our pete williams has details. >> reporter: as the ge u.s. seeks to

pete williams, nbc news in the justice department.te this is alexander at the white house after robert mueller suggested only congress could formally accuse the president of wrong-doing. escalating pressure from democrats to begin impeachment, but no change from nancy pelosi. >> the cashas to be very mpelling. many constituents want to impeach the president, but we want to do what is right and get results. what gets results. >> the house speaker resisting calls for more than 40 colleagues, but nay not be able to for long. if it happens, the impeachment process would ogin, ledy jerry nadler. >> all options arethe table and nothing should be ruled out. >> that are moment appearing more likely. several 2020 candidates among those. >> bob mueller was essentially referring impeachment totahe united ss congress. part message is really, over to you, congress. >> joe biden saying impeachment may be un avoavoi avoiavoidables administraontinues on its path. for justin amash, the only house republan calling for impeachment, the ball is in our court, congress. president trump said nothing has chan

pete williams, nbc news, at the justice department >> reporter: this is peter alexander at the white house. after robert mueller suggested only congress could formally accuse the president of wrongdoing, tonight escalating pressure from democrats to begin impeachment proceedings. but no change from nancy pelosi >> the case has to be very compelling. many constituents want to impeach the president. but we want to do what is right and what gets results. what gets relt house ea colleagues but she may not be able to for long house judiciary committee, led by jerry nadler >> with respect to the impeachment question at this point, all table anare on the >> reporter: that moment appearing more likely several 2020 candidates pouncing on mueller's remarks. >> i think it's a fair inference from what we heard in that press conference that bob mueller was essentially referring impeachment to the united states congress >> reporter: former vice president for the first time saying impeachment may be unavoidable if this administration continues on its path. and from michigan's justin amash, the only

pete williams, clint watts, thank you both so much. >>> coming up, the kids are all right.igh school students across the globe staging classroom walkouts today, protesting climate inaction, right here on andrea mitchell only on msnbc. ght herea mitchell only on msnbc oh! oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse needles. do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyr

pete williams starts off our coverage. >> reporter: democrats pounced from the beginning. >> i expected you to try to protect the president and indeed, you did. >> reporter: william barr arrived on the defensive after a report overnight that mueller wrote to him three days after barr offered a public description over march's conclusions. and there is now public confusion, mueller wrote, that threatens to undermine public confidence in the outcome of the investigations. >> a career prosecutor rebuking the attorney general of the united states memorializing in writing. right? i know of no other instance of that happening. do you? >> the letter is a bit snitty and i think it was probably written by one of his staff people. s fo-page description of the mueller report, he said, was not intended to be a summary. >> i analogize it to after a >> how could he have emegied recently of a general, members of the special counsel's team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your march 24th letter. do you know what they are referencing with that? >> no, i don't. >> repo

we want to go to our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what can you tell us about the response to this shooting? >> totally different. this campus is less than ten miles away from columbine high school, but the response to today's shooting is so much different. columbine in 1999 convinced the nation's police that they needed to react to these reports differently, and today was a very vivid demonstration of that, with the first responder saying they could actually hear gunshots inside as they arrived. that's completely different from what used to be the protocol, secure the perimeter and wait for the s.w.a.t. team. and this rapid swarm by police rushing toward the danger undoubtedly saves lives, lester. >> pete williams in washington, thank you. we are following every development of this story. we will bring you any new information as we get it. we also wantge ni tornadoes and damaging hail. al roker joins us now with the latest. >> lester, we have tornado watches up even as we speak through tonight from texas all the way to oklahoma

but i want to start with nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what were you learning about robert mueller's letter and specifically that phone call to the attorney general? when you look at the sound bite from last month and bill barr saying, i don't know, tough to spalio given this information. >> a couple questions. number one, there was a phone call from barr to mueller. he sends the letter and barr says let's talk about it. what the justice department is saying about the sound bite you played, what do you think mueller makes of your conclusion, and barr said i don't know, i think barr there is talking about the attorney general's conclusion that the president didn't commit a crime, which is not the subject of the letter as well understand it. let me read part of the letter to you. it says, "the summary letter department sent to congress and released to the public late afternoon march 24th did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions. there is now public confusion about critical aspects o

