good morning, i'm lindsey riser at msnbc headquarters in new york. the stakes of the fbi search of donald trump's mar-a-lago home have gone nuclear. a source from "the washington post" said, a document describing a foreign government's military defenses including its nuclear

capabilities was found by fbi agents. it's not clear what the document is and what the country is but the list is small there's eight other countries besides the u.s. with nuclear capabilities. the post also reports, some of the seized documents detail top secret operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. only the president, members of the cabinet or near cabinet level official could authorize other government officials to know these details of the special access programs. this reporting has not been confirmed yet by nbc news and the justice department declined to comment but what the president's spokesman is saying about it. and troubles for a top trump ally. nearly two years after being pardoned, steve bannon is expected to face a new criminal indictment in new york and turn

himself in tomorrow. details on that case. and this afternoon, a reunion at the white house. former president barack obama and first lady michelle obama returning to visit the bidens. going to be the start of a bigger role for them headed into the midterms. we'll start with the new revelations about the documents seized from mar-a-lago. i want to bring in correspondent julia ainsley, reporter tom winter. clint watts a former fbi special agent and consultant. and charles coleman, a civil rights attorney and former prosecutor. julia, good to have you here with me. first of all we want to talk about how the post previously reported that agents looked for nuclear documents at the time trump's team said this is bogus. we know that after this reporting there's a new statement out, too. a spokesperson blasting the reporting quoting "the

washington post" continues to serve as the propaganda arm of the biden administration, and instead of operating openly and honestly they include in never ending lies at the expense of the integrity of the fbi and doj. >> we have to see it in the current setting of what the justice department is trying to decide and may decide as soon as today, and that's whether or not to appeal the request for a special master that was granted by that trump appointed judge in florida because now we're realizing not only are they trying to weigh whether to appeal, they're trying to find out whether documents as sensitive as those could be put in a third party's hands. they've taken measures to go through documents by a filter team, handed them over and have a separate intelligence damage assessment going on. now we understand just how sensitive these documents are. not only is it information about

another country's nuclear program we might think the sources of that information was disclosed in the documents. could it be a source of american intelligence could be in danger now, perhaps that a human or other people who would be sources of information. that's what's all weighing on the justice department now. and now we also see how high this bar was when the justice department and the attorney general decided to go ahead and approve the fbi search in august in the first place. >> great point there. clint, want to read a bit more of "the washington post" reporting on top secret u.s. operations saying documents about such highly classified operations requires special clearances on a need to know basis, not just top secret clearance. some special access programs can have as few as a couple dozen personnel authorized to know after an operation's existence. records are kept under lock and key, in a secure, compartmented

information facility with a designated control officer to keep tabs on their location. these are stunning details. why would a former president need the documents on hand? could you ever imagine information of such criminal importance like this being declassified? >> absolutely not. he doesn't need those. those documents should not have been there. and it's reckless and dangerous to do that. usually when the documents, especially around nuclear but other highly classified programs, are taken out or removed so that a principal such as is it president or head of state that they're going to talk to, they're doing some sort of preparation, those are serialized and tracked, they can be limited to a few dozen people in total. which is interesting, the fbi agents encountering that have to be read into the programs that they stumbled upon down in mar-a-lago, not fbi headquarters.

i think the challenge in all of this is what is the damage assessment? you'll hear the dni talk about this the next couple of weeks which is who else had exposure to the documents it's not just unusual it's unheard for documents of that level of classification to be in a location not under any security or watch, in places with cell phones, where pictures can be taken. this is pretty much unheard of. regarding any sort of nuclear secrets, those are held at the highest level of security. so any of that kind of material is down there is quite remarkable. >> clint, quickly, then does this underscore the need for the odni damage assessment? >> absolutely. there has to be a damage assessment to know who had access to those documents and who knows what those secrets are? on the benign end president trump wanted to use them as memorabilia or show them off but the worst end what if someone is

trading on them economically. maybe president trump doesn't know they were down there and someone else was using them there's things like blackmail, other allegations. what we don't know from the affidavit because so much is redacted and blacked out, is what were the information sources the fbi used to know the documents were down there. we assume it's something that's been in mar-a-lago. there are a lot of other methods out there that could have been tips or leads about what documents were at mar-a-lago. >> this puts the special master ruling by judge cannon, a trump employee, into light. this is what bill barr said about the ruling on fox news. >> i think the opinion is wrong. the government should appeal it. it's deeply flawed in a number of ways. i don't think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up. but even if it does i don't see it changing the trajectory.

