Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Killer's Friend Expected to be Charged; Paris Terror Attacks; Defense Secretary Admits Using Personal E-Mail; Trump: I've Been a Little Bit Divisive; Judge, Lawyers Discuss Post-Mistrial Options. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 17, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, they lost interest immediately.

CUOMO: Knowing it was a perfect match, the woman who rescued Carmela immediately gave the dog to Tianna and her sister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's still fun to play with even though her legs don't work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is this Christmas compare to other Christmases, Tianna?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: It is.

CAMEROTA: So great.

PEREIRA: That's so beautiful. Look at Carmelo.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

PEREIRA: So is Tianna.

CAMEROTA: That's beautiful. Thanks Chris.

Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Nice story. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We do begin with breaking news.

More than two weeks after 14 people were gunned down during an ISIS inspired shooting spree in Southern California, federal prosecutors are expected to file charges against one of the attacker's friends. Sources now telling CNN charges against 24-year-old Enrique Marquez will likely be based on allegations he brought two automatic rifle, semiautomatic rifles, that were used in those brutal killings.

So let's get right to CNN justice reporter Evan Perez, he has more details. Good morning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you know, Enrique Marquez has been cooperating with the FBI. He's been doing interviews almost -- pretty much daily for over a week now. And as you said these charges that we expect to be announced in Los Angeles later today are going to be based on the fact that he bought two AR-15 style rifles for Syed Farook back in 2011 and 2012.

He has told investigators that one of the reasons that -- one reason why he bought the rifles for Farook was Farook was trying to avoid attention. Farook already owned three firearms and so he was trying to essentially evade another background check. And under California law, under federal law that is a legal violation. So we don't know exactly all the charges that he's going to be facing.

We know that the -- as part of this cooperation that he's been giving the FBI, part of this information that he's been giving is that he's described a lot about Farook, including the fact that he and Farook came up with this plot back in 2012 which they ended up decided not carry out. We don't details of exactly what that plot was, how close they got to it. And we also know that he says that he and Farook made pipe bombs as a hobby, you know, back in the day. He even boasted to the FBI that if he had made these pipe bombs that were found there that they would probably have gone off.

So a lot of information he's given to the FBI, we don't know how much of this has checked out. The FBI has been working to try to corroborate what he's been saying.

COSTELLO: OK. So I want to bring in Joey Jackson, our legal analyst because there's a lot of confusing things surrounding these charges, right? So the gun charges pretty easy to understand, right?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

COSTELLO: Because you can't sell a firearm to someone else without them going through a background check. That's illegal in the state of California.

JACKSON: That's right. So what happens is -- good morning, Carol. Good morning, Evan.

You know, it could be that these are charges that just are predicated upon the purchasing. And he's a straw purchaser. That is, you're purchasing with no intent to use yourself but you're giving it to someone else. And remember that the person you give to, you can gift firearms. It's complicated. I wouldn't recommend it. Give a gift card and let them purchase it on their own. But if the person is not independently capable of lawfully possessing a weapon, that's problematic. Now that's one thing.

Remember, as Evan spoke to, though, he's been questioned by the FBI for a period of time. So we don't know specifically what he's been telling the FBI concerning his knowledge. There's a lot we don't know but there are some we do know. They're childhood friends. He himself converted to Muslim, which, you know, fine, people do that. But what was his intent in doing it? And what did he know with regard to the purchase of the firearms how they'll be used?

Evan spoke to the issue of the plot previously. You're purchasing weapons for someone. You have potentially negative intentions in doing so. And to what extent if at all did he aid, abet or assist with regard to the --

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you a question about that because it was a plot that was never carried out. Right?

PEREZ: It was never carried out. That's right.

COSTELLO: Never carried out. It didn't apply to this San Bernardino plot as far as we know.

PEREZ: As far as we know. And --

COSTELLO: So won't conspiracy charges be tough to file then?

PEREZ: Well --

JACKSON: Maybe not though. Because, again, we don't know specifically what he's been saying to the FBI. Now obviously it's not advisable as a defense attorney to go in and speak to the FBI. That's the first mistake. But if he is, what information has he given concerning what he knew about the San Bernardino incidence. Was he involved in anyway. Did he assist in anyway. And that of course can elevate the charges and make things much more problematic.

COSTELLO: OK. Something else strange, Evan. So this guy, this Marquez, checked himself into a mental facility right after the shootings happened. What was that about?

PEREZ: I expect that that's going to be a big part of this. I think one of the things that he's done is he checked himself into a mental health facility right after the attacks. He said he was upset by that. He claims that he had nothing do with plotting the San Bernardino attacks. He said he had nothing to do with it. Didn't know about it in advance. Obviously the fact that he brought the firearm is enough trouble for him.

