trial. a trial that threatens to upend his personal fortune and real estate business. the former president could take the stand in his own defense on monday, but today the court is hearing from an accounting expert who described new york attorney general's letitia james' claims of fraud as meritless, saying, quote, my main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud. this is trump's first appearance since an appellate court reinstated a gag order barring him from talking about the court staff on social media. while the clerks are off limits, trump didn't waste time renewing his attacks on the judge arthur. >> a case that is absolutely 100%, there's not a judge in the country that wouldn't have given us a total victory, but there's not a judge in the country that would have even taken this case. this is a witch hunt, and a very corrupt trial. the attorney general sits here because she knows that she has a judge that no matter all the evidence, that judge is going to rule in her favor. >> joining us now is msnbc anchor, yasmin vossoughian. so tell us, what's the latest from the courtroom? >> reporter: a lot has been going on today. earlier this morning, a lot of people were asking me why the former president is here. and i think we know why, what the defense team sees as their star witness. before i get into what we have heard from his testimony throughout the day and some of the color from inside the courtroom we're getting from lisa rubin. i want to play sound from the former president outside the courtroom. he has made two appearances, one in which he was walking in. another, they took a break. let's take a listen to the former president going after judge engoron. >> we won this case at the appellate division and this judge refuses to acknowledge the appellate division. he said very specifically, we're going forward. because there's something wrong here. nobody's ever seen something like this. when you win at the appellate division, the judge has to be bound by what the decision is. we won at the appellate decision. >> reporter: so testimony so far today inside the courtroom, i just want to tell you, he's getting paid a heck of a lot of money to be an expert witness. he's appeared in front of goldman sachs, the s.e.c. testifying as well. an expert witness for the new york ag. here's what he offered in his testimony, i have reviewed hundreds of statements and i must tell you, i have never seen a statement that provides so much detail and is so transparent as these statements. the amount of disclosure in the footnotes, he adds, is awesome. you would think the former president had told him to say that exact thing verbatim. i want to give you more color before i send it back to you. that is the former president stopping by the sketch artist inside the courtroom, and he says this, a moment of levity, i will say. he stops by the first time and he says, nice, when he sees a picture of himself, ryan, and the second time he rolls by and says, that's me, i think i need to lose some weight. that's what's happening inside the courtroom. today we know looking ahead to next week, the former president planning on testifying on monday on behalf of the defense, then there will be the rebuttal from the prosecution. they'll lead it out to january, in which closing statements will begin, and hopefully a decision or possibly a decision weeks after that. >> if we needed more evidence that he's trying to win the case in the court of public opinion, the former president working the sketch artist on his way out. yasmin vossoughian, thank you so much for the color and the report. we appreciate it. joining us now to talk more about this is former federal prosecutor and former deputy chief of the sdny, and legal analyst, and former federal prosecutor, paul butler. eric trump, we thought there was a chance he be called was not called for the defense, and the former president wrote on truth social that he told his son not to. what does that tell you about the level of control that trump has over the defense's strategy? >> i think he has total control over the defense strategy, and it's interesting that he chose, even though he's not testifying today to show up today, and why did he do that? because i think he really wanted to make sure the press was there to cover this expert testimony, which he thinks is important to their case, and if you look at some of the things that this expert was saying, i mean, it's ludicrous. he says that the financial statements were not fraudulent, and that people who don't know anything about accounting may think it's fraud, but really these are just errors, and something like tripling the size of an apartment, well, that's just inflation, and as a former federal prosecutor and paul would know this as well, like, we know the difference between blatant fraud and an honest mistake. there were so many examples throughout the trial that you saw there was an intent to defraud, we have these forbes e-mails where they were telling don jr. about the fact that the size of the apartment was tripled, and these numbers don't add up. and what does don jr. do? he tells his outside accountants there are no material misstatements in this financial fraud, so when this expert says, well, it's just an inflation, it's an error, that doesn't comport with the testimony of the documents that actually came in as evidence at this trial. >> so he was in the courtroom today. there's a chance he could be on the witness stand maybe as soon as monday. the former president, the last time he was on the stand was combative and that was when he was a witness for the prosecution. these attacks have continued on social media, every interview he gets. what can we expect if he's back on the stand on monday? >> look, i think it will be more of the same. the gag order is in place, but the gag order is only there to limit what he says about court staff, so don't expect him to start with any personal attacks against the law clerk while he's on the stand. that would be in direct violation of the gag order. so who knows if he'll follow that. that order is still in place. but attacks on the judge, attacks on the new york ag, attacks on pretty much anybody else, he's attacked the judge's wife. all of that is open season. so i expect more of the same unless there's going to be a real consequence that he's going to actually feel that this order has some teeth. now, the judge has said he will vigorously enforce that gag order. so we'll stay tuned on monday, but i think as you've said, like, he's much more interested in the court of public opinion here, and i think