hi there, everyone. it s 4:00 in new york. new developments in what is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for every one of the criminal investigations into the twice impeached disgraced ex-president and his campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost. we are talking about all the ways in which ex-trump officials and aides and allies are trying to prevent investigators from getting the answers to some of the biggest questions around the capitol insurrection and donald trump s potential criminal cullibilities. the new york times reports the justice department has asked a judge to force the two trump lawyers to provide additional grand jury testimony as prosecutors seek to break through the former president s attempts to shield his efforts to overturn the 2020 election from the investigation. that is according to two people familiar with the matter. prosecutors filed a motion to compel testimony from the two lawyers, pat cipollone and patrick philbin last
frustration intensely. and we will be getting through this together very soon. also today, the white house is slamming texas governor greg abbott after 140 migrants from texas, including babies and children were dropped off at the residence of vice president harris in frigid temperatures on christmas eve. the latest on the battle over title 42 waged by republican governors this hour. and the federal warning that migrants, not to cross the southern border. with polls shows donald trump s power over republicans waning ahead of 2024, other potential contenders including florida s ron desantis, and former vice president pence are making moves to make their candidacies official we re watching that but we re going to start with the weather that we were just mentioning, the deadly snowstorm, joining us right now, nbc news meteorologist angie lassman. where are we at right now, angie? it was a rough weekend. it was. and a holiday weekend at that. a lot of people trying to c
president joe biden will finally hear directly from the families of brittney griner and paul whelan two families being unfairly detained in russia. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper and start in our politics lead with stark moves by two republican governors. ron desantis and texas governor greg abbott sending planes and buses full of migrants to two specific places, selected, it seems to get a reaction. the liberal enclave of martha s vineyard in massachusetts and outside vice president kamala harris official residence in washington, d.c. volunteers say the migrants seem to be mostly from venezuela. you can see some standing outside the naval observatory in the nation s capital earlier today. the immigrants were dropped off by two buses by texas. no heads-up was given to leaders of washington, d.c. that they were coming. in addition, overnight florida governor ron desantis shipped two plane fulls of immigrants to martha s vineyard. it is a vacation destination for many
this counting electors required in states to send electors for the candidates who actually won and bans a retroactive change over rules when it comes to governing elections. those seem like pretty common sense reforms to me. but here s the thing, only nine republicans, yes, nine republicans in the house voted for that bill. perhaps unsurprisingly all of those lawmakers are set to leave congress next year. in the end, 203 republicans voted against a bill that was aimed at protecting and strengthening our democracy. over in the senate pennsylvania s patrick me one of the many soon-to-be gop retirees has signed on to his chamber s version of the bill as a cosponsor, he becomes a tenth republican to do so which means that if all democrats and independents sign on, they have enough votes to beat the usually fatal filibuster. there is no cause for celebration just yet, both chambers still have to work out some key differences in their bills before anything gets to the presidents de
brittney griner is pleading guilty to drug charges stemming from that february detainment at the moscow airport. she faces up to ten years in a russian prison unless negotiations can get under way for a prisoner swap. more on the reporting from the new york times overnight that former fbi director james comey and his deputy mccabe were both subjected to intensive, intrusive irs audits during the trump presidency. the odds of a single person being selected for that kind of audit are one in 30,000. for two men who basically had the same job, well, it s kind of like winning the worst lottery. certainly raising suspiciouses about the trump appointed leadership at the irz. we begin with keir simmons. how are the people reacting to this shakeup? another at the top of their political leadership. reporter: there will be those who are breathing a sigh of relief. there will be those who are disappointed because he s a colorful character. there are people and many people who liked