you both for coming on, appreciate it. >> that is all in on this thursday night msnbc prime starts now with ali veteran good evening ali. ht msnbc prime starts now with ali vetera joining us this hour. he was fired from his very first job for lying. it was his first job as a newspaperjo reporter in london, and he got caught making up quotes. but a more right wing newspaper didn't see that as disqualifying so they stacked him up and sent him to brussels to cover the headquarters of the european union. once there he spent the early 1990ars doing what he did best. he made things up. filed reports about how the autocratic foreignersad running thefi eu were making hair-brain rules about what the u.k. could and couldn't do. thingsai like the shape of britain's strawberries. and how british cheese could be made. and making good old-fashioned english fishermen wear hair

nets. there was an even entire column about the eu making condoms too small.um none of this were true but he thought it was great fun. he told an interviewer quote, i was just chucking these rocks over the garden wall and listening to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in england. everything i wrote from brussels was having this amazing explosive effect on the conservative party, and it w really gave me this, i suppose, rather weird sense of power. end quote. the right wing newspaper which flashes headlines on the front pagee about the secret evil pl of european bureaucrats to take over british life and rule the u.k. from afar and his newspaper readers learned to distrust and hate the eu. those readers included a lot of conservative lawmakers, and he watched with glee, as civil war broke out in his own party about howok anti-europe they should b. because people who know him well

will tell you that even back then, as a cub reporter, chucking those rocks over the garden wall, he had higher ambitions. his name of course was boris johnson. you got to land it to him on one score. however improbable he did eventually achieve the highest ambition of them all. prime minister of the unitedti kingdom. all it took was tearing his party and his country apart and plunging the u.k. into a catastrophic economic and logistical crisis by wrenching his nation out of that thing that he talked so many of his country men to hate. the european union. and the story of how boris johnson came to resign as prime minister today after three tee multousni years at the -- tumultuous years at the helm is its owe unique scandal. and brexit deal, throwing parties during covid lock jounce, promoting a lawmaker he

knew to have a history of sexual harassment allegations. trying do get a job for his girlfriend, enough scandal to have brought down ten prime ministers. he blustered through all of them. until he couldn't. it's also a story of what happens and stop me if this sounds too's familiar, when too many people are taken in by an liar who for years is treated like a joke, until suddenly he's the most dangerous man in the country. take a look at this clip of boris johnson on a news quiz show in 2003. this is just a couple of years after he first became a member of parliament. watch as how mucham of a joke en he treats the idea of him being prime minister somehe day. >> i've been told that you could be the next conservative leader. >> i think that is as -- >> being blinded by that.

maybe some other statistic. >> a very effective opposition. very pesky, led on by the media. >> it was all a joke. there was no way someone as buffoonish should get it together to become prime minister. once he became mayor of london, a surprise in such a liberal city, the iconic image we all have of him is hanging helplessly off of that zip line, british flags in hand boosting the city's hosting of olympics. when he campaigned to get people to vote to leave the eneu in th referendum he toured the country with frightening looking images of hordes of foreigners invading, promising

people they would save all this money and reinvest is in health care, it was all invented. boris johnson just wanted to be prime minister. he watched gleefully as the referendum and then the years of trying to actually extricate the u.k. from the eu, this whole project built out of his lies and ambition, tore the country apart. but he did finally get the job he wanted and he had to be dragged practically kickinghe a screaming out of office. there is a reason people call boris johnson trumpian, but for all of the obvious parallels to our own recent history, it appears that the united kingdom is going to get one thing out of this change of leaders that we didn't get. a peaceful transfer of power. now, to be clear, it's not over yet.er johnson says he will remain prime minister until his party chooses a successor, which could take months, and it's not like he builtr, up a lot of trust. some peoplehe think his

resignation announcement may be just a delay tactic in hopes that he can still hold up his job long-term. but i think it's fair to say that no one expects boris johnson to send an armed mob of his supporters to storm parliament if he doesn't get his way. one reason for that is that boris johnson doesn't have many supporters left. more than 50 members of johnson's government quit in him out.force his own party abandoned him. something that never happened to donald trump. and here in this country, not only did we not get a peaceful transfer of power, we're still investigating, still learning the full contours of trump's attempt to break our democratic system to remain in power. yesterday marked 18 months since the attack on the capitol, the justice department says more than 855 people have been arrested for their roles in the attack. nearly 330 of whom have pled guilty including a handful of militia members who pled guilty

