joining me to discuss, cnn's senior legal analyst laura coates. news. so break this down for us, if you will. 30 years. is that a lot in a case like this if it didn't have this much degree of significance? >> well, remember, the maximum is actually 40 years for a crime like this. what they have in minnesota are sentencing guidelines, as they do in every state, essentially. it gives you a range of possible penalties in the form of the years in prison. they give this range because they want the judges to have some level of uniformity in the application of their actual sentences. they want them to have discretion as well. they give a range between 10 and 15 years for a nonviolent offender or somebody who has never committed a crime before, never had a conviction. or somebody who just simply has not had a criminal history. that's recommendations under the guidelines. but the prosecution is saying here, don, no, 15 years would not be enough, we want double that because of aggravating factors. remember here the facts of this case. it was done in a group

we have cnn analyst laura coates. laura, good evening to you. let's start with this december e-mail by trump's white house assistant to then acting attorney general jeff rosen with the subject line that says "from potus." it was making debunked claims about michigan county's election being fraudulent. what's this mean? >> this saying this is actually from the president of the united states to alert this person that is about to become the acting attorney general, saying, i want you to lean on this. i want you to do essentially what i asked of georgia's secretary of state, bob r raffensberger to find some votes. >> and you say this is an alert that it doesn't come directly from the president, look at this. >> it's not a face to face, it's, i want you to know this needs to happen. it also gives him a little distance to say, plausible liability. i didn't actually extend it myself. if i wanted it done, i would have picked up the phone, so it gives just enough distance for former president trump to be able to say, hey, it wasn't meme, the old shaggy d

so joining me now, cnn's senior legal analyst, laura coates. laura, good evening to you. welcome.ives join the liberals. then, the liberals join the conservatives. laura, do we have the scotus we thought we had? >> you know, it seems that we might have some surprises. may have up their sleeve. number one, oftentimes, looking at a monday for these rulings to come down and here we are on a thursday. and two really big ones that actually are quite telling about this refusal. essentially, to be defined along these ideological lines. however, when it comes to the obamacare, aka, the affordable care act decision, it really is in line with the conservatives who, generally, will look for those -- those small opportunities about standing. to say, listen. we only want those who have, you know, skin in the game. a horse in the race. to be able to actually bring cases before us. we're not going to be expansive. we're not going to let people opine and pontificate and try to have these sort of discussions in front of the court. it's got to be a real matter of controversy, and one that congress

. >> let's get analysis from our senior legal analyst laura coates. orney general seems to be making it clear he's running the u.s. justice department differently than his predecessor. >> well, we do want that to be the case. people are wondering whether or not he's laid a clear distinction between how he has done so and the other. one of the real reasons they're asking that question is because he has continued to defend and support the notion that the department of justice rather than the former president of the united states, donald trump, should be the named defendant in the action of alleged defamation by the author you jean carroll who alleged that then civilian donald trump committed sexual assault against her. their decision to maintain that particular position and say because they believe the statement was made in the course of his public duties, that he should not be the appropriate defendant, has the essential consequence here of saying that it could be dismissed. as we know, defamation actions can't stand against the government of the united

it is the laura coates. >> it was my personal wind machine. >> intense intelligence. it was taking on my basically little better than lizard brain. >> what a way to have a friday night. thank you for saying that. ufo and waves of intelligence. there's a connection. >> some people believe your sense of what's right and wrong. your quickness. maybe you have green skin under there. >>> maybe it is from some where else. >> no, chris, i woke up like this. i woke up just like this. what are you talking about? >> what are you talking about? do i have enough concealer on? >> whatever. >> have a great night, my friend. >> you too. >> this is "don lemon tonight," i am laura coates in for don. democracy is at risk with there is the threat from increasing cyber warfare that this country is frankly not prepared for. new urgency tonight from the biden administration over this country's vulnerabilities to attacks from criminal syndicates based from russia. attacks of everything to one of to a major gas pipeline. government agencies and one the world's top meat producers, director wr

with us now is cnn senior legal analyst elie honig and laura coates. laura, i start with the same question, how did this happen? was this something that the former d.a., not the one who got the conviction for cosby, the former d.a., bruce castor, did he do something dubious here? is this a result of some sort of back room deal that he did? >> well, this is the result -- certainly not with the judges or the court of appeals that bruce castor would have had this sort of a deal. the deal he had was with bill cosby back many years ago. i think it was 2004, when he said, hey, listen, i've made a judgment call about the likelihood of being able to prosecute successfully bill cosby, who was alleged victimizing at the time andrea constand before any criminal trial had been brought. he made the judgment about the likelihood of success and offered instead for the opportunity not to prosecute him so she should pursue civil litigation remedies against him. under that agreement bill cosby agreed to make statements under a deposition that provided for civil relief, n

