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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Prosecutors Laid Out Details of Hate Crime Hoax by Jussie Smollett; European Commission Warns No Deal Brexit Has Big Impact; Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 22, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:33] SUPT. EDDIE JOHNSON, CHICAGO POLICE: Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The police chief is angry, the judge calls it vile. Jussie Smollett is back on the set of "Empire." What he told the cast and crew after being charged with faking a hate crime.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And get ready for the split screen of a lifetime. Michael Cohen on Capitol Hill preparing to testify while the president has his second meeting with Kim Jong-un.

ROMANS: Another Trump cabinet member in hot water. Why a decade-old plea deal could be trouble for the Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.

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MARK HARRIS (R), NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I believe a new election should be called.

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SANCHEZ: A remarkable about-face in North Carolina. A congressional candidate who thought he won is calling for a new election. Why? And will he even run again?

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: Nice to have you here this week all week. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Great to be with you, Christine.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. 31 minutes past the hour.

Let's begin with this, in Chicago Jussie Smollett apologizing but not for the crime he is charged with. Cameras swarmed the "Empire" star as he left court, accused of staging a supposed hate crime against himself. After posting $100,000 bond, Smollett's first order of business was a meeting with the "Empire" cast and crew. A person who attended this meeting on the set tells CNN everyone expected Smollett to come clean, bare his soul, ask for forgiveness.

SANCHEZ: Well, the source says he did apologize for any embarrassment he caused them. But then to the shock and dismay of at least some people there, Smollett defiantly proclaimed his innocence, blaming the legal system and the media. But Chicago Police are painting a very different portrait, a very unflattering picture.

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JOHNSON: Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career. I'm left hanging my head and asking why. Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?

This publicity stunt was a scar that Chicago didn't earn and certainly didn't deserve. I only hope that the truth about what happened receives the same amount of attention that the hoax did.

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SANCHEZ: Prosecutors and even the judge struck the same outraged tone.

CNN's Nick Watt has more from Chicago.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Boris, this was just a bond hearing, but it was an extraordinary bond hearing. The state laid out in intricate detail their case against Jussie Smollett. The state says he orchestrated the entire thing, he hired the two brothers, he told them to attack him. He told them to buy a rope, to make a noose, to put it around his neck. He told them to buy red caps which in the end they didn't wear those red caps that would have looked like the "Make America Great Again" caps.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE : There was a change in the plan in that bleach was going to be used instead of gasoline during the simulated attack. Smollett then drove the brothers home and provided them with a $3500 personal check.

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WATT: He also took them to the scene of where the attack was going to take place. He pointed out a security camera, prosecutors tell us, told them that will capture this attack. And actually when he first spoke to police, Smollett drew their attention to that camera. Turns out the camera was actually facing the other way and did not capture the attack.

Now the judge had some very, very harsh words for Jussie Smollett. He said, listen, of course there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, but if this is true, this case is, quote, "utterly outrageous." And he spoke particularly about that noose that Smollett allegedly asked these brothers to put around his neck and of that noose he said that symbol conjures up such an evil in this country.

Now Smollett's lawyers were in court. The legal team released a statement which reads in part that, "Today we witnessed an organized law enforcement spectacle." The police superintendent of Chicago was very angry. He said that police officers here are pissed off.

Now motive? That police superintendent said that allegedly Jussie Smollett was upset that he wasn't getting paid enough for appearing on the show "Empire," that's why he sent a letter to himself, a threatening letter at the studio, that's why he orchestrated this attack.

Christine and Boris, back to you.

[04:35:04] ROMANS: What a story. Nick, thank you for that.

All right. Michael Cohen is in Washington preparing for a high stakes week ahead. President Trump's former fixer spent several hours Thursday inside the Senate Intelligence Committee's secure spaces. Now that's unusual for a witness the panel has already interviewed as part of its Russia probe. Next week Cohen will be interviewed by the Senate Intel Committee behind closed doors on Tuesday. On Wednesday he testifies publicly before the House Oversight Committee and then back behind closed doors to talk to the House Intel Committee.

SANCHEZ: One big question hanging over Cohen's appearance is what he can say and what he will say. In public, he is not expected to testify about the ongoing Russia probe. But questions could come up around the edges like the failed Trump Tower Moscow project or that BuzzFeed article that claimed Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress, something the special counsel's office has explicitly denied.

ROMANS: Whatever happens, it will make for a very interesting split screen. Some of Cohen's testimony overlaps the president's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next week. One related note, an IRS analyst has just been charged with leaking confidential reports about Michael Cohen's bank records. Now those records revealed Cohen sought to profit from his close relationship with the president.

