would. well, thank you so much for being with us. this is this is extraordinary. and tickets for horizon are on sale now. professor brian cox, thank you so much. and that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. >> right now on ana cabrera reports. every dog has its day and any second on capitol hill. the first meeting of. >> the house. >> dog subcommittee will get. >> started as. >> the president empowers. >> his top dog. >> elon musk. >> but will. >> we. >> get any. >> transparency about. >> his power. >> and access? >> also on the hill this. >> hour, president. >> trump's former personal. >> attorney faces. >> a. confirmation hearing. >> to. >> become the number. >> two at the doj. >> will he be a cudgel or. >> buttress against potential political retribution? >> plus, back on u.s. soil, an american released from russia. but were there any strings attached? and the. markets in the red this morning after

inflation came in hot for january. what it means for your money. good wednesday morning. it is. >> ten eastern. >> 7 a.m. pacific. i'm ana cabrera, reporting from new york. the congressional counterpart to elon musk's controversial task force holding its first hearing this morning. in just moments, the house doge subcommittee will give a bullhorn to some of president trump's most vocal defenders. >> and some of. >> musk's biggest democratic detractors. this follows yesterday's really remarkable scene president trump handing over the spotlight to elon musk in the oval office. musk made sweeping and unsubstantiated claims about corruption to justify his actions to slash federal. programs and funding. many of those actions now put on hold by federal judges. but the trump administration, defying some of those orders and the purges continuing overnight with

more firings and demotions. we're tracking all of. this with nbc news senior white house correspondent garrett hake. >> the new york times. >> chief white house. >> correspondent and nbc political analyst peter baker. and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin garrett. this doge subcommittee hearing that we're monitoring is part of the oversight committee. musk faced questions about lack of transparency and oversight yesterday in the oval office. >> how is he responding? >> well, musk's argument is that he is being. transparent by posting about the cuts. >> and. >> the projects that doge is canceling. >> on x. >> and on doge's website. >> he also said. >> something kind of unusual for a trump white house related press conference. he said. >> i'm going. >> to make mistakes. >> i'm going to. >> screw stuff up. >> and essentially. >> that the oversight he's getting is from the public. take a listen to part of what he had to say about this during that oval office presser yesterday. it's not. >> draconian or radical. the people. voted for major government reform. there should be no doubt about that. that was

on the campaign. the president spoke about that at every rally. >> the people voted. >> for major government reform, and that's what the people are going to get. they're going to get what they voted for. it's not like i think. >> i can get away with something. >> i'll be scrutinized nonstop. >> musk also. >> said or did not say, i suppose is the right way to frame this, that he's recused himself from any particular piece of business. he was asked repeatedly about contracts with the pentagon, for example, where spacex is a major contractor, and said that he hasn't. >> touched anything related to. >> that yet. >> there's no. >> indication that he won't when it comes the time to do that. >> and we're going to. >> talk more about. >> potential conflicts. >> of interest in just a moment. but, peter. just if we take a step back, the visuals of all of that musk in the oval office, president trump in some ways almost appeared to be a sidekick to musk. were you surprised to see president trump cede the spotlight like that? >> yeah. >> that's pretty unusual for a trump white. >> house. >> no question about it. >> there's only one, you know, maestro of the.

>> trump circus. >> and that's president trump. he doesn't like. >> to see. >> the spotlight. he doesn't like it when somebody. >> takes the. >> stage in effect and upstages. and now we don't know how he. >> felt. about this. >> it was his, you know, inclination to give elon musk this spotlight. but you. >> watch his face as musk. >> goes on and you can sort of pretend you can sort of, you know, interpret what you see there as somebody who might not necessarily, you know, accept this kind of, you know. upstaging for very long. it's not it's not his nature. but look, you know, elon musk has been empowered. >> to be a virtual. >> prime minister in this government. >> he's been given extraordinary latitude. >> we've never seen anything quite like this. and so this is the first time that. he's subjected. himself to, you know, questioning by reporters. and that's actually kind of important. >> and garrett, minutes after. that press gaggle with musk, president trump actually put out an order giving doge even more power over. >> the federal workforce. tell us about that. >> yeah, this executive order is in the form of a memo,

essentially instructions for agencies about how they should look at their workforce after this hiring freeze that exists now. and it suggests that any agency can only replace one person for every four people removed during this cutting process that's. >> going on now. >> and it also calls for continued. large scale staff reductions. >> the memo. >> says that the goal here should be to. dramatically reduce the civilian workforce for the federal government, and. >> that agencies. >> should look to do so by any legal means available to them, and that they should clear this process through their doge representatives. so this blitz that we're seeing from elon musk and his team doesn't appear to be fading away anytime soon on it. >> the new york. >> times points out that musk could actually profit from some of these moves to hobble or downsize agencies. at least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by those moves have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints. >> or enforcement. >> actions into. >> musk's six companies.

