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Judge Puts Gag Order on Case against Accuse Russian Spy; Serena Williams Claim Sexism in Dispute with Umpire; Cop Charged after Shooting Man inside His Own Apartment. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 10, 2018 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Accused Russian spy, Maria Butina was in court moments ago where a judge has ordered her to remain in jail until her trial, saying she remains a flight risk. That judge also playing a gag order on her criminal case. Today's court appearance coming just days after the U.S. government acknowledged they misunderstood some text messages and have now backtracked on their explosive claim that Butina traded sex for political access. So, let's go to CNN political correspondent, Sara Murray, who was inside that courtroom. And what happened in the hearing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, as you pointed out, Maria Butina will be incarcerated, awaiting trial, and there is a gag order on this case now. The judge said that her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, essentially overstepped in all of the TV interviews that he's been doing and the public remarks about this case. The judge pointed out that D.C. has a relatively small jury pool and she basically said, look, this is a case that I want decided here in this court. It's not a case I want to see tried through the media.

But as you pointed out, the prosecutors have made their own slip-ups in this case so far, and the judge did not let that go unnoticed. Prosecutors acknowledged almost at midnight on Friday that the basis for this claim they made, that Butina was trying to trade sex for access, didn't really hold up. In fact, it was text messages between her and her friend that appeared to be joking in nature. The judge said it took her all of five minutes of looking at those messages to tell it was a joke. She said she was concerned and dismayed that Justice Department officials may have used that as a serious basis for a very salacious claim.

[15:35:02] And she also warned prosecutors not to show up at the beginning of a case like this and start making those kinds of salacious claims. She said that, too, would make it very difficult for Maria Butina to get a fair trial here in D.C. -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Sara, thank you. Some legal analysis now. CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers. And Jennifer, how do prosecutors -- listen, everyone makes mistakes. But how do prosecutors screw this up in the sense that this was their big claim. Right? That she was this red sparrow trading sex for information, and now the judge is like, it's obvious she was joking. JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST Yes, that's a great question.

Especially in the case of this magnitude with this much public attention on it. You really need to be more careful than that. I mean, look, they had more evidence than that, obviously. At the end of the day, it's not going to be put into the courtroom. And so, you know, hopefully, the jury pool won't have paid attention to it and so on, but it really is a very big mistake. You have to be a lot more careful than that. And hopefully, from now on, they will be.

BALDWIN: How might that affect their entire case?

RODGERS: Well, as long as the jury pool isn't thinking along those lines. I mean, I don't know if there'll be a specific question when voir dire happens, if in fact, this matter actually ever goes to trial, you can see that they might ask for that. On the other hand, at some point if it's been a year or so since the arrest, they might not even want to touch it. I mean, you don't even want to suggest anything like that if the jury pool isn't thinking about it. So, it may be that it just kind of falls by the wayside now. The judge is clearly on top of the prosecutors, they'll want to be very careful with their case and make sure that everything they say has a lot of proof behind it. But at the end of the day, it may not matter much at all.

BALDWIN: You mentioned the jury pool, she also reported out that gag order on her lawyer, which is significant here, as well, in Washington, D.C. Jennifer, thank you very much for weighing in.

Next, this has everyone talking. And for good reason. Serena Williams calling out sexism after she was penalized several times for her actions during the U.S. open over the weekend. I've got some thoughts. Plus, the group representing the umpire has now reacted. Stay with me.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERENA WILLIAMS, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life. I have a daughter and I stand up for what's right for her. And I have never cheated. You owe me an apology.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Serena was watching her coach give her a hand signal.

UNIDENTIFIED UMPIRE: Verbal abuse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, you can feel it all over, can't you? We have to talk about Serena Williams. And first, I do not want to take away from Naomi Osaka's win. She came to play and win, she did, deservedly. But what happened this weekend is bigger than tennis. This is about you and about me and about women at the workplace. Tennis great, Billie Jean King, who championed gender equality when he was on the court acknowledged the what the male umpire did, was to quote her, an abuse of power. And we could go line by line on the coaching from the stands, the broken racquet, Serena calling the umpire a thief. We could discuss sportsmanship in tennis.

I can't pretend to know what it's like to be on the court when a U.S. Open title is at stake, with millions of people watching. Serena Williams carrying the weight of women, black women, young girls, on her shoulders. The point I wanted to make today is, men have behaved like this for years on the court. And they haven't been treated like this.