SANCHEZ: Another Trump cabinet secretary in trouble. This time it's Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. He was the federal prosecutor in Florida 11 years ago when the Justice Department reached a plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein. He is a Palm Beach billionaire accused of sexually abusing as many as 36 underage girls. Thursday a federal judge in South Florida ruled that Acosta and the Justice Department broke the law by not discussing that plea agreement with victims as required.

ROMANS: In November the "Miami Herald" reported Acosta gave Epstein the deal of a lifetime. No trial and just 13 months in prison. That plea agreement effectively shut down an ongoing FBI probe and granted immunity to any potential co-conspirators.

Earlier this month Republican Senator Ben Sasse said the Justice Department told him it opened an investigation into how DOJ handled that case. Acosta said he welcomes the review. SANCHEZ: The North Carolina Board of Elections voting unanimously to

order new elections in the state's Ninth Congressional District. Republican candidate Mark Harris was under scrutiny for hiring a political operative accused of election fraud. The board investigated claims that Leslie McCrae Dowless ran an illegal scheme to collect, fill out and forge mail-in ballots. Harris said his campaign was not aware of that, but just one day after his son John testified that he had warned his father about Dowless, the candidate says he now favors a revote.

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HARRIS: Knowing what I know now and hearing what I've heard, it is very concerning and I would have obviously never gotten into this. Through the testimony I have listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called.

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SANCHEZ: It was a dramatic reversal from Harris' earlier position that the elections board should certify the results that had him winning. Harris did not commit to running in the new election. He said he's struggling with memory recall and confusion because of two recent strokes.

ROMANS: Prosecutors say the Coast Guard lieutenant suspected of plotting mass murder first drew attention when he used work computers in the alleged planning of a widespread domestic terror attack.

Christopher Hasson is being detained pending trial. The judged ruled his legal team could fight for detention order after 14 days if the government does not charge him with criminal activity. He was arrested last week on drug and begun charges. Federal prosecutors say that's just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

The government alleges Hasson is a self-described white supremacist who maintained a hit list that included prominent Democrats and journalists.

SANCHEZ: The father of the Alabama woman who joined ISIS is suing the Trump administration over her U.S. citizenship and fighting for her to be allowed back into this country. Hoda Muthana is from Hoover, Alabama. As a college student, she traveled to Syria and married three ISIS fighter. Two of them were killed. Now five years later, Muthana says she regrets what she did and she wants to return to come home.

But President Trump tweeted this week he is not going to allow that. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated the president's message in an interview on Thursday.

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MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: She is a terrorist. She's not a U.S. citizen. She ought not return to this country.

CRAIG MELVIN, ANCHOR, NBC "TODAY SHOW": Is that because she was the daughter of a diplomat and she was born here? Is that --

POMPEO: That's right.

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ROMANS: Now to clarify that, children born in the United States to active diplomats, they do not get birthright citizenship since diplomats are under the jurisdiction of their home countries. But a family representative says Hoda Muthana was born in New Jersey a month after her father was discharged from his position as a diplomat. If she's allowed to return, Muthana is prepared and willing she says to surrender to any charges.

SANCHEZ: The White House says that some 200 U.S. troops will remain in Syria after that planned withdrawal of American forces in the spring. Officials say the troops would help with logistics, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and calling in air strikes. They're trying to encourage coalition countries like France and the U.K. to keep their troops in Syria.

[04:40:02] In December, you'll recall President Trump ordered staff to execute a full and rapid withdrawal of the U.S. military from Syria declaring that ISIS had been defeated. That statement has been contradicted by National Security officials. It was a big sticking point.

ROMANS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: And part of the reason that Defense Secretary James Mattis ultimately resigned as well.

ROMANS: That's right.

All right. Imagine you're old, living alone, surviving on frozen meals without a microwave. Firefighters in Florida helped one woman down on her luck.

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ROMANS: All right. Bad news for the housing market. A new report from the National Association of Realtors shows existing home sales fell again in January. Sales dropped 1.2 percent last month. That's the third month in a row of declining sales and the fewest home sales since November 2015.

Now the good news if there was some, the NAR chief economist said that weak sales likely a cyclical low and he doesn't expect the numbers to get worse from here.

[04:45:04] Now moderating home prices he said combined with gains in household income will boost housing affordability bringing more buyers to the market in the coming months. Experts have blamed the decline in sales on higher interest rates and higher home prices. According to the National Association of Realtors report, the median home price increase almost 3 percent to $247,500 last month. The association added the rise was the slowest year-over-year increase in your home price since February 2012.

