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from the justice department this hour, as we come on the wear, with attorney general merrick garland set to hit the microphone at the d.o.j. headquarters in 30 minutes from right now. we're told he will talk about the verdict in that landmark case against members of the oath keepers, along with thedom's new involvement in the water crisis in mississippi. we've got our team standing by before they walk into that room. you will see that news conference, or briefing, live. also this hour, there is a new terror bulletin going out from dhs, first reported by nbc news, warning of domestic threats to the lbgtq + community, as well as jewish places of worship and migrants. more on that ahead. and a look at the big board, stocks up across the board with the investors psyched about the news out of the fed, suggesting smaller interest rate hikes could be on the way. the dow jones up 400. let's get to nbc news justice and intel correspondent ken dilanian and correspondent ryan

reilly. ken, we have a news conference, we suppose, we don't know if he will take questions, from the attorney general, read the tea leaves for us, is this kinds of a victory lap given the verdict against the oath keepers? >> it feels that way, hallie, we're not expecting any major announcements but garland could always surprise us. and the attorney general wants to talk about this very important landmark victory by the justice department, winning two seditious conspiracy convictions against stewart rhodes, the founder of the oath keepers, and wants to talk about the situation in jackson, mississippi, where the justice department is imposing a settlement, trying to fix that water crisis. >> ryan, let me turn to you. let's hit this as a one-two punch. talk through the seditious conspiracy convictions, ken knows we are rolling with this as breaking news, in the ak hour yesterday, and sentencing is next, right? it seems certain that the two defendants found guilty will appeal. how aggressive do you think they

will be, and could garland take questions, speculatively, and the other big story out of the d.o.j. as it relates to january 6th, the special counsel he appointed two weeks ago. >> i think in terms of the sentence, i think they will go big here. there are two components and several components in the typical sentencing, two of the big ones are general and specific deterrence. and specific deterrence is making sure an individual doesn't commit a crime in the future but general deterrence is probably what they will emphasize and send a message to the general public, you can't try to overthrow a general election and set up a militia and offer a president a way to sort of use force to stay in power against the will of the american people. i think we're going to see some pretty strong language lake we saw during the trial from prosecutors here when that sentencing memo rolls around. during that process, they're not as restricted from what they can tell the judge, because there are some -- limbs you can tell

on the jury and some limbs on the arguments you can make during the jury trial but when it comes to the sentencing memo, they will go hard i think and they see it as an historic moment in american history. as far as the special counsel, i think reporters like ken over there will try to get in a question but i'm not sure how much success they will have, we might hear some general remarks but i think he will push that over to the general counsel. >> ken, i know you will be vigorously insisting on information. and the other piece of this, too right, which is something that nbc first broke, that the department of justice is going to be intervening now with that water crisis and still ongoing now in jackson, mississippi. our colleague yamiche alcindor breaking the news of that lawsuit that the d.o.j. is now getting involved in. talk through where that goes from here, and what you expect to hear from the attorney general. >> well, he's going to talk about the importance of equal protection under the law for everybody. and this is an historically bad situation down there in jackson. i was down there a few months

ago on a separate story about a mississippi welfare fraud scam and it was shocking that residents viewed it as a matter of fact situation, that they had to boil their water, and then in some cases they didn't have water pressure, they said it has been going on for years. so the d.o.j. has swept in and filed a complaint, accusing the city of violating the clean water act, and used that as leverage to impose a special manager, and essentially force the city and the state to fund and focus on the problem of fixing what has been years of neglect of jackson's water system. >> what would a time line on something like that be, ken? >> well, i mean there's some, as i understand it, there's some repairs that are going to take a while. i mean this is a long-term situation. but there are some immediate steps that need to be taken to quickly do some interim fixes but there has been a lot of neglect of this water system over many, many years and it doesn't seem like that could be fixed overnight. >> ken dilanian, ryan reilly, thank you both. and i know you are standing by the cameras, and we will bring folks here on the air live the remarks from attorney general merrick garland set to happen in

