p.m. eastern. >> reporter: you know, it really is incredible. that number has been popping up so many times over and over again, and it's really taken over. i talked to two fans yesterday, wolf, emily and erin, repping the bengals and the bills, and they started a joint fan base facebook page, hearts for hamlin and higgins. they're rally and encouraging folks to get cpr lessons and raising money for those who need it. >> we wish damar hamlin only the very best. coy, thank you very much. we'll stay in very close touch. to our viewers. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, the u.s. going after the wagner group, the private russian military force claiming another victory in ukraine tonight as the man behind that group is growing more powerful by the day. plus, george santos' double life.

new picture of the embattled republican congressman performing as a drag queen in brazil, pictures santos denies are of him. let's go outfront. good evening. i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, president biden makes a promise, a promise to ukraine to give whatever it needs. >> all the help they need. >> it comes as the u.s. today targets the private russian military force the wagner group, designating it a transnational criminal organization. the wagner group is what is leading putin's war right now. right now making the only known progress on the battlefield for putin. that means the man running russia's most powerful private army is making a name for himself. here is yevgeny progozhin,

publically declaring his men are the ones that captured a key city outside of bakhmut. >> translator: we can safely say that the settlement of one of the most important suburbs of bakhmut has been completely taken under the control of wagner pmc units, exclusively by wagner pmc units. klishchiivka has been liberated. >> wagner is not the russian defense. it's not the russian military. it's a separate group. emphasizing this word exclusively, that it was he and not they. he has been openly criticizing russia's official military lea leaders. >> translator: i have had the deepest combat experience for eight years now, in many ways vastly superior to the experience of those who have been in the service of the defense ministry for decades. >> it's incredible, right?

and what is most incredible about all of that is that vladimir putin appears to be completely fine with it. maybe that's why russian politicians are also happy to back progozhin and it's sort of progozhin versus the russian military institution. just look at this picture from a prominent russian lawmaker. you see him there. he is holding a sledgehammer. it is a wagner sledgehammer. this is a very provocative picture because wagner boasts about having the sledgehammer as their official symbol? why? because a sledgehammer was used to murder a -- look at him there brandishing. while russia's official military suffers from a lack of pretty much everything as basic as ammunition when it comes to fighting, progozhin appears to be getting more weapon. sort of their completely own supply chain. i'm going to show you this. these we understand to be images of what appear to be russian railcars traveling to north korea, picking up infantry

rockets and missiles, weapons that according to the united states then went straight to prog progozhin's and wagner fighters in ukraine. the concern tonight is that north korea might deliver even more lethal military equipment to progozhin specifically. ben wedeman is outfront live in kramatorsk. you're on the ground in bakhmut today where some of the fiercest fighting is taking place. you hear progozhin claiming victory in a suburb of bakhmut. what did you see and hear? >> reporter: well, erin, we've been going to bakhmut fairly regularly for the past 2 1/2 weeks or so, and what we're seeing is that the fighting is just getting more and more intense and that the russian noose around bakhmut is tightening. in the trenches outside bakhmut, a more tar crew is at work, hopg to repel russian forces on the

verge of encircling the city. drone footage shows the impact of their rounds on enemy positions. the refrain among these troops, "we need more." >> now is 21st century. we need not only tents. >> reporter: around bakhmut slowly and steadily, the russians are gaining ground. thursday yevgeny progozhin, head of the wagner group, claimed his troops and only his troops took the village of cla shiv ca just south of the city. in a dugout, this officer explains wagner's tactics.

"they attack at night. the first wave is less trained, but we have to use lots of ammunition against them," he says. "the next wave of troops has night vision, is better trained and better equipped." tactics seemingly from a different day and age inflicting mounting casualties on ukrainian forces. this soldier was critically wounded when his armored personnel carrier was struck by russian fire. much of bakhmut is now a ghost town. the sound of shelling, the danger constant. we're inside this tunnel inside bakhmut, taking cover because there's incoming rounds just nearby. the few civilians left resigned to their fate. "people die from strikes everywhere in kyiv and dnipro,"

