cnn's evan perez and katelyn polantz are here. the details of this "wall street journal" report, what are you learning? >> right, victor, so we are looking through the "wall street journal" reporting here that where they are saying they're reviewing documents that are included in this court filing or in this search warrant, and that search warrant would lay out what was seized out of mar-a-lago. it would have the receipts of what was taken. that receipt would have been given to the president's legal team, and what the journal says is that it is 11 boxes or sets or classified documents including the highest classification level. some marked at top secret sci, so that's sensitive compartmented information, so that is really among the highest levels of classification in that system for national security, and we also know that that is one set of the documents, there are also three sets of confidential documents, three sets of secret documents and four sets of top secret documents. those are the three different levels of classification

katelyn polantz, we're keeping you busy today. don't go far, we may need you back with all the breaking news we're getting. thank you so much. >>> well, a double punch for some school districts across the country as they're hit with both a teacher and a bus driver shortage. the district is getting hit the hardest up next. (vo) red lobster's seafood summerfest is fire! turn up for the grilled lobster, shrimp and salmon trio ...and our hottest sumr duo, steak and lobster! it's t! don't miss red lobster's seafood summerfest. i got tai last december. i've spent almost every minute with her since. when i first brought her home, she was eating little brown pieces in a bag and it was just what kind of came recommended. i just always thought, “dog food is dog food” i didn't really piece together that dogs eat food. as soon as we brought the farmer's dog in, her skin was better, she was more active, high-quality poops. if i can invest in her health and be proactive, i think it's worth it. see the benefits of fresh food at betterforthem

cnn's katelyn polantz is with us. the fbi says the classified materials were brought to what they called an unauthorized location presumptively within mar-a-lago. what can you tell bus that? >> when you look at this affidavit there's essentially two parts of this investigation. the first part is those boxes they got back, that the national archives got back in january and were alarmed because there were classified documents in them. the second part is the belief that there were still classified documents, national defense information, presidential records that shouldn't be at mar-a-lago that were still there even after that january return of records. and so that's the part that i want to focus on, on these 38 pages there is a significant amount here in a section called there is probable cause to believe the documents containing classified national defense information and presidential records remain at the premises. the justice department is explaining why they need to go in there to do that search, to get back records

we'll wait to see how the justice department responds, katelyn polantz, thank you. >>> we have a busy month of primary that is ending today with voters going to the polls in key races in florida and new york. in florida, democrats will choose who will take on incumbent republican governor ron desantis in november. and in new york city, because the court mandated redistricting, two democrats are being pitted against each other in a primary. one of them at the end will be out of a job. jason carroll is live in manhattan. what are you seeing thus far? >> reporter: well, kaitlan, it's the dog days of kursummer, a lof people are away, not home on vacation. while there are prom imaries go on doesn't mean there's a lot of interest there as you say here in the 12th district, when all is said and done one prominent democrat is going to be out of a job. primary day in new york is finally here, after the supreme court threw out the state's new congressional map back in april, claiming it was heavily gerrymandered. as a result, new york's election for june had to be postponed. now new yorkers are

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. katelyt

>> joining us now cnn's katelyn polantz and gabby orr. katelyn, what have you learned? >> this is an important step in understanding where the justice department investigation is into january 6. what we know now is that there are direct talks happening between donald trump's legal team and justice department prosecutors out of the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. we also know that prosecutors have been interested in getting grand jury testimony of what was happening in the west wing before and on january 6th. we know that they have gone to people from the vice president's office, top advisers there, we also know that

let's begin with katelyn polantz in washington. so, first, walk us through the doj's position on what would be a rare step of making public an affidavit for a search warrant

katelyn polantz just laid out some of the new information that came to light in this letter. it's really about this timeline. >> >> this letter is a big deal, it gives us a lot of information about the timeline. let's start with the letter itself. this letter was sent back in may of 2022 so about three months ago, well before mar-a-lago was searched. it was sent to donald trump's legal team from the national archives. now, people may say why the national archives, isn't that the museum where the constitution is under glass? it's actually more than that, they are legally responsible for gathering and keeping presidential records. they actually have their own investigators, there's basically archives cops so to speak. here is what we learned about the timeline, this goes back to 2021 we learned. archives says in the letter we've been negotiating you throughout 2021 to try to get back those documents that were taken from the white house to mar-a-lago. finally, january of 2022 trump's team provides 15 boxes to the archives. not everything, but 15 boxes. that brings us to the lett

