laura jarrett has late details. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump back in a manhattan courtroom for the second day of the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against him, revealing he plans to take the stand. >> at the appropriate time, he will be. >> reporter: but it was his comments on social media that prompted a dramatic ruling from the judge after mr. trump posted a photo of the judge's law clerk posing with top senate democrat chuck schumer. the judge ordering the post on truth social removed, saying personal attacks on any member of my court staff are unacceptable. consider this a gag order. the republican front-runner again going after the democratic attorney general who brought the lawsuit. >> judge engoron has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth. private company. nobody is supposed to know my net worth. >> reporter: a net worth the state says was deliberately inflated to get more favorable loan rates from lenders. while real estate evaluations are subjective. attorney general letitia james also in the courtroom once again. her team calling

from each other today, the first time they've been in the same room in five years, lester. >> laura jarrett, thank you. >>> house republicans chose another candidate to be house speaker today, but tom emmer of minnesota dropped out less than four hours later garrett haake is at the capitol. so garrett, this crisis continues >> reporter: yeah, lester as we enter a fourth week without a house speaker, republicans seem no closer tonight to finding a nominee who can actually get the 217 votes necessary to claim the job. now, for a few hours today, it looked like tom emmer, who is currently the number three house republican, might have been that candidate, after winning the nomination on a secret ballot but with nearly 30 republican lawmakers refusing to support him and former president trump coming out strongly against him, emmer withdre tonight without ever even calling for a floor vote on his candidacy. that sent the gop back to the drawing board with another closed door meeting planned for tonight. the question still looming, can anyone lead this fractured party, lester? >> all right, garret

laura jarrett has details. >> reporter: tonight donald trump once again in a courtroom, with the fate of his business empire now on trial. >> today in court we will prove our case. >> reporter: new york attorney general letitia james accusing mr. trump, his sons eric and don jr., and his namesake company, the trump organization, of exaggerating the value of his real estate properties including trump tower, mar-a-lago, and 40 wall street by over $2 billion to receive better loan terms from banks. >> no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. >> reporter: just outside the courtroom doors the former president attacking james, a democrat, for bringing the civil suit >> every time they give me a fake indictment i go up in the polls. >> reporter: and going after the judge, who's also a democrat. >> we have a rogue judge who ruled the properties are worth a tiny fraction of 1/100. a tiny fraction of what they actually are. >> reporter: the republican front-runner arguing the banks were not victims of fraud and blasting the suit a

laura jarrett joins us. laura, the judge restricted some of what mr.mp can say. >> reporter: right, lester. the judge acknowledged the former president has the right to broadly defend himself. he can cast the case as politically motivated. but he can't launch what the judge called a pretrial smear campaign against witnesses, prosecutors, or any other court staff involved in this case in washington. now, judge chutkan said in court today he does not have, quote, carte blanche to vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants who are simply doing their job as it could taint the jury pool. mr. trump faces sanctions if he violates this order. meantime, lester, one of his closest allies in congress who pushed the false narrative that the last election was stolen, ohio republican jim jordan, well, he's gaining momentum in his bid to become the next speaker. the house could vote on that as soon as tomorrow. and he's winning over some holdouts. but if just five republicans vote for someone else, he'll lose. lester? >> laura jarrett, thank you

laura jarrett is here now, so, laura, what does this plea dea mean for the prosecution's case >> it'sgnificant, tom this is now the second trump lawyer to flip pleading guilty today and receiving only probation for cooperating with prosecutors. part of what makes ken chesebro's plea so damaging to the former president is that chesebro has now admitted that one of the central parts of this scheme to reverse trump's election loss was not some legal strategy, but, in fact, was a crime. mr. trump's legal team saying tonight that this plea was the result of the state's, quote, looming threat of prison time >> and then there's some drama also in the trump civil fraud case here in new york, and it's something that started with social media. >> that's right, and it's actually not as bad as it could have been for the former president. the judge in that case handing down a $5,000 fine tonight against mr. trump for posting a disparaging photo of the judge's law clerk. now, he took one down from his social media site after the judge made him, but he kept one up on his campaign website for days mr

