That fits your lifestyle and budget at one of our over Fifteen Hundred locations. Call miracle ear at 1800miracle and schedule your free, no obligation hearing evaluation today. Right now, new disturbing images from hawaii. Entire neighborhoods on fire. People fleeing to safety. We are going to speak live to a man who says he lost his home on maui, and hes going to tell us about the moment that he knew it was time to get out. Plus, Arraignments Today for most of the 16 michigan republicans who served as fake electors in 2020. Their defense as they face first of their kind felony charges. And Five Americans wrongfully detained in iran for several years are now out of prison and under house arrest. We have new details on the deal that one source calls an encouraging step. Were following these major stories and many more all coming up in right here to cnn news central. Like a war zone. Fire raining down from the skies. Survivors of the Deadly Wildfires in hawaii which are still sweeping across maui are describing just an apocalyptic scene. At least 36 people are confirmeded dead in hawaii, and there are Major Concerns that that death toll will rise even more. Last hour we spoke with hawaiis State Senator. He lost his home in the Historic Town of lahaina. Heres what he said so many families have just suddenly in the Blink Of An Eye lost their homes, their businesses, lost their schools, lost their Grocery Stores, everything gone. And were still reeling with the fact that we need desperate head immediately help immediately. It looked like a bombed out beirut. Every boat in the harbor burned and sank in a blaze. The preschool is all gone. The entire piner inn, theres nothing there. Its catatonic to look at. I want to talk more about this with jeff melacar, a maui resident who lost both of his homes to the fires. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us today. I can only imagine what an incredibly difficult time it is for you and those around you. So thank you very much. Could we just start with the moment that the fire was approaching, what did you see . What did you fear feel, rather, as it claim closer to came closer to your homes . Tuesday evening it was roughly 7 30, 8 00 p. M. , we had walked through the neighborhood and saw the flames rapidly approaching our area on front street. So we had to run back through the neighborhood because we were getting overwhelmed with smoke and embetter. We ran back embers. We ran back to the how tuse andd 10 or 15 minutes before we were going to be overtaken. At that point, we had to just jump in the car. Im sorry. We completely understand. It was rather traumatic. To say the very least. Where are you staying right now . Im saying at a friend of mines house, a city on the south side of maui. Were you with anybody in your homes . There was a friend of mine that was with me, and he and i jumped in the car about 8 00 and evacuated down front street onto the highway where police were not letting anybody back in town, of course. You were renting out a second home to another family. Have you been able to get in touch with them . Do you know what their status is . Ive been in touch with them. They are staying up country here on maui. They had left early in the day never dreaming they were not going to be able to get back. And unfortunately their two labradors are left in the house. So were under the impression they perished due to the fire. Thats just so just d devastat devastating. Weve heard people compare this to a war zone and seen images of the fire, of the smoke, just other worldly, and apocalyptic. Hard to come up with more adjectives. I cant imagine that you have seen anything like this before. Have you been able to start processing what has happened in the past few days . No, not really. Ive seen videos. Were not allowed back on the west side yet. Ive seen videos and pictures, and it is truly devastating. Its absolutely wiped out. Theres very little standing and remaining. So have no idea what many, many families are going to be doing now because everything is literally gone. Everythings literally gone. We understand, jeff, that you retired to maui. You were working and living on the mainland and retired to maui. Is that right . Correct. I still have a home on the mainland that im lucky enough to be able to go back to. I know a lot of families here dont have that option, and its truly tragic. So if i may ask, what is your plan now . Do you plan to stay . Are you going to go back to the continental United States . Eventually im going to stay here and eventually be let back on to the west side to survey the damage and to Check Properties that i owned and to see if theres anything left, salvaging, personal mementos and such. What have you been told about any kind of support that you may get to rebuild, to get back there, and what more do you and others like you need . I havent heard much of anything yet. Im sure they will be doing something or probably a lot. But im really have no information as to whats going to happen. Its a little wellery, and i know this is early, and i know this is going to take years to come back if at all. It is literally gone. Jeff, what would your message be to people, to those like us who are just watching this on