♪ a search for answers. the atf now in maui investigating what sparked a catastrophic wildfire, as crews search for more than a thousand people still missing. and in the aftermath of the disaster, a top emergency management official stepping down even as he defends the response to the fires. plus, delay, delay, delay. donald trump's legal team testing the limits of that legal strategy, proposing to start one of his special counsel trials in april of 2026. will the judge buy their reasons for the setback? and serious skepticism from the white house to the pentagon about ukraine's current strategy and where kyiv is targeting its fight against russia. we are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn "news central." ♪ ♪ we start this afternoon with major growing questions on the cause and the response to the deadly maui wildfires. right now, the atf's national response team is joining the investigation. the death toll remains at 111. but a thousand people or more could still be missing. teams are still searching the burn zone for human remains, while maui's mayor says that 45% of that area has been searched. as the recovery effort continues, a stunning resignation overnight. this is maui's emergency management chief herman andela after facing intense scrutiny for not activating the island's warning systems and just one day after defending that decision, he has resigned citing a health decision. hawaii's water management agency is also facing questions. a state official may have delayed giving permission to use extra water to fight the flames. joining us is kitv island news reporter jeremy lee. you are at a distribution center right now. what are you seeing? >> well, so many have come here to collect goods, and so many also want answers as one survivor asked, why don't they tell us the truth, we have already lived it, how much worse can it be? now, amid that uncertainty and desire for answers, there are stories of inspiration. all of these distribution sites popped up organically beginning day one. communities north of lahaina all the way up to kapalua rallied together in order to collect goods and make sure that those who had evacuated northward from lahaina had a place to go and had food and were able to be housed. now, so many i have spoke to as i have stayed here over the last week have said they want the full truth. add to that the atf has come in with electrical engineers and is now researching the origins of the fire. at some point, this fire was not just simply a brush fire anymore, but became an urban fire, an industrial fire, and consumed all of lahaina town. now, those that i spoke to are waiting for answers. the one that they were not satisfied with came from herman, the chief emergency management leader who has stepped down resigned after defending the decision to not activate the tsunami warning signs. his reasoning he said that those would indicate to head to higher ground and he didn't want people to head towards the fire uphill. those who i spoke to who survived said they knew exactly which direction to go, they wanted that to be activated to wake up others who might not be aware of the situation. it was away from the black cloud of smoke hovering over lahaina town and delivering its imminent destruction. back to you. >> a controversial potentially costly decision not to activate those sirens. jeremy, i'm curious to get a reflection from you, what you've heard from residents because we've heard a back and forth about whether tourists should be visiting maui. what have residents and officials told you about whether they support the idea of tourists visiting? >> reporter: early on, officials came forward and said we do not want to put an end to all tourism to maui. that would be disastrous. on the other side of the island, you have waimea, kihei, all these other parts of the island that welcome tourists and still do today. the way maui is geographically is you have the main island mass, and then west maui which juts out. that's where i am right now where lahaina is to the south, and the towns of kanapali up to napili where i am now and kapalua. those are the towns that cannot support tourism at this time because of the decimated infrastructure, the rest of the island is welcoming tourists. sometimes what starts as a social media campaign with good intentions may not necessarily deliver what would be good for the economy here on maui. >> such an important thing to point out. jeremy lee, thank you so much for your reporting. let's discuss the investigation into the cause of the fires now. we have the former assistant special agent in charge for atf. sir, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. now that the atf is on the ground in maui, what is the process like for a wildfire of this scale and this kind of devastation, what are the challenges these agents are facing? >> this is an immense scene to try and grapple with every fire has a story, these are the experts you want to have on scene to help find that story. and the first phase is going to be the where and the when. where did this fire start and when did it start, and that's whereas your reporter mentioned, you've got electrical engineers as part of the staff. you've got specially trained certified fire investigators that have training and cause