inspiring america. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone forecasters are using terms like heat dome and atmospheric rivers to describe what is driving extreme weather conditions across the country tonight, from dangerous rain and flooding to crippling heat many will see triple-digit highs in fact over the course of the next seven days, over 250 million americans can expect temperatures 90 or hotter. and while drought-stricken parts of the west can t seem to buy a drop of rain, too much of it has fallen in montana and wyoming. it s been wiping out bridges, roads, and literally carrying houses away. yellowstone park closed tonight a crushing start to the park s busy vacation season. from tornado sirens blaring in chicago to fires in the west, this is already shaping up to be a summer to remember our team is in place to cover it all, starting tonight with gadi schwartz. reporter: tonight, weather extremes as destructive as they a
releasing damning new testimony from an attorney in trump s white house. in a tease of sorts for next week s hearing watch this in our next hearing on thursday, the select committee will examine president trump s relentless effort on january 6th and in the days beforehand to pressure vice president pence to refuse to count lawful electoral votes. as a federal judge has indicated, this likely violated to federal criminal statutes. to. and that s heating up the comment, the committee s newest bombshell, a portion of the deposition from former white house lawyer, eric herschmann, who describes a colorful conversation the day he had after the insurrection, with lawyer john eastman. the lawyer wrote memos arguing the vice president could in fact overturn the election. he started to ask me about something dealing with georgia, and preserving something, eventually, for appeal. and i said to him, are you out of your effing mind? i said, i only want to hear two words coming ou
small business administration, as well as states attorneys tasked with uncovering pandemic loan rackets. and they told me then, that least 87 billion dollars of potential fraud had been identified. and my colleague, gabe gutierrez, has an update. i ll give you a teaser it s really bad. the department of justice has been looking into pandemic relief funds and alleged fraud on a massive scale. and now, congressional investigators are also looking into some of the companies hired to help distribute that money. this nondescript office building in virginia houses the company the feds hired to help distribute billions of dollars in loans to help struggling small businesses during the pandemic. the firm, rer solutions, got a no bid $750 million contract and the company netted $340 million in windfall profits, despite assigning the work to just six of its employees, according to a u.s. house subcommittee report released today. why do you think that covid spending at that time was so
dollars in loans to help struggling small businesses during the pandemic the firm, r.e.r. solutions, got a no-bid $750 million contract the company netted $340 million in windfall profits despite assigning the work to just six of its employees, according to a u.s. house subcommittee report released today. why do you think the covid spending at that time was so out of control? because we did not have effective enforcement of the oversight procedures that congress put in place. reporter: the economic injury disaster loan program, known as eidl, has previously been under scrutiny as the justice department s inspector general told lester the small business administration in sending that money out largely relied on an honor system reporter: prosecutors had already accused some borrowers of using the money to buy luxury homes and cryptocurrencies now investigators are
work to just six of its employees, according to u.s. house subcommittee report released today. why do you think that covid spending at that time was so out of control? it s just, we did not have effective enforcement of the oversight procedures that congress put in place. the economic injury disaster loan problem, known as eidl has previously been under scrutiny, as the small business inspector general told lester. it largely relied on an honor system. have already hue some borrowers to [inaudible] cryptocurrency and test. let s now, are looking closer at describe 20% of those funds may have been awarded to fraudsters. each dollar stolen was $1 taken from a small restaurant owner who wanted nothing more than to keep her staff on the payroll. rer solutions told