i want to go to pete williams right now who is been reading through some of the documents related to all this. standing out, pete? >> well, very interesting things are in these documents. the government says in basically laying out the case against michael flynn that he first contacted the russian ambassador, their first conversation was december 22nd after egypt introduced this security counsel rest lags about israel settlements. and according to the documents a senior member of the transitional team directed flynn to reach out to officials from foreign governments, including russia, to learn where each of them stood on the resolution and try to get them to delay or defeat the resolution. and it says on december 22, he contacted the russian ambassador about the vote, told the russian ambassador that the trump administration, the incoming administration opposed this resolution, and asked russia to vote against it. then it says on december 28th, that's six days after the earlier conversation, the obama administration announced the sanctions against russia for its meddling in the electi

that's pete williams, nbc news, reporting from the supreme court, and we thank you, pete.bc nightly news. it starts in 60 seconds. have a good one. >>> tonight an inferno emergency in california, wildfires suddenly exploding out of control as families escape with just the clothes on their backs. >> our whole lives were wrapped up in that house. everything. it's all gone. everything. >>> they're bracing for impact across the middle east with president trump set to recognize jerusalem as capital of israel, infuriating palestinians, world leaders warning the president, don't do it. >>> unprecedented move, russian banned from the winter olympics, punishment for cheating operation. >>> is robert mueller following the money? reporte

i want to get to pete williams in washington. we have to point out as we wait for the president to deliver the speech over in quantico, it was just last week that the fbi said the agency's reputation was in tatte tatters. that was just the latest from the president over the last year. take a look at your screen because you've got the president's tweets. workers of the firm involved with the discredited and fake dos yeah take the 5th. who paid for it? accusing the agency of being involved. he said it was once cherished. sad to watch. the fbi is not able to stop national security leakers that have permeated our government. then, more recently, everybody's asking why the justice department and fbi is not looking into all of the dishonesty going on with crooked hillary and the dems. he's not in front of the agents themselves, correct? talk through what we expect to hear from the president at this graduation ceremony. >> reporter: where he is today is at the fbi's national academy in quantico. it does two things. it trains the new age

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is outside the supreme court and has details. pete, good evening. >> reporter: lester, this means that overseas family members of people in the u.s. who were exempt from the travel ban are now subject to it. this latest version announced in september applies mainly to travelers from chad, iran, libya, somalia, syria and yemen. in response to challenges, lower courts said it could not be applied against people who have family members here, but tonight the court has lifted that exemption. only two justices, ginsburg and sotomayor, dissented. so this could be a sign that the latest version of the travel ban will survive a supreme court challenge when it gets here early next year, lester. >> pete williams at the supreme court, thank you. >>> the president traveled to utah today to announce he's dramatically scaling back two national monument sites. he's rolling back federal protections on some 2 million acres of land from the bears ears and grand staircase escalante monuments which were designated by presidents obama and clinton. many

pete williams has the details. >> reporter: with illegal border crossings up sharply last month. immigrant children would be sent to one detention center, and their parents to another while they wait to see if they'll be admitted as refugees or sent back. cracking down on illegal immigration was a theme of the trump campaign, and routinely separating families was considered last spring. john kelly rejected it, saying it would be used sparingly. >> you know, the mother -- if the mother is sick or addicted to drugs or whatever -- >> now, with a surge in illegal migration of the southern border, administration officials say it's again under discussion as part of an effort to look at every possible way to discourage illegal migration. a group that lobbies for tougher enforcement says it would be an act of compassion. >> it would dissuade parents from trusting themselves and their children to smugglers. the smuggling operations that operate along the border are heartless individuals who treat human beingings like merchandise. separating families is inhumane. >> ripping a child from it

let's begin with our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: no handcuffs for michael flynn. he surrendered and walked into the federal courthouse in washington to plead guilty to a single charge -- lying to the fbi, moving the special counsel investigation into the white house and raising new questions about top aide jared kushner. flynn now admits that four days into his job as white house national security adviser, he denied having two separate contacts back in december with russia's ambassador to the u.s., sergey kislyak, when, in fact, he did. the first, december 22nd. someone described in court documents as a very senior member of the presidential transition team directed flynn to urge foreign governments to oppose a u.n. security council resolution against israel. flynn has now admitted that he contacted kislyak and urged russia to oppose it. tonight sources familiar with the matter say that very senior official was jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. the second contact came a week later when president obama announced new sanctions on russia because of its elec

