♪ ♪ ♪ zelenskyy's mission, impossible. ukraine's president visiting the capital to make a last-ditch effort to win military aid for his war against russia. but republican lawmakers appear to be willing to say no deal and leave for the holidays without passing a significant aide package. this as we are learning startling new details about russia's losses in ukraine. plus, strong words from president biden and an ally. biden says that israel is losing support in that it's offensive in gaza, and the prime minister netanyahu has no choice but to change his government. and exclusive cnn reporting. former president trump made to a former mar-a-lago employee. that employees know eyewitness amenities trials. those calls were apparently made for charges before the case was filed. we are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming up right here to cnn new central. ♪ ♪ ♪ thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, i'm boris sánchez alongside rahel solomon in the nation's capital, where political gridlock on the capitol hill maybe jeopardizing the fight against russia and ukraine. right now, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is in washington pleading for congress to approve more military aid for his country. next hour, he is scheduled to sit down one-on-one with president biden. this morning, he met with senators and house members and argued that the political bickering over ukraine aid is exactly what vladimir putin wants to see. >> and yet so far, republican seem unmoved. some gop senators walked out of their meeting. also today, we have newly declassified u.s. intelligence about russia's strategy and why the kremlin is aiming for a winter stalemate. we have cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju. he is on the hill alongside cnn reporter katie bo luis. let's start with, you manu. as we wait this white house meeting, what are you waiting for? >> nothing is changed. in fact, the stalemate persists and there are real fears that the aid to ukraine and even the people who back aid to ukraine believe that this will drag into next year despite the urgent pleas by the president of ukraine who is poised to leave capitol hill empty-handed. he met behind closed doors with the senate republicans and senate democrats trying to make his case about why aid is needed. i'm told that he expected they would originally come through, and he indicated that the money would be significant accountability in ukraine for federal dollars. he met with the speaker of the house and the house democratic leader. but the fact of the matter is that republicans are still insisting, there needs to be a deal to deal with the southern border with mexico to tighten immigration restrictions. they said that that must come first before they agree to approving aid to ukraine. even as there is no path for a deal on immigration as the two sides remain badly divided. something that even staunch reporters of ukraine like senator mitt romney indicated must be dealt with first. immigration before those deals on ukraine. the reality is that the house is not going to take up a ukraine bill in lessening clued securing the border to a level that existed in the three prior presidents. when people elect a republican majority of the house, you have to listen to what they have to say. >> are you concerned that, if there's no money, ukraine could lose the war to russia? >> that's always been a big possibility the whole time. i've never thought that they could win to begin with, especially the way to ease into it. >> what are the implications if russia wins? are you worry about the implications if russia wins? >> everybody keeps saying they will continue to go across europe. they can't be ukraine on the eastern side. how are they going to continue to go the west of the way through? i've never believe that scenario. i think it is a good selling point to send more money. >> so you're hearing the divide within the gop side. some like tommy tuberville saying no more money at all for ukraine, and other saying at least needs to be a deal on quarters security first before agreeing on aid to ukraine, but there is no deal inside between the two parties on border security. which is why president zelenskyy, despite these urgent appeals, leaving washington without any aid. i'm clear when and if that may happen. >> manu, thank you so much for the update. we want to bring in katie bo lillis now, because katie, you have some new reporting on this declassified intelligence report provided members of congress. it's providing startling details about russia's losses on the battlefield. some >> reporter: pretty staggering numbers here. this intelligence assessment by the congress yesterday. reports, and i will give you some of these figures, reports that have some of the 360,000 troops that russia sent into ukraine initially and that made up their entire standing ground force prior to the invasion, of, those 315,000 have been lost on the battlefield. that is an 87% loss of russia's standing ground forces before the invasion. now, look, important to understand that russia has been able to defray these losses. they have been able to lean on, for example, the walk near group, and some of their other fighters. they have also launched a mother of conscription's and mobilization is to try to throw more bodies at this fight. so they have been able to defray some of these losses. still, this assessment warning, and, again i will quote from this directly, this assessment warning that the war has sharply setback 15 years of russian effort to modernize its ground forces. so huge and important figures, but, again i think very important to be reading this and the context of what moderna just been telling us, of course, which is that the real peril for ukraine here is that u.s. funding may run out, and so i think you are going to hear these staggering numbers, these russian losses, as evidence that ukrainians are capable of exacting costs against the russian military if they provide with the military support to get it done. >> putin sort