and origin to help look for those initial spots. because once you find the where and the when, then it's going to be the how. they're going to be talking to first responders, witnesses. they're going to be looking at the physical evidence as well. >> so, on that note given that they're studying physical evidence, and much of it has been decimated, ashes is most of what we're seeing in that area. is it possible that we may never know the true source of these wildfires? >> and that's a great question, and that does happen frequently. not only is it an immense scene that's been charred, it's also been run over by first responders, people escaping by other people that were in the area. a lot of these times you're trying to unpack what happened and try to get down to the bottom most layer to find it. and sometimes the answers are not as clear as we want them to be. but it's still very early in this investigation. there's still a lot of tasks for all the investigators to do and all the engineers to look at. >> yeah, no question it is going to be an immense task. i am wondering, edward, residents and state officials have been very focused on faulty powerlines as a potential spark for the wildfire. how big a focus is that going to be for investigators, the local power company? >> reporter: they're going to focus on all potential sources and causes of the fire. that's where i mentioned they talked to witnesses, they'll look at the physical evidence. they're going to take into account any potential source. >> so, in previous situations like this, i'm curious, what does accountability look like if negligence is discovered? >> well, atf's job and the nrt's job is to come in here and find the cause of origin and do the investigation and do the fact-finding. then they turn their results over to the jurisdiction that invited them in. the atf, nrt comes in at the invitation of the local departments, all the evidence, all the findings are turned over to them, and then it's taken from there. >> it's going to be a difficult task, but we certainly look forward to the results of their work. edward, thanks so much for sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you. jim? >> the head of fema says there is enough in its disaster relief fund for the initial response to the nmaui fires. but it is set to run out of money this season. the climate crisis has strained those coffers over the last several years. the numbers since 2016 are shocking, 139 big disasters, killing at least 5,200 people in total with more than a trillion dollars in damages. let's go to cnn white house correspondent priscilla alvarez. priscilla, it's a measure, right, of the effects of all these storms and natural disasters tied to climate change that it's, well, means the coffers are running empty for response to a lot of these disasters. so what are the options to replace them? >> that's right, jim. this is an agency that has to contend with the fact that natural disasters are getting worse and they only have so much money. and that means asking congress for more. this is something that the white house has been monitoring. and they included in their supplemental request to congress $12 billion for disaster funds. of course, that is part of a broader funding request, which already faces an uphill battle. but at least for fema, there is growing concern about what it might mean if these funds are depleted by the end of the month. already the federal government has tallied 15 weather-related disasters that funds include over a billion dollars have gone to the assistance and recovery for those disasters, just to give you a sense of just how much funds they've already had to use before the hurricane season has started in earnest. the fema administrator told reporters here at the white house this week that they expect to have enough funds for the initial response in maui. but any delay in further funds could put their recovery into next year. >> we have enough funding to support the ongoing response efforts because we take events like this into consideration. but it would delay, if we don't have additional funding, it would delay some of the recovery projects and push them into next year. >> reporter: now, other consequences include that money would or at least people and items could not get to places before a disaster happens. i spoke to a fema official who told me that often times these are funds used for prep or predeployment. if they know a hurricane is coming, for example, they can at least get people and assets there for what will happen on the back end and what that recovery will include. but without those funds, it just makes that all the more difficult. so certainly growing concern within fema as these funds run dry. >> and, as we were saying, the hurricane season just on its way. priscilla alvarez at the white house, thanks so much. right now, parts of southern california are under a tropical storm watch. speaking of weather events, for the first time in history, a category 4 hurricane, named hilary, is barrelling up the eastern pacific towards mexico with 145-mile-per-hour winds. it could eventually bring heavy rain and flooding to california. cnn meteorologist joins me now. this is a west coast hurricane. what does this tell us about the threat and the danger going forward? >> let's