tonight, 18 years, that is the prison sentence a federal judge handed down to stewart rhodes, the leader of the oath keepers for his role in the january 6th insurrection. he was convicted of seditious conspiracy. the judge pulling no punches in handing down the sentence, telling rhodes, quote, i dare say, mr. rhodes, and i have never said this to anyone i sentenced, you pose an ongoing threat to democracy and the fabric of this country. oath keepers were at the capitol that day clad in camouflage among the crowd. thank you so much for joining us. it is time now for anderson and "ac 360." good evening. we have two big stories breaking tonight. new word the debt ceiling talks may be, may be yielding

progress. we're going talk to senator bernie sanders shortly. but we begin tonight with new reporting that paints a remarkable picture of just how much evidence federal investigators may have to show the former president obstructed justice in the mar-a-lago document case. it comes tonight from "the washington post." and the headline is stung. trump workers moved mar-a-lago boxes a day before fbi came for documents. new details including an alleged dress rehearsal for moving sensitive papers show a focus on donald trump's instructions and intent. now in a moment, we'll talk to legal analyst elie honig who joins us, but first enterprise reporter josh dorsey who shares a byline on the breaking story. can you just lay out the citizens at mar-a-lago based on your reporting? >> sure. so in may of 2022, federal prosecutors subpoena former president trump for all classified documents that he still has in his possession. after that period of time, some of the boxes that are in the storage room are moved into

other parts of mar-a-lago. one day before federal prosecutors come to pick up the subpoenaed material, on june 3rd, the boxes are moved back into a storage room. on june 3rd, prosecutors are taken to the storage room and say this is where all the classified documents are held. you cannot look through the boxes, but this is where they're all held, and trump's aides signed an attestation that say everything that is classified we have given back. obviously, we know now that not to be true. there were more than 100 classified documents. they were all over parts of the residence. so it's interesting of prosecutors is why were the boxes moved in and out of the storage room in that period of time? and why were they moved back one day before federal authorities came to search the area? >> and you're reporting that prosecutor, and i'm quoting from the reporting, gathered evidence that trump at times kept classified documents in his

office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others. >> right. >> end quote. it's remarkable reporting. how key to the special counsel's investigation could that be? >> well, it's certainly important enough to them that they've asked multiple witnesses this question in grand jury interviews and interviews the fbi, and they learned from multiple people that he did do this. what his team had maintained, anderson, that it was a haphazard packing and storing process. the boxes were put in storage room. all of this was kind of much ado about nothing. and what witnesses have said is that's not true. there were certain documents that he had a particular affinity for that he would show visitors when they came, but he would keep in his office. >> is the implication of what you are reporting that trump employees moved the boxes out of storage when they knew they were going to be picked up or under subpoena, they removed out, that trump looked at them to see what he maybe wanted to keep, and

then they returned them right before the fbi came in? >> so that's what we're trying to figure out, anderson, is exactly what happened in that time period. these boxes were moved. they came back the night before. and obviously, as you know now, there were documents found in many other places at mar-a-lago, the residence, his office, the pine room off the residence. and we've been trying to figure out what exactly happened. what we were told happened is that evan corcoran, the lawyer for former president trump did a thorough search of the boxes in the storage room. but what seems to have happened now is the boxes left the storage room for some period of time and came backlit rally hours before the federal authorities showed up to pick up the documents. >> you're also writing that trump and his aides allegedly carried out a dress rehearsal, which some have called, for removing sensitive papers. what does that mean, a dress rehearsal? and where does that term come from? >> so this whole saga dates back

to 2021 when former president trump leaves office and the national archives says they're aware he took things improperly and they want them back. and if you remember in that period, former president was resistant to give them back. he said these documents are mine. he told a lot of aides not to give them back. and eventually the national archives said we're going to involve the department of justice and congress. he gives back 15 boxes in february of 2022. in that period, what we're told is that a lot of his actions on how not to give all of the material back and what to do were now analogous to what he did when doj asked for the boxes. and the judge of d.c. people's court wrote in an 86-page opinion that what happened with nara and why he did not give those boxes back to nara, and what he did during that period was a seeming dress rehearsal for what he did when doj asked for the documents. >> so is it clear to how many of