i don't think it changes the ball game so much as maybe we'll have a rain delay for a couple of innings. >> so obviously major criticism there from a former trump cabinet official. with documents like this, can the doj afford the rain delay that barr mentions? charles, that's to you. >> lindsey, i have to find myself agreeing with bill barr ever in my life, but in this instance i think he's right. previously thinking about the special master issue and whether the doj decides to appeal the question was one of delay and time. an appeal takes time and even one expedited would jeopardize the time line the doj had set out regarding the current investigation. however now that you're talking about the documents at play being so sensitive and critical it does become a different question around national security that i think the doj has to approach in a different manner. because we are now learning that there are literally nuclear secrets from other countries at

play and there are other high level security documents that are so sensitive that only a few people at a time have access to them, the doj can ill afford to allow a special master or third party to have access to them and it's almost forcing a hand they may likely have to appeal. >> julia, you wanted to jump in on this? >> yes. i wanted to underscore how unusual it is for barr to take that position and how unusual that situation is. i covered the barr justice department and one thing i learned about his legal theories is how much he emphasizes the power of the presidency, executive branch, the fact he would not want a third party to review this for executive privilege or attorney/client privilege speaks volumes to what he believes would be a national security issue. a stance i am surprise today see him take as attorney general and more so after leaving the administration when he put so much of his career both as an attorney general on trying to

beef up the man in the white house. >> interesting, important context there. we can talk about this the rest of the show so i want to get to the steve bannon news. he's expected to face a new criminal indictment and surrender tomorrow. he released a statement saying the da has decided to proceed with what he calls phony charges. we know the manhattan da's office conducted their own state investigation after trump pardoned him. what more can you tell us about? >> that was the we build the wall campaign, which was supposedly, according to its founders in their public statement, a completely nonprofit, volunteer effort, where they said they wouldn't take a dime of any contribution, that all the money would go to privately building the southern border wall to try to contain immigration. that's what they said, that's what they proffered, federal prosecutors in indicting bannon said that wasn't true, bannon

set up a nonprofit agency of his own to funnel through payments that personally lined his pockets overall, hundreds of thousands of dollars out of millions of dollars of contributions went to bannon and associates. the ones not pardoned, according to federal prosecutors, actually all pleaded guilty later on after trump left the white house. so it was only bannon that did not end up -- and others that were charged that did not end up having to face any sort of federal penalty for that. as far as the state case is concerned, it's not exactly clear what the charges are going to be or how the cases proceed. as we reported in february of 2021, the investigation began shortly after trump left the white house, shortly after the pardons came down into this organization, the manhattan district attorney's office at the time, according to people that gave us some insight into that investigation, believe that there was a state case to be made here. some people might be wondering,

isn't this the same office that brought forward charges against paul manafort that were dismissed by a state court? yes, that's true. but the circumstances are different. paul manafort had been found guilty or pleaded guilty to a number of charges similar to the state charges. that never happened to bannon here. this involves the border wall effort. he put a statement out last night, a statement i am never going to stop fighting, in fact, i have not yet begun to fight they will have to kill me first. doesn't sound like somebody who, as many people reached out to me on twitter last night, that wondered whether or not he might quote/unquote flip or turn against former president trump. i would say that's unlikely in this case. >> charles, last comment to you. what kind of legal fight is bannon in for here? >> for a serious legal fight. i think the only reason he's not

in federal prison right now is because he got a pardon from donald trump. what i understand about the indictment coming, it's likely to in many elements mirror what was on his plate from a federal case. when you look at the manhattan case, it's similar charges that he is not going to be pardoned for and barring a cooperation agreement, which is unlikely to take place, he's looking at serious jail time because the likelihood is that he will be convicted. >> thank you all so much for joining us at the top of the show. appreciate your time. coming up, white house reunion. the obamas return to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. it will be the former first lady's first trip back since 2017. plus new warnings about massive cyber attacks on school districts. what parents need to know to keep their kids' information

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more dangerous temperatures are in store for the most populous parts of california this week. the excessive heat warning has been extended to friday. it's really adding urgency for the power grid managers. they've already declared an energy emergency alert as the

state works the avoid rolling blackouts. operators say the grid almost hit the state's capacity reaching an all time demand level. nearly 100,000 people lost power briefly. steve patterson is live from burbank, california with more. what are officials asking people to do to protect the state's power grid. >> reporter: thankfully what they did last night because we so narrowly avoided rolling blackouts. it was on a hair trigger. hot summer day, 30,000 megawatts the worst of what we've seen since before last night, 50,000 mega watts last night 52,000 megawatts of energy usage, most the state used in a day. it was so close again. we're not only emergency energy usage it was eea 3, which is the worst designation, which means demand is out stripping supply.

