i want to bring in jeffrey toobin on this very issue. jim acosta's reporting and da michelle bachman's concerns and dana baschuck and it stems from what it means to be a 501(c)(4). who goes for this keen of status. how many on either side of the this equation may have come up against road blocks from the irs. so far we are hearing a lot from conservative groups. with rehearing more of the progressive liberal groups as well. do we all need to take a big step back and wait for the numbers before the accusation continue to fly so fast? >> right. i think, you know, this is a washingtonbug washington phenomenon at the moment. the notion this is some earth shaking scandal and that responsible people should be talking about impeachment seems, frankly, ridiculous, at this point. remember, no one is entitled to be a 501(c)(4) organization. you have to be involved in a public welfare organization. that's what 501(c)(4) means under the law, a public welfare organization. you can't be a purely political operation and be a 501(c)(4). so the irs is re

>> let's get right to this with jeffrey toobin, live in phoenix for us. jeffrey, an astonishing interview after the verdict in which jodi arias says effectively she would rather die than be spared by the jury. what do you make of that? >> reporter: well, it's very hard to know what to make of it. in part, it shouldn't matter at all, because the jury has been instructed not to listen to any sort of press coverage. so they presumably don't know about it. no one knows how much that's followed. and no one knows whether this could be some sort of manipulative reverse psychology that the jury hearing about this would say we don't want to give her what she wants, so we'll give her life in prison. i can't get inside the head of jodi arias, fortunately. so i don't really know what's going on there. it's certainly bizarre, but the whole case is bizarre. >> right. it certainly has been. but it's gripped america. rather like the casey anthony case last year. in terms of where we are legally, is the understanding that effectively the prosecution has to prove that there

let's bring in our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. you know, what jumped out at me, jeff, is that the m.i.t. police officer sean collier was killed after apparently these allegations if they're true the three students recognized the picture and apparently failed to call the fbi or local police and say we know who at least one of the suspects is. i wonder if they potentially could be charged with some sort of involvement in negligent homicide if you will in the death of that m.i.t. police officer? >> i think that's unlikely. it's very difficult to prosecute people for failing to act. that's been a traditional dilemma in american law about how you can hold people responsible for moral faults like that, but that is no really a criminal offense. they're in a world of trouble for what they did do. i think it's going to be difficult to prosecute them for what they didn't do. >> if they would have immediately called the campus police or the local police or

jeffrey toobin, thank you so much. we're waiting now for a news conference with the defense attorneys. we will bring it to you live. cnn's pamela brown was inside the boston courtroom where the hearing happened. she joins us now live. pam, give us a play by play of what went down. >> reporter: well, jake, the hearing for phillipos just ended moments ago and was very similar to the first hearing for the two new bedford students that had been held for immigration issues for the past nearly two weeks, kadyrbayev and tazhayakov both hearings very similar. in the last hearing the judge told phillipos who has been charged with making false statements, federal charges here, that he better pay attention and not look down. this is the same judge miriam boller, who administered the miranda rights to dzhokhar tsarnaev in the hospital last monday, so interesting to note there. during both of these hearings, that the three suspects who are all three 19 years old, looked very downtrodden. they walked in with chains around their feet

i want to now go to phoenix, arizona to ashleigh banfield and jeffrey toobin if their satellite system is up and running. ashleigh and jeff, are you there? there you go. >> yes. a little frenetic out here. >> we're having some satellite issues but you're okay now. obviously we know there are several different options in terms of what the jury could decide. in addition to not guilty there are a whole bunch of other charges, first-degree murder and second-degree murder. explain to us, jeffrey, if you would, start with you, what happens if they come with a second-degree murder guilty verdict? what is the significance of that? what would that mean in terms of potential jail time? >> then the case is over. then there is no more deliberations. that's just the end of the jury's responsibility. she could get, and ashleigh, you'll correct me if i'm wrong, if she could get life in prison for second-degree murder, she cannot get the death penalty for second-degree murder. so the real distinction here is between first-degree murder and everything else. >> let me jump in for a moment. i have a stat

