capitol. and after a tragedy how one community is helping the band play on. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening. a verdict as we come on the air in the closely watched jussie smollett trial a chicago jury tonight finding the former empire actor guilty on five of six counts related to lying to police about being the victim of a hate-driven attack in 2019 the verdict coming on the second day of deliberations. rehema ellis has the breaking news for us. rehema reporter: lester, jussie smollett stood with his arms crossed and he was stoic as the jury read the verdict. as you point out, he was found guilty of five of six counts not guilty on a charge of reporting a false aggravated battery to police but it was nearly three years ago that he was facing six felony counts of reporting a fake, anti-gay and racist attack against himself and lying to police about it on the witness stand he had always insisted on his innocence saying there was no hoax, but
meadows, what is his argument exactly? his argument is in two parts. basically says the subpoenas sent against him by the january 6th committee are overly broad and too burdensome, not targeted enough. essentially accusing the investigative committee of investigating too hard. he also makes a privilege claim here and says he can t decide whether he needs to follow the subpoenas from the committee or need to follow the guidance from former president trump that he is subject to executive privilege and doesn t have to testify. the committee looks at this, though, and sees a classic trump tactic. which you don t have the goods you stall for time and you stall for time by suing. so they re trying to force the issue, force contempt proceedings to move forward on him and hopefully get something from mark meadows beyond some documents they say they have already received. talk about that in a minute. chuck, you say the committee s flaw. may well be flawed, but to garrett s point
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