lester >> peter alexander at the white house, thanks let me bring in our justice correspondent ken dilanian ken, hunter biden's lawyer says the investigation is now over, but the u.s. attorney says it's ongoing, so where does this case actually stand right now? >> reporter: lester, law enforcement officials tell nbc news that this investigation involved a detailed scrub of hunter biden's financial affairs. and these tax charges are what prosecutors decided to bring but there may still be related matters under investigation. meanwhile, hunter biden will soon report to this courthouse to find out whether a federal judge will go along with the terms of the plea deal including no prison time lester >> all right, ken dilanian tonight, thanks >>> there's also news in the federal case against donald trump over his handling of classified documents the judge setting a trial date as the former president lays out his defense. here's garret haake. >> reporter: the federal criminal trial of former president trump over his handling of classified documents has tonight been set for august 14th judge aileen

the question now is, how will the allegations play in court ken dilanian has a closer look. >> reporter: legal experts are weighing in tonight on what some are calling a devastating criminal case against the nation's 45th president. even lawyers who once supported former president trump say the evidence is overwhelming >> the evidence in this indictment is very damning for the former president. >> reporter: republican jay town was appointed in 2017 by mr. trump to be alabama's top federal prosecutor >> if the president was directing people to lie, directing people or himself moving information around that is the object of the grand jury subpoena and doj's investigation, well, that's obstruction of justice. that is a conspiracy to commit false statements and that's against the law. >> reporter: law professor ryan goodman, a trump critic, has studied espionage act cases. >> this is one of the most incredibly strong indictments that i've seen compared to all other indictments under the espionage act for retention of military secrets in the past 20-plus years. >> reporter: experts say the m

this will be our first report from ken dilanian about what happened inside because there are no cameras. no audio. they were not allowed to bring devices in so ken has rushed down to the camera. he's about to appear and give us the first indication. if you want to start, i just caution i might have to int you. we've all been waiting. >> i understand. plus i think there's a delay in the audio here. >> i'm very sorry about that. if you could tell us what other issues of prosecutorial misconduct you think the defense should and will be presenting in these pretrial motions. >> i think there's going to be discovery conducted first because while you certainly -- >> as i cautioned, we'll bring you back in a moment. ken joins us from outside the courthouse. tell us what happened in there. we've all been waiting. >> andrea, donald trump's lawyer pled not guilty on his behalf. he said we most certainly enter a plea of not guilty when asked by the magistrate judge how he pleads. it was a very pro forma, very bare bones proceeding in there. lasting around five minutes. i left after mr. trump's plea

nbc's ken dilanian is outside the miami federal courthouse.e, former assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi and msnbc security analyst, frank figliuzzi, and former deputy commander of u.s. military command, retired lieutenant general steph twitty. great to have all of you here. we know that a couple of key lawyers went away from team trump last week. he said he was going to hire some new ones. that's happened? >> that's right, and it's also important, it wasn't clear he had local counsel that could represent him in the courthouse behind me. it wasn't clear that the arraignment portion of tomorrow's proceedings would go forward. we have a letter from the clerk's office that names new lawyers who have been admitted in this case, chad bowman, maxwell, and todd blanch, which we already knew was one of the trump lawyers. what the document suggests is walt nauta, and the former president himself now have local counsel that can represent them in the hearing tomorrow, and so mr. trump not only will make a first appearance before the ma

kate >> ken dilanian, thank you. >>> to russia now where a court in moscow says another u.s.itizen has been detained and accused of running a drug dealing business he has spoken out against the kremlin in the past. josh lederman has those details. >> reporter: tonight american michael travis leake is facing up to a dozen years or more in russian prison seen today on state television locked in a cage in court in moscow russian state media saying he is accused of large scale drug dealing involving young people but giving few details. pro kremlin media releasing this video they say shows leake after his arrest >> i am not admitting to any guilt, and i do not believe that i have done what i've been accused of, because i don't know what i've been accused of >>>> reporter:r: nbc cannnnot verify y when thehe video wasas made or r if leake e was under r duress he is belilieved to bebe in his early 50s s and has lived in russia foror years ♪ well-known in moscow's rock music band, he has been the frontman for one band and the producer for three others in 2014, leake was being intervie

back with me is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. xplain what's going on here. >> and to be clear, katy, the fbi yesterday offered comer and charles grassley an opportunity to review the document at fbi headquarters. they both said they have seen it, and they are demanding a copy of it. that's what concerns people inside the law enforcement community. the fbi generally does not turn over this kind of raw intelligence or law enforcement information to congress because as you said very well in the intro, one of the real risks here is anybody can make an allegation to the fbi. in this case, it's an allegation, by the way, that joe biden took a $5 million bribe to influence policy when he was vice president. if there was any corroboration to that, he would have been charged with a crime. obviously he has not been. nonetheless, there are lots of files like that inside the fbi that any one of which when made public could be very damaging to the people that are subjects of this information, and also to the general notion that they need to pr

