the ex-doj official who allegedly helped trump spread his conspiracy theories. and some house republicans fighting back, the investigation they have launched into the fulton county d.a., accusing her of leading a politically motivated case. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. let's begin with nbc's gabe gutierrez outside the fulton county jail. what is the former president saying about his experience there? >> reporter: hi there, chris, good afternoon, former president trump calling it a sad day for america. and his supporters are already trying to fund raise off of that mug shot, putting it on merchandise, sending an e-mail out to supporters where they can donate 90% former president trump's campaign, 10% to the former president's leadership pac which in the past has funded his legal bills. the former president speaking out in an interview, a short time after his surrender. take a listen. >> terrible experience. i came in, i was treated very nicely, but it is what it is. i took a mug shot, which i never heard the words mug shot at the wharton school of finance. i don't let it bother me. it is what it is, it's a horrible thing. and really it helps that you know when you have poll numbers like this, that means the people understand it. >> reporter: it is what it is. that's what the former president is saying, chris, and i spoke with several of his supporters here right in front of the fulton county jail. last night, just moments after that mug shot was released. one of them telling me that it looked like an album cover, essentially, you know, showing that many of former president trump's supporters see it as a rallying cry, and certainly his campaign hopes that it will help him get elected in 2024, chris. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you for that. the former president is now fighting to push his trial back in multiple cases, as a matter of fact. nbc's ken dilanian is following all of that for us. walk us through this very crowded calendar, ken. >> yeah, at this point, chris, donald trump's most important legal strategy is to seek delays in all of these cases any way he can because if he's elected president, it's possible that none of them can move forward. he could order his justice department to drop the federal cases, and it's official doj policy that a sitting president can't be prosecuted and that would include state cases. in the atlanta case, he's making clear that he will try to slow things down. his lawyer filed a motion telling the judge that mr. trump wants no part of the bid by one of his codefendants to have the trial in october. he will ask to sever his case from that defendant, kenneth chesebro and any other defendant who makes such a demand. given the number of defendants in the atlanta case it may take a while to get that one to trial, especially because it will be competing against three other cases against mr. trump, all of which have a head start. the new york hush money case is scheduled to begin in march, and that date may hold. in the classified documents case in florida, judge aileen cannon set a trial date for may. it's very possible that date will slip. and on monday, judge tania chutkan will set an initial date on the fraud charges against mr. trump. this means that donald trump will have no choice but to be spending a ton of time next year getting ready for trial, and possibly sitting in multiple courtrooms even as he is trial to campaign for president. if he's convicted before the november election and he's the republican nominee, he will literally be campaigning to stay out of jail, chris. >> ken dilanian, thank you for that. all 18 of trump's codefendants have turned themselves in. they made it in under the deadline. nbc's vaughn hillyard has that part of our coverage. vaughn. >> reporter: chris, that's right. all 19 defendants here in fulton county have now formally surrendered and gone through the booking process. literally defendant number 19 met the deadline of just 90 minutes ago in that last hour, steven lee, he's an illinois pastor, part of the alleged scheme to put pressure on fulton county worker ruby freeman to falsely admit to voter fraud that she did not actually engage in. she turned himself in and posted bond. 18 of the 19 defendants posted bond and are out of jail. one of them, harrison floyd, he is still in jail here as we speak. he has yet to put up bond. for each of these defendants, it's very much finding their own paths forward. we have already seen multiple motions filed on behalf of these defendants. mark meadows has a hearing in front of a federal judge scheduled for this upcoming monday, to move his trial from the state court to the federal court. four others have made such a similar request but we're already seeing here, these defendants with differing interests from where the trial takes place to the timing of it. kenneth chesebro, he requested an expedited trial. one that would happen sooner rather than later, and the judge approved and said his trial will start in october 23rd. donald trump, on the other hand, is saying that he doesn't want his trial to start until after the 2024 election. there's a lot of question marks because still, the district attorney has requested each of their trials to take place at the same time. we're talking about defendants who went through the booking process with clearly differing interests, chris. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you for that. while the investigation continues in georgia, house republicans say they are investigating the fulton county d.a. nbc news senior political reporter, sahil kapur is on the hill for us. what are you hearing? >> reporter: the big picture is house republicans are stepping into their new familiar role of trump defenders when he gets into trouble. this is the same playbook they ran on alvin bragg to investigate trump's investigators. in a letter daylighted yesterday, jim jordan asks d.a. fani willis to turn over three categories of things, the first is all documents and communications relating to her office's receipt and use of federal funds, second, documents and communities between her d.a. office and the justice department including special counsel jack smith whose investigation overlaps with hers, and the third is communications her office has had with any federal executive branch officials. jordan's five-page letter doesn't cite evidence of foul play but it does have insinuations. here's one of them, jordan says, turning first to the question of motivation, it is note worthy four days before the indictment, you launched a campaign fundraiser. jordan gives willis a deadline of september 7th, two weeks from yesterday, fani willis's office is officially declining to comment in response to an nbc news query. it's worth ask, chris, what is the immediate goal of this letter. what are republicans trying to do. i gather from my reporting, the first is they're trying to gather their jurisdiction to investigate. fani willis is a state prosecutor. this committee is a federal committee, oversees the federal government, the lines of authority that they have over her are not clear. the second is that the government funding process is coming up, and there are some republicans who want to use it to try to slap restrictions on how federal and state prosecutors can use federal funds. this is going to have a problem when it gets to the democratic controlled senate and we don't know whether president biden is going to support this, but jordan and other trump allies are trying to use the government funding process toward that end. meanwhile, on capitol hill, there are several house republicans who are rallying to trump's defense since that mug shot, one of them is elise stefanik who has tweeted at least four times showing that mug shot. here's one of her tweets, you see it on the screen, the second is marjorie taylor greene. let's show her tweet. hurls an epithet at d.a. fani willis, calls her a political hitman tasked with taking out biden's top political opponent, says persecution, not prosecution, uses the #magamug shot. there is no evidence that president biden is in any way involved in this. it hasn't stopped republicans from making that insinuation. >> the power of a mug shot, trump conveys defiance for the lens, but how will history judge it? a presidential historian joins me next in 60 seconds. historias me next in 60 seconds. lothes that just don't smell clean? downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters keep your laundry smelling fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks, make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. age is just a number, and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪ ♪you'll get a great deal every day!♪ home internet from t-mobile... just $50 bucks a month. from the moment it was released, former president trump's mug shot became a part of american history and a rallying symbol for his supporters. team trump wasted no time putting it to work for his 2024 campaign. we have shown you this, he's selling shirts, mugs, beer koozies, bumper stickers that say never surrender, the mug shot is a syllable of equality under the law or the abuse of it, the ultimate memento of a norm shattering presidency and this social media obsessed factionalized age. trump's former national security adviser noting the expression on the former president's face as he posed for the lens of history. >> i thought it was as with most things trump does, carefully staged. they must have thought about what look they wanted. he could have smiled. he could have looked benign. instead, he looks like a thug, and i think it's intended to be a sign of intimidation against the prosecutors and judges. >> joining me now, nbc news presidential historian, michael beschloss, you know, every time we talk lately, it's another first. this time it's a former president's mug shot. what goes through your mind when you look at it. >> when i look at it, i would agree with what john bolton says in the video that you just had, and that is that trump does not do things like this by accident. i would bet that he has been spending a lot of time in front of a mirror. maybe even on that plane that flew down from newark to atlanta before he went to fulton county jail. and, you know, everything is for a purpose. he felt that this look on his face would help him raise money. it makes him look beleagued and angry, and a tough guy. this is a guy who has said in recent months to his crowds, i am your retribution who has said on social media, you come after me, i will come after you. this all goes together. so, if trump is trying to intimidate, you know, a judge or a district attorney or members of the grand jury or others or politicians who might fly way from his support, the best way, just given the wait his mind works is for them to be scared of him, and particularly scared of the possibility that he might get elected president late next year and maybe therefore four years or conceivably even more than that. >> so if he's using it and donald trump has shown his ability to do that, new yorker ri where is, for now trump