stars. this is their crew this is our crew this is humanity's crew. >> wow, i remember sitting up and watching the first man on the moon, neil armstrong, the artemis 2 mission scheduled to take off in 2024 how cool was that. that's going to do it for us this hour. you can watch us on "chris jansing reports" every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern time, but tomorrow, don't miss special msnbc coverage of former president trump's arraignment. i will be hosting along with my colleagues andrea mitchell and katy tur beginning at noon eastern time for now, our coverage continues with katy tur reports, next. ♪ very good to be with all of you. i'm alex witt in for katy tur. it's a trip he's made countless times, mar-a-lago to new york city but never like this

former president donald trump has left florida he is expected to touch down at laguardia airport any moment now, ahead of his historic arraignment in a manhattan criminal court tomorrow. what things will look like inside the courtroom after his booking and how much of it we're actually expected to see, all of that is coming up for you. and officials are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to security across this city. we've got our reporters on the ground in manhattan where barricades are already up, protesters are expected to start gathering as well. almost every member of the nypd's 36,000 person force is now in uniform and on stand by and as donald trump continues to lash out on social media, how much more room is there for him to damage his own tastes we have got some new reaction from alvin bragg's predecessor coming your way shortly. join me right now from outside that courthouse in new york. we have nbc news correspondent garrett haake, outside of trump tower, nbc news correspondent dasha burns, and in west palm

beach, we have nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. it's a great trio we have here let's start with you, garrett. where is donald trump right now? i know he's somewhere in the air. do you have any idea how far he is away from laguardia and also talk about the plans to get him back to trump tower. we have to note, it is going to be rush hour here in new york. >> yeah, alex, that's right, the trump plane somewhere over the eastern sea board, expected to land at laguardia in the next hour or two, for mr. trump's commute into the city. one he has taken many times, both as a private citizen and as a president and frankly as a former president having been back to the city several times he'll get an escort from the nypd and secret service. this is not a full scale presidential motorcade, i promise he'll move through traffic faster than you or i would. he'll make his way through midtown and stay the night at trump tower. we don't expect to see him overnight until he shows up to the courthouse tomorrow morning

for a processing process that will take a couple of hours, and an arraignment expected about this time, a little bit earlier tomorrow afternoon. >> you mentioned that he's not traveling as a current president of the united states, and it was notable to me as i was watching him leave west palm beach airport that he had to cue the trump plane, air force trump as they call it they had to cue, along with i think there was a jet blue flight, maybe an american airlines flight, typically with air force one, you know, everything stops still and allows air force one to proceed as we're giving you guys a look at what you saw over the bridge from palm beach to west palm beach, carrying secret service attorneys, accompanying the former president to new york let me ask you about campaign financing with regard to what donald trump's been able to do, garrett, since this indictment dropped on thursday. some pretty stunning numbers and i understand the bulk of which are first time donors?

>> reporter: yeah, alex, that's right. a significant percentage of these donors that have given to the trump campaign since his indictment was first reported on thursday night have been new donors the number the trump campaign is putting out is they have raised $7 million for the campaign since the indictment was put out. 4 million of that in just the first 24 hours after that news was reported it's all notable, alex, how closely intertwined the political and legal worlds of donald trump have been and still are, even on the flight to new york city today. he was joined by the top three, all three of the top three officials in his campaign along with lower level aides, at least one family member, but the idea that traveling to new york city in the middle of the week to be arraigned is kind of also a campaign event for this president who has made his own personal battles against the department of justice, or against any entity, including the new york d.a.'s office investigating him made those part of his personal political

brand, just another sign again of how closely these issues are intertwined for the former president and current candidate. >> he certainly knows how to play to a crowd, that he has really figured out how to do almost to perfection over the years. let me ask you, dasha, where you are outside of trump tower, how heavy is the police presence again, we know that 3,600 approximately uniformed nypd police officers are on duty today. what are you seeing there? >> yeah, it's significant here alex, it's been growing throughout the day a lot of barricades set up around this area it's difficult to walk around here as there is also a lot, as you can imagine, of media gathered here, a lot of onlookers from the public. a lot of tourists coming to the area as well, and seeing the big set up from the press, the police, and also stopping to take photos. right now, though, we're not seeing a lot of protest action it's been fairly quiet and calm, though we don't expect that to be the case tomorrow new york city mayor eric adams

held a security briefing with the nypd commissioner and said tomorrow, a lot of eyes will be on new york city he said that the police are prepared he said that there has been no specific credible threat to the city, but he did issue a stern warning to any, quote, rebel rowsers coming to new york city to air any grievances. he has asked for everyone to remain calm, to use their first amendment rights, but to do so peacefully now, in the coming hour or two, as garrett said, we are expecting the former president to land at laguardia airport and to make his way here he'll be escorted as far as we know from three sources by two nypd highway escort units, so they will be escorting him here to trump tower now, one source does say they do not want a quote paparazzi, princess diana motorcycle chase atmosphere, so they are looking to keep things calm, even with

