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Ex-Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith Testifies on Elections, Classified Documents Probes; Extreme Storm to Dump Heavy Snow, Crippling Ice Across U.S.; No Written Document Detailing Trump's Greenland Framework. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 22, 2026 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... Being defended, and I'm curious how you thought it went.

BRENDAN BALLOU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: You know, I thought there were two sort of vices that everybody was trying to avoid. And I should be clear. I was not on Jack Smith's team. I was on the team that was investigating and prosecuting rioters who attacked the Capitol.

The first vice that I was thinking about was the one that Republicans were facing, which is, on the one hand, they wanted to talk about the investigation without talking about what the investigation was about, you know. The fundamental problem was that Donald Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. And I think you saw that in the questions that came out, really focused on sort of supposed cover-ups and wrongdoing in the investigation without the substance of the investigation.

At the same time, the vice for Jack Smith to avoid was how to get his story out there without falling into the trap of making a misstatement or being asked to disclose information that he isn't allowed to share in a public forum. You know, anything that they could give ammunition for a future investigation or indictment by the Justice Department.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: To that point, Elie, do you think that there was ammunition that was gained for any future investigation?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think anyone's mind was changed by today. I think opinions have been cemented both ways on Jack Smith for and against him today. And Brendan makes a good point that we have to keep in mind.

Jack Smith is under criminal investigation by this Justice Department because he displeased Donald Trump. Let's be clear about that. He did not have to testify, by the way.

He could have taken the fifth. Now, that would have looked terrible, but other members of his team did take the fifth. And so he's under this threat that he does not deserve.

As much as there are valid criticisms of what Jack Smith did, especially when you get down to the nuance, and you saw some of those today, and I share some of them, the man has not done anything remotely criminal. He does not deserve to be under criminal investigation. But as we've seen for the last several years with Jack Smith, I think he's unfairly vilified by the right.

I think he's undeservedly deified by the left as well. I think he had several missteps. He did not do a great job of explaining some of his investigative overreach today.

But the bottom line, I think the most effective moments for Jack Smith is when he was focused on it. He didn't do a lot of this, but when he was focused on what actually happened at the Capitol on January 6th, that's where the message was strongest. And by and large, that was done by Democratic questioners in Congress.

HILL: You know, I brought this up once earlier, but giving your background here, when it comes to the rioters, the fact that at one point you had a congressman turn around and speak to the four former Capitol Police officers who were sitting there in the hearing room and tell them that they bore the responsibility for what happened on that day, not the president. What did you make of that moment?

BALLOU: I mean, it's heartbreaking to think about. And I should say, I actually represent two of those officers in a lawsuit against the architect of the Capitol because currently Congress refuses to install the plaque required by law to honor the officers that defended the Capitol and those inside that day. I think both the fact that they're refusing to install the plaque and questions like that and other questions by Republican members are part of a larger effort to get people to either forget the history of January 6th or worse yet, see it as part of legitimate political discourse.

HONIG: And I think one of the most effective moments, we talked about this earlier, was when Hank Johnson, the member of Congress, went through the White House webpage, which does attempt to rewrite in a false way many of the facts about January 6th and sort of, again, he did most of the heavy lifting, but he presented to Jack Smith, this is false, right? Just as a factual matter, this is false. I thought those were among the more effective moments.

KEILAR: Critics who will look at the timetable that Jack Smith sought will say, well, what is the matter with wanting to get something that's so pertinent to someone's, whether or not they should be president, to get that through the courts? That's not how the law works, right? We were just talking about that.

And that is an area that is, it's very interesting to delve into. Then you have the other issue with that, though, Brendan, and this was also brought up, is just the abnormal practices of this current Justice Department. So you kind of want to rewind and delve into these things about Jack Smith, but then if you fast forward to present, I mean, you wonder what the heck is going on.

BALLOU: Yes, yes, so two things. And Eli, we were talking about this in the Green Room just a few minutes ago. I think it's pretty clear from Jack Smith's actions that he wanted an ultimate disposition on this trial before the 2024 election.

Now, that isn't illegitimate. You know, there's a strong argument to be made that the public deserves to get a hearing on these issues before the election and that it actually would be more unfair to the president to have this sort of specter of criminality overhanging him on election day. But to your second point about how much the Department of Justice has changed in a matter of months, it's extraordinary.

And it's not just that specific, you know, friends of the president are having their litigations, their criminal investigations, their criminal prosecutions drop. It's that the actual infrastructure for going after criminals that this administration favors is being dismantled.

[15:35:00]

The fact that the tax division is being dismantled, the fact that the public integrity section is being dismantled, the fact that the klepto-capture task force is being dismantled, I think, tells you how much DOJ has changed.

HONIG: Yes, I think we largely agree. Look, I agree, of course, Jack Smith was trying to hurry that case to get it in before the election. That's been reported. Carol Leonnig's fantastic book confirms that. But why has Jack Smith never, ever admitted that?

He asked courts many times over, please expedite. And they would say you have to give us a reason. And he would never say, because I want it before the election, because he knew that would look political.

Instead, he gave this mush mouth generality about, well, speed is good. But he should have just said what Brendan just said. That would have been true.

And that would have saved his credibility. And to the other point, what's happening now at DOJ is of a completely different level with overt targeting directed by the president. There's nothing even remotely approaching that in the prior administrations.

Plural, Democrat and Republican.

HILL: Brendan Ballou, Eli Honig, thank you both.

We are keeping a very close eye on this potentially historic winter storm, which is about to hit a solid portion of the United States. Just look how large that is.

We're talking about freezing, freezing temperatures, destructive ice, snow. We'll take a closer look at the most recent update to its path next.