of hoping that maybe they can wait this out and get through the winter and -- >> that's exactly right. i think one of the other things that you are seeing the intelligence community here in the united states watch very carefully as the way vladimir putin is thinking about the next 12 months or the next two years, and right, now the belief is that putin believes that he can essentially out weight the west, that he's going to be able to sort of take advantage of some of these moments in which there are some real divisions in the domestic politics in the night states. public opinion seems to be kind of influx about supporting ukraine, right? and so i think for putin, there is a real kind of benefit to just sit, back let's, wait let see if the night states will get tired of this. katie bo lillis, thank you. this just, and new comments on president biden on the state of the israel-hamas war, and the speech to democratic donors, the president said that israel's prime minister benjamin daniel who needs to change his hard-line government and that support for the country's military campaign is waning. >> let's go to the white house now with cnn's mj lee. mj, walk us through what the president said. >> reporter: yeah, this was a significant moment and significant comments coming from president biden where he pointedly told donors that israel is beginning to lose support as a it continues its have environment of gaza and its war against hamas. in recent weeks, we have seen of course this slow crescendo of the growing concerns coming from the biden administration about israel's conduct and how it is conducting its military operations, going as far as to say that its operations in southern gaza have needed to look different than what we saw earlier in the war in northern gaza. it has of course rays significant concerns about the widespread civilian casualties and destruction in gaza and even last night we saw president biden saying at a hanukkah reception that israel needs to be careful because public opinion and support for this war can quickly change, but now today, it seems that the president has gone one step forward and basically confirming that israel is in fact beginning to lose support. now one of a comment that the president me to donors just now there was also very significant is that he said that about prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government needed to change. he said quote, this is the most conservative government in israel's history, and he wanted to say that this government does not support a two-state solution. this is really important because it is exquisitely critical of this government, which this administration has been before in other contexts, namely its push for judicial reforms, but now the president is criticizing it in terms of and in the context of this war. it signals that the white house is increasingly thinking about what the future of gaza looks like. we know that the administration of course supports a two-state solution but again, very revealing comments right now about the future of this war and israel. >> they come as netanyahu tried to block the palestinian authority from taking control in gaza, a position that the white house has been standing for. mj lee live from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. thank you very much. let's go back to capitol hill where the house rules comedy is expected to vote any moment now on a resolution to formally began an impeachment inquiry into president biden. the house could vote on the measure as soon as tomorrow. biden is facing increasing scrutiny from house republicans over his son's foreign business dealings. joining us now is the vice chair of the house rules committee, republican congressman michael burgess of texas. congressman, welcome to the program. good to have you. >> thank, you get to be here. >> welcome. let us start with zelenskyy's trip to washington today. he spoke directly to lawmakers. can you show us a bit more about what he said and ultimately it sounds like it was not persuasive. walk us through what was said there? >> i have to tell, you at the rules committee all day, i was not in the meeting where president zelenskyy was. >> okay, fair enough. let's turn there in turn to the vote to formalize the haugen piece meant inquiry. i know that you have said previously that the american people deserve answers. what answers do you expect will come out of the inquiry that we don't already have? >> what's going on in the rules committee today is largely procedural to formalize the investigations that have already been occurring in the committee on ways and means, which is the attacks committee, and of course the committee on the judiciary, which is ultimately where impeachment proceedings reside. it's -- this is a president that was set twice when the democrats were in the majority and the past couple of years. the formal impeachment inquiry. in fact, in 2017 they came to us basically in december rather suddenly and the rules committee. so this is something that is not new. this road has been traveled now a couple of times before. but at this time, the purpose of the rules committee versus the speaker, asking the rules committee to do this is to set formerly the rules that are going to govern the investigation. >> i understand, but i want to circle back, cause i did not quite here and answer. what answers are you expecting ultimately come out of this that we don't already have? >> well i should say that i'm not prejudged what answer comes out of the entire process, but as has been reported, going back to the very first part of this year when republicans to take the majority, the significant number of suspicious activity reports that the previous congress had basically ignored. and those specific activity reports generated by financials fusions reported two department justice, department treasury as the committee began to look into those suspicious activity reports, rather complex web of different companies and different relationships involving members of the biden family, and it became