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Signal from Black Boxes; Trump University Lawsuit; Zika-Related Birth Defects; Flash Floods in Texas; North Korea Talks Trump; Trump University Ex-Workers. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired June 01, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:30:46] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some top stories at 30 minute past.
An ex-Oklahoma deputy who says he meant to grab his Taser when he fatally shot someone has been sentenced to four years behind bars. Seventy-four-year-old Robert Bates was convicted of second degree murder earlier this year for the shooting death of Eric Harris. Bates was providing backup for an undercover sting operation when the shooting occurred.
The TSA is not doing enough to fight emerging threats and falls short when it comes to perimeter security at airports across the country. Those are the findings from a new report from a government watchdog group. The report says, quote, "the troubled agency has not updated its recommendations when it comes to potential security vulnerabilities, like rogue airport employees exploiting credentials." The report also found shortfalls in how the TSA is analyzing security data.
The State Department issues a new terror warning to Americans traveling to Europe this summer. Officials say travelers should be aware about the potential risks of terror attacks. The warning comes ahead of summer events, including the European soccer championship in France, which are expected to attract large crowds.
At least seven people are dead after devastating rain and flooding hammered parts of Texas. This video is from Fort Bend County , that's 45 minutes outside of Houston. You can see animals trying to get to higher ground and people using boats. Amid the devastation, signs of hope. Volunteers sprang into action and they saved that dog there. He was stranded after being chained to his front porch. In the meantime, officials warn residents are not in the clear yet. Another storm system is expected to sweep through later this week.
And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
A major break in the search for EgyptAir Flight 804. Investigators now confirm an underwater signal detected by a French naval vessel is definitely from the plane's black boxes. Once retrieved, those devices will be sent to Egypt. Sixty-six people were on board that flight heading from Paris to Cairo when it vanished from radar over the Mediterranean. Ian Lee has more for you now.
Hi, Ian.
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Yes, that plane disappeared last May, on May 19th. So two weeks ago. It was a race against time to find those black boxes. Once that plane crashed, they had 30 days until the batteries ran out on those black boxes. So this is a major breakthrough for investigators.
The French ship, Laplace, which is a French navy ship, located the black boxes using sophisticated underwater detection equipment. Now the question is going to be, how to retrieve them? And there is a ship that specializes in retrieving things from the floor of the sea. This is believed that the wreckage is at a depth of 10,000 feet. The special ship, the John Lethbridge from Deep Oceans Search, is going to be on scene in about a week. It will use its underwater equipment to retrieve these black boxes and hopefully also the fuselage.
These are crucial pieces in evidence in determining what exactly happened on this doomed EgyptAir flight. Right now what we know on the final moments of that flight was that there was smoke detected in the avionics and lavatory, as well as what appears to be some sort of malfunction with the heat system in the co-pilot's window. Now, experts say that that's not conclusive evidence to determine what exactly happened. That's why these black boxes are so crucial for them to come here to Cairo and then for the experts to go through it to determine what exactly brought down that flight.
COSTELLO: All right, Ian Lee reporting live for us from Cairo this morning.
U.S. backed coalition forces in northern Syria are making strides against ISIS. The alliance trying to cut off ISIS' access to the key city of Raqqa. The progress comes as airstrikes nearby killed at least 58 people. As of last night, more than 18 air strikes hit the city of Idlib. One strike damaging a popular hospital, forcing that facility to close.
More than two dozen women say they were sexually assaulted at a massive music festival in Germany. And investigators say as many as 10 men could be involved. For now, they've arrested three Pakistani men in connection with the results. One of the men has lived in Germany for some time. The other two are transplants, migrants. And police say it is possible that more accusers may emerge. This festival gets packed. More than 80,000 people were there on Saturday night when the alleged assaults occurred.
[09:35:22] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it takes money to make money. We'll take a look at that statement and some of Donald Trump's other real estate secrets revealed in Trump University's playbook.
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COSTELLO: Ex-workers at Trump University calling the program a fraud, saying it prayed on the elderly and the uneducated. CNN's Drew Griffin is digging through those depositions right now. He's going to join us in just about 15 minutes to tell us more, but these documented are -- these -- these statements are part of the documents unsealed, along with the Trump University playbook, which details everything from how to conduct classes, to encouraging students who couldn't afford classes to put it on a credit cards. All unsealed because of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was presiding over both California cases against Trump. And as you know, Judge Curiel has caught Trump's attention.
[09:40:17] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's been a very bad judge. He's been very unfair. I have a judge who's very, very unfair. And it's -- well, you'll see it in court documents. But I have a judge who's very, very unfair. He know he's unfair. And I'll win the Trump University case.
