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Evidence Suggests Jussie Smollett Orchestrated Attack; Kaepernick's Lawyer Speaks For First Time Since Settlement; Colin Kaepernick, Ex-Teammate Settle Collusion Grievance With NFL; Heather Nauert Withdraws From Consideration as U.N. Ambassador. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired February 16, 2019 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSROOM: You're a live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Our breaking news, a dramatic twist in the story surrounding Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who claims he was attacked by two men last month in Chicago.

Police there initially said Smollett claimed the attack was beat him, yelled homophobic slurs, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical on him. Two police sources now tell CNN that new evidence suggests Smollett may have paid the two men to stage this attack.

Let's go straight to CNN's Ryan Young. Ryan, what more can you tell us?

RYAN YOUNG: Yes, a lot of twists and turns in this. Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of this investigation tell CNN that Chicago police believe Jussie Smollett paid the two men to orchestrate the assault.

The brothers, who were arrested Wednesday, were released without charges, Friday after Chicago police cited discovery of new evidence. Now the sources tell CNN that the two men are not cooperating fully with law enforcement.

Smollett told authorities that he was attacked on January 29 by two men who were yelling out racial and homophobic slurs. He said one attacker put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on him.

The sources tell CNN that there are records that show the two brothers purchased the rope found around small its neck at an Ace hardware store in Chicago. Now CNN's attempts to reach both Smollett's representatives and attorney were unsuccessful.

And of course, Ana you know, this case has out so many twists and turns. 12 detectives have been working this case round the clock. You had nationwide outrage about this case and of course, the actor himself was questioning why people wouldn't believe him.

Well, we now have these two sources who were saying that there are so many more questions about this case and they're trying to zero in on exactly what happened.

CABRERA: And earlier this week Ryan, Smollett had described the attack on GMA, let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSSIE SMOLLETT, ACTOR, EMPIRE: I see the attacker, masked and he said, "This MAGA country, punches me right in the face, so I punched him right back. And then we started tussling you knows, it was very icy. I noticed the rope around my neck and I started screaming and I said, there's a rope around my neck.

I want them to see that I fought back. And I want a little gay boy who might watch this, to see that I fought back and it does not take anything away from people that are not able to do that. But I fought back, they ran off, I didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He is talking a lot since this attack and clearly, the stories change quite a bit.

YOUNG: Right, absolutely, this is look, some tough sound to listen to, this put a magnifying glass on the city, walking through that neighborhood, talking to neighbors, day at first, they didn't believe it either.

They were shocked by this and I think the other part about this this, there's so many video cameras in the area, people thought the attackers would have been caught on film war or at least video and we know at one point in that interview, he even says the camera that he looked at was actually pointing north and that investigators weren't able to look at it.

But what we do know is investigators have been able to use a lot of technologies to track down not only two persons in interest but parts of this story. One, they were able to see that the two guys were able to use RideShare and taxis to get to and from the location.

They also were able to get that image of those two and put it out there and then there was Smollett walking back into his apartment after this attack happened. Go with all that, the phone call to 911 didn't happen for some like 35 to 40 minutes after this attack.

Now we've been following all the details since the very beginning, talking with police because obviously, they were very upset and they were treating this very seriously but at the some point, stuff didn't start to match up and then put into context the fact that they asked the actor for his phone records and he gave them a redacted list of phone records.

They wanted more because he apparently was on the phone with his manager during the attack but still that 911 call didn't come for a while so all these questions now come to this point where we have these two law enforcement sources who are telling us this information that, look, these two brothers who were arrested at the airport on Wednesday who were then released are now cooperating fully with them.

This changes the investigation completely. The spotlight that's been nationwide on this story now grows a little larger.

CABRERA: Ryan Young reporting in Chicago, thank you for bringing us this breaking news. Let's go now to Charles Ramsey, he is the former Philadelphia police Commissioner. First Chief, what is your reaction to this latest reporting?