these trump employees allegedly moved with moving the boxes have been interviewed by the special counsel's team? and who is paying their legal bills? >> we know both of the trump employees have been interviewed by the special counsel's team, and we know that the former president's pac, save america, has paid at least some of the legal bills for both of these people. one of them, as we reported, was walt nauta, who is the former president's valet. you see him on the plane with him at these rallies. he is carrying boxes. he is his personal aide. the second one whose identity is not known is a person who worked for the former president in florida. >> josh, appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you. >> cnn senior legal analyst and former prosecutor elie honig is here. none of this is good news for the former president. a lot of these details are new. >> yeah, a lot of it is really interesting. the key thing prosecutors have to prove here is knowledge and intent with respect to the documents. first of all, did donald trump

know he had the documents? there is no question whatsoever that he knew about these documents. the reporting is that he went through them himselves. he showed them to people. there is always been a question about intent. what was he going to would the documents? he wasn't p.o.w.ing them online. he wasn't as far as we know selling them to anyone. but the reporting that he was showing them to other people at least shows us he was giving this information out to some selected people for some selected reasons, and i'd want to dig in on that. >> there is a crime of mishandling classified documents, showing them to people, random people in your office that seems to be mishandling them. >> there are two buckets of crimes here. there are several statutes that cover mishandling, destroying, stealing classified or sensitive documents. a yound take them, knowing you shouldn't, and that's the dress rehearsal josh talked, the fact that he knew he shouldn't have these. simply, there is obstruction. that gets to point that josh dawsey was just talking about of moving documents into and out of

storage areas the day before and shortly after the doj team, not the search warrant, but the doj team of lawyers came to get the subpoena response. and that can tell you about something are they trying to play keepaway with these documents. >> there was reporting just the other day about special counsel looking at the trump organization and any business dealings they had from 2017 on with foreign governments or foreign actors, and one supposition would be possibly was there any correlation between classified documents that he wanted to have and any business dealings. >> logically, that one really jumped off the page to me. there is only two things. is there some link between these classified documents and any foreign dealings, foreign business, foreign countries? or could it be and not anything really beyond this, or could it be that they expanded the scope of their investigation and are getting into the financial dealings. but we've not seen facts to substantiate that. >> the timeline where this special counsel investigation is going, there has been reporting about the grand jury hasn't met

for a while there was a flurry of activity. now there is not. what does it tell you? >> it definitely feels like end game for me. and the fact that donald trump's team has asked for this meeting with the attorney general is a fairly common move that happens not necessarily the very, very last thing, but you wouldn't do that in the middle of a case. and as prosecutors, you normally want to keep the defense sort of at least loosely updated on where you are. and usually that kind of meeting which happens where defense lawyers make a pitch and say hey, here is why you no not charge our client, that is something that normally would happen towards the end of the case. >> appreciate it. also tonight, tough sentencing in connection with january 6th. 18 years for stewart rhodes, leader and co-founder of the so-called oath keepers. 12 years for kelly meggs. both men were convicted of seditious conspiracy. the judge telling rhodes, quote, you pose an ungoing threat and peril to our country and democracy in this country. earlier desantis weighed in, not on these two specifically, but on the criminal justice and convicted them within his power

to grant pardons. appearing on a conservative talk show, he was asked do you think the january 6th defendants deserve to have their cases examined by a republican president? here is some of what he had to say. >> the doj and fbi have been weaponized. on day one, i will have folks that get together and look at all these cases who people are victims of weaponization or political targeting. and we will be aggressive in issuing pardons. >> he said he would do it on a case-by-case basis, but did not rule out pardoning anyone, including the former president. his remarks follow these last night on fbi director chris wray, a trump appointee, should be noted. >> i would not keep chris wray as director of the fbi. there will be a new one on day one. i think the doj and fbi have lost their way. i think that they have been weaponized against americans who think like me and you. and i think that they become very partisan. >> we should point out despite this being a very popular talking point on the right, there is no point the fbi or

department of justice has been weaponized or that any of the january 6th cases so far have been wrongly brought. joining us now, anthony scaramucci served as white house communications director in the former administration. no one should be surprised, but it sure says a lot about the republican party that the two leading candidates right now are going after the most important and legitimate institutions of law and order in this country. >> i mean, just harken back 30 years ago where the republican party was the law and order party. but thing is all virtue signaling to their side. and so this is a little bit ironic in governor desantis, because he doesn't like the woke culture. he wants to rebuke the left for doing the same thing that he is doing on the right. and so a more sensible strategy, a more presidential look would be that i respect the rule of law. i will meet with everybody and evaluate the personnel that i'm bringing into the white house and the personnel that i'm keeping. and typically we keep the fbi director. and so chris wray shouldn't be

