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New Day

Chicago Wants Jussie Smollett To Pay $130,000 For Investigative Costs; Nine Maternity Nurses Expecting At The Same Time; CNN Reality Check: How Many Mar-A-Lago Trips Could Pay For Budget Cuts?; Record Floods Lead To Contaminated Water Supply In The Midwest. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired March 29, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:32:10] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Chicago's mayor has a new demand for "EMPIRE" actor Jussie Smollett after all of the charges against him were abruptly dropped without explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL (D), CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: When he does pay the city back on just purely what the taxpayers have fronted, in that memo section he can write, "I'm sorry and I'm accountable for what I've done."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right.

Joining us now is Joey Jackson. He's a criminal defense attorney and a CNN legal analyst. And, Josh Campbell, former FBI supervisory special agent and CNN law enforcement analyst who is on the ground for us in Chicago this morning.

Joey, can the mayor of Chicago do that? Can a suspect have to pay restitution in the form of $130,000 to a city that the mayor believes was duped?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: All right. So here is how this goes. Restitution is commonly something that is used in a criminal case but it's part of any plea disposition.

What do I mean? In the event that you cost the city money for anything --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

JACKSON: -- the city that drew the district attorney here -- the county attorney -- has a right to ask for that back.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

JACKSON: And so, as a condition of the plea, what they would do is they would say look, restitution amount is X. Here, they did not do that. What they did is he forfeited the $10,000 off of the $100,000, did his community service --

CAMEROTA: Yes, but $10,000 is not enough.

JACKSON: We get it. So -- but let me just -- on the process. So, did his community service but that, we didn't know about.

CAMEROTA: Two days' worth.

JACKSON: They say he's a good guy. He represents the community well, which by all accounts is true. It was never conditioned upon the plea.

So to the heart of your question. Now, the mayor is stepping outside of that plea arrangement and is now sending him a letter through his attorney saying pay up. I don't believe that they'll get a dime for this. There's not a provision in the law that provides for criminal defendants in a case to have to pay back they're falsely reporting, so --

CAMEROTA: But, Joey, you're calling something a plea agreement. That -- the way the plea agreement -- you have to admit guilt.

JACKSON: That's right.

CAMEROTA: That's the opposite of what Jussie Smollett did.

JACKSON: Exactly. So what I'm saying is is that you can get restitution through a plea agreement. To the extent that this is not being called a plea agreement was really a plea agreement, but they were not transparent inasmuch as conveying that to us and it wasn't put in that $130,000.

CAMEROTA: And he didn't admit guilt.

JACKSON: I don't think they're going to get it. And there was no admission of guilt at all.

So I don't think that this letter -- while it's good publicity, they used a provision -- a whistleblower statute. It doesn't apply. I don't think they'll see the light of day of that money.

CAMEROTA: OK, Josh, you are on the ground for us in Chicago. The president, yesterday, announced that there is an FBI investigation looking into this case. What have you learned?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Well, there are a lot of questions that we still have when it comes to what the president did.

And what I suspect, if you back and look at his tweet that he sent out essentially saying that the FBI is reviewing this case, it was sent a 6:34 in the morning. And folks that I've been talking to inside and outside law enforcement -- no one believes that the FBI was updating the president at 6:34 in the morning on the Jussie Smollett case. [07:35:01] What people suspect is that he was probably parodying something that he saw on the news. And this is obviously concerning because the President of the United States isn't just any passive observer of the news.

He is in control, essentially, of the Justice Department and the FBI, so when he says that there's an FBI review -- that the FBI is acting here, you would hope that that is actually the case. But folks that we're talking to -- a lot of eyebrows being raised as far as what he put out there.

And again, there is that issue. But then also on the ground, we don't yet know what an FBI investigation would even look like. Would they be looking into Jussie Smollett -- his actions? Would they be looking into the actions of the prosecutors as it relates to this case?

So many questions that we don't have answered but in a very flammable situation, I think the president came and essentially lit a match.

CAMEROTA: But just to be clear, Josh, is it true that the FBI is looking into it, as the president said, or not?

