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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

FBI Says Orlando Gunman Names and Pledged Loyalty To ISIS Leader; Gunman Was Reported And Investigated For Claiming Al Qaeda Ties; Gunman Called 911 Three Times During Attack; FBI Says No Indication Gunman Was Part Of Terror Network; Muslim Leaders Condemn Nightclub Shooting. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 13, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

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JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: ... and his motives and his sort of motivating this attack, an attack that occurred during very month when we recognize and celebrate our LGBT brothers and sisters.

[12:30:10] Again it's early. We're working hard to understand the killer and his motives and his sources of inspiration. But we are highly confident that this killer was radicalized and at least in some part through the internet. So that's what we've been doing.

Now, let me tell you what I can about the FBI's prior contact with the killer. We first became aware of him in May of 2013. He was working as a contract security guard at a local courthouse. And he made some statements that were inflammatory and contradictory that concerned his coworkers about terrorism.

First he claimed family connections to Al-Qaeda. He also said that he was a member of Hezbollah which is a Shia terrorist organization that is a bitter enemy of the so-called Islamic state, ISIL. He said he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so that he could martyr himself.

When this was reported to us, the FBI's Miami office opened a preliminary investigation. And over the next ten months, we attempted to determine whether he was possibly a terrorist. Something we do in hundreds and hundreds of cases all across the country. Our investigation involved introducing confidential sources to him,

recording conversations with him, following him, reviewing transactional records from his communications, and searching all government holdings for any possible connections, any possible derogatory information. We then interviewed him twice. He admitted making the statements that his coworkers reported, but explained that he did it in anger because he thought his coworkers were discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim.

After ten months of investigation, we closed the preliminary investigation.

Two months later, in July of 2014, the killer's name surfaced again in an indirect way. Our Miami office was investigating the Florida man who had blown himself up for the misery front in Syria. Again, the misery front being an Al-Qaeda group in conflict with ISIL.

And we learned from the investigation that the killer knew him casually from attending the same mosque in that area of Florida. But our investigation turned up no ties of any consequence between the two of them. And the course of that investigation, one witness told us when asked do you know anybody else who might be radicalizing that he had once been concerned about the killer, because the killer mentioned Al Aki videos. But the witness said concluded that he later got married and had a child and got a job as a security guard, and so he was no longer concerned about him.

Our investigation again turned and interviewed the killer to find out whether he had any significant contacts with the suicide bomber for Al-Nusra. Determined he did not and then the inquiry continued focusing on the suicide bomber with no further focus on the Orlando killer.

We will continue to look forward in this investigation and backward. We will leave no stone unturned. And we will work all day and all night to understand the path to that terrible night. We're also going to look hard at our own work to see whether there is something we should have done differently.

So far, the honest answer is I don't think. I don't see anything in reviewing our work that our agents should have done differently. But we'll look at it in an open and honest way and be transparent about it. Our work is very challenging, we are looking for needles in a nationwide hay stack, but we are also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay might some day become needles. That is hard work. If we can find a way to do that better, we will.

We will also do our best to be transparent about what we find going forward, consistent with our need to do an investigation in a good way. But we will tell you as much as we possibly can.

And let me close by saying something I have said before. We know that this killing is upsetting to all Americans. We hope that our fellow Americans will not let fear become disabling, because that is what these savages want.

We hope that instead you will channel this sense of anxiety into something more positive, which is an awareness of your surroundings and the seeking of opportunities to help your fellow Americans, as we saw with the tremendous lines of people giving blood in Orlando.

If you channel that anxiety into awareness, you can live your life and allow those of us who are paid to investigate and to stop terrorists to do that work while you live the full life that this great country offers you. If you see something, tell us, so we can look at it. And every single one of our cases as we look back, somebody always sees something they should have told us and they didn't.

[12:35:03] So our request to you is please don't let them make you work into a state of anxiety that is disabling. Find ways to channel that into a healthy awareness of your surroundings and live your lives. And we that will keep you posted on what we learned from doing our work.

Thank you very much.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. There's Jim Comey the head of the FBI telling people, do not be afraid. Don't let the terrorists win. But a lot of information as well. And also some insight because of what he didn't talked about.

Let's go through it now with the Attorney General of the state of Florida, Pam Bondi and CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem, as well CNN Encounter Terrorism Analyst, Phil Mudd.

First of all A.G, it's good to have you here. I know you're very busy and involved with this investigation.

PAM BONDI, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes.

CUOMO: ... as the state's top law enforcement officer.

What can you tell us right with you, you're discretion obviously about what people should do?

BONDI: Well, it's very active on let going, fluid, my state wide prosecutor that's right now in the command center getting that update and briefings.

