we just heard katelyn polantz lay this out.e not just talking about people who broke into the capitol and walked around and that sort of thing on january 6th. we're talking about people who are convicted of seditious conspiracy, people who were convicted of assaulting and assaulting police officers with american flags, and so on. >> right, jim. exactly. look, this is there's no argument here that these facts did not occur. i'm not hearing in the president's announcement or any of the folks who support him suggesting that it didn't happen. it's rather an excuse of the violent conduct. that's what's so frustrating and so outrageous in such a threat to the rule of law. oftentimes with pardons, there's been some new evidence emerge. or there's a question as to guilt or innocence that's not present here. these are people, as you said, many of whom were convicted of or pled guilty to engaging in acts of violence. that conduct has been excused by these pardons, which it really is a horrible threat to the rule of law. >> and just a cou

cnn crime and justice correspondent katelyn polantz joins us now. good morning once again to you, caitlin john, donald trump said. >> he wanted to fire jack smith. that didn't come to pass because smith left the department of justice. so donald trump and his acting attorney general, james mchenry, they got rid of everybody who was working for jack smith, the special counsel on those two criminal cases against donald trump. now, this is highly unusual because these were career prosecutors, people who had worked in the department long before smith came into existence as the special counsel worked on many, many cases. the yeoman's work of line attorney. investigations, prosecutions, criminal trials at the doj in the u.s. attorney's offices. those people are fired. now, there are more than a dozen of them affected. from what our sources are telling us and what the memo that was sent to them yesterday from the acting attorney general said, it underlined how this was both personal and political. the quote, you played a significant role in prosecuting pres

i want to bring in cnn senior crime and justice correspondent katelyn polantz. what is judge cannon's argument here, caitlin? >> well, judge cannon is not actually doing much other than saying nobody is sharing this report for at least three days outside of the justice department. so we were awaiting the release of jack smith's final report, the summation of all of his work, his charging decisions in both the classified documents case before judge cannon, and the january 6th case, which is against trump in washington, dc, or was it's been dismissed. now, the justice department said they could release it publicly as early as friday at the attorney general's decision. if he wants to do that. and so trump's team, the co-defendants in the classified documents case, he has two of them who work for him, also accused of obstruction of justice. they also are facing the dismissal of this case, but ongoing appeals, they are going to court and saying we don't want any of this to become public because it could hurt us. and so judge cannon said, yeah, let's look at the appea

katelyn polantz, excellent reporting. thank you so much. still to come, how trump's push to get rid of federal dea programs could affect programs from vaccine and cancer research to higher education. we're going to talk more about that. >> super man, the christopher reeve story next sunday at eight on cnn. now texas is getting the turbotax app and filing your taxes yourself 100% free. if you didn't file with us last year. now, this is taxes filed free in the app by 218. when you switch to turbotax, do it yourself. >> after the led mask, i brush my teeth. hi, susan toothbrush. >> love the digital. >> derm routine. why are you still brushing like it's 1990? no thank you. >> you want. >> oral care? turn to. philips sonicare, make the sonicare. >> switch like. >> and subscribe. >> when the temperature drops, you've got two choices. >> close your eyes. >> and think warm thoughts. or open your eyes and get out here. there's only one vehicle lineup that embraces everything the cold has to offer. the official vehicles of winter jeep. there's only o

let's get right to cnn's katelyn polantz for the latest on this. good morning. katelyn. >> good morning john. there is a lot of people right now outside of the republican party, donald trump and the people surrounding him that are pushing back with indignation against the pardons and the clemency the president granted to these january 6th rioters. judges on the federal court that handled these 1400 or so cases, they have been asked by the trump justice department to dismiss the 300 about pending cases that are still in the court system, and they are not doing so without having a final say. judge tanya chutkan, the very judge who oversaw donald trump's own criminal case related to the 2020 election that is now dismissed. she was asked to dismiss one of the rioter cases yesterday, and wrote that the dismissals cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake and it cannot repair the jagged breach in america's sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power. she was one of a handful of judges on that bench who had many things to say to m

let's go to cnn's katelyn polantz with the details. she's outside the dc jail where the defendants are being released. caitlin, tell us about this interview that tarrio gave to alex jones. >> well, boris. >> enrique tarrio serving a sentence of 22 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy. now the recipient of a full pardon, and all of the people who. >> were. >> still doing time in federal prisons across the country because of january 6th capitol riot crimes, they have been released. they're out. whether their sentence was commuted or like the vast majority, like a thousand people or more, including tarrio. they have been released from prison here at the dc jail. people are being let out because they. >> are here. >> very likely. because they are. >> still awaiting. >> proceedings in their cases. so they are not pardoned recipients. they are people that donald trump wants to have his justice department dismiss their cases. those people are coming out very sporadically. >> and so. >> there still are people being held in the d.c.

