dare to see the difference with pantene anti-breakage. reduces hair fall up to 97%. get less hair fall. ♪ i took the dare. will you? anti-breakage. pantene. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," a final plea to the jury. >> george zimmerman is not guilty. if you have just a reasonable doubt that he acted in self-defense. >> the defense ends its closing argument in the george zimmerman trial and the state gives its final pitch. >> the defendant didn't shoot trayvon martin because he had to. he shot him because he wanted to. also today -- verdict watch. the six women jury will decide george zimmerman's legal fate. it is about to begin.

in addition, out from hiding. new images of the fugitive edward snowden with limited travel options. snowden is asking for temporary asylum in russia. happy birthday ma la la, turning 16 today. the young pakistani education activist shot by the taliban speaks out with inspiration at the united nations. >> malala day is not my day. today it the day of every woman, every boy, and every gun who have raised their voice for their rights. >> those inspiring words just a short time ago in new york at the united nations. good day to you, i'm peter alexander in today for andrea mitchelling a the trial of george zimmerman nears its end. the next phase of this often wrenching process begins as the jury begins its deliberations. we will hear from the judge. we expect perhaps before the end

of this hour with instructions for the jury. we want to bring in our msnbc legal analyst, lisa bloom and nbc's craig melvin live in sanford. 23 days of trial, 12 days of testimony, 56 witnesses. now finally we await a verdict. it could come, frankly, not long from now after the jury is read the instructions from the judge. lisa, i want to begin with you and just go back to what we heard over the course of the last hour. the final argument made by the prosecution. what was most effective and where did they miss? >> well, certainly going through all of the many lies that they say george zimmerman told. that's been the theme of the prosecution case. the web of lies. going through each one, he didn't see the street sign, he didn't know the address, he was lying about whether he was being followed or not, that he was not a responsible gun owner, the clear misstep he made on the hannity tv program where he said the killing was god's plan. but this prosecution has pursued a very risky strategy during closing arguments, and that is

essentially leaving it to the jury to connect the dots. you know, george zimmerman may be a liar, he may have made too many assumptions of george zimmerman. he's not on trial for that. he's on trial for murder or manslaughter. prosecution is leaving it to the jury to connect that all up to the elements of the crime. defense of course had a very cool dispassionate closing argument, all about reasonable doubt, as one would expect in this case. >> craig, i want to get a sense from you. we heard from the prosecutor, prosecutor guy, as he touched his own heart and said this is about what is in the hearts of these two men. in some ways this was very much a close focused on emotion before it was about facts, really trying to tug at those six individuals, many of them moms that will decide this case. >> yeah. john guy went for about 47 minutes. pete, i think you hit the nail on the head there, quite the contrast in styles between john guy this afternoon and what we saw from mark o'mara this morning who went for 2:55

minutes. quickly on the timeline, judge nelson indicated she will bring the jury back at 2:00. at that time she will begin to read this. this is that 27-page -- 27 pages of instructions that she will go through. and at that point the jury will then head into the room and begin the process of deliberation. what is not clear at this point, we should say this for our viewers. we've ask the court public information officer this question and have yet to get a firm answer back. it is not clear whether the jury will deliberate through the weekend just yet. the judge, we understand, is going to give them that option. we expect that they will exercise that option since up until the lunch break just a few moments ago, every time judge nelson has asked, do you guys want to keep going or stop for a bathroom break or lunch break, they've always said that they'd like to continue, again with the exception of just a few moments ago. i guess when you stare at the

prospect of having 27 pages read to you, you might want to have a full stomach, at the least. we've been keeping a very close eye on that courtroom, precisely how george zimmerman is behaving, how he's reacting to. and also, more importantly, how the jurors are responding and reacting to the testimony. george zimmerman we can tell you, while john guy was going through his closing there, did not look at him at any point, we're told. also in terms of jurors, juror e6 is someone who is really starting to stand out to us because juror e6 takes copious notes, has done so throughout the trial. it was noted on the very first day. juror e6 also doing that today as well. this was the same juror who asked a lot of questions during the jury selection process. she'd never served on a jury before and acknowledged at one point during the selection process she was actually arrested once in 1999 and told the court that she was treated

