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"Justice For All March" Underway Now In D.C.; Tornado Hits South Los Angeles; FBI Investigating Massive Sony Hack; Search For Survivors Of Indonesia Landslide; Cosby's Accusers Share Their Stories

Aired December 13, 2014 - 12:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, all eyes on Washington, D.C., for our two top stories today. First, we have a live look at the Senate floor, where lawmakers are returning in a surprise move over that spending showdown.

And then, thousands marching on the nation's capital, demanding justice for the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice, to name a handful of names. We have team coverage of these events.

Plus, why this may be the worst week ever for A-lister Angelina Jolie. There, of course, was the Sony hack attack, where the world found out that a Sony exec called Jolie a spoiled brat, but now there's more bad news for the actress.

Hello. Glad to have you with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Fredricka Whitfield today. Happening right now, the spending showdown resumes on Capitol Hill. The Senate is trying to pass a $1 trillion spending package and avoid another government shutdown.

Now, the original plan was to adjourn for the weekend and resume debate on Monday, but then late last night, some junior Republican senators defied the agreement that had been reached by the Senate's top leaders, and so that forced today's session. CNN's Erin McPike is joining us at the White House. Erin, what's

happening right now? Are they back in session yet?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, they are. They are going to be in session throughout the day and they're going to be holding a series of votes on unfinished business. You'll see nominations as well, but the big, really, the big thing of the day is that they will be voting on this stopgap measure, that will fund the government through Wednesday.

So that they can hammer out the rest of this $1.1 trillion spending bill and that final vote for final passage on Monday, but votes throughout the day, you can look forward to that -- Ana.

CABRERA: They're going to be hammering out, and they need a few days to do this. Do we think there are going to be some major changes to the current bill that has already been passed in the House, in which it would send it back to the House?

MCPIKE: No. At this point, we do expect final passage. That's what we're hearing from a number of the senators who have worked on this. What we have heard from some Republicans is that they are really kind of angry at both Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for essentially sabotaging this agreement late last night.

Because it's not going to do anything other than keep the Senate in session, and really just throw it down the road for a couple of days -- Ana.

CABRERA: Is there any chance that this bill simply won't pass?

MCPIKE: There's always a slim chance. But at this point, we are seeing from both leaders, from Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, as well as Mitch McConnell, they are expecting that this bill will pass. And many people are on board.

You may know that Elizabeth Warren was upset with this, earlier in the week, because of the rollback of some regulations on Wall Street. But she has taken the stand that she has taken, but she is not going to stand in the way, in the way that we saw from Ted Cruz and Mike Lee last night.

CABRERA: Right, because Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are upset about the immigration, and that there is no, nothing in there to kind of slap down the president's executive action. So there's that tug-of-war that continues. Erin McPike in Washington, an interesting story. We'll be talking to you later to see what happens.

There are also protests happening again today, all across the country. Demonstrators call it their week of outrage and they're marching against police brutality and racial profiling.

Right now, we understand, thousands are starting their march in the nation's capital. Protesters plan to wind their way from freedom square, which is near the White House, to the U.S. capitol, and organizers want Congress to take action to reform the justice system.

We have team coverage. Nick Valencia and Sunlen Serfaty are both at the march in Washington, D.C. We want to start with Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, today it's a large and vocal crowd here on Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, we stepped a little bit outside of the group, to give you a little perspective here. Just how many people are out in the thousands, Ana.

It really takes up a whole city block here in Freedom Plaza. Now, marchers are just gathering right now. They're going to start the march down Pennsylvania Avenue shortly.

And we saw bus load after bus load of the protesters unload this morning. They came from other states, Florida, Connecticut, and overnight, all the way here.

CABRERA: Sunlen, I'm sorry, we're having trouble with your audio. We do see those live pictures and I can imagine there are a lot of people using their cell phones right now, which is hurting our signal, since we're on a special live view signal there.

Let's turn to Nick Valencia, who's in Washington, D.C., covering this protest march. Not many people where you are, Nick, but you're near the end of the route. Tell us a little bit more about what you're expecting?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Ana. We're about a half a mile away from Sunlen's location. And we're expecting those hundreds and hundreds of demonstrators that are starting about 14 blocks away from this position right now are going to be making their way towards the capital.

