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Russia Investigation; Trump Heads to France; Brazil's Former President Sentenced to Prison; Turmoil Triggers Exodus of Venezuelans; Video Shows Trump with Associates Tied to Russian Meeting; U.K. & E.U. Trade Barbs over Brexit Divorce Bill; Massive Iceberg Breaks Away from Antarctica; Trump to Join Macron in Paris for Bastille Day. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired July 13, 2017 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): At this hour, President Trump heads to France for Bastille Day but the latest Russia revelations already overshadowing his trp.
SIDNER (voice-over): Plus Brazil's former president in trouble himself. Lula da Silva is found guilty of corruption and he's not the only one facing prison time.
VAUSE (voice-over): And later this hour, tech companies big and small are taking on the Trump administration over net neutrality. And one website with millions of users -- you may have heard of it -- Pornhub is joining the fight.
SIDNER (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Sara Sidner.
VAUSE (voice-over): I'm John Vause. This is another hour of NEWSROOM L.A.
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VAUSE: U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive soon in Paris. There he will observe Paris's Bastille Day celebrations as a guest of French president Emmanuel Macron.
SIDNER: But while out of the country Mr. Trump is leaving behind another political mess at the White House. He is also facing a very negative public opinion among the French.
According to the Pew Research, French favorability towards the U.S. has declined 17 points since Mr. Trump took office, which stood at 63 percent favorable last January at the end of Barack Obama's presidency. VAUSE: And then there's this: 83 percent of those who were surveyed in France say they have no confidence Mr. Trump will do the right thing regarding world affairs; 93 percent describe him as arrogant; 83 percent say he's intolerant, 78 percent say he's dangerous.
SIDNER: Senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is live for us in Paris with more on the fact that President Trump is heading that way just now and the fact that he'll be there for Bastille Day.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Expected to land here in the next hour. President Trump will spend his day here meeting with the president Macron. They'll have a tete-a-tete for about two hours and they'll follow that with dinner with them and their first ladies at the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.
But the real big event here is the Bastille Day Parade. And it doesn't get much better in terms of pomp and circumstance than Bastille Day in France.
It's always featured -- always has a feature, its military parade, which goes on for about an 1.5 hours, with jet aircraft which will buzz us right here on the Champs-Elysees, right over our heads. It includes this year the Thunderbirds acrobatic team from the United States Air Force in the United States.
They're going to be here as well. It's about 190 U.S. soldiers who are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the French entry into the First World War. And we were out on the Champs-Elysees earlier this week to get a look at what the parade may look like. Here's a taste of it.
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BITTERMANN (voice-over): Before dawn nearly every day this week, members of the French military and security forces were practicing their moves. Everything has to be perfect for the annual show of French grandeur along the Champs-Elysees, marking French Independence Day.
And joining them this year are nearly 200 American soldiers, sailors and airmen, who will be marking something else: the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I.
For the service men and women, not much different in age from those who arrived here a century ago, the idea of being among the first Americans to least the Bastille Day Parade, commemorating the historical events and, at the same time, marching before the presidents of both United States and France is, well...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty awesome. It's a great privilege to be able to come here and celebrate this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Makes me feel a little bit nervous, obviously. But it's an opportunity that not many people like me get. BITTERMANN (voice-over): But few feel that sense of distinction more than the commander of the Paris detachment, Major Jared Nichols. He not only served with the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, the first unit ordered to France in 1917, but his great-grandfather was among the first troops to come here to fight alongside the French.
MAJ. JARED NICHOLS, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION, U.S. ARMY: This is an amazing opportunity for the U.S. military and the United States to represent ourselves in France on this holiday. It's a significant event for the nation of France.
BITTERMANN: And the first American soldiers arrived here a hundred years ago. Of course, it was not just for ceremony. After their march down the Champs-Elysees, to show to the French that they arrived, they went off immediately to the battlefront.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): Eventually, nearly 5 million U.S. servicemen were involved in turning the tide of battle in that war. More than 100,000 died on the battlefields or elsewhere --
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BITTERMANN (voice-over): -- more than 200,000 were injured, many, like Major Nichols' grandfather, from the effects of poison gas. But the war left scars of a different sort.
NICHOLS: A lot of what the current issues that Europe deals with and the world deals with stem directly back to the Great War. So I think there's lot of reflection and lot of trying to gain understanding of about what occurred 100 years ago and how it still affects us today.