>> so. >> lisa, a republican congress seems unlikely to really put the screws to musk and trump over all of this. >> but i'm just. >> wondering, are there other legal. levers in place to prevent. >> this kind of self-dealing. >> in scenarios like this? >> it depends. i mean, i think it's up to the courts, but it's also up to the american people and those who have been injured or who could claim plausible injury from some of these actions to bring the sort of legal cases that would bring these sorts of conflicts of interest to the fore. if somebody can say, plausibly, that they. have been. concretely injured by elon musk's self-dealing, they might have the kind of claim that would lead to a successful. >> court fight. >> but we haven't quite seen that materialize yet, anna, in part because there's a lack of transparency around what doge is doing. despite elon musk's claims that all that information is available on his website or through doge's account. >> and there's just so much happening, it's hard to keep up. peter, you point out that some of the most contentious moves

that we've seen in the past few weeks were ideas that president trump toyed with the last time around, but was ultimately persuaded to drop. so what is driving this? apparently emboldened and more decisive, trump 2.0. >> well, look, you know, president trump came out of his first term convinced that he had made mistakes when it came to personnel. >> that's the only mistake he's ever actually really conceded. >> and of course, the mistake. are the. people who's. you know, who are around him and tried. >> to thwart. >> him or talk him out of. things or tell him things he wanted to do, or illegal or unconstitutional or unwise. this time around, he has a better sense of himself and his presidency. he knows a little bit more about what he wants to get done and how to do it. remember when he came to office eight years ago? for the first time, he was the only president we'd ever had in history who hadn't spent a single day in public office or the military. >> so it was. >> all new to him, and he. >> surrounded himself by people he. >> didn't really. >> know, many of. >> whom. >> were actually establishment republicans. >> who didn't think that he was, who viewed their job. >> as.

>> trying to keep him from going. >> too far. now he's surrounded. >> himself by. >> people who are. >> more like minded. >> who have. >> their own, you know, very sometimes. extreme ideas about how things should be done. and they're not only, you know, enabling him, they're encouraging him. >> again, we're watching this hearing that's underway, the doge subcommittee in the house. we'll let you know if there's anything that really pops from this. but, garrett, just in the last 24 hours or so, trump's fired another watchdog. we've learned he's shuffled around the ice. leadership positions get us up to speed on some of these moves. >> yeah. on the inspector general's front, the white house has fired the inspector general of usaid in a fairly terse email that essentially says you've been terminated, effective immediately. thank you for your service. that inspector general had just published a report about the effects and the both real and human costs of the rapid downscaling of usaid and its mission. the white house hasn't commented on that, but. presumably with their intent to fold usaid into the state department, they view that any work done by that ig could probably be handled by state. as

for ice, the top two officials on the enforcement side, our team has learned, have been demoted. they've been replaced at the top of the enforcement side by the person who had been running the ice office in boston. this comes amid reporting, including from nbc news, that the president has been growing frustrated that the pace of arrests and deportations isn't faster. the white house has denied that reporting. the president has shrugged it off, but clearly that is not the case. given this move to replace top leadership at immigration and customs enforcement. >> and lisa, for those keeping track at home, the trump administration is now facing more than 50 lawsuits for some of these actions that we're seeing. and in fact, judges have paused, halted or reversed at least nine trump policies. here's how the president reacted yesterday. >> and it seems hard to believe that judges want to try and stop us from looking for corruption. and it seems hard to believe that a judge could say, we don't want you to do that well. so maybe we have to look at the judges, because that's a very

serious i think it's a very serious violation. i always abide by the courts, always abide by them, and will appeal. >> i always abide by the courts will appeal. so criticizing the judges for. >> reaction. >> i am somewhat comforted that the president is saying that i will always abide by the courts. certainly the american people now have that representation and they. >> should hold him to it. >> there is also an escalation by the department of justice right now in fighting back against some of those pauses that you were talking about. we're seeing them, for example, in one federal appeals court fighting back against a broad temporary restraining order on freezes of federal funding. they are also fighting back hard against the temporary restoration of one of the officials. they fired the head of the office of special counsel in another appeals court. so one way or another, some of these issues are going to percolate up to appeals courts and perhaps beyond fast. one other thing to look for today, today is the confirmation hearing for todd blanche, who will be the number