And what they want is very clear. They want federal prosecutors assigned to cases of the deaths of unarmed civilians at the hands of police. Earlier, I spoke to one demonstrator who came all the way from New York, made that trek here this morning, and she talked to me about why it was so important for her to show up here today in the nation's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, certainly, what you see happening right now with the grand juries and the way this system is working, is not working for both of us. So, if you're --

VALENCIA: What do you mean by most of us?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of -- I'm a black woman, I have black children, I have many black males in our family who are at risk in this system that we now have. I want to see something different for them. I have a 3-year-old great-grandson. I want to see a different world for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: And there are a myriad of groups that are coming here from all across the nation. That woman we just heard from, from New York with a group of others from that nurses association that you saw in that tape. But people are coming as far away from Florida.

And as Sunlen was mentioning earlier, they're coming here by the busload. An estimated 5,000 demonstrators are going to be here and that march will get underway and we'll be sure to get right on top of it and give you all the details as we get them -- Ana.

CABRERA: Nick, I know there's a group from Ferguson, Missouri, who is headed to Washington, D.C. I know one of the protest organizers in that small community was planning to take a busload, at the very least, to Washington, D.C., to participate in this.

We are seeing people from all walks of life, from all different parts of the country, and I also understand that there will be some important speakers there in Washington, D.C. What do you mean about that? VALENCIA: Well, we know, as you mentioned, there are groups from all across the country. You broke up a little bit, so I didn't hear directly the question, but I'm guessing you're asking about the wide range of people --

CABRERA: Well, what about the speakers? I understand some of the mothers of the victims of these African-American men and teenagers or even young boys, as young as 12 years old, who have been killed by police, what do you know about when they're planning to address the crowd there?

VALENCIA: Yes, the family members of Mike Brown will be here, as well as Tamir Rice. Kai Gurley, early on, we heard his family was going to be here as well as the parents of Trayvon Martin.

And we know that all of those families I just mentioned have been through so much, in the -- since the death of their children. And they're here to address that. I was speaking to one demonstrator who said that five weeks ago, he lost a mentor in his life, and that's why he's out here.

He wants to show solidarity with that message, that justice is different and black lives matter. That's a chant you hear over and over in this. For others, though, they say that this isn't so much about race. This is about excessive force. This is about changes within the police department, changes in their training.

They want people to understand that these deaths, of those names I just mentioned could have been avoided, had there been a chance, an opportunity for these police officers to diffuse those situations, rather than escalating them.

They say that body cameras, things like that, they aren't going to make a difference, because we saw in the tape of Mike Garner, people seeing that as very controversial, some people thought it was clear excessive force, and that that indictment needed to happen.

Others saying, though, you know, Eric Garner in that situation wasn't cooperating with police. So even if those body cameras, for instance, are given to the police department, they don't think that's going to change things.

They want, as I mentioned earlier, in my report, they want a federal prosecutor, special federal prosecutor, assigned to these cases, they don't believe that the local district attorneys are unbiased enough with the relationship with local law enforcement to have a clear eye when looking at these cases -- Ana.

CABRERA: It's worth mentioning that these protesters who are calling for action on the federal level are seeing some results. I want to mention that the Senate just passed a death and custody reporting act. It passed this week in the Senate, and it goes to the president now to sign.

We'll see what happens there, but it would require states to actually report to the U.S. Department of Justice, just how many individuals die at the hands of police officers each year whether as they're taking them into custody or after they get them in custody. Nick, are protesters reacting to that new development?

VALENCIA: You know, we haven't had the chance to ask them specifically that question. And we're waiting, as I mentioned, right behind me, here, about 14 blocks away is where they're all gathered right now. And in the next 10 to 15 minutes, we'll be sure to ask them that question and other specifics of really why they're here.

We keep hearing that message, right? We keep hearing this message of change, of change. You know, one of the questions I'm asking these demonstrators is, what is that change measured by? What do you really want to have happen? So we'll get those details.

Everybody wants something different, but everybody's here in unison, in solidarity, to show their support for the families who lost children -- Ana.

CABRERA: Interesting. Nick Valencia, thank you for your reporting. We'll talk to you soon.

And still to come in the NEWSROOM -- crazy video out of Los Angeles, where a tornado hit that area just yesterday, rain, floods, mud slides, and a tornado, how some Los Angeles residents got the surprise of their life next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Rain, floods, mudslides, even a tornado all part of the severe weather system whipping through California. And I think the tornado in Los Angeles County might be the most surprising.