so many eyeballs, so much attention to every moment in the schedule here, alex. >> absolutely. they want him to be safe, certainly get him securely there to his home in new york city let me ask you about the rally, dasha, that is planned for tomorrow we know it's going to be headlined by congresswoman marjorie taylor greene what do we know about that, where, when, how many are expected do you know anything >> what we know is it's marjorie taylor greene along with the new york young republicans club. it will be at a park near the courthouse we don't know exactly what numbers we're expecting here we do know that congresswoman greene had initially said that protests weren't necessary, but she changed her position on that on friday, so unclear what to expect as we talked about countless times in the last several days here, a lot of this is unprecedented, so what new york city is going to look like tomorrow, we're just going to have to wait and see. >> dasha burns outside of trump

tower. appreciate that. let's go back to west palm beach where vaughn hillyard is standing by for us once again, it has been constant posting online by donald trump, he has been doing it all weekend long i'm curious what he's saying, and is anybody talking about the concern he might put himself in by consistently talking about what's happening >> reporter: right, and the effect on district attorney alvin bragg who's going to be the prosecutor prosecuting this ka case, and the judge, justice merchan is going to be the one overseeing this case donald trump is not too fond of the fact that he is. he has taken shots that he was unfair to allen weisselberg who is the cfo of the trump organization who this justice, justice merchan, he oversaw the plea agreement that was made with allen weisselberg just this january in which allen weisselberg agreed to a five-month seasons at rikers,

the jail just outside the city donald trump, well on the plane, he not only announced he was heading to new york, he said in all caps that this was a witch hunt, but he's taking on not just the district attorney alvin bragg, but even taking shots at jack smith, the special counsel in washington, d.c., calling him a lunatic. >> oh, my. yeah, let me ask you about the plan that donald trump has, his calendar for the rest of the week we know he's not staying too long in new york city. so what happens next >> right you know, this is, i think, it's notable that actually in the last hour, we have received a letter from trump's attorneys in new york they filed a letter with the judge over the discussion about whether there should be camera access inside of the courtroom it's notable trump's attorney, they're fighting the request of nbc and other news organizations to have cameras inside for quote, the reason it will have the circus like atmosphere in the arraignment and is inconsistent

with president trump's presumption of innocence donald trump doesn't get to have the microphone at his arraignment. the place that he does have access to a microphone is at mar-a-lago because when he returns, alex, from new york city, he is going to be delivering remarks at 8:15 p.m. eastern tomorrow night in which he intends to address the charges that are filed against him in this case and at that point, there is no other political campaign stops on his calendar at this point, until a week from this friday, when he is going to be heading to indianapolis for an nra convention event it's notable, because so much of these legal hearings could really dictate his political calendar as well, alex. >> 100%. thank you so much down there in florida. i appreciate you vaughn hillyard, as well as you dasha burns in midtown thank you both. coming up, reports of donald trump's hush payments to stormy daniels first surfaced in 2018 what former manhattan d.a. cy

vance is saying why he didn't bring charges. and new evidence in the mar-a-lago case. the details on what the doj has found. and after deadly tornadoes, residents of the midwest are bracing themselves for more. we're back in 60 seconds . (man) for our not-so-small business too. (vo) get internet that keeps your business ready for anything. from verizon. there's always a fresh deal on the subway app. like this one! 50% off?! that deal's so good we don't even need an eight-time all-star to tell you about it. wait what? get it before it's gone on the subway app!

i was asked by the u.s. attorney's office in the southern district to stand down on our investigation, which had commenced involving the trump organization and as, you know, as someone who respects that office a great deal and believing that they may have perhaps the best laws to investigate, i did so. and i was somewhat surprised after mr. cohen pleaded guilty that the federal government did not proceed on the areas in which it asked me to stand down. >> that is former manhattan d.a. cy vance shredding light on

what donald trump is now being charged. welcoming former assistant district attorney, karen friedman, a top aide to cy vance, the first question given what we learned there, were you around when this was all going down, and tell me what happened and what influenced his decision to not charge in 2018, 2019, 2020. >> yeah, so it's not unusual when two offices are investigating the same crime or the same person that you bump into each other, and that happens from time to time between the department of justice in the southern district primarily as well as the manhattan d.a.'s office. so in this particular instance, when we were investigating, there were three different investigations going on regarding -- regarding the former president one of them happened to be the stormy daniels hush money payments, and as cy vance said yesterday, the southern district

asked the manhattan d.a.'s office to stand down there were already well underway, and it wasn't an issue because cy vance had two other matters that he was also going forward with, and so he pressed pause on one, continued on the others, and then we know the rest >> so to those who criticize this particular case as being the first and they say, oh, it's the weakest, and i'm not asking you to comment on comparison to the other two in terms of what might come down, in the cases, but is that a fair criticism is it that a d.a.'s office looks at any kind of crime, if they see something that may go after, they green light it? >> that's correct. the manhattan d.a.'s office, like any local prosecutor's office handles all levels of crime, everything from violations to misdemeanors to felonies, unlike the u.s. attorneys office that really focuses primarily on very serious long-term cases.

