Lifestyle. Also ahead, the starstudded event with an obama cameo. How a state dinner for kenya became a showcase for the allies who President Biden is keeping close during the heat of the campaign season. Plus, they were bitter rivals, but is donald trump warming to the thought of nikki haley on his team . Also could he be reading too much into her comment that she would vote for him. And the Memorial Day Rush is on. What you need to know if youre planning to skip town for the weekend. Our nbc News Reporters are following all of the latest developments. We begin with nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian on that hearing for hunter biden. Just got a slew of rulings from the judge about what can and cannot be referenced at trial. What can you tell us as this wraps up . Reporter thats right, chris. The hearing does appear to be over now, and the judge worked through a series of motions by the prosecution and the defense to admit or deny certain evidence. This is a w
Not happen . Initially i dont think theyre going to say, theyre going to know whether or not trump knew about this deal or not. They have gone all over the place. Trump, the ceo, too high, doesnt know whats going on and then something else. I think theyre undecided. As a defense lawyer, you do that at times. You dont have the burden of proof. The prosecution does. So when you stand up and close it, youre going to say, i dont even have to be here to stand up, the only person you have to hear from is them. If i did nothing and the judge would tell the jury and they didnt prove their case, my client needs to be acquitted and thats what the law requires, but i do think jurors as reasonable people expect a counternarrative that makes sense. Theyre here to bring the rational to judge and the prosecution put forward a documents heavy rational and this counterrational of attacking stormy and going on and on again and get morgue and more tangential is undermining their case. How much does the w
pre-sentencing report is being prepared where any circumstances involving their lives that might allow the judge some sympathy, any kind of mitigating circumstances about how they were raised, their life experiences, 30 years is a long time. so, life without parole, this is especially harsh sentence that some people have compared to the death penalty. it s just that when you get life without parole, you don t die in theics executioner s chamber, you die in state prison. do you think it could be divided up, that some could get the possibility of parole and another perhaps not? that s a great question, alex, and just like we saw the jury distinguish between the shooter, travis, and the other two defendants t judge might do the same thing in sentencing. okay. let s take a step back here, kristen, big picture, looking at the two high-profile erdicts
let s go now to georgia where the three men found guilty of murdering ahmaud arbery will have yet another day in court. travis mcmichael, his father, gregory mcmichael, and william bryan were convicted this week on multiple counts in the killing of 25-year-old arbery while he was jogging through a georgia neighborhood last year. now, those three men are preparing for a february hearing on federal hate crime charges of kidnapping and violating arbery s right to use a public street because of his race. the mcmichaels are also charged with using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm. i m joined right now to discuss it by paul butler, a former federal prosecutor and georgetown law professor and kristen gibbons fedden, a civil rights attorney. they are both msnbc legal analysts. i welcome you both wholeheartedly. paul, the murder convictions have been praised by arbery s family, by civil rights advocates and even the president as a sign that our justice system can work. but the trial was lar
of any direct conversations about race, so how do you expect this upcoming hate crimes trial to be different on that front? alex, race will be front and center in the federal trial. the federal indictment said that these men infringed mr. arbery s civil rights because he was black. there was plenty of evidence that these defendants are old-school, unreconstructed racists, including that travis mcmichael allegedly used the n-word after he pumped three bullets into mr. arbery. the state prosecution could have used this, but i think when they ended up with a nearly all-white jury, they decided against introducing it. but alex, sometimes it s important to name the evil. racial animus is part of what must be proven in a federal trial, so prosecutors will fight to get all of that evidence in. you know, kristen, early on