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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Credible Threat Shuts Down L.A. Schools. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 15, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] ANNOUNCER: CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. I'm live in Las Vegas. And we're going to get to the Republican presidential debate and all of the news surrounding it in just a moment.

But first, this breaking news out of Los Angeles. The nation's second largest school district is completely shut down, and all of that over an electronic threat. We are expecting an update from the district officials there. It's supposed to come at the top of the next hour.

But in the meantime, here is what we've been able to compile so far about this threat. More than 900 schools and 600,000 children are affected. The superintendent says the threat referred to backpacks and other packages. And many school districts were threatened, though none by name.

Here is the phone message that went out to all parents this morning that informed them of this closure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAUSD SCHOOL CLOSURE VOICEMAIL: The superintendent has directed all schools to be closed today, Tuesday, December 15th, to ensure the safety of all students. Further information will be forth coming via additional blackboard connect messages. Again, please be advised that all schools will be closed for students today, Tuesday, December 15, 2015. The safety of students is the district's number one priority. Thank you for your attention to this communication and your supportive efforts to keep our schools safe and secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The superintendent wants all schools to be searched completely thoroughly before he and the school board say they'll decide whether classes will resume tomorrow. This is most certainly expected to come up at the White House press briefing, which is due to start at 12:30 Eastern Time. And, of course, we're going to bring you that live just as soon as it gets underway.

But first to the reporting live on this circumstance. I want to bring in CNN's Paul Vercammen, who's live in Los Angeles. He is joined by Kyung Lah, our correspondent, who is at the school district's headquarters live right now, and CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam. First, Paul Vercammen, to you. Give me the best sort of contours that

we know about this story and about the circumstances around that threat.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a school district spokesman just told me that the threat went to a board member and that it was a credible threat. And in reaction to it, not only did they close all the schools, but they're now telling me that school district members will go through each of the schools. Principals, office staff and plant managers making sure that there are no suspicious devices. And in schools right around our bureau here in Hollywood, we saw where principals were turning away the students. They seemed to have gotten to most of the students via that phone tree, if you will, earlier. But one student was talking with the principal and she said that she was told that there was a bomb threat and the district would wait and see if there will be school tomorrow.

And, of course, this comes at a terrible time. This is finals week before the students go off to their vacations, their holidays. So, again, as you pointed out, second largest school district in the country with some 660,000 students, just a little less than Boston. One nuance, some of those students are adult education students. But, of course, most of those are K-12, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And then, Paul, just help me understand, if you will. Look, it's not as though this school district hasn't had threats before. Plenty of, you know, jokes that people think are funny or called in, people who are trying to get out of an exam. But this has to be remarkably different to involve over 600,000 kids in that district. Why are they thinking it is such a different threat? Are they giving any indication that way?

VERCAMMEN: No, they're not. The only indication, as I said, would be that we've heard, you know, on the ground that there's some talk that there was a bomb threat. And then, of course, as I said, speaking to the district spokeswoman, she said it was a threat that went to a school, you know, a member of the board, and that member of the board clearly relayed the information and that was enough for them. And the LAPD has basically echoed that as well saying for them it's a - you know, a level one alert. So the FBI also involved in this. But they're not revealing anything more at this point, at least the district spokespeople are not.

BANFIELD: OK. Jonathan Gilliam, with your FBI field experience, I was hoping you might be able to lead me through just operationally what this means for a district that big. If you need to clear 900 schools, I'm guessing every single locker, every single classroom, every parking lot. What operationally is this going to be for the different agencies that respond, not the least of which the FBI?

[12:05:14] JONATHAN GILLIAM, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first off, it has to be organized. It - that - that is the first thing out of all this. it's such a massive scale that if they just start sending people in, they're not going to be able - and we talk about this a lot with whether it be rescues or crisis situations such as floods and stuff, the first responders have to stop, if they can, and evaluate what they have, and then set up, which they should have already, ways to catalog each search and each piece of evidence that may come in so that they don't lose track of this because it's so big.

Now, the thing that I think besides that, that's going to be really difficult, is the manpower to go through and look at these things. I, myself, would not be comfortable sending in a superintendent or a teacher to go look through these areas. You - they may be able to assist, but you really do need to have a bomb tech on site. You need to have law enforcement there that understand, you don't approach a package. You know, it's a human nature to walk up to something that doesn't look normal and nudge it with your foot and even experienced combat veterans have been killed because of that human intuition to want to see what that is. So I just don't feel real comfortable with allowing the staff to go through and search these buildings. And because of that, I hope they're taking this into account. That's going to take a lot longer but it has to be systemic, it has to be slow and my hat is off to that superintendent and everyone else in law enforcement that decided to close the schools. This is what needs to be done. Super, super forward thinking and awareness of the potential of what could happen.

