Nightly Rundown: Impeachment opening arguments; Jeff Bezos hacked by Crown Prince?; City on lockdown; Mystery virus death toll climbs; Harvey Weinstein on trial; Inspiring America: Teacher celebrates citizenship with students

The Nightly News - with Lester Holt - Nightly News: 1.22.20

To ensure delivery to your inbox add email@mail.nbcnews.com to your contacts | View in browser By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News Good Wednesday afternoon. Here's what's in our Nightly Rundown tonight. Democrats make opening arguments in Trump's impeachment trial The House’s Democratic impeachment managers began making their opening arguments in the impeachment trial of President Trump today, following Tuesday’s marathon 13-hour session to determine the rules for the historic proceedings. Peter Alexander is on the story tonight. “Overwhelming” evidence: Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead impeachment manager, began by accusing Trump of abusing his power by withholding nearly $400 million in military aid from Ukraine “to secure foreign help with his reelection, in other words, to cheat.” Schiff vowed to show the Senate, and the American people, “overwhelming” evidence of that abuse of power, despite what he called the president’s “unprecedented and wholesale obstruction” of the congressional investigation. Making their case: The Democrats have a total of 24 hours over the next three days to present their arguments and evidence against the president. Following that, the president’s defense team will get an equal amount of time to present their case. Under the rules approved in a party-line vote, the Senate will not take up the question over whether it will subpoena more witnesses and documents until after opening arguments conclude. Senate Republicans defeated 11 amendments to the rules proposed by Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “National security problem”: Trump, speaking to reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said he would like current and former administration officials, like his ex-national security adviser John Bolton, to appear as witnesses at the trial, but that their testimony would pose a national security risk. “The problem with John is that it’s a national security problem,” Trump said. “You can’t have somebody who’s in national security, and if you think about it — John, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders.” Trump also said that he would “love to go” to the trial to stare down the Democrats, but indicated his legal team would “have a problem” if he did so. Schiff invokes framers intentions when talking impeachment history U.N. experts say hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone may be linked to Saudi Crown Prince U.N. experts are “gravely concerned” over allegations that Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos had his phone hacked through a WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Andrea Mitchell is on the story for us tonight. In a statement, human rights investigators Agnes Callamard and David Kaye said, "The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Mr. Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia." According to the experts' findings, Bezos and the Crown Prince exchanged phone numbers during a dinner on April 4, 2018. Less than a month later, a message was sent from the prince's WhatsApp account to Bezos with an encrypted video file that's believed to have infected Bezos' phone with a malicious code, the report found. By that time, the Washington Post had published several columns by Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident who was a prominent critic of his native country's government. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The CIA concluded that the Crown Prince ordered Khashoggi's killing. "At a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible," the U.N. report found, "it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post." The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. called for an investigation into the hacking claims "so that we can have all the facts out." Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said the allegations were "silly" and "absurd." Ground zero city placed on lockdown as mystery virus death toll rises to 17 China plans to lock down the city considered ground zero for a new coronavirus, as the number of deaths from the mysterious new disease has risen from nine to 17 in Hubel province. The airport and railway stations in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, will be temporarily closed and all public transportation will be halted, according to state media. Residents have been advised not to leave unless they have a "special reason." Chinese health officials also said today the number of confirmed cases in the mainland has risen to more than 540. As fears of a pandemic grow, the World Health Organization is meeting today and tomorrow to determine whether or not to declare the virus a "public health emergency of international concern." Miguel Almaguer is monitoring the new developments in Washington state, where a man with the first confirmed case of the virus in the U.S. is being treated. The CDC suspects the virus is being transmitted from person to person, though it’s unclear how easily it’s being transmitted. The CDC is also expanding screenings to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport and Chicago's O'Hare airport, for travelers arriving from Wuhan. Additional screenings were already underway at New York's JFK airport, LAX in Los Angeles, and SFO in San Francisco. Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial begins with opening statements The rape trial of Harvey Weinstein got underway today with opening statements in a Manhattan courtroom, more than two years after allegations against the disgraced movie mogul helped spark the Me Too movement. Stephanie Gosk has been following the case for us. Weinstein arrived at court today with assistance from his defense team and aides, but without using the walker he's been seen with in other recent court appearances, following a car crash and back surgery. More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct over a period of decades, but this trial concerns two specific cases. Weinstein is accused of raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013, and performing a forcible sex act on another woman in 2006. Weinstein has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sexual activity. During the trial, the defense plans to use "dozens and dozens and dozens of loving emails" to Weinstein from women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, one of Weinstein's attorneys said in court on Tuesday. The judge barred the defense from showing those emails in the their opening statement, but ruled that Weinstein's attorneys can reference the messages' "substance and content." If convicted, the 67-year-old Weinstein could face life in prison. Teacher becomes U.S. citizen with students by her side Some of Annmarie Small's biggest supporters are her students and colleagues at Cornerstone Learning Community. When the teacher first moved with her son to Tallahassee, Florida from Jamaica in 2007, parents, kids and staff from the school were the ones who welcomed the Smalls to their new home. So during one of the biggest moments of Annmarie's life — when she became a U.S. citizen earlier this month — they all came to cheer her on. Kids from Annmarie's fourth grade class, as well as former students, packed the courtroom and waved American flags outside to celebrate. They even threw an America-themed party with apple pie. "It was unbelievable," Annmarie said of the love she felt from her community that day. Our Rehema Ellis shares this story on tonight's broadcast. ——— Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app. FOLLOW US Download the NBC News Mobile App This email was sent to: stevenmagallanes520.nims@blogger.com. This is an automated email. Do not reply directly. 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112 Privacy | Unsubcription | NBC Newsletters | Contact