let's bring in our justice correspondent pete williams, pete this is a pretty stunning turn. how big of an informant was zazi to authorities? >> this is one of the most successful flips in the u.s. war on terror. the u.s. says zazi was a critical source of information about al qaeda based on the time he spent in terror trai the people he met there. he helped foil a terror attack at a shopping mall in england. he said in court today he's not the same person he was when he wanted to attack the subways and the prosecutors say they have no reservations about his mind set today. lester? >> pete williams, thanks. >>> now to the dramatic fallout after the hot seat was set for a no-show attorney general william barr. the attorney general declined to show up for round two before congress today and nancy pelosi accused him of committing a crime. hallie jackson with the latest twist from washington. >> reporter: making a show of a no show house democrats aiming their anger at an empty chair, rather than the attorney general. >> mr. barr's moment of accountability will come soon enough.

our pete williams has late details. >> reporter: as the u.s. seeks to get julian assange back here from london for trial, he faces a new set of charges tonight, greatly amping up the case against him in what in what is apparently the first, the u.s. government is bringing espionage charges against someone that published classified information, charges traditionally filed against employees who possess classified information and illegally reveal it. this is a water shed portion of the espionage act which has historically been used to prosecute insiders who publish information. >> he actively helped private chelsea manning get classified documents. the new document says assange intentionally published documents on wikileaks, including names of people acting as sources of information for the u.s. military and state department in iraq, afghanistan, iran, china and syria. those who leaked the indictment, it says, created a grave and imminent risk that the innocent people he named would suffer physical harm or detention. the obama decided against usin

>> pete williams for us, thank you. >> muellers commentave democrats in the house with a major decision will they pursue impeachment proceedings using the case laid out in the special counsel's report nbc's tracie potts joining us from d.c. with more. tracie, good morning despite these growing calls, speaker nancy pelosi still isn't bowing to the pressu from someeven in her own party. >> reporter: no, she's not we know now that there are at least 40 democrats and one republican, michigan's justin amash, who say that impeachment proceedings should start in other words, that the process of charging a president that mueller made it clear he could not do needs to begin in the house ofre repntatives but as you said, house speaker nancy pelosi not quite onboard with that ye she's pumping the brakes, saying that what congress needs to do at this point is continue to investigate. >> many constituents want to impeach the president, but we want to do what is right and what gets results, what gets >> reporter: so whilthere are r impeachment,fo for starting that process, it doesn't look like the le

nbc's pete williams has more. >> reporter: john walker lindh's imminent rease has law enforcement officials concerned tonight. nbc news learned an internal memo warns that he remains a committed jihadist after serving 17 years of a 20-ar prison sentence. he was called the american taliban, a shocking arrest in afghanistan two months after the 9/11 attacks. >> what is your name? fo>> reporter: he ht with the taliban and met al qaeda leader bin laden. lindh was questioned fft an afghan prison by ciaer johnny michael span killed in an uprising there several hours later. lindh pleaded guilty in 2002 to support the taliban tearfully renouncing terrorism in court but these u.s. intelligence assessments say he continued to advocate global jihad while in prison. in his letter in 2015 seen tonight for the first time, he expressed support for isis and said quote they are doing a jo spectacular span's parents say lindh should never be let out of prison. >> he's not been rehabilitated and he'll probab go into the same islamic terrorist activities he's been doing because evidently he has not stopped. or

our pete williams is in washington with details just coming in. pete, what can you tell us? >> reporter: lester, justice department officials say special counsel robert mueller told attorney general william barr that the initial account of the mueller report in barr's four-page letter last month caused public confusion. the officials say in a letter and subsequent phone call mueller said that barr's march 24th letter, the four-page description of what barr called capture the substance of the 440-page document. mueller suggested barr sections of briefmmar the report. these officials say mueller did not describe barr's letter as inaccurate, but thought it was resulting in misleading news coverage. they say mueller expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting coverage. barr has said he did not want to release the report piecemeal and could not simply put out the summaries because they had not yet been scrubbed to remove grand jury information. barr is sure to be asked about this when he testifies tomorrow before the senate. >> pete williams in washington. tha

our pete williams has details. >> reporter: as the ge u.s. seeks to julian assange back here to london for his trial, he faces a new set of charges tonight greatly amping up the case against him in first the u.s. y a government is bringing espionage charges against someone who published classified information, charges traditionally filed againsgovernment employees that legally possess classified information but illegally reveal it. this is a watershed application of the espionage act, which historically has only en besed to prosecute insiders who desimilar nate national security national securiti national securitm desiminste national security information. federal prosecutors say assange was no journalist because he helped chelsea manning get thousands of classified documents. the new indictment says assange te inionally published documents on udikileaks that incled the names of people acting as sources of information for the u.s. military and state department , in iraq, afghanistan iran, china and syria. those leaks the indictment says create