two at the department of justice. senators may ask him about his role and his view of the department of justice, because they are the defense team for any federal agency that is sued in some of these cases. about the executive actions that president trump has taken, whether or not he views himself as a constraint on doj and how he sees that is something i think we will see explored today, ana. >> and we're going to take some of that confirmation hearing, which is scheduled to get underway in just about five minutes or so. todd blanche, the number two at the justice department, his nomination will be before the senate judiciary committee. but we are hearing from justice sotomayor weighing in on this brewing conflict between the three branches without mentioning trump by name. here's what she said. >> our founders were hell bent. >> on ensuring that we didn't have a. >> monarchy. >> and the. >> first way. >> they thought of that was to give congress.

>> the power of. >> the purse. court decisions stand whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not. it doesn't change the foundation that it's still a court order. that someone will. >> respect. >> at some point. >> lisa, we were just discussing how some of these appeals could end up back at the supreme court or up to the supreme court, given the current makeup of the court, would you expect. president trump to end up victorious? >> it depends. >> on what the. >> issue is. for example, on this issue with the office of the special counsel and his removal powers, the president has a very broad view of his ability to remove anyone at any time, for any reason whatsoever from federal employment, from senate confirmed positions to the lowest level civil servants. that's certainly going to be tested. i think this is a court that will increasingly endorse his ability to do that. where it comes to doj's, on the other

hand, that's anyone's guess. this is a new federal agency that essentially has been propped into the role of the united states digital service, the way in which they are going about their business with no senate confirmation, lots of political appointees, no transparency. it's not that the court will endorse corruption and waste. nobody endorses corruption and waste, but the lack of transparency, the lack of political accountability. you could see a court rein in doge in some respects. >> and there. >> are laws. >> around the process of how some of these moves are supposed to go, especially with. congress being the oversight body, being able to approve some of those moves. garrett. hey, peter baker, thank you. lisa rubin, stick around. as we were just discussing in washington, a lot is happening today. another key hearing about to get underway, the confirmation hearing for trump's former personal defense lawyer, now nominated to take the number two spot at the doj. what senators might ask him? plus, the trump doctrine and american released from russia?

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breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole alone. ibrance may cause low white blood cell counts that may lead to serious infections. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs. both of these can lead to death. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening chest pain, cough, or trouble breathing. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection liver or kidney problems, are nursing, pregnant, or plan to be all medical conditions you have, and about all the medicines you take. for more information about side effects, talk to your doctor. these are real women. taking ibrance. ask your doctor about ibrance. lawyers who represented president trump in multiple legal cases, including his hush money conviction, will face questions from senators. the senate judiciary committee takes

up todd blanche's. nomination to be deputy attorney general, the number two spot at the justice department. also happening on the hill, we're keeping our eyes on the final confirmation vote for tulsi gabbard to be director of national intelligence. that's slated for next hour. and joining us now, nbc news chief capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles, nbc news justice and. intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, and msnbc s lisa rubens back. >> with us. >> as well. ryan, this hearing just about to get underway, what kinds of questions are we expecting from senators? >> yeah, i imagine it will be. >> much like the line. >> of. >> questioning that we've seen for. many of these trump nominees, particularly the trump nominees that are going to have any responsibilities within the law enforcement space. >> and that. >> is. >> your loyalty. >> to the constitution. >> or is your loyalty to donald trump? >> is this all going to be about being. >> a part. >> of a. >> retribution campaign. >> or are you going to be able. >> to look at these. >> cases independent. >> of how the white. >> house wants you. >> to look. >> at it? look at this.

