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American Morning
Since 9/11 Commission Proposed National Director, Battle Lines Have Been Drawn; McGreevey Sex Scandal; Olympics Update
Aired August 17, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Soledad is off, resting at home and waiting. Heidi Collins with me here in New York.
And good morning again to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
HEMMER: Much more on the saga surrounding the New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey today, resigning last week, acknowledging an extramarital affair with another man. Sources say it all has to do with a former aide who was threatening to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment unless he was paid off. Is that the case? We'll talk to the attorney for the aide in a moment. He's our guest live in the studio here.
COLLINS: Also more of those taped phone calls between Scott Peterson and Amber Frey. This time, the jury heard Peterson's take on how Laci felt about the mistress. And jurors had an interesting reaction. We'll talk to former San Mateo County prosecutor Dean Johnson about that.
HEMMER: Also thousands of U.S. troops could be coming home in a massive military realignment. Some observers believe the president's plan could be more politics than policy. We'll talk to Senator Joe Lieberman about all that in a moment here with the news coming down yesterday.
COLLINS: Jack Cafferty now, joining us once again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. Coming up in the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour, a new product line at Costco, perfect if those pretzels you buy in bulk there should get caught in your throat. And Air France in the running for most compassionate airline of the year after refusing a woman with no arms or legs permission to board a flight to New York City. You cannot make this stuff up up.
HEMMER: That's bad PR.
COLLINS: Sure can't.
CAFFERTY: Air France, got to love them.
COLLINS: All right, thanks, Jack. We'll hear on that in a minute. Ever since the 9/11 Commission proposed putting a national director over all the existing intelligence agencies, the battle lines have been drawn. Senate committees have been holding hearings and drafting legislation. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers will be on Capitol Hill today.
Ed Henry is there now with more.
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The Pentagon controls about 85 percent of the nation's intelligence budget, and Secretary Rumsfeld is not eager to cede the purse strings to this new national intelligence director. That turf battle will be on display this morning when Secretary Rumsfeld takes the hot seat on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): A key senator warns the 9/11 Commission's blueprint for reform will be completely undermined if Congress caves in to the Pentagon.
SEN. JOHN ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: So we're go to have to break some china around here. Otherwise, we will fail. We will fail. We will do in little bits and pieces, and we will be like Congress has so often been. The American people need real reform.
HENRY: Allies of the Pentagon dug in at a Senate hearing, saying the Defense Department should not concede its control of the budget to an intelligence director.
JOHN HAMRE, FMR. DEP. DEFENSE SECY.: You can't help but have that become a source of great fiction over time, and I think that would not be healthy.
HENRY: But at another Senate hearing, three former CIA directors pushed back, demanding that the intelligence director get full budget power.
WILLIAM WEBSTER, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: The intelligence community does not need a feckless czar with fine surroundings and little authority.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Senate Armed Services chairman John Warner, who will be holding this hearing this morning, has proposed an alternative. The Pentagon chief would keep control of the budget, but would jointly propose that budget each year with the national intelligence director, directly to the president.
Now there were also two more hearings this morning, one in the House featuring 9/11 Commission co-chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, one more in the Senate as well, featuring 9/11 families -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still a lot of details to work out. Ed Henry, live on Capitol Hill. Thanks, Ed.
From New Jersey this morning, growing political pressure on the governor, Jim McGreevey, to resign sooner rather than later. McGreevey said he would step down after admitting a sexual affair.
And there's a new poll out, too, in New Jersey: 48 percent of voters say he should leave before the planned November 15th date. Meanwhile, the FBI investigated McGreevey's relation with his former aide Golan Cipel. Cipel says he is not gay, and that the governor sexually harassed him over a period of time.
Cipel's attorney, Allen Lowey, is my guest now here in our studios.
And good morning to you.
When's the last contact you had with your client?
ALLEN LOWEY, ATTY. FOR GOLAN CIPEL: It was over the last few days.
HEMMER: Was it Over the weekend, or was it the end of last week?
LOWEY: We're in touch. You know, hear from him, or about him, but he's sort of decided to be by himself and try to regroup.
HEMMER: Is he in this country, or is he...
LOWEY: Actually, I just heard that he has older parents. He hasn't seen them for a long time. They are quite distraught, as you can imagine. And he has nobody here. He's alone here. He wasn't go anywhere and, you know, to talk to anybody. And so he went to Israel, where he's with his family.
HEMMER: He's with his family now, or does he have plans to return to the U.S.?
LOWEY: Very soon.
HEMMER: Let's talk about some of the specifics, or some of the reports we're getting anyway. Reports say that minutes before that resignation speech, you believe you had a deal with the governor's office. What was that deal?
LOWEY: Well, I can't go into the nature or the specifics of the deal, because we -- the two sides, the governor's aides and myself, had an understanding we weren't going to talk to anyone about the nature of the settlement discussions, but we never contacted the governor's aides in order to encourage a settlement. What I did was I simply, as a courtesy, notified the governor's office on the 23rd of July, that Golan was going to be bringing out an action in about 10 days. I didn't ask them to do anything about it. I just, as a courtesy, wanted them to know, as lawyers do, before they bring an action.