sees only gain and the specter of a historic self-pardon in that snarly snapshot from the fulton county jail. how is this consistent idea he has used the highest office in the land, a candidacy as a platform, sometimes for not the best things get judged by history. >> absolutely right. when in history have we ever seen anyone use the presidency in this way to make money, to let members of his family make money, to elevate his profile to help himself later on. just as you're saying, chris w this idea that he is running for the presidency largely so that if he gets elected he could try to destroy the justice department as he's pledged to do and destroy our rule of law, and intimidate people who he thinks have wronged him throughout his life and particularly in this episode. i'll say with the greatest understatement that i can possibly use that this may not have been exactly what the founders of our country intended the presidency to be used for. >> so trump has been able to leverage these criminal indictments into a dominant lead over his republican rivals against any expectation, right. there is a new political poll and it shows half of americans think trump should go to prison if convicted in the doj case on these alleged efforts to overturn the election, even more, 61% favor a trial. i was looking back to 1974, michael, 56% favored prosecution of former president nixon, although as we know, he never went to trial. >> right! compare the mood of the country and the circumstances now and then. >> well, the mood of the country in 1974, this was a relatively united country. richard nixon's own party, the republicans, who in those days, republicans made a big thing of their support for national security and the rule of law. they turned their backs on nixon, especially after they got that tape showing that he had quite clearly obstructed justice and should be impeached and removed from office. needless to say, that is light years from the situation that we are now in, but richard nixon, for all of his contempt for rules and law would not in a million years have thought of the strategy that trump is apparently using, which is, you know, if he can not win, let's say four or five trials, and threading that needle is not going to be the easiest thing on earth, then he will try to generate crowds, to go to the outside of these courthouses and put pressure on jurors and others, and create even a situation of pre-civil war in order to keep himself out of jail. that is so far beyond nixon that let's put trump in his own category. >> we only have a minute left, but no matter what the polls say, has there ever been a president who engendered this particular kind of loyalty with his base against all odds, the kind that donald trump has? >> not in this way, and i think the best way to say that, chris, is that when in history has the support of a president's base been tested by saying will you support this guy even if he's going to the slammer for a long time. that was not a choice that had to be made for any other president in history, even nixon, because nixon's watergate scandal, as you know, occurred during his second term. so unlike trump, nixon was a lame duck. they knew that he was out in two years, if not sooner. in trump's case, all of these timid people that we saw on the republican debate stage the other night who said that they would support trump or pardon him if they became president, these were people who in certain ways are not only terrified of the trump following in their party, but they're terrified of him, especially if he gets elected again. >> michael beschloss, always good to see you. thank you for joining us on this friday. good to see you. >> thank you. his inner circle moving on or fighting charges of their own, the questionable figures he's inviting back in to his inner circle and why. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc nfl sunday ticket. 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. i may be known for my legendary football career, but truth is, i love a bunch of sports. the only trouble is knowing where to find them. that's why i got xfinity. so, i can easily find and watch whatever sport i'm into all in one place without missing a thing. even if it's football, australian football, or football football. in a word—it's fitz-credible. i got to trademark that one. this season, eligible xfinity rewards members can get up to $100 off nfl sunday ticket from youtube. sign up for xfinity rewards now. with former president donald trump facing a combined 91 criminal counts, "the washington post" reports he's closer to fringe figures, embracing supporters, who other republicans might shun, that includes dirty trickster, roger stone, and dick morris, the former bill clinton strategist who was fired over a prostitution scandal. trump's former chief of staff john kelly telling the post, i read in disbelief some of the people he's brought back, but he likes the sycophants, he likes people telling him how great he is and all the rest, particularly now when he's really under assault and justifiably so. he always wants the people around him who say, yes, sir, you are the smartest. you are the genius. with me now, nbc's ryan reilly, the post's jacqueline al mainny -- jackie alemany. give us the inside scoop. >> thanks for having me. trump's current presidential campaign has been praised by many people for being much more professional and orderly than some of his post operations. but, you know, in sort of typical trumpian fashion as we have seen him do before, he has gravitated toward