to believe we've reached the end of the road on this in terms of the charges. >> let me bring jeffrey toobin. jeffr jeffrey, a lot of us remember some cases where prosecutors, initially police initially say it's a slam-dunk case and turns out to be not necessarily a slam-dunk case. do you think it's appropriate for them to suggest this is a slam-dunk case? >> i think it's completely inappropriate for them to say it's a slam-dunk case. i think it's inappropriate to say that you know for sure that the two other brothers were not involved, even though you haven't looked at any of the evidence that was just taken out of the house today. and especially it is inappropriate to exonerate the cleveland police department at this point, which didn't find these girls for ten years, in the face of what certainly seems like at least some clues that they could have found. i think any immediate conclusions drawn this quickly are totally inappropriate, about the guilt of any defendant, the nonguilt of other suspects, and the conduct of the investigators who let these girls be unfound for a decade. >> yeah. w

let's get more now with our national security analyst, tom fuentes, and jeffrey toobin, our legal analystast point, the iron mask? is it possible he put it on in the middle of the night in order to communicate some sort of signal to someone. >> i'm not sure if it indicates a signal, if tsarnaev doesn't have access to his facebook page or e-mail or any other computer at that point. it may not be a signal that way. it may just be that if they think they change the entries on the pages, it will be gone and no one will ever find it. the common investigative techniques is get phone records, internet records, financial records, and many times people are missing the fact that all of these exchanges of photos and information on facebook, or other social media pages, are there for way longer than they want. that's for sure. >> you think you're deleting, but not necessarily. >> right. >> listen to this. i'm going to play a little clip. this is from the attorneys representing two of the suspects. listen to this. >> did they take the knapsack to the dump and -- >> we're not saying that. mr. kadyrbaye

i'll be joined throughout this hour at this table with senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin and every night a different guest, a special guest will also join us in our fifth chair, someone with a perspective that will make the conversation that much more interesting. we'll tell you who tonight's special guest is by tweeting with hash tag ac360. >>> now he's saying he needs more evidence in taking plenty of heat for it. the question is should the u.s. intervene and how? >>> a new word there have been talks on the possibility, just the possibility, of taking the death penalty for the young suspect off the table. >>> and later, catherine zeta jones battling bipolar ii disorder. >>> also, jason collins coming out being the first openly gay athlete. firsthand knowledge of what that is like, a major hollywood star is also becoming a major player in the world of politics. >>> we begin, though, with syria. some things we know. the regime has murdered tens of thousands of people in the last few years. president obama said that the use of those weapons by the regime would be a red line, a game-

jeffrey toobin is on the phone now. >> i think it is important to take a deep breath and find out what- there are two categories of offenses here. one is you're actually talking about coconspirators in the bombing. the other category is people who may have lied and covered up, but were not involved in the bombing. both are serious, but the first category is a great deal more serious. we don't know yet which category they fall into. >> i want to give a little bit more breaking news curtesy of the boston bombing. regarding the investigation, this was posted by police department, there is not a threat to public safety. three additional suspects have been taken into custody in connection to the attack on the boston marathon. there is no additional information to release at this time. additional details will be provided when they become available. no info available at this time relative to a preference. that coming to us from a boston police department. you just mentioned it is only going to be a matter of hours before we find out what's happening. >> they'll make an appearance without unne

. >> our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin is watching and listening.e all of us, jeff, very emotional statements today. how much do you believe this will effect the jury, who will decide whether she gets the death sentence or life in prison? >> well, i think it does matter. remember, what jodi arias' defense was in this case was that her boyfriend was a monster, that he was a pedophile, he was an abuser, and by the way none of that was proven, and now they are seeing a very different side of him, a much more sympathetic side of him, which might make the jury even more angry at jodi arias. so it does seem to have some good deal of potential to be very damaging there. >> we're learning today that arias' defense attorneys tried to withdraw from the case after her conviction. the judge ruled they had to stay. so how common is this? >> it is very rare for attorneys to attempt to leave a case at the very, very end. there are only a few days left and the trial has gone on months and months. i don't think it takes a psychic to figure out that jodi arias has be

i want to bring in our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. does this impact the case against him?s pretty damning stuff. >> enormously. enormously. i think this is devastating. when you think about the avenues of defense potentially open to him, my brother made me do it, i was really just a follower. this note, if this is what it says, demolishes those defense. it shows that he was -- he was motivated to do this. he knew people would die. it shows premeditation. it shows, you know, incredible callousness towards the victims. >> no regret, either. >> no regret at that point, it was known how many people had died. it's just totally devastating. >> also, if it's true that he gave similar information to authorities before being read his miranda rights, because wasn't one of the things about the miranda rights they weren't admissible? >> potentially. if he had not been mirandized, those statements might not have been admissible. i've always thought that miranda issue was sort of a red herring. this case is not a whodunit. there will be abundant evidence that he did this. but if you hav