says valentina. "if that's your destiny, dead will eat you anywhere." on a hill above the city, a soviet-era t-72 tank fires into the distance. its sound and fury perhaps not enough to turn the tide. and that tank, that t-72 tank is more than 50 years old. we've seen other artillery, for instance, that dates back to 1950, older than me. and this is why the ukrainians are so insistent that they need modern weapons to fight the russians. and we heard the deputy defense minister of ukraine say today that ukraine is disappointed with the german hesitance to provide them with these leopard 2 tanks, and they say they

really need these weapons, and they need them now. >> yeah, amazing how many of those ancient by any measure in modern warfare weapons, they want those cluster precision munitions. thank you so much, ben wedeman. now retired air force colonel cedric leighton and peter row who wrote an intensive article about progozhin. colonel, let me start with you. when you hear ben talking about bakhmut, where he's spent so much time, and saying russia is steadily gaining ground, you hear progozhin today claiming that he exclusively took a suburb, a village south of the city of bakhmut, how significant is the russian performance here? we understood soledar was very clear, was of marginal to no strategic importance. bakhmut is different. >> yeah, it sure is, erin. the key thing here is that

although bakhmut is not the center of great industry or the center of a military base, it is astride one of the main highways that leads into eastern ukraine. and so because of that and also because of the symbolic nature that both sides have really made of this town, the idea here for the russians is to capture it at any price. they don't really care what they're capturing. the main fact is that they're capturing something, and so bakhmut has become this kind of a symbol for both of russians and for the ukrainians. for the ukrainians, it's basically a symbol of resistance. for the russians, it's a symbol, they hope, of their victory in the future and in weeks to come. >> to have any kind of victory, and of course within russia you've got the russian military and you've got the wagner group led by yevgeny progozhin, so you've got this war going on inside russia's military operation. and, peter, we heard progozhin claiming that the wagner group

has exclusively liberated this suburb of bakhmut. those are the words he used to take full credit. i want to play more of what he said in this new video. >> translator: the armed forces of ukraine weork clearly and harmoniously. we have a lot to learn from them. the units of pmc wagner are moving forward meter by meter. >> he's claiming full credit, but in there, something significant. we have a lot to learn from them. the arms forces of ukraine work clearly and harmoniously. he's complimenting them. what is his goal here? >> i think progozhin is obviously an oligarch and kleptocrat, but he does not just have pecuniary interests, which has been long speculated, that he wants to capture these parts of ukraine because of salt mines and lucrative parts of ukraine and its vast resources. now by stepping out and in recent weeks claiming credit for

the internet research agency, which he established in russia's second city, st. petersburg, from which russian intelligence claims that the russian have been sowing discord in western societies. on top of that, he has bragged about wagner deployments in africa where, for example, in mali, they have attempted to push out the french, or in syria where they openly challenged the united states in combat. increasingly by pushing out has been coming more than just an oligarch. he is now becoming a political military figure and clearly is aiming at the power structure in moscow. and i'd say he's doing that in two respects, one through these open comments, and the second through videos that the concord group, which is his public relations outfit, has been releasing of him visiting the front lines, cutting a strong figure, leading his troops toward combat. all of that suggests a transformation and a real move towards power in moscow. >> it's significant when you talk about the business interests. this isn't just a person who has some mercenaries running around that he gets from prisons.

it's important for people to understand the context and the de depth. kef colonel when you look at progozhin's forces and putin's military itself, can ukraine win against that combined manpower? >> well, if ukraine doesn't get the help from the west that it needs and if it doesn't have a way of replenishing its manpower, then it's going to be pretty tough for ukraine to actually pull out a decisive victory. what they'll need to do is they'll need to have greater tactics, use of more innovative tactics. they've done a lot of good things so far in this war, but of course the russians are watching. and as progozhin said, he is learning from the ukrainians, and as you mentioned, that was a compliment, but it's also a warning that they're paying attention and they're going to use what the ukrainians do against them as much as they can. >> all right.