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BITTERMANN (voice-over): And with the summit between French and American presidents a part of Bastille Day this year, it's clear that one of those things that still affects us today is the sense of transatlantic cooperation, with roots that go back not just a century but to the founding of the American republic.
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BITTERMANN: As you mentioned, Sara, though, that sense of cooperation being stretched to the limit by the current administration in Washington -- Sara.
SIDNER: Thank you so much, Jim, great piece.
VAUSE: Sources say the U.S. president is frustrated and furious after the latest revelations in the Russian meddling controversy.
SIDNER: Mr. Trump tells Reuters he doesn't fault his son, Donald Trump Jr., for meeting with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin and he only found out about it, he says, just a few days ago.
VAUSE: Attention is now turning to the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, who also attended that meeting. Kushner initially failed to declare his contact with that Russian lawyer on his security clearance application, also failed to mention meetings with a Russian ambassador and a Russian banker...
SIDNER: And so on.
Critics are asking if Kushner has amnesia or if he has something to hide. Our Randi Kaye has the story.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name is in the email chain, Jared Kushner, the email forwarded June 8th, 2016, just after 12:00 noon, from his brother in law, Donald Trump Jr., to Kushner and Paul Manafort, then head of the Trump campaign.
Now senior White House advisor, Kushner was being invited to meet with a Russian attorney. It had been promised she would deliver dirt on Hillary Clinton. The lawyer told NBC she remembered Kushner.
NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, RUSSIAN LAWYER (through translator): I could recognize the young gentleman, who was only present in the meeting for probably the first 7-10 minutes. And then she stood up and left the room. It was Mr. Jared Kushner. And he never came back, by the way.
KAYE (voice-over): And there you have it. The Russian lawyer herself placing Kushner, the so-called secretary of everything, in yet another meeting with a Russian that was initially left off the forms he filled out to gain White House security clearance.
Had all those meetings simply slipped his mind?
Let's review. There was the meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower during the transition, that's when Kushner allegedly tried to set up some sort of back-channel communication to the Kremlin. The White House declined to comment.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZ.: I don't like it. I just don't.
KAYE (voice-over): Also the meeting with Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov, who not only has ties to Vladimir Putin but runs a bank that's been under U.S. sanctions for the last three years.
The optics are troubling.
GEN. JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: My dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community.
KAYE (voice-over): And now this latest meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, also initially omitted on his application for security clearance, had some wondering how many other meetings Kushner might not have disclosed and if security clearance should be revoked.
KAYE: The application form Jared Kushner filled out for White House security clearance is known as the SF-86 form. And you might say Kushner's is a work in progress. The first time Kushner filled it out, he left the section for foreign contacts blank.
The next day he amended that to say he had multiple contacts and would be disclosing them.
The same form was modified a third time in recent weeks to include the meeting with Donald Jr. and the Russian lawyer, a source told CNN.
KAYE (voice-over): In a statement over the weekend, Kushner's attorney explained that his SF-86 clearance form was, quote, "prematurely submitted," referring to his original four months ago and reiterated that her client is eager to cooperate and share what he knows with Congress.
While that sounds good, keep in mind that Kushner's application for security clearance is submitted under penalty of perjury. That's because, unlike his brother-in-law, Donald Jr., who is not a government employee, Jared Kushner is and was required by law to disclose his meetings with foreign governments -- Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Joining us now from Seattle, Washington, CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin and here in Los Angeles, legal analyst Michael Genovese.
Good to have you both with us.
Michael Zeldin, I'd like to start with you. There seems to be fairly common acceptance out there that Jared Kushner is facing some kind of --
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VAUSE: -- legal peril here right now.
If that's your opinion, how serious is all of this?
MICHAEL ZELDIN, LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's not my opinion yet. The setup piece accurately describes the situation. But in order to commit the crime of lying on the SF-86, that lie has to be knowing and intentional. It can't be by inadvertence or mistake.
And one would have to really look carefully at those forms to say that Jared Kushner make a knowing and intentional misstatement or was he just sloppy and did he, as his lawyers say, said, submit the form prematurely.
So that's still a very fact-specific event. If you take a worst-case scenario, which is that he did it knowing and intentionally, then it is a felony and it carries a five-year period of imprisonment and is a pretty straightforward prosecution.
SIDNER: Michael Genovese, beyond the legal trouble, because that is one facet of this, there is the political fallout. The Democrats, of course, are raging. They just, they've had it. Some Republicans, like John McCain, have come out and been very, very,
very concerned; every time is more concerned everytime something new comes out.
