we begin with vaughn hillyard outside the court, andrew weissmann, and former u.s. attorney, chuck rosenberg. vaughn, highlights from the gag order hearing. >> reporter: from the gag order hearing, was the fact that the judge has yet to make a determination on whether donald trump violated the gag order that he placed on him at the beginning of this trial. the prosecution brought forward ten specific social media posts in reference to donald trump's own comments to cameras upon leaving the courthouse in which he attacked michael cohen. now, over the course of nearly an hour and a half, the two sides went back and forth. the headline was judge merchan's frustration with todd blanche, questioning his credibility with the court because of his inability to articulate on behalf of donald trump the post that he says that trump was directly responding to, as to why he felt he could attack the likes of michael cohen as well as stormy daniels. but also when he reposted others' posts about individuals like the jurors or stormy daniels or michael cohen, whether donald trump was

hallie. >> vaughn hillyard live for us in new york. thanks. >>> also tonight, the urgent search for two women missing in oklahoma, nowhere to be found, even with four people now arrested. george solis has the latest. >> reporter: tonight, there are new developments in the desperate search for missing kansas moms veronica butler and jilian kelley. authorities arresting these four people saturday in connection to the women's disappearance. butler and kelley vanished on march 30th somewhere near rural northwest oklahoma. authorities say the pair left hugoton, kansas, to pick up their children but never made it. their car later found abandoned near the kansas-oklahoma border. tonight we spoke with hunter mckee with the oklahoma state bureau of investigation. >> we are still looking for these women, and we cannot confirm that they are dead. however, based on the evidence, we did believe that it is necessary and appropriate to charge all four suspects with first-degree murder. >> reporter: in custody tonight, tad cullum, tifany adams, and co

back with us is nbc's vaughn hillyard, who is outside the court. joining us, former u.s. ance. and former manhattan assistant district attorney catherine christian. vaughn, said the stage. a lot of sidebars in the past hour. fill in the gaps. what line of questioning do you think the state is objecting to? >> reporter: right. over the course of the last hours, the defense team for donald trump is not explicitly saying to the jury, don't trust michael cohen, he lacks credibility. but they have brought up multiple instances with david pecker in their cross-examination that would lead the jury to question michael cohen and the extent he make exaggerate or take statements out of context. pecker's testimony was that michael cohen asked him to send paparazzi to a meeting he was going to have with mark cuban to essentially make donald trump jealous. a second example was in 2018, when the federal election commission sent a letter to david pecker about the alleged financial scheme, an arrangement they had pertaining to karen mcdougal and other efforts to suppress stories ahead of t

>> vaughn hillyard, keep us posted there.s a difference between embarrassment and fear that it would cost him the election as a nonlawyer, i'm saying. let's see where this goes. thank you for that. criminal trials are great equalizer. whatever your background and in trump's case that's one of privilege and power, defendants must essentially sit and take it. defendants like trump have to listen to the prosecution, lay out the case for the accused as a criminal and then also listen to the witnesses back it up. as barack obama's one time chief strategist david axelrod puts it, you can see that realization etched in the former president's face, you could sense it in his frenetic comments to the reporters where trump robotically recited the words, witch hunt, scam, hoax, and did so with a trace of desperation and even fear. so, john, today, our reporters who are in court say that trump had his eyes closed and seemed like he couldn't care less during the gag order hearing, but then when david pecker took the stand again and resumed

let's go back to vaughn hillyard to get an update. ing inside the courtroom are deliberations over potential evidence that can be brought before the jurors. the prosecution is asking the judge to present certain evidence, and just in the last three minutes, there's a conversation over karen mcdougal. she's the playboy model who alleged to have had an affair with donald trump for the better part of a year. her story was bought for $150,000. judge merchan did just make the decision that, in fact, karen mcdougal's story can come before the jury. the one part that cannot be brought up before the jurors is the fact that the allegation is that that affair took place while melania trump was pregnant with baron. that will not be admissible. the other thing we're watching in real time is the extent to which the "access hollywood" tape is able to be entered in as evidence. there's current discussion over whether the actual tape could be played for the jury. at this point in time, a compromise that judge merchan had agreed on was the ability for

joining me now, nbc's vaughn hillyard outside the courthouse, former federal prosecutor paul butler is back with me. former assistant new york attorney general tristan snell is in studio, and jeremy soland, criminal defense attorney and former manhattan prosecutor. i'm going to start with you because you're a defense attorney and you're new to this table. it's a challenge, right, no matter how many times the defense keeps going back and back and back to david pecker, trying to show this wasn't about the campaign, which is what you did, this is standard operating procedure, they said that over and over and over again yesterday. let me give you one of the later pieces of back and forth, and this is steinglass trying to, again, disprove that bove had just done, the defense attorney. how many, meaning of these stories, did you coordinate with a presidential candidate for the benefit of a campaign. . it's the only one. in this case, did you suppress stories to help a presidential candidate, pecker, yes. how do you think the defense is doing when that's what they're faced with? >> i think th