cnn's katelyn polantz and kaitlan collins are tracking the legal development. the first that the former president has made since his private residence was searched. katelyn polantz, let me start with you. what is trump's legal team asking for? >> essentially, donald trump and his legal team want to pump the brakes on anything that the justice department collected and would be going through now in this ongoing criminal investigation. so to do that, they're asking if four things. they're asking for a special master, so a third party that would be appointed by the court to make sure what is collected in the evidence is the sort of thing investigators can use as they continue investigating. he also wants to pause the justice department from reviewing that information, that's number two. number three, he wants a more detailed receipt of the property that was provided to him. we do know that the justice department, the fbi provided two receipts to him, that his lawyer signed at the end of that search when they removed 33 items. he wants more detail about that. and fo

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. we know he's going to speak. we're not sure if it's about the search warrant served on monday. >> that's right, victor. we didn't expect attorney general merrick garland to come out today but he is going to be making a statement from the justice department building in downtown washington. they haven't disclosed yet exactly what it is going to be about, but you're right, there has been pressure building in recent days since this search on monday, this unprecedented search of a former president's home, that we are watching to see whether garland may want to make a statement about this. now, this isn't something that the justice department typically would comment on. it is an ongoing investigation. we don't believe that there have been charges brought at this time. we haven't seen any emerge from this. it's also about national security issues. on top of that, garland is not the type of attorney general that makes a lot of public statements, does a lot of press conferences, even whenever there were charges for sediti

lots to keep track of, katelyn polantz, thank you so much. now to a cnn exclusive, another development, the justice department issuing a new grand jury subpoena to the national archives. sources tell cnn the doj seeking more documents into its investigation into january 6th. >> so this new subpoena is just the latest indication that the department is intensifying its probe and broadening the scope into any potential role white house staff may have played in events leading up to the attack on the capitol. here is our senior justice correspondent evan perez with more on what officials are looking for here. >> this is reporting with jamie gangel, my colleague, and what we learned is that there is a new subpoena that has gone from the justice department, from the grand jury that is investigating some of these issues, to the national archives, asking for additional documents. about three months ago there was an initial subpoena, initial grand jury subpoena asking the national archives to turn over everything they had provided to the january 6th co

cnn's senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz with more on this. >> good morning. two months before the fbi's search of mar-a-lago, a lawyer for donald trump attested in a letter to the justice department there were no classified records to be found on the property, cnn learned on saturday. but despite this claim, when investigators seized the boxes this past monday in this criminal investigation, they found in 11 different places records still marked as classified, including records at three levels of classification, even ones labeled tssci, that would require the most strenuous provisions for seekry around them in the federal government, like only being kept in secured facilities. these new details flush out the timeline leading up to the fabis search of mar-a-lago. we learned of a meeting in june and a subpoena for the return of the records before the search. but this letter from trump's lawyer also adds to our understanding of why federal prosecutors may have seen no other way to resecure the records than to go to the beach club grounds for themselves on monday

katelyn polantz is in washington with the latest on the justice department's investigation. >> reporter: two months before the fbi search of mar-a-lago, a lawyer for donald trump attested in a letter to the justice department there were no classified records to be found on the property, cnn learned on saturday. but despite this claim, when investigators seized the boxes this past monday in this criminal investigation, they found in 11 different praise pl records still marked at classified, that includes three levels even ones labeled as the ones that would require the most strenuous provisions to see dress city si -- secrecy. and these new details flush out the time line leading up to the search of mar-a-lago. we learned just earlier this week of the meeting trump's attorneys had in june and a subpoena for the return of the records before the search. but this letter from trump's lawyer also adds to our understanding of why federal prosecutors made iy have seen n other way to resecure the records than to go to the grounds for themselves on monday. they weren't going to be given back by t

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us now. katelyn, what more do we know about what happens next now that the judge has this in hand? >> reporter: it could be some time before we see anything here from this process, this process where the justice department is proposing redactions from this affidavit that would detail the investigation up to the point where they decided they needed to go and search and seize documents out of mar-a-lago. this filing, it did come in under seal. the judge will take a look at it. there could be days or weeks of wagt ahwaiting ahead for us. as this process goes on, the judge is sitting in for the public, the public interest, the historical interest as well. the media and others are pushing for some level of transparency here because of what we already know about this unprecedented search of mar-a-lago. at the same time the justice department we know that they are arguing for a great deal of secrecy around this investigation. it's an ongoing criminal investigation. one that they want to protect. fir