Let's get to meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, joining us now. Karen, how rare is something like this?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it happens every once in a while. So it's not unheard of, but you don't hear about it that often. But when it does, it looks like this. Take a look. They were just kind of fortunate to be in the right area at the right time. The beeps, well, you can imagine the person who was videotaping this was rather excited.

Yes. There was some damage reported there. There were power outages, there were damage reports coming from a garage and several homes. But no one was injured. Take a look at the mud slide, now. This is in Camarillo Springs. This happened in the middle of the night.

There were mandatory evacuations and that was burn area about a year ago. And in the middle of the night, because of several inches of rainfall, that burn area just could not hold the debris back. Some places saw the debris, boulders, in fact, up to their rooftops.

We've got a live picture of what that looks like right now. And we will kind of show you around that area. This is a live view. You can see the home and the roofline. They're saying now about 18 homes are completely destroyed. They're uninhabitable. If you can imagine that volume of mud and debris in your home, it would be devastating.

In the forecast, the same weather system is now pulling across the entire west. So snowfall for the Rockies, pulls into the central plains, and this has a secondary effect. There could be thunderstorms tomorrow. It is December. It's late December.

And we're looking at the chance for thunderstorms. And what we did see with that particular tornado was an EF-0. Meaning the winds were estimated between 65 and 85 miles an hour. There was also a water spout that was reported offshore.

That wasn't anything that produced any damage, but nonetheless, you don't think of Southern California, L.A., and you typically don't think about it in December. But actually, December is, if you have a high count of tornadoes in Southern California, it would be during the month of December, which is very ironic.

Rainfall amounts, as I mentioned, between 1 and 3 inches. The next storm system moves in, Ana, on Monday. Not going to be quite as powerful, but the ground is already saturated, so that could be problematic again.

CABRERA: Hopefully they get a break soon, but it is good to see the moisture in that area that's been drought stricken for so long. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis, thank you.

And still to come, it has been a rough week for Angelina Jolie, to say the least. Now the actress is calling out sick for the premiere of her new film that she directed.

But first, it was a discovery that stunned scientists. The most complete T-Rex fossil ever found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Took me over to this big cliff, and he said, take a look. And I looked at it and I looked at him and I said, is that T- Rex, and he said, yes, and I think it's all here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't started digging or haven't moved anything around yet. We've just been looking at it and taking some pictures and trying to figure out how to proceed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: This is just a great story and what happened after that discovery, well, that's even more shocking. Don't miss "Dinosaur 13." it's going to air Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern.

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CABRERA: So, Angelina Jolie has had kind of a rough week. And it just got a little worse. Apparently she has the chicken pox and she announced via this video message that she will be sitting out the premiere of "Unbroken," the movie she's directed and produced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: I found out last night that I have chicken pox. So I will be home, itching, and missing everyone. And I can't believe it because this film means so much to me. I just can't believe it. But such is life, there it is. And I send everyone my love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: A Sony executive called Jolie a, quote, "minimally talented spoiled brat with a rampaging ego." And now the FBI is jumping in and investigating that massive hack attack at Sony Pictures.

Besides the nasty attacks like the one on Jolie, the hackers also revealed Sony employees' social security numbers and a lot of other personal information. CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown has been following the fallout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want us to kill the leader of North Korea?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With Sony's movie about assassinating North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un just days from opening --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Kim Jong-Un.

BROWN: Sony executive, Amy Pascal was talking publicly for the first time since the hackers, suspected of being North Korean, broke into the studio's computer system and published millions of confidential and embarrassing e-mails.

Some of which bash A-listers, like Angelina Jolie for being a, quote, minimally talented, spoiled brat, just days after that e-mail surfaced between Pascal and Hollywood producer, Scott Ruden, Pascal is seen here at an L.A. event, receiving a seemingly frosty reception from Jolie.

Pascal told deadline.com, I am mostly disappointed in myself. That is the element of this that has been most painful for me. I don't want to be defined by these e-mails after a 30-year career.

In one e-mail to Ruden, Pascal, a big fund-raiser for President Obama, insinuates Obama only likes films with African-American actors, like "Django Unchained."

Pascal told deadline.com, I'm embarrassed, deeply. Today the White House confirmed that Pascal and Ruden have apologized.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think that a lot of people who read those e-mails, maybe not everybody, but I think a lot of people cringed a little bit when they were reading them.