25 minutes from now. we also have news out of the january 6th committee which after conducting more than a thousand interviews seems to be winding things down, as chair bennie thompson telling "politico," not too long ago, that the committee is done interviewing witnesses and considering the possibility of criminal referrals after today's deposition, with the top wisconsin republican, who says former president trump reached out to him about overturning the 200 election results in that state. you heard that before, right? that's the story from georgia. but this call, allegedly happened in july of this year. 20 months after the presidential election. and the committee has held a flurry of interviews recently as they're hustling to meet the end of year deadline to put out a final report. why end of year? you know what happens next year. the new congress takes over with a house majority of republicans who will move to disband the committee in all likelihood. we will bring in capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles. number one, what do they want to get out of roben ross here, and who has the broad details of his

story, as it relates to the call with the former president, they have been reported already. >> reporter: well, what's interesting about roben in all of this, he is someone who was willing to entertain the idea that the election may be stolen. he even appropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money in wisconsin into an investigation that ultimately turned up nothing, and then he later conceded that the election was not stolen. so the idea that the former president donald trump would call him 20 months after the fact and try and get him to retro actively find a way to overturn the election, speaks to the state of mind of donald trump, and also speaks to the idea that many people were telling him that he lost the election, and that he needed to move on, and many of them were his supporters. so that all plays into this idea that when he was telling people that he lost, that he actually won the election, when he lost it, that that led people here to the capitol on january 6th and ultimately what led to the violence here. that's a big component of this

investigation, hallie, is this idea of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. what happened on january 6th. and then even beyond, that donald trump was still trying to make that happen. >> and then how do you see some of these 11th hour, almost december interviews, factoring into the final report, that the january 6th committee expects to issue, and just a few weeks from now, right? a lot of it, one assumes has been written. talk through some of that in your reporting on that front. >> i think what we need to keep in mind about all of the information that the committee is collecting, that yes, they are going to distill a lot of it, in a readable report, bennie thompson told us last night, it will likely be eight chapters, it will kind of pick out all of the important things and be part of a broader narrative of what led to the violence here on january 6th and in the fallout after. they also said that they plan to just release everything. all of the information that they've collected. all of the depositions. all of the pieces of information and details, emails, text percentages, all of those things that are classified, but they're

allowed to release to the public, they're going to put out there for everyone to read. so as an example, some of these interviews that took place this week, maybe they are a very extremely important part of their final report, but this deposition will be out there for journalists and others to read, and then draw their own conclusions. and also keep in mind that they're also filling gaps, so for instance, with the tony oronato deposition that took place this week, they lost a lot of people about the role in this, leading up to the deposition and they want to get his final take on that before they plug it into the final report, which could happen in just the next couple of weeks. >> ryan nobles, i know you'll be all over it when it does drop. appreciate it. the other big news coming out of that building in congress, one step closer to blocking, potentially big rail strike, you know, the one that could end up bringing the industry to a screeching halt, threatening the economy, right in the middle of the holiday season and the shipping season. you've got the house just passing a bill that would force rail companies and workers to accept the pending deal and a

separate bill to add seven days of paid sick leave to workers. the bill goes to the senate where leaders on both sides of the aisle say they have to work fast and get it on the floor before rail workers vote and perhaps pledge to strike just nine days from now on december 9th. our team, up with the rail worker, talked with a rail worker on why he voted against one of these agreements. listen. >> i just had to take the day off from work, without pay, because my kid was sick, and i don't have paid sick leave, so that is one more day that i get this year, we're human beings like everybody else and working people and we deserve paid sick leave. >> you will hear more from him coming up at 5:00 over on nbc news now. and i want to bring in senior political reporter shil kapur and a couple of threads, the blocking of the strike it several and quite literally that the trains stay on the track annual the bill over paid sick leave. talk to me about the landscape

in the senate. and is this going to get through or maybe rocky waters. >> there could be choppy waters in the senate. and let's look at where we are now. two bills, one could impose the tentative agreement over the objections of some unions to prevent a rail strike and the second to add seven days of paid sick leave to that. that has gone over to the senate. and president biden has kmenzed that action and pleaded with the senate to follow suit this week to prevent economic devastation that could result in rail carriers starting to prepare for a shut down. the problem is in the senate you can't pass anything in that short of a frame of time without the unanimous consent and there is not unanimous consent about the path forward ahead. there is senator bernie sanders who is very pro labor, insisting on a vote on an amendment to add those seven days of paid sick leave, and if he doesn't get that, threatening to hold up speedy passage of this deal. he views that as essential. he made an impassioned plea for that seven days of paid sick leave in a senate floor speech earlier today.