his testimony will largely be combative as we've seen from him in the past. >> one more for you, kristy. let's talk about the new york appeals court, they've continued the stay of the judge's order, cancelling business certificates but denied a stay of the other relief granted to the attorney general after its summary judgment victory. what does this mean for the final decision and the future of trump's businesses because this could impact him in a very big way? >> it certainly could. the potential penalties as a result of this trial are enormous. the new york ag is looking at 250 million or so in financial penalties, and even more importantly preventing the family from being able to do business in new york, from being officers or directors of any new york corporation, and, you know, from also being able to get loans, do business transactions for some period of time in new york. the stakes are high as a result of this trial, and i do think that that is why the judge has said that he would like to have some briefing. after donald trump testifies on monday, there's going to be a time where both sides will get to brief this, and then argue it in january and then i think a large part of why the judge is doing that is to try and make sure there's a very clear record so that when he does issue his opinion on what discouragement there's going to be, on what penalties he's going to assess, that he has a very clear record for when this goes up on appeal. >> paul, let's turn to you and talk about one of trump's other legal issues here, and that's the case that special counsel jack smith is looking into regarding election interference in d.c. the trump legal team filed a notice that they are piling judge chutkan's denial of the motion to dismiss the d.c. indictment on presidential immunity and constitutional grounds, one week after judge chutkan ruled against that. she has scheduled the trial date to take place in march. she's ready to move forward. could this appeal slow that process down? >> it might. everybody knew this appeal was coming, including judge chutkan who wrote a careful, nuanced opinion. so it's designed, the opinion is designed to survive review by the court of appeals and by the supreme court. there are interesting constitutional issues about the scope of presidential immunity, but trump is likely to lose on those issues. last week, the same court of appeals that trump is appealing to now decided a case where it say that trump doesn't have immunity from civil litigation related to january 6th. there are different issues in a criminal case but the outcome is likely to be the same, so strategically, this is as usual, all about delay. so trump's lawyers realize the trial is scheduled from march 4th. that's right around the corner. they're running scared. they have asked the court of appeals to order judge chutkan to put everything on hold until the court of appeals decides the case. i don't think that's going to happen. she can still decide pretrial motions. here's the thing, if the supreme court takes this case, and that's a big if, they could delay the trial until whenever they issued that decision, and we have no idea when that would be. >> that's the key. even if it's being considered, that would be enough to slow this process down. let's also talk about jack smith. he's seeking permission from judge chutkan to introduce evidence that isn't specifically charged in the criminal indictment but maybe relevant to the jury and their consideration of the alleged crimes. what does that mean, and how does that impact the case? >> the biggest hurdle that prosecutors have in all of the trump case is proving trump's motive, his criminal intent. if he persuades 12 people in a d.c. jury that he believed the election was fraudulent, then he walks. new reporting that trump has been denying elections for years, even in 2016, he cast doubt about whether the result of that election were legitimate until he won. >> he said afterwards that the popular vote was wrong. >> exactly, so he has a pattern and practice of election denial, so that's a rebuttal to his claim that he honestly believed he really won. he didn't is what jack smith hopes he can persuade a d.c. jury. >> great conversation. paul butler and kristy greenberg. a nevada grand juror has indicted six fake electors into the probe of the 2020 election interference. the wednesday's indictments include kenneth chesebro, one time attorney to donald trump, called the alleged architect of the elector scheme. joining us now is senior national political reporter for nbc news, natasha, tell us who was charged? >> the people charged are the hierarchy of the nevada republican party. you have the gop chair of the state party who's been charged now with two felony counts, michael mcdonald. we wrote about this previously, he testified in the federal grand jury with regard to election interference. also charged is the vice chairman, jim degraffenreid. and the rest of those charged are all republican party members. what's significant here and worth noting is that these same republican hierarchy is going to be running in two and a half months, running the nevada presidential primary caucuses. and they have already been accused of being in the tank for donald trump, this is going to make it a lot more difficult for them. obviously weekly. but politically to make the case that this is going to be fair caucuses they're going to be holding in just a couple of months here. >> and of course, kenneth chesebro is an interesting figure, reportedly cooperating with the fulton county's district attorney's office, and their sprawling racketeering case. is there any indication he's cooperating with nevada's attorney general as well? >> yes, there is. attached to the indictments yesterday was the witness list for the prosecution, and on that witness list, kenneth chesebro. so it's a pretty good indication that he's been talking to prosecutors. there has been reporting indicating such, and there's also been reporting that he has talked to arizona state prosecutors. and each of these states, just like nevada, they're looking at these electors, looking at what they did that day. they weren't charged federally, but in the individual states, attorney generals are saying, we're not going to let this go, we're going to charge this as a crime. >> thank you for being here, we appreciate it. two months since the october 7th attack by hamas, what families who have loved ones being held hostage, what they're saying about prime minister's netanyahu's efforts to get them out. funding for ukraine is in limbo, what republicans want for exchange. first, another shooting on a college campus. what we know about the attack that left three people dead. we're back in 60 seconds. hi, i'm michael, i've lost 62 pounds on golo and i have kept it off. most of the weight that i gained was strictly in my belly which is a sign of insulin resistance. but since golo, that weight has completely gone away, as you can tell. thanks to golo and release, i've got my life and my health back. gun violence is top of mind today on capitol hill where lawmakers and family members of victims held a press conference to mark a grim date on the calendar. next week will mark eleven years since a nman shot and killed 26 students and staff members inside sandy hoo elementary school. 