so i took action! coolsculpting targets, freezes and eliminates treated fat for good. no needles, no incisions. discuss coolsculpting with your provider. some common side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. you've come this far... coolsculpting takes you further. visit coolsculpting.com the january 6th committee is just five hours away from its first public hearing. one committee member saying it will change history. their goal, to show former president trump was at the heart of the attack. they're promising never been seen audio from january 6th and testimony from the british documentary showing some members of the proud boys on the day of the riot. two police officers died by suicide in the days after the

attack. coming up, we'll talk with the wife of one of them about her husband and why she plans to be in the room for the hearing tonight. we'll have the latest from a michigan courtroom where a republican candidate for governor is showing up for the first time after being arrested for his alleged role in the attack on the capitol. we've got a lot to get to. i'm hallie jackson in washington and let's start with ali on capitol hill. the punch bowl news founder and msnbc contributor, jake sherman and leanne caldwell. here's what we want to lay out here. a kind of viewer's guide as you get ready to watch the hearing and key moments to watch. it starts tonight, 8:00 eastern. it's going to last roughly 90 minutes. the first of six hearings. the committee is promising to reveal previously unseen material. their words. video and audio from the day of the insurrection. one of the two republicans on the committee saying it will change history, but will it? over the next six hearings,

democrats will try to connect the dots to president trump who they say was at the center of the conspiracy. we're also watching the republican response. ali, expectations, what the mood is like where you are at the capitol. >> expectations are high. this is the fruition of a year's worth of work on the part of the committee for an event that millions of americans witnessed in realtime through their screens and now their charge is to introduce something new, to do it in a compelling fashion. that's what lawmakers say they are prepared to do. they were rehearsing this morning according to the chairman of that committee and of course, they're ready now to present their findings in prime time starting tonight and then of course moving throughout the rest of the month. one example of the never before seen footage you talked about includes some of that video from the dock men tear yan who was with members of the proud boys on january 6th. we saw a piece of it on good

morning america today. i'll play a little for you now. >> freedom! >> i am not allowed to say what's going to happen today. because everyone's just going to have to watch for themselves. but it's going to happen. something's going to happen. one way or the other. >> storm the capitol! >> you look at the witness list for tonight. it includes that documentarian as well as a police officer. a colleague has interviewed her. her story is of course harrowing. it shows the mindset of the committee tonight might be to get americans in the right head space to move forward with the rest of their findings then throughout the course of the coming weeks trying to put together a narrative that

connects the dots. that's a phrase that lawmakers keep using. taking these disparate threads of the investigation and trying to pull them together into a bundle of a narrative for the american public. >> the challenge for them and the question for them is who, how many people, how effective will this be? right? there's been reports they've pulled in a former high level tv news executive to try to make this essentially as compelling and gripping to an audience watching in prime time. it's not as though they have levels set on expectations. adam kensinger saying it's going to change history. that's a high bar. >> yes, they do want to make an impact. they want people to know the truth. they want people to understand what happened in the lead up to january 6th and on january 6th. and they also perhaps want some sort of charges pressed by the department of justice on some of

these trump administration officials. so these are things they are wanting to do, but as far as electoral politics are concerned, democrats are under no illusion that it's going to change the course of the midterms. i reported earlier this week that nancy pelosi told her colleagues in a closed door meeting last month that voters are not going to the polls based on january 6th. she says that the democrats in the house are stewards of democracy, but that is not what people are going to be voting on and she echoed that same message today that said people are going to be voting on the economy, on inflation, on gas prices. but still, she said, and democrats think, that regardless of if this is a voting topic or not, it's extremely important to do because pelosi things they are stewards of democracy and this is important to save and to protect and preserve democracy. >> the key question, too, among

the key questions, the substance. what new might we learn that hasn't been previously reported by outlets like "the washington post." ours, yours, et cetera? because optically, right, they are promising unseen image, unseen audio. we got a little taste of that, but what about the facts of what happened and this conspiracy that they are looking to lay out to connect the dots to former president trump? >> the irony here is that we actually know a good deal about what happened. in a broad sense, right, we know that the president held a rally at the white house. he told his folks to come up here and said it would be crazy. it would be wild. and said we can't give up because we were cheated. obviously that's not true. then the people did what he said. so the larger question that this committee can and probably will try to lay out is what was the president and his circle's

involvement with some of these groups beforehand? how much coordination was there in the lead up to the january 6th riots? things of that nature. where was the money trail and who, if anybody, was involved in the capitol? meaning who gave tours to people who ended up coming into the capitol in the days and weeks ahead of the january 6th insurrection. so again, it's worth restating. we know, because people have said it, that they came to the capitol because they wanted to stop the vote count, the constitutionally mandated certification of the election. so that much is known. they'll be trying to fill in the details about what was going on behind the scenes, especially with president trump. >> this is being carried live on this network, msnbc, abc, cbs, cnn, not fox news. there's a significant portion of that viewership who will not have that opportunity to see it on that channel.

