11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. right now in new york, a grand we got the very latest reporting from both outside the d.a.'se1 officew3 and mar-a-lago. plus, new details in another trump investigation. we have got reporting about the new evidence in a sealed filing from the special prosecutore1 investigq.r'g trump's handling of classified documents. xi jinping baay■ in china after two days ofe1w3 meetings vladimir putin in moscow. why some are saying that putin is china's junior partner. e1 back ate1 home, all eyes the wo/■fed, investors brace fo interest rate decision after two weeks of turmoil in the banking

and we begin this verye1 bu hour with all eyes on lower manhattan, where a special grand jury is seti] to meet today in e case centered around a hush money payment made to adult film actress stormy daniels, from former president donald trump, to buy her silence in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign. how the e1$130,000 payment was accmg■ for is under legal scrutiny. trump denied any wrongdoing in this case. and now the grand jury faces a historic choice of whether to indict trump, the first time that criminal charges would be brought against a current or former u.s. president. this e1morning, all nypd office of every rank are under orders to patrol inw3 uniform. and we're told to be prepared for deployment in case of protests. joining us now with the very latest, nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez outside of the manhattan district attorney's office. also with us, michael rothfeld,

investigative reporter at "the new york times," the co-author of "the fixers", a book about those who took care of donald trump's problems including michael cohen and barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney anql professor at the universit of michigan law school, msnbc legal analyst. gabe, uhq■ are you watchinge1 f] today? >> reporter: hi, jose, goodw3 morning. we're hours away from that grand jury reconvening when we expect this to happen around 2:00 this afternoon. and the bigñi question right no is could there potentially be another witness in this grand jury investigation? that is still unclear at this point. with many legal expertst( have said they believexd this investigation has been winding down and that robert costello, who testified on monday, was the final witness. but at this point we just don't know for sure. if there are no more witnesses, it could go up for a voteq and t

with his office with a paralegal to try to get him to take the case, which he never did. unclear how thato6d sharing of communications will impact this case at all. but, again, jose, right now, we're xdawaiting the grand jurì% reconvene this afternoont( and

we're waiting to see if there will be any more5a■ witness oz if this indictment will go for a vote, jose. >> and, whatnb■ factors do the grand!u■ jury weigh when decidi whether to indict in this case? >>u if it is probable that a pe2rún has committed this crime, reasonable grounds to believe that the crime has been committed by this person, then they are instructed they should ñ light of that lowg

think, concerned about how heavily this case relies on michael cohen's testimony, who was, you know, a convicted xd @% perjurer? >> well, they seem to have confidence in him. the federal authorities, of course, that was under the trump administration, when they charged michael cohen, they, yo( know, the justice department then under bill barr, ywá■know, elected not to go against presidentñr trump, and merrick garland, the current attorney general, hasn't done that either, but, you know, michael cohen has a history of lying. he pleaded guilty to lying to congress about xdtrump'se1 effo

to build a hotel in russia and he obviously pleaded guilty to a number of crimes including federal campaign contributions. but ite1 seems that prosecutors are confident that he's telling the truth now and that, you know, he is very well spoken, he's articulate, he's experienced speaking in the public, and so they're confident that he would make a goode1e1 witness. >> robertéd doesfá the procedurf processing the former president vary depending on whether he is charged, first of all, iflp he' charged at all. if he is with misdemeanor versus a felony? >> no, in either -- well, it does a bit. in either instance he would need to be processed, which requires booking, fingerprints and mug shot taken, but felony charges also bring with it the need to collect alp dna sample from a defendant with a cheek swab. so that applies to felony offenses, that would be different. otherwise, the same, person comes in,lp fingerprints, mug

shot, and then go into court for an arraignmenul where they woul be advised of the charges, thef possible penalties, plea,lp and then a decision would be made about whether the person is

over the last few days there has been ane1 increased security presence, more police presence, ur @&h(lc% 3 c1 to patrole1 in uniformfá across city in anticipation of more protests or if this does happen, if thew3 former president were p>> gabe gutierrez, michael russell, thank you both very much. m because i have another legal casee1 facinglpe1 former presid trump to talk about with you. according to abc news e1is, justice department prosecutors in the special counsel's office have presented evidence trump knowingly misled his own attorneys about his retention ok classified documents after