i want to play what he had to say. >> what the freight rail industry is saying to its workers is this. it doesn't matter if you have covid. it doesn't matter if you are lying in a hospital bed, because of a medical emergency, it doesn't matter if your wife has just given birth, it just doesn't matter. if you do not come into work, no matter what the reason, we have the right to punish you, we have the right to fire you. >> now, it's not clear, hallie, that there are 60 votes in the senate to add that seven days of paid sick leave. that means at least ten republicans have to vote for it. and one school of thought among republicans according to the senior nor i spoke, to maybe the prevailing view that congress should pass that tentative agreement as this senator argued, that adding the seven days of paid leave, would start a precedent in congress, with collective bargaining agreements and it is difficult to see how to get 100 senators on same page

to set the vote ahead. one reason for optimism, there is overwhelming agreement in the senate that a rail strike should be averted, that includes senator chuck schumer, the majority leader and republican counterpart mitch mcconnell, it is not clear how they do particular the economic disruption from failing to do this is well known in the senate. massive shortages of food, and could be problems with chemicals to clean, you know, drinking water, and a massive supply chain disruption, just as the fragile economy is recovering from the covid pandemic. and it is unclear how this works out but there is a real desire to get it done, hallie. >> sahil kapur, thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up we are keeping an eye on the justice department, for attorney general merrick garland set to speak a couple of minutes from now. we will take you there live when it begins. new comments late this afternoon from the fed chair, suggesting inflation is finally starting to come down a bit. so how worried should you still be about a recession? we'll talk about it in a minute. but first, right before we came on the air, the department of

homeland security, sending out a new warning about domestic thor threats. we'll talk about what we know in 60 seconds. see you in one minute. w in 60 seconds see you in o mneinute. (vo) businesses nationwide are switching to verizon business internet. (woman) it's a perfect fit for my small business. (vo) verizon has business internet solutions nationwide. (man) for our not-so-small business too. (vo) get internet that keeps your business ready for anything. from verizon. (brent) people love subaru just because it stands for much more than just a car. (vo) through the share the love event, subaru retailers have supported over seventeen hundred hometown charities. (phil) have i witnessed and seen the impact of what we do? you bet i have. (kathryn) we have worked with so many amazing causes and made a difference. (vo) by the end of this year, subaru and our retailers will have donated over two hundred and fifty million

dollars to charity. (brent) it's about more than just selling cars. (phil) the subaru share the love event going on now. first to nbc news, the department of homeland security is warning of possible threats to the lbgtq + commune, to jewish and migrant communities coming from violent extremists inside the united states. according to one senior official, americans motivated by violent ideologies pose a persistent and a lethal threat, the dhs bulletin talks about how extremists have been inspired by attack recently including the shooting at the lbgtq bar in colorado springs. we have more on the threats and what the dhs is going to do about them now. >> so this is the latest bulletin from the national terrorism advisory system. they have been putting out

regular bulletins about every six months since january 6th, the insurrection at the capitol, where they're going through the details, and the concerns that they have about the domestic violence extremist and not looking at isis and al qaeda and set on americans radicalized by violent ideology and the three that they highlighted today in the news bulletin that just came out goes to threats of the lbgtq community, looking at that shooting recently in colorado springs, and how people were celebrating it, and motivated by it online, and looking at a lot of time on the online rhetoric following these events. and also looking at anti-semitism, following someone in new jersey, who had a paragraph, or he came out against synagogues there, and i asked specifically, the dhs officials, what about kanye west and what about his anti-semitic rhetoric and what about former president trump meeting with kanye west and that white supremacist and they said all of that, whenever you have public figures who are continuing to