they'll carry it on fox business instead. you're already seeing conservative reaction, pre reaction, if you will, to this. there's this new piece of information out that republicans plan to create committee to investigate the select committee if they take back the house come november. also what we heard from the top republican in the house, kevin mccarthy. >> it is the most political and least legitimate committee. it has permanently damaged the house and divided this country. >> sounded a little different after the attack happened. here's what he said then. >> we cannot just sweep this under the rug. we need to know why it happened, who did it, and people need to be held accountable for it. i'm committed to make sure that happens. >> jake, how does he thread that needle? >> he doesn't. the mccarthy, quite frankly, had a opportunity to have a bipartisan commission, which he

deputized john catco to negotiate with democrats. he then pulled the rug out from under him when he came to an agreement with democrats and rallied with republicans to vote against that commission. remember, that commission would have allowed republicans to have veto power over subpoenas. would have given them visibility into this investigation. he decided, mccarthy and the republican leadership decided they did not want that. now, there's another kind of irony here. mccarthy says that people don't care about this committee and they care about gas prices, but at the same time, he's saying it divided the country. so it can't be both at the same time. what we wrote today is quite frankly this is the same line of reasoning republicans used on the impeachment. that this was a sham, it was unfair. mccarthy's referring to the fact that pelosi didn't let jim jordan and jim banks on this committee when republicans were

intended to cooperate. this committee's not illegitimate. it's been given subpoena power by the united states house of representatives. mccarthy decided after banks and jordan were not permitted to serve that he wasn't going to participate at all. that's mccarthy's choice. so it will be interesting to see how they react, if they react. remember, the house is out of session already. they're not going to be here tomorrow. so we'll have to wait until next week to get reaction then a couple more hearings happen next week and the week after. so republicans will be forced to respond at that point. >> really quickly here, what is missing in your view from the coverage so far as we look ahead that you think is important to know? >> i think it's the next step. i was asking committee members yesterday. what happens when americans draw the conclusion that they want them to draw? which is that former president trump played a significant role in fomenting what happened here on the day of the insurrection? what happens when that's the conclusion that's drawn and

people start asking about accountability? what committee members have said that's not the job of this committee. they're focused on a fix that could look like reforming the electoral count act. there's movement on that in the senate. at the same time though, there is going to be pressure on the department of justice once again to potentially do something because of course congress can't criminally charge somebody but the department of justice can. i imagine that's where this starts to go next, especially once the committee starts getting into the nitty-gritty of what was happen ng the white house and around the former president. >> thanks to all of you. we're following breaking news, brian kelly, republican candidate for governor in michigan is just wrapping up a short appearance in a grand rapids courtroom. he was arrested today charged for his alleged role in the riot. his campaign had this response on facebook. political prisoner. pete williams is covering this.

what else do we know from the documents we've seen so far? >> charged with misdemeanor outside the capitol or going into the capitol, but not doing anything destructive. they say he was on the west front of the capitol, climbed up on some features of the building. tried to egg people on into going into the building. he's not accused of assaulting police officers or damaging anything and that's why it's a misdemeanor. but look at this picture here. see how he's wearing a black jacket, that arm is raised. that turned out to be an important evidence for the fbi because they found out he was in the crowd ten days after the riot, but it's taken all this time to figure out if that's really kelly. so the fbi says they scrutinized hundreds and hundreds of

pictures and bits of video from outside the capitol. they talked to people who knew him. confidential witnesses. and based on all of that, they brought these charges today accusing him of misdemeanor counts and several people who face these same charges for going through the police line. this was area that was closed off to the public. so all those hundreds of people that were all over the west front of the capitol on the steps, up on the scaffolding where they were preparing to have the inaugural ceremonies, they've all been charged, or soon will be, with misdemeanor counts as well. he's now in that group. he said i didn't assault anybody, push barricades over. but the government says he did violate the law by going on to the capitol steps in the first place when the area was closed off and urging other people to go into the capitol building. >> thank you. i want to bring you a bit of

