Biggest News aggregator with 200 million news articles | vim

Also big new developments, we are following with the Trump Organization as it braces for criminal charges that could come as early as next week. What we know about those charges, the legal implications and what we can expect when, in fact, they are announced. And former President Donald Trump trying to keep the republican spotlight with him with a rally in ohio. What is he rallying for . Plus major action on the Voting Rights front. The doj announcing it plans to sue the State Of Georgia over its restrictive voting law, the first of its kind, Major Federal Action Against republicanled voting laws. We do, in fact, want to start in florida where rescuers and residents are clinging to hope that more survivors will, in fact, be pulled from the rubble of the champlain towers condominium as the mayor of miamidade orders a massive building inspection effort. I want to go now to surfside florida. Thanks for reporting for us on this. What more are we learning about the possible cause of this collapse and, of course, the people, 159 people, that are currently still Unaccounted For . Reporter yeah. Yasmin, its becoming more apparent here that there were significant structural issues. There is reports that was done back in 2018 of this particular Condo Complex that collapsed two days ago. The city of surfside posted these documents to their web page, they were handed over by a contractor, which outlined major structural deficiencies, including the lack of waterproof sealing. We have even heard firsthand accounts from folks whose Family Members say that they saw this very damage and were frustrated by the lack of maintenance, particularly in the garage area of this Condo Complex. That there were cracks in the cement, there were cracks in the wall, apparent rusting of cement. Do we know whether this was ultimately the cause of the implosion . No. But it could be very well a contributing factor here, especially when youre talking about the fact that this structure here was on a barrier reef here. You know, this is soft ground here and there was another report, a study that was done that this building was building sinking into the ground by a couple millimeters every single year. So when you put these factors together it has led to a lot of questions and a lot of concern as to other buildings here in the area. I want to let you hear, though, from the surfside mayor, charles burkett, who just spoke here this afternoon because this is still a very active scene at the site of that devastation. I want to let you hear about the current situation. Take a listen. And we need to get the fire put out. Weve got a nasty fire going on inside, deep inside the rubble, you know, probably coming from cars underneath that were crushed and leaked fluid. The Fire Department is on it, they check for dangerous gases, so that fortunately were not seeing those dangerous explosive gases and our waves of Search And Rescue crews continue to dig the victims out. Thats all were going to do today. Were going to dig the victims out. Reporter meanwhile, yasmin, in the meanwhile families, friends, neighbors of those 159 Unaccounted For individuals are awaiting. This is the new rehabilitation sorry Reunification Center here. We are about a mile down the road here where families are staying at this hotel and getting private updates. The family of pablo rodriguez, multiple members of his family are missing. I want to let you hear from pa below himself. In their unit im sure asleep in their beds when it collapsed. They were just the tower went down. Were completely devastated, like as i mentioned for us hope kind of went out as soon as we saw the video because her tower went down and the other tower fell on top of it. So until we have official word were trying to hold on until hope remains, but realistically we know that theyre gone. Reporter yasmin, a body has not been recovered from that scene in now 34 hours. It leaves folks like pablo to just wait here, wait as these Rescue Efforts continue here just down the road. Just listening to pablo and so many others who are awaiting word as to the discovery of any sort of signs of life underneath that rubble, it is so troubling. It is so devastating seeing these images over and over again, vaughan. Thank you for reporting on this for us. Vaughn hillyard in surfside, florida. Coming up in our 4 00 hour im going to be joined by Fortuna Smukler who is a commissioner for the city of Surfside Beach and also has friends amongst the missing. We will talk about how friends and family are getting through this horrific tragedy in florida. Lets talk about the Trump Organization. So the walls are quickly closing in on the Trump Organization with a new report from the New York Times claiming the former president s company is set to be hit with criminal charges by the manhattans das office as early as next week. The indictment is expected to be the, quote, first strike for manhattan da cy vance. At the center of this case extravagant perks, gifts and Fringe Benefits allegedly distributed to trump executives including the consider. Fo Allen Weisselberg. To break town the details for us nbc news Senior Investigative senior producer anna shecter. Walk us through what we know about the potential charges against Allen Weisselberg and company, specifically the Trump Organization, and when