it is good to be back with you in this second hour of "chris jansing reports." we start with that breaking news out of fulton county, georgia, a major admission from the lawyer for one of donald trump's codefendants in that sweeping rico case. nbc's blayne alexander is following that. for folks who weren't here, setting the stage, fani willis, the d.a. went to the judge after some videos were linked of people who had turned evidence and said, i need a protective order. but we didn't know who might have leaked those videos. what just happened in court? >> reporter: well, we now know at least one of the people who leaked the videos. it was an attorney for one of the 15 remains codefendants. jonathan miller, he represents misty hanson, one of the 15 codefendants, just said during this open hearing, during this virtual hearing in open court that he did leak the videos to at least one media outlet, and so he kind of gave a small preamble said that in order to make sure he can sleep at night, and make sure everybody can kind of rest easy knowing what happened, he said, he did in fact leaked him. the judge asked why he decided to do that. he said that two of the defendants, the people who pled guilty, had to do with his client, and actually helped hi client, and he basically said that he believed the public had a right to know. >>. >> blayne, let me interrupt you if i can. we have the tape of the exact moment, jonathan miller, who is the lawyer for one of the codefendants in this case, let me play it, and we'll pick it up on the other side. >> i can go to sleep well tonight, judge. i did release those videos to one outlet, and in all candor, i need the court to know that. >> so i guess the question is now what? >> reporter: well, really, that kind of goes forward, and he said this almost in the same breath, he said he disagreed with the need for this protective order. we kind of heard the defense attorneys going one by one, essentially saying they disagree. some people saying they don't believe there is a need for this as the state was arguing to have a protective order. but he was pretty strong in saying he believed the public had a right to know, that he wanted to put this information out, and the judge said he was going to consider this as he goes forward and addresses his own order on the motions. this is something that is pretty stunning. i think when we look at the past 24 hours, the fact that these videos leaked in the first place, knowing that they were made available only to, of course, the d.a.'s team, and then the defense attorneys, the 15 defense attorneys and their clients, you know, certainly with the d.a. strongly denying that it was xi, it was down to the defense attorneys, but a number of legal experts that i heard from over the past 24 hours, even other reporters covering this, talking about, you know, just the fact that a lawyer possibly leaked this is highly unprecedented. certainly not something you typically see when you're talking about a criminal defense case. so, looking at the fact that he admitted to this in open court, i think it's important to find out he says he leaked it to one media outlet. there were several outlets that had these videos. we don't know if he leaked all four, several of them, but that also begs the question, were there other people who released the videos as well. was there another source for how this came out? i think all of it underscores the d.a.'s argument that there needs to be a protective order, so nothing is released in the future. >> we are waiting for judge scott mcafee to make that determination. thank you, blayne alexander, come back when we hear something. lots of breaking news at this minute. any moment now, we're going to see the big sit down. you see the stage being set for that between president biden and china's xi jinping. face-to-face for the first time in a year with hopes that amped up diplomacy will lower sky high tensions. but the two leaders will also have to navigate several contentious issues, including china's dispute with taiwan, the theft of u.s. technology. it's kind of a real world reality check that despite strained relations over iran, russia, technology theft, the world's two global superpowers need to find a way forward. for the u.s., establishing military-to-military relations and getting china to stem the flow of fentanyl to the u.s. for china, the summit can be seen as a win, an opportunity to travel to the u.s. a meet with the president. there's also a very pragmatic tun, a chance for xi to win new american investments in china. the white house has been managing expectations for this summit, which is expected to last an estimated three or four hours. i want to bring back nbc's monica alba in san francisco. andrea mitchell joins me from washington. rear admiral, james stavridis, allied commander and msnbc chief international analyst, and former cia analyst, sue mi terry is with me in studio. what we're looking as as the in washington, two political ay, parties that agree on almost nothing are unid in their depictions of china as a geopolitical rival and mortal threat to middle class sy. in beijing, leaders accuse the united states of plotting to deny china's rightful place as a superpower. what can these two men actually accomplish in this kind of environment, andrea? >> they can talk. they can try to reestablish communications, certainly military-to-military communications which have not been existing because china cut them off since last september in the after math of speaker pelosi's visit then speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan. china cut off all communications between our defense and their defense, and our pentagon, our joint chief's chairmen. that had to be established. the flow of fentanyl, illegal fentanyl from china, which is a threat coming from mexico to the southern boarder and coming to the u.s. so those are two critical points that they're trying to establish. better economic relations, communications that were improved with janet yellen's visit with gina raimondo, the commerce secretary's visit. certainly in the aftermath of the china balloon incident which was exacerbated by the failure of military-to-military communications which could have resolved it sooner and avoid a shutdown, it was even worsening of the talks. secretary blinken is cancelled or said he was rescheduling his visit. we were told last february that the president would soon be talking on the phone with xi jinping, and that conversation never happened. this will be their first chance to communicate, man to man, face to face, and get back to what both sides say