cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid joins me now. paula, tell us more about this report. when it could be released. why do they want to block it? >> so we expected that this would be released on friday. but what has happened here is that trump's lawyers are saying no, not so fast. because look, the special counsel, he is required by regulation to release this report detailing his investigative decisions. this is the same thing we saw with robert mueller. same thing we saw with robert hoar, who investigated president biden. and it's up to the attorney general once he or she receives the report, whether they make it public. and it was expected that garland, like he has with other special counsel reports, would make this one public. but now trump's codefendants are trying to block the release of this report, because over the summer, some people may remember that the trump appointed judge, aileen cannon, ruled that smith's appointment was improper, illegitimate. now that, of course, was appealed. but it was never resolved because trump wa

thank you so much, paula reid, ryan young, we appreciate it. and let's bring in cnn national security analyst juliette kayyem and retired fbi special agent bobby chacon. bobby, to start with you, we were just talking about this with paula, that the new orleans mayor is calling this a terrorist attack. an fbi agent told reporters that it wasn't that. there's. so there's obviously this messaging issue here. but bottom line, this is an act that caused terror in new orleans. among these revelers yes. >> and i think what paula highlights is that we don't have a comprehensive domestic terrorism law. >> and that's why the charges at the local level and as a lawyer myself, i've lectured on this. the charges themselves have to be kind of piecemealed together. and a lot of us call for a comprehensive domestic terrorism law, as we have on the international terrorism side, but we just don't have it on the domestic terrorism side. so it's really kind of a like like paula said, an esoteric legal, legal argument. but certainly the sack of the fbi could have b

let's get straight to cnn's paula reid. >> paula and jake. just moments ago, a federal judge ordered an administrative stay that is a temporary pause on the trump administration's move to freeze various federal aid programs. of course, there's been a lot of chaos and confusion since they said that they were going to do this. so right now, most of this policy is on hold until monday. while the courts allow both sides to weigh in and fully brief their arguments. now, this was the first hearing challenging trump's administrative freeze on federal aid programs. it was brought by several nonprofit organizations who are asking the judge to to block this program. they were saying that they only had about 24 hours notice that this was going to happen, leaving some of their organizations, they said in, quote, disarray. they also argued separately that they believe that this policy is a violation of the first amendment, because they believe the administration will only give additional money to organizations that align with their political beliefs. now,

joining us now, cnn legal analyst elliot williams and cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. paula, so what happened today during this hearing and what happens next? >> so today, the judge temporarily blocked president trump's effort to restrict birthright citizenship. this was very much expected when executive actions by presidents are challenged. they're usually challenged in a jurisdiction where you think you have a pretty good shot of at least getting this put on pause, while a larger legal battle plays out. and here we're talking about the 14th amendment of the constitution. now, trump has signaled in his first term that he wanted to restrict birthright citizenship. this is one of his first executive orders that he signed on monday, and his lawyers are arguing that the 14th amendment has been misinterpreted. now, historically, it has been interpreted to mean that if you were born in the u.s. or a u.s. territory, that you are a u.s. citizen, but his lawyers are arguing that if you have parents that don't have legal status here in the u.s., that they don't live under u.s.

paula reid reporting for us. paula, thank you very much. our legal experts are here with me in the situation room. let's get some serious analysis. we'll start with laura coates, the special counsel's this report being blocked by judge. the judge? judge cannon is again giving trump a rather favorable ruling right now. why is she preventing this report, which normally would be standard operating procedure for the u.s. justice department? why is she blocking it from being released? >> that seems to be two primary reasons. one is she believes that because he's an illegitimate special counsel, anything that he gathered as a part of his work also can't be used now to kind of go through a back door and say, i'm not legitimate. >> but here's everything i learned while i was illegitimate. >> the second argument, of course, is that it will prejudice the two people who still have remaining cases. yes, trump's case is no longer active down there, but he still has two codefendants known as coconspirators. they take issue with that assessment because th

cnn's paula reid has more.eporter. >> well, president-elect trump is still a convicted felon after this opinion. >> but there is some good news because the judge is revealing that he will not face any penalties. it is january 10th. sentencing. the judge did have the option to impose a jail sentence here. he says he will not do that. and in a rare move, he previews how he's thinking about this sentencing, saying, quote, while this court, as a matter of law, must not make any determination on sentencing prior to giving the parties and defendant an opportunity to be heard, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence of an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution. so to translate that this january 10th sentencing will largely just be performative. now, it's also notable the judge is making a big concession about trump's role as president elect, something that his lawyers have repeatedly argued should be factored