[09:05:04] He waived his Miranda rights while he was doing this. He did have a lawyer who was helping him in the last week or so, but we know that he's been very cooperative with the FBI. The problem for the FBI probably is going to be the fact that I can see a lawyer certainly saying, you know, he checked himself into a mental health institution. He was having mental health issues so he's not completely culpable here. JACKSON: Yes, but you did this at this point. To what extent did you

check yourself in at some prior time? Was it mental history or is this something that you're using as a manner and measure of convenience. That's all of course goes into it.

COSTELLO: Very complicated case. I know that you have a more breaking news to share with us, Evan. So take it away.

PEREZ: Well, we have information, Carol, that the investigators in the Paris attacks have found that the attackers -- some of the attackers were using encrypted apps to communicate during the time that they were plotting these attacks. And that's a very key thing. We've known, for instance, that they found on cell phones that were recovered at the crime scenes, we know that they have found these apps. And one of the things that people have been hesitating to say was whether or not they believe these were used in the plotting.

And it's a key thing simply because the apps that we're talking about, a couple of them in particular, WhatsApp and Telegram are apps that ISIS has been encouraging its supporters to use as a way to avoid surveillance and to avoid law enforcement authorities. And so one of the things that we now know that the investigators there in Paris have determined is that they believe these apps were used in the plotting.

They did use some unencrypted communications and there were other things that they did to try to preserve their plot, to make sure people didn't know what they were doing, including the fact that, you know, you had Belgian and French citizens who went to Syria, came back undetected because they used fake documents. We know that they also were changing SIM cards on cell phone. So they did a lot of things to hide.

Encryption isn't the entire story here but we now know that at least part of this is now the focus on encryption. It's something that the FBI director Jim Comey has been talking about, authorities in France and elsewhere also pushing for this issue to be resolved.

COSTELLO: Well, you're a one-man news machine this morning. So I'll let you get back to it.

Evan Perez, Joey Jackson, many thanks to both of you.

The Pentagon is defending Secretary Ashton Carter -- Defense Secretary Ashton Carter this morning for using his personal e-mail on the job. The Pentagon says the Defense secretary admits it was a mistake but he denies any wrongdoing. As a result, Carter has stopped such use of his personal e-mail and further limited his use of e-mail altogether. That's a statement from the Pentagon.

Our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins us from the White House with more on this. Good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The secretary of Defense now in the position of having to talk about the circumstances surrounding his use of personal e-mail for public business. Been traveling in Iraq but has had to make some statements and the Pentagon press office has also had to put some statements out on this one.

Look, Ash Carter and his people are making a number of points on this. The first one is that he used personal e-mail only occasionally. Also that he copied any e-mails on personal e-mails to the government official Web site, which of course that would be in compliance with regulations, also making the point that he never used personal e-mail for classified information.

So let's listen to what he said with CBS News this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What I did that I shouldn't have been doing until a few months ago was occasionally use my iPhone to send administrative messages -- no classified information and backed up as records -- but to my immediate staff. And even that I shouldn't have been doing. And when I realized that, I stopped. But this is -- I have to hold myself to absolutely strict standards in terms of cyber security and doing things that are appropriate. I didn't in this case. It's a mistake. And it is entirely my own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: This story was first broken by the "New York Times." Now one of the reasons why this is important and why we are hearing about it now is because of the situation with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who also used personal e-mail for official business. But this appears to be a very different situation. Not only because of the volume involving Carter's e-mails, which was apparently very small but also because Ash Carter apparently was not using a personal server to do this, which is what Hillary Clinton was doing.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live from the White House. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, from Russia with love. I just bet you can guess which Republican candidate Vladimir Putin just called very, very talented.

[09:10:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The Russian President Vladimir Putin is standing firm, vowing not to join an international effort to get rid of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. During an address this morning Putin said he would never agree to let outsiders determine Syria's political future. He then called out U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for his role in trying to oust Assad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): We will never agree that somebody from wherever they may be can compel who must lead. Mr. Kerry spoke about this. Our position has not changed. It is a -- a position of principle. We consider only the Syrian people can determine who should govern them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: While Putin had harsh words for Secretary of State Kerry he gave a shout-out to an American man running for the president of the United States, and you know who that is. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump got praised from Putin. Following his address, the Russian leader called Trump, "The absolute leader of the presidential race. A bright person and talented."

All of this as Trump returns to the campaign trail following the debate. One of his first stops was the set of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Listen to what Trump said about his role in the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would like to see the Republican Party come together. And I've been a little bit divisive in the sense that I've been hitting people pretty hard.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST: A little bit.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Yes. And ultimately, you know, we have to come together and get this thing done. And I'm having a great time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. CNN's Sara Murray joins us and you found that comment very interesting.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I did find that comment interesting because it's like Donald Trump is trying to embrace his role as the front runner. He wants the party to come together. He wants more unity. But he just couldn't quite stick with it. He couldn't quite give up the idea of attacking his rivals.