CHARLES RAMSEY, FORMER COMMISSIONER, PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Well, I mean I'm surprised. It certainly has taken a twist. I have to admit though when the two individuals that were persons of interest were released. I had maybe started thinking something's not right with this because it just didn't seem - it seemed like it was coming together, then all of a sudden they were released.

[19:05:00] And in a case like this, at high profile like it is, it would lead you to believe that something developed that we didn't know about before.

CABRERA: Right, these two Nigerian brothers, they were brought in, released without charges and Chicago police were -

RAMSEY: Right.

CABRERA: - no longer referring to them as suspects.

RAMSEY: Yes.

CABRERA: Explain that, if they were potentially involved in staging an attack, would they perhaps still be implicated in a crime?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, they could be but it all depends on the circumstances and we don't know all the circumstances right now but certainly the investigation is taken a different turn. I don't know if you know this or not but I'm a native Chicago and I did 30 years as a member of the Chicago Police Department.

And despite the fact that Chicago's gotten a reputation over the past couple years that is really not all that good, it's a good department with a lot of very, very good detectives and so when I learned that they really had that many detectives working this case, I figured it would come in and come in pretty quickly.

CABRERA: And now the outcome of this. If this is true, how do you think they're feeling right now? What does this mean for their reputation? What does this mean for ongoing investigations of crimes that may involve what appeared at the time to be you know, have the characteristics of a hate crime or be politically motivated or something like that?

RAMSEY: Oh, it's not going to change the way in which you approach investigating a crime, you always make an assumption that what the victims telling you is true, that's why you have an investigation. You have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, you have to start gathering facts. If the facts don't fit, then you start to become suspicious as to whether or not the incident actually took place or took place the way in which the complainants said so that's all part of an investigative process but it won't taint would you do in the future.

I mean the reality is, there are hate crimes that are occur, there are people that are assaulted, t we have an obligation as police to investigate them thoroughly. Occasionally, you do come across a case though for whatever reason, turns out not to be accurate.

CABRERA: Earlier this week, there was rumblings, local news station in Chicago reported, sources telling them this attack was staged or was a hoax. Chicago police actually came out publicly and those reports were wrong and now here we are, what do you - how do you make sense of that?

RAMSEY: Well, that's because at that time they didn't have any facts to support that. I mean listen, people can afford to speculate, whether it's media, whether it's the people and the public at large, police don't have that luxury. We have to base what we say on facts, on the investigative facts that come forward during the course of the investigation.

And so at that point in time, they didn't have anything that would verify that so and I don't think they still made an official statement yet so these are sources that you have that may or may not be a 100% accurate but until the superintendent or the person in charge of the Press office there, Tony Guglielmi, until they get out there and make a statement you know, this is all still up in the air.

But this is certainly something that I'm very concerned about because that's a draw on resources that you just simply cannot afford. If this turns out not to be true, that the attack was staged and that it never really happened, then this individual ought to be prosecuted like anybody else would be.

CABRERA: Yes, stand by because on that note, I want to bring in a couple of a legal minds with us. Joey Jackson, a criminal defense attorney is here as well as former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. I know Renato, you're from Chicago, you've litigated in Illinois.

If Jussie Smollett in fact, paid these men to attack him, is that a crime?

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, it is. I mean first of all, filing a false police report, police report when you know that no crime had been committed is a Class 4 felony in Illinois so is obstructing justice which they may have done at some point throughout this process as well.

So both of those are Class 4 felonies, the typical penalty there is one to three years in prison. Now as a practical matter, a lot of times people who are convicted of Class 4 felonies end up not serving prison time. We have a lot of overcrowding here in Illinois of prisons, it's been an issue in some of our recent you know, on a recent campaigns and elections here. So you know, there's a suspended sentence, and frankly, you know, Mr. Smollett will have to hope that there's some sort of leniency here. I will tell you that I would expect a judge to take this very seriously and for law enforcement to take it seriously you know. When I was a federal prosecutor, had something like this happen to me when I was investigating a kidnapping up very late at night with the FBI agents working hard on that.

