safe in documents probe. unusual move handily under scrutiny. win the past 24 hours have been a doozy. it was yesterday evening when the former president, donald trump, put out a rambling, chest, pounding feet stomping statement, announcing to the world that the fbi had raided, his words, his florida home. a so-called law in order president decried the search, and called it a witch, out and even gave a shout out to hillary clinton. but her emails! he did let the world know a fascinating detail, that the fbi got into his safe. as part of their search. so, let s take a step back, now it s been 24 hours, technology seriousness about happiest day. justice department officials didn t just wake up yesterday and say, hey, let s sum send some federal agents to search the past presidents home, because we think a crime is committed there. but this hour as long as search means, is that law enforcement had to convince a federal judge that there is probable cause that a crime was commit
crime was committed. so, this is a very big deal. make no mistake about it. former president trump has already blasted the move, claiming, as he often does, political persecution and a witch hunt. in a statement released tonight, he says, quote, these are dark times for our nation, as my beautiful home, mar-a-lago in palm beach, florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of fbi agents. nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the united states before. after working and cooperating with the government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. such an assault would only take place in broken third world countries. they even broke into my safe. cnn has learned donald trump was not in florida when the fbi closed in on his home. he was at trump tower here in new york city. i am joined now by cnn political analyst matt haberman, a cnn political correspondent for the new york times, and author of the up
2010 and 2012. and he saw, since this should have been on the board yes go away, twice, before they gotten in 2014. so, he s definitely [inaudible] so, this is a triggering moment for mcconnell. yes, exactly. thank you, chris. thank you for joining us this hour. we have a lot to get to. tonight, a judge in florida says he will likely release a redacted version of the fbi affidavit behind the search of donald trump s florida country club home. new york times justice department reporter katie benner joins us live. and in a new york courtroom, trump s longtime top executive pleads guilty, admitting he conspired with the former president s company to not pay taxes. and now he will testify against the trump organization. to craig, the new york times reporter who has led the reporting on down from finances, is here in studio tonight. and, he is a member of the biden cabinet, dispatched to take the presidents case to republicans and fox news. transportation secretary p
but first, we start in september of 2015. donald trump was three months removed from his famed escalator ride announcing his presidential bid. he had already risen to the top of the republican field, leading in all the polls, and he found himself showing off his trump tower office to the wall street journal. this is shaquille o neal s shoe. oh my god! is that a real issue? he took it off after he handed it to me. i carry like this. tom brady s super bowl helmet. wow. this is mike tyson s belt. shock shoe! tom brady s super bowl helmet, mike tyson s belt. we have known for a while that donald trump likes to collect memorabilia, if you will. and so when trump arrived at the white house, well, it was no different. here is the new york times today describing trump s time in office. quote, white house aides described how excited trump was to show of all the material he had access to, including letters from the north korean leader kim jong-un, which he routinely waved
investigation as the testimony, of course, of them, themselves, as well, giving evidence about the coordination of trump s plans leading up to and on the day of the riot, about who spoke to the president that day, who also was in the when things were happening and what the president may have told them. maybe communications about what exactly was happening inside of the white house over those nearly 187 minutes. well over three hours. filling in the gaps. gaps between when donald trump told his supporters to go to the capitol and when he tweeted a video to the rioters telling them that he loved them and to go home. now, we know that s the very focus of thursday s primetime hearing and we have someone tonight who knows the people who were in the white house with then-president trump during those three hours and he knows them quite well. trump s former active chief of staff nick mulvaney, he knows matthew pottinger, one of trump s deputy national security advisors scheduled to t