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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Obama Wants $4 Billion for Immigration Crisis; Recreational Pot Sales Begin in Washington; Recreational Pot for Sale in Washington State; Questions Surround Mother of Toddler Who Died in Hot Car

Aired July 08, 2014 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is legal and it is lucrative. Washington state starts selling pot for recreational use, and they expect to make millions in taxes and fees out there.

Police are trying to figure out why a mom abandoned this adorable baby girl on a subway platform in New York no less. We have just learned the mom has been charged.

And a sleepy Yankees fan gets called out by this nap by the sports announcers. And then that little bit of business shows up online. And now that napster is suing Major League Baseball. He's suing the Yankees. He's suing ESPN. He wants $10 million. Is he going to get it? All for sleeping?

That's coming up.

Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. It is Tuesday, July 8th. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW. And let's begin here, the battle over the border. It is front and center today. As the president prepares for a trip to Texas.

Mr. Obama is nearly doubling the amount of money that he is requesting in aid to help slow that flow of undocumented migrants illegally crossing the United States border. And then also help figure out what to do with all of those people, many of them kids, who are already here and stuffed into centers that can barely house them.

Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us now live with the breaking details, and Ed Lavandera is live in Dallas, Texas, which is really front and center right now in the secondary battle that's brewing between two very important men.

I'm going to begin with you, Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

BANFIELD: I don't know that many of us expected to see the figure, the dollar figure, that emerged from where you're standing today.

ACOSTA: Right.

BANFIELD: But give me the lowdown on it. ACOSTA: That's right, Ashleigh. You know, earlier, in this process,

the White House was signaling that this was going to be in the neighborhood of $2 billion. And as you said, this is about double that. And the reason why -- we can put it up on screen. There's a lot of money going to deal with this crisis.

Of the $3.7 billion the president is requesting of Congress, $1.8 billion alone is going to the care of these unaccompanied children who have been flooding into the country across that southwestern border. Another $1.1 billion going to the transportation, detention and removal of these migrants.

Keep in mind, 233,000 people have been detained and removed overall in the last year. 87,000 from Central America. That just gives you the scope there. 433 million for Border Patrol agents' overtime and other costs involved. And really flooding the zone down there with Border Patrol agents to try to keep this -- to keep a lid on all of this. And then $64 million to the Department of Justice, Ashleigh, which is very interesting.

That is to hire immigration judge teams. They don't have enough immigration judges, legal teams down there. Some of this is going to go to legal assistance for these children and these families who have come in. And so that money is needed as well to help deal with this crisis.

And we should also report, Ashleigh, we've been talking back and forth here this morning about Rick Perry and President Obama. First Rick Perry said he didn't want to just have a handshake when the president shows up in Texas. And so sort of rebuffed the president's offer to meet on the tarmac. Then the president sent a letter through Valerie Jarrett, his senior adviser, earlier this morning or late last night, inviting the governor to meet in Dallas tomorrow.

We have just learned from Governor Rick Perry's office that he has accepted the president's offer and so they will be meeting tomorrow, it appears, in Dallas. Should be quite a meeting -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: OK. Well, before we get to that, because I think today's news really plays into that, and Ed, I'm going to get you to talk about that in a moment. Still with you, Jim Acosta.

When I looked at that map of the numbers and how they're divvying up where that almost $4 billion would be spent, I thought it would be flip-flopped. I thought so much more would be going towards the process to getting those judge teams, to getting those hearings, to clearing this backlog of these kids who they technically can't just put on a bus or a plane or a boat and send back because of the laws that currently exists. They have to give them hearings.

ACOSTA: That's right.

BANFIELD: And that's what's chunking up the system.

ACOSTA: That is right.

BANFIELD: Why is it that so little of it is being spent on that part of it?

ACOSTA: Well, I think that at this the point, they feel like that that funding request is sufficient to deal with the judging -- the judges and the adjudication of that process down there, the legal teams that will be going into place. But that $1.8 billion, I mean, that is an eye-popping figure, Ashleigh, mainly because --

BANFIELD: Huge.

