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Obama to Dicuss Gun Control Plans with Loretta Lynch; Trump to Hold Rally in Mississippi; Stunning Revelation in Freddie Gray Death Trial; Search Intensifies for Tel Aviv Deadly Shooter; Camille Cosby Ordered to Testify in Defamation Suit. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 02, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:10]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: That comes a little early this year on January 12th. I want to bring in Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta in Honolulu.

And Jim, you're hearing more about the details on the President's plans, tell us about them.

JIM ACOSTA, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He's going to be discussing those plans with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday. The White House is still working on the finer details of this announcement, which we expect to hear later on next week.

But in the meantime, the President is almost at the end of his Hawaiian vacation. As you mentioned, it's time to put down the golf clubs and pick up the presidential pen. And don't say the words "lame duck" around President Obama. This president has an ambitious agenda set for 2016, and right at the top of the list is gun control.

For President Obama the final round is about to begin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In 2016, I'm going to leave it out all on the field.

ACOSTA: Up first in the President's eighth and last year in office, Mr. Obama's long promised response to mass shootings in the U.S. Sources familiar with the plan say it will be a package of executive actions on gun control. Expected before the January 12th State of the Union, and aimed at the gun show loophole which allows firearm sellers to avoid conducting background checks on their customers.

OBAMA: In all across America, survivors of gun violence and those who lost a child or a parent, or a spouse to gun violence, are forced to mark such awful anniversaries every single day. And yet, congress still hasn't done anything to prevent what happened to them from happening to other families.

ACOSTA: The President will review the slate of administrative changes with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday. The White House argues the President's actions will be within the executive authority, and in line with polls that show broad support for tightening background checks.

OBAMA: Change is always going to take all of us. The gun lobby is loud and well organized in its defense of effortlessly available guns for anyone. The rest of us are going to have to be just as passionate and well organized in our defense of our kids. That's the work of citizenship to stand up and fight for the change that we seek.

ACOSTA: Vowing to fight the move, the nation's biggest gun lobby, the NRA says the President is doing what he always does when he doesn't get his way, defying the will of the people and using executive action. Another controversial proposal coming in the New Year, the president will ask congress to shutdown the terror detention center at Guantanamo, a facility Mr. Obama may close it on his own if law makers block at the White House plan.

OBAMA: It will be an uphill battle.

ACOSTA: The President also hopes to travel to Cuba and perhaps more than a dozen over countries in what's shaping up to be a global farewell tour. But the President's agenda could be up ended by set backs in the war on ISIS. A foreign policy crisis that could complicate white house plans to have the president campaign heavily with the 2016 Democratic nominee, a prospect that may put him and Hillary Clinton on the trail together again.

OBAMA: I think we will have a strong Democratic nominee. I think that Democratic nominee will win. I think I will have a Democratic successor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, as for that race for the White House, we do know that in the last several hours, Donald Trump has surfaced to really go after the President on this issue of gun control and these executive actions on gun control. We should note that the White House welcomes that debate, they want to talk about gun control, they don't mind the fact that there are going to be Republican candidates talking about the President's executive actions on this issue.

And speaking of Donald Trump, Brianna, we should note, I just came out of a briefing with the Deputy National Security Adviser, Ben Rhodes. He was briefing reporters on what to expect from a foreign policy standpoint in the upcoming year. And Ben Rhodes was asked about Donald Trump appearing in this Al Shabaab terrorist recruitment video. Al Shabaab being the Al Qaeda connected terrorist group in Somalia tries to recruit Muslim-Americans in places like Minnesota to join the fight.

And because Donald Trump appears in the video and has talked about banning Muslims from coming into the United States, Ben Rhodes said about Donald Trump appearing in the video, "We are at war with terrorists. Wwe are not at war with Islam. We need to defeat this narrative that allows them to recruit people." So Ben Rhodes did not directly comment on Donald Trump being in this video. But he did say that these comments made by Donald Trump and other candidates that might lead to the recruitment of terrorists is not good for the U.S. national security of this country and what the President is trying to do coming up in the coming year. Brianna?

KEILAR: Out Jim Acosta for us in Hawaii. Thank you.

Donald Trump is hours away now from an appearance in Mississippi and thousands of supporters are expected to attend his rally tonight in Biloxi. Trump is forming a Mississippi campaign team ahead of the State's presidential primary that will take place on March 8th.