our crime and justice correspondent, katelyn polantz is joining us here in washington. she's outside one of the jails here in washington. caitlin, walk us through the january 6th pardons and what's been happening at the dc jail where you are. >> well, wolf, here at the dc jail, it is one of the epicenters of the after action of donald trump's pardons yesterday of the january 6th capitol rioters. the big picture here, more than 1200 people are receiving pardons. those people would be convicted and sentenced for their crimes and now will no longer be serving those sentences. they will be released from probation, or they will go about their lives with the felony no longer hanging over their head, or the misdemeanor if they were convicted of a nonviolent crime, no longer on the books for them. there's also people whose sentences were commuted, seditious conspirators. even. that means that they were let out of prison once the presidential clemency came in, and they were able to walk free. one of those people, stewart rhodes, the head of the oath keepers, sentenced to 18 year

cnn's katelyn polantz is live outside the federal courthouse in washington.in, tell us what you're hearing. >> brianna, it is not lost on anyone at this building today that these january 6th cases, the nonviolent offenders, potentially the violent offenders, potentially even the seditious conspirators from the oath keepers, the proud boys, that they could be pardoned in just a few days when donald trump takes office. and that is reverberating in these hearings. so it's been a busy day, this last day that the judges are hearing these cases from january 6th, potentially, if trump pardons many of them, there are about ten people that are being sentenced today and they represent the wide swath of what the violence looked like on january 6th. >> there are people that assaulted officers, people that had chemical sprays on them, wasp and hornet sprays, spraying officers in the crowd during the riot, people smashing windows. one person who took michael fanone by the neck and pulled him out of the crowd. that's the metropolitan police officer who was so severely injur

all right, katelyn polantz, thank you very much for that update. finally tonight, some breaking news just coming into the situation room rocket company spacex now says it believes its starship spacecraft did not survive today's test flight. starship was supposed to land on earth before splashing down in the indian ocean, but stopped delivering data to mission control after launch. spacex says the rocket booster powering the flight did successfully land at the launch tower. we'll continue to watch this. to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right now.

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cnn's katelyn polantz has details.udy giuliani was held in contempt of court for the second time in one week, this time because he was not stopping, spreading lies about the 2020 election. what has happened to giuliani in court in washington, d.c.? is that a year ago, a jury found that he had defamed two georgia election workers for repeating the false statement that they had stolen votes against donald trump in the 2020 election. that was false. and he was found to need to pay them $150 million for defamation. after that, five and a half months later, he went on his broadcast. this past november and kept repeating the things that he said about them. essentially the same lies about the 2020 election, saying them again. and so what happened in court was that giuliani had to appear and the judge had to put in place some sort of punishment so that he wouldn't continue to do this. what she decided this is judge beryl howell of the d.c. district court. she decided that he would have to swear to the court within ten days tha

back to you. >> katelyn polantz in dc. caitlin. thank you. let's bring in andrew mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi and a cnn law enforcement analyst. andrew, some members of the president's own party have expressed some unease about this action. senator james lankford said that anyone who attacks a police officer should have to pay a price for that. north carolina republican thom tillis said that trump's blanket pardons raise a legitimate safety concern on capitol hill. what concerns do you have? >> well, i think those concerns that you mentioned are i share those, um, you know, i think at its. foundation, this action sends some really very troubling messages. >> i mean, predominantly, it sends a very clear message to anyone in this country who is inclined to use violence for political purposes, that if they do so in a way that they believe is consistent with what president trump wants or the things that he believes, that they will not be held responsible. >> and that is a very dangerous thing to send out a message to send out to the