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COSTELLO: Earlier, Trump's campaign spokesperson intimated Judge Curiel's association with a Latino advocacy group La Raza is a conflict of interest. Who is Judge Curiel? He was appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Obama in 2011. Before that, he served as a federal prosecutor tasked with prosecuting drug cartels in California.
With me now is Luis Osuna. He's the president of La Raza and he also knows Judge Curiel.
Welcome, sir.
LUIS OSUNA, PRESIDENT, SAND DIEGO LA RAZA LAWYERS ASSOCIATION: Welcome. Thank you for having me on.
If I can just clarify something. Our organization is not actually an advocacy group. It is a trade association that's dedicated to empowering Latino leaders, not -- well, empowering Latino attorneys and judges here in the community, and as well as providing services to the greater Latino community in San Diego. But we are a non-profit organization.
COSTELLO: That's correct. Your website said -- right, you say you're a non-partisan voice for Latinos. It says that on your website, and I apologize for that.
OSUNA: Correct.
COSTELLO: Going back to Mr. Trump's charge, though, this is a serious charge Mr. Trump is leveling against Judge Curiel. He could be disbarred for not being impartial. You know the judge. Would he put his career at risk?
OSUNA: Absolutely not. Judge Curiel is a man of integrity. You know, he was forced into -- I think, in his judgment, unsealing the documents because Donald Trump called into question the integrity of the court. And I think "The New York Times" really put it best this morning in their editorial page. It's very troublesome that one of the nominees for a leading party in this country for president of the United States is calling into question the integrity, not just of the federal court here in San Diego, but effectively of the court system and one that the major branches of government here in the country, especially when that person may be tasked with nominating judges such as Judge Curiel if he were to be elected.
COSTELLO: I want you to listen to what Katrina Pierson said. She's part of Trump's campaign. What she said about Judge Curiel's association with your organization, La Raza.
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KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESWOMAN: I think what's really interesting about this particular judge, as Mr. Trump refers to him as a Trump hater, is he even mentions on his judicial questionnaire that he was a La Raza lawyer's association member. This is an organization that has been out there organizing these anti-Trump protesters with the Mexican flags. They are pushing it. These flags have been very apparent. And so Mr. Trump is just stating the obvious.
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COSTELLO: OK. So on your website, as I said, La Raza is a non-partisan voice for Latinos. It's mission is to promote civil rights and education for Latinos. Critics have a far different view of your organization. So what exactly does Judge Curiel do for La Raza?
OSUNA: Judge Curiel is like many other judges and attorneys here in San Diego, just a member of our organization. We are not been involved in organizing any of the rallies -- the anti-Trump rallies that we've seen anywhere. Not here in San Diego. Not anywhere. So Ms. Pierson is either at best misinformed or at worst just overtly misleading the American public.
And I think this is just another emblematic example of a recurrent thing that we've seen throughout the Trump campaign, which they make incendiary -- use incendiary language to make assertions that are false to distract the media and the American people from any -- having engaged in any sort of substantive conversation about the political discourse and the issues that are facing the country.
COSTELLO: The bigger picture, if you step away, what do these charges say to Latinos living in California, since that big primary is coming up?
OSUNA: Well, I think that Donald Trump is not -- certainly not doing himself any favors with the Latino community by asserting that Judge Curiel cannot be impartial simply because he is -- his parents are -- he is of Mexican descent, even though he is a U.S.-born American citizen. And I think that it just plays along with other comments that Mr. Trump has made throughout his campaign. And when he's trying to appeal to a very small minority of the Republican base, and I don't think it will reflect well for him come in the general election, at least not with the Latino vote.
COSTELLO: All right, Luis Osuna, thanks so much for joining me this morning.
[09:45:00] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new details about a baby born in the United States with Zika-related birth defects.
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COSTELLO: The pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Francisco Rodriguez, says he caught the Zika virus and was out of commission for two weeks with body aches and joint pain. All of this according to espn.com. Rodriguez says he was treated for the virus during the offseason. The baseball player frequently travels to Venezuela to visit his family and Venezuela, of course, is on the CDC's growing list of infected countries.
Also new this morning, a baby with Zika-linked birth defects was born in New Jersey on Tuesday. This marks the second reported case in the United States.
[09:50:05] Let's get right to CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, here's what we know about this baby in New Jersey. The mom is from Honduras and she was infected in Honduras, where Zika is spreading, just like you mentioned in Venezuela, and then after she was infected she traveled to the United States at the end of her pregnancy and gave birth in New Jersey. We know that this baby is a girl and we know that she has microcephaly. That's a devastating neurological birth defect where babies have small, under developed brains and heads and this baby also has other neurological birth defects.
