laura jarrett will join us for that in a moment. what california governor gavin newsom is trying to give back power in guns to the majority of americans. we are back in 60 seconds. we are back in 60 seconds. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who's winning? no idea. real milk. real delicious. and don't forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. what's that mabel? (mooo) wow, smart cow! - this is our premium platinum coverage map and this is consumer cellular's map. - i don't see the difference, do you? - well, that one's purple. - [announcer] get the exact same coverage as the nation's leading carrier. starting at $20. consumer cellular. ♪ this is rebecca, who needs a new script. ♪ ♪ and this is fernando, ♪ ♪ searching savings with a click. ♪ online or in-store, for your health and your wallet. 85% of scripts are under ten dollars. cvs pharmacy. healthier happens together. >>> as promised, former senior member of the mueller probe, andrew weissmann, also an nbc news

. >> senior legal correspondent joins us now, laura jarrett what's it going to look like? >> that's going to depend on the judge. judge aileen cannon, she is going to be in the driver's seat judging on the pretrial motions that a likely to be filed by trump's legal team, and she is going to be the one that decides how fast this case actually goes. remember, she is the trump appointee that actually ruled in his favor when it came to the fbi searches of his home, trying to exclude that evidence. it will be interesting to see how she rules now that she is the judge overseeing this case. >> this is not the only place he is facing legal peril we're hearing from georgia which has another case we're watching. >> minutes ago, lester, we just confirmed that the fulton county sheriff's office travelled to new york and miami to gather some intel on security preparations we're being told that they're coordinating with federal, state and local authorities in the event the charges are actually filed by the district attorney having to do with election interference in the 2020 election as

laura jarrett is with me now. as we have this moment. we have justice sotomayor reading parts of her dissent from the bench, and it's worth opening up the curtain. you have been there on decision days, as have i. it used to be not all that common that justices would read portions of their opinion, or read their dissents, it's become more and more common in recent years. and it does speak to something i think you raised earlier, which is the tension that appears between the lines, and sometimes, you know, overtly on this court. and sure seems like that's what's happening at this hour as justice sotomayor is reading parts of a passioned dissent. >> she went on for 20 minutes on the affirmative action cases and she has obviously read dissents before when she's been passionate about issues and this one is clearly no exception. but it is worth noting that they're doing something in these opinions when they're talking to each other that is different in kind, the barbs that were traded between justice thomas and justice jackson, the newest just

want to bring in laura jarrett now, who has been following this very closely as well. laura, if you will, walk us through as we just heard from julia the decision there, the significance of all this and what it means going forward. >> it had the potential to be quite sweeping if the court had actually adopted what the republican lawmakers had wanted, which was that state courts would have zero role to play when it comes to evaluating how states go about running federal elections. that would have been a bold and aggressive move, but the chief justice and justice kavanaugh not going along with their colleagues here, saying state courts still have a role to play. this was all about a map dating back to 2021, but it is really about what is going to happen in 2024, yasmin and that's why it is so important, they decided to knock down this theory now before we are reaching sort of emergency situation where it is on the eve of having to decide a major dispute. remember, all of the cases that former president trump filed back in 2020 and all of those cases where state courts had

laura jarrett leads off our coverage. >>> tonight, new details on the stunning move by the special counsel. the first federal indictment of a former president who is also the leading republican challenger to president biden. special counsel jack smith alleging mr. trump mishandled classified documents after leaving office and obstructed efforts to retrieve them from his estate in florida. >> we have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. >> reporter: smith laying out 37 criminal counts against the former president including charges under the espionage act, accusing him of improperly retaining national defense information. the indictment says among the classified documents kept in boxes, information about u.s. nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the u.s. and allies and secret plans for retaliation in case of foreign attack. >> our laws that protect national defense information are critical for the safety and security of the united states, and they must be enforced. violations of those laws put our country at risk. >> reporter: the boxes were stored in variou

