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North Korea's Sudden Change Raising Eyebrows; World War II Bomb Found in Berlin; Comey's Memos Dominating the Airwaves; OPCW Officials Unable to Reach Attack Site; New Leader New Hope for Cubans; Prince's Death Investigation Ends; Historic Meeting; Minutes of Terror; Country's New Name; Underwater for 13 Minutes; A Winner In Spirit, And Life; No Human Assembly Required?; Royal Wedding. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 20, 2018 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea is silent on a key demand for giving up its nuke. Is it real change from Pyongyang or all just for show.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: And in notes on the president, we have James Comey's memos detailing his one-on-one conversation with Donald Trump.
ALLEN: Evacuations of part of Berlin starts this hour as the work of deposing -- disposing of World War II bomb gets underway.
Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world. These stories are ahead for you this hour. I'm Natalie Allen.
VANIER: And I'm Cyril Vanier. This is CNN Newsroom.
So, North Korea may have just made a major concession ahead of a possible summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. According to South Korea's president, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is no longer insisting that U.S. troops leaves South Korea as a condition for the North's denuclearizing. That had been previously a longstanding demand.
ALLEN: More than 28,000 American forces are stationed in the South and there's no indication they will withdraw any time soon. It's not the only gesture by the North. Last month, it dropped opposition to military drills between the U.S. and South Korea which have long outraged the leadership there in Pyongyang. Against this backdrop the leaders of North and South Korea will have their own historic summit one week from now. Both sides has scheduled rehearsals in coming days.
Our Paula Hancocks joins us from Seoul.
North Korea has made concessions. The question is, is this a new North Korea emerging, Paula, I guess the world will know quite soon.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Possibly, Natalie, as it's really very difficult to tell. I mean, what we're hearing from North Korea, not directly of course, but through South Korean voices, is that they are doing what they can to try and make sure that at least the start of these summits go well. They are trying to create the right atmosphere, showing as far as we can tell at this point that they are committed at least to making sure this summit starts on the right note.
So the fact that the President Moon Jae-in said that they haven't demanded that U.S. troops leave the peninsula, this has been a sticking point to the past that something that previous agreements and negotiations have stalled on because the U.S. has refuse to pull those troops from the peninsula.
So it really just takes away as stumbling block at the very first hurdle is the way that's being seen at this point that many people believe that it could actually be put up on the table further down the line. So I don't think that's an expectation that it won't be a demand in the future.
But we did hear President Moon speaking very optimistically on Thursday about what he was hearing from the North Koreans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOON JAE-IN, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA (through translator): Now, North Korea is expressing its will for complete denuclearization to the international community. Also they are showing us a will for active dialogue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: We're also expecting a hot line between the two leaders to be setup any moment now, really it was supposed to be finish by today, and that would allow Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un to speak before they actually meet. But no date has been set for that conversation yet. Natalie?
ALLEN: Paula, any more details about the meeting itself and how it will play out?
HANCOCKS: Well, we know the main points of the agenda is denuclearization. Now there has been talks that both North and South Korea have a very different idea of what denuclearization means. President Moon has rejected that. He says he believes that they are actually quite similar in the way that they see this.
Also we know that peace will be talked about. That Trump -- that the U.S. president had said that he gave South Korea his blessing to end the Korean War. Now only an armistice was signed back in 1953, not a peace treaty and we heard from President once again saying that he needs to end the armistice, that needs to be a declaration to the end the war and they need to move towards concluding a peace agreement.
That doesn't come just between North and South Korea though, it's neither was a signatory to the original armistice, that was the U.S. that was China. The U.S. representing the U.N. so there is a myriad of countries that would potentially need to be involved in that. And then the final points on the agenda we're being told is inter- Korean relationships. So, developing those relationships in the event that we've seen recently like the culture event, the K-pop stars North to Pyongyang that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watched. So there are the main issues on this agenda at this point. Natalie?
[03:04:56] ALLEN: Thank you. So much at stake here. Paula Hancocks, you'd be covering every step of the way for us. Thank you.
VANIER: CNN has a copy of former FBI director James Comey's memos about his conversations with Donald Trump and they appear to be consistent with what he told Congress last year in his testimony.
Comey says the president repeatedly asked him to lift the cloud of the Russia investigations.
ALLEN: In one memo Comey says President Trump then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying that Flynn is a good guy, he's been through a lot. He misled the vice president but he didn't do anything wrong in the call. He said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He's a good guy. I hope you can let this go." I replied by saying "I agree, he is a good guy," but said no more familiar.
VANIER: IN another familiar excerpt Comey writes about the president. He replied that he needed loyalty and expected loyalty. I did not reply or even nod or change my expression which he noted, because we came back to it later. Comey says he has no objection to the memos release.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER UNITED STATES FBI DIRECTOR: I'm totally fine with transparency. I tried to be transparent throughout this and I think what folks will see if they get to see the memos is, I've been consistent since the very beginning right after my encounters with President Trump, and I'm consistent in the book and tried to be transparent in the book as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VANIER: OK. Let's talk to Joe Lockhart to see what he thinks about this. He is a CNN political commentator and a former press secretary for the Clinton White House. Joe, we're now getting an up close look at the conversations between Mr. Comey and Mr. Trump back at the beginning of the Trump presidency. It's worth finding out what's in the memos gradually what stands out to you so far.
