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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Jussie Smollett Faces Felony Charges for Alleged Attack; Coast Guard Lieutenant Arrested on Terror Charges; Vladimir Putin Threatens New Arms Race; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 21, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:30:36] JUSSIE SMOLLETT, ACTOR, "EMPIRE": Who the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) could make something like this up?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Chicago police say you did. Jussie Smollett is accused of staging a racially motivated attack.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A domestic terrorist on active military duty, a Coast Guard officer with a political and media hit list had 15 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
SANCHEZ: Plus the Mueller report could be in the attorney general's hands by next week. What Bill Barr does with it, that's the next big question.
ROMANS: And 3,000 teachers walk off the job today in Oakland. What they're demanding for themselves and 36,000 students who still have class today.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: Great to be here with you, Christine.
ROMANS: Nice to have you.
SANCHEZ: I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Dave Briggs. We're about 31 minutes past the hour.
And that hashtag #justiceforjussie has an entirely different meaning this morning. "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett facing a felony charge for allegedly filing a false police report claiming that two men attacked him last month. Chicago Police tells CNN they hope Smollett will turn himself in overnight. Get this, right now they don't know where he is.
ROMANS: A class four felony, the kind Smollett is charged with, carries a prison sentence of one to three years. The actor himself has insisted he did not stage any attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SMOLLETT: Who the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) could make something like this up or add something to it, or whatever it may be. I can't even -- I'm an advocate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Assuming he's in custody, a bail hearing for Smollett is expected later today.
CNN's Nick Watt outside Chicago Police headquarters has more for us.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Christine, Jussie Smollett has gone from victim to suspect, and he now faces a felony charge, a class four felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
The "Empire" actor, of course, claimed he was attacked in the early hours of January 29th, on a cold, frigid morning here in Chicago, by two men who threw racial and homophobic epithets at him, hung a noose around his neck, and poured an unknown chemical on him.
Now two men were arrested last week. They were questioned by police then they were released on Friday night. Law enforcement sources told us Saturday that they believe Jussie Smollett had paid these two men. That Jussie Smollett had staged this attack on him.
Now police tell us that they were expecting Smollett to show up at a meeting with them and his lawyers Wednesday. When Smollett didn't show up they decided to go the grand jury route. A grand jury was convened. Those two brothers, those two one-time suspects, testified that Smollett had paid them to stage the attack.
Smollett's lawyers released a statement to us last night and they say that, "Like any other citizen Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information both true and false has been repeatedly leaked."
This story is far from over. In fact, the fallout from this story is really only just beginning -- Christine and Boris.
ROMANS: Yes, Nick, thank you for that.
A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox, which produces "Empire," said the studio has no comment at this time.
SANCHEZ: A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant under arrest this morning as a suspected domestic terrorist. Authorities say 49-year-old Christopher Paul Hasson of Silver Spring, Maryland, is a white supremacist who had a hit list that included several high-profile Democrats, among them some presidential candidates.
Prosecutors filing as evidence a draft e-mail in which they say Hasson wrote, quote, "I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth."
Ryan Browne has more from the Pentagon.
RYAN BROWNE, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and Boris.
The Department of Justice charging an active duty Coast Guard officer with gun and drug charges, and for being an alleged domestic terrorist who was plotting attacks on senior Democratic officials and senior members of the media, both from MSNBC and CNN.
Now he's also charged with adhering to a manifesto of a Norwegian terrorist, Anders Breivik, who in 2011 killed some 77 people in a series of domestic terror attacks.
Now as part of that manifesto, he is being charged with using drugs as part of an effort to bolster his ability to carry out these attacks.
Now some 15 weapons and 1,000 rounds of ammunition were discovered in his home, according to the official charge documents provided by the Department of Justice.
[04:35:07] And again, he was posted here in Washington, D.C. at the Coast Guard headquarters. It remains unclear how someone could have such high-level access with all these links to domestic terrorist groups, white supremacists organizations, and in possession of so many weapons and so much ammunition.
Back to you.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that, Ryan.