[19:10:00] And it turned out that the child would hold - you know it was a hoax, that you know, essentially you know, falsely reported that, her and her friends, that was not you know, that wasted a lot of resources and a lot of time.

But that pales in comparison so the multi day investigation we just heard a lot about, a lot of work has gone into this by CPD, Chicago Police Department and frankly, you know, Mr. Smollett, if this is true, should be very ashamed of himself.

CABRERA: Joey, were there any red flags that stood out to you along the way and it's reporting and as this investigation continued in the past couple of weeks?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I think not only to me but I think to so many people, there were many red flags and let's talk about those. But just by you know reaction, it's just so disheartening, Ana, when in a day and age of such political discord, such hate as it relates to immigrants, as it relates to so many things, you know race and for this to be added into the equation, certainly doesn't help anything.

But in terms of the red flags, there are things we talked about and what are those? You know, when you don't report immediately, there's a 40 minute lapse. When you happen to be on the phone with your manager in the middle of the night at 2:00 in the morning. When you're asked to turn over your phone records and you redact them.

Just so many things just didn't seem to add up. Surveillance, nothing caught on tape. We live in a day and age where in technology we get to see everything, why was it missing here? And so yes, there are red flags and there's a big concern and he should be concerned in terms of the prosecution when I was talking about.

And that's because there's a real deterrent value to go after him and prosecute him for this. You cannot have people making up claims like this when you have legitimate victims of crime and you have so many detectives who are working the case rightfully, to try to get answers, to try to get justice, to try if there's a hate crime to get the people who did it and have them accountable.

But yet now because there is a diversion of resources, other crimes now are not being solved and so it's problematic and I don't think a judge in hearing a case like this, is going to be too sympathetic.

CABRERA: Chief Ramsey, there are many layers to this story Smollett told because he's black and he's gay, people were saying this sounds like a hate crime. He had said, his attackers said, MAGA country. What impact going to Joey's point on where we are in this day and age, what impact could this have when it comes to these issues and crimes involving race or politics?

RAMSEY: Well I would hope that despite this, that every case that comes to our attention as police we investigate thoroughly and we don't make any assumptions right off the bat. I mean we owe that to the public, we owe it everyone, you can't let one case, one individual change the way you approach investigation, you just can't afford to do that.

This is unfortunate, if this turns out to be true that he did in fact pay people to do this and this turned out to be a totally made up situation, that's very unfortunate on a lot of different levels, believe me. But that should not take away from the fact that there are legitimate victims of crime out there and the obligation of police is to thoroughly investigate each and every one of those and do everything they can to bring those people into custody that are responsible for that crime.

CABRERA: I want to ask you a little bit about that similar question earlier I think, what I was getting at and I don't know if I've heard you vocalize it, does this sort of thing just piss off for lack of a better word police officers because they are investigating so heavily, diverting all these resources into what turns out to be a false report?

RAMSEY: Well, yes, it does. I mean, listen, I've worked in the detective division in the Chicago Police Department, there's not a day goes by, you don't get fresh cases in and those cases are assigned to a detective while when you're working one case and you're following up on leads, that means you have 5 or 6 or 7 others that maybe you aren't working on at that particular moment.

Everyone deserves to be able to have a thorough complete investigation. When you take these kinds of resources on a case it turns out to be false, I mean, yes, it's enough to upset everyone. I'm not even in Chicago anymore and it upset me.

CABRERA: Yes, yes, Renato, Smollett gave an interview just this week to GMA addressing accusations that he had staged this attack or made up this story, here's his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMOLLETT: I'm pissed off.

ROBIN ROBERTS, HOST, ABC NEWS: What is it that has you so angry? Is it the attackers?

SMOLLETT: It's the attackers but it's also the attacks. It's like you know, at first it was a thing, I was like, listen, if I tell the truth then, that's it because it's the truth. Then it became a thing of like, oh, how can you doubt that?

