this after the u.s. justice department informed the former president he s a target, a target of the probe. also tonight, washington, d.c. monuments are shrouded in haze as wildfire smoke from canada drifts to the nation s capital. we re tracking this air quality emergency as it moves into the mid atlantic and threatens the health of tens of millions of americans. and the flood disaster in ukraine grows even more dangerous as the region is rocked by shelling and the kyiv government accuses russia of shooting at rescue workers. i ll acquit white house official john kirby about that devastating dam collapse and the broader state of the war right now. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin with donald trump apparently in imminent legal peril. once again, the u.s. justice department moving toward a final decision on indicting trump in the classified documents probe after alerting the for
record, there are some ties here to d.c. of course the records belong to the government, which is based here. we know the documents were removed allegedly from the white house. it gets a little tricky. for former president trump was still president trump when he left washington. it s not clear if the fact that the government was located here is enough to bring the case. all this grand jury activity down in florida. that s where the bulk of the alleged criminal conduct appears to have occurred. you can move a case, but it takes a while. you have to read the grand jury in. they have to hear all the evidence, and that can take quite some time! in addition to that, there is currently a case before the supreme court. it s been argued but not decided yet, that really raises the stakes for prosecutors on this decision. as paula indicated, there s a much stronger argument for venue in florida than there is here in d.c., and that case will determine what happens if the prosecutors make the wron
here than to florida. he would have to go there for an appearance, if that is where the charges come from. they re kind of looking through that right now, they have basically accepted that this is something that is likely, i have talked to people who have spoken to him in the last several days. they say he s pretty angry. it s not surprising given that he is on the verge of a potential indictment, we believe, and his attorneys got this letter that he is indeed a target. it does raise a lot of questions of what this looks like going forward, and also just how critical that audio tape is. that s what we keep going back to, how that s changed here. we just learned a few days ago about this second grand jury. it was only about two months ago that the trump team learned of the audio tape. they did not know about it until someone got asked about it when they were in the grand jury in washington. that s part of the evidence being read in in florida. remind us, paula, about this audio tape b
long, we went from a period in this investigation where they were shocked when the search warrant was executed at mar-a-lago last august, but when the documents situation happened with the former vice president and with president biden, they thought they were in the clear. obviously very different situations. they no longer think that, and it s just remarkable how much that has changed, and i think a lot of it has to do with what we reported about that audio tape with trump talking about classified information. they re moving pretty quickly at this final stage of this. elaborate a little bit, paula, on why there are now two federal grand juries looking into trump on these various issues, one in washington. that s been going on for quite a while, a new one in miami. that s right, the bulk of this investigation has been conducted in washington, dozens of witnesses have traveled here to testify before the grand jury. this is where the special counsel is located. when you choose where
what he s specifically talking about. reporter: special counsel prosecutors are also still calling witnesses in the january 6th probe. including steve bannon, who was recently subpoenaed to testify about the events in and around the insurrection. all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. just understand this. all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. that bannon subpoena is yet another sign that jack smith s two investigations are on two different time lines. the january 6th probe is still calling key witnesses and appears to have a ways to go. the classified documents probe appears to be in its final stages while we await possible charges. wolf, as you know, some people thought he might try to wrap up both investigations, but it appears based on our latest reporting that s unlikely to be the case. the classified document is apparently going to go first, that investigation. thank you so much. paula don t go too far away, we ll come back to you in a few