next, update to that arrest in texas, outrage for a woman carrying out what texas authorities call a self-induced abortion. and we take to you france for breaking news on their presidential elections. the stage set for a rematch. plus new reporting to share about the former president and the multiple investigations he is facing from new york state to the 1/6 committee. is the hammer about to drop? but i want to begin with that case in texas. the 26-year-old said to no long are face a murder charge, after deputies arrested her for a quote, self-induced abortion. according to new nbc news reporting, a texas district attorney will take steps tomorrow to drop the murder indictment of the woman whos with arrested thursday. after reviewing the case, the d.a. says it is clear she cannot be prosecuted under texas law. nonetheless, she spent two days in jail during a pandemic. we believe this is one of the first cases of texas charging a woman for abortion since an abortion ban last year. texas is just one wave in what is becoming a gop tsunami to roll back abortion rights. not to mention the summer when the supreme court is set to decide on roe v. wade. if it ultimately goes, 26 states are all but certain or most likely to ban abortions and other reproductive rights. a new analysis put it is this way, quote, republicans have spent the years since roe working every angle, taking over state legislatures. gerrymandering districts and ensuring that presidents elected by a minority of americans have now appointed the majority of supreme court justices. joining us now, rocky gonzalez, i want to ask, did i get all the details right there? >> almost. but very close. there has been cases before. there's over, we have data from a report from our partners called, a report called rose, unfinished prom sis that has a lot of research. we've documented over 1200 cases of pregnant people being charged and incarcerated for their pregnancy outcomes. >> rocky, you have been our liaison throughout all this. can you give us a sense, do you know how lisel is doing tonight? >> she's celebrating with her family, and she's reunited with her children, and we are set to meet with the family tomorrow. we really wanted to give them the space that they, you know, deserve to be reunited and to celebrate with one another, while dropping the charges is something to celebrate for the family, there's still the very real trauma for her and her children and her parents and community that ha been taken over the last couple days. >> i want to get your reaction to the news that the d.a. is going to dismiss the case against her >> yeah, they really didn't have a choice. it's a case of her not having violated any real laws. there's no way that they could have legally charged her. what is upset something that the way that the d.a. frames this decision is more like, it's just sort of due process and kind of frames it inside of this legalese. and still in his statement applauds the local police department for doing their duty and, you know, coming and picking up this innocent woman. so we were able to, you know, flood the county sheriff's office with phone calls. and we had a showing outside of the star county jail. and we had our coalition, our statewide coalition and our national partners at our backs, sending e-mails, pulling all the connections that they could to make sure we got her out as soon as possible. and while they are sort of acting like it's a day-to-day business and they're just doing their duty, it really feels like they know they messed up and we put the spotlight on them and they had no choice but to retract. and if they hadn't, again, she hadn't violated any laws. what is disgusting is that local police are allowed to arrest this woman. and hospital and staff reported her and the very real fear that we have of there being an environment created where our people, low-income people of color cannot walk into a hospital safely and know that they will be able to be honest with their medical providers and give them information that might save their life because they might go to jail for it. we can't have that. and so while the charges have been dropped we're not backing down. >> there are details we still do not know. can you talk us through what you have learned about the circumstances that led to her arrest? >> the only thing, yes, i can. the only thing that has really been confirmed is that she was in the hospital, and she did confide to hospital staff that she had attempted to induce her pregnancy and that they reported her to the local authorities. >> rocky, as i was reading analysis of this, as i was reading twitter, there was a sentiment that appeared again and again, which is of course she was latina, and of course she was from the rio grande valley. can you talk us through why that matters? >> yeah, what folks don't understand is this area, the rio grande valley, the mexico border, always, historically has been the place with the first and most devastating impact when these laws get passed, and so a lot of folks will refer back to a woman named rosy jimenez. and she was a mother and student in mcallen, texas, and she was the first documented death from an induced abortion after the hyde amendment was signed in i believe 1972 or 1974. and so her name and face is used a lot in the reproductive rights movement as a testament as to what happens to people who get pregnant and this type of legislation is allowed to stand. and we know in texas that when the governor and the state legislature puts forward these kinds of restrictive laws that it's our communities that get hit first. you know, it's insulting. and it, of course, is a latino woman in texas in the rio grande valley that this happens to, because we've seen it before, and we've had to lift rosy's name up for the last many decades. it hurts to be ten steps behind where we in 1972 in terms of reproductive rights in this country, but the impact in our community, on the border region, in the rio grande valley is something we really want to draw folks' attention to, because we looking at a place in this country that is, the rio grande valley is one of