NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Monday, December 23, 2024

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

New report says Matt Gaetz may have violated laws on prostitution, statutory rape; Holiday travel ramps up as holiday week begins; Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to New York state charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the scathing new report about President-elect Trump's first pick for Attorney General. The House Ethics Committee revealing Florida Republican Matt Gaetz may have violated state laws on prostitution, statutory rape, and illicit drug use. Inside the pages of texts, checks, financial statements, testimony, the former congressman forcefully pushing back tonight. The record holiday travel rush as massive crowds head home for the holidays. Train service not yet back on track in the nation's most congested corridor and the cold snap complicating last minute travel. The suspect charged with murdering

UnitedHealthcare CEO pleading not guilty. Our first look at him in court as his legal team cries foul. President Biden commuting nearly every federal death row inmate to life without parole. Why now and who was left off the list? The suspect arrested over a horrifying attack on a New York subway, allegedly setting a woman on fire. Rescues in the Pacific Ocean after a pier collapses. The breaking news just in. The dramatic light show ending in horror after drones fell into the crowd watching below a seven-year-old boy fighting for life. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. He was once the president-elect's surprise pick for attorney general. But tonight, a years-long report lays out in lower detail accusations against former

Congressman Matt Gaetz, accusations that ultimately derailed his bid to lead the Justice Department. Over the course of dozens of pages of chat logs and financial transactions, the Ethics Committee found that Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex, including in Florida, where it is illegal, had sex with an underage woman and took illicit drugs. The DOJ investigated Gates for similar accusations, but in the end did not bring charges. Gates has denied breaking the law throughout and as Ryan Noble's reports, remains defiant as ever tonight. Tonight, a bombshell report on Capitol Hill. The House Ethics Committee revealing the results of their investigation into former Congressman Matt Gaetz, determining there is substantial evidence that Gaetz violated House

rules related to prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress. Democrat Glenn Ivey, a member of the committee, voted to release the report. We're releasing it all and the public can draw its own conclusions. Specifically, the committee pointed to a 2017 encounter Gates had with a woman who testified she had just finished her junior year in high school and was only 17 when she and Gates had sex twice at a party. Gates has repeatedly denied having sex with anyone underage, and the woman said she did not tell Gates that she was 17. The committee also detailed $90,000 in payments to 12 different women that investigators concluded was used to pay for sex and illicit drugs. While women testified the encounters were consensual, one witness testified that, quote,

when I look back on certain moments, I feel violated. Gates has admitted to womanizing and drinking and smoking during his younger years, but says his conduct was embarrassing, but not criminal. But despite Gates's defense, the committee believes there could be enough evidence that Gates violated state laws. I would think that they would give strong consideration to investigating the allegations. He also points to a lengthy investigation by the Department of Justice that was closed without prosecutors bringing charges. Despite these accusations, Gates's political future remains open, and he's not backed down from the idea of running for higher office. Maybe I'll just run for Marco Rubio's

vacant seat in the United States Senate. Gates was no longer a member of Congress and was out of the running for attorney general. The committee's chairman argued it would set a bad precedent to release the report, but a bipartisan majority of committee members believe the report's release was in the public's interest. And Ryan Gates attempted to delay the report's release this morning. Yes, Lester, Gates filed a last-minute motion for a temporary restraining order against the committee to prevent the report from coming out. But by the time the judge had a chance to review the request, the report had already been released. Lester.

Ryan Nobles, thank you. Now to the holiday travel rush and a record number of people packing roads and airports as train delays frustrate passengers. Sam Brock is at one of the busiest travel hubs in the country right now. Sam, good evening. Yeah, Lester, good evening. Passengers are still sprawled out here at Penn Station. There are so many people in spaces, it's difficult to move. Lester, Amtrak did say tonight they have resolved their signal issues, but crew congestion right now, crew constraints, is affecting trains from

Washington, D.C. all the way to Boston. They're trying to deal with that as we look right now at the heart of the Christmas travel holiday. On the eve of Christmas Eve. Nervous for sure. Quite nervous. A two-day slowdown of Amtrak trains up and down the East Coast is still grinding on. A day delay could mean that we don't end up home for Christmas. And it's not just delays. Some Acela trains to D.C. and Boston canceled. Lucy Smith and Monty Wilson were at 90 minutes and counting. If delays happen, there's nothing you can do. It's sort of out of our hands. While on the roadways. We're moving pretty slowly. Hopefully it picks up. A record number of drivers, like Richard Otto,

are taking their best shot behind the wheel with lower gas prices. If you're still traveling home, have a safe trip. And for those taking to the skies, wintry weather contributing to a weekend-long backlog. From Friday to Sunday, cancellations clearing more than 900 across the country, with delays approaching 28,000 in that span, though conditions and flights were smoother today. As American Airlines gave us a firsthand look at how they sort 100,000 bags a day at DFW.