the manhattan d.a.'s office has a wide variety, a garden variety of crimes at all levels. it's not unusual for the manhattan d.a.'s office to handle a low level felony like this, and i just would caution people saying this is the weakness charge when we haven't even seen the charges or evidence yet we're not really sure what alvin bragg's office has developed since cy vance. >> we believe 30, could be more, could be less. we don't know specifically, but you're right, that all gets unsealed tomorrow. is there a chance we see that before that is something the media can request, would that be a normal thing to have the media request, so we know what we're getting into >> it's very normal for the media to request >> it's almost been granted. >> sometimes, and the prosecutor might preemptively unseal it tomorrow morning because of the fact that it's going to proceed very quickly tomorrow. >> since you were there, when you realized that you then were

dealing with a current president of the united states, what does that do to the atmosphere when you are in a d.a.'s office, does it electric charge it? does it make everybody walk on egg shells what is that like? >> not at the manhattan d.a.'s office it's used to -- it's manhattan, everything happens in manhattan, whether it's a celebrity that gets into an argument with somebody and it leads to a fight or i can't even tell you the number of very high profile people that the manhattan d.a.'s office has investigated and never brought charges against that you wouldn't know about because there was no crime, and so they're used to being in the big leagues, and donald trump is frankly, he's just a man from queens who is from new york, and, yeah, he was president, and of course that has certain considerations with it, but it certainly -- >> considerations in what realm?

because obviously a political fallout, but when it comes to the concept of nobody being above the law, is that something the manhattan d.a. just says, yeah, i mean, he's president, but nobody is above the law. is that the green light there? >> exactly there was an issue while he was sitting president, whether or not you can charge a sitting president with a crime, and there were all sorts of delays, if you recall, in cy vance's ability to investigate these matters because mr. trump was fighting his -- the subpoenas for his tax returns, twice, all the way up to the supreme court of the united states, so that caused significant delays in terms of being able to get important evidence it was also the pandemic that caused the court system to slow down there were a lot of factors that caused -- that contributed to this. >> absolutely. i know you're going to be watching very closely, and we're going to be counting on you to help us get through the next few days karen friedman, thank you very

much for your time. we're keeping a close eye on laguardia airport, look to go see when trump's plane, they call it trump force 1. we have seen our camera people zoom in and see a plane come in. if you do the math, it's probably 15, 20 minutes away they may have tanken a shorter, more direct flight from palm beach. also coming up, an nbc exclusive, remember the china spy balloon that flew over the u.s. in february, it was able to gather intelligence, what sensitive information might it ve collected >> plus over the weekend, people in the midwest and south we are hit by deadly tornadoes, why the danger may not be over yet we offer the custom dental treatments you need, all under one roof, right nearby. so we can bring more life to your smile... and more smile to your life... affordably. new patients without insurance can get a free complete exam and x-rays, and 20 percent off treatment plans.

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all right. everyone, 22 past the hour it appears that that is donald trump's plane, that 757 having taken off about two hours and change ago from west palm beach airport, bound for laguardia here in new york city. he's running a little bit ahead of schedule, typically a commercial flight, that might take an extra 10, 15 minutes certainly that plane looks like it's on approach it is something that you can know it will be met with tremendous security. not only will there be security on the ground but of course donald trump has traveled with security he has secret service presence on the plane with him. certainly accompanied by lawyers and others again, this is a notable trip for him. he's made this flight many a

time from his primary home now, mar-a-lago, to another home that he spent many many years in trump tower, midtown manhattan, along 5th avenue, but of course things have changed and he spends most of his time down at mar-a-lago again, this plane is on approach, and the reason for it, in case any of you have been living under a rock lately, it is because he will be downtown manhattan tomorrow, a 2:15 scheduled arraignment, and this will be to face charges we believe to be numbered at about 30 in the hush money payment case to former adult film actress stormy daniels so we're watching this, but of course this isn't the only legal headache that donald trump is facing right now he has an arraignment in this case certainly but we're getting details, and they're new, in another one, as people familiar with the matter are telling "the washington post" that the fbi

and the justice department, they have collected new evidence into their probe into the top secret documents found at mar-a-lago. the post report said investigators now suspect and it's all based on witness statements, a bit of security camera footage, and other document evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a mar-a-lago storage area after the subpoena was served and that donald trump personally examined at least some of those boxes. now, we want to note that nbc news has not independently confirmed this reporting it is something that appeared in the "washington post," once again, but joining me now is former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade. welcome, and again, during this conversation, when you look at "the washington post" report, and the significance they believe contributes to this new evidence, how do you see it, how significant, e-mails, texts