Just look at history. Andre Agassi spit at an umpire in 1990, no game penalty. In 2009, Roger Feder was only hit with a fine for his expletive-laced meltdown. And even Andy Roddick acknowledged, quote, I've regrettably said worse and I've never gotten a game penalty.

Here's the bigger picture, though. Billie Jean King is right, quote, women are taught to be perfect. We aren't perfect, of course, and so, we shouldn't be held to that standard. We have a voice. We have emotions. When we react adversely to a heated professional situation far too often, we're labeled hysterical. That must stop.

She's right. Why is a woman called out as hysterical, but a man is praised as outspoken? It is a double standard. Speaking up. Serena did it this weekend and she got penalized. But she says she spoke up for the next generation of female players.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERENA WILLIAMS, FINED $17,000 FOR HER OPEN CODE VIOLATIONS: The fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person that has emotions and that want to express themselves. And they want to be a strong woman. And they're going to be allowed to do that, because of today. Maybe it didn't work out for me, but it's going to work out for the next person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We must all use our voices. I am speaking to myself, as I say this. It is not always easy, but we must. And as a woman, I look at Serena Williams, who in the end, threw her arm around Naomi, who had idolized for years, as this tennis player, who was in tears herself and made this point. This was Naomi's moment. It was time to stop booing.

So, let me just leave you with this. It's a quote I recent heard for the first time actually being spoken by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the CNN film "RBG". And it's actually from a woman you probably have never heard of, someone the Justice admired, Sarah Grimke, one of the first female agents of the female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society back in the 19th century. So, let me just read her words as they ring true today.

I ask for no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks. [15:45:02] Let's talk about all of this. Renee Stubbs is an ESPN

tennis analyst. She was there. She's also a U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion and four-time Olympian. Also, with me, Vanessa De Luca. She is the former editor-in-chief of "Essence" magazine. And she penned a powerful opinion piece in today's "Washington Post." So, ladies, a pleasure. I had to get that off my chest today.

RENEE STUBBS, ESPN TENNIS ANALYST: Well done.

BALDWIN: To you first, you were there. The roof is closed, it is cacophonous, it is loud.

STUBBS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Take us inside and what did you make of the moments?

STUBBS: Yes, listen, I have to go back to the first warning. Because, you know, you have to understand, when the men have said those things to the umpires, you have to understand when it's said, as well. So, a warning comes, then the point, then the game. It was a cumulative effect of with what happened to Serena with the game, penalization. So, the first one came with the coaching, it was very innocuous, what he did, and every single coach, coaches from the sidelines. And one coach that says he doesn't is a liar, that's for sure. And every player gets coached, there's no doubt.

Serena has never used the coach to come on to the court when the WTA allows players to come onto the court and give coaching advice. So, she's one player that never uses it. So, I don't understand why an umpire would expect that Mouratoglou was going to be overly coaching her from the stands. So, the first warning that came was the problem to begin with. And that made Serena feel like there was an injustice right away. Because she's someone who really believes that she's not somebody who cheats.

BALDWIN: It was an attack of her integrity.

STUBBS: Exactly, and that's when you saw the bubbling over and the breaking of the racket. And she was getting outplayed at that moment as well. So, that all doubled up to the tension of the final warning, which again for me was stepping over on top of what she should have got.

BALDWIN: You talked about how you knew the second she walked over to that umpire, you were thinking, this is trouble.

VANESSA DE LUCA, FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ESSENCE MAGAZINE: Yes, absolutely. Because I knew that she had been disturbed by what she was being accused of. And then she -- then she was very clear, I don't cheat. I play to win. I would not cheat to lose. I would rather lose. Someone who says that and someone who has 23 grand slam singles titles, who knows the tennis rules and regulations, obviously knows what that kind of violation would mean for her in the game. So, I knew that it was going to be contentious.

BALDWIN: And you know her. Listen, she's a tough -- she's a tough woman. She's probably, as we've all -- you know, dropped some four- letter words in our time, and you said she was really, you know, holding back, trying to be as gracious as she could with this umpire.

