ideas in his head we get to watch play out in the new year. >> for sure. so congratulations, ashley. >> thank you. >> very excited. >> we are off on christmas eve, this morning, thousands of passengers stranded at tlantd. power has been restored, but more flight cancellations this morning. plus dispute over e-mail. accusing a government agency to handing over e-mails to mueller and mueller's team is defending their work. the thomas fire has been raging two weeks. firefighters battle to gain the upper hand. blaze has become one of the largest in california history.

good morning. it is december 18. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside louis burgdorf. this morning passengers remain stranded at atlanta. power went out at jackson hart field airport. it wasn't fully restored until late last night. more than 1,000 flights had to be canceled. a fire powering the station triggered the outage. extreme heat and fumes prevented workers from accessing an underground tunnel for several hours. the mayor said there's no evidence to suggest the fire was caused deliberately. officials are still investigating and declined to rule out terrorism. because we don't know the source of the fire, we have no way of absolutely knowing at this time that some -- that our system may

have been tampered with in order to create this kind of chaos and confusion. >> delta airlines headquartered in atlanta announced last night 300 more flights will be canceled today. most of them are early morning, inbound flights to atlanta. president trump's legal team raised new complaints about the investigation into russian metaling in the 2016 campaign. a top lawyer for the trump transition team accused a government agency of unlawfully turning over thousands of e-mails. saturday's letter from trump for america argues the general services administration which hosted the e-mails did not own or control the records that it provided. alleging that the special counsel's office, quote, has extensively used the materials in question, including portions that are susceptible to claims of privilege and did not notify trump for america or take precautions to protect rights and privileges. a spokesman for mueller's office said sunday morning we have

obtained e-mail in the course of ongoing investigation we have secured account owner consent of appropriate criminal process. an official disputed the trump claim saying buzz feed mex were informed materials would not be held back in any law enforcement actions and agreements they signed agreed there could be monitoring or auditing of devices. president trump reacting on camera. take a listen. mr. president, do you believe your transition team e-mails were inproperly taken? >> not looking good. not looking good. my people were quite sad about that. i can't imagine there was anything on them. as we said, there's no collusion. no collusion whatsoever. a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad. >> no, i'm not.

i'm not. what else. meet with mueller's team nengs week to discuss the next steps in the probe. in southern california, firefighters are battling what has become one of the largest fires in that state's history. the thomas fire has destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses and scorched 270 audiocassetters, more than 1 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate. two people have died because of the fire. funer funeral procession took place for the firefighter who died while battling the blaze. memorial service held for iverson this saturday. survived by pregnant wife ashley and two-year-old daughter. just heart breaking. joining us now from venn tur ka california, scott cohen, and scott the thomas fire is 40% contained. some people are saying it's on

track to be the largest wildfire ever record instead california. >> it's very close to that. we're within about 3,000 headacheacres of being the largest wildfire in california history. put that in perspective. 421 square miles. bigger than most large cities. almost the size of los angeles proper. we have an opportunity though here, the firefighters, over the next couple of days to get a handle on that. get the containment up above 45%. there's no wind to speak of. santa ana winds have been blowing on and off for the last couple of weeks. intense moments over the weekend. firefighters try to keep the fire away from more homes, but the winds are died down considerably. they're expected to be this way for the next couple of days. and that gives the firefighters a window of opportunity. what they're going to do is to

continue trying to guide the fire into some areas that burned about ten years ago. a fire called the zaka fire. a little bit west of here. if they can get it into that newer growth, less of a volatile fuel, then that's going to help contain this fire and get it under control, and, again, the next couple of days is going to be crucial while the winds are down, louis? >> a scott of good news in an otherwise terrible situation. >> mother nature providing an opportunity to finally shut this thing down. let's hope they can. president trump speaking out against alleged bias of federal bureau of investigation saturday. declined to say whether he would intervene in the case of former national security adviser michael flynn who pleaded guilty to lying to fbi agents about conversations with r the russian ambassador. >> i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. let's see what happens. i can say this.