[06:05:07] And I want to bring in Phil Mattingly now, he's there ahead of this event.

Phil, I know at the risk of asking you to predict what Donald Trump going to say, do you think that perhaps he's going to respond to this Al Shabaab video at the rally tonight?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: What you have seen from Donald Trump over the last couple of months, Brianna, is when an issue gets a lot of heat, when it gets a lot of attention, odds are he will talk about it. But again, as you know as well as anybody, you can't predict what he's going to say. I think even his campaign team would likely acknowledge that. Look, so far today, his targets when it comes to Twitter, and often that's his preferred form of communication when he's not at a rally, have been Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Jeb Bush, really starting off the New Year with the same old list of targets. He hasn't directly commented on that, but as you heard Jim say, the White House, well not directly talking about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, other Democrats are talking about it on a fairly regular basis. If Donald Trump isn't going to talk about it tonight, odds are he will at some point be bated into it. Democrats, at least, would like him to at some point.

KEILAR: Phil, to the President's plan, we are still waiting for details but it's clear he's going to put out a plan to take executive action on guns.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, that's correct. You've heard Donald Trump, he'll weigh in tomorrow on CBS. What he's saying basically is he's opposed to it and that's not a surprise, but here, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't like it. I don't like anything having to do with changing our second amendment. We have plenty of rules and regulations, there's plenty of thing they can do right now that were already there. They don't do them. We have a tremendous mental health problem, we're closing places all over the world, all over the country they're closing, but they are closing all over the world. Tremendous mental health problems, nobody is doing anything about all that. All they want to do is blame the guns. And it's not the gun that pulls the trigger. So I don't like...

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Now, Brianna, one of the interesting aspects here is in a book written by Donald Trump in 2000, he actually criticized Republicans who is staying too in line with the NRA. He's walked that back over the last couple of months, he has been a strong proponent of gun rights, of the second amendment, you're not going to see him waiver on that. And again, that underscore is a fight that the White House and Democrats are very willing to have during this campaign season, but Donald Trump opposing whatever the President decides to do in the days and weeks ahead when it comes to executive action on guns.

KEILAR: All right. Phil Mattingly in Biloxi. Thank you so much.

One year from now, a newly elected president will be preparing to take office. You can expect plenty of political maneuvering between now and next January. So what's going to shape this coming political year?

My next guest is a man with big questions and some big answers. I want to bring in historian and Princeton University professor, Julian Zelizer.

And Julian, you wrote a cnn.com opinion piece, this outlines your most important political questions for 2016. I want to start with this one, you wrote, "How much can executive power accomplish?" And we now know, Julian, that the President is going to push for executive action on guns. In what other areas do you think that the President is going to use his power, his executive power to get things done?

JULIAN ZELIZER, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think he's going to continue to try to use this on climate change. He's been relatively successful over the past few years doing this. Although, it's going to be challenged in the courts and I think he's going to continue to try to find ways with immigration to make progress with executive action in ways that he can't on Capitol Hill. So I think that's the trifecta of policies where with we'll see this move forward.

KEILAR: OK. So before I read this next question, I do want to play some sound from a Trump supporter who is getting tossed from a Bernie Sanders event today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's a Trump supporter worried about Mr. Trump's money. I say to Mr. Trump and his supporters that the billionaires of this country will not continue to own this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: OK. So the economy is obviously a big issue there, on both sides of the ticket. How is the economy going to recover? This is your question. How will that affect Dems and Republicans buy in for the White House?

ZELIZER: Well, the economy has been recovering and all of the major signs have been positive, which obviously helps the Democrats, helps the incumbent party. The problem is that it's a weak recovery. Meaning, it's a recovery where many middle class Americans don't feel successful and don't feel secure. And that's exactly what Donald Trump is trying to tap into, it's exactly what Bernie Sanders is trying to tap into.

So it's important Hillary Clinton doesn't just praise the kind of recovery numbers we've seen, but talk about how this country can provide a much more solid foundation to economic growth than we've had.

[06:10:10]

KEILAR: Final question, and this one's really interesting to me, can Hillary Clinton overcome the third-term blues?