Listen to what he said about some of the other Republicans just minutes later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMMEL: Do you think Jeb Bush is scared of you or scared in general?

TRUMP: I think he's scared.

He is having a hard time.

KIMMEL: Do you think he wants to run for president?

TRUMP: No. He was a happy warrior. But he has never been a happy warrior. And he is having a hard time running.

You have guys like Pataki where he has zero. You have Lindsey Graham with zero. People should get out.

I don't even think it's good -- I don't know what they're doing. They are on the children's stage. They call it the children's stage.

KIMMEL: Right.

TRUMP: And they're talking -- they have nothing going. At a certain point, you have to get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: And, you know, it is funny. I actually asked his wife Melania Trump about this in the spin room after the debate, what it's like when Donald Trump is facing incoming fire, and she said, you know, he's a big boy but he's also a fighter. And when people come after him, it's like he can't help himself, he has to fight back.

And, you know, I think that's what we're still seeing, even though he's saying even though he wants to see some unity, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, it's been very effective for him so far.

Sara, stay with me. I want to dig deeper into this topic with Michael Warren, too. He's a staff writer for "The Weekly Standard".

OK. So, Michael, you heard Trump, he's kind of, sort of softening his tone, admitting he's divisive and how he hopes the Republican Party can come together. What do you think is driving Trump to say that?

MICHAEL WARREN, STAFF WRITER, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Well, I think a lot of what Sarah said is right about sort of his recognition of his front runner status and maybe realizing that this crazy idea that he could be the nominee might actually happen. But he's also dealing I think with a sense that I think there is a large segment of the party that does not want him as the nominee. I think it is something like 30 percent in one poll said they would not vote for Donald Trump in no way. And really he was the only person worse off in the race was Jeb Bush in those numbers.

So I think Trump is also realizing that he does have a problem in turning off Republican voters who ought to vote for him if he's the Republican nominee. So I think that is happening too.

But I agree with Sara that when he's attacked or given an opportunity to attack, he really can't deny his true nature, which is to go after them.

COSTELLO: OK. So, on the subject of Jeb Bush, Sara, on Jimmy Kimmel. He was particularly -- well he kept saying Jeb Bush wasn't nice and that he couldn't kill the Hitler baby. So, is it just that these two men have grown to intensely dislike one another?

MURRAY: I think that is part of it. Look, I really don't think there is any love lost between these two guys. And I think if you looked at the debate stage, Jeb Bush had a pretty strong debate. And there was this moment where he seemed to really get under Donald Trump's skin. And that was sort of the one moment where Trump actually seemed irritated, actually seemed really engaged with, you know, going after another candidate on stage.

And so, I think when you see this he almost wants to be patronizing. He almost wants to be dismissive of the idea that Jeb could even be someone running against him, because Donald Trump is so much further ahead in the polls. But, you know, there's no denying that that was a strong debate moment for Jeb. Whether that makes any difference, we'll see.

COSTELLO: We'll see. OK. So Washington insiders say the more interesting fight is actually between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Both accuse the other of being soft on immigration. Both are Cuban Americans.

Both now say they would come down hard on undocumented immigrants. Both say they voted for bills that were not totally tough on immigrants.

What's the story here, Michael?

WARREN: Well, the real story is that nobody in the Republican field is, you know, can claim any purity on the immigration issue from a sort of conservative perspective. You've got Marco Rubio, who led the vote for the gang of -- the gang of eight bill in 2013 trying to get some comprehensive immigration reform and it didn't work out. And, of course, now, he's being accused of being a leader in amnesty, which conservatives in the party don't like.

Rubio's rejoinder to that, particularly towards Ted Cruz is that Cruz supports legalization, which is seen by a lot of immigration hard liners just sort of the next step before you get to a path to citizenship. And Cruz is, of course, pushing back against this because it hurts his image as the conservative fighter.

I think what you are really seeing here is a difficult position for both candidates now who have a position that is not amenable to the far right in the Republican Party on immigration.

[09:20:05] And we're seeing the fallout of that. It is really sort of muddied the waters I think in Ted Cruz's approach to sort of cast Rubio as this amnesty fighter.

COSTELLO: The other interesting -- I'm sorry -- the other interesting thing out there, Sara, and I wanted to get this in because I want to hear what you think about this, the two men on the debate stage did not attack Donald Trump. They attacked one another. Some say it seemed like they were fighting for the role of vice president over the role of president.

Is there anything to that?

MURRAY: Well, I think it is more realization that there are two freshman senators in this race and they realize that, you know, they are both not going make it to the end. I also think, look, there is a fear in attacking Donald Trump. They've seen what happens to other people who attacked Donald Trump, they don't wan to be other side of that.