CAMPBELL: They're not saying. So obviously, standard practice for the FBI is to neither confirm nor deny an investigation. Again, we haven't heard either way.

There -- as I mentioned, there would be a number of ways that they could possibly be involved if you look at possible wire fraud violations. So there might be a federal nexus.

But I know, having been in the FBI, just because someone comes to you and says we have information and we want you to look into it -- if a local enforcement partner says hey, take a look at this -- technically, you might be reviewing what they give you -- the information and the facts. That's a far different characterization than saying the FBI has launched an investigation into a certain case. And as of right now, we have no indication that that's the case.

JACKSON: There is -- there is no place, I don't think, for the FBI with regard to the state charges, right? So what is the FBI going to do? They're going to look and see if the state prosecutor -- did she make missteps?

This is a local issue. The president deals with federal law and issues affecting the country. Local prosecutors are elected to do things.

And so, while the president and while other people in the country may feel it was not an appropriate disposition -- it was -- it was strange, they were not transparent -- the president doesn't have any authority to tell the locals what to do.

The only place that I see --

CAMEROTA: It sounds like an announcement on Twitter.

JACKSON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So you're saying that was not true what the president --

JACKSON: Look, I don't know what's true or what the president is doing or not. What I'm telling you is that there is no place for a federal investigation as it relates to how the state handled the charges.

The only place, Alisyn, for a federal investigation, as Josh mentioned, is on the issue of whether he sent -- that is Jussie Smollett -- a letter to himself that may have been false.

CAMEROTA: Mail fraud.

JACKSON: To the extent that you sent it to the U.S. Postal Service, it's mail fraud. They can investigate that, but investigating a local district attorney because you disagree with the way they handled the case --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

JACKSON: -- it sounds like politics to me.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, we just don't know --

CAMPBELL: Yes --

CAMEROTA: -- because the president was vague and didn't explain what he meant.

CAMPBELL: Yes, that's right.

And if you look at the case, obviously, the president has a vested interest because one of the aspects of this suspected hoax was the fact that the attackers mentioned MAGA country -- you know, "Make America Great Again" -- which obviously, as the president, that's going to infuriate you.

But again, it's this collusion of politics and law enforcement. And even if the president feels slighted, he is the top commander -- you know, he's the commander in chief -- the nation's top cop, essentially, as the person in charge of the Justice Department.

So even if you feel personally slighted you have to understand that words matter. And when you blast something out on Twitter and say the FBI is looking into something, if that's false what does that do for the American people -- their confidence in the system of justice that is being conducted independently, fairly, and apolitically?

CAMEROTA: Just one very, very quick thing because the Illinois Bar Association sent a scathing letter about how the state's attorney handled this. I'll read a portion.

"Through the repeated misleading and deceptive statements to the public on Illinois law and circumstances surrounding the Smollett dismissal, the State's Attorney has failed in her most fundamental ethical obligations to the public."

Joey, what's going to happen to her?

JACKSON: That's huge.

I mean, what will happen to her is that this is something that obviously will be decided in the ballot box, right? Ultimately, that's where it goes. I don't see any formal discipline. I think people are upset at the lack of transparency.

Alisyn, listen, if you want to resolve the case and it's a plea and it's an alternative resolution, just come out and say we believe this is appropriate to resolving this case and we're ending it here. Don't hoodwink everyone. That's what she did and that's problematic.

CAMEROTA: All right. Joey Jackson, Josh Campbell, thank you both very much.

JACKSON: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMPBELL: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: John --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This is really one of the most amazing stories about math and biology that you will ever see.

CAMEROTA: Is that what you see here?

BERMAN: Math and biology. Nine nurses at a Maine maternity ward defying the odds. I'm just going to tell people here -- they're all pregnant -- they're all pregnant at the same time.

CAMEROTA: At the same time.

BERMAN: This is amazing.

CAMEROTA: How did this happen, John?

BERMAN: I have an idea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:00] BERMAN: All right.

You might ask how this could happen. I sort of think I know. Nine nurses who all work at the baby delivery unit at the same hospital in Maine -- they are all expecting their own babies within a few months of each other.

