t sara murray has more now from washington.her biden. sara murray has more now from washington. >> reporter: the u.s. attorney in delaware overseeing the hunter biden criminal probe is refuting allegations from two irs whistleblowers. these were big claims saying that there had been political interference in the hunter biden investigation. and two of their concerns were t that weiss tried to bring charges and that others would not go along with that. but he is turning down the claims in this letter to lindsey graham. he says he had never asked to be a special counsel. he also says that he was never blocked from bringing charges in the hunter biden case when he wanted to. ultimately there was an agreement for hunter biden to plead guilty to two tax-related charges, but it won't be enough to satisfy a number of republicans on capitol hill. they still want to get system from weiss, they want him on capitol hill to answer questions on the record, something not likely to happen at least until hunter biden's plea deal formally goes through lat

accusations of money laundering and sara murray and evan perez join us.aring is still happening. what are we learning so far? >> the judge is kind of going through all of the facts that the justice department says that they found as part of this investigation. i'll read you just a part of what we're getting from our team, those inside the courthouse right now. the justice department is saying that they are going to recommend probation. that means no jail time for hunter biden, at least that's the recommendation from the justice department as part of this agreement under which hunter biden will plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018, but that's the legal part of this. the political part of this is looming very large inside the courtroom. you can see right now the justice department is going through the sources of some of the income that have become such a part of the political part of this story, that hunter biden made money from his work overseas in ukraine and from chinese companies. >> he had the money acc

sara murray, thank you so much. be sure to tune , an all new epode of "the whole story with anderson cooper: one whole story, one whole hour" airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific only on cnn. >>> and coming up, amid the writers and actors strikes, there's now a push for better conditions for reality tv stars, as well. leading that push is bethenny frankel. she joins us next live in the "cnn newsroom." it's earned in every wash, and re-earned every day. tide. america's #1 detergent. my cpa told me i wouldn't qualify for the erc tax refund, so i called innovation refunds. their team of independent tax attorneys will work with your cpa to determine if your company is eligible. [whip sound] take theirst step to see if your small business qualifies. introducing the all-new 2024 chevy trax. ♪ ♪ helps you stay connected, ♪ safe ♪ and charged. ♪ the all-new chevy trax starting at $21,495. the possibilities are endless. you tried. limiting when it was okay. no tech behind closed doors. but social media's algorithms

sara murray takes us inside the effort to set up a shadow slate of electors in georgia and the swinground at who else is seeing this. does anybody know what's going on in that room? >> room 216 at the georgia state capital. just one floor below where the democratic electors were meeting to certify the georgia vote for president-elect biden. you follow him. do you go into the room? >> i went into the room. what's going on here? what are you doing? we're having a meeting. there was a woman's voice. i'm looking around. she says, he has a camera going. another fellow comes in and hustles me out. what is this meeting? she says, it's an education meeting. >> they told you it was an education meeting. >> they marched me out of the room. they posted somebody out in front to make sure nobody else went in. >> were you convinced it was an education meeting? >> i was convinced it was what i thought it was. >> what he thought turned out to be right. a group of republican shadow electors gathered to sign an illegitimate certification for president trump. >> sara murray joins me now. attorneys repr

business dealings and they believe impeachment may be another mechanism for him to do so, john. >> sara murraythank you so much. evan and sara, keep us posted because this is all in the federal courthouse right now. elie holding and from southern district of new york. counselor, the expectation is that the judge will sign off on this probation for two tax charges. do judges always sign off, federal judges on plea agreements? >> almost always, but not always, always. it is up to the judge whether he or she, in this case, she wants to accept the plea agreement, but 99.something percent of the time when you go before the court saying we, the prosecution, has agreed with the defense and the judge will accept the plea and move forward with sentencing at some point later. why could the judge reject the deal to anticipate your next question? >> you're asking my follow. >> first of all, the judge could not be convinced that the person is guilty. the judge will listen to what hunter biden says and if the person hasn't fully admitted to the crime she cannot accept the guilty plea. another possibility is

sara murray is in atlanta for us. over the weekend, we heard from the district attorney. what did she say? >> reporter: that is right, our affiliate caught up with her at a back-to-school event over the weekend and she was praising the local sheriff for beginning to take steps to increase the security around the courthouse. she made it clear that some people may not be pleased when she does make her charging decision over the next couple of weeks but her investigation is ready to go. take a listen. >> some people may not be happy with the decisions that i would make and sometimes when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm. the work that is accomplished, we've been working for two and a half years. we're ready to go. >> reporter: now, of course, she has not said if she's actually going to seek charges against donald trump or his allies but we're expecting her to attempt to get these indictments before a grand jury. my bet on timing is that we're talking about sometime in the next week or two. not in the next day or two. but we are affirmly in the win