. >> cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid joins us now. paula, walk us through how the sentencing played out. >> so president elect trump appeared for this sentencing virtually. that's pretty unusual. but this was something the judge allowed as a nod to his status as president elect in that order. where he allowed this, he said, look, i know you have a lot of physical and mental demands. i'm gonna allow you to do this virtually. trump was beside his lawyer, todd blanche. we heard from both of them. we heard prosecutors who once again defended their case, which has come under a lot of scrutiny. they also reminded folks that trump, throughout this case, has attacked the integrity of the judicial system, tried to undermine it in the view of the public. so we heard a lot of things that we've heard from these folks throughout the course of this case. the one real surprise, i think, actually came from judge juan merchan, where he kind of talked about how he views this case now that trump has been reelected. let's take a listen to what he said. >>

cnn's paula reid joins us now. paula, are we going to see this report on january 6th? what do we think? >> i don't know, jim. i mean, right now the justice department is under a deadline. it doesn't expire until later today. they have to wait until then before they release this. we're waiting to hear from a federal appeals court, the 11th circuit. we might hear from the trump appointed judge, aileen cannon. there's a lot of unknowns, but there's not going to be a lot of news in this report. we already had the committee investigation into january 6th. there was the trump indictment. there was, of course, this unusual filing back in october where the judge allowed us to see a lot of evidence that you would never see before a trial. so most of the evidence that jack smith has collected is already really in the public square. so we're not looking for news. the way i'm sort of looking at the potential release of this report is whether doj is really going to fight and be aggressive to just at least defend their work and get it out, because the trump team has been so extraord

let's get right to cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid. this news is breaking right now. paula, tell us what's going on. >> jake, we have gotten so much news out of the justice department in just the past 30 minutes. trump, justice department officials doing exactly what president trump said he would do. firing officials who worked on criminal investigations related to trump and also launching an investigation into the prosecutions of january 6th. now, let's start with that first news. and that is this move to fire. we're told, over a dozen officials who worked on criminal investigations related to president trump. the acting attorney general sent out a memo earlier notifying them that they are being removed from their positions, saying, quote, you played a significant role in prosecuting president trump. the proper functioning of the government critically depends on the trust superior officials placed in their subordinates. given your significant role in prosecuting the president, i do not believe that the leadership of the department can

enforcement analyst, former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, and cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid welcome to both of you. paula, let me start with you. how significant is this? >> it's significant because it means the public could get to see jack smith's report detailing investigative decisions he made in his election interference investigation. >> he had these two cases right. one into trump's alleged election interference, one into trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents. >> that classified documents report is not getting out anytime soon. that's still an active case. so what we're focused on is the january 6th report. and, casey, i also want to emphasize that the only thing that the two sides of this case have ever agreed on in the past three years is that there's really not a lot of news inside this report. we've had the january 6th committee. they had a report. trump was indicted. there was also a big court filing in october related to this case that did something extraordinary, revealed a lot of evidence that usually isn't disclosed before trial. so really, what

. >> cnn's ryan young and paula reid are following the story for us. paula, to you first, i just spoke to a law enforcement source who said, look, they have the license plate of the suspect right there running down to see if the suspect had any association associates who might have been involved with this. what more can you tell us about the suspect? yeah. >> so here we know, of course, the fbi is the lead agency. they are now investigating this as an act of terrorism. there's a little confusion about that. earlier today in the briefings about whether this was being viewed as potential terrorism. now, the fbi confidently saying in a statement released a short time ago that they are investigating this as an act of terrorism. i want to read that statement this morning. an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on bourbon street in new orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. the suspect then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. and as i said, the fbi is the lead investigative agency and they are working

our chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, is on the story for us. paula, take us through this ruling and what it means for the president elect. >> wolf, after this opinion, president-elect trump is still a convicted felon. but there is some good news here, as the judge is signaling that he does not intend to impose penalties against trump after being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records last year. the judge did have the option to impose a jail sentence, but in a sort of unusual move, he's previewing what he will do next friday, saying that is not something he is going to do. he says, quote, it seems improper at this juncture. it seems proper at this juncture to make known the court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration. so he's imposing a sentence of what he describes as unconditional discharge, because that, he says, is the most viable solution. now, unconditional discharge just means there will be a sentencing, but there will be no penalties, no community service, no fine, no jail. so what happens next friday wi

our chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, is on the story for us. paula, this move from the trump administration is not a total surprise. >> not a surprise at all, wolf, because president trump has repeatedly vowed to seek retribution against those who investigated him once he returned to office. and today, in a letter obtained by cnn, the acting attorney general wrote to these officials saying, quote, you played a significant role in prosecuting president trump. the proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates. given your significant role in prosecuting the president, i do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president's agenda faithfully. now, we've learned that this has impacted more than a dozen officials. but of course, the special counsel himself, jack smith, and many of his top prosecutors left the justice department before trump returned to office. >> and, paula, the trump administration also announced they are going to

. >> cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, is joining us right now. has more on trump's sentencing today. paula, take us through what happened today. >> good evening wolf. today we saw that even a man who's about to reclaim the nation's highest office is not entirely above the law. president trump elect attended this sentencing virtually alongside his lawyer, todd blanche. the judge had already signaled ahead of today's hearing that he was really not going to impose any punishment on trump. now, it was never really expected that trump would face jail time, even after being convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. but there were some other options on the table, including the possibility of fines or probation. and what was extraordinary today is that the judge allowed the audio of this hearing to be released. so we got to hear the judge in his own words, explain why he issued this. no punishment. punishment. let's take a listen. >> ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections. it is the office of the president that bestows those

paula reid is outside the jail where many rioters have been held in washington. and paula, obviously, people have been getting out. there's been family, you know, reuniting where you are. what is the scene like where you are tonight? >> did the. >> whole calling thing. >> well, tonight at the detention facility, there is certainly a heavy police presence, as some of those who have benefited from president trump's clemency have slowly been trickling out of this facility. and behind me, there are a few dozen people who are here to demonstrate in support of the rioters. but as we've seen over the past 24 hours, not everyone is supportive of president trump's move to grant all of this clemency. >> we hope they come out tonight, frankly. >> in one fell swoop, president trump ended all of the 1600 cases stemming from january 6th. >> so this is january 6th. and these are the hostages for a pardon? yes. full pardon. >> among those pardoned, many of the most violent offenders, including patrick mccarthy, who assaulted metro police officer daniel hodges with a police shield

. >> as cnn's paula reid explains. reporter. >> good morning, amara and danny. well, after this opinion, president-elect trump is still a convicted felon. but there is certainly some good news here for him and that the judge is signaling that he does not intend to impose any penalties against trump. the judge had the option to impose even a jail sentence after trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, but the judge said that he does not intend to do that. he says, quote, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration. so this really means that next friday's sentencing will be mostly performative. it's also notable that the judge is really conceding to the demands on trump's time right now. judge juan merchan throughout this case has been pretty dismissive of a lot of the arguments that the trump team has made when they invoke his status as a former president or now president elect. but here he says, quote, to assuage the defendant's concerns regarding the mental

paula reid reporting for us. thank you very much. joining us now, a democrat who questioned pam bondi during today's confirmation hearing, senator peter welch of vermont is joining us. senator, thanks so much for coming in. i want you to listen to one of your exchanges with the attorney general nominee. listen to this. >> senator cruz wants, i want and that is to have a justice department that is not going after people on the basis of them being political opponents. and my understanding and listening to your answers to the questions along this line, is that you have no intention, no intention of pursuing people on the basis of them being a political opponent. >> no one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent. that's what we've seen for the last four years in this administration. people will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law and fairly. senator, that's senator welch. >> as you know, president elect trump has called for members of the january 6th select committee to be jailed. are you confident

