jonathan lemire, before we go, very quickly what are you watching for in washington down there today? >> of course there will be eyes in wilmington for the hunter biden proceedings about to start, but also a sense of anticipation about the looming indictment for donald trump, could come as early as tomorrow. >> that does it for us this morning, we will be right back here tomorrow morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. right now on "ana cabrera reports," hunter biden in federal court, where we expect the son of the president to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors. we are live outside the courthouse, and we have our legal experts standing by to break it all down. also ahead, new developments involving former president trump's legal troubles as a potential third indictment looms, new details on who the special counsel is talking to in the 2020 white house meeting that has his team's attention.

♪♪ good morning, it is 10:00 eastern, thanks for being here. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. and we're going to go straight to the breaking news out of delaware. any moment now we expect the son of the sitting president to appear before a federal judge in wilmington. hunter biden is set to plead guilty to two tax crimes and admit to pesing a gun while he was addicted to drugs. there was a bit of a curve ball just ahead of today's hearing, a last minute deal, a legal dispute between hunter biden's legal team and lawyers for house republicans. here to help us understand what is happening right now and where things are headed, msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin, state attorney for palm beach county, florida, dave aronberg, and former fbi assistant director frank figfigliuzzi. let's begin at the courthouse with mike memoli. walk us through what we expect to see in court in just moments.

>> reporter: ana, as you say, this closed proceeding beginning shortly if it has not already begun in which we really see the beginning of the end of this five-year investigation into the president's son, both his personal and business dealings. it's going to be the formalization of the agreement which federal prosecutors will seek probation, not jail time, in return for the president's son pleading guilty to two charges of failure to pay taxes. this is on income of over $1.5 million in 2017 and 2018. separately, we expect him to enter into what's known as a pretrial diversion program in return for a felony charge of failure to disclose that he had been addicted to drugs taking drugs when seeking a federal firearms license. now, this is we should note a historic moment. this is the first time the u.s. justice department is seeking charges against the son or daughter of a sitting u.s.

president. as the president might put it, there is an element of hope and history rhyming. this is taking place in a federal courthouse named for j. caleb boggs. boggs was the sitting u.s. senator in 1972 when joe biden won his first u.s. senate election beginning the first of seven terms that ultimately led him to the white house, ana. >> mike, there was also this confusion on the 1 yard line so to speak. can you break down this dispute between hunter biden's team and the house republicans and how that could affect today's proceedings? >> reporter: well, as we know, house republicans, republicans across the country, have been arguing that the president's son is getting special treatment here, that there should have been more severe charges being sought by the government in this case. in the last days, we saw an amicus brief filed by jason smith, a congressman from missouri, in which some personally identifying information that hunter biden's legal team felt should not have been included. there was a back and forth. the son's legal team arguing that this should have been

dismissed, not been allowed. lawyers for these republicans arguing that there was perhaps not just a miscommunication, somebody's impersonaing a member of their legal team to have this removed from the court records. that may be the curve ball which could delay what we expect to just be an hour to two-hour process here. >> lisa, on that note, what does the judge do with this new information? >> well, the judge issued an order yesterday called an order to show cause. it's essentially telling someone i need an explanation from you and fast for whatever transpired. in this case what she wants is an explanation from hunter biden's lawyers. what were your communications with the clerk of court's office? did, in fact, someone from your side call the clerk's office, represent that you are instead affiliated with house republicans and ask to have that brief taken down instead of identifying yourself as attorneys for hunter biden. >> would you expect what's in the filing, because they're trying to say we have evidence that there was some improper,

you know, political influence in this case. would you expect her to perhaps postpone or take any action on the merits of what they're trying to put before her? >> i wouldn't, particularly at this late date. the plea agreement between federal government and hunter biden was announced some weeks ago, and it was only as mike said, just a couple of days ago that house republicans submitted that amicus brief. i'm not aware of any other instance in which a congressional committee in a criminal matter involving a single individual submits an amicus just to have themselves be heard when it's not a matter that originated with that committee. it's not a contempt of congress charge, for example. it doesn't have to do with executive privilege. it's not a matter that they themselves were involved in litigating and yet they want to insert themselves and say you need to hear from the whistle-blowers before you sentence this person. >> dave, as we discussed here, the big criticism from some republican circles is that

