>> oh, man. to be 9 years old and go toe-to-toe with sly stallone. that kid -- >> somebody get him a deal. >> i'm sure it's on the way. i'm sure it's come right now. thanks. great show. bombmaking materials, an isis flag, and a 16-year-old suspect. tonight, on "laura coates live." all right. there is a chilling story that just came out tonight about a potentially deadly terror plot that washappened in las vegas. but the really frightening part, the suspect is 16 years old. at an age where most parents are talking to them about their driver's license, or their psats taken, or the tiktok followers, a 16-year-old is in custody tonight, arrested for allegedly making a terrorism threat on social media. the cops say the suspect was claiming lone wolf terror attacks in las vegas in support of isis. >> we were able to identify the suspect and his location within hours of uncovering this threat. the suspect is a 16-year-old juvenile, who is local to the area. and a recent convert to islam. >> within hours. wow. what mrpolice say they discover at his home might be the tip of the iceberg. a handmade isis flag, propaganda. proponents for building an improvised explosive device. what we don't know, what would push a teenager, a 16-year-old, to make a threat like this? what was the plan? was there a specific target? and how did the cops thwart it in a matter of hours? we can't hear this in a vacuum. it's no coincidence of what we're seeing. a plot coming in the midst of so many horrifying images online, of the death and destruction in gaza. as the war rages in the middle east, how do we deal with the threats right here at home? and what role does social media play in all of this? a question so many are asking again tonight. is it the symptom? the problem? or the cure? joining me now, chief law enforcement analyst, john miller. john, this is a 16-year-old kid in vegas. how does someone that young get motivated the commit an act of terror? >> we're seeing more and more of that. i was out in las vegas just in june with sheriff kevin mcmahill. and head of the counterterrorism bureau and we were talking about just this, radicalization, propaganda, how slick it's become, how sophisticated it's become. and that was before there was a war going on between israel and gaza that was generating the kind of heart wrenching images of that battle that fit into the propaganda and can bring people to mobilization of violence after being radicalized and operationalizing that. radicalization online. and taking the steps to get the bombmaking components. the timing and power unit, the initiation systems. the studying for the chemicals to develop the explosives that would go with that. what we don't know is what the target was. we are not certain he had chosen one, based on what we see on the public documents. >> how close was he to carrying this off? you have the target and i wonder how they were able to thwart it. they said a matter of hours. how were they able to pick up on it? >> in las vegas, they have the joint terrorism task force with the fbi, with deputies and police officers. they have the nevada counterterrorism fusion center, scanning for these threats. then, the insight intelligence group. that's a privately funded group that sepends all days on messag boards and chat rooms, where people believe they are not being looked at and they were able to flag this also. you had this coming from the las vegas metro investigation, the people on the lookout for this stuff all the time, and his bold statement about, you know, i am going to strike in the name of isis and the zionists in this town, las vegas, are going to know about it. gave it a sense of urgency. >> we'll think of this happening or happening in any place, i wonder how broad the different structures you talk about are outside of nevada. thank you for joining us tonight, so much. i want to bring in cnn senior law enforcement analyst and former fbi director, an you mccabe. and juliette kayyem. let me start with you here. this was a 16-year-old. alleged to be afifiliated with isis of all things, talking about lone wolf scenarios. are these scenarios are the biggest threat when it comes to domestic terrorism? >> he is younger than the normal threat. we generally look at 20 to 25-year-olds, white males. we don't know his ethnicity. he's described our reporting as a recent convert to islam. we don't know his background. this is young. but it's not young, in terms of access and afteration and growing a sense of community on social media. we see that through teenagers. that's not surprising. we see his youth is a sign of two things. one, he is affiliating with the last war. focusing on isis, honestly, a little dated now. you start to wonder his access to information. is he just getting stuff from the internet. the other is, as john miller reporter, how easily they were able to capture him. he was not sophisticated in hiding what his intentions were and they have him on serious charges at this stage. >> andrew, you think about that, it occurs to so many people, all right. thank goodness, they were able to thwart this attack. you have been in law enforcement, trying to look at the scope of the landscape of all of the needles in the hay haystacks. is there a way to strategically deter and prevent or identify these kind of threats? >> sure. there's several ways to do that work. it really takes you back to 2015, that spring