kara, dismissed this morning. >> what a fascinating conversation, vaughn hillyard, thanks very much.you both. >>> joining us now, as we continue to have this conversation, michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee and an msnbc political analyst. he is the host of the michael steele podcast. always contributing in so many ways. it's always great to see you, my friend. >> nice to see you, my friend. >> we are 6 1/2 months from the presidential election. trump starting his first criminal trial, day two today. what kind of impact do you think this will have or could already be having on voters? >> that's an interesting question. i was thinking about that over the last 24 hours. one of the things that occurs to me is, this idea of the -- when something is far away, the idea of it is sort of a myth. it could be this. we don't know if it will have this impact and how people will respond to it. now that it's here, i think it lands differently for folks. i think it lands a lot differently for voters. he is in -- he is actually there in court at the table. there are

with us to talk about this, nbc news correspondent, vaughn hillyard, and maya wiley, and david marcus a criminal defense attorney and a professor at the university of miami school of law. vaughn, get us up to speed as to what comes next. there's a pause, right? >> reporter: right, they are currently in the morning recess. gary farro, who was the former first republic banker that worked with michael cohen to set up the account for the llc that was operating as the pass through for michael cohen to get the home equity line of credit to the attorney for stormy daniels, and that took place just before the 2016 election, and that banker that worked with michael cohen is off the stand. they are now in morning recess. it's not clear who the next witness is that the prosecution is going to bring here to the stand. gary farro, notably, when answering questions of the defense team under cross-examination testified he never was aware of donald trump directly ordering any of the accounts to be set up or for any money to specifically be transferred. instead it, he viewed it as he was directing wit

vaughn hillyard joins me from outside the courthouse and catherine christian and former u.s. rney chuck rosenberg. vaughn, a third fact witness. tell me what you are hearing from the transcripter. >> reporter: three witnesses and it's not lunchtime. after david pecker took three days to himself, the district attorney's office is bringing in new witnesses. two of the names in the last hour we had to quickly search who they were. one was the archivist for c-span videos. he worked for c-span for 37 years. he is out of indiana. the d.a.'s office brought him in authenticate two campaign rally speeches from october of 2016, for donald trump, as well as a press conference from january of 2017, shortly before donald trump was sworn in, in which he praised michael cohen as a great lawyer. he brought the c-span archivist was able to authenticate that they were real and accurate. now he there is the regional director of this transcript -- this deposition company that's authenticating the deposition video that donald trump took part in as part of the e. jean carroll trial. that video, the

nbc's vaughn hillyard is outside that courthouse. vaughn, not only do we have jury selection continuing today, there is also this hearing we're expecting that could impact trump's potential testimony. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, good morning, ana. just in the last three minutes, the jury selection process has begun again. and there was a delay, namely because two jurors didn't show up who were previously in that jury box of 18. after waiting for more than 15 minutes, judge merchan said they're going to move forward in those two jurors, because they didn't show up, are dismissed. a third judge -- a third juror who showed up with flu-like symptoms. that juror was also dismissed. that gives you insight into why this process could take a long time. we're lucky today if they're able to get through the first batch of 96 jurors. this questionnaire process takes a lengthy amount of time, there is a 42 questionnaire for each of these individuals. i want to let you listen to donald trump a few moments ago, right as he was walking i

here is vaughn hillyard. >> reporter: on his third day on the stand, former "national enquirer" publisher of david pecker told the jury he refused to catch and kill stormy daniels' story about her relationship with then candidate donald trump. pecker said he told his right hand man at the "enquirer" not to pay daniels the $120,000 she was seeking because they'd already shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to keep other stories about mr. trump quiet. if anyone should buy it, pecker said, it should be donald trump and michael cohen, trump's former fixer. pecker says when he told cohen, quote, he was upset and responded that the boss, that's referring to trump, would be furious with me. pecker said today he believed mr. trump or his company had paid daniels until cohen told him in december of 2016 that he was the one who paid her. prosecutors are seeking to prove mr. trump doctored internal business records to cover up that payment. pecker also testified trump was aghast when he saw stormy daniels on "60 minutes." >> was it hush money to stay silent? >> yes. >> reporter: pecker says trum