20 of those killed were between the ages of 6 and 7. and one of the most horrendous mass shootings in american history. congress remembers those victims, investigators are trying to figure out what motivated a 67-year-old man they say opened fire at the university of nevada-las vegas yesterday. two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the case tell nbc news that anthony polito applied for a professor position and was not hired. that was back in 2020. four people were shot, and three of them were killed. joining us now is nbc news correspondent, dana griffin. tell us the latest. what do investigators know so far about why this unfolded? >> reporter: well, ryan, they have made at least a connection to the suspected shooter. polito applied for a job here in 2020. was not hired. so they are obviously looking into whether that may be part of the motivation for the shooting. i spoke with one student who tells me that he believes this shooter was targeting professors, not students. we have not gotten a confirmation on who was killed and the three people who were killed and the one person who is still in the hospital. that's coming from one of the students who says he was meeting with a professor inside that building. this all unfolded yesterday around noon just before several people were inside the business school that's located behind me. we have seen a lot of activity out here. it's starting to get a little bit quiet now. that's when they heard several shots. investigators say he started on the fourth floor, went to different floors. he was confronted by two on campus officers who shot and killed him outside neutralizing that threat, as they say. there were several students inside this billion, also outside. they were having food and planning to build legos. so they say that killing this suspect may have saved more lives. ryan? >> and how is the faculty and staff of this school moving forward after such a devastating day? >> reporter: yeah, i think they're just now starting to process. from the people we have seen coming in and out, a lot of people have been able to go in nearby buildings to collect their belongings. there's anger and frustration that this keeps happening. there's one student who talked to my colleague steve patternson who said that he was also involved in the 2017 shooting at the country music festival and the fact that he was inside that building just six years later, and to experience this again, it is very frustrating for people who want these sort of targeted shootings to stop. a lot of students have left campus. some are staying at nearby hotels that have offered to house students so they don't have to come back to campus. it's very triggering for some. others are being held at a larger facility so they can have somewhere to sleep and stay until the campus reopens. it is closed through sunday. >> finals, getting ready to pack up for the holidays. our thoughts with everyone. joining us is nevada congresswoman, susie lee who serves on the gun violence prevention task force. i know you just flew into las vegas a few hours ago. you were up here on capitol hill, dealing with everything that's happening around the negotiations with the supplemental, and everything else. you did get a chance to speak to some of the people on the ground in the state that you represent. what are they telling you, and what was it like what they went through? >> first and foremost, thank you for having me, ryan. again, this is a community that is devastated one more time by gun violence. like so many communities across this country, this is the 631st mass shooting in our country this year alone. i had an opportunity to talk to president keith whitfield, clearly there's a lot of concern about the mental of the students and faculty. a lot of appreciation to the first responders. the university police, as well as metro and the fbi who were, you know, quick response and honestly prevented so much more senseless death as a result of this. so there's appreciation. there's frustration. and obviously more importantly, just concern for the students in this community to heal at this time. concern about are we even going to open up for finals, which are supposed to be next week. so a lot to take in, and a lot to deal with, with this community, to help us heal once again from a tragic mass shooting, and obviously, as you can imagine, a lot of frustration. >> let's dive into the statistics a little bit. you mentioned one of them. 630 mass shootings in the u this year. that's a new record. 38 mass killings, and 40,000 people have died in shootings this year in america alone. yet, just this week, the senate blocked a ban on assault-style weapons and a call for universal background checks. if that can't get accomplished and i know you've dealt with these debates a lot on capitol hill, is there any room for compromise as incidents like this continue to happen over and over again? >> you know, listen, as i said before, this is a club you do not want to be a part of. and sadly, with each passing day, i mean, almost two mass shootings a day, communities across the country are going to be confronted with this type of violence. as you know, elections have consequences, and for those people who are not willing to take these common sense measures. as you know, we have brought four discharge petitions to the floor of the house. we need 218 members to sign these, to pass this legislation, whether you're talking about the background checks act, closing the charleston loophole. assault weapons ban, even ethans law, just safe storage. these are simple, common sense steps that we can take and i believe that across this country, there is frustration, and i hope that americans express that frustration at the ballot box, and elect people who are going to take steps to keep them and their families safer. >> congresswoman susie lee, your