BROWN: But much more damaging, the hackers have published the medical records of Sony employees and their spouses, even their children. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty years ago, I was the world's most wanted hacker. I was an FBI fugitive for a couple of years.

BROWN: Kevin is still hacking, but now doing it to help companies to test their security. He says this was no snatch and grab job by the Sony hackers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They spent a lot of time doing what they call information reconnaissance, to attack Sony. So it's really not that difficult for hackers to break in, but what's interesting about Sony is the amount of information they were able to steal, right from under their nose.

BROWN: Pamela Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: The march is underway in Washington, D.C., already. And in just a couple of hours, tens of thousands of protesters are expected to march in New York City. These are live pictures right now in D.C. where, again, that march has begun.

Alexandra Field is at Washington Square Park in New York where the march is going to happen shortly -- Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Ana. Police are actually already here, preparing for the crowds that are coming to call for an end to police violence. And we'll talk about some of their other demands coming up right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back and thanks for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera. Here's a look at the top stories making news right now.

New information in the tragic story out of Mississippi, the case of this 19-year-old who was set on fire and burned to death. Now, as family and friends prepare for the funeral of Jessica Chambers, police are investigating the strong possibility that someone was with her just moments before flames engulfed her car.

CNN affiliate WMC spoke to a man who police apparently have questioned about Chambers' death and he says investigators told him that Chambers' last word was either the name "Eric" or "Derek."

Police in Portland, Oregon, have arrested 22-year-old, a man in connection with a shooting yesterday near a high school. Four people were shot one was a 16-year-old girl who remains in critical condition. We understand a gang task force is now investigating. Police say the man was arrested after they stopped a vehicle that he was driving and then they recovered a handgun from inside the car.

And more than 90 people are missing after part of a mountainside in Indonesia gave way and the heavy rains there causing a huge landslide. This is on Central Java Island. So far, at least 17 people are known dead. This is according to the National Disaster Management Agency and nearly that many are injured. Search teams, some of them having to dig by hand, are still looking for survivors and other victims.

Protesters calling today, the culmination of their week of outrage, and across the country, they are marching, to protest the recent police killings that have been happening in different cities.

This is a demonstration happening right now in Washington, D.C. These demonstrators are making their way to the U.S. capitol building. They started at a park near the White House, and we understand it's about a half a mile route.

And you can see, they are carrying signs, protesting racial profiling, as well as police brutality. I'm just going to stop talking for one sec so we can listen to some of the music.

So you can hear that there are also speakers along the march, helping to unify this group of people who we know come from around the country. Our Sunlen Serfati is marching with them.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this is a large and vocal crowd that started marching at Freedom Plaza. They are now on Pennsylvania Avenue, headed towards Capitol Hill. A lot of protesters here got bused in this morning.

We spoke with people from Florida, from Connecticut, and one woman from Detroit, Michigan. She says she can't stand on the sidelines any longer. She has to come here today. Now, this is a sizable crowd, but the symbolism is not lost on so many people.

A lot of people making reference here to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. One woman told me that she came out today, because her father marched in the '60s. She felt a responsibility to be here today, Ana. She said she spoke to her father on the phone today, and he said, I'm proud of you. These protesters are now heading to Capitol Hill -- Ana.

CABRERA: All right, thank you, Sunlen. Another massive march set to begin a little bit later this afternoon, a couple hours from now in New York City. That's where Alexandra Field is, where Alexandra, you're standing, that's where protesters are starting to gather. What are they hoping to accomplish?

FIELD: There are a lot of them behind me in orange vests, carrying signs, talking about human rights, saying, stop police brutality, things like that. This still a small group, but they are expecting thousands and thousands of people here.

On social media alone, some 45,000 people said they would attend this march. We're yet to see how a man actually shows up here. But it's supposed to kick off around 2:00 this afternoon. And they say that they're joining together to raise a call to action to put an end to police violence. That's the uniting thread here. Of course, a lot of people are out here talking about Eric Garner, they're out here talking about Michael Brown, and they say they want these two cases to change the way communities are policed. They have more specific demands as well.

They say that the name of an officer involved in a police shooting should be released within 48 hours. That's one of the things they're going to call for today. They also want to see special prosecutors appointed to deal with cases of police misconduct.

These are marches and rallies that have been going on for weeks here in this city, and they're going on throughout the country today, but this could be one of the largest crowds we've seen. They'll gather here at the arch in Washington Square Park.