tv, but also to the government in terms of the support that the people around you need right now . Yeah, do what you can. Im sure there are going to be agencies for donations for people that are in need. I know theres a lot of that going on. The death toll is rising. Its just very traumatizing for people. So i would imagine that den ate if you can donate if you can, do what you can to help the people of maui. Traumatizing. Thank you for your time. We can only imagine, again, what youre going through. We appreciate you speaking with us. Of course our thoughts are with you and with so many others out there. Thank you. Youre welcome. For more information on how you can help hawaii wildfire victims, go to cnn. Com impact or text hawaii to 707070 to donate. Were also following some major legal developments in three cases that are tied to former President Trump. In florida this morning, trump and his body man walt nauta pleaded not guilty to additional charges in the maralago documents case. In georgia with a potential indictment on the way, trump released an attack ad that smears the atlanta area District Attorney investigating him for 2020 Election Interference. And then in monoichigan today, e republicans were arraigned on Felony State Charges for signing on as fake electors in an effort to block joe bidens 2020 win in the state. Now a total of 16 defendants have pleaded not guilty in that case. We have cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rogers here with us to talk a little bit about this. You know, we keep hearing, jen, that these cases in michigan are novel, theyre first of their kind. What makes them novel . Well, we havent had a factual scenario like this before, brianna, where you have people claiming that even though they submitted paperwork that they have to acknowledge was facially false, they were not the duly elected electors, that they say because they believed that the election should have been won by the person they were supporting, that theyre not guilty. So there are some interesting defenses here. Obviously the Attorney General has thought long and hard about all of this before she charged, as she feels very good about the charges. She says she thinks the evidence is very strong, and legal at thes strong. Well legally its strong. Well see what happens. Some of these fake electors say i was tricked, i didnt know that i was doing something that was bad. Then on the other hand, you have some who say they still believe donald trump won. They are, you know, fully invested in that lie. Will there be a distinction made between those two kinds of defendants do you think . Well, certainly the prosecutors will have to account for questions that jurors will have in both of those situations. So you want to kind of knock down the defenses of all of the defendants on trial so they will have to kind of address both of ose things. But where those things really fall down isven though it does appear that these electorsn michigan were lied to in the sense of these electors were told that their forms would be submitted if and only if litigation that was challenging the results succeeded, they still knew that they were forging documents. In other words, they knew that when they signed a piece of paper that says i am a duly elected elector for donald trump and these are the certified election results, that that was just factually untrue at the time that sunshined it. So if you signed it. So if you look at the offense, the prosecutors will argue its still an offense even if they were tricked in some fashion. So much of the federal case when it comes to the fake elector scheme says that it was the former president who was indicted and then the unindicted coconspirators, alleging that they caused these fake electors in this different state to go through with this process. Does that endanger the chance of prosecution for these electors at all, that language about them being caused by sort of other masterminds . No, its sort of like youre charging Different Levels of offenders. Theres the Mastermind Head of the organization, if you will, who directs people. But you have lowlevel people like in a drug organization, the kingpin versus the person on the street whos pitching drugs. Its not that the person on the street doesnt know what theyre doing and know that they are a cog in the wheel, that theyre helping this crime happen, its that they still can be directed by their boss, the boss in this criminal scheme. I dont think it helps these electors. I think they will try to kind of pitch themselves as the victims here, more an appeal to the jurors kind of as a personal matter for their sympathy than it is a legal defense, though. Jennifer rogers, thank you so much for your insights. Always helpful. Alex . And we have breaking news out of iran. Five americans held for years in an iranian prison have now been released but put in house arrest. Cnn chief International AnchorChristiane Amanpour joins us now. What are you learning . Reporter they were released today. They have been seen, sighted, and its confirmed by their lawyers, family, and the United States, the white house, state department, and even by iran. We got a confirmation and comment from iran. They have been in the prison for