CNN's Erica Hill live in Portland, Maine to help me understand a little bit better how this all could happen -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm only going to help you understand one part of that, John. This is not a biology lesson this morning, just to be clear. But, nine nurses had a pretty simple plan. They just wanted to document the fact that they were all expecting at the same time. They're also really good friends.

But take a picture, add a little Facebook, and -- well, you probably know the rest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (voice-over): This week, they officially became known as "The Nine."

BRITTNEY VERVILLE, NURSE, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, PORTLAND, MAINE: I have a friend in Australia who reached out to me and was like you're famous. But our manager said that she knows of someone in Poland that's seen it. I've heard it's on an Italian podcast. It's just wild. It's like --

ERIN GREINER, NURSE, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, PORTLAND, MAINE: Russia, Germany, Britain.

LONNIE SOUCIE, NURSE, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, PORTLAND, MAINE: France.

GREINER: Italy.

NICOLE BARNES, NURSE, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, PORTLAND, MAINE: India.

SOUCIE: We've gotten all kinds of likes.

GREINER: We're seeing languages we don't even know.

HILL: We sat down with seven of the nine moms-to-be who are still processing the attention that Brittney's photo brought their way.

HILL (on camera): There's probably been a few people who have said to you, "Is there something in the water here?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HILL: Is that getting old?

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: You still laugh, so that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's good.

HILL: Lonnie, I hear reality shows have been calling. What would you think about a reality show for you guys?

SOUCIE: I'm not sure the world's ready for that -- no.

(LAUGHTER)

SOUCIE: Otherwise, my life is really boring, so I'm not sure how exciting it would be. HILL: How many of you, this is your first baby? So three new moms. The rest of you can offer a little advice or not, depending on what they want, right?

Does anybody know what they're having?

GREINER: Yes, boy.

[07:45:00] HILL: How many boys? How many girls?

Are you guys making plans for playgroups after or arranging marriages?

HOLLY SELBY, NURSE, MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, PORTLAND, MAINE: Definitely. I mean, I'm one of the only known girls in this group, so she'll have a lot of boys to choose from, should she choose boys.

(LAUGHTER)

SELBY: But we're definitely talking about playgroups. We're definitely talking about getting together when we're actually on maternity leave, going to the beach.

HILL (voice-over): "The Nine" make up 10 percent of labor and delivery nurses at Maine Medical Center. Their due dates range from April to July, some of the hospital's busiest months for babies.

BARNES: Our manager and our scheduler have been amazing with just planning all of the leaves. They've covered all the shifts that have to be covered for while we're all out, which is really nice.

HILL (on camera): For your patients, it must be interesting. Holly, how many of them in the last week or so have actually seen the picture?

SELBY: All of them. Yes, all of them have asked either me or one of my colleagues who were working at the same time, like, are you one of "The Nine"?

My son sees the articles or pictures and he goes, "Momma, you're on the phone."

GREINER: My 2-year-old actually was rubbing my belly after the -- when the first newscast went up and that was a special moment. Saying, "You know, momma, that's baby Weston on the T.V. That's momma." And so it was just a sweet memory that I think I'll personally kind of just keep really close the whole time.

SELBY: And I think this experience, being pregnant all together, has made us closer. We were all friends before but it's made us closer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, Erica, this is such an incredible story. Have doctors at that hospital figured out what's causing these pregnancies?

HILL: Well, they tell us -- the nurses tell us that they've confirmed it's not something in the water, just to be clear.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HILL: But I do want you to know we took every precaution and so none of us drank the water yesterday because I'm done. I don't know about you, but I'm done.

I should point out, too, one of the nurses we spoke with actually just finished her shift, behind me, about 45 minutes ago. These nurses -- there are 80 of them in the unit in total, so 10 percent are expecting. They work 12-hour shifts, two to three hours a day, which as some of the moms will tell you is perfect training for those late- night feedings and sleepless nights.

CAMEROTA: Perfect.

BERMAN: Wonderful news for all of them. We are thrilled for them. And I'm thrilled to hear from you, an explanation about what all this means during the break.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I think I have an idea that I'll try to explain to you, but --

BERMAN: Erica, thank you. Great to see you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

HILL: You talk about it in the break, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Great story, Erica. Thank you.

