katie phang, let's talk a little bit about joel greenberg and his attorney, fritz sheller. we learned federal prosecutors disclosed that joel greenberg had agreed to negotiate a plea deal. his attorney was asked outside of the courthouse after hearing about this as to whether or not matt gaetz has anything to worry about. greenberg, in fact, is a friend of gaetz's and here's what he had to say. >> does matt gaetz have anything to worry about? >> does matt gaetz -- that is such a great -- i'm sure matt gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today. >> this is somewhat of an ominous response, to say the least, when it comes to matt gaetz and the plea deal that we are hearing about from greenberg. what do you make of it? >> well, yasmin, joel greenberg is more than just a friend and an acquaintance. he is the self-professed wingman to matt gaetz. they go way back, and in typical florida man fashion, there's a whole lot of intertwined entanglement of even some local florida politicians but when it comes to joel greenberg, he has to save his own skin, yasmin. he is looking at doze

joining me now, katie benner, justice department reporter for "the new york times," and katie phang, gal contributor. the katies are here for us tonight. i'm going to start with katie benner. let's talk about this. these two, mr. greenberg and mr. gaetz, reportedly shared girlfriends, at least one. gaetz called him his wingman. three greenberg friends told politico that they personally heard him boast about his 2017 relationship with a then-17-year-old they claim went on to work in pornography. it's pretty seamy. how much trouble does it appear that mr. gaetz might be in because if mr. greenberg talks, he's going to be talking about him? >> i think one of the big issues for mr. gaetz is whether or not joel greenberg gives investigators information about that 17-year-old girl you mentioned. we've heard allegations that both men had sex with her and that, you know, she was given free hotel. basically if you give an underage person anything of value, it is considered child sex trafficking under the law. that comes with a mandatory ten years in prison. and so to the extent that mr. greenb

. >> with me now is katie phang, msnbc legal contributor and brant williams. katie, there was a break in the case before the prosecutor was allowed to ask that question about the use of force and when use of force should have ended. the defense objected to that. can you explain why the defense might object to something that seems like an elemental question. >> it's kind of a two-fold answer for you. one, it was whether or not it was within the ability of this witness to be able to testify and whether or not it was something that this particular officer would be able to speak to, number one. and then number two, any chance the defense is going to get to be able to slow down this freight train of emotion coupled with the idea that there was a failure to adhere to policies and procedures, the defense is going to seize upon that. the ability for this particular witness to not be able to tell the jury, especially being his former shift supervisor, that it was unacceptable, it was incorrect for chauvin to continue to restrain george floyd when he had stopped, quote u

. >>> joining me now is msnbc legal contributor katie phang and jason johnson. so katie, i think for every lawyer and former and current prosecutor, today was a tense day to watch the prosecution have to watch a pretty narrow tight rope, because there was a mistrial floated by the judge. can you just walk us through what happened today, and what prosecutor blackwell had to pull off with dr. tobin? >> yeah. so most of the legal drama, joy, today happened behind the scenes and outside the presence of the jury. there was a late disclosed lab report that dr. andrew baker, the hennepin county medical examiner who conducted the only autopsy of george floyd. within that late produced lab result was actual information about carbon monoxide, which we had heard about from dr. fowler for the very first time when he took the stand on behalf of the defense yesterday. but the reason why it created drama was the judge said that this late disclosure caused too much prejudice for the defense and excluded the use of that lab result. and so the judge said to mr. blackwell on behalf

attorney, as well as attorney katie phang, an msnbc legal contributor.t, let's start with you. how direct do you think the chief will be when he takes the stand, and do you think the defense, in cross-examination, will bring up those comments that he made to the media? >> well, i certainly hope he is as direct as he was in those comments. those comments mean everything to policing. it means everything to a community that has been traumatized by this incident. they wanted to hear from the leadership, and the leadership laid it out. this goes against everything that we are. it goes against our teaching, our training, it goes against the ethics of policing. and again, i certainly hope that when the prosecution questions him that he says those same things and that he digs down into why he says those things. ethics for policing is very, very important, very serious, and i dare say if mr. chauvin had taken it seriously, mr. floyd would be alive today. >> captain, i want to get your reaction to a moment that we heard from the trial this week that really stood o

joining me now is katie phang, trial attorney and msnbc legal contributor and mark klaxton, retired nypdective and director of the black law enforcement alliance. i'm going to ask both of you this question but i'm going to start with you, mark. there are a lot of cases and i have covered a lot of black lives matter cases, too many for my psychological health, but there are some in which you look at the case and you think, that's an easy conviction. walter scott is one of them. eric garner is one of them. in the walter scott case, a video emerged from a bystander showing the officer shooting walter scott in the back and literally dropping a taser to frame him for his own death. shot him in the back as he's running away. clear, convincing, jury hung. the case of eric garner, the first case in which we heard "i can't breathe" at least in the modern era. he's on the ground, he's struggling, police officers are choking him. he is, again, no, the officer is cleared in in that case as well. eric garner's mom was in court today watching this and i'm sure it's painful for her to be there and watc

. >> joining me now, msnbc legal contributor and trial attorney katie phang.with me, shauna lloyd. shauna, chief arradondo will be a powerful witness for the prosecution. this is what he said this summer. >> there are absolute truths to live. we need air to breathe. the killing of mr. floyd was an absolute truth, that it was wrong. >> shauna, how will the defense counter that kind of statement coming from him? >> that's going to be very hard to counter, because it is a very damaging statement from the police chief. and in these types of cases, we typically don't see this type of statement coming from a supervising officer, much less a chief. what they are going to have to do, though, is refocus on the other things. yes, he might not supposed to be there that long but this was a part, a maneuver that could be used if they believed that a suspect was actively trying to resist arrest. he'll have to go back to the threat of the crowd and that that was where chauvin's attention was focused. >> katie, we're also likely to hear from the medical examiner who performed

katie phang, joyce vance as we said, we never know with the jury. >>> still ahead the fda and cdc aren extremely rare case. what it means for global vaccination efforts? we'll find out next. don't go anywhere. ♪ ♪ are you ready to join the duers? those who du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent. the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. du more with less asthma. talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. bipolar depression. it's a dark, lo