i want to bring in justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. ken, we have been talking about the january 6th case but what's going on with the mar-a-lago documents case? >> reporter: chris, we expect another filing in the 11th circuit of appeals later today. it is not exactly clear how that will play out because there are two other defendants in that case and remember, that case has been dismissed. the justice department is appealing that dismissal and appealing it on the legal grounds they believe the way they have appointed a special counsel was proper. remember, she ruled it was illegal so they may try to litigate that appeal while taking donald trump out of the case but one thing is clear, donald trump will be out of that case. i'm sitting here today having covered these investigations for years and having stood outside courthouses and having read every document in these cases just flabbergasted frankly. it is a historic moment. these indictments were historic moment and the dismissals are equally historic. 50 years after watergate. richard

i want to bring in our justice correspondent ken dilanian joining us here on set. rsonal factors, there is obviously a lot of controversy over his ability to run the justice department over the fbi. we know donald trump said he wants to clean house there. don jr. said that, others in the circle. steve bannon certainly. he would be the hammer. but that said, this is the justice department. and the fbi has critical intelligence, counterintelligence, about our, you know, our enemies, terrorism, counterterrorism report, counterterrorism intelligence. all of the things you cover every day. >> and no doubt whoever comes next in this process will also be a person tasked with carrying out donald trump's stated vendetta against the justice department and the fbi, but there was really deep concern inside the fbi and the justice department about this particular nominee, in part because there are people who work over there who investigated him on a criminal basis, there are people whose job it is to investigate sex trafficking. and they were confronted with the idea that a pers

not clear. >> vaughn hillyard, ken dilanian, guys, thank you. in 90 seconds why a major ruling on the fate of donald trump's hush money conviction has just been delayed. plus, the big legal loss for his former chief of staff. next. f staff. next. your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. our advanced matching helps find talented candidates, so you can connect with them fast. visit indeed.com/hire i've been worn by celebrities, athletes, and world leaders. but i've always felt most comfortable up here, with the folks that made me who i am. i'm right at home, out here on the land. and i'm in my lane on the shoulder of the interstate. because this is where i come from. i've been showing up here for nearly 200 years. and i can't wait to see what's next. hats off to the future. nothing runs like a deere™ ["the glory of love" plays] giving. ♪ giving that's possible through the power of dell ai with intel. so those who receive can find the joy of giving back. >>> new york judge juan

ken dilanian joins us. i guess it's hard to imagine them actually arresting this person or persons. this opens up other possibilities. >> yeah. they have two men in custody who they say were the american operatives hired by this iranian intelligence operative, who is in iran, they say. what's interesting about this whole thing is that the reason they know that this plot was targeting donald trump is because the iranian operative engaged in voluntary telephone interviews with the fbi from iran and explained the plot. he was trying to get a reduced sentence for another unnamed defendant in prison in the united states. this is how they know this was a murder for hire plot directed at donald trump. these people -- this group was targeting a prominent iranian american journalist who has been the subject of previous murder for hire plots in new york city. now these two men are in custody and charged with murder for hire and related charges. this iranian operative is in iran and out of reach of the u.s. justice sy

nbc's ken dilanian is following this for us. ials say he was trying to profit from this alleged scheme? walk us through the case. >> reporter: that's right. authorities are calling him a serial swatter and this is one of the worst cases they have prosecuted. according to the plea agreement from august 22 to january 2024, he made more than 375 swatting and threat calls. making claims of having planted bombs. threats to detonate bombs. his targets included religious institutions. high schools, universities, government officials. he was 16 when he placed the majority of these calls. in a social media post last year, he claimed when he swatted someone, he usually gets the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house, cuff them and search the house for dead bodies. authorities said he became a swatter for fun and profit. in january he was arrested on florida state charges. he has been in custody ever since. he faces a maximum pent of five years in prison on each of those four counts. a sentencing date has not yet been s