here's pete williams. >> reporter: as donald trump's campaign was building steam last spring, an fbi lawyer sent a text message to one of the bureau's top agents who was working on the russia investigation. the lawyer, lisa page, wrote, god, trump is loathsome human. and the agent peter strzok said hillary clinton should win 100 million to zero. a few months later, she texted maybe you're meant to stay where you are because you're meant to protect the country from that menace. they frequently called mr. trump an idiot. when clinton won the primary he wrote, about damn time. and when it appeared that trump won the election strzok texted, omg, this is expletive terrifying. until july, strzok was part of mueller's special counsel investigation. he was dismissed from the team when mueller found out about those texts. rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees mueller's team, was hammered today by house republicans. they say the texts show that mueller's investigation of the trump campaign is biased. >> this is not just political opinions. this is disgusting unaccountable bi

. >>> this is pete williams. police and federal agents descended on the brooklyn apartment where akayed ullah lived and where officials say he built the bomb used in today's attack. at the hospital where he was taken after the device went off, investigators say he told them he intended to carry out a suicide attack inspired by isis propaganda videos and calls to attack during the holidays. officials say ullah is 27 and came to the u.s. nearly seven years ago from bangladesh on a visa allowing him to join relatives already here. he had a license to drive a limousine and more recently worked as an electrician. neighbors say he moved from this house a year ago. >> i'm actually very shocked because, you know, he's a religious person and very quiet. >> reporter: investigators say ullah wore a simple pipe bomb made with a battery, a christmas light and an explosive. they say he intentionally set it off but the construction was faulty reducing its effect. at least four plots to attack the new york subway system have bee

joining us now with a closer look into today's big developments is nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. pete, let's first talk about what he pleaded guilty to today, just one charge of making false statements. are we to read anything just into a single charge? >> yes, i think that it's basically a good deal for him. it means that he's cooperating and that that cooperation has won him a reduced charge. but basically here's what he's accused of doing. he's accused of lying to the fbi, falsely denying that he had two conversations in december during the transition with russia's ambassador to the u.s. sergey kislyak here in washington. the first was on december 22nd. he was instructed by what is called, in court documents, a very senior official in the trump transition, to reach out to foreign governments and try to persuade them to vote against a pending u.n. resolution that would have been against israel. flynn says that he called russians to vote against it. by the way, they called him back later and said we're not going to do that. and then a week after that, after president obama put

here's nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. >> raise your right hand. >> reporter: it was not a good day for matthew peterson, a trump nominee for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge. senator john kennedy, a louisiana republican, asked about his courtroom experience. >> have you ever tried a jury trial? >> i have not. >> civil? >> no. >> criminal? >> no. >> bench? >> no. >> state or federal court? >> i have not. >> have you ever argued a motion in federal court? >> no. >> reporter: nor could he answer basic questions about trials like the expert witness rule. >> can you tell me what the dobear standard is? >> senator kennedy, i don't have that readily at my disposal. >> reporter: or a common method for blocking trial evidence. >> do you know what a motion in limine is? >> i would not be able to give you a good definition here at the table. >> reporter: peterson served on the federal election commission with don mcgahn, the current white house counsel, and conceded his background isn't trial work. >> i understand the challenge that would be ahead of me if i were fortunate

nbc justice correspondent pete williams has new details on what prompted flynn to reach out to russian ambassador sergey kislyak during the transition. >> reporter: no handcuffs for michael flynn. he surrendered and walked into the federal courthouse in washington to plead guilty to a single charge, lying to the fbi, moving the special counsel investigation into the white house and raising new questions about top aide jared kushner. flynn now admits that four days into his job at white house national security adviser, he denied having two separate contacts back in december with russia's am bbassador to the u., sergey kislyak, which, in fact, he did. the first, december 22nd, someone described as a very senior member of the presidential transition team directed flynn to urge foreign governments to oppose a u.n. security council resolution against israel. flynn has now admitted he contacted kislyak and urged russia to oppose it. sources familiar with the matter say that very senior official was jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. the second contact came a week later when president

we can now speak to pete williams from the rac. our bristol studio. thank you for being with us. as we we re thank you for being with us. as we were just thank you for being with us. as we werejust here, thank you for being with us. as we were just here, plenty for drivers to co nte nt were just here, plenty for drivers to content with, snow, ice, flooding as well. absolutely. good morning. hazardous conditions again on the roads, black ice proving to be a big problem, but we are likely to see a lot of stranded motorists today. yesterday our rac patrol is attended over 9000 stranded motorists with all sorts of problems from battery failure to punctures to mine accidents where they had skidded on ice, so really the warning is to ta ke ice, so really the warning is to take extra care and drive slowly, leave plenty of space between your car on the vehicle in front and take it easy on the roads today. you have seen it easy on the roads today. you have seen quite a big increase in the number of call—outs compared to this time last year?