our ken dilanian has reporting on this, joining us from miami.o with us, retired seattle police chief and msnbc law enforcement analyst carmen best. ken, what can you tell us about the security preparations there in miami? >> reporter: good morning, ana. we're already seeing a much different situation today than over the weekend when i was also standing here. new barricades are being put in place. a much greater presence of police and other security officers, homeland security police. you're absolutely right. this is a joint operation between the miami police, the homeland security, court security police, the federal marshals and the secret service has to protect donald trump's life. they have to make sure this perimeter is safe. >> so once he gets here, who is in charge of the security of this perimeter? >> the perimeter outside the courthouse is obviously miami. courthouse and in is u.s. marshals. even fbi agents that come in and testify and do things, we can't carry guns into a federal courthouse. but with the secret service obviously protecti

ken dilanian, take us through what we know howl the deal came together?reporter: well, andrea, this case has been investigated as you said for five years by the trump-appointed u.s. attorney in delaware, david greed to stay on and operated as deet factory attorney, independent of those who run the justice department including merrick garland who i believe is overseas right now. so very far away from this announcement today. what will they announced is a plea deal where hunter biden is admitting to crimes. he's admitting to willfully failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018, but they're misdemeanors. under this arrangement, mr. biden would not get prison time, he would be sentenced to probation, assuming the judge goes along. then there's the other judge charge where he filled out a form declining -- or failing to say he was addicted to drugs at the time. that technically is a felony. he'll enter a diversion program that won't be on his record. in a sense, you see this as a significant victory for hunter biden, look, he paid back what is we believe more t

ken dilanian, sank you, remember when folks as well the former president's birthday is wednesday he'llrning 76 years old. originally tuesday night was supposed to be a birthday fund-raiser. i believe that's still happening. but again, breaking news we're getting now is the former president leave lowering remarks from bedminster, new jersey, hefty returns from miami at his arraignment on tuesday afternoon. let's bring in representative joaquin castro, the number of the house intelligence committee and former impeachment manager and trump's second impeachment. congressman, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. after the sun tightening came out and you tweeted in part that's, again and again his crimes put national security at. mask nobody not even a former president is above the law. what was your additional reaction to the details of this thing? >> well, i think like the rest of the country. our most of the country in one sense i'm shocked that our former president who understands how secretive, how dangerous it would be for that kind of classified material to get out. the former

. >> andrew to your very point, ken dilanian, you've got some information about that past "washington post" reporting about nuclear secrets. >> reporter: yeah, that's right. just to build on what andrew was saying, right there in paragraph 3, remember that "the washington post" had reported that some of the documents involved nuclear programs, and i remember donald trump and his allies denying that. it says right here that the classified documents trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the united states and foreign countries, united states' nuclear programs and potential vulnerabilities of the u.s. and its allies in military attack. it goes on to say not only was the national defense of the united states compromised or put at risk but the safety of the united states military, human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods. these are the crown jewels. i've been covering the intelligence community for more than a decade. i've seen a lot of these cases of unauthorized disclosure of classifi

trump will be arraigned tomorrow, is garrett haake and justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. ken, the issue with the lawyers, why would that hold up an arraignment? >> reporter: just because i'm told that you need local counsel admitted to practice in the southern district of florida here to proceed with an arraignment, and we don't know for a fact. we don't have access to what's going on right at this moment behind the scenes in trump world, but as of a few hours ago there was no evidence that donald trump had local counsel, and as you mentioned at the top, i was told that at least one prominent miami defense attorney turned down an offer to represent donald trump and they were continuing to interview people, and it was up in the air as to whether the arraignment portion of the proceedings can go forward. the first appearance, the surrender and first appearance will happen, but the issue with the arraignment is you need local counsel. what's puzzling is there are some people, who are florida lawyers, who we thought were working for donald trump. it's a little bit up in the

