we've just had this news that pete williams broke your air. who is nominated. this president has not been in office a 84 and a half yet and making his second supreme court nominee. nbc news reporting that it is brett kavanaugh, this is someone who has been the subject of really, really hard fought confirmation hearings before. what is your reaction to this? >> my reaction, twofold. i'm not surprised. it seemed like this was the most gorsuch like pick of the bunch. someone who had punched all the tickets. all the elite credentials and who had spend his life in conservative right wing legal circles in which people can be sure they're not going to get a suitor. there is an entire infrastructure built up on the right to create processes, associations, pipelines of cultivation, to make sure that they get conservative justices appointed by republicans who end up ruling in ways that align with their policy preferences and their constitutional theories. and they've gotten very good at it. gorsuch has performed the first few years on the court and i th

i am with pete williams. we really can get into the president's mind and treating the supreme court nomination like "the apprentice" maybe alitt little excessive. there is always suspense in these kinds of things until the deed is done. i don't know if he's storeturing he'storturing his own staff. i am told that senator mcconnell is in regular touch with him while i don't think that and i think donald trump may love a big fight. mcconnell does not. mcconnell has shepard it through him going through the process. it would be gorsuch now buying for the bifirst vacancy. mcconnell is somebody that i think he listens to at least on this subject. >> we keep on talking about who will be the easiest to be confirmed. senator chris kuehn i don't hof was straightforward yesterday that democrats can be feudal. unless there is something totally out of the left field. is there somebody here that's not going to get confirmed? >> well, it is hard to know senator collins and with senator mccain out, they have a margin of one.

nobody better to turn to then veteran pete williams covered the court closely for so many years now. layout the stakes here with tonight's decision. >> lester, it was dramatic last year when had the president unveiled kneel gorsuch, but tonight much higher. because last year they brought a conservative filling after the death of supreme court. even if a democrat is elected president in two years, the court's older justices likely to retire are the liberals. average age of the conservatives on the current court is 63 for the liberals 72. so solid conservative majority could clear the way for state laws that make it harder to get an abortion. and could stall frt development of gay rights. now, that's a reasonable prediction. bull of course when anthony kennedy came to the united states 30 years ago, his reputation was solid conservative too. and, by the way, as for amy connie barrett, she was spotted in indiana, which means she would not be the choice. >> thank you. stay tuned for 9:00 p.m. eastern on this specific station. >>> and president trump is set to visit for teresa may. the re

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> now to the race against time at the flooded cave in thailand where a boy's soccer team has been trapped now for nearly two weeks. officials are about to make a critical decision, do they attempt a dangerous rescue mission before monsoon rains return. nbc's bill neely is at the cave with the latest. >> reporter: the world is watching them but they want out. a dozen boys with brave faces, their rescuers with one huge problem, flood water. divers struggling to fight it. the boys still too weak to cross it. they can't swim and it's six hours to the cave entrance. they are getting a crash course on diving but the risks are deadly, the narrow passageways are trapped, even for the experts. >> it's quite challenging, obviously. it's zero visibility. so it's a challenge. >> reporter: rescuers are drilling and digging and it's desperate because it's a race against time. getting rid of water before the monsoon rains fill the caves again. they are pumping millions of gallons of water out of the caves every day. meanwhile, up on the hills, up to 30 teams ar

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has bignng through the indictment. >> reporter: as hillarylinton stumped for votes in march 2016n russian intell was burrowing into computers at her campaign and the democratic national committee mueller's prosecutors say targeting more than 300 people. the charges say it was t 1 work officers of russian military intelligence. it's the most detailed accusation yet of russian election meddling announced as president trump was being welcomed by the queen of england. some questioned what's behind the timing just as mr. trump ism preparing tt vladimir putin monday. >>> briefed president trump about the allegations elier this week. the president is fully aware of the department actions today. >> reporter: the charges say in late july the t russiansed for the first time to hack into server in clinton's personal campaign office the same day the president said this. >> irussia, you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> reporter: prosecutors say the russians set up d.c. leaks to release hacked materials false

nbc's pete williams has that story. >> reporter: the federal agency in charge of responding to natural disasters now has a crisis of its own. the former chief of personnel at fema is under investigation after employees accused him of sexual harassment. among their allegations, that he assigned female employees to various offices so the male friends he hired could try to have sexual relations with them. corey resign two weeks ago and has not been questioned. he was not available for comment. fema administrator brock long calls the allegations deeply disturbing and says he is asking the department of homeland security's inspector general to investigate. officials are looking at whether coleman hired college fraternity brothers and women he met at bars and through dating websites. fema administrator long says he's setting up a new office to handle allegations of employee conduct and will launch mandatory training to recognize and prevent sexual harassment. pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> to a warning for every parent from an olympic star and his wife, opening up for the first tim