almost impossible to follow. that is when chairman comer of the oversight government and reform committee asked for additional authority to begin to delve into some of these corporations that were apparently receiving money from foreign governments, and that is a lot of money. and so that is the basic -- that is the spark, if you, will that initiated the whole proceedings. >> i take your point about the spark, as you call, it but i do wonder. some legal scholars, certainly a number of your republican colleagues, have seriously questioned whether there is any evidence to pursue this inquiry and ultimately whether this should be the priority right now. does that give you any pause moving forward? >> well, look, at the last congress did not follow on these reports that were being generated, finals at institutions were encountering situations that required them to issue a report, department justice, department of treasury, they seem to be curious about it. so the only scrutiny has come now in the past 11 months since republicans took the majority, and are there a lot of other important things going on in the world? absolutely. all of them require our attention, but this requires our tension also, because people who have questions about foreign money being funneled into this various web of companies that have been set up. what is the purpose of that, and why have they gone to such extensively to hide it and obscure? it to the ascent that faith emails have been made for several of the people who were involved, it becomes very difficult to ask for an email if you didn't even know that the fake account existed. >> let me turn to another important issue that's on the minds of a lot of people right now. abortion. a fellow texan, kate cox, who had to leave that state terminator penske after really what became a back and forth with the course there. congressman, you are also a physician. how concerned are you if at all about the confusion that seems to exist around these medical exemptions? >> well, just going back to the dobbs decision itself, i thought it was correct those decisions were returned to the state. it never seemed logical to me that the supreme court would be the place where that would be generated. i know that i have had constituents who were concerned about that policy in this country, and so now it's correctly been returned to the states. the states make the decision, and you know what? if people in the state don't like the decision, they can then correct that problem at the state level. >> but let me just ask, before i let you go, you're a doctor, how would you feel about courts intervening with a decision or recommendation that you have made for your patient? >> well, look i do know this. every case is different, and every case requires a significant amount of sensitivity to the facts in the case. i don't know all of the facts in this case, and so i'm a little reluctant to make those productions. but the fact remains that you do have two individuals who each have some rights, and the case is complicated. the condition, my understanding is not uniformly lethal to the baby. there are considerations here for, how do you get to the best decision for all concerned? >> congressman michael burgess, we appreciate your time today, thank. you >> good deal, thank. you >> still to come on news central, there is new exclusive cnn reporting about donald trump's classified documents case. learning new information about who the formal president contacted just a few months after the fbi seized classified records of his estate. plus, new developments surrounding the disappearance of alexei navalny. what the kremlin is now saying about his whereabouts. and, harvard university's embattled president is expected to keep her job, but that's not sitting well with the alumni and lawmakers who sparked this whole controversy. we are back in just moments. now to some exclusive new reporting on a key witness in special counsel jack smith mar-a-lago probe. sources tell cnn that donald trump and his associates repeatedly contacted a former employee turned witness before charges were filed in the classified documents case. >> and this is the same longtime mar-a-lago employee moved several boxes for trump and was also privy to conversations between the former president and his two codefendants. we're joined now by cnn senior crime justice reporter katelyn polantz. also with us is we're not mariota, a former federal prosecutor. good to have you both. kaitlan, let me start with you on this exclusive new reporting. just break down what you learned here. >> reporter: but we have a pattern of communication. i was able to learn through sources and also some material. i was able to get my hands on. and it's about a person who was at mar-a-lago for a long time, really ingrained in that community working for donald trump, and then the fbi search happens. this person had witness quite a lot of things in my office. have moved in boxes, had over heard phone calls. many leaves his job. when you leave his job just a couple months after that fbi search, this clear there's an investigation ongoing. he gets a call from trump, something that just did not happen in his life. to his personal phone. trump is actually seen him why he left their job, device conversation asked gore. it's the words get back and trump thinks that he is a good guy, and then there is more communications with other people. people who eventually become codefendants of donald trump who are telling him things like, if you want to come back to mar-a-lago, you will get your job back. that donald trump would really like to be able to see you, why don't you come hang out with us? and also several repeated interactions about the lawyer that he might choose in this case. now but this altogether, is this just conversations among friends? quite possibly. this is a small community. they all know each other really well, but also, it's just a piece of insight that the special counsel picked up on on this investigation that shows you how this world works. people are in touch, and there