>> this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. we have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we're learning more every single day, and we'll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion. let me close with this simple message. if you are vaccinated but still worried about the new variant, get your booster. if you aren't vaccinated, get that shot. go get that first shot. >> the president delivering his remarks after meeting with top u.s. health officials in the oval office. here's what we know. omicron is seemingly spreading fast in southern africa, and it is showing many troubling mutations. the world health organization has now labeled it a variant of concern, but here are the key questions we don't know. does omicron make a person sicker? does this variant evade existing covid-19 vaccines? right now it's simply too early to know and it could be a couple of weeks before we really do have answers. the variant has not yet been detected in the u.s., but officials warn it is likely only a matter of time. it has been found as close as canada and a growing lives other countries. also growing scrutiny over travel restrictions now imposed by the u.s. and many other nations for countries in southern africa. leader there calling the bans unjustified and outrageous. we have cnn teams covering every angle of this new variant and our health expert dr. jorge rodriguez is standing by. let's go to phil mattingly with more on what the president just said. phil? >> i think there's a couple key takeaways, three bullet points from the president and you hit on the first one. yes, this is definitely a cause for concern, an inevitably that omicron will end up, that variant will end up in the u.s. if not already here at this point but it's not a reason for panic. the second being that the most effective way to battle that variant when or if it arrives in the united states is through vaccines fanned for those already vaccinated through boosters. keep in mind nearly 60% of the u.s. population is currently vaccinated but fewer than 20 sprs gotten the booster. the president pressing for those individuals, particularly those vaccinated before june 1st to get that booster and something he's also doing is he and his team are working with vaccine producers to move forward with updates if necessary. they would be ready. the president making clear that the uss working to do whatever they need to do to address this. take a listen. >> dr. fauci believes that the current vaccines provide at least some protection against a new variant and the boosters strengthen that protection significantly. we do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed, but so that we are prepared if needed, my team is already working with officials at pfizer and moderna and johnson & johnson to develop contingency plans for vaccines or boosters, if needed. thursday i'll be putting forward a detailed strategy outlining how we're going fight covid this winter, not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more. >> so ana, obviously all eyes will be on the president and the white house on thursday as he lays out the plans. meantime, he says he does plan to be briefed on this issue by his covid team every single day this week as they move towards thursday's announcements from the president. >> phil mattingly at the white house, thank you. let's now talk about the new u.s. restrictions on travel. nick neri is live in atlanta at hartsfield jackson international airport. nick what, countries are on this list of do not travel to the u.s., and what has been the response where you are? >> reporter: yeah, aprila, these travel restrictions impact eight mostly southern african nations, places like south africa where the variant omicron was first identified earlier this week as well as zimbabwe, namibia, the country formerly known as swaziland, among others and the u.s. is not the only country taking action proactively against passengers coming from these nations, but, of course, it is our focus here, and it's caused a lot of outrage among public health officials and those members of the public health community what we have spoken to who question the effectiveness of these travel restrictions of stopping the spread of omicron. some in the public health community have suggested it might be more effective for the u.s. to further help places like south africa get vaccinated, but, of course, here the big question is there any additional screening that passengers will have to go through as these flights continue from the hometown airline of delta? they say they are business as usual and continue with their flight schedule. of course, u.s. citizens and permanent lawful residents as well as spouses and children of those groups are exempt from these travel restrictions, but we don't know what the cdc will be doing once these passengers get here. they haven't gotten back to us. we did hear from the airport though earlier who says that they are very much so ready and this is what they told news a brief statement earlier, ana. >> as was the case with prior health-related health bans hartsfield jackson is working with the state department of public health and others to prepare for the inbound flights from nations impacted by this new strain. ana. >> nick neri, thank you. we will stay in touch with further developments. let's go to south africa now where outrage over these travel bans is growing. cnn's david mckenzie joins us with reaction from african leaders. david, what are they saying? >> well, aprila, there's deep anger across the african continent that the travel bans and restrictions, not just from the u.s. but from countries and territories from across the globe. you know, president biden said that this is a way to buy time for american scientists to avoid the impact of this variant. well, the scientists i've been speaking to time had already run out. the clock had already stopped by the time the south african scientists warned the world about the potential dangers of this variant and that anger continues. take a listen to the senior scientist. >> it's outrageous that, you