take a look at the latest numbers that we have. right now sustained winds, 145 miles per hour. that forward movement to the northwest at 10 miles per hour. so you've got watches and warnings out for many of these areas in anticipation of where this system is going to go. yes, we do have tropical storm watches in and around portions of southern california. the first time ever the national hurricane center has issued such watches for california. but they spread even farther south along baja, california, where the storm is anticipated to be a little bit stronger. so you'll notice there you've got more of the hurricane watches and hurricane warnings. it's still expected to maintain its strength for at least the next 24 hours. then we will finally start to see some gradual weakening of this storm as it continues its way off to the north, eventually making landfall around california, likely in the tropical storm phase. now, here's the big reason why. it's going to be entering much cooler water, and that's really going to help this storm weaken considerably as it shifts off to the north. the main concern with this storm is certainly going to be the potential for flooding. because as it spreads up into the north, it's going to bring all of that moisture with it. so you have a high risk in effect for excessive rainfall for palm springs, moderate risk for las vegas and san diego just to show you how widespread this rain is expected to be. most of these areas will pick up 2 to 4 inches of rain. some areas could top out at 8 or even 10 inches of rain. keep in mind for a lot of these places that's a year's worth of rain in just a short period of time. last year we had some very heavy rain in death valley. that was only 1.46 inches in a short period of time. they only get 2 inches on average every year. the forecast for this weekend, 3 to 4 inches. that's why you've got these flood watches in effect. and it's not just california. areas of arizona, utah, nevada also looking at the potential for some flooding here. winds will also be another concern. they're going to be the strongest farther south. but even as this system spreads to the north, you're still going to get some very gusty winds that could end up bringing down trees and powerlines as we head into saturday and sunday. a lot of the question here is the exact track. because if it shifts farther west or farther east, you're going to have different impacts for different portions of the state of california, and even for areas of arizona and nevada as well. but, all in all, the biggest impact is certainly going to be rain. and that is regardless of where this track ends up going. rain is going to be the biggest concern absolutely. >> so, you were saying as it reaches the colder waters up closer to los angeles, it's going to weaken. but the warmer waters where this formed over, is that tied? are we seeing more of these kinds of things tied to climate change effects? or is it too isolated to make a conclusion? >> it is. for some of those areas farther south, some of those areas are seeing -- and we've seen thing the gulf of mexico. record warm surface and sea temperatures. it provides fuel for storms like this one and many others to rapidly be able to intensify much more quickly, and even maintain that strength as they get into what would typically be much cooler waters, they're starting off stronger. so even though it is expected to weaken, most of these storms don't even make it here as tropical storm strength when they get this far north. >> seems like every day we get a reminder. thank you so much. boris? >> still ahead this hour on cnn "news central," remember president trump promised he was going to hold an explosive news conference on monday? finally showing proof to back his allegations of widespread fraud in georgia? evidence so strong he said it would exonerate him? well, that press conference is canceled. the reason trump says he shut it down. plus, thousands of canadians are rushing to evacuate as more than 200 fires burn across the country. the latest there as entire cities are being emptied. and where was murder suspect brian kroeb erger when four idaho college students were brutally murdered? we have the latest details. stay with us. ance was daring to dream. 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>> reporter: they're asking for approximately three years between indictment and trial. they argue that they need that time to prepare. i've seen them argue in other cases in court. for example, in the mar-a-lago case. they have a lot of cases, they have a lot of work, and they can't do everything at once. in their filing they argued, quote, the government's objective is clear, to deny president trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for the trial. and of course the government is requesting to take this to trial on january 2, 2024. but this is going to be up to the judge. judge tanya chutkan. she has the final say, and she's looking at a calendar that's pretty crowded. you've got the possibility of four criminal trials in addition to civil matters, and i think there is a legitimate question, could this be the one or one of the trials that happens before the 2024 election? most of the experts i've spoken with think this one probably has the strongest