2020 election. we re still not done. an nbc news analysis finds jack smith s grand jury has interviewed dozens of witnesses from little known campaign aides to the former vice president of the united states. and smith s questions are, quote, focused particularly on the fake elector scheme. smith is also said to be focused on that unhinged december 18th oval office meeting about seizing voting machines. the meeting was full of insults and conspiracy theory, concerning powell, michael flynn. here s how the people in the room described that december 18th meeting. someone screamed at me that i was a quitter, kept on standing up and turning and around screaming at me. they were fighting. the first thing i walked in and i looked at them and said who are you? people fighting with each other and hurling insults at each other. what they were proposing i thought was nuts. how nuts was it? this was the draft executive or they were pushing trump to sign: it was not written
i m sorry, albert let s get right into the headlines. a jury just hit donald trump with this record breaking penalty for lying about a sexual assault accuser. defendant trump, ordered to pay $83 million to the writer e. jean carroll. she is the victorious plaintiffs in this case, and right here you can see as she first walked out of court with her lawyers today. now we can tell you the jury deliberated from just under three hours, that is fast, and they dubbed trump a huge loss, which set its records, and shows a very costly miscalculation that he, an ongoing defendant made by, according to the court system, lying and defaming her again after a previous court victory. here are the numbers tonight, if you ve been watching the news, you may have seen some of this. i want to break it down for me. $18 million to compensate carroll, okay, that is what the jury found she should get for what she went through. and then that larger number, a massive $65 million to punish this defian
sensible to benefit trump, even he is shooting it down. and how far, how a far-right tiktok influencer with zero back on an education got a job overseeing which books can sit on library shelves of oklahoma. i am let s do. it s do it > $83 million, that s how much a new york jury ordered donald trump to pay e. jean carroll for repeatedly defaming her after the writercused the ex president of sexual assault back in the1990 carol s attorney, roberta kaplan, celebrated the decision marking it as a major moment for countability and claiming it, quote, proves that the law applies to everyone in our couny, even the rich, even the famous, even former presidents. friday verdict followed a dramatic week in court with trump taking this stand to testify in his own defense. that testimony, the first from the former president and the presence of a jury lasted all but three minutes. the drama did not and there, though. on friday, closing arguments, trump apparently, unhappy with remark
special coverage of this escalating trump probe in new york and tonight right now you re watching a special live edition of the beat. we re following the pressure donald trump which actually exploded from the arrest talk this weekend to today s blockbuster testimony before the grand jury? some out of court-statements that broke within the last hour. moments ago this trump-aligned witness speaking out. my only mission there today was to tell the truth about what michael cohen was saying at any point in time. michael cohen decided on his own, that s what he told us, on his own to see if he could take care of this. is that what he told us? was all of the remarks made factual? mr. michael cohen is here to respond in a moment. this is not just journalism. this is aspects of the probe spilling out because mr. costello did speak to the grand jury today that s why he was so newsworthy. mr. cohen remained a key grand jury witness in a case that donald trump now says will lead to
starts today. we love getting nightly news with lester holt backs appeared we love your work, and the diplomacy. indeed. have a good weekend, you, too. welcome to the beat. let me start with something serious. law enforcement sources still us that alvin bragg has received a formal death threat, through a letter that was a littled to him that set, quote, alvin, i m going to kill you, end quote. it contained a white powder. it s been deemed by authorities as nonhazardous. this is what s happening. we talked about last night why it s not a drill, why these threats don t work historically, but why donald trump, who is under investigation for abusing power, for inciting an insurrection, is now back at the same playbook. he is out online, using his plate form. talking about depth and destruction and posts violent imagery. the probe is part of a much larter legal storm. and we re going to report on these always. we have to understand he s moving from a position of extrem