and we were aware of some of these financial shenanigans going on with giuliani and toensing and well beyond anything that we were focused on. and the southern district however has been focused on it and dovetails with the case against other just the interesting news is we heard about giuliani search warrants but this is the search warrant of victoria toensing is particularly noteworthy because there was a retainer agreement between her and corrupt ukrainian officials to pay toensing to effectively do what giuliani was trying to do related to ukraine which was to essentially dig up dirt on joe biden. so i think it's all coming to a head now and we're seeing the final steps of a financial investigation that is the sort of parallel track to the political investigation that we did as part of the impeachment inquiry. >> and there are other players who we're refreshing our collective memory and bill barr. i want to read this "the new york times" report that senior justice department officials had not green lit investigators' efforts to get this warrant. ly sa monaco is confirmed for eight

toensing, is this information that existed during the trump administration that was held back by william barr or is this the result of new information that's come forward? >> i don't think we have complete clarity into everything that the justice department has and knows about this issue. as the times has reported, as my colleagues have reported in the past, the justice department senior officials in washington had stopped prosecutors in new york from executing a search warrant at the end of last year. i don't think that it is a coincidence that we are seeing this happen now just a week after lisa monaco came in as deputy attorney general. she is going to be the person who oversees the day-to-day operations of the justice department. she's going to be the person who all these investigations run through and if you were merrick garland and trying to get your feet under you and the department under you, you would make sense that you would hold off on making some of these important controversial moves until you had a full deck and a fully stocked team. so i think that, you know, we've seen a

toensing is not a target of the investigation and that she was told that.ut, again, incredibly significant to serve warrants like this early in the morning on attorneys. there are usually concerns that if you execute search warrants on attorneys you could potentially be taking some sort of confidential client communications. so this is something that absolutely would have had to have been approved at the highest levels of the justice department, likely by the deputy attorney general of the united states. until recently until seven or eight days ago we had an acting deputy attorney general and lisa monaco was just confirmed, but it likely would have had to go to that level to execute these kinds of warrants in a case like this. christine, laura? >> just fascinating. paula reid, thank you so much for that. >>> so a major american city is on the verge of throwing out thousands of covid vaccines if they are not used by today. you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more

he named joe digenova, dick vic toensing and so i wonder if any of them should be concerned about this investigation, right up to donald trump? >> well, i'll start off and say rudy giuliani has said publicly that he couldn't have committed it because his ultimate client was the former president. if it was to be proved that he was only doing this for the former president, that would not be a foreign agent registration act problem because his client would be an american, not a foreigner. but i suspect that a reason that a judge signed this search warrant is because there is at least probable cause to believe that rudy giuliani had foreign clients in ukraine, possibly elsewhere, that he was acting for. and if that's the case, then i think that people like donald trump and many other people in the administration who met with rudy giuliani are going to be potential witnesses as to what it is that rudy giuliani was asking for. >> katie, let me also ask you the process here. the response from sort of team giuliani today has been to deride this as a politicized act, as some sort of act of reve

this was also taken on victoria toensing. she was another lawyer. again, she only worked briefly for president trump. she was working closely with rudy giuliani on other issues. it does suggest a big escalation moving forward in this case. i should note one other thing that happened. rudy giuliani's personal assistant was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. that's a big deal because it's just a human interview and allowing for fresh information, but it suggests that it's not simply restricted to activity rudy giuliani himself was doing but what could have been done on his behalf. any way you look at it, this is a step forward. >> maggie, great to have you this morning. thank you. >> thanks, guys. >>> this isn't the only trouble facing rudy giuliani. our experts are here to break down what happens next. >>> and dramatic video on officers who were assaulted defending the capitol during the insurrection. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your short

filed >> the feds targeted another lawyer who is part of all this or that's the allegation victoria toensing and her husband was not mentioned here it looks as if they normally try to get somebody to sing. you wonder if that process is under way. >> surely they have been trying to get cooperation from and statements out of the people who are already charged. we should note that victoria toensing, her law firm said she was told she's not a target of this investigation kind of i wanting we haven't heard that from mr. giuliani's lawyer that he got that kind of assurance. >> thanks so much. appreciate it. in little less than two hours the president will make his first address to a joint session of congress. tonight his message to the nation >>> a crackdown on menthol cigarettes the fda eyes at nationwide ban that activists say is decades overdue. the benefits and consequences from the move. >>> and a knife wielding man in custody now after he attacked children and teachers in a children and teachers in a kindergarten i'm a shooting star leaping through the sky ♪ ♪ like a tiger defying the laws o