let's begin with katelyn polantz. katelyn, set the scene for us here. >> reporter: this afternoon, kate, we're going to be listening for justice department prosecutors and how much they're willing to say about this ongoing investigation into the handling of classified material, potentially kept at mar-a-lago after the trump presidency. it is going to be about this affidavit, but this say court hearing over secrecy. the justice department says that this is a serious ongoing criminal investigation. it implicates highly classified materials, and that they need protections of confidentiality to keep their investigation going, to keep doing the work that they need to do to decide whether there should be a charge here. on the other side, media organizations are fighting for transparency, including cnn, and have written to the judge saying there is a public interest here. there is a historic importance regarding this search, not since the nixon administration has the federal government wielded its power to seize records from

let's go to cnn's senior justice and crime analyst for us katelyn polantz, what laws are we talking about? >> well, john, we heard a lot about the presidential records throughout the trump administration. lots of people have complained about the maintenance of documents. that's not what we're talk about here, apparently. there's things that we know here but there are so many questions that still need to be answered. so, the things that we know, they removed documents and paper boxes when the fbi went in, this is pat of the handling of the classified records. some of the things we need to know questions like what were they looking for. why now go in. why not just cut a subpoena or ask nicely for the people at mar-a-lago, trump's lawyers, to turn over the records. and then there's the other question what the full shape of the investigation looks like. when you step back, there are laws that protect federal records things like the presidential records act. but the presidential records act is not the sort of thing that has any teeth that can bring about a criminal investigation, and especiall

katelyn polantz, cnn, washington. >> responded with false hoods to the latest search for documents at his home on his social media network. he said, quote, the bigger problem is what are they going do with the 33 million pages of documents that president obama took to chicago? well, the national archives quickly debunked the claim in a statement it said, quote, assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of obama presidential records when obama left office in 2017. now the fbi search is only the latest legal problem facing donald trump. he's embroiled in multiple lawsuits connected to his time in office and his family business. on friday, a new york state judge refused to throw out tax fraud charges against the trump organization. it's accused the involvement -- it's accused of involvement in a tax evasion scheme going back to 2005. now that trial gets under way in october. >>> and on wednesday, trump refused to answer questions during a deposition for new york's attorney general, invoking his fifth amendment right against self incrimination. new york's a.g. is investigating whether

katelyn polantz, great reporting. thank you. >>> a democratic congresswoman backtracking this morning after saying that she does not believe president biden will run for reelection and she's going to join "new day" in minutes to explain. >>> it's a startling statistic, more than 80% of the u.s. population will experience temperatures over 90 degrees within the next week. >>> and a kentucky fire chief forced to shoot out the window of his pickup truck to escape rising floodwaters before being trapped for 15 hours. we're live in kentucky ahead. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein 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. a monster was attacking but the team remained calm. because with miro, they could problem solve together, and find the answer that was right under their nose. or... his nose. she's feeling the power of listerine. he's feeling it. yep, them too. it's an invigorating ru

katelyn polantz has been covering this since the beginning. new details this morning about what exactly was in these documents and also questions about who had access to them down there. >> what might be in these documents we don't actually know because if they're classified and remain to be classified, we may may never know what's in them. over the weekend we did hear from two different house committees led by democrats calling for both classified briefings to explain what was found here. also they want a damage assessment to be done by the executive branch, by the intelligence community, the director of national intelligence, in fact. i want to go back to what was found at mar-a-lago because it's very important. what we know is that there was a lawyer who attested in june who was working for donald trump who told federal investigators there was no more classified information left there to be found. then whenever the fbi did go in on monday, to do the search of the building, they found 33 items, 11 of which had sets of classified records in t

. >>> first, let's bring in katelyn polantz with more on these newly unsealed documents that i've been looking through. not a ton of words here, but, man, do the words matter, katelyn. >> they do. they always matter. you look very closely at the words the justice department uses in court, when they're talking about ongoing investigations. things like this. and in this case they did unseal yesterday this judge after this push for transparency by the media organizations including cnn the judge unsealed a couple procedural records around this search warrant and the search of mar-a-lago. one of those was the cover sheet for the application for the search warrant, and it laid out all of the specific statutes, the reasons that the justice department believed they needed to go into mar-a-lago and seize these boxes, both as evidence and also as items that were potentially illegally possessed, that needed to get into the hands of the federal government. again, that -- those words, willful retention of national defense information that is on this cover sheet, and those words are the specific par