developing news because we are just now hearing from president biden. i'm bringing in dan kilde, democrat from michigan. and forgive me, i want to let our viewers and you know what president biden has said. remember, he is out west. he is in los angeles for the summit of the americas. he has sat down with the canadian prime minister and before he began his remarks and his conversation with trudeau, he said he wanted to make some comments on what we are about to see unfold just five hours from now. he says he suspects that this is one of the things that is obviously people in this country are paying attention to. and that when he believes that there was a clear flagrant violation of the constitution. he says i think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around, change the election. there's a lot of questions of who's responsible, who's involved. i'm not going to make a judgment on that. this is a rough quote from president biden. we're going to try to turn this tape around and bring you more, but i think it's significant

that this is a hearing that's obviously reached the levels of the white house. we know president biden is aware this hearing is going on. people inside the white house are as well and i open the floor to you about your expectations tonight because congressman kingsinger said this will change history. is this too high a bar? >> i don't know if it will change history, but it will be an accurate record. that's the responsibility of the committee. to take a close look at the facts. they subpoenaed documents, hundreds of witnesses, now holding very important public hearings, to make a clear public record of what took place on january 6th. for a couple of reasons. one, it's important we remember what their intent was. their intent was to stop the peaceful transfer of power as guaranteed by the constitution. really treasonous behavior, a broad definition of the term. the other thing to keep in mind and the reason this hearing is

so important, these hearings will be so important, is that january 6th isn't over. to try to prevent the people from having their voices heard through the popular vote. and trying to do what they can to undermine democracy at every step. so january 6th was an extreme version of what we're seeing taking place in courthouses and state houses across the country. we have to keep that in mind. >> let me have you answer the question if you can. if the committee is in fact successful over the course of these hearings, one in prime time tonight as we know, in convincing the american people or a portion, that there was a conspiracy linked to donald trump and connecting the dots as they said, what should be the next step as it relates to accountability on that front? >> well, i hope that the committee would contribute to

the public record of what took place. the committee doesn't have the authority to pursue criminal action. they may make referrals, but i would hope that all the mechanisms of the justice system would take need of the information that the committee reveals and hold people accountable. no one's above the law. certainly not the former president of the united states and just looking at what the people who were around him have done by trying to ignore subpoenas and try to skip past the courthouse to not be responsible for their behavior, it's really unpatriotic what they're doing. it's important that the committee get the record correct and i think that's really the fundamental responsibility that they have and i'm confident based upon what i've seen they'll do well. >> there are some republicans who suggest this is really about in their view trying to damage former president trump if he does decide as is widely speculated, to run again come 2024. how do you respond to that? >> i don't think these hearings

will shape the trajectory of american politics in any way. i think people who formed an opinion about donald trump will not likely have their opinion changed because frankly, we can come up with a smoking gun about donald trump's behavior and the cult that has wrapped themselves around him including unfortunately kevin mccarthy will believe he is saint donald the first. i don't see that what is revealed that anything made clear for the next generations what took place on january 6th. >> before i let you go, you and i have talked over the course of the last year and a half over your experiences after january 6th. what you have gone through on a very personal level dealing with the aftereffects, the trauma of that day. here we are tonight, getting ready to see graphic, intense footage from that day. how are you getting ready for this moment, setting aside your

lawmaker hat and just your human being hat? >> yeah, it's tough to watch. it's tough to watch because i see images including some of myself, sheltering myself, but you know, thanks to the work i've been doing with dr. jim gordon, myself and the police officers, many of whom experienced far worse damage and trauma than any of us faced, we've gotten through this because we've gotten help. it's easier to move forward when we recognize trauma can have a real effect. most traumatic stress is real and it's something you can get help for. i did and i'm glad i did because it makes this day a whole lot easier for me to focus on. >> and we'll talk about the importance and value of therapy anytime on this show. congressman dan kilde, thanks for being with us. later this hour, we'll talk with the wife of a d.c. police officer who died in the line of

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we mentioned we have just heard from president biden ahead of tonight's first hearing in prime time by the january 6th committee. he was speaking at a meeting with justin trudeau and is out west for the summit of the americas. let's listen. >> before i begin, one of the things that's going to occupy my country tonight i suspect is the first open hearings on january the 6th.

