ali ken dilanian, thank you very much. i want to go back to that former secret service special agent. one of the things that has come up is this issue, and you referenced it and ken referenced it there evy of these barricades. we spoke to an eyewitness not too long ago. will play back some of that interview in case people missed it. is there just waking up this morning who described seeing this pickup truck go something like 8 to 10 blocks very quickly down the street and saying that he did not see those bollards or barricades up. he saw what looked like smaller versions, perhaps more like traffic stops. it is not clear at this point. we do know that the superintendent of the new orleans police department said that this driver went around whatever barricades were in place, but this is something that police, that law enforcement have learned to put in place now for years. this is a typical part of the security posture and the security apparatus for any big event, like a new year's eve celebration. i think it depends. you kno

i want to go to ken dilanian who is tracking all of it. the president is apair of this. he's been briefed. the attorney general, merrick garland, briefed as well as the fbi is calling this an act -- a potential act of terror. that's how they're investigating this. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. we have a new statement from the attorney general i want to summarize for you. i want to mention that, speak to the thing we heard from the lieutenant governor of louisiana about this idea there may have been an isis flag on the truck, and the reporter made clear that's not confirmed. we can see in photographs there's a pvc piping and a black cloth emanating from that on the back of the truck. i have been asking, tom winter has been asking our federal law enforcement sources what that was, and we have gotten no good answers to that. so just to be clear, we don't know what that was. there's no confirmation that there's any link to isis as of right now. obviously we're asking those questions. as for the attorney general, merrick garland, who has three weeks left in office, he is

ken dilanian joining us now. why hasn't the fbi been able to solve this in all this time, ken?, lester, the fbi has clear video showing a suspect planting the bombs. but the person's face is obscured in every shot. and after reviewing 39,000 video files and visiting 1,200 locations investigators aren't even sure of the suspect's gender. the fbi is releasing new video today that includes a new height estimate of the suspect of 5'7" tall. i spoke with the lead investigator, who is asking the public for help. >> i'm sure that there are people who know who the suspect is, and we'd really ask them to call us. just because they didn't go off doesn't mean they weren't intended to go off. that really could have seriously injured somebody or killed someone. >> reporter: the fbi and local police are now offering a half million-dollar reward for information. lester? >> ken dilanian, thank you. >>> up next, the feud between actors justin baldoni and blake lively. now baldoni filing a $250 million lawsuit against "the new york times." we'll speak exclusively to his lawyer. baldoni filing a

. >>> let's bring in ken dilanian who has been here with us from the beginning. ken, the big news, as we keep saying out of the law enforcement briefing a short time ago is they do not believe the suspect, shamsud din jabbar, acted alone. what more do we know about this? we heard them mention a range of suspects. what are you hearing from your sources? >> not much, kate. we are working to learn what we can about this, because frankly, that news conference -- those folks were not forthcoming about this and it's not clear why. it's not clear whether they don't know the identities of these alleged coconspirators and they have a vague idea and are trying to run them down or they do know and they don't want these people to know they know or what is going on, because often times when the fbi is trying to find suspects who are at large they provide as much information as they can to the public and ask the public for help. they have asked for the public's help in the case and they just have not said who these people might be and are seeking a range of co conspirators, and

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. and co-host of "the weekend" on msnbc, you saw her host "way too early," symone sanders townsend. my thanks to all three of you. ken, let's start with you. what is the latest we know about this investigation and the suspect? a lot of real concern about possible connections to isis. what's the latest we know? >> good morning, jonathan. president biden said the suspect was inspired by isis, the president's words. he had been flying an isis flag on the back of the white pickup truck. but the more that emerges about this man, the more perplexing it is. he doesn't hit the profile of a radicalized, isis terrorist. 42 years old, u.s. army veteran, six-figure job at an accounting firm, father of three children, twice married and divorced. appeared to have a mental break. his brother called it radicalization. there are reports he made facebook videos vowing to kill. president biden referred to that. shortly before he carried out this attack. one of the questions remaining, jonathan, in terms of

kudos to ken dilanian, tom winter, for putting this in proper context.e all came away from the press briefing saying my goodness, they didn't think he acted alone. not an active man hunt. not a belief necessarily that the public is in continuing danger, but the search of the house is critical as to you know, is there anybody out there who had knowledge of this, number one. number two, is there any reason to believe that he truly was directed by isis? as ken said, there's different levels of recruitment here and a lone actor is very different than receiving direction and training from isis itself. the more time goes on, the more it looks like this was a solo actor. the question is why. what happened. i will note a couple of things that are noteworthy to me. first, his age. if you're talking about radicalization within violent islamic jihad, this is old. 42 years old is old and it speaks to me about the possibility that he was a convert later in life. we don't know that for sure. it's on the older end of what you would expect for someone who's going to bec