. >>> let's turn to our justice correspondent pete williams. he covers the high court for us. given the four finalists we heard about, how much could the composition of the court shift and on what issues might that have the most impact? >> this could be the biggest change to the supreme court in 50 years. last year's nomination of neil gorsuch brought in a conservative to fill the vacancy. as a conservative replacing a conservative. any nominee that president trump chooses to succeed anthony kennedy is to be more conservative because kennedy sometimes voted on liberals with social issues. it's a long shot the court would overturn roe v. wade, but it would be more likely to uphold state laws that make abortion harder to get, laws that kennedy joined with liberals in striking down. the court is likely not to go back to banning gay marriage but may approve of businesses that cite religious objections in refusing to serve gay customers and may be willing to uphold reristctions on voting and affirmative action on school admissions. it is possible the supreme court will start taking

pete williams, what is your takeaway?er: no, russians are not going to cooperate in arresting them. rod rosenstein says he looks forward to their apprehension. that's not likely to happen. but by filing these charges, it makes it very difficult for these folks to ever -- these 12 people to ever travel outside of russia or a country that doesn't cooperate with entinterpol, bece if they do, they'll be arrested, there will be red notices put out on them. it limits their travel and limits to some extent their ability to access any funds they have outside of russia or any funds in the west. one of the interesting things i thought in at it news conference, lester, was the deputy attorney general saying this information was passed through to an american -- or to another entity he declined to name, the big question is whether that was wikileaks, that's certainly been the supposition. finally, lester, the deputy spent a lot of time, not looking at his notes, talking about the need for bipartisanship. he's been on the receiving end

>> pete williams, thank you. >>> now to the white house and the impending decision by president trump on who he'll nominate to the supreme court. the president is moving quickly to fill the vacancy created by anthony kennedy's retirement, interviewing four candidates today with more to come. we get the latest from chief white house correspondent hallie jackson. >> reporter: the president playing coy on his court picks, not saying who he interviewed today. >> mr. president, who did you speak with, sir? >> reporter: only how many candidates he considered. >> during the morning, i interviewed and met with four potential justices of our great supreme court. they are really incredib people in so many different ways. academically and every other way. >> reporter: academically, a supreme scholar seems to be a high priority. people familiar with the process telling nbc news, the president prefers a graduate from harvard or yale. he says he'll have two or three more interviews this week before a selection, then the senate sales pitch. republican susan collins a crucial vote, is now drawing her

>> pete williams in washington tonight, thank you. >>> there is a lot more ahead. big trouble for amazon as a surge of shoppers try to take advantage of one of the biggest deal days of the year. >>> also, an incredible story of survival. missing for a week, how a woman was found alive after her jeep plunged off a cliff. hope you can stay with us. >>> we are back now with some of the day's other news back home including a rocky start to amazon prime day. so many people trying to take advantage of deals that the website actually crashed. our business correspondent jo ling kent has the latest. >> reporter: tonight, amazon not quite primed for its much anticipated day of sales. the online shopping giant's site crashing just minutes into 36 hours of deep discounts. we got exclusive access into amazon's prime dearlayarr this month where they said everything was under control. >> this is like our super bowl. >> reporter: instead of products people saw apology puppies. shoppers outraged, t working to resolve the issue quickly. this slow start could threaten the estimated $

pete williams. nbc news at the justice department. >> reporter: i'm hallie jackson in london, knowing about the new indictments today the president blasted the investigation on the world stage. >> i think that we're being hurt very badly by the i would call it the witch hunt. >> reporter: it's been a sound track of his administration. >> it's a total witch hunt. the entire thing is a witch hunt. phony witch hunt. >> reporter: tonight another concrete piece of evidence the special counsel isn't trying to hunt witches but catch criminals, a conclusion the president is slow to embrace. first, he refused to blame the kremlin for interfering with the election. >> it could be russia or china or lots of people. it could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. she doesn't know if it's the russians doing the hacking. maybe there isn't hacking. >> reporter: after the election, he acknowledged it. >> i think it was russia. i think we also get hacked by other countries and other people. >> repo

