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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Edward Snowden Considers Coming Home; Petraeus Plans To Plead Guilty To One Count Of Illegally Retaining Classified Materials; House Speaker Expected To Move On Clean Bill To Fund Department of Homeland Security; Iraqi Army's New Surge To Take Back Tikrit From ISIS; LAPD Claims Shooting Of Unarmed, Mentally Ill Homeless Man Was Justified

Aired March 03, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield, and welcome to a shortened version of LEGAL VIEW.

But that doesn't mean there isn't big news, breaking news, in fact, this hour on two long-running scandals involving national security in this country. Secrets and alleged crimes.

First up, an apparent case of homesickness, it appears, for one Edward Snowden. CNN's Evan Perez joins me live now from Washington with that story.

Evan, this is one of those stories we didn't expect we were ever going to report, that a United States contractor, who was accused and charged with espionage and took off where he's been cooling his heels in Russia, apparently wants to come home. What's the story?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, I'm not sure if it's the winter or that he just misses home, but Edward Snowden's lawyer, according to Reuters' report out of Russia today, is saying that he is in discussions with the U.S. government on possibly returning home.

Now, we do know that the Justice Department -- Attorney General Eric Holder last year sent a letter to Snowden assuring that he would not get the death penalty if he were to return and face these charges for revealing sensitive national security documents, obviously thousands and thousands of documents from the National Security Agency.

This is something that the government really wants to try to resolve, because they believe that Snowden still has access to or possession -- control over many, many more documents, thousands, and perhaps millions of documents that are still considered classified, still considered sensitive, and they'd love to figure out a way to get those back.

BANFIELD: You mentioned the attorney general and I'm just going to read a quote from the attorney general that came back on January of 2014, "If Mr. Snowden wanted to come back to the United States and enter a plea," the AG says, "we would engage with his lawyers." But then, Snowden said in an online chat that very same day, "It's unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws." In -- I don't know. In my estimation, I don't think any of that has changed, has it?

PEREZ: No. No, it has not. And, you know, they might -- again, might be just an issue that Snowden's getting tired of sitting in Russia. Look, this is something that the government has not going to change on. They're not going to, you know, remove these charges. But I could see that they could make some kind of agreement whereby they could come to some terms, especially because they are interested in getting these documents back that they believe he still does have.

BANFIELD: OK. I want to switch gears, and you'll have to bear with me as I'm reading through right now what appears to be the plea agreement between the United States of America and one -- David Howell Petraeus, a famous name, because he was not only the CIA Director but he was also the head CENTCOM, he's also was the commander of forces in Iraq and won very big rising star, potentially even in the American politics, until it was alleged and then charge that he or at least -- the plan was to charge -- that he had accidentally leaked some very important material that he should never have leaked to a mistress. And now, there is some language suggesting he is going to sign a plea deal, what's the story there?

PEREZ: Well, they filed this plea agreement now in court here down in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ashleigh. And under the terms of this agreement, Petraeus is going to plea guilty to one count, a misdemeanor to removing and retaining illegal -- illegally retaining classified materials. Now, that -- under the terms of this deal, he's going to pay a $40,000 fine and the government is not going to oppose his request to serve no jail times.

So, basically, just a slap on the wrist here for something that is a very serious crime, that we've seen so many other people prosecuted for, people go to jail for, Ashleigh. So that's going to be an interesting thing to see what the government does to sort of explain this, but there's a lot of support for Petraeus. We had Dianne Feinstein, the senator, who's the head of the Intelligence Committee in the Senate came on CNN and talked about Petraeus and his own legacy. Here is what she had to say in support of him.

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SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, (D) INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: This man has suffered enough in my view. He's a four-star general of our generation. He, I think, is a very brilliant man. People aren't perfect. He made a mistake. He lost his job as a CIA director because of it. I mean, how much do you want to punish somebody?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And the question is, Ashleigh, how do you prosecute a rock star general? And that's the answer, right? The Justice Department has now decided that this is the way they're going to resolve this. And, you know, this was serious alligations in this document that was filed in court. I mean according to -- I'll run real quick. I will give you short and sweet.

Petraeus kept this five by eight notebook in which he kept all kinds of classified information, including names of covert agents of the government. And he kept this very unsecure in his own house. And he shared it with Paula Broadwell, his mistress and his biographer, according to these documents filed in court. And then, when he was asked about it by the FBI, he lied according to the government. So that's the allegations against David Petraeus, and now the final resolution of this case.

BANFIELD: Yeah, and you said it. How do you, you know, prosecute a rock star, you do it the way everybody is handled and that is this, base level offense, four months, abuse of position of trust, two extra months, obstruction of justice, two extra months, and then acceptance of responsibility, you get minus two for that coming to eight -- a total of just (inaudible), the one's being eight months because the max is a year. But it's just amazing to readthrough that and realize we're talking about David Petraeus.

Evan Perez, still working in these documents, comeback to us if you have additional development on that. Thank you for that.