ACOSTA: And you just alluded to this. The law is different for kids from Central America who arrive here in the United States versus kids from Mexico or Canada. Those kids can basically be returned back to their countries of origin almost immediately. When they come from Central America, there's a different process according to the law. They have to be brought into the refugee system. They get hearings. And the process takes a longer time.

That is why they need these additional housing facility to detain and hold these kids, these families, until they can go through that process.

I was on a conference call with White House officials earlier today. And they don't know how long these kids will be in this country. It could be weeks, it could be months. They just don't have any answer to that at this point. And they're talking about converting schools. One event that the president is going to be doing tomorrow, and presumably this is where Rick Perry will meet up with him in Dallas.

The president is going there to hear about local plans in Dallas to convert local schools into detention and housing facilities for these kids.

BANFIELD: Wow.

ACOSTA: The same is also being talked about in Houston. So that just gives you a scope of the problem here. And just how many kids they're dealing with.

BANFIELD: Well, let's turn it over to Ed Lavandera. That's exactly where he is. He's in Dallas.

And now presumably, Ed, from the news that's broken, there's going to be this much ballyhooed meeting between the Texas Governor Rick Perry and President Obama, albeit not where, perhaps, Rick Perry wanted it to be, the optics of it being on the border. Instead, I guess it's going to be in Dallas. Take it from there and bounce off of what Jim Acosta just reported and what we can see and what we can expect tomorrow.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think this kind of points to what especially many Republicans here in Texas have been very critical of President Obama for quite some time now. As they point to them trying to alert the Obama administration about this crisis before it reached the magnitude where it had reached. Now it was interesting, if you look at the letters that had been exchanged in the last -- in the last day or so between the Obama administration and Rick Perry's office, you know, you see a very different tone.

Valerie Jarrett's letter to Rick Perry was about two pages long, very detailed, making the case for the Obama administration's efforts and what it's been trying to do here in the last few weeks, and their strategy going forward. But when you look at what Rick Perry and others here in Texas have been pushing for, you know, a lot of those ideas and plans don't really seem to kind of fit together.

So it will be interesting to see how they kind of mesh that out. Rick Perry calling for a lot more law enforcement presence. They've deployed Texas -- Texas Guard troops, as well as state DPS, Department of Public Safety officers and really kind of focus on some of the crime elements that -- that they're worried about in this migration problem, given how the role of cartels are playing a very significant role in this migration process, and getting a lot of these unaccompanied minors to get into the United States.

So, you know, there's kind of a logjam here between both sides and their ideas moving forward as to how they're going to solve this crisis.

BANFIELD: Yes, this whole convergence of rumor and existing law and then changes recently in law and then ultimately these mules and how they -- how they operate and how they're able to, you know, convince these kids that, you know, things exist here that actually don't.

But listen, there's lots more for you to cover. So I'm going to keep you guys on the story and break in when you get more details on this.

Jim Acosta, Ed Lavandera, thank you, both, for that.

By the way, there's something else that's been playing out really big in today's news. And that is buying recreational marijuana. It is now legal in a second state in the union. And the sales started bright and early this morning in Washington state. We're going to get the LEGAL VIEW on this. If it is the beginning of

making pot legal in even more states. And by the way, on day one, how's that going for them? We'll update you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Well, it's official, people in Washington state can now buy marijuana just for the fun of it. That's the law. This morning, recreational pot shops got ready to be part of history. Washington state is the second state in the union to end pot prohibition. Twenty-four licensed stores began legally selling dope at 8:00 this morning Pacific Time. All at the same time New York just became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana. Yesterday. But in New York, doctors can prescribe marijuana in non-smokeable form to patients with specific serious conditions.

And joining me now to talk about whether the laws banning weed will eventually go up in smoke or are here to stay, Miguel Marquez, also CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and defense attorney Eric Guster.

Miguel Marquez, to you first because you were working this story on Washington state. This follows Colorado. By all accounts it seems you worked in Colorado. You witnessed it was pretty seamless. Things went well there.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gangbusters.