potentially, from molly michael, who is a former assistant to the president, i know that she worked at the white house, she went with him to mar-a-lago, and then resigned the position also one of his assistants, what kind of bulk credibility does this kind of evidence portray? >> well, e-mails and text messages can be a real treasure-trove of evidence of course it depends on what that says, but often times people get very careless in what they put in e-mails and text messages, and never imagine that someone outside of their small group are going to see the content of those messages, and so i think what they are looking for here is evidence of obstruction of justice you know, ordinarily when someone inadvertently retains classified documents, it does not become a criminal case sometimes it could be a basis for discipline or termination of a job, it rises to the level of a criminal case when there's some aggravating factor like

disloyalty to the united states and selling them to an adversary or obstruction of justice, and trying to prevent investigators from knowing what i have, and that can become a much more serious crime, that, which i think distinguishes the trump case from the biden or the pence case and so to the extent these messages show some sort of effort to conceal the documents and to lie to the justice department and cover things up, that could be powerful evidence of obstruction of justice that would make this a chargeable crime. >> i want to let everyone know we're watching trump force 1 at 7:57 that donald trump owns. he's traveled on it from west palm beach, looking at midtown manhattan in the background. we saw the triboro bridge, coming in for a smooth landing at lagauardia airport, should b touching wheels down in the next minute or so let me ask you how this contributes to special counsel jack smith's investigation, this kind of evidence does it indicate to you the level at which they are mining for information or where it might stand?

>> it's difficult to know. sometimes those kinds of things are done earlier in an investigation. but sometimes you don't become aware of the value of particular witnesses until later in an investigation. so i don't know if it tells us exactly where they are, but i do know that that kind of d documentary evidence, they don't lie, and they don't forget that's why that kind of evidence can be very powerful if it is what it purports to be, it seems like it could be strong evidence that could lean toward a charging decision. >> yeah, and again, for everyone watching, you have seen trump force 1, it has landed there successfully at laguardia's airport, 2 1/2 hours after flying from west palm beach. it will park in a place it knows well, donald trump kept this plane at laguardia in his years in new york city there for anyone to see driving along the grand central parkway heading in and out of manhattan.

i'm sure it will go over to someplace near where it was typically parked, although there is going to be a tremendous amount of security, we're told nypd, secret service, all forms of security to make sure that donald trump is escorted as quickly, as directly and as safely as possible to his manhattan home on fifth avenue there at trump tower timing, barbara, as we go back to this case, anything that may have been, i guess, included in this "washington post" report? is it all about the timing of when these things occurred i mean, for instance, let's look at the e-mails and with this former assistant, molly, with the president, whose texts and e-mails are included here. if it happened before the -- our national archives reached out to him, if it happened before the fbi had reached out to him, doj, anybody else, would that be admissible as evidence or is

that sort of deep background >> well, i think all of it is potentially evidence there are hearsay rules that keep certain things out. if you have business records that were prepared for the purpose of transacting business, those are from the rules and are allowed as evidence in a case, and so the earlier ones before there's an effort by the justice department to get these may be less probative about obstruction of justice, but once the justice department starts asking questions, and most certainly, once it serves the subpoena, if you have e-mail or text messages indicating an effort to move boxes around or to get stories straight or to lie to investigators about certain kinds of things, which seems to be the gist of the reporting, that can be some very powerful evidence of obstruction of justice. you know, an important part of that is a corrupt intent, and that means wrongful, that i knew what i was doing was deceptive to the justice department. it's one thing to say, i kept

these documents because i needed them to be mine. it's another to say i lied to the justice department about having them. that can be powerful evidence and sounds like that's the kind of thing they have here. i would imagine anything before, during or after the request by the justice department could be admissible i think the ones after the justice department gets involved would be the ones that could be the most damming. >> again, before i get so some of our correspondents who are standing by, really keeping a close eye on donald trump's activity, when you talk about that which donald trump claimed at first saying these are mine, i thought they were mine let's no go into i made them mine, because i fought them in my head. let's not go there the fact that he thought they were his is that the admission of i didn't know any better. can that be a credible defense for him? >> if he persisted in that defense, that i thought that these were mine, that could get you a little bit of the way down the road at some point with people

telling him, they are not yours, they do not belong to you, he's on notice of what the law is retention of classified documents does require this willfulness that you know what you're doing is against the law. if somebody doesn't know that, that could be a valid defense. once someone explains to you, they do not belong to you. the presidential records act, to make it sure they belonged to the united states of america, at that point, i think that defense vanishes, and i think if there's evidence he was actively concealing the intention of these documents, and that conflicts with the defense all together. >> okay. please don't go anywhere following a lot of angles as we watch donald trump's plane, trump force 1 as it's commonly called come to a full stop there. we'll see what measure of security greets that plane on the tarmac at laguardia. let's go to dasha burns, standing at her post outside