. >> joining us now nbc's ken dilanian and senior writer of politico magazine and former federal prosecutorstice. ken, what is bondi's experience, how she could lead the department of justice? >> i think it's a mixed picture. unlike matt gaetz, pam bondi is a real lawyer, worked as a prosecutor many years and was attorney general of a major state for eight years. so she knows about the rule of law. she knows how to run a large organization. and in some ways she is going to govern the justice department, i would think, like a standard conservative administration. there is going to be a lot of changes, a lot of different positions. but that's sort of normal. then you have this other element here, and what you just heard her talking about the deep state and bad prosecutors will be prosecuted. that really starts to suggest that she will at least in part pursue donald trump's agenda of retribution, and one can easily imagine a special council appointed to investigate the investigators as happened in the first trump administration with special counsel john durham and people having to hire lawyers

joining us now, justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. why didn't they show up?at they are saying publicly and then what committee sources think is going on. they are saying that the threat picture right now is so sensitive, they feel they can home talk about the big issues in a closed hearing, in a classified closed session. one of the issues they don't want to talk about publicly is the fact that china has successfully hacked a bunch of telecom companies and may have gotten access to classified information. that's very sensitive. so, that's understandable. but there nothing that would prevent them from having an open hearing and closed hearing and they feel like here are two top officials who are not long in their jobs, mayorkas obviously leaving as a political appointee and chris wray reporting donald trump wants to replace him, he may leave as well, and the feeling is they decided they didn't want to sit for another grilling on the hill. the hearings are not pleasant they get yelled at, get asked tough questions, some people view it as a circus, but it is an

nbc's ken dilanian is with us. good morning. this is unusual, isn't it? what happened here?hey refusing to testify? >> extremely unusual. i'll tell you what the agencies are telling us and what the committee thinks and others think is going on. dhs and fbi say, one, their leaders testified very often in public hearings over the last year about the threats facing the nation and what they think should happen is a classified hearing because there are very sensitive things happening right now. they don't say this, but including a chinese hack of u.s. telecoms that may have gotten classified information that they can't talk about in public. the committee is concerned about the idea that these are two men who are not long in their jobs, mayorkas is leaving and we are reporting that donald trump wants to replace christopher wray. so the fear is they are thinking why should they endure another public grilling on the hill. these hearings are not pleasant. they get asked really tough questions. some people call it a circus. so they decided they are not going to do that. what is lost h

ken dilanian is with us this morning. good morning. what do we know about this?good morning, jose. well, if you remember, of course, donald trump hired christopher wray. he's a republican. he hired him after he fired james comey early in his last term. wray told lester holt he wanted to stay and serve out the full 10-year term. fbi directors are supposed to be independent and serve 10- year terms once appointed generally. the president does have the power to remove the fbi director, and we understand that both sides, both the wray team and the trump team, are planning for the possibility that will happen. remember, donald trump's been really, really critical of the fbi throughout the four years he's been out of office, but particularly after they raided his home in mar-a-lago and participated in the jack smith prosecutions. there does seem to be a great momentum for trump to bring in his own person at the fbi. that could be among his most consequential appointments given the rhetoric in maga world about deep-state conspiracies within the fbi and political prosecu

let's get over to nbc's ken dilanian for more on what's going on here. says this is a, quote, shocking departure from tradition. is it? >> it is fairly shocking. in part because this hearing had been planned for weeks and it was only on monday that these two top officials decided that they weren't going to testify in public. and they did so both on the house version of this hearing and the senate version. and it is pretty clear what is going on here. these two men are not expected to continue for very much longer in their jobs and these congressional hearings are very unpleasant for them. they get grilled by members of both parties on all sorts of issues. they even get death threats in some cases after these hearings. so, they're choosing not to appear in un. the fbi is saying in a statement to us that they have provided lots of information in public settings over the last year about all kinds of threats and that's true. but this was a chance for the taxpayers to hear from these people who work for them, about significant threats facing the nation and the

. >> i want to bring in ken dilanian and jonathan capehart, associate editor at "the washington post" and a host here on msnbc. patrice willoughby is from legislative affairs and charles coleman is here in studio, and former brooklyn prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. thank you all for being here. ken, what could you tell us about the texts and what do we know about who might have sent them? >> chris, as you said, the fbi and several law enforcement agencies are investigating these vile and hateful texts and they said very little about what they are finding. we do know that a company called text now, which is a message and text service that allows people to use untraceable burner phones has acknowledged that at least one of their accounts appears to have been used to send some of the messages and they said they had nothing to do with it obviously, but as you said, as many as 15 states, dozens and perhaps hundreds of people. there is a suspicion and it is only a suspicion that perhaps a foreign government, perhaps russia could have been involved given there was a series of bomb threat