as i said when it was occurring subsequent, i think it was a clear, flagrant violation of the constitution. i think these guys and women broke the law, tried to turn around the result of an election and there's a lot of questions who's responsible, who's involved. i'm not going to make a judgment on that, but we're probably going to be a, a lot of americans are going to be seeing for the first time some of the detail that occur. >> president biden speaking there. as greg jacob does plan to comply with the subpoena from the january 6th committee. he is expected to testify in front of them. we also want to bring you the latest from uvalde, texas. there's a bill passing the house earlier, maybe the only piece of gun legislation in that chamber

that has a chance of making it to the president's desk. it comes after the horrific tragedy in uvalde. the house is moving the red flag bill to the senate with five republicans voting for, one democrat against. it would let family members of law enforcement ask a judge to temporarily stop somebody from getting a firearm if they're considered a danger. lawmakers suggest something like this might have stopped the uvalde shooting. a texas house investigative committee in the state house launching their examination into what happened earlier today. >> this isn't a new normal. it's an epidemic and it's an emergency. what we can't accept is a do nothing attitude. failing to tackle these issues because they're difficult of politically uncomfortable is cowardly and morally wrong. we have a duty to do what we can because our children's lives are on the line.

>> that panel may release preliminary findings before the full report. i want to bring in -- here in washington. morgan is in washington. morgan, you have that house hearing and i should say behind closed doors, we heard from before lawmakers, after, then the uvalde school superintendent talking with reporters today. give us the latest. >> reporter: striking meeting this morning. the district called him, the first time we've heard from him in at least a week and they made a disclaimer they were not going to comment on the ongoing investigation then upon arriving, we were told they wouldn't be commenting on personnel matters either. we asked the superintendent directly. i want to share what he said, reassuring parents an students here in uvalde about the future of robb elementary. take a listen. >> we will not be going back to that campus in any form or

fashion. there will be no school personnel on that campus as we move forward. as far as the future of that site, there are discussions about what that will look like as we move forward as a community to help determine what that looks like for our community. >> reporter: now despite those disclaimers at the beginning of that meeting, we asked the superindent, is pete arredondo still the school's chief of police? he was the incident commander during the shooting, identified as such by dps, and he said he could not answer that question because it was a personnel matter. i asked if he had communicated with him recently. he wasn't able to answer that. i asked him if he was satisfied where the investigation stands now. shortly after, he stood up, walked out of the meeting. we spoke to parents after and their frustration palpable because here we are, approaching three weeks since the shooting

and the investigation now under the guidance of the local district attorney who has yet to make a public statement. we spoke to the mayor the other day who says he's not receiving briefings, confidential or not. just any sort of update regarding the investigation. and it's wearing on folks here in uvalde. i want to give you a little quick example of how. a father told me he's keeping his son from going to summer school because he doesn't know who the school's police chief is. he said if it's still arredondo, he doesn't feel comfortable with his son being in a summer school environment with him still leading the school's police force and if it's not, he doesn't know who is because nobody's saying anything. >> i think that illustrates exactly what you're talking about, morgan. the demand, the need for parents to have answers. i'm glad you're on the ground asking those questions. and now to you. obviously in the wake of what happened in uvalde, you've seen some discussion on capitol hill, right? i hesitate to say action.

we've seen it on the house side, but the red flag law, excuse me, bill, proposal, one of the few that overlaps some of the work being done in the senate. talk about if there is a possibility that that moves forward and the latest on those senate discussions. >> there seems to be a consensus between the house and senate about pursuing red flag laws, but there's a difference in the way the two chambers are doing it. the bill the house passed allows people to petition federal courts to keep guns away from a dangerous person. a law enforcement official. a family member. what the senate bipartisan negotiators are looking at is state-based red flag laws. they want to encourage states to set these up and they want to provide a significant amount of money to help states implement them. currently, 19 states as well as the district of columbia have red flag laws, but they're not well understood. they want more carrots, less sticks approach to encouraging

sticks to set up these red flag laws as well as promote awareness about how to implement them. a second source said it's still being worked on. chris murphy was asked what the hold up is. he said it's less about policy. especially on this provision. he said the problem here, the reason there isn't a deal yet is that too many republicans are resistant to the idea of doing anything when it comes to passing a bill on gun violence. he said they need to get over that. the issue rs background checks. what to do with this group of 18 to 21-year-olds. whether to put juvenile records into the background system. whether people who have exhibited violence or suicidal tendencies in their younger days, whether that should be included. >> thank you. back to the breaking news just a couple of minutes ago

