night. >> do you think more people would pay attention to the price of the eggs if you gave the good economic news in an ugly christmas sweater? >> possibly. >> i just i was remarking -- >> i don't know where that sentence was going to end. >> i have never seen hris hayes with an over the shoulder monitor that says tiz the season. and the holiday cheer people want to see you in the santa hat. >> i'm going to be in an ugly christmas sweater doing this throw before the holiday season is out. >> whatever it takes to get people to pay attention to good news. america, you are owed that. thank you, my friend. thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. we are beginning with some breaking news this evening. the israeli government has voted to accept a deal that would free 50 hostages currently being held by the terrorist group, hamas. that is according to the office of the prime minister benjamin netanyahu. what we do know is that the 50 hostageerize all women and children, and they would be exchanged for 150 palestinian women and children currently being held in israeli prisons. the deal also includes a four-day cease-fire to allow for those exchanges, and for more humanitarian aid to enter gaza. that cease-fire also may have the potential to be extended pending the release of additional hostages. joining us now from the region is nbc news correspondent erin mclaw lan in tel aviv tonight. erin, what are you hearing about the latest in terms of the contours of this deal. >> well, we are learning more from the israeli government. they just put out a statement. let me just read you what they have to say saying the government of israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. tonight the gump has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal according to which at least 50 hostages, women and children, will be released over four days during which a pause in the fighting will be held. the release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day in the pause. the government of israel, the idf, and security services will continue the work in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of hamas, and ensure there will be no new threat to the state of israel from gaza. now, what's notably absent from this latest announcement from the israeli government is any mention of the palestinian prisoners, the 150 women and children, that according to a senior israeli official was part of this agreement to be released. and if that is still, in fact, the case and again we are waiting for more details to be released specifically an announcement from the government of qatar, a key intermediary in the negotiations. but if those palestinian prisoners are, in fact, part of this deal, that that will tack on another 24 hours in which the victims of those attacks -- israeli victims, will have the opportunity to challenge this agreement to the israeli supreme court. now, in the past when this has happened, the supreme court has sided with the government and ratified this deal. but, again, we're waiting for more of those really critical specifics as are the families of the hostages. this is an open and gaping wound for them. they've endured this agonizing pain for more than six weeks. earlier today i was speaking to thomas han, he's a single father of 9-year-old emily han. on october 7th she was staying over a friend's house. initially thomas was told that she was dead. weeks later the israeli military came back and told him she was in fact alive believed to be a hostage in gaza. i was exchanging text messages with him earlier today. he texted me, quote, so far so good. but the fact is he doesn't know. there has been no proof of life for emily, so there's no way for him at this point to know if she is in fact part of this deal, although we understand that once and if the israelis get the list of the released hostages as part of this agreement, then the families will be individually notified. >> a lot of the agonizing wait continues. it's quite clear. we will be back for more from tel aviv. erin mclaughlin, thank you for that essential reporting. i want to turn now to chris o'leary, former director of hostage recovery from the u.s. government and now senior vice president of global operations at the sufan group. understanding there's a lot we don't know yet, what your impregs of the deal that's been announced? >> i think it's likely it's going to go through. there's too much pressure in israel and international pressure as well on this deal. there are some concessions they don't want to make, the suspension and collection of reconnaissance intelligence, the drones is not something a military member in their right mind would want to agree to. hamas attacked israel a month and a half ago and now you want to close your eyes for five days and assume they're just going to do the right thing. that's the challenge here. there's friction between the hostage recovery, the negotiated release, and military requirements and goals to continue to pursue the defeat of hamas but also regain control of the other hostages. some of these hostages will need to be rescued at some point. >> how optimistic are you about the sort of long-term prospects for all the hostages given there are 50 here, i think that's roughly a fifth of the hostages we know about being held in gaza. >> i don't want to rain on the parade today. this is good news once it goes through for the 50 victims that get released and also for their families obviously. but it's also an ominous side if it took this long to release 50 women and children and hamas asked for these many demands, how difficult is it going to be to get the idf members out? and that's probably going to require the defeat of hamas or hostage rescue efforts down the line. >> can i ask a basic question but given this sort of asymmetrical numbers from previous hostage releases where one israeli hostage has been exchanged for i think up to 1,500 other hostages, is it really a bad sign it's 50-150. given the history here, tell me why you think this is a lot of demands relative to other negotiations. >> it's not an unreasonable number. hamas has different priorities now than they did back then. their priorities now are to buy time. they are looking to survive to fight another day. they're looking as they're buying time for the international support and domestic support in israel for the military offensive to erode. it already has. we've seen that. we're also looking at increasing friction between the hostage families and military. these two couldn't be more in competition with each other. hamas is looking to change the narrative as to who's the monster and invert that, and they've had some success to this point. >> yes, and some people would argue israel's assault in gaza i think that has taken 14,000 lives has assisted most directly in that. i do want to ask how this so far has come to be. netanyahu is say he asked president biden to intervene, and that biden, i believe, improved the terms according to netanyahu's office. what could that mean? we've heard the qatari's mention this as the principal interlockteres in all this. >> the american government has an incredible standard for hostage recovery, which was borne out of the obama administration after a failure. and we credit to president obama did a complete review how we address these cases and did a complete overhaul in the u.s. government. now we have a whole of government approach where we have all the intelligence agencies, special oprails, diplomacy, all synchronized with our partners as well. the reason we have such a robust relationship with the qataris is because we work these things together. the u.s. has an influential role in this, but at the end of the day the american hostages are also israeli citizens. we are only there to influence and steer these