HEMMER: You say a settlement. Is that money? LOWEY: You know there were certain terms that were discussed, certain items that were discussed. We never made any suggestions. We never made any proposals, because Golan decided that in order to get over this and to be able to put the matter behind him, he had to get justice, and justice meant filing an action, because (INAUDIBLE).
HEMMER: A spokesperson, by the way, for the governor says that's absolutely incorrect, that no settlement was talked about, but you're saying the governor's office or somebody from his office did offer some sort of financial settlement, is that what you're suggesting?
LOWEY: I didn't say anything about a financial settlement. I said that there were certain things that, you know, we were talking about, you know, in terms of certain items that we were talking about, you know, in order to settle, but we never made the proposal, we never asked them for anything, the governor's aids that is. The governor's aides have made certain suggestions to me.
HEMMER: Clarification well noted.
LOWEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Your client left in the summer of 2002. And I believe just so I have the dates correct here, the harassment took place, the alleged harassment, eight months prior to that. This case is coming now in 2004 in the summer, almost two years later after he left that position. Why wait until now?
LOWEY: Well, first of all, the harassment did not take place eight months prior to August 2002. It began during the transition period, when the governor was elected, and continued through, you know, the summer of August 2002, when my client was forced to resign. The reason he was forced to resign was because he couldn't take it anymore, and he confronted the governor, and he said, this has got to stop.
Why it took this long? He was internalizing it. He didn't know who to talk to about it. There were, you know, some communications from the other side, you know, people who were visiting him. I'm not saying that they came directly from the governor's office, but trying to talk to him, and he didn't know who they were, what they wanted. He assumed that they were coming from somebody, you know, on the other side.
And finally, when he came to see me, and he told me about the details, you know, he decided, I've got to...
HEMMER: What would satisfy your client now?
LOWEY: You know, my client, he needs to find a way to be able to put this matter behind him, and he never was looking for money. This isn't about money; this is about justice. Justice is about maybe confrontation, in terms of having the governor be contrite and take responsibility for his actions.
And on Thursday, when the governor resigned, I think my client in some way felt vindicated, that the governor did own up to what he had done, because politicians don't resign because they're gay, or if they in fact had a consensual affair, and there was no affair here, because my client is heterosexual. There was a -- there was no relationship. There was assault and harassment.
HEMMER: Thank you for your time. I wish we had more time. There's breaking news to out of Iraq, though, and we have to go to that now.
LOWEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you, sir.
Here's Heidi now.
COLLINS: It's been going on for two weeks, the intense fighting in Najaf. We have John Vause standing by now with part of the solution, a step toward a solution to coming to some sort of truce with Muqtada al-Sadr.
John, what's the latest?
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
Well, we're at the convention center here in Baghdad, where more than 1,000 delegates have been meeting three days now. They decided to send a delegation to Najaf to try and convince Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi militia to leave the Imam Ali Mosque. They were meant to leave this morning, but it was delayed for about eight hours because of security concerns.
There were reports in Baghdad ambushed had been set on the road from Baghdad to Najaf. We've been told that that delegation, though, has just recently left by a helicopter to Najaf. They are now hoping to negotiate with al-Sadr. They hope to achieve what others have failed many, many times before, and that is, to convince al-Sadr to join the mainstream political process.
There's another issue here in Baghdad, Heidi. Just as there were leaving, too, a reminder of the dangerous situation in Baghdad. A car bomb -- I'm sorry, a mortar attack rather in central Baghdad, five people killed, 23 wounded. It happened on Rasheed Street, a very old and very busy street in Baghdad. The blast was so powerful that it damaged a building and destroyed seven cars -- Heidi.
COLLINS: John Vause coming to us live from Baghdad this morning.
John, thanks so much for that.
8:09 now, time for a look at some of today's other news, and Carol Costello once again.
Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Heidi. Thank you. President Bush is focusing today on America's manufacturing. The president will tour a Boeing plant near Philadelphia this morning, and then he'll head west to Virginia for a campaign rally. Senator John Kerry is traveling to Ohio, where he will address Veterans of Foreign Wars, their convention tomorrow. His running mate, John Edwards, is meeting voters today in Arkansas and Alabama.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is running into trouble in Oregon. An employee's union accused Nader supporters of turning in fraudulent petition signatures in an attempt to get Nader on the state's presidential ballot. Nader's Oregon campaign coordinator denies that accusation. The state's election division has opened a formal investigation.
In Louisiana, a man suspected of being a serial killer will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Derrick Todd Lee was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing 21-year-old Geralyn Barr DeSoto. Police say Lee is linked by DNA evidence to the deaths of seven other Louisiana women.