cnn political correspondent sara murray. timing here, sara, is everything, right? >> yeah, it is. as you look through this indictment, you can see what was going on that may have given these employees concerns about having so much of it caught on tape. you know, as you point odd out, donald trump is facing two counts related to this alleged scheme to delight the surve surveillance information and now we have kaylee goncalves as a defendant. may 11th the trump team gets the subpoena for any documents with classified markings. 45 days before we get into the meat of this sort of scheme to try to delete this surveillance footage. but throughout may be you can see these boxes getting moved out of the storage room. in the title is says may 22 one box is moved out. on may 24 three boxes are moved out. on may 30, 50 boxes of moved. june 1, 11 boxes are moved. this is happening by trump employees who are talking to trump throughout. on june 2, 30 boxes get moved back into this storage room by walt nauta, a trump employee, as well as carlos de oliveira. that is the same day that a trump att

sara murray joins us on set with the latest.andidate when the charges were brought. you could argue the presidential campaign is happening now. what are we supposed to take from this filing? >> look, there will be a big fight over scheduling going forward. and in this filing they make clear trump and walt nad da's team they don't think a trial can proceed fairly as long as donald trump is running for president of the united states. it would impact the outcome of the presidential election as well as the ability for both donald trump and walt nata to prepare for filing. donald trump versus joe biden even though there'special counsel in this case. proceeding to trial during the pendency of a presidential election cycle where opposing candidates are effectively if not literally directly averse to one other in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the defendant's ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication. it will be hard to get a fair trial the middle of a presidential elec

eastern on our deep dive with anderson cooper. >> our thanks there to sara murray.s they have done since january, protesters in israel are expected to be out in force again today to demand their government stop its overhaul of the judicial system. it's become an historic showdown over the past seven months with neither side backing down. a controversial new law came into force wednesday that will likely add more fuel to today's demonstrations. critics say it has weakened supreme court and undermines israeli democracy. >>> benjamin netanyahu dismissed those concerns as silly. he claims the overhaul is needed to reset the balance of power in government. now in the u.s., more than 100 million people from southern california to new england are waking up to heat alerts in the hours ahead. in phoenix temperatures are expected to stay above 110 degrees right into the weekend. the scorching temperatures are easing in the midwest. but people on the northeast will have to wait until later sunday to get any kind of relief. miguel marquez looks at how people are coping. >> dead

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> the u.s. secretary of state is scheduled to meet with china's top foreign policy chief in the hours ahead. they are both in jakarta with foreign ministers from the association of southeast asian nations and will be holding talks on the sidelines. china also expected to meet with the russian foreign minister too. anna coren is covering this live from hong kong. we've seen more meetings ramp up between officials from the u.s. and china over recent weeks. last being of course janet yellen's visit. and they seem to have a marginal net positive impact, trying to keep talking to each other. is the hope that it will meeting will keep pushing things in the right direction? >> there is hope and you are right, there is momentum, but there are plenty of issues and grievances as you know between the u.s. and china. but in just over two hours, antony blinken will meet with him on the sidelines of the summit. sergey lavrov will also meet with huang. huang was not supposed to attend this summit. the chinese

cnn's sara murray has the latest. >> reporter: more troubles for former trump attorney rudy giuliani.n attorney disciplinary committee recommending giuliani be disbarred in washington, d.c. for his efforts on trump's behalf to overturn the 2020 election results. he claimed massive fraud but had no evidence of it, the committee wrote, by prosecuting that destructive case, mr. giuliani, a sworn officer of the court forfeited his right to practice law. he should be disbarred. the three person panel was unanimous in their recommendation. he said he had reason to believe the claims were true and he was relying on what others working with the trump campaign had told him about the fraud allegations. this recommendation from the disciplinary committee is not the final word on disbarment. d.c.'s board on professional responsibility will need to consider the case against giuliani as will the d.c. court of appeals a. political adviser to giuliani called the report, quote, a great injustice adding the decision makers at the d.c. bar association are nothing more than an arm of the permanent regime

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> turning overseas now, a senior russian general has been dismissed after he says he voiced concerns about the lack of support for russian forces in southern ukraine, something we have heard before from others. the general had been involved in the heavy fighting in the zaporizhzhia region specifically. he was also one of the most senior officers involved in the russian campaign in ukraine. clare sebastian is live for us in london. clare, good morning. what more are we learning about the dismissal? >> reporter: good morning. this commander of the 58th army, so one of the top generals in charge of russian efforts in zaporizhzhia, he according to an audio message that was published on the telegram channel of the russian lawmaker has been making sort of raising questions about what he says is the lack of support for troops on the front lines. take a listen to part of that audio message. >> translator: i had no right to lie. therefore i outlined all the problematic issues that exist today in the army in terms of combat work and support. i called a spade a spade.