lester. >> pete williams at the supreme court. thanks. >>> hours after announcing his pick to the court, president trump left for a 7-day trip overseas for a stop at brussels where he will meet with nato allies after leveling a new round of public attacks on them today, all of this leading up to a high stakes summit with vladimir putin. kristen welker has more from brussels. >> reporter: president trump coming out swinging, touching down in brussels late today after raising tensions with the very allies he's poised to meet here at the nato summit, calling them delinquent on twitter from air force one, before leaving accusing them of failing to pay their fair share on defense. >> we pay far too much and they pay far too little. >> reporter: while only 5 of 29 nato nations have met their spending commitment set for 2024 the rest still have years to meet the target. today, the president of the eu firing back. >> dear america, appreciate your allies. after all, you don't have that many. >> reporter: a bitter backdrop for the president

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> unrelenting weather is assaulting much of the united states with heavy flooding on the east coast, ravaging wildfires in the west and the first major dust storm of the monsoon season rolling through the phoenix area. experts are calling the massive blazes out west the worst in decades during an unusually active season. in colorado the spring creek fire, the largest in the state, burned 16 acres every minute. in wine country, the county fire is jeopardizing over 1500 homes and structures and in pittsburgh people there are suffering the onslaught as are stranded as th head out in the rains and doors extreme record flooding. the dust whippin across the state. temperatures shattered a record 115 degrees. >> wow. for some of us we're going to get a good drenching. let's check in with meteorologist bill karins. it's going to get wet. >> ending the heat wave in areas of the northeast. we took d.c. out of the flash flood watch. good news for you. still new york city, philadelphia, boston, providence, everyone has a chance with storms dumping rain in a shor

>> pete williams for us. pete, thanks. be sure t join us tonight for nbc news live coverage of president trump's supreme court nomination. that's at 9:00 p.m. eastern, 6:00 pacific here on snbc. >>> torning puerto rico is bracing itself for the remnants of tropical storm beryl expected to drench the island with heavy rain.th ten m after hurricane maria he island's infrastructur remains fragile with some residents still without power. nbc's gab gutierrez has more. >> reporter: in southeastern puerto rico, areas hit hardest by hurricane maria a now preparing for the remnants of beryl. >> we are weady. on't leave the island. we stay rhere. orter: the system is expected to drench puerto rico with several inches of rare. >> these matters that puerto rico is still in a very vulnerable state, particularly in housing and potential flooding. >> reporter: ten months after rricanemaria, the island'sri powerd is still fragile. this is a path maria took. the category 4 hurricane on the southeastern coast with sustaid winds of155 miles

pete williams at the justice department. >> after a busy day running damage control in england, president trump is now one of his private golf courses in scotland. trump tried to backtrack today over those comments h made to a british newspaper about prime minister theresa may. tens it of thousands of anti-trump protesters flooded london as he sat down for tea with the queen. nday, trump heads toe finland to meet russian president vladimir putin. >>> danger on dashcam. the police officer recovering tonight after getting dragged. >>> [ bleep ]. >> it's exactly wha it is. it's [ bleep ]. >> theunion's fiery response to metro's threat to terminate er wo >> and a local army captain living out her dream by takin living out her dream by takin the fiegld (birds chirping, a running brook,) living out her dream by takin the fiegld ahh. the new deer park sparkling is made with real spring water. ♪ it's so refreshing and delicious, you don't need slo-mo models to sell it. real spring water, real fruit flavors and refreshing bubbles. just what's refreshingly real. ♪ ♪ summer's calling. the 2018 escal

as justice correspondent pete williams reports, opponents are trying to keep that from happening. >> reporter: cody wilson of austin, texas has a passion for gun rights. >> how is that nnational convers going? >> reporter: and he is developing instructions for programming a 3d printer to make a fully working plastic handgun or assault style rifle. >> i don't think you should have the ability or anyone else should have your ability to control your access to it on the internet or the ability to print it on a machine. >> reporter: but when he wanted to post detailed plans online, the obama administration shut him down, saying it would put weapons in hostileds of forces or terrorists. he sued, saying it violated his right of free expression, and saying similar plans have long been available on the web. but federal courts ruled against him. then suddenly last month, the trump administration dropped the government's objection, concluding that rules limiting exports of weapons of war don't apply to wilson's instructions at all. advocates of gun control say that would make homemade guns avai