>> all right, pete williams for us. pete, thank you. we've all been waiting for is finally here. no, the crib is not back. we're talking about prince harry and meghan markle. they have welcomed their first. royal baby the official announcement was made on the ceremonial easel outside of buckingham lace. the royal fever has reached an all-time high as fans all across the worue try to gss what the baby's name is going to be. nbc's keir simmons is in windsor with the very latest. >> reporter: a god bless america and god save the queen. >> reporter: it's a boy for prince harry and duchess meghan. >> pip pip -- >> hooray. >> this thing is to die s for, i'm over the moon. >> rorter: the new dad beaming. baby sussex born 7 pounds and 3 ounces. >> mother and baby are doing incredibly well. it's been the most amazing experience i could ever possibly imagine. how any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension, but we're both' salutely thrilled. >> reporter: t announcement made on harry andmeghan's instagram, a royal first. their son arriving at 5:26 this morning set in official royal

of course an employee would know how to do it. >> pete williams, thank you so much, sir, tonight. our local affiliate, wavy, interviewed some witnesses at the scene. let's listen. >> yelling and screaming, trying to get everybody safe and some gunshots. >> reporter: when you heard the gunshots, what did you hear? >> we just heard people yelling and screaming to get down. i was on the phone with 911 so i was trying to concentrate on getting -- talking to them. >> a human face of a tragedy. let's listen to what virginia governor ralph northam had to say while on his way to a briefing on the shooting. >> our folks at the hospital, just making sure that we take care of everybody right now. we're going to be briefed here and i'll have some further comments a little while later in the evening. >> they say 11 are dead. when you hear that -- >> yes. it's just a horrific day. >> let me go back to jim cavanaugh. unfortunately another guy i talk to in the worst moments of our times here. jim, as pete williams was talking about this category of mass shooting, it seems to be people who know ea

instance of an attack known as ransomware, a growing danger that could strike where you ve here is pete williams>>eporter: tonight, it's a huge headache to complete a home the city's computer sy that looks for property liens or debts to check for a clear titl is locked as buyers and sellers wait the city searches paper files by hand. >> i've been here since 6:45 ino thing. >> i think that they're trying their best to get as many of our documents processed. >> reporter: baltimore was hit two weeks ago by ransomware, freezing thousands of city computers. hackerdemanded 13 bitcoins code to unlock the sysor the ntsimilar attack tied atlaa ind knots last year anst millions to recover. greenville, north carolina, a city of 90,000, was hit just last month so far this year, analysts say 25 local governments have been victimized the president of baltimore cy council, brandon scott, says his city will not pay the ransom. >> you talk to technology people and others, people who pay ransoms can leave something in the system and come back and shut you down ain. and i just have to take the advice of the law en

coming up on news 4 at 5:00, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us live in the studio to explainme what it ans. >>> a man under arrest for nd drugging a sexually assaulting women he met at local bars. there are now new charges aga st this suspect. >> and a university of maryland graduate found alive after being lost for more than two weeks in the hawaiian forest talking about her hlth and >>> and the latest on that miracle in hawaii. overnight a man did manda ellerg a celebration wit the rescuers who found her after two weeks lost in the dense hawaiian forest. erika gonzalez has more from a new conference that just ended. >> the maryland native who was rescued from a fost in maui is telling a harrowing tale. amanda eller said on may 8th she felt a strong urge to go to that forest for a hike. she said she likes to disconnect. so she left her phone in the car. after that, that hike, she became disoriewhed. at started as a 3 mile hike urned into 17 days of sleeping in mud, drinking river water, hed eating berries to stay alive. says every day there was a lesson to lberned