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> it is unclear who is in charge in niger. on wednesday afternoon a group of military officers claim to have seized control of the government ousted and detained niger's president and closed the borders. but overnight the president's office posted on twitter now rebranded x that the hard won achievements will be safe guarded. all who love democracy and freedom will see to it. larry madowo is following the story from nairobi for us. the tweet made no mention of whether the president is still being detained. what is the latest word on who really is in charge there? >> reporter: the short answer is that we don't know. it is hard to tell. because i want to show you a tweet from the foreign minister who says in this tweet or x now as acting head of government, i call on all democrats, all patriots to defeat this dangerous adventure xofor our country. and he is calling on this meeting of soldiers to go back to their ranks. and he seems to suggest that not all soldiers support this apparent coup. and u.s. soecretary of state antony b

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> there is concern about the health of mitch mcconnell. he froze in the middle of speaking during his weekly news conference on wednesday. now sources tell cnn that mcconnell has fallen multiple times this year. at least two of the incidents weren't reported until now. the 81-year-old is brurkshing o concerns about his health. >> how are you feeling now, sir? >> i'm fine. >> have you seen a doctor, are you going to see a doctor? >> any idea what happened? >> i'm fine. >> dehydrated? >> melanie zanona has details from washington. >> reporter: senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says he's fine after a scary health episode on wednesday afternoon. the incident occurred during mitch mcconnell's weekly press conferences, this is a press conference that he gives routinely in the capitol to reporters. as he was giving his opening remarks, he stopped mid sentence and froze for over a good 20 seconds without blinking before senator john barrasso who is a former physician came over to check on him. at that point mitch mcconnell was ushered away by

sara murray is live in atlanta for us. all signs pointing towards an imminent indictment.hat should we be expecting? >> reporter: that's right. you and i have had a lot of conversations about what imminent actually means when it comes to this case. we are now in this window where it could come any day that she decides to announce who, if anyone, will announce charges in the case. i am betting this is something we get in the next week or two. security preparations are already under way. when our affiliate here caught up with fanni willis over the weekend at a back-to-school event, she feels clear she has the security situation on the top of her mind and where her investigation stands. take a listen to what she said. >> some people may not be happy with the decisions i was making, and sometimes when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm. the work is accomplished. we've been going for 2 1/2 years. we're ready to go. >> reporter: she says "we're ready to go." today a judge gave her another boost by rejecting donald trump's team's efforts to have her disq

. >> joining us now political correspondent sara murray, cnn legal analyst elliot williams and shelbyara, trump likes to take all the oxygen in the room and he's doing that with all these legal cases, i mean, it looks like this is going to continue to play a bigger and bigger role in the discourse among republican candidates. >> i think if you're donald trump the silver lining, i guess, to getting indicted and maybe indicted again, you are in the news cycle a lot. people are talk about you. he's used it to his advantage fund-raising. people like mike pence so cautious and not willing to criticize him, what is the real down side for this when it comes to the rest of the republican field? he knows everyone else is trying to court the same republican base. >> ron desantis isn't going after him. >> our eternal optimist, sara murray. >> if you're going to get indicted raise a lot of money off of it, is that the lesson? >> by the way, it's true. >> let's go half empty. >> i do have a technical question, which is why i brought you on, why you paid all that money for law school. >> solely for

cnn's sara murray is joining us from atlanta. rgia investigation is moving for washed tonward /* forward tonight. trump's team got a smackdown from a judge in fulton county who said he wasn't going to disqualify fani willis from overseeing the case and not going to throw out months and months she collected. this comes as willis is on the precipice of announcing whether anyone in this case, donald trump or any of his allies, are going to face charges. we still think that's probably a week or two away rather than a day or two away. she made very clear in an interview with our affiliate wxia over the weekend that they already have security concerns at the top of mind. as far as she sees it, her investigation is ready to go. take a listen. >> some people may not be happy with the decisions i'm making. sometimes when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm. we've been working for 2 1/2 years. we're ready to go. >> they are worried about potential security issues here in downtown atlanta when willis does make her ch

. >> sara murray, thank you so much. i will be tuning in. others should, too. this new episode of "the whole story with anderson cooper." it's one story, one hour. it airs next only on cnn. >>> thanks for joining me this evening. i'm paula reid. have a great evening. >>>>> welcome to "the whole story." i'm anderson cooper. donald trump has been indicted for mishandling classified documents and state charges for hush money payments. he has pleaded not guilty to all charges. he is the target of another investigation by the department of justice appointed special counsel looking into his efforts to subvert election results in seven states. one state is georgia where president biden flipped blue for a win in 2020. president trump refused to accept the result. he and his allies engaged in a number of plots to overturn biden's win. some of the actions were so aggressive they drew the attention of the fulton county district attorney who launched her own criminal probe in 2021. a grand jury has been convened. the former president could face more indict mentes. what exa