paula reid, cnn, washington. >> all right. i want to go live now to cnn's mark stewart in beijing. mark, this has been such a contentious and nationalistic battle. so where do these two nations go in this complicated relationship? >> well, as you heard kim from paula, the plan is for tiktok to go dark. that does not mean that perhaps some last minute deal making or diplomacy could take place, but that will be very tricky because, as we have heard in the past, at least, bytedance, the chinese owner of tiktok, has said that the platform is not for sale. but again, we have expected the unexpected. so perhaps anything is possible with all of that said, this is a matter that is of prime concern to the chinese government. in fact, at one point it referred to the united states as acting like a bully for the stance that it has taken. and china does have a lot at stake here because it wants to be strong. it wants to be very resolute on the world stage. it doesn't want american lawmakers or the u.s. government calling the shots. it's something that the chinese government wants to be in charg

paula reid, you're here in studio with me. it is true that trump always said that he would pardon january 6th defendants. we didn't know that that would include 1500 of them. the suggestion was certainly from his supporters that it might be some nonviolent ones, but this includes people who violently attacked the cops. you've been digging into how this all came to be. tell us. yeah. >> trump and his vice president have said that there would likely be some nuance, but i've been reporting on this process to craft these pardons for months, and it was clear a while back that they were not really going to be able to differentiate between violent and nonviolent offenders because they wanted to do this on day one, and they were unwilling to go through a case by case analysis. speed was a real priority for them. and you really do need a case by case assessment to suss this out, because in this, if you're charged with assault, that could mean a broad range of things. for example, you have some of the leaders of these far right groups.

paula reid, cnn, washington, d.c. >> u.s. house republicans gave mike johnson another term as house speaker on friday, the first day of the 119th congress. they selected him as leader on the first vote. unlike the weeks of wrangling over the speakership that took place a couple of years ago. but the day was not without its drama. johnson could lose only lose the support of one member to retain the gavel, and initially two lawmakers refused to back him. but intervention from the president elect flipped the holdouts. a call from trump got south carolina's ralph norman and keith self of texas onside. republicans told cnn that johnson respects the power of conservatives. >> the speaker realizes that he needs to listen to the conservative folks to the base. >> we want to make sure that this is honestly a collaborative environment. >> still, johnson will have the narrowest majority in nearly a century. he'll meet with his caucus this weekend to flesh out an agenda now that republicans control both congress and the presidency. but w

all right. >> paula reid reporting for us. paula, thanks very much. i want to bring in our legal, political and media experts right now. carrie cordero, let me start with you. >> the law gives the president, as you know, the ability to push off the ban by 90 days, but that requires a sale to have made some significant progress. so can trump truly extend the deadline? >> so it's very hard. >> this law really does not give the president elect much flexibility either. >> before, you know, in this weekend, before he steps into office or even once he is in the presidency. the 90 day delay pertains to if there really is a credible finding that he can make, where there's a record of a credible buyer in this case, tiktok doesn't even necessarily want to sell. and at the same time, at least publicly, as far as we can tell, there doesn't seem to be a credible buyer. the only other potential path the president elect might be pursuing is if he simply directs his attorney general once he's in office, not to actually enforce the law. but that would be directly cont

cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, is here with me in the situation room.hat are the key takeaways from this report? >> well, smith was required by regulation to write this report. >> and the fact that it was even released over objections from the trump team. >> that is one final victory. >> smith was able to eke out over this very successful campaign by the trump lawyers to delay pretty much every aspect of this case. >> so in this report, smith lays out the allegations and the evidence against trump, much of which we already know because there have been multiple indictments, court filings, a committee investigation on the hill and a report. but this was also an opportunity for smith to defend his team and defend their work. he also noted that, of course, he had to dismiss this case because trump was reelected. and you can't prosecute a sitting president. but he was careful to point out that even though the constitution prohibits mr. trump's indictment and prosecution while he is in office, that does not turn on the gravity of the crimes, charge the streng