hunter biden is getting a lenient deal because he's the president's son. we do know that these crimes do carry maximum penalties of jail time. prosecutors are recommending probation. does this plea deal make sense to you? >> ana, it does. look, the critics of this deal only have themselves to blame because they live in this right wing echo chamber where hunter biden is some international criminal mastermind so anything less than life in prison is unacceptable to them. so when this five-year investigation finally comes up with a couple of low level crimes they blame it on corrupt state prosecutors, deep state prosecutors when in reality the u.s. attorney here, david weiss was a trump appointee, and he was kept on within the merrick garland department of justice to investigate hunter biden and there was no political interference here. and so equal justice under the law means that hunter biden should be treated no better but also no worse than anyone else. if his name was hunter smith, i

suspect he wouldn't even be prosecuted for this gun charge. it's a rarely enforced statute. the law bans drug users from possessing weapons. it's close to being thrown out as being unconstitutional. as far as the tax offenses, those tax offenses occurred in two years when he was in the throes of drug addiction, and he repaid all of it. so probation for those offenses is appropriate. >> the judge was appointed by former president trump and had the support of delaware's two democratic senators when she was nominated there. lisa, does she have any i guess choice on whether to accept this plea deal? >> absolutely. it's just a recommendation by the federal government. it's not binding on her. they are saying we've come to an agreement based on our recommendation to you that you give him probation and then spr him into pretrial diverse program. judge noriega has a choice here, but i suspect she will accept the federal government's recommendation and then be

subject to the same criticism as david weiss who was president trump's nominee. she was president trump's nominee. look for those on the other side to then say, oh, she was the choice of two democratic senators and try to disparage her as if she's some instrument of the far left. >> frank, this has been going on for so long, right? it's a sprawling five-year investigation. it began as an investigation into is hunter biden's foreign business dealings. it ultimately has led to these tax misdemeanors. can you talk to us about what kind of resources would have gone into this? >> yeah, look, this case was run out of the fbi's baltimore division that covers the state of delaware, and similarly with the u.s. attorney's office, and let's remember that merrick garland wisely decided to keep the u.s. attorney, a trump appointee on just to avoid any appearance of impropriety and have continuity in this case.

what does it look like to be under fbi investigation for five years. it looks like every stone being turned over, looked at. i wrote a column last year about what this might look like because of the national security consequences of having a president's son doing international business, reportedly having contact with chinese intelligence operatives. all that has come out and been looked at, so when people say he got special treatment. he's being treated lightly, i say he is getting different treatment. he was under inquiry for five years and has ended up with a couple of misdemeanor charges that seldom get charged. in my experience, the irs is all about getting their money back, not punishing people necessarily. he has paid that money back , and what we don't hear, of course, are people on the far right saying, well, let's also look at other presidential children. let's look at why, for example, jared kushner and ivanka trump

have made reportedly half a billion dollars while they worked in the white house. yes, there's unequal treatment going on but not exactly what the gop seems to be implying. >> we're going to get into more of the politics and what's happening there on capitol hill in a moment. if hunter biden doesn't remain drug free for 24 months or he owns a firearm at some point again, would that negate this plea deal? >> yeah, he can violate his terms of his probation and be sent straight to jail. it is possible. i'm looking forward to seeing the u.s. attorney, the special prosecutor here appear before jim jordan's committee because jim jordan wants to root out the weaponization of government, but he doesn't seem too willing to have weiss appear before his committee because weiss is going to debunk all the conspiracies and show how he was meet -- hunter biden was treated fairly in this process. there was no outside political pressure. if you want to look to a politicized department of justice, then look back at bill

barr's. this one under merrick garland is quite the opposite. that's why people on the left have been quite critical of merrick garland. he can't make anyone happy on both sides, which tells me merrick garland is doing a decent job. >> house republicans have implied that no matter what happens today in court that they are going to keep investigating hunter biden. you seem to have implied i think in that last discussion we just had, you're pretty confident there was no stone unturned by federal investigators. so what are your thoughts on whether further investigation is warranted and would there be some overlap in terms of the work of federal investigators with what's happening on capitol hill? >> so i'm all about investigating credible allegations of criminal conduct, but i feel reasonably certain that five years worth of investigation has done that. i'd rather see of course