to seditiousgu conspiracy. another ten people have been found guiltyui at trial. as for the investigation in congress, tomorrow, trump's white house counsel pat cipollone in theng middle of so many crucial moments in theho ds andhe weeks leading up to the attackny on the capitol, pat cipollone will sit for a transcribed videotaped interview with the january 6 committee. and next week, more public hearings. on tuesday morning, the committee will present its findingsar on links between tru and the extremist militias that played atr pivotal role in the attack. this will reportedly include details of conversations between trump allies and these extremist groups. and the committee reportedly be holding a second hearing next week, on thursday, in prime time, and which may suggest they expect it to be particularly important and perhaps we can have some kind of a synthesis of all of the investigation uncovered thus far. it will takehand a while to com

terms with all of the damage brought by january 6 and donald trump's time in power. like boris johnson it wasn't too long ago,tr that he was a figur of i ridicule, his political aspirations a joke. and then their respective political parties fell in line behind them. today, in the u.k., the conservative party has belatedly realized the mistake they made. we're still waiting on the republicans. joining us now is the pulitzer prize winning congressional reporter for "the new york times" and one of reporters whoco broke the news about pat cipollone reaching a deal toe testify before the januaryon 6 investigation. thank you forre being with us tonight. we appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. good evening. >> good evening to you.ni let's talk about pat cipollone's interview tomorrow. it is one of these characters, we saidin his name and talked s much about himer in the last we ornd so, that it may be useful remind us why he is such an important witness right in this moment. >> well, pat cipollone is the top attorney in the white house. in the final weeks of the trump

administration. and in that t position, he is privy to every extreme flock and plan that is presented to donald trump and that donald trump considers. he is there for conversations about seizing the voting machines. he's there when a plan is floatedch to send false letterso stateoa officials, saying the d.o.j. and the justice department has found fraud and they should reconsider they're election results. he's there when bill barr turned, offers to turn in his resignation to donald trump and donald trump accepts it after bill barr concludes there is no widespread fraud in the election. and he's there on january 6th, when donald trump is in the oval office, in the dining room, and cipollone and others go in to others to tell him to call off the mob as they're storming the building and donald trump refuses. and accordingre to cassidy hutchinson's testimony, the

white house aide thatin we all w testify last week, that he was there when donald trump said that he was accepting of the mob's endorsement of hanging mike pence, that he thought they had themo right idea. so, and there may be other things that we don't even know about. i'm just saying what i know. pat citizen would have had accessg to multiple other conversations that have not yet been reported. so his testimony could potentially be very explosive for the committee. >> what's your sense of when we're going to find out about his testimony and whether we're going to actually see any of it? >> well, we're going to do our best to get a lead. as soon as he testifies tomorrow, i don't know if we can guarantee and we have been pretty good, they have been pretty good about keeping leaks to aet minimum. andty we expect pat cipollone, perhaps the second hearing next week, and i do think there is a potential though, of pat cipollone's testimony, it is explosive enough that we could

see another hearing added, featuring his testimony, in larger part. or even a hearing pushed back into the following week. as of right now, i expect them to use that as potentially the hearing that most of us on the hill believe will happen thursday evening in prime time, and that hasn't been officially announced yet but that's the hearing that will dealce with donald trump's more than three-houral delay in calling o the mob. and i thinkan that his testimon fits perfectly in that session. >> there are two teams next week this. one we don't have confirmed on thursday night dealing with what youth said it would deal with a tuesday's hearing which we think iswo going to deal, we know, wek been told by members of the committee, it will deal with the linksd between the extremists d the t militia members and donal trump's allies and perhaps even donald trump himself. that, you know, until now, those have been parallel tracks of investigation, right?un what the sort of the militias and the extremists were doing on the capital grounds and what the trump allies were doing, they're going to attempt on tuesday to

