i could do it. as she moves to the next step in her life, that will still be a huge step, but everyone wants it to go as far as it can tonight through the rest of the tournament. >> we'll all be watching. carolyn manno, thank you for that report. >> if you ever miss an episode of this show, you can listen to "the lead" wherever you get your podcasts. don't go anywhere. our coverage continues now with "the situation room." happening now, the justice department says a limited set of materials seized from mar-a-lago could be covered by attorney/client privilege. former president trump pushing for a special master to review the materials as the intelligence community assesses the potential national security fallout. >> also ahead for you tonight, a critical first step toward returning americans to the moon postponed by engine trouble. nasa says its next generation rocket could be ready for launch by friday if engineers can fix that problem.

>> and tennis legend serena williams taking the court tonight in what could be the final singles match of her storied career. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm pamela brown, and you're in "the situation room." >> let's get right to our top story. mar-a-lago material seized by the fbi and whether they could be impacted by attorney/client privilege. the justice department says it's working through the documents and found a limited set are potentially covered. our cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez is joining us now with more. evan, the justice department is responding to this judge. tell us more. >> well, this judge, pamela, indicated over the weekend that she was inclined to appoint a special master, a third party lawyer, to essentially look over the shoulder of the fbi agents who have been doing this review of these documents that were found, that were retrieved from

donald trump's estate in palm beach. what the justice department is saying just so you know, judge, we have already done a lot of this work. we have been reviewing it with a filter team, a team that is specifically separate from the investigative agents, and they have already identified documents that could be potentially subject to attorney/client privilege, and they're also saying, we also established at entire process with the judge that approved the warrant for these documents to be reviewed. it's their way of pushing back on this judge ahead of a hearing that we have on thursday, where she is going to decide finally whether to appoint a special master as donald trump's lawyers have asked for. what we know is this, beyond the fact that the justice department is doing this review, we heard over the weekend from avril haynes, the director of national intelligence, she notified members of congress that they're going to do a formal assessment of the damage that could be done from having these documents in an unsecure place at mar-a-lago.

we know, pamela, they have been doing a review of this, an assessment since the fbi started doing this back in may. and one of the first thing thaz were trying to do is trying to assess whether they needed to protect sources. maybe move sources out of danger as a result of having their information in, again, an unsecure place in the president's home in palm beach. >> that's the biggest concern, that lives could be at risk. we'll talk about that later in the show. i also want to talk about trump's closestalis coming to his defense and making truly alarming remarks, suggesting there could be violence if trump is prosecuted. >> this is the ever shifting level of excuses you haveurd about how to treat the situation. one of the things i think you're hearing and heard this from lindsey graham is if the justice department were to bring charges to try to prosecute the former president, there could be violence in the streets. listen to lindsey graham right now. >> i'll say this, if there's a prosecution of donald trump for

mishandling classified information after the clinton debacle which you presided over and did a hell of a good job, there would be riots in the streets. >> and look, you have heard almost from the beginning since the fbi conducted this search three weeks ago, you have heard from republican allies of the former president that essentially there's a category of people who should not be investigated by the justice department. apparently, if you are a former president who is contemplating running for president again, you should not be investigated by the justice department. that's kind of what you're hearing from some of these members. and that's kind of what you're hearing here. you know, it's basically making an excuse for possible violence in the streets. >> yeah, it is. it also raises the question, would they still have this view if it were a democrat in office. >> let's get more insight from our expert, elliot williams, ryan lizza, security analyst bob

baer, and david erenberg. high to all of you. elliot, i'm going to kick it off with you because this federal judge is not ruling out appointing a special master. is it necessary, as evan pointed out, doj has already gone through the documents with a filter team? >> it's a couple things why it may not be that useful at this point to have a special master. number one, doj has had this evidence since august 8th and has probably gone through it, copied it, and put it in boxes at this point, so there's not a ton of use to it, number one. and number two, as we have seen, even if there are attorney/client privilege documents in there, the main point former president trump is making is because of executive privilege documents you need a special master. that doesn't make a ton of sense for a number of reasons starting with the fact he's seeking to exert executive privilege against his own executive branch. the justice department investigating crimes is carrying out executive branch function. so there's a lot of sort of legal questions that the judge