politics come out of investigations and have congress spend time on making life better for americans. that's their political decision to do that. i'm an advocate of moving forward of figuring out how to fix certain things that bother all of us. we know that foreign services routinely go after and target family members of high ranking people including presidents across all the presidents as far back as i can remember. we should be looking to congress to make it mandatory to disclose families' international business dealings so we don't find ourselves in this situation. we can get better at this and not spend taxpayer dollars investigating people for political reasons. >> thank you so much. mike memoli, lisa rubin, and dave aronberg, please stay with us as we're going to keep a close eye on that courtroom in delaware.

there's no cameras in the courtroom because it's federal court. when we're back in 60 seconds, we're going to go to capitol hill where the prosecutor in hunter biden's case is offering to testify before congress, the latest on the congressional probes into the president's son. plus, the political fallout including speaker mccarthy's recent threat of an impeachment inquiry into president biden. you're watching "ana cabrera reports." we're back in a moment. watchina reports. we're back in a moment

power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley. welcome back. as we continue to follow the breaking news, the hunter biden hearing is happening in delaware right now. as you can imagine, it's being closely watched back in washington where the president's son has been a key focus of investigations by house republicans. with three separate committees investigating him right now, and as we mentioned, house republicans also called on the judge to scrap hunter biden's plea deal. the lead prosecutor in this investigation is david weiss, a trump appointee who began this

investigation during the trump administration. he says he is willing to testify publicly about the matter. let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali and kurt bardella, former house oversight spokesperson for republicans. ali fill us in on what kind of impact you think today's hearing could have on the congressional investigations. >> reporter: look, it's yet another moment for congressional republicans to bring up these things about hunter biden. we've saw them even in the last two weeks or so do hearings focused on the irs investigation of his taxes, whistle-blowers coming forward saying they felt that was handled in a political manner and he was basically getting a softball deal from the department of justice. it's momentous for the fact it will have political ramifications on his father, the current president, on his re-election bid and the way

republicans are trying to put hunter biden on the ballot in many ways. i know this is something mike memoli has talked about before, the ways in which these house republicans have not gotten anything specific or tangible yet in order to tie biden to his son. this hearing today allows another moment for us to be all eyes on the courthouse and for them to be pushing those allegations and pushing with the power of the gavel behind them as they try to continue into these investigations. >> kurt, republicans have been arguing that the doj meddled in this investigation to benefit hunter biden. they point to these two former irs investigators who testified before the house oversight committee. this was just last week. one of them says he heard u.s. attorney david weiss tell investigators who are working on this case that he was not the deciding person on whether charges were filed. weiss has disputed the allegations. he says he's willing to testify. so do you think republicans are acting in good faith in their

investigation? >> absolutely not. i mean, nothing about this has been in good faith. in fact, these kind of investigations, they're nothing more than taxpayer financed witch hunts. they have been doing it backwards, they have been making bombastic claims, conspiracy theory-laced accusations without a shred of evidence to back them up. they have these hearings and conduct investigations to try to prove their rhetoric. that's not how oversight is supposed to work. i spent many years working at the oversight committee for republicans. back then we tried to manage expectations. we tried to make sure we didn't get ahead of the evidence, ahead of the testimony, ahead of the documents, james comer, jim jordan, they're doing the exact opposite of that and they have yet to this day been able to produce a single shred of evidence that ties anything directly to joe biden. it's been a colossal waste of time. >> house speaker kevin mccarthy is talking about escalating. he's indicated he would support an impeachment inquiry into

president biden over the allegations. here's how he explains his rationale. >> you understand what impeachment inquiry is. it's not impeachment. it allows congress to investigate by giving congress the full power to get the information they need. it's the way people should go about investigating. so put yourselves in our place, it doesn't matter who's in the majority or not. >> kurt, your reaction to that argument? >> well, that's a bunch of utter nonsense because last time i checked, there are a bunch of committees that are controlled by kevin mccarthy's republican majority that have been doing these investigations for many, many, many months now, and they haven't produced anything. why to they think that an impeachment proceeding would somehow produce information that hasn't come to light either by the congressional republican investigations or even by the justice department and fbi investigations. the idea that they're going to somehow unearth some, you know, red flag, silver bullet document