ZELIZER: It's a big one. You know, other than George H.W. Bush, there's been a difficulty with vice presidents following incumbent presidents and in some ways, as Secretary of State, she finds that she has to find ways to distance herself from some of the unpopular positions of Obama and some of the problems area -- problem areas like Syria without totally subverting and denigrating the administration of which she was a part of.

So this is going to be a big general election challenge for her. It's not as much of an issue, I think, in the primaries.

KEILAR: Is it going to be a big political year. I'm just glad it's finally here. Julian Zelizer, thank you so much. I'm sure you are as well.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

KEILAR: And tomorrow, you can hear from two of the top candidates for president on CNN State of the Union Bernie Sanders and Carly Fiorina will be on live tomorrow 9:00 a.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

And coming up, Missouri's governor has just wrapped up a tour of the devastation from a week of deadly flooding. Hear his incredible reaction to what he saw and what dangers lay ahead for people down river.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Record high flood waters are receding in the St. Louis area but the danger is far from over. Surging water is flowing downstream and this puts millions people and communities farther south on alert for flooding. Missouri's governor wrapped up a tour of the damage. I actually spoke with him just a short time ago, where he made it clear the danger continues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY NIXON, MISSOURI'S GOVERNOR: This is a storm that went all the way from the western side of our State down south touching the Oklahoma border all the way to the Illinois border and then all the way down to Arkansas. And quite frankly, the water is still rising in Southern Missouri. So the massive nature of what we're dealing with here, concentrated significantly some of the worst damages here in the St. Louis area, but it is a storm we are dealing with in the emergency management side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Dan Simon joins me from Eureka.

This is one of the hardest hit towns in this disaster. You see the debris behind Dan and you'll understand why. Tell us about what you're seeing there.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPPODENT: Well, hi, Brianna. This is just a giant debris field. This is what people have collected from their homes and one by one, you can see trucks like this one just dumping off all of this stuff, household items, you can see sandbags in the back that cannot be reused. The governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, you just talked about it, he asked the Obama White House for emergency declarations so that they can speed up the debris process, the removal process because he says that's ultimately what's going to allow people in Missouri to get back on their feet.

[06:15:30] This gives you some idea in terms of the magnitude of destruction. Those floodwaters rose so fast, you had the river in this area come up to 36 feet. It's really a historic level and just flooded dozens and dozens of homes. This is what the governor had to say just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIXON: You know, I'm from this part of the State. I mean, quite frankly, it's almost hard to believe. When you see the levels of where water was, when you're coming over historic highs, I mean, from the beginning of time, we kept records by four and five feet. I mean, when you're seeing 55 close, when you're seeing a house that's floated, a full house that's floated into the highway 30 Bridge and blow it up, I mean, that's -- it's almost as if you're living on some other planet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: And the governor hoping that the White House will expedite his request for that emergency declaration in his words, a historic flood merits a historic response. Brianna.

KEILAR: What about these waste water treatment facilities that flooded, spewing sewage into the rivers? How does that affect, if at all, the safety of drinking water there?

SIMON: Well, no question, that is a concern. You had two waste water treatment plants that were damaged by the floodwaters. There was some raw sewage that seeped into the floodwaters. So there was some concern that you would have a compromised drinking water. Fortunately -- and we asked the governor about this, fortunately there has been no contamination of drinking water. So folks, at this point, you don't have to worry about that. But it's something that they're certainly keeping a close eye on and will continue to test the water. Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Dan Simon, thank you so much.

And coming up, a possible bombshell in the Freddie Gray case. A new revelation surfaces concerning Gray's health before his death. We'll explain what it could mean for the case, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:04]

KEILAR: A stunning revelation is sending shock waves through the Freddie Gray trial in Baltimore. This comes as the second of six police officers charged in this complex case faces trial. Details now from CNN's Miguel Marquez.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, defense lawyers for Caesar Goodson, he was the driver for the van in which Freddie Gray was critically injured have filed documents asking for Gray's medical and incarceration records. In one of these documents, a Baltimore police officer wrote that Gray said a couple of weeks before he was critically injured in the back of the police van he had, "Hurt my back," or, "Had a bad back." The defense arguing here that there could be other causes for Gray's traumatic injury that he received in the back of the van.