would have to go through and sort out. but the big one is the amount of time that has passed. the justice department has had this. they work with the evidence already. >> and doj has made clear because it is part of the executive branch, the documents belong to it, not a private citizen, even though he was the former president. dave, what do you expect from this thursday hearing? will this trump team request fundamentally impact the investigation or is this just a delay tactic? >> pamela, this is a very trumpian delay tactic. and there's a reason why trump's legal team traveled 68 miles north of west palm beach, two counties north, because they wanted to find a judge they thought would be on their side. and they found the one judge assigned to the ft. pierce courthouse, who is a trump appointee, who was confirmed a week after he lost the election, and then she issued a bizarre preliminary order saying although she hasn't heard from the doj yet, she's ready to grant a special master.

it's unusual to say the least, and i'm hoping as a prosecutor that the trump lawyers, excuse me, judge canon will realize after they get the doj response, that this issue is moot, as elliot said. the doj's already reviewed these documents. so to do a special master at this point would be unnecessary, depli deplicative, and a waste of time. >> let's get to the intelligence review, that's a separate issue under the same umbrella. you said the cia needs to assume that foreign adversaries got a look at the documents. then what does the damage assessment look like and what is the next step for the intelligence community in your view? >> well, they're looking at the reports that trump got from human sources, and on all these reports there's a source description and there's content, of course. if you're smart, it's possible to figure out who the sources are. the cia calls them agents.

as a matter of precaution, the cia would withdraw. let's say you have a source in the kremlin and he's been reporting out and you have to assume that somebody got into mar-a-lago. that place is not secure. and as a matter of precaution, just pulled a person out of moscow, wheefrb that might be, or any part of the world. it's hard to describe what a catastrophe this is for the cia, the national security agency, and so on, because if somebody did get ahold of these highly secret documents, you lose sources and you could get people killed. >> yeah, and also it raises the question of the ripple effect that it could cause other potential sources not wanting to work with the u.s. government, other allies not wanting to work with the u.s. government because of this. ryan, bringing you in here. you heard senator lindsey graham r warning of riots if trump is indicted. what do you think about that? is that a threat to the attorney general? >> well, i think it's -- look, the fact he is raising that when

he knows the act of raising it might make it more likely, it puts the idea in the heads of people, is irresponsible, and so graham is all in now on defending trump. he's now decided that without knowing all of the details about what's in the documents or what the nature of it documents are, he's decided this is the same as the hillary clinton investigation. and the fact there is some classified material found on her server and the justice department under obama decided not to go forward with a prosecution. he's now decided that rule applies here, when as some of our other legal experts here can debate, there seems to be a qualitative difference in the amount of material and how sensitive it was and how poorly it was mishandled. and that's the judgment that the

justice department is eventually going to have to make when they compare this and think about the politics of this to the lack of an indictment against hillary clinton. and i think what trump's fiercest supporters and now graham is in this camp, they want to raise the political pressure on the biden justice department to not go ahead with anything beyond getting the documents back. >> yeah, and they're also suggesting the timing of the search was calculated to right before the midterms. when you heard that over the weekend from republicans like governor sununu, the attorney general has made it clear, political pressure won't influence the doj, but is there anything more that he should do to instill more confidence in this process? >> it's really hard to know what more the taerg could do. he's already frankly spoken out more than most attorneys general ever have with respect to the status of a case. and because of the risk of jeopardizing the kinds of things