let go. and if he talked like that, though, he probably wouldn't get anywhere close to the republican nomination, anderson. and so that's the big problem right now. who is going to step up in the chasm and actually speak like a president, think like a president, unite the country, bring our values back together and talk to people in a common sense way instead of listening to political consultants telling well, you got to get further to the right of donald trump because if he falls out of the race, you're going to be the guy that takes over, and you've got to get his base. so i'm hoping for a more transformative candidate than that instead of this stuff that we're getting right now. >> but i mean, again, as we -- and we talked about this endlessly. but in a primary with a lot of candidates, if trump has 30%, that is presidential behavior now. what desantis is doing is essentially president trump's playbook. >> yes. so i obviously disagree with that as an entrepreneur.

we need an entrepreneurial candidate that would actually build the base of the republican party. think about what barack obama did in 2008. he went up against hillary clinton and the democratic establishment, and he built a new market for himself. and so what i would like to see is a republican party candidate reject those values and go into the marketplace and find the voters. you and i both know there is 144 million people that do not vote, that are registered to vote. and with the right messaging, you could bring a lot of young people into that campaign. i did like what governor desantis said about bitcoin the other night on twitter spaces. there's stuff that he is doing that makes sense, but this hard right move to win the primary is very old school stuff, and we don't need that right now in the country. we need a unifying figure and somebody that can build the demography of the republican party, not go to that hard right tact. >> what did you think of his

doing that on twitter face? obviously there were the glitches that was disastrous for him. but, you know, there are a lot of folks talking about how he wasn't talking about working americans. he was hobnobbing with elon musk in some tech billionaire, i guess, or multimillionaire. >> i liked it. i think the fact that we were all talking about it, i mean, i'm sure he wasn't happy with the glitches. people seemed to be focused on that. but it's an interesting medium and it's an interesting use case. and i think he's opened up the platform for other people to do that. i think one of the things i think mr. musk wants to have happen is to create a purple platform. but unfortunately in our society right now, we're sort of either red or blue. so now that governor desantis has done that, i think it's going to be hard for democrats to want the take that lane. i hope they consider that, because i do take elon musk at his word that he's trying to broaden out that platform and make that platform a platform for free speech. but i did like it. and if those numbers are

correct, that he got 6 1/2 million impression, then by and large worked. and the fact that you and i are talking about it right now is probably another sign of it. >> in just the last 24 hours since announcing, desantis has taken on the former president in a more direct way, something he has been reductionluctant to do now. >> i don't know what happened to president trump. this is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016. and i think the direction that he is going with his campaign is the wrong direction. >> it's interesting argument. he is not really criticizing what he did before. he just saying oh, he's changed. >> well, we'll have to see when he gets hit with the content. like mike tyson says, everybody has a plan until they're punched in the face. we have to see the counterpunching donald trump with those maneuvers. again, i think mr. desantis would be better served to explain listen, i was a good governor. i have a really good track

record. the country needs to heal. we need to have an american renewal. and let me tell you what my plans are that represent that, as opposed to trying to do this microverbal surgery splitting partals without over alienating trump. you have already overalienated donald trump by entering the race. so anything you do now in terms of subtly is not going to be noticed by the former president. >> anthony scaramucci, i appreciate it. thank you. coming up next, we have bernie sanders on tonight's breaking news on debt ceiling talks. we'll tatalk to senator sanders.