when you look at what's gone on with the fbi and with the justice department, people are very, very angry. >> white house counsel, ty cobb, made a statement clarifying the president's remarks. quote, for the record, there is no consideration at all for a pardon for michael flynn at this time. the president again declined to answer when he new about flynn's time which he has not personally clarified since tweeting he knew flynn lied to the fbi when he fired him. the lawyer claimed the president did not even write that tweet. russian president vladimir putin called president trump yesterday morning and thanked him for cia intelligence that helped russia allegedly stop a bombing in saint petersburg. the kremlin was the first to reveal the call. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders confirmed it via twitter. stressed the importance of

cooperation to defeat terrorists. second time in the past two days the leaders have spoken on the phone. joining me live, lucy. pretty interesting to see that we first got this from the kremlin, not the white house. hearing about the phone call between putin and president trump of course. what more can you tell us. >> that's right. good morning. according to the kremlin, info from cia helped prevent an attack on a number of crowded sites. russia's fsb security said it detained seven members of a cell of islamic state supporters and seized a significant amount of explosives, weapons and extremist literature t. attack was described at imminent. not clear when the cia provided this tip. we don't have details on what the cia sent to the russians. not immediately clear where the plot originated or how the cia learned of it. the agencies consider themselves to be adversaries, but they

occasionally cooperate on counterterrorism issues. in 2011 the fsb warned the fbi that an immigrant from russia living in boston had associated with islam militants. two years later, they detonated the homemade bombs at boston marathon. that said believed that cia tried to sway the election in favor of mr. trump. as you pointed out, the conversation between the two presidents marks the second time this week the two men have spoken. republicans are set to make their final push to try and deliver a legislative victory to president trump for the holidays, they look to approve the biggest revamp of the tax code in 30 years. house committee is scheduled to meet today for rules around the debate around the gop tax bill when it heads to the house floor for a vote. house speaker has signaled it could happen as early as

tomorrow. for example the top rate would be 37% versus 39.6% under the current law and the individual tax cuts expire after 2025. meanwhile t standard deduction is almost doubled to between $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. new tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. while tax and foreign earnings at lower rates. the bill offers expanded tax credit for low income families with children. thanks to a push from marco rubio and mike lee. still ahead, digging into a new report for president trump's plans for 2018. pentagon secret search for ufo. what we're learning about the

hush hush program that spends millions of dollars researching unidentified flying objects. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. ( ♪ ) more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. (clapping) and the united states postal service

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welcome back, everybody. unsurprisingly, president trump ready to get back on the campaign trail as the white house plans full scale campaign. citing senior officials and advisers still familiar with the planning. "washington post" reports the president has told advisers he wants to be more involved in senate house and governtorial races. trump wants travel extensively and is looking forward to spending much of 2018 campaigning. he is also told aides that the elections would largely determine what he can get done

and that he expects he would be blamed for losses such as last week's humiliating defeat that handed a senate seat to a democrat in alabama for the first time in 25 years. calling the white house strategy risky. saying historically low approval ratings, unpredictability and habits of overshadowing the cabinet he's endorsing and how much he -- opposition. largely focus on the economy and increasing voter turnout. the older son of former governor sara pay lynn was arraigned yesterday on the charges of burglarly and assault. all the charges were related to domestic violence. the records indicated this marks the second time that he's been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in two years. according to court records, palin was arrested back in 2016 on domestic violence related charges after allegedly striking

and kicking his girlfriend who then became concerned that palin was going to shoot himself with a rifle. he then pleaded guilty to misconduct involving a skpep and charges related to domestic violence were dismissed. no attorney was listed for palin on the court docket after his latest arrest. no details given about bond status. he remains held at the pretrial facility in alaska as of sunday evening. get a check on the weather now. bill, you're tracking rain and fog in the south could cause travel cldelays this morning. >> fog is the story along with the rain. doesn't look like this beak is going to have any big snowstorms in it. really the theme as we head towards christmas is it's going be warm and a lot of areas of rain. a little bit of rain. heading for new orleans. southern portions of mississippi. can't see on the map a lot of

dense fog. everywhere in between. where the foggiest mornings i've seen in a long time throughout areas of the south. we have the fog to deal with today. a little bit of light rain. heavy rain event goes tuesday, wednesday through the region. this red is about two inches of rainfall. east texas going to get it. southern half of arkansas. right into the areas of northern mississippi and back to the carolinas. just be prepared traveling through the region, plenty warm. going to be rainy. talking about warm. much of the country seeing above average warmth. map 10-20 degrees above average has 94% of the united states seeing well above normal this time of year. melting a lot of snow packs. white christmas looking if if i at best for many areas. chicago 52. indianapolis 53 on tuesday. some of the warmth is going to spread to the east coast. look at dc. 61 degrees. even new york city gets up to 52 on tuesday. mild air out there. only other storm system. if anyone is traveling in the pacific northwest. got rain coming into the cities. snow in the higher elevations

