0 when a truck hit my car, the insurance company wasn't fair. i didid't t kn whahatmy c caswa, so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to k how much their accident case is worth.h barnes. t ouour juryry aorneneys hehelpou hello and welcome to our viewers 20th from the united states and all of the world. today u.s. lawmakers will reveal a bit of what former president donald trump has kept hidden for years. his tax returns. what to expect ahead. plus -- pure joy for one traveler after finding his lost luggage! we will bring you an update on a chaotic holiday for flyers and have a look at some systems that could cancel some flights ahead of the new year. rest in peace, pelc. the world mourns the death of a football legend. we will have some of the attributes pouring in. >> live from cnn center , this is cnn newsroom . >> we begin with the latest chapter of a legal battle that has been playing out in washington for years. in the coming hours, u.s. lawmakers will release some of former president donald trump's tax returns. he refused to make them public when he ran for the white house and he fought every effort to get them released. but a congressional committee led by democrats is now forcing the move, saying that mr. trump was not properly audited while in office. as kristin holmes explains, the former president has a lot to lose. >> trump himself has built an entire brand on being a wealthy and therefore successful businessman. in that process he has done everything in his power to protect that image. that meant shielding his finances for decades. that includes his net worth, who he did business with, how exactly he made his money. the big question now is what this pulling back of the curtain is going to reveal. will it have a political impact? one thing to remind you of here is that when trump ran for office and when he was president, he became the first president in modern history not to release his tax returns. >> we already have some idea about mr. trump's finances from a congressional analysis of his income taxes. it showed he paid only $750 in 2017, more than $1 million in each of the following two years, and no taxes at all in 2020. the january 6th committee has released a new collection of transcripts, including interviews with donald trump jr. and kimberly guilfoyle. the former president's son and fiance reportedly told investigators that they couldn't recall key details about speeches at a rally before the riots started. the latest transcripts also provide interesting details about melania trump's role in the white house. paula reid reports. >> reporter: this latest batch of transcripts released by the january 6th committee involves some big names, including donald trump jr., kimberly guilfoyle, stephen miller and also former white house adviser stephanie grisham. one of the common themes that becomes clear across all these transcripts both from this batch and the one over the last week is that former white house chief mark meadows was at the center of a multifaceted plan to undermine the results of the election. in this most recent batch of transcripts, the committee presses donald trump jr. on a series of text exchanges he had with a former white house chief of staff, including some on november fifth. when donald trump jr. shared ideas of how to keep his father in power by supporting the electoral process. this plan looks similar to the one that was adopted by the former president and his allies over the next two months. under questioning from investigators, donald trump jr. said that he didn't know who the author of the plan was and said he could not remember but he shared it because it looked to be the most plausible. now donald trump jr. has also texted mark meadows urging him to get his father to hold an over office address and do something more forceful to denounce the violence that was taking place on the capital. we are also learning in another transcript from an interview with a trump attorney that senator lindsey graham and mark meadows discussed ways that graham could help them to amplify the false claims of election fraud. graham told meadows that he only needed, quote, five dead voters. he just needed a little bit of information that he could latch onto and then amplify these claims. now there is also additional testimony from stephanie grisham, a top aide to former president trump and his wife milani a. grisham testified that the first lady did not trust mark meadows. she was concerned that he was not getting her husband the best advice that he was telling him. she also had concerns about some of his attorneys. basil we learn from this investigation and the transcripts, those concerns appear to be well- founded. all the evidence gathered by the committee will go to special counsel jack smith who will have to determine if criminal charges are warranted. paula reid, cnn, washington. u.s. congressman elect george santos is facing new scrutiny over his claims that his mother was inside the world trade center on 911 and that the terror attack played a role in her death. the new york republican has spent the past week trying to explain a number of falsehoods, including a story that his grandparents survived the holocaust. >> reporter: the legal scrutiny surrounding george santos is intensifying. there are now investigations at both the local and federal level looking into his lies as well as whether any potential financial crimes were committed. that includes the nassau county district attorney's office which said in a statement that his fabrications are, quote, nothing short of stunning. meanwhile his web of lies continues to unravel. the latest claims that are coming under scrutiny is that his mother was in the world trade center on 911 and that she died on 9/11 or that it played some role in her death. on his website he claims that his mother died a few years later from a battle with cancer. there is also an obituary that says that his mother died on december 23rd, 2016. so more than 15 years after the 9/11 terror attacks. our team has also uncovered some additional falsehoods, including a claim that santos said that he went to an elite private school in new york and was forced to drop out after his family fell on hard times. however, the school says that there is no evidence that he ever went to this school. santos has claimed that his mother had a historically jewish last name. genealogists say that there is no evidence of that name in his family tree. they