jeffrey toobin and t.w. iraqi americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do. good evening. i'm abby phillip in new york. let's get right to what america is talking about. the lawyer, the mayor and the president, and the letter connecting the dots to an alleged scandal. tonight, manhattan's top prosecutor has quit after refusing to obey an order from washington to dismiss the federal corruption charges against the new york city mayor, eric adams. danielle sassoon was just appointed to lead the southern district of new york, and she is the exact kind of lawyer that conservatives would probably love a harvard and yale pedigree, a federalist society member and a former clerk for the supreme court for justice antonin scalia. but she does not possess the one quality that appears to be required to survive in a second maga presidency the willingness to subvert her principles in subservience to the boss. sassoon was directed to make the charges against adams just go away. and sh

attorney jeffrey toobin. he's also the prolific author you all know and the author of the brand new book the pardon the politics of presidential mercy, which just came out this week. jeffrey, good to see you. let me ask you first about these lawsuits, because they are targeting not just doge, but musk directly arguing he has too much power, too little oversight. what do you think? could this work in the courts? >> you know, one of the things you know, laura, what always matters in courts is facts. you know what? what is actually happening. and for all that we've heard about elon musk, um, i think it is somewhat ambiguous what he is actually doing. and i think it's it's, um, that's very important. is he giving advice, um, to the president and to other government officials who are then executing his advice? in that case, i think he's going to have a lot of freedom. however, if he is actually doing the firings himself, then i think there might be, uh, more, more opportunity for the courts to say, look, you can't

speaking of, jeffrey toobin has joined "the new york times" opinion section.r him as the cnn anchor who was caught... on a zoom call. which explains the welcome gift he received from his coworkers. and that is not for lubrication, jeffrey. so it is clear that right now democrats need some help, a little guidance. yet the dems could learn a thing from the late-night king. the old concept hold your applause before the bedroom. first of the old concept of how to defeat trump's dead. not trump you need to defeat is yourselves. before you complain about the neighbor's yard you need to clean out yours the first without asking illegals to do it for you. your world has changed forever and freaks making her ears bleed will not help. ♪ ♪ which side are you on ♪ ♪ which side are you on ♪ ♪ well fight against d.o.g.e well fight elon musk ♪ ♪ we'll fight from dawn to dusk ♪ ♪ which side are you on ♪ ♪ which side are you on ♪ ♪ >> greg: which side am i on? i am on the side that is now death. kind of like somebody threw a bag of cats into a wood chipper. migrants saw this an

joining us now, former federal prosecutor jeffrey toobin. his new book, the pardon, just went on sale today. also with us, former new hampshire governor chris sununu and cnn political commentator alyssa farah. griffin. alyssa, what did you think of the visual of musk? >> and it was fascinating. i'm still trying to wrap my head around trump kind of sharing the stage with a counterpart. this is someone who likes to be the main character. he's president. he doesn't want to have somebody who's stealing the spotlight from him. but i think there's some strategy on trump's part with the elon musk relationship. he's giving him incredible bandwidth to basically go through the entire federal government and decide what needs to be cut. and there are inevitably going to be an elon kind of admitted this, not just mistakes they have to correct, but things that fall through the cracks once these sweeping changes happen and donald trump is going to be able to blame elon musk when that inevitably happens, a small example is their cbs reporting that since the

and that's why he was indicted. >> jeffrey toobin, thanks so much. the new book, the pardon the politics of presidential mercy, available now. thanks, jeffrey. thanks, jeff. turning back now to russia's war on ukraine, the trump administration's concessions to russia. our panel is back with us now. and when you look at this, brad, entering a negotiation, trump has already said ukraine is going have to give up territory. it will not be a member of nato. and he's also saying he wants to welcome russia back into g7. of course, he was kicked out because of the invasion. help me understand why with allies, trump begins with maximalist positions. you think of canada, 51st state, denmark. i'm going to take greenland. panama. i'm going to take over the canal. but on this he makes concessions prior to the negotiation. is that strong? is that strength? >> the question that was asked was, should ukraine return to its pre 2014 borders? that's when russia invaded crimea and took it from ukraine. and barack obama did absolutely nothing to stop him. and so i think t

jeffrey toobin, brad todd, ashley, thank you all so much.onight from russia. the associated press reports that authorities there have released 28 year old american caleb byers, who was detained earlier this month at the moscow airport after authorities said they found cannabis laced marmalade in his luggage. the release comes as talks are set to begin in saudi arabia between senior russian and american officials. the focus on a possible deal to end the war between russia and ukraine notably absent, though from this discussion, any representative from ukraine. cnn's chief global affairs correspondent matthew chance, joins us now live from riyadh. matthew, you spoke with a key person on the russian side. what did he tell you? >> yeah, that that that's right. john. look, i mean, the fact that 28 year old american citizen has been released so quickly in russia gives you an indication of how warm the relationship has become in such a rapid period of time. there are going to be historic talks between the united states and russia, starting here tom

jeffrey toobin.lf go, you forget about certain kinds of things like putting on your pants. you don't want to whack off in front of your coworkers. just got a job at "the new york times," by the way. this is more evidence of the trump effect, that suddenly you are hearing people express things they wouldn't say before. all the preference falsification is falling away. and jesse kind of hits on it. why didn't jamie dimon say this before? why haven't people spoken out about things like this? it's because whenever you do, there are a group of people that will make the exception to the rule and enforcing behavior on the masses. so let's say you have this discussion. it would be really good for everybody to come back to work, for office morale and productivity, and then someone will say, what about madge? she is an agoraphobic with carpal tunnel syndrome? you're the manager, you know what, she is an exception, but offices are here for people to work in them, and then that person will say, you don't care ab

joining us now, former federal prosecutor jeffrey toobin, bestselling author and supreme court biographer whose newest book, the pardon has just hit the stores. also with us, former federal judge shira scheindlin. um, judge jeff, i mean, how big of a of a of a victory is this ruling? >> oh, it's definitely it's definitely a win for the trump administration. but what's worth remembering about all these cases, including the many so far that the challengers have won, is that these are all preliminary rulings. all of them could could be overturned in the district court, where the judges will now take fuller consideration, and then they will start working their way through the appeals process. so yes, this is a victory for the trump administration. and yes, the opponents of the trump administration have won a number of cases along the way. but all these cases have a long way to go before they are fully resolved. >> judge, what do you make of what the press secretary is saying there that the real constitutional crisis taking place is, is these these activist judges abusing their power? >> well,

joining us now, former federal prosecutor and bestselling author jeffrey toobin. his latest book, out tomorrow, is the pardon the politics of presidential mercy. um, can you put this order from the federal judge in rhode island in perspective? >> it's it's important to separate this case from all the others, you know, all the other cases are about challenging whether the trump administration is doing the right thing, whether it's birthright citizenship or firing public employees. what's different about this rhode island case is that he has already ruled that the trump administration was wrong to withhold these funds, and now he's saying they are not obeying my order to restore the funding. and so the issue in this case, which is really more important than the underlying issues about whether the money should be paid or not, is whether a federal court order should be followed. you know, going back to 1803, in the famous case of marbury versus madison, the supreme court said that it's the courts that ultimately decide that have the last word on what is constitutional