testimony, evidence that's going to blow everything into the open is just folly. this impeachment talk is something they have been saying going back to before the midterm elections. members of congress have been talking about wanting to impeach president bye as an act of retribution. everybody sees this is political. there's no appetite for this amongst the american people, and it's their way from trying to distract away from the legal jeopardy donald trump finds himself in now. >> alie let's circle back. he has talked about perhaps testifying, throwing out dates late september or mid-october. the doj noting that the most appropriate time for any testimony on these subjects is after the matter is closed. what more do you have on this? >> that's exactly right. it's why today's hearing with hunter biden entering this plea is so important. it marks sort of the end of the beginning of this investigation and does make it so it comes closer to wrapping up and it makes it so that weiss can be

available to these committees. now, there's a question about whether or not the fall is going to be soon enough for these folks. they have been pressing for answers on this, and we've watched them try to escalate it in past instances where there were political themes at least, two investigations that were happening. we watched, for example, when the manhattan district attorney indicted the former president, the ways in which the judiciary and other committees mobilized in an attempt to sort of mudty the waters on the political front. that is likely what we'll see here again. i do think it's notable -- and kurt knows this from his time here in congress and the oversight committee -- there are things you get with the power of the gavel being in the majority in control of these committees. we've watched republicans sort of flex that gavel power in terms of the way they've run these investigations, but mccarthy's saying he's at least open to an impeachment inquiry is him placating his right flank who have been pushing for this kind of an impeachment, but it's also him trying to temple those folks saying they might be able

to get a few steps ahead if they were to open an impeachment inquiry without going into full blown impeachment. that's because there are republicans on the right flank who want that, but there are just as many moderates who are going to have to go home to their biden districts and explain why they're focusing on this as opposed to the issues that they ran on, the people who i think of first and foremost here are the so-called majority makers in the new york districts who have districts that are more moderate. they don't necessarily want to see this red meat against the president and that's something that's going to put those members in a tough position, and it might be why you're watching mccarthy do a little bit to appease the right and a little bit to keep his mod moderates happy. it's a thankless place to be in. as he's doing that on the impeachment front he's battling a possible shutdown at the enof september. all of these are the dynamics

that congress's is going to leave with in august and come back in the middle of september. >> you're so good about giving us the nitty-gritty of the happenings on capitol hill. we appreciate it. it's hard to make sense of what goes on there sometimes. kurt, i am thinking about what frank figliuzzi brought up that under the trump administration republican lawmakers were not interested in investigating then president trump's family business dealings or jared kushner's dealings and possible conflicts of interest. given the recent development and what we're seeing playing out there on the hill, what do you make of this apparent hypocrisy? >> yeah, it's pretty glaring. it just underscores and illustrates how this is purely political and not evidentiary or fact-based in any way. hunter biden never worked in the west wing. he's not part of the inner workings of the white house at any time in the same way that

jared kushner or ivanka trump were. when you look at even just the financial resources that the trump family has been the beneficiary of from questionable sources and questions about how they arranged those financial dealings, it completely dwarves anything compared to hunter biden. so the fact that they're willing to look the other way while donald trump's family has done that which they are accusing hunter biden of doing just tells everyone that there's really no substance there, that it's just political theater, that it's a 2024 mechanism, just as kevin mccarthy once said that the benghazi investigation was designed to take down hillary clinton's presidential cam pane, this is the same thing they're trying to do with hunter biden in trying to take down joe biden. it's kind of wash, rinse, repeat the republican playbook. i think it also kind of illustrates the fact that their policies, their extreme agenda, their crusade for taking away women's rights, it's so unpopular that they want to spend every minute of every day

talking about anything but the things they're actually doing, the policies they're trying to force on the american people. they know it's so unpopular because they don't have the giant majority they promised us they would have in the midterm elections. now they're trying to do this misdirection and use the theater of congressional hearings to distract away from the other stuff that's wildly unpopular. >> kurt bardella and ali vitali, thank you both. we still have our eyes on that courthouse. we will bring you any updates as we get them. we have note takers inside the courthouse that will be rushing out to bring us details. we're following new developments in the special counsel case against donald trump. who we're learning spoke with jack smith's team and why a 2020 white house meeting has become the focus. you're watching "ana cabrera reports." stay right there. cabrera reports. stay right there the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and the people who live and work there