our justice correspondent pete williams has been digging thh the indictment. >> reporter: as n hillary clinto stumped for votes in march 2016, russian intelligence was burroing into computers ofer campaign and the democratic national committeeting more than 300 people. the charges say it was the work of 12 officers of russian military intelligence. it's the most detailed acquisition yet of russian election meddling announced just as president trump was being welcomed bthe queen of england and some have questioned what's behind the timing as mr. trump was preparing to meet vladimir putin monday. >> we met with mr. trump about the allegations this week.pr thident was fully aware of the department's actions today. >> reporter: the charges say in latju ly, the russians tried for the first time thack into servers in clinton's personal campaign office, the same day president trump said this. listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. >> reporter: prosecutors say the russians set up dcleaks.org to ht lse ma material. the russians don't name wikileaks but sayter

nbc's pete williams has more from thet. supreme cour >> reporter: the ritual of sealte courtesy cls began with an easy one.bl ican leader mitch mcconnell. >> i think the president made an outstanding nomination. >> reporter: mcconnell urged prively against his nomination, arguing his 25 year record in government would bog down the confirmation. now considered most in play republican senators collins and murkowski and donley high camp and mansion. vanagh seemed like an unlikely choice, an aid to george bush nominated by someone who t criticiz bushes. >> judge kavanagh has gotten rave reviews, rave reviews, actually from th sides >> reporter: some lobbied against him citing a court battle invving a teenage arrest of the for illegally entering the u.s. who wanted to be released from detention to have an abortion.ai kavanagh she had no right to an abortion on demand and could wait until she was released to a sponsor. his critics say he should have ruled she had no right to an abortion because she's not a u.s. citizen and is her

as nbc justice correspondent pete williams reports, opponents are trying to keep that from happening.ter: cody wilson of austin, texas has a passion for gun right. >> how is that national conversagoing? >> reporter: and he has developed instructions for programing a 3-d printer to make a handgun or assault style rifle. >> i don't think you should have the ability or anyone else should have the ability to control it on the internet or your ability to print it on a machine. >> reporter: but when he prepared to post detailed plans online, the obama state department shut him down, saying it would violate laws against exporting firearms technology, putting it into the hands of hostile forces or terrorist. so he sued,io claiming ation of his right of free expression, and saying that similar plans have long been available on the win. >> you have the right to keep and make them. >> reporter: but federal courts ruled against him. then suddenly last month, a trump administration dropped the objection, concluding that rules limiting exports of weapo war don't apply to wilson's guns after all. hi

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pete williams in washington. >>> turning overseas mio the happy home for the 12 boys rescued from the flooded cave in thailand after a week in the hospital, they are now headed home and are speaking out describing what it was like and what was supposed to be a one-hour tk inside a cave, how it turned into a nightmare. nbc's janis mackey frayer is in thailand with the story. am> reporter: tonight, the te the world has been cheering for. smiling in their uniforms and back playing soccer. revealing for the first time how they survived those ten days they were lost inside the cave. i tried not to think about food so i didn't get more hungry says titan who at 11 is the youngest in the group. they talked about what they called a miracle. their discoverthby ose two british divers. >> how many of you? >> 13. te> yeah, 13. >> rep it was 14-year-old adul's voice that captured the world's attentio >> you speak english? >> a little. [ laught >> i heard people talking. i wasn't sure if it was a hallucination he quiet and realized it was real. their faces now showing little tra of their terrifying

country on the supreme court legal affairs from npr, anyone a totenberg and justice correspondent pete williamsin new york former federal prosecutor georgetown university prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst paul butler. pete and nina, i'd like to start the conversation off with you. as we were going on the air, i thought i should step back and let the two of you tell our viewers what is about to unfold. pete, just to start out, the context of this, everybody has cast this retirement as one that is unlike any other, at least in the last generation. do you think that is a fair characterization? >> the last 50 years or so, ever since the nixon administration and earl warren stepped off the court and warren berger took his place. i'd say every time i hear a reporter say the trump nominee could change the supreme court, i think what's this could stuff? of course it's going to change the supreme court because anthony kennedy really, after sandra day o'connor stepped down in 2006, he has been the key vote. really, for most of the cases we pay attention to, you can't win without anthony kennedy. if he v