. >> joining us is ken dilanian, senior national politics reporter jonathan allen and barbara mckwaedl analyst. ken, let's start with this new order. what is the judge telling trump's legal team >> ana, this is called a rule 16 protective order it's absolutely standard in almost every case. it essentially governs the rules around the material that trump's legal team is going to obtain, the non-classified material. it essentially says they're not allowed to disclose it to the public or the news media or anyone not involved in the defense of this case the reason that's important is because this -- the material they're going to eventually obtain will include all the names of the witnesses, their testimony. it's going to include, for example, we know the secret service agents around mr. trump who are defending his life, many of them testified in front of that grand jury. so a lot of sensitive material is going to come into the possession of these lawyers. the judge and the government wants to make sure they don't make any of it public. they're imposing this rule now, the issue with the cl

let's bring in nbc's justice and intel correspondent ken dilanian and barbara mcquade, msnbc legal analyst. ken, i understand we heard from budowich. what more did he have to say, and why might his testimony be significant? >> that's right, chris. he confirmed his appearance before the grand jury on twitter and i'll read in part what he had to say. he said, i fulfilled a legal obligation to testify in front of a grand jury and answered every question honestly. he added, i will not be intimidated by the weaponization of government. we have reporting from our colleagues von hill lard and laura jarrett who said budowich testified about an hour in front of the grand jury and asked about a statement that former president trump made denying he had taken classified information. we're trying to figure out what statement that might have been and the relevance there, but it suggests, in fact, the inquiry was about the classified documents case which has been principally investigated by a grand jury in washington, d.c., but that grand jury has been dormant for the last month and we have people at the

want to bring in ken dilanian, who is following this for us. ken, tell us what more we need to know about this report. >> reporter: this was a 120-page report as the result of three years of investigation by the inspector general of the department of justice. and it doesn't really add much to the picture of the basic facts here. but it really does present a portrayal of a cascade of negligence and misconduct by employees of the federal bureau of prisons that this report says allowed the conditions to where jeffrey epstein was able to take his life, that accused sex offender. what it says is that, for example, he was supposed to be monitored every 30 minutes. he was alone in his cell in this new york federal holding facility where he was facing sex trafficking charges but he wasn't monitored and the employees lied about it. they noted they were making the rounds but they weren't making the rounds. his cell was supposed to be searched for extra bed linens and clothing, which he had, but his cell was never searched. he was supposed to have a roomma

he knows quite a bit. >> laura jarrett, ken dilanian, vaughn hillyard. thank you very much. >>> coming up andrew weissmann is here to explain why the special counsel may try a case in florida, not d.c. >>> plus, the supreme court rules against the alabama gop. what the course is ordering the state to do. laura jarrett will join us for that in a moment. what california governor gavin newsom is trying to give back power in guns to the majority of americans. we are back in 60 seconds. we are back in 60 seconds. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who's winning? no idea. real milk. real delicious. and don't forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. what's that mabel? (mooo) wow, smart cow! - this is our premium platinum coverage map and this is consumer cellular's map. - i don't see the difference, do you? - well, that one's purple. - [announcer] get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carrier. starting at $20. consumer cellular. ♪ this is rebecca, who needs a new script. ♪ ♪ and

joining me now, justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, harry litman and also peter bark. so ken, set the stage for us. the special counsel certainly not talking. there are multiple developments at the justice department and now in florida. >> that's right. and taken together, it paints the picture of an investigation that appears to have reached its end and poised for a charging decision and certainly that meeting between the trump lawyers and jack smith and senior career officials at the justice department was a harbinger of that, that is the kind of meeting that happens at the end 6 an investigation when lawyers are trying to argue their case to upper levels of the justice department. of course merrick garland was not involved in that meeting consistent with his hands off policy. so this reporting that we have that there is testimony happening at a florida grand jury, it could mean a number of different things ranging from they intend to bring an entire case in florida to, that there is a witness that they need to get before a grand jury who can't make it up to washing

with us now to talk more about this, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, in miami, "washington post" investigative political reporter josh dawsey and tally, an msnbc legal analyst. ken, what does it mean that we're seeing people from the special counsel's office entering the miami courthouse? >> good morning, jose. it is sort of confirms our sense that the center of gravity of the classified documents case has shifted down here to south florida. david harbach, the person you mentioned, is one of the senior figures in the special counsel investigation, he goes back with special counsel jack smith to their time as war crimes prosecutors in the hague, he's a long-time senior prosecutor, important jobs in the justice department, and he's in a managerial role. the fact he's here today, he's normally in d.c., i think it is significant and there are reasons to believe that technical legal case law around venue and obstruction of justice are part of the reason that the center of gravity has shifted and that this case, if it is brought, including obstruction of justic

