They say opposites attract. That's why the sleep number smartbed is the best bed for couples. You can each choose what's right for you whenever you like. You like a bed that feels firm, but they want soft, sleep number does that. You want to sleep cooler. While they like to feel warm, sleep number does that too. You have to feel it to believe it. Find the bed that's for both of you, only at a sleep number store. Sleep better together. JD PowerRank's sleep number one in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in store. And now, sleep number smartbeds starting at $999. Price is higher in Alaska and Hawaii. For JD Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. I'm Wolf Flitzer in the Situation Room as we continue our special coverage of the major breaking news. Hurricane Helene is picking up speed right now and strengthening as it churns along Florida's Gulf Coast on a potentially catastrophic collision course with what's called that big bend region between the peninsula and the panhandle. Our correspondents are in the path of the storm right now. As Helene gets closer and closer to landfall, likely as a monster category for hurricane. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Appellocha Cola for us in Florida right now, Derek. You're in that big bend area facing the brunt of the storm. What are you seeing right now? What's your sense? Well, if I just give you an idea of what we're experiencing, this is definitely the strongest range that heaviest rain that we've had over the past, well, the entire duration of this storm so far. And just to give you the breath of the water, here it's pulling off the ground. Extreme saturated, we've had nearly eight inches of rain. So, some yesterday, stop somebody starting to tear their back and forth as the winds from these outer bands make their way into the Appellocha Cola region of where I am. The storm is just so big. So, we know that maybe we're going to be on the west side of this storm, as it lets let us talk. Kind of telling us how we're doing with a big bend and we may be on that outer side. But the wind field is so large. So the largest wind field that I hope will ever be quoted in our history in the Gulf of Mexico. And that means that in pass will be felt well outside of that center of the storm. And we all know we've got so much attention on the eye of the storm. But here, we can do that testing it, that this storm, we've already experienced it across central and southwestern Florida, through the west of the eye. We will definitely be feeling the stronger part of that western eye wall. Now, this concern going forward is the storm surge. We know about it. 10 to 15 feet. It's the forecast predictions for Appellocha Cola to the east. But it gets higher than that. And it's just that vulnerability of this low-lying area. It floods so easily. This is like an inland flooding kind of cooling up. But it is the catastrophic winds right along the coastline that we've built out. And it will knock down trees. This area is heavily rooted. There's pine. There's oak trees heading towards the Tallahassee region. They're famous for that. And when the ground is disintegrated with the brunt of this part of the storm still on its way, it's not going to take much to top of those trees, cause the power outages, and of course cause the damage as well. We know that so much of this storm's history, when we look back at it, is not going to just be coastal impacts, but across much of the south east. This is a multi-state impact storm. We heard DeSantis talking about the Florida specifics, but we can't forget about Georgia, just to our north, and how the storm will erase inland. And we'll experience those hurricane-force waves as part north as naked. And as a meteorologist, who studies this for a living, I have never seen an entire state of Georgia, South Carolina, and further under a tropical alert, whether it's a hurricane warning or a stop the storm warning. It is astounding. At least the 60 million Americans right now, we're at various stages of watch or warning right now. Derek Van Dam will get back to you. Stay safe. I know it's going to get even more dangerous over there. Seeing as Carlos Suarez is joining us now from Gulfport, that's on Florida's west coast. Carlos, as Helene churns offshore, what are the conditions like where you are right now? Well, Wolf, the worst of the weather that we have seen this entire day was within the last hour or so. In fact, things were so bad. We spent a good part of the day all the way at the far end of the street, but the flooding is just too intense. All of that water started coming in from the bay, and it just was no longer safe for us to stay in that location. And so what we've done is we've moved several blocks to the north of where we are. As you noted, we are in Pinellas County, so we are just west of Tampa, where the big concern going into the storm is the storm surge associated with the hurricane, as well as some of the strong winds that clearly were experiencing at this hour. Emergency officials were really worried because even though this storm is going to stay to the west of us and it is not going to have a direct impact on Pinellas County, we are still