a host of these fringe figures and people whom he views as some of his biggest defenders, who other presidential candidates and i think politicians writ large have been reticent to associate with. this is people like laura loomer, who accompanied the president at his new jersey bedminster golf course a few weekends ago, and then put up a series of videos with the former president praising him and speaking publicly about how much time she spent with him. this is someone who is well known for having islam phobic views and has espoused conspiratorial theories and, again, associated with sort of figures who are notorious for espousing hateful ideology. there are other people who have been reoccurring figures in trump's past, people like roger stone who was pardoned by former president trump, dick morris, a long time adviser who is speaking with the former president more and more, but essentially a lot of these figures who are encouraging the former president to revert to his worst instincts and lash out in ways that some on the inside of the trump campaign feel is counter productive to his current presidential campaign. >> i think in some ways tied to this reporting trump has been building a cadre of people around him who are kro cronies, basically trump is pretending to be a mobster, writing that trump lacks a code, loyalty, and a gangster sense of nobility. from a legal perspective if you're a defense attorney, how much of a nightmare is it if your client surrounds himself with fringe figures who are sycophants? >> it's almost enough to make you quit the case unless they promised only to listen to you. it's a fairly typical situation, defendants who face multiple prosecutions are in desperate positions and they often listen to the wrong people. they're understandably nervous, state and federal prosecutors, when the vast majority of their cases to face one criminal charge that could send you to prison and trump faces 91 charges in four jurisdictions, and for trump, chris, his problems are compounded because of his spectacularly bad judgment about the people he goes to for advice. so roger stone was a convicted felon for lying to congress before trump pardoned him. steve bannon was facing serious federal charges before trump pardoned him. so people who have been accused of convicted of multiple felonies might not give the most reliable advice. one last thing from jackie's excellent piece in the "washington post," trump's elevating his extreme politics over his legal interest, this guy tom fenton, he runs this right wing organization called judicial watch, chris, he's not even in a lawyer, but he reportedly advised trump he could keep those classified documents at mar-a-lago, and that he should fight the justice department. we know how that ended, with the 40 federal charges that trump faces in florida. >> so, ryan, moving on monday, a busy, busy, day, right, two counts, there's that hearing for a trial date for jack smith's election interference case, another hearing involving mark meadows, walk us through those. >> reporter: yeah, a busy weekend in fact because there's going to be the proud boys sentencing in the seditious conspiracy cases. monday, we have the hearing taking place in the mark meadows case, mark meadows is trying to move his case from state court to federal court saying he was acting in his federal capacity during the allegations at issue here. and it could sort of turn into somewhat of a mini trial because we're expecting testimony from the secretary of the state there, who has been subpoenaed, so there could be a mini trial for mark meadows, essentially unfolding in federal court, and then separately here in d.c., judge chutkan is going to be setting the trial date. in some ways, that really is, i think, the ball game because that's the trial that really is on the fastest track and could be the simplest to move forward because it only involves one defendant, doesn't involve multiple defendants. there's a possibility that the trial is set before the election, sometime next year, the special counsel's office wants it to start in january, so the jury is set to go in the new year. donald trump's team wants to kick it back, not only out of 2024 and out of '25, but halfway between 2026, which of course is long after the next president will have taken office and essentially would, if donald trump gets reelected, sort of make this all-for-naught because he was pardon himself or in this case, give it away. >> knowing how these arguments go, paul, and acknowledging, as i like to, that there's never been anything quite like this with the implications these cases have, would you agree that chutkan is the most compelling, perhaps the most important, and how quickly do you think we'll know really when there might be a trial? >> i think we'll know a lot on monday when judge chutkan could very well set a trial date. you know, trump has this demonstrated pattern of ignoring the advice of his competent defense attorneys, and relies on rudy giuliani, john eastman, and ken chesebro. it's common for political advisers to tell them one thing when elected officials are being prosecuted and legal advisers to tell them another, so the same time that trump's lawyers are assuring people like judge chutkan that he's going to cool it with the social media and campaign rally attacks on potential witnesses, trump's political advisers are using that as red meat for trump's base, despite the legal jeopardy that creates for trump, and chris, judge chutkan has been the strictest of any of trump's judges, in terms of