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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Unsealed Filings Reveals WikiLeaks Founder Might Be Charged; Florida Senate Race Moves to Hand Recount; Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 16, 2018 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: -- get the government.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, sure.

ROMANS: The government subsidizes them and this is a big growing part of the economy.

BRIGGS: And that Walmart v. Amazon is going to be an interesting story in the years ahead.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: All right. EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Are changes on the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- charges for Julian Assange, and could they upend the Russia probe?

BRIGGS: A hand recount starts this morning in Florida's razor-thin Senate race but Democrats looking for gains, they're left with little reason for hope.

ROMANS: An astonishing 631 people are missing in the deadly Camp Fire in California.

BRIGGS: And parts of the northeast crippled by the first major snowstorm of the season. Expect a messy Friday morning commute. Sort of happy Friday morning but not for all of you out here.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Those pictures really underplay how terrible it was yesterday. There were accidents on that bridge. The Port Authority was just slammed. People were furious. Three or four-hour commutes.

BRIGGS: A long, long night out there.

ROMANS: We hope it is better this morning. It's Friday, November 16th. 5:00 a.m. in the East.

But we begin with references to references to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an unsealed court filing suggesting he might be criminally charged. The developments could have significant implications for the Mueller investigation. Assange has made a name for himself leaking government secrets, including on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. BRIGGS: Federal prosecutors in Virginia included references to

Assange apparently by accident in a filing unsealed last week. While arguing to keep a seemingly unrelated case sealed they wrote, "No other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged."

Joining us live from London, CNN politics, media and business reporter Hadas Gold.

Hadas, good morning. What is the latest on all of this?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MONEY, POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. This is such a fascinating story not only because of who it involves, but also how we all came to know what just happened. As we noted, those filings were made in August, but were only unsealed just last week. It seemingly inadvertently a spokesperson told CNN and they mentioned Assange by name.

Now keep in mind, the U.S. authorities have been looking into Assange. They're trying to charge him since 2010 after those first dumps of all those diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks. And then he's been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy here in London since 2012 where they've sort of granted him political asylum to live there for the last few years.

But why this is significant is because the U.S. has been seeking to charge Julian Assange for some time. Now we don't for sure know exactly whether they have already charged him. We have seen some reporting that that may have happened.

But this might mean that Assange's time in the Ecuador embassy will be coming to a close and it could have implications for the Mueller investigation because we know that Robert Mueller has been looking into some of those communications between Assange and people like Roger Stone and people in that circle about them having somehow clued in ahead of time before WikiLeaks dumped all of those e-mails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

So all of this could be coming together. It's such a fascinating combination of strings not only from WikiLeaks way back in 2010 all the way now until the 2016 election. Potential Russian interference, how that all comes together. We're still waiting on those official charges and then there's obviously the political question of will Ecuador kick Julian Assange out of the embassy, what will happen there.

He's been saying recently actually that he feels as though Ecuador has been starting to put more pressure on him to get him out, doing everything from telling him he needs to clean up after himself better, he needs to clean up after his cat better. And he is saying that they're also infringing on his rights because they're restricting his Internet access. But an Ecuadorian judge recently said to Assange you have to adhere to those rules otherwise he may be kicked out. And we may be seeing some action on that anytime soon.

BRIGGS: Yes. Charging is one thing. Extradition is yet another battle. Hadas Gold, live for us just past 10:00 a.m. in London. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. The Russia investigation weighing heavily on the president the last few days. He met with his lawyers three times this week to discuss written responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Trump legal team is wary of Mueller's questions. Rudy Giuliani, one of his attorneys, describing some of those questions as, quote, "possible traps."

In Florida the pathway narrowing for Democrats to win critical recounts there. A hand recount has been ordered in the Senate race between Republican Governor Rick Scott and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. But in the race for governor Republican Ron DeSantis has declared victory after a machine recount did not help the Democrat Andrew Gillum narrow the gap. That race effectively over which leaves Democrats hoping for a miracle in the Senate race where Governor Scott leads by less than 13,000 votes out of 8.2 million cast.