and summer of 2015, where isis is at the peak of their effectiveness in terms of marketing and social media propaganda. and we have a wave of americans who are responding very powerfully to that. and attempting to join, attempting to travel, to affiliate with the group, to fight for the group in syria. and finding these people across the country, many different agencies, different backgrounds, different religious experiences, different educational backgrounds, they really looked like a complete cross-section of america. it's hard to stay in front of the threats as they start to develop. but it should say, this really proves the thing we're all concerned about in the immediate aftermath of the hostilities breaking out between israel and hamas. a moment like that provides incredible inspiration for like-minded people around the world. for extremiists moving down the path of radicalization. seeing those images, and identifying with the plight of palestinian people is something that is traditionally -- that's been a theme that motivated bin laden to start al qaeda. a significant motivation for the leard leaders of isis. this is not new. >> when you think about that, and for many people, they may not know the correlation of history or the impetus for a different movement, but they are reading what's happening now. one of the places they are gaining information from and i use the term information generously here. the role of social media is disseminating whatever information coming out, whether it's incorrect or false or sinister, not just by default. we talk about the role of social media. what could be done or is there enough being done to warn about these kinds of threats? >> so, the short answer is no. we know this. and not all social media is the same. the data, the polling right now, shows most young people are getting their information about the war, on tiktok. most of us of a certain age are not on tickktiktok. they are going to get information, not validated information, imagery that may be fake. and some of it is not, in terms of what it is they are capturing and seeing. and therefore, getting radicalized on it. at the same time, some of the legacy social media platforms, twitter/x, for example, have stopped filtering. they're cesspools of hate. we look for rationalizations of, they do this. and these become cesspools of hate. there's no clear delineation between this group and that group. and someone who would have a propensity towards hate or is isolated and finds a community on social media that's egging him on, saying, yes, what you believe is right, go do this. that becomes the issue that's hard to track. and the limiting filters don't exist on most social media platforms. >> you look at that, thinking of the filters or the absence of, is that a role that law enforcement had to get ahead of this? embedding themselves in these places, watching this. obviously, you have the first amendment issues you talk about and free speech. they use the terms loosely of not being in the government. what is present in information. are law enforcement starting to embed themselves? starting to survey and patrol these areas to figure out, could they be part of a kind of echo chamber? >> sure. and law enforcement works in that realm. it's an open source that's available to anybody who wants to look at it. law enforcement can look at it the same way anybody else can. the question is, what actions can law enforcement take, based on what they are seeing on social media, which is purely protected speech. that's where it gets more dicey. you can't instigate, investigate an activity, based on the exercise of first amendment rights. that's where the legal challenges come in. we used to have some degree of success, when we would see content like that online, we could bring it to the social media companies and not tell them to take it off. we had no authority over that. but we can say, we believe this content violates your terms of service agreements. we would like you to review it and take actions that are appropriate. nowadays, law enforcement is in a much tougher position and cannot take actions like that. cannot have intersections with social media companies because of recent court decisions and the fifth circuit and other places that have cut against the intelligence community's ability to be proactive in pointing out some of the horribly objectional content to the social media companies. that's a big step backwards. >> there's a conundrum where we want our law enforcement to be proactive or reactive and what we do between. andrew, jeweuliette kayyem, tha you so much. there's a lot going on. and a lot going on with our former president. donald trump facing a plethora of legal woes. we knew about all those, right? what about the floodgates? are they getting ready to open for him on the civil side? including the case that my next guest is bringing. so, the former president, donald trump, his legal troubles, they may be about to get a whole lot worse. why? a federal appeals court here in d.c., ruling friday he can be sued over january 6th. that rejected trump's claims of presidential immunity, which is good news for my next guest, attorney phil andonian, representing eric swalwell, who is part of the lawsuit by lawmakers and injured police officers against trump. phil, good to see you, my friend. the floodgates may be opening. we know about the criminal cases