going to see anywhere between four to six feet of a storm surge. We're still going to get all of this wind. We're going to get all of this rain. And when you add in high tide, come around midnight one o'clock in the morning, that is when emergency officials are concerned about the low lying areas here in Pinellas County. We're in the city of Gulfport, which is known to flood wolf. We've been here for the last three hurricane seasons. We've covered two other hurricanes, one that hit to the south of us, which was Ian, and then the other hurricane last year that hit to the north of us in Edalia. Both of those storms, again, hugged the coast. One went to the south, the other one went to the north, but the flooding in Pinellas County was significant enough that more than 1,500 homes were flooded during Hurricane Edalia last year. Wolf? All right, Carlos Suarez in Gulfport on Florida's West Coast. For us, Carlos, stay safe over there as well. Our meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking Helene in the CNN Extreme Weather Center. For us, Chad, I understand we just got a new forecast from the National Hurricane Center just a little while ago. Right, typically, when the storm is well out into the ocean, we only get updates, really, only six hours and then an intermediate every three. But now that we're so close, we're going to get new information every single hour up until landfall and then likely an hour or two after that. So where Carlos is is Tampa. The wind has been out of the southeast for much of the day, not pushing the water into Tampa Bay. But as we start to talk about the perpendicular storm here, now the winds are going to shift to the southwest and all of that water that he was talking about is now going to blow into Tampa Bay itself. Just because if you're around that area, you think, oh, there's no water here or there's not much to eat two feet. Well, there's going to be a lot more when that wind shifts. The water is still very warm. The pressure is still going down. Now, the latest six o'clock advisory said that the wind is still 125. So it didn't go up from five o'clock to six o'clock, but the pressure went down, which means the storm is still intensifying. It's still getting stronger, getting gusts around 50 or 60 miles per hour in Tampa. Look at our tornado watches because many of these storms, as they've been coming on shore, especially through parts of Georgia, have been spinning by themselves. One of my neighbors said, hey, this thing is just spinning all by itself. Why would they spin in between? Well, if the storm already has what we call vorticity, it already has a spin, any one of these little supercells, and they're small supercells, but they still are. They're not Kansas, Oklahoma storms. But they can also spin, putting down a tornado by themselves. So yes, we are going to see wind. Yes, we are going to see damage from the wind. We're going to see the surge. We are going to see significant flooding and the potential for tornadoes. A lot of things going on here. This is a big storm. This is what happens when you get a category three moving on up, probably at landfall, a category four. So what I did, a lot of things, even my house. And I'm 300 miles away from where it's going to make landfall. Atlanta, you're going to see winds of 75. Savannah, probably a little bit more. Valdosta, a whole lot more. So many people both in the way. Millions of millions, tens of millions of people potentially at risk right now. All right, Chad Myers, we'll get back to you. Thank you very much. Joining us now, the FEMA administrator, Deann Criswell-Fima, the federal emergency management agency, Deann. Thanks very much for joining us. Hurricane forest winds are already lashing parts of Florida. What kind of damage and impact are you seeing from your vantage point? So well, right now, we're starting to see some of the impacts, but we are prepared for so much more to happen. We know that there is going to be significant power outages across the path of the storm. We also know that there's a lot of tree canopy, like in the Tallahassee area. So we expect a significant amount of debris as a result of this storm as well. And so the best thing that people can do right now is to still stay vigilant, listen to their local officials just like I talked about this morning. We are going to have multiple types of impacts from this storm, multiple risks that people are going to be facing. Your local officials are going to be able to tell you exactly what the risk is going to be in your area. It's really a dangerous situation right now. I know you've said, administrator, that Helene will make what you described as a dead-on hit to Tallahassee. How devastating could the damage ultimately be there? You know, again, it all depends on where exactly it hits, but we want to plan for the worst wolf. We think that this is, you know, looking still like it's going to be straight into Tallahassee. They have not experienced anything to this level in recent history. And so, you know, we have, you know, people that aren't used to it. We have people that aren't familiar with what the impacts of this much storm surge, this much wind might be. And so my concern is that