they wanted, a more predictable relationship between the two superpowers. >> a lot of americans feel they know foreign leaders and certainly in an adversarial position, vladimir putin, much has been said about him, but tell us about president xi. what should americans know as the president heads into this high stakes meeting? >> well, i think president xi jinping is very interested in wanting to, you know, portray himself as a global leader that can provide stability. this is why what andrea was talking about, providing a baseline of stability is very important. president xi jinping is going through unprecedented number of troubles in china right now. we earlier talked about china's economy, the state that it is in right now, right, with youth unemployment, ageing population. low fertility rate. there's a lot of structural problems, economic problems, and so he needs to really in his popularity or support from the public is very low. i think he needs to project himself, he wants to be respected. i think that's key. with president biden, he wants to be treated, you know, respected as a partner. so i think that's very important for president xi jinping right now to project himself as a world leader that can provide stability to this very important relationship for china. >> and as we wait for this moment that's going to be watched around the world, admiral, let's talk about the military issues. in the past couple of years, the chinese military has conducted more than 180 risky intercepts against u.s. surveillance aircraft in the pacific. that's more than the entire previous decade. what are they doing? what's the conversation around that going to be like? >> i think that's going to actually be a productive conversation, chris. and look, i spent half my career in the pacific. i know the chinese navy extremely well. they are, like us, they're generally pretty professional. they have speck where they launch around taiwan. they can create real difficult situations, and they have been doing a fair amount of that of late. but if these two leaders can establish that military-to-military contact, where secretary of defense lloyd austin can pick up the phone and call a counter part, that will give us a bit of a safety net. because we need to remember, chris, flying around in those jets up there, you know, that's not tony blinken in a hornet, in an fa-18. that's goose and maverick and their chinese equivalents. so the chances of a miscalculation are not insignificant, if two airplanes have a close encounter, if two ships kind of tap each other out there, you really want both sides to be able to pick up the phone and defuse that situation. i think that's in the interest of both sides. i think you will see a productive and a pretty concrete deliverable in that regard here in hopefully a day or so. >> obviously, admiral, the chinese would also like the u.s. to stay out of taiwan, the push for independence. how does that play into these larger conversations, and frankly, what you just talked about, which is to avoid any kind of a possible military confrontation going forward? >> let's start with something that i believe, which is it's unlikely that xi jinping is going to launch a sudden attack at taiwan. i don't think for the next five to ten years at an absolute minimum. lots of things could change that. could be some spiking tensions in the wake of the election they have in january. but as a general proposition, as president xi is watching ukraine, he's probably saying to himself, hmm, i really don't want to create that kind of situation, the sort of debacle that putin has created for russia. so i think there's some speed breaks on president xi right now, as he watches ukraine. another good reason, by the way, for the u.s. and the west to continue to support ukraine. but here is the key item. the u.s. and china are going to have to agree to disagree about ownership of the south china sea. china claims this vast body of water, territorial seas, the u.s. and international community are not going to acquiesce on that. the one china policy will maintain stability over taiwan. the one to watch and the one i'm concerned about is the south china sea where the u.s. and china are kind of bumping up against each other. that's why we need this military-to-military contact so we can diffuse those situations, chris. >> andrea, let me ask you to take us inside that room when those two men go inside that room. you have so much experience covering so many administrations, and so many high-stakes meetings like this. we talked about president xi, what he wants to accomplish, what he has to gain here domestically in china. this is a president who is under a lot of pressure on foreign policy, but also has extensive foreign policy experience, who has been in the room for these high stakes meetings. what's it like in there from are the minutiae of we've not heard president xi speak english, so this is an interpreter situation, to the kind of stance, the kind of personality that you think president biden brings to this? >> well, president biden is chatty, and he is very well versed in the issues. but what he found i am told by people who were in the room for the five hours that they talked last in bali, face to face was that president xi was more ideological, lecturing and less interested in engaging on where they could improve each other's economy jointly, not be rivals or competitors but actually do things that were better on the economy, on climate, on shared issues. and that instead of that, how previous leaders had been, looking to find ways to work together. he was not interested in that as much, and rather giving a lecture. it was not a great meeting. that's a very low bar. they're going to want it to be better than that. they're going to want to see whether there are areas they can work together, especially on climate, on maybe, as i said, pressuring iran to try to restrain iran from widening the war in the middle east. because the war in the middle east with restrictions on oil movement through the gulf and through the narrow passages in that area isn't good for anyone's economy, and certainly not for the super powers. >> we are expecting the arrival of president xi jinping in china in just the next minute or two. as we wait for that, because like andrea, admiral, you have so much experience, over decades of being very close to these kinds of meetings, look, they're always highly choreographed. the conversations happen, what are the chances that something unexpected happens? and take us inside that meeting, some of your insights into what we might expect that we'll never