we have been talking about here, witnesses, evidence, and so on. so it's not entirely clear what the attorney general could be doing to instill further -- look, if there's any human being in the united states who is not being accused of being too political or too aggressive, it's merrick garland, the current taerg. i attorney general. it's an odd point, this being timed to the midterms. this search warrant was presented to a federal judge who determined and signed off on the fact there was probable cause to believe crimes were committed there. the idea that this was just sort of rolled out and plucked out of thin air is simply not how the execution of search warrants or the approval of search warrants works. it's sort of political silly season right now and you're going to see a lot of that, but the simple fact is a court found this was a plausible search. >> all right, so i mentioned governor sununu, the republican governor. this is what he told cnn. >> my biggest criticism and the

concern of most of the country is where is the transparency? we want to see it. one thing i was very aggressive about was saying if you're going to take unprecedented action and raid a former president's house, you better have a strategy for unprecedented transparency. >> so what do you think, dave? can the justice department be more transparent without compromising this ongoing investigation? >> i thought sununu was oneguys. i guess maybe he wants to run for president too. he's onboard with this transparency argument when prosecutors have to live by different rules than politicians. transparency will undermine a criminal investigation and jeopardize a defend's right to a fair trial. not to mention put witnesses and sources at risk. the whole accusation of a lack of transparency is a political attack, not a legal one. because merrick garland, as elliot said, has gone as far as he can go. he can't really do much more without jeopardizing this

investigation. >> thank you all so much. really appreciate your insight on this. >> coming up, can nasa get its moon mission back on track by friday? that's the next launch window. details of what went wrong with today's planned liftoff, up next. with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein.

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nasa is working to fix an engine issue that forced it to postpone the launch of its historic mission to the moon this morning. officials say if engineers can resolve the problem, a launch this friday is still in play. raichel is at the kennedy space for us. what went wrong today, rachel? >> nasa was contending with several issues today. weather be one of them. they also had to deal with a hydrogen leak, and ultimately what led to today's scrub was an issue with engine number three, and the cooling system specifically for that engine. and nasa had a press conference following the launch window today where they gave a little bit more insight into the difficulty of this mission and what's gone into try to get

artemis one off the ground. take a listen to artemis' mission director had to say. >> this is an incredibly hard business. we're trying to do something that hasn't been done in other 50 years and doing it with new technology, doing it with new operators and teams. we're going to give the team time to rest and come back fresh tomorrow and reassess what we learned today and then develop a series of options. it's too early to say what the options are. >> now, pam, nasa had already set a backup launch window for friday and a backup to the backup on monday. but as you heard mike say right there, they're still assessing the data here and really trying to determine exactly what went wrong. we won't know until they go through those paces and go through that data whether or not a launch on friday is feasible. they may determine that this

failure with the engine here and the cooling system is so significant that they might have to roll back this gigantic rocket behind me to the vab building. that journey in and of itself is 3 1/2 days. that doesn't even include of course dealing with the problem itself, pam. then you would have the 3 1/2 days back out to the launch pad. so a lot of unknowns here about exactly when this launch is going to take off. but of course, it's important to remember this is just a test launch. so it's really important that nasa is learning about the issues that they're running into with this vehicle, because this vehicle behind me has never flown before, pam. this will be its maiden voyage, whenever it eventually takes off. >> hopefully sooner rather than later. rachel, thank you so much. >> and let's get more now with cnn aerospace analyst myilles

o'brien and leroy, what did you make of this delay? did you ever encounter an issue like this in your career as an astronaut? >> on my third shuttle launch, we had quite a few delays, so yeah, we strapped in and scrubbed several times, so this is not necessarily unusual in the space business. but it is quite disappointing because this program, frankly, has been going on in one iteration or another since 2004-2005. the current rocket has been under development since 2010. cost overruns, delays, and now a launch scrub, so disappointing to say the least. >> yeah, there's been so much anticipation for this. the artemis rocket has been on the launch pad for days now. why wasn't this engine issue caught sooner? >> well, they did some dress rehearsals, pamela, and they took it right to the point where this particular issue, the so-called chill down, was supposed to occur, and then they