nbc justice correspondent pete williams is at the court. pete, what is this about? >> this involves an indiana law passed in 2016 and signed by mike pence when he was then the governor. the supreme court upheld part of it today or invalidated part of it and left the lower court rulings that invalidated part of it. allows the law to take effects to how the remains of fetal tissues are remained of. they can't be treated like medical waste and they have to be cremated or buried. that provision of the law will go into effect. the second provision would have prohibited abortion when a woman is told by her doctor it is a virtual certainty that her child will have severe disability or down syndrome. that part of the law is invalidated. planned parenthood said it would compel a woman to deliver a child when it would die in infancy. part of the law held and part of it struck down. back to you. >> pete williams that supreme court. thank you for that. >>> still a lot more to cover this morning, including the president suddenly reviving talk of a decade old crime bill. >>> and

the ball is in congress' court 100% today. >> pete williams is standing by. pete we have heard from jerry nadler, the chairman of the house judiciary committee, i will not read his entire statement, but he said, although the department of justice prevented the special counsel from bringing charges against the president, the special counsel has clearly demonstrated that president trump is lying about the special counsel's findings, lying about the testimony of key witnesses in the special counsel's report and is lying in saying that the special counsel found no obstruction and no collusion. given that special counsel mueller was unable to pursue criminal charges against the president, it falls to congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrong doing of and we will do so. not even the president of the united states is above the law. pete, have we heard anything from the justice department in response to what we just heard from its special counsel, robert mueller? >> reporter: no. didn't expect to. there's no -- there's nothing to respond to from the just

i want to go to pete williams who was in that om. he is on the seventh floor of the justice department this morning. pete, he didn't go outside the report. heelso has said h doesn't want to testify before congress. it may be that congress itself has a say in that. how do you expect this to play out? >> this was his victory speech. really, it was a forl end to the investigation. he decided he didn't want to make a public statement. most of it, you're right, was a ary of his written report. what he didn't say is nobody has told me whether or not i can or should testify before congress. so, that clearly is up to him. and he said if he does testify, though, don't get your hopes up. he is not going to go beyond what is in his report and he also said what was interesting, the special counsel office as of today ceas to exist. it largely exist several weeks ago when the report was turned in but still doing some follbuing up work. now any discussion between congress and the justice department about whether and if the underliningls materia that

pete williams in washington, robert costa national political reporter for "the washington post." and matt miller, former justice department spokesperson and msnbc analyst. pete, to you first. barr talked about the legal analysis in the mueller report and i want to share more of what he said. >> we didn't agree with the legal analysis, a lot of the legal analysis of the report. it did not reflect the views of the department, it was the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers. >> correct me if i'm wrong, barr told congress last month that he did accept mueller's legal framework. what's changed? >> i'm not quite sure what the attorney general is referring to about the legal analysis. my assumption is because of the questions that jan crawford was asking him, that it was the analysis about what constituted obstruction of justice. whether the allegations that were looked at, the ten instances that the report looked at amounted to obstruction of justice and what i gather from the attorney general is he's saying that we know that he and rod rosenstein concluded that none of those amounte

let's get the inside scoop from nbc news justice correspondent pete williams and at the table sam steil and kimberly atkins for wbur and msnbc contributor as well. pete, first of all, what did the court do? am i correct that two of the justices both said they shouldn't have taken it up. 7-2, shouldn't have taken up the fetal remains burial issue. >> reporter: that appears to be the vote. this is what's known as a unsigned opinion. unsigned order of the court. in the difference the justice didn't get into the merits at all and justice ginsberg did. the unsigned opinion is that number one, the state has a legitimate interest in how human remains are disposed of. it cited an earlier ruling and said that provision of the law that the court lawed to go into effect was rationally tied to that even though it may not have been a perfect fit. as for the other question, though on the characteristics of the fetus law, that was -- the lower court ruling remains in place. the court said we're not expressing any view at all on the merits of that question on who should win or who should lose or whethe

pete williams joins me now. you've been covering this for manner decade. ince he -- apparently, you have new evidence, is still spouting pro-isis and anti-american views. >> two reasons. number one, in the federal system, you have to serve at least 85% of your prison sentence. he was sentenced e esentenced. so good behavior means obeying the rules and not being violent. he can't be locked up for what he thinks. he can .n't be locked up to what he believes, which is still support for jihad. but that's not a reason to keep him in prison. it's certainly a reason to watch him very closely, however. there are very tight restrictions on his release. for example, all of his internet use has to be monitored. he can't speak to one in electronic communications except in english, he can't leave the country, he can't have a passport. he would like to go to ireland, but he can't go. there's very close restrictions and we just know from federal authorities that the fbi and other agencies are going to be watching him very closely. >> johnny michael span, cia officer in th

