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23-Year-Old Florida Man Charged With Attempt To Use Weapon Of Mass Destruction; NFL Upholds Tom Brady's Four-Game Suspension For Deflate-Gate; Parents Of James Holmes Expected To Testify Today In Trial's Sentencing Phase. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 28, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:50] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get you an update on our breaking story here involving this 23-year-old man out of Florida who is now in-charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. A lot of details now coming out of this 15-page complaint.

So let me bring in CNN's terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank.

And Paul, you have looked through this complaint. But let me just first begin. When I hear weapon of mass destruction, be specific, what did he have or want to have?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, hey, Brooke.

I mean, I think what many of you sort of hear about term weapon of mass destruction. And it signifies all sorts of things, but what it really means is any kind of explosive device, however small. So I think we need to sort of put the danger that this plot calls in some context that appears that the FBI had full control of this. That it wasn't him that was going to make this bomb, that it was an FBI informant that was going to make the bomb, that he didn't necessarily have the skills to make a bomb.

But nevertheless, a very concerning case. Somebody who put in an order for ak-47, somebody who had gone to by mails, a shrapnel in a home improvement store and somebody who was doing online research about July 4th -- events over the July 4th weekend where crowds were congregating. Somebody who, at some point, was considering launching an attack during the July 4th weekend. And of course, we saw all of those threat warnings from the FBI from the department --.

BALDWIN: Right. The heightened alerts.

CRUICKSHANK: So clearly this played into them, Brooke.

BALDWIN: What - I mean, I'm learning a little bit from the bits and pieces that have been passed on to me as far as his Facebook page, this sort of inspired by ISIS, had videos of beheadings on social media. Again, this sort of strikes me as another one of those examples of an individual motivated based upon what he or she has seen online from this terrorist organization taking in on him or herself to try to pull something off. Try, obviously in this case, is the operative word.

CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely right. This is an ISIS-inspired plot, a lone wolf, but not somebody who had direct connection for the ISIS terrorist group. But was inspired by their messaging, by their calls for attacks in the west.

He was somebody very active on Facebook, very active in social media and that's how the FBI first got him on their radar screen. There was a tip that went into the FBI and then they insinuated a sort of undercover informant to contact them over social media, eventually meeting up with him. That's how they kind of had full control of the plot because they knew exactly what he was planning at every step.

And this comes at a time when the FBI has become much, much more aggressive about moving in quickly to carry out arrests, not allowing these plots to play out, to gather intelligence. They are moving in much more quickly to the shop and they are very worried about these lone wolves because they are very unpredictable. They can launch attacks just about any time. We saw that obviously with that Chattanooga attack just a few days ago.

[15:36:02] BALDWIN: The FBI on it. Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much for jumping on the phone. I appreciate it.

And from one breaking story to the next, we have to get back to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Because the news just in from NFL this hour, not only is his four-game suspension upheld, the league says he had his cell phone destroyed. More on that, coming up.

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[15:40:40] BALDWIN: When it comes to Donald Trump, usually he's in the spotlight because of something he specifically has said. But this time it is actually his top adviser and lawyer.

"The Daily Beast" interviewed Michael Cohen, executive vice president of the Trump organization and a man who has been here on CNN as a supporter for the Trump campaign.

Now, this "Daily Beast" reporter asked the Trump campaign for a comment on something that has happened between Trump and his then wife Ivana Trump many years ago. During the divorce proceeding, she allegedly described this incident as rape. And this is what Cohen said in response.

"You're talking about the front-runner for the GOP presidential candidate as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can't rape your spouse." He went on to say, "It is true. You cannot rape your spouse and there's very clear case law."

Well, we have now heard from him in the last couple of hours. He is now backing off of that. Let me read you the statement he has now said, I want to clarify a statement I made to "the Daily Beast" as an attorney, husband and father. There are many injustices that offend me but nothing more than charges of rape or racism. They hit me at my core. Rarely, am I surprised by the press but the gall of this reporter to make such a reprehensible and false allegation against Mr. Trump truly stunned me. In my moment shock and anger, I made an inarticulate comment which I do not believe and which I apologize for entirely."