spread the violent ideology, that is a problem and it's spread more rapidly online. they're also worried about immigrants, particularly they flagged changes coming soon in border policies, as we know covid-19 restrictions are about to lift next month, at the border on december 21st, they're worried that that change could impact some migrants, and that they could also be the target of violence. again, this is all part of a shift that we've seen from the department of homeland security and the broader intelligence community, over the time of about five years as they shifted the focus away from foreign terrorists and more to these home-grown threats right here in the united states, from americans. >> julia ainsley, thank you very much. appreciate it. talk about the dow right now, which is up something like almost 500 points, 1.5% in the last hour of trading. you know investors are pretty happy about what we're hearing just this afternoon, from fed chair jay powell who said the aggressive interest rate hiking we've seen will slow down,

possibly as soon as this coming month. listen. >> thus, it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down. the time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the december meeting. >> here to break it down is the business and data reporter brian cheung. it seems like jay powell was optimistic about smaller rate hikes ahead which feels like good news and feels like a little counter intuitive to the news that some expected. >> absolutely. you can see what is going on wall street right now, the dow up over 500 points, the nasdaq by the way, tech stocks getting a higher riff, up 3%, all on the optimism that the federal reserve might not have to be as aggressive as it's been on interest rate hikes. keep in mind that the federal reserve has to move at the fastest pace in decades, to make borrowing costs more expensive, the purpose is to try to make it more expensive for businesses to invest and for people to take out loans and because of that, he hopes that inflation will go

down, and what is interested an overheating economy, but the fed chairman in remarks that he heard a few hours ago, suggesting that maybe it is time for the fed to make those interest rate hikes smaller, and the last four consecutive times the fed has raised interest rates by 0.75%, maybe they can take that down to half a percent, and at some point, a quarter of a percent, and then maybe even stop those rate hikes entirely. and now, it's important to note that this does not mean that we should expect to see interest rates start to get cut by the federal reserve, the fed chairman making it very clear in those remarks earlier that he's not thinking about that quite yet. but as the fed has seen some encouraging signs of that 9.1% inflation. going to 8%, going to 7.7%, as of the last read, things at least are going in the right direction. >> brian cheung, thank you very much. and new nbc news reporting on president biden's plans ahead of 2024. we'll talk about the moves he is making behind the scenes, you will want to hear this just ahead.

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last-minute drama, house democratic leadership elections, jim clyburn now has a challenger for that number four spot in the vote tomorrow. making the case that lbgtq plus people should have a seat at the table. remember, we reported here on this show earlier this week that some democrats were frustrated about clyburn's decision to stay on in leadership, after nancy pelosi and others stepped aside

for what is seen as a new generation of democrats stepping up and stepping in. that by the way was made official today, passing the torch to hakeem jeffries to lead the democrats next year and making history the first black of either party to have the position. 31 years average longer with jeffries and katherine clark and pete aguilar. on the other side of the aisle, less certainty, kevin mccarthy is trying to get enough votes for speaker of the house, and talk about drama, there is plenty on the republican side. ali vitali, do you love the drama, ali? i know you're following it. it is a big day for the house of representatives for newly-elected leadership on the dem side and new developments in the kevz kevin mccarthy maybe headed for a floor debate.

>> i prefer to get my drama from monday night and "the bachelor" but drama here all the time. the new trio of leaders for the democrats panned out pretty much how we expected, except for the jim clyburn challenge. and you're right, saying that there should be nor reflective governance in democratic leadership, a member of the lbgtq community, saying they should have that representation at the table. clyburn on the other hand though, looking geographically at this, not only as someone who has been in leadership and bring that sort of wisdom staying in the leadership ring, even after pelosi and others are leaving but making the case that most of the democratic leaders are from the coast, clyburn himself south carolina representing the south and arguments on all sides here. this vote happens behind closed doors later this week and we'll end up seeing how that shakes out. then you look at the republican side, and there's some machinations happening today that we're watching into the

evening, republicans are making some rules changes, this is where we're going to see what mccarthy ultimately allows and doesn't allow in terms of some of the changes to process, what committees look like, and who accepts those committees, and how bills get to the floor, all of these things that govern process here in the house, which might seem really arcane, but could be really big deals on two fronts. one, on if kevin mccarthy gets the 218 votes that he needs as speaker. and then on what he has concede and what he no longer has as much power over if he makes these concessions to house freedom caucus members. it may seem like inside baseball but it has big implications for how things get done. >> if anything gets done in the house. ali vitali, thank you very much. fewer roses in the house of representatives than on "the bachelor" but we move on. inside president biden's 024 campaign launch buildup, very preliminary buildup, and the