The completion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation could be announced as early as next week. Sources familiar with the Justice Department plans tell us soon after that, Attorney General Bill Barr will submit a confidential summary to Congress. But that does not mean we'll get to see Mueller's report quickly or ever.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and right now the scope and contours of what the attorney general will send to Capitol Hill are unclear. Barr was noncommittal at his confirmation hearing last month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BARR, THEN-ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I am going to try to get the information out there consistent with these regulations. And to the extent I have discretion I will exercise that discretion to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The special counsel regulations instruct Mueller to submit a confidential report to the attorney general, but those regulations don't require that it be shared with Congress or the public. Yesterday the president said he's leaving the entire matter up to Barr.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLIN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Should the Mueller report be released while you're abroad next week?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That'll be totally up to the new attorney general. That'll be totally up to him. The new attorney -- the new attorney general, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Now I guess from what I understand that will be totally up to the attorney general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Of course, depending on what is or is not released, months of wrangling between Congress and the Justice Department may follow.
The precise timing of Barr's announcement is subject to change. CNN is told Justice officials don't want to interfere with White House diplomatic efforts. Late next week the President Trump holds a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But on the other hand, 12 Russians were indicted last year while the president met with Queen Elizabeth and just days before his Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin.
SANCHEZ: While President Trump is overseas next week, his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen will be testifying in public. He is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on February 27th. He'll be questioned about President Trump's finances and business practices, but not the Russia investigation. Cohen's first scheduled appearance was canceled due to threats against his family.
ROMANS: On Wednesday, he tweeted, "Looking forward to the American people hearing my story in my voice. #truth." The next day, he'll testify privately to the House Intel Committee.
Cohen had been scheduled to report to prison March 6th, but a federal judge agreed to delay the start of his prison term for two months. Cohen was sentenced to three years. He pleaded guilty to charges that include campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump.
SANCHEZ: A climate change skeptic will lead a White House panel to examine climate change. The "Washington Post" reports the proposed commission will be led by this man, William Happer. He's on the National Security Council and he believes that carbon emissions linked to climate change should be viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant, and that's not all. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM HAPPER, TRUMP NOMINEE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE PANEL: The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler. Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The White House is not commenting on the "Washington Post" report. Just a few weeks ago, the director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, confirmed the long standing belief climate change is a significant security risk. CNN has learned White House officials are discussing replacements for Coats now. They are concerned President Trump may be prepared to fire him.
SANCHEZ: Much of the eastern U.S. is cleaning up this morning after a big winter storm rolled through.
Thunder snow caught on a doorbell camera in Cumberland, Maryland, yesterday. Major flooding in Giles County, Tennessee. That's just south of Pulaski. The front stalled over the south bringing on this high water. And that flooding threat won't abate with another winter storm that's taking shape out west.
Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Boris and Christine, good morning, guys.
Yes, the northeast here watching the snow showers around Boston, a wintry mix just south of town, and go to the north there, it's all about the snow. And of course it was a winter wonderland across Central Park as well in the past 24 or so hours. But you cross over into the airports it was an entirely different story. Major disruptions as far as cancellations and delays across portions of the country.
And a lot of this activity now going to begin to improve quickly, at least for the northeast. In fact, by 11:00 a.m., noon, much of the showers exit the picture. And then you draw the attention back down toward the south because the southern fringe of all of this, that's where the frontal boundary has stalled and that's where not only thunderstorms are prevalent this morning.
As much as 1,000 strikes since midnight across portions of the south. But extensive flood watches and warnings and a lot of river flooding taking place in northern Alabama and northern Mississippi and western Tennessee. And frankly, with that front that's really not moving much, notice the rainfall amounts are going to be significant.
[04:40:03] Four to six inches around Memphis. Two to three inches around Nashville over the next 24 or so hours. And then back towards the west, another system right on its heels here is bringing in additional rainfall and additional storms going in towards this weekend for much of the country -- guys.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that.
All right. The son of a congressional candidate from North Carolina says he warned his father about bad tactics from campaign operative. That undercuts Mark Harris' claim he didn't see any red flags.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: President Trump says his administration is considering stiff new tariffs on European cars and car parts, infuriating European allies and drawing opposition from the American auto industry he says he is protecting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Something we think about and we're negotiating with them. If we don't make the deal, we'll do the tariffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Commerce Department delivered to the White House the recommendations of something called the Section 232 National Security Investigation.
[04:45:06] It has not been released to the public. The president was asked if the report changed his mind about whether to impose tariffs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But the bottom line result is whether or not we can make a deal with the EU that's fair. We lose about $150 billion trading with the EU. That's a lot of money and it has been going on for many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The clock is ticking for the president to declare whether imported cars are a national security threat to the U.S.