our laura jarrett has more on the stunning turn in the case. >> reporter: tonight, once an attorney,n a co-defendant, now a cooperator. >> how do you plead to the six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties? >> guilty. >> reporter: sidney powell one of 19 charged alongside the former president in a sprawling conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in georgia, pleading guilty to six reduced charges in court today, just as jury selection for her trial was set to begin tomorrow. >> do you agree there is a sufficient factual basis, that there are enough facts to support this plea of guilty? >> i do. >> reporter: a remarkable about-face for one of mr. trump's fiercest defenders. >> i'm going to release the kraken. >> reporter: often pushing baseless conspiracy theories the last election was stolen. >> president trump won by a landslide. we are going to prove it. >> reporter: instead, she has now admitted to helping organize the breach of sensitive voting equipment in a rural elections office, agreeing as part of the new plea dea

to read the indictment with which we have been familiar for several months, i want to bring in laura jarrettsenior legal correspondent and co-anchor of "saturday today," katie fung, our legal correspondent as well as former u.s. attorney joyce vance. laura, to you. the significance of kenneth chesebro switching his plea, following what sidney powell did the other day, switching his plea to guilty, it seems to -- my read on this one count, count 15, it's a felony of filing false documents, but it seems to me it's a very light sentence that was a minimum of one to five incarceration and he ended up with a fine, community service, a letter of apology. >> it's hard to overstate i think the significance of what we have just watched unfold here. you have somebody who prosecutors believe was at the center of the scheme to create false slates of electors to put forth to national archives and congress to overturn the will of the people, overturn the election results in georgia, who has now pled guilty to a felony. this is the first one we have seen plead guilty to a felony. in return, for his coopera

joining us is nbc news' laura jarrett and katie phang by phone. laura, this just happened moments ago. what more do you have on it? >> unexpected. another significant plea deal. we see in court, jenna ellis, getting emotional, apologizing to the people of georgia, telling the judge she was led by others down this wrong path and saying she regretted her representation of the former president and all of the things that she did, along with others including rudy giuliani, which she is now pleading guilty to essentially making false statements in front of the georgia senate, around december of 2020, she goes forward, you might remember, one of those infamous press conferences, they were standing before the georgia senate talking about dead voters, talking about other false statements that they believe they were on a quest to try to find voter fraud but the state disagreed with them and now she's pleading guilty. this is enormously consequential because she is now fourth person to plead guilty in this case. you can see there, the others includingen chese

i want to bring in our senior legal correspondent laura jarrett as well as msnbc legal analyst lisa rubinlaura, this is big news. what do we know? >> this is enormously significant. sidney powell, one of trump's former attorneys has agreed to plead guilty just moments ago there in georgia. i'm not sure if we have the video yet. remember, she is part of the group that was alleged to have participated in this conspiracy to subvert the election, specifically as it relates to overturning the election results in georgia. she had been facing a number of different felony counts. you can see there she's -- that's her on the screen there. she viously one of the top people who were sort of in and around conversations along with several other attorneys. you can see some other facts, other ways that she was ting to subvert the election. now, we don't have exactly what she's decided to plead guilty. we'll obviously work to get that. as part of this deal, the most significant thing, guys s that she has actually agreed to testify against other people, which is obviously devastating news to the former pr

joining us now, nbc's senior legal correspondent laura jarrett. great seeing you.e big cases that the court will be facing this term? >> hey, jose, the two big ones to watch there as you mentioned, social media regulation as the justices are going to be evaluating a pair of cases out of florida and texas as conservatives have tried to regulate how social media companies decide who should be on their platforms and not. that is certainly one to watch as the tech companies are pushing back in a big way, saying, hey, this violates our first amendment rights. as for the gun case, that's an interesting one having to do with those who are under restraining orders for domestic violence and whether they should be allowed to have firearms. it's an interesting case to watch particularly in relation to one of the statutes that the president's son, hunter biden has been charged with. so how the justices decide this one about domestic violence could have implications for what happens in hunter biden's case as well. and then finally the biggest case to watch, jose, is one that ha