BRIGGS: Senator Nelson dealt another blow by a late-night court ruling in Scott's favor. A federal judge ruling guidelines for evaluating voter intent during a manual recount constitutional. Most Florida counties did file their recounts on time. A few, though, did not including one heavily Democratic county that finished counting but missed the submission deadline by mere moments.

[05:05:06] The deadline for the hand recount that is getting underway today is Sunday.

Here's CNN's Jessica Dean with more from Florida.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave and Christine, from Palm Beach where they are hoping to get started on the hand recount today. Let's zoom out and give you the big picture.

All across Florida they are going to go through a hand recount for this incredibly close .15 percent Senate race that was triggered yesterday. Here in Palm Beach County, well, they didn't get their recount results in. They were one of three counties here in Florida that didn't get those second recount numbers in.

Here in Palm Beach, they blamed it on the machines. They said that they were old, they were breaking down, they were overheating. They simply weren't able to get it in on time. In Hillsborough County, they suffered a couple of power outages. And so they simply weren't confident enough in their numbers to submit the new numbers. They went with the old numbers as well.

And then you had Broward County who missed the deadline by two minutes. They say that that was all due to familiarity with the Web site. Someone not really understanding how to upload that information. So all three of those counties by law went with the first unofficial set of results.

Back here in Palm Beach County, they're going to try to now separate the under votes and the over votes. That's what they're going to be looking at in a hand recount and then from there, they are hoping to get started with that by 11:00 a.m.

Back to you.

ROMANS: All right. Jessica, thank you for that.

The blue wave continues. Democrats this morning celebrating another House seat they have picked up in Maine's 2nd District. Jared Golden defeating incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin. That makes Democrats' net House gain 33 seats. There are still seven races yet to be called by CNN. But Democrats now leading in six of those seats. All of those seats are Republican-held districts.

BRIGGS: Meantime, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi feeling confident she will be elected speaker. However, one critic, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, suggesting Pelosi might be overconfident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D), MASSACHUSETTS: She's wrong. We have the votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Democrats will select their nominee in a November 28th vote. Right now Pelosi is the only first officially running.

ROMANS: Alarming news from California. 631 people now unaccounted for in the Camp Fire in the Sierra Foothills. So far at least 63 people are known to have died in the Camp Fire.

BRIGGS: Officials say the fire has burned more than 140,000 acres and is 40 percent contained. Evacuation orders and warnings are being reduced or lifted in some areas affected by the Camp Fire.

Our Scott McLean visited a Walmart parking lot in Chico, California. That parking lot serving as a makeshift camp for 20,000 displaced people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you miss most?

ELI KINGERI, CAMP FIRE VICTIM: Just being in a bed.

MCLEAN: You just miss your bed? The warmth?

KINGERI: Being under a ceiling and actually having a real bathroom.

MCLEAN: Yes, that's nice, isn't it? You seem like you're being pretty strong, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?

KINGERI: Just hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Sure wish them well. Heavy smoke has been drifting into the Bay Area. The air quality in San Francisco yesterday was as bad as in Chico which is just 30 miles from Paradise. It was by far the worst air quality the Bay Area has seen since the fires broke out, forcing several school districts to close today. The total death toll in California wildfires now stands at 66, including a new death from the Woolsey Fire in Southern California. President Trump is scheduled to travel to the state tomorrow to meet with people affected by the wildfires.

BRIGGS: One small silver lining, Nick Maze (PH) thought the fires cost him the engagement ring he'd planned to give his girlfriend but he broke open a safe that contained the mangled ring amid all the debris. Maze plans on popping the question in the next few days.

Back here, six inches of snow brought New York and surrounding areas to a standstill. This is worth staring at for several hours on the George Washington Bridge. Commutes extended just several hours.