STUBBS: There's no doubt. Listen, I know Serena really well, and she, with you know, from time to time has dropped a few f-bombs on the court, but she was doing her best to not do that. The things that came out of her mouth about being a liar and a cheat and, you know, stealing from her, essentially, a game in the end, that really threw her for a loop. And she was trying her best at that momentum when she was having that argument to not swear, to not say things that were super derogatory, knowing another warning which would have gave her a game penalty, which was huge, at a set at 4-3. The umpire, it's his job to stay in the moment and understand the whole entire situation there. And he should have known at that moment to give a game penalty was going to be --

BALDWIN: By the way, the union is totally standing behind him. I don't know if you've seen the statement. They say he had every right to do what he did, three times over. So, they're saying that. But again --

STUBBS: Of course, they're going to.

BALDWIN: This is so much bigger, like I said, than tennis. She is a woman, she is a black woman. And you made this whole point, so eloquently in your piece that, welcome to being a black woman in America every single day.

DE LUCA: Absolutely. I mean, the response that I've been getting from everyday black women to speaking a about this particular thing of black women, who speak up for themselves being seen as angry, emotional. Women in general as being seen as incapable of controlling their emotions. It's just all a big fabrication. It's not right. It's not true. And it's -- I'm sure it was going through Serena's mind as she was, as this whole thing was playing out. I have no doubt, when someone is, you know, really blaming you for defending your integrity, it's just something that, you know, as a human being, you don't want anyone to impugn, you know, your dignity that way.

BALDWIN: And even though she very likely could have been thinking that, how classy was she? Arm around Naomi Osaka. And can we end with, Naomi Osaka who came, she brought it. She was extraordinary.

STUBBS: Actually, was the better player on the night. Was playing better, was hitting the ball better, was moving better, in my opinion you took away from the moment. Because I think she would have closed that match out. We'll never know. She was able to close it out in the end by serving it out, because that in itself was incredible, with the ace out wide. But you know, that moment was taken away from her. And it was really for us, all of us. The next day we were all defeated. At ESPN, we were all like, we felt terrible.

BALDWIN: So many people over the last 24 hours just wanted to talk about it. Thank you, ladies, so much for letting me do that and joining me. It's such an important moment to discuss as ladies. Thank you. DE LUCA: Thank you.

[15:50:00] BALDWIN: Coming up next, a Dallas police officer charged with manslaughter after opening fire on this unarmed man inside his own apartment and killing him. Details on the strange circumstances in this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A Dallas police officer could face more serious charges after shooting and killing a man inside his apartment, an apartment she apparently thought was hers. Amber Guyger, who's white, out on bail, charged with manslaughter on Thursday's shooting death of 26- year-old Botham Jean, who was a black man. Allison Jean, his mother is frustrated from the information she's getting from police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:00] ALLISON JEAN, MOTHER OF VICTIM SHOT BY DALLAS POLICE OFFICER: I'm not satisfied that we have all the answers. And the number one answer that I want is what happened. I have asked too many questions, and I've been told that there are no answers yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Dallas for us. What's the D.A. saying?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The D.A. says now that this police officer has been charged with manslaughter, that they are going to continue to turn over evidence and present the case to a grand jury here in Dallas County. And she left open the possibility that some more serious criminal charges could be filed. Perhaps this officer instead of facing manslaughter charges, perhaps facing murder charges. But all of that evidence will be presented in the coming weeks to a grand jury.

The family of Botham Jean have been very critical, and the attorneys for the families were very critical as to why this officer wasn't arrested in the immediate aftermath of the shooting Thursday night into Friday morning. And wondering why it took so long, almost three days, for this officer to be arrested on this manslaughter charge. They believe that that is essentially giving this officer preferential treatment.

On Friday, Dallas police had said that this was not going to be investigated as an officer-involved shooting, and that is -- and they turned over the case to the Texas Rangers, which is the state police force here, who essentially filed these criminal charges on Sunday afternoon. But the question still remains here, Brooke, is no one knows exactly what unfolded and what led to that shooting.

BALDWIN: Ed Lavandera, stay on it. Thank you, sir, very much.

Coming up, more on the urgent situation along the east coast, this category 4 hurricane headed for the Carolinas. Estimated winds, 150 miles per hour. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Before I go, a quick look at the Dow. Pretty flat today. But obviously, very high, nearing that 26,000 mark. "The Washington Post" today reporting more good news on the economy, that blue collar jobs are growing at the fastest rate in 30 years. How about that?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. Let's go to Washington. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Looks like President Trump has an approval problem inside and outside his White House. "THE LEAD" starts right now.