thank you so much, ryan young, paula reid, appreciate it. let's bring in cnn senior national security analyst juliette kayyem and former nypd lieutenant darren porcher. first to you, juliette, i just want to go back to the timeline here. you know, look, most revelers were out in this area at midnight, right? celebrating the new year. this event happened at 315 in the morning, and there were many, many casualties. ten dead, more than 30 injured. the barriers that we keep showing this because i'm just struck by this were appears to be those flimsy orange and white barriers, according to the eyewitness and according to video that we have. what do you make of all this? what are the big questions you have? >> so there's going to be yeah. so there's going to be an assessment on what the planning and preparation was and the questions that will be raised are. first you know, was the city deploying or utilizing different security measures because of upgrades or other critical infrastructure that may have made bourbon street more vulnerable? the secon

we're going to stand by the moment i asked paula reid a question. we're going to begin, but let's do it. paula, you have new reporting from pam bondi team. tell me what you got. >> yeah, i think her team might have seen our last our last hit, but a source familiar with her preparation says that when she is pressed about the independence of the justice department, she is going to outline that americans have lost trust in the justice department due to, quote, weaponization, and that she wants to work with senators to fix that. now, that's notable because we've heard some similar themes come out of discussions that presumed fbi nominee kash patel has had with lawmakers on the hill, the idea that they want to work with lawmakers to try to increase transparency around the justice department and restore trust. but i think it's also easy to see. and she will likely be pressed on how that too can be weaponized, especially if you bring the hill into some of these questions. obviously, a lot of partisanship up here, and it's unclear if they will be able to hel

let me go straight to paula reid, who is here in washington with me. paula, what do we know? >> jim, huge news out of the supreme court as the justices uphold a controversial ban on the social media app tiktok. now, the justices signaled that they would uphold this ban. several days ago, when they had oral arguments. this all started last year in april, when congress, with broad bipartisan support, said that the app would be banned if it didn't divest from its parent company, bytedance, because of concerns over that company's ties to china. it's a national security concern that has been expressed by presidents of both parties, specifically, the concern is that this app is collecting data, massive amounts of data from all of its users, and then potentially that data could be used by the chinese government, especially in the event of a crisis, to to sow discord in this country or otherwise jeopardize national security. now tiktok, they were challenging this ban, arguing that this was a violation of the first amendment. and when they heard arguments a few days ago, it's a rare d

we'll have more on all of this right now from cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid, who joins so did anything about this ruling come as a surprise? paula? >> not so much, because we saw during oral arguments a week ago something we rarely see from the supreme court. and that is unity across the justices in their skepticism about tiktok's argument that the app should be protected by the first amendment, and that should override these national security concerns. and of course, the big national security concerns that prompted the passage of this law was that the app is collecting enormous amounts of data on u.s. users that shared with the chinese government. and there is a concern that this could be weaponized. of course, this bill passed with broad bipartisan support. now, i did think there was a possibility that maybe the supreme court would just put a pause on the ban to allow the new administration to come in and try to negotiate a sale. but it was not a surprise at all that it was upheld as being constitutional. >> what options does president trump have at this point once he

paula reid is here with this move just moments ago from the judge. paula. >> but here, in this new opinion, jake, the judge makes it clear that president-elect trump will not face any penalties after being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records. >> now, again, that sentencing is scheduled for january 10th, but it will mostly be performative here in this lengthy opinion today, the judge makes it clear that even though he has the option to potentially assign a prison sentence here, he does not believe that is, quote, proper. he said that at this point, he usually doesn't give a preview of what he's going to do at sentencing, but he believes the best thing to do is what is called an unconditional discharge. so there will be no punishment and no penalty applied to the president elect here. and the judge goes on to say that he agrees with the defendant's concerns about, quote, the mental and physical demands during the current transition, as well as a guidance that the federal level about the extent to which you can have have legal action ag

