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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Threat to Flight at LAX Reported; Candidates Using Old Scandals in Attacks; Virginia Governor Under Investigation; Bus Driver Fatigue Problems. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 24, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:33:30] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And we've got some breaking news just coming to us via LAX. I want to take you to a live picture right now as we zoom in on a plane that is on the tarmac right now, you can see officials underneath a mobile jetway that's been brought up to that aircraft. It's 9:33 in the morning there, and that flight, which is Compass Flight 5931. You'll probably see if you can squint past the wing that it actually says American Eagle compass operates flights for American Eagle but that flight apparently had to land because the police at LAX got a notification from the TSA that there was some kind of a threat on board that plane while in flight.

So at this point, we can tell you that the plane did land safely thus far. It landed at a remote location. I think that's critical. It had to be brought down and stationed where you see it on the tarmac at a remote location but you can also see law enforcement vehicles and law enforcement surrounding this plane.

I was told, I believe, that they had guns drawn but I cannot see that on the monitors. If someone else can see that, please alert me. Peter Goelz, I want to bring you to this if I can. We just lost him, unfortunately, our CNN aviation analyst.

But we're going to keep an eye on this picture for you and find out exactly what the nature of this threat was, why that plane had to land. It was scheduled to land at LAX anyway, but why it was brought down in the manner that it was brought down and why there are law enforcement agents, obviously, around the plane. Sometimes these things resolve very quietly and peacefully, not for the person who made them behind the threat but we'll keep an eye on it for you.

[12:35:18] Meantime, we've got this news. Those candidates finding the way back all the way back in time in order to file some attacks against their rivals. It's sometimes tough to differentiate between rumor and fact, and that's important when you're electing a president.

CNN senior media correspondent and host of Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter is here to discuss. Brian, the issue has been that Donald Trump has been bringing up a lot of rumor, a lot of innuendo, a lot of those, you know, some people call them crazy e-mails from uncle Leo in Florida that circulate constantly former rumors and suggest that they're true but he brings them up and then couches them by saying, I'm not saying this ... BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right. Right.

BANFIELD: ... but here's what people are saying.

STELTER: This is a big difference from other presidential candidates, both this year and in past years. It's almost as if Trump is the conspiracy theorist in chief and even if there's other things you like about the candidate, it's troubling to see him repeat a lot of these conspiracy there over and over again.

You brought up in the last segment, you mentioned Paula Jones. Trump has been bringing up other accusers from Bill Clinton's past and trying to link Bill Clinton's behavior to Hillary Clinton. And it may be effective in some ways on the campaign trail, but it's incumbent on the news media to be sensitive when covering these stories because we don't want to do any campaign's dirty work for them, whether it's the Trump campaign or Clinton campaign or any others, I think it's also an issue for voters and for viewers, you know.

Increasingly, all of us when we're thinking about who to elect even for lower level positions or for the presidency have to do our own research and check out what these candidates are saying. And in Trump's case he's repeating unproven conspiracy theories from the past that a simple Google search could verify are not true.

BANFIELD: So one of the stories that Trump is circulating is he's bringing up an old story from the '90s about Vince Foster. He was close to the Clintons. Worked with the Clintons. During the travel date, I believe he was general counsel I have to go back and check it, because even I can't remember back that far, but he's suggested that the suicide of Vince Foster was somehow fishy and there are all these conspiracy theorists who said it's murder. It has been investigated to the hilt by the feds, by the local authorities, CNN did our own investigation.

STELTER: Right.

BANFIELD: There was not an ounce of truth to it. If you want to believe all those pesky cops and media people that look into these things.

STELTER: You made the point. It's not just the set of government that investigated law enforcement agencies, also news outlets like CNN that put this to rest a long, long time ago and yet, one of the consequences of this digital age is that these rumors do fester online. They get forwarded around on the e-mail chains you mentioned. And as a result, someone like Trump is able to inject them back into the public discourse in a way that we just have not seen before presidential campaigns. I think it is important to do what you did, look in the camera and say there's no evidence of this. This is not true.