i'm laura coates in for don. it is another big news night, lots of new developments in the wake of the fire storm over revelations that the justice department seized targets from apple. now we're learning the doj's inspector general when investigate. senator chuck schumer and dick durbin are calling for former attorneys general bill barr and jeff sessions to testify before the judiciary committee. but they're going to need the support of at least one republican, which, frankly, hardly is a sure thing. that as democrats on the intel committee want apple to look into whether any other members were targeted. bill barr tells politico he wasn't aware of any congressmen's record being sought, not while he was attorney general and all of that, well, brings me to this point. richard nixon had an enemies list. donald trump apparently thought he had an enemy department. and the irony is not lost on any of us. trump cursed leakers. >> and, frankly, i think it's disgraceful, and i think it was leaks from the intelligence com

and i am laura coates, in for don. and it is another, big-news night. lots of new developments, in the wake of the firestorm over revelations that the trump justice department seized records from apple targeting demo democrats in the house intel committee, staff, and even some family members. and now, we are learning the doj's inspector general will investigate. senators chuck schumer and dick durban are calling for former-attorneys general bill barr and jeff sessions to testify before the judiciary committee. but they are going to need the support of at least one republican, which, frankly, hardly, is a sure thing. that, as democrats, on the intel committee, want apple to look into whether any-other members were targeted. and bill barr tells "politico," he wasn't aware of any congressmen's records being sought in a leak case. not while he was attorney general. and all of that, well, it brings me to this point. >>> richard nixon had an enemies' list. donald trump, apparently, thought he had an enemy department. and the irony is not lost on any of us. tr

more about the chauvin sentence with cnn senior legal analyst, the former federal prosecutor, laura coates. and cnn law enforcement analyst, the former philadelphia police commissioner, charles ramsey. laura, you're from minnesota. you are well-versed in state law there. what's your reaction to this 22- 1/2 year sentence? does it fit the crime? >> well, remember, derek chauvin's attorney wanted no time served. they wanted probation and the state actually asked for 30 years the maximum is actually 40 but i think it did warrant an upward sentencing guideline adjustment here. because of the aggravating factors. now, this judge proointed out n all four -- doing it in front of a child, having it happen in a group of people. but pointed to the particular cruelty that he spoke about. the idea -- and he actually called it the psychological abuse of what was going on. and the gratuitous infliction of harm. these are the words of judge cahill, in this case, who accompanied his ruling with that opinion. i look at this case, wolf, and i compare it to another case in minneapolis. officer mohamed noor w

. >> laura coates, much appreciated it. thank you so much phenon this fy evening. >>> d.c.is finally getting a betting with kevin mccarthy, what he told him next. this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. what if you could have the perspective to see more? at morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. ♪ we see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. we see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the next challenge. today, we are translating decades of experience into strategies for the road ahead. we are morgan stanley. you need an ecolab scientific clean here. and you need it here. and here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean is now helping the places you go every day too. seek a

. >> this is "don lemon tonight," i am laura coates in for don. there is the threat from increasing cyber warfare that this country is frankly not prepared for. new urgency tonight from the biden administration over this country's vulnerabilities to attacks from criminal syndicates based from russia. attacks of everything to one of the world's top meat producers, director wray says it is like dealing with terrorism after 9/11. the white house saying president biden views the attack as a rising national security concern. >> on this ransomware attack, does the president views those as a national security threat? >> i think the president views those as a rising national security concern and an area where we need to continue to keep our focus and keep our assets focused on energy and brain power on what we can do to address this. this is a priority to him and areas where we'll be spending a significant amount of time in the comiing months. >> our democracy is imperial with threats from the outside and the inside. america is becoming disinformation nat

i want to talk to cnn's legal analyst laura coates, also a former federal prosecutor. ver think we would get to this point, considering rudy giuliani's behavior over the last couple of years? >> if you look at the last couple of years, perhaps, this was inevitable. but if you're talking about the scope of his entire career, this was someone known as america's mayor. we remember the infamous hardhat photograph of him approaching the screen at 9/11. he was a top federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york, what they call the sovereign district. that's how he became the mayor, because he was in a position of public trust. and up until now, according to this board, had not violated that trust. >> let's go through what the court says, okay? the court's ruling today, laura, says, we conclude there is uncontrovertible evidence -- is that the right thing? -- yes. can we back up? i think we have two different things here. back up to the beginning of this. okay. there we go. we conclude that there is uncontrovertible evidence that respondent communicated demonstrably

john avlon, laura coates. we'll continue to dig into this.staggering number on how many claims may have been bogus. we'll explain. the lexus es. every curve, every innovation, every feeling. a product of mastery. get 0.9% apr financing on the 2021 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. needles. essential for sewing, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection.” xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increas