as nbc's ken dilanian reported at the time, quote, ratcliffe had been a federal prosecutor in texas, and he boasted on his website about having to, quote, put terrorists in prison. nbc news and other news organizations found no evidence that he had ever prosecuted a terrorism case, end quote. now, as this news came out in the summer of 2019, just a week after he was initially tapped for the role, ratcliffe withdrew from consideration for dni. he said in a statement at the time that while he believed he could have, quote, done the job, he, quote did not wish for a national security and intelligence debate surrounding my confirmation, however untrue, to become a purely political and partizan issue. end quote. but trump renominated ratcliffe for the same position just seven months later in 2020, and he was at that point confirmed by a sharply divided senate in september of 2020. as trump's new director of national intelligence, ratcliffe drew criticism from democrats for declassifying unverified russian intelligence. the intel purported that hillary clinton had approved an effort to, qu

let's go back to nbc's justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. a speaking of the fbi disclosing p information, we have a new statement from the fbi, essentially confirming what we have been reporting to you bimo of the morning. it says, "this morning, an individual drove a car into a vecrowd of people on bourbon street in new orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. the subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. the fbi is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism." so, again, this is what we have been reporting.s subject is deceased. fbi investigating this as an act of terrorism. unclear why the special agent in charge this morning said this wasn't terrorism. probably being super cautious. they haven't -- this doesn't mean they've established that it was terrorism.st it means they are investigating that as a potential here, and they're trying to s run down th motive. they may doknow more than they' able ayto say. in the statem

ken dilanian, thank you. i'll let you get back to your phone calls i know you'll be making. let me bring in rob d'amico, now, former fbi agent who worked in counterterrorism. rob, we know that the fbi is on scene. we heard from the assistant special agent in charge. in addition to the investigation into the truck ramming into the shots fired by the suspect, who, as ken just reported, is believed to be dead. there is also now this investigation into what's being called an improvised explove device, some sort of potentially homemade bomb that could be connected to this as well. right? absolutely. we've seen some of these before, even in school shootings. they've left ieds in their house knowing the police were going to go search the house. so they're going to find out who this person was. and they're also for the search warrant of the house, wherever he lived. they're also going to have bomb squads there, because he's shown that he's capable of making something at least looks like an ied. so they're going to render that safe. they'll look for evidence on that ied. lots of time

and ken dilanian. and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquiaid and kimberly atkins. a lot of legal development ins the past hour. he attacked judge jack smith and judge merchan. can you explain the emergency hearing this hour? >> let's start with judge cannon's ruling. she will impose a stay on the release of any special council report. that not only applies to the report itself but to any information contained in that report. in both instances she says jack smith, attorney general, merrick garland and the department of justice employees and agents and those of the special council's office are precluded from sharing either the report or any information th beyond the department of justice itself. that means that for example, when the 11th circuit decides they want to have a crack at this, that those actors would be precluded from sharing with the circuit itself. the information about the report or a draft report. it is not clear to folks like many whether she has jury diction. because earlier this year, she threw out the mar-a-lago documents case explaining that from

thy park, george solis, ken dilanian, thank you.it. >>> and now let's switch gears and bring you up to date on the breaking news out of las vegas now. officials there just provided an update on that cybertruck explosion outside of trump international hotel on wednesday. police have now identified the man who rented the cybertruck as a 37-year-old from colorado springs, colorado. they believe he was the individual killed inside the truck when it exploded. they also say they believe he acted alone. joining me now is nbc news law enforcement and intelligence correspondent tom winter. tom, a lot of new details in that news conference. what did we learn about the suspect, the timeline of events? >> yeah, a lot of new details and information in there. let's get to the timeline. first off, to identify this individual, matthew alan livelsberger died by suicide, self-inflicted gunshot wound according to the coroner's office as related by the sheriff of the las vegas metropolitan police department. apparently, he picked up within a week of th

joining us now, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian.used and why authorities think these bombs did not detonate. >> yes, this could have been a lot worse, katy. this was an extremely well thought out, well planned terrorist attack, and they didn't detonate because he didn't use the right blasting caps in the detonator. he had transmitters that he was trying to use to set these bombs off. as you said, they used an explosive called rdx, which is common around the world, it was used in other terror attacks. it's extremely rare to be used inside the united states. they were larger than the crude bombs used in the boston marathon bombing. they could have killed a lot of people. the fbi is revealing that the terrorist, you know, went to new orleans in the weeks before the attack and actually rode through the french quarter on a bicycle filming with meta smart glasses, kind of staking out the route that he wanted to use. so he was a very competent terrorist, unfortunately, and it was only because he made a technical mistake that a lot more peo