fairly and "i deserved it." >> i want to bring, lisa, bring you in very quickly. we'll hear those 27 pages of instructions only a short time from now, less than an hour from now. but in terms of the time frame, in terms of how long the deliberation process can take, obviously this is variable. give us a sense about whether a shorter deliberation sways one way or a longer one might sway the other way. what should we be paying attention to? >> first, this is a six-person jury. that's unusual for most people hearing that. most juries in america are 12 people but in florida it is six, except in death penalty cases. i would expect that would speed up deliberations a little bit because have you half of the usual number of people that you need to hear from. also this is a sequestered jury. they've been away from their families for several weeks. i would assume that they want to get to a verdict and move this along. having said all of that, a quick deliberation, a quick decision generally favors the defense but that's not always the case. >> lisa bloom, and craig melvin

helping us out, we'll visit with you again throughout the course of this day. other headlines to get to -- after 4 1/2 years at the department of homeland security, today secretary department of homeland security secretary janet napolitano announced her resignation. she had originally announced her intention to step down this fall to accept an offer to run the university of california's system of colleges. joining me now, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, appreciate your visiting with us right now. janet napolitano, the second senior security official to leave the obama administration on the heels of fbi director robert mueller. did this come as a surprise to most people, would you say? >> yes, i think so. we had thought perhaps that if eric holder were to leave at the justice department earlier that janet napolitano would have wanted to go to the justice department. she's a former federal prosecutor, u.s. attorney and she has that legal background and she's actually made no mystery of the fact that she was

interested in that but holder seems like he is going to stay in the job perhaps another year or so. at least a longer time than shy had perhaps thought. she's been looking around. it is a tough job to do the job of homeland security. are you reading all that intelligence every day and this was an offer that came to her and she just felt all the timing was right and decided to take up the position. so she'll leave some time in the fall. >> she was of course one of the president's favorite cabinet secretaries. there are now only six members of the president's cabinet that have been there for perpetuity, for the course of his time as president. among them eric holder, sebelius, arne duncan another one of the names. who will, without getting too much into the politics of this, the choice for the next secretary of homeland security is going to be so critical given the debate taking place right now here in washington over immigration. is there any sense of who the potential new secretaries could be? >> no, not really.

some names have already started to float around but whoever it is would have their confirmation hearing right in the middle of the debate over the immigration bill. so that's a complicated factor. the second thing is, these are very difficult jobs. and whoever gets this position is sort of in a thankless position of serving it for a short time, can't really make a lot of substantive changes but would get blamed for whatever goes wrong. but the names that some administration officials have already mentioned are former congresswoman jane harman, police commissioner ray kelly who seems to -- his name seems to come up whenever there is an opening anywhere in washington. and also possibly former senator joe lieberman who was among the senators who helped create the department of homeland security. so they would all be qualified people. there is a great deal of interest we are told in the administration to find somebody who has strong counterterrorism credentials. any of those three would. i'm sure there are other names that are being thought of that we don't even know yet. >> it is going to be right in the heart of what's already a

difficult dilemma which this country is grappling over what to do about immigration and now they have to find a new important which in many ways is the one most overseeing the enforcement there, which is border security. pete williams, thank you. nbc's casey hunt joins me now on governor bob mcdonald's recent allegations. give me a sense. mcdonald was a star of the gop. he was nearly selected traveling with the romney campaign as governor romney's vice presidential candidate but things have changed rapidly in the course of the last several months. take us up to speed, bring us up to speed on these allegations of corruption that he faces right now. >> >> reporter: absolutely. as you remember, this is pretty remarkable for somebody who really saw his own star rising potentially so far, even all the way to the white house. what happened here is, mcdonnell has been involved with a company called star scientific and one of their top officials. it's been discloseded sort of

drip, drip, drip over the past few months that he and his wife maureen have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in money from this company and it's gotten to the point where mcdonnell's staff are really trying to figure out exactly how he should approach it. there have been calls for him to come out and explain. one democratic state senator has called on him to resign. of course, it's bleeding over into what's going to be the marquee race this year, which is between democrat terry mccull luf. there were some smaller gifts that came from this same official that he inadvertently failed to report. >> how public has the governor been about this? he spoke recently to one of the local television channels but have we really heard from governor mcdonnell on this and what's his team say? >> reporter: you know, i have spoken with his team quite a bit