know, south african, southern africa is being punished for having good surveillance. if you think about, you know, what we've experienced with the delta variant, within a matter of three weeks it was in over 53 countries. so it -- it's going to become superfluous and irrelevant to try and block travel from a few countries because it will be spreading in many other countries. >> reporter: it could take two to three weeks to figure out just whether this is something to worry about or this is all just a big false alarm. those will be agonizing weeks. ana? >> david, thank you investment joining us now to discuss all of this is dr. jorge rodriguez, board certified internal medicine search and viral researcher. dr. rodriguez, let's just start with what we heard from the president, his words, his plan, urging vaccinations and boosters, reassuring americans that his team is already preparing, if needed, for contingency plans if the current vaccines don't work as well against this variant. what do you think about president biden's approach right now? >> well, i think that the words were very reassuring, but i want the public to realize that this is something that is of concern this. variant has mutations that have been part of other you mootations and variants, and if they are sort of synergistic, if they work together, it could be a variant that is both very effective in the way that it spreads and perhaps more dangerous. now, again, we don't know that, but, you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. what i think is most important about what he said is the fact that vaccinations is the key to, a, decrease the spread and decrease knew tagsz, and my god, we've been talking about this for a year and a half. the virus mutates when people get infected. it doesn't mutate in the air, so even though you've got infected and you did fine, guess what. you may very well have contributed to mutations that will be stronger, so there is no such thing as a good infection even if you survived it with minimal symptoms. >> when you say mutations that could be stronger, what exactly do you mean by that? >> well, i mean, that the omicron mutation has productsly 30 different mutations in the spike protein. the spike protein, imagine a ball with many spikes. the spike is where the virus connects to the human cells, and it has productsly 30 mutations, some which have already been seen in delta, for example, and in alpha, and some of those caused the virus to be much more efficient in the way it spread. some of it made the virus a little bit more dangerous and how sick it made people, and the omicron contains 30 mutations and some of them we've already seep in others, so they all work together, it could really be a very bad variant. >> so we know that omicron has already been detected in five continents, including north america. it's in canada. so does this u.s. travel ban on solely south african nations make sense. >> it does to me, to be quite honest. i think it's unfortunate, but i disagree with some of the doctors in south africa. if it is already here and probably it is already here to some degree, we don't need to increase the amount of virus of that type because it will just snowball even faster, but what it does bring to light is the fact this is one world, and if part of the world is stick to the point that it is creating more mutations, we are all at risk. therefore, the solution is two-pronged. we need to have more vaccine equity throughout the world asap, right, and we also need to stop this misinformation in this country where we're lucky enough to have vaccines and boosters so that we don't make matters worse. >> but is it punishing countries for good surveillance and sonning the alarm early. could this travel ban move ultimately backfire? >> you know, it -- it does seem punitive in that way, and it is unfortunate. it is unfortunate. that's all i can say. backfiring, i don't know how that can be, but at the end of the day, every country's main responsibility is to its citizens, so i can't fault any country, whether it's the uk or canada or australia or the u.s., for protecting its citizens first and foremost. >> but as we mentioned canada has a case. we know uk has some cases now. spain was the latest that just identified a case within the last couple of hours, so it's obviously spreading beyond the borders of the african continent. alternatively i just wonder, because you mentioned this. we keep hearing that getting your shot, getting boosted if you haven't already, that is the best defense, right, so why not move to require vaccines to fly? could that be more effective? >> why not. i say yes, absolutely. so, for example, south africa, if you're in south africa and you're an american citizen you can return without being tested. i think that makes no sense. i think all air travel should require vaccination and should require negative testing within 24 to 72 hours of flying. let's face it. the reason that perhaps this pandemic has not become worse than the spanish flu is because, a, we have technology, but it could potentially be so much worse because how we're all interconnected. >> as we wait for answers on how effective the covid-19 advance evens are against this new variant, what should vaccinated people be doing? do we need to make some adjustments? we just got through thanksgiving. should we be changing upcoming holiday plans? >> not yet, but i think we need to be very vigilant. i think the next week or two are going to tell the story. for example, the pharmaceutical companies couple and say hey, guess what. the vaccines that you took do not protect you very well against this variant, then i think it would be the most prudent things for people, even if vaccinated, to change their plans. the last thing they want is to harm family and friends and people they love, so let's keep an eye and our ears open to see what the news is going to be over the next week. >> such an important point. we just don't know enough yet. dr. rodriguez, thank you so much for your expertise and for joining us today. >> thank you, ana. u.s. markets bouncing back a bit after friday's big selloff and holiday shopping is off to a very strong saturday, but will this new variant throw a wrench into the recovery? we'll discuss. and the trial for the socialite accused of helping jeffrey epstein groom underage girled. when to watch for in the trial of ghislaine maxwell and what the justice department is trying to stop steve bannon from witness tamp energy a potential january 6th investigation. to m. with service i could trust. right, girl? 