mar-a-lago. leyla, tell us about this search because it was a complete surprise to everyone. reporter: right, and today, a day later, we re starting to hear everyone sort of give their thoughts on that. the family, the trump family speaking out. we ll let you hear from eric in just a bit, but also here on the ground. i can tell you you re really starting to see that political divide. a lot of supporters coming out, as and so yeah i ve heard multiple times trump won as folks drive by. i ve also heard people say lock him up. just behind mar-a-lago, which is right there, the primary residence of the former president donald trump, you re starting to see protesters but overwhelming supporters who are coming out in reaction to the news. so something that is clearly riling up his base. in terms of the search warrant itself, the execution of the search warrant by the fbi, there are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered. we know from sources familiar with the investigation
engaging in political persecution, but we know a federal judge had to sign off on this search warrant. it wasn t just the fbi acting on its own. and before it was even in front of that judge, the highest levels of the doj including the trump appointed director of the fbi, likely had to approve the action. we also know that the fbi met with trump s legal team in june about white house documents that were being stored at mar-a-lago. so the key question in this mystery now is, what changed between that june meeting and yesterday? it was big enough to compel the fbi to move. cnn s leyla santiago is live outside mar-a-lago. you re learning more about the timeline and what led up to the search. fill us in. it s important to go all the way back to the beginning of the year. january, where we start to see this timeline unfold, when we know that president trump s team was interviewed by the fbi. and that s when they really started to look into what was a lot of records believed to b
former president. donald trump revealed the news last night saying fbi agents were at the mar-a-lago residence earlier in the day and cracked the safe. the fbi did not dispute it carried out a search warrant at the resort. the justice department and the fbi field offices declined to comment. a source familiar with the matter tells nbc the search was tied to allegedly classified information he took with him from the white house and trump said the search was politically motivate jd the former president was at trump tower in new york city. nbc news learned he will have dinner tonight with a group of republican house members. joining us now is nbc news senior national correspondent kerry sanders. ken delandian, barbara mcquaid and chuck rosenberg. ken, what more do we know about this search and the investigation? jose, sources are telling nbc news that this stemmed from a referral made by the national archivings to the justice department when they retrieved 15 boxes of presiden
also tonight, there s growing frustration inside the biden administration right now, as the kremlin refuses to engage with a u.s. offer to exchange brittney griner and paul weelan for a russian arms dealer. i ll speak with a key white house official john kirby. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. let s get right to cnn s exclusive new reporting on the u.s. justice department s criminal probe into january 6th. federal prosecutors preparing to fight in court to force former white house officials to testify about their conversations with then president trump. our senior crime and justice reporter kaitlan po lance helped break the story here in the situation room. this could be the clearest sign yet that justice department is honing in on trump s efforts to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. walk us through your exclusive reporting. well, wolfe, evan perez and i are learning from several s
doj cross hairs. cnn learning tonight that cassidy hutchinson, the aide to former white house chief of staff mark meadows, is now cooperating with the department of justice s investigation into donald trump s efforts to overturn the election. now, this is a major development, because of course, you know, hutchinson was a key witness for the january 6th committee. her testimony there providing a window into trump s state of mind in the days leading up to, and in those crucial moments of january 6th. she was in the room for some of the most damning and important conversations, including one that shows that trump knew that his rally could turn violent, because his supporters were armed. i was in the vicinity of a conversation where i overheard the president say something to the effect of, i don t care if they have weapons, let me people in, they can mar to have the capitol from here. knew they were armed and take the mags away, head for the capitol. ty cobb told us, if this