joining us now is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondence, ken dilanian.ed a maga victory rally on sunday, and there's also anti-trump demonstrations planned for saturday for this weekend. what are law enforcement officials saying today about whether the weekend's events could make security more challenging heading into inauguration day? >> hey, kate, they have declared this a national special security event which is the highest level of security that the federal government can bring to bear on any particular event, and they are deploying really almost unprecedented security measures here. 30 miles of nonscaleable fencing, the most they have ever put out in washington, d.c. almost 8,000 national guard troops on stand by. 4,000 police officers from around the country. maritime and air restrictions, the secret service flying drones. the fbi is saying there are no credible threats but obviously there are concerns anytime you have tens of thousands of people gathering and the political climate we're in. they're marshaling as many resources as they can bring to

let's bring in nbc's ken dilanian.a rubin and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. so barbara jack smith refuted the very idea that this investigation was motivated by politics. he also wrote this quote to all who know me well, the claim for mr. trump that my decision as a prosecutor, decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable. but as you read it, barbara. does this report justify the merits of the charges and show they were not politically motivated, but legally based? >> yeah, absolutely. >> i mean, this report over 173 pages details each of the counts and then each piece of evidence in support of those arguments. and it is overwhelming evidence. as jack smith writes in his conclusion, this is not any exoneration of donald trump. the only reason he is escaping a liability here is because of his election. and this opinion that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime or undergo trial. that i

also with us, ken dilanian and a senior intelligence advisor.answers are we hoping to get from the press conference coming up around 11:30? >> reporter: well, ana, there has been back and forth on whether there were accomplices in this attack so we are hoping to get some clarity there. that does not appear to be the case but that is being talked about by officials here in louisiana and we are hoping to get some clarity there. also new information including bourbon street reopening later today here and they have wrapped up that part of the investigation. they will clear that and allow it to reopen. we are hoping to get insight into what they have recovered from the scene as they move forward in the investigation. this is an investigation on several fronts. an airbnb is where they believe some of the explosive devices has been built. it was hours before the attack, something investigators are looking into as well as the suspect's home in the houston area. of course as we move forward to learn more about the victims in this attack. >> ken, as we aw

let me go back to ken dilanian who continues to dig into more reporting on all of this. ken, do you have any clarification on what we were discussing related to the explosive device, where it was located and whether it was directly connected to the ramming incident, the vehicle incident? and what more do we know about the vehicle itself and the types of clues it may be giving investigators? >> i don't have any clarification on the ied question. but between phone calls i had with federal law enforcement sources and tom winter's reporting, i can tell you that investigators are focusing intensely on this white pickup truck with a texas plate. they are examining what possibly could be -- possibly a flag of some sort affixed to it. there was some white pcv piping and a cloth attached. they are trying to figure out if that has significance, whether there is writing on it that could tell them potential connections and motives. tom winter is reporting that local investigators are trying to determine whether the suspect used a long gun rifle and was firing into the crowd while he

i'm going to turn back to ken dilanian, or national security correspondent. not to belabor the point too much went back to that explosion of the cyber car in las vegas, what are your sources telling you about a possible connection, if only there was a general call for terror-type attacks? >> that's right. they are investigating that possibility. there are concerns about that and as you just heard las vegas police officer say, too many coincidences here, the fact that this happened on the same day. but, there's not concrete evidence linking the two events but they are looking very hard given the overall spate of coincidences and as you said, the call for attacks and concerns that isis ideology is resurging around the world. >> other questions about how far this investigation will go, where it could lead beyond just determining the who, what, when, and where? >> yes. in terms of the new orleans attack, this is really of grave concern to the counterterrorism officials i'm talking to. it was not that long ago that intelligence officials were saying the threat fro

joining us now, nbc's justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian.m kavanaugh and vice president for global operations, who spent more than two decades leading operations for the fbi. ken, i want to start with you. the suspect is deceased, but what more do we know, are we learning about him at this point? >> well, he's been identified as shamsud din jabbar, 42 years old. he was not the owner of that white pick up truck. we understand that was a rental. it had texas plates. he is a u.s. citizen as you said. unclear where he was born. the fbi says that they are investigating any potential terrorist links that he may have had. they're looking at his travel, his movements, who he was communicating with. any social media profile. we are also doing that, trying to determine anything we can about this person, but clearly now, they've established his identity and also the fact that he was flying what they say was an isis flag on the back of that pick up truck. so it's sort of their worst nightmare. appears to have been an isis inspired at the least attack. a