BANFIELD: Gangbusters.

MARQUEZ: The huge difference between Colorado and Washington state is that Colorado highly regulated medical marijuana prior to recreational sales. Washington didn't have that. So they literally had to go and --

BANFIELD: No framework.

MARQUEZ: No framework. They had -- they had to take a controlled substance and turn it into a legalized commodity within a framework of what they wanted was 12 months. It turned out to be 18 months. And even longer now. And not 24, 25 stores open today, only a handful of them were able to open today. One in Bellingham opened today. The one in Seattle will open in about three more hours they hope.

A lot of problems in getting the regulations between the states, the counties and the localities all in sync. And these stores and --

BANFIELD: So let's go bigger than that.

MARQUEZ: The growers.

BANFIELD: Let's go bigger than that. Their framework internally in Washington state, that's one thing. And then how about the bordering states and that little border with Canada that has some legal issues as well.

MARQUEZ: Just as in Colorado, they're saying don't bring it across state lines.

BANFIELD: Don't bring it in.

MARQUEZ: Or else you guys are going to be in trouble.

BANFIELD: So, Toobin, that's the issue.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

BANFIELD: How on earth does anybody actually bring that commerce into the state legally? How do you get the marijuana in there? You have to grow it locally?

TOOBIN: You grow it. I mean, certainly, that's become a big industry in Colorado. Look, there's a lot that has to be worked out here. But, you know, this strikes me as, you know, the embodiment of -- just as Brandeis' famous statement that states should be the laboratories of democracy.

Here, they're being laboratories of something else.

(LAUGHTER)

But we'll see whether it works. As far as I can tell, I mean, Miguel knows better than I do, but in Colorado, it's basically worked well. A lot of things need to be worked out. But as opposed to putting people in prison for having marijuana, this strikes me as an effective experiment. The federal government is letting it happen.

BANFIELD: So, Eric, it's still such a political football for so many people. And I mean, I know you're working on the legal side of things, but we all have to recognize the world in which we live.

Do you foresee that this is one of those -- one of those sort of domino effects where it will take a little time but pretty much every state eventually will come on board and do what Colorado and Washington are doing or is it way more complicated than that?

ERIC GUSTER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I think so. Once other states see the tax revenue generator from marijuana --

BANFIELD: Money talks.

GUSTER: Money talks. States are hurting for money. The recession that we're in right now and had recently, that's really impacted how so many states are trying to regulate things. And now they have something that people want. They need -- they want it legalized and they're willing to pay for it and they can tax it. Because some states actually have that as a crime, having possession of marijuana, and not having a tax stamp.

So they want the tax revenue, and they're going to look at that as one of the potential issues.

BANFIELD: But it's complicated, I know.

Jeffrey, do you sort of see the medical marijuana allowances in various states in the union as perhaps the gateway laws to the recreational?

TOOBIN: Especially in states like California. Where the bar to a medical diagnosis needing marijuana is so low.

BANFIELD: So low. Like I'm stressed out, right? I got a hangnail.

TOOBIN: My mellow is being harshed. I need some.

But this is actually a way that -- I mean, as Miguel said, in Colorado, it maybe is a gateway, but is that such a bad thing? Maybe it's a good thing as a way station --

BANFIELD: You see any crime increase? Do you see any downside so far? It's -early.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't see that yet. The one thing you do see is a great price difference between Colorado and Washington state.

BANFIELD: Like what?

MARQUEZ: $25 a gram in Washington state, so you're talking about an ounce of good stuff in Washington state, about $500 to $700 an ounce.

In Colorado, $250 to $300.

BANFIELD: Is that because it's new?

MARQUEZ: There's not enough growers. The other thing Washington state is regulating their growers and sellers separately. Colorado allowed them to be one.

And it's creating a lot of problems in the market for Washington state right now, because you can't get enough pot on the market to service even the stores that exist.

BANFIELD: Because who's going to drive it other the border?