[19:15:00] Like how do you - how do not believe that? It's the truth. And then it became a thing of like, oh, it's not necessarily that you don't believe that this is the truth. You don't even want to see the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Renato, could those words come back to hurt him in terms of any legal proceedings in moving forward.

MARIOTTI: No question, I mean, look, it's really something to hear that you know, he is obviously a professional actor but you know, that it's just shocking that somebody to me, it's really repugnant that somebody may you know, if he fabricated this and those words are played for a judge at sentencing or recounted to a judge at sentencing, you know not just these but of course you have played a prior another clip as well.

I think a judge is going to take it very seriously and I think that you know, the state's attorney here, Kim Fox who's going to have to make it a charging decision here about how to charge this case, I think he's going to have to take it seriously because as Mr. Jackson said a moment ago, this is going to have a deterrent effect.

You know, a lot of people are paying attention to this case and if this case isn't punished, what it's going to send a signal to people is that you can get away with making false reports, wasting the time and resources of law enforcement which of course is our tax dollars and there are a lot of crimes and a lot of problems here in Chicago for police to deal with real crimes, with real victims.

So it's really shocking and it's something that I think a judge is going to take seriously at sentencing. I would be surprised if he didn't get the prison time, if in fact if this is true and he is prosecuted for.

CABRERA: Joey, you're our defense attorney here in this group. How does Smollett defend himself?

JACKSON: You know, I think there's a number of ways that he can do that. First of all, I think you know, he needs to make peace with people who are around him, who supported him, who loved him and who really believed in him and his story.

And I think that if that whenever the prosecution has you dead to rights, I think what you do is you have to have a come clean moment and that's the point when you look at a person and you say that we're not judged by the worst thing we've ever done, we're not judged by the best thing we've ever done.

The truth about who we are lies in the middle and I think that you have to reason with the court, reason with the prosecution and talk about the redeeming qualities that he has in his life. He's a young man, he's got a long way to go. I'm sure he's got a lot to give society. I'm sure this was a terrible mistake that he wishes he can have back.

But I think he's going to have to if the evidence is there, own it and in owning it, use this in some good way to encourage others not to do what I've done, that you can do better and I think that that's a way to heal, to bring it together, to take responsibility, to take ownership, to move people forward and to hope for a lenient sentence.

CABRERA: Joey Jackson, Renato Mariotti and Chief Charles Ramsey, thank you all for being with us.

JACKSON: Thank you Ana.

CABRERA: We have much more on this breaking news.

Jussie Smollett stars in a wildly popular television show Empire. Just ahead what this latest news could mean for that show, for his career and the ongoing narrative that is now twisting once again. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

[19:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Back to our breaking news. Now law enforcement sources tell CNN that Chicago police have new evidence that suggests actor Jussie Smollett paid two men to stage an assault on him. Remember, Smollett initially claimed these attackers beat him, yelled homophobic slurs, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical on him.

CNN's senior entertainment reporter, Lisa France is joining us now. Lisa, did the media and social media get duped?

LISA FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: If this is true, they absolutely got duped and you know, the ironic thing here is that this is starting to feel like an episode of his TV show of Empire with all the twists and turns in the drama and the cliff-hanger of if he actually did this, why in the world would he do this?

Why? That's what everyone wants to know?

CABRERA: And do you have any thoughts about that? Do we know about you know, what else was going on in his life, in his career that could point to a potential motivation?

FRANCE: Well, you know, there was speculation that he was going to be written off in his show but then the studio came out and they said that's absolutely not sure. There were no plans to write him out of the show. So you know or nearly when you see something like this, something that's a hoax, you think that there has to be a major reason behind this.

But he's thrived, he's done really well. Empire is a very successful show for Fox. His character is beloved he was able to use it as a platform to launch his music career because he's a very talented singer. He comes from a massive entertainment family, the Smolletts, his sister journey is a big star as well.

And so you know it's just got a lot of people scratching their heads saying, why in the world if in fact he set this up, why would he do it and why would he think he could get away with it.

