i want to bring in ken dilanian. it is rather extraordinary.e pieces of this fraud that happened, but the scope of it, the scale of it is what nbc news is talking about here. and it really is intense. >> yeah, the numbers here are hard to get your mind around. experts and government officials tell us that more than half a billion dollars in covid relief money was stolen or misspent. that is almost as much as will be spent over the next decade. and the majority of the money was defrauded from the unemployment programs and a lot of that was stolen by foreign criminal groups and sent overseas. so it is gone forever. our new reporting as you said is focusing on the paycheck protection laws. most which have were turned in to grants. fraudsters created fake companies with ghost employees to steal millions. and made of that money can be recovered and some people are being prosecuted. but the reality it is that most of the money is probably spent and gone. the government is of course seizing and auctioning afternoon those lambeaus and ferraris bought,

if ukrainians can use these networks, hallie it stands to reason americans can can as well. >> ken dilanians to all of you for joining us. stay with me because we've got another jam-packed hour just ahead including some news just in from our pentagon team about the war in ukraine and where specifically russia is losing ground. we'll be back in three minutes. why do dermatologists choose dove? the dove beauty bar, is gentle. it not only cleans, it hydrates my skin. as a dermatologist, i want what's best for our skin. with 1/4 moisturizing cream, dove is the #1 bar dermatologists use at home. ancestry made it really easy to learn about my family's history. finding military information, newspaper articles, how many people were living in the house and where it was, makes me curious and keeps pulling me in and the photos reminding me of what life must have been like for them. finding out new bits of information about the family has been a wonderful experience, it's an important part of understanding who we are. my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucal

i want to bring in national security and justice correspondent ken dilanian.ly seen even before the trial began as a potentially dramatic moment here for the jury, the people in the courtroom. talk about what we've heard so far. >> almost cinematic of guy reffitt's 19-year-old son, jackson, talking on the stand about turning on his own father. he was on the stand since about the 1:00 hour. he testified that he became increasingly concerned about his dad's extremism from 2016 on. he found himself googling the fbi tip line on his phone sitting in his bedroom while his dad was elsewhere in the house. he said he never heard from the fbi until after the january 6th riot. he said his father texted the family about the capitol assault including one message that says, i'll show you when i get home, don't believe the media, i was there. he testified his dad's messages were, quote, scary to read. he's been accused of being part of the sex as 3 percenters. prosecutors said he riled up the crowd with violent language and charged the police barricades guarding the capitol

. >> i want to bring in ken dilanian who has been monitoring this.ings that we always watch closely, but this one in particular because much what is happening in ukraine. the heightened tension with russia. that ended up being a big focus of this today and discussion about putin's mindset, what he could do next. >> reporter: that's right. and spy chiefs painted a picture of a russian leader who really is cornered. they said the war is going badly for him, but backing down is not an option. and one indication of how badly it has gone wrong, that director of the defense intelligence agency estimated between 2 thourngs and 4,000 russian soldiers have been killed in action in the last two weeks. which would be more than the 2400 or so americans killed in 20 years of war in afghanistan. take a listen to what the cia director said about how badly putin has misjudged the situation. >> i think putin's assumptions have turned out to be profoundly flawed. i fail to see and our analysts failed to see how he could sustain a puppet regime or pro-russian leadershi

. >> joining me now is nbc's national security and justice correspondent ken dilanian, as well as formerlk us through what we learned from intel leaders today. they seem to be keeping a pretty close eye on a possible russian false flag operation. >> yeah, garrett, in fact, i spoke to a u.s. intelligence official yesterday that confirmed that by accusing the ukrainians of preparing to use chemical weapons, russia may be laying ground work for their own forces to use them. the russians would stage a chemical attack and accuse the ukrainians of carrying it out. the russians would use that fake chemical attack as a further pretext to step up the violence. take a listen to what cia director burns said today about the possibility of the russians using chemical weapons. >> this is something as all of you know very well is very much a part of russia's playbook, they have used those weapons against their own citizens, they have at least encouraged the use in syria and elsewhere. it's something we take very seriously. >> u.s. intelligence officials also pushed back today, garrett, on what they sai

