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Facebook Notifying 87 Million Users Whose Data Was Shared; Secretary of Defense Says Military Action Against Assad Has Not Been Ruled Out; Stormy Daniels' Attorney Files New Motion to Depose President Trump and Michael Cohen; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 09, 2018 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:31:20] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Two big developments concerning Facebook this morning. If you're one of the 87 million users whose information was shared with Cambridge Analytica, Facebook says it will begin telling you today. So get ready for that.

This comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg, he's meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill as he prepares to testify before Congress tomorrow.

Want to bring in CNN's senior technology correspondent Laurie Segall.

Laurie, you know, Facebook is planning to alert users how?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN SENIOR TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: So if you go on Facebook you'll see a link at the top of your newsfeed and it's going to show what apps you're using and also how to remove those apps and what data you're sharing.

Now as part of that, and this is all rolling out as we speak, they'll tell you if your information was part of this 87 million number, if it was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. So, you know, that's all happening today. I think people are anxiously waiting.

I will say this, you know, there has been the whole delete Facebook movement, and people talking about this, people aren't deleting Facebook. The numbers haven't really been impacted by this. But it will be interesting to see, you know, what next.

BERMAN: Right.

SEGALL: If your information is on this, I mean, what can you really do about it, right?

BERMAN: Well, that's what I was going to ask. So what happens if it turns out that I am one -- and by the way, I fully expect that I know some --

SEGALL: Right.

BERMAN: Probably related to some person who filled out one of these surveys.

SEGALL: Sure.

BERMAN: But then what do I do?

SEGALL: I mean, I guess that's the question, right? This is why Facebook has a long way to go and Mark Zuckerberg has a long way to go in front of lawmakers trying to regain user trust because it's, oops, we did this, your information was properly -- you know, was improperly used, but really now what?

BERMAN: So we're talking about Mark Zuckerberg, he's meeting with lawmakers as we speak, preparing to testify tomorrow, this is obviously a huge moment. What are you hearing about how he's getting ready?

SEGALL: This is like a watershed moment for the company and for Mark Zuckerberg who hasn't been a front facing CEO. He's much more comfortable behind the scenes. I interviewed him. He was visibly nervous even during our chat. So this is a big moment. And they've been trying to get ahead of this. So they put Mark out there quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. They've announced more on data transparency, giving user control over that, they have -- on Friday, announced a political ad transparency where political and issue ads will be labeled.

They're trying to get ahead of the regulation conversation and talking about the right kind of regulation, that's what Mark spoke about with me. And even just today they announced that they're funding academic research on tech's impact on the election. So this is all the warm-up for tomorrow. For Mark to be able to go in, in front of lawmakers and say, I'm taking this seriously. We didn't think take a broad enough view. You're going to hear a lot about transparency because arguably we didn't hear enough about transparency in the last year.

BERMAN: Just very quickly, you spent a lot of time with him. Do you sense he's ready for what could be a hostile audience in Congress tomorrow?

SEGALL: I think it'll be really interesting. I think this is -- I was talking to a source within the company, they said this is a maturity moment for Mark. This is a huge moment for both Facebook and Mark and we'll see how he does. I mean, it's a very different crowd as you probably know.

BERMAN: Indeed. Laurie Segall, thanks so much for being with us.

SEGALL: Thank you

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

President Trump said there would be a big price to pay. So how will he respond to this reported chemical weapons attack in Syria? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:38:40] BERMAN: Will the United States take military action in Syria after an apparent chemical weapon attack there? Just a short time ago, Defense Secretary James Mattis said nothing has been ruled out.

Joining me now, retired lieutenant General Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst, and Jill Dougherty, CNN contributor who covered Russia for years and years.

General, I want to start with you. When we hear the Defense secretary say nothing has been ruled out, there are key meetings taking place as we speak. What do you believe the military options are that are being discussed?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: They're going to get a bunch of them today in this primaries committee meeting, John. And it's going to go from small to large. There is going to be all kinds of various options and they're going to give the president a chance to pick a few. Some of them are going to be retaliatory. It's going to be tit-for-tat. Some are going to be extreme. But they all have to consider what is going to happen when they execute those options.

That's always a consideration. You know, you could put all kinds of things on the table in terms of how many strike packages you're going to put together, what kind of allies you're going to use, how many bombs you're going to drop, what targets you're going to hit. But boy, it's what happens after all that that you have to weigh the repercussions and they're not just political repercussions.

In this case, given some of the players in the area, we're going to see some other people helping Mr. Assad, I think, in terms of sustaining this kind of strike.