let me bring in right now cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider and senior analyst laura coates. how significant is this, laura? >> it is extremely. i actually worked in the voting rights section of the civil rights division in the department of justice and it is extraordinary that they are taking this action. not because the facts do not lend itself to this. but the fact that they're trying to ensure that what is left of the voting rights act, the idea of protecting people against the infringement of voting rights on the basis of color and other factors is not going to be infringed. and we heard from merrick garland where he promised to essentially say even without section five, he was going to use all of the available tools for the justice department to talk about these issues. and here we have section two which essentially said you cannot craft laws with an efforts on any eye to undermine vote on the basis of race and other factors and based on the results test, meaning even if you didn't d not intend to do so, the results test of section two said that if it has that effect o

. >>> but i want to get to this bombshell breaking news with our two senior legal analysts, laura coateselie honig, both former federal prosecutors. good evening. boy, oh, boy, here we go. elie, this is what cnn is learning, that the fbi sought metadata on more than 100 accounts, one request for data in 2018. the doj went after democratic lawmakers, their aides, their family members, and you say this is a massive abuse of power. put it into context, please. >> it really is, don. it's just a staggering abuse of prosecutorial powers. when you work at the justice department as laura did, as i did, you are given enormous power, enormous discretion. and the depths that doj sunk to here are really not just disgraceful but alarming. i mean doj used its prosecutorial investigative subpoena power to pull private phone records, we learned a few weeks ago of members of the media, and now we're learning of perceived political enemies of the opposite party of the president. bill barr enabled this. bill barr brought doj to its lowest point in many, many years and it's a black mark, and it's a shame fo

joining us now to discuss npr legal affairs correspondent nina totenberg and laura coates and elliotean the affordable care act is finally totally, completely here to stay? >> well, never say never, but certainly for the foreseeable future. first of all, there's a democratic president. but i think what you have to understand here is that republicans tried something like 40-plus times and maybe it was even more to revoke major provisions of obamacare, if not entirely revoke it, and they failed. when they had a president and control of both houses of congress. that's not the case today and now the supreme court for the third time, this time by a lopsided 7-2 vote has said, no, they threw out the case. you can say they threw it out on technical grounds, but i think the third time means that it's probably in place until congress changes it or unless congress changes it. >> this is the supreme court challenge obamacare has survive in the last ten years. why has this law proven to be so resilient in court? >> well, i think in the last analysis it's because it's been a very popular law. con

cnn's laura coates joins us. 8-1 decision. the majority was written by justice briar.ere is what we wrote in part. the school itself has an interest in protecting a student's unpopular expression especially when the expression takes place off campus. america's public schools are the nurseries of democracy. that protection must include the protection of unpopular ideas, for popular ideas have less need for protection. how far reaching is this decision when it comes to free speech protections? is it limited to students? is it limited to public school students or does it go beyond that? >> it is around public schools. private schools have always had an extended liberty in terms of how they're able to regulate student behavior. this goes back to the 1969 case tinker where students protesting the vietnam war wanted to wear black arm banlds to protest. they said a student's right for free speech does not stop at the gates. this is about where the school's purview extended beyond the gates. the court said, look, a school does have some interest in regulating behavior that mig

cnn senior legal analyst laura coates, and senior law enforcement analyst charles ramsey. laura, let me come first to you. your expectation of the time that chauvin will be sentenced with today. >> i think it will most certainly be more than 12 and a half years, and here's why. remember, there's another minneapolis police officer, now a former minneapolis police officer, mohamed noor, who shot his weapon out and killed a woman by the name of justine diamond when he shot one shot into an alley. he's serving 12 and a half years, i believe, in prison at this time. you compare that and contrast that to the type of crime that was committed here. what the jury was able to see, the evidence that came in that still star witness of the video that was captured by the then-minor to show the world what actually happened, which was in stark contrast, victor, to what the initial police report said. if you compare a shot in the dark compared to somebody who is kneeling on somebody's neck for nearly 9 minutes, you can see that a judge is going to look at both of those cases in a way that s

the upgrade, laura coates, starts right now. >> you know, i feel like, chris, saying this is "don lemon,

i want to talk to cnn's senior legal analyst laura coates about that and other things. fore we get to this, did you ever think we would get to this point with rudy giuliani, considering his behavior over the last couple of years? >> well, if you look at the last couple of years, perhaps that this was already maybe inevitable. but you're talking about the scope of his entire career? this is somebody who was known as america's mayor. we remember the infamous hard hit photograph of him approaching the scene of 9/11. we also recall that he was a top federal prosecutor in the sdny, the southern otherwise known as the sovereign district of new york. that's how he became the mayor, because he was in a position of public trust. up until now, according to this board and the appellate court, had not violated that trust. >> yeah. all right. let's go through what the court says. the court's ruling today, laura, says, we conclude that there is uncontrovertible evidence -- is that the right thing i said? yeah. wait. can we back up because i think i have two different things here. back

