afghanistan s capital city to show you what life is now like under taliban rule, and asking afghan leaders about a known terrorist who lived in their midst. plus, what may be a silent spread of polio. the virus detected in new york city waste water. why health officials fear hundreds of cases may be out there. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper, and we start today with our politics lead and an avalanche of major developments when it comes to trump s attempt to overthrow democracy. giuliani has been informed he s a target of whether trump and his allies tried to break the law and overturn the election in georgia. he s scheduled to appear before the grand jury on wednesday. this news comes hours after a federal judge ruled lindsey graham of south carolina must testify before the very same georgia grand jury. graham s legal team had been arguing that graham did not act inappropriately when he phoned georgia election officials after the 2020 election. georgia secretary of
brittney griner was sentenced to nine years. they know there s a real desire to get her out. i don t think they re under the same pressure to get viktor bout out. they can let this play out a little bit and they re going to and try to milk it for everything they can get. so i wouldn t hold my breath. i don t think it s going to go on forever, but i don t think it s going to be tomorrow either. griner s legal team filed an appeal after she was sentenced to the nine-year sentence for drug smuggling charges. how do you see the appeal playing out? is there any chance she could have her conviction overturned or time reduced or do you agree with those who are allied with trevor reed, recently freed, who said this has nothing to do with judges in russia. this is all determined by the fsb and political leaders? i think it s highly unlikely that her appeal will be successful. she s of course got a lot of arguments, all of which were presented to the court at first instance, but they were un
i would not hold my breath for success on appeal. she might win a few points, but i dont think she s going to get a significant reduction in her sentence. you talked about how the russians like symmetrical trades. viktor bout, he s a threat to the international order. a drug smuggler, weapons smuggler. paul whelan is falsely accused of spying and brittney griner had less than a gram of cannabis oil. surely there must be two russians in americans prisons who are closer in symmetry to paul whelan and brittney griner in the charges than viktor bout, no? of course, there are. if you re talking about substantive symmetry, we don t have that in any kind of exchange here. they will say it should be two for two. it s unfair for us to give up two for only one that you re sending back to us. so i think that s absolutely right. but they, again, i think they feel they have a lot of leverage because we really want to get whelan and griner home, and rightfully so, and i think their
they say there s a mechanism in place, and they certainly don t want to get any details out in the public. they say if any details get out, exchanges can t take place, jake. does griner s appeals process stand in the way in any way of any potential swap? i was talking to her legal team about that today. they certainly don t believe that it does. they were the ones who originally said they believe a verdict needed to be in place against brittney griner. that s happened. she was sentenced to nine years in a russian penal colony. they also say with the appeal they filed today, that could be withdrawn at any time if there s some sort of exchange. they also say they re not part of any prisoner exchange talks. they don t know whether or not those talks are going on, but they hope they re going on because the appeals process can still take a very long time. can take a month or two, and there, like in general in russian courts, the acquittal rate or the reverse rate of verdicts certainly i
underfunded anyway. through the extent they have to spend more money on him because of his celebrity status he may not be a favorite of the corrections officers have to deal extra with him because of that and you are right. these type of strip searches and everything else they are going to do to him because of any interaction he has is going to be more of a hassle for the system and these people are not particularly sympathetic to somebody who is causing them more time effort and work. so it s both sides, from the guards and possibly from the other prisoners. tom, what about the issue he has now, an appeal and another trial for double homicide. he has all this coming ahead of him. i guess take the appeal for starters. does he have a chance whipping his appeal? he certainly has a chance. he had some very good defense attorneys who have an excellent record when it comes to success on appeal. i have to assume they raised every appropriate objection they come the problem is the jim. the