ken dilanian is covering the former president's legal drama as we learn that florida grand jury is preparinghear testimony. ken, where do things stand right now? a lot of moving parts in this investigation. >> a lot of moving parts and series of data points that appear to point to the end of the investigation, point to a special counsel on the verge of a charging decision. first of all, you had the trio of trump lawyers coming to the justice department yesterday to meet with senior officials and also with jack smith himself. but not with the attorney general, to essentially try to argue that their client should not be charged and that jack smith and his team have committed misconduct, as they have been arguing publicly. and then you have the new reporting that we have that there is some testimony being heard in this case before a federal grand jury in the southern district of florida. not exactly clear what that means, it could be a number of different things, it could mean that they intend to bring the case against donald trump if they bring it in florida because after all that is where the

i want to bring in ken dilanian who has been following all this. angela weizman served as the fbi's general counsel, an msnbc legal analyst. great to have you here. ken, let's start with this florida grand jury. what do we know about it? >> at nbc news, we're report, the grand jury is going to take testimony from one witness this week. as you mentioned, we don't know the nature of the witness. there is a range of possibilities here as to why they're using a second grand jury. by the way, we don't know this grand jury was empanelled specifically for this investigation. it could just be a sitting grand jury, down there, that they are using to take testimony in this case. the range of possibilities goes from they're intending to bring the entire case in a southern district of florida including any potential indictment of donald trump, to this is merely a matter of convenience. there is a particular witness they needed to hear from who couldn't make arrangements to come to washington to testify. and the possibilities in between include there is a partic

ken dilanian is nbc's justice and intelligence correspondent, carol leonnig in the national reporter for "the washington post," and joining me here at the table is paul butler, a former federal prosecutor, both carol and paul are msnbc contributors. so carol, your papers report that fani willis may use a tool originally created to combat organized crime, rico laws, puts this case at a whole new level potentially. take us through what you know, carol. >> you know, fani willis has said -- or i should say she has confided to confidants and allies that she was considering a rico case for many, many months. a rico case is essentially used most likely for drug cartels, for mobsters, that's where it started was mobsters, especially in new york. and it is federal law and also state law. it happens to be that in georgia, the rico statutes are incredibly broad in addition to less strict, i would say, than federal rico laws. the standards are a little lower than what she can bring into court, and it sounds from our reporters that she is gathering evidence and her team is gathering evidence that

thank you my friend, ken dilanian for us in miami. let's bring in ruth ben-ghiat, professor of history at nyu. she is the author of -- the very important book strongman, mussolini to the president. ruth, you and i were just talking yesterday evening, i'm actually very surprised about how much has developed since then. but it's sunday morning, so a lot of politicians and people who are running against trump have gone on tv this morning. i want to talk about that a little bit, what they've been saying, but i also want to go back to last night. what we are on tv together, donald trump was speaking. at his appearances yesterday, he continued to air his grievances, he really handsome partner justice here in just a little bit of what he said. >> we don't have the audio, but he said, the basis indictment of me weaponize department of justice in justice, he said, will go down as the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country. i think it already is, when you think about, and certainly going back to obama, what i said, they spi

also with us, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian from miami, national reporteror "poli woodruff swan and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney from michigan. vaughn, what more are you learning about trump and his team's mind-set today?r: look, told that he had that event last night here, spoke in front of several hundred folks in person, but also addressed millions ofs streamed live on fox, news max, right side broadcasting. because as much about the legal defense as it is about the political defense, and it's worth noting that during his more than half hour remarks yesterday, there was no denial from donald trump that he took these documents including classified documents that included information related to u.s. nuclear capabilcapabilitie included information, according to the department of justice about u.s. and allies' own military defenses. there was no denial that he misled his own attorney. there was no denial that he attempted to obstruct justice, and attempted to hide the fact that he was holding onto documents even after his own lawyers had told the fb

let's bring in justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian outside the courthouse where the former president will be arraigned on tuesday, garrett haake is in new jersey, where donald trump is now, and with us in new york, laura jarrett along with andrew weissmann, former lead prosecutor for special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. laura, i want to start with the breaking news about donald trump's lawyers. they are both resigning. handing it over to todd blanche. what do we know? >> we are trying to figure it out. to have this happen just three days before an arraignment is obviously not the position you want to be in when you are facing such serious federal charges. we know todd blanche, a very well-known, well respected, former federal prosecutioner who -- prosecutor who andrew knows well. someone well respected within the legal community. someone who has been added to the president's legal team recently. they were also defending him in the investigation into january 6 and the president's role in trying to cling to power. they

sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news' ken dilanian, the arraignment portion cannot go forwardless trump finds a local attorney. it's not clear that that has happened yet. if trump doesn't find a local attorney, the arraignment may be postponed. this comes days after the unsealing of a 37 count indictment accusing him of illegally taking classified national security documents when he left the white house. federal prosecutors say he stored them in ballroom, stage, in a bathroom, then after he received a subpoena to turn them over, he conspired with an aide to hide them from investigators. these are some of the pictures that are in that order. trump's former attorney general says the case appears to be airtight. >> if even half of it is true, then he's toast. i mean, it's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damning. this idea of presenting trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous. >> trump responded by calling barr a, quote, gutless pig who has weak and totally ineffective. with us now to talk more about this nbc's vaughn hillyard near donald tru