against donald trump. now, the idea of being sued civilly means it could be, in his mind, pandora's box. or those wanting to sue, the floodgates opening. what was behind this decision and what are you going to do about it? >> it was an important decision. it was a unanimous decision by a politically divert panel of the second-highest court in the country, rejecting donald trump's assertion of immunity for conduct and speech he engaged in while he was in office. like you said, it opens a lot of floodgates for liability and the accountability that we and others are seeking for his actions on january 6th. >> it's important to note this because people think of presidential actions, because he was the president, that was enough, it's presidential. not true. and the courts said, i'm reading here for a moment what they had to say about this. the president does not spend every minute of every day, exercising official responsibilities. and when he acts outside of the function of his office, he does not enjoy immunity from damages and liability, because he happens to be the president. that means that the legal argument for this court to say, everything i do is presidential, was out of the water. >> that's right. >> his argument was, principally, anything i say or do at any point in time, is a matter of public concern, and therefore, it's official acts, tra therefore, it's covered. the d.c. court said, in the opinion that they affirmed, there's a line that you cross into solely personal, private activity. that happens when you act as an office seeker, not an office holder. that's what we alleged in our complaint. at all relevant times what donald trump was doing was acting as a political candidate. that's a lot of things. that's not official conduct of the president of the united states. >> he's going to appeal to the supreme court, right? we know this, right? will they take it? and if they do, do you think they're on his side on this issue? >> i mean, i don't want to speculate. certainly, you know, i think it's safe to say that any avenue of delay, anything that he can do to stall thing, he will try to take advantage of. i know a three-judge panel that's unanimous that's politically divert, like this panel from the d.c. circuit, is probably going to get deference from the supreme court. we'll have to wait and see. right now, we're feeling confident in the reasoned, legally sound opinion they issued. >> now that you've won this battle, what do you do now? does the case pick up where it left off and it continues? >> he has some time to position the full d.c. circuit. he could appeal to the supreme court. we have to wait for the procedural pieces to work themselves out. we're willing and eager to get going when we can. >> when you're thinking of that and waiting for him to have a couple days, other litigants are thinking, i may be impacted, too. and what impact it has on the criminal cases, we have to wait and see. thank you for coming. >> thanks for having me, laura. what would you do? that's the question, if your weather confessed he is not who you think he is. that actually happened. and wait until you hear the rest of the story. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. one of the largest and most mysterious bank heists in history has been solved. but the man who robbed the bank, theodore conrad, he was never caught. for 50 years he was living in suburban boston under an assumed name as thomas randall. his daughter, ashley randall, tells the story of when the whole thing started to unravel. >> my mom, dad and i were sitting in the living room, watching "ncis." and he looked over at us and said, calmly, ladies, just in case anything comes up, i had to change my name when i moved here. the authorities are probably still looking for me. i don't want to talk about it. but just so you know, in case it comes up, you're not blind sided. and then, we went back to "ncis." it wasn't until the next day that ashley pressed her father that in details of july of 1969, her father walked out of the bank where he worked with $215,000 in cash. in a paper bag. and then, he vanished. that's $1.6 million today. he was living his new life and a father and son were looking for theodore ted conrad. and until an obituary appeared online, peter elliot, one of the marshals who saw it joins me now and began to put the clues together. i can't believe this story. the "ncis" story and all parts of it. you had been looking for this individual. you saw an obituary. why would that have led you to believe this was the person under the assumed name anyway? >> when people lie, they lie close to home. in the obituary, ted conrad was born on july 10th of 1949. we used the date of birth of july 10th, 1947. he listed his parents as ed and ruth beth krueger in the obituary. krugerrandle. krueger conrad. he said he went to school at new england college. that's where conrad went to school. he said he was born in denver, colorado. that's where conrad was born. there were all these similarities in the obituary for randall and the real life of ted conrad. >> you had been looking at obituaries as a matter of course to figure out where a person may or may not be? >> no. if i had to look through every obituary, i would be in trouble. we were led to that obituary by on individual who told us to take a look at it. that's what we did. we looked at the obituary. from there, we started the