is a lot of information going on being exchanged, even in the course of this investigation. >> it does strike me that this witness told the special counsel that trump allies randomly showed up at his gym and we, like hey, how you doing? trump loves you. >> very unusual for that person show up at the gym. >> quite unusual. >> let's go to ornato army ady, and renato, none of these interactions between this former employee in trump and his associates are actually reference in this indictment. are there any thing to read into that? >> not necessarily. it made me potentially that they weren't 100 percent solid on the truth that they had in that indictment. it may mean that, for example, they may have additional evidence that they are providing that they did not have at the time of indictment. but, look it's very strong evidence, and it's interesting. we spent a lot of time focusing on the january 6th case, the case down in georgia. the mar-a-lago case is the strongest case by far against trump of all of these cases that he's facing, and this is more of a pattern of activity where they looks like something like a cover-up. while you desperately need to reach this guy unless you're trying to keep your story straight or try to alter the assessment of somebody? something that the jury will find very suspicious. >> reporter: and caitlin, one thing that you did some digging and found out were questions about his legal counsel, who he was being represented by. what did you learn about that, and why that could be noteworthy here? >> reporter: this person chose not to have trump pay for his lawyer. he throws to have a different lawyer outside of that bubble, but who is representing these witnesses? it's something that has hung over his case both earring the stage win this person was getting their contacts, investigator asking a lot of contacts about. that even out that this case is charged, there are still questions being asked in court. is it okay for witnesses in the case to have the same lawyers as the coconspirator defendants sitting next to donald trump? -- oliveira and walt nauta. there are some overlap and different aspects of the investigation, and it's not unusual for a corporate entity like the trump organization or mar-a-lago club to be paying for employees lawyers, but there is just so much interconnectedness here, and it is an obstruction investigation. it's caught prosecutors attention, they're watching closely. >> renato, to kaitlan's point, a setup like this, is unusual wary corporation helps to represent certain employees and prosecution. how does the question of conflict of interest play into this entire case? >> great question. the fact that somebody is paying fees in and of itself does not create a conflict. really, anyone can pay for another lawyers fee, and the idea is under the lot they want to increase the ability to afford representation, and so the idea is that the lawyers themselves have their own obligations to look out for the clients interests. unless the clients that the representing have a divergent interest from each other and they are at odds, paying for for example the same lawyer to represent multiple people is okay as long as the clients are in touch with each other. so very common for a company to have one lawyer representing multiple different employees. obviously though in this case where there is an instruction case, a very high profile case, but a case in which we actually have had one cooperator change lawyers and change his story, it is understandable that people are raising some serious questions about it right here. >> renato mariotti, thank you for your insights. katelyn polantz, great to have you on your reporting. still missing, still no answers. whether criminal saying today about jailed opposition leader alexei navalny, who has seemingly vanished. after days of criticism and days for calls for her removal, harvard's president is staying put. what we know about the university's decision to back claudine gay. we will be back. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. welcome back. it is now seven days since jailed russian opposition leader alexei navalny has reportedly been missing. his trial was postponed today after his legal team said that it lost contact with him. navalny's spokesperson says that there is no concrete evidence of where he is, but they had been told that he quote, left a russian prison colony. navalny is serving sentences totaling more than 30 years in maximum security penal colonies near moscow. now the white house and state department both say that they are deeply concerned about his well-being. but earlier today, the kremlin push back against those concerns. the spokesperson saying that it does not have the capacity nor the willingness to monitor the whereabouts of prisoners. >> one thing that is definitely on the kremlin's radar today's meeting between president biden and ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, happening in the next hour. our cameras at the white house are monitoring zelenskyy's arrival. earlier today, the ukrainian president was on capitol hill. he met with members of the u.s. senate, including democratic senator mark kelly of arizona, who joins us now live. senator kelly, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. do you think that president zelenskyy's visit change the minds of your colleagues who oppose sending more aid to ukraine? >> or, us he prevented presented a compelling case. he talked about how they're inflicting huge losses, did meet a lot of progress, they have more work to do. we can't ignore and abandon our allies here in this time of need. i mean, they need our support. the problem that we are seeing on capitol hill is but we usually see, and it's frustrating. they are running out of ammunition, and we have to provide that combat power back to replenish what they have. >> senator kelly, i just want to let our viewers know that this is a live picture from the white house. again, we are anticipating the ukrainian president's arrival at any moment. sir, one objection from