the, you know, most-impacted low-income communities after the navajo community. >> thank you for being with us. and it is not just reproductive freedom. the gop still waging war against protections for lgbtq youth. the gop clearly want to reshape america in its image. i want to get your reaction to the arrest. what does that tell you? >> well, glad to see the charges have been dropped. but i think it's a glimpse into our pre-roe past and maybe a glimpse into our post-roe future unless we do something. they pair it with policies that increase it. they refuse to teach comprehensive sex education and make difficult to access contraception. it has been found to be brutal and unconstitutional and over 100 kids die in their custody in the past two years. we do have legislation to codify roe v. wade. we have a bipartisan majority in the senate. but we can't get past the filibuster right now. it's no coincidence, and it's heartbreaking. >> congressman, we're talking about reproductive freedom. we could easily be sitting here talking about lgbtq rights. que be talking about voting rights. this is one piece of a larger, concerted attack on the way we live our life here in the united states. >> yeah. well, republicans in texas are in many ways leading the way in terms of trying to stand kind of in the middle of the river of progress and say "stop." and they want to do that, they want to influence the way things happen through redistributing the rights of oath and passing policies that are not popular, policies that are bad for business. it used to be in the state that if the business community spoke out they wouldn't continue. they're no longer, you know, swayed by that. and we're in a really dangerous place in our politics. we just are. my constituent is george w. bush. he would not get elected in this version of the republican party right now. some of my friends on the other side in congress wh i can work with are being drilled out by their party. >> this is part of the same bouquet. you have state republicans demonizing migrants. the governor plans to bus immigrants to d.c. it shows you just how unserious he is about what is actually a humanitarian challenge. how do democrats address these attacks and these stupid tactics in >> first of all, we know our immigration system is broken, but it's broken because our republican friends won't help us in trying to fix it. these stunts, like you said, unserious policies, are not going to solve anything. it's contributing to human suffering. it's not who we are as american citizens. we see us opening our hearts and wallets helping the ukrainians, and we act like we can't have a immigration system that properly considers asylum appeals, and it's what he's doing in terms of deploying the national guard to the border, disrupting the lives of texans down that's correct correct, we're a trade state. mexico is by far our number one trade partner, and he's making that part of the economy take a hit. it doesn't make any sense other than appealing to the farthest part of his party and seeing that he can run for president in 2024. >> how different this conversation would be if they thought of the border as a place where we could have an exchange of ideas and people and goods. thank you for being with us. . next, an update from ukraine, afterle putin puts a man named the butcher in charge of the war. and new signs that there may be enough evidence to hold the former president in contempt. first to richard lui, who is standing by with the stories we are watching this hour. >> reporter: tributes pouring in from friends and fans of dwayne haskins. he was hit and killed by a truck while crossing a roadway in florida this weekend. joey burrow saying it's tough to find words. t.j. watt remembering him as someone who always made people smile. the president set to introduce new steps to tighten gun control and making it difficult for people to build and acquire ghost guns. and new york city mayor eric adams testing positive for covid-19 after attending the high-profile gridiron dinner. all were required to show proof of vaccination before attending that event. more american voices right after this break. event more american voices right after this break surance, so you only pay for what you need? 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[limu emu squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ a new blow to russia's economy. the s&p has downgraded assessment of russia's ability to repay foreign debt, which means russia could dee fault on external loans for the first time in more than a century. the s&p made the move anticipating further moves by russia in coming weeks which jake sullivan hinted could be coming. >> our policy is unquivocal that we will do whatever it takes to help ukraine. we need to keep giving them weapons so that they can make progress on the battlefield, and we need to keep giving them support, military support and strong economic sanctions to improve their posture at the negotiating table. >> joining me now, the syria and lebanon director for the white house, also the host of "oh, my world." and spokesperson for the u.s. treasury. i want you to comment on this possibility of russia defaulting on its loans, how significant would that be? >> i'm afraid putin and his regime have already done plan b, c, d and e for sanction proofing, and we have already seen them have success in getting around sanctions. this move could have some impact, but the only major impact, medium to long term that we know has a chance to stop the war and really crippling russia's economy is a total embargo with secondary sanctions on gas and oil. and that, we're not there yet. the europeans are stalling, and so it's good, it's an important move, this one, if it takes place, but it's not enough, i'm afraid. >> i want to know if you agree. i sort of heard you agreeing. i'm also curious if you can talk us through the stalling that yulia just referenced. >> i was asked this question and had the same exact answer. i'm a sanctioning nerd. i love me a good sanction, but sanctions are not going to be what changes putin's mind. they a prong in the broader