trump tower. dasha, you were clearing away that donald trump's plane has landed, but is anybody there around you aware of this, are people watching minute by minute, that kind of thing, donald trump's movements from florida here to new york >> reporter: i'll tell you this, alex, the folks around here are certainly asking us every couple of minutes, what's going on, where is he, has he handed, when is he getting here as you know, midtown is an area where folks in our business, people living in new york city but also a lot of tourists come day-to-day so a lot of folks watching trum tower, watching the story, watching the scene unfold. there's a large police presence, media presence, there are barricades around the area preparing for the former president's arrival, and preparing for whatever will unfold in the next 12 to 24 hours. look, right now, things are quiet here we do expect things to ramp up,

especially tomorrow. now, new york city's mayor, eric adams gave us a briefing earlier today, along with nypd commissioners saying that nypd is prepared saying they are always prepared, but there are going to be a lot of eyes on this city tomorrow he did say, though, that there are no credible threats to new york city at this time, but had a stern warning for any rebel row rousers coming to the city you can exercise your first amendment right, but stay calm, expect peaceful protests, they are certainly raeady to go to make sure that is the case. >> thank you so much i'm sure more and more people will be gathering if the words gets out that donald trump has landed and will be making his way to trump tower a lot of people want to take a look at them while they have them up close and personal don't go too far, we'll be checking with you again. we're going to come back to the studio i'm joined by two extraordinary

attorneys, one we spoke with earlier, karen friedman agnifilo, and laura jarrett as well let me ask you both, and i'll have you, laura, answer first. when you think about what might be going through donald trump's mind, and you think about what he faces tomorrow in this arraignment, how long is it going to be? how much of an issue is it going to be for him? i mean, what kind of treatment will he get? something special to a degree, but he has to be what, he has to be finger printed? he has to potentially get a mug shot we talk about what would normally happen as we watch the staffing come off the trump force 1. we'll see donald trump as well secret service attorneys and the likes accompanying him from florida. >> that's a part of what's so striking about what we're watching play out. most criminal defendants who appear in court in new york city do not come by a private plane or secret service protection but there are others that, you know, parts of this process that he can't avoid, even though obviously he's the former president of the united states, and he has to appear in person

i think there had been some speculation about whether he would try to fight this. whether some part of this could have been done, you know, via teleconference, behind closed doors. the fact is he's going to have to actually appear in person for that arraignment and enter a plea of not guilty, just like every other criminal defendant in america and new york city as for the finger printing, that we will not see. that is not something that anyone typically sees. as for the mug shot, i think there's a little bit of discrepancy right now, some of the reporting about whether or not he'll even do that, and under new york law that's not typically released to the public, after a law that was passed a couple of years ago, absent some extraordinary law enforcement. that's not something we would typically see. unclear whether it will happen at all that is also goes for the dna swab that's something that most defendants would turn over, unclear whether donald trump is going to be forced to give a dna sample in this case.

that's something to watch, and, you know, i'm also tracking what exactly the judge says to him about what he can say. he is running for public office. >> gag order >> it's not beyond the well realm of possibility everyone i talked to said there are serious first amendment implications about gagging the former president who's running for office. >> would that be to anybody else, if you're a regular criminal defendant, you're saying gag order you hear that phrase thrown around a lot is it because only he is a former president that he has a platform, that he's trying to run for president again? >> no. but obviously the first amendment implications are so sharply apparent in something like that. but all defendants have the right to defend themselves, and make public statements attesting to that. there's nothing wrong with that. the issue here is the types of statements that he's making can be perceived as threats or

incitement to violence certainly holding up a baseball bat next to the pitcher of the district attorney, now he took it down, but still, doing that, is the issue, and whether that could be perceived as a threat, directly attacking the judge, calling him a trump-hating judge for apparently no reason at you will we have no evidence of that. it's those types of things that i think it will be interesting to see how if at all, one, the district attorney addresses them tomorrow and maybe the judge just on his own decides to give sort of an admonishment of sorts to remind everybody about the fact that a jury pool can be tainted in this case a dfefendant has a right to a fair trial tr so to shee how the judge treats it perhaps without anybody raising it at al on his own. >> karen, what do you believe about judge merchan, do you

believe a gag order is something he would consider seriously if not invoke one >> judge merchan is a very well-respected judge who has been in new york county for quite some time. he's mnot known as a prosecutor' judge or defense judge, he's a down the middle judge. he's very much a control your courtroom and he doesn't allow the kind of circus that donald trump is going to try and create there. and so he's a great judge. i'm sure he is considering what his options are, and i would be surprised if there would be a gag order for the reasons that laura was saying about first amendment, but the fact of the matter is he can not paint the jury pool, and that's what he's ultimately -- that's what a gag order ultimately seeks to address so that you can get a fair trial he's also saying he wants a change of venue because he claims he can't get a fair

