Im Ayman Mohyeldin alongside Yasmin Vossoughian and louis bergdorf. Judging by new reports and the president s own tweets, donald trump is seeking to end Special Counsel muellers investigation one way or another. Three sources tell the New York Times trump is flouting his lawyers advice and pushing for an interview with Robert Mueller in hopes it will clear his name. The report came hours after the president released seven tweets with misleading claims about the probes origin, writing, this is a terrible situation, and Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions should stop this rigged witchhunt right now before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob mueller is totally conflicted and has 17 angry democrats that are doing his dirty work. Are a disgrace to usa. Well, the president ignored reporters questions after a white house meeting while his surrogates said he was merely expressing himself. It is not an order. It is the president s opinion, and it is ridiculous that all of
Updates of the days news. You have to ask the president. I think thats out of Jeff Sessions hands. Hes recused himself from the Russian Investigation because he participated in the campaign, as we all know, and i think that was appropriate for him to do so. Muellers going to finish his investigation. The truth is all going to come out and thats the best thing that could happen for the president and for the country. And President Trump weighed in on the trial against his former Campaign Chair for the first time yesterday, comparing Paul Manafort to the reallife scar face. The president tweeted, quote, looking back on history, who was treated worse, alphonse capone, legendary mob boss, killer and public enemy number one, or Paul Manafort, political operative and reagan dole now serving solitary confinement. Meanwhile, where is the collusion. Meanwhile, it is manaforts day two of his trial. Not an ostrich jacket. Lets talk business. What stood out in yesterdays testimony . I think one of the most brilliant Strategic Moves by the government may be avoiding using rick gates. Why so . Ill tell you why. Yeah. Because the defenses Opening Statement centered on rick gates being a liar. In any cooperating witness case, and i have handled these, theyre very challenging. One of the things you have to do is put the cooperating witness on trial and say, this person is a lie wrar, they are motivated lie, they have a deal with the government and they dont get the benefit of their deal unless they deliver here and tell you the story the government wants them to tell. Imagine you have made that the theme in your opening and the government figures out a way to get in all of the evidence without gates authenticating, and that goes out without a whimper. That must mean the
prosecution feels they have a strong case without gates. It is a risky move because gates being on the inside the way he was will be able to authenticate all of the different documents. So the government must feel k confident they can get somebody in to say, yes, it is a bill, an email, i can authenticate it because i was a recipient. As long as they can authenticate all of the damaging documents je against manafort, and there are many, then the government is okay because it is a risk. The power of a cooperating witness, even with the credibility problems, when they get on the stand and say, thats the guy, in my experience i find juries are willing to forgive a lack of credibility. You wrote in a piece that you think manafort is going to lose the trial. I do. The government didnt charge tax evasion which has a slightly burden, they charged tax perjury which doesnt require a tax
owing and due. It requires he subscribe to a return believing it contained a false statement. So the government is telegraphing that it wants a win. It is probably going to get a win because it is charged crimes that i think are easier for them to make out their case. Quickly, we heard reports he could basically see the rest of his life in prison if he does lose this trial. Do you think thats going to happen . It is possible. I mean without knowing his life expectancy, but, yes. The problem well, not the problem. The issue with federal sentencing guidelines is that they are incredibly harsh. Now, im a defense attorney. Im probably biassed, but your federal sentences, especially in economic crimes, can be really, really nasty and they can really add up quickly. All right. Danny, well touch base with you in a little bit. Stick around and former President Obama endorsed 81 candidates ahead of this years midterm elections, weighing in on more than a dozen states races. He says he is eager to help his party gain seats this november. The former president s
endorsements include georgia gubernatorial candidate stacey abrams, new mexico house candidate deb holland. Some noticeable absences include new york congressional candidate alexandria ocasio cortes. All right. Still ahead, more details and shocking images of the miracle plane crash with all passengers and crew members survived. We are hearing from some of the people on board this morning. Plus, the white house levels new sanctions on two turkish officials over the detention of an american pastor. Those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. Captured the moment, the frightening moment that airliner crashed on takeoff on tuesday. 65 americans were passengers on that plane, and yet miraculously all 103 people on board survived. Nbcs tom costello has more. Reporter Cellphone Video captures the moment aeromexico flight 2431 begins its Takeoff Roll Town the runway, the weather outside growing worse by the second. Suddenly, just as the plane begins to lift it is violently slammed back down to the ground. Skidding off the runway into the desert, frantic passengers stepping over each other to escape the burning plane. Ramin parsa took the video. People are screaming and i was praying. I was praying to jesus, who saved our lives. Reporter firefighters rushed to the scene as passengers and crew jumped down the emergency escape chutes. The cabin started filling with black smoke. At that point what we wanted to do, was we wanted to try to find the nearest exit. Reporter also on the plain, father sanchez from illinois and 15 friends celebrating his birth day. Yes, i think it was a miracle. Reporter father sanchez being treated for multiple arm fractures. We spoke to him by skype from his hospital room. As the plane was traveling a little faster before it hit the embankment or if it flew a little higher, i dont think we would have walked out with all of us intact. Reporter in all, 49 people hospitalized, including the pilot and a passenger, both in critical but stable condition. The regional jet was departing from durango in north west mexico for mexico city. As the weather turned violent, wind, high rains and