those republican colleagues you mentioned is that there is no clear in the game for ukraine. the white house says that this is ukraine's war, that they should define would victory looks like, but zelenskyy even appears to be in disagreement with his own generals over the approach. the counteroffensive also has not met expectations. in your mind, what does in obtainable victory look like in ukraine? is it the retaking of crimea? >> there will be a clear winner and loser in this conflict. i, mean everybody needs to understand that. there will be an end to this, and we need to make sure that the ukrainians win. i mean, if we let putin take over ukraine, he is going to set his sights on another target, and that target could be a baltic country, it could be poland. i could be a nato ally. then we end up in a situation where we are going to have to defend our allies, and that means kidding committing combat troops. we have eliminated, by helping ukraine, a lot of the combat capacity of russia, and the ukrainian people have fought really, really hard. i've been to ukraine twice this year. a young woman who made this compelling case for getting f-16s to me personally, i worked on that. they now have f-16 pilots training in arizona. they are learning how to bring this platform into the fight. we can't let the dysfunction in washington prevent us from doing what is right. >> that point is taken. however, i'm still short of the specifics of what victory looks like. do you think it's ukraine retaking crimea? because it doesn't seem like there is the political will to get them the kind of aid that they would need to do that. >> well let's start with them not losing. i, mean if they lose, you're talking about the deaths of thousands if not tens of thousands of more ukrainians and their families. the russians have stolen children. i mean, that is not who we are to let that happen to one of our allies. this thing has not gone exactly as we would have liked, but if you go back two years, we thought russia was going to run through this country in a matter of just days or weeks. they have not done that, and with our support, we can help them fight back against this dictator. we cannot give putin his christmas present. i, mean he is looking for this. he is waiting. even commented on what happened here last week. when we started to seem like we had some trouble here. and you know who else is watching this? it is the chinese president. the leadership in iran. a dictator in north korea. they are watching what's happening here, and if we sell, if we fail in this moment, i think history is not going to judge as well. >> senator, the other direction from some of your colleagues has to do with corruption. zelenskyy has argued that ukraine has made a lot of reforms to ensure that aid is not being misused, but domestically, i'm sure you've heard from some constituents who feel that all of the money that is going to ukraine would be better spent here at home. i'm wondering what your responses to those skeptics. >> boris, when i was in ukraine on my last trip, and met with the tenth mountain division and talked about the specific [inaudible] and saw where they keep all of the paperwork of everything that we are transferred to ukraine, that went through the entire process. including where weapons are loaded onto the trucks, you know? polls who are bringing these weapons into ukraine. i've talked to the ambassador about this in the detail. there's no evidence that any of these weapons are showing up in other countries. we talked about this with zelenskyy today. they have made reforms. they have complied so far with wanted percent of the items that we have asked them to look into. so i think that this is at this point, this allegation of corruption, sure, ukraine's head corruption problems in the past. they are in a existential fight with vladimir putin, who wants to take over ukraine and in them as a country. we cannot let that happen. >> so that sort of allegation, would you describe it as a talking point? do you think it is made up by republicans that want to appease donald trump? we know how he feels about getting aid to ukraine. >> i can just tell you what i have seen, and my conversations with the ukrainians and the ambassador, including her staff. there is a process that we have put into place to monitor, to account for, to audit their systems, and helping with that? i don't see any evidence of this. yet >> in order to get more aid to ukraine, republicans say they want concessions from democrats on border policy. immigration is obviously a key issue for your state. it feels to be a major issue for the 2024 election. there's a reason new york times poll that shows donald trump with a slight edge over joe biden in arizona, a state that helped propel biden to the white house in 2020. what is your read on the presidents struggles right now. how can you turn it around? and it's a slum kind of deal a part of that? >> hey, nobody argues that the border is not in a crisis situation. i've been dealing with this for three years. we have provided more support for border patrol. we need to do more. the presidents supplemental had funding and therefore border patrol agents, asylum officers, judges. these are the things that we agree on. we are talking about ukraine aid, israel, humanitarian assistance, funding for indopacom, future issues with china, let me leave it at that. for this to be caught up in the politics of the border would be a mistake. there is a lot that we agree upon. resources for border control, rebuilding ports of entry. on policy, we need to continue to talk about it. there is been a proposal from the white house, and we have to come to an agreement. for us to abandoned ukraine and israel. and by the way, not be propelled in the western pacific would be a colossal mistake for us. >> senator mark kelly, we very much appreciate your time and perspectives, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. we are going to stay on top of these pictures, live from the white house, right now presidents lynskey of ukraine said to arrive at any moment and meeting with president biden. said to start just after two pm. stay with us at cnn news central, we will bring you the very latest. this is video from moments ago. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy arriving at the white house, being greeted by president biden. we are said to hear from both leaders as they speak at the oval office in just minutes. we will bring you their remarks. meantime, harvard university's leadership is united standing unanimously and support of president claudine gay despite her coming under fire for congressional testimony related to antisemitism on campus. the statement from the board reads in part, quote, we today reaffirm our support for president gay's continued leadership of harvard university. >> now the decision comes after more than 700 faculty signed a petition in support of gay after a firestorm of criticism over her capitol hill testimony on campus as antisemitism. let me bring in cnn's matt egan. so matt, it seems like the president is still facing some pretty strong criticism, and that the statement from the board may not be the final word on the matter. what is the latest here? >> well rahel and boris, this really was a monumental decision facing harvard. they even had to accept claudine gay's apology or push out the first black president and harvard's nearly 400 year history. and so after what they described as extensive deliberations, the harvard corporation announced that they don't want claudine gay to go anywhere. they praised her as the quote, right leader to help a community heal. they pledged our unanimous support. i would note of the statement, it did offer some criticism, saying that the harvard initial reaction to the october 7th hamas attacks should have been a immediate and unequivocal condemnation. still though, this is a huge relief to the more than 700 faculty members of harvard who were pleading with officials not to cave to outside pressure. i spoke to harvard economics professor jason fermon, the former obama official, and he told me that he is glad that the harvard corporation made its own decision instead of quote, outsourcing it to others. not surprisingly, though this is not silencing harvard's critics. we heard from republican congresswoman elise stefanik who, remember, it was her questioning during that hearing just a week ago that sparked all of this controversy. listen to what stefanik said today. >> this is a moral failure of harvard's leadership and higher education leadership at the highest levels. and the only change that they have made to their code of conduct where they failed to condemn calls for genocide of the jewish people, the only update to the code of conduct is to allow a plagiarist as the president of harvard. >> so stefanik their referencing some allegations that gay had plagiarized some of her academic work, including a 1997 dissertation. for her part, we should, note that gay says she stands by the integrity of our scholarship. the harvard corporation says that they did an independent review here. while they did find a few instances of inadequate citation, they did not find a violation of the universities standards. the bottom line here is that the controversy at harvard is not over, but officials have decided that claudine gay is the person that they want to lead them out of this crisis. >> okay, at least the supporters there. matt egan, thank you. and coming up, he wasn't present as a teenager, and now nearly two decades later, he is walking out of jail a free man. [screaming] [applause] >> next on cnn news central, the story of a man wrongfully convicted of mortar who is n now lolooking g forward toto the fu. wewe will be r right back.k. welcome back, and we are following two big economic headlines this hour. a key economic indicator shows u.s. prices are still on the rise, but inflation continues to cool. the consumer price index, for cpi, for november, on an annual headline basis, candidate 3.1%. that pretty much met economists expectations. when you look at categories like rent, it continued to go up. food continue to go up, but it offset a drop in gas prices. analysts do not think the latest cpi report will have a great impact on the fed in its decision, that meet today and tomorrow, and are expecting to keep interest rates unchanged. we will learn in almost exactly 24 hours. also tough times for the maker of play-doh and nerf guns. hasbro slashing nearly 20% of its workforce, announcing it is laying off 20 -- 1100 employees in a memo to employees yesterday. the company cut 800 staffers earlier this year and the ceo says it foresees a challenge market ahead after coming off a historic highs during the pandemic. a terrible injustice, that is how a minnesota prosecutor describes the ordeal of a man finally released after nearly two decades behind bars on a wrongful murder conviction. marvin haynes walk out of prison every man on monday after serving 19 years. he was sentenced to life after convicted of killing a man at a minneapolis flower shop back in 2004. haynes was just 16 years old at the time, and on one day a judge vacated that conviction. haynes told cnn inane today he appreciates the hard work of his lawyers, got prosecutors who helped write this terrible wrong. he says he is looking forward to what the future holds. take a listen. >> it's been a long journey. so to hear those words from somebody, to acknowledge i'm actually innocent, and help me get my life back on track. i can't even explain what it means to me. i went to a nice dinner with my lawyer. we enjoyed each other and i was so appreciative of them. they helped save my life. so, you know, just correct my narrative. so i was so happy about that, but i'm looking forward to getting a job, just getting my life in order, and just, yeah, try to work me a little job. have discipline and try to help my family out. >> prosecutors say the case against haynes relied entirely on eyewitness testimony. there was no physical evidence that tied him to the crime. stay with cnn. we are back in just a few minutes.