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visit purple.com or a store near you. there is breaking news just in on talks to head off a government default. "the new york times" is reporting the white house officials and republican lawmakers are closing in on a deal. it would raise the debt limit for two years, cap federal spending on everything but the military and veterans, in broad terms according to "the times," it would let republicans lead to spending reductions and democrats say they had spared most significant programs from significant cuts. joining us, bernie sanders, who chairs the senate, health, labor and pensions committee and is a member of the budget committee. mr. sanders, i appreciate you being with us. a, have you heard anything tonight about a deal along those lines? and if so, how does it sound to you? >> well, it's only what i read in "the new york times." it may be right. it may be wrong. but anderson, i want to say this. the idea that the republicans

are holding hostage the entire world economy unless they get what they want has been an outrageous display of extremist politics, and it really is unacceptable. and the second point that we have to appreciate is right now in america, you got a middle class which is shrinking. you've got 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck. child care system in disarray. health care system collapsing. housing all over the country. people can't afford housing. you don't cut programs that working people desperately need. what you do do, and what has to be done is the man that the wealthiest people in this country who are doing phenomenally well start paying their fair share of taxes. i don't have to demand that corporate interests, receiving record-breaking profits start paying their fair share of taxes. you have to cut military spending when we're spending more than the next ten nations' combined mass cause overreturns in the military. there are ways you can cut

government spending without doing it on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in this country. >> a lot of those things, particularly military spending, as you know, republicans have drawn a line on that. where would you -- where is the negotiation from if you were running these negotiations? what is it, the give? >> anderson, it's not good enough for them to say oh, we got huge campaign contributions from billionaires. we don't want to tax them. oh, we love the military industrial complex. we don't want to cut military spending, off the table. well, it's not off the table. what should be off the table are children in america where we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country that should be off the table. the needs of elderly people who are struggling to pay for their prescription drugs, that should be off the table. you know, what we could do, if we pay the same prices for prescription drugs as they do in europe, that's what medicare paid, we would save a trillion dollars over ten-year period. the republicans have the gets to

take on the pharmaceutical industry? i don't think so. so it's not what they want. it's what the american people want. and i think what i'm talking about is precisely what ordinary americans want. >> you have called for president biden to invoke the 14th amendment, which as you know says, quote, the validity, the public debt of the united states shall not be questioned. how would that play out in practical terms? why do you think that is the way to go? >> i think if the republicans are prepared to hold the entire world economy hostage and say hey, mr. president, you've got no alternative but to make massive cuts in programs vulnerable, you have no alternative, well, the president does have an alternative. as you've indicated, the 14th amendment is pretty clear. the validity of paying off our national debt is not questioned. that's the 14th amendment. i think he should invoke it. what that would mean in practical terms i believe has never been done before, is that we would continue to pay our bills. i suspect it would be challenged in the courts very, very quickly. i think the courts do not want to see the world economy

crumble, and i think it would be sustained. >> does the -- you know, there are democrats who believe that invoking that essentially is sort of absolving congress of what their responsibilities are, and that it should remain in congress. what about that argument? >> it's an argument. and i'm not here to tell you that i think the 14th amendment is a wonderful solution. it's about all that we have left. it is a better solution than the republican approach which says in their original proposal was a ten year program, proposal, which would have made massive cuts for the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. if that's the alternative, 14th amendment looks pretty good. but i'm not here to tell you that that's a great option. the option is that you do what we've always done throughout history is you raise the debt ceiling. you do not default. you don't threaten to default. and then you'll have an argument about the budget. that's what you do in a democratic society. not hold the world economy

hostage, which is what the republicans are doing. >> what is extraordinary about what the republicans are doing, it is in such stark contrast to how they behaved under the former president in terms of the debt ceiling. >> absolutely. they raise the debt ceiling, if i recall correctly, three times under trump. and by the way, we raised -- we raised our national debt by something like $8 trillion over that period. but it's not just trump. we have done it with republicans. we've done wit democrats. that is what you do. and let's be clear. everybody should know this. this is not a budget issue. we're not arguing here what we should be spending next year. it is simply paying the bills that republicans voted for last year and previous years. we're paying off our debt. and when you're the largest economy in the world, that is what you do. >> if you make a deal now, democrats could revisit your budget priorities if and when

they win back control of the house, or i guess from the republican perspective, if and when they win back the white house, would that be a better path than default? >> well, default is a terrible path. it will cause global anarchy. but the alternatives are also very, very bad. again, what i think is you have a normal budget process. the republicans want to cut. i want to make investments in our children and health care and education. let's argue it out. but the other thing, anderson, that worries me very much is republicans get away withholding the economy hostage. this sets a precedent for years to come. you talk about in the future, then the normal budget process that we go through, we have committees, we argue and all that stuff, it's gone, and people say okay, hey, budget ceiling is coming. we're going to go through this again that is a pretty bad way

to develop budgets. >> senator bernie sanders, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you. >> thank you. ukraine next. a naval drone attack on a russian ship in the black sea. what happened and other developments in the war when "360" continues. at adp, we understand business today looks nothing like it did yesterday. while it's more unpredictable, s possibilities are endless. from paying your people from anywhere to supporting your talent everywhere we use data driven insights to design hr solutions and services to help businesses of all size work smarter today.