What Mr. Comey said, I applaud about do not let fear overtake us. That's what domestic and international terrorism is all about fear. And stilling fear in us.

Thank you for being out here. People need to know, it's safe to go to school, it's safe to go to work. That's what these radical extremists want us to believe that it's not safe.

My job as attorney general right now, I'm working with the victims' families and we have a brand-new number to give you.

CUOMO: Please.

BONDI: Out of the 49 victims, thank goodness, 36 families have now been notified.

CUOMO: So 36 out of the 49.

BONDI: Yes, it's so our numbers are increasing. Thanks to the hotline we've been giving out. I have victim's advocates there. I'm headed there now after we speak to be with these victims' families. My advocates are telling me they can't be consoled, of course.

Many are more of a Spanish speaking. We're bringing in interpreters. I brought advocates from throughout the state, trying to work with them.

CUOMO: So, you still have 13 people ...

BONDI: We sure to you --

CUOMO: ... you need to identify ...

BONDI: We do.

CUOMO: ... and get to their families?

BONDI: We do.

CUOMO: How about the injured wherein surrounding in hospitals? Is there some anonymity there still also?

BONDI: We pray there is -- as well their families should be with them.

CUOMO: OK.

BONDI: Only one of the deceased out of the 49 has not been identified by name.

CUOMO: OK.

BONDI: But 48 had been identified, 36 of those families now -- the numbers increased thanks goodness, no. So, we have a hotline, its 1- 407-246-4357.

CUOMO: Great, and if you give it to me we'll put it on the website as well so people have it. If we can help with those efforts along the way you know we're here for them.

BONDI: Thank you.

CUOMO: Investigatively, we know it's moving along.

BONDI: Yes.

CUOMO: Let's talk about what we heard from the FBI, with our experts here. Please fill in if you think it's proper.

BONDI: Sure.

CUOMO: OK A.G, appreciate it.

I saw your fear perking up Phil, when they were talking about motive and what it could be and what it could not and then also in terms of what steps were taken during these early investigations to ascertain who this guy was and what he was up to.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Sure, there couple things that you got to know for this that I think are significant. First, this is a common type of case, what we call a preliminary investigation, a P.I. in FBI terms.

Note what the directly FBI did not say. They were not looking at e- mail, which suggests the case did not rise to the level of sort of the top tier, the top five 10 percent of cases in the United States.

You talk about 1,000 cases open in the United States now. There are thousands more that are closed. So, I think when you are looking at why cases like this get dropped. You got to look at the numbers gained. This is thousands they are looking through. You can take a picture of it sort of as a triage in an emergency room. Sometimes they say after interviews there simply not enough to step up the investigation.

On the issue of radicalization, the kinds groups he's talking about affiliation with ISIS, Al Qaeda Hezbollah. These are groups does the FBI director said who are in competition. This tells me that the mind- set of the shooter had more to do or at least as much to do with his mental stability as it did with terrorism.

CUOMO: Because you couldn't be aligned with all of those groups?

MUDD: Correct. You can't be aligned with all of these. Some of them are fighting each other in Syria today and killing each other. So, you can't be aligned simultaneously. We've got to think about mental state as must have as we think about radicalization.

CUOMO: We did hear from the ex-wife that she believed he was bipolar to family. We couldn't confirm that. We know that the role of mental could be long and twisted to some of people who had knowledge. One of the things that Comey did not mention, Juliet I you take on this.

So, they have the 13th case. They closed it...

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah.

CUOMO: ... doesn't raise the level as Philip Mudd says. Fourteen, as name pops up again but he's tangential, OK. Now, he goes to get these weapons and under current law, the FBI, even though they have known this guy in connection with two separate investigations. They don't have the legal authority to pick up the phone and say, you're going to come and talk to us before you get these weapons.

KAYYEM: Exactly. The law -- there would be no obligation of a gun owner to check some list to see under an FBI interview because it's filled with sane. They never -- it never rose of anything significance.

[12:40:01] CUOMO: But the FBI knew.

KAYYEM: Right. That's the ...

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CUOMO: They do the background check.

KAYYEM: Right. But there would be no linkage between the non preliminary investigation and determination of whether he's going to get the gun. That is -- that's the gap in law because he's not a criminal, right? So he can buy whatever guns he wants. I don't like the law ...

CUOMO: They could've put them on a no fly list and he has a constitutional right to travel. KAYYEM: They have standards for those no fly list as well. I mean, in other words, your frustration is everyone's frustration. Is that there is a gap between these pool of people that we are under investigation. They're not rising to that level of anything bad as Comey noted, their motivation is all screwy, right? It's Hezbollah, it's ISIS, it's Al Qaeda, it's LGBT hatred. It's everything.

CUOMO: I want to hear you but whatever it is, A.G., it's bad. I mean, you know, what was going through this guy's head was malignant, right?