they could feasibly come down. So, yasmin, whats new this week is on thursday there was a meeting between prosecutors and the Manhattan Das Office and lawyers for the trump team and thats really what these news reports are written up. Weve known for a while that cy vance the Manhattan District Attorney as well as state prosecutors, even federal prosecutors before that have been looking into, pouring over troves of documents that had been handed over to investigators in part during the mueller probe. This is really part of a larger tapestry of multiple investigations looking at trump and the Trump Organization. Allen weisselberg who is front and center here, this is not the first time we have heard of him. He is the cfo of the Trump Organization, he was given immunity by Robert Mueller and passed a ton of documents over to that federal Prosecution Team and there was a general all my reporting indicates there was a general confidence that Allen Weisselberg was going to be safe. He was granted immunity. And now here the manhattan da has been swooping in and over the last year has been honing in on him and specific perks that he and other executives were given, like free rent, apartments, leases on cars and even private School Tuition for a grandchild. Now, the trump team says, well, wait a minute, this is totally unfair, its politically motivated. Theyre going after Allen Weisselberg who is an honest guy. This is just a political backlash. Right. And theres outrage, you know, because they are noting that big banks after the financial crisis, they met with prosecutors, wrote a check and moved on, so why should criminal charges come down . Because its not just Allen Weisselberg, now we know that potentially as soon as this week charges could be filed, criminal charges, against the Trump Organization itself. All right. So youre talking about the Trump Organization. What about the children of the former president . Are they at all in jeopardy here of being charged . And talk to me about anything we know, anna, about the timing of these charges. Well, eric trump is essentially running the Real Estate Portion of the business and was during his fathers presidency and don jr. Was also handed the keys. He was less hands on, he has taken a liking to politics while eric trump preferred handling properties including the trump hotel in washington, d. C. Our team has been in touch with him and he also is outraged at these Press Reports revealing that these criminal charges could come as soon as this week. In terms of timing, i think the prosecutors have been working meticulously. This is a long time coming. Its probably just when they were ready, but they have been working on this for years. This was all kind of stirring up even during the Robert Mueller probe. So like i said, this is part of a tapestry of a closing in of various prosecutors, state, federal and others, and also the Trump Foundation was a part of this. The inaugural committee was a part of this. Now theyre honing in on the cfo and potential tax evasion by the company and potentially by individual executives within the company. We obviously have a lot more to talk about. Anna shecter, thank you for now. We are going to break all of this down, the implications and the possible criminal charges further in the next hour with our panel of experts, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner also the kwauter of The Making Of Donald Trump david k. Johnson. You dont want to miss that conversation. What this really means, right, for the former president , thats the big question that everybody wants answered. I do want to turn now to washington where the white house is scrambling to manage the fallout over the president s comments on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Just days after what many touted as bipartisan success on infrastructure republicans threatened to abandon the deal over the president s remarks that he would not sign the agreement without the simultaneous passage of a separate budget reconciliation package. If only one comes to me if this is the only thing that comes to me im not signing it. Its in tandem. Our monica alba is at the white house for us. Monica, bring us up to date on the latest reaction that were hearing from republicans and how the white house now is trying to get them back on board after the president s comments. Reporter as soon as the president made that commitment, yasmin, republicans did express some concern and made very clear that perhaps this fragile framework would not stay intact beyond when they were able to come out and announce it here at the white house just a couple of days ago, but were now learning that Top White House aides actually spent much of yesterday on the phone talking to the Bipartisan Group of lawmakers who helped to work and really lead these discussions with president biden, assuring them that the president does want this twotrack approach to continue, but that hes also going to get out and sell this to the public directly. So thats new. We now know in the next couple of weeks he is going to hit the road and hes going to tout the substance of this 579 billion in new spending on the more traditional infrastructure, while also, of course, again, discussing the bipartisan nature of it. Thats a huge piece to all of this. The president perhaps more than anyone else after campaigning on that for so long