insurrection. then we learned in great detail how trump himself caused it, all of it. tomorrow we ll watch the season finale when we will get the inside story of the 187 minutes donald trump spent reveling in the violence that he caused while doing nothing to stop it. that is what we begin tonight. over the last six weeks of these public hearings the january 6th committee has put forth an exhaustive record of not just just what happened on the day of the insurrection but everything leading up to it, spelling out the former president s scheme to sell the big lie, summon the mob and light the match of violence. they have accomplished that using live testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and recorded depositions from people who would know, republican former white house officials and members of the president s inner circle. his own legal team both in the white house and on the fringe all of whom paint a damning portrait of what the twice-impeached disgraced former president
mar-a-lago. leyla, tell us about this search because it was a complete surprise to everyone. reporter: right, and today, a day later, we re starting to hear everyone sort of give their thoughts on that. the family, the trump family speaking out. we ll let you hear from eric in just a bit, but also here on the ground. i can tell you you re really starting to see that political divide. a lot of supporters coming out, as and so yeah i ve heard multiple times trump won as folks drive by. i ve also heard people say lock him up. just behind mar-a-lago, which is right there, the primary residence of the former president donald trump, you re starting to see protesters but overwhelming supporters who are coming out in reaction to the news. so something that is clearly riling up his base. in terms of the search warrant itself, the execution of the search warrant by the fbi, there are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered. we know from sources familiar with the investigation
an escalation of the investigations into donald trump and his inner circle that would require approval from the highest levels of the justice department. sources are saying that monday s search at trump s residence in palm beach is part of doj s probe into his handling of presidential records. some of the documents were classified. cnn has learned that agents left mar-a-lago with additional boxes of items, and sources also tell cnn investigators visited trump s home previously, then meets with his attorneys about the material taken from the white house. trump wasn t there at the time of yesterday s search, however, but he definitely has plenty to say about it. let s start with cnn s leyla santiago live in palm beach, florida. what more are you learning about the fbi search? reporter: kate, i can tell you that here at mar-a-lago it s been pretty quiet. we still see some law enforcement at some of the entrances for mar-a-lago, and then out where we are right now, the bridge b
engaging in political persecution, but we know a federal judge had to sign off on this search warrant. it wasn t just the fbi acting on its own. and before it was even in front of that judge, the highest levels of the doj including the trump appointed director of the fbi, likely had to approve the action. we also know that the fbi met with trump s legal team in june about white house documents that were being stored at mar-a-lago. so the key question in this mystery now is, what changed between that june meeting and yesterday? it was big enough to compel the fbi to move. cnn s leyla santiago is live outside mar-a-lago. you re learning more about the timeline and what led up to the search. fill us in. it s important to go all the way back to the beginning of the year. january, where we start to see this timeline unfold, when we know that president trump s team was interviewed by the fbi. and that s when they really started to look into what was a lot of records believed to b
search of donald trump s mar-a-lago resort. it s the first time in american history the bureau has searched the home of a former president. sources say agents removed boxes of items and trump s attorney confirmed papers were taken. cnn has learned the warrant is tied to an investigation about how presidential documents were handled, including ones that were deemed classified. the former president, while at trump tower in new york, confirmed the fbi was in his home and he says broke into his safe. top republicans are rallying behind the former president after the search, which likely was approved by leaders of the justice department, including trump appointed director of the fbi christopher wray. joining us now, cnn s gabby orr, and katelyn polantz, unprecedented, as we said, what do we know about the search. this was a search that began in the morning yesterday, and as far as we know lasted quite some time. law enforcement went in to mar-a-lago. they were focused on trump s