chance. but we'll get an answer from judge chutkan on august 28th. >> stronger than even the documents case? >> reporter: yes. mostly because of the amount of preparation that is needed in a matter that involves classified documents. there are a lot of legitimate arguments about how long it's going to take to go through that discovery. you also in that case have a much less experienced judge. judge aileen cannon who's overseeing the mar-a-lago documents case, a trump appointee. she's only been on the bench a few years. whereas judge chutkan, she's been on the bench for a decade. and being in court with her for this case, one thing i've seen is she moves quickly. she doesn't allow even short delays. so she seems poised to want to move this along. >> in fulton county, we're seeing so many threats against federal officials or state officials involved, as well as the grand jurors. in addition to those persons' safety, obviously that's priority, are officials worried about a chilling effect on the justice system? grand jurors down the road might say if all my investigation's going to be out there on a sensitive case, i might face some threats. >> it's completely reasonable for anyone to think that. this is a quirk of georgia law that the names of grand jurors are on one of the first few pages of the indictment. i was surprised to see it. we don't see that in the other cases. this is the way georgia does this in the interest of transparency. but of course here there are repercussions, these people have been doxed. you have what purports to be their pictures, their addresses out there on the web. and we know that that could have a chilling effect. one of the women who testified in this case, a former democratic state senator, she said outright, she said things like this, this could make it more difficult for prosecutors to be able to seat a trial jury if people are worried for their safety and that of their families. we've also learned that fulton county officials have faced threats that we don't have a lot of specifics, they're not sharing a lot of information. and of course d.a. fani willis who has repeatedly been criticized by former president trump, security has been stepped up at her residence. >> i spoke to a republican lawyer yesterday who said those laws were designed for transparency, but they might not match this time when the attacks on the system are so frequent and often so violent. >> reporter: and some states have an option. some states have an option if there is the public interest or a security concerns outweigh the need for transparency. and that could have been the case there if they had had that option. >> paula reid, thanks so much. after his latest indictment dropped in georgia, former president trump promised a major news conference on monday during which he was expected to trot out more of his baseless claims about the 2020 election. but now that event has been canceled. let's bring in cnn. why the backtrack? >> reporter: well,ing boris, donald trump's team, many of them, were actually pretty caught off guard by that post. i spoke with some of his advisers immediately after it happened. and i know our colleague kaitlan collins has some of this reporting as well. and many of them didn't know that he was going to be saying that. i think many of his lawyers in georgia are focused on these negotiations right now with the fulton county district attorney's office about his potential surrender next week. and, so, when they saw this, again, a little bit of a surprise there. now, we are told that his team advised him against doing this. i think there was a little bit of debate within trump world and within his inner circle about whether or not it should go forward. and clearly the people urging him not to do this have prevailed. now, donald trump when he announced that he is no longer holding this, he did say that he expects some of the claims in this report to be put into legal filings. i think there is still a question of whether or not that will actually happen. but this is him kind of an about face for him. >> part of the reason it was a surprise is because trump and his allies filed some 60 lawsuits after the 2020 election, alleging that there was this widespread fraud. but they provided no actual proof in court to corroborate his claims. but then all of a sudden there's a new report out? >> reporter: well, so details on this report, i have heard that it's kind of a pet project of one of donald trump's aides, liz herrington. some would describe her as a true believer that the 2020 election was stolen and repeats the false claims that donald trump has been repeating for years now about fraud in georgia specifically. of course, these are things that he is being charged with, in part, in the georgia indictment. and that's an obvious reason why his team did not want him to go forward with this press conference on monday. >> potentially more legal liability. >> exactly. >> thank you so much for the reporting. jim? coming up next, the u.s. and other western nations have been pumping weapons and money into ukraine since the russian invasion to help it defend itself. we do have new reporting that u.s. officials are not entirely on board with kyiv's latest military strategy. plus, it is not what you want to see when you look out the