They've marked the route they'll be demonstrating and will end today at one police plaza, police headquarters. That's where they want to send their message -- Ana.

CABRERA: So they're trying to appeal to the local police leaders and other local leaders in that community?

FIELD: Absolutely. Look, you've got to think about the fact that these demonstrations that we've been seeing started here in New York City after a grand jury decided not to indict the officer, Daniel - Pantaleo, who was involved in the death of Eric Garner, the man who died following that choke hold in Staten Island over the summer.

That's what really brought the anger to the surface here in New York City. Yes, it's related to what also happened in Ferguson with Michael Brown, but people are saying that these cases really make it necessary to come together now, you know, not just people in this city.

But across the country, to say, let's step back, let's take a look at the way the communities are policed, and let's look at what kind of concrete changes we can make, to make people safer in their interactions with the police.

CABRERA: I know after the decision was made, in that grand jury case involving Eric Garner in New York, that Mayor De Blasio came out and he sort of sounded like he was united with the protesters. How has that impacted his relationship with the police department?

FIELD: It's a little bit tense right now, you could say, Ana, in the sense, we've got one example here of a patrolman's union sending out a flyer to their members. This allows members, who want to, to sign this form, requesting that the mayor does not come to their funeral if they're killed in the line of duty.

Look, this does not speak for relations between the mayor and police across the board, but the officers who are signing this form are saying that they're doing so, because they feel that the mayor and the city are not supporting them and their work. This has certainly highlighted some tensions here. The mayor has come out, as you noted, in the wake of that decision not to indict, trying to keep the peace, trying to appeal to protesters and acknowledge to them that he realizes that they have the right to come out here and speak their minds.

He also went about, ordering the retraining of the police force here in New York City. A lot of steps have been taken by the mayor to speak to the crowds here, who feel that an injustice was done.

At the same time, we're starting to see where so some officers, it appears, feel like they are not getting the support from the mayor that they need or deserve.

CABRERA: Thank you. Now more than 20 women have accused Bill Cosby of raping them, and most of them don't have any legal recourse, because the statute of limitations has expired. But can they do anything as a group? We'll ask our attorney, next.

And our live conch of the march in Washington continues. We have more live pictures. This is at Pennsylvania Avenue, where it looks like thousands of people have gathered. Many of them demanding justice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Supermodel Beverly Johnson is now the latest woman to accuse comedian, Bill Cosby, of drugging her. But she says she was able to get away from him without being assaulted. Yet more than 20 other accusers say they were attacked.

They were all claiming that Cosby raped or sexually assaulted them and their stories are eerily similar. Take a listen to what they say happened in their own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA BOWMAN: He was Dr. Huxtable, he was America's dad. Everyone loved him. I loved him. I wanted him to be my dad.

JOAN TARSHIS: He asked me back a few times, he asked me to visit him on the set. I was not the only girl that he was doing this with.

BEVERLY JOHNSON: Mr. Cosby wanted me to come down for an audition for "The Bill Cosby Show."

JANICE DICKINSON: I'm going to offer you a part on "The Cosby Show."

BOWMAN: He had been mentoring me and grooming me.

TARSHIS: He said, well, come up to my bungalow after I'm finished shooting and we'll work on it.

PJ MASTEN: So he asked me, he says, before we go out to dinner, would you like a cocktail?

BOWMAN: I had one glass of wine with dinner.

TARSHIS: He made me a drink.

DICKINSON: He said, I've got something for that. And he gave me a pill. It was red wine, it was a pill.

JOHNSON: He opened up a briefcase that was on his front seat and it was filled with different assorted pills.

TARSHIS: This men's shaving kit, opened up with lots of pills.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want you to take a couple of these to help you relax.

JOHNSON: I took one sip and I felt something very strange going on in my head.

TARSHIS: I began to feel very, very, very drugged.

VICTORIA VALENTINO: He drugged me and my roommate.

JOHNSON: I knew I had been drugged. It was very powerful. It came on very quickly.

TARSHIS: And very shortly after that, I just, I passed out.

DICKINSON: The last thing I remember, I had blacked out, and Cosby mounting me.

MASTEN: She passed out and I pulled him off of her.

JOHNSON: The room started to spin, my speech was slurred.

BOWMAN: And before I knew it, I was with my head over the toilet, throwing up, I was in a white t-shirt, and my panties, and he was looming over me in a white robe.

TARSHIS: I woke up or came to very groggily with him removing my underwear.