OK, now to the Special Olympics. President Trump is reversing his position on whether to fund it.

John Avlon's reality check has come up with a new unit of currency that could pay the $17 million for the Special Olympics. It's called the "Mar-a-Lago." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:50] CAMEROTA: President Trump has reversed his position on funding the Special Olympics. Originally, his administration thought that $17 million was too much to pay for them.

You know what else is expensive? Trips to Mar-a-Lago.

John Avlon has our reality check on this. Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

So, President Trump is waking up at Mar-a-Lago this morning after pulling a slick 70s-style J-turn when it comes to money for the Special Olympics. His administration had been taking heat for calling for the complete elimination of the Special Olympics budget, reducing it to zero dollars. Now, the Special Olympics have survived but there are other controversial cuts from Education Sec. Betsy DeVos for kids with hearing impairments and special needs, and even the blind.

Now, DeVos says the department had to make some, quote, "difficult decisions" with its budget and that's, no doubt, true. But let's put those choices in context and we're going to do it by minting a brand new currency, the "Mar-a-Lago."

Just what is a "Mar-a-Lago," you ask? Well, it's the cost of just one of Donald Trump's trips to his gilded pleasure palace in Florida, which according to "The Washington Post" costs taxpayers about $3.4 million each time.

Now, think about that number because the president goes there a lot -- some 51 nights over 19 trips. That translates to 69 million taxpayer dollars just to get the president to and from Florida.

So, consider the Education Department contributes about $17.6 million to the Special Olympics' overall budget. That's only about five "Mar- a-Lagos."

And that's not all. The Health and Human Services budget cuts program for those with autism and this one's about three times as deep -- a whopping $51 million. So for those playing at home, that's about 15 "Mar-a-Lagos."

What about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? Well, conservatives have been trying to kill the company that built Big Bird's nest since the 1960s. Mister Rogers even once had to step in to save it.

The Trump budget proposed cutting all but $30 million of its $465 million budget. So to save the company that brought you "SESAME STREET" along with arts and culture free to all Americans at home would cost about 136 "Mar-a-Lagos."

Finally, how about hurricane relief to Puerto Rico that President Trump keeps threatening? Remember the storm that ended up killing an estimated 3,000 Americans despite Donald Trump's denials?

Well, it turns out the total of that aid is about $41 billion with about a quarter actually delivered to date. So making good on the current allocation would cost an estimated 9,000 "Mar-a-Lagos."

There's a reason the "Mar-a-Lago" is such a tempting unit of measurement because everyone's entitled to some R&R, but Trump has spent more than a quarter of his presidency at one of his resorts.

Of course, other than watching cable news -- good morning, Mr. President -- one of President Trump's favorite pastimes is golf.

Philip Bump, at "The Washington Post", analyzed the duffer-in-chief's habit and concluded that he played about once every five days through November of last year. Now, this matters because Trump constantly criticized President Obama for how often he played golf. And get this, by some estimates all of President Obama's personal

trips over eight years cost a little more than $100 million -- or 31 "Mar-a-Lagos."

Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago, alone, are creeping into that territory already, some $69 million to date.

So, as the Education secretary said, "In difficult times, difficult decisions have to be made." But budgets are moral documents so it's worth looking at the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on the president's leisure and asking how those "Mar-a-Lagos" might be better spent on Americans in real need.

[07:55:12] And that's your reality check.

BERMAN: It would be interesting to see if those coins get minted anytime soon by the U.S. government.

But, John, I think you're right. Budgets are moral decisions. You get to know --

AVLON: Right.

BERMAN: -- what the priorities of a government are, and that's the issue here.

AVLON: And so you look at the trade-offs. If the coins get made, we're going to distribute them. They may be chocolate.

CAMEROTA: Delicious. Thank you very much, John.

BERMAN: All right.

Record flooding in the Midwest has destroyed homes, ruined farms and livestock, killed people. But now, the floods are threatening people's water supply.

CNN's Scott McLean live in Omaha with the very latest on this. Ryan (sic), you have found out some disturbing things here.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. There is still plenty of misery to go around here in Nebraska.