So, let me bring in A.B. Stoddard, associate editor of "the Hill" newspaper. Also with me, Ron Bonjean, a former spokesman for the senate majority leader Trent Lot.

So, welcome to both of you.

And Ron Bonjean, let me just ask you first, when you hear that, listen, you have done a lot of press, you know, you know sort of how this works in a working some campaigns. When you hear that Mea Culpa, how authentic is it given the fact that, to me, it throws it back a little bit on the reporter.

RON BONJEAN, FORMER SPOKESMAN FOR TRENT LOTT: Yes. I don't think the mea culpa matters. Although, he's right to apologize. He should apologized. I'm glad he did. But it still doesn't take the comment away. You know, it's an extremely damaging comment. You know, Trump has personally gone after, you know, Hispanics in his campaign speech. And now he has a top aide talking about rape which would likely offend a lot of women across the country as well as men, frankly. It is unbelievable.

You know, and it's a gift to the Democratic Party right now, the type of wrecking ball antics and attitude that is coming out of the Trump campaign. It's frankly unbelievable. But this is just -- we're just going to see more of this, I think, more of these high-profile either gaffes or on purpose strategies to get headlines. So it's rather unfortunate for the other GOP candidates who actually should get a lot more air time than they are getting right now in this media black hole of Donald Trump coverage.

BALDWIN: `He's definitely the gift that keeps on giving to the likes of Hillary Clinton to your point. But A.B., I mean, I think also the real point here, even though this wasn't Donald Trump making these comments, you know, it's somebody from his inner circle. So I'm wondering how much this may affect the man Donald Trump moving forward.

A.B. STODDARD, Right. So, as you should, we heard Michael Cohen come out with this apology.

BALDWIN: Yes.

STODDARD: And the silence means that they've thrown Michael Cohen under the bus, right? We've seen some comments from the campaign manager saying that Michael Cohen was never part of the campaign and he was involved in any campaign decisions. All of a sudden Michael Cohen is a nobody.

I saw Wolf Blitzer interview him for a lengthy phone interview last week. He's spoken for Donald Trump many, many times. I received an email from Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is important to Donald Trump. He has been for a long time.

So this shows you the lack of discipline that goes on if a man admits today that in the heat of the moment because he, you know, got so upset with a reporter he said something that is factually not true and completely offensive, obviously, it's not the kind of thing that gives people a lot of faith in the long-term health of the Donald Trump national presidential campaign if you're looking six months from now or a year from now or looking at the general election nomination. But this excitement over Trump I think actually because his wife in terms of this story has pretty much diluted the claims.

BALDWIN: She did.

STODDARD: And dismissed them. I think he's going to be fine because he sort of threw Michael Cohen under the bus. But it shows that there is a lack of discipline that will rear its ugly head.

[15:45:11] BALDWIN: OK. Let's move on from Donald Trump.

And Ron, let me ask you about the debate because I mean, first Republican debate is actually next Thursday. And so you only can have, you know, ten podiums on that stage. So when you look at -- let's throw up the latest CNN/ORC poll. And you can see all that names on your screen. So I have to imagine, what, like position 7 through 12 -- this has to be like key, you know, jockey time to get on the stage.

BONJEAN: Yes. It certainly is. This is like the Olympic trials, basically, before the big show.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BONJEAN: I mean, look, you've seen high-profile Republicans trying to get higher profile because of Donald Trump and get on that stage, you know. You have Lindsey Graham destroying his cell phone. You have Mike Huckabee talking about Iran and the candid holocaust. I mean, you have Ted Cruz going after Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor.

BALDWIN: All to get on that stage?

BONJEAN: It's all to get on that stage. It's all to jockey for that poll position. Get in there and, you know, and try to get those ratings right now because Donald Trump is sucking the light of it.

BALDWIN: Sucking the life out of it. Tell me how you really feel, Ron Bonjean.

A.B., with the state polling, looking at some of the candidates, I know Trump leads in New Hampshire by this wide margin, a bit over Jeb Bush, Scott Walker. But then when you turn to the latest polling out of Iowa, Trump is actually close. Walker is leading. Why -- why the difference there, A.B.?