BMW, a national security threat to the U.S. And remember, by the way, that a lot of those cars are made in the U.S. by U.S. workers. That's another point all together.
Automakers argue a 25 percent tariff which the president is considering would raise the price of vehicles made in the U.S. by a couple of thousand dollars at least and hurt sales.
SANCHEZ: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving to undermine the president's national emergency for border wall funding. She is urging lawmakers to back a resolution that terminates Mr. Trump's declaration. House members have until 3:00 this afternoon to sign the resolution. It will be introduced for a vote on Friday.
ROMANS: Congressman Joaquin Castro sponsored the resolution. He says the president is setting a dangerous precedent tipping the constitutional balance of powers toward the executive and away from the legislative branch. CNN has also learned the White House does not plan to spend money that hinges on the national emergency declaration while lawsuits challenging that authority work their way through the courts.
SANCHEZ: The son of North Carolina Republican congressional candidate, Mark Harris, says he warned his father about a political operative's shady and perhaps illegal tactics to secure votes. John Harris' testimony before the state elections board undercuts claims by his father and his father's campaign strategist that they were not aware of any red flags. Harris says he repeatedly warned his father about Leslie McCrae Dowless. Dowless now at the center of an election fraud investigation in North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN HARRIS, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY IN NORTH CAROLINA: I had no reason to believe at any point that my father actually knew, or my mother or anyone else affiliated with the campaign, actually knew that McCrae and his folks were doing the things that have been described today. I had no reason to believe that at all. I believe that Mr. Dowless told them he wasn't doing any of this and they believed him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: At one point during his testimony, John Harris' voice cracked and his father wept. The younger Harris did not tell his parents he was testifying at the hearing.
SANCHEZ: Schools in Oakland, California, will be open today but some 3,000 teachers will not be showing up for work. They are set to go on strike this morning demanding smaller classes and more support for some 36,000 students. They also want a 12 percent pay raise to offset the high cost of living. The district so far has offered 7 percent.
And meantime, in West Virginia, teachers and school service personnel will return to work this morning ending a two-day strike there. It comes after state lawmakers killed a controversial education bill that would have moved public money to private education.
ROMANS: It took more than four decades, but the accused killer of an 11-year-old girl in California is finally in custody. Seventy-two- year-old James Alan Neal arrested this week in Colorado Springs. He allegedly strangled 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe in July of 1973 after the girl's mother told her to walk home from school.
SANCHEZ: Investigators honed in on Neal using DNA collected from Linda's body shortly after her death and an online genealogy Web site. Last July, Newport Beach Police released Linda's story on Twitter, essentially live tweeting the girl's last day from her perspective to raise awareness in the cold case. Both of O'Keefe's parents have since died, but she was survived by two sisters.
ROMANS: That's amazing how they're using that genealogy technology to find --
SANCHEZ: Right.
ROMANS: To find these cold cases and get them settled.
All right. A safety reminder for those of you going to great lengths or heights to capture that perfect selfie. Tristan Bailey and his friends decided to climb a bridge to snap a selfie with the Dallas skyline in the background. But Bailey slipped plummeting more than four stories to the ground. The teenager's body hit the ground so hard it left this imprint.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I broke my pelvis, I had a rib fracture, a punctured lung. I broke my face a whole bunch and had lacerated my spleen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's amazing that he didn't snap his neck. It's amazing that he is not a paraplegic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You know, doctors who treated Bailey say that they see a growing number of people with selfie related injuries.
SANCHEZ: A big scare for Duke basketball fans. Freshman sensation Zion Williamson forced to leave last night's game against North Carolina with a knee injury. Watch this, it happens just there just 36 seconds into the game. Coach Mike Krzyzewski calls it a mild knee sprain.
Now on the play Williamson looks like he hesitated in movement and then he slipped and his foot blew right through his shoe with the sole ripping loose from heel to toe. Look at it there. Barack Obama was sitting along the baseline near the Duke bench and the former president started shouting encouragement to Williamson as he left the court.
[04:50:06] The Blue Devils looked lost without their star. The Tar Heels scoring 32 of the first 34 in the paint before cruising to an 88-72 victory. Coach K says that Williamson's knee is stable and that a time table for his return will be determined later today.
You hate to see that.