we will hea analysis from nbc's pete williams just ahead and chuck todd will join us at 6:0 >> a horrifying sight of people walking near the white house of a mansetting himself on fire. people eating their lunch looked on in disbelief. he people who ran to save the man's life. >> reporter: this incident happened about 12:20 in thern aften on the on our end of the ellipse on constitutional avenuehere an adult set himself on fire on the white house grounds. this man said he saw it. >> it was like he tohed his whole body, on fire. >> reporter: did you hear him screaming? > he was walking like he was a zombie and wasn't screaming, put the torch extinguisher on and put his body out. that wast. >> right in front of the white house, they started yelling, everybody had to get back to lafayette park and clear the street. ey said someone set himself on this side of the white house. >> reporter: the victim was taken away in critical condition. authorities tell us there was never any threat to anyone else on the ellipse or the whit house. >> local firefighters wand to honor one of their own. they gathe

pete williams has the latest detail >> reporter: the u.s. seeks to get assange back here, he faces nea set of charges amping up against him. the u.s. government is bringing espionage charges against someone who published information. traditionally pressed against governme employees who illegally share it >> historically has only been used to prosecute insiders >> reporter: feder prosecutors say he was no journalist because he helped chelsea manning get thousands of documents the new papers published say including names included for iraq, afghanistan, iran and syria. those leaks created a grave and imminent risk that the people he named would suffer serious physical harm or detention the new charges are a shift. obama administration decided using against the charges. >> reporter: assange's lawyer calls the charges a wholesale attack on the freedom of speech but the justice department suggests wicky leaks does not deserve the protection of a news organization because he then put lives at risk. >>> the d of may is near in more ways than one, br

pete williams, former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence and national security analyst and barbara mcquaid. the white house clearly drawing a line now. this is the first formal assertion of executive privilege. >> reporter: it's not clear they are exerting executive privilege. n they may assert it. moments ago the white house is instructing don mcgahn, the president's former white house counsel, effectively to hold onto those documents subpoenaed by the house investigators because they said the president may want to assert executive privilege in this instance. the man who replaced don mcgahn as the white house counsel said to jerry nadler who heads the house judiciary committee, if you have any questions come to us directly because we're the ones who control these records. we're the ones who allowed mcgahn to use them for the sake of the investigation. if the future you have to come to us. for mcgahn's purpose, his attorney within the last hour, william burke said the house judiciary committee when there are contradictory statements between congress and the white house, we'

pete williams. what's the latest? >> reporter: i'll let pete go through the legal piece of it, ali.dea that the white house and department of justice is invoking immunity, directing don mcgahn not to appear before the house judiciary committee. let me read this. this was sent simultaneously from the press secretary as the doj sending its legal opinion on why they believe they have a leg to stand on in essence. the white house says department of justice provided this opinion that based on long-standing bipartisan and constitutional precedent, the former counsel to the president cannot be forced to give such testimony and mr. mcgahn has been directed to act accordingly. the white house continues this action has been taken in order to ensure future presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the office of the presidency. so the white house is invoking this argument that essentially if we have to do it now, have to let former white house counsel testify now, this could jeopardize future relationships between white house counsels and presidents of the united states essenti

our justice correspondent pete williams is outside the high court with details on this particular decision. pete, let's start with what's affected by today's ruling. >> reporter: right, so there were two provisions of this indiana law. one said that you could not get an abortion based on characteristics of the fetus. and groups that opposed this law said if a woman, for example, knew that her child would happen down syndrome, she would have to carry the pregnancy to term and could not seek an abortion. that is the provision that was struck down by the lower courts which the supreme court left intact today, they left intact the lower court rulings that invalidated the provision. the supreme court said it was expressing no view on the constitutional merits of that provision, but it simply said that it doesn't normally rule on big cases like this unless the lower courts have had a chance to rule on it, and since there was only one lower court decision, it was simply going to duck it. and so the court did not take up an appeal from indiana on that. it left the lower court provision in place th

