Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Prosecutors Offer Deal to Robert Kraft; Mueller Team Has Busy Week in Court Filing; FDA Approves Drug for Postpartum Depression. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 20, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: There. All right, and, John, thank you very much. Ann, thank you for bearing with us, putting up with us.

A quick programing note. CNN will host a presidential town hall tonight with former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Dana Bash hots live from Atlanta. That is at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft could be dropped by prosecutors. There is a catch, though. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A source tells CNN prosecutors are offering to drop the charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and others who are accused of soliciting prostitution at a Florida spa. As you can imagine, though, there is a catch here.

CNN's Rosa Flores is live in Miami this morning with details.

Rosa, good morning.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning.

You know, it's unclear if Robert Kraft will actually take this deal. It's important to note that he pleaded not guilty. But if, and that's a big if, he does take this deal, this would mean no jail and no conviction.

[06:35:09] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice over): A source tells CNN that Florida prosecutors are offering to drop two charges against Patriots owner Robert Kraft if he admits he's guilty of soliciting a prostitute. The 77-year-old billionaire is among more than a hundred people linked to several Florida spas and massage parlors, suspected of being used for prostitution and sex trafficking.

DAVE ARONBERG, PALM BEACH COUNTY, STATE ATTORNEY: It's about time the country has a real conversation about human trafficking, which is modern day slavery in our midst. This is not about lonely old man or victimless crimes. FLORES: Police say Kraft was seen on camera engaging in paid sexual

acts at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, twice, including hours before the Patriot's AFC title game that sent them to the Super Bowl. A spokesperson has categorically denied Kraft engaged in any illegal activity and it is unclear if he will accept the plea deal. But President Trump, a longtime friend, appears to be standing behind Kraft.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it's very sad. I was very surprised to see it. He's proclaimed his innocence totally. And -- but I'm very surprised to see it.

FLORES: The former owner of that spa, Cindy Yang, attended President Trump's Super Bowl party earlier this year, posing for this selfie with the president. Yang has been a familiar face in Republican circles, taking pictures with Mr. Trump's sons at Mar-a-Lago, Kellyanne Conway at the inauguration, and even Sarah Palin.

Four high-ranking Democrats are calling for the FBI to conduct criminal and counterintelligence investigations into allegations against Yang, including human trafficking, foreign lobbying and potential campaign finance violations. "The Miami Herald" was able to reach Yang for comment after the story initially broke.

NICHOLAS NEHAMAS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "MIAMI HERALD": She didn't ask -- answer the question of whether she knew that there was sex happening. She simply told us that she's no longer in the spa business. She doesn't know President Trump. And she's planning to move to Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: We've reached out to Kraft's attorneys and to prosecutors and they are tight-lipped about this agreement. Now, Kraft's arraignment is scheduled for next week.

And, John, the other thing that's happening next week, as you know, is the NFL's annual meeting.

John.

BERMAN: Our Rosa Flores, thank you very much for that update.

Waiting to hear what Bob Kraft decides.

In the meantime, a major clue bomb from the special counsel. A press of work this week. Does that mean the Mueller report is eminent, like days, perhaps even hours away? More on it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:43] BERMAN: All right, how's this for a bread crumb? Prosecutors for the special counsel's office say there is a press of work this week. This week. Does that mean that the Mueller report could be filed eminently?

Let's discuss with James Clapper, former director of national intelligence and a CNN national security analyst.

You know, when a lawyer for Robert Mueller says he can't get something else done because he has a press of work this week, director, people get the idea that something major might be coming.

How do you see it?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, John, just like everybody else, I'm trying to read the tantalizing tea leaves from all these bread crumbs, as you call them, which is an apartment metaphor. And I've often said when I've been asked in the past about this that all I'll say is that I think Mueller is much closer to the end of his investigation than he is to the beginning. And that's about it.

I think it's been very consistent that we haven't -- we really don't know what he knows and it's clear that he knows a lot more than is out there in the public domain. So I'm reluctant to postulate what this -- what this all might mean. But I don't think the investigation is -- is -- and the conclusion of it is eminent.

BERMAN: He knows a lot more than we do might be an understatement based on what we saw yesterday with the Michael Cohen revelations, the release of some of the information surrounding the search warrants.

One other thing is, we learned how far back the Mueller team had been looking at Michael Cohen, as far back as May, 2017. We have a timeline we can put up on the screen here. You can just see the steps they took before the ultimate raid there. So this was in the works for a long time despite what the White House had said when the raid happened. They were sort of indicating that it was capricious, some sudden move.

The other thing, and this is where I can tap into your expertise here. We learned the many different ways that the special counsel was investigating Michael Cohen. His e-mails. His cell phone records. All kinds of digital information in the cloud. And based on your decades of experience in intelligence gathering, how much, then, do you think that Robert Mueller knows about what Michael Cohen was connected to?

CLAPPER: Well, I think the short answer is a lot. And what the techniques that you briefly mentioned here are fairly standard, particularly with respect to counterterrorism investigations. So- called -- what we call call chaining, where you put a suspect or target, a CT suspect, for example, in the center of a diagram and then draw it -- draw out the branches of who -- with whom he is -- he or she is communicating. And you can draw intensity lines based on the frequency and length of calls. So there's a great deal that you can derive from this technique and this approach, even though you're not able to reconstruct, perhaps, the content of those conversations. But it's very revealing when you know who your target, your suspect is communicating with, how frequently, and the length of those phone calls.

BERMAN: And for better or for worse --

CLAPPER: But it's clear that -- BERMAN: Yes. I was going to say, director, it's for better or for

worse in regards to the president. If the president or candidate Donald Trump or businessman Donald Trump was engaged in any illegal activity and communicating about it with Michael Cohen, the special counsel knows.

