joining us now, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, amy parnes and barbara id. ken, what is the latest from the courtroom right now? >> greetings, jose. the defense called its first witness, an employee of the gun store named jason turner. and before that, as you said, the prosecution rested its case after eliciting testimony this morning from a forensic chemist who testified about finding cocaine residue on the brown leather pouch where hunter biden stored that handgun. and from a former -- from a dea agent who is interpreting for the jury coded drug language in some of the texts between hunter biden and other people. and then after that, after the prosecution rested, hunter's defense lawyer abbe lowell made a motion for acquittal, asked the judge to step in and acquit hunter biden, something unlikely to happen and hasn't happened. now, the defense begins its case. and one of the witnesses we're expecting is president biden's brother james biden, who we saw walk in the courthouse not long ago, also naomi biden, hunter biden's oldest daughter, we saw her walk

ken dilanian, a messy and sad case.re's issues of how much sympathy the jurors may have with so many of them acknowledging or many of the people in the voir dire acknowledging they were familiar with addiction. it's part of american life. ken dilanian, harry litman, thanks. >>> talks and turmoil. bill burns back in the middle east in qatar engaging in the cease-fire deal and the hostage deal. >>> after a big scare at the u.s. embassy in lebanon, "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 90 seconds. in 90 seconds. so this is pickleball? it's basically tennis for babies, but for adults. it should be called wiffle tennis. pickle! yeah, aw! whoo! ♪♪ these guys are intense. we got nothing to worry about. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right? got him. good game. thanks for coming to our clinic, first one's free. here's to getting better

i want to bring in nbc's ken dilanian outside the court for us in fort pearce, florida. also with us, criminal defense attorney, and msnbc legal analyst, danny cevallos, and msnbc's katie phang. so, ken, what is the latest from the court at this hour? >> reporter: what's unfolding in the courtroom this afternoon is something extremely unusual. judge aileen cannon is hearing from so-called friends of the court. outside lawyers who are coming in to argue both sides of the question of whether the appointment of jack smith as special counsel is constitutional and proper, and therefore whether this case should be dismissed if it's not. cannon agreed to hear from two different parties arguing that it was unconstitutional, and one party arguing against that side. that's in addition to hearing from the defense and the prosecution. legal experts and, danny can speak to this, this just isn't done in a federal criminal trial r bringing in so-called friend of the court. it's adding to the time of a lengthy process. and as you said, jose, this argument that the special counsel appoint

nbc's ken dilanian is outside the courthouse. also with us, former prosecutor jeremy sell land and former new york district attorney catherine christian. what do we know about this decision for hunter biden not to testify, ken? >> reporter: hunter biden's legal team is not reading out their reasons, but they're fairly obvious. it would have been hugely risky for hunter biden to get on the stand. the first we he would have been asked is did he use crack cocaine in october of 2015, there are text messages he said he did. if he lied he's exposing himself to just as much criminal liability as if he's convicted in this case. it would have been extremely perilous no matter what the defense was saying beforehand to put him on the stand today. coupled with that, on friday, his oldest daughter was a witness in this case, and it did not go well for the defense. under direct examination by hunter biden's lawyer, she presented a sympathetic hunter biden. she said he was doing well during the period he had bought the gun. she was confronted wi

joining us now from outside the courthouse in fort pierce florida is ken dilanian, back with us katie fang and paul butler. it appears as though judge cannon is skeptical of trump's lawyers' arguments so far? >> reporter: let me first give you the big picture. today is the start of three days of marathon pretrial hearings that illustrates why this case is taking so long to go to trial and why many legal scholars are concerned about how the judge has handled the case. she is allowing hearing time for every matter in dispute and today she's taking extraordinary step of allowing friends of the court, outside parties, to argue that the appointment of jack smith was unconstitutional. that is something that does not happen in federal criminal trials. as to what is going on in court right now, the defense put on their argument that the appointment of jack smith was unconstitutional under the appointments clause. this is an argument that has been repudiated by other courts, when it was made regarding robert mueller and special counsel david rice who prosecuted hunter biden. the one difference

joining us now is ken dilanian. ken, good morning. what did we learn from today's decisions?the court did not rule on the most consequential cases we're waiting for. among the more interesting cases it did rule on today, it upheld attacks on foreign income that helped finance president trump's 2017 tax cuts. the court also ruled that prosecutors could put on expert testimony arguing that drug mules generally understand they're carrying drugs. this is a case of a woman caught trying to smuggle 54 pounds of methamphetamine across the border, she argued she didn't know what she was carrying, this is an interesting nonideological split, the court upheld the admissibility of the testimony. clarence thomas wrote the opinion but joined by ketanji brown jackson and neil gorsuch joining the other two liberals in dissent. >> there is a slew of critical cases in front of the court. what should we be watching for? >> yes, well, of course, the trump immunity case is the biggie, right? the question of whether presidents are immune from prosecution based on their official acts. and that cou

