finally, victory for team usa. advancing to the world's knockingout stage after beating iran today. the star player scored the game's only goal, but it did come at a price. he suffered an injury that sent him to the hospital. according to the team, he has a pelvic contusion and now his status day to day. the match played against the crackdown on brutal protesters. inside iran, many were celebrating team usa's win with fireworks and much more. up next for the u.s., netherlands on saturday. thanks for being here. "ac360" starts now. the law dates back to the civil war. the crime it describes is as serious as it gets. conspiring to, among other things, overthrow or destroy by force the government of the

united states. john berman here in for anderson. tonight for the first time since 1995, a jury has returned guilty verdicts on the charge of seditious conspiracy against some of the leaders. so-called oath keepers for their roles in the january 6th attack on the capitol. sara sidner is live with the verdicts rendered and the history made. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: there is no way to overstate how important and historic this trial was. there is the very first trial in which several defendants were accused of seditious conspiracy. now the jury has spoken. two of the people on trial, members of the oath militia, here on january 6th, the world saw video of, wearing military combat gear and a military, walking up the steps of the capitol to my left. and some of them going into the

capitol and bragging about storming the capitol. two people have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy. and they include the founder and leader of the oath keepers who founded the group in 2009. elmer stewart rose iii has been found guilty of the most serious charge, seditious conspiracy. he is joined by kelly meggs. that charge is a charge that the jury had to take quite a while to look at because of the seriousness of the charge which is, trying to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power by force. and the jury said that's exactly what these two men did. now, for the other three defendants, we have kenneth harrelson. he was found not guilty on that charge. jessica watkins. not guilty. and thomas caldwell, also, not not guilty. four of the five of these people

were, they're all veterans. they had a certain kind of training as well that i'm sure the jury looked at and it was certainly mention in the court. we found several other charges. seditious conspiracy was the first conspiracy charge but there were others, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. . in case, kelly meggs, one of the lieutenants, was found guilty. but rhodes was not found guilty of that particular charge. neither were the other defendants, the other three that i mentioned. so you have this hodgepodge of decisions. they're not all guilty, except for on one charge, all five people were found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding. these all carry pretty heavy terms in prison. the seditious charge carries a 20-year sentence in maximum prison and so does conspiracy to

obstruct an official proceeding. but this was a really important case for the doy and frankly, for americans, to see this play out in court the way it did over seven weeks of testimony. in the eighth week, the jury came to a decision. they had to go through videos, they had secret recordings to look at. some of the defendants actually took the stand in their defense. when it came to stewart rhodes and kelly meggs, they did not believe that they were not planning to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power. so they were found guilty. >> could there be additional arrests by the justice department? >> reporter: there are two other cases. there's another case of the oath keeper members that will be coming forward where they are not charged with seditious conspiracy but they have other very serious charges. and you have the case of the proud boys where the leadership

of that group including enrique tarrio, are charged with seditious conspiracy. so i'm sure they're looking at what happened here to see what they are going to do going forward and the doj certainly looking at what happened here to see how they will proceed forward in these cases. this was a big deal. this is one of about 20 trials where conspiracy charges are levied against the defendant. this one, perhaps the most rare charge of conspiracy, and the most important. it is the first of the 20. witnessing history outside the federal court. thank you. so for being with us. we'll have much more coming up later in the program. now, keeping them honest. a case of condemning the sin but not the sinner. the nation's two top republican lawmakers did just that today about the former president's recent dinner with the anti-semitic artist ye and the holocaust denying while national leader nick fuentes.

kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell both condemning the whole dining with a white nationalist thing, but neither one directly condemned the actual person who actually broke bread with the actual white nationalists. and how they each avoided doing it is fascinating and telling. mccarthy simply said something that isn't true. >> i don't think anybody should be spending any time with nick fuentes. he has no place in this republican party. i think president trump came out four times and condemned him and didn't know who he was. >> i don't know. he didn't do that. yes, trump did say he didn't know who nick fuentes is. no, he did not condemn him. at all. not once. and while it is impossible to read the man's mind, telling that lie certainly helped leader mccarthy from criticizing the former president. it suggested falsely that no criticism was even necessary