JOE LOCKHART, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: How consistent they are with the leaked memos to the New York Times now many months ago, and how consistent they are with the book that James Comey is out promoting right now.
You know, I imagine that House Republicans who demanded this thought they've catch him in some sort of lie or some sort of inconsistency and from what everyone has seen they are pretty true to what he said they were and what they were reporting was. So, not a lot of news here, just a little bit more color.
VANIER: The fact that Mr. Trump was had so many questions about Russia especially the alleged Russia dossier or the dossier on the alleged Russia compromising information. The fact he was asking so many questions about that to Mr. Comey and he wanted Mr. Comey to prove that it wasn't true. What does that say to you? Does that -- does that -- does that not raise the prospect that indeed it does not hold true when it's entirely natural that the president would want to disprobe.
LOCKHART: Well, I think the first thing he does is the absence of something which is I would think that at least the president I served would be pressing the FBI director to tell me how they impacted the election and how are we going to stop in the future. There's none of that.
VANIER: Yes.
LOCKHART: There doesn't seem to be any concern about the broader issues here. I think, you know, I'll just repeat what Jim Comey told Jake Tapper today which is his investigative experience says that when someone repeatedly comes back to deny something that is not being asked about the antenna goes up. His antenna went up and they are looking into this. We'll see what it comes to it.
VANIER: You know, James Comey based on that infers that it is possible that the Russians have compromising evidence on the president. He's got no evidence on that, that's just -- that's inference. I want that to make that very clear to our viewers.
LOCKHART: Yes.
VANIER: The president it turns out had reservations about his then national security adviser Michael Flynn and Michael Flynn's judgment. Does not surprise you, because the president had been very vocal at the time his support for Michael Flynn?
LOCKHART: Yes, it's a little bit surprising. I mean, as you remember from watching the campaign Mike Flynn was the guy who was out there warming up the crowd, you know, making Donald Trump feel credentialing Donald Trump in a way from his military background, remember at the Republican convention he lead the chance of lock her up talking about Hillary Clinton.
So I think there was a sense that they were personally close so it is a little bit surprising. But in some sense is not that surprising because I think one of the things we've learned about President Trump is he has very negative things to say about almost everyone, as long as they're not in the room with him.
So, you know, the idea of personal loyalty I don't think goes too far. And the really interesting part about that was what we already knew which is he tried to convince the FBI director to drop the investigation, which raises, you know, a much more interesting question. If it wasn't out of personal loyalty or personal affection what was he afraid Mike Flynn had that might come back on him. ALLEN: VANIER: Yes. And the president also tried to shut down the leaks of everything that was happening, leaks in the media. I want to read to you a part of the memos of which Jim Comey read.
"I explained," this is Jim Comey speaking, writing. "I explained that I was a fan of pursuing leaks aggressively but that going after reporters was tricky for legal reasons and because DOJ tends to approach it conservatively. He replied by telling me to talk to Sessions and see what we can do about being more aggressive."
This is a president wanting to shut down leaks. How you feel about that, I know you're also a former journalist.
LOCKHART: Sure. There's the -- I've never met a politician that didn't want to shut down leaks they didn't like, you know. And I do think if you look at over at the last 10 years the Obama administration did go after reporters when it came to national security and classified information. You know, so--
(CROSSTALK)
VANIER: To you this is consistent with the behavior of most any president?
LOCKHART: I'd say it's in a private conversation it is consistent, whether they do something about it is another story and it doesn't look like in this case that the Justice Department has really done much to go after reporters. I know that's a positive thing.
VANIER: Yes, that's useless insights to have. Joe Lockhart, thank you for joining us.
LOCKHART: Thank you.
ALLEN: Well, Comey had a lot more to say when he sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper. Thursday Tapper asked why he used the term possible when he wrote about whether President Trump was compromised by the Russians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: There is a reason I say it's possible. Two things struck me, one, the president is constantly bringing it up with me to deny it. And in my experience as an investigator it's not an ironclad rule, but it's a striking thing when someone constantly brings up something to deny that you didn't ask about.
And then second, I've always been stuck in my encounters with him that he wouldn't criticize Vladimir Putin even in private which struck me as odd. Now those aren't definitive. Those aren't conclusive facts. But I'm not -- the reason I'm saying it's possible is, there are things that leave my common sense to believe it's possible.