window of a plane. what happened on this flight from texas to mexico? goodness. looks scary. start yoyour day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. subway refreshed everything. and now, they're slicing their meats fresh. that's why this pro proffers the new grand slam ham. so does this pro. i just love a grand slam... ham. and if we proffer it, we know you'll proffer it too. i knew he'd love that sandwich. happening this afternoon, president biden is hosting the leaders of south korea and japan in the first ever trilateral summit with those two countries. the gathering in camp david brings together two asian powers that have decades of tension and mistrust behind them. here's some sound from president biden. listen. >> it's not only the first summit i've hosted at camp david, it's the first-ever stand-alone summit between the leaders of japan and republic of korea, and the united states. and i can think of no better way to mark our new chapter of our trilateral cooperation than meeting here at camp david. our countries are stronger, and the world will be safer as we stand together. >> the trios today show unity and force in the face of a rising china and an increasingly provocative north korea. also overseas, russia is blaming ukraine for another attempted drone strike on moscow today, calling it a terrorist attack. a bit of irony there, given the number of missiles russia has lobbed at ukraine. moscow's mayor says the drone damaged a nonresidential building after they say it was shot down by russian air defenses. the strike forced four moscow airports to close. it marks the third time in the past month that the moscow district has been struck by a ukrainian drone. these alleged attacks in the russian capital come as we learn u.s. officials are growing skeptical of another piece of ukraine's strategy, and that is the decision to ramp up missile strikes specifically on russian occupied crimea in southern ukraine. cnn's chief international security correspondent nick paton walsh is in dnipro. and katie is here in washington. explain the u.s. skepticism about this piece of the ukrainian plan. >> reporter: yeah. so, jim, it's against the backdrop of this stalled ukrainian counteroffensive that ukraine, in recent weeks, has turned to striking crimea at an increased pace. they're using missiles to strike bridges connected to ukrainian mainland and russia. they're using artillery to try to strike ammunition depots, command and control hubs. for ukraine, the goal is to try to isolate crimea and try to make it more difficult for russia to be able to sustain its military operations on the mainland. now, u.s. military and intelligence officials that we've spoken to say it's a little bit too early to tell whether or not this is going to be effective at making it tougher for russians to stand up to these ukrainian offenses. behind the scenes within the u.s. government, there is a growing sense of skepticism among military officials that this tactic of hitting crimea is really a good idea. they're concerned that this is essentially spreading the resources too thin. at best, it's a distraction, at worst it is a waste of valuable resources at a time when the u.s. government broadly is worried that ukraine has spread itself too thin across multiple axes of attack. i want to share with you what we heard from a senior defense official who said to us it's knocked the russians off balance a little bit, but it's not doing anything decisive. it would probably be better for everyone for them to just focus on the counteroffensive. >> it goes back to the 2014 invasion. nick paton walsh, you are in ukraine. crimea's something of a bone of contention between the west and ukraine because there are some on the west who think that may be a bridge too far, even if they do not recognize it as russian annexed territory. from the ukrainian perspective, how do they view these strikes that they've been able to carry out on crimea and other places behind enemy lines, as it were? >> reporter: yeah, look, i think it's very true that there are concerns in the west that crimea is a deep red-button issue for vladimir putin, and that could potentially cause a ration of responses if they felt that significant part of russia's pride in what they've tried to do in occupying parts of ukraine were indeed threatened. but i don't really get some of the skepticism about why hitting crimea doesn't assist the counteroffensive. a lot of russia's occupying military forces are in crimea. a lot of the supply route to the parts of the counteroffensive that the russians are trying to hold back come up from crimea and a function on that western part of the southern counteroffensive where a lot of ukraine's push is happening right now. the so the strikes we've been seeing on ammo depot, the bridges around crimea certainly could have an impact on russia's ability to hold ukraine back south of orakiv. plus, also too, the kerch bridge has another supply route that doesn't bring weapons along that azov sea. i think a lot of what we're seeing here are concerns by the west about crimea becoming the focus of ukraine's energies. but, at the moment, that's pretty far fetched. they're desperately trying to cut off the land corridor from russian mainland that heads down to crimea. in an