kind of victory lap meant to showcase what he's actually done, what he has gotten done so far. here is what we know. president biden is set to go to arizona next week for the first time as president and you know arizona, a key battleground state, not just in the midterms but as we look ahead to the presidential, democrats got a big boost from it a few weeks ago, the white house also planning a big event to celebrate the passage of the respect for marriage act, and some of the president's long-time supporters are heading to the white house next month as well, and mid december, for what the administration is officially calling an agenda discussion but unofficially one expected participant tells nbc news it should be more of a strategy session for an official campaign launch. mike memoli is there along with other members of the white house team. this all sounds like the question of if president biden will run again, is somewhat of a decided issue here, right? we know he had been set to talk about this with his family over the holidays and your quote, the top biden advisers think after a

long midterm campaign, voters are not interested in an immediate start to a full-blown presidential contest, particularly a re-run of what we saw in 020. talk us through it. >> it is exactly right and you were talking about roses with my friend ali vitali, this is your classic rose garden strategy from an incumbent president. this is a white house -- solid segue. >> that's what i'm here for. this is a white house that really prides itself on having sort of the pulse of the country, not necessarily people who are spending their life on twitter or frankly watching us, but sort of the ordinary americans who are just living their lives, and they think that the last thing most americans want to see is going from one very contentious midterm campaign into a presidential election cycle, and so they're using this opportunity for the president to do things like he did yesterday in michigan, next week in arizona, talking about legislative accomplishments, there's a lot of emphasis in the west wing right now geared towards not necessarily a campaign launch, but the state of the union address that the

president will deliver in a few months, and that's really effective, kind of the kickoff for at least the messaging around the president's re-election campaign and all about the ways in which they feel he has delivered on his campaign promises and ways to work with republicans. this is another sort of interesting implicit contrast, hallie, to have a white house that is playing sort of a quieter campaign, more about governing than politics, and at the same time, when of course, the predecessor here in the white house, donald trump, had already launched his campaign, we're going to be seeing a lot of other republicans get into this race very soon, and another important point that was really interesting as i was talking to my sources along with others, think about where the political discussion was about biden's future a month ago, democrats were bracing for a difficult midterm election cycle raising questions about whether president biden should run for a second term. having this better than expected midterm election which they held to the senate, and added some governorships has given the white house the space and time

to plan out more methodically what they're going to be doing in the years ahead, but you're right, it does sound like more of a question of when but not if. >> and live on the north lawn, thank you very much. good to see you as always. still ahead onl the show, we're taking a look at georgia, where senator raphael warnock is meeting with voters in the state, six days away from the runoff election. there we're leading to the trail in just a minute. ction. there we're leading to the trail in just a minute my brain. so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger.

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secretary of state tony blinken talking today with our own andrea mitchell about, among other things, the push to try to get brittney griner and paul whelan out of russia and specifically new concerns about where exactly they are, and how whelan is doing after his family said they lost contact with limb. >> do you know how he is mow? >> the last time that our own team has had an opportunity to see paul, which i believe was november 16th -- >> you don't know where or how he is? could he be hospital license? >> i can't speak to his condition now, his situation now, we are working every day to make sure that we have contact with him, that we understand what the situation is, even if we're working to bring him home, to bring brittney griner home. >> joining us now from washington, kelly o'donnell. senior white house correspondent. what is the level of concern from the administration about, you know, the fact that this many days have passed now, without knowing where paul

whelan is and how he is doing? >> there is great concern. and of course, you know, there has been ongoing negotiation, trying to get russia to do some type of prisoner swap to bring brittney griner and paul whelan home, and what it comes to, in our experience with a sudden inability to have communication with whelan, blinken told our andrea mitchell, this is one of the ways that russia has been engaged in confusing and confounding behavior, because even when there are difficult circumstances like this where the u.s. national could be detained in another country, typically there are some diplomatic channels that allow for the home country to know the status, the where-abouts, the location of the american national, and at the moment, based on what blinken is saying publicly, and what the whelan family is expressing, there is uncertainty about the location of paul whelan. that raises a lot of the kind of