STODDARD: Well, I mean, I always say that in Iowa Walker gets the neighborhood discount. They know him from Wisconsin there. He has very high name I.D. there. And Donald Trump is just not going to please social conservatives in Iowa to where he pleases independent thinkers in New Hampshire. Not that they are not independent thinkers. But we're really looking a process here, Brooke, where I think Iowa is not as important as in years past. He steal out of the candidate putting most of their time and resources and energy into New Hampshire thinking that even if they don't do well in Iowa, they can start their momentum in New Hampshire.

And I'd like to just point in to blog Governor Perry and former governor Perry and current governor Kasich are the ones who are fighting for the tenth position right now. And they are actually not burning up cell phones and saying bad things about Donald Trump or the Iranians or anything. So I think that's actually worth pointing out because they are slugging it out between the two of them in the polling to make it to the tenth spot.

BALDWIN: OK. OK. Although, I'll give credit to Lindsey Graham for having a sense of humor over the destruction of the cell phone. And I feel like there's going to be a joke in there with Tom Brady. If I may, that's my Segway.

A.B. Stoddard, and Ron Bonjean, thank you both very much.

Let's move along and talk about this other breaking story. The NFL upholding Tom Brady's four games suspension for deflate gate. The league says the New England Patriot star quarterback had his cell phone destroyed that contained evidence about the football tampering scandal. So I have with me sports attorney Brian Socolow.

We talked so much about deflate gate, so now, good to see you. Now, we sort of have this final upholding of suspension, at least, I should say final for now. First, you know, your read. I seepages in front of you. Tell me what jumps out at you in this whole -- to me, it's the destruction of the cell phone although Tom Brady says otherwise. What jumps out at you?

BRIAN SOCOLOW, SPORTS ATTORNEY: A couple of things. First, a 20-page decision that is very well reasoned goes into all the evidence of the hearing from this entire process. And the things that does jumps out at me, aside from learning about Tom Brady's cell phone destruction practices, is that that that was a key thing for the commissioner. That Tom Brady was not forthcoming in turning over his cell phone records and, in fact, destroyed his cell phone the very day he was interviewed by investigators. That, to me, was the key thing in this decision.

BALDWIN: So just to be clear for everyone not totally keeping score with how the NFL works. The NFL doesn't have to say, you give me your cell phone. Sort of saying me, OK, if you'd like to hand over some text messages as far as the evidence for this particular investigation, we would love to see any and all, you know, pertinent information and that's when he apparently he had what, some 10,000 text messages. And to quote Rachael Nichols, maybe he was just texting his wife, Gisele. I don't really know. But in his defense, what has he said about his cell phone destruction practices?

SOCOLOW: He said that that was something that he just did ordinarily. Every so often, he would get a new cell phone and tell his assistant to destroy it so nobody could extract information or use it. And that's perfectly fine explanation as to what you might do generally. But the fact that he instructed his assistant to destroy the cell phone the very day that he was interviewed, that's clearly what struck Roger Goodell as being very unusual and really, in his mind, demonstrated there was some type of destruction of this process and Tom Brady was not giving the evidence that was relevant to it.

[15:50:53] BALDWIN: Roger Goodell, the incredibly powerful man, the commissioner here of this league and then you have the darling of -- much would say, the NFL, this you know, superstar quarterback Tom Brady. It was Goodell who was actually, he could have recused himself, but he oversaw this entire process. Do you think he would -- should have recused himself, A? And B, where does this go now?

SOCOLOW: I don't think that he should have recused himself. He's the commissioner. This is the power that he has under the collective bargaining agreement. He has to exercise it. That's what a commissioner does. So I think he was right in hearing this decision. Clearly, he wasn't suede by any testimony at this hearing that took place a few months ago. He was swayed by this new information he got about the destruction of the cell phone.