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> and u.s. marine veteran released in a prisoner swap was injured while fighting in ukraine. trevor reed was wrongfully detained in russia for nearly three years. u.s. officials confirm he was hurt fighting in ukraine but say reed was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the u.s. government. and secretary of state antony blinken says that the fact reed was fighting in ukraine shouldn't have any effect on negotiations to free paul whelan and evan gershovich from wrongful detention in russia. >> even with countries where we have procfound differences, almost by definition countries that are arbitrarily detaining are usually with profound differences. we've managed to find ways to bring americans home. >> clare sebastian is following this story for us from london. and what more do we know about trevor reed's story? we know he was transported to a hospital for treatment in germany? >> reporter: yeah, we know from u.s. officials speaking to cnn that he was first brought to kyiv and then with th

cnn's sara murray is digging into this contentious and confrontational hearing. >> thank you. good morning chairman jordan, ranking member nadler, members of the committee. >> reporter: fbi director christopher wray weighing in on some of the most hot button political investigations in testimony on capitol hill, critiquing former president donald trump's sloppy retention of classified documents. >> i don't want to be commenting on the pending case, but i will say there are specific rules about where to store classified information, and that those need to be stored in a skiff, a secured compartmentalized information facility, and in my experience ballrooms and bathrooms are not skiffs. >> reporter: insisting in the wake of hunter biden's deal on a plea deal on tax charges that the bureau is not protecting the biden family. >> you won't answer the question about whether that. >> reporter: and disavowing some of the behavior outlined in the special counsel john durham's probe which documented missteps by the fbi into the investigation in the 2016 trump campaign's ties with russia

cnn's sara murray is in atlanta. explain more what this ruling was and what it means? >> reporter: well, it really is a smack down from fulton county judge. the trump team wanted fani willis disqualified from overseeing the case and wanted the evidence the special grand jury collected. they wanted it thrown out and not going to do that.ear he's here's a portiwhat he wrote. being the subject or target of a highlycized criminal investigation lik unwelcomed and unpleasant experience no court has ever held that that status alone provides a basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation. now part of the trump team push is trying to get mcburnry in tossed off, the judge who ruled today, another judge set a hearing on august 10th on that matter so we'll see if that hearing goes forward or if this is just the final word we get before we head into potential indictments. >> that is, of course, the obvious question. any tea leaves you're able to read down there in georgia about when and if that could happen? >> well, we're officially in the window for when she c

cnn's sara murray has the story. >> thank you, good morning, chairman jordan, ranking member nadler,> reporter: fbi director chris f toe fer wray weighing in on some of the most hot button political investigations in testimony on capitol hill, critiquing former president donald trump's sloppy retention of classified do you means. >> i don't want to be commenting on the pending case, but i will say that there are specific rules about where to store classified information and that those need to be stored in a scif, a secure compartmentalized information facility, and in my experience ballrooms, bathrooms, and birms are not scifs. >> reporter: insisting that the bureau is not protecting the biden family. >> are you protecting the bidens? >> absolutely not. the fbi does not, has no interest -- >> you won't answer the question about whether or not -- >> and disavowing some of the behavior outlined in john durham's probe which documented missteps by the fbi in its investigation into the 2016 trump campaign's ties with russia. >> i consider the conduct that was described in the durham repor

let's dig deeper on this case and more with cnn's sara murray who has the latest on the georgia case and with us, cnn's paula reid with new developments on trump's federal case. sara, starting with you, these grand jurors in georgia are weighing a lot. is there the possibility that donald trump could avoid being indicted there? >> well sure. i mean, most of the cases that these grand jurors are going to hear are classic cases. they're going to be murders, carjackings, that kind of thing. at a certain point they are likely to see the d.a.'s team come in and say you're about to hear a different case today. it's always possible that somethings go goes awry, the d.a.'s case falls apart and decide not to pursue indictments are. that looks unlikely given the amount of work that has gone into this already. there's signals she's pursuing potential conspiracy and racketeering charges, a number of people in this investigation have been told they are targets or under scrutiny like donald trump, rudy giuliani, mark meadows facing potential legal jeopardy as part of this case. again, you still fac

cnn's sara murray joins us now.that impact the judge's decisionmaking? >> well, look, it's up to the judge to accept the plea deal and hunter biden's sentence and we expect prosecutors to ask for probation. what we see from jason smith, the chair of the ways house and means committee pushing the judge essentially to say please take note of the irs whistle-blowers, here's what smith said in his letter to the judge, the committee member has been made aware that the defendant appears to have benefited from political interference which calls into question the propriety of the u.s. attorney general's office. they go on to say in interest of full transparency for all citizens, it's critical for the court to have this evaluation when evaluating the plea agreement. it would be an extraordinary move to see a judge reject the plea deal but for republicans to get their side of the story into the mix. even though we've seen david weis, the u.s. attorney in this case, write a number debunking the irs claims whistle-blowers have

>> yeah. >> cnn's sara murray joining me right now from washington.iani was told that he's a target in this investigation. is that because -- largely because of the presentations on that video that we just saw? >> reporter: well, that is certainly one of the things that prosecutors have been looking at when it comes to rudy giuliani, who months ago was told he's a target as part of this investigation. just one of many of the former president's advisers who are being scrutinized as part of this, as well as the former president himself. and this is a sprawling investigation, it's looking not only at those comments rudy giuliani made before state lawmakers, but it's also looking at all of those people who served as pro-trump fake electors in the state of georgia. we know from our reporting that rudy giuliani played a high level in sort of organizing that level across the seven states it took place in. there's a lot that the fulton county district attorney has looked into, and we delve into a lot of the nitty-gritty in this documentary, fred. >> and so in