ideal world, they might be able to push the russians back to their 2014-2015 boundaries. but they're still struggling to get towards the azov sea in the first stage of this counteroffensive. and i think it's fair to say the ukrainians hitting these military infrastructure targets in crimea is most certainly impacting russia's ability to defend itself in a key part of the southern front. jim? >> and ukrainian forces suffering just devastating losses in that battle on the ground in the east. nick paton walsh there in ukraine, thanks so much. boris, over to you. some 20,000 canadians are fleeing their homes as wildfires are moving in. we have the latest from the region. plus, he's accused of brutally killing four university of idaho students, and he's due in court today for a hearing focused on his alibi. the details, just minutes away. if you have this... and you get this... you could end up with this... unexpected out-of-pocket co. which for those onedicare, or soon to be, is a good reasono take charge of your health care. so consider this. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. why? because medicare alone doesn't pay for everything. and what it doesn't pay for, like deductibles and copays, could really add up. even thousands of dollars a year. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and making your out-of-pocket costs a lot more predictable. call unitedhealthcare today and ask for your free decision guide. learn more about plan options and rates to fit your needs. now if you like this... greater freedom... you'll love that medicare supplement plans have no networks and no referrals needed... see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. as long as they accept medicare patients. these types of plans also give you more flexibility when traveling in the u.s. your plan goes with you... anywhere you go in the country. even better, these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. so if you have this and want less out-of-pocket costs... and more peace of mind... consider adding this. an aarp medicare supplement plan. take charge of your health care today. just use this...or this to call unitedhealthcare about an aarp medicare supplement plan. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. the head of world soccer body fifa getting flack today after telling women's soccer players they should pick the right battles if they want to, quote, convince us men what we have to do concerning equal pay. yikes. according to a recent cnn analysis, soccer players at the 2023 women's world cup are going to average, on average, earn just 25 cents for every dollar earned by the men at their world cup last year. also, in a sharp break from an arkansas state order, the little rock school district says it will offer an ap african american studies course that will count towards graduation. earlier this month, arkansas state education officials said the course would not receive graduation credits, citing an executive order signed in january by governor sarah huckabee sarnds. that order prohibited what she described as indoctrination and critical race theory in schools. we also want to share this with you, a frightening video captured on board a southwest airlines flight in the skies over houston, not what you want to see coming out of your plane engine. flames bursting out, forcing the distressed flight to quickly return to the houston airport shortly after takeoff. southwest says the plane landed safely and was taken out of service for review. >> what a thing to see outside your plane window. well, dangerous fast-moving flames not in hawaii but ravaging parts of canada. an out-of-control wildfire has now forced an entire city to evacuate. the city of yellowknife, home to approximately 20,000 people, the capital of canada's northwest territories is now virtually empty. a frantic scene there with hundreds of people lining up to register for emergency evacuation flights. others had to flee in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the one road out of town. many worried not knowing if their homes will still be standing when they come back. officials say the fire has already burned more than 400,000 acres. could reach the outskirts of yellowknife this weekend. cnn's paula newton joins us now from ottawa with more details. this is quite an evacuation underway here, an entire city, the capital of the northwest territories. how is it going? >> reporter: so, canadian officials just wrapped, in fact, a press conference. they said that thankfully the evacuation is going well so far. it has been calm. traffic on that one highway, as you mentioned. traffic has calmed there. the route out is so far safe. and i want to point out, jim, how harrowing this canni be. smoke has been thick there for several weeks. and that is another reason why officials weren't taking any chances. we just saw what happened in maui. and they did not want this community, this large but again isolated community, to actually be left at the mercy of a wildfire where they just could not predict where it was going next, largely because of the wind. what does that entail? as you can imagine, the most vulnerable right now. there is an unprecedented air lift that involves commercial airplanes but also the military. i want you to listen now to