amazing charges here, jose. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much.n. it seems to me, this is not a one-off. when you look at the details, how one of the men charged spoke to federal agents five times because he wanted to get a sentence reduction for someone else who's currently in prison. wondering, what does all of this tell you? >> well, people need to understand, this is not merely an aspirational vision of iran's leadership to take out donald trump. they were prepared to execute on this. they want to get it done, and that's not going to stop moving forward, which is going to make the secret service's job extremely difficult. and as ken said, this isn't just the second attempt on donald trump. we need to look at this very outspoken iranian dissident in brooklyn who almost got killed. this is the third known attempt of the iranians to kill her. and it was a near miss. the fbi had to go to a university in connecticut, fairfield university, and tell them, look, i know you've got this scheduled speaker, but we think she might be assassinated and could

leading us off this hour, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, ryan nobles, ken, let's start with you. gaetz is not just a controversial pick because of the criticism of the justice department in the past, the bigger issues that critics are pointing to, his lack of qualifications for this job, and walk us through what we know about his background as it relates to a job of this stature. >> the attorney general is not only the top law enforcement officer in the united states, he or she is also holding a really important national security job, privy to the most sensitive intelligence, overseeing secret intelligence investigationings, representing the intelligence community, and matt gaetz doesn't have the background of people who have held that job have. he's a career politician, he practiced out of law school, and got elected to the florida legislature. he's the son of wealthy parents and then got elected to congress, and has been known in congress as an agent of chaos, as a rhetorical bomb thrower, someone who tried to

joining us nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian, and harry litman, former assistantat this a gaetz pick would mean for the future of the department? >> they are horrified. that's not an exaggeration. i will tell you that john bolton, one of the most conservative figures in washington served as donald trump's national security advisor, said in the last this is the worst nomination for a cabinet post in american history. and he is not -- that's not hyperbole. he legitimately believes that. people are horrified because as you said the attorney general's not only the most important legal job in the united states. it's a very important national security job. >> this is getting a little bit lost. post-9/11, the attorney general sees the most sensitive intelligence in the government. much of the same intelligence that the president sees. he or she oversees very sensitive secret counterintelligence investigations, counterterrorism operations, signs off on things that the intelligence agencies are doing, negotiates with the tech companies about how the nsa is accessing data.

joining us now nbc news justice and national security correspondent ken dilanian.fter the people who have been prosecuting him, going after him unfairly in the witch hunts against him as he's called them. what could he do and what are the people around him advocating? >> there is a post watergate norm that says presidents don't tell the justice department specifically which cases or which people to investigate and that is what the people around donald trump are saying should go away. so there's a lawyer named mark paoletta and he has written and been arguing in recent days that the law does not say anything about whether the president can and does, in fact, allow the president to order the justice department to investigate specific people and he is right about that. this post watergate tradition is just that, a tradition, a norm, it's not enshrined in law. he is setting the stage, laying the groundwork for this kind of move. then you have another conservative lawyer named mike davis who is actually advising the trump transition and he is a bomb thrower, but he has

ken dilanian, what more can you tell us. kash patel has been a name floating out there, that some people have been concerned being in an important leadership position in the government, particularly if he were to lead the fbi? what else can you tell us where he may land? it seems they have made the decision that kash patel is not confirmable, particularly after the gaetz debacle. that may not be what he said about going after the deep state. they're all for that. it's the kind of things in his background that have been out there, like, for example, he appeared to have misrepresented his role in the benghazi case. he said at one point he was one of the lead prosecutors, and that's just not true, and other things over the years that have been raised in his background. and so the plan seems to be to install him in an appointed position where he could do a lot of damage and wield a lot of power. let's make no mistake. deputy fbi director, for example, is essentially the chief operating officer. it's a hugely responsible role. or

i want to bring in nbc's justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, nbc's julie tsirkin en capitol hill, eddie glaude, princeton professor and msnbc analyst, doug jones, former democratic senator from alabama and former u.s. attorney in the justice department. so, julie, what do we know about what happened here? >> reporter: well, senators are just as confused, chris, as we are, shocked by this announcement. democratic senators including senator fetterman coming off the elevator using expletives this time because they didn't see this coming. gaetz withdrawing his name, just hours after he was stomping around these halls meeting with senators from very early in the morning to late at night last night. you see that video of him returning for his final meetings in the day he met with republicans on the senate judiciary committee. i caught up with many of them including senator john cornyn last night who told me he pressed gaetz about his behavior and ousting kevin mccarthy from the house, joni ernst said gaetz brought up the allegations that we are talking about against him, y

