Making his debut on the national stage. Disgraced Hollywood Mega mogul Harvey Weinsteins fate is in the hands of a jury early signs on what theyre focused on plus the inspiring story of one womans rise to the big leagues. Its wednesday february 19th early today starts right now good morning im cori coffin. And im phillip mena. President trump is flexing his pardoning power for some of the nations most highprofile whitecollar criminals perhaps most notorious is Rod Blagojevich. The president commuted the sentence of the former illinois governor who was removed from office and convicted on corruption charges for trying to sell the u. S. Senate seat vacated by barack obama. The president also wiped away criminal records for several other big names including michael milken, once hailed as the king of junk bonds the disgraced financier became the face of Insider Trading in the 1980s. The president also pardon former new York Police Commissioner bernard kerik. He served four years in prison for tax fraud and making false statements former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie Debartolo jr. Also received a pardon for his role in a casino bribery scheme nbcs Dan Scheneman has more you guys from chicago we are. Congratulations on getting out. Reporter former illinois governor Rod Blagojevich awarded his freedom after President Trump commuted his sentence. President trump is the one who did this, and im like i said, profoundly grateful. My gratitude is forever. Reporter the former governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to sell the senate seat of then president elect barack obama. Ive got this thing, and its [ bleep ] golden and im just not giving it up for [ bleep ] nothing. Reporter President Trump rod, youre fired reporter who once fired the former governor on the reality show the apprentice. Blagojevichs wife that was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion very far from his children theyre growing older. Theyre going to high school now. And they rarely get to see their father outside of an orange uniform. Reporter now with his freedom blagojevich will now try to move on with his life i just believe that sometimes out of evil you can good things can happen. And i think the wickedness and evil that was done to me and any family can be turned to good reporter Rod Blagojevich can go home. Dan scheneman, nbc news. As the Justice Department faces one of its greatest controversies over cutting recommended prison time for roger stone, attorney general william barr admits that he thought about calling it quits barr reportedly told people close to the president that he considered resigning over trumps tweets about the Justice Department investigations. A Justice Department spokeswoman says the attorney general has no plans to resign. There have been growing calls for his resignation, though, after interfering in the stone case can a slick multimilliondollar ad blitz translates to success on the debate stage thats the question tonight for billionaire Mike Bloomberg the former new york mayor will face off against his democratic rivals for the first time right here on nbc. Bloomberg is already trying to get ahead of some criticism. His team announcing overnight that he would sell his company if elected president his 381 million in ad spending has fueled poll numbers. In our latest nbc news wall street journal poll bloomberg rocketed to third place behind frontrunner Bernie Sanders and joe biden. Nbcs Maura Barrett joining us from the campaign trail in las vegas. Maura, good morning. So bloombergs rivals, theyre not holding back now reporter absolutely not, phillip. Interior many rivals bloomberg will be facing on tonights debate stage here in las vegas and this comes after about a week and a half of criticism coming up from bloombergs past. Like you mentioned with his company some skepticism there. But there are also comments resurfacing, seemingly racist comments about his stop and frisk policy when he was mayor of new york. And some derogatory comments toward women as well at his company. And so the democratic candidates, while theyve been focusing on iowa and New Hampshire, Michael Bloomberg has had a monopoly on the super tuesday states, visiting voters there who have never seen any candidates before, and hes been up on the airwaves spending that more than 300 million and thats what contributed to the spikes that weve seen in the polls that got him on the debate stage tonight so we can expect a lot of criticism and other candidates going after Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage tonight because of his rise in the polls and the more attention that hes been getting in this democratic race. And so last night cnn held some town halls senator sanders and mayor buttigieg gave maybe a preview of some of the criticisms well see tonight about bloombergs spending so far. Mr. Bloomberg has every right in the world to run for president of the United States hes an american citizen but i dont think he has the right to buy this election what else do you call it . What else do you call it when you dip into your endless reserves of millions and billions and dont go through the process of campaigning in states like nevada or iowa or New Hampshire . Reporter senator warren also got in on the criticism, calling it a shame that bloomberg could buy his way onto the debate stage. But she did say donald trump will now get a live demonstration of how theyll take on what she called an egomaniac billionaire. Phillip . Its on tonight you can watch it on nbc, that debate all right, maura, thank you so much lets head over to new york now where jury deliberations continued today in the trial of Harvey Weinstein after day one ended with no verdict. This as the Sexual Assault case against the hollywood producer heads toward a dramatic conclusion heres nbcs Gabe Gutierrez. Reporter Harvey Weinsteins future is in the hands of a jury made up of seven men and five women. The day began with prosecutors accusing lead defense attorney Donna Rotunno of jury tampering for writing a magazine oped proclaiming her clients innocence. The judge ordered rotunno not to speak to the media again saying i would caution you about the tentacles of your Public Relations juggernaut. The fourweek trial had little physical evidence and the judge told jurors he will have to decide the credibility and the believability of the witnesses weinstein has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of Sexual Assault, including rape. And he held me down on the bed. I tried to get away. Reporter the charges focus on the allegations of mimi haley, who testified weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006 at his apartment and jessica mann, who told the jury weinstein raped her in a Manhattan Hotel room in 2013 their testimony was bolstered by four other women including sopranos actress annabella