over the past year and in recent days about this particular issue. there's still a lot of caution on their part about exactly how to approach this and what to say. some of this is, his team was surprised by a lot of what happened. there was an e-mail exchange between his aides about a luncheon that was held at the governor's mansion that they didn't really find out about until it was about to happen. so they're still trying to figure out exactly what to do. mcdonnell has been out in public a little bit and republican national committee chairman r s reince priebus. >> casey hunt helping us out from the capitol today. we'll be hearing a lot more about governor bob mcdonnell and his uncertain future. now to politic in the lone star state where the legislature there is only hours away from passing the abortion bill that would restrict access to

abortions and other women's health services. state senator wendy davis who successfully stalled the bill with that epic 13-hour filibuster during the first attempt at message might not have that same power this time around. democrats say they do not have the votes to stop it. davis spoke to andrea mitchell earlier this week about where reproductive rights stand in texas after the vote. >> it is an inhumane thing to do, to force women into a situation where they literally have no control over their own bodies, over their destinies. it's big government at its worst. hea peach country. it's a fresh-over. we want you to eat some peaches and tell us what you think. they're really juicy. it must have just come from the farm. this right here is ideal for me. walmart works directly with growers to get you the best quality produce they've ever had. what would you do if i told you all this produce is from walmart? wow! is it really? (laughter) find fresh peaches and all your quality produce.

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you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." i'm peter alexander in today for andrea. it's been nearly three weeks

since edward snowden arrived in moscow from among kong and he hasn't been song in public since. but in a meeting today with human rights groups, snowden says le renew his request for amnesty in russia. snowed been drew his application after vladimir putin had said that he would have to stop leaking u.s. secrets in order to obtain refugee status in russia. joining me now, nbc news chief investigative correspondent michael isikoff and in moscow, nbc's jim maceda. jim, i want to get to you quickly because i know you are sort of with where all of this action is taking place right now. the pictures we saw of the crush of cameras was like nothing i've ever seen. it was almost like a super bowl quarterback was surrounded by probably 100 to 150 cameras and journalists trying to get their first look at edward snowden. describe the scene, give us a sense of what we are hearing from snowden today. >> reporter: well, you're right, this is the scene. this was like a press scrum.

it was like rock star bedlam. it actually was bedlam. the slightest suggestion of somebody coming out of that room where it said staff only, quite far beyond which was the actual meeting between the human rights officials and lawyers and snowden, just somebody coming out saying, okay, get ready or please push back or you're making too much noise -- it was more bedlam at that point. so much riding on this meeting. we have not seen -- the world really hasn't seen snowden since hong kong. we're going back three weeks. and somebody did, by the way, manage to squeeze off a picture or two so we know at least now he does officially exist. he was defiant, pete. he was nervous, apparently. but certainly if people thought he was going to come out and turn himself in, they have

something coming to them because he didn't do that. he came out and thanked the latin american countries, venezuela, bolivia, nicaragua, ecuador as well he mentioned, and russia which was the big surprise, for having offered him the asylum that he had requested. he said he accepted that asyl asylum -- past, future and present asylum. he takes it all. he wants it all. he needs it. and he really appealed to the latin american countries and to the lawyers who were in this meeting to help facilitate him getting to latin america. the idea of staying in russia -- story. >> stay with me for a second. i want to finish that thought with you but i want to bring in michael isikoff who's with us right now. i guess the question is if snoweden is willing to pursue asylum now in russia given the requirement according to voold me vladimir putin that he has to

stop spilling american secrets, does that mean he's done spilling american secrets? >> i wouldn't be quite so sure. because if you read the statement that was just issued within the last hour, he's asking for asylum in russia really on a temporary basis, until he can make his way to either venezuela, bolivia or nicarag nicaragua, the others that have offered him asylum. venezuela offer seems to be solid now. he says i've been formally offered it. i formally accepted it. so the real trek for snowden is, can he find a way to get from moscow to caracas, or bolivia if he chooses that, because the problem is he's got to take an airplane. that requires flying over u.s. airspace. as we saw with the bolivian president, the u.s. is prepared to deny airspace, get our european partners to deny airspace, to any plane carrying him. so this becomes a tricky thing for snowden, but it also becomes

