our senior justice correspondent, evan perez, is standing by with new information. tell us what triggered this appointment by the attorney general of the united states, merrick garland. >> reporter: well, wolf, the simple trigger for this announcement, for this decision by the attorney general, was the fact that the former president announced just a couple days ago that he's running for the presidency once more, and obviously the fact that his potential opponent in 2024 is the sitting president, the person who appointed the attorney general merrick garland, to his current office. now, he's going to be overseeing two very big investigations that are in advanced states. one of them is the investigation into the mishandling, potential mishandling of classified information, documents that were retrieved by the fbi in a search at mar-a-lago earlier this summer, and the second one is the former president's involvement in the effort to impede the transfer of power after the 2020 election. listen to the attorney general make his announcement just a little while ago. >> i'm

. >> joining us now, we have cnn's evan perez. he's at the justice department. we have cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider, paula reid, and elie honig. they have all new reporting to share with us. evan, how did this decision come to pass? >> reporter: well, victor and allison, this was a decision that's been weeks in the making. it was clear certainly that the former president, donald trump, was going to announce that he was going to run for office once more, and that really put the pressure, frankly, on the justice department to try to figure out a way to insulate or at least try to insulate these important investigations from the political that we know is going to be coming. what the attorney general has done is he has appointed a special counsel. we're going to hear the name of that person in the next 15 minutes or so when he comes out to speak here at the justice department. but we already know what this special counsel is going to be looking at. they're going to be overseeing both the investigation, the mar-a-lago investigation, the investigation in

so, let's begin our coverage now with cnn's senior justice correspondent, evan perez. get the facts here. what did attorney general merrick garland say about these two separate investigations? >> well, john, these two investigations are now going to be lead by this special prosecutor, jack smith. and what he's doing is taking two investigations that are well underway -- and by the way, just to pause there, the former president is just making it up, right? i mean, there is no -- nothing -- to say that this was a dead investigation or that it was being abandoned. far from it. i mean, people around him have been getting subpoenas in recent days. so, there is nothing to indicate that this was about to go away. and certainly not anymore, right, because of the former president's decision to announce that he's running for office for a third time. the justice department says that they needed to appoint a prosecutor, a special prosecutor, to oversee them. now, as you pointed out, both things are ongoing. one of them is looking at the former president and his allies' efforts to i

for more on friday's announcement from the justice department here is cnn's evan perez in washington. attorney general merrick garland appointed war crimes prosecutor jack smith to serve as special counsel to oversee two criminal investigations related to donald trump. now, the decision was triggered in part by the former president's decision in recent days to declare a third run as a presidential candidate. smith most recently worked as a prosecutor in the hague overseeing kosovo war crimes. he'll take over investigations stemming from the alleged mishandling of classified documents which the fbi retrieved in a search from trump's mar-a-lago home. as well as portions of the january 6 investigation, dealing with trump's efforts to impede the transfer of power after the 2020 election. now, garland said that the appointment was intended to show that the investigations will be done with independents. >> based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he's a candidate for election in the next election and the sitting president sitting as a candidate as wel

cnn's evan perez with more on that. rney general was quite clear as to why he decided to appoint a special counsel at this time. >> he really was. look, the issue for the justice department is, obviously, these are two investigations that have been well underway. they are intensifying, as you just mentioned. subpoenas going out to people in the trump circles just in the last few days, but you have now a stated, well, a declared candidate in donald trump a few days ago saying he is running a third time for president and the sitting president, joe biden, whose political appointees are running these investigations, these twin investigations, one of them into the classified documents retrieved by the fbi in the search at mar-a-lago and the second one, the one that looks into that -- that is looking into trump and allies' efforts to prevent the transfer of power after the 2020 election. the attorney general stating that for the justice department they need to have a little bit of distance bringing in jack smith, who is a seas

our senior justice correspondent evan perez is with me here "the situation room."what are we learning about the talks underway? >> the current president has two deadlines, on friday for the production of documents and ms. cheney, who is the vice chairman of the kpom committee, the janu 6th committee are having conversations about the former president's cooperation and longer term perhaps for him to come in and sit down for a deposition with the january 6th committee and their staff. listen to her describe what she's expecting. >> be done potentially over multiple days. we have significant questions based on the evidence that we've developed and as i said, what we know already about the extent to which she was personally and directly involve in every aspect of this effort. >> and of course, the anticipation is that the former president will try to find a way to litigate and we don't expect he's going to fold and cooperate with the committee. he has indicated however he would like to come in for an interview on his terms. so we'll see where those discussions lead. he