but thankfully people heeded the warning, the messaging was heavy during the hours of 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. because it can't utilize the solar power people come home from work want to get cool, blast the air conditioning, just to scale back on that, turn the thermostat up a little bit to maybe 78 or beyond that. unplug some of the dozens of things you have in your wall outlet. all of that helps. it helped last night and warnings are going to be hot and heavy through the week because temperatures are not declining at all. the emergency expected to last until friday night. emergency managers again warning please, save energy, conserve, help us help you. that's the warning, that's the message we've heard in the state. >> so steve, obviously you live there. this is your community. so what are some things, for example, last night that you weren't able to do or people that you're talking to? in addition to getting cool, you can't run your dishwasher, you can't maybe cook a meal.

what are things people are having to give up? >> reporter: you come home and the first reaction you have after standing in this all day is you want to blast the air conditioning. you can't do that. that's okay. turn on a fan maybe that's the only thing you have plugged many. would have liked to have done my laundry, can't do that. just have to wait a little bit and that's okay because you're helping the entire grid system. people that are unhoused in this state that need a cooling center to cool off at, all of that is at risk when you put us at risk of rolling blackouts. it's just the messaging. one of the things that happened last night was a blast out to everybody's phone almost like an amber alert, it was at 6:00 when it was at its most heaviest time. grid managers said they saw an immediate drop off after that messaging went out. suspect they'll do that again because it was so helpful. but just minor inconveniences to

help out a greater good. >> our colleague, ralph sanchez said he was at the mall when that message went out and everyone's phones went off glee this morning in memphis, the suspect in the murder and kid ap naing of eliza fletcher just appeared in court. the judge revoked his bond. he's facing multiple charges in fletcher's death, including first degree murder, kidnapping and identity theft. he was arrested on saturday after his dna was on a pair of sandals found near where fletcher was last seen. coming upping, what will happen if people who still refuse to acknowledge joe biden's win are in charge of running the next presidential election? the stakes in arizona. first a return to the white house. the obamas will be back at their old home in just a couple of hours. liberty mutual.

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it will be michelle obama's first time back at the white house since they moved out in 2017. it is the long standing tradition of current presidents having unveiling ceremonies for predecessors. let's bring in jeremy peters and robert gibbs. robert you're headed to the event today. we know you worked inside the white house. you saw firsthand the nature of the relationship between barack obama and joe biden. what are you looking forward to about this moment? what does it say about how long it took for this to happen? >> well, i'm excited to reminisce and to share, again, the experiences of what we experienced inside of that building. i think the relationship between joe biden and barack obama is a strong one. there's nothing in the obama years that joe biden didn't have

input and his fingerprints on in terms of important accomplishments. i think you're going to see a lot of obama alumni that go back to the white house incredibly proud of what president joe biden has been able to accomplish in just a few years, inheriting a bigger mess than we inherited back in 2009, quite frankly, when he was vice president. so i think it's going to be an extraordinary day. i'm really looking forward to it. what it says about how long it's taken is i think maybe a bit of a -- says a lot about where our politics is right now. but i think it will be a lot of fun and i think it will be day a of -- a lot of emotion. >> do you see the obamas playing a role in campaigning for democrats ahead of the midterms? >> i think president obama already is and i think he will continue to do that. i think he will be an important

voice in the last nine weeks of this race. and i think president biden will want him out there. >> jeremy, biden is slated to appear at the dnc this week and we know some candidates in battleground states have been unsure whether to campaign with the president. do you see candidates wanting to stump with him? >> i think the more important question is, and really the question that will ultimately determine who shows up at the polls and who they pull the lever for is how angry and despondent voters are at the republican party. you've seen this remarkable shift over the last several weeks where the incumbent president's party has been gaining ground in public opinion polls and seems very well positioned to at least hold on to senate control. if not pick up -- well, not pick up but lose far fewer seats in

the house than they were projected to. that's not just tied into biden's approval rating, which is, by the way, getting better, but it's tied into the perception that's been growing that the republican party is simply too extreme. and the backlash to the roe v. wade decision. when you have public support crumbling like that for republicans, there's a fascinating statistic that amy walter pointed out where voters who are not so pleased with joe biden are saying that they will vote more democrat this time than they would vote republican. and that just doesn't happen. that's not something that we've seen before, and it shows the level of frustration with the republican party and why, really, there are alarm bells ringing there. >> jeremy, i want to ask you about hillary clinton's comments yesterday on trump's refusal to