i'm going to listen to laura jarrett. thank you very much.iate it. >>> the u.s. government tells americans in lebanon to get out. what our reporter on the ground there is seeing today. and prime minister benjamin netanyahu acting for the country or his own political survival? what israelis are saying about his ability to make the right wartime decisions. my name's dan and i live here in san antonio, texas. my wife magda and i have been married for 39 years. about three or four years ago, i wasn't feeling as if i was as sharp as i used to be. i wanted to try something that was over-the-counter. i saw the prevagen commercials. after a short amount of time taking prevagen, i started noticing a difference-- that i'm remembering this, i'm remembering that. i stopped taking prevagen and i found myself slacking back so i jumped right back on it. i feel as if it's brought me back to the good 'ol days. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antac

laura jarrett is here to break down that breaking story for us. trump's attorney said quote, assuming truthful testimony in the fulton county case, it will be favorable to my overall defense strategy. how is a guilty plea a good thing for donald trump when prosecutors have said she'll testify for them as part of the plea deal? >> that's hard to square, chris, it's hard to see how this is anything short of devastating to the former president's legal defense when this is a person who is there for critical meetings where they're discussing, according to prosecutors, how to overturn the last election. as a part of this agreement, not only has powell agreed to plead guilty but she's agreed to write a letter of apology to the voters of georgia, to hand over documents to prosecutors, and of course as you mentioned, to testify against the former president as well as any other codefendants, and she has to do that truthfully or prosecutors could pull the deal. of course she was facing 5 to 20 years in prison for these allegations, some serious charges, and

. >> joining me now, nbc's laura jarrett and lisa ruben. good to have both of you here onset.said the nine supreme court justices are not exactly the key experts on the internet. >> she always finds a way to joke. >> yeah, she's good at that. but the question is does blocking an opponent violate the constitution's first amendment? >> yeah and that's the question they're grappling with. this time as it relates to two public school board officials in california and also a city manager in michigan. so we're talking about state officials but they were getting nasty comments and so as everybody does nowadays, you can block people and the question is is that violating their constituents, those people's rights by not having access to those people. part of the line drawing issue the court is engaging in is that these officials are using their private accounts or private platforms but posting about stuff related to work. so the court is trying to figure out how we're supposed to draw that line. these are not their government accounts but private accounts. >> give us more insight into t

joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hilliard and "today" anchor, laura jarrett.h us. vaughn, let's start with you. remind us which case this is. the details of it, and just how much of a surprise this really was. >> right. this is the fulton county case. donald trump as well as sidney powell, they are 1 of 19 defendants who are charged on state charges. sidney powell is key. she is now the second of these 19 defendants to plead guilty. she's pleading guilty to election interference. particularly in her instance, she was around an alleged effort to tamper with voting machines here. but what is so important about this guilty plea is the fact that -- part of this agreement, she has to go and testify truthfully about all the other 19 defendants, and sidney powell was around for an awful lot. she was attorney for donald trump, was in cahoots with rudy giuliani. she was at the white house in december of 2020 when donald trump talked about appointing her as special counsel to investigate these fraud claims. she was privy to a lot and could be key to the prosecution. >>

attorney, university of michigan law professor, and msnbc legal analyst, barbara mcquade, and nbc's laura jarretth an update from the trump organization fraud case in new york. katie, let's start where you are. walk us through exactly what happened here. >> yeah, so 450 prospective jurors ended up at the courthouse to do nothing other than fill out preliminary questions. kenneth kmeezboro, the architect of the fake elector scheme that provided the blueprints for several fake electors slates in states across the united states pleaded guilty was this was another 11th hour surprise guilty plea, although many of us expected maybe something to happen because kenneth chesebro and one of his defense attorneys were noticeably absent from the courtroom when a lot of the activity was going on, and then when, you know, around lunchtime they come back in and there's a little bit of flurry of activity because all ten members of fani willis's trial team ended up inside the courtroom and that's when the guilty plea was announced. the terms of this guilty plea were consistent with the other guilty pleas we've se