strategies. but for it to really send a message, it has to go to the heart of russia's economy, which is the oil and gas sector. while europe has pledged to decrease its consumption is good, but it's not fast enough. i was concerned to see in the wake of bucha, the answer cannot be sanctions, and if they are sanctions, they need to be against russia's oil and gas. that is why you have seen former soviet states sanctioning oil and gas. this is something they really understand. the rest of europe. i get that it's hard, but they're going to have to really move to that. and secondary sanctions in the united states is what we can get to. it will be hard for europe. they need to make other infrastructure to receive oil and gas from those other sources. so they're going to face major price inflation. so i get it. but it's important. >> we're having this conversation as russia has put a new commander in charge of its military operations in ukraine. a track record of overseeing cruel war tactics. your sense of what this signals about where the war is headed? >> i think it signal, the national security advisor is right. he is only one of many of russian generals that have already committed war crimes in syria and actually in chechnya, too, at the beginning of his career. he is known, this guy, as the butcher of syria. so that already tells us what he's planning, and he's been the commander of the southern military district, the most important military district of russia, which includes crimea, the whole black sea and, and the connection to syria. we've seen him in charge, taking charge as the first general in syria, back in 2015 when russia intervenes in that conflict. and we've seen him, and we know that he is responsible for the massive bombing of syrian civilians through 2015 into 2016. and ever since he's been back on the black sea, and so we know that he is going to do more of what we've already unfortunately seen in these few places that have been liberated by the ukrainian army in the north of kyiv. and so him taking over command, we can kind of expect, unfortunately, to see more war crimes than not with them being amplified with the potential strategy of what is known as carpet bombing. just indiscriminate bombing of ukrainian cities in the east and in the south, similar to what we've seen in syria, particularly in aleppo. >> i was sort of taken by something that the ukrainian foreign minister said earlier during an interview with "meet the press." take a listen. >> if we were a member of nato, this war wouldn't take place. we propose to the west and nato a fair deal. you provide us with everything that we need, and we fight so that you don't have to step up in the fight, into the fight when putin decides to test article v of the north atlantic treaty in the attack of one nato country. >> your thoughts in. >> i agree with the strategy because this is a war the united states doesn't want to engage in. that's for obvious reasons. we don't want two super powering at war, i agree that we need to provide all the military weapons that zelenskyy is asking for. the only language that president putin understands at the end of the day is the language of military force. and this is why, for example, i've been out there saying that we shouldn't reject the ukrainian demands for fighter jets for example. whether or not we believe that they are the most important weapon, it's, at the end evident day, this is about showing that there is no daylight, that we stand behind them and that weigh we need them to win that war. may 9 is a big holiday in russia, called victory day. it is tied to when the soviets helped defeat the nazis in world war ii. which is a very important thing that putin is going to play to. he always uses historical days as something to celebrate or make symbolism. so the fact that they have dubbed this general that yulia has perfectly laid out all the ruthless things he's done. the fact that they've dubbed him, i view it as something very concerning, as something we should be really scared of and something that we should make sure we double down on immediate assistance to the ukrainian military and everything that they're asking for. >> yulia, thank you so much for walking us through this. later, breaking news on today's presidential election in france. incumbent macron and his far right rival bound for a runoff. but first, some news on new york's investigation of trump and his family business. you're going to hear what michael cohen said today on nbc, msnbc that has legal minds wondering about where that investigation is going or not going. we'll explain. investigation is going. we'll explain. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is 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indictment and prosecution of not just donald but the children, the organization, alan weisselberg as well, is a clear indication the case is not going to go forward. >> many democrats are baffled whether they will end up charging trump. joining me, maya wiley. what would you make of what i would call mixed signals from the manhattan d.a. and his case against trump. is it collapsing? >> you know, it's, first of all, i will say it's very hard to know specifically. the district attorney himself has said explicitly that the investigation's ongoing, but we also have both returned documents but also prosecutor whose have quit or who are reportedly very upset about being removed from the case. that suggests certainly that there are real reasons to be concerned it's not going forward. and, you know, it's very possible, of course, that there are documents being returned because the prosecutors don't find them very valuable. just because michael cohen says they're valuable doesn't mean prosecutors find them so. but it is true that they typically hold on to the originals for a very long period of time. it is very difficult to sit here today and feel any comfort that the district attorney is aggressively pursuing this, and if news reports are accurate, and some of the reporting that we have seen has said that what he is looking for is a witness to flip, someone who will make it easier to secure