. >> let's dive right in with our teams here in miami, nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett, msnbc anchor yasmine vossoughian and nbc news correspondent dasha burns in doral, florida, where the former president is now. so, dasha, walk us through the timing of what we can expect to see today. >> here is what we expect again with the caveat that this is an unprecedented historic day. we expect to see the former president make his court appearance at 3:00 today, where he will be processed, which will include fingerprinting, pretrial conditions will be set, which could include the surrender of his passport. and then he will be arraigned and he will make a plea. we expect him to plead not guilty. now, we do not expect to hear from the former president until he makes his way back to bedminster for the fund-raiser, but i will tell you, i'm going to be keeping a close eye on my email and truth social because we do expect as we have in the past when the president has been in legal trouble like that he will be making his voice heard via those avenues. we have already seen him start to

universities grapple with the possibility that race might no longer be a factor in admissions laura jarrett reports. >> reporter: for many elite schools the writing from the nation's high court is on the wall. >> how worried are you? >> i'm extremely worried. >> reporter: danielle holley is the incoming president ofof mount holylyoke collegege in weststern massacachusetts. but this peaceful campus belies an anxious reality. as soon as tomorrow the supreme court will answer the most anticipated question this term. can colleges and universities look at race in admissions decisions? >> everyone is talking about this case all the time people from departments that are not in the law school are asking me what day will we hear >> reporter: for decades the court recognized the educational benefits of a diverse student body and said schools can look at someone's race as one plus factor among many. but the court's current conservative majority may ban it nationwide this time >> what will that do to a place like mount holyoke? >> it will send a very strong message to black students and to latino, lati

let's bring in laura jarrett. laura, key evidence in this case is what prosecutors have from mr. trump's own attorney, which is highly unusual. >> reporter: lester, highly unusual and pretty powerful evidence in this case. prosecutors managed to amass evidence from mr. corcoran, trump's own defense attorney, providing his reflections on the former president resisting efforts to turn over those documents back to the u.s. government, something the president denies. but it will ultimately be up to the judge in this case whether any of that case comes in, as it's usually shielded by attorney-client privilege. >> there's a little mystery here we're still waiting to see. mr. trump has new attorneys for this first appearance. >> reporter: that's right. we know two of his attorneys resigned last week. we're told a third attorney, a former federal prosecutor, is still on the case. he actually came to miami with mr. trump. as for who else comes tomorrow, that remains to be seen, lester. >> laura jarrett, thank you. >>> now to the investigation of the collapsed highway in philadelphia, afte

we have our laura jarrett who's going to break down the decision for us right now. laura, what can you tell us? >> the network side will be joining us in just one second here. here she comes. >> that's exactly right, we have major decision here as it relates to race and education in this country. as you said, for decades, the court has said that you can look at race as a limited plus factor, a tip if you will, not in a checking the box exercise, and here in this case a divided court has said the programs at harvard and the university of north carolina are invalid. now, those are important because those are ones that many schools base their programs on, and so the upshot here for schools as they try to sort their way through a deeply divided court, an opinion spanning over 200 pages here is to try to sort through what exactly is left. it's clear that if a student feels that race has impacted their life in a deep and meaningful individualistic way, they could write an essay about that, and the court for a long time has said that schools can use diversity, the educatio

who starred in the hit sitcom, "that '70s show," guilty of rape our senior legal correspondent laura jarrett joins us now live in studio laura, this is actually the second time prosecutors have gone after masterson >> that's right, tom the first rape trial ended with a hung jury last year, but this time after deliberating for more than a week, a jury found the actor sexually assaulted two women. what was different this time around is that the judge allowed in evidence that he drugged the women before these assaults. now, masterson denied any wrongdoing, but he didn't testify his attorneys argued he didn't testif that prosecutors simply had no hard proof anyone was drugged. scientology played a major role at this trial. the women say they feared coming forward given his role in the church, and that officials discouraged them from going to law enforcement, something the church denies. as for masterson, he is now facing 30 years in prison. >> 30 years, all right. laura jarrett with that news just in, we appreciate it. >>> we turn to the new push announced today to make cars safer government off