for more, i'm joined by our justice correspondent pete williams. >> the president tweeted about flynn today, a comment that raises some tantalizing new issues. i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president, and the fbi. this appears to be the first time that mr. trump has indicated he was aware of what was said when fbi agents interviewed flynn in january. he was forced to resign february 13th, former fbi director james comey told congress he met with the president the very next day, and was asked to go easy on flynn. >> i understood him to wanted me to do was drop any investigation connected to flynn's account of his conversations with the russians. >> if mr. trump thought flynn lied to the fbi, which is a crime, was he trying to obstruct justice when he asked the fbi director to let the flynn matter drop? >> what about the second part of the president's tweet, which says flynn's actions were lawful? >> well, he may be right about that, general flynn was not accused of any crime in talking to the russian ambassador last december. he pleaded guilty to lying when he

nbc's pete williams has a closer look at the suspect's past. but but we begin with edward lawrence live in new york with the attack being described as low tech and amateur. edward? >> reporter: good evening, doreen and leon. here on the ground in new york we are learning a little more years from 2012 to 2015. he was a cab driver here in new york city, but right now investigators are going, tracking back his last several days to see if he acted by himself or had help. >>> chaos and confusion for the morning commute in new york city. >> boom! boom! and then i just ran upstairs. >> reporter: security video shows a pipe bomb exploding inside the port authority bus terminal. >> it was a bomb because i know i seen movies but this wasn't a movie, this was reality. >> people were all over the place. >> reporter: three people were injured as well as the suspected bomber. this picture posted on twitter shows the man who police say tried to blow himself up and injure others in a failed attempted suicide bombing. >> the device was based on a pipe bomb. it

to talk about it is justice correspondent pete williams. pete, listen. typically, right, an oversight hearing's like a blip on the radar. this is the first appearance before this committee and no doubt facing questions of the russia investigation and perhaps about donald trump's comments of the fbi, huh? >> he can't say much about the russia investigation. lots of questions i'm sure but he won't say much and certainly asked about the president's tweets and president saying that the fbi was in tatters, chris wray responded to that sending an e-mail to the staff saying an honor to work with them, telling them to keep their heads down and tackle hard basically in essence refutding what the president said without addressing it directly and probably asked and can discuss the fact that robert mueller removed a fbi agent from his investigation because of suggestions that the agent had been e-mailing or tweeting back and forth with another fbi employee making comments that could be seen as critical of president trump. he may be asked about that. the fbi has talk

pete williams of the rac.ecial envoy to syria, jan egeland, says he fears children who desperately need to leave a rebel—held area of the capital, damascus, are being used as "bargaining chips". last night 12 people were allowed out of eastern ghouta, a further 13 are due to leave today. mr egeland said he understood that rebels had agreed to release captured government workers, in exchange for the safe passage of critically—ill children. he believes that kind of deal violates the youngsters‘ rights. if it has been an exchange, i find it problematic. it is wonderful for the families, wonderful for these children that have had their life saved, but it is not good if they have become bargaining chips in some kind of exchange with detainees. it has been all along an issue here that medical evacuations that should happen in any war at any time, where civilians have the right to be evacuated out of harm's way, have been part of a novel negotiation. the president of the syria american medical society said he too is

. # pete williams is in washington for us.> he's at the federal courthouse right now. pleading guilty to that single charge. the court documents say that he met with fbi agents january 24th that, is four days after donald trump became president. prosecutors say he lied to the fbi about two conversations he had with the russian ambassador to the u.s. on december 22 nld the fbi says he asked the ambassador to delay or defeat a pending u.n. security council resolution and then a week later prosecutors say he asked the ambassador to moderate any russian response to the sanctions that had been announced that day by the obama administration against russia because of meddling in the election. the fbi says he lied to agents and that means he broke the law. now it's sang will count. it is a felony. it has a maximum sentence of five years in prison. but it's doubtful flynn will get any prison time when he sentenced which will happen months from now. this is a plead deal meaning both sides get something. he gets the least the government