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian joins us now. we almost need like a guide to all these different investigations but now we know there is a grand jury meeting in florida. we already knew there was one in washington on the same subject. what does all that mean? >> it's hard to know, kate, exactly. there are a range of possibilities, starting with they could end up bringing the entire case if they decide to charge donald trump in the classified documents matter, they could end up charging him in florida in the southern district of florida. there is certainly what the lawyers call venue, after all the classified documents were taken to his compound at mar-a-lago down there, that's one possibility. on the other end of it, it could just be a matter of convenience and logistics. there happens to be a witness in florida that couldn't make it up to washington and need to get that witness in front of a grand jury and doing it with the florida grand jury. there's also a possibility that they want to charge somebody would works at mar-a-lago

nbc's ken dilanian is reporting on this.also joined by kristin gibbons feden an msnbc legal analyst and former prosecutor who has prosecuted many sex abuse cases including the one against bill cosby. thank you both for being here. tell us about what's going on today with the hearing. >> i was there this morning and this former cia officer was in an orange prison jumpsuit with his lawyers looking much older than the photos we've seen online. he was based in mexico city for many years as a spy, and this all started when a woman ran screaming from his apartment claiming he had raped her. and subsequently the agents from the diplomatic security service, the state department served a search warrant to seize his iphones. now the way they did that is an issue that could get the whole case dismiss ds. the defense is in court asking that all these incriminating photos be excluded from the case, and it's technical the reasons behind this. basically they're saying they went to him three different times on the same warrant because they

i want to bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, ali vitali and carol lam, an msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. ken, walk us through these charges filed here. what is hunter biden facing? >> reporter: good morning, ana. well, er biden is admitting to crimes, but misdemeanors. the specific -- they're called -- it is the criminal information that describes the charges, it doesn't specify exactly how much tax mr. biden is alleged to have evaded, but says he earned more than $1.5 million in each of those years, and was required to pay more than $100,000 in each of those years and did not pay. it has been reported that he repaid more than $1 million in a tax bill while this five-year investigation was ongoing, he's also agreed to admit the facts of possessing a gun when he wasn't supposed to possess one because he was addicted to drugs at the time. he lied on the form. he's admitting to the facts of the charge but will enter a pretrial adjudication program so it won't go on his record. the upside here is that he's expected to receive probati

let's bring in nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian, chuck rosenberg. n, tell us about this grand jury meeting in florida and what we know about the expected testimony? >> good morning, ana. we know a little about it. there could be a number of reasons for it, ranging from -- there was a witness who couldn't make it up to d.c., for convenience purposes they're taking the testimony in florida. they're bringing the whole case in the southern district of florida. if they did the latter they would have to read in all the testimony that's taken place in washington, d.c., they would have to have some fbi agent read transcripts to that grand jury in florida. it poses a bit of a logistical hurdle. we still believe there are things happening around this case, hearing testimony for a long time on this. this is halls and mirrors. it's a secret process. >> we do know the fbi found over 11,000 documents from the white house at mar-a-lago, this was in august when they did that search warrant, including more than a hundred containing classified markings. phil, your tho

ken dilanian joins us now. my understanding, ken, is the judge still needs to approve this so what happens next and what more can you tell us about the terms of this deal? >> that's right. we expect hunter biden to appear in the coming days at this courthouse behind me to be processed by the federal marshals then enter this plea. we'll see whether the judge accepts it. no reason to believe he wouldn't. he's pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of not paying the irs in 2017 and 2018. the documents don't specify his tax bill, but in $2021, he made more than a million in an effort to settle this case. there's also a felony charge related to a gun he purchased while addicted to drugs. if he enters a program, he will not be charged. this plea agreement calls for probation. it appears to cap the end of a five-year intensive investigation into hunter biden's dealings overseas, millions of dollars paid to him by ukrainian and chinese business interests and his failings to pay taxes on some of that income. there's n

is senior legal correspondent laura jarrett and nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. donald trump's lawyers were at doj, ken. do we know who they were meeting with? >> we know who they weren't meeting with. attorney general garland and deputy attorney general lisa mona core were not involved. presumably it was with career officials who have some oversight over this case and are briefed on this case. it's very common for defense attorneys to come in at the end of an investigation and make their case to management at the justice department that their client shouldn't be indicted. and it's just one more piece of evidence that this investigation appears to be reaching its end. >> one more piece of evidence. so we have that. we have donald trump tweeting right after it. can we -- take that to mean anything? donald trump talking about charging minutes after his lawyers walk snout. >> i mean, i think we've seen in the past, we saw in the new york case, when the heat starts to turn up, trump often, you know, comes out with these all caps inflammatory tweets denouncing prosec

