here's senior correspondent cynthia mcfadden. >> reporter: a high level u.s. intelligence source tells nbc news the u.s. is confident, it cut off the flow of election-related material hacked by the russians. been behind the theft of a wide range of documents, many harmful to the clinton company t. highly praised intelligence official tells nbc news, new defensive measures taken by the u.s. and its allies are choking off the cyber past the russians have been using to steal e-mails from high profile democrats and other prominent americans. >> i think it's credible the u.s. government is doing everything possible to stop the cyber bleeding. officials also tell nbc news they are more confident than ever the russians used wikileaks founder to distribute the hacked material. telling him the u.s. considers assange a quote willing participant in the scheme. assange has been holed up in the embassy in london for more than four years. >> they're frustrated, because wikileaks has done damage in leaking classifieds information. >> reporter: and the u.s. is multiple intell

here's nbc news senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden. >> a high-level u.s. tells nbc news that the u.s. is confident it has cut off the flow of election-related material being hacked by the russians. the u.s. claims the kremlin has been behind the theft of a wide range of documents, many of them harmful to the clinton campaign. the highly placed intelligence official tells nbc news new defensive measures taken by the u.s. and its allies are choking off the cyberpaths the russians have been democrats and other prominent americans. >> i think it's credible that the u.s. government is doing everything possible to stop the cyberbleeding, to stop the exfiltration of information that the russians are getting access to. that doesn't mean that the russians don't already have a lot of information and it doesn't mean that they won't find ways of either disseminating that information, or getting access to more of it. >> u.s. intelligence officials also tell nbc news they are more confident than ever that the russianve julian assange, to help distribute the hacked mater

nbc news senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden explains. >> hello, pittsburgh! >> we love the state of pennsylvania. >> reporter: polling experts say pennsylvania is critical to this year's election. >> both the trump the clinton campaign know, if donald trump wins pennsylvania, he's almost certainly going to be the next president of the united states. >> reporter: clinton is currently leading in the state, but donald trump has not given up. campaigning there this week at a massive rally. >> we have to make sure this election is not stolen from us and is not taken away from us. >> reporter: the seeds of doubt he started spreading this summer, though he's specific evidence of fraud. >> the only way we can lose pennsylvania is if cheating goes on. >> reporter: experts say large-scale fraud is unlikely. but if there are claims of cheating or other irregularities in pennsylvania, that could be a big problem. because pennsylvania is one of 15 states that uses some electronic voting machines, without a paper record of the vote. which means if challenges are raised, th

nbc's senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden has details. >> reporter: nbc news has learned the cia is in the cyber retaliation, designed to be both clandestine and embarrassing. sources with direct knowledge of the operation tell us the target, the kremlin leadership, particularly vladimir putin. if ordered by the white house, the cia could manipulate things as specific as the banking accounts and personal phones of the kremlin leadership. >> there's a great deal of offshore money that has moved out of russia through the hands of oligarchs. it would be extremely embarrassing if that were revealed, and doing so would be a way to have a proportional response to what we have seen. >> reporter: the covert operation, the sources tell nbc news, is being run by a super secret group inside the cia. top secret documents indicate they have a staff of hundreds and a budget in the hundreds of millions. the covert operation is designed to send russia a signal to back off. how does it work? u.s. cyber operatives have long been active inside unlock the cyber doors the russians work hard t

cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, new york. during the national anthem, one member of the supreme court is not a fan. in an interview with yahoo, justice ruth baden ginsburg weighed in on colin kaepernick and others protesting racial injustice by refusing to stand for the anthem. >> i think it's really dumb of them. would i arrest them for doing it? no. i think it's dumb and disrespectful. >> it's not the first time ginsburg has made waves by after insulting donald trump. >>> when we come back, why a husband's heart-felt letter is striking such a chord across the that is moving millions all across the country. it's a love letter of sorts, written by a husband with a touching expression of gratitude towards those who don't often hear the words "thank you." here's kristen dahlgren. >> reporter: when 34-year-old laura levis died from a massive asthma attack, husband peter demarco could have easily melted into grief. what he did instead is inspiring. a simple act, a thank you letter sent to the doctors, nurses, everyone who helped

>> cynthia mcfadden, thank >>> also under fire, the trump foundation. new york's attorney general ordering to cease and desist fundraising in the state because it's not properly registered. it has 15 days to comply. something trump on said to veterans about vrtss has many outraged by hillary clinton takes new aim over his taxes. we have it all covered starting with nbc's katy tur. >> reporter: donald trump's foundation ordered to cease and desist by the new york attorney general. demanding the foundation stop taking investigation revealing the foundation didn't have the correct certification in new york, which would force rigorous oversight. in a statement, the trump campaign said it intends to cooperate fully but remained very concerned about the political motives behind a.g. eric snyderman, a democrat who endorsed hillary clinton. that as trump stepped into another fire storm earlier today. this time during a q & a with veterans, suggesting those suffering fro post-traumatic stress disorder aren't as strong as other veterans. >> they see things many -

here's cynthia mcfadden. >> a high level u.s. intelligence force tells nbc news that the u.s. is confident it has cut off the flow of election related material being hacked by the russians. the u.s. claims the kremlin has been behind thethet of a wide range of documents, many of them the highly placed intelligence official tells bc news new defensive measures taken by the u.s. and its allies are choking off the path the russians have been using to steal e-mails from high-profile democrats and other prominent americans. >> i think it's credible that the u.s. government is doing everything possible to stop the cyber bleeding. >> u.s. intelligence officials also tell nbc news they're more confident than ever that the founder julian assange to help distribute the hacked materials. telling nbc the u.s. considers assange a, quote, willing participant in the russian scheme. assange has been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for four years. >> they're frustrated because wikileaks has done a fair amount of dang. >> and the u.s. is making it person. multiple intelligence sour