pete williams, investigators are looking at motivation. what are they telling you and what do they know? >> there's conflicting reports whether he actually set the device off, andrea, or whether it went off early and he planned it to set it off later. it didn't completely go off. it was fortunately a very crude amateurish pipe bomb which he had attached with velcro and plastic zip ties to his body. there are also conflicting reports about whether he said something about isis just before it went off. but they're looking now at his social media, whether he was in contact with others. he came to the u.s. seven years ago from bangladesh, drove a taxi in new york city. from 2012 to 2015 for three years. and in terms of the target, as your guest that's about to come can tell you better than perhaps anybody else, the new york city subway system has frequently been mentioned in terror plots and there have been actually been at least four or five plots that were foiled, attempted at various stages some in just the talking stage, some imminent. so i

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> a colder start to your holiday. >> lauryn ricketts back in a few minutes with just how cold it will get this christmas eve. we're hearing that santa, just in, he's in tokyo. >> he's maki his way. ng>> ♪♪ holy night ♪ sleep in heavenly peace >>> we were just singing during the break and laughing. >> director naomi said -- >> i thought you sung pretty good. >> thank you. >> today is game day at fedex field. >> the redskins take on the denver broncos at 1:00 this afternoon. both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs. so the best they can do is to try to finish 8-8. >> yeah. >> okay. >> the broncos are known for the outstand league. creating a path for kirk cousins today, but the broncos had not won a game on the road. so there's some hope. >> yeah. >> see if the 'skins can finish out the season even. >>> are you still dreaming of a white christmas? i hate to say this -- >> keep dreaming. >> i know. >> but lauryn says you don't have to go far. >> that's true. if you want to see a white christmas you can. but in our neck of the woods maybe no

i want to bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. has been going back and forth a while. what does this mean? >> reporter: it means now that people who were exempt from the latest version of the travel ban, people who had close relatives in the u.s., grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters-in-law are covered by the ban just like everybody else. this is the third version of the travel ban. the one that went into effect in late september. you may recall, the administration said it did so after a census of how every country in the world handles requests from the u.s. for background information on people who want visas to come here. after doing all that came up with this third version, which applied to most of the countries as the original travel ban way few exceptions. it was immediately challenged. the lower court said you can't enforce it against people who have relatives in the u.s. the government came here to the supreme court and said that can't be right, and today without explanation in a brief order, the supreme court lifte

let's go to nbc news chief justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what exactly are the requirements to be a u.s. district court judge? and what sort of vetting do they go through? >> well, i don't think with peterson it's a matter of vetting. they certainly were well aware that he didn't have any trial experience. he's been in private practice basically specializing in election law, that's the kind of law he advised senators and congressmen on when he was a congressional staffer. and then perhaps the thing that got him nominated is the fact that he served on the federal elections commission alongside another commissioner named don pagan as you know became the white house counsel. obviously you know mr. ma began thought he was the right person to have the right temperament. two things have to be said here, katy, i've talked to several legal scholars, former prosecutors say they know a lot of people who could have answered all those questions and aced them who would make lousy judges. but on the other hand it's very unusual for the president to n

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> let's go back to justice reporter julia ainsley. what might we expect here from the plea? >> well so it looks like they are going to plead not guilty and one way that will see public defenders and civil liberties advocates get around this is by saying that the suspect may have been set up in some way. we know he started communicating with undercover fbi agents. that is common in counter-terrorism cases and people have said in the past that they are -- that some of that communication may actually kind of be leading. in other words, they may be leading the suspect into an act that they other wise wouldn't commit and then here we have a suspect who seemed to have gotten cold feet at the end and reconsidering. that came after the fbi blunder where they mistakenly called his cell phone. but i think that that will be what they'll lay out, but again and this kind of climate, it is difficult to see -- have a judge be sympathetic on someone who carry out an attack like this on christmas day. >> julia, thank you so much. julia ainsley there i

pete williams. >> reporter: when david mullins and charlie craig of denver wanted a cake to celebrate wedding, went to masterpiece cake but owner jake phillips told them know saying against his religious believes. they sued saying no religious exception to colorado law against discrimination. >> felt rejected. >> turned us away because of who we are instead of who we ask for. >> reporter: phillips backed by trump administration says cakes are works of art and requiring to make for same sex weddings would be violating freedom of expression. >> can't celebrate something that i believe goes against biblical teaching. >> reporter: many on the court wonder where to draw the line as hundreds on each side try to outshout each other outside the court. >> ginsberg, if cake is art, how about flowers. >> what about the makeup? >> reporter: justice kennedy, likely the deciding vote asked could the baker put a sign in window we don't bake cakes to gay weddings? wouldn't that be affront to gay community? but said colorado was neither tolerant or respectful to cake maker's beliefs. necessary in free

