A serious challenge in 2020 . Well look at that in just a moment. But we start with this. Washington, a waiting game that is in full swing today with all eyes on special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller could issue that report on the russia investigation to attorney general william barr, literally any moment now. The Washington Post laid out some smart key questions that lie ahead. Will the public ever see the report . What will the report say about President Trump . Will there be more high level indictments . Could it outline as the star report did back in the 90s, could it outline impeachable offenses . And what will congress do . The investigation on the mind of President Trump this morning, apparently, as he took to twitter, writing highly respected senator richard burr, head of Senate Intelligence, said after interviewing over 200 wngss and studying over 2 million pages of documents, we have found no collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. The witchhunt, so bad for our country, must end. We have assembled some of the best and brightest journalists and legal experts who have been living this investigation daytoday over the past two years. Nbc news intelligence and National Security reporter kim delaney, craig brower, mya wylie, harry litman and dana millbank, a big thanks to all of you. Ken, ill start with you because in addition to the president s tweet, we also heard from his press secretary a little more than an hour ago. The president is going to leave that decision up to the attorney general. Just because he hasnt made that call, hes following the proper process. If he did it the other way, you guys would go crazy saying i cant believe the president has done this. I think its such a double standard. Does he want to be made public . Does he think the public needs to see it in order to move on, sarah . We think the public should have moved on a long time ago. I think the public did move on a long time ago. I think the only people that are hung up on it are the democrats and the media. Those heading that investigation might dispute that conclusion, ken. What do we know about where things stand right now . That statement she made has no connection to reality. This. Investigation, 34 people indicted or accused, guilty pleas of some of the president s inner circle. But in fairness, it has not answered the big question that Robert Mueller has been hired to answer which is was any member of the Trump Campaign conspireing with that election interference . And trump is right that the Senate Intelligence committee has not found any direct evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. But Robert Mueller has access to so much more information than the senate. We have to wait and see what Robert Mueller has found on that score. Its true that he hasnt charged anyone criminally with colluding with russia, but we have no idea what hes going to say in his report with regard to the actions of trumps inner circle, meeting with russians during the campaign. There are many, many Unanswered Questions and we can only hope that Robert Mueller will answer them in this report. Harry, neal cot who helped draft the special counsel regulations, he wrote this in the new york times. Its a fascinating piece if you havent read it yet. If e the report, unlikely to be lengthy by design. The special counsel regulations envision a report that is concise, a summary of what he found. And mr. Muellers mandate limited to look into criminal activity and counterintelligence matters surrounding russia and the 2016 election as well as any obstruction of justice relating to those investigations. A brief report. Is it likely to be beneficial to the president , harry . Really, a tough and interesting question. By the way, craig, those are two different points. It could be limited in that content and still write 500 pages. Now its true that the regs envision something fairley bare bones. Its also true that barr and others have said theyll try to reveal more rather than less and there will be a lot of pressure to do so. Neal cots point is a possible mere recitation that serves it up to congress will the the worst for the president because it will pass the ball on and leave them to gallop ahead and take the baton as happened in watergate. I personally think congress doesnt seem poised to do that in the way they did in watergate and we will be better served with more detail than less. Its my best guess that we will get more detail rather than less. But this is very murky and based on the slimmest of reads for the reports. There have been some comparisons made to the starr report back in the 90s, but the mandate, obviously, was different. In that report, the special counsel at the time lead out impeachable offenses. There is no reason to think we are going to see that this go around. Do you think that the Mueller Report, when it does finally drop, do you think that is going to be the end or do you think that is going to be the beginning . Were nowhere near the end. Because we have placed so much attention, rightly, on the report itself, what we forget are the ongoing investigations that do not end with the Mueller Report. And that is both in the district of columbia, the Eastern District of virginia and most notably the Southern District of new york. And that is because part of what Robert Muellers team did is spin off investigations from the special counsels office to those u. S. Attorneys offices. And we