BANFIELD: Three times investigated. If you're just tuning in ...

STELTER: Right.

BANFIELD: ... my god ...

STELTER: Right. But I do think ...

BANFIELD: Please, if you hear anything about the Clintons being responsible for the death of Vince Foster, he committed suicide, it's been proven over, over, over. I don't know how many, I mean unless god comes down and tell you to your face, the truth is there.

STELTER: This is the challenge I think. This is the challenge for news outlets and for voters as well. Not just a grain of salt that you have to bring to this.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

STELTER: You have to bring the whole shaker of salt. And, unfortunately, I think we know it's going to be a long five months of issues like this.

BANFIELD: Brian Stelter, thank you. Good new year (ph) reporting as always. I do appreciate it.

Coming up next, the Virginia's governor said he's in shock after learning that he's under federal investigation. Find out what it's all about and why he didn't know, next.

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[12:43:03] BANFIELD: Virginia's Governor, Terry McAuliffe, is in the crosshair of an investigation by the FBI department -- and the Department of Justice. They want to know whether a $121,000 donation from a Chinese businessman violated election laws. CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez first broke this story and joins me live from Washington D.C. I find it odd that even the governor himself did not know that he was under investigation nor the guy who gave the money. So what happened?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, sometimes what happens with these investigations especially sensitive one like this is that they -- the investigators work to gather their evidence before they even approach the target and that's what appears to have been happening here. We were told by sources that they had not yet approached the governor or his representatives to ask about this case.

Now, we know that it goes beyond just this one donation. We know that this is one of the things that came to the attention of the FBI and public integrity and prosecutors in the justice department. It has to do with the fact that this is a Chinese businessman, a billionaire. He once served on the Chinese People's National Congress, which is a sort of a ceremonial legislature. We also found out later, however, that he has a U.S. green card which would seem to make his donation legal.

Now, McAuliffe is addressing that part of the allegation in speaking to reporters. Here's what he had to say just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), VIRGINIA: All I can do is rely on two firms who did the vetting on this check. I can only rely. I mean I personally didn't get the check. I rely on the people who did the vetting for it. They said he had a green card from 2007. So the contribution came in and they have unequivocally said he was entitled to write a check.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREZ: And Ashleigh, what you hear the governor there is focusing on is this one donor but we know this is an ongoing active investigation by the FBI and the justice department, it goes beyond this one donation. What else is being looked at? We don't know but we know they are still working on it.

[12:45:10] BANFIELD: Fascinating stuff. All right, Evan Perez, thank you for that. Appreciate it. Our justice correspondent. Correspondent working Washington.

Coming up next, millions of Americans, maybe even you right now planning to travel but millions of us travel back and forth across the country on buses. So how safe are they? They're only as safe as their drivers, many times, and the CNN investigation has found out that way too many of those drivers may be way too tired to be behind the wheel.

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BANFIELD: It is the largest bus company in North America. 18 million passengers ride a Greyhound bus every year across this country traveling billions of miles. Most trips appear pretty routine but when a major accident happens, it shed the light on what critics say is a serious problem and that is driver fatigue. This is an issue that is the subject of an upcoming trial in Philadelphia over a horrific deadly Greyhound bus crash. And that crash is raising questions about the company's commitment to safety.

Our investigative correspondent Sara Ganim has dug in to this story.

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[12:50:18] SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elora Lencoski dreamed of opera stardom.

ELORA LENCOSKI, Aspiring Opera Singer: I wanted to sing at the met. I wanted to just go to Europe and tour.

GANIM: That was before the Greyhound bus she was riding in slammed into the back of a tractor trailer leaving Lencoski with serious injuries damaged her singing voice.

LENCOSKI: Have you ever so sad that you can't cry? That's the point I'm at.