thank you very much. colonel cedric leighton, peter row, thank you so much for your time. this comes as russia continues to threaten a new invasion from ukraine's massive northern border, which is with belarus. russia and belarus today conducted joint military drills, and it comes as belarus' government is holding putinesque sham trials against political enemies, even putting an empty cage out at this trial, a cage that was supposed to hold belarus' exiled opposition leader, svetlana tikhanovskaya. she is being tried in absentia on charges of conspiracy to seize power. she wasn't given a copy of the charges, and i spoke to her earlier. i began our conversation about asking her about the trial against her. >> of course this trial will not change anything for me personally and for other pro-democratic movement. we understand that political motivated trials have nothing to

do with justice in belarus. of course all these charges you mentioned are ridiculous, you know, in contrast to lukashenko, who did everything according to law and in peaceful way. and it's lukashenko who unleashed terror. earlier according to all those charges, it's about 11 of them according to the so-called judge i might be sentenced to 20 years in jail. but we should understand that this trial is also one of regime's, and it must be documented. and i need material of these accusations to protect myself in international courts after this. >> absolutely. and you mentioned that the sentence that they could give you in absentia, of course, is 12 to 20 years. and i know that, you know, your

husband, also a political prisoner in belarus, he is currently serving an 18-year sentence. it started in december of 2021. high security penal colony, i understand, svetlana. he openly ran against and criticized the current president, alexander lukashenko. so belarus recently brought new criminal charges against your husband, and i know you and i have talked here as you have taken the world stage to fight for democracy in belarus. you have two children you are raising, and you've talked about how they still wait for their father, their daddy. do they still have that hope that they'll see him again? >> well, of course. look, i don't even, you know, have doubt that our family will rejoin. we will live in belarus, and my children will meet their old friends in my country. so of course it might take time,

but we are not losing hope. we are sure this will happen. of course they can build scenarios how it can change, but i'm sure that with the inspiration of the belarusian people, with the energy, you know, with support of our pro-democratic allies, we'll be able to get rid of this regime in our country. >> according to the russian investigative journalist andre soldotov, he's a regular guest on this show with his reporting, and he was talking about dmitry medvedev, the former president of russia, the current deputy head of the russian security council. he was pointing out that medvedev recently wrote this, and i quote him. in times of war, there have always been such special rules, and silent groups of perfectly inconspicuous people who effectively execute them. he told me this is an open call

for the use of asassassins to dl with russians overseas. how worried are you about your safety right now and the safety of others who speak out? >> look, i think that everybody who is opposing the regimes in dangerous situation because regimes are usually cruel towards those who are opposing them. you know, the world have to know about countries where regime is ruling and have to try at least to protect people who are under danger. >> thank you very much. svetlana tikhanovskaya, i appreciate your time. >> thank you. next, trump agreeing with biden today. they both say leave social security and medicare alone in the debt ceiling fight. republicans like to listen to trump on a lot of things like maybe the election, but will they listen to him on this? plus new pictures of republican george santos appearing in drag while in brazil according to another performer.

how does that square with santos' staunchly conservative views of the lgbtq community? and alec baldwin still planning to finish making the movie "rust" despite facing manslaughter charges in the fatal shooting on his set.

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ceiling, a debt ceiling that the united states reached yesterday. and trump spoke out with a clear warning today. >> under no circumstances should republicans vote to cut a single penny from medicare or social security. save social security. don't destroy it. >> and the white house saying -- and i quote -- house republicans should think very hard before they spend months telling the american people that they want to reverse the best unemployment rate in 50 years in order to slash medicare and social security. all of this is referring to republicans insisting on spending cuts and efforts to link social security and medicare reforms to raising the debt ceiling. outfront now, mick mulvaney, the former omb director for president trump, who also was in congress in 2011 when the debt ceiling debate led to the country's top-notch credit rating being downgraded and we've never gotten it back. and karen finney, former communications director. mick, let me start with you.