>> vaughn hillyard, thank you. >>> new protests flaring up across the country today as pro-palestinian demonstrations escalated, and more people were arrested. and with graduation season practically here, liz kreutz reports schools are making tough choices. >> we will not go! >> reporter: in an unprecedented move, the university of southern california tonight canceling this year's main commencement ceremony, attended by roughly 65,000 people, citing new safety measures put in place amid protests on campus. this stunning decision coming a day after nearly 100 protesters were arrested for trespassing after a contentious rally where pro-palestinian demonstrators clashed with police. >> even if they have to cancel every single commencement, that's up to them. >> reporter: the school's administration had already canceled the graduation speech for their pro-palestinian valedictorian asna tabassum citing safety concerns. coast-to-coast protests growing from george washington university to northeastern to emory in atlanta, where police in riot gear today clashed with demonstrators. law enforce

vaughn hillyard, timothy heaphy, joyce vance. vaughn for getting and scrambling in front of the camera and going through that indictment so quickly and giving us that breaking news. thank you very much, my friend. i appreciate all of you. >>> and we will be right back. >>> anwed will be right back. a lot of time thinking about dirt. at three in the morning. any time of the day. what people don't know is that not all dirt is the same. you need dirt with the right kind of nutrients. look at this new organic soil from miracle-gro. everybody should have it. it worked great for us. this is as good as gold in any garden. if people only knew that it really is about the dirt. you're a dirt nerd. huge dirt nerd. i'm proud of it! [ryan laughs] an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel, which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. when others divide. we unite. with real solutions to help our kids

vaughn hillyard is at his post outside the courthouse for us. us is former manhattan district attorney catherine christian. vaughn, there's 17 perspective jurors being questioned. there are five slots left. i understand that one of the perspective jurors actually broke down in tears and was dismissed for cause. is that correct? >> reporter: that's right. the big question here over the next however -- before the lunch break is, are they able to find five alternates out of the batch of 17 who are remaining? five have been dismissed from the batch of 22 who are facing this more intense line of questioning. you noted that there was a potential juror who broke down crying in the courtroom saying that she was anxious and nervous because her father is a longtime friend of governor chris christie. when she had answered and testified to that earlier today, that brought the attention of donald trump directly eye to eye with her. now they began asking her further questions, she said she did not think that she would be able to withstand the pressure and be i

we start with nbc's vaughn hillyard outside the courthouse for us, and former u.s. rney joyce vance. vaughn, what's the latest on jury selection? they were questioning juror four. he was late to court today. he has expressed some concerns about information about him being released. the prosecutor has concerns he may have lied about his past record. >> reporter: exactly. there was expectation that there's going to be a lot of moving forward today, potentially filling the jury pool by tomorrow afternoon. instead, there is a walking backwards. number one, you have juror number two there who came in this morning after making a phone call to the court saying that she felt like she could not actually be fair and impartial after hearing from, in her words, friends, family, and colleagues. she said, quote, questioning my identity as a juror. i don't believe i can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect me. that juror was promptly dismissed and excused. they are looking to fill her vacancy. you mentioned, juror number four, deliberation is actively taki

nbc's vaughn hillyard joins us again from outside the courthouse. vaughn, what are we hearing?o find the five alternates, the five remaining slots that must be filled to round out the jury pool that could lead to opening statements taking place on monday. just one example of one of the individuals who has so far gone through the 42 questionnaire but not been booted at this point is a woman -- sorry, a male who said, quote, that he volunteered for getting out the vote for the democratic party during the clinton campaign and attended the women's march in 2017. now, this is the process where this individual also said that he currently doesn't hold strong opinions about donald trump, he's made it through this 42-question questionnaire, we'll get to the voir dire process and close to an hour from now and that's where the defense team for donald trump will be able to further ask this individual questions. but this is a moment where on the flip side you also have seen another juror say that they had read "art of a deal," one was a fox news viewer, he turned his said when he's keenly a

joining us now from outside of the courthouse in new york city is nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyardknow she's testifying as we speak, vaughn, and she's talking about having contacts for karen mcdougal and stormy daniels. what else can you tell us? >> reporter: right. karen mcdougal not only physical addresses but also phone numbers, and then a cell phone number for, quote, stormy. and this is the most significant here is that she said that she had, quote, vague recollection that stormy daniels who she knew was an adult film star, she has a, quote, vague recollection about her appearing at one point before the 2016 elections inside of the trump tower offices. what exactly does that mean? it is not clear. but she is currently answering questions here from the prosecution she is also confirming contacts that she was the assistant to donald trump, somebody who just almost always with him at trump tower was able to confirm the records that she was keeping on his behalf as well as documents. already they are having her verify e-mails between her and the executive assistant in 2017 to dona

let's check back in with nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. what's the latest, vaughn?porter: there is back and forth right now. they're literally going post by post, again, the judge is looking at ten different social media posts that the prosecution alleges donald trump to have violated his gag order on over the course of the last week and a half. and now after the prosecution went post by post, todd blanche, donald trump's attorney, is now responding, saying, quote, there is absolutely no willful violation of the gag order. and he's making a distinction between donald trump responding politically versus responding as it pertains to the legal proceedings. and making the case that, quote, the three posts were in direct response to comments by these witnesses, referring to stormy daniels and michael cohen, not about these proceedings. and he was not talking about their testimony. but instead, responding to public comments that they had made about him. now there is notably a name that we're going to bring up here that folks will recall. michael avenatti, the former attor