. >> and with us now to talk more about this, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian dave aaronburg. ken, you have new information this morning about trump attorneys at the justice department? >> good morning, jose. that's right. adding to the notion that this is a consequential week, three trump attorneys have come into the justice department this morning for a meeting we've learned. another news organization tweeted a photo of them walking in to this building. i am told that attorney general merrick garland and deputy attorney general lisa monaco are not involved in this meeting. presumably it's among lower level officials, people at the national security division and other -- potentially the criminal division and other lawyers at this justice department who are cognizant of and have been briefed on what's happening in this investigation. we'll tell you more as we learn it here about the nature of this meeting. we have camera crews positioned outside to record when these lawyers leave the justice department here. but, again, this comes after hour report that the gra

joining me now is ken dilanian, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official chuck rosenberg, "washington post" deputy national editor phil rucker and jackie alemany. take us through the latest. including new details about key testimony from secret service agents, mark meadows and that top trump insider. >> that's right. a lot going on. it started this morning when our cameras caught taylor budowich, this political aid to former president donald trump, walking into a courthouse in miami. he later issued a tweet i will read to you. i fulfilled a legal obligation to testify in front of a federal grand jury. i answered every question honestly. i will not be intimidated by the weaponization of government. the mystery is why he is appearing before a federal grand jury in florida and which case? is this the documents case, another case? i've been speaking to legal experts. they are perplexed why this grand jury is operating in florida, even as the one in washington that had been hearing testimony in the classified documents case appe

. >> joining us today, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and nbc news correspondent halle berry on the campaign trail. also eugene daniels, tim miller, writer at large at the bulwark and former u.s. attorney, harry litman ken, what are the new instructions from the judge to trump and his lawyers? >> jose, this is a standard protective order that's present in almost every case it essentially -- it specifically says that the defendant, donald trump, can't keep copies of that information. he can take notes about it, but those notes have to be in the custody of his lawyers there's particular concern obviously about mr. trump because he has a habit of making public sensitive information he's obtained from his lawyers when witnesses names in this case become public, they tend to be the subject of death threats. for instance, the secret service that testified before the grand jury, members of trump's mar-a-lago staff, all that information will go to his lawyers, and he'll be able to see it what this order says is he's not allowed to reveal it to the public this is about the

let's bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. ken, we want to look at the mar-a-lago documents case and parallel it to a similar case. >> ken, we've been saying for some time, if anybody else had done this, any member of congress, marc polymeropoulos said, if i had taken one document as a cia agent, i'd go to jail. well, someone has been sentenced to four years in prison for something similar to donald trump. kendrick kingsbury pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. she took hundreds of classified documents, just like donald trump, took them home, just like trump. many containing intelligence sources and methods tied to the government's counterintelligence efforts. >> just like trump. >> unlike trump's case, though, she was not accused of showing that classified material to anybody else. so hers wasn't really as serious as donald trump's. the judge basically said, asked her, ken, "what in the world were you thinking, taking documents pertaining to america's national defense and

joining me now is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. nbc news correspondent, garrett haake and in florida, nbc legal analyst, lisa ruben. ken, what does florida have to do with the special counsel's investigation? >> all we know is that we expect at least one witness to testify before a grand jury in the southern district of florida in connection with this case. we don't even know that this grand jury is specifically devoted to this investigation. it may well just be a local grand jury and the range of possibilities is extreme. everything from they're about to bring this case in the southern district of florida including charges against trump down there in florida to this is just a matter of one witness who couldn't make it up to washington to testify so it's matter of convenience and logistics. in between, there are a couple of possibilities. one is that there are other people who may have criminal culpability who can only be charged in florida because their conduct was contained to florida. and one of those such people appears to be wa