If Tom Brady decides to go ahead with this, he can go into federal court and try to have it overturned there. I think that will be very difficult to do. And fundamental question for him and his team is whether now is the time to say, although I disagree with the commissioner's findings, I'm willing to accept this penalty or whether he wants to go to the next step, go to federal court, put his reputation on the line further and potentially lose again.

BALDWIN: And that first game he would potentially be back at it after the four-game suspension would be the Minneapolis Colts, which is where said deflate gate scandal happened back last season to be in that stadium.

Brian Socolow, thank you very much. I appreciate it. We will follow that.

SOCOLOW: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we're going to talk to a lieutenant in Louisiana whose crime stoppers video is not only the buzz of the Internet, it's actually really working, and I have to say, I have never seen anything quite like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to identify you, arrest you and put you in a small cell. After that I'm going to have a cheeseburger here with fries and a coke, and leave a nice tip for the waitress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:55:54] BALDWIN: The parents of convicted Colorado theater shooting James Holmes are expected to testify today in the sentencing phase of the trial. The hearing is now in phase two. And the defense has been calling family and friends as witnesses hoping to convince the jury to spare Holmes life. Monday, his sister took the stand. She said she had no idea growing up that her brother may have been mentally ill, and then came the tears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to continue your relationship with him?

CHRIS HOLMES, JAMES HOLMES' SISTER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the future if there's things you can do to help him, are you -- do you want to be able to do that?

HOLMES: Yes. I think it will be up to me when my parents pass away, so I do want to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After it all, is he still your brother?

HOLMES: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And do you still love him?

HOLMES: I still love him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's Ana Cabrera is in Colorado with more on the proceedings - Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, for so long, we've been waiting to hear from James Holmes parents, Bob and Arlene. They've denied multiple requests for interviews over the last three years. But they are expected to take the witness stand this afternoon. We expect them to talk about what James Holmes was like as a child, how he played well with others in the neighborhood, they'll probably talk about the family's history of mental illness, likely discuss what Holmes has been like as a son, as a brother, and probably hear them echo sentiments from other witnesses describing Holmes as shy, respectful and a compassionate person.

We've already heard from Holmes' sister, Chris Holmes, who is about five years younger than her brother. And we lots of pictures from the defense showing happier times with the siblings in bumper boats. The two as children flossing their teeth with big smiles on their faces. We also saw picture of James Holmes on his knees hugging his little sister when she was just one or two and he was six or seven. That was the tender moment caught on camera.

Now, all this as the defense tries to convince the jury to spare James Holmes life, and they continue to build their case that what happened at the theater on July 20th of 2012 was completely out of character for Holmes, that it was a direct result of mental illness, something that caused delusions and ultimately led to the movie theater massacre -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Anna Cabrera for us in Colorado.

And, thank you.

The former prison seamstress who helped two murdered escape is now facing her own time behind bars, could be as many as seven years. She was weeping quite a bit there in the courtroom this morning. As this Joyce Mitchell, she accepted a plea deal today in this courtroom in upstate New York. That is where, back on June 6th, convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt broke free from that maximum security prison and after nearly three weeks on the run, Matt was shot and killed a couple days later, Sweat was shot and captured. And Joyce Mitchell admitted officially today that she smuggled in the tools these men used to get out of this prison.

Here is a clip from tonight's CNN special on this daring escape.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: On the surface, this woman seems the most unlikely accomplice to this crime. 51-years-old, she's a wife and a mother, married to the same man for 14 years. But Joyce Mitchell has secrets. Secrets that have landed her in jail, accused of helping two dangerous felons break free.

JOHN WALSH, CNN HOST, THE HUNT: I get many escapees on America's most wanted that would have never gotten out if it wasn't for the woman who helped them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: In this case, authorities say Joyce Mitchell is the woman who helped Richard Matt and David Sweat with their plan. But how and why did this wife and mother become involved with two convicted murders?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So we have so much more on the story this evening. Make sure you tune in and watch our Special Report, we're calling it the great prison escape. It airs tonight 9:00 eastern and pacific right here on CNN.

And make sure you keep it right here, thank you so much, though, for being with me on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Let's take it to Washington now. My colleague Jake Tapper is up next. "THE LEAD" starts now.