But as a whole, the Republicans mattering greatly in all this, are we seeing them respond as a whole, as a group to what has transpired over the last couple of days?
MICHAEL GENOVESE, LEGAL ANALYST: We have to remember that just six or seven months ago the Republicans were celebrating they controlled the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, most state legislatures, most governorships. They thought that everything, all the fruit in the basket was theirs
And now they feel threatened, they feel defensive and they feel a little bit betrayed. Some Republicans are fearing the worst. I think that's premature.
But even if the worst happens and there's a collapse of the Trump White House, let's remember back in 164, when Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide, everyone thought, oh, the Democrats will be in control for a generation. Four years later, the Republicans won the White House.
In '72, McGovern lost in a landslide. Oh, it's going to be in Republican control for a generation and four years late the Democrats were in the White House.
And so there are no final acts in American politics. And so while the Republicans should rightly be concerned, because their political futures are also on the line --
SIDNER: 2018 is coming up fast.
GENOVESE: -- 2018 is around the corner. I think still -- and I think Michael Zeldin was appropriately cautioning us to be cautious at this point.
VAUSE: The big question when it comes to Kushner, one of the big questions -- there's a lot of big questions when it comes to Kushner -- did he tell his father-in-law about the meeting he had with the Russian lawyer?
The president says, you know, he heard about it the last couple of days. Mike Allen from Axios notes this.
"No one has spent more time with Trump throughout the past year and has seen or knows more."
So Michael Zeldin, to you, once again we're in a situation where the White House is asking for the benefit of the doubt. Does it come a point where that's a pretty steep hill to climb?
ZELDIN: Well, in a sense, yes, because the White House -- and particularly the president -- has made a lot of tweets that just flat- out aren't correct, that Comey better be worried that there isn't a taping system; that Obama wiretapped him.
These are false statements. And so when the president says lots of false things, and then he says, well, you should believe me now, you've got this sort of Chicken Little or house on fire and the fox is guarding it. It's not really going to help the president if he gets into a credibility contest.
And, further, the timeline here is just not sort of a friend to the president because the email chain that you described in the set-up piece of June 3rd, the contact, June 7 the reply, June 8th the meeting, then the separate release of the WikiLeaks in July, the president saying to beware that something is coming forward with respect to Clinton and her emails, all of that implies knowledge on his part. And so I think he has a hard road here, having damaged his own credibility, and this timeline being too coincidental to be believed.
SIDNER: Can I follow up with you, Michael, just to ask you if you think that the special prosecutor at this point has enough to say, this is looking like a crime was committed at this point for anyone that is under investigation at this point, noting that this is still investigation and certainly by no means closed?
ZELDIN: I think it's premature for Bob Mueller to have reached that sort of conclusion. Remember, he's only up and running over the last two months more or less. He's just put together his staff. He's just getting information sent over to him. They've just got offices quite recently.
So I don't think he's yet at a point where he can make a conclusion. What he'll do coming forward --
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ZELDIN: -- once he's up and running, is he'll probably start interviewing witnesses; then maybe he'll convene a grand jury, which is the manner in which information is received in preparation for the possibility of indicting somebody for a crime.
So I think we're a ways away from that. But, surely, the wheels are in motion to determine whether or not a crime has been committed.
VAUSE: Kushner is expected to cooperate with the ongoing investigations with the Intelligence Committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
There are now new questions about the data operation that Kushner ran for the campaign and whether or not there was collaboration with Russian-backed hackers. The Democrats want answers to that. This is Democrat Adam Schiff from the House.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CALIF.), MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I can't go into what evidence the committee has seen. But I can tell you that we are going to be interviewing witnesses and are meeting with people to explore these very allegations, to make sure that we get to the bottom of whether there was any form of coordination in that social media campaign that was coming out of Moscow.
Did we need to determine whether this was one of the Russian modalities, that is did they have a targeted operation, such that it would be impossible to have that level of sophistication without getting some help from the campaign?
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VAUSE: And Michael Genovese to you, we've now got the meeting, questions about the meeting, questions about collusion, questions about meeting foreign nationals. There is this drip, drip, drip that keeps coming and a lot of it just seems to center now on Jared Kushner.
GENOVESE: Well, he's very, very close to the president and it seems that almost everything goes through him.
And the question is was he naive, inexperienced?