joining me now is nbc's ken dilanian. course, facebook. tell us what exactly this is and what it means. >> it's another reminder for parents to be mindful of how social media is affecting their children. as a parent of two kids who are on tiktok almost every day, i know from personal experience it's hard to keep track of what they are watching and how the app is affecting them. these state ags tend to look into whether tiktok's design and promotion teak neeks are affecting the fid cal and mental health of children and whether they violated consumer protection laws. this is the late northwest a push to protect children online. president biden in his state of the union address called for a ban on targeting advertising to children on social media. tiktok said in a statement tiktok cares about building an experience to help protect and support the well-being of our community and appreciates that the state attorneys general are focusing on the safety of younger users, chris. >> these companies always care deeply. unlike meta,

our ken dilanian got an exclusive look at the devices called switch blades back in december they're essentially robotic smart bombs, single use weapons that can deployed in a matter of minutes. now, that could be part of the new package the president is expected to announce later today. back to you. >> brie, thank you the u.n. estimates that at least 3 million refugees have left ukraine so far, and unicef believes children make up about half that number that means 75,000 kids become refugees every day averaging one every second jay, those refugees -- in. >> reporter: yeah, we continue to see mothers with their young children moving through this train station. not as full we've seen it in the past, but we do have a train just arriving now from ukraine, so we expect this to fill up pretty quickly here as families continue to try and escape the violence the suburbs in ruins, russian troops now pushing to the edge of kyiv, their missiles inside this strike taking down high rise apartments in the capital city the mayor instituting a curfew and urging those who aren't fighting to take cover >> i call

joining me now, ken dilanian. ken, let's start here.lling this, quote, a shadow war away from the battlefield. how are ukrainians putting pressure on russia online? >> yeah, craig. there's a lot happening in this war that we are not seeing on our tv screens. cyber is one part of that. ukrainian cyber warriors have been breaking into networks in russia, stealing sensitive data and posting it on the internet. i spoke to a cyber security expert who has been in close touch with ukrainian government hackers and he says they've hacked a slew of sensitive targets, including the moscow subway, a nuclear power plant and even the cell phone of the head of russia's missile force. they're not breaking things but they are stealing and posting secrets, including emails, blueprints and internal documents. they're trying to send a message to russia that none of its networks are safe. nbc news can't independently verify the documents are russia's but they have been confirmed as being hacked by group such as hacktivist. >> they want russia to know that t

ken dilanian, washington bureau. sahill kapur also from the hill. make this decision but it does open the door for the testimony of mr. kushner later on this week on thursday. >> yeah, that's right. so the white house has made that decision on other people who the committee has wanted to speak to including dan scavino and pete navarro, who the committee referred to criminal contempt charges just last night. but this does set up in light of kushner coming to the committee, he's scheduled for tomorrow, we are told that he's expected to show, not physically but he's expected to virtually speak with the committee. and this comes as the committee has lots of questions, especially about this extended -- this gap that the "washington post" is reporting on the president's phone records on january 6th. now, this is something that is not new. we reported this a couple months ago, that there was an hours-long gap in these phone records and something that now we know that it was about seven hours long. one member of the committee, pete aguilar, told reporters t

nbc's ken dilanian will join us with new reporting on that. >>> also ahead, a bit of good news when ites to gas prices. u.s. oil takes a dip as market volatility appears to ease up. >> and we'll read from joe's new piece for "the washington post" entitled "the war in ukraine is moving into a new phase, biden and the west had better get ready." as we go to break, a piercing look at the ukrainian troops, not only holding off the violent invasion of their country but also lifting up the most vulnerable parts of their population caught in the crosshairs of vladimir putin, innocent children and the elderly, pregnant women and those hospitalized even before the incursion. it is a remarkable look at the perseverance and resilience of the ukrainian people. "morning joe" is back in a moment. psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infection, som