and we'll march that storm across the country as we go throughout the rest of this week. take a look, all the way. christmas is 7 days away. really no big snowstorms in site. the hopes for the white christmas on the east coast, starting to disdisappear. >> it's on a loop. i've got one more story pretty interesting here. multiple reports revealed secret pentagon program meant to research ufo's. advanced threat identification program was run by military official and apparently investigative reports of ufo's. such as seen in this video posted by the "new york times" which shows encounter between navy fa super horn et and unknown object. program ran from 2007 through 2012 at a cost of $22 million. reportedly may be ongoing without funding. largely backed by former senator

harry reid who responded over the weekend writing, the truth is out there, seriously. followed by if anyone says they have the answers, they're fooling themselves. we don't know the answers, but we have plenty of evidence to support asking the questions. this is about science and national security. if america doesn't take the lead and answer these questions, others will. i just think it's pretty interesting news, yasmin, and obviously harry reid is a believer something is out there. >> are you a believer. >> i am a believer. >> you're a believer. >> do you think anybody was on that unknown object we're looking at at the screen. >> i can't speculate. still ahead. a wild fourth quarter saves one team's playoff chances on sunday night football. king james chooses to send a message on the visit to the nation's capital. highlights and sports coming up next.

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throws. intercepted. picked off by eric hendriks. looking for the angle. koo dives to the end zone. touchdown vikings. >> line of scrimmage. second and six. camille la. touchdown. ten yard touchdown pass. patriots are growing to win it. absolutely amazing. >> just some of the highlights from around the nfl yesterday. now for sunday night football. cowboys versus raiders. both teams trying to keep playoff hopes alive. dak prescott uses his legs. cowboys leading 17-10.

connects to michael crabtree for the second time in a game. tieing the game. dallas then reglan gains the lead with a field goal. oakland has a chance to tie again. late finding no one. goes for the end zone lead. does he make it. ruling is no. it's a touchdown. fumbled the ball before he could cross the pilon. that play, the game is over. the raiders playoff chances are effectively dashed. cowboys go onto secure the win, 20-17. keeping own playoffs hopes alive. what a game. meanwhile the sexual misconduct scandals continue to hit high profile personnel t. latest being carolina panthers owners. sports illustrated reported four former panther's employees received confidential settlements after complaining about treatment in team's office. including sexual harassment as well as richardson using a

racial slur. in a letter last night announced he was selling the panthers at the conclusion of the 2017 season says it was quote, time to turn the franchise over to new ownership. he said nothing about the claims. the nfl said it will leave the investigate at the panthers organization started into the organization. awarded the franchise back in 1993. team has reached the super bowl twice in history. 2003 and 2015. losing both times and last fall forbes estimated the value at $2.3 billion. turning now to nba and cleveland cavaliers. star lebron james decided to send a message. james wore one black and one white sneaker. both stitched with the word equality. on the back right there in gold. meanwhile the political message did not distract from play on the court. goes on to record the third straight triple double. notching 20 points. 15 azits and 2 rebounds in the

10 106-99 win against the washington wirzards. >> got to love that. >> supposedly wants to put together a coalition to buy the panthers and wants to replace cam newton with colin kaepernick. i don't think the panthers would be happy about that. >> still ahead. critical vote, senator john mccain returns home to arizona amid health concerns. power is back on, more flight cancellations this morning at atlanta's airport. get a live report coming up next. s. s. businesses are thinking. factories are thinking. even your toaster is thinking. honey, clive owen's in our kitchen. i'm leaving. oh never mind, he's leaving. but what if a business could turn all that thinking... thinking... endless thinking into doing? to make better decisions. make a difference. make the future. not next week while you think about it a little more. but right now. is there a company that can help you do all that? ♪

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welcome back. everybody. i'm yasmin alongside louis burgdorf. it's the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top story. republicans are set to make final push to try and deliver a legislative victory to president trump for the holidays. look to approve the biggest revamp of this country's tax code in 30 years. house rules committee is scheduled to meet today. to lay out the rules for debate around the gop tax bill when it heads to house floor for a vote. house speaker paul ryan has signaled that could happen as early as tomorrow. move comes after the senate republicans unveiled joint tax bill friday afternoon. plan dramatically cuts corporate tax rate. overhauls individual tax code. lowers the rates and changes the income threshold. tom rate would be 37% versus