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tonight there is video of what russia is calling an unsuccessful drone attack on one of its spy ships in the black sea. but as you can see, it looks like one of the three unmanned boats targeting the ship did manage to at least get through. this of course follows the recent aerial drone attack on the kremlin, and they certainly aren't the only such incidents demonstrating russia's vulnerability. throughout the war, we've seen ukraine sink russia's black sea flagship, blow up a piece of strategic bridge. and this week we saw fighters from two anti-putin groups launch a cross-border raid into russia. cnn's sam kiley talked to some of the members of that group. >> reporter: a propaganda coup. russian dissident soldiers back from a raid inside russia, parading a captured russian vehicle for the world. what do you hope will be the effect of this raid? >> effect of this raid was amazing.

it was information bump, blowing about two days whole internet, blowing up, boiling. >> these men rule russian nationals and part of ukraine's security forces, and they carry ukrainian military ids. this incursion into russian military territory which these guys say is ongoing was as much as propaganda mission as a military mission. but they also say it was done independently of the ukrainian military that is a claim we have to take with a big pinch of salt. they jointly raided russian territory this week and flooded the internet with images of their work. russia claims to have driven them out. still, the raid has rattled moscow. do you think this is part of the coming summer offensive, an attempt to keep the russians off balance, keep them guessing? >> i think it's kind of -- yes, it's kind of it.

>> reporter: american-made vehicles appear to have been used in the cross-border operation in belgorod province. it's unclear if they were u.s. donations. >> the vehicles that you took included some of the american mraps, is that right that you were using? >> yeah, we buy them in international shops, war shops. yeah. >> reporter: so you bought these vehicles on the open market? >> yeah, of course. everyone who have some money can do it. >> reporter: ukraine's government, which has received u.s. vehicles and lethal hardware, says that these men operated inside russia privately. but a security source said here that kyiv had advanced knowledge of the raid and caesar admitted ukraine helped out with supplies. >> small arms artillery weapon, heavy vehicles, everything that we need. >> reporter: so this was a raid that the government can deny, but still enjoy the results.

divisions in the ranks of their enemies, mercenary leader yevgeny prigozhin immediately reacting with fury. >> reporter: and the far right leader of the russian volunteer even warned that moscow could face a revolution. >> the operation is ongoing. this is how i should put it, to be honest. it definitely has various phases. so phase one we consider a successful phase. it's over now. but the operation is ongoing. that's what i can say for now. >> it's fascinating. sam kiley joins us now. sam, it's really fascinating to hear from them. they sound very confident. they also sound like -- at least they want people to believe there will be more attacks from

these kind of groups on russian soil. how likely is that? >> i think it's pretty likely, anderson, in that they are relatively small in number, numbering in the hundreds rather than thousand, these russian citizens. but they are also trying to hook up with partisan groups deeper into the country, trying to inspire other people into acts of sabotage ultimately. and then at the same time, the ukrainians are prosecuting these sort of attacks behind the russian line here is inside ukrainians territory, either with special forces or now with the longer range weaponry that they've been getting, particularly from nato partners. the united kingdom recently supplying the storm shadow cruise missile that may have been behind a recent explosion in a russian occupied town more than 100 kilometers some 80 miles or so behind the front lines, anderson. >> sam kiley in ukraine, thanks

for that. joining us now cnn military analyst retired general mark hertling. in terms of ukraine's fight against russia are, these cross border raiders effectively either strategically or psychologically or in any way? >> in all those ways, anderson. whenever you're conducting raids or feints or demonstrations, it causes the enemy to take a look at what they're doing, where they're defending. what you're talking about along the border between ukraine and russia on the eastern part of the country is close to probably a thousand kilometers, 600, 700 miles. the russians cannot defend across that entire length and breadth. so any time you have a raid like this that gets in very quickly, causes a little bit of disruption and some chaos, and then moves out very quickly, you see the enemy reacting to that, just like the russians did. the russians claim they killed 70 of these raiders. it's just not true. you can tell by talking to that