BONDI: Sure and I'm privy to a lot more information and Director Comey, I think is choosing his words very cautiously now. I think in the coming days you are going to hear more. You are right. I was just in Israel by the way and Isis and Hezbollah are fighting each other. So ...

CUOMO: So you wouldn't be with both of them?

BONDI: I do know more that I can't talk about regarding this investigation.

CUOMO: And look, as it comes out. You know, we are on a need-to-know basis, obviously, then what matters most is the investigation and getting the truth to the authorities that needed act on. But this resulting frustration because very often these cases are so unsatisfying on a human level, you know, families are destroyed. People will never come out of that club alive.

BONDI: No.

CUOMO: And it becomes this desperation to somehow make this matter in a way that makes us safer going forward.

BONDI: That's right.

CUOMO: This idea that someone can have enough stink on them to raise themselves into the awareness of the FBI on two separate occasions and yet when they go to buy a weapon, it's not -- they don't have even the authority to make a phone call, what does that mean to you?

BONDI: Well, again, I'm in the middle of this investigation, and all I can tell you is that FBI agents who I'm working with in that command center are doing a phenomenal job. ATF, DEA, state, federal, local, all working together from this point forward.

CUOMO: Right, they're doing what they can. The question is are they enabled enough, Juliette. You know, I'm saying I don't think they're able to make that phone call.

KAYYEM: Yeah, I mean, there is no need to know in this debate right now. So, whatever is going on in the review as regards to what the attorney general knows is understandable. We've all about in that situation. This is it what you're concerned about, what I'm concerned about is different, which is there are prohibitions between sharing information about concerns about the purchases of major weapons to kill 50 people down the street. That is not a investigation debate. That is a debate about what the president was talking about, what the attorney general was talking about, which is gun control. We can have that debate and also have a discussion about motivation, what animated him, Hezbollah, ISIS, the world is big enough to have both debates.

CUOMO: Absolutely. I guess i just see it as different. This guy is not me. You know, where I have my constitutional rights to buy a weapon. I've never been on their radar before, you know. They have never come close to making a case against me and then heard about me in a discussion a couple of months later. But I guess this is about the law, not investigations.

MUDD: It is, it is. This is not investigation. There's only -- we are only talking about half the step though. The first would be what we call a trip wire program. That is, if someone who has been under investigation and it's closed, should there be an automatic system that says, when that person applies for a weapon, especially an assault weapon, the FBI gets a tip wire, gets a wire that says, "Hey go look at this guy again."

The second half of this note Chris, is you mention the no fly effort. And no fly program does not have to go through a court, if the government decides you shouldn't get on an airplane, you are not getting on an airplane. If you decide that the FBI can investigate this guy and they still can't prove a case, are you then going to give them the right to say, "He still can't have a weapon." That I think is the second half of this that we are not talking about.

CUOMO: Well, we got a lot of time to do it ...

BONDI: Right now, domestic international terrorism, whatever you want to call it, what happened right behind us is an act of terror, on our people, Orlando, on our LGBT community, on our state, on our country.

We're going to do everything we can. This is a fluid investigation and just wait to see what's going to happen. And I'll tell you what, we're doing everything we can to help those family members right now and identify the rest of those victims, that's what today is about.

CUOMO: Absolutely, attorney general. I think that when you talk about the families, you said, the unknown, you have 36 done. That's amazing work in a short amount of time. You have other families that you're worried about, you have the people in the hospitals. And these questions will wind up being answered going forward is a longer conversation to have.

As you have information that's relevant for the conversation, you let us know. We certainly don't want to got ahead of it.

And thank you for joining us today attorney general, Philip, Juliette. We'll be talking to you more throughout the day here. We're going to take a tease right now.

There's going to be more implication of what happened here in Florida. You're going to hear it about Orlando. You're going to here in the presidential election. We have Hillary Clinton, is about to give a campaign. Eventually, talked to us on NEW DAY this morning, she talked about calling this Islamic terror, why that's good, why that isn't. So we're going to cover that event as well.

[12:45:02] We're also waiting for the white house press briefing. We're going to take that live when it happens to get you the latest information.

And plus, some of the loudest condemnation of the Orlando massacre are coming from within the Muslim community. And that's an important piece in these stories. And we're going to give you that part, coming up, stay with us.

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ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Fast moving development in the Orlando terror attack. Cell phone video from a young woman who herself was gunned down and murdered at the pulse nightclub shows the first few moments of the rampage before anyone even realized what was happening, including her.

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BANFIELD: So the last we heard from Amanda Alvear. Today President Obama said the Orlando rampage was an act of homegrown extremism. And we just heard from the head of the FBI who said there is no indication that this killer had any direct connections with groups, terror affiliated outside of this country.