with this prosecutor in michigan now just announcing that the police officer who killed patrick lyoya is going to be charged. listen to what he said. >>. >> based on his investigation, everything he has provided to me, i have made the decision to charge christopher scherr with one count of second degree murder. >> video of what happened shows the officer pulled lyoya over, lyoya running away. an autopsy found he shot him in the back of the head, killing him. he was a refugee from the democratic republic of congo, 26, and had two kids. kathy, help us understand what went down moments ago in a building you're outside of. >> well, we just heard from the kent county prosecutor, christopher becker, and he said

scherr will be charged with one count of second degree murder. now, this incident happened back on april 4th. so there has been mounting pressure for some sort of charging decision. and i asked the prosecutor why did it take all this time. well, he said he got the information from michigan state police which initiated the investigation just eight days ago. this information, the report just a few days ago so he was able to come to this conclusion today. the prosecutor also mentioned that he was in touch with lyoya's family. they submitted a letter in swahili and they haven't had time to process that letter yet, and also extended his condolences as well. we have heard the officer has turned himself in. an arraignment will be held sometime tomorrow but this is another chapter in this ongoing saga here in grand rapids, michigan. we've been following this

headline for quite some time. a lot of community members, activists wanted officer scherr to be held accountable. he has been on administrative leave ever since this deputy shooting, but these folks said look, justice looks like prosecution. also they wanted him to be fired. so once again, the arraignment will be held sometime tomorrow for scherr and we'll be following that closely. >> kathy park live in grand rapids. thank you. next up, we're going to be joined by somebody who will be attending tonight's january 6th hearing. the wife of jeffrey smith, a d.c. metro police officer who died by suicide nine days after the insurrection. how she is now fighting for justice for her husband. next. fighting r fo justice for her husband. next (vo) singing, or speaking. reason, or fun.

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of other rioters. he was already being sued by the wife of jeffrey smith whose baton he was seen grabbing. smith died by suicide nine days after january 6th. his department ruled it was because of the trauma he experienced that day. ryan, i think that you were listening to this arraignment, yes. >> that's right. and this is the first court appearance. it's been a long awaited court appearance. this is an individual identified by online sleuths last summer, in august. it's taken this long for this case to progress. i think it speaks to just how large this is. there are hundreds more of these arrests to come. they've identified hundreds of individuals. it really does speak to just how large this vest has become and finally, we have an arrest in this case. >> ryan riley with that update. thank you very much. in the room for tonight's hearing, some faces you may

recognize like harry dunn. a capitol police officer who testified early on in the investigation about what he experienced. dunn will be in a room accompanied by the partners of three officers who lost their lives in the aftermath of january 6th including the wife of the d.c. metro police officer we just mentioned, jeffrey smith. his death again ruled a line of duty death after the insurrection. i want to bring in his wife and her attorney. thank you so much for being here with us. i know you had the opportunity to listen in to the arraignment. why did you want to do that? >> it's a step in the right direction of hopefully being charged with these charges now and hopefully more to come. >> i was going ask you about that because these charges here are misdemeanors related to his entry into the capitol. they don't address the interaction he had with your husband. are you disappointed in that? >> the justice department knows what they're doing.

i trust them. and hopefully you know, the truth will come out and whether that's more charges or not, we'll find out. >> why is it important for you and erin to look for justice and to seek accountability, both civilly and criminally? >> i think that one of the most important pieces of this case is that jeff, erin's husband, is the first person that we're aware of that's ever been ruled a line of duty death based on a silent injury. meaning he suffered a traumatic brain injury. and erin has had to fight for almost 18 months to have that recognition given to her. the district of columbia. >> only happened in march. >> on march 7th. and there's now a bill pending in the senate that's already cleared the house that on a federal level would include local and state law enforcement officers and federal law enforcement officers who suffer

similar experiences to jeff. so she's calling for the senate to vote on that. it cleared the house 402-12 and just passed the senate judiciary committee unanimously. so that's part of her mission in this, is that other widows and widowers and children never have to go through what the smith family has gone through. >> i want to ask more about that in a minute, but i have to ask you about tonight because as we mentioned, you're going to be there. you're attending. we know based on what we've heard from members of the committee and from our reporting that there will be intense footage shown. potentially graphic stuff. and i imagine for you, it is going to be reliving the trauma from that day. given that, why is it important for you? why did you decide you wanted to be in that hearing room tonight? >> i think it's important to show that even though some of the officers are no longer with us, they're still here. we still represent them as you know, i represent jeff as his widow. the others do as well.

