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Congressman Aaron Schock Faces Intense Legal Scrutiny; Biker Leads LA Police on High-Speed Chase. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 20, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:34:04] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bringing his youthful congressional career to an abrupt end will apparently not save congressman Aaron Schock from intense legal scrutiny. Now, federal prosecutors are poring through Schock's financial records, related campaign expenses, even as the Illinois republican is packing up to leave is Capitol Hill office at the end of the month.

The IRS and the U.S. postal service, by the way, they are also investigating and the FBI has begun serving subpoenas in Washington and Illinois according to people familiar with this probe. Schock's troubles began a couple weeks ago when he had the walls of his new congressional office painted to this brilliant bright red here with feathers and photos and such to resemble a room from the TV drama "Downton Abbey." It wasn't cheap, about $40,000 in cost. And that bold decorating decision attracted a lot of attention and thus a lot of questions.

Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny has been in said office. He's spoken with the congressman. We can get to that color in just a moment. Also with me here is our senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin.

So gentlemen, Jeff Zeleny to you, what exactly are the FBI and federal prosecutors, what are they looking at?

[15:35:12] JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Brooke, what we believe that they're looking at are three different categories of things. The first is the mileage reimbursements. He paid for a new SUV through campaign funds, which is perfectly legal. Then he also put in for a significant number of miles that he was reimbursed by the taxpayers by the federal government. So that's one thing that they're looking at. It's essentially a case of double dipping if you will.

They are also, I'm told, looking at if he was flying on any donor's planes, either from Washington to Peoria around the country or the world, we know he liked to travel so much. They are also looking at any in-kind contributions. So that means any contributions that donors gave him for putting on events that he or his campaign didn't pay for. So that's what we believe they're looking at.

I have talked to couple of people who were served subpoenas by the FBI and they are invited -- in fact, requested to appear at a grand jury in Springfield, Illinois. So it is the first confirmation that the FBI is looking into this case.

BALDWIN: OK.

Jeff Toobin, he sort of (INAUDIBLE). I mean, I would love just your reaction to all of the above, but also my question would be when we talk about his flights and this office, et cetera, who is writing the checks and checking the books? Is it staff ? I mean, ultimately the buck stops with him.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that's a very important question because the whole issue with a criminal investigation is criminal intent. If he made a mistake, if staff made a mistake, he still has to give back the money that he got improperly, but it's not criminal. But if they can show that he knew he was seeking out reimbursements for trips he didn't take or for excessive mileage, that's what makes it criminal.

If you make a mistake, you still have to give back the money, but even if you give back the money and you got it in a bad way, you could still be liable criminally. It's about what you were thinking at the time.

BALDWIN: And I guess, we can't crawl into his mind. It does make you wonder when this broke the other day and I was talking to Jeff Zeleny and Drew Griffin who recently was profiling, I mean, at the time he seemed cool as a cumber when Drew caught up with him who was asking him all these questions. I'm wondering if he would have known that this federal probe was coming when he sent out the statement saying he would be resigning.

TOOBIN: It certainly seemed like a lot of things were stacking up. And the whole thing was so embarrassing. Brooke, I have to tell you though, that office design looks just like your office.

BALDWIN: Right. Sure it does. Sure it does.

TOOBIN: Did you use the same decorator?

BALDWIN: Please, Toobin. Please.

TOOBIN: No Just kidding. But - no. I mean, I think it was an accumulation of factors that made him politically un-savable. But the question of whether he can actually be prosecuted all goes to the question of whether he really was intending to steal money from the government.

BALDWIN: OK. I mean, the red is just lovely, isn't it? I would like a window. That's what I would like.

Jeff Toobin, thank you very much. Jeff Zeleny, thanks to you as well here.

From politics to this heart pounding video of a high-speed chase. It was dramatic enough that when this biker began mocking police by doing dangerous stunts, everyone knew it wasn't exactly going to end well here. Here's Jeanne Moos. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A biker doing over a hundred miles an hour on the freeway running red lights almost hitting an SUV. Just another L.A. high-speed chase. But when he put his feet on the seat, that was more than some could stand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this guy. Look at this guy. Look at this! Look at this! He's totally showing off.