stopped. they didn't see it in the rehearsals. and they're quite frankly unclear, what we're talking about is the coldest substance we know, liquid hydrogen. you pump it into the engine with the engine not being precooled and you could crack it. you don't want to crack a shuttle engine. that's a really bad day there. so they have to prechill it. and as it turns out, the valves that made that happen weren't working right. they changed the diameter of them from the test they did months ago to this moment now. so they really don't understand exactly what's going on. they're going to work it. this is what those engineers love to do. they love to work problems. they're saying there's a non-zero chance of a launch on friday. but they got a lot of work ahead. >> yeah, so then what do you make of the careful wording, leroy, nonzero chance of a launch on friday? >> well, you know, it sounds like it's definitely a problem with a valve, and frankly, there's no access, very little access to those engines on the

launch pad. there was much more access on a space shuttle, you know, during the space shuttle, because the engines were much more exposed. the most likely scenario is they'll have to roll back to the vertical assembly building, which is a delay of about a month or more, as opposed to being able to access the problem area on the pad. hopefully they will be able to, but i guess it's a non-zero chance they'll be able to, but it doesn't sound likely. >> this is complex. nasa is saying the rocket remains safe, but there's a lot of complexity to that. we heard kristen lay out a scenario which i imagine they don't want, where they have to take it off the launch pad and move it, which would take days and they would really delay everything. how long do they need, do you think? >> they don't call it rocket science for nothing. >> exactly. >> the apollo guys used to say, i'm sitting on top of a million moving parts all from the lowest bidder. in this case, the lowest bidder is going to cost us about $93

billion, but that's another story. this is hard stuff to do. you have the coldest stuff we know going into an engine. out it goes at 6,000 degrees fahrenheit. all kinds of pumps in there kicking out swimming pools in a matter of seconds. so the amount of force that's involved in this are tremendous, and basically, of all those parts, everything has to be pretty much perfect before you light the candle. that's a pretty high bar. >> i think a lot of people think, look, we waited this long to go back to the moon. remind us why it is so important, why this mission matters. >> going back to the moon is a way to bind down risk with the ultimate goal of getting humans to mars. we have the technology to create a program that would take people directly to mars. if you go to the moon first, we haven't been there in almost 50 years. we need to relearn how to land

on another planetary body. it's a great place to train astronauts and the reason it's a great place for those things is because it's only three or four days away from the earth. if you have a problem, you can get your crew back quickly. mars, at closest approach, you're talking six months one way. we really buy down risk by making sure all the stuff we're sending out there is going to work and we have crews that are trained to work in that reduced gravity, reduced atmospheric pressure, and dusty environment. so the moon is a logical place to go. on top of the scientific value of going back to the moon. >> all right, that makes sense. i want to note, i said kristen, i meant rachel who is covering that. thank you both. >> and up next, from confident to concerned. why the top house republican is growing concerned over his party's chances in the midterms. you're in the cnn "the situation room." we'll be right back. our family. zevo is made with essential oils

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house republicans are growing increasingly concerned they will no longer be able to win a massive majority in november's midterm elections. just last year, top house republican kevin mccarthy predicted his party would flip 60 seats. let's bring in manu raju. tomorrow is ten weeks until the midterms. you report that republicans once pretty bullish about a red wave are bracing for a tighter house majority. what are you learn sng. >> expectations changing dramatically in the aftermath of the supreme court decision to overturn roe v. wade. something that has led to increased democratic enthusiasm in the midterms. there had been a significant

enthusiasm gap between republicans and democrats. that has closed. also, some special election races have gone democrats' favor, including with some positive news in polling suggests that perhaps those margins that republicans had been hoping for could be a lot tighter. now, republicans just need five seats to net five seats to pick up the house. that still seems likely. republicans are still expecting that. the talk of getting up to five dozen seats that kevin mccarthy floated last year, seems increasingly unlikely according to more than a dozen republicans we spoke to. they expect potentially 15 to 30 seats. some expect even a single digit pickup, which could mean tight margins for kevin mccarthy. as one prominent republican, larry hogan said this weekend, it might not be a wave we see in november but potentially just a ripple. >> we could blow it by nominating unelectable people and that's what's happening across the country and why the wave is going to be more of a