a prosecution, you know, then it's very hard to do it when the pressure is off. >> turning to president trump's other legal trouble, although there is so much to choose. the january 6 committee has enough evidence to refer him for charges, what does that tell new. >> i think we have all been looking at the facts that are in the public eye for months now that have simply been mounting, that what the january 6 committee has itself been saying, that they feel that they may have evidence that establishes at least one crime, conspiracy to dee fraud the united states by corruptly intervening in the vote count, in the electoral college count, we don't know whether they'll look at sedition charges. but the reality is we have a president whom we know from witnesses was told repeatedly, by his own attorney general in the form of bill barr, all telling him he couldn't do what he wanted to do. and yet he follows a memo and a road map laid out by john eastman, apparently, that everyone else, and including john eastman himself has said this is bold and queens bury rules suggesting that they know that they are outside of legally-charted territory. let's put it that way. so i think there's no question that we've seen reams of evidence that suggest there must and criminal investigation that includes donald trump. >> an elegant way to put it. you have bennie thompson appealing to republicans. >> let me say for the record, if there is any men on the other side who feel the strenlts to come and testify before our committee, i invite them right now to let us know, and we will gladly entertain whatever information they have as to what happened on january 6. some of them ran out of this building, fearing for their life, so there's no question that something happened. >> i just love that sound so much. like an open invitation. if any of you are brave enough, please know that are you welcome to sit and talk with us. can you give us an idea of which members of congress the committee most wants to hear from? >> i think there were a number of them involved, any of them who spoke at the rally before hand would be of interest. there are these key sort of members that were involved in this. the committee had testimony from ivanka trump, so she was first-hand witness. she testified for nearly eight hours before the committee. so they're going to be able to get a lot of the other side of this, because ivanka was right in the room during the calls taking place and discussions with mike pence, right ahead of the january 6 vote, so i think that we're going to be able to get this from the other side, even if ultimately this committee can't get any testimony from members of its own body, which is sort of extraordinary that people who are sitting members of congress were involved in this broader effort. >> i've got about a minute left. i want to make sure we get to this, is that the judge delivered the first acquittal in a capitol rioter case. what went wrong for the doj there? >> this is a judge who is a trump-appointed judge. he's been skeptical of the cases from the get-go. i don't think it was a huge surprise, but it puts up a pretty high bar for prosecutors to clear, and while he convicted previous defendants during a bench trial because that individual had crossed over so many barriers, this individual said he didn't know whether he could be in the building and may have believed that police officers let him in. a disappointment for doj that could have implications for minor cases going forward. the felony cases are on a different trajectory. >> thank you for walking us through the former president's many legal troubles. we've heard calls for putin to be held accountable, but are they realistic. but first the election abroad that will no doubt have implication on the war in ukraine, we are heading to paris for breaking news after this. e s for breaking news after this keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or 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today choosing more than a new president, also the unified fight against putin's atrocities in ukraine. marine le pen has a history of koizying up to president putin, even putting a picture of them together in one of her campaign pamphlets. her party also borrowed 9 million euros from a russian bank. it is warned that putin and le pen show a goal of weakening the european union. we have the latest from paris. >> reporter: it looks to be a rerun of the previous election. this time the stakes are higher for europe and the rest of the world. macron collected a few more points than le pen. macron is seen as a movement when he was first elected. now he's the incumbent, and there's anger over his reforms. le pen can has had a much closer relationship to president putin. there are questions about a future relationship with russia and nato. turnout has been lower in this first round of the election. reporting from paris. >> cnbc, thank you. next, justice for ukraine. how does the world obtain 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>> well, this is a critical election because clearly there is not just a difference of philosophy or how to govern france. there's a fundamental difference about how france should act in the world. marie le pen is not a particularly pro-european, pro-eu politician. she wants to withdraw france from the military integrated command in nato. of course, she's closely aligned with vladamir putin, having received money some years ago for her party. her election is not just a blow to france, because this is a far-right politician, anti-immigrant, very close to putin, as i said. it would have major implications for europe, and the ability of the west, which has been so united, to remain united in the focus of ukraine. it would be a real blow. the good news is that macron was ahead, in fact, by a larger margin than he was five years ago, so hopefully the people of france will deliver the verdict that not only the french but the rest of the world needs. >> i take the ambassador's point. it also shows you how tenuous these alliances are. that as we are having this conversation, there are still many elements that