people just aren't taking all of the necessary actions that they can to protect themselves and to protect their families. But we do expect significant damage from the wind. Again, significant debris, significant home damage from flooding and wind. And it's going to take some time to really understand what the total impact will be after this. And the circuit is also creating tornadoes. Is that right? That's exactly right. We're seeing tornado watches already in different parts of Florida and South Carolina. And so people really need to pay attention. If you're not in that path of the storm, that doesn't mean that you're not going to have risk from this. There's, we're seeing it right on the outer edges of this storm. And this is a big storm that's coming across those outer bands stretch a long way. I think as you heard earlier, every part of Florida is under some kind of a warning. Georgia, South Carolina, all under some type of a watch or a warning right now. And I've pointed out tens of billions of Americans are under the, at least, the hurricane watch or a warning right now. What is your sense administrator on whether or not people are heating these warnings? My fear is always that somebody isn't going to, but I think as you heard, the governor say, there's still some time, especially if you're in that area with up to 20 feet of storm surge that's predicted. And I think the important thing to remember here is you don't have to go far. You just need to go far enough to get away from the threat of the storm surge. And if you don't know where there's a shelter in your area, you can always text the word shelter in your zip code to 43362. And you'll be able to find the closest shelter to you so you can stay safe. The National Weather Service is warning of what they describe as unsurvivable. There were an unsurvivable storm surge potentially as high as 20 feet. How unprecedented is that? Well, let's just think back, Wolf, to Hurricane E.M. I think as I looked through Hurricane E and ended up with about 14 or 15 feet of storm surge, we had 150 fatalities across Florida. I mean, that is significant and the majority of those were from water-related deaths drowning. And so this is serious. People need to take this serious. You can't really comprehend what 20 feet might seem like to you. But if we just look back a couple of years and see how much impact Hurricane E and had, that's what we can expect and that's what we should be planning for and protecting our citizens against for this storm. The National Hurricane Center Administrator has just announced that this is now officially a Category 4 hurricane. What, the winds more than 120 miles an hour, is that right? I haven't seen the current forecast, Wolf, and so you're breaking news to me right now. But we expected that, right? We expected this to be a Category 4 hurricane at landfall. And those are significant winds. But remember, it's even more than that. Remember, the eye of the storm is going to go through. That storm surge is so much bigger. There's outer bands with the tornadoes and the significant rain and even tropical storm winds still significant. And so don't just focus on the path of the storm and the eye. Focus on how big this is and how much of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are going to be impacted. And it's like 400 or 500 miles wide, the path of this hurricane. Is that right? That's what I understand. I mean, it is a big storm, which means so many more people are going to be in harm's way. Yeah, people are in danger right now. They got to heat all these warnings. FEMA Administrator Deann Crizzwell, thanks very much for all your important work. We appreciate it very, very much. And there's more breaking news we're following. Helene has just been upgraded, as I just said, to this Category 4 hurricane. With winds, they now say up to 130 miles per hour. We'll get an update from the mayor of Panama City. That's coming up, and we're also standing by. For an update from the National Hurricane Center, we'll be right back. They say opposites attract. That's why the Sleep Number Smartbed is the best bed for couples. You can each choose what's right for you whenever you like. You like a bed that feels firm, but they want soft? Sleep Number does that. You want to sleep cooler while they like to feel warm? Sleep Number does that, too. You have to feel it to believe it. 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For JD Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life Podcast. Long ago and far away, it was legal in the United States. Someone who has dedicated her career to understanding the effects of cannabis on the brain, Dr. Stacey Gruber. In 1850, doctors prescribed cannabis. We're going to have a really frank conversation about where things stand with cannabis right now and what this rescheduling could mean for its future. Listen to Chasing Life. Streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts. We're back with more breaking news on Hurricane Helene. Now, a very powerful category for a storm as it bears down on Florida's Gulf Coast. I want to check back with our meteorologist Chad Myers. Chad, what work did you tell us? I know you've just been