. >> kara scannell outside the courthouse, appreciate it. wolf blitzer and erin burnett pick up coverage next in "the situation room." >>> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitz her in washington along with erin burnett in new york. we're following major breaking news on the vote a short while ago to remove kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house of representatives, the first in the history of the u.s. congress. >> an incredible day. mccarthy's ouster led by congressman matt gaetz, joined by other gop hard liners. it was sealed by democrats who could have stepped up to save mccarthy, and they refused to do it. >> extremely historic and dramatic, indeed. house business, for all practical purposes, is paralyzed as the chamber faces the very difficult and divisive challenge of choosing a new speaker of the house. we're standing by for a meeting of house republicans this hour. this is a special edition of "the situation room." >>> we begin on capitol hill where our chief congressional correspondent,

kara scannell, cnn, new york. >>> now to a cnn clexclusive. sources say hunter biden has wrapped up more than 10 million in legal bills and could face more. he is set to be weighing his fundraising options. >> legal fees include even lawsuits he's brought against his plit dolitical detractors. >> here is what i'll say about that. you've heard it, the president loves his son. he will continue to support him as he rebuilds his life. not going to speak to any private conversations that this president has with any member of his family. that is private. and just to remind you all as you know, you guys reported on this, this is an independent department of justice investigation. it has been. and which has been led by one of the prosecutors from the last administration. and so we're just not going to comment on the investigation specifically. >> hunter biden was in a federal court in delaware tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to three gun charges. >>> industrial action is expanding. first came strikes in the entertainment industry and then it was a

i want to get perspective from cnn legal analyst karen agnifilo and jennifer rodgers and kara scannellra, bring us up to date on what happened in the appeals court ruling. >> this was about a 15-minute hearing, and the judge off the bat said he wasn't going to stop the trial, which is now in its fifth day. but he did agree to put a halt to the canceling of the business certificates of the businesses. that's what the court in the lower court did. this judge in this hearing said, you know, it wasn't even clear if that would apply to a person's private home, so he was putting that on pause to allow trump to appeal the lower court decision. where the judge said that trump and his eldest sons and executives at the company had committed and engaged in persistent fraud for decades by inflating the values of properties, including mar-a-lago, in order to get better terms on insurance rates and loans. >> in your opinion, did both sides get a little something? >> trump certainly got what he wanted or half of what he wanted. >> he didn't get the trial being stopped. >> he got the cancellations rev

appreciate the live mic handoff between britain begin g brynn g and kara scannell. daniel, trump made a lot of claims some of which have already been rejected by this judge. here is one of the first claims that trump made, being a part of what he said is according naltsed election interference. >> the trial was railroaded and fast tracked. it could have been brought years ago but they waited until i was right in the middle of my campaign, the same with other trials and indictments. it is all run by doj which is corrupt in washington. everything goes through them. >> daniel, fact check that for us. >> those are baseless. first of all the idea that doj is orchestrating all of this is nonsense. there is not a shred of evidence that doj is directing the stale attorney general in this state lawsuit. it is a state issue. the claim about waiting until the middle of trump's campaign, this trial is the result of a state attorney general lawsuit that was brought in september 2022. and trump launched his campaign in november 2022. so this saga began before he announced his can

let's get an update with cnn's kara scannell who's live for us outside the courthouse. she's been watching today's proceedings. so kara, what's been going on? >> reporter: so boris, they finished the cross-examination of trump's former long-time accountant after he was on the stand across three days. and now they've moved inside the trump organization, calling the former controller jeff mcconnie. he just retired earlier this year but he has been the person that put together these financial statements that are at the heart of this case. and what the state has begun to do for the first time is to connect the financial statements to the lenders, the people who gave the trump organization money. and this goes to one of the claims that the state has in this case. these statements were issued to receive favorable interest rates. we've seen the seven springs family property being issued for the first time in a document. and also a deutschebank loan is being referenced and how they incorporated these financial statements into their credit report. this is the first time we've see