Now I'm not saying it's likely. In fact, I've said all along and I'm repeating it to you here today. It's unlikely my view but it's possible. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VANIER: Tapper also asked Comey if he thought the U.S. will be better off right now if Hillary Clinton had won the election instead of Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: I can't answer that. That's something that that hypothetical is too hard for me to go back in time and try an answer--
(CROSSTALK)
JAKE TAPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's hard to imagine how you don't think the nation would be better off if Hillary Clinton had won.
COMEY: Yes. I don't think about it in those terms though, Jake. I think we have the current president who was in my view, legitimately elected is serving as president. The question is, is he adhering to our values, it's clearly not.
So what we do about it? I think the first thing we do is not get numb to it. When he calls for the jailing of private citizens in his tweets don't shrug but realize that's not OK, that's not normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VANIER: It's been almost two weeks since the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria and investigators are still trying to gain access to that site.
ALLEN: A team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons or OPCW is in nearby Damascus ready to go. But the U.S. State Department says Russia and Syria are delaying their access to, quote, "sanitize the attack site."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEATHER NAUERT, SPOKESPERSON, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE: It is now 12 days since the attack took place on men, women and children and those innocent civilians in Syria. We have credible information that indicates that Russian officials are working with the Syrian regime to deny and to delay these inspectors from gaining access to Douma.
We believe it is an effort to conduct their own staged investigations. Russian officials have worked with the Syrian regime we believe to sanitized the locations of those suspected attacks and remove incriminating evidence of chemical weapons use.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The United States is concerned that any evidence could deteriorate the longer OPCW inspector stay away.
VANIER: And our colleague Paula Newton spoke to Peter Wilson as the U.K. permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He echoed the U.S. State Department and blamed Russia and Syria for blocking the team from going to Douma.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER WILSON, U.K. PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO OPCW: Well, all I can say at this point is that Syria and Russia have a history of obstructing the OPCW in Syria. That has happened before, it happened in Khan Sheikhoun.
The Syria -- the Russian permanent representative to OPCW said yesterday that the Russian military arte deployed in Douma. He said we have an opportunity to impure security in those areas where OPCW inspectors will work.
[03:15:00] Obviously, it is important and imperative that Russia does that.
PAULA NEWTON, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: OK. But if it doesn't, does this really neutralize the power of the OPCW to do anything at all at this point?
WILSON: Well, yes, frankly, it does. And that is why so members of the OPCW are so deeply concerned about this. One thing it's been very evident from the discussions that we've been having, we had a very unusual week in the OPCW considering chemical weapons use in Syria on Monday, considering chemical weapons used in Salisbury just yesterday.
One of the things that really bothers people in this town in Hague is that the Russians are persistently obstructing the work of the OPCW and there were also calls integrity into question. That is something that is deeply concerning to countries all across the world in every continent.
NEWTON: We are very far off from the alleged chemical attack in the first place. It is really dubious to see what evidence they might still find or what length that anyone could have gone to on the ground to kind of hide any evidence. Is it not already a failure of the OPCW to actually investigate. I'm not suggesting fault here. I'm just looking at the facts as they are.
WILSON: Well, of course that's the case. But I mean, the important thing is the OPCW inspectors are let in and they are let in as soon as possible. The longer this goes on the more people can see that there is a pattern of obstruction here. That means the diplomatic pressure on Russia does build and that is a problem for them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VANIER: Meanwhile, the Pentagon says the U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria last weekend were successful in limiting the country's chemical weapons capability but wouldn't rule out possible attacks in the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KENNETH MCKENZIE, DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES JOINT STAFF: They do retain a residual capability. It is probably spread throughout the country at a variety of sites that will be hard for them to continue centralized R&D that facility not existing.
So their ability to work and improve their product is probably going to be damaged. They'll probably -- they will have the ability to conduct limited attacks in the future. I would -- I don't -- I would not rule that out.
However, as they contemplate the dynamics of conducting those attacks they've got to look over their shoulder and be worried that we're looking at them and we'll have the ability to strike them again should it be necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: As we reported, the U.S., British and French joint missile strikes targeted three sites tied to Syria's chemical weapons. The strikes were triggered by that suspected chemical attack.
Well, banking giant Wells Fargo is close to being flat with a $1 million fine. U.S. regulators are expected to announce the penalty in the coming day. It's for charging mortgage borrower's unfair fee and forcing customers into unnecessary car insurance.
VANIER: And the penalty would be the harshest action taken by the Trump administration against the Wall Street bank. Last week, Wells Fargo said that it may revise its first quarter earnings because of this fine.
ALLEN: A large-scale evacuation is taking place in Berlin, so a World War II era bomb found near a train station can be diffuse. We'll go live to Berlin, next.
VANIER: And Raul Castro bows out as Cuba's president he passed the revolutionary torch to someone who wasn't even born at the time that Fidel took power.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VANIER: In Berlin, Germany, the disposal of unexploded World War II bomb will disrupt part of the city on Friday as police tried to defuse the 500 kilogram explosive.
ALLEN: The bomb was discovered during construction work near the city central train station. An 800 meter radius area near the site will be evacuated in the coming hours as a precaution.