But I do think this immigration fight is going to be interesting between the two men and this is what happens when you are a senator who is running for president. There are shades of gray when it comes to the Senate. Yes, Marco Rubio was a big proponent of this bill, he was one of the sponsors of this bill, the immigration bill in 2013, but he was also one of the people in the gang of eight, they were most afraid was going to back out any potential moment. They were worried he was going to be backing off.

And for Ted Cruz, he supported a path to legalization, but a lot of people saw that at the time as a poison pill, something he was actually doing to try to defeat the bill, you know, putting up legalization instead of full citizenship. The problem is, when you run for president, everyone is parsing this and it looks a lot different under the glare of a presidential bid than it did when you were in the Senate.

COSTELLO: Both men are in the campaign trail today. We'll hear what they have to say later. Thanks both of you, Michael Warren and Sara Murray.

MURRAY: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the -- you're welcome.

MURRAY: Still in the NEWSROOM: fears of lone wolf attacks are rising and so is the rhetoric on terror here in the United States. Are we on the verge of World War III? How afraid should we be? We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:49] COSTELLO: One of the most high profile legal cases of the year goes behind closed doors again this morning as prosecutors weigh their options in the police custody death of Freddie Gray. Just hours after a mistrial, the judge will meet with prosecutors and the attorneys for the police officer charged with manslaughter.

When will that Baltimore cop face a new trial? That's what they're going to decide.

CNN's Jean Casarez live in Baltimore with more.

Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's exactly what we're waiting for today because there will be that meeting we understand in the chambers of Judge Barry Williams. And the issue is, will there be a retrial? And what will the death of that retrial be?

You know, I was in the courtroom yesterday when all this came down. And we didn't know what was happening. The courtroom was filling up. Marilyn Mosby came in, and all of a sudden the jury came in. I saw jury that was tired, worn out and they had fought a long, hard battle, two distinct sides. They could not be unanimous on any of the four counts. And the community, some of them reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: What do we want? Justice!

CASAREZ (voice-over): Protesters outraged over the mistrial in the death of Freddie Gray.

PROTESTERS: We will fight for Freddie Gray, all night, all day!

RICHARD SHIPLEY, FREDDIE GRAY'S STEPFATHER: We are calm, you should be calm too.

CASAREZ: Officer William Porter could be facing the possibility of a second trial after the jury of seven blacks and five whites failed to reach a unanimous decision on any of the charges against him.

SHIPLEY: We are hopeful that Ms. Mosby will retry Officer Porter as soon as possible and that his next jury will reach a verdict.

CASAREZ: Porter is the first of six officers facing charges in the case that brought the city to a standstill last spring. Baltimore erupted in days of unrest back in April, after Gray was loaded into the back of a police van and later died from a spinal cord injury.

Prosecutors argued that even though Porter did not make the arrest or drive the van, he failed to secure Gray's seat belt and call a medic quickly enough. He faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second degree assault and reckless endangerment. Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby's decision to try the officers was met with sharp criticism, say in the charges were too strong and hard to prove.

Frustration outside the courthouse for what this could mean for the other officers involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm terrified. Are we going to have five more mistrials?

CASAREZ: In a city already on edge.

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE (D), BALTIMORE: We also want to be very, very clear about any potential disturbances in our city. We are prepared to respond.

CASAREZ: But last night, Gray's family attorney was hopeful.

WILLIAM MURPHY, JR., GRAY FAMILY ATTORNEY: In 70 percent of the trials that are brought again on the same evidence, the prosecution wins.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: And so, now, the big question is, what will happen to all of these trials because the other five police officers, their trail dates have been set. The driver of the police transport van, Oscar Goodson, his trial is set to begin right after the New Year. And, Carol, the defense is going to have a lot of motions here. They continually have asked for a change of venue believing they cannot get a fair jury here in Baltimore City. Also, now, that we have this mistrial, so many are aware of it. So they will say this jury here is tainted.

They're probably ask for a continuance. The reason the trial happened to quick is because they exercised their constitutional right to a speedy trial.

And, Carol, they may not want that at this point.

COSTELLO: Interesting. All right. Jean Casarez, we'll check back. Thank you.

In about 15 minutes, I'll talk with an attorney representing Freddie Gray's family. So, say with me for that live interview.

(MUSIC)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

In just under three hours, President Obama will deliver a statement aimed at soothing American's concerns about terror attacks here in the United States. That state will follow a rare visit by the president to the National Counterterrorism Center in McClain, Virginia.

Also tomorrow, the president will fly to southern California to meet with victims of the San Bernardino massacre. All of this coming at a time that Americans are increasingly in fear for their safety. The vast majority of Americans now feel government officials are unable to stop lone wolf attacks.