BRIGGS: All right. Back out east. Six inches of snow brought New York City and surrounding areas to a standstill. This is what you were staring at for hours on the George Washington Bridge. Commutes extended by several hours. Harlem Congressman Adriano Espaillat tweeted this photo. It captures what millions were dealing with. Just absolute mess gridlock. This morning --

ROMANS: We knew this -- we knew this snow is coming, by the way. We knew it was coming.

BRIGGS: We knew it was coming, Mr. Mayor.

This morning many schools in New Jersey have delayed openings. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promising to clear the streets for the morning commute. More of the same as you head south. This is Union County, Pennsylvania. Lines of traffic for miles.

ROMANS: The death toll from the snowstorm now stands at eight. One person killed in Maryland, Ohio and Indiana on slick roads. Five other deaths reported in Mississippi and Alabama.

[05:10:03] Thousands of flights delayed and canceled with a majority in New York. More also reported in Philly, Washington, D.C., Boston and Chicago. 315,000 customers are without power in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

All right. Thousands of student veterans waiting months to be paid for their education as promised. What the V.A. says is to blame.

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ROMANS: All right. Facebook is on the defensive after a "New York Times" investigation suggested it's spectacularly failed to recognize and stop Russian interference and hired a PR firm to write negative stories about its critics. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a lengthy call with reporters yesterday. Remarkable phone call and he admitted Facebook had been too slow with the deal the Russian disinformation on its platform back in 2016, but, quote, "To suggest we weren't interested in knowing the truth was simply untrue."

[05:15:11] Now the "Times" reported Facebook expanded its work with a group called Definers Public Affairs in October 2017 to combat this criticism. The "Times" reports Definers wrote articles attacking Google and Apple, downplayed how Facebook was affected by Russian interference. And Zuckerberg said he learned of Facebook's work with Definers when he read that report. This is the CEO of the company. After that he said, I got on the phone with our team and we are no longer working with this firm.

Now the "Times" report is a withering in its assessment of Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg and how she mishandled the crisis. In a Facebook post, Sandberg wrote last night," At Facebook we are making the investments that we need to stamp out abuse on our system. It won't be easy. It will take time and will never be complete. This mission is critical and I am committed to seeing it through."

In a statement provided to CNN, a spokesperson for the "Times" said, "Our story is accurate and we stand by it."

BRIGGS: Where is the stock going to be headed given all of this mess?

ROMANS: Got to watch that, you know. I mean, well, they've been saying that they have to make these investments. So that will crimp profitability. But listen, there was something in the "Washington Post," an opinion writer who said this.

"The astonishing cluelessness and moral rot in the company's executive leadership is in display here."

BRIGGS: Wow. Moral rot.

ROMANS: Their business model weaponized by Russian misinformation. And they were unwilling to recognize it.

BRIGGS: Crisis management. All right. V.A. officials admit thousands of students are not getting their monthly housing and education payments from the U.S. government on time. Top brass at the department blame the delays which date back to April on the V.A.'s antiquated information and technology system. The payments are part of the Forever G.I. Bill that President Trump signed into law last year to expand education benefits for veterans. During a White House event Thursday afternoon Trump cited the expansion of the G.I. bill as a point of success in his administration's efforts to modernize the V.A.

ROMANS: Seven women have filed a federal lawsuit claiming three former Dartmouth professors plied female students with alcohol and then raped them. The suit alleges tenured psychology professors Todd Heatherton, William Kelley and Paul Whalen treated women as sex objects. The women say they were made to feel as if their success depended on their willingness to go along with the alcohol saturated culture that the professors created. The women are suing Dartmouth's trustees for $70 million in damages. Kelley and Whalen did not respond to CNN's request for comment but Heatherton categorically denies the allegations. In a statement, the school says sexual misconduct and harassment have no place at Dartmouth.