laura coates paula reid, thanks so much. laura will have much more tonight on her amazing program, laura coates live. that's at 11 p.m. eastern here on cnn. as if you don't know, coming up on the lead, what we could read into comments from the u.s. supreme court on a different matter. their pending decision on the tiktok ban that could go into effect on january 19th, that's just eight days away. plus, the head of fema will be here. a reality check on the federal response to the monumental tragedy unfolding in southern california. that's next. >> laura coates live tonight at 11 eastern on cnn. >> for gentle, dependable constipation relief, try senokot. >> it works differently than other laxatives because it's made from the senna plant, a natural vegetable laxative ingredient. gentle, dependable senna can also available in delicious gummies. >> i thought we had a plan for dad. >> he was set to go to the senior living community right by my house. >> then a friend suggested i talk to a place for mom. >> they really opened my eye

even as recently as this week, i want to bring in chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. trump has sounded off on how he has felt about this entire process, and why he continues to fight. you have been talking with sources this very morning. tell me how that trump team is feeling even heading into this today? >> well, i will say that his lawyers are feeling a lot more optimistic than the president elect, even though they fought to block today's sentencing, they believe that it's a huge win that their client, having been convicted on 34 felony counts, is only going to face an unconditional discharge that is less than the consequence for a speeding ticket. now, trump, of course he has. as you noted, he has always been angry about this case from the start. and today's sentencing is symbolic of his conviction that anger is what has driven these zealous appeals that we've seen really since the case started, but especially in the past few days. but his lawyers believe that this is really just checking a box so they can move forward with their appeals. and if you zoom out and lo

counts of falsifying business records this friday weeks for his inauguration and let's bring in paula reidwhat are they saying? >> let me translate. they say don't grant this delay and they are saying you won't suffer any prejudice from this sentencing because the judge said you won't see any penalties but they say you can do this virtually instead of in person and also a reminder that you need this sentencing and the entry of judgment so you can pursue the appeals that you have repeatedly said you want to pursue. since trump has been convicted he has been trying to get this tossed and since reelected they have been using his status as president-elect to get it tossed and they have also tried to get it tossed based on the supreme court's immunity ruling arguing some of the evidence that came in could be official ask and therefore it should be tossed and and this has worked with the judge but on friday they conceded that there was one thing to the team and he said i get there are physical and mental demands on you as the president-elect so i will let you attend this sentencing the virtually

. >> let's go to our newsroom now, where cnn's paula reid are standing by. you have a new report to tell us? >> reporter: that's right, jake. this is going to be a mix of pardons. it's something obviously the president, donald trump and his team have been working on for months, frankly. he's been pushed back and forth on whether to make the pardons applied to everyone. obviously one of the big concerns are the people who attacked police officers on that day, the violent rioters that we saw all on camera that day for the numbers, right? we have 1,600 people who have been charged. 1,200 of those people have been convicted. there are about 700 people who have already completed their sentences. and so what we're going to see in this executive order in the next couple of hours from the new president is a mix, where you're going to have pardons for people who are viewed as misdemeanors. people who were not violent. and then some of the people including big names, names that we've seen all on video and in the last couple of years as a part of these cases. so the qu

mark preston is standing by, as well as paula reid. let's start. paula, let me start with you, if i could, to talk about pam bondi up for attorney general. people are seeing her as a more traditional pick when compared to matt gaetz. but in you which who was his first pick. you have new reporting on how she is preparing for what is sure to be some tough questions ahead. >> yeah, i think it's fair to say that many people would seem traditional compared to former congressman matt gaetz. >> but when they say that about pam bondi, they're referring to her resume. >> she comes to today's job interview with three decades of experience as a prosecutor, including eight years as the attorney general of florida. >> now, i'm told that she has spent weeks with her team preparing for tough questions. today, she has kept a remarkably low profile considering how significant this position could be in a second trump administration. >> trump has signaled that he may want to use the justice department, leverage it to go after his political enemies. now, in preparation