let's bring in cnn political correspondent sara murray. the timing of all of this is really key here. >> it is. let's talk about sort of what was happening in the runup to what is now referred to as this alleged scheme to delete the surveillance footage or attempt to delete the surveillance footage for former president donald trump as well as charges for carlos de oliveira. if you look at may 11, this is when the grand jury issues a subpoena to the trump team for any documents with classified markings. for 45 days before we really get into the meat of this scheme to start trying to delete the surveillance footage. over the course of may, you see these boxes being moved out of the storage room. there's one box moved on may 21, then may 24, three boxes moved. to may 30th, 50 boxes are moved. you go to june 11th, 11 boxes are moved this is happening by trump employees who are having conversations with trump throughout this process. then on june 2nd, 30 boxes get moved back into this storage room by two trump employees, walt nauta, carlos de o

cnn's sara murray joins us now. you give us a sense of what other security precautions are being taken after you did this really great documentary on how we got here. >> reporter: well, thank you for that. look, we have already seen some barricades going up around the fulton county courthouse and i suspect that in the upcoming days and weeks we're going to see a much harder security perimeter here. today is also the first day that fulton county district attorney fani willis has instructed much of her staff to begin working from home. she set out a number of days for them to do so between now and the end of august, days where the grand jury would normally be meeting and she's also asked judges who convene trials, convene hearings at this courthouse behind me to consider canceling those or holding those virtually later on in this month, all part of her effort to sort of lock things down around the perimeter and have as few people as possible working out of these buildings when there is a potential announcement about i

let's bring in our cnn political correspondent sara murray. how did this happen, and where does it go now? >> look, this is not the day anyone was expecting to have in court. as you pointed out, hunter biden showed up at the delaware courthouse, federal court with his legal team expecting to plead guilty with two misdemeanor tax crimes and to strike this tealdeal. as the judge was kicking the tires of what was in this plea deal, things started to fall apart. and i want to read to you a part of this proposed plea deal that was obtained by "politico," cnn has not verified it's the final version, but it gets to one of the issues here, which is the scope of the deal. this proposed ent says the united states agrees n criminally prosecute biden ide of the terms of this agreement for any federal crimes encompassed by the attached statemen facts. this agreement does not provide any protection against prosecution for any future conduct by biden or by any of his affiliated businesses. so the judge is asking prosecutors, you know, is this an ongoing inve

sara murray begins our coverage with the very latest on these new charges. ra, out of seemingly in russell westbrook. what do we know? >> john, i think obviously the biggest deal is donald trump is already facing several charges, now he's facing several more, another is a willful retention of documents charge related to that sensitive iran document that we have talked about before that he showed to meeting in a meeting but the other ones is a prosecutor said was a scheme to delete video, altering, destroying, mult lags or destroying an object or document, record or other object. as they lay it out in the indictment essentially there's this new aide that we're hearing of, carlos de oliveira, who is now a defendant in this case who trump appears to tap as part of this scheme to try to delete the surveillance video. it's after the government has been to mar-a-lago, they've subpoenaed him to return all documents with classification markings and when they go to pick it up they notice that there are these surveillance cameras outside of the storage room where these

joining me now to discuss what we expect to happen tomorrow, cnn political correspondent sara murray.eal tomorrow or what this investigation looks like? >> well, look, i think the most striking thing is just that we're going to have the sitting president's son walk into a federal courthouse and admit that he broke the law. that's what you do as part of these plea deals. you go there and you provide your allocution. you say what you did wrong, you failed to pay these federal taxes as they sort of lay out the parameters of what this plea deal is. so we may learn a little more in what we expect to be a statement of facts of the plea deal and what led to this. but i think it's just going to be striking because of sort of the magnitude of this moment and everything that's led up to it. >> yeah. the other thing that i imagine may come up tomorrow is the federal judge is now threatening to sanction his attorneys today. there's a new filing that claims members of his legal team misrepresented her identity to improperly get documents removed from the public docket. you know, obviously this is

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> for more analyses, i want to turn to our guest once again.-- shan wu. the judge raised legitimate questions but they seem like things you would have the parties brief not bring them into court. was this political theater on the part of the judge? >> it could have been. i have to say this was a mistake i put on the prosecution. back when i was a prosecutor, big case like this blows up in court, i would be yelled at back at the office. they should have made this clearer up front. for the defense, some ambiguity is actually helpful for them. for the prosecution, that ambiguity was not helpful, and when the judge probed like exactly what is he being covered on in this, they didn't have a clear answer for that. that's really on the prosecution's shoulders. >> going forward, do you think that the judge will ultimately accept this plea deal? >> yes. i think they're going to clarify it for her, clean up this issue that she raised that how come she is involved in the pretrial diversion which is usually 100% within the control of the prosecution. i thi