cnn's evan perez is joining us this morning, to talk more about this. od to see you, evan. >> good morning. let's first talk about the significance of this. and you know, why the doj felt that this was the right time to appoint a special counsel. >> well, look, this is not a very common thing at the justice department. they are very reluctant to appoint special counsels, but this is all really triggered by the fact that the former president declared just a few days agatha he is running for the presidency one more time. and for, the former president, at least people around him, one of his motivations, they said, was the fact that he thought, certainly, that by declaring, it would make it less likely for the justice department to bring charges. instead, what it has triggered, this unusual appointment of a special counsel, jack smith is being brought in to oversee two investigations. and what this appointment by merrick garland, the attorney general, makes clear, amara and martin, is that not only donald trump under investigation for these classified docume

. >> cnn justice correspondent evan perez joins us now, so evan, what did he say?lson you head the fbi director really push back, something you're expecting to hear a lot once republicans as expected take over the house of representatives, which is this idea that the fbi and the homeland security department are overblowing the throeat of domestic terrorism and the january 6th insurrection was the work of fbi informants. he reiterated, both of them actually spoke about how there's this increasing threat that began really before 2020, and it is continuing to this day. listen to the fbi director. >> well, certainly we have seen over the last several years really going back to maybe the summer of 2019 an increase in domestic violent extremism, and we are concerned about the lethality, especially of racially motivated violent extremists and then the spike that started in 2020 of anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism. >> reporter: and the fbi director said they have investigations of this type in all 56 field offices of the fbi, and look, the backdrop is that

evan perez joins us along with kasie hunt. hunter biden's laptop, as well as other source. you reported on hunter biden's extensively. when it comes to allegations of peddling fraud. >>, what are the facts? >> hunter biden did try to set up a deal with a chinese energy company and that investment plan ended up note happening. but there is a lot of questions that the republicans are raising. they say they want bank records to try to look at where that money went. they want to see who might have benefitted from those -- from those investments. and whether anybody actually got swindled, which is one of the allegations that they're making. and most of all, they want to know whether that compromise, the current president, obviously president biden and the relationship with china. now there is no evidence that they've presented so far that shows any of that, whether that has affected policy or anything like that. but the fact is that hunter biden did try to set up this business in china, and we don't know. there is a lot of it we don

cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez is on the story for us. evi evan, what indications do we have pence could comply with the request? >> i think what you're hearing from people around the former vice president is that first of all, this is a criminal investigation and so he can't just reject out of hand a request from the prosecutors but they do, i think, want to reach some kind of accommodation where by, you know, they can negotiate for him to appear and provide some kind of interview. that would be the ideal way by perhaps they limit the questions he can answer. you know, of course, the former vice president just published a book in which he describes a lot of his interactions with the former president around this key period right after the election up to january 6th and thereafter and you can bet that that's what the justice department wants to talk about. >> but he did reject out of hand testifying in front of the january 6th congressional committee. let's listen to him speaking about that recently. >> yeah. >> congress has no right to my

evan perez is out front. can you tell us about kash patel and his relevance to the case and this fundamental point of you don't just give anybody immunity. you give immunity when you know there's something bigger to get, right? >> right. and in this case, erin, he had appeared before the grand jury. he had declined to answer questions citing his fifth amendment right against incrimination. what has happened is the justice department went to a judge, and this judge has now ordered for him to provide this testimony, obviously under this grant of immunity, meaning the justice department can't charge him in answer for those questions that he does answer, according to the "wall street journal's" reporting. now, he's a big deal for this investigation. this is the investigation obviously of the mar-a-lago documents. because he has claimed that the former president declassified these documents, no proof of course has emerged that the former president actually declassified those documents. so those are the things that