bring that w together? >>in yes, and this is the heari thatin i've actually, i'm actuay most interested in, because this is the big question for me from the start. we know donald trump encouraged thet. mob to come to the capito on january 6th and we know they rought weapons and they attacked the building and they were carrying out his plans. is there anything more? are there closer ties than what donald trump just saidth public? we've heard of some of these ties.ru we know about roger stone, the close ally of donald trump, how he wasr involved in the chat group with some members of the oathkeepers and the proud boys, and how heoa had some of these extremist groups as body guards. perhaps that will be discussed. we know there was a meeting in the garage between the proud boys leader and the oathkeepers leader. perhaps that will be discussed. we know the leader of the oathkeepers tried to call donald trump and used an intermittent ry who no one has identified yet. we don't know who the

intermediary is. i'm very interested to see ho in theed political world does the committee believe was the link between trump and the extremist groupsbe and how much planning coordination, if any, took place. >> you said something interesting. you talked about thursday's hearing possibly dealing with the three hours of inaction. liz cheney very specifically refers to it as 187 minutes of inaction. a little longer than three hours. and her argument, and in fact, she has been out ahead of even. so democrats on the committee, her argument is that it was more than inaction. you can see it as inaction, but he actually failed to stop something he knew was happening, and i suspect between tuesday's hearing and thursday's hearing, the committee is going to try and illustrate that for americans, that it wasn't the president not doing something, it was the president failing to dopr something to protect democracy and the sanctity of the electoral count. >> yes, she often uses the words

dereliction of duty. and i do think most people when they see donald trump or to hear testimony about donald trump agreeing withee the mob, when h knows they w have weapons, and sayshe let's march them to the capitol anyway, and when he sees them attacking the building, and agrees with what they're doing and thinks it's proper to put pressure on, and then tweets out against mike pence saying he didn't have the courage to do what he needed to do, i think most americans see that and are aghast at those actions. that said, one of the goals of the committee is to establish a criminal conspiracy, or to provide evidence that could help prosecutors advance a case of criminal conspiracy, they will need to put some more meat on the bones at these hearing. we've heard cassidy hutchinson's testimony. are there other people who could testify to similar things to back up or buttress her

testimony and are there other things we don't know about yet, are there conversations that donald trump had that have yet to be revealed? i'm going to be watching like the rest of america, very closely to these hearings. >> luke, thank you as always for your time. luke broadwater with excellent reporting. ever since roe was overturned, the fight over abortion access is playing out in a dozen states at once, all in different ways. every day, it's felt like an avalanche of news, but today was a particularly big day on that front. both forly bad news, and for go news. that's next. but first, an update on the story we led's the show with la night. "the new york times" broke the incredible story of how the former fbi director james comey and hisho former deputy andrew mccabe both of whom president trump viewed as his enemies for their role in starting the investigation into trump's connections toth russia, well, last night "the new york times" broke theec news that both come

and mccabe were selected for the irs'sth supposedly random most intense audit. the odds of being selected for that audit are about one in 30,000. two people who a trump saw as h top enemies, were selected. well tonight, the irs has asked the treasury department inspector general to investigate how that happened. maybe it was trulyin random. maybe it wasn't. looks like we're about to find out. e it wasn't. do you have a life insurance looks like we're about to find out. eed? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate

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this bright pink building you're going to see is known as the pink house in mississippi, the only health care facility in the state that provided abortion. until today. the pink house more formally known as the jackson women's health, was the clinic at the center of the supreme court case that allowed this conservative court to overturn roe and casey. busier than ever this week with streams of cars, of license plates from texas, mississippi, louisiana, and arkansas, pulling up with patients, jackson women' health performed its last abortion procedure before the end of the day yesterday. and then it closed its doors for the last time. abortion rights advocates posted signs on the property saying we will always fight for health care and this is not the end, we have hope, we have each other. the pink house tried to put up one more fight this week to prevent the state's trigger law from shuttering its doors, but it lost that battle on tuesday, when a judge denied the clinic's request to temporarily block the trigger ban from taking effect