We also have other breaking news and that is two House GOP sources telling CNN that House Speaker John Boehner is expected to move soon. And when I say soon, I mean, as early as today, to bring a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Yes, I said clean bill.

I want to get right to CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash on Capitol Hill with all the news that we have had since last week, which now seems like last month, and effectively it was.

This is a big deal. A clean bill means we can actually move the head on this, couldn't we?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. What it means is that the House is going to pass what the Senate passed, and it will go to the president. Now, I should say that this is news that we got earlier from Republican sources.

Now, the House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy is telling our Deirdre Walsh on the record that that it will in fact be today, probably in the next couple of hours that this vote is going to happen on the House floor. And not only that, most importantly, because we have announced that there will be votes that we had expected to pass the floor and then only to see them blow up and fail, this is probably going to be different -- likely going to be different. And the reason is because the House speaker gave a speech to his rank and file behind close doors this morning, explained the situation. And that situation is that they have basically ran their course with regard to their strategy on trying to push Democrats, rather, to change the president's immigrant plan, as part of this funding bill. And there's not a lot that they can do. Democrats in the Senate have refused to even compromise on that. So, at this point, the only thing that they can do short of letting the Department of Homeland Security run out of money and effectively, for the most part, shutdown, is pass this bill. So that's what we're going to see in the next couple of hours.

You know, earlier -- yesterday morning, I'm losing track of what day it is already because it has been a long week. A Republican aid said to me that it was -- this was so dramatic and it might end in a kind of an anticlimatic way, and it looks that might be the case. But I'm just saying this and I'm going to say it all day, I'm not going to say it's definitely going to pass until I actually see the gavel come down, because we've had promises that things will pass and that they didn't...

BANFIELD: Yeah.

BASH: ... come up in the past. And...

BANFIELD: I don't understand what changes just in a few days because it's not like people didn't know that shutting down funding for pieces of the government is unpopular. We've been at this rodeo before. It didn't go well. The Republicans agreed. This was a mess to them. So, why all of a sudden take it to Friday of last week, but then only to Tuesday of this week. Help me out.

BASH: It's a great question. And, you know, I have talked to a lot of the members -- the Republican members, who voted against their leadership, so many that it actually went down on Friday and everything did blow up. And the answers that I'm getting are basically that they kind of let the time go on. Most importantly, the Senate Democrats, who took their vote, they formally voted to block going to conference, meaning, sitting down with for formal compromise with House Republicans. And so, it's run its course.

Having said all of that, the point that house Republican leaders were making to their rank and file on Friday while they want to use this last week is because they knew that this is how it was going to end. They knew Senate Democrats were going to oppose any kind of compromise. They knew that this was the path that they were going on, which is why you had a lot of tension to the point where we were reporting that there were threats of a formal challenge to House Speaker John Boehner's leadership and his speaker share.

And so, there's just so much tension inside the Republican caucus still, Ashleigh, even though this is going to go. Make no mistake about it. That should not make it sound like everything is Kumbaya in the Republican conference. It is not at all. It's just that they decided to move pass this battle. There are a lot more to come. The debt ceiling, the budget and the list goes on.

BANFIELD: Even before we get there, I was just thinking, "Oh, to be a fly on the wall of John Boehner's inbox just last week and this week in particular." Dana Bash, great job, not sleeping at all lately. And no rest for the weary, my friend nice to see you. Thank you.

Other big news we need to report too, as well. The senior State Department official said that Hilary Clinton may have broken federal record keeping rules. That -- by using her personal e-mail account instead of a state department account in order to conduct business while she was a Secretary of State.

Now, the official rules are that you're supposed to use government accounts, which are safe for public record and are considered more secure. But according to the New York Times, which first reported this story, Clinton's aid did not take the actions to have her personal e-mail preserved on department servers. In fact, they recently handed over 55,000 pages of e-mails and CNN is going to have a lot more on the story coming up in the next hour.

In the mean time, coming up next on this program, the Iraqi army's new surge to take back a key town from ISIS. And when I say key, how does Saddam Hussein's birthplace sound. That's where they're headed, that's what they're fighting over. How are they doing? Coming up next.

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BANFIELD: Turning now to the war on ISIS, Iraqi forces are now doubling down the efforts to retake the city of Tikrit from the hands of ISIS. You'll probably remember that ISIS took Tikrit back in June and that was shortly after they captured Mosul, which is Iraq's second largest city.

About 30,000 fighters are now making the push to take back Saddam Hussein's hometown. Australia is also helping more, they're sending more troops into this war zone. That country already has an air presence but the prime minister says this country is sending an additional 300 troops to Iraq so that they can help to train the Iraqi forces in their fight against ISIS.

And back here at the United States, one of the so-called Brooklyn three is due in Federal Court but in Jacksonville, down in Florida. That's set to happen this afternoon -- and here is. His name is Abror Habibov, his 30 years old. And make no mistake, it's a nice picture that he was among the three men arrested and charged last week of conspiring to provide material support and resources to ISIS.