Our Atika Shubert is at train station. She joins us now, certainly, Germany had to deal with this in the past and here they go again, Atika.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Absolutely. This is a pretty regular occurrence throughout Germany. I just want to give you a sense of the site before anything else. About a kilometer that way is where the bomb was found. It's a 500 kilo bomb and it was found by construction workers, a lot of construction in that area and it's pretty, it's a pretty normal thing here that for any construction start you have to actually check if there's any unexploded ordinance.
Now that happens that bomb is very close to the main central train station here so it's going to disrupt quiet bit of traffic. The train station is actually going to be closing down for a few hours while they defuse the bomb.
And just to give you a sense of how central it is here in Berlin, that's also Chancellor Angela Merkel's office right over, the chancellery. So it's being defused in a location where the head of government is, the main train station is.
It's going to cause a lot of traffic chaos, but as you can see, for now, all is pretty normal, and that's probably because Germany really uncovers about 2,000 tons of unexploded or ordinance a year. So it's become a pretty normal event for a lot of residence here.
ALLEN: And no doubt they're good at doing that. Has there ever been a disaster or something went wrong in the past trying to defuse a bomb.
SHUBERT: It's very, very rare that that happens, but it does. It has happened on occasion. I believe in 2010 in Gutting and about three firefighters were killed when a bomb did go off unexpectedly. But you know, as I point out, German firefighters, especially their bomb disposal unit have become very skilled at this.
And just to be on the safe side they've evacuate -- they will be evacuating this area, in fact, they should be doing that right now and putting up a police cordon about 10,000 people moving out of that area just to be on the safe side. But again, this is something that happens every day. I think on average, something like five to 10 pieces of ordinance are found every day in Germany. So it's something that Germans taken to the strife.
ALLEN: All right. Atika Shubert, you've been covering it for us. We thank you.
VANIER: So, doing this clearing this wide perimeter is not unusual as Atika, as Natalie were telling us when an unexploded bomb was found. On Christmas day in 2016, here's a little history, recent history for you, 54,000 people have to leave their homes after British bomb weighing almost two tons was discovered in Augsburg, Germany.
ALLEN: Last May, some 50,000 people have evacuated due to several unexploded bombs found in Hanover, and last September 60,000 people, 60,000 had to leave their homes due to 1.4 ton British bomb found in Frankfurt.
VANIER: Never any disasters. It works.
For the first time in over 60 years, the leader of Cuba is not named Castrol. Raul Castro has stepped down and handed the presidency to a much younger man.
ALLEN: In fact, the new leader wasn't even born when Fidel Castro came to power.
We get more on this historic moment from CNN's Patrick Oppman in Havana.
PATRICK OPPMAN, CORRESPONDENT,CNN: This was the moment that Cubans knew they had a new president and the Revolutionary Torch had been passed.
The result was never really in doubt. Cubans national assembly picks the island's president in theory but the only candidate on the ballot was this man, Cuban's first vice president in Raul Castro's handpicked successor Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Cuba's new president won the vote such as it was 603 to 1. It could have been that 100 percent of the vote was just too much. It was one Cuban lawmaker simply didn't get the memo on who to support. Diaz- Canel is 58, and was born after the gorilla fight that swept the Castro's to power, a bureaucrat replacing the revolutionaries. The one with this (Inaudible) talk.
"No one will weaken the Revolution or defeat the Cuban people," he said, because Cuba doesn't make concessions against in sovereignty or independence."
For another three years ex-Cuban President Raul Castro will hold under the title of the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party that sets the island's long-term agenda then he will turn that job as well over to his successor.
[03:25:09] He will stay on as first secretary, Castro said, "to keep the road open."
As Raul Castro leaves the scene, Diaz-Canel is on his way to become Cuba's new strong man.
In less than a decade Miguel Diaz-Canel has bolted from obscurity to the pinnacle of power in Cuba. It's clear he now inherits Cuba's economic problems and still unresolved disputes with the United States, the future of the revolution is his hands.
The mark that Fidel and Raul Castro left on this island will endure for generations. Elian Gonzales tells, himself, a supporter of the government and possible future.
"Many people say that the Castro's mandate will end," Elian says, "but their ideology won't end, what they have taught us. The ideas of the Castro's won't end with their mandate because Cuba is more than its government."
Both worship and vilified, the era of the Castro's is coming to a close and now begins the hard work of figuring out what comes next.
Patrick Oppman, CNN, Havana.
ALLEN: Well, Donald Trump is reacting to newly released memos from fired FBI director James Comey. Ahead here, what the president is saying and what new revelations are in the memos.
VANIER: Plus, after nearly two years investigators closed the case on Prince's death. What they have uncovered about the rock star's fatal overdose when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VANIER: And welcome back. Good to have you with us. I'm Cyril Vanier.
ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen. Let's update you on our top stories this hour.