The timing of this document is worth noting though. The officer, John Herzog, is the sergeant offered up information on an unsolicited basis after Gray was critically injured and after the riots in Baltimore. Herzog wrote this memo and sent it to his superiors on May 1st. Gray died April 19th and Herzog's original conversation with Gray happened on March 31st. Herzog said in the memo that his memory was jogged by all the press surrounding Gray's death and the riots.

Another document files by defense attorneys asked for Gray's detention records because they cite an unconfirmed report that Gray had tried to harm himself while in Baltimore's Central Booking Facility during a previous arrest. The prosecution argued Gray's medical records, they're not relevant, having nothing to do with the injuries sustained in the back of the van last April. They say Gray's neck was critically injured because of his treatment by police. The judge in this trial is expected to rule this week on whether to allow those records in the Goodson trial, who faces the most serious charges of second degree murder. His trial is expected to start January 11th. Brianna.

KEILAR: Miguel, thanks so much.

I want to bring in Former L.A. County Prosecutor Loni Coombs.

Lonnie, tell us how devastating this could be to the prosecution that Freddie Gray may have mentioned that he had a bad back or is this not really something that's going to effect the prosecution?

LONI COOMBS, FORMER L.A. COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Well, the prosecution is going to tell you that this really has no effect on the case. But the big question for the jury is going to be how did he die? What caused this injury? Can we blame the causation on the action of the officers? And based on these filings by the defense attorneys, we can see very clearly the way they're going to try and defend this. They're going to say, "Look, he was already injured before. He had this prior back injury. And perhaps there was also some element of being self-inflicted, that he somehow caused this for himself."

The second part of the motion where they're asking for the information about when he was in custody before is based on the tip that they've received that said, "Perhaps in a prior time of detention, he did something to hurt himself." So they're looking for that prior behavior to say, "In this case, he did something to exacerbate his own prior injury and that's what caused his death, not the officers' actions."

KEILAR: And the defense really wants to create doubt here and I think we should also note that there are a number of other officers who are awaiting trial. How might the judge's decision here affect these other cases?

COOMBS: Exactly. Well, this officer that's going to trial right now is the driver of the van. So a lot of people say he's the most culpable, he is the one who has the most serious charges because the prosecution is saying that the injuries happened while he was driving the van, based on what he did intentionally to that van which then caused the injuries to the victim in the case.

The other officers, obviously, all of their culpability falls upon that. So if in this case, the jury said, "Look, it was more the defendant's -- I'm sorry, it was more the victim's prior injury and his own self-inflicted behavior that caused the injuries," that then works as defense for all of the officers to follow on their trial.

KEILAR: Prosecutors have already, Lonnie, been hit with setback here. A judge declared a mistrial in the case of Officer William Porter, first officer to be tried. What kind of effect does that have on these other cases?

COOMBS: Well, it could be a really big effect, based on the fact that there are reports that the prosecutors had planned to use Officer Porter to testify for the prosecution in these other trials. They were hoping that either they would get a conviction and then they would able flip him and turn him to be a prosecution witness for them and testify or that there would be an acquittal and then they could force him, compel him to testify because he could no longer claim the, you know, fifth amendment because he had been acquitted.

However, now, it's all suspended, it's in limbo because it's a hung jury. So he doesn't have to testify. They won't be able to call him as a witness. So whatever evidence they were hoping to get from him, from his testimony, and apparently he has some things to say that would help the prosecution, they are not going to be able have access to. His retrial is set for after all the other trials. So whatever testimony he was going to give, they were hoping for is now in limbo and will not be able to be used.

[06:25:09]

KEILAR: Yeah, that certainly does mess with their strategy. All right. Lonnie Coombs is going to stick around for us because in a moment, we'll be talking about Bill Cosby with her and some shocking news from this week that he's facing sex assault charges. What does this means for the dozens of other women who have made accusations against the comedian.

And coming up, authorities now have a face and a name for the suspect in that deadly shooting in Tel Aviv. Someone you might not expect recognized him and called the Israeli police. We will head to Israel for a live update, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Breaking news from overseas this hour, Israel has named a suspect in that deadly attack at a pub in Tel Aviv. He's 31-year-old Nashat Milhem. He's an Israeli Arab, and this is a picture taken from a previous arrest. Surveillance video shows the lone gunman pulling the assault rifle from the bag and spraying bullets into a crowd, killing two, wounding eight. Well, after seeing it, the suspect's own father called police to identify him. Right now, investigators aren't sure if this is terrorism or if it's just a violent crime.

