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Report: Trump's Ex-Doctor Says His Office Raided by Trump for Medical Records; Trump Says Disgraceful That Mueller Questions Leaked To NYT; Trump Meets Southwest Flight Heroes. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 01, 2018 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there, I'm Brooke Baldwin. You are watching CNN on this Tuesday afternoon. We have some breaking news regarding President Trump and his former personal doctor. This is coming from NBC news. They're reporting Dr. Harold Bornstein claims the president's long-time personal bodyguard along with a top lawyer at the Trump organization plus a third man raided the MD's office and took off with the president's medical files, this happening in February after the election. The doctor says that he felt quote, raped, when Keith Schiller and lawyer Alan Garten showed up unannounced and removed all of these files. Dr. Bornstein says this all happen just after the president took office in February of last year and this is what he told MSNBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What exactly were they looking for?

DR. HAROLD BORNSTEIN, TRUMP'S FORMER DOCTOR: Well, medical records, his pictures, anything they could find. They must have been here for 25, 30 minutes. They created a lot of chaos. I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal about a drug that's to grow his hair, which seemed to be so important. And it certainly is not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What's the matter with that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to MJ Lee our national political reporter and Joseph Moreno former justice department prosecutor. Joe to you first. On what authority could they even go in and raid this doctor?

Joe, are you with me? Live tv.

JOSEPH MORENO, MORENO FORMER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROSECUTOR: Look, hi. Sorry about that.

BALDWIN: No worries.

MORENO: The legal right belongs to the client. So much like the client of a lawyer owns his or her lawyer's files, the patient owns his medical files. There are certainly appropriate and inappropriate ways to obtain possession of those files. Never one for subtlety, if the president did send several large men to rummage through and pull his files, that's troublesome. Not so much for the president's own files but what other patients they could have rummaged through in the process. Was there a violation of those patients' medical files? That's the real question I'd be concerned about.

BALDWIN: MJ, this doctor. We remember him in the run-up to the campaign where he had said that Trump had astonishingly excellent health, I'm paraphrasing, in the record of anyone who has run for president. To that effect. He's kind of an odd duck. Tell me more about him.

MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: This is like the perfect reminder for us that before there was Ronny Jackson, there was Harold Bornstein. As you said, this was a doctor who really made headlines during the campaign for going to extremes and describing the state of Donald Trump's health. He said he was unequivocally fit to be president, he would be the healthiest president in the history of the country, he is astonishingly in excellent health. Now he's saying there was an incident in February of 2017 where these men came in and raided his doctor's office, so they could procure the records of Donald Trump. Remember, this man has been Donald Trump's doctor for many decades.

BALDWIN: Which is also timing-wise, as you heard in the sound bite two days after this doctor had prescribed Donald Trump some sort of medication for hair growth.

LEE: Obviously, we would be predicting or speculating that we said it was related to that, but it is noteworthy that the time line is such. But he's using pretty strong language in this interview with NBC news and how it made him feel. He said he felt raped, frightened and sad when Donald Trump's bodyguard came into his men and took these documents and that it created a lot of chaos. I think on a more serious note, he claims they didn't actually sign the necessary forms to take these medical records from him and obviously that's a pretty serious issue and that any time that you're talking about medical documents, medical records, yes, there are certain procedures that are in place, presumably for a president as well, to make sure that those documents are handed over in sort of a proper way. And of course, sort of the talk about personal doctor for Donald Trump right now is particularly interesting because of all of headlines that we've seen Doctor Ronny Jackson, who is no longer Donald Trump's physician.

[14:05:00] BALDWIN: Right. We're getting to this later. MJ thank you, Joe Moreno, thank you as well here. Just a heads up to all of you, we may get the first on-camera reaction from the White House on what is the most in-depth update on the Russia investigation. We're talking about the 49 questions Robert Mueller hopes to ask Donald Trump. The "New York Times" has obtained the list. As can you see them on your screen here confirming CNN's previous reporting about inquiries about James Comey, Michael Flynn and for example, what discussions did you have during the campaign regarding any meeting with Mr. Putin? Did you discuss it with others? That contradicts the president's tweet earlier today, "so disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian witch hunt were leaked to the media. No questions on collusion. I see, you have a made up, phony crime that never existed, an investigation that began with leaked, classified information. Nice." he said "it would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened. Witch hunt." to the White House we go. Jeff Zeleny, first and foremost, the questions did include collusion. There is within the realm of possibility that whoever leaked this could have been someone on the Trump team.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Brooke. That's a very big possibility. This was not a verbatim list from Bob Mueller's lawyers handing it over. It was a compilation of a conversation that the Trump lawyers with the special counsel prosecutors had over the last several weeks and months. It's very possible this was leaked from someone on the Trump's side. The special counsel's office very rarely leaked. It essentially showed this is a deep, broad investigation that's still very much alive, that is still very much going on.

We are going to be hearing from the president just to really shortly here, the press pool was just called into the oval office and he was meeting with folks in there, the passengers and pilot of that southwest flight from that accident a month ago. As we stand by for that. Of course, this is a central focus here on those questions. So, we are going to hear from Sarah Sanders. Is the president going to answer the voluminous question?

BALDWIN: We'll wait for the pool report for the president's meeting with the southwest plane survivors and Sarah Sanders at the podium. Coming up, what do the questions say about the size and scope of the investigation. There's a lot to talk about with regard to this White House press briefing and Sarah Sanders. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. We're back in a flash.