And in California, residents of Santa Ana were forced indoors by swarms of bees, I'm talking about tens of thousands of bees. Kids throwing rocks disturbed a 500 pound hive. The hive was launched in an apartment building wall. Two people are in the hospital. Several more reported being stung. Firefighters cordoned off a four-block area. An exterminate later estimated the colony population at about 120,000 bees.
Back to you, Heidi.
COLLINS: Oh, can you imagine? Who sits there and counts those? That's my worst nightmare.
All right, Carol Costello, thanks so much for that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: The queen of talk testifying, listening rather, to testimony at a juror in a Chicago murder trial. Oprah Winfrey picked yesterday to serve on the jury in criminal court. The billionaire will make $17.20 a day during that trial. Oprah took some notes during opening testimony of two witnesses.
COLLINS: She needs the money, though, you know.
HEMMER: Well, I'll tell you what, she's going to get some really interesting studies done there, too. You're going to see them on her show, I guarantee you. And we'll learn a lot more, so.
COLLINS: I bet. Still to come this morning, the president's troop restructuring plan. It could mean pulling some troops out of South Korea. Is that a good idea? We'll talk about it.
Also, Amber Frey grilled Scott Peterson on tape. We'll hear from a former prosecutor in that courtroom about what the jury is hearing.
Back in a moment, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: The D.A. who filed child-molestation charges against Michael Jackson was on the stand yesterday, and Jackson came to court with his family, watching as the prosecutor was grilled by Jackson's lawyer. The defense claims that a major block of evidence was collected illegally and then should be thrown out.
Also in the Kobe Bryant matter, details of his accuser's sex life will be allowed at trial. The prosecution case suffered a setback yesterday when the Colorado supreme court refused to hear an appeal on that matter -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Another day, another chapter in tale of the tapes at the Scott Peterson double-murder trial. Jurors will hear more of the secretly recorded phone calls Amber Frey made for police. Peterson's former mistress was heard on tape yesterday grilling him about the web of lies.
Dean Johnson, former San Mateo County prosecutor was in the courtroom. He's joining us now this morning from Redwood City, California.
Dean, thanks for being with us this morning.
These recordings have been incredibly compelling. They actually -- this one that we're going to listen to now took place on January 8, 2003, which was just two weeks after Laci was reported missing.
Let's listen for a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMBER FREY: You know, Scott, when people find out, and they will, no one will think your behavior is innocent. Do you understand that?
SCOTT PETERSON: Yes, I know that. But I didn't have anything to do with this, so you know, once we find her, you know, everyone will know that I was not involved in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Scott Peterson has admitted many times to being a liar. Why should the jury, after hearing that tape, that portion in particular, believe anything he says?
DEAN JOHNSON, FMR. SAN MATEO COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Well, the jurors are not going to believe anything he says, and this puts the defense in quite a dilemma. Amber Frey not only confronts him with his lies, but she also asks him a number of critical questions that he refuses to answer.
Simple questions like, Scott, did you love Laci? Scott, what was the nature of your relationship? Scott, did you think the baby was yours? And Scott, can you tell me that it was just a coincidence that you predicted that you had lost your wife on December 9th and that came true on December 24th?
At the conclusion of this testimony, I think what the jurors are going to take away are those unanswered questions and a feeling that they, like Amber Frey, deserve answers to those questions.
COLLINS: Let's listen to another excerpt if we could, please, Dean, the same day, where Peterson claims that his wife Laci knew about the affair with Amber, and it didn't seem to bother her.
Let's listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREY: I mean, you told me that she was aware of you, right?
PETERSON: Yes.
FREY: Yes, and she was still doing great in that morning with that? She wasn't emotionally distraught about...
PETERSON: No.
FREY: ... you not being with her, and faithful to her, and having someone else, because that's just really hard for me to believe.
PETERSON: I know it is. I know it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Dean, you were in that courtroom. How did this go over with the jury?
JOHNSON: Well, I was watching the jury closely during this exchange, and several of the jurors were actually laughing. At one point, Scott says that he had told Laci, his wife, about Amber Frey, his mistress, after his first date with Amber. And remember, he had approximately four dates with Amber, and that Laci was fine with this. Amber couldn't believe it. The jury couldn't buy it. I think it's pretty clear to everyone that if Laci had known about Amber after that first date, she would have had Scott on a tighter leash than Mckenzie the dog.
COLLINS: Yes, does this whole case kind of come down to these lies that we've been hearing so much firsthand from Scott Peterson?
JOHNSON: I think what it comes down to is, as Amber says, it seems like an extraordinary coincidence that all of these things come together. The essence of a circumstantial evidence case is coincidence.
The defense will say, oh, all of this evidence that you see that appears to point to guilt, just a coincidence. The prosecution will say, ladies and gentlemen, how many coincidences will you swallow before you say that's enough. And that's what the jury is going to take away from the Amber Frey testimony.
COLLINS: And Mark Geragos getting ready to perform his cross- examination of her, possibly as early as the end of this week.