cnn's sara murray fresh off of her one-hour documentary on this very topic that aired last night live in atlanta outside fulton county courthouse. murray, what's your sense of things? you've covered this so closely. what's your sense of things in terms of timeline, when this actually may happen? >> reporter: well, good morning, p phil. i still think that we are in the weeks-away window rather than the days-away window. but it's very clear that preparations ramping up. you can see behind me that barricades are already starting to go up around the fulton county courthouse. today is the day when much willis' team is going to begin to work remotely. another security precaution that they're taking. and our local affiliate, wxia caught up with willis at a back-to-school event over the weekend, where she was very clear that the brunt of her work on this case is already done, and that people may not be super thrilled with the upcoming charging announcements that she has to make. take a listen. >> some people may not be happy with the decisions that i'm making. and sometimes when people are un

sara murray joins us now. sara, she says we're ready to go, we've heard of security preparation.s is like reading tea leaves. based on the folks you talk to, is there any doubt as to what decision the d.a. will make there? >> reporter: i think it's hard to believe she would be doing anything other than seeking indictments other than the public signal, the ramped-up security posture, but that depends on taking this to the grand jury. we could always see things change at the last minute. whatever her decision, whatever her announcement, we're probably a week or two away, rather than a day or two from seeing it. again, we're just seeing the beginning of the security on ramp-up here. over the she addressed concerns how people may react and where her investigation stands. take a listen. >> some people may not be happy with the decisions i'm making, and sometimes people act in a way that could create harm. the work is accomplished. we're ready to go. >> reporter: she has yet to make this announcement, jim, yet we're seeing security measures ramp up. >>> we have seen them in fulton coun

. >> sara murray, live for us from atlanta, thanks so much. jim? >>> let's dig deeper with michael moore, former district attorney. mr. moore, you've been a prosecutor yourself before, the district attorney in if you woulden county says, quote, we're ready to go. does that sound like an indictment is coming, first of all? and what happens between now and such an announcement? >> well, i'm glad to be with you. i don't think there's any more tea leaves to read. i don't think there's any question she'll have some type of indictment coming out. i think you'll see trump named, and some of the fake electors likely named as well, given sort of how her case moved forward. i don't know if it would be next week. part of me thinking there would be a week or two out. there's been another hearing scheduled by the senior judge that relates to her disqualifications, she may for that. >> is there a chance she could be disqualified? that's part of donald trump's effort to head off this indictment here. a superior court judge rejected those efforts. is that the end

our political correspondent sara murray is joining us. she has new information. take us through the details the special counsel seems so interested in. >> reporter: wolf, this was a wild meeting in the oval office in the trump administration, even by the trump administration's standards. we know that this is something that prosecutors have looked at in the past. we are now learning, our team from sources familiar with the matter, that prosecutors have been asking witnesses about this meeting more recently, including rudy giuliani. let's take a look at some of the folks who were in this december oval office meeting. there are people that you might expect to be there. people like mark meadows, the white house chief of staff. people like pat cipollone. then there are people like patrick bird, the former overstock ceo. michael flynn, election deniers. in this meeting, they are discussing these wild ideas, like using the military to seize voting machines, like imposing martial law, like making sydnee powell a special counsel. this was a big focus of the house select c

we are joined by cnn's sara murray where we are on this dramatic front. >> yeah, john. it was not the day in court that anyone was expecting to get yesterday. i mean, hunter biden walked into the federal court in delaware expecting to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges and he would sign a deal to plead guilty to federal gun charges, but then it went awry. and politico obtained a copy of the plea agreement, and this is a look at the problem. it agreed not to prosecute biden outside of the terms of the agreement for any federal crimes outside of the attached and any future conduct by biden or any of his affiliated businesses, so the judge asked the prosecutor, is this ongoing prosecution, and the prosecutor said yes, and he said, could you bring something like a foreign lobbying charge, and the prosecutors said yes, we believe we could, and this is when hunter biden's attorney said, then the deal is off. so they reached a new understanding, and came back to the court and told the judge that they would proceed, and the judge had more questions about the gun deal that

sara murray was part of the cnn team that broke the news, sara, what are prosecutors looking at herecifically? >> well, this was a mild meeting by the standards of the trump white house. there seems to be a renewed interest in this meeting. witnesses once again being asked about it. it's hard to overstate just how off-the-wall this meeting were. you showed some of the participants. there are some people you would expect to see in a meeting like that chief of staff mark meadows and some people you wouldn't expect to see like the former overstock ceo p.a.t. byrne. using voting machines, like martial law, and the january 6th house select committee focused a lot on this meeting and what went down during it. let's just listen to some of the recollections to some of the folks in that oval office meeting. >> i don't think any of these people are providing the president with good advice. and so, i didn't understand how they had gotten in. >> and what they were proposing, i thought, was nuts. >> scipollone and hershman, sho nothing but contempt and disdain of the president. >> categorically d

sara murray is going to take us inside of the events that led to the possibility indictments in fultony are doing. the video doesn't lie. >> when you are looking at what you saw on the video which is to me a smoking gun. >> the problem is that the video had been selectively edited. >> what are you thinking when you saw that at state farm arena. >> that is a sealed ballot carrier, but they intentionally misled the state senate in order to continue to mislead the officials to keep this going. >> they lied? >> yes. >> and so it is said that rudy giuliani is a target in this investigation, and is that because of the presentation to state lawmakers. >> yes, he was told he was a target quite a while ago, and one of the things that the prosecutors are looking at is what he peddled in front of the state lawmakers, and putting forth fake electors in the state of georgia, and we know that rudy giuliani put forward those electors where this was playing out, and a number of things that they are looking at when it comes to giuliani, and again, just one of former donald trump's aides and allies caug