justice correspondent pete williams has more. >> that's fantastic.is is an important race we feed voter turnout. we were sharing with everyone upstairs.eed voter turnout. we were sharing with everyone upstairneed voter turnout. we were sharing with everyone upstair upstairs. >> so that is not exactly the report we were hoping to get from pete williams. but i know my guests know what we are talking about here. we will discuss this. okay. guy, i hope that we're going to get at least some sound on listening to this nominee, mr. peterson who went before the court and was unable to answer a lot of questions. it was a difficult thing to hear, you were embarrassed for o said this was embarrassing. can you, kevin, imagine any scenario in which a nomination of this quality this lack of understanding about certain things, can move forward? as a matter of fact guess what, the guys in the booth just got this clip. let's listen to that so everybody out there knows what we're talking about. here it is. >> have you ever tried a jury trial? >> i have not. >> civil?

. >> nbc justice correspondent pete williams is covering this story very closely. pete what happened inside the courtroom this morning, sir? >> well, an extension basically of what you just saw, because that's an interesting part of this case. the couple says they never got -- and phillips agrees with this, they never got around to saying what the cake would look like, much less whether it would say anything, never mind the fact that most wedding cakes don't say anything. when was the last time you saw a wedding cake that said something? one of the things the court is struggling with is the cake a form of expression. if so, where do you draw the line? what about the wedding invitations, the menu, what about the florist, what about the hair dresser, what about the makeup artist. so that's one of the problems for the court here, to say if they agree with jack phillips, how much further does that line go. some more conservative justices thought that colorado didn't give enough respect to jack phillips for his religious views and if the court goes the other way and rule

let's bring in nbc's pete williams. and, pete, what does the ruling mean? >> reporter: philip, here's what this means. it means that overseas family members of people in the u.s. who were exempt from this latest version of the travel ban are now subject to it. this version was announced in late september and it applies mainly to visitors from chad, iran, libya, somalia, syria, and yemen in response to challenges lower courts said it could not be members overseas who have relatives here in the u.s. but now the supreme court has removed that exemption. just two of the justices dissented, justice ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor. the travel ban may survive a challenge. philip? >> all right, pete, thank you. former access hollywood today show host billy bush made his return to television with stephen colbert after his op-ed on the infa fa must trump tame that led to his firing from nbc. bush told kolbert he was angry over a report that the president raised doubts as to whether it was really his voice on that crude tape, saying it is reopening wounds for

pete williams joins us outside the supreme court.u draw from the argument and where the sides are lining up? >> reporter: what i drew from the argument is, as expected, the key will be anthony kennedy. we saw both anthony kennedys today. we saw the justice who has written all the gay rights movements, but we also saw the ardent supporter of free speech rights. jack fill lims claims his cakes are a work of art, and that by requiring him to make a cake for a gay couple, that would violate his right of free expression. so is a lot of what the court said is what-ifs. if the cake is a form of expression, what about the wedding invitation, what about the menu, what about the makeup artists, what about the person who does the hairdos for the couples. so there were a lot of what-ifs on that side. on the other side, the conservatives said if colorado gets its view here, if they win the case, could, for example, catholic legal services be told to provide the service or could they turn them around? both sides of anthony kennedy were on display

pete williams will be here alt 6:30. >>> it's a chilly evening out here tonight as we look live at center city as the temperatures will drop much lower pretty soon and we've issued a first alert starting tomorrow night because of dangerous cold and strong wind gusts and a blast of arctic air that could have us feeling cold. >> a live look right now at the allentown skyline. >> that's when we bring in first alert meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz. >> few people get the snow. we all get the bitter blast and that is starting tomorrow night. tonight it's not so bad outside. we're starting to get used to at least a little bit of the cold. we're also seeing some returns on radar but this snow is not reaching the ground. it is now in parts of western pennsylvania and the great lakes. that is not well organized, as you can see. and you're not especially concerned about much of the area tomorrow morning. up towards the poconos mountains, as you can see, at the beginning of the morning rush and then down towards parts of the lehigh valley and berks county, generally the upper elevations of t