CABRERA: And you recall after this story broke, as the investigation was ongoing, immediately there was finger pointing, there was placing blame. Again, there were these different pieces in layers that invoked you know, racial tensions, it created again, politically - it really highlighted political divisions.

What does it tell you about the state of America when people instantly believe something as horrific as he described could happen?

FRANCE: We're a very divided nation right now and the thing is that he said during his 'Good Morning America' interview that he felt like he was targeted because in his words, "I come hard for 45 and his administration," that you know, he's been very critical of Trump but now if this is true, this in fact is true is what the police believe then he's given them all the ammunition in the world.

And he's got two groups who have been extremely supportive of him, the LGBTQ community and the black community who are going to be asking a lot of questions. They rallied around him big time. He was shown so much love and people were so angry at the thought that folks would actually doubt his story like why would you doubt.

And he said during his interview with Good Morning America that he felt like had he said his attackers were Muslim or black or Hispanic, then the doubters maybe would have believed him more.

[19:25:00] But the fact that he was saying that it was someone who had said something about MAGA and a Trump supporter, that was causing people to not believe him.

CABRERA: You mentioned the reports on Thursday that came out, there was a local affiliate in Chicago reporting that this whole report may have been a hoax and that's when the 21st Century Fox came out with a statement saying, no, no, he's not being written off the show and let me just read it to our viewers here because we have it, we can pull it up.

"The idea that Jussie Smollett has been or would be written off Empire is patently ridiculous. He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him." Lisa, any idea how this news again, if true might impact Smollett's career?

FRANCE: I don't see how he could go on continuing to be on Empire if this is in fact true. I mean Lee Daniels was one of his first supporters. Lee Daniels, the creator of Empire, he himself as a gay man. I mean the cast, the crew, the studio, everyone supported him and rallied behind him so how do you then walk back on set, if you fake this whole thing.

So you know he may not have been intended to be written off the show earlier but I can't see how he continues to go on and just you know, continues to be on the show if in fact this turns out to be true and this whole story turned out to be faked.

CABRERA: And I know you and others are reaching out to his team and to obviously his producers to find out what is next. Lisa France, thank you very much for being with us.

FRANCE: Thank you.

CABRERA: Just a day after Colin Kaepernick's surprising settlement with the NFL, his lawyer speaks exclusively to us here at CNN, you'll hear from Mark Geragos just ahead live here in the CNN Newsroom.

[19:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Colin Kaepernick set off a firestorm in 2016 when he began kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games. The controversy prompted the President to say this, last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Kaepernick's protest became a lightning rod and now 2.5 years later, he and a former teammate have reached a settlement with the league who they accused of colluding against them. The NFL and the players' attorneys released a joint statement saying in part, "The parties have decided to resolve the pending grievances. The resolution of this matter is subject to a confidentiality agreement so there will be no further comment by any party."

And joining us now is their lawyer Mark Geragos. Mark, as we just read there's a confidentiality agreement in place here so I really appreciate you coming on. What can you tell us about this settlement?

MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY OF COLIN KAEPERNICK: I - nothing, other than that, I can't say anything at all except it's resolved and I can tell you that it was a long and kind of unconventional journey in this legal journey in the sense that we brought it under the collective bargaining agreement.

It was not a lawsuit, a traditional lawsuits so when people - some people are kind of said, I wish it would have gone to court, it wasn't in court, it was under the collective bargaining agreement.

So they had the union and the owners had collectively bargained to have grievances filed under what's called the CDA and that's how we brought this and that's where this thing was resolved and that's the end of that.

CABRERA: And so let me dig into that just a little bit cheaper because I think a lot of people think why wouldn't try to take this all the way instead of settling. If he you know, he - he's become this symbol of social justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Some people may look at this and say well, it appears maybe he just wanted the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GERAGOS: You know, I saw all that but the part - I've seen that on social media, you can always see it, I've got a whole theory on the social media buying Colin Kaepernick but the difference between the criminal system where you're fighting over somebody's liberty and the civil justice system which is anything that's not criminal is all you're doing is fighting over money.