leaving office. that's according to a sealed filings written by a former federal judge. sources describe the contents of that filing to abc. nbc news has not confirmed that report y(8 this time. joining us with more is nbc news justice and intelligence ì(lc barbara mcquaid still with us. ken, good morning. what more do we know about this reported effort to mislead his own attorneys by trump? >> good morning, jose. as you mentioned, abc news and others are reporting today that a federal judges had ruled ip &% there is reason to believe thatá a crime in that classified documents case being investigated by a special counsel. it is important to point out as you did that nbc news has not confirmed this reporting but it has to do with a secret legal battle being waged in d.c. over trump's lawyer can be forced to testify before the grand jury investigating those classified documents found at mar-a-lago. we have no reason to doubt this reporting. normally lawyer/client communications are off limits. but a federy

ruled friday that trump's attorney/client privilege can be pierced in this case, because prosecutors successfully showed that trump may have used i had attorneys to commit a crime. prosecutors reportedly presented evidence that trump misled his attorneys when those lawyers told the doj in response to a subpoena that all the classified documents had beene1 turned ove when, in fact, that wasn't true. and if you recall the fbi in its search of mar-a-lago last summer found highly sensitive documents in donald trump's office, which is really circumstantial evidence that he knew they were there. yesterday, a higher courtlp appears to havelp saved this ruling while trump appeals it. if this ruling stands, it is a really significant development in this case,çó becausqkeip &h(% suggests that the doj not only has evidence of mishandlinglp documents but possible lp obstruction ofi] justice. that is a big problem for donald trump. jose? >> barbara, what is your

reaction to this? and what could be the possible ramifications of this? >> jfwell, i think that until ts reporting there had been a thought one of trump's lawyers had been one thate1 made a fals representation about the return of the documents. if instead it is donald trumpt(

>> barbara, ken, thank you, both very much. up next, north korea appears to make a threat against the u.s. official çóovernight. we're live in seoul withe1 what the north just did to raise tensions once again in the region. plus, an update on senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who is recovering after a fall two weeks ago.e1 you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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17 past the hour. this morning, xi jinping is back in china after his visit to russia. xi's visit did not bring anyzg7 major development in ending the war in ukraine, and just overnight russia launched a new attack on civilian infrastructure in ukraine. battlefield in eastern ukraine, thenb■ uk'si] ministry of defen told there is a realistic possibility of the russian assault on bakhmut is loing limited momentum it obtained because russian military units have been reallocated to other sectors. joining us now is richard haass, president of the council on foreign relations, also the author of the bookqjf "the bill

obligations, the ten habits of good citizens." whç i'm not sure it is preparp-■ to be a peacemaker. >> yeah. national security councilt( átj putin a junior partner to china. the chair of the senate foreign relations committee bob menendez ç /pr" moments ago here that he agrees with that assessment. what is thet( standing between russiaxa

russia is essentially a provider among othere1 things of fuel, o oil and gas and so forth. but it is an uneven relationship, each side gets what it wantse1 and they both kw what they're xdagainst, the uni1 states-led world. >> lpso, richard, curious, ther is -- in the moments of the official good-bye between xi and putin, xi told putin and this was just as they were getting ready to say good-bye, so right now there are changes, thee1 lis of which we haven't seen for 100 years and we are the ones driving these changes together. i'm wondering what you thinkçó that meant. y is in part for domesticok consumption, jose. it is a messageçóeh to the glob staff. ñlp china in particular is doing is sending a message that countries around the worl$ have an alternative to the united states.

and that china is offering that alternative. we saw it with belt ande1 road, their developmentw3 initiative, and africa ande1 parts of asia d latin america. we see it with their recent negotiations in the middle east. i think, again, it is a message that we're notñi going to press human rights, we're not going to press you on democracy, we're prepared to work with you and we in russia offer again a differentçóe1 way ahead. >> meanwhile, richard, the pentagon saysñr ukrainian servi members were able to speed up their training in the u.s. on the patriot missile system. it comes as the u.s. speeds up tanks to ukraine. what impact could these two new assets çóhave? >> the missile defense systems are good, that will probably reduce russian inability to override parts of ukraine, which seems to be a big part of this strategy. i think thee1 tanks are a bigge question.

and even once airplanes start getting to ukraine, will that make a m#+ ig&#h!e honest with you, i'm skeptical. i love to be wrong. i don't see it transforming the what is it that you think it would make a difference? >> i'm noteiiu

i'm quitedr skeptical. >> richard haass, a pleasure to speak with you. thank you for your time. >> thank you. turning now to some headlines beyond our borders "% earthquake struck easternok afghanistan near thee1 border o pakistan.xd mexico's pr manuel lopez obrador rejected a report that found credible yñ& reports of arbitrary killings, forced disappearances and torture by mexico's security forces. hdk said the report is, e1quote not true, they'req liars. the president also came to the defense of former president donald trump claiming without evidence that the news of his potential indictment was an attempt to prevent him from running for re-election. it is important to note the