SANCHEZ: Longtime Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim is not expected to face charges after he was involved in a fatal highway accident. Police say that Boeheim struck and killed a pedestrian who was trying to avoid a disabled -- rather, Boeheim was trying to avoid a disabled vehicle on Interstate 690 last Wednesday. They say 51- year-old Jorge Jimenez had been walking on the side of the highway after a vehicle he was in lost control and hit a guardrail.

Boeheim put out a statement saying that he is heartbroken by what happened. He's now cooperating with the investigation. A Syracuse police chief says that so far it appears to simply be a tragic accident.

ROMANS: Google is completely eliminating its controversial practice of forcing employees to settle disputes with the company in private arbitration. It expands on an earlier pledge by Google to do away with forced arbitration in cases involving sexual harassment or sexual assault claims. That was one of the changes that Google employees demanded back in November when some 20,000 employees staged -- remember that global walkout? Google says the new policy will take effect on March 21st for current and future employees.

SANCHEZ: If you just found out you're spending the next half century in prison, you'd probably be upset, too. Ohio attorney Aaron Brockler learned that the hard way. His client David Chislton attacked him after receiving a 47-year sentence.

This melee in court was captured on camera. Brockler got punched in the face. He got bitten when he was on the floor in a tussle. He tells the "Washington Post" they were hoping for less than 20 years. But when the judge said 47, Chislton snapped. Brockler suffered an injured hip, a broken nose, a concussion. Chislton's sentence was for assaulting his girlfriend and setting fire to an apartment building. He will likely see additional charges tucked on to that. Brockler says that Chislton is a former client at this point.

You hope so.

ROMANS: All right. Snow falling in the west, a lot of it in places where it doesn't snow much, in L.A. and more than a fun stunned celebrities -- this is actor Jerry O'Connor gawking and taking selfies in the unfamiliar -- what is the word? Snow. Gamblers in Las Vegas rolled the dice on driving in unfamiliar snowy conditions. It does snow in Flagstaff, Arizona, every winter, but they have had two feet just since Wednesday night. In the east more than 10 million people still under a flood watch.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the weekend forecast.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good Friday morning, Boris and Christine.

We have an extensive flood threat blanketing much of the deep south today including the Tennessee River Valley. Look out Nashville, Birmingham, just north of Atlanta and Jackson, we have an excessive amount of rain continuing today. It's been like that for the past several days as wave after wave of moisture comes in from the Gulf of Mexico. But that is going to continue today and into the first parts of the weekend as well.

Note across the northeast, our storm system has exited across the Atlantic Ocean. We'll stay dry today for New York and Boston. We do however had a full-fledged winter storm developing across the northern plains as well as the Upper Great Lakes. More on that in just one second.

Here is our seven-day forecast for New York City, 45 degrees today, our warm-up continues into the weekend. On Sunday 56 but a chance of rain and then temperatures take a nose dive from there.

Here is the wet weather continuing across the deep south. Snowfall blankets the Rockies and the upper Midwest. It's all thanks to the storm system that's churning across the four corners with winter weather advisories and warnings for much of that region.

Back to you.

SANCHEZ: A SpaceX Falcon IX rocket streaking into the night sky at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It carried an Indonesian communications satellite. And the payload also includes a small Israeli spacecraft that will attempt the first privately funded moon landing by a non- super power. Right now only the U.S., the Soviet Union/Russia, and China have pulled off a powered landing on the moon.

ROMANS: A National Park Service ranger who was furloughed during the government shutdown doesn't have to worry about her next pay check. Judith Smith won nearly $30 million in the New Jersey lottery. It is the state's largest Pick 6 jackpot since 2004. She bought the ticket just days before the government shutdown in December. She plans to use the $14 million after taxes to take care of her family and have a little fun. Good for you.

SANCHEZ: Here's a story that will warm you up before the weekend. Firefighters in Florida heating things up for an elderly woman with a microwave. The High Springs crew responded to a life alert alarm at her apartment that had gone off accidentally. They did spot a problem while they were there. The woman who gets some frozen food from the Meals on Wheels program did not have a working microwave.

[04:50:06] So the firefighters made a quick trip to the store. You see a picture of it here. They bought her a new one and installed it and cooked her dinner.

ROMANS: Well done.

SANCHEZ: Great news.

ROMANS: Well done.

All right. Day two of high level trade talks between the United States and China today in Washington with President Trump expected to meet with the Chinese vice premier as a March 1 deadline gets closer. CNN Business is next.