laura jarrett, nbc news, south hadley, massachusetts. >>> when we come back, the athlete who lost thewon our hearts. family i is just verery importa. she's s my sister r and, we depend d on each otother a l. she's the rorock of the e fami. we depend d on each otother a l. shshe's ththe person w who holds evererything togoge. we depend d on each otother a l. ♪♪♪ it's a battle, , you know ♪♪♪ i'm going toto be there.e. keytruda a and chemoththey meant treating my cacancer withth two diffeferent types ofof medicine.e. in a clinical trial, keytruda and chemothererapy wawas proven t to help peoeoe live lononger than chemotherarapy alone.. keytytruda is usused to trtreat more p patients live lononger than chemotherarapy alone.. wiwith advanceced lung cananr than anyny other immmmunother. keytruruda may be e used withth certain c chemotheraps as your fifirst treatmtmentf you hahave advanceced nonsquam, non-small l cell lung g canr as your fifirst treatmtmentf you hahave advanceced nonsquam, and d you do notot have an abnonormal “egfr” or “alk” g g. keytruruda can cauause your i immune systst

thanks, of course, to laura jarrett and vaughn. catch more of mary's analysis on the latest episode of the prosecuting donald trump podcast which she co-hosts along with a fellow legal analyst, andrew weissmann. >>> the victory lap. president biden set to address the nation after big economic wins. will the momentum hold? that's next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. bc terge't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. >>> president biden and speaker mccarthy can take a political victory lap after their debt ceiling deal passed the house and senate with big bipartisan support. the president can also tout another st

that's one thing to look for. >> laura jarrett, thank you. ken delaney, thank you. for this historic moment we are facing, we are joined by joyce vance, u.s. attorney in alabama and chuck rosenberg along with frank seglusi. joyce, let's start with you. we don't know all the charges yet as we just discussed because this indictment is sealed, but based on what we know right now, how straightforward is this prosecution? >> so this case is a one, two punch. the first punch is that trump retained documents that he was not entitled to have and it violated the law for him to keep in his possession, particularly after he was asked to return them. and then the second punch is obstruction, that he tried to obstruct the investigation. he lied to the justice department. we're hearing now that there may be a conspiracy charge in that regard, and like laura jarrett, i'm very interested in learning who that co-conspirator might be and perhaps equally as important whether or not they're cooperating with the government. that said, this case is a straight line. it will follow their r

our thanks to laura jarrett. we were simulcasting with our network nbc, hence the delay on the front end. we really wanted to hear from laura because she's been studying so much on this. she's a lawyer herself. she gave us what she knows about the decision. some of my guests have had a chance to look through at least a few pages. i do want to bring in and add to our conversation the president and ceo of glad, sarah kay ellis. thank you so much for coming in here. give us your reaction to this ruling. >> i think this is license to discriminate at the highest court. i think this is a pattern we've been seeing with the supreme court where they're taking away rights instead of broadening rights for marginalized communities. we saw it yesterday, we saw it last year with roe v. wade for women. now we're seeing it against the lgbtq community. so we're seeing a pattern. we're part of it. where does this stop? so what business can now deny myself and my wife access when we walk in. and i think they've left that really broa

i want to go down to laura jarrett, our nbc legal correspondent who's been covering this case and shejoins me now. a rubicon here being crossed by the department of justice, and to our east point, merrick garland per doj policy, had to greenlight. this it doesn't just op-ed jack smith. that whole building, merrick garland, all the department of justice, now behind these charges. >> it's interesting. the justice department would push back on that. the justice department would say, jack smith can do this all on his own, but in reality, we all know that the buck stops with merrick garland. he's the attorney general. he is the person who has been senate confirmed. and even though he put this in the hands of jack smith, a dogwood and formidable prosecutor, in reality this lands at merrick garland. the former president asked for a meeting, his chloric lawyers did, with merrick garland. instead they get a meeting with jack smith. obviously we can't persuade jack smith not to bring these charges. i continue to find it just incredible to take a step back, that this time last week we didn't eve

