to this morning. five things to know for this wednesday, september 20th. in just hours, attorney general merrick garland will testify before congress, and he will say he is not the president s lawyer, and not congress s prosecutor. and keeping our eyes on the capitol, republican dysfunction in the house, it continues. a handful of far right conservatives blocking debate on a pentagon spending bill as the clock ticks down to a government shutdown. and donald trump s ex-assistant says the former president told her to play dumb about classified documents according to reports. new federal charges in the fentanyl death of a 1-year-old child at a day care center in the bronx. investigators say they found a kilogram of the drug on top of play mats. writers will be back at the negotiating table today after five months of strike as the auto workers strike moves into day six. cnn this morning starts right now. wednesday can be a hard day, middle of the week, hump day, you k
standing by for confrontation on capitol hill, very shortly attorney general merrick garland faces some of his fiercest republican critics, many who want him impeached. criminal probes into donald trump, hunter biden, impeachment all on the table and on camera. it s congress, so it s always messy, but it s officially turning ugly as hard-line republicans just blocked the republican effort to move forward a house defense spending bill, barreling toward a government shutdown and a house republican civil war threatening to erupt. you don t know anything about the boxes. new reporting that those words are from a close aide to donald trump who told investigators that s what former president donald trump told her to say to investigators. we have the latest on the explosive new report. i m sara sidner with john berman and kate bolduan. cnn news central starts right now. in just a few minutes a moment on capitol hill that has been months in the making, attorney general merr
committed the crime of falsifying business records with the intent to influence the 2016 election. then, the prosecution will recap their case and tied together testimony from their witnesses and the evidence including documents with handwritten notes accounting for just how the hush money payment was to be reimbursed to michael cohen, who testified that he did it at the direction of and for the benefit of donald trump. closing arguments will take up most if not the entire day, st which will be followed by judge mershon giving jury instructions, which should last about one hour. and then the fate will be in the hands of the jury that could reach a verdict as early as this week. trump is already attacking the jury instructions on social media. there is a significant development in florida and the classified documents case against him. jack smith is asking eileen cannon to modify the conditions of release in the classified documents case after he told the very dangerous lie abo
election for her alleged sexual encounter with donald trump. nbc news reports a dozen members of the public have lined up and are continuing to do so even in the rain to get a seat for the historic moment. closing arguments will be both the prosecution and the defense final chance to weave the evidence into the narrative of their case. in new york, the defense goes first. arguing that the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that john donald trump committed a crime with the intent to influence the 2016 election then the prosecution will recap its case. tying together testimony from is 20 witnesses and the evidence, including documents with handwritten notes accounting for just how the hush money payment was to be reimbursed to michael cohen, who testified that he did it at the direction of and for the benefit of donald trump. closing arguments are expected to take up most, if not the entire day tomorrow. which will be followed by the judge giving the ju
Just north of new york city parts of the hudson valley saw a once in a millennium levels of rain. this was the scene in highland falls, new york. look at that. it s incredible. a woman was reportedly swept away by raging floodwaters and drowned while trying to evacuate from her home with her dog. a rescue team was using the boat to save this man stranded in his house. you can see piles of trees and debris pushed up against the homes. the storm dropped nearly 8 inches of rain at the u.s. military academy at west point. flooding was so bad that people had to swim out of their cars after becoming stuck. and now the storm system is bearing down on new england. as of right now more than 1,000 flights are already canceled or delayed today. we have team coverage, pete muntean is tracking the travel chaos the storm has been causing. let s start with polo sandoval, he is live on the ground in rockland county, new york. what is the situation there right now, polo? reporter: well, pam and phi