All right, Dean, we appreciate your time so much this morning. Thanks again.
JOHNSON: Thank you, Heidi.
HEMMER: In a moment here, gymnastics nailbiter from Athens went right down to the final performance.
And answer this question in today's Olympic quiz: What are the names of the two official Olympic mascots in Athens? Think about that. Back in a moment here after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Before the break, we asked you name the two official Olympic mascots there in Athens. They are -- Athena and Phevos, a brother and sister named after Greek Gods. And Jack, now you know the rest of that story.
CAFFERTY: I was all over that.
HEMMER: There they are. Athena's the one with the bar there right there.
COLLINS: I've never seen them.
HEMMER: That's -- getting a workout there in Athens.
CAFFERTY: Like a couple of the CNN executives down in Atlanta.
COLLINS: Stop!
HEMMER: Good morning.
CAFFERTY: Hello.
HEMMER: An Olympic bronze medal can hardly be described as a disappointment, but swimmer Michael Phelps set the bar high going into these Games.
Mark McKay, live in Athens with more there. Mark, good afternoon.
MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning to you.
Michael Phelps said it. He said, "I am already successful." It's hard to argue with that fact, even though his attempt to tie Mark Spitz's record of seven swimming golds is now over here in Athens. Phelps races later Tuesday in the 200-meter butterfly, one night after earning bronze in the 200-meter free. He is still on track to win eight medals, which would equal the all-time record. Now, a pair of Californians came to Athens dreaming of Olympic gold. They can dream no more. Natalie Coughlin won her medal Monday in the 100-meter backstroke, falling just short of her own world record. Aaron Piersol also won gold at the Athens Aquatic Center Monday. This in the men's 100-meter backstroke. It was one of the closest 100-meter races in Olympic swimming history. The top seven men were within 57-hundredths of a second of on another.
As Bill mentioned before the break, it was quite a night on the mat for the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team. They earned their first medal in Olympics competition in a non-boycotted Games in 72 years.
And Olympic security hey been turned up a notch because of a love-struck husband. A 31-year-old Canadian man was arrested after he plunged into the pool at the synchronized diving venue. Bill, he had a message written across his chest to his wife and was seen wearing a tutu and clown shoes.
HEMMER: That's a headline! Thank you, Mark. We'll look to the men's hoops later today, too, as they take on Greece. Mark McKay.
CAFFERTY: That's the best report on the Olympics that's been done since the Games started, right there.
HEMMER: I don't quite get -- I love the Olympics. I don't quite get synchronized diving. You do it, then you say let's see if we can do it together?
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Well, I'm certain it's very hard, but it just is a sport?
CAFFERTY: Thus the use of the word synchronized.
HEMMER: Yes, yes, but...
CAFFERTY: There was a great photo in one of the papers, the two Chinese women, synchronized diving, going off the board together. And I mean, they are -- it looked like a mirrored reflection of each other.
COLLINS: Yes, it's amazing.
HEMMER: You know, for a guy who has not watched a stitch of the Games, by the way, he has a lot of knowledge. Doesn't he?
CAFFERTY: I just read about them in the newspapers in the morning.
Seventy-seven days until the election. And yesterday, Senator Tom Harkin called the Vice President Dick Cheney a coward, and said that he dodged his military service in Vietnam, but that Cheney is willing to, quote, "be tough with someone else's kid's blood." Nasty stuff.
And they've been arguing back and forth about the service record. So, that's the question: Is a candidate's military record fair game in the campaign?
Bill in Houston writes: "Why not? The past is prelude. One note, lots of men say they served with Mr. Kerry, but not one peep from anyone who say they served with Mr. Bush. This is significant to me."
Simone from Odenton, Maryland: "I think more of the lack of a military record is fair game, since our president portrays himself as a wartime president, he should make all of his military records available. On John Kerry's Web site, his entire military file is displayed. Not so on Bush's Web site. Why?"
Michael in Smyrna, Tennessee: "The debate about John Kerry and George Bush during the mid-1960s is not about Vietnam or the service each man did during that period. The debate is how each man of the same socioeconomic class and even from the same college handled that divisive period in their relatively young lives."
Karen in Palm Coast, Florida: "Candidates' military career, or lack of, is not a litmus test for fitness to be president. Franklin Roosevelt led the nation through one of the worst wars in modern history."
And John in Jacksonville said: "We've heard enough about their military records. It's time to check their kindergarten and pre- school report cards. Did they play well with others? Did they run with scissors?"
All right, John.
Our producer has got a kid in pre-school up in Connecticut, $4,000 a year. Better get you some overtime. Maybe you can do like Aaron Brown's show at night or something? Make a little extra money.
COLLINS: All right, Jack. Thanks so much.
And staying on the military theme now, a major redeployment for U.S. troops. Are they being sent to the right places? Senator Joe Lieberman will be with us.