commander just now that he didn't lose a whole lot of people. in fact he said he lost one soldier and two were wounded. but it caused a lot of disruption on the russian side. >> what do you make where the war is right now for ukraine? >> i think ukraine is continuing to conduct shaping operations. and these kinds of raids and demonstrations and feints are a part of that. you see continued strikes by ukraine against key elements of the russian military. you see not only these raids that are taking place, that they can basically say hey, we don't know who did that, but we know it's helpful, all the way to the bombing or the destruction of artillery depots and ammo dumps in places like berdyansk which happened today. you see like you showed earlier the unmanned surface vessel going after a russian ship. it's just a thousand knife cuts against russia. and it's all part of shaping operations for the ukrainians to determine where the weak spots

are in the lines, where they can attack, and how the russian forces are moving their elements around to address different threats coming from unexpected directions. >> you said shaping operations. so it's sort of probes in a way? >> it is probes. it's intelligence gathering. it's preparation of the battlefield by different attacks, using artillery to strike demand post, ammo dump, railroad crossings, places that disrupt the enemy activity and cause the enemy commander to take a different approach or to move forces, or to defend things that he didn't want to defend in the past. or continue to guess at where the ukrainians might come next. and it takes active russian forces away from the defensive lines that they've been building for the last five months and puts them in other places like border posts so that the ukrainians will see this movement and use that to their advantage to attack in places where the russians ain't. >> just quickly, prigozhin, the

head of the wagner group said in an interview that 20,000 wagner troops had died in the attempt to take over bakhmut. do you think that's an accurate number? and if so, what does that say about the fight? >> i believe that's a low ball number from all of the u.s. open source intelligence, that's significantly less than they lost there by count. but it's also prigozhin continuing to insult the minister of defense shoigu and the chief general, gerasimov so when they fail, if there is any failure, he can say hey, see that? i was the guy attacking and having great success. you pulled me offline. you took away my wagner group, and now you all have to suffer the consequences of failure. so he is insulting and prepping a future battlefield from a political standpoint to gain more power inside of the kremlin. >> general hertling, thanks as all. >> sure. the murder of gabby petito at the hands of her fiance brian

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tonight, there are a lot of questions about an undated letter given to brian laundrie from his mom. you may remember gabby petito. her remains were found in wyoming in 2021 after she and laundrie set off in a cross-country trip. laundrie returned from the trip without gabby petito and disappeared weeks later. according to the fbi, before laundrie took his own life, he wrote in a notebook that he was responsible for her death. now cnn has obtained a copy of the letter marked "burn after reading." more from cnn's jean casarez. >> as we all know, the letter references burying a body, bringing a shovel and buriesing a body, baking a cake and putting a shiv in it. >> reporter: gabby petito and brian laundrie's family battle it over in a courtroom over a letter written to her son.

investigators found the undated letter in brian's backpack close to his remains when they were discovered on october 20th, 2021 at florida's carlton reserve. "you are my boy. nothing can make me stop loving you. nothing will or could ever divide us. no matter what we do or where we go or what we say, we will always love each other. if you're in jail, he will bake a cake with a file in it. if you need to dispose of a body, i will show up with a shovel and garbage bags. the petitos say the letter is evidence the laundries already knew gabby was dead when brian returned home alone in the fall of 2021. the laundries say the letter was written well before gabby went missing. >> she wrote the letter because she and brian were experiencing a difficult period in their relationship, and he was about to leave home. he was to be go on this long trip with gabby. and she was hoping to repair their relationship before he left. >> reporter: the petitos say the

laundries should be found liable for inintentional infliction of emotional distress because the laundries refused to talk with them or give them any answers. the laundries argue they had no duty to respond to them. weeks after gabby was reported missing following a highly publicized nationwide search, the 22-year-old's remains were found in wyoming. a coroner ruled her cause of death to be strangulation, and the manner of death homicide. brian disappeared during the search for gabby. his body was discovered soon after hers. a notebook found near his remains revealed he claimed responsibility for gabby's death, according to the fbi. a medical examiner ruled he died by suicide. >> only permits discovery regarding matters that are relevant. >> reporter: laundrie's family attorney argued the letter should not be interpreted literally, pointing to other parts of the letter.

