The democratic mayor of New York is indicted. We are not focused on the right or the left. We are focused only on right and wrong. Tonight, what we know about the charges and what it says about the equal application of the law. I noticed the indictment is very old but it goes back a long time. I have the same thing. Bad jimmy raskin on jack smiths filing on the Comp Trump to trial, plus doubling down on his vile attack on immigrants. He is a very principled man. As Hurricane Helene approaches landfall, what we know about the damage that is already being done. All in starts right now. Good evening from New York. Im chris hayes. We are following Breaking News in florida, or a category four hurricane is just about to hit the florida panhandle. Hurricane helene is now categorized as an extremely dangerous storm, with Wind Peaking at 130 miles per hour. Yesterday, helene pummeled cancan as a strong category two hurricane. Flooded streets, down trees and disrupted travel as it made its way up the golf towards florida. Today, the storm will rapidly intensify, it is now expected to make landfall just a few hours with that category four strength. Tallahassee is in the direct path of the storm. Forecasters are warning there could be an unsurvivable Storm Surge, possibly up to 20 feet, higher than the typical one Story Home as the Monster Storm comes ashore. Bill karens is tracking helenes past tonight and joins me now with the latest. Bill . Does not look like this will make it a category five but a category four storm will do incredible damage to the florida coast. We are now three to roughly 4 hours away from landfall, between about 11 00 p. M. And midNight Tonight, itll go somewhere around tallahassee. The storm is going away from the tampa area. We have a four foot or five foot Storm Surge up and down the West Coast of florida. We have a lot of Water Damage from that Storm Surge. Thankfully it happened towards low tide. That definitely helped, it could have been a lot worse. Now as the next High Tide approaches, these areas from Cedar Key northward, this is where we could get the historic 20 foot Storm Surge. This is a closer view of the i of the storm here, really intensified in the last 12 hours, the southern half is not falling apart a bit, i think itll intensify any further but the core is now moving on shore. If there is any little sliver of good news is that this category four hurricane is going to make landfall in one of the lowest valuation centers on the entire gulf coast. Population density is very low in this area, there are no beaches, it is marshy. A couple of Fishing Villages are up in here. Hopefully everyone is gone from there because those are the areas that will have that devastation. But, the storm is moving so fast, it is just a very strong much further inland than other storms. That is what is different about this one. So then this is where we get the damage now at 56 miles from the coast, and we can say it is moving at about 25 miles per hour. Roughly two hours from now theres Distractive Wind makes it to the coast. Hour after that in mexico the population centers, and we have yet to see, is tallahassee going through the eye or on the edge of it . It makes a world of difference with the huge Oak Trees in tallahassee. If you go through the eye you may not have power for two or three weeks. If you go on the edge of the eye maybe its a couple of days. Big difference. Of course, our friends in perry, florida have gone through numerous hurricanes in the past, this one is going right for you. There is perry on the right side of the storm. Throughout the Night Tonight we could have Hurricane Wind all the way through macon, georgia. Atlanta to the east of you now, forecast is a bit better for my friends in atlanta. Lower Wind Gusts means less Power Outages for you but the fall is still a huge issue. And of course the Storm Surge we have seen along the coast, Water Levels are at two or three feet higher than what you would expect them to be in the tampa bay area. We will still see these going up maybe another foot or two, getting into what we call moderate flood stage. It goes minor, moderate, major, then the storm. Its bad that it could have been worse if the storm had been closer to the area. As far as the wind goes, we have seen a 70 Mileperhour Wind in miami, 300 miles away from the center of the storm, that is one of the last couple of days, we thought, dont focus on the come, this is a huge storm, says was and what is different about this storm, chris, right now, tallahassee is moving so fast, but the eye is so strong. It will move in more like a large tornado. It is not going to be a slow buildup. All of a sudden, the wind will ramp up, we will get an extreme Wind Warning issued for this area when that eye comes on shore and when that is issued, as far inland as Tallahassee Or Perry up on i10, that is when you go to your safe rooms, graduate kids, go to an Interior Closet or bathroom, blankets to protect yourself, because it will feel and sound like a tornado is going through lasting roughly about two hours. All right. Thank you for all of that. I should note there are 21 counties in florida right now under mandatory evacuation notices. That is 21 and 67 counties. We have jesse kirsch, Nbc News correspondent live on the ground in perry, florida, which you just saw on the map. What i conditions there like now . Reporter chris, we have had Rain On and off, without being too dramatic, yet the wind is starting to gust a bit more, i clock some Wind Gusts around 17 miles per hour, isolated gusts, nothing consistent at that level, though, i cant tell you that the