this one is asked to appear in trump s defense as the grand jury makes a decision on whether to hand up an indictment. trump set off shockwaves by posting a prediction he would be indicted tomorrow and calling for protests against the new york d.a., law enforcement officials meeting today to prepare, just in case. also ahead, china s president arriving in moscow for his first visit since russia invaded ukraine, a three-day visit where vladimir putin hopes to strengthen ties and hopefully obtain aid for his failing ukraine invasion. we ll talk to ukraine s ambassador to the u.s. and nbc news s richard engel will join us live from baghdad with a view of how the country has changed on the 20th anniversary of the u.s. war in iraq. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. thanks for being with us. at the center of this investigation, alleged false filings about rush money payments by former trump legal adviser, michael cohen, to former adult film star stormy daniels
investigator, house republicans now want the manhattan d.a. to testify about what they say without any evidence is a politically motivated decision to possibly indite the former president. even though no indictment has been announced. this is andrea mitchell reports. you re watching msnbc. a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable, i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. and left bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc got in my way, i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when my gastro saw damage, rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease
and an open question which we don t know yet, if there is another investigation that comes to fruition, how will that second one play in light of this? will that take away some of his support from republicans? i want to talk about how former president trump s messaging ahead of the january 6th brought the massive crowds to washington. how concerned are you about his latest rhetoric, the speaker notwithstanding? evidence tells us that we should be quite concerned about where this is headed. in the infamous rally before the violence on january 6th, trump used the words fight or fighting 20 times to exhort the crowd and directed them to march to the capitol. so we all have to be tuned in. this is why you see security precautions being taken. but i think it s important to note that this is an interesting time. we ve got republican leadership in the form of former vice
either, a, needed to be locked in, they weren t sure whether costello would be there at the end of the day, or that his evidence is so incredibly powerful that it could avoid the possibility of an indictment. the latter seems quite unlikely, because the standard for a grand jury presentation is just probable cause. in other words, the grand jury is to find, is there probable cause that a crime was committed and that standard is usually fairly easy to meet, particularly here where there seems to be such strong corroboration for what michael cohen has said in terms of, at the very least, a tape-recording and checks that were signed by donald trump himself. and while we have your expertise, can you take us through the potential charges here? we don t know what charges may actually come down, but the potential charges, and how a misdemeanor, which the false
filing would be under state law, can rise to a possible felony because of the federal campaign finance issues? how does one leap to the other? sure. so this is all emanating from these hush money payments. the hush money payments in and of themselves is not illegal under new york state law. but there is a law in new york that the manhattan d.a. s office and others use when you have a false business filing. and here that false filing is, according to michael cohen and potentially other evidence in the case, massacre aiding as legal fees, when these were payments to stormy daniels to keep her quiet. that is, as you noted, a misdemeanor in new york. and here is the rub, if it is to