our nbc news reporter are following all of the latest developments, and we begin with nbc's ken dilanian who's outside the courthouse in wilmington, delaware, and, ken, i know we're in a lunch break just a few minutes ago, where do things stand right now in picking a jury? >> reporter: greetings, chris. they have actually moved through this jury selection process rather quickly. they've got 34 qualified jurors of 36 that they want to get to in order to go to the second round where they really get down to brass tax and start with the peremptory challenges and excludeing folks. the judge will bring in another group of jurors after this lunch break to pick two more, and then we'll go to that second round, and as you said in the intro, it's been fascinating to sort of watch and listen to the reasons people are being excluded, what information they know or don't know about this case. here in blue state delaware where joe biden has been a political force for 50 years, they're picking from about a million people in the state here. that's the jury pool. and quite a few of them have said that the

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian is at the courthouse in delaware. far from hallie biden and how significant could show be to the prosecutor's case? >> she is the most important witness in this case clearly because she can talk about hunter biden's drug use right at the time he purchased that firearm and during the time he owned it, and as you said, she was the one who took it and threw it in a dumpster, which led to the police being called, which led to this case actually happening, and the reason that's important is hunter biden's entire defense in this case seems to be that he didn't knowingly lie when he said on the form that he wasn't using or addicted to drugs when he bought that firearm. there isn't a lot of direct evidence of drug purchases or drug use, at least in the documents that we've seen right at that time. hallie biden was there. she can testify about the drug use, and she is testifying. she just said a few moments ago in court that hunter biden introduced her to crack cocaine, that she was using it too, that she's embarrassed about t

joining us now from outside that courthouse in florida is nbc's ken dilanian. ken, let's start with today's hearing. this isn't the first motion to dismiss in this case. take us deeper into the arguments at the heart of this bid. >> reporter: that's right, good morning, from fort pierce where we begin the start of a day long hearing that's really the start of three days of pretrial hearings in this case, which is crystalizing the notion among legal experts that judge aileen cannon is not handling this as a typical federal judge would, and it's one reason this case has not gone to trial sooner. the argument today is about the question of whether the special counsel appointment was constitutional under the appointments clause. that's an argument that has been made and ruled against in the case of special counsel robert mueller and in the case of special counsel david weiss. what's different about jack smith is unlike those two men and previous special counsels, jack smith was never confirmed by the senate as a u.s. attorney. will is a unique argument in that case

nbc's ken dilanian reports outside the courtroom. kristy greenberg is with us. closing arguments have begun. tell us what we've heard so far. >> reporter: lead prosecuor leahwise nodded to the people sitting in the courtroom, many of whom are familiar to these delaware jury roors. he said these people you may know from the news or the community, but this is not evidence. he said just as he said at the beginning of the trial, no one is above the law. that was nod to the prominence of hunter biden. he talked about some of the painful and sorted evidence he had to put on in this case. he said the evidence was personal, it was ugly, it was overwhelming. he added it was also absolutely necessary to prove that hunter biden was using drugs at the time that he purchased this gun unlawfully. he said that there's a raft of evidence. he went through some of what was introduced during trial. the overview is that hunter biden began using drugs years before he used the gun and there's evidence he continued using drugs for months afterwards. the prosecution wanted to hone in o

nbc's ken dilanian is outside the courthouse in fort pierce, florida. also joining us, msnbc legal analyst and former federal prosecutor charles coleman. ken, walk us through the issues at play in today's hearings. >> reporter: hey, good morning, ana. as you said, the defense is trying to suppress evidence here, but by far the most important issue on the table today are the notes of recordings made by donald trump's lawyer evan corcoran that were obtained under what is known as the crime fraud privilege and a federal judge has already ruled on this issue, already ruled that those notes were admissible in this investigation and they provided a road map for this indictment. when you read the indictment and the classified documents case, you find references to these notes sprinkled throughout. and recall there was a moment in the indictment where corcoran described trump making a plucking motion as if to say he was removing documents from a group of documents that were requested by the federal government. the gist of those notes which came from recordings t

i want to bring in ken dilanian outside of the courthouse in wilmington, delaware. ew weissmann is a former senior member of the mueller probe. and katherine christian in studio. ken, what happens now? >> as we await remarks from the special counsel, we have a statement from abbe lowell, the lead defense attorney. he said we're disappointed by today's verdict. we respect the jury process and we will pursue all the legal challenges available to hunter. through all these been in recovery, including this trial, hunter is grateful for and blessed by the love and support of his family. hunter biden released a statement saying he was more grateful for the support he's gotten from friends and family than he is chagrinned by the verdict in this case. what's next, obviously, is a sentencing date that the judge will set a certain point from now, some time within 120 days. and this case, the conviction here, chris, significantly complicates his situation in the trial that he's facing in september, which, arguably, is the more serious of the two felony cases against him. the mul