the questions were in facts -- cnn's evan perez joins us now and chief national affairs analyst caseyd with the house republican said, that they found on hunter biden's laptop. he reported on hunter -- extensively. when it comes to these allegations of influence peddling, fraud and china and russia. what are the facts? >> the facts are, anderson, that hunter biden did try to set up a deal with a chinese energy country. and that investment plan ended up not happening. but there's a lot of questions that the republicans are raising. they say they want bank records to look at where that money went. they want to see who may have benefited from those investments. and whether anybody actually got swindled. which is an allegation that they're making. and most of all, they want to know whether that compromise, the current president, president biden, and the relationship with china. there is no evidence that they presented so far that shows any of that. whether that's affected policy or anything like that. but the fact that hunter biden did try and set up the business in china. and we don't kn

evan perez is tracking this and joins us now.t the latest with the move to put in a special counsel. >> the attorney general said it was in the interest of making sure that people understand that this is an investigation that is being done without an partisanship and without independently within the justice department begin the fact that the former president announced last week that he is running for office against the attorney general's boss. the president biden of course. and the reaction as you might expect from the former president is not good. he thinks that this is a political stunt. and you're also getting some criticism from the people on the left who believe this could delay the investigation. the justice department tried to say that the fact that they're bringing in a special counsel doesn't mean this is going to delay anything. the two leading teams that are running this investigation, the one dealing with classified documents from mar-a-lago and the january 6 investigation, are already there. they're already well unde

cnn's evan perez joins us now from the justice department. cnn's kaitlyn polantz in washington. what led to this decision by the ag? >> victor, this was triggered certainly by the former president's decision a couple of days to announce that he is indeed a candidate for president and of course, it creates an immediate, at least appearance of a conflict of interest with the current attorney general being obviously appointed by joe biden who is possibly going to be his opponent. the former president's opponent in the 2024 election. of course, for the justice department, the importance here is that it tries to at least restore the idea that some insulation between these investigations, and really what it does, victor and alisyn, it really does make clear that donald trump is at least a focus of both of these investigations. the justice department has said very precious little. we know for instance obviously there was a search of mar-a-lago. they were focusing on the mishandling of classified documents and national defense information and possible obstruction of justice, but on the

. >> cnn's evan perez is following these developments for us. so what do you know about this special counsel? >> good morning, fred. well, look, the justice department spent weeks looking at potential candidates to do this job and they arrived at a war crimes prosecutor, jack smith. he has spent the last couple of years in the hague prosecuting kosovo war crime cases. he is coming back to washington, he will be running these two teams of prosecutors that are going these two trump investigations. he has a long history in the department. started out as a district attorney, assistant district attorney in manhattan, but has worked in the department including running public corruption cases out of washington, d.c., as well as an assistant u.s. attorney in tennessee. but he comes with a reputation for being non-partisan and that's one of the things that the attorney general was looking for because you have, obviously, fred, two very politically sensitive investigations. one of them looking into the alleged mishandling of classified documents retrieved

. >> evian perez is out front. evan this is significant you learn that the justice department is considering the special counsel what more do you know? >> these are conversations behind the scenes because of the possibility that the former president announces a candidacy for office again. and it's real and most likely after the election. and for the justice department and the possibility of having a dep that answers to trump's potential rival in 2024 doing an investigation of an on twoing candidate. one of the ideas is, does a special counsel isolate the department from potential criticism. this is trump and it's political and he will make a thing of it. >> what does it tell you? some say it's special counsel, you will put all of this layering and infrastructure around it. what is the question you ask when the doj is considering indicting him? >> you have people working for the justice department and twin investigations ongoing. and they are ramping up and beefing up it's staff and adding prosecutors. you have new peopl

. >> i want to go straight to cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez. nce is correct. members of his team did cooperate with the committee. and they did testify. but the committee still wanted him under oath, right, and doing all these interviews he's done so many in the recent days. how big of a blow is it to the committee? >> it was always a bit of a long shot, erin. but they did want his testimony. there is nothing like hearing from the former vice president directly about these conversations as the former president was trying to overturn and trying to get him to overturn the election results. you can hear the disappointment from representative adam kinzinger accusing the vice president of trying to have it both ways. >> we do have a right to your testimony if we need it. secondly, you violated the separation of powers when your boss sent a rampaging group of people to destroy the capitol. so, let's just stop there. so we're probably not going to talk to him, that's fine. but to say that we don't have a right is completely, completely unacceptable. >>

