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Trump Lawyer Admits President Repaid Hush Money; Release of Detained Americans in North Korea Imminent; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 03, 2018 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:31:02] RUDY GIULIANI, LAWYER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. It's not campaign money. Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A stunning admission from Rudy Giuliani. The president's lawyer admits Mr. Trump repaid his personal attorney $130,000 Michael Cohen used to quiet Stormy Daniels.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The release of three Americans being held by North Korea is imminent. When could it happen and how does it tie into nuclear talks? We are live in Seoul.
Welcome back to EARLY START on an extraordinary Thursday. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Yes. A lot going on. I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
This bombshell admission, let's start there, from the Trump legal team Now Rudy Giuliani who recently joined the president's legal staff telling FOX News Mr. Trump did pay back his personal attorney Michael Cohen that $130,000 in hush money Cohen paid to the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels 11 days before the election.
BRIGGS: That directly contradicts something the president himself recently said. Giuliani defending the Cohen payment as legal and went further.
Political correspondent Sara Murray has more from Washington.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave and Christine.
Rudy Giuliani may be a new addition to President Trump's outside legal team but he is certainly entering with a splash. He was on FOX News last night and on there, he divulged the news that apparently President Donald Trump reimbursed his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen for that $130,000 payment in hush money to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GIULIANI: That money was not campaign money. Sorry. I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. So --
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: They funneled it through a law firm?
GIULIANI: Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.
HANNITY: I didn't know that he did.
GIULIANI: Yes.
HANNITY: There's no campaign finance law?
GIULIANI: Zero. I knew how much money Donald Trump put into that campaign. I said, $130,000? He can do a couple of checks for $130,000. When I heard Cohen's retainer of $35,000 when he was doing no work for the president, I said that's how he's repaying -- that's how he's repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes to Michael.
HANNITY: It does. But do you know the president didn't know about this?
GIULIANI: He didn't know about the specifics of it.
HANNITY: I believe that's what Michael said.
GIULIANI: As far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don't burden them with every single thing that comes along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Now of course that revelation is counter to what both Michael Cohen and the president have said publicly. Cohen said he was never reimbursed for this and that he did this as a private transaction on the president's behalf, but not necessarily with the president's knowledge. As for President Trump, he has denied that he was involved in the payment or that he knew where the money came from.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, no. What else?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Then why did Michael -- why did Michael Cohen make this if there was no truth to her allegations?
TRUMP: Well, you'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask Michael.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MURRAY: Now we have the president's attorney on television saying something entirely different.
Back to you guys.
ROMANS: All right. Sara, thank you for that.
The "Washington Post" reports Giuliani spoke with the president after the FOX News interview and the president was, quote, "very pleased." Giuliani told the "Post" he and the president discussed his revelation about that reimbursement as well in advance.
That's not easing concerns in the White House, though. One presidential adviser told the "Post," quote, "Trump world will see this as a total unforced error and further affirmation that hiring Rudy wasn't the best idea."
BRIGGS: But Giuliani says his remarks were approved by the president and that he does not expect to be fired. Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, responding this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: I don't care if you're on the left. I don't care if you're on the far right. I don't care where you line up.
[04:35:01] You should be disgusted by what has happened in connection with the lies that you have been told over the last three months about this payment. There is no way to dress this up. You can try to put lipstick on the pig morning, noon and night, and it's still going to be a pig, Don. This is -- this is disgusting what we're hearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: White House spokesman Hogan Gidley referring all questions to outside counsel.
ROMANS: The outside counsel is undergoing another big shakeup. White House lawyer Ty Cobb announcing he is stepping down, a sign the president's lawyers plan to take a more adversarial approach with the special counsel's investigation. Two sources telling CNN Cobb was uncomfortable with the president's tweets trying to discredit Robert Mueller. Less than two months ago President Trump tweeted he was very happy with his lawyers. Remember that? Well, since then two of his three attorneys have left.
BRIGGS: Replacing Cobb Emmet Flood, part of the Bill Clinton impeachment team. Flood is one of several high profile lawyers who previously turned down an invitation to join the White House legal staff. A source telling CNN Flood took the job because he is expected to replace current White House counsel Don McGahn in the coming months.