because hadn't the former president done so himself by condemning nick fuentes, except, of course, he never did. he posted about the dinner three times. the first time saying he knew nothing but the ant semitic artist's three friends he brought for dinner. also, i didn't know nick fuentes. then finally saying, he shows up with three people. two of which i didn't know. the other, a political person i hadn't seen in years. he also gave a statement to axios saying the anti-semite came with a guest whom he'd never met and knew nothing about. and on fox digital, he said he didn't know fuentes' views before having dinner with him and did not condemn those views. nowhere online or anywhere else on record has the former president condemned nick fuentes. nor have many republicans directly called trump out by name for dining with the man. senator romney has. as ia hutchinson did, so did

chris christie and former vice president mike pence. >> president trump was wrong to give a white nationalist an anti-semite and a holocaust denier a seat at the table. and i think he should apologies for it. and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification. >> so you wouldn't think it would be so hard on general principle but apparently it is. contrast that with today, mitch mcconnell, as you try to figure out who if anyone at all he's actually talking about. >> first, let me say that there is no room in the republican party for anti-semitism, or white supremacy. and anyone meeting with people

advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the united states. >> see what he did there? unlike leader mccarthy who avoided condemning the former president by trotting out a specific and transparent lie, leader mcconnell, who is far more careful about what he says, was generic and opaque. so careful, so generic, so opaque that when asked to follow up by c fwnn, he not only kept pointing finger away from donald trump, he won't even rule out voting for the man again. >> you said that there's no room for anyone ever anyone who harbors anti-semitic views. if donald trump wins the republican nomination, would you support him? . >> let me say again. there is simply no room in the republican party for anti-semitism or white supremacy. that would apply to all the leaders in the party who will be seeking offices.

>> so only the sin. never the sinner. the former president though, he has no trouble naming names. in that interview with fox digital, he certainly did attacking senator mcconnell by name. joining us now, senior political commentator, former obama adviser, and scott jennings who is close to leader mcconnell. a special assistant to the president in the george w. bush administration. scott, when we spoke last night, you said you expected he would check the temperature of his comment before commenting. and that's the one thing about these guys in leadership. they tend to take the temperature of the people they represent before they make comment. so these comments he made. the half hedge and then lie. what does that tell but the temperature he found? >> well, what i said was, i thought they would both consult with the members of their conference and made statements today. i was right. both made statements and

unequivocally stated that people like nick fuentes and the hateful ideology he talks going has no place in the republican party. they both said that. regarding the condemning four times, i don't know what he was doing there. i think he was confused about the difference between condemning and saying i don't know who he is. that's not true. trump hasn't condemned it and i suspect he won't. this is his pattern. he does dumb stuff and then he tightens down and never figures out a way to doing the right thing. but that's why it is important that a lot of republicans have done the right thing here like mcconnell, like mccarthy, and clearly and unequivocally stated, there is no room for this in the republican party whatsoever. >> mccarthy either made some stuff up or the most charitable version was confused. does that indicate to you that he's still trying to walk some line? or trying still to curry favor with some part of his caucus

that doesn't like the idea of having dinner with a white nationalist? >> i think what he said was very clear about saying, this ideology has no place in the republican party. he wants no part of it. and i think that, you know, that was the best message he could deliver. beyond that, look. i don't know how many more clearly you can say, i don't want this party that i represent and i plan to be the speaker of the house of this republican party. i don't know how much more clearly you can say, i don't want any part of it. that's what he should have done. >> right. and he could do it without making something up. david axelrod, your assessment of the little bit of verbal gymnastics from kevin mccarthy. >> here's the situation. kevin mccarthy still isn't guaranteed that he'll be speaker of the house. he needs donald trump's support to become speaker of the house. and he will need donald trump's

support because trump has sway over that group of, that smaller group of legislators who are committed to him. the freedom caucus folks. so he is twisting himself in all kinds of knots here to try to not offend trump, but say enough to condemn anti-semitism and holocaust denial, and so on. so he may not be speaker of the house but he could get a spot in cirque du soleil by the time this is done. >> scott not only said last night that both republican leaders should. he predicted that they would say something today. absolutely scott did that. but again, mccarthy, it does seem like a man in his position knows what he's doing when he says those kinds of things. and there was some deliberate signal. >> no question about it. scott said they couldn't have been more forthright in condemning this. pence was more forthright.