Maybe a little bit of both. But I think more than that, both President Trump and Jared Kushner seem to think that you can run the White House like you ran a family business. And you know, back in New York maybe, you have a problem, you get it fixed.
Here, in Washington, D.C., and nationally, it doesn't work that way. There are people who have vested interests in strong, independent institutional relationships that he can't control, that he can't simply threaten or tweet his way out of it.
And so the process -- and I think Michael Zeldin described the process very well -- it's a process. It's going to take time, step by step. There's no need to rush to a conclusion because we don't really have the full story yet.
VAUSE: Very quickly to Michael Zeldin, what are the legal implications here?
If there is a crime that the House Intelligence Committee is looking at, when it comes data operations, including with the Russians, is there a specific crime here which may have been breached?
ZELDIN: Well, collusion, which is the word that they use in the newspaper all the time, is not really a crime. What is a crime is a conspiracy to commit any illegal act.
The illegal act here is yet to be fully fleshed out. It could be to interfere with an election. There are lot of federal election commission laws that govern the way elections have to be run.
And it could be that you have a conspiracy to violate one of those election laws. But, again, this is still too early to know the answer to that. But that's, I think, where they would start the investigation.
SIDNER: Michael Genovese, collusion not a crime but, politically, it's a not a good word.
GENOVESE: Well, collusion is a tough one. But I think it's going to be perjury that's going to be the key. People are going to be testifying under oath. And that's when -- well, you can tell when a president is in trouble when the number of people who hire criminal attorneys in the White House exceeds double figures.
And we're there right now. And so what you're going to see, like Watergate, is people hire a criminal attorney, the attorney represents them, not the president. And they're going to try to make the best deal for their client -- and so they're going to suggest perhaps that you turn over some information, maybe the head of the president is part of that.
And so that's when I think the legal issues become well framed. And that's when the president really starts to be on very thin ice.
VAUSE: That's when it's every man for himself essentially.
GENOVESE: Yes.
VAUSE: OK.
To the two Michaels.
Michael Genovese -- very quickly, Michael Zeldin, you want to weigh in?
ZELDIN: I was going to say the one wild card in this -- and Professor Genovese is exactly right -- but the one wild card in this is General Flynn. And what does he have to say? What is his story?
We haven't -- he's gone silent in the past week or two. And some say that silence portends cooperation but that's something to keep an eye on.
VAUSE: OK. Thank you both for being with us. Thanks for the insight. We appreciate it.
SIDNER: Next on NEWSROOM L.A., Brazil's former president Lula da Silva learns his fate in his corruption and money laundering trial.
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SIDNER: Dashcam footage from Southern China shows the moment a mudslide hit a road busy full of cars. The cars start out inching along in traffic until they're swept away there -- whoa -- in a massive wave of dirt.
VAUSE: Eight vehicles were buried. Eventually (INAUDIBLE) managed to clear the road to rescue the drivers and passengers trapped inside their cars. Right now it's still not clear they are most seriously hurt.
Well, the once very popular president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, has been found guilt of corruption and money laundering.
SIDNER: Da Silva was sentenced on Wednesday to 9.5 years in prison. Details now from Shasta Darlington, reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A stunning blow for a man who was elected president twice and left office with an approval rating over 80 percent. In fact, he was already planning his comeback. He's leading in the polls for presidential elections next year.
But now Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva better known as Lula has been convicted of graft and money laundering and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. He will likely appeal that conviction and he will be able to appeal it in freedom.
However, if the conviction is upheld, he will not be able to run in elections. Again, a stunning blow for someone who is still very popular in Brazil, but not a complete surprise. He's been under investigation for the last year and will likely face four other trials.
Federal prosecutors accused him of master minding the corruption and bribery scheme known as La Jato or car wash. Lula himself denies the allegations and says that this is a political witch hunt.
In fact, he's just the highest profile conviction the corruption investigation has already brought down dozens of major league politicians and political leaders and was a driving force behind the impeachment of Lula's handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff, which means that going into those presidential elections in 2018, it's hard to find a political party or player who hasn't been tainted -- Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.
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SIDNER: After spending more than three years in prison, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is working with the Organization of American States and a high-ranking Spanish leader to restore democracy in his country.
VAUSE: The political and economic turmoil in Venezuela has (INAUDIBLE) anti-government protests over the past few months, with at least 93 people dead. A growing number of Venezuelans are crossing the border to neighboring Colombia to escape the violence and to find a better life. But their trek has not been easy, as Leyla Santiago reports.