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>> no, i don't think so. i mean, investors understand that the economy is tethered to the pandemic, i mean, the delta variant that we dealt with a couple months ago did a lot of damage to the economy, slowed growth and juiced up inflation and there's a possibility that omicron becomes more of a deal here and becomes a new wave of the virus and does a lot of damage to the economy. despite what we saw on retail numbers, they were up f40%, wha does that tell you? >> the delta wave has passed us by and we're seeing a lot of jobs being created and wage growth is strong. stock market close to record highs and housing values very high. people have paid down debt. the only fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that and other than that consumers are riding pretty high and i don't think omicron. too late in the season to do damage and it should be an excellent holiday shopping season. >> sounds wonderful. we're still seeing some issues and president biden is expected to see that later this week. do you see omicron making that worse on that front? >> sure, it could. you know. we are seeing signs of improvement in recent weeks. shipping rates have come down. there's still a traffic jam in l.a. long beach port but not as bad as a few weeks ago so we've made a lot of progress. aprila, again, the economy is very closely tied to what goes on with this pandemic, and if omicron does become an issue, if it creates another wave of infections and hospitalizations, then, yeah, it's going to scramble supply chains again and going to make people sick so they can't go to work. it's all the things we saw with delta we'll see again, so, you know, something we need to watch very carefully. >> and keep our fingers crossed that that doesn't happen. seep it before. there's a new variant. reaction is swift. travel bans put in place, but i want to ask you something like i asked dr. rodriguez. do you think it would be better to just mandate vaccines to travel? would that lead to more stability and actually be better for the travel industry? >> well, that seems pretty logical to me. you know, the vaccines work. we know that. and you know i think if people were vaccinated we'd seed less waves of infection and that has to be the goal if we're going to get the economy back to full swing and supply chains where we want to see them and inflation back down. need to get on the other side of the pandemic and the most logical way of getting there is get people vaccinated. >> thanks so much for taking the time. pleasure you have to with us. >> sure. >> she's accused of grooming underage girls for jeffrey epstein and his rich powerful friends. now she's finally on trial. what we are learning on day one of this trial involving ghislaine maxwell next. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire your eyes. beautiful on the outside, but if you have diabetes, there can be some not-so-pretty stuff going on inside. it's true, with diabetic retinopathy, excess sugar can damage blood vessels, causing vision loss or even blindness. so remember this: now is the time to get your eyes checked. eye care is important to your long-term diabetes management. see a path forward with actions and treatments that may help your eyes— and protect against vision loss. visit noweyesee.com and take control of your sight. ♪day to night to morning,♪ ♪keep with me in the moment♪ ♪i'd let you had i known it, why don't you say so?♪ ♪didn't even notice,♪ ♪no punches left to roll with♪ ♪you got to keep me focused♪ nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. wayfair's biggest cyber monday ever is now on. yes! score unbelievable savings. like area rugs up to 80% off. living room seating up to 70% off. and ge appliances up to 40% off. plus tons more limited-time deals. and free shipping on thousands of products. our cyber monday is happening now through december 3rd. shop the event of the season. only at wayfair.com ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ no, he's not in his room. ♪ ♪ dad, why didn't you answer your phone? 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>> reporter: well, ana, the judge has just sworn in the jury, 12 jurors and six alternates. now they are at a lunch break, but when we return in half an hour from now prosecutors will begin with their opening statements. they say that they expect it will take 25 minutes to lay out their presentation of the evidence. maxwell has been charged with six criminal charges, three counts of conspiracy, one count of enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and a second count of the transportation of those minors to engage in illegal sex acts and another count of sex trafficking. if convicted, she could face decades in prison. prosecutors have accused maxwell of helping her one-time boyfriend and longtime accomplice jeffrey epstein, help him recruit, groom and sexually abuse girls, some as young as 14 years old. prosecutors are expected to call during this trial four of the alleged victims. they will testify under pseudonyms to protect their identities since these crimes happened when they were underage. maxwell's lawyers will have their shot at this right after the prosecutors finish their opening statements. they anticipate they will take about one hour to give their defense to the jury. we're eagerly awaiting to see how we're going to outline that one element here. looks like they are going to call expert witnesses to attack the wednesday and the accusers' memory of these events that took place 20 years ago. her lawyers will lay out their defense in this right after the prosecution. then