President Trump accelerating his Twitter attacks on his own Justice Department. He even threatened to use, quote, "the powers of the presidency to get involved" in the congressional investigation of Justice and the FBI.
ROMANS: Flood best known for his work in the George Bush administration.
President Trump has said it again and again. No collusion. But to hear a former Trump campaign aide tell it, that's exactly what Robert Mueller's team is focused on. Michael Caputo was interviewed by special counsel investigators Wednesday, afterward he told CNN this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: They only asked me about Russian collusion. It seemed to me very much that they're still focused on it. They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone that ever worked there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Caputo lived and worked in Russia in the 1990s. Later did business with the Russian companies including Gazprom, the Kremlin- controlled energy giant.
Breaking this morning word that the release of three American hostages held by North Korea is imminent. Last night the president posted this cryptic tweet, As everybody is aware, the past administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from North Korean labor camp but to no avail. Stay tuned." Exclamation point. Now an official is confirming movement on that front.
CNN's Alexandra Field joins us live from Seoul, South Korea with the latest.
Do we know anything about the timing on when this could happen?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to clarify a little bit about the timing of that tweet, the president points out that the last administration was pushing for the release of all three. We know that one of these men was detained in 2015, the other two not detained until 2017. That said, it is clear that his administration has been pushing for their release. President Trump has talked about it before. He has teased again that everyone should stay tuned.
Certainly, Christine, it has been widely speculated that North Korea could release these three men in advance of the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un as a show of good faith. This was a topic of discussion when the secretary of State traveled to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-un secretively over Easter weekend.
Now we're hearing from one source who's familiar with the negotiations that this was discussed some two months ago when the North Korean Foreign minister travelled to Sweden and proposed the idea of release. But U.S. officials apparently insisted at that time that any release of these hostages could not be tied or related in any way to the main issue here which is denuclearization.
That of course will be the main topic of the summit between Kim Jong- un and President Trump which could take place as soon as the end of the month. That source also told CNN that this release now appears to be imminent. Still there's no specific timeline to go on. The son of one of the detainees, the son of Tony Kim, has said he has been given no indication of a release yet and we know that when you're dealing with North Korea, that these loved ones won't feel any reassurance, they won't feel any comfort certainly until they see their family members stepping off of a plane -- Christine, Dave.
ROMANS: Certainly. The parents of Otto Warmbier who lost their son after he was imprisoned in North Korea. They went to the State of the Union earlier this year just as a show of just how angry this administration was about those men being detained.
Thank you so much for that, Alex.
BRIGGS: A federal judge in New York ordering Iran to pay every spouse, parents, child and victim of the 9/11 terror attacks billions of dollars in damages. The ruling handed down by U.S. District Judge George Daniels fines the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran liable for the death of 1,008 people. The award is $12.5 million per spouse, $8.5 million per parent and child, and $4.25 million for siblings. Although Iran is unlikely to respect the order, the families can now be paid damages a fund of seized Iranian assets.
That is a big, big ruling, hopefully some money can get to these victims.
[04:40:03] All right. Police in Las Vegas releasing dramatic body cam video from the night of the massacre that killed 58 people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breach, breach, breach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: We have more of what police said, heard and saw as they approached Stephen Paddock's room while he fired from the Mandalay Bay.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:05] ROMANS: All right. Liberal economist Paul Krugman says the new tax plan is not the investment miracle the GOP promised.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL KRUGMAN, ECONOMIST: The theory of the case behind this tax cut was that it was going to lead to a huge surge of corporate investment, real investment actually, plant and equipment that was going to eventually push up wages. And we're just not seeing that. I mean, so there is enough -- there's enough data already under -- you know, under the bridge for us to say that this is not playing out according to the story. This doesn't look at all like the story. This looks like the tax cut is a nothing burger as far as business investment is concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A nothing burger. Republicans said that a lower corporate tax rate would encourage investment and create jobs. But so far companies have been rewarding Wall Street instead. So how about workers? Let's look at the numbers here. Worker bonuses and wages increased about $6.7 billion. While companies have lavished investors now with $375 billion by buying back their own stock.
