city we must be consistent morally around these legal issues. absolutely and also on politics nation this weekend, sorry, rev, yeah, you have joe that does it for i have the star of my mornings, and everybody, i just tee that up because i want everybody to watch his special monday night. we have to say our apologies to ana cabrera that does it for us this morning, ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now thank you so much for being here, and happy friday it is 10:00 here on the east coast. i m ana cabrera reporting from new york as we come on air, the 2024 presidential field has never been in sharper focus. three sources now telling nbc news that president biden is expected to announce his white house bid as early as this tuesday. another source familiar with the planning says top advisers have been sending signals in recent days to, quote, get ready. why now? is the timing more about superstition or strategy and what might it mean for the republican fistfight be
Allegations that trump falsified Business Records to bury a story about an alleged sexual encounter with adult film star stormy daniels. The d. A. s office also alleges model Karen Mcdougal received a payment from American Media to silence her about another alleged affair with trump. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts and denied the affairs with these women ever happened. Joining us now, nbc news correspondent yasmin vossoughian, danny cevallos, Criminal Defense Attorney and msnbc legal analyst and rebecca roy fee, a Law Professor at new york law school. So, yasmin, a lot going on in that courtroom today. Reporter a lot of folks are dismissed so far today, 96 walked in, 57 walked out after the two questions that were read by judge juan merchan, can you be impartial, many folks raised their hands, they walked out. Do you have conflicts with this trial, can you sit it out or can you wait it out, for the next six to seven weeks . Many of them walked out as well. Were at 57 havi
fact, just take a law firm, for example, two attorneys on this jury, if you find out the law firm, most law firms, even if they have a sizable new york office, you can scroll through the photos of the bios, find out who that lawyer is pretty quickly, what i imagine many folks have already done if they know the name of the firm and can figure that out, they can glean the rest. so, in a sense, in today s modern era, the information the attorneys get is really just a starting point as long as they re not contacting the juror, the investigation can go right into social media or websites, wherever else. rebecca, danny, thank you very much. yasmin, stick with us for any updates throughout the remainder of this hour. still ahead, a rare and exclusive interview with a top leader of hezbollah, a military militant group backed by iran. what he says hezbollah will do if israel takes action against iran. back at home, house speaker mike johnson vows to push through an aid bill for ukraine,
also, juror number four is in question because the possibility of not providing valid answers on that 42-question questionnaire. juror number four was supposed to show up to answer some of the questions they had about that, he has not yet shown up, so they decided to move on with the jury questionnaire process throughout the day. and they ll revisit it after juror number four shows up. so, rebecca, as we were just hearing, the judge actually scolded the press over its coverage of the jurors. why is that information so delicate? well, this really just highlights how difficult it is to pick a jury in this particular kind of case and how to ensure that the safety of those jurors and the anonymity of those jurors is preserved. and so in a case like this, you really need to try to not only not reveal names, but also not
that they cannot be impartial, which is unusual in a case. what exactly, rebecca, is a sandoval hearing? a sandoval hearing is a hearing in which the judge determines the scope of cross examination for a prosecutor, and that is important information for the defense going into the case and especially in determining whether or not the defendant is going to take the stand. because if the defendant takes the stand, then in this situation they know, prior to making that decision, what prior bad acts and particularly potential criminal acts that the defendant has committed in the past will be allowed to come in, and obviously that s an important calculation in deciding whether or not to testify. yasmin, you know, this juror being asked to be excused, and being excused from the case, you think that this could in some way be a pattern?