Now, we know in the United States that there are or have been more than 300 women who have been pregnant with -- and who have Zika. And we don't know about all of these pregnancies. Most of them are ongoing. Some of them have given birth. We don't know the details on all of them.
What we do know, unfortunately, is that we expect that some of these babies will be born with neurological birth defects. We don't know exactly how many, but we know that that is the case. We know that that will happen.
Carol.
COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
The flooding is bad in parts of Texas now and it could get a lot worse. Chad Myers is here with more on an ominous forecast.
Hi, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol.
The problem is, we've had inches of rainfall over Texas over the past six or eight days. Enough to just make the ground completely saturated. So think if we get another inch or two of rain, you don't think that's a big deal. But when you've had four to five inches around Dallas, over ten inches north of Houston and quite a bit of rain even in the hill country, now there's no place for that water to go when the raindrop hits the ground except run off. It's really like paving the entire state of Texas and hoping that when it rains it doesn't flood. You know how a parking lot can flood because it doesn't soak in. Well, almost the entire middle part of the state right now is either under a flood watch or a flood warning.
Currently no flash flood warnings because we don't see that much for heavy rain today. That changes overnight tonight. I'm going to put you into the future radar. So we'll see showers today, showers tonight. But the big, heavy rainfall falls again Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Three solid days of rainfall coming down.
Now, this is not the old map. This is the new map. This is what's still to come on top of Dallas, on top of Houston, and on top of the hill country, San Antonio and Austin, Texas, maybe out towards Abilene. So we put another batch of four to six inches on top of rainfall totals that are already four to six inches. That's 2.5 or three months' worth of rain on top of all of this and that would only be in the past ten days.
Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chad Myers, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump gets the endorsement no one was looking for.
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[09:57:04] COSTELLO: Political candidates appreciate endorsements, but the Trump campaign probably was not looking for one from North Korea. Here's Jeannie Moos.
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JEANNIE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've got to hand it to Donald Trump. What other American candidate gets a vote of confidence from North Korea? A country that releases a video showing its missiles striking Washington. And now publishes an editorial in a state media outlet calling The Donald a wise politician, a far sided presidential candidate and advising Americans not to vote for that dull Hillary. Trump at least has said he'd talk to North Korea. As Korea expert John Feffer put it.
JOHN FEFFER, DIRECTOR, FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS: I would have to say that Donald Trump is the Dennis Rodman of American politics.
MOOS: Prone to shake things up and make outlandish statements, well, maybe not as outlandish as when Rodman praised Kim Jong-un.
DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA PLAYER: He's a great guy. He's just a great guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a great guy who puts 200,000 people in prison camps.
RODMAN: Well, you know, and guess what, it's amazing how we do the same thing here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: North Korean high five.
MOOS: The Donald's not hive-fiving Kim Jong-un any time soon.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's like a maniac, OK? And you've got to give him credit, how many young guys take over these tough generals? It's incredible. He wiped out the uncle.
MOOS: And speaking of wiping out --
TRUMP: I would get China to make that guy disappear in one form or another very quickly. And let me tell you, people say, oh --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you make them disappear? Assassinate him or --
TRUMP: Let me -- let me just tell you, well, I've heard of worse things, frankly. I mean this guy's a bad dude.
MOOS (on camera): But the one thing Trump and North Korea's leader do share, flamboyant hair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least for the time being, the meeting of the two greatest adult male hairdos in the world will not take place. That said, but Kim Jong-un doesn't have time to meet with Donald Trump, he's too busy making North Korea great again.
MOOS (voice-over): Kim Jong-un has been Photoshopped with Trump's hair, but at least we're not talking about little hands, we're talking about shaking not so little hair hands.
Jeannie Moos, CNN, New York.
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COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
And, good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Newly published testimony revealing unsettling details about Trump University. A former employee lashing out at the school calling it, quote, "unethical" and "fraudulent" and says that the school, quote, preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money. Investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has been poring over these new, unsealed documents.
What have you found out, Drew?
[09:59:46] DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS: Carol, you know, we've been following these fraud cases for literally years now but this is the first time we're seeing testimony from people who actually worked inside Trump University, that real estate seminar business that Trump ran for about five years or so before it went out of business in 2010. And these declarations which were filed in court in San Diego and released yesterday are really damming from an inside perspective. Consider the declaration of Ronald Schnackenberg (ph).