. >>> from nbc news, this is "today," with peter alexander and laura jarrett, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> welcome to "today" and thanks for joining us on this saturday morning. peter alexander has the morning off. boy, are we glad joe fryer is here, breaking news expert. >> no kidding. peter enjoying some well-deserved time off at his college reunion. we have a busy morning. >> we are going to our top story this morning, the surprise attack by hamas militants in israel. >> this is a still unfolding scene in southern israel, and terrifying as well. they came by land, sea and air. the militants launched thousands of rockets from the gaza strip and then entered israel. >> we understand israeli troops are fighting back within, but, honestly, still getting their arms around what has just happened here. prime minister benjamin netanyahu declaring war. we want to get right to nbc's raf sanchez on the ground for us in israel, has been watching it all morning. bring our viewers up to speed. what is the very latest? >> reporter: laura, joe, good morning. israelis woke up toda

." >>> laura jarrett is making her debut. she wrote a children's book with cnn anchor poppy harlow. . laura, what don't you do? >> here is the cover reveal for the first time. thanks, guys. this book is a pandemic baby. poppy and i wrote it together and gave us an outlet in the thick of covid when we were all at home. it was a time where there were racial justice protests going on all over the country. poppy and i said what do we want to read to our children and what is the story we want to tell about love and inclusiveness. james saw the cover at home. my 4-year-old. he opens it up. he's like this isn't the color of love. he is reading the pages. he knows they have to put a different book on the inside. illustrations are still being printed. james called me out. he likes it. >> leave it to the little ones to tell you the truth. >> congratulations. >> we are so excited. >> zinhle, thank you so much. >>> still to come, >>> still to come, it is one of the most easily recognized buildings in the world, but have you ever seen the inside of the iconic sydney opera house? we will take you

. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with peter alexander and laura jarrett. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> welcome to "today." thank you for joining us on saturday morning after what has been a long and difficult and painful week for so many around the world. >> absolutely. glad are you back at the desk. we are keeping a close eye on everything happening in israel and gaza, including that overnight news that israeli forces will allow a few more hours for people to evacuate gaza city before any ground invasion. israel alerting people that two routes would be open to allow safe passage until 4:00 p.m. local time. 9:00 a.m. eastern. >>> the israeli air force released video on social media a short time ago. here it is. claiming this air strike killed a top hamas leader who was among those who led the brutal attack last saturday. >> the first chartered flight out of israel landed in greece friday. the state department announced there will be more for other americans who want to leave. >> we have more on the war could have beened -- covered from on t

my colleague laura jarrett has all put details on those. >> for weeks, attorney jenna ellis furiously defended then president donald trump, as he falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged. today, she sobbed as she told a judge she was wrong. >> if i need what i know now, i would have to climb to represent donald trump and these postcolonial adjusts. >> in a georgia courtroom, she pleaded guilty to a felony for helping fuel lies about thousands of dead people casting votes in 2020. >> i failed to do my due diligence. and >> smiling for her mugshot just two months ago, now the fourth codefendant to flip and fulton county's sprawling election interference case against the former president and more than a dozen others. mr. trump has pleaded not guilty, arguing he's been targeted by democratic prosecutors because he's the republican front runner. he was back in a manhattan courtroom today, facing the states star witness, his former fixer attorney, michael cohen. >> this is about accountability, plain and simple. >> raise your right hand? >> it was cohen's congressional testimony that ju

laura jarrett joins us here. she's been following the supreme court today. of the supreme court today, walk us through what they are. >> nothing to do with the former president but do have implications for public officials going forward, two school board officials in california and also a city manager in michigan, these are state-level officials but they're blocking people online and the question is, does the constitution prohibit that? does that violate the first amendment? i think it's a tricky issue especially when it's not on its government-associated accounts, private accounts they start before. the question is, when they're doing that, if they're talking about work, can you then block people from seeing what you're postzblg trump, that lawsuit was dismissed, right -- >> only because he had left office already. the supreme court said, we can dodge this one, because he's not president anymore. >> might it say set some precedent. the supreme court ruled that he could about block his critics. >> there are also sort of all over the map. you'll see a decisio

