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charges will be unsealed. now, at the same time, trump is now starting to read. back to these charges. he's lashing out at the judge who has been handed this case. this judge has overseen tax fraud trial of the trump organization. trump saying that he railroaded his former chief financial officer in pleading guilty and, of course, that chief financial officer alan weisberg did testify at the trial and did help secure that conviction for prosecutors. the judge did not railroad westward to doing that. he voluntarily pleaded guilty to 15 felony counts and is currently serving a brief sentence at rikers island. now as far as what else is happening here today we did see alvin bragg attend an unrelated sentencing for a hate crime case, giving the appearance that he wants to keep this business as usual. i asked him about the significance of yesterday's indictment, he declined to answer any questions. alright caress canal in new york city. thank you for all of that and here to talk about this truly unprecedented
jury of 12. new yorkers, and the judge sentenced that company to the maximum sentence of $1.6 million. fine now. the same time that all this is going on kind of publicly, and we have all these concerns as evan was just describing about security. the d a. is putting out this image that this is business as usual. we saw him today inside the courtroom. he went to attend the sentencing completely unrelated hate crime case he spent the entire time during the sentencing inside the courtroom when he left. i asked him if he could explain the significance and the importance of yesterday's indictment, but he was surrounded by increased security and just walked off without answering any questions , but he certainly is projecting the image that he is here doing his job day in and day out like you would if there was not this historic moment that was made yesterday, aaron all right, sara. thank you very much. and joining me now, our team karin agness, follow ryan goodman, john miller, basil smikle and former republican congressman
killed ahmaud arbery, two of the men have made plea deals according to federal prosecutors, but the details of those deals have not been released just yet. we are watching this morning's hearing very closely for more information but i'm joined now by joyce vance, a former u.s. attorney and professor and is also an msnbc legal analyst. joyce, we've already had the murder trial, the state level for the three men involved. now we're talking about the federal hate crime case. we should note the first man convicted of murder was not mentioned in this plea deal filing from sunday. what are you watching and listening for from the prosecution today? >> so as a prosecutor, you'd like to see this sort of a plea deal come into play because it means that even if there's a problem, there's no reason to believe at that there would be one, but if there's a problem on appeal with the georgia state convictions, that means that
these new federal convictions could add more life sentences. >> we got a victory today. there are so many families who don't get victories. >> reporter: this is a federal hate crime case that almost didn't go to court due to a plea deal with the defendants which was ultimately rejected by a judge. his mother expressed outrage with the department of justice today. >> i told the doj that yes, they were prosecutors, but one thing they didn't have, they didn't have a son lying in a cold grave. and they still didn't hear my cry. what the doj did today they was made to do today. >> reporter: the u.s. attorney general reacting to the verdict and wanda cooper jones' comments on the doj. >> the justice department has a legal obligation to prosecute hate crimes. i cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels to have her son
a federal hate crime, and attempted kidnapping of arbery. the mcmichaels were also each found guilty of an additional firearms charge. the mcmichaels and bryan are already serving life sentences for the felony murder of arbery after a separate state trial in november. only bryan is eligible for parole after 30 years. but these new federal convictions could add more life sentences. >> we got a victory today. but it's so many families out there who don't get victories. >> this is a federal hate crime case that almost did not go to court due to a plea deal with the defendants which was ultimately rejected by a judge. arbery's mother expressed her outrage with the u.s. department of justice today. >> i told the doj that yes, they were prosecutors, but one thing they didn't have, they didn't have a son that was lying in a cold grave. and they still didn't hear my cry. what the doj did today, they was made to do today. >> the u.s. attorney general reacting to today's verdict and
do you think the prosecution has done enough to prove its case with an admittedly different bar than a standard murder trial? >> it's very tough to prove a federal hate crime case. but given other circumstances, given how high that bar is, i think that they did a really good job. what they reminded this jury of over and over again was this circumstantial evidence of the racial epithets used by these defendants. that's important when you are proving a federal hate crime case, it's not enough that the person is racist. you have to show that there was racial motivation associated with the crime. and so i think they've done a good job. but again, this is very tough when you think about the case of dylan, the circumstantial evidence was brought in to prove that he was a racist and that when he killed the church members at mother emanuel, it
but these new federal convictions could add more life sentences. >> we got a victory today. but it's so many families out there who don't get victories. >> this is a federal hate crime case that almost did not go to court due to a plea deal with the defendants which was ultimately rejected by a judge. arbery's mother expressed her outrage with the u.s. department of justice today. >> i told the doj that yes, they were prosecutors, but one thing they didn't have, they didn't have a son that was lying in a cold grave. and they still didn't hear my cry. what the doj did today, they was made to do today. >> the u.s. attorney general reacting to today's verdict and wanda cooper jones' comments on the doj. >> the justice department has a legal obligation to prosecute hate crimes. i cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels. to have her son run down and
federal hate crime case we saw a verdict in was about the motive and about the why and about the fact that at the end of the day, what the jury found was that these defendants violated ahmaud arbery's civil rights because they were motivated by racial hatred whereas in the state case it was the what? did they commit the crime they were charged for and in that case they were found guilty. both of these things are independent of one another but came together to paint a much clearer picture for the public what happened here and as to why. >> let me play for you, thank you for clarifying that. one quick question, actually, if let's say, it seems unlikely their state case would be overturned, their conviction would be overturned, is the federal conviction sort of a backup that essentially they would still have to serve time for the federal conviction? >> well, yes, any appeal that was given on the state case would not impact the federal
>> you know, my co-counsel lee merit and i were talking about it, this is historic. it is the first time in the state of georgia as we understand it that there has been a conviction for a hate crime. hopefully there's a new precedent set now that if you kill an unarmed black person unjustly, the department of justice will hold you accountable for a long time after trayvon martin. we would always ask the department of justice to bring hate crime case against people that killed our young people unjustly, and they would normally decline in almost every instance, but today we see what happened in brunswick, georgia of all places that it is possible for the federal government to come and do what
william bryan guilty. all three were convicted of interference of rights which is a federal hate crime and attempted kidnapping of ar bure. they were each found guilty of an additional firearms charge. they are already serving life sentences for the felony murder of arbery. only bryan is eligible for parole after 30 years but these new federal convictions could add more life sentences. >> we got a victory today but so many families out there who don't get victories. >> reporter: this is a federal hate crime case that almost did not go to court because of a federal plea deal. >> i told the doj that, yes, they were prosecutors. one thing they didn't have, they didn't have a son that was lying in a cold grave and they still didn't hear my cry. what the doj did today they was