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LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six-year-old Natalie wants food. She is hungry. Her mother hears, but she doesn't have anything to give her. The family of five sitting on a street corner in Cucuta, Columbia, made the journey from Venezuela last month. Ask Natalie why she is here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SANTIAGO: She says things are tough --
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SANTIAGO: -- because of Maduro, the president of Venezuela. Their lives here selling lollipops living day to day are an escape from political unrest, shortages and violence. Here they can make money and eat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SANTIAGO: She said she is here because she has to make money for the hotel.
The family depends on the generosity of others in a place where some help, many don't and most are too distracted to notice the little boy who hasn't had a meal today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SANTIAGO: The mayor of Cucuta says the town cannot afford to support what he calls an exodus of Venezuelans. If anyone understands limited resources, it's Freddie. These lollipops are all they have to sell and to eat. Yet with the little money he collects about $8 on a good day, the family pays for a room and their meal.
Tonight a few bread rolls, a few for his sons and a few for complete strangers, another Venezuelan family just like his. Because at the end of the day, Dad wants his kids to understand this isn't what he wants for them, but it should be appreciated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SANTIAGO: This life they are living he says far away from home, no money, no school, is still better than what many are living in Venezuela, even if here they feel invisible -- Leyla Santiago, CNN, Cucuta, Columbia.
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SIDNER: The king of Spain's state visit to the U.K. has reignited talks about Gibraltar's future during a visit to Parliament Wednesday. King Felipe told members he's confident an agreement can be reached over the future of the British territory that Spain wants back.
VAUSE: Gibraltar is on the southern tip of Spain. It was captured by Britain more than 300 years ago. It voted in favor of staying in the E.U. during last year's referendum and it's expected to be a point of contention -- yet another one -- when Brexit talks (INAUDIBLE).
SIDNER: All right. Time for a quick break. "STATE OF AMERICA" with Kate Bolduan is next for our viewers in Asia.
VAUSE: For everyone else, Britain looks to take another big step toward life outside the E.U. What the great repeal bill will actually do. That's just ahead.
SIDNER: Plus a colossal iceberg is now adrift off Antarctica. And our meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri, will tell us exactly what happens -- coming up next.
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[02:30:08] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Sara Sidner.
The headlines this hour --
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SIDNER: A top Republican describes the Trump White House as paralyzed after revelations that the president's son, meeting with a Russia lawyer to get dirt from the Kremlin on Hillary Clinton.
VAUSE: A new video shows Donald Trump and several of the key players who set that meeting.
CNN's Pamela Brown has details.
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PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The behind-the- scenes video, obtained exclusively by CNN, shows then-businessman Donald Trump in Las Vegas in 2013, at several events during the weekend of the Miss USA Pageant, hanging out with the men at the center of the newest development in the Russia controversy.
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BROWN: The men, Russian pop singer, Emin Agalarov, and his father, Aras, a real estate developer in Russia, were helping Trump hold his Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow later that year.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The richest men in Russia.
BROWN: In the video, Trump is seen having dinner with the Agalarovs, along with their publicist, Rob Goldstone, seen her leaning over to talk with Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump's son, Donald Jr, released e-mails from Goldstone, pitching a meeting between the president's son and a Russian lawyer -- (CHEERING)
BROWN: -- promising she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton provided by the Russian government.
According to the e-mails released by Trump Jr, Emin Agalarov, seen here between Trump and Goldstone, told Goldstone to set up the meeting. Quote, "Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information. But it's part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump."
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BROWN: The exclusive footage provides a closer look at the friendship between the two families and could help explain Donald Trump Jr's willingness to take the meeting arranged by Goldstone.
At dinner, Trump can be heard boasting to the men about his work on the Miss Universe Pageant.
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BROWN: The next day, in front of reporters, Trump spoke grandly about the promise of taking Miss Universe to Russia.
TRUMP: I think it's a great thing for both countries. And, honestly, they wanted it in Russia very badly.
BROWN: Trump predicting his pageant could even bring Russia and the U.S. closer.
TRUMP: It's really is a great country. It's a powerful country. It's a country that we have a relationship with. But I would say it could certainly help that relationship.
BROWN: Investigators plan to examine the Trump Tower meeting and the e-mails.
On FOX News, Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr, who does not appear in the 2013 video, said he had limited knowledge of the family.
DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: I met them once or twice, and a casual relationship, and talked about potential deals, and they didn't go anywhere.
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BROWN: But new video and others shows the president's own connections.