sara murray is covering the story.ct attorney potentially is moving very, very quickly. >> reporter: yeah. her window for when she may announce, if anyone will face charges as part of this investigation, really opens on monday. that's based on letters she sent to security partners as well as other officials in the county. we think these indictments are more like weeks instead of days away. the trump legal team in georgia is trying to get willis disq disqualified. trying to get her evidence thrown out. a judge has set a matter on some of the matters on august 10, in the middle of this indictment period over the next couple of weeks. we will see if that impacts the timing at all. as of right now, we are looking at sometime in the next couple weeks, charging announcement. >> you have a new report coming up on the whole story with anderson cooper, sunday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern on what happened in georgia. let me play a little. listen to thchlt we are more than two years past the pressure campaigns. the harassment of publ

sara murray is watching this for us. she'll be tracking it for us this morning. n today? >> i think republicans want to cover a number of hot-button issues. among them would be special counsel john durham's investigation into the origins of the donald trump russia probe and that a full-blown investigation should have never been opened. republicans on this panel have accused the fbi of targeting parents. they say the fbi targeted catholics even though a warning that went out was quickly retracted. we already hoard from jerry nadler who has been critical with how republicans will approach this hearing. he said this will be performance art and house republicans are basically attacking the fbi for treating donald trump like another ordinary citizen. i think chris wray will try to remind americans and everyone at home that the fbi does more than these politically sensitive investigations. >> that's right. so the committee, to state the obvious, the committee has oversight responsibilities of the fbi which also oversight over the fbi -- funding for the fbi and the budge

sara murray has those details for us. >> victor and erica, more troubles for former trump attorney rudyiuliani. an attorney disciplinary committee recommending rudy giuliani be disbarred in washington, dc, for his efforts on trump's behalf to overturn the 2020 election results. he claimed massive fraud but had no evidence of it, the committee wrote. by prosecuting that destruction tissue case, mr. giuliani, a sworn officer of the court, forfeited his right to practice law. he should be disbarred. the three were unanimous in their decision. rudy giuliani said he had reason to believe the claims in the litigation were true and added he relied on what others had told him about the fraud allegations. this isn't the final word. dc's board on professional responsibility will still need to consider the case against giuliani as will the dc court of appeals. a political adviser to rudy giuliani called the report, a, quote, great injustice, adding that the decision makers after the dc bar association are nothing more than an arm of the permanent regime in washington. back to you. >>> still ahead,

sara murray, cnn, washington. >>> florida governor ron desantis says he will take part in the first republican debate in wisconsin, whether donald trump shows up or not. to participate in the debate, the candidates will have to pledge to support whoever wins the gop nomination. in florida, that same pledge will be required simply to be on the republican primary ballot. this is new and not every candidate is on board with it. more from randi kaye, who has been talking to florida republicans. >> we agree with it. >> reporter: republican voter is 100% in favor of florida's republican party requiring 2024 presidential candidates to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party's eventual nominee. if they won't sign the pledge, they won't appear on the ballot. >> if you don't do that, you're a disorganized party and you're going to lose elections. you have your difference first and then vote as a party. >> reporter: florida's gop didn't insist on a loyalty pledge last cycle. now that three floridians could be on the ballot, donald trump, ron desantis and miami mayor francis swau resident, it could get

joining me now, we have cnn political correspondent sara murray, former fbi director andrew mccabe, and former watergate prosecutor nick akerman. great to see you guys. okay, sara. you've been reporting on all of jack smith's moves. do you get a sense that the urgency or the timing has ramped up lately? >> look, it's always hard to predict exact timing when it comes to the special counsel. i do think what we have seen in this investigation are a lot of activities you would expect to take place near the end of it. we've been talking a lot about this december meeting with donald trump and a number of his advisers that really went off the rails. that's something that investigators had previously asked about, and now they're sort of circling back to. they're checking on it again with other witnesses. that's the kind of thing you would expect to see at the end of an investigation. we know they brought rudy giuliani in. they talked to him in a voluntary interview for two days. he's sort of a late in the game witness, another box for them to check late here. we know that they have negotiated s

sara murray examines the story in this week's episode of "the whole story with anderson cooper wts. >s chilling in terms of look at what they are doing. video doesn't lie. >> when you look at what you saw on the video, which to me was a smoking gun. >> the problem was the video had been selectively edited. what did you make when you saw what he was showing his video of what happened at the marina? >> they found a magical suitcase full of ballots. those are sealed ballot carriers, which is a normal thing you'd have in an election. but they sliced that down to this one thing. they misled the senate in order to keep pushing this narrative and try to get the election thrown out. >> so he lied? >> yes. they never backed off on it. >> be sure to tune in. a new episode of the whole story one whole story, one whole hour airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. >>> still to come, close encounters of the congressional kind. three retired military veterans testify about the things the u.s. government has seen in a stunning hearing about unidentified aerial fphenomenon. one of those who testifi

