right now in memphis, officials are bracing for potential protests ahead of the release of video that shows the traffic stop and confrontation between police officers and tyre nichols, who died three days after the encounter. the officers are charged with second-degree murder. we'll bring you the latest from memphis. more heavy weapons are headed to the ukrainian battlefield as the country recovers from another brutal round of deadly missile attacks. we'll ask adam smut what kind of aid ukraine is going to need going forward. also this hour, a new government report reveals consumer spending fell last month. we'll break down what this means for our economy. and the southern border, the number of migrant deaths has reached new highs. we'll look at what one group working to identify people to make sure no one is forgotten.

we begin with our top story. memphis, tennessee, now on edge as officials brace for potential unrest over the release this evening of video capturing the traffic stop and con tronation that left a 29-year-old black man dead. he died in the hospital three days after his encounter with police in which five officers are accused of beating him. his family shared this photo of him in the hospital. the attorney for nichols' family says the video shows police treating nichols like a pinata. the family has urged the public to demonstrate peace think. his mother spoke to cnn about her son's death. >> i just feel like my son was sitting here on assignment from god. his assignment was over.

it's over. he was sent back home. god is not going to let any of his children's names go in vain. >> all five officers associated with this incident have now been fired and charged with second-degree murder. as of this morning, four of them have been released after posting bail. one remains in custody. at this time, attorneys for two of the ex-officers say their clients plan to plead not guilty. joining us now from memphis is seen your national correspondent tom ya mass. also with us is a retired detective. and sharon fairly, tomorrower federal prosecutor at the u.s. attorney's office at the northern district of illinois. she's a professor of prctice at university of chicago law school. so tom, describe the mood in this community. what can we expect tonight with this video? >> reporter: great to be with

you this morning. people are upset. the family of tyre nichols clearly upset. the police chief clearly upset ask law enforcement from the state and local level also upset. along with the people of memphis. that being said, right now the mood here is very calm. it is a very chilly day in memphis, which may work in favor of city officials here because they are asking for everyone to be calm tonight. the president even weighing in. president biden asking for people if they want to protest, that's fine, but don't get violent. we now know from the chief of police they are dwoing to post a video after 7:00 p.m. eastern on youtube. she. ed to put it on youtube to make sure people can see this. they are going to wait because this their opinion, it's the best time to post that video because the kids will be out of school. after school activities will be done and businesses in the area will be closed up. in case there's any veto lens, it will be easier for police to control the crowds if they have to. but everyone is praying and hoping that it's a peaceful nugt

in memphis. from what we know from speaking with tyre's nichols' attorneys is the video is horrific. they have compared it to the 1991 beating of rodney king. the lawyers for the nichols family, one described it as a beating like a pin ya a ta. you have to ask yourself what happened here. how does a traffic stop go so wrong that a man ends up in the hospital with the toe you showed with his face completely swollen. you can't even make out his eye. there's blood on the hospital pillow. ask then days later dying because of those injuries. i spoke with one of the defense attorneys for one of the officers who tells me, listen, my client didn't do anything wrong. but clearly, some police officers crossed the line. >> tom, thank you very much. kirk, i want to play some of what the police chief said this morning about what to expect from that video that tom was talking about. >> i don't think i witnessed

anything of that nature in my entire career. >> really? >> really. >> you're going to see acts that defy humanity. >> that's striking. what will you be watching for this this video? and what's the standard procedure for police officers in a situation like a traffic stop? >> first, i applaud the chief on her transparency and frankness. that's really important in what the community needs here. with regards to what should be expected from the police on a traffic stop, first it begs the question whether a specialized unit -- these were members of a scorpion unit. they were there to combat probably more serious crimes. so should they be engaged in traffic stops, unless that has something to do with it. that being said, a traffic stop

in all jurisdictions for this case reckless driving, unless it's intox driving, these tend to be minor violations. so believe it or not, running from the police is not a crime. it certainly can be of one's guilt, but it's not a crime. so what one would expect is law enforcement would use their heads. someone leaves their vehicle, that vehicle belongs to someone and can be traced. this person is not leaving the country. traffic stops can be dangerous for police officers. but that's not the case here. that danger has subsided and the victim here was running from the police so just right from the beginning sounds like these certainly best practices were not followed. uh-uh must say this goes far beyond simply crossing the line. . this is sadistic behavior.