laura jarrett joins me laura, what's the significance of this new witness? >> well, lester, prosecutors have been investigating this case for a year and a half, but this week, we've learned they've been presenting their case about mr. trump keeping classified documents at mar-a-lago to a grand jury in miami. today his former spokesman testified for roughly an hour. a source familiar with that testimony says prosecutors appeared interested in a past statement about mr. trump not keeping classified records after leaving the white house. whether he or others obstructed investigators' efforts to retrieve those documents, a key question for authorities. meantime, all signs point to this probe nearing an end the former president continues to say he did nothing wrong writing today, no one has told me i'm being indicted now, separately just moments ago, we learned steve bannon was subpoenaed by a grand jury in washington in the other part of the special counsel's work, which relates to january 6th. two sources tell us he received the subpoena in may no word yet if h

senior legal correspondent laura jarrett is here. laura, the ruling was nearly unanimous >> an 8-1 win, lester, on a hot-button issue. how to handle the millions of undocumented immigrants living in this country this decision now gives the biden administration the green light to make the call about who should be a priority for arrests and deportation. now, homeland security has said it woul detain suspected terrorists and people convicted of crimes. but texas and louisiana sued wanting more people arrested, claiming noncitizens bring unfair costs to their state. not a typical ground to sue, and today was no exception, as the justices said they had no standing to bring the case the most anticipated decision from the court still left to come the fate of president biden's student loan forgiveness plan and the use of affirmative action by schools. tuesday is the next possible decision day, lester >> all right, laura, thank you very much. >>> tomorrow marks one year since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, deepening divides across t

andrew weissmann, and -- i want to welcome to the desk the great nbc senior legal correspondent laura jarrettlaura and, andrew this questions especially for you, laura. but aileen can, and controversial figure in judicial circles and media circles, and just casual onlookers. how did she get assigned this case? and truly, how much power does she have at this moment to derail it? >> to hear it from the public information officer down the, this is supposed to be around him assignment. despite the fact that she does has some past history with this case, there is not some related case doctrine that was a civil case, this is a criminal case. this was random. there is some issue about exactly what the pool of judges might be? i know there's some reporting out there that suggested who might be as many as 15, we think it actually might be a little bit smaller than that. put that aside. the point is, the justice department has to be feeling a little bit of heat about the fact that this is the judge that they pulled, on this might be that judge that they are stuck with, on this might be the judge that d

social media post the investigation is a hoax and that he is done not being -- joining me now, laura jarrett and former lead prosecutor to special counsel robert mueller and former u.s. attorney, joyce vance. laura, take us through your latest specific reporting an the legal questions facing jack smith's team. >> what we know is that the grand jury is expected to meet once again after a pretty long lull. there would been so much frenetic activity at the white house, so many witnesses coming in and out then everything stopped and went dark. that was around early may. we've now learned, sources familiar have confirmed that they are expected to meet again this week. reporting on grand jury is always fraught because the process is secret but that's what we're able to report at least at this moment. >> and andrew, give us a sense of what's going on behind the scenes. what does jack smith have to do before making a recommendation or presenting a decision to the grand jury? is there a charging statement or a decision not to charge? what have they been working on do you think? >> sure. well i think

andrew weissmann, and -- i want to welcome to the desk the great nbc senior legal correspondent laura jarrett questions especially for you, laura. but aileen can, and controversial figure in judicial circles and media circles, and just casual onlookers. how did she get assigned this case? and truly, how much power does she have at this moment to derail it? >> to hear it from the public information officer down the, this is supposed to be around him assignment. despite the fact that she does has some past history with this case, there is not some related case doctrine that was a civil case, this is a criminal case. this was random. there is some issue about exactly what the pool of judges might be? i know there's some reporting out there that suggested who might be as many as 15, we think it actually might be a little bit smaller than that. put that aside. the point is, the justice department has to be feeling a little bit of heat about the fact that this is the judge that they pulled, on this might be that judge that they are stuck with, on this might be the judge that does have the power to

laura jarrett, we appreciate it. >>> also tonight we are -- let's go to kristen welker now for more on trump's rivals blasting the indictment as a partisan attack. >> reporter: tonight, the historic shake-up in the race for the white house. the republican front-runner, former president trump, now charged by the government he used to lead and wants to lead again. and now his republican rivals calibrating how to respond. mr. trump's former u.n. ambassador nikki haley pressed today about a possible pardon if he was convicted. >> i think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case. so i would be inclined in favor of a pardon. >> reporter: after this sharp criticism last night. >> if what it says is actually the case, president trump was incredibly reckless with our national security. >> reporter: but most of mr. trump's republican rivals rallying around him, from his top opponent to his former vice president. and tonight on capitol hill, many republicans blasting the charges as part of a double standard favoring democrats.