briefed. Right, because we were getting briefings every hour on the hour, but in the middle they can give us updates and they did. They said, "Wait a minute, we just found the Hurricane Hunter plane just found winds that qualify for a 130 mile per hour category for now." So let's not wait for the next hour. We have to put that update out right now. So yes, we talked about this earlier, that the pressure was going down, meaning that the storm is getting stronger. Sometimes the winds take a few minutes to catch up to that lower pressure and that's what happened. The storm is now officially back to that forecast category four, right where the Hurricane Center said it was supposed to be. Yeah, that's what they said and that's what it is. All right, Chad, thank you very much. We'll continue to get back to you for updates. I want to go to CNN's John Berman right now. He's joining us from Tallahassee, where residents are bracing for what could be a dead-on hit by Hurricane Helene. John, what's the latest there? What are they saying? Yeah, that is what the FEMA Administrator just said. That the city of Tallahassee needs to be prepared for a direct hit, which frankly has not happened in recent memory with Hurricane Strength winds. Right now, it's expected to make landfall the storm about 20 miles south of here as a category four storm, but it's moving so quickly that when it passes directly overhead, Wolf, it will bring certainly Hurricane Strength winds, maybe category two Strength winds here, which is a real problem in a city like Tallahassee population, 200,000 or so because of all the trees here. Here's just a few of them behind me. There are even more these live oak, low canopy trees. The County Commissioner told me he expects thousands of trees to come down in this hurricane, hundreds of roads to be closed, and Hurricane Michael, which was several years ago, power was out for days here, and it wasn't even a direct hit. This is a direct hit, so there are concerns that power could be out for some time. There are some 2000 power workers staged in the immediate area around Tallahassee alone to get to work as soon as they can tomorrow. Public transportation in this city is shut down. FSU students removed from their dorms. They are in a shelter right now. Waffle House, the Tallahassee Democrat, is reporting even a Waffle House, has closed all its locations in Tallahassee, and if you know anything about hurricanes, you know, Waffle House is the last place to shut down. They like to be a haven as long as they possibly can, but it's just not safe for them as this storm moves in. We are beginning to feel the first winds that we felt so far in Tallahassee. The rain's been coming down in bands pretty steadily. The next five or six hours, though, will going to be dicey here. Yeah, the students at Florida State University, FSU, obviously potentially endangered, like so many other millions of people in that whole area. How have the conditions, John, changed there in just the last hour or so? Yeah, it's a really good question. Well, for the first time, I'm beginning to feel the wind pick up. As I said, the rain bands have been coming for several hours, but not the wind so much. Now it is starting to be a sort of a steady gust coming our way. That will pick up and intensify. And as I've said, in recent memory, Tallahassee has never been hit by a hurricane itself. By the time the storms pass over Tallahassee, they've weakened substantially, not this time. This storm could maintain hurricane strength when all the way into Georgia, so this is going to be a storm of the likes of which they've never seen, and that is either the wind right there. That's one of the major concerns is that the residents here just don't know what is in store for them. Well, all right, stay safe over there. John Berman and Tallahassee, for us, appreciate it very much. I want to get some more on the preparations for this massive hurricane about to hit Florida on the phone right now. Michael Rowan, the mayor of Panama City, a community expected to be in Helene's major strike zone. Mayor, thanks very much for joining us. Parts of this very dangerous category form hurricane are already beginning to hit Florida. What are you seeing so far? Well, right now in Panama City, we're not seeing very much. We're 70 miles to the west offensive of Appalachia Cola. And we're on the west side of the storm also, and that's usually the least involved. So I'm optimistic that we're going to survive this pretty well. Everybody here in Panama City remembers very well Hurricane Michael. That happened almost six years ago to the day, and it really devastated our town. So people here, we started seeing people getting gas and flashlight supplies as early as Monday. So people were getting ready for this storm. As of right now, we're not seeing very much here. Maybe 20 mile an hour winds, three, three inches or so of rain. And we have great meteorologists here in town, Chris Smith and Ross Whitley. They've been following NOAA, and they've been giving us updates several times a day. Actually, they both of them predicted in advance how this thing was going to look like it was going to hit us, and then it was going to turn off to the east. And