And we'll show you the strength of Charley like you haven't seen it before. Some before and after shots from space.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Aired August 17, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Soledad is off, resting at home and waiting. Heidi Collins with me here in New York.
And good morning again to you.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
HEMMER: Much more on the saga surrounding the New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey today, resigning last week, acknowledging an extramarital affair with another man. Sources say it all has to do with a former aide who was threatening to sue McGreevey for sexual harassment unless he was paid off. Is that the case? We'll talk to the attorney for the aide in a moment. He's our guest live in the studio here.
COLLINS: Also more of those taped phone calls between Scott Peterson and Amber Frey. This time, the jury heard Peterson's take on how Laci felt about the mistress. And jurors had an interesting reaction. We'll talk to former San Mateo County prosecutor Dean Johnson about that.
HEMMER: Also thousands of U.S. troops could be coming home in a massive military realignment. Some observers believe the president's plan could be more politics than policy. We'll talk to Senator Joe Lieberman about all that in a moment here with the news coming down yesterday.
COLLINS: Jack Cafferty now, joining us once again.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. Coming up in the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour, a new product line at Costco, perfect if those pretzels you buy in bulk there should get caught in your throat. And Air France in the running for most compassionate airline of the year after refusing a woman with no arms or legs permission to board a flight to New York City. You cannot make this stuff up up.
HEMMER: That's bad PR.
COLLINS: Sure can't.
CAFFERTY: Air France, got to love them.
COLLINS: All right, thanks, Jack. We'll hear on that in a minute. Ever since the 9/11 Commission proposed putting a national director over all the existing intelligence agencies, the battle lines have been drawn. Senate committees have been holding hearings and drafting legislation. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers will be on Capitol Hill today.
Ed Henry is there now with more.
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The Pentagon controls about 85 percent of the nation's intelligence budget, and Secretary Rumsfeld is not eager to cede the purse strings to this new national intelligence director. That turf battle will be on display this morning when Secretary Rumsfeld takes the hot seat on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): A key senator warns the 9/11 Commission's blueprint for reform will be completely undermined if Congress caves in to the Pentagon.
SEN. JOHN ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: So we're go to have to break some china around here. Otherwise, we will fail. We will fail. We will do in little bits and pieces, and we will be like Congress has so often been. The American people need real reform.
HENRY: Allies of the Pentagon dug in at a Senate hearing, saying the Defense Department should not concede its control of the budget to an intelligence director.
JOHN HAMRE, FMR. DEP. DEFENSE SECY.: You can't help but have that become a source of great fiction over time, and I think that would not be healthy.
HENRY: But at another Senate hearing, three former CIA directors pushed back, demanding that the intelligence director get full budget power.
WILLIAM WEBSTER, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: The intelligence community does not need a feckless czar with fine surroundings and little authority.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Senate Armed Services chairman John Warner, who will be holding this hearing this morning, has proposed an alternative. The Pentagon chief would keep control of the budget, but would jointly propose that budget each year with the national intelligence director, directly to the president.
Now there were also two more hearings this morning, one in the House featuring 9/11 Commission co-chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, one more in the Senate as well, featuring 9/11 families -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Still a lot of details to work out. Ed Henry, live on Capitol Hill. Thanks, Ed.
From New Jersey this morning, growing political pressure on the governor, Jim McGreevey, to resign sooner rather than later. McGreevey said he would step down after admitting a sexual affair.
And there's a new poll out, too, in New Jersey: 48 percent of voters say he should leave before the planned November 15th date. Meanwhile, the FBI investigated McGreevey's relation with his former aide Golan Cipel. Cipel says he is not gay, and that the governor sexually harassed him over a period of time.
Cipel's attorney, Allen Lowey, is my guest now here in our studios.
And good morning to you.
When's the last contact you had with your client?
ALLEN LOWEY, ATTY. FOR GOLAN CIPEL: It was over the last few days.
HEMMER: Was it Over the weekend, or was it the end of last week?
LOWEY: We're in touch. You know, hear from him, or about him, but he's sort of decided to be by himself and try to regroup.
HEMMER: Is he in this country, or is he...
LOWEY: Actually, I just heard that he has older parents. He hasn't seen them for a long time. They are quite distraught, as you can imagine. And he has nobody here. He's alone here. He wasn't go anywhere and, you know, to talk to anybody. And so he went to Israel, where he's with his family.
HEMMER: He's with his family now, or does he have plans to return to the U.S.?
LOWEY: Very soon.
HEMMER: Let's talk about some of the specifics, or some of the reports we're getting anyway. Reports say that minutes before that resignation speech, you believe you had a deal with the governor's office. What was that deal?
LOWEY: Well, I can't go into the nature or the specifics of the deal, because we -- the two sides, the governor's aides and myself, had an understanding we weren't going to talk to anyone about the nature of the settlement discussions, but we never contacted the governor's aides in order to encourage a settlement. What I did was I simply, as a courtesy, notified the governor's office on the 23rd of July, that Golan was going to be bringing out an action in about 10 days. I didn't ask them to do anything about it. I just, as a courtesy, wanted them to know, as lawyers do, before they bring an action.
