this ridiculous 44-page indictment. under the presidential records act, which is civil, not criminal, i had every right to have these documents. putting aside the fact that that s not even in the indictment, if it were, does that does it absolve him of any of this it? it doesn t. the presidential records act, the idea that it absolves him is upside down bizarre-o world stuff. it says that all official records from a presidency are the property of the federal government, the national archives the moment that president leaves office. one expert put it to me, the fact that former president trump violated the presidential records act doesn t prevent him from being charged for allegedly violating another law. there are two other problems of fact. he not actually threatened with 400 years in prison. federal sentencing doesn t work by adding up the maximum possible sentence for each
the order doesn t prevent him from campaigning. it doesn t prevent him from defending himself. all it does is prevent him from disclosing or posting the contents of evidence in the case on social media and has some other restrictions as well. he was pretty hard and fast about that date as well. he was hard and fast, and said you can t substitute lawyers unless they re prepared to go forward on that date too. several outlets as well, politico, new york times reporting trump s attorneys they want to meet with a.g. merrick garland about the classified documents probe. what kind of hint does this give you about that ongoing investigation? i think it corroborates the reporting. it underscores that the reporting is probably real that jack smith is nearing the end of that investigation, but it also tells me that they re spoiling for a political fight as well as a legal one, by asking to meat with garland who really isn t in charge of that investigation. they re trying to set him u
his covid rebound. in a way, it does get complicated by his isolation, but that doesn t prevent him from take picking up the telephone or even scheduling a zoom conversation with senator sinema and we will have to wait and see if that what happens. the white house has adopted a posture where they no longer like to talk about which lawmakers president biden has been talking to, who he is trying to cajole one way or the other on legislation or anything that he wants congress to produce, so if something like that happens, we will probably most likely hear about it from someone on capitol hill. the president s has played more or less a hands off role to get this part of the deal done, waiting in the wings and my money would be on phone rather than zoom. he notoriously hates zoom. darlene, thanks for getting up early for us this morning. today is the final full day of campaigning in five states that will head to the polls for their primary elections
this hour, concerns that there are potential targets at risk by cutting homeland security funds. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. we begin with deadly new clashes today in syria as security forces try to break up anti-government protests in a number of cities. human rights activists say that at least 34 people were killed. they say to end the crackdown or get out of the way. here is arwa damon. reporter: wolf, when we see the images coming out of syria, the path that the regime continues to take seems pretty clear. they are aiming to clear. a voice yells off camera. this is video said to be from the city of hopes, which has seen many protests in recent weeks. it was posted to youtube. cnn cannot verify its authenticity or when it was shot. but one opposition activist told cnn on friday that the security forces fired straight in crowds of demonstrators and the syrian human rights information link reported a mounting death poll throughout the day. a simila