have been hit the hardest. this is the first earthquake of such magnitude to hit the area in more than 100 years. let s go right to nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. what do we know about the efforts that are underway? yes so far we are seeing local authorities and the military trying to bring people out of the wreckage. as you, said the death toll is now at 8000. it was only a couple hours ago the death toll is at 800. a couple hours before it was at 600. as you know from the earthquake that happened in turkey back in february, they have a way of climbing very high after rescue workers are able to get in and extracting dead bodies. that s when we start to see these numbers going up and up. as you mentioned this is a 6.8 magnitude earthquake according to the geological survey. that is the strongest earthquake to strike this country and 123 years. as you mentioned, this was in the high atlas mountains. about 50 miles away from the historic city america. there was
we have breaking news tonight out of fulton county georgia. a federal judge has denied former white house chief of staff, mark meadows, attempt to move his case from fulton county to federal court. finding that his alleged crimes and helping donald trump to overturn the election in georgia are not part of his official duties as a government official. it was a major blow to mark meadows s defense in the case. that his actions are immune from prosecution, because they were part of his work as a federal official when he testified, quote, i don t know that i did anything that was outside of my scope as chief of staff. judge steve jones rejected that notion in his ruling, writing, quote, the court finds that the color of the office of the white house chief of staff did not include working with or working for the trump campaign. meadows was required to come forward with competent proof of his factual contention that his actions involving his actions involving challenges to the
from prosecution, because they were part of his work as a federal official when he testified, quote, i don t know that i did anything that was outside of my scope as chief of staff. judge steve jones rejected that notion in his ruling, writing, quote, the court finds that the color of the office of the white house chief of staff did not include working with or working for the trump campaign. meadows was required to come forward with competent proof of his factual contention that his actions involving his actions involving challenges to the outcome of the georgia s presidential election results were within his role as chief of staff. his efforts fall short. just two hours ago, mark meadows appealed the ruling to the 11th circuit. the judge stated that his ruling will not have any bearing on other defendants seeking removal of their cases. but it does suggest that the removal argument could be a hard sell for any defendant. including donald trump. quote, the constitution does
Special prosecutor jack smith s investigators asked gradually witnesses in washington d. c. how drunk rudolph giuliani was when he was advising donald trump? it is a crucial, legal question for the trump defense team who have already said they intend to use and advice of counsel defense blaming everything donald trump did on the advice he got from lawyers including the one who, to me, looked and sounded drunk every time he spoke publicly about the presidential election in 2020, and on january 6th. we will discuss the finer legal points of drunk legal advice later in this hour, after we begin with a sober assessment of the breaking legal news of the day in georgia. at 2 pm today, federal judge steve c. jones issued an order to both sides of the case after hearing a full day of testimony yesterday, and defended mark meadows motion to move his
Points of drunk legal advice later in this hour, after we begin with a sober assessment of the breaking legal news of the day in georgia. at two pm today, federal judge steve see jones issued an order to both sides of the case after hearing a full day of testimony yesterday, and defended mark meadows motion to move his criminal trial from fulton county courthouse, in georgia, to the federal district court, in georgia. judge jones ordered fulton county district attorney fani willis and mark meadows criminal defense lawyers to each file a brief by five pm on thursday, answering exactly one question that the judge has after that hearing. would a finding that at least one, but not all, of the overt acts charged occurred under the