HEMMER: You say a settlement. Is that money? LOWEY: You know there were certain terms that were discussed, certain items that were discussed. We never made any suggestions. We never made any proposals, because Golan decided that in order to get over this and to be able to put the matter behind him, he had to get justice, and justice meant filing an action, because (INAUDIBLE).
HEMMER: A spokesperson, by the way, for the governor says that's absolutely incorrect, that no settlement was talked about, but you're saying the governor's office or somebody from his office did offer some sort of financial settlement, is that what you're suggesting?
LOWEY: I didn't say anything about a financial settlement. I said that there were certain things that, you know, we were talking about, you know, in terms of certain items that we were talking about, you know, in order to settle, but we never made the proposal, we never asked them for anything, the governor's aids that is. The governor's aides have made certain suggestions to me.
HEMMER: Clarification well noted.
LOWEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Your client left in the summer of 2002. And I believe just so I have the dates correct here, the harassment took place, the alleged harassment, eight months prior to that. This case is coming now in 2004 in the summer, almost two years later after he left that position. Why wait until now?
LOWEY: Well, first of all, the harassment did not take place eight months prior to August 2002. It began during the transition period, when the governor was elected, and continued through, you know, the summer of August 2002, when my client was forced to resign. The reason he was forced to resign was because he couldn't take it anymore, and he confronted the governor, and he said, this has got to stop.
Why it took this long? He was internalizing it. He didn't know who to talk to about it. There were, you know, some communications from the other side, you know, people who were visiting him. I'm not saying that they came directly from the governor's office, but trying to talk to him, and he didn't know who they were, what they wanted. He assumed that they were coming from somebody, you know, on the other side.
And finally, when he came to see me, and he told me about the details, you know, he decided, I've got to...
HEMMER: What would satisfy your client now?
LOWEY: You know, my client, he needs to find a way to be able to put this matter behind him, and he never was looking for money. This isn't about money; this is about justice. Justice is about maybe confrontation, in terms of having the governor be contrite and take responsibility for his actions.
And on Thursday, when the governor resigned, I think my client in some way felt vindicated, that the governor did own up to what he had done, because politicians don't resign because they're gay, or if they in fact had a consensual affair, and there was no affair here, because my client is heterosexual. There was a -- there was no relationship. There was assault and harassment.
HEMMER: Thank you for your time. I wish we had more time. There's breaking news to out of Iraq, though, and we have to go to that now.
LOWEY: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you, sir.
Here's Heidi now.
COLLINS: It's been going on for two weeks, the intense fighting in Najaf. We have John Vause standing by now with part of the solution, a step toward a solution to coming to some sort of truce with Muqtada al-Sadr.
John, what's the latest?
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.
Well, we're at the convention center here in Baghdad, where more than 1,000 delegates have been meeting three days now. They decided to send a delegation to Najaf to try and convince Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi militia to leave the Imam Ali Mosque. They were meant to leave this morning, but it was delayed for about eight hours because of security concerns.
There were reports in Baghdad ambushed had been set on the road from Baghdad to Najaf. We've been told that that delegation, though, has just recently left by a helicopter to Najaf. They are now hoping to negotiate with al-Sadr. They hope to achieve what others have failed many, many times before, and that is, to convince al-Sadr to join the mainstream political process.
There's another issue here in Baghdad, Heidi. Just as there were leaving, too, a reminder of the dangerous situation in Baghdad. A car bomb -- I'm sorry, a mortar attack rather in central Baghdad, five people killed, 23 wounded. It happened on Rasheed Street, a very old and very busy street in Baghdad. The blast was so powerful that it damaged a building and destroyed seven cars -- Heidi.
COLLINS: John Vause coming to us live from Baghdad this morning.
John, thanks so much for that.
8:09 now, time for a look at some of today's other news, and Carol Costello once again.
Hi, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Heidi. Thank you. President Bush is focusing today on America's manufacturing. The president will tour a Boeing plant near Philadelphia this morning, and then he'll head west to Virginia for a campaign rally. Senator John Kerry is traveling to Ohio, where he will address Veterans of Foreign Wars, their convention tomorrow. His running mate, John Edwards, is meeting voters today in Arkansas and Alabama.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is running into trouble in Oregon. An employee's union accused Nader supporters of turning in fraudulent petition signatures in an attempt to get Nader on the state's presidential ballot. Nader's Oregon campaign coordinator denies that accusation. The state's election division has opened a formal investigation.
In Louisiana, a man suspected of being a serial killer will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Derrick Todd Lee was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing 21-year-old Geralyn Barr DeSoto. Police say Lee is linked by DNA evidence to the deaths of seven other Louisiana women.