an issue for human rights groups who are very clear on political asylum, the rights to seek political asylum, if you've been offered it. i speak to human rights watch just within the last hour. they say, look, we support the right of anybody going to seek political eye siasylum. >> edward snoweden is on the middle of the screen. the woman to his right, to our left, is a woman named sara harrison. she works with wikileaks. i know her having covered the julian assange case for months overseas in both sweden and in london. what next for edward snowden right now? what should we anticipate will happen going forward? basically he is going to try to get asylum in russia and continue to work sources to get elsewhere? >> to figure out a way to get to where his ultimate goal seems to be. >> how big is the pressure from the u.s. to those countries in south america to prevent that from happening? >> from all indications, extremely significant. we know vice president biden has

called the president of ecuador. every u.s. embassy in latin america is threatening them not to accept him. we probably don't have as much leverage with the latin countries, we probably have more with putin and russia, as odd as that might sound. putin's statement wassing with we, well, we'll consider it if you stop leaking while you're here. we'll see if snowden accepts those ground rules. >> it is a remarkable story. journalists in havana were waiting for the flight to land, anticipating snowden was coming there. doesn't look like that's going to happen, at least immediately. stay with us here on "andrea mitchell reports." we'll hear more powerful words from that pakistani activist and taliban attack survivor. that's next here. she was at the u.n. today on her 16th birthday. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports."

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as malala comes to the stage to speak to you, let me repeat the words, the words the taliban never wanted her to hear. happy 16th birthday, malala. >> a striking moment there at the united nations. really a unique birthday celebration for the 16-year-old. the pakistani schoolgirl whose courageous fight for girls' education led to a near-fatal attack by the taliban. delivered a powerful message to world leaders at the united nations today, take a listen. >> on the 9th of october, 2012, the taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. they shot my friends, too. they thought that the bullet would silence us, but they

failed. and out of that silence came thousands of voices. terrorists thought that they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life -- except this. weakness, fear and hopelessness died. strength, fervor was courage was born. >> remarkable moment earlier today at the united nations. other news making headlines, three palestinians were arrested this morning in egypt after an attack killed a police officer and injured a soldier. attacks like this today in the sinai peninsula have increased since president mohamed morsi was ousted. in cairo, huge crowds of must brotherhood supporters are demanding morsi be reinstated.

nbc's amman moyman muhyeldin jo from cairo. it was supposed to be a million-man march, a pro-morsi march with about 1 million people expected there. >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon, peter. it is sunset right now and it is important to keep in mind we are in the plomonths of ramadan. a lot of protesters were fasting today and not coming out until about now. we expect crowds to get much larger, though we now thousands already showed up throughout the course of the day, braving the heat, braving the security considerations, that's where they are now. we expect in the coming hours there is going to be a march from that square where they have been sitting in for the past several days on to one of the presidential palaces. why that's so important is because opponents of president morsi are also organizing a similar march on to the very same palace. that's given a great sense of security concern for officials here. heightened security, as we mentioned, military's deployed in large numbers, police is out in large numbers.

what they are really worried about is when these two crowds get within the vicinity of each other, emotions run so high that it could lead to the kind of violence and bloodshed we've seen in cairo and elsewhere in the past week or so. that's what we'll be watching in the coming hours. but now as you mentioned, protesters are demanding president morsi be released from military custody and reinstated as the president of this country. >> reports of the new government ryan stated next week intensified today. what's the very latest on the potential for a new democratic government to be either reinstated or ultimately re-elected there? >> well, the democratic process, as we understand it, won't be unfolding for at least seven months at best, eight months before we have a constitution that's amended, a new election for parliament, and then a new election for president. what we have now is an interim caretaker government that was effectively appointed by the military. you had an interim president who then shows a prime minister. he's trying to put together a caretaker cabinet made up of technocrats or at least representing all the political