cnn's paula reid joins me now. paula, walk us through precisely what the supreme court did. and also just as a reminder of what this law means. >> yeah, this is the biggest decision out of the court so far. here they are allowing tiktok to be banned in the u.s. as early as a sunday amid bipartisan national security concerns. about a week ago, the justices were asked to evaluate that law. you just talked about passed last year by congress, broad bipartisan support that said the app would be banned unless it was sold from its parent company, the china based bytedance. now, the specific national security concern is that tiktok collects an enormous amount of data on americans, and that could be used by china because bytedance has an obligation to share that data with china. but that could be used in a crisis or another situation. again, china is a foreign adversary. but tiktok said, hey, wait a minute. this is a violation of the first amendment. people on our app, they are expressing themselves and the government cannot restrict that. if you're doing a cat video, a dance video,

and chief white house correspondent, kaitlan collins, and our chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid. so, paula, what more can you tell us about why these prosecutors were fired and if they have any recourse? >> well, they. >> say that these officials cannot be trusted to implement trump's agenda. >> look, i've been talking. >> to trump's legal advisers for years, and they have a deep distrust of career officials at the justice department. >> but there is an especially. >> strong disdain for anyone who worked with jack smith. they believe that trump was treated unfairly by his team, should have been granted more deference. i mean, that disdain is stronger than anything i have seen in any of the other trump investigations. but look, smith and most of his top prosecutors, they've already left the justice department. so today's move, we learned it impacts over a dozen officials. but these are career officials. they are supposed to be protected from political. retaliation across administrations. so the fact that they are fired here likely violates their civil service protections, and the

it appears paula reid is out front. d, paula, so what more can you tell us about the judge's ruling? >> look, erin, when we were covering this trial about a year ago, this is not how i would have expected this all to play out. but once trump was was reelected, this seemed like the natural progression of things. as you noted, he continues to be a convicted felon, but here the judge signaling that he is not going to face any penalties. and that's notable because, as the judge says, he could have imposed a jail sentence here. but in his opinion today, judge juan merchan saying, quote, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the court's inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration. so really, this sentencing next friday, it will be largely performative. another thing i thought was really interesting in here is that merchan really, really seems to concede the point that trump's lawyers have been making about the fact that he is president elect and how that should impact this case. he says, quote, to assuage

. >> certainly i want to bring in our chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, on this as well. paula, this is a first in history. donald trump will enter his second term as a convicted felon as a result of today's sentencing. but he is also vowing to appeal and to fight this. and the question is, how successful could he be on appeal? >> he could be really successful. pamela, what we saw last night is a divided supreme court on an issue that many legal experts thought was a long shot, that it was way too early for the supreme court to intervene in this case and block sentencing before the appeals had had a chance to work their way through the system. but it was five four. he got four justices to agree with him that, yeah, maybe they should put this sentencing on hold. so now, as he continues his appeals that i'm told, you know, they're going to push all the way to the supreme court, all he would need is one justice to agree that their recent immunity ruling applies in this case, that certain evidence should not have been brought in, and that conviction could be overturned. so we

. >> we have cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid with us now, and paula judge merchan really laying out how the office of the presidency afforded donald trump protections in this. >> yeah, this was fascinating. we knew going into this, there wasn't going to be any real punishment. so instead we got to see sort of each party in this case lay out their view of what the legacy of this case is and how he got here. and prosecutors started out by saying that they believe that trump's relentless attacks on the judicial system, his efforts to undermine trust in the judicial system, that that has been something really significant that has come out of this case, in addition to the risk that that poses to officers of the court. this is something we saw come up repeatedly in this case. now, on the defense side, todd blanche said that he believes the legacy is trump's reelection. he said people saw is pretty clear this case never should have been pursued. and that's part of why they reelected trump. now, of course, the defendant and the judge both got to weigh in. let's take a listen to t

another person who was covering the white house with us was paula reid, who is sitting standing by. paula, your thoughts on what we just witnessed? pretty extraordinary stuff, not just the sentence of an unconditional release, which means he's not going to do any jail time. the fact that he is going to be going into the white house as a convicted felon. but the fact that he appeared virtually in those stunning images we just saw a few moments ago of him appearing in the courtroom on a flat screen in front of the judge, with his attorney by his side and the flags behind him. >> yeah, just zoom out here. big picture. six months ago, he faced four criminal cases. he had been convicted in the new york hush money case, which was considered the least serious of the four. and now, even though he has been convicted, he has received really no punishment there. the two federal cases against him have been dismissed. and the georgia case, the prosecutor has been disqualified. that case is not completely dead, but it's basically on life support. i mean, if we look at his legal defense team, this

our chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, has new reporting on this. aula, what are you learning? >> well. >> brianna, i want. >> to. >> be careful with. the nuance here. >> this specific. >> investigation. >> this is a. >> review of cases. >> that. >> charge obstruction of justice related. >> to january 6th. >> and this is significant because, as we. >> know. >> the supreme court. >> had to review the. >> use of obstruction. >> charges in january, six cases decided they. could not be used. >> in that context. >> so here, one senior. >> administration official. >> says this is a fact finding mission. they want to go in and figure out why these cases were brought. they say that, quote, they were in some cases a huge waste of resources. this is not about all the january 6th cases. we are talking specifically about cases where obstruction of justice was one of the charges. now, this is a memo and email from the acting u.s. attorney, ed martin, and he is asking for all information related to the use of this specific charge. now, of course, there is a legiti

. >> cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid is here. so tell us more, paula, about some of the people who received clemency because, you know, before this happened, jd vance, the president's vice president, pam bondi, for her part, they they made it seem like this was going to be limited in scope, but that's not the case. no. >> and in speaking with sources in the trump team, it was clear that they were struggling with how to do this in a nuanced way because speed was their priority. >> they wanted to do this on day one. >> so they said there really was no way to do a case by case assessment. but the clemency that was granted here was more broad than even i expected. so let's go through some of the folks that received pardons. let's start with robert scott palmer. now, he threw a fire extinguisher at a police officer. he also attacked police with a wooden plank and pole. now, we'll keep going down the list here. patrick mccarthy. he assaulted a police officer with a police shield in the tunnel of the capitol. now, the officer he assaulte

. >> cnn's chief legal affairs correspondent, paula reid, followed the hearing from capitol hill and paula pam bondi received strong support from senate republicans and some tough questions from democrats. >> that's exactly right. now, the one thing that everyone seemed to agree on is that bondi is qualified, after three decades as a state prosecutor, but democrats still appear skeptical that she will be able to resist the kind of pressure that president elect trump has put on his previous attorneys general when he wanted to use the department of justice to pursue his own aims. let's take a listen to one of the answers she gave on this issue. >> i will not politicize that office. i will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. justice will be administered even handedly throughout this country. senator, we've got to bring this country back together. we've got to move forward, or we're going to lose our country. >> now, bondi has previously said that she believes trump was unfairly investigated and prosecuted, and that those investigators should be prosecuted. no

cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid is following the story for us. ll right, paula, what is trump arguing here in his appeal? so he wants the supreme court to step in and block friday's sentencing. >> he argues, quote, this court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the new york trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government. so he's saying that as president elect, he should not have to attend the sentencing. but let's put this into context. this is expected to be a pretty short proceeding. there will be no penalties. and he's even allowed to appear virtually because the judge is making a rare concession to his status as president elect, saying, look, i know there's a lot of physical and mental demands on you right now because you are going to be president. so i'll let you appear virtually. and that's what we expect trump to do. so now they're asking the supreme court to step in and stop this. but trump's team believes that his status as president el

let us go to cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid and cnn's senior legal analyst elie honig. obviously, a lot of comments from president trump there about the 14th amendment. paula, this order also comes amid a rash of lawsuits already filed by the aclu and dozens of state attorneys general from washington state to massachusetts. the federal judge in washington state today said it boggles his mind that the lawyers around this >> twinning, initially, getting that policy placed on hold while the larger legal arguments play out. now when we talk about birthright citizenship, you just went that section of the 14th amendment, but the trump lawyers, they are arguing that the courts have misinterpreted the 14th amendment, and they want the courts to revisit this really, for the first time in 100 years. >> now, they also have other political arguments about the national security risks of birthright citizenship, as well as pointing to abuses by wealthy foreigners who are able to afford to fly here and have their babies here. so they have that citizenship. but today, this reagan appoi