joining us now is nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett, danny cevallos and barbara mcquade walk us through what more you know. >> it's really a story of timing. after weeks of lots of frenzied activity at the courthouse in washington, d.c., the grand jury went dark. the question is why. there are lots of reasons the prosecutors might be taking a break to re-evaluate their evidence, maybe they heard something. someone said something interesting, they warrant to bring someone back. we just don't know. we're not prepared to report about what exactly is going on there, but the timing is worth noting, and the fact they're now come back this week after a lull is noteworthy. >> what's your interpretation of this return, danny, the fact that the grand jury is coming back after the break? is it an indication of a conclusion or a potential continuation of the investigation? >> here is the challenge with grand juries and scheduling. because everything is kept so secret, it could be true that the grand jury is wrapping up, they could begin convening to draft a report, a report that may

laura jarrett is here with me. big implications and a big surprise. >> big implications for 2024. have to go back and redraw its maps, potentially allowing black voters to have more than just one of those majority districts, but other states might have to take a second look at their maps and make sure that they now comply with what the supreme court has done, which is to reaffirm section 2 of the voting rights act. this is a conservative majority that i think it is safe to describe as relatively hostile to other portions of the voting rights act, it gutted in previous years, but today they decided to maintain the status quo, said the lower court was right to follow the precedent that has been on the books for the better part of several decades. remember the whole point of the voting rights act there was to sort of remedy the harm of disenfranchising black voters for so many years. >> when you see some of these maps they're drawn like -- >> exactly. >> modern art or somebody threw paint against the wall, they didn't, they took a computer and -- figured out how to do i get my voters

with us now to talk more about this, nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett and msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin. laura, why did the justice decide to close its investigation into pence? >> it is a good question, jose. the department isn't saying today, but you have to imagine it has to do with a number of different factors. number one being it was always a small batch of materials as we understood it, this all goes back to january when after the news of the classified documents found at president biden's think tank and home first surfaced, pence directed his attorney to affirmatively go search to make sure he too didn't have any classified documents and it turns out that he did. now, according to pence's attorney, those were collected inadvertently in a sweep of the white house as the term was coming to an end. it wasn't as if pence took them himself. according to pence's attorney. and he actually invited the fbi over, they had a voluntary search over the course of five hours, there was no subpoena or search warrant type of situation, which stands in contrast to his former bo

laura jarrett, carol leonnig, anthony coley, thanks to all of you. paul butler, you're going to stick around. >>> there are some republicans who now don't just admit that donald trump faces serious charges, they're wondering behind closed doors if the base will actually start to waiver. reporting about the chatter away from the cameras. how can you sleep on such a firm setting? gab, mine is almost the same as yours. almost... just another word for not as good as mine. the queen sleep number c2 smart bed is now only $899 save $200. plus, free home delivery when you add any base shop now only at sleep number. we know patients are more than their disease. that's why, at novo nordisk, we've spent a hundred years developing treatments to help unlock humanity's full potential. these are the greats: people living with, thriving with — not held back by — disease. they motivate us to fight diabetes and obesity, rare diseases and cardiovascular conditions, for generations to come. so, everyone can meet their moment. because your disease doesn't define you. so,

let's get right to senior legal correspondent laura jarrett for context on all of this. >> the special counsel's mandate is of course quite broad. he was appointed by attorney general merrick garland given that the former president is running for re-election and it is an extraordinary circumstance but jack smith is allowed to investigate any and all crimes that took place anywhere throughout the united states we've always understood he was convening this grand jury in washington, d.c. we had seen a number of witnesses go in there. and only within the last week have we learned that he actually impaneled a federal grand jury in florida, which is where the former president says he will be making his first appearance as for what will happen and some of the procedure we would expect that he would show up on tuesday for an arraignment at that point he would enter a formal plea, of not guilty. he has maintained his innocence all along. he could have the charges read to him though in most cases he may agree to waive that so you wouldn't hear a recitation of them at that point we would see the

