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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Trump Attacks Judge in Trump University Case; Jerry Springer Talks 2016 Election; Spurlock Show Preview; Report on Accused War Criminal Working Airport Security. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 03, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: -- on HLN. Thanks to both of you.

PAGE PATE, ATTORNEY: It is a bizarre as a young healthy male unprobable.

BANFIELD: All right, I appreciate the insight from both of you. Thank you Dr. Drew, thank you Page Pate.

And reminder, you can tune in to Dr. Drew Mondays thru Thursdays, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on HLN. Thanks to both of you.

DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST: Thank you.

BANFIELD: We're going to turn back to politics after the break into a part of the government that is supposed to be well above politics, beyond the inference of politicians, and up to, including, presidents. So why does Donald Trump keep on trashing a federal judge and just what is his relationship with the rule of law?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will say this, Hillary Clinton has to go to jail, OK? She has to go to jail. That was a phony hit job. She's guilty as hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:11] BANFIELD: There you go. Donald Trump, legal expert, judge, and jury declaring Hillary Clinton guilty and sentencing her to jail. Bam, case closed.

I want to talk about that for a minute because this is Legal View. Donald Trump and his regard for the rule of law. He did something this week that many people, actual real life legal experts say completely crossed the line. He gave the full Trump treatment to a federal judge, a sitting federal judge. Not just any judge, this judge. Schoolyard names, backing on a judge's heritage, calling him a disgrace, even suggesting that he be investigated, federal judge on his case.

Here is the man that he is talking about and here is the very serious problem with all of this. Judge Gonzalo Curiel happens to overseeing two big lawsuits in which Donald Trump has a personal and a financial stake. And Trump is going after him hard and that is a no-no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Jonathan Turley, is a law professor at George Washington University and also Washington Post contributor and former law professor at Temple University, David Post.

David if I can begin with you, what you just heard him say about Judge Curiel, I have seen legal ethics experts that Donald Trump's conduct could actually be subject to a sanction for indirect criminal contempt for impugning the honesty of a judge in a pending case. Is that hyperbole?

DAVID POST, CONTRIBUTOR, WASHINGTON POST: I wouldn't -- I don't know if I would go that far. I don't know enough to be honest about the requirements for criminal sanctions in a case like this and I don't think one has to go that far to say he is -- if he is a private citizen, he has the First Amendment rights. He's TV celebrity, First Amendment right to say what he wants about the federal judiciary, about individual judges even.

But he is the presidential nominee or the presumptive presidential nominee so we have to listen to what he says and ask ourselves, what would this sound like if this man were president of the United States? And I think for the president of the United States or someone who seriously wants to be considered for that office to attack a sitting federal judge, to say that the system is rigged, that it's a disgrace, that the judge is a hater. Putting aside the entirely inappropriate reference to his ethnic background which has nothing to do with his conduct of --

BANFIELD: On the bench, yeah.

POST: ... of his office. But even putting that aside, to attack a judge who's the -- hearing a case in which you are involved, if he was a president of the United States, I think that's close to being an impeachable offense, actually.

BANFIELD: So that would be if you're president.

POST: Correct.

BANFIELD: And Jonathan Turley, I'd love you to weigh in on this before -- because people who have criticized the media for even going after this story have said you a First Amendment right to say anything, true. But it does tell you the nature of a person and their philosophies. And their -- have other critics have said that, you know, presidents have pushed the envelope on executive actions before all sorts of times to the point of legal challenge. The difference here is that Donald Trump is not criticizing a philosophy or a politics, he's criticizing a judge because of his own personal case. So I want you to weigh in on the significance of that as you look to someone who can be commander-in-chief who gets kind of all the tools and the toys of the judiciary.

JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Well, I certainly agree with much of what was said. I don't agree it would be impeachable or meet that standard. And I actually have in the past been critical of efforts of judges to punish lawyers for criticizing them in public. I do think there's a free speech issue and that would obviously extend to non-lawyers. But you cannot be in favor of the rule of law and trash judges in this way, this personal and what seems quite clearly racist way.

What surprises me, quite frankly, is that his council has not withdrawn. I've had to withdraw from high profile -- I had to withdraw from one case because the client was not responding to these types of limitations. You have a certainly, a right as a lawyer who you represent, you can always control your client and you can control your representation. I think I would have contacted him within minutes of his first statement to say, I'm withdrawing. Because you just can't be a lawyer of good standing and represent a client who is trashing a judge, not just erroneously but also to use these racially- tinged type of comments.