florida dave ehrenberg, cofounder of punch bowl news, and justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilaniane have been talking this morning about the justice department and the republicans, but it doesn't serve president trump because as so many people have said, this is the least qualified pic ever to be attorney general. what are you hearing from republicans on the hill after the news broke? >> well, joe, if they could muster anything to say, they were saying they weren't going to confirm him in so many words. we got called last night from senior senate republicans who vowed they would do everything in their power to make sure matt gaetz does not get confirmed. a few thoughts here. number one, it is a healthy senate republican majority. 53 seats. you could do a lot with that. you could get almost anyone within reason you want confirmed. this is not within reason for republican senators. you've got susan collins, mitch mcconnell is no longer in leadership and is a free agent. that's what i'm watching on top of many, many more republicans who think matt gaetz is despicable. that is number o

let's get more detail from nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. good morning. what else are you hearing? >> good morning, willie. looking at the way jack smith conducted this case during the election period and even before that, i had the impression, a lot of people had the impression, he was going to try to sprint through the finish line, that he was going to continue litigating these cases, even though he knew they couldn't go to trial, right up to the moment he was fired or that a new attorney general ordered him to stand down. but that's not what's happening. what we learned yesterday is that jack smith is in talks with justice department officials about how to wind down these two federal criminal cases, even before donald trump takes office. they're doing that because the office of legal counsel has decided years ago, back in 2000, that a sitting president under doj policy can't be indicted and can't be prosecuted, because that would interfere with the operation of the presidency. they're going to respect that, even before donald trump takes

nbc's ken dilanian, thanks so much. rev, let's look at the headline. obviously yesterday, you know, we have been saying on this show it is like the old idas commercials about when the ethics report and all of the bad information came out on matt gaetz, you either pay us now or you can pay us later, and the later it is the closer it is to, you know, the more that it is actually in the middle of the new -- the new presidency. i think that's the last thing they obviously -- they didn't want to see this scandal in the senate probably in january and february. >>> "morning joe" weekend will be right back. o. dad, is mommy a “finance bro?” she switched careers to make money for your weddings. ooh! penny stocks are blowing up. sweetie, grab your piggy bank, we're going all in. let me ask you. for your wedding, do you want a gazebo and a river? uh, i don't... what's a gazebo? something that your mother always wanted and never got. or...you could give these different investment options a shot. the right money moves aren't as aggressive as you think. i'm keeping

nbc's ken dilanian has more on this. ken?orcement administration to suspend its long-standing product tis of searching passengers at airports and seizing their cash after the department's internal watchdog raised concerns about potential civil rights violations and racial profiling. the doj's inspector general found dea agents and local police partners have been stopping partners at airports because they bought a last minute ticket and demanding without a warrant to search their bags. the searches are supposed to be voluntary, but the report found passengers often felt compelled to agree for fear of being delayed and missing their flights. if the agents found cash, they seized it through civil forfeiture that puts the onus on the passenger to prove it was not connected to drugs to get it back. the report highlighted an incident in cincinnati, where a passenger recorded himself telling a dea agent he did not consent to a search of his bag. and the agent replied his consent wasn't required and used what a nonprofit legal firm c

. >> chuck rosenberg, as always and ken dilanian, thank you for your reporting. >>> we will go to athens on the trial of a suspect accused of killing nursing student laken riley. o killing nursing student lake riley. we all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10% of us get enough each day. good thing metamucil gummies are an easy way to get prebiotic, plant-based fiber. with the same amount of fiber as 2 cups of broccoli. metamucil gummies the easy way to get your daily fiber. ♪♪ whenever heartburn strikes, get fast relief with tums. it's time to love food back. also try new tums gummy bites. sofia vergara: at it's st. jude, there's back. one thing that makes us all family-- finding cures, saving children. one in five kids in the us still won't survive cancer. join our st. jude family. we need you. please donate now. ♪ [music] i could lock up every door ♪ ♪ check again just so i'm sure ♪ ♪ watch ziggy from the plane ♪ ♪ ♪ my garage i could open ♪ ♪ while i'm hiking in wyoming ♪ ♪ if my home just had a brain ♪ >>> testimony continues in a georgia courtroom in the trial of j

joining us now nbc's ken dilanian, maya wiley, and the author of remember you are a wiley, and frank r consistent director for counterintelligence at the fbi. ken, is this the end of the road for these cases? >> good morning, jose. i think it is, yes. these cases will be or are dismissed without prejudice, meaning technically they could be re-filed, but the charges have a five-year statute of limitations which would have to be tolled. the only people that could do that would the trudge justice department. jack smith did the only thing he could do because he asked the office of legal counsel whether that doj policy that a sitting president couldn't be indicted or prosecuted whether that applied to the president-elect even before he is inaugurated and they said, yes, we think it does. so jack smith had no choice but to seek dismissal of these cases. he also made a strategic move because had he chosen to resign or leave the cases pending and let the trump justice department handle it we might see a different document perhaps saying that the justice department no longer stood behind the e