here with me on set, nbc senior legal correspondent, laura jarrett, and political correspondent steve kornacki who's at the big board. laura, we have seen what the prosecution has initially. obviously they're not going to put everything in the initial indictment. were there any hints, though, in that indictment about what might be coming? >> one place i think we will soon start to see some hints is in the witness list, as we heard from the judge yesterday, who by himself decided to order mr. trump and mr. nauta not to talk to each other about the case, and to order the former president not to talk to any witnesses about this case. the defense team said, wait a minute, we think some of these people work for him or even possibly his attorneys, how are they not going to talk about the case. and judge said basically, i don't care, he's going to order it, but we have to see who the government puts on that list, and who the government puts on that list could be revealing, in terms of who they talk to, who they think is important for him not to talk to. and possibly even people we didn't eve

joining me now is nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett with more on this.hat more do we know? >> no charges for mike pence, which is somewhat inspected. we wondered what was going on with this investigation. it was going on since january and hadn't heard much about it. we were asking about it in recent days obviously, given what's going on with his former boss, former president, and that investigation into his handling of classified information. and i learned that just yesterday the department actually informed a lawyer for pence that the investigation was officially closed and no charges would be sought. obviously the timing of that for penc pence is noteworthy since he is going to announce his candidacy for the presidency next week. so this is obviously welcome news for him. i'm told that he's pleased though not surprised by the news. i'm also told that he did sit down for an interview as part of this investigation before it was closed. >> let's talk about some differences here. now we have this truth social post from the former president of the united st

joining me now laura jarrett, daniel holly, former dean of howard university law school, jennifer masta, former clerk to justices thomas and clerk also to judge kavanaugh when he was a judge. and barbara mcquade, university of michigan law professor and former u.s. attorney, plus jen psaki, host of msnbc's "inside with jen psaki" on sundays at noon. more major decisions to end this term. please sum them up. i'm just looking at the lgbtx decision and i can see anplication to civil rights law that can have broader consequences down the road. >> i think what you're seeing, andrea, in combination between today's decisions and the decision yesterday on affirmative action is a court that is deeply divided with dramatically different world views about discrimination, about the rights of disenfranchised minorities and what to do about that. in the case of the graphic disciper in colorado she says i'm happy to make websites for gay people in general, and just don't want to do wedding websites. and the problem with that it runs head first into public accommodation laws in the state of colorado, l

supreme court, and nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett, and eddie glod, professor at princeton university and msnbc political analyst. how did the court rule in this case, specifically? >> you're right, it was a surprise because the court actually said that alabama was in violation of section 2 of the voting rights act because the way they drew these boundaries and their refusal to let black civil rights groups remedy those guidelines saying that they were actually drawn in a way that would dilute their vote and were racially motivated, the court is saying that in fact alabama was in violation of section 2 of the voting rights act. this is a surprise. you have chief justice john roberts siding with the majority and justice kavanaugh. with those votes, it became the close decision of 5-4 vote to rule against alabama and with those civil rights groups that were challenging the law. they're upholding a ruling from a lower court, but this is a surprise in some ways because this court has become so conservative, there was a thinking that they may actually side with alabama in this c

laura jarrett, laura, what happens now when -- essentially this kicks off the case. you have the arraignment, face the charges, guilty, not guilty. now it begins. >> yeah, we really are at step one of what is going to be a lengthy process. and we've talked obviously so much about the charges that he's facing in this indictment, but we should help our viewers understand, this is one slice of a bigger mandate that the special counsel had. he was put on to actually investigate not only the former president's retention of these classified documents and alleged obstruction, but he's also investigating the former president's efforts to stay in office, to cling to power, his efforts to block the certification of the election, to pressure his former vice president to do the same. and so when we talk about the political implications and the time line and how all of these things run into each other, we have to sort of help our audience understand there could be more to come. we know just today the grand jury in d.c. was meeting. there are witnesses still going in front of the