this transformed from police work to some form of gang activity. >> the fact that there were five officers involved at least directly in this tells you that even just that amount of people. >> that is an issue here. we have seen this across the country. we have seen it here in new york. discussions as to whether it's best practices to allow measure two officers put five people the empowerment kind of a mob mentality, a group mentality takes over. situations where we have done things in our youth or in our adulthood when we were with a group of five or six that we may not have done when we were alone or with one other person. so that's something i'm curious about. and i most certainly hope the officials in the police

department administrators and quite frankly police behind straiters around the country take of and consider. >> so if you were on the legal team, the prosecution leading the case against these officers, what would you be looking for this that video that's going to be publicized? >> so you're going to be looking for evidence that shows that the force that was used wasn't excessive. so that analysis is based on the mentality of the circumstances. you're going to factor in all thing a pekts of the situation. the number of officers involved, the tup of offense that was being addressed, the degree of resistance, all those things will be factored in. but it sounds like what we're going to see from the video is that the force was excessive. so the other thing is the number of people involved here, five, also implicates the duty to intervene. and that number can actually contribute to the fact that nobody did intervene.

we know there's research that documents this bystander effect. so the more people that are standing there watching someone whose rights are being violate ed and not doing anything, it causes everybody else to think if nobody else is jumping in here, then probably shouldn't either. so i think that's another big question. i believe not only should the memphis police leadership be thinking about, but other law enforcement leaders should be thinking about is the duty to intervene and is the system that i have in my organization set up to really enforce that. that's also going to be an issue here because it was in the george floyd incident. >> talk to me about that legal side of duty to intervene. >> so there actually is a constitutional requirement for law enforcement that when they know or have a reason to know that someone's rights are being violated specifically with regard to excessive force and

they have an opportunity to intervene and they fail to do so, they can be held legally responsible for that failure. so that is embedded in our constitutional. so although we know the excessive force itself is bad enough, here we also have this issue of the officers needing to intervene. >> tom, do we even know whiny kols was pulled over in the first place? >> reporter: well, it's an interesting question because at first what was report was that he was pulled over for reckless driing. the chief said she does not see evidence of reckless driving there. one of the guests has mentioned that members of the officers were on a scorpion team and they target gang violence and auto theft in the area. but it's unclear and investigators haven't said why this unit pulled over nichols in the first place. we hope to learn more.

we know that the video we're going to see is going to come from three cameras. the police body camera, the dash cam when they pulled over nichols and also on light poles all over memphis they have pole cams, which are cameras that record anything below them. so those three angles will be able to tell more of the story of what happened to tyre nichols. >> thank you all very much for being with us this morning. next hour on msnbc, my colleague is going to discuss the case with shelby county district attorney steve mulroy. still ahead, cleanup is underway in ukraine after a wave of deadly russian missile strikes. again, they are striking ukraine. coming up, ranking member of the house armed services committee joins me on that as well as the tanks the u.s. is dwoing to be sending to ukraine. and president biden officially announces a new chief of staff. we'll tell you what's behind

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15 past the hour. this morning ukrainians are recovering from a series of russian strikes. 11 people were killed after russia launched dozens of missiles and drones in a massive attack across ukraine thursday. regions are resuming power outages after an emergency blackout yesterday. the launch is happening of after the u.s. and other allies agreed to send tanks to ukraine. other officials say fierce fighting continues along the front line there. joining us now from kharkiv is raf sanchez. also with us is rick stengle.

so raf, what's the latest in kharkiv? >> reporter: this is some of the fearest fighting we have seen according to military officials. this is fighting between russian forces facing off. there's been a lot of artillery fire and it's intense, which the russians have been throwing wave after wave of soldiers at over the last couple weeks desperately trying to eke out something vladimir putin can call a victory. after that wave of strikes yesterday, there have not been more airstrikes so far today. you can hear the sirens here finally going off. they were blaring pretty hutch every hour yesterday. and the russians have been following a grim pattern. every ten days to two weeks or so, they fire one of these very

large barrage of missiles. it does appear they may not have enough missile to keep that tempo up to fire more regularly. we are seeing them relying more ask more on those iranian made drones. the air force said yesterday first they sent in a wave of dozens of drones. then those 55 cruise missiles. that appears to have been an effort to overwhelm ukraine's air defenses and doesn't seem to have worked. the main priority today in large part is just getting the electricity back on, those russian strikes were targeted largely at the power grid. we are in the depths of winter here. it is below freezing. there are millions of people now whose access to heat and access to electricity, to light is intermittent as a result of these strikes. zelenskyy saying this is thot a coincidence. this is a deliberate tactic by the russians to try to hurt ukrainian civilians in the