cnn's kara scannell is outside the courthouse in manhattan. kara, so what happened today? >> well, wolf, the attorney general's office laid out their case saying year after year, loan after loan, donald trump and his adult sons had inflated the value of their assets in order to obtain favorable interest rates on loans. they played snippets of deposition testimony from eric trump, donald trump jr. and donald trump himself. all three expected to be witnesses in this case. here is what donald trump said as he sought to distance himself from the financial stnlts at the heart of this case. take a listen. >> to meet your obligation here? presenting the information in accordance with gap. was allen weisselberg responsible for that? >> back to the form. >> i would say yes. >> now they also showed a letter that trump himself had signed that was sent to deutsche bank, one of the banks that loaned them money. this is part of the eg's office attempt to link trump from the financial statements to the loans at issue in this case. part of the elements of this case they're looking to prov

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cnn's kara scannell joins us now. how are trump's attorneys responding to this warning?rter: so trump's lawyer stood up in court before the judge and told him that it was an inadvertent mistake. he said that trump made this post on his truth social platform and the trump campaign archives all of those on to the campaign website in a in case you missed it section. he said it wasn't caught. he said there was no intention to evade or circumvent or avoid the order. he was apologizing on behalf of his client and said they had went and checked the numbers and there were over 3,701 unique visits to that in case you missed it post that have reposting the post since the gag order. so he was explaining to the judge that this was essentially a mistake and that it had been taken down. he blamed part of this on the large machinery of a campaign. so the judge said he would take this under advisement. he did not rule on what he would do but said i want to make sure that donald trump is still responsible for the large machine even if it is a large machine. so saying that the buck stops

and kara scannell and my other colleagues are there, and clearly not acknowledging letitia james, and not giving her eye contact or handshake or anything whatsoever. and then sat down with his two attorneys and keeping gaze largely down. so we are waiting to see how he acknowledges this judge, and again, someone he just politically attacked outside calling disparaging the judge just as he has done on the campaign trail for so long. so we will see how this all sort of plays out. again, as he is the reason that actually the court is beginning late, it seems at this point. we also should mention that we do expect him to testify. that is one of the reasons that he is inside of that courtroom. he wanted to defend his reputation as he has beeen saying. it may not be today or tomorrow, but it is possible he will be back here tomorrow and next week, because he is on the witness list. and also, we heard letitia james outside of the courthouse, and i want to go to the sound of what she had to say about the remarkable case thus far. >> you y seeing the setup of donald trump, and she was talk abo

more now from kara scannell. what happened today? >> there was an unexplained 45 minute delay, and then the judge got on the bench this afternoon and said he was issuing a gag order in this case. that was after trump had posted on his social media a photo of the judges -- and senate majority leader chuck schumer suggesting that she was his girlfriend. the judge said that that wasn't untrue posed and trump did not post any evidence to this. but he said it was unacceptable, saying, personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and i will not tolerate them. consider this statement an order for getting all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any members of my staff. failure to abide by this would really salton city sanctions. the judge said that he had warned they councils for the defendant yesterday about this, because trump had spoken in the hallway about this clerk. and this clerk is the judge's right-hand person. she sits, often, next to him, to his side at the bench. so, some

kara scannell is outside the courthouse in new york. >> reporter: anderson, after the lunch break, the judge said he was issuing a gag order in this case. that came after donald trump had issued a post this morning linking the judge's clerk to senate majority leader chuck schumer without any evidence. in that post, he also emailed it to a lot of his big distribution lists. the judge saying that he was imposing a gag order on all parties, saying none of them could make any public statements about any of his staff. and he said that if they violate this order, there would be serious sanctions. and that could include anything from financial penalties to even potentially jail. so the judge drawing a fine line here, trying to cut down on some of the rhetoric that trump has made, particularly targeting his clerk, who is a constant presence beside him, who is very active with the judge. he didn't extend that to the judge or the other parties, and trump today was out making statements against attorney general letitia james who's brought this case. he made comments about her walking into the cou

let's get to kara scannell outside court. trump did not succeed in delaying this trial,