MOOS: Some thought the biker even took a selfie but close up it looked like a rude gesture to pursuing police. Media choppers buzzed above. It was breaking news without brake lights. This viewer couldn't contain himself. At one point the biker ended up at a dead end and casually took off his helmet and inserted earbuds. When police tried to block him off, he almost took their door off. The last time we covered an L.A. motorcycle chase, it involved a pack of bikers doing wheelies. Solitary rider kept repeating that standing up stunt.

Wrote one commenter on media, where's a pothole when you need one? After an hour making his last stand, the biker turned into a gas station and gave up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Weak.

MOOS: Police had guns drawn as he lay spread eagled. The 24 year old Phillip (INAUDIBLE) was arrested for felony evading and driving the wrong way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean you didn't endanger anybody? You were standing on your bike going 100 miles per hour.

MOOS: And get this. The biker actually criticized one of the cops saying did he seriously have to try to kick me off my bike?

[15:40:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to say I love my family and my two baby girls and I'm sorry I disappointed them.

MOOS: It was a chase that had hearts pumping, but all this lady wanted to pump was gas.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: How about that little girl reporter who talking to him through the window. You go, girl.

Just ahead here, the uproar, is growing louder at the University of Virginia over this bloody arrest of a black student. You have this one mother now, she is just lost her son to a shooting by police. She says it's becoming an epidemic in America. We'll talk to Tony Robinson's mother coming up here. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:44:54] BALDWIN: In states like Hawaii, Arizona, and Idaho, kids are at increased risk for vision loss. That's because they are among eight states that actually don't require schools to test children's eyesight. Left undetected, many common eye problems can lead to blindness. So this week's CNN hero is fighting for children everywhere to see clearly into their future.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:05] BALDWIN: It is a father and son moment basketball fans will be talking about for years to come here. Number 14 seed Georgia state down two points against number three Baylor when this happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: R.J. Hunter for three. Yes!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, I'm cheering for this awesome team. I'm from Atlanta. My bracket's busted but who cares. Three-point shot downtown with seconds on the clock. R.J. Hunter lifts his team to 57- 56 victory as March madness kicks into full gear.

But this wasn't just any win. Hunter's head coach just happens to be his dad. Ron Hunter got so excited he actually, far left side of your screen, falls out of his chair, broke his cast. He has been wearing one since tearing his Achilles Sunday but that is not stopping him whatsoever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON HUNTER, GEORGIA HEAD COACH: This has been an interesting, interesting week. We are winning, I'm getting banged up and we cut on, I'm getting everything. The players are absolutely just killing me with all this right now. I'm rolling around not even in a wheelchair, in a scooter that's half broken. Just been an interesting week. But I won't trade this for the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: "USA today" sports page paying homage to the big win and Hunter's fall by showing a tipped over chair and beneath it, the team celebrating. R.J. Hunter joins me now by phone from Jacksonville.

R.J., congratulations.

R.J. HUNTER, PLAYER, GEORGIA STATE (via phone): Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, too.

BALDWIN: I know that your dad says you always dreamed about making that big last shot. You are down by two, seconds left, dribbling, dribbling. I mean, you are like 45, you know, feet from that line. Did your dad tell you to take the shot?

HUNTER: Yes. He didn't, actually. We didn't have any time-outs. But as soon as we missed the free throw my boy got the rebound, my roommate, actually. I dribbled up the floor and found him again. And I was playing hot, I was played hot by his defense, but again I saw some space and let it go.

BALDWIN: You found some space. Again, as I said, a hot minute ago, you were pretty far downtown. You make the basket. What would your dad have told you if you didn't make it?

HUNTER: You know, I probably wouldn't have been able to come to the house for a couple weeks, you know, (INAUDIBLE). Stuff like that. But I think it would have gone on.

BALDWIN: Can we talk about your dad? You know, I know that when he hurt his Achilles because he was celebrating because of the conference win. Here he's in this chair. What happened, for people who are trying to watch this?

HUNTER: OK. So he tore his Achilles celebrating our conference championship last Sunday. Running out on the court, he tried to jump and is way past his prime so I don't think that was going to go. And then once we hit the last shot yesterday, I think he thought he was still on his seat, but I think he went to jump up and then he was still on the stool and the stool went out from under him.