should republicans in this case listen to trump on this and stay away from social security and medicare? >> erin, it's great to be here and have that introduction. we actually had our debt lowered because we didn't have a way to pay off the debt, but that argument is ten years old now. let's talk about what's happening now. look, social security and medicare are a lot of different things. what i think trump was saying is the same thing he said to me when i was in his budget office, which is don't touch old age retirement and don't touch mainline medicare. but social security and medicare are a lot more than that. social security has disability components. medicare pays for a lot of doctors' trainings and education for folks in the health care area that they didn't think that's what their medicare -- >> so you agree with the gop who want to link them? are you going that far as long as it doesn't -- >> i think you can solve it. you can do both things that trump just said. what he said was don't cut it, save it. back in the 1980s, the last time

we saved social security, we made changes that didn't kick in on people until 30 years later. you can fix social security without cutting benefits to anybody who is getting it today or anyone who is anywhere near retirement. it's difficult to have those discussions because it's so easy to demagogue this issue. i know the democrats are doing to the republicans and to a certain extent, trump did it to them today as well. >> karen, this comes as the republicans are saying they want these -- they're calling them reforms. the white house is saying they are not going to negotiate at all. president biden does plan to meet with the house speaker mccarthy and other congressional leaders, but he says raising the debt ceiling is not negotiable, absolutely not negotiable. but it's interesting because that doesn't go always with the narrative he's given. here he is when he was a candidate. i did a 2019 town hall with him. here's what he said. >> we got a lot done by pure compromise. remember, every time we got in trouble and couldn't get something passed in the house or

the senate, who got sent up to the hill? i even convinced the republicans to increase taxes on the wealthy for the first time ever by $600 billion on new year's eve day when we were about to go under in terms of reneging on the national debt. this is something i've done. i can do it again. >> so his whole point was i negotiate, and on this absolutely non-negotiable. is he wrong to rule out a negotiation now? >> no. he's 100% right. two things. number one, he was referring to the last time that republicans put us -- you know, played brinksmanship, and we know there was a lot of fiscal pain, economic pain in the aftermath of 2011 and 2013. number two, he learned the lesson that apparently mccarthy has not. if you give this maga extremist wing of the republican party an inch, they will take 15 rounds to make a decision. so i think -- and actually i talked to a friend with folks on

wall street today. they actually prefer that the president is taking a strong stance, trying to head off sort of what we've seen in the past with this brinksmanship. >> and, mick, to this point, when you of course were in the white house, you were the omb director for president trump in 2019. debt ceiling comes around. you all wanted to raise it. here's what he said then about the debt ceiling. >> i can't imagine anybody ever even thinking of using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge. that's a very, very sacred thing in our country, that ceiling. we can never play with it. >> mick, you notice he said i can't imagine anybody thinking of using it as a negotiating wager. a few weeks later you announced you all agreed that a debt ceiling hike should not be tied to any other policy proposals. you wanted a clean debt ceiling raise. yet this time i saw you tweeted you support the house republicans who are insisting on spending cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling deal. what's changed? why are you okay with it this time? >> well, i do.

i think if you've got a situation like you have now, where the republicans are in charge of the house and the democrats are in charge of the senate and the white house, doesn't it just make sense that there would be some sort of compromise? yes, if all three -- if one party is in charge of all branches of government like the democrats have been for the last couple of years or were under barack obama, or we were during the early days of trump, it's not surprising that they don't reach out to the other party. under these circumstances with a divided government, i don't understand why there isn't more discussion. and to the maga wing of the party -- >> so your issue was -- you're saying the issue you have now is -- i'm sorry. i just want to make sure i understand what you're saying. you're saying that this is about politics. when there's divided, you're fine with the negotiation, but not when it's all one party. so it's not actually about the debt ceiling being sacred and debt being sacred. >> that's how washington works, erin. that's how it worked for the last two years, and no one seemed to complain about it. that's just how washington has always worked. you've got a situation where you can do something like barack

obama did back in 2011, and i think it was '13 as well where he gave a little bit. the democrats got a lot, and we increased the debt ceiling. why doesn't that model work here? why isn't it just as unreasonable to say you're not going to do anything like the democrats are saying as the republicans have said they want everything? keep in mind it's not the maga wing of the party. don bacon is a member of the problem solvers caucus. brian fitzpatrick is a scentris. to blame it on the extreme right i think is distracting from what's actually happening. washington wants to get a compromise, and i think they will ultimately on this. >> karen. >> two things. number one, that is not what the american people told us in the election. i think we need to remember we are just coming out of a global pandemic that wrecked the global economy. we're just starting to see gas prices go down. we're just starting to see inflation go down. so the economic anxiety that people have is very real, and the idea that republicans in