>> you know. >> there's been so much focus. >> by republicans about. >> the way the past. >> department of. >> justice conducted itself. >> especially because so many of them believe that they were too heavy handed with their prosecutions of donald trump, that they've kind of flipped this argument of weaponization around on its head. >> and the last question. >> is in the vein of, are we going to get rid of weaponization at the white house? but then democrats will turn around and. >> ask. >> are you. >> going to be. >> working on behalf of donald trump to go after. >> his political enemies? >> so you'll see a very. >> strange dichotomy. >> between the way the republicans ask their questions and the way the democrats ask their questions. they sound like they're coming from the same vein. >> of. >> questioning. >> but they're actually very. >> dramatically different. >> ana ken. >> blanche's familiar to a lot of us. in his role as trump's lead defense lawyer and the hush money case. but tell us more about his background and what he's expected to bring to this role. >> hey, good morning ana. yeah, that's right. todd blanche is a former federal prosecutor who spent several years putting away violent criminals in new york city. and for that reason, his nomination for the job of what is essentially the doj's chief

operating officer was greeted with a measure of hope in justice department circles because he, in theory, understands how the place is supposed to work and where the lines are. and he also appeared to be one of the few of donald trump's defense attorneys who was able to somewhat manage his client. so, given that trump's first nominee for attorney general, as we all remember, was matt gaetz, blanche looks hugely qualified for the deputy job by comparison. now, all that said, we've learned in the early weeks of the trump administration that this president and his allies intend to exact retribution against their perceived enemies within the justice department, and also to use the doj in ways that look highly political, as in the decision to drop charges against the new york mayor now. and blanche's law partner, emil bove, has shown himself perfectly willing to carry out those mandates. so there's no reason to believe blanche won't do that as well. and i think for that reason, we can expect some fireworks today from democrats. >> on one of the big topics for deputy ag in this hearing would be the fbi, which falls under the justice department. so the top democrat on this committee,

senator dick durbin, is now accusing the nominee for fbi director, kash patel, who we covered his hearing. he hasn't been confirmed at this point. but outside of actually being. >> confirmed. >> durbin's accusing him of secretly orchestrating the firings of fbi officials that have taken place in. >> this administration. >> and then possibly he lied about. >> it at. >> his confirmation hearing, is what durbin is saying. what more do we know? >> senator durbin says he has credible sources saying that patel was closely. involved in the firings of those top fbi officials, even though he told the committee under oath that he was not aware of any such plan. so durbin believes patel may have perjured himself. he says he's been told that patel has been passing on instructions to the fbi through senior white house official stephen miller. now through a spokesman, patel or spokeswoman sari patel didn't speak directly to these allegations, but called them part of a false narrative. in normal times, anna, this would be a huge story. but the republican chairman of the committee, charles grassley, immediately brushed it off, calling the information hearsay.

it seems pretty clear there's almost nothing that's going to convince senate republicans to buck this president on his nominees. >> but this could be an opportunity for the american people to learn a little bit more. so, lisa, this could be a big topic today. what will you be watching for? >> i'll be looking for questions about what todd blanche knew or was aware of, or was he involved in discussions about these fbi firings and also firings at the department of justice, of people involved in the january 6th cases and or reassignments of even line prosecutors involved in those cases. i'm going to be looking to see if people ask him questions, anna, about save america, which is the president's leadership pac and the payments that his law firm got from save america, will, for example, he recused himself. if there are any department of justice investigations that involve how trump's campaign finance arms have spent their money, i'm going to look to see what he has to say about pam bondi's day one memo on federal weaponization. one of the questions, she says, that the weaponization task force has to look into is whether or not there was, quote, unquote,

federal cooperation with two cases prosecuted here in new york, the hush money case brought by manhattan district attorney. >> alvin bragg. >> and then the civil fraud case brought by new york attorney tish james. well, todd blanche was the defense lawyer in that one of those cases. what does he think that federal cooperation was? and will he recuse himself from any involvement in that investigation? and then i'm also. >> looking. >> to see what he'll say about emil bove, who, as ken just noted, was his law partner and is now scheduled to be his deputy. ken and nbc news ryan riley reported yesterday that when he was a prosecutor in the southern district of new york, emil bovi was involved in fbi investigations of january 6th defendants. he's been on both sides of it now. what does todd blanch have to say about that? >> ken, tell. >> us more. >> about that. >> that january 6th investigation piece of. emil bobby's background. >> right. so bove is the acting deputy attorney general, and he's been the face of the administration's campaign to go

after prosecutors and fbi agents who worked on january 6th cases. he wrote the memo ordering the fbi to turn over all the names of people who worked those cases. what he didn't say in that memo is that he played a key role in efforts to arrest and prosecute january 6th defendants when he was head of the counterterrorism unit in new york city after the capitol riot. and we have a story exploring this on nbc news.com this morning, quoting people who worked with him, saying he never expressed any qualms about the investigation, and they were stunned to see him repeating trump's talking points that the january 6th probes were a grave national injustice, and that fbi agents acted unethically in some of the cases. there's no evidence for that. and bove's former colleagues say he knows that very well. >> ana ryan, i hope you have a coffee coming by the gallons this morning because there are so. many hearings to monitor. >> the doj's hearing. >> the, you know. hearing we're just discussing. there's another hearing next hour, important confirmation vote for tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence. does she have the votes?