know that theyre just from what we know in the Public Record, there is already evidence of conspiracy. The question is whether or not Robert Mueller will say its provable, right, because theres a distinction between whether we have evidence and whether you think you would win at trial. Got it. Because Paul Manafort giving polling data to russians, the rick gates who actually has knowledge and information about that cooperating, the extension of his sentencing and then when you add the latest indictment with roger stone and the filing we saw a few days ago which made clear that they have communications from wiretaps with russians, that they are using to say roger stones case is related. So we dont know all the facts underneath that. We dont know how much it proves. But im just saying in the Public Record as a lawyer, its very hard not to say that there arent reasons to think theres collusion. The question it doesnt answer is what evidence, if any, are there of communications with donald trump about any of this. But all that is to say these things are going to continue to play out, report or no report. These are all moving forward. Greg, the special counsel regulations say at the conclusion of the special counsels work, he or she shall provide the attorney general with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or a declination decisions reached by the special counsel. Those regulations mandate that the attorney general give congress a report. You worked in the office of Congressional Affairs at the fbi. You know what the dance between the Justice Department and the hill, you know what that dance is like. How is that going to go down . Well, as harry indicated earlier, its murky. The regulations are somewhat murky. And i would add that its going to go down in a way thats political. And by that, i dont mean that the eventual result on the merits, so to speak, will be a political one. But the process will certainly be political. As you pointed out, craig, the regs do require that the special counsel provide the ag with a report, a confidential report on the face of the regs it doesnt have to be a written report, but i think we can assume it will be. But what is murky is what the ag has to do visavis congress from the public. Neal seems to think that the regs require the ag to report to congress. Jack goldsmith, former head of the office of Legal Counsel doj has recently written that he doesnt read the regs that way at all and that the ag is not required to report to congress on anything substantive. So its all going to come down to a negotiation between doj and congress. Dana, two years in the making. What sort of anticipation or dread is building there in the capital over this report . Well, craig, theres so much anticipation building that theres a very real possibility it could be an anticlimax when the report does come out that we may not even know. Were sort of all waiting around, watching the same 2yearold file footage of mueller. Were waiting for the great oracle to speak. He may speak quietly silently behind closed doors. Theres that video we have. We have eight pictures of bob mueller na we just run on loop. Ive memorized the whole reel. Maybe hell come out and hell have a beard or he will have curled his hair or Something Like that. Were waiting for some big moment. But what this may be is the beginning of off shoots and congress may not the democrats and the house may not initially get what theyre looking for. But there should be they should be able to procure eventually a road map for various spinoff investigations in the house as has been noted they may well be occurring in the Justice Department, as well. So were waiting for this big moment for the oracle to speak, but i suspect he may be murmuring a bit longer until we actually find out what the big picture is. Harry, youre one of the few folks that knows william barr and bob mueller. You know the socalled oracle. What does bob mueller do, harry, if hes not happy with the way his report is handled by the newly installed attorney general . Yeah. I think in the first instance, he goes to the attorney general. Were assuming this bureaucratic process where somebody is dropped on barrs desk. But theres no reason that they wont be in communication even before. So and it is true there is no exact specification for what barr has to tell to congress. But i think barr will want to, i can mueller will want to, and i think theyll both realize as a political matter, one way or another, the truth is going on out here. But i think in the first instance, if mueller is not happy, he will go and speak with barr, push on barr. There is a Point Congress will subpoena him. I dont see him pulling a Michael Cohen or Andrew Mccabe and showing up on his own volition and beginning to broadcast what hasnt been revealed. That i think would be a bridge too far for the good soldier. Lets not forget a few of the other players, roger stone his trial is set to begin soon. Michael cohen set to publicly testify next week before that house committee. A good chunk of that is expected to be in open session. Some of them people very close to the president. There is that full screen, the number of folks who have been indicted or pled guilty. Some of those names, even if nothing in the investigation points directly to the president , we should note there could be more indictments to come. How badly is President Trump ainted by their actions . Is this something that is going to have any sort