congress -- this tends to happen every time there's a democratic president. republicans find religion on the debt ceiling. and yet the first bill that they passed, let's call it out, by taking back the funds for the irs. that is going to add $114 trillion -- sorry -- i think billion dollars to the national deficit. for them to say this is a principled conversation about debt is just ludicrous. this is about politics and having a democratic president. it is not about principle. >> we should note, of course, when it comes to piling debt on, talk about being bipartisan. there's nothing more bipartisan than borrowing money to spend it in washington. thank you both very much. i appreciate your time. next, the secret life of george santos. someone claiming to know santos during his time in brazil providing cnn with these images of santos in drag. what santos responds. plus, did the idaho murder suspect reach out to one of his victims before the horrific murders? new reporting tonight about a series of messages that

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tonight new details about republican george santos' double life. santos, who has lied about everything from his education to his ancestry and so much more now denying reports that he once performed as a drag queen in brazil. cnn has not independently confirmed the images which were shared by a brazil drag performer who identifies santos as the other person in the photo. this is from a parade in 2008. now, santos is openly gay. he has voiced support for staunchly conservative policies, though, when it comes to the

lgbt community. the new details adding to the ever growing controversy surrounding santos. omar jimenez is outfront. >> do you have any comment from the ethics committee? >> reporter: here among the members of congress, he's known as george santos. but in brazil, a local performer claims santos was qatara ra giv vash. he says the media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while i'm working to deliver results. i will not be distracted nor fazed by this. it appears to be just one of the names santos has used over the years. >> i'm always known him as anthony devolder. >> reporter: and that's his former roommate. >> i don't understand. did he go, like, one by one to everybody in his district and just literally pull the wool over their eyes? like how -- >> reporter: but it's not just the name or alleged activities in his free time. it's the stories he tells, which

appear to be justice that, including one about 9/11. >> i get emotional. my parents were both down there the day of the attacks, and fortunately none of them passed. >> my mom was a 9/11 survivor. she was in the south tower, and she made it out. >> reporter: his mom was actually in brazil at the time according to immigration records and on a 2003 form, she said she hadn't been to the u.s. since 1999. santos also claimed his grandparents survived the holocaust and fled europe to escape jewish persecution. that's false, genealogy records show. during his campaign, he claimed he worked at citigroup and goldman sachs, later admitting that wasn't true. while running for congress on long island, he claimed he graduated from baruch college and nyu. he now admits he didn't. despite all of these lies, george santos is now a freshman congressman. he's been named to two low-level committees by the slim gop majority, and there are no immediate signs republican

leadership will stop him from walking the halls. >> he hasn't committed a crime. he hasn't been indicted on anything at this point, and in this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. >> reporter: leaving those he's deceived to sit and watch, like two military veterans who say santos promised to raise funds for lifesaving surgery for one of their dogs in 2016, but that instead he took off with the money. the dog later died. >> that dog saved my life at least two times, when i first got out of the service, i was depr depr depressed. i was having nightmares. bad, bad memories about some things that happened. not war-related but other things that the military does to you. >> reporter: santos denies this ever happened and told cnn in a statement in part, anyone that knows me knows i'd go to hell and back for a dog, and especially a veteran. and the veteran's response to santos was he said he'd go to hell and back? well, then, quote, go to hell, george. as you can imagine there are a lot of investigations swirling

around santos. a complaint has been filed against him with the federal election commission. federal prosecutors are looking into his finances. law enforcement in brazil say they intend to reinstate charges connected to a stolen checkbook back in '08. he has called them distractions, but we've got a lot of distractions here, erin. >> thank you very much, omar. harry enten is were me now. harry, look, scandal and some of this, whether it's just pathological lying, some of it is criminal if it happened, pure out criminal. house speaker kevin mccarthy, though, still refuses to call on santos to resign. he gave him two committee assignments. why? >> well, he has a slim majority, and if george santos resigns, then that will trigger a special election, and we know from the past presidential vote in new york's 3rd congressional district that joe biden won there. he won there rather easily, won there you can see on your screen right now by eight points over donald trump back in 2020. and the fact is, is that the district also voted for hillary