>> she certainly does. >> ana. >> and i think. >> ken put it really well when he said that the senate republicans. have decided that they are just going to let every single trump nominee go through. and it looks. >> as. >> though tulsi gabbard is going to get through, perhaps without a single republican. >> no vote. >> now, she may not get a single democratic vote. >> it seems. >> almost likely that. >> she will not. >> get any democratic votes. >> but despite. >> that, what i think many argued was. >> a. >> disastrous public hearing that left many republicans worried about her nomination status. >> the trump team. >> made it. >> clear to senate republicans that they want her in. >> this position. >> as the director of national intelligence. she had private meetings. >> with many of these senators that. >> were expressing concerns. >> and. >> at least on some level, attempted to quell those concerns. but she is on the fast. track to become the next director of national intelligence and could have that job by 11:00 today. >> ana ryan nobles, ken dilanian, and lisa rubin. thanks all. stay close. we also have an update now on. >> the. >> trump administration's immigration crackdown. border czar tom homan says he's heading

to new york city this week to meet with mayor eric adams homan, saying in a podcast that adams is all in on addressing immigration public safety threats, and says he hopes to get a commitment from the mayor himself to help with arrests and deportations. mayor adams had previously met with homan in december. this meeting will come just days after the trump doj ordered new york prosecutors to drop the bribery case against adams. and by the way, he's up for reelection come november. next on ana cabrera reports, an american school teacher back on u.s. soil after being held for more than three years in russia. what did the u.s. give up in exchange? and ahead, a wall street roller coaster markets down this morning by a few hundred points after new inflation. inflation data painted a less than rosy picture painted a less than rosy picture for the american when emergency strikes, first responders rely on the latest technology. that's why t-mobile created t-priority built for the 5g era.

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news into a 5 pound bag. do you think it matters that people are standing up for usaid and foreign aid in the history of the agency, as any other president ever tried to remove a member of the board the way donald trump tried to remove you? what do you think democrats can do right now in opposition, to try to mitigate some of the harm that's being caused as they dismantle the federal government? the opposition is now awake and increasingly emboldened. told you it's on. it is on. >> we are back with some news from this morning's doge hearing. again, this is a subcommittee of the house oversight committee. now, the witnesses are just delivering their opening statements. moments ago, we heard from the top democrat on this panel calling on elon musk to come in and testify. >> listen directly to. >> mr. elon musk. >> we are well. aware that you are eager to engage. >> with members of congress on social media, but we're not here to play. if you. have serious

desire to engage in democracy and transparency, we welcome you. >> to the. >> oversight committee. come and testify in front of the american people under oath, because we want to know. >> what you're. >> up to. >> you might remember earlier this month, republicans on the oversight committee blocked a democratic effort to subpoena musk for testimony. we'll keep watching this hearing. a surprise return last night of an american imprisoned in russia for more than three years. and there's a lot to unpack from just the last 24 hours of u.s. russia movement, beginning with the dramatic images here of 63 year old marc fogel draped in the american flag, personally welcomed at the white house by president trump on a snowy night there in washington. fogel's three and a half year imprisonment in russia for a minor medical cannabis infraction. suddenly and surreptitiously over. >> i feel like the luckiest. >> man on earth. >> right now.

>> my family has been a force. i think my 95 year old mother is probably the most dynamic 95 year. >> old on earth right. >> now. >> and i am so. >> indebted to so many people. >> so great to see him back. but this morning there are conflicting reports from the white house and moscow about how this went down and hints from president trump that it all could set the stage for an end to the war in ukraine. let's get to nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander and former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul and nbc. >> news international. >> affairs analyst who knows fogel personally. peter, a celebratory mood there at the white house last night. president trump also hinting that another american could soon be released. what more are we learning about how all this came about and what's next? >> well. >> you described. >> it well, saying it was a dramatic. >> turn of events. >> i spoke. to the u.s.