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we have some breaking news from the uk, actor kevin spacey was just cleared of all charges

in a london trial. he was facing nine charges relating to allegations of sexual assault by four separate men going back two decades. a jury just found him not guilty on all of those charges. nbc's ali arouzi joins us outside court in london. ali, what do we know about the jury's decision? >> reporter: that's right. well, they found him not guilty after a month-long trial. the jury deliberated for 12.5 hours, and they just reached a majority verdict of 10-2, so ten of them found that kevin spacey was not guilty. he stood in the glass dock of the courtroom for a decision that could have had an enormous impact on his life, and he heard the verdict of not guilty read out nine times for varying charges from indecent assault and sexual assault to the more serious charges of causing somebody to engage in penerative

sex. kevin spacey emotional when those charges were read out. >> found not guilty. >> he looked very emotional when those not guilty charges were read out. he started crying when he came out of the dock. he hugged his manager. he hugged his legal team. he thank the court staff, and he still looked very emotional while he was doing that. and just to give a bit of a recap of what the defense had said in kevin spacey's defense was their argument was that three of the complainants had simply made up the allegations against kevin spacey, and kevin spacey's attorney said we'll never know why they made up hose allegations. it will only be known to them. he said the fourth complainant was intoxicated, that he made these allegations, and that's

whey the jury ultimately believed kevin spacey and not the complainants. and he also had some very high profile people giving defense on his behalf. elton john and his husband david furnish had given evidence that kevin spacey hadn't been at a party where one of his complainants had alleged that kevin spacey groped him on the way to that party. jack lemon's son, chris lemon had also given evidence of kevin spacey being in that film with jack lemon, and jack lemon's son was here saying kevin spacey was a very standup, decent character. ultimately the jury believed kevin spaceyand the people that gave evidence on his behalf and not the complainants. we haven't mentioned any of the names of the complainants because that's why in this country, they're entitled to anonymity for life. so if the media or any other

members of the public were to mention them, that would be a criminal offense. so we'll never know who the complainants were because they have anonymity, but for kevin spacey i think that's not very important now. he's made it very clear that he wants to get on with his career. he said before this trial that he expected to be exonerated and then embark again on his career. but you know, this has been an extremely h profile trial. there have been a lot of opinions about this. you know, it's going to be difficult nonetheless for him going forward. >> we will obviously continue to monitor what's next. ali arouzi, thank you very much. again, the breaking news out of london, kevin spacey found not guilty on all charges. we are still monitoring back here in the u.s. the courthouse in wilmington, delaware. just got some new reporting from inside the court. we're going to bring it to you right after a quick break.

we're back with the breaking news out of that wilmington courthouse where hunter biden is expected to plead guilty to tax charges. nbc's mike memoli has some new details coming out are from inside. what is happening, mike? >> reporter: well, ana, we now know that this proceedings has been underway for just over a half an hour. the judge arriving in the courtroom at 10:03 p.m. the most significant new information we have is perhaps what just happened most recently, and it has to do with that situation we talked about earlier, this curve ball involving a late filing from a republican congressman trying to insert new information to make the argument that there should be more severe charges being brought to bear here. the judge in this case, asked the prosecutors as well as hunter biden's legal team based on that filing whether more severe charges should be brought in this case. both the u.s. attorney side as well as hunter biden's attorneys

said no. so that was a significant development in terms of what could have been made this proceeding today even more complicated. in terms of the other walk up to that moment, we understand that there was largely a routine illustration of the charges. hunter biden did waive the charges being read in full. some of the interesting details we learned potentially is also about the terms of his probation, right? whether or not hunter biden ultimately spared of that jail time depends on his abiding by the term of his probation. hunter biden did tell the judge he has been sober. he has not taken drugs or alcohol since 2019. that coincides with the start of his father's presidential campaign in april of 2019. so the proceeding as we understand it is still underway. the most significant development, the judge asking a question about that fiing from the republicans.