depths of winter. the president has been marking international holocaust memorial day today. he put out a message saying we know and remember that indifference kills along with hatred. president zelenskyy is both jewish and the descendant of hoocaust survivors. yet the kremlin continues to say falsely that he is a neonazi and that's one of the justifications for their war. another comment out of the kremlin picking up on remarks made by donald trump, who said he would be able to end the war within 24 hours. they are saying president biden could do the same, if we would put pressure on ukraine to surrender. something the president said will not do. >> raf sanchez, thank you so much. so much to talk with you about. just we're coming up on the

first anniversary of the ukrainian invasion. it seems as though russia just continues to have as its focus civilian infrastructure. let's send in these missiles and these iranian-built drones that aren't very specific and targeted. how do you see that? >> i'll get to that in one second. but i want to comment on that last remark about donald trump saying he would ind the were in 24 hours. joe biden has said he could end the war this 24 hours, if vice president vice president withdraws. so that's tit for tat and that's what we want. what we're seeing in terms of the russian campaign, thot really a strategy. it's a tactical court. it's a warfare of vengeance it's a warfare of war crimes. it's targeting the civilian population, targeting the energy grid. they are not capable they want to tors them to lose their

moral. the ukrainians led by zelenskyy incredibly courageous and i don't think that's going to happen. but that famous phrase about george washington going to the revolutionary war who lost more battles than he won. he won by not loing. in some ways that is zelenskyy's mission too. which is to until the russians deplete themselves. >> sooner rather than later is certainly something that everybody, i think, would want to see. u.s. and germany agreed to send ukraine tanks authorities announced a wave of dismissals to address that. how do you think that issue of corruption in the government could have an impact on the way of future aid.

>> it could. i applaud him for trying to colt bat this during a war. ukraine has a long history of corruption. it was much more corrupt under proxy russian rule before the of revolution. it's hard for my country that goes from an authoritarian tat state to a democratic one because they don't have institutions that are corruptible. they are institutions that are around. i visited a number of times when i was in the obama administration. part of the efforts of the obama administration and the biden administration is a combat corruption. in part because it's disheartening to people. ask in part because it's disheartening to potential donors. nobodys to it feel like the hundreds of millions or tens of millions they are giving are being wasted or being used by officials who are vacationing in

the rhode islanduate ra. >> i always learn something by our conversations. it's so important to keep history as a focus point of the president. how is spain able to do it. how portugal was able to do it. the growing pains are important and those countries experience it. think we need to learn from the history of those places and so much more. i always learn something from you. i appreciate your time. >> i always enjoy talking to you. thank you. >> thanks. with us now to continue our conversation is washington congressman adam smith, a top democrat on the house arm services committee. also a pleasure to see you. i thank you for your time. so the biden administration announced it would send a battalion of tanks to ukraine. what are your thoughts on this

move? >> i think it's really important given where the fight is at. ukraine is still determined to retake territory, to retake more territory. they are going to need mobility. they can move them safety to the front lines where they want to go. the tanks are crucial at this point. in deciding to give the tanks has also a number of tanks from the europe partners. it's a critical step. >> congressman, just spoke yesterday to general mccaffrey. 31 tanks are not enough. he called it not a serious military move. ukrainians need an armored division, plus hundreds of tanks. is that something your colleagues are willing to support? >> the thing to remember is the abrams is not the only tank come ing that was the whole point. it's complicated, but the levels

are more effective in this particular situation because they are easier to maintain and operate for the ukrainians in that environment. so the abrams freed up the leopards that are not just coming from germany, but a number of other countries. if it was just the abrams, it wouldn't be enough. to enable the ukrainians to have the mobility to succeed. this is a huge deal. but not just the abrams. the entire package. >> it's important that you bring that up i want to turn to immigration. a letter that you and dozens of colleagues in the house and senate sent to president biden criticizing policies for restrictive asylum access for migrants crossing the southern border. what would you like to see the administration do to deal with the humanitarian crisis there? >> first of all, let's be clear. there's no easy answer to this. and i fully understand that. we're not pretending that if the

