the death toll is rising president putin s defiant surprise appearance, touring a part of ukraine russia took over years ago, just a day after an arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes terror in the streets. a surge in illegal car racing across the country. racers taking over neighborhoods. why it s turning deadly more often. and the biggest march madness upset in decades. the small college that took down a basketball powerhouse can you believe it? the players tell us how they pulled it off. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with jose diaz-balart good evening if former president trump is correct, we are on the verge of something unprecedented in american history a former u.s. president arraigned before a judge facing criminal charges the case against mr. trump involving hush money payments to stormy daniels has been simmering for months today mr. trump set it to a boil. in an early morning social media post he announced that from media leaks he has seen, he
100%. reporter: even with the legal challenges? absolutely. yeah, because they re phoney. reporter: it comes after a major shake-up on trump s legal team. now led by georgia defense attorney who s high profile clients include ti and usher. in a statement, he writes, the president should never have been indicted. prosecutions intended to advance or serve the ambitions and careers of political opponents of the president have no place in our justice system. and this won t be the last surrender we see here at the jail related to this case. that s right, lester. the d.a. is still, of course, expecting the final of the 19 defendants to turn themselves in here at the jail. but that deadline is winding down. remember, they have until tomorrow afternoon to surrender. you noted in your story that there s a lockdown in place. talk about the beefed up security. yeah. security is heavy, lester. it s been growing throughout the day. i just confirmed that there is no entrance or exit on
and possibly have a mug shot taken once inside where he will likely remain for less than an hour before being released on a $200,000 bond. it will come on the heels of another surrender, his former chief of staff mark meadows, seen here in this mug shot booked on charges of conspiring with his former boss in the racketeering case. meadows is fighting to get his case removed to federal court. he was released on a $100,000 bond. 11 of trump s co-defendants surrendered and mr. trump is blasting fulton county s democratic d.a. for bringing what he calls partisan charges. overnight, asked why he remains upbeat. i think it s a lot easier because i m so high in the polls. because it means the people get it. the people see it s a fraud. reporter: outside the jail, despite a handful of anti-trump protesters, the former president s sentiment was echoed by a parade of supporters. will you vote for him? absolutely.
strongly denies. i make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law. the law is completely nonpartisan. and, blayne, as i mentioned at the top of the broadcast, the d.a. calling on mr. trump and the other defendants to surrender for an arraignment by the end of next week. what is that going to look like? reporter: well, that s right, lester, friday, august 25th at noon is the deadline, and because of georgia law that allows cameras in the courtroom, it s very likely that we would see an arraignment play out on live tv. lester. blayne, thank you. this fourth indictment puts mr. trump s legal troubles on even more of a collision course with his campaign. so far it appears to have boosted the republican front-runner. garrett haake now on whether these charges could prove different. reporter: the historic fourth indictment of donald trump tonight shaking up the 2024 campaign. the republican front-runner slamming the charges as another witch-hunt by a democratic d.a.
democratic d.a. in bragg, who is now prosecuting former president trump. during surveillance in march, the fbi says it observed robertson wearing a hat bearing the word trump, and when agents attempted to speak with him, robertson replied, i said it was a dream adding, don t return without a warrant. he was nice to me. it just goes to show, you never know who your neighbors are. reporter: it comes amid growing concerns over threats to public officials and their families. capitol police saying the number of investigations is historically high. major incidents include the violent attack on nancy pelosi husband paul and an attempted assassination of brett kavanaugh. the fbi has not released details about what sparked today s deadly confrontation. no fbi agents were injured. lester. peter, thank you. now to the secret search warrant on former president trump s twitter account. tonight we ve learned