[10:40:02] BERMAN: Jill, you know, General Hertling asked the key question, what happens after that, and he talked about the other players in the region. The key player here in that region might be Russia, Russian leader Vladimir Putin now is watching this. What do you think? How much of a response do you think that -- I want to say tolerate here, but what do you think he makes of the U.S.' next action?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, they are really warning the United States off any action militarily. I was noting the comments by the Foreign Ministry saying there would be serious consequences if any -- I think they put it, like, uninvited country, which means the United States legally not being invited into the conflict, took any military action.

And, John, you know, I've been watching Russian TV a lot this morning, and there is a full court press to shut this down, to say that it's a provocation, that it's been plan for a long time, that this is fake news, using the word fake news. They had doctors from the region in eastern Ghouta saying we haven't even seen any patients with chemical attack burns or anything like that. In other words, it really is to say that this is completely a lie.

BERMAN: And how should we read that, Jill, as someone who's watched Russia for years and years? Because you get that similar kind of pushback, often whether something is true or not when it comes to Russia. DOUGHERTY: You do. And you know, I think we have to look at this

also in the context of that poisoning of the former spy in London, Mr. Skripal. Because remember, what was used in that was a nerve agent, which is a chemical, you know, substance, chemical weapon. And so the Russians have been very sensitive about that, and I think the approach to that, their answer to that is very similar to what is going on. Immediately deny it, obfuscate, you know, or make fun of it, you know. They haven't really made fun of this per se. They did Skripal, but this is very hard to make fun of because it is very serious and many people apparently died. So how do they answer that? It's sensitive and they simply have to say that it is a lie. That's about where they are right now.

BERMAN: The pictures are horrifying. And it doesn't take a trained eye to look at them and think this looks like a chemical weapons attack when you see the lifeless bodies there, you see foam literally coming from their mouth.

General, it's horrifying to see. And the question, General, is how do you form a response? A military response possibly, whether it be a targeted missile attack or the like, that would have a different outcome than the one nearly exactly one year ago.

HERTLING: Yes, John, this is something that is really fascinating to me and, in fact, I did a little survey last night and watched the other channels other than CNN. And every military analyst or national security analyst I said -- I watched said that a military response will not solve this problem because that's what I've been saying for the last couple of years, working for CNN.

It can't just be a military response. It has to be a full court press, using all elements of national power. Most military analysts will say exactly that. But then don't tick down the marks in terms of what has to happen. We have not had a strategy either under Obama or under Trump to deal with Syria or to say what our end goals are. It's been extremely bad under this administration because there seems to be a schizophrenic policy.

The president thinks one thing, his National Security adviser thinks another, a second state says a third, the secretary of Defense is pulling troops in when the president is saying pull them out, so you have to give people on one page to say here's exactly what we're going to do and here's how we have to sell it to the American people.

Not to get too geeky on you here, John, but let's quote Clausewitz. He says you've not only got a great military but you have to have the government behind you and you have to have the people supporting you. We've got one of three in terms of what we're doing in Syria right now and that's a pretty good military.

BERMAN: General Hertling, I appreciate it. Jill Dougherty, great to have you with us as well. Thank you so much.

Stormy Daniels, the attorney says they are close to finding the man who allegedly threatened her several years ago. But they need the public's help. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:50] BERMAN: The attorney for Stormy Daniels has filed a new motion to depose President Trump and his personal attorney Michael Cohen. This is about the $130,000 payment of hush money made to the adult film actress days before the 2016 election. In the meantime, this attorney Michael Avenatti says that he is close to finding the man who Daniels says threatened her in 2011. He plans to release a composite sketch of that man to the public tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY FOR STORMY DANIELS: There is significant evidence that this actually happened. We're going to release that in the coming weeks and I'm also confident that when we release this sketch tomorrow, and when we offer this sizable reward, someone is going to come forward and is going to tighten the noose if you will on this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, joining me now to discuss, CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero.

Carrie, I'll get to the issue of the sketch in just a moment. I think legally perhaps the more important issue here is this new filing to depose the president and Michael Cohen. A judge delayed that type of filing before because he said it wasn't a pressing issue. But now the president has spoken publicly, saying that he did not know about the payment. Does that make Stormy Daniels legal case better now?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it certainly raises an issue on the substance so what they're dealing with right now is the process.

[10:50:05] How things are going to go forward in terms of the process of doing discovery, potentially taking depositions long before this might ever get towards a trial or a resolution. And so I think one of the big questions in this issue is whether or not Michael Cohen had authority to execute the agreement on behalf of Donald Trump.