joining me now is ken dilanian and former u.s. attorney paul charlton, devlin barrett and jeh johnson, a former assistant u.s. attorney, a prosecutor here in new york's southern district. ken, today you are in florida. tell us why. we know why. you tell all us, why does it make sense to take action in florida versus d.c. on at least the mar-a-lago classified documents part of the jack smith's investigation? >> reporter: right. good afternoon. what legal experts are telling us is that there are some technical legal issues that argue for what they call venue, where they bring the case, being more logical in south florida. it's obvious to everyone that most of the conduct at issue here, whether obstruction of justice, alleged, or mishandling of classified information or dissemination, if he showed it to people, most of that took place in florida. in the federal system, there's a lot of creative ways prosecutors can bring a case in another jurisdiction. for example, the investigation is in washington, d.c. if the investigation was obst

i want to bring in nbc's ken dilanian, carol lamb, a former federal prosecutors and mechanics analyst, and david jolly, a former republican congressman from florida and an msnbc political analyst. good to have you all here. ken, what do we know about what happened today, what's planned for this week? and when you look at those things together, does it mean we're any closer to getting a decision? >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. it sure feels that way. as you said, we don't have the reporting. we don't know what went on inside that meeting today. i am told that attorney general merrick garland and deputy attorney general lisa monaco were not part of it. you see james truss see and john rowley, and then lindsey halligan, another trump lawyer, it's very common at the end of an investigation or as an investigation is reaching a charging decision for defense lawyers to come in and request a meeting with senior officials at the justice department to make the case about why their client shouldn't be indicted. that's what this feels like. again, we haven't confirmed that. as you said, we'r

trial until after the election joining me now, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, legal affairs columnist and former federal prosecutor, renato, and political analyst, matthew dowd. walk us through this ruling from bruce reinhart. >> this is a standard protective order. what happens is now that the prosecution has brought the charges, all the evidence they have gathered in this case, all the testimony they have put in front of grand juries, now donald trump and his attorneys get access to that it will be a gradual process, eventual they will have all of that, including names of the witnesses. they are not allowed to disclose any of that to the public and donald trump is not lieu allowed to keep information a bout that personally this applies to all criminal defense. obviously this gets particular scrutiny because donald trump has a habit of making public information that he gleans from his lawyers in a variety of criminal cases, and witnesses who appear in cases involving donald trump tend to have threats and death threats directed at them there's concern about th

let's get to justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian in miami for us. and this is significant. tell us more about what it means this target designation and tell us more about his presence there. >> reporter: good morning. a target means someone prosecutors believe committed a crime. some ways, donald trump has always been the target of this investigation. the search warrant that allowed the fbi to search mar-a-lago led them to believe probable cause was committed. it suggests that that person is likely to be indicted. that's the practice in federal courts across the country. on pauper it's a chance to give the defendant one last opportunity to testify before the grand jury, but that almost never happens because the defendant really can't do that. it becomes legally perilous. it is a way to warn the defendant and their lawyer that an indictment is eminent. in terms of david, he's part of the senior management of the special counsel's operation. and the fact that he is here today in miami is significant and suggests that the center of graphty of this case

joining me nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and in florida, nbc legal analyst lisa aruba. lisa, let's start in florida. what else do we know about bud0 wich's appearance and how he reacted to it? >> reporter: certainly, katy, we know his appearance, he was in the building about two hours but we understand he testified for only an hour. and as you noted, he was ask about the discrepancy between his statements that there were no more classified documents and what we have later learned to be the case. prosecutors wanted to know, when he knew it, how he knew it, was he negotiating that statement with other folks, he came out defiance on twitter that donald trump continues to have his support. that this is an unjustified witch hnt. and he looks forward to re-elect donald trump president, certainly not a contrite statement, let alone the one of someone who might be cooperating voluntarily with the feds, katy. >> we'll give you more of that tweet he said, today in what could only be described as a going gus deeply troubling effort to use the power of the government to

but joining us now with more is ken dilanian. what have you got?into the federal courthouse with his lawyer. >> and so context, please. >> so it has been -- we've been reporting and others is been reporting that we expected at least one witness to testify before the grand jury in florida. and this appears to be a witness with a lawyer walking into a courtroom where we think this grand jury is sitting. and so we're also -- we've reported last night that at least 20 secret service agents have befored before the grand jury that was going on longer than we realized. >> and so what does it say to you? does it say to you that there are perhaps other defendants who may be involved, and if you look at all the different people who apparently gave testimony who work inside mar-a-lago, am i correct -- >> that's right. almost everybody. >> -- might have been involved with doing something wrong? >> that is certainly a possibility. there is a lot of speculation that trump's body man walt nauta who gave two different stories about how it happened, he may be facin