things as are the qataris, but we really can't make any demands here. we are only in a position where we can assist, ald vise, provide intelligence and we can't really demand. >> what are your expectations if when you say families of military hostages willival to wait a long time. you were advising them, if therapy coming to you saying when, when, if there's any kind of time line, how would you set expectations? >> i would manage expectations and be direct with them. the u.s. government has a team of counselors that work with the families. you have to be straight and direct with them, share intelligence with them, give them counseling and support. i mean this is an incredibly hard time for all these folks. they're not sleeping. well, they can't go on for years without sleeping. so you have the manage their health and well-being. you have to provide them with aid and support because these people can't work, they can't go back to their normal lives, and you have to make them part of the recovery process, too. you have to integrate them into the negotiations. they have some ideas, they know their family members. this one is a little more unique than individual cases, but they still have to be part of the process. >> all we know the next 24, 42, 78 hours is going to be moments of elation for some families and incredibly dashed hopes for others. but we focus on the good news that we know at this hour, which is a deal has been approved. chris o'leary, thank you for your time and expertise on all this. we have a lot more ahead tonight. former trump officials are again sounding the alarm about the dangers of a second trump administration. is anyone listening? plus, are the courts trelding lightly when it comes to trying cases against a once and possibly future president. >> we're going to have more on that after the break. going to n that after the break i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. 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he's a lovely man. the trump hating prosecutor in the case, his wife and family despise me much more than he does. and he decides -- i think he's about a 10. they're about a 15 on a scale of 10. >> if that mention of jack smith's family was not a clear enough threat, trump followed it up two days later with this most on truth social -- "deranged jack smith will end up in a mental institution by the time of my next term as president and by the time that is successfully completed." trump has also name checked and posted intimidating statements about potential witnesses including his former attorney general bill barr, former chief of staff mark meadows, and his former vice president mike pence, as well as his former lawyers jenna ellis and sidney powell. but, again, the idea of revoking trump's bond, of punishing him with jail time for this kind of intimidation, that has yet to be put on the table in either case. and while harrison floyd's hearing today ended with the judge imposing a broader and stricter order controlling harrison floyd's speech, donald trump had a ruling on his gag order yesterday. and the ruling was the appeals court will narrow trump's gag order. one of the judges on the panel said they have to use a careful scalpal to carve out a narrow order while not limiting trump as a presidential candid. you can see the legal system is treading very, very carefully here, one would even say lightly. and the net result of that is that trump gets to have it both ways. at campaign rallies trump gets to use the cases against him to score political points. >> every time i'm indicted, i can consider it a great badge of honor because i'm inbeing indicted for you. thanks a lot, everybody. i appreciate it. >> and meanwhile, in court he's using his campaign as a shield to ensure treatment that no other defendant would get. so how is donald trump held accountable here? and how can our legal system protect the people he could intimidate in the meantime? i mean, this is, after all, what he posted today. >> why do you think that fani and alvin and letitia and of course the deranged one, jack smith, took so long and very publicly they leak everything, started their work so late they could have started it years ago. it's called election interference and prosecutorial misconduct. >> joining me now is former acting solicitor-general, neil katyal. neil, thank you for helping me understand how the court is approaching the confident subject, the complicated defendant donald trump. first, let me ask you what your expectation for the appeals court ruling for the gag order? just how punitive is it going to be? >> the argument yesterday was in front of our nation's second highest court, three extraordinary well prepared, well respected judges. and i think the ultimate bottom line is trump's lawyer could not answer the simple questions the court posed, for example, what is your standard, can criminal defendants say anything they want and the like. i think basically at the end of the argument i was left thinking that trump will lose. for the first time in american history, a former president will be gagged by a court. i think the order will be narrowed a little bit because judge chutkan who's the trial judge said that trump couldn't attack the prosecutor jack smith. and i think there was some cause for concern among the judges. that wasn't really something trump's lawyer pushed as much, but it's something the court brought up on its own, and so i think ultimately, though, trump loses and donald trump will be gagged, and if he violates those gag orders, we will get into the situation of possible jail time. >> can you talk more about that, neil, possible jail time? it really feels the courts have gone out of their way to not go there of yet. i understand it's complicated, but at the same time he isn't being treated like any other defendant here, and he is loathe to obey anybody's orders. i wonder if you think we are going to get to the point where there has to be a real robust discussion about jailing the former president. >> so, alex, i could not agree with you more about what you just said. if you want to see unequal treatment in our judicial system, look no further than the way the courts have treated donald trump or indeed his codefendant today. they reported leaniacy and second chances the average defendant could never dream of. and time and time again we're seeing trump and his codefendants get the benefit of the doubt, and i do think that patience is wearing thin among the courts as well. i do think that trump if he violates it which i think hay me do because he's incapable of following any rules, decorum or the like, i do think we're going to see that. yesterday i was talking with lawrence o'donnell, and i said, look, the country is watching this gag order hearing. and whatever donald trump does, other defendants in other cases are going to do. whether it's a mafia case, a drug case, whatever, that this sets a precedent for norm breaking behavior. and lo and behold, we didn't have to wait a day to see the corrosive effects of trump's arguments already. because in fulton county, georgia, harrison floyd was basically saying, yeah, it's my first amendment right to intimidate witnesses. this is, you know, out of control already, and i do think the courts will put this back in the bottle or whatever but they have to act quickly. >> i want to ask you kind of like a broader ethical question which is the notion for running for office and anything from a gag order to the scheduling of the trials. fani willis made the point it would be a really sad day if you're under investigation for a shoplifting charge, you go run for city council to stop the investigation. we joke about -- to some degree i think there's a levity embedded in that, but it's not an unserious possibility, the idea that you shield yourself