And so that question, one of the questions we haven't heard answered yet is whether this particular agreement was one of a kind thing where Michael Cohen did this, and so that would support the president's statement that he didn't have any knowledge of it, or on the other hand, if they have done these agreements in the past in which case if there's more of a pattern of them, I think it would be harder for the president's team to argue that he didn't authorize Michael Cohen to make these types of agreements in some way.

BERMAN: Is the answer to either of those questions, though, do you think would push a judge to say, yes, a deposition should take place?

CORDERO: Well, there's -- it depends on sort of the scope of all of the different issues that are before the judge. Having the central person in the case be the president obviously raises the issues as to whether or not a judge would think it necessary for him to be deposed. But clearly Miss Clifford's lawyer is champing at the bit to be able to depose --

BERMAN: Right.

CORDERO: -- not only the president's lawyer but the president himself.

BERMAN: All right. Now the more sensational moment, at least I think in terms of entertainment value, was when you heard Michael Avenatti say that they're going to have a composite sketch of the person that he alleges threatened Stormy Daniels back in 2011. Does this have any legal significance?

CORDERO: Well, it could. I mean, that would raise sort of a separate issue, more in terms of law enforcement at a local level as to whether or not she -- somebody threatened to assault her in some ways. So potentially, if they were to identify someone, that could introduce a new level of potentially local criminal investigation, if she was seriously threatened in some way.

BERMAN: Right.

CORDERO: But this also seems to me to be part of her lawyer's very sophisticated and aggressive use of continuing to keep this case at the top of the hour.

BERMAN: No, he didn't hide the fact that he was making a tease for tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow to see me release this composite sketch. If you're a Nevada law enforcement I think that is where this issue allegedly took place. You're watching this saying what? We're going to pay attention to see people come forward?

CORDERO: Well, clearly that's part of his strategy, and so release the picture and see if members of the public can identify who the picture is.

BERMAN: Carrie Cordero, great to have you with us. Thank you very, very much.

CORDERO: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: A breakthrough at the Masters. Coy Wire on who just added the green jacket to his wardrobe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:15] BERMAN: Patrick Reed captures his first major championship and a green jacket all at the very same time in a thrilling finish at the Masters.

Coy Wire joins us with more. Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Mr. Berman. Patrick Reed earned the title of Captain America. He's the driving force behind Team USA in the Ryder Cup win over Europe, now in the town where he led Augusta State for new national championship Patrick Reed has earned the title of Masters champion. 27 years old. Ice water in his veins. He started out the final round Sunday with a three-stroke lead and he held off Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler on the back nine to finish with a one-stroke victory.

Reed sharing the moment with his caddie, his brother-in-law. And he's now the seventh Masters champ in the last eight years also be celebrating his first ever win at any major. He celebrated also with his wife Justine and Patrick told CNN's Don Riddell all about this special moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK REED, MASTERS CHAMPION: I mean, it's a dream come true. And, you know, I really haven't come off cloud nine yet to actually finally be sitting down and have my first major be the green jacket and to be able to sit here wearing it, it's a thrilling moment for me. And it's something that I'll never forget. And it kind of makes me hungry to get back out there and try to win some more and just go out and, you know, just enjoy the ride and enjoy the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Reed's fellow Texan Jordan Spieth almost producing one of the greatest comebacks in tournament history. Nine shots back at the start of the day, he came all the way back to grab a share of the lead at one point. Spieth posted 8 under par 64. That ties the lowest final round ever played in the Masters. And Spieth said afterward he had no idea how close he was to winning he didn't even look at the scoreboard until the end.

All right. Well, Captain America took the win in Augusta, our very own Andy Scholes, super dad, drove away from his reporting duties faster than a speeding bullet to be with his wife Lauren and welcome Nolan Robert Scholes to the world at 12:54 a.m. Masters Sunday morning. As soon as Andy heard Lauren had gone into labor, he zoomed away from Augusta, driving 2 1/2 hours, through the pouring rain making it back to Nolan's big brothers Ken and Becket, wearing matching Masters shirts just like dad, to be there with Lauren, his wife as well.

John, Andy just texted and said his 2-year-old Becket would not let little Nolan go. Just wanted to keep holding him.

BERMAN: Great baseball name there for young Nolan. Our congratulation to Andy and the entire family. Adorable, more important than any championship to be sure.

Coy Wire, thanks so much. Great to have you with us.

Thank you all so much for joining me today. I'm John Berman. A big day, "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan back starts right now.