process. we found that randall filed for bankruptcy in 2015. in boston court. we pulled those records and my dad had records of 1967 when conrad went to college. we were able to match that with c conrad up in 2015. >> unbelievable. think about putting those things together and having the detenacy to find this to the very end. you find this person and the obituary. you end up going to the home. what happened when you got there? >> yeah. i met kathy and ashley for the first time. they didn't know we were coming. we knocked on the door and produced ourselves. we told her, kathy, that we were not there for her. we think your husband is someone else. it was not, you know, really thomas randall. we sat down and had a conversation and they both told the truth. >> you had been following this. this took you to hawaii, texas, oregon. you look back that this is the person you were looking for, were you ever close to catching him before this? >> again, my dad was a deputy from '67 to 1990. it was his case. he pursued conrad until my dad's death in 2020. there were sometimes we thought we were close. one time in oregon, we thought we were close. another time, we thought we were really close when we received tips. but really, we were never close to catching conrad. >> until now. imagine after all this time. what happened to the money. >> good question. we've been trying to take a look at that. we looked at the house, at kathy and ashley's house. he filed for bankruptcy in 2015. he left them with no money. had no money at the end of it. i don't know where it went. it probably went somewhere in the 1970s. hopefully that's something we can figure out with him. i'm not -- at this point, we don't know where the money went. >> you mentioned your father, john k. elliott. he passed in 2020. you mentioned his career and his persistence all this time. what would he say, seeing hoy it all turned out? >> he would be happy we were able to figure out his true identity. it was personal to my dad. conrad grew up a couple streets away from where we grew up. him and my dad had the same doctor. this was personal to my dad, right off the bat. $215,000 was a lot of money to a u.s. narmarshal. >> a lot of people look -- -- a lot of people looked at conrad, as a hero. my dad saw him as a thief. and some were saying run, ted, hundred. in a lot of ways, he was a robin hood. he pursued him his entire life. >> we know how it ends, finally. >> thank you, take care. >> a fascinating story. thinking about all that transpired and the coincidences. beyonce, making history at the box office this weekend. sit tight. we'll be talking to -- a little about beyonce. >> are you ready? ♪ today, the supreme court scrutinizing a controversial opioid crisis settlement. the deal was approved by a new york court in may. and included up to $6 billion in exchange for immunity for the sackler family from all other civil, though not criminal lawsuits. most would go to state and local governments to address the opioid epidemic. $700 million for families and victims. and the end of the sacklers' company, to be replaced by a new company. the deal was blocked by a division of the doj, that requested it be reviewed by the high court. many of the arguments focused on bankruptcy law. the justices noticed that the vast majority of victims and the families were supportive of the deal. in the 1990s, purdue introduced oxycontin as a painkiller. the company is accused of fueling the opioid epidemic saying it was safer and less addictive, encouraging doctors to prescribe it for longer periods of time. many of the suits allege that the sackler family's knew of the addictive properties but continued to promote the drug nonetheless. even as the opioid epidemic skyrocketed. between 1999 and 2021, 645,000 americans died from opioid overdoses. including the son of my next guest. chris yoder was a teenager when he was described oxycontin for a sports injury. he would attend rehab eight times before dying of an overdose in 2017. his mother joins me now. thank you for joining me. i'm so sorry to hear what happened to your son. you've been passionate as a result of the love of your son and so many other children. how do you feel about this deal, going before the supreme court of the united states? >> well, first of all, thank you so much for being me and giving me the opportunity to talk about this and my son. it was quite amazing that it's gotten up to the supreme court. i was there today, at the security, which is also quite amaz amazing. i'm just hoping they -- after hearing the arguments, agree to let the settlement go forward. >> did you get a sense that the justices can be -- they are talk to each other, they're not quite showing their hanlds fully. did you get a sense in that room today of the justices, how they were leaning? did you get a feel for it at all? >> well, i was a little -- i was feeling a little better because they did talk a lot about the victims. i mean, it seems like, you know, the victims and the fact that money needs to go out to the states and help with abatement, it seems like so many of the information conversations about this case is not letting the sacklers get away with it. getting more money out of the sacklers. and it's like the victims in this case have been forgotten. really, i felt very relieved they talked so much about the effect it had on the victims. >> that's an important point. so often, people