senior legal correspondent laura jarrett joins us now these charges all seem to be coming together at same time >> that's because they are, lester, he has one trial scheduled for the middle of the primary season next year that's the manhattan hush money case the special counsel in this classified documents case says he wants to move quickly, and the fulton county d.a.'s office tonight says their election interference investigation is moving ahead regardless of all these other cases. even if the facts differ in each of these, mr. trump continues to paint all of them as politically motivated. >> if i follow, that takes us right back to where we started last night, merrick garland talking, rare comments about this case. >> mr. garland seems to be trying to walk a fine line here, defending his prosecutors on the one hand but also refusing to delve into his oversight of the highest profile case his office is handling, but don't expect him to say much more until this case is over, lester >> laura, thank you. >>> severe weather is sweeping across parts of the south tonight, including reports

from the equation a lot of questions about the impact of all this, and it's where we start with laura jarrett. >> reporter: a landmark decision from a bitterly divided supreme court, rejecting the use of race as we know it in college admissions chief justice john roberts leading the 6-3 conservative majority to conclude programs at harvard and the university of north carolina violated the law, writing, the school's unavoidably employed race in a negative manner, involved racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. >> the polarizing, stigmatizing, and unfair jurisprudence that allowed colleges and universities to use a student's race and ethnicity as a factor to either admit them or reject them has been overruled. >> reporter: praise there from the architect of the lawsuits as the decision quickly began to set in on college campuses >> this is a really disappointing decision, not only for me, but for every student on this campus, and any student who is planning on applying to college in the future >> this has immediate impacts. >> reporter: the schools were accused of giving substanti

let me get right to nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett. g investigation i have confirmed that the justice department has officially closed the investigation into how the former vice president handled classified information, information that was found at his home back in january. you might remember his attorney informed the national archives that it had found a small batch of documents and the department has now closed that investigation. ky i can confirm that the department informed pence's attorneys yesterday that he would not be charged in this case. obviously it comes as a relief to the former vice president who expects to announce his campaign for president just next week, and also, at the same time, his former boss is facing a separate investigation as you mentioned with a special counsel looking into an entirely different situation that stands in stark contrast to the one that former vice president pence was facing, ana. >> and so just remind us, laura, because i don't want people to get confused. we have three separate special counse

ahead on nbc nightly news tonight, senior legal correspondent, laura jarrett sits down with the president elect of mount holyoke college to describe why race in the admissions process is not just about checking the box. >> race is really just one of many factors. i think that's one of the most important messages that we can get across that race is not determinative in these cases, so who will be admitted is a holistic question, not a fom laic question. >> what advocacy groups say could replace affirmative action. >>> are you heading out of town for the upcoming holiday weekend. if so, you're going to have lots of company. we'll tell you when we come back. >>> expect delays if you plan to go way for independence day. predicting more than 50 million people will have travel plans over the long weekend. traffic headed out of the bay area is expected to peak around noon on friday. so make sure you get an early start. flying is not going to be easy either. air travel is also set to break records. >> don't forget, watch our newscast 24/7 on roku. raj mathai joins us for what's next at 5:30. >>>

nbc senior legal correspondent laura jarrett joins me now. what's happening today? where do we go from here, laura? >> hi, chris. well, today the former president trump's attorneys made a trip to the justice department trying to make a final pitch about why their client obviously should not be charged in this case. there have been no charges, no indictment to speak of, but you can see there on your screen, three of them walking out after meeting we're told with senior justice department officials. it's our understanding the attorney general was not a part of this meeting despite the former president's attorney asking to get a meeting with him. they did not get a meeting with him today we're told. all this, of course, as the investigation appears, appears i should say because not definite, appears to be entering a final stretch. it's our understanding after there being somewhat of a hiatus for the grand jury, they are now once again expected to meet again this week, chris. >> laura jarrett, thank you so much for that. i know you'll continue to follow it for us. >>> le