pete williams, you've been drilling down on some of those he's already talked to. among those four are two in particular, and when you looked at the law review writings of some of these candidates, we're talking about brett cavanaugh, the issue of some potential issues facing this court over whether or not the president of the united states can be subpoenaed over the mueller probe, over whether he can be forced to testify. what can we glean if anything from brett kavanaugh's writings? >> reporter: in 2009 he wrote a law review article about presidential power. he said the president should be free from civil lawsuits or from criminal investigations and prosecutions while the president is in office, the job is too busy, there's nothing else like it in the federal government, the pressure is relentless, he says in this article, so the president should be excused from the burdens of ordinary citizenship, some of them, while in office. now, he says that can only happen if congress passes laws to say a president can't be sued while in office, lawsuits should be deferred

. >> joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams, msnbc analyst peter baker, and msnbc supreme court contributor tom goldstein, co-founder and publisher of scotus blog. pete, you broke this story. let's talk about the choice and how they're going to follow up, the strategy for following up on the first impression they made last night with the rollout. >> it's all moving at hyperspeed. justice kennedy announced his intention to retire on june 26th and here we have a nominee already making the rounds. one thing that's going to be different this time is that senators will be around in august and september. normally the senate would be out of town for that. but they're going to be around, working on legislation. so there will be a lot more doors to knock on. i would think the confirmation hearing, maybe early september, something like that. but you sketched out the challenge that the republicans have, which is to hold their own votes, and maybe if necessary pick up a democrat or two to get him confirmed. >> and let's talk about the politics of this, peter baker, the decision that t

pete williams, let me start with you. of politicking by folks who want this candidate to get the spot, who don't want that candidate to get the spot. we've seen democrats go after amy coney barrett in particular. is your sense any of this is having any effect on the process here? >> i think it is baked into the process. think they fully expected the kind of reaction that they've gotten. they fully expected some members of the senate to push for one of their own, mike lee. that seemed a non-starter from the beginning. there's a fourth name we are starting to hear now too and that's thomas hardiman, a federal court judge from pittsburgh who as you may recall was probably the last finalist, down to the wire with neil gorsuch. the president likes to create drama. he liked the fact that his actual choice didn't leak out before the 9:00 announcement last year when he did it prime time from the white house. i think you're starting to hear different versions from different people in the white house on who the choice is, partly be

pete williams is the justice correspondent for nbc news. robert costa a political reporter for the "washington post" and at nbc news and msnbc political analyst and caitlin huey-burns is a political report for real clear politics. thanks to everybody for being here. garrett, start with you, that list of three, what do we know about it and do we know if there is a pecking order within the list of three, a favorite and more of a long shot? >> it's always impossible to tell with this sort of thing, steve, because it's so much depends on the president's viewpoint at the moment and the person lobbying him most directly at the time. i can tell you we expect this to be a topic of conversation out here in montana as the president has done in other cases like this where he puts things up for almost a snap poll, brings it up with the crowd and tries to make it part of the reality show if you will of how he makes these choices. so no particular inside into the president's mind beyond those three picks and the idea that this is still very much an activ

let's bring in justice correspondent pete williams and capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. chuck schumer taking on these potential picks by name. the affordable care act, abortion featuring prominently in the message. if you're schumer, you have to worry about keeping democrats together but you have to flip republicans. is he looking at collins and mur could you ski as the only possibility there? >> i think that's about right. i don't think that the universe of republicans is particularly large. quite frankly, i think the bigger concern is keeping democrats together. i think that's part of why he's focusing on the affordable care act in particular and health care. that is a message that joe man chin can take to west virginia and say to a town hall group, hey, this is a real threat to health care. you already feel like you can't afford. that is one story of the mid-terms it's the democrat central messaging strategy but if you look at graphs on health care premiums and what are people worried about, democrats are on to something with that. you're seeing it roll out in their s

attorney joyce vance and nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what can you tell us?se are the main points. now agent is a term that has to be understood. in the law it's someone acting on someone else's behalf. they're not accusing her of being a spy. but they're saying she came here as a graduate student in august of 2016 with one goal in mind and that is to try to insinuate herself into the political process to advance russia's interest. this is not a robert mueller case. she's not accused of trying to affect the 2016 election by hurting clinton or helping trump. but what the indictment says here is that she became friendly with a number of conservative organizations and a large donor to the republican party and became a member of the national rifle association. the charges don't actually mention the nra, they call it the gun organization, but law enforcement officials say it was the nra. that she organized dinners in washington and new york for people to try to come together and talk about russia's interests, that she got herself invited to the national prayer bre