cnn's katelyn polantz is here with more details on the search and the new information we're learning about one of trump's attorneys signing that there were no more classified documents at mar-a-lago. but we learned this week, according to the fbi search, yes, there were. >> reporter: that's right, fred. so my colleagues, evan perez, kaitlan collins, and sara murray have confirmed this story today, what led to this search and seizure to take boxes out of mar-a-lago that had classified marked items in them. our reporting is that a lawyer for former president donald trump signed a letter in june, around the time of this meeting that they had with the justice department officials that came down to mar-a-lago to try and get back any presidential records, any government records that were still being kept there. and this letter asserted that there was no more classified information stored at mar-a-lago. now, after that, we also know that there was a subpoena that the justice department issued to reclaim anything else that was being kept there, and that there also has been a witness that has

cnn's senior crime and justice reporter kaitlan katelyn polantz joins me now. >> what we're learning is there were pretty serious concerns that law enforcement had. we now know when federal investigators went into mar-a-lago on monday there was an awareness that what they were retrieving could have national security implications if that information had gotten out, and they had taken the step even to obtain surveillance video from the property to see how things were going there. of course this was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. it was known and it was coming several months after the national archives first there were claimed documents that trump shouldn't have had on the prof property in florida. they may not have been completely truthful when they were working with investigators. that's some of what we know now about what was going on leading up to this search on monday. victor. >> so what's the team's explanation of why these documents were at this resort on palm beach? >> well, according to several sources on trump's side, advisers thought it was okay apparently. they w

katelyn polantz, thanks so much. >>> legal questions, there are lots of them. joining me to discuss jennifer rodgers and glen ger tell, he served during both the obama and trump administrations. good to have you both on. jennifer, i want to begin with you. three potential charges that at least the doj says at this point it's looking under here, espionage act, obstruction, but also the willful retention of national defense information. we were talking about this last hour and it was ellie honing's view that those documents would not need to be classified for them to qualify under that particular statute. willful retention of national defense information, which is under the espionage act. do you agree with that? >> i do. it's a separate statute with separate requirements than the statutes that prohibit retention of classified materials without proper clearance. you know, you have to look at these things, i think, as a floor not a ceiling when prosecutors are charging and also when you're listing statutes for something like this, a search warrant, you want to pick

let's begin our coverage with cnn's katelyn polantz, she's live for us here in washington. katelyn, walk us through how much detail we could see in a redacted affidavit. >> well, boris, possibly nothing. i mean, the justice department wants to redact, backout what they say would be clearly everything, it would render this essentially a meaningless document if it to be released to the public. they will be arguing to the judge in the next week about how they want to blackout nearly everything and the judge will have to take a look really closely and determine whether that will indeed be the case, whether we do get to see a version of this affidavit that would be the detailed relatively lengthy narrative that supports the search that took place at mar-a-lago a week ago. so there's that, but even if there were just a couple words released on that affidavit we know in court filings that there are little things that you can glean about an investigation about the work that the justice department is doing and in this there was a document released yesterday by this judge, a pretty p

victor. >> gabby orr, katelyn polantz, thank you. >>> with me is u.s. attorney general under george w. bush, alb alberto gonzalez. we appreciate your time and prech. i want to start here with what peter strzok told us, former deputy assistant of the fbi that a subpoena was likely never on the table to try to retrieve these documents. he says it's never been used to collect classified information. either the agency goes to a subject and says you have these documents, we want them and they're handed over or you get the search warrant to retrieve them. how does this align with your experience? >> i think that that is true. and one thing that i think it's important for viewers to understand is for the attorney general, rarely does the attorney general sign off on a search. in fact, during my time, three years as attorney general, i only signed off on one search, and involved a historic search of a congressman's office on capitol hill, which had never been done before. it's unprecedented, much like this situation, where you had an unprecedented search of the

let's go first to cnn's katelyn polantz with more on this deadline. trump said release the documents, and i'm quoting there. this was after the attorney general said, and i'm paraphrasing now, tell the judge you want them released and they can be. so what is trump's team waiting for? >> that is a great question. we too are waiting to see what is going on, clearly everybody is in a wait-and-see position right now. we're keeping an eye on the court record to see exactly what formal position donald trump and his team will take in court. it very well could be different from what he's saying on social media. but we're also watching the time here. there is a deadline set by the judge of 3:00. that is the time that the justice department needs to be able to tell the court exactly what the position of donald trump and his attorneys would be on whether or not he believes they should be released. merrick garland clearly previously said that this would be in the public interest. but we just don't know what position trump will take. he has a couple options here.