i want to bring in our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin joining us from new york. you've followed this from the very beginning 20 something years ago, even wrote a book about the whole thing. >> oh, my goodness. >> he never goes away. he's back again today for a couple things. he clearly looks pretty bad. it looks like he's aged a lot. gained some weight here, but what is his contention here? what is he actually trying to fight for? >> well, just to remind people what this case is about. in 2007 there was a bizarre altercation at a low-rent las vegas hotel casino where o.j. and some of his buddies went to a room and attempted to get some memorabilia that they said still belonged to o.j. there you see on the screen some of the security camera video. one of the people o.j. was with had a gun. there was a confrontation. ultimately all of the people involved were arrested. everybody pled guilty, except for o.j., and had very low sentences, suspended sentences or very low sentences. o.j. simpson got nine to 33 years. he's not even eligible for release until 2017. he's n

i want to bring in my legal team, joining me in new york is cnn's legal analyst jeffrey toobin.nd in philadelphia we have defense attorney danny cevallos. we are going to have a remarkable interview of the two brothers, pedro and onil castro, coming up in the program. but police made a statement about their innocence before they even arraigned ariel castro. jeff toobin, something just seemed so very wrong about presenting these three people all together, photographing them and releasing their mugshots to the public and arresting them all at the same timen all of a sudden realizing perhaps they made a mistake. did they make a bigger mistake than they think? >> well, i just don't understand why the cleveland police felt obligated to issue a definitive statement so soon in the process. perhaps it is true that these two brothers were innocent in this whole thing and victims in a different way, but there is no reason for the cleveland police to make such a categorical statement so early in the investigation before any physical evidence had been analyzed before the three victims had b

want to bring in our chief congressional correspondent dana bash and our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin the irs targeting of conservative groups we want to talk about. dana, this is extraordinary action by the government. let's talk about the department of justice first. members of congress already weighing in. what has the reaction been? >> reporter: a statement has been released saying the first amendment is first for a reason, that the obama administration is going after reporters' phone records they better have a damned good explanation. it doesn't get more terse than that. as you can see, republicans are unhappy, democrats are not happy as well, from the most liberal to the most conservative. what the president of the associated press is saying that over a two-month period, 20 phone lines in new york, connecticut, washington, even the press room here in the capital, in the house of representatives, they seized records from all of those areas and it was done without telling the a.p. journalists beforehand. apparently some had their home phones and cell phone records taken, seized by

feeling for the victims in this case, we talked to our cnn lead analyst to get a feel from him, jeffrey toobin, about what could happen as his defense attorneys try to move forward with their defense here. here is what jeff toobin told us. >> i'm not sure that we're going to have that byte. paraphrase what jeff said for us. >> reporter: just to paraphrase, what he said in effect is the callousness and disregard that he showed certainly won't do him any good if this comes before a jury because it shows he had little feeling. if they're trying to avoid the death penalty in this case, and the lawyer who is representing him is very good at keeping her clients away from getting the death penalty, that would be a tough hurdle for them to cross, jake. >> susan candiotti in boston. >>> coming up, shelter from the storm. the president will need more than an umbrella after a week of controversy. hell hath no fury than jon stewart scorned. "the daily show" host has been on an unrelenting storm-fest of president obama. we'll hear about tra from our political panel when "the lead" continues. at university

all week long we'll be joined by christian amanpour, jeffrey toobin and amy holmes, every night a different guest is going to be in our tip chair. we'll tell you who tonight's special guest is in a few minutes. very excited about him being here. you can join the conversation by tweeting with #ac 360. tonight a whole new string of developments in the boston bombings. three new suspects. and also, the hunger strike at guantanamo. prisoners are being held down and force fed. some lawmakers are paying a higher price for blocking gun laws. and one school you won't believe what the administrators did. a very full day in the boston bombing case. three full suspects, one charged with lying to investigators, another charged with obstructing justice. a revelation about the older alleged bomber and his widow shortly before the bombing. what do you make of the case between these three. two kaszak students and the other a u.s. citizen. >> one question we should never ask is, ask people be that stupid? if these allegations are true, the idea that these guys given the pressure you in the country. >> it wa