harry lippmann joins me, as well as pete williams. as you know better than anyone, all of these people have been vetted and cleared by the federalist society. we have to assume they're conservatives. but among conservatives, there are those who are more true believing on some things than others. so what are the objections to cavanaugh, for instance? >> well, i think they focus on two decisions that he joined, one in dissent when he said that a young woman who was arrested as an illegal immigrant and held in detention was not entitled to have the federal government help her get an abortion. he agreed with that, but his dissent by some opponents of abortion wasn't considered strong enough. so it wasn't his position. it was the, i guess you could say, the fervor with which he expressed it. a similar thing when he joined in a concurrent -- dissent, rather, on the affordable care act. many conservatives thought he wasn't strong enough on it, that he objected to the timing of the lawsuit on procedural grounds and didn't go in for a full-thro

pete williams is standing. pete, what do you know? >> not much more than what you said, lester. rod rosenstein is overseeing the russ investigation and all the significant announcements have been made by him and we expect that's what we'll hear shortly and probably five or six minutes from now,es new cha filed by the special counsel team. it comes at an interesting time for them. in a couple weeks they will start the first trialgainst paul manafort across the river in virginia. but it's by no means -- it's work is by no means done and this will advance a ltle bit. it's interesting timing, too, because it is russia d.rela the president will be meeting with vladimir putin in a couple days on monday, lester. >> all right. pete williams we'll come back to you. thatconference expected to begin any minute. back to the business in england, the otest behind me in central london at windsor palace, the queen is welcoming the president and mrs. trump and we'll go to cnbc, great to have you. >> every president except johnson has been welcomed. >> theueen has met 11 or 12 presidents fromprum

nbc justice correspondent pete mo williams wit on the contenders. >> reporter: with the decision just four days away, president trump has aprently narrowed the list to three fedal appeals court judges. a source familiar with the process tells nbc news it's brett kevin va ka va kavanah of washington and raymond kethledge and amy coney barrett. he's a strong advocate >> we can't under estimate how important ntthe second amend is. judge kethledge is an avid outdoorsman and hunter. >> reporter: kavanaugh ces some conservative opposition over his time serving in the bush white house but he says that's a plus. >> i believe my white house experience made me a more knowledgeable judge certainly and also more independent judge. >> reporter: and barrett a devote catholic is popular with evangelicals hoping to overturn roe v wade. not on the short list, mike lee despite an endorsement rom ted cruz of texas. democrats are still smarting over the senate's refus two years ago to even consider president obama's final nominee, garland. center chuck schumer says it would unify the cotry. e choice will

pete williams, nbc news at federal court in washington. >> should she worry her lawyer is reading a you have a piece of paper? we don't know. mueller's office did just indict the 12 russian intelligence officers and tonight, notably, president trump was asked again whether he's willing to meet with mueller's team. >> what you be more likely to set an interview now? >> my lawyers are working on that. i always wanted to do an interview because look, there is no collusion. there is no talk of russia. there is no phone call. there is nothing. and it's i call it a witch hunt, that's what it is. >> well, let's talk about this and with us to do that former u.s. attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years a as federal prosecutor. joyce, if this isn't crazy, it will due until crazy gets here as they say. what strikes you about this case of this young woman again who was apparently fixing to leave town? >> you know, it looks that way and looks like we're finally getting to watch that season of the americans that the producers wouldn't run because it seemed too farfetched, right? >> yeah. >> all jokin

. >> pete williams haves be been following today's hearing closely. what happens next?the government will start to hand over evidence as required by dove iscovery rules. when they seize butina's computer and phone and other electronic devices, they had some where about eight tera bytes of data. they're worried that defense will try to share it publicly so they asked for a protective order. these are axcommon in trials whe the government is obligated to provide information to defense. the judge will order the defense not to make it public and the judge will indicate that she will do that as well. the next step will be a hearing on whether she can get out of jail while she awaits trial. this was largely about resolving discovery matter. she was arrested and had her couple of court appearance before a federal magistrate and now before the district court judge. they like to know what the case is. >> while i have you here, president trump is violating the constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments, why is that significant and what happens now in this