cnn's katelyn polantz has more from us, from washington there. caitlin, you're you're standing outside. i understand one of the jails where the where the rioters have been released. can you describe what's been happening in the 36 some odd hours since the pardons happened? >> sarah. >> there had been. >> a vigil here for many months. and then last night was the culmination of people standing outside of the. dc jail, welcoming rioters as they were released, or alleged rioters because the people held at this facility here at the d.c. jail, they often didn't have their cases finished. so some of them weren't eligible for the full pardon from donald trump. so when donald trump pardoned more than a thousand of the rioters, people accused of misdemeanors parading inside the capitol, as well as people convicted of and sentenced to years in prison for things like assaulting police or even seditious conspiracy, those people were able to leave bureau of prisons facilities across the country very quickly. but here at the jail, this is where people were stil

katelyn polantz. we're also following the impact of president trump's executive orders on immigration. the white house border czar tom homan, telling cnn this afternoon ice will arrest anyone caught in the country illegally. in what he describes as targeted enforcement operations. >> when we go find our priority target, which is a criminal alien, if he's with others in the united states illegally, we're going to take enforcement action against them. we're going to enforce the immigration law trump's immigration crackdown also includes declaring a national emergency at the southern border, initiating a process to end birthright citizenship, and ending the cbp. >> one app, which had given migrants a pathway for entering the u.s. legally. cnn's valeria leon is live near the border at ciudad juarez, mexico. valeria, what kind of reaction are you seeing there? >> well, a lot of frustration here. this is the local mexican office where the migrants with canceled cbp one appointments were brought by mexican a

so katelyn polantz will be seeing people released from that d.c. jail today and probably from other federal prisons around the country. and then there's a group of pending cases still in the court. a few hundred of them. in donald trump's order last night, he said, i instruct the attorney general to dismiss all of those cases. so again, throughout the day, we should see dismissal orders being entered by the justice department. and those cases will end. >> mid-stride sometimes i want to ask you about the difference between a couple of things, because trump commuted the sentences of the men who at the time of the attack were the leaders of the proud boys and the oath keepers. what is the difference between a commutation and a pardon? >> so a pardon essentially erases the conviction altogether. if someone is in prison when they're pardoned, they get out immediately. a commutation is a little bit of a lesser measure. it does not actually erase the conviction. what it does do is reduce the amount of prison time. now you can issue a partial commutation.

katelyn polantz a lot in here to go through this morning. thanks so much for being with us. >> kate, more breaking news this morning. parts of los angeles and ventura county counties are under the highest level. red flag warnings today. dangerous winds are expected to return, and officials are warning that these winds could be strong enough to cause the way they're describing it is explosive fire growth. now, last night, a new fire did erupt in ventura county. it's called the auto fire. it's so far 0% contained. emergency crews say the next 48 hours are going to be critical, as these winds are expected to potentially gust back up to 70mph. cnn's stephanie elam is in pacific palisades. she's joining us now. and, stephanie, when it's gusting 70 miles an hour, we've all quickly learned that means that aircraft could once again be grounded. what does this mean for fire containing efforts? >> right, kate. that is really key to containing a fire. >> is having that battle from the sky. one good thing about the auto fires, while they haven't contain

all right, katelyn polantz, thank you very much for that update. finally tonight, some breaking news just coming into the situation room rocket company spacex now says it believes its starship spacecraft did not survive today's test flight. starship was supposed to land on earth before splashing down in the indian ocean, but stopped delivering data to mission control after launch. spacex says the rocket booster powering the flight did successfully land at the launch tower. we'll continue to watch this. to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> outfront next, trump's house intelligence committee. a major shakeup at the top of this committee. a trump loyalist replacing someone who's broken with trump on russia and ukraine. the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents. plus, the tiktok ban about to go into effect. americans, like hundreds of millions of them flocking to another social media app. and guess what? this one is also chinese. maybe even mor

katelyn polantz for us in washington. thank you very much. all right. stocks hoping to recover today after a chinese a.i. company dropped a bomb on silicon valley. new details on the business model that rocked u.s. markets. and quote, we might start to see some of these vaccine preventable, eradicated illnesses come back. pediatricians are sounding the alarm this morning as new data shows the number of unvaccinated children is growing. and one college basketball coach managed to give birth while having the flu and then made it to the sidelines to coach a game all in one week. i did laundry and i was proud of myself. >> i've got good. >> news and i've got bad news. what do you want? first? the bad. the news is newsy even more than ever. >> what's the good news? >> we're doing another season of have i got news for you. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> a sleep number smart bed is perfect for couples. the climate 360 smart bed is the only bed that cools and warms on each side. and all our smart beds adjust the firmness for each of