. >> let's bring in ken dilanian, our intelligence and justice correspondent. what's the reaction inside the doj? >> katy, i have gotten two texts from different penal at the justice department who used the word insane. they responded and react today this potential appointment. also questioning whether matt gaetz can be confirmed. one person asked me to research whether anyone had been nominated for the post of attorney general who had been investigated by the justice department. we will have to look into that. my initial red a is that i can't think of any time that happened in american history. not only was gaetz investigated and not charged, we should point out, in a sex trafficking investigation, but he is perhaps the top five vociferous critics of the fbi and justice department, accusing them of being corrupt and weaponized and unethical at every single congressional hearing, anytime -- he is on the judiciary committee. any time chris wray, the fbi director, merrick garland, attorney general, lower officials went before the committee, you could count on mat

nbc news justice correspondent ken dilanian joins me now from washington. good to see you.cases? what does that mean for special counsel jack smith for instance? >> reporter: jack smith is in talks with senior doj leaders about how to do this. there's no chance of these cases going to trial before the election. after the election -- i'm sorry. before donald trump takes office. after he takes office they have to adhere to doj policy which is that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted. there was thought jack smith would sprint through the finish line and keep moving these cases forward until the moment he was fired or a new attorney general ordered him to drop the cases. that appears to be not what is happening. they're seriously contemplating dismissing the cases against donald trump. he's going to be the president and he can't be prosecuted. these cases are in suspended animation anyway. they're going to move to dismiss these cases. >> ken, former attorney for the president, when he was the president, rudy giuliani, is back in court today. he missed a deadline to send mon

hope here is that at the end of the day -- i know you talked about this with my former colleague ken dilaniany release this special counsel report, number one for the sake of history, and also need to do to correct this narrative that doj was not aggressively trying to hold doj -- the former president accountability from the start of this administration, and they also need to correct this narrative that doj has been -- has been weapse it hasn't. >> so, chuck, nbc news is reporting that doj lawyers are hoping that trump's pick for number two, that critical number two position at the department, his former defense lawyer, as you know, todd blanche, who served as the federal prosecutor, would help protect career civil sevenents from any attempts by donald trump or his attorney general to have some sort of retribution or revenge. do you think that they can count on that? >> one would hope, chris. here's the problem. the deputy attorney general, essentially the chief operating officer of the department of justice, can't stop congress, for instance, if it wants to launch some bogus investigation of

ken dilanian reports from washington., nbc's vaughn hillyard who covers the president-elect, and state attorney general for palm beach county, dave aronberg, who left the sunshine and came here to new york city. we're glad to have him. vaughn, i guess that is the overarching picture now that these cases have been dropped, does it embolden donald trump for a second term? >> especially coming out of the supreme court's ruling here. >> win, win, win. >> win, win, win, and all his interactions with the department of justice in 2020, some controversial, some in which he was even suggesting allegedly that they should, his attorney general, should release erroneous reporting that the election was stolen from him and there was fraud, which was not the fact, but what the supreme court determined was that even after upon leaving the white house that none of that would have been chargeable, that none of it would have been criminal because he was serving in the capacity of president. and then even his interactions, what he tweeted ou

our nbc news correspondent vaughn hill lard and ken dilanian have the latest on the trump transition.e daniels and medically is here. vaughn, starting with you. we have this flurry of picks over the weekend by trump's team. he has picked all 15 cabinet secretaries. fill us in. >> it was draft night. friday night i was actually on a plane back from florida to new york and all of a sudden on that plane ride pick after pick after pick are coming in. he filled up the cabinet friday night. you see scott bessent, who will be his treasury secretary nominee. the biggest of that list. russ vought is another name. he is nominated to return as his offers of management and budget director. he is the one who was juan of those key co-authors as part of the project 2025est. stephen miller, incoming deputy chief of staff touted vought will be able to go in through the departments and agencies and help on appropriations and make sure there is a gutting of the staffing reductions and helping towards the cut of regulations currently in place. you look at the likes of the lorie chavez, she just lost her