cnn's kara scannell is at the courthouse, with trump being scrutinized in that courtroom, trump has createdte the spectacle outside? >> reporter: yeah, pamela, he has. he's taken every opportunity to speak as he's in the courtroom or exiting the courtroom during breaks during the day. and we're expecting the new york attorney general to respond to some of these comments shortly in the hallways outside of the courtroom where the trial is taking place now that the former president has left the building. inside court, it's also been a little fiery today. there's cross-examination of the state's first-time witness, trump's accountant donald bender. he's testified how he helped compile the information that trump prepared at the heart of this case. they had bender testify according to accounting guidance, he's supposed to in compiling these statements look for any obviously inappropriate values. bender testified for ten years looking at these values years in this litigation he said nothing jumped out as obviously, an inappropriate value. of course, the allegations here are that these financial st

let's get to kara scannell outside court. trump did not succeed in delaying this trial, but he did get one win day. >> reporter: that's right. trump had filed this emergency motion today, asking for the delay of the trial. but they also wanted a delay of this lower court's decision that cancelled the business certificates of the company. the full scope of that is really still unknown. this one judge panel, associate justice peter -- held artemis about 15 minutes. he said he wasn't going to stop the trial, which is now its fifth day. he said he will halt the cancellation of the certificates, because he noted it is unclear if this would include people being forced to sell their private homes based on the ruling. there will be additional legal arguments on this matter. but trump's team is ultimately appealing that ruling that found that trump was engaged in persistent fraud for a decade by filing false financial statements to get better terms on insurance and loans. >> back to the trial in the building behind you. trump's son, e

cnn's kara scannell reports. >> reporter: day two in court for former president donald trump and a gag order from judge arthur engorons after trump attacked a clerk in a truth social post that she was chuck schumer's girlfriend. the judge saying, quote, personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and i will not tolerate them under any circumstance. the judge ordering all parties not to speak:publically about members of his court staff under threat of serious sanction. the post has since been deleted. but yesterday trump attacked the clerk outside the courtroom. >> this rogue judge, a trump hater, the only one that hates trump more is his associate up there, his person that works with him. she is screaming into his ear almost every time we ask a question. a disgrace. you want to know disgrace. >> reporter: the second day of the civil trial to determine the future of trump's business starting with further attacks from trump on new york attorney general letitia james. >> this case should be dismissed. this is not a case. and she should probably be dismis

. >> let's get to the courthouse with cnn's kara scannell, what do you know?t do you expect to hear there? >> reporter: well, jessica, opening statements wrapped this morning. with the testimony, it made the case, year after year, loan after loan, the former president inflated the value of assets on the financial statements in toward to get better terms for insurance and for bank loans. so what they previewed in their case they said they will call some witnesses that will testify to this including michael cohen. he's the trump former fixer. he's the reason why the a.g.'s office started the investigation on capitol hill, with the assets that would benefit him. he also said another trump executive will be testifying that the chief financial officer of the company told him that donald trump's net worth went up. and that is the basis of this theory of the case, that he's inflated the value of the assets to increase his net worth so he could get the loans. trump's attorneys pushing back saying this is not fraud. this is real estate, everyone comes up with their own

kara scannell is following that case. >> reporter: now they have moved inside the trump organization calling the former controller, he just retired earlier this year, e. but he but he has beenn who put together the financial statements at the heart of this case. what the state has begun do for the first time is to connect the financial statements to the lenders.do for the first time is to connect the financial statements to the lenders. this goes to one of the claims in the case, the statements were issued to receive favorable interest rates. so we've seen the seven springs family property being mentioned for the first time in a document and also seeing another bank, deutsche bank loan, being referenced in how they incorporated the financial statements into their credit report. so this is the first time we're seeing this case move a little bit away from just the financial statements and on a handwritten note at the top that the final review would be done by djt. so donald trump. so connecting him and the former president to these statements for the first time. but these are all still