>> pete williams. helping us understand what this means. pete, thanks as always. >>> back to politics now. to iowa, where that state may have only six electoral votes but its early caucus system, just talking about this, the caucus system gives iowa a critical role in any presidential campaign. 2020 no exception. democratic contenders have been crisscrossing the hawkeye state to make their faces and some some cases their names known to voters. so what's in the hearts and minds of iowa voters? reporter for axios there last week covering the campaign, here for a debrief and as i understand it, you watched a focus group of iowa swing voters last week and wrote that they loved, loved some of the liberal proposals such as elizabeth warren's proposal to erase student loan debt but not sold on the democratic candidates. they liked the messages, perhaps in is kas, not so much the messengers. what did you get what they were looking for in a candidate? >> you know, this is one of the more fascinating focus groups i watched as part of this partnership

well, our next reporter certainly knows because nobody knows the justice department better than pete williams. pete, i'm a mere civilian. explain to me what this new authority is and why does it have so many people concerned? an average person on the street might say, attorney general, yeah, that's his jam. >> it gives the attorney general two things. in terms of this review that he's been doing of how the fbi and why the fbi launched its investigation of the trump campaign as it was looking at russian investigation meddling. the first thing directs the intelligence agencies to cooperate with him in this. i think this is, you know, sort of pro forma. he's already had this cooperation. the doj says he's been working with them. the key thing is to give the attorney general the authority to classify the declassification of the intel agencies in doing their initial investigation. what's significant about that is that this declassification authority is something these agencies very jealously guard because they know why these things are classified, what went into it. now, the order does say that th

member of the house judiciary committee, but we kick it off first with nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, thanks for joining us. in this letter that the white house is sending to the house judiciary committee saying they're telling mcgahn not to appear, they're saying they're acting as past administrations of both parties have in terms of claiming executive in a circumstance like this. walk us through what they're claiming and if that statement is accurate. >> so it is not executive privilege here, it is something beyond that, it is executive privilege plus. what the justice department says is that for at least the past 8 administrations, including the democratic administrations of carter, clinton and obama, the justice department's position has been that presidential advisers, close advisers have absolute immunity from being compelled to testify before congress. what the justice department says is that this is the view basically it has had since early 1970s. it goes to separation of power issue, that congress can no more compel the president himself to show up and testify than the

pete williams. the supreme court, tell us about the significance of the rulings about indiana as it relates to the bigger discussion that's going on about roe versus wade. >> reporter: i'd say it seems the court is going out of its way, it's not getting into the larger question. it said of holding this fetal remains, it says previous courts have said states have an interest in how human remains are handled and that, therefore, indiana, rather, indiana had a rational basis for passing this law even if it wasn't a perfect fit with these previous rulings. on the other hand, the restriction on getting an abortion, it's based on the characteristics of the fetus. the court said it was striking, it was leaving the lower court ruling in place that struck it down. without expressing any position on whether the lower court was right or not. it simply said, we don't like to take big cases like this big issues like this when there is only one lower court ruling. the usual reason the supreme court takes a case i

pete williams has more. >> reporter: it is a huge headache to complete a home sale in baltimore.he city's computer system that ks for profit liens or debts to check for a clear title is locked up asan buyers sellers wait as the citya searchesr files by hand. >> i've been here since 6:45 in the morning. >> i think they're trying their best to get as many documents processed. >> reporter: baltimore was hit two weeks ago about ransom ware freezing thousands of computer and demandedof 13 bitcoins about $100,000 t to unlock system. a similar instance happened in atlanta and greenville, north carolina, was hit just last month. so far this year analysts say 25 local governments have been victimized. the president of baltimore city council brandon scott said his city will not pay the ransom. ch you talk to -- to tenology, they could leave something in the syst and come back and shut you down again and i have to take the advice of law enforcement. >> reporter: they say it is a warning that cities large and prepared. be better >> cash strap for college are uniquelyle vulnerabo this kind of