The president of South Korea says North Korea is not demanding the U.S. military leave the Korean peninsula as the precondition for talks on denuclearization. The apparent concession comes ahead of a possible summit between North Korea and the United States. North and South Korea hold their own historic summit next week.
VANIER: The U.S. State Department says Russia and Syria are blocking investigators from accessing the sites of the suspected chemical attack in Douma. A spokeswoman says the countries are trying to, quote, "sanitize the location." The Syrian regime has denied using a chemical agent on its people.
ALLEN: In Berlin, Germany, the disposal of an unexploded World War II bomb will disrupt part of the city Friday as police try to defuse the 500 kilogram explosives. The bomb was discovered during construction work near the city central train station. An 800 meter area near the site will be evacuated in the coming hours as a precaution.
[03:30:12] VANIER: Donald Trump is putting his own spin on the newly release memos written by former FBI Director James Comey.
ALLEN: The president says they clearly show there was no collusion with Russia and no obstruction of justice. CNN's Laura Jarrett has the details on what's in the memos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURA JARRETT, CNN REPORTER: Well, the memos are out and they almost read like an edited pages of Comey's book, providing a glimpse into how Comey interacted with the president despite the cloud of the Russian investigation, discussions of loyalty, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and a clear sense that those salacious rumors about Trump's visit to Moscow in 2013 really got under his skin.
One of the unclassified memos include the now famous conversation where Trump allegedly told Comey, quote, I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. But there is also new information including a claim that President Trump told Comey at a dinner back in January of 2017 that he had, quote, serious reservations about Mike Flynn's judgment and that former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked Comey if Flynn was under surveillance just days before Flynn was fired. Now almost immediately, lawmakers jumped on this news. The top Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeting the release of these Comey memos are further proof of Trump's contempt for the rule of law. But Republicans say the memos are indicative of what they don't say and they are actually proving that former Director Comey never wrote that he felt obstructed or threatened.
Laura Jarrett, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VANIER: Michael Zeldin, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor joins us now. Michael, you also worked with Robert Mueller as former special assistant at the Department of Justice. That might be relevant later on.
First of all, from a legal standpoint, you had a chance to look at the coming memos that were released. How important are they?
MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, they are important in this respect principally, I think, which is that they reflect Comey's state of mind as he interacted with the president. So were there a case brought, if you will, against the president and Comey were a witness?
Then these memos reflect that which Comey was thinking. And that seems to be that Comey believed that the president was somehow tried to interfere with justice by obstructing through the firing of Flynn or some other such thing as --
VANIER: And what do you think based on those memos? Do you see obstruction of justice?
ZELDIN: I do not. On the basis of these memos alone, I don't see obstruction of justice being made out here. I see a president who is obsessed with lots of different things and who is rambling onward and onward with Director Comey and Comey is trying to understand what he is saying.
But in obstruction of justice, you need a corrupt intent, a criminal intent to interfere with an ongoing investigation. These memos to me don't set that out. There may be other evidence but not these.
VANIER: According to the memos, the president told James Comey, asked him to let go of the Flynn investigation, which is what Mr. Comey had previously said. Could that be one element in building a case for obstruction of justice?
ZELDIN: Yes. But if you look at the exact language of the memorandum, it says, I hope you can see your way to let Flynn go, he's a good guy. So the question is, is that sort of an offer that you can't refuse? That his use of the word "hope" is not aspirational but rather an order and he's telling the director of the FBI to drop an investigation?
Or is it using sort of free association by the president telling Comey, look, the guy is a good guy, I'm firing him, he suffered a lot, he's going to suffer more in the future, just let this go, there is no there, you know, in prosecuting it. So we just don't know and that's what Mueller will have to assess.
VANIER: OK. So unless there is another element that proves, as you say, corrupt intent on the part of president, then that isn't to you (INAUDIBLE) obstruction of justice? That's good to know and a timely reminder as well.
ZELDIN: Yes.
VANIER: I want you to pivot to another illegal situation here. Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Reportedly some allies of the president are concerned that he could turn on Mr. Trump if he faces a long jail sentence. Here is what one of Donald Trump's former lawyers, Jay Goldberg, had to say about that prospect. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY GOLDBERG, LONGTIME ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: I'm concerned about a person who is facing a lengthy prison term is likely to say those things, which in the witness's mind would best position himself for a 5K1 letter which would enable the government to recommend that he be shown leniency.
[03:35:10] That doesn't necessarily mean that he tells the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VANIER: All right. So Jay Goldberg telling us, hey, even if Michael Cohen flips, you have to be circumspect about that because people in that situation when they are facing a long jail sentence, they might say things that aren't necessarily true just to get leniency. What do you think about that?
ZELDIN: I personally think that most prosecutors, especially this team of prosecutors given the light of being shined on this case would understand if Cohen was lying or not lying. So I don't believe that Goldberg's admonition that people who face with, you know, personal legal jeopardy will lie to save themselves really would be relevant to the southern district of New York prosecutors.