canada's minister of defense as he was just telling us how they are getting the most vulnerable out of the city. listen. >> they have fit-for-purpose aircraft that are able to move people who may be nonambulatory on stretcher or wheelchair. they can also provide medical personnel to provide support and assistance to those who may need it. >> reporter: now, those who obviously need medical evacuation are going out on other kinds of aircraft. i also want to point out that in british columbia at this hour in kelowna, they have another fire that is out of control, thousands there warned to get out now. others on alert. again, this is all part of an unprecedented wildfire season, already the worst in canadian history. and throughout this weekend, people in both the northwest in the united states, the midwest and the northeast should watch the weather carefully and those alerts. they do expect some of the smoke from these fires to dip down into the united states certainly by the weekend. jim? >> you see the importance of making evacuation decisions like this. paula newton in ottawa, thanks so much. next on cnn "news central," the suspected killer of four idaho college students in court right now. the major focus of today's proceeding, bryan kohberger's alibi, where he says he was during the murders. stay with us. we'll be right back. to help you get ready your aspen dental team is celebrarating 25 years of affordable care withth an epic summer of smiles event. right now, new patients without insurance get a free full exam and x-rays. plus, everyone can get 20% off their treatment plan. but hurry, because while these summer savings won't last, the memories you make together will. aspen dental. book today. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. now you get out there, and you make us proud, huh? ♪ bye, uncle limu. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. and it's all right here. streaming was never this easy, you know. this is the way. you really went all out didn't you? um, it's called commitment. could you turn down the volume? here, you can try. get way more into what your into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. this is cnn, the world's news network. out for a late night drive by himself. that's the alibi attorneys of the accused killer of the slayings of four university of idaho students are defending during a court hearing underway right now. bryan kohberger has plead not guilty to four counts of the first-degree murder in the november 13 slayings. the state has argued he must provide a lot more details about his whereabouts that night, but the defense is fighting that. jean casarez has been following the case for us very closely. >> reporter: well let me tell you, boris. the hearing has just started, and the defendant has a gray suit and tie, very formally dressed. he sat down very quickly next to his defense attorneys. now there is argument underway. and there are cameras in that courtroom. we are going to be able to see this hearing, every bit of it. but the judge's rule is not until the hearing is over will that video be distributed, so we'll have it as soon as it is culminated. one of the big issue is this trial, this death penalty trial, is suppose to start in about a month and a half. why? because the defendant has exercised his right to a speedy trial, which means that it has to be held within six months after the indictment. he's even gotten a little bit of an extension. prosecutors through their filings want to know when is this going to start? we've got victim families that need to be prepared. there are so many reports and discovery has to be exchanged. are you sure you want it to start this soon? that's got to be looked at today. second, it's like you mentioned, that alibi. the defendant filed notice that he is seeking an alibi. he will have an alibi that he was not in that house that night when the murders were committed while he is suppose to give specifics, exactly where you were, witnesses who will testify their names, addresses, all the information, to state that you were not at that house. here is how the defense has responded in legal filings. "mr. kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. often he would go for drives at night. he did so late on november 12 and into november 13, 2022. he was out driving during the late night and early morning hours of november 12 and 13, 2022, so they place him outside of his own apartment in a car, but not in that house. we need to see how that develops to it. if you don't get particulars, boris, as the defense, you may not be able to have an alibi defense. >> yeah, they can't keep it that vague especially when the prosecution is zeroing in on him. jean casarez, thank you so much for the reporting. jim? coming up next on cnn news central, we'll take you live to maui where more than a thousand people could still be missing. and now federal investigators are coming in to track down what caused this historic disaster. from beginningng to end, car details, financing, every step and there were no surprises. well, my monthly payment d did come out lower than expected. then i g got to pick up my mustang at the vending machine and it was so fun and exciting i did a little dance. 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