MASTEN: The next thing I knew, it was 4:00 in the morning, I woke up in a bed, naked, bruised.

DICKINSON: There was a lot of pain in -- downstairs. There was semen all over me, and that my pajama bottoms were off.

BOWMAN: I woke up out of a very confused state and knowing that my body had been touched without my permission.

MASTEN: I knew I was raped.

DICKINSON: I was embarrassed. And I, at that point, fight or flight, I just packed up and I got the hell out of there.

TARSHIS: But who's going to believe me? Bill Cosby, the all-American dad, the all-American husband, the person -- Mr. Jell-o, that everybody loves.

DICKINSON: Cosby was a very powerful man.

BOWMAN: I was looked at directly, in the eye, by Bill Cosby, and said, I had better never, ever see your face or hear your name again. And I listened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: I just want to reiterate that last point there, that you couldn't hear, you couldn't only see, and that is that Cosby through his representatives, his attorneys, has denied all of these allegations and said they were false.

And for most of Cosby's alleged victims, the statute of limitations on their end has expired. But one of his accusers has filed a defamation lawsuit against him.

Tamara Green claims that Cosby called her a liar through his representative in denying the abuse. Green, herself, is an attorney and she claims Cosby drugged her, sexually assaulted her, back in the 1970s. Again, Cosby has denied these allegations.

We're joined now by defense attorney, former prosecutor, Phillip Holloway. Phillip, thanks so much for being here. This is a story that just keeps on shocking us more and more, the more people who come forward. What are the legal options for these women?

PHILIP HOLLOWAY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They're extremely limited. As you mentioned with, the statute of limitations has run, but what has not run on is potential defamation claims. You mentioned Tamara Green has filed a defamation action against Mr. Cosby. He has to either be the most prolific sex offender known to mankind or

else the worst victim of character assassination, one of the two. At the trial of this lawsuit, the defamation case, she's going to have to prove that the statement that was allegedly made, that she's a liar, she's going to have to prove that's false.

So, again, you get into a swearing contest, OK? There's no physical evidence from that many years ago, no other witnesses. It's a very, very difficult thing to prove.

CABRERA: So could he ever face criminal charges?

HOLLOWAY: I don't think, even if the statute of limitations had not run, I don't think it's, as a practical matter, feasible, this many years later --

CABRERA: Unless there's a new one that's recent or something.

HOLLOWAY: Correct, because you don't have witnesses, you don't have physical evidence, you don't have all the things that you need for a proper prosecution, you know? The length of time alone is enough to derail any criminal prosecution.

CABRERA: I mean, it seems like there's a new allegation almost every week that these women just keep coming forward. We're now counting almost two dozen women who are claiming abuse or some kind of attack or being drugged and their stories, again, so similar. Is there any power in numbers in the sense that, could they move forward as a group in some way and do something?

HOLLOWAY: I doubt it. You know, the argument is that once one person comes out, you know, you get another one coming out, saying the same thing, they hear somebody's story, it's very easy for them to come on and duplicate that claim.

So while we heard these stories that are all remarkably similar, the argument against that is that, well, these people are just looking for their moment in the spotlight, so to speak. So it's really easy to duplicate what you hear somebody else say, especially when there's no other witnesses around, you know?

CABRERA: Right. And as you've mentioned, too, you know, Cosby himself, it's his word against their word, at this point, without the other evidence. If you were advising Bill Cosby in terms of defending himself, what would you advise?

HOLLOWAY: Exactly what his lawyers have told him to do. Don't say a word. Don't respond.

CABRERA: Why is that?

HOLLOWAY: Because you don't want to open him up to any potential litigation for calling somebody a liar. If it's -- if you defame somebody by calling them a liar, they can sue you for it, you can have a trial. So by him maintaining his silence, it prevents additional legal action, like this litigation that we've seen filed by Miss Green.

CABRERA: I think so many people would say, if I was him and I was innocent, I would be screaming from the top of my lungs, this isn't true! But he's just simply not saying a word.

HOLLOWAY: Well, through his representatives, he's denying it. And I think that's probably best, because he wants to make sure that he stays out of a courtroom.

CABRERA: All right. Phillip Holloway, thank you for the expertise. We appreciate it.

HOLLOWAY: Glad to be here.

CABRERA: And I know we're going to talk to you about another high- profile case coming up, so stay with us. And we hope you will too. Because still ahead, is it a smear campaign or a multi-million-dollar mess? One of the CIA's so-called architects of terror speaks out.

