with No Deal Insight, Trump and Democratic Leaders Meet at White House
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was here on Christmas evening. I was all by myself in the White House. That's a big, big house. Except for all the guys out on the lawn with machine guns. Nicest machine guns I've ever seen. I was waving to them. I never saw so many guys with machine guns in my life. Secret Service and military. These are great people. And they don't play games. They don't like wave. They don't even smile. But I was there all alone with the machine gunners. And I felt very safe, I have to tell you. They're great people. And there are a lot of them. But I was hoping that maybe somebody would come back and negotiate.</s>BROWN: So that was President Trump just moments ago, pointing out that he was home alone at the White House for the holidays. While that was going on, the First Lady spent Christmas with him in Washington, but returned to Mar-a-Lago to host their annual New Year's Eve party. And posted a rare selfie at her smiling at all the festivities as you see right here. I want to bring in White House reporter, Kate Bennett. She covers the First Lady. So, Kate, is she filling in for Trump while he works? Or staying away? What's going on with the First Lady right now?</s>KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, first of all, Pam, I don't want to correct the President, but he wasn't really alone on Christmas evening, because the First Lady was at the White House. If you remember, she came back late on Christmas Eve to do the NORAD calls and to travel with him on the secret trip to Iraq and then returned to Palm Beach. So, you know, they host this annual New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, which is a big deal. $1,000 a ticket this year. Very fancy. And this year, Melania Trump had to handle the hosting duties by herself. Sources tell me she was very affable and chatted with guests and took pictures. She didn't have cameras, there were no press allowed on the red carpet. However, she did post that selfie. We think that's Baron Trump's eye there in the selfie with her for happy new year. And certainly, you know, she's made a decision, and she's, as we have said before many times, a very independent First Lady. She decided that the shutdown was not going to prevent her from her holiday plans, nor from being with her son, which is what her spokeswoman told CNN for her reason to return to Florida after the Christmas holiday and spend the rest of the time there. She is currently there today. A source tells me she plans to remain for a few more days down in Palm Beach before returning to the President, who is alone in the residence, at least everyone else seems to be back at work for now for the holidays.</s>BROWN: All right. Kate Bennett, thank you so much.</s>BENNETT: Thank you.</s>BROWN: For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court is getting involved with the Russia investigation. CNN has learned that justices could decide today if an unnamed foreign company will have to pay daily fines for avoiding a grand jury subpoena from the special counsel. CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, joins me now. Jessica, tell us about this.</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela, this has been winding its way through the two lower courts here in Washington, D.C. and when those courts ruled against this mystery foreign-owned company, that's when the company asked the Supreme Court to step in. So, what is this unknown company fighting? Well, they're fighting the order that compels the company to comply with a grand jury subpoena that is related to the special counsel's probe, and accompanying that, the daily fine that's been imposed for not complying. So, while we wait to see how the full Supreme Court might act on this, the company actually already got one minor victory. That was two days before Christmas when the Chief Justice, John Roberts, he issued a temporary stay. And that stay allowed this mystery company to avoid those daily fines that the lower court had imposed. So now the has to decide whether to grant a more permanent stay. And Pamela, it's likely the full court would decide that as opposed to just Chief Justice himself. So, the question will be, will the court side with the special counsel and lift this stay, meaning the company will have to begin paying those hefty daily fines for not cooperating, or on the other hand, will the court side with the company and allow it to keep avoiding the penalty? But remember, Pamela, this is all shrouded in mystery. We don't know who this company is. We just know that it's foreign-owned and we don't really know what details this company might have that the special counsel might be after. So, could we get more of those details after the Supreme Court steps in more fully here, perhaps today or in the coming days? We shall see. Pamela?</s>BROWN: We shall see. Reporters are keeping a close eye on this. This has been this mystery case under wraps. And like you pointed out, it's still very much a mystery in terms of what company this is. All right, Jessica Schneider, thank you so much for that. We do appreciate it and happy new year to you. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.