we don't know what the outcome of this will be, but our reporting, evan perez and i have confirmed, anew york times" story and on our own believe that pence is now open to discussing a possible agreement with the fbi, with the justice department to be able to give some sort of testimony. fl so this is a really significant step that builds on quite a few things that have been happening in this justice department in the investigation in recent weeks. we know that pence's deputies, marc short and grigg jacob, who are compelled to testify before a grand jury, they have shared what was happening in the west wing and in their offices around that point in time, january 6th, the capitol riot, and we also know that pence in recent weeks has put out a book that divulges some particular conversations he had directly with donald trump. those are the sorts of things we have not spoken about before. he had not been willing to testify in the house select committee's investigation, speak to congress about what his side of the story was, what he witnessed those days but as he was in his book tour writ

evan perez, thanks so much. to talk more about this, jennifer rogers is a cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. jennifer, so what to are you making of this decision? the attorney general says it comes now that trump and biden have both expressed that they will run for 2024. that seemed to be the most important element he prefaced with making this appointment. why? >> i actually wasn't in favor initially of the special counsel, but after listening to attorney general garland yesterday, i think it is the right move. he says, they're both being investigated. i don't think it's legally or ethically required, but i think it's the prudent course. that's how merrick garland has treated this matter all along. he's been deliberate and thoughtful, very careful and cautious, even treating frankly the former president with more process than any other citizen in connection with the mar-a-lago search. so, this is in line with that. it's a cautious move intended to insure there was a person in charge of this investi

senior justice correspondent evan perez is joining us. you're learning that republicans aren't just focusing in on the president but also his family, including his son, hunter biden. >> they want to make it all about the president, the sitting president, wolf. they have a broad set of investigations we heard today from jim jordan, who is going to be the incoming hetad of the judiciary committee and you can see a list of investigations they have planned, border security, the afghanistan withdrawal, covid origins, the justice department investigations of trump but it's hunter biden where they have their focus squarely. they want about a hundred bank records, which are known as suspicious activity reports that they say will prove that not only hunter biden but the sitting president and members of his family were benefiting from shady business deals that hunter biden was involved in. so that's where a lot of their focus you can bet is going to be on over the next two years. they're demanding these records from the treasury department. they're

with me to sort through it are evan perez and carrie cordero and also joining us is caitlin polantz. where to begin. let's start with the taxes debate. trump has fought for years. he kept saying he would release. he has fought to keep them private. the house has them and in the trump organization trial under way in new york right now, the testimony said that he didn't pay personal income taxes for a long stretch of time. what is the significance of that? the democrats lose the house in 41 days. does it matter they have these documents now? >> they have a short period of time in which to tri to say what they think this means as far as legislation is concerned. that's what they said this was about, right? they wanted to look at possible legislation on auditing by the irs and it does raise questions, right, of why this has been -- what the former president says, there has been this long-running audit but learned from that testimony yesterday that going back to 2010 and years afterwards he was claiming these huge number -- sums of losses which meant that he didn't pay -- he wasn't paying

pushing social media companies to block stories about the president's son, hunter biden, and cnn's evan perez joins us with his new reporting. what have you learned, evan? >> reporter: well, alisyn, this is a very unusual lawsuit. this is a lawsuit by the states of missouri and louisiana, and they have found a very friendly judge in western louisiana who is ordering the fbi, the top cybersecurity official at the fbi's office in san francisco to sit for a deposition for the government produce documents as part of this lawsuit. what they are alleging is that the fbi and the u.s. government essentially bullied the social media platforms, facebook and others, to suppress discussion about stories of hunter biden's laptop back in 2020, and despite the fact the parent company of facebook actually wrote to these officials saying that there is no -- there was actually no indication that this official from the fbi or anyone else from the fbi actually told facebook to suppress this information. there's discussion of the hunter biden laptop. so this is a very unusual lawsuit, and it kind of gives you a p