Shock and fear in a Baltimore theater as a man yells "Heil Hitler" during a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof." This happened Wednesday night during the classic Jewish themed musical's intermission. The man began shouting the Nazi salute from the upper balcony. An audience member tells CNN several people ran toward the exits. Others were visibly shaken until the man was finally hustled out by security. The outburst comes during a dramatic rise in anti- Semitic incidents in the U.S. including the horrific Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshippers.

BRIGGS: Must have been a terrifying situation there.

All right. We'll talk a little sports ahead. Kevin Durant and Draymond Green back on the court together. Can they hug it out and put the feud behind them and get a win in Houston?

Andy Scholes with more in the "Bleacher Report" next.

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[05:22:58] BRIGGS: Boy, we have a good one Thursday night. The Green Bay Packers' chances of making the playoffs took a big hit as they go down to the Seahawks.

Andy Scholes has the details in the "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, my friend.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Dave. You know, after last night's loss, Aaron Rodgers said there is still hope for the Packers this season but it's not looking good now as they sit at 4-5-1. But Rodgers was doing his part last night. He made a couple of just spectacular throws. I'll show you one of them in the first quarter. Rolling out on this play to his right. Rodgers in the air. Hits Robert Tonyan for a 54-yard touchdown.

Packers up 14-3 at that point. The Seahawks, though, they would come back. Russell Wilson in thing fourth quarter, going to find Ed Dixon. Going to give them the lead with five minutes left. Then after this incomplete pass on the Packers' next drive, it'd be fourth and two on their own 33 with just over 4:00 to go. And Mike McCarthy decided to punt even though he only had one timeout left. And the look on Aaron Rodgers' face says it all there. Seattle would just runs out the clock to get the win 27-24.

All right. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant back on the court together for the first time since their dust-up on Monday. Draymond saying despite the incident, the Warriors, they're going to win the title this season. Well, they were not in championship form against the Rockets last night. Draymond scoring the zero points in 24 minutes. The Rockets just blowing them off the court in this one winning 107- 86. Steve Kerr saying afterwards that the Warriors are banged up physically and spiritually. Before the game the Rockets did announce that they are parting ways

with Carmel Antony after just 10 games.

All right. Major League Baseball announcing MVPs last night. No surprise in the American League, the Red Sox's Mookie Betts winning the award for the first time after just a spectacular season. In the NL, the Brewers' Christian Yelich taking home the MVP after leading Milwaukee to the post season.

[05:25:02] And it's been an emotional couple of weeks for Yelich. He's from Thousand Oaks, California. He had to evacuate from his home due to the fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN YELICH: NATIONAL LEAGUE MVP: I really want to say thank you, you know, to the fire firefighters, the first responders, everybody that helped out in northern and Southern California this past week. You know the devastation destruction here is unbelievable and it would have been so much worse without those guys, so those men and women are unbelievable and we owe them lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Finally one of the managers for Syracuse basketball team are having a rough week. Freshman Buddy Boeheim's jersey was misspelled in his game last night. Now the Boeheim was missing an E as you could see and this normally wouldn't be that big a deal, Dave, but his dad Jim has been coaching the team since 1976.

BRIGGS: Yes.

SCHOLES: So you think if there's one name on a jersey you've got to get right it's Boeheim. Not -- and don't put Boehim on it.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIGGS: The only name. Hasn't been just coaching there, he's won more than a thousand game season to hall of fame. Just check the Hall of Fame if you need to get the spelling right. Rough morning for him.

SCHOLES: I can only imagine his response when he saw that. Just --

BRIGGS: (INAUDIBLE). Maybe you can botch that one. That's pretty tough. But Beoheim, come on.

All right. Andy Scholes, thank you, my friend.

SCHOLES: All right.

BRIGGS: Romans, over to you.

ROMANS: Keep it humble. Always keeping you humble, right?

All right. Is it the Russian investigation or government leak? Julian Assange could be in some big legal trouble. References to the WikiLeaks founder accidentally revealed in a court filing.

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