The peak of this flooding was about two weeks ago but you can still see how high the water level is and how much damage was done. Now, this is actually lake flooding so they're actually pumping the water out of here, across the road to the river side in order to get rid of it. It is a slow process.

The last thing that these people need is one more thing to worry about, but they do. Public health officials here in Nebraska and across the Midwest are warning flood victims about the potential for contamination of their well water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA KUDIRKA, HOME DAMAGED BY FLOODWATERS: It's real muddy, so please be careful.

MCLEAN (voice-over): For thousands of Nebraskans it doesn't get much worse than this.

MCLEAN (on camera): That's not your shed?

KUDIRKA: No, that's not our shed.

MCLEAN: You don't have a shed?

KUDIRKA: No. That came --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a shed now.

KUDIRKA: That came clear from over there.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Donna Kudirka not only got an unwanted backyard makeover, she got almost eight feet of water in the basement of her lakefront home south of Omaha --

KUDIRKA: It's that spot up -- that white spot up on the pipe.

MCLEAN: -- and has spent the last week cleaning up.

She is still without power and one of thousands of Nebraska homeowners with a private well at risk of contamination.

MCLEAN (on camera): You wouldn't even try to drink out of it until you get it tested?

KUDIRKA: No, no. We can't because the water's contaminated. I wouldn't take a chance.

MCLEAN (voice-over): According to one estimate, there may be more than one million wells in 300 counties across 10 states that are threatened by contamination, largely thanks to record flooding that soaked large swaths of the Midwest this year from Minnesota to Kentucky.

FRANK MARXSEN, SANITIZES CONTAMINATED WELLS: If the water gets above this, then the water can get into the well and that can contaminate it.

MCLEAN: Frank Marxsen drills and maintains wells and lately, he's been busy --

MARXSEN: I'll put you on the list but you're not going to be too high on the list right now.

MCLEAN: -- flushing wells with chlorine on properties where clean water is not the most obvious concern.

MARXSEN: I've never seen it like this before. I mean, there's thousands of wells that have been affected by it or houses or basements, and it's just going to be years before they know how much damage is done. MCLEAN: The contamination is caused by a nasty mixture of pollutants carried by the floodwater -- fertilizers and manure from farmland, gasoline, chemicals, and even human waste from broken septic systems. And drinking from a contaminated well is a recipe for --

SUE DEMPSEY, ADMINISTRATOR, NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DRINKING WATER PROGRAM: Diarrhea, if you're exposed to bacteria, because there could be a coliform E. coli bacteria in there.

MCLEAN: Sue Dempsey is responsible for drinking water quality in Nebraska where the state is offering to help people get their well water tested, an uncommon public service in a state where abundant clean groundwater is taken for granted.

DEMPSEY: Our first round of sampling, we had 277 people come in and get test kits and about 30 percent of those were positive for bacteria.

MCLEAN (on camera): The bottom line is you don't want to drink that water.

DEMPSEY: Definitely not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN: So, the bottom line for flood victims is this. If your well water is cloudy, if it smells a little bit off, that's probably a sign that you have contamination. But even if you don't notice any change with your water it is still important, at the very least, to get it tested before you drink it. In Nebraska and in Missouri, the state is offering to do it for free -- Alisyn.

BERMAN: Scott McLean, that is a great report. Thank you so much for that story.

I am sorry for calling you by the wrong name going in, but thank you for going out there and finding out what's happening on the ground -- appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: All right. So what is more mysterious this morning, the Mueller report or the Republican health care plan?

BERMAN: Maybe it's in the Mueller report. Maybe it's part of the 300 pages --

CAMEROTA: Maybe that's --

BERMAN: -- that we don't have yet.

CAMEROTA: That would explain a lot.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After three years of lies, and smears, and slander, the Russia hoax is dead.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Show us the report. We don't need you interpreting for us.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D), ILLINOIS: There is obvious evidence in plain sight of collusion and obstruction.

TRUMP: Obamacare has been an absolute disaster. We're working on a plan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have said repeal and replace for a decade. They have never had a plan.

JOHN KASICH (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF OHIO: Republicans are very nervous. It's not a winning issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: Good morning.

END