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is standing by outside the supreme court. pete? >> this is version three of the so-called travel ban. this was announced in late september. this was the new restrictions on visas from certain countries. for the most part it continued the travel ban except puts an additional restriction on north korea, venezuela and other countries. and after it began to be enforced, the lower courts in hawaii and maryland said it couldn't be enforced against close family members. grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. today the supreme court lifted that restriction allowing the government to enforce it completely. no exception for family members. only two justices, ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor said they would have kept those in place. >> this is a huge victory for the president but he has says this version doesn't go far enough. he likes version 1.0 and 2.0 better. does this give him some legal footing to go back to those more severe bans? >> no, i don't think so. those more severe bans are, to a large extent, a dead letter. but what i

. >>> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us from the supreme court with more on today'sy what did we hear, pete? >> well, we heard basically the court's liberals say if you agree with jack phillips that a cake is a form of expression then where do you draw the line? several of the justices said what about the hairdresser, what about the makeup artist, what about the person who prints the wedding invitations or the invitation to the wedding? what about the florist? that is seemed to bother many of the court's liberals. the conservatives seemed every they had he can to philip's claim that in his religious you video he can't participate in a same sex marriage. the deciding vote is probably justice anthony kennedy. he wrote all the gay rights rulings. let me give you a sample of his back and forth with the lawyer for the trump administration which is siding with the baker. justice kennedy said this, what would the government's position be if the baker prevails in this case and then bakers all over the country received urgent requests please do not bake cakes for gay weddings

were not terrorist-inspired and not what we come to think of now as a terror-suicide attack. >> pete williams with some key context there. thank you for your reporting. we'll check back in with you later in the morning. pete mentioned bill bratton, the former nypd commissioner, who was talking about what happened in his city. i want to play you what bratton had to say. listen. >> the preliminary information from the police sources emphasizes that he was possibly from bangladesh, been in the country seven years, was supposedly setting the bomb off in name of isis. definitely intended. >> i want to bring in malcolm nance, the executive director of the ethics project. i want you to retook into account what bill bratton had to say. as we have learned more, i heard you since the press conference talking about this, tell me where this goes from here and what stands out to you? >> first off, we need to categorize this properly. this was a failed suicide bomb attack. it did not succeed. the only person really injured was the bomber himself. he used an improvised explosive device, most likely around h

. >> nbc's justice correspondent pete williams is joining me.we know about this guy is? >> we are, you are right about charges coming. and this is a foregone conclusion this is a federal case because the fbi has jurisdiction when there's an attempted terrorist attack. so we'll probably get a lot of the charges within the next hour and probably hear from prosecutors in new york, in maybe an hour and a half or so, and the interesting thing is, hallie, you have a person willing to carry out an attack knowing he could potentially kill or wound dozens of people. and yet the moment he's arrested, the moment he's taken to the hospital, gets treatment for the burns that he suffered when his device malfunctioned, he begins to tell his story to the fbi. and that is what he did for several hours yesterday, telling them that he was inspired by isis propaganda videos. that he studied how to make a pipe bomb by looking at the isis propaganda videos and looking at the magazine inspire. that's where he learned to make a pipe bomb. fortunately, he didn't do it c

i want to get straight to nbc pete williams. take us through your reporting and lay out the nuts and bolts. what's happening here? >> this is a case of the justice department doing what it said it was going to do in response to a letter from a member of congress. republicans on the house side asking the justice department to take another look at this. the justice department told the house in november that it would and now what we've learned is that it has. that fbi agent who worked on this uranium one deal investigation have now been asked by justice department lawyers to bring the government back, the lawyers back up to speed on what they found, walk them through the investigative details of what they did and what they found and what their conclusions were. this is the uranium one deal, as you may recall, is the sale of assets of uranium company partially to the russian government. because of potential national security implications, it required the approval of a nine-member government board, which included secretary of state h

nbc's pete williams breaks it down for us. >> reporter: with illegal border crossings up sharply last month the department of homeland security is considering a tough new measure that would send immigrant children to one detention center and their parents to another while they wait to be see if they'll be admitted as refugees or sent back. cracking down on illegal immigration was a theme of the trump campaign and routinely separating families was considered last spring, but john kelly rejected it when he was homeland security saying it would be used sparingly. >> you know, the mother -- if the mother is sick or addicted to >> reporter: now with a surge at the southern border it is again under discussion to look at every possible way to discourage illegal migration. a group that lobbies for tougher enforcement said it would be an act of compassion. >> it would dissuade them getting them to the smugglers and those that operate along the border treat human beings like merchandise. >> reporter: but advocates for immigrants saying separating families is inhumane. >> ripping a child from a