is the one who does want to see this happen from both sides, but we also know that now democrats have expressed some concern because they are not sure about how big either in terms of size or scope to go on this other track, the budget reconciliation one, and, again, the president and the white house are saying the plan all along was to pursue both of them as he mentioned in tandem, but that is what made some republicans nervous, but we also know, again, its about keeping the Democratic Party really united here for the president. Thats the other challenge. As some progressives have said, again, they are not quite sure that the bipartisan deal goes far enough. So thats why you had the president himself working the phones yesterday also speaking with arizona senator sinema reiterating, which is was a word that appeared repeatedly throughout the readout, that this was the plan and wanted to make sure that she was on board as well as these other senators who so far have said they are, but its a way bigger question once we talk about broadening that out for these much larger votes ahead. Quickly here, if the president is saying this was the plan all along, if the white house is saying this was the plan all along, did they not discuss this with any of the republicans during that meeting . Reporter the white house says this was discussed. Remember it was a really short meeting in the oval office, only about 32 minutes before they came out and announce that had they did have a deal intact. Got it. Reporter this is not so much coming it seems from that group of the ten bipartisan senators but some of the others who had expressed interest but now are not pleased with the way the white house is playing it. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up for us. Monica alba, thank you as always. So now that former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin knows his fate following his sentencing for the murder of george floyd, more legal troubles could be on the way. Chauvin also faces a separate federal case accusing him of violating floyds civil rights. With that i want to bring in shaq brewster. Good to see you this afternoon. Thanks for joining us on this. First talk us through how the floyd family is reacting to chauvins sentencing. Reporter hi there. Well, they clearly want to see more. You could tell that from the interviews that we heard and the comments that we heard from the family and the family attorney before yesterdays Sentencing Hearing. Even during yesterdays Sentencing Hearing when we heard from George Floyds cousins, nephews and even his daughter, the family was making clear and pleading with the judge to impose that maximum sentence against Derek Chauvin and then the judge settled on the 22 1 2 years. Its clear that they werent happy with the alternate sentence, they wanted to see a maximum penalty. Lets listen to what we heard after that sentence from a family member. I feel that he should have received a Life Sentence as well. What kind of message are you sending to our country . What kind of message are you sending to the younger kids . That you can kill a man in cold blood and get a slap on the wrist. Thats a slap in the face to all of us standing here and everybody around the world who feel what we feel and saw that video. Reporter now, this was a historically significant sentence, especially against a Police Officer in the state of minnesota. Only the second time in modern history here in the state where youve seen an officer convicted and sentenced to a Double Digit Amount of years, but you also have what you hear from activists and protesters who we did see some small protests yesterday, theyre saying that bottom line, george floyd is not coming back and this doesnt address the systemic issues that they have been calling for and have been protesting against and demonstrating against for so long. All right. So we have that, shaq. Quickly take us through, look ahead for us to the civil case. Reporter yes, this is this federal civil case, civil Rights Violations that are alleged against Derek Chauvin, hes facing dr he and actually the other three former Minneapolis Police Department Officers facing that indictment from a federal Goosh Grand Jury that accused them of violating George Floyds civil rights and Constitutional Rights effectively. We will expect to see more legal occurrences, more court cases, more hearings, more legal trouble for Derek Chauvin in addition to facing those counts and charges involving the george floyd murder, hes also facing counts and charges for potential Civil Rights And Constitutional Violation A 2017 arrest. That one involving a 14yearold boy here in minneapolis. So theres a lot more legal trouble that Derek Chauvin is facing despite that sentence and it being somewhat of closure for the state case that weve been paying attention to for the last couple of months. Shaq brewster in minneapolis, thank you as always, my friend. Coming up in our 4 00 p. M. Hour we will get reaction to the sentencing from the cousin of george floyd, tara brown, who also serves as the director of the george floyd foundation. Plus were going to be joined by former u. S. Attorney for minnesota, rachel pollos. Investigators are looking into vandalism to brooklyns George Floyd Statue as a hate crime. They used black spray paint to deface the statue. The statue was dedicated during the citys