Weekend. The sand in the surf of myrtle beach, south carolina. But to the south, there is a big problem. It is scorching dangerous heat. And, by the way, it is not even summer yet. Very good day to all of you. Welcome to alex witt reports. Another Record Number of americans on the roads in the sky for what is expected to be the busiest Memorial Day Travel weekend and two decades , so here is a look at how things are going out there in some busy spots. Things are moving on the i76 in philadelphia. If you could see it, you would see just how many cars are there. And a pretty packed shoreline on myrtle beach, south carolina. You are looking at umbrellas. Everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather today. But while many are enjoying the sunshine, Severe Weather could put some Holiday Plans at risk. Millions of Tornado Warnings and possibly damaging hail. We have got several correspondence in place covering all the angles of the story for you. We are joined by maura garrett. So, maura, this is expected to be the busiest on the roadways. I know you are on the beach but generally traffic from where you are, what you have been able to gleam from reporting, what is it like . Simply not fray, alex. Traffic is not good because of construction. People are trying to take road trips up to michigan and wisconsin. It gets very harry, very fast, and i was chatting with folks here at the beach yesterday. They said they were going to wait, hopefully, to fill up their gas tanks until they get up and out of the city because gases up to five dollars in some places. 44 Million People, expected to travel this Holiday Weekend according to triplea. A vast majority of them are hitting the road. The folks i met here today are spending time on the beach. They are the ones to embrace the sunshine here. Ce they will probably get bad thunderstorms tomorrow with that Severe Weather watch. And you can hear a little bit of my conversation with two siblings i met here yesterday. L any fun plans for you this summer . Just getting out and j enjoying the weather. Lets see. Get some good weather going. A lot more beach days up ahead, hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully. Reporter the city, definitely coming alive here in chicago, but as you alluded to, here in the midwest, we had a t, severe week of weather. 20 Million People are still at risk of severe tornadoes. And severe hail. Do that follows a week of tornadoes that we already saw across the midwest. So starting monday as people s start to go their way home, they will be up against Severe Weather. Nothing like i am seeing agrigh now. Enjoy, maura barrett. Now, lets go to new england and the busy turnpike. You may know drivers there who have been battling traffic. It does not look so bad at the moment. No. It is slowing down a little bit. Reporter it is slowing down a little bit. We can see the Manhattan Skyline right here. We know millions of americans are hitting the road for memorial day weekend. I want to recap some of those numbers that we just heard from maura. 44. 8 million americans traveling. About 80 of those will be driving. That is actually a 4 increase from 2023. These numbers are nearly matching a record in 2005 where we saw 44 million followers. Aw if you are looking at gas and are one of these drivers that are hitting the roads, the National Average is 3. 60. We spoke to someone heading to the beach and looking forward be to it. Not so much to the traffic but to enjoy the Holiday Weekend. Listen. We want to hget away from life at home. Take a moment. A breather. I am not even worried about road rage and stuff like that. Just stay safe. Reporter any Beach Stopping or fun activities . I already have my Bathing Dy Suit On So reporter so she is ready with her bathing suit. Already to hit the beach. Re you know, the worst time to travel is actually right now. So hopefully viewers watching your show, alex , are safe at home. They may want to fewait until 5 00 or later this evening to try to avoid some of this traffic. Are you sure that is not a pitch to have people stick around and watch the show . Nd because we will not be on at 5 00 anyway. Lets get down to some Breaking News. Special filing from special counsel jack smith. Fbi agents were involved in a plot to assassinate him during their search of maralago. This filing says trumps statements are blatantly false and expose fbi agents involved in the classified document casee to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment. Here is reaction from one cofounder of the antitrump lincoln project. I nearly escaped death from donald trump. He is basically accusing the government of trying to take him out. And, you know, can Million People get this email. I dont know how many people get this email. All it takes is one or two to shoot somebody. Hey, the government is trying to shoot my president. I am going to fight back. And it is absolutely appalling. Julie sirkin is joining me now at the very latest. To me all about what prosecutors are asking for here. Reporter it is comments in that email from the filing late last night to judge aileen cannon, the judge overseeing of course trumps classified document case that had asked because of trumps comments, quote, his repeated Ts Mischaracterization has endangered officers involved in threaten the integrity of the proceedings. Because of that, he is asking a limited gag order limiting essentially what former President Trump can say. What public statements he can say about lawenforcement officials, including those that are involved in this case right now. This is of course that cthe fb knockdown. Merrick garland said it was untrue. The former president had lied and mischaracterized about the claims. He was saying, in fact, this is standard protocol the fbi was filing and they put additional caution in place to make sure for example the former president was actually in new york when they searched his home two years ago. Also making sure that the use of force was limited. Of course, Merrick Garland had also said the fbi followed when they searched joe biden, the president s, will meet in home s in a similar documents case as well. This asis why jack smith asked for that limited gag order. We will see what the judge involved in that case has to say about this filing coming up of course memorial day weekend. Alex . Thank you, julie. The tough words from the former white house cancel about the maralago case. We are back in 90. In 90. Ough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. But trelegy has shown me that theres still beauty and breath to be had. Because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flareups. 