The latest example for you is Apple. The tax bill made it cheaper to bring home $285 billion in foreign cash. So it plans to reward investors with a record $100 billion. Now Apple did give workers some money. Right? $2500 bonuses for a total of $300 million. But that means it spent 333 times more on buy-backs than on bonuses. That's just what the numbers show us.
And for American workers, the economic sands are shifting here right now. For nearly a decade, they benefitted from low prices and cheap loans. Now gas prices are nearing $3 this summer. It will be the highest in four years. Interest rates are starting to rise. That means more expensive mortgages, credit cards and auto loans.
And as former Health and Human Services secretary director Tom Price said, health care costs are rising. Echoing what the CBO found last fall. Obamacare premiums will jump about 10 percent each year leaving millions more uninsured. So the economy is really strong.
I want to be clear about this. The jobless rate is near a 17-year low. Wages aren't picking up. Stocks are still up about 30 percent since the election day. But when you look just at the tax law, you can see the disparity between how much is going to workers and how much is going to shareholders.
BRIGGS: I'll leave the money to you. The politics of it is fascinating where it's shifting towards the negative.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: Nevada Democrats are pouncing on Dean Heller for voting in favor of the tax bill. Thought to be the Republicans' chief argument in the midterms.
ROMANS: Will they be able to cast it as corporate welfare?
BRIGGS: Wow. This will be fascinating ahead of the midterms. Good stuff, Romans.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: All right. Police releasing nearly three hours of body camera footage from the Las Vegas massacre. Watch as two officers enter the killer's hotel suite immediately following the mass shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breach, breach, breach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With you. With you. OK. We got one suspect down. 419 inside. Just make it clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And you can hear their voice say breach three times, a loud blast is then heard in the hallway. The footage shows police and security guards rushing through the lobby and casino floor, discussing tactics to find the gunman, Stephen Paddock, and stop him.
ROMANS: The Nevada Supreme Court ruled last week police had to release the body cam and 911 audio from the October shooting. Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more when he opened fire on 22,000 concertgoers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. His motives seven months later still remain unknown.
BRIGGS: All right. No word yet on what caused the deadly crash of an aging National Guard cargo plane on a Georgia highway. All nine crew members aboard the aircraft were killed. Video from a nearby business shows the horrifying final seconds of this flight. The Puerto Rico Air National Guard WC-130 normally used for weather reconnaissance was being flown from Savannah, Georgia, to Tucson, Arizona, to be decommissioned. Puerto Rico's governor and President Trump sending condolences to the families of the victims.
ROMANS: The most restrictive abortion bill in the nation is one signature away from becoming law in Iowa. The bill would make it illegal for doctors to perform abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds not saying whether she will sign the measure. Her spokeswoman says she is pro-life and will, quote, "never stop fighting for the unborn." Iowa already has a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks making it one of the nation's most restrictive states. The new bill will be challenged in court. In 2013, North Dakota passed a similar law that was ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, another safety scare for Southwest Airlines. A flight forced to divert after a window crack. More on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:54:29] BRIGGS: Two African-American men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month have reached a financial settlement with the coffee chain and the city. Details of the settlement between Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson and Starbucks are confidential. Their settlement with the city is not. It is $1 each. Both men will also work with Philadelphia officials and a non-profit group to help develop criteria and review applications for a $200,000 grant to encourage young entrepreneurs. Video of Robinson and Nelson getting arrested went viral after they
occupied a table without making a purchase. And a manager called police.
[04:55:06] Robinson and Nelson said they were waiting for a friend who did later show up.
ROMANS: Another midair scare for passengers on Southwest Airlines. A cracked window forcing Southwest Flight 957 en route from Chicago to Newark to make an unplanned landing in Cleveland Wednesday. Airline officials say there was a crack on the outer pane of the multi-pane window. What caused it still unknown. It comes just a couple of weeks after a passenger died on a Southwest flight when an engine exploded and she was partially sucked out of the plane through a broken window. The plan made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
BRIGGS: Some students who support gun rights walked out of schools across the country Wednesday in a coordinated event to "Stand for the Second." Second Amendment, that is. The event was a rebuttal to the huge walkouts in favor of tighter gun measures. Thousands of students left class nationwide in March, calling for tighter measures to curb gun violence. Yesterday's event was organized by a high school senior from New Mexico with help from outside groups. They say hundreds of schools across the country participated.