"if you fly to the moon, i will be watching the skies for your reentry. if you say you hate my guts, i'll get new guts." in her affidavit, roberta laundrie referenced two children's books that she says the letter was based on. the petito family attorney rejected that premise. >> there is nothing about burying a body or bringing a shovel or putting something in a cake if somebody goes to prison, although mama bear did say she would bake little bear a cake on his birthday. >> reporter: and written on the front of the envelope, "burn after reading." >> jean casarez is with me now. will the jury get to see that letter if it goes to -- >> here's where we are. yesterday the judge made a big ruling that the petito family and their attorney could actually have the letter, because the laundries did not want the letter to get into their hands at all. so now they have the letter as part of discovery. i am sure the laundries will bring in emotion so that the jury cannot see it.

it cannot become evidence in the trial. but the petitos know this is their circumstantial way to show that the laundries knew that their son had committed murder and they weren't giving the petitos any answers at all. the judge said i think it's relevant. so we'll see what the judge does. but in florida, if you want to prove intentional infliction of emotional distress, there is a number of elements, but the main one is it's outrageous and it's a legal standard. and you know how case law interprets that? if you show a situation and a citizen, average citizen says that's outrageous, that is beyond the norms of decency. >> jean casarez, appreciate it. thank you. coming up, more on the newest presidential candidate ron desantis. we'll look at what role his closest confidante, according to many, his wife may have in the race, next. ♪ are e there animals living underwater? ♪ is the ocean warm?

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returning to florida governor ron desantis and his bid for the white house. his wife casey is described as his most trusted advisor. she has been helping with media strategy and is interested in issues surrounding mental health and fighting cancer. she's a survivor of breast cancer. it's expected she will play a key role in the 2024 race. randi kaye has more. >> hello. >> reporter: before she became the first lady of florida, casey desantis was a fixture in many floridians' homes. she was an afnchor and reporter. she left it behind to support her husband. >> i was going to take a break from the show. i was going to spend time with my family. >> reporter: casey desantis was born jill casey black in ohio. her father was an optometrist and her mother was a speech pathologist at casey's elementary school.

she's a golf enthusiast and equestrian who graduated with an economics degree from the college of charleston in south carolina. she first met ron desantis in 2006 on a florida golf range. >> i kept looking over my shoulder. i wanted the bucket of balls somebody had left. ron is over there. he thinks i'm looking at him. >> was there an attraction? >> of course. he was cute. >> reporter: in his new book, he referred to that chance meeting as his life's most fortuitous moment. three years late he the couple married at the walt disney world resort. there 2010, casey worked as a host for the golf channel. a couple years later, ron desantis was elected to florida's sixth congressional district. ever since, casey has become known as her husband's closest conf confidante. she advises him on media strategy and campaign ads, including this memorable one from 2018. >> build the wall. >> he is teaching madison to

talk. >> make america great again. >> in a recent tampa bay times article, representative jarrod moscowitz referred to casey as a powerful force. the sounding board starts and stops with casey. casey desantis has a knock for humanizing her husband. >> you want to know who ron desantis really is? >> reporter: she recorded this campaign ad for him, focusing on how he helped her after her 2021 diagnosis with breast cancer. she's now cancer free. >> he was there to fight for me when i didn't have the strength to fight for myself. >> reporter: when she isn't busy with their three young children, casey can be found at her husband's side on the campaign trail. this is her with him in iowa. >> he's a good dad. he is a good person. he is in it for the right reasons. he is fighting for our children, just as much as he is fighting for your family. >> reporter: the governor often

shines a spotlight on his wife. just as he did during his victory speech on election night last year. >> most important of all, thank you to the greatest first lady in all 50 states. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, palm beach county, florida. the top law enforcement official in texas and why lawmakers, including his fellow republicans are now recommending he be impeached.

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who's next? wait... what's that in your hand? no, no, stop! oh you're no fun. [lock clicks shut] texas attorney general ken paxton could be leaving office after a house ethics panel voted unanimously that he be impeached. they have been investigating allegations that he used his office to benefit a multimillionaire who is one of his major donors. yesterday, they heard from investigators detailing what they described as years of misconduct from paxton. he denied all wrongdoing. in a new statement tonight, he referred to republicans who defied him as liberal and rhinos. that's it for us. thank you very much. good evening, ev