accept the 2020 election results. let's listen. >> i would not be honest if i didn't say i think there was a seditious conspiracy against the government of the united states and that's a crime. >> led by donald trump? >> led by donald trump. encouraged by donald trump. was i happy when i beat donald trump by nearly 3 million votes but lost the electoral college? no, i was not happy. did i even for a nano second think i'm going to claim victory and try to get the democrats to refuse to certify the election. no! >> some are going to say she's waiting in here, she's answering a question posed by a journalist. but what would be the impact of those comments? is she right to speak out so forcefully? >> well, if you think about it, trump didn't even accept the results of the 2016 election. he was still complaining, and spreading conspiracy theories

about people who supposedly voted illegally and claiming incorrectly that he was the actual winner of the popular vote when we know he wasn't. so it's -- this is really kind of come full circle now here and it -- hillary clinton is not incorrect at all when she points out that this -- the conspiracy has grown and really metastasized to such a degree that it makes what trump did in 2016 almost look like -- almost look quaint. i never expected, following the 2020 election, that so many republicans -- and main stream republicans, would refuse to accept the results and go along with trump. even if it's just kind of silently tacitly acknowledging

this falsehood there was widespread voter fraud. that's a whole different republican party. >> we have to leave it there. thank you both. let's turn to arizona now, a key battleground state at the center of the 2020 election recounts. and according to five thirty eight more than half of americans will have an election deny iron their ballots this fall. in arizona, ten candidates have denied the results of the 2020 elections. one of them is running for arizona's attorney general. here he is at a trump rally this summer. >> make no mistake, we are at war. we are at war with the radical left. i will fight to secure elections so that when donald trump runs and wins again in 2024 everyone will know it's legitimate. i want justice for what they've done to us. it's time we lock up some people and put handcuffs on them.

>> nbc's vaughn hillyard joins me from phoenix. you spoke this morning to the democratic opponent chris maze, what did she say? >> reporter: this is a situation which there is national attention unlike ever before paid attention to the down ballot races, secretary of state, attorney general races, talking about millions of dollars being spent in some of these key states including here in arizona. chris maize, she's the democratic candidate for attorney general. and when you're talking about the implications of who is the attorney general, not only are they in charge of litigation, any lawsuits that may pertain to election interference or concerns in the state but also here in arizona, they're one of those individuals, along with the governor and secretary of state who are tasked with certifying the state's election results here. back in 2020, the republican attorney general did just that.

he certified joe biden's win but you heard from abe who is running as the republican to take over and would be tasked with certifying arizona's 2024 results the suggestion he would have decertified the 2020 results and calls into question whether he would certify a rightful democratic victory in 2024. i want to let you hear from chris maize and the role the threat to integrity play now. how front and center are you making the threats to democracy here in arizona? >> absolutely front and center. it's not too much to say that american democracy runs through the state of arizona in 2022. especially in the attorney general's race. my opponent said he wants to decertify the 2020 election, would not have certified the 2020 election and he wants to eliminate vote by mail, among other things. so it is absolutely central in

these ag races, not just in arizona but across this country. >> reporter: and lindsey, kris mayes here in arizona is not the only one taking on an election denying republican candidate. you have the republican in the state of michigan and in florida, ashley moody, the republican incumbent attorney general, who is one in 2020 filed a brief in support of the texas lawsuit that would have invalidated four states joe biden victories and allowed the state legislatures to send an alternate state of electors. there's big stakes here in 2022. >> we appreciate you covering it for us. thank you. an urgent, intense focus on extremist groups in our country. a report that explores the membership of the far right oath

keepers. you recognize the group as many members including founder stewart rhodes is charged with the january 6th insurrection. the ag said it poured over 38,000 leaked names from the membership list. the center has identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law enforcement. more than 100 people it believes are currently in the military. and 81 people across the country who as of august 8th are currently holding or running for public office this year. the adl notes an inclusion in the database is not proof they are or were an oath keeper that they hold or held ideologies or viewpoints. additionally some people contacted by the associated press say they were briefly members and are not longer affiliated or never paid dues. it's the first week of school for millions of kids across the u.s. so should they

mask up? how many have gotten vaccinated? what's the plan for covid boosters? we'll break it down. plus a russian official says vladimir putin is set to meet with chinese president xi. details on that ahead. presiden. details on that ahead. only covs with 5g. so, for me and the hundreds of drivers in my fleet, staying connected, cutting downtime, and delivering on time depends on t-mobile 5g. and with coverage of over 96% of interstate highway miles, they've got us covered. (vo) unconventional thinking delivers four times the 5g coverage of verizon. and it's ready right now. t-mobile for business. it's the all-new subway series menu! 12 irresistible new subs... like #11 subway club. piled with turkey, ham and roast beef. this sub isn't slowing down time any time soon. i'll give it a run for its money. my money's on the sub. it's subway's biggest refresh yet.