of effect on him politically or is it, as Sarah Sanders stated in the driveway, is this something that the media cares about and House Democrats . So any other president would have already suffered the consequences of having so many close and in this case high level in the form of Paul Manafort and michael flynn, advisers who have both lied, obstructed justice, he would be deeply tainted by it. The reality is its all political. But what there are two things here that i want to point out. There is polling that americans are deeply concerned about this investigation. So to suggest that its only the media and democrats misses what the polls say, but more importantly, adam schiff had a very powerful opinion piece in the Washington Post about how fully this is about our democracy and how ow democracy operates. So the idea that any party would not be openminded about concerns about the institutions of democracy is critically important and he was calling republicans to Pay Attention to patriotism to the country over party. And the thing and i just want to make this point about the regs because its a very important point. If to this point william bar has an obligation to Tell Congress if he did not agree with an indictment that Robert Mueller wanted to bring. He has that obligation . He does. If he was disagree, a decision that mueller wanted to make and he blocked it, the way i read the regs is he would have to be transparent about that to congress. Now that is not saying hes done it or therefore we would hear that. And in the absence of that, there wouldnt be anything that would say i did not. But im saying that to say i think lawyers disagree with how you read regulations. But i think Congress Based on those regulations will be in a strong position to say to william barr tell us whether or not you or whitacre before you made any decisions to bar the special counsel from bringing an indictment. Greg, also, word coming down that the president s tv lawyer at least, Rudy Giuliani indicating or saying in usa today that they havent heard from the special counsels office in a number of weeks. Theres been no more talk of the president submitting more testimony. What, if anything, can we make of that, greg . Im not sure if we can make anything of that, really. Especially because of the source. But mya is absolutely right. I think congress per the reg does have the right to know of any disagreements between the ag and the special counsel. What i would suggest that congress will also have an interest and will express the interest even in the absence of disagreements between the special counsel and the ag which would have to be provided to congress. They will demand all of the details. I just cant imagine a scenario where congress and to some extent a bipartisan way doesnt demand virtually everything that bob mueller has to potentially share with them. And thats going to put the ag in a very tough spot. As i said, thats where the negotiation comes in. Greg, thank you. Mya, thank you. Ken, thank you. Dana millbank, always a pleasure. Enjoy the weekend, guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Breaking news, up against the wall. Democrats facing a huge battle on capitol hill as they push to term ma terminati President Trumps National Emergency declaration. Larry hogan speculation. And the alabama woman who married into isis and is making a desperate plea to come back to this country with her son, speaking out for the First Time Since being denied entry into the u. S. She spoke exclusively to Richard Engle in syria. Gline syria come here, babe. Ok. Nasty nightime heartburn . Try alkaseltzer pm gummies. The only fast, powerful heartburn relief, plus melatonin so you can fall asleep quickly. Oh, what a relief it is do you have a moment to chat . Weve just heard the president is apparently going to sign this legislation. Whats your reaction . Mitch mcconnell just went to the senate floor. He spoke to the president. The president is going to declare a National Emergency simultaneously. Do you think thats the right plan . No, i do not. I think declaring a National Emergency is not good for the president to do. Onal emergency is not good for the president to do. Breaking news on this friday. House democrats introduced a plan to terminate President Trumps Emergency Declaration along the southern border. Before it ever takes effect or reaches a courtroom, it is the latest challenge that pits democrats in the house against the president of the United States in the battle for power. Who holds that power, who checks that power, who has the backing of the majority of the American People . Msnbcs garrett hake is on capitol hill right now. He is following this breaking nous. Bring us up to speed on where we are right now, sir. House democrats are going to move fast here. They introduced this legislation or this resolution this morning. Theyre going to work it through the rules committee. On monday, theyre going to bring it to the floor on tuesday. They want to get this thing passed through the house and over to the senate side as quickly as possible. We know this will pass the house. Its already been introduced with enough cosponsors that if not a single other person signs on, it will pass the house. Right now, it only has one republican signed on. That will be a big thing to watch on tuesday. How many republicans come out and get on this resolution after as much republicans have talked about executive overreach in the obama presidency, how