BALDWIN: What a story. What a shot. R.J. Hunter, keep playing well. You keep playing well. My tar heels can keep playing well and then we can keep following one another along.

R.J. Hunter, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

HUNTER: Thank you. Appreciate it.

BALDWIN: Two days ago they were protesting against police and now University of Virginia students are meeting with police leaders to discuss the bloody arrest of UVA junior Martese Johnson. A campus forum just concluded with students marching out of it. Within this meeting, you had representatives from the state alcohol beverage control office. And if those ABC agents were the ones accused of using excessive force after Johnson was turned away from this bar. You have seen the photos. You have seen the video. They recorded on this video restraining him, this 20-year-old with blood is just streaming down his face there on the concrete. His attorney says Johnson needed ten stitches.

Johnson's arrest warrant says he was swearing, says that he was intoxicated and he was quote "belligerent," but Johnson through his attorney has given new details of the incident. That attorney says Johnson was approached after he gave his current Illinois zip code to a bar employee and that didn't match the zip code on his outdated ID.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:20] DANIEL WATKINS, ATTORNEY FOR MARTESE JOHNSON: At no time throughout the encounter did Martese present as has been reported by some in the media fake ID. Nevertheless, Virginia ABC officers who were present on the scene questioned my client about being in possession of false identification. The conversation resulted in my client being thrown to the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: UVA forum is happening just two weeks after another police encounter with an unarmed man that sparked national furor as well and deadly shooting of Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin. Now, officer Matthew Kenny said Robinson attacked him, forcing him to fire. Robinson's mother says her son's death is part of a quote-unquote, "epidemic of killings by police officers."

Andrea Irwin, the mother of Tony Robinson joins me now from Madison.

Andrea, my condolences to you. How are you holding up?

ANDREA IRWIN, SON KILLED BY POLICE OFFICER: I have to take care of my other kids and right now it's really not even real yet. I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around all that's going on.

BALDWIN: You're wrapping your mind around what's going on in your own personal family situation, but then you have this UVA arrest, we were just showing the photos of this junior at university of Virginia, Martese Johnson, and your first thought, I was reading the interview, in which you call this an epidemic. Can you explain what you mean?

IRWIN: I feel like that the relationship between police officers and communities as a whole has just been taken to a level where it's next to none. And there seems to be fear on both sides and the things that are happening with my son's murder and then even the thing that just happened with this young man, it shows that there needs to be some form of readjustment of police procedure.

Things need to change. The fear needs to go away. The lines of communication need to be open to the point where this needs to stop.

My son being dead, this young man being hurt, I haven't had an opportunity to look at everything that's been happening, but it just goes to show that when I have been seeing that, the procedures itself need to be re-evaluated and changed. We can see that happening in front of us daily now.

BALDWIN: You mentioned fear a moment ago. I have had a lot of conversations with people, parents who said yes, I tried to sit my son, my daughter down even before any of this happened, particularly, you know, African-American families, and I'm wondering if you had a conversation with your son ever before about race, about dealing with police, if he were ever in any kind of confrontation.

IRWIN: Yes, absolutely. We had many conversations. My son and I were very open. He followed the things that happened in Ferguson closely.

BALDWIN: He did.

IRWIN: My son has never had a bad encounter with the police so we never thought that we had to talk about these situations. My son was -- he was very active in taking part of he wanted to promote change and this is something he spoke much about, wanting to change the world and you know, make it so that it's a better place for everyone, police and citizens.

So I mean, this is amazing to me that this happened to my son, the fact that he talked at length about the things that were happening, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and the turn-around in him now being part of this, I have no words to even express how ironic I think it is that my son is now etched forever as one of these same people.

BALDWIN: I have 40 seconds left with you. In the 40 seconds, would you mind just telling me about your son? What do you miss about him the most?

IRWIN: I miss his smile. I miss him calling my name. I miss his big hugs when I lay my head on his chest. My gentle giant, I miss him. My kids miss him. He was a wonderful, wonderful boy. And his light is gone from my life and it's -- the darkness that I feel is so painful. He was a great kid. Just trying to find himself. That was it. BALDWIN: I am so sorry for your loss. My heart and prayers for you

and your family, Andrea Irwin. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your thoughts. I really truly appreciate it.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Friday afternoon. You are watching CNN. Stay right here. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.