today. so, there s a lot there for the president to update the world on, update the united states on, on what he believes is essentially the status of this situation, because just yesterday, we have been hearing from sources that they believed an attack was more likely than not and if it did happen, it would more likely be significant than insignificant so whether or not that is still the case or if they ve seen evidence of de-escalating on russia s behalf, those are the big questions for biden. nic, to you in moscow. what should we make of these comments today from president putin that he prefers diplomacy and his claims that they re moving troops away from the ukraine border? reporter: yeah, i think when we speak about the troops, you know, one of the other things that the army said today here was that they still have the massive military operations ongoing, so they re making it very clear while there s some reduction by those units sort of finishing their training, there s still
their own legal exposure and that s why they re finally coming clean about some of this st stuff. we have some breaking legal news. jeffrey toobin, stay with us. jurors have found the new york times not liable in sarah palin s defamation suit against the paper. cnn s brian stelter joins us now with an update and jeffrey to been sticks around. first, tell us about this verdict. that s right, the jury greeting with the judge. this time yesterday, the judge came out and said in a rather unusual move, he said, i believe this case does not have merit. sarah palin s lawsuit does not have merit. basically, he was saying this shouldn t have gone to trial but it had already gone to trial and after seeing all the evidence, he said this was not adding up. the jury has now said the same thing. the jury says the new york times is not liable in this case and that even though the new york times screwed up when they wrote about her in an editorial in 2017, there wasn t enough evidence that
original version of the story, the times said that palin targeted put targets on congressmen, including gabby giffords, who was later shot. that was not true. the sarah palin s political action committee put targets on congressional districts but not on individual representatives. this libel suit was a classic example of how the law currently protects journalists, ever since a famous 1964 case in the supreme court, it s been difficult for public figures to win lawsuits because they have to show that the journalists act with reckless disregard of the truth. that s the key phrase. both the judge and the jury here agree that the new york times did not show reckless disregard for the truth. some conservative lawyers, two
income tax and property tax returns. it s a crime to file false statements, even if you wind up paying the tax or paying back the loans. it is a crime. it is a felony to submit false documents to get a loan or in a tax return. and that s the problem. but that s what i mean. i mean, mazars. doesn t mazars have some legal liability here, some responsibility that they were allowing this fuzzy math? potentially. the issue with mazars would be, did they know the material was false? did they know they were getting false information? if that s the case, they do have potential liability. but if they were simply provided false information by donald trump and his colleagues in the trump organization, i don t think they have liability. but they have been cooperating with these investigations, and clearly, the attorney general,
justices on the supreme court, clarence thomas and neil gorsuch, have said the law is too protective of journalists. we need to change the law. so, as this case works through the appellate process, it may be an opportunity for some conservative judges to try to cut back on the protections, but at least as the law stands now, it s protective of the press, and both the judge and jury agreed that sarah palin s case did not have merit. all right. jeffrey toobin, brian stelter, case with significance both journalistically, constitutionally, and of course politically as well. thank you both. thanks. well, russia claims it s pulling some troops back after military exercises. vladimir putin says he s ready to discuss what he calls confidence building measures with the u.s. and nato, but many global leaders are skeptical. that s next.