>> envoy for. >> the middle east. >> that is steve witkoff. the billionaire who was. >> also engaged with his private jet flying over to russia. >> he said. >> as this came together in the. >> last. >> several days, he told me just a short time. >> ago they were. overseas in russia when he received a call, he said. >> that marc. >> fogel would. be at the. >> airport there. >> he called donald trump, the president, who said. >> to. >> rush over there to. >> be there. >> for that. >> greeting, which is. where it. >> took. >> place. >> that fogel. >> was then invited. >> on to. >> witkoff plane. >> they deiced. >> they quickly took off. >> got out of russian airspace. called to loved ones, including his own. >> mother. >> marc fogel's own mom, who clearly. >> was stunned. >> to. >> receive that phone call that her. >> son was. >> free before. >> returning back. >> to the. >> united states, as. >> you saw overnight. >> and so that's. >> a quick turn of events as they came. >> together over the course of the last several hours. >> so the administration describing negotiations behind this release differently than russia and all sides are being a bit vague. peter. do we know did the white house make any

concessions to russia? >> it's a good question. we're reporting that out right now. >> it appears that the u.s. may have, whether it's a direct. >> trade or. >> not. >> been able to secure fogel's release. >> by turning. >> over a cyber. >> criminal, a man by. >> the name of alexander vinnik. >> my colleagues. >> and i. >> a russian who had been detained. >> in the united. >> states in the past. >> our colleagues are. >> working to confirm that information. >> as we speak. >> right. >> now. >> but. >> it's notable. >> because the. >> russians themselves. >> vladimir putin's. >> spokesperson. >> had said. >> that there. would be. >> a russian detained by the u.s. who was being turned. >> over. >> the u.s. the envoy. >> for hostage affairs said that. >> there was not. >> a one for. >> one exchange. >> happening at the same time. >> and here's part of. >> what the secretary. >> of state, marco rubio, said. >> i think it's. >> also important to. >> note it was not in return for anything. there wasn't some deal here where we had to release like ten spies. and i. >> think it shows. >> president trump's commitment to bringing home americans. >> part of the secretary. >> of state's. >> comments a short time ago. so

whether it was. >> a. >> trade for. >> multiple spies. >> or it wasn't a. >> direct trade. >> it does. >> appear again. >> nbc news. >> now learning. >> that alexander. >> vinnik a cyber. >> criminal as. >> we understand. >> it. who an official said will forfeit millions of dollars that he. >> had. >> collected. >> is. >> we are told, the individual. >> who is being turned over to. the russians. >> here, in whatever form. that formally will take. it is. >> worth noting. >> on, as we have. >> this conversation, there are other americans. >> who are. >> still in. >> russian custody, among them a. >> retired teacher, a man by the name. >> of steven hubbard. >> also a russian american dual national. >> i think her name is pronounced. ksenia karelina. >> she is. >> the. >> american ballet dancer. >> whose picture. >> you've likely seen on our screen. >> and elsewhere, who. >> traveled over to russia and has been detained. largely since. >> back to you. >> peter alexander, thanks for bringing us the latest. we'll let you get back to reporting out these new developments. let me get your reaction to what we're now learning about who may have been released on the u.s. side for russia. ambassador

mcfaul. >> well, first, i just want to congratulate president trump and his administration for getting mark fogel out of jail. he was a he is a friend of mine. he taught my son when we lived in moscow when i was a u.s. ambassador. he's a fantastic teacher. he taught many of the kids, diplomats and military officers that were stationed in moscow when i was there. and this is a great, great day for america. with respect to who was traded. i mean, i've just seen the same reports about this crypto criminal. frankly, i don't really care. i'm elated that mark fogel is out of jail, and i'm a little more worried about what this might mean for negotiations with ukraine, because what i'm hearing about some comments that have been made today about concessions we're giving the russians, including pressuring the ukrainians to give territory and not allowing them to join nato. that seems far more

consequential in terms of a bad deal than whether or not we release this crypto criminal or not. >> well, we know that the administration, though, has been less than transparent about what kind of dealing went on behind the scenes in order to release fogel. like you said, though, everyone can celebrate he's been released. let me play part of what president trump said about this release. >> as a. potential step toward. >> ending the war in ukraine. watch. >> it could be a big, important part of getting the war over with ukraine, and we appreciate president putin's what he what he did. he was able to pull it off for you, right? he was able to pull it off. and we think, and you're here, i'll be here. so it was great. we'll tell you a little bit more about it tomorrow. but i think we've made great progress, progress on the war. also getting the war. i want to get the war ended. >> adding to that ambassador earlier this morning, defense secretary pete hegseth said the