threatening sanctions, including the possibility of moving up his trial date if he violates the orders not to talk about other witnesses, not to intimidate people. we'll know on monday about when judge chutkan will set for trial. >> as you well know in atlanta, there is still one codefendant who is in jail because he wasn't able to raise the money for bond. you also have reporting about rudy giuliani's financial situation, and he put his apartment on the market? what are you learning? >> this is someone who went from a heralded new york city mayor to a former trump lawyer facing multiple criminal charges, you know, not just in georgia but elsewhere, and who is also in serious debt. he owes we have been told over a million dollars to one of his new york city lawyers who has been representing him over the past few years, has been unable to pay for a lawyer now at the moment. had trouble finding local representation in georgia because of the issue of payment, and now we know that trump is going to be hosting a fundraiser for him, next week, september 7th, in bedminster. $100,000 a head fundraiser to raise money for his legal fees. but this has been a long standing issue between giuliani and trump who refused to pay for a lot of the bills as he accumulated when he was organizing the efforts to overturn the election result, camped out at the willard with bernie kerik and a host of other outside figures. some names that hadn't been mentioned in the indictments, but giuliani at that time also wracked up an extremely large bill that trump and the super pac and the trump campaign refused to pay for at the time, even though giuliani claimed he was acting at the behest of trump and, you know, this is obviously a personal relationship that is now a bit fraught over these outstanding legal bills. >> jackie alemany, ryan reilly, and paul butler, thank you all so much. is it a case of keep your friends close and your political enemies closer? trump praising vivek ramaswamy after the debate, but could that change as that candidate's popularity grows? 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(vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. it's the potential political showdown to watch. can the current bromance between donald trump and newly energized challenger, vivek ramaswamy last. right now, trump has only good things to say about the debate's breakout star. >> as far as the stage last night, i thought vivek, as we say, did very well. actually, his name is vivek, like cake, but i thought he was very good. i especially like where he said i was the greatest president in his lifetime, and long and beyond. i said, are you sure he's running against me, but i thought he was very good. >> well, ramaswamy got a major bump in the hours after the debate. over a million google searches and nearly half a million dollars in fundraising. but as the former president's legal perils take his focus away from the campaign trail going forward, and if interest in ramaswamy continues to grow, will trump turn on him or maybe instead tap him for vp? nbc's dasha burns is following the ramaswamy campaign in iowa. stewart stevens is a senior adviser to the lincoln project, and former chief strategist for mitt romney's campaign. >> promising to pardon him once again, and he's running against him. tell us what's happening. >> reporter: will the bromance end in a breakup? we'll have to see. for now, there is still a lot of love between the two political opponents at the event we went to with vivek ramaswamy this morning, he, yeah, doubled down on his praise for the former president, once again, calling him the greatest president in the 21st century saying he couldn't believe that people were surprised that he was saying that, saying he wasn't going to apologize for praising the former president and saying that he believes that that is, in fact, a fact. he said that he believes he is running because he is the only one who can win this election in the kind of landslide that he believes is necessary to, quote, bring the country back together to save the country and why does he think he can win in a landslide and the former president that he says is the greatest ever can't, well, here's his answer to that. >> i think probably the most relevant is the reality that i love a lot of trump's policies. president trump through no fault of his own in my view, in large part, when he's in office, about 30% of this country loses their mind. they become psychiatrically ill, disagreeing with once agreed with, agreeing with things they never agreed with, and i'm not having that effect on people. >> reporter: as for capitalizing on that momentum post debate, of course iowa is his first stop, which is no surprise, considering their investing heavily in the state. of course he's making four stops here today, and i'll tell you this morning, it was a packed house. they said they got a whole lot more rsvps after that debate performance. they had their biggest ever single day fundraising haul that they've had yesterday that day, post debate, they are riding high right now, how long can they take advantage of it. we'll have to see in the coming days, chris. >> dasha, thank you so much. all right. vivek getting a lot of attention. i want to dig down deeper in the 1 million searches, a lot of it, most of it happened during the debate itself, and who knows how many people couldn't spell his name correctly and so more were even searching, that puttings -- puts him at the top of google's daily search trends. if it continues, how long do you think it might take