ken dilanian joins us from the courthouse in florida. also with us, former u.s. orney barbara mcquade. ken, what is happening inside the courtroom? this is going to be more than a one-day hearing. what have you heard from judge cannon today? >> reporter: that's right. today is the first of three days of marathon hearings that illustrate why this case is taking so long to get to trial. because judge cannon seems to want to have a hearing on every matter of dispute, no matter how arcane, no matter how many times it's been argued and rejected by other judges. today's hearing is about the question of whether jack smith's appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. donald trump's lawyers argue one of the issues is that jack smith should be considered a principle officer, not an inferior office, these are terms of art in the constitution. therefore, he should have been senate confirmed. he is wielding so much power, that since he wasn't senate confirmed, it's unconstitutional. therefore the prosecution could go away. needless to say, the prosecution opposes tha

joining us now, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian outside the courthouse. ith us, david henderson, a civil rights attorney and former prosecutor. ken, what's the latest from the courtroom, and what can we be expecting today? >> reporter: good morning, jose. the prosecution has now rested, but not before that fbi agent provided devastating testimony about evidence of hunter biden's drug use the day before and the day after he purchased that handgun on october 12th, 2018. some of this evidence had already been in, but then there was some new evidence where she talked about geo locating his phone to a 7-eleven in wilmington, delaware, and also introduced evidence that he talked in his memoir about meeting drug dealers at a 7-eleven. this is particularly important because prosecutors don't have to prove that hunter biden used drugs on the day he purchased the gun, just that he was a drug user on an addict around that time. there's lots of evidence that he was using drugs before and after he bought that gun. his defense is that he wasn't knowingly a drug user on

let me bring in nbc's ken dilanian outside the u.s. supreme court. barbara mcquade is a former u.s. attorney who is also an msnbc legal analyst. let's reset the stage here, ken. what did the court say in its ruling in the january 6th case? >> reporter: before i get to that very important case, i want to say justice roberts made some news by announcing that monday will be the last day of this term and that means we know that on monday we will get that crucial immunity decision, the question of whether presidents are immune from prosecution in their official acts, that's the big one we have been waiting for, it impacts the january 6th case against donald trump. we now know we're getting that on monday. but as you said, the court announced today a decision that also affects the january 6th case against mr. trump, though it is unclear how, based on this decision, but this decision as many expected narrowed the scope of this law that has been used widely in january 6th prosecutions, obstruction of an official proceeding. this was a law that came out of the enron scandal which had to do wi

our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments, but we begin with nbc's ken dilanian who's outside the courthouse in wilmington where the hunter biden jury was just dismissed for the weekend. ken, do we know why this happened? >> reporter: yes, chris. in a word, there's been a change of plans by the defense after announcing that james biden, president biden's brother would be a witness for the defense, and we saw him walk into the courthouse today. hunter biden's attorney, abbe lowell told the judge they decided not to cause him after all, nor any forensic effort and they're going to wait to decide on monday whether to call a final witness, which we understand to be hunter biden. the trial will resume at 8:15 on monday. it's not clear what prompted this change of strategy, but i will say that the consensus of our team here at nbc news is that the naomi biden testimony, the testimony of hunter biden's oldest daughter did not go well on balance, for the defense. she did humanize hunter biden, she teared up and told the jury she thought he was doing well in terms of his

nbc's ken dilanian is outside that courthouse in wilmington. also with us, civil rights attorney and former prosecutor charles coleman. and defense attorney misty maris. ken, what do we know about what is happening with jury deliberations so far? >> reporter: well, jury deliberations are secret, so we don't know what's going on inside the jury room obviously. we know they were handed the case with only about an hour left in the day yesterday. and they began this morning at 9:00. we saw hunter biden leave the courthouse shortly after that. we know that the jury forewoman, who is assigned to -- as the forewoman, has a sister with a history of drug issues. though is clean now and is a regular watcher of the evening news. that's all we know about her. so, now the jury has the case and we wait, ana. >> the last thing, of course, on the mines of these jurors were those closing arguments. how did those go? >> reporter: well, the prosecutor gave a dramatic and impassioned closing argument where he talked about the evidence being personal, ugly and overw

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian joins us from outside of the courthouse ilmington, delaware. and also with us, chuck rosenberg and senior fbi official. so ken, bring us up to speed. >> reporter: well, as you said, we expect closing arguments to commence very shortly. and then at some point after that, we're not sure how long those arguments will take, the jury will get the case. and it is been a difficult defense, i would say, for the hunter biden team. they called three witnesses and then unexpectedly cut their defense short on friday. after that testimony that you referenced by hunter biden's older daughter, appeared to back fry on cross-examination. she did a good job on in her initial testimony of humanizing hunter biden. she said sh some tears as she was speaking and said he was doing well when he bought the gun. but on cross-examination, she was confronted with an anguish text message exchange with evidence that he was meeting with drug dealers and she didn't know where he was at all types and nobody on the biden team was happy after she left the sta