that's exactly what's happening. So Panama City, we're breathing easy, but we feel sorry for our fellow citizens in Franklin County, which is Appalachia Cola. So they are going to get hit with some large, large storm surge, lots of wind. And as the people you've had on earlier, there's a tremendous amount of trees over there in Tallahassee and in Appalachia Cola. There is going to be debris all over. It's going to probably be very difficult to travel tomorrow. So we're in for a big night here. Yeah, the circuit is very, very wide, hundreds of miles. Our residents in your city, heating the warnings that the storm surge from Helene will be unsurvivable. Right here, I don't expect much storm surge here in Panama City. Let's hope you guys are okay. Good luck to you, Mayor Rowan. Appreciate it very, very much. Coming up, we're going to go live to the National Hurricane Center and get the very latest on when and how hard Helene will hit Florida and then move up the southeast. Stay with us. More breaking news right now on the huge category for Hurricane nearing landfall in Florida right now. Let's get an update. And up to the minute forecast on Helene's path and power were joined by the Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Jamie Rome, Jamie, thanks very much for joining us. As we just heard, Helene is now a category for Hurricane. That means winds of at least 130 miles per hour. How much more do you expect it to strengthen as this makes its way towards Florida and then moves up? Well, it's still got a few more hours over the incredibly warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. So continued development is possible. We're hoping we can stop this development before it gets any worse. But unfortunately, a category for is really alarming for the people near into the east of where the center makes landfall because this is an especially storm surge prone region of the country. And that's why we're predicting 15 to 20 feet of storm surge. Yeah, it's really disturbing and very, very worrisome. What are you watching for ahead for Hurricane Helene as it makes landfall later tonight? Well, this storm is particularly big, much larger than normal hurricanes. And what that means is it's going to be able to carry its strength, its power, its momentum farther inland. And you can see that behind me. The red here is an area currently under a hurricane warning, which means hurricane force winds are expected. And look how far inland this extends over southern Georgia. It's not unusual. I mean, it's not typical for us to have hurricane force winds go that far inland. And then the blue area is tropical storm warnings. And look how, I mean, that's all the way up into western North Carolina. That's unusual for us to push those warnings that far inland. Because this hurricane is what hundreds of miles wide as it's moving north. That it's a dangerous, not just for Florida, but as you point out for Georgia and the Carolinas, and maybe even further north as it continues to develop. As you mentioned, this hurricane is being described as extremely dangerous. You call it an extremely dangerous monster of a storm. What is making it so large and so threatening? Well, storms, some of the same environmental conditions that help a storm intensify, so relative humidity or moisture and low vertical wind shear can also help them to expand in size. You can see here this orange area here depicts the overall size of the storm. And I mean, look how large it is. It basically covers the entire state of Florida. And that's what also makes them pap a bigger punch in terms of storm surge and rainfall. Jamie Rome, thanks very much for joining us. As you mentioned to me, when we spoke earlier, whenever we speak, it's never good news. Certainly not good news right now. Appreciate it very much. Good luck to you and thank you to all the men and women who work with the International Hurricane Center for all the important work that you're doing. We, of course, are going to continue to monitor Hurricane Helene, but there's other important stories we're following as well, including the New York City Mayor Eric Adams now facing five federal charges. We're going to bring you details on the indictment which accuses the mayor of years of public corruption. Plus, there's other breaking news. The Special Counsel files new evidence in the federal election subversion case against Donald Trump. We'll update you on that as well. Five times a day, CNN brings you five stories that'll get you up to speed on your day. New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 6 a.m. 9 a.m. noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Hello from CNN, I'm Joe Beck. From CNN, I'm Pez Jamil. I'm Christopher with The Five Things You Need to Know. From CNN, I'm a former DK. Follow CNN Five Things on iHeart Podcasts. We're following stunning developments in New York City where Mayor Eric Adams is vowing to stay on the job just hours after prosecutors unveiled very serious federal charges against him. We expect Adams to make his first court appearance tomorrow for his formal arraignment this hour. The New York Times editorial board is now calling on the mayor to resign for what it describes