u.s. will not be involved in any unrealistic. and with nato membership looking unlikely. how do you see the trump administration handling potential negotiations to end this war? >> i think those comments by the secretary of defense today were catastrophic mistakes. you don't give away the things you're negotiating before you begin to negotiate. why is he telling the ukrainians they need to give up territory that should happen if it needs to happen. and tragically, maybe it does. but that should happen at the negotiating table, not before the negotiations begin. likewise, nato, ukraine's membership into nato. first of all, putin shouldn't be able to negotiate that or not. he's not a member of nato. but even if you wanted to negotiate that, do that within the context of a negotiation. what are the ukrainians getting from these

these, you know, these concessions that they're getting? nothing. i've negotiated with the russians. and i can tell you, you give them anything, they pocket it and then they ask for more. so i honestly do not understand this strategy. we should not negotiate ahead of ourselves with ourselves before we sit with the russians. and of course, the ukrainians need to be sitting at the table when we are negotiating about the future of their country. we should not be doing it without them present at the table. >> stay with me. i want to go back to peter alexander, who has some new reporting. peter. >> yeah. that's right. this is from my colleague, nbc senior white house correspondent garrett hake, speaking to an american official who now confirms that the trump administration is releasing a man by the name of alexander vinnik, a cyber criminal who last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. it's unclear at this point whether this is described as a trade or an exchange.

nonetheless, it happens in the same time frame, of course, that marc fogel was released by the russians, picked up by the us envoy for mideast affairs, steve witkoff returned to the united states overnight, where he met with the president here at the white house. you've seen those celebratory scenes at this time, and as we report this out, i think one thing that's worth noting, and i know my colleague, ambassador mike mccaul mcfaul, will detail this. it does appear that this white house feels like this is a unique opportunity to try to build what they view as a strong relationship that president trump has with vladimir putin at this time, which is why i think there have been some sensitivities, as we've been asking questions of witkoff and others over the course of this day, where they were disinclined to share any further detail about any trade or exchange or any russian being released here, it is clear that, at least in the eyes of this white house, they hope that this is sort of a show of good faith from both sides that will help allow for future negotiations. and in the eyes of the white house, opportunities to work together going forward. anna.

>> ambassador, quick final thought on that. >> i'm all for negotiations. i think this is a goodwill gesture, but they have to be negotiations that lead to a lasting peace. they can't be capitulation. they can't be appeasement just because you like vladimir putin. and i hope they get serious about an enduring peace, not just giving putin everything he wants. >> former ambassador michael mcfaul, peter alexander, thank you both. meantime, in the middle east, the freedom of more hostages in gaza on the line. will hamas follow through on a saturday deadline, or will the region be plunged into violence once again? new warnings from president trump and prime minister netanyahu. plus, hot off the presses and hotter than expected new inflation data that has the markets seeing red this has the markets seeing red this morn when emergency strikes, first responders rely on the latest technology. that's why t-mobile created t-priority built for the 5g era.

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the house financial services committee. nbc news business and data reporter brian chung is staying on top of all this. you've had a busy week, brian. certainly. bring us the latest on the inflation report. >> yeah, well, look, the president wants lower interest rates, but the problem is that this hotter than expected inflation report means that the fed certainly isn't going to move with any sort of urgency on moving interest rates, at least for right now. let me walk you through the numbers again. 3%, as you mentioned. that's how much prices change between january of last year and january of this year. that's a faster pace than the 2.9% we had seen from the december to december period. economists were hoping that this number would go down to 2.8%. so certainly a disappointment from that front. now again, when you kind of contextualize it with the yearly rates we have seen over the last year or so. yes, that 3% is certainly a bit of a nudge up from what we saw in the fall last year, but at least it's an improvement from some of the above 3% rates we saw in the beginning of last year. now, when we parse it out by category, these are now the monthly changes. you can see

what contributed to the inflation in the january report. food prices getting more expensive by 4/10 of a percent. energy prices. gasoline did go up on a monthly basis, but shelter costs. this is the biggest one for most americans. just putting a roof over your head. that also accelerated to 4/10 of a percent in the month. and just on a price basis, these are the things that you often notice. the price of milk prices about the same as compared to last year. gasoline prices also about the same compared to last year. but of course this one, this is the big one, attracting a lot of attention among americans. egg prices almost doubling between january of last year and january of this year. and anecdotally, i even saw some eggs this weekend that were close to like $10 a dozen. that's obviously pinching a lot of american wallets. >> that's if you can even find eggs at your grocery store. the president also said he'd be talking about reciprocal tariffs this week. brian, do we have any more information about what to expect there? >> yeah. not yet. we did get the executive action when it comes to the tariffs on steel and aluminum earlier this week. now he was also suggesting these reciprocal tariffs. so any tariffs that come from another country, if they have a 10%