CNN's Ian Lee joining me now live from Jerusalem. And it turns out, Ian, that Milhem has been arrested before. What more do we know about him?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We are learning more about him in the last few hours. Back in 2007, he was initially arrested for trying to take a gun from a soldier. He was sentenced to five years in prison. At that time though, he was diagnosed with a psychological disorder. He had been on medication. The family right now is saying they don't know if he's still taking his medication. But this all came to light when his father did recognize him from that security camera footage. He went to his safe to check on a gun, he noticed that it was missing. He went to the phone, called the authorities said, "My son is the one that committed this attack. Please arrest him."

[16:30:02] So, right now, we do have this massive manhunt under way. Well over 24 hours after the incident, which gives some authorities the belief that this could be well-planned.

But talking to Israeli officials, their number one goal right now is to neutralize him. While the family and really authorities want to take him alive, their goal is to prevent him from trying to carry out any other attack, Brianna.

KEILAR: And, Ian, I know that the police are going door to door looking for him. Do they still think that he's there, right there in that area?

LEE: Well, really, they don't know where he is. They do have roadblocks set up outside Tel Aviv. They're searching in other areas, but there is a blackout on this information. They don't want to tip him off of where they're looking. But they're still conflicted on whether to call this a criminal act or a terrorist act and the officials have said that it's unique, it's radical, it's complex because it doesn't fit any of those molds.

A terrorist attack usually the person is at the scene of the crime. They're killed or captured. They don't run off. It doesn't fit a criminal passel. They really want to capture him alive to figure out the motives behind this attack.

KEILAR: This comes after just a time when I think everyone is really on edge after what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling a wave of terrorism.

Do you think this is going to affect security there?

LEE: Well, security has been ramped up. It was ramped up in Tel Aviv. Especially around when they didn't know what the motivation behind this was. They still don't, but especially this weekend around synagogues when people were praying, just to prevent anything from happening there.

And Israel has seen an uptick in violence, especially these stabbings. The real reason they want to capture him and interrogate him is because they want to know if this is related, if it's unrelated, if it is related, it's definitely an escalation where a firearm is used in the attack versus a knife as we have seen in previous attacks.

KEILAR: All right. Ian Lee in Jerusalem, thanks so much.

As the new year begins, you know, we all wonder what 2016 will unveil to the world. Will ISIS continue as a threat? Will the situation in Syria further deteriorate?

Five CNN international correspondents sat down to discuss the major issues that they believe will impact our world in this New Year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're seeing the collapse of Arab states basically, one after another. And God knows which country may be next.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I hope I'm wrong, but I think it's going to get worse. I really, really don't want to be right about this.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In terms of the next phase in ISIS' evolution, are looking towards Libya? Do you think that's where the push is going to be for them?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know. I don't know. I think we're going to see a lot of changes in Syria and Iraq possibly, possibly ones that have unintended consequences. I think we're going to see many problems in Afghanistan too and ISIS are a very attractive brand to a lot of poor and angry young men there. And I think, yes, Libya will be a problem. But I think also the West slightly got their heads around Libya.

DAMON: I think it's going to get a lot worse in the sense of what you're talking about. It is going to change, but it's still going to be there and that fear that they're able to create and generate is going to be there. And let's not forget in all of this, I mean, the Assad regime also and what they're doing to the population and how those actions and the fact that people feel so abandoned by the West that failed to come in and save them when it comes to dying at the hands of Assad, that's what drove so many of them -- I mean, how many activists are either dead, fled or they have become radical?

ELBAGIR: Disappeared. Or disappeared.

WATSON: And let's not forget that you have just a mind boggling number of foreign militaries all flying and backing different proxies with completely contradictory, strategic goals.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's incoherent international meddling --

ELBAGIR: I think the consensus is forming around the need to actually move. You know?

WARD: But I also think everyone has a different idea about how to bring down ISIS. The Russians thinking that bombing the Turks --

WATSON: The Russians and Iranians are supporting the Assad regime.