[12:40:10] As a president, obviously it's inappropriate. This country stands for the rule of law and you can't attack a judge in this way. The irony of course is that all of these people that Donald Trump described just coming over the border and dangerous people that he loves to talk about, that's exactly who this judge previously put into jail. He is supposedly on a hit list because he had cracked down on Mexican cartels.

So, this is one of these guys who Trump should be embracing for his history. And he was also born not far from where I was born. He was born in Indiana, in East Chicago. I was born in Chicago. Neither of us are Mexican in any sense of that word.

BANFIELD: Yeah. Well, and it should be noted that everyone has a right to put forth a motion for refusal if they have an issue. There has been no motion presented in this case by his attorneys to have the judge recused. And so I'm at a loss as to why anybody would take that kind of chance when someone's going to sit in judgment of you.

Thank you to both of you. David, appreciate it as always been, Jonathan love having you. Thank you so much.

TURLEY: Thank you.

POST: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Coming up today, Trump's attorney, Jill Martin is going to join Brooke Baldwin on the CNN Newsroom at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. So make sure you stay tuned for that. The anger, the yelling, the scandals, the scuffles, the controversy, the TV. Long before the 2016 presidential race, my next guest was giving daytime drama a whole new meaning. And now Jerry Springer is sticking out on the tirades of Donald Trump and he's going join me live in just a moment when we're back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:55] BANFIELD: Never one to shy away from a ruckus. T.V. host Jerry Springer is weighing in on the war of words between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Jerry took a jab at the presumptive GOP nominee after Trump criticized what he called Clinton's bad temperament and here was the tweet. "Come on, Donald. You complaining about Hillary's temperament is like me complaining about the quality of television." The anger and the frustration this election cycle had seen most recently just last night in San Jose. This was something out of a studio brawl and it actually could have been seen on a daytime talk show.

Listen to that. Speech and signs that need to be buzzed out. Joining me now live from Sarasota, Florida, Jerry Springer. It's good to have you on. Your tweet captured a lot. I was hoping you weren't referring to my television, but other kinds of television.

JERRY SPRINGER, TALK SHOW HOST: No, no.

BANFIELD: But I do want you to weigh in on how do you see this, how you see what's playing out in this 2016 race?

SPRINGER: Yeah, well, I deal with it at length on my podcast, jerryspringer.com but what I was saying is that I have never thought someone that is on like my television show should be president of the United States. I mean, you know, television is one thing. Starting up these daytime talk shows like mine which is a circus. That's one thing.

But these people should not be president of the United States. I have nothing personally against Donald Trump. I thought he did a great job on "Apprentice" but totally unqualified to be president and to complain about Hillary Clinton, look, you may not like her on the issues, maybe you don't like the sound of her voice, whatever, but to seriously believe that Hillary Clinton isn't more knowledgeable about what a president of the United States has to do versus Donald Trump is just not a serious discussion. He does not belong in the White House.

BANFIELD: So let me ask you, why is it working? Because you see the rallies. You see the thousands upon thousands who turn out, not only to see him speak but to drop their ballot into his slot at the ballot box, and you've seen the voices that have said, he's our agent of change. If you see it your way, why are they not seeing it that way? Is there something about politics that's changing?

SPRINGER: Well, I think Donald Trump was inevitable. And I say that by the last 40 or 50 years, we should have seen it coming. Because for the last 40 or 50 years, starting maybe with Goldwater and then Nixon and certainly with Reagan, when President Reagan said government can't solve problems, government is the problem.

For the last generation, we have raised a generation of Americans to believe government is terrible. That Washington is horrible. That the American president should be disrespected. You raise a generation of people to believe that Washington and the American government is horrible, it should have been inevitable to see that at some point, someone would run for president who hates Washington, who is anti- government, who believes every politician is corrupt.

Every political commercial you see says that the other person is corrupt, is a pervert, is a criminal. Well, at one point, someone would run who is against government. Now, there are only two ways you can be well known to run for president if you're not already in politics. Either sports or entertainment. Athletes that too young to run for president so we should have seen it coming then ultimately the person running for president would be from the entertainment field. Did we know it would be Donald Trump? Of course not. But it would ...

BANFIELD: OK.

SPRINGER: ... be someone like that who just hates Washington.

BANFIELD: Well, and it's been so fascinating. I look forward having you back when you have some time. Jerry, thank you. Appreciate it.

SPRINGER: Thanks for having me.

BANFIELD: Moving on. One of our favorite CNN series is back tonight. Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man. Love it. In his season premiere, Morgan is going to try to figure out the life of a professional gambler. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

[12:50:06] MORGAN SPURLOCK, DIRECTOR: I'm in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of America. My goal from my week of professional gambling is to double my money. And I'm starting here at the casino with $1,000 in my pocket and a hope that lady luck is on my side.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: Any more bets?