[14:10:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some incredible people behind me. I want to just say that I'm honored to have the heroic crew and passengers of Southwest flight 1380 at the White House today. I also want to thank secretary of transportation, Elaine Chow, doing an incredible job, by the way. Really fantastic job in so many ways. While I'm en route from New York and they were -- I've taken that route many, many times. I've landed at LaGuardia many, many times. They went from LaGuardia to Dallas last month. An engine failed crippling the aircraft piloted by pilot Tammie Jo Shults. Tammie did an incredible job. And first officer, did he do good?

He did.

Our hearts break for Jennifer Riordan. We send our prayers to Jennifer's husband and beautiful children. We ask to hold them close as they lost a beautiful mother and wife. See looked like a really fantastic woman.

[14:15:00] We're joined by Kathryn Sandoval, Seanique Mallory, Rachel Fernheimer displayed exemplary leadership in making an emergency landing in Philadelphia. I want to just thank you folks. Fantastic job. You were a little bit nervous up there?

KATHRYN SANDOVAL, SOUTHWEST FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Not at all. TRUMP: You knew who was piloting the plane, so you had no problem,

right? That's a fantastic job. They said you were calm and strong and cool. Thank you very much. Captain Shults, I especially want to commend you for your life saving actions. Everyone is talking about it. I understand you were one of the first women ever to fly tactical fighter aircraft in the United States navy. You drew from years of training and safety and you knew how to land that plane. We salute you and every member of this crew. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Finally, we're indebted to the passengers aboard the flight, firefighter Andrew Needum, ranch worker Tim McGinty, and nurse Peggy Phillips who are also with us. They risked their safety to pull Jennifer back inside the aircraft. And while there was nothing more they could do, these Americans responded with tremendous bravery and everybody's talking about it. So, your bravery, your compassion, we really appreciate it. Thank you all. The actions of the crew and passengers of southwest flight 1380 show the great character of our nation. We're very, very proud of them and god bless you all and thank you very much for being at the White House. It is really an honor to meet you all. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: [inaudible]

TRUMP: Nobel Peace Prize? I think President Moon was very nice when he suggested it. The main thing, I want to get peace. It was a big problem and I think it's going to work out well. We're setting up meetings right now and I think it's probably going to be announced over the next couple of days, location and date, but I thought it was very generous of president moon of South Korea to make that statement and I appreciate it, but the main thing is to get it done. I want to get it done. Thank you all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

BALDWIN: All right, the president flanked by the heroes, the survivors of that Southwest flight just a couple weeks ago. A bit of news regarding that upcoming summit between Kim Jong un should be announced in the next couple of days. Robert Mueller's list of questions somehow leaked to the "New York Times." Stand by.

[14:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Back to this big scoop and all these questions. Let's take a deeper dive on what Robert Mueller's questions involve and what they say about his investigation. Jim Sciutto is here with me in New York. You have a bunch of full screens. Starting with like general headings, themes of some of the questions for Trump.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: 50 You look at the big picture here and it makes clear none of the big lines of inquiry are closed, assuming these questions are valid. Obstruction of justice certainly a question based on the kind of things he's asking about, the firing of Comey, whether he interfered on the Flynn investigation, and 2016 campaign investigation, including the evidence of collusion. There's one in there that raised eyebrows. He asked about Paul Manafort and outreach to Russia for help with the campaign. We don't know what kind of help he's referencing. Is it financial help? Is it forewarning of stolen documents or e-mails to be released?

BALDWIN: So, the notion that the president tweets this morning and says there are no questions regarding collusion?

[14:25:00] SCIUTTO: All had you to do was read the "New York Times" piece to belie that one. And the final one, business dealings.

BALDWIN: Start with Comey.

SCIUTTO: All those issues he talked about and testified about, these come up in this list of questions. A loyalty pledge. What did he mean when he asked when he was talking about loyalty when he met with James Comey. What was he trying to do when he said to James Comey, let Flynn go, let this investigation, implying he was putting pressure on him to let the criminal investigation of Flynn go. And also, what did he mean, intriguing question, what did he mean when he told the Russians in the oval office to say that took a lot of pressure off me.

BALDWIN: And the supposed dirt they wanted on Hillary Clinton. What are some of the questions?

SCIUTTO: And two lines of inquiry it seems here. One is the issue what did you know about this meeting? Donald Trump Jr. said I never told my dad this meeting is coming up. They ask him point blanc when did you know about it because they were told they were going to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton. What was the nature of that? Was that cooperation? Were you expecting help from the Russians? The other was the president's involvement in the response to that. The initial White House explanation was extremely misleading. It said it was all about adoptions. And we know that the president apparently took part in drafting that. So, did the president intentionally try to obscure the facts.

BALDWIN: The next piece is interesting because everybody keeps talking about collusion and obstruction. Lost in all of that is business dealings, real estate deals, Russia.

SCIUTTO: And we reported on this on Friday, some were in the house intelligence committee report, back and forth between Russians tied to President Putin, many of them, and the Trump campaign during the Trump campaign about Trump Tower and Moscow and ways they could in effect do business together. A potential further follow-up question may be was there any offer, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. That's been an issue that some particularly Democrats on the investigating committees have raised.

BALDWIN: Jim Sciutto, thank you for laying some of that. We want to get into the analysis of this. Is this a strategy, was this a message to the White House at all? The White House blaming a clerical error in language concerning Iran's nuclear program. How could this have happened? Was it accidental? And also, Sarah Huckabee Sanders' first press briefing since the White House correspondents' dinner.