justice correspondent pete williams will be part of lester holt's team and pete will be joining u n in thet half hour with new information about this seare. >> now to ace of a killer revealed after more than two decades. dna samples and technology helped create these compositech se of a man wanted for rape and murder. the crimes date back to the 1990s. news 4's meagan fitzgerald is outside a metro station connected to the string of violence. meagan? >> reporter: yh, doreen. police say in all three of these cases these women would get off at the metro station at the twinbrook station and walk home and the suspect would followe them bef he would attack. >> we had a total of three cases, one ranges, an attempted rapend then ultimately rape and murder of another female. >> reporter: all of these cases have been linked to this man, to the last is a madna-created of what investigators believe he looked like back in the '80. to the right is what they think heooks like now. >> we alw ss we had the child as big as her. >> reporter: one victim was this woman who neighbors say was a talented rese

>> joining me now, nbc's peter alexander at the white house and nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. peter, let's talk first about the politics and, pete, i want to drill down on some of the more likely choices. peter, though -- between peter and tweet -- where does the president stand right now? he had a well, narrowed it down to five. susan collins said yesterday she persuaded him during their conversation last week to add some people to the list. which is it? >> it's a good question. we heard from the president in his own words as he was going away to bedminster this weekend saying he has a short list of five individuals. he said he could interview as many as seven total. there may be two women on that list that he was thinking of. we're told by a white house official the president will continue with his private -- with his advisers with these private discussions about this topic. among those advising him right now, this is really a repeat of the way he handled the selection of neil gorsuch last year. don mcgahn, the white house counsel, is heading up this effort behind the scene

for "the new york times" and nbc intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian and pete williams at the white house. pete, what happened in the pretrial hearing? >> well, it's still going on, andrea. and it's going to be going on later this afternoon on some other issues that paul manafort wants to raise about how much evidence can be admitted about the work he did for ukraine. but today the argument has been for the last hour and a half or so about whether this trial should be delayed. it's scheduled to start on wednesday with jury selection and probably opening statements on friday. but manafort's defense lawyers told judge t.s. ellis just a short time ago that they've been basically overwhelmed, swamped with 120,000 new pages of documents that the government has produced just within the past weeks. much of it from a personal computer, and other storage devices belonging to rick gates, the former manafort partner, the man who is probably going to be in essence the star witness here. what the government says is, well, you know, a lot of this shouldn't come as any surprise to the

joining us now pete williams, who broke the kavanaugh news last night. and president of the center for reproductive rights. and give us a quick background on the president's nominee and what this addition might do to the court because it's interesting when you think about his background. you've seen him get a fuel throated support from the likes of george bush. i spoke to pete winner earlier today who says he's a spectacular pick and president trump doesn't traditionally go with someone that tbush family likes. >> i think that's one of the interesting things. some conservative groups because of the cases we were talking about on the affordable care act and abortion of the immigrant teenager, some conservatives were upset kavanaugh didn't go further and say for example, the affordable care act is unconstitutional or as karen hen der son did, this woman had no right to an abortion at all because she was here illegally and wasn't a u.s. citizen. some conservatives urging him not to pick. and some senators saying don't pick him. he's got too long a paper tra

. >> and let me just give a couple of details from pete williams' report here on nbcnews.com.ernments of quekuwait, philippines all have done business with the hotel. and they patronize the hotel because of the president's association with it. and i should also say the state of maine has done business for allegedly the same reasons. but let's take a look at what happens ten days before the inauguration. the president holds a big press conference with stacks and stacks of folders showing how he's going to avoid the emoluments clause. since then, silence. he's kept his financials, his attention retu tax returns, his documents private. couldn't this bring a court order scrutiny? is there any way for the president to fight that front? >> you know, alex, you're exactly right, this will bring unprecedented scrutiny to the president's business dealings around the world. it probably would have taken almost heroic efforts to put all of these properties or assets in blind trusts so that the president was not actually personally been and his family was not personally benefitting. and i h

this is high legal and political drama going on in this courtroom and we'll speak with nbc's pete williams who has been inside the courtroom in just a moment. remember, no cameras in a federal courtroom. first we'll dive into the other legal troubles impacting this president. folks, if the trump team's arc of denials are any indication of what's coming, buckle up. we've gone down this road and we'll go back to the summer of 2016. >> are there any ties between mr. trump, you, or your campaign and putin and his regime? >> no, there are not. that's absurd and, you know, there's no basis to it. >> so think about that, july of 2016 manafort says that and here's where we are now. >> collusion isn't a crime. >> collusion is not a crime. >> i have said that over and over. collusion is not a crime. >> guess what? the president seems to agree with that legal advice because today he tweeted "collusion is not a crime, but that doesn't matter because there was no collusion except by crooked hillary and the democrats." let's be clear here. collusion is a crime. there's another word for it, it's called c