That's what the civil justice is so whether you're filing in a court or you go to arbitration or you go to remediation or in this case the collective bargaining agreement, all an arbitrator, all a judge and ultimately if you go to court, all a jury can do is just shift money around, that's what we do.

Our justice system is based on money. That's why you hear people say well. He's only in it for the money, you can't go in. I often tell clients as soon as they come in, I say, what do you want me to do. I can't go in and go arrest somebody. I'm not a prosecutor. I'm a civil prosecutor when I've got your case.

But instead of putting somebody in jail what you do is take away some of their money, that's what the tort system is and so in this case, also in collective bargaining agreements generally and this is not just something that's unique to the NFL.

In other types of agreements, arbitrations for instance, you're in a private setting, that's what people are bargaining for so they're saying I want privacy, if you're going to bring a grievance against me, if you're going to bring a claim against me, I get privacy -

CABRERA: So there couldn't have been anything public about this?

GERAGOS: Right, right, so that's what. I understand the public frustration but remember something, in any whether it's an arbitration, whether it's a grievance, whether it's something else entirely, if you're not in a court room and mind you, federal court where there's normally, if you were going to file it would be filed, there are no cameras, there are now audios in the U.S. Supreme.

CABRERA: Okay.

GERAGOS: There's no cameras in the federal District Court.

CABRERA: Look, there are reports that your client will receive somewhere between $60 million and $80 million. I don't know if you can comment on that, is that in the ball park?

[19:35:00] GERAGOS: I can't, I can't comment, I can't say the ballpark, I can't say anything about that.

CABRERA: When was the last time you talked with Colin Kaepernick?

GERAGOS: Today, I talked to Colin today. I talked to call today not about anything else than his desire to play. I saw him - I've seen - it's been a whirlwind. I will tell you, he is the most fit vegan I've ever seen in my life. He inspires me every lint.

To me, to my somewhat trained eyes, he looks like he's ready to play and you know, I predicted this with Eric, our other client after we had one of the hearings that Eric would play.

CABRERA: And he is.

GERAGOS: And within the last five days, he's got into a 3-year contract and I'm going to make a bold prediction although I've been wrong once before on this, I'm going to make a bold prediction that one of three teams picks him up and he - to my mind -

CABRERA: Which three teams do you think will pick him up?

GERAGOS: I think - I think - look, the natural would be if Kim Newton is out, then the natural place to be is to play with Eric in Carolina. I mean, can you imagine and you've got an owner there -

CABRERA: To play both on 49ers now-

GERAGOS: So for both of the 49ers, it's the Carolina -

CABRERA: Panthers.

GERAGOS: Very good and Colin Kaepernick -

CABRERA: You're testing my sports knowledge.

GERAGOS: Yes, I was, I was testing you.

CABRERA: So he wants to play in the NFL again?

GERAGOS: He absolutely wants to play, he wants to compete at the highest level. I'm this is a competitive young man. Sometimes I told you before we got on the air, sometimes it's hard for me to remember, I have to kind of dial myself back, he's only 31 years old, this is not somebody who's over the hill.

It's someone who's in his prime, you get smarter at that position and he is wise beyond his years.

CABRERA: And a lot of people would say his actions speak louder than words but he has been very silent, help us understand what he was going through in the past couple of years.

GERAGOS: I think there is a degree of frustration sometimes when you're getting attacked. I think you find - he's very Gandhiesque in terms of them very much kind of takes inspiration both from Martin Luther King and from others.

Takes inspiration in being able to channel things or brickbats that are thrown at him and being able to channel it and find a serenity. He's got a great support system around him. Nessa, who is his queen as he would say is wonderful and she is a fighter like you would not believe and a protector, a fierce protector.

