you're paying attention to the price at the x, if you give the good economic news of an ugly christmas sweater? >> possibly, that's interesting. i did not think you are going there. i did not know where that sentence was going to end. >> i have never seen chris hayes with and over the shoulder monitor that says, this is the season. and i am telling you, the holiday cheer, people want to see you in the santa hat. >> mark it, i will be in an ugly christmas sweater, doing this thorough before the holiday season is. out >> whatever it takes to get people to pay attention to the good news, and it may take you in a santa hat and a large white beard, america, you are owed that. >> let's do it. >> thank you, my friend. for doing the humans work at this economy. >> thank you to you at home for joining us this hour. we are beginning with breaking news this evening. the israeli government as voted to accept a deal that would free 50 hostages currently being out by the terrace group hamas. that is according to the office of prime minister benjamin netanyahu. the exact details of this deal with hamas are not yet known. what we do know is that the 50 hostages are all women and children, and they would be exchanged for 150 palestinian women and children currently being held in israeli prisons. they deal also includes a four-day cease-fire to allow for those exchanges and for more humanitarian aid to enter into gaza. that cease-fire also may have the potential to be extended pending the release of additional hostages. joining us now from that region is nbc news correspondent, erin maclachlan, who is in tel aviv tonight. erin, what are you hearing about the latest contours of the deal? >> we are learning more from the israeli government. they just put out a statement. let me read you what they have to say. saying that the government of israel is obligated to return home all of the hostages. tonight, the government has approved the outline of the first stage of achieving this goal, according to which, at least 50 hostages, women and children, will be released over four days, during which, a pause in the fighting will be held. the release of every additional ten hostages will result in one additional day. the government of zero, the idf and the security forces will continue the war in order to return home all of the hostages, complete the elimination of hamas and ensure that there will be no new threat to the state of israel from gaza. what is notably absent from this list announcement, from the israeli government is any mention of palestinian prisoners, the 150 women and children that according to a senior israeli official, was part of this agreement to be released. that is still in fact the case. we are waiting for more details to be released, specific to the announcement from the government of qatar, a key intermediary in the negotiations. but if those palestinian prisoners are, in fact, part of this deal, then that will tack on another 24 hours in which the victims of those attacks, israeli victims, we'll have the opportunity to challenge this agreement to the israeli supreme court. in the past, when this has happened, the supreme court has sided with the government and ratified this deal. again, we're waiting for more of the really critical specifics, as are the families of the hostages. this is an open and gaping wound for them. they have entered this agonizing pain for more than six weeks. earlier today, i was speaking to thomas hand, a single father, a nine-year-old, emily hand. on october 7th, emily was sitting over at a friends house. hamas militants stormed her kibbutz, connecting her. initially, thomas was told that she was dead. weeks later, the israeli military came back and told him that she was alive, believed to be a hostage in gaza. i was exchanging text messages with him earlier today. he texted me, quote, so far, so good. but the fact is, he does not know. there's been no proof of life for emily, so there's no way for him at this point to know if she is in fact part of the deal. although, we understand that, once and if israelis get the list of the released hostages is part of the agreement, then the families will be individually notified. >> a lot of the agonizing wait continues. it's clear. we'll be back for more from tel aviv, erin maclachlan, thank you for that essential reporting. i want to turn now to chris o'leary, former director of hostage recovery for the u.s. government and now, senior vice president of global operations at least the phone group. chris, thanks for being here. >> understanding that there is a lot we don't know yet, what are your initial impressions a deal that has been announced? >> i think it's likely that it will go through. there is too much domestic pressure. israel and international pressure as well for israelis to agree to this deal. there were concessions that they don't want to meet -- the suspension of collection of intelligence, reconnaissance, the drones, it's not something that any military member in their right mind will agree to. hamas attacked israel, a month and a half ago, did not want the cluster as for five days and assume that they will do their thing. that is the challenge here. the negotiator police and military requirements for goals to continue to pursue the feet of hamas and also regain control of the other hostages. some of these hostages will need to be rescued at some point. >> how optimistic are you about the long term prospects for all of the hostages given that there are 50 here, roughly a fifth of the hostages that we know about that are being held in gaza. >> i don't want to rain on the parade today. this is good news. once it goes through, for the 50 victims, that will be released. also, for their families, obviously. it's also an ominous sign that it took this long to release 50 women and children, and hamas asked for these few demands. how difficult is it going to be to get the idf numbers out, and, that is probably going to require the defeat of hamas or hostage rescue efforts, as we go down the line. >> can i ask a basic question, but given the sort of asymmetrical numbers from previous hostage releases, where one hostage, one israeli hostage has been extreme, up to 1500 other hostages, is it really a bad sign that it is 50 to 1:50, given history