today. most abortions are now outlawed in mississippi, effective today so clinic workers began packing up the pink house, abortion laws in flux all over this country, with more than a dozen states now subject to trigger bans. these laws are changing so much, so fast, you can literally track the daily changes on "the new york times" state by state, like you would track viral covid trends. it's important to remember, the reason these laws are in flux is because of the sentiment written on those posters outside of the pink house today. people refuse to believe this is the end. they have enduring hope that it will not allow them to give in to these extreme anti-health care laws. and they're putting in the work every single day to fight back. today, the only remaining abortion provider in north dakota, red river women's clinic in fargo, filed a lawsuit in state court, seeking to block enforcement of north dakota's trigger ban which would prohibit nearly all abortions in the state now that we're in a

post-roe world. that ban is currently set to take effect on july 28th. there are a bunch of other abortion providers fighting in court and lawsuits in states across the country, including oerkz, florida, idaho, texas, west virginia, some of those lawsuits, one in kentucky, another in louisiana, have actually successfully gotten injunctions or temporary restraining orders allowing abortions to continue there for now. and some state elected officials are fighting back, too. this week colorado governor jared polis signed an executive border to protect reproductive rights in his state. he will exercise the full extent of my discretion to decline requests for the arrest, surrender or extradition of any -- >> in north carolina yesterday, the governor also signed an executive order protecting abortion rights in the state. not only are some elected officials making sure that the will of the people is heard in their state, that people are

gearing up to take the fight for reproductive rights head-on. at the ballot box. according to a "washington post" analysis, quote, voters in as many as eight states will vote on abortion this year. two additional states have been trying to add abortion policies to their ballots, and they're up against a hard deadline to collect the necessary signatures to get it. michigan has until monday to gather 425,000 signatures, but they've already got nearly twice that. organizers there report about 800,000 signatures, and barring any unforeseen issues, abortion will be on the ballot in michigan in november which means voters will have the chance at a state constitutional amendment ensuring reproductive rights. today was the deadline in arizona, arizonans for reproductive freedom needed 356,000 signatures today to put abortion access on the ballot and to make it part of the state constitution. ultimately they fell short of

the goal for this year, but they did collect more than 175,000 signatures, an incredible feat, considering the campaign started 61 days ago. and now with their sites set on 2024, they say not to count them out just yet. campaign treasurer had this to say on the matter, quote, i am confident that we will succeed in bringing this to voters in 2024. this campaign will not stop until abortions are once again legal and accessible across arizona. joining us now is shasta mcmanus, co-founder of arizonians for reproductive freedom. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thanks so much for having me. we really appreciate it. >> what you are feeling right now? >> a remarkable effort, 61 days, in excess of 175,000 significants but falling short of what needed to happen to put it on the ballot. >> while today is really hard for us, we are celebrating today, because we accomplished

something historic. our reproductive freedom, it is grass roots, people-driven effort, and volunteers showed up by the thousands. we had over 3,000 people on the ground that collected 175,000 signatures, and as you said, in just 61 days. that is over 2,800 signatures a day, by volunteers that felt this urgency. and i mean behind me, you can see the boxes, the petitions that we had planned to turn in. but behind me is 175,000 people in the state of arizona who came out and found us, to sign this petition, since they understand the urgency. >> so this is important, because 175,000 people had something that they could do, right? because people across this country are saying what do we do

now, and that is something that they can do, or could have done, how do people who cannot believe these laws that are crumbling state to state, i mean arizona's law, governing abortion, dates back to 1901, there are people in your state who cannot imagine in 2022 that you're going back to 1901, and its laws about abortion. >> i mean you're exactly right. on every bit of that. we went to bed on a thursday, and we woke up on a friday, we rolled back over 100 years, to women laws that were made the civil war was still going on. all of those who who have the right to vote. the laws right now in arizona, they are barbaric this.