GANIM: This is the horrifying scene after the 2013 crush along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. One passenger died. Dozens more were seriously hurt. Lencoski is suing. Her lawyer says the Greyhound driver was too tired to drive.

A CNN investigation has found that Greyhound despite saying safety is a top priority does not enforce its own rule related to driver fatigue. The internal company documents obtained by CNN show drivers are supposed to stop about every 150 miles. Get out, check the tires, walk around the bus and stretch to mitigate fatigue, but we discover that so-called rule is treated as guideline. It's not enforced.

JON OSTROFF, ATTORNEY: They don't enforce the 150 mile safety rule because it costs them money.

GANIM: Attorney Jon Ostroff represents Lencoski and 22 other passengers who are on the bus that night.

OSTROFF: I think Greyhound was more at fault for this crash than the driver who fell asleep behind the wheel because they allowed a dangerous driver to drive.

GANIM: This government study from 2012 found 37 percent of all bus crashes were due to driver fatigue. The DOT doesn't provide accident causes for crashes, Greyhound as a satisfactory rating from the government.

Another passenger on the same bus was Lencoski lost his leg and a jury in his trial found that Greyhound demonstrated reckless indifference to the safety of passengers and drivers and isn't enforcing their rules. The jury awarded a $27 million in damages. Plus tacked on an additional of $150 to send a message that Greyhound isn't following its 150 mile safety rule.

LENCOSKI: I remember waking up in the hospital.

GANIM: Lencoski was 18 and a student at the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music returning home from a trip to New York with her friend, Emily. What do you remember after you boarded the bus?

LENCOSKI: Telling Emily good night, I believe. And falling asleep. And that's all I remember.

GANIM: The driver never took a break. 178 miles into the journey, the bus slammed into the back of a tractor trailer.

LENCOSKI: I broke my neck. I had smashed two bones.

GANIM: She said doctors tell her that her voice will never be the same.

LENCOSKI: There was no dream I had greater than singing on stage.

GANIM: In this deposition the company's CEO, David Leach, makes it clear that Greyhound does not enforce its own 150 mile safety rule called rule G-40.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How were you enforcing G-40?

DAVID LEACH, CEO, GREYHOUND LINES INC: Because we're relying on our drivers and expecting our drivers to stop when they're supposed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you don't have any way currently to enforce that safety stop. You've already testified to that, right?

LEACH: Right.

GANIM: Greyhound and the driver, Sabrina Anderson, deny fatigue was the cause of the crash. In her deposition, she said she doesn't remember what happened. As for Greyhound, it turn down the repeated request for an interview and instead e-mailed us a statement saying it had an excellent safety record and continues to improve our safety programs. You could write your future. What could it be?

LENCOSKI: I would be an opera singer. That is my dream.

GANIM: We could not find any crashes in the last several years where Greyhound admitted its drivers were fatigued. In fact, in this crash, the driver later claimed that her right leg went numb before she blacked out. Greyhound is fighting claims in the lawsuit that she fell asleep. The trial scheduled to begin later this week. Sarah Ganim, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BANFIELD: All right, thanks to Sara Ganim. And in the race for the White House. The add wars are getting uglier between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And Bernie Sanders is saying that the Democratic convention is going to get messy. His words. Messy. Wolf is going to have more on all of that right after this quick break.

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[12:54:17] WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM, HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 7:00 a.m. in Seattle, Washington, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington D.C., 8:00 p.m. in Fallujah, Iraq. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks you very much for joining us. Up first, the political ad wars get down and dirty in the race for the White House. Donald Trump brings back skeletons from the past revisiting Bill Clinton's indiscretions and Hillary Clinton goes after Trump of the economy attacking his record as a businessman.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy.

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BLITZER: That was Donald Trump back in 2006 talking about making money if the housing bubble bursts. I asked Bernie Sanders, he has some words of warning about the Democratic convention that's coming up in July. In Philadelphia, he says things could get "messy." His words. Sanders is holding a rally in Anaheim --