that is expected to start any minute now. we ll bring you that as soon as it begins. plus, the polarizing plea deal for the president s son. republicans blasting the agreement that lets hunter biden avoid jail time as a slap on the wrist. but some legal experts suggest that if his last name wasn t biden, he might never have faced charges in the first place. and this deal was announced just about half an hour after we learned donald trump s court date. now less than eight weeks away. does judge aileen cannon s accelerated timeline suggest this trial could be over before the primaries even begin? but, we start with the extraordinary developments developing the current and former president on the same okay that donald trump s trial date is set, president biden s son hunter has reached a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid a trial and jail time. and we will get to that momentarily. but, first, let s take you to the coast guard briefing, the latest on the sub and the five p
challenging operation. but right now we re focused on putting everything we can at it and searching as hard as we can and getting assets out there as quickly as we can. what sort of assets do they have? [ inaudible ] so there are some additional assets with rovs. there is one asset that is working to get on scene, the decompression chamber. so those are all pieces that are coming together. and we re working those logistical challenges to get them there. i think we ll take one more. [ inaudible ] i can t tell you exactly that it would look like. i would tell you that, you know, we are out there, we re searching, we wouldn t be doing this we wouldn t be searching and putting all effort out there. i think if the sub is located, that s a question that then the
best minds in the world. we have the u.s. coast guard, the canadian coast guard, p-3s flying out scanning and looking to see if they see anything either on the surface of the water or at any depth with their radar. they re dropping buoys so they can listen for any noise of perhaps the crew tapping or any voices that they hear. this is a huge area, though. like you said, the size of connecticut. while we know the destination was the titanic, have to think about ocean currents and where this vessel may have moved in the time since it was last heard from. just a massive effort going on now. they also talked about private interests that are getting involved now. a ship called deep energy has arrived on scene and has a robotic operated vehicle. rov. and that, a remote operated vehicle. that is searching with some cameras, that dive going on as we speak. as well as air flights going on and then the vessels rushing to
aircraft is conduct a six-hour search of the area and several c-130 aircraft and another p-3 are scheduled to fly this afternoon and this evening. the canadian coast guard cutter or vessel john cabot is scheduled to arrive later this evening and several other canadian vessels are en route. the u.s. coast guard has the u.s. navy s supervisor salvaging dive and command is working with u.s. transportation command to bring additional assets to the search area. these more capable assets will be staged out of st. john s for further transport to the search area. there are several private vessel research vessels, rov capabilities making preparations to join the efforts. so i want to reiterate, this is a very complex search and the unified teams working around the clock to bring all available assets and expertise to bear as quickly as possible in an effort to solve this very complex problem.
we ll continue to provide updates as they become available. and again our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and the families and the loved ones. we will provide unwavering effort as we continue the search and i think i ll open it up and take a few questions. [ inaudible ] so each of the rovs, that s a vague question. rovs have different capability. it is our understanding the current rov deployed at the site now has limited capability and has a camera on board. but, again, each of those is different. and we ll be gathering more information as that operation goes on through the day. tom costello with nbc news. if your submersibles can find this sub, is there any way to retrieve it and save the people on board? right now all of our efforts are focused on finding the sub. what i will tell you is we have