"don lemon tonight" with the best part of the show, the upgrade with laura coates starts now.use the two of you would need to turn off the tv immediately, ball up their fist, ram it into their face and then take a nap. yes, i'd be punching myself in the face. we're not doing it. you know, i want to ask you something, because you are a

let's get some insight now from our senior legal analyst laura coats.ly happened. did a mistake by the prosecutors lead to cosby's release today? >> a deal by the prosecutor lead to the release. the court did not say he should not have been convicted. the court said he should never have been tried. why is that? because back in 2004 when this case first came to light and into the understanding of the prosecutors in pennsylvania, they made a cost benefit analysis and said we don't think we have enough here to be able to meet our burden of proof in the criminal courtroom. you might be able to meet your burden of proof in the civil world which has a lower standard and threshold for the evidence. they told andrea's team, you should go forward with the civil litigation. in order to do that, you have to have a deposition and why would bill bcosby testified if he kne he might be prosecuted criminally. the prosecutor back then said, i will make a deal and i will agree that the commonwealth of pennsylvania will not criminally prosecute you. you no longer have to

joining me now, laura coats. laura, thank you.land saying the doj will sue georgia and it was purposely enacted to harm black voters. does he even need to show this was done intentionally. >> the section two of the voting rights act, i used to work in the voting rights act of civil rights division. you have a results test under section two which says essentially you don't even have to prove the intent you would under, say, the 14th amendment for the idea of equal protection of the law or the 15th amendment. you can say somebody has violated their constitutional rights if the result of their action has caused there to be that abridgment on the basis of race. to have that impact. here you have combined what he said, the purposeful intent which makes an even stronger case to do so. that's why he's bringing it under this provision. >> yeah. so garland went as far as to say if the supreme court hadn't struck down a provision of the voting rights act in 2013 that required states with a history of discrimination to clear any voting rule

scientific community needs to look at this, because he hides behind this veil of the lab coat that nobody can question him. >> laura: yeah well -- >> i believe that's absolutely gain of function research. and to this day he still saying it down like he would do it again. >> laura: one of those emails obtained by buzzfeed, senator, was from peter josh schelke of the eco-health alliance. he was the one pushing this and doing the research that was funded by nih in wuhan. so he wrote to fauci on april 18th 2020, i just want to say a personal thank you for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for covid-19. not a lab release -- it's unbelievable. >> here's the thing, laura. peter does think is not a unintd party. he was the founder of the research in wuhan, so he has a self interest and not -- >> laura: that's my point. it's because that's my point too. any investigation going forward, it can't include tony fauci -- they were the ones who funded the lab. they have a conflict of interest coming to the truth. >> laura: we want to ask one more question which is about the ti

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they said, get him his coat, get his in jeans and boots and they took me downstairs -- >> laura: okay, then what happened? >> in the car they had me for almost four hours and they were asking me questions. it seems like such a short time -- >> laura: did you ask to speak to a lawyer? >> no, because i was cooperating. >> laura: have you gotten any of your materials, did they take your phone or laptop? did you get any of that back? >> they took three phones. i have a lot of technology, they took about three or four computers. i'm a ham radio operator, they took two amateur radios and probably took $10,000 worth of equipment so far. my medical records, my mother's records, they said don't go near it, don't ask them for anything and i said to myself, i am in a cent, what do i have to worry about? >> laura: you haven't heard from them since. >> nothing. >> laura: hold on, joseph -- i got it, but what does this make you feel about this fbi and what this was all about? >> i've always been a "law & order" person. i've always supported fbi, i've worked with them in my past in my early years in

coat it. you have to call the sexist and negative portrayals what they are, and all i can say is you do have for them -- if i look at a character like laura lee youngblood we see a person who is not in that -- cast in that vein, so i understand the hesitancy. it is what it is. but i think there's another side of that. i think that there's negative portrayals of different kinds of people in different kinds of novels, and i won't detail all that, and i'm hesitant about some of those, and i do teach them. that's another long conversation. >> supposed to be a love tragedy where the hero, max, wife has died, attempting to -- episode only family planning and then he transfers and supposed to have fallen in love with a woman in europe who remind hmm of lillian, his lost love. but i think in the same way that we might think of the -- marsh the value of, saying, like, the contemporary musical or rap culture which has dramatic holes in his representation of men and women that continue to have salience and currency for the contemporary generation, that we could sort of take that approach that we have things that are going to give us reasons, moments