sara murray joins us now. the u.s.denied these allegations in a letter to members of congress. tell us about that. >> reporter: these were very big allegations, that there was political interference in the hunter biden criminal probe. david wise wrote about wth he ever broached this topic. he said to avoid future confusion, i wish to make one point clear. in this case i've not requested special counsel designation. he goes on to say he wasn't denied the authority to bring charges against hunter biden in any jurisdiction, neutering two of the key arguments that the irs whistle blowers made. an attorney said it doesn't matter whether wise asked for a special counselor not. what matters is there were biden political appointees here that shouldn't have been. the agreement for hunter biden to plead guilty to these charges were made by a trump appointee. it was asked do you trust biden's doj to tell the truth? republicans want this testimony by david wise. >> biden's doj even though the attorney was appointed by trump. that'

over the next hour cnn's sara murray will lay out the entire investigation and piece together what we know about the pressure campaigns, trump's private calls to election officials, a major data breach and the plot to subvert the electoral college process. >> breaking news in to cnn this hour, prosecutors in georgia have opened a criminal investigation. >> investigation into former president trump. why? because of his january phone call to the georgia secretary of state. >> focus on the former president's attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 georgia general election. >> donald trump got beat by joe biden. handily. >> there's no way we lost georgia. that was a rigged election. >> he went on a warpath like a scolded child to do anything he possibly could to overturn that election. >> they defrauded us out of a win in georgia. and we're not going to forget it. >> i underestimated his willingness to push the envelope as far as he did, to just boldfaced lie again and again and again. >> three months after the election the district attorney in fulton county, georgia, fani wi

cnn's sara murray reports. >> barricades are already going up around the fulton county courthouse inficially in the window for when fawny willis will face an indictment for donald trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. we've seen a last-ditch attempt from donald trump's attorneys to have her disqualified, to have evidence thrown out. a judge has set a hearing on that on august 10th, which is smack dab in the middle of that indictment window. we think we're weeks rather than dwas from any potential indictment. this has been a big investigation, and one that some critics believe should have moved faster. take a look at a preview of our deep dive into what happened in georgia coming this weekend. we're more than two years past the pressure campaign. the harassment of public and private citizens. the coordinating of fake electorates. the breach of election equipment. and we still don't know. will trump and his allies face charges here in georgia? and if so, will there be convictions? >> they rigged the presidential election in 2020. and we're not going to allow th

. >> sara murray, thank you for sharing time with us.stern and pacific only on cnn. jim? >>> well, next, one of her hit songs is titled shake it off after all. the earth shattering effect from taylor swift's recent concerts explained. that's important. >>> but first, it's a staggering post-pandemic statistic. only 17% of black fourth graders were found to be able to read proficiently. meet this week's cnn hero who wants to change that, a former first grade teacher bringing books to barbershops. >> what's up, man, how are you doing? >> we install a child friendly space in the barbershop. we ask a little black voice what do you want to read, and those are the books we distribute to our national network of barbers. use the opportunity when they're sitting in the chair to even talk to them about books. >> many black boys are raised by single mothers, so there's this opportunity to support barbers in becoming black male reading role models. >> i'm just excited that we get to create a safe space for boys to do something that is really life cha

. >> cnn's sara murray has been following this story since the very beginning. and sara, the jurors in fulton county, georgia, are sworn in. what happens next? >> for the next several weeks, they're going the operate like a normal grand jury would in fulton county. which means they're probably going the hear cases that are murders, that are carjackings, that are robberies, that kind of thing. and then at a certain point, the d.a.'s team is probably going to come to them in a couple of weeks, walk into the one of those grand juries and say okay, today you're going the hear a different kind of case, and we'll likely present their evidence against donald trump or any of the allies that they want to try to bring charges against before this grand jury. remember, a special grand jury spent months and months collecting evidence in this case, interviewing witnesses, getting documents, but didn't have the ability to indict. now we're at a point where these grand juries that have been impanelled can bring indictments if that is what fani willis decides to do, jake. >> sara

cnn's sara murray here with us now.was appointed by trump, no you refuting claims that have, well, cause add firestorm among the right wing. what do we know? >> that's right. we've heard a lot from two of these irs whistleblowers about concerns there was political interference in the hunter biden probe, among their concerns was that davidw weiss wanted to be made a special counsel. there are also concerns the whistleblowers raise that had weiss may not have been able to bring charges against hunter biden in the jurisdictions he wanted to. he says in this letter i was never denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction. so in this very succinct letter frankly weiss is refuting two of the many complaints we heard from these whistleblowers. one of the whistleblower's attorneys says it doesn't matter if weiss wanted to be special counsel or not what matters is there were biden political appointees involved in this process who shouldn't have been. david weiss was a trump appointee and ultimately it was his decisi