cnn's kara scannell was inside the courtroom for this morning's testimony. ra, walk us through what you heard. >> reporter: so trump's lawyers were on the offensive trying to land some blows at the credibility of the government's first witness, donald bender, trump's long-time accountant. and so when bender was on the stand, you know, the issue in this case is the financial statements. he compiled them. so trump's attorneys were hitting at him saying did he follow accounting guidance and did he ever notice any obviously inappropriate values for financial statements over this decade period of time. and bender testified nothing jumped out. they were asking him repeatedly questions going through these financial statements year by year, property by property. that got the judge really frustrated. it became testy in there. the judge had warned them to move on, that they could just do this in a summary type of quest. trump's lawyers pushed back. they started cross again. the judge got frustrated. he slammed his hands on the bench and he said, this is ridiculous. i m

kara scannell joining us outside the courthouse with more. he will be back.ppens today in court? >> reporter: yeah, poppy. so former president donald trump will be back in court today. and he will hear continuing testimony from his former long-time accountant. now, this is the trial where trump is having his reputation as a successful businessman challenged. and the ultimate fate of his business here could lay in the hands of the judge. and we heard from the former president yesterday, him taking every opportunity to slam that judge and the attorney general. fuming and combative, former president donald trump returned to a familiar refrain. >> this is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. >> reporter: flanked by his attorneys, trump walked into the courtroom the opening day of the civil fraud case brought by new york state attorney general, latitia james. last week judge arthur engoron, the trump organization and his oldest sons are liable for fraud. on monday, trump disappeared. >> no bank was affected. no bank was hurt. they don't ev

kara scannell was in court again today. did the former president abide by the judge's gag order? >> reporter: he did. the gag order only covered comments about the judge's staff. but trump wasted no time and no opportunity to lash out against the judge and the new york attorney general letitia james. and for the first time this week, she responded. take a listen. >> the judge already knows what he's doing. he's a democrat judge. he's a democrat judge out of the clubhouses. he's in control and it's a shame. i'm stuck here because i have a corrupt attorney general that communicates with the doj in washington to keep me nice and busy. he gets sued by a political animal. >> mr. trump's comments were offensive. they were baseless. they were void of any facts or any evidence. what they were were comments that unfortunately lamented violence, comments that i would describe as race-baiting, comments unfortunately that appeals to the bottom of our humanity. >> the judge himself even got frustrated on the bench by the cross-examination by one of trump's attorneys, that he slammed his hand

kara scannell was in court today. we heard the former president outside court claiming the case was politically motivated. what happened inside the court? >> reporter: some of that political argument continued inside. trump's attorney alina habba made a lot of saying letitia james, the attorney general, could have brought this case before she was even in office, saying she campaigned, saying she was going to get trump. the judge stopped her and said he had already ruled on this, that the attorney general's motivations for bringing this case was not an issue here. and he was backed up by an appeals court who agreed with his ruling. telling her there's really no argument here in the politics of this, she said to the judge she had to address it because the attorney general did also speak jooitd today, but certainly trying to bring the politics into the courtroom. and the former president, you know, he was watching her intently when she was spar being the judge over this. and he was pretty engaged in the whole day. he was

. >> all right, kara scannell, thanks so much. jake >> thanks anderson.ng us now to discuss, cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. elie, i mean obviously, a disgusting smear by donald trump. but, do you think that that statement, the smear about the judge, and his clark, warrants a gag order? >> i do, jake. because what donald trump did here is, you violated a courtroom commandment. you do not go after the staff, you don't go after the clerks, you don't go after the deputies, you don't go after the court reporters, the marshals. when you are a prosecutor, or a judge, you take on that role knowing that sometimes you may be attacked verbally, that there may be insults and criticism. that is part of the job. but these folks who work in the courtroom, they are a public civil servants, they did not sign up for this. the need to be protected. i think this gag order was very much appropriate. >> and, need we remind our viewers that there is a huge trend, donald trump does this, and puts this information out. and, these individuals quite frequently, then start exp

kara sckara scannell, thank you keep us posted of the proceedings there. >>> and now, sidney powell pleadingand what that could mean for former president trump and other defendants' cases.