SPURLOCK: And if she is? Then what better place to start with, roulette, the game that's all about luck.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: OK, 100.

SPURLOCK: I'm cashing in my first 100 and placing my green chips around the table and the hope the roulette ball will land on one of my numbers.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: No more bets.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: 27.

SPURLOCK: Whoa!

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: Here you go.

SPURLOCK: Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Already up a 100. Going to take that one? Put it right in there. Peep! Now ready to keep going. My night is off to a pretty good start.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: No more bets.

SPURLOCK: Whoa! Play 132 bucks. Even the roulette and I feel like a no brainier a way to win some easy cash. Ow. There's also no strategy to avoid losing.

UNIDENTIFIELD MALE: 32.

SPURLOCK: Oh! Man I lost it all again. Despite roulette's house advantage of 5 percent I seem to be doing pretty well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Find out how this turns out tonight on a premiere of Inside Man, 10 p.m. Eastern Time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:55:32] BANFIELD: A U.S. Congresswoman is calling for an investigation after a CNN investigation revealed that an accused war criminal is working as a security guard in one of the nation's busiest airports. You heard right. And CNN's Kyra Phillips was the first to break this story this week. She joins me now live with an update. I still can't get over it but tell me more.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I know Ashleigh, and thank you supporting the piece, you and your team. I mean, the reaction to this, needless to say, has been pretty intense. Especially after we learned that the local and federal agencies that oversee airport safety knew about this guy's history.

CNN first reported this exclusively. That Yusuf Abdi Ali who is accused of committing heinous atrocities like torture, and mass executions while a military commander during Somalia's brutal civil war has been living outside D.C. for about 20 years and not only living here, Ashleigh, but working as a security guard at Dulles International Airport. You'll see here that our camera captured him guarding a security exit where ticketed passengers leave the airport every day. He even started up a conversation with our producer and we questioned him weeks later just outside in his apartment where he denied all the allegations against him and we also spoke to his attorney as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: I just want to ask you a couple of questions about your time in Somalia as commander of the fifth brigade.

YUSUF ABDI ALI: No comment right now, but we'll go today with my lawyer then I will talk to you. JOSEPH PETER DRENNAN, YUSUF ABDI ALI'S ATTORNEY: How dare anyone call

him a war criminal. Those are just allegations. If he is indeed a war criminal, take him to The Hague. Or if he's a war criminal, take it up with the immigration authorities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, since CNN'S investigation, the contractor that hired Ali, Master Security, put him on administrative leave. But when we tried to get answers from local and federal agencies, Ashleigh, about how exactly he was hired in the first place, we basically got the runaround. TSA, the FBI, the airport authority and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that they all knew about Ali's past but no one could explain why he was hired and why his background didn't raise any red flags.

BANFIELD: Four agencies. Four, so I suppose it's understandable why there are calls from Congress for an investigation.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstack, Comstock rather who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee called it a failure in airport security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARBARA COMSTOCK, (R-VA) TRANSPORTATION/INFRASTRUCTURE CMTE: We also need to immediately do more investigation and I am not happy with the response, you know, I spent my -- and my staff did all day yesterday trying to get more answers. We're in the same boat that you are. We -- Everybody is pointing at everybody else and we're not getting satisfactory answers. So that's why I'm going to the public who -- also to ask them, provide us more information that you know about. We're going to have hearings, we're going hold people accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And as we pointed out, Ali is facing a civil case now that's been going on for a long time, Ashleigh. Part of the issue is that there isn't a criminal court anywhere in the world that can bring him to trial for these allegations because those international courts didn't even exist in the 1980's during Somalia's civil war.

Clearly, I think this piece pointed out, there are gaps in the system and it's nice to see that individuals like the congresswoman are standing up to demand answers.

BANFIELD: Yeah. You might say canyons as opposed to gap. That is unbelievable. Kyra, great work CNN investigator of course, Kyra Phillips doing the job for us, thank you for that.

PHILLIPS: Thanks Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I want to turn now to a Cleveland courtroom where the father of a murder victim decided to attack his daughter's murderer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN TERRY: Right now, I guess we're supposed to, in our hearts forgive this clown, who has touched our families, taken my child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Van Terry is that father that you saw leaping.

[01:00:01] His daughter was one of three women killed by Michael Madison seen there in the orange jumpsuit.

Terry was giving what you call the victim's impact statement when he reached what a prosecutor called any father's breaking point. He eventually was restrained by the deputies.