biden administration did something different, they would be able to handle this. we're talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in latin america fleeing extreme poverty and an unacceptable level of volence. we're saying the asylum process has to be a bugger part of that solution. that's the frustration. we know not everybody seeking asylum is going to be able to get fully understand that. but we can do more to invest this and make sure that the asylum process moves more quickly. we can put more people down there to process them. asylum should be part of the solution. and my position and the reason i signed on to the letter is we're not doing enough. to make it part of the solution. and i believe we can do that. i'm not under the illusion th

if we just granted asylum to everybody that that would solve this problem. i think we can do better than we're doing now. >> congressman, always a pleasure to see you. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for the chance. coming up, even though signs of an improving economy, why are we seeing cuts and layoffs we'll talk about that, next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." t. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's a little number you'll never forget. did you know that liberty mutual custo— ♪liberty mutual♪ ♪ only pay for what you need♪ ♪only pay for what you need♪ ♪ custom home insurance created for you all♪ ♪now the song is done♪ ♪back to living in your wall♪ they're just gonna live in there? ♪yes♪ only pay for what you need. ♪liberty liberty liberty♪ ♪liberty♪ (vo) if you've had thyroid eye disease for years and the pain in the back of your eye is forcing bad words from your mouth,

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♪♪ the white house says officially confirmed a major staff change this morning. president biden announced that the former white house covid specialist will be taking over as chief of staff. joining us now is carol lee. >> we know that jeff zients is taking over, and that's a transition that will take place from now until around the state of the union, which is on february 7th. we're hearing from the current chief of staff and president biden. ron klain in an e-mail to staff said he told the president late last year he was going to leave at this point in time saying it was always his expectation he

would leave after two years. and talking about how proud he is of the work that this administration has done over this first two years in office. ask he said part of the doing this job is knowing when it's time to leave. now feels it's the right time. also noting that he would do whatever had he can to help president biden, if he chooses to run in 2024. as for president biden, he's thanking ron klain for his service. they have known each other for more than 30 years. the president praising jeff, the incoming chief of staff, this is a time where the current chief of staff needs to focus on implementing a lot of the laws the president signed during his first tu years in office. and the president saying that there will be a hint next week honoring the chief of staff and welcoming jeff this as the new chief of staff. >> carol lee, thank you. this morning a mixed bag of

news when it comes to the overall economy. the commerce department reported consumer spending fell .2 in december. that's more than the .1% economists predicted. we also got another sign inflation may be easing. personal consumption, expenditures index reflects prices in the u.s. showed that prices rose 5% year over year. lower than it was in november. but the overall economy seems to be resilient. the gdp rising 2.9% in the last three months of '22. now we take a closer look at this is tom costello, who covers economic news. it's great to see you. what does this tell us about the state of the economy in general? >> that graphic was a bit off. it was up 2.9%.

that's a solid number. that suggested despite the fact that the fed has been hiking interest rates seven times in the last 12 months, the economy remained pretty solid there in q4. it's resilient. that stat, better than expected. the economy, still growing at the end of 2022, but a bit slower than you would like to see probably. consumer spending lower than what wall street expected. down .2% last who most indicators suggest inflation is cooling well off the 40-year highs we saw mid-year. that stat that you showed a minute ago with inflation at 5% on the headline number. compare that to what we saw last summer. we had inflation running better than 7% year over year. so it is coming down. and we also got the good news on the jobs front. new jobless claims were lower than expected. but as we mentioned, a federal reserve raising rates to tame inflation. we are seeing layoffs this a big wave of tech layoffs. and others too.

and overall, there's still more jobs than workers to fill them. so you're right. a real mixed picture here. we have layoffs, but the unemployment rate is rising. it's on the fed right now. >> so the fed is set to meet next week again to discuss interest rates. did the information that is today out, do you think it's going to play and have an impact? >> we want to see inflation come down to 2%. we're running 5 pshs%. we would expect them to hike rates another point. we hay see another one after that. but you increasingly hear a lot of chatter about people concerned if the fed goes too too far, we could push the economy over the edge.