joining me to talk about that is justice correspondent pete williams. most people like me would say is new evidence, except the supreme court has heard the arguments in this case already. >> that's right. the case was argued april 23rd and there's no formal mechanism for reopening the case. what happened is the aclu notified a -- the district judge that heard this case in new york and directed the census bureau not to add the question. that's the case that's on appeal to the supreme court. the aclu notified the judge and said even though the supreme court has the case, you have jurisdiction if anyone mislead the court. we want there to be a hearing on whether two government officials misled the court by denying this research had any role in the letter that ultimately came from the justice department or the commerce department asking for this data saying it would help the government administer the data. that was filed in the district court yesterday. they sent a copy of that report to the supreme court with a letter saying here's what we filed. thought y

pete williams, nbc news, at the justice department >>> coming up, arsenal feels the blues.om the europe pa league final next. ae pa league final next. pa league final next. pa league final next. a league final next. league final next. unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. talk to your doctor today, and learn how jan

joining me, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, white house correspondent and msnbc political analyst gentleman moosh alcindor, sahill kapur, former deputy assistant attorney general at the doj elliot williams and editor-in-chief and msnbc legal analyst ben wittist. >> i want to start with you this letter that we're getting a chance to read, seems to lay out some rationale from the white house as to why they don't consider -- why they would like to be able to en voc executive privilege. what should we be focused on in this letter? >> they don't exert executive privilege over the report. barr has said that. this is a letter sent the day after the report was made public, sent april 19th. it is a letter from white house counsel emmitt flood saying he wants to, in the words of the letter, memorialize his concerns. it's basically a letter for the record. what they're saying is we hope this doesn't serve as a blueprint for how these special counsel investigations are carried on in the future because we think a number of things were done wrong. mainly they say, they take issue with t

we have live cameras with jeff, casey, all over the hill, pete williams in washington. ashley, i want to thank you for joining us along with cynthia and harry. we have a ton more to get to, including more on what the 2020 contenders want to see from the attorney general. an exclusive look inside the trump administration's newest migrant tent city as the commander in chief compares the border to the happiest place on earth. gabe gutierrez is on the ground in texas with an exclusive reality check. there he is. he is with us after the break. t. your daily dashboard from fidelity. a visual snapshot of your investments. key portfolio events. all in one place. because when it's decision time... you need decision tech. only from fidelity. you need decision tech. i can customize each line for each family member? yup. and since it comes with your internet, you can switch wireless carriers, and save hundreds of dollars a year. are you pullin' my leg? nope. you sure you're not pullin' my leg? i think it's your dog. oh it's him. good call. get the data options you need and still sa

but we know both from mueller's statements and reporting that pete williams' has done, that mueller and his team went into this investigation thinking that not only can't we charge the president of a crime, we can't accuse the president informally. we can't say that we believe this conduct constitutes a crime. and so what we have is a report that lays out ten examples of conduct and it's open to interpretation. many democrats are saying, that's obstruction and a bunch of republicans are saying it isn't. it's deeply unsatisfying to a lot of people who thought that robert mueller was going to get in there and get to the bottom of it. unfortunately he was laboring under some narrow special counsel -- >> isn't that the whole point? the mueller team says they got to the bottom of it, that's why they busted two different election reference operations, that's why they had the highest rate of indictment of presidential appointees. they did all that, they teed it up, they got to the bottom of it evidentiariwise and then they said, here's the report, here's the rules and people can do something w

pete williams has been looking into this and joins us with more. >> the aclu has discovered new documents that show the real origins of this idea that it was not as the commerce secretary wilbur ross testified before congress, it's not an idea that originated in the justice department about a way to better administer the voting rights by getting citizenship data. the aclu says is new documents indicate it actually came from a longtime republican strategist who has consulted with the party and advised them on how to redraw the political district boundaries for state legislature and the u.s. house of representatives. and he proposed this orange fally after studying this in 2015. they say his name is thomas hofeler, that he wrote a memo about this and drafted what became the letter that the justice department sent to commerce purportedly asking for this data, so what the aclu says is when administration officials testified about all this before a trial on this issue in new york, they misled the judge and the jury and they want a hearing next wednesday about whether these witnesses should be

joining me to break all of this down for us is our very own pete williams. pete, give us some background into this case. how did this come about? >> well, it came about in 2011 when the republican-controlled legislature came up with the map you just showed for ohio's 16 congressional districts. let. he show it to you again. these blue ones are the four democratic districts. in all four elections that this map has been used, the republicans have won the same red districts and the democrats have won the same blue ones. and what the court said today is that the legislature basically took the democrats and jammed as many as possible into the blue districts so that they had a majority there and then spread the rest of them out among the red districts where they could never coalesce to get a majority, allowing the republicans to have the majority in those other districts. they said that is unconstitutional, that it is partisan gerrymandering. it ordered the state to come up with a new plan by june 14th to be used in the 2020 election. now, the question of whether