see? >> i was part of the high level summits with nato allies, and also at times with the russian side, high level afghani delegations, and here i think president biden, his normal approach, exactly as andrea tells us, is to try and establish that personal relationship. i think with president xi, that's going to be very difficult. there's a cultural disconnect there, chinese have a tendency to want to be formal in a meeting, to have everything scripted, as you say, and then secondly, there's kind of a personality mismatch there in a lot of ways. you have this american and reserved, dignified, very senior chinese leader. i think the odds of, you know, a personal kind of breakthrough, the one you always think of is reagan and gorbachev, establishing that extraordinary, personal relationship, that really helped unwind the cold war. chris, i wish i could say that's what we might have. i think that's highly unlikely. >> andrea, you and i have both covered many of these kinds of events, and see joe biden now coming out of this. it's a public place. it's gardens. it's obviously a house. but he's coming out to meet xi. the importance of this picture, andrea, and just the fact that we are going to see these two men together? >> it's so important. and i was thinking about reagan and gorbachev, i was there in 1985, their first meeting. you see the door opening, and first an aide in security, and now president xi will be sitting in the backseat. there he is. >> let's watch. >> both of them without coats. it's in california. the handshake. >> these are all of the important signals. >> reporter: what's your message to china today? >> and so two opportunities, andrea, for that moment, for the handshakes. i don't think you can underestimate the pictures that will be on the front pages of newspapers that will lead newscasts all around the country, and i see, admiral, that you are nodding. the old saying is, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, but again, the importance just that these two men are going to be in a room together, how big of a diplomatic step forward is that? >> oh, i think it's crucial, and frankly, you know, chris, so much of life is compared to what? and compare where we were a year ago, american cabinet level ministers were disinvited to come to china. the spy balloon incident seized the united states of america. we had ships bumping up against each other in the south china sea. you know, none of those underlying problems have gone away. but on the other hand, here we have the leaders of the two biggest economies in the world. let's point that out. there's a huge economic piece here. this is almost half of the world's gross domestic product in that handshake. and that is very important to maintain for the global economy. and i think you're going to see markets respond quite positively to what you're going to find as we get through the meeting and get to tomorrow, chris. >> and we saw some of the pictures there inside that room where the meeting will take place. the president shaking hands with the secretary of state. shaking hands with jake sullivan, who of course is the national security affairs assistant to the president. monica, talk to us about what you're seeing and the importance of the entourage, the carefully chosen entourage that the president has with him right now? >> reporter: absolutely, chris, and even treasury secretary yellen was one of the people who greeted president xi when he landed here in san francisco yesterday. very much a welcome from the biden administration, and of course we know that there had been such important diplomatic steps that had to take place to get to this moment, much of which was done by secretary yellen, by secretary blinken, by secretary raimondo. by the national security adviser. all of them in intensive discussions with their counter parts over the course of the last couple of months to try to get to the possibility of this. but it really did strike me as we saw president biden and president xi shake hands there that these two men do have a substantial relationship dating back to when it was then vice president biden who was meeting with xi jinping, and that happened many times over the course of the obama administration, back in 2011, through the years, and up to 2017, just days before the trump administration took over, the two leaders met in davos switzerland. ranging through all of that time, all of the issues, there's really a historical context and backdrop to their relationship, and what these two leaders have navigated. as president, joe biden likes to talk about the fact that he believes his time spent with xi jinping is one of the most of any of the world leaders he has had contact with over the years. that is what the two men are bringing to this even though of course the two countries have had such major issues in the last year, and there's no shortage of challenges that they're going to discuss and the conversations will be candid, they will be frank. there is this somewhat familiarity between the two of them that we know for certain the president from his top aides will make a point of including in that, and that is sort of the way that he can try to bring his personality into this, when he is talking about some of these thornier issues. he is raising something like the spy balloon and the espionage and the aspects of that that the u.s. would like china to stop doing and interfering in, potentially. but then you also have all of these close calls from a military perspective that both sides, they're hoping, will agree is something that shouldn't continue from the communication standpoint. this today is really about presenting this issue of a whole of government approach to the ways that the two can work together on some issues and areas of cooperation, but also about sending the signal of strength because the u.s. is the one hosting this meeting because it's happening on the sidelines of apec, though of course as you saw there, from those grand images, taking place on a historic estate, that was all a part of the calculation, a part of the intensive stage craft that went into planning this meeting from the seating arrangements to the flowers that are in that room, to any potential meal or anything that the counter parts are going to share in the coming hours. all of that was negotiated detail by detail, and this is something where chinese officials wanted to know every single camera angle that president xi was going to be captured on over the course of the next few hours. almost like if you were thinking about this as a movie, a shot-by-shot display of what would be seen bac