but you know, the "times" is absolutely right and pete williams is right. we may not learn very much about russia collusion in this trial, but we will, i think, it will be reinforced to us that paul manafort came to the trump campaign essentially broke and deeply in debt to some russian oligarchs and that may have made him a ripe target for recruitment by russian intelligence. now, whether he has anything to tell about that, whether that actually happened, i think we're going have to wait to see whether he's convicted and whether robert mueller can then compel his testimony in exchange for perhaps a lighter sentence, brian. >> that laid out the case very well. counselor, welcome to you. a couple of procedural questions. how long does jury selection take in a trial like this? >> it really depends. i think in this case it may be challenging for them to get a jury. certainly it's going to be hard to find people that haven't heard about the case, that haven't already formed some strong opinions about this case, so this may take a few days. it may take into the

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is in washington for us this afternoon. pete, the president reportedly interviewing about seven potential candidates for justice kennedy's seat. is this a process that's moving any faster than it usually does? >> breathtaking speed, yes, absolutely. because normally the, this is a standing start here but obviously the white house thought that justice kennedy would likely retire at the end of this term. they've had this list of 25 judges, narrowing it down to five or six or possibly seven. so they've had this sort of engine idling in the garage ready to go. so they're able to -- i'm radically messing my metaphors. but they're able to go here very quickly from 0 to 60. the real question is once they make the nomination, how soon will congress move. but yes, the whole process is going to be somewhat telescoped here. and i suppose that's partly, in fact, driven by the fact that justice kennedy says he wants to leave the court on july 31. if congress wants to have all nine justices on the bench by the first monday in october, the

according to our pete williams, i think you would have guessed it by now. on the phone joining us now, generjen palmeiri, what do you think when you see this indictment, what's your reaction. >> i found it stunning and they would conclude that vurussia fo the first time attack the clinton's campaign e-mail on the night that trump says hey, russia, if you are listening. the worse fears that we had in 2016 played out two years later. they have evidence to prove that and it is, i remember that through the democratic convention and my colleagues, what about visit with all the press and say we don't think you are joking. we think this is serious. we think russia is not trying to hack into our campaign but help donald trump. it was far too fantastic. a scenario for most people to take the lead. >> it was certainly unexpected. i was covering the campaign and i was there on the july 27th, news conference as you were at the democratic national convention with your candidate. donald trump comes in and asked for 30,000 e-mails to be found. i asked if he was serious an

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more on this. >> reporter: yasmin, in brett kavanaughdeep roots in washington and politics and the law. president trump announced the nomination and praised brett kavanaugh as a solid conservative. >> judge kavanaugh has impeccable credentials, unsurpassed qualifications and a proven commitment to equal justice under the law. >> a judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. the judge must interpret statutes as written and a judge must interpret the constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent. >> more than any of the others on the president's shot list, brett kavanaugh knows his way around washington. he grew up in nearby maryland where his mother was a state court judge, graduated from yale and yale law and was a supreme court law clerk for justice anthony kennedy 25 years ago, at the same time as fellow kennedy clerk neil gorsuch who was put on the supreme court by president trump last year. kavanaugh met kenneth starr during a fellowship and became a key staff member when starr w

joining me now, nbc's justice correspondent pete williams and kristen welker, robert costa, the national political reporter at "the washington post" and moderator of "washington week." and adam white, research fellow at the hoover institution and director for the study of the administrative state at george mason university's antonin scalia law school. thank you very much. pete, set the stage for us. we understand these are the four finalists. you never know what the president might do. how do you see the -- them stacking up in these closing hours? >> yeah, i don't even know if they know who he's chosen. remember last year the president went to great lengths to conceal the fact that it was neil gorsuch. and the way they sort of sneaked him into town. i don't know if they've done that with these folks yet. brett kavanaugh if you look at individually, he's the only one with an ivy league education. that's something president trump has said it important. kavanaugh is a yale graduate. solid conservative. 12 years as an appellate judge. he worked for president george w. bush, someone trump has