39 .6% under current law. individual tax cut expire at 2025. meanwhile the standard deduction is almost doubled to between $12,000 between individuals and $24,000 for couples. the new tax bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. taxing foreign earnings at lo r er rates and offered expanded tax credit for low income families with children. thanks to push by senators marco rubio and mike lee. more generous tax credit was key in securie ining marco rubio's vote. senator bob corker who voted against the initial bill now says he will vote in favor of the final version. and senator susan collins is also expected to back it ahead of tomorrow's anticipated vote by the house. dispute the fact many of trump's

campaign promises on taxes are officially not happening with this final bill. >> there are many deliveries in the bill the president made promises on. it does simplify the tax code. eliminates oil and gas production credits. also eliminates many deductions that families and businesses were taking, such as specifically lobbying expenses. helping to drain the swamp. promises he made he delivered on. certain industries here that made it impossible to deliver on every single one of those. delivered on promise for middle income family. many elements we simplified. we didn't get as much as we want. part of the compromise. >> senator john mccain is back home in arizona. senator's office says he will undergo therapy at the mayo clinic in arizona. looks forward to returning to the nation's capital in january. doctor treating mccain says he's responding positively to ongoing

treatment for glioowe blastoma. daughter megan tweeted to thank you to everyone for their kind words. my father is doing well and looking forward to spending christmas together in arizona. mccain will not be at the senate vote on the tax bit. president trump said he spoke with mccain's wife cindy adding it is not out of the question the veracity senator could return if needed. >> i did speak to cindy mccain and i wished her well. i wished john well. they headed back, but i understand he'll come if we ever needed his vote. which hopefully we won't, but the word is that john will come back if we need his vote. and it's too bad. it's a tough -- he's going through a very tough time. no question about it. he will come back if we need his vo vote. senator bob corker spent the weekend explaining his decision to support the final version of the republican tax bill.

also calling for insight for a provision that could potentially benefit him financially ended up in the legislation. announced decision to support the bill on friday after previous criticisms of the senate's plan. in a statement corker who was not seeking re-election next year said in part, quote, in the end after 11 years in the senate, i know every bill we consider isn't perfect and the question becomes is our country better off with or without this piece of legislation. i think we're better off with it. it's a bet on the country's spirit and it's a bet i'm willing to make. facing backlash over a last minute change into the legislation being dubbed the corker kick back. according to report by international business time, republican leaders added the change that would reduce taxes on income from real estate llcs. corker owns a large amount of commercial real estate, but told the paper he was not aware that the provision had been included in the final bill, which he said he had not read. corker has sent a letter to

senate finance committee chair asking for an explanation of the provision and how it made it into the final conference report. corker said the senator is not a member of the tax writing committee. had no involvement in cracking legislation and requested no specific tax provisions or had any knowledge about the provisions. >> a new fight has broken out amid the special counsel investigation into russia's election metaling. president trump's lawyer claims that e-mails from the president's transition team were improperly turned over to mueller. mueller's team is pushing back. white house correspondent kelly o'donnell has more on this. >> president trump back from a weekend at camp david as his frustration over the russia probe surfaced in a new way. >> mr. president, do you believe your transition team e-mails were improperly taken. not looking good. it's not looking good. it's quite sad to see that so my people were very upset about it. >> surfaced in a new way.

with a charge made by the president's transition team. against special counsel robert mueller's investigation. claiming prosecutors improperly obtained thousands of transition staff e-mails now being used in the russia probe. >> i can't imagine there's anything on them frankly because as we said, there's no collusion. there's no collusion whatsoever, but a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad. >> election season to the inaugural. the trump transition worked in this government owned building. using government provided e-mail service, but under the law, transition teams are not government agencies. most of their funding is private. a trump transition lawyer protested to congress. claiming career staff at the federal government's general services administration unlawfully produced the transition team's private materials including e-mails bound by attorney-client privilege. to the special counsel. white house officials stayed out

of it. >> thankfully i'm not in communication with the transition team. >> when we have obtained e-mails, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process. credibility is a target for trump allies who seized on mueller removing from his team a senior fbi agent who exchanged anti-trump text messages with another agent during the campaign. while mueller is wildly respect ed. in southern california, thousands of fierg fightere fif battling one of the biggest fires in the state's history. scorched over 270,000 acres.