tough day for rudy guliani and apparently victoria toensing.he ukrainian investigation. what they did, didn't do and whether there were illegal activities tied to that. that's where we think this is going. we don't know for sure, the extent of this investigation. the sources are saying victoria toensing is not a subject of this investigation, not a target. we expect at some point to hear from rudy guliani and we thought it was his radio show. it was not. looks like the microphones are set up outside the apartment there. so they're expecting it, too. >> martha: we'll look forward to that and hear from the former mayor of new york city. as we said, the close personal attorney to president trump and there's a lot of investigations all around where this story is involved. we talked earlier to andy mccarthy and brett tollman about the investigations and whether it was necessary to do this raid and a lot of things have already been turned over. we'll see where that goes. we want to talk about tonight and the president's address to congress. it's a lo

also, victoria toensing is another trump associate and official married to a u.s.in connection with this investigation. again, these weren't ordinary search warrants. chuck rosenberg, former nbc legal analyst and dodge official tells us these kinds of searches like giuliani and toensing, would need high-level approval from a main justice before they even went to the judge to ask. joining me now is nbc legal analyst joyce vance, former u.s. attorney herself with the northern district of alabama. joyce, let me start with this, as a former u.s. attorney, would you expect some deference if you were potentially under investigation from the justice department, meaning that you would assume justice isn't going to move on you as a former official unless they dotted every i and crossed every t? >> i think that's absolutely correct, chuck. even in not a politically involved case where you're seeking to search an attorney's office and there's an attorney/client relationship, these search warrants are reviewed in main justice. in a case like this, every effort would be made, p

between victoria toensing, giuliani and department of justice officials. >> dechlt v lichlt n, what more could prosecutors stumble upon about giuliani's foreign business deals while he served as the president's lawyer? >> reporter: remember, this investigation started pretty broadly with some associates who had other business deals with giuliani. those associates were charged with campaign finance fraud. this started in a very broad, kitchen sink type manner, this investigation. and i think what's happening is that it's actually in that time, even though a lot of time has passed, it's actually become more focused. and i think you see them focus more and more on the ukraine interaction. and so i think while there are questions about campaign finance, about civil fraud or financial crimes, what we've really got at the core here after all this time is a foreign influence investigation. >> katie, i know that you broke this story about giuliani trying to oust the acting attorney general during the transition. how does that tie into what we saw play out today, if at all? >> we see how influent

toensing is a fringe right wing figure along with her husband, joe digenova, a former fox news crazykraine mess and is currently suing mike lindell for jacking his style. you guys remember this guy they guy who looks like he got put on a no-fly list for trying to sneak his own salami through security at la guardia "hey, that's prescription salami, i got low salt." what does it say about you when these are your lawyers they look like the kind of guys who carry an extra neck brace in their briefcase. "here, put this on, judges can't resist them. "yeah, but it's an embezzlement case." "okay, you want to go to jail? be my guest. rudy and joe met when they shared an office out of the trunk of a taxicab[ light laugh] so there's a whole web of weirdos involved in this and for the moment, the feds are apparently homing in on rudy for one thing, they reportedly seized his electronic devices, which is no small thing since he apparently has at least three different cell phones and one ipad according to a reporter who profiled him for "new york magazine" in 2019, in one hand, he clutched three p

also related, an additional search warrant served on victoria toensing a former washington, d.c. attorney who has also done work in the past for president trump and an oligarch from ukraine, accused to being tied to the effort to dig up dirt on president biden. norah. >> o'donnell: jeff pegues with that stunning development. thank you, jeff. there's a major ruling tonight in the case of a north carolina man shot and killed by deputies one week ago. a judge ruled the public won't immediately get to see body camera video of the shooting. cbs' manuel bojorquez reports tonight from elizabeth city, north carolina. >> reporter: a north carolina judge said the family of andrew brown jr. can view redacted t police body cam footage in the next few days, but ruled against revealing the video to the public. >> it is necessary at this point to prevent an internal investigation or potential internal investigation. >> reporter: district attorney andrew womble disputed the brown family attorney's description of the video. womble says deputies opened fire after brown's car became a threat when t

