it s always good to see you. happy new year, by the way, it s not too light to say happy new year. it is not, the whole month of january, as far as i am concerned. the whole 2024 will be, you can see it, but my fingers are crossed. from your mouth to my ears, have a good show. and tonight, donald trump s criminal defense team is renewing its requests for judge tanya chutkan to hold special counsel jack smith in contempt of court. with the election interference case currently on hold while trump s immunity claims get worked out in a federal appeals court, trump s lawyers lot of activity in the case halted, even the routine filing of documents which jack smith s team has said is permissible because it does not require the trump team to do anything. the motion to punish a jack smith for something that he is not prohibitive from even doing is yet another example of how donald trump has always referred to live in the world of alternative facts. with that strategy, it s on
and tonight, donald trump s criminal defense team is renewing its requests for judge tanya chutkan to hold special counsel jack smith in contempt of court. with the election interference case currently on hold while trump s immunity claims get worked out in a federal appeals court, trump s lawyers lot of activity in the case halted, even the routine filing of documents which jacks mitt s team has said is permissible because it does not require the trump team to do anything. the motion to punish a jack smith for something that he is not prohibitive from even doing is yet another example of how donald trump has always referred to live in the world of alternative facts. with that strategy, it s on a collision course with the courtroom reality. that s what we saw this week as the disgraced former presidents that up for just a few minutes, in his own defense and the new york attorney generals civil fraud trial, when trump rambled, dissembled and presented himself as usual, as a
$150 million in damages to two georgia election workers he defamed. we re breaking down the huge verdict against the former trump lawyer tied to his lies about the 2020 presidential election. i ll speak live to an attorney for the two election workers this hour. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in in the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and we begin this hour with a major breaking story. the former trump lawyer, rudy giuliani, ordered to pay an enormous price for falsely accusing two georgia election workers of fraud. jessica schneider is outside the courthouse here in washington. jessica, this nearly $150 million verdict is vastly more than the attorneys for the election workers even asked for. it is, wolf. it s about $100 million more than their attorneys asked for. $75 million in punitive damages, essentially to punish rudy giuliani for those statements he made against ruby freeman and
government will crush you and your family. the fbi has not and will not retaliate against whistleblower disclosures. fireworks flew throughout as jim jordan was accused of withholding a whistleblower prior testimony. i m not aware you are able to withhold information from the minority we would need to use to prepare when it comes to whistleblower, we are not. i would remind the gentlemen from new york with the information we had. when you were part of the investigation with anonymous whistleblower. that just one of many tense moments, earlier this morning, kat cammack had this reaction with you guys. i think the most shocking thing was the revelation these whistleblowers gave us and how they had come forward, they had expresed dismay and concern about the tactics and directives of the fbi against american citizens and they were subsequently suspended without pay, their clearance revoked and left to languish. one you can hear more about are claims the fbi scooped
u.s./mexico border and how it could work inside governor abbott s plan to pardon a man who was just convicted of murdering a black lives matter protester at a demonstration back in 2020 and we re watching for any new details coming out of kentucky as we wait for the police briefing in the next hour what we know right now about the horrific shooting at a louisville bank that left five dead, including the shooter. our nbc news reporters are covering all of the latest developments, but we want to begin in louisville and nbc s morgan chesky is there now morgan, what s the latest? what have we learned reporter: yeah, chris, very large footprint that s been established by law enforcement around old national bank that is the silver building behind me. that is where authorities say it was around 8:30 a.m. when this gunman that they believe either is a current or a former employee of the bank walked inside and started to open fire. as you mentioned now, four people have been kille