will they react now . When this thing moves over to the senate, thats the same question were seeing one more time there. There have been about half a dozen, maybe ten republican senators who have spoken out about the president s action here on this National Emergency. Will they put their votes where their mouths on and vote with democrats to say they dont think its appropriate . If this passes both houses, it goes to the president s desk where he will veto it. Can this garner enough support to override a president ial veto . That will be really tough. And i think well know the answer to that on tuesday. Can democrats in the house where they have the majority bring enough republicans over that they could maybe threaten a veto proof majority . If they cant do it in the house, they wont be able to do it in the senate. But even if this thing just passes both houses and goes to the president , it would require President Trump to use his veto pen for the very first time, a major fracture in the Republican Party and would send a pretty strong message to the country about where everyone stands on this wall emergency measure. Garrett, keep us up to speed, sir. I know you will. Thank you. I want to bring into the conversation former congresswoman donna edwards. She just wrote an oped in the Washington Post thats quite timely. The headlines, its time for congress to take back its power. Its worth noting, i think, that this is not an entirely new phenomenon. You could make the argument that congress ceded far too much authority a long time ago to the executive branch. I think thats true. Thats one of the reasons i wrote the oped, sort of looking not just at the National Emergency, which was one way that congress has ceded its power, but over the course of executive orders, Committee Assignments and things that the congress has said that, you know, the administration, the executive branch, you do our job for us. I mean, on transportation and infrastructure, look what the president did just the other day with california. You know, revoking its rail money because congress has ceded its authority in so many different ways. And i think that this is you know, the first time that the National Emergencies act would be moved to be terminated by the congress in the 40 years that its been in existence. But i would argue that now is the time to review all of the 123 or so documented by the Brennen Center provisions that come into effect when the National Emergencies act is declared. And its time for congress to review all of that and take back its power. Why do you think congress has been so complicit, if you will, in ceding so much control over the years . Well, you know, its not a surprise that every executive wants to control as much as possible. And i think our constitution was actually designed to prevent against exactly that. And so i would argue that we could argue day long ago whether the congress has done this appropriately over the years. But its been inch by inch by inch and in terms of both looking at what the committees are doing now in terms of oversight and investigation as well as looking at the National Emergencies act and moving to terminate this declaration of emergency is one way to begin to regain the power that congress rightly deserves as the Article One Branch of the constitution. It has been striking over the past week or so to hear so many lawmakers who memorably, mumbly railed against the use of executive Authority Just a few years ago. Now they appear to be just fine with the use of executive authority. Or just a few days ago. Right. Exactly. Dont go anywhere, though. Since youre here in new york city, we want to make sure we get our moneys worth out of you. Stay with me. Kamala harris is making her pitch to black women at a new orleans summit. We are going to go there live. Also, a live look at the markets this morning. The dow back above 26,000. Its noteworthy because this is the first time its been above 26,000 in thee months. Could switching to geico really save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance . Did the little piggy cry wee wee wee all the way home . Weeeeeeeee we we weeeee weeeeeeee weeeeeeee weeeeeeee max. Maxwell yeah . Youre home. Oh, cool. Thanks mrs. A. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Senator Kamala Harris will be making a pitch to a summit for black women in new orleans. It celebrates the collective power of black women. Alli joins us on the phone from the big easy for harriss speech. This is a live look. And we should note that, alli, youre on the phone because were on the phone. What are you hearing . How exciting is the crowd . In talking to several of the women here, this seems to be the person that theyre here for. And i dont think i even met anyone from georgia where she ran and has served. That tell us you how strong her brand is. The question is what do you do with that National Reputation after making the governors race as she did in georgia so close in november. And it seems Stacey Abrahams is still toying with that question. Take a listen to what she said here on stage just a few minutes ago. Im good. I think theres no legitimate way to go through what we did in november and not be angry and sad. But here is the thing. Part of the way the other side wins is by getting us stuck in our feelings. For me, the issue is this. I am angry and i am sad, but the question is how do i use those emotions and that feeling to activate my next