more than seven years, nearly eight years. Ahmad shagi and marad tabad, a businessman and environmentalist, theyve been seized since 2018. So five years. And two other americans also who have not been made public in terms of their names have also been released. Now they are going, as you said, to house arrest at a hotel in they are currently there in tehran, and they have been seen by the swiss ambassador, the Swiss Government does take care of american interests while america has no diplomatic relations with iran. Now we believe that under the terms of the broader deal the hostages, the prisoners who are now under house arrest will be finally freed and allowed to leave iran only when the full terms of the deal have been settled, when all the ts are crossed, is are dotted and a plane will come and take them out. This is being mediated, as well, by the persian gulf state of qatar, and it also involves Financial Transactions between south korea and iran. I just want to play for you a bit of an interview that one of the prisoners gave me from jail five months ago in desperation to get their plight in front of the administration and the world. He actually called out, used Phone Privileges which he did have after eight years in prison, to call out. And this say little bit of what he said i think the very facts that ive chosen to take this risk and appear on cnn from prison, it should just tell you how dire my situation has become by this point. Ive been a hostage for 7. 5 years now, thats six times the duration of the hostage crisis. I keep getting told that im going to be rescued, and deals fall apart or i get abandoned. Honestly, the other hostages and i desperately need President Biden to finally hear us out, to finally hear our cry for help and bring us home. And i suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. So this is a desperate measure. Reporter so that desperate measure, as he said, has born some fruit. All the families and their representatives are careful not to put the cart before the horse. They know that this is first step, a welcome step, but theres a number of weeks of negotiations to complete before they can actually come home. Importantly, we got a reaction and confirmation froe iranian government when we called when my team called and asked them, the u. N. Mission in new york who said this is a result of humanitarian cooperation, also by a thirdparty government. Iran and the u. S. Have agreed to reciprocally release and pardon prisoners. The transfer, the iranians said, is a first step to that. That means the iranians expect five prisoners to be released by the United States at some point in the future. And then theres the bigger question of the frozen funds that iran expects to get not directly, into a trust kind of account, managed by the qataris, we understand, only to be used for humanitarian aid and good thats are not sanctioned and for the good of iranians who are suffering under severe sanctions. And you know, their Government Mismanagement at the moment. What more do we know about those prisoners who iran would be receiving and the amount of money that they would be getting back and if i may, to what extent this is tied to the conversations over Irans Nuclear program, as well . Reporter well, look, you know that the u. S. , certainly the Biden Administration really wanted to go back into the nuclear deal, and years now of discussions have yielded nothing yet in that department. So they then had to figure out how to get these americans home. Now the money is not american money. This is very important to understand. It is iranian funds that the south koreans owe them for getting iranian energy. Its somewhere, we understand from previous conversations and previous interviews, in the region of 6 billion to 7 billion. So the idea is to unfreeze that amount of money and put it into a thirdpartycontrolled account that will then help go to help in a humanitarian way iranians inside iran. We dont know i dont know the nature of the iranian prisoners held in the United States. They may be as in the past a sort of combination of some business people, sometimes journalists, those who have been arrested for whatever america says they laws they violated. This has happened before. Many, Many American president s have undergone this kind of transaction. The longest held was left behind during the Prisoner Swap that accompanied the nuclear deal back in 2015, 2016, and he was left behind during deals to free two americans under the Trump Administration in 2019. So for him and his family, this has been a massive ordeal. And of course they, of course, deny any wrongdoing. As he said to me, we havent so much as jaywalked. We were taken for one reason only, and thats because were americans. A massive ordeal. A positive first step to get these americans home. But as you note, there is a lot more that need to be worked out. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Brianna . Still ahead, an update on the destruction and evacuations after the wildfires in hawaii as President Biden approves a disaster declaration. Ill speak to a reporter who needed to evacuate, as well. Plus, the man shot and killed by the fbi in utah. 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