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: The illegal market has not disappeared either, so there are people still smelling -- still selling dime bags and what not --

BANFIELD: You were definitely from the '70s. Did you just say dime bags?

TOOBIN: Yeah, why?

BANFIELD: Never mind, I'll tell you in the break. He didn't know.

TOOBIN: Is that a bad thing?

BANFIELD: Oh, Jeffrey, you're delightful.

TOOBIN: -- we do pot stories, why, why --

BANFIELD: Gave me the giggles --

TOOBIN: Always ends in laughter. We've never done a pot story --

BANFIELD: I just ordered pizza, too.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: OK, Miguel Marquez, Jeffrey Toobin, Eric (inaudible) (ph), good to have all of you. Thank you.

Keep us posted, by the way, on how things are going today.

GUSTER: Pretty interesting stuff.

BANFIELD: Remember, the first day in Colorado.

TOOBIN: Don't you dare.

GUSTER: Don't cross state lines. BANFIELD: No sampling the product, you.

And, by the way, tonight, we're going to take a deeper look here at CNN into the marijuana laws in the United States. It's CNN's special, "WEED II -- CANNABIS MADNESS."

It's this incredible reporting by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I highly recommend you take a look at this piece, 9:00 Eastern time, right here on CNN.

This is one of those cases that sends chills down your spine whether or not you're even a parent. We're talking about a little boy killed after being left all day in a hot car, and some don't think it's an accident.

The father's already in big trouble, and now, a lot of eyes are on the mother. What she did today and the LEGAL VIEW on her actions, all up until now, coming after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We've got this just in to CNN. Leanna Harris, who is the mother of that toddler who died after being left in the hot car, has just visited her husband in jail, where he's being held on the murder charge related to that incident, all of this according to our Atlanta affiliate WXIA.

Justin Ross Harris is charged with felony murder and child cruelty, and he's pleaded not guilty, and he has said his son's death was simply an accident.

In the meantime, questions continue to swirl around his wife, seen here in court during his hearing. Leanna Harris has not been charged with anything, but police tell CNN she is part of the ongoing investigation.

Right now, it is not clear what role Leanna Harris will play in this case. She could end up being a co-defendant. She could end up being a witness in her husband's trial. She could end up just being a supportive wife.

CNN's Jason Carroll takes a closer look at why there are so many questions surrounding Cooper Harris' mother.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leanna Harris' demeanor in the days before and after her son's death was odd and raised potential red flags for authorities investigating the case.

She's not been named a suspect in connection with Cooper Harris' death nor has she been charged with a crime. But still, authorities say she behaved strangely.

Cobb County Police detective, Bill Stoddard, testified when Leanna Harris arrived to pick up the toddler from daycare on June 18th and found he wasn't there, she predicted what had happened. DETECTIVE PHIL STODDARD, COBB COUNTY POLICE: They walked back out into the lobby and in front of several witnesses, all of a sudden she states -- Ross must have left him in the car, and they're like, what? There's no other explanation. Ross must have left him in the car.

CARROLL: Detective Stoddard had also questioned Harris' reaction to hearing her son had died after his husband, Ross, had left their 22- month-old strapped in the car's child seat on a sweltering hot day for seven hours.

STODDARD: She didn't show any emotion when they asked her, or when they notified her of Cooper's death.

CARROLL: Is this a sign of guilt?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: We all have a script in our head of what's the appropriate way for someone to react when confronted with the tragedy.

People react all sorts of ways and that doesn't make them guilty of anything.

CARROLL: While in police custody, Leanna Harris seemed very concerned about her husband speaking with detectives, specifically what he had told them.

STODDARD: She looks at him and says, well, did you say too much?

CARROLL: Harris continues to standby her husband of eight years who told police they are happily married despite allegations he was sexting with six women while his son was dying inside their car.

During funeral services, Harris referred to him as a wonderful father and began her eulogy by thanking him, saying, quote, "First of all, Ross, I love you, I'm doing this for you."