cnn correspondent katelyn polantz, who broke this reporting, and former federal prosecutor elie honig caitlin, the acting ag came out and said they can't be trusted to to implement trump's agenda. i guess the question was, were they ever going to be able to stay at the justice department? these people who worked on jack smith's team for the last two years? >> well, there wasn't an expectation that they would have. wouldn't have been because they are career employees of the justice department, people who even had worked in the office back when trump was the president before. people have been there a long time. what they're doing with this, this is not the firing of jack smith, the special counsel or a political appointee. these are people who are fired for doing their job at the justice department, that they were going back to their home offices after finishing their work at the special counsel's office. and the way that this is being articulated by the justice department, you cannot underline how unusual this is enough. i mean, the way that it's saying in this letter that these people

katelyn polantz thank you so much. and thank you for joining me.'m pamela brown, cnn special coverage of the house speaker vote with dana bash and jake tapper starts right now. >> we are live on capitol hill where a high stakes vote for house speaker is about to unfold. >> it is a huge test of republican unity in this new congress. and of course, of president-elect trump's influence over his party just weeks before his inauguration. welcome to a special edition of inside politics. the vote for speaker. >> i'm dana bash, and i'm jake tapper. with just minutes away from the house being called to order, and speaker mike johnson is facing difficult math in his fight to hold on to the gavel because of the republican party's razor thin house majority, the smallest in almost a century. speaker johnson can only afford to lose the support of one house republican if every lawmaker shows up and votes and one gop member has already said he's voting no. president-elect trump has endorsed johnson and is predicting he will, quote, do very well. but it's not clear

my sources tonight, cnn's katelyn polantz and elliot williams. elliot, rudy giuliani had said repeatedly in court he had no money left. he had exhausted everything. so he had this property, two properties. he had some world series rings that they were trying to get ahold of. >> 27 time world champion new york yankees. world series rings. we just to correct that on the record? yes. >> so they're valuable? >> yeah. oh, yes. >> okay. but immediately when we saw this, how that was the question. how? >> and that is the great mystery. it is not a surprise that he has no money left because he has been involved in a lot of extremely expensive litigation for years at this point. and look, lawyers cost a lot of money. i don't say that as a joke. litigation costs a lot of money. where exactly did the money come from? now, the the specific terms of the settlement have not been released or announced, at least the dollar amounts. and so it's hard to know exactly how much he came up with here. but this is quite perplexing, given that he did say on the record in

and katelyn polantz is with us now. ari, what did they end up agreeing to here? >> we're just getting details on the terms of this settlement, but don't have a full picture of it yet. what it means is rudy giuliani's court fights with ruby freeman and shaye moss. those two georgia election workers, mother and daughter, that he defamed after the 2020 election. the court fights are over. that's what the proposed terms of the settlement say. according to a court filing, they don't give much more detail there. they had one $150 million jury award from giuliani. they've been trying to collect on that and they've been winning. they've been getting possession of property of his luxury watches a car collecting all of it. today, they were set to go to trial over four world series rings that are worth tens of thousands of dollars, that giuliani and his son had, as well as a florida condo that he lives in worth millions. really close to the water down in palm beach. and what both sides are saying is that he gets to keep all of his possessions. giuliani, on the social media

let's get over to katelyn polantz. she's got much more of this for us. caitlin, walk us through this. what? what do we know about the report and when can we see this? >> yeah, kate, we've seen reports like this before from special counsel's offices, but not a fight like this. >> on whether it could be released from the justice department. so what we can gather from court filings so far is that in these two cases against donald trump, the attorney general is going to be reviewing a two volume report, one very likely about the classified documents case. that was before judge aileen cannon in florida. and then another volume about the january 6th case against donald trump. what is happening in those volumes? we haven't seen them, but trump's lawyers and others have been able to review them behind closed doors is that they are the summations of these cases, these summations of the. investigations, what the special counsel's office says is that they are not going to be handing their finalization finalized report over to the attorney general until at least 1 p