as the good of the city. CNN national correspondent Gloria Pazmino has details. I look forward to defending myself. New York City Mayor Eric Adams defiant in the face of a five-count federal indictment. The foreign money, the corporate money, the bribery, the years of concealment is a grave breach of the public's trust. Prosecutors say Adams sold his office in exchange for thousands of dollars in illegal donations from foreign nationals along with gifts, luxury travel, and premium hotel rooms. Adams forcefully denied the allegations. My ex New York is to wait to hear our defense before making any adjustments. The indictment stretching back to his time as Brooklyn borough president. Since then, prosecutors say Adams solicited donations from Turkish nationals in violation of campaign finance laws. The indictment lays out a number of alleged instances, including a staffer communicating about a potential $100,000 donation, writing quote, "I think he wouldn't get involved in such games. They might cause a big stink later on." But adding, "I'll ask anyways." Adams knew that these wealthy individuals could not legally donate in a U.S. election. Prosecutors allege Adams tried to hide the donations by funneling them through straw donors. The money multiplied by thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded matching funds. Once he took office, prosecutors say Adams used his power to pressure agencies to take favorable action to benefit Turkish officials. In one instance, the mayor directed the fire department to facilitate the opening of the new Turkish consulate, which had failed to pass safety inspections. This building was important to the Turkish official, and it was important to Turkey. Turkish officials, under pressure from an impending visit by the Turkish president, allegedly asked Adams to intervene. The building opened without incident. Prosecutors allege Adams took multiple trips to India, France, China, Hungary, and Ghana, making critical stops in Turkey. At one point, texting his partner. You know, first stop is always Istanbul. When he learned federal prosecutors were investigating Adams allegedly tried to conceal the evidence, directing staffers to delete messages. Federal agents spent more than three hours inside Adams' residence this morning, but Adams resolute that he will not step down. From here, my attorneys would take care of the case so I can take care of the city. Well, prosecutors allege that Eric Adams even tried to prevent federal agents from getting into his cell phone when he learned that there was a federal investigation, he changed the password. When they tried to take the phones from him, he said that he had forgotten what it was. Obviously, investigators were eventually able to get in. Tonight, Eric Adams emailing more than 300,000 city workers, telling them that he has done nothing wrong, and that he is focused on continuing to run the city. The question is whether he will be able to do this as the case develops and he'll end if he'll be able to survive the political fallout of all this. All right, Gloria. Thank you. Gloria Pazmino reporting. I want to bring in our chief legal analyst and anchor, Laura Coates. Laura, thanks very much for joining us. You've looked at the documents and all that. How strong of a case do they have? This is a very serious case involving federal charges. They have the accumulation of different allegations. In isolation, maybe one or two upgrades they're talking about from, say, a Turkish airline or a conversation with this person or that might, in isolation to the average person, look like innocent. However, the way they have laid this out to suggest that he's solicited, that he was in fact committing official acts, overt acts, trying to cover things up. It is the quintessential tale of nothing is really free, and there were strings attached, and when it came time to pay the piper, they're alleging he did so in a way that would possibly risk the safety of New Yorkers actually in a building that would not have passed the fire code inspection otherwise. This is accumulation of allegations, but they have to prove these cases. And traditionally, bribe cases have become increasingly harder, because the Supreme Court has said you got to make a direct connection between the request, the payment, or quid pro quo, and an actual official act. What do you make of a Mayor Adams claim that this is a case, it's a federal case. It's retaliation for him challenging the Biden administration's immigration policy. There's nothing in this particular indictment that suggests that's at all what their basis is. In fact, it really is about those who are from foreign countries, but those he has listed as actual campaign contributions. The idea that this is a politicized venture by the SDNY might be farcical to many because of all that's been laid out here, but this is part of a pattern of politicians, for example, Donald Trump from one person, who has suggested that every time you stand up to the federal government, they reign upon you, their Department of Justice, irrespective of all the things that you've been alleged to do. They go through a methodical assessment of what he has done, and nothing seems to suggest