new york. we have a lot of news to get to on this busy friday morning including a seismic development in the special counsel investigation into former president donald trump. his vice president, mike pence, appearing before the grand jury probing his former boss s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the matter. this morning, new reaction including this from a member of congress who investigated the capitol attack. i think that the vice president has a lot of information. i have no doubt really that he answered the questions openly, honestly, and fully. plus, russia unleashing on ukraine overnight with the worst strikes in weeks. the death toll still climbing at this hour. we re on the ground in that war-torn country with a live report. and later, extreme weather, the iconic yosemite national park closing over fears a massive snow melt could lead to unprecedented floods. intense flooding also suspected to have caused this train dera
transportation secretary pete buttigieg will visit that ohio train derailment site one day after donald trump. the lead starts right now. big names descend on a small town, east palestine, ohio, the scene of that toxic train wreck. norfolk southern vows to help but critics know how much the company is giving victims versus company investors for stock buybacks. plus after the speeches and fanfare, ukraine left with the realities of war. do you have any idea how many bodies you have taken back to their hometowns at this stage? cnn s clarissa ward is on the front lines for us with the somber work of returning bodies of fallen ukrainian soldiers to their families as russia s brutal invasion nears one year. and a coast to coast winter storm. ice and snow and conditions not seen in some spots in 30 years. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper and we start in east palestine, ohio, where the fallout from that toxic train wreck starts to get messier by the hour and i don t
century we would have evolved enough to be able to say there is a no one size fits all response to the sexual assault experience for a victim. it didn t work for somebody like harvey weinstein, right? it didn t work for bill cosby. it didn t work for other people like r. kelly. in this instance, though, to your point, ana, it s a civil case and kind of what i wanted to remind people is it s not just the sexual assault rape offense. it s actually also defamation, but unfortunately for e. jean carroll, i think what s hard for a juror is to say to prove the defamation, you have to prove the underlying rape, and i think a lot of people kind of operate when you re a juror in this mind-set that it s a criminal charge, even though it s a different burden of proof. so i think that s the real uphill battle for e. gene at this point, despite being attacked by big joe tacopina, it s going to be difficult for her to be able to overcome these old stereotypes because
evidence to the department of justice. i hope the department of justice looks into it and holds people accountable. let s talk about that republican candidate running in indiana. her name is jennifer ruth green. she was running for congress last fall. she had her military records revealed during the mid-term campaign, which basically forced her to publicly discuss a sexual assault she experienced in the air force. so these improper releases can have consequences beyond just politics. yes. and i really appreciate you bringing this up or following up on it. she was victimized twice. she didn t want to live through this sexual assault experience again. it was her private matter. she didn t want to have to deal with it, but the democrat operatives somewhere along the line released this data, she had to respond to it. i thought it was victim shaming by the democrat headquarters in d.c. i don t know about her opponent.
recommend? no more italian kissing on the forehead and the cheek rushed back and maybe come up with a new policy in any way affect everything that has been detailed by the attorney general letitia james? no, it doesn t. that is window dressing from the governor, he is accused of serial sexual harassment and the same man accused of touching women in inappropriate places, using someone s sexual assault experience, sexualizing it, these are serious allegations and that he would be designing a new sexual harassment policy under his tenure making new york government to be the hallmark of addressing sexual harassment is just too rich and ironic and hypocritical. he is going to have a lot of pressure rained down on him. we artie heard from senator kirsten gillibrand. i anticipate we will hear from the white house press briefing from jen psaki. she will certainly be asked about this and asked about those comments that sandro referenced with president biden making very