you heard our pete williams report about that lawsuit. what do you think is going to be the result of all this? >> i hope it's an injunction and it's a pushback from the courts doing the job the legislature would not. they did say pretty definitively, although they couldn't pass it in a veto proof majority that it was a usu asurpitation of authority. this reset on immigration from the president makes a lot of sense. they have the base. they have the hard line immigration voters. now they're going after something that's a little bit more moderate, a little bit more se sente centri centrist. they're not creating momentum for a legislative approach to this. it's not ann coulter that's going to be the problem, but the crowds. when he gets before his crowds in the 2020 cycle, he's going to return to his -- the stuff that really works for them, which is usually hard line immigration r rhetoric. >> marine one is landing there on the south lawn. the president coming back from here in new york city. he was here for a fundraiser. he's going to spea

pete williams was at the court for the decision. he joins us now. ade, not older than 41 years old. is that a direct reference to that? >> he mentioned the precedent in the dissent today. this is a dissent, court ruled 5-4, one state can't be sued in the courts of another state unless it gives its permission, this was a taxpayer lawsuit in nevada against california. he wrote for himself and three other liberals, said overturning long-standing precedent requires some special justification, yonl the filing that an earlier court got it wrong. later judges may believe earlier appointed judges made a mistake, but said law can retain necessary stability only if the supreme court resists that temptation, and among cases he mentioned that deserved respect mentioned, the reserve respect as president as the supreme court's 1992 ruling, planned parenthood v casey which upheld the fundamental right to an abortion which was first stated in roe. he also mentioned a patent case four years ago. here is i think a key quote from breyer's dissent. he said the people of

pete williams who you saw in that clip has covered this story from the beginning. us about why lindh is being released and maybe put into context what it was like when this arrest happened. >> he is being released now because he was sentenced to 20 years, but in the federal system there is no parole, but there is time off for in either sense good be may have. so doing the calculation, it came out to 17 years. and it seemed obvious when he was sentenced that he would only serve 17 years. so there is also a three year probation term. and the judge has impeased a very unusual set of restrictions on john lindh when gets out tomorrow. any internet device that he uses has to be approved by the probation office, it has to be monitored, he can't speak to anyone in a foreign language, he can't look at extremist isist i. he has said that he hoped to go to ireland, but that didn't seem like it will happen. the reason for the concern is this. when john walker lindh pleaded guilty, the story that you just saw the beginning of there, he said te said tearfully that he renounced an

pete williams is with us along with nancy cook and reuters white house correspondent jeff mason. so, pete, some important timing context here. it sound as though the u.s. attorney from connecticut had been in charge of this for the last couple of weeks. we're just now finding out more? >> that's what i'm reporting this morning, hallie. this was actually done nearly a month ago and the fact that this is going to be done, that the review was going to happen is something the attorney general has been saying for several weeks. he wants to know whether the intelligence assets of the u.s. were properly predicated when they were applied against the trump campaign in the period leading up to the inauguration. so, this is strictly during the campaign period. he has said that he's been around before when intelligence assets were abused. looking into civil libertarians without the necessary predicate he wants to make sure it was done right this time. since he made these comments initially, you know, you've heard from several former leaders of the fbi, the former fbi director james comey, the

we get the latest from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> reporter: michael cohen battled his way out of his apartment building named for donald trump for the ride to prison after one last dig at the man he once loyally served. >> i hope that when i rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice and lies at the helm of our country. >> reporter: he got a three-year sentence at a minimum security prison in new york for financial crimes and lying to congress. he was hoping prosecutors would shave time off in return for his offer to tell them more as a former trump insider but there were no takers. and new questions if and when robert mueller might testify before congress. president trump said he's against it tweeting bob mueller should not testify, no redos for the dems. he said it would be up to attorney general william barr. robert mueller still works for the department but when he stops being special counsel he'll be freer to make his decision whether to testify. lester? >> all right. pete, thanks. >>> there is more troubling new