i m kaitlan collins. there s so much news to talk about tonight, when it comes to the former presidents legal troubles. it s almost hard to know where to begin. there is brand new, cnn exclusive reporting, that is from the personal attorney rudy giuliani, he s recently been interviewed in the special counsel january six investigation. there s also fresh details coming from the new york times tonight, on the documents case, and how investigators zeroed in on another one of his properties, not mar-a-lago. there is also a new defense coming from the former president himself tonight, who is reacting to the blockbuster audio that you heard here last night first. this is the defense, that donald trump is now offering. today i had a whole desk full of lots of papers, and mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies are different plans, copies of stories. i meet with many many subjects. and, what was said was absolutely fine, and worked very perfectly. we did nothing wron
thanks so much for joining us this afternoon on cnn news central. i m horse sanchez we re closely tracking the closing arguments in the donald trump civil fraud trial in new york. the prosecution is set to begin in just a few minutes, a short time ago during the trump defense argument, the judge allowed the former president to address the court. trump used the opportunity to reiterate the claims almost every time he s appeared at this trial, to the point where the judge cut him off after five minutes. but trump is making sure that he will have his say. this hour he s also going to be making public remarks. once again using a court appearance as an unofficial campaign event. we have full coverage, cnn s paula reid and kara scannell who is beside the courthouse, is there right now outside the courthouse in downtown manhattan. paula, tell us where things stand. closing arguments are supposed to be in our opportunity for lawyers to summarize their case, in this case in f
smoke because of canadian wildfires. 75 million americans under air quality alert. when will the smoke clear? plus amanda gorman has her book pulled from a miami area grade school because one parent complained. turns out the parent never actually read the book. we begin with the growing legal jeopardy that former president trump faces in the federal documents investigation. a letter from the justice department to the former president s attorneys saying he is a target in a federal investigation. it s often but not always a strong sign that the person in question will be indicted. it is hard to overstate the unprecedented nature of this latest development. kaitlan collins joins us now with what we know. what is the latest on this letter and what is the trump team reaction? we haven t gotten a formal reaction from the trump legal team so far. we do know that justice department prosecutors did inform the former president s legal team that he is a target in that federal inve
iowa where the 2024 campaign for the white house is heating up. we re live at grandview university in des moines for cnn s town hall with former vice president mike pence. i m dana bash. tonight we hear from a brand-new candidate in the republican field, former vice president mike pence announced his run for the white house earlier today, a move unprecedented in modern political history. a former vice president running against the president he served under. pence enters a race dominated by that former boss, donald trump, and he will be battling a growing number of rivals for the chance to take on president joe biden. this evening s event is about the voters and the issues that will help them determine who wins the republican nomination. tonight iowa voters will have the opportunity to question the former vice president directly, and i will have some questions of my own. this town hall is part of the republican primary process. and so by design, in the audience tonight are vot
but if you have lived through the last three or four years in this country should appreciate just how fragile our freedoms really are. our founding fathers understood this and benjamin franklin walked out of the constitutional convention he was asked on the street what have you given us a republic or monarchy? he said a republic if you can keep it. you can have the best constitution in the world you can have the best declaration of independence they do not run on autopilot. they require citizens in each generation to answer the call when freedom is under attack. so we are called upon to carry the torch of what george washington called the sacred fire of liberty. we are called upon to stand firm for the truth. we are called upon to be resolute in defense of the enduring american principles that mark us as a free society. here s what i can tell you i will do. if you support me and i earn the nomination to be the republican candidate, set your clock to january 20, 2025 at high n