for donald trump to punch back against someone else being in the center of the spotlight? >> well, look, i think this is going to continue because ramaswamy is not going to be the republican nominee, and people know that if you pet donald trump, he'll follow you home, and the same here with ramaswamy. that's what donald trump is doing. these guys have a lot in common. they both have exaggerated their wealth. they both are supporters of putin. they both have said very bizarre things about 9/11, and they're both fundamentally non-serious people who are running for president out of some sort of ego gratification. so there's sort of a natural marriage here. could this guy end up as donald trump's vice presidential nominee? in a world in which donald trump is still leading the republican nomination, even though, you know, he's got 90 plus indictments, i think anything is possible. >> ramaswamy, as you point out, has had more than a few controversial statements, and he put forward a bunch of them at the debate. he called climate change a hoax, proposed shutting down the fbi, argued the u.s. should stop aiding ukraine. that is a more general split in the republican party. what does his rise in trump's legal peril do to the possibility of any other alternative to donald trump? >> you know, i think the reality here is that there's only one reason that donald trump is leading and by a large margin. if donald trump gives republican voters more of what they want than any other candidate, it's really not complicated. it's market forces at work. it's a party of anger. it's a party of grievance. it's a party that is disconnected from reality. it is a party that has decided that democracy has failed because democracy increasingly, the majority of people are not supporting republicans. haven't won the popular vote since 2004, and only once before that, 1988. so they're turning against democracy because democracy isn't fulfilling their own ambitions. so there's a natural desire for republican party to support trump. nobody is forcing the party to support trump. he is what they most want. and these pale imitatios, you saw on the stage, i don't see why they're gratifying, why have margarine when you can have butter. >> butter every time, but i like the analogy. thank you so much. have a great weekend. and still ahead, new nbc reporting about the mysterious plane crash with yevgeny prigozhin, what sources are telling nbc news about the leading theory about what brought that plane down. leading theory about what brought that plane down. d mine'. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv (sung) febreze! i use febreze fabric refresher everyday. to make my home smell amazing. on my bed... my couch... my jacket or jeans. in between washes. even shoes. febreze doesn't cover up odors with scent, but fights them and freshens! over one thousand uses. febreze fabric refresher. ♪i've got home internet from t-mobile.♪ ♪it only costs $50 bucks at t-mobile.♪ ♪just one cord to set up.♪ ♪say goodbye to that truck.♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful mornin'...♪ ♪oh, what a beautiful day...♪ ♪they won't raise your rates at t-mobile...♪ ♪you'll get a great deal every day!♪ home internet from t-mobile... just $50 bucks a month. ♪ i gotta good feeling about this, yeah ♪ home internet from t-mobile... ♪ i'm with it ♪ ♪ i gotta good feeling about this ♪ ♪ yeah, ♪ ♪ so let's get it ♪ ♪ i'm feeling good vibes ♪ ♪ chevy silverado has what it takes to do it all. with up to 13 camera views. and the z71 off-road package. ♪ you ok? 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(vo) tepezza is the only medicine that treats t.e.d. at the source not just the symptoms. in a clinical study more than 8 out of 10 patients taking tepezza had less eye bulging. tepezza is an infusion. patients taking tepezza may have infusion reactions. tell your doctor right away if you experience high blood pressure, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath or muscle pain. before getting tepezza, tell your doctor if you have diabetes, ibd, or are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant. tepezza may raise blood sugar even if you don't have diabetes and may worsen ibd such as crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. now, i'm ready to be seen again. visit mytepezza.com to find a ted eye specialist and to see bridget's before and after photos. vladimir putin signed a decree requiring all mercenaries to swear allegiance to russia. that comes as the russian leader for the first time outright denied he had anything to do with the plane crash presumed to have killed the infamous mercenary who led an uprising against him. yevgeny prigozhin. there's no sign the plane was struck by a missile. sources tell nbc one leading theory is that an explosive was on board. josh lederman joins me now. what's the latest from overseas. >> reporter: the kremlin is calling it absolute lies, the suggestion, chris, that president putin ordered the killing of yevgeny prigozhin. dmitry peskov says that's speculation being pushed by the west, and urged everyone to wait for the results of the full investigation. suffice it to say, chris, nobody outside of russia is looking to a russian government investigation as some type of independent fact finding mission that is really going to turn up the truth about what happened here. but it is the only mechanism in existence right now other than what u.s. and other intelligence agencies are trying to do from the outside to get more information on what happened here, and we've just