ROMANS: But at least one gun rights supporter who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre did not take part. Kyle Kashuv tweeted, "I don't believe it is the correct thing to do. There is a time and place for civil disobedience. I just don't believe that time is now. Instead let's all walk up." And that's a campaign to walk up to someone who has different views than you and get to know them.
BRIGGS: The hero who disarmed the Waffle House shooter in Tennessee last month just got the thrill of a lifetime. Those are the burns from the grabbing of the weapon there in the Waffle House. Watch what happened when James Shaw Jr. was invited to appear on "The Ellen Show."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLEN DEGENERES, HOST, "THE ELLEN SHOW": Do you have a favorite player?
JAMES SHAW JUNIOR, WAFFLE HOUSE HERO: I like Dwyane Wade.
DEGENERES: Dwyane Wade. Why is that?
SHAW: I like the way he carries himself off the court.
DEGENERES: Yes?
SHAW: Yes.
DEGENERES: Let's see how he carries himself out here. Dwyane, come on out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Shaw insisting he is no hero but that didn't stop NBA star Dwyane Wade from using the term anyway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DWYANE WADE, NBA PLAYER: I know you don't want to be called a hero, but I look at you as an American hero.
SHAW: Thanks.
WADE: I will sit across from you as I am now and I will say obviously how brave you are but for me, when I sit down with my kids, and I sit down and talk to them about role models, who I want them to look up to, I'll tell them to go look up James Shaw Jr.
SHAW: Wow. Thanks for saying that, man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Wade had another surprise for Shaw. $20,000 check. Ellen then presented him with one more check from a GoFundMe account and shutter fly for $225,000.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Money this morning.
Trades tensions sinking global stocks. The U.S. is considering restricting Chinese telecom companies from selling in the U.S. Huawei and ZTE. Just as team Trump arrives in Beijing for trade talks. Trade concerns sent Wall Street lower. So did the Federal Reserve. The Central Bank did not raise interest rates this month but hinted that more rate hikes are on the way. The Dow is now down four days in a row and about 3 percent now for the year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was rude to analysts and that costs Tesla $2 billion. Earnings calls are typically very dull, very technical. Analysts asked questions about a company's business. Executives respond. But on Tesla's call yesterday Musk told them their questions were boring. Cutting them off. He also spent a significant amount of time talking to a guy with a YouTube channel.
Investors did not like that. Shares dropped 5 percent after hours. That's despite promises that production of its troubled Model 3 was back on track. Tesla expects to make 5,000 per week by the end of June.
T-Mobile wants to buy Sprint for $26 billion but the deal could lead to higher prices hitting low income people the hardest. T-Mobile is the most popular provider for lower income consumers and make up 83 percent of Sprint's pre-paid brand. Consumer groups worry the combined company will raise fees for its low cost plans, leaving poor consumers with fewer choices. The merger still needs to win over regulators, but T-Mobile and Sprint think it will -- explaining the deal will create thousands of jobs and help the U.S. beat China in creating 5G.
BRIGGS: What's the read on regulators? Will they approve the merger?
ROMANS: I think it's going to be tough. But --
BRIGGS: All the while fighting the Time Warner --
ROMANS: Right. The companies are really, you know, trying hard to make that case. Publicly they say they're confident.
BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now with the shocking admission from Rudy Giuliani.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, LAWYER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. It's not campaign money. Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A stunning admission from Rudy Giuliani. The president's lawyer admits Mr. Trump repaid his personal attorney that $130,000 that Michael Cohen used to quiet the porn actress named Stormy Daniels.
BRIGGS: The release of three Americans being held by North Korea is imminent. When could it happen, how does it tie into the nuclear talks? We are live in Seoul right ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, May 3rd. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