coalition was founded following the leak, the supreme court leak, and we were overwhelmed by the number of health care providers, patients, abortion providers, reproductive advocates, who all came together to say we see what's coming, and we have to do something now. we can't wait to try again later. and we knew that this was going to be an uphill battle. but we also wanted to make sure that on that friday, in the supreme court decision, when it did come down that, the people of arizona could look up and see somebody fighting for them, that they weren't alone, and that we are a community that cares about their reproductive rights and their futures. we had an option to wait two years, but we understand in these next two years, and this is kind of what is sad about today, is that lives and

livelihoods are going to be decimated in the next two years. and we all know who this is going to affect the most. and of course, it is those who are living with limited means, are black, brown and indigenous communities in arizona, and working families. we understand who this is going to hurt most. and while that is sad, we are, and we see that arizonans are ready to fight back, because this effort has been historic, and so we are confident for our next effort. because arizonans came out and showed we're ready for this and we're ready to take this on. give twous more weeks and we -- give us two more weeks and we would have been there. we're ready to go. >> ms. mcmanus, in the last two years, we have interviewed via home camera and a lot of interesting things and you have an old sewing machine over your right shoulder and a guitar over your left shoulder but this is

one of the most interesting shots i've ever seen because behind you are 175,000 signatures of people who decided they were going to do something and we thank you for that. >> thank you. and thank you for highlighting the work of our amazing volunteers and the people of arizona because this was absolutely a coalition effort and we are filled with warmth and gratitude for everybody. and we're ready to go again. >> shasta, mcmanus, the treasurer and co-founder of arizonians for reproductive freedom. thank you for your time tonight. trump stakes, trump university. trump's scandal, but he's nothing if not inventive when it comes to how to monetize his supporters and the latest is a doozy. we've got that next. latest is a

doozy. we've got that next.

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nearly $4,000 which gets you among other things a photo op with kimberly guilfoyle but the actual president himself, a patriot level ticket and i can't cost you how much it will cost to be a patriot because the price is not listed on the website and you better hurry though because the prices won't last long, according to the website the prices could increase tomorrow. it is the american freedom tour, donald trump's latest gig, lucrative paid speeches. to state the obvious, giving speeches is not an unusual thing for a former president to do so. former president obama, former problem have done so and the difference is they are paid for by businesses, and donald trump's are not paid for by big businesses, they're paid by individual fans buying tickets.

the latest entrepreneur and reporting from the "washington post," trump's new money maker, political speeches to fans shall the former president makes millions appears at events that resemble his political rallies. here it is. quote. the fees aren't going to trump's political action committee. his $100 million war chest. this event was not a trump rally where attendance is free. instead, it was a for-profit show, more like a rock concert. the proceeds benefit trump personally as part of a multi-million dollar deal to speak at the events. the program, the american freedom tour, is the work of a long-time motivational speaker promoter, with a trail of bankruptcy filings and business disputes across the country. it is also common for politicians to offer access to big spenders, throw the money usually goes to a campaign, not just a candidate's pockets. trump's money-making is especially brazen considering that he is the only modern ex-president to contemplate

running for president again. end quote. donald trump is not raking in millions from wall street firms. he's lining his pockets by selling tickets to regular ordinary people, to what are basically glorified rallies. he's not giving these lucrative rallies to the political action committee to run for office, the millions are going directly to donald trump himself and he is getting that money from his fans. this is nice work if you can get it. joining us now is isaac arnsdorf, a national political reporter at the "washington post" and one of the reporters by lines on this reporting. thank you for your time tonight. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> is it, do these rally-goers who are buying these tickets, do they know where their money is going, and does it matter? do you think they would care if they knew it was going to not donald trump's political arsenal to make america more great again but into his pockets? >> we talked to a lot of people

and we didn't find anyone who had a problem with. that it wasn't necessarily super clear. they get these trump campaign fundraising emails and an ad for this tour and they buy tickets but the reality is, whether the money went to trump personally, or to the campaign, they were thrilled to do it. because they really wanted to see trump. they were woil willing to pay for it. and they love him and they wanted to help him. they wanted to give him their money. >> tell me a little bit about who these folks. are there are a lot of things in life that i would do for free and probably wouldn't pay $15 to do and there seems to be people who want to do this. are they enthusiastic trump supporters? >> absolutely. they're people who have been to trump rallies before or people who haven't gotten the chance, because, you know, there wasn't one nearby. they're regular working people. recent high school graduates. nurses. retirees. and they just really, really, really wanted to see trump and they were thrilled to pay for

