we are learning the fbi seized the cellphone of a republican congressman in relation to the january 6th investigation. more on that in a moment. but first, just in, the former president is about to be deposed. sometime in the next few hours donald trump will face prosecutors from the new york attorney general s office. this is the culmination of a civil investigation into the trump organization s finances that has lasted for more than three years. investigators are probing whether the trump organization used false or misleading asset valuations in its financial statements to obtain loans, insurance benefits, also tax benefits. kara scannell who has been all over this story for years joins us now. great to see you. so the former president being deposed. what can we expect today? it s a big day and a long time coming. sources tell us that donald trump will be deposed today, will face off with the lawyers from the new york attorney general s office and, you know, this is som
law. but what caused this search now? what triggered the apparent approval of attorney general merrick garland and fbi correct director christopher ray, what can we read into this? searching the home of a former president for possible crime would require approval by the justice department and a federal judge would have to agree probable cause has been committed. we have not heard from the doj, that s not unusual, of course, the news is drawing a surge of criticism from republican backers with house minority leader kevin mccarthy even vowing revenge against attorney general merrick garland. cnn s leilayla santiago begins coverage. live outside of mar-a-lago with the latest. leyla. reporter: brianna, if you think about it, it was this time yesterday that fbi agents were going into mar-a-lago. and what exactly they re looking for, what exactly came out of the home. here s what we know so far. we know according to sources familiar with the investigation this was related to pr
florida property in part these are was not necessarily for appropriate. it s important to note that the search would be required for top as well as the fbi director chris wray. according to a person who s familiar with the matter, the search focus on trump s mar-a-lago cnn has learned that officials were examining where documents were stored and that some boxes were removed from that resort in mar-a-lago cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins is in washington senior correspondent outside of president trump s mar-a-lago estate. caitlin, let s start with you. there are two note just a different estimation that are connected to trump. and then the removal of those classified documents to mar-a-lago after he left the white house. this search that took place yesterday were told is about the latter. about those documents. what does this tell us about where that investigation is handled. it s a very dramatic escalation. you have this search president
attorney to oversee the review of the evidence confisicated from his home. so walk us through this heavily redacted affidavit. ned reeka, good afternoon to you. it was heavily redacted, but you know what? there was a lot of stuff we got to see, which is great because this is such an important investigation. transparency is critical. so this was what the fbi was telling the judge why they needed to do a historic search of the former president s home down in florida. they were making the case that basically classified documents had been found before and there might be more to come. take a look at these numbers. this is what they said were recovered from mar-a-lago earlier this year. 67 confidential documents, 92 secret. and going in order from the least classified to most, 25 top secret. and all the experts have said that it s those 25 top secret documents that really made their skin crawl because of what else was in that affidavit. that affidavit explained specifically some
donald trump s mar-a-lago home. in it, shocking new details. the fbi telling a judge that there is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contained classified ndi or the presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the premises. there is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises. the affidavit also revealing startling details about improperly handled documents that were marked with the highest levels of security clearance. as a former cia guy, it sends chills up and down my spine when i hear that there is hcs information in somebody s basement and not secured. it is really bad. hcs standing for human intelligence control system which is a classification designed to protect people working around the world for the u.s. government. in 14 of the 15 boxes retrieved in january by the national archives, 184 documents had unique classification markings. 67 marked add confidentia