hutchinson was more forthright. the fact of the matter is that the former president sat down with these folks and if you're not willing to condemn that, then you're being evasive. and i think that they're doing, they're navigating their own caucuses. this is the same story we've seen for some time. i think the glacier is melting and trump is more vulnerable than he's ever been. there is more blood in the water and people are more adventuresome. they were very, very cautious today in my view. >> our thanks to both of you. we'll get more 100% predictions from scott in the future. hopefully. next, cnn exclusive footage from ukraine. what it is like on the ground in a key piece of territory. and later, the soccer match that was more than a game in so many ways but was the best possible game in one particular way. america's victory today over

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it's no secret that russia's military has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure from day one and they are designed to maximize suffering. russia's air campaign and the horror it brings. tonight though for the first time, we have an exclusive look at ground level fighting for what is reported to be the most hotly contested piece of territory in the entire war. cnn's matthew chance and his team have brought back the footage and the story which is as raw and brutal as you might imagine. matthew, what did you see? >> reporter: earlier in the strategic town in eastern ukraine, described by soldiers on the ground there as the hardest part of the front line,

constant artillery exchanges and very close quarter fighting, taking a terrible toll. the brutal fight for bakhmut. ukraine troops are battling russia's onslaught. these exclusive images are from the soldiers themselves. the commanders tell us dozens of lives are now being sacrificed here every day. the road into town is heavy with thick smoke and danger. explosions ahead force to us pull over before another slams into a building close by. all right. you can hear the incoming rounds. the incoming rounds of russian

artillery fire are really intense here as we have entered the outskirts of bakhmut, from everything we're seeing, everything we've been told, is the most fiercely contested patch of ground in the entire russia-ukraine conflict. >> quickly, quickly. >> reporter: so fierce, we made a rapid exit, leaving the relentless barrage behind. much of this battle is fought avoiding the artillery threat. in underground bunkers like these where local ukrainian commanders can respond to russian attacks. they're assaulting oppositions from morning to night, he tells me. the real problem is we are

heavily outnumbered, he says. but the innovative use of low cost tech is helping to bridge that gap. in another front line bunker, we saw how commercially available drones are giving ukraine an edge. >> wow, that's incredible. we've just seen an artillery strike in this position. the ukraine drone operators have identified this being full of russians. you can see russian soldiers as we look at them live now, running for cover as the ukraine artillery pans. but battery commanders at the front line like him tell me they're running low on ammunition rounds. that even guns sent from the united states are breaking under such constant strain. they need more of both, they say, if this battle in b amakhm

is ever to be won. >> amazing. first, i'm glad you and your crew are okay. dw what did you hear about the assault on the front lines? >> reporter: of course, we were able to leave. those ukraine soldiers have to stay to face on a daily basis that artillery barrage. they also have the cold weather and the mud to contend with. it is miserable. the casualties are very high indeed. it is high on the other side as well. the russians, remember, are plowing resources and planpower into the battle for bakhmut. even though they're making progress, it is coming at a very high price for them as well. >> you talked about the ukrainian battery commanders saying they're running low. what else do they need to hold

their positions? >> reporter: well, they need a whole host of military supplies. warm clothing, vehicles, everything like that. they're insisting that it is the weapons and the ammunition making the difference between whether this battle is won or lost. they save need more weapons, more artillery pieces. the more they have, the more they can rotate them so they wouldn't have to use each individual item. so so it would last longer and it wouldn't break down. so that's the renewed call, for more weapons from the united states and other countries around the world. >> just amazing work. thank you very much. please stay safe. to matthew's point about what these troops are going through, i want to turn to the military analyst mark hertling. what is your reaction? i know you were watching as carefully as we were. what's your reaction? >> it is a throwback to world

war i. where the static fires, artillery duels are more logistics, more ammunition. watching the 777 cannon fire. in this picture right now that you're seeing, the number of 50 caliber rounds being shot from that machine gun. the back and forth on a static defensive line that has been in place for eight years now. this isn't something that just happened since the start of the war in february. they've been fighting in the donbas for eight years now. so they know the terrain. they know the targeting. they had advance targeting systems with the drones and the computers which i would bet you don't see on the russian side. they're just using those weapons. notwithstanding all of that, you have to talk a little about the physical aspects and the

psychological aspects of combat. as you just said, he's able to lead there. he spends a day with them and then departs. i'm sure tonight, at 3:00 in the morning, which it is right now in ukraine with temperatures below freezing. those same troops are looking through night vision goggles, continuing to fight under unbelievable physical pressure. their ammunition is running low. it is not so much the artillery rounds causing the problems. they're firing so many rounds. thousands of rounds a week that their tubes burn out. so all. those factors. and then you add the psychological components. constantly being under shelling, in the cold, the sights and sounds of warfare. i can only compare it to my own experiences. desert storm. we were on the attack for four days without a lot of sleep with some artillery attacks.