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astepro is the first and only 24-hour steroid free spray. while other allergy sprays take hours astepro starts working in 30 minutes. so you can... astepro and go. it is the first week of school for so many kids across the country and a lot of them are headed back to the classroom without mask requirements and other relaxed covid precautions. but a new layer of protection against covid is finally available. the booster shot that targets omicron. the boosters are only available for kids 12 and older and adults. joining me is cal perry in washington d.c. and dr. peter hotez. we're going to start with you cal, what are you hearing on experts from the items, tools in our arsenal?

>> reporter: look, i mean, for the first time in the three years i've been standing in front of hospitals weer hearing positivity from doctors saying we now finally have a tool that will protect against specifically that omicron variant which is spreading like wildfire and continues to spread across the country. it is the most contagious variant and doctors saying people should get the booster. i had a chance to speak to one physician earlier today about the importance of specifically again this booster which is releasing this week. take a listen. >> we know that the immunity we get from the initial series doesn't protect us forever. and we know that vaccine boosters can help us continue to have protection. reduce hospitalization rates as well as reduce spread of the disease. >> reporter: and if you look at the vaccination rates for children, you see that they drop really off the table once you start talking about 12 and under. doctors are hoping sometime in october there could be that authorization for children 12

and under but this booster is available. i asked doctors also, if your child recently has covid, mine recently had covid, should you put off the booster and doctors telling me not necessarily, they think it's okay to get the booster. and because it protects against specific strains, doctors saying it is very, very important. >> dr. hotez a lot of people feel like covid is something we have to live with like the flu. what's your message? what do we have to keep in mind here? what should parents know to keep their kids safe? >> we're still in a serious epidemic. still at over 500 deaths per day. this is still a serious illness in kids and i worry about the teachers who are also now going to be exposed to covid in significant amounts. so here are the things we need to do. first of all, we are profoundly under performing in all boosters. if you look at the percentage of adults over 18 who have gotten

their booster, it's about 30%. that booster can be the difference whether or not you get hospitalized for covid-19 or worse, go into an icu. that's message number one, message number two is we are under performing in vaccinating our school children, 5 to 11-year-olds, only 30% have gotten vaccinated. and by the way, only 8% have gotten their booster, whether it's the new booster or old booster, which we can still give to 5 to 11-year-olds. so we have a long way to go to max out our ability to protect both our kids and schoolteachers that we're failing to observe. when it comes to levels -- community levels where there's high transmission, we might still want to consider wearing masks. i think that's prudent still. the bottom line is we're doing abysmally on convincing americans to get vaccinated and get their boosters. >> doctor, real quick because i want to get to something just in

here in new york specifically. but an annual covid vaccine is that something that we're likely to see? >> yeah, i know the white house came out with that statement yesterday. i think there's a long way to go. i think we still need to know how the brand new booster is performing. whether we're getting immunity to ba.5 from the booster. we don't know yet. we don't have algorithms to predict what are the new variants that come along next year. we need to fix that. we need to know whether an annual booster is going to be sufficient or whether twice a year. so there's still a lot of information we need before we move forward with that statement. so yes, it's quite possible we'll move to annual boosters but we don't have the information in hand yet to say that that's a definite way to go. >> before we let both of you go here in new york sources tell wnbc that the governor will announce an end to the mask mandate on transit. do you think this is the right time to make this move?

