about this breaking news of donald trump removed from the ballot by the secretary of state in maine. our coverage continues with erin burnett outfront right now. outfront next, breaking news. donald trump removed from maine s ballot. we are reading through this decision right now. plus newly revealed e-mails and audio recordings showing how team trump made a chaotic and frenzied push to overturn the election. and five years in russian captivity. cnn has new exclusive audio of paul whelan making a desperate plea from behind bars directly to president biden. let s go outfront. good evening. i m erica hill in for erin burnett. breaking news tonight. donald trump kicked off another state s 2024 ballot. maine s democratic secretary of state just moments ago issuing a decision which bars trump from that state s ballot. she cites the insurrection ban. the decision can be appealed in state court. an appeal that is almost guaranteed given trump s legal team had already demande
ahead. i ll speak with the family of paul weiland, another american, the kremlin has locked up on espionage charges and a group of military families gets the tragic news. nine service members killed when two black hawk choppers crashed. cnn has a crew right near that save. plus tension in the house from paper tossing to hallway shouting in your face. debates are getting heated on the hill. welcome to the lead. i m pamela brown in for jake tapper, and we start today with our world lead. top u . s. officials are strongly criticizing russia after an american reporter was detained on charges of spying. evan gersh covic appeared in a moscow court today accused of trying to steal russian state secrets. his employer, the wall street journal, says it quote vehemently denies those claims. but now gorshkov itch faces up to 20 years in prison. and today , lawmakers on capitol hill are accusing russia of using this journalist as leverage, and the white house is dismissing the charges.
brittney griner is pleading guilty to drug charges stemming from that february detainment at the moscow airport. she faces up to ten years in a russian prison unless negotiations can get under way for a prisoner swap. more on the reporting from the new york times overnight that former fbi director james comey and his deputy mccabe were both subjected to intensive, intrusive irs audits during the trump presidency. the odds of a single person being selected for that kind of audit are one in 30,000. for two men who basically had the same job, well, it s kind of like winning the worst lottery. certainly raising suspiciouses about the trump appointed leadership at the irz. we begin with keir simmons. how are the people reacting to this shakeup? another at the top of their political leadership. reporter: there will be those who are breathing a sigh of relief. there will be those who are disappointed because he s a colorful character. there are people and many people who liked
politician up ahead of reelection this monday. now the nation will be holding his funeral. president biden paid a visit to the japanese embassy yesterday saying he was stunned, outraged and saddened by the former prime minister s killing. and he had this to say about the assassination on japan s security. we re going to learn more about, as time goes on, about motive, about the whole japanese, prime minister is a stable ally and we, do not believe it s likely to have i don t know yet likely to have any profound destabilizing impact on japanese security or japanese solidarity. when we look at this, japan one of our key allies, particularly in this region and particularly militarily with all that goes on with chinese efforts to expand. and a lot to talk about on a global scale. absolutely, and i think that hearing the outpouring from so many world leaders about the legacy of abe, japan s youngest prime minister when he took over and the longest serving when he was don
so, if convicted, he faces up to five years probation and a minimum of five days in jail. other than that, it doesn t offer many new details about the crash or what exactly happened that night. for that, why have the new york times, believe it or not you have may have missed the fashion. elvis fashion boundaries and avatar wearing prada you would find a very important story buried near the bottom. a story containing many new shocking details about nancy pelosi nancy pelosi s dui arrest. you may be wondering what s fashionable about drunk driving? how did that end up in the fashion section? i guess if you are going to smash up your porsche you have got to do it in style like pauly p. we can assure 82-year-old he looks pretty good after totaling the sports car he has the sports coat. the article was spoon fed to the times by pelosi s clean up team to make paulie look like a victim. that s right. and i use the term pelosi s team very loosely because we re not really sure n