learned from russia's investigative committee that they say they have now obtained the black box from that plane. they are now looking through the data on that black box to see if they can figure out what exactly happened in the minutes before it descended rapidly to the ground and crashed killing everyone on board, but there have been these profound questions now about what comes next for the wagner group. as you mentioned, just today, president putin signed a decree, ordering all wagner fighters to swear an oath of loyalty to the russian government. i'll read you part of the oath they're going to have to swear. it says, i solemnly swear allegiance to the russian federation to strictly follow the orders of commanders and superiors, conscientiously fulfill the duties assigned to me. they're going to have to say i swear to be devoted to the russian federation. if you recall, this was one of the main friction points between putin and prigozhin before his death. putin wanted all the wagner fighters to sign contracts with the russian military essentially bringing them under the control of the kremlin, and prigozhin said absolutely not. that is believed to be one reason that he mounted that attempted mutiny against president putin's government , and today, putin making another step to bring the wagner group under control two days after prigozhin's death. josh lederman, thank you, and we have two big developments in maui. the number of people missing in those wildfires has plummeted to 388. obviously still a very significant number. and maui county's government just filed a lawsuit against hawaii electric company, accusing them of starting those deadly wildfires. the company already faces numerous negligence lawsuits, but this is the first to say that their utility wires caused that blaze. nbc's steve patterson is on the ground there. what more can you tell us? >> just that, chris, that their utility caused that fire, that it was the significant wind event and messages that were ignored about the possibility of maybe deenergizing those lines that came down in the wind, in dry brush, all of this was stated by the national weather service. it was really bad weather for fire, and caused those fires. not only that, but there was deepening allegations of negligence going back years that the it should have been hardened and stabilized, some of the routine maintenance issues were ignored. there was no automatic shutoff, that a lot of utilities carry in case of a wind event. so they can safely shut off the power. the lawsuit, 48 pages, alleges that none of that was done ahead of the fire, and that simply the warnings from the national weather service went unheard, and so when you had that wind event with the dry brush, the energized lines that it sparked and caused the fire. they're saying there's $5.5 billion worth of damages. the electric company did respond saying that they feel sort of put off by the fact that this was done before the full investigation was complete. this of course is one of now 13 lawsuits. but this is the first one, as you mentioned, to fully sort of put the allegation out that that it was directly the utility and of course the only one of the county of maui, alleging negligence. >> steve patterson, thank you very much. an extraordinary experience to say the least. the first person to ever bail out a former u.s. president now describing that historic and unprecedented moment next. t hisd unprecedented moment next. 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(vo) football season is here. get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. we are now hearing from the local bail bondsman in georgia who former president donald trump tapped to post his $200,000 bail last night. his name, charles shaw. he's known as the bondsman to the stars in atlanta. he's worked with rappers like t.i., gucci main, rick ross. now the former president of the united states. nbc's gabe gutierrez spoke with him last night about his uniquely historic experience. >> i was a his toral experience, one that i never experienced before. a very serious experience, an experience we had to get it done right, and i think we did. >> when you knew he was inside the building, you weren't in the room, but tell me about the weight of that moment? >> it was quite a bit of weight. it was foremost, we had to get it done right, get it done timely, get it done professional. i was glad when i got it done and it was over with. i think this is probably the most secure bond i have ever executed in my entire career. >> you have been a bail bondsman 23 years here, have you ever dealt with anything close to this? >> absolutely not. unprecedented event. >> shaw also says trump's surrender took less than 16 minutes and that is also the fastest he has dealt with in his career. that's going to do it for us this hour. join us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00. our coverage continues with "katy tur reports" right now. good to be with you. i'm katy tur. the first to be twice impeached, the first to be indicted once, then twice, then three times, and now a fourth. donald trump keeps making history, however ugly, but after all of this time, and all of these precedents crossed, we have to consider what the latest record really means because it is not the same for everyone. for the first time a former president of the united states has a mug shot. prosecutors say he tried to overturn an election by fostering mistrust then exploiting that mistrust to stay in power. for millions in this country, this photograph says all of .