Of all the passengers that fly with American, about a third of all of their bags in some way touch DFW on a given day, which explains why there are literally thousands of people that are on the front lines making sure your bags get where they need to go. It's an industry-wide effort to keep plants and luggage on track. United Airlines now allowing passengers to share air tag information for the less than one percent of bags delayed. We get real-time information on the bag just like you're seeing and once the bag is reunited with the customer that link goes away so it's shared privately and securely. With days to go the sometimes bumpy process of getting home,

paying huge dividends for families enjoying the presence of each other. Sam Brock, NBC News, New York. And let us get to Bill Cairns now, who's tracking the end of a brutal cold snap in snow, at least in this part of the country. Yeah, we're happy the cold air is leaving, but unfortunately we got a little bit of snow to come in. So we have winter weather advisories for a lot of people, about 25 million, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia included into

this. We're going to see this fast-moving snow moving from Michigan through areas of northern New England tonight. We are going to get a little glaze of ice tomorrow morning from Philadelphia to Baltimore to D.C. That's why you're under those winter weather advisories. New York City, another coating of snow for you. So as far as your travel forecast goes, we have that storm exiting, but then we have a storm early in the day on the West Coast. We could have problems in San Francisco at the airport and also on Interstate 5. We could have numerous issues driving north into the Pacific Northwest. So we do have still have some issues. All right, Bill, thanks for the update. Now to New York, where Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, pleaded not guilty to the murder charges against him.

Stephanie Gosk was in court. Luigi Mangione entered New York State Court for the first time today. Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty. The 26-year-old faces 11 charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, including first-degree murder and the furtherance of terrorism. Mangione already pleaded not guilty to four federal criminal charges. Outside, dozens of protesters voiced anger with the health insurance industry.

The health care system is corrupt, and we need to fix it. While in court, Mangione's defense attorney took issue with what she called an utterly political perp walk last week. They are literally treating him like he is like some sort of political fodder. Attorney Karen Agnifilo taking aim at New York City Mayor Eric Adams over these comments. I want to look him in the eye and stated that you carried out this terrorist act in my city. Agnifilo accusing the mayor of possibly tainting the jury pool. Those are the people that elected him that he is talking to and calling this man a terrorist.

A spokesperson for the mayor says Adams' priority is public safety, and his goal was to send a message that violence and vitriol have no place in our city. Now prosecutors will have to prove the case. How unique are terrorism charges in a case like this? Terrorism charges themselves are unique. And then given the circumstances of this case, it's very unique. And potentially more of a challenge. Not only does the prosecutor have to prove that this was an intentional crime, but they also have to show that there was an intent to cause terror. Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, New York.

Also in New York, a suspect was arrested after a disturbing attack on a subway over the weekend. Sebastian Zepeda Khalil, a 33-year-old undocumented migrant from Guatemala, is accused of lighting a sleeping woman on fire on the train. An ICE spokesperson says the suspect was previously deported in 2018, but managed to get past immigration officials again. There is growing controversy tonight after President Biden commuted the sentence of nearly every federal death row prisoner to life without parole. But the historic move is not sitting well with all. Praise and anger today as President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row to life without parole, saying in a statement, make no mistake, I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, but guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, I am more convinced than ever that we must

stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. He declined to commute the sentences of three men, the mass shooter at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people died, the killer of nine people at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. And the Boston Marathon bomber. Can you reflect on the historic nature of this commutation decision by the president? It's unprecedented. We've never had a U.S. president commute this many people who were awaiting execution. Bryan Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and a leading death penalty opponent. The question is not whether people deserve to die

for the crimes they've committed. The question is whether we deserve to kill. If we have a flawed, biased, unreliable system, we cannot impose this perfect punishment with an imperfect system. Today's move coming ahead of President-elect Trump's plan to resume federal executions halted under the Biden administration. Trump's transition team saying these are among the worst killers in the world, calling it an abhorrent decision by Joe Biden and a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones. Among those whose sentence was commuted, Khabani Savage, a drug dealer involved in organized crime convicted of murdering 12 people, four of them children, during a firebombing incident at a house of a federal witness.

Steve Mellon is a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute Savage. We are sacrificing the safety and security and concerns of the American public as well and the family members of those that were adversely affected directly by this while the president is giving a Christmas present to these 37 out of 40 death row inmates. Also learning his sentence is being commuted today, Billy Allen, sentenced to death at 19 for the murder of an armed security guard in Missouri. He has always maintained his innocence. We spoke to Allen today by telephone from prison.