. >> joining me now is senior legal correspondent laura jarrett and chuck rosenberg, senior fbi officiala, it's another development in the case. it reduces the number of the original number of 19 in fulton county. do we have any way of knowing how much she could in any one of her proffers, how much did she know about what president trump was doing? >> we certainly know what she's been accused of doing. we know now what she's admitted to as part of this deal. she was facing significant exposure and is now pleading guilty to a felony and receiving probation in return. remember, the central allegation as it relates to her is that she was going around to different state officials, along with rudy giuliani, another member of the legal team, trying to force state officials to turn their votes for trump, to try to -- essentially, part of ke elector scheme. but she's accused, namely here having stood in front of the georgia state senate, with giuliani, and making a number of false statements. today she's pled guilty to aiding and abetting the false statements, false statements about voters and d

our colleague laura jarrett is here on what you need to know. >> it was his comments comments on socialrompted a dramatic ruling from the judge after mr. trump posted a picture of the law clerk posting with chuck schumer. the judge ordered the photo being removed, same personal tax on my court staff are unacceptable. consider this a gag order. the republican front runner again going after the democratic attorney general, who brought the lawsuit. >> judge has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth. private company. nobody is supposed to know my net worth. >> a net worth the state said was deliberately inflated to get more favorable loan rates from lenders. mr. trump's legal team says real estate valuations are subjective. >> as a reminder, here is just some of what trump has said lately about the courts involved in his cases. >> the attorney general is a racist. letitia james. this rogue judge, a trump hater. at a democrat club politician. a democrat operative. a judge that should be disbarred. this is a judge who should be out of office. this is a rigge

nbc's laura jarrett has the latest. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump once again in a courtroom, with his business empire now on trial. >> today in court, we will prove our case. >> reporter: new york attorney general letitia james accusing mr. trump, his son's, eric and don jr., and his namesake company, the trump organization, of exaggerating the value of his real estate properties, including trump tower, mar-a-lago, and 40 wall street, by over two billion dollars, to receive better loan terms from banks. >> no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. >> reporter: just outside the courtroom doors, the former president attacking james, a democrat, for bringing the civil suit. >> every time they give me a fake indictment, i go up in the polls. >> reporter: and going after the judge, who is also a democrat. >> they have a rogue judge who is worth a tiny fraction, one in 100 -- a tiny fraction of what they actually are. >> translator: the republican front-runner arguing the banks were not victims of fraud, and blasting the su

my colleague laura jarrett is here on what you need to know. >> it was his comments on social media thatprompted a dramatic ruling from the judge after mr. trump posted a photo of the judge's law clerk who easing with top senate senate democrat chuck schumer, the judge ordering the post on truth social removed. saying personal attacks on any member of my court staff are unacceptable. consider this a gag order." the republican frontrunner again going after the democratic attorney general, who brought the lawsuit. >> judge engoron has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth. private company. nobody is supposed to know my net worth. >> a net worth the state says -- while mr. trump's legal team says the state valuations are subjective. >> as a reminder, here is just some of what trump has said lately about the courts in his cases. >> the attorney general is a racist. and the judge, a trump hater. a democrat -- politician. a democrat operative. >> and the judge should be disbarred. and the judge should be out of office. this is a -- court. -- down to do a job

. >> joining us now, ken dilanian, laura jarrett and paul butler.ll us about this plea deal. was it a big surprise? >> not a huge surprise because it had been reported that she and her co-defendant kenneth chesebro had been offered plea deals as long as ten days ago. they waited until the last minute, the moment of leverage before the trial. it's a significant blow to former president trump. we all remember that she was the lawyer who was making some of the most outlandish claims of fraud in the 2020 election. she blamed george soros, the governments of cuba and venezuela. she became known as the kraken. in a television appearance, she said she was going to release the kraken in terms of election fraud lawsuits which she did. none of those were successful. she can come in and testify about meetings that she had with former president trump discussing these allegations of fraud. that could be very powerful evidence. she's now the second person of the 19 defendants in georgia to have pleaded guilty. >> laura, talk to us about the conversation within th