a computer of giuliani's assistant and also lawyer victoria toensing.hone was seized by agents. an attorney for giuliani tells cnn that the search warrant sought communications between giuliani and other individuals including right wing columnist john solomon. solomon wrote op-eds for the hill about many of the pro-trump and anti-biden conspiracy theories peddled by giuliani and his ukrainian allies. after a review the hill found flaws in solomon's columns in ukraine, including a failure to provide key discloses. former president trump weighed into the investigation on his long time friend and personal attorney today. >> he just loves this country and they raid his apartment. it's like so unfair and such a double -- it's like a double standard, like i don't think anybody has ever seen before. it's very, very unfair. >> reporter: but this has happened before to his other personal attorney, michael cohen, whose office was raided in 2018 as part of a criminal investigation. cohen eventually spent one year in jail and today he told cnn giuliani knows exactl

vic victoria toensing had investigators show up at her place this morning but her home was not raided. >> we're talking about federal prosecutors obtained a warrant for a lawyer. he's a former mayor, former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, a former federal prosecutor himself. >> absolutely. and both of these attorneys formerly represented a former president of the united states. this is incredibly unusual to serve a warrant like this on a lawyer because there are always concerns about confidential and client communications. something like this would absolutely have to be approved at the highest levels of the justice department, likely by the deputy attorney general of the united states. again, highly unusual to serve a warrant on any lawyer, particularly one who used to represent the president of the united states. at the core of this, it's an investigation into foreign lobbying violations. prior to the trump administration that was really just a paperwork crime. so to show up on the door steps, these early morning warrants being executed, highly unusual. >> very u

we have also learned that victoria toensing, a woman who represented president trump during his timeoffice for certain controversies, she also got a visit from investigators, they arrived at her home early wednesday, they served a warrant also related to this same new york investigation and we've learned that they actually took her cellphone. this is incredibly unusual to execute warrants like this on lawyers. there are a lot of concerns about potentially obtaining confidential communications. so to serve a warrant on a lawyer who represented a former president, never mind two attorneys, highly unusual and, again, at the core of this investigation are questions about foreign lobbying and traditionally that's really been a paperwork crime prior to the trump administration. it was just a matter of making sure you had the appropriate paperwork to disclose who you were lobbying for. so incredibly significant development in this investigation. somewhat unusual tactics. but this would have had to have been something that would have been approved at the highest levels of the justice departm

that's why i think they went in search of victoria toensing.dence. it doesn't surprise me that the sdny is looking at her and questioning her as well. >> eli honig, thank you. appreciate it. >>> the same so-called invisible attack overseas over recent years may now have happened twice on u.s. soil. cnn has ked federal agencies are investigating at least one case just steps from the white house. the victims are often u.s. government personnel, diplomats, cia operatives, national security official, all out of nowhere coming down with debilitating e ing symptoms, ve pounding headaches, nausea. there's now a multi-agency effort to find out if a bad foreign actor could be to blame. >> reporter: it's called havana syndrome, from where the strange, debilitating attacks against u.s. personnel were first noticed. now, sources telling cnn about at least two more on american soil. similar, mysterious incidents, including one late last year right near the white house. >> thank you for your attention on this issue. it's critically important. >> reporter: th

the fbi also seized the cellphone of conservative attorney victoria toensing who has worked closely with giuliani. in colombia, tens of thousands of people took to the streets wednesday after trade unions called for a national strike to protest against the government of ivÁn duque and a proposed tax reform bill. at least two protesters were killed. union leaders said protests occurred across colombia. >> this march is the biggest display of outrage against this government, against the tax reforms, and against the labor reform. the government has gone against the country and the country is responding in more than 500 cities in the country. amy: the pentagon has confirmed to the news outlet vox that u.s. contractors are continuing to help saudi arabia maintain its warplanes despite president biden's pledge to end offensive support for saudi's devastating six year war in yemen. the pentagon defended the role of the contractors, sayg the u.s. military relationship with saudi arabia is "important to the region." press freedom grou are calling on israel to release palestinian journalist alaa a