then it was over. operation iraqi freedom where we were deployed for 15 months. but the fights in that combat were sporadic. terror involved incidents that would happen arbitrarily as units did patrol. what you see now on the front lines of ukraine is just constant fighting. and it will drain on individuals and really cause some both physical effects and psychological effects. >> you mentioned the temperature. earlier today, the nato secretary general accused putin of using, quote, winter as a weapon. how does winter and the temperatures play for both sides here? >> the weather plays equally on both sides. you're talking going the discipline in the force. what we've seen in the russian force so far is a lack of discipline, a hlavac leadership. poorly equipped. they're not prepared the address the kinds of things associated

with winter warfare. oil for equipment. the kinds of things you need to stay dry. the uniforms that will keep you warm. when nato is providing ukraine right now is the type of uniforms they need to sustain themselves. i saw a picture the other day, it was saran wrap wrapped around trees to keep the cold out. the combination of equipment, performance standards and discipline in my view. even though weather is equal to both sides, will give ukraine the advantage in this winter fight. but it will still be very tough. tell other thing that is very important, during winter, the daylight. certainly less time of daylight that you can fight. tell ukrainians have night vision devices that they can see during the nighttime. so all those things play a part and i give the ukrainians the upper hand in a winter fight

like this. >> realways learn so much from you. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. just ahead, what's next for the men's national team at the world cup? they reach the knockout stage after a thrilling 1-0. plus reaction from the iranian siside. lily! welcome to our third bark-ery. oh, i can tell business is going through the “woof”. but seriously we need a reliable way to help keep everyone connted fromherever we go. well at at&t we'll help you find thright wireless plan for you.

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red, white and blue sparkling lights tonight after the usa team advanced with the 1-0 win over iran. the most of the game, that goal in the 38th minute. weston mckinney with a beautiful cross. then to christian pulisic. you can see he sacrifices his body, the whole thing, to put

t ball in the net. he was injured. you can see, on the play right there. we'll have more only in a moment. that would be it for goal in the game but not for drama. because iran would mount an attack at a comeback late in the match. several attempts to tie the game including an iranian header that missed the goal wide. plus, this one that really just will stop your heart. the ball gets through goalkeeper matt turner's legs. i think you can see that in a second. but it was quickly swept away by walker zimmerman there. oh! kicks it out just in the nick of time. afterwards, it was all celebration. i watched the game alone and i still nearly lost my voice. two reports now on the game and the politics that is never far away from it. on iran's reaction. so dawn, i was screaming the whole time watching the game. what was the atmosphere like actually being there?

>> reporter: you know, it was extraordinary. and i'll put it like this. if i was screaming, i wouldn't have been able to hear my own voice because i had a wall of sound to my left. i sat right next to the iranian supporters. from the whistle until pretty much the end, they just didn't stop. drums, horns, it was all noise. the only time it stopped was when pulisic scored that incredible goal. the usa will to win this game. one goal from iran and it would have been a completely different story. the americans would have been packing their bags. instead, they're settling back into their hotel. i can give you a little update on pulisic. he went to the hospital. he underwent some scans. the team reporting that he is day to day. it is a pelvic injury they're dealing with for the usa's star player. he took to social media

afterwards saying so proud of my guys. i'll be ready saturday. don't worry. he injected a little language bomb in there. i guess the adrenaline was still pumping. but he says he'll be ready. we'll see. it is the netherlands next. meanwhile, to talk about the experience of this game. i've never covered a sports event like it. of course, it was all about what was going on on the field and all about what was happening off it. i spoke to an iranian fan before who that he was rooting for his team to lose because of what the team represents. and we're seeing videos from all over iran celebrating their team's defeat. that's how complex this situation is. yeah, we'll talk about it in a second for the reaction. super important. just on the game, we did get some footage just in. i want to you listen to the u.s. men's national team returning to their team hotel after the

match. as far as christian pulisic is concerned, you can see him here. let's watch and listen to this. [ cheers ] you can see all the cheering. you can see christian pulisic there. hugging his teammates. i'm sorry. i'm too much of a fan boy when it comes to this. it's just wonderful to see. >> that is brilliant video. absolutely wonderful. so uplifting. great to see these young players. many people thought they would be all set to go for the next world cup with canada and mexico. they seem to be ahead of schedule. we've known for a few years now that the americans have great players. many of them are starring in europe and the premier league.