And in California, residents of Santa Ana were forced indoors by swarms of bees, I'm talking about tens of thousands of bees. Kids throwing rocks disturbed a 500 pound hive. The hive was launched in an apartment building wall. Two people are in the hospital. Several more reported being stung. Firefighters cordoned off a four-block area. An exterminate later estimated the colony population at about 120,000 bees.
Back to you, Heidi.
COLLINS: Oh, can you imagine? Who sits there and counts those? That's my worst nightmare.
All right, Carol Costello, thanks so much for that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: The queen of talk testifying, listening rather, to testimony at a juror in a Chicago murder trial. Oprah Winfrey picked yesterday to serve on the jury in criminal court. The billionaire will make $17.20 a day during that trial. Oprah took some notes during opening testimony of two witnesses.
COLLINS: She needs the money, though, you know.
HEMMER: Well, I'll tell you what, she's going to get some really interesting studies done there, too. You're going to see them on her show, I guarantee you. And we'll learn a lot more, so.
COLLINS: I bet. Still to come this morning, the president's troop restructuring plan. It could mean pulling some troops out of South Korea. Is that a good idea? We'll talk about it.
Also, Amber Frey grilled Scott Peterson on tape. We'll hear from a former prosecutor in that courtroom about what the jury is hearing.
Back in a moment, on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: The D.A. who filed child-molestation charges against Michael Jackson was on the stand yesterday, and Jackson came to court with his family, watching as the prosecutor was grilled by Jackson's lawyer. The defense claims that a major block of evidence was collected illegally and then should be thrown out.
Also in the Kobe Bryant matter, details of his accuser's sex life will be allowed at trial. The prosecution case suffered a setback yesterday when the Colorado supreme court refused to hear an appeal on that matter -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Another day, another chapter in tale of the tapes at the Scott Peterson double-murder trial. Jurors will hear more of the secretly recorded phone calls Amber Frey made for police. Peterson's former mistress was heard on tape yesterday grilling him about the web of lies.
Dean Johnson, former San Mateo County prosecutor was in the courtroom. He's joining us now this morning from Redwood City, California.
Dean, thanks for being with us this morning.
These recordings have been incredibly compelling. They actually -- this one that we're going to listen to now took place on January 8, 2003, which was just two weeks after Laci was reported missing.
Let's listen for a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMBER FREY: You know, Scott, when people find out, and they will, no one will think your behavior is innocent. Do you understand that?
SCOTT PETERSON: Yes, I know that. But I didn't have anything to do with this, so you know, once we find her, you know, everyone will know that I was not involved in this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Scott Peterson has admitted many times to being a liar. Why should the jury, after hearing that tape, that portion in particular, believe anything he says?
DEAN JOHNSON, FMR. SAN MATEO COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Well, the jurors are not going to believe anything he says, and this puts the defense in quite a dilemma. Amber Frey not only confronts him with his lies, but she also asks him a number of critical questions that he refuses to answer.
Simple questions like, Scott, did you love Laci? Scott, what was the nature of your relationship? Scott, did you think the baby was yours? And Scott, can you tell me that it was just a coincidence that you predicted that you had lost your wife on December 9th and that came true on December 24th?
At the conclusion of this testimony, I think what the jurors are going to take away are those unanswered questions and a feeling that they, like Amber Frey, deserve answers to those questions.
COLLINS: Let's listen to another excerpt if we could, please, Dean, the same day, where Peterson claims that his wife Laci knew about the affair with Amber, and it didn't seem to bother her.
Let's listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREY: I mean, you told me that she was aware of you, right?
PETERSON: Yes.
FREY: Yes, and she was still doing great in that morning with that? She wasn't emotionally distraught about...
PETERSON: No.
FREY: ... you not being with her, and faithful to her, and having someone else, because that's just really hard for me to believe.
PETERSON: I know it is. I know it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Dean, you were in that courtroom. How did this go over with the jury?
JOHNSON: Well, I was watching the jury closely during this exchange, and several of the jurors were actually laughing. At one point, Scott says that he had told Laci, his wife, about Amber Frey, his mistress, after his first date with Amber. And remember, he had approximately four dates with Amber, and that Laci was fine with this. Amber couldn't believe it. The jury couldn't buy it. I think it's pretty clear to everyone that if Laci had known about Amber after that first date, she would have had Scott on a tighter leash than Mckenzie the dog.
COLLINS: Yes, does this whole case kind of come down to these lies that we've been hearing so much firsthand from Scott Peterson?
JOHNSON: I think what it comes down to is, as Amber says, it seems like an extraordinary coincidence that all of these things come together. The essence of a circumstantial evidence case is coincidence.
The defense will say, oh, all of this evidence that you see that appears to point to guilt, just a coincidence. The prosecution will say, ladies and gentlemen, how many coincidences will you swallow before you say that's enough. And that's what the jury is going to take away from the Amber Frey testimony.
COLLINS: And Mark Geragos getting ready to perform his cross- examination of her, possibly as early as the end of this week.
All right, Dean, we appreciate your time so much this morning. Thanks again.