He's got Kat, he's got Jeff and my associate, Ben. I mean there is, he's got a great support system around him. His parents are delightful, Rick and I talk with his dad on occasions and I complimented him. CABRERA: Have the President's attacks gotten to him?

GERAGOS: No, on the contrary and you know, interestingly we also started to talk about this, interestingly I think the bold move by Nike showed what I have at least anecdotally learned over the course of this.

The President's attack was a hijacking of what Colin was doing, it was a perversion, it was really kind of gross and what the President did was he was - he was trying to take something and use it as a political issue.

I think based on what I've seen, that this one is a divisive issue that was amplified by some of the things that we're seeing in the news, some of the things you report on and we'll get to that in the coming weeks.

I think that what Nike showed was, that isn't what America is because and this was the discussion that we had with Nike. I will bet you that if you - that if you come and use him as a campaign spokesperson, you're going to see and internally, I think Nike understood this and should be commended for it.

They understood, he speaks to what's best of America and sure enough it happened. I mean, the for all the naysayers in the first two hours after that ad came out, Nike acquired about $8 billion worth of value virtual as the campaign rolled out.

Nike's doing very well, his stuff sells out immediately. There is an -

CABRERA: And obviously he's getting paid through that sponsorship but I'm curious because you say he wants to play in the NFL. He opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers following the 2016 season. Has he been offered in any contract in the NFL even if he thought it was below market value?

GERAGOS: Okay, this is some of the great urban legends and urban myths about Colin are is that he opted out what he did, technically true but they GM in San Francisco had sat down with him and had the conversation.

I mean and I think at some point, San Francisco was appreciative of what he had done. He took them to the Super Bowl. There's only you know in the last 5 years, 7 years, 8 years, how many quarterbacks have gone to the Super Bowl.

You take Tom Brady out, probably only seven other guys. He's one of them, that's a very small community. They told him we're going to go in another direction and he and yes, then he opted out rather than get cut, tested the market.

[19:40:00] Seattle was probably the only place that talked to him. Other than that, no. And that was kind of the frustration with what was going on. I think the issue was hijacked by the President. I think that people kind of coward in the face of that and I think ultimately at the end of the day, there was a brave voice - brave 2 or 3 voices in various spots that said no, America's better than this and we're going to do the right thing.

I think you're going to see. I'll make the bold prediction, you can save the tape. I think you're going to see within the next two weeks that somebody's going to step up, somebody's going to do the right thing and you want me to predict too.

I will tell you that besides the Panthers, it would not surprise me if Bob Craft makes a move.

CABRERA: Oh yes?

GERAGOS: Yes, I would - that would not surprise me and it would not surprise me if his former coach, I'll test your knowledge, also makes a move.

CABRERA: I don't know that one off the top of my head and I got to wrap it from here. Thank you Mark Geragos, really appreciate you staying with us. I know you're going to stick with me through the break to discuss the Jussie Smollett case. When we come back, our breaking news.

Jussie Smollett, the start of the popular TV show 'Empire' may have orchestrated the attack he reported to police. This is according to law enforcement sources in Chicago. How in the world is this going to work out for him now, legally? More on that just ahead here in the Newsroom.

[19:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Back to our breaking news. Police sources now telling CNN, there's new evidence suggesting Empire actor Jussie Smollett may have paid two men to stage an attack on him last month in Chicago and CNN Legal Analyst Mark Geragos is back with us.

Now Mark, you have represented so many celebrities in the past, you look at this story, how would you -

GERAGOS: What's my immediate reaction?

CABRERA: Yes.

GERAGOS: I will tell you. My immediate reaction is when you see according to law enforcement sources to me, that means a flashing red light because that means normally, that somebody who doesn't go on the record. Normally, it may not be what it seems and remember, there were two people who were apparently picked up as supposed persons of interest which is this new term that I love that they use.

But for all I know somebody said, oh, he paid me to do it just so that they get out of custody, who knows? And you know, the law recognizes the fact that somebody who was a co-conspirator, so called co- conspirator is supposed to be viewed with caution, that's black letter law.