here? tell me why you think this is a lot of demands, relative to other negotiations? >> that's not an unreasonable number. hamas has different priorities now than they did back then. the party now is to buy time. they are looking to survive to fight another day. they're looking as they are buying time for the international support and domestic support in israel, for the military offensive. it already has. we have seen it. but also looking at increasing pressure from the hasse's families and the military. these two primary objectives, to defeat hamas and recovered the hostages could not be more in competition with each other. hamas is looking to buy time to change the narrative, as they can, from who is the monster to who is the victim, and revert. that they have had some success to this. point >> yes, and some people would argue that israel's assault in gaza, that has taken 14,000 lives, has assad directly and. i do want to ask how the so far has come to be. netanyahu is saying that he asked president biden to intervene, and that biden, i believe, improved the terms according to netanyahu's office. what could that mean? we heard the qataris mentioned, as the principal negotiators and all of this. how do the american government fits in all this? >> the american government has an incredible standard for hostage recovery, brought out through the obama administration, after a failure. president obama did a complete review of how we address the cases, and filled a hole in the u.s. government. now we have a whole anti government or there shouldn't be. we have special operations, the policy center ice with our -- the recent we have such a robust relationship with the qataris, it's because we worked together. the u.s. has an influential role in this, but at the end of the day, the american hostages are also israeli citizens. we are only there to influence and snared these things, as are the qataris. but we really can't make a demands here. we are only in a position where we can assist, advise, provide intelligence, but we can't really demand. >> in terms of the timetable here, we know that there are very stipulation still being worked out, what is your expectation when you say that the families of military hostages, maybe have to wait a long time? if you were advising them, if they were coming to you saying, when, when? if there is any kind of timeline, how would you set expectations? >> i would manage their expectations and beat eric with them. the u.s. government as a team of counselors that work with the family's. you have to be straight, dark with them, be sure that the intelligence with their. you have to get them counseling and support. this is an incredibly hard time for all of these folks. they're not sleeping. it cannot go on for years without sleeping. you have to manage their health, manage their well-being, fund them with aid and support, because these people can't work, they can go back. you have to make them part of the recovery process. you have to integrate them to the negotiations. they have some ideas, their family members, this one's a little more unique than individual cases, but they still have to be heard in the process. >> all we know is that the next 24, 48, 72 hours, will be moments of indignation for some families and incredibly dashed hopes for others. we focus on the good news that we know at this hour, which is that a deal had been approved. chris o'leary, thank you so much for your time and expertise on all of this. >> thank you. >> we have a lot more ahead tonight. former trump officials are again sounding the alarm about the dangers of a second trump administration. is anyone listening? plus, are the courts treading lightly when it comes to trying cases against a once and possibly future president. we'll have more on that right after the break. ore on that righ after the break. >> liberty mutual customized my car insurance and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. oh. 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[ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. today in one along trump's codefendants, harrison floyd, was back in georgia state court, in an echo of what we have seen from former president trump himself, mr. floyd has been making post on social media, discussing and even tagging witnesses in this case. prosecutors allege that that could be witness intimidation. the issue is seen as so important that fulton county d.a. fani willis for self showed up to make the states case. she was incredibly direct. >> the state is requesting so that there is no, that bond be revoked and he be remanded back into custody for violating conditions of the bond. >> d.a. willis asked for harrison floyd to be put back in jail for making statements that could intimidate witnesses. ultimately the judge in this case denied that request and instead imposed a broader and stricter order limiting mr. floyd's speech. the judge ordered floyd to not make any public statements concerning any codefendants or witnesses, and to delete the social media posts where he had made those statements already. but the thing that i think is important here is that jail was on the table. harrison floyd is charged with being, essentially, upon, and donald trump's larger alleged plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election. floyd's social media reach is puny compared to trump's massive bully pulpit. but nonetheless, jail was on the table, and very much could still be on the table in the future for harrison floyd. jail time is not even really being considered for mr. trump, either in fulton county, georgia, or his own bond conditions are more specific than harrison floyd's were, or in federal court in d.c., a little over a month ago trump was given a narrow gag order in jack smith's federal election interference case. the broad strokes of that gag order barred trump from doing anything that could intimidate witnesses, threatened court staff, or threaten prosecutors involved in that case. trump's legal team has managed to get that gag order frozen twice now, while it appeals to higher courts. you might think that given the fact that trump is very actively appealing this gag order, that he would try to somehow show it was a needed and wouldn't do anything that could be seen as intimidating