. >> and joining us now as we reach the 46 past the hour, nbc's senior legal correspondent laura jarrettespondent ken dilanian. laura, what is your assessment of the terms that powell agreed to in this? >> the most significant term in this entire deal is the fact that she now has to testify truthfully against other co-defendants, including the former president, and rudy giuliani, who are all part of this alleged scheme to try to overturn the last ection and to try to keep the former president in power. that's something that the judge reaffirmed today in court, something she said she understood. and if she goes back on that, that means the prosecutors can go back on this deal or she could be facing prison time. remember, this is what has allowed her to avoid time in prison and get probation, which is significantly lighter than what she had been facing there. >> and so, ken, of course, bigger picture, there are two election interference cases. what could this mean for the federal case against donald trump? >> that's a great question, ana. anything that sidney powell says in this state case

i want to turn to our senior legal correspondent, laura jarrett. laura, good morning.ealize the only reason we got here is because he tried to extort the victim's family for money it boggles the mind. he has this sentence, they'll let him serve it concurrently, so he's not going to serve any time in an american jail he's going back to peru? >> well, he might. for folks who might be confused about, why is he, and now going back to peru sam said, he actually was convicted of killing another young woman and because that conviction came first he still has to serve out that prison sentence in peru but if for whatever reason, say he got out of prison early in peru, he would be immediately transferred back to united states to serve out the rest of the 20-year sentence that he has for killing natalee. >> i mean, the fact that he was extorting this family, and it happened, how many, 13 years ago? >> yeah. >> we're now 13 years later, and finally, this moment came. like, what took so long? >> yeah, it's clear, you know, with the mom, beth holloway says, i just want the answers.

nbc's senior legal correspondent laura jarrett is following that case for us. ing to you. >> reporter: hey, craig, good morning to you. the country had a rare peek into that courtroom as opening statements began in the trial as the former president sat stone face listening to the attorney general's office, arguing that year after year he inflated his net worth. mr. trump's own words, documents, even his signature now pieces of evidence. with the future of his name sake company on the line, donald trump is preparing once again to appear in a manhattan courtroom where he spent hours on monday listening, as the state's attorney general accused him of a long-running scheme to inflate his assets per financial gain. >> no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. >> reporter: the state beginning to lay out its evidence scrolling through a power point of facts to be introduced in this months-long trial and deposition clips from mr. trump, his long-time chief financial officer and his sons who all denied they

nbc's senior legal correspondent laura jarrett is here with more on that. laura, good morning to you >> hey, good morning, craig. donald trump said he would testify at his civil fraud trial, but no one expected it to happen quite like this taking taking the stand in his own defense, and let's just say it did not go his way this morning donald trump facing a hefty fine from the judge who's determining the financial future of his name sake company. it started just like many days in the civil fraud trial, mr. trump using breaks in the testimony to make his case in front of the cameras outside the courtroom. >> judge is a very partisan judge with a person who's very partisan sitting alongside of him. perhaps even much more partisan than he is >> reporter: those few words prompting a dramatic fallout judge arthur engoron furious at what he took to be a reference to the person sitting physically alongside him in court, his law clerk, as the judge barred everyone from talking about court staff weeks ago after mr. trump insinuated the clerk was biased in a post onli

they placed a gag order on the former president nbc correspondent, laura jarrett, joins us with more. >> hey, hoda good morning with the financial stakes of this trial so high, there is bound to be heated days in court. but so far it is what's happening outside the courtroom that's causing all the drama donald trump's financial statements back on trial this morning. but it is mr. trump's inflammatory comments on social media comments outside the court that's landing him in hot water with the judge who will decide the penalty for his name sak company found guilty of financial fraud. >> this trial is a fraudulent fraud. fraud. that is disgraceful. >> what was put out by mr. trump himself, a photo of the judge's law clerk posing with the democratic leader, chuck schumer. the unmistaken suggestion that mr. trump can't get a fair shake at trial as he continues to rail against the case is politically motivating, causing the judge to hand out a limited gag order mr. trump now banned about talking about court staff. continuing to attack new york's attorney general letitia james her office wal