. >> i'm katelyn polantz outside the d.c. jail. and this is cnn well, that didn't take long. >> president trump wasting no time enacting revenge against his critics within hours of taking office, taking away security clearance and secret service protection from his former national security advisor. a man by the name, well, you guessed it john bolton. he became a vocal critic of the president following his exit from the white house back in 2019. he's known for his hawkish foreign policy positions. bolton has been the subject of many threats from iran for years, including even an assassination attempt. he says he feels disappointed but not surprised. well, you know, trump is standing by that decision tonight. >> i think there was enough time. it's we take a job, you take a job, you want to do a job. we're not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. why should we? >> i want to bring in cnn political commentator and former obama administration official van jones, republican strategist lance trover and politico's w

i'm katelyn polantz. >> outside the dc. >> jail and this is. >> cnn in our national lead.e signs of progress today after new fires exploded around los angeles. firefighters were able to stop the sepulveda fire from moving forward. and as of midday today, the larger hughes fire was 24% contained. that fire burned through at least 10,000 acres. rain is thankfully in the forecast for this weekend, raising concerns, however, about possible mudslides. our thoughts are with los angeles and the people there. let's go on to a different part of the united states still recovering from a natural disaster western north carolina. it has been four months since floodwaters from hurricane helene decimated entire towns and mountainous regions there, and some residents still have no real place to call home. president trump will visit the area tomorrow after saying in an interview that the federal emergency management agency, or fema, is, quote, getting in the way of everything, unquote, and suggesting maybe states should be responsible for funding their own disaster relief. cnn's meena duer

but let's start with katelyn polantz outside the d.c. jail, where a number of these january 6th prisoners were behind bars. caitlin, what's been the reaction outside the jail? how is this process playing out? >> jake it is a crowd here full of anticipation and support for the january 6th rioters, people who had held vigil for months and are now awaiting the release one by one from the dozen or so people who are inside these walls at the d.c. jail. now, this is a bit different than the bureau of prisons, where people like stewart rhodes, the head of the oath keepers, enrique tarrio, the head of the proud boys, where they were released. those people get the pardon from donald trump or the sentence commutation, and that presidential clemency means they can leave almost immediately. those are the releases happening around the country of more than a thousand people convicted and sentenced for crimes on january 6th, both misdemeanors, as well as violent crimes, even seditious conspiracy. but here at the dc jail, there have been just a trickle

. >> i'm katelyn polantz outside the d.c. jail. and this is cnn. >> this afternoon, president trump's choice for defense secretary faces a key vote in the senate, and his path to confirmation just got a little more difficult with the news that republican senator lisa murkowski will not support him. cnn's manu raju joins us now live. so, manu, where do things stand at this point in terms of hegseth nomination? >> yeah, there are several republican senators who have simply not said how they would vote. and we expect democrats to vote against him along party lines, meaning that hegseth cannot afford to lose more than three republican votes in this. for this critical position, to be the next secretary of defense. lisa murkowski becoming the first republican senator to announce her opposition, indicating that she did not believe he was fit for the job, questioned his character, questioned some of the past comments he made, including about opposing women in the military. those are comments that he made as a fox news host. he's, of course

cnn's katelyn polantz has much more. it's blocked for now at least. what happens now, caitlin?> well, kate, judge aileen cannon in florida overseeing the classified documents case. she's essentially handed off the decision on whether this report sees the light of day to the appeals court, the federal appeals court that oversees florida and other states around there. we're going to wait and see this week exactly what that appeals court wants to do. is it going to allow the release of this report by the justice department? the plan, though, kate, was that this report was basically done. and it was it's held by the justice department. the attorney general could have released it as early as friday. but what judge aileen cannon said yesterday was stop everything and let the appeals court figure this out. and then once they decide three days later is when that report could be released. that means there could be further appeals. and of course, you know, there's only 12 days left in this administration until, joe, until donald trump is the president, someone who clearly doesn't want th