we do see inflation cooling significantly already. so they are walking this tight rope that they have been walking for more than a year now trying to bring down inflation, which they have, but they want it to come down even more. if they push too hard, we could see a negative economic situation. >> tom costello, thank you. >> you bet. coming up, the professor working with her students to exhume the bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the border. how they hope it will bring families some cloure you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." watching "jose diaz-balart reports. was a great decision. like when i decided to host family movie nights. miracle-ear made it easy. i just booked an appointment and a certified hearing care professional evaluated my hearing loss and helped me find the right device calibrated to my unique hearing needs. now i enjoy every moment. the quiet ones and the loud ones. make a sound decision. call 1-800 miracle now,

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last summer the county found 30 bodies of of migrants a month on average. some of them are being buried in unmarked graveyards. so students from texas state university and volunteers are taking on the heavy task of exhuming and identifying the bodies. making sure no one is forgotten. joining us now is texas state university professor anthropology kate spradly. thank you for being with us. tell us about the work you and your students are doing. >> thank you for having us. in 2012, there was a surge in migrant deaths in texas. migrants fleeing extreme violence. we found that counies that were inundated with migrant deaths did not have the proper resources or training. they were finding bodies and burying them. they weren't taking dna

sampling. so these individuals had no chance of identification. so my colleagues and i in texas, we thought that we could provide some assistance and try to figure out where migrants are buried, exhume them, take dna samples, work with thon governmental organizations that could help us with identification. >> so how do you do that? how do you organize the students and the volunteers? >> we go into counties and ask a lot of questions. we heard you have received a lot of unidentified remains. what happens to them? what's your process? there's no federal guidelines for what to do with missing remains. it's handled on a state by state basis. in texas, it's county by county. we figure out what is happening. then we work to do these, but we

work with the county to provide some education and training and help the county get resources that they need so that this doesn't happen again and these individuals are processed in a way that's both humane and dignified and allows the chance of identification. our students at texas staut are very interested in human rights. so they are willing to volunteer for these projects that are funded by the human rights center. so they are very willing participants and through this work they learn how to take it anywhere in the world. because we are facing a global crisis. >> it's by the care of your students and how they get their work. after they finish, silently

address the migrant. thank you for letting me handle you today. i'm going to do everything you can to gt you where you belong. what has this work meant to your students? >> i think that really exemplifies what it means for our students. for our students, this is very personal. we have students who come from mixed status families. we have students from the valley. their personal histories play into this work. so this is human rights work this is humanitarian forensic action. we do it for the families. everything we do, we do with care for trying to get these individuals back to thundershower families. that's our ultimate goal. you can really see that in our student'ses' work. >> i thank you for doing what you do. i really appreciate your time. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. we'll be right back with much more. you're watching "jose

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right now, we're waiting for a press conference that is scheduled to begin literally any second now. we're expecting to see the attorney general merrick garland. the subject they will be breaching today is a major announcement, i'm told, about a transnational security case. both of these -- we're just waiting for both merrick garland and the fbi director to come out and begin this news conference. we'll bring you this news conference live the second it happens. so stay with me on this one because it's going to start any second now. meanwhile, there's new information about the controversy surrounding the handling of classified information. nbc news obtained a letter that the national archives sent to representatives of the presidents and vice presidents asking them to conduct an

assessment to see if they have classified material in their possession. a spokesperson for the archives declined to comment on this letter. but it comes after classified information was found at the homes of president biden, former president trump and former vice president mike pence. and the washington, d.c. office used by president biden. with us now to talk about this is a former federal and state prosecutor in new york and an msnbc legal analyst. it's great seeing you. what exactly does this mean for former presidents and vice presidents? >> this is a really smart move. because it means that we are going to have a better lay of the land of how classified have inadvertently wound up in unauthorized places. at this point it seems like that's what happened with president biden, that's what happened with former vice president pence, that the documents had made their way into the wrong places, in their

cases, through some kind of sloppiness. and i think that it's clear that we need as a country better protocols on how these materials move around and are returned to their rightful places and this is a great step in that direction. >> so does this apply to -- these folks have to go through all of their records and presidential libraries or wherever they have their records? >> i think it does. and we've already had some of the recipients of this letter say, of course we would cooperate with this idea, or we've already taken account of what we had. we're talking about really sort of institutional collections of material, you know, not like the home library of an ordinary person. so i think that this can actually happen with some speed and without too much imposition. >> and it's interesting when we're talking about living