clinton as well. so he's afraid of losing a seat and thereby having his slim majority become even slimmer. this is all about politics. >> all about politics. now, when you look at that, you say, wait, how did george santos even win that district? >> yeah. >> because you would say if there's a special election, democrats are going to win it. not so fast? >> not so fast. so if you look at the 2022 elections that took place in the 3rd congressional district, obviously santos won. but guess who also won? lee zeldin, the gubernatorial republican. >> 12 points. >> won by 12 points. in the u.s. senate rate, joe pinion, a four-point win over chuck schumer. george santos was in line with the average republican in that seat. the fact is when you look at the 2020 presidential election, that might give you one look. but you look at the 2022 elections, i think republicans could in fact win a special election in that seat. >> it's amazing. what you see is that real shift from democrats to republicans that we saw nationally. but in that district -- >> especially, yeah. >> before i let you go, the outfront outlier of the night.

>> okay. i can't help but look forward to the 2024 presidential race. if you look at how many candidates are getting regularly polled right now, it's about ten, right? and so the outliers, in fact, the 2024 race, because we're looking right there. there are ten candidates who are regularly polled. joe biden and nine republicans. but look at how many candidates have run in the past few cycles. look at this. you will see that 27 in 2020. 22 in 2016. 13 in 2012. 22 in 2008. this could be the smallest, in fact, field of candidates running for president, at least when i could vote. >> that would be incredible. you don't think of it that way. but as you say, i remember. does everyone remember when we had to do back-to-back nights of debates and there were so many people, we couldn't jam them all on a stage. i remember that. thank you very much, harry. >> thank you. next, the idaho murder suspect reportedly visiting the restaurant where two of the victims worked just weeks before the killings. what a former employee remembers about the murder suspect. and alec baldwin vowing to

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tonight the suspect in the murders of four idaho college students, bryan kohberger, we are finding out reportedly visited a restaurant where two of the victims worked. and he did this just weeks

before they were killed. madison mogen and xana kernodle were both servers at the mad greek restaurant near the university of idaho. a new report from people says a former employee saw kohberger order food there at least twice. it comes amid growing questions about any ties between the suspect and the four students he is accused of so horrifically and brutally murdering. outfront, people's senior crime writer. steve, i appreciate you taking the time to explain what you have learned from your reporting. i know you spoke to this former employee who worked with madison and xana at the restaurant. how did they remember bryan kohberger, and what did they know about him? >> the interesting thing about bryan kohberger is he's the type of guy who doesn't normally make an impact. but the reason why they remembered him was because he had such specific dietary requirements that he had, and he wanted to make sure --

>> all right. we're trying to get his audio back, everybody. sometimes i'm not sure if it's me or everybody. so we're just watching the courtroom here with his appearance while we try to get his audio back up here for steve with kohberger appearing in court. steve is also going to talk about some of his reporting here about an instagram account. we haven't been able to confirm this, but steve and "people" have reported there was an instagram account that authorities believed belong to kohberger that sent a series of messages to one of the victims and did that just weeks before the attack. in steve's article, he has an investigative source that told him that basically it was just him saying, hey, how are you? but he did it again and again, kept dropping in to her direct messages, as steve reports it, and saying that, and then not -- she never responded. we're going to keep working on getting that back. as we do that, i'm going to go to another story. we'll try to come back to give you these details.

i also want to update you on the legal story of cnn and alec baldwin. we're learning he is still planning to finish making the movie "rust." it comes despite him facing charges for the fatal shooting of cinematographer halyna hutchins on the set of that film. baldwin claims he wasn't aware the gun had a live round. he vows to fight these charges. let's go to nick watt outfront. >> reporter: this morning, hilaria baldwin appeared to create a diversion. >> guys, you're hurting me. >> reporter: while husband alec slipped out of their manhattan apartment. this afternoon, the press pack caught him coming home. he is not talking. baldwin's lawyers say he was blindsided by the criminal charges. baldwin himself told cnn just a few months ago -- >> they're not going to charge anybody in my mind. criminal charges are things you avoid unless you know you can make a case. >> reporter: baldwin was a producer on "rust" and an actor. he was pointing the gun, not knowing it was loaded, towards