JOHNSON: Thank you, Heidi.
HEMMER: In a moment here, gymnastics nailbiter from Athens went right down to the final performance.
And answer this question in today's Olympic quiz: What are the names of the two official Olympic mascots in Athens? Think about that. Back in a moment here after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Before the break, we asked you name the two official Olympic mascots there in Athens. They are -- Athena and Phevos, a brother and sister named after Greek Gods. And Jack, now you know the rest of that story.
CAFFERTY: I was all over that.
HEMMER: There they are. Athena's the one with the bar there right there.
COLLINS: I've never seen them.
HEMMER: That's -- getting a workout there in Athens.
CAFFERTY: Like a couple of the CNN executives down in Atlanta.
COLLINS: Stop!
HEMMER: Good morning.
CAFFERTY: Hello.
HEMMER: An Olympic bronze medal can hardly be described as a disappointment, but swimmer Michael Phelps set the bar high going into these Games.
Mark McKay, live in Athens with more there. Mark, good afternoon.
MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, good morning to you.
Michael Phelps said it. He said, "I am already successful." It's hard to argue with that fact, even though his attempt to tie Mark Spitz's record of seven swimming golds is now over here in Athens. Phelps races later Tuesday in the 200-meter butterfly, one night after earning bronze in the 200-meter free. He is still on track to win eight medals, which would equal the all-time record. Now, a pair of Californians came to Athens dreaming of Olympic gold. They can dream no more. Natalie Coughlin won her medal Monday in the 100-meter backstroke, falling just short of her own world record. Aaron Piersol also won gold at the Athens Aquatic Center Monday. This in the men's 100-meter backstroke. It was one of the closest 100-meter races in Olympic swimming history. The top seven men were within 57-hundredths of a second of on another.
As Bill mentioned before the break, it was quite a night on the mat for the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team. They earned their first medal in Olympics competition in a non-boycotted Games in 72 years.
And Olympic security hey been turned up a notch because of a love-struck husband. A 31-year-old Canadian man was arrested after he plunged into the pool at the synchronized diving venue. Bill, he had a message written across his chest to his wife and was seen wearing a tutu and clown shoes.
HEMMER: That's a headline! Thank you, Mark. We'll look to the men's hoops later today, too, as they take on Greece. Mark McKay.
CAFFERTY: That's the best report on the Olympics that's been done since the Games started, right there.
HEMMER: I don't quite get -- I love the Olympics. I don't quite get synchronized diving. You do it, then you say let's see if we can do it together?
COLLINS: Yes.
HEMMER: Well, I'm certain it's very hard, but it just is a sport?
CAFFERTY: Thus the use of the word synchronized.
HEMMER: Yes, yes, but...
CAFFERTY: There was a great photo in one of the papers, the two Chinese women, synchronized diving, going off the board together. And I mean, they are -- it looked like a mirrored reflection of each other.
COLLINS: Yes, it's amazing.
HEMMER: You know, for a guy who has not watched a stitch of the Games, by the way, he has a lot of knowledge. Doesn't he?
CAFFERTY: I just read about them in the newspapers in the morning.
Seventy-seven days until the election. And yesterday, Senator Tom Harkin called the Vice President Dick Cheney a coward, and said that he dodged his military service in Vietnam, but that Cheney is willing to, quote, "be tough with someone else's kid's blood." Nasty stuff.
And they've been arguing back and forth about the service record. So, that's the question: Is a candidate's military record fair game in the campaign?
Bill in Houston writes: "Why not? The past is prelude. One note, lots of men say they served with Mr. Kerry, but not one peep from anyone who say they served with Mr. Bush. This is significant to me."
Simone from Odenton, Maryland: "I think more of the lack of a military record is fair game, since our president portrays himself as a wartime president, he should make all of his military records available. On John Kerry's Web site, his entire military file is displayed. Not so on Bush's Web site. Why?"
Michael in Smyrna, Tennessee: "The debate about John Kerry and George Bush during the mid-1960s is not about Vietnam or the service each man did during that period. The debate is how each man of the same socioeconomic class and even from the same college handled that divisive period in their relatively young lives."
Karen in Palm Coast, Florida: "Candidates' military career, or lack of, is not a litmus test for fitness to be president. Franklin Roosevelt led the nation through one of the worst wars in modern history."
And John in Jacksonville said: "We've heard enough about their military records. It's time to check their kindergarten and pre- school report cards. Did they play well with others? Did they run with scissors?"
All right, John.
Our producer has got a kid in pre-school up in Connecticut, $4,000 a year. Better get you some overtime. Maybe you can do like Aaron Brown's show at night or something? Make a little extra money.
COLLINS: All right, Jack. Thanks so much.
And staying on the military theme now, a major redeployment for U.S. troops. Are they being sent to the right places? Senator Joe Lieberman will be with us.
And we'll show you the strength of Charley like you haven't seen it before. Some before and after shots from space.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
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