ken dilanian is our justice and intelligence correspondent.er nicholas is senior white house reporter for nbc news digital, and harry litman is a former u.s. attorney who served as deputy assistant attorney general in the clinton administration. great to have all of you here. ken, you've been reporting that some of trump's top legal allies including one seen as his potential attorney general, they're calling for the doj to begin prosecuting his adversaries. tell us more about this. >> yeah, that's right. chris, the tension you described as "new york times" reported on within the transition team was described to us as a battle between the normees and the crazies. the people we are talking about would disagree with that characterization. we focused on a couple lawyers, one named mike davis, he is a very conservative, a bomb throwing provocateur who used to clench for justice gorsuch. he has been out there publicly saying that donald trump should prosecute people like the attorney general tish james and jack smith, the special counsel, that his j

and our colleagues, ryan reilly and ken dilanian and i are reporting that some of these unnamed prosecutors, currently in the doj, are breathing sighs of relief that matt gaetz is not going to be the next attorney general general. the question is, who does come next? he has suggested that he's going to nominate his ersonal attorney, todd blanch, to be the number two. the deputy attorney general, could he instead be nominated for attorney general? but there is a list of others that could be nominated in place of matt gaetz. >> vaughn hillyard, julie circumstance i know, thank you both so much. >>> in a stunning news, the illinois state's supreme court has overturned the conviction of actor jesse smallette. he was accused in 2019 of falsely reporting a hate crime against himself to chicago police. >> he was later sentenced to 150 days in jail after he was found guilty of five counts of disorderly conduct. he has continued to claim that he is innocent. joining me now, chloe melas. so, chloe, notably, smollett has only served six days of iz sentence. walk us through why the court ultimately did

may really cause some trouble over there from the perspective of some of the career folks. >> ken dilanian, thanks so much. rev, look at the headline, yesterday we had been saying on this show that it's like the old midas commercials about when the ethics report and the bad information came out on matt gaetz, you pay us now or pay us later and the later it is, the closer it is to, you know, the more that it's actually in the middle of the new presidency, and i think that's the last thing they, obviously -- he didn't want to see this scandal in the senate probably in january and february. >> absolutely. i think it was the wise thing for trump people and for president-elect trump to withdraw him now because a long-term spectacle of days and weeks would only damage them even more. take your losses short, let him walk away. he was never qualified. he could not give any reasonable argument as to why he would be attorney general. i talked to people that i know in florida last night that are on the civil rights side, we have a chapter there, bondi is on the right but she is one who is qualified t

nbc's ken dilanian broke this story. ken, what is happening, what can you tell us?ah, it's not a surprise that these cases can't go forward when donald trump takes office. what's interesting here is that the doj is moving to end them even before he takes office, citing the long-standing doj policy that sitting presidents can't be prosecuted. and there were some thought that maybe special counsel jack smith was going to sprint through the finish line, was going to work up until the last day, force trump to fire him, wait until a new attorney general was appointed. that does not appear to be the thinking inside the department. the thinking is that these cases can't go forward, there's no reasonable prospect of getting to trial within the three months before donald trump takes office. these cases are mired in legal issues that would -- the appeal all the way to the supreme court had donald trump lost the election. now that he's won the election, doj officials are thinking that, look, there's no room to move in these cases. and so the -- the sensible thing to do is to f

. >> joining me now is ken dilanian. we know about fake bomb threats.this case, fake bomb threat can prevent people, scare people from going to the polls. >> reporter: that's right. the fbi has not confirmed that this particular piece of disinformation emanated from russia. it sure wouldn't be surprising if it had. the fbi and intelligence community over the last few weeks issued a number of warnings and has said that russia is in an information war against the american electorate. is trying to reduce confidence in the election security. then separately, the fbi warned this morning that there was a video circulating. it didn't say it was of foreign origin. it purported to be from the fbi telling people to stay home and vote remotely because there was a high terror threat at polling sites. there's no such thing as voting remotely. it was designed to keep people from the polls. we are awash in disinformation. some is foreign. a lot is american. the best advice to folks is, don't trust what you are seeing on social media, particularly about time and manner