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian is outside the courthouse in wilmington,aware. who have we heard from so far today? >> reporter: kate, one witness, the special agent investigating, erika jensen, but the prosecution has used her as a vehicle to enter in other evidence, including hunter biden's own memoir. so the jury heard excerpts of hunter biden's own voice narrating his memoir that he wrote in part about his drug addiction. he talked about how his life at the time when he bought this gun back in 2018 was consumed with the quest for buying crack cocaine. he talked about how he had what he called a superpower to be able to find crack in any town, in any city in the country at great risk to his personal safety. and that his whole existence was consumed by trying to get this drug. this is an effort by the prosecution to show that, in fact, he was using and addicted to drugs at the time he bought this gun. subsequently, the fbi agent introduced that infamous laptop that was the subject of so many controversy, the one that hunter biden allegedly left at a repa

>> ken dilanian in florida, thank you. >>> with just days to go until the first head-to-head debate ofden and former president trump, vice president kamala harris is weighing in. she sat down with "morning joe" co-host mika brzezinski in an exclusive interview. >> joe biden in this debate will make clear the contrast, you know, of the many issues in our country and our world, that are complex and nuanced, november of 2024 is binary. and when you look at the difference, i would ask people to really imagine what the world will be like on january 20th, 2025. on the one hand you have joe biden who has spent his life and career fighting for the well-being of other people, including health care. on the other hand, you have the former president who spent full-time when he was president trying to get rid of the affordable care act, which if he is successful as president again would mean over 100 million people would be stripped of health care coverage. you have on the one hand, joe biden, who under his leadership, bipartisan support for the first meaningful gun safety legislation in 30 years,

ken dilanian is following this for us. what more do we know about this investigation?e justice department has charged dr. hime in a four-count indictment with obtaining protected individual health information about patients who are not under his care and without authorization. in announcing those charges, prosecutors did not explain the context. they said, he allegedly obtained this information under false pretenses and with intent to cause malicious harm to his employer. texas children's hospital. but hime and his sporde support the story is more complicated than the doctor provided confidential documents about treatments to conservative journalist christopher ruffo who reported the hospital had secretly continued procedures such as implanted puberty blockers on minors. he says the documents he received were carefully redacted, so as to not identify any patients. these gender related medical interventions for children are a complicated and controversial topic. a recent study sponsored by britain's health service said the evidence of these puberty blocking drugs was qu

ken dilanian, stay close to us. joining us to continue the discussion, msnbc legal continue, lisa rubin is here. also with us, leah litman, university of michigan assistant professor of law, and former alabama democratic senator and former u.s. attorney doug jones who also helped guide justice jackson through her confirmation process. good to have all of you here. let's look at the big picture here, 23 cases left undecided. that's about a third of the cases this term. what do you make of the backlog? >> first of all, we're at 22 now. we have a decision that's come down. not one of the ones that we were eagerly anticipating, in the case having to do with repatriation tax. not exactly a hot button issue for viewers and voters generally but we're down to 22. in terms o. backlog, ana, we have seen in recent years, definitely a growth in the number of cases that wait until the end of june, and at the same time, a diminution in the overall number of cases the court is taking on the merits and those two things have not esc

nbc's ken dilanian is reporting from court in fort pierce, florida. i'm joined by glen kirschner, msnbc legal analyst. what's the argument we expect the defense to make today? >> reporter: well, first, chris, there are so many pretrial motions and hearings, they're starting to bump into each other. the photos you showed are from a motion that jack smith filed last night that is going to be the subject potentially of a different hearing down the line on an argument by the defense that the fbi essentially messed up the evidence to such an extent that the case should be thrown out. the purpose of those photos was to show that the way donald trump stored those highly classified documents, containing some of the nation's most sensitive secrets was so chaotic and so messy. today in court, jack smith is there, donald trump is not, they're fighting a different set of motions by the defense where the defense is arguing that the warrant wasn't properly constructed. that the justice department was not fully candid with the magistrate judge and that therefore the

nbc's ken dilanian and mike memoli are both outside the courthouse for us in wilmington.lso want to bring in former assistant d.a. for the manhattan district attorney's office catherine christian and msnbc legal analyst. so ken, the court just entered a lunch break, get us up to speed on what's happened today. >> reporter: chris, the testimony from naomi biden, hunter biden's oldest child, was really impactful and interesting. she's a lawyer in washington, d.c. she came into court today as a defense witness. hunter biden's attorney abbe lowell got her to testify that her dad, in her view, was doing as well as he had been in the summer of 2018 before he bought that gun. you know, she knew he had been using drugs since his brother beau died of cancer, and she knew that he was an addict, but she said she had seen him in rehab and that he seemed to be doing well. this obviously is a point for the defense because they're trying to argue that he wasn't using drugs when he bought that gun. but then on cross examination, prosecutor leo wise did some damage, chris. he got her to t