joining me now, katelyn polantz. should we look at this as just complementary to the subpoena to cipollone, or something specific and different they may be looking for from philbin. >> we should be looking at these together at the very least. these two men are people that were there in the crucial days of the trump administration, at the very end, and the one thing that they witnessed that we know of at this point, we don't know a lot about what philbin himself witnessed. we haven't seen him a lot in the house select committee hearings at least, but he did testify to them, they were there for that meeting on january 3rd where donald trump wanted to replace the attorney general. and they were part of the group that said everyone is going to resign if you do that. you can't do that. we're not going to continue investigating election fraud. get over it at this point. so we know he was there for that. we also know, you know, he is in that white house counsel's role with pat cipollone. they are extremely high ranking peop

cnn's katelyn polantz joining us now. we are what are the big questions of what's next? >> what's next is a filing under seal from the justice department today in court. we might not see anything at all today, but we are waiting to see what the justice department does here, what they want to reveal, if anything, regarding what is in that affidavit, what happened in this investigation up until that search. and we are learning even since this hearing last thursday whenever this plan to redact this affidavit was put in place by the judge in florida, we are learning little by little more about what was happening with the archives. so that is that entity in the executive branch that would have been talking back and forth with the trump lawyers until this became a criminal investigation. and really throughout 2021 there was a message of concern that the archives was communicating over and over again. they were negotiating with the trump team and it ultimately culminated in that return of boxes, 15 boxes in january, that when the archives received they were even more concerned

cnn's katelyn polantz joins us

. >> cnn crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz has the details for us. >> good morning. two months before the fbi search of mar-a-lago, a lawyer for donald trump attested in a letter to the justice department there were no classified records to be found on the property, cnn learned on saturday. despite this claim, when investigators seized the boxes this past monday in this criminal investigation, they found in 11 different places records still marked as classified. that included records at three levels of classification, even ones labeled tssci, the records that would require the most strenuous provisions for secrecy around them in the federal government, like being kept only in secured facilities. these new details now flush out the timeline that was leading up to the fbi's search of mar-a-lago. we learned of a meeting in june and a subpoena for the return of the records before the search. but this letter from trump's lawyer also adds to our understanding of why federal prosecutors may have seen no other way to resecure the records than to go to the beach club grounds

katelyn polantz is following this story. what we know from this document released yesterday seems to show that the investigation is focused on the former president's activities. how exactly? >> quite possibly. it is giving us a little bit more information. we got the four documents out of the court unsealed. they don't have a lot of words on them. when there are words unsealed, you look really closely, we knew before from the search warrant that there were three crimes being investigated. espionage act, obstruction of justice, the criminal mishandling of records, one of the pieces here is exactly what part of the espionage act is under investigation. and the words that the justice department used to describe that offense that they have probable cause to do the search for was willful retention of national defense information. so the reason that we believe that that could mean donald trump himself under investigation or as a subject here is because it implies there was someone who had access to national defense information, an

katelyn polantz, thank you for that update. let's dig deeper. joining us, laeyla santiago. she's on the ground in palm beach. what are you learning about the focus of the search? >> well, this search was carried out yesterday morning, and there are still a lot of unanswered questions, as was just pointed out. let me walk you through what we are seeing right now. right behind me, that's mar-a-lago, the primary residence of the former president. you can see his supporters are lining the street right now next to the home with trump flags, yelling trump 2024. saying trump won. that is what we have seen all day today, as well as last night. just hours after the president, the former president himself, made the announcement that the fbi was at his home. so what we have learned, according to sources familiar to the investigation, telling cnn that the target or where the law enforcement agents went in and targeted, the personal corridors of mar-a-lago as well as the offices of former president trump. they were there, we don't know exactly what they were looking for, but we know the

i'm going to go to katelyn polantz. you have the warrants. what else are we learning? >> there's more information in here than we could have expected yesterday. there is three pages that really lay out exactly what was seized from the property of the former president at mar-a-lago, the beach club that is also his home. and is not a secured facility in the way that the federal government sets up secured facilities at this time. and this list, it walks through, there are 33 items here that were seized as far as this list goes. most of them are boxes with labels on them. one is a leather bound box of documents, within it, it appears the way this is written that there are various classified tssci documents that were taken out of mar-a-lago or at least they were labeled as such. tssci is that very high level of classification in the u.s. government, top secret, sensitive compartmented information. it really is the sort of information that is extremely protected and only certain people are able to access it. this is what is under investigation. not necessarily the classified