BANFIELD: So, Jonathan, you know, I know you wear a lot of security hats, but again, just straight to the FBI hat that you've worn for so long, what kind of a threat might this be in order to take such drastic action? I know it's sort of a - it's asking the impossible. But it's got to reach a kind of threshold that, you know, the layperson's not going to maybe understand, but people who are in that room right now making this call are definitive about what is the threshold, what would it have to be to do this?

GILLIAM: Well, I think it's going to be one of a couple of things or maybe multiple things. They may have gotten a tip, and then corroborated that tip with a source, or they could have gotten a called in threat and then actually found a device. Of course, they're not telling us that right now. But if they did find a device, then of course they're going to close all the schools.

Remember, our greatest tool in anything, whether it's terrorism, crime, any type of closed group is going to be sources. It's - and when you combine that with electronic evaluation and then on scene investigations, I just have to believe they have something that is tangible here. So I think that's the main word, they have something that is tangible, not just a call-in threat or they maybe saw something on the Internet. I think they have something tangible here.

BANFIELD: All right, Jonathan Gilliam, standby for a moment.

Again, if you're just joining us, the breaking news this morning, and it is a significant development in the L.A. Unified School District. Over 900 schools are shuttered today. Every one of those students has been told to stay home. And that amounts to over 640,000 kids in the Los Angeles area. It is a massive school district. The second largest in the country. Which means many of those parents are also having to alter their plans today as well as those children were told to stay home or turn around and go home. I want to go to CNN's Kyung Lah, who is standing by live right now

with I think some potentially more light that you can shed on this - on this circumstance.

Kyung, are you in the Unified School District offices now?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I am here at the school district. And the press conference was supposed to start at 9:00, but they're analyzing some new information that they're just beginning to share with the press. Just a couple of minutes ago, the spokesperson for the school district came by, briefed reporters very casually and said that the reason why all of this happened, the reason for this school shutdown, is that it was an e-mailed threat, an electronic threat, that came in from overseas. The IP address that the school - the school district has come from Frankfort, Germany.

So the reason why they took this so seriously is not only was this an electronic threat, something that they have seen before, but this came from overseas. Given all of the international attention to terrorism, as well as what happened here in nearby San Bernardino, they're taking this very seriously. It was also e-mailed to a school board member.

[12:10:19] So here are two concrete things. The e-mail coming from an IP address from Frankfort, Germany, directly e-mailed to a school board member. That's why there has been such a strong reaction here in the school district. That's why these 900 schools have been closed and why they've thrown all these hundreds of thousands of students and their parents, you know, basically into a lot of concern about what today should hold.

So, what we are expecting within the next hour or so are a number of officials to come to this podium and further explain what this is. How seriously they are taking it as far as tomorrow. If there's anything more specific. We know that they were referring to backpacks and other packages. But again, the school spokesperson coming forward to reporters and saying that it was an electronic e-mail that came from Frankfurt, Germany, and it was e-mailed directly to a school board member. That's why, Ashleigh, that they are taking this so seriously. That's why this strong reaction.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Kyung Lah reporting for us live at the district offices in L.A. And do update us the minute you hear of anything, Kyung. Thank you.

Thank you to our Paul Vercammen as well, who's following this story from Los Angeles, and also our Jonathan Gilliam, who's giving us the insight into the security situation and the operational techniques now that the FBI is involved in this threat.

We are just moments away, as well, from the White House press briefing, which is standard operating procedure, about 12:30 every day, but there is nothing standard about a day when 640,000-plus kids are told, it's just too dangerous to come to your school today. That's the reality, folks. We're going to have more on this story in just a moment, live from the Republican debate here at the - the venue in Vegas. We're also going to give you the update on what's happening as those candidates get ready to join us here at the Venetian Hotel.

A quick break. Back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:41] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BANFIELD: I want to welcome you back. I'm coming to you live from Las Vegas. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. This is LEGAL VIEW.

But there is very little about the Republican debate right now that we are discussing. I will update you as to the arrival of the candidates shortly.

But there is a breaking story coming to us, if you're just joining us, out of the Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Unified School District is closed for business and 640,000-plus kids have been informed no school today. Messages going out to their parents, do not send your children to school today, there has been a credible threat. A threat that has caused enough fear for 900 schools to shutter their doors. Children who were en route to school were somehow intercepted as best as possible and sent home. Those who had arrived at school, turned around and sent home. And all of the buses in that school district also turned around and sent back to base.

When will the schools open again is anyone's guess at this time. Next hour, we are expecting the L.A. school officials to give us our second update in the last hour and a half to let us know just exactly what this threat entails, who it came from, how specific it was, and how long it will last. But make no mistake, operationally, to clear this threat and to clear the 900 schools which unspecifically have been targeted could take a very long time indeed, and could be exhaustive.