let's start this hour with katelyn polantz on everything else that we learn in this 130 page report. good morning caitlin. >> kate, to sum it up, what jack smith is saying here is we think donald trump would have been found guilty at trial even after the supreme court allowed for immunity around the presidency, even after we rewrote the indictment. and here is all of the evidence we gathered and our thinking. that's how the report is shaped. it goes into quite a bit of detail. kate, one of the things that jack smith has to look at here is why charge donald trump how to charge donald trump, and especially how to handle charges against donald trump during an election year when the when trump believes he should have a lot of protections and that he was being under attack from a political perspective. smith addresses this head on, though in the report he writes, there is unquestionably a public interest in ensuring that elected officials and election workers can carry out their duties without fear of threats and retaliation. accordingly, the need to promote this federal interest weighed

cnn's katelyn polantz is here with us. caitlin, a lot of fast moving developments. what can you tell us about this? >> well, the justice department is telling the appeals court, the federal appeals court over florida, stay out of it. they have a plan. this is the plan that they just outlined. they say the attorney general now has that final report into the two criminal cases against donald trump that were brought by the office of special counsel, jack smith. the plan is that volume one of that report, which is about the 2020 election case. they plan to release that both to congress and the public because it's in the public interest. and then volume two about the classified documents case against trump, the attorney general, merrick garland, doesn't want to release that publicly because there's ongoing appeals related to trump's two codefendants. whether that case could be revived against them, and they could still face charges. they don't want to prejudice that. so the plan is that the attorney general wants to make public what they believe these courts down in flor

. >> i'm katelyn polantz outside the dc jail and this is cnn after a week long delay due to the wildfires still burning in l.a. >> county, the oscar nominees are here leading the nominations with 13. amelia perez, a spanish language crime musical. amelia perez also made history with its lead actress, karla sofia gascon, who, the l.a. times reports is the first openly transgender acting nominee. it was a good year for musicals. wicked got ten nominations, as did the brutalist. joining us now, segun, boston globe today host. it's good to see you again. i think we hung out a bit in l.a. way back in the day, talking about some of this stuff. um, all right. so we've got these 13 nominations for emilia perez, who is expected to be the big winner, the one that gathers all of these awards. >> well, i think. >> you said it, sarah. >> and it's. good to, you know, see, you know, see you on screen doing your thing. >> but it's karla, sofia gascon. >> i mean. >> look how far hollywood has come. >> you had. >> felicity huffman. >> you know, playing a trans woman in transamerica. >> you had. >> jared le

those cases, cnn's katelyn polantz has more. >> really? a stunning afternoon at the department of justice, where the people put in place by donald trump to lead his u.s. attorney's office and the entirety of the justice department, the acting attorney general carrying out on that promise of retribution toward people who were working on criminal cases related to the 2020 election and against trump specifically. so the main thing that happened, the acting attorney general fired more than a dozen people who had been back in the department just doing their jobs as career prosecutors, line attorneys. they were the people that worked on the special counsel investigations from jack smith. these were not political appointees, though. these were people who had long been with the department, not just as part of smith's team, but had worked on the type of criminal cases that always were part of the department of justice's bread and butter. those people were back in their home offices after smith closed shop, and they were fired yesterday. the memo fr

and katelyn polantz, which is that the acting ag made this decision.but putting that aside, what do you make of the confidence level that the white house has that trump can fire people who have civil service protections, or these career prosecutors or the inspectors general without that 30 day notification to congress that is legally required. >> i think. >> they're clearly. >> testing the law. >> they're taking very aggressive action very early, so they know where they stand with the courts, because it's going to take a while for this to process through the courts. but i think this is a test to see what his authority might be. and i think he's going to be pulled back by the courts that the big question is, will he follow the court orders? >> that is a big question. alissa, you worked for him in the first administration. what is your view of whether or not he'll follow the court orders, and also just how they're operating in the last eight days compared to eight years ago? well, listen. >> trump's doing what he. >> telegraphed on. >> the campaign that