say there is no evidence that he had ukrainian or jewish heritage at all and his family tree. just incredible stuff here about george santos, but so far gop leaders remain silent. cnn, washington. one possible reason about the silence on santos is the republican leadership vote. kevin mccarthy still appears to be short of the votes he needs to become house speaker. numerous gop sources tell cnn that mccarthy in recent days has offered a key concession to party holdouts. but he still has not secured their commitments. with the house speakership hanging in the balance, it seems unlikely that mccarthy would risk losing a vote by asking santos to step down at this time. a looming u.s. government shutdown is now in the rearview mirror after u.s. president joe biden signed a $1.7 trillion spending bill on thursday. he was vacationing in the u.s. virgin islands while lawmakers passed the measure after weeks of political wrangling while the government operated on temporary funding. the bill includes more aid for ukraine and nato allies as well as an overhaul of a federal vote counting law and a ban on tiktok from federal electronic devices. the u.s. department of transportation has warned southwest airlines that it will face consequences if it fails to compensate passengers left stranded and inconvenienced. the airline has canceled nearly 60,000 flights since december 22nd, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers in limbo. now the company says it is ready to resume regular service, but it is too little too late for some customers. nick valencia reports. >> this is been a crazy time. >> reporter: southwest airlines aiming for a turnaround by friday and expecting to have normal operations with minimal disruptions on friday. airline staffers are already informed. >> mostly full schedule come friday. that is what we are hearing. >> reporter: while southwest has seen more than 2300 cancellation since thursday, another sign airline is recovering after a week of travel nightmares. this southwest airlines customer ecstatic after finding his lost luggage. >> i am just glad to be here and i'm glad i have my bag. they better give me some compensation for a week. >> our luggage has arrived so we are very excited about that. >> reporter: amid the mess, stories of compassion with southwest passengers coming together to help one another, like the three strangers from wisconsin stuck at the airport in st. louis who ended up carpooling to milwaukee. >> he saw my packers had, nice wisconsin guy, assumed i was going to milwaukee. >> reporter: or the denver couple stranded in minnesota who ended up hitching a ride with a stranger. >> she jumped right up and said, if you guys want to join me going to denver, i would be happy to take you guys! >> reporter: sadly for some, the outcome is more heartbreaking. this st. louis bride was forced to cancel her wedding in belize. >> we tried to rebook and there was nothing. southwest booked me on a flight for january 2nd. my wednesday is tomorrow, december 30th. >> reporter: wednesday, the chief commercial officer released a video apologizing for the debacle. >> my personal apology on behalf of myself and everyone at southwest airlines for all of this. you know by now all the flexibility and planning that we put in place to deal with the storm just wasn't enough. >> reporter: this travel nightmare has gone on for more than a week, and southwest airlines officials are telling passengers to hold on just a little bit longer, announcing in an email that they expect to return to normal operations with minimal disruptions as early as friday. nick valencia, cnn, atlanta. a significant storm is taking aim at the u.s. west coast this weekend, bringing with it the threat of heavy rain, snow and strong winds. more than 16 million people are under a flood watch through saturday night and in parts of california. much of the country will see higher than normal temperatures, and some new year's eve celebrations will be met with rain expected in new york, washington, d.c., los angeles and san francisco. a husband and wife who are both pastors rescued more than 100 people and provided a safe place for them to stay during this historic blizzard that hit buffalo, new york last week. after days of being buried under mounds of snow, the city is slowly getting back to normal. cnn's athena jones reports. >> reporter: hi there. the city of buffalo is getting back to normal. city hall opened on thursday, as did a nearby courthouse and the erie county executive offices. the driving ban has been lifted and the mayor tweeted that as of friday morning the regular trash pickup will resume. things are certainly getting back to normal as the city continues to dig out from the storm. they have made a lot of progress. a lot clearer roads. you can see the work going on behind me. that will continue until all of the snow is cleared. a bit of work that is still going on is about the death toll. the medical examiner for erie county has confirmed to some 39 deaths as of noon on thursday but we expect that number to rise. listen to what the county executive mark poloncarz said about that. >> there are some autopsies that still need to be done, including a one-year-old who died on christmas day. >> reporter: there is concern that bodies can be found under snowbanks or under vehicles or houses. that is something we are keeping watch on. one good piece of news we learned is that authorities are no longer quite as concerned about the issue of flooding. remember that that was going to be an issue because of fast snowmelt as temperatures reach around 50 on friday. today the county executive said that that is not as much of a concern. we should note that if flooding does happen, equipment and personnel have already been dispatched along with things like sandbags. more than 300 pumps and generators have been dispatched to deal with overflow of water should that be a problem. right now county officials say that there may be some waterways that crest, but they don't expect flooding to be a major issue. athena jones, cnn, buffalo, new york. tributes are pouring in for football's first global superstar who once said that he was born to play the sport just like beethoven was born to write music. a look at palais's incredible competence. that is up next. retire ment, but i wish we had more cash. you think those two have any idea? that they can sell their life insurance 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