questions that andrea was putting to him in her questioning about could he be in the hospital, could there be a change in his status, those are things that we don't have answers for now, and it only leads to worrisome kind of speculation. and with brittney griner having been moved to a prison camp that those are known to be very difficult, physical and hard circumstances, for time on her sentence, that the u.s. believes she is wrongfully detained. so you've got a situation here where the u.s. is engaged in helping ukraine in its war against russia, the relations between u.s. and russia are certainly very tense, and on this matter where the u.s. has tried to proffer different offers to engage in some kind of a diplomatic swap, that has not yet happened, and now, new concerns about the location and the well-being of paul whelan, it really raises the stakes, and the administration is often in a position where they want to talk about it publicly, but they want to be careful for a couple of

things. the private concerns of these individuals, they don't want to share information without permission, and also they don't want to heighten the value of americans who are already among the most high profile americans detained overseas. so it is very delicate. when you hear the responses from drinken, you are trying to look for, is there some message that we can try to discern behind the face fall of what he is saying. it just leaves all feeling concerned about his well-being. >> a lot of reading between the lines, and of course, the news on paul whelan, not the significant piece of information that he's sharing with our colleague andrea mitchell. >> yes, he is also talking about things like responding to concerns about the protests in iran, and in china, and also talking about the sort of spirit of sport and how the u.s. men's football team, the soccer, as they call it here, has an ability to perhaps transcend. so geopolitical reverberations

around the globe. but they're watching very carefully these protests that are happening around the world. and want to see if that is something that is going to generate any kind of lasting change in those countries. of course, great concern about how that plays out. especially when you're talking about china, with the covid restrictions there, and the pushback against the government, at a time when we know that china does not have the kind of vaccines that have been as efficacious as what we've seen in the united states, and their policy about zero covid had some benefits in the short run, but it is not holding up long term. concerns about what that could mean, and certainly watching the push for greater human rights in iran, and that's coming at a time when there's real concern about the nuclear threat that iran continues to have. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. next up, some news making news in florida, with school boards backed by governor ron

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or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. long-stanfording failures in the city -- long-standing failures in the city of jack ann's public drinking water system. today i want to share more about these matters of public interest. i want to highlight several other matters that did not garner the same level of attention but that are emblematic of the work this

department does every day. when i began my tenure as attorney general, i laid out three co-equal core priorities for the department of justice. to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights. our work yesterday marks significant successions on each of these fronts. early yesterday evening a jury in the district of columbia found five defendants associated with the oath keepers guilty of serious crimes related to the january 6th 2021 attack on the united states capitol. two defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the united states for conspiring to oppose by force the peaceful transfer of presidential power. those two defendants and the three other defendants were also convicted of obstructing the certification of the electoral college vote. and various defendants were also convicted of different additional felony counts. ranging from conspiring to

members of congress, from discharging their duties, to interfering with law enforcement officers attempting to guard the capitol during the attack, to tampering with relevant evidence after the fact. these convictions were the result of tireless work by justice department agents, attorneys, analysts, and support staff, beginning in january, 2021, with the methodical collection of evidence and continuing through the presentation of that evidence during the seven-week trial that began in october of 2022. their skill and dedication are in the very best tradition of the justice department and we are all extremely grateful to them. during the trial, the government's evidence showed that almost immediately following the november 2020 election, defendant stewart rhodes, the founder and leader of the oath keepers began planning to oppose by force the

peaceful transfer of power. with rhodes, defendants kelly meggs, kevin harrellson, jessica watkins and thomas caldwell, communicated and planned to travel to washington on or around january 6th 2021. . on january 6th, as the government's evidence showed, the defendants meggs, harrellson and watkins, forcefully breached the u.s. capitol wearing para-military gear, while defendants rhodes and caldwell remained outside on the capitol grounds coordinating activities. last evening, a jury of the defendants' peers found each of them guilty of serious felony offenses. as the verdict of this case makes clear, the department will work tirelessly to hold accountable those responsible for crimes related to the attack on our democracy on january 6th, 2021. yesterday, the department also secured a significant