. >>> let's begin today in south florida, cnn's senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz is there, covering this for some time. we spoke to a lot of lawyers leading up to this and they say the chances of the judge ruling the release this are are low, but we never know. so what can we expect from today's hearing and do we expect a decision today? >> reporter: that's right. you never know, but today what we are really doing in court is we are listening closely to what the justice department has to say about this investigation into the handling of potentially classified materials, presidential records, the justice department let on a little bit so far since this search warrant was released about what this investigation is about. they said it implicates highly classified material, that they want to protect witnesses both past and in the future. they said there is an ongoing grand jury criminal investigation, it could result in indictments. so they are arguing today about secrecy, the justice department wants secrecy. they want it specifically to remain over this affidavit, this

. >> all right, let's begin this morning with senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz, covering this in depth since the start. this national archives letter, takes us back to very -- a year and a half ago, really, and we're learning that even trump's lawyer, pat cipollone, said you got to hand this stuff over. >> this is an example of this message of concern that the national archives was sending to the trump team, essentially for the course of 2021 until this became a criminal investigation. so when you look back at this, this is reporting from "the washington post" first last night, confirmed by cnn, jamie gangel here, overnight, there were 24 boxes of documents that the national archives essentially realized were missing, and there were things they knew were missing that they needed to have as federal records that trump could not keep after the presidency. they weren't his. things like that sharpie gate map of hurricane dorian, where it was drawn, the projected path of the hurricane, things like kim jong-un letters, other letters that trump apparently wanted to keep as mement

cnn's katelyn polantz live in washington with the details on this. >> that's right. the hunt is on for missing documents for the house select committee. coming out of this trial of alex jones in texas the committee has made clear they're looking for that cache from jones' phone, all his text messages in which the lawyers suing him from obtained. representative zoe lofgren said the committee has not yet seen them. this pursuit of records by the committee has become a focus in recent days as they try to figure out more about january 6 and about the trump administration. remember, there have been persistent reports of missing records after donald trump left office, two prominent examples are the deleted early 2021 text messages at the secret service and among political leadership at departments of defense and at homeland security, and then there were also those 15 boxes of white house records found at mar-a-lago after trump's presidency leading to even more investigations. here is what lofgren had to say about it all on cnn yesterday. >> so this was a concerted effort i

katelyn polantz joins me now. what do we know about the substance of these conversations and what position trump and his lawyers are taking? >> well, jim, what we really know here is this is for first time we're able to confirm that they're talking. the justice department and donald trump's defense team. and the reason that this is happening, this is coming in amid all of this grand jury activity that we're seeing in this criminal investigation being run out of d.c. in that grand jury activity we know there are some top witnesses from the trump white house and from vice president mike pence's office who have either been into the grand jury to testify or subpoenaed to come in and testify. that's two people from the vice president's office and then the two pats from the white house office, cipollone and philbin. when they come in to testify, they share what they know, but we know they're not able to share everything that they witnessed. specifically things that trump would have said or may have been said to trump as

katelyn polantz, norm eisen, olivia troy, thank you all for all of the information. really helpful. >>> we're watching the market right now, stocks are sinking even worse than they were last hour after fed chair jerome powell, inflation in wyoming. more on that jt ahead. our health and wellness, onlyhe sleep numbe3600 smart d keeps you co, adjusts for your best slsleep. and tells yoexactly how we you slept. yr sleepiq® score.ur smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. so, you can be your number 360® limited edition usmart bed, plus free homesuy deliry when yoadd a base. ends labor day. ubrelvy helps u fight u se to e allenge.s. u won't ock ou so bring ubrel. it can quickly stop migraine its tcks within hours.. ...whout wryg ift's too late owhere you are. unlikelder medicines ubrey is aill th direct bs protein do not take withtrong cyp3a4 inhibitor most common side effects wereausea and tirees migrneain reef star with len how abbv could lp youave. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhe migraine medicine. won tc: my a1c syed here, it ne. doctor t r