ripple rather than a tidal wave. why mitch mcconnell is saying we may win the senate. why we were hoping to pick up seats in governor's races and now we're not. it's why the margin in the house is so much smaller. >> and if it's a smaller margin in the house, that could be problematic, potentially for kevin mccarthy, because of the fact that he needs 218 votes to get the speaker's gavel and already a handful of republicans are expected to vote against him, and also passing an agenda would be increasingly difficult in a tight republican majority. there is still time, though, things can still change. but at the moment, expectations changing and a narrower majority in the house seems increasingly likely. >> manu raju, stay with us because we want to continue this discussion. i want to bring in ryan lizza and national politics reporter eva mcken. what are your thoughts on this. how concerned should republicans be that this anticipated red wave is going to become more like a red ripple, as governor

hogan said? >> it's important to keep in mind that we are in august. i have covered enough campaigns to see how quickly the dynamics can shift. keep in mind, many of these candidates have not even hit a debate stage yet. you could have a candidate in a debate say an off color comment and completely change the trajectory of a race. i think it is too soon to tell. what i will say is i see some unforced errors from republicans. for instance, you have some republican candidates flirting with chipping away at social security. when has that ever been a winning strategy for them? never. and then of course, you have the conservative national review today saying that republicans are doing little to explain what they would have the government do differently if they took power. so even in conservative circles, a recognition that republicans are not doing enough to talk about their agenda. >> that's interesting. and ryan, manu sort of touched on this, but when it comes to house minority leader kevin mccarthy, this isn't just about

republicans taking back control, right? he wants a sizable majority. >> yeah, he's got a pretty rambunctious conference, and as manu pointed out, just getting the speaker's gavel will be significantly more difficult if he has a very, very small majority. and then to say nothing if he passes that test, about governing and pushing through legislation when he'll have to really appeal to the house freedom caucus and the most -- the farthest right members of his coalition, if it's a small majority rather than the 60-vote swing he was hoping for. and look, i take eva's points about a lot of midterm elections, we do go through these little cycles where the conventional wisdom starts to shift and everyone says, wait a second, what you think is going to happen might not, so we could just be in one of those periods

and things will flip back to what's normal in a first midterm for a president, which is they lose a lot of seats. but the two historical examples at least in recent history where the president's party bucked the trend were 1998 with bill clinton and impeachment, and 2002 in the wake of 9/11 and george w. bush. that's when big national changes in the atmospherics thwarted the traditional backlash against the president's party. so could abortion be that issue this time? coupled with trump reasserting himself and changing this from more of a choice election than a referendum on biden? could be. >> yeah, it was interesting. i interviewed congressman charlie crist, a democrat, last night. he brought up abortion time and time again. clearly democrats are seizing on that as they believe that might be their ticket to win. manu, i'm wondering, we talked about the house. what about the senate?

are there similar concerns from republicans in the senate? >> there are concerns. look at the map. the republicans really just need one net gain seat. that's it, one seat to take back the senate majority. but the map is presenting problems. even in this seat that they're defending in pennsylvania, mehmet oz is struggling to hold on to that seat being vacated by pat toomey. pickup opportunities such in georgia, herschel walker, he's run a campaign where he's running to hurdles along the way as he has tried to defeat raphael warnock in that state, and another pickup opportunity in arizona, blake masters, the trump-backed candidate there also struggling. you're seeing the mcconnell backed super pac make some changes as a result, scrapping ad buys in arizona to help masters, instead moving money into ohio, $28 million in the fall to help prop up j.d. vance, rookie candidate in that state.

so republicans right now are playing defense, hoping to limit their losses and the majority could be out of reach, but we'll see. >> thank you all. >> and just ahead for you tonight, a major counteroffensive is now under way in ukraine where a military official tells cnn forces have already reclaimed key territory from russia. we're going to have a live update from kyiv right after the break. >> plus, serena williams preparing to take the court tonight in what could be her final match before retirement. we fit your style, with hundreds of design options. bath fitter. it just fits. visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation.