trial, but he's the one creating the situation we're talking about. >> there's proof of that, and i understand garrett haake is with us as well a and, garrett, you have been monitoring donald trump while on board his plane traveling the last two and a half hours. he has been posting apparently can you give us a sense of what he has been saying >> reporter: we all do it, when you're waiting to get off the plane, scrolling through your sn social media, that's exactly what donald trump has been doing since his plane has been on the ground he posted on truth social, his twitter clone platform where he posts so many messages, a video of the crowds that were along the route in palm beach and writes to people, if you're doing poorly, don't send anything but if you're doing well, under donate to his campaign, and posts a link to the donald j. trump campaign it's note worthy, and i've said this before, the degree to which he is mixing his personal legal issues, which, again, is the legal issue that predates his time in the white house. it goes back to the 2016 campaign

with his current 2023, 2024, political prospects. here using this indictment, this arraignment as a fundraising tool, while he's getting ready to get off his plane, coming into the city for his arraignment tomorrow, and the striking thing is it's been working for him. the trump campaign announced while the former president was in the air, they raised $7 million so far, since the use of this indictment was first reported on thursday night 4 million of that came within the first 24 hours they have managed to keep up a steady clip of about a million dollars a day ever since then. much of it, the campaign has said, from new donors, much of it from relatively small donors, and this isn't happening entirely organically they are aggressively pushing for this in e-mails to their supporters, in text messages which the former president does with some regularity not as big of a platform as he has on twitter he has about 5 million followers

on truth social. he was more active on twitter. again, in this case, a platform he designed, preaching almost entirely to the choir here, and it's worked for him in a purely political sense. >> yeah, absolutely. so while we are here looking at this plane, i'm going to have joining us in the conversation right now, "new york times" investigative reporter suzanne craig. also an extraordinary article, i say welcome, suzanne you wrote back in 2016 when he was campaigner in chief, if you will, about that plane, and there are a lot of people who would love to know a little bit about what that plane is like. we know it's a 757 i believe thanks to your reporting it was built in 1991, but you were on board. give us a sense of what it's like because we hear about his apartment being so gilded with gold, this, that and the other is that reflected as well on the plane? >> i actually haven't been in the plane, but i have seen videos of it

i did a fair bit of work on it it was interesting that the plane, when i -- i was covering aspects of his finances in 2016, and i was talking to somebody on wall street, and they said they thought it very odd that donald trump was flying around in that particular plane it was a sign that he maybe wasn't as wealthy as he says, simply because it's such an old plane. and it got me interesting in the plane itself and i started look eninto it. he bought it off of paul allen, one of the cofounders of microsoft, and has completely refurbished it after he bought it but it's a real, where somebody once said to me, it's like buying a bag of cheetos, a lot of food for not a lot of money i was surprised that he didn't get any plane this time around after the election it was sort of grounded. there was problems with t you know, and he also had air force

one for four years when he was president, and so they refurbished it i kind of thought he might buy a new plane, but they put a lot more money into it, and it's back on the, you know, in use now for the campaign and for, you know, things i guess like this, oddly. >> yeah, it seats a lot of people it's a 757 it's got probably close to a couple hundred seats potentially. >> it could have fit 200 people if it was a commercial airliner. i think it's note worthy that he's using this today. he could have come up in a much smaller plane. this is all done for performance rather than anything else. he chose to -- it's a very expensive plane to fly, and they could have come up in a smaller one. or he could have come up in somebody else's plane. >> which he will take to different campaign events as well, unless he wants the performative look of this, standing next to an airplane hangar, we saw that so much.

garrett haake is back with us again. garrett has been on the plane. what's your take away of what that was like when you have been aboard trump air force one, garrett? >> reporter: i was on the plane a few weeks ago. it has been recently refurbished and this is a plane that's been entirely remodeled on the inside. >> we're looking, donald trump has just left that staircase yeah, he's on the tarmac and getting right now into the -- >> reporter: is that him >> yeah, that's him. go ahead, i'm sorry. >> reporter: the plane is not configured like your typical 757. it has a few dozen seats because he has so many campaign aides on the plane with him, i wonder if it's being billed in some way as a campaign trip. in that case, all that fuel can be billed to the campaign and be reimbursed with the fundraising dollars i talked about, in the same way that the steats for the

secret service agents, half a dozen, ten or more are paid for by secret service, ie taxpayer dollars. so how the campaign is treating this flight, is this a personal expense for donald trump is it an expense for the trump organization or is it being billed through the donald trump campaign again, that central question of the intermingling of mr. trump's personal legal issues, and candidate trump's 2024 prospects play out even in something like how the flight is put together and to whom it's build. >> you make a really good point, and you have to wonder if this particular flight could fall under the auspices of a campaign trip we know there's a lot more to it maybe the one going back because he's going to be speaking at mar-a-lago tomorrow night, and you know he will invoke campaign rhetoric on that as well as no doubt grievances over what he's had to go through the previous 24 hours we'll see of course. it's up to others to find out