. >> ken dilanian, thank you so much. chris, i want to turn to you now, what does it tell you that they're delaying this huge football game that all of these people have come into town for. does that make it seem like they're concerned about a threat? >> it could tell us they are not quite sure what they have yet. the if i first thing they wante do was positively identify the subject. the next steps is find out his connectivity. is it isis-inspired, directed , are there other individuals that may carry out follow on attacks. out of an abundance of caution, i'm sure they are trying to take a little pause before moving forward with something. and there's got to be a reason for that. this is not arbitrary. what you don't want to do in response to terrorism is make drastic changes to your society. that's one of the goals of terrorist organizations so this is a difficult decision, but they're probably doing it for a good reason. >> and what is your reaction to the news that the suspect, you know, was born in texas, but reporte

question mark in the previous segment, we saw one of the independent investigative reporters, ken dilanianally digging into what that means and whether or not the mere fact that they were suspicious packages, people thought to be associated with suspicious packages is leading to this conclusion that there's more people involved. we don't know, it could be toxic information from the intelligence community, it could be that there is something in the fbi files that indicates this but whatever it is, it is enough to have postponed the sugar bowl tonight. and that is significant, the fact that there could be operatives associates, even loosely involved is enough to say look, we still have some danger, some risk out there and i would think that the next public statement from the fbi should really move to clarify this, they don't have to tell us classified intelligence, but they should be able to say with clarity, we are not certain about the risk to the public and here is why and we should be able to know that. >> especially since right out of the gate at the press conference, that is one of the

nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian joins us now. >> reporter: we all heard officials say they believe this suspect did not act alone. that appears to be based on a misunderstanding of some surveillance video where they thought they saw other people. not the suspect planting those two bombs. those improvised explosive devices they found on the streets of new orleans. they located those people and have ruled them out as suspects. they were just by standards. that was the basis of that fbi agent and others to say there were others out there that this suspect didn't act alone. that they were looking for bad people as one of the officials put it. there is no active man hunt for other suspects. it does appear they're headed into the direction of deciding this person acted alone. that this was a lone wolf access inspired attack. often in these cases, people who have been radicalized are communicating with others online. so we may have had confederates in that sense. but the idea that there are people running around new orleans posing a threat to the public that the

let's bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and former litigator and correspondent lisa rubin. good morning to you both. a lot to sift through in these overnight hours, ken, 174 pages, released by jack smith by the special counsel's office. most of the detail at this point had been public knowledge through media reports and other investigations. but to see it in one place and to hear jack smith say we had enough evidence to convict, but we had to step away because mr. trump was reelected. >> yeah, that's right willie. >> it was powerful. >> not really surprising, but what was most interesting to me, actually, was the introductory letter, which was from jack smith and in his own words and in his own voice, where he really tried to push back against the false charges that donald trump and his supporters have been making from the beginning, that this whole thing was politicized, that this prosecution was engineered by joe biden and his democratic allies to stop donald trump from becoming president. >> he has a whole long passage on that. >> and then he con

we begin with jesse kirsch, ken dilanian, frank figlazy. you were there for the news conference that ended moments ago. what is the latest? >> a couple of things. we know the authorities have surveillance video of the suspect in the ramming attack planting the two explosive devices that have been discovered and rendered safe. they have video of him doing this on his own and that is something that led them to say that they believe the suspect acted alone. theyulse said and i asked for clarification on this, they don't have the exact time for us on this point but the fbi tells me that the suspect placed the ieds around an hour or two, in that range, a couple of hours before the actual ramming. that means he left the explosive devices in the french quarter area, left, those devices were in the area while all of these people were out on new year's eve into new years morning and then he returned and the ramming attack unfolded. those devices were there and i asked for clarity on if there was bomb sweeping that would have been done on new year's

. >> ken dilanian, thanks for joining us. back with us now is frank figliuzzi.ave to get your reaction. four years later, are you surprised there's no arrest yet? >> i am. it's frustrating if you've ever been in this position as an investigator. this use of an anniversary date which of course is coming up for years to jog people's minds, get them back in the game in terms of several speakers got it, half $1 million award and as the agent said somebody out there has seen something, know something, they've heard something and they are hoping that have a million-dollar reward will get them to act out and provide information. i remind them about the unabomber investigation. it took nearly 20 years to catch up with the unabomber. it was family members that ultimately did the trick and recognized his writing. when this goes this long you have to understand that sometimes -- the suspect is imprisoned, deceased, is living off the grid , has fled the country. all of that has been checked and they've gone over all of the logical things to do. in the unabomber case there w

and joining us now is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and news correspondentrge solis. covering the reopening of bourbon street, and kathy park is live in houston where the fbi conducted the search. this was big news to hear the fbi say they believe the attacker acted alone, after yesterday saying they believed he had help. what else did they reveal about him, and what are those videos with him talking about isis, what did we learn there? >> it was remarkable to see an official from washington, d.c., christopher ryan, the assistant director of counter terrorism come down to new orleans, and supplant the special agent in charge who said yesterday things that were wrong. both clips contradicted things she said yesterday. the fbi is getting the full story out there, saying that this was essentially a lone wolf attack, and they also talked about how they think he became radicalized, although they're still filling in the picture. they talked about, as you said, some videos that he made in the car as he was sort of planning and on route to the attack. take a listen