I want to read for you something that's come out of the other coast now. Out of New York now. We are hearing that the New York Police Department is investigating what it says it believes to be a hoax. A hoax in the way of an e-mail that went to the superintendent in the New York City school system, apparently receiving an e-mail very similar, and I'll quote, almost exactly the same as the one that was received by other locals, specifically the Los Angeles area. That's what the police commissioner in New York, Bill Bratton, is saying at this time. He saying police are not considering the New York threat sent to the New York school superintendent as a credible threat, but he said he does believe that the e-mail that the New York commissioner received in fact also originated overseas.

And here's what might be specific. The language that was used, it does not lend itself to a jihadist initiative as Allah is not spelled with a capital a. That from New York's Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. He says the New York Police Department is working closely with the FBI, with the Joint Terrorism Task Force and with the Los Angeles police on this threat. They are using this as an opportunity to work together to generate as much information in a quick - as quick of a time period as possible given the closure of the L.A. school district. I want to now play for you something that the New York mayor, Bill de

Blasio, said just a short time ago. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK: The immediate assessment by the intelligence division, again in consultation with the FBI, was there was nothing credible about the threat. It was so generic, so outlandish, and posed to numerous school systems simultaneously that that immediate - plus the additional information the commissioner just noted, there were wording choices and other indicators that suggested a hoax and not anything that we could associate with jihadi activity. So the assumptions of the NYPD and the assumption of the Department of Education were immediately exactly the same, that there - in fact, there would be a huge disservice to our nation to close down our school system. So there's been absolute unity between NYPD, DOE and the mayor's office that this was not the kind of threat that we would act on and, in fact, was a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio just a short time ago, referring to what they believe to be a hoax.

I want to go live right away to the police commissioner in New York, Bill Bratton, speaking live.

BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: It appears, as of this time, that the school system out there acted on their own without consultation with local law enforcement authorities and my understanding is they may have shut down their schools for the day. We see no need whatsoever to take that action here in New York City. That we do believe a preliminary investigation that this is in fact a hoax, and we will investigate it as such.

[12:20:19] OK.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: Let me emphasize, we're going to take questions on this and other police matters only in this session.

Let me - go ahead.

QUESTION: Can you go into more detail on the e-mail?

BRATTON: That - I will not at this time that - the mayor and I just received a briefing from Commissioner Miller. That, obviously, caused for the delay in interacting with you. And they are in the process of still investigating that. I have not had the opportunity to actually view the entire message that was sent. We had a briefing from Mr. Miller. But I concur with his finding based on my briefing that the e- mail is, in fact, a hoax.

And we have to be careful of this. You hear me constantly, the mayor and I, talking about being aware, but not living in fear. These types of things are intended to create fear. And as to what the motivation might be, midterm exams, somebody not wanting to go to school, but inasmuch as the origin of this appears that it may have been from overseas, I would not think it the usual prank by a student not wanting to take an exam, that whatever the motivation. But we cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear. Certainly raise levels of awareness. But this is not a credible threat and not one that requires any action on our part similar to what my understanding is the school system in Los Angeles took.

QUESTION: Commissioner, was it the same e-mail sent to many districts around -

BRATTON: The preliminary briefing the mayor and I just had that - which follows an earlier briefing I had early this morning, is that it appears to be the same e-mail that - a generic e-mail that was sent to a number of agencies. Working with the FBI now, we're trying to determine what other school systems we've been in contact - we have very intimate relationships with the counterterrorism bureau of the LAPD. And that's the entity, the second largest school system in America. My understanding is that they shut it down for the day based on this anonymous, not credible threat.

QUESTION: What school received the threat? What borough was it in?

BRATTON: We won't get into that at the moment. That's part of our investigation to determine, one, was it a singular threat delivered to a specific individual? Did other school officials possibly receive it? And also, as to why it may have gone to this particular school official. That will be part of the investigation.

OK. Yes.

QUESTION: Have you considered closing the schools at any point?

DE BLASIO: No. The immediate assessment by the intelligence division, again in consultation with the FBI, was there was nothing credible about the threat. It was so generic, so outlandish, and posed to numerous school systems simultaneously that that immediate - plus the additional information the commissioner just noted. There were wording choices and other indicators that suggested a hoax and not anything that we could associate with jihadist activity. So the assumption of the NYPD and the assumption of the Department of Education were immediately exactly the same. That they - in fact, there would be a huge disservice to our nation to close down our school systems. So there's been absolute unity between the NYPD, DOE and the mayor's office that this was not the kind of threat that we would act on and, in fact, was a hoax.