>> stay close, thank you for that update. we'll keep monitoring what comes out of that hearing. now i want to turn to investigations involving donald trump as we are still watching for the possibility of a thinker criminal indictment against the former president. and today we have new details about the special counsel's investigation into election interference. nbc news has learned that jack smith's team is looking into a 2020 white house meeting where trump was briefed about the security and integrity of the election process. three people have been interviewed about that meeting, including former top cyber official chris krebs. let's bring in nbc news correspondent garrett haake, former january 6th committee spokesperson, hanna mull davin, and also back with us lisa rub reuben. >> this meeting could be another data point in the case that smith seems to be interested in building about what donald trump knew about how our elections are run and how secure they are and

the idea that the complaints he would make later after losing the 2020 election about hacking, about someone breaking into voting machines, about foreign interference, any of these possibilities were things that he would have been well-educated about to not be true. that was the focus of this meeting in 2020, specifically the idea that elections are decentralized, run by the states and that the machines themselves are very difficult to hack or exploit in any way. if you're trying to put together a case that would include information or an argument that donald trump knew he was lying about the idea that the election was somehow stolen or fatally insecure, a meeting like this conducted at the white house with all these experts who work for the federal government and essentially work for the president donald trump could be a key data point. >> so hannah, while chris krebs was in charge, his agency that was part -- debunked some of the conspiracy theories that trump

and his supporters were spreading after he lost the 2020 election. his agency release add statement just after the election stating, quote, there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised. i believe he said it was the most secure election in u.s. history. trump fired krebs five days after that statement. how key is he in this investigation? >> chris krebs is one of the individuals that works for trump like the many that were around him in the white house, on the campaign that knew the election wasn't fraudulent that knew that donald trump lost the election and told donald trump. ana, you mentioned he was fired five days after ha. he was fired via twitter, which is how donald trump acted a lot, and we can see some of his statements during this time. but as garrett mentioned, the fact that chris krebs is being interviewed by the special counsel shows that they're really zeroing in on exactly what the january 6th committee was zeroing in on and that we showed during our first two

hearings was that donald trump lost the election and he knew it or should have known it. there are enough people around him that tole him this, and the select committee looked into that, proved that, and the special counsel's only going deeper by looking at this 2020 meeting even before the election even happened. >> as we're talking about all these election issues, i want to shift gears to georgia because there's obviously an ongoing case happening there, and multiple cases, two georgia election workers have sued rudy giuliani overs false claims he made against them. there's a new filing in his case where giuliani is not disputing that he lied about these two election workers. so lisa, what's the potential legal fallout and how do you see it sort of, you know, i guess bolstering some of the other election interference investigations? >> i'm not sure i necessarily see it bolstering other election interference investigations other than giuliani's admission that that statement about ruby freeman and her daughter shae

moss is false. it's just one more indicia of the ways in which those closest to donald trump knew the election wasn't fraudulent, particularly in georgia where the allegation is they were essentially handing between them a thumb drive of voting information which proved not to be true. in terms of this case, what it really does is it limits the dispute to liability. what is the amount of damages that rudy giuliani will be found liable for? he's admitting essentially that what he said constitutes defamation, that it inflicted emotional distress on them, but he still plans to contest liability either because they weren't damaged at all, seems improbable to me or because what he said about them are opinion statements not facts. >> giuliani is saying no, no, no, i'm not admitting to anything here. i'm not disputing it yet. i want the case to move forward. that's kind of where he is

playing. he's saying i'm not fully admitting. but hannah, again, coming back to there were multiple states where we saw giuliani and other supporters of donald trump try to overturn election results. and they claim they were, you know, looking into election fraud, which was unproven. there were multiple cases that went up through the courts that were basically dismissed because there wasn't evidence. so we're learning that there were two more fake electors who have been subpoenaed by the special counsel to testify before the grand jury in early august. we're told these are people who have not previously testified before. when it comes to your own investigation with the january 6th committee, what can you tell us about just how far down the path you were able to get with the fake electors scheme? >> we weren't able to share all the information we gathered, specifically about fake electors because it was a little wonky, to be honest.