WALSH: But ISIS is a nice lightning rod for the whole huge conflagration in the region, that there is a need for the region to take ownership of the problem and fix it themselves. Even if ISIS is somehow defeated, that doesn't fix the problem of the Saudis and the Iranians being octogenarians running a youthful population with diminishing --

WARD: But that's what it comes to, right? Ultimately, Saudi Arabia and Iran need to like be locked in the room together.

ELBAGIR: At the time same, while we hopeful that there will be some consensus towards solving the presence in Iraq, you have an ISIS presence going in Yemen, because we're all ignoring the reality of the Saudi Arabian bombings --

(CROSSTALK)

[16:35:07] WARD: But I really believe it's possible we are seeing a seismic tectonic shift in the Middle East and then over the next few decades, you're going to see a lot of the borders rewritten. They were artificially designated borders anyway.

DAMON: The way that boundaries were drawn was unsustainable. They would never last. But it didn't have to be this violent.

ELBAGIR: This mythology that we can protect ourselves, that we can close borders, that w can close doors with the Ebola crisis last year, with the refugee -- with the Syria crisis washing up on Europe's shores, I think Europe essentially knows that it is existential to get its house in order this year.

DAMON: I don't think we are mature enough to actually make the right decisions. I don't. I'm -- I have really sadly lost a lot of faith in humanity.

ELBAGIR: You say that, but I know each single one of us has a story from the field where we have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness and the extraordinary generosity of people in the worst possible situations. And I think that's what I hold on to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Well, Bill Cosby's wife will testify this week in the civil case against her husband. Coming up, the questions that Camille Cosby could face and how it could impact her husband's criminal case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Camille Cosby will no longer be allowed to remain silent on charges against her husband. A judge has ordered Mrs. Cosby to testify on Wednesday in a defamation suit in Massachusetts. Seven women who accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting him said he portrayed them as liars when they came forward.

Mrs. Cosby's attorneys argued the couple's private conversation are privileged, but the plaintiffs say they subpoenaed Mrs. Cosby because she was her husband's business manager.

[16:40:01] And in addition to this civil suit, there was a criminal bombshell this week, Bill Cosby was arrested and could face up to ten years in prison on sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania. He's out on $1 million bond at this point in time.

Joining me now to talk about this is former L.A. County prosecutor Loni Coombs.

So, Loni, we want to start with the civil case and just to be clear, that there is a civil case, this is what we're talking about with Camille Cosby testifying involved in this case, and then you have the Pennsylvania case, which is the criminal involving Andrea Constand.

In the civil case, what questions would you ask Camille Cosby during the deposition?

COOMBS: Well, remember, we're looking at a woman who is not only Bill Cosby's wife, but also his business manager. So, she has had a lot of access to what's been going on in both his professional and private life. And some of the questions that the defense attorneys -- or the plaintiff's attorneys are saying they want to talk about are, did she have anything to do with procuring the drugs that the women talk about?

She was allegedly around when some of these assaults occurred, so what did she know about the assaults? And we know from the deposition, Bill Cosby talked about how he would procure these Quaaludes for the purpose of -- and the intent of having sex in combination with the Quaaludes.

So, as his wife, does she know anything about the details of his sexual proclivities? Does she know that he happens to like to combine sex with Quaaludes?

There's a lot of information she has access to which is why the civil judge said you need to testify in these depositions. You have relevant information and as doable not only as a wife, but also a business manager, you need to be accessible to the plaintiff's attorneys to be able to talk about these different issues.

KEILAR: So, why is there no marital privilege here? I understand why as the business manager she might testify to things that were in that scope of things. But it sounds like she's going to be testifying about things that are within the scope of just what a wife would know. Why is there -- you know, no privilege?

COOMBS: And this is a great question. You're going to hear a lot of different comments on this by different legal analysts because that's really not a firm set rule. In the criminal courts, the privilege applies very strongly and rarely will you see a spouse unless the spouse decides to waive that privilege be forced to get up and violate that privilege. It's pretty much a set rule, you don't have to get up and testify at all.

However, in a civil case, the marital privilege is not as strongly accessible. You can be forced to testify. You may be able to be protected from giving some of the private conversations, but you may still be asked about actions or about observations that you had.

The other thing is that the -- some of the legal analysts will point out and say, look, this is discovery in a civil case, it's not an actual trial. However, we have a big caveat. Now, in this case, we know that criminal charges are pending against Mr. Cosby in another state.