investigation is looking into hush money payments made to adult film actress stormy daniels from former president donald trump to buy her silence in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign. and new overnight, north korea launched multiple cruiseç missiles toward the sea of japan, according to south korea. youq watched the south korean forces, currently conductinge1 their largest military drills in five years. for more on this, nbc's josh lederman joins ( south korea. good morning. good afternoon for you.e1 what more can you tell us about these latest missile tests? >> reporter: well, the u.s. f reporter: well, the u.s. massive war games with their south korean e1counterparts whe we learned about those new cruise missile tests gpom the north that you just mentioned, jose. in fact, they were at least the sixth round of missile launches by the north koreans just this month. and a real reminder of what is at stake here. i spoke with the deputy commander of these massive war games today, who said, look,e1

there is nothing that will focus the attention of u.s. service members than the fact that they are sleeping just ten miles from their adversary, particularly when tict adversary has been launching ballistic missiles in a clearxd threat to their neighr south korea. and many americans and people in other parts of the world may have lost some focus on this north korean threat, given how frequent we're seeing the north test these missiles. the u.s. military certainly has not. they're very focused on the fact that the north continues to advance its capabilities, including with the new wasong 1f missile they have been testing. they appear to be firing missiles from underground silos that would make it difficult for the u.s. to detect and easy for the north to launch a verym/oñi attacke1 on the south without a notice. and so that is why the u.s. and south korea are continuing to do these war e1e1e1games, which re

were scaled back under former president w3trump. they haven't had exercises like this in about six years. but now they're going forward at full speed with ani] amazingly intense display of military hardware from apache attack helicopters to attack aircraft, to allçó kinds of artillery dros and,e1 of course, gunfire exercises with u.s. and south korean troops working together to practice the very real skills they would need to defend south korea in the event of a north korean attack, jose. >> josh lederman in south ks thank you so very much. up next, new reporting on the senator considering a run for president. and we're keeping our eyes on wall street ahead of the fed's latest interest rate decision.ñi take a look at the numbers there. the stock marketeo"áju morning, the stock marketeo"áju morning, down about 28 points. cof points. w3 you're watching "jose

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decision on interest rates this afternoon. the markets anticipating a quarter point rate increase as part of the fed's effort to continue to bring down inflation. joining us now with more is cnbc's seema mody. good morning. what can we expect from the reserve today and how can markets be reacting to this? >> well, jose, i can tell you it is widely seen as one of most consequential fed meetings. quarter percent hike is the expectation. it is not unanimous. the bigger focus will be what tone fed chair jerome powell strikes aç■ it relates to the future of interest rate hikes. how does powell handle questions around the banking sector, which remains under pressure? is he seeing any signs of systemic distress or a credit crunch? he'll have to acknowledge tp8 inflationarylp backdrop which still shows prices moving higher. americans are feeling it at the grocery store or when they travel or eat out at a restaurant, it is going to be questions around how he handles the banking sector and +- inflation. there is also this growing

belief among economists as banks pull back on lendingflationaryç down. this will be a meeting where we'll get a lot more clarity given thee1 events that have tan place over the last twoq e1week. >> and, seema, we're getting new data that gives us a closer look at the state of thelp housing market in our country?e1 >> yeah, there is new dataxd th shows the number of americans applying for mortgages rose 3% last week versus the prior w+=i. and it comes as rates have fallen slightly at the same time home prices decline for the first time in 11 years. the national median home price is now $363,000. that's down about .2% from a yeare(ago.l%55 a key metric the federal reserve reviews as part of its calculus and it comes as analysts are trying to figure out how the collapse of two banks last week and the stress we're seeing in the financial system is starting to bleed into other parts of thr

economy like real estate and i;uár'g. >> seema mody, thank you so very much. we have new information this morning about the recovery of senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, whoçó is making call to fellowe1 senators as he good morning. what more can you tell us about the senator's status? >> reporter: a little bit of good news here, jose. as senator mcconnell continue his recovery still in that inpatient facility, but expected to come back to congress soon, especially as we see him ramping up his communications with his colleagues here. svveral of his here on the hill spoke with him, not just over text, as so many colleagues have in recent weeks, but also over the phone showing that he is on the mend and getting better.t( eager to get back and honestly he'll have a lotñi of fights ahd in front of him,ñr especially a his conference begins to contend with the upcoming debtñi ceilin fight and all the other battles

ahead on the legislative calendar. >> and you have some new reporting about another republican senator who may be challenging former president trump for the gop's nomination 1rump for the gop's nomination >> yeah, that's right. another collision of the 2024 and capitol hill beats as we watch senator tim scott of south carolina, he's been out on the the states thatr raise our eyebrows,w3 places li iowa and new hampshire, of course. he's from south carolina, soñi simply going home and making the al that people pay attention to. he's clearly mulling aok bid fo president. that decision expected ifq ite1 comes -- it is supposed to come soon. our sources tell me, my colleagues that he's inching closer to a decision, specifically looking ahead to