and just to show that you know, he gave his life for that day. >> what do you want americans to get out of tonight? >> i hope that those that are still skeptical believe what really happened. we all saw it take place live. we know what happened and the truth will come out. >> you mentioned people who are skeptical. there are still, as you know, people out there who cast doubt on the activities, on the actions that happened on the day of the recollection. do you think they could be convinced of what they see tonight of what your husband and other officers went through? >> i don't know. you can only hope so. >> yeah. i wanted you to tell us more about jeff because you talked about him before and he seemed like a funny guy. light hearted. i think you described him as a jokester before. tell me how you're thinking about him and remembering him today. >> he was a great husband. a great police officer.

a great son. a great friend. an overall good person. >> dog father. >> he also loved his dog. and cars. but he was just a fun person to be around. and he really just enjoyed life. >> and january 6th changed that. >> it did. >> and he was never obviously the same. has the committee reached out to you about speaking publicly at a witness at any of the hearings? >> they have not. >> would you if they asked? >> yes. >> would you encourage her? >> there's been a lot of moving pieces in the last 48 hours. there is discussion of erin testifying. she is -- >> discussion from the committee about erin speaking. >> correct. tonight, she is meeting with the staff director of the committee who's going to bring her into the hearing room and the committee will decide if they

need her testimony. but if they do, erin is willing to cooperate. >> tell me why and what you want people to hear. if you have the opportunity to speak to a huge portion of the country. >> i think they need to know what an officer went through that's no longer here with us. they've heard from ones that are still here and the ones that aren't have a story as well. >> david mentioned your advocacy on behalf of other partners, spouses. we know some of them obviously will be with you tonight in this hearing. i think of officer levingood who died by suicide, also. and his death as far as i know still has not been ruled a line of duty death. talk about this sort of mission you're on now. this fight that you're taking on on behalf of other women like you. >> so, the main goal is to get departments to recognize that a death by suicide can be correlated to the job. it can be a line of duty death.

and departments need to recognize that and understand that they can't just brush these types of deaths under the rug and they need to be investigated and they need to be designated correctly. >> is that what you're worried about? that jeff's death would be brushed under the rug? >> yes. >> is there a sense of relief? you are going to be in the room. you might be a witness testifying at one of the upcoming hearings. >> it's just to get people to understand that no matter how they died, they still served their department, their city, their state. >> i can tell this is emotional for you. this is a tough day. it's been a tough year and a half. can you tell me what today's been like for you and what you're bracing for tonight? >> it's been quite stressful, but it's part of the process. it's seeing things through and it's just another step in the

right direction. >> do you think about accountability? >> i do. >> in what sense? >> at the end of the day, things don't happen without somebody being responsible. so whether it's one person or multiple people. >> how high up do you think that accountability should go? >> that's really not for me to decide. but i think the truth will come out. >> what do you hope jeff's legacy will be? >> that he saves democracy on january 6th and that he was a part of a group of men and women that went in there not knowing what they were going to face and they did their job and they came out on the other side. >> david, as erin shares the story, shares more about her husband and what a great, incredible person he was and how this change happened after january 6th, what do you hope from sort of the legal

perspective? from the argument the committee is looking to take on, that people take away from this? >> erin and i are mainly here to seek justice for jeff and advocate for all the future families that should never have to go there what she went through. it's hard to appreciate how much of a fight we had to learn what happened to jeff that day. >> explain that. >> we, when erin was first notified of jeff's death, they told her that it was a motor vehicle accident then several hours later, they told her that he had shot himself. and it was not recognized as a line of duty death and they declined to provide us the body cam. they declined to give us any of the evidence and the first, and erin new from that night, because jeff was injured and jeff told her that he had been

injured, and so she knew that something happened that had changed him because he wasn't the same man. he wasn't the same dog father. and the first piece of physical evidence we received was jeff's autopsy and jeff had fractures on his face and those fractures, you know, our position, our lawsuit, and our expert who is the former chief medical examiner of washington, d.c. is that those fractures are from the assaults he faced on january 6th. and based on ultimately getting the body camera footage, we were able to see what happened to him, including that he was knocked unconscious and our experts of who we have two, say that what you can see on body cam is him suffering a concussion. we can support that because we have the x-raies of his face and we know from our endless war in