nbc's vaughn hillyard is outside the courthouse. also with us, john sale, watergate assistant prosecutor and former federal prosecutor, and jessica roth, also a former federal prosecutor. thank you all for joining us. vaughn, what's happening so far there this morning? >> reporter: right, yesterday on the stand during the cross examination, it was only able to last about one hour before ultimately court ended, and that's where this morning the cross examination from donald trump's defense attorney emil bove continues of david pecker. the focus so far this morning has been on two specific parts, number one, the extent to which hope hicks was involved in that august of 2015 meeting, asked about whether hope hicks was an active participant or spoke during that meeting, david pecker conceded that, no, she did not actively participate or speak during that trump tower meeting that was engaged between michael cohen, donald trump, and david pecker, only going so far as to say that she was in and out of the room. the second part of donald tru

let's bring in nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, former prosecutor charles coleman, and attorney and loyola law school professor jessica levinson. vaughn, let's start with the gag order. bring us all the details. >> reporter: the district attorney's office, ana, brought forward ten different allegations of social media posts made by donald trump over the course of two weeks that they alleged violated the gag order against him that barred him from attacking potential witnesses as it pertained to these criminal proceedings as well as jurors or potential jurors. and of those ten allegations brought forward by the district attorney, nine of them were found by judge merchan to have violated the gag order placed on donald trump. in his several page order, judge merchan writes that donald trump willfully violated the orders, not only attacking potential witnesses, stormy daniels and michael cohen, but also by discussing the jury and the implication that to a certain extent there could have been individuals who were trying to make their way on to this jury in an effort to taint them. lib

vaughn hillyard is standing by. what's happening, vaughn?nhattan. this is a moment here where new yorkers are coming into this courtroom and could potentially be serving anywhere from the next six to eight weeks on making the determination on whether the former president of the united states is guilty of multiple felony charges but also potentially the future president of the united states. we're looking at the fact that an individual could be sentenced to prison time in the heart of the summer around the republican national convention here. really putting the prospects of this race in clear focus. one thing i wanted to mention, while the jury selection process here begins, though, is the mention just a bit about about the sandoval hearing. catherine was beginning to explain it, and tomorrow morning, when folks wake up for day two of the trial, at 9:30 a.m., a sandoval hearing will commence. what is the sandoval hearing. this came at the request of the district attorney's office to present evidence from previous trials, including, for instan

joining us now, vaughn hillyard. vaughn, what is the latest from there?ls that are in the jury box are currently going through that 42 question questionnaire. we had another batch of 96 that came into the courtroom at 9:30 a.m. eastern this morning. about 65 of them were dismissed after saying that either they couldn't be fair and impartial or they had another reason that wouldn't allow them to go forward. we got an allotment of 39 individuals. interestingly you could say two have read art of the deal, one of them read michael cohen's book, another individual said that they had read mark pomerantz's book about this case. so, kind of a fascinating look inside. i want to let you meet another dismissed juror here, who i just met a few moments ago this is mark. you're one of those individuals, correct me if i'm wrong, you rose your hand and you said you would not able to be fair and impartial. how did that play out? >> we were summoned and the judge read all the particulars of the case, how one was supposed to evaluate the law, and the evidence, and then he s

vaughn hillyard just reporting that trump's criminal election interference hush money trial hz wrappedk with vaughn, john, andrew, let me bring you in on what happened in court today. it seemed like an effort to preimpeach the testimony on the record from david pecker about hick's presence and in and out of the 2015 trump tower meeting. talk about the significance of that. >> reporter: right. the defense team for donald trump went and was asking about that august 2015 meeting between michael cohen, donald trump and pecker after pecker testified that hope hicks was in on the meeting. they got pecker to acknowledge that she did not directly contribute or talk during the course of the meeting, but made her way in and out. this was sort of the picture of hope hicks and what role she played in 2015 and 2016. i think we have to look at her this that way ahead of her expected testimony before this very jury. she was 27 years old. i was covering the gop race. it was hope hicks that would fly with donald trump. throughout 2016, even when steve bannon came on with the team, hope hicks was still

. >> we've been joined by the one and only vaughn hillyard. >> good to see you again, my friend.s left here until the day one of the criminal trial of donald trump comes to an end. judge merchant erchan said he will conclude this evening regardless of where they are at. two thirds of the 98 jurors were dismissed from the outset. one of the first four potential jurors who went through the entire questionnaire quote, do you have any strong opinions about former president donald trump that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror. that one question i lone, that potential juror said yes and was dismissed. when you go back to david pecker, the ceo of the parent company of "the national enquirer" and planned out a catch-and-skill team, and per michael cohen, with the a plan to plant stories that were negative about people like marco rubio, and ted cruz through the primary process. this case tells the story of, you look at michael cohen, an individual who flipped on donald trump. you look at allen weisselberg, currently in jail because he stood solely in the co