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[15:40:00] KEILAR: More than half the country is poised to be slammed by one of the most extreme winter storms in years. 160 million people facing the threat of damaging ice, heavy snow, sleet and plunging temperatures. Meteorologist Chris Warren is tracking all of this for us.

Chris, I have a stake in this. What's the latest forecast here?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it is going to be an absolute mess, Brianna. We're talking at least a couple dozen states with winter weather alerts, already a dozen with winter storm warnings. So getting that higher confidence that this is going to be a high impact event.

Pink is showing us the winter storm warnings right now before the precipitation will be the cold and dangerously cold temperatures as well. So the extreme cold alerts are up right now. By tomorrow morning it's going to feel like it is below zero by 52 degrees in some areas and this cold air getting all the way down to the south.

We get a couple shots of this cold air that's going to ooze down here from the Arctic through Canada here to the U.S. And as this low moves across the south, it's going to bring across quite a bit of moisture coming up from the Gulf and that going up and over or into some cold air. Where it's going into the cold air and it stays cold, it's going to be snow. Where it doesn't quite get cold enough at the surface, it's going to be rain.

And then in between is where things could get very nasty and that's going to be freezing rain. That's going to be the ice where travel will be impossible in some areas, dangerous just to walk out your front door in some cases. And the snow is also going to pile up for major cities across the northeast as temperatures will drop again Monday into Tuesday for a deep freeze with snow and or ice on the ground.

Some of the highest snowfall totals, and this is the thinking right now, through the weekend, we're looking at hours and hours of snow. A foot and a half to two feet of snow is a possibility in some of these darker colors here. Now, these numbers will be fine-tuned here.

We're still a couple days before the snow starts, so this will be fine-tuned even during the event because it's going to last hours. And then there's the ice. The ice is what is going to lead to long-lasting power outages and travel that will be impossible.

The low track for some, it's going to make a difference. Who gets the snow, who gets the ice. But regardless, this is going to be one, it's going to be a big one.

We're going to be telling people about for years to come.

KEILAR: Oh, my goodness. I'm preparing for the best. I've got the sleds ready, but I'm also preparing for the worst, and I think that's probably what most people are doing.

Chris, this is just crazy. Thank you so much for keeping us updated on it.

And ahead, President Trump is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and unveiling his Board of Peace with fewer than 20 countries. We have a look at the president's last day at the World Economic Forum next.

[15:45:00]

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HILL: President Trump right now is on his way back to Washington, D.C., after a very closely watched trip to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Today, he held a high-stakes meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to work on a potential peace plan with Russia. The president also formally launched his Board of Peace, holding a signing ceremony for members and revealing some new plans for the reconstruction of Gaza.

KEILAR: And the president left Davos with a framework for an agreement for U.S. interests in Greenland, though at this point it's unclear just what is actually in that deal and what's in the deal that's new.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House for us. Kristen, a lot went down. What are you hearing right now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, let's start right there with a framework for Greenland because what we know is that there is no actual paper document that has been signed that lays out what exactly this deal is going to look like. Now, one of the things that we're paying close attention to is what exactly the U.S. is getting out of this, particularly when it comes to any kind of acquiring of Greenland. Remember, President Trump has essentially said that that was the line, that he was insisting that the U.S. had to own Greenland in order to protect it.

But every indication we have is that that is actually not part of this framework. Instead, what we are understanding is that the framework for a deal is almost a renegotiation of an agreement that was signed in 1951 by the U.S. and Denmark that essentially allowed U.S. forces to be in Denmark. We will note that there was a time during the Cold War where there were more than a dozen military installations in Greenland, and now that is down to one.

But again, details are very thin. We have heard from a number of European leaders who say they don't really know what the agreement even looks like, and we are told that we're not going to get any details until all of the parties have been briefed. That was something the White House told me last night.

Now, as you mentioned, two very important meetings today, one with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. It did seem as though there were two separate takeaways from that meeting. At one point, President Trump coming out of the meeting saying that there are still a long ways to go when it came to this negotiating, trying to end the war in Ukraine, the Russia-Ukraine war.

[15:50:00]

And then on the other side, Zelenskyy himself saying that they were close, that they were close to actually getting an agreement. So a lot of questions still coming out of that.

And just quickly note that Board of Peace, we were told at one point the White House estimated 35 countries would be a part of it. We only saw roughly 20 today. And many of them were not our European allies who said that they weren't ready to join. They had a lot of stipulations, concern about Vladimir Putin being invited, among other things. And it was instead leaders like the leader of Hungary and Middle Eastern countries.

HILL: All right, Kristen, appreciate it. Thank you.

Still ahead here, why Duke University is now suing its star quarterback.

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KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Spanish authorities say four people suffered minor injuries today when a commuter train collided with a crane. This is something that happened near the port city of Cartagena.

[15:55:00]

And this marks Spain's fourth rail crash in less than a week. On Sunday, two high-speed trains collided, killing at least 43 people. On Tuesday, a commuter train derailed near Barcelona, killing the driver and seriously injuring four passengers. Spain's largest train conductor's union is calling for a nationwide strike over safety standards.

Also, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is asking President Trump for an early release from federal prison. She is currently serving an 11- year sentence in Texas for defrauding investors. She was convicted in 2022 and ordered to pay victims $452 million in restitution.

If Trump were to commute her sentence, she could be released nearly six years early. The president has already made several high-profile pardons during his second term.

HILL: And Duke University suing its star quarterback to stop him from playing for another university. Last week, Darian Mensah announced he was entering the transfer portal just hours before the deadline. However, Duke says he's under contract with the Blue Devils, a contract that runs through the end of 2026.

A judge is allowing him to stay in the portal but says he can't enroll anywhere else until both sides resolve the issue. There is a hearing set for next month. We'll be watching for it.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right here after a quick break.

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