ken dilanian, thank you for that. >>> and joining us right now, msnbc legal correspondent, lisa rubin and state attorney for palm beach county, dave aronberg, as i welcome you both. what is the legal justification for there being hours long hearings on an issue that has been rejected in similar challenges? >> if you genuinely believe no one is above or below the law, there isn't much of a justification. this is a motion that could be decided on the papers, even if as judge cannon seems to believe, this is a novel legal argument that deserves her full attention. what i can't put my head around is devoting more than a day to this. by the way, those hearings that ken was referring to occurring next week, one of those days of hearings is about a secondary argument that also deals with the propriety of jack smith's appointment. it's really like a day and a half of hearings just on the issue of whether he was constitutionally appointed. i'm wrestling with why have those two days of hearings when, as the trump people themselves say in a june 11th filing, this is just a legal argument. they'r

nbc's ken dilanian is outside the courthouse in delaware for us, and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin also joining us. ken, talk to us about the defense team's approach to questioning this fbi agent and who else could take the stand today? >> reporter: good morning, ana, we're actually getting really fascinaing insight sboos how hunter biden's lawyers are trying to defend this case by watching the cross examination of this fbi investigator. hunter's lawyer abbey lowell is taking her through a series of text messages and transactions to underscore the fact that while there was a lot of drug purchases in 2018 around the time he bought this gun, but there is no evidence really of drug purchases, more evidence of alcohol purchases. so the question will come down to, again, the language of the form, which says are you a habitual user of drugs. not were you or have you been. that's the argument here that hunter biden's defense team is going to make, at the time he filled out the form, in his own mind he was trying to get clean. it remains to be seen whether the weight of the evidence will s

i want to go back to nbc's ken dilanian outside the courthouse. so what's the latest?ial jurors as hunter biden and his lawyers and family members look on. they've gone through about 26 jurors so far. about half of them have been excluded for cause or some reason or another. this is not finalizing the jury pool but taking a first cut at disqualifying people who have said or done something that indicates they can't be impartial. juror number 25 who is a white male, a former wilmington police officer and donor to the republican national committee said that he had worked with jill biden, the first lady for several years at a delaware community college. and he also said that he believed the trump trial may have been political. nonetheless, he was not excluded. that doesn't mean he will end up on the jury. it's not clear whether he or the other jurors know jill biden is in the courtroom because of the way they're facing. they're having a direct dialogue with the judge. eventually when a jury is seated, assuming jill biden comes again, they will see her and other hunter bide

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian is outside the courthouse. nbc news white house correspondent monica alba and criminal defense attorney, danny cevallos. court has been in session for about an hour and a half. what can you tell us, ken, about what's happening so far? >> reporter: good morning, ana. jury selection is under way. the judge brought in 250 prospective jurors, questioning 50 at a time per session in her courtroom. so far we've seen questions to three prospective jurors. the first person was disqualified after he said he couldn't be objective because he believes that owning a firearm is a good-gifrn right. a second juror was a donor and volunteer to the hillary clinton campaign in 2008. she's qualified, not yet seated, but qualified. they'll go through this process all day and perhaps into tomorrow as they try whittle down a jury. here in the state of delaware where joe biden has been a major political figure for 52 years. first elected to the senate in 1972. so hunter biden is in the courtroom. we saw dr. jill biden, the first lady

joining us now, nbc justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. we just got a statement from president biden. fill us in. >> reporter: that's right. president biden has reiterated some of what he said during the trial. i want to read the statement. as i said last week, i am the president, but also a dad. jill and i love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. he adds, so many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery. mr. biden added, as i also said, i will accept the outcome and will respect the judicial process as hunter considers an appeal. jill and i will always be there for hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. he finishes, nothing will ever change that. it's important to add that president biden said he would not pardon his son, hunter biden, now convicted of three felonies. it's just important to note that this was the u.s. justice department, part of the biden administration,

let's get to ken dilanian. >> reporter: court documents filed say assange will plead guilty to a singlent of disseminating classified national security information. this stems from wikileaks leaking documents in 2010. he's expected to be sentenced to prison, but credited for time served, so will be allowed to return to his home country of australia. u.s. national security officials say assange who spent the last five years in a british jail did tremendous damage by publishing secrets. his supporters view m as a folk hero who exposed wrongdoing. lester? >>> it was almost two years ago today the supreme court overturned roe v. wade clearing the way for states to impose new restrictions on abortion, including texas where laura jarett spoke with five women who have faced a devastating impact. >> pre dobbs we were already in a pretty bad place in texas. >> reporter: the day lauren miller learned she was pregnant, she started a journal. >> i didn't know it was twins yet. >> reporter: at 12 weeks she learned one of the twins she was carrying had a rare chromosomal condition making survival hig