Honestly, it shocked me. You know, and I'm like, OK, let me make sure I'm reading this right. When it hit, I was excited. And the people I thought about the most was my family. The relief it would give them. Death penalty opponents hoping tonight some blue state governors may follow the president's suit and spare the lives of prisoners on their death rows. In 60 seconds, disaster at a holiday drone show after several crashed, nearly killing a seven-year-old. Next. Now to the terrifying scene at a holiday drone show in Orlando, as Morgan Chesky reports several drones crashed into a crowd, nearly killing a seven-year-old.

In Orlando, Florida, a festive scene turned frightening in seconds. Thousands watching Saturday as a holiday drone show went haywire, sending drones tumbling to the ground below. The FAA confirming several of the small aircraft collided midair and upon impact, Adriana Edgerton says one of them struck her seven-year-old son, Alexander. My daughter found my son on the floor, unconscious, blood coming out of his face. The drone hit him so hard in his chest that it messed up one of the valves in his heart. Edgerton says the impact forced doctors to perform emergency heart surgery on Sunday. Sky Elements, the vendor behind the drone show, says they're diligently working with the FAA, adding we regret any distress or inconvenience caused. Now, as Edgerton presses for answers, she says her son will be spending Christmas

in ICU. No family should be going through this off of, you know, trying to watch a show and have a good time. And tonight we've learned the NTSB is now launching their own investigation. Meanwhile, the FAA says they plan to take a very close look at the software used to control those drones. Lester. Okay, Morgan, thank you. When we return our investigation into the shadowy world of the body parts trade, how one man learned about his brother's death by watching our report. We're back now with a scary scene in California where part of a pier collapsed into the water after a giant ocean swell. Crews had to rescue two people. Part of the pier has been undergoing repairs after damage from storms. We turn now to our series Dealing the

Dead. We have previously reported on a Texas medical school using unclaimed bodies for research without consent. And tonight, Liz Kreutz has the story of a man who learned of his own brother's death through our reporting. We're home, settled in, and we turn the news on. For Tim Leggett, it was the most unexpected way to find out his brother Dale had died. We like to get here in time to see Lester, and the story comes on about dealing the dead. It is a disturbing story out of Texas. On nightly news that night, our investigation into a local medical school, the University of North Texas Health Science Center,

and how it made millions in part by taking in unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties and then leasing out those body parts, often without consent, for medical training and research, at times as their own families search for them. I'm thinking, well, it has been a little while since I've seen Dale, and I know he lives by himself. I know he's very, very much a loner. Tim went to the NBC News website to learn more. And to his shock, there among some 1,800 names of unclaimed bodies given to the center was his brothers, Denzel, Dale, Leggett. I had a moment of crying and tears because it was, because that's how I found out about my brother's death. Right. Eventually, Tim learned that his

brother died of respiratory failure here at the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, about 30 minutes from Tim's home. He says it's still unclear what efforts of any were taken to try to reach him or other relatives before Dale's body was deemed unclaimed and handed over to the Health Science Center. Tim is among at least 11 families who have learned the grisly details of what happened to their relative, not from a medical examiner, hospital or the Health Science Center, but from NBC News. And six who found their missing relative's name on the list we published of unclaimed bodies, including the mother of a 21-year-old murder victim, Arimor Iturriago Villegas, who was killed in a road rage shooting outside Dallas. Despite documents showing authorities in Texas had her family's phone

number in Venezuela, there's no evidence they attempted to call before her body went to the center for medical training. Invoices showing her body parts assigned prices, $900 for her torso, $703 for her legs. Her mother saying she still can't accept it. For Tim, after he reached out to the center seeking answers, officials sent him a letter saying his brother's body was used to train anesthesiologists, omitting that it was sent to a for-profit medical education company in Kentucky, a detail revealed in documents obtained by NBC News. How does it make you feel to know that somebody was making money off your brother's body parts? That's the highest level of being disgusted

that I could possibly be. He also received a box containing what he was told were his brother's remains. Do you believe that those are indeed your brother's ashes? I'm not positive, but you know, emotionally, psychologically, I'm going to pretend they really are because there's somebody in that box. And whoever's in that box needs to be, in my mind, set free. So I set them free. The center suspended its body donation program and fired the officials who ran it. The center declined to comment on Dale's case, but said in a recent statement, in part, it will take necessary actions to address any additional failures,

and that it continues to extend its deepest apologies to the families impacted. My brother, he never hurt anybody. He was a unique personality, but he never hurt anybody. And he never would have wanted. And he never would have wanted to happen to his body, happen to his body. Liz Kreutz, NBC News, just in Texas. And that is nightly news for this Monday. Thank you for watching.

I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.