response. And, craig, were still waiting on that next response. It might be a senate run in 2020 against david purdue as its been reported stacy a abrahams is thinking about that. Were still waiting to see if thats her next response. She has several groups on the ground in georgia and thats a state democrats are looking for in 2020 as a place where they can make gains. There is another figure here who is already running. It became clear in this room there are a lot of ears that ricked up. But almost everyone i spoke to said its early on them to decide if they want to vote for her for president. But i think the interesting hinge the here is you talk about the role black women will play in 2020, especially in states like south carolina, and its clear Kamala Harris wants that group to be with her in 2020. Thats why shes making stops like this to try to bring them to her cause early and introduce herself to them at this early point in the race. But i asked one of the women who i was talking to earlier, is it a given that women will support women and black women will support other black women . And she said for her, she wants to support another black woman on the stage. She wants to hearing something that she likes in Kamala Harris, but shes not sure that will be the overarcing theme of this race. Is that just a theory or is that something well see play out in the electorate. Alli, thank you. Enjoy your weekend. Back with me, democratic congresswoman and contributing columnist for the Washington Post donna edwards. Joining the conversation from washington, also washington positive opinion writer, mz nbc contributor jennifer reuben. Congresswoman, let me start with you. How successful do you think Kamala Harris has been so far in her attempts to recruit specifically black women voters . I wrote a few weeks ago that black women voters are going to decide the democratic nomination and perhaps the election, as well. And thats going to be decided in hair salons and among Sorority Sisters and on church pews. And i think Kamala Harris has really begun the work of gaining the support of those voters, but i believe that every single democratic nominee has to fight for black womens votes. Because whoever gets the nomination at the end of the day is going to need those voters and it cant begin labor day of 2020. Do you think your party has taken for granted the support of black women . Well, they shouldnt because black women are discertaining voters. But do you think they have . Well, i think that theres an assumption that they are the strongest and most committed voters. But if you look at 2016, Hillary Clinton went after those black women voters. Remember, she did that in the primary election. I think each one of these candidates has the ability to appeal to black women voters and the question is how hard they will fight for them. Jennifer, lets turn our attention here to republican governor larry hogan from maryland. Something a lot of folks are talking about as a possible challenge in a primary for 2020. Also someone a lot of folks never even knew about outside of maryland three or four weeks ago. Theres a new article that says hogan said thursday hes not launching a primary challenge against President Donald Trump unless the president s political standing within his own party weakens dramatically. Its not a no, but jennifer, how do you read that . I read that in conjunction with some of the other interviews hes given where he spec late that once the Mueller Report comes out, its going hurt President Trump tremendously. So i dont think thats a no. I think that is simply keeping his name in the conversation, keeping the ball alive. I do think that were going to see a period of time when the Mueller Report comes out, when the roger stone trial begins, and were going to see whether those significantly alter the president s standing in the Republican Party. We know its hurt him overall. Hes at the low 40s at best with the general electorate, but hes remained strong with republicans. And i think its going the be a test as to whether he can fend off any challengers. One thing that is significant is republicans are so scared of a challenger, theyre attempting to change the rules in some of these primaries to make it more difficult for someone to compete. And that suggests that theyre nervous about the president s standing. Donna, youre a marylander. Those are your people. Are you surprised at this all this attention that larry hogan is getting down in maryland . Well, i mean, there arent a lot of choices out there. Larry hogan has been good at, frankly, stiff arming the president during his first term and hes now started his second term. So i think if republicans are looking for an option, he may be, but i dont see larry hogan surviving a republican primary. His politics in maryland dont demonstrate that he can necessarily survive a what do you mean with by that . Well, because he has on the muslim ban, for example, he opposed that. I mean, there are a number of these issues where he is at complete odds with where the Republican Base is. He is a little r republican, larry hogan. Jennifer, not just candidates posing a challenge to this president. There is a bill in new jersey that would keep President Trump off that states 2020 ballot unless he releases his tax returns. What are the chances that actually passes . And forces the president s hand or does President Trump write off new jersey because hes not going to win it, anyway . I think hes not