And our continuing coverage of the march for justice rolls on. Live images there as thousands of people are gathering around the nation from Boston to Washington, D.C. We'll bring it to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. People are gathering in Washington, D.C., right now. You're looking at a podium. There are some speakers who are starting to address the crowd there. These protesters have gathered, because they are angry, they are frustrated.

They want justice over the deaths of young African-American men. And they are just reaching the capitol. It all started near the White House. We're following them along their route and we'll bring you more of these pictures and some of the speakers, coming up.

Also, we want to take you to Boston, where people are also gathering. And we are looking at their parade route, so to speak, their marching route. You can see, there look to be at least dozens of people there right now.

Some of these protests are staggered throughout the day. We'll continue to bring you live updates from these protests around the country as we have them.

I also want to talk about this new Senate report slamming the CIA for its torture of terror suspects. The architects behind the interrogation program are now under the spotlight for their reported lack of experience and their enormous paychecks. Now one of those men is speaking out to CNN's Chris Frates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MITCHELL, RETIRED AIR FORCE PSYCHOLOGIST: I think it's a partisan pile of crap. It's an attempt to smear the men and women of the CIA as the Democrats lead their position of authority.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's James Mitchell, who's been tied to the secret interrogation program by several publications in a 2008 Senate report. Mitchell is one of two psychologists slammed in a report for developing the interrogation program.

But it's the details that are jaw-dropping. Mitchell and his partner are believed to have landed a $180 million contract with the government, despite the fact that neither man had specialized knowledge of al Qaeda, a background in counterterrorism, or any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise, again, $180 million.

The CIA disputed that characterization, saying that we believe their expertise was so unique that we would have been derelict had we not sought them out. Mitchell says he's been misrepresented in the press.

MITCHELL: Because I think people are routinely distorting my credentials and qualifications.

FRATES: But it's exactly those credentials being called into question. The two worked in the military's SRE program, but they were given wide latitude to develop and carry out some of the most brutal interrogation methods, even though they had no experience in actual interrogations, according to the report.

They formed a company and actually carried out the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, among other significant detainees, and pocketed $81 million before their contract was dissolved in 2009. To some, the details are evidence of a desperate administration, willing to try anything, even people with questionable experience.

MITCHELL: I'm perfectly willing to be responsible for everything that I've done. I don't want to be responsible for anything that I haven't done, and the way the information has been presented so far, rightly or wrongly, it's just the press that's identified me as this person.

I'm getting all the blame and all the credit, regardless of whether I did it or not. And my preference would be to talk about what actually happened.

FRATES: Chris Frates, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It has been nearly two months since a gunman shot and killed a soldier at the war memorial in downtown Ottawa and then he ran into the parliament building to continue his rampage. But a security team that was led by a very heroic grandfather, the sergeant at arms, Kevin Vickers, confronted the attacker.

Anderson Cooper gives us Vickers' story in an upcoming documentary, "Extraordinary People," and here's a sneak peek.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the shooting began, I move behind this pillar.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360" (voice-over): Josh Wingrove is a reporter with the newspaper "The Globe And Mail." He captured the most dramatic video of the incident inside. The prime minister was right over here.

(On camera): The prime minister was right in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are 300 people, 300 parliamentarians, and chairs being piled as a makeshift barricade against this doorway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Knowing that the doors couldn't be locked and hearing that much firepower was really shocking.

COOPER: Freeman was one of those parliamentarians.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was an intense moment for everyone in the room. We, you know, hid under desks. I think we were all afraid for our lives.

COOPER: Afraid until Kevin Vickers made his stand.

EVAN SOLOMON, CBC: At that moment, after the first exchange, just down another hall, is the sergeant at arms, Kevin Vickers. COOPER: Evan Solomon is a reporter and host of Canada's Network, CBC. He obtained exclusive details of how the incident transpired.

SOLOMON: Kevin Vickers, in his office, he grabs the pistol from his lock box and he immediately exits down his hall, which is very close to where Beau is. He goes right to the other side of the pillar. So you have to imagine this, on side of the pillar now is the shooter.

On the other side of this pillar is now Kevin Vickers, with his gun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Really an incredible person. You can see more of Kevin Vickers' story on the CNN special, "EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE," this airs Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

We have much more just ahead in the NEWSROOM, and it all starts right now.