forces in the country. but right now it is difficult to get the islamists, including the must brotherhood, back into the government, back to the table because they feel why would they come back to join a process they think is legitimate and in some way legitimizes what they're describing as a coup. but we do expect a formation of a caretaker cabinet at some point in the middle to end of next week. >> ayman muhyeldin in cairo, egypt for us today, thank you. there is breaking news to share with you. this is coming to us from paris where a commuter train crash has left eight dead. it is also left many people there injured. mandy clark is in london now with the details as we continue to learn more about this. mandy, from my understanding, this was an intercity train. this accident took place just outside of paris, only a matter of hours ago. can you give us a better understanding of what we are learning? >> yes, it did just happen a couple hours so. details are still coming in. what we know is the crash happened at a southern paris platform. train was carrying around 350

passengers when it derailed. it's really unclear how many casualties there are. but according to local news reports, there's around eight people killed. many of the wounded are actually still stuck on the train and some passengers were electrocuted and crushed and there's even reports that eyewitnesses saw people being cut in two. one eyewitness said he saw the train arrive at the station at high speed. it split in two for some unknown reason. part of the train continued to roll forward and the other was left at the platform. now emergency services have issued a red alert and that is only issued when they expect a high number of casualties. >> once again, mandy, thanks so much for that. again we are learning about this train crash that's taken place just south of paris. it happened at about 5:15 p.m. local time.

5:15 in the evening on the end of a friday afternoon. can you imagine the number of people. we're told 350 on board, we're told eight of them dead. that train ultimately splitting in half. we will keep you up to date. we have crews heading to the scene to gain more on what's been a deadly scene just outside of paris. we'll be right back. hey linda! what are you guys doing? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber! to help support regularity! i want some... [ woman ] hop on over! [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips'.

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these [ bleep ], they always get away. >> knock-knock. who's there? george zimmerman. george zimmerman, who? all right, good. you're on the jury. nothin? that's funny. >> my youngest son is trayvon benjamin martin. he's in heaven. >> were you aware the defendant described to his best friend that when he slid down, the defendant slid down, that trayvon martin was up around his armpits? were you aware of that? is. >> no, i've not heard that, no, sir. >> where would the gun be now? >> now the gun would be behind your left leg. >> okay. >> could it happen this way? >> yes. >> he's yelling help. i don't know. >> my son, george. >> trayvon benjamin martin. >> a teenager is dead. he is dead through no fault of

his own. he is dead because another man-made assumptions. that man assumed certain things. he's dead not just because the man-made those assumptions. because he acted upon those assumptions. and unfortunately, unfortunately, because his assumptions were wrong, trayvon benjamin martin no longer walks on this earth. >> i don't think they get to say to you what do you think? no, no, no. no, no, no. what have i proven to you? what have i convinced you beyond a reasonable doubt occurred in this case so much so that you don't have any reasonable doubt?

george zimmerman is not guilty if you have just a reasonable doubt that he acted this self-defense. >> we want to bring in our team, msnbc legal analyst lisa bloom, msnbc's craig melvin who is live in sanford, florida, as well as nbc's kerry sanders. also in sanford, kerry, i'll begin with you. i know you had a chance to speak with the defense attorney, mark o'mara, as he walk out of court a short time ago. what more did you learn from him? >> reporter: and others, actually. as the prosecutor did his final rebuttal in the close, trayvon martin's parents walked out of the courtroom so tracy martin and sybrina walk out and i joined them as i walked out and i asked tracy martin how he felt at this point and he said, "they did good. they did good," meaning the prosecutors. sybrina fulton walked with him and they went in to sort of a side room for a period of time here. she didn't want to comment. but moments later they exited that room.

he said john guy gave a strong close. john guy cut to the heart of this matter and that's where the case is, a heart. then he said, emphasize heart. now after they exited, went into an elevator and went down, i then saw angela cory, the special prosecutor, walking out. she's the one who brought this charge, did not take it to a grand jury. said that she read through the evidence and said that the second degree murder charge is what should be applied here. as she exited i asked her what she thought of the presentation. she said we do this all the time, we put it into the hands of the jury, and now we wait. finally, as you mentioned, walking out was mark o'mara, the defense attorney. so i stood with him there for a