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SANCHEZ: Just five weeks to go until the Brexit deadline. Politicians are increasingly concerned about reaching an orderly deal for the U.K. to leave the European Union. And the concerns are not limited to the British government.

[04:55:05] CNN's Phil Black is live in London with the very latest.

Phil, good morning to you. Some E.U. leaders are outright saying this is a mess and the clock is ticking.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Boris. March 29 is Brexit day. Deal or no deal, that's when Britain leaves and at the moment there is no deal. Barely even the prospect of one. No deal in place to ensure that the divorce happens in an orderly smooth way. Essentially that no-deal scenario would result in a hard border suddenly appearing and it means the goods, people, money would no longer be able to move freely between Britain and the E.U.

Economies on both sides of the English Channel are built significantly around maintaining that sort of access. And so the economic consequences would be devastating.

Now who to blame for this? Well, that depends who you talk to, but at this very late stage you're certainly hearing a lot of frustration from European Union officials because a deal was negotiated over some two-year period but then rejected by the British parliament.

Take a listen now to the sorts of comments we're hearing from Brussels on a regular basis.

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JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We are not there because in the British parliament there is, every time they are voting, a majority against something. If a no-deal would happen, and I can't exclude this, this will have terrible economic and social consequences both in Britain and on the continent.

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BLACK: British Prime Minister Theresa May is still talking to the E.U. hoping to smooth out some of those areas within her negotiated agreement that parliament doesn't like. She still hopes to get it through the House of Commons before that deadline. She has the option of asking for an extension, for the Brexit date to be bumped back, but she's shown no interest in doing that because she can use that as leverage, she believes is the best way of essentially muscling people into supporting her deal.

It is a high risk tactic and that is why increasingly you're hearing people both in the U.K. and E.U. say this no-deal scenario looks increasingly likely -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: High risk and potentially with awful ramifications.

Phil Black, reporting live from London, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. The United States gearing up for a second summit between President Trump and the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un which is now less than a week away. Officials say the U.S. is looking for major steps from North Korea to fulfill the commitments it made during last year's summit in Singapore. At this point it is not clear whether North Korea has made a decision to denuclearize.

An official says the U.S. is engaging the country in diplomacy because there is a possibility it will. The initial session will be followed by expanded talks with each countries' delegation.

SANCHEZ: Venezuela bracing for a possible conflict ahead of the opposition's push to deliver humanitarian aid. Self-declared interim president Juan Guaido saying the desperately needed supplies will make it into the country one way or another. But embattled leader Nicolas Maduro who sees the push as a trap to oust him has vowed he is going to block that aid to his own people.

Venezuela is dealing with the worst economic crisis in its history triggering an exodus of at least three million people. The U.S. has pledged $20 million to help the country. That so far has translated into three deliveries of air cargo to a border town in Colombia and there have been some disputes you can see on the ground there.

ROMANS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: On how to get that aid in and whether the government will actually let it in.

ROMANS: What a mess.

All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this Friday morning. Global stock markets mostly higher as day two of high level trade talks between the U.S. and China take place in D.C. today. You can see European markets all higher here. And Asia closed mostly higher.

On Wall Street, leaning higher this morning, slightly higher ahead of those trade talks. There's high hopes here. The president is scheduled to meet with the Chinese vice premier this afternoon. The clock is ticking toward that March 1st deadline. The two sides have to move quickly if they want to reach a deal before that deadline because any rule changes, any tariff changes, they need to be put in the federal register.

This is important for worldwide business, for global trade. I mean, think of the ships out there full of goods, steaming to the United States, coming to U.S. ports and it's unclear what kind of tariff rates they will have to pay.

It was not a good day for Kraft Heinz. Kraft Heinz wrote down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands by $15 billion. They posted a $12.6 billion loss. They cut the dividend by 36 percent. Customers weren't the problem. Sales were up 1 percent in the fourth quarter. Instead Kraft Heinz CEO blamed this on higher-than-expected manufacturing logistics costs. Kraft Heinz also said it's under investigation, its accounting practices are under investigations by the SEC. The SEC declined to comment on that.

All right. Consumer Reports pulling its recommendation of the Tesla Model 3 citing reliability issues with the car. Now Consumer Reports -- Tesla buyers are more likely to be satisfied with their car than customers of any other brand, but many Tesla customers reported problems with the Model 3 including loose body trim and glass defects.

Tesla pointed to its overall customer satisfaction rating from Consumer Reports and said it had corrected many of the problems found in that survey.

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