hail. Had it been any higher than 50 to 70 feet off the ground, there could have been fatalities. Still, it is the latest in a string of Plane Crashes in which everyone has gotten out alive, from an air france crash in toronto, A British Air Crash in london, to a fire on an american plane in chicago, now durango, mexico. The big concern though as with all of these other accidents that are survivable, people are still taking carryon luggage with them. You have got to leave it behind. Your life is more important than your carryon pgaage. Reporter investigators will have a lot of questions for this pilot, chief among them why did he hospital to try to take off in this ferocious storm. A lot of experts say they would have probably sat it out, waited it out on the ground. In the meantime, this video will be very helpful. Investigators do have the black boxes already. Now this video will help them tell the complete story, what went wrong, but also what went right. How did so many people, everybody on board, survive . Louis. Thanks to tom costello for the great reporting. All right. The u. S. s sanctions to highlevel turkish officials over the detainment of pastor brunson, the action against the justice and Interior Ministers comes one week after President Trump threatened to, quote, impose large sanctions on turkey due to the situation. A turkey nato ally has detained the pastor since 2016 on terrorism and espionage charges, alleging he aided in a failed coup attempt. Brunson, an evangelical pastor from north carolina, who spent the last 23 years living in turkey, was released from prison last week and is now under house arrest. He still faces the same charges and 35 years in prison. Turkish president erdogan previously implied brunsons release would be granted only when the u. S. Extradites turkish cleric, a political rival to erdogan, who erdogan accuses of masterminding the coup attempt. Secretary of state mike pompeo spoke with his turkish counterpart again yesterday
about the situation, and they will hold a meeting at the upcoming asean forum, and turkey vowed an equivalent response to americas sanctions. Lets bring in bill karins with a look at the weather. Bill. Is it humid enough for you guys . Yeah. So humid. Yasmin says, yeah. The humidity up the east coast is just about as high as it gets in many areas. Thats why we had so many downpours. This High Pressure off the east coast is what is responsible for it. It is taking that moisture, the white arrows show the wind direction. It is taking the humidity typically in the bahamas and florida and sending it up the eastern seaboard. Downpours will continue through the day. 34 Million People are at risk from Flash Flooding from North Florida through Northern Georgia up through the appalachians, into central portions of pennsylvania and a sliver of new york. That goes out through friday morning. We have another round of downpours this afternoon and we will do it again on friday. Todays forecast, boston, interesting. 92 degrees. It is one of the rare days boston has a chance of being the hottest city on the east coast, because you will have a little bit of sunshine, a little bit of forecast than anybody else with all of the rainfall. Dallas will be very warm. Areas of the west very warm, no signs of rain for you whatsoever. Heading to the weekend, theres the Heavy Rain Threat continuing into friday. On saturday it is more into areas of new england. We get a break around saturday. And if you look for a nice end to the weekend, you will get it in the northeast. It will be hot and humid, finally some beach weather returns with sunshine. I dont think the Flash Flooding will be horrendous, but we have to watch the carolinas and the mountains closely this afternoon. Thanks, bill. Still ahead, ohio state has placed the head coach on paid administrative leave. The cutest event of the summer, we will have all of the details coming up in sports. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both Symptom Relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal Brain Infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. With my bladder leakage, the products ive tried just didnt fit right. They were very saggy. Its getting in the way of our camping trips. But with new sizes, depend fitflex is made for me. Introducing more sizes for better comfort. New depend fitflex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. Time now for sports. We begin with news out of the College Football world where urban meyer has been placed on administrative leave by ohio state while they investigate reports made earlier in the day, the report he may have had knowledge of to mess Domestic Abuse case of an assistant
coach. In his six seasons as head coach, the 54yearold was approved for a twoyear Contract Extension in april and is signed through 2022. Meyer issued a statement that reads in part, i agree that being on leave during this inquiry will facilitate its completion. I eagerly look forward to the resolution of this matter. All right. Turning to major league baseball, a rough start to last nights game for the dodgers, hosting the brewers in los angeles. 21 pitch and he stings it. Past dozier and a base hit to right center field. Take it all the way. Hes going to take the turn and third. Here comes the relay. Not in time, and it gets through and it goes in to the dugout, and lorenzo cane will come all the way around and just like that it is a 10 lead for the crew. A few errors there. Milwaukees cane leads off with a home run on that. Finally, for what might have been the marquise Sporting Event of the evening, we head to South Carolina where a Peanut Butter eating contest was hosted between these two good boys there named bentley and charlie. While it is unclear which canine came out on top, in this one it is safe to say in a competition like this, ayman and yasmin, everyone wins. Who doesnt like eating Peanut Butter . Im not sure how it is a competition. Who either more Peanut Butter . And faster, yeah. My dogs would kill it. I have three labs at home. They would have taken first place in that. They literally live off Peanut Butter. Literally. They love it still ahead, the Trump Administration escalates the trade war with china, reportedly threatening to double proposed tariffs on imports. Stay with us. A hotel can make or break a trip. And at expedia, we dont think you should be
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states. Negotiations for which reportedly are at a stalemate. A Senior Administration official told reporters that no particular chinese action led to trumps latest trade threat. In a recent interview with cnbc, the president threatened to impose tariffs on all 505 billion worth of goods china exports to the United States per year. Meanwhile, the senate yesterday passed a defense bill that tightens National Security