former presidents and vice presidents asked to search records. president carter is not there because this process began -- he was the one who signed onto this as president, making this a requirement, the archives to be in charge of those documents. that's why he's not included in that list. how unprecedented is this move? >> well, this whole situation is unprecedented, i think we can agree. and, you know, i think that it is on the way to helping the public understand the difference between -- as i said, sloppiness or bad process, and intentional violation of the rules about how to handle these documents that are there to protect our nation's security. and i think that when former leaders come forward and they say, look, i made a mistake, i immediately want to make this right. i want to return these documents and have an assessment made, i

think that that's really important for the country to see that and to see that that's -- that's really the responsible thing to do. even if you are out of office. >> thank you so much for being with us. let's go right to the department of justice. >> three individuals for the roles in the conspiracy to assassinate a united states citizen. these charges arise out of an ongoing investigation into the government of iran's efforts to assassinate on u.s. soil a journalist, author and human rights activist who is a u.s. citizen of iranian origin. all three defendants are currently in custody. in july of last year, one of the defendants was found with an assault rifle, two ammunition magazines and approximately 66 rounds of ammunition not far

from the victim's home in brooklyn, new york. he was arrested by nypd officers and charged with a federal firearms offense. as detailed in the superseding indictment unsealed today, he was not acting alone. we allege that he and his co-conspirators are members of an eastern european criminal organization with ties to iran. as alleged in the indictment, the government iran has previously targeted dissidents around the world. as outlined in this and prior indictments, the victim in this case has long been a target of the iranian charge. in 2021 we charged an intelligence officer and assets with plotting to kidnap the victim from within the united states for rendition to iran and

likely execution in order to silence the victim. the government of iran has continued to target the victim since then. the indictment unsealed today alleges that individuals in iran tasked the defendant with targeting the victim in a murder for higher plot. amroff is a leader of the eastern european criminal organization. he then directed the defendant, another leader of the organization, who in turn directed the defendant, a member of the organization to carry out the plot. omroff resided in eastern europe, mediaf lived in the united states. after receiving the directive from omroff, photographs were sent of the victim and the victim's home as well as the victims address. mediaf traveled to the victim's

residence where he took photos and video that he spent back. the photos were forwarded back up the change. a payment of $30,000 was arranged to buy an assault rifle and carry out the murder. an ak was obtained. he then traveled repeatedly to surveil the victim in the victim's household members at the victim's residence. during those surveillance missions, reports were provided on the victim's activities which was shared. on one morning, a message was sent asking where he was. he responded, quote, at the crime scene. omroff responded, okay, you are a man. on the day he was arrested,

mediaf sent omroff a video stating, quote, we are ready. in the video, mediaf pulled open a case showing the assault rifle. they replied that mediaf should keep the car clean. the indictment alleges that the defendants schemed to find ways to lure the victim out of the residence to carry out the assassination. but their plot was disrupted and all of the defendants will now stand trial in the united states for their alleged crimes. mediaf has been detained since his arrest last july. omroff is currently in the custody of our foreign partners pending extradition to the united states. and omroff, the defendant who lived in iran, is now in u.s. custody and will present -- be presented later today in court. i am grateful to the

prosecutors, agents and staff of doj's national security division, the fbi, and the southern district of new york for their excellent work on this case. the victim in this case was targeted for exercising the rights to which every american citizen is titled. the victim publicized the iranian government's human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression, and use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and execution. this is activity poised such a threat to the government of iran, that the chief judge of iran's revolution courts warned that anyone who sent videos to the victim criticizing the regime would be sent to prison, contrary to laws that women and

girls wear head coverings in public. in the united states of america, our system of laws protects our citizens in the peaceful exercise of their constitutional and civil rights. the department of justice will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to undermine those protections and the rule of law upon which our democracy is based. we will not tolerate attempts by a foreign power to threaten, silence, or harm americans. we will stop at nothing to identity, find and bring to justice those who endanger the safety of the american people. i will now turn the podium over to the deputy attorney general. >> good morning, thank you mr. attorney general. today's indictment exposes a

dangerous menace to national security. a double threat poised by a vicious transnational crime group operating from what it thought was the safe haven of a rogue nation. that rogue nation is the islamic republic of iran and all too far repeat violator of human rights. >> it began with iran's efforts to project power and to extend its tentacles of oppression to american shores, through the targeting of an iranian american journalist who has stood up to the brutal regime, shining a light on iran's abuse of human rights and women's rights. but this time, it was a newer actor who brought the campaign of violence to america. an eastern european criminal