More interesting question of course is, in the conversation about whether Flynn -- rather whether Cohen will flip is, does he have any information upon which to flip? There's a lot of, you know, presuppositions that they must have done something untoward between them and perhaps even illegal, but there has been no evidence in the public domain to say it.
So maybe that Cohen has no information to provide the government, which is the flip testimony, and so we really have to be careful not to get too far ahead of ourselves in presupposing criminal activity between Donald Trump private citizen and Michael Cohen businessman/attorney. It's just not safe to do that from a legal standpoint.
VANIER: Michael Zeldin, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.
ZELDIN: OK.
ALLEN: The president has had trouble getting legal types to join him in his effort to fight this Russia investigation, but the man once known as America's mayor is joining Mr. Trump's personal legal team.
What are you doing on? He says his world will be limited but he wants to help push the Russia investigation to a conclusion. Giuliani says the president has never given him any indication he is considering firing the special counsel.
VANIER: Giuliani and Robert Mueller have a long history. Giuliani was the mayor of New York and Mueller was FBI director during the September 11 attacks.
No one will face criminal charges in Prince's fatal drug overdose. The recording artist who had an opiate addiction died nearly two years ago. Authorities have just released the full investigation to his death, including these images from inside his home.
ALLEN: They say Prince took counterfeit Vicodin pills laced with fentanyl. But law enforcement couldn't determine where they came from.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK METZ, CARVER COUNTY ATTORNEY: There is no evidence that any person associated with Prince knew Prince possessed any counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. In all likelihood, Prince had no idea he was taking a counterfeit pill that could kill him.
Our enforcement was unable to determine the source of counterfeit Vicodin laced with fentanyl. Therefore, without probable cause and no identified suspect, the Carver County attorney's Office cannot file any criminal charges involving the death of Prince.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: A doctor who treated Prince agreed to pay $30,000 to settle the allegation he prescribed a painkiller to a friend of Prince but knew the recording artist would be the one to take the pill.
VANIER: The location of the potential U.S.-North Korea summit is going to be key, but Kim Jong-un may be reluctant to travel too far to meet the U.S. president. We'll explain why.
ALLEN: A deadly engine failure, an emergency landing, and now a $5,000 check. Southwest Airlines reaches out to passengers who were on a frightening flight that saw a woman killed. We will have more about it.
[03:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VANIER: It looks like the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un could take place in late May or early June, but the exact date hasn't been decided yet, and neither at this stage is the location.
ALLEN: And Mr. Trump says he is willing to walk away from the whole thing if it doesn't go his way. Here's more from CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Trump playing the role of the ultimate dealmaker seems to be hedging his bets on a potential summit with Kim Jong-un. On one hand, the president says he hopes the meeting will be a great success. But on two occasions this week, he has implied the summit may not happen at all.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Maybe we won't even have a meeting at all, depending on what's going in.
If I think that it's a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we're not going to go.
TODD (voice over): Is he leaving himself an out to not have the summit at all?
FRANK JANNUZI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE MANSFIELD FOUNDATION: He is, but more importantly, he is trying to boost his own negotiating position in the run-up to the summit. He wants the North Koreans to know they have to deliver on the key promises of denuclearization, may also have to deliver in terms of the return of the Americans who were currently imprisoned in North Korea.
TODD (voice over): But the president is also hedging in another way.
TRUMP: If the meeting when I'm there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.
TODD (voice over): How would the impulsive young dictator respond if the president walked out on him?
MICHAEL GREEN, SENIOR ADVISER, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: The North Koreans may go back to more testing. But if they had no intention of giving up their nuclear weapons, this is the path we are going to be on anyway.
TODD (voice over): Another key sticking point, where to hold this historic meeting? U.S. and other officials familiar with the matter tell CNN possible locations have been narrowed down to a few cities in Asia or Europe. The most likely, according to observers, Singapore, cities in Vietnam or Thailand, the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, possibly Stockholm, Sweden or Geneva, Switzerland.
If the summit is held in Europe, it's not clear whether Kim has a plane that could get him there without stopping. Some analysts say Kim got a fleet of Cold war-era, Soviet-made planes that can't fly long distance and are poorly maintained.
JANNUZI: They are extremely old. They have been refurbished, but I wouldn't trust -- I mean I flew on them because I had no choice. If he's got a choice, he should stay off of North Korean airlines. TODD (voice over): But Kim has been photographed on a presidential jet nicknamed "Air Force Un," which one aviation expert says is a capable Russia-made Ilyushin-62.
CHARLES KENNEDY, AUTHOR: The aircraft has a published (ph) range of 6,200 miles with full passengers, bags and cargo. So with the VIP configuration and a much smaller passenger load, that puts pretty much (INAUDIBLE) in the world with a non-stop range including all of Europe and most of North America.
TODD (voice over): But Kim may want to travel to a location he can get to with his armoured train, which he recently took to a secret meeting with China's president in Beijing.