TRUMP: What's wrong with you?
BROWN: In 2013, he appeared in one of Emin's music videos.
TRUMP: You just don't have a pretty face. I'm really tired of you. You're fired.
BROWN: And wished him happy birthday in a video posted on Emin's Instagram.
TRUMP: Emin, I can't believe you're turning 35.
BROWN: On CNN's "NEW DAY," their lawyer says the e-mails don't add up.
SCOTT BALBER, ATTORNEY FOR EMIN & ARAS AGRALAROV: It's just fantasy world. The reality is, if there was something important that Mr. Agalarov wanted to communicate to the Trump campaign, I suspect he could have called Mr. Trump directly as opposed to having his son's pop music publicist be the intermediary.
BROWN (on camera): The father of the Russian pop star, Aras Agalarov, spoke out to a Russian radio station in the wake of this e-mail release and said he doesn't personally know Don Jr and also said he doesn't really known Goldstone either, saying it was a, quote, "tall tale" that Goldstone asked Trump Jr to contact him about dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
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[02:35:24] SIDNER: The British government will publish the so-called great repeal bill in just about four hours. It will turn all existing E.U. laws into U.K. statutes so Britain's parliament can make the desired changes. Prime Minister Theresa May calls it an essential step in the Brexit process.
The talks between London and Brussels have been testy. One of the sticking points is how much Britain will have to pay the E.U. in a divorce bill. On Tuesday, British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, fired the first shot.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The sums that I have seen that they proposed to demand for this country seem to me to be extortionate, and I think to go whistle is an entirely appropriate expression.
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SIDNER: The E.U.'s chief Brexit negotiator went back at him. Michel Barnier was not amused.
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MICHEL BARNIER, CHIEF BREXIT NEGOTIATOR, EUROPEAN UNION: I'm not hearing any whistling, just the clock ticking.
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SIDNER: It's estimated Britain will pay anywhere from $29 billion to $114 billion to leave the E.U.
VAUSE: Dominic Thomas chairs the French department at UCLA. We find him now in Paris. He joins us live.
Dominic, good to see you.
When it comes to this question of money and who has to pay what, there are a number of back benchers within Britain's Conservative Party who are demanding that U.K. not pay a penny to leave the E.U. That's incredibly unrealistic, but it's also a big problem for the prime minister, Theresa May.
DOMINIC THOMAS, CHAIR, FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES, UCLA: Right. It's one of the many problems the prime minister faces over these Brexit negotiations. You see the Conservative Party has no real census of what a Brexit deal would look like. The question of extricating oneself from the European Union is extraordinarily complex. It will involve a financial bill. And it will involve a very lengthy and complex process of negotiating every particular aspect of this. And the release of the new draft of the repeal bill will further exacerbate tensions over the perception and over what it is the different camps want out of these Brexit negotiations.
VAUSE: And is May even -- what are the chances of surviving even getting this great repeal bill through and all the changes needed?
THOMAS: She knew from the beginning that she stood in a very precarious position. She took over the leadership from David Cameron after the Brexit vote, that was not herself appointed or elected, certainly. And by calling that snap election, she hoped to be able to extend her mandate to 2022 and to not have to go through a general election at the point at which the Brexit negotiations would come to an end in 2019 and going into 2020. So we all know that that snap election failed dramatically and her position is even further weakened as she goes into these Brexit negotiations. I think the Conservative Party would like to undergo the change of leadership but to do this without going into a general election would be highly problematic. And the outcome of that election would be even more unpredictable as the snap election she called just a few weeks ago.
VAUSE: There does seem to be great chatter, if you like, talk at this point about maybe the U.K. could revoke Article 50, the article which triggered their departure from the E.U. in the first place after the referendum. We saw the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeting out, a couple days ago, wondering if Article 50 could be reversed. The French president has always said the door is still open for Britain if it wants to stay in the E.U. Germany has said something similar.
Legally, though, the decision to leave was entirely up to the United Kingdom. If the United Kingdom wanted to revoke that, if it wanted to stay, does it have to consult with other members of the E.U.? Do they have to sign off on it? Is it even possible at this point?