what the answer to that would be suzanne, back to you, with regard to the experience on the plane, i know you saw it in video, but tit's the kind of thing that donald trump uses for the performative aspect of it. is it a plane that is going to last a long time i mean, typically you talked about billionaires questioning the wealth of this billionaire because they don't typically have a three to five flight planes like he does. he's got helicopters as well. >> let's get a few helicopters they're all deployed at his properties, and on this plane, it's interesting it has gotten a long life, and i talked to people about it who are surprised it hasn't sort of been retired, and a plane like that normally at that age would go to a company like fedex to do runs or kind of put down in service at a level he's chosen to keep it

it's interesting we don't know how this trip is being billed i'm certain that donald trump himself is not paying for it. >> it's something that has a bedroom. it's a plane that he has not used it, though, typically for international travel is that true it's been more domestic? >> it's been more domestic and that plane is large enough that it can't land at smaller airports there's an airport just outside of new york called teterboro that a lot of wealthy people fly private jets into, and this is too large to do that a lot of wealthy people, a lot do have planes, but many, it's interesting, use either jet services like a net jets because it's -- i think in a lot of ways it's more efficient, and you can't track people's flights when they're using a service rather than owning their own plane. but that plane, as you often see it at laguardia where he is now, and you're used to a lot more before he became president

it's a great advertisement for him there. he would just park it on the runway so everybody when you're leaving or landing, you see it it's a billboard. >> it absolutely is. back to you barbara mcquade and your position as a former u.s. attorney tell me what you think is going on in the fdny, if they're keeping an eye on this sort of thing. do you think their television is on in the office there, and they're paying attention to all of this, or does this have no appearing on anything they may be considering >> fdny, we'll get to the manhattan d.a. in a second with two guests in the studio. >> i don't know that this in particular is something that will interest them certainly a historically significant moment to see a president of the united states arriving for his arraignment in the criminal case, a former president. it is a historically significant manner i don't know that it's terribly significant when it comes to

decisions by other prosecutors' offices. whether someone is getting charged in another jurisdiction shouldn't impact a decision they're making they're going to look at whether their laws have been violated and if there's a substantial interest in bringing a criminal case there the fact that this is occurring is interesting theater, and interesting story having a bearing on the charges. >> how about the manhattan d.a.'s office having been a part of that? >> it's theater. it's unprecedented, and i'm sure they are looking at it from a security standpoint but also an integrity of the trial standpoint, and that's something that they have to preserve, and so i am sure they are looking at everything he's doing and saying so they can consider what they will ask the judge tomorrow if anything regarding his statements, regarding the case regard threats, regarding all the different things he's doing and saying i would imagine they are paying attention to see whether or not they need to request that judge

merchan perhaps consider restricting some of what he is saying and doing. >> you bring up the point of restricting with regard to not allowing video cameras, certain ways to put out instantly what's happening in that courtroom. how unique is that would you presume it would be par for the course with regard to somebody who's this high profile? >> cameras in the courtroom is a new concept that has been more and more being allowed in new york it used to be not at all, and all you would have is sketch artists, and more and more discretionary, and allowed to the court, to the defense, the prosecution, the witnesses, et cetera, so this is the type of case where they would absolutely consid consider, but it's unclear what the judge will decide. again, it cuts both ways with mr. trump, right like say he imposes a gag order, and he no longer can talk about the case he'll go around telling everybody how he wants to tell them and talk about him, but

he's not being allowed to. and it's just further example that he's being railroaded he'll use that to his advantage, right, or if there is no gag order, then he'll talk about the facts and try to win in the court of public opinion, so everybody weighing these different things, cameras in the courtroom are the same thing you'll let them in, he'll say they're trying to create a circus if you keep them out, he'll say i want everybody to see what's happening, but they're trying to hide it from you there are so many considerations. >> for those of you watching with us and seeing from the air there, donald trump is just departing the property that is officially laguardia, and he'll be taking to the grand central parkway to make his way west into manhattan it will be very interesting to see the extent to which he'll be able to avoid areas of traffic it looks like they're going to merge on it momentarily. he has certainly a police escort, and they will do their very best. traffic, though, seems to be doing quite well right now i think that may be because a

lot of schools are on spring break. he may have actually lucked out a bit with not having to go through two severe manhattan and new york city traffic right now. as we watch him make his way, laura, when it comes to what we're going to be watching for tomorrow, what is top of mind for you? what indicates to you that this is going to be a tough time for donald trump or that it's something he's well prepared for, his attorneys are, and they're going to get through this, you know, seemingly okay >> the logistics are one thing the logistics, obviously security officials are well prepared they have the experience for this they have done, you know, many cases involving high profile defendants in the past, and they know how to do their jobs when it comes to the security piece of it. as for the legal piece of it, which obviously we're all interested in, is what exactly is in that indictment that we are also eagerly awaiting to see