. >>> and now we go ken dilanian, and we will get to the jury in a few minutes, but let's get to opening statements just under way. >> erica, the judge started by saying no one is above the law regardless of your name, and a defendant is on trial because of the choices that the defendant made. and he said that we are also here because of choices and also here because the defendant decided to lie. and he also said that he was not using drugs when he went to buy that cold reand hope to single out hunter biden who is a well known defendant well known here in the state of delaware and he is looking for for face of the jurors. >> yes, we lost a juror, and that juror is unemployed and lives one hour from the courthouse. she said that she did not realize that she has to come to trial everyday. so, they have released her with and so, all of this is remaining of a jury of six men, and six women, and two of the jurors have had experience with drug addiction, and 26 of the 20-something jurors have had experience with drug addiction in their family. and that is pointing to what a huge problem it is

joining me now is ken dilanian outside the courthouse in florida. also with us nbc news legal analyst danny cevallos. ken, what are prosecutors asking for here? >> reporter: the special counsel is asking judge cannon to modify the conditions of donald trump's release, remember he's out on bond in this case, to order him to stop mischaracterizing a document that reminded the fbi of their use of force policy that was inclued in the paperwork that accompanied the mar-a-lago raid, donald trump has essentially lied about that document, his lawyers have as well, and supporters of his have said that was an authorization by president biden directing the fbi or authorizing the fbi to use deadly force against donald trump during that search, that's false. it was a policy statement reminding the fbi they have a right to deadly force if they have a reasonable fear their life in danger. donald trump on social media and elsewhere has characterized this as an fbi assassination plot against him, his supporters have picked up that. jack smith said that's putting the

and joining me, ken dilanian. prosecution's first witness, erica jensen? how critical is she to this case? >> ana, generally in cases like this, the prosecution wants to call one of the investigating agents to set the stage for the jury, to explain the context, how we got here. she's also going to authenticate and bring into evidence certain text messages and other evidence that will demonstrate hunter biden was using drugs at the time he bought the gun, and we just got through opening arguments and the prosecution said essentially he lied when he filled out the form and said he was not using drugs. what is the defense going to be? he was ready to plead guilty and admit the conduct, right? we are all arguing what are his lawyers going to make? he didn't consider himself as a drug user during the moment he filled out that form. it asked, are you addicted to illegal drugs, not have you been. and the workers at the gun store filled out much of the form on his behalf and he didn't understand what was going on. a lot o

joining us from florida, ken dilanian and lisa ruben. ken, what's happening?t this proposed modification of the conditions of donald trump's release, which is essentially a gag order where jack smith is asking judge cannon to order donald trump to stop lying about a document that reminded the fbi about its use of force policy that accompanied the mar-a-lago search in 2022. and jack smith said this request is narrowly focused and consistent with the first amendment. donald trump's lawyers argue this impinges on his first amendment right. the special counsel is saying that trump's comments especially -- he said the fbi had an assassination plot against him and he said president biden authorized the fbi to use deadly force during the raid, which is false. jack smith is saying those comments are putting fbi agents' lives in danger. he cited specifically the incident after the mar-a-lago search where a trump supporter armed with an ar-15 and nail gun attacked the fbi office in cincinnati and subsequently killed by the police. just last week another trump supporter

let's go to ken dilanian outside the courthouse in florida.also with us, former federal prosecutor and former senior investigative house for the january 6th committee. this is day three of hearings in this case. help us to keep it all straight. what do we need to know about today's hearing? >> ana, today is an example of a hearing many legal experts say should not have happened. you have two issues that already have been ruled on by other judges. in one case the fbi is arguing -- sorry, the defense is arguing against the search warrant of mar-a-lago, and that's a motion approved by the judge above judge cannon. the more important argument today is the defense's bid to have her exclude evidence obtained by the prosecution from one of donald trump's lawyers, evan corcoran. a d.c. judge ruled jack smith could obtain notes and communications between donald trump and one of his lawyers because the judge found those communications were in furtherance of a crime in the conspiracy to obstruct justice, and some of that evidence is some of the most impo

nbc's ken dilanian joining us outside the federal courthouse, and here with me lisa rubin and catherine christian. ken, take us through this first hearing today. what can we expect? >> reporter: good morning from ft. pierce, ana. the first hearing is about a really esoteric and legalistic issue on the question of whether the special counsel is properly funded under the appropriations clause of the constitution. trump's lawyers argue it's not and, therefore, this case should be tossed, thrown out. i should say that this argument was made in the case of special counsel david weiss by hunter biden's attorneys. special counsel jack smith argues there's nothing improper about the way his offense is funded. there's a little bit of weird history here where special counsels today are funded under an old appropriation language from the old independent counsel statute that doesn't exist anymore, the independent counsel. that's part of the basis of the argument here. what the special counsel argues is that under the appropriations clause, this is perfectly normal and fine. there's a line in the la

ken dilanian is following it from delaware. what are you hearing there, ken?orter: chris, we're hearing from many of the key players in this saga including david weiss, the trump appointed u.s. attorney in delaware tasked by merrick garland with investigating biden then appointed special counsel in this case after the plea agreement from a year ago fell through. take a listen to david weiss. >> no one in this country is above the law. everyone must be accountable for their actions. even this defendant. however, hunter biden should be no more accountable than any other citizen >> reporter: we also have a written statement from hunter biden himself who said he's more grateful for the love and support i experienced this last week from his wife, melissa, my family, friends, and community than i am disappointed by the outcome. he added recovery is possible by the grace of god and i am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time. in terms of what comes next, it's sentencing. that will take place two to three months from now. the judge will set a date. meantime