window starting to pick up more right now. We just heard from bill that this is one of the more isolated areas on the gulf coast, in terms of population, but i can tell you, there are still people by the thousands from the estimate of the sheriff, that have not heeded the request for evacuation in this community and in particular, the sheriff tells me he estimates around 200 people have refused to evacuate from the coastline. Those are lowlying areas where we could be seeing Storm Surge, up to 20 feet, these have been described as unsurvivable conditions. We are talking about dozens of people refusing to get out of Harms Way in those scenarios. The sheriff you told me he is so concerned about the impacts from the wind, as well, in this community, that they didnt even have a shelter open in this county, they are trying to transport people to shelters in other counties. Here is the blunt request from officials, asking people to take their name, date of birth, other information about themselves, and write it in permanent marker on their bodies, so they can be identified after the storm. Chris . Jesse kirsch reporting live in perry, florida, Thank You for that. Stay safe down there. Here in New York we are covering another breaking story today. The federal indictment of mayor Eric Adams on charges of Bribery And Wire fraud. Mayor adams engaged in a longrunning conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly accepted illegal Campaign Contributions from foreign donors and corporations. As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal. Even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a turkish Government Official and turkish businesses to buy influence within. We also realize that the mayor sought and accepted well over 100,000 in Luxury Travel benefits with some of the same foreign actors who arranged many of the illegal Campaign Contributions. These benefits included free international Business Class flights and opulent Hotel Rooms in foreign cities. The mayor had a duty to disclose these gifts on his annual public Disclosure Forms so that the public could see who was giving him what, but as we allege, year after year after year, he kept the public in the dark. He told the public that he received no gifts, even though he was secretly being showered with them. Mayor adams is scheduled to be arranged tomorrow. He says he has no intention of stepping down and will fight the charges. Lisa rubin is a former litigator, christian Greenberg Service of the same federal prosecutor in that district. Had both join me now. Well, it started to feel like we were headed this way, when basically everyone in the entire demonstration have their offices searched . Including the new York Committee Police Commissioner had to resign. Head of the department of education, but still, a pretty shocking document. Just give us, lisa, the top Line Theory of the case behind with the mayor did wrong here criminally. The Governments Theory of the cases that the mayor accepted two forms of benefits from the Turkish Government. Illegal Campaign Contributions funneled for Star Donors and then secondly a series of Travel Benefits, either free or upgraded tickets and Hotel Rooms, over a series of years ranging from roughly 2015 to 2023, 2024, and he did this all, the feds allege, for his own benefit, and in response, the Turkish Government got approval of the building that was not standard with respect to fire code. They were having a bunch of problems getting it through the fire code. They were hung up on this. Yes, they wanted the turkish consulate to open this new building in time for president Erdogans Visit in the fall of 2021 and Eric Adams made that happen for them and then they got a bunch of small things, like, they wanted Eric Adams to stop supporting a turkish Community Center where it was affiliated with the local movement in shades of Michael Flynn in 2016 at around the same time that Michael Flynn was alleged to have authored this oped. Similarly Eric Adams is being pressured by the Turkish Government, stop supporting this Community Center in brooklyn. They also got him to commit that he wouldnt make a statement about Armenian Genocide in 2022. Eric adams, according to the feds, is in the pocket of the Turkish Government in exchange for free Travel And Campaign customizations. So you have the quid pro quo, right, you get straw donors raising, ultimately 10 Million for your mayoral campaign . No, i want to be very clear about what that 10 Million in benefits is. They say, because Eric Adams lied on forms he submitted to the Campaignfinance Board in new York City, he then qualified for 10 Million in matching funds that are available through the new York City campaignfinance word. Right, but the benefit was 10 Million, meaning that a number of straw donors because of the Magic Ratio they didnt give him the 10 Million, he had 10 Million more coming through this public Financing Mechanism than he would have otherwise. Correct. So he is getting that and 100,000, they say, inflates. The Turkish Government is getting someone they can use for a favor when they are looking at policy, and data to support the Policy Center associated. What jumped out to you in this indictment . One thing that jumped out to me were the various ways in which he either destroyed evidence, concealed evidence, or fabricated evidence. There are various buckets here, and one is more ridiculous than the next. There is one message exchanged, where there is an individual identified as adam staffer, saying please delete all messages you send me. He replies, always do. You know i got it. I always do. Clearly he