couple minutes, asked him a question or two. he said to me, "i'm happy with the way we did in the summations and now we wait for the jury." of course that's what's taking place right now, the jury will come back, they'll get their instructions. when they go back into their room they'll have this 27-page document. it is the instructions of what they need to do. and remember, this will be the first time these six jurors will have had an opportunity to talk to each other about the case. they have been restricted, peter, in talking anything about the case, anything they've heard. i will say that what i was watching during closings today when john guy was presenting his final rebuttal, that the jurors were sitting there and only one maybe skribld twicribbled twice pad for maybe 20 seconds, they were rapt, paying close attention. i think they recognize the weight of the decision that they are about to begin making. >> kerry, that's all good information. craig, i want to ask you quickly as well. we know we'll hear from the judge about 20 minutes from now

giving instructions to the jurors. then after that, about half-an-hour later, we are being told that we'll hear from the seminole county sheriff as well as the sanford police chief. obviously the safety of that community is so critical at this time given the fact that there's been a lot of grave focus on this around the country. what do we anticipate we will hear from them especially gibb the fact that there have been some public service announcements put out recently urging people to avoid violence and to honor the jury's findings peacefully. >> there has been an active campaign to make sure that's the case, peter. i can tell you, there is an area cordoned off for protesters. the greatest number of froe protesters we've seen on any given day -- three. there have not been a lot of folks who have come out on a daily basis to express they sort of discontent with either side, the defense or the state.

we can also tell you that yesterday there was some concern over law enforcement and sending word to the judge that they'd like for the decision, for the verdict to be held. judge came back several hours later saying that, we never actually got this request from any sort of law enforcement agency but when that verdict does come out, we're going to read it immediately. the concern here for civil unrest. i've talked to a number of people about this. the concern, not great. >> craig, thank you. lisa, very quickly, just want a sense from you. when we heard from the prosecution in its final close, they kept referring to trayvon martin as a child. this is only a little short time after they were shown those cardboard cutouts that show trayvon martin is actually physically larger than george zimmerman. did you find that effective, the description of him as a child? >> well, legally he is a child at the age of 17. but i noticed throughout the

trial the attorneys sort of grappled with what word to use for him. usually they said young man or teenager. what struck me most about the closing arguments on both sides is how both sides stayed on their relatively safe territory. arguments that they were already pretty strong on and they didn't hit back at the strength of the arguments on the other side. so the prosecution's strength i think is the many george zimmerman lies. you heard almost nothing about that from mark o'mara in his defense closing except to say, well, people tell stories different times, they have inconsistencies. i mean the prosecution has some pretty strong evidence of lies on the central parts of george zimmerman's claim. mark o'mara was almost silent on that. on the defense side, i think the strength of their case is a pretty coherent story of self-defense that george zimmerman has put out there from the beginning, the m.d. cal examiner says it is consistent with all the scientific testimony. prosecution didn't punch holes in that very effectively in my opinion. they never offered an alternative to the jury. it is as though each side wanted to stay on their own safe ground

and not really get to the heart of the other side's case as you would expect them to do in closing argument. >> as we heard from kerry sanders a short time ago, trayvon martin's own father, of the prosecution saying they did good. they'll be back, jurors in the courtroom, 15 minutes from now to get their instructions before they begin deliberations. stay with us. thank you. we'll be right back. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." investments designed for a smoother ride. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. part of a lineup of unstoppable skincare! start fresh and finish sparkling with s'wipe out wet cloths. va-va-vivid for a 400% better clean. from new olay fresh effects. va-va-vivid for a 400% better clean. all this produce from walmart and secretly served it up in the heart of peach country.

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can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. we're back. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." we have breaking news to you from the justice department today. a new rules for dealing with the media during leak investigations. joining me now, nbc's deputy political director, mark murray. nbc's capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. nice to see both of you. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, we kept you downstairs because we really only had so many seats at the table for right now. but i do want to start with you. give us the latest if you can from the department of justice in terms of those new guidelines in the way they handle leak investigations. >> two substantial revisions that the downtown will announce

later today we are told by officials. the first one deals with when the news media is notified that the government is seeking records, like phone records, such as it did with the ap during the investigation that became so controversial earlier this year. the new rules say that when the government wants these records it will normally tell the news media and give the news media a chance to go to court and resist and try to prevent the government from getting those records. under the current rules, the presumption is you don't tell them. under the new rules, the presumption is you do tell them unless, "it would pose a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation," and the decision on this has to be elevated now to the attorney general. the second rule deals with the controversy over getting the e-mail records after fox news reporter who was covering the state department as the government was investigating the leak. you remember the blowback the department got when in a court document a search warrant application it describes the reporter as an aider around