achievement for environmental justice in jackson, mississippi. in august of this year, a water system failure caused many jackson residents to lose access to running water for over a week. this resulted in local, state, and federal emergency declarations and the deployment of emergency responders and drinking water infrastructure experts to jackson. and as the residents of jackson know all too well, the august failure occurred after years of problems with the water system. attorneys and staff from our environment of natural resources decisions, environmental enforcement section, from the newly-formed office of environmental justice, and from the united states attorneys office for the southern district of mississippi, quickly went to work with our partners at epa, to address the water crisis facing 160,000 residents of

jackson and the county. yesterday, on behalf of the epa, the department filed a federal complaint against the city alleging that it has failed to provide drinking water that is reliably compliant with the safe drinking water act. at the same time, we filed a proposed interim order signed and agreed to by the city of jackson and the mississippi state department of public health and the epa. the proposed order is designed to stabilize the city's public drinking water system, while the united states, the city, and the state department of health attempt to negotiate a mutually enforceable consent he did cree to achieve the long-term sustain ability of the water system. the proposed order would appoint an interim third party manager to manage the city's drinking water system and implement a set of priority projects that are needed to remedy problems that have been attributed to the city's water crisis.

yesterday evening, the court approved the internal order giving it immediate effect. much remains to be done, and the justice department and our partners at epa will continue to work closely with the community to reach a long-term agreement that can ensure the delivery of reliable clean drinking water. in doing this work, the department's newly-created office of environmental justice, will continue to play a critical role in engaging with the community on the ground in jackson. although environmental justice can happen anywhere, injustice can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities, and low income communities often bear the brunt of these harms. as we work to fulfill our responsibility to keep the american people safe, to protect civil rights, we will continue to prioritize cases like this

one that will have the greatest impact on communities most burdened by environmental harm. i am very proud of the attorneys and the investigators and staff with unwavering commitment to the rule of law, and tireless work resulted yesterday in these two significant victories for the american people. i am also very proud of the work that was being done at the very same time yesterday across the department. work that drew less public attention in the two matters that i've discussed but is no less important to fulfilling this department's mission. i will mention only a few examples. yesterday, in kentucky, we obtained an indictment alleging that an individual conspired with others to trick seniors across the country into sending cash payments under false pretenses to the grandchild or loved one who was in a car

accident or legal trouble. yesterday, in michigan, an individual was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the sexual exploitation of a child. yesterday, in puerto rico, an individual convicted of a hate crime against a transgender woman was sentenced to federal prison. yesterday in virginia, the department secured a guilty plea from an individual who legally purchased a firearm that was used in three shootings. yesterday in washington state, an individual was sentenced for providing material support to isis, a designated foreign terrorist organization. yesterday in alabama, the department charged an individual with allegedly smuggling parts used in the oil used in the oil and gas industry to iran in violation of u.s. sanctions and yesterday in california ten defendants associated were a violent prison

gang pled guilty to drug trafficking offenses. these cases represent just a small fraction of work professionals of the department did yesterday and a small fraction of the work that they do every day to uphold the rule of law, to keep this country safe and to protect the civil rights of all-americans. it is an honor to work aside from them. what's the time line for residents in jackson, what's the time they might be able to see a marked improvement in the water crisis there? >> i would say this to the citizens of jackson, we realize how horrible the circumstances are there. it's hard to imagine not being able to turn on a tap and get safe drinkings water. we are approaching this with the greatest possible urgency and we

will take as swift action as we can. >> how does this connect to the environmental justice stance. >> two parts to the question which is fine with me. the first part is we have to get something done immediately. water is a problem right now and we can't wait until a complaint is resolved. so the first thing we want to do is get an interim order, get the judge to sign, which the judge did last night so we can put in an interim manager and stabilize the circumstances. the purpose of the complaint is to allow to negotiate a consent decree. as to how it relates to environmental justice, in may we