GREEN: The train allows the North Korean leader to bring a larger security detail, to bring their own autonomous communications, food supplies. And the train is safe.
TODD (on camera): Analysts say another reason why Kim Jong-un may not want to fly long distance to a summit could be the signal it might send to potential plotters at home, that the man who has executed so many members of his inner circle could be paranoid of internal enemies moving against him while he's far away.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VANIER: Southwest Airlines has reached out to the passengers who were on that terrifying flight when an engine exploded.
ALLEN: Three of them say they have been given $5,000 from the company and $1,000 travel voucher. Meantime, we are still hearing dramatic stories from people on board when debris shattered a window.
Forty-three-year-old Jennifer Riordan was partially pulled out of the plane at more than 30,000 feet. Passengers were finally able to pull her in, but she did not survive. Here's what they're saying about those desperate minutes on board Southwest Airlines flight 1380.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[03:45:03] JOE MARCUS, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1380 PASSENGER: We heard a big boom and everyone started screaming. The plane kind of went a little lopsided. Oxygen masks dropped down. And it was kind of chaotic.
HOLLIE MACKEY, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1380 PASSENGER: So I had clicked my seat belt back on and I was going to get something out of my bag. And then there was a big boom, and we were all very confused for a second, but it was -- just at the same time, this boom and this cold air and this sucking sound. We were all just looking around. We didn't know what was going on.
And that's when I saw Jennifer. I had leaned over and I grabbed on to her belt loops and her waist and wrapped my arm around my waist and tried to pull. And the little girl next to me also tried to pull with me, and we tried to pull her back in, and we couldn't. We were not strong enough.
ANDREW NEEDUM, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1380 PASSENGER: I looked at her eyes, and she basically gave me the approval to go back there. In fact, I think she may have told me to go. But -- anyways, at that time is when I went to the rear of the plane. And what took place back there I'm going to leave out of respect for her family.
I'm going to leave that alone. There was a family that lost a loved one. And I feel for her family, I feel for her two kids, her husband, the community that she lived in. I can't imagine what they're going through.
ALFRED TUMLINSON, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1380 PASSENGER: There is nothing else I can say but (INAUDIBLE) nerves of steel. She's an awesome lady. And I hope -- we hope one day to meet her and to tell her thank you and (INAUDIBLE) as she gave us another day to walk on this earth.
STEPHANIE NEEDUM, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1380 PASSENGER: She made it a point to stop and talk to every passenger. And interacted with every single passenger to check to see if we were all alright.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VANIER: U.S. safety investigators are still trying to determine why the engine failed in the first place.
ALLEN: Just ahead here, a medical mystery. Researchers think they finally know why some people can hold their breathe under water for a remarkably long time.
VANIER: Also a top-level athlete who refuses to be defeated on a race course or in life. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Well, say goodbye to Swaziland. At a celebration marking 50 years of independence from Britain, Africa's last absolute monarch announced he is renaming his country "The Kingdom of Eswatini."
VANIER: So this means land of the Swazis. The king says it is actually an old name, what the country was called before the British colonized it. The monarch has been using this new name for a number of years for his nation of 1.3 million people, and now he has made it official.
ALLEN: We will have to remember that when a Swazi is in the news, right? All right, how can someone stay underwater for 13 minutes? Their only breathing device, their own lungs? According to a new study, their spleen, the organ that filters blood, may be the answer.
[03:50:00] VANIER: Evolutionary biologist Melissa Ilardo tells us the story of a nomadic group of people in Asia with remarkable abilities and super spleens.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA ILARDO, EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST: The Bajau spent several minutes at a time underwater and they have been observed to dive over 200 feet deep wearing nothing but a weight belt and a set of goggles.
But what's really remarkable is that they have been observed to spent about 60 percent of the working day underwater and that doesn't really compare to any other humans but actually the closest thing to that is sea otter.
The Bajau have spleen sizes that are about 50 percent larger than their close genetic and geographic neighbors. They hadn't really heard much about the spleen. I know that you can live without a spleen, so it was kind of like what is the spleen even doing.
But it turns out some seals have disproportionately large spleens and it is thought that this gives them the ability to dive longer. If natural selection had acted in seals to give them larger spleens then it might have done the same thing in humans.
Their spleen stores oxygenated by blood cells so by contracting, it gives you this boost of oxygenated blood. Evolution may not just be something that we see happening over millions of years, but rather over a scale like thousands of years. I dove with them. It was fantastic. There is nothing like seeing them in the water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: That is amazing. Melissa Ilardo narrated that story. She was the author of the study and works at the University of Copenhagen.
VANIER: Tatyana McFadden. We were telling you about her before the break. She won her fifth Boston Marathon on Monday in her division and that is the wheelchair division. She's aiming for back-to-back win when she competes in a London marathon this weekend.
ALLEN: She is possibly the most incredible athlete you've never heard of. You are going to hear about her now. Samuel Burke met her on the race track.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): We are about to see --
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For Tatyana McFadden, Monday was just another day at the office.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Tatyana McFadden winning her fifth Boston marathon, crossing the finish line and breaking to safety.