. >> we start with nbc's vaughn hillyard, senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell, and msnbc co-host of "the weekend" and former rnc chairman michael steele and federal prosecutor and legal analyst paul butler. so, vonn, first to you. easter sunday, donald trump's anger social rant on truth social. talk to us about how this rolled out. >> there are more than 75 posts over the course of several hours on easter for donald trump's sake as we have seen him do over the course of especially the last year. two particular posts he shared pieces written by right-wring commentators. one that with the headline, quote, the crucifix of donald trump, and donald trump is the chosen one, and using donald trump's plight as coming from the supernatural and that donald trump in november will return america to greatness. you also saw him mock transgender day of visibility on a couple other posts. you also saw him in one particular post say, quote, happy easter to everybody, even those who despise me. for donald trump, of course the easter holiday, he spent it at mar-a-lago, for him using his fai

vaughn hillyard. amazing reporting. deep arizona knowledge. deep cuts from in the arizona election interference. really appreciate your time tonight. >> thanks alex. >> lisa, stay with me. we got a lot more for you. coming up, trump hads a new nickname tonight. unindicted coconspirator number one. tomorrow he will be back in a manhattan courtroom and known as defendant trump in his criminal hush money trial. we'll have more on the former president's escalating legal dramas coming up next. escalatil dramas coming up next. (♪♪) ohhh crap, that's a really good gift. now we gotta get france something. wait! we can use etsy's new gift mode! yes, what do the french like? ...anyone? cheese... they like cheese! brilliant. done. plateau de fromage! oh la la! [cheering] don't panic. gift easy with gift mode, new on etsy. slowing my cancer from growing and living longer are two things i want from my metastatic breast cancer treatment. and with kisqali, i can have both. kisqali is a pill that when taken with an aromatase inhibitor helps delay cancer from

vaughn hillyard delivered the best response on twitter saying trump just claimed that the police have shut down the streets around the courthouse for blocks and his protesters can't be here. not true. there is one pro trump person here and the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic and vaughn hillyard included this video showing you just how easily vehicles move around. and how much of no one is actually there. in support of donald trump. the truth is trump supporters do not care that donald trump is being prosecuted. they have made that very clear. he has begged them to show up and they have refused. yesterday, donald trump said america loving protesters should be allowed to protest at the front steps of courthouses all over the country. so, there is donald trump. summoning trump supporters in idaho to go to the courthouse in boise and stage a big protest for him. or in north dakota or utah or alabama or texas or somewhere there is a vast majority of voters for donald trump. any courthouse in america, florida, anywhere. and no one, no one anywhere in the country showed u

nbc's vaughn hillyard is in allentown, pennsylvania, where the former president held that rally last night. vaughn, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. former president trump here in battleground pennsylvania rallying supporters last night before the start of jury selection and his criminal trial in manhattan monday morning. this is the first-ever criminal trial for a former president over the alleged hush money scheme to cover up payments to adult film star stormy daniels before the 2016 election. now nbc news has learned some 6,000 new yorkers have been summoned to appear before the manhattan criminal courts next week as potential jurors. they will be asked more than 60 questions, including what news sources they read and watch and whether they have attempted a trump rally and followed him on social media. the questions per the judge's instructions do not specifically include whether potential jurors have ever voted for or against trump in the past. now, as the defendant, mr. trump is required to be inside the courtroom for the trial which could last up to six weeks. th

back with us, vaughn hillyard, live from outside the courthouse. , a trial attorney that represented white house employees during the clinton scandals. vaughn, what has been going on in the courtroom as of right now? >> reporter: this is the second day for david pecker on the stand. yesterday he was only able to testify for about 30 minutes. we are about five minutes into his testimony here today with the jury back in the jury box. i can tell you that the prosecution is currently going through the early meetings of donald trump and david pecker. of course, the former publisher of "the national enquirer," who is a crucial witness to the prosecution dating back to the meeting between michael cohen and donald trump and david pecker, when they concocted the catch and kill scheme. what the prosecution is doing in real time is asking david pecker when he first met donald trump. he's now telling the story of back in the 1980s at mar-a-lago when he met mr. trump, and he pointed to defendant trump in the courtroom, and notably he said their relationship beca

joining us is nbc's vaughn hillyard with me in new york.congress members barbara comstock and david jolly. from the two men who want to win back the white house, trump has made a point to really appeal to the evangelical base. he's out there selling bibles now, and this is how he spends easter? this is his message? >> quite something watching easter unfold for anyone following the truth social skt of donald j. trump. he had multiple posts in which he was promoting pieces that were mocking the transgender day of visibility. there are more than 75 posts in total. others said happy easter to all, including those that i completely and totally despise because they want to destroy america. he posted another ally's message saying it's not a crime to twist political arms, how donald trump told mike pence that certifying the 2020 election would be a, quote, career killer. posted another piece by a right wing ally in which it referred to, quote, the crucifixion of donald trump. another piece he posted had, quote, the chosen one. this is the part of t

>> joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent monica alba and nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyardnnedy family, how are they explaining putting their support behind joe biden and not one of their own family members, and how does an endorsement like this perhaps benefit joe biden. >> in the case of everybody you saw on stage just now there, ana, their own sibling, the siblings of robert kennedy jr. who came on the stage with president biden, and fully enbraced him over their own blood relative because the election is too high stakes to not get off the sidelines and put their weight behind president biden and vice president harris. they say that is because they believe their relative's candidacy could take votes away from president biden that could be critical in some of these battleground states. they are putting that into the context of the margins. it could be however small, however tight, and that is why their anxiety and concern is growing, but overall, they also say that of course this was a difficult decision for them to make as a family because they love their family member,

maybe he'll be the one to whisper to him. >> we have a great asset in vaughn hillyard who covered it e in that december, what was it, six years ago, vaughn, correct me, you remember it chapter and verse. all of these characters, and it's not just the fake electors who have been indicted but as we know, boris epshteyn, another key adviser, lawyer for the former president. this brings the whole circle of this arizona case now michigan, georgia, and arizona. fake electors all indicted in those cases, and it brings it right to the doorstep of donald trump, although he's an unindicted conspirator in the new indictment. tell us about it. >> reporter: right. i think an important part of the indictment from last night from the arizona attorney general is the fact that so many of these individuals from arizona, but also the national figures, from trump's attorneys to campaign officials are still very relevant as it pertains to the 2024 election. if you look at boris epshteyn, he's one of them. he has been serving for the better part of the last year and a half as donald trump's legal adviser f

after a judge dismissed half of the prospective jurors on day one, one of them spoke with nbc's vaughn hillyard about the experience. >> it was such an interesting experience, because i had never seen him in person before. and you see someone blown up so larger-than-life on the media, for so many years, and to see them in person is very jarring, and you get the sense that it is like, this is just another guy. >> the judge also admonished the former president for talking too loudly after a juror was questioned, warning mr. trump about intimidating jurors, the entire jury selection process could take up to two weeks. >>> the u.s. supreme court remains divided on the case on whether those in the january 6 attack can be charged with obstruction. brought by former police officer accused of joining the capital riot, he is trying to dismiss the charge. the long question criminalizes efforts to obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding and can result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. former president trump faces the same charge among others and his election interference case in was

back with me is nbc news correspondent, vaughn hillyard.ay from the supreme court. it will continue on. there was just some interesting testimony from keith davidson about cohen and the delayed payment to stormy daniels. what can you tell us? >> reporter: right. he said something right now about how they went from agreement between daniels and michael cohen on october 11th to ultimately, more than two-week delay of that actual $120,000 transfer being executed. $130,000 actually being executed on october 27th. what he is laying out here was the extent to which he had repeated phone calls and communication with michael cohen in which cohen had made the commitment that the payment would be made by october 14th, but then october 14th came and gone. then october 15th went by and he gave excuse after excuse after excuse. this is according to keith davidson who was the attorney representing stormy daniels. on october 17th, he said at this point, he sent an e-mail to cohen saying the agreement between cohen and daniels was void. that it was no long

joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard and former new york prosecutor and msnbc legal, charles coleman. vaughn, it was a surprising turn yesterday because i was sitting on the show at 3:00. they had zero jurors. they dismissed everyone from monday, and at 3:00 there were 3, and then there were 6. how did that turn take place so fast? >> happy hour. we walked away with seven jurors. we've got four men, three women, software engineer, we have folks from all over manhattan, at least one black woman, an asian american man here. so this is new york city and it's going inside of the courtroom. >> who's the jury foreperson? >> the jury foreperson is -- >> an irishman who is a business owner, and he is 28. >> yep. young man. >> he's married, but with no kids. so that tells us nothing at all, but that's who he is. >> these are the folks that are going to hold the fate of donald trump in their hands here. this is a moment in time when you are looking at a particular question that caught my attention was the number of folks that said they would be able to be fair and impartial ag

i want to bring in ashley parker, msnbc political analyst, and vaughn hillyard is here with me on setk with me as well. lisa, start us off. give us the latest on this. >> the latest on this, this is the second of two attempts as you noted to delay the monday start of the hush money trial. today, what was on the table was as trump is appealing judge juan merchan's gag order, as expanded to include the judge's family and the d.a.'s family now, he's saying that's unconstitutional and the trial itself should be put on hold while the appeal of that issue is being litigated. i want to point out, this is no ordinary appeal. usually a gag order couldn't be appealed until the end of the case when a defendant is convicted. so what they have done here is to sue the judge directly under a particular provision of new york law, where the standard for overturning the judge's action or any action by a state or local government is much higher than it would be for ordinary appeal. i don't expect them to win on the merit. they get a second crack at a stay, rather than being in front of one judge, they'l

joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. good to see you outside that courthouse, where you have been all day now. bring us up to speed on what happened today. >> reporter: it was a shortened day inside of this courtroom, namely because one juror had a dentist appointment, and passover led the courts to determine it was going to have an earlier afternoon. those four hours inside of the courtroom did not lack tension, and what you heard in opening statements from the prosecution was the intent to tell a story, beginning in august of 2015, two months after donald trump announced his president, which david pecker met at trump tower with michael cohen, and donald trump, to find stories that may come out before the 2016 election, salacious ones like the ones of stormy daniels, purchased the stories and ensured their silence so that they never got to the public before the 2016 election. and then in 2017, that donald trump knowingly was reimbursing michael cohen for that $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. the prosecution made it c

let's go back to our vaughn hillyard again at the courthouse with more reporting from inside the courtroomments. vaughn, fill us in. >> reporter: again, there are a lot of big question marks, exactly what the prosecution was going to try to argue about donald trump's knowledge ahead of the 2016 election about the payment to stormy daniels, and we can tell you now based off of prosecutor matthew ka lang low opening statements inside of the courtroom literally in the last 60 seconds, he directly says that michael cohen had discussed with trump the stormy daniels story, in october of 2016 and that those conversations led to donald trump being frustrated and acknowledging that he did not want the story to come out, that it would be devastating to his campaign. for timing purposes, this was just days after the access hollywood tape came out in 2016 when of course there were republican allies, the rnc that were concerned about donald trump going on to be the nominee over the course of that month. and donald trump with the prosecutors are looking to outline to the jury is that he was made aware f

nbc's vaughn hillyard and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin are with me now. s talk, first of all, vaughn, if we can about the relationship between hope hicks and donald trump. he broke with a lot of his former white house aides. what do we know about that, and what information she might have? >> hope hicks has been kind of quiet. >> very quiet. >> the last time we were talking about hope hicks is when one year ago she testified in front of the grand jury specifically to this hush money case. hope hicks, per federal court records dating back to michael cohen when he pleaded guilty, he contended at the time that there was a phone call in which she latched not only michael cohen but with donald trump together, and so there's questions about on october 18th, 2016, the day stormy daniels came forward to the "national enquirer" and said she was ready to tell her story, that there were conversations that hope hicks was allegedly a part of and then we know she was on another phone call later that month on the actual day that michael cohen agreed to pay that $130,000 t

joining us now, as i mentioned, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard whose face you saw half of a moment, "new york times" political correspondent who wrote a new piece on trump and evangelicals, mike bender joins us as well, and dispatch senior writer and author of "in trump's shadow," david drucker. good to have you. vaughn, there are clearly concerns about what trump being trump means to down ballot voters. does the campaign have any concerns about trump being trump? or is the campaign only about trump and that's all? >> trump being trump is how they feel like they won in 2016, and how donald trump claims he won in 2020, and if you look in 2016, he won 90% of the republican vote. in 2020, he won 94% of it. they intend to win that gop vote again, and a fraction of independents. going to green way to cover his campaign rally, and in 2016 to 2020, he lost 25% of independents. and so that is where you have seen donald trump take this from being less so a republican versus democrat race and trying to turn this more of an us versus them, and not only hits the politics and policy level but a

vaughn hillyard, thank you very much. thank you for the taylor swift references. as well. >>> turning to the latest flashpoint here in the u.s. about the israel-hamas war, more demonstrations are expected today after 100 pro palestinian protesters were arrested yesterday at columbia university in new york. it comes just one day after the columbia university president testified on capitol hill about the university's response to antisemitism on campus. the daughter of congresswoman ilhan omar was among those arrested. joining us is nbc's antonia hylton. what's going on there today? >> reporter: we're getting ready for another protest to begin around noon. we already can hear some students gathering on the other side of the campus here. you can see a police presence, a small police presence right in front of one of the main gates behind me here. this is day three of protests here at columbia. as you mentioned, starting on wednesday, while the president, a split screen moment, was down testifying on capitol hill, there were students setting up an encampment, so they c

joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. to make it easier for donald trump to get at least one more vote in the electoral college. what's going to happen now? >> they've got about two weeks left to try to pull something off, and the state senator who introduced this bill says that he intends to try once again to get it added to another bill. the question is it germane, relevant to the bill, charlie, he's going to omaha next week. he's going to have a rally to pressure lawmakers to have this happen again here. that one electoral vote could be defining if joe biden were to lose arizona, wisconsin, and georgia. >> and nebraska and maine are the only two states that divvy up their electoral votes that way. everybody else is winner take all. usually one of the congressional districts in nebraska goes for a democrat, am i right about that? >> it's the area, the second congressional district to ride around omaha there. this is a place that donald trump did win in 2016, by about 10,000 votes, but then joe biden won it in 2020, and