going to win new jersey, anyway. He doesnt want this precedent, however. I think it probably will pass. Its heavily a Democratic Legislature there and they now have a governor who is a democrat. I would expect there to be a Court Challenge and i think its undecided issue. On one hand, the constitution doesnt specify anything as a requirement for being president like revealing your taxes and on the other hand, elections are generally the way theyve organized Ballot Access is generally the province of the states. So i suspect that well have some litigation on this throughout the year. Donna, while i have you, lets talk about another democratic star, beto orourke. Politico did this deep dive on the former congress imagine. Here is what beto could unleash on trump. It examines how he garnered so much support for the bid in texas, but its a race he ultimately lost. Can a strategy that led to an unsuccessful bid to the senate, can that lay the groundwork for a successful run for the white house . Its unclear. I think, again, beto is one of these candidate thats looks good on paper, he ran a great campaign, but he will be on a field with some really tough talent. And i think, again, its going to be up to beto to demonstrate within the Democratic Party primary that he can survive that before he ever gets to make those arguments against donald trump. Jennifer reuben, we started this broadcast with talk of the special counsels report coming out any moment now. Give me a sense of your city in washington right now. How high is the anxiety . I think the anxiety in the white house is pretty high. I think people are poised, this is the moment of truth that many have been waiting for for almost a couple years now. I think there is a lot of concern as to whether we will even know what the Mueller Report looks like. He is going to submit his report to the attorney general and attorney general barr is going to decide what kind of report in turn he will make and make public. I tend to think that its in both their interests, the white houses interest, the countrys interest to release as much as that as is humanly possible. And i actually think that is what is going to happen. Barr is a lawyers lawyer. He doesnt want to be known as the guy who tried to cover up the Mueller Report. He wants to be the guy who navigated the country through potentially a constitutional crisis. Jennifer, thank you. Donna, good to have you. I enjoy having you in new york. You should come up more often. Jennifer, you should come up at some point, too. Come on up, we could probably get a deal for two train tickets. I dont know what that means. Here is something that will make you smile on a friday afternoon. A park ranger furloughed during last months furloughed shutdown, now a multi million air. She works at ft. Washington, d. C. Worth Recreation Area in Staten Island in new york. She bought the ticket just days before the shutdown. Left her without pay in over a month. Judith officially claimed that prize. Oh, by the way, the prize, 29. 35 million. She says shes going to continue working, although she says shes going to show up with a completely different attitude at work. No, she didnt say that. I made that up. But she is planning a family vacation, as well. An alabama woman who married into isis now suing the Trump Administration to let her come back home. Richard engle has a new exclusive interview with her. Shes speaking publicly for the very First Time Since she learned she cant come back to the u. S. Since she learned she cant come back to the u. S. Ght i was managing my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. But i realized something was missing. Me. The thought of my symptoms returning was keeping me from being there for the people and things i love most. So, i talked to my doctor and learned humira can help get, and keep, uc under control when other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts so you could experience few or no symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, control is possible. danny clients voice . That youre not using smarter tools to manage your business. You work too hard to work this hard collecting receipts . Is it the 80s . Does anybody have a mixtape i can borrow . You should be chasing peoples pets. Not chasing payments quickbooks gives you a sweet set of business tools. That do all the hard work for you. You may groom corgis, but you dont have to work like a dog. vo you earned it, were here to make sure you get it. danny its time to get yours. vo quickbooks. Backing you. It is time for a redo the in north carolina. The state board of elections there voting unanimously to hold a new election in the ninth congressional district. The last seat from the midterms without a represent. The Big Questions left are when and who will run for that seat. The board held days of hearings this week to investigate suspected fraudulent activity from a political operative. The republican in the race mark harrison. After a day of testimony, harris said this on the stand. Neither i nor any of the leadership of my campaign were aware of or condoned the improper activities that had been testified to in this hearing. Through the testimony ive listened to over the past three days, i believe a new election should be called. The exact date of that new election has not been set, but it wont be until this fall leaving the district without a representative for nearly a year. Some Big Questions today surrounding a ruling by