didnt, because it shows up in the indictment. Right. Then you have the phone, this is one of my favorites as well. So, when the fbi comes to him and says, we have a Search Warrant for your phones he does not have his personal Cell Phone on his person, so the next day he provides his personal Cell Phone to the fbi and says, i changed the password yesterday, when i learned of this investigation, to make it more complicated, up to a six digit number, and i forgot it. The reason i changed it or so that none of my staff would tamper with evidence. I did it for you guys, but now ive forgotten it so i cannot unlock my phone. Its the worst excuse since Donald Trump said he cannot debate Kamala Harris because it is too late. We are in doggett my homework territory. And hes a former nypd officer. These are ridiculous statements. And then i think what was the most damning for me, in addition to not filling out any of these Travel Benefits on your Disclosure Forms like you should, the fake paper trail, saying that you paid for Travel Benefits that then the records clearly show are complementary, that is pretty good evidence that you know what youre doing is wrong. That stood out to me, to. You are aware that this is not there is even in another moment, lisa, that really stuck out to me. We should say this is an indictment, it is the prosecutors unrebutted case, here. They are choosing the evidence, we may learn all things that complicate this picture, he maintains his innocence and i want to stress that. There is a moment at which, in the indictment, a staffer is talking to this turkish handler trying to arrange the straw Donors Scheme and how it would work and the staffer said something along the lines of, i dont think the mayor would go for that. I think it would be too big of a stink. He is talking about this and he says but i will talk to the mayor, next day he says, how much are we talking . Its like all right well i guess a consultation happened. Absolutely. Not only are the allegations themselves stunning here, chris, but this is yet another example of how the Southern District build the case. I think it nicely complements the sean Combs Indictment from last week. There are some real parallels here in terms of the plethora of electronic evidence, the number of witnesses they appear to have, and, the fact that they are alleging a conspiracy of over a decade long, in which some of these participants described here are clearly co conspirators, and yet, they only charge one person. Eric adams this week, Sean Combs last week. It might reflect the changing of operation, you know, because generally speaking, you go for the little fish, you flip them and head up the chain. This time they are going straight to the top. Enormous headlines, from an office which is used to making headlines, but this is about as big of a get. I dont know if we have any File Photo of Sean Combs and the mayor as he got the keys to the city. Thank you very much, appreciate it putting Todays Indictment into its proper context, what it says about the Biden Department of justice and the equal application of the law, next. next. Scout is protected by Simparica Trio and hes in it to win it Simparica Trio is the first chew with triple protection. Whoa fleas and ticks Intestinal Worms whoa Heartworm Disease no problem with Simparica Trio this Drug Class has been associated with neurologic adverse reactions including seizures. Use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. For winning protection go with Simparica Trio. On the face of it this is not a good great day for new York City, Eric Adams is the first mayor of the city to be criminally indicted. The charges are also, i find in a strange way, rear reassuring. They show me a functioning federal government that still holds the Rule Of Law as a bedrock sacrosanct thing. Particularly in the department of justice. Take a step back and look at the doj that Joe Biden inherited from his predecessor, Donald Trump, after trumps endless, constant attempts to subvert federal Law Enforcement and converted into a political tool of the president. Particularly when you look at the Southern District of New York, arguably the most influential federal Prosecutors Office in the country, the one that just indicted Eric Adams. When trump became the president , it was run by the Southern District u. S. Attorney under barack obama. We later learned that trump was regular Sleep Calling for our, trying to cultivate a personal relationship that made him so uncomfortable he reported the context contacted to his bosses at the doj. Less than a day later, he was fired. Trumps personal lawyer, mark has a wits, would later bragged that he convinced trump to Fire Barrera telling the president , this guy is going to get you. It was a pattern from trump over and over again as president whether it was firing James Comay after trump asked comay to drop the criminal instigation into Michael Flynn, or having his Attorney General, Bill Barr Fire yet another u. S. Attorney from the Southern District, a man he had appointed in 2020 after berman had prosecuted trumps former lawyer, michael cohen, and opened several other investigations of people and banks in trumps orbit. The cardinal rule is that partisan political concerns are not supposed to enter into any decisionmaking, and that rule was repeatedly violated. Now, we managed to push back every attempt to interfere in our cases, and we were successful every time. But, it was difficult. 2 1 2 years of unrelenting pressure. 2 1 2 years. Trump was constantly pushing for executions of his perceived enemies, including Hillary Clinton and john kerry,<