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in ukraine tonight, a major new counteroffensive to reclaim territory in the russian held south, and potentially turn the tide of the war in kyiv's favor, if the ukrainians have it their way. melissa bell is joining us with all the latest developments from the ukrainian capital. so melissa, the ukrainians are claiming they have already taken back four villages from russian forces. what more can you tell us? >> this is also a counteroffensive acknowledged by moscow, speaking of the fact it was failing miserably, but acknowledging it was happening. also, a counteroffensive that has been anticipating. the ukrainian military has been preparing for it for weeks, with strikes on ammunition depots and the bridges that allow forces to cross the denip row river. the town on the other side of the river has been knocked out

by shelling. that gives you an idea of what ukrainians are trying to achieve, trying to recapture the only regional capital that has been captured and remains in russian hands. a lot of attention on the zaporizhzhia power plant and the visit the is supposed to take place later this week by the iaea. for many, it's a nightmare scenario. shells landing just miles from europe's largest nuclear plant. zaporizhzhia's become a flash point in the war in ukraine, with both sides blaming the other for the artillery strikes that threaten the site and neighboring towns. nine people were injured in shelling in the nearby town on sunday night, according to a russian-backed official. last week, shells landed about 100 meters from zaporizhzhia's reactors. cnn is unable to verify who's responsible for the shelling. ukraine claims the site has been turned into a military base.

satellite images today show russian armored vehicles hidden by a reactor. a demilitarized zone not under discussion, according to the kremlin. but some hope is perhaps on the way. early monday, the head of the international atomic energy agency tweeted that a delegation of experts would arrive in zaporizhzhia later this week. they arrived in kyiv today. the mission, 14 experts headed by grasse, one of the few diplomatic agreements to come out of the war so far. >> i think now there is general recognition that we need to be there. we need to be there soon. kyiv accepts it. moscow accepts it. >> ukraine's repeatedly called on russia to remove its troops from the site, with the head of the ukrainian president's office describing russia's actions as nuclear blackmail on sunday. in zaporizhzhia, power has been a concern with nearby fires

twice briefly cutting the plant's external electricity. a total loss of power would be disastrous. >> if we cut the power supply from outside, after that, these generators stop. then there will be completely the same scenario like at fukushima. >> he says that currently, safety systems in place at the power plant remain operational with radio activity levels within normal range. even so, authorities are not taking any chances. in ukrainian controlled territory, exercises this month in case of nuclear fallout. near zaporizhzhia, localled have been collecting iodine pills to defend against the effects of a possible radiation leak. in a land that's no stranger to nuclear disaster, prudence is worth its weight in gold. >> pamela, this is an independent inspection that will

allow not only to figure out what state the zaporizhzhia power plant is in, but also more importantly, exactly what's going on around it with so many counterclaims these last few days between the two sides about who was responsible for the shelling. >> thank you for that. let's get more analysis from retired general mark kimmitt. ukraine is preparing for the significant counteroffensive in the south. how would you assess ukraine's ability to take back territory in this counteroffensive? >> i think if they put enough effort into it, enough ammunition, enough firepower, enough troops into it, they would be able to do perhaps 15 miles into the russian lines. but this suggestion that this would be a major counteroffensive that would go, say, all the way from kherson back up to mariupol, that's not what's being considered here. this is getting the initiative back on the side of the ukrainians, demonstrating that they can attack.

this is barely a campaign offensive, certainly not a major counteroffensive. i just think that everybody ought to be sanguine about what can be accomplished. it would be great to see russian prisoners marching down the streets of kherson. great to see ukrainians taking back the regional capital, but this is certainly not going to shift the tide of the war. >> i want to ask you about what russia is planning. a senior u.s. defense official reacted to vladimir putin's decree to increase the size of russia's armed forces, saying this is unlikely to succeed. do you see it that way? is this war heading to an extended stalemate in your view? >> oh, i have said that numerous times in articles. i think it will be an extended stalemate for a number of reasons. not the least that we're running out of high precision, high-tech weapons on both sides that won't be able to be brought into the battlefield for a year or so. so we're going to see the pace

slow down. i have described it as a world war ii stat ic trench line figh for the most part, and i don't see significant changes over the next year. >> retired general mark kimmitt, we'll leave it there. thank you. >> serena williams on the verge of retirement and potentially playing the final match of her incredible career tonight. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." smart sleepers get 28 minutes more resestful sleep per nigh. don't miss our lababor day weekend special. save 50% on sleep number 36060® limited edition smart bed. ends labor day.