issued a comprehensive strategy and the first part is to prioritize actions in case of over burdened and under served communities. that's what we are doing with respect to jackson. the department's founding purpose is to protect the civil rights of american citizens and part of the reason that i wanted to be the attorney general was to work on those problems. this is an example of our using all of the resources for the justice department and the civil rights division. they're an element of the environmental division, of every part of this component and of the work that every employee of this department in their ordinary everyday work employs. >> mr. attorney general, can you tell us, have you had a chance to meet face-to-face with special counsel smith and how does the process stand in the

investigations he's supposed to supervise? >> so obviously in the course of deciding on mr. smith as special counsel i did meet with him. he has been meeting with the members of his team to get up to speed. he's already signed a pleading in the 11th circuit. he promised to the american in his own statement that there would be no pause or hiccup in his work. i understand that is exactly what's going on now. >> attorney general, the committee on the hill that is investigating january 6th is almost finished with their work and one of the things we know that the department has been pushing for is access to some of these transcripts. our understanding is that is still a work in progress. can you tell us whether the department is pushing to get access to all of the transcripts of the witnesses that that committee has met with? >> we would like to have all the

transcripts and all the other evidence collected by the committee so we can use it in the ordinary course of our investigations. >> are you satisfied that you've had the access that you need? >> we are asking for access to all of the transcripts and that's all i can say now. >> does the rhodes verdict yesterday, does that give any momentum for other charges in january 6th? >> i don't want to speculate on other investigations or parts of other investigations. this is a particular case that's about mr. rhodes and the other four defendants. as you know, there's another set of oath keepers who start on monday and i don't want to talk any more in light of the fact it there's another trial beginning on monday. >> thanks, everybody. have a good rest of your day.

you have been list joining to a brief news conference from attorney general merrick garland including the guilty verdict 24 hours ago from two members of the oath keepers on charges of seditious conspiracy, the most serious charges yet as it relates to january 6th with the attorney general saying his team has worked tirelessly and making some news in that q&a there with our own reporters telling ken as it relates to the special counsel, january 6th, jack smith. he'd like to have all of the house transcripts but did not say he was satisfied so far with the access he's gotten on the jackson water crisis, he said there is the greatest urgency getting people in that city access to safe and clean

drinking water. go quickly to ryan riley. ryan, an interesting glimpse into the workings of the justice department from the ag, somebody who doesn't do a ton of these press conferences, particularly on the heels of a verdict we saw yesterday. >> you're exactly right. he's been on the bench for so long. these press conferences weren't something that you do on the bench. in the '90s, he was more out there. this is clearly where you have a case like this, seditious conspiracy, you want to highlight all of the work the department is doing across the board in a number of different areas. there's a lot of work ahead.

that's something to keep in mind. there's a long trajectory of cases going forward. laying out what lies ahead on january 6th as well as other areas that the justice department has handed. >> paul, let me bring you into the conversation here. >> this was a victory lap for a department of justice hamas nt won a seditious conspiracy trial in 27 years, not since 1995. the ali, the stakes were really high. if the department had lost this case, that would have emboldened trump supporters that think the justice department has become politicized and is going after folks to help biden win in 2024. this verdict means some of the defendants might start making a deal. >> as it relates to january 6th, there are two tracks that are --

where work is being done somewhat behind the scenes. number one, it's on the house select committee side. we've seen some of their public findings. you heard the attorney general talk about that. the other trap is the special counsel work that is going to be done that is apparently already underway by what the attorney general has to say. i want to bring in ken delaney. i think we have ken. there he is. it was interesting to hear him say, listen, of course jack smith is going to be -- he's going to zajac smith is doing the work. so we know progress is happening. tell me what else you read from the answers. >> jack smith is still in the netherlands. he's recovering from a bicycle accident where he's had surgery on his leg. he's doing work from abroad. very different from robert

mueller who had to build a team from the ground up and start before he fully started an investigation. jack smith is investigating a fully formed -- two investigations and he really is not expected to hire that many of his own people. it's more a situation the people are crackling along and what his role is is to make some crucial charging decisions. >> ken delaney. paul butler, as always thanks for your analysis and perspective. "deadline white house" right now with nicole wallace. hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. moments ago we heard from