Most likely I would think his attorneys are going to go into the Massachusetts court and say, hold on. We now have a criminal case pending, anything that Mrs. Cosby says in the depositions could be used in the criminal court which most likely she would not be forced to say any of the things under oath. So, we want to put the civil case on hold while we resolve the criminal case first. Many times, a civil judge will say that and they will give priority to the criminal case first.

KEILAR: That's a really interesting point. So we may not actually hear from her for some time and if we do it may be after the criminal case is resolved. When you look at the sheer number of accuser, I think last count, it was 57, so it's at least 57 women who have come forward and they're accusing him of sexually assaulting them.

The statute of limitations has run out on all of these. But that doesn't necessarily mean that this doesn't play out in the criminal case, right? Obviously, if the prosecution has their way, they're going to try to create a parade of alleged victims to convince the jury that this is a pattern of behavior. COOMBS: Absolutely. And this is going to be some of the -- the

strategy that we see going on between the prosecution and defense. In the pretrial motions before it actually gets to trial, what is going to be allowed in on what we call prior bad acts?

Prior bad act evidence is usually kept out, because we're not allowed to put on something that says, look, this guy has a propensity to do this, so he must have done it in this case. They want their jury to focus solely on the evidence in this case.

However, there are exceptions to allowing in prior bad acts. One of which is there's a unique signature to the type of behavior. And in this case, there's an argument that what he did with these women, that's been alleged, is very similar over and over again -- unique behavior. So that's one thing that the prosecution might allege.

[16:45:01] Another thing, remember, the big issue is going to come down is was this consensual or not? That's what Mr. Cosby has been saying. He said back in 2005 when he was questioned about this case, he said that this was a consensual relationship. That they had a social dating relationship and this incident was a consensual sexual incident.

So, perhaps the prosecution will argue and say, look, we should be able to put in the prior bad acts to show there was no consent, he should have known because he had the prior incidents where he did the same thing and the women were not consenting and they were upset and they told him so. So he should have known this was not consensual.

That's another argument the prosecution may make to bring in the prior acts. It's going to be crucial because if the prior acts come in it's been shown that juries are very strongly swayed by evidence of prior acts, which is why the judge will say, he has to weigh out how probative it is versus how prejudicial it is to the defendant.

KEILA: And the case may hang on that. We will see. Loni Coombs, thank you so much for joining us.

Ahead, Bill Cosby wanted us to buy Jell-o. Well, next, we'll talk with a branding expert about what a company does when its pitchmen end up putting their products in a bad light.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Bill Cosby's arraignment this past week on sex assault charges was a far cry from his days as a commercial icon. You remember the Jell-o pudding ads. He was the face of Jell-o for almost 20 years but it seems he's become the latest in a long string of celebrity endorsers who have had run-ins with the law.

I'm joined now by branding expert Martha Pease. Martha is the author of "Think Round" and she's the CEO of DemandWerks.com.

So, Martha, Kraft, Heinz, the owners of Jell-o, they say they cut all ties with Cosby months ago. Does that put them in a better position to avoid the fallout in the accusations against him?

MARTHA PEASE, BRANDING EXPERT: Yes, it does. Any company that acts proactively to rid themselves of a celebrity that's going to cause them trouble is going to be in a better position.

[16:50:02] I mean, you have to think of celebrity endorsements as the coming together of two brands. You've got to brand of the company or the service and you've also got the brand of the celebrity and it creates a fairly complex situation, a complex balancing act. As long as everything's going great, it's great. As soon as something happens with the celebrity brand though, it obviously drags in the brand and the reputation and the company that they're associated with.

KEILAR: There's sort of a similar case in the way when you think of Jared Fogle and Subway. Of course, it was Jared who lost all of this weight on the Subway sandwich diet. Subway immediately suspended its relationship with Fogle when he was initially, these child porn charges came to light. Now, he's in jail for them.

He was still active with the company when the claims against him came out. Maybe unlike or not unlike Bill Cosby, but I think his hey day was a long time ago. How does a company recover from this type of negative exposure?