they will start the testimony and we're expecting to hear a witness called as soon as those wrap up, so we might hear one or two witnesses today. ana. >> okay. there will be a lot to cover here. thanks for being our eyes and ears. joining suscriminal defense attorney sarah azari. six charges, a lot date back to the 1990s and a lot of activities that took place decades oak. how much of a complicating factor is that for prosecutors? >> yeah, ana. it is somewhat complicated. you know, the scope of this trial is very limited. this is not about, you know, the enigma of jeffrey epstein. it's really about whether maxwell groom and lured these four girls who are women now, girls underage at the time, tone game in sexual activity knowing that they were minors. the prosecution has a burden beyond a reasonable doubt to prove that she was a co-conspirator and she participated in this traffic scheme. what's really interesting this indictment, ana, that you pointed out, you know, it's very picturesque. page 2 has a picture of the two co-conspirators being epstein and maxwell not something that you've seen in an indictment and followed by the properties that is the crime scene and the government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that epstein did these bad acts with minors and maxwell lured and groomed them into the trafficking, right, for him to do that. the government's exhibit number 52, ana, is really sort of interesting. it's maxwell's black book. i'm not sure if we actually will see the book or if it's black, but it contains information that the prosecutors believe will be able to establish maxwell's knowledge about the sexual activity and the age of the girls, and then, of course, the expert testimony is key because prosecutors will bring up the idea of grooming, how that works in a child sexual abuse case, and the defense will get up and say what the hell is grooming other than what you do with your dogs, just being kind and nice and generous and really interested in these girls' lives does not mean you're doing for the purpose of sexual activity with epstein, so it will be interesting to see this battle of experts. >> right. you mentioned that little black book that we weave heard about that epstein kept with names and contact information. there is supposed to be testimony at the very least about that black book, but we also know already that he associated with high-profile people, former presidents, trump, clinton, prince andrew, among others. do you think we'll hear from any of those high-profile names during the trial? >> i mean, you know, tangentially maybe but judge nathan has really limited the scope of this trial to the particular sex acts with these four women that were minors at the time, so unlike, for example the cosby trial or the weinstein trial where we saw a parade of other accusers to come in to establish prior bad acts, i don't expect to see that here. it's unlikely that the judge will allow testimony to go that far into other people, revealing other names, and, again, to your point about the memory being back -- going back to the '80s, you know, the memory expert for the defense, someone that i've actually relied on, her expertise, is going to be fascinating testimony because she's essentially going to come in and say you can't believe everything that these accusers are saying because their memory have distorted because it's been contaminated and her testimony, ana, is very critical in cases that are historical and high profile, you know, going back decades. >> and given that maxwell is being tried essentially as a co coconspirator who died a couple years ago, how could that affect the trial at all? >> they say you're selectively prosecuting her because he's dead and there are other co-conspirators who cooperated, not even defendants in this case, not even witnesses. we're not going hear from them though the evidence is supposed to come in against maxwell. the defense is going to say you singled her out because he was a close confidant, a girlfriend, but it's really about epstein, not her. >> and we heard how quickly this trial is supposed to get under way today with opening statements followed by even some witness testimony and yet this trial is expected to last about six weeks, we're told. why so long? >> you know, aprila, in typically a trial of this sort would last a couple of weeks, but we've got covid issues, right? we've got a new variant. we've got safety protocols that have to be followed that will inevitably lengthen that time and also it's a high-profile case so you have a lot of procedural layers that are added that just add to the time. if i were to read the tea leaves i would say it's going to go beyond christmas but at the earliest we'd wrap up right before the holidays. >> we saw some of the jury pool coming back today with some issues around the holidays and travel plans and what not and the judge essentially said you're going have to reschedule those travel plans. thank you as always. nice to see you. appreciate it. all right. back to our top story and international reaction from the omicron covid variant. israel is shutting its border yet again to travelers, yet it's moving forward with the miss universe pageant despite one contestant testing positive. balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (man 1 vo) i'm living with cll and thanks to imbruvica (man 2 vo) i'm living longer. 