BRATTON: Actually, in review it, I think the initiator, the instigator of the threat may be a "Homeland" fan, basically watching "Homeland" episodes that - it mirrors a lot of recent episodes on "Homeland." So who knows that as we go forward with the investigation, but reaffirming that the mayor and I and the officials that you all know in our organization, John Miller, Chief Gilati (ph) and certainly the FBI, who was here with us earlier this morning, we are very comfortable as to all the people that might be watching your newscast, that this is not a credible threat. It is not something that we are concerned with. What we would be concerned with is overreacting to it. We will stay

aware, we will stay involved, but w, at all costs, cannot start overreacting to what will probably be a series of copycat types of initiatives.

DE BLASIO: Please, right there?

BANFIELD: And I just want to give you a clarification. I said that's a live news conference. It's actually - it was just live to tape and we were rerolling. So that's as fresh of information as we could give you.

But I want to give you some of the highlights from both the police commissioner in New York and also the mayor, Bill de Blasio. First to the police commissioner. Bill Bratton said that the threat that was sent in was somewhat generic and so much so that they have decided that it would be inappropriate to close the school district in New York.

[12:25:07] And I'll remind you, while Los Angeles is the second largest school district in the nation, New York is the first with 1 million plus schoolchildren and 1,600 schools. That would be an enormous feat to close that school district as well.

He also mentioned that this was generic. It was sent to a number of agencies. That was also mirrored in the mayor's comments. And I will quote the mayor saying, "so generic and so outlandish, posed to numerous school districts simultaneously." Also, both of these officials suggesting what our Kyung Lah had reported just moments ago, and that was that this is a foreign IP address. This was coming from overseas. There are misspellings in the word "Allah," which would not indicate that this is somebody who is a religious zealot, that would not happen more than likely.

Do want to let you know something also interesting, suggesting, the police commissioner in New York, that "Homeland," the television show, that basically has episodes every - every episode is about terror, that this threat seemed to mirror perhaps a "Homeland" episode of that television show.

I want to bring in our Jonathan Gilliam, who can help us sort of sort through a little bit of this, especially as a former FBI special agent.

Jonathan, I know you wear a lot of hats. Not only that, but also a former SEAL and a former police officer as well. If you could just address that specifically for me. I also want to mention, our Boris Sanchez standing by live to dig through some of these bits and pieces of information that we're getting. And I'm also told our Evan Perez is on standby as well. He's going to join us in just a moment from our Washington bureau.

But first to you, Jonathan Gilliam. The notion that this is an IP address from overseas, from Frankfurt, Germany, as our Kyung Lah reported, with misspellings in it, walk me through the significance of that and why we have this disparity between the L.A. school district saying it was serious enough to shut everything down and the New York school district saying, not so fast here in New York?

GILLIAM: Well, I'm going to try to keep this as calm as I can because I'm furious after watching that press briefing by Mayor de Blasio and the police commissioner, Bratton, here in New York. I think the response that's happening in L.A. is appropriate. I think that they are setting the example for not inciting fear, but showing that they are aware and they're trying to stay - stay ahead of any potential threat because unless the commissioner here in New York City and Mayor de Blasio know that 100 percent there's no credibility to that threat, they have to take the threat at least somewhat serious. And I heard him say over and over again, in fact, it was the polar opposite of what was happening in L.A. where they talked about why they were doing this, they talked about being aware, forward thinking.

What you had here in New York was a mayor and a commissioner that were saying, we don't want to show people to be afraid. We don't want people to be afraid. We don't want to show weakness. What they do when they have that type of rhetoric (ph) is they make people afraid and they make people feel like something is just not right here. And then for him to come on and downplay it as though it's nothing, that it's probably some kid across, you know, overseas or something that didn't want to take a test or that it was an episode of "Homeland," that is the type of mentality that is going to get people killed eventually.

I'm not saying they have to shut the schools down, but you have to empower people and tell them, it's better for us to be aware. We are taking precaution. We're looking into this. Why downplay it? Why do they do this every single time here in New York? When I was in the FBI here in New York, it was constantly downplaying, we don't have a credible threat. We don't know for sure. And so they just, you know, kind of say, we don't have a known threat, it's not credible.

I just - Ashleigh, I find this ridiculous. And in comparison to what's happening in L.A., it may be, you know, they may be going over the top, but I think they're handling it in a very calm and sophisticated manner out there.

BANFIELD: Well, we're definitely, you know, continuing to gather as much intel as we can, Jonathan.

In the meantime, I do have Boris Sanchez and Evan Perez standing by. Boris is in New York. Evan Perez is in Washington, our justice correspondent.

You're got some new intelligence on what some of the federal officers in L.A. might know about this, Evan?

[12:29:43] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Ashleigh, one of the things that typically would happen after some - after a threat like this, is that you would consult with federal and certainly state and local law enforcement to try to determine how best to handle something like this. And I think we're going to have to hear a little bit more from the - from the L.A. Unified School District and what exactly they did because, for example, we know that the FBI has a command center that is staffed 24 hours a day in Los Angeles and as far as we can tell, they don't believe - federal law enforcement does not believe that the threat