. >> evan perez, paul callan, thanks for your time. >>> a giant test, big test blossoming for a republicanick scott angling for more credit if republicans retake the senate majority. tastes great in our iced coffees too. which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. (moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really? can a button work wonders in the bedroom? no, no! not the fun button, the other button. sorry. marcia has sleep apnea and her struggles with cpap had me sleeping in the guest room. now she's got inspire. it's a sleep apnea treatment that works inside her body with the click of a remote. no mask. no hose. just sleep. now i'm back. and we're back. ♪ ♪ inspire. sleep apnea innovation. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com if you're turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire... now's the time to learn more about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare and get help protecting yourself from the out-of-pocket costs medicare doesn't pay. because the time to prepare is before you go on medic

. >>> let's bring in cnn's evan perez. he was in the room for garland's press conference. you asked him about the coordination with the january 6 committee. what did we learn? >> reporter: this has been a point of contention between the january 6th committee and the justice department, which has been asking for access to all of the evidence. they want access to the st transcript, because obviously, if you have to put people on trial, they have to know what those people said to the committee that could play a role in discovery issues and people being put on trial. the attorney general said that the committee -- that the justice department is still pursuing access to all evidence, to all of the transcripts from the committee. he would not say what the process or what the progress is in those negotiations. we know that the committee has been hesitant to turn over everything. they say it belongs to the committee. in some cases, they are going to share some things with the justice department, but it appears that is still a process that is ongoing. it's still clearly not a resol

evan perez was at the press conference. what did he say?> reporter: you got the sense of the historic nature of the case. it's a rarely brought charge, seditious conspiracy, something the attorney general himself had to approve after looking over the evidence over a period of months and he certainly was taut talking about the effort made to try to emimpede the transfer of power. listen to what he said. >> last evening a jury of the defendant's peers found each of them guilty of serious felony offenses as the verdict of this case makes clear, the department will work tirelessly to hold accountable those responsible for crimes related to the attack on our democracy. >> alex, for the justice department they're looking at all the people involved, including you will notice people who did not enter the capitol. we know almost 1,000 people who are being prosecuted for going into the capitol being part of the riot. importantly one of the members of the oath keepers convicted yesterday did not enter the capitol and that bodes strongly, i think for t

and what evan perez and jeremy herb and i have been able to nail down is what going on behind the scenesigations around donald trump specifically the mar-a-lago investigation into the mishandling of federal records, possible national security details, at mar-a-lago after the trump presidency and january 6, what the president and other people were doing after the election to try and block the presidency of joe biden and delay congress from certifying the election. and so the two things, one, you mentioned it, the special council. there is a possibility that the justice department will have serious needs to want to bring in a special council if trump, if and when he announced a run for president. and then on top of that, there are high level advisers coming in, one with an expertise in national security, one with an expertise in working with cooperators in criminal investigations who have been tapped to help very high level leaders at the justice department navigate the issues that come up with these trump investigations. so a lot of big decisions the attorney general could be making very

. >> evan perez is covering this for us. what more can you tell us? >> this is part of the overall threats that you haefr the fbi and homeland security warning a lot, constantly about, because these are coming not only against members of congress, you saw the recent attack on paul pelosi. and in this case this man is neal walters, from michigan, and he is charged with leaving threats not only in voice mails to a member of congress but also online in the case of the congressman from california, he left a voice mail saying, quote, hey john, you're going to die, john, you're going to die. in the case of christopher wray, he left a comment on a live stream of the director's testimony to congress and he said i will kill you, director wray, you will die, i will kill you in self-defense. it is somebody that according to the court documents is clearly troubled. he had an interaction with local police in which he was holding a handgun and continued to make these threats according to the prosecutors, they also found that he made threats on facebook as well. and

cnn's evan perez has more. >> reporter: amara, martin, attorney general merrick garland appointed warimes prosecutor jack smith to serve as special counsel to oversee two special investigations of donald trump. the decision was triggered in part by the former president's decision in recent days for a third run for president. smith most recently worked as a prosecutor in the hague prosecuting war crimes. he'll take over stemming from the alleged mishandling of the classified documents which the fbi retrieved in a search from trump's mar-a-lago home as well as the january 6th investigation dealing with trump's efforts to impede the transfer of power after the 2020 election. garland said the appointment was intended to show that the investigations will be done with indep independents. >> based on recent developments including the former president's announcement that he is candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, i have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. such an appointment u