i want to bring in nbc's vaughn hillyard, outside the courthouse. also with me, barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney, university of michigan law professor and msnbc legal analyst. so, vaughn, what is the latest there? >> reporter: right now they're going through the process, they finished the voir dire process which allowed the d.a.'s office to ask for about 30 questions -- 30 minutes, questions, specific questions of the 18 individuals who could potentially be jurors. that was followed by donald trump's attorney following up with his own set of questions. todd blanche was keen on asking the individuals their beliefs about donald trump. and multiple individuals, you know, for example, one juror saying that he felt he didn't need to share exactly what his opinion of donald trump was because he felt like he could compartmentalize his opinions about the former president and be able to be a fair arbiter in determining whether donald trump is guilty or innocent. there was another juror, though, who commented he didn't have much of an opinion about donald

nbc's vaughn hillyard is reporting from outside the courthouse in new york city. also with us, paul butler, former federal prosecutor, georgetown school of law professor and an msnbc legal analyst, and tristan snell former assistant to attorney general for new york who led the trump university investigation. he is also the author of "taking down trump: 12 rules for prosecuting donald trump by someone who did it successfully." so vaughn, catch us up on the big moments so far and how trump has been reacting to what's unfolding. >> reporter: right, chris, the cross examination from donald trump's defense team ended after nearly four hours, and over the course of those four hours, this morning here you have the prosecution -- or i should say you have the defense team for donald trump repeatedly trying to muddy the waters. calling into question, past statements, recollection of david pecker over his conversations with donald trump in 2015, 2016. his conversations with federal prosecutors back in 2018, even american media's letter to the fec as recently as 2021, and ove

vaughn hillyard, thank you very much. and joyce vance, thank you as well. >>> and coming up on "morning joe," our next guests are leading a new effort to rein in a president's ability to sdee employ u.s. troops on american soil. we'll talk about their push too reform the centuries old provision known as the insurrection act. that is straight ahead on "morning joe." act that is straight ahead on "morning joe." my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis held me back... now with skyrizi, i'm all in with clearer skin. ♪ things are getting clearer...♪ ( ♪♪ ) ♪ i feel free... ♪ ♪ to bear my skin, yeah that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ( ♪♪) with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and most people were clearer even at 5 years. skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions... ...and an increased risk of infections... ...or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms,... ...had a vaccine, or plan to. ♪ nothing

nbc's vaughn hillyard reports from outside the courthouse. i also want to bring in former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, paul butler, jury consultant, alan turnen halftimer is with us as well. apparently the pressure is getting to some people. there's a little drama going on right now with the challenge. get us up to speed on what's happening. >> reporter: chris, we knew coming into this that there would be intense focus, intense pressure on the individuals that would ultimately become the jury , but what we have watched play out here especially over the course of just these last couple of hours is just the amount of weight it is bearing on some of these potential jurors. two of them openly crying in front of the more than 100 others inside that courtroom upon being questioned about their own positions as it relates to donald trump and their own past experiences. and three individuals citing anxiety as reasons why they do not believe that they would be able to move forward and be jurors as part of this process. just look at some

here is nbc's vaughn hillyard. >> reporter: at this lower manhattan courthouse, an unprecedented case just hours away. the first ever criminal trial of a former president of the united states. >> wow. when i walk into that courtroom, i know i will have the love of 200 million americans behind me. >> reporter: donald trump this weekend rallying supporters before the start of jury selection in his criminal trial monday over the alleged hush money scheme to cover up payments to adult film actress stormy daniels just before the 2016 election. >> i go into court over nothing. it's not a crime. >> reporter: trump has said he did nothing wrong. same with his supporters. >> if they do find him guilty -- >> who? trump? i won't believe that. >> reporter: nbc news has learned some 6,000 new yorkers have been summoned as potential jurors. >> this is a case that's going to burn through a lot of potential jurors during jury selection, and it's probably because a lot of jurors are going to have very strong views one way or the other about the defendant. >> reporter: prospective jurors will be asked

let's go right to nbc's vaughn hillyard who is outside the courthouse for us. d things leave off for the day and what's your big headline coming out of the morning? >> reporter: david pecker only got about a half hour today guys. we should expect a lot more of david pecker, not only taking questions from the prosecution but also under cross-examination by donald trump's defense team. david pecker is the crucial first witness out of the game that starts the timeline dating back to august 2015 where prosecutors will ultimately ask him about a trump tower meeting between him with michael cohen and donald trump. where the allegation is that the catch-and-kill scheme was first concocted. it was a year later when karen mcdougal's story, the former playboy model who alleged a ten-month affair with donald trump, and stanlsz who had an alleged one-night affair with donald trump, ultimately those stories were bought either by ami or through michael cohen before the 2016 election. the opening statements really laid the foundation for both sides about where they intend to t