tariff on us then we would impose a 10% tariff on them. how that's implemented is very much kind of vague right now. we'll see if there's any sort of clarity from the executive action. but the reason why this folds into this inflation report, so importantly, is because, again, if you slap tariffs on another country, who pays the price. well, the importing company, which then might pass that on to the customer as well. so as we see inflation on the nudge up, yes this january report was already a disappointment. tariffs would likely make these rates go up even higher, which would further entrench the thinking at the federal reserve and jay powell that they wouldn't want to lower interest rates, because, again, if you have lower interest rates at a time when inflation is high, that can make inflation go up even further. so this is kind of a weird game of chicken between the president and also with the fed. the president wants lower interest rates, but he also wants a tariff war that won't help the federal reserve's position in trying to tame inflation. >> yeah, those things seem to go against each other. brian, thanks for making it make sense for us. up next here on ana cabrera reports, we're going to check in at the hearing with

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apart. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, now warning that intense fighting will resume if hamas does not release the next round of hostages, is scheduled on saturday. that threat, coming just a day after hamas said it would suspend hostage releases indefinitely. the strain spilling over in washington, where president trump doubled down on his highly contested proposal to take control of gaza in a meeting with jordan's king abdullah yesterday. >> there is nothing to buy. it's gaza. it's a it's a war torn area. we're going to take it. we're going to hold it. we're going to cherish it. >> nbc's yasmin vossoughian is in tel aviv. yasmin, this is a tense wait and see moment right now in the region. what are israelis expecting if the hostages aren't released come saturday? war? they're expecting. >> a resumption of war. if they're not released, they're not expecting the prime minister to really blink on this, especially considering he now has the backing outright of

president donald trump, along with, obviously an emboldened extremist right wing of the israeli government who didn't want to see this cease fire happen in the first place. hence why he is essentially saying return those hostages on saturday, or you're going to see the resumption of an assault on gaza. i will say there's a couple of things happening here on the ground here that may very well mean we see those hostages released on saturday, one of which is a statement released by a hamas spokesperson on social media on telegram, to be specific, in which he talked about how there are ongoing, ongoing negotiations, i should say, in maintaining the cease fire and resuming the ceasefire. and one of the asks that we have heard over and over again, repeatedly from hamas is essentially the ask for humanitarian aid. i've talked repeatedly about the need for the tents, the caravans, the mobile homes in which palestinians are saying they have not received from israel, not to the point of which they have been promised when it comes to the cease fire deal. so they have said there are ongoing negotiations. it seems to me that hamas is backing off on the

likelihood of indefinitely withholding those hostages come saturday. but of course, this is all a wait and see moment. you couple that with what's happening in washington as well, with king abdullah visiting with president donald trump. we're also hearing from egypt now who says, essentially, the president of egypt will not meet with donald trump until taking over of gaza by the united states is off the table. and now we are hearing of essentially the coming together of egypt, qatar, saudi arabia, uae and jordan next week, likely to talk more about how to rebuild gaza, in which egypt is now saying they have a plan on it. >> okay, we'll be listening and staying tuned very closely for that. yasmin vossoughian, great job. thank you. we are keeping our eyes on that senate confirmation hearing we mentioned involving trump's former personal defense attorney, todd blanche. you see him there. he is the nominee for the number two spot at the doj. deputy attorney general will monitor the questions that he receives from the senators in that room, and we'll bring it to you. any news that is made? up next on ana cabrera reports the

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city snow plows working around the clock. >> everybody out there be safe. know there's more weather coming. >> it's flooding underneath our porch. >> beyond the snow and ice. heavy rain causing flooding in some areas. severe storms even spawning a likely tornado in florida, causing multiple injuries and destroying property. while this long stretch of winter weather is exhausting for some, others, finding the joy like these, college students at virginia tech coming together for a massive snowball fight. >> ending on a high note. their thank you to adrian broaddus for that, and thank you for joining us. that does it for me today. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. >> good morning. 11 a.m. eastern, 8 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin this hour with breaking news out of l