BURKE (voice over): Two days later, in a continent away, she was back at it, training for Sunday's London marathon. Elite wheelchair racers called it the "Boston to London Challenge." Two races, six days apart. McFadden has already won the two marathons back-to-back four times.
(on camera): How many Olympic gold medals have you won? TATYANA MCFADDEN, PARALYMPIAN ATHLETE: I have seven Olympic gold medals and I have 17 paralympic medals overall.
BURKE (on camera): And how many marathons have you won?
MCFADDEN: Twenty-two majors.
BURKE (voice over): Winning world-class events at will has earned McFadden high level endorsements, global acclaim, and a life unimaginable considering where she came from. Born with a crippling spinal defect, she still remembers the first six years of her life, spent in a Russian orphanage during the fall of the Soviet Union.
MCFADDEN: I was scooting around the floor, walking on my hands. To me at that time that was normal, right? I didn't know anything else. I didn't know the outside world. I just kind of knew what was then and what was now.
BURKE (voice over): She was adopted by Americans and brought to the U.S. Growing up in Maryland, she sued for the right to compete in high school sports.
DEBORAH MCFADDEN, MOTHER OF TATYANA MCFADDEN: Two minutes and 30 seconds.
BURKE (voice over): Her mother, Deborah McFadden is a former U.S. disability commissioner who helped write America's landmark disability rights law.
(on camera): When you're out on a track, are you more mom or more manager? D. MCFADDEN: Oh, at the track, I'm more mom. When talking to sponsors, I'm definitely the manager.
BURKE (on camera): What's the term to use?
D. MCFADDEN: Mama-ger.
BURKE (on camera): Mama-ger.
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE (voice over): And like so many daughters, Tatyana isn't quick to ask her mom for help. Her life model? Ya Sama.
(on camera): What does it mean?
T.MCFADDEN: Ya Sama is a Russian phrase. It means I can do it and I can do it myself. I've always had that attitude since I was a young girl. I wanted to be independent. I don't want anyone to help me. I want to figure it out.
BURKE (voice over): She wants to be recognized as an elite athlete, not for overcoming a disability.
T MCFADDEN: You know, sometimes an interpretation (INAUDIBLE) gets turned around. Well, we can be inspired in our sports. You know, winning 17 paralympic medals, yes, that's inspiring because it is awesome or winning back-to-back marathon is inspiring because no one has done that before.
BURKE (voice over): And she is the face of the new innovation contest. Toyota is awarding $4 million to inventors who can help people with paralysis live life more independently.
T MCFADDEN: They have to die then. They have to do a research. They have to look in their own community and ask people with physical disabilities what they need.
BURKE (voice over): Samuel Burke, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Tatyana. Robots built cars, deliver mail, and assist in surgery. Now, they can do one of those annoying task, assemble IKEA furniture.
VANIER: Researchers in Singapore fitted these mechanical arms with special algorithms in 3-D cameras.
[03:55:02] And the most amazing thing for us in the "Newsroom" is that the robot is not actually programmed to build this particular piece of furniture, they are programmed to analyze the instructions like we would. In this case, a Stefan chair, and they figured it out. Now they are still working on the very last step which is bolting it all together.
ALLEN: (INAUDIBLE) for the humans still win. The robots took 20 minutes to do the job. IKEA says humans take 10 to 15. (INAUDIBLE) 20 minutes.
VANIER: Yes, yes, or 30. They're always optimistic with those estimations.
The small town of Windsor is normally pretty quiet, but one month from now, it will be anything but, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tie the knot.
ALLEN: And as you can imagine, it is incinerating a whole lot of excitement. Erin McLaughlin met some schoolchildren who all had some advice for the couple.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The excitement is growing here in Windsor ahead of the royal wedding. Many of the locals are actually invited as guests, including schoolchildren are going to be able to see Meghan and Harry as they arrive on the grounds of the castle and then as they depart as newlyweds.
Joining me now, some of those lucky VIP guests from the royal school here in Windsor. How excited are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE/UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are excited.
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): What are you most excited about? Yes, you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're actually getting married.
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Of course.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seeing and walk Ms. Markle (ph).
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Oh, so much speculation about the wedding dress. You?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And carriage, they're going to ride that.
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Oh, yes, the carriage is very important. OK, if you have to give them any advice, what would that be?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loving is hard but (INAUDIBLE).
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Yes. You?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never give up.
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Never give up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Believe in your dreams.
MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): Believe in your dreams. So some excellent advice from their VIP guests.
Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Windsor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Wow, I want those kids to advise me.
VANIER: Nothing is hard.
ALLEN: Nothing is hard.
VANIER: We choose to do it.
(LAUGHTER)
VANIER: Thank you for watching "CNN Newsroom."
ALLEN: After a quick break, more news with Max Foster in London. You're watching CNN. We appreciate it.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