can get into the minutia and think about the legal arguments broadly and forget about the individual people impacted. and not those that have been impacted already but those who still, in fact, will be impact ed and continue to go on to this day. you look at what's happened and the money that is supposed to go to the victims and fighting for the abatement as you talk about, could lawmakers do more outside of the legal system to curb the epidemic? you would hate to have it go case-by-case, or major litigation to wait for change to come. >> yes. absolutely. probably the large part, about $5 billion would go to all of the states, specifically for abatement. and to fight the opioid crisis, that's the fentanyl crisis. it would really help with, you know, there's probably 300, 400 people dying every day still. this money is really needed. and yes, i do think lawmakers should be doing more to help abate the crisis, as well. >> i am a mommy. i have an 11-year-old little boy. i talk about him every chance i get. i can't let you go before you have a chance to tell the world a little bit more about your son because i want people to know who he was. what do you want people to know about him? >> thank you. chris was a very special, beautiful boy. he was my only child. i was a single mom. i always said, he was like my soul mate. he grew up in this little village of irvington, new york, outside of new york city. he had lots of friends. all of his friends called him their silent leader. he was always thinking of the next fun thing to do. he was very active in sports. he loved snowboarding and skateboarding and mountain biking and all kinds of high-impact sports. that's how he injured his knee. that's how he ended up getting what led him to getting , which prescriptions for oxycontin. he just had his own special -- you know, drum beat, he went by. he loved authors like hemingway and vonnegut. and he would find interesting things. he was a unique individual. his friends miss him so much. it's so sad at the age of 21, his life ended. he never got to live his life. >> just hearing about him today, and meeting you the way we did tonight, the apple did not fall far from that tree. it was so nice to meet you. >> thank you so much for having me. >> thank you. we'll be right back. well, ooh -- ♪ >> she said it. beyonce is number one. maybe in life. but also at the box office. her movie "renaissance" hit theaters friday. and my next guest is in the movie. his article "beyonce, amen." he said she is taking us all to church. michael eric dyson is here. he is professor of african-american studies at vanderbilt university. nice to see you. i didn't realize how big-time you are. you are actually in the movie. up in the movie, as well. i won't fan girl through you. i'll say, okay, michael eric dyson. >> well, it was an honor and a surprise to me, i must tell you. a brief snippet and it was powerful and impactful. the film is incredible. this is usually a poor time to release a film. it's thehe doldrums and the pit. beyonce is proving again, she is one of one. has resurrected this particular weekend, as a viable one for her. and has helped save the year for movies. it's utterly remarkable. and the film is extraordinary, as a chronicle of what it takes to be a superstar and to be taken seriously as a black woman. she says in the film, even beyonce says, it's hard for me as a black woman to be taken seriously. i have to continually fight. and at the end of the day, they recognize this woman, just won't give up. that's what you see in the film. >> you wrote this piece, and you talk about you as a proeacher fr 45 years. and you say, the community that beyonce created is what church should be. why do you think that? >> yes. i have gotten responses online, people saying, you're blasphemous, you're comparing her to god. that's not what i'm saying. i'm saying, when we go to church, we're supposed to feel unconditional love. the assertion we are a child of god and therefore important to the creator of the universe. that's what you feel when you go to a beyonce concert. especially for queer brothers and sisters. in a sulter of church about trans. transmission of piety. we're resisting the transgender. the transsexual. the reality is, that beyonce is creating a space that affirms huhuman beings, regardless of t detriments and those negative stigmas attached to them, unfortunately and unfairly. and she redeems the presence of those bodies through her affirming language and her music. >> we're here on december 4th, a couple minutes before midnight. i want to say to her, and to jay-z, it's his birthday. in a land when everybody is talk about doing taylor swift course want to know. are you teaching a beyonce course? >> i taught a beyonce course. i taught a jay-z several times. i remember what these did to me. i have taught many classes on beyonce. we looked at her music and dancing and her voice and her performance and her impact upon african-american and black culture broadly and american culture. and now, global culture. she is a phenomenal human being whose creativity has won fans across the world. she remains at heart, a southern girl, who is loving and confirming of all who come into her orbit. >> wow. mic drop for you. thank you so much. michael eric dyson. thank you, everyone, for watching. our coverage does continue. hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us ith