it, you know, like they would pay for concert tickets. >> so one can always understand, or can try to understand why donald trump does this, and why it's different from his predecessors but who else speaks at these rallies? we got a sense of who the attendees are. who are the cast of characters, are there openers and covers for them? >> yes, and they're very handsomely paid as well. there are other right wing stars like daneshdsouza. kimberly guilfoyle, donald trump jr., and can das owens, and those who offer courses in investment, personal finance that they are trying to sign you up for follow-up seminars. so there is a full range of the republican stars like you would see at the trump rally and then you know, some other things that are more in that for profit stage too. >> this is not part of a campaign, the republican party, or anything like that, it's a guy who organizes this, like a

concert promoter? >> yes, it's a private business. the guy has a background in motivational speaking. people like tony robbins. and this opportunity came up. they saw an opportunity. they struck a multi-million dollar deal for trump to appear at these vanes. and they've been holding them over the past year and are planning more. >> what is the sense, you said they're planning more, does that mean more with donald trump, is this donald trump's thing until he announces he is running for office or not? >> well, he's been holding regular rallies, too. and then, you know, kind of on and off between those and these, and you know, it's, like you mentioned, it's unusual for a candidate, for trump, ordinarily be normally sensitive about how they're making money and any

appearance they are taking money for people who are paying for access with them, an you know, that's just not something that, and you know, that's just not something, that is not a rule that trump is playing by. >> isaac, thanks for joining us. thanks for your reporting, a national political reporter at the "washington post." we appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. it's been 140 days since the american wnba star brittney griner was arrested in russia on trumped-up charges. that is longer than ukraine and russia have been at war this year, but today we got home that griner's wrongful detainment may be coming closer to an end. an update after this. wrongful y

be coming closer to an end an update after this

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trevor reed, home in texas for the first time in nearly three years. after being freed from a russian jail. president biden agreed to a prisoner swap for a convicted russian drug smuggler serving 20 years in the u.s. >> we believe that he probably saved our son's life. >> the two prisoners trading places between american and russian planes on a tarmac in turkey overnight. >> the last time prisoner swap between russia and the u.s. took place was just a few months ago, in april, russia's case against that american, trevor reed, was sketchy from the start. in 2019, while visiting his girlfriend in moscow, he was taken to a police station to sober up after a night of heavy drinking. the next morning after he was questioned by the russian intelligence service, the fsb, the marine veteran was detained and accused of assaulting the officers who had taken him in. during reed's trial, those

officers struggled to remember the incident and repeatedly contradicted themselves. the whole thing was such a farce that at one point the judge in the case laughed at the evidence. so it's not surprising that people thought that reed was used as something of a bargaining chip for russia, and history may be repeating itself in the case of the wnba star brittney griner. today, in a russian courtroom, griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges, saying that the two vape cartridges found in her luggage which police said contained cannabis oil, were left there unintentionally. but she still faces up to ten years in prison if convicted, she's expected to be back in court on july 14th. her wife and her team, the phoenix mercury have been speaking out about her in prison but last night held a public rally in the home arena calling on the biden administration to do more to free the basketball star. but ironically, today's guilty plea could be a sign that we may be closer to seeing a diplomatic resolution to the situation.

a top russian official has indicated that no steps could be taken to free griner until her case was resolved. and with that now in motion, russia appears interested in exchanging brittney griner for a former soviet military officer and arms dealer named viktor bout, with a federal prison sentence for selling weapons to people who said they would kill americans, there has not been an agreement to the swap but the government has said that griner's safe return is a priority. this situation is complicated by the fact that brittany grine ser not the only american being held by russia right now. paul whelan has been imprisoned in russia for more than three years after russia convicted him on espionage charges which he denies. >> could today's developments be the first step of bringing one or both of these americans home? joining us now is kimberly saint

julian varnen, historian and ph.d. student at the university of pennsylvania. her work is focused on race and the black experience in russia, and the soviet union. she's consulted with the wnba players union about griner's detainment. good to see you again, thank for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> brittney griner pled guilty today, reportedly this was her decision, after consulting with her lawyers, and experts, but a little simple google about the russian criminal justice system will tell you that there's a virtual, there's almost 100% conviction rate in russian courts. >> yes, the russian criminal justice system, if you can call it a justice system, has nearly over a 96% conviction rate and a good way to think about the plea, pleas work differently in russia, she has acknowledged her guilt for the crime and it is up to the state prosecutor to prove evidence that she did commit the crime that she says she pled