So if this is coming from somebody who's picked up and who's saying, oh no, I didn't beat him up. You know, he paid me to beat him up and it took a couple of days before they got there. Unless there's some other corroborative evidence, I would be very skeptical.

I'm not saying one way or another. I'm just saying, don't jump and buy into everything that you hear, especially when it's a leak, especially when it's uncorroborated.

CABRERA: And let me tell you, we would not just be going with any old source here, this has been -

GERAGOS: No, I understand that you're probably getting it from a law enforcement source-

CABRERA: With credibility.

GERAGOS: - with credibility. I don't deny that.

CABRERA: Yes.

GERAGOS: Because what happens is a lot of times what law enforcement does and this has been, the Supreme Court has said, this is okay, they can lie. Law enforcement - if you lie to the police, it's a felony. If they lie to you, it's good police investigation work.

CABRERA: So what does that tell you that these two men reportedly are working with police and giving them cooperating statements and we're understanding they have new evidence that leads to this conclusion. Fact that these two men were brought in, they were in custody but are let go, does that tell you they may have entered into some kind of cooperation agreement?

GERAGOS: It's exactly what it says. Either cooperation agreement or admitted they did it but said yes, but and that there's something else there so yes, I think that that's exactly right.

CABRERA: But this wasn't just an assault, this was painted as a targeted, perhaps politically motivated, perhaps motivated because of his race and it was called a hate crime. How does that impact things in terms of the case?

GERAGOS: Well, that makes, that heightens the amount of focus and law enforcement resources on it and anytime you've got something that's high profile, it takes it out of the bell weather of what is normal and that maybe the theory but I would I would caution is, you've got to you've got to push back against already assuming that's the case.

There have all - there's already been rumors and then denials by law enforcement in this case about other things so I would just - I would just say, buckle up first and let's see what actually comes out. Let's see what the evidence is.

Now when you say, are they are cooperation agreement? Normally not, the state side normally doesn't enter into the agreement but they might have said, we're not going to file yet, we want you to do this or we want to see something else or go get us this piece of information or maybe they're out there to do what's called a pretext call, where they're going to say, the police are leaning on us, you've got to do something, hoping that somebody else makes an admission. There's a myriad of possibilities, all I'll tell you is, until somebody is either charged or not charged, until we've seen something else and it's been tested, I would just reserve judgment.

CABRERA: That's important not to jump to conclusions. Thank you very much Mark Geragos.

GERAGOS: Thank you.

CABRERA: Good to have you with us. We'll be right back.

[19:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: We have more breaking news on this Saturday. CNN has just learned State department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert has now dropped out of the running to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

President Trump had said he would nominate her to replace Nikki Haley. CNN's Kristen Holmes is back with us. Kristen, what reason did she give?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so here's what we know so far Ana. Essentially Trump had announced the pick as you said but that nomination had never been sent to the Senate.

And just to give you a little bit of context here, Nauert has been the spokesperson at the State department since April, she is really won over President Trump's support through talking about his America first policy and in addition to that, she really won over Secretary Pompeo, traveling the world with him.

Now I want to read you part of a statement that she issued, she of course said that she was grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo but this is the part I want to single out here, " - however the past two months have been gruelling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.

Serving in the administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life and I will always be grateful to the President, the Secretary and my colleagues at the State Department for their support."

[19:55:00] And so just to give you a little bit more about this confirmation process it was always expected that it was going to be a gruelling process and an uphill battle. If confirmed, she would have been one of the most inexperienced Ambassadors to the United Nations. She didn't have that foreign policy background. She didn't have that political background but I do want to also note that the state department said President Trump will be announcing a new nominee shortly. Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you very much, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: You're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. We continue to follow breaking news this evening. A dramatic twist in the story involving Empire actor Jussie Smollett who claims he was attacked by two men last month in Chicago. Smollett told police the attackers beat him, yelled homophobic slurs, put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical on him.