>> ali vitali on capitol e1hill. i wishe1 i could@hd there sv but celebrate, you're just the greatest. happy çóbirthday. >> reporter: thank you. coming up, ron desantis and donald trump, they're talking about each other, about what's going on and what's not going on. we'll have the details next.q) % you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're doing business in an app driven, multi-cloud world. that's why you choose vmware. with flexible multi-cloud services that enable digital innovation

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ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, and save at trelegy.com think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. 38 past the hour this ju)qq look at how the publict( views the manhattan d.a.'s probe ew reuters ipsos poll found robe that over half of residents believe politics is driving the case being weighed by a manhattan grand jury. that includes four out of five republicans and nearly a third of democrats. but over half still said the allegations are believable.

joining us nowñi with more is n news correspondent vaughn hillyard in west palm beach. good morning to you. so what are you hearing from the former president's supportersw3■ there? >> this is coming off of what he called ooki] for to be major protests around the country. of course, those never manifested into much. yesterdayç"was the day he q arrested and we saw five dozen folks who gathered here on the causeway between west palm beach and palmt(ñr beach where his mar-a-lago private club is. and inu

of course, here, the question ir what were to come if donald trump was to be indicted. there is a base of support that you see in the republican party for donald trump and that is reflected in polling. we haveú investigations, from impeachments to the latest mar-a-lago raid in august, donald trump's poll numbejg don't really move when he's at the center of attention around these types of investigations. his bas■$f support, has consistently tuck behind him. of course, the early state is key to donald trump's nomination effort here and he told me he's been fielding phone calls over the last 48e1e1 hours from othe republican activists asking what they can do to show their support for theñ former presidet and he tells me he wants donald trump to continue to be out in the d2■forefront of this fight. donald trump led them to believe that there are democraticñi prosecutorial efforts meant to p

undermine the republican movement and donald trump is at the forefront of it. we should note donald trump, we should note d&e he's posted5 on his social media account here over the last several days, ñ reputation of manhattanñr distrt attorney alvin bragg, his team is also very much lookingu forward to this saturday, when he5a■ travels to waco, texas, f what will be his first major rally of his 2024 campaign. of course, you can anticipate whether he's been charged before that or not for him to bring these investigations and make that the centerpiece of that rally on saturday. >>5a■ and, vaughn, the 2024 gop primarylp continues to heat up. ron desantis now responding to trump's nicknames for the florida 5a■governor. take a listen to what was talked about yesterday.u >> your favorite nickname that trump has given you so far. ron desanctimonious or -- >> i don't know how to spell desanctimonious.

i don't know what it means. but i like it, it is long, it has a lot of vowels. we can go with that. that's fine. you can call me whatever you want. as long as you also call me a winner. >> so, what does thate1 tell us about what w seeing in theñi comingww/s qmon? >> donald trump is going o continue to be under investigation for months ahead.( there are already trials that the new york attorney general civil suit that will go to hearing later on thisxd year, potential indictments and that's where i was talking to one ally of donald trump, who suggested that there is going to have to be a circling of the wagon for any potential presidential t( rivals, including ron desantis defending donald trump because for the last six years, they havee1e1 done that. ron desantis builds up his reputation as an arch defender of donald trump. ahead of his first gubernatorial bid in 2018, he filmed the

campaign commercial with his wife and young child making himself to be the -- perhaps the most ardent supporter oft( dona trump in florida. that's where it is difficult because there are some, you could say never trump supporters,xd folks that want t move on from donald trump who are backing ron desantis' bid and there is a realization for him he can't alienate these two sides and so it is going to be difficult for ron desantis ahead here as he continues to face questions about the merits of thesee1 potential charges again hisu let's talk alp little bit first aboutlp this desantis/trump battle. >> come on! >> how do you describe that one, michael? >> battle, no. these guys areñixd playing foot with each other. no battle here. ron desantis hasn't hit donald 1

trump. and donald trump really hasn't smacked ron desantis. this is the skirmish, like, let's see what i can getçó away with.jf look, i think vaughn's last point ise1 an important onelp i thatlp desantisçó has now got t square his baby commercial where he's sittingçó there reading ma material to his newborn, right? he's got to square his fealty in defense of donald trump and so if i'm the press, i just ask him a question, like, okay, when yop said this about donald trump then, do you still believew3 th now? and if you don't believe it now, what changed? that's the squaringñi he's goin to have to do. because you don't get away with creating thise1e1 frankenstein monster and not taking accountability for thelp result. notñi taking accountability for thew3e1 stuff that is spunt( fr