witnesses or court staff or jack smith and his prosecutorial team. you would be wrong. this was trump at a campaign event earlier this month. >> we have deranged judgment. have you ever heard of it? a lovely man. heavy overseen with since the purple hat? man, he's a lovely man. the trump hating prosecutor in the case is his wife and family despised me much more than he does, and he decides, i think he's about ten, on 15 on a scale of ten. >> if that mention of jack smith's family was not a clear enough threat's, trump followed it up two days later with this post on truth social. deranged jack smith will end up in a mental institution by the time of my next term as president is successfully completed. trump has also name checked and posted intimidating statements about potential witnesses, including his former attorney general bill barr, is former chief of staff mark meadows, and his former vice president, mike pence, as well as his former lawyers, jenna ellis and sidney powell. but again, the idea of revoking trump's bond, of punishing him with state jail time for this kind of intimidation, that has yet to be put on the table in either case. and while harrison floyd's hearing today ended with the judge imposing a broader instructor order controlling harrison floyd's speech, donald trump had his own hearing about his gag order yesterday. the under saw was the appeals court the may narrow trump gag. order they will have to use a careful scalpel to carve out a narrow order that protects witnesses while not inhibiting trump as a presidential candidate. you can see the legal system is trending very very carefully here. one would say maybe even likely. the net result of that is that donald trump gets to have it both ways. at campaign rallies trump gets to use the cases against him to score political points. >> every time i'm indicted i consider it a great badge of honor, because i'm being indicted for you. thanks a lot, everybody. i appreciate it. [applause] >> meanwhile in court he's using his campaign as a shield to ensure treatment that no other defendant would get. so how is donald trump held accountable here? and how can our legal system protect the people he could intimidate in the meantime. this is, after all, what he posted today. >> why do you think that fani and alvin and letitia and of course the deranged one, jack smith, took so long and very publicly they leaked everything, started their work so late. they could have started years ago. it's called election interference and prosecutorial misconduct. >> joining me now is former acting u.s. solicitor genuine general neil castillo. neil, thank you for helping me understand how the court is approaching the complicated subject and look complicated offended that is donald trump. first, what is your expectation for this appeals court ruling for the gag order? is it going to be narrower? just how punitive is it going to be? >> the argument yesterday was in front of our nation's second highest court, street sternly where are well prepared, well respected judges, and deals but bottom line is that trump's lawyer could not answer the simple questions that the court posed, including, like, what is your standard, criminal defendants can just say anything they want and alike? i think that basically at the end of the argument i was left thinking that trump will lose for the first time in american history a former president will be gagged by a court. i think that the order will be narrowed a little bit because judge chutkan, the trial judge, said that trump could attack the prosecutor, jack smith, but i think that there was there was some cause of concern among those judges. not something trump's lawyer pushed as much. but it sounds like the court brought ups on its own. i think ultimately trump loses and donald trump will be gagged. if he violates those gag orders, we will get into the situation of possible jail time being on the line. >> can you talk more about that, what neal, possible jail time? i understand it's complicated, but at the same time he isn't being treated like any other defendant here. and he is loathe to obey anybody's orders. i wonder if you think we are going to get to the point where there has to be a real robust discussion about jailing the former president? >> i could not agree with you more about what you just said. if you want to see unequal treatment in our judicial system, look no further than the way the courts have treated donald trump or indeed his codefendant today. they are afforded leniency in second chances than the average defendant could never dream of. time and time again we are seeing trump as codefendants get the benefit of the doubt. i do think that patience is wearing thin among the courts as well. and so i do think that if trump, after this new revised gag orders imposed, violates it in an intentional way, which, i suspect he very well may do because he's incapable of following any sort of rules, decorum, good behavior, and alike, i do think that we're going to see that. yesterday i was talking with lawrence o'donnell and i said look, the country is watching this gag order hearing. whatever donald trump does, other defendants and other cases are gonna do it, whether it's a mafia case, a drug case, whatever. this sets a precedent for norm breaking behavior. we didn't have to wait a day to see the corrosive effects of trump's arguments already, because in fulton county georgia harrison floyd was basically saying, yeah, it's my first amendment right to intimidate witnesses. this is out of control already. i think that the courts will put it back in the bottle, the toothpaste in the tube, whatever, and they have to act quickly. >> i want to ask you a broader ethical question, which is, the notion of running for office, and how deferential you think the courts should be on anything from a gag order to the scheduling of the trials. i mean, fani willis made the point that, what did she say, it would be a really sad day if, when you're under investigation for a shoplifting charge, you go run for city council to stop the investigation. we joke about it. to some degree i think that is a little levity embedded in that, but it's not an un-serious possibility, the idea that you shield yourself from prosecution by running for higher office. trump is t