the idea of fake electors is a weird concept, but we actually found a lot of information that we then gave to the special counsel, ask and the fact that they're talking to even more electors shows they're really going down this avenue. the fake electors scheme was one that was coordinated by donald trump and his allies from the very top and trickled down to the point where they had an electoral whip count where they were calling individual electors in these swing states to try to get them to sign up as fake electors, right? we have some of these calls, some of these recordings. we know that these individuals signed these documents that all look identical and sent them in to the national archives and to congress. and so we gave all that information to the special counsel. he's going down that pathway, which i think is, you know, we've heard some of the charges that he may be bringing against donald trump, the select committee has a few including conspiracy to defraud the united states that includes this fake elector scheme.

this is something that jack smith will be interested in looking at in terms of how trump and his allies coordinated that from the top, and i'll tell you there's a lot of information that he has and more that the select committee couldn't get to that i believe that jack smith will have had the time to do. >> thank you all. we are still monitoring what is happening at that courthouse in wilmington, delaware, where hunter biden is appearing right now. we'll bring you any new reporting we get from wilmington. we're also following breaking news out of new york city, shocking video of a crane collapse right at rush hour. look at this. the emergency situation on the ground next. emergency situatione ground next. i always had a connection to my grandfather... i always wanted to learn more about him. i discovered some very interesting documents on ancestry. this is the uh registration card for the draft for world war two. and this is his signature which blew me away. being able to... make my grandfather real... not just a memory... is priceless.

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you can see it right there, the crane catching fire, collapsing. this was around 7:30 this morning. you see it hit the neighboring high-rise before falling more than 45 stories onto 10th avenue below. the video captured firefighters then shooting water on the fire from other buildings in the area to try and contain the blaze. five minor injuries were reported including one firefighter. nbc's emilie ikeda is joining us live on scene. what else are you learning? >> reporter: yeah, well, you can see the building that was under construction behind me, and it was a crane that had been lifting 16 tons of concrete. in that process, officials say that a fire had broken out in the engine compartment of the crane leading to the partial crane collapse. also keep in mind that massive amount of term also crashing to the ground. massive debris seen here in a busy portion of manhattan. when this all transpired this morning during the busy morning commute, this was a really

congested area. officials point out that even more people could have been injured. the latest number we're actually getting from fire officials, at least six people injured, four civilians, two firefighters. we're told fortunately that they only sustained minor injuries. here's more from officials. take a listen. >> we had a fire on top of one of our cranes. thank god that the injuries to four individuals were minor. as you see from the debris on the street, this could have been much worse. >> reporter: the crane operator did try to actually extinguish the fire. when that individual failed to do so, they contacted first responders. those first responders were actually on the way to the scene when the collapse happened. i want to show you something, though. if you look behind me about seven stories up, you're going to see some orange netting. i spoke with construction workers who say they were inside the building when that crane

collapse happened. all they heard was a major bang and then lots of yelling all of a sudden. so they actually feared for their lives thinking at one point that is the building they were working in behind me, was it actually collapsing? fortunately they were able to make it out, but just an a scene of mayhem earlier this morning between the debris falling on the outside, people had been inside the building, officials say that they're going to be making sure everyone in surrounding buildings are okay, finishing extinguishing the fire and carefully dismantling the crane. >> just an incredible image there when that crane collapsed and knowing how busy the streets of new york city can be, it is amazing there weren't more injuries. emilie ikeda, thank you very much for that update. up next, with our eyes still on that wilmington courthouse, how should the biden re-election campaign navigate the politically choppy seas surrounding hunter biden? just as republicans dig in. repun my store and my design business? we're exploding. but my old internet, was not letting me run the show.