. >> we saw katelyn polantz in the last hour outside of the jail here in dc, and there were folks lining up outside and and gathering to celebrate those that were being released. i do wonder what the process is like behind closed doors to actually get these folks that have been pardoned out. how long does it take? what is it like? >> it should be immediate. i mean, once a president issues a pardon, that is it. there's no court cases, there's no appeals, there's no second opinion. it is over. and what's unusual about these, beyond just the scope, is that a lot of times when we see pardons, it's someone who's already finished a sentence or in some cases, a person who has not yet been charged. here we have people who are in prison, about 400 people. i think they should all be released immediately or as soon as prisons can process the paperwork and get them their property back. that takes a few hours, but between last night and today, they should all be out. these these have very real practical consequences. >> and then there's an entirely different group of people that president trump commu

katelyn polantz is out front. caitlyn, this is pretty stunning. mean, you know, there was an incredible amount of money at stake here, and i guess it appeared clear giuliani wouldn't have that full amount. but then at the very last minute, everyone sitting in the courtroom and then a last minute bail out after months of trying to hold on to things like those rings and apartments. so the big mystery today is who the heck bailed him out? what do you know? >> erin, what a mystery. i've been asking many people, both sides involved in this case. >> and nothing. no one will say anything about how this happened, how it came about. >> if there is money that ruby freeman and shaye moss are getting. but, aaron, if you step back and look at the situation as it stood for rudy giuliani going into today, where he could have lost that condo in florida worth about $3.5 million, and also the world series rings worth a couple tens of thousands of dollars. he only had about $10 million to his name, and they had already won the vast majority of it. he had even shippe

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. >> i'm katelyn polantz outside the dc jail and this is cnn. >> emboldened. that's one way to describe some of those january 6th rioters as they now bask in their recent pardons from president trump. and now they are going after law enforcement, with the new york times reporting proud boys members posting threats against washington corrections officers. and to add insult to injury, trump had this to say when he was asked if he'd allow those he pardoned to visit the white house. >> i don't know, i'm sure that they probably would like to. i did. i did them something important, but what they did is they were protesting a crooked election. and, you know, i mean, people understand that also. and they were treated very badly. nobody's been treated like that. so i'd be open to it. certainly. >> unrepentant, both donald trump and the january 6th rioters about what happened on that day. >> he's creating his own militia. let's be very clear about what this is. he's creating a group of thugs that will go out and do his bidding no matter what. and that's what happened on

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. >> katelyn polantz l.o.williams, great to have you both. we'll continue to follow this story, of course, to see if we can find out who did pay for that. thank you for joining us tonight. cnn news night with abby phillip is up next. >> tonight, resist or coexist, nancy pelosi becomes the latest to snub the inauguration as democrats grapple with how to toe the trump line. plus, the purge begins. >> if you check this president, you're fired. >> the president elect issues a black list and a ukraine supporting republican gets the boot. also, would a shorter workweek help america's stress? progressives in government think so, and they're demanding to be the guinea pigs in the experiment. and should los angeles lose the olympics over its handling of the fires, the right wants the city to pass the baton. live at the table. julie roginsky pete seat. keith boykin, t.w. jauregui and mark sanford. 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 amer

with us now, cnn crime and justice correspondent katelyn polantz. so what's that message going to be, caitlin, for a guy who's been in the spotlight every day the last four years? >> john, this message from merrick garland in his prepared remarks for his farewell address from the justice department. it's less about him and much more about the employees of the justice department. he wants to tell them to stay the course on the work that they're doing, the motivations they have to be civil servants, prosecutors. he wants to tell them to stay independent. >> and he also notes that he believes they have been wrongly criticized by people motivated much more by politics. here's a little excerpt of what garland plans to say today. >> i know that a lot is being asked of you right now, but before i leave, i have one more thing i want to ask of you. that is to remember who you are and why you came to work here in the first place. >> you are public servants and patriots who swore an oath to support and defend the constitution. >> so he's really underlining the

let's get over to katelyn polantz. she's got much more on what we learned in this report. walk us through what jack smith is saying here. caitlin. >> well, kate, jack smith looked at the evidence that his team has gathered, and they worked to come up with the decision to charge trump. they outline it in this report. it's about 170 pages long. and he says over and over again, we stand behind the charging decisions. we believe that donald trump could have faced a jury and that we could have convinced that jury potentially to find him guilty of these crimes, even after the supreme court's decision on immunity, giving protections around trump in the presidency. one thing that was really notable about the way this report came out, kate, and there was a court fight over it, is that jack smith attached a four page letter in his own voice, describing his team's work and how firmly he believes that this case was appropriate and the work that they did was sound as prosecutors, he says a couple of things that his team stood up for the for the rule of law. he says that they worked wit