THOMAS: Well, I think there's so much uncertainty going forward that no one really knows what the answer is to that. First of all, in the broader British context, there isn't really a strong opposition, as such, that can carefully articulate its position on Brexit. The Labour Party is not unanimous on how to go about dealing with this. And, so far, has essentially supported the government in accepting that Brexit will move forward. What they're more interested in is the negotiations. At the end of the day, of course, the deal that is satisfactory to the United Kingdom may not be something the European Union is willing to sign off on, and they will be the ultimate determine -- will ultimately determine how this outcome will go about. And I think it's -- this repeal bill that is about to come out is so indicative of this. So much of the argument for leaving the European Union was to extricate the United Kingdom from the bureaucracy of Brussels. And yet, by taking this repeal bill and sort of cut and pasting it all of these rules and regulations onto the United Kingdom, that will subsequently be amended or repealed, is pointing to the fact that many of the regulations have been beneficial to people living in the United Kingdom. And so there's a lot of hypocrisy and uncertainty as we move forward on this and certainly ambiguity.
[01:40:51] VAUSE: As they say, Dominic, at the end of the day, we're all a day older.
Good to see you.
He's in Paris.
SIDNER: Yes.
VAUSE: OK. And we'll take a short break here on CNN. A lot more news when we come back.
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SIDNER: One of the biggest icebergs ever reported has broken away from Antarctica. You can see it in this image. Check out the white crack, which shows the rift in the Larsen "C" ice shelf. The iceberg split away sometime between Monday and Wednesday. Scientists say the splinter weighs more than one trillion tons. And it's roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware.
Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with more.
This is significant. Although, I know there have been other breaks, this one is humongous.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's incredible. Yeah. You said it very well as far as the one trillion tons associated with it. Something scientists have known about since the 1960s as far as the separation process, of course, complete across this region. And we're talking 12 percent of the ice sheet. The remaining 78 percent in place but with the accelerated rate of melting, they're going to destabilize that. More on that momentarily.
But we're talking about the third-largest iceberg on record. If you were to compress this down across the continental United States, you would cover it from New York out to California. So, gives you a scale as far as the volume is concerned. But the only element of good news on this is when you look at this,
this was a sea-based ice sheet. So it was hovering over water. So as it breaks away and begins the melting process, it is not going to increase the level of water across our oceans. But if we have land ice sheet, and it that begins to melt, that could increase dramatically. In fact, if this was a land-based ice sheet, and it broke away, as it did today, if could increase global ocean levels by about four millimeters across our entire planet. Again, the repercussions would be dramatic.
I want to show you the continental portion of Antarctica. There is Larsen "A," "B," and "C." "A" and "B" broke in 1995 and 2002, respectively. It is a pattern, a life cycle they have. But the accelerated nature of this is what is concerning. You talked about the amount of weight associated with this as well. And you look at that particular area of getting up to a trillion tons, that's equivalent up to one trillion tons. With climate change, with our planet's warming, and we know that's occurring at a rapid rate, and we're talking about an area being dramatically impacted. Remember that 78 percent I was talking about of this remaining ice sheet -- there it is -- this is the area where we have the land area connecting to the ice sheet. This is the region right here, the 12 percent that began the break-away process. With now warmer water, Sara, going underneath this particular ice sheet, again, destabilizing this area, notice part of it is over land, so that area over land will also begin to melt moving forward in the next few years -- Sara?
[02:46:11] SIDNER: Thank you so much, Pedram.
JAVAHERI: Yes.
VAUSE: We're keeping a close eye on Paris because Air Force One has touched down. We're, of course, waiting for the president to head to the ambassador's residence and be formally greeted by the French president. More on that when we come back.
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VAUSE: And welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.
We're watching these live pictures coming to us now from Paris. The U.S. president and the first lady have touched down at a smaller airport closer to the city. This is the start of a two-day visit in France for U.S. President Donald Trump. His first visit there as president.
SIDNER: And he's expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron. This year's celebration also happens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entering World War I. And for that reason, several contingencies of the U.S. military will be marching in the parade on Friday.
VAUSE: This is his second trip to Europe in a week. So he's done a lot of traveling lately. He leaves a lot of problems behind at home. He will also be facing protesters and demonstrators in Paris. Dominic Thomas chairs the French department at UCLA. He happens to be
in Paris for us this hour.
Dominic, there will be a welcome there by the French President Emmanuel Macron. There will be all the pomp and circumstance you can imagine the French will put on. On the flip side, there will be a lot of demonstrators in the streets who will not be pleased to see Donald Trump.