cinematographer halyna hutchins, when it went off, killing her. >> he's being charged as both. he was the actor that pulled the trigger. >> reporter: baldwin denies he pulled the trigger, and an actor charged for an accident on-set is raising some eyebrows. >> actors cannot be expected and are not expected to do final safety checks. >> my job is not to concentrate on whether the gun is safe. we have people there for that. >> reporter: like the armorer, hannah gutierrez-reed, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter along with baldwin. baldwin says the first assistant director, dave halls, actually handed him the weapon, told him it was safe. >> we stand very firm that he did not hand the gun to alec baldwin. >> reporter: halls has signed a plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. still unanswered, how did live ammunition even get onto this set? >> we have an idea. >> reporter: so can she share that idea?

>> i can't. and the reason i can't is we have given that information to the district attorney, and they need to do their own follow-up. >> reporter: accidents like this are very, very rare. brandon lee, son of bruce, was killed on a film set nearly 30 years ago, hit by a bullet fragment fired from a prop gun that should have been empty. criminal charges were never filed. this actor was holding the gun. >> i mean what happened to brandon was a tragic accident, and it's something that i'm -- that i'm going to live with. >> reporter: however, this criminal case against alec baldwin plays out, he will live with what happened to halyna. >> the toughest park is we can never bring her back, ever. i'd give anything to undo that, and we can't. >> reporter: now, a civil settlement was reached with

halyna hutchins' family a couple of months ago, and part of that deal was her husband, matthew, will act as an executive producer on "rust" when and if it really does start shooting again. now, back at that time, matthew hutchins said that he had, quote, no interest in recrimination or attribution of blame, that his wife's death was a tragic accident. but after the announcement of these charges, the family now says that they think the charges are warranted. back to you. >> thank you very much, nick. and next, we're going to go back to people's senior crime reporter. he's got new details on the idaho murder suspect's visit to the restaurant where some of the victims worked. and we're going to take you inside the secret bunker where one of the most notorious mob bosses was hiding during 30 years on the run. wait until you see what was hanging on the walls.

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>> all right, now tonight the story that i started telling you about earlier before the technical issue. the suspect in the murders of the four i'd i'd college students reportedly visited a restaurant where two of them worked just before the killing. steve, you were just telling us about a former

employee of the restaurant that you spoke to about why that person remembered brian kohberger. why is that? >> because he had certain dietary requirements, he was a strict vegan and wanted to be sure none of his food touched animal products. this is a place that have vegan options far beyond a vegetable pizza, far beyond vegan food. he was always ordering those. >> anchor: that bazaar op session stood out. you reported there was an instagram account that authorities believe belonged to kobe. you believe it september a series of messages to one of the victims saying, "hey, how are you?". and kept doing it, what more have you learned about that? >> none of those messages were strange or aggressive or threatening or anything like that. but, yeah, he was trying

to make some sort of contact with this person. and you know, he was sending notes saying, "hey, how are you?". but, police believe those actually went into another folder because she wouldn't falling him back. so, she may not have ever seen them. >> anchor: but, it shows that he had a fixation or a notice. now, to that point, do you know from the employee that you talked to at the pizza restaurant, was he ever there when they, when the two of the young women worked there, when they were working? >> he was there during a lot of the busy shifts they would have been working. so, yeah, the feeling is that he would have seen them. wether or not they waited on him or not, this is a collaborative place, so, it could have been a situation where, you know, he had a different server, but they came and refilled his drink or whatever. but, yeah, you know, if he was there, he would have been able to notice them. and, you know, it looks like he was

there a couple of times. >> anchor: yeah, and memorable, which says something in and of itself with someone who was generally so unnoticeable. thank you so much for sharing your reporting. next, it's life imitating art, you'll see what was hanging out in the hideout of one of the world's most wanted mafifia bosses. immune health.

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finally, new images from inside the hideout, the brutal mob because, matteo messina denaro called home during his 30 years in italy. on the wall a poster of the the god father, the head of the mafia family from cicely. matteo messina denaro now being held in a maximum security prisonen in central italy. thanks for joining us, anderson starts now. good evening, tonight a critical moment in the war in ukraine, and a crucial one for the country supporting it with russia potentially a couple months away defense group led by

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