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one that fits your needs and your budget? call humana now at the number on your screen for this free guide! it's just one of the ways that humana is making healthcare simpler. and when you call, a knowledgeable, licensed agent-producer can answer any questions you have and help you choose the plan that's right for you. the call is free, and there's no obligation. you know medicare won't cover all your medical costs, so call now. and see why a medicare supplement plan from a company like humana just might be the answer. fireworks in the steve bannon criminal contempt case. the indicted trump ally wants to release document, potentially hundreds of pages, he gets from the justice department as he prepares for trial. prosecutors say this is part of bannon's plan to try the case through the media, and they don't want him to go public with certain information collect as evidence. they tell the judge it would, quote, expose witnesses to public commentary on their potential testimony before trial and allow a witness to review summaries of other witness statements recounting the same event or events. let's discuss with cnn senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elie honig. also with us cnn legal analyst and former justice department officials carry cordero. the prosecution argues this would essentially amount to witness tampering. is the doj on solid footing here? >> i'm not so sure, ana. i think the prosecutors are overplaying their hand here. in any case prosecutors turn over the evidence to the defendant. have you to do that. we call it discovery, and for the most part defendants are free to do whatever they want with this discovery, to pass it around, put it on the internet, unless the prosecutor goes to the court and gets what we call a protiskt order which limits what the defense can do, but that's a fairly rare case. i almost never did that in my case. you have to be able to show if this evidence gets out there it's going to significantly tamper with your wednesday or taint your jury pool, and i'll not sure prosecutors have made that showing here. they have alleged it, but i don't see i do recall we saw a order back in the roger stone case. so how is this different in. >> so there is a different type of gag orders. one could limit the discovery and the other would limit what the person said outside of the courthouse. steve bannon has made inflammatory comments about the prosecution. defendants are allowed to do that. roger stone put up an image of cross-hairs an the judge up on social media. if it gets to that point, that is when you expect to see a gag order. don't think steve bannon is there yet. >> and while the january 6 committee moved quickly to hold bannon in contempt, we vent seen it like with mark meadows. here is what we're hearing from the chitty on this. >> i expect that there is going to be movement on mark meadows that we'll know about shortly, in the next day or two days or so. and i think that people will be very pleased with that. >> i think we will probably make a decision this week on our course of conduct with that particular witness. an maybe others. >> and the committee has made clear just as we do with steve bannon, that we're willing to use whatever means necessary. and so, i think that is something that we'll have better clarity on here in the next week. >> carrie, how do you think the select committee should handle the meadow's problem. should be he held in contempt. >> i think the members are previewing that they are prepared to make that criminal referral. but i do think there is a a wide av.a. of individuals that fall in between a steve bannon and not in any official capacity and mark meadows who was the chief of staff. from my perspective, mark meadow does not have valid claims for reasons and not testifying and complying with the committee's request. but i do think that the justice department will have a little bit of a harder time moving through that case and deciding to prosecute a former chief of staff. there is other individuals that i would suggest that the committee could move more incrementally and go after the individuals and make the referrals of the individuals who were not government officials and then create a stronger record of criminal referral based on this investigation. >> i guess, elie, given what we have learned about meadow's role, sending a coup memo to a pence aid and coordinated with stop the tale, how could the committee just accept they won't hear from him. >> this is a great question. i think mark meadows is the most central witness here other thap donald trump himself. he was chief of staff at the time. but the problem i'm sensing some distinct shakiness from the committee. let' remember, they subpoenaed mark meadows over nine weeks ago and two weeks ago adam schiff said they will move quickly, they just wrote him a sternly worded letter and so here we are. are they going to back their subpoenas and carrie makes a good point the justice department has to decide whether to prosecute and mark meadows could be a difficult decision. i think the committee doesn't want to get left out on a limb where they've recommended contempt charges and doj is hesitant. >> so we should hear within days what they're planning to do as we just played in the sound bites. but carry, we're also waiting to learn whether the national archives have to turn over records to the january 6 committee and tomorrow is when the appeals court will hear trump's case. how do you expect this one to play out. >> from my perspective these claims of executive privilege by the former president is not valid. an that is because the president, the current president, president biden has already made the decision. there is one president, there is one individual who holds that authority. so president biden has already directed that these materials be released. this is an opportunity for the appeals court to actually uphold the credible executive privilege which is the authority of the current president to make those decisions. >> so, carrie, what is the next step? are the documents released immediately. >> the former president could try to take the matter beyond the appellate level and up to the supreme court. but there would be a decision whether it would need to go up to level. hopefully the appellate court will issue a definitive opinion that upholds the current president's authority to make these decisions. and the documents will finally be released consistent with what president biden has directed the archives to do. >> separately there is still the ongoing criminal problem in new york into the trump administration and this has gone going on for years. take a listen to michael cohen just yesterday. >> every statement that i make, i'm backed up with document sarry evidence. you