. >> evan perez is "outfront" tonight. what more do we know about these discussions about pence's potential testimony? >> well, erica, we know that the justice department approached the former vice president's team some weeks ago, this is well before the appointment of the special counsel. and we know that at least from the vice president's point of view, he is open to having some discussion to come to an agreement for some testimony to the investigation. now, there's a lot of things that have to happen between now and when he might sit down with the fbi and the prosecutors. and that includes the possibility, of course, that the former president, donald trump, will try to intervene and try to block some of that testimony, which he has done repeatedly, including with pence's aides, mark short and greg jacob, who have provided testimony initially providing limited testimony, and then being forced by the justice department after a judge's order to provide additional testimony after the former president tried to intervene. so

evan perez and i have been able to confirm "the new york times" first reported this today, and furthermore, pence is open to having a discussion with them. that is really a change of tune from where pence had been previously. he has had quite an evolution on this, even from just a few weeks ago. here's him speaking about when the house select committee congress wanted to talk to him about what happened after the election. >> congress has no right to my testimony. the very notion of a committee on congress and congress sumening a vice president to speak about deliberations that took place at the white house i think would violate that separation of powers. >> reporter: now of course, the justice department investigation is different. it's a criminal probe, and they often are able to get a lot more answers than congress can, especially when there is a question about what happened inside the executive branch. this outreach though, i should note victor and bianna, this happened before special counsel jack smith was recently appointed to take over the january 6th investigation. it remains to be

those weapons and how he purchased those weapons, two law enforcement sources telling my colleague evan perez that the suspected shooter, anderson lee aldrich, indeed purchased these two weapons but that the timing is unclear. but, that the arrest of anderson lee aldrich back in 2021, when he allegedly called police, excuse me, when his mother called authorities about a bomb threat, that those charges would not be a part of the background check because that case was not adjudicated, meaning that there were no records, those charges were dropped. so, it would have not shown up doing a background check. now, all this as the owners of club q telling "the new york times" about the intense moments that happened at club q on saturday night. they were able to review the surveillance video. now, think about that for just a moment. these are individuals who were not there but got the opportunity to see what was going on in their beloved club, john. from their description, as you might imagine, they described the gunmen firing those shots and those heroic patrons running toward the gunfire to save live

cnn's evan perez is at the justice department for us. do we know what he plans to say?ll, alison, this is a big day for the attorney general. he personally signed off on bringing these seditious conspiracy charges. there was a bit of a debate inside the building as to whether to do this. it's a rarely brought charge. the fact that prosecutors were able to pull that off yesterday with a jury is a big thing for the department going forward with other investigations, with other prosecutions, including proud boys, other members of the oath keepers. we will hear from the attorney general thanking the prosecution team on that. the other thing as you mentioned, the jackson, mississippi situation, the justice department, is going to appointment a third party to help manage the water system in that municipality, which is, obviously, been a huge problem in mississippi with people not having safe drinking water. that's something the justice department believes is a civil rights issue for the african american community in that city. so those are two things that the attorney general

>> fascinating exchange between the ag and evan perez.ated the arguments he's making to the committee without complaining about their lack of response. there's no question that the committee's hesitance in turning over this massive amount of material is making the doj's job harder. that have to get that stuff not to just review it but to understand the strength or weaknesses of the witnesses. so it's crucial to them. they are pressing as hard as they can. and the committee is keeping their cards very close to their vest. likely they want to be-to-make the big reveal, they don't want to hand it to doj. >> it's not only the justice department that wants access to the transcripts, there are defense lawyers that want access. we saw it previously. the public discussions in court, justice doesn't have them but we want them. these groups are going to trial. there are people talking about them in these hearings. >> they're going to hold onto it until the last minute. this is their work, it was their committee. and it's going to be their report. a