sciorra. Prosecutors are using sciorras rape accusation outside the statute of limitations to support the most serious charges of predatory Sexual Assault. The charges jurors had questions about just 40 minutes into deliberations. Weinsteins defense team argued their relationships were consensual and presented emails showing haley and mann communicated and had sexual encounters with weinstein after the alleged assaults now harveys worried. Reporter lauren sevon is not part of the criminal trial but one of more than 100 women whove accused weinstein of sexual misconduct. As much as we would love to see a guilty verdict and were hoping for a guilty verdict, i think all of us are bracing houflz that that might not be the outcome. Reporter if weinstein is convicted of the most serious charges, he could get up to life in prison. Even if hes acquitted here in new york, he faces separate felony charges in los angeles. Jury deliberations here at the courthouse are expected to continue later today cori Gabe Gutierrez for us this morning. Gabe, thank you. The coronavirus continues to spread on land and sea there are now over 74,000 confirmed cases worldwide. And the death toll has topped 2,000. Another cruise ship has been exposed to the virus this one in cambodia the news comes as nearly 400 americans who evacuated from wuhan, china have been medically cleared and freed from quarantine for the latest on the outbreak we turn now to nbcs Janis Mackey Frayer live in yokohama, japan. Janis, whats next for these patients reporter well, aboard the diamond princess cruise ship there have been hundreds of people waiting for their test results because today is the day the quarantine officially ends and japanese officials said that anyone who was testing negative for the virus will be allowed to go home. So weve seen people coming off the ship already this is a process that will continue over the next few days. Whats curious is that nobody coming off the diamond princess here will need to do any additional quarantine here in japan. Thats despite some questions about how effective the quarantine was on the ship, with 1 in 7 people on board becoming infected with the virus. Japanese officials are sticking to this. There are several americans who are going to be coming off that ship the u. S. Officials have said that any american who wants to go back to the u. S. Is going to have to wait an additional 14 days so this will be keeping in line with the quarantine restrictions being placed on other americans coming off the cruise ship or from wuhan theyll undergo this period of observation. U. S. Officials telling americans here who choose to stay on the ship that theyre going to have to undergo the same sort of monitoring period before theyll be allowed to come home. Phillip . All right that is Janis Mackey Frayer joining us from japan this morning. Janis, thank you we turn now to another round of rain forecast for the south in areas already facing a flooding disaster. In mississippi hundreds of homes were inundated with water after days of heavy downpours. The pearl river cresting in jackson with the water reaching eight feet above flood tage. Officials are now warning people not to return to their homes just yet stay out of the water. One big danger they fear is Manhole Covers that have been moved by Swift Current lets get the latest on the flooding as well as the rest of the weather today from janessa good morning good morning. We have a rough situation continuing for the south bands of moisture continue probably another half an inch to a quarter of an inch of rain throughout the rest of the night into your Early Morning hours. You can see the banding starting to happen. Also making its way into the midatlantic were going to continue to deal with flood concerns, possibility of another inch across the 83 aa into miami so were also thinking about carolina snow. Do you know which one . North all right, janessa, thank you. In todays quick hits, popular streetwear brand supreme is coming up with oreos for a pack of limited Edition Cookies as part of its summer line each 8 pack contains three oreos and it will be released tomorrow at supreme stores in new york the new Orleans Saints quarterback announced he will return to who dat nation for the 2020 season. The White House Correspondents Association is bringing back comedic entertainment to the annual dinner with Kenan Thompson set to host on april 25th. And hassan minute haj will return to the dinner as a featured entertainer her skin could actually soak up wetness her diaper doesnt thats gross. 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Heres nbcs sam brock reporter at the height of nascars biggest race, the daytona 500 crash into the wall into the air reporter horror unfolding at the end of the final lap number 6 ryan newman derailed by a bump and then smashed by another driver midair the biggest race in nascar had just finished. And all of a sudden it just went from everyones excited to like solemn. Reporter nascar later revealing newman sustained nonlifethreatening injuries and newmans racing team roush fenway tweeting ryan is awake and speaking with family and doctors. The races winner, denny hamlin, writing foremost, i want to give wellwishes and prayers to the driver they call rocketman. Former race car driver kyle petty is a nascar on nbc analyst. I slept very little last night, worried about ryan and his family and i know the saying is that time heals all wounds. I realized yesterday, this is a wound that will never heal reporter kyle petty lost his son adam in a 2000 crash but hes encouraged by new nascar Safety Measures in the decades since. We know the drivers today are in a much safer environment. Reporter some fans remembering this day 19 years ago when legendary driver Dale Earnhardt died on this same track. You think about Dale Earnhardt when this happened i was here on that race i knew that the game was going to change. And that race made a huge difference in how this sport is raced today. Reporter all Health Updates to this point have come from ryan newmans racing team. The hospital behind me hasnt said anything about his condition. Dale earnhardt was brought 19 years ago to this hospital, jumpstarting the Safety Measures that we see today that likely saved ryan newmans life phillip . 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After launching the impossible whopper last year, burger king has announced it is now testing out another innovation creation, a sandwich with nothing but french fries on it theyre calling burger kings chip buddy but in order to get your hands on one you have to travel all the way to new zealand or you can just take out the beef a fast food competitor wendy threw some shade at the announcement saying when literally anything would be better on a bun than their beef. I do think wendys won that one. Thats pretty good. Michelle obama is tak