a Legal Team Led by the man who is now President Trumps labor secretary. A federal judge has ruled that federal prosecutors let by Alexander Acosta broke the law by cutting an extremely dangerous deal excuse me, an extremely generous deal with financier Jeffrey Epstein whiteout notifying his alleged 30 under age sex abuse victims. Pete Williams Joins me now with more on this. Pete. Craig, lawyers for the victims are calling this long overdue vindication. The judge ruled that when acosta, now the labor secretary was the u. S. Attorney in miami, he and his prosecutors violated the law while negotiating this deal with Jeffrey Epstein in 2007. Hes the politically connected billionaire accused of sexually abusing more than 30 underage girls at his mansion in palm beach. What the judge says is that while the deal with epstein was in the works, acosta deliberately failed to tell the victims of or their lawyers about what was going on. So that meant, the judge said, that the victims had no opportunity to object before the deal was done. The one that allowed epstein to plead guilty only to state charges that brought him 13 months in jail and he spent much of that outside on work release. In fact, the judge said that acosta and his Prosecution Team misled the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility. Now, the judge did not rule on whether the plea deal itself was improper. That was not the question before the judge. And this ruling is probably not going to have any effect on Jeffrey Epstein who served his sentence a long time ago. In fact, its not clear what practical effect the ruling is going to have. Hes asking both sides in the case to suggest what should now be done as a result and its not clear what it would be. As for acosta himself, he has consistently defended this deal. He had no comment yesterday. The labor department, though, says the plea deal with epstein followed the rules and was reviewed by Justice Department leadership and previously acosta has said that after this deal was cut, more information about epsteins offenses became available that wasnt known at the time. Craig. Pete, thank you. Up next, an exclusive with the alabama woman who married into isis who is now speaking publicly for the First Time Since learning that she can n cannot come back to the United States. Cannot come back to the United States i switched to stimulantfree miralax for my constipation. Stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. Miralax is different. It works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. And it doesnt cause harsh side effects. Thats why i choose miralax. Look for the pink cap. Now to a nbc news exclusive. The americanborn isis bride says she anticipates no problem returning to the u. S. , even after President Trump told secretary of state mike pompeo to refuse her entry. The 24yearold spoke to Richard Engel a short time ago. Its her first interview since learning shes not going to be allowed to come home. Richard joins me now from inside syria. Richard, good day to you. What do we know . Well, before i get to the woman and what she said, and she hopes this problem can be resolved and she goes back home, let me tell you about where she is. Its a disturbing, fascinating, revealing place. She is at a camp which is a tough place to live, a tented camp, 40,000 displaced people, canvas tents, garbage strewn everywhere. It is very cold now in syria, it is very wet. And within this large camp of war refugees is a detention facility, a detention facility that is specifically for the family members of isis fighters. There are about 1,600 women and children there. She is there. We made our way to her tent today, she was initially reluctant to speak with us. We said we would like to talk to you and hear your opinion after this move by the United States, by the secretary of state to say that she is not a citizen even though she had a passport, was issued a passport twice by the state department, and eventually she did agree to talk to us. This is what she said. I know for a fact that i was a citizen. When i tried finally for a passport, it was very easy. It came in ten days. So i thought i didnt have a problem. Im sure theres no problem. I know my lawyer hopefully is working on it. And he will win the case. Do you think youll be able to go back to the United States . Do you want to go to the United States . I prefer america than anywhere else, yes. And what do you want to do if you went back to the states, what do you think will happen to you if you were allowed to go back . Of course ill be given jail time. Hoda has a young son with her now, a young boy who was born under isis control. At this camp, like i said, 1,600 women and children, and there were hundreds of toddlers. Almost all about the same age, all roughly 2, 3 years old, born under isis control. And its unclear what is going to happen to hoda or the 1,600 people at this camp. Several countries, including it seems now the United States, dont want to accept these people back. So for now, they are trapped in this camp. And the authorities that run this part of syria arent sure what they are going to do about them. They cant hold them forever. They are encouraging the governments to receive them, to reintegrate them somehow. But right now they are in something of a Holding Pattern with hoda using her lawyer to try to plead her case that the state department is wrong and that her passport is valid and that she should be issued a new one and come back to the United States to face justice. She says she deeply regrets coming here and now she has changed her radical views. Richard, i spent some time yesterday talking to u. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo about this very case. And as you know, the state department disputes this idea that she is in fact a citizen of this country. They point to the fact that she is the daughter of an embassy worker, a diplomat. Whats the next step in the case, richard, where does it go from here . What do we know about that . Well, craig, to bring it full circle, it was the clip of the interview that you did with secretary pompeo that i brought with me into the camp on an iphone and i showed it to her to get her reaction. She hadnt seen the clip before. She said, my lawyer is working on it. It was something she knew about, it was something she said her family has been dealing with for years but that she thought had been resolved. The issue is basically if foreign diplomats are stationed in the United States and they have children, their children arent automatically granted u. S. Citizenship. But she said in her case because of the timing of when her father was stationed as a diplomat, that she should be entitled to u. S. Citizenship. The u. S. State department is now disputing that. And her lawyer says that the u. S. Government is effectively looking for a technicality so that it doesnt have to deal with her and repatriate her to the United States or any other country. Chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel for us in northern syria, be safe, my friend. We want to get to breaking news out of jupiter, florida. Police there Just Announced that the older of the new England Patriots, robert kraft, has been charged with soliciting prostitution. Reporter can you confirm for us the name of the high profile professional sports Franchise Owner that we believe it to be . Could you speak to that anymore and situation . Yes, sir, he is one of the. Reporter can you say who he is . That would be mr. Robert kraft. Reporter the owner of the new England Patriots . Yes, sir. Reporter what is he being charged with . Hes being charged with the same offences as the others, and that is soliciting another to commit prostitution. Reporter how many counts may he face . Right now we have two. Reporter that would be two separate incidences or visits to the spa or one visit with multiple charges from that one visit . Two different visits. Reporter what are the charges . Reporter what are the charges . Again, that News Conference wrapping up a short time ago. We should note nbc news has reached out to the new England Patriots for comment. No word back just yet from them. Kerry sanders is following this case. He is there in florida. He joins me now on the phone. Kerry, what more do we know . Reporter lets talk about the details specifically of what it is that the police have alleged has been going on for months now in this region of south florida. They have been investigating, and these are multiple police agencies, have been investigating massage parlors where they allege that women were duped in china into believing that they were coming to the United States for legislate job legitimate jobs. They got here to the United States, primarily to new york, and wound up in florida massage parlors where they were essentially never allowed to leave the massage parlors and were duped into becoming sex workers. And by no choice of their own, its alleged, they began having to Service Folks who came in. And as a result, they never left, slept on the same tables where they performed their alleged duties and then went on the back steps of these strip malls where they worked and did their cooking. One of the Biggest Challenges of course is that they didnt speak any english so they didnt know who to reach out to for help. Authorities say they have been with security cameras and surveillance, watching people come and go for weeks on end, that they have that evidence. And as you heard at the News Conference, they alleged one of the people, of the 171 arrest affidavits that are out there, one of them is robert kraft, the owner of the new England Patriots, craig. Kerry sanders for us on this breaking news. Again, just out of florida, out of jupiter, florida. Again, robert kraft, in addition to being the owner of the new England Patriots since 1984, hes the founder, chairman, and ceo of the kraft group, one of the most successful businessmen in this country, also of course the winner of six super bowls, the defending super bowl champions. In fact i just talked to robert kraft on the sidelines in atlanta just a few weeks ago. But robert kraft now being charged with two counts of solicitation of prostitution after a Human Trafficking investigation there in florida. Andrea mitchell is standing by. Andrea mitchell reports starts right now. And good afternoon, im Andrea Mitchell in washington with this breaking news from jupiter, florida at this hour. New England Patriots owner robert kraft has just been charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution at a massage parlor in florida. Right now florida authorities are processing a warrant for mr. Kraft, who is on the part of the a resident of the state. Joining me now, nbc legal contributor Danny Cevallos from new york. Danny, as you heard just now from kerry sanders, there have been multiple people spotted going in and out of this facility. This involves Human Trafficking