unsealed. >> how is that going to be unsealed >> great question. >> is there audio we'll be able to hear? media, including nbc and others is trying to get the judge to allow us obviously to be, you know, able to broadcast everything we can. and whether judge merchan will go for that, it might be a case where he allows a still photographer to be there for sort of the top of the hearing and the back half. he has done that in a prior case it was interesting to see the district attorney not weighing in one way or the other on whether to allow cameras. >> and donald trump, does he have to stand the whole time with his attorneys, and does he have every charge read to him, and he has to stand or does he have to acknowledge, yes, i understand, with each significant one? >> mehe has a right to -- yes, e will be standing and he has a right to have each charge read to him most of the time the defense

attorney waives that, and they just inform him of what he's being charged with and they arraign him and ask him how he pleads, and he usually says not guilty >> how long will that take a matter of minutes, depending on any other statements that the trump attorneys decide to make or the district attorney's office decides to make if they lead the waiving of the indictment, it will be an interesting move by trump's attorneys to not have that read into the record publicly when we still haven't seen the actual indictment, and there's some question about the actual low j -- logistics of it. some cases you see the indictment unsealed, we can pour through it and try and understand what's in it while the hearing is taking place. sometimes you may not see it unsealed until the judge takes the bench, in which case, we'll be dissecting it in realtime unclear which way they will go in this case but it's interesting to see

what, if anything, trump's attorneys say on the record tomorrow they've added a new defense attorney, sort of late in the game here it's interesting todd blanch, a former federal prosecutor, well versed in trump world, represented paul manafort, close to the former president and other figures associated with rudy giuliani on campaign finance violation, and in the manafort case, interestingly enough in new york, you might remember a state grand jury brought charges against manafort for falsifying business records, which is the very issue we believe. >> could be. >> could be one of the issues in this case. so he's obviously very well versed in that charge and, in fact, that is the one that trump is facing. >> again, with regard to trying to get the information on what exactly the former president will be charged with because that's something we really can't proceed further with being

specific in our naanalysis of what's going to happen, what do you think the likelihood that it just gets released easily? is there something to it that the judge will as a matter of due respect to trump's lawyers and say, look, we're going to work with you. we're going to do something and suppress it to some degree they can't do that, right? >> i think we're going to see the prosecutor will ask that the judge unseal it prior to the arraignment the way sometimes it's done, the way laura was saying, and then it will be released right before. that's what i think will happen. that's what the d.a.'s office typically does in situations like this. now, of course the judge could say he's not doing that. >> why not do it today everyone is sort of waiting with it he's not a flight risk i mean, it's not a chance he can flee everyone knows exactly where he is why not, if you're the district attorney, why not go in today and say in the public interest, the people asked for this to be unsealed today >> i think the fear is that mr. trump spent so much time trying

to win the public opinion and not make these arguments in court like lawyers typically do. the other thing is if it is released, there will be lots of questions, and i don't think mr. brag, d.a. brag will discuss this until after the arraignment where he can say what actually happened that's typically why they wouldn't do it the day before. i think that's really what everybody is focusing on is really having this play out in court with the evidence, with a jury who gets to see the evidence, evaluate the witnesses, make credibility findings, et cetera, and try and not have it be a trial in the court of public opinion. >> as we take a look at what is commonly referred to as what i believe the triboro bridge there, although it has also been renamed the robert f. kennedy bridge it's hard to take triboro out of the nomenclature of new yorkers. garrett, the president would seem to be, former president, on

manhattan now, he has left queens on his way. he's not met with much traffic it would seem that the nypd has done a good job of suppressing anybody and keeping the roads clear for a bit of time until he gets to midtown and his apartment there in trump tower on i believe it's 58th and 5th avenue but tell me what you're seeing where you are and what the expectations are >> reporter: well, throughout the day down here at the courthouse, we have seen increasing both the security footprint and the media footprint, global media footprint here, folks from around the world coming to cover us we heard the trump campaign and their response to the motion to have cameras in the courtroom described not wanting to contribute to a media circus the circus has been coming to town over the last week or so, and has set up across the street on 100 center street from where mr. trump would be tomorrow. now, the security presence here is notable it's visible

it's bike racks, it's nypd officers, and of course there's all the stuff you don't see. remember that the security preparations for tomorrow started more than two weeks ago. it was the initial report by nbc news that security preparations for the possibility of this moment were underway that is what triggered donald trump in the first place to post that he thought he would be arrested the following tuesday. and so, you know, there's a significant security apparatus put in place so much so that the secret service has made it clear they're going to be very conservative, it's very unlikely we'll see much of a hair from donald trump's head when he gets to the courthouse tomorrow morning. >> got you thank you so much, garrett, our thanks to karen friedman agnifilo, barbara mcquade, that's going to do it for me today. "dea "deadline white house" starts now. i'm nicolle wallace. you're watchg