we get details on that from our senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden. >> reporter: into the gasoline, democratic leader senator harry reid threw a match yesterday. in a letter to james comey criticizing his decision to notify congress of the newly discovered huma abedin e-mails, pps clinton investigation, he drops this bomb. in my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between donald trump, his top advisers, and the russian government. what is senator reid talking about? law enforcement and intelligence sources tell nbc new today, the fbi has been campaign manager paul manafort and his foreign business connections. when nbc news asked the fbi to comment on the inquiry, the fbi did not respond. >> americans have every right to be concerned about what they see in terms of trump advisers and their closeness with the kremlin, trump's policies, vis-a-vis russia, trump's potential financial interest in russia. >> reporter: paul manafort was

these provisions, it would make it more favorable for real estate developers like himself. >> cynthia mcfadden, thank you. >>> also under fire, the trump foundation. new york's attorney general ordering to cease and desist fundraising in the state because it's not properly registered. it has 15 days to comply. something trump on said to veterans about vrtss has many outraged by hillary clinton takes new aim over his taxes. we have it all covered starting with nbc's katy tur. >> reporter: donald trump's foundation ordered to cease and desist by the new york attorney general.

our senior investigative correspondent cynthia mcfadden explains. >> reporter: for decades donald trump has flaunted his life with beautiful women. >> for an older person, he's very attractive. >> reporter: in fact, he himself predicted his history with women could be a problem if he ran for office. chris matthews asked him about it in 1998. >> can you imagine how controversial i would be? you think about him with the women. how about me with the women? can you imagine? >> reporter: the him trump is referring to is bill clinton. although last night he made a point of saying his own bad behavior paled against clinton's. >> if you look at bill clinton, far worse. mine are words, and his was action. >> clearly donald trump has recognized for decades that his comments to women are inappropriate and wrong. it's a lot more self-awareness in the past than he's shown in the present. and i think it's telling that he thinks he can get away with these comments about women. and right now, women voters aren't letting him get away with it. >> i'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- i just start k

we get more from nbc's correspondent cynthia mcfadden. >> the unfairness of the tax laws is unbelievable. >> reporter: he's based much of his candidacy on being a successful businessman. but tonight, donald trump defending why he lost nearly a billion dollars in 1995. >> i was able to use the tax laws of this country, and my business acumen to dig out of the real estate mess. i have brilliantly used those laws. >> reporter: trump has refused to relea of his 1995 returns have been published by "the new york times." where they came from, still a mystery. how did donald trump's tax returns come to you? >> it was a friday afternoon, i was walking by my mailbox, and i looked in, and there was a manila envelope from the trump tower. i opened it up and there was three pages of donald trump's tax returns there. and i just went, no way. >> reporter: at issue, a totally legal tax trump to use the nearly billion dollar loss to avoid paying taxes for 18 years. >> what would be the effect of having nearly a billion dollars in losses? >> you could have about nearly a billion dollars of income in the n

>> cynthia mcfadden, thank you. >>> this evening, we're hearing for the of a killer during the largest mass shooting in modern u.s. history. police in orlando have released the audio recordings from the pulse nightclub massacre between the gunman, omar mateen, and a crisis negotiator. nbc's gabe gutierrez has late details. >> reporter: the chilling 911 call came in at 2:35 a.m. >> i want to let you know, i'm in orlando, and i did the shooting. >> reporter: by then, hundreds of people were scrambling to escape the pulse nightclub in orlando on june 12th. >> i pledge my allegiance to abu bakr al baghdadi on behalf of the islamic state. >> reporter: the killer at first speaking with an emergency dispatcher, then a police crisis negotiator. >> can you tell me where you are right now, so i can get you some help? >> no. because you have to tell america to stop bombing syria and iraq. they're killing a lot of innoc falsely claims there are cars outside rigged with bombs. >> i'm going to ignite it if they try to do anything stupid. >> reporter: mateen then praises the boston marathon bomber. >

>> that's a portion of cynthia mcfadden's new interview. cynthia joins me now.is up. donald trump has said this woman should have come forward in 2005 or written about what happened when she wrote her article in 2005. what did these two witnesses you talked, to what did they say about the timing of all this, coming out just now, three weeks before the election. >> her law professor, journalism professor said, i pushed hard on that. listen, what did happen, was "people" magazine wrote a real puff piece about donald and melania, and their happily wedded bliss, and the new baby. why didn't she refuse at least to do the piece that appeared in "people" magazine. listen, she was in an impossible position. i believe she needed to hold her nose and get through it, that's what she did. she believed donald trump would strike out against her. and he made a very persuasive argument for why he believes she did exactly the right thing at the time. they say her story has been consiste consistent. she talked to them independently. do you believe she was laying a trap so if dona

. >> reporter: no one would disagree about that. 60 cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, harrisburg, pennsylvania. >>> in north carolina tonight, a state of emergency remains in place, the threat of more massive flooding will peak over the next 24 hours. officials fear thousands of homes have already been damaged as the death toll in the state risen to 22. nbc's miguel almaguer is in the flood zone. >> reporter: tonight as north carolina's tar river rises, so does the threat of catastrophic flooding. showing us a community under water, losing more ground every hour. >> get in there. >> reporter: in griston, bobby bowen lends a hand as his home is threatened. sandy langston leaves >> if the water keeps rising, i'm coming back to get them. >> reporter: with thousands of homes believed to be water logged, the next wave of destruction is coming. hurricane matthew's deluge is pouring downstream. alice suggs expects to lose her home by tomorrow. >> the water's coming. >> i'll lose everything. >> reporter: the governor said it will crest by tomorrow, but when w will just begin. miguel almaguer, nbc news