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tonight, tennis star serena williams is about to take the court in what could be the final singles match of her legendary career.

for more on that, let's bring in cnn sports analyst, krichristin brennan. wow, so many of us cannot wait to see what could be the last one, right, singles match, christine. she is ranked 605th in women's singles while her 27-year-old opponent is ranked 80th. do you think this match will be different in reality than it might appear on paper? >> it might be, pamela, because of course, the adrenaline for serena, the emotions, and just knowing that this is the grandest stage you can have in the united states in tennis. the u.s. open, the opening night. it really feels like a prize fight, a heavy weight fight, or potentially even a super bowl, the kickoff of a super bowl. it has that kind of feeling. serena is going to take that all in. the question is, does it power her to new heights? she's had a tough year and a few

months. she's only played four matches and losing three of them. so, she's not the serena of eight years ago, when she last won the u.s. open. does it power her to that, pamela, or does she just get caught up in it as someone who wears her heart on her sleeve and maybe has some trouble keeping it together? obviously we'll know in a few hours. i know the whole nation, of course, is rooting for her to keep going. >> everyone is going to be cheering her on no matter what. it is must see tv for sure. you know, earlier this month, we kn know that williams announced she will evolve from tennis. those are her words. how fitting is it that the u.s. open is expected to be her last tournament and it's the same place she won her first grand slam title in 1999, which you covered, correct? >> that's correct. i was there covering her, 17-year-old serena williams introducing herself really to the country and to the world. here she is four weeks away from

turning 41. and i think it is fitting that she has done this when she said she's evolving to other things. we're never going to not be in touch with serena. she will be a part of anyone's life, all of our lives, for the rest of our lives. she is that force with business, as a pitch person, as a role model, as a working mom. this part of her life may be ending very soon, but there's so much more to come. >> she has transcended, truly, the sport of tennis. when you reflect on her legacy, what stands out to you? >> the power, the strength, the way she changed women's tennis, her serve, everything about that emotion that you see out there, just throwing it all out there. but mostly the power. she serves faster in her heyday, pamela, than some men, really bringing the men's game along with the women's sports and title ix to a whole new level of respect and honor and grace and

dignity, but mostly that power and that speed that she showed us that really changed the face of tennis, women's tennis, and all of tennis. >> absolutely. what an inspiration. christine brennan, thank you. coming up, the justice department says some materials taken in the mar-a-lago search could be covered by attorney/client privilege, even as former president trump pushes for a third party attorney to review these documents. details of all the latest developments next.

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happening now set of materials seized could be covered by attorney/client privilege, according to the justice department, which just issued a progress rereport on its review of the documents. and the intelligence community also assessing that material tonight for potential damage to national security. and nasa's new mission to put americans on the moon for the first time in 50 years hits a major snag.

the space agency says engine trouble forced officials to postpone the launch of its next generation unmanned rocket. also tonight, a dangerous and deadly weekend. the violent crime here in the united states. cities all across the country reeling tonight after a series of mass shootings. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm pamela brown, and you're in "the situation room." we begin our coverage this hour with new developments of the mar-a-lago investigation. the justice department weighing in on materials seized during that search. and determining a limited number of documents could be impacted by attorney/client privilege. cnn's sara murray has more on the justice department's new assessment. >> reporter: the justice department suggesting it's already well underway in digging through boxes of documents seized from mar-a-lago. >> the point is well taken, which is this is too