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welcome back. we're still watching that courthouse in wilmington, delaware, where hunter biden is set to plead guilty to tax charges this hour. and now plea agreements happen every day, of course, in courts across the country. but with the last name of biden, this case was always going to have a political impact. joining us now to discuss that is alessia johnson, and susan del percio, a republican strategist.

we're still 15 months plus out from the 2024 election. how big of a role do you think this is going to play? >> i don't think it will be a deciding factor. i think the more that democrats can be talking about, for example, the issue of a woman's right to choose will be much more influential. but the democrats, the biden campaign needs to address this head on and have a steady answer instead of saying, well, it is under investigation. the investigation is going to be over. and they have the best -- the best narrative. a republican president appointed special counsel to look into all of this. the republican appointed special counsel determined that nothing happened with president biden, then vice president biden or in between. so, they just need to get their answer down and keep moving forward. >> of course, president biden, the doj, have been very careful not to say much because they don't want to have any appearance of trying to influence the investigator in this case. and so, alencia, it seems

republicans are setting the narrative here and are raising all these allegations and the american people are listening to them. there is this new reuters poll i want to show you, half of americans believe hunter biden is receiving favorable treatment because he is the president's son, with republicans much more likely than democrats to believe that. it is important to note that even though half of americans believe he's getting favorable treatment, most don't think the charges themselves are politically motivated, according to the same poll. what is the reaction to the numbers? >> i think that it speaks to the point of the fact that the biden campaign and democrats are saying, look, let the investigation play out so that there isn't this appearance of anyone trying to persuade what the outcome will be. i also think the election strategy here is to talk about what the republicans are not focusing on. they are focusing on this, so they don't have to be asked about their record on abortion access, on climate, on gun control. all of these issues that are

deeply unpopular with majority of american voters, some independents and republicans as well, and so if republicans continue to talk about this, we're just going to let them continue to talk about this and that puts them in a bind for when we really want to talk about the real issues when it comes to the election. >> do you think all the efforts of republicans to be the oversight of the biden administration, president biden, his family in this case, hunter biden, to investigate every allegation is helping them with the american voter or does it just look like they have a grudge with the bidens? >> it looks like they have a grudge with the bidens and they do, and to alencia's point, they have no other thing to go to. this is all they have. the economy is looking go, we don't know what will happen a year from now, but it is looking good for the democrats. things are moving in their direction. there is another thing at play we can't ignore, donald trump's influence over what the republicans choose to do. donald trump, it has been widely

reported, wanted to see this type of investigation over the bidens, even though he did one and it proved nothing. >> what do you think about this impeachment probe potentially of president biden, that kevin mccarthy is discussing? >> it is literally a nothing burger, right? literally these investigations are not showing anything in regards to the bidens or in regards to an impeachable offense. they're trying to equate apples and oranges when it comes to what happened with donald trump, when he was impeached. so i think the american people are tired of these sham investigations when there are so many issues that republicans ran on to get the economy together, they ran on so many issues and they got in power and this is what they want to spend their time and taxpayer money on. it is not going to fly. >> can president biden and his team just keep deflecting is one of the questions i have. we know how much he loves his family. and hunter biden, he said, he's very proud of because he's been able to move on from his drug addiction, kind of get his life

back on track, but republicans aren't going to let this go. so, how can the president address this politically? >> you know, i think we had to understand that president biden, he loves his family. most people love their family, right? this is a very difficult position for in. i do believe that eventually the biden campaign and president biden will come out and say something, but, again, back to the point i was talking about earlier, there is this nuance, this understanding that if we say something, it might seem like we're trying to influence the outcome, right? i think they're trying to balance how to approach this. >> but it is almost -- i mean, he's going to be sentenced. it will be over. once this happens, the investigation is close. i think as a political matter, biden should probably do a straight to camera, let it come out. tell the american people where they are, where he is with his family, what's going on with hunter and then ask for the respect to keep the private members of his family private. >> all right, thank you, both,

so much. susan and alencia johnson, susan del percio, good stuff, ladies. that's going to do it for us today. i'm reporting from new york. thank you for being with me. ana cabrera here. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart, breaking news from delaware where president biden's son hunter is appearing in a federal courtroom at this hour. just moments ago, hunter biden told a federal judge he intends to plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes, also faces a separate felony gun possession charge. could be dismissed if he completes a pretrial diversion program. this is the first time the justice department, in which falls under the executive branch, has brought charges against the child of a sitting president. with us to start off our coverage this hour, nbc news correspondent mike memoli, he is in wilmington, delaware. michael schmidt, "new york times" washin