ken dilanian is outside for us. we talked about the drama in the opening statements. talk about the first witness for the prosecution. what we've heard so far. >> prosecutors like to put on the investigating fbi agent to provide jurors the meat and the potatoes of the case. the context, the key facts and dates and times. she is taking the jury through, for example, hunter biden's atm withdrawals, to show where he was during the time of this gun purchase. and subsequently, they started playing excerpts of hunter biden's book, the audio version, that he himself narrated. beautiful things, in which he talked about pursuing crack-cocaine. his whole existence was dictated, as he put it, by the demands of the crack pipe. and he talked about his superpyre, finding crack-cocaine in any town in the country. this trial is going to be about the prosecution and having to prove that there was no way that hunter biden could have sent in a form he wasn't using drugs at this time. that's what the defense is saying. he may have been using drugs around the time he was filling the form.

ken dilanian is live from fort pierce, florida. we're getting an update from our folks inside the courthouse. what are they telling you? >> reporter: the defense is making their argument that the search warrant in this case was defective. judge cannon seemed skeptical and is questioning the defense closely about exactly why they think under the law this was improper. there was a disagreement about how to proceed. i've seen a lot of search warrants. judge cannon appeared skeptical of that argument. this is frankly a long shot motion and it's bewildering as to why the judge is holding this hearing given she seems to properly skeptical. a magistrate judge who works under judge cannon in this case approved the warrant and found probable cause for the search to go forward. >>> now to louisiana where a legal battle has begun over a new law that requires the ten commandments to be displayed in classrooms. what can you tell us, guad? >> reporter: chris, this legal filing comes from nine families. these families, they say the new law that r

let's bring in ken dilanian and danny cevallos. let's start with you and this abortion ruling, obviously specific to idaho. but what does it mean in the short term and the long term for the rest of the country? >> the question is, who knows? >> in a way it doesn't even deal with people in idaho because it sends the case back to the idaho district court and that injunction there stands. in other words, this case is not being reached on the merits. as it stands right now in idaho, that lower court still has to reach a decision on the merits. so hardly a win for those who are advocating for abortion in idaho, but it will only stall the final decision. if it's a win, it's only a temporary win at best. >> let's dig into that overruling with purdue pharma. how did the justices come to their decision there? >> at issue was a proposed $6 billion settlement between plaintiffs and purdue pharma and the sackler family who made billions selling oxycontin long after they knew huge numbers of americans were getting addicted. the settlement was b

let's go to florida and ken dilanian outside of the courthouse in fort pierce and with us danny receivalesust learned jack smith is in the courtroom for this hearing. what has been happening so far? >> reporter: that is right, ana. jack smith is in the courtroom. he whats not here on friday but he's here today and they're arguing over a rather legalistic question that has been litigated in the hunter biden case which is the question of whether the existing appropriation from the special council is legal under the constitution because is dates back to the old independent council act that expired in 1999. so donald trump's lawyers are trying to argue that it is not legal and this entire case should be thrown out. it flows from the argument on friday where they argue that the special council office was illegal under the appropriation clause. the big picture here is many legal experts say these are not the things that should burn a day and a half of hearing time before a trial judge. these appellate court issues, not fact the issues. but nonetheless, judge ilene cannon has decided to have a he

. >> join meg now, ken dilanian at the courthouse, former u.s. and ashley parker, "washington post" senior political correspondent. ken, bring us up to speed on where we are in the trial and the time line for when you think the jury could get this case. >> reporter: big picture, alex, hunter biden's lawyer said he could finish by the end of day monday. it's reasonable to assume, unless there's a delay, the jury will have the case by then. as you mentioned, the breaking news right now is that hunter biden's oldest daughter, 30 years old, is on the stand. we don't know what she's going to say. assuming hunter biden doesn't testify, she could go a long way towards humanizing hunter biden for the jury, talking about his history of drug addiction, struggle with drug addiction from a more sympathetic point of view. it affected her life. to the extent hunter biden's defense is that he wasn't using drugs during this crucial time when he bought and owned that gun for 11 days, it stands to reason she may be able to testify about that. there's conflicting e