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> immigration is one of the many issues that the new president has decided to tackle. today "meet the press" moderator chuck todd is going to take a look back at 2017 and president trump's first year in office. some of the panel regulars will talk about the press and the commander in chief. that's is coming up with a special edition of "meet the press" starting at 10:30 on nbc4. >>> back to santa and get a check on santa. >> well, it looks like he's clearly over some not over the ocean. he's over china. china is a very big piece of land. >> it is. >> he's been over china for a while. he has to make a lot of stops there. but he's headed our way later today. check in with lauryn to see what kind of forecast santa is looking at when he z2m7ez z16fz y2m7ey y16fy >>> time right now is 10:09. it's game day at fedex field. the redskins taking on the bronco at 1:00 this afternoon. >> both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs so the best they can do is to at least try and finish strong, 8-8. and the broncos are known for their outstanding defense

here's nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: when david mullins and charlie craig of denver wanted a cake to celebrate wedding, went to masterpiece cake. >> what do you need? >> reporter: but the owner jack phillips no saying gay weddings against his religious believes. they sued saying no religious exception to colorado law against discrimination. >> so embarrassed. felt rejected. >> turned us away because of who we are instead of what we ask for. >> reporter: phillips backed by trump administration says cakes are works of art and requiring to make for same sex weddings would be violating freedom of expression. >> can't be forced to celebrate something that i believe goes against biblical teaching. >> reporter: photographers and other businesses are making the same claim and manien the court wonder where to draw the line as hundreds on each side try to outshout each other outside the court. >> if a cake is speech, justice ginsberg asked, what about flowers or wedding invitation? justice kagan, how about the makeup artist or hair dresser? justice kennedy, likely th

pete williams is one of the folks reporting on this on our network. pete let me ask you this, 15 minutes what will we see? how is the hearing going to unfold and what do you expect? >> these plea hearings do follow a determined script and to make sure the person entering the plea is doing so understanding the consequences and doing it completely voluntarily. basically so that that person can never later try to appeal saying i didn't know what i was doing. so the judge will, michael flynn will stand before the judge, and the judge will read the charges, do you agree to plea guilty, are you doing this voluntary, are you under the influence of any drugs, has anyone forced you to do this, to get a record, this is standard in all these plea agreements, nothing unusual for michael flynn, to build a record to say that the plea is given completely voluntary. that's the key point here. so that's how the hearing will unfold. he will plead guilty. he'll say did you do this. yes. we know michael flynn will say. we know that because of the court document filed. und

nbc justice correspondent pete williams has the very latest. >> reporter: the fbi says the man talked about attacking san francisco's pier 39, a popular tourist attraction, on christmas day. court documents say it never got beyond the talking stage, but investigators say 26-year-old everitt aaron jameson, a tow truck driver from modesto began communicating with fbi undercover operatives two months ago telling them he supported isis and was pleased with the new york city attack on a bike path. investigators saying he was willing to use his u.s. marine corps training either by joining isis in syria or staging a gun and bomb attack in the u.s. he asked the fbi operatives who he thought were connected with isis for a semiautomatic rifle and components to build a bomb, but they were never provided to him. the fbi says when asked about his escape plan, jameson said, he was ready to die. but court documents say on monday he told them, i don't think i can do this after all. i've reconsidered. after an fbi employee in washington mistakenly dialed his cell phone, then hung up. agents say a sear

pete williams joins me now. he is being probed by intelligence committee on whether there is conflict of interest or bias or any other issues involving that probe. and he's been pushing back very strongly. do you want to recap it? >> he's generally been, without getting into specifics, defending mueller's investigation. he says he's seen no good cause to fire mueller, that he's not aware of any impropriety in the special counsel's investigation. he also said he's had no orders from president trump or anyone else to fire mueller. and he says there's been no indication that trump has asked him to remove mueller or to initiate any specific investigations. a lot of the questions today, andrea, are about previously known but not known in detail text messages exchanged between an fbi agent who was working on the mueller team and was dismissed by mueller in july, and an fbi lawyer who also worked briefly on the mueller investigation. the bulk of those texts are highly critical of donald trump and also praises hillary c

chief correspondent pete williams will be joining us momentarily,