ROMANS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: He's long been projected as the number one pick in the upcoming draft. Getting hurt like that, not good.
ROMANS: All right, 50 minutes past the hour. Samsung making some bold moves with its new lineup of Galaxy smartphones including a pricey foldable phone. How much is it? We're going to tell you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:55:05] SANCHEZ: Vladimir Putin raising the stakes on a potential new arms race with the West. In his annual address to lawmakers, the Russian president said he will not make the first move and deploy missiles in Europe but following the apparent collapse of a longstanding missile treaty, Putin sent a not-so-subtle message. He suggested American lawmakers calculate just how long it would take for Russian missiles to reach Washington.
Standing by live in Moscow, senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen. Fred, Vladimir Putin sending a very clear message to lawmakers in the
United States.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. To lawmakers in the United States and the government in the United States and I think this is some of the strongest language that we've heard from Vladimir Putin as far as the threat of a new arms race, nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia, between NATO and Russia, is concerned. He blasted the U.S. for pulling out of the Treaty on Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces, which of course happened just a couple of months ago.
And he said that if America decides to put medium range nukes in Europe, that Russia would not only target the site of those nukes, but he would also target what he called decision-making capitals. Obviously talking about places like Washington, D.C.
Now to emphasize that point, Putin also said that work is well under way by the Russians for a new hyper sonic missile that he says can go nine times the speed of sound and evade missile defense systems.
Now you're absolutely right, Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not make the first move. He said Russia's posture is absolutely defensive in all of this, but as you said, he also said that lawmakers should calculate just how fast these missiles can go. Both the U.S. and NATO, by the way, ripping into Vladimir Putin's speech saying he needs to tone it down that those words were absolutely unacceptable -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes, Fred, we'll see how President Trump responds specifically to that sort of statement by Vladimir Putin. He's been shy about responding to Putin directly on those terms before. Thank you.
We have a troubling new report that was published this week to tell you about. NATO forces could be manipulated by bogus social media accounts. Troop positions, names, and phone numbers were all easily accessed from fake Facebook and Instagram accounts during an unidentified NATO military exercise.
Researchers say the experiment shows that at the current level of information security, an adversary is able to collect a significant amount of personal data on soldiers, which could then potentially be used to target messages with precision and potentially successfully influence those troops.
ROMANS: All right. Just about the top of the hour this Thursday morning. Let's get a check on CNN Business.
Global stock markets mixed as trade talks begin today in Washington. On Wall Street, you've got futures, looks like they're leaning up a little bit. That's pretty much directionless here. U.S. markets initially fell and then rebounded Wednesday after the release of those minutes from the Fed's January meeting. The Dow -- excuse me -- jumped 63 points, that's two-tenth of a percent. The S&P 500 closed up a little bit, the Nasdaq up slightly as well. Its eighth straight gain, that's not a big gain, but at least it notched the Nasdaq's longest win streak since August.
Some big name advertisers are pulling their ads from YouTube. Nestle, McDonald's, the maker of Fortnite and others have pulled ads from YouTube after blogger Matt Watson raised concerns about comments on videos. Now Watson said pedophiles were on YouTube using a platform to trade information and draw attention to otherwise, you know, just normal clips of young girls.
As online anger built over the issue, YouTube said it took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos that include minors.
We're talking about little cheer leading videos or videos of kids at a gymnastics competition. You know, just gross. So that is good to see that YouTube is doing something about that.
Lyft plans to file its initial public offering in March. Possibly beating rival Uber to the milestone. The "Wall Street Journal" reports Lyft may make the filing public as early as next week. The Nasdaq composite is up about 13 percent so far this year amid signs that the U.S. economic expansion continues and the interest rates will stay low.
Would you spend 2K on 5G? Samsung hope so. The Galaxy fold had opened up with this, into a 7.3 inch tablet. It's going to cost you $2,000. Samsung also unveiling updated versions of its bestselling Galaxy S smartphone. The S10 5G model will be the first mainstream device to run on lightning fast 5G wireless networks later this year. The move could give Samsung a significant head start in early 5G markets.
2K for 5G? I don't know.
SANCHEZ: Wait until Apple releases their version inevitably in a couple of months.
Stay with us, EARLY START continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMOLLETT: Who the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) could make something like this up?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Chicago police say you did. Jussie Smollett is accused of staging a racially motivated attack.
[05:00:00]