PEASE: Well, the company has done a pretty good job of taking steps over time to disassociate themselves from Jared and they're on the upswing in terms of their brand reputation. Taking an independent turn from what was the legacy of the association with Jared. Now, Jared wasn't a celebrity before he became a spokesperson for subway. He became a celebrity because of the Subway brand, which actually gives the Subway brand a little bit more resilience in terms of how consumers are going to respond.

And Subway took two steps, which were important. One was to initially distance himself when the accusations came up and when the criminal action became an actual reality. They completely cut ties with Jared and so, they did the right thing and they positioned themselves both through PR and through their actions and their communications I think appropriately.

KEILAR: What about Kate Moss. She lost deals with H&M, Burberry, Chanel, and that all of this came out when these photos surfaced in 2005 that seemed to show her using cocaine. When you look at issues of drugs, say instead of something instead of child porn, instead of sexual assault in the case of Bill Cosby, are those treated differently at all? Chanel said, you know, they were dropping her, but it didn't have anything to do with the drug claims.

PEASE: Well, two separate questions, I think, what Chanel said was the reason behind dropping her is one way that companies can respond when they find themselves in situations like this. So, that happened to be the choice that Chanel made.

But the interesting question is, embedded on what you just asked is, Kate Moss wasn't prosecuted for drug use. It was something done in private. It happened to be caught in a photograph and it happened to be, you know, sent out through social media, so it was seen by people and some companies did in fact choose to either distance themselves or to cut off their relationship with Kate Moss.

Others didn't. Se kept some endorsements and some brand relationships in place, some companies stuck with her and stood behind her. But I think the question is, is it criminal, versus is it something that happened in private that maybe unfortunately you may not agree with, but it's not criminal.

KEILAR: All right. Important distinction there.

All right. Martha Pease, thanks so much for that.

And coming up tomorrow night, we have a CNN special for you. Steve Jobs, the man in the machine. It's a controversial documentary from CNN films about jobs and his visionary influence on modern culture. We're going to show you a preview, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:40] KEILAR: Steve Jobs' great success cost him one very close friendship along the way. Daniel Kottke helped Jobs build the first prototype of the Mac, but as CNNMoney's Laurie Segall reports, the close friends parted way when Kottke accidentally revealed one of Steve Jobs' biggest secrets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Daniel Kottke might not sound like a familiar name to you, but this guy played a very important role in the founder of Apple's life, far before he became the legend of Steve Jobs.

DANIEL KOTTKE, FORMER APPLE EMPLOYEE: This was our booth at the personal computing festival in Atlantic City in 1976.

SEGALL: Here's a little background: Daniel Kottke said the duo used to do psychedelics together at Reed College. They later moved to Palo Alto and worked out of a garage and they built the first prototype of the Mac.

But their friendship had a falling out because of an important incident.

KOTTKE: She got pregnant and Steve just was not, not, "Not me, it's not me. It's not me". Right? Even though that was not a reasonable thing to say.

SEGALL: We had the opportunity six months ago to sit down with Daniel. He opened up to us about this falling out and what it meant.

KOTTKE: From Steve's point of view, it was a kind of a falling out. I actually did not really know why particularly.

SEGALL: What happened? KOTTKE: Well, it was over a period of years and Steve's girlfriend

got pregnant. And he denied that he was the father. And that was kind of embarrassing. As his friend, I thought that was chicken (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to use a technical term, because he was pretty clearly the father.

There was an incident where time magazine called me up asking for verification that Steve had a daughter named Lisa and I said, "Oh, it's not a secret," but that was the wrong thing to say apparently and Steve got very, very upset with me and that, that was 1990. That was 1983. And even though I was working on the Mac team at Apple, he never really talked to me again.

SEGALL: What did you miss about him when you guys stopped talking? Because he was a good friend.

KOTTKE: Yes, he was, but he had changed a lot and so, he was building his empire. I was just struggling to become an engineer. You know, Steve was very, he did me a good turn. I was a technician at Apple. Technicians are not eligible for stock options. I didn't have a stock option. At that point, Apple had already gone public.

I just badly wanted to an engineer and so, Steve hired me as an engineer on the Mac project. And so, of course, I was grateful for that. Very grateful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You can be sure to watch Alex Gibney's look at the real story of Steve Jobs. Catch the CNN Film, "Steve Jobs: The Man and the Man Machine. It airs tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'M Brianna Keilar in Washington, in tonight for Poppy Harlow.

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