starts today. we love getting nightly news with lester holt backs appeared we love your work, and the diplomacy. indeed. have a good weekend, you, too. welcome to the beat. let me start with something serious. law enforcement sources still us that alvin bragg has received a formal death threat, through a letter that was a littled to him that set, quote, alvin, i m going to kill you, end quote. it contained a white powder. it s been deemed by authorities as nonhazardous. this is what s happening. we talked about last night why it s not a drill, why these threats don t work historically, but why donald trump, who is under investigation for abusing power, for inciting an insurrection, is now back at the same playbook. he is out online, using his plate form. talking about depth and destruction and posts violent imagery. the probe is part of a much larter legal storm. and we re going to report on these always. we have to understand he s moving from a position of extrem
yet happened. the lead starts are right now. republican officials rushing to defend trump with a variety of claims and chexcuses as the forr president faces a possible indictment. i think in your heart of hearts you know too that this you can this is just political. is this all firing up the maga base? we ll talk to two former trump insiders. plus, meeting with a menacing message, leaders of russia and china coming out of their second day of talks and offering deliberate prolposals about a future collaboration. and a colorado dentist accused of killing his wife by lacing her protein shakes with arsenic, how his internet searches became evidence. welcome to the lead, i m jake tapper. we start with our politics lead and a high alert day for new york city police bracing for possible unrest if donald trump is indicted. an internal memo shared with cnn shows that all nypd officers are expected to be in uniform and ready for deployment today, although law enforcement
tax officials for more than a decade. now the new york attorney general wants the business dissolved. trump is also running out of options into the ongoing investigation of classified documents seized from his mar-a-lago estate. they ruled the doj can resume looking over those classified records. it no longer needs to submit items to the special master, rejecting arguments from trump s legal team. two of the judges on the panel were appoint bid trump. let s begin with kaitlyn polantz following the story. kaitlyn, it s a big win for the doj. what does this mean specific lip for their on going investigation of those classified documents, how they were held, why they were held and any criminal consequences? jim and poppy, the justice department now gets to do exactly what they wanted to be doing all along which is reviewing those 100 or so records taken out of mar-a-lago that have classified markings on them, and the federal appeals court that ruled last night, the major thi
and cancellations at airports across the country just as folks are trying to get home from the holidays. charles watson is live at the airport in atlanta. charles, you know, i don t know, was it one hour or two hours ago you were giving an offering the workers there a round of applause. did you go and shake their hands? i hope so. i haven t gotten around to that just yet. i will in just a short time. it is absolutely packed here at the atlanta airport. this is a taste of what we re seeing, long lines like this. folks have been lined up at these delta counters trying to check in and drop their bags off so they can make it onto their flights. with the massive crowds and the weather delays not only are these folks in for a busy day but they could be in for a miserable day. that is possibly the outlook at airports across the country. thousands are still facing flight delays and cancellations as airline disruptions continue to build in large part due to the deadly arctic blas
of covid isolation. the predominant symptom is a sore throat. this is a president who has at this moment a mild respiratory illness. this is really good news. i m pamela brown in washington. you re live in the cnn newsroom. dangerous heat and a state of emergency. the oak fire explodes near yosemite national park in california. in fact it has devoured more than 14,000 acres and is zero percent contained since it erupted friday. at least ten buildings are destroyed and thousands more are in danger tonight. the wildfire rages as much of the country deals with extreme heat including triple digits in part of california. more than 90 million people are under heat alerts. new york has registered at least one heat-related death. some cities such as boston and newark, new jersey, have seen the mercury exceed 100 degrees. we have reporters and meteorologists nationwide covering the heat wave and the changing climate. cnn s pole o sandoval is in new york. reporter: new yorker