THOMAS: Well, I'm not sure about too many demonstrators in the streets. Of course, since the terror attacks in 2015, the French have been under a state of emergency that has been extended multiple times and that does limit one's opportunity to demonstrate. There is a scheduled demonstration over not that far away where a demonstration has been scheduled. One of the elected groups in the French parliament, which has officially stated their opposition to this visit. But I think, all in all, this a holiday, a festive weekend, and I don't think we're going to see the same kinds of demonstrations that were there at that G-20 in Hamburg, Germany, last week.
[02:50:43] VAUSE: And Donald Trump is there for Bastille Day, which is France's national day.
SIDNER: And expecting a lot of pomp and circumstance, but there are a lot of serious issues. Some of the things Donald Trump has said about France has certainly upset the leadership there and the people of France. What are you expecting will happen between these two leaders after the handshake seen around the world where Macron really hung on to Donald Trump for quite some time, trying to show his resolve, I suppose.
THOMAS: Right. There's a lot at stake in this visit. President Trump has already travelled to Europe on a couple of occasions. Was at the G-20 meeting, and I think his trip to the United Kingdom was postponed. So to be coming to France is highly symbolic. You have a young president who fought a very difficult and open campaign and lobbied for the idea of making the planet great again. Whereas, President Trump has been talking about making America great again. Macron sees, across the channel, in United Kingdom, has been considerably weakened because of Brexit negotiations, and I think there's an attempt to maintain the United States in the fold. An isolated United States is not a good thing. And there's been a lot of controversy around the Paris Accord and so on. And it's an opportunity for the young president to demonstrate his leadership. He met with President Putin a few weeks ago. And now it's the turn of the president of the United States to come here. And Macron's been careful in making that distinction. It's not so much an official visit of President Trump but of the representative of the United States, which is a long-standing French ally.
VAUSE: Of course, the first order for Donald Trump will be a trip to the ambassador's residence where they hold a number of meetings. And will hold a tour of Napoleon's tomb, and off to the palace to meet with Emmanuel Macron, the French president. What is then interesting, Dominic, is that there will be a joint news conference with the French president, the American president, and that is when many people are expecting that there will be questions about the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia during last year's election. A lot of people will be watching that. And a sign that he may be in Paris but he can't leave these controversies behind.
THOMAS: He can't. But coming abroad allows him to build a little bit of a buffer with these questions. The visit here is very short. He'll be here for about 24 hours. Yes, he will visit Napoleon's tomb and later on make his way to the palace where he will hold bilateral discussions with Emmanuel Macron, and then a press conference. But from what we understand, the press conference is itself a carefully controlled and choreographed event, at which each of the presidents will field two particular questions, and they've already stated that the main purpose and main focus of their discussions will be the conflict in Syria and the question of counterterrorism. Of course, Emmanuel Macron will --
(CROSSTALK)
SIDNER: Sorry to interrupt.
VAUSE: Go ahead, Dominic. Sorry to interrupt.
SIDNER: We just want to show you what you're seeing and tell you a bit about what you're seeing. That is the president and the first lady coming down the stairs. Touching ground with their feet now, not just the plane, walking right on to the tarmac in Paris as they make their way to go and meet up with the president and deal with --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: The U.S. president has pretty much stayed out of site since the G-20 summit in Hamburg. He was one of the world leaders who wasn't really embraced by the other world leaders at the summit. He and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, were pushed off to one side in a way. This invitation by Macron, some say, is an attempt to try and engage with the U.S. president, get him out from the cold. And there are differences on issues like climate change and on immigration. But these two leaders want to find areas where they can agree and where they can work together on, of course, security and the fight against terrorism, they see as one of those key issues where maybe they can find common ground.
[02:55:17] SIDNER: This is a quick trip. And we should mention, you have U.S. troops who will also be in the Bastille Day parade, showing the togetherness there. And that is by design, for sure, as the president of France and the United States will be there together watching all of this as well.
VAUSE: And of course, as Dominic was saying, it will be a very short trip. He's be there just today. He'll have security meetings and then it's off to the Eiffel Tower and a restaurant for a first-rated meal. And the next day, the Bastille Day celebrations.
SIDNER: So they've gotten into the motorcade.
(CROSSTALK) SIDNER: Heading off.
VAUSE: Heading off. And so are we.
SIDNER: Yes, we are.
We thank you so much for joining us. And we're going to leave with pictures of President Trump and the first lady landing in Paris and heading over to meet and greet with the leaders of France.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. She's Sara Sidner.
Max Foster's next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:07] MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Russia threatens to overshadow Donald Trump's trip to France. His team back at the White House reeling from the latest controversy.