thatçó you've beenlp silent abop barely talked about because you don't want that stain on you. well, you'reñr running for president. you have to account for that and it is going to be a tricky dance. and ixd don't know how well ron desantis dances, you know. you can make fun of the names, r lot ofe1 syllables, yeah, but syllables that youe1 contribute to and you now have to figure out howe1 you are going to sing thise1 song. >> michael steele, and vaughn hillyard, thank you both for being with us this morning. always a pleasure to see you. thanks. >> all right. up next, newxd details surrounding the casee1 of a man found dead years ago, near the home of convicted killer alex murdaugh. plus, new calls this morning for the fbi to investigate the death of añr 20-year-old private at ft hood shortly after she told her family she was being sexually harassed. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health.

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where another woman was murdered three years ago. civil rights groups are calling for the fbi to launch an independent investigation. valerie castro has more. >> reporter: growing calls for answers, and allegations she was sexually harassed on base before she died. >> this is a pain that we never experienced before. my family is destroyed, to say the least. >> reporter: the 20-year-old joined the army in 2021 in hopes of having a successful career in the military. >> reporter: that all came to an abrupt end last week when her body was found. family members in mexico stunned by her sudden death. their grief interrupted by

anger. her family calling for an investigation into what they say was a troubling experience in the army. >> she shares details of she having a hard time during this last week. >> reporter: her mother telling telemun telemundo she was sexually harassed. the army's criminal investigation division reporting no foul play is suspected in her death. an official cause hasn't been released. allegations that she was sexually harassed are under investigation. >> cid is investigating these allegations. they will investigate these allegations thoroughly. let me be clear. we do not tolerate harassment of any type. harassment of any type is contrary to the army values. >> reporter: the death spotlighting fort hood's

handling of sexual harassment allegations. at least 14 leaders from fort hood were relieved of duty or suspended from their positions. a report issued by a federally funded research group found that army women at fort hood, fort bliss and other bases faced sexual assault risk that's higher than the risk faced by the average woman in the army. >> there's been a culture that's been allowed to fester allowing men to try to take advantage and harass women that are in the military. >> reporter: do you think anything changed after vanessa's case? >> an act was passed. we hope it is implemented. >> reporter: as for the family, they will wait for answers as to what happened to the soldier they loved so much.

>> she wanted to travel the world. she loved music, she loved to dance. i just want everybody to not let my niece's name fade. to keep her name alive until we realize what truly happened. >> our thanks to valerie castro for that report. new developments in south carolina. authorities have confirmed the 2015 death of steven smith is being investigated as a homicide after new information discovered during the murdaugh investigation prompted police to reopen the case. joining us now is catie beck. what do we know about this? >> reporter: good moning, jose. initially, it was considered vehicular homicide.

now it's a homicide investigation. the reason they haven't put more resources to the case is because they have been focused on the murdaugh investigation. now that that is complete, they plan to put more resources towards this investigation and really try and assist sandy smith in what she's trying to do, an independent review of this case. she has never believed that this was an accident or a hit and run. she thinks it was intentional. she thinks that person who did this is still out there. she's asking for an independent review. she wants to exhume her son's body and do an independent autopsy. with the cooperation of s.l.e.d., it's looking like there's more confidence in solving this case moving forward from her and her legal team. we spoke with her earlier this week about what she battles in terms of unresolved grief and unanswered questions. here is what she had to say to us.

>> in my heart, this was not a hit and run. i think he was murdered. i just need the proof. >> to me it felt like steven didn't matter. he was just a gay guy. he didn't matter. his life didn't matter. but it does matter to me and my family. it was fishy from the beginning. i don't know who did it. but i want to know why and i want to find out who you are. then i want to talk to you as a mother. >> earlier this week, buster murdaugh released a statement saying he denies any involvement of any kind in this tragic death. he sends his condolences to the smith family. he says these are vicious rumors and he has been targeted and unfairly linked to this case. now there will be an independent

review and the lawyers for sandy smith will move forward to try to get permission to do exhume her son. that wraps up the hour for me. you can watch highlights from today's show online. thanks for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news after a quick break. you could save hundreds. [ audience laughter ] thanks, tv dad. we'll think about it, okay? look what i found. -a puppy! -a puppy! oh, no, no. i wish tv dad was always in charge. [ dog barks, audience laughter ] listen to your tv dad. drivers who switch and save with progressive save nearly $700 on average.

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