more than 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate. two people have died because of the fire. joining us now from ventura california, scott cohen. we spoke earlier in the show. there might be a crucial window for firefighters to get the upper hand in this blaze. >> that's right. really, it's probably about the next 48 hours or so where the winds are supposed to die down. they're already basically not blowing at all after gusting quite a bit over the weekend and creating some tense moments. and so they'll use that time to try and get this fire further under control. it is now 45% contained. and they'll have a chance now to bring that further under control and while it is about 3,000 acres short of the worst wildfire, the largest wildfire in state history. there's nothing more that these 8500 or so firefighters would like to do than stop it in its tracks. they'll get that opportunity to do so. as we said, two fatales from

this fire. cory iverson, 32-year-old cal fire engineer from san diego. his body was brought home to san diego yesterday. a procession along the freeways, firefighters stopping to salute him. the second fatality in this fire. the first was a civilian, a 70-year-old woman who died early on in the evacuation. they hope now that the worst of this is over. cal fire officials are saying this fire is not likely to be contained until january 7, more than a month after it broke out. >> wow. those heart breaking stories, those two fatalities. talk about the courage and resilience of the firefighters on the ground for weeks now. just unbelievable. thanks so much. more flight cancellations are expected this morning in atlanta following a major power outage at hearts field jackson international airport yesterday.

electricity went out shortly after 1:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon and not fully restored until late last night. more than 1,000 flights had to be canceled. atlanta's mayor said a fire at the main substation powering the airport triggered the entire outage. joining us from now the airport, our affiliate. good to talk to you this morning. what are you seeing at the airport? >> good morning, yasmin. heartsfield jackson, not only the world's busiest airport. also a hub for delta. creating a domino affect around the country and even for international flights. delta had to cancel 900 flights yesterday. 300 more canceled for today. plus this is a holiday week. some people trying to have good spirits through this all. there are quite a few people that have had enough. they want to get to destination as quickly as possible. talked to one gentlemen. flying with southwest. trying time and time again to rebook his flight.

best option to get back to baltimore is 10:00 p.m. standby flight this evening. talked to other folks, tuesday or wednesday, looks like are they best options to get home. overnight. now in long lines hoping to get a ticket home. >> a lot of people trying to get home obviously for the holidays. a lot of nerves around. glad it is back on and the flights are resuming. still ahead. more on the develop race to get tax bill over the finish line over the christmas holiday. what the tax plan landing on president trump's decsk could d. bill karins could have a check on the forecast as millions of americans are preparing to head out for the holidays this week.

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president trump obviously demanded that bill before christmas. arrival of doug jones in the senate, that imminent arrival early next year. leaves mitch mcconnell with a lot less room to maneuver. creates a hard deadline for this. spending bill which requires filibuster relief element to it. a lot on their plate. could make a volatile week for traders. someone else under pressure

is elon musk. released a new electric vehicle. half the price of tesla model x. the main man behind the new company says it's not a tesla killer. just a tesla competitor because of the huge group seen for demand in electric cars over in china. >> very interesting. one more. today is one of the last days to ship packages if you want them to arrive before christmas. good reminder for everyone out there. how are delivery companies preparing for busiest week of holiday season. >> you can relax. the uk mail is working fine. going to get to you in time, promise. >> can't wait. >> fedex, ups. post office. all about the rise of online shopping. what they're seeing, record numbers of packages for this year swell u.s. post office had predicted 850 million parcels. looking to exceed even that number. i know it's partly because of

all those 1990s dvds you like to order. >> i thought you were gifting me a bitcoin. can send it electronically. no need for the mail. >> if you would like. very volatile. >> bill marks live from london. i was hoping he would send you something where you could track your ufo's, lewis. >> never hearing the end of that one. let's get a check of the weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> if we go over to louis's house, all this weird stuff in the living room. ufo stuff. >> probably does have a lot of weird stuff. >> thank you, guys. >> let's go back to louis. >> we'll be kind. i note there's no snow isn't the forecast, bill. >> not a lot. maybe santa can change is that. >> possibly. i give the guy that much. biggest problems we're going have this upcoming week is a lot of rain related issues with travel. then very cold in the middle of the country towards the end of this week. right through christmas. let me get into it.

the biggest problems this morning one of the foggiest mornings i ever remembered. texas through the southeast. even florida, a lot of fog. doesn't show well on this map. dense fog advisories. west texas right through the south and down through areas of the west coast of florida. 36 million people under dense fog advisories. mean airport delays and slow drives on the road. atlanta is at a quarter mile. just talked about the problems with the power and quarter mile visibility, that's not good for takeoffs or landings either. coast to coast travel map. this is the storm we're doing to be tracking throughout the week. move on shore of the pacific northwest tuesday. take it with snow through the rockies. thursday, snow green bay up through the dakotas and colorado getting a little bit. by the time the storm gets to friday, little bit of snow, northern great lakes. rainmaker ahead of it. friday big travel day.

rain, orlando, chicago, detroit. all the way through st. louis and finally the east coast on saturday. so yasmin, as you said. not a lot of snow in the forecast, but the rain will cause problems at the airports too. >> thanks, bill. still ahead, rex tillerson unconventional talks. what it takes to now get pyongyang back to the negotiating table with the trump administration. we'll be right back. this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here. we are the tv doctors of america, and we may not know much about medicine, but we know a lot about drama. we also know that you can avoid drama by getting an annual check-up.