and we talk to our cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin about that. >> this note makes the task of tsarnaev'sven more difficult. because the callousness, the recognition of the deaths of what he calls collateral damage is going to enflame a jury even more than it would have been otherwise. >> and apparently this is information also according to our source that dzhokhar tsarnaev also told investigators after he was captured at bedside when they were first interrogating him before he was read his rights. so they not only have it in writing, erin, he also told this to investigators. >> susan, thank you very much. obviously significant but as many will say since this was die dif you willthed where the rights were read, no the allowed in court. >> were there other people involved in this attack? we've talked a lot about tamerlan tsarnaev's wife and what he may or may not have known. but according to voice of america, he met with an exiled former chechen rebel in new hampshire less than a month before the bombings. the fbi is now asking why. brian todd is "outfront" in manchester, new hampshire, to

dana, very quickly on this point, i heard jeffrey toobin part of the irs' job is to actually root outolitical groups from nonpolitical groups to determine who is going to get these benefits. now, where and how is that line drawn and how far over it from this report do we think they crossed? >> reporter: that's absolutely right. it is their job. these groups, any group, should not get tax-exempt status if their primary reason for being is political, not for social welfare. they crossed the line by not having criteria that aren't specifically political and more specifically than that, targeting conservative groups. and that's what they did and that's what the inspector general said must be changed, and there are again, nine recommendations for ways to change that to make sure that this doesn't happen again, and one of the many things that people here on capitol hill are unhappy about is that they only accepted seven of the nine and a couple of those specifically go to this point of politics. >> right. dana bash, jessica yellin, thank you both very much indeed. president obama is in full

let's bring in our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin.ty part, and i've been saying for days, i wouldn't expect that was a hard verdict in phase two of this trial. what will be much more difficult will be phase three, jeffrey, whether or not the jury decides she deserves to die. >> given the viciousness of this attack, i agree. this was not a difficult call for the jury. but the third step for the jury is a very simple question, does she deserve to die. that is likely to be much more complicated, and the jury will turn to that hearing starting tomorrow. >> the other story we've been following today, for years, it's been a long time since we heard from o.j. simpson. as you know, he was convicted, now serving a 33-year sentence in prison for armed robbery, abduction, kidnapping, all sorts of charges. now he's suggesting that his lawyer at the time was incompetent. he got bad legal advice. he's seeking a new trial. that's why he showed up at this hearing out in las vegas today, looking a lot heavier than he used to look years ago. you wrote

our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin is joining us now from new york. a lot of us remember, jeff, your initial response when we got that criminal complaint released by the federal authorities yesterday against these three friends was and you said something along the lines no one could be that stupid. you've now had a chance to think about that a little bit more. what's your latest take on this? >> i think i'm sticking with that, wolf. remember, i mean, there is no allegation at this point that these three were involved in the conspiracy to commit the bombing. so that obviously is a very important question, but if that remains the case that they were not involved in the bombing, they were certainly aware as everyone was aware that this was an extremely, extremely serious and devastating crime. and to take that opportunity knowing that, to get involved and start destroying evidence, helping out their friend, injecting themselves into something they had nothing to do with is just mind boggling. and it's stupidity if in fact that's what they did. >> because

all week long we'll be joined by christian amanpour, jeffrey toobin and amy holmes, every night a differentin our tip chair. we'll tell you who tonight's special guest is in a few minutes. very excited about him being here. you can join the conversation by tweeting with #ac 360. tonight a whole new string of developments in the boston bombings. three new suspects. and also former federal prosecutor, rudy giuliani is going to join us. and also, the hunger strike at guantanamo. prisoners are being held down and force fed. people are asking very tough questions. some lawmakers are paying a higher price for blocking gun laws. and one school you won't believe what the administrators did. a very full day in the boston bombing case. three new suspects, friends of the

all week long we'll be joined by christian amanpour, jeffrey toobin and amy holmes, every night a different our tip chair. we'll tell you who tonight's special guest is in a few minutes. very excited about him being here. you can join the conversation by tweeting with

i'll be joined throughout this hour at this table with senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin and everyest will also join us in our fifth chair, someone with a perspective that will make the conversation that much more interesting. we'll tell you who tonight's special guest is by tweeting withh

one of them true the vote is seeking damages of $85,000 and jeffrey toobin says the lawsuits won't succeedl issue and will have a political resolution. >>> new developments in the coming presidential election in iran. an important thing for all americans, the body that vets candidates approved eight to run for president. one person absent of the list is the protege soft current president mahmoud ahmadinejad. a man an expert says was a long shot anyway. former iranian president was also snuffed. this likely means that conservative closer to the supreme leader will likely be the next president. the first round of voting begins june 14th. >>> in a dramatic statement made to jurors today, jodi arias pleaded that her life be spared instead of asking the jury to sentence her to death as you're all aware she wanted in an interview. she called the murder of her ex-boyfriend the worst mistake she ever made and could be constructive and positive in prison. the question, though, is whether jurors believe her. legal analyst paul cowan says it could backfire if the jury sentencing decision is not unani

