and in the biden administration, there was a pushba

joining our conversation, paula reed and elliot williams. paula, let's start with you. to puncture the tradition of attorney/client privilege. to get a judge to sign off, you have to present evidence, at least probable cause, that the lawyer was involved in a crime. >> that's right. it's not a very high bar and the first time we've seep this from special counsel jack smith. the justice department had to present probable cause of a possible cause to get the warrant to search mar-a-lago. but here you see they want to bring back evan corcoran and ask about the events leading up to the search of mar-a-lago. so they are trying to convince a court to allow them to use one of these few exceptions to attorney/client privilege saying we believe corcoran or his legal advice were used in furtherance of a crime. not a high bar. it's likely they will be successful. look, it's never a good day when one of your lawyers goes before a grand jury and now we're up to three trump attorneys going before the same grand jury. >> part of the argument of the prosecutors is that the lawyers help

. >>> perspective from cnn legal analyst and former deputy assistant attorney general elliot williamsy today? >> two things can be true, that she followed the judge's directions, that it was perfectly permissible everything she said and not specifically disclosing deliberations. that can be true, but it can also be true it was a really bad idea to go out and speak publicly about the process in this way and the risks both practical and legal to being out in public, speaking about what sort of went on behind the scenes of the special grand jury is a really, really bad idea. >> when the judge was asked regarding the foreperson's media interviews, she said it's not for him to assess i guess the appropriateness of it even though he was saying it didn't violate any of the rules, what do you think -- i mean obviously it was very odd to see at times. what's the harm done, do you think? >> okay. there's a few harms done. number one, you've already seen with the former president's attorneys saying the process itself isn't fair because it was a bit of a kangaroo court where these people went in

cnn's kaitlan collins is back now with us along with cnn legal analyst elliot williams. >> we're learningump's handling of classified documents are now seeking to compel one of his attorneys to come back and testify before the grand jury again. that attorney is evan corcoran. they actually want him to come back, and this time they're trying to overcome that attorney-client privilege that protects what he and trump had talked about privately. in doing so they've written to the judge alleging that they believe trump used evan corcoran in furtherance of a crime or fraud. that is that fraud crime exception prosecutors are trying to make the argument to judge to overcome attorney-client privilege basically so they can get him back in there and have him answer questions. it's an aggressive move, probably one of the most aggressive we've seen so far from the special counsel overseeing this investigation, jack smith. we don't know they'll be successful, but this is really notable development coming from these prosecutors overseeing this investigation. >> elliot, what do you make of this? >> yeah,

i would bring in cnn legal analyst, elliot williams, a former federal prosecutor, cnn legal analyst kirsten and retired l. a. police sergeant cheryl dorsey. let me begin with you out there, sergeant dorsey. we heard the family tonight giving a press conference ahead of tomorrow's funeral. i want you to listen in to what his stepfather had to say. >> keep fighting for justice for our son and my family. protect my wife, because she is very fragile right now. we need that for her, trust me. and i need it too. so, like i said, i'm hoping you'll be short tonight. because we've got a long fight ahead of us. we've got to stay strong for it. so, justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> we've been struck, sergeant dorsey, time and time again about the unbelievable grace that has been shown by this family, particularly after the video has been released and before, but also learning tonight that these personnel files did contain several different types of reprimands. can you speak to what this reflects in your mind? >> that these officers mis behave on a regu

. >> elliot williams, appreciate it.d harry enten being the weatherman that i think he's always wanted to be. he joins me next. ♪ allergies don't have to be scary. (screaming) defeat allergy headaches fast with new flonase headache and allergy reef! two pills relieve allergy headac pain? and the congestion that causes it! flonase headache and allergy relief. psst! psst! all good! hey! did you hear? there are new covid-19 booster shots designed for recent omicron variants. thank you. pfizer. the more you want to do, the more we want to do. schedule yours at vaccines.gov. ♪ ew. gotta get rid of this. ♪ tell me why ♪ because it stinks. ♪ tell me why ♪ i don't know i've washed it so many times. ♪ tell me why ♪ no you tell me why i can't get rid of this odor. ♪ have you tried new downy rinse and refresh. ♪ it doesn't just cover up odors, it helps remove them 3x better than detergent alone. guess the odor went bye bye. no, that's not us. sorry. rinse odor away with new downy rinse and refresh. oh booking.com, ♪ i'm going to so

elliot williams is a principal and government affairs and policy counsel practice group at the raven grouping and served as deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the department of justice and assistant director for congressional relations and use immigration andce enforcemet and mr. cole park is a former special agent with the fbi during her time at the fbi she worked on various matters including securities fraud, f violent crime and a violent crime fugitive task force will begin by swearing in. would you please raise your right hand. stand and race right hand please. [witnesses were sworn in] >> let the record show each witness answered in the affirmative. please know you and tells me will enter into the record in its entirety. we ask you some russia testament in five minutes and then we will go through and then get a questions. the microphone you've all done this before most of you, greening goes yellow means giving to stop. red means stop the would get to the questions as quickly as we can. mr. baker, your recognize first. thank you for being here. >> thank

my name is elliot williams and over the course of 15 years, i had the honor of serving in all three branches of the government. across that time, i worked as a career prosecutor and a senior appointee as both a rank-and-file employee in a senior management, and both republican and democratic administrations. for a majora portion of my time in government, i served in the relationship between the executive and legislative government. i served as counsel to the senate judiciary committee and helped run legislative affairs both of the united states department of justice and customs immigration enforcement and i know that i'm here today speaking in my personal capacity and not on behalf of any employer. now having sat in theimmi seatsf theic stuff behind you alongside some of the people who are here today as well as in the role of the executive branch employee or official responding to your request, i can say to each institution's interests are critically important to creating a healthyth functioning democra. when they collide it is crucial to recognize the institutions aree best served by reachi

because the last time i was in bed i was woken up to find my husband dead. >> reporter: elliot and his wife kimberly williamsas found dead in the middle of the night. >> when police arrived, did you ask what happened? did they tell you what happened? >> accident, suicide, gunshot wound. it was a roller coaster. >> suicide. >> suicide. i mean, everything under the sun except for what i think happened. someone did this to him. >> reporter: local authorities later concluding that elliot drunkenly fell from the resort's low balconies seen in these photos. his wife kim believes something much more sinister happened. that last day she says they woke up late, got massages, had a margarita by the beach while watching the sun set. >> i just remember him telling me how beautiful i looked that night. >> reporter: they then grabbed dinner at a local restaurant and finally went to dance. this is the last video kim has of elliot. but on their way back to the resort, kim says they were pulled over by the rosarito beach police who claimed they rolled through a stop sign. >> elliot has always told me when we go down there to

the death of orange county public defender elliot blair, who died in mexico was celebrating an anniversary with his wife, kimberly williams at the less raucous hotel and spa just south of rosarito beach in baja california. his body was found on the ground after third story balcony on january 14th mexican authorities saying he fell off after a few drinks, but his wife describes to good morning america being pulled over by rosarito beach police who accused them of driving through staff. so line in the man that money elliott got kind of stood. his ground showed him his work badge and said, look, we're attorneys were not down here to mess around, but we're also not going to be taken advantage of, she says. they ended up giving the officers saw the cash they had about $160 and returned to their hotel where she fell asleep. only to be woken up a few hours later by hotel staff, pointing to her husband's body beneath their balcony. i don't think that there was an accidental fall. dr rami hashish is a body performance in injury expert consulting on the case, who thinks injuries to elliott's body shows signs of a struggle fractures