let's begin with katelyn polantz in washington. so, first, walk us through the doj's position on what would be a rare step of making public an affidavit for a search warrant at this stage. >> reporter: right. well, it would be rare to make a search warrant affidavit public, but we are at a point where there is a push for transparency, not just on capitol hill, but the media, including cnn. in court the justice department made a set of arguments and really a couple little details about this investigation that they're saying should keep this affidavit secret, confidential, only for their eyes and for the judge's eyes. in their filing yesterday, they wrote if disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a road map to the government's ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps. we know too they have disclosed in this filing yesterday that they are using witnesses already, that they have spoken with, they're using a grand j

katelyn polantz, great reporting. thank you. >>> let's go back to the search at mar-a-lago. joining me now joey jackson and former federal prosecutor jessica roth. joey, reporting this morning that the fbi took 12 boxes of stuff out of mar-a-lago when they searched it monday. does that seem like a lot? >> look, anything, right, would seem like a lot when it furthers a criminal investigation. we don't know how large the boxes are, how many documents are within those boxes. i think, though, to be misled by the notion that it simply dealt with declassified documents i think would be misleading. i think there is a lot more here that we have to connect the dots to. is there any information in there with respect to january 6th that would further the notion of what he was doing, who he was communicating with, any documents centered around that. so, you know, the fact is that we are in unchartered waters here, right? who goes to a president's residence to take documents? in my view, john, i think the issue here is that indictment -- and i will say it -- i think it's imminent as it r

. >> katelyn polantz is live outside of the courthouse in west palm beach. what should we be expecting here? >> reporter: well, brianna, the focus is back on the justice department this morning as we await what they will say in court to this judge to argue to keep secret this affidavit. now, they already have laid out several serious reasons that they believe there should be secrecy over the details of the investigation that are part of the court record already. they've said that this investigation involves highly classified material, that there are witnesses involved, they want to protect both ones they have spoken to already and also in the future. there's grand jury proceedings that they are bound to keep confidential. now, in this case the judge has already seen what is in this affidavit, read it before approving that search warrant. so the judge could make a decision as soon as today about whether this would think released. at this point in time donald trump's legal team has not taken a position formally about whether or not they want the transparency h

let's begin with cnn senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz in west palm beach. ruling expected today or just the consideration? >> reporter: it is possible there could be a consideration. the judge could rule live in court or could decide to do it at a later time. but i just looked, moments ago, i rereffreshed that page in the court docket. we don't are have anything yet from the trump team what their position will be yet on transparency. we're waiting to see potentially the trump team show up in court. and decide to take a position, say what they want to say, about what might be in this affidavit, why they may want to see it or not. but really the focus here today is going to be on the justice department and the prosecutors, how much they are willing to give if anything else as they try and argue for secrecy. we already know that they are saying this investigation implicates highly classified material, there is a grand jury investigation that is con confidential, ongoing, there are witnesses potentially in the past and in the future that should be protected. th

katelyn polantz joins us from washington with the very latest. katelyn. >> brianna, the justice department filing saying they don't want the release of what backs up it and hints to the seriousness of the information. and those words that it implicates highly classified material, that this implicates highly classified material that really is a confirmation from the justice department that we haven't heard before about the seriousness here. remember, this is an affidavit that is a narrative that explains everything that the justice department believes is relevant they've done so far in their investigation. so they can go to the judge to say, we have probable cause to go into mar-a-lago and seize potential evidence of three different crimes. the three crimes they outlined the espionage act, the mishandling of national defense information, obstruction of justice and also the criminaling mishandling of federal records. so, those are the things that they believed they would find evidence for, that would be explained extensively in this affidavit. and

>> katelyn polantz, thank you so much for that. >>> i'm joined by a legal analyst and former los angeles county prosecutor lonnie kooms. what do you make from what we just heard from katelyn there about this letter from a trump lawyer claiming in june that all the classified documents had been returned to doj. we now know that was not the case. 11 sets of classified documents going up to what's known as top secret sci, which is one of the highest levels of classification. >> that's right, alex. first of all, i think it really fills in some of the gaps of the timeline that was just laid out there. we knew there were these conversations going on back and forth between donald trump's attorneys and the investigators. there was this face-to-face meeting in mar-a-lago. there was this subpoena. they were trying to get the documents. then something changed because they all of a sudden switched to the search warrant, which is the most invasive way to get these documents out. if they got this letter back from june from one of his attorneys saying we have no more classified documents, that's it, bu