He also said that that killer called 911 twice from inside the club. And that 911 called him back and had a short conversation. This was when he talked about his solidarity with the marathon bombers. Also, the suicide bomber from Florida who was aligned with Al-Nusra group and ISIS should be noted these are competing groups. So it's hard to follow all those ideologies and be legitimate. Not only that, he said that that he had family connections to another coworker with al-Qaeda and that he was a member of Hezbollah, once again competing ideologies, competing groups.

And then also the FBI director said that they had not only just taken a look into this man, this killer. But they'd also introduced confidential sources and they had searched his communications, this killer apparently saying his comments to coworkers because they had been teasing him about his Muslim faith, all of this coming from the FBI director.

Orlando authorities also saying that now identified 48 of the 49 innocent people slaughtered early yesterday morning. Thirty-six of the families have now been notified. And of the 53 people wounded, more than half are still in the hospital and five of them are being described as in grave condition.

Hillary Clinton is expected to speak at any moment at an event in Cleveland. We've got live pictures and we are awaiting the former secretary of state to hear what she has to say. Plus we're also waiting for the White House briefing to begin. We're going to bring both of those live events to you just as soon as they get underway. Right now back to my colleague live in Orlando, Chris Cuomo. Chris?

CUOMO: It's been a lot of developments very quickly here, Ashleigh. You and I have stood together and separately at literally over a dozen of these occasions. And every time there is a tragedy like this, we hear questions about what is the role of Islam and what just happened with a Muslim who stepped forward and then pledged allegiance to ISIS before killing so many.

Muslim leaders once again are coming out very strong this time against the murderer here in Orlando. Saying he does not exemplify the views of Islam.

I'm joined now by Muhammad Musri of the Islamic society of central Florida. It is good to have you with us here today.

MUHAMMAD MUSRI, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: Thank you for giving us the opportunity.

CUOMO: We know this dynamic sickeningly well. This man comes out. He kills so many. He says I'm doing it for ISIS. And then in reaction, people become afraid and say there is something within Islam that is out to get us. What is your response?

MUSRI: Well, first, I want to offer our deep condolences to the families of the victims who fell here Sunday morning.

And second is to in the strongest terms condemn the terrorism that was brought on our city here. I lived most of my life in Orlando. And I know the street very well, bustling street. And to see it turned upside down, our lives are really in shattered right now. We are horrified by what happened. We are totally against the acts of terrorism and done by anyone from anyone from religion especially when they claim to be Muslim.

CUOMO: Why does it claim to be Muslim? You don't consider this man Muslim?

MUSRI: I do not consider this man Muslim. I do not consider a terrorist who hurts people a Muslim.

The people who claim to be Muslims to claim to be from the Islamic state, these are thugs, criminals. They are murders. They have killed thousands and thousands of Muslims both Sunni and Shia in Iraq and Syria and Libya and around the world. And their murderous cult is not Islam. Islam is a worldwide religion of over 1.7 billion adherence and for 1400 years we never seen this kind of, you know, cultic behavior.

[12:55:01] These people are out being brainwashed, many with either mental illness or drugs that can drive them to do things that we could never imagine somebody would do.

CUOMO: We are in the time of healing right now. We heard from the attorney general that a huge number of Muslims came out in the community to give blood to saving one of the volunteer and help. And you're saying you want the community to do more going forward to show the solidarity among all different faiths. How so?

MUSRI: We issued a request to our community. Here we have about hundred thousand Muslims in central Florida with hundreds of Muslim doctors. We know the need for blood. The local blood bank said yesterday they were short. So we said Muslims should be the first to go out and donate blood to save lives and also to donate money to the families of the victims to rebuild their lives and to go out and volunteer in the community to see how we can bring in the community. This morning, I was on a call with 30 religious leaders. We are doing a visual this evening in downtown Orlando. And we are inviting the community to come out, show their sympathy and support, especially of the LGBT community.

CUOMO: We will cover that, Imam, and thank you very much for spreading the message in the community.

MUSRI: And we are doing something bigger for next month. On July 23rd we're doing a big march in Washington, D.C to denounce terrorism as loud as we can. So the American people will hear it from Muslim leaders like myself all over the country coming out very strong to condemn terrorism, to condemn al Qaeda and ISIS, the Book of Haram and all these terrorist.

CUOMO: There can't be enough of that and we look forward to it. Thank you very much for being with us on a very sad day.

MUSRI: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right now, any minute we're to give you the next wave of reaction here.

Hillary Clinton came on CNN this morning addressed what she thinks about the situation what needs to be done. She's having another event and we'll give to you and get her reaction.

They we're also waiting for the White House briefing to begin with all new update. We'll bring you both of those events as soon as they begin, please stay with CNN.

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