testimony, and joining us now for more on this, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanianattorney in alabama and msnbc legal analyst, and dave aaronburg state attorney from palm beach county, florida. this recording seems like a huge piece of evidence. what can we glean about the status of the special counsel's investigation as we've been getting this and other recent big revelations? >> good morning, ana, look, there's only a handful of people in the world that know exactly where this investigation stands, and most of them are in there building where i am at the department of justice, and they're not talking. but there sure are a lot of signs and signals that this investigation is reaching its conclusion. we believe the grand jury in this matter hasn't met for several weeks. we believe that they've interviewed almost every possible witness who could know anything about what happened at mar-a-lago with the classified documents, and now this tape really does add a new dimension to the extent of the evidence, if the reports that we're getting and i spoke to a source about th

joining us justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and, ken, your reporting has been extraordinary. the coverage, you don't have the comfort of any distance from it where that could possibly be with something happens. what is the mood on the ground there? >> well, nicole, i've seen a steady buildup of resources today and it really started to pick up today and barricades are going up and many more homeland security police and other officers watching the perimeter, bomb-sniffing dogs. we're also seeing reports from our colleagues in washington checking in with the department of homeland security and the fbi that they're really not seeing any credible threats in terms of widespread violence or plans to engage in violent protests. i saw that from a private intelligence group that really predicted a lot of what happened before january 6th and was watching all the chatter on the donald and trying to warn the fbi. that group actually said not seeing any plans for violent protest. i think the real concern among some of the law enforcement folks i talk to is that some of this violent rhetor

. >>> for more on the trump indictment and what to expect, let's bring in ken dilanian now. because this is where the alleged crimes occurred. it doing it down here brings both risks and benefits to the prosecution. a lot of people assumed this case was going to be brought in washington, d.c., but the justice department became worried that former president trump was going to challenge the venue and use that as a way to delay the case about a month ago, the special counsel's office began secretly bringing evidence to a grand jury in this courthouse behind me which would return that sealeded indictment yesterday what this means is that president trump has one less avenue to challenge this prosecution, and it may even mean the trial goes faster some judges in south florida they move things along they run a so-called rocket docket but it means a jury pool that includes far more trump supporters than you would find in washington, d.c. >> the former president's lawyer says he will appear in person on tuesday. what do we know about how the arraignment will play out there? >> report

from inside the courthouse, join us from miami, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilaniane during yesterday's arraignment. ken, good morning. give us a little color, if you can, what was it like inside that courtroom? >> good morning, willie. i was actually in the overflow room. the legal process was fairly rude meanttry. it was a brief hearing. we're left with the human drama. just to hear a federal magistrate announce the case as the united states of america versus donald j. trump, and walt nauta, and refer to the defendant, the chief defendant as the former president, and to see these shadowy special counsel figures who only remained in the background, stand up in court and introduce themselves and to see mr. trump having failed to secure new legal counsel, come with his old lawyers, interesting to see the special counsel himself, jack smith sitting in the gallery, at times laughing, you know, smiling, with the people around him, and other times staring intently at donald trump, when the moment came for the plea, the lawyers did all the talking and todd blanche, mr. tru

let's bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and congressional investigationsou. what do we know as we go into this week knowing that the grand jury is reconvening? >> good morning, mika. well, what's significant about this wednesday meeting that we're reporting on is that it does appear that the grand jury has not met for several weeks. trump's former attorney tim parlatore confirmed that on "meet the press" yesterday, that he hadn't been aware of any grand jury meetings. he also said, consistent with my reporting, it appears they've interviewed almost every possible witness they could in this case, including almost everybody who work on the staff at mar-a-lago, almost everybody who had any understanding and knowledge of what was happening with those classified documents. he confirmed "the new york times" reporting that prosecutors have a tape of evan corcoran, trump's lawyer, but not his lawyer in this case a any longer because he had to testify as a witness, memorializing his interactions with the president on the topic of that search for classified document

nbc justice correspondent ken dilanian at the white house with what we can expect today. >> reporter:hrough an underground passageway that will be the theme of the day, unlike when he presented himself for those charges in new york city. we don't expect to see much of mr. trump today. i will be watching from inside but federal courthouses do not allow cameras. last fligh we learned we're not even allowed to bring in electronic devices. we expect mr. trump to surrender to federal marshals. under normal procedures he'd be fingerprinted. then he will be brought before a magistrate judge and asked to enter a plea i'm watching to see whether the judge will order trump to stop attacking the prosecutors and the fbi in the inflammatory way he's been doing in the last couple days. >> we have obviously a legal case that takes time. we also have a political campaign that the president is running again. how might those two things coalesce and come together >> i mean, the stakes are so high here. look, as you know, savannah, a typical federal case can take a year or more to go to trial. there coul

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