[06:45:05] CLAPPER: Well, exactly. And, of course, now that, you know, Michael Cohen transitioned to be a -- to be a cooperating witness, when you have evidence of -- empirical evidence of the communications patterns, that enables some pretty pointed questions that investigators could ask Michael Cohen once he became cooperative. And it is, I think, interesting and also quite significant that how soon the Mueller investigation's own doing (ph), as well as, of course, the potential connection with then candidate Trump.

BERMAN: What do you make of what seems to be the White House strategy coming to light in regards to congressional requests for documents and testimony? The response we've been talking about all morning seems to be you get nothing.

CLAPPER: Well, I, frankly, expected that because of the breadth and depth of what they were asking for. It might have had -- not -- I guess I'll second guess, but might have had more prospect for success had the request for documents been more pointed or more specific. But this broad blanket that they cast, I thought this is a predictable reaction from a White House.

BERMAN: I want to tap into your national security and foreign policy expertise here. The president, yesterday, said he wants to make Brazil a major ally. What's the significance there?

CLAPPER: Well, I -- I'm not sure. I -- you know, if -- it appears that the reason for this is just because they have a much in common ideologically and both decry the fake news and this sort of thing. And so because they have so much of that in common, that somehow entitles Brazil to a NATO-like relationship. So I'm not sure who is threatening Brazil or what that means. Does it mean more enhanced intelligence sharing, for example, in the same way we share intelligence with NATO? So I honestly don't know ha it means.

BERMAN: Director James Clapper, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

CLAPPER: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Erica.

HILL: It could be a cure for something that affects thousands of new mothers. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us next to tell us about a breakthrough treatment for postpartum depression.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:38] HILL: "Here's to Your Health" this morning. The FDA just approving the first ever drug to treat postpartum depression. It is a serious illness that affects an estimated one in nine new mothers. Joining us now, CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

So, Sanjay, the FDA has designated this as a breakthrough therapy actually I guess in 2016. The new drug, though, just getting approval. So what is it? What will it do? How does it work?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So this is the first, right? You think about postpartum depression. A lot of people know how serious this can be. But this is the first time a drug has been approved specifically for this. So that alone is a pretty big deal.

What it is, is a -- it's called Brexanolone or Zulresso is going to be the trade name. It's an IV drug. You have to go into a clinical hospital or a clinic and get an IV. You've got to get it for 60 hours, Erica, 60 hours of this medication, and it seems to cause pretty dramatic and rapid reversal of depression symptoms.

As you know, typically it can take weeks for anti-depressants to kick in. The thought was that, look, that's just too long. Some of these women are really suffering now. They're unable to care for themselves, unable to care for their children. You need to have something that can work more quickly. What they found -- you just saw some of the results there. The biggest headline for me was, this can work within 48 hours. So you're getting the IV for 60 hours. During that time, women had these reversal dramatic decrease and depressive symptoms. So 75 percent of women improved at least 50 percent by the end, you can see there, and 94 percent, it lasted at least a month.

HILL: Wow.

GUPTA: You know, you typically think of medications. You take a pill or two every day. One IV infusion, at least a month of relief.

HILL: And hopefully that will help get them to an easier point and then there can be other prescription drugs, I know you said, that may be used in conjunction.

GUPTA: That's exactly right. So it doesn't mean that you necessarily stop the other anti-depressants. You take this by the point that this -- this may start to wear off, this IV infusion, the other medications may start to kick in. That seems to be the thinking here.

HILL: For women, I know this just from discussions with my own girlfriends too, there's always this question of, how do I know that it's postpartum depression versus baby blues?

GUPTA: Yes. It can be challenging. And one thing I'll say is that we talked to people even last night about this. Baby blues is something that most women get. At the time you deliver a baby, you have such a rapid change in hormones. You know, it can drop ten-fold literally at the time of delivery. That is probably in part driving some of these depressive like symptoms.

The big difference, I think, is the severity. You lose all interest in caring for yourself, caring for the baby, and also the length at which these symptoms last. Baby blues typically go away within the first week. These symptoms can last months. There's a third of woman who it just becomes chronic. So you can take a look at the list there, but really the inability to care for yourself, the inability to engage of activities of daily living.

And one thing I do want to say about the drug as well, in addition to it being 60 hours, this is not a cheap drug.

HILL: No.

GUPTA: I mean, you know, and this is something that comes up over and over again when we do these segments, but it's important to point out, $34,000 for a single dose of this. You have to have it administered in a clinic or a hospital. That doesn't even count the cost of that. So most insurers may cover this, we don't know, but it's -- it's a very, very expensive endeavor if you're going do this.

[06:55:01] HILL: Right. And even if they cover, we don't know the extent, obviously.

GUPTA: Right.

HILL: So $34,000 is nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure. But, still, as you point out, a really important development.

Sanjay, always good to see you. Thank you.

GUPTA: You too. You got it. Thank you.

HILL: And you can join Sanjay as he journeys around the world to finding the secrets do living better. It's an all-new CNN original series "Chasing Life," and it premieres Saturday, April 13th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

BERMAN: And it looks awesome.

HILL: It does. I was just saying to Sanjay, I would like to take the journey next time. For next season, I'll help out. I'll carry the gear.

BERMAN: And he looks so rugged, right?

HILL: I know. He said it's all makeup. It's all smoke and mirrors. Yes.

BERMAN: Rugged Sanjay Gupta.

All right, not a single page. House Democrats say the White House is ignoring requests from documents. You get nothing. So how will Democrats respond, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For them to say we're not ready makes me wonder if there's something they don't want to disclose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would not surprise me if we saw something before the end of this month.

[07:00:00] MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Mueller team started looking at Cohen just months after Mueller was appointed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most intrusive tactic is reading somebody's e- mail.

END