believe they could indict donald trump tomorrow if they really wanted and be successful. >> andeli, he said he give investigators thousands of documents and spoke to them for over 400 hours and they could indict tomorrow and what do you think. >> i disrespectfully disagree michael cohen. the number of documents, the amount of hours, isn't really what it is about, how precise and reliable could information provide to investigators. it is one thing to say donald trump was crooked and he knew everything that happened and it is another thing and what prosecutors need is proof that, okay, this transaction right here, donald trump was involved and it was a fraud and he knew it and here is how we could prove it. if if he hasn't done that, they won't indict. >> we have breaking news on the the january 6th committee and that investigation. ryan nobles is with. what could you tell us? >> reporter: and this falls in line with the conversation you're having right now. the committee just announcing that they plan to meet on wednesday night to formally vote on a criminal context of congress referral of jeffrey clark, that is the former doj official who was a close ally of the trump white house and working to pedal falsehoods about the election results within the department of justice and pressuring some of the higher ups at the department of justice to try and use the ability and power of the department of justice to investigate claims of fraud that really had no basis in reality. now clark was subpoenaed by the committee several weeks ago. unlike some of these other subpoena targets that the committee has dealt with, clark did appear and he did come for his deposition. but as soon as he walked into the room, he and his attorneys attempted to claim executive privilege, they also attempted to claim some for the of attorney/client privilege that they said would prevent clark from testifying or answering any questions to the committee. and he abruptly left that meeting. the committee did not accept those claims that he and his attorney made and made it clear that they were willing to take whatever steps necessary to get them to comply. it seems as though they feel that clark is unwilling to do so and that is why they're taking this step. so what this means in terms of a timeline, anna, the committee will meet on wednesday night, they will read the resolution that will set in motion this criminal context referral and vote it out of the committee and it should probably pass unanimously, from there it goes to a full vote in the house of representatives. we don't have an exact date on that. but the last time the committee did this with steve bannon, it happened the following day. so it could happen as soon as thursday. the referral then sent to the department of justice which will decide whether or not they will indict and prosecute clark. and unlike bannon, where we were really in uncharted territory, the last time something like this happened was back during the reagan administration, now that we've gone through the process with bannon, we could forecast how this will all play out and it is very likely that if the department of justice was willing to take the step of indicting steve bannon, they will likely take the same path with jeffrey clark. obviously there are some differences between the two. so that is not a guarantee. but this is important breaking news happening right now, anna, the 1/6 select committee set to refer former doj official jeffrey clark. >> thank you for that breaking news. let me bring back our eli honig and carrie cordero. is this the right move from the select committee. >> it is interesting, now we know that mark meadows is not the next person they're referring to criminal prosecution, it iseve -- it is skefry clark. and that is significant. someone in the most senior levels of the justice department being referred back to the department where a u.s. attorney is going to need to make a decision whether or not to prosecute him. but he was very centrally involved in terms of former president trump's efforts to use the mechanisms and the authority of the justice department to subvert the result of the 2020 elections. so if the full house votes on this referral, which it needs to do to send it to the justice department, it is very significant development. >> and it sound like that is expected to happen as soon as wednesday. elie, your thoughts? >> anna, this is a necessary and smart move by the committee. it is necessary because jeffrey clark was running a coup inside of doj that was designed to help donald trump's larger coup to steal the election and he straight up defied committee. you have to hold him in contempt. i think it is interesting, it is smart because on the 1k5i8 of executive privilege, on one side you have steve bannon who did not work in the executive branch, on the other extreme you have mark meadows who was the chief of staff, probably the most likely person to be covered by executive privilege. jeffrey clark worked for the executive branch but quite a bit removed in the white house. so merrick garland will have a decision here. it is one thing to charge someone in the executive branch. there is an interesting distinction there, perhaps. >> do you think merrick garland will move forward very quickly? >> i think he has to. i think he already has set the sort of playbook by the way he went about the bannon case. so i would look for a decision within a couple of weeks at most. >> eli honig and carrie cordero, thank you. i'll be back here tomorrow at 1:00. the news continues right now with alisyn and victor. hello, i'm victor blackwell, good to be with you. >> and i'm alisyn camerota. the world is waiting for answers about omicron. we know very little other than it was detected in south africa. it is a highly mutated variant that appears to spread easily and could have some vaccine resistance. but scientists say it will be a few more weeks before there is data to confirm that. >> this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. and we'll fight this variant with

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