guilty to. so i think it's a strategy. it's one of the ways in which she can say that she had an accident, that she didn't mean to bring, but also she respects russian law. i think a smart move on her and her legal team's behalf. >> the thinking by legal analysts she does this, and allows the russian authorities to save face, and if they have any interest in coming up with a deal, she's not trying to embarrass them saying you got me with stuff, and that said, the allegations against her are not supported by the fact that she may have had two vape cartridges with her. >> i think that's the case. and so she's facing two charges. one is possession without intent to sell. and the other one, it's been kind of translated as narcotics trafficking but it's bringing in a controlled substance essentially into russia. so that would be her having those cartridges in her baggage and she was coming into the moscow airport. and that's the heavy charge that carries the five to ten-year

sentence. and so -- >> go ahead, i'm sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt. carrie on. >> in thinking about her acknowledging her guilt, i think one of the reasons she would do that is because, and the russian law doesn't necessarily matter how many vape cartridges you have, the fact is, the intent is kind of seen there because thee brought it into russia from a foreign country. >> brittany grine ser rightfully getting attention right now, but there is this case of paul whela number, his family has been upset about the difference in the way they have been handled. what's your sense of it? >> i think we can completely understand why paul whelan's family is upset, paul is in a maximum security russian prison and been there for two years and a high profile case at the beginning, but in four years, the media attention has kind of fallen off. he has continually protested against his conviction, and constantly said he is infect. and so i think that if we're going to talk about brittney griner's case, we are going to have to talk about paul whelan's

case because simply he has been there longer and he is in a worst spot compared to where brittany grine ser right now. we weren't talking about him until we started talking about her. >> i was going to say is, this negative for paul whelan or positive that now there is a discussion, that americans weren't really involved in, as much with trevor reed, there is now a discussion about how paul whelan and brittney griner might get back to america. >> i definitely see it as a positive. because he has been there for so long, and the fact that, you know, the rumors that trump could get brittney griner out, i think trevor reed and paul whelan are perfect examples of how little trump did for americans held in the russian country, and brittney griner's case, while it is terrifying for her family and supporters, it could be a boon for paul whelan and help him be freed from a maximum security russian prison. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you.

one of the biggest stories of the decade came to a conclusion today. i'll have that up next. of the d conclusion today i'll have that up next

former minneapolis police officer derek chauvin was sentenced to 21 years behind bars in federal court today. he was convicted for using excessive force under the color of law. meaning he used the power given to him by the state as a police officer to go beyond his rightful power and in this case used excessive force. and this wasn't just for the

high profile murder of george floyd. but also for a separate but similar incident in which he injured a black 14-year-old boy in 2017. more than two years now since the videos of then officer chauvin kneeling on george floyd's neck for more than nine minutes made the case a center piece of the national black lives matter movement. just saying his name, george floyd, is on its own a rallying cry for the movement, along with his words, i can't breathe, and the phrase, no justice, no peace, and now the justice part of the story, at least in this case, has come to an end. last year chauvin was convicted very publicly in state court of second-degree murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter, for the killing of george floyd. his new federal prison sentence will be served concurrently with his longer 22 1/2 year state level sentence. but this sentencing marks the last of chauvin's slate of cases and in a larger sense both the state and federal sentences

against derek chauvin signal a new commitment to justice by the minneapolis justice department and our federal justice department, a willingness that has not always been there to hold police officers criminally for the crimes that they commit. that does it for us tonight. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. for good morning. and welcome to "way too early." on this friday, july 8th. i'm jonathan lemire. and we're going to be starting with breaking news out of japan. where the country's former prime minister, shinzo abe, is reportedly in critical condition, after being shot twice. officials say abe was campaigning for a candidate ahead of japan's upcoming house of counselors elections, when he was shot from behind. once to the back. and once in the neck. and with what appeared to be a homemade gun. both reports suggesting abe's condition is very grim at this moment. this happened in the city of