that it's based on retaliation for one's negative criticism about immigration policy. I want to read to you part of the indictment about what Adams did with his phone after it was seized for the first time, and this is what it says, and we heard Gloria Pasmino mention this. Adams claimed that after he learned about the investigation into his conduct, he changed the password on his phone. Adams further claimed he had forgotten the password. He had just said, and thus was unable to provide the FBI with a password that would unlock the phone. Does that speak to why federal agents searched Gracie mentioned earlier today? I think it does, it also would suggest to you that phrase can do it the easy way or the hard way. The hard way was searching Gracie mentioned. The easy way would have been to cooperate, and of course, he has every right and due process requirements. He doesn't have to meet the burden of proof. That's the prosecution's role, to prove that he's guilty, not for him to prove that he's innocent, but in a line of cooperating and not trying to obstruct something, it would go a long way. In any event, this does not bode well for the mayor of New York City. If he's convicted, he could spend years and years in jail. Absolutely. Laura, thank you very much, Laura Coates, reporting for us. Laura, of course, will be back for her show later tonight. Laura Coates live 11 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Coming up, details on never before seen evidence just filed in Donald Trump's federal elections subversion case. You're watching CNN's breaking news coverage of Hurricane Helene, the monster storm nearing landfall in Florida tonight. As it threatens to bring Category 4 winds, a deadly storm surge and historic flooding across the southeast. Stay with CNN for all the latest information. As Helene closes in, this is a major, major story. There's other breaking news we're following right now as well, including the special council, Jack Smith, who just filed never before seen evidence in the federal election subversion case against Donald Trump. That filing made under seal is now in the hands of Judge Tanya Chutkin. Our chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reed is joining us with an update right now. Paula, what do we know about this new filing? Well, if we know that Jack Smith has faced many roadblocks in trying to bring this case to trial and tonight he was expected to file his most compelling arguments for why Trump allegedly tried to subvert the 2020 election and why this case should survive even after the Supreme Court ruled a few months ago, the Trump has partial immunity. We expect this filing to be nearly 200 pages. It possibly contained never before seen evidence. Things like a testimony from former Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump, or even former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Now it is up to the judge, Tanya Chutkin, to decide how much of this is made public. Trump's lawyers have opposed publicly releasing the sensitive evidence in this case. This is really the last chance for the public to see the evidence that was gathered during this probably two year long investigation before the election. Of course, if former President Trump is reelected, his Attorney General will dismiss both of the special counsel's cases against Trump. What are Trump's lawyers saying about this? So it's been interesting in talking with them because sometimes they like to do things preemptively like they know this is coming so they're going to file an appeal, talk about how this is unique, assert their client's constitutional rights, but they didn't do that here because this is all being filed under seal. So I think that's notable. What we're going to see over the next few days and weeks I think is them fighting tooth and nail to prevent the judge from releasing any evidence that they think could be potentially politically damaging for their client. But I really think they've gotten a huge assist here from the Supreme Court that took so long to make their decision on presidential immunity and made it impossible for Jack Smith to bring this case before the election. They've always told me their number one goal was to just delay any serious criminal case until after the election and they have been successful in doing that for the federal cases. Of course, the former President did go to trial in New York on those state charges. Let's see what happens. Paula Reed reporting for us Paula. Thanks very much. We have an important programming note for our viewers tomorrow. I'll have an exclusive interview with the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. We'll discuss the escalations in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine. You can see the full interview tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern right here in the situation. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wil Fitzer in the Situation Room. Aaron Burnett out front starts right now. They say opposites attract. That's why the Sleep Number Smartbed is the best bed for couples. You can each choose what's right for you, whenever you like. 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