abetter, it said he was trying to persuade and flatter the official into giving him in information which it suggested was criminal conduct. well, now the department will not use that legal authority to get a search warrant if the person -- the reporter involved was undergoing the normal routine of news gathering. in other words, it changes the rules now so that they won't go after a reporter who is not the focus of the criminal investigation and for conduct not connected to the ordinary news gathering activities. looking at this from a 10,000-foot level, what the justice department is saying, it is not going to do what it did in those two earlier cases. >> a senior official telling us it is a clear admission we will never do this again. kelly and mark, you reported, and this is the first time we get to say this today bsh shark nato -- some is that correct?

in the way we talk about it. right? give us a sense if you can, the only thing more absurd that than on sci-fi last night was what we saw on the hill this week, the trash talk between mcconnell and harry reid. let's hear it, then i want a sense from not going to respond talking about how many times he's broken his word. >> my friend, the majority leader, is going to be remembered as the worst leader of the senate ever. the leader of the senate who fundamentally changed the body. it makes me sad. >> his name calling -- i guess he follows, i hope not, the demagoguic theory that the more you say something, people will start believing it. >> dems threatening to use the nuclear option. what happens next? >> on monday, all parties will have a meeting to talk about this. that's really unusual. they're going to use the old senate chamber, which is a nod to history that rarely happens. the idea behind this would be to change the rules. the real reason this is so upsetting to members who are

republicans now in the minority is they feel like this is an abuse of their rights. they're trying to warn democrats that if you do this and the tables are turned and you're in the minority down the line, you won't like it so much. so it is about nominees from the president, all of the cabinet-level nominees were confirmed. things it like the national labor relations board, epa -- there's some contention there. but this is bigger than a filibuster. it's really about the history and the conduct of the senate. >> and mark, in many ways, this just reaffirms what most americans say about washington, which is they can't agree on anything here. the headline most americans. will see is mcconnell and reid butting heads. >> and this kind of goes to the gridlock. when you talk to democratic aides is they're trying to address these filibusters that where you need 60 votes to even tie your shoe laces every single time. this is about administration appointees. that's a big difference in some of the judicial ones. of course, as kelly mentioned,

republicans say, look, each side is always going to end up being the minority. you want those minority protections. also, it wasn't too long ago in 2005 that republicans used the same threat. by the way, they got a lot of their judicial nominees through by using that threat. >> "sharknado" i got to write this down. we're told it's reairing a week from now. kelly and mark, thanks so much. more on the zimmerman trial right after this. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? what are you guys doing? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber!

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we're going to return you to the courtroom of the george zimmerman in a moment as we prepare to hear from the judge p first, my colleagues kerry sanders and craig melvin both in sanford, florida. kerry, i know you had a chance to speak with the defense team a moment ago. give us a better understanding about what they're talking about as they prepare for this to be handed over to the jury. >> reporter: well, they are done. so mark o'mara says it's now in the hands of the jury. he was pleased with the presentation, pleased with the summations. you heard him today say

reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt. the defense attorney -- i mean the prosecution on their final rebuttal said over and over again, common sense, common sense, common sense. it's now up to the jury. >> craig, the preview from what we'll hear from the judge. she's expected to speak. judge nelson expected to return to the courtroom and speak about five minutes from now with instructions for these jurors. >> reporter: judge nelson will read that 27-page document, the jury instructions that we've been talking about. then we're told at that point she is going to tell the jury they'll be able to deliberate as long as they want, as late as they want, and over the weekend. so we could get a verdict late tonight, could be tomorrow, could be sunday, could be into next week. judge nelson has decided to leave that up to the jury. >> all right. craig and kerry, thank you both very much. we'll check in with you throughout the afternoon. that's going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea will be back in this seat on monday. be sure to follow the show

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hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following the george zimmerman trial about to go to the jury. court is about to resume after a lunch break. then judge deborah nelson is about to charge the six-member all-women jury, which will then begin deliberations. all of this follows the conclusions we all witnessed before lunch, the closing arguments with prosecutor getting the final word. >> if that defendant had done only what he was supposed to do, see and call, none of us would be here. ne