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welcome back, everybody. we're learning more about that deadly ambush in niger. la david johnson was not captured alive, according to a soon-to-be released investigation. he was killed by enemy rifle and machine gunfire and returned fire until he was killed. his body was recovered in thick brush where he most likely took cover. sergeant johnson's body was recovered two days after the initial ambush, which led to questions about rumors as to when and how he died. heading now to the korean peninsula. at the beginning of last week, secretary of state rex tillerson said there are no preconditions for talks with north korea, so long as they get together face-to-face. they could discuss anything, such as the weather or the shape of the table. he addressed the possibility of talks friday at the united nations. >> north korea must earn its way

back to the table. the pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved. with respect to the talks, we are not going to accept preconditions. you heard others have called for freeze for freeze. we do not accept that as a precondition to talks. we do not accept any relaxing of the sanctions for precondition for talks. >> mixed messaging there. wondering who may have gotten in his ear. a man in australia has been arrested for brokering arms for north korea. >> reporter: this man is accused by australia's federal police as acting as an economic agent for north korea, using cryptic communications to purchase ballistic missiles to generate cash for north korea.

>> i think he would sell whatever he could at the end of the day. >> 59-year-old chan han choi had been living in australia. he is accused of black market deals potentially worth tens of millions of dollars. >> north korea say dangerous, reckless criminal regime. >> reporter: north korea has a long history of skirting international sanctions and is widely suspected of using cyber crime to fund its nuclear weapons program that in november unveiled its latest threat, an intercontinental ballistic missile that pyongyang claims could strike anywhere in the u.s. choi was under investigation by australia's equivalent to the fbi for nearly a year. he will be back in court later this week in a rare case with high stakes. >> thank you for that report. >> coming up next on "morning joe," more on the new twist in bob mueller's special probe.

thousands of e-mails from the trump transition team, the ramifications this development could have on mueller's investigation moving forward and what it could mean for the push by some republican lawmakers to discredit that investigation. "morning joe" moments away. (hard exhalation) honey? can we do this tomorrow? (grunts of effort) can we do this tomorrow?

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welcome back, everybody. before we toss it over to "morning joe," let's talk about the stories you'll be hearing about in the day ahead and the week ahead. kelly o'donnell has more. >> reporter: the new week brings big priority force president trump. today he will deliver a speech on the national security strategy, an out line of the threats as he views them around the world. tomorrow the house is expected to vote on tax cuts, something the president has looked for after months in office, a victory on a new policy legislatively. we've seen other attempts come and go. this time, republicans think they have enough votes to deal with tax cuts. also there are new concerns about the special counsel investigation. when the president's lawyer for

the transition team that was at work last year says that e-mails from staffers who worked on the transition were improperly obtained by the special counsel prosecutors. the special counsel says that's not the case. there's a dispute here over the content of what e-mails were going back and forth and what it might mean for the russian investigation. when asked about it, president trump said it's not looking good. he did not think that was proper and said his lawyers were upset about it. >> thanks to kelly o'donnell for that report. >> as kelly mentioned, republicans are gearing up to try to get their tax plan to president trump this week before the christmas holiday. the house rules committee will meet to lay out the rules for the debate around the bill when it heads to the floor for a vote. that vote could happen as early as tomorrow. i'm yasmin vossoughian along with ayman mohyeldin.

here is "morning joe." it eliminates oil and gas production and many deductions that families and businesses specifically draining the swamp. there are promises. he delivered on his promise to focus on middle income families as well as to provide corporate tax relief. we didn't get as much as we want. it's part of the compromise, what you have to work with. tomorrow, the house is expected to vote on the tax bill and white house legislative affairs director marc short worked to dispute the fact that many of president trump's campaign promises on taxes are officially not happening with this final bill. good morning, everyone. it's monday, december 15th. oh, it's the 18th. >> it's the 18th. >> okay. this is going great.