laura jarrett is following this for us >> hey, hoda the judge in the case clearing the way for that trialbreak it all down coming up next. >>> and an exclusive on a story that made headlines all around the world. that led to a passenger with zero experience flying, landing the plane. well, the pilot is back. he's better. he's flying again, and he will be right here in the studio to talk about his recovery and what it is like to finally return to the cockpit as a solo pilot. but, first, this is "todayon" at cretors, we handcraft every batch of our delicious popcorn. like our cretors cheese and caramel mix. great on their own, even better together. try cretors, handcrafted small-batch popcorn. panda diplomacy coming to an end. >> getting set for a big return to china. we're live at the smithsonian zoo. they're getting ready for a very long flight. we'll tell you how after your local news. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain

>> i would say yes. >> nbc's laura jarrett reporting there.er," john cassidy. good morning. >> morning. >> your takeaways from yesterday are what? beyond what was happening inside the courtroom, aside from the circus outside where donald trump was yelling at the immediate you can't. >> trump's point of view, the main thing is what happened outside, turning this into a political circus. he pretty much succeeded because what he said was so extreme. the media can't ignore it, he is calling the judge a rogue judge and calling the prosecutor a racist right outside, you know, 10 feet from the front door of the court. pretty amazing. inside the court, i would say, the most striking thing to me was how aggressive trump's lawyers were in, not so much attacking the judge, but making clear they're going to challenge every aspect of this trial. trump's lead attorney, former florida solicitor general, a smart lawyer, was on his feet, objecting to everything. their basic argument is the judge already decided this trial and decided trump was guilty of fraud

and laura jarrett has the latest. >> reporter: this morning federal prosecutors reportedly have a newmeadows cut an immunity deal in exchange for his testimony citing sources familiar with the matter. and adding meadows told mr. trump that his repeated claims about widespread voter fraud -- >> frankly, we did win this election. >> reporter: -- were baseless. the former president denying that overnight in a series of posts. nbc news has not independently confirmed that reporting, the justice department is not commenting. while meadows' attorney said in a statement he told abc that their story was largely inaccurate. meanwhile in state court the list of cooperators against mr. trump is growing. jenna ellis, former legal adviser accused of helping push lies about voter fraud in front of the georgia state senate -- >> american people deserve to know what we have uncovered. >> reporter: -- tearfully pleadingsing guilty. >> if i knew then what i know know, i would have die kleined to represent donald trump. >> reporter: she is now the fourth co-defendant to strike a deal with prosecutors in

>> yes, i will at the appropriate time i will be. >> nbc's laura jarrett reporting there. propublica, andrea bernstein covers trump's legal issues for npr. good to have you with us this morning. let's start with the gag order and your experience covering these matters. how rare is it? and how strictly do you expect this will be enforced as most of us expect donald trump to violate it? >> rare and i think it will be enforced because this judge means business. he has already cited and fined mr. trump for contempt. so i think he means to do it. and this is -- his clerk has been very involved with this case. i have seen him on numerous occasions sort of reading documents, conferring with the judge. this goes to the heart of the jung's role. it is almost like attacking the judge. >> yeah, clearly upset by it and summoned them in at lunch, delete that post. knock it off. you covered trump's business dealings for many a year. this case really cuts to the heart of who he is or at least who he represents himself to be. give us a sense as to how -- what you heard so far in the trial

laura jarrett, good morning. >> for the first time in any criminal cases the former president cases, prosecutors now managed to flip someone closely involved in his efforts to stay in off after he lost the last election this morning one of donald trump's fiercest defenders now a witness against him in georgia. >> how do you plead conspiracy to commit? >> guilty. >> reporter: sitting in court thursday admitting to her role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results, the second person to plead guilty against the former president and more than a dozen others. >> here to testify truthfully against any and all codefendants in this manner and any upcoming proceedings. >> reporter: that testimony potentially explosive as she outlines key dates she met with trump as a member of his legal team, including a december 2020 showdown in the oval office where he waived seizing votingns machines the former president floated naming her as special counsel to investigate voter fraud as testimony reveals he privately dismissed her election fraud claims as, quote, crazy. >> what we are really dealin