doctor, that's to you. >> oh, i think right now community transmission is going down, but it's still pretty high. it's kind of stuck at a plateau. i would not make that move yet until we get it down further. maybe in another month or so we might be able to move in that direction. i probably wouldn't have done it yet. >> cal perry, dr. peter hotez thank you both. and later today, chris jansing will talk to cdc director dr. rochelle walensky here at 1:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. the federal government is warning about a cyber criminal group targeting schools with ransomware attacks. it comes days after one of the country's largest districts was targeted. tom costello joins us with more. we know, for example, the los angeles school district was targeted. what happened there? >> listen, the fbi credits the

school district with having a robust set of defenses that allowed them to thwart the attack. it happened over the weekend and the school district said because it invested in cyber defenses, recognizes the attack they were able to thwart it. here's what the superintendent said just yesterday. >> lausd was attacked with a ransomware tool that temporarily disabled systems by shutting down all the systems we were able to stop the propagation of this event and restricting its potential damage. >> reporter: in response, they were able to therefore keep their email secure, teacher information, staff information, student information secure. but the fbi and warning from u.s. cyber security is that schools are a rich target and they know right now there is a group called vice society, vice

society, that is, in fact, targeting schools once again and while the la school district may have the resources to defend itself, smaller school districts oftentimes don't have that capability. so they're reminding school districts across the country, be proactive and remind your students and staff about basic cyber security steps to safeguard the entire data for that district. >> a lot of parents might be watching and maybe their child goes to the smaller school districts that doesn't have the resources like l.a. like you just mentioned. what is something to watch out for? >> reporter: it's important to remind our kids, staff, ourselves every day, don't click on an email that is suspicious. i talk to cyber securities regularly who say you'd be amazing how often people are clicking on an email and that lets the hackers in. that's number one.

they're suggesting we need to be careful about keeping our software updated. always push through the latest cyber update. backup your systems offline, as well as if you have the capability in the cloud so if you are attacked you can bring it back online pretty quickly. finally, just be suspicious about any and all traffic and websites that you, your kids, and your staffs might visit. lindsey? >> we've been talking about this for ten, 15 years i get emails, show my wife, does this look legit to you. you have to look at every single letter and number from those senders. tom costello, thanks so much. up next, will ukraine be forced to shutdown a nuclear power plant because it's gotten so hard to keep safe? what the country's top nuclear inspector says next. ry's top nur inspector says next. dad's work, meet daughter's playtime. wait 'till you hear this— thankfully, meta portal helps reduce background noise. zero lace model.

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forum that china and russia dominate. the news comes a day after nbc news learned russia is purchasing artillery from north korea on top of drones from iran. russia is now responding after inspectors with the u.n. nuclear watchdog agency called for a security zone around the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and russian shelling be stopped immediately. meagan fitzgerald joins me from kyiv with more on this. what is russia saying this morning about the nuclear facility? >> reporter: according to a russian media outlet, they are saying the russians want more clarification about this report. of course, russia continues to blame ukraine for the shelling. look, this u.n. watchdog report that came out yesterday is a result of those inspectors from the international atomic energy agency being allowed in the facility to do a good assessment. what we learned is why we continue to hear these things like the nuclear plant is

heading for this nuclear disaster. they are saying the plant has violated the seven pillars of nuclear safety. we are talking about the physical integrity, structural integrity of the plant, that the safety and security systems aren't fully functioning, the staff is under undue pressure. this off-site power source is not sufficient. a lot of concerns. we have heard from the director general of the iaea for several weeks now calling on the russians to demilitarize the plant, calling on the shelling to stop. what we have seen is neither of those things have happened. earlier today, ukrainian energy officials saying that they are considering shutting the entire plant down. they believe that that might be a safer option than having the plant be in a position where did needs to use these backup diesel-run generators. look, this is a risky and very concerning move, because keep in mind, we're talking about some 4 million ukrainians that depend on this plant for power.

>> meagan fitzgerald, thanks for bringing us that. this friday, richard engel will report on the ground from ukraine. on assignment, ukraine the search for justice airs friday at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. that does it for me this busy hour. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next. a mitchell reports" starts next (dad) we have to tell everyone that we just switched to verizon's new welcome unlimited plan, for just $30. (daughter) i've already told everyone! (cool guy) $30...that's awesome. (mom) it's their best unlimited price ever. (woman) for $30 a line, i'm switching now.

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good day. i'm peter alexander in for andrea mitchell here in washington where we are learning new details about what was uncovered in the fbi search of former president trump's mar-a-lago home last month. "the washington post" citing people familiar with the matter reporting the documents detailing a foreign government's military defenses and nuclear capabilities were found by agents during that august search. the highly sensitive documents are so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. former trump white house strategist steve bannon awaiting sentencing after being convicted on two counts of contempt of congress is now reacting to another "washington post" report that he will turn himself in to new york investigators tomorrow facing a new state criminal indictment. bannon telling nbc news overnight that state prosecutors in new york are engaging in, coat, political weaponization of the criminal justice system. this hour, we will