>> joining us now cnn's katelyn polantz and gabby orr. katelyn, what have you learned? >> this is an important step in understanding where the justice department investigation is into january 6. what we know now is that there are direct talks happening between donald trump's legal team and justice department prosecutors out of the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. we also know that prosecutors have been interested in getting grand jury testimony of what was happening in the west wing before and on january 6th. we know that they have gone to people from the vice president's office, top advisers there, we also know that they've subpoenaed to the grand jury two people from the white house counsel's office including the white house counsel himself, but what is standing in the way of getting all of the information that prosecutors want are claims that donald trump is trying to make about executive privilege where he's trying to protect statements that were made to him or that he said on these crucial days that are being investigated. so those claims of executive privilege, that

. >> katelyn polantz, jessica schneider, thank you both. let's bring in senior legal analyst elie honig, and joshua school, president of bow wave llc. ellie, let me start with you, i want to get to process later, let's starting with this reporting from "the wall street journal." your biggest takeaway from this list in this new reporting. >> the fbi seized from mar-a-lago documents of all different levels of classification, from the lowest level, which is confidential, to the highest level of the normal classification level. that is a big deal. we've heard reporting along these lines for the last several days. according to "the wall street journal," there are documents confirming that. the "b" story is, the description of the areas of mar-a-lago that the fbi was allowed to search, there is no specification of the basement or the safe, according to "the wall street journal" reporting, so it seems they went in there with a fairly broad mandate. >> josh, let me come to you now. one set of these documents marked as top secret sci. what documents

. >> katelyn polantz, thank you so much. joining us to discuss is elie honig, former u.s. assistant attorney. do you think the justice department is doing the right thing, trying to block release of this affidavit? >> well, jake, i'm not at all surprised doj is resisting this. this affidavit, so people understand, is the single most important document in this whole case. this is the document where prosecutors have to lay out in detail in narrative fashion what their probable cause is to believe that the crimes we have seen in the prior documents were committed and that there would be evidence at mar-a-lago. and then they bring this document over to a judge who has to review it, and we know in this case did agree it made out probable cause. just for a sense of context, the documents that were unsealed on friday, they total seven pages. this affidavit typically will be dozens of pages, 50 pages, i have seen 100-plus page affidavits. there's only two groups of people who have this document. prosecutors and the judge. donald trump does not have it, we don't have it in the publ

cnn's senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz joins us now. the national archives says the documents were not returned, despite the fact that pat cipollone, advising the president then, white house counsel, said trump should have handed them over. what more did we learn? >> this is the back story, this is a year the national archives spent trying to get boxes of federal records back from mar-a-lago with this concern building and the trump side just not helping for months after the presidency ended. "the washington post" unearthed this email from the archives general counsel, the archives was writing to trump's lawyers in may 2021, they believed top trump white house officials realized two dozen boxes of records had to be returned by trump to washington, and there were many emails and phone calls trying to get those boxes back. the archives knew they were looking for certain things, like the hurricane dorian forecast with a sharpie drawn on it, trump's letters with kim jong-un and they wrote to trump's lawyers, may 2021, roughly two dozen boxes

. >> katelyn polantz our reporter read it that doj really means that they really don't want this released. one other issue i want to bring up here, overnight, the reporting that trump organization cfoalen weisselberg is apparently in a plea deal with prosecutors for jail time against him. and there are reports that this will not involve the plea deal investigation against donald trump. >> yeah. there's two types of plea deals. there's the cooperation plea where you agree to testify against other people. then what we call a straight plea, you plead guilty, get a reduced sentence and go home. allen weisselberg, a longtime financial officer of the trump organization, pretty clearly the effort here was to put a charge on allen weisselberg, try to flip him. he's going to plead guilty, and not testify against trump. that could have eliminated the greatest chance of donald trump being charged criminally in manhattan. >> the trump organization is apparently not charged in this, they're charged separately. thank you very much. >>> rudy giuliani has been informed he's the target of a criminal inqui

let's get straight to katelyn polantz. i want to read part of this document. it says, quote, if disclosed, the affidavit would serve as a road map to the government's ongoing investigation providing specific details about its direction and likely course in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps, unquote. that suggests that anyone that thought maybe the u.s. government was just trying to get these top secret documents back, that no, there's going to be more. >> that's right, jake. i mean, we're seeing this filing just come in. we haven't seen what a court will do yet with it. whether they will agree with the justice department, but the justice department really is trying to hint at the seriousness of this investigation and also that it is an ongoing grand jury investigation. there could be other investigations that result from it. and that they have done extensive work already. i too want to read a couple other things in here because there is a lot of information, if not detail itself, about the investigation, but there's inform