Good evening, everyone. I'm Laura Coates, and this is CNN Tonight, and sources telling

CNN a federal judge is denying the DOJ request to hold for President Trump in contempt for

failing to turn over classified documents. You got more on what all this means in just

a moment.

And tonight, our polarized politics are on full display. There's Kevin McCarthy, who

is threatening a floor fight in his battle to be speaker, as his own parties, conservative

hardliners, are vowing to block him. And there's Kiersten Sinema, quitting a Democratic

party to now become an independent. So what does all of this say about leadership more

broadly in the new Washington that's coming in January? And how do we all move forward?

Plus, Brittany Griner is back on American soil tonight, we're learning more about what

she went through at her nearly 300 day or deal in Russia. So I'll talk to one of Brittany

Griner's friends, who also played in Russia, and she says she'll never go back.

Here we can now talk about all of it. It's a little commentator, Karen Finney, also

former Congressman Joe Walsh, and CNN political analyst Alex Burns. I'm glad you're all

here. I'm taking off my bracelet, not because I'm getting ready to do anything crazy,

but it keeps hitting the table. Alex, so don't get afraid. We're going to go right now

into what's going on about Donald Trump, because I have to ask you, this federal judge

declining now to hold him in contempt for what's been quite obvious to everyone in the sense

of, look, there were documents that belonged to the United States. You didn't hand them

over. They were at Mar-a-Lago. There's a protracted fight about that in the courts. It's

resolved in some limited respect, but not fully. What does this mean to you?

Look, I think protracted is the operative word there, right? That this is a checkpoint,

...