Again the accusation, the charges to follow and perhaps the litigation, I want to get the very latest on what's happening in the fight against ISIS from senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman who is live with me now in Baghdad.

Ben, what I find so remarkable is that we have these troops going after ISIS forces in the birthplace of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit to try to retake that city. The rumor mill, the talking points is that Mosul is next. But what's different about these Iraqi forces now than the ones who threw their weapons down and ran and let ISIS take these places in the first place.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it just seem that the Iraqi army has made a real effort to upgrade itself, so to speak. They've received a more training from the United States and what we have here is not just the Iraqi army which was the force that fled from Mosul last June, but they're joined by Shia militias and Sunni tribesmen.

And what's also important here is that there's a significant Iran involvement in the operation. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the elite Iranian al-Quds force is on the ground apparently, helping supervise the operation. And according to Pentagon officials, Iranian troops are also there manning heavy artillery and rocket launchers.

So, this definitely is a change from the past. Iran clearly is the investing a lot of efforts and manpower and resources to try to bolster the Iraqi army here and make this operation a success. What's also significant about this operation is that it was launched with very little consultation with the United States. And there have been no coalition air crafts making strikes on ISIS targets in the area. Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: I always say, sure, I mean little consultation with the U.S. that we know of because there are so many advisors on the ground who are calling in these locations. It's just hard to believe that there's no coordination at all between these Iranians and these Americans. But so far the word is not officially, anyway.

Ben Wedeman excellent work in Baghdad for us, thank you for that.

The Los Angeles Police Department, defending the officers' actions in that shooting death of a homeless man, now seen on television screens across the country over and over and over again. But some people including witnesses, say they're not buying that story that he tried to grab a policeman's gun. They've released pictures of it, but do the pictures, do the video, do these things support either side. We're breaking into it, next.

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BANFIELD: The LAPD says the shooting of an unarmed, mentally ill homeless man on Sunday was justified. They say that's because the man grabbed at an officer's gun. Despite that explanation, the backlash over the incident continues with more protest planned for today.

With new surveillance video to show you. It depicts the confrontation which happened on LA's Skid Row. Investigators say they have identified the victim but will not release his name right now. They did release his street name earlier, at least lots of people has said they confirmed. And this is another video here of the altercation that we can show you without blurring the officer's faces. You can see him swing at the officers and then fall on the sidewalk. And disregard what's going on with the person in the white sweatshirt in the foreground. Pay attention to the struggle behind that. That is where this incident really took place. And yesterday, the Los Angeles Chief of Police defended his officer's actions.

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CHIEF CHARLIE BECK, LOS ANGELES POLICE: I think that this is an awful tragedy. But, you know, the officers took -- on the face of it, reasonable steps to avoid it. Had the individual not grabbed the officer's pistol, certainly we would not be having this discussion (END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Stephanie Elam joins me live now from Los Angeles. So what's the status of this investigation? Where is it going on behalf of the police and on behalf of those who say they're going to come out and protest?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the thing that is happening now, Ashleigh. You're seeing in the couple of days since the shooting happened, you know that the investigation is continuing on a legal level. But you also see the community outrage. Lots of people saying that this was an excessive use of force by the police department.

So if you see behind me, we're out here at a protest that actually began at the place where the man who was known as Africa on the street was shot and killed by LAPD. That video that we've all just watched now. They're out here protesting that saying that, "Black lives matter." And it's a movement, when you talk to people, that they say started with what we saw in Ferguson with Mike Brown. And they're saying that this is a countrywide problem. I talked to a few people who said that. And so they're out here drumming right in front of Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. This is where they're based.

The police are standing by them. I'm going to take our photojournalist Damir (ph) to turn this way because I want you to see how it's being handled here. After we saw so much of Ferguson, you can see the police are lined up. They're letting them do what they want to do. They're standing by. They're watching. But this protest continues here with -- several people even standing here for about an hour. And we march from the place where the man known as Africa was killed. So they're continuing to have their voices heard, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right. Stephanie Elam reporting for us live in Los Angeles. Thank you for that.

Coming up next. Text messages, they are front and center once again in the Aaron Hernandez's murder trial.

This time, text that Aaron Hernandez thought he deleted, the ones he sent to Odin Lloyd, the man who ended up the murder victim. And just before he ended up dead as well.

We're going to talk about that in a moment.

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BANFIELD: The jury in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial is seeing something that the prosecution says Hernandez did not want them to see, text messages. Messages between him and between the victim, Odin Lloyd, just hours before Odin Lloyd was shot dead.

Hernandez listed Odin Lloyd as O in his contact lists. But this is what comes up on his phone. No activity. Prosecution implied that Hernandez deleted the texts. But the texts were still on Odin Lloyd's phone. At 9:05 p.m., Hernandez tells him, "We could step for a little again." Lloyd responds, "All right, where?" Hernandez says, "I don't know." And later, "I'll figure it out." The final text, Lloyds reply at 12:22 a.m., about three hours before he was killed saying this, "We still on?"