there were concerns that they weren't quite gelling. look how they're playing now. >> let's hope the pelvic contusion heals by saturday. as don was just mentioning, this was much more than just a game. serious implications and reverberations inside iran. what has the reaction been inside iran to this loss? >> reporter: i mean, john, truly remarkable scenes that we've been seeing. celebrations. people are celebrating their own team losing. we've seen video trickling out from different cities including the capital of tehran, where we've seen people channelling and cheering. and then you have video from across the kurdish region. one of the parts of the front by the regime.

and to see people out on the streets dancing, honking horns, even fireworks in the home town. one young man i spoke to said he is happy because he said, this is the government losing to the people. a team against a nation isn't a national team. there are iranians who would say that's unfair to the players who have been under immense pressure. they've faced threats by the regime to them and to their family members. there are a lot of iranians who felt this was an opportunity for this team. the team, the nation's team, to have taken a stance. to have shown support to the people of iran. they feel that was a missed opportunity. it disappointed them that they didn't do that like other athletes who have done, who have gone to jail or faced threats. but they did stand by the people. and at the same time, there was a moment that was a turning

point for a the love iranians and that's when iran beat wales last week. we saw the celebrations on the streets of tehran where you had the security forces, the scenes where they are accused of killing hundreds of people during this crackdown. horrific human rights abuses. they're out on the streets celebrating at a time where a crackdown is ongoing. people are burying their dead. it was a very, very painful moment for a lot of iranians and a turning point for many who felt this team was no longer uniting iranians. they felt it was representing the regime and i think that explains a lot about what we're seeing tonight. >> so much going on beyond just soccer. thank you very much. so years of covid lockdowns have unleashed rare protests in china. the communist state with even

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you don't see mass uprisings in china often. hardly ever. not the kind of country that takes kindly to dissent. that's why the opposition to years of highly restrictive covid lockdowns is truly extraordinary. protesters have taken to the streets in at least 15 chinese cities, demanding the lockdowns be lifted. million is are being beaten by police. others are having their cell phones seized as the government tries to snuff out the protests. our reporter is live in beijing. it's not just increased police presence. how far are the chinese authorities willing to go to stop the protests? >> reporter: it's all about stopping the momentum in its tracks. a key priority of china's giant security am pparatus is to prevt unrest like we're seeing. they have surveillance and intimidation. what is really chilling is that in places like shanghai, some of this intimidation is playing out

in broad daylight. police randomly stopping people in the area where the protests had broken out days before, ordering people to delete content from their phones. other video appear to show police randomly checking the cell phones of passengers on a subway in shanghai. police are also checking to see if people have install vpns on their phones to use the banned apps like twitter and banned ways to communicate. all of this is preventing people from gathering. we see the protests become smaller and more scattered since the weekend. police on monday broke up an attempted province. a woman is seen dragged away, screaming. authorities violently pushing people. all of this aftermath is a reminder that this is a police state where there is virtually no privacy. even their private messages on apps are monitored. health apples. security cameras are all over this country. so the fact that these protests

happened at all across the country, it is just extraordinary. >> so we've seen some footage of protesters getting arrested. what do we know about the people who are detained? what happens to them? >> we spoke to a protester who was part of a large group saturday night. this person said they had their phones confiscated. police collected their finger prints. their retinal patterns. they had police deleted photos and removed apps. a beijing protester said she's received a phone call from police asking if she took part in illegal activities. she said something pretty striking. that police may have been calm during the actual protest, which i witnessed myself as well. but the communist party she said is very good at doling out the punishment afterwards. and we've finally gotten some sort of response from chinese officials to the protests, even though it was a veiled response. china's security chief said law enforcement needs to, quote,

resolutely strike hard against infiltration and sabotage activity business hostile forces, swas well as illegal disorder. that may signal more aggressive crackdown ahead. but health authorities are defending covid but they want to impose covid restrictions on people's lives. nice language but no concrete changes. >> please keep us posted. for more context and what i could mean, let's go to you. talk about what it is like on the ground in beijing. how significant is this moment? >> it's very significant. china has actually allowed protests over the years but they've always been local protests. local corruption or pollution or food shortages.