are in flux. >> look, in terms of ukraine and le pen, you know, the russians deny, you know, these atrocities. and what's interesting is that this is the same playbook that we saw in the war in bosnia. you know, there were shelling of marketplaces in sarajevo and the serbs with russian backing -- claim that the bosnian muslims had fired these shells, and that's false. the difference now is that we're in digital age, that misinformation can spread to france, lies that russia isn't responsible for these war crimes, and that can have an impact on the election in france. it's a whole different challenge in the digital age. >> ambassador, back to what i promised our viewers. u.s. officials say that they've been documenting russia's alleged war crimes. can you give a sense to have case that they are going to build, what it is they are going to do with all of that documentation? >> well, it's not just the u.s., of course. it's the international community and the united nations, which ultimately, in some form or some body, will have to try the case, but the information they're collecting is, it is a war crime to deliberately target noncombatant civilians, and all the pictures we've seen unfortunately over the past six week shows that what the russians are doing is a direct, deliberate targeting of civilians. the world health organization has just announced that 103 medical targets, hospitals, ambulances, clinics have been targeted by the russians. all of that is a war crime. and of course, the kind of things we've seen in bucha and other places, where people have been executed. which is the only way that you can call people who are shot in the back of their heads with their hands tied behind their back. that, too, of course, is a war crime. so it's that kind of information, photographic intelligence information that you get from intercepting and wiretapping phones and other communications. that will all be shared with the international investigators. and then, of course, the hard thing is, can we get the people who are responsible for this actually to stand trial. that's going to be hard as long as vladimir putin remains in power. >> david, you referenced misinformation. and i wonder for you as the executive editor of a news site, what you see as the media's role in combatting that disinformation. >> i think it's consistently reporting that war crimes have been committed. i mean, the coverage out of bucha, that these images of civilians with their hands tied behind their back. the images from the train station of civilians, you know, killed by a rocket, as they waited to flee. and it's just consistently saying that and reporting that. the covering the exhumations of mass graves. not to go back to bosnia, but the same thing happened. exhumations were critical in proving this. but i agree with the ambassador. there will be overwhelming forensic evidence of atrocities and war crimes. the challenge will be bringing people to justice. and the united states is part of the problem here. the united states has not signed the treaty that created the international criminal tribunal that was set up in the late '90s to try war crimes. nor has russia. and that weakens the court. and ukraine should be an opportunity for the biden administration to sign that treaty and strengthen the system from prosecuting war crimes. >> ambassador, i have about a minute left. your final thoughts? >> well, i think that's right. that we should be a member of the international criminal court. but the real issue is to make sure that the ukrainians actually win this war, so that whatever atrocities have been committed will in some cases have been worth it. we need to help the ukrainians with everything we have, to make sure that whatever atrocities may still occur, do not benefit russia or vladimir putin. and that he loses this war, which he started. >> ambassador daalder, david rohde, thank you both so much for being with us. we have more "american voices" after the break, but at the top of the hour, mehdi hasan speaks with the state department official in charge of assembling evidence that could prove russia is committing war crimes in ukraine. that and much more just minutes away on "the mehdi hasan show" only right here on msnbc. less . aleve gives long-lasting freedom from pain, with fewer pills than tylenol. instead of taking pills every 4-6 hours, aleve works up to 12-hours so you can focus on what matters. aleve. less pills. more relief trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy. ♪ ...feelin' good ♪ no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ inner voice (furniture maker): i'm constantly nodding... ...because i know everything about furniture ...but with the business side... ...i'm feeling a little lost. quickbooks can help. an easy way to get paid, pay your staff, and know where your business stands. new business? no problem. success starts with intuit quickbooks. that is all the time i have for today. i'm alicea menendez. i'll see you back here next weekend, 6:00 p.m. eastern for more "american voices." but for now, i hand it over to mehdi hasan. hi, mehdi? >> good evening, alicia. fascinating discussion you were having there about war crimes prosecutions. david rohde made a very good point, i thought, that i'm not sure how you keep saying that you want to prosecute vladimir putin when we and the russians are not signatories to the international criminal court. >> i am very excited to have you continue that conversation with your big guest tonight. >> yeah, we've got the ambassador for global criminal justice. i do want to talk to her about the icc. and i want to talk about war crimes from our allies, not just from our enemies. lots to talk about, alicia, thanks so much. have a great rest of your night. >> you too. >> tonight on "the mehdi hasan show." the disgusting new pedophile slur that republicans are using against everyone that doesn't agree with them. plus, we'll look at accusations of russian war crimes with the state department's ambassador at large for global criminal justice. and meet the trump-appointed federal judge that is strangely going soft on 1/6 insurrectionis