>> reporter: warrants were executed against giuliani's assistant and fellow lawyer vic victoria toensing who also had dealings with ukrainians. ambassador yovanovitch was a career diplomat who focused on anti-corruption efforts in ukraine. giuliani's allies wanted her out and enlisted his help. during the first impeachment of donald trump, yovanovitch accused giuliani of mounting a smear campaign against her. >> i do not understand mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me, nor can i offer an opinion on whether he believed the allegations he spread about me. >> reporter: giuliani's efforts worked. trump was convinced, and yovanovitch was removed. >> why do you need her out of the way. >> >> i didn't need her out of the way. i forced her out because she's corrupt. >> reporter: now sources told cnn that while giuliani was working with the ukrainians, the trump administration was warned that some of the information that was being given to him was from foreign intelligence. we know that one of his primary ukrainian contacts, according to u.s. intelligence, was an agent for the russians, so giu

>> well, we saw some retainer agreements between victoria toensing and some of the corrupt ukrainian politicians. giuliani was asked about that. he said he had an offer to be paid but he turned it down. in many situations, people like giuliani may funnel the money through others to get it back to himself. we know he was paid significantly by igor fruman and les pernov who were working on it. they look at the political efforts that jugiuliani was working to dig up on biden. this will show whether he was given any financial benefit for capitalizing on his relationship with donald trump and trying to hide it from the u.s. government that he was actually being paid by ukraine to try to influence the u.s. government. >> dan, rudy giuliani already is trying to claim he was president trump's lawyer and hide behind attorney/client privilege here. how much will that protect him? >> very little. and that's one other richardson go for a search warrant because now what will happen is that there will be a separate team of agents and prosecutors reviewing the materials to make sure that anything t

i'm very interested to see what comes out of these devices and also that of victoria toensing which reportingndicates her cell phone was seized as well. >> what we've been told by giuliani's lawyers about this, though it has to be taken with a grain of salt is he's being investigated for foreign lobbying. something having to do with fara. can you explain to us why that is important, why that would be against the law and bad, frankly, for america? >> absolutely. so american law provides that if you as a u.s. citizen are doing work on behalf of a foreign government, you have to go to the department of justice and register as a foreign agent. essentially that you are performing work on behalf of that foreign nation. in this case, when there is a search warrant. a search warrant means a federal judge, not doj, not the fbi, a federal judge found there was probable cause that a crime occurred and that evidence of that crime resides or exists in the places that you're searching. so in this case, the crime that was indicated on the search warrant from reporting is that it was a violation of potential

another one of former president trump's lawyers victoria toensing had an warrant executed at her home and seized her cell phone. miss toengs said nesing said sh happy to turn over her documents if asked. >> paula thank you so much. let's bring in washington correspondent for the "new york times" maggie haberman who helped break this story for "the times." maggie, good to see you. any sense of why now? were the feds waiting until trump was well out of office, almost at 100 days for biden to pursue the search warrant? does it feel like a coincidence? >> reporter: that's an excellent question. i don't think it's timed with the 100 days. i think the timing matters, at least on the face of it, it looks as if having lisa monaco sworn in at the department of justice could have played a role in the timing of this. we know that law enforcement had hoped to or at least been moving towards some effort to procure these devices and -- and to execute a similar search on giuliani's property and on his communications last summer, and that did not move forward while president trump was still in office

. >> victoria toensing's home was reportedly -- she was searched, as well. giuliani is all around this ukrainian oligarch circle funneling disinformation into the american political universe. and the target of a lot of that -- all that disinformation is the biden family so to hear the president say to craig melvin i learned about it when you did, we only asked because of the last four years but what do you make of the new restored barrier between a white house and a justice department? >> well, it was one of the biggest campaign promises that joe biden made, president biden made. he said he wanted to restore the democracy and the soul of america and wanted to put back up the traditional barriers that exist between the presidency and the department of justice. we had seen former president trump use the department of justice almost like a personal attorney and in bill barr saying these are the people that need to be investigated. you also had rudy giuliani saying very openly i'm working with the trump administration and he was working with some agencies, talki