the middle east that concussion can lead to suicide. and the military rules approximately 90% of line of duty suicides to be line of duty deaths and local and state government law enforcement has not followed that science, and so what we're trying to do is advance the science and advance the law so that nobody has to go through what erin went through. she had to hire a private lawyer to conduct the investigation. the person charged today, the fbi's charging documents reference erin's lawsuit as part of the basis for the criminal document. it was the work that these folks who helped us identify these gentlemen, not the bureau, that figured out what happened that day. >> the civil portion of this, the attorneys have taken

exception with the lawsuit and the claims that you're making. erin, before we go. i want to give you the final word here because it feels like it's just been a heavy day. the arraignment today that you felt it was important to listen to. what you are about to experience in four hours from now when you walk into the room of the capitol complex, the place where your husband changed forever. can you give us some insight into where you are at this moment in your journey and what you want people to know? >> right now we're still working on all of the pieces. the end goal is to make sure that no one else has to go through the same things that i've had to go through to get to this point and at the end, i hope that jeff's names is inscribed on the law enforcement memorial right here in d.c. >> erin smith, thank you so much for being with us and for coming to the studio and talking to me.

david webber, thank you, as well. i appreciate it. we should note if you or anybody you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, there's help and this is the national suicide prevention lifeline. 1-800-273-8255. 800-273-talk. eline. 1-800-273-8255 800-273-talk

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so we are hearing from the capitol hill team, for now no deal on the bipartisan senate talks on any new gun laws. they just wrapped up, the negotiators have, an in-person meeting. it's thursday afternoon and that means they're headed out of town for the weekend. chris murphy who has been spearheading these talks is telling the team he's getting the sense that they're not far away from some kind of package, but he says they're not there yet. we showed you president biden in los angeles, speaking in the last hour in the summit of the americas and he's meeting with brazilian president bolsonaro this afternoon and tensions are pretty high. he would only meet him if high did not confront him on the amazon according to three of his cabinet ministers. let me bring in kelly o'donnell in los angeles.

help us understand what the expectations are now for the meeting between these two leaders? >> in many ways, hallie, this is one of the premiere moments of this summit and if there wasn't so much other news happening this would be getting a lot of eyeballs because president bolsonaro is much more in the donald trump mold and for president biden to have his first face to face with president bolsonaro of brazil, that is a high-level moment of diplomacy. there is not a lot in which these two leaders agree, but brazil is an important international player and this is a chance for them to be seen on the same stage and for bolsonaro that may help him as he tries to seek re-election back home. for president biden this is awkward and uncomfortable because bolsonaro has been affiliated and aligned with former president trump and has questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election on a day when, of course, many americans will be watching those hearings tonight

related to january 6th. so all of the timing is quite interesting and there are, of course, big substantive issues to what's happening in the western hemisphere and even on optics alone this is critical. we just heard from the president with pierre -- that was his father, justin trudeau talking about j 6 and this will be a highlight moment and because we're in the western time zone and we're behind east coast this will happen a few hours from now so it may not get as much attention and it's one of the highlights i'll be looking for. what will the body language be? what will the message be and will it change the relationships between these two leaders because both nations are critically important democracies in the world and they have very different approaches to how they govern their countries. hallie? >> kelly o'donnell live in l.a. thank you. thank you for watching this hour of msnbc. special coverage tonight on this network. "deadline: white house" picks up

right after the break. picks up right after the break. daring, or thoughtful. sensitive, or strong. progress isn't either or progress is everything. hi, i'm denise. i've lost over 22 pounds with golo in six months

and i've kept it off for over a year. i was skeptical about golo in the beginning because i've tried so many different types of diet products before. i've tried detox, i've tried teas, i've tried all different types of pills, so i was skeptical about anything working because it never did. but look what golo has done. look what it has done. i'm in a size 4 pair of pants. go golo. (soft music) hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. buckle up, folks. the first in a series of hearings about january 6th in the months' long campaign to overturn the 2020 election result is tonight. the january 6th select committee promising to, quote, change history as committee member adam kinzinger puts it. the panel is preparing to present the american people the story of january 6th