this is about a policy that is not a local policy. this is xi jinping's policy. one that he has boasted about repeatedly. he's talked about how the chinese handled, and his country handled covid better than anyone else. so this is a frontal assault on xi jinping. it is also worth noting that you're watching in these images the great problem the communist party has going forward. this is a pretty middle class society. lots of them have electronic equipment. lots of them are aware. they're watching the world cup and noticing people are not wearing masks in these stadiums with tens of thousands of people which is being censored by the chinese government for precisely that reason. so what you're watching now is a government that is ruling a much more alert, restive, aware population than, say, in 1989 in

tiananmen. these are richer, more educated, more tech savvy. and yet it seems to have no way to course correct. which is one of the things the chinese party used to do before xi jinping. they would move around and adjust and change policy. they seemed locked into zero covid. >> how much of it is about covid? how much is it about covid or the shifting demographic or the genuine concerns about government overreach? >> well, clearly, the trigger is covid. the draconian lockdowns. they've been excessively zealous. this is what happens in china. the local governments try to show off to the central each has outdown the other in some way. people are saying, we don't want

to live in a society where the government has this kind of power. we often look at the united states and all the chaos of our covid policy and all the politicalization that we talk about. in a way, it's a good thing. because you have open contestation, arguments, disagreements. and then policy gets adjusted. china does not really have the ability to have that kind of policy adjustment. it would be such a mark of xi's weakness. were he to now give in. he is trying not to. what the government is trying to do is race to the point, two or three months from now, where they will probably have an mrna vaccine, an indigenous chinese one. they don't want to use western ones. and then they can vaccinate the

population and then they can open up. it still sounds like a very tough challenge. that's a long way away still. >> and maybe a lot of suffering for the chinese people thank you. for being with us tonight. >> coming up, the story of two parents reunited with their daughter more than 50 years after she went missing. the surprising way she found them. that's next. create something new? our dell technologogies advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you.

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tonight, a family is reunited after more than five decades apart. melissa highsmith was just a baby when she was kidnapped in 1971. now thanks to a dna testing kit, she's found the family she did not know she lost. cnn's ed lavendera has her story. >> reporter: moments before melissa highsmith reunited with her parents, you could see the

emotional excitement overwhelming. highsmith's mother and father waited 51 years for this embrace. >> i just couldn't believe it. i thought i would never see her again. >> they said, dad, she's alive. and i started crying. and after 51 years, it's so emotional. >> reporter: back in the early '70s, she was 22 months old. her parents were separated at the time. her mother put an ad in the newspaper looking for a baby sitter to care for her so she could work. she handed her off to the baby sitter on the moment of august 23, 1971. the woman and melissa never returned. melissa's disappearance made headlines in her home town in texas. she wrote a letter asking the kid animaler to call her. i'm begging for the return of my little girl. i've been going out of my mind

with worry. the call never came. but dna testing did decades later. melissa's family submitted their daboll to 23 and me and got -- their dna to 23 and me. and they got a match to one of melissa's own children. the now 53-year-old confronted the woman she spent nearly her whole life believing she was her mother. >> i asked her, is there anything you need to tell me? it was confirmed that she knew that i was baby melissa. that just made it real. >> reporter: since the highsmith's reunion over thanksgiving, she's started reconnecting with her parents over old baby photos. >> it is good to see what i looked like when i was a baby. >> reporter: and she's meeting three sisters and a brother she never knew she had. >> welcome back, sissy. welcome to the family. >> my heart right now is just full and bursting. just so much emotion.

>> reporter: it's unimaginable emotion. in an instant, melissa highsmith's life changed. she had no idea a family had spent decades searching for her. >> it is overwhelming. but at the same time, it's just the most wonderful feeling in the world. >> ed joins me. this is an amazing story. what are the authorities saying about the woman who took melissa as a child? >> reporter: well, investigators say that they -- this is in ft. worth. they will look into this. they will investigate the matters of this abduction and how it happened. but believe it or not, criminal charges are not likely. the statute of limitations ran out when melissa was 38 years old. she's 53 now. so it was about 15 years ago. and right now the family says they're going through the process of doing more official dna testing to confirm the biological connection.

right now, it is a family overwhelmed with experiencing, trying to connect and make up for a ridiculous amount of lost time. >> 50 years. i can't imagine. >> thank you. major convictions for the justice department at the first january 6th seditious conspiracy trial. we'll walk you through the mixed verdicts and what they could mean for future insurrection defendants. that's next. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com at carvana