. >> that's where cnn's ashleigh banfield and senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin are tonight. jodi arias found guilty of premeditated murder of her boyfriend. this trial went on for four months, more than four months. the defendant took the stand in what seems to be a record 18 days of this country. why so much time and focus? >> well, it doesn't get more serious than this, erin. death penalty case and let's be clear, the circumstances and the fact pattern in this case were really grizzly. and there was a lot to get through. not only that, but jodi arias had changed her story so many times the prosecutors had a uphill battle to make sure that they covered every single element that they needed to. it went back to '08 whether that murder happened in mesa, arizona. jodi arias crawled through a door in his home and brutally murdered him and then left and pretended as though nothing had happened. in fact, went on a date within hours of that grisly murder. she even left a voice mail for him after she murdered him pretending nothing was wrong. up until that point, the stories that sh

let's dig deeper with jeffrey toobin. jeffrey, how unusual is this?h how the obama administration has treated leaking. the obama administration, more than the bush administration, clinton, the first bush administration, has been extremely tough investigating and prosecuting alleged leakers of classified information, and now they are going after the news organizations to try to find out who the leakers were, apparently, in this yemen story. >> there is the first amendment to the constitution, though, where does that fit? >> you know what, it doesn't fit in. i think a lot of people, certainly a lot of reporters, don't realize there is no federal privilege that reporters have. reporters are just like anyone else. you know, it's very interesting to read greg pruitt, the associated press's leader, his letter, this is outrageous, this is terrible, but he didn't say it's unlawful. under current law, there is no privilege that journalists have to protect their sources. and they can be -- they can be subpoenaed. their phone records can be subpoenaed, so it's j

joining us, jeffrey toobin. are you surprised that anyone linked to this terrorist bombing investigation has now been freed on bail? >> well, when you're talking about bail, there are always two questions a judge asks -- is the person a risk of flight and are they a danger to the community? here you had the u.s. attorney's office satisfied that this young man who is an american citizen was not a risk of flight and not a danger to the community. once you have the u.s. attorney on board, the judge almost always is going to follow their advice, thus he was released with these pretty strong bail conditions. >> what are the chances that these other two friends, the students from kazakhstan, might be given the same opportunity to go out of prison on bail? >> i think much more remote, for the reason you point out. they're not american citizens. and when deciding who is and who isn't a risk of flight, american citizenship is usually a huge factor to both the judge and the prosecutors. and you also have a situation where

also our cnn senior analyst jeffrey toobin.the review of the justice department the way it conducted all of the news media leak issues, for example, since he's right in the middle of it and a lot of people are saying that is inappropriate for him to be investigating in effect himself? should he recuse himself? >> i don't see any reason for him to do that. this is a policy question. this is an issue that the president of the united states said, look. i care about leaks. i want leaks investigated and eric holder has been investigating them. the issue isn't as far as i understand some sort of improper conduct. it is whether we should have a policy of investigating leaks in that way. this is justice department issue. he is the head of the justice department. i don't see any alternative to him running this policy question analysis. >> the argument republicans make and i'll bring jonathan in, the argument a lot of republicans make is he supposedly at least misled if didn't lie to congress in sworn testimony on the issue of the fox ne

jeffrey tuben argues that this, the rise of dark money is the real scandal here. toobin that 501(c)4 groups have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way, campaign finance operates by shaky or nonexistent rules. a handful of irs employees saw this and tried in a small way to impose some sense, small sense of order for that they will likely be ushered into bureaucratic oblivion. at least some lawmakers are recognizing campaign finance as the true controversy. during the house hearing this morning, representative charlie rangel criticized steven miller, the departing irs acting commissioner for not calling out 501(c)4 tax abuse earlier. >> you should have wanted to look at this earlier before what, what my friends call a scandal. i mean this is wrong to abuse the tax system, this screams out for tax reform, does it not? >> i think it's an area ripe for redefinition and reform, yes, sir. >> it is not the first time that politicians recognized corruption in the tax code. >> there are restrictions now on the kinds of activities that for example 501(