She spoke of Cooper, saying she was happy he will never have to face his first heartbreak or awkward middle-school years, saying, quote, "I miss him with all of my heart.

"Would I bring him back? No, to bring him back into this broken world would be selfish."

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Joining me to talk about Leanna Harris' possible role in this case is CNN commentator and defense attorney Mel Robbins, as well as former Atlanta prosecutor Philip Holloway, who, by the way, has worked with the judge and the attorneys in this case in the local jurisdiction.

Mel, I want to begin with you. Behavior is not illegal. Certain kinds of odd reactions certainly don't mean that you're a criminal.

But sometimes behavior is indictable regardless, right?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. I mean, we're doing it to the wife right now, and I was really glad to hear our colleague Jeffrey Toobin say that, look, everybody reacts differently.

And you even said this yourself, Ashleigh. She might be a co- conspirator or co-defendant. She might also be a wife who's angry at her husband. She might -- who's cheating on her.

She might also be a grieving mother. She might not know anything about what went on that day. And she might know a whole heck of a lot. And so there's a lot we need to learn.

One interesting legal thing that I wanted to point out is that Georgia does not have a spousal privilege in a case where your spouse is charged with committing a crime against the person of a child, so she will be compelled to testify against him for the prosecution in this case, you mark my words.

BANFIELD: And is she, then -- and maybe, Philip, I'll get you to weigh in. Without that protection of the spousal privilege, which I think most people just assume exists in every one of the 50 states, could she invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege in some way on the stand and take whatever punishment the judge wants to give her for it?

PHILIP HOLLOWAY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there's no punishment for taking the Fifth. Of course that's a constitutional right. You can't be punished for that.

If she becomes a co-defendant, then of course they're not going to be able to force her to testify because of the Fifth Amendment.

BANFIELD: No, if she's not a co-defendant, and she decides -- she's compelled to testify and ultimately tries to invoke the Fifth, you can't do that.

HOLLOWAY: Well, I think --

BANFIELD: Aren't you in contempt at that point?

HOLLOWAY: I think she can invoke the Fifth Amendment if she believes her testimony can incriminate her in any possible way.

BANFIELD: As a witness.

HOLLOWAY: As a witness, correct. I think, should she believe, on advice of counsel, that could tend to incriminate her, then she could conceivably evoke the Fifth.

On the other hand, if there's nothing incriminating about her testimony, it would not be necessary and it could be compellable.

BANFIELD: If she is merely a witness, compelled to testify against a spouse, and she refuses to do so, what does compelling testimony mean, what can the judge do in that case? Just nothing? ROBBINS: Well, you know, they can hold her in contempt. They can throw

her in jail. They can do a bunch of things to try to order her to testify. And, you know, depending upon the nature of the testimony, it may not implicate her.

I mean, look, we don't know a lot of things right now, Ashleigh. We don't know whether or not, for example, did the day are call her in the middle of the day to say where is Cooper? Did the day care call the husband? Were the two of them communicating via text?

All we know is that Cooper is dead, that the dad claims he forgot him, that he was busy texting -- or sexting at work while Cooper was dying.

And, by the way, here's another interesting legal point. The fact that he was leading a double life actually might help the defense, because his only defense in this case is --

BANFIELD: Is I forgot.

ROBBINS: I forgot the kid.

BANFIELD: I hear you, ironic.

ROBBINS: And because I had all this going on, it was more likely that I forgot.

BANFIELD: Because I was so remarkably negligent in that I had another life going on.

But you know what? You're right. We don't know a lot. We will probably learn a lot, and ultimately, if and when this does go to trial, we will learn, hopefully, a whole lot more.

Mel Robbins, thank you. Phillip Holloway, thank you. Good to see you both. Thanks.

HOLLOWAY: Thank you.

A New Jersey senator who denies being involved in a sex scandal that made huge headlines says that he was set up. His lawyer says he was the target of -- are you ready for this -- a Cuban intelligence smear.

CNN with the exclusive interview with the senator and you're going to hear it next.

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