. >> ken dilanian is outside the courthouse in wilmington, delaware, for us, what have we heard from her during the day? >> reporter: she was married to hunter biden for 24 years, she testified that she first discovered he was crack at their d.c. home. he acknowledged that he was using crack. she described his descent into addiction that destroyed their marriage. he was using drugs, she was very concerned about it, they ended up getting a divorce in 2017. the purpose of this testimony was to lay the foundation for the jury. >> ken, beyond his ex-wife, another woman in a relationship with hunter biden testified today. what did she say on stand. >> reporter: according to testimony, hunter biden at one point referred to her as his girlfriend. they met at a strip club. by time she met hunter he was smoking crack at a time of every 20 minutes. again the purpose of this testimony is to show that in the months leading up to the gun purchase, mr. biden was addicted to and using drugs. what this testimony doesn't prove, though, is whether he was using drugs right at the time he bought the gun

i want to bring in nbc's ken dilanian outside that courthouse in fort pierce, also with us kimberly atkinshr, boston globe columnist and msnbc political analyst, and lisa rubin, msnbc legal correspondent, and former federal prosecutor kristy greenberg who's also former deputy chief of the sdny criminal division and an msnbc legal analyst. so ken, bring us up to speed. what's happening inside that courtroom today? >> reporter: yeah, ana, as you alluded to, this argument that a special counsel appointment is unconstitutional has been tried and has failed in several courts before and appeals courts in the case of robert mueller and david weiss, the special counsel who's prosecuting hunter biden. the defense has a little bitd bit of a new wrinkle in this one in that jack smith is the only special counsel in modern history who has not previously been confirmed by the senate. what they're arguing is he wields so much power it's improper he didn't get that senate review. he's a principal officer under the constitution, not an inferior officer. we heard from a friend of the court argument from a g

joining us now, justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, and a defense attorney that representede employees in an administration. >> reporter: the jury has had the case today for about two hours. they had it yesterday just for about an hour, so three hours total of deliberations. obviously we don't know anything about what is going on inside the jury room. it's secret. we know the jury forewoman had a sister with issues with a drug problem and watched the evening news. that's all we know about it. the prosecution strongly made the case they established beyond a reasonable doubt that hunter biden was a drug user when he purchased that gun and owned it for 11 days. the defense trying to poke holes in the story and suggest that there's doubt about whether he was using drugs during the period on or around that period when he bought and owned that gun. that's where it stands, josÉ. >> over the last course of the trial, the defense argued there was no evidence hunter biden was using drugs when he bought the gun, and the jury instructions say they do not have to determine he was using d

let's start with justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian in delaware.also with us is white house correspondent aaron gill crest. so we heard from both the special counsel and hunter biden after today's verdict. what's the reaction from both sides? >> reporter: we rarely hear from special counsel david weiss, and in some pointed comments today, he took issue with the conduct would be excused by his drug addiction. take a listen. >> this case was about the illegal choices the defendant made while in the throes of addiction, his choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun and the choice to then possess that gun. it was these choices and the combination of guns and drugs that made his conduct dangerous. >> reporter: the defendant said in a statement that i am more grateful today for the love and support i experienced last week from my wife, my friends and my community than i am disappointed by the outcome. in a statement from his attorney, she said we are disa disapoint ed by the verdict. we respect the jury process as we have done throughout th

. >> ken dilanian, michelle goodwin, thank you both, we appreciate it. >>> president biden and his campaign defiant today after he struggled on stage in the first presidential debate. >> the president held a campaign event in north carolina earlier today where he sounded much stronger than he did last night. >> i know, like millions of americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. >> during the debate the president sounded hoarse and stumbled while speaking several times. the president said afterward he had a sore throat. his performance is reenforcing fears many voters have about his age. >> former president donald trump is in virginia today, while he appeared more confident last night he also repeatedly lied throughout the debate. here's a recap. >> this place, the whole world is blowing up under him. >> president biden? >> i've never heard so much malarkey in my whole life. he said i don't want to go in there because they're losers and suckers. you're the sucker, you're the loser. >> the general got fired because he was no good. if he said that, that's why he made it up. we

. >> let's bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, former deputy chiefe greenburg, she's an msnbc legal analyst, and the president of the national action network and host of msnbc's "politics nation" reverend al sharpton. and, ken, we'll start with you. you had been reporting from the courthouse for the duration of the trial. what more can you add after hearing from this juror, but also seeing the reaction from the biden family and from republicans to this verdict? >> yeah, well, initially there was shock that the jury took only three hours to deliberate this case and came back with a verdict when they did. it was such a chaotic situation that joe biden didn't even make it past security to get in the courtroom to listen to the verdict. she got in late. hunter biden reacted impassively because once it was clear the jury had come back so quickly it was pretty obvious it was going to be a guilty verdict across the board. they hoped for one juror to maybe hang this case. it is fascinating when you watch a trial from gavel to gavel as i did to hear from these

let's go to nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian outside the courthouse.w jury selection is under way, 250 jurors have been called. they're going to bring in 50 at a time to ask them a series of questions. a tough day for the biden family. we saw jill biden walk into this courthouse, and now we have a new statement from the president himself, and i'm just going to read it to you, because it's pretty important. he says, i'm the president, but i'm also a dad. jill and i love our son and we're so proud of the man he is today. hunter's resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he has brought to his recovery are inspiring to us. it goes on, a lot of families have loved ones who have overcome addiction and know what we mean. he says, as the president, i don't and won't comment on pending federal cases, but as a dad i have boundless love for my son, confidence in him and respect for his strength. our family has been through a lot together, and jill and i are going to continue to be there for hunter and our family with our love and support. that was a p