our senior justice correspondent evan perez. and cnn correspondent audie cornish. and david, let me start with you. i want to play a little bit more of speaker pelosi's speech today. listen to this. >> when i came to the congress in 1987, there were 12 democratic women. now there are over 90, and we want more. >> when i entered leadership in 2002, there were eight of us. today there are 17. members of the leadership. when i first came to the floor at 6 years old, never would i have thought that someday i would go from homemaker to house speaker. >> so david, help us appreciate a little bit the historic moment that the country's going through right now. >> well, first of all, it's hard to remember a time that she wasn't the leader of the democrats in the house because 20 years ago this week she was elected leader of the house. obviously being the first woman to serve as speaker of the house. but i think -- and she nodded to this in her remarks today. consequential pieces of legislation through -- she only gave a nod to three of the four presidents that she was servi

we saw evan perez and our other colleagues who will have a lot of other things to try the get him to talk about. >> we'll be watching. paula reid, thank you very much. >>> joining us now, we have cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elliot grahams. the oath keepers, they have been convicted of seditious conspiracy which rarely happens, maybe once this century. it carries a 20-year maximum sentence. how long in prison do you think these guys are going to get? >> oh, goodness. i can't tell you that, alisyn, and it's not because i'm being coy and cute here. that will be a complicated formula based on a number of factors. there's the federal sentencing guidelines that set a range for every defendant based on the crime that they have been convicted of, and the range, you know, a signing will depend on what kind of weapons were used, what's the person's criminal history. what's their personal history? have they accepted responsibility? have they admit thated that thed it, acknowledged what they did was wrong, and so on? the judge will sentence. they're not going to get 20 years.

i want to start with evan perez in washington. this is a historically significant move, right? a special counsel on criminal investigations into a former president of the united states who's running to be president again. why did the doj think this move was necessary now? >> reporter: well, the irony, erin, is that the former president announced that he was running for office a couple days ago. in part, people around him said, was because he thought it would insulate him from potential charges, from the justice department. and instead, you heard it from merrick garland, the attorney general, that that, in fact, triggered this move to appoint a special counsel. they appointed jack smith because you have these two investigations that are ongoing. and by the way, now we know certainly from the announcement that the attorney general made today that at least with regard to the january 6th investigation, the effort to impede the transfer of power, donald trump is at the center of that. we've known obviously that he was being investigated for the mishandling or the alleged mishandling

turning 80, the first -- >> breaking news -- let's go right now to the justice department and our evan perez announcement from attorney general merrick garland set to a month a special counsel in the trump probe. >> reporter: that's right. so in the next 20 minutes or so we're going to hear from the attorney general directly, but he is -- he has appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation -- the twin investigations into the former president, one of them of course is the justice department's investigation of the retention of national security information these are the classified documents that were found by the fbi during the search at the former president's residence in palm beach in mar-a-lago, the second part of this is parts of the january 6th investigation that touch on the former president. of course, you know that one of the things the justice department has been looking into is the involvement of the former president and the people around him in the effort to obstruct the transfer of power after the -- after the 2020 election. he was involved in the fake electors scheme a

"outfront" with me now is evan perez, cnn senior justice correspondent.n goodman, editor in chief of just security. former special counsel at the defense defendant. and elie honig, who is a former attorney for the southern district of new york. let's start with the big news in the verdict tonight when it comes to the oath keepers and the oath keepers' founder stewart rhodes, guilty on the most serious charge associated with january 6th. how significant is this? >> it's an historical moment for the country to have a jury find the leader of a militia group in the united states guilty of trying to use violence to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. and i think it's also super important for what comes next, which is the next militia group, the proud boys are also going to go on trial for the same charge. and their lawyers must have a very serious conversation with them about whether or not they do want to flip and cooperate with the government, now seeing that the justice department can succeed in bringing a successful case to a point of conviction

evan perez has been following all the court proceedings today. he's out front in washington. these are significant events. and i want to start with the supreme court, the supreme court ruling on trump's taxes. with all those judges he put on there, and this not going his way. what does this mean? >> well, it means that the ways and means committee now probably has just over a month to take a look at these tax documents. we anticipate that they're going to get them very, very soon. what they said that they wanted to do, if you remember the former president said that he was under audits. and so they say that they want to see whether there is any legislation that they can propose. of course, they have very little time to work with, as you pointed out, republicans are expected to take over the committees at the beginning of january. so that's just over a month to work with. >> we're going to be joined by a member of the ways and means committee in just a moment. but also, evan, the appeals court on mar-a-lago. what happens now? >> well, look, we're waiting for the appeals court t