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I recommend Pronamel Repair. With new Pronamel Repair mouthwash you can enhance that repair beyond brushing. They work great together. Today, people are camping outside the manhattan courthouse hoping to witness what could be a historic week in trumps historic hush money trial. We are hearing Closing Arguments. The defense team will go first followed by prosecutors. Then wednesday morning the judge will give instructions and a verdict could come as soon as this next week. Joining me now, glenn kirschner, former federal prosecutor and host of the Justice Matters podcast. Also aaron doherty. She is a politics reporter with axials. Before we get to the hush money trial, erin, you have written about trumps claim that biden was Locked And Loaded and, quote, ready to take me out in the fbi search for classified documents. Are you surprised that documents asked to bar him from Making Statements that could endanger Law Enforcement . I am not surprised. So when former President Trump sent out that Fundraising Blast on tuesday night, it kind of set out this firestorm on conservative twitter about the claim. Some of his most conservative allies taking that claim and really running with it. Even stretching it further than the former president himself did. We saw that the fbi swiftly and strongly rebuked former President Trumps claim and a statement said this is factually inaccurate. You know . The policy that former President Trump misrepresented is in fact Standard Department policy. We saw on thursday attorney general Merrick Garland say that actually President Biden, when the fbi searched for his residence for classified documents, they had the same policy out for that search. I think this sort of is the culmination of this week where we are trying to to to highlight that former President Trumps claims were not only misleading but also dangerous. Yeah. And judge cannon has come under increased scrutiny for her handling of the classified documents case. Then here is trumps former lawyer ty cobb this week. Take a listen. Most federal judges would have long ago ruled on all the pending motions and frankly this is a case that should have started trial yesterday or two days ago when the original trial date was set. This case could have easily gotten to trial. Only confidence and perceived bias has prevented that. Is judge cannon the reason that trump may not face trial before . And how do you see the ruling for their quest to bar him from Making Statements that could endanger Law Enforcement . Because this is different than requesting a gag order. Right . It is. What prosecutors are requesting is that judge cannon modify the conditions of Donald Trumps pretrial release. Remember, he is on four cases. Ordinarily they would say if someone on pretrial release is a demonstrated danger in the community they should be detained pending trial. Of course that law unfortunately does not seem to apply to donald trump, so it is anybodys guess whether they will take this request from jack smith seriously and modified on trumps conditions of release. She certainly should given that he is lying about endangering fbi agents. And then with respect to the product of what is the product of this delay is, this is judge cannons delay. What i think is most concerning is that some months ago judge cannon, when it became clear that on may 20th, the date was not in the cards due to prosecution in new york, she asked the parties, the prosecutors and defense, for proposed trial dates. Jack smith centerline 8. Donald trumps lawyer said august 12th. They represented they could be ready to go to trial on august 12th rather than simply accepting the date proposed by Donald Trumps lawyers. She said, nope, not setting any trial date. I have to believe we have come to a point where judge cannons Disqualification Cup Runneth over and i do hope that jack smith seriously considers filing a motion to accuse. Okay. Let us move to the final week of what could be the hush money trial, erin. What should the jury expect when they return to the courthouse tuesday after having by that time seven days off . Right. I think the seven days off play into the strategies on both sides. I predict that the prosecution and defense will weave together the evidence we have seen over the many weeks of trial so far to make a compelling narrative. I think that the Closing Arguments in this case are particularly important given the break that we have seen. You know . Both the prosecution and defense each remind jurors of the important witnesses and evidence they have been presented. I expect they will try to refocus to the joy despite what the defense will likely say about Michael Cohen as their star witness and sort of undermining his credibility, i expect that the prosecutors will try to remind jurors that Michael Cohen is not the defendant here. Former President Trump is the one they are considering and they have to determine between the paper trail of evidence that was presented in Michael Collins testimony whether he is guilty of the crime. I am curious. We will get to the Defense Approach in a second. Had your expect testimony from the 20 witnesses to give the jury a cohesive reason to find donald trump guilty . You know what, alex, the prosecutors will argue that Michael Cohen is an important and even essential witness but he does not stand alone. And his credibility has been so supported and affirmed and supported by the other witnesses and the hard evidence and Documentary Evidence and things like, you know, phone and business ledgers. I think this sort of pinnacle of the evidence that does bolster Michael Cohen and deeply damage trump are the 35,000 Reimbursement Checks that donald trump would never have written to michael coll and had Michael Cohen not told him, hey, boss, the payment is made. I actually chuckled as an old Career Prosecutor when i heard people saying Michael Cowans credibility was so damaged because it looks like he may have gotten the phone call wrong in which he told donald trump that the payment was complete. I would ask the joy the question, now, wait a minute, donald trump would never in 1 million years have started writing those Reimbursement Checks if Michael Cohen had not communicated to him that, hey, boss, i made the payment and now it is time to reimburse me. Whether that call was on a wednesday or a thursday or a tuesday is besides the point. You know that Michael Cohen communicated to donald trump, mission accomplished. I mean, those calls happen how many years ago . Let me ask you also, glenn, how much room is there for the defense to poke holes in the case . You know, they will attack Michael Cohen. They will go scorched earth. At the end of the day, they will offer the jury a reasonable doubt defense which is viable but also kind of the last refuge when you as a defense do not have any unified or coherent theory to offer the jury an alternate theory of what was really going on here. Then i think the prosecutors will come back and told them, look, you do not check your common sense at the courtroom doors. You know that this entire corrupt scheme was for the benefit of one person and one person only donald trump. To gain advantage in a president ial election. He succeeded and that is why these crimes are felonies and not only misdemeanors falsifying Business Records. As we look ahead to the jury records that are not expected to be public until after the Closing Arguments, but what did you learn from the lawyer negotiations last week about what they might entail . Yes. Jury instructions are obviously an important part in any trial. But when it is particularly dense and intricate, what the judge ultimately instructs the jury is vitally important in this case and i think that we are seeing that both sides are sort of jockeying for the judge to kind of deliver Jury Instruction that is beneficial to their side. And